Archive for November, 2008
You are currently browsing the Philip K Stone blog archives for November, 2008.
24
Nov
2008
The Price of Your Fight
1 Timothy 6v12 (NASV)
‘Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.’
I’ve been watching my way through a Box set series lately – “Band of Brothers”, a Story of the epic adventures of ‘Easy Company’ Regiment through the War. Throughout the series I’ve been struck with the price of war, the price of fighting for something you believe in, sometimes the price can be very high and for many in the war they paid the ultimate price by losing their life for the cause they were fighting for.
In life we will make decisions, some good, some bad, but we will have to live with the consequences of those decisions, and fight our way through the consequences of any bad decisions we make, The beauty of this fight is we have our Saviour, that wants to stand with us as we try to change things for the better, we are not alone, Its in the relationship that we build with Jesus on this earth through the Holy Spirit we can become over comers of the things that will try to destroy us and trip us up. The beauty I’ve seen in my own life is that when I mess up, I continually realise the need to depend more on God, I’m on a journey to depending on God in everything, its easier said than done mind you!
In my 26 years on this earth I’ve learned that I can be my worst enemy, I set standards that I can never meet and don’t expect anyone else to meet, so when I fail I can be very hard on myself, I’m having to learn to use my mistakes as learning curves, they are opportunities for me to strengthen my armour and sharpen my sword before continuing with the next battle in my life.
I Love the Message version of 1 Timothy 6v11-12
‘….Pursue a righteous life—a life of wonder, faith, love, steadiness, courtesy. Run hard and fast in ‘the faith. Seize the eternal life, the life you were called to, the life you so fervently embraced in the presence of so many witnesses. ‘
Guys there it is, pursue a righteous Life! Our Life is not about the past, The Present needs our focus as our future is going to be the reward for our focus for serving, fighting and living for God.
Life is short, remember its only what we do for Christ that will last for eternity!
Every fight has a cost, no matter how big or small, but we as believers must not let our family and friends pay the worst cost of spending eternity Lost in Hell, We must Love the unlovable, Bring hope to the Hopeless, Help the Broken and weary, Comfort those who morn and are sick, we must give those we do life with glimpses of Jesus by living his call out in our Lives, this will be tough at times, but lets not lose the focus of why we are doing it, because its all about Jesus!
1
Nov
2008
Perspective Living
We live in interesting times, banks collapsing all around us, companies going bankrupt, others having the lay off some of their staff in order to keep companies in existence, governments dishing out taxpayers money to save banks & insurance companies, part of me wonders are we looking the collapse of western capitalism in the face?
Our country has been through recession a few times in the past, we have survived, in the 50′s people got through without their TVs, Cars etc, in the late 80′s many lost their houses but still had many possessions including Cars, TVs etc, currently we are hitting recession were many have their own home or a superb rented home, filled with games consoles, TVs, comfy sofas, food in the cupboards and still many order takeaway without even thinking ‘things are tight’.
The facts:
We have a roof over our heads
We have clothes
We have gadgets etc
We never go without a meal (unless on a diet)
We have all we NEED
The list could go on, the fact is things are at a squeeze but we are not in the need that billions around the world face everyday,
We never wonder were our next meal will come from, We never need to walk outside with ripped clothes covering our modesty and no more.
In this time of ‘recession’ its easy to look inward and forget about charity, Cancer Research is one charity among many that will now have to cut back its work because of the credit crunch, possibly delaying the cure of cancer being found? Many aid charities feeding thousands in towns and villages now can only feed hundreds simply because donors in the western world that have given for years have suddenly stopped?
Governments always complain how they can’t cancel third world debt yet they hand out trillions of dollars to banks when they struggle even though the same large banks have made billions of profit every year for the last 20 years in a row?
My challenge next time we treat ourselves t oa starbucks or tea and a scone (whatever you treat yourself to) maybe put the money our treat would cost into a charity box, direct debits are to easy to stop, but giving change out of our pockets could mean life or death for families across the third world, it could mean more family and friends dying of diseases that could have been beaten by cures if research wasn’t put on hold, my challenge to myself this morning and at the start of a new month is to live with a clearer Godly perspective with my finances with regards to charity.
