Need to inspire others

These days we could read in the Gospel of Mark how Jesus chose his twelve disciples and gave them a task.

From the gospels, we also can see how Jesus attracted people by his words and acts, like the many mriracles he did. We shall not be able to attract so many people by miracles, because we are not able to do such miracles. Also with our words, we probably shall not be able to attract so many people.

Naturally, it would be lovely if we also could bring such Good News, like our master teacher Jesus Christ brought.

We got inspired by him and we would love to inspire others also.

A person who wants to inspire others to be grateful or wants to convince others of the value and truth of gratitude to God has to be a person who others see as living a life of struggles greater than their own. Otherwise people dismiss the caller unto gratitude as speaking down to them, hypocritically, from a place of privilege and ease. 

We have to have empathy with those we are speaking to. We have to imagine what they are going through and what they are thinking about. In a certain way, we also do have to anticipate their questions or thoughts. A very important factor in our preaching is also the way of our listening. We do have to be all one ear to the ones we want to convince of the reason to follow Christ.

Some may think it is to difficult to go out and to preach to people. Or they think one has to have a special education at the university. But it is not that one has to belong to the clergy. Even when you would want to become part of elders in a church, there is not such a high need of religious education at a higher institute.

You also do not have to think preaching or witnessing would be too difficult for you, or that you would not be able to cope with it because of too many struggles.

Perhaps for this reason and also because one cannot deliberately put oneself in a bigger struggle than what God has ordained for one already,

Not every person is going to be able to inspire every other person towards gratitude and peace of heart. And perhaps this is also why much of mankind gives authority, in matters of spirit and truth, to the ascetic monk-like figure than to a person living in relative comfort and abundance. 

When just an ordinary person, living an ordinary civic life, that person can connect to the life of others, knowing exactly what they too have to undergo. Their experiences will not come across as other-worldly as they might to clergymen who often have no sense of the daily concerns of ordinary citizens.

Whether such an association between struggle and virtue (of piety and authority) is warranted remains open to debate. There is some merit to the idea that a person who is in struggle or strife themselves would be able to relate to and find authentic and convincing, someone else who knows what struggle feels like. But the association of struggle with material deprivation is a bias and judgment of a materialistic mind and hence a problematic judgment.

You do not have to be in possession of special attractive tools or books to reach people and to tell them about the times to come. A simple Bible is all you need so that you can show the Word of God.

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Please find to read:

1. When a day of darkness and of gloominess shall come
2. When having found faith through the study of the Bible we do need to do works of faith
3. To step up – Presenting fruitful words
4. Matthew 10:24-31 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Do Not Fear – Preach!
5. Today’s thought July 10 Reading 3 – Matthew 11:4-6: Good news preached to the poor
6. Spread the word
7. Repentance for the forgiveness of sins has to be preached to all the non-Jews in Christ his name
8. Christians having the right heart to call others to go to God
9. Reason to preach #5 Trained to do it God’s way
10. How should we worship God? #6 Preachers and Teachers
11. United helping to spread the Good News
12. In all circumstances preaching Christ
13. From house to house #1: Not ceasing to Preach daily in the temple and in every house
14. Making proclamation as a herald
15. Preach
16. Preaching as Public Speaking
17. Memorizing wonderfully 33 Preach the acceptable year of Jehovah God
18. Great need of the church today is to feed the flock and get our people into the word of God
19. Sharing your big scriptures for tough times
20. Taking as many opportunities as possible to proclaim the Good News
21. Evangelizing in the “Time of the End”

Prayer to protect those who have nowhere else to lay their heads

 

 

We pray to the great Spiritual Power

God, please help others who are less fortunate then us
and protect those who have nowhere else to lay their heads.

Give me the strength to deal with the struggles that people face,
including me in trying to help.

Please show people that kindness and understanding is much better then hatefulness and greed.
Show us that hiding who we are or what we do affects everybody and that we have to really try harder to help them understand that.
 
 Forgive me for my sin's, Amen

 

 

It doesn't matter who you are
because you can only be honest and forthcoming.
If you tell somebody that it's okay that they do certain things that you know is wrong and do them anyway then you are inviting them to sin.
Remember to do what you know is right, don't make up excuses because that's what a sinner does.
Be gentle and kind and don't treat anybody with meanness.
-

Laura Beavers

in

Faithlife Proclaim

Struggles of life

Roasted coffee beans Español: Granos de café tostado (natural). Bahasa Indonesia: Biji kopi alami yang telah disangrai. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Kanze Dena wrote

STRUGGLES OF OUR LIFE

Once upon a time a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she didn't know how she was going to make it. She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one soon followed.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot and ground coffee beans in the third pot. He then let them sit and boil, without saying a word to his daughter.

The daughter, moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. After twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He took the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. He then ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup.
Turning to her, he asked.

 “Daughter, what do you see?”

 “Potatoes, eggs and coffee,”

 she hastily replied.

“Look closer”,

 he said,

 “and touch the potatoes.”

 She did and noted that they were soft.
 
He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.
Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face.

“Father, what does this mean?”

she asked.
 
He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and coffee beans had each faced the same adversity - the boiling water. However, each one reacted differently. The potato went in strong, hard and unrelenting, but in boiling water, it became soft and weak.
The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard.
However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.

“Which one are you?”

 he asked his daughter.

 “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean?”

MORAL:

 In life, things happen around us and things happen to us, but the only thing that truly matters is how you choose to react to it and what you make out of it. Life is all about learning, adopting and converting all the struggles that we experience into something positive.

Pain and Suffering is inevitable but Misery is optional

"Pain and Suffering is inevitable but Misery is optional."
- Anonymous

"God did not promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, sun without rain.
But he promised us strength for the day, comfort for tears and light for the road."
- Author unknown

"For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience?
But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.
For you have been called for this purpose,
since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps."
1 Peter 2:20-21

God our Lord, I thank you that I can feel your guiding hand.
Give that I always can overcome the problems that could happen to me.
Make that I can  come stronger out of the struggles.

Dutch version / Nederlandse versie > Pijn en lijden is onvermijdelijk, maar Miserie is optioneel

Christ Suffering (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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2013 update:  

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Your struggles develop your strengths

Dutch version / Nederlands > Uw strijd ontwikkelt uw sterke punten

"Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength."
- Arnold Schwarzenegger

"Prosperity discovers vice, adversity discovers virtue."
- Francis Bacon

"For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."
2 Peter 1:5-8

Lord God, I am grateful that Jesus has conquered death for me.
Give me that I have the perseverance to surmount the difficulties of this world to overcome.
Let me always walk virtuous by the life in Christ Jesus' name, Amen.

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2015 update: adding of related articles

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