LOVE, the greatest of all

Love birthed Faith, Faith birthed Courage.

-Nick Vujicic-

LOVE has become something that is cliché or even weak in the eyes of many. This has to be REDEEMED in today’s world. LOVE is the GREATEST of all that gives u strength, assurance and courage to pull through. I am not talking about human love. Human love fails, but there is one that never will fail us, that is God’s love. Because of this perfect LOVE from GOD, then we can have FAITH that He will never fail us, and from there, it will birthed out in us COURAGE to put our words in actions.

Taken from http://mikyunglim.wordpress.com/2013/04/11/proverbs-31-30-29-28/

Psalm 8:3-5 [NIV]

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,

The moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

What is man that you are mindful of him,

The son of man that you care for him?

You made him a little lower that the heavenly beings

And crowed him with glory and honor.

He is an ALMIGHTY GOD. Who are we that He care for us? Simple. It is because of the LOVE He had given to us that He made us and crowned us with glory and honor. HIS LOVE surpasses our logic understanding. 

He could have created MAN programmed to LOVE HIM no matter what. Instead, He gave us a choice. He first showed us LOVE. In our minute understanding, we have to choose whether we want to reciprocate the LOVE that He has given us, to Him. When we learned to LOVE HIM with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind and with all our strength, our entire focus will be on Him. Not because we are forced to do so, but we are delighted to do so. Not because we don't have a mind of our own, but we have discovered something greater and more valuable than gold and silver. To love Him, we cannot do it out of own, but we have to rely on Him to LOVE Him. This is because our love can turn out selfish and deceitful, because of our human nature.

                              He has given his LOVE for us, will we open our hearts to accept Him?

LOVING someone takes time to grow. It's a long process, but a meaningful and heart-warming experiences.

Come near to God and he will come near to you

Come near to God and he will come near to you.

– James, one of the fathers of the first-century church –

I read of this story. I find that it explained the above statement clearly. 

There’s a story of a man driving a convertible on a mountain road who took an unexpected turn too quickly and went right over the edge. As his car fell, he managed to grab on to a tree sprouting from the cliff face as his car dropped a thousand feet to the canyon floor.

 

“Help!” he screamed. “Can anyone hear me?” An echo was the only response.

 “God, can you hear me?” he cried.

Suddenly the clouds rolled together and a voice like thunder said, “Yes, I can hear you.”

“Will you help me?”

“Yes, I will help you. Do you believe in me?”

“Yes, yes, I trust you. Please, hurry.”

“If you trust me, then let go of the tree,” thundered the voice.

After a long silence, the man cried, “Can anyone else hear me?”

We trust God in good times, when bad times come about, our faith is tested. Unrealisingly, sometimes we act like the man holding onto the tree. We expect God to work in our means or ways. When it is not according to our ways, we swapped sides. We go back to expecting help in the form we want.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. As the heaven are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts Isaiah 55:8-9.

So, the equation is simple. Come near to God and he will come near to you. When you desire to be near to God, it must be put to actions and then you will know His heartbeats. He will come near YOU, means your senses will be refined knowing He is there carrying you through, because from the beginning, he is already near you. 

The question is whether do you realize and acknowledge your DEPENDANCE on GOD? 

Are you near Him today? 

[John C. Maxwell: Today Matters, Today's FAITH Gives Me Peace, pg. 197- 213]

Growing a heart takes time

I’ve come to know Jane Goodall recently. She had invested five decades (50 years) of her life to wildlife research, education and conservation of the chimpanzees in Gombe. Gombe is in Africa. Throughout her years of growing up, she had grew to love animals. 

I would like to share part of her story of growing her heart for animals.

On one occasion, Vanne returned home during the war years to find the house curiously empty; everyone, she soon learned, was out searching for young Jane, who at this point had been missing for several hours. 

By seven o’clock that evening, expressions were turning grave. “I don’t remember who saw her first – a small, disheveled figure coming a little wearily over the tussocky field by the hen houses,” Vanne wrote. “There were bits of straw in her hair and on her clothes, but her eyes, dark ringed with fatigue, were shining. ‘She’s found,’ someone called out and soon the searchers were all back and gathered around Jane in the stable yard. 

‘Wherever have you been?’

‘With a hen.’

‘But you’ve been away for nearly five hours. What can you possibly have been doing with a hen all that time?

‘Well, you see, I had to find out how hens lay eggs, so I went into the empty coop and sat in the corner and waited until a hen came in who didn’t mind me there.’

‘So, then what happenened?’

‘A hen came at last.’ Jane’s eyes glowed with inner radiance. 
‘It was a long time, but she came at last and then she laid an egg. I saw her. So now I know how a hen lays an egg.’

 Dusk was fast gathering under the trees as we made out way back to the house. I had Jane firmly by the hand. She had just spent five hours crouched double in a stuffy hen coop, but the result had made it all worthwhile. She had successfully, and to her own entire satisfaction, completed her first animal-research program. She had observed a hen laid an egg.”

I want to highlight Jane’s perseverance, patience and hope, to build that bond with animals. Her heart grew so much for the animals, that investing her life is all worthwhile. I learned and reminded by TWO THINGS.

· To grow a heart for people takes time.
· To build trust from people takes risk and sacrifice.

We can learn so much by observing how nature worked around us. Through that, we also will learn to be better human.

Will we be willing to spend SO MUCH TIME to grow a heart for people? Will we be willing to take the risk of being a listening ear or to even share our lives with people? Will we be willing to sacrifice for people? Will we take that step forward and laid ourselves for people? 

  

How can I grow a heart for people? Start by thinking what is it like in their shoes. Start by listening to them rather than condemning. Start with pure motives to build relationships with people, and to grow a heart that accept diversity and differences.

Maybe when we start to grow a heart for people and maybe when we start to take risks and sacrifices to build trust, then something we will witness something beautiful. Just like Jane, who had witness how a hen lay an egg.

“So, let us move forward with faith in ourselves, in our intelligence, in our indomitable spirit. Let us develop respect for all living things. Let us try to replace violence and intolerance with understanding and compassion. And love.” –Jane Goodall-

(From the book Jane Goodall by Her Mother, Vanne Goodall)