Tag: faith in God

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Book Recommendation: I Choose to Forgive…

i’m going to do an unusual thing today… i’m going to recommend a book which i have not yet read. You must be wondering how can i recommend a book which i have not even broken its spine to read.

Well, it is because i have heard the author of the book speak, twice. i spent last Saturday morning and this morning at Day Away Association for Women events, listening to this amazing lady speak of forgiveness and her story is all at once heart-piercing and uplifting.

She speaks of how God led her on a journey to forgive the murderer of her son. It is one of the most amazing stories i have heard and it leaves me no doubt that our God is living; alive and truly working in this world today. Her name is Dianne B. Collard and her book is called “I Choose to Forgive”.

My take-away from her talk is this:

There are many layers to forgiveness. What does this mean?
Remember the story of Peter coming to Jesus and asking, “Lord, how many times should i forgive the man who wronged me? Seven times?” And Jesus answered, “Seventy times seven”?

Did  Jesus mean that we count the number of times we forgive someone and then take revenge once the 490th “crime” has been committed? No. i have learnt that when Jesus said 70×7, He means 70 to the power of 7, which means you take 70 and multiple by 70 and do that for 7 times. Does it make sense? If you are like me and have no head for numbers, then simply take my word for it that it is a number greater than you can count. And what that really means is every time, all of the time we need to forgive, which should be a normal way to respond for someone who has experienced God’s marvelous forgiveness.

Then she brought it to another level. We can forgive the person who wronged us (but that doesn’t mean the other person is right or that the person is getting away with the “crime”). But if some time down the road, we start to feel the emotions of this “crime” again and start to resent/hate this person or the consequences of his/her action, we need to forgive again. It doesn’t mean that we didn’t forgive that first time around. It simply means that there is another layer of forgiveness we need to take it to, a deeper level. A friend reminded me: it is just like peeling an onion, every layer we peel back makes us cry but brings us closer to the core.

My eyes have been opened and there are issues i have to deal with. But it has also explained to me why i sometimes feel the way i do in certain situations. i have to take it another step further. It’s going to be hard but another important point she made was – the choice to forgive lies with ourselves, but the power to obey (follow God’s commandments to forgive) is in God.

If we are obedient to forgive, just as God commanded, then powerful blessings can flow from the throne of God into our lives and into the lives of others around us. Read to the book to find out more about these fantastic blessings which Dianne experience in her journey of forgiveness.

If you have the desire to hear the talk i heard, then leave a comment with your email and i will try to see if i can get you a copy of her talk on CD. Or visit her blog or her ministry website to find out if she is going to be speaking somewhere near you.

syc

NOTE: All profits from the sale of her book goes to getting translations and getting the book published in countries which cannot afford to publish it. And the profits for those sales (if there are any) are given to a ministry in that country which helps people in great need. It’s a gift which keeps giving. Her statement is that she could never make money from the death of her son.

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Take a Leap of Faith…

It’s Leap Day today. So i am asking you to take a Leap of Faith. Now i am no theologian or preacher. i am merely a Bible-believing Christian who would like to talk about faith today. So no big words, no big idea – just this… God is in the little things.

God is in that little Bee and those little Flowers.

He truly is. People often talk about the “big” things of faith, hope in the things unseen; have faith in God that He will provide that job or that house or that desired result etc… That’s great and good and is certainly a fantastic demonstration of faith. But i submit to you today that the little things matter to God as well.

Small matters such as when we pull into an obviously full parking garage, i often ask my little boy to pray, “Pray that God grants us a parking space.” And God does, it would seem everywhere we looked there was not a free spot and then hubby would turn a corner and there it would be, our parking spot. It may seem trivial but it is an answered prayer – we prayed and God answered. You may say, “Oh that’s just a coincidence.” Maybe. However, i believe that having faith means believing that God is involved in every aspect of your life, everyday, every hour, every minute and every second. So in that minute we needed a parking space, we asked and God provided.

Here’s another little example: i was once on my way to a seminar and was on time. Or i thought so. i walked towards the train station in our little village and was some distance away when i saw the train leaving! i was like, “Oh my God, no! i can’t be late!” i checked my watch, i wasn’t and i didn’t understand why the train left – Swiss trains are almost always (99% of the time) on time. So i doubled back and headed for the bus stop, hoping to catch the bus, but i knew that i would be late for catching the connecting train to my destination cos the bus would just take longer to get there. i asked God to help the bus get there faster. i managed to catch the bus but saw that the bus would not get there on time. i got off the bus and crossed the road, thinking who i should call to inform them i would be a whole 30 mins late (the trains run on a fixed timetable here). Then i looked up and there was my connecting train, still at the station! i ran for it and got on just as the conductor whistled for the train to leave. God answered my prayer; He didn’t make the bus go faster, He had the train wait for me 😀 (i later found out that the train i saw leaving my train station earlier was the train for rush hour which i never take so didn’t know about – it was not the train i was supposed to take.)

Here’s an unexpected one: i was in the supermarket checkout line on Tuesday, at the basket only lane (where trolleys are not allowed). i had a very full basket and had piled all my purchases onto the conveyor belt. Then i noticed that the man behind me was buying only 2 items. i offered to let him go first. He looked at me, smiled and said in German, “No worries. i have time. i can wait. We all need to learn to be a little patient, isn’t it?” It was a simple exchange which brightened my otherwise ordinary day (and truth be told, i was a little impatient that day too.) cos someone had said something small but nice to me. i didn’t ask for this and certainly had never seen the man in my life before. And if you have lived in Switzerland, you know that you seldom get more than a nod and a couple of words with strangers in a line. But God knew i needed that one little word and He sent it.

Matthew 6:25-34

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[e]?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

God cares for even the birds in the wild and the grass in the fields. He feeds them, He waters them, He provides for them. If He can care with such attention these wild things, i am sure He cares for us and our small issues too.

Cover of "Simple Wonders"
Cover of Simple Wonders

i have a little book called, Simple Wonders by Christopher de Vinck, one of my favourite books. It tells stories about God and how He is in the simple things of life; in the lives of everyday people. In there are stories which are heart-warming and show that God truly cares for us, even in the little things, i think especially in the tiny details.

In there is a story called Simple Wonders (the book’s namesake). In this story, it tells of a person who found a ladybug in his/her bathroom wall. The ladybug stayed there, on the wall, in the same spot for more than a month. Everyday the person would check on it and one night the moonlight shone on that very spot the ladybug sat, it was beautiful.

“God created the universe! He created the stars! The heavens! He created the Grand Canyon! Niagara Falls! The Alps! All that is spectacular, God has created. But we can easily forget that God also created the single blade of grass and the smallest piece of dust that floats in the sunlight of your room.

We should not forget that God is the Creator of all things great and small, even the ladybug.

Take a moment out of this day and see if you cannot recognize God’s handiwork in the smallest thing: a single strand of your hair, or a drop of water on the window.If you look closely enough, you will discover His thumbprint.”

So take a leap of faith – believe that God created every little thing on this earth and trust that He will also take care of every little aspect of your life, down to the tiniest details. May you see God in the small matters of life today.

syc