LIFE IS A GIFT!

There was a blind girl who hated herself just because she's blind. She also hated everyone, except her boyfriend who had always been there for her.

She used to say if she could only see the world, she would marry this her boyfriend.

One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her and then she was able to see everything, including her loyal boyfriend.

Her boyfriend asked her, "Now that you can see the world, can we get married ?"

The girl was so shocked to discover that her boyfriend was blind too. So she refused to marry him.

Shaken by this rejection, her boyfriend walked away in tears. He later wrote a short note to her saying, "Please take good care of my eyes dear."

This is how humans behave when their status changes. Only few remember what life was before, and who has always been there for them even in the most painful situations.

Life Is A Gift

Today before you think of saying an unkind word - Think of someone who can't speak.

Before you complain about the taste of your food - Think of someone who has nothing to eat.

Before you complain about your husband or wife - Think of someone who's crying out to God for a companion.

Today before you complain about life - Think of someone who went too early to heaven.

Before you complain about your children - Think of someone who desires children but they're barren.

Before you argue about your dirty house, someone didn't clean or sweep - Think of the people who are living in the streets.

Before whining about the distance you drive - Think of someone who walks the same distance with their feet.

And when you are tired and complain about your job - Think of the unemployed, the disabled and those who wished they had your job.

But before you think of pointing the finger or condemning another - Remember that not one of us are without sin and we all answer to one Maker.

And when depressing thoughts seem to get you down - Put a smile on your face and thank God you're alive and still around.

Life is a gift, Live it, Enjoy it, Celebrate it, And fulfill it in Christ.

Be An Example...

A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago.

They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night's dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these sales men inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples.

Apples flew everywhere...........Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for they nearly missed boarding.

ALL BUT ONE !!! He paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings, and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned. He told his buddies to go on without him, waved good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor. He was glad he did.

The 16 year old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her, no one stopping and no one to care for her plight.

The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket.

When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, "Here, please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?"
She nodded through her tears. He continued on with, "I hope we didn't spoil your day too badly."

As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, "Mister...." He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes.
She continued, "Are you Jesus?"

He stopped in mid-stride, and he wondered. Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: "Are you Jesus?"

Do people mistake you for Jesus? That's our destiny, is it not?
To be so much like Jesus that people can tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, life and grace. If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would. Knowing Him is more than simply quoting Scripture and going to church.

It's actually living the Word as life unfolds day to day.
You are the apple of His eye even though we, too, have been bruised by a fall.
He stopped what He was doing and picked you and me up on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit.

Pray it will speak to your heart.

Contributed by Arun Philip

A Call to Prayer!

It cannot be over emphasized, our need for prayer. We believe that regular prayer helps to release a continous flow of spiritual power. It sharpens our discernment and makes our spirits alert and sensitive to spiritual things. As such we also believe that as Christians, we all need to:

• Pray for ourselves. That God would help each one of us to:
• Abide in Him without reservations - John 15:7
• Be obedient to His voice in every possible way - John 9:31, 1 John 3:22
• Be humble as we walk in His ways - 2 Chronicles 7:14-15, John 3:30
• Live a life of righteousness - James 5:16, Psalms 34:15,17
• Live in the fear of the Lord - Psalm 145:19
• Pray for others:
• Fellow Christians everywhere that we may be united in Christ Jesus - John 13:34-35, Ephesians 6:18
• Unbelievers that they might receive the salvation of God in Christ Jesus - 2 Peter 3:9
• Pray for leadership:
• Spiritual leadership, in families and churches. For wisdom, protection -2 Thessalonians 3:1-2, 1 Thessalonians 5:25
• Governmental leadership. That our various leaders in the nations shall be just - 1 Timothy 2:1-4, 2 Thessalonians 3:1-21, Thessalonians 5:25
  

Jesus taught us to pray, "thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10). We believe therefore, that it is important to spent quality time in God's presence to find out His will. If you feel the need to pray right now, please feel free to join our "Prayer Room" by clicking here.

Could God use you in Internet Evangelism? - By Rusty Wright

Could God use you to reach people for Christ via the Internet? The answer may surprise you!

I’m no techie!
“How could I ever use the Internet to reach people for Christ?” you might wonder. “I’m no techie. I know how to send email and read the news online, but that’s about it.”

I can identify with that. My technical knowledge is limited. For many years, I was even hesitant to use an ATM (Automatic Teller Machine) at the bank, for fear I would do something stupid and it would swallow my card.

Gradually, I overcame my technophobia and began to use computers for word processing. But I used somewhat primitive setups. Only in 1998 did I switch from the rather archaic DOS operating system to Windows because a friend said I should “get with the 90s before the 90s are over!”

What are your talents?
We all have talents and abilities. A key to usefulness is making our talents available to God. Your talents may be in building friendships, engaging in conversations, answering questions, inspiring people, or telling stories. God certainly can use those. Here’s a story that may encourage you.

My own interests involve communication, especially relating Christ to secular audiences. Over the years, I’ve written numerous evangelistic articles to help reach nonbelievers. Several years ago, a couple of friends involved in Internet ministry, Keith Seabourn and Allan Beeber, asked me to send them all my articles so they could put them “online.”

I didn’t understand all that meant, but they said it would make the articles available free to people around the globe. That seemed like a good thing.

Keith’s website, “Leadership University,” aimed to collect thousands of articles supporting the validity of Christian faith. Allan’s “Evangelism Toolbox” became an online “Yellow Pages” (directory) of evangelism resources. They helped introduce me to Internet outreach.

Are you ready for the digital revolution?
At a convention in Amsterdam a few years ago, I saw a brochure that said, “The Great Commission is Going Digital; Are You Ready?” That piqued my interest. Maybe God wanted me to focus my energies on Internet Evangelism.

The brochure spoke of the then-fledgling Internet Evangelism Coalition. I started to hang out with these folks – wonderful people – and to learn from them. I began to write more for the web and various articles appeared online.

Another friend encouraged me to do a Google search on my name. I was amazed to see page after page of my articles on websites that I had never heard of!

I also discovered a number of other “Rusty Wrights,” including …

• a platform tennis player
• a university professor
• a football coach
• a singer
• a rodeo cowboy
• a racecar driver
• a cruise ship captain
• a convict

The simplicity and pervasive nature of the Internet was allowing people to find and use these articles in ways I had never imagined. I could sit with my laptop in my office, on an airplane, or in a hotel room and compose an article that would tactfully nudge people toward Christ or biblical principles. Then, by pushing a button, I could send it to Internet publishers who would make it available to people around the globe.

This seemed almost too good to be true. What a potential for spreading Good News!

A simple prayer
In August 2003, while jogging one morning, I felt impressed to pray that within a year, I would be aware of 100 websites that had used my articles. (At the time, I was aware of 43.) There wasn’t an audible “voice from heaven” or handwriting on the sidewalk; just a strong inner impression that I should pray this.

A year later, I learned of the 100th site that had used this material. Some sites published the articles and others linked to them. The articles appeared in several languages: English, Spanish, Albanian, Croatian, Hungarian, Italian, and Polish. People just kept translating and posting them. It seemed beyond my control or ability. God gets the glory for this.

A surprising number of the sites were not Christian. For instance, one site linked to a version of the article “Elvis Has Left the Building,” which traces fascination with Elvis Presley and its spiritual implications. An Argentine medical school website published a translation of “One Minute After Death,” about near-death experiences.

Some secular newspaper sites ran material. Personal websites and “blogs” (web logs) linked to articles. I did not contact all these websites, asking them to use my articles. Many content managers simply found the articles on the web and used them.

God’s sense of humor
I even found one article link on a porn site.

I should clarify. The evangelistic article is entitled, “Dynamic Sex: Unlocking the Secret to Love.” It presents a biblical perspective on sex and love but is written to grab and hold the attention of non-Christians. And no, I did not discover this link by surfing porn sites! I typed the article title into Google. I do pray that many websurfers who go to that site looking for pornography will find Jesus. God has a sense of humor!

Again, God gets all the glory for this. If you have interest, many of these seeker- and skeptic-friendly articles are at www.probe.org/Rusty.

What can you do?
Internet evangelism offers you a dazzling array of possibilities to communicate Christ. Writing articles is just one method. You may want to interact with unbelievers in a chat room, correspond via email, communicate on a blog, design your own website, pray for and/or support web outreach financially.

You can also encourage your church or Christian group to participate in ‘Internet Evangelism Day’. This international focus day program is designed to help Christians learn more about the potential of the Web for outreach. The IE Day site explains how to create a short focus program to include in church services or other activities.

The important thing is to ask God what He would have you do. As Mary told the servants in John 2:5, “Whatever He [Jesus] says to you, do it.”

Ask God to enlarge your borders. He did it for Jabez (1 Chronicles 4:10). Maybe He wants to do it for you. I hope he does.

Rusty Wright is an author, syndicated columnist and university lecturer with Probe.org who has spoken on six continents. He holds Bachelor of Science (psychology) and Master of Theology degrees from Duke and Oxford Universities, respectively. www.probe.org/Rusty

Click here (Blogging Basic Lessons) to get some basic tips on how you can start your own blog now!

Copyright © Rusty Wright 2004. Permission granted to use this article. All rights reserved.

What a Living Inspiration!

My name is Nick Vujicic and I give God the Glory for how He has used my testimony to touch thousands of hearts around the world! I was born without limbs and doctors have no medical explanation for this birth "defect". As you can imagine, I was faced with many challenges and obstacles.

"Consider it pure joy, my Brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds."


....To count our hurt, pain and struggle as nothing but pure joy? As my parents were Christians, and my Dad even a Pastor of our church, they knew that verse very well. However, on the morning of the 4th of December 1982 in Melbourne (Australia), the last two words on the minds of my parents was "Praise God!". Their firstborn son had been born without limbs! There were no warnings or time to prepare themselves for it. The doctors we shocked and had no answers at all! There is still no medical reason why this had happened and Nick now has a Brother and Sister who were born just like any other baby.



The whole church mourned over my birth and my parents were absolutely devastated. Everyone asked, "if God is a God of Love, then why would God let something this bad happen to not just anyone, but dedicated Christians?" My Dad thought I wouldn't survive for very long, but tests proved that I was a healthy baby boy just with a few limbs missing.


Understandably, my parents had strong concern and evident fears of what kind of life I'd be able to lead. God provided them strength, wisdom and courage through those early years and soon after that I was old enough to go to school. The law in Australia didn't allow me to be integrated into a main-stream school because of my physical disability. God did miracles and gave my Mom the strength to fight for the law to be changed. I was one of the first disabled students to be integrated into a main-stream school.


I liked going to school, and just try to live life like everyone else, but it was in my early years of school where I encountered uncomfortable times of feeling rejected, weird and bullied because of my physical difference. It was very hard for me to get used to, but with the support of my parents, I started to develop attitudes and values which helped me overcome these challenging times. I knew that I was different but on the inside I was just like everyone else. There were many times when I felt so low that I wouldn't go to school just so I didn't have to face all the negative attention. I was encouraged by my parents to ignore them and to try start making friends by just talking with some kids. Soon the students realized that I was just like them, and starting there God kept on blessing me with new friends.


There were times when I felt depressed and angry because I couldn't change the way I was, or blame anyone for that matter. I went to Sunday School and learnt that God loves us all and that He cares for you. I understood that love to a point as a child, but I didn't understand that if God loved me why did He make me like this? Is it because I did something wrong? I thought I must have because out of all the kids at school, I'm the only weird one. I felt like I was a burden to those around me and the sooner I go, the better it'd be for everyone. I wanted to end my pain and end my life at a young age, but I am thankful once again, for my parents and family who were always there to comfort me and give me strength.

Due to my emotional struggles I had experienced with bullying, self esteem and loneliness, God has implanted a passion of sharing my story and experiences to help others cope with whatever challenge they have in their life and let God turn it into a blessing. To encourage and inspire others to live to their fullest potential and not let anything get in the way of accomplishing their hopes and dreams.




One of the first lessons that I have learnt was not to take things for granted.


"And we know that in all things God works for the best for those who love Him." -Rom 8:28

That verse spoke to my heart and convicted me to the point where that I know that there is no such thing as luck, chance or coincidence that these "bad" things happen in our life.

I had complete peace knowing that God won't let anything happen to us in our life unless He has a good purpose for it all. I completely gave my life to Christ at the age of fifteen after reading John 9. Jesus said that the reason the man was born blind was "so that the works of God may be revealed through Him."



I truly believed that God would heal me so I could be a great testimony of His Awesome Power. Later on I was given the wisdom to understand that if we pray for something, if it's God's will, it'll happen in His time. If it's not God's will for it to happen, then I know that He has something better.





I now see that Glory revealed as He is using me just the way I am and in ways others can't be used.

I am now twenty-one years old and have completed a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Financial Planning and Accounting. I am also a motivational speaker and love to go out and share my story and testimony wherever opportunities become available. I have developed talks to relate to and encourage students through topics that challenge today's teenagers. I am also a speaker in the corporate sector.
















Contributed by Ogochukwu Eze

I asked God to take away my grief,
And God said "NO."
He said it was not for Him to take away,
But for me to work through.

I asked God to make my broken heart whole,
And God said "NO."
He said my spirit is whole.
My pain is only temporary.

I asked God to take away my pride
And God said "NO."
He said it was not for Him to take away,
But for me to give up.

I asked God to make
My handicapped child whole,
And God said "NO."
He said the body is only temporary.

I asked God to grant me patience
And God said "NO."
He said patience is a by-product of tribulation.
It isn't granted, it's earned.

I asked God to give me happiness
And God said "NO."
He said He gives His blessings,
Happiness is up to me.

I asked God to spare me from pain
And God said "NO."
He said sufferings draw you apart from
Worldly cares and brings you closer to Him.

I asked God to make my spirit grow
And God said "NO."
He said I must grow on my own,
But He will prune me to make me fruitful.

I asked God if He loved me
And God said "YES."
He gave His only Son who died for me,
And I will be in heaven someday because I believe.

I asked God to help me love others
As much as He loves me
And God said,
"Ah, you finally have the idea!"

~ Claudia Weisz ~
culled from http://www.pennyparker2.com