Comfort for Heavy Hearts @ the Holidays

December 12, 2014

“…whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:26)

Has the joyful happy holiday season found you with a heavy heart because you have lost a loved one?  I have suggested that if you want to find the happiness and comfort Jesus promised in His second beatitude to those who mourn, you should ask the right questions and listen to God’s answers to the right questions.  My third suggestion was implied by Jesus as He gave an excellent right answer to Martha when he asked her, “Do you believe this?”

My third suggestion is that you believe God’s answers to the right questions.  When we ask, listen, and believe, the death of someone we love is like an investment in the world to come.  We have simply bought shares in heaven and we have increased our motivation to be there in the eternal dimension with Christ and with them.

A devout surgeon I know says that the word we use most in this life is “Why?” However, the word we are going to use most in the next world is going to be “Oh!” An old hymn I don’t hear much anymore proclaims: “Friends will be there I have known long ago.  Joy like a river around me will flow.  Yet just a smile from my Savior I know,  that will be glory be glory for me!”

The whole Bible is filled with God’s answers to the right questions.  When we believe those answers we will discover that the happy state Jesus promised those who mourn in one word is salvation.  Salvation and the comfort He promised can begin right now and last forever if you will ask, listen, and believe!  Will you do that now?

Dick Woodward, 17 December 2010

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‘Stinkin Thinkin’ vs. Beatitude-based Attitudes

October 17, 2014

“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.”  (Matthew 6:22-23)

 The way we see things can be the difference between a life filled with light and happiness, and a life filled with darkness, unhappiness and depression. Jesus and the entire Word of God will consistently challenge our mindset and show us how we should see things.

Have you as a believer ever found yourself in a funk and realized that you needed to have an attitude adjustment?  I certainly have.  I have learned there are times when an attitude adjustment can pull me out of what I label a “pit fit.”  The two letters “AA” represent many things, but let them remind you to make regular Attitude Adjustments when needed.

There are times when the best defense is a good offense.  That is especially true when it comes to attitudes.  Instead of erecting strong defensive attitudes, the better part of wisdom is to put in place a strong offense of God ordained attitudes that will raise us above the devastating effects of “stinkin thinkin.”

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus taught us that if we want to be part of His solution as the salt of the earth and the light of the world, we must begin by having eight attitude adjustments.  In your Bible turn to Chapter Five of the Gospel of Matthew and study closely what we call the eight blessed attitudes known as the beatitudes of Jesus.

When you understand and apply them they will make your life the light of the world!

Dick Woodward, 25 August 2011

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