Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.
Steve Jobs
Nobody’s life goes by without tough and painful moments, but all those moments will pass and time really does heal everything. You just have to give “Mr. Time” enough time for the healing to start.
Remember that when you hit rock bottom, regardless of how bad it might feel the only way to go from there is up.
Every man dies. Not every man really lives.
William Wallace
Being born presumes you will die eventually, but contrary to what some believe it doesn’t mean you will live. Yes, you will be alive, but many things are alive but we can’t say they are truly living a life.
You need a great purpose in life to be truly living, and service to other people is a truly noble purpose. Whether that be service to your kids by raising them, or service to others in your community. If your only purpose in life is to focus on yourself, to achieve something for yourself instead of working with and for others around you, you will not feel fulfilled in life.
When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”
John 1:47-49
The first time I saw this conversation between Jesus and Nathanael, it was from an Instagram Reel with a clip from the TV series The Chosen. Yesterday I was reading the Gospel of John and stumbled again on their encounter so I wanted to share it today.
The quote is a bit unusual compared to what I usually post because it doesn’t have a clear message of some action to take. It is rather a motivational quote showcasing the faith of Nathanael and proof of Jesus’ title as the Son of God or as he calls himself few verses after, the Son of Man.
Nathanael thought God left him and didn’t hear him when he was at his lowest. Jesus by saying he saw him under the fig tree proved to Nathanael two things, firstly that Jesus is one with God and secondly that He didn’t leave him.
Here is a clip from the show I mentioned, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.
2 Corinthians 11:14-15
This verse has a wide application.
Mohammad claimed to have met the angel Gabriel and that he gave him the Quran. That’s odd because the angel Gabriel was the one who informed Mary that she will give birth to Jesus, Son of God.
“The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come over you, and the power of the Most High will surround you. Therefore, the child will be holy and will be called the Son of God.” – Luke 1:35
Muslims don’t believe that Jesus was the Son of God, only a prophet, Quran teaches them that. Now how could this be the same angel if it contradicts itself? At one time claiming that Jesus was the Son of God and then centuries later gave Mohammad a book, the so-called “Word of God” that claimed Jesus was just a prophet. I don’t think what Mohammad saw that day was angel Gabriel as it is well known that Satan often disguises as someone good to trick us into believing him.
Stay away from people claiming they can heal you through any kind of “energy” manipulation. It has become quite popular lately to seek alternative types of medicines, but be careful as you can easily wander off to the realms of evil. You have these people performing miracles just by touching you or even by just moving their hand through the air around you (and many other types of movement that “control the person’s energy field”), but who gave them such power?
They sometimes claim that they have had a gift since birth while others that it’s a gift from God, and every possible explanation in between. What God gives that power? Sometimes when you act suspicious about their claim to have a gift from God to heal people as they please they might try saying something like “It’s not unusual that God heals people and performs various miracles”, well yes, in Christianity we have a large number of well known healing events. But all of those are a result of God’s grace received through prayer and not human’s manipulation of so-called “energy”.
You don’t see those healers advocating prayer and repentance from their patients in order to be healed, therefore such healing is certainly not coming from God. Those healers are either scammers using the placebo effect to trick people or worse: they have the power to heal a person’s body but then that power has surely come from the Devil himself. They might not be aware that the Devil gave them this power and not God, but aware or not, the consequences of playing with the Devil like this are grave. The consequences will affect the healer as well as the patient who receives the treatment, so don’t dip your toes into such practices.
Parenting is a crash course in theology. You have someone made in your image who you love so desperately you can hardly stand it. But half the time they’re convinced you’re trying to make them miserable when everything you’re doing is actually for their ultimate good.
Unknown
Quite a long quote compared to what I usually post, but that’s why it doesn’t need much commenting. It says it all: how we view God is how little kids view their parents. We think God wants to control us for no reason when he is actually just protecting us from dangers we are not aware of.
We’ve all been in this situation, either as a child or as a parent (or both): a parent forbids a child something and the child starts either crying or questioning the reason behind this new restriction (and of course can’t understand it). Then the parent says something along these lines: “You don’t understand it now but you will understand it later – when you grow up.”
That’s why we can’t understand some of God’s rules, we are not mature enough, and we probably will never be mature enough in our lifetime. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have to follow these rules, as they are protecting us, we just don’t see it. By not following his rules we won’t be protected, and by the time we are struck by the consequence of our disobedience, it’s too late.
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