5 Steps to a GOOD START

Each of the first five books in the Bible carries a secret. Each secret shows how to start well and how to avoid starting badly.
Over five Sundays during the first month of 2011, you will learn these secrets and be equipped to ensure a GOOD START to your New Year.

More details at your local UCKG.

The Toolbox

A business man was a bit concerned about the future of his two children and how they would take care of the company that he worked so hard to build.
Then he took his two sons for a holiday on a farm where he had spent his childhood. After a long trip and the first night, he called his children to help him fix the barn in that farm.
He gave each one of them a toolbox. One of them was full of all kinds of tools and updated, the other one just had an old hammer, an old screwdriver and old pliers.
The work took a couple of days and each day the father changed the toolboxes. One day, one of the sons had the full one and on the other day the other son got it, until the end of the job.
When they ended the work, and they were rejoicing on the good job that they had done, the father called them and asked them when they felt more useful and why?
Their answer was: “When you gave us the toolbox that was full because everything that was needed was there, we were more active in movement. On the other hand, since the tools in the other box were
bad, we only could watch the work be done by the other - not by us.”
“The same is in our life.” – replied the father - “We are like a toolbox, we can be useful or not, it depends on us. The more things we know, learn and update or upgrade on, the more useful we will be
but if we don’t invest in ourselves, don’t learn or upgrade ourselves
with new ideas or things, we will watch others succeeding and doing
what we were supposed to do.”
Dear reader, maybe you say that you want to succeed in life, and want to be used by God. Let me tell you something, this depends on you, if you invest in yourself (toolbox) study, search to do better in
everything that you do, learn new things (ie. a new language,
courses). God will use you more and you will succeed, for sure.
“In a wealthy home some utensils are made of gold and silver, and some are made of wood and clay. The expensive utensils are used for special occasions, and the cheap
ones are for everyday use. If you keep yourself pure, you will be a
special utensil for honourable use. Your life will be clean, and you
will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work.” (2 Timothy 2:20-21 -NLT)

Be always the best, in Jesus name.

When you don’t use intelligent faith…

Wouldn't the horse represent those who are spiritually blind, the chair represent Pharaoh, holding them captive in Egypt?

Proud and Confident

A proud and confident man came to the temple to pray. As far as he was concerned, he didn’t need to repent or make any changes in his life--he just needed an extra bit of reassurance that he was doing everything right. But as he was praying, someone in the corner of the temple was crying and praying loudly, which disturbed him.

He looked the man over from top to bottom and decided that the only way to ignore him would be to pray louder and show him that this was a temple, not a bar. ‘Oh My Lord, I praise You, not only for what You’ve been in my life but mostly because of what I’ve conquered for You. I have lived my life in the best way possible and I think I have done a very good job. You see Lord, I’m not sure if You have noticed but I don’t live life as most men my age do.

Take that man in the corner, for example … he must have done quite a few things wrong in his life, things I’m sure You disapprove of … whereas I, your faithful and reliable servant, come here not to ask You for forgiveness but to praise You with my life. I have an eye for perfection and I use that to guide my life. I can see how poor and needy that man is, which clearly shows that he hasn’t done his best. I can’t help but feel sorry for You, my Lord, for having to put up with such a pathetic creature. Amen.’

When we read this parable of our Lord Jesus, it seems so obvious that this “righteous” man has the wrong attitude. Yet haven’t you seen exactly the same disposition in many of us? Many of us like to boast about our accomplishments, saying “I am so good at that” or “What would the church be without me” … or the ultimate, “I wish everybody was just like me”, consequently making other people feel low and unworthy…

The more we do for God, the more the devil attacks us. One of his favorite methods is to give us a self-righteous point of view, so that we no longer see the plank in our own eye but only the speck in someone else’s. (Read Luke 6.42.) The truth is that no one is truly good. No one is high enough to say that he or she is better than others. We all have our shortcomings, but through faith we’ve been chosen to serve God as best we can, with whatever we have.

The smaller we seem before others, the bigger we are before God … the less capable, the more useful. “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Read Luke 18.9-14.)