One of the most heart rendering experiences I've ever had occurred on a mission trip to the south pacific. My niece came with me along with a dozen other workers. We arrived at the airport in Manila Philippines for our return flight to America. My niece reached for her passport...and it wasn't there. One thing for certain, you're not getting on an international flight without a passport. It was lost on the bumpy ride to the city. She had everything, but not quite! Everything.. but the most important item... which gave her right of passage. At that point, nothing else mattered. I recall her weeping on my shoulder, "Uncle John, there going to keep me here forever". How God bailed us out of that jam was amazing and a great devotion for another time. What I'm reminded of from this is the story of the rich young man that came to Jesus in Matthew 19. He had everything and had kept all the law. He would have been like the Bruce Wayne of Palestine. He had money, ...
The novel Up At The Villa by W Somerset Maugham is a love story set in early 1940, during Nazi occupation, of a sleepy Italian village in Florence. An aristocratic widow, Mary Panton has her future and wealth sealed upon the death of her abusive, womanizing, yet extremely wealthy husband, an Italian diplomat. In a short time, her heart and love is intrigued for an enigmatic Rowley Flint. An American with with a mysterious past. She falls for him but her aristocratic pride will or would not accept his advances. Flint has truly fallen madly in love with her but soon realizes she has her nose stuck up to high to be associated with him. He deals with his un-requited love and begins to fall into a sense of sadness. As the novel continues, and skipping to the meat of the story, Mary Patton murders a man, after a one night stand, over a senseless and reckless mistake. Mary resorts to the only man that could help her with this conundrum, The America...
There are many number of reasons why people reject Christ. The new testament, namely the Gospels, reveal a broad spectrum of those that looked into the very eyes of our Lord and went away sorrowful, resisting the Holy Spirit. When sharing the good news of Christ and Gods forgiveness the human will can present a variety of excuses. Studying these possible alibis is helpful. Personally I am disturbed in my spirit when someone resist the marvelous and magnificent love of God. I can't fathom any justification for shutting the door on Christ, yet so many do. One of these justifications for saying no to Him is found in Matthew 25; "Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.' 26 "His mas...
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