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Monday, June 08, 2009

Who's laughing now?

I'm an optimist and I think that around 90% of contemporary Christian music nowadays have no place in the church. That's because they're made to sell instead of serve God's purpose.

Here's an exception I've found:






By Regina Spektor
LYRICS:
No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one's laughing at God when they're starving
Or freezing or so very poor

No one laughs at God when the doctor calls after some routine tests
No one's laughing at God when it's gotten real late
And their kid's not back from that party yet

No one laughs at God when their airplane starts to uncontrollably shake
No one's laughing at God when they see the one they love hand in hand with someone else
And they hope that they're mistaken
No one laughs at God when the cops knock on their door
And they say "We've got some bad new, sir,"
No one's laughing at God when there's a famine, fire, or flood

But God can be funny
At a cocktail party while listening to a good God-themed joke or...
Or when the crazies say he hates us
And they get so red in the head
You think that they're about to choke

God can be funny
When told he'll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie
Who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus

God can be so hilarious
Ha ha
Ha ha

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one's laughing at God when they've lost all they got
And they don't know what for

No one laughs at God on the day they realize
That the last sight they'll ever see is a pair of hateful eyes
No one's laughing at God when they're saying their goodbyes

But God can be funny
At a cocktail party while listening to a good God-themed joke or...
Or when the crazies say he hates us
And they get so red in the head
You think that they're about to choke

God can be funny
When told he'll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie
Who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus

God can be so hilarious

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war

No one's laughing at God in a hospital
No one's laughing at God in a war

No one's laughing at God when they're starving
Or freezing or so very poor

No one's laughing at God
No one's laughing at God
No one's laughing at God
We're all laughing with God

Sunday, June 07, 2009

Courage does not always come naturally

To say that Gideon was courageous is to embellish the history. Gideon became courageous only after God had urged him several times, but initially he was fearful like the rest.

The difference with Gideon was his intelligent faith.

Courage is essential if we are to act on intelligent faith. For this reason God patiently helped him to develop it. “I have delivered it into your hand. But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp… and you shall hear what they say; and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.” (Judges 7.9-11)

Proof that Gideon was afraid is that he went down to the camp to get one more sign that God was going to give him the victory – even when God said, “But if you are afraid to go down...” So Gideon went down. In other words, he was still afraid!

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It’s important to know that the heroes of the Bible were just like us.
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They were fearful, they doubted, they weren’t born courageous, they didn’t believe in themselves, and at times they sinned badly.

But when an intelligent faith was present and their hearts were sincere, God used them anyway. He gave them a chance to overcome their complexes and fears.

Some people seem to have been born with the gene of courage. For the rest of us, courage only comes when we do what we have to do IN SPITE OF our feelings of fear.


Read this message in portuguese

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Succeed in Life – and in marriage

David and Norma came to Succeed in Life Center to attend our marriage course in March 2009. At that time they had been separated for 5 months already, and getting ready for a divorce.

Watch and see how the Succeed in Marriage course changed their marriage in only 7 weeks.


 

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