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Featured Article
Prayer for the New Year
by Tom Norvell
Father,
Give us a new year. Not just a new number, but a truly new year. Give us
a year full of new things, new adventures, new attitudes, and visions.
Lord, give us a new year full of new ideas and refresh some of our old
ideas. Give us new relationships and renew old relationships, and
restore relationships that have been broken.
Father, give us a new year. Give us a new song. Give us a new memory.
Give us a new image of Your Son, and help us to show His image of those
who are new to You. Give us new thoughts, new friends, and new things
that replace the old worn-out things.
Father, give us a new year. The year that has just ended was difficult
for some of us. There were struggles and frustrations and
disappointments that we did not handle so well. Give us a better
mentality and better spiritual insight that will help us deal with the
struggles, frustrations and disappointments that will come in this New
Year.
Father, give us a new year. Give us a year filled with new ministries,
new opportunities, new voices, and new messages. Help us hold on to the
old things that are worth holding, and help us let go of the old things
that have served their purpose.
Father, give us a new year. Give us a year that is not controlled by
fear. A year in which we are not afraid of people who are different. A
year when we are not afraid of ideas that are new, of plans that are
new, and places that are new.
Father, give us a new year. Give us a year filled with new love. A new
love for You. A new love for each other. A new love for Your Kingdom. A
new love for strangers. A new love for the helpless. A new love for the
needy. A new love for poor. A new love for rich. A new love for all
people.
Father, give us a new year. Help us put the old one to bed. Help us to
leave the things of the past in the past. Help us look forward. Help us
look beyond what we can see to what You have planned for us that we
cannot see. Help us move forward with confidence and courage and
humility and gentleness.
Father, give us a new year. Help us, in this New Year to completely
surrender to You and what You have planned for us in this year filled
with new things.
Originally Posted: 01/03/2007
URL:
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200701/20070103_prayer.html
(c)
2007 Tom Norvell
Used
by permission. A Norvell Note <http://www.anorvellnote.com> is a weekly
email message from Tom Norvell. Check it out!
(c)
1996-2006,
Heartlight, Inc.
Heartlight encourages you to share this material with others in
church bulletins, personal emails and other non-commercial uses.
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Insight Into Matthew
25:29
by Sue Hughes
For everyone who has will be
given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does
not have, even what he has will be taken from him.
(Matthew
25:29 )
I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard a sermon based on this
tough saying of Jesus.
The line comes up several places. We find it after the
parable of the soils (Matthew 13:3-9), when seed falls
on different patches of ground, and the only place it
can multiply is in the good soil, representing those
who respond to God’s word with obedience. In the
parable of the talents, (Matthew 25:14-30) servants are
given small sums, and depending on how they invest
them, they receive great rewards (or punishments) at
the end. Both times a tiny seed is sown, a small
investment is made that has huge potential. But whether
or not it becomes a great thing in the end is dependent
on the recipient’s response.
Jesus is saying that no matter how little faith we
have, we need to turn it into response, or else it will
decay. I don’t think that we should read Jesus’ words
as threat of punishment, but as a stiff dose of
reality. The simple truth is that if we have enough
faith to follow Christ, our faith will grow stronger as
we attempt to do his will. If we have so little faith
that we don’t respond, the tiny bit we do have will
tend to grow weaker.
As critical and important as these words are about
faith, the line about “those who have more will be
given” can teach us about other things too.
One gift I got for Christmas this year is a bestselling
book called “Outliers:
The Story of Success” by Malcolm Gladwell.
Gladwell writes about hidden patterns behind everyday
experiences, and in Outliers he looks at what factors
influence who becomes successful in life. He bases a
chapter on this verse, that “those who have will be
given more, ”but he spins it a different way.
Gladwell describes how all-star hockey players in
Canada almost always have birthdays in January through
March, because being born near January 1 gives boys an
edge in the highly competitive training that starts
before they are even in kindergarten. At that age, just
a few months of maturity makes them stand out among
their peers, and they are chosen for more opportunities
to practice and play. This effect builds on itself -
the more they practice early on, the more they achieve
later in life.
I used to notice a related thing, that learning is like
this too. When I started to study Hebrew, everything
was a struggle. The letters were strange, the words
hard to pronounce, and it took great effort to remember
just a few new terms. But as my classmates and I got
more fluent, the learning went faster, because we saw
more and more ways to relate new information to what we
knew already. Knowledge is “sticky” — the more you
know, the more you can learn.
The converse is true too. I was helping a sixth-grader
in my neighborhood with her math, and she was working
on simplifying fractions. How do you simplify 21/49? To
me it was obvious that you can divide both sides by 7
and get 3/7. But she had never mastered her
multiplication tables, so it wasn’t at all obvious to
her that 7 x 3 = 21 and 7 x 7 = 49. Her lack of
knowledge of the basics was now robbing her of the
ability to learn new things.
This is true with the Scriptures too. Bible passages
are full of references to other passages. Stories build
on each other and refer to each other, and Jesus quotes
passage after passage from his Scriptures, expecting
people to catch what he said. The more you know, the
more nuances you catch as you are reading. Maybe that’s
why the rabbis used to say, “Do not say, ‘I will study
(the Scriptures) when I have more time.’ You may not
have more time!”
Don’t wait until later — start growing now. If it’s
difficult, start at the easiest level possible, maybe
just a children’s Bible. Every time you hear a passage
again you’ll catch more and more. Knowledge of God’s
word is “sticky,” and each passage you learn will help
you unlock yet another.
Here too, those who have much will be given yet more.
And those who don’t have can be led astray by their own
lack of understanding.
http://www.ourrabbijesus.com/index.php/blog/
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by Tim Nyberg |
Creating a Soulful
Wintertime Home
by Denise Linn
Winter is the perfect time for turning inward, for taking time to relax,
to meditate, to tend the soul. Curling up next to a crackling fire with
a hot mug of tea warms the heart as much as the body. The unwelcoming
weather outside shepherds us towards the inner realms, where we can slow
down, take time to enjoy life, and completely nurture ourselves.
Winter invites us to transform our environments into soulful havens of
sacred space. In these months of darkness and cold, the light of candles
creates a sense of warmth and vitality everywhere. Candlelight flickers
in a lively and personal way. It creates an instant sense of the sacred
which fulfills our deep-seated need for meaning and beauty in life. This
is a great time to create a feast for all of your senses. Filling your
home with deep rich colors and soft sensuous textures feeds the soul in
the winter months. Velvets, wools and rich tapestries create a sense of
creature comfort on an entirely different level from anything that is
possible during the warmer months. Jewel tones and earthy colors speak
of the richness and nurturing of Mother Earth. Brass, gold and copper
reflect the light from crackling fires and candlelight. They make a room
feel completely cozy and welcoming.
Warm
nourishing soups and delicious hot drinks have been associated with
winter since earliest human times. Spicy aromas, scented candles and
rich incense all delight and nourish us in a soulful way. Cinnamon,
nutmeg and cloves, orange and tangerine all are associated with the
winter holidays. They call forth memories of feasts and celebrations.
The
months of darkness are the time when nature incubates its seeds and
prepares for an explosion of growth in the spring. This is also a
natural time for us to conceive new dreams. When we are less preoccupied
with going out and keeping busy, we can take the time to reflect on what
is most important to us. We can slow down, turn inward and really
connect with the source of our inner wisdom. A home altar offers an
excellent way of honoring the process of dream incubation. On your
altar, you can place symbolic representations of your hopes and plans
and highest aspirations. As you spend time meditating in front of your
wintertime altar, its energy will slowly begin to work a remarkable kind
of magic in your life. An altar is an amazing tool for manifestation. It
has the power to bring those things that lie hidden deep within your
heart into the everyday world of waking reality.
In
ancient times the altar was often placed at the hearth, or heart of the
home. In this position the energy of the altar is radiated throughout
the home. Another traditional place for an altar is near the entrance to
a home. Placed here, the altar greets you when you first enter the home,
and it is the last thing you see as you leave it to go out into the
world. This creates a powerful template for experience. The subconscious
mind is programmed continually in this way to recreate the imagery of
the altar throughout the day.
In
the dark months, we begin to give birth to ourselves once again. So that
when the world is reborn in the fresh green fullness of Springtime, we
too can reemerge renewed and full of radiant new possibilities for
living.
Denise Linn
is an international lecturer, healer, practitioner of Interior
Realignment and author. Her many book titles include "Sacred Space,
Clearing and Enhancing the Energy of Your Home," "Altars Bringing Sacred
Shrines into Your Everyday Life," and "The Secret Language of Signs."
Visit Denise Linn at her Website.
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Root of the Problem
by Rubel Shelly
Have you heard that there are economic problems afoot in the United
States? Have you heard about people buying big, expensive houses with
almost no money down and going into foreclosure? Have you heard about
the subprime mortgage industry meltdown and its repercussions on Wall
Street?
Oh, of course you've
heard all those things. You probably understand them far better than I
do, for I have no formal training in economics. I just know about the
gyrations in the stock market, the plunging value of houses in the part
of the country where I live, and the number of people losing their jobs.
There is no way I
can explain the complex economics of it. But we all understand the
ethical implications of what has happened. There is an evil impulse that
has percolated through human hearts from the beginning of time. The
Bible says: "[T]he love of money is a root of all kinds of evil"
(1
Timothy 6:10 NIV).
Our culture has
addicted itself to leveraged debt. Big corporations, small businesses,
churches, homeowners, individuals -- all have been guilty.
We are enticed by
the sort of radio commercial I heard day before yesterday. "Come to our
big home furnishings sale this weekend. Fill your house with beautiful
new furniture. No down payment. No payments for two full years. And we
even pay the sales tax for you!" So we have had people borrow 110% of
the value of a new house, fill it with furniture from stores like that
one, and abandon both to foreclosure and repossession. What's wrong with
this picture?
Americans spent some
10.8 percent of our after-tax money on servicing debt back in 1982.
Today the average consumer must spend more than 14 percent of after-tax
income just to stay current on household debt.
Long ago and far
away, thrift was a virtue. On what must have been another planet, saving
was encouraged. And I've even heard of people who actually refused to
buy houses, luxury cars, and jewelry they couldn't afford!
Stinginess is not
virtuous. Tightfistedness is not a good thing. Parsimony is not to be
envied. But thrift, financial prudence, and thinking about long-term
consequences over short-term gratification will have predictable
outcomes: You are more likely to have money for your own needs and with
which to serve God by helping others.
The single driving
force that will prohibit these good effects is the same one that has put
us in the mess we face: greed.
Posted: 04/03/2008
URL: http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200804/20080403_rootgreed.html
(c) 2008 Used by
permission. From Rubel Shelly's "FAX of Life" printed each Tuesday. See
Faith Matters for previous issues of the "FAX of Life."
(c) 1996-2006,
Heartlight, Inc.
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