Posted on Friday, January 8, 2016

How to Face the Future without Fear

God gives only one way to make it happen.

My favorite New Years Eve happened before the infamous Y2K. I pulled a practical joke that made the people in my grandmother’s house believe their fears about the future were true.

(Picture: By Flickr user: 29cm CC-BY-SA-2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

My relatives had gathered to watch the televised countdown at New York City’s Times Square. Midnight hit America first on the east coast, so all eyes waited to see what would happen at midnight.

Would all power go dark in America?
Would computers suddenly stop working?
Should we stockpile more food?

While no one was looking, I snuck outside and found the breaker box to my grandmother’s house.

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Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself rather than talking to yourself?

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Its Cure (Eerdmans Publishing Co, 1965), 12

Posted on Monday, January 4, 2016

Redeeming the Time this Year

Why you must buy out each moment for all it's worth.

Some years ago I surprised my family by taking them to “Disney on Ice.” When I pre-purchased the tickets for $67.90, the salesperson told me to pick them up at the Will Call window. No problem, I thought.

(Photo courtesy of Unsplash.com)

She then warned me that they offered no refunds or transfers. “Fine,” I said—and scribbled the date and time on my calendar.

As the date approached, I watched my daughters’ excitement reach a fever pitch. Not even my wife knew what the surprise was.

As it turned out, neither did I.

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This is what the past is for! Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives, is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see.

Corrie Ten Boom
The Hiding Place (Bantam Books, 1974), viii