神是我的希望

愿与大家分享这有意思的文章：

神是我的希望這信念表達了兩個意思，一是我的生命裡有希望，另一是我的希望就是神。

很多人的生命裡沒有希望，雖然每日都在生活、工作，但卻沒有明天，只是默默地接受一種莫名的無奈。人類的罪性透過社會各方面的進步，不斷顯露出來，以致世界的道德日見腐敗，教育也無法提昇生命。人沒有了基督，生命就沒有希望。有些人有希望，但卻是假希望，他們一切希望寄托於短暫的、易失去的事物上，例如金錢、學位、情慾……等，因而使生命充滿失望。
基督徒有希望的信念，而且不是虛假的，因為我們都有了基督的生命，而這生命是永恆的。基督應許過有一日要再來，所以基督徒是以現在於基督裡的信心，來投射到那不可知的將來去。我們對將來的希望和確信是基於神的啟示，並現在深入經歷到的基督，因而在困苦、絕望，甚至好像沒有拯救的日子，我們也可以深信神必以祂的愛和全備的智慧，叫我們暫受苦難，使生命能有更大的提升。

今天，在這無望的世界中，我們需要充滿希望的新精神，去消除灰心失意的情緒，要用小孩子一般純全的信心來處理在神面前的期待，期待祂的再來並祂永遠的拯救，進而向這世界展示希望的力量，鼓勵無望的人群邁向希望的明天，因我們相信，神就是我們的希望。

What is the purpose of life?

I found the following rather inspiring. In an interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren said:

People ask me, what is the purpose of life? And I respond, In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven. One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body - but not the end of me. I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillion of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act, the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.

Life is a series of problems: you are in one now, you're just coming out of one or you're getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy. We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life: The goal is to grow in character, In Christ-likeness.

This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you got to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore. Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life. No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.

And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for. You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, "which is my problem, my issues, my pain."

But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.

We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her. It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people...You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.

Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before.

I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for you to own ego or for you to live a life of ease. So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.

First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases. Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church. Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan - to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation. Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.

We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity? Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?

When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better...God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do. That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.

才德的婦人

我感謝神賜給我一個才德的婦人為妻，每日出外打拼從來不必顧慮家裏，因爲知道有她在打理一切，晚上回家時有熱騰騰的晚餐等著我。

謝謝你，老婆。

心情

從上個星期開始日子就變得好忙好沉重。好多的會議，好多的決定，好多的變動。。。。。。。。 

每天回到家都好晚了，身體疲累，肩頭沉重，腦子遲鈍。。。。。。。

真的有力不從心，好無助的感覺，感覺好孤獨。。。。。。。

只有在心裏向上帝大聲求助，除祂以外我還能求誰呢？

今天祂對我說：你比天上的飛鳥珍貴，你頭上的頭髮我數過。孩子，在我裏面有平安，將一切交給我吧！

我要學習交托，我要懂得感恩，我要珍惜身邊的人，我要活得有喜樂。

笑一笑吧，你是幸福的！

Tell Me Why

A very touching song sings by a young boy from Britain, Declan Galbraith.

Can any one answer his question?

感激月亮，卻否定太陽

在新年裏與你分享以下的故事，希望我們能做個懂得感恩的人：

有一則猶太故事說，有一天，有人問一位老先生，太陽和月亮哪個比較重要。
那位老先生想了半天，回答道：「是月亮，月亮比較重要。」

為什麼？

「因為月亮是在夜晚發光，那是我們最需要光亮的時候，而白天已經夠亮了，太陽卻在那時候照耀。」

你或許會笑這位老先生糊塗，但你不覺得很多人也是這樣嗎？每天照顧你的人，你從不覺得有什麼，若是陌生人這樣對你，你就認為他人真好；你的父母、妻子或先生一直付出，你總覺得理所當然，甚至還有得嫌；一旦外人為你做出類似行為，你就受寵若驚，你就會很感激。這不是跟「感激月亮，否定太陽」一樣糊塗嗎？

有個女孩跟媽媽大吵了一架，氣得奪門而出，決定再也不要回到這個討厭的家了！一整天，她都在外面閒逛，肚子餓得咕嚕咕嚕叫，但偏偏又沒帶零用錢出來，可又拉不下臉回家吃飯。一直到了晚上，她來到一家麵攤旁，聞到了陣陣的香味，真是好想吃一碗，但身上又沒帶錢只能不住的吞口水。

忽然，老闆親切的問：「小姐，妳要不要吃麵啊？」她不好意思的回答：「嗯！可是……我沒有帶錢……」老闆聽了大笑：「哈哈，沒關係，今天就算老闆請客吧！」女孩簡直不敢相信自己的耳朵，她坐下來。不一會兒，麵來了，她吃得津津有味，並說：「老闆，你人真好！」

老闆說：「哦？怎麼說？」女孩接著回答：「對啊！我們素不相識，你卻對我那麼好，不像我媽，根本不了解我的需要和想法，真氣人！」老闆又笑了：「哈，小姐，我才不過給妳一碗麵而已，妳就這麼感激我，那麼妳媽媽幫妳煮了二十幾年的飯，妳不是更應該感激她嗎？」

被老闆這麼一講，女孩頓時有如大夢初醒，眼淚瞬間奪眶而出！顧不得還剩下的半碗麵，立刻飛奔回家。

才到家門前的巷口，就遠遠的看到媽媽，焦急的在門口四處張望，她的心立刻揪在一起！有一千句、一萬句的對不起想對媽媽說。還沒來得及開口，只見媽媽已迎了上前：「唉呦！妳一整天跑去那裡了啊？嚇死我了！來，進來把手洗一洗，吃晚飯了。」

這天晚上，這個女孩才深刻體會到媽媽對她的愛。

太陽一直都在，人就忘了它給的光亮，當親人一直都在，人就會卻忘了他們給的溫暖；一個被照顧到無微不至的人反而不會去感恩，是因為白天已經夠亮了，太陽是多餘的嗎？

圣诞节的主角

圣诞节给人的印象是礼物，圣诞老人，漂亮灯饰，派对，圣诞树，还有白雪。
到底谁还会记得圣诞节的真正主角呢？