Mind the checks

‘…after the fire came a gentle whisper.’ 1 Kings 19:12

A respected author writes: ‘I was driving a safe distance behind the car in front when the driver slammed on his brakes. I stopped short, but the car behind was too close and rammed into my Jeep. There was no real damage, but as I drove off something about the incident nagged at me. Weeks later I was on a fast-moving highway. Behind me was a huge truck loaded with cars…in front were several cars…and up ahead, a school bus. Suddenly I noticed the brake lights from the cars ahead. The bus had stopped to let a child off. I pulled to a stop behind the car in front; then I remembered the lesson from the accident earlier. Sometimes I can stop safely, but the driver behind me can’t. When I looked in my rear view mirror the truck loaded with cars was frantically trying to stop. I pulled over, giving him an extra car length, and he screeched to a stop, right behind the car ahead of me. If I hadn’t listened we’d all have piled up.’ A new Christian was asked the secret to her spiritual growth. Her response was, ‘Mind the checks.’ One reason we don’t understand God better is because we don’t heed His gentle ‘checks.’ The Bible says: ‘…after the fire came a gentle whisper.’ Learn to listen for it. When you’re about to speak and you feel a gentle restraint, say nothing. When you’re about to go down a certain path and you sense a red light, or a different path opening up, pay attention, even when God asks you to move in the dark. Wherever His finger points, His hand will clear the way.
http://www.ucb.co.uk/word_for_today

Is this speaking to anyone? It is…to me
till next time,
easy does it

Are you approachable? (2)

29 Jan 2009

‘When the Holy Spirit controls our lives he will produce… kindness, goodness…gentleness…’ Galatians 5:22-23

Approachable people exhibit the following characteristics: 1) Personal warmth; they truly like people. In an old Peanuts cartoon Charlie Brown says, ‘I love mankind, it’s just people I can’t stand.’ Hello! It’s not enough to love people in theory; you have to generate personal warmth toward those you meet each day. 2) Their moods are consistent. Have you ever worked with someone whose moods are constantly up and down? You never know how they’ll be. In contrast, approachable people are even-keeled and predictable. They’re basically the same way every time you see them. 3) Sensitivity toward people’s feelings. Although approachable people are emotionally steady, that doesn’t mean they expect others to be that way. They recognise that good people have bad days; consequently they tune their moods to the feelings of others and quickly adjust how they relate to them.   4) Understanding of human weakness, and exposure of their own. Novelist Ed Howes said, ‘Express a mean opinion of yourself occasionally, it will show your friends that you know how to tell the truth.’ Approachable people are honest about their abilities; and their shortcomings. They embrace the old proverb which says: ‘Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused.’ And because they can admit their own faults, they don’t have a problem allowing other people to have faults as well.   5) The ability to forgive, and ask for forgiveness. Author David Augsburger wrote, ‘Since nothing we attempt is ever without error, and nothing we achieve, without some measure of the finitude and fallibility we call humanness, we are saved by forgiveness.’

http://www.ucb.co.uk/index.cfm?itemid=88&testdate=29%20Jan%202009

till next time,
easy does it