ACCESS MINISTRY

ပလႅင္ေတာ္ရင္းသုိ ့ (ေဟျဗဲ၊ ၄း၁၆)

2011-11-22T06:48:00.000-08:00

စိတ္ဓါတ္က်ျခင္းကုိေျခမွဳန္းျခင္း၊

2011-08-17T22:07:00.001-07:00

ပ်ံ၀ဲေနေသာစာေစာင္

2011-08-12T14:06:00.000-07:00

ပန္းခ်ီကားခ်ပ္ထဲသုိ ့ခရီးသြားျခင္း

2011-02-08T22:38:00.000-08:00

ပန္းခ်ီကားခ်ပ္ထဲတြင္းသို႔ ေမာင္းႏွင္ဝင္ေရာက္ေနဘိအလား ခံစားမိသည္။ ညီညာ ေျဖာင့္ျဖဴး လွသည္႔ ေပတရာ လမ္းမႀကီးေပၚ၌ တဝီဝီေမာင္းႏွင္ေနေသာ ေနာက္ဆံုးေပၚ ကားမ်ားသည္ သူ႔ထက္ငါအၿပိဳင္ေျပးလႊား ေနၾကသည္။ ေဝသီျမင့္မားလွေသာၿမိဳ့အလွဂုဏ္ေဆာင္သည့္အေဆာက္အဦးမ်ားကိုအေဝးမွေရးေရးစျမင္ေနရ ၿပီ။ ရင္ထဲ၌ အမည္ ေဖာ္ျပ၍ မရႏိုင္ေသာ ၾကည္ႏူးမွဳ႕မ်ား ေလေျပေလညွင္းႏွင့္အတူ ဝင္ေရာက္လာသည္။

ဆန္ဖရန္စစၥကိုၿမိဳ့၏ အလွက်က္သေရေဆာင္ျဖစ္ေသာ ကမာၻေက်ာ္ ေရႊတံခါးတံတားႀကီး (Golden Gate Bridge)သည္ ေဖြးႏုလွပၿပီး ဂြမ္းဆိုင္ခဲႏွင့္တူလွသည့္ ႏွင္းမူန္မ်ားအၾကား ႂကြားႂကြားဝင့္ဝင့္ထင္ေပၚ လွပလွ်က္ ရွိေနသည္ကို ျမင္ရျပန္ေသာအခါ ဘုရားရွင္၏ေက်းဇူးေတာ္ကို ထပ္မံ ခ်ီးမြမ္း မိသည္။ ငယ္စဥ္ခ်ိန္ခါတုန္းက ရုပ္ရွင္ထဲမွာ၊ စာအုပ္ထဲမွာ၊ သီခ်င္းထဲမွာသာ ျမင္ဘူးၾကားဘူးတဲ့ဆန္ဖရန္စစၥကိုၿမိဳ့ေတာ္ ကိုေရာက္လာသည္မွာ ဘာလိုလိုႏွင့္တစ္ဆယ့္ငါးႏွစ္ပင္ ျပည့္ခဲ့ၿပီ။ အရွည္ဆံုးတံတားျဖစ္တဲ့ Bay Bridge ေပၚကိုေရာက္တယ္ ဆိုရင္ ဘဲ က်ယ္ေျပာလွတဲ့ပစိၥဖိတ္သမုဒၵရာျပင္က်ယ္ႀကီးကိုျမင္ေနရၿပီျဖစ္သည္။ကၽြမ္းက်င္လြန္းလွသည့္ပန္းခ်ီဆရာ ခ်ယ္မူန္းထားေသာဆန္ဖရန္စစၥကိုၿမိဳ့ေတာ္ပန္းခ်ီကားခ်ပ္ထဲသို႔ေမာင္းႏွင္ဝင္ေရာက္ေနဘိအလားခံစားမိျပန္ သည္။ ဪ တင့္တယ္လွပ ေပသကိုး။

“ဆရာတို႔ ဘုရားေက်ာင္းကို ေရာက္ေတာ့မလား” ေမးသံၾကားလိုက္ေတာ့မွ ေခၚလာ ခဲ့ေသာ ဧည့္သည္ ဆရာကို သတိရမိေတာ့သည္။ ပန္းခ်ီကားတစ္ခ်ပ္လို ဆြဲေဆာင္ႏိုင္စြမ္း တဲ့ ဆန္ဖရန္စစၥကိုရဲ႕ အလွကို ႏွစ္ႏွစ္ၿခိဳက္ၿခိဳက္ ခံစားေနမိတာလဲ ဒီတစ္ႀကိမ္ထဲ မဟုတ္ပါ။ ဒီကို ေရာက္ကထဲကပင္ ျဖစ္သည္။ အႀကိမ္ႀကိမ္ ျမင္တိုင္း အႀကိမ္ႀကိမ္ ၾကည္ႏူးမႈ႕ ေပးစြမ္း ႏုိင္ေအာင္တင့္တယ္လွပသည္မွာအမွန္ပင္ျဖစ္သည္။ခင္မင္ရေသာ မိတ္ေဆြမ်ား၊ မိသားစုမ်ား မေရာက္ဘူးၾကေသးသူမ်ား၊ ျမင္ရမွယံုၾကသူမ်ားအတြက္တစ္ခါတစ္ေခါက္ဘဲဲျဖစ္ျဖစ္ လာေရာက္ေစခ်င္မိသည္။ ခုဘဲၾကည့္ေတာ့၊ အလွပန္းခ်ီကားထဲ နစ္ေျမာမိလို႔ တကူးတက ေခၚလာတဲ့ဧည့္ သည္ ကိုေတာင္ ေမ့ေနခဲ့သည္၊

“ဪ ဟုတ္ကဲ့၊ တံတားႀကီးေက်ာ္ၿပီး ဆယ့္ငါးမိနစ္ေလာက္ဆိုရင္ ေရာက္ပါၿပီ။” “ဆရာတို႔ အသင္းေတာ္က ဆန္ဖရန္စစၥကိုျမန္မာ ႏွစ္ျခင္းအသင္းေတာ္ ဟုတ္တယ္ ေနာ္” ၾကားလိုက္ရသည္မွာ သာမန္ေမးခြန္း ေလးျဖစ္ေပေသာ္လည္း၊ နားထဲကိုခ်ဳိျမသည့္ပ်ားရည္ ေလာင္းထည့္လိုက္သလို “နင့္”ကနဲ ခံစားလိုက္ရျပန္သည္။ အခုဘဲ လွပခမ္းနား တဲ့ ဆန္ဖရန္စစၥကို အလွကို ခံစားေနခဲ့တယ္ မဟုတ္ပါလား။ ကမာၻေပၚမွာအလွဆံုးစာရင္းဝင္ၿမိဳ့တစ္ၿမိဳ့ျဖစ္တဲ့ဆန္ဖရန္စစၥကိုၿမိဳ့ထဲမွာျမန္မာလိုစကားေျပာတဲ့ အသင္းေတာ္ ေလးတစ္ပါးကို ဖန္တည္းေပးခဲ့သည္မွာ သုံးဆယ့္ငါးႏွစ္ေက်ာ္ ရွိခဲ့ၿပီ။ လွပတဲ့အသင္းေတာ္ေလး တစ္ပါးကို လွပတဲ့ ၿမိဳ႕ေလးထဲမွာ ထားရွိၿပီး၊ အဲဒီ အသင္းေတာ္ေလးထဲမွာပါဝင္ခြင့္ရတာ၊အမႈ႔ေတာ္မွာပါဝင္ခြင့္ ရတာ ဘုရားရွင္ရဲ႕ ေက်းဇူးေတာ္ပင္ ျဖစ္သည္။ ဒါဝိဒ္မင္းႀကီး ေရးစပ္သလိုလဲ ခံစားမိသည္။ “ဆီဥကို၎၊ ဆူေသာအသားကို၎ စား၍ ဝသကဲ့သို႔၊ အကၽြႏု္ပ္၏ ဝိညာဥ္သည္ ရႊင္လန္းေသာ ႏူတ္ခမ္းႏွင့္၊ အကၽြႏု္ပ္၏ ႏူတ္သည္ ကိုယ္ေတာ္ကို ခ်ီးမြမ္းပါမည္။” (ဆာလံက်မ္း၊ ၆၃း၅)။ “ဆရာ” “ေဟ” “ဆရာ့ကို ၾကည့္ရတာ ေတာ္ေတာ္ပီတိျဖစ္ေနသလိုဘဲ၊ ဆရာတို႔ ဆန္ဖရန္စစၥကိုက အရမ္းလွတာဘဲေနာ္” “မွန္လိုက္ေလ ဆရာေရ၊ ေနာက္မွ ဒီထက္လွပတဲ့ ေနရာေတြ လိုက္ျပမယ္ေလ။ ဘုရား ေက်ာင္း ေရာက္ရင္ ဒီထက္ပိုၿပီး ပီတိျဖစ္စရာေကာင္းတဲ့ အလွအပေလးေတြလဲ ဆရာ ျမင္ရအံုးမယ္။” “တယ္ဆိုတဲ့ စာပါလား ဆရာလတ္”

“တယ္ဆိုဆို၊ တစ္ကယ့္ကို မွန္လို႔ေပါ့ဗ်ာ၊ ဟိုေရာက္ရင္ တေက်ာ္ေက်ာ္ သီခ်င္းဆို၊ ကခုန္ျမဴးတူးေနၾကမဲ့ ခ်စ္စဖြယ္ရင္ေသြးငယ္ေလးေတြ၊အနာဂါတ္ေခါင္းေဆာင္ေကာင္းေတြျဖစ္မယ့္လူငယ္ေမာင္မယ္လွပ်ဳိျဖဴေလး ေတြ၊ တိုင္းတပါး ေရာက္ေနေပမယ့္ ျမန္မာရိုးရာ ယဥ္ေက်းမူ႔ အစဥ္အလာကို ထိမ္းသိမ္းေနၾကၿပီး ျပဴငွါ ေဖာ္ေရြတဲ့ အသင္းသား အသင္းသူ ေတြ အျပင္၊ ျမန္မာျပည္ အလြမ္းေျပေစမယ့္ ရိုးရာအစားအေသာက္ေတြ ဖြယ္ဖြယ္ရာရာ စားေသာက္ ရအံုးမယ္ေလ။ ကၽြန္ေတာ္ေျပာရင္ ပိုတယ္ထင္မွာစိုးလို႔ ဆက္မေျပာေတာ့ ပါဘူး၊ ဟိုေရာက္ရင္ ဆရာကိုယ္တိုင္ ခံစားရပါလိမ့္မယ္။”

"Daddy! There's a parking spot!" ၾကည့္- သမီးေလးရဲ့ အသံၾကားလိုက္မွဘဲ မိုင္ေလးဆယ္ေလာက္ ဆန္ဖရန္စစၥကို ပန္းခ်ီကားခ်ပ္ထဲ ေမာင္းႏွင္ရင္း ဘုရားဖန္ဆင္းျခင္း အလွတရားကို ခံစားလာလိုက္တာ၊ ကားေနာက္ခံုမွာ ခ်စ္ဇနီးနဲ႔ သားသမီး ေလးဦး ပါလာတာကို ဘုရားေက်ာင္းေရာက္မွဘဲ သတိရမိေတာ့သည္။ ဘယ္ေလာက္ ပီတိျဖစ္စရာ ေကာင္း တဲ့ အသင္းေတာ္လဲဆိုတာ၊ ဒါကိုဘဲ ၾကည့္ေတာ့။ "Thanks, honey!" သမီးေလးညႊန္ျပတဲ့ ေနရာမွာ ကားရပ္ခဲ့ၿပီး ဧည့္သည္ဆရာကို ေခၚကာ ေက်းဇူး ေတာ္ ခ်ီးမြမ္းျခင္း အႏွစ္သာရ အသစ္နဲ႔ ဘုရားေက်ာင္းထဲ ဝင္ေရာက္ခဲ့ပါေတာ့သည္။ ဪ ပန္းခ်ီကားခ်ပ္ထဲသို႔ ခရီးႏွင္ရတဲ့ ပီတိဟာ ဘာနဲ႔မွ ႏႈိင္းလို႔မရႏိုင္တဲ့ အဓိပၸါယ္ရွိလွတဲ့ ခရီးသစ္ ပါတကား။

လူ႔ဘဝသည္ ေလာကခရီးကို သြားေနျခင္း ျဖစ္သည္။ ကၽြႏု္ပ္တို႔ မွီတင္းေနထိုင္ရာ ကမာၻေျမႀကီးသည္ မလႈပ္မ႐ွား ရပ္တည္ေနဘိအလား တည္ၿငိမ္ေနေသာ္လည္း၊ တစ္နာရီ လွ်င္ မိုင္ေျခာက္သိန္းႏႈန္းႏွင့္ ေ႐ြ႕လ်ား ေျပးလႊားသြားေနသည္ဟု ပညာ႐ွင္မ်ားက ေလ့လာ ေတြ႔႐ွိထားသည္။ အသင္းေတာ္မ်ားသည္ ခရစ္ေတာ္ ၏ သတင္းေတာ္ျမတ္ကို သယ္ေဆာင္ ကာ သာသနာ့ခရီးကို ခ်ီတက္ေနၾကသည္။ ကၽြန္ေတာ္တို႔ ဘယ္လိုခရီးကို သြားေနၾက ပါသလဲ။ ေပ်ာ္႐ႊင္ခ်မ္းေျမ႕ၿပီး စိတ္ခ်မ္းသာ ကိုယ္ခ်မ္းသာနဲ႔ ေက်းဇူးေတာ္ ေရတြက္ခ်ီးမြမ္း တဲ့ခရီး စဥ္ လား၊ သို႔တည္းမဟုတ္ ပ်င္းရိၿငီးေငြ႕စရာေကာင္းၿပီး၊ ပင္ပန္းဆင္းရဲလွတဲ့ ေသာက ပင္လယ္၊ ပူေလာင္ ျပင္းျပလွတဲ့ ေႏြကႏာၱရထဲ၊ ၿငီးတြား လူးလိမ့္ေနရတဲ့ ခရီးစဥ္လား။ ခရီးရဲ႕ အေကာင္းအဆိုးဟာ လမ္းခရီး ရဲ႕ ၾကမ္းတမ္းမႈ႕၊ ေခ်ာေမာမႈ႔ထက္ ခရီးသြားသူရဲ႕ခံယူခ်က္၊ ယံုၾကည္ခ်က္၊ ဝိညာဥ္ေရးရာ ရင့္က်က္မႈ႕အေပၚမွာ အမ်ားႀကီး မူတည္ေနပါတယ္။ အရာရာ ဟာ ကမာၻေလာကရဲ့ ဖန္ဆင္း႐ွင္၊ ေလာကရဲ့ပန္းခ်ီဆရာဘုရားသခင္ က အလွပဆံုး ဖန္ဆင္း ေရးဆြဲထားတဲ့ ခရီးစဥ္ ျဖစ္တယ္လို႔ ယံုၾကည္လက္ခံထားရင္၊ လွပတဲ့ ဘဝပန္းခ်ီကား ထဲပီတိအဟုန္နဲ႔ေက်းဇူးေတာ ္ခ်ီးမြမ္းတဲ့ခရီးကို သြားေနရသလိုခံစားရမဲ့အျပင္၊စိတ္နွလံုးၿငိမ္သက္ေအးခ်မ္းျခင္း၊ ၾကည္လင္ၿပီျပင္တဲ့ အနာဂါတ္ကို ပိုင္ဆိုင္ရျခင္း၊ ဘဝ ခရီးအတြက္ ေန႔စဥ္ ခြန္အားသစ္မ်ားရ႐ွိျခင္းနဲ႔ အသက္ ရွင္တဲ့ ဘုရား႐ွင္နဲ႔အတူ ဘဝခရီး သြားေနရျခင္း ဆိုတဲ့ အႏွစ္သာရေတြ ျပည့္ဝ စံုလင္မွာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။

“သြားေလရာရာ၌ ထာဝရဘုရားကို မ်က္ေမွာက္ျပဳေလာ့။ သို႔ျပဳလွ်င္ သင္၏လမ္းခရီးတို႔ကို ပဲ့ျပင္ေတာ္မူမည္။” (သုတၱံက်မ္း၊၃း၆)။ ဘုရားသခင္ ပဲ့ျပင္ေတာ္မူတဲ့ ခရီးစဥ္ မွန္ရင္ လွပတဲ့ ေလာက ပန္းခ်ီ ကားခ်ပ္ထဲ ခရီးႏွင္ရသလို ၾကည္ႏူးခ်မ္းေျမ႕ ဘြယ္ရာမ်ားႏွင့္ ျပည့္ဝမည္မွာ အမွန္ဧကန္ ျဖစ္သည္။ “ဆရာ” “ေဟ”

“ဆရာ တရားေရေအး တိုက္ေကၽြးဖို႔ အစီအစဥ္ ေရာက္ေနၿပီေလ”

ေက်းဇူးေတာ္ ခ်ီးမြမ္း၍ မကုန္ႏိုင္တဲ့ ပန္းခ်ီကားခ်ပ္ ခရီးစဥ္ ပန္းတိုင္ အထြဋ္အျမတ္ အၾကာင္းကို ပလႅင္ ေ႐ွ႕မွာ ရပ္ရင္း အားပါးတရ ေဟာေျပာေဝငွ လိုက္သည္။ ဒီတစ္ခါ တရားေဟာရတာေလာက္ အားရတာ မ႐ွိ ေတာ့ပါ။ “ခရစ္ေတာ္ကို အ႐ွင္သခင္လို႔ ယံုၾကည္ လက္ခံသူမ်ား၊ ေနာက္ဆံုး ေလွ်ာက္ၾကရမဲ့ ခရီးစဥ္ဟာ အလွပဆံုး ပန္းခ်ီကားခ်ပ္ထဲကို ေအာင္ျမင္ျခင္း၊ ဘုန္းေတာ္ ထင္႐ွားျခင္း၊ ေအာင္ျမင္ေသာေၾကြးေၾကာ္သံမ်ားနဲ႔ ခရီးဆံုးကို ေလွ်ာက္ၾကရမွာ ျဖစ္တယ္။ (ဗ်ာဒိတ္က်မ္း၂၁)မွာ-“ေကာင္းကင္ သစ္ႏွင့္ ေျမၾကီးသစ္ ကိုလည္း ငါျမင္၏။ သန္႔႐ွင္းေသာ ၿမိဳ့တည္းဟူေသာ ေယ႐ူ႐ွလင္ၿမိဳ့သစ္သည္ တန္ဆာ ဆင္ေသာ မဂၤလာေဆာင္ သတို႔ သမီးလို ျဖစ္၏။ခပ္သိမ္းေသာအရာတို႔သည္အသစ္ေသာဖန္ဆင္းျခင္းမ်ားျဖစ္ၾက၏။ထိုၿမိဳ့၏အေရာင္အဝါသည္ ေက်ာက္သလင္း နဂါးသြဲ႔ကဲ့သို႔ အျမတ္ဆံုးေသာ ေက်ာက္မ်က္မြန္ႏွင့္ တူ၏။ ၿမိဳ့သည္လည္း ၾကည္လင္ေသာ ဖန္ႏွင့္ တူေသာ ေ႐ႊစင္ျဖစ္၏။ တံခါးတို႔သည္ ပုလဲမ်ားျဖင့္ စီခ်ယ္ထား၏။ ၿမိဳ့လမ္းမတို႔သည္ ၾကည္လင္ေသာ ဖန္ကဲ့သို႔ေသာ ေ႐ႊစင္ျဖစ္၏၊ ထိုၿမိဳ့၌ ဗိမာန္ေတာ္မ႐ွိ၊ အနႏၱတန္ခိုးႏွင့္ ျပည့္စံုေတာ္မူေသာ ထာဝရအ႐ွင္ ဘုရားသခင္ႏွင့္သိုးသူငယ္သည္ထိုၿမိဳ့၏ဗိမာန္ေတာ္ျဖစ္ေတာ္မူ၏။ ညစ္ညူးေသာအရာ ၊စက္ဆုတ္ ဘြယ္ေသာအရာ၊ သစၥာပ်က္ေသာအရာ တစံုတခုမွ် မဝင္ရဘဲ သိုးသူငယ္၏ အသက္စာေစာင္၌ စာရင္းဝင္ေသာ သူတို႔သာ လွ်င္ ဝင္ရ၏။ ”

ဤမွ် ၾကည္ႏူးခ်မ္းေျမ့ဘြယ္ေကာင္းေသာ ေကာင္းကင္ ေ႐ႊျပည္ေတာ္ ပန္းခ်ီ ကားခ်ပ္သည္ စိတ္ကူး ယဥ္ ပန္းခ်ီကားခ်ပ္ မဟုတ္ပါ။ ကၽြႏု္ပ္တို႔ အမွန္ ဝင္စား ရမည့္ ေကာင္းကင္ ေ႐ႊျပည္ေတာ္ ျဖစ္သည္။ ဤ့ျမတ္ လွေသာ ေမွ်ာ္လင့္ခ်က္ ပန္းတိုင္သည္ ေလာကခရီး ေလွ်ာက္လွမ္းရာမွာအသစ္ေသာခြန္အား၊အသင္းေတာ္၏ သာသနာ့ ခရီး အတြက္ အေသာမသတ္ႏိုင္ေအာင္ ျဖည့္စြမ္း ေပးေနေသာ တန္ခိုးအာနိသင္ပင္ ျဖစ္ပါသည္။ အနာဂါတ္ ခရီးကို ေက်းဇူးေတာ္ ခ်ီးမြမ္းျခင္းႏွင့္ ေလွ်ာက္လွမ္း ႏိုင္ၾကပါေစေသာ္။

ေမတၱာမ်ားစြာျဖင့္၊

ဆရာဦးလတ္ေယ႐ွဲ

အထက္အရပ္မွရွဳျမင္ျခင္း

2011-01-18T14:24:00.000-08:00

စိတ္ႏွလံုးကို လံုးဝဥႆံု ဆံုးျဖတ္ခ်က္ခ်လ်က္ မ်က္လံုးကိုစံုမွိတ္ကာ အသူရာ ေခ်ာက္ကမ္းပါးထဲသို႔ ေျခစံုပစ္၍ ခုန္ခ်ပစ္လိုက္သည္။ အား------ေနရာကား ဆန္ဖရန္စစၥကိုၿမိဳ႕၊ ပစၥိဖိတ္ကမ္းေျခတေနရာ သာယာလွသည့္ ေက်ာက္ေဆာင္ ေက်ာက္ခက္မ်ားႏွင့္ ပင္လယ္ျပင္ေပၚမွ ေက်ာ္ျဖတ္လာေသာ ေလေျပေလညွင္း တျဖဴးျဖဴးတို႔ ျမဴးရာ ေခ်ာက္ကမ္းပါး ထိပ္ေပၚမွာ ျဖစ္သည္။ ကၽြန္ေတာ္ ခုန္ခ်ၿပီးသည့္ေနာက္ ဆက္၍ တစ္ေယာက္ၿပီး တစ္ေယာက္ ခုန္ခ်ၾကရန္ တန္းစီ၍ ေစာင့္ဆိုင္းေနၾကသူမ်ားလည္း မနည္းပါ။ သို႔ပါေသာ္လည္း ကၽြႏု္ပ္၏ ခႏၶာကိုယ္သည္ ေခ်ာက္ကမ္းပါးထဲသို႔ တရွိန္တိုး ထိုးက်ေနၿပီျဖစ္၍ သူတို႔ကို ဂရုမစိုက္ႏိုင္ေတာ့ပါ။

ကၽြန္ေတာ္ ခုလို စြန္႔စားမိတာ မွားေလၿပီလားဟူ၍ ေတြးမိလိုက္သည္။ လက္ကို က်စ္က်စ္ဆုပ္၍ စိတ္ဓါတ္မက်ဖို႔ ကိုယ့္ကိုကိုယ္ အားတင္းထားလိုက္သည္။ ေလအဟုန္မွာ အရွိန္ႏွင့္ ထိုးက်ေနေသာ ေၾကာင့္လည္း ေၾကာက္စိတ္ႏွင့္ စိုးထိတ္မႈ႕တို႔ ေရာယွက္ကာ တကိုယ္လံုး ၾကက္သီးေမြးညုင္းမ်ား ျဖန္းျဖန္း ထေလသလား။ ေဇာေခၽြးစီးမ်ားေလလား မသိေတာ့၊ တကိုယ္လံုး ပူထူေနၿပီ ျဖစ္သည္။ မ်က္စိကိုလည္း တင္းတင္းမွိတ္ထားလိုက္သည္။ မဆီေလးရယ္တဲ့မဆိုင္ အံကိုလည္း ႀကိတ္ထား လိုက္သည္။ ဒီအခ်ိန္မွ ဘုရားရွင္ကို တမ္းတမိသည္။ ဒုကၡ လွလွေတြ႕မွ ဘုရားရွင္ကို သတိရသည္ ဆိုေသာ စကားမွာ အလြန္ မွန္ကန္ေၾကာင္း ယခုမွ သိလာသည္။ အျမင့္ကို တက္ခ်င္ရင္၊ ျမင့္ျမင့္ေမွ်ာ္မွန္းၿပီး ဦးတည္ရမယ္။

ဘုရား တလိုက္တယ္ ဆိုရင္ဘဲ နည္းျပဆရာေျပာဘူးတဲ့ စကားေလး ေခါင္းထဲ ခ်က္ခ်င္း ေျပး သတိရ မိလိုက္တယ္။ တထိတ္ထိတ္ ခုန္ေနတဲ့ ႏွလံုးခုန္သံၾကားက အရဲစြန္႔ၿပီး မ်က္စိကို ဖြင့္ၾကည့္ လိုက္ရင္ဘဲ ကၽြႏု္ပ္၏ ခႏၶာကိုယ္သည္ က်ယ္ေျပာလွၿပီး လိႈင္းလံုးႀကီးမ်ား တဟုန္းဟုန္း ႂကြထေနသည့္ ပစၥိဖိတ္ သမုဒၵရာ ျပင္ႀကီးထဲသို႔ ဦးတည္ ထိုးက်လ်က္ ရွိေနသည္။ ရင္ခုန္သံသည္ ယခင္ကထက္ ပို၍ျမန္လာ သည္။ အသိတရား ဝင္လာတာနဲ႔ တၿပိဳင္ထဲ လက္ေတြ႕ တုန္႔ျပန္မႈ႕တခုကို ျပဳလိုက္သည္။ အားယူ၍ ဦးေခါင္းကို ေကာင္းကင္ယံသို႔ ေမာ့ကာ က်စ္က်စ္ပါေအာင္ ဆုပ္ထားေသာ လက္မ်ားကို အထက္အရပ္သို႔ ဦးတည္လိုက္တယ္ ဆိုရင္ဘဲ ကၽြႏု္ပ္၏ ခႏၶာကိုယ္ကို ခ်ည္ေဆာင္ ထားသည့္ အေပ်ာ္စီးစက္မဲ့ မိုးပ်ံေရာင္စံု ရြက္ထည္ယာဥ္ေလးသည္ ေစြ႕ကနဲ ဦးတည္ခ်က္ေျပာင္းကာ ေကာင္းကင္ယံသို႔ ႂကြားဝင့္စြာ ထိုးတက္ သြားေလေတာ့သည္။ အပ်ံသင္စ ငွက္ကေလးတစ္ေကာင္၏ ပီတိ ခံစားခ်က္ေလး ကၽြႏု္ပ္ ရင္မွာ ခိုဝင္ခံစားလာမိသည္။ ခုနက ေၾကာက္ရြံခဲ့ေသာအေျခအေန၊ ရင္ခုန္ခဲ့ျခင္းမ်ား၊ စိုးရိမ္ပူပန္ခဲ့ျခင္းမ်ား အားလံုး ယခုတြင္ မရွိေတာ့ၿပီမို႔ ေကာင္းကင္ယံထက္မွ ဘုရားရွင္ကို ေက်းဇူးေတာ္ ခ်ီးမြမ္းလိုက္မိပါသည္။ ဒုကၡထဲမွ လြတ္ေျမာက္ သည့္အတြက္ ေက်းွဇူးေတာ္ ခ်ီးမြမ္းရသည္မွာ အလြန္မွပင္ အႏွစ္သာရရွိလွပါသည္။

ယခုအခါ ကၽြႏု္ပ္၏ မိုးပ်ံ ရြက္ထည္ယာဥ္သည္ မိုးေကာင္းကင္ယံထက္ ျမင့္သထက္အျမင့္သို႔ ေရႊလင္းယုန္ငွက္ ပ်ဳိေလးအလား ပ်ံသန္း ထိုးတက္လ်က္ရွိသည္။ ပထမဆံုးအႀကိမ္ ပ်ံသန္းျခင္းျဖစ္၍ အရာရာသည္ ကၽြႏု္ပ္အတြက္ စိတ္လႈပ္ရွားဖြယ္ရာ မ်ားသာ ျဖစ္သည္။ ယခုေတာ့ ရဲရင့္ေသာ သတၱိမ်ား တစတစ ဝင္ေရာက္လာၿပီ ျဖစ္၍ ေဝဟင္မွာ ပ်ံသန္းရ ျခင္းကို ၿငိမ့္ေျငာင္း သာယာေသာ ခံစားခ်က္မ်ဳိး ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း လက္ခံ လာႏိုင္ၿပီျဖစ္သည္။ မည္သည့္အရာမဆို ကိုယ္တိုင္စြန္႔စား၍ ေအာင္ျမင္လာေသာအခါ ကၽြမ္းက်င္ျခင္းႏွင့္ ေအာင္ျမင္မႈ႔သည္ ဆက္၍ လိုက္လာမည္အမွန္ ျဖစ္သည္။ ျပာလြင္လြင္ ေဝဟင္ထဲ ဝဲပ်ံတဲ့ငွက္ငယ္ရယ္ ဟင္း--ေလဟုန္စီး-ယီးေလးခို-အေတြးနယ္ပယ္ ေဝဟင္ယံ ထက္၌ ပ်ံသန္းရျခင္း၏ အရသာကို ၾကည္ႏူးလာေသာအခါ ငယ္စဥ္တံုးက ေရဒီယို သီခ်င္းမ်ားကို ေန႔စဥ္ ခံုခံု မင္မင္ ဆိုေလ့ရွိသည့္ ညီမငယ္၏ သီခ်င္းသံေလးကို ၾကားေယာင္ မိျပန္သည္။ တိမ္တိုက္ေတြၾကားမွာ ယီးေလး ခိုလိုက္၊ ဝဲပ်ံလိုက္ႏွင့္ ေပ်ာ္ပါးေနေသာ ငွက္ငယ္ေလးမ်ား၏ဘဝမ်ဳိး ခံစားလာရေသာအခါ မိုးပ်ံေရာင္စံု ရြက္ထည္ယာဥ္ ပ်ံသန္းေရး ပင္မ ဥယ်ာဥ္အဝင္မွာ ေရးထားသည့္ ငွက္ကေလးမ်ား အဘယ္ေၾကာင့္ ေတးဆို ၾကသည္ကို လာ၍ ၾကည့္ၾကပါဆိုသည့္ စာသားေလးသည္ အလြန္မွန္ေသာ သစၥာစကား ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္းကို လက္ခံ လာသည္။ ဤမွ်ေလာက္သာယာ ၿငိမ့္ေညာင္းလွေသာ ဘဝမွာ ခ်ီးမြမ္းသည့္ သီခ်င္းမဆိုဘဲ အဘယ္သူေနႏိုင္ မည္နည္း။ ထိုေၾကာင့္ ဆာလံဆရာ၏ ခ်ီးမြမ္းသံေလးႏွင့္ ဘုရားရွင္၏ ေက်းဇူးေတာ္ကို ခ်ီးမြမ္းမိပါသည္။ သို႔ျဖစ္၍ အကၽြႏု္ပ္၏ ဝိညာဥ္သည္ တိတ္ဆိတ္စြာ မေန၊ ကိုယ္ေတာ္ကို သီခ်င္းဆိုပါမည္။(ဆာလံ ၃၀း၁၂)။ ကၽြႏု္ပ္၏ ျမင္ကြင္းေအာက္တြင္ တစာစာေအာ္ျမည္ သီက်ဴး၍ ပ်ံသန္းေနၾကေသာ ဇင္ေယာ္ငွက္အုပ္ႀကီးကို အားက်၍ ေက်းဇူးေတာ္ ခ်ီးမြမ္း သီခ်င္းေလး သီဆိုမိပါသည္။

အမွန္စင္စစ္ က်စ္က်စ္ပါေအာင္ ဆုပ္ကိုင္ထားေသာ ရြက္ထည္ယာဥ္၏ ဘားတန္းႏွစ္တန္းသည္ တြဲလြဲ ခိုစီးရန္အတြက္ သက္သက္မဟုတ္ဘဲ ရြက္ထည္ယာဥ္တခုလံုးကို ထိမ္းထား၍ လိုရာကို ပ်ံသန္းႏိုင္ရန္ ပဲ့ကိုင္ ေသာ အရာလည္းျဖစ္သည္။ ကၽြမ္းက်င္စြာ ပဲ့ကိုင္ႏိုင္လာေသာအခါ ရြက္ထည္ယာဥ္ကို မိုးျမင့္ေပၚပ်ံတက္လိုက္၊ ထိုးဆင္းလိုက္၊ ေဘးေစာင္းပ်ံလိုက္၊ ဝဲပ်ံလိုက္ႏွင့္ သာယာၾကည္ႏူးမႈ႔ အရွိန္အဟုန္သည္ ပို၍ပို၍ ျမင့္မား လာရသည္။ ယခု ကၽြႏု္ပ္ စီးနင္းပ်ံသန္းေနသည့္ ရြက္ထည္ယာဥ္မွာ (HangGlider)ျဖစ္၍ ရြက္ထည္ကို ပဲ့ထိမ္း ႀကိဳးျဖင့္ စီးနင္းပ်ံသန္းေသာ (Paraglider)ဆိုတာ ရွိသလို၊ အေသးစား စက္တပ္ရြက္ထည္ယာဥ္ (Aquaglider) ဆိုတာလဲ ရွိေသးသည္။ ေနာက္မွ ထိုယာဥ္မ်ားကိုလည္း စီးၾကည့္ရအံုးမည္။

ဆန္ဖရန္စစၥကိုသို႔ ေလယာဥ္ခရီးျဖင့္ လာၾကေသာ ခရီးသည္တိုင္း ရင္သပ္ ရႈ႕ေမာရေသာ ျမင္ကြင္းေလးတခု ရွိသည္။ ဆန္ဖရန္စစၥကို အျပည္ျပည္ဆိုင္ရာ ေလဆိပ္သို႔ ဝင္ရန္ ေလဆိပ္ ေလယာဥ္ ေျပးလမ္းသို႔ ခ်ိန္ရြယ္ေသာေနရာတြင္ ေလယာဥ္သည္ ေလးဆယ့္ငါးဒီဂရီခန္႔ တိမ္းေစာင္း၍ ပ်ံသန္းဝင္ေရာက္ ရသည္။ ထိုအခ်ိန္တြင္ ပန္းခ်ီကားခ်ပ္လို လွပလွသည့္ ကမၻာေက်ာ္ၿမိဳ့ေတာ္ ဆန္ဖရန္စစၥကိုႏွင့္ အတူ BayArea တခုလံုးသည္ နံရံေပၚ ခ်ိပ္ဆြဲထားေသာ ဧရာမပန္းခ်ီကားခ်ပ္ႀကီးအလား ရင္သပ္ရႈ႕ ေမာၾကရသည္။ ေလယာဥ္ ျပဴတင္းေပါက္ တခုလံုး၌ ေကာင္းကင္ယံကို မျမင္ရေတာ့ဘဲ ကမၻာေလာကတခုလံုးကို ေဘးတိုက္က ရႈ႕ျမင္ရ သလိုမ်ဳိး ျဖစ္သည္။ ခရီးသြား၍ ျပန္လာတိုင္းမွာ ဤရႈ႕ခင္းကို မလြတ္စတမ္း ကၽြန္ေတာ္ ေစာင့္ၾကည့္ျမဲျဖစ္သည္။ မိတ္ေဆြလဲ အကယ္၍ ေလယာဥ္ခရီးႏွင့္ ဆန္ဖရန္စစၥကို လာခဲ့ပါလ်င္ ထိုရႈ႕ခင္းကို အမိအရ ၾကည့္ရႈ႕ခံစားႏိုင္ဖို႔ ၾကံဳႀကိဳက္၍ သတင္းပါး လိုက္ရပါသည္။ ထိုစဥ္က ေလယာဥ္ျပဴတင္းေပါက္ ေသးေသးေလးမွ ထိုအလွကို ခံစား ခဲ့ရေသာ္လည္း ယခုမူ အမိုးအကာမဲ့ ရြက္ထည္ယာဥ္ႏွင့္ ပ်ံသန္းေသာအခါ အေသာမသတ္ႏိုင္ေအာင္ က်ယ္ေျပာၿပီး လွပလြန္းသည့္ ရႈ႕ခင္းကို ရာခိုင္ႏႈန္းျပည့္ ခံစားရေတာ့မည္။ ေကာင္းကင္ယံမွာ ေက်းငွက္ကေလး မ်ား ပ်ံသန္းရင္း သီခ်င္းသီဆိုၾကတာ ဒါေၾကာင့္ကိုး ဟူ၍လည္း တိုးတိုးေလး ေရရြတ္ မိပါေတာ့သည္။

မိုးတိမ္တိုက္ေတြၾကားမွာ၊ ျမဴႏွင္းမႈန္ေတြၾကားမွာ ကၽြန္ေတာ္၏ ရြက္ထည္ယာဥ္ကို လိုသလို ပ်ံသန္းရင္း ကမၻာေလာကႀကီးကို အေပၚစီးက ၾကည့္ရႈ႕ခံစား ေနမိပါသည္။ အေသာ မသတ္ႏိုင္ေအာင္ က်ယ္ေျပာလွသည့္ ပစၥိဖိတ္သမုဒၵရာျပင္ႀကီးကို၎၊ တလိမ့္လိမ့္ တအိအိ လိမ့္တက္ေနၾကေသာ လိႈင္းလံုးႀကီးမ်ားႏွင့္ ထိုေရလိႈင္းတို႔ အလယ္မွာ ေရရွပ္ေဘာ့ျပားမ်ား စီးနင္း၍ ကစားေနၾကသူမ်ား၊ (Sailglider)ဟုေခၚေသာ ေရာင္စံုရြက္ထည္တပ္ ေရရွပ္ေဘာ့ျပားမ်ားကို ေလအဟုန္သံုး၍ စီးနင္းေဆာ့ ကစားေနၾကသူမ်ား၊ ကမ္းေျခသဲေသာင္ျပင္ေပၚ၌ အပမ္းေျဖေနၾကသူမ်ား၊ ေနပူလွမ္းေနၾကသူမ်ား၊ ေျပးေဆာ့ေနၾကေသာ ကေလးငယ္မ်ား၊ ေဘာလံုးေဆာ့ကစား ေနၾကသူမ်ား၊ ေရကူးေနၾကသူမ်ားကို အားလံုးျမင္ေတြ႔ရသည္။ ကမ္းေျခတေလွ်ာက္ ေဖါက္လုပ္ထားေသာ အမွတ္(၁)အေဝးေျပး လမ္းမႀကီးႏွင့္အတူ အုပ္အုပ္ဆိုင္းဆိုင္း ထင္းရႈးေတာမ်ားတို႔သည္လည္း ကယ္လီဖိုး နီးယားျပည္နယ္၏ ထူးျခားေသာ အလွတခုပင္ ျဖစ္ပါသည္။ ပင္လယ္ေအာ္ကို ျဖတ္ေဆာက္ထားေသာ ရွည္လ်ား လွသည့္ တံတားႀကီးမ်ားအျပင္ ထင္ရွားလွသည့္ နီညိဳေရာင္ ေရႊတံခါး တံတားႀကီးကိုလည္း အားပါးတရ ရႈ႕စား ရသည္။ ဆန္ဖရန္စစၥကို ျမန္မာႏွစ္ျခင္း အသင္းေတာ္ ဘုရားေက်ာင္းေလးကိုလဲ ေရးေရးေလး ျမင္ေနရ၍ စိတ္ၾကည္ႏူးမိပါသည္။ ေကာင္းကင္ယံမွာ ေပ်ာ္လြန္းလွ၍ ေျမျပင္ကိုပင္ မဆင္းခ်င္ေတာ့ပါ။

တြဲလဲခိုၿပီး ဒီေလာက္ၾကာေအာင္ စီးေတာ့မေညာင္းဘူးလားဟု ေမးစရာရွိေပမည္။ ကၽြႏု္ပ္လက္မ်ား သည္ ပဲ့ထိမ္းေဘာင္တန္းမ်ားကို ကိုင္တြယ္ထားရေသာ္လည္း ကၽြႏု္ပ္၏ ခႏၶာကိုယ္တခုလံုးသည္ အထူး စီမံ ထားေသာ အိပ္ႀကီးထဲတြင္ ေမွာက္ရက္ အေနအထားႏွင့္ ထည့္၍ ခ်ိပ္ဆြဲထားသည့္အတြက္ မေညာင္းမညာ သည့္အျပင္ ေႏြးေထြး၍ အဆင္ေျပလွပါသည္။ သမီးေလးထံမွ ငွါးယူခဲ့ေသာ စီဒီေခြေလးကို ဖြင့္နားေထာင္ လိုက္ျပန္ေတာ့ လွပေသာ ရႈ႕ခင္းမ်ားကို ေနာက္ခံသီခ်င္းေလးႏွင့္ ရႈ႕စားေတာ့ ပို၍ အႏွစ္သာရ ရွိလာသည္။

ေဘးမွာ ပ်ံသန္းေနသူ တဦးသည္ မွန္ေျပာင္းႏွင့္ ေျမျပင္ကို ၾကည့္ေနတာ ျမင္၍ ကၽြန္ေတာ္လည္းပါလာေသာ အေဝးၾကည့္ မွန္ဘီလူးကို ထုတ္လ်က္ ေျမျပင္သို႔ အႏွံ႔ ေလွ်ာက္ၾကည့္မိသည္။ မွန္ဘီလူးႏွင့္ၾကည့္မိမွ မွန္ဘီလူး ယူခဲ့မိျခင္းကို ေနာင္တရမိေတာ့သည္။ အလွအပမ်ားၾကား၌ အက်ည္းတန္မႈ႕ေတြကို ျမင္ေတြ႔လိုက္ရေသာ ေၾကာင့္ ျဖစ္သည္။ ပိုင္ဆိုင္မႈ႕ ရွိသမွ်ကို ေစ်းတြန္းလွည္းေလးထဲ ထည့္၍ က်င္လည္ေနၾကရေသာ ေျခသလံုး အိမ္တိုင္ အိုးအိမ္မဲ့ ဆင္းရဲသားမ်ားစြာ ေတြ႕ျမင္ရသည္။ မီးေရာင္ တျဖပ္ျဖပ္၊ ဥဩသံ တစီစီႏွင့္ ဥပေဒ ခ်ဳိးေဖာက္သူမ်ားကို လိုက္လံ ဖမ္းဆီးေနေသာ ရဲႏွင့္ပုလိပ္ကားမ်ား၊ အေရးေပၚ လူနာတင္ယာဥ္မ်ား၊ အုပ္စုဖြဲ႕ ရန္ျဖစ္ၾက၍ ဝရုန္းသုန္းကား ျဖစ္ေနၾကေသာ လူငယ္မ်ား၊ အေဝးေျပး လမ္းမႀကီးေပၚ၌ ယာဥ္တိုက္မႈ႕ ျဖစ္ပြား၍ ျပႆနာ ျဖစ္ေနၾကသူမ်ား၊ ေတြ႔ရသည္မွာ စိတ္မခ်မ္းေျမ့စရာမ်ား ျဖစ္သည္။ သူ႔ဇနီးမဟုတ္ဘဲ တျခား အမ်ဳိးသမီးတဦးႏွင့္ လက္ခ်င္းခ်ိပ္ကာ သမီးရည္းစားေလးပမာ စံုတြဲခုတ္ေနေသာ ကၽြႏု္ပ္၏ မိတ္ေဆြေဟာင္း တဦးကို ရုတ္တရက္ ျမင္လိုက္သည့္အတြက္ မွန္ဘီလူးကို မၾကည့္ေတာ့ဘဲ အိပ္ထဲ ထိုးထည့္ လိုက္ပါသည္။ ဪ ေလာကႀကီးဟာ ဘယ္လိုမ်ား ျဖစ္ပ်က္ေနပါလိမ့္-- ဆက္၍သာ ၾကည့္ေနလွ်င္ စိတ္မခ်မ္းသာစရာေတြ ဆက္တိုက္ေတြ႕ေနရၿပီး ခုနက သာယာၾကည္ႏူးစရာေလးေတြ ပ်က္သုန္းကုန္လိမ့္မည္။ ေပ်ာ္စရာမွာ ရင္နာစရာေတြ ဝင္လာရင္ ေဝဒနာသာ အေျဖက်န္ေလမည္ မဟုတ္ပါလား။

God is watching us---from a distance သမီးေလး၏ စီဒီေခြထဲက သီခ်င္းစာသားေလးေၾကာင့္ ကၽြႏု္ပ္အေတြးထဲ အလင္းတန္းေလးတခု ေျပးဝင္လာသည္။ ေဝးရပ္ဆီမွ ဘုရားရွင္ ကၽြႏု္ပ္တို႔အား ေစာင့္ၾကည့္ ေနသည္တဲ့။ အဓိပၸါယ္ရွိလိုက္ေလျခင္း။ အျမင့္ေပ-၃၀၀၀၊ေလာက္က ကၽြန္ေတာ္ ျမင္ေတြ႕ခဲ့ရေသာ အရာမ်ား သည္ အတိုင္းအတာ တခုေလာက္သာ ျဖစ္သည္။ စၾကာဝဠာတခုလံုးကို ဖန္ဆင္းေတာ္မူေသာ ဘုရားသခင္ သည္ ေကာင္းကင္ဘံုမွာ စံပယ္ေတာ္မူ၍ ေလာက၌ ရွိရွိသမွ် ျပဳျပဳသမွ်၊ ျဖစ္ျဖစ္သမွ် အရာအားလံုး ေစာင့္ၾကည့္လ်က္ ရွိပါသည္။ အားလံုးကို ဘုရားရွင္ ျမင္ေတြ႔ေနသည္။ ေျပာသမွ် သူၾကားေနပါသည္။ စိတ္ကူးႏွင့္ ၾကံစည္သမွ်ပင္လ်င္ သူ သိေနပါသည္။ သုတၱံက်မ္းမွာ အတိအလင္းပင္ ေဖာ္ျပထားပါသည္။ ထာဝရဘုရား၏ မ်က္စိေတာ္သည္ ခပ္သိမ္းေသာ အရပ္၌ ရွိ၍ ေကာင္းမေကာင္းကို ၾကည့္ရႈ႕ ေတာ္မူ၏ (၁၅း၃)။ လူ သြားလာသမွ်ေသာ လမ္းတို႔သည္ ထာဝရဘုရား မ်က္ေမွာက္ေတာ္၌ ရွိၾက၍ သြားလာသမွ်ေသာ အခ်င္းအရာတို႔၌ စူးစမ္းေတာ္မူ၏။(၅း၂၁)။ ကၽြန္ေတာ္ သေဘာက်၍ ခြန္အားရသည့္ အခ်က္မွာ ကၠဳႆေရလ အမ်ဳိးကို ေစာင့္ေသာသူသည္ ငိုက္ျမည္း အိပ္ေပ်ာ္ျခင္း ရွိေတာ္ မမူ။ (ဆာလံ၊၁၂၁း၄)ဟူေသာ က်မ္းခ်က္ ျဖစ္သည္။ ကၽြႏု္ပ္တို႔၏ အေကာင္း အဆိုး အားလံုးကို အထက္အရပ္မွ ၾကည့္ရႈ႕ေနေသာ ဘုရားရွင္ ရွိေတာ္မူ ျခင္းကို သိရွိခံစားရေသာ သင္ခန္းစာကို ရလိုက္သည္ ျဖစ္၍ အရာရာ၌ အစဥ္အၿမဲ အေကာင္းဆံုး အသက္ ရွင္ရန္ ဆံုးျဖတ္လ်က္ ေဝဟင္ထက္မွာ ပ်ံသန္းရင္း ဆက္ကပ္ ဆုေတာင္း လိုက္ပါသည္။ ေျမျပင္သို႔ မဆင္းသက္ခ်င္ေသးေသာ္လည္း ဇနီးႏွင့္သားသမီးမ်ား ပင္လယ္ကမ္းစပ္မွာ ေမွ်ာ္ၾကည့္ရင္း လက္မ်ား ေဝွ႔ရမ္းျပေနၾကသည္ကို ျမင္လိုက္ရ၍ ရြက္ထည္ယာဥ္ကို ျဖည္းညွင္းစြာ ထိုးဆင္းလ်က္ ေျမျပင္ထက္ သို႔ ဆင္းသက္ လာခဲ့ပါေတာ့သည္။

ဆရာ-ဆရာ-ဆရာက ေငးေနလိုက္တာ ကၽြန္ေတာ္ Hang Glider စီးတဲ့အေၾကာင္း ေျပာျပတာ ေတာင္ စိတ္မဝင္စားေတာ့ဘူး။ ကိုရစ္ခ်တ္က မိုးပ်ံရြက္ထည္ယာဥ္ကို စြန္႔စြန္႔စားစား စီးနင္းရင္း ရွားပါး ဓါတ္ပံုမ်ား ရိုက္ကူး စုေဆာင္းခဲ့ျခင္းကို စီကာပတ္ကံုး ေျပာျပေနျခင္း ျဖစ္ပါသည္။ ဪ - ကၽြန္ေတာ္ စိတ္ဝင္စားပါတယ္။ ကိုရစ္ခ်တ္ စိတ္ဝင္စားလြန္းလို႔ ကၽြန္ေတာ္ ကိုယ္တိုင္ မိုးပ်ံ ရြက္ထည္ယာဥ္ စီးၿပီး၊ စိတ္ကူးေလးနဲ႔ မိုးေကာင္းကင္ထက္မွာ ပ်ံသန္းေနသလိုဘဲ ခံစားမိပါတယ္။ ကၽြန္ေတာ့္ အတြက္ေတာ့ HangGlider စီးတဲ့အေၾကာင္းအျပင္ တန္ဖိုး မျဖတ္ႏိုင္တဲ့ ဝိညာဥ္ေရးရာ သင္ခန္းစာလဲ ရလိုက္ပါတယ္။

ဘယ္လို ဝိညာဥ္ေရးရာ သင္ခန္းစာလဲ ဆရာလတ္၊ ကၽြန္ေတာ့္ကိုလဲ ေဝမွ်ပါအံုး။

ေဩာ္ - ဒီလိုပါ ကိုရစ္ခ်တ္၊ စိတ္ကူးေလးနဲ႔ မိုးပ်ံရြက္ထည္ယာဥ္ကို စီးရင္း အထက္အရပ္က ျမင္ရတဲ့ ျမင္ကြင္းကို အေျခခံၿပီး စၾကာဝဠာတခုလံုးကို ေကာင္းကင္ဘံုက သတိနဲ႔ ၾကည့္ရႈ႕ေနတဲ့ ဘုရားရွင္ေတာ္ျမတ္ ေၾကာင့္ ေႏြးေထြးတဲ့ လံုျခံဳ စိတ္ခ်မႈ႕ရယ္၊ အၿမဲတမ္းဘဲ အေကာင္းဆံုး အသက္ရွင္ ရမယ္ဆိုတဲ့ ဝိညာဥ္ေရးရာ သင္ခန္းစာကို ေျပာတာပါ။

ထာဝရဘုရားသည္ အထက္အရပ္မွ ကၽြႏု္ပ္တို႔ကို ၾကည့္ရႈ႕ေနသည္ျဖစ္၍ အလိုေတာ္ႏွင့္မညီေသာ ေျပာဆို၊ ၾကံစည္၊ ျပဳမူျခင္းမ်ားကို ေရွာင္ရွားၾကရန္၊ အလိုေတာ္ႏွင့္အညီ အေကာင္းဆံုး အသက္ရွင္ လုပ္ေဆာင္ ေနျခင္း၌ ခ်ီးမြမ္း မခံရျခင္း၊ အသိအမွတ္ျပဳ မခံရျခင္းမ်ားအတြက္ စိတ္ဓါတ္ မက်ဘဲ ဘုရားသခင္က အသိ အမွတ္ျပဳလ်က္၊ မွတ္သားလ်က္၊ ေကာင္းႀကိီးေပးလ်က္ ရွိေနေၾကာင္းကို ႏွလံုးသားမွာ ခံယူလ်က္ အရာရာ၌ ေက်းဇူးေတာ္ ခ်ီးမြမ္းျခင္းျဖင့္ အေကာင္းဆံုး အသက္ရွင္ၾကဖို႔ ေမတၱာႏွင့္ တိုက္တြန္း ေဝငွလိုက္ပါသည္။

ေမတၱာမ်ားစြာျဖင့္

ဆရာေတာ္ဦးလတ္ေယရွဲ (ဆန္ဖရန္စစၥကိုျမန္မာႏွစ္ျခင္းအသင္းေတာ္)

Christmas ကုိဘာျဖစ္လုိ ့ X'mas လုိ ့ေရးၾကတာလဲ?

2010-12-21T11:48:00.000-08:00

ခရစ္ေတာ္ဘုရားရဲ ့ေမြးေန ့ေတာ္အခါသမယမွာ၊ ၀မ္းေျမာက္ေပ်ာ္ရြွင္ျခင္းမ်ားနဲ ့၊ ႏွဳတ္ခြန္း ဆက္လြွာေတြ၊ ပုိ ့စ္ကဒ္ေတြ၊ ပုိ ့ ၾက၊ေရးၾကနဲ ့အလြန္ၾကည္ႏူး ဘြယ္ေကာင္းပါတယ္။ ကြ်န္ေတာ့စိတ္ထဲမွာ၊ မေပ်ာ္ႏုိင္တာတစ္ခုက၊ Christmas ကုိ X’mas လုိ ့ေရးၾကတ့ဲ အေၾကာင္းေလးပါ။ ေရးၾကတ့ဲသူကုိအျပစ္တင္တာေတာ့မဟုတ္ပါဘူး၊ ခံစားခ်က္ေလးကုိ ေ၀မွ်တာပါ။ ငယ္ ငယ္ကကြ်န္ေတာ္လဲ၊ ေရးခ့ဲဘူး ပါတယ္၊ အဲဒီတုံးကေတာ့၊ စာလုံးေလးအထူး အဆန္းဆုိျပီး ေရးခ့ဲတာပါ။ အခုေတာ့မေရး ေတာ့ပါဘူး၊ တမင္ကုိမေရးေတာ့တာပါ၊ ေရးရင္စိတ္ထဲမွာမေပ်ာ္လုိ ့။ ကုိယ္မေရးလဲသူမ်ားေတြေရးေနတာျမင္ရေတာ့လဲ ဒီခံစားရခ်က္ေတြေပၚေပၚလါတယ္။ ဒါေၾကာင့္၊ ခံစားခ်က္ေလးကုိေ၀မွ်လုိက္တာပါ။

Christmas ကုိ X’mas လုိ ့ေရးၾကတ့ဲသူမ်ားရဲ ့အေၾကာင္းရင္းကုိေလ့လါေတာ့၊ အမ်ဴိးမ်ိဴးေတြ ့ရပါတယ္။ ”အတုိေကာက္” ေရးတာပါတ့ဲ၊ တခ်ဴိ ့က ”ဂရိစာမွာ Christ ကုိ Xp နဲ ့စလုိ ့” Christmas=X’mas, Christian=Xtian=Xtianity” လုိ ့ သုံးၾကတာပါတ့ဲ၊ အမ်ဴိးမ်ဴိးပါဘဲ။ ကြ်န္ေတာ္ကသခ်ာၤေမဂ်ာယူခ့ဲေတာ့၊ X ကုိျမင္ရင္ ”မသိကိန္း”ဘဲေခါင္းထဲ၀င္လါပါတယ္။ မသိတ့ဲကိန္း၊ မသိတ့ဲသူ၊ မသိခ်င္တ့ဲအရာ၊ မသိေစခ်င္တ့ဲအရာေတြကုိ၊ ၾကက္ေျခခတ္ (X) လုိ ့ေရးၾကတယ္မဟုတ္လါး။ ၁၉၇၇ ခုႏွစ္က အေမရိကန္ႏုိင္ငံ၊နယူးဟမ္းရွဳိင္းယားက၊ ျမဳိ ့ေတာ္၀န္ Meldrim Thomson ေျပာတာက၊ X’mas လုိ ့ ေရးတာဟာ၊ ခရစ္ ယာန္မဟုတ္သူေတြေရးတ့ဲခရစ္စမတ္ပါ၊ တ့ဲ။ မိတ္ေဆြေတာ့မသိဘူး၊က်ြန္ေတာ္ကလက္ခံတယ္။

Christmas မွာခရစ္ေတာ္ကုိေဖ်ာက္ျပီး၊မသိကိန္း (ၾကက္ေျခခတ္) ကုိထည့္သုံးျခင္းဟာ၊ခရစ္ယာန္မ်ားသုံးသင့္တ့ဲ အကၡရာ မဟုတ္ပါဘူး၊ Franklin Graham ေျပာတာက၊ ”ဒါဟာ၊ခရစ္ေတာ္ရဲ ့နာမေတာ္နဲ ့ဆုိင္တ့ဲစစ္ပြဲၾကီးျဖစ္တယ္၊ ခရစ္ယာန္ မ်ားရဲ ့အျမင့္ျမတ္ဆုံးေသာပြဲေတာ္မွာ၊ ျမင့္ျမတ္တ့ဲခရစ္ေတာ္ရဲ ့နာမေတာ္ကုိေဖ်ာက္ဖ်က္ အစားထုိး ျပစ္တာျဖစ္တယ္”။ ခရစ္ေတာ္ေယရွဳ ဘုရားရဲ ့နာမေတာ္ကုိ၊ ”ခရစ္စမတ္မွာေရာ၊ ခရစ္ယာန္”မွာပါႏွဳတ္ယူ၊ အစားထုိးလုိ ့မရႏုိင္ပါဘူး၊ မယုံၾကည္ သူမ်ားကုိေတာင္ ”ေက်းဇူးျပဳျပီးမသုံးပါနဲ ့” လုိေျပာရမ့ဲအစား ကုိယ္တုိင္က၊ခုံခုံမင္မင္သုံး ေနၾကျခင္းဟာမသင့္ ေတာ္ဘူးလုိ ့၊ ခံစားမိတာပါ။

အခုေခတ္မွာ၊ခရစ္ေတာ္ကုိအစားထုိးေဖ်ာက္ဖ်က္ျခင္းနဲ ့ခရစ္ယာန္မ်ားကုိတုိက္ခုိက္ေနတ့ဲအခ်ိန္ ျဖစ္တယ္။ Merry Christmas ကုိ Happy Holidays လုိ ့သုံးရမယ္၊နိပါတ္ေတာ္စဥ္ပန္းခ်ီကားအရုပ္မ်ားလူျမင္ကြင္းမွာမထားရဘူးလုိ ့၊တခ်ဴိ ့ အလုပ္ေတြမွာ၊ စတုိးဆုိင္ ၾကီးေတြမွာ၊တခ်ဴိ ့ရုံးေတြမွာသတ္မွတ္ လါၾကတယ္။ခရစ္ေတာ္ ေၾကာင့္ စတုိးဆုိင္ မ်ား ေကာင္းၾကီး အၾကီးအက်ယ္ ခံစားရေပမ့ဲ၊ ခရစ္ေတာ္ရဲ ့နာမေတာ္ကုိေတာ္ ေဖ်ာက္ဖ်က္ခ်င္ၾကတယ္။ ၀မ္းနည္းစရာပါ။ ခရစ္ေတာ္ ေၾကာင့္၊ အျပစ္လြတ္ျခင္း၊ ငရဲမွလြတ္ ျခင္း၊ ဘုရားရွင္ရဲ ့အမ်က္ေတာ္မွ လြတ္ျခင္း၊ ဆုိတ့ဲကယ္တင္ ေတာ္မူျခင္း ေက်းဇူး ေတာ္ကုိခံစား ရျပီးမွ၊ ခရစ္ေတာ္ရဲ ့နာမေတာ္ ကုိေဖ်ာက္ဖ်က္ အစားထုိးတ့ဲ၊ အေရးအသား ေတာ့မျပဳသင့္ပါဘူး။ ၾကက္ေျခခတ္ (X)ဟာခရစ္ေတာ္ ေနရာယူ လါတာေတြ၊ ဆန္တာကေလာ့၊ ကခရစ္စမတ္မွာ၊ ခရစ္ေတာ္ ဘုရားထက္အေရးၾကီး ေနရာ၀င္လါတာေတြ၊ ခရစ္ေတာ္ မပါတ့ဲခရစ္စမတ္ ပါတီေတြ၊ဟာေပ်ာ္ၾက ေပမ့ဲအႏွစ္သာရ မျပည့္၀ၾကပါဘူး။ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xmas မွာလဲဒီအေၾကာင္း ေရးထားတာေတြ ့ရတယ္၊ပုိသိခ်င္ရင္ သြားဖတ္ၾကည့္ပါ။

က်ြန္ေတာ္ရဲ ့ခံစားခ်က္ကုိေ၀မွ်လုိက္တာပါ။ ခံစားခ်က္ခ်င္းမတူညီ ဘူးဆုိရင္လည္းကိစၥမရွိပါဘူး၊ တူညီတယ္ ဆုိရင္ေတာ့၊ ကယ္တင္ရွင္ ေယရွဳသခင္ရဲ ့နာမေတာ္အတြက္မားမားမတ္မတ္ရပ္တည္ရင္း အတူတုိက္ပြဲ၀င္ဖုိ ့၊ေမတၱာရပ္ခံပါတယ္။

ေမတၱာမ်ားျဖင့္၊

ခရစ္ေတာ္၏ျမတ္ေသာနာမေတာ္ျမတ္၌

လတ္ေယရွဲ (ဒီဇင္ဘာ၊၂၀၁၀)

The Shoemaker's Christmas

2010-12-11T10:45:00.000-08:00

There once lived in the city of Marseilles an old shoemaker, loved and honored by his neighbors, who affectionately called him “Father Martin”

One Christmas Eve, as he sat alone in his little shop reading of the visit of the Wise Men to the infant Jesus, and of the gifts they brought, he said to himself. “If tomorrow were the first Christmas, and if Jesus were to be born in Marseilles this night, I know what I would give Him!” He rose from his stool and took from a shelf overhead two tiny shoes of softest snow- white leather, with bright silver buckles. “I would give Him those, my finest work.”

Replacing the shoes, he blew out the candle and retired to rest. Hardly had he closed his eyes, it seemed, when he heard a voice call his name…”Martin! Martin!”

Intuitively he felt a presence. Then the voice spoke again…”Martin, you have wished to see Me. Tomorrow I shall pass by your window. If you see Me, and bid Me enter, I shall be your guest at your table.”

Father Martin did not sleep that night for joy. And before it was yet dawn he rose and swept and tidied up his little shop. He spread fresh sand upon the floor, and wreathed green boughs of fir along the rafters. On the spotless linen-covered table he placed a loaf of white bread, a jar of honey, and a pitcher of milk, and over the fire he hung a pot of tea Then he took up his patient vigil at the window.

Presently he saw an old street-sweeper pass by, blowing upon his thin, gnarled hands to warm them. “Poor fellow, he must be half frozen,” thought Martin. Opening the door he called out to him, “Come in, my friend, and warm, and drink a cup of hot tea.” And the man gratefully accepted the invitation.

An hour passed, and Martin saw a young, miserably clothed women carrying a baby. She paused wearily to rest in the shelter of his doorway. The heart of the old cobbler was touched. Quickly he flung open the door.

“Come in and warm while you rest,” he said to her. “You do not look well,” he remarked.

“I am going to the hospital. I hope they will take me in, and my baby boy,” she explained. “My husband is at sea, and I am ill, without a soul.”

“Poor child!” cried Father Martin. “You must eat something while you are getting warm. No, Then let me give a cup of milk to the little one. Ah! What a bright, pretty fellow he is! Why, you have put no shoes on him!”

“I have no shoes for him,” sighed the mother sadly. “Then he shall have this lovely pair I finished yesterday.” And Father Martin took down from the shelf the soft little snow-white shoes he had admired the evening before. He slipped them on the child’s feet…they fit perfectly. And shortly the poor young mother left, two shoes in her hand and tearful with gratitude.

And Father Martin resumed his post at the window. Hour after hour went by, and although many people passed his window, and many needy souls shared his hospitality, the expected Guest did not appear.

“It was only a dream,” he sighed, with a heavy heart. “I did not believe; but he has not come.”

Suddenly, so it seemed to his weary eyes, the room was flooded with a strange light. And to the cobbler’s astonished vision there appeared before him, one by one, the poor street-sweeper, the sick mother and her child, and all the people whom he had aided during the day. And each smiled at him and said. “Have you not seen me? Did I not sit at your table?” Then they vanished.

At last, out of the silence, Father Martin heard again the gentle voice repeating the old familiar words. “Whosoever shall receive one such in My name, receiveth Me…for I was an hungered, and ye gave Me meat; I was athirst, and ye gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took Me in…verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto Me.”

Saving Lifeline

2010-11-09T06:46:00.000-08:00

There was a Pastor, who after the usual Sunday Evening Hymns, stood up, walked over to the pulpit and, before he gave his sermon for the evening, briefly introduced a guest minister who was in service that evening. In the introduction, the Pastor told the congregation that the guest minister was one of his dearest childhood friends and that he wanted him to have a few moments to greet the church and share whatever he felt would be appropriate for the service. With that, an elderly man stepped up to the pulpit and began to speak.

"A father, His son, and a friend of his were sailing off of the Pacific Coast," He began, "When a fast approaching storm blocked any attempt to get back to shore. The waves were so high, that even though the father was an experienced sailor, he could not keep the boat upright and the three were swept into the ocean as the boat capsized.

The old man hesitated for a moment, making eye contact with two teenagers who were, for the first time since the service began, looking somewhat interested in his story. The aged minister continued with his story, "Grabbing a rescue line, the father had to make the most excruciating decision of his life: to which boy he would throw the other end of the lifeline. He only had seconds to make the decision. The father knew that his son was a Christian and he also knew that his son’s friend was not. The agony of his decision could not be matched by the torrent of waves. "As the father yelled out, I love you son! He threw out the lifeline to his son’s friend.

By the time the father had pulled the friend back to the capsized boat, his son had disappeared beneath the raging swells into the black of the night. His body was never recovered." By this time, the two teenagers were sitting up straight in the pew, anxiously waiting for the next words to come out of the old minister’s mouth. "The father," he continued knew his son would step into eternity with Jesus and could not bear the thought of his son’s friend stepping into eternity without Jesus.

Therefore, he sacrificed his son to save his son’s friend With that the old man turned and sat back down in his chair as silence filled the room. The Pastor again walked slowly to the pulpit and delivered a brief sermon Within minutes after the service ended, the two teenagers were at the old man’s side.
"That was a nice story," Politely stated the boys, "But I don’t think it was realistic for a father to give up his son’s life in hopes that the other boy would become a Christian." "Well, you’ve got a point there," the old man replied glancing down at the worn Bible. A big smile broadened his narrow face, he once again looked up at the boys and said, "It sure isn’t realistic, is it? But I am standing today to tell you that the story gives me a glimpse of what it must have been like for God to give up His only son for me. You see I was the father and your Pastor was my son’s friend."

Life Saving Blood

2010-10-30T00:47:00.000-07:00

Shortly after the first edition of the Miami Herald had gone to press on Sunday night, December 29, 1946, Timothy Sullivan answered the telephone on the city desk. “Please help me,” a woman’s voice pleaded. “My husband is bleeding to death.”

Sullivan got the entire story. The man’s name was Rudy Kovarik, from Dearborn, Michigan. They were on a vacation but he was sick and in the Biscayne Hospital. The AB RH-negative blood he needed was not available at the hospital or other sources. Without a transfusion, the doctors thought he might not live until morning.

What could the city editor do? A man was dying. A woman’s heart was breaking. Then he got an idea—WCBS, fourteen blocks away, where it was almost time for Walter Winchell to go on the air in a nationwide broadcast. The operator at the radio station refused to let him talk to Winchell, but, after some insistence and pleading, she put an assistant of Winchell on the phone. He took a memo of the situation and Sullivan sat back to wait.

Soon the telephones began to go mad. The Herald office, the police station, the hospital were all swamped with calls from all over the nation. People as far away as New York City began to board planes for Miami, the corridors of the Biscayne Hospital were crowded and traffic jammed the nearby streets as would-be donors tried to get to the hospital.

The actual donor was a tourist from New York who heard the broadcast on his car radio, checked his Army dog tags for blood type, and drove two blocks to the hospital. In a few minutes his life-giving blood was flowing into the veins of the stricken man. A few weeks later a healthy-looking man walked up to the Herald’s city desk to thank Timothy Sullivan.

Tan, P. L. 1996, c1979. Encyclopedia of 7700 illustrations : [a treasury of illustrations, anecdotes, facts and quotations for pastors, teachers and Christian workers]. Bible Communications: Garland TX

Opening the Fifth and Sixth Seals - Revelation 6:9-11

2010-10-23T00:10:00.001-07:00

Let Him Hear Who Has Ears to Hear- Sermon

2010-10-22T08:25:00.000-07:00

Four Horsemen of Tribulation (Revelation 6:1-7)

2010-10-19T10:44:00.000-07:00

What can you give?

2010-10-13T17:11:00.000-07:00

Bill Wilson pastors an inner city church in New York City. His mission field is a very violent place. He himself has been stabbed twice as he ministered to the people of the community surrounding the church. Once a Puerto Rican woman became involved in the church and was led to Christ. After her conversion she came to Pastor Wilson and said, "I want to do something to help with the church’s ministry." He asked her what her talents were and she could think of nothing---she couldn’t even speak English---but she did love children. So he put her on one of the church’s buses that went into neighborhoods and transported kids to church. Every week she performed her duties. She would find the worst-looking kid on the bus, put him on her lap and whisper over and over the only words she had learned in English: "I love you. Jesus loves you."

After several months, she became attached to one little boy in particular. The boy didn’t speak. He came to Sunday School every week with his sister and sat on the woman’s lap, but he never made a sound. Each week she would tell him all the way to Sunday School and all the way home, "I love you and Jesus loves you."

One day, to her amazement, the little boy turned around and stammered, "I---I---I love you too!" Then he put his arms around her and gave her a big hug. That was 2:30 on a Sunday afternoon. At 6:30 that night he was found dead. His own mother had beaten him to death and thrown his body in the trash......."I love you and Jesus loves you." ....Those were some of the last words this little boy heard in his short life---from the lips of a Puerto Rican woman who could barely speak English. This woman gave her one talent to God and because of that a little boy who never heard the word "love" in his own home, experienced and responded to the love of Christ.....

What can you give? What is your "colt". You and I each have something in our lives, which, if given back to God, could, like the colt, move Jesus and His message further down the road.

SOURCE: Mark Adams, "The Roads He Walked - Palm Avenue."

A Star on my Crown

2010-10-11T00:02:00.000-07:00

There was a family with one little daughter. Mother and daughter were very faithful in church and Sunday School attendance The father wasn’t interested and he made it plain it was okay for his wife and daughter, but not for him. He worked in a steel mill, a huge hulk of a man who had been a football player at Ohio University. The daughter, Susie, became ill and was taken for diagnosis to the family doctor. She had leukemia and as it was in an advanced stage it was too late to save her. The family was to take her home, care for her as comfortably as possible before she died.

Each night on coming home from work, Susie’s bedroom was her father’s first stop. He would visit and spend some time with her. Daily her condition worsened and she lost weight, her cheeks were sunken and her color looked very bad.

One night in particular, Susie had obviously been doing some serious thinking, and she asked her father, "Daddy, I know I will die soon and go to be with Jesus. My Sunday School teacher told me that. But, Daddy, when I get to heaven I will be given a crown to wear. And my crown will have no stars because I have not led anybody to know Jesus. So, Daddy, will you give your life to Jesus so I can have a star in my crown?" The father, through the tears, nodded his head and right there prayed a sinner’s prayer of commitment. It made Susie’s eyes light up with joy! She called for her mother and told her what Daddy had just done.

A few days later she passed away. On the next Sunday morning came Susie’s daddy with her mother walking together into church. Time was taken for a "testimony" in the service and this man stood and said, "May I say a few words?" The preacher assured him, "Yes, go ahead." The man went on, "I was resistant to the Gospel and had rejected pastors and evangelists who had tried to lead me. I could reject anyone but my little daughter." He paused to wipe the tears away and went on, "Because she asked me and because she loved me, I gave my life to Jesus. She reached me when no one else could."

Then, just before he sat down he looked upward and finished with this, "And now Susie is in heaven, wearing the crown promised to her and a single star in her crown û that’s me!"

Francis of Asisi kissed the leper

2010-10-07T18:04:00.000-07:00

"Francis of Assisi was terrified of leprosy. And one day, full in the narrow path that he was traveling, he saw, horribly white in the sunshine, a leper! Instinctively his heart shrank back, recoiling shudderingly from the contamination of that loathsome disease. But then he rallied; and ashamed of himself, ran and cast his arms about the sufferer’s neck and kissed him and passed on. A moment later he looked back, and there was no one there, only the empty road in the hot sunlight. All his days thereafter he was sure it was no leper, but Christ Himself whom he had met."

—G. K. Chesterton

Loving the needy people is loving Christ. Feeding the hungers, caring the poor, helping the weak, and showing compassion to the needy people is the Lord's will and the fruits of our faith. Do you care?

Day Forty – Final Day of Lenten Devotionals 2010

2010-04-03T01:37:00.000-07:00

Word of God: “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:55-57)

He Arose! The Shout that Changed the World

They gathered round the market square, in clusters great and small.

In vain they tried their very best to comprehend it all.

Some pointed back to Calvary’s hill, some lingered near the tomb,

While others cried to God above to lift this cloud of gloom.

The hours went by, some went on home, no answers for their grief.

Some felt deceived, some felt betrayed and drowned in unbelief.

That Saturday was worst of all, for they were sure He’d died.

Their friends had stopped their mocking now; they’d proved that Jesus lied.

By Sunday morning all had changed and shouting filled the air,

“Jesus arose just as He said, And He’s no longer there!”

The women ran from house to house and banged upon each door.

“He is not dead! Our Savior lives! Just like He was before!”

The gathered round the market square, they sang, they danced, they prayed,

They peered into the open tomb where Jesus once had laid.

To Thomas, Jesus showed His hands to help his unbelief.

Five hundred hovered near Him as He took away their grief.

The empty tomb, the risen Lord, the Cornerstone He laid;

Upon those words our faith depends, for us the price He paid.

All praises go to Jesus now and evermore shall be,

For He arose! He conquered death, for me eternally! - Mariane Holbrook

Prayer for today: Dear Lord, I thank today for the last day for forty days of Lent season. Thanks for helping me to discover deeper understanding of your words and your love. Help me to restart a new beginning with a new power of your love. Amen.

Day Thirty Nine – Lenten Devotionals 2010 (Good Friday Meditation)

2010-04-02T07:46:00.000-07:00

Meditate on Scripture Texts: When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.” The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last. The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” (Luke 23:33-47)

Safely Home: Eric Barker, a missionary from Great Britain, spent over fifty years in Portugal preaching the Gospel, often under adverse conditions. At the beginning of World War II, the situation in Europe became so difficult that he was advised to send his wife and six children to England for safety. His sister and her three children were also evacuated on the same ship.

Although his family were forced to leave, Eric remained behind to carry on the work. The Sunday following their departure, Pastor Barker stood before his congregation and said, "I've just received word that all my family have arrived safely home!" He then proceeded with the service.

Later, the full meaning of his words became known to his congregation. He had been handed a wire just before the service informing him that a German submarine had torpedoed the ship with his family. Everyone on board had perished.

Eric Barker knew that because all his family were believers they had reached a more desired home." Although overwhelmed with grief, he managed by the grace of God to live above his circumstances and to give God the glory for bringing his family safely home. The knowledge that his family was with Jesus in Heaven comforted his heart.

This bit of history tells the importance of Jesus crucifixion, death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. Without a sinless sacrifice who willing took the punishment for each of the individual sins of each of Eric Bakers family members he would not have had the assurance that they had arrived safely home.

If the enemy sinks your ship where will you go to spend eternity? If you are safe in the ark of His covenant made possible by Jesus, the Lamb of God, you will ascend to heaven. - Harvey and June Schneider

Prayer for today: Today pray for confession of your sins, give thanks for salvation through Jesus’ death, surrender your life to Him, and dedicate your life for His Kingdom.

Go to Church for “Good Friday” Worship service to show you faith and love to the Lord.

Day Thirty Eight - Lenten Devotionals 2010

2010-04-01T08:48:00.000-07:00

Three Crosses

Three crosses on a lonely hill,

A thief on either side,

And, in between, the Son of God …

How wide the gulf—how wide!

Yet one thief spanned it with the words,

“Oh Lord, remember me”;

The other scoffed and turned aside

To lost eternity.

Forsaken is the hilltop now,

And all the crosses gone,

But in believing hearts of men

The center cross lives on.

And still, as when these sentinels

First met earth’s wondering view,

The presence of the Lord divides—

Upon which side are you? —Helen Franzee Bower

Legend of the Cross Maker: A touching legend tells us that when Jesus was a boy at Nazareth He met a Roman lad by the name of Fidus, who confided this desire: “I am looking for Joseph, the carpenter. From him I want to learn the arts of his craft.”

“I can lead you to him,” answered Jesus, “for I am called the Son of Joseph.”

As Fidus watched and learned from Joseph, Jesus told him of a great King who would one day be raised upon a throne so high that all the world would see.

Fidus exclaimed:

“Would that I might build the exalted throne of the great King!” “Fidus,” said Jesus, “you will be the one to build the throne of the great King, the throne from which He shall rule the nations. I promise you.”

Years passed, Fidus went home to Jaffa and practiced his trade with honor. He happened to return to Jerusalem on a day when the Jewish capitol was in an uproar. He could hear cries of: “Crucify Him! He makes Himself a King.”

As he passed the gate of Pilate’s palace, a Roman soldier who knew the skill of Fidus greeted him: “You are especially welcome, Fidus. Three are to be crucified today, and only two crosses are prepared.”

Fidus was assigned the task. He put all his skill into its making, and viewed his finished product with pride. Later he followed the crowd outside the town and up a hill. He heard a voice, a voice he could never forget. Looking closely he saw a figure, a figure he could never forget. Yes, it was the Boy of Nazareth, now a Man, but writhing in agony on the “throne” Fidus had made. His eyes were opened. —Selected

Day Thirty Seven – Lenten Devotionals 2010

2010-03-31T00:22:00.000-07:00

God’s Word: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)

Pencil-In-The-Hand Illustration: One evening Lord Radstock was speaking at a meeting in Woolwich, and afterwards nearly missed his train home. He had just time to jump in as the guard blew his whistle. But a young army officer had followed him to the platform and, running up to the carriage window, said to Lord Radstock, “Sir, I heard you speak tonight, but tell me, how can a fellow keep straight?”

The train began to move. Lord Radstock pulled a pencil from his pocket and laid it on the palm of his hand. “Can that pencil stand upright?”

“No,” said the young officer.

Lord Radstock grasped the pencil in his hand, and held it up in an upright position. “Ah!” said the young fellow, moving beside the train, “but you are holding it now.”

“Yes,” said Lord Radstock,” and your life is like this pencil, helpless, but Christ is the hand that can hold you.” As the train rounded the curve and was lost to sight, the last thing the young officer saw was Lord Radstock’s outstretched hand holding that pencil upright.

Twenty-five years later the same officer met Lord Radstock in India, and told him that all those many years ago, on that railway platform, he had trusted his life to Christ, who had upheld him and kept him ever since. —Pioneer Camper

Quote: “I commend my soul into the hands of God my Creator, hoping and assuredly believing, through the merits of Jesus Christ my Savior, to be made partaker of life everlasting.” —Shakespeare

Prayer: Dear Lord, today I give thanks to you for you are holding me to be able to stand strong, to walk straight, and live with confident. Amen.

Day Thirty Six - Lenten Devotionals 2010

2010-03-30T07:47:00.000-07:00

God’s Word: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9)

Paying the Price: In his book More Than a Carpenter, Josh McDowell uses a simple illustration to show what God was doing for us at the cross of Christ. He wrote: An incident that took place several years ago in California illuminates what Jesus did on the cross.… A young woman was picked up for speeding. She was ticketed and taken before the judge. The judge read off the citation and said, “Guilty or not guilty?” The woman replied, “Guilty.” The judge brought down the gavel and fined her $100 or ten days.

Then an amazing thing took place. The judge stood up, took off his robe, walked down around in front, took out his billfold, and paid the fine. What’s the explanation of this? The judge was her father. He loved his daughter, yet he was a just judge. His daughter had broken the law, and he couldn’t just say to her, “Because I love you so much, I forgive you. You may leave.” If he had done that, he wouldn’t have been a righteous judge.… But he loved his daughter so much he was willing to take off his judicial robe and come down in front and represent her as her father and pay the fine.^-Josh McDowell

Famous Quote: Only one act of pure love, unsullied by any taint of ulterior motive, has ever been performed in the history of the world, namely the self-giving of God in Christ on the cross for undeserving sinners.—John Stott

Prayer: Thank you Lord for putting justice and love together in the life of Jesus Christ to save me from sinful nature. I praise you and honor you every steps of my life. Amen.

Day Thirty Five - Lenten Devotionals 2010

2010-03-30T07:39:00.000-07:00

God’s Word: “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:16-17)

Peace Child: In Don Richardson’s best-selling book, Peace Child, he tells of going, accompanied by his wife Carol and seventeen-month-old child, to the Sawi, a headhunting tribe in Netherlands’ New Guinea. There savagery was a way of life. The tribesmen considered headhunting, cannibalism, and treachery as virtues. As these savages heard the story of the Gospel, they considered Judas—not Jesus—the hero, and Don almost despaired of ever reaching them.

At last, the warfare and barbarism between the Sawi and their neighbor tribes grew so intense that the Richardsons decided to pack their bags and leave. But when the Sawi heard of it, they were deeply disturbed. They had come to love and trust the Richardsons. To prevent their leaving, the Sawi met in a special session and decided to make peace.

The next day as Don watched with mounting curiosity, the peace ritual began. Young children from the warring villages were to be exchanged, and as long as any of those children were alive, the peace would continue.

It was an anguishing ritual, for every mother feared her child would be taken. But after a period of emotional indecision, the chief himself grabbed his only son and rushed toward the enemy tribe, literally giving the tribe to his enemies. In return, he received a son from the other side. Peace descended across the mountains.

As Don pondered the significance of the ceremony, he realized there was a powerful Redemptive Analogy. Shortly afterward, gathering the elders together, he told them how God the Heavenly Father sent Jesus to earth as His Peace Child to make peace between God and man.

It was a lesson they understood and embraced at last.^-Don Richardson

Quote: No other God have I but Thee; born in a manger, died on a tree.—Martin Luther

Day Thirty Four - Lenten Devotionals 2010

2010-03-26T23:45:00.000-07:00

God’s Word: “As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.” (John 9:4-7)

Jesus wants Obedience: Why did Jesus send the blind man to the Pool of Siloam to wash his eyes? Jesus could have just said, “Be healed,” and the man’s sight would have come to him on the spot. But he wanted the man to do something, to exercise obedience, so he sent him to the Siloam Pool to wash his eyes. But there’s an interesting little detail to the story. Before sending him off, Jesus smeared mud on his eyelids.

The intriguing question is: Why? Have you ever seen anyone spit it into the dirt, twirl it around with his finger, then take the mud and smear it over someone’s eyes? How would you like it if someone did that to you?

It’s obvious. The mud made the man want to obey. It was a nudging, an additional motivation for the man to go to the pool of Siloam to wash his eyes. The mud provided the motivation for the obedience Christ required.

We don’t always understand why mud gets in our eyes, but sometimes if it weren’t there, we would never bring critical areas of our lives into obedience to Jesus Christ. And without obedience, the work of God can never be displayed in us. God, in his infinite grace and wisdom, sometimes uses mud to restore our sight.^-Morgan

Inspirational Quote: If Joseph had not been Egypt’s prisoner, he would have never been Egypt’s governor. The iron chains about his feet ushered in the golden chains about his neck.—William Secker

Prayer for today: Dear Lord, help me to see your purpose while facing suffering and trials in my life so that I can face them with confidence. In your name, Amen.

Day Thirty Three – Lenten Devotionals 2010

2010-03-26T00:01:00.000-07:00

God’s Word: “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

(Hebrews 12:2)

Turn your eyes to Jesus: Bible teacher A. T. Pierson tells about a new convert to Christ who had a strange dream in which he was trapped down in a very deep well in the night. He looked up and saw a single star shining far above him, and it seemed to let down lines of silver light that took hold upon him and lifted him up. Then he looked down, and he began to go down. He looked up, and he began to go up; he looked down, and he began to go down again. He found that by simply keeping his eye on that star, he rose out of the well until his foot stood on the firm ground.

The dream was a parable, said Dr. Pierson. “Get your eyes off yourself and on your Savior, get them off your disease and on your physician.… Now and here, turn your eyes to the Lord Jesus."

“Satan, the Hinderer, may build a barrier about us,” Hudson Taylor once said, “but he can never roof us in so that we cannot look up.” Arthur T. Pierson

Quote: He stands absolutely alone in history; in teaching, in example, in character, an exception, a marvel, and He is Himself the evidence of Christianity.—A. T. Pierson

Prayer: Dear Lord, I thank you today for your presence in my entire life. Help me to remember each day so that I can fix my eyes on You amidst life storms. Amen.

Day Thirty Two – Lenten Devotionals 2010

2010-03-25T09:08:00.001-07:00

God’s Word: “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.” (1 Timothy 1:15)

Inspirational Story: Behind Hugh Latimer (1485–1555), the “Preacher of the English Reformation,” was his mentor Thomas Bilney.

Bilney, a quiet scholar at Cambridge University, acquired a Greek New Testament from the famous Erasmus. As he pored over it, one verse of Scripture seemed to be written in letters of light, and it led to his conversion: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners!

Bilney wanted to share his experience with others, but this was Reformation truth, and the Reformation had not yet reached England. Teachers such as Luther were being fiercely attacked by English churchmen like Hugh Latimer.

But as Bilney listened to young Latimer rail against the Reformation, he prayed this unusual prayer: “O God, I am but ‘little Bilney,’ and shall never do any great thing for Thee. But give me the soul of that man, Hugh Latimer, and what wonders he shall do in Thy most holy name.”

One day Bilney pulled Latimer aside. Using his own conversion verse—1 Timothy 1:15—he led the great Latimer to simple faith in Christ, and the English Reformation was born. - Morgan, R. J.

Quote: The disciple of Jesus is not the deluxe or heavy-duty model of the Christian—especially padded, textured, streamlined, and empowered for the fast lane on the straight and narrow way. He stands on the pages of the New Testament as the first level of basic transportation in the kingdom of God.—Dallas Willard

Prayer: Dear Lord, grant me today a passion to share the grace experience that you have given to me. Help me to remember how you have suffered for me in order to have this sanctification through the shedding of your own blood. Amen.

Day Thirty One – Lenten Devotionals 2010

2010-03-24T00:21:00.000-07:00

God’s Word: “Who, being in very natureGod, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very natureof a servant, being made in human likeness.And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:6-8)

Jesus Christ: Pastor D. James Kennedy said in a sermon, “I remember years ago talking to a man in his home about Christ and asking him who he thought Jesus was. He said, ‘Oh, He’s a wonderful man. He was the greatest man who ever lived, the most loving and gracious person who ever walked upon this earth.’

“I said, ‘Let me tell you something I believe will startle you. According to the Scriptures, and the historic Christian faith, Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter of Galilee was and is the eternal Creator of the universe, the omnipotent, omniscient, and Almighty God.’

“Instantly, his eyes filled with tears and this man of about fifty-five or sixty said, ‘I have been in church all of my life and I never heard that before. But I have always thought that is the way it ought to be—that God ought to be like Jesus.’ D. James Kennedy

Quote: Jesus Christ: the meeting place of eternity and time, the blending of deity and humanity, the junction of heaven and earth.—Anonymous

Prayer: Dear Lord, today I offer my life for your glory to be shine and open the eyes of multitude of people including Christless Christians. In your name, Amen.

Day Thirty – Lenten Devotionals 2010

2010-03-23T00:46:00.000-07:00

God’s Word: "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” (James 1:22-24)

To obey is better than sacrifice: Aretta Loving, Wycliffe missionary, was washing her breakfast dishes when she saw Jimmy, the five-year-old neighbor, headed straight toward the back porch. She had just finished painting the back-porch handrails, and she was proud of her work.

“Come around to the front door, Jimmy,” she shouted. “There’s wet paint on the porch rails.”

“I’ll be careful,” Jimmy replied, not turning from his path.

“No, Jimmy! Don’t come up the steps,” Aretta shouted, knowing of Jimmy’s tendency to mess things up.

“I’ll be careful,” he said again, by now dangerously close to the steps.

“Jimmy, stop!” Aretta shouted. “I don’t want carefulness. I want obedience!” As the words burst from her mouth, she suddenly remembered Samuel’s response to King Saul: To obey is better than sacrifice.

How would Jimmy respond, Aretta wondered. To her relief, he shouted back, “All right, Loving, I’ll go around to the front door.” He was the only one who called her by her last name like that, and it had endeared him to her from the beginning. As he turned around the house, Aretta thought to herself, “How often am I like Saul or like Jimmy, wanting to go my own way? I rationalize, ‘I’ll be careful, Lord’ as I proceed with my own plans.”

But He doesn’t want carefulness. He wants obedience.Morgan, R. J.

Quote: You have not really learned a commandment until you have obeyed it.… The church suffers today from Christians who know volumes more than they practice.—Vance Havner

Day Twenty Nine – Lenten Devotionals 2010

2010-03-21T23:21:00.000-07:00

God’s Word: " But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” (Romans 5:8-10)

Precious Blood: Several years ago in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, George and Vera Bajenksi’s lives were changed forever. February 16, 1989. A very normal Thursday morning. The phone rang at 9:15 a.m. "There’s been an accident..." It involved their son Ben. As they approached the intersection of Adelaide and Simcoe Streets near the high school, they could see the flashing lights of the police cars and ambulance units. Vera noticed a photographer and followed the direction of his camera lens to the largest pool of blood she had ever seen. All she could say was, "George, Ben went home--home to be with his Heavenly Father!" Her first reaction was to jump out of the car, somehow collect the blood and put it back into her son. "That blood, for me, at that moment, became the most precious thing in the world because it was life.

It was life-giving blood and it belonged in my son, my only son, the one I loved so much." The road was dirty and the blood just didn’t belong there. George noticed that cars were driving right through the intersection--right through the blood. His heart was smitten. He wanted to cover the blood with his coat and cry, "You will not drive over the blood of my son!" Then Vera understood for the first time in her life, one of God’s greatest and most beautiful truths...why blood? Because it was the strongest language God could have used. It was the most precious thing He could give-- the highest price He could pay. Through God’s amazing love we were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:18-19). May we never treat lightly nor trample underfoot the blood of God’s Son (Hebrews 10:29). "Amazing love! How can it be? That though, My God, shouldst die for me!" (Charles Wesley).

Meditation: The Bible is a book of blood … wholly distinct from all other books for just one reason, namely, that it contains blood circulating through every page and in every verse. From Genesis to Revelation we see the stream of blood.—M. R. DeHaan

Day Twenty Eight – Lenten Devotionals 2010

2010-03-19T23:40:00.000-07:00

God’s Word: "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. "You are My friends if you do what I command you. "No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. (John 15:13-15)

Inspirational Story: When someone dies, we remember—we remember all the stories that filled their life. Last week a man named Joseph Bau died. It’s a name you probably don’t know, but a story worth hearing.

Joseph Bau was born on June 18, 1920, in Krakow, Poland. He became a young man just in time to experience the German invasion of Poland. He was one of three boys in a prosperous middle-class family that lived in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods. Joseph had always been good at art, and at the age of 18, he enrolled in the University of Plastic Arts at Krakow.
But the war interrupted his studies. His family was forced to move to the Jewish Ghetto, and then later to the Plaschow concentration camp. Because of Joseph’s partial education in Art before the war, and because of his talent for Gothic lettering, the Nazis employed him in producing maps and signs for the camp.

Joseph’s job also enabled him to save more than 400 Jews by forging false documents and identity papers that secured their release from the camp. When asked after the war, why he did not forge documents for himself, he replied, “Then who would have done it for the other Jews?”
When Jesus was hanging on the cross, we hear a similar question, “He saved others; He cannot save himself?” And Jesus answers, “What shall I say, ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.” With the death of Joseph Bau, we remember a story that saved hundreds of Jews from death.

With the bread and this cup at communion, we remember the sacrifice of Jesus—a story that saves every one who believes from spiritual death.

Meditation: Even in the best of health we should have death always before our eyes. We will not expect to remain on this earth forever, but will have one foot in the air, so to speak.—Martin Luther

Day Twenty Seven – Lenten Devotionals 2010

2010-03-18T23:55:00.000-07:00

God’s Word: " Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, "Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.” (Jeremiah 18:6-7)

The Unseen Hand: There was once a famous German artist named Herkomer, born in the Black Forest, whose father was a simple woodchopper. Herkomer was a gifted artist, and as his reputation grew, he moved to London and built a studio there. He sent for his aged father, and the dad came, full of pride for his son, and lived with him.

The old man enjoyed creating things out of clay, and he learned to make very beautiful bowls and vases, items of which he was very proud. So the father and son were in business together as artisans. But as the years passed, the old man’s abilities deteriorated, and at the end of the day, as he went upstairs, he would seem sad because he felt that his work was now inferior.

Herkomer’s sharp eye detected this, and when his father was safely upstairs and asleep for the night, Herkomer would come downstairs and take in hand the pieces of clay that his old father had left. He would gently correct the defects and the faults, and mold them a little one way or the other. And when the old man would come down in the mornings, he would hold up the pieces in the morning light, smile, and say, “I can still do it as well as I ever did.”

That’s just what our Father does with us. We try to do for Him what we can. We visit the sick, teach the children, sing and usher and invite and take food to the bereaved. We send our missionaries and pray for them. But we’re all frail and flawed, and our work for the Lord isn’t as perfect and pure as we would like. Yet the Lord places His omnipotent hand on it, and shapes it, and uses it in ways far greater than we know. - F. B. Meyer

Quote: Charles Spurgeon once said, Don’t hold back because you cannot preach in St. Paul’s; be content to talk to one or two in a cottage; very good wheat grows in little fields. You may cook in small pots as well as in big ones. Little pigeons can carry great messages. Even a little dog can bark at a thief, and wake up the master and save the house. A spark is fire. A sentence of truth has heaven in it. Do what you do right, thoroughly, pray over it heartily, and leave the result to God.

Meditation: First, that all and every one who believes, being members of Christ, are in common partakers of Him and of all his riches and gifts; secondly, that every one must know it to be his duty readily and cheerfully to employ his gifts for the advantage and salvation of other members.—Heidelberg Catechism

Day Twenty Six – Lenten Devotionals 2010

2010-03-18T00:04:00.001-07:00

God’s Word: "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:25-26)

The Supreme Weapon: Joseph Tson, the evangelical dissident in Communist Romania, was often summoned before government officers who used every tactic to break his faith in Christ. Once, being interrogated at Ploiesti, an officer threatened to kill him.

“Sir,” replied Tson, “let me explain how I see this issue. Your supreme weapon is killing. My supreme weapon is dying.

“Here is how it works. You know that my sermons on tape have spread all over the country. If you kill me, those sermons will be sprinkled with my blood. Everyone will know I died for my preaching. And everyone who has a tape will pick it up and say, ‘I’d better listen again to what this man preached, because he really meant it; he sealed it with his life.’

“So, sir, my sermons will speak ten times louder than before. I will actually rejoice in this supreme victory if you kill me.” The officer sent Tson home.^-Morgan

Quote: There came a day when George Mueller died, utterly died! No longer did his own desires, preferences, and tastes come first. He know that from then on Christ must be all in all.—George Mueller, when asked the secret of his victorious Christian life.

“And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, "Write, 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!'" "Yes," says the Spirit, "so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.” (Revelation 14:13)

Day Twenty Five – Lenten Devotionals 2010

2010-03-17T07:36:00.000-07:00

God’s Word: All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

The Prodigal: One of the most powerful personal evangelists of the nineteenth century was “Uncle” John Vassar, who grew up in his family’s brewery in Poughkeepsie, New York. Following his conversion to Christ, he abandoned beer-making for soul-winning, and on May 15, 1850, he was commissioned as an agent for the American Tract Society of New York. Vassar took off across the country, never resting in his mission of selling Christian literature and asking everyone he met about their relationship with Christ.

On one occasion, traveling in the West, he visited the home of a praying wife whose husband was an infidel. She begged for a Bible, and Vassar, giving her one, went his way. He had no sooner left when the husband, coming home, saw the book and was enraged. Seizing the Bible with one hand and the ax with the other, he hurried to the wood-pile where he placed it on the chopping block and hacked it crosswise in two. Returning to the house, he threw half of the destroyed Bible at his wife, saying, “As you claim a part of all the property around here, there is your share of this.”

The other half he tossed into his tool shed. Months later on a wet winter’s day, the man, wanting to get away from his Christian wife, retreated to his shed. The time passed slowly, and in boredom he looked around for something to read. Thumbing through the mutilated Bible, his attention was caught by the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15. He became absorbed in the parable only to discover that its ending belonged to his wife’s section. He crept into the house and secretly searched for the bottom half of the book, but was unable to find where his wife had hidden it.

Finally he broke down, asked her for it, and read the story again and again. In the process he came to the Heavenly Father like a penitent prodigal returning home.T. E. Vassar

Quote: The ark was a great ark, which held all kinds of creatures; and our Christ is a great Refuge, who saves all kinds of sinners.—Charles Spurgeon

Prayer for today: Father, thank you for your word, powerful and living word. Help me to fill with your word in me to demonstrate your power and love to needy people of your grace. Amen.

Day Twenty Four – Lenten Devotionals 2010

2010-03-16T00:56:00.000-07:00

God’s Word: “But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike.” (Acts 8:12)

Inspired Story: Dr. Doren Edwards, a surgeon in Erin, Tennessee, tells of a patient of his, Blanche Bennet, whose alcoholic husband had died. Her two children were giving her problems, finances were tight, and life was very hard. She wasn’t a Christian.

One day she came to see Dr. Edwards with physical problems, and he diagnosed cancer, with multiple organs involved. No treatment was available, and she was very bitter. Dr. Edwards, a Christian and a Gideon, wanted to talk with her about the Lord, but she wouldn’t allow him to share his witness. She did, however, accept a small New Testament.

A few weeks later, the doctor learned from the newspaper obituary that she had died. He sent a card to the family, telling them he had donated Bibles in her memory to the Gideons.

The woman’s daughter called him. “Could you please send us a Bible like the ones you donated in memory of our mother,” she asked. “We don’t have a Bible in our home. The last six days she was alive, her whole life changed. She was no longer bitter, she wasn’t afraid to die, and she said something about knowing Jesus. But she asked that her Bible be buried in her hand, and we couldn’t keep it. Would you please send us a Bible so that we can find what Mama found in that book?”

Dr. Edwards sent them a Bible, and to date the daughter, the son, and one sister have been saved as a result. Morgan, R. J

Quote: Success in witnessing is simply taking the initiative to share Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit, then leaving the results to God.—Bill Bright

Prayer for today: Dear Lord, help me to have confident and courage to witness the good news about your grace and salvation to my families and friends. Amen.

Day Twenty Three – Lenten Devotionals 2010

2010-03-15T10:27:00.000-07:00

God’s Word: “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” - Hebrews 4:12

Inspired Story: Jacob Koshy grew up in Singapore with one driving ambition: to be a success in life, to gain all the money and possessions he could. That led him into the world of drugs and gambling, and eventually he became the lord of an international smuggling network. In 1980, he was arrested and placed in a government drug rehabilitation prison in Singapore.

He was frustrated beyond endurance. All his goals, purposes, dreams, and ambitions were locked up with him in a tiny cell, and his heart was full of a cold emptiness.

He was a smoker, and cigarettes weren’t allowed in the center. Instead, he smuggled in tobacco and rolled it in the pages of a Gideon Bible. One day he fell asleep while smoking. He awoke to find that the cigarette had burned out, and all that remained was a scrap of charred paper. He unrolled it and read what was written: “Saul, Saul, Why do you persecute me?”

Jacob asked for another Bible and read the entire story of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. He suddenly realized that if God could help someone like Saul, God could help him, too. There in his cell he knelt and prayed, asking Christ to come into his life and change him. He began crying and couldn’t stop. The tears of a wasted life washed away his pain, and God redeemed him. He started sharing his story with the other prisoners, and as soon as he was released he became involved in a church. He met a Christian woman, married, and is now a missionary in the Far East where he tells people far and wide, “Who would have believed that I could find the truth by smoking the Word of God?”

Quote: The ark was a great ark, which held all kinds of creatures; and our Christ is a great Refuge, who saves all kinds of sinners.—Charles Spurgeon

Prayer for today: Thank you Lord for your Living Words inspire and teaching us every minutes of our lives whenever we read and meditate on it. Let us be your words so that people will see your word on us. Amen.

Day Twenty Two – Lenten Devotionals 2010

2010-03-13T00:03:00.000-08:00

God’s Word: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." John 13:34-35)

Inspiration: The name Dawson Trotman, founder of the Navigators, will forever be associated with discipleship, because discipling others became the passion of his life. It happened like this. One day early in his ministry Dawson was driving along and he saw a young man walking down the street on his way to caddy at the golf course. Trotman often picked up hitchhikers, for it gave him a chance to witness.

The hitchhiker on this day swore as he got into the car; Dawson reached into his pocket for a gospel tract and handed it to him. The man glanced at the tract, then looked at Dawson and said, “Haven’t I seen you somewhere before?”

Dawson looked at him closely. As it turned out, the two men had met on the same road the previous year. Dawson had witnessed to him, led him to Christ, and had “sped on my merry way” confident that another soul had entered the kingdom.

But now, a year later, there was no more evidence of the new birth in this young man than if he had never heard the gospel.

“After I met this boy the second time on the way to the golf course, I began to go back and find some of my ‘converts.’ I want to tell you, I was sick at heart.”

Motivated by that experience, Dawson Trotman began working on follow-up, on developing ways of mentoring those whom he was winning to Christ.

“Before I had forgotten to follow up on the people God had reached through me,” he later said. “But from then on I began to spend time helping them.… You can lead a soul to Christ in anywhere from twenty minutes to a couple of hours. But it takes from twenty weeks to a couple of years to get him on the road to maturity.” Dawson Trotman

Day Twenty One – Lenten Devotionals 2010

2010-03-11T23:50:00.000-08:00

God’s Word: “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” – Hebrews 4:14-16

Inspiration: On May 24, 1962, Commander Scott Carpenter roared into space in a Mercury space capsule. He piloted his Aurora 7 spacecraft through three revolutions of the earth, reaching a maximum altitude of 164 miles. The spacecraft landed in the Atlantic Ocean about 1000 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral after 4 hours and 54 minutes of flight time.

Following his return, NASA Administrator Webb presented him with astronaut wings in a ceremony at the Cape. Then on June 5, New York City celebrated his flight with a ticker tape parade and President Kennedy honored him at the White House.

In the middle of the White House ceremonies, his five-year-old daughter, Candace, tugged at his sleeve. She wanted to show her daddy the scratch on her right elbow that happened while he was gone. What did he do? Yes, he turned away from the honors, away from the acclaim of a proud nation to give his attention to the concerns of his little daughter. A scratch on the elbow was important to her, and so it was important to him. In our hurt, Jesus Christ can sympathize with us. By Peter Kennedy

Food for Thought: “Don’t let your weaknesses, your temptations, your suffering cause you to run from God. Run to Him. He is not the God who is far off. He is near. He’s the one who can truly meet your needs because He’s ‘Been there. Dealt with that.’” – Joel Smith

Prayer: Today in prayer, turn to Jesus and confess any sin and receive His loving comfort.

Day Twenty – Lenten Devotionals 2010

2010-03-11T07:14:00.000-08:00

Scripture Texts: “Jesus said, "This voice was for your benefit, not mine. Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.” (John 12:30-33)

Two Evangelists: Billy Graham once recalled, I remember preaching in Dallas, Texas, early in our ministry. It was 1953. About forty thousand people attended each night, but one evening only a few people responded to the appeal to receive Jesus Christ. Discouraged, I left the platform. A German businessman was there, a devout man of God. He put his arm around me and said, ‘Billy, do you know what was wrong tonight? You didn’t preach the cross.’

The next night I preached on the blood of Christ, and a great host of people responded to receive Christ as Savior. When we proclaim the Gospel of Christ, when we preach Christ crucified and risen, there is a built-in power to it.

One hundred years before, a reporter attending the great British evangelistic campaigns of evangelist D. L. Moody wrote something remarkably similar. Referring to the great crowds attending Moody’s meetings, the London journalist wrote, “One cannot but ask the question, ‘What is the magic power which draws together these mighty multitudes and holds them spellbound?’ Is it the worldly rank or wealth of learning or oratory of the preacher? No, for he is possessed of little of these. It is the simple lifting up of the cross of Christ—the holding forth the Lord Jesus before the eyes of the people.” Morgan, R. J.

Meditation: The meaning of the cross is simple. In the Christian religion, (which I am), the cross represents what Jesus died upon in order to save all sinners from eternal damnation. Jesus is the way to Heaven and the only way to get to Heaven is to know that Jesus died upon that cross, confess that you are a sinner and accept Jesus into your heart and as your Lord and Savior.- Wiki

Day Nineteen – Lenten Devotionals 2010

2010-03-10T00:52:00.000-08:00

Scripture Texts: “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Galatians 6:14)

No Answer: A man in Dundee, Scotland, was confined to bed for forty years, having broken his neck in a fall at age fifteen. But his spirit remained unbroken, and his cheer and courage so inspired people that he enjoyed a constant stream of guests. One day a visitor asked him, “Doesn’t Satan ever tempt you to doubt God?”

“Oh, yes,” replied the man. “He does try to tempt me. I lie here and see my old schoolmates driving along in their carriages and Satan whispers, ‘If God is so good, why does He keep you here all these years? Why did he permit your neck to be broken?’ ”

“What do you do when Satan whispers those things?” asked the guest.

“Ah,” replied the invalid, “I take him to Calvary, show him Christ, and point to those deep wounds, and say, ‘You see, he does love me.’ And Satan has no answer to that. He flees every time.”Morgan, R. J.

Inspiration: Charles Spurgeon once said, “Stand at the foot of the cross, and count the purple drops by which you have been cleansed: See the thorn-crown; mark His scourged shoulders, still gushing with encrimsoned rills.… And if you do not lie prostrate on the ground before that cross, you have never seen it.”

Quote: Only one act of pure love, unsullied by any taint of ulterior motive, has ever been performed in the history of the world, namely the self-giving of God in Christ on the cross for undeserving sinners.—John Stott

Day Eighteen - Lenten Devotionals 2010

2010-03-09T06:51:00.000-08:00

Scripture Texts: “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:17-18

What Hast Thou Done For Me? Nicholaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf was born into one of Europe’s leading families in the year 1700, and he grew up in an atmosphere of prayer, Bible-reading, and hymn-singing. He excelled in school, and seemed to possess all the qualities for national leadership. After finishing his university studies at Wittenberg, Germany, Zinzendorf embarked on a grand tour of Europe, attending lectures and visiting museums, palaces, and universities.

It was while visiting the art museum at Dusseldorf that the young count had a deeply moving experience that stayed with him the rest of his life. Seeing Domenico Feti’s Ecce Homo (“Behold, the Man”), a portrait of the thorn-crowned Jesus, and reading the inscription below it—“I Did This For Thee! What Hast Thou Done For Me?” Zinzendorf said to himself, “I have loved Him for a long time, but I have never actually done anything for Him. From now on, I will do whatever He leads me to do.”

His life was never again the same, and he went on to found a spiritual community on his property, Herrnhut, which provided hundreds of Moravian missionaries over the next several decades and sparked the modern missionary movement.Morgan, R. J.

Meditation: I saw that just as Christian came up to the Cross, his burden loosed from his shoulders and fell off his back and landed in the sepulcher. Then was Christian glad and lightsome and said with a merry heart, “He hath given me rest by His sorrow, and life by His death.”—John Bunyan, in Pilgrim’s Progress

Prayer for today: Dear Lord, fill me with your Spirit so that I can speak your words and act your love for the needy people and to build the Kingdom of love. Amen.

Day Seventeen - Lenten Devotionals 2010

2010-03-08T06:18:00.000-08:00

I Must Tell Jesus: Elisha A. Hoffman was born May 7, 1839, in Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania. His father was a minister, and Elisha followed Christ at a young age. He attended Philadelphia public schools, studied science, then pursued the classics at Union Seminary of the Evangelical Association. He worked for eleven years with the Association’s publishing house in Cleveland, Ohio. Then, following the death of his young wife, he returned to Pennsylvania and devoted thirty-three years to pastoring Benton Harbor Presbyterian Church.

Hoffman’s pastime was writing hymns, many of which were inspired by pastoral incidents. One day, for example, while calling on the destitute of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, he met a woman whose depression seemed beyond cure. She opened her heart and poured on him her pent-up sorrows. Wringing her hands, she cried, “What shall I do? Oh, what shall I do?” Hoffman knew what she should do, for he had himself learned the deeper lessons of God’s comfort. He said to the woman, “You cannot do better than to take all your sorrows to Jesus. You must tell Jesus.”

Suddenly the lady’s face lighted up. “Yes!” she cried, “That’s it! I must tell Jesus.” Her words echoed in Hoffman’s ears, and he mulled them over as he returned home. He drew out his pen and started writing, I must tell Jesus! I must tell Jesus! / I cannot bear my burdens alone; / I must tell Jesus! I must tell Jesus! / Jesus can help me, Jesus alone.

Hoffman lived to be ninety, telling Jesus his burdens and giving the church such hymns as What A Wonderful Savior, Down at the Cross, Are You Washed in the Blood?, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms, and a thousand more. - Robert J. Morgan

Quote: Therefore ought a man to rest wholly upon God, so that he needeth not seek much comfort at the hands of men.—Thomas à Kempis

Prayer for today: I praise the Lord with all my heart for such a blessing of Savior Jesus Christ who is always ready whenever I need comfort and guidance. Amen.