The Story of 4 Boyfriends

The Wife I want if I am supposed to get married ;)

The Story of 4 Boyfriends

Once upon a time there was a girl who had four boyfriends.

She loved the fourth boyfriend the most and adorned him with rich robes and treated him to the finest of delicacies. She gave him nothing but the best.

She also loved the third boyfriend very much and was always showing him off to neighboring kingdoms. However, she feared that one day he would leave her for another.

She also loved her second boyfriend. He was her confidant and was always kind, considerate and patient with her. Whenever this girl faced a problem, she could confide in him, and he would help her get through the difficult times.

The girl’s first boyfriend was a very loyal partner and had made great contributions in maintaining her wealth and kingdom. However, she did not love the first boyfriend. Although he loved her deeply, she hardly took notice of him!

One day, the girl fell ill and she knew her time was short. She thought of her luxurious life and wondered, ‘I now have four boyfriends with me, but when I die, I’ll be all alone.’

Thus, she asked the fourth boyfriend, ‘I loved you the most, endowed you with the finest clothing and showered great care over you. Now that I’m dying, will you follow me and keep me company?’

‘No way!’, replied the fourth boyfriend, and he walked away without another word.

His answer cut like a sharp knife right into her heart.

The sad girl then asked the third boyfriend, ‘I loved you all my life. Now that I’m dying, will you follow me and keep me company?’

‘No!’, replied the third boyfriend. ‘Life is too good! When you die, I’m going to marry someone else!’

Her heart sank and turned cold.

She then asked the second boyfriend, ‘I have always turned to you for help and you’ve always been there for me.  When I die, will you follow me and keep me company?’

‘I’m sorry, I can’t help you out this time!’, replied the second boyfriend. ‘At the very most, I can only walk with you to your grave.’

His answer struck her like a bolt of lightning, and the girl was devastated.

Then a voice called out: ‘I’ll go with you. I’ll follow you no matter where you go.’

The girl looked up, and there was her first boyfriend. He was very skinny as he suffered from malnutrition and neglect.

Greatly grieved, the girl said, ‘I should have taken much better care of you when I had the chance!’

In truth, you have four boyfriends in your life:

Your fourth boyfriend is your body. No matter how much time and effort you lavish in making 
it look good, it will leave you when you die.

Your third boyfriend is your possessions, status and wealth. When you die, it will all go to others.

Your second boyfriend is your family and friends. No matter how much they have been there for you, the furthest they can stay by you is up to the grave.

And your first boyfriend is your spirit. Often neglected in pursuit of wealth, power and pleasures of the world.

However, your spirit is the only thing that will follow you where ever you go. Cultivate, strengthen and cherish it now, for it is the only part of you that will follow you to the throne of God and continue with you throughout Eternity.

By Mangesh

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The word “Christian” is both a noun and an adjective. We need more “adjective Christians,” more Christian Christians, Christians who are more Christian in thought and spirit and deed as well as in name.
--Vance Havner

Trials

Trials

There was a blacksmith who gave his heart to God.  Though conscientious in his living, still he was not prospering materially. In fact, it seems that from the time of his conversion, more trouble, affliction and loss were sustained than ever before.  Everything seemed to be going wrong.

One day, a friend who was not a Christian stopped at the blacksmith's shop to talk to him. Sympathizing with him in some of his trials, the friend said. "It seems strange to me that so much affliction should come to you just at the time when you have become an earnest Christian. Of course, I don't want to weaken your faith in God or anything like that. But here you are, with God's help and guidance, and yet things seem to be getting steadily worse.  I can't help wondering why it is."

The blacksmith did not answer immediately, but finally, he said, "You see here the raw iron which I have to make into horse's shoes. You know what I do with it? I take a piece and heat it in the fire until it is red, almost white with the heat. Then I hammer it unmercifully, to shape it as I know it should be shaped. Then I plunge it into a pail of cold water to temper it. Then I heat it again and hammer it some more. And this I do until it is finished."

"But sometimes I find a piece of iron that won't stand up under this treatment. The heat and the hammering and the cold water are too much for it. I don't know why it fails in the process, but I know it will never make a good horse's shoe." He pointed to a heap of scrap iron that was near the door of his shop. "When I get a piece that cannot take the shape and temper, I throw it out on the scrap heap. It will never be good for anything."

He went on, "I know that God has been holding me in the fires of affliction and I have felt His hammer upon me. But I don't mind, if only He can bring me to what I should be. And so, in all these hard things my prayer is simply this: Try me in any way you wish, Lord, only don't throw me on the scrap heap."

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." (James 1:2-4)

Lynell Waterma

Prayer for Change

 

You otter be HAPPY!

Prayer for Change
(By Roy Lessin)

Father, change me!
Change my heart to love You more deeply,
change my mind to know You more fully,
change my will to serve You more completely!

CHANGE ME FROM THE INSIDE OUT!
Change my interests, my motives, my desires--
may the things that are the most important to You,
be the things that are the most important to me!

Jesus, change me!
Bring Your mighty rivers to the dry places of my soul!
Feed me with the living Bread that can satisfy my hungry spirit!
Immerse my heart in the fountains of Your all-redeeming love!

Change my ashes into beauty,
my sorrow into song,
my restlessness into peace,
my darkness into light!

May the pathway You want me to walk, be the pathway I fully follow!

Holy Spirit, change me!
Be my Teacher--if I am to know Truth it must come through Your revelation;
if I am to have understanding it must be heard through Your voice;
if I am to have clarity it must be seen through Your Light;
if I am to have wisdom it must be known through Your instruction;
if I am to experience change it must come through Your power!

May the anointing of Your abiding Presence be the oil that is poured upon me!

(Psalm 5l:10, Ezekiel 36:26-27, Psalm 40:3, Isaiah 43:19, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Galatians 6:15)
 

Love that Conquers

"The love for equals is a human thing—of friend for friend, brother for brother. It is to love what is loving and lovely. The world smiles.

"The love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing—the love for those who suffer, for those who are poor, the sick, the failures, the unlovely. This is compassion, and it touches the heart of the world.

"The love for the more fortunate is a rare thing—to love those who succeed where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of the poor for the rich, of the black man for the white man. The world is always bewildered by its saints.

"And then there is the love for the enemy—love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens, and inflicts pain. The torturer's love for the torturer. This is God's love. It conquers the world."

(Frederick Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat)

A Creed to Live By
Don't undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others.
It is because we are different —
that each of us is special.

Don't set our goals by what other people deem important.
only you know what is best for you.

Don't take for granted the things closest to your heart.
cling to them as you would your life;
for without them, life is meaningless.

Don't let your life slip thru your fingers
by living in the past or for the future;
By living your life one day at a time,
you will live all the days of your life.

Don't give up when you still have something to give.
Nothing is really over —
until the moment you stop trying.

Don't be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect,
It is this fragile thread that binds us to each other.

Don't be afraid to encounter risks,
It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.

Don't dismiss your dreams —
to be without dreams is to be without hope,
to be without hope is to be without purpose.

Don't run life so fast —
that you forget not only where you've been,
but also where you are going.

Don't shut love out of your life
by saying it's impossible to find;
the quickest way to receive love is to give love —
the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly —
and the best way to keep love is to give it wings

God says no?

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN GOD SAYS NO?

I heard a story recently about a young girl who wrote a letter to a missionary to let him know that her class had been praying for him. But evidently she'd been told not to request a response to her letter because the missionaries were very busy. So the missionary got a kick out of her letter. It said, "Dear Mr. Missionary, we are praying for you. But we are not expecting an answer."

I can't help but think that that little girl summarized the prayer lives of many Christians. Sometimes we pray without expecting an answer, even though God has assured us that He does indeed hear our prayers. David said, "I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my supplications." (Psalm 116:1). But I think many of us struggle with the nagging question, "Is God really listening to me?" Yes, He heard David, He heard Elijah, and He heard the apostles. But does He hear me?

How do we really know that our prayers are answered? Sure, there are times when we see visible results. We may pray for someone who's sick and the next week they get well. But more often, our prayers don't produce flashing "neon" answers. We pray for help in financial problems, and we don't see things get any better. We pray for guidance in making right decisions, but the decisions don't get any easier. We pray for relationships with other people to improve, but they just seem to get worse. How do we as Christians account for that happening? How do we explain the fact that so many of our prayers seem to go "unanswered"?

The truth is, for a child of God there is no such thing as an unanswered prayer. Maybe you've heard it said before that God answers prayer in three ways. Sometimes the answer is "yes." Sometimes the answer is "no." And sometimes the answer is "wait a while." It's easy to accept an answer of "yes," but what about when God says, "no"?

Let me suggest three principles:

1. First of all, we need to trust God enough to realize that our all-loving, all-powerful Father loves us and has our best interest at heart.
So when it seems that God says "no" to our prayers, we must trust Him enough to understand that there must be a good reason for it. It may be beyond our limited ability to understand, but we must simply trust God.


2. Secondly, we must not forsake God.
Disappointment is a dangerous, powerful thing. When we get the feeling that God isn't listening to us, that He has said "no" to some prayer, we have a tendency to feel disappointed in Him. And Satan whispers to us, "God said He loves you, but He's not here." And if we allow that disappointment to harbor in our hearts, it can drive a wedge between us and God. We must continue to be faithful to our responsibility before God.


3. Thirdly, we need to realize that the answer may not be "no," but only "wait a while."
God always answers our prayers immediately, but sometimes there's a delay in the giving of the answer and that can be a difficult thing for us to accept. The ability to wait for an answer is one of the marks of maturity. Be willing to let God answer in his own time, in his own way, and in his own power.


Many people see God as a divine vending machine in which you deposit one prayer and out pops a blessing. But what happens when you put your money in the Coke machine and nothing comes out? You get angry, you kick the Coke machine. So it's not surprising that such a view of God and prayer leads to disappointment when God says no.

I believe that we need to foster an entirely different view of prayer from that one. Our God is the Great God of the Universe, the Creator of all things that exist other than Himself. For us to even venture to speak to Him is presumptuous. For us to ask Him to pay attention to our requests and then hope for Him to meet them requires bold expectation. In fact such would be arrogance if it were not for the simple fact that God tells us to do just that.

Looking from the proper perspective, we will not ask "What happens when God says no?" but rather "What happens when God says yes?" That the God of the heavens would listen to us and our needs is a great testimony to His great love for us. And it is that love that will lead Him to say no from time to time. At those times, we must trust Him knowing that he loves us and desires what is best for us. We must never forsake Him nor our duty toward Him. And we must realize that what we interpret to be an answer of "no" may just be God telling us to wait a while.

"This is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us." (I John 5:14)

Love

LOVE bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back, 

   Guilty of dust and sin. 

But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack 

   From my first entrance in, 

Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning 

   If I lack'd anything. 

'A guest,' I answer'd, 'worthy to be here:' 

   Love said, 'You shall be he.' 

'I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear, 

   I cannot look on Thee.' 

Love took my hand and smiling did reply, 

   'Who made the eyes but I?' 

'Truth, Lord; but I have marr'd them: let my shame 

   Go where it doth deserve.' 

'And know you not,' says Love, 'Who bore the blame?' 

   'My dear, then I will serve.' 

'You must sit down,' says Love, 'and taste my meat.' 

   So I did sit and eat. 

George Herbert