March 3, 2010
Dear Friends,
The golfing great, Tiger Woods, recently had a rude awakening. He mentioned his failure to live up to his Buddhist faith's teaching of self-restraint:He stated,
"Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security. It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint. Obviously I lost track of what I was taught."
Desires are good things, yet out of control and carried to the extreme....can prove to be deadly. Pride can be a good thing; one ought to take “pride in their work and accomplishments.”
But too much pride ends up arrogance, which looks down its nose at others.
One ought to care for self, with healthy eating and exercise.
Even God rested on the seventh day. Work and rest are part and parcel of our creation.
Yet, rest carried to the 100th degree becomes Sloth and Laziness.
Desires and passions are God given. We are not zombies, walking through life like robots. Yet desires, out of control, lead to slavery in a host of addictions.
In the course of church history, the Seven Deadly Sins, were highlighted as Potholes to avoid.
Conversely, their Seven corresponding virtues describe life “in Christ.”
God created us to love people and use things. When we get it wrong, people are used, and things are loved.
This Sunday, our focus will be upon “Greed Vs. Charity; Takers and Givers”
By God’s grace, we don’t have to live in a Pothole!
Yours in the Journey, Mark
Acts 20:32 -35 The Apostle Paul before the Ephesian Elders
“Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing.
You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions.
In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”
Exodus 20:2,3, 17 “The 10 Commandments”
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
“You shall have no other gods before me.
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
Matthew 5:6
Blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy.