Month: May 2007

Big Problems Resolved With Small Sacrifice

Bible passage

(1) There happened to be there a base and contemptible fellow named Sheba son of Bichri, a Benjamite. He blew a trumpet and said, We have no portion in David and no inheritance in the son of Jesse! Every man to his tents, O Israel! (2) So all the men of Israel withdrew from David and followed Sheba son of Bichri; but the men of Judah stayed faithfully with their king, from the Jordan to Jerusalem. 2 Samuel 20:1-2

(15) And they came and besieged Sheba in Abel of Beth-maacah, and they cast up a siege mound against the city, and it stood against the rampart; and all the men with Joab battered and undermined the wall to make it fall. (16) Then a wise woman of the city cried, Hear, hear! Say to Joab, Come here so I can speak to you. (17) And when he came near her, the woman said, Are you Joab? He answered, I am. Then she said to him, Hear the words of your handmaid. He answered, I am listening. (18) Then she said, People used to say, Let them but ask counsel at Abel, and so they settled the matter. (19) I am one of the peaceable and faithful in Israel. You seek to destroy a city which is a mother in Israel. Why will you swallow up the inheritance of the Lord? (20) Joab answered, Far be it, far be it from me that I should swallow up or destroy! (21) That is not true. But a man of the hill country of Ephraim, Sheba son of Bichri, has lifted up his hand against King David. Deliver him only, and I will depart from the city. And the woman said, Behold, his head shall be thrown to you over the wall. (22) Then the woman in her wisdom went to all the people. And they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bichri and cast it down to Joab. So he blew the trumpet, and they retired from the city, every man to his own home. And Joab returned to Jerusalem to the king. 2 Samuel 20:15-22

My thoughts

The people from the Sheba in Abel of Beth had a really big problem. They were all going to die because of this one man that was in their walled city. They were saved by this wise woman. She understood that they have to cast out the evil from among themselves, so they should live.

Nowadays we live in a strange community. It seems that nothing goes right. The non-rightness people prosper and all the other suffer. But actually all of us have issues with our correctness.

Each of us are like that walled city. So we could really live we have to give up on the bad things. We have to accept God as He is, and let Him cleanse us. If we want to live our life to the full, we have to accept Him, as God says I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows). John 10:10

Related posts:

The Real Rescue

Bible passage

(29) And those who passed by kept reviling Him and reproaching Him abusively in harsh and insolent language, wagging their heads and saying, Aha! You Who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, (30) Now rescue Yourself [from death], coming down from the cross! (31) So also the chief priests, with the scribes, made sport of Him to one another, saying, He rescued others [from death]; Himself He is unable to rescue. (32) Let the Christ (the Messiah), the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see [it] and trust in and rely on Him and adhere to Him! Those who were crucified with Him also reviled and reproached Him [speaking abusively, harshly, and insolently]. Mark 15:29-32

My thoughts

I would not say much in words about this. I pity the people of that times, and the ones nowadays that do not understand Christ’s sacrifice. They mocked Jesus saying that He rescued others, but is unable to rescue Himself. Actually, in that moments He was doing the actual rescuing of all the people that believe in His sacrifice. His power didn’t stay in the ability to go down the cross. Of coarse He could have done that. But, His was in staying there, on the cross, for me and you. He stood there, he suffered instead of me, the was the supreme sacrifice. He died so I could live. And not the life as we see it now. Not this earthly life, but the eternal life.

Carefully choose you friends

A good lesson that I learned this morning is that I should carefully choose my friends. By friends, I mean the ones that give me advices, that show me what I should do in troubled times. Because a friend indeed is one when you’re in need.

Amnon loved David’s daughter – Tamar – and it seemed impossible for him to do anything to her (2nd Samuel 13:2B). Amnon saw himself weak, with not enough courage to go to his dad – David – and talk with him about this. As we see in 2nd Samuel 13:13B (speak to the king, for he will not withhold me from you) it was possible Amnon to marry Tamar. Amnon had a friend – Jonadab. This guy was a very cunning man (2n Samuel 13:3). Cunning is not wisdom. People might see the same, but they are so different in their essence. As we find in Proverbs 9:10, the reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord is the beginning (the chief and choice part) of Wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight and understanding. So, one good point is that when I choose someone to be my friend, to advise me, he/she should in the first place have a reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord. If this lacks, I can be sure that the advices I get will not take me anywhere good.

Reading the rest of the 2nd Samuel 13 chapter we see that Amnon forces Tamar to sleep with him. The consequences are that Amnon ends up dead by Tamar’s brother – Absalom – and the curse comes down in the family.

The bad friendships examples are further shown. In 2nd Samuel 14:1-23 we see Joab. In the first place I thought that he was a wise man. Joab was indeed devoted to David and did great things for the king, but we can not say that he always acted with wisdom. Joab killed Abner and Absalom.

Further reading I found another bad example – Ahithophel. He was one of David’s advisers/counselors, but he betrayed his king on Absalom’s behalf (While Absalom was offering sacrifices, he also sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counselor, to come from Giloh, his hometown. And so the conspiracy gained strength, and Absalom’s following kept on increasing. 2nd Samuel 15:12; Now David had been told, “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.” So David prayed, “O LORD, turn Ahithophel’s counsel into foolishness.” 2nd Samuel 15:31). If you read 2nd Samuel 15-17 Ahithophel always had bad influence on people. His apogee is described in 2nd Samuel 16:23: Now in those days the advice Ahithophel gave was like that of one who inquires of God. That was how both David and Absalom regarded all of Ahithophel’s advice.

I pray that God would watch over me, so that I would never have such friends.

What do you think about choosing your friends? What advise do you have?

A letter to the Global Church from The Protestant Church of Smyrna

A letter to the Global Church from The Protestant Church of Smyrna

taken from

http://www.izmirprotestan.org/docs/Letter_to_the_Global_Church.pdf


Dear friends,

This past week has been filled with much sorrow. Many of you have heard by now of our devastating loss here in an event that took place in Malatya, a Turkish province 300 miles northeast of Antioch, the city where believers were first called Christians (Acts 11:26). On Wednesday morning, April 18, 2007, 46 year old German Christian and father of three Tilmann Geske prepared to go to his office, kissing his wife goodbye and taking a moment to hug his son and give him the priceless memory, “Goodbye, son. I love you.” Tilmann rented an office space from Zirve Publishing. Zirve was also the location of the Malatya Evangelist Church office. A ministry of the church, Zirve prints and distributes Christian literature to Malatya and nearby cities in Eastern Turkey. In another area of town, 35 year old Pastor Necati Aydin, father of two, said goodbye to his wife, leaving for the office as well. They had a morning Bible Study and prayer meeting that some other believers in town would also be attending. Ugur Yuksel likewise made his way to the Bible study.

None of these three men knew that what awaited them at the Bible study was the ultimate testing and application of their faith, which would conclude with their entrance into glory to receive their crown of righteousness from Christ and honor from all the saints awaiting them in the Lord’s presence.

On the other side of town, ten young men all under 20 years old put into place final arrangements for their ultimate act of faith, living out their love for Allah and hatred of infidels who they felt undermined Islam. Continue reading A letter to the Global Church from The Protestant Church of Smyrna

BIR: When God Writes Your Love Story – Eric & Leslie Ludy – UPDATED

When God Writes Your Love Story - Eric & Leslie Ludy

BIR – Books I Read is a new section in my Blog. I do not start to read a book, finish it and then start another one. I am not like that. I read several book in the same time. I do not have all of them open and read from one a word and from another one a word and so on. But, when I find out about a good book I try to get it and I start to read it. Some say that by doing this, I can not get the whole picture of a book. But for me that is not true.

For some time now I heard about When God Writes Your Love Story by Eric & Leslie Ludy. A few days ago a good friend told me that read it. And yesterday evening I borrowed the book. As I got home, after I had something to eat, I opened the book. I’m at the 3rd chapter now. I really like the style of how the book was written. It is fresh and easy to read. But this doesn’t make it a light book. I believe that I have things to learn from this book and that it is going to help me.

Until now, I agree with what I read. The main things in those chapters I read, is that remained in my head are:

  1. I can trust in God also to write your love story. He is more than qualified to do this. He made me, so knows me better than I do.
  2. together we have to build the foundation. This is hard gray concrete, not very attractive, but strong to build later on.
  3. I should let God drive my life, not my dreams. He has better dreams dreams than I do.

I’ll keep you updated as I read the book and how it transforms me.

(3) Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (4) Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. (5) Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Matthew 5:3-5

2007.05.19 UPDATE – new ideas:

  1. God says Do not try to build me in your life, but build your life around me (chapter 4, sub-chapter 4, 3rh paragraph, p. 63, Romanian translation)
  2. There’s not super formula for a great love story. When and if I would trust in a formula, we would loose the whole beauty that is in the love story that God wants to write for me (chapter 4, sub-chapter 5, 10th paragraph, p. 66, Romanian translation)
  3. Wrong & Right questions (chapter 4, sub-chapter 8, 2nd paragraph, p. 70, Romanian translation):
    • WRONG: How far can I go without upsetting God?
    • RIGHT: How far can I go in pleasing God?
  4. Immature love always compares, complain and feels unsafe, which transforms it self into jealousy (chapter 5, sub-chapter 1, 1st paragraph, p. 75, Romanian translation)
  5. “Eric”, whispered softly, with here delicate voice, “I forgive you!” She touched my cheek with her hand and with tremble she said, “Eric, I love you! You are my here, my knight in shining armor! And I chose to love you exactly as I sweet Jesus loves me!” (chapter 5, sub-chapter 1, 11th paragraph, p. 76, Romanian translation)
  6. Love is Christ’s sweetest perfume. If you approach Him, more and more, you’ll start to smell the same way (chapter 5, sub-chapter 2, 1st paragraph, p. 79, Romanian translation)

Go to the Books I Read Page.

More is Less

What I mean with the title is that giving more choices to the customers, you actually get less profit. This happens because

  1. the customers freezes when sees so many choices and does not know what to buy. This means a waste of time, when he/she could have bought and come again to buy some more.
  2. when the customer finally decides about his choice, he/she ends up less satisfied with the choice made, than there would be less options to chose from, because:
    • it the result of the choice is not perfect, then it is easy to imagine how it would have been if you choose better. So, you regret the decision you made and this subtracts from the satisfaction you had making the decision you did. The more options there are, the easier to regret your option is.
    • the value of something depends on what you compare that thing to
    • when you choose to do a thing you choose not to do others
    • with all the options available, the expectation raise
    • everything was better back when everything was worse because back then you could have had pleasant surprises
    • raise of the clinical depression because people have fell bad because bad choices they made when there was so much to chose from.

The secret to happiness is low expectations. What enables all of this choice is the material affluence. So, Barry recommends to give our extra choice to the others that have no choice.


So, More is less!

BIR: On Brand – Wally Olins

despre-brand-wallz-olins.jpg

2 weeks ago I ordered On Brand by Wally Olins from Comunicare.ro publishing house. I got the book in a few days.

The author knows what he’s talking about. Besides that, I like his writing style. It also helped me with the project I have for my MBA (Program to Stimulate Sales at Snowy). I did not finish the book yet, but it already helped me to understand mor what is the relation between the employee and the company brand. My brain works by examples. And this book is tailored for me.

Go to the Books I Read Page.