“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”
― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Tag Archives: modern
Modern Parable ~ Walk the Walk
My dad, Chuck Queener shared this with me and I had to share it with you. Enjoy!
When we ‘talk-the-talk’, we have to ‘walk-the-walk’
Source, Unknown
The light turned yellow just in front of him. He did the right thing,
stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red
light by accelerating through the intersection.
The tailgating woman was furious and honked her horn, screaming in
frustration, as she missed her chance to get through the
intersection…dropping her cell phone and makeup.
As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked
up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her
to exit her car with her hands up.. he took her to the police station where
she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a holding cell.
After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the
door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting
officer was waiting with her personal effects.
He said, “I’m very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind
your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of
you and cussing a blue streak at him. I noticed the ‘What Would Jesus Do’
bumper sticker, the ‘Choose Life’ license plate holder, the ‘Follow Me to
Sunday-School’ bumper sticker, and the chrome-plated Christian fish
emblem on the trunk, so naturally…I assumed you had stolen the car.”
“If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” – Galatians 5:25 (ESV)
Monday Modern Parable ~ The Rock
A man is asked by God to push a huge rock. He tries to push the rock but it won’t budge. He leans in with all his might, but still it is too heavy. He sits back to take a swig of water but gets right back up and tries to move it. He digs his heals in while sweat breaks from his forehead and blisters start to form on his hands. He takes another break, but continues what seems like a futile attempt, yet he still tries. Finally God comes back to see how he is doing. The man tells God that he is sorry but he was unable to move the rock at all. As he lowers his head, God lifts him up and says “I did not ask you to move the rock, only that you would push it.” The man was blessed by God for his obedience even when it seemed it was futile.
How often do we think what we do is in vain. Certain prayers are asked over and over and nothing happens, yet the Lord commands us to pray. We obediently follow his Word and at times feel dismayed and want to give up. Don’t, just obey. The Lord will bless you even if it is just for your simple yet profound act of obedience.
Maranatha! (Our Lord Cometh!)
~ Jen
Monday Modern Parable ~ The Vase
A young boy and his family ventured into an antique store. Somehow in the midst of the beautiful trappings the boy got separated from his parents. It was too quite for too long and the parents got nervous. They started looking for their child. They found him, to their despair, in the back of the store with his had and arm reaching into a very expensive and very old vase. They hurried over to the child and calmly asked him to remove his hand and to stop messing around as they did not want him to break anything. To their horror, the child could not remove his hand. They tried everything while trying to avoid the shop owner’s scanning eyes. What would they do? They finally gave up and decided to tell the owner. He went to the back to get some liquid soap and water. They tried everything. They finally decided there was no hope. They would have to break the vase and pay for it too. The owner went back to his desk to find a hammer. When he returned and just before he was going to smash the antique into pieces the child’s father asked him, “Son, is there anything you would like to say before we do this?” and he replied in a sheepish tone, “Dad?… Would it help if I let go of the quarter?”
How often do we hold onto the trappings of this life. While it is our only perspective, it is not the ONLY perspective. God has something far better for us waiting in Heaven. The angels must pity us knowing what they know. Let go of all those things in your life that really do not mean anything.
(Parable derived from Pastor Mike Fabarez)
Holy. Just. Love. 