More to Life
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Where can we find a life of meaning and purpose in this chaotic world? Where can we find a peace beyond our understanding? I discovered there is so much more to life than money, career, family, hobbies, interests and even a happy marriage. I don't discount any of these things--they're all important, but they'll pass away within a lifetime. So what is more to life? After a long quest for meaning and purpose, I found God. We can actually have a personal relationship with God's Son, Jesus and choose to follow His plans and purposes. Only then does life began to make sense. God has so much in store for each of us and offers us eternal life through His Son, Jesus. And yes, the afterlife is a real place and we need to make sure we're headed in the right direction. The
Christ Painting
"I can't paint people," I replied. I wasn't an art major. "Anything I've ever painted was abstract." "Doesn't matter,"
my friend said. "Just make yourself available to God, and He can
use you." I pondered my friend's words and later said to him, "I'll help with the painting." My friend didn't have any artistic abilities, but all this changed when he became a born-again Christian. A few days later, something uncanny happened. The flat December sunlight streamed through my bedroom windows giving the room a subtle glow. "It's too cold to get out of bed," I thought. I laid facing down on my pillow when suddenly I saw a picture of a man with his eyes shut through the floral print of my pillowcase. A bright light shone next to Him. Then it dawned on me, this man looks like Jesus. We can use this image for the painting. I was enthralled. A peace I had never known before filled my heart. Immediately, I rose from bed, grabbed a writing tablet and pencil from my desk and loped back to my pillow. I tried to sketch the image, but the drawing didn't look anything like it whatsoever. After a few minutes, I gave up and readied myself for school. When I returned in the evening, I hurried to my pillowcase, but the image of Jesus had vanished. Later I discovered my friend had two dreams of the Christ painting. In his first dream, a little Christ figure stood on top of the Mount of Olives toward the center. Cliffs appeared on the left side. Then a larger image of Jesus appeared in the background with His arms extended out, touching both ends of a large cross. The bright disk of the sun shone to the right. He awoke in the middle of the night, sketched that he had seen and went back to sleep. In the morning he was shocked. The second dream contained the close-up details. After we began painting, I discovered that my friend painted the exact same image of Jesus I had seen through the rose print of my pillow case, and I gasped. Then it dawned on me that the bright thing that I saw is either the sunrise or sunset. I think it's the sunrise because Jesus is standing on top of the Mt of Olives praying for His people. My friend pointed
toward the outer borders. "Paint stained glass images with objects
inside of them to represent idols that keep people from God." I decided to paint
some books to represent worldly knowledge over God's Word, and a surfboard
to represent sports. That was smooth sailing until I dipped my brush
into the palette and dabbed some acrylic paint on canvas to paint a
hand clenching money to represent greed. I inadvertently painted six
fingers. "Oh, no!" I painstakingly fixed it and heaved a big
sigh. "Gail, surrender your brush to the Lord." "Huh?" Being a new Christian, I hadn't a clue what he meant. "Let the Lord into the painting. You're doing things on your own strength." After a long break,
I said a silent prayer. "Lord, I surrender my brush to You."
Having no idea what I prayed, I aimlessly slapped the paint on top of
the old hand, venting my frustrations out on it. Inexplicably, a perfect
hand with five fingers appeared facing the right direction. My eyes
grew wide in shock, and I stared at it slack-jawed. I knew God had intervened. The broad road represents choosing a way other than God's plan. "Jesus exposed those people who sounded religious but had no personal relationship with him. On 'that day' (the day of judgment), only our relationship with Christ--our acceptance of him as Savior and our obedience to him--will matter." After two months
of long evenings and weekends, we completed the painting. Three USC
art professors rated the painting as genius. Despite these accolades,
my friend very humbly said, "God used our hands, and all the credit
goes to Him." It's very important to understand that the afterlife is more real and permanent than our present life on earth. Jesus is waiting for each of us with open arms. My husband Bob
and I wrote our first book, Popcorn
Miracles, about the awesome wonders God performs. It'll help
people understand what it's like to have a personal relationship with
Jesus. The book is good for those who are searching for something
but can't put their finger on it. It is also for believers who already
found Jesus, but don't understand how to get started on their journey
with Him. Finally it's for those who want God a fuller, richer life.
We've selected easy to understand short stories of personal experiences--many
that carry gold nugget lessons learned through our relationship with
God. Over the years, I had some Christ Cards made which contain the A, B, C's of Christianity along with a prayer for salvation. It's the most important decision you'll ever make in your entire life. Please take time to consider your eternal destiny. If you prayed
the salvation prayer for the first time, a big, hearty welcome to
you. Jesus is our King and Lord and Savior and He adopts you into
the Royal Family. Reciting the salvation prayer is the first step
in beginning your walk with Jesus. Click |
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