When Your Gage Reads "E"
If your car gas gauge is on E and you stopped at the gas station and filled the car up, what do you expect the gas gauge to read? You put gas in it so you expect it to show F. What would you think if it was still on E?
How do you think God feels when He gave His Son and it doesn't show? You invited Him into your heart and yet there is no evidence of Him being there.
You invited Jesus Christ into your life… does it show?
Was your life transformed by His son?
Where is the needle on the spiritual gauge of your heart? If Jesus is there, it should always read F.
"Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? (2 Corinthians 13:5).
The Right Kind of Separation from Sin
Tom Phillips reports in the UK Telegraph that "A Chinese teenager has been rushed to the hospital after chopping off his hand in a desperate attempt to cure his addiction to the internet." He reports there are an estimated 24 million web junkies in China and a growing number of military-style "boot camps" developed in the attempt to cure them.
However, hoping to rid himself of the vice, one 19-year-old from the city of Nantong in Jiangsu province took drastic measures of his own. He hacked his left hand off, according to a report on the Jiangsu TV channel.
Of course, we realize that when Jesus said "if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off" (Matthew 5:30), he was speaking of radical SPIRITUAL surgery, not self-amputation. So, rather than resorting to radical measures to gain control of our actions, we must put to death the deeds of the flesh by choosing instead to walk by the Spirit.
"So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16).
Get A Whiff of That Bread!
Can the smell of fresh bread spur you to compassion?
Researchers found that shoppers were more likely to alert a passer-by that they had dropped a belonging if, at the time, they were also passing near a bakery giving off the mouth-watering aroma.
Their findings, published in the Journal of Social Psychology, suggest certain smells trigger a positive mood that leads to a greater degree of altruism, or unconditional concern for the welfare of others. ... volunteers pretended to be looking for something in their bags as they stepped in front of a passing shopper.
As they walked a few feet in front of the shopper, the participants dropped a glove, handkerchief or packet of tissues.
Two observers stood about 20 meters away. The experiments - which were repeated up to 400 times - found that when the volunteers dropped the items outside the bakery, 77 per cent of passers-by stopped and helped recover the lost items and hand them back to their owner.
Outside the clothes shop only 52 per cent of strangers helped. ...
"This experiment confirms the role of ambient food odours on altruism."
If standing outside a bakery can trigger one's compassion response, just think what immersing oneself in the ambient influence of the Bread of Life could do!
"I am the bread of life" (John 6:48, cf. John 6:35).
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