House Fire on Kinnaird

Can't help it, had to do it!

Spiritual Growth Takes Time

It takes years for us to grow to adulthood, and it takes a full season for fruit to mature and ripen.  The same is true for the fruit of the Spirit.  The development of Christlike character cannot be rushed.

When you try to ripen fruit quickly, it loses its flavour.

While we worry about how fast we grow, God is concerned about how strong we grow.  God views our lives from and for eternity, so he is never in a hurry.

The moment you open yourself to Christ, Jesus begins to work in your life.  You may think you have surrendered all your life to him, but the truth is, there is a lot to your life that you aren't even conscious of. You can only give God as much of you as you understand at the moment.  That's okay.

Once Jesus begins to work, he takes over more and more of your life until all of you is completely his.  There will be struggles and battles, but the outcome will never be in doubt.  God has promised that "he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion." (Philippians 1:6, NIV)

Social Fairness?

When the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

 

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Socialist's plan". All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy. 

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. 


These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.