and a season for every activity under heaven:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace." -Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
"Saints have pasts, sinners have futures."
“Time is your most precious gift because you only have a set amount of it. You can make more money, but you can’t make more time. When you give someone your time, you are giving them a portion of your life that you’ll never get back. Your time is your life. That’s why the greatest gift you can give someone is your time.” -Rick Warren
"You never regret the times you spent with God." -Anonymous
"1 Corinthians 15:1-11 / Luke 7:36-50
People who have had near-death experiences often talk about the whole of their lives racing past their eyes at high speed, with all the joys and sadnesses that inevitably go along with such an experience. But the truth is that most of us, at least those who are still looking inward, have regular flashbacks to earlier days in our lives. And some of those flashbacks are not very happy. Too many false starts and abandoned good works, too many hard words that could never quite be taken back or erased from the common memory, too many days or even years wasted on nothing in particular, nothing of value.
The weight of the past, especially its mistakes, can bear down very heavily upon us as we grow older and more aware of what is true and what matters. And that’s the very feeling that St. Paul is describing within his own heart in today’s epistle reading: “I persecuted the church of God (and) I do not even deserve the name (apostle).” How many times across his later life had Paul felt the need to make that sad admission and to ask for the pardon of the community he had so deeply wounded!
But Paul, and all of us as well, should draw comfort from knowing that the whole point of Jesus’ coming was to bring reconciliation to even the worst of us and to set us on a new track that is life-giving, not life-wasting or life-stealing. We can’t change the past, but with God’s help, we can heal its sad memories by using well His gift of the present!" -Kuya Angelo
"Forget what hurt you in the past. But never forget what it taught you." -Anonymous
"Would you rather live your 70 or 80 years of life on Earth having fun, and 100,000,000 years of torture in your afterlife, or would you rather live your 70 or 80 years of life on Earth under the weight of burdens and sacrifice, and 100,000,000 of eternal happiness?" -Isaac Guevera
"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift; that's why it's called the present." -via Kung Fu Panda
"Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending." -Anonymous
"God isn't going to let you see the distant scene. So you might as well quit looking for it. He promises a lamp unto our feet, not a crystal ball into the future. We do not need to know what will happen tomorrow. We only need to know He leads us and we will find grace to help us when we need it." -Max Lucado
"Every second is a chance to turn your life around." -Anonymous
"
In Paul’s letter to the Church in Ephesus, observe how he describes himself — an ambassador in chains. Locked away in a prison, Paul adamantly refuses to allow his circumstances to dictate or alter his identity. He may be in chains, but he remains the Lord’s ambassador.
Can you imagine Paul chained up in that dungeon, throwing up his hands saying, “That’s it; it’s over; I’m finished!?
Not on your life! Instead the apostle grows bolder as an ambassador; not intimidated or ashamed, because Paul isn’t chained in his Spirit, he’s only bound in the flesh. Remember how he concludes his letter to the Philippian Church declaring, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Don’t allow yourself to be defined by your past, or “chained” by your current circumstances. God has also called you to be an ambassador for Him. With so much work to be done, we ought to be growing even bolder, right in the midst of our trials and tribulations!
Ephesians 6:19-20 and pray for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak." -man-of-god
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