Grace Happens Here by Max Lucado (Excerpts)

Photo: Amazon

GRACE FOR BREAKFAST


Peter’s thoughts are interrupted by a shout from the shore. “Catch any fish?”

Peter and John look up. Probably a villager. “No!” they yell.

“Try the other side!” the voice yells back.

John looks at Peter. What harm? So out sails the net. Peter wraps the rope around his wrist to wait.

But there is no wait. The rope pulls taut, and the net catches. Peter sets his weight against the side of the boat and begins to bring in the net. He’s so intense with the task, he misses the message.

John doesn’t. The moment is déjà vu. This has happened before. The long night. The empty net. The call to cast again. Fish flapping on the floor of the boat. Wait a minute . . . He lifts his eyes to the man on the shore. “It’s him,” he whispers.

Then louder, “It’s Jesus.”

Peter turns and looks. Jesus, the God of heaven and earth, is on the shore . . . and he’s building a fire.

Peter plunges into the water, swims to the shore, and stumbles out wet and shivering and stands in front of the friend he betrayed. Jesus has prepared a bed of coals.

For one of the few times in his life, Peter is silent. What words would suffice? The moment is too holy for words. God is offering breakfast to the friend who betrayed him. And Peter is once again finding grace at Galilee.

What do you say at a moment like this?

What do you say at a moment such as this?

It’s just you and God. You and God both know what you did. And neither one of you is proud of it. What do you do?

You might consider doing what Peter did. Stand in God’s presence. Stand in His sight. Stand still and wait. Sometimes that’s all a soul can do. Too repentant to speak, but too hopeful to leave—we just stand.

Stand amazed.

He has come back.

He invites you to try again. This time, with Him.


-From 3:16, Numbers of Hope

Hippie by Paulo Coelho (Excerpts)

Photo Credit: penguin.com.au

Fight because you need to fight, because you're facing a battle. 

Fight because you are at peace with the universe, with the planets, 

the suns that explode and the stars that shrink and flare out forever. 

Fight to fulfill your destiny, without giving thought to gain or profit, 

losses or stratagems, victories and defeats.

Seek not your own gratification, but that of the Supreme Love who offers

nothing beyond a glimmering contact with the Cosmos and thus demands an act

of complete devotion -without doubts, without questions, love for love's sake 

and nothing else.

A love that owes nothing to anyone, that has no obligations, that finds joy 

in simple existence and the freedom to express itself. 

Still Me by Jojo Moyes (Excerpts)

Photo Credit: Amazon

"Tell me what's going on with you. Are you okay? 

Are you sad? You didn't sound sad. Maybe I just want you not be sad. 

Talk to me." - Sam

"I’ll stand there for a while, take a long view,

and just be glad that, even if it was only this way, 

we found each other again." -Louisa Clark

Leaving the City of Regret

Excerpted from Perfect Love by Joyce Meyer

I had not really planned on taking a trip this time of the year, and yet I found myself packing hurriedly. This trip was going to be unpleasant and I knew in advance that no good would come of it. I’m talking about my annual "Guilt Trip". I got tickets to fly there on Wish I Had Airlines. It was an extremely short flight. I got my baggage which I couldn’t check, I chose to carry it myself all the way. It was weighted down with a thousand memories of what might have been. No one greeted me as I entered the terminal to the Regret City International Airport. I say international because people from all over the world come to this dismal town.

As I checked into the Last Resort Hotel, I noticed they were hosting the year's most important event, the Annual Pity Party. 

I wasn’t going to miss that great social occasion. Many of the town's leading citizens would be there. 

First, there would be the Done family, Should Have Done, Would have Done, and Could Have Done. Then came the I Had family. You probably know ol' Wish I Had & his clan. Of course the Opportunities would be present, Missed and Lost . The biggest family would be the Yesterdays. There are too many of them to count, but each one would have a sad story to tell. 

Then Shattered Dreams would surely make an appearance and Its Their Fault would regale us with stories (excuses) about how things have failed in his life, and each story will be loudly applauded by Don't Blame Me and I Couldn't Help It.

Well, to make a long story short, I went to this depressing party knowing that there would be no real benefit in doing so. And, as usual, I became very depressed. But as I thought about all the stories of failures brought back from the past, it occurred to me that all of this trip and subsequent "pity party" trips could be cancelled by me! I started to truly realize that I did not have to be there. I didn't have to be depressed. One thing kept going through my mind: 

I CAN'T CHANGE YESTERDAY, BUT I DO HAVE THE POWER TO MAKE TODAY A WONDERFUL DAY.

I can be happy, joyous, fulfilled, encouraged, as well as encouraging. Knowing this, i left the City of Regret immediately and left no forwarding address. Am I sorry for mistakes I've made in the past? YES! But there is no physical way to undo them.

So, if your'e planning a trip to the City of Regret, please cancel all your reservations now. Instead, take a trip to a place called Starting Again. I liked it so much that I have taken up permanent residence there. My neighbors, the I Forgive Myself and the New Starts, are also very helpful. By the way, you don't have to carry around heavy baggage, because the load is lifted form your shoulders on arrival. God bless you in finding this great town. If you have difficulty finding it--it's in your own heart--please look me up. I live on I Can Do It Street.

Excerpts: Adultery by Paulo Coelho

Photo Credit: Goodreads

There is nothing more important we can give than the Love reflected in our own lives.

That is the one universal language that allows us to speak Chinese or dialects of India.

When I was young I traveled a lot—it was part of every student's rite of passage. I visited countries both rich and poor. I did not usually speak the local language, but everywhere the silent eloquence of Love helped me make myself understood.

The message of Love is in the way I live my life, and not in my words or my deeds.

In the letter of the Corinthians, Paul tells us, in three short lines, that Love is made of many elements, like light. We learn at school that if we pick up a prism and allow a ray of light to pass through, that ray will divide into seven colors, those of rainbow.

Paul shows us the rainbow of Love just as prism reveals to us the rainbow of light.

And what are those elements? They are virtues we hear about every day and that we can practice in every moment.

Patience: Love is patient...

Kindness: ...and kind.

Generosity: Love does not envy...

Humility:... or boast; it is not arrogant...

Courtesy:... or rude.

Unselfishness: It does not insist on its own way.

Good temper: It is not irritable...or resentful.

Guilelessness: or resentful.

Sincerity: It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

All these gifts concern us, our daily lives, and today and tomorrow, not with Eternity.

The problem is that people tend to relate these traits to the Love of God, but how does God manifest itself? Through the Love of man.

To find Peace in heaven, we must find love on Earth. Without it, we are worthless.