a friendly hand When you are in a hard and continued trouble, if you do not take an extreme care, you can go into a "death corridor". In some messages of mine, I always take references from those 11 years, in which I was unemployed. I know many other persons, faced and have faced serious struggles about health, familiar, sentimental, drugs, alcoholism... and maybe you are, at this moment, in the eye of a hurricane. It would be much selfishness of my part, do not let you know which attitudes I took to face those hard years. I tell you:There is a great purpose behind any crise.
During a depression, what you think determines the quality of our day. How, in fact, I do not know, but the devil can fill our mind with bad thoughts. You can think that such thoughts are of yours, but they cannot be. I remember sometimes, when I left home to walk and to pray a little. Two exercises, for body and soul. A immense sadness upon my shoulder, and then, I stopped and looked into my mind. Jesus, I said, I know, any day of these, you are going to give me response to my troubles, and when that day to arrive, I will can count to everyone how you, Lord, gave me the job I have never had before. That sadness and those bad thoughts desappeared and so I won the battle of that day. And day after days I did so. Two attitudes to benefit mind, body and soul.
If you be a watchman at the door of your mind you control bad thogths, you can attack one of the fountains of the problem that can be malignant. I listened this from the Pastor Eurico Bergstein in 1998 when he was 92. And, Bible says, in Proverbs 4:23 " Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the outflowings of life". An analogy in another words: do you know "trojans" and how to clean them? Well, in our lives we do not use anti-virus or ad-wares. We clean all bad "worms", "virus", "trojans horses" etc., by praying, casting and doing something.
A very important thing you shall know: there are thousands of persons facing the same problem and even much bigger than yours; so, it means you are not alone. It is a good idea to compare them. Maybe you do have a big trouble or maybe you are just looking at a "little mount of sand" in the beach, and thinking that it is bigger than it really is.
" Submit, yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you." James, 4: 7. One form of subjection to God is to talk to him every day. When you pray you have the opportunity of changing your heart. The sadness will go out, like darkness when dawn comes. For prayer, I mean a sincere talk to Christ, opening your heart and telling Him everything. Do not pray repeating "The Lord's Prayers" 50 times... When you love someone, you do not repeat the same frases hundred times. It doesn't work.
When you pray you have to open you heart and speak about your feelings, hurts, pains, and better: your needs and about all your plans. Jesus is a wonderful person, and He is not a recorder of repeated frases. When you pray, you bring the presence of the Holy Spirit of God for near.
At certain time, I received a letter from a prisioner, and he gave testimony that he had committed an awful crime, and due to that, he was arrested and sent to the worst penitentiary of the State of Sao Paulo. Everyday he woke with a huge headache and a thought like an insistent voice saying in his mind. "You did that, you put shame on your parents, neighbors, no one likes you anymore. Do a favor for all and to yoursef: kill yourself".
The same pressure everyday. From time to time he was standind on a chair with a sheet in his neck. He lost his senses over that chair. But when he turned hinself on, he remembered of times on his childhood, and he could see himself walking along with his father to purchase pastries in a fair. After that thoughts, he went down that chair.
There is a wise proverb what says " Empty mind is workshop of the devil ". Prayers can be a part for the solution. But you have to look after other things to fill your time. God ( Jesus Christ ) can show you new ways while you are praying, to guide you to plan new things, while your victory is coming on.
"And be not conformed to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God". Romans 12:2. It is a sequence of steps up: good, acceptable and perfect will. In the last years of my proof, Lord guided me to a awesome plan: to collect used Sunday Bible lessons, christian books, tracts, and bibles, to send, by postage, to groups of prisioners that had known Jesus behind jails. In two years and a half, with help of churches and some friends of mine, we delivered over 500kg of used literature to groups of christian believers in 28 penitentiaries.
And it all began through a letter in a pink envelope, the postman left at my door. That letter had a special addressee: the words of a stamp I had use on tracts and Gospel of John books. Detail: the last time I had used that stamp: six years! Then, that letter was a response of God from six years ago. And it was due that I heard the Holy Spirit voice deep and clear in my heart "Cast your bread upon the waters, for you, after many days, will find it" Ecclesiastes 11:1. I still remember: I closed the door of the kitchen and I sat down at the table with a pen and a diary. So I prayied first, and after, I started to write a plan to find and reach by letters, 50 groups of christian prisioners within 50 penitentiaries of my State in two years.
My pastor, at the principle, desagreed, my family not agreed, but it was a plan from my Lord. I was really convicted that the Spirit of God had chosen me to do that work. I had no money. But even without money that business grew up. A Social letter cost only one cent, and I always had friends to support the mainly postage cost: the remitance of boxes of 15 - 20 kilos of literature. During three years, I used my own address as sender. Not one prisioner came to bother my family, although there be crime organization among that prisions.
Now, besides to pray I was involved in a plan. One mission. I had no time at all to think how unhappy I was. That job gave importance to my life. I was abandoned by friends, relatives, coleagues of ministry, but not by my Lord Jesus Christ. I got over 500 letters from ex-criminals. All of them asking or thanking for bibles, hymns books, tracts to evangelization.
At the right side of the postage agency, where during two years, I went to mail "social letters" of counseling to prisioners, there is a big Hospital. After 11 years posting hundreds of profiles, God sent a person to my home to tell me there was an opportunity to an accountant at that hospital and I should run to type another profile to leave there. And therefore, It makes three years that I am in charge of its accountancy. After eleven years.
I began on sending used literature and writting letters to prisioners; then as hired in a Hospital with many people very interested in computers. So, I find myself creating and writting messages ( like this one) in blogs. Now I am translating that messages from portuguese to english. You and people from 160 countries, around this world, will read then in the next two years. Who, in his perfect judge, would go to suppose that I would start gathering used literature to send to believers behind jails till to spread the word of God by a project to 160 countries?
So, I could see that behind every crise, depression and struggle of a christian there was one purpose. God has something to tell you and before your blessings, He wants that you have changes to be made and missions to be done.
" But thanks to God, that gives us victory, for Our Lord Jesus Christ "
This message needs to be spreaded.
by Joao Cruzue
mailto me: cruzue@gmail.com
During a depression, what you think determines the quality of our day. How, in fact, I do not know, but the devil can fill our mind with bad thoughts. You can think that such thoughts are of yours, but they cannot be. I remember sometimes, when I left home to walk and to pray a little. Two exercises, for body and soul. A immense sadness upon my shoulder, and then, I stopped and looked into my mind. Jesus, I said, I know, any day of these, you are going to give me response to my troubles, and when that day to arrive, I will can count to everyone how you, Lord, gave me the job I have never had before. That sadness and those bad thoughts desappeared and so I won the battle of that day. And day after days I did so. Two attitudes to benefit mind, body and soul.
If you be a watchman at the door of your mind you control bad thogths, you can attack one of the fountains of the problem that can be malignant. I listened this from the Pastor Eurico Bergstein in 1998 when he was 92. And, Bible says, in Proverbs 4:23 " Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the outflowings of life". An analogy in another words: do you know "trojans" and how to clean them? Well, in our lives we do not use anti-virus or ad-wares. We clean all bad "worms", "virus", "trojans horses" etc., by praying, casting and doing something.
A very important thing you shall know: there are thousands of persons facing the same problem and even much bigger than yours; so, it means you are not alone. It is a good idea to compare them. Maybe you do have a big trouble or maybe you are just looking at a "little mount of sand" in the beach, and thinking that it is bigger than it really is.
" Submit, yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you." James, 4: 7. One form of subjection to God is to talk to him every day. When you pray you have the opportunity of changing your heart. The sadness will go out, like darkness when dawn comes. For prayer, I mean a sincere talk to Christ, opening your heart and telling Him everything. Do not pray repeating "The Lord's Prayers" 50 times... When you love someone, you do not repeat the same frases hundred times. It doesn't work.
When you pray you have to open you heart and speak about your feelings, hurts, pains, and better: your needs and about all your plans. Jesus is a wonderful person, and He is not a recorder of repeated frases. When you pray, you bring the presence of the Holy Spirit of God for near.
At certain time, I received a letter from a prisioner, and he gave testimony that he had committed an awful crime, and due to that, he was arrested and sent to the worst penitentiary of the State of Sao Paulo. Everyday he woke with a huge headache and a thought like an insistent voice saying in his mind. "You did that, you put shame on your parents, neighbors, no one likes you anymore. Do a favor for all and to yoursef: kill yourself".
The same pressure everyday. From time to time he was standind on a chair with a sheet in his neck. He lost his senses over that chair. But when he turned hinself on, he remembered of times on his childhood, and he could see himself walking along with his father to purchase pastries in a fair. After that thoughts, he went down that chair.
There is a wise proverb what says " Empty mind is workshop of the devil ". Prayers can be a part for the solution. But you have to look after other things to fill your time. God ( Jesus Christ ) can show you new ways while you are praying, to guide you to plan new things, while your victory is coming on.
"And be not conformed to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God". Romans 12:2. It is a sequence of steps up: good, acceptable and perfect will. In the last years of my proof, Lord guided me to a awesome plan: to collect used Sunday Bible lessons, christian books, tracts, and bibles, to send, by postage, to groups of prisioners that had known Jesus behind jails. In two years and a half, with help of churches and some friends of mine, we delivered over 500kg of used literature to groups of christian believers in 28 penitentiaries.
And it all began through a letter in a pink envelope, the postman left at my door. That letter had a special addressee: the words of a stamp I had use on tracts and Gospel of John books. Detail: the last time I had used that stamp: six years! Then, that letter was a response of God from six years ago. And it was due that I heard the Holy Spirit voice deep and clear in my heart "Cast your bread upon the waters, for you, after many days, will find it" Ecclesiastes 11:1. I still remember: I closed the door of the kitchen and I sat down at the table with a pen and a diary. So I prayied first, and after, I started to write a plan to find and reach by letters, 50 groups of christian prisioners within 50 penitentiaries of my State in two years.
.
cast your bread
And it was so, that at the end of two years, I had found, by letters, "brothers" from 48 prisions and delivered 29 boxes to 28 of them. Besides that, my mission with used christian literature became known all over the country through one gospel newspaper article that said: "After the Bible, those used Sunday Bible Lessons kept in your drawers or library, is the second best literature to be used in a church behind a jail.
cast your breadMy pastor, at the principle, desagreed, my family not agreed, but it was a plan from my Lord. I was really convicted that the Spirit of God had chosen me to do that work. I had no money. But even without money that business grew up. A Social letter cost only one cent, and I always had friends to support the mainly postage cost: the remitance of boxes of 15 - 20 kilos of literature. During three years, I used my own address as sender. Not one prisioner came to bother my family, although there be crime organization among that prisions.
Now, besides to pray I was involved in a plan. One mission. I had no time at all to think how unhappy I was. That job gave importance to my life. I was abandoned by friends, relatives, coleagues of ministry, but not by my Lord Jesus Christ. I got over 500 letters from ex-criminals. All of them asking or thanking for bibles, hymns books, tracts to evangelization.
At the right side of the postage agency, where during two years, I went to mail "social letters" of counseling to prisioners, there is a big Hospital. After 11 years posting hundreds of profiles, God sent a person to my home to tell me there was an opportunity to an accountant at that hospital and I should run to type another profile to leave there. And therefore, It makes three years that I am in charge of its accountancy. After eleven years.
I began on sending used literature and writting letters to prisioners; then as hired in a Hospital with many people very interested in computers. So, I find myself creating and writting messages ( like this one) in blogs. Now I am translating that messages from portuguese to english. You and people from 160 countries, around this world, will read then in the next two years. Who, in his perfect judge, would go to suppose that I would start gathering used literature to send to believers behind jails till to spread the word of God by a project to 160 countries?
So, I could see that behind every crise, depression and struggle of a christian there was one purpose. God has something to tell you and before your blessings, He wants that you have changes to be made and missions to be done.
" But thanks to God, that gives us victory, for Our Lord Jesus Christ "
This message needs to be spreaded.
by Joao Cruzue
mailto me: cruzue@gmail.com
...........
1 comment:
Of a truth our God is an ever present help in times of trouble and HE uses every experience in our life to move us forward in our Christian walk. GOD bless you.
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