A God-shaped Hole!

The usual suspects filed in; you've known them all before. There was Success flexing its promise of power, Money grasping its false security, Adventure with its syringe of adrenaline, Pleasure cloaked in its disguise of escape, and Other People waving their approval and touch . . . they're the usual suspects all right, the things that compete for the center of your heart. One by one they step forward to read from the card that's been handed them. "I am your god." "I am your god," they say. You've known them all before, and you know that none of them can fill the God-shaped hole in your heart. But will you give them yet another try? Do you need to learn the hard way once again?

A Prayer begins . . .

Gracious God, you deserve our regular praise. Guide us in practical ways to put love into action. We trust you because you love us. Help us stay away from anything which might take your place in our hearts.

Don't be satisfied with just a taste of a great book by reading a quotation. Let the whole book inform your soul. Clickle our links and feast on the whole enchilada!

Two selected book quotations begin . . .

Vision Decision

Kevin and Karen Miller, More Than You and Me, Touching Others Through The Strength of Your Marriage, Focus On The Family Publishing, 1994, pp. 39, 40.    SoAmazing.com

Category: Christian Living
Keywords: Bible, God, marriage, marriages, Lord, life vision, goal, life together, mission statement, statement of purpose, Focus on the Family Publishing, Miller, Kevin Miller, Karen Miller

"The Bible teaches us that we have a loving God who created each of us and then brought us together in marriage. He did it for a reason. What would our marriages be like if we went back to the beginning and asked, 'What do You want our lives to accomplish for You, Lord?' . . .

Call your life vision 'the bigger picture,' 'what makes your life meaningful,' 'hope with a blueprint,' whatever name works for you. The important thing is that it clearly state the major purpose or goal for your life together.

 And it doesn't need to be complicated. One friend told us, 'I liked the idea of a life  vision the first time I heard you talk about it. It seemed so simple. I thought to  myself, almost every organization or company or church had a mission statement or  a statement of purpose. Why can't a marriage?' "

SoAmazing Review: Send your son, daughter or friends into marriage with this book in their hands. Its practical advice will knit their hearts and lives together, forever."

Buy More Than You and Me Now!   Amazon, Barnes&Noble

Doubt Vanished

St. Augustine, translated by Albert C. Outler, Confessions of St. Augustine, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1999, pp.170, 171. SoAmazing.com

Category: Christian Living
Keywords: fig tree, tears, weeping, contrition heart, Pick it up, read it, children, divine command, Bible, read, Romans 13:13, light, certainty, doubt, vanished

"I flung myself down under a fig tree--how I know not--and gave free course to my tears. . . . I was saying these things and weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when suddenly I heard the voice of a boy or a girl I know not which--coming from the neighboring house, chanting over and over again, 'Pick it up, read it; pick it up, read it.' Immediately I ceased weeping and began most earnestly to think whether it was usual for children in some kind of game to sing such a song, but I could not remember ever having heard the like. So, damming the torrent of my tears, I got to my feet, for I could not but think that this was a divine command to open the Bible and read the first passage I should light upon. . . .

So, I quickly returned to the bench where Alypius was sitting, for there I had put down the apostle's book when I had left there. I snatched it up, opened it, and in silence read the paragraph on which my eyes first fell: 'Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof' [Romans 13:13]. I wanted to read no further, nor did I need to. For instantly, as the sentence ended, there was infused in my heart something like the light of full certainty and all the gloom of doubt vanished away."

SoAmazing Review:A child's voice sent St. Augustine to the Bible. He picked it up and read it and God's words pierced his heart with the light of truth. Take a child's advice, "Pick it up; read it."

Buy Confessions of St. Augustine Now!   Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Christianbook.

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