A Scrapbook of Dead Enemies

A number of years ago, after an elderly woman passed away, family members were cleaning out her house and found a scrapbook filled with obituaries from the local newspaper. The death notices all pertained to people she had hated. As bizarre as it may sound, she kept a scrapbook of her dead enemies! She had five different clippings of her most despised dead foe in her morbid memory book.

Instead of having an “In Loving Memory” book, hers was a book of hateful memories. Apparently she gained some kind of weird satisfaction by thinking they could no longer torment her. Or could they? If you don’t forgive your deceased enemies, they’ll continue to haunt you through your hateful memories of them.

Maybe you don’t have a scrapbook of your dead enemies, but do you keep a scrapbook in your mind of your living enemies? When you go to bed at night, your enemies climb in the bed with you to keep you awake. When you go on vacation, your enemies travel with you to ruin your trip. Is it worth it?

 

First Corinthians 13:5 says love “does not take into account a wrong suffered.” That means you must tear up your hurt list and remove the enemies from your scrapbook. We forgive our enemies because God has forgiven us FAR MORE than what others have done to us. “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (Eph. 4:32).

 

When you forgive, your enemies will stop haunting you, and the root of bitterness will shrivel up and die. How to do you know when you’ve forgiven someone? You aren’t being tormented anymore. www.makinglifecount.net  

Removing the Curse

There’s a story about a man who had been under a curse for 20 years. He walked for miles and climbed a mountain to find a guru who could free him. When he reached the top, the guru asked, “Why have you come?” He said, “I need for you to remove a curse that was placed on me.”

The guru said, “I can remove the curse, but I must know the exact words that were used to put the curse on you. What were they?” The man answered, “The words were, ‘I now pronounce you husband and wife.’”

Every couple at their own wedding believed they would have a wonderful marriage when they stood at the altar. Otherwise, they would have never married. No one plans to have a miserable marriage, but it can turn that way if you don’t work at it. Ask yourself, “What is it like being married to me?” 

Your marriage doesn’t have to be cursed. In fact, God wants to put His blessing on it. Unfortunately, many marriages are experiencing more cursing than blessing because two bosses are married to each other. They keep trying to change the mind of their spouse, telling each other what to do.

Marriage can either be heaven on earth or hell on earth. The more that GOD is in it, the more it is like HEAVEN. The more that SATAN is in it, the more it is like HELL. The best marriage is when two servants are married to each other. The worst marriage is when two bosses are married to each other.

The Lord can bless any marriage if a husband and wife are willing to change their attitudes and become servants of each other. Jesus said, “Whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant” (Matt. 20:26). One servant is great, but two servants will make a great marriage that God will bless.

God can remove the curse on your marriage and turn it into a marriage made in heaven if you will let Him do it. “The Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you because the Lord your God loves you” (Deut. 23:5). www.makinglifecount.net 

Coveting My Neighbor's Hamburger

When I was in sixth grade, I attended a small Lutheran school where we had to bring a sack lunch each day to eat at our desks. Every day I ate the same tasteless sandwich; baloney on white bread. This was before wheat bread was “invented.”

Robbie Buckner sat to my right, and every day his mother delivered him a hamburger from a nearby cafe. No baloney sandwiches for Robbie. Just mouthwatering, delicious burgers. In those days our family had a meager income, and I only ate a hamburger from a restaurant once or twice a year. 

Robbie didn't know how to silently eat with his mouth closed and loudly smacked each bite. It tortured me to smell his hamburger and listen to him smack, while I forced a baloney sandwich down my throat. Paul said, “I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, ‘You shall not covet’” (Rom. 7:7-8). I would not have known about coveting if it wasn’t for Robbie Buckner’s hamburger.

In this Lutheran school, I had to memorize the tenth commandment: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife . . . or his ox or donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor” (Ex. 20:17). “Anything” included my neighbor’s hamburger.

With my head I learned not to covet, but with my heart I learned how to covet. People can see someone killing or stealing, but who can see someone coveting? Coveting goes straight to the motives in our hearts. This commandment says we are not to even want what our neighbor has.

Coveting means I have to have what the “haves” have. Maybe your problem isn’t your neighbor’s sandwich, but could it be your neighbor’s spouse? Does it bother you to see your neighbor driving a nicer car, or living in a more expensive house? Check your heart. Enjoy your baloney sandwich and be thankful that you have something to eat.  www.makinglifecount.net