A Chaplain's Journey: The Doubting Thomas Reports

Friday, September 5, 2008

The Doubting Thomas Reports

Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.” Those are the words of my namesake, recorded forever in John 20:24-25.

I have to confess that I live up to my name by doubting just about everything. When I first heard about the Michael Job Center for Orphan Girls (MJC) I set it aside as just another “children’s sponsorship” program. You know the kind… where you pay $25 a month (feel good about yourself money), receive a picture of your child and a short bio; half the money goes in the pockets of some promoter and after all expenses maybe $1.50 goes towards digging a well in some village. I’ve always had my doubts about these kinds of charities.

Then I read about the Michael Job Center from Billy Graham’s organization, Samaritans Purse. They had checked it out and endorsed it. Then I read about the MJC from the Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) organization. VOM is responsible for supporting and reporting on the Persecuted Church today. When you think of martyred Christians you normally think of Roman times, Christians thrown to the lions in the coliseum type of stuff. Today more Christians are being murdered for their faith than any other time in history. In India alone, over 8,000 have been killed in the past 10 years. As I type this, thousands of Christians are hiding in the jungles of the Orissa Province of India as radical Hindus burn their homes, burn their churches and if they can catch them, kill them too. Christians are dying RIGHT NOW because they profess to be followers of Christ.

The children at the MJC are the daughters of these Martyrs. There are currently 357 and I’m very sad to say, more are coming every day.

After doing the research and determining that this might be a good charity, I contacted the local US organization that provides a conduit for support to MJC and spoke at length with Ginny Cleary. She and her husband run the Jordan Foundation. When you give money to their foundation for the MJC – it goes directly (without any expenses taken out) to the MJC to support the orphans. She told me a lot about the Center, the kids there and Dr. P.P. Job, the founder of the orphanage. It certainly seemed more real to me but I still had lots of doubts. I started thinking about going over to India and checking this place out for myself – the original doubting Thomas view of, gotta see it and touch it in order to believe it…

Then I heard that the founder, Dr. Job was coming to the US, that he would be in Maine (a nice drive from Maryland) and had a free morning. So, I drove to Maine, met with Dr. Job and learned more. By talking with him, the mission of the Michael Job Center became a little more real to me. Dr. Job spoke with sincerity and purpose about supporting the girls living at the MJC in Coimbatore. It became a little more real to me but I still wasn’t convinced.

After returning to Maryland I found out that Dr. Job was going to be speaking at a small church in Kensington, MD. My wife, Tina, kids, Thomas and Shannon, and I went there to meet and hear him. I wanted my wife to let me know what she thought about it. To use her ability of discernment to see if she thought this was real. She did.

But that still wasn’t enough for me. So, I applied for an India visa, got lots of shots for all kinds of nasty bugs, bought the plane tickets and flew to Coimbatore.

This is the end of my second day at the orphanage. It’s 7:17pm now as I am typing this from the communications center at the top of the auditorium at the Michael Job Center for Orphan Girls. The children have finished their supper and gone for study time in their rooms. The electricity is off for the moment so there are generators humming in the distance. It is VERY dark here at the Comm Center but I have a good battery on this laptop so I’m typing from the light of the screen.
And now this doubting Thomas can honestly report to you, it’s real. I have seen them. I have touched them and they have touched me to the very core of my soul as I have been hugged and loved by these precious girls.

Blood comes from a circumcised body
Tears from a circumcised heart.

It’s hard for this silly old man to type right now through my tears. But I’ll wipe my eyes and try. There are 357 ORPHANS here right now and they are given the very best that God can provide. Dr Job doesn’t ask for money, it just comes. Proof enough to me that it’s a God thing he’s doing here.

I have so much more to tell you about the Michael Job Center but now is not the time. I just wanted to get this much of the message to you as soon as I could.

PLEASE PRAY for us here. I believe it’s the most important thing you can do.

Reporting from Coimbatore, India. . .

No-longer-doubting Thomas S. Cropper, Jr.

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Club Game with Minutes

CLUB GAME WITH MINUTES

CHRIST IS THE ONLY HOPE OF THE WORLD

‘Disillusioned by all our other efforts, we now see that the only hope left for the human race is to become like Christ.’ That is the statement of a famous scientist, and is being repeated among ever more educators, statesmen, and philosophers.

Yet Christ has not saved the world from its present terrifying dilemma. The reason is obvious: few people are getting enough of Christ to save either themselves or the world. Take the United States, for example. Only a third of the population belongs to a Christian church. Less than half of this third attend service regularly. Preachers speak about Christ in perhaps one service in four—thirty minutes a month! Good sermons, many of them excellent, but too infrequent in presenting Christ. Less than ten minutes a week given to thinking about Christ by one-sixth of the people is not saving our country or our world; for selfishness, greed, and hate are getting a thousand times that much thought.

What a nation thinks about, that it is. We shall not become like Christ until we give Him more time. A teachers’ college requires students to attend classes for twenty-five hours a week for three years. Could it prepare competent teachers or a law school prepare competent lawyers if they studied only ten minutes a week? Neither can Christ, and he never pretended that he could. To his disciples he said:

‘Come with me, walk with me, talk and listen to me, work and rest with me, eat and sleep with me, twenty-four hours a day for three years.’

That was their college course—‘He chose them,’ the Bible says, ‘that they might be with him,’ 168 hours a week! All who have tried that kind of abiding for a month know the power of it—it is like being born again from center to circumference. It absolutely changes every person who does it. And it will change the world that does it.How can a man or woman take this course with Christ today? The answer is so simple a child can understand it. Indeed unless we ‘turn and become like children’’ we shall not succeed.

PRACTICE CHRIST'S PRESENCE

1. We have a study hour. We read and reread the life of Jesus recorded in the Gospels thoughtfully and prayerfully at least an hour a day. We find fresh ways and new translations, so that this reading will never be dull, but always stimulating and inspiring. Thus we walk with Jesus through Galilee by walking with Him through the pages of His earthly history.

2. We make Him our inseparable chum. We try to call Him to mind at least one second of each minute. We do not need to forget other things nor stop our work, but we invite Him to share everything we do or say or think. Hundreds of people have experimented until they have found ways to let Him share every minute that they are awake. In fact, it is no harder to learn this new habit than to learn the touch system in typing, and in time one can win a high percentage of his minutes with as little effort as an expert needs to write a letter. While these two practices take all our time, yet they do not take it away from any good enterprise. They take Christ into that enterprise and make more result full. They also keep a man’s religion steady.

If the temperature of a sick man rises and falls daily the doctor regards him as seriously ill. This is the case with religion. Not spiritual chills and fevers, but an abiding faith which gently presses the will toward Christ all day, is a sign of a healthy religion. Practicing the presence of God is not on trial. It has already been proven by count-less thousands of people. Indeed, the spiritual giants of all ages have known it. Christians who do it today become more fervent and beautiful and are tireless witnesses. Men and women who had been slaves of vices have been set free. Catholics and Protestants find this practicing the presence of God at the heart of their faith. Conservatives and liberals agree that here is a reality they need.

People who are grateful for what this booklet has done for them are ordering wholesale quantities to give to friends. Letters from all parts of the world testify that in this game, multitudes are turning defeat into victory and despair into joy. The results of this program begin to show clearly in a month. They grow rich after six months, and glorious after ten years.

HOW WE WIN THE GAME WITH MINUTES

Somebody may be saying, ‘All this is very orthodox and very ancient.’ It is indeed, the secret of the great saints of all ages. ‘Pray without ceasing,’ said Paul, ‘in everything make your wants known unto God.’ ‘As many as are led by the Spirit of God these are the sons of God.

Nobody is wholly satisfied with himself. Our lives are made up of lights and shadows, of some good days and many unsatisfactory days. We have learned that the good days and hours come when we are very close to Christ, and that the poor days come whenever we push Him out of our thoughts. Clearly, then, the way to a more consistent high level is to take Him into everything we do or say or think.

Experience has told us that good resolutions are not enough. We need to discipline our lives to an ordered regime. The ‘Game with Minutes’ is a rather lighthearted name for such a regime in the realm of the spirit. Many of us have found it to be enormously helpful. It is a new name for something as old as Enoch, who ‘walked with God.’ It is a way of living which nearly everybody knows and nearly everybody had ignored. Students will at once recognize it as a fresh approach to Brother Lawrence’s ‘Practicing the Presence of God.’ We call this a ‘game’ because it is a delightful experience and an exhilarating spiritual exercise; but we soon discover that it is far more than a game.

Perhaps a better name for it would be ‘an exploratory expedition,’ because it opens out into what seems at first like a beautiful garden; then the garden widens into a country; and at last we realize that we are exploring a new world. This may sound like poetry, but it is not overstating what experience has shown us. Some people have compared it to getting out of a dark prison and beginning to LIVE. We still see the same world, yet it is not the same, for it has a new glorious color and a far deeper meaning. Thank God, this adventure is free for every body, rich or poor, wise or ignorant, famous or unknown, with a good past or a bad—‘Whosoever will, may come.’

The greatest thing in the world is for everybody! You will find this just as easy and just as hard as forming any other habit. You have hitherto thought of God for only a few seconds or minutes a week, and He was out of your mind the rest of the time. Now you are attempting, like Brother Lawrence, to have God in mind each minute you are awake. Such drastic change in habit requires a real effort at the beginning. Many of us find it very useful to have pictures of Christ where our eyes will fall on them every time we look around. A very happy hobby is to collect the most friendly pictures of Christ, pocket size, so that we can erect our own shrine in a few seconds.

HOW TO BEGIN

Select a favorable hour; try how many minutes of the hour you can remember God at least ONCE each minute; that is today, bring God to mind at least one second out of every sixty. It is not necessary to remember God every second, for the mind runs along like a rapid stream from one idea to another.Your score will be low at first, but keep trying, for it constantly becomes easier, and after a while is almost automatic.

It follows the well known laws of habit forming. If you try to write shorthand you are at first very awkward. This is true when you are learning to play a piano, or to ride a bicycle, or to use any new muscles. When you try this ‘game with minutes’ you discover that spiritually you are still a very weak infant. A babe in the crib seizes upon everything at hand to pull himself to his feet, wobbles for a few seconds and falls exhausted, Then he tries again, each time standing a little longer than before. We are like that babe when we begin to try to keep God in mind. We need something to which we can cling. Our minds wobble and fall, then rise for a new effort. Each time we try we shall do better until at last we maybe able to remember God as high as ninety per cent of the whole day.

HOW TO TRY THE EXPERIMENT IN CHURCH

You have a good chance of starting well if you begin in church—provided the sermon is about God. When our congregation first tried it, we distributed slips of paper which read GAME WITH MINUTES Score Card

During this hour I thought of God at least once each minute for…………….minutes

Signed………………………………………………..

At the opening of the service the pastor made this announcement: ‘Everybody will be asked to fill this score card at the end of one hour. In order to succeed, you may use any help within reach. You may look at the cross, or you may leaf through your hymn book or Bible, looking for verses that reminding you of God.’

The sermon that Sunday explained how to play the game. At the end of the hour, the Score cards were collected. The congregation reported scores ranging from five to sixty minutes. The average was forty-four minutes, which meant 73 percent of the hour. For beginners this was excellent. Such an experiment, by the way, will encourage the congregation to listen better than usual, and will remind the preacher to keep his sermon close to God. If you score 75 per cent in church, you can probably make a rather good score for the rest of the day. It is a question of being master of every new situation.

Never use a score card more than an hour, and not that long if it tires you. This is a new delight you are learning, and it must not be turned into a task.

WHILE GOING HOME FROM CHURCH

Can you win your game with minutes while passing people on the street? Yes! Experiments have revealed a sure way to succeed: offer a swift prayer for the people at whom you glance. It is easy to think an instantaneous prayer while looking people straight in the eye, and the way people smile back at you shows that they like it!

This practice gives a surprising exhilaration, as you may prove for yourself. A half-hour spent walking and praying for all one meets, instead of tiring one, gives him a sense of ever heightening energy like a battery being charged. It is a tonic, a good way to overcome a tired feeling. Some of us walk on the right side of the pavement, leaving room for our unseen Friend, whom we visualize walking by our side, and we engage in silent conversations with Him about the people we meet.

For example, we may say: ‘Dear Companion, what can we do together for this man whom we are passing?’ Then we whisper what we believe Christ would answer.

WHERE TO LOOK FOR CHRIST

We have a right to use any aid that proves useful. One such aid is to think of Christ as in a definite location. To be sure, He is a spirit, everywhere at once—and therefore anywhere we realize Him to be. Many of us win our game nearly all of some days by realizing His unseen presence sitting a chair or walking beside us. Some of us have gazed at our favorite picture of Him until it floats before our memories whenever we glance at His unseen presence, and we almost see Him. Indeed, many of us do see Him in our dreams. Others, like St. Paul, like to feel Him within the breast; many, like St. Patrick, feel Him all around us, above, below, before, behind, as though we walked in His kindly halo,.

We may have our secret ways of helping us to realize that He is very near and very dear.

ON A TRAIN OR IN A CROWD

We whisper ‘God’ or ‘Jesus’ or ‘Christ’ constantly as we glance at every person near us. We try to see double, as Christ does—we see the person as he is and the person Christ longs to make him. Remarkable things happen, until those in tune look around as though you spoke—especially children. The atmosphere of a room changes when a few people keep whispering to Him about all the rest. Perhaps there is no finer ministry than just to be in meetings or crowds, whispering ‘Jesus’ and then helping people whenever you see an opportunity. When Dr. Chalmers answers the telephone he whispers: ‘A child of God will now speak to me.’ We can do that when anybody speaks to us.

If everybody in America would do the things just described above, we should have a ‘heaven below.’ This is not pious poetry. We have seen what happens. Try it during all this week, until a strange power develops within you. As messages from England are broadcast in Long Island for all America, so we can become spiritual broadcasters for Christ. Every cell in our brain is an electric battery which He can use to intensify what He longs to say to people who are spiritually deaf to hear Him without our help.

WHILE IN A CONVERSATION

Suppose when you reach home you find a group of friends engaged in ordinary conversation. Can you remember God at least once every minute? This is hard, but we have found that we can be successful if we employ some reminders. Here are aids which have proven useful:

1. Have a picture of Christ in front of you where you can glance at it frequently.
2. Have an empty chair beside you and imagine that your unseen Master is sitting in it; if possible reach your hand and touch that chair, as though holding His hand. He is there, for He said: ‘Lo, I am with you always.’
3. Keep humming to your self a favorite prayer hymn—for example, ‘Have Thin Own Way, Lord, Have Thin Own Way.
4. Silently pray for each person in the circle.
5. Keep whispering inside: ‘Lord, put Thy thoughts in my mind. Tell me what to say.’
6. Best of all, tell your companions about the ‘Game with Minutes.’

If they are interested, you will have no more trouble. You cannot keep God unless you give Him to others.

WHEN AT THE TABLE

All the previous suggestions are useful at mealtime. If possible, have an empty chair for your Invisible Guest, who said, ‘Wherever two or three are gathered together, I am in the midst.’ Another useful aid is to recall what the Quakers believe about every meal. Jesus told us: ‘Eat this in remembrance of me.’ They think that He meant, not only consecrated bread, but all food so that every mouthful is His ‘body broken for you.

You might read and discuss this booklet. It helps immediately if others at the table agree to try to win this mealtime together.

WHILE READING A BOOK

When we are reading a newspaper or magazine or book, we read it to Him, or at His picture and continue a running conversation with Him inwardly about the pages we are reading. Kagawa says scientific books are letters from God telling how He runs His universe.

Have you ever opened a letter and read it with Jesus, realizing that He smiles with us at the fun rejoices with us in the successes, and weeps with us at life’s tragedies? If not, you have missed one of life’s sweetest experiences.

WHEN THINKING

If you lean back and think about some problem deeply, how can you remember God? You can do it by forming a new habit. All thought employs silent words and is really conversation with your inner self. Instead of talking to yourself, you will now form the habit of talking to Christ. Many of us who have tried this have found that we think so much better that we never want to try to think without Him a gain. We are helped if we imagine Him sitting in a chair beside us, talking with us. We say with our tongue what we think Christ might say in reply to our questions. Thus we consult Christ about everything.

WHEN WALKING ALONE

If you are strolling out of doors alone, you can recall God at least once every minute with no effort, if you remember that ‘beauty is the voice of God.’ Every flower and tree, river and lake, mountain and sunset, is God speaking. ‘This is my Father’s world, and to my listening ears all nature sings…’ So as you look at each lovely thing, you may keep asking: ‘Dear Father, What are you telling me through this, and this and this?’

If you have wandered to a place where you can talk aloud without being overheard, you may speak to the Invisible Companion inside you or beside you. Ask Him what is most on His heart and then answer back aloud with your voice what you believe God would reply to you. Of course we are not always sure whether we have guessed God’s answer right, but it is surprising how much of the time we are very certain. It really is not necessary to be sure that our answer is right, for the answer is not the great thing—He is!

God is infinitely more important than His advice or His gifts; indeed, He, himself, is the great gift. The youth in love does not so much prize what his sweetheart may say or may give him, as the fact that she is his and that she is here. The most precious privilege in talking with God is this intimacy which we can have with Him.

We may have a glorious succession of heavenly minutes. How foolish people are to lose life’s most poignant joy, seeing it may be had while taking a walk alone.!But the most wonderful discovery of all is, to use the words of St. Paul, ‘Christ live the in me.’ He dwells in us, walks in our minds, reaches out through our hands, speaks with our voices, IF we obey His every whisper.

BE MY LAST THOUGHT

We make sure that there is a picture of Christ, or a Bible, or a Cross or some other object where it will greet our closing eyes as we fall asleep. We continue to whisper any words of endearment our hearts suggest. If all day long we have been walking with Him, we shall find Him the dear companion of our dreams.

Sometimes after such a day, we have fallen asleep with our pillows wet from tears of joy, feeling His tender touch on our foreheads. Usually we feel no deep emotion, but always we have a ‘peace that passé the all understanding.’ This is the end of a perfect day.

MONDAY MORNING

If on Sunday we have rated over fifty per cent in our game with minutes, we shall be eager to try the experiment during a busy Monday. As we open our eyes and see a picture of Christ on the wall, we may ask: ‘Now, Master, shall we get up?’ Some of us whisper to Him our every thought about washing and dressing in the morning, about brushing our shoes and choosing our clothes.

Christ is interested in every trifle, because He loves us more intimately than a mother loves her babe or a lover his sweetheart, and is happy only when we share every question with Him.

MEN AT WORK

Countless thousands of men keep God in mind while engaged in all types of work, mental or manual, and find that they are happier and get better results. Those who endure the most intolerable ordeals gain new strength when they; realize that their Unseen Comrade is by their side.

To be sure, no man whose business is harmful or methods dishonest, can expect God’s partnership. But if an enterprise is useful, God eagerly shares in its real progress. The carpenter can do better work if he talks quietly to God about each task, as Jesus certainly did when he was a carpenter. Many of us have found that we can compare a letter or write a book better when we say “god, think thy thoughts in thy mind. What dost thou desire written? Here is my hand; use it. Pour thy wisdom through my hand.” Our thoughts flow faster, and what we write is better. God loves to be a coauthor!

MERCHANTS AND BANKERS

A merchant who waits on his customers and prays for them at the same time wins their affection and their business. A salesman who prays for those with whom he is dealing has far more likelihood of making a sale. A bookkeeper or banker can whisper to god about every column of figures and be certain that god is even more interested in the figures than he is. The famous astronomer, sir James jeans, calls god the “super-mathematician of the universe. Making constant use of mathematician formulae that would drive Einstein mad”

IN THE HOME

Many women cultivate Christ’s companionship while cooking, washing dishes, sweeping, sewing, and caring for children. Aids which they find helpful are…..

1. Whispering to God about each small matter, knowing that He loves to help.
2. Humming or singing a favorite prayer hymn.
3. Showing the children how to play the game with minutes, and asking them to share in playing it. Children love this game and develop an inner control when they play it which renders discipline almost needless.
4. Having pictures of Christ about the house, as a constant reminder.
5. Saying to god, “think thy thoughts in thy mind.”

WHEN IN SCHOOL

An increasing army of students in school who are winning this game, tell us how they do it. Here is their secret:

When in study period, say: “god, I have just forty precious minutes. Help my wavering thoughts to concentrate so that I may not waste a moment. Show me what is worth remembering in this first paragraph”- then read the lesson to god, instead of reading it to yourself.

When going to recitation, whisper: “make my mind clear, so that I will be able to recall all I have studied. Take away fear.”

When rising to recite before a group, say: “god, speak through my lips.”

When taking an examination, say all during the hour, “Father, keep my mind clear, and help me to remember all that I have learned. How shall we answer this next question?” visualize him looking over your shoulder every minute you are writing. God will not tell you what you have never studied but he does sharpen your memory and take away your stage fright when you ask him. Have you not discovered that when you pray about some forgotten name it often flashes into your memory?

To be sure, this prevents us from being dishonest or cheating, for if we are not honest we cannot expect his help. But this is a good reason for playing the game with minutes. Character is a hundred times more valuable than knowledge or high grades.

To be popular with the other students, acquire the habit of breathing momentary prayers for each student you meet, and while you are in conversation with him. Some instinct tells him you are interested in his welfare and he likes you for it.

PRAYING HORSESHOES

A very powerful way to pray is for a group of friends to join hands while seated in the shape of a horseshoe. Some of us have an altar at the open end of the horseshoe, with a cross or a picture of Jesus, or a bible, or a globe of the world. The horseshoe opens toward the cities, countries, and people most in need of prayer.

This horseshoe of prayer reminds us of the great magnets which can lift a locomotive when the electric power is turned on. We are seeking to be used by the in pouring Holy Spirit to lift the world, and to draw all men to Christ.

It also reminds us of the radio broadcast which, when the power is on, leaps around the world. We offer ourselves as God’s broadcasting station.

The gentle tingle which we usually feel reminds us of the glow and soft purr in the tubes of a radio when the power is on.

Every Christian family at mealtime may form a prayer radio broadcast by joining hands. Young people’s societies will love it. It will vitalize every Sunday school class to spend ten minutes in broadcasting. Defunct prayer meetings will come to life when they become horseshoe magnets of prayer.

Schools and colleges, public or private, will find prayer horseshoes popular with the students. Here is something that Christians and Jews can do together. Worship can thus be made the most thrilling experience of their lives.

The group may prepare a list of the most urgent world needs and of key persons. An excellent plan at breakfast is for someone to read from the newspaper the problems and persons which are most in need of prayer that morning.

The leader may say words like this: “lord, in this terribly critical hour we want to do everything we can. We pray thee, use us to help the president to be hungry for thee, to listen and hear and obey thee. We lift President Eisenhower into thy presence.”

Then all may raise their clasped hands towards heaven. And so with the entire list.
After the prayer list is completed, the globe of the world may be lifted toward god while somebody prays the Lord’s Prayer.

DURING PLAY HOURS

God is interested in our fun as much as we are. Many of us talk to him during our games. Some of the famous football players long ago discovered that they played better if they prayed all during the game. Some of the famous runners pray during races. If a thing brings health and joy and friendship and a fresh mind. God is keenly interested, because he is interested in us.

While on the playground, do not ask to win, but whisper: “God, get thy will done exactly. Help us all to do our best. Give us what is far more important than defeating our opponents- make us clean sportsmen and make us good friends.”

GOD AND LOVE

Sweethearts who have been wise enough to share their love with god have found it incomparably more wonderful. Since “God is love” he is in deepest sympathy with every fond whisper and look. Husbands and wives, too, give rapturous testimony of homes transformed by praying silently when together. In some cases where they had begun to give each other “nerves,” they have found, after playing this game when they are alone together by day or by night, that their love grew strangely fresh, rich, beautiful, “like a new honeymoon.” God is the maker of all true marriages, and he gives his highest joy to a man and wife who share their love for each other with him, who pray inwardly each for the other when they are together looking into one another’s eyes. Married love becomes infinitely more wonderful when Christ is the bond every minute and it grows sweeter as the years go by to the very last day. Imagine, too, what this does for the children!

TROUBLES

Troubles and pain come to those who practice God’s presence. As they came to Jesus, but these seem trivial as compared to their new joyous experience. If we have spent our days with him, we find that when earthquakes, fires, famines, or other catastrophes threaten us, we are not terrified any more than Paul was in time of shipwreck. “Perfect love casteth our fear.”

This booklet on the game with minutes is good for people suffering from illness at home or in hospitals. Nurses remind us that the thoughts of people turn toward god when sick as at no other time. Patients who are convalescing many idle hours when their minds reach up toward god. Playing this game produces a perfect mental state for rapid recovery.

Those who are seeking to be aware of god constantly have found that their former horror at death has vanished. We ones, for though unseen to us, they are with Christ and since he is with us they are with us as well.

SOME PRICES WE MUST PAY TO WIN THIS GAME

The first price is pressure of our wills, gentle but constant. What game is ever won without effort and concentration?
The second price is perseverance. A low score at the outset is not the least reason for discouragement; everybody gets a low score for a while. Each week grows better and requires less strain.

The third price is perfect surrender. We lose Christ the moment our wills rebel. If we try to keep even a remote corner of life for self or evil, and refuse to let God rule us wholly, that small worm will spoil the entire fruit. We must be utterly sincere.
The fourth price is telling others. When anybody complains that he is losing the game, we flash this question back at him: “are you telling your friends about it?” For you cannot keep Christ unless your give Him away.
The fifth price is to be in a group. We need the stimulus of a few intimate friends who exchange their experience with us.

THE PRIZES WE WIN

It is obvious that this is unlike other games in my respects. One difference is that we all win. We may not win all or even half or our minutes but we do win a richer life, which is all that really matters. There are no losers except those who quit. Let us consider some of those prizes:

1. We develop what Thomas a Kempis call a “familiar friendship with Jesus.” Our Unseen Friend becomes dearer, closer, and more wonderful every day until at last we know Him as “Jesus Lover or my soul” not only in songs, but in blissful experiences. Doubts vanish, we are surer of Him being with us than of anybody else. This warm, ardent friendship ripens rapidly until people see its glory shining in our eyes-and it keeps on growing richer and more radiant every month.
2. All we undertake is done better and more smoothly. We have daily evidence that God helps our work, piling one proof upon another until we are sure of God, not from books or preachers, but from our own experience.
3. When we are playing this game our minds and pure as a mountain stream every moment.
4. The Bible and Christian hymns seem like different books, for they begin to sparkle with the beautiful thoughts of saints who have had glorious experiences with God. We begin to understand their bliss for we share it with them.
5. All day long we are contented, whatever our lot may be, for he is with us. “When Jesus goes with me, I’ll go anywhere.”
6. It becomes easy to tell others about Christ because our minds are flooded with him. “Out of the fullness of the heart the mouth speaketh.”
7. Grudges, jealousies, hatred, and prejudices melt away. Little hell turns into little heavens. Communities have been transformed where this was introduced. Love rises like a kindly sea and at last drowns all the demons of malice and selfishness. Then we see that the only hope for this insane is to persuade people to “practice the presence of god.”
8. “Genius is 90 percent concentration.” This game, like all concentration upon one objective, eventually results in flashes of new brilliant thought which astonish us, and keep us tiptoe with expectancy for the next vision which god will give us.

INFINITE VARIETY

The notion that religion is dull, stupid, and sleepy is abhorrent to god, for he has created infinite variety and he loves to surprise us. If you are weary of some sleepy form of devotion, probably god is as weary of it as you are. Shake out of it, and approach him in one of the countless fresh directions. When our minds lose the edge of their zest, let us shift to another form of fellowship as we turn the dial of a radio. Every tree, every cloud, every bird, every orchestra, every child, every city, every soap bubble is alive with god to those who know his language.

IT IS FOR ANYBODY

Humble folk often believe that walking with god is above their heads, or that they may “lose o good time” if they share all their joys with god. What tragic misunderstanding, to regard him as a killer of happiness! A growing chorus of joyous voices round the world fairly sings that spending their hours with god is the most thrilling joy ever known, and that beside it a baseball game or a horse race is stupid.

RADIANT RELIGION

This game is not a grim duty. Nobody needs to play it unless he seeks richer life. It is a delightful privilege. If you forget to play it for minutes or hours or days, do not groan or repent, but begin anew with a smile. It is a thrilling joy-don’t turn it into a sour-faced penance. With god, every minute can be a fresh beginning. Ahead of you lie limitless anticipations. Walt Whitman looked up into the starry skies and fairly shouted.
Away, o soul, hoist instantly the sail!
O daring joy but safe!
Are they not all the seas of god?
O farther, farther, farther sail!

WHAT IT MEANS BY WINNING

You win your minute if during that minute you either
1. pray
2. Recall God
3. Sing or hum a devotional hymn.
4. Talk or write about god.
5. Seek to relieve suffering of any kind in a prayerful spirit.
6. Work with the consciousness of god’s presence.
7. Whisper to god.
8. Feel yourself encompassed by god.
9. Look at the picture or a symbol of Christ.
10. Read a scripture verse or poem about god.
11. Give somebody a helpful hand for the lord’s sake.
12. Breathe a prayer for the people you meet.
13. Follow the leading of the inner voice.
14. Plan or work for the kingdom of god.
15. Testify to others about god, the church, or this game.
16. Share suffering or sorrow with another.
17. Hear god and see him in flowers, trees, water, hills, sky.

We never attempt to keep a minute- by- minute record (expect perhaps occasionally for an hour), since such a record would interfere with a normal life. We are practicing a new freedom, not a new bondage. We must not get so tied down to score keeping that we lose the glory of it, and its spontaneity. We fix eyes upon a clock.
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So that's our Game with Minutes.

The orphan girls of MJC would like to offer you the awesome opportunity of joining their Club Game with Minutes. We can only promise, if you a winner at the game, your life will be changed forever. That's all.

A Chaplain's Journey

Friday, September 5, 2008

The Doubting Thomas Reports

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A Chaplain's Journey

Friday, September 5, 2008

The Doubting Thomas Reports

No comments:

IMPORTANT LINKS

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Subscribe To This Blog

Followers

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Club Game with Minutes