Thursday, July 6, 2017

The Innocent Bottle

A man woke up in the morning deeply repentant after a bitter fight with his wife the previous night. He noticed with dismay the crate of beer bottles that had caused the fight.

He took it outside and started smashing the empty bottles one by one onto the wall.

He smashed the first bottle swearing,
"you are the reason I fight with my wife".

He smashed the second bottle,
"you are the reason I don't love my children".

He smashed the third bottle,
"you are the reason I don't have a decent job".

When he took the fourth bottle, he realized that the bottle was still sealed and was full.

He hesitated for only a moment and said

"you stand aside, I know you were not involved".

A Sweet Salty Touching Love Story

He met her on a party. She was so outstanding, many guys chasing after her, while he was so normal, nobody paid attention to him. At the end of the party, he invited her to have coffee with him, she was surprised, but due to being polite, she promised.

They sat in a nice coffee shop, he was too nervous to say anything, she felt uncomfortable, she thought, please, let me go home. Suddenly he asked the waiter: "would you please give me some salt? I'd like to put it in my coffee."

Everybody stared at him, so strange! His face turned red, but, still, he put the salt in his coffee and drank it. She asked him curiously : why you have this hobby? He replied: "when I was a little boy, I was living near the sea, I liked playing in the sea, I could feel the taste of the sea ,just like the taste of the salty coffee. Now every time I have the salty coffee, I always think of my childhood, think of my home town, I miss my home town so much, I miss my parents who are still living there". While saying that tears filled his eyes. She was deeply touched.

That's his true feeling, from the bottom of his heart. A man who can tell out his homesickness, he must be a man who loves home, cares about home, has responsibility of home. Then she also started to speak, spoke about her far away hometown, her childhood, her family. That was a really nice talk, also a beautiful beginning of their story.

They continued to date. She found that actually he was a man who meets all her demands; he had tolerance, was kind hearted, warm, careful. He was such a good person but she almost missed him!Thanks to his salty coffee!

Then the story was just like every beautiful love story, the princess married to the prince, then they were living the happy life...

And, every time she made coffee for him, she put some salt in the coffee, as she knew that's the way he liked it. After 40 years, he passed away, left her a letter which said:" My dearest, please forgive me, forgive my whole life lie. This was the only lie I said to you---the salty coffee. Remember the first time we dated? I was so nervous at that time, actually I wanted some sugar, but I said salt it was hard for me to change so I just went ahead. I never thought that could be the start of our communication!

I tried to tell you the truth many times in my life, but I was too afraid to do that, as I have promised not to lie to you for anything.. Now I'm dying, I afraid of nothing so I tell you the truth: I don't like the salty coffee, what a strange bad taste..But I have had the salty coffee for my whole life! Since I knew you, I never feel sorry for anything I do for you. Having you with me is my biggest happiness for my whole life. If I can live for the second time, still want to know you and have you for my whole life, even though I have to drink the salty coffee again". Her tears made the letter totally wet.

Someday, someone asked her: what's the taste of salty coffee? It's sweet. She replied.

Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss and ends with a tear.

Importance of Strugle...

A man was an avid gardner...
Saw a small butterfly laying a few eggs in one of the pots in his garden since that day he looked at the egg with ever growing curiosity and eagerness.

The egg started to move and shake a little.
He was exited to see a new life coming up right in front of his eyes.
He spent hours watching the egg now.
The egg started to expand and develop cracks..
A tiny head and antennae started to come out ever so slowly.

The man's excitement knew no bounds he got his magnifying glasses and sat to watch the life and body of a pupa coming out.

He saw the struggle of the tender pupa and couldn't resisit his urge to HELP.
He went and got a tender forcep the help the egg break, a nip here a nip there to help the struggling life. And LO!

The pupa was out the man was ecstatic!
He waited now each day for the pupa to grow and fly abt like a beautiful butterfly, but Alas that never happened the larvae pupa had a oversized head and kept crawling along in the pot for the full 4 weeks and died!
Depressed the man went to his botanist friend and asked the reason.
His friend told him the struggle to break out of the egg helps the larvae to send blood to its wings and the head push helps the head to remain small so that the tender wings can support it thru its 4 week life cycle, in his eagerness to help the man destroyed a beautiful life!

Struggles help all of us, that's why a wee bit of effort goes a long way to develop our strength to face life's difficulties!

As parents, we sometimes go too far trying to help and protect our kids from life's harsh realities and disappointments.

We don't want our kids to struggle like we did.

But Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Dan Kindlon says that overprotected children are more likely to struggle in relationships and with challenges.

We're sending our kids the message that they're not capable of helping themselves.

To quote clinical psychologist Dr. Wendy Mogel:
"It is Our Job to prepare Our Children for the Road..., &
Not prepare the road for Our Children..."

How I got a wife in supernatural way

In Prague I met people from Harvest International who were traveling around in old buses with circus tent preaching and praying for sick, so I went with them for some years . We have seen thousands and thousands of people to come to Jesus and to be healed. Gods power was so strong there, that when I saw some person who could not walk properly or move hands, I was glad that people in tent will see Gods Healing power in action, since majority of those people Jesus healed completely or they got considerably better.( In west countries only few people were healed, not majority) Than some business man paid me to go with them to Thailand, to translate business. I stayed there for several months and could do evangelisation with local pastors or preach in the church, since business took only few hours in week. But even though Thai people are so nice and kind, it was a very differenn culture and I felt very lonly there, having no girlfriend, wife or close friend. Then I got invitation to be a pastor and also invitation by US missionary to work with him with boat ministry which I preferred most. I told them I would need a wife to live in Thailand permanently so I went back to Czech republic to get one. When I came to Prague I asked God to send me a wife to Methodist Church, which I planed to visit on Sunday. (a girl who would not be afraid of adventure on boat or jungle and would not mind living in a simple way without the electricity and things spoiled westerners are used to) On Sunday I went to Church and at the tram station I saw a nice girl with beautiful ayes. So I told God I would like a girl like that, and also to give me courage to talk to her ( I was allways shy to talk to girls, more pretty they were, the more shy I was, and this was a very pretty girl). God heared my prayer and  gave me courage, so I gave her Christian tractate and invited her to that Methodist Church behind the corner where I was on way to. She told me , she is also going to that Church, she is only waiting for her father. She came to Church, gave me her address, 3days later I asked her if she would mind living on sailing boat or in the simple hut in jungle, and she said she would love it, therefore I asked her to marry me and she said yes. 3weeks after I met her, we got married when my mentor Gösta Öman come to Prague. I think it is normally much better when people know each other longer time before they get married, but I needed to get back to Thailand soon (had no money of my own to travel - those business man payed the travels when they needed me) . First long time after that, she admitted that she was praying to God the same week as I did, telling Him that she does not want to be alone any more, asking Him to send her a husband who is older than she and who likes adventure a lot, to that Methodist Church ( where she normally does not go - and neither did I) that Sunday.
 
Back in Thailand we were happy to see how God was doing His miracles and saving people. 

Once we were for example asked to pray for an old man who fell from a high mango tree and broke his back so he could not walk. Doctors said they can not do anything for him anymore. We prayed to Jesus for whom there are no hopeless cases, but we did not see any healing that day. Next day he told his doughtier that in the dream he heard a voice telling him he is healed now and can go to WC by himself, but he was arguing that he can not walk. When he woke up, he went to WC by himself and his doughtier said he is not so much surprised that Jesus healed him, but what surprised him very much was that God of foreigners can speak so perfectly Thai language.