Life Lessons - Dante Marola

Have you ever gone to a restaurant expecting a good meal, only to be disappointed? Bad service or bad food? What did you do? You can bet you're not going back to that restaurant! It doesn't mean that you won't eat out again only that you will not go to the restaurant you had a bad experience with. You will try a different restaurant. The same thing happens with church. You may have gone to church only to be disappointed with perhaps hypocrisy or gossip or personal issues with the leadership or other issues. Fine. That one church let you down. So you try other churches. There are many out there. If you avoid the temptation to sleep in on Sunday and you are earnestly seeking God then He will direct you to where He wants you. God does not want "Lone Rangers" or Christians staying away from the Body of Christ, withholding their talents and giftings that they should be sharing with others. We just cannot "take our ball and go home." God loves us and He has pl...

 A Tale of Two Women A rich socialite had a maid work for her for many years. The maid went to church often and gave liberally while the rich socialite went only occasionally and gave just as occasionally. Eventually the maid died and a few years later so did the socialite. When the socialite got to heaven St. Peter greeted her and wake her to her mansion. As they passed a huge mansion St. Peter told her, “That big mansion belongs to the maid who worked for you.” The socialite got excited to see her own mansion! As they walked further they got to a much smaller mansion. “This is your mansion,” St. Peter said. The socialite, confused, asked St. Peter, “Why is my mansion so small compared to my maid’s?” He replied, “We did the best we could do with what you sent up.” 2 Corinthians 5:10 says, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Romans 14:12 says, So then each of us w...

 What are you feeding? Have you found yourself in a battle with your old sins? A native American teacher was teaching his students about the two wolves in all of us. The bad wolf was selfish, mean, self-centered, down-right evil and lived for himself. Then there was the good wolf who loves, honors his Maker as well as others, always willing to learn the Holy Scriptures, prays and meditates often and tells others how his God is with him and blesses him. The students asked the teacher, “Which wolf is stronger?” He replied, “It depends on which wolf you feed.” Ephesians 6:10-18 says, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of ...

 A certain man found an uncharted island to find solitude and escape the rat race. He even found a hut to put his personal belongings in. One evening as he took a walk he happened to be on the other side of the island where he was surprised by an electrical thunderstorm. He tried to race back to his hut but to his horror lightning struck the hut and an all his personal belongings perished. The storm eventually let up and the man tried to figure out what to do. He was overcome with fatigue and fell asleep on the shore of the island. When he awoke he felt abandoned and lost. He happened to look out on the ocean and to his surprise he saw a ship streaming towards the island! He waved down the ship and it landed on the the shore. When the crew set foot on the island he asked, "How did you find me? This is an uncharted island!" They replied, "Well, we saw the flames you sent up during the storm and figured that help was needed." What was deemed a tragedy, God turned into...

Every car or truck has a rearview mirror. The purpose of the rearview mirror is to see what’s behind you or what is past. A quick glance is all that is needed as we are to pay attention to what is ahead of us by looking through the windshield. It is much bigger than the rearview mirror! We need to concentrate on what is ahead of us because staring at the rearview mirror will cause us to not to pay attention to what is ahead of us. The result is that we will lose control and crash. Like a Christian’s past, we give it a glance and only a glance, whether the past is good, bad or both good and bad. We must focus on what lies ahead! God has dealt with our past and He is working in our present and future. In Luke 9:62 Jesus said: “He who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God.” Our past is over, our present is happening and our future God has the present and future in His hands and we trust Him to direct us. - Dante Marola