Tag: Alan Bailey

Striking it rich

By Alan Bailey

What’s more valuable than money?

Have you ever dreamed of receiving a lot of money all at once? Be honest.

Surely at least nine out of ten people have entertained some hope or fantasy about sudden wealth. For a few it happens. Their numbers come up in the lottery draw, they win on a TV show, or their assets or stocks rise on the markets, and they are instantly rich, or perhaps even millionaires!

Wow! What could you do with all that money?

The popular answer would be pay off all debts, or build a dream home. Next, a flash car or two. Then, overseas travel. The list could go on endlessly.

But every now and then someone asks the important question:

“Will all this bring the happiness you want?”

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Is suicide the answer?

TIPS FOR LIFE

By Alan Bailey

It’s one of the most disturbing elements of modern life. Even people who seem to have good prospects and sympathetic relatives and friends nevertheless end their lives. The grief over a death seems to be worsened by the way it occurred.

THE END OF HOPE
As a rule, it isn’t poverty and hardship that makes people take their own lives. All too often, it is those with good homes, safe environments and seemingly no reason to despair. But we know that depression hits all kinds of people for a range of reasons. But at the bottom, there is the loss of hope. Life is too hard to cope with and ending it is a way out. We are told that the depressed don’t consider what their loved ones will feel; they are too occupied with their own thoughts. All so sad.Continue reading

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After the rush — a bargain

Tips for Life

by Alan Bailey

I never cease to be amazed that so many people can spend money so freely after the expensive lead-up to Christmas. But the New Year Doorbuster sales, as they are often called, are a powerful temptation. People love a bargain. We see on TV hundreds of people breaking down doors and almost trampling others underfoot to get at the bargains in a department store. Once in there, the frenzy is on in earnest. People push and shove, fight and struggle to snatch up clothing, grab household goods and line up to pay for them. Some items are torn or damaged in the fray; some people are hurt.Continue reading

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After the rush — a bargain

Tips for Life

by Alan Bailey

I never cease to be amazed that so many people can spend money so freely after the expensive lead-up to Christmas. But the New Year Doorbuster sales, as they are often called, are a powerful temptation. People love a bargain. We see on TV hundreds of people breaking down doors and almost trampling others underfoot to get at the bargains in a department store. Once in there, the frenzy is on in earnest. People push and shove, fight and struggle to snatch up clothing, grab household goods and line up to pay for them. Some items are torn or damaged in the fray; some people are hurt.

A way of life

Shopping for the best price is a way of life among us. Who doesn’t check out supermarket prices, comparing stores and comparing products? Getting the most we can for our dollar seems the sensible thing to do. How many of us keep our eyes open for the cheapest petrol even if only a cent or two is involved.

Getting a bargain, or a series of them, makes us feel good. We feel like winners. No-one has taken us for a ride; we have used our heads and come out on top.

How deceiving!

It is amazing how we can go through life deceiving ourselves so successfully. We may get our detergent at a good price but then we lose badly elsewhere. Just through neglect most of the time.

What counts most? It is life’s values, its relationships, things of lasting worth. Many give scant attention to these. No wonder there are so many sad hearts and sad homes all around us.

We have preferred the things that don’t last and in the end don’t count for much. What a poor bargain we have struck!

A tough question

One of the most difficult questions ever asked goes like this. Will a person gain anything if he wins the whole world but is himself lost? Jesus asked that question. He also made it clear that ordinary everyday people are lost. Lost to God; lost forever because of our sin and neglect. Even to gain possession of the whole world (which is of course impossible) and remain lost, is to have an appallingly bad bargain.

The best of bargains

The greatest bargain of all concerns an exchange. If you like, a swap. We give our great load of sin to God; He gives us His own righteousness and forgiveness. No payment is demanded. The payment has already been made.

It was like this. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us (when He died on the cross), so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (1 Corinthians 5: 21). Jesus took our sin and paid the price it demanded. Now, forgiveness and freedom are offered to us as a gift. We are wonderfully brought into a right relationship with God, and the amazing thing is that we don’t deserve it.

Having Christ means everything.

His sacrifice is a free gift to us. Now that is a bargain!■

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The TV interviewer asks: How are you feeling now?

Tips for Life

by Alan Bailey

It’s an inevitable question with TV interviewers. ‘How did you feel when you realized your parachute wouldn’t open?’ ‘How did you feel when you heard that all your money had been ripped off you?’ ‘How did you feel when you lost the match?’

My own feeling at that point is sympathy for the poor souls who have been through some sort of trauma and who are asked a pretty silly question about their feelings.

It’s the age

The world around us seems to live in the area of feelings. The preface ‘I feel… or ‘I felt…’ is so common. Sometimes it means ‘I think…’ But then, I’m not sure that thinking is all that popular these days.

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What did you get? Gold? Silver? or Bronze?

Tips for Life

by Alan Bailey

You can bet your life many TV viewers qualified for a medal in the recent games. They sat up into the small hours, cheering Aussie heroes between mouthfuls of coffee, then, after a nap, headed off to work trying vainly to look bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

London was a viewing marathon. The total number of people hours occupied in watching the spectacle is a figure we will never know. What stands out in your memory?

The winners

We are all the same. We are interested in the winners, especially the winners from our country. Then we can say, “We won the medal!” We share the thrill of standing on the winners’ podium listening to the music playing, while starry eyes turn heavenward and tears of joy flow earthward.

The ‘also rans’ are soon forgotten; their faces and names mean little to us.

The losers

There are, of course, some losers that stand out: Those who were sent home, those who were disqualified, those who were injured, those in despair over some unforeseen turnaround. Faces were twisted into a picture of pure agony, while tears of frustration and bitter disappointment flowed freely. Years of preparation had come to nothing. Hopes and dreams were dashed to little pieces. Helplessness prevailed.

Life’s like that

Winning and losing is almost what life is all about. Every day we experience both to some degree. The feeling common to most of us is that we don’t get our own way easily. Losing is easier than winning — in fact you can lose without even trying.

The conclusion that seems very common today is that ‘luck’ or ‘fate’ dictate what happens in life, so If you happen to be one of those unlucky in life, so to speak, too bad for you. Everything will go wrong. If someone seems to be successful, either they are lucky or they cheated.

Thinking in a groove

This same mentality rules people when they think about the end of life. Too bad, we die. Too bad if there is a heaven and we don’t make it. Good luck if we do.

However, the truth is that pleasing God and making it into heaven have nothing at all to do with luck. Nor has it anything to do with being a personal achiever — a winner. It is altogether different with God. The only one who appears before Him on the winner’s stand is Jesus Christ. Only He is worthy of it.

How badly understood this is! The vast majority think they will go to heaven if they are good enough. Yet the Bible teaches something quite different.

The people who find full acceptance with God are those who are acknowledged failures. They come to the point of seeing that there are no truly good (perfect) people, no true winners. They see that they have utterly failed to please God and that all the trying in the world won’t bring success.

Heaven will be full of people who have reached out empty hands to a God of generosity. They will be there because of His love and kindness and for no other reason. Christ won the crown for them. All they did was receive it. For it is by grace (God’s undeserved love) you have been saved through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).

It is true that you can’t win without Christ. It is true that you can’t lose with Him.

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Unlikely contestants in the games

Tips for Life

by Alan Bailey

So you are not going to London to participate in the Games? Well, you had better take note — you are in the contest right now. Think of it. You may not be a professional hurdler but there are a few hurdles in front of you to get over.

You are trying to balance the budget and you need to perform some gymnastics to do it. See, you are in the swim and you must keep your head above water. There is work to be done, a life to be lived and you must dive in and do your best.

You’re not a wrestler but there are problems waiting to be wrestled with. You are in the ring and the fight is on. No doubt you feel the weight of your duties, and you need a surge of strength to lift them. Remember, the target is up ahead, so take good aim.

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Our most serious disease

Tips for Life

by Alan Bailey

The cry of the present day seems to be “Get outta my way!”

You see the grimace on the face of the man or woman who was beaten to the parking bay at the supermarket. At times it will be heard in the impatient blowing of the car horn or the shouted insult. At least in the western world, considering oneself first has become the rule of life. Individualism has gone mad. Richard Dawkins blames what he calls the ’selfish gene’. It strikes me that it has much more to do with the conscious choices we make.

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Are you hanging by a thread?

Tips for Life

by Alan Bailey

How scary is that! I saw it on television just the other day. A young couple suspended over a huge ravine in New Zealand, meant to be experiencing a bungy jump—but something was going very wrong.

The two were supposed to be seated, held by a kind of harness. But the girl’s had broken and she was barely hanging on. Her boyfriend grasped a piece of the gear hoping to prevent her from falling. Down below, a long, long, way was a river bed. After what seemed an age the operators pulled them back to safety. The lady was too traumatised to speak.

Maybe it sounds a bit far-fetched, but isn’t this where we all are—hanging by a thin thread? I mean, our lives are not bullet-proof; there is no guarantee that we are safe and secure.

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Having Healthy Relationships

Tips for Life

by Alan Bailey

So much of life seems to be a network of relationships. Apparently we are built to relate to others around us. It is part of being human. It means so much to have a friend, a sister, a brother, a mother, a father, a wife or a husband. Happy is the person who can experience the nearness of others who have an interest in them and even a stake in their lives. Happy is the person who can say that the relationships in their lives, especially the close ones, are healthy and well maintained. Love given and love received is a great recipe for happiness.

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