THE VIRTUE OF LOVE

 

LOV E FOR MY GOD

 

BEFORE YOU GO TO BED

 

THINK POSITIVE OF OTHERS

 

A KING'S PAINTING

 a story with a moral

Once upon a time, there was a Kingdom. The king there only had one leg and one eye, but he was very intelligent and kind. Everyone in his kingdom lived a happy and a healthy life because of their king. One day the king was walking through the palace hallway and saw the portraits of his ancestors. He thought that one day his children will walk in the same hallway and remember all the ancestors through these portraits.

But, the king did not have his portrait painted. Due to his physical disabilities, he wasn’t sure how his painting would turn out. So he invited many famous painters from his and other kingdoms to the court. The king then announced that he wants a beautiful portrait made of himself to be placed in the palace. Any painter who can carry out this should come forward. He will be rewarded based on how the painting turns up.

All of the painters began to think that the king only has one leg and one eye. How can his picture be made very beautiful? It is not possible and if the picture does not turn out to look beautiful then the king will get angry and punish them. So one by one, all started to make excuses and politely declined to make a painting of the king.

But suddenly one painter raised his hand and said that I will make a very beautiful portrait of you which you will surely like. The king became happy hearing that and other painters got curious. The king gave him the permission and the painter started drawing the portrait. He then filled the drawing with paints. Finally, after taking a long time, he said that the portrait was ready!

All of the courtiers, other painters were curious and nervous thinking, How can the painter make the king’s portrait beautiful because the king is physically disabled? What if the king didn’t like the painting and gets angry? But when the painter presented the portrait, everyone in the court, including the king, left stunned.

The painter made a portrait in which the king was sitting on the horse, on the one-leg side, holding his bow and aiming the arrow with his one eye closed. The king was very pleased to see that the painter has made a beautiful portrait by cleverly hiding the king’s disabilities. The King gave him a great reward.

Moral: We should always think positive of others and ignore their deficiencies. We should learn to focus on the good things instead of trying to hide weaknesses. If we think and approach positively even in a negative situation, then we will be able to solve our problems more efficiently.

TRUE FRIENDSHIP

 

A VOICE FROM HELL

 A Voice from Hell

To all of my living friends on earth: 

AN IMAGINEATIVE STORY, YET TRUTHFUL TO THE EVENTS, THAT MAKE US PONDER........AND THINK ABOUT HOW WE ARE SPENDING OUR LIFE ON EARTH..........READ IT TO THE END

I am now in hell.  Yesterday, I was just like you are now – eating, drinking, laughing, watching TV, enjoying my family, etc.  Then, I got in my car to go to work, and a drunk driver hit me broadside, going 70 mph in a 30 mph zone.  I never even saw him coming. It all happened so fast.  One minute I was alive listening to music on my car radio, and the next minute I was dead, floating over my wrecked car, looking at my lifeless, bloody body.   It took me a while to realize that I was dead, and that I was looking at myself from above.

Then, all of a sudden, I was pulled through a really dark tunnel, where really nasty people were making fun of me and tearing at my flesh.  I tried to fight them off, but there must have been a thousand of them. The more I fought, the more they laughed at me, and the nastier they got.   

As I was sliding down this tunnel against my will, I caught a glimpse of what must have been heaven.  It was beautiful beyond belief, with plants that seemed to be alive, with beautiful music that I had never heard on earth, and many different colors that did not exist on earth.  I heard a voice inside my head, which I surmise was Jesus, telling me that I had forfeited heaven and being with Him for all eternity.  Why?  Because He said, while I was still alive, I did not fully commit my life to Him and His teachings.  I always knew that Jesus was real, but I never seemed to make that life-changing commitment to follow Him.   

I kept hearing Jesus repeat my sins to me – pornography,  bad language, dirty jokes, greed, envy, lust, drinking, and gluttony.  And there was that abortion I had my girlfriend get back in 1988.  Jesus told me that He had sent me unlimited grace every day of my life, but that I had always rejected it in favor of sin.  And since my lifestyle rejected His living water, that allowed satan to take over my life, and eventually my death.  I told Jesus in my mind that I really didn’t know what He expected of me, but He said that that was no excuse, since He had written it all down for me in the Bible, had given me the sacraments in His church to strengthen me, and had sent His Mom and Her saints and angels down to earth many times to help me.  He said that I preferred to play computer games, read the newspaper, and watch football over doing the will of God.  He told me that since I truly preferred the temporary things of the earth, rather than everlasting heavenly things, that I got my wish to not go to heaven upon death.  And the really sad thing is that He told me that all I had to do was to make one sincere confession to be forgiven for everything.

Now, I am surrounded by millions of snakes and worms, unrelenting fire, loud noises and screams, a horrible stench, and terrible looking demons who torture me day and night.  And I cannot move any part of my body on my own.  Knowing what I threw away is the most depressing part, along with the fact than I am NEVER getting out of this place.   If only I had listened to the Church’s teachings instead of “thinking for myself”.  It never entered my mind while I was still alive that I could be wrong about anything, especially about salvation.   I always considered it a strong virtue to “think for myself”, and it was always a weak vice to listen to anyone, especially some old-fogey church, telling me what to believe.   

Now, I would gladly give up every penny I ever made to be sent back to earth for 5 minutes, but that will never happen. I, along with millions of other humans, were victims of satan’s great deception, which fooled me into believing that I would never die, that self-pride was a good thing, that the sexual pleasures of earth were more important than obeying His commandments, that the real goal of life was the pursuit of wealth and to be surrounded by beautiful possessions, and that there would always be time to repent of my sins before dying.  I really wish someone would have told me about Matthew 25:31-46 and what I was held accountable for during life.  But no one ever did.  And I never seemed to find the time to open the Bible and read what it said.   That was as stupid as never reading my college textbooks in preparation for the final exam.

Satan disguised himself as an angel of light many times during my earthly sojourn, and I was totally taken in by him - the beauty, the glamour, the glitz, the power, the sex, the money, the feel-good mentality, being entertained all the time, etc.  I also believed everything the secular media ever said, instead of meditating on His Word to find out The Truth for myself.  His bait of sexual gratification seemed wonderful at the time, but it had lots of poison in it, which I know about now, when it is too late.  

So now that you know my story, what will you do with your life?  Like me, you may not have tomorrow to decide.  Will you follow me to hell, or will you follow Jesus to heaven?  The choice is yours, and only yours, to make, today.

(reproduced from the catholic site: Catholic bible 101)