Sky is the Limit

        Jacob dreamed, "and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it." (Genesis 20:12)
        Successes or Achievements in life begin with a dream. It is the great supplier for one's endeavor to cross the borders of challenge and reach the land of success. Jacob who was fleeing from his guilt and shame when exhaustion interrupted his running. The dream triggered his change and transformation into great Israel.
In his dream, he saw the ladder that set up on earth and its top that reaches heaven. It tells us that we are the earth and the top of the ladder is the dream that we are trying to reach beyond. Sky is the limit of our dream, the limit of our vision... nothing...  no one can ever prevent us from reaching it.  No conflict can  obstruct our vision by aiming high. No pain of wounded memories can immobilize us from reaching for the sky. No battle scars can hinder us from touching the stars. Want success? Take courage, climb the ladder which has no frontiers... sky is the limit for your dream.

BIBLE VALUES

The Bible values efforts made to promote human dignity (read  Hebrew 1:8 until 2:10)
Let's take a look at these brave women in the Old Testament. Ship-rah and Pu-ah are Egyptian women who made mockery of the king's order and refused to execute what their conscience condemned because of their compassion for the oppressed people. They were Hebrew midwives who received an order from the King of Egypt that when they attended Hebrew women who were in the birthstool and saw it was a boy, they must kill the baby, but to let it live if it was a girl. God blessed these intrepid women who feared God and disobeyed their king by letting the children live. Because they reverenced God, He  made them mothers of families. Then there was the mother of Moses. The liberation of a nation begins with a solitary and ordinary act of a mother risking her life to save her son. Her action was a clear manifestation of a mother's love. It was the revolt of a conscience that refuses to obey an inhuman law. It was the act of faith of a mother who anticipates the wonderful future that God opens to a child being aware that children are the hope and future of her people. Because of a love of a mother the Hebrew people saw their liberation from oppression and slavery. The world today which is now invaded by the culture of death needs some Pu-ah, Ship-rah and Moses' Mom to restore a culture of life.

In the New Law, it is the Quality of the Heart That Matters

Love is life characteristics of God's Kingdom not that we have loved God, but He has loved us and sent His Son as an offering for our sins (1 John 4:10). Our basis for moral living is not our good intentions or efforts but rather the incredible fact of God's love for us. God has loved us, so let us love one another (1 John 4:11). This is necessary or else our love is merely a "noisy gong or clanging cymbals"  (1 Cor 13:1). Filial love is our response to the "one who loved us first." (1 John 4:19).

      This is the New Law, to love one another. The new law forbids not just killing but even anger; not just adultery but even lustful looks; not just false oaths but even harsh words. The new law tells us to forgive not to take revenge. It commands us to love even our enemies.  In the new law it is not external show but the quality of the heart that matters. "What emerges from within a man, that and nothing else, is what defies" (Mark 7:20)