You have been nearly shipwrecked, but you are not wrecked. The storm has been very furious, but above all the billows Jehovah’s power has kept and preserved you. Your feet had almost gone, your steps had well nigh slipped, but the divine power interposed in everlasting grace, and to this day - a wonder unto many, but especially a wonder to yourself - you are still on the road towards the celestial city, and you are nearer to it than when you first believed.
(Charles Spurgeon- The Daily Spurgeon)
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
CLING to the Bible!
I got this from a sermon I listened to today. I was reminded again just how very important it is for us as believers to be in God's Word constantly and to be meditating on it day and night. I have learned the hard way how easy it is to stumble even over the smallest things when I neglect to spend time in the Scriptures. So brothers and sisters, cling to the Word of God and allow Him through it to renew, mold, and shape your every thought and decision in life rather than being conformed to the world that surrounds you.
We don’t live in a culture that is friendly to Christianity…
It’s demonic, earthly, & sensual and wants to rip to shreds everything that has to do with the bride of Jesus Christ.
If we don’t cling to the Bible- we’re gone.
We are vulnerable to defeat and injury if we do not arm ourselves with the Gospel from head to toe- DAILY!
Ephesians 6:11 "Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil."
2 Timothy 2:15 "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth."
Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart."
Joshua 1:8 ""This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success."
We don’t live in a culture that is friendly to Christianity…
It’s demonic, earthly, & sensual and wants to rip to shreds everything that has to do with the bride of Jesus Christ.
If we don’t cling to the Bible- we’re gone.
We are vulnerable to defeat and injury if we do not arm ourselves with the Gospel from head to toe- DAILY!
Ephesians 6:11 "Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil."
2 Timothy 2:15 "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth."
Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart."
Joshua 1:8 ""This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success."
Friday, February 5, 2010
Oh, To Have A Grateful Heart!
Recently the Lord has really been reminding me again of all that He has blessed me with. I read Leslie Ludy's book, "The Lost Art of True Beauty" over my vacation last week and found it to be really good and very Christ-centered (as are all of the Ludy books). It was helpful for me at this time to be reminded of what really matters in this life and how important it is to be beautiful in God's eyes and to be completely consumed with only Him above all else- caught up in Him alone- living a life fully surrendered to Jesus Christ.
I really wanted to share this small section of the book that really spoke to my heart about having a heart of gratitude.
As you read this, I pray the Lord speaks to your heart as well about all that He has blessed you with. The most precious gift that He has given is the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ- and that alone should stop us in our tracks the moment we feel the temptation to grumble and complain about some earthly struggle or inconvenience.
Thank You Heavenly Father for the cross and for Your many blessings promised to us because of Jesus Christ. Every day is an opportunity to discover more of You!
And yet, how many of us think nothing of griping and complaining when things don't turn out exactly as we want? As Americans, we've been trained to "demand our rights." The message, "Get what you deserve! Fight for what you want! Have it your way!" is all around us. And all too often, we fall for it.
We believe we are entitled to comforts, security, money, popularity, and happiness, all the while forgetting we are utterly undeserving of even the very least of God's amazing blessings. Instead of being flooded with gratitude for everything He's done for us, we become sullen, depressed, or demanding when any of our "rights" are threatened. We are all too much like the nine healed lepers who never returned to give thanks to God:
When He saw them, He said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they were going, they were cleansed. Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered and said, "Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine- where are they?"Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?" (Luke 17:14-18)
Like the nine ungrateful lepers, we take the benefits and blessings of Christ and then go our way, entirely forgetting that everything we have comes from Him, that we deserve nothing but death, yet He has given us life.
We must live each day in light of the cross. When we remember the unfathomable sacrifice our heroic Lord has made for us, we are far less apt to gripe, complain, whine, and demand. Rather, we live in humble awe of the incredible gift of what He has done. We shine with gratitude and thanks. We radiate with the beauty and jubilance of someone who's been given a second chance at life. Petty gripes and complaints no longer seem important in light of His immeasurable gift to us.
I really wanted to share this small section of the book that really spoke to my heart about having a heart of gratitude.
As you read this, I pray the Lord speaks to your heart as well about all that He has blessed you with. The most precious gift that He has given is the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ- and that alone should stop us in our tracks the moment we feel the temptation to grumble and complain about some earthly struggle or inconvenience.
Thank You Heavenly Father for the cross and for Your many blessings promised to us because of Jesus Christ. Every day is an opportunity to discover more of You!
Cultivating Gratitude from "The Lost Art of True Beauty" by Leslie Ludy:
"Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world." (Philippians 2:14,15)And yet, how many of us think nothing of griping and complaining when things don't turn out exactly as we want? As Americans, we've been trained to "demand our rights." The message, "Get what you deserve! Fight for what you want! Have it your way!" is all around us. And all too often, we fall for it.
We believe we are entitled to comforts, security, money, popularity, and happiness, all the while forgetting we are utterly undeserving of even the very least of God's amazing blessings. Instead of being flooded with gratitude for everything He's done for us, we become sullen, depressed, or demanding when any of our "rights" are threatened. We are all too much like the nine healed lepers who never returned to give thanks to God:
When He saw them, He said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they were going, they were cleansed. Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered and said, "Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine- where are they?"Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?" (Luke 17:14-18)
Like the nine ungrateful lepers, we take the benefits and blessings of Christ and then go our way, entirely forgetting that everything we have comes from Him, that we deserve nothing but death, yet He has given us life.
We must live each day in light of the cross. When we remember the unfathomable sacrifice our heroic Lord has made for us, we are far less apt to gripe, complain, whine, and demand. Rather, we live in humble awe of the incredible gift of what He has done. We shine with gratitude and thanks. We radiate with the beauty and jubilance of someone who's been given a second chance at life. Petty gripes and complaints no longer seem important in light of His immeasurable gift to us.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
How Beautiful
How beautiful are the arms which have embraced Christ,
the hands which have touched Christ,
the eyes which have gazed upon Christ,
the lips which have spoken with Christ,
the feet which have followed Christ.
How beautiful are the hands which have worked the works of Christ,
the feet which treading in His footsteps have gone about doing good,
the lips which have spread abroad His name,
the lives which have been counted lost for Him.
-Christina Rosetti
the hands which have touched Christ,
the eyes which have gazed upon Christ,
the lips which have spoken with Christ,
the feet which have followed Christ.
How beautiful are the hands which have worked the works of Christ,
the feet which treading in His footsteps have gone about doing good,
the lips which have spread abroad His name,
the lives which have been counted lost for Him.
-Christina Rosetti
Monday, January 11, 2010
PeAcE
In Acceptance Lieth Peace
by Amy Carmichael
He said, “I will forget the dying faces;
The empty places,
They shall be filled again.
O voices moaning deep within me, cease.”
But vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in forgetting lieth peace.
He said, “I will crowd action upon action,
The strife of faction
Shall stir me and sustain;
O tears that drown the fire of manhood, cease.”
But vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in endeavor lieth peace.
He said, “I will withdraw me and be quiet,
Why meddle in life’s riot?
Shut be my door to pain.
Desire, thou dost befool me, thou shalt cease.”
But vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in aloofness lieth peace.
He said, “I will submit; I am defeated.
God hath depleated
My life of its rich gain.
O futile murmurings, why will ye not cease?”
But vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in submission lieth peace.
He said, “I will accept the breaking sorrow
Which God tomorrow
Will to His son explain.”
Then did the turmoil deep within him cease.
Not vain the word, not vain;
For in acceptance lieth peace.
"Whatever your circumstances, and however difficult they may be, the truth is that they are ordained by God for you as part of His overall plan for your life. God does nothing, or allows nothing, without a purpose. And His purposes, however mysterious and inscrutable they may be to us, are always for His glory and our ultimate good." -Jerry Bridges
by Amy Carmichael
He said, “I will forget the dying faces;
The empty places,
They shall be filled again.
O voices moaning deep within me, cease.”
But vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in forgetting lieth peace.
He said, “I will crowd action upon action,
The strife of faction
Shall stir me and sustain;
O tears that drown the fire of manhood, cease.”
But vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in endeavor lieth peace.
He said, “I will withdraw me and be quiet,
Why meddle in life’s riot?
Shut be my door to pain.
Desire, thou dost befool me, thou shalt cease.”
But vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in aloofness lieth peace.
He said, “I will submit; I am defeated.
God hath depleated
My life of its rich gain.
O futile murmurings, why will ye not cease?”
But vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in submission lieth peace.
He said, “I will accept the breaking sorrow
Which God tomorrow
Will to His son explain.”
Then did the turmoil deep within him cease.
Not vain the word, not vain;
For in acceptance lieth peace.
"Whatever your circumstances, and however difficult they may be, the truth is that they are ordained by God for you as part of His overall plan for your life. God does nothing, or allows nothing, without a purpose. And His purposes, however mysterious and inscrutable they may be to us, are always for His glory and our ultimate good." -Jerry Bridges
Lord, I am willing to-
Receive what You give,
Lack what You withold,
Relinquish what You take.
Receive what You give,
Lack what You withold,
Relinquish what You take.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
YESTERDAY
(today's reading from "My Utmost For His Highest" by Oswald Chambers)
Yesterday
You shall not go out with haste, . . . for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard —Isaiah 52:12
Security from Yesterday. ". . . God requires an account of what is past" ( Ecclesiastes 3:15 ). At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise when we remember our yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security in the present.
Security for Tomorrow. ". . . the Lord will go before you . . . ." This is a gracious revelation— that God will send His forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep watch so that we will not be tripped up again by the same failures, as would undoubtedly happen if He were not our "rear guard." And God’s hand reaches back to the past, settling all the claims against our conscience.
Security for Today. "You shall not go out with haste . . . ." As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.
Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.
----------------------
Funny thing…I posted this just before I headed out for work this morning. I was planning to add more to it but didn’t quite have the time. Well, in my hurry to get to work on time I rushed out the door. It was raining and sleeting this morning (as I had already been warned by my sister about the slipperiness of it all and to take my time going to work because the roads were icy). Well, there I went out the door rushing to my car because I hadn’t left as early as I’d originally planned. My bags in one hand and umbrella in the other…in my heels, I stepped onto the sidewalk and bam! My rear end hits the ground and my umbrella flips inside out. It wasn’t painful, but rather funny in my mind knowing how silly I must’ve looked. Perhaps God is the only one who was watching, but He also was speaking to me as well. SLOW DOWN. YOU SHALL NOT GO OUT WITH HASTE…Another reminder from the Lord straight to me.
God has been using my current circumstances to teach me to wait on Him. He’s been strengthening my faith through struggles; and I can’t say I always react as I should in faith and in joy, but God is very patient and loving. When I try to hurry things because I think it must be right or I don’t have time, He lets me “slip on the sidewalk” and reminds me to be still and listen to His voice. The Lord also uses these “slip-ups” to speak to us I believe…We learn from our mistakes as Oswald Chambers said about our yesterdays, “He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future.” In my icy sidewalk situation I was also reminded to take it slow on my way to work so I didn’t end up in a greater predicament like running my car off the road or something much worse than a bent umbrella and a wet bottom. :-)
You shall not go out with haste, . . . for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard —Isaiah 52:12
I thought about this particular verse from Isaiah throughout my day and just thanked God for going before me and coming behind me. We may not always understand what He is doing, but He is in control. We must follow His leading as He goes ahead of us as our shepherd. We must let Him back us up as we wait on Him and His timing. He is God. :-) I am so thankful that He is my God! How awesome He is!
"The name of the LORD is a strong tower; The righteous runs into it and is safe." Proverbs 18:10
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5,6
"It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect." Psalm 18:32
Yesterday
You shall not go out with haste, . . . for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard —Isaiah 52:12
Security from Yesterday. ". . . God requires an account of what is past" ( Ecclesiastes 3:15 ). At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise when we remember our yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security in the present.
Security for Tomorrow. ". . . the Lord will go before you . . . ." This is a gracious revelation— that God will send His forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep watch so that we will not be tripped up again by the same failures, as would undoubtedly happen if He were not our "rear guard." And God’s hand reaches back to the past, settling all the claims against our conscience.
Security for Today. "You shall not go out with haste . . . ." As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.
Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.
----------------------
Funny thing…I posted this just before I headed out for work this morning. I was planning to add more to it but didn’t quite have the time. Well, in my hurry to get to work on time I rushed out the door. It was raining and sleeting this morning (as I had already been warned by my sister about the slipperiness of it all and to take my time going to work because the roads were icy). Well, there I went out the door rushing to my car because I hadn’t left as early as I’d originally planned. My bags in one hand and umbrella in the other…in my heels, I stepped onto the sidewalk and bam! My rear end hits the ground and my umbrella flips inside out. It wasn’t painful, but rather funny in my mind knowing how silly I must’ve looked. Perhaps God is the only one who was watching, but He also was speaking to me as well. SLOW DOWN. YOU SHALL NOT GO OUT WITH HASTE…Another reminder from the Lord straight to me.
God has been using my current circumstances to teach me to wait on Him. He’s been strengthening my faith through struggles; and I can’t say I always react as I should in faith and in joy, but God is very patient and loving. When I try to hurry things because I think it must be right or I don’t have time, He lets me “slip on the sidewalk” and reminds me to be still and listen to His voice. The Lord also uses these “slip-ups” to speak to us I believe…We learn from our mistakes as Oswald Chambers said about our yesterdays, “He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future.” In my icy sidewalk situation I was also reminded to take it slow on my way to work so I didn’t end up in a greater predicament like running my car off the road or something much worse than a bent umbrella and a wet bottom. :-)
You shall not go out with haste, . . . for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard —Isaiah 52:12
I thought about this particular verse from Isaiah throughout my day and just thanked God for going before me and coming behind me. We may not always understand what He is doing, but He is in control. We must follow His leading as He goes ahead of us as our shepherd. We must let Him back us up as we wait on Him and His timing. He is God. :-) I am so thankful that He is my God! How awesome He is!
"The name of the LORD is a strong tower; The righteous runs into it and is safe." Proverbs 18:10
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5,6
"It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect." Psalm 18:32
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
The most wonderful message ever to be heard!
Another word to you all from my book "Knowing God." I actually read this chapter about God incarnate(in human form) a couple months ago. But it is something that I went back and reread because it has everything to do with the Christmas season for this is what Christmas is all about.
It is all too easy for us to get wrapped up in the world's definition of Christmas when we are surrounded by it every day everywhere we go. Let's take the time to meditate on our Savior and the reason why we even have Christmas and why we as Christians may have true "joy" in our hearts as we celebrate the birth of our Lord. May we be reminded of what it meant for Him to come to earth to die, and let's pray that the Lord will use us to share this hope with others who are in need of salvation.
Merry CHRISTmas!
~
"The Word became flesh." (Jn 1:14) God became man.
The Christmas message rests on the staggering fact that the child in the manger was- GOD.
The baby born at Bethlehem was God made man. The Word had become flesh: a real human baby. He had not ceased to be God; He was no less God than before; but He had begun to be man. He was not now God MINUS some elements of His deity, but God PLUS all that He had made His own by taking manhood to Himself.
ALL THIS WAS FOR OUR SALVATION!
He became poor. We see now what it meant for the Son of God to empty Himself and become poor. It meant laying aside of glory. It meant love to the uttermost for unlovely human beings, that they through His poverty might become rich.
The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity- hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory- because at the Father's will Jesus Christ became poor and was born in a stable so that thirty years later He might hang on a cross. It is the most wonderful message that the world has ever heard, or will hear.
We talk glibly of the "Christmas spirit," rarely meaning more by this than sentimental jollity on a family basis. But what we have said makes it clear that the phrase should carry a tremendous weight of meaning. It ought to mean the reproducing in human lives of the temper of Him who for our sake became poor at the first Christmas. And the Christmas spirit itself ought to be the mark of every Christian all the year round.
The Christmas spirit is the spirit of those who, like their Master, live their whole lives on the principle of making themselves poor- spending and being spent- to enrich their fellow humans, giving time, trouble, care and concern, to do good to others- and not just their own friends- in whatever way there seems need.
"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich." 2 Corinthians 8:9
"Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus." Philippians 2:5
It is all too easy for us to get wrapped up in the world's definition of Christmas when we are surrounded by it every day everywhere we go. Let's take the time to meditate on our Savior and the reason why we even have Christmas and why we as Christians may have true "joy" in our hearts as we celebrate the birth of our Lord. May we be reminded of what it meant for Him to come to earth to die, and let's pray that the Lord will use us to share this hope with others who are in need of salvation.
Merry CHRISTmas!
~
"The Word became flesh." (Jn 1:14) God became man.
The Christmas message rests on the staggering fact that the child in the manger was- GOD.
The baby born at Bethlehem was God made man. The Word had become flesh: a real human baby. He had not ceased to be God; He was no less God than before; but He had begun to be man. He was not now God MINUS some elements of His deity, but God PLUS all that He had made His own by taking manhood to Himself.
ALL THIS WAS FOR OUR SALVATION!
He became poor. We see now what it meant for the Son of God to empty Himself and become poor. It meant laying aside of glory. It meant love to the uttermost for unlovely human beings, that they through His poverty might become rich.
The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity- hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory- because at the Father's will Jesus Christ became poor and was born in a stable so that thirty years later He might hang on a cross. It is the most wonderful message that the world has ever heard, or will hear.
We talk glibly of the "Christmas spirit," rarely meaning more by this than sentimental jollity on a family basis. But what we have said makes it clear that the phrase should carry a tremendous weight of meaning. It ought to mean the reproducing in human lives of the temper of Him who for our sake became poor at the first Christmas. And the Christmas spirit itself ought to be the mark of every Christian all the year round.
The Christmas spirit is the spirit of those who, like their Master, live their whole lives on the principle of making themselves poor- spending and being spent- to enrich their fellow humans, giving time, trouble, care and concern, to do good to others- and not just their own friends- in whatever way there seems need.
"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich." 2 Corinthians 8:9
"Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus." Philippians 2:5
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