"'I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.' John 17:26
You do not "organize" the kingdom of God; you "agonize" the kingdom of God. You cannot be close to God without being affected by His love. The heavenly Father loved His Son with an eternal love. Everything in the heart and life of the Father was released to His Son. As the Father expressed His love for a broken and sinful world, this passion was manifested through the life of His Son. The Father initiated His plan to save mankind, and out of a heart of devotion, the Son accepted the assignment that took Him to the cross.
As Jesus walked among people, the Father's love filled His Son. Jesus recognized that no ordinary love could motivate Him to go to the cross. No human love could keep Him perfectly obedient to His Father throughout His life. Only His Father's love was powerful enough to compel Him to commit His life to the saving purpose of His Father.
Jesus prayed that God would place this same love in His disciples. He knew that no other motivation would be sufficient for the assignments God had for them. God's answer was to place His Son in them. It is impossible for a Christian to be filled with this measure of love and not to be on mission with God.
You will be incapable of ministering to everyone God sends you unless you have His love. You cannot forgive others or go the extra mile with others or sacrifice for others unless you have first been filled with the boundless love of God. Seek to know the Father and His immeasurable love; then allow His Son to love others through you!" ("Experiencing God Day by Day", by Henry and Richard Blackaby)
Friday, January 22, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Discipleship Is Christ in You
"To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:27
The heavenly Father's plan from the beginning of time was to place His eternal Son in every believer. If you are a Christian, all the fullness of God dwells in you. Christ's life becomes your life. When Christ lives in you, He brings every divine resource with Him. Every time you face a need, you meet it with the presence of the crucified, risen, and triumphant Lord of the universe inhabiting you. When God invites you to become involved in His work, He has already placed His Son in you so that He can carry out His assignment through your life.
This has significant implications for your Christian life. Discipleship is more than acquiring head knowledge and memorizing Scripture verses. It is learning to give Jesus Christ total access to your life so He will live His life through you. Your greatest difficulty will be believing that your relationship with Christ is at the heart of your Christian life. When others watch you face a crisis, do they see the risen Lord responding? Does your family see the difference Christ makes when you face a need? What difference does the presence of Jesus Christ make in your life?
God wants to reveal Himself to those around you by working mightily through you. He wants your family to see Christ in you each day. God wants to express His love through your life. There is a great difference between "living the Christian life" and allowing Christ to live His life through you." ("Experiencing God Day by Day" by Henry and Richard Blackaby)
I feel very much like I have been trying to "live the Christian life" rather than actually surrendering to God and letting Him live in and through me. I don't want to continue down this path. Help me surrender fully, Lord, to Your control, so that You will be the one others see.
The heavenly Father's plan from the beginning of time was to place His eternal Son in every believer. If you are a Christian, all the fullness of God dwells in you. Christ's life becomes your life. When Christ lives in you, He brings every divine resource with Him. Every time you face a need, you meet it with the presence of the crucified, risen, and triumphant Lord of the universe inhabiting you. When God invites you to become involved in His work, He has already placed His Son in you so that He can carry out His assignment through your life.
This has significant implications for your Christian life. Discipleship is more than acquiring head knowledge and memorizing Scripture verses. It is learning to give Jesus Christ total access to your life so He will live His life through you. Your greatest difficulty will be believing that your relationship with Christ is at the heart of your Christian life. When others watch you face a crisis, do they see the risen Lord responding? Does your family see the difference Christ makes when you face a need? What difference does the presence of Jesus Christ make in your life?
God wants to reveal Himself to those around you by working mightily through you. He wants your family to see Christ in you each day. God wants to express His love through your life. There is a great difference between "living the Christian life" and allowing Christ to live His life through you." ("Experiencing God Day by Day" by Henry and Richard Blackaby)
I feel very much like I have been trying to "live the Christian life" rather than actually surrendering to God and letting Him live in and through me. I don't want to continue down this path. Help me surrender fully, Lord, to Your control, so that You will be the one others see.
Monday, January 11, 2010
When God Speaks, It is So
""So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please." Isaiah 55:11
When God speaks, nothing remains the same. At the beginning of time, God spoke, and a universe was created out of nothing. God followed a pattern when he created the earth: He spoke; it was so; it was good (Gen. 1:3-4). This pattern continued throughout the Bible. Whenever God revealed His plans, things happened just as He said, and God considered the result "good" (Phil. 2:13). God doesn't make suggestions. He speaks with the full determination to see that what He has said will come to fruition.
Whenever Jesus spoke, what He said came to pass. Lepers found that a word from Jesus meant healing (Luke 5:13; 17:14). The blind man discovered that a word from Jesus meant sight (Luke 18:42). Through a barren fig tree the disciples saw that a curse from Jesus meant destruction (Mark 11:20). The sinner experienced forgiveness through a word from Jesus (John 8:11). How many attempts did it take Jesus to raise Lazarus from the dead? Only one (John 11:43). There was never a time that Jesus spoke that what He said did not happen.
Have you been reading the words of Jesus in your Bible without experiencing His word that transforms everything around you? Jesus condemned the Pharisees because they assumed that knowledge of the written Scriptures would give them life. They were satisfied with having the words instead of experiencing the person who spoke the words (John 5:39). How powerful a word from God is to your life! As you read your Bible and pray, listen to what God has to say to you about His will for your life."
Henry T. Blackaby and Richard Blackaby, "Experiencing God Day by Day"
When God speaks, nothing remains the same. At the beginning of time, God spoke, and a universe was created out of nothing. God followed a pattern when he created the earth: He spoke; it was so; it was good (Gen. 1:3-4). This pattern continued throughout the Bible. Whenever God revealed His plans, things happened just as He said, and God considered the result "good" (Phil. 2:13). God doesn't make suggestions. He speaks with the full determination to see that what He has said will come to fruition.
Whenever Jesus spoke, what He said came to pass. Lepers found that a word from Jesus meant healing (Luke 5:13; 17:14). The blind man discovered that a word from Jesus meant sight (Luke 18:42). Through a barren fig tree the disciples saw that a curse from Jesus meant destruction (Mark 11:20). The sinner experienced forgiveness through a word from Jesus (John 8:11). How many attempts did it take Jesus to raise Lazarus from the dead? Only one (John 11:43). There was never a time that Jesus spoke that what He said did not happen.
Have you been reading the words of Jesus in your Bible without experiencing His word that transforms everything around you? Jesus condemned the Pharisees because they assumed that knowledge of the written Scriptures would give them life. They were satisfied with having the words instead of experiencing the person who spoke the words (John 5:39). How powerful a word from God is to your life! As you read your Bible and pray, listen to what God has to say to you about His will for your life."
Henry T. Blackaby and Richard Blackaby, "Experiencing God Day by Day"
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Because you are lukewarm
I have felt lukewarm today. We watched a movie today called "Bamboo in Winter" about the persecution of the church in China and how they press on to spread the good news even with the threats of torture and death. My niece who is living with us, asked me what they were being tortured for and was dumbfounded that it was because they believe in Jesus and preach His name. That is all they are doing...and yet their lives hang in the balance every day. I told her, in this country it is so easy to say you are a Christian...so easy to claim the name of Christ, but we don't have to fear it costing our lives. We don't have to worry about being raided when we meet with other believers. It is so easy for us to meet with other Christians that I think in someways we tend to disdain that privilege...That's right I said a privilege to meet with other believers and encourage them in the faith. But I digress... I wonder if faith is REAL if it hasn't really been tested. I mean, I know that the Lord led us through Terry's cancer, and I am thankful for that...but if it was a loaded gun pushed into my face and I had to choose my physical life or admit that I believe in Jesus Christ, that He is the Savior of the world and that He died for my sins; I wonder sometimes what I would do. I know what I HOPE I would do, but sometimes I wonder.
In thinking of that this evening, my niece has been watching one of her friend's little girl. This little girl since she found out that her mom was on her way has continually gone to each one of us again and again proclaiming, "Mommy's coming! Mommy's coming!" What I said to Terry is that this two-year-old child has a better idea of evangelism than I do sometimes. We should be like that...we should be going up to everyone we can with our hearts full of excitement proclaiming, "Jesus is coming! He's coming soon! Believe in Jesus and live!" I feel like I have been spending a lot of my time just focused on living my life. In my head I say that my treasure is not here, but really, I wonder. In my head I say all the right things, but do the actions of my life bear out what I say I believe? Does my life bear fruit showing that Christ is EVERYTHING to me, that I believe He is coming soon, and that there are many people in my own life that are still overcome by their sins with no hope of freedom from them? Or am I just hiding my complacency behind perfectly crafted words of zeal?
In thinking of that this evening, my niece has been watching one of her friend's little girl. This little girl since she found out that her mom was on her way has continually gone to each one of us again and again proclaiming, "Mommy's coming! Mommy's coming!" What I said to Terry is that this two-year-old child has a better idea of evangelism than I do sometimes. We should be like that...we should be going up to everyone we can with our hearts full of excitement proclaiming, "Jesus is coming! He's coming soon! Believe in Jesus and live!" I feel like I have been spending a lot of my time just focused on living my life. In my head I say that my treasure is not here, but really, I wonder. In my head I say all the right things, but do the actions of my life bear out what I say I believe? Does my life bear fruit showing that Christ is EVERYTHING to me, that I believe He is coming soon, and that there are many people in my own life that are still overcome by their sins with no hope of freedom from them? Or am I just hiding my complacency behind perfectly crafted words of zeal?
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Do the First Works
Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss
September 16, 2009
Returning to Your First Love
Your First Love Relationship
Think about the time in your life when your love for Christ burned more strongly than ever. Does that describe you today? Find out why it could.
If you love Christ, you will love others. To have true love for others, you must have Christ. So when you fail to love Christ, you will fail to love others. When you fail to love others, you have failed to love Christ.
A door of your heart can be closed off to Christ even if you’re faithful, persevering, orthodox; even if your doctrine and lifestyle is right.
Apart from love for Christ and for others, all we do is in vain.
Even before today's "Revive Our Hearts" excerpt, I must admit, I have been in a strange place for a long time. I have felt that I have been missing something very important. The Scripture the Lord keeps bringing to mind is Revelation 2: 1-7:
"“To the angel of the church of Ephesus write,‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent. But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”’"
I have been praying and asking the Lord to show me what the first works are, so that I might do them again. I want that love and fire that burned in my heart for Jesus to blaze out of control again. I want to follow Christ, not just His words. I feel that I have become so focused on obeying doctrine, on obeying the word of God, that I stopped focusing on following the God of the word. It has been a scary place to be. Scary because I know that if I am missing it, if I am just giving my son a bunch of rules to follow, but nothing to hold him, no LIFE that makes him want to do what God says, then it is all in vain, and I will watch my son walk away from Christ, having just enough to innoculate him to the truth. I DON'T WANT THAT! So I know it has to start with me. I must be willing to reexamine my heart, what I believe and where I am with Christ. I must be living life abundantly, through faith in Christ, acknowledging that I don't know it all and leaning wholly upon Jesus. I must show him something worth dying for, that he might truly live. That is where I am. It is a hard place to be because I am finding out that I am differing in some views with some that I love dearly, and that is scary. But Christ is my hope...He is my Lord, my Guide, my ever present Help in time of trouble. He alone is the One that can keep my feet from slipping and can lift me up when I fall. Christ is ALL in ALL. HE is the point. I pray that I can quickly come back to the place where I am living that.
September 16, 2009
Returning to Your First Love
Your First Love Relationship
Think about the time in your life when your love for Christ burned more strongly than ever. Does that describe you today? Find out why it could.
If you love Christ, you will love others. To have true love for others, you must have Christ. So when you fail to love Christ, you will fail to love others. When you fail to love others, you have failed to love Christ.
A door of your heart can be closed off to Christ even if you’re faithful, persevering, orthodox; even if your doctrine and lifestyle is right.
Apart from love for Christ and for others, all we do is in vain.
Even before today's "Revive Our Hearts" excerpt, I must admit, I have been in a strange place for a long time. I have felt that I have been missing something very important. The Scripture the Lord keeps bringing to mind is Revelation 2: 1-7:
"“To the angel of the church of Ephesus write,‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent. But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”’"
I have been praying and asking the Lord to show me what the first works are, so that I might do them again. I want that love and fire that burned in my heart for Jesus to blaze out of control again. I want to follow Christ, not just His words. I feel that I have become so focused on obeying doctrine, on obeying the word of God, that I stopped focusing on following the God of the word. It has been a scary place to be. Scary because I know that if I am missing it, if I am just giving my son a bunch of rules to follow, but nothing to hold him, no LIFE that makes him want to do what God says, then it is all in vain, and I will watch my son walk away from Christ, having just enough to innoculate him to the truth. I DON'T WANT THAT! So I know it has to start with me. I must be willing to reexamine my heart, what I believe and where I am with Christ. I must be living life abundantly, through faith in Christ, acknowledging that I don't know it all and leaning wholly upon Jesus. I must show him something worth dying for, that he might truly live. That is where I am. It is a hard place to be because I am finding out that I am differing in some views with some that I love dearly, and that is scary. But Christ is my hope...He is my Lord, my Guide, my ever present Help in time of trouble. He alone is the One that can keep my feet from slipping and can lift me up when I fall. Christ is ALL in ALL. HE is the point. I pray that I can quickly come back to the place where I am living that.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Jesus is my anchor...I am held fast
We Have an Anchor
Words by Priscilla J. Owens Music by William J. Kirkpatrick 1882
Hebrews 6:19 "Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;"
Will your anchor hold in the storms of life,
When the clouds unfold their wings of strife?
When the strong tides lift and the cables strain,
Will your anchor drift, or firm remain?
Chorus
We have an anchor that keeps the soul
Steadfast and sure while the billows roll,
Fastened to the Rock which cannot move,
Grounded firm and deep in the Savior's love.
It is safely moored, 'twill the storm withstand,
For 'tis well secured by the Savior’s hand;
And the cables, passed from His heart to mine,
Can defy that blast, thro' strength divine.
Chorus
We have an anchor that keeps the soul
Steadfast and sure while the billows roll,
Fastened to the Rock which cannot move,
Grounded firm and deep in the Savior's love.
When our eyes behold through the gath’ring night
The city of gold, our harbor bright,
We shall anchor fast by the heav'nly shore,
With the storms all past forevermore.
Chorus
We have an anchor that keeps the soul
Steadfast and sure while the billows roll,
Fastened to the Rock which cannot move,
Grounded firm and deep in the Savior's love.
Words by Priscilla J. Owens Music by William J. Kirkpatrick 1882
Hebrews 6:19 "Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;"
Will your anchor hold in the storms of life,
When the clouds unfold their wings of strife?
When the strong tides lift and the cables strain,
Will your anchor drift, or firm remain?
Chorus
We have an anchor that keeps the soul
Steadfast and sure while the billows roll,
Fastened to the Rock which cannot move,
Grounded firm and deep in the Savior's love.
It is safely moored, 'twill the storm withstand,
For 'tis well secured by the Savior’s hand;
And the cables, passed from His heart to mine,
Can defy that blast, thro' strength divine.
Chorus
We have an anchor that keeps the soul
Steadfast and sure while the billows roll,
Fastened to the Rock which cannot move,
Grounded firm and deep in the Savior's love.
When our eyes behold through the gath’ring night
The city of gold, our harbor bright,
We shall anchor fast by the heav'nly shore,
With the storms all past forevermore.
Chorus
We have an anchor that keeps the soul
Steadfast and sure while the billows roll,
Fastened to the Rock which cannot move,
Grounded firm and deep in the Savior's love.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Lamentation - yet hope
"I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath. He has led me and made me walk in darkness and not in light. Surely He has turned His hand against me time and time again throughout the day. He has aged my flesh and my skin, and broken my bones. He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and woe. He has set me in dark places like the dead of long ago. He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out; He has made my chain heavy. 8 Even when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer. He has blocked my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked. He has been to me a bear lying in wait, like a lion in ambush. He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces; He has made me desolate. He has bent His bow and set me up as a target for the arrow. He has caused the arrows of His quiver to pierce my loins. I have become the ridicule of all my people—their taunting song all the day. He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drink wormwood. He has also broken my teeth with gravel, and covered me with ashes. You have moved my soul far from peace; I have forgotten prosperity. And I said, “My strength and my hope have perished from the LORD.” Remember my affliction and roaming, the wormwood and the gall. My soul still remembers and sinks within me. This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. “ The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “ Therefore I hope in Him!” The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone and keep silent, because God has laid it on him; Let him put his mouth in the dust—there may yet be hope. Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him, and be full of reproach. For the Lord will not cast off forever. Though He causes grief, yet He will show compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. For He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. To crush under one’s feet all the prisoners of the earth, to turn aside the justice due a man before the face of the Most High, or subvert a man in his cause—the Lord does not approve. Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, when the Lord has not commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that woe and well-being proceed? Why should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? Let us search out and examine our ways, and turn back to the LORD; Let us lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven. We have transgressed and rebelled; You have not pardoned. You have covered Yourself with anger and pursued us; You have slain and not pitied. You have covered Yourself with a cloud, that prayer should not pass through. You have made us an offscouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples. All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. Fear and a snare have come upon us, desolation and destruction. My eyes overflow with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. My eyes flow and do not cease, without interruption, till the LORD from heaven looks down and sees. My eyes bring suffering to my soul because of all the daughters of my city. My enemies without cause hunted me down like a bird. They silenced my life in the pit and threw stones at me. The waters flowed over my head; I said, “I am cut off!” I called on Your name, O LORD, from the lowest pit. You have heard my voice: “ Do not hide Your ear from my sighing, from my cry for help.” You drew near on the day I called on You, and said, “Do not fear!” O Lord, You have pleaded the case for my soul; You have redeemed my life." Lamentations 3:1-58
Whatever You're Doing (Something Heavenly) by Sanctus Real
It’s time for healing, time to move on,
it’s time to fix what’s been broken too long
Time to make right what has been wrong;
it’s time to find my way to where I belong
Chorus:
There’s a wave that’s crashing over me, and all I can do is surrender
Whatever You’re doing inside of me
It feels like chaos, but somehow there’s peace
And it’s hard to surrender to what I can’t see, but I’m giving in to something heavenly
Time for a milestone, time to begin again, re-evaluate who I really am
Am I doing everything to follow Your will or just climbing aimlessly over these hills?
So show me what it is You want from me I give everything – I surrender
Chorus:
Whatever You’re doing inside of me
It feels like chaos, but somehow there’s peace
And it’s hard to surrender to what I can’t see, but I’m giving in to something heavenly
Time to face up, clean this old house
Time to breathe in and let everything out that I’ve wanted to say for so many years
Time to release all my held back tears
Whatever You’re doing inside of me
It feels like chaos, but I believe …
You’re up to something bigger than me
Larger than life, something heavenly
Whatever You’re doing inside of me
It feels like chaos, but now I can see
This is something bigger than me
Larger than life
Something heavenly, something heavenly
Time to face up, clean this old house
Time to breathe in and let everything out
Whatever You're Doing (Something Heavenly) by Sanctus Real
It’s time for healing, time to move on,
it’s time to fix what’s been broken too long
Time to make right what has been wrong;
it’s time to find my way to where I belong
Chorus:
There’s a wave that’s crashing over me, and all I can do is surrender
Whatever You’re doing inside of me
It feels like chaos, but somehow there’s peace
And it’s hard to surrender to what I can’t see, but I’m giving in to something heavenly
Time for a milestone, time to begin again, re-evaluate who I really am
Am I doing everything to follow Your will or just climbing aimlessly over these hills?
So show me what it is You want from me I give everything – I surrender
Chorus:
Whatever You’re doing inside of me
It feels like chaos, but somehow there’s peace
And it’s hard to surrender to what I can’t see, but I’m giving in to something heavenly
Time to face up, clean this old house
Time to breathe in and let everything out that I’ve wanted to say for so many years
Time to release all my held back tears
Whatever You’re doing inside of me
It feels like chaos, but I believe …
You’re up to something bigger than me
Larger than life, something heavenly
Whatever You’re doing inside of me
It feels like chaos, but now I can see
This is something bigger than me
Larger than life
Something heavenly, something heavenly
Time to face up, clean this old house
Time to breathe in and let everything out
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