Thursday, December 08, 2005
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
it's all pride. . .
and it's all me! I've been reading this article in The Christian Single. Totally random cause I never pick it up and read it, but the Lord knew exactly what I needed today and just spoke to my heart that I needed it. It's all about pride-and totally descriptive of me. The whole thing.
"Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall".
Proverbs 16:18
The word destruction actually means to fracture or break.
MY PRIDE IS BREAKING THIS RELATIONSHIP!
Even last night I was just praying, "Lord, I haven't really experienced you in a huge way in sooo long. Where are you?" and then He reminded me:
"but He gives more grace. Therefore it says, 'God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.' James 4:6
He's opposing me right now-that's why He feels so far way.
"Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall".
Proverbs 16:18
The word destruction actually means to fracture or break.
MY PRIDE IS BREAKING THIS RELATIONSHIP!
Even last night I was just praying, "Lord, I haven't really experienced you in a huge way in sooo long. Where are you?" and then He reminded me:
"but He gives more grace. Therefore it says, 'God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.' James 4:6
He's opposing me right now-that's why He feels so far way.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Letting go. . .
It's hard, but the Lord requires it. . .
Letting go of my dreams to get out of this town, out of this country and surrendering to His command to stay. Letting go of my desire for a life companion and learning to embrace Him as my closest friend. Letting go of the idea that anything other than Christ alone can complete me and allowing Him to be my sufficiency. Letting go of my rights and grabbing hold of of suffering to make Christ known. Letting go of who I am, my flesh and seeking righteousness. Letting go of trying to work out my life and allowing Him free reign.
Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Phil 3.13,14
Letting go of my dreams to get out of this town, out of this country and surrendering to His command to stay. Letting go of my desire for a life companion and learning to embrace Him as my closest friend. Letting go of the idea that anything other than Christ alone can complete me and allowing Him to be my sufficiency. Letting go of my rights and grabbing hold of of suffering to make Christ known. Letting go of who I am, my flesh and seeking righteousness. Letting go of trying to work out my life and allowing Him free reign.
Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Phil 3.13,14
Monday, November 21, 2005
. . . yet having it all!
Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.
2 Corinthians 6:2b-10
My prayer. . . that some day this would be said of me. . . that at my homecoming I'll hear the words, "Well done, my good and faithful servant!"
2 Corinthians 6:2b-10
My prayer. . . that some day this would be said of me. . . that at my homecoming I'll hear the words, "Well done, my good and faithful servant!"
Monday, November 14, 2005
all my anxiety. . .
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.
(1 Pet 5:6,7)
FREEDOM!!!
(1 Pet 5:6,7)
FREEDOM!!!
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Only You
Take my heart, I Lay it down
At the feet of you whose crowned
Take my life, I’m letting go
I lift it upto You who’s throned
And I will worship You, Lord
Only You, Lord
And I will bow down before You
Only You Lord
Take my fret, take my fear
All I have, I’m leaving here
Be all my hopes, be all my dreams
Be all my delights, be my everything
And It’s just you and me here now
Only you and me here now
You should see the view
When it’s only You
David Crowder
At the feet of you whose crowned
Take my life, I’m letting go
I lift it upto You who’s throned
And I will worship You, Lord
Only You, Lord
And I will bow down before You
Only You Lord
Take my fret, take my fear
All I have, I’m leaving here
Be all my hopes, be all my dreams
Be all my delights, be my everything
And It’s just you and me here now
Only you and me here now
You should see the view
When it’s only You
David Crowder
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Billows
I've been reading the biography of Oswald Chambers for a while now. It is so challenging that I read it for a few days and then have to put it down and think about everything he has said.
It's been such a lesson in patience and trusting the Father. There were so many times in his life that he proceeded not knowing where the Father would take him and not knowing what the next thing would be. He just trusted.
"They had no house, no furniture, and no money. And beyond the month of October, they had no firm plans. Instead of anxiously pacing the deck, Biddy opened a book while Oswald reclined in a wooden chaise lounge and gazed at the rolling sea. God was in charge and tomorrow was in His hands. Oswald's approach to the future was simple, "Trust God and do the next thing." What duty lay nearest at hand? Take a nap. Wrapping a blanket around himself, he closed his eyes and went to sleep."
"I have had a great and blessed time before God in prayer this morn. It came so clearly that in all ventures for God I had to go in fath and now I do the same. I have never far-seeing plans, only confident trust. On the top of those very billows which look as if they would overwhlem us walks the son of God!"
It's been such a lesson in patience and trusting the Father. There were so many times in his life that he proceeded not knowing where the Father would take him and not knowing what the next thing would be. He just trusted.
"They had no house, no furniture, and no money. And beyond the month of October, they had no firm plans. Instead of anxiously pacing the deck, Biddy opened a book while Oswald reclined in a wooden chaise lounge and gazed at the rolling sea. God was in charge and tomorrow was in His hands. Oswald's approach to the future was simple, "Trust God and do the next thing." What duty lay nearest at hand? Take a nap. Wrapping a blanket around himself, he closed his eyes and went to sleep."
"I have had a great and blessed time before God in prayer this morn. It came so clearly that in all ventures for God I had to go in fath and now I do the same. I have never far-seeing plans, only confident trust. On the top of those very billows which look as if they would overwhlem us walks the son of God!"
Friday, October 14, 2005
A Turbulent World
“A man who would live for Christ in a turbulent world, must draw his life from the depths of God Himself, not from the froth and foam of the surface experience.”
Oswald Chambers
Oswald Chambers
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Finding God in the Garden of Pain
The Lord has been speaking to me a lot lately about fasting. He's led me to the book of Joel and I've been reading John Piper's "A Hunger for God." Recently, through a time of fasting, the Lord gave me the clarity I've been seeking since I returned home from Africa. And it's all summed up right here. The Lord gave us Isaiah 58 going into the fast, and now He is giving it on the way out as well. Once again, He is proven faithful!
by John Piper, "A Hunger for God",
what the Lord taught me from chapter 6:
"Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke,to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house;when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.'If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong;and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in." Isaiah 58.6-12
"Fasting is, as much as lies in us, an imitation of the angels, a contemning of things present, a school of prayer, a nourishment of the soul, a bridle of the mouth, an abatement of concupiscence: it mollifies rage, it appeases anger, it calms the tempests of nature, it excites reason, it clears the mind, it dis-burdens the flesh, it chases away night-pollutions, it freas from head-ache. By fasting, a man gets composed behavior, free utterance of his tongue, right apprehensions of his mind." Chrysostom, AD 407
"So God comes to them and says, The fast that I choose is not that you religiosly make yourselves hungry and afflicted, but that you make the poor less hungry and afflicted. If you want to fight sin by taking bread away from your own mouth, then put it in the mouth of the poor. Then we will see if you are really fasting for righteousness' sake. . . Go without bread for the sake of the poor. That's the fast I choose."
"Against this backdrop of the pervasive contemporary American consumerism, the fasting of Isaiah 58 begins to have a sharper point. That a lifestyle of serving the poor rather than consuming another commodity should be called a "fast" is not so strange after all. Most of our life is a gorging of one artifically inflamed appetite after another. Any alteration of this pattern for the sake of ministry is a "fast"--and one that would please God more than a hundred skipped lunches with a view to more pizza at supper."
"God will not allow me to content myself with severe discipline that does not attack the oblivion in which most comfortable middle-class Americans live. He says that fasting is meant to awaken us to the hunger of the world, not just to our own hunger."
"It is one of God's many paradoxes that there is more light in the dark places of the world for those who go there to serve. And there is more darkness in the glitz of great malls for those who go there to escape."
"The guidance of God is not meant for the bright paths of the garden of ease, but for the dark places of pain where we have few answers and paths have never been cut."
by John Piper, "A Hunger for God",
what the Lord taught me from chapter 6:
"Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke,to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house;when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.'If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong;and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in." Isaiah 58.6-12
"Fasting is, as much as lies in us, an imitation of the angels, a contemning of things present, a school of prayer, a nourishment of the soul, a bridle of the mouth, an abatement of concupiscence: it mollifies rage, it appeases anger, it calms the tempests of nature, it excites reason, it clears the mind, it dis-burdens the flesh, it chases away night-pollutions, it freas from head-ache. By fasting, a man gets composed behavior, free utterance of his tongue, right apprehensions of his mind." Chrysostom, AD 407
"So God comes to them and says, The fast that I choose is not that you religiosly make yourselves hungry and afflicted, but that you make the poor less hungry and afflicted. If you want to fight sin by taking bread away from your own mouth, then put it in the mouth of the poor. Then we will see if you are really fasting for righteousness' sake. . . Go without bread for the sake of the poor. That's the fast I choose."
"Against this backdrop of the pervasive contemporary American consumerism, the fasting of Isaiah 58 begins to have a sharper point. That a lifestyle of serving the poor rather than consuming another commodity should be called a "fast" is not so strange after all. Most of our life is a gorging of one artifically inflamed appetite after another. Any alteration of this pattern for the sake of ministry is a "fast"--and one that would please God more than a hundred skipped lunches with a view to more pizza at supper."
"God will not allow me to content myself with severe discipline that does not attack the oblivion in which most comfortable middle-class Americans live. He says that fasting is meant to awaken us to the hunger of the world, not just to our own hunger."
"It is one of God's many paradoxes that there is more light in the dark places of the world for those who go there to serve. And there is more darkness in the glitz of great malls for those who go there to escape."
"The guidance of God is not meant for the bright paths of the garden of ease, but for the dark places of pain where we have few answers and paths have never been cut."
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
The Way I Should Go
It's a question I've been struggling with a lot lately. But, HIS Word has the answer.
He was faithful to the Israelites:
By a pillar of cloud you led thim in the day, and by a pillar of fire in the night to light for them the way in which they should go. . . you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go.
Nehemiah 9.12,19
He willl be faithful to me:
Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him will h instruct in the way that he should choose.
Psalm 25.12
I will instruct and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
Psalm 32.8
Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.
Psalm 143.8
Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go."
Isaiah 48.17
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