Andrew Murray – The Life of Obedience
From the chapter titled The Secret of True Obedience
The secret of true obedience, I believe, is a clear and close personal relationship to God. All our attempts to achieve full obedience will fail until we have access to His abiding fellowship. It is God’s holy presence, consciously abiding with us, that keeps us from disobeying Him. Imperfect obedience is the result of a life that is lacking. To defend our life by arguments and faulty motives will only make us feel the need of a more committed life, one that is entirely under the power of God, in which place obedience becomes natural. A life of broken and spasmodic fellowship with God must be healed to make way for a full and healthy life of obedience. The secret of true obedience, then is the return to close and continual fellowship with God.” (Page 34)
Wow, even our obedience to Him and His leadings is wrapped up in our closeness to the Lord and our love for Him.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Sunday, January 27, 2008
The Body Human (Part 2)
More from the book “What Darwin Didn’t Know” by Geoffrey Simmons, M.D.
The Genes
Everything that transpires within the body is controlled by the three billion base pairs that make up the 100,000 genes that form the 23 paired chromosomes within the nucleus of nearly every cell. The amount of information stored within a single nucleus is equal to a library of 1000 encyclopedias, each with 1000 pages. Multiply that by the 35 billion cells in a brain, not to mention the ten or more trillion cells in a single body, and the amount of information moving about the body in each second becomes astronomical. Yet if one could put all of the DNA coordinating the growth, development, and functioning of every human on Earth into a single pile, it would weigh barely 50 grams. How could a particle smaller than dust have enough knowledge to, as it were, multiply into a trillion-room skyscraper - and also know the color, shape, and size of every room, every worker who would ever be employed in it, and every speck of furniture, wiring, and plumbing? (This speck might even know the past, the present, and the future.) (P. 30)
The Genes
Everything that transpires within the body is controlled by the three billion base pairs that make up the 100,000 genes that form the 23 paired chromosomes within the nucleus of nearly every cell. The amount of information stored within a single nucleus is equal to a library of 1000 encyclopedias, each with 1000 pages. Multiply that by the 35 billion cells in a brain, not to mention the ten or more trillion cells in a single body, and the amount of information moving about the body in each second becomes astronomical. Yet if one could put all of the DNA coordinating the growth, development, and functioning of every human on Earth into a single pile, it would weigh barely 50 grams. How could a particle smaller than dust have enough knowledge to, as it were, multiply into a trillion-room skyscraper - and also know the color, shape, and size of every room, every worker who would ever be employed in it, and every speck of furniture, wiring, and plumbing? (This speck might even know the past, the present, and the future.) (P. 30)
How much do we Love the Lord? Part 5
I have been reading a book by John Piper entitled, A Hunger for God, Desiring God Through Fasting and Praying. In the introduction on page 23, he writes, “The more deeply you walk with Christ, the hungrier you get for Christ . . . the more homesick you get for heaven . . . the more you want “all the fullness of God” . . . the more you want to be done with sin . . . the more you want the Bridegroom to come again . . the more you want the Church revived and purified with the beauty of Jesus . . . the more you want a great awakening to God’s reality in the cities . . . the more you want to see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ penetrate the darkness of all the unreached peoples of the world . . . the more you want to see the false worldviews yield to the force of Truth . . . the more you want to see pain relieved and tears wiped away and death destroyed . . . the more you long for every wrong to be made right and the justice and grace of God to fill the earth like the waters cover the sea.”
My prayer is for all of the readers to walk deeply with Christ and have all these wants in our minds and hearts. Amen.
My prayer is for all of the readers to walk deeply with Christ and have all these wants in our minds and hearts. Amen.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
How much do we Love the Lord? Part 4
In my reading lately, it seems I keep coming onto the theme of ‘loving the Lord.’ It is the basis of all things Christian and must be our focus. I have already posted three times on it, but here is another. There will be a least a couple more in the next few days. As you probably can tell if you read the blog very much, I appreciate Charles Spurgeon so here is another devotion from him on loving and enjoying God.
Spurgeon Evening... Jan. 24
Luke 10:40 Martha was cumbered about much serving.
Her fault was not that she served: the condition of a servant well becomes every Christian. "I serve," should be the motto of all the princes of the royal family of heaven. Nor was it her fault that she had "much serving." We cannot do too much. Let us do all that we possibly can; let head, and heart, and hands, be engaged in the Master's service. . . . Her fault was that she grew "cumbered with much serving," so that she forgot Him, and only remembered the service. She allowed service to override communion, and so presented one duty stained with the blood of another. We ought to be Martha and Mary in one: we should do much service, and have much communion at the same time. . . . .
Beloved, while we do not neglect external things, which are good enough in themselves, we ought also to see to it that we enjoy living, personal fellowship with Jesus. See to it that sitting at the Saviour's feet is not neglected, even though it be under the specious pretext of doing Him service. The first thing for our soul's health, the first thing for His glory, and the first thing for our own usefulness, is to keep ourselves in perpetual communion with the Lord Jesus, and to see that the vital spirituality of our religion is maintained over and above everything else in the world. (Bold add by me for emphasis)
Spurgeon Evening... Jan. 24
Luke 10:40 Martha was cumbered about much serving.
Her fault was not that she served: the condition of a servant well becomes every Christian. "I serve," should be the motto of all the princes of the royal family of heaven. Nor was it her fault that she had "much serving." We cannot do too much. Let us do all that we possibly can; let head, and heart, and hands, be engaged in the Master's service. . . . Her fault was that she grew "cumbered with much serving," so that she forgot Him, and only remembered the service. She allowed service to override communion, and so presented one duty stained with the blood of another. We ought to be Martha and Mary in one: we should do much service, and have much communion at the same time. . . . .
Beloved, while we do not neglect external things, which are good enough in themselves, we ought also to see to it that we enjoy living, personal fellowship with Jesus. See to it that sitting at the Saviour's feet is not neglected, even though it be under the specious pretext of doing Him service. The first thing for our soul's health, the first thing for His glory, and the first thing for our own usefulness, is to keep ourselves in perpetual communion with the Lord Jesus, and to see that the vital spirituality of our religion is maintained over and above everything else in the world. (Bold add by me for emphasis)
Sunday, January 6, 2008
What is the Kingdom of God?
I read a blog by Scott McKnight at jesuscreed.org (click on hyperlink and spend time there yourself) almost daily. I find him very thought provoking and a lover of the Lord. On Monday, he is starting a study on the kingdom of God, so my interest has been peaked about the Kingdom.
This morning at the meeting of our Church, Brother Todd Carter was sharing on the importance of the ministry to children. I do not have the quote exactly, but the point he made was that one of the aspects of children’s ministry is that we who serve them will not be given anything immediate in return for our service. He made the comment, the kingdom of God looks like a group of people who serve without expecting/wanting anything in return.
Today as I was doing my workout and listening to Ravi Zacharias speak on the story of Nahum, he provided the following thought. The type of person God is building His Kingdom with is the one who follows a commitment of righteousness, dignity and discipline where there is no glory.
The evening as I was reading the autobiography of Hudson Taylor, the missionary who the Lord used to take the Gospel to China, another quote surfaced on a higher calling each individual has above the work of service. He wrote, “. . . we should never lose sight of the higher aspect of our work – that of obedience to God, of bringing glory to His name, of gladdening the heart of our God and Father by living and serving as His beloved children. Hudson Taylor did not specifically speak to the Kingdom of God, but all of these examples to me show how obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit without any expectation and ‘just plain’ loving our Lord, is building the Kingdom.
I will share more insights as I read and study on the Kingdom of God.
This morning at the meeting of our Church, Brother Todd Carter was sharing on the importance of the ministry to children. I do not have the quote exactly, but the point he made was that one of the aspects of children’s ministry is that we who serve them will not be given anything immediate in return for our service. He made the comment, the kingdom of God looks like a group of people who serve without expecting/wanting anything in return.
Today as I was doing my workout and listening to Ravi Zacharias speak on the story of Nahum, he provided the following thought. The type of person God is building His Kingdom with is the one who follows a commitment of righteousness, dignity and discipline where there is no glory.
The evening as I was reading the autobiography of Hudson Taylor, the missionary who the Lord used to take the Gospel to China, another quote surfaced on a higher calling each individual has above the work of service. He wrote, “. . . we should never lose sight of the higher aspect of our work – that of obedience to God, of bringing glory to His name, of gladdening the heart of our God and Father by living and serving as His beloved children. Hudson Taylor did not specifically speak to the Kingdom of God, but all of these examples to me show how obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit without any expectation and ‘just plain’ loving our Lord, is building the Kingdom.
I will share more insights as I read and study on the Kingdom of God.
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