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.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
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.
Friday, December 28, 2007
The Prayer of St. Francis
My oldest granddaughter gave me a bookmark as a gift on Christmas morning and it touched my heart as a prayer to be prayed and lived out as a Normal Christian.
The Prayer of St. Francis
Lord, make us instruments of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let us sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is discord, union;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that we may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
This simple prayer is attributed to St. Francis of Assissi.
The Prayer of St. Francis
Lord, make us instruments of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let us sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is discord, union;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that we may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
This simple prayer is attributed to St. Francis of Assissi.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
The Incarnation
During this time of the year when most Christians are thinking about the birth of Jesus, it is important to contemplate the meaning of the Jesus coming as a baby, as a man. The mystery of the Incarnation is Jesus, all God and all man. The Lord Jesus came as man to serve, to provide a way of salvation, to give His life to us.
Mark 10:45 (NIV) – "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
I picked up a new book about spiritual life and a quote from the author ‘jumped off the page’ at me.
The Divine Embrace, Recovering the Passionate Spiritual Life by Robert E. Webber
“In the incarnation God and man are united. In the incarnation God lifted humanity into union with himself in Jesus. The union humanity once had with God, lost in Adam, is now restored. God has restored union with humanity through his own two hands. God, the incarnate Word, united with our humanity by the Spirit, reverses the human condition through his death and resurrection.”
(P. 40)
Mark 10:45 (NIV) – "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
I picked up a new book about spiritual life and a quote from the author ‘jumped off the page’ at me.
The Divine Embrace, Recovering the Passionate Spiritual Life by Robert E. Webber
“In the incarnation God and man are united. In the incarnation God lifted humanity into union with himself in Jesus. The union humanity once had with God, lost in Adam, is now restored. God has restored union with humanity through his own two hands. God, the incarnate Word, united with our humanity by the Spirit, reverses the human condition through his death and resurrection.”
(P. 40)
Sunday, December 9, 2007
The Body Human (Part 1)
For a while I have looked for a book written by a medical doctor which would describe the human body and how intricately it is created. During the Thanksgiving holiday I borrowed a book entitled “What Darwin Didn’t Know” by Geoffrey Simmons, M.D. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I have found such a book.
I may get into the thesis of the book later, but for this post, I would like to provide a suggestion for the reader. I suggest we do not have to go out into nature (however this is a good thing to do) to be able to see the beauty of His creation. We have only to contemplate our bodies and how He created us to be able to breathe, walk, love, and do all the things which make us human. We can see His wonderful design. We can see His love for us.
The author provides an understanding of the intricacies of the human body when he writes, “The interior of the human body is a much busier place than New York City, London, Mexico City, Tokyo, and Bombay combined. Ten to seventy-five trillion cells participate in more than a quadrillion purposeful chemical interactions each day that help us walk, breathe, think, sleep, procreate, see, hear, smell, feel, digest food, eliminate waste, write, read, talk, make red cells, remove dead cells, fight infections, behave, misbehave, absorb nutrients, transport oxygen, eliminate carbon dioxide, maintain balance, carry on dialogue, understand instructions, argue, and make complex decisions, just to name a few common activities. In addition, each of these processes has dozens – and sometimes hundreds – of smaller, interacting steps, checks, counterchecks, balances, and regulatory mechanisms. And further, all of these steps have smaller chemical substeps. In many ways the human body functions like an extremely well-organized blizzard of invisible chemical responses and rapidly-changing electrical impulses. The human brain is a convoluted continent swept by microscopic electrical hurricanes and chemical tidal waves that somehow make sense out of reality on a microsecond-by-microsecond basis.” (P. 16)
Future posts will provide a deeper look into the creation of the senses and various systems of our body.
I may get into the thesis of the book later, but for this post, I would like to provide a suggestion for the reader. I suggest we do not have to go out into nature (however this is a good thing to do) to be able to see the beauty of His creation. We have only to contemplate our bodies and how He created us to be able to breathe, walk, love, and do all the things which make us human. We can see His wonderful design. We can see His love for us.
The author provides an understanding of the intricacies of the human body when he writes, “The interior of the human body is a much busier place than New York City, London, Mexico City, Tokyo, and Bombay combined. Ten to seventy-five trillion cells participate in more than a quadrillion purposeful chemical interactions each day that help us walk, breathe, think, sleep, procreate, see, hear, smell, feel, digest food, eliminate waste, write, read, talk, make red cells, remove dead cells, fight infections, behave, misbehave, absorb nutrients, transport oxygen, eliminate carbon dioxide, maintain balance, carry on dialogue, understand instructions, argue, and make complex decisions, just to name a few common activities. In addition, each of these processes has dozens – and sometimes hundreds – of smaller, interacting steps, checks, counterchecks, balances, and regulatory mechanisms. And further, all of these steps have smaller chemical substeps. In many ways the human body functions like an extremely well-organized blizzard of invisible chemical responses and rapidly-changing electrical impulses. The human brain is a convoluted continent swept by microscopic electrical hurricanes and chemical tidal waves that somehow make sense out of reality on a microsecond-by-microsecond basis.” (P. 16)
Future posts will provide a deeper look into the creation of the senses and various systems of our body.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Who God Is? Tozer
There are two Tozer quotes which have touched my heart for many years. This morning I was able to locate them in his books so I can feel good quoting them on this blog. They are delightful in reference to what the Lord means to me and you.
The Knowledge of the Holy, The Wisdom of God
“With the goodness of God to desire our highest welfare, the wisdom of God to plan it, and the power of God to achieve it, what do we lack?”
The Pursuit of God, Removing the Veil
God is so vastly wonderful, so utterly and completely delightful that He can without anything other than Himself meet and overflow the deepest demands and longings of our total nature, mysterious and deep as that nature is.”
My prayer is that everyone reading this blog will allow these words to penetrate their mind and their heart, bring them into their spirit where the Lord lives in them, and to continually practice His Presence and exercise their spirit. Amen!!!!
The Knowledge of the Holy, The Wisdom of God
“With the goodness of God to desire our highest welfare, the wisdom of God to plan it, and the power of God to achieve it, what do we lack?”
The Pursuit of God, Removing the Veil
God is so vastly wonderful, so utterly and completely delightful that He can without anything other than Himself meet and overflow the deepest demands and longings of our total nature, mysterious and deep as that nature is.”
My prayer is that everyone reading this blog will allow these words to penetrate their mind and their heart, bring them into their spirit where the Lord lives in them, and to continually practice His Presence and exercise their spirit. Amen!!!!
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