10 God-Given Strategies For Difficult Times
The Same God Who Led You In Will Lead You Out
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Saturday, April 24, 2010
Crazy Love by Francis Chan
Overwhelmed By A Relentless God
God's greatest command is, to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind". But most often, we go through life giving Him our leftovers. God calls us to a life that is absolute craziness to the world, yet as Christians our lives often make sense to unbelievers. God has an outrageous, crazy love for us, as evidenced by, while we were still sinners, he drained all the resources of heaven to rescue us. God loves us and longs for us to love Him back. He is not satisfied with us "just fitting Him into our lives", He wants everything. It is foolishness to search for fulfillment in anything else. It is frustrating when loving God is so difficult, when our capability to comprehend Him is lacking, but when we constantly run after Christ in all that we do, we will find Him. "God has called us each to live faithful and devoted lives before Him, by the power of His Spirit". Too often we live selfish lives that are forgetful of our God, but his desire for us is to admit we are out of control and reach out to Him for help. When we see ourselves as merely playing a role in a movie about God, then the glory changes from ourselves to the One whom glory is due. If we are in constant pursuit of Christ in our daily lives, then the thorns of this world will not choke out the seeds in the good soil but we will find complete and total satisfaction in Him. Chan states that his "hope and prayer is that you finish this book with hope, believing that part of your responsibility in the body of Christ is to help set the pace for the church by listening and obeying and living Christ". Wow! What a challenge! This is not a new instruction but the command emphatically engrained in the New Testament. The truth is that everything in the body is either living and growing or falling away. May my desire be to live out this Crazy Love everday with everyone I come in contact with until the day I see my God, that I would not be ashamed when He asks, "What did you do with what I gave you?".
Best quote in the book: "Our greatest fear as individuals and as a Church should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter". Tim Kizziar
God's greatest command is, to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind". But most often, we go through life giving Him our leftovers. God calls us to a life that is absolute craziness to the world, yet as Christians our lives often make sense to unbelievers. God has an outrageous, crazy love for us, as evidenced by, while we were still sinners, he drained all the resources of heaven to rescue us. God loves us and longs for us to love Him back. He is not satisfied with us "just fitting Him into our lives", He wants everything. It is foolishness to search for fulfillment in anything else. It is frustrating when loving God is so difficult, when our capability to comprehend Him is lacking, but when we constantly run after Christ in all that we do, we will find Him. "God has called us each to live faithful and devoted lives before Him, by the power of His Spirit". Too often we live selfish lives that are forgetful of our God, but his desire for us is to admit we are out of control and reach out to Him for help. When we see ourselves as merely playing a role in a movie about God, then the glory changes from ourselves to the One whom glory is due. If we are in constant pursuit of Christ in our daily lives, then the thorns of this world will not choke out the seeds in the good soil but we will find complete and total satisfaction in Him. Chan states that his "hope and prayer is that you finish this book with hope, believing that part of your responsibility in the body of Christ is to help set the pace for the church by listening and obeying and living Christ". Wow! What a challenge! This is not a new instruction but the command emphatically engrained in the New Testament. The truth is that everything in the body is either living and growing or falling away. May my desire be to live out this Crazy Love everday with everyone I come in contact with until the day I see my God, that I would not be ashamed when He asks, "What did you do with what I gave you?".
Best quote in the book: "Our greatest fear as individuals and as a Church should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter". Tim Kizziar
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
Christ Our Mediator by C. J. Mahaney
In the words of Charles Spurgeon, we are to "abide hard by the cross and search the mystery of His wounds". For it is by doing this that we find "unsearchable riches". The cross should be the center of our attention and the drive of our passion. Many look beyond the cross after the point of salvation in search of more spiritual things. The failure of keeping the cross at the center of our attention, leads us to disregard grace in our everyday life. But when we look to the cross in gratitude for His amazing grace and mercy then we see ourselves totally dependent on the only One who could save us. His work on the cross was an infinite display of His abundant love. If He never bestowed any other blessing on us, the cross would be enough to leave us forever grateful. But in continually looking to the cross we find a Lover of Our Soul who desires to make us like Him. I am able to see myself in that mocking crowd who yelled "Crucify Him!". But thank God I have become one caught in the gaze of a heartbroken Savior that day. He drank the whole cup, all of it....for me, so that I would be free!!
My Heart's Desire by David Jeremiah
Our heart's desire is to worship something. We were created with a sense of wonder that should drive us to God. Worship opens up the doors of heaven and brings us in the presence of a holy God. The scriptures say "He inhabits the praise of His people". God wants to inhabit every area of our lives as we worship Him in all that we do. He wants us to live every moment in the wonder of worship. Worship was God's idea, made by Him and for Him. It is not a suggestion but a command. When it comes to worship, we are often "more focused on entertainment than sacrifice". But you can not have true worship without true sacrifice. God wants our best.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire by Jim Cymbala
What Happens When God's Spirit Invades The Hearts Of His People
New to the faith, I desire to know the power of prayer. To cry out to God from a desperate felt need is where we God uses prayer as His channel of blessing. I may call on the Name of The Lord and approach His throne of grace. For His promise is "Call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver you, and you will honor me." Ps.50:15. I need The Fresh Wind of God to breathe life in me and The Fresh Fire of the Spirit to be poured out in me, that I may run to the battle and not from it. I repeatedly come before God bankrupt, with nothing to offer pleading for His help and it is there that He meets me. For " God is attracted to weakness". Praise God He "still uses foolish tools in the hands of weak people to build his kingdom". The passion of my soul is driven by a constant state of prayer.
New to the faith, I desire to know the power of prayer. To cry out to God from a desperate felt need is where we God uses prayer as His channel of blessing. I may call on the Name of The Lord and approach His throne of grace. For His promise is "Call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver you, and you will honor me." Ps.50:15. I need The Fresh Wind of God to breathe life in me and The Fresh Fire of the Spirit to be poured out in me, that I may run to the battle and not from it. I repeatedly come before God bankrupt, with nothing to offer pleading for His help and it is there that He meets me. For " God is attracted to weakness". Praise God He "still uses foolish tools in the hands of weak people to build his kingdom". The passion of my soul is driven by a constant state of prayer.
The Tale of Two Sons by John MacArthur
The Inside Story of a Father, His Sons and a Shocking Murder
This story of the Prodigal Son was told by Jesus in the presence of sinners, tax collectors and a group of self-righteous Pharisees. Though it spoke multitudes to all who had ears to hear, it was intended to speak a word of danger to those Pharisees who refused to rejoice at the redemption of sinners through repentence and grace alone.
I can see myself with the ears of some of the most sin-sick Gentiles listening to this story in anticipation... Searching this storyline for some glimmer of hope, some hope of redemption, a desperation to be delivered from themselves....For the first time feeling the beating of a heart of flesh.....Breathing in the life of the Spirit. For their hearts in repentance and desire for mercy, no longer hid from the Father but was seeking a Savior. In desperation, they did not have to go far to find Him for He saw them when they were yet far off and He ran to them. I found He was seeking me before I knew I was lost.
I saw myself in the place of the Prodigal dishonoring an all-loving gracious Father only to awaken in the midst of the horrid slop of sin.....Sorrowfully returning in broken repentance to a Father that wished to cover me in robes or righteousness, in an effort to protect me from any lingering shame....The recipient of over-flowing, unmerited, undeserved grace and mercy.....With a humbled, Father-pleasing, desire to serve.
I saw myself in the disgusting elder brother. In the putrid state of a self-righteous, self-motivated and self-serving mindset.....Attempting to earn merit, favor and privelege....all the while groping around in pure darkness blinded from the mystery of The way, the truth and the life!!
Though this story in my life was told completely in reverse, I saw myself in each character as they looked upon the only character in the story that was all-loving and all-good. Praise God that though the ending to this story seemed to be a tragic abuse and death, it did not end there....leaving those desperate tax collectors, sinners, disciples, heart-broken for the only love they had ever-known.....For up from the grave He arose!!!! Rising in Glory, to the right-hand of God, to intercede for me, so that another Comforter would come, until that day He will return for His Bride!!
May I submit my mind to the truth of Scripture.
This story of the Prodigal Son was told by Jesus in the presence of sinners, tax collectors and a group of self-righteous Pharisees. Though it spoke multitudes to all who had ears to hear, it was intended to speak a word of danger to those Pharisees who refused to rejoice at the redemption of sinners through repentence and grace alone.
I can see myself with the ears of some of the most sin-sick Gentiles listening to this story in anticipation... Searching this storyline for some glimmer of hope, some hope of redemption, a desperation to be delivered from themselves....For the first time feeling the beating of a heart of flesh.....Breathing in the life of the Spirit. For their hearts in repentance and desire for mercy, no longer hid from the Father but was seeking a Savior. In desperation, they did not have to go far to find Him for He saw them when they were yet far off and He ran to them. I found He was seeking me before I knew I was lost.
I saw myself in the place of the Prodigal dishonoring an all-loving gracious Father only to awaken in the midst of the horrid slop of sin.....Sorrowfully returning in broken repentance to a Father that wished to cover me in robes or righteousness, in an effort to protect me from any lingering shame....The recipient of over-flowing, unmerited, undeserved grace and mercy.....With a humbled, Father-pleasing, desire to serve.
I saw myself in the disgusting elder brother. In the putrid state of a self-righteous, self-motivated and self-serving mindset.....Attempting to earn merit, favor and privelege....all the while groping around in pure darkness blinded from the mystery of The way, the truth and the life!!
Though this story in my life was told completely in reverse, I saw myself in each character as they looked upon the only character in the story that was all-loving and all-good. Praise God that though the ending to this story seemed to be a tragic abuse and death, it did not end there....leaving those desperate tax collectors, sinners, disciples, heart-broken for the only love they had ever-known.....For up from the grave He arose!!!! Rising in Glory, to the right-hand of God, to intercede for me, so that another Comforter would come, until that day He will return for His Bride!!
May I submit my mind to the truth of Scripture.
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