I am not really one to follow Dolly as others have mentioned....thanks to Nadine and her blog, I found this gem....hope you enjoy as I did. Sometimes I really feel out of the entertainment loop, but that is ok...because someone always brings something wonderful to my attention out there in the blogosphere. Check out Nadine's blogs, she seems like a very special someone out there.
Quote source - This Day's Thought
"Christianity is not a collection of truths to be believed, of laws to be obeyed...Christianity is a person, one who loved us so much, one who calls for our love. Christianity is Christ."
Oscar Romero
1 John 3:14
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.
Thoughts based on Ray Stedman's Devotions based on his teaching.
It is rather fascinating that the apostle who wrote this has become known as the apostle of love. But if you read the gospel records of John, you will note that this is not his nature at all. He and his brother James earned from Jesus the title "Sons of Thunder" (Mark 3:17) because they were constantly wanting to blast back at those who opposed them. John's temperament was not naturally inclined to show love. But when he was born again, there was born into his heart the life of God, and this man began to show love.
Such love is the sign of the new life. It is a love that you not only extend toward those who love you, but toward those who do not love you. It is a love that does not depend upon a reciprocal relationship but loves the unlovely, the unqualified, the ungrateful, the selfish, and the difficult. This, then, is the character of true love, and it is always evidence that a new life has come, the life born of God.
From Frank Friedman's teaching today. Transformation by receiving Life from the Father.
2 Corinthians 5
"No atonement in the New Covenant Economy. Jesus did not cover our sins. He took them away.
It is only in the receiving of Christ that changes a man.
Jesus died because God reached out to sinful man to reconcile man.
Jesus died for our sins so that we might be made the righteousness of Christ in God. It is all about relationship, intimacy and acceptance by God and by the way we get to go to Heaven. Heaven was made to be a present day reality.
Our message to the world is not that if you mess up you will pay. He has already paid. Our message is to tell what has already be done.
The word (logos) of reconciliation. We have been reconciled! 50 saints to 3 sinners mentioned in the New Testament. Saint means holy one of God.
This is the Good News....something that has been done, not something you have to do. We need to receive what has been done. This is our message - to tell what has been done. We are the ambassadors of God. Freedom! We speak with all authority from God, when we share the Gospel. And He through us leads them to freedom. No shame, no guilt, only freedom.
In Christ, you are the righteousness of God. "
Do you believe?
"The greatest tragedy in life is not unanswered prayer, but unoffered prayer."
F. B. Meyer
Just got into "Intercessory Prayer" by Dutch Sheets as recommended by a brother in Christ (thanks meeting of one) and looking forward to Father opening my spiritual eyes to some of the thoughts in this book. It appears to have some amazing testimonials and some very powerful thoughts on what intercessory prayer is to this author as he has experienced.
Romans 8:26-30 (Young's Literal Translation)
26 And, in like manner also, the Spirit doth help our weaknesses; for, what we may pray for, as it behoveth [us], we have not known, but the Spirit himself doth make intercession for us with groanings unutterable,
27 and He who is searching the hearts hath known what [is] the mind of the Spirit, because according to God he doth intercede for saints.
28 And we have known that to those loving God all things do work together for good, to those who are called according to purpose;
29 because whom He did foreknow, He also did fore-appoint, conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be first-born among many brethren;
30 and whom He did fore-appoint, these also He did call; and whom He did call, these also He declared righteous; and whom He declared righteous, these also He did glorify.
From Chapter 7:
"..... The Lord is saying that we don't always know what needs to happen in a given situation. We don't always know what is necessary or right.
I find myself wondering at times, How do I pray for this person or this situation, Lord? What needs to happen?
At other times I have felt led by the Holy Spirit to pray for someone, yet had no way at that moment of knowing why the person needed prayer.
Sometimes mature intercessors are prompted by the Lord to pray, and not only do they no know what they are praying for, but they also don't know for whom they are praying. They just feel a burden to pray. Talk about a weakness - an inability to produce results. Talk about not knowing what is "necessary, right or proper" in a situation.
What do we do in these circumstances? This is when the Holy Spirit wants to help us. He will lead us as we pray, perhaps revealing things about the situation to us, or bringing Scriptures to our minds so that we can pray them in the situation. He will certainly help us by empowering our prayers. But another way He wants to help us is by literally praying through us as we pray in the Spirit."
And this is where it gets interesting and thrilling to me. Unchartered territory in some ways in my prayer life....the odd and the wonderful......stretching me and opening up the preconceived ways of thinking on things....the way they are supposed to be...or have always been. I like being uncomfortable in this place of uncertainty (this hasn't always been the case :), and I am open now like I have never been before. It used to send me running.....now I am there knowing that it has absolutely nothing to do with me....a vessel in His Hands. Let His Glory Fall.
From Prayer by Philip Yancey.
"I am learning the difference between saying prayers, which is an activity, and praying, which is a soul attitude, a "lifting up of the mind to God." Praying in that sense can transform every task, from shoveling snow to defragmenting a computer's hard disk."
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances.
Let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise.
...always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.
"I used to read such passages in a fog of guilt, imagining saints who prayed through the night, building up calluses on their knees. I read them differently now, not as a perpetual guilt-trip but as a call to a Godward orientation. Prayer means keeping company with God who is already present. My very concern about the people and issues I pray for actually manifests God's presence within me. I need not jump up and down like a child, shouting, "Look at me!" God is close by, if only I tune in."
Love this, love this...... Cool!
More from "Be Encouraged" by Charles R. Swindoll.
"....give God praise! You're among that elite group mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:22-24 as:"
"In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary.
And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen,
while the more honorable parts do not require this special care. So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity."
"Nobodies ...... Exalting Somebody.
Are you one? Listen to me! It's the "nobodies" Somebody chooses so carefully. And when He has selected you for that role, He does not consider you a nobody.
Be encouraged!"
As Jim Palmer calls us ..... divine nobodies.
1 John 2:11
But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.
From the daily devotional based on the teachings of Ray Stedman.
John says that he who hates his brother is not a Christian. He is "in the darkness," and he has never come out of it. To say you are in the light and yet hate your brother is a basic denial of faith. Such an attitude of hostility, indifference, or unconcern toward another is a mark of an unregenerate life.
The apostle John says that he who hates his brother is in the darkness and does not know where he is going. He has no understanding that this can lead to murder or to mayhem. He goes blindly on, stumbling on in his hateful attempt to do evil to his friend, brother, or companion, whoever it may be. But the result is, he is only damaging himself and all he loves.
Furthermore, he is blinded. John says, "the darkness has blinded his eyes." The word that is used here means "to make insensitive," and it implies that if we live in this way, we ultimately come to the place where we no longer can respond. Hatred grips us and hardens our heart, and it can no longer be softened.
Christians may temporarily succumb to this kind of thing. They can walk in darkness temporarily, but they no longer are children of darkness. The light of God's love has come into their hearts. If they are not aware of a struggle between the expression of hate or have a sense of concern or guilty conscience over their hateful attitude, then they ought to wonder whether they have really passed from death into life. This is something that the Spirit of God will inevitably deal within the Christian and break, and it may sometimes be by very difficult measures.
I remember an occasion when I was counseling with a woman about a physical problem that really had a spiritual basis in her experience. I discovered she hated another person for years. Hate had turned her bitter and rancid and had poisoned all her thoughts. I said to her, "You must find it in your heart to forgive this person, as God has forgiven you."
She looked at me and said, "I can't forgive her; I'll never forgive her!"
I said, "But God says you must. If you can't, then you need to face the fact that you are not a Christian, because if you can't forgive, then you've never been born again."
She looked at me and said, "I guess you're right. I know I am a Christian, and I see I have just been deceiving myself. I need to forgive." And she did! There came a change in that woman's life that was like night turning to day.
Christians can delude themselves into going along with the world's attitude that they cannot forgive. When worldlings hate, they find themselves locked in an unbreakable grip from which they cannot escape. But when the Son of God comes into their lives, the power of the evil one is broken, and they are delivered from this and can forgive. But we still must agree to it. God is not going to make us forgive apart from our own will, though the ability to do so is there.
