Sign of the times

Spotted at the Ver Beek blog.[Found and submitted by Alan Grainger]

Couldn't resist this little gem.

The Wonderful Cross

To Christ, Who won Grace for sinners.

Oh the wonderful cross
Oh the wonderful cross
Bids me come and die
And find that I may truly live
Oh the wonderful cross
Oh the wonderful cross
All who gather here
By grace draw near
And bless Your name

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

His dying crimson, like a robe,
Spreads o’er His body on the tree;
Then I am dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.


To Christ, Who won for sinners grace

Hymn by Isaac Watts
Picture by: www.dramainnature.com

Clouding my thoughts

I heard a Pastor speak today on prayer. He had some wonderful ideas on how to allow Father to speak through us in prayer meetings, circles, gatherings etc. I have long held to these thoughts in a sort of jumbled up and never having really been involved too deeply in the organized prayer meetings as such, thinking, and I believe this pastor was right on. Sometimes we in our humanness get caught up with the prayer requests......we hear about everything and everybody and everything about everybody that we do not necessarily need to hear about when it comes to requesting prayer. God is the One we are praying to, right? He already knows the needs of each and every person in the group. Be it two or two hundred and two. We are so always trying to direct our paths and the paths of others. I think this Pastor's bottom line was, shutting up and allowing the Holy Spirit to speak through us or not. Bring forth a real word from God, a cry to God, and allow the freedom He offers to reign. To not be afraid of silence. To be ministered to in whatever way He would show Himself to each one. The intimacy of our relationship with Him allows for this type of 'prayer meeting'. Not everyone would be content in this prayer 'style', of that I am sure. How would everyone know what was going on with so and so and do you know what? and on and on. This may sound a little cynical but it is spoken in love. May we let go of ourselves and allow our prayers to reach the God of all creation, in ways He would have us reverently and passionately come to Him. With that realness and depth of love for Him and others that He arises in us. Whew! What a prayer meeting that would be, if we focussed on the Source of all answers to prayer and the Focus of our adoration and praise. That would bring us to that all too well known phrase....We are One in the Spirit. Leave all other agendas outside the circle. He will speak to each heart willing to hear.

He walks with me

Isn't this picture beautiful. It makes me think of the song. He walks with me and He talks with me and He tells me I am His own. Thank You, Jesus for having me. I love You. I am totally inadequate in and of myself. You have made me totally adequate and perfect in You. Today is a totally beautiful day day to walk with You in me and I in You. The sun is shining and the Son is shining on me and in me.

Definition?

CHRISTIAN, n. One who believes that the New Testament is a divinely inspired book admirably suited to the spiritual needs of his neighbour.
Ambrose Bierce

Gotta love this summation

"Every religion in the world is about man trying to reach up to God, like working your way up the ladder. They're all about striving to achieve something for yourself. Christianity is the only 'religion' about God reaching down to man and offering salvation as a free gift, with the added bonus of a personal relationship with the Creator God through Jesus Christ, who was there in the beginning." (from Leota's Garden)

My thoughts about 'religion'. Religion is one thing and faith is something different altogether. There is nothing that I am going to do that will make God love me any more than He already does. How cool is that. God is awesome and loving and despite all of me and my flounderings....He loves me the same. He remembers none of the sin in my life, problem is......the enemy xeroxes every single sin I have ever committed and shows me the copy every so often when I am weak in and of myself. All that I need to do is trust Him enough to live in Him as He lives in me, and to totally depend on Him.

Grace Walk by Steve McVey

If you haven't discovered this gem of a book...check it out.

I love this quote from it.
"Occasionally I meet someone who talks about the exchanged life with an "us-them" mentality. Yet the very nature of grace makes it impossible for one who lives in grace to divide people into categories of "haves" and "have-nots." The revelation of Christ as one's life is not some second work of grace. It is simply a new awareness and appreciation for the life of Christ which resides in every Christian. There are no second-class Christians in God's family. We all have Christ within us, and when we possess His life, there is nothing more to be gained or desired!"

Christ is my life. Christ is your life. If you are a Christian. John 1:17

You may not know it or be aware of it but that doesn't make it not so.

It all begins at the cross

I have been enjoying a new worship C.D. by Charlie Hall. It has been very enlightening to me, but what impressed me more was what he said on the insert. I have taken the liberty to paraphrase a little but these are his words and I thank him for his realness and sharing so openly about our wonderful Jesus.
"It begins at the cross...the life of satisfaction and freedom. We come to understand at some point that we are weak, too weak to live life on our own. Our next understanding comes when we realize the cross, Jesus, and that God alone is the satisfier of our deep need. As we truly understand this need for Jesus, and the work that took place on the cross to set us free, it permeates us at our core. It deepens our hunger for the person of Jesus. It frees and releases us from this world and the things that entangle our souls. We begin craving life in Him and with Him. It becomes an addiction, giving us an intense desire that surpasses emotion, to be intimate with Jesus, commune with the Holy Spirit, and make God famous in all the earth. Even in our failures, and weaknesses, something rises up that screams. "I am starving for Jesus. I need Him. I love Him with all of me."
He is the answer for the world. He fills us and satisfies us beyond comprehension, as we let Him do the work in our lives and we learn to commune with Him. In this place gratitude and faith rise up and we begin to see that there are others that desperately need to be set free. Some that need freedom are those that have never known God and His love before. Others are children of His that are living like orphans completely bound. This is where we learn to weep. God we need You alone. There is intimacy and satisfaction in Jesus. The cross needs to be realized as the power to have broken sin and saved us.
The invitation is given by Jesus."


Accept His invitation. He draws you unto Himself. Each of us has a desperate need to know Him. Have you come to that place of revelation? In Him is freedom!

Pride or Humility?

What glorious words come from so many saints of past days. Could you not just ponder on the Word and then on the words of these precious brothers and sisters forever?


The truth is this: Pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven can live in you. Under the banner of the truth, give yourself up to the meek and humble spirit of the holy Jesus. Humility must sow the seed, or there can be no reaping in Heaven. Look not at pride only as an unbecoming temper, nor at humility only as a decent virtue: for the one is death, and the other is life; the one is all hell, the other is all heaven. So much as you have of pride within you, you have of the fallen angel alive in you; so much as you have of true humility, so much you have of the Lamb of God within you. Could you see what every stirring of pride does to your soul, you would beg of everything you meet to tear the viper from you, though with the loss of a hand or an eye. Could you see what a sweet, divine, transforming power there is in humility, how it expels the poison of your nature, and makes room for the Spirit of God to live in you, you would rather wish to be the footstool of all the world than want the smallest degree of it." - Spirit of Prayer, Part 2, p. 73, Edition of Moreton, Canterbury, 1893.

Humility by Andrew Murray

Oh my goodness! I have just started reading this amazing book. I have read snippets of articles on this saint but oh the joy, that reading this is giving me. I feel like renaming this blog "saints of the burning hearts".

Anyway, just a quick peek at an introduction done on Murray by Harold J. Chadwick in which he says,
"Although dead, Andrew Murray's ministry (I add, Christ's ministry through Andrew), continues to live in the multitude of books he has written such as 'Humility". Each of his books is intended to lead the reader deeper into Christ, into that inner Holy of Holies where only the hungry venture, and where only the sanctified stay. It is the place where Christ stands and beckons to each of us, "Come all you who are weary and heavy laden..." It is the place where Murray went and where he urges us to follow with him and all those that A.W. Tozer once referred to as "the saints of the burning hearts." "

The book, so far, is truly a revelation from God to me. I love this life! This is life in Christ, when goose bumps form on the goose bumps because He speaks to me in so many different ways, when I least expect it through so many venues, when I am down and weary, through others and blogs and people I don't even know, through the Word, through His Spirit, through nature, through life itself. What a wondrous thing it is to read on other's thoughts and turn to God and have Him speak His Life and Love for me through the words of others.

I truly am His, despite this ranting, you may or may not understand. He is revealing a life that is hidden in Him, He thrills me so and makes all this around me make sense. Do you understand? Wow!

Are you being lead?

"The true children of God are those who let God's Spirit lead them."
Romans 8:14

How many of us really know what this really means?

Galatians 3:28

What a wonderful verse!

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." NKJV

The unity in Christ is for all of us to realize. How difficult this is for us. What glorious Truth we fail to appropriate because of the ways of the world. Our loss. He and His Word can make the difference in so many areas of our lives. In our relationship with Him and others.

Any thoughts?

Question of the day.

Will you rest your weariness on Him?

He is the Strength!

I know now, something I was not totally aware of for a very long time that Jesus is strength in my weakness. As He lives and moves and has His Being within me, He does through me what I cannot. He displays His power through me. His Word says that there is nothing He cannot handle. I trust Him and His Word.
I do struggle at times thinking that this could not be for me. I am a wretch and I think as a wretch sometimes. But when He lifts me out of this untruth and reminds me of who I am in Him, I remember to claim the promises He has made and He lives out, in and through me. He has already forgiven me for being so forgetful and thus we move into the next glimpse of His reflection to the world around me, in me and through me.
Lord, You have called me and everything in me wants to live in You, apart from everything and everyone else. I feel, at times, overwhelmed by the things of this life on earth but when I remember that it is Your supernatural strength and power within me that allows me to be in this world, I know that in all things You are there. What strength is this? His strength! The strength of Jesus Christ, my God and my King.

Question of the day #3

Will you let Jesus be your strength?