Friday Quotables That Speak To Me

The first quote was brought to light for me from Pastor Mike (on coffee) and is the best quote of the month....perhaps year....but something always stirs me from my self when I check out his blog. Thanks PM. I am inspired to look into that book. :)


"I hope you’ve met at least one Kingdom person in your life. They are surrendered people. You sense that life is OK at their core. They have given control to Another and are at peace. A Kingdom person lives for what matters, for life in its deepest sense. There’s a kind of gentle absolutism about their life-style, a kind of calm freedom. Kingdom people feel like grounded yet spacious people. Whatever they are after, they already seem to be enjoying it - and seeing it in unlikely places. Kingdom people make you want to be like them…. Kingdom people are anchored by their awareness of God’s love deep within."

Richard Rohr: Jesus’ Plan for a New World



It does not require any faith to dress up each week and sit in the same pew, nightclub, or bar, and dance your soul away. Imagine your last hour of living, what would you really say or do?


Be careful how you use the word, “heresy” its most often found in the accusing mouth of a pharisee.


When asked, “Where is the love, unity, power and miracles of the early church”. I reply, “Waiting in the early church for those willing to return.”


The true man of God doesn’t focus on winning the debate but on gaining the truth.

One must truly know God before its possible to blaspheme.


Lord, save me from those who believe they’re blessed with the knowledge of all truth and deliver me into the hands of those who still seek it.


"Communion is strength; solitude is weakness. Alone, the fine old beech yields to the blast and lies prone on the meadow. In the forest, supporting each other, the trees laugh at the hurricane. The sheep of Jesus flock together. The social element is the genius of Christianity."

Charles Spurgeon


Teach us to utter living words
Of truth which all may hear
The language all shall understand
When love speaks, loud and clear
Till every age and race and clime
Shall blend their creeds in one
And earth shall form one brotherhood
By whom Your will be done.

Henry H. Tweedy


God conceals himself from the mind of man, but reveals himself to his heart.

African Proverb

His Life Working In Others

Just worth noting....If you haven't checked out Life at the Mission, lately, do so. I really love this blog...it touches something within that is so real and even though I live a far different life and sometimes wonder why...I so identify and sometimes feel so much the same way on things as they manifest themselves in my life....He has three great posts on the main page...one on Brian McClaren (very interesting indeed), one on a man who drinks and is in a process, and one on church as it is.

Profound and thought and prayer provoking.

Beside The Well

"And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God."

1 Corinthians 6:11

One of my favourite stories in the Word is the woman at the well. Tozer speaks of this in this devotion. My Tozer free month of blogs ended when I read this. It speaks to me of that intimate knowing that Christ has with us. More than anyone, more than ourselves even....He sees and He loves anyway, even those who have not come to a knowledge of Him. It blows me away. What Love, What Grace.

From Tozer Today

"I do not know all of the Savior's reasons for choosing the woman at the well. I know that His revelation of Himself to her constituted an everlasting rebuke to human self-righteousness. I know that every smug woman who walks down the street in pride and status ought to be ashamed of herself. I know that every self-righteous man who looks into his mirror each morning to shave what he believes to be an honest face ought to be ashamed of himself....

Jesus was able to see potential in the woman at the well that we could never have sensed. What a gracious thing for us that Jesus Christ never thinks about what we have been! He always thinks about what we are going to be. You and I are slaves to time and space and records and reputations and publicity and the past-all that we call the case history. Jesus Christ cares absolutely nothing about anyone's moral case history. He forgives it and starts from there as though the person had been born one minute before."

Ponderings

I have been slowly reading Romans......very slowly and getting lots of great teaching and direction. I love this book of the Word.

Romans 6:23 (NASB)

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In the context of this verse, Paul was talking to believers, (we use this verse a lot, for the lost, don't we?)....salvation was a done deal for these believers, Hmmm? ... We know that but do we KNOW that. I guess it is all about knowing that eternal life starts at that moment...receive eternal life in Jesus. Appropriate Him. Live Him. Live who you are. Sin is death.... and doesn't it feel like it sometimes when it is chosen by the believer. As a believer, choose Righteousness, choose Grace, choose Jesus, who is Grace.

Romans 12:10 (Amplified Bible)

Love one another with brotherly affection [as members of one family], giving precedence and showing honor to one another.

Someone else pointed out this verse today. Thanks! :) What a very cool verse indeed. What absolute direction in how to be in relationship one with another in unity in Jesus. Living it out, not just talking about it or knowing (head knowledge) about it. I can't wait to re-visit this chapter of Romans!

Letting It Go....

From Tozer Today

Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Matthew 6:10

It may surprise you that Aldous Huxley, often a critic of orthodox and evangelical Christianity, has been quoted as saying: "My kingdom go is the necessary correlary to Thy kingdom come."...

Certainly His kingdom can never be realized in my life until my own selfish kingdom is deposed. It is when I resign, when I am no longer king of my domain that Jesus Christ will become king of my life.

Now, brethren, in confession, may I assure you that a Christian clergyman cannot follow any other route to spiritual victory and daily blessing than that which is prescribed so plainly in the Word of God. It is one thing for a minister to choose a powerful text, expound it and preach from it-it is quite something else for the minister to honestly and genuinely live forth the meaning of the Word from day to day. A clergyman is a man-and often he has a proud little kingdom of his own, a kingdom of position and often of pride and sometimes with power. Clergymen must wrestle with the spiritual implications of the crucified life just like everyone else, and to be thoroughgoing men of God and spiritual examples to the flock of God, they must die daily to the allurements of their own little kingdoms of position and prestige.

Galatians 2:20

God has become my very life.

Brian Doerksen - Creation Calls

Brian Doerksen - Refiner's Fire

Watchman Nee

From Christ The Sum Of All Spiritual Things

"Brethren, God will take away all things in order to give you one Person who is to be simultaneously your humility, your patience, your gentleness, and your love. For Christ is all. And this is what Christianity actually is.

Quite candidly speaking, here lies the basic difference between real and faulty Christianity. Many of God's people are seeking something which seems to be everywhere else except in their own lives.

What most people fail to recognize is that in the spiritual realm there is nothing but Christ."

"When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory."

Colossians 3:4 ESV

From St. Augustine's Homily

"The deeds of men are only discerned by the root of charity. For many things may be done that have a good appearance, and yet proceed not from the root of charity. For thorns also have flowers; some actions truly seem rough, seem savage; howbeit they are done for discipline at the bidding of charity. Once for all, then, a short precept is given thee: Love, and do what thou wilt: whether thou hold thy peace, through love hold thy peace; whether thou cry out, through love cry out; whether thou correct, through love correct; whether thou spare, through love do thou spare: let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good."

John 15:5,6

God has chosen me to bear spiritual fruit.

Brian Doerksen - Faithful Father

Brian Doerksen - Everlasting to Everlasting

Update

Ok, so today, my sister is having her fourth....yep, fourth operation in this series called...."What is this about, God?" She is not healing well, and they are continuing to open up the incision to the brain to clean and flush and all that which is well beyond my understanding at this point. She is way stronger than me at this point because between surgeries and rushes to the hospital for complications including an unexpected seizure, leakage and extreme nausea and vomitting, headaches and weariness, she continues to hang tough. Her battle is not over but she continues to bear it. Her radiation is in delay mode because with the open incision it is not possible to have it.

I find myself pondering....why pray?.... why ask those who check in here and know the situation to pray? ....God has orchestrated all of this for His purposes and it is all going according to His plan. Before the foundations of the world and all that....
But I am prompted to ask and therefore I do so.
Thanks for the support. :)

John 15:1,5

God has made me to become one of His friends.

The Need for Illumination

But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

1 Corinthians 2:14

The doctrine of the inability of the human mind and the need for divine illumination is so fully developed in the New Testament that it is nothing short of astonishing that we should have gone so far astray about the whole thing. Fundamentalism has stood aloof from the Liberal in self-conscious superiority and has on its own part fallen into error, the error of textualism, which is simply orthodoxy without the Holy Ghost. Everywhere among Conservatives we find persons who are Bible-taught but not Spirit-taught. They conceive truth to be something which they can grasp with the mind. If a man holds to the fundamentals of the Christian faith he is thought to possess divine truth. But it does not follow. There is no truth apart from the Spirit. The most brilliant intellect may be imbecilic when confronted with the mysteries of God. For a man to understand revealed truth requires an act of God equal to the original act which inspired the text....

Conservative Christians in this day are stumbling over this truth. We need to re-examine the whole thing. We need to learn that truth consists not in correct doctrine, but in correct doctrine plus the inward enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. We must declare again the mystery of wisdom from above. A repreachment of this vital truth could result in a fresh breath from God upon a stale and suffocating orthodoxy.

A. W. Tozer (from the Pursuit of Man)

May the Holy Spirit take the inspired text and make it alive and enlighten all of us today. May the Holy Spirit teach and imbed it in all of our hearts and minds as we seek Divine Truth.

John 1:12

God has brought me into His family.

In The Grip Of Grace - Max

We love because God first loved us.

1 John 4:19

Untethered by time, He sees us all....From the hutbuilders to the finger-pointers the the rock-stackers, He sees us. Vagabonds and ragamuffins all, He saw us before we were born. And He loves what He sees. Flooded by emotion. Overcome by pride, the Starmaker turns to us, one by one, and says, "You are My child. I love you dearly, I''m aware that someday you'll turn from Me and walk away. But I want you to know, I've already provided you a way back."

From His Victorious Indwelling -Nick Harrison, Editor

I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments.

Psalm 119:60 KJV

Don't be in a hurry to run ahead of God.

When the Israelites were crossing the Jordan they were told to leave a great space between themselves and the guiding ark, that they might know how to go, because "they had not passed that way heretofore." Impatiently hurrying at God's heels is apt to lead us astray. Let Him get well in front, that you may be quite sure which way He wants you to go, be sure that He does not at that moment want you to go anywhere.

We need to hold the present with a slack hand, so as to be ready to fold our tents and take to the road if God wills. We must not presume continuance, nor strike our roots so deep that it needs a hurricane to remove us.

To those who set their gaze on Christ, no present from which He wishes them to move can be so good for them as the new conditions into which He would have them pass.

It's hard to leave the spot, though it be in the desert, where we have so long encamped that it has come to look like home. We may look with regret on the circle of black ashes on the sand where our little fire glinted cheerily, and our feet may ache and our hearts ache more as we begin our tramp once again, but we must set ourselves to meet the God-appointed change cheerfully, in the confidence that nothing will be left behind which it is not good to lose, nor anything met which does not bring a blessing, however its first aspect may be - harsh or sad.

We need, too, to cultivate the habit of prompt obedience. The above motto is the only safe motto. Slow obedience is often the germ of incipient disobedience.... It's easiest to do our duty when we are first sure of it. It then comes with an impelling power which carries us over obstacles on the crest of a wave, while hesitation and delay leave us stranded in shallow water. If we would follow the pillar, we must follow it at once.

A heart that waits and watches for God's direction, that uses common sense as well as faith to unravel small and great perplexities, and is willing to sit loose to the present, however pleasant, in order not to miss indications which say, " Arise! This is not your rest" - fulfills the conditions on which, if we keep them, we may be sure that He will guide us by the right way, and bring us at last to the city of habitation.

Alexander MacLaren

'I am done with scratching the surface and marginal living! I want to jump in and swim in the ocean of His Love. His love goes deeper than any pain, any sin and any secret. I wrap myself around a Spirit-filled life and stretch my arms open wide to You, O Lord. Teach me how.'

unknown source

Let's Hear It For Loud Songs!

"The greater our present trials, the louder will our future songs be, and the more intense our joyful gratitude."

Charles H. Spurgeon

Children, In Christ We Stand

Leeland - Tears of the saints

It Gushes From His heart!

(adapted from Winslow's, "The Believer Drawing near to God")

"Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Hebrews 4:16

Why is it called a throne of grace?

Because a God of grace sits upon it, and the scepter of grace is held out from it, and all the favors bestowed there are the blessings of grace.

This is just the throne we need!

We are.... the poor, the needy, the helpless, the vile, the sinful, the unworthy.

We have nothing to bring but our deep wretchedness and poverty, nothing but our complaints, our miseries, our crosses, our groanings, our sighs and tears.

But it is the throne of grace!

For just such is it erected.

It is set up in a world of woe, in the midst of the wilderness, in the very land of the enemy, in the valley of tears!

It is a God of grace who sits upon it, and all the blessings He dispenses from it are the gifts of grace. Pardon, justification, adoption, peace, comfort, light, direction; all, all is of grace!

No worth or worthiness in the creature extracts these blessings; no price he may bring purchases them; no tears or complainings or misery move the heart of God to compassion; all is of grace.

God is so full of compassion, and love, and mercy, He does not need to be moved to pour it forth. It gushes from His heart as from a full and overflowing fountain, and flows into the bosom of the poor, the lowly, the humble and the contrite; enriching, comforting and sanctifying their souls.

Therefore whatever your case, you may come.

If it is a throne of grace (as indeed it is) then why not come? To keep away from the throne of grace because of unfitness and unpreparedness to approach it, is to alter its character from a throne of grace to a throne of merit.

Why, stand a long way off?

If the poor, the penniless, the disconsolate and the guilty are welcome here, if this throne is crowded by such; why make yourself an exception?

Why not come too?

What is your case? What is your sorrow? What is your burden?

Ah! perhaps you can disclose it to no earthly ear. You can tell it to God only. Then take it to Him.
Let me tell you for your encouragement that God has His secret audience chamber, where He will meet you alone, and where no eye shall see you and no ear shall hear you but His, where you may open all your heart, and reveal your real case, and pour all your secrets into His ear!

Precious encouragement!

The throne of grace is for the needy!

What a blessing then is the throne of grace!

It is for those who are in need, those to whom all other doors are closed, with whom all other resources have failed, who have nowhere else to look, nowhere else to fly.

To such is the throne of grace always open.

Behold, then, the throne of grace, and draw near!

You are welcome.

Come with your cross, come with your infirmity, come with your guilt, come with your need, come with your wounded spirit, come with your broken heart, come and welcome to the throne of grace!

Come without price, come without worthiness, come without preparation, come without fitness, come in a bad state of mind, come with a hard heart, come and welcome to the throne of grace!

From Elisabeth Elliot

"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly" Psalm 1:1

At a recent convention a young woman told me that her husband had wanted a divorce, but consented to see a Christian counselor before making it final. A member of the team in the counseling center told him that he himself was divorced and very happily remarried. That was all the husband needed. The man to whom he looked for help set the example he was hoping to find. Of course he went ahead and divorced his wife.

The twenty-third chapter of Jeremiah describes what is happening in our country today. The land is full of adulterers. Pastures have dried up. Powers are misused. Prophet and priest alike are godless, doing evil even in the Lord's house. Jeremiah's description of the prophets seems terribly fitting for some of those from whom Christian people are seeking guidance:

"The vision they report springs from their own imagination. It is not from the mouth of the Lord.... To all who follow the promptings of their own stubborn heart they say, 'No disaster shall befall you.' But which of them has stood in the council of the Lord, seen him and heard his word? Which of them has listened to his word and obeyed?" (Jeremiah 23:16-18, NEB).

Here is a good test to apply to any of whom we seek counsel. Has this person stood in the council of the Lord? Seen Him? Heard His word? Listened and obeyed? Note the few who have actually paid a price for their obedience (like Jeremiah who was flogged, imprisoned, dropped into a pit of slime, etc.). These few are the ones to follow.

The chapter goes on to describe prophets who speak lies in God's name, dream dreams, give voice to their own inventions, concoct words of their own, and then say, "This is his very word." They mislead with "wild and reckless falsehoods."
"If a prophet has a dream, let him tell his dream; if he has my word, let him speak my word in truth. What has chaff to do with grain? says the Lord" (v. 28).

Beware of those who are afraid to quote Scripture, who say it's too "simplistic," doesn't apply here, won't work. Beware of the counselor who is "nondirectional." Be cautious when the advice given makes you feel comfortable when you know you're really wrong. "Do not my words scorch like fire? says the Lord. Are they not like a hammer that splinters rock?" (v. 29).

It wasn't only the awesome prophets of the Old Testament who spoke this way. Think of the words of Jesus. Though often He spoke "comfortable words," words that brought peace and hope, He spoke also those words that seared like fire ("Depart from me, I never knew you"; "Get behind me, Satan!") and splintered rock ("You will never get out until you have paid the last farthing"; "Whoever wants to be first must be the willing slave of all").
"The form of words you shall use in speaking amongst yourselves is: 'What answer has the Lord given?' or 'What has the Lord said?'" (Jeremiah 23:35, NEB).

This applies, of course, only to those who care what the Lord wants. Those who have already decided to do their own thing need not apply for truly godly counsel.

Loved with Joy

17 The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.

Zephaniah 3:17 KJV

There it is!

There is a joy which is not given to the ungodly, but to those who love Thee for Thine own sake, whose joy Thou Thyself art. And this is the happy life, to rejoice to Thee, of Thee, for Thee; this it is, and there is no other.

Augustine of Hippo

How's it going?

Romans 12: 9-21 NASB

9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.

10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor;

11 not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;

12 rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer,

13 contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.

15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.

16 Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly Do not be wise in your own estimation.

17 Never pay back evil for evil to anyone Respect what is right in the sight of all men.

18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.

19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY," says the Lord.

20 "BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM, AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD."

21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Don't you know??

Romans 6: 3-11 KJV

3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.

8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:

9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.

10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.

11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yes

It is not after we were reconciled by the blood of his Son that God began to love us, but before the foundation of the world.

John Calvin

To Know Him

Once you become aware that the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of life's problems fall into place of their own accord.

J.I. Packer

Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

T. D.

From T.D. Jakes.....I haven't read this man or seen him on too much...but I kind of like his thoughts here. I guess I would add do all he suggests not in your own strength but in Jesus' strength....and let Him be the Grace that He is!


"There are people who can walk away from you. And hear me when I tell you this!

When people can walk away from you: let them walk. I don't want you to try to talk another person into staying with you, loving you, calling you, caring about you, coming to see you, staying attached to you.

I mean hang up the phone.

When people can walk away from you let them walk. Your destiny is never tied to anybody that left. The bible said that, they came out from us that it might be made manifest that they were not for us. For had they been of us, no doubt they would have continued with us. [1 John 2:19]

People leave you because they are not joined to you. And if they are not joined to you, you can't make them stay. Let them go. And it doesn't mean that they are a bad person it just means that their part in the story is over. And you've got to know when people's part in your story is over so that you don't keep trying to raise the dead. You've got to know when it's dead. You've got to know when it's over.

Let me tell you something. I've got the gift of good-bye. It's the tenth spiritual gift. I believe in good-bye. It's not that I'm hateful, it's that I'm faithful, and I know whatever God means for me to have He'll give it to me. And if it takes too much sweat I don't need it. Stop begging people to stay. Let them go!"

Where No One Knows Me - Jann Arden

Nothing Can Separate Us....

I Would Die For You - Jann Arden

I Would Die For You - Mercy Me

From "This Day's Thought"

"We must believe God great without quantity, everlasting without time, and containing all things without extent; and when our thoughts are come to their highest, let us stop, wonder and adore.

Joseph Hall

November 11, 2007

Remembrance Day

William P. Young - The Shack

Thank you so very much for this story William P. Young, Paul, my brother and now my friend.

The Shack - William P. Young

Okay, so, I now have a new favourite fiction book...and I use the word fiction loosely here....close running to #1 The Gate Seldom Found.....but as I like to think behind that "Gate"....is this "Shack"..... from "The Shack" ....written by William P. Young. The way this book got into my hands is a weaving of Master Design....and that story is way too long to even go into. Suffice it to say that it was brought to my attention through an e-mail from the wonderful Dave over at http://www.movementofgrace.net/ and http://www.gracewalk.org/ because of an e-mail to him from my favourite teacher/pastor/brother in the Lord, Frank Friedmann from way down Louisiana way which he passed on. This book was going to be in my hands one way or another....very cool, Papa.

I could not begin to explain the impact of this book on me ... personally, spiritually, and in light of events of my life right now.... although anyone who has experienced pain and suffering, (isn't that all of us?), would have to find this book a page turner...keep the tissues handy and be prepared to read it until completion. I can't wait to read it again and I just finished it this morning, (started it last night). I can't divulge the story but I am so thinking that Papa is especially fond of me...and you too. Don't let the tragedy the characters have to deal with keep you from seeing what this book is really about. I Loved it! Reading some the articles and interviews on the author just reminded me that I am so thankful that I don't fit into a certain group or flavour of thinking.....I pray that He alone will always be my Impetus.

http://www.windrumors.com/
http://www.theshackbook.com/
http://www.subversiveinfluence.com/wordpress/?p=1418

Fire Away!

A prayer of Tozer's....may it be ours.

"Lord, it's not hard to see why Satan attacks. May I continue to be enough of a threat to him to merit his attention! Don't ever let me become so anemic in my Christian walk that he doesn't need to bother with me. Amen."

Raised Eyebrow

"Nothing is more stimulating than friends who speak the truth in love."

Os Guinness

No Compromise

Make My Life A Prayer To You - Keith Green



From Tozer Today

"For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.
Hebrews 12:3

If Satan opposes the new convert he opposes still more bitterly the Christian who is pressing on toward a higher life in Christ. The Spirit-filled life is not, as many suppose, a life of peace and quiet pleasure. It is likely to be something quite the opposite.

Viewed one way it is a pilgrimage through a robber-infested forest; viewed another, it is a grim warfare with the devil. Always there is struggle, and sometimes there is a pitched battle with our own nature where the lines are so confused that it is all but impossible to locate the enemy or to tell which impulse is of the Spirit and which of the flesh....

My point here is that if we want to escape the struggle we have but to draw back and accept the currently accepted low-keyed Christian life as the normal one. That is all Satan wants. That will ground our power, stunt our growth and render us harmless to the kingdom of darkness.

Compromise will take the pressure off. Satan will not bother a man who has quit fighting. But the cost of quitting will be a life of peaceful stagnation. We sons of eternity just cannot afford such a thing.

Oh the Comfort

Psalm 139:13-18

13 For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb.

14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.

15 My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;

16 Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written. The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.

17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

18 If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.

The Evidence

Again from John Woodward and excerpts taken from an Exchanged Life Conference.

"Evidences of Brokenness

1. All rights surrendered

2. Willing to be rejected

3. Transparent - willing to share weakness

4. Vulnerable - willing to share failures

5. A sense of total inadequacy in self strength - 2 Cor 3:5

6. A sense of adequacy in Christ through His strength - Phil. 4:13, 2
Cor. 3:6

7. Trusting God whatever - resting even with external turmoil

8. Obedience out of a love motive because I want to, not because I have
to

9. Recognizing the power in weakness

10. Willing to be weak

11. Willing to fail

12. A readiness to let others receive credit

13. Genuine humility

10. Placing value upon those who have little or no value to yourself

15. A readiness to affirm (build-up) others

16. Teachable

17. Willing to be out of control

18. Willing to be misunderstood



As true believers in Christ we have the assurance that we are united with Him--He lives in us by His Spirit. Yet if we want the full blessing of Christ living in and through us, then we need to say "not I" (Gal 2:20)."

Again with the Brokenness.....

From John Woodward of Grace Fellowship International

"Jack Taylor said "God has you in the circumstances of his own choosing so He can fix you".

How about this ditty--"God's fixing to fix you, but if you try to fix the fix He's fixing to fix you with, He will find another fix to fix you, until you let the fix He fixed for you fix you." ... So the "fix" we are in (the trials we encounter) are benevolently designed by God through His mysterious providence to "fix us" (by breaking our self-sufficiency and independent will).

Watchman Nee observed two basic barriers to brokenness in the life of the believer. The first is the lack of insight regarding God's providential design behind our difficult circumstances (our "fix"). The second barrier is self-love . Watchman cautioned,"Let us remember that the one reason for all misunderstanding, all fretfulness, all discontent, is that we secretly love ourselves. Many times problems arise due to our seeking a way of escape--an escape from the working of the cross." (Nee, The Release of the Spirit, p.16).

To remove this barrier to brokenness we should sincerely pray: "O my God, I have seen that all things come from You. All my ways these five years, ten years, or twenty years are of You. You have so worked to attain Your purpose, which is none other than that Your life may be lived out through me. But I have been foolish. I did not see. I did many things to deliver myself, thus delaying Your time. Today I see Your hand. I am willing to offer myself to You. Once again I place myself in Your hands." (Nee, p. 16)."

Whispers of the Holy Spirit (goosebumps)

Tozer

"Is Satan giving you a hard time in your life of faith-in the Christian race you are running? Expect it if you are a believing child of God!

Satan hates your God. He hates Jesus Christ. He hates your faith. You should be aware of the devil's evil intentions. He wants you to lose the victor's crown in the race you have entered by faith through grace....

When by faith we have entered this lifelong spiritual course, the Holy Spirit whispers, "Do you truly want to be among the victors in this discipline?" When we breathe our "Yes! Yes!" He whispers of ways that will aid us and carry us to certain victory.

The Spirit tells us to throw off everything that would hinder us in the race. He tells us to be aware of the little sins and errors that could divert us from the will of God as we run. But here is the important thing: He tells us to keep our eyes on Jesus, because He alone is our pacesetter and victorious example."

What Does the Lord Require?

Mediocrity is never an option.

Micah 6:8

8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Tozer

"An effective, Christ-like minister is a constant embarrassment to the devil, a threat to his dominion, a rebuttal of his best arguments and a dogged reminder of his coming overthrow. No wonder he hates him.

Satan knows that the downfall of a prophet of God is a strategic victory for him, so he rests not day or night devising hidden snares and deadfalls for the ministry. Perhaps a better figure would be the poison dart that only paralyzes its victim, for I think that Satan has little interest in killing the preacher outright. An ineffective, half-alive minister is a better advertisement for hell than a good man dead."

My thoughts

A good man dead.....dead to self and alive to Christ as Life is never mediocre and always the victor over the evil one. If that self would just stay dead and let Christ reign....there's the rub.

Some more funnies....thanks, Nathalie

Something funny happened on the way to church today.....

Update - November 1st, 2007

Just a brief update. My sister had the third operation last Monday. She is now looking at a fourth when the healing is complete. Radiation therapy will also be necessary when the healing is complete. She is at home with my parents for a two week vacation from hospital. She is still very weak and prognosis is really unknown but she welcomes this time at home, for as long as it is. Thanks for all concerns and prayers. The Great Physician has her well in hand.

Isaiah 58: 9-12

I liked these verses so much today that I used two versions to relay the Word. I pray they touch your life today as well. Peace.

Amplified Bible

9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, Here I am. If you take away from your midst yokes of oppression [wherever you find them], the finger pointed in scorn [toward the oppressed or the godly], and every form of false, harsh, unjust, and wicked speaking,

10 And if you pour out that with which you sustain your own life for the hungry and satisfy the need of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in darkness, and your obscurity and gloom become like the noonday.

11 And the Lord shall guide you continually and satisfy you in drought and in dry places and make strong your bones. And you shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not.

12 And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.

The Message

A Full Life in the Emptiest of Places (9-12)

"If you get rid of unfair practices,
quit blaming victims,
quit gossiping about other people's sins,
If you are generous with the hungry
and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
I will always show you where to go.
I'll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—
firm muscles, strong bones.
You'll be like a well-watered garden,
a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You'll be known as those who can fix anything,
restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
make the community livable again.