The Well

He Paid it All

2010-03-17T22:27:00.005-04:00

A believer, under the guilt of his sin, may look the Lord in the face, and sweetly plead with Him:

It is true, Lord, I owed you much, but your Son was my ransom, my redemption.

His blood was the price; He was my surety and undertook to answer for my sins.

I know You must be satisfied, and Christ has satisfied You to the utmost;

not for Himself, for what sins had He of His own?

But for me; they were my debts that He satisfied for.

Be pleased to look over the book, and You will find that it is crossed by Your own hand upon this very account...

that Christ has suffered and satisfied for them.

(Precious Remedies against Satan's Devices: Thomas Brooks)

To Be Like Christ

2010-03-12T20:25:00.004-05:00

...that they may be one even as We are one.

Let everyone who takes up earnestly the word of the Master, "Even as I, so also you," let him begin with his own circle.

And in that circle with himself first.

However weak or sickly, however perverse or trying the members of Christ's body may be with whom he is surrounded, let him live with them in close fellowship and love.

Whether they are willing for it or not, whether they accept or reject, let him love them with a Christlike love.

Yes, to love them as Christ does must be the purpose of his life.

This love will find an echo in some hearts, at least, and awaken in them the desire, too, to seek after the life of love and perfect oneness.

(John 17:11) (Like Christ, Andrew Murray)

He is My Everything

2010-03-01T21:59:00.006-05:00

...Christ in you, the hope of glory

Christ is all and in all to souls truly gracious (Colossians 3:11)

We have all things in Christ, and Christ is all things to a Christian:

If we be sick, He is a physician

If we thirst, He is a fountain

If our sins trouble us, He is righteousness

If we stand in need of help, He is mighty to save

If we fear death, He is life

If we be in darkness, He is light

If we be weak, He is strength

If we be in poverty, He is plenty

If we desire heaven, He is the way

The soul cannot say, this I would have, and that I would have;

but saith Christ, it is in Me,

it is in Me, eminently, perfectly, eternally.

Luther said, he had rather be in hell with Christ,

than in heaven without Him.

None but Christ, none but Christ, said Lambert the martyr,

lifting up his hands and his fingers flaming.

(Colossians 1:27) (Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices: Thomas Brooks)

You Must Soar

2010-01-15T22:35:00.005-05:00

But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles....

Each time your spirit goes under and faints in the trials which come to you,

you lose mastery over the powers of darkness --

i.e., you get below them instead of abiding above them in God.

Every time you take the earth standpoint,

you take a place below the powers of darkness.

The mastery of them depends on your spirit's abiding in the place above them,

and the place above them means

knowing God's outlook, God's thought, God's plan, God's ways,

by abiding with Christ in God.

(Isaiah 40:31) (R. Arthur Mathews; Born for Battle)

Twenty-Five Questions for Mary

2009-12-06T19:53:00.006-05:00

"But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart"

What was it like watching him pray?

How did he respond when he saw other kids giggling during the service at the synagogue?

When he saw a rainbow, did he ever mention a flood?

Did you ever feel awkward teaching him how he created the world?

When he was a lamb being led to the slaughter, did he act differently?

Did you ever see him with a distant look on his face as if he were listening to someone you couldn't hear?

How did he act at funerals?

Did the thought ever occur to you that the God to whom you were praying was asleep under your own roof?

Did you ever try to count the stars with him . . . and succeed?

Did he ever come home with a black eye?

How did he act when he got his first haircut?

Did he have any friends by the name of Judas?

Did he do well in school?

Did you ever scold him?

Did he ever have to ask a question about Scripture?

What do you think he thought when he saw a prostitute offering to the highest bidder the body he made?

Did he ever get angry when someone was dishonest with him?

Did you ever catch him pensively looking at the flesh on his own arm while holding a clod of dirt?

Did he ever wake up afraid?

Who was his best friend?

When someone referred to Satan, how did he act?

Did you ever accidentally call him Father?

What did he and his cousin John talk about as kids?

Did his other brothers and sisters understand what was happening?

Did you ever think, That's God eating my soup?

(Luke 2:19) (Max Lucado)

No Hurry

2009-11-20T22:01:00.009-05:00

One barrier to full intimacy with the Savior is hurriedness. Intimacy may not be rushed. To meet with the Son of God takes time.

We can't dash into His presence and choke down spiritual inwardness before we hurry to our one o'clock appointment. Inwardness is time-consuming, open only to minds willing to sample spirituality in small bites, savoring each one.

Intimacy with Christ comes from entering His presence with inner peace rather than bursting into His presence from the hassles of life.

A relaxed contemplation of the indwelling Christ allows for an inner communion impossible to achieve while oppressed by busyness and care.

Holy living is not abrupt living.

No one who hurries into the presence of God is content to remain for long.

Those who hurry in, hurry out.

(Calvin Miller)

Don’t be Offended!

2009-11-01T21:35:00.004-05:00

"And blessed is the one who is not offended by me."

It is sometimes very difficult not to be offended in Jesus Christ.

The offenses may be circumstantial.

I find myself in a prison-house – a narrow sphere, a sick chamber, an unpopular position – when I had hoped for wide opportunities. Yes, but He knows what is best for me. My environment is of His determining. He means it to intensify my faith, to draw me into nearer communion with Himself, to ripen my power. In the dungeon, my soul should prosper.

The offense may be mental.

I am haunted by perplexities, questions, which I cannot solve. I had hoped that, when I gave myself to Him, my sky would always be clear; but often it is overspread by mist and cloud. Yet let me believe that, if difficulties remain, it is that I may learn to trust Him all the more implicitly – to trust and not be afraid. Yes, and by my intellectual conflicts, I am trained to be a tutor to other storm-driven men.

The offense may be spiritual.

I had fancied that within His fold I should never feel the biting winds of temptation; but it is best as it is. His grace is magnified. My own character is matured. His Heaven is sweeter at the close of the day. There I shall look back on the turnings and trials of the way, and shall sing the praises of my Guide.

So, let come what will come, His will is welcome; and I shall refuse to be offended in my loving Lord.

(Luke 7:23) (Alexander Smellie: Streams in the Desert)

The Martyr Watchers

2009-10-14T21:06:00.009-04:00

The Communists were vicious to ministers.

One minister's family was captured in Inchon, Korea, and the communist leaders put them on what they called a "People's Trial." The accusers would say, "One man is guilty of causing this kind of sin, and for that kind of sin it is proper that he be punished." The only response then given would be a chorus of voices agreeing, "Yah, Yah!"

This time they dug a large hole, putting the pastor, his wife, and several of his children in.

The leader then spoke, "Mister, all these years you misled the people with the superstition of the Bible. Now if you will publicly disclaim it before these people, and repent of this misdemeanor, then you, your wife, and your children will be freed. But if you persist in your superstitions, all of your family is going to be buried alive. Make a decision!"

All of his children then blurted, "Oh Daddy! Daddy! Think of us! Daddy!"

Think of it. If you were in his place, what would you do? I am the father of three children, and would almost feel like going to hell rather than see my children killed. This father was shaken. He lifted up his hands and said, "Yes, yes, I"ll do it. I am going to denounce...my..."

But before he could finish his sentence his wife nudged him, saying, "Daddy! Say NO!"

"Hush children," she said. "Tonight we are going to have supper with the King of kings, the Lord of lords!" She led them in singing "In the Sweet By and By," her husband and children following, while the Communists began to bury them. Soon the children were buried, but until the soil came up to their necks they sang, and all the people watched.

God did not deliver them, but almost all of those people who watched this execution became Christians, many now members of my church. Through their suffering the grace of redemption flowed.

God gave his only begotten Son to be crucified on the cross so that this world could be saved and redeemed. That is God"s uppermost goal – the redemption of souls.

So when you desire divine healing, or an answer from above, always focus through the lenses of the uppermost goal, the redeeming of souls.

If you see that your suffering brings about more redemption than your healing, then do not ask for deliverance, but ask God to give you strength to persevere.

(Dr. David Yonggi Cho: The Book of Jesus)

Who is Jesus to Me?

2009-09-22T22:00:00.005-04:00

Jesus is the Word to be spoken

Jesus is the truth to be told

Jesus is the way to be walked

Jesus is the light to be lit

Jesus is the life to be lived

Jesus is the love to be loved

Jesus is the joy to be shared

Jesus is the peace to be given

Jesus is the hungry to be fed

Jesus is the thirst to be satiated

Jesus is the naked to be clothed

Jesus is the homeless to be taken in

Jesus is the sick to be healed

Jesus is the lonely to be loved

Jesus is the unwanted to be wanted

Jesus is the leper to wash his wounds

Jesus is the beggar to give him a smile

Jesus is the drunkard to listen to him

Jesus is the mentally ill to protect him

Jesus is the little one to embrace him

Jesus is the blind to lead him

Jesus is the dumb to speak for him

Jesus is the crippled to walk with him

Jesus is the drug addict to befriend him

Jesus is the prostitute to remove from danger and befriend her

Jesus is the prisoner to be visited

Jesus is the old to be served

To me:

Jesus is my God

Jesus is my spouse

Jesus is my life

Jesus is my only love

Jesus is my all in all

Jesus is my everything

Jesus, I love with my whole heart, with my whole being. I have given Him all, even my sins, and He has espoused me to Himself in all tenderness and love.

(Mother Teresa)

Who is Your Master?

2009-08-30T19:31:00.007-04:00

The Christian attitude toward work is truly revolutionary.

Think what it would do to the economy and the entire fabric of life if the question were asked daily, in the kitchen, in the office, the schoolroom, the plant:

"Who is your master?"

And the answer were given:

"Christ is my Master, whose slave I am."

It would transform in a stroke not only the worker's attitude toward the boss, but his attitude toward those who work with him.

No longer would he be scheming ways to outdo them, cheat them, gain preference over them in the employer's eyes.

He would not be seeking ways to evade work that he doesn't like and letting George do it.

It would change his attitude toward the work itself because he would do it not for show, not for promotion or bonuses or compliments or the free trip to Las Vegas, but with single-mindedness, for Christ.

It would change the quality of the work, for he has a Master who sees what no other overseer could spot: not only every detail of the work done, but the intentions of the heart.

The workman would know that the work, no matter how demeaning it might otherwise be, however routine, how humble, really does matter.

It will be noticed.

(Discipline: The Glad Surrender, Elisabeth Elliot)

Unsettled

2009-08-12T21:18:00.013-04:00

Moab has been at ease from his youth, and he has settled on his lees, and has not been emptied from vessel to vessel.

I suppose the moral is that you should be thankful

when the Lord empties you from vessel to vessel;

changes your circumstances,

upsets your comfort.

The art of winemaking involves stages. Wine must be moved from vessel to vessel along the way. Each stage of winemaking requires a vessel of different size, shape, and construction. Each stage accomplishes something different
for the final product—the wine that is becoming. At each stage, the dregs have settled to the bottom and must be strained out to prevent the ruin of the wine. The stage at which a wine must be emptied from one vessel to another is not a static and predictable period. Only the winemaker can tell.

Learn the ways of the Winemaker. Don’t be discouraged or frightened when the shape of your life and the construction of your days seem to be changing. God will not let you sit on your dregs. Unlike Moab, you will not stay in the same place. You will not be locked into your immaturity, retaining the same aroma as in your youth. He is ripening you, fermenting you, enriching you.
Rejoice! You are being emptied from vessel to vessel.

God is making you into a better vintage wine

(Jeremiah 48:11) (Meet Me on the Mountain:William J. Peterson) (http://www.prayinglife.org/Articles/articlepdfs/B-FromVesseltoVessel.pdf)

St. Patrick's Prayer

2009-07-28T16:56:00.008-04:00

I arise today:

Through God's strength to pilot me

God's might to uphold me

God's wisdom to guide me

God's eye to look before me

God's ear to hear me

God's word to speak for me

God's hand to guard me

God's way to lie before me

God's shield to protect me

God's host to save me

From snares of demons

From temptations of vices

From everyone who shall wish me ill

Afar and anear

Alone and in multitude.

(click here to see all of St. Patrick's "Breastplate" Prayer)

A Consecrated Soul

2009-07-14T23:55:00.004-04:00

The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him

God is looking for a man, or a woman, whose heart will be always set on Him, and who will trust Him for all He desires to do.

God is eager to work more mightily now than He ever has through any soul.

The clock of the century points to the eleventh hour.

The world is waiting to see what God can do through a consecrated soul. Not the world alone, but God Himself is waiting for one...

who will be more fully devoted to Him than anyone who has ever lived

who will be willing to be nothing that Christ may be all

who will grasp God's own purposes

and taking His humility and His faith, His love and His power will, without hindering, continue to let God do exploits.

"There is no limit to what God can do with a man, providing he will not touch the glory"

(2 Chronicles 16:9) (Streams in the Desert: July 18th)

God Knows What He's About

2009-07-07T15:32:00.005-04:00

When God wants to drill a man,

And thrill a man,

And skill a man

To play the noblest part;

When He yearns with all His heart

To create so great and bold a man

That all the world shall be amazed,

Watch His methods, watch His ways!

How He ruthlessly perfects

Whom He royally elects!

How He hammers him and hurts him,

And with mighty blows converts him

Into trial shapes of clay

which Only God understands;

While his tortured heart is crying

And he lifts beseeching hands!

How He bends but never breaks

When his good He undertakes;

How He uses whom He chooses,

And with every purpose fuses him:

By every act induces him

To try his splendor out—

God knows what He's about.

(Author Unknown)

They Are to Remind You...

2009-05-31T15:03:00.006-04:00

But they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die...

I asked the Lord:

"Why, in preparing to move the tabernacle and its contents, did you give instructions to the Children of Israel re the ritual of covering the 'holy things' with badgers skins, scarlet and blue cloths and so on.

"Why was the edict about 'they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die' so important?"

My people so easily forget that I am holy -- they forget to reverence Me.

In that day, they were far removed from what you call a 'relationship' with Me.

I have come down to you; revealed Myself to mankind -- I am readily 'available .' But My people bring Me to their own level, and forget My holiness.

These lessons from life, through the Children of Israel, are to remind you.

The sacrifices were bloody, violent, cruel -- to remind you of the depth of My Son's suffering -- His sacrifice for you -- because you so easily forget.

The holiness of the tabernacle and all its contents -- the penalty of death for being too familiar with them -- are to remind you to reverence Me; to remind you of My holiness.

Yes, we are in relationship -- My Son is 'God with us.' I am with you and I am in you -- but I am holy, and that is why I exhort you: Be ye holy even as I am holy. It is My grace, won by My Son, that keeps you from this penalty of death. But I grieve over your lack of understanding of holiness.

I am grieved when my Holy Spirit is treated as unholy. Mankind has, as yet, no understanding of holiness, because of deep sin. And My people have not yet portrayed holiness before them. I grieve over this.

To 'reverence' is to give the highest place; to give the greatest esteem possible, to bow down, to worship in humility and brokenness, to reckon oneself as nothing, as a worm by comparison.

Mankind worships every thing and every one but Me. Even My own people do not understand what it means to reverence Me -- nor to worship Me in 'the beauty of holiness.'

Lord, forgive me for making You something you are not.

I see that I can never walk in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, until I reverence You, the Godhead, as Holy.

Teach me, Father, how to reverence you -- and to worship you

in the beauty of holiness.

(Numbers 4:15) (1 Peter 1:16, Leviticus 11:44) (Matthew 15:9, John 4:22) (Psalm 29:2, 96:9, 1 Chronicles 16:29, 2 Chronicles 20:21)

Close to Jesus

2009-05-02T14:25:00.004-04:00

...as You, Father are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us...

The things we are going through are either making us sweeter, better, nobler men and women, or they are making us more captious and fault-finding, more insistent on our own way.

We are either getting more like our Father in heaven, or we are getting more mean and intensely selfish.

How are we behaving ourselves in our circumstances?

Do we understand the purpose of our life as never before?

God does not exist to answer our prayers, but by our prayers we come to discern the mind of God -- and that is declared in John 17:22, "...that they may be one, even as We are one."

Am I as close to Jesus as that?

God will not leave me alone until I am.

God has one prayer He must answer, and that is the prayer of Jesus Christ.

It does not matter how imperfect or immature a disciple may be -- if he will hang in, that prayer will be answered.

(John 17:21) ("If Ye Shall Ask...Oswald Chambers)

Look to Him

2009-04-13T22:07:00.005-04:00

I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me.

Just when we most earnestly desire to live like this, the weary old self seems to come to life again -- the "I" we trusted had been crucified with Christ.

It is very disappointing when this happens, and the devil watches not far away, and very quietly and with great subtlety he tries to draw us into hopeless distress and despair.

If he can do that he is satisfied, for then we are occupied with ourselves, which is what he wants us to be.

The one and only thing is to look straight off ourselves and our wretched failure, and cry to Him who is mighty to save. He never refuses that cry; so do not fear. The moment self is recognized, look to Him.

Do not be discouraged; He is not discouraged.

He who has begun a good work in us will go on to perfect it.

The going-on may take time; even so, He will go on till (O blessed "till") we are perfected.

(Galatians 2:20) (Edges of His Ways: Amy Carmichael)

Is it the End?

2009-04-09T13:04:00.006-04:00

It is finished.

Jesus speaks words replete with symbolism, and some standing there wonder what He means. He could be saying so many things: It is accomplished...the debt is discharged...the plan has been executed...the task is complete. Even the soldiers stop and stare, turning the three words over in their minds.

Satan hears the utterance and gloats in tawdry triumph. He calls for a party, believing he has won after all.

Demons dance and toast one another, drunk on their depravity. The Son of God will die like everyone else.

It is finished. Jesus wraps His words in an eternity of truth. Through one man sin entered the world, bringing a sentence of death to all mankind.

But now the price for that sin is paid in full and the new covenant in Christ's blood takes effect this very moment.

Through this one man, eternal life is offered to all who will believe.

It is finished. In His final seconds, as Jesus considers the world for which He came, perhaps one thought prevails: finally, the family of man will see what love is and how passionately the Father cares for His creatures.

It has cost Him dearly, and many will never understand how much. But from the foundations of the world God's unconditional love has led to this moment when His Son, dying a despicable death on a cross, proclaims,

It is finished.

Father, you spared nothing for me -- not even your own precious Son.

How can I ever doubt your love?

How can I ever question your plans for me?

How can I ever distrust anything that comes from you who freely gives me all things?

(John 19:30) (Contemplating the Cross: Tricia McCary Rhodes)

God's Glory

2009-03-30T15:10:00.006-04:00

Don't let your worship decline to the performance of mere duty.

Don't let the childlike awe and wonder be choked out by unbiblical views of virtue.

Don't let the scenery and poetry and music of your relationship with God shrivel up and die.

You have capacities for joy that you can scarcely imagine. They were made for the enjoyment of God. He can waken them no matter how long they have lain asleep.

Pray for His quickening power. Open your eyes to His glory. It is all around you:

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

(Desiring God: John Piper) (Psalm 19:1)

Wonders Will Unfold

2009-03-22T18:03:00.010-04:00

I am with you.

Do not fear.

Never doubt My love and power.

Your heights of success will be won by the daily persistent doing of what I have said.

Daily, steady persistence.

Like the wearing away of a stone by steady drops of water, so will your daily persistence wear away all the difficulties and gain success for you, and secure your help for others.

Never falter; go forward so boldly, so unafraid.

I am beside you to help and strengthen you.

Wonders have unfolded.

More still will unfold, beyond your dreams, beyond your hopes.

Say "All is well" to everything.

All is well.

...let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith...

(God Calling: A.J. Russell ed.) (Hebrews 12:2)

Rightly Devoted

2009-03-10T22:32:00.006-04:00

Most of us live on the borders of consciousness -- consciously serving, consciously devoted to God.

All this is immature; it is not the real life yet.

The mature stage is the life of a child which is never conscious; we become so abandoned to God that the consciousness of being used never enters in.

When we are consciously being used as broken bread and poured out wine, there is another stage yet to be reached, where all consciousness of ourselves and of what God is doing through us is eliminated.

A saint is never consciously a saint; a saint is consciously dependent on God.

If you are rightly devoted to the Lord Jesus, you have reached the sublime height where no one ever thinks of noticing you.

All that is noticed is that the power of God comes through you all the time.

Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God

(1 Corinthians 10:31)

(Oswald Chambers; My Utmost for His Highest)

Called Aside

2009-03-02T12:12:00.008-05:00

...into a desert place apart (Matthew 14:13)

There is no music in a rest, but there is the making of music in it.

In our whole life-melody the music is broken off here and there by "rests," and we foolishly think we have come to the end of the tune.

God sends a time of forced leisure, sickness, disappointed plans, frustrated efforts, and makes a sudden pause in the choral hymn of our lives; and we lament that our voices must be silent, and our part missing in the music which ever goes up to the ear of the Creator.

How does the musician read the "rest"? See him beat the time with unvarying count, and catch up the next note true and steady, as if no breaking place had come between.

Not without design does God write the music of our lives.
Be it ours to learn the tune, and not be dismayed at the "rests." If we look up, God Himself will beat the time for us. With the eye on Him, we shall strike the next note full and clear.

The making of music is often a slow and painful process in this life.

How patiently God works to teach us!

How long He waits for us to learn the lesson!

(Matthew 14:13) (Streams in the Desert: Mrs. Charles E.Cowman)

Destined for the Throne

2009-02-25T19:53:00.007-05:00

The Church (the Body of Christ) must learn the art of spiritual warfare. To enable her to learn the technique of overcoming, God ordained the infinitely wise program of believing prayer.

He did not ordain prayer primarily as a way of getting things done. It is His way of giving the Church 'on the job' training in overcoming the forces hostile to God.

This world is a laboratory in which those destined for the throne are learning in actual practice how to overcome Satan and his hierarchy.

The prayer closet is the arena which produces the overcomer.

The Church, through her resurrection and ascension with Christ, is already legally on the throne.

In spite of her lamentable weaknesses, appalling failures, and indefensible shortcomings, the Church is the mightiest force for civilization and enlightened social consciousness in the world today.

The only force that is contesting Satan's total rule in human affairs is the Church of the Living God.

(Destined for the Throne; Paul E. Billheimer)

Self Entanglements

2009-02-13T15:03:00.006-05:00

He who finds his life will lose it,
and he who loses his life for My sake will find it

MY CHILD, my grace is precious. It does not allow itself to be mixed with external things or with earthly consolations. Cast away all obstacles to grace, therefore, if you wish to receive its infusion.

If you completely conquer yourself, you will more easily subdue all other things. The perfect victory is to triumph over self. For he who holds himself in such subjection that sensuality obeys reason and reason obeys Me in all matters, is truly his own conqueror and master of the world.

Now, if you wish to climb to this high position you must begin like a man, and lay the ax to the root, in order to tear out and destroy any hidden unruly love of self or of earthly goods. From this vice of too much self-love comes almost every other vice that must be uprooted. And when this evil is vanquished, and brought under control, great peace and quiet will follow at once.

But because few labor to die entirely to self, or tend completely away from self, therefore they remain entangled in self, and cannot be lifted in spirit above themselves. But he who desires to walk freely with Me must mortify all his low and inordinate affections, and must not cling with selfish love or desire to any creature.

(Matthew 10:38) (The Imitation of Christ: Thomas A Kempis)

Draw Near

2009-01-30T20:08:00.012-05:00

Prayer is first and foremost an act of love...

...to love someone implies a longing for presence and communion.

We settle down in our Father's arms, in His loving hands.

Our minds, our thoughts, our imagination may flit about here and there: we might even fall asleep, But eventually we are choosing to remain for this time intimately with our Father, giving ourselves to Him, receiving His love and care, letting Him enjoy us.

This is very simple prayer; childlike prayer, prayer that opens us out to all the delights of the Kingdom.

Spend more time alone with Me.

How little man knows and senses My need. My need of love and companionship.

I come 'to draw men unto Me' and sweet it is to feel hearts drawing near in love - not for help, as much as for tender comradeship.

Many know the need of man.

Few know the need of Christ.

"...in Your presence is fullness of joy,

at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore"

(The Signature of Jesus, Brennan Manning) (God Calling, A.J.Russell) (Psalm 16:11)

By His Spirit

2009-01-18T15:17:00.009-05:00

'Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit', says the Lord of Hosts

The supremacy of God's power is seen in the ways He accomplishes His purposes through mere vessels of clay made mighty because He has infused them with His life...

His might is seen by what He does through the weak, the insignificant, the powerless...

As long as the heart is turned to Him in childlike trust, he will enable anyone to complete the work to which He has called them.

We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power
may be of God and not of us.

(Zechariah 4:6) (Kingdon Dynamics: Zechariah 4:6 NKJV) (2 Corinthians 4:7)

The Verge of the Unknown

2008-12-29T22:50:00.008-05:00

...it is... a land for which the Lord God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.

Today, dear friends, we stand upon the verge of the unknown. There lies before us the new year and we are going forth to possess it.

Who can tell what we shall find? What new experiences, what changes shall come, what new needs shall arise?

But here is the cheering, comforting, gladdening message from our Heavenly Father, "The Lord your God cares for it...from the beginning of the year to the end of it."

Have you been asking God what He is going to do? He will never tell you. God does not tell you what He is going to do; He reveals to you Who He is.

Look not back, but look ahead,

for I have glory prepared for thee.

Yea, when thou lookest on My face

thou wilt surely say that these present sufferings

are in no way comparable

to the glory which I have in store for thee.

It is tomorrow that fills men with dread.

But God is there already.

All the tomorrows of our life have to pass before Him, before they can get to us.

Leave the irrepairable past in His hands

and step out into the irresistable future

(Deuteronomy 11: 11, 12) (Streams in the Desert) (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest) (Frances J. Roberts, Come Away My Beloved) (Streams in the Desert)

Because He Came

2008-12-22T20:59:00.032-05:00

He Will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest...

A few years ago a striking Christmas card was published, with the title, "If Christ had not come."

The card reperesented a clergyman falling into a short sleep in his study on Christmas morning and dreaming of a world into which Jesus had never come.

In his dream he found himself looking through his home, but there were no little stockings in the chimney corner, no Christmas bells or wreaths of holly, and no Christ to comfort, gladden and save.

He walked out onto the street, but there was no church with its spire pointing to heaven. He came back and sat down in his library, but every book about the Saviour had disappeared.

There was a ring at the doorbell, and a messenger asked him to visit a poor dying mother. He hastened with the weeping child and as he reached the home he sat down and said, "I have something here that will comfort you."

He opened his Bible to look for a familiar promise, but it ended at Malachi, and there was no gospel and no promise of hope and salvaion, and he could only bow his head and weep with her in bitter despair.

Two days afterward he stood beside her coffin and conducted the funeral service, but there was no message of consolation, no word of a glorious resurrection, no open heaven, but only "dust to dust, ashes to ashes," and one long eternal farewell.

He realized at length that "Jesus had not come," and burst into tears and bitter weeping in his sorrowful dream.

Then suddenly he awoke with a start, and a great shout of joy and praise burst from his lips as he heard his choir singing in his church close by:

"O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye, to Bethlehem.
Come and behold Him, born the King of angels.
O come let us adore Him, Christ, the Lord."

He has come.

His Name is Immanuel...

God with us.

(Luke 1:32) (Streams in the Desert) (Matthew 1:23)

God is Jealous

2008-12-11T19:11:00.005-05:00

Your Lord is very jealous of your love, O believer.

Did He choose you? He cannot bear that you should choose another.

Did He buy you with His own blood? He cannot endure that you should think that you are your own, or that you belong to this world.

He loved you with such a love that He would not stop in heaven without you; He would sooner die than you should perish, and He cannot endure that anything should stand between your heart's love and Himself.

He is very jealous of your trust. He will not permit you to trust in an arm of flesh. He cannot bear that you should hew out broken cisterns, when the overflowing fountain is always free to you.

When we lean upon Him, He is glad, but when we transfer our dependence to another, when we rely upon our own wisdom, or the wisdom of a friend--worst of all, when we trust in any works of our own, He is displeased, and will chasten us that He may bring us to Himself.

He is also very jealous of our company. There should be no one with whom we converse so much as with Jesus. To abide in Him only, this is true love; but to commune with the world, to find sufficient solace in our carnal comforts, to prefer even the society of our fellow Christians to secret intercourse with Him, this is grievous to our jealous Lord.

He would fain have us abide in Him, and enjoy constant fellowship with Himself; and many of the trials which He sends us are for the purpose of weaning our hearts from the creature, and fixing them more closely upon Himself.

Let this jealousy which would keep us near to Christ be also a comfort to us, for if He loves us so much as to care thus about our love we may be sure that He will suffer nothing to harm us, and will protect us from all our enemies.

Oh that we may have grace this day to keep our hearts in sacred chastity for our Beloved alone, with sacred jealousy shutting our eyes to all the fascinations of the world!

(Charles H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening September 12, am) (Nahum 1:2)

Altar Ministry

2008-11-27T21:20:00.007-05:00

We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise.

What are sheep doing going into the gate?

What is their purpose inside those courts?

To bleat melodies and enjoy the

company of the flock?

No!

These sheep were destined for the altar.

Their pasture feeding had been for one purpose --

to test them and fatten them for bloody sacrifice.

Give Him thanks that you have been counted worthy of His altars.

(Psalm 100:3,4) (Jim Elliot, Shadow of the Almighty)

God Calling

2008-11-18T21:29:00.010-05:00

No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends...

"Think of me as a Friend, but realize, too, the wonder of the Friendship. What I can do for you. Yes! but also what we can do for each other. What you can do for Me.

Your service becomes so different when you feel I count on your friendship to do this or that for Me...

Dwell more, dwell much more, on this thought of you as My Friend, and of the sweetness of My knowing where I can turn for love, for understanding, for help."

Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friend.

I laid down My life for you; are you willing to lay down your life for Me?

Self-sacrifice is the high-water mark of love

Cyrus made war on the king of Armenia, and took the king, his wife, and children, along with his son Tigranes and wife, prisoners.

Speaking with the old king concerning his ransom, Cyrus said, “How much money will you give me to have your wife back again?”

“All that I have”, replied the king.

“And how much would you give to enjoy your children again?”

“All that I can produce”, answered the king.

“By that reckoning”, said Cyrus, “You prize them at twice as much as you possess.”

Then, turning to Tigranes, he said, “How much will you give as a ransom, so that you can have your wife back?” (Now Tigranes had just recently married, and loved his wife exceedingly.)

He answered, “I will indeed, O Cyrus, ransom her even with MY LIFE, that she may be no longer in captivity.”

I gave My life for thee,
My precious blood I shed,
that thou might'st ransomed be,
and quickened from the dead;

I gave, I gave My life for thee,
What hast thou giv'n for Me?

(John 15:15) (God Calling; A.J. Russell ed.) (John 15:13) (Dods) (Adam Clarke's Commentary) (Frances R. Havergal)

The Wondering Spirit

2008-11-11T19:01:00.007-05:00

...and I will set myself upon the tower and watch to see what He will say to me...

A child is always wide-awake with wonder at the things it sees...we are apt to forget that a child's wonder is nearer the truth than our older knowledge. When through Jesus Christ we are rightly related to God, we learn to watch and wait, and wait wonderingly.

"I wonder how God will answer this prayer."

"I wonder what glory God will bring to Himself out of the strange perplexities I am in."

God grant that we may have the wonder of the child-heart which the Holy Spirit gives, and that He may keep our minds young and vigorous and un-stagnant, never asleep, but always awake with child-eyed wonder at the next wonderful thing God will do.

Keep open-eyed in wonder!

Can God do what He likes in your life?

Can He help Himself liberally to you?

Can He take you up and put you down?

Can He introduce His plans through you and never tell you the reason why?

Can He make you a spectacle to men and angels. as He did Job, without giving you any explanation?

Can He make you a wonder to yourself and to others, while He gives you the implicit child-like understanding that somehow or other things are working out all right?

Keep open-eyed in wonder!

(Habakkuk 2:1) (If Ye shall Ask: Oswald Chambers)

Guarding the Life of the Spirit Within

2008-11-04T21:42:00.005-05:00

And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.

Silence guards the inner heat of religious emotions. This inner heat is the life of the Holy Spirit within us. Thus silence is the discipline by which the inner fire of God is tended and kept alive.

"Timely silence, then, is precious, for it is nothing less than the mother of the wisest thoughts."

We have been made to believe that feelings, emotions, and even the inner stirrings of our soul have to be shared with others.

In fact, people who prefer to keep to themselves and do not expose their interior life tend to create uneasiness and are often considered inhibited, asocial, or simply odd.

(Yet) often we come home from a sharing session with a feeling that something precious has been taken away from us or that holy ground has been trodden on.

Sometimes it seems that our many words are more an expression of our doubt than our faith...it is precisely this wordy unbelief that quenches the fire.

Our first and foremost task is to faithfully care for the inward fire so that when it is really needed it can offer warmth and light...

(James 1:6) (The Way of the Heart: Henri J.M. Nouwen)

Silent Fellowship

2008-10-31T17:17:00.006-04:00

In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forever more.

It is not necessary to be always speaking to God or always hearing from God, to have communion with Him; there is an inarticulate fellowship more sweet than words.

The little child can sit all day long beside its busy mother and, although few words are spoken on either side, and both are busy, the one at his absorbing play, the other at her engrossing work, yet both are in perfect fellowship. He knows that she is there, and she knows that he is all right.

So the saint and the Saviour can go on for hours in the silent fellowship of love, and he be busy about the most common things, and yet conscious that every little thing he does is touched with the complexion of His presence, and the sense of His approval and blessing.

And then, when pressed with burdens and troubles too complicated to put into words and too mysterious to tell or understand, how sweet it is to fall back into His blessed arms, and just sob out the sorrow that we cannot speak!

(Psalm 16:11) (Streams in the Desert)

Discouraged?

2008-10-29T18:45:00.012-04:00

Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me?

Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him...

The Lord said, "Have I not promised? Have I ever failed you? Have any of My promises not come to pass?

"Then why should your soul be discouraged? I have it all in hand -- trust Me.

"Remember -- remember all I have done in the past. Remember, My goodness and mercy WILL follow you all the days of your life.

"I WILL command My lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night My song shall be with you, as a prayer to Me, the God of your life."

My soul, hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him.

Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake

to guide the future as He has the past.

Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;

all now mysterious shall be bright at last.

Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know

His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below.

(Psalm 42: 4, 5, 8, 11) (Katharina von Schlegel, 1752)

The Adversary

2008-10-17T19:21:00.018-04:00

The Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?"

So Satan answered the Lord..."Stretch out your hand and touch all he has, and He will surely curse you to your face!"

But in all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.

While Satan's goal was to prove Job to be a sinner, God's goal was to establish forever the sincerity of Job's faith.

God does not allow trials to see if we will fail; He allows trials to strengthen our faith.

The trial is, in fact, a statement of God's faith in our faithfulness and integrity.

Job said to his wife, "Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Then the Lord said to Satan..."still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited me against him, to destroy him without cause."

Satan gained not the least advantage; the darker the scene, the brighter shines the graces of the holy sufferer.

Then Job answered the Lord, "I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you."

By the teachings of men, God reveals his Son to us; but by the teachings of his Spirit he reveals his Son in us.

And the Lord restored Job's losses...and indeed the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.

Job's restored prosperity proves that a love relationship with God secures an abundant life

(Job 1,2) (Thomas Haweis) (Job 42:5, 43:10) (Matthew Henry)

Taking the Right Path

2008-10-08T15:08:00.030-04:00

...that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord... (Ephesians 3:11,12)

How is His manifold wisdom made known by us (His church)?

God's wisdom is manifest through us ...

every time we rejoice in the midst of tribulation

each time we acknowledge Him as a good God when all the circumstances around us seem to deny that truth

when we choose to do the right thing, no matter how difficult or foolish it may seem to be

when we look at the things that are eternal and not the temporal

when we praise Him rather than complaining

when we instantly obey, no matter the cost

when we love the unlovely

when we give a cup of cold water in His Name

when we go 'the second mile' for someone

when we acknowledge Him before men

when we respond in righteousness

when we do what Jesus would do

when we choose the more difficult path

when in His Name we do what repulses us, to please Him

when we can truthfully say, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him"

"If you are uncertain of which of two paths to take, choose the one on which the shadow of the cross falls"

(Ephesians 3:11,12)

Leave it with Him

2008-10-02T20:20:00.012-04:00

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow...

" I need oil," said the ancient monk; so he planted an olive sapling.

"Lord," he prayed, "it needs rain so that its tender roots may drink and swell. Send gentle showers." And the Lord sent gentle showers.

"Lord," prayed the monk, "my tree needs sun. Send sun, I pray." And the sun shone, gilding the dripping clouds.

"Now frost, my Lord, to brace its tissues," cried the monk. And behold the little tree stood sparkling with frost -- but at evening it died.

Then the monk sought out a brother monk, and told of his strange experience.

"I, too, planted a little tree," said the brother, "and see! it thrives well. But I entrusted my tree to its God. He who made it knows better what it needs than a man like me. I laid no condition. I fixed no ways or means.

"Lord, send what it needs," I prayed, "storm or sunshine, wind, rain or frost. You have made it and you know."

Yes, leave it with Him, the lilies all do
And they grow --
They grow in the rain, and they grow in the dew --
Yes, they grow;
They grow in the darkness, all hid in the night --
They grow in the sunshine, revealed by the light --
Still they grow

Whatever you need, if you seek it in prayer,
You can leave it with Him -- for it's all in His care.

(Matthew 6:28) (Streams in the Desert: March 29)

Instruments of Grace

2008-09-22T14:19:00.009-04:00

Fear not, thou worm Jacob...I will make you a threshing instrument with teeth.

God can take a man, or a nation, who has all the impotence of the worm, and by the invigoration of His own Spirit, he can endow with strength by which a noble mark is left upon the history of time.

And so the 'worm' may take heart. The mighty God can make us stronger than our circumstances. He can bend them all to our good.

We can even take hold of a black disappointment, break it open, and extract some jewel of grace.

Christ is building His Kingdom with earth's broken things. Men only want the strong, the successful, the victorious, the unbroken, in building their kingdoms; but God is the God of the unsuccessful, of those who have failed.

He can take the life crushed by pain or sorrow and make it into a harp whose music shall be all praise.

(Isaiah 41:14,15) (Streams in the Desert)

The Wind Blows Where it Wishes

2008-09-19T21:19:00.035-04:00

But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord...and found a ship going to Tarshish.

But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest...so they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea.

See what need we have, when the word of the Lord comes to us, to have the Spirit of the Lord come along with the word, to bring every thought within us into obedience to it

The true servant of God should be prepared to go, not where he would choose to labour, but where his Master sends him, and faithfully deliver God's messages in the sphere assigned to him.

To us, the 'wind blows where it wishes,' but not to God -- it blows where He directs.

(Jonah 1:1,2) (Matthew Henry's Commentary) (Family Bible Notes) (Matthew Henry's Commentary)

The Love of God

2008-09-13T21:10:00.020-04:00

Be persuaded that neither death with its voice of fear, nor life with its many cares, nor the attacks of the enemy which falsely accuse you, nor things present with their pressing claims, nor things to come with their dark shadows, nor the height of any mountains that stand in your way, nor the depths of a great trial that you may walk through, nor any person or circumstance which tries to quench your joy or rob you of your peace -- shall be able to move you away, by even a single inch, from the love of God that covers and guards your life.

(Roy Lessin)

Belonging to God

2008-09-11T19:42:00.027-04:00

...do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

The doctrine of the indwelling of the Spirit is very wonderful and also very solemn. What condescension on His part -- to dwell in us! How reverently should we entertain such a guest!

(1 Corinthians 6: 19, 20) (Spurgeon's Devotional Commentary)

Redeeming Love

2008-09-09T18:51:00.022-04:00

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us"

The weight of a sin-sick world hangs from the nail-pierced hands that once fashioned it into being.

"So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord. And His soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel"

God grieves for the miseries to which his creatures are reduced by their own sins. Be astonished, ye heavens, at this; and shout for joy, all ye inhabitants of the earth! For, through the love whence this compassion flowed, God has visited and redeemed a lost world!

What Love! What Compassion!

That even in the depths of our darkest sin, your soul grieves over our state, and you relent and turn back your face to us when we turn our face back, once again, to you. What a wonderful Saviour!

(Romans 5:8) (Contemplating the Cross; Tricia McCary Rhodes) (Judges 10:16) (Adam Clarkes Commentary)

Digging a Well

2008-09-04T15:31:00.009-04:00

"So he built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord, and he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac's servants dug a well."

In a time of famine, Isaac didn't run, didn't seek for greener pastures, didn't do the natural thing -- he stood firm and trusted God.

He worshipped -- he built an altar

He prayed -- he called on the name of the Lord

He found a well -- he unstopped it, dug it up

He drew from the well -- he prospered in that place!

The springing up from below, in contrast to the outpouring from above, is associated with private encounters with God where you alone are the sole recipient of His attention. This "inner baptism" involves the digging out of plugged up wells and the breaking down of emotional dams that block the flow of the underground springs of the Spirit that every believer has been granted .

As we may go anywhere with comfort when God's blessing goes with us, so we may stay anywhere contentedly if that blessing rests upon us

(Genesis 26:25) (unknown) (Matthew Henry)