Great Things From God

Have you ever heard of the spiritual disease which people in Medieval times called "aceidie"?  It is something that threatens all Christian workers after the first flush of enthusiasm has worn off.  It is apathy of the soul.  It shows a certain toughness of mind and weariness of spirit which often results from hurt and disillusionment... Once upon a time these leather-souled people were keen, hopeful, and expectant.  But nothing happened, or they got hurt, and now they protect themselves against further pain... They work mechanically, merely going through the motions because their light has really gone out and they are no longer expecting anything to happen... So, they merely plod on, expecting nothing and receiving nothing... We ought never settle for a non-expectant, defeatist attitude.  Rather, we should be asking and expecting great things from God.

In God's Presence by J.I. Packer, October 10

This Is The Lord's Day

How true this is...

This Lord's Day
I arose at six
prayed
showered
nursed the baby
fixed breakfast
dressed
ironed my husband's shirt
bathed the baby
dressed the baby
found my husband's watch
curled my hair
changed the baby's diaper
answered the phone
put on some makeup
stuck a roast in the oven
packed the diaper bag
grabbed my Bible
dashed to the kitchen for
Linda's casserole dish,
ran to the car and
strapped my little angel
into his car seat,
he vomited all over
everything, including me
and my only ironed dress.
Oh yes, Lord,
I shall remember this
Sabbath Day.
However, I must confess,
I am completely stumped
on how to keep it holy.

Mothering By Heart by Robin Jones Gunn

Menial Service

It is one thing to follow God's way of service if you are regarded as a hero, but quite another thing if the road marked out for you by God requires becoming a "doormat" under other people's feet... Are you ready to be less than a mere drop in the bucket - to be so totally insignificant that no one remembers you even if they think of those you served?  Are you willing to give and be poured out until you are used up and exhausted - not seeking to be ministered to, but to minister? Some saints cannot do menial work while maintaining a saintly attitude, because they feel such service is beneath their dignity.

My Utmost For His Highest, February 5

Prayer and Teenagers

I was frustrated. As I adjourned another weekly bible study with my high school senior girls, I tried to hide my exasperation. Where had I gone wrong? How had another bible study digressed so much so that all we discussed were boys and sex?

When we first started meeting, during the girls’ junior year, our bible study had not been like this. But everything was different now. They were seniors: seniors with boyfriends, hormones, and college applications. And they were on the cusp of experiencing a new freedom; the freedom of being away from home and their parents’ rules for the first time in their lives. As they approached that freedom and graduation day, our discussions seemed to drift further away from the bible. Could I really even call it a bible study anymore?

I struggled with how to handle the situation. I was a new mother with an infant; was this worth being away from my own child? Would continuing our meetings even be productive? The questions swirled in my head for days.

As I prayed for a solution, a new thought came to me. What if I needed to stop trying to control and correct the situation? When no other solution presented itself, I decided to watch and wait.

Then unexpectedly, things began to change. One by one, each girl sought me out to be their confidant. Their ability to talk freely during bible study assured them that they could talk freely to me in private. They suddenly wanted my advice about their relationships, friendships, and all the decisions they were facing. I was no longer just their bible study leader, I was their friend.

As this transformation in our relationships occurred, so did my understanding of parenting and teenagers. All of these girls had reached an age where they no longer felt comfortable telling their parents everything that was happening around them or inside them. But they also needed guidance about how to correct their mistakes, clean up their messes, and get back on the right path. They wanted a person in their lives who would listen attentively, offer comfort, provide wisdom, and most of all, not judge them.

I thought ahead to my own child being seventeen years old and wondered, what will she not be telling me at that age? What will be going on in that precious heart and mind that she will not feel comfortable sharing with me? Despite all my best parenting efforts, what messes will she get into that she will try to hide from me?

It was frightening to consider all the possible answers to those questions. But thankfully, God has put a weapon at our disposal: praying for our children and for the people in their lives. As our children approach their teenage years, we should be praying for a godly role model to come into their lives. Our children need someone, other than their friends, to confide their thoughts and feelings that they could never imagine telling Mom or Dad. They need a person other than their peers and the media, who will provide not only answers to their questions, but wisdom and guidance during tough decisions and help in times of trouble.

As a mother, I dread the day when my daughter will begin to purposefully withhold parts of her life from me. While I hope that it happens later instead of sooner, I know it is the first steps of the leaving and cleaving process, and therefore inevitable. But until that time comes, my heartfelt prayer is that God would raise up a wonderful Christian mentor, who will help and guide my daughter as she navigates through the teenage years.

By Taylor Martin Wise, Copyright 2009

The Storms Of Life

Some of the storms of life come suddenly: a great sorrow, a bitter disappointment, a crushing defeat.  Some come slowly.  They appear upon the ragged edges of the horizon no larger than a man's hand, but trouble that seems so insignificant spreads until it covers the sky and overwhelms us.

Yet it is in the storm that God equips us for service.  When God wants to make a man He puts Him into some storm.  The history of mankind is always rough and rugged.  No man is made until he has been out into the surge of the storm and found sublime fulfillment of the prayers: "O God, take me, break me, make me."

Streams In The Desert, January 16

Going To God

The Christian life is going to God.  In going to God Christians travel the same ground that everyone else walks on, breathe the same air, drink the same water, shop in the same stores, read the same newspapers, are citizens under the same governments, pay the same prices for groceries and gasoline, fear the same dangers, are subject to the same pressures, get the same distresses, are buried in the same ground.

The difference is that each step we walk, each breath we breathe, we know we are preserved by God, we know we are accompanied by God, we know we are ruled by God; and therefore no matter what doubts we endure or what accidents we experience, the Lord will guard us from every evil, he guards our very life.

A Long Obedience In The Same Direction by Eugene Peterson

Obedience

No father can train his children unless they are obedient. No teacher can teach a child who continues to disobey him. No general can lead his soldiers to victory without prompt obedience. Pray that God will imprint this lesson on your heart: the life of faith is a life of obedience.  As Christ lived in obedience to the Father, so we, too need obedience for a life in the love of God.

But so many people think, "I cannot be obedient; it is impossible." Yes, impossible to you, but not to God. He has promised to "cause you to walk in His statutes." (Ezekiel 36:27)

Let your fellowship with the Father and with the Lord Jesus Christ have this as its one aim: a life of quiet, determined, unquestioning obedience.

God's Best Secrets by Andrew Murray

A God Of Restoration

Our God is a God who not merely restores, but takes our mistakes and follies into his plan for us and brings good out of them. This is part of the wonder of his gracious sovereignty.  The Jesus who restored Peter after his denial and corrected his course more than once after that, is our Savior today and he has not changed.  God makes not only the wrath of man turn to praise but the misadventures of Christians too.

Not merely does God guide us by showing us the way so we may tread it; he also wills to guide us more fundamentally by ensuring that, whatever happens, whatever mistakes we make, we shall come home safely.  Slippings and strayings there will be, no doubt, but with the everlasting arms beneath us, we shall be caught, rescued, restored.

In God's Presence, December 3

Practice Makes Perfect

Rubenstein, the great musician, once said, "If I omit practice one day, I notice it; if two days, my friends notice it; if three days, the public notices it. It is the old doctrine, practice makes perfect." We must continue believing, continue praying, continue doing His will.  Suppose along any line of art, one should cease practicing, we know what the result would be.  If we would only use the same quality of common sense in our religion that we use in our everyday life, we should do to perfection.

Streams In The Desert, January 19

Rediscovering Holiness

Holiness means, among other things, forming good habits, breaking bad habits, resisting temptations to sin, and controlling yourself when provoked. No one ever managed to do any of these things without effort and conflict. How do we form the Christ-like habits which Paul calls the fruit of the Spirit?  By setting ourselves, deliberately, to do the Christ-like thing in each situation...

Love as the Christ-like reaction to people's malice

Joy as the Christ-like reaction to depressing circumstances

Peace as the Christ-like reaction to troubles, threats, and invitations to anxiety

Patience as the Christ-like reaction to all that is maddening

Kindness as the Christ-like reaction to all who are unkind

Goodness as the Christ-like reaction to bad people and bad behavior

Faithfulness and Gentleness as the Christ-like reaction to lies and fury

Self-control as the Christ-like reaction to every situation that goads you to lose your cool and hit out.

Rediscovering Holiness by J.I.Packer

Service vs. Devotion

Beware of anything that competes with your loyalty to Jesus Christ.  The greatest competitor of true devotion to Jesus is the service we do for Him.  It is easier to serve than to pour out our lives completely for Him.  The goal of the call of God is sanctification, not simply that we should do something for Him.  We are not sent to do battle for God, but to be used by God in His battles.  Are we more devoted to service than we are to Jesus Christ Himself?

My Utmost For His Highest, January 18

A Calmer Faith

The Shepherd, who understands our naivete and our humanity (not to mention our sheeplike stupidity), intervenes on our behalf to guide us with a strong hand onto a quiet path and into a calmer faith.

A calmer faith. That's the quiet place within us where we don't get whiplash every time life tosses us a curve.  Where we don't revolt when His plan and ours conflict.  Where we relax in the midst of an answerless season.  Where we accept deserts in our spiritual journey as surely as we do joy. Where we are not intimidated or persuaded by other people's agendas but moved only by Him. Where we weep in repentance, sleep in peace, live in fullness, and sing in victory.

A Gentle Spirit, January 18

The Most Wrong

I was sitting in a salon recently when I heard a stylist nearby say something that caught my attention. She said, “The church is just full of hypocrites.” I was surprised that she said it so openly, without regard to any of the customers around her and their religious affiliation. Maybe she thought with all noise from the hairdryers and such, no one else would really hear her.

But I heard her, and her statement is something I have heard many times before. As a Christian, I wasn’t offended or shocked by what she said, though my first thought was to yell out at her, over all the noise, “There is always room for one more if you want to join us!”

Isn’t that the fundamental misunderstanding by the world about Christians? That we all think we are so right and as close to perfect as possible and know what is best for ourselves and everyone else.

Of course, we all know people who think like that. Their theology, beliefs and perspective are perfectly right in their view, and everyone else, even other Christians, are wrong if they do not agree with them completely. In their mind, others just simply are not as right as they are.

I know about this first hand because I used to be a Christian who thought like that and I felt a certain amount of pride about how right I was. When I look back on who I was in my younger years, I cringe at my arrogance and my disapproval of others who did not live or believe as I thought they should. I knew so little of the world but I thought I knew so much.

God, in his infinite wisdom, knew I needed to change. I wish I could say that my ways were not entrenched so deep that God did not need to do anything more than shake me up a little in order to get my attention. Not so. I was so sure of myself, my attitudes, and my beliefs, that all God could do was to bring me to the end of myself. He broke me into a million little pieces and all I could do was let him put me back together as he saw fit.

While God was putting me back together and mending my soul, the real truth of it all hit me. I am not a Christian because I am the most right. In fact, because of sin, most everything about me is wrong. If left to myself, my impulses, my desires, my thoughts, my words, and my feelings are all wrong. The only one who can save me from such sin and from myself is Jesus. I am a Christian and believe in Jesus because I am the most wrong.

Despite how wrong I really am the desire of my heart is to follow after God and be like Christ. That desire and how to achieve it is often what I talk about with others. That probably makes me a hypocrite, because while I talk about wanting my life to be hidden with Christ in God, the truth is that I am not very good at doing so. It is a challenge every day to leave my self behind and choose God’s way, and one in which I fail more than I succeed. But I take comfort in knowing that growing in Christ is a lifelong journey, and that if each day or week or month, I am a little bit more like Christ and a little bit less of a hypocrite, then God is pleased and His work in me is being done. And until His work in me is complete, I do know one thing for sure: if there is any good in me, Jesus made it so.

By Taylor Martin Wise, Copyright 2009

Hardship

It has been commonly thought that protected ease is the most favorable condition of life, whereas all the noblest and strongest lives prove on the contrary that the endurance of hardship is the making of men, and the factor that distinguishes between existence and vigorous vitality. Hardship makes character.

Streams In The Desert, January 13

Discovering Peace

Patience is necessary in this life because so much of life is fraught with adversity. No matter how hard we try, our lives will never be without strife or grief. Thus, we should not strive for a peace that is without temptation, or for a life that never feels adversity. Peace is not found by escaping temptations, but by being tried by them. We will have discovered peace when we have been tried and come through the trial of temptation.

The Imitation of Christ, Thomas A Kempis

The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit's distinctive role is to fulfill what we may call a floodlight ministry in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ...He is, so to speak, the hidden floodlight shining on the Savior.

It is as if the Spirit stands behind us, throwing light over our shoulder on to Jesus who stands facing us.  The Spirit's message to us in never, "Look at me; listen to me; come to me; get to know me," but always, "Look at him, and see his glory; listen to him and hear his word; go to him and have life; get to know him and taste the gift of joy and peace." The Spirit, we might say, is the matchmaker, the celestial marriage broker, whose role it is to bring us and Christ together and ensure that we stay together.

In God's Presence by J.I. Packer, February 1