Be Still

Souls are heated in the furnace of affliction, plunged into the cold waters of tribulation, and ground between the upper and nether stones of adversity and disaster... Be still in the hands of God until He tempers you... Be still and let God temper and polish you and you will be worth something, too. Allow yourself to be prepared for usefulness. He will give you a post of holy renown if you will let Him fit your for it.

Springs In The Valley

Jesus And The Loaves

Remember the story where Jesus fed thousands of people with one boy's small lunch? In that story, according to Matthew, Jesus gave the loaves to his disciples and then the disciples passed them out to the crowd. Imagine if the disciples had simply held onto the food Jesus gave them, continually thanking Him for providing lunch for them. That would've been stupid when there was enough food to feed the thousands who were gathered and hungry. But that is exactly what we do when we fail to give freely and joyfully.

Crazy Love, Francis Chan

Summer Reading

I know I have been relatively MIA lately. I keep intending to write, but honestly I haven't had many topics that have peaked my interest long enough for me to sit down for several hours and put my pen to them. That being said, I have been doing a good bit of reading in attempt to fill my ink well. 

One topic that has peaked my interest lately is Israel. I became more curious about Israel after reading Daniel Silva's book series about Israeli spy Gabriel Allon. Although they are fiction, his books contain a great deal of historical detail about Jews in the 20th century and after reading them, I realized how little I know about Jewish history outside of 1935-1945. 

I found several good books on the topic that I am looking forward to reading. One is The History Of The Jews by Paul Johnson which is where I will start. Another is Israel by Martin Gilbert. I read Gilbert's biography of Churchill, which was excellent, so this book will probably be good too. He and Paul Johnson are both great historians and authors. There are a lot more books out there on Israel, but I think these two volumes are about as much as I can handle for now.

If you have book recommendations, let me know. I am always up for more books and more reading.

Fellowship With God

If fellowship with God is our first concern, then we can have fellowship with Him in the kitchen, in sickness, in any kind of trying and difficult situation. Whatever lies across our path to be done, even the most irksome chore, is there to be done for God and for his glory. Gone will be the former striving, bondage, and frustration. We shall be at peace with God and ourselves.

We Would See Jesus, Roy and Revel Hession

Dying To Self

To die to self is to live to others and to God. In my experience that sort of daily dying makes two requirements on you. One, that you come to your brothers and sisters accepting your own brokenness. Not fearless and tearless, not unscarred and unshaken. Quite the contrary: you are a wounded healer, dreadfully vulnerable. In giving life to others, you die a little each time, each day. Two, you have to destroy the smallness in you, the narrowness that plagues human living - where you are all wrapped up in yourself, where all that matters is what you want and what you need, your own little hurts and secret joys. No! The drama of Holy Week cries No. If you are risen with Christ, then for the love of Christ, live a risen life! Think big and love lots. Against all the odds, you will even feel better. 

The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus, Brennan Manning

Why I Am A Tea Partier

There has been a great deal of talk about the who’s and why's of the Tea Party movement. Much of the discussion, particularly by pundits and politicians, is speculative and insulting to the people of the Tea Party movement. The tea partiers have been called everything from astroturfers to Nazis.

The people doing the name-calling do so with an appalling detached disdain. It is the same disdain they display when they decry the Iraq war, or any “Republican” war for that matter, and the unfair burden it places on soldiers, families and the innocent civilians caught in the crosshairs. They are so anguished and so disgusted about war and its effects and yet, despite their great display of concern, I always wonder if they actually know any soldiers...

Read More Here.

Jesus As Master

Many Christians think that they receive Jesus as someone who can save and help them, but virtually they deny Him as Master. They think they have a right to have their own will in a thousand things. They speak very much what they like, they do very much what they like, they use their property and possessions as they like; they are their own masters, and they have never dreamed of saying: Jesus, I just forsake all to follow Thee.

And yet this is the demand of Christ. Christ hath such infinite riches and glory that He deserves it, and Christ is such a heavenly, spiritual, divine gift that unless we give up everything, our hearts cannot be filled with Him. And so Jesus says: Forsake all and follow me.

Absolute Surrender, Andrew Murray.