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Soul Enrichment

God loves much those whom He trusts with sorrow, and designs some precious soul enrichment which comes only through the channel of suffering. There are things which even God cannot do for us unless He allows us to suffer. He cannot have the result of the process without the process. If you are among "them that love God," all things are yours! God does not test worthless souls!

Springs In The Valley, Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

Gratitude toward God during the hard times

There is no denying that times are tough. Many people are out of work, cannot find a job and are struggling financially. The unemployment rate is still up around 10% and food stamps and umeployment benefits are being distributed at record levels. 

When times are good, it is easy to be grateful to God for the many blessings he has bestowed upon us. But during hard times, it is often difficult to be grateful to God. Whatever our personal circumstances, God is still God and he is still good. So, when we feel like we have struggled enough or lost more than our fair share, how do we remain thankful and maintain a grateful spirit toward God? 

Read More Here.

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.

Christ Is Available...

The glorious truth is that Christ is immediately available to us as we are and where we are. God has made Him as accessible to us as sinners as He possibly can... His blood has made Him available to the sinner as a sinner and to the failing saint as a failing saint, if he will only admit that that is what he is. The word we need in order to contact Him is right in our mouth and in our heart, the simple word of confession and faith.

We Would See Jesus, Roy and Revel Hession

The Way To Peace

The way to peace and victory is to accept every circumstance, every trial, straight from the hand of a loving Father; and to live up in the heavenly places, above the clouds, in the very presence of the throne, and to look down from the glory upon our environment as lovingly and divinely appointed.

Streams In The Desert

Suffering With Christ

When Christ was in the world, He was despised by men; in the hour of need He was forsaken by acquaintances and left by friends to the depths of scorn. He was willing to suffer and to be despised; do you dare complain of anything? He had enemies and defamers; do you want everyone to be your friend, your benefactor? How can your patience be rewarded if nor adversity tests it? How can you be a friend of Christ if you are not willing to suffer any hardship? Suffer with Christ and for Christ if you wish to reign with him.

The Imitation of Christ, Thomas A Kempis 

The Least Of These

Even Jesus did not spend every waking hour helping the poor. He dined with the wealthy, celebrated at weddings and feasts, taught in the synagogue, and perhaps even did a bit of carpentry. Still, there is no question that His love for the poor found consistent and concrete expression in His life and ministry. The question for you and for me is this: will Christ find evidence of our genuine concern for His beloved poor when He looks at the fruit on that day? Further, what might He be calling you to do today? What new steps of faith might you take to demonstrate your own concern for "the least of these"?

The Hole In Our Gospel, Rich Stearns