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

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.

Surrender

To be surrendered to God is of more value than our personal holiness. Concern over our personal holiness causes us to focus our eyes on ourselves, and we become overly concerned about the way we walk and talk and look, out of fear of offending God...We should quit asking ourselves, "Am I of any use?" and accept the truth that we really are not of much use to Him. The issue is never of being of use, but of being of value to God Himself. Once we are totally surrendered to God, He will work through us all the time.

My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers

Connected to God

The holidays are my favorite time of year and in preparation, I have made my shopping lists, placed food orders, and am knocking projects off my to do list. I feel ready for a house full of people and food this week.

On the other hand, I am also very tired. I have been waking up in the mornings wiped out and feel that way all during the day. But the truth is that I am a more than just tired. I am irritable and impatient and about things that should not cause me to be irritable or impatient. 

I wish I could blame all my irritability and impatience on some of the other stressful things going on in my life, like sick relatives and long work hours, but deep down I know that it is just me being an unpleasant and selfish version of myself. 

It is the me I am when...

Read More Here.

Suffering For Christ

With good reason, then ought you to be willing to suffer a little for Christ since many suffer much more for the world. Realize that you must live a dying life; the more a man dies to himself, the more he begins to live unto God.

The Imitation of Christ, Thomas A Kempis

Our Expectations

Our expectations are our greatest obstacle to union with God in the present moment. It is Jesus who writes all the lines, all the words, and all the letters of our lives. Do I really know what is best for me? My vision is so shortsighted, my horizon so limited. Surrender is a practical application of confession - what we pray each day in the Lord's prayer, "Thy will be done." Abandonment is the triumph of trust in our lives.

The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus, Brennan Manning

Surviving The Cross

Nothing ever survives the Cross but what is wholly of God in Christ. God never asks us to do anything we can do. He asks us to live a life which we can never live and to do a work which we can never do. Yet, by His grace, we are living it and doing it. The life we live is the life Christ lived in the power of God, and the work we do is the work of Christ carried on through us by His Spirit whom we obey. Self is the only obstruction to that life and to that work.

Sit Walk Stand, Watchman Nee

Change Agents For Christ

You and I are not meant to act like pre-resurrection disciples, racked with fear, doubt, and timidity. We are post-resurrection disciples, and if we are to live like post-resurrection disciples, everything in our lives must change. The question for us is whether we are willing to make that commitment - to live and act differently, and to repair the hole in our own gospel. If we are, then God will use us as parts of His amazing plan to change the world. 

But becoming this kind of disciple, one who is determined to be the gospel to the the world around him, involves intentional decision. It doesn't just happen. Any of us who have ever been on a diet or embarked on an exercise regimen know that fitness and weight loss don't just happen. They require us to make a choice and then change our behaviors in deliberate ways - it cannot be "business as usual." And it's not easy. The same is true of discipleship. We won't really become change agents for Christ just by going to church every Sunday. We will have to make some "on purpose" life choices and then change our priorities and behavior. Only then can God transform us and use us to change the world. 

The Hole In Our Gospel, Rich Stearns

Deny Thyself

To many the saying, "Deny thyself, take up thy cross and follow Me," (Matt 16:24) seems hard, but it will be much harder to hear that final word: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." (Matt 25:41) Those who hear the word of the cross and follow it willingly now, need not fear that they will hear of eternal damnation on the day of judgement. This sign of the cross will be in the heavens when the Lord comes to judge. Then all the servants of the cross, who during life made themselves one with the Crucified, will draw near with great trust to Christ, the judge.

The Imitation Of Christ, Thomas A Kempis

Faith and Works

The real journey of faith requires that our choices, our actions, and everything else in our lives be surrendered to Gods will rather than our own. For the Christian, it is a lifelong process. Belief - that is, faith - is just the beginning. Yes, we must believe that Christ lives us, but Christ also calls us to demonstrate His love to others through the good things that we do, what the Bible calls "works." Faith without works is no faith at all. But authentic faith, rooted in the heart of God, is expressed in deeds done to ease the pain of others; it is imbued with personal sacrifice, and it comes with a cost. Jesus understood that not everyone who called Him "Lord" would truly surrender their lives in sacrificial service, and He reserved some of His strongest words for those who professed to be His followers but whose lives showed no evidence of their faith. Surely this is one of the hardest things ever said by Jesus to those who claimed to follow Him. "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord' and do not do what I say?"...

He could not have been any more direct. Jesus was telling not only His hearers but all who would someday read His words that if we dare to call Him Lord, then He expects us to do what He says. In other words, once we believe that Jesus is Lord, then our lives must change; we must do as He commanded.

The Hole In Our Gospel, Richard Stearns

The King's Appointments

If we are really and always, and equally ready to do whatsoever the King appoints, all the trials and vexations arising from any change in His appointments, great or small, simply do not exist.  If He appoints me to work there, shall I lament that I am not to work here? If He appoints me to wait indoors today, am I to be annoyed because I am not to work out-of-doors? If I meant to write His messages this morning, shall I grumble because He sends interrupting visitors, rich or poor, to whom I am to speak, or "show kindness" for His sake, or at least obey His command, "Be courteous"? If all my members are really at His disposal, why should I be put out if today's appointment is some simple work for my hands or errands for my feet, instead of some seemingly more important doing of head or tongue?

A Gentle Spirit, March 6

Voluntary Surrender

A fitting metaphor for the Christian walk is that of enlisting in the army. Upon enlistment, the soldier immediately surrenders control of his or her life. Where the enlistee lives, when he or she moves, what clothing will be worn, how the enlistee will behave, and what he or she will do - all of these things are given over to the commanding officer to decide. Becoming a Christian requires a similar surrender - except that no one is ever drafter; it is always voluntary, and it takes longer to realize than a four year enlistment. The truth is that surrender is not an easy thing to do. But without that surrender a soldier is not useful to the army, and a Christian is not useful to God.

The Hole In Our Gospel, Richard Stearns

Our Expectations

Our expectations are our greatest obstacle to union with God in the present moment. It is Jesus who writes all the lines, all the words, and all the letters of our lives. Do I really know what is best for me? My vision is so shortsighted, my horizon so limited. Surrender is a practical application of confession - what we pray each day in the Lord's prayer, "Thy will be done." Abandonment is the triumph of trust in our lives.

The Relentless Tenderness Of Jesus, Brennan Manning

The Will Of God

The Lord knows infinitely better than I what is best for me, and all things, even our sins, St. Augustine said, work together for the good of those who love God.  

Concretely, abandonment consists in seeing the will of God in all people, events, and circumstances present to you.  If God tears up your beautiful game plan and leads you into a valley instead of a mountaintop, it is because H wants you to discover His plan, which is more beautiful than anything you or I could have dreamed up.  The response of trust is "Thank you, Jesus," even if it is said through clenched teeth.

The Relentless Tenderness Of Jesus by Brennan Manning

Personal Ministry

Joy comes from seeing the complete fulfillment of the specific purpose for which I was created and born again, not from successfully doing something of my own choosing.  The joy our Lord experienced came from doing what the Father sent Him to do.  And he says to us, "As the Father has sent me, I also send you" (John 20:21).  Have you received a ministry from the Lord?  If so, you must be faithful to it - to consider your life valuable only for the purpose of fulfilling that ministry.  Knowing that you have done what Jesus sent you to do, think how satisfying it will be to hear Him say to you, "Well done, my good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:21).  We each have to find a niche in life, and spiritually we find it when we receive a ministry from the Lord.  To do this we must have a close fellowship with Jesus and must know Him as more than our personal Savior.

Mt Utmost For His Highest, March 5

God's Without Reserve

They who are God's without reserve, are in every state content, for they will only what He wills, and desire to do for Him whatever He desires them to do; they strip themselves of everything, and in this nakedness find all things restored a hundredfold.

Streams In The Desert, January 7

Putting God First

What will it mean in practice for me to put God first? This much at least. The 101 things I have to do each day and the 101 demands on me which I know I must try to meet will all be approached as ventures of loving sacrifice to him, and I shall do the best I can in everything for his sake.

And then I shall find that, through the secret work of the Spirit which is known by its effects, my very purpose of pleasing God gives me new energy for all these tasks and relationships-energy which otherwise I could not have had. Self-absorbed resentments dissolve zest for life. Happiness in doing things and love for others grows great when God comes first.

In God's Presence April 17, J.I. Packer