Let us not rust out. Let us not glide through the world and then slip quietly out, without having blown the trumpet loud and long for our blessed Redeemer. At the very least, let us see to it that the devil holds a thanksgiving in hell when he gets the news of our departure from the field of battle.
Lord, the battle is weary today. I want to focus on what others think of me, what I say that is critical about myself. I want to be anywhere but in this battle today. So I pray my desperate prayer. I am so weak in the flesh and then the Lord answers and reminds me that His opinion of who I am is so more valid then my own opinion of myself or someone else. He is my creator and my savior and He has reminded me that His love and His truths are my focus. With those reminders exploding in my spirit, the devil suddenly flees like a rat exposed by a cat. The day is not over and I will continue this battle to honor the Lord our father.
Whatsoever thy hand faindeth to do , do it with thy might; for there is not work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.
Me: Prodigal, what a cute picture of a couple dancing.
Prodigal: I thought you might like it.
Me: With that I will share something to help other couples.
This is from the book Sunrays of Help by Dr. Albert Garner
Blessed are the husband and wife who continue to be affectionate, considerate and loving after the wedding bells have ceased ringing.
Blessed are the husband and wife who are polite and courteous to one another as they are to their friends.
Blessed are they who have a sense of humor, for this attribute will be a handy shock absorber.
Blessed are the married couples who abstain from alcoholic beverages.
Blessed are they who love their mates more than any other person in the world, and who joyfully fulfill their marriage vow of a lifetime of fidelity and mutual helpfulness to one another.
Blessed are they who remember to thank God for their food before they partake of it, and who set aside some time each day for reading the Bible and prayer.
Blessed are they who attain parenthood; for children are a hertiage of the Lord.
Blessed are those mates who never speak loudly to one another and who make their home a place “where seldom is heard a discouraging word.”
Blessed are the husband and wife who faithfully attend the worship service of the church together for the advancement of Christ’s kingdom.
Blessed are the husband and wife who humbly dedicate their lives and their home to Christ and practice the teachings of Christ in the home by being unselfish, loyal and loving.
This blessed attitude helps cement hearts and homes together to the honor of the Lord.
For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding. Psalm 47:7
It was 4:50 p.m and I was in my office. I had anywhere between one minute or 15 minutes before my next appointment would show up in my office. A lot of work cannot take place during that time, so I find myself keeping a pile of reading material on my desk that I can quickly read while I wait. You never know what you will find on the next page, when you pick something up. You never know how it will make you feel at times too.
This was one of those times that I was surprised at what I read and how I felt. I subscribe to Psychology Today for my work. Working as a Therapist in my own private practice, it can give me up to date research.
In my practice during a single day; I can go from an atheist, saved follower of Christ, back sliding christian to Jewish person all in a couple of hours. This opens the door for many conversations. I make it a point to try and understand where the other person is coming from so that we can have an honest discussion.
Some of the new research helps me with these conversations and different symptoms that others are dealing with. One part of the publication allows for me to look into new research that is valuable for all sorts of conversations and aides in treatment. The other part allows me to see what some of the secular views of the world are focusing on at any given time.
It was here that two sentences pierced my heart with awe as I read the black print on the white paper. Rex Jung, Ph.D is a neuropsychologist and professor of neurosurgery at the University of New Mexico was the writer of this article.
Part of the awe was that I was not expecting those words in this publication. The other part was the sheer truth that these words represented.
Dr. Jung had met a Christian that was to have brain surgery due to a tumor growing on her brain. She confessed her believes as a Christian and He goes on to share a part of their conversation. He sums up the brief interaction in two sentences that changed my thoughts for the night.
“Sara spoke in a manner that was at once bracing and comforting. It’s not often that I meet someone so secure in their beliefs as to speak so fearlessly and openly.”
Have I ever spoke fearlessly or openly about Christ that it touched a soul? Have I stopped in my day, to let my spirit show to others in just how I speak?
What a life. What a life if 50 years from now, you don’t remember my name. In 50 years though you remember a woman who once spoke fearlessly and openly about Christ that the busy word stopped and your soul was touched by the truth of the universe and it would not allow you to forget.
Can that happen with a person? I know it can’t. You know what can happen? For a moment, the flesh can decrease and the spirit increase, and then in just a matter of minutes, the heart of love is present. Love is God and God is love and you know that this is the most powerful thing the universe has ever seen.
1 John 4:16
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
Me: How has your time been spent today with your friend.
Prodigal: Good but he’s too good to scale his own fish.
Me: Maybe I will share along those lines then.
This is from Brennan Manning
The Pharisees, who carried religion like a shield of self-justification and a sword of judgment, installed the cold demands of rule-ridden perfectionism because that approach gave them status and control, while reassuring believers that they were marching in lock-step on the road to salvation. The Pharisees falsified the image of God into an eternal, small-minded bookkeeper whose favor could be won only by the scrupulous observance of laws and regulations. Religion became a tool to intimidate and enslave rather than liberate and empower.
Don’t stay in bondage. There is freedom and joy and another way.
Psalm 50:1
The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.
Me: Sometimes we need to pause and let the sunshine down on us.
This is from the book
The God Who Hung on the Cross by Dois I. Rosser Jr. and Ellen Vaughn
In Congo a few years ago, I was visiting a church school we had helped to build. I noticed a little girl using a stick to draw in the sand. She was about eight years old, and a bunch of kids were gathered around her. As I drew closer, I saw she was tracing out math equations. I found out that it costs two dollars a week to attend Christian school. The rest of the kids just didn’t have that kind of money. So that little girl would go to school in the morning, then gather the kids together in the afternoon and teach them what she had learned. Needless to say, we provided scholarships for the rest of those children.
Sometimes we need to learn and then help others learn.
Luke 11:10
For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
Prodigal: The heavens that God created are amazing!
Me: I will agree with that!
This is from the book How to Be Filled with the Holy Spirit by A.W. Tozer
There is another kind of evidence. It is the immediate evidence of the inner life. That is the evidence by which you know you are alive. If I were to prove that you weren’t alive, you would chuckle and go home just as alive as you are now and not be a bit worried about it, because you have the instant, unmediated evidence of internal life.
Jesus Christ wanted to take religion out of the external and make it internal and put it on the same level as life itself, so that a man knows he knows God the same as he knows he is himself and not somebody else. He knows he knows God the same as he knows he is alive and not dead. Only the Holy Ghost can do that. The Holy Spirit came to carry the evidence of Christianity from the books of apologetics into the human heart, and that is exactly what He does.
You can take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the heathen in Borneo, or Africa, people who could never conceive the first premise of your logical arguments,so that it would be totally impossible for them to decided on logical grounds whether Christianity was of God or not. Preach Christ to them and they will believe and be transformed and put away their wickedness and change from evil to righteousness and get happy about it all, learn to read and write and study their Bibles and become leaders and pillars in their own church, transformed and made over. How? By the instant witness of the Holy Ghost to their hearts. This is the new thing that came, sir! God took religion from the realm of the external and make it internal.
Our trouble is that we are trying to confirm the truth of Christianity by an appeal to external evidence. We are saying, “Well look at this fellow. He can throw a baseball farther than anybody else and he is a Christian, therefore Christianity must be true.”
“Here is a great statesman who believes the Bible. Therefore, the Bible must be true.”
We quote Daniel Webster or Roger Bacon. We write books to show that some scientist believed in Christianity: therefore, Christianity must be true.
We are all the way out on the wrong track, brother! That is not New Testament Christianity at all. That is a pitiful, whimpering, drooling appeal to the flesh. That never was the testimony of the New Testament, never the way God did things–never!
And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
Prodigal: Sometimes when I am all alone, I wonder if Angels are protecting me?
Me: There really are angels.
Prodigal: Do you have a story.
Me: Yes,
This is from the book Where Angels Walk by Joan Wester Anderson
Corrie ten Boom helped hide Jews during WWII in Holland when she herself was put into a camp. Her sister died in that camp. After the war, Corrie began a new career, opening homes for people who had been damaged by brutal treatment during the war, places where they could heal their bodies and minds. To support her homes, she went around the world giving lectures. It was not until 1959, however, that Corrie discovered the most significant “invisible intervention” she had received. She was revisiting Ravensbrueck as part of a pilgrimage honoring the ninety-six thousand woman who died there, when she learned that her own release had been result of a “clerical error.” A week after she’d been granted freedom, all the women prisoners her age had been taken to the gas chambers.
And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
Prodigal: Yes, we need to remember to show love to each other.
Me: That is a good idea.
This is for you. You are very special to me. To others may you send this to your love one.
It isn’t enough to say in our hearts
that we like a man for his ways,
It isn’t enough that we fill our minds with paeans of silent praise.
Nor is it enough that we honor a man as our confidence upward mounts,
It’s going right up to the man himself,
telling him so that counts.
If a man does a work that you really admire
Don’t leave a kind word unsaid,
in fear that to do so might make him vain
and cause him to lose his head.
But reach our your hand,
and tell him “Well done,” and see how his gratitude swells.
It isn’t the flowers that we strew on the grave,
it’s the word to the living that tells.
Author Unknown
Thank you for choosing to be in my life!
And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall by my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.
