Eternal Significance

What a privilege it is EACH day to be able to pray for our children, for their present and their future - that they will learn his ways, come to know him personally, thrive in their walks and serve him without hindrance all the days of their lives. These are precious days, and what a huge responsibility we’ve been given to make these children disciples of our Lord. We should take advantage of every day to instill God’s love and truth in them. It will surely be of eternal significance and blessing, both for them and for us.

Andy

Spread the Word

Spread the Word – Let the water flow!

This is what sacrificial giving is all about....

With This Ring

God Equips

God equips those in which He calls.

Bishop Lester

What Can Christians Do?

Work Hard
The Bible is clear that sloth is sin. Use whatever talent you have fully. If wealth comes to you, that is wonderful. Give your best at what you do as if working unto the Lord.

Live Right
Realize that the important matters in life are character, your soul, and how you treat others, not your material possessions.

Share Much
Our responsibility is to be generous so that the Lord's work is accomplished and those who suffer are lifted up. Only by understanding the principles of humility and sacrifice can we grasp the true message of Christianity.

In reality, we know the real cure for all the social sins we deal with daily is the change within the heart of each individual. We have that medicine with the message of salvation in Jesus Christ and the simple question, "What would our Leader do?"

Christian Standard Magazine, May 13, 2007

An Unexpected Visitor

As I was sitting there feeding Joseph, someone knocked on our door. I had a hungry kid on my hands, but with the dog barking and my inquisitive spirit, I just had to go answer it.

It was a young man, in a dark long coat. I could tell immediately he was a Jehovah's Witness. He was very nice and approachable. Someone I could have a conversation with.

But I didn't.

He asked me a question. I answered. My answer showed I could most likely hold my ground in a theological debate with him if necessary. So, he gave me a piece of literature and moved along quickly.

Why did I let him go? Why didn't I try and talk about our different beliefs?

I felt completely unprepared to strick up a conversation with him and to stand for what I believed and to point out the differences between the two of us. I used to know them, I used to have them down pat. I don’t anymore. How sad.

When I’m faced with a person I could have shared the TRUTH with, I was unprepared…

Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 2 Timothy 4:2

I get so wound up in my day-to-day life of nursing and bottom wiping I forget that God desires of me to still be prepared for my interactions with people who actually can speak in more than 5 word sentences.

Lord, thank you for this gentle reminder that I need to be prepared in and out of season to share YOUR TRUTH with those who are in the dark and to let YOUR LIGHT shine through me in EVERY interaction I have with others.

Not A Bit of It

My Utmost For His Highest - Oswald Chambers
October 23

NOT A BIT OF IT!

"If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away." 2 Corinthians 5:17

Our Lord never nurses our prejudices, He mortifies them, runs clean athwart them. We imagine that God has a special interest in our particular prejudices; we are quite sure that God will never deal with us as He has to deal with other people. "God must deal with other people in a very stern way, but of course He knows that my prejudices are all right." We have to learn - "Not a bit of it!" Instead of God being on the side of our prejudices, He is deliberately wiping them out. It is part of our moral education to have our prejudices run straight across by His providence, and to watch how He does it. God pays no respect to anything we bring to Him. There is only one thing God wants of us, and that is our unconditional surrender.

When we are born again, the Holy Spirit begins to work His new creation in us, and there will come a time when there is not a bit of the old order left, the old solemnity goes, the old attitude to things goes, and "all things are of God." How are we going to get the life that has no lust, no self-interest, no sensitiveness to pokes, the love that is not provoked, that thinketh no evil, that is always kind? The only way is by allowing not a bit of the old life to be left; but only simple perfect trust in God, such trust that we no longer want God's blessings, but only want Himself. Have we come to the place where God can withdraw His blessings and it does not affect our trust in Him? When once we see God at work, we will never bother our heads about things that happen, because we are actually trusting in our Father in Heaven Whom the world cannot see.

Business

It ought to be the business of every day to prepare for our last day.

Matthew Henry

Predictions

Top ten predictions no matter who wins the election:

1. Jesus will still love you.
2. Prayer will still work.
3. The Holy Spirit will still move.
4. God will still inhabit the praises of his people.
5. There will still be God anointed preaching.
6. There will still be singing of praises to God.
7. God will still pour out blessings upon his people.
8. There will still be room at the cross.
9. The Bible will still have all the answers.
10. Jesus will still save the lost.

Worldliness

Worldliness is another way of saying that we love the things in the world more than the One who created it.

Give Me Your Eyes

Look down from a broken sky
Traced out by the city lights
My world from a mile high
Best seat in the house tonight

Touch down on the cold black top
Hold on for the sudden stop
Breath in the familiar shock
Of confusion and chaos

All those people going somewhere
Why have I never cared

Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach
Give me you heart for the ones forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see

Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah

Step out on a busy street
See a girl and our eyes meet
Does her best to smile at me
To hide what's underneath
There's a man just to her right
Black suit and a bright red tie
Too ashamed to tell his wife
He's out of work, He's buying time

All those people going somewhere
Why have I never cared

Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach
Give me you heart for the ones forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see

Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah

I’ve been here a million times
A couple of million eyes
Just move and pass me by
I swear I never thought that I was wrong
Well I want a second glance
So give me a second chance
To see you the way you’ve seen the people all along

Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach
Give me you heart for the ones forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see

Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach
Give me you heart for the ones forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see

Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah

Brandon Heath

Replenishing Our Hearts

Entering the day without a serious meeting with God, over his Word and in prayer, is like entering the battle without tending to your weapons. The human heart does not replenish itself with sleep. The body does, but not the heart.. We replenish our hearts not with sleep, but with the Word of god and prayer.

John Piper, When I Don't Desire God

Enough Time

There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing.
Brian Tracy

Philippians 3:10-14

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Proverbs 14:1

A wise woman strengthens her family,
but a foolish woman destroys hers by what she does.
Proverbs 14:1 (NCV)

Time is of the Essence

"Time is of the Essence"

Now is the time to get things done. . .
wade in the water,
sit in the sun,
squish my toes in the mud by the door,
explore the world in a boy just four.

Now is the time to study books,
flowers, snails, how a cloud looks;
to ponder "up" where God sleeps nights,
why mosquitoes take such big bites.

Later they'll be time to sew and clean,
paint the hall that soft new green,
to make new drapes, refinish the floor-
Later on. . . when he's not just four.

Irene Foster

A Better Way

Where there is sin, there is a better way.

Lord I Give You My Heart

Lord I Give You My Heart

This is my desire, to honour You
Lord with all my heart I worship You
all I have within me
I give You praise
all that I adore is in You

Chorus:

Lord I give You my heart
I give You my soul
I live for You alone
Every breath that I take
Every moment I'm awake
Lord have Your way in me

This is my desire, to honour You
Lord with all my heart I worship You
all I have within me
I give You praise
all that I adore is in You

By: Hillsong United

Chastening

My Utmost For His Highest - Oswald Chambers
August 14th.

CHASTENING

"Despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him." Hebrews 12:5

It is very easy to quench the Spirit; we do it by despising the chastening of the Lord, by fainting when we are rebuked by Him. If we have only a shallow experience of sanctification, we mistake the shadow for the reality, and when the Spirit of God begins to check, we say - oh, that must be the devil.

Never quench the Spirit, and do not despise Him when He says to you - "Don't be blind on this point any more; you are not where you thought you were. Up to the present I have not been able to reveal it to you, but I reveal it now." When the Lord chastens you like that, let Him have His way. Let Him relate you rightly to God.

"Nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him." We get into sulks with God and say - "Oh, well, I can't help it; I did pray and things did not turn out right, and I am going to give it all up." Think what would happen if we talked like this in any other domain of life!

Am I prepared to let God grip me by His power and do a work in me that is worthy of Himself? Sanctification is not my idea of what I want God to do for me; sanctification is God's idea of what He wants to do for me, and He has to get me into the attitude of mind and spirit where at any cost I will let Him sanctify me wholly.

The Cross In Prayer

"Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him." Then why ask? The idea of prayer is not in order to get answers from God; prayer is perfect and complete oneness with God. If we pray because we want answers, we will get huffed with God. The answers come every time, but not always in the way we expect, and our spiritual huff shows a refusal to identify ourselves with Our Lord in prayer. We are not here to prove God answers prayer; we are here to be living monuments of God's grace.

Excerpt from: Aug 6, My Utmost For His Highest

I Want

I want to want what God wants.

I want my heart to break over the things that break God's heart.

Whatever You Do

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, nor for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
Colossians 3:23-24

What's Important

You make time for what's important.

The Generous Man

The generous man will be prosperous,
And he who waters will himself be watered.
He who withholds grain,
The people will cures him,
But blessing will be upon the head of him who sells it.
He who diligently seeks good seeks favor,
But he who searches after evil, it will come to him.
He who trusts in his riches will fall,
But the righteous will flourish like the green leaf.
He who troubles his own house will inherit wind,
And the foolish will be servant to the wisehearted.
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,
And he who is wise wins souls."
Proverbs 11:25-30

A Choice

"Choose you this day whom ye will serve." Joshua 24:15

Giving

No one has ever become poor by giving. Anne Frank

The Uncritical Temper

My Utmost For His Highest - Oswald Chambers
June 17th.

THE UNCRITICAL TEMPER

"Judge not, that ye be not judged." Matthew 7:1

Jesus says regarding judging - Don't. The average Christian is the most penetratingly critical individual. Criticism is a part of the ordinary faculty of man; but in the spiritual domain nothing is accomplished by criticism. The effect of criticism is a dividing up of the powers of the one criticized; the Holy Ghost is the only One in the true position to criticize, He alone is able to show what is wrong without hurting and wounding. It is impossible to enter into communion with God when you are in a critical temper; it makes you hard and vindictive and cruel, and leaves you with the flattering unction that you are a superior person. Jesus says, as a disciple cultivate the uncritical temper. It is not done once and for all. Beware of anything that puts you in the superior person's place.

There is no getting away from the penetration of Jesus. If I see the mote in your eye, it means I have a beam in my own. Every wrong thing that I see in you, God locates in me. Every time I judge, I condemn myself (see Romans 2:17-20). Stop having a measuring rod for other people. There is always one fact more in every man's case about which we know nothing. The first thing God does is to give us a spiritual spring-cleaning; there is no possibility of pride left in a man after that. I have never met the man I could despair of after discerning what lies in me apart from the grace of God.

John 16:33

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33

Watch Out

Jesus said to them: "Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am he,' and will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains. Mark 13:5-8

Substituting Prayer for Obedience

"Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late - and how little revival has resulted? I believe the problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obeying, and it simply will not work. To pray for revival while ignoring the plain precept laid down in Scripture is to waste a lot of words and get nothing for our trouble. Prayer will become effective when we stop using it as a substitute for obedience." A.W Tozer

Psalm 119:1-16

Psalm 119

Joyful are people of integrity, who follow the instructions of the Lord.
Joyful are those who obey his laws and search for him with all their hearts.
They do not compromise with evil, and they walk only in his paths.
You have charged us to keep your commandments carefully.
Oh, that my actions would consistently reflect your decrees!
Then I will not be ashamed when I compare my life with your commands.
As I learn your righteous regulations, I will thank you by living as I should!
I will obey your decrees. Please don’t give up on me!

How can a young person stay pure? By obeying your word.
I have tried hard to find you— don’t let me wander from your commands.
I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
I praise you, O Lord; teach me your decrees.
I have recited aloud all the regulations you have given us.
I have rejoiced in your laws as much as in riches.
I will study your commandments and reflect on your ways.
I will delight in your decrees and not forget your word.

Made For Another World

"If I discover within myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." -- C.S. Lewis

Getting There

My Utmost For His Highest - Oswald Chambers

June 11th.

GETTING THERE

"Come unto Me." Matthew 11:28

Do I want to get there? I can now. The questions that matter in life are remarkably few, and they are all answered by the words - "Come unto Me." Not - Do this, or don't do that; but - "Come unto Me." If I will come to Jesus my actual life will be brought into accordance with my real desires; I will actually cease from sin, and actually find the song of the Lord begin.

Have you ever come to Jesus? Watch the stubbornness of your heart, you will do anything rather than the one simple childlike thing - "Come unto Me." If you want the actual experience of ceasing from sin, you must come to Jesus.

Jesus Christ makes Himself the touchstone. Watch how He used the word "Come." At the most unexpected moments there is the whisper of the Lord - "Come unto Me," and you are drawn immediately. Personal contact with Jesus alters everything. Be stupid enough to come and commit yourself to what He says. The attitude of coming is that the will resolutely lets go of everything and deliberately commits all to Him.

". . . and I will give you rest," i.e., I will stay you. Not - I will put you to bed and hold your hand and sing you to sleep; but - I will get you out of bed, out of the languor and exhaustion, out of the state of being half dead while you are alive; I will imbue you with the spirit of life, and you will be stayed by the perfection of vital activity. We get pathetic and talk about "suffering the will of the Lord!" Where is the majestic vitality and might of the Son of God about that?

Somewhere Between

"Get your feet wet" means to experience something for the first time.

There is little risk involved.

You are not committing much.

You still have control.

You can back out at any time.

"Jump right in" means to not hold anything back and to give it your all.

There is much risk involved.

You are committing everything.

You have given up control.

You can no longer back out.

I'm somewhere between.

I'm somewhere between the shallow end and deep water faith.

I'm somewhere between who I was and who the Lord is making me.


I want deep water faith.