Sunday, February 28, 2010

The Helper Has Come

"But the Helper , the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things,and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you"
~ John 14:26

The word Helper in the Greek is (parakletos-par-ak-lay-toss) para, means "beside", and kaleo means "to call", this is where we understand and experience that the Helper is "called to to one's side". The word signifies an intercessor, comforter, helper, advocate, counselor.

In non biblical literature parakletos had the technical meaning of an attorney who appears in court in another's behalf. The Holy Spirit leads believers to a greater apprehension of the gospel and the truths within.

The Holy Spirit is never self-serving but is Christ-oriented to comfort, lead, teach, and testify of Him.

Take comfort today, The Helper has come !

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Balance

" A False balance is abomination to the Lord: but a just weight is his delight"
~Proverbs 11:1

Seek Balance.
Balance emotions with wisdom and reason.
Balance giving with receiving.
Balance work with play, business with personal activities.
Balance tending to your spiritual needs with tending to other needs.
Balance caring about others with caring about ourselves.
Whenever possible, let's be good to others, but be good to ourselves too.

Today strive for balance.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Second-Guessing God's Wisdom

Of source God knew what would happen if they (creatures with free will) used their freedom the wrong way: apparently He thought it worth the risk. Perhaps we feel inclined to disagree with Him. But there is a difficulty about disagreeing with God. He is the source from which all our reasoning power comes: you could not be right and He wrong any more than a stream can rise higher than it its own source. When you are arguing against Him you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all: it is like cutting off the branch you are sitting on. If God thinks this state of war in the universe a price worth paying for free will--that is, for making a live world in which creatures can do real good or harm and something of real importance can happen, instead of a toy world which only moves when He pull the strings--then we may take it it is worth paying.

~CS Lewis-Mere Christianity

Thursday, February 25, 2010

A Very Present Help

And He said, "Certainly I will be with thee"
~Exodus 3:12

God sent Moses, one lone Hebrew, to Pharaoh, mightiest of kings, on an errand fraught with danger. "Certainly, I will be with thee," He tells Moses; it would unthinkable that God would send him alone. God may ask difficult things of us also. And if I go on the Lord's errand, with an eye to His glory, I am certain to have His presence too. His sending me binds Him to back me up.

~C.H. Spurgeon

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Strength

We don't always have to be strong to be strong. Sometimes, our strength is expressed in being vulnerable. Sometimes, we need to fall apart to regroup and stay on track.

We all have days when we cannot push any harder, cannot hold back self-doubt, cannot stop focusing on fear, cannot be strong.

There are days when we cannot focus on being responsible. Occasionally, we don't want to get out of our pajamas,. Sometimes, we cry in front of people. We expose our tiredness, irritability, or anger. There are those times that we give ourselves permission to "fall apart" so we can discover the strength and courage in the midst of weakness.


And He said to me "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness". Therefore most gladly i will rather boast in my weaknesses that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
~II Corinthians 12:9

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

The Convicting Spirit

Thou Blessed Spirit, Author of all Grace and Comfort, Come , work repentance in my soul; Represent sin to me in its odious colors that I may hate it;

Melt my heart by the majesty and mercy of God;
Show me my ruined self and the help there is in Him;

Teach me to behold my Creator,
his ability to save,
his arms outstretched,
his heart big for me,

May I confide in his power and Love,
commit my soul to him without reserve,
bear his image, observe his laws,
pursue his service,
and be through time and eternity
a monument to the efficacy of his grace,
a trophy of his victory.

Make me willing to be saved in his way,
perceiving nothing in myself, but all in Jesus:

Help me not only to recieve him but
to walk in him,
depend upon him,
commune with him,
be conformed to him,
follow him,

imperfect, but still pressing forward,
not complaining of labour, but valuing rest,
not murmuring under trials, bu thankful
for the state.

Give me that faith which is the means of salvation,
and the principle and medium of all godliness;
May I be saved by grace through faith,
live by faith,
feel the joy of faith,
do the work of faith.

Perceiving nothing in myself, may I find in Christ
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption.

A Puritan Prayer

Monday, February 22, 2010

The Gospel

"The Gospel is the news that Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, died for our sins and rose again, eternally triumphant over all his enemies, so that there is now no condemnation for those who believe, but only everlasting joy. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. The essence of faith is being satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus” - John Piper

Sunday, February 21, 2010

A Calling

"A calling is very different than a quest for fulfillment. A calling, though we glamorize it, is not glamorous.It is a response to a summons. It is a kind of surrender. It is a willingness to die to the past and move to the future."~ C.S. Lewis

Bringing You Out To Take You In

" then you shall say to your son: We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt and the Lord brought us out with a mighty hand; and the Lord showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe, against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household. The He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He swore to our fathers". Deuteronomy 6:21-23

The Lord is bringing you out in order to take you in !! This is the cyclical process of our journey with Him. It seems that we frequently lose traction in our walk resulting in our getting stuck, and the feeling of being trapped. Good news today my friend. God is able by His Mighty Hand to take you out so He may bring you in to the place of your inheritance. Submit yourself to Him, call upon His name, He will answer you and will make a way where there seems to be no way.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Winter

"I see grace groweth best in winter" ~ Samuel Rutherford

Friday, February 19, 2010

Fills As It Flows

"He that watereth shall be watered himself"
Proverbs 11:25

If I carefully consider others, God will consider me. I may watch over my own feelings till I feel nothing; I may lament my own weakness until I grow almost too weak to lament. But it will be far more profitable for me to become unselfish and begin caring for someone else. If my reservoir is getting low, there is but one thing to do: pull up the plug. My cistern will fill as it flows. A secret spring is at work. Those who water will be watered.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Being Right

Life is not about being right; it's about allowing ourselves to be who we are and accepting others as they are. It's not who's right but what's right ! This concept can be difficult for many of us if have lived in systems or with mind sets that functioned on the "right-wrong" justice scale. The person who was right was okay; the person who was wrong was shamed. All value and worth may have depended on being right; to be wrong meant annihilation of self and self-esteem or healthy self love.

We must learn to strive for love in our relationships, not for have superiority. This is the way that Christ modeled for us.(John 13:34-35) If there was ever a person who could have stood on the mantra "right is might" it was the sinless Son of God. But instead His security was in His relationship with His Father. He knew He was loved and therefore He gave love and lived love. (John 17).

We are not to be door mats for people to walk on and clean the mud from their feet. We have a responsibility to set boundaries and take care of ourselves and realize that what others do is their business and needs to be right only for them. Our first response-ablilty is to be right with Christ.

It's tempting to rest in the superiority of being right and in analyzing other people's motives and actions, but more rewarding to look deeper. (I Cor.13)

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Bad Gas

God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.

That is the key to history. Terrific energy is expended--civilisations are built up--excellent institutions devised; but each time something goes wrong. Some fatal flaw always brings the selfish and cruel people to the top and it all slides back into misery and ruin. In fact, the machine conks. It seems to start up all right and runs a few yards, and then it breaks down. They are trying to run it on the wrong juice. That is what Satan has done to us humans.

--from Mere Christianity by C S Lewis

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Balancing Act

The issues of life can challenge us. Sometimes we let go so much that we neglect the responsibility to care for ourselves properly. Other times, we may cross the line from taking care of ourselves to controlling others and outcomes.

There is no rule book for this balance. Having and setting healthy limits, healthy boundaries can be a messy process. However we need not be fearful, we don't have to do life perfectly. We can and should give ourselves permission to experiment, to make mistakes, to learn and to grow.

There are lessons to be learned that don't go away, so rest, trust and let patience have her perfect work. We can know that God is at work in us and through us for His good, our good and the good of those we love.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Holy Justice

Justice is regarded as the highest of all virtues, more admirable than the morning star and the evening star.

Aristotle

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Not a Matter of Opinion

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God". That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic--on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg--or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

CS Lewis~Mere Christianity

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Near to Hand

"Our duty in serving Christ lies always near to our hand. It is never some impossible thing that He wants us to do." --J.R. Miller

Friday, February 12, 2010

Healing

Unfinished business doesn't go away. It keeps repeating itself, until it gets our attention, until we feel it, deal with it, and heal.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Love Thy Neighbor As Thyself

When people with a compulsive disorder do whatever it is they are compelled to do, they are not saying they don't love you--they are saying they don't love themselves.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Worry

Behind every moment of worry is a war for the heart. This battle is about who will rule over our hearts.

Defeating worry is not about hoping that tomorrow will be better. Defeating worry is about being a good soldier in this deeper war for the heart. It is about fighting the temptation to attach the peace of your heart to things that, by their very nature are temporary and therefore, are not organically designed to give you lasting peace.

Defeating worry is about daily feeding your soul on the promises and provisions of your heavenly Father. It is about taking special care before you name something a need. It is about living for something bigger than you.

Defeating worry is about giving the love and concern of your heart to the King and His kingdom and fighting the instinct to construct your own imaginary kingdom.

Worry and rest always reveal the true treasures of our hearts, and in this battle we are not alone because the King we are called to serve is also Emmanuel. God with us !



Matthew 6:25 "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life...."



from TableTalk ~ Ligoneir Ministries

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Faith

Faith is exceeding charitable, and believeth no evil of God.

Samuel Rutherford ~ The Loveliness of Christ

Monday, February 8, 2010

By Grace Alone

AN INTERVIEW WITH SINCLAIR FERGUSON

Why do you think Christians fail to find God's grace amazing?

There are many reasons, but usually they involve three things. First, we have such a low sense of the holiness of God and we are insensitive to the sheer intensity of it. To whatever extent our sense of God's holiness is diminished, to that extent our sense of amazement at God's grace will diminished.

Second, we adopt superficial views of our sinfulness and too often guard against the ministry of the Word and Spirit exposing it. Jesus said that it is those who are much forgiven who love much. The reason is that those who are most conscious of their sin become most conscious of their need of grace, and therefore most aware of the wonders of grace.

Third, we think too little of the costliness of grace. It comes freely to us because it was so expensive to Christ to satisfy the justice of God on our behalf. Sadly, in our contemporary "Christianesque" subculture, we are weak in reflection and meditation on Christ and meaning of the cross.

You refer to Christians as "the living dead," Stating, "Only when I see that I am among the living dead will I begin to see that God's grace is surprising and amazing." How does this condition highlight the surprising beauty of grace?

Only sinners need grace. If I do not see myself as a sinner then I will (however foolishly) expect "fairness" from God. If I believe I have behaved "decently"toward Him (after all, I never did Him any harm!), I will expect Him to behave "decently" toward me. That is probably the world's most popular creed. But it is not the Christian's creed, nor is it the gospel. Only when I see my sin do I seek grace from God. That is true at beginning of the Christian life. It remains true right to the end.

In the preface of the book, you write that grace is not a "thing". What do you mean by this statement?

It is legitimate to speak of "receiving grace," and sometimes (although I am somewhat cautious about the possibility of misusing this language) we speak of the preaching of the Word, prayer, baptism, and the Lord's Supper as "means of grace." That is fine, so long as we remember that there isn't a thing, a substance, or a "quasi-substance" called "grace." All there is is the person of the Lord Jesus--"Christ clothed in the gospel", as John Calvin loved to put it. Grace is the grace of Jesus. If I can highlight the thought here: there is no "thing" that Jesus takes from Himself and then , as it were, hands over to me. There is only Jesus Himself.

Grasping that thought can make a significant difference to a Christian's life. So while some people might think this is just splitting hairs about different ways of saying the same thing, it can make a vital difference. It is not a thing that was crucified to give us a thing called grace. It was the person of the Lord Jesus that was crucified in order that He might give Himself to us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

For more information visit www.reformationtrust.com
Tabletalk Magazine Ligonier Ministries and RC Sproul



Sunday, February 7, 2010

Victory of Satan

Our adversary the Devil may operate within the limits God has set, but that does not mean his threat to us is not real, nor does it mean there is no true battle going on between the forces of light and darkness. Nevertheless, because the Almighty is sovereign even over Satan, we can be assured that our enemy will not win in the end and that we have nothing to fear if we are on the Lord's side.

The New Testament presents this truth in a number of ways, primarily when it tells us that Jesus delivered the fatal blow to the devil on the cross (Col. 1:13-15). We also see the idea that though Satan has been mortally wounded , he is still prowling about trying to tear down the church (I Peter 5:8). Christ has inaugurated His Kingdom, but He has not yet consummated it, and the Devil will assault us until that final day.

As such , the church is tasked with a "mop-up operation" of sorts as we preach the gospel and look to see God's kingdom bear visibly on all aspects of life. This is a truth found this passage and the report of the seventy-two follower's of Jesus appointee to go into the towns of Israel before Him during His earthly ministry. Just as the finger of God has been displayed in Christ's ministry of healing and exorcisms (Luke 11:20), so too have the disciples seen the Spirit at work in making even the demons subject to the people of God (Luke 11:17). Jesus replies telling them that He has seen Satan fall from heaven (v.18). The Kingdom of God has been on the march, and when it moves, the forces of hell are shaken to the core. Demonic thrones are overturned, the Light of the World dispels the darkness of sin and evil, and Satan and his minions lose the authority they have to hold the church of Jesus Christ in bondage.

The very gates of hell continue to crumble as the gospel goes forth, proving Matthew Henry's comment that "Christ foresaw that the preaching of the gospel, would wherever it went pull down Satan's kingdom". As the church we have been given the authority to "tread on serpents" (v.19) to participate in Jesus' crushing of the devil (Gen. 3:15)- and no matter what the enemy throws at us, we the Lord's people will triumphed in the end.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Desertion Impossible

" God has said, "never will I leave you; never will I forsake you"
Hebrews 13:5

This priceless scripture does not promise us exemption from trouble, but it does secure us from desertion. We may be called to traverse strange and difficult ways, but we shall always have our Lord's company, assistance and provision.

from the writings of C.H. Spurgeon

Friday, February 5, 2010

Rejecting Shame

Shame can be a powerful force in our life. It is the trademark of dysfunctional families. Often times people get Shame and Guilt confused. Guilt is a feeling or thought that what we did is not okay. It indicates that our behavior needs to be corrected or altered, or amendments need to be made. Shame on the other hand is an overwhelming negative sense that who we are isn't okay. Shame is a no-win situation. We can change our behaviors, but we can't change who we are. Shame can propel us deeper in self-defeating and sometimes self-destructive behaviors.

We feel guilty for what we have done, but we feel shamed for who we are. There is a huge difference in the two.There are many things that can cause us to feel shame. We may feel ashamed for making mistakes or succeeding. We may feel ashamed about certain feelings or thoughts. We may feel ashamed when we have fun, feel good, or are vulnerable enough to show ourselves to others. Some of us feel ashamed just for being.

Shame is a spell others put on us to control us, to keep us playing our part in dysfunctional systems. It is a spell many of us have learned to put on ourselves.

In the book of Hebrews chapter twelve we read that Jesus had a choice to accept or reject the shame that others were trying to place on Him. The bible says that "he endured the cross but despised or rejected the shame..."

Christ died that we could live a shame free life. Reject the shame today my friend. Put your Trust in Him.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

What a Journey

This process of growth and change takes us along an ever changing road. Sometimes the way is hard and craggy. Sometimes we climb mountains. Sometimes we slide down the other side on a toboggan. Sometimes we rest. Sometimes we grope through the darkness. Sometimes we're blinded by sunlight. At times many may walk with us on the road; sometimes we feel nearly alone. Ever changing, always interesting , always leading someplace better, someplace good. What a Journey!

Today February 4th is the anniversary of when my life changed and a new journey began. Thirty five years ago today I invited Christ to be the Lord of my life and I have never been the same. I encourage you , trust God today my friend, relax and enjoy the scenery and know you are where you need to be on your journey.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Promises: God's and Man's

Peter replied, "even if all fall away on account of you, I never will ".
Matthew 26:33



Too often man's word is merely a clay pot broken with a stroke. On man's word, hang only what it will bear. On your own resolve, depend not at all. On the promise of your God hang time and eternity, this world and the next. Human frailty sends us searching for God's divine dependability.

from the writings of C.H. Spurgeon

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Spiritual Growth

Spiritual growth is the foundation of change. Do-it-yourself efforts cannot sustain us for the journey only for the short sprints. So what is spiritual growth and how do I get it you may ask. It begins with our perception of God. Who is God to you ? Is He a relentless taskmaster, a hard-hearted, shaming wizard with tricks up His sleeve? Is he deaf ? Uncaring ? Haphazard ? Unforgiving ?

God is not like man. God is loving and caring. God is a master potter and we are the clay. The potter allows no more pain than necessary for usefulness, healing, cleansing and spiritual growth. God is ready to pour as much goodness and joy as our clay pot can hold, as soon we are ready to be healed, open and ready to receive. God is approving, accepting , instantly forgiving.

God is a Master Artist and will weave together all our joy, sadness, and experience to create a portrait of our life with depth, beauty, sensitivity, color, humor, and feeling.

God is good and His Mercy endures forever !

Monday, February 1, 2010

Trust

We cannot base our expectations about how we will feel tomorrow, or even a few hours from now, on how we feel at this moment. There are no two moments in time alike. We are changing, our life is changing. At times , things haven't worked out the way we wanted. We had lessons to learn and maturity to earn. Do not limit the future by the past. Do not try to figure out how you shall feel or when you shall feel differently. Instead TRUST. Accept today, but do not be limited by it.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths" Proverbs 3:5-6