I've been really inspired by Celiz Cruz lately!

They say glory and suffering are two sides of the same coin!

I've gotten into Celia Cruz's music and am just enamored with her enormous talent. J. Lo's tribute performance at the AMA's is what got me familiar with it. Celia had such a powerful voice that could go from a high octave to a low octave quite easily. She had rhythm ("la negra tienne tumbao!") and an infectious smile! But there was a lot of pain behind the music. Although she sang about Cuba and represented her culture throughout the world, she actually was never able to return to her country before she died. She couldn't even attend her mother's funeral in 1962! Look at the translation of her adlibs to her song "Bemba Colora":

A few years ago I came out,
From my lovely little piece of land ,
And I still remember ,
Its streets and ravines ,
Their huts , I adored
Gripping palms .
Always, always they were roofed
With pieces of old yagua .

....

A bird in a cage
Fly fly and ceaselessly
And always looking for the sea
If you saw where escape
Poor thing, ay, suffering
Seeking their freedom , and ,
I like the bird I
Regain my freedom ,
Come, come , come, come
Come, come , come, come ,
Come, come , come, come

Before I understood her lyrics, I felt it. Her vibrato sprang from such a deep place that resonated with humanity over Latin beats. She sang with a lot of power but most of it was fueled by a life marked with nostalgia. She became a citizen of the world and brought her Afro-Cuban culture all over the globe. Everyone knows "Guantanamera". Everyone. Fate could not have chosen a more suitable candidate for such a destiny, no?  Kudos to the Creator for an awesome entertainer.

What an inspiration to advance our cultures and empower our communities with positive music.

Time & Eternity

A question that is on my mind is how a Christian monotheist is supposed to think about time and the future. C.S. Lewis touches on the topic in his book The Screwtape Letters.

"To be sure, the Enemy wants men to think of the Future too—just so much as is necessary for now planning the acts of justice or charity which will probably be their duty tomorrow. 

The duty of planning the morrow's work is today's duty; though its material is borrowed from the future, the duty, like all duties, is in the Present. This is not straw splitting. He does not want men to give the Future their hearts, to place their treasure in it. We do. His ideal is a man

who, having worked all day for the good of posterity (if that is his vocation), washes his mind of the whole subject, commits the issue to Heaven, and returns at once to the patience or gratitude demanded by the moment that is passing over him. But we want a man hag-ridden by the Future—haunted by visions of an imminent heaven or hell upon earth—ready to break the Enemy's commands in the present if by so doing we make him think he can attain the one or avert the other—dependent for his faith on the success or failure of schemes whose end he will not live to see. We want a whole race perpetually in pursuit of the rainbow's end, never honest, nor kind, nor happy now, but always using as mere fuel wherewith to heap the altar of the future every real gift which is offered them in the Present."

-Letter XV, The Screwtape Letters

 In reference to the italicize part, I wish I were like that. Just do what I can do for the day, "commit the issue to heaven", and leave it at that, not wasting any effort on worrying about the future.

A biblical perspective on time:

Psalms 90:4 - For a thousand years in thy sight [are but] as yesterday when it is past, and [as] a watch in the night.

Psalms 90:12 - So teach [us] to number our days, that we may apply [our] hearts unto wisdom.

Ephesians 5: 16 Making the very most of the time [buying up each opportunity], because the days are evil. 

Try not to put your heart in tomorrow. It may get broken. Instead, put your faith and trust in the God of tomorrow who will not fail us.

You are not alone (Mavis Staples)

This song just brought me to the Lord's feet...

Her's a quote:
If God is necessary to us, then to take him out of our lives is to plunge us into the most terrible sense of loneliness and abandonment that mankind can know. We have all experienced it to some small degree when we get what we want and then discover we do not want what we got! For that sense of bored emptiness to go on forever, is unspeakable torment." -Ray Stedman

Here's an excerpt from Christian Think Tank website:
And its not really that difficult...Jesus said that children could respond to Him...Children are not 'blind faith' types at all--they are VERY careful about who they trust. It's amazing to watch children in the markets--some adults they trust, and some they don't...they make "assessments of trustworthiness" instinctively...they don't ask for proof, or ask for evidences; they watch the person...Cognitive Development types tells us that this occurs between the ages of 3 and 4--we ought to be able to do this!

So it is with Jesus...just "watch Him"...watch Him as He speaks words of healing to broken lives, as He speaks words of judgment to oppressors and religious phonies, as He rejects crowds who want to make Him a national king, as He quietly goes His death and humiliation at the Cross, as He comforts and reassures His disciples after their trauma...
....
If you REALLY want to know God--as a person, not a thing--and approach Him with an open and generous attitude, He will show His heart to you. He will probably use a variety of communication methods--the bible, true disciples of Jesus, intuition, experiences of awe, bizarre coincidence, stories from others, music and beauty--but He is God, and can reveal His heart and thoughts to you--without disclosing Himself to those who are NOT open or ready...
 (www.christianthinktank.com)

Photographer Follows His Girlfriend Around The World

http://www.boredpanda.com/photographer-follows-his-girlfriend-around-the-world-murad-osmann/

In his photo series “Follow Me To”, Russian photographer Murad Osmann is taking the viewer on an intimate journey together with his girlfriend who’s leading him around the world. The pose is almost the same in every picture: the girl never shows her face, and the guy almost never lets go of her hand. The settings change from Moscow to London to Venice to a number of different locations in Russia, revealing their passion for travel.

“For me photography is about capturing things other people might miss. It’s a way to communicate,” says Murad. Well, his loving message of trust is very clear in these photos, enjoy!

Website: muradosmann.com

Sneak peek:

Passion & Purity Notes

hunger not of the belly kind, that's banished with bacon and beans,
But the gnawing hunger of lonely men for a home and all that it means;
For a fireside far from the cares that are, four walls and a roof above;
But oh! so cramful of cozy joy, and crowned with a woman's love
-Robert Service

I will not offer to the Lord my God whole-offerings that have cost me nothing...

Matt. 19:12 ¹² For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”

Isa. 54:5 ⁵ For your Maker is your husband—
    the Lord Almighty is his name—
the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer;
    he is called the God of all the earth.

1 Cor. 7:34, 35  An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband. ³⁵ I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord.

Loneliness
1. Be still and know that He is God.
2. Remember that you are not alone.
3. Give thanks.
4. Refuse self-pity.
5. Accept your loneliness.
6. Offer your loneliness to God.
7. Do something for somebody else.

A little quiet reflection will remind me that yes to God always leads in the end to joy. We can absolutely bank on that.

It doesn't really matter whether the man is getting along in life. He may be president of Exxon. So what? It doesn't matter if he's a Christian, actually. What matters is is he coming back?...Call a spade a spade or even a muddy shovel. 

C.S. Lewis's vision of purgatory was a place where milk was always boiling over, crockery smashing, and toast burning. The lesson assigned to the men was to do something about it. The lesson for the women was to do nothing. That would be purgatory for most of us. Women, especially when it comes to the love life, can hardly stand to do nothing.
 
(I have often had the fancy that one stage in Purgatory might be a great big kitchen in which things are always going wrong - milk boiling over, crockery getting smashed, toast burning, animals stealing. The women have to learn to sit still and mind their own business: the men have to learn to jump up and do something about it. When both sexes have mastered this exercise, they go on to the next. ~C.S. Lewis, Collected Letters, to Mary Willis Shelburne, 31 July 1962 )

  "Men want to play around. They lead us on, try to get what they can out of us, deceive us," and so on. True enough. Which is exactly why I beg women to wait. Wait on God. Keep your mouth shut. Don't expect anything until the declaration is clear and forthright.
And to the men I say be careful with us, please. Be circumspect*.
 *Wary and unwilling to take risks.

The school of suffering. Christ took the course. He asks us to take it, too-but not alone. He calls us into the comradeship of fellow students, disciples, willing to undergo the rigorous program that the Father prescribes the Son. 

For my loneliness, Lord- Your strength.
For my temptation to self-pity, Lord-Your strength.
For my uncontrollable longings for this man, Lord- Your strength.

(“Measure your progress by your experience of the love of God and its exercise before men…

In contrast, servile, base, and mercenary is the notion of Christian practice among the bulk of nominal Christians. They give no more than they dare not withhold. They abstain from nothing but what they dare not practice. When you state to them the doubtful quality of any action, and the consequent obligation to refrain from it, they reply to you in the very spirit of Shylock, “they cannot find it in the bond.” 

In short, they know Christianity ONLY AS A SYSTEM OF RESTRAINTS. It is robbed of every liberal and generous principle. It is rendered almost unfit for the social relationships of life, and only suited to the gloomy walls of a cloister, in which they would confine it.

But true Christians consider themselves as not satisfying some rigorous creditor, but as discharging a debt of gratitude. Accordingly, theirs is not the stinted return of a constrained obedience, but the large and liberal measure of voluntary service.” — William Wilberforce, Real Christianity)

It is the yielding, not the temptation itself, that is sin.

What looked to Jim like “militant morality” was partly the knowledge that is deep in a woman that she holds the key to the situation where a man’s passions are involved. He will be as much of a gentleman as she requires and, when the chips are down, probably no more, even if he has strict standards of his own. This is not necessarily because he wants to go as far as possible. It is sometimes from a confused sense of obligation, or even chivalry, to meet her expectations.

 "Keep your distance," I say to women. Recognize that fundamental anomaly of human nature, that we prize what we cannot easily get. We take for granted and even come to despise, that which costs us no effort.

 Unless a man is prepared to ask a woman to be his wife, what right has he to claim her exclusive attention?

Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)

I heard this in a song this morning. It describes exactly how I feel!

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders

Let me walk upon the waters

Wherever You would call me

Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander

And my faith will be made stronger

In the presence of my Savior

Savage, My Kinsman | Elisabeth Elliot Quotes

"It was strange to see this gaunt, tall, blonde American woman walk through the jungle, often shoeless because it was easier that way, but with a wary eye for poisonous snakes. With her, also barefoot, went her daughter. Valerie, a tiny ethereal creature who seemed to walk not on the earth but slightly above it." [p. 13]

The word "missionary" may call to mind preaching, teaching, church-building (and even this often means merely a physical plant, rather than a spiritual building}, medical work, baptizing, catechizing, social improvement - almost any form of philanthropy.... [[p.16]

The word "missionary" does not occur in the Bible. But the word "witness' does." [p. 16]

I had noticed throughout the Bible that, when God asked a man to do something, methods, means, materials, and specific directions were always provided. The man had one thing to do: obey'. [p.19]

George MacDonald said, "All that is not God is death." [p. 76]

Death is the one thing none of us is willing to face, and the one thing we shall be forced to face. Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote:
                                                          This I do, being mad:
                                                          Gather baubles about me,
                                                          Sit in a circle of toys, and all this time
                                                          Death beating the door in.

                                                          White jade and an orange pitcher,
                                                                   Hindu idol, Chinese god, —
                                                           Maybe next year, when I’m richer—
                                                                   Carved beads and a lotus pod. . . .

                                                           And all this time
                                                           Death beating the door in.

[p. 82]

"It is by loving, and not by being loved, that we come closest to another person." [p. 102]  

We are horrified at lies told to children. Yet we not only condone but are amused at anything - no matter what it may have cost someone else-which is called 'only kidding'. We have confused inhibition with virtue, refinement with purity, propriety with purity. [p. 129]
 

Through the Gates of Splendor | Elisabeth Elliot Quotes

"They were full of anticipation of what lay ahead, but at the same time they drank in the beauties of the great Amazon rain forest through which they passed. It was a virgin jungle. Trees with great buttress-shaped roots grew to tremendous heights, often with no branches except at the top. Under these umbrellas an incredible variety of flora thrives...Orchids everywhere lent their soft colors to the living green. Fungus grew in vivid colors and bizarre shapes - vermilion, shaped like the ruffle on a lady's dress; turqouise, shaped like a shell, half under a rotten log." [ p. 29]

 "The missionaries prayed and discussed these problems, but still they felt themselves foreigners - felt that they would always be foreigners. The Indian himself must be the answer - he must learn the Scriptures, be taught, and in turn teach his own people." [p. 47]

"We have believed God for miracles, and this may include the Aucas. It has got to be by miracles in response to faith. No lesser expedient is a short-cut. O God, guide!" [Pete Fleming,  p.47]

"Ed's love for the girl he was going to marry was wholehearted: "When anybody speaks to me, it takes everything I've got to stay with them in conversation. It's the craziest sensation! I'm beginning to  believe everything the poets and songwriters have to say about love!" [p. 53]

"When life's flight is over, and we unload our cargo at the other end, the fellow who got rid of unnecessary weight will have the most valuable cargo to present the Lord." [Nate Saint, pilot of MSF p. 60]

"During the last war we were taught to recognize that, in order to obtain our objective, we had to be willing to be expendable...This very afternoon thousands of soldiers were known by their serial numbers as men who are expendable." [a short sermon by Nate Saint delivered over the missionary radio station HCJB-The Voice of the Andes in Quito, p. 60]

"While he [Nate Saint] was still in the Army he met Marj Farris, whom he later described in a letter: "Among other blessings, the greatest. She has just finished her State exams and is now a practicing registered nurse in California. She is a graduate of U. of California at Los Angeles, and ardent student of the Word, and has a challenging love for the lost. She is the most selfless person I have met in my life except my Mother. She is a meek girl of deep conviction ready for service for the Lord of the Harvest..." [p. 68]

"They started a Bible club for teenagers. Nate called the program "a sort of candy-box, loaded with Gospel dynamite."" [p. 70]

"A missionary plods through the first year or two, thinking that things will be different when he speaks the language. He is baffled to find, frequently, that they are not." [p. 151]

"As we have a high old time this Christmas, may we who known Christ hear the cry of the damned as they hurtle headlong into the Christless night without ever a chance. ..Beyond the smiling scenes of Bethlehem may we see the crushing agony of Golgotha. May God give us a new vision of His will concerning the lost and our responsibility." [Nate Saint, p. 176]

"I want to be free of self-pity. It is a tool of Satan to rot away a life. I am sure that this is the perfect will of God...The Lord has closed our hearts to grief and hysteria, and filled in with His perfect peace." [Elisabeth Elliot after the death of the five missionaries, p. 326]

"In the darkness of the night, with the firelight flickering on his face, and the sound of jungle birds and pumas' groans punctuating the air, this clearly spoken 'conversation' with God was of great emotional impact." [p. 240]

"To the world at large this was a sad waste of five young lives. But God has His plan purpose in all tings. There were those whose lives were changed by what happened on Palm Beach." [E. Elliot, p. 252]

"Mayhap in mercy He shall give me a host of children that I may lead them through the vast start fields to explore His delicacies whose finger ends set them to burning. But if not, if only I may see Him, touch His garments, and smile into His eyes - ah then, not starts nor children shall matter, only Himself". [Jim Elliot, p. 256]

For the love of the game | Michael Jordan quotes

"If I hadn't evolved at my own pace, I wouldn't have been able to paint the tiny details that defined my career. I remember every little step, every little crease. Now when I look back I see one big beautiful picture. Some of these young kids just have that big blob of paint without any detail. Their careers are just a mass of color without any definition because they haven't taken the time to work on the details or they don't appreciate or understand the process."

I remember thinking "When does jumping become flying."

If you bought into their tactics, you would become vindictive because of all the stuff they were doing to you. So they forced us to keep our composure.

The process of seeing success before it happened put me in a positive frame of mind and prepared me to play the game. Once the game started, I never thought about what was supposed to happen. Instincts took over.

If you practice the way you play, there shouldn't be any difference. That's why I practiced so hard. I wanted to be prepared for the game. I practiced hard enough that the games were easier.....I took pride in the way I practiced.

[1993 Championships] The Suns didn't know how to win. They knew how to compete, but they didn't know how to win. There is a difference.

If anyone didn't think I was serious it was because they could not see the blood dripping off my hands or those 6 a.m. batting sessions.

If you do the work, you get rewarded. There are no shortcuts in life.

The money never had anything to do with me playing basketball.

I have used all the great players who came before me to improve my skills. So I can't be the greatest....there will be a player much greater than me.

I listened, I was aware of my success, but I never stopped trying to get better.

Purity

Purity has been a recurrent message in my life and one that I feel will be a theme for my life this year (and for the rest of my life as well, I hope!).

Matthew 5:8 says

"Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God."

Ever since I first read this verse in the Beatitudes, I didn't understand the significance or the connection of purity of heart and seeing God. I used to say to myself "Okay. I don't understand. Huh?" But now, years later, I finally understand but it took me being purified in the process to guage the difference.

When my heart isn't pure, things are hazy. I'm not able to enjoy the relationships I have and the folks around of me because my heart isn't in the right place. For instance, I couldn't see the friends around me who needed to experience the love of Christ through me. I couldn't give them hope because my heart was only looking to satisfy my own needs at the moment. I was too busy to hear them. I couldn't love others wholeheartedly through the 5 love languages (quality time, acts of service, words of affirmation, gifts, and ???) because I was looking to myself to receive it. When your heart is pure, you can love with no bounds! You don't fear the rejection that may come. You are more sensitive to the little moments in the day when God is speaking directly to you. You see the hurting, the lonely, the lost, the orphans and the widows.

You see God.

It isn't something that is simply seen with the natural eye. The spiritual eyes get involved. Once those open, it's very hard to close them.

My ultimate desire is that my eyes never close to the vision that I now see; that my heart stays pure, in and every relationship and throughout the time I have left to walk this earth.

Elisabeth Elliot quotes

“There is nothing worth living for, unless it is worth dying for.”

-Eisabeth Elliot

“What does it mean to be a man? Christ is the supreme example. He was strong, and He was pure, because His sole aim in life was to be obedient to the Father. His very obedience made Him most manly- responsible, committed, courageous, courteous, and full of love. A Christian man’s obedience to God will make him more of a man than anything else in the world.”

—

Elisabeth Elliot “The world cries for men who are strong - strong in conviction, strong to lead, to stand, to suffer. I pray that you will be that kind of man - glad that God made you a man, glad to shoulder the burden of manliness in a time when to do so will often bring contempt.” — Elisabeth Elliot to her nephew, Pete “If your goal is purity of heart, be prepared to be thought very odd.” — Elisabeth Elliot

Passion and Purity | Elisabeth Elliot

“Often a Christian man or woman falls prey to that cruel and vexatious spirit, wondering how to find marriage, who, when, where? It is on God that we should wait, as a waiter waits--not for but on the customer--alert, watchful, attentive, with no agenda of his own, ready to do whatever is wanted. 'My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.' (Ps. 62:5 KJV) In Him alone lie our security, our confidence, our trust. A spirit of restlessness and resistance can never wait, but one who believes he is loved with an everlasting love, and knows that underneath are the everlasting arms, will find strength and peace.” 

― Elisabeth Elliot, Quest for Love: True Stories of Passion and Purity

“One reason we are so harried and hurried is that we make yesterday and tomorrow our business, when all that legitimately concerns us is today. If we really have too much to do, there are some items on the agenda which God did not put there. Let us submit the list to Him and ask Him to indicate which items we must delete. There is always time to do the will of God. If we are too busy to do that, we are too busy.” 

― Elisabeth Elliot, Secure in the Everlasting Arms

“I took it for granted that there must be a few men left in the world who had that kind of strength. I assumed that those men would also be looking for women with principle. I did not want to be among the marked-down goods on the bargain table, cheap because they’d been pawed over. Crowds collect there. It is only the few who will pay full price. "You get what you pay for.” 

― Elisabeth Elliot, Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Christ's Control

“Our vision is so limited we can hardly imagine a love that does not show itself in protection from suffering. The love of God is of a different nature altogether. It does not hate tragedy. It never denies reality. It stands in the very teeth of suffering.” 

― Elisabeth Elliot, Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Christ's Control

Cheating in Academics | 2 Tim. 2:5

I just had a conversation with a friend to talk him out of cheating. He had been working on a really hard lab for a class for 5 hours and couldn't get it to work. I felt bad for him and really wished him well luck and tried to give him some advice to get it working. He lowered his voice and told me that his friend had supplied him with a code that had worked for his friend. I paused for a moment and gently encouraged him not to copy it and to try to get the lab working by himself or accept the grade he was to recieve.

Now, do not take this lightly. This class is very challenging. I had accepted the fact that I wasn't going to pass this same course a month ago and dropped it after the first exam (I was on the bottom of the curve). So I completely understood his frustration and resolution. However, there is a price to pay when you cheat your way through life.

Over a year ago, I was taking a Linear Algebra class and was out of town for a conference the week before a project was due. I emailed a friend asking her for help and she just sent me her Matlab code. I ran out of time and copied it, while changing some of the variable names. Needless to say, we all got an email from the professor asking us to meet him in his office. I was so nervous! Not for myself, but for the fact that my friends could possibly get involved with whatever consequences I was about to receive. Fortunately, the professor didn't report me for cheating and gave me a D for the project. All in all, I told my friend my story and advised him not to take the quick way to achieve his plans.

2 Timothy 2:5 says:

The Grand Weaver [excerpt]

We find the greatest joy of all to be the truth that every thread matters and contributes to the adornment of the bride and the one who became flesh for us and dwelt among us. Today, let every person willingly accept himself for who he is and acknowledges the uniqueness of God's framing process marks the beginning of a journey to seeing the handiwork of God in each life. Not everyone is a Bach or an Einstein but there is splendor in the ordinary.

The mother who made the lifebelt is worthy of recognition equal to Bach. Her labor of love is as unique as discovering E=mC2. We must have a healthy respect for our individuality but also keep a wide distance from it.

Molding a Man

When God wants to drill a man,
And thrill a man, And skill a man,
When God wants to mold a man
To play the noblest part;
When He yearns with all His heart.
To create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall be amazed,
Watch His methods, watch His ways!

How He ruthlessly perfects
Whom He royally elects!
How He hammers him and hurts him,
And with mighty blows converts him
Into trial shapes of clay which
Only God understands;
While his tortured heart is crying
And he lifts beseeching hands!

How He bends but never breaks
When his good He undertakes;
How He uses whom He chooses,
And with every purpose fuses him;
By every act induces him
To try His splendor out—
God knows what He’s about!

Source unknown

Beam up, Scotty

Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. ''Matthew 6:10''

Do you think He was really serious about that? Do you think that could really happen? Or, was he just kind of blowing smoke? Are those just pretty words? See, it`s interesting to me. Jesus never taught His followers to pray, "God, get me out of here so I can go up there." He never taught us to pray the Star Trek prayer. Remember any time somebody got in trouble in Star Trek, what was their prayer? "Beam me up, Scotty." Jesus didn`t say, "pray this prayer: Father who art in Heaven, beam me up."

-- A lot of people, many Christians unfortunately, believe that my job is to get the after life destination taken care of and then kind of tread water until we all get ejected and God comes and torches this whole place.? That is not what Jesus taught. He never said, "pray like this: Get me out of here so I can go up there." He said, "pray, `oh God, oh God, make up there come down here into my life and into my home group, into my church, my office, my school, my family, my neighborhood, my city, my country, this whole, sorry, dark world!? God, make up there come down here."

The Competent Minister: 2 Cor. 1-3

Sermon outline:The Competent Minister

• A reputation of godliness
• Has been used in a transforming ministry
• Has confidence in his gift and calling

This is the prayer written at the end of the sermon:

Father, again we are so reprimanded in our own hearts, we who serve, we who minister, that we fall short of the highest standard for the noblest work in the world. And we are then awed by Your grace that You would consider us faithful enough to put us into the ministry who are indeed the foremost of all sinners. We're not worthy to even be called Your servants. We're not worthy to even be called Your ministers. And yet to demonstrate Your grace and to show Your mercy, You have picked the worst of us to become Your agents, Your tools. You have made us those containers, those earthen vessels that hold the treasure, those perfumed bottles from which the aroma of life unto life and death unto death exudes. You've made us preachers, teachers to display Your grace toward sinners. And we give You glory and thanks. We know what a high calling it is, what a holy calling it is. We know that it calls for virtue that only You can give and transforming power that only You can give and confidence and courage and boldness that only You can give, and humility that only You can give, and truth, New Covenant truth that You have revealed. At best we are nothing but slaves and servants who when we've done all have only done what we ought to have done.

Trade selfish ambitions for a more holy one

This sermon read was absolutely amazing. It gives great examples of individuals in the Bible who had selfish ambition (and they all were met with a bitter end).

Selfish Ambition | Grace Valley Christian Center

Moriah Peters - Know us by our love

I love this girl.

"These are the sisters who reach for the hurting
These are the brothers that fight for the weak
These are the hands that lead the world to Jesus
They'll know us by our love"

Love is abandoning our own plans.

Be a Light!

I fed a hitchhiker today for the first time! I don't normally do such things but I hope this could be the start of a life now lived in love with actions and grace. ;-)

The world is watching and you just may be the only Jesus they see.

"If I say I love Jesus, but you can't see my Jesus
My words are empty, if they can't see Jesus in me
No more excuses, I give myself away
Because I may be the only Jesus they see"

 

Followers, be a light!

(Taken with my Fuij Finepix)

Delight yourself in the Lord!

Corrie Ten Boom wrote, “Look around, you’ll be distressed.  Look within, you’ll be depressed.  Look to the Lord, you’ll be at rest.”
 “I wake up sad every day, and have to preach the gospel to myself.”

Psalm 5:3 says, “In the morning, O Lord, you will hear my voice; in the morning I will order my prayer to Thee, and I will eagerly watch.”  
“I will joyfully sing of Your lovingkindness in the morning.” (Psalm 59:16)

The Commitment Involved
     It is important at this point to realize that there is a commitment involved on our part if we are going to delight ourselves in the Lord.  The Hebrew verb here is in the Hithpael tense, which is reflexive.  It means that you are doing this action for yourself.  “Delight yourself” in the Lord.  This indicates that there is effort and commitment involved on your part.  You must choose to do it; you must give effort, you must turn your mind towards it; you must exercise the disciplines required to achieve it.

     C.S. Lewis, in what I consider to be one of his greatest works, his sermon on “The Weight of Glory”, writes that Greek and Latin students, when they are very young, and are first learning the language, have to do the very difficult work of just memorizing words and paradigms, which can very dry and dull indeed.  Few people are willing to give the time and attention necessary for the mastery of those languages.  But, he said, when they have mastered them, then they have the rapturous delights of reading the Greek and Latin classics in those original languages, which few today can enjoy.  But the “rapture and delight” do not come at first; they only come after much discipline and arduous labor that it took to get to that delight.

     What we need to understand is that it can be like that in our walk with God, too.  When you hear the pastor say: you can find delight by walking with God every day in prayer and in His word, you may go home and begin to read your Bible, and say some prayers, but you don’t find any “joyous rapture” in it!  Indeed you may not.  Perhaps God may give you a foretaste of joy in those first devotional times – or it MAY be at first for you just like those Greek & Latin students that Lewis was referring to; at first it may just be a discipline for you:  you read the word; you start to learn what it means; you sing some songs; pray some prayers.  At first it may be merely discipline – but if you are truly a Christian (that is a key factor!), and if you continue in it – then you WILL find delight and joy from your time with Him.  And like those students of the classical languages, you will grow to have more and more and more delight, the more you know Him. Our God is Infinite – and the pleasures and joys that He has to offer us are infinite.  “In His right hand there are pleasures forever” – the pleasures He has to offer us will never cease!  But we my need to discipline ourselves at first to begin to find those delights that are available in Him.

Read the rest of this on Pastor Shawn Thomas' blog.

The Letters of Samuel Rutherford.  In those letters, he reveals a growing depth in his relationship with the Lord, and an intense delight in Him, that should challenge every one of us.  In one of his letters, to William Gordon, he wrote the following:

“The dross of my trials gathered a scum of fears in the fire, doubtings, impatience, unbelief, challenging of Providence as sleeping, and not regarding my sorrow; but my goldsmith, Christ, was pleased to take off the scum, and burn it in the fire.  And blessed be my Refiner, he hath made the metal better … now His love in my heart casteth a mighty heat; He knoweth the desire I hath to enjoy Him … Love, love defieth reproaches … I am further from yielding to the course of defection, than when I came hither.  Sufferings blunt not the fiery edge of love; cast love in the floods of hell, it will swim above; it careth not for the world’s plaistered offers.  It hath pleased my Lord so to line my heart with the love of my Lord Jesus, that … I laugh at the world’s golden pleasures, and at this dirty idol, that the sons of Adam worship.  This worm-eaten god is that which my soul has fallen out of love with.”  (to William Gordon, p. 101-102)