Revival

Revival..... another definition would be to recover, repair or restore. Hosea 10:12 says: "Sow to yourself in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the Lord till He come and reign righteousness upon you." What is fallow ground? Fallow ground is ground that has been  fruitful, and then it has been plowed over, and no seed has been sown in it, and therefore it has become unproductive.

Notice, there is a human emphasis here -- it says that we are to break up -- you break up your fallow ground.

Now take another aspect of it here in Psalm 85:6 - "Would Thou not revive us again: that Thy people may rejoice in Thee." So, there is an absence of joy, of vitality -- there is an absence of ecstasy. The very word "revive" presupposes life. You can only revive what has already had vitality -- life that has become sick,
weak, or apathetic. I think the nearest analogy I can give you is a recent case of a man who apparently drowned. He had been under the water for an incredible amount of time. Then somebody
pulled him out and worked and worked on him, and eventually life came again. This is actually what it means to revive,

It means to revitalize.

                   It means to restore lost ; It means to recover lost energy.

In the Acts of the Apostles 3:19 we read, "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." Whatever else we say about revival we have to recognize this, that revival is an act of mercy in the sovereignty of God. There
is a vast difference between revival and evangelism. When we speak of revival in America we think of church advertising, "Our revival will begin next Sunday night at a certain time and it is going to finish the next Sunday night at a certain time." Obviously this is something purely mechanical, it is something which men have engineered. I think that one of the offenses of revival, in the historic sense, is that it cannot be organized.

As Doctor Tozer said, "When revival comes it changes the moral climate of a community." You can have revival that covers a church - Spurgeon had that. You can have a revival that covers a city. You
can have a revival that covers the whole nation -- and I am thinking in this context more than in the other contexts (though sometimes revival spreads from here to there -- like fire spreads.) Revival
cannot be organized -- evangelism can be organized. Revival cannot be subsidized --evangelism can and usually it must be. Revival cannot be advertised --evangelism can.

It may cost millions of dollars, as it often does, to have one of our huge, modern, so called revivals. You have to pay vast sums of money for time on TV, for example -- perhaps a million dollars a night. That's incredible, that's unthinkable to me in the context of Biblical revival, or even historical revival. Why doesn't revival need
to be advertised? For the simple reason, that fire is the most self advertising thing that there is, whether it is a physical fire or a revival fire. It draws people like a magnet. To bring this down to modern technology -- revival cannot be computerized. There is information that you can put in computer and presto, you get the
answer predicting an outcome according to the facts that were put in. But you cannot computerize or predict revival.

There are periods in which one thing predominates.

         Sometimes revival is totally taken over by sorrow.

         Sometimes revival is totally taken over by joy, ecstasy 'till

         you don't know whether you are in the flesh or whether you've

         gone out of the earth. Sometimes revival is taken over by

         stillness.

There are times when you go to a prayer meeting and the power of God is there. There is stillness and you feel it is creative. You feel, "Now something is building up around here, somebody is going to come out shortly with a heart bursting... with some agonizing prayer..." Revival cannot be rationalized. Again, one of the offensive things about revival is you can't put your finger on the spot, usually, as to how or why or where it began. It is supremely an act of God.

You find a man would go with a series of messages to a community and before long that community is alive, it's throbbing. He goes to another town with exactly the same group of men, the same type of prayer is poured out, the same sweat and soul travail and there is no response. You can't predict and you can't organize revival.
Why? Because you can't organize where the wind is coming from. The Spirit, the wind, bloweth where it listeth. If you say it's going to come this way, it comes that way. If you say God's going to use that man, very often He doesn't even bother with that man. Revival so often comes through unknown characters.

I don't think the world has ever been in a greater sense of turmoil than it is in this moment. I don't think our nation has. Whatever we shall say about revival we have to recognize this: There are three things about natural life: conception, gestation, and birth. You can't alter the program. There has never been revival, that I can trace, that has not been preceded by agonizing prayer. You might say, "I haven't got to that stage yet of agonizing prayer. How does is come?" Well, it comes through VISION. If we are really going to get a concept of revival we have to get a vision of God's sorrow over sin. We have to get a concept of how, day by day, we offend God. As a nation we offend God in millions of ways.

When I was praying in the Bahamas one day, I saw a great column of smoke, which happened to be coming from tires that were being burned. It was as black as could be, and over there I saw a wisp of smoke going up from the  ground. I didn't think much of it until about a year after, I was praying and the Lord said, "That volume of black, thick smoke is like the volume of sin that goes up every day." All the blasphemy, all the unbelief, all the dirty stories, all the lying, all the deception, all sex- perversion, all drunkenness-- this tremendous column of iniquity goes up in the sight of God. And here you have a little wisp -- of what? That is the praise that God gets out of His people. If we are going to realize how much we need revival we need to recognize the dimension of sin. We have to recognize that sin offends God. Psalm 85:4 says, "Turn us, O God of our salvation and cause Thine anger towards us to cease. Wilt Thou be angry with us forever?" Psalm 80 verse 3, "Turn us again, O God, and cause Thy face to shine." Notice, it's repeated again in verse 7 and in
verse 19, "...cause Thy face to shine"..."cause Thy face to shine."
-Oswald Chambers

My utmost for his highest devotional

THE HIDDEN LIFE
"Your life is hid with Christ in God." Colossians 3:3

The Spirit of God witnesses to the simple almighty security of the life hid with Christ in God and this is continually brought out in the Epistles. We talk as if it were the most precarious thing to live the sanctified life; it is the most secure thing, because it has Almighty God in and behind it. The most precarious thing is to try and live without God. If we are born again it is the easiest thing to live in right relationship to God and the most difficult thing to go wrong, if only we will heed God's warnings and keep in the light.

When we think of being delivered from sin, of being filled with the Spirit, and of walking in the light, we picture the peak of a great mountain, very high and wonderful, and we say - "Oh, but I could never live up there!" But when we do get there by God's grace, we find it is not a mountain peak, but a plateau where there is ample room to live and to grow. "Thou hast enlarged my steps under me."

When you really see Jesus, I defy you to doubt Him. When He says - "Let not your heart be troubled," if you see Him I defy you to trouble your mind, it is a moral impossibility to doubt when He is there. Every time you get into personal contact with Jesus, His words are real. "My peace I give unto you," it is a peace all over from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet, an irrepressible confidence. "Your life is hid with Christ in God," and the imperturbable peace of Jesus Christ is imparted to you.

What to Pray for

"Men ought always to pray, and not to faint" Luke 18:1

You cannot intercede if you do not believe in the reality of the Redemption; you will turn intercession into futile sympathy with human beings which will only increase their submissive content to being out of touch with God. In intercession you bring the person, or the circumstance that impinges on you before God until you are moved by His attitude towards that person or circumstance. Intercession means filling up "that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ," and that is why there are so few intercessors. Intercession is put on the line of - "Put yourself in his place." Never! Try to put yourself in God's place.

As a worker, be careful to keep pace with the communications of reality from God or you will be crushed. If you know too much, more than God has engineered for you to know, you cannot pray, the condition of the people is so crushing that you cannot get through to reality.

Our work lies in coming into definite contact with God about everything, and we shirk it by becoming active workers. We do the things that can be tabulated but we will not intercede. Intercession is the one thing that has no snares, because it keeps our relationship with God completely open.

The thing to watch in intercession is that no soul is patched up, a soul must get through into contact with the life of God. Think of the number of souls God has brought about our path and we have dropped them! When we pray on the ground of Redemption, God creates something He can create in no other way than through intercessory prayer.

My utmost for His Highest: Oswald Chambers

A Short Spill On Grace

Pray for Rifqa Bary!

Please take your time to pray for Rifqa Bary.

She's a 17 year old fleeing for her life from her parents who are radical muslim. She has been a Christian for 4 years and it's considered an apostacy to her parents.  She's currently in custody in florida and will appear in court again in December.  There are many honor killings that many people are obviously not aware of in America.  She is going to be killed if she goes back to her parents.  Please pray for God's protection.  If He wills for her to go back, that He'll give her the grace to stand and endure for the cause of Christ.  

She'll be one of the many martyrs in America. 

I'm truthfully afraid of what's going to happen to Christians here in America. I prayed today for God's grace on us to be able to endure. With Islam rising, and hostility towards Christians rising, the church must be prepared to go through persecution. Please take your time to pray for God's mercy on America or we too will soon be like Rifqa's case, where the government will not protect our freedom of religion and speech.. and will refuse to protect us.

1John 3:11-15

 ¹¹This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. ¹²Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous.¹³Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. ¹⁴We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. ¹⁵Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.

Luke 12:4 

⁴"I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more.

Luke 12:4 is my favorite verse.  It's a good reminder to not be afraid of man, but be afraid of God who can kill the soul and the body.  I need God's grace to help me persevere and stand firm even to the point of death.

1 thessalonians 2:1-2

woe to you who preach the prosperity gospel

Gain is godliness? 

Faith is for prosperity? 

Christ gave to the poor so that we can be rich? 

Christ died on the cross so we can be healthy and never suffer?

He came to give us abundant life? Yes, but it's not about gaining material goods, it's about the eternal life! The gospel is being twisted so much. So much deception in the churches. We must read the word!

1 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you,
2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come.
3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,
4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

II Thessalonians 2:1-12 (NKJV)

Great falling away is happening right now as I write. Stay awake Christian!

Christ alone.

“Moses could meditate on the law;

Muhammad could brandish a sword;

Buddha could give personal counsel;

Confucious could offer wise sayings;

but none of these men was qualified to offer an atonement for the sins of the world.

Christ alone is the worthy of unlimited devotion and service.”

Theologian, R. C. Sproul,

Unconditionally Forgiving Others

by Nancy Missler

King's High Way

There's a huge difference between simply knowing that we possess God's Life in our hearts and actually experiencing it in our lives. The key to being able to do this, moment by moment, is understanding how to surrender ourselves to the Lord. This process is what we have been exploring over these last several months in Personal UPDATE. The steps we are learning are not ones that I have made up or that I saw in some "self-help" psychology book. These are the actual steps that the priests took in Solomon's Temple in order to deal with their sin and be reconciled to God. And, they are the same steps we must take each time we quench God's Spirit. The essential steps are:

1) Recognizing, acknowledging and experiencing our ungodly thoughts and emotions as they come in.

2) Confessing our sin and self, choosing to "turn around" from following them and unconditionally forgiving anyone who has wronged us.

3) Giving over to God all that He has shown us that is not of faith, and...

4) Reading God's Word and replacing the lies with the truth.

Isaiah 24:15 reminds us that we are to "glorify [or reflect] the Lord in the fire..." And going through these steps, moment by moment, is the only way we can do this. Thus far in Personal UPDATE, we have studied the first step and part of the second. This month, let's continue exploring how we unconditionally forgive those who have hurt, betrayed or wronged us.

Unconditional Forgiveness

There are really two parts to forgiveness: first, our relationship to God; and second, our relationship to the other person. The primary reason we must forgive is because God commands it in Scripture. Mark 11:25-26 tells us, "And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have anything against any: that your Father also, Who is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father, Who is in heaven, forgive your trespasses."

The next reason we are to forgive is to be able to reconcile with the other person. When we choose to unconditionally forgive them, we will be clean before the Lord, and we can know He will then give us the Love we need for that other person. The only way we can genuinely love those that have wronged us is by unconditionally forgiving them (or releasing them to God) and then, becoming an open vessel for God's Love to flow. If we don't do this, Scripture tells us what will happen - the enemy will get an advantage in us (2 Corinthians 2:11).

So, there are at least four good reasons why we must forgive others: 1) God says so in His Word. 2) Our relationship with Him will be quenched if we don't. 3) We won't have His Love flowing through us if we choose not to. And, 4) The enemy will get an advantage in us if we won't obey.

Now, if that other person comes to us and asks forgiveness, then our relationship with him has a wonderful chance of being healed and we can end up even closer than we were before. If, however, that other person never repents and never comes to ask our forgiveness, then there will be a breach in our relationship and only God's wise Love can operate. The Bible exhorts us, however, that we are still to love them wisely. In other words, we are still to be an open vessel for God's Love to flow through us to them.

An Example: "Only When They Come to Me First"

I once knew a young Christian woman who was completely unwilling to forgive her friends for the unkind things they had done to her. The girl used to say to me, "Only when they come to me first and ask my forgiveness, will I ever forgive them. Never, until then." She was angry, not only at her friends, but also at God for allowing these things to have happened. Now, what these young people had done to this young woman was wrong and she was justified by worldly standards to be hurt and angry. But, God's Word tells us that we must be willing to unconditionally forgive whatever that other party has done to us, regardless of whether they ever ask our forgiveness or not.

In other words, our choice to unconditionally forgive releases God to work, not only in us, but also in them. When we don't forgive, we not only are being disobedient to God's Word, but we are also opening ourselves up for the enemy's arrows. As far as I know, this young woman is still waiting for her friends to come to her and still unwilling to forgive them until they do. The last time I saw her, she physically had turned into a bitter "old" woman. The sad part is, she is only 30 years old! It's interesting because we reflect on the outside the baggage that we carry around with us on the inside. And how the enemy has reveled in this young woman's bondage of unforgiveness. Her friends were not his prisoners, she was! And all because she refused to do what God's Word says, unconditionally forgive those who have wronged us and love them wisely with God's Love.

Now, I agree that sometimes it seems almost impossible to forgive what another person has done to us. But this is just another place where we can choose to trust God for His supernatural wisdom and Love. Remember, we don't need to feel our choices, we must simply be willing to make them. They're called "faith choices" or "non-feeling choices." God then, in His timing and in His way, will align our feelings with what we have chosen and perform His Word through us. In other words, if we totally give ourselves over to Jesus and love Him, He will enable us to genuinely forgive and love others. II Corinthians 2:10 tells us, "to whom ye forgive any thing, I [Paul] forgive also; for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ." In other words, because of what Jesus has done for us, we can extend that same unconditional forgiveness to others.

Again, Picture a Triangle

Picture the process of forgiveness like the triangle: We are on the bottom left-hand side of the triangle; God is at the top; and that other person we are trying to forgive is on the bottom right-hand side of the triangle. We choose to unconditionally forgive that other person, which then releases him to God and cleanses us; God then gives us His Love and His forgiveness for that other person; and prayerfully he will eventually be convicted, come and ask our forgiveness. In the meantime, however, we are free to go on with our lives, and continue to love as God would have us. Always remember that our hurt feelings will only heal after we have made the appropriate faith choices to forgive and release that other person. Not before (Matthew 18:28-35)!

An Example: Wounds from Our "Friends"

As Christian brothers and sisters, Scripture tells us that we are "to love at all times (Proverbs 17:17)." Now, this doesn't mean sticking our heads in the sand and never taking a stand if someone we know is doing something out of line. It does mean, however, and Scripture confirms, that if we hear something bad about someone or we see them doing something ungodly, we are to go to them and ask them about it, "speaking the truth in love," (Ephesians 4:15).

Not too long ago, someone I love very much heard an evil report about me, but rather than come to me and ask if it was true, she believed the gossip and angrily told many others. When I found out what she had done, I was crushed. This friend not only did not come to me when she first heard the rumor, she never repented of her own error when she found out the truth.

Therefore, I was left with a choice. I could choose by faith (because I certainly didn't feel like it) to unconditionally forgive her, thereby reconciling myself to God and opening a way for Him to work in her; or I could hold on to my "justified" unforgiveness (because what she did was wrong), create a breach between God and me and end up giving the enemy another handle, or hideout, in me.

The Lord showed me that one of the reasons this recent incident was so very painful, was that I still had some buried debris (unforgiveness) over our bankruptcy experience many years ago, where other Christians had maliciously gossiped and slandered us. This latest incident was just the catalyst that triggered much deeper, hidden roots of bitterness in me. Now, I thought I had dealt with all these things years ago, but the Lord showed me that deep wounds like this often take longer periods of time to heal - i.e., for our feelings to align with our choices. God also showed me that if there is more debris in the hidden chambers of our soul over a certain situation, He will allow our emotions to again be stirred up, so that these hidden things can be exposed and we can take the proper steps to deal with them.

This was exactly what He was doing in me through this incident. Deuteronomy 7:20 affirms this, "The Lord thy God will send the hornet among them, until they who are left and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed." I suppose if God brought up all our deep-seated hurts at once, we probably would not be able to handle it. But, our God is gentle and kind and His timing is always perfect.

Our Lord's Example

The Lord tells us over and over again in Scripture that unconditional forgiveness is a vital part of all our relationships. A true loving relationship is one that doesn't require any explanations and where we always have the assurance of receiving the benefit of the doubt (1 Corinthians 13). A true Christian friend is one who forgives (7 x 70) and shuns any form of betrayal. Oh, how the Christian body needs more of these genuine love relationships.

Now, if we are at fault in a situation and we seek God's face, often He will have us go back to the person we offended and ask his or her forgiveness. Remember, however, that each situation is different. Sometimes seeking and receiving God's forgiveness in our own hearts and minds will be enough. At other times, God will have us physically go and ask for the other person's forgive�ness. In each instance, we must always pray and seek God's will. The Lord not only promises to tell us what to do, but He also promises to give us the Love and strength we need to be able to do what He requires.

It goes without saying, however, that we must continue to be wise and always seek God's will. One woman I know went to a friend who had hurt her and told her that she forgave her for what she had done. Well, the accused lady was horrified because she was not even aware that there was a problem. Thus, the woman's verbal forgiveness did more harm than good and drove a wedge even deeper into their relationship. The general rule is: If you are at fault in a situation, always seek God's will as to whether or not He wants you to go and ask forgiveness of the other person. If the other person is at fault, unconditionally forgive them and lay it down at the cross. Don't go and tell them that you forgive them. It only makes matters worse, especially if the person involved wasn't even aware there was a problem to begin with (as in the above incident). Just take care of the matter between you and the Lord and then, go on and love them wisely with God's Love.

Receive God's Forgiveness

Along with understanding how God wants us to forgive others, it's also imperative that we receive by faith God's forgiveness for whatever sins we may have committed. Again, 1 John 1:9 confirms that, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us [all] our sins..."

If you have trouble believing and receiving God's forgiveness, I would suggest making a list of all the Scriptures you can find on forgiveness, putting them on 3 x 5 cards and reading them over and over again. By faith, choose to believe what those Scriptures say. Remember, we walk by faith, not by feelings. God, in His perfect timing, will align our feelings to match what we have chosen to believe and we will begin to experience His forgiveness in our life: "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: But whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy (Proverbs 28:13)."

Many women have written me about the horrible sexual abuse they received as children. One dear woman named Jan not only wrote me her own story, but confirmed, over and over again, that the steps we are now learning really work. Another woman wrote, "How awesome it has been since I have begun to do this. Making the choice to do what God wants even when I don't feel like it, has helped me tremendously. I didn't know you don't have to feel willing, but just be willing!"

These women, and many others who have written, have been set free to a degree that most of us will never comprehend. And, if it works for them, how much more will this process of cleansing and unconditional forgiving work in our everyday lives. The story in Matthew 18:23 - 35 is a very appropriate place to end.

The Importance of Prayer

I do want to pray.

I want to be able to pray for hours and hours at the feet of my Lord.  I'm realizing, that it is a difficult thing to do even with all this time in my hands.. since I'm not working right now. My spirit and flesh are constantly conflicting and so far, I've fed my flesh.  I picked up this one book by Leonard Ravenhill and started to read it.  Many parts of it brought me to my knees before my savior, realizing how much I've chosen to not give Him all me.  The more I read, the more I saw the passion in that 87 year old man: a passion to die to self, to live like Apostle Paul, to be broken so that God may use him to reach the lost.  I asked the Lord to make me a woman that will cling to the cross.

Leonard Ravenhill articulates on how essential one's prayer life is.

"No greater man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying.  The pulpit can be a shop window to display one's talents; the prayer closet allows no showing off."
I thank God there's an alternative in meeting and being used by Him.


"We have many organizers, but few agonize -rs; many players and payers, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere."

"Today God is bypassing men - not because they are too ignorant, but because they are too self-sufficient."

This is so true in the church today. Where are the people who will cling to cross cuz they can't even depend on themselves to get anything done?

"All decays begin in the closet; no heart thrives without much secret converse with God, and nothing will make amends for the want of it." - Berridge.


"The secret of praying is praying in secret.  A sinning man will stop praying, and a praying man will stop sinning."
This stuck out like a sore thumb. It is so true. I will stop disobeying if only I simply obeyed. I will begin to live, the moment I die.


"Someone now warns us lest we become so heavenly minded that we are of no earthly use."

I want to get to that point, to be a woman that this world is not worthy of.


"When we go to God by prayer, the devil knows we go to fetch strength against him, and therefore he opposeth us all he can." - R. Sibbes

"These priests who dope men's souls, these idolatrous "masses," these Calvary eclipsing prayers to Mary, these miserable millions cheated in life and in death by the greatest forgery Lucifer ever made - all these do not seem to stir us to tearful intercessions and godly jealousy, as identical circumstances stirred Elijah.  The enemy has come in like a flood. Is there no spirit-filled messenger of God today?"
This is not only about the Catholic Church and it's heretical teachings that have no biblical standing but every other false teaching out there that take the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and desecrate it by putting man's 2 cents.  Man's two cents implying, that Jesus' blood wasn't enough for the atonement.  When people are being cheated their lives... to false religions, shouldn't we be burning with holy indignation?



"God does not want partnership with us but ownership of us."
This is a good reminder whenever I tell myself, "I'm doing this for God" that I'm actually doing it with God since He has all of me.


"A sober church never does any good."

"Tell me in the light of the Cross, isn't it a scandal that you and I live today as we do?" - Alan Redpath

"Such a sinning, repenting "easy believeism" dishonors the blood and prostitutes the altar.  We must alter that altar, for the altar is a place to die on.  Let those who will not pay this price leave it alone!"


"How shall I feel at the judgment, if multitudes of missed opportunities pass before me in full review, and all my excuses prove to be disguises of my cowardice and pride?" - Dr. W.E. Sangster

"Then Christ was enthroned.  And before we can be clean and ready for Him to control, self-seeking, self-glory, self-interest, self-pity, self-righteousness, self-importance, self-promotion, self-satisfaction - and whatsoever else there be of self - must die."


"No man is ever fully accepted until he has, first of all, been utterly rejected."  - Author Unknown

"Men of prayer must be men of steel, for they will be assaulted by Satan even before they attempt to assault his kingdom."


What use is deeper knowledge if we have shallower hearts?  What use is greater standing with men if we have a less standing with God? What use is personal physical hygiene if we have filthiness of the mind and of the spirit?  What use is religious piety if we have soul carnality?  Why strut with physical strength if we have spiritual weakness? Of what use is worldly wealth if we have spiritual poverty?  Who can take comfort in social popularity if he is unknown in hell?  Prayer takes care of all these spiritual maladjustments."
Luke 9: 25 "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his soul?"  It'll be worth nothing.



"One crowded hour of glorious "life" - so they argue- is worth a gamble on the speculation of the theologians' so called "eternity."


"Better to die bound in body and free in spirit than free in body and bound in soul!"


"God's purpose for us is not happiness, but holiness!"

"Yet while over our heads hangs the Damoclean sword of rejection, we believers are lean, lazy, luxury loving, loveless, and lacking.  Though our merciful God will pardon our sins, purge our iniquity, and pity our ignorance, our lukewarm hearts are an abomination in His sight.  We must be hot or cold, flaming or freezing, burning out or cast out.  Lack of heat and lack of love God hates."


"This generation of preachers is responsible for this generation of sinners."


I'm not done reading the book so I will be back. It's praying time.

All we need is Christ

“Whoever is not satisfied with Christ alone, strives after something beyond absolute perfection.”
- John Calvin

Keep on loving

Keep on Loving

The Weekly Walk

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God." - 1 John 4:7

If obeying God's command to love one another depended on me, I'd be in a bad way. You would be too. But happily, we're not the ones who are doing the loving. First John 4:7 gives me hope: "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God."

"Beloved, let us love one another." Literally the verb tense in the original language means, Let’s keep on loving one another. Let's don't do it for an hour or for a day. Let's don’t do it for a week or for a month. Let's do it until the day we die. God's kind of love goes on and on. We're not perfect, but God is changing and growing all of us. God's kind of love builds history together. Let's love . . . wait, let’s keep on loving one another.

"Beloved, let us love one another." What a great exhortation. What strife cannot be stalked by love? What pride cannot be pummeled by love? What conflict cannot be crushed by a supernatural, sent-from-heaven love? That’s why the verse says, "For love is from God." Chemistry is good, but that's not what God’s love is about. We all need true friends, but God's love goes farther than that. His love is a supernatural love, a love that you and I are not capable of doing ourselves. Love does not come naturally to us. What's natural is to hate when you're hated, to attack when you're attacked, to hurt others when you yourself have been hurt. But to love is to give back something different than what you receive in these situations.

Have you observed how often God puts opportunities right in front of us that call us to do what's not natural? I've got the natural thing down, but loving deeply requires God. A genuine conversion experience always precedes a supernatural love. We just don’t have that kind of love ourselves. How great that we are God's.

James MacDonald

I have nothing without you.

praise

“Genuine Christian praise is not primary a vehicle for the expression of spiritual aspirations and experiences, so much as a celebration of God’s mighty acts in Christ.”

—R.C. Lucas

Who experiences the dark night?

We have all experienced dark episodes in our lives, times of discouragement and disappointment and loss. We have all had times when we've faced the natural painful consequences of our own foolish mistakes. There are seasons, though, when people who love God – who are serving Him faithfully – go through extremely difficult, dark times. When that happens, it is easy to question whether the God we serve truly loves us, or whether we are really in the center of His will.

As we noted last week, the Lord allows the dark night to happen to His beloved children, and especially those who are the most faithful, the most loving, the ones who want all of Him. Again, remember Isaiah 50:10, "Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light?"

Great Christians are made by great trials. Pain, sorrow and failure are what produce men and women of God. Those with the greatest dreams are often the ones who receive the greatest trials. Eternal lessons seem to require hard places. As Scripture declares, the way we are made "perfect," or whole or complete, is by suffering or by barring ourselves from sin and self (Hebrews 2:10). First, God must take away all our external and internal supports other than Himself, then He can strengthen our inner man, enabling us to experience His fullness – that fullness of Himself we so desperately long for.

The dark night of the soul happens to people who have already accepted the Lord; those who have already given their lives to Him; those already filled with the Spirit; those who have already dedicated their lives to Him; those who have already asked for intimacy; and those who have already been set aside for God's purposes of ministry. Yet, like Job, people who are truly serving God and are in the center of His will can go through very dark times.

Why Does God Send the Dark Night?
There seems to be three things that God is looking for in each of our lives: our salvation, our conviction, and our sanctification.

God wants to prove us, to demonstrate our true heart. Will we be obedient in all things? (2 Corinthians 2:9) Will we obey Him, even when we can't see Him or feel Him? Will we hold on to His truths even though we don't understand what He is doing? Peter writes:
"That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:" -1Peter 1:7
Can we all catch that? The trials of our faith are precious. They are never empty or meaningless, but are destined to have great value both in our personal lives and in the Kingdom. The Lord wants believers who have faith like Job, and who can utter like he did, "Though You slay me, yet will I trust You."
When Job sought the Lord to know why the bad things were happening to him, he got no answer from God. And it's often the same with us. God only tells us that He does have a plan for our lives and, even though we don't understand what that plan is or how it is going to work out, we must trust that He always has our best in view.

When seasoned believers enter this dark night, they are no longer in the beginning stages of learning about the reality of Christ's love and power. Those foundational bricks have been already laid. When dark nights come, we must learn to rely upon our Savior in spite of our circumstances, in spite of our logic and in spite of our human reason. We must trust that only God knows what is best for our lives; therefore, whatever He allows into them He will use it for our good.

God is teaching us that all that matters in this life is knowing and loving Him. He wants us to love Him and rely upon Him regardless of what we desire, regardless of what our intellect is saying and regardless of what we are feeling. He wants us to be able to echo what Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 4:8-11:
"We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh."
For those who love Jesus and are dedicated to Him, to have His life manifested through us is the greatest thing that could be asked of our lives; it is worth any temporary suffering or difficulty or dark time that God puts in our path. And even during these terrible trials, when things look so very dark, we can still "rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory," (1 Peter 1:8) because we know that even then (and especially then), God is doing wonderful, precious work behind the scenes.

-Koinona House

Peace & Safety

There is one thing I dread above all others and that is that I would drift away from Christ. I shudder at the notion that I would become slothful, spiritually neglectful, caught up in prayerlessness, and go for days without seeking God’s Word. In my travels around the world I have witnessed a “spiritual tsunami” of evil drifting. Entire denominations have been caught up in the waves of this tsunami, leaving in their wake the ruins of apathy. The Bible warns clearly that it’s possible for devoted believers to drift from Christ.

A Christian who goes after “peace and safety at any cost” and merely hangs onto salvation pays a high spiritual price. So, how can we guard against drifting from Christ and neglecting “so great a salvation”? Paul tells us how: “Give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip” (Hebrews 2:1).

God isn’t interested in our being able to “speed read” through His Word. Reading many chapters a day or trying to get through the Bible quickly may give us a good feeling of accomplishment. But what’s more important is that we “hear” what we read with spiritual ears, and meditate on it so that it’s “heard” in our hearts.

Staying steadfast in God’s Word was no small matter for Paul. He lovingly warns, “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip” (Hebrews 2:1). He also says, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith: prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates” (2 Corinthians 13:5).

Paul isn’t suggesting to these believers that they’re reprobates. Rather, he’s urging them, “As lovers of Christ, test yourself. Take a spiritual inventory. You know enough about your walk with Jesus to know you’re loved by him, that he hasn’t turned from you, that you are redeemed. But ask yourself: How is your communion with Christ? Are you guarding it with all diligence? Are you leaning on him in your hard times?”

Perhaps you realize, “I see a bit of drifting in my life, a tendency to slumber. I know I’m praying less and less. My walk with the Lord isn’t as it should be.”

“We are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end” (Hebrews 3:14).
-David Wilkerson

HORATIO SPAFFORD AND THE NIGHT SEASONS

Horatio Spafford was a prominent lawyer and real estate investor in Chicago when the 1871 Chicago Fire hit and destroyed almost all of his property. Two years later, Spafford sent his wife and four daughters ahead of him to England, where his friend DL Moody would be preaching. On the voyage there, the ship sank and all four children were drowned. His wife alone was saved. The couple went on to have three more children, but tragedy struck again when their four year old son died of pneumonia in 1880. Near the end of his life, Spafford moved to Jerusalem and ran charitable ventures like soup kitchens, hospitals, and orphanages. He died in 1888 of malaria and was buried in Jerusalem.

While Horatio Spafford endured crippling tragedy after tragedy, he is most famous for having written one of the most beloved hymns of all time: "It Is Well With My Soul." In the midst of serious personal sorrow, God brought Spafford to a place of peace and security wholly independent of his circumstances.

It is easy to fear in life. There are no promises of happiness or fairness. If anybody promised you a rose garden, then they were either naive for downright dishonest. In fact, when things seem to be running smoothly, tragedy can and often strikes and knocks us off our temporary pedestals of comfort. In John 16:33, Jesus warned us that in this world we would have troubles. "But be of good cheer," he said, "I have overcome the world."

In 1 Peter 4:17, Peter tells us that as God begins to wrap up time as we know it, He will allow events to happen in the body of Christ that will try us and test us to the max. How will we make it through this time of testing, if we don't understand what God is doing, and if we crumble at the first hint of suffering? We desperately need to have a grasp of what God's purpose is for allowing these kinds of trials and, most importantly, we need to understand what to do and how to act in them.

Night Seasons
During a night season, God initiates a purging, a cleansing and a purifying of our souls from everything that is not of faith. At this time, God crushes our self will, so that He can merge it with His own. In other words, it's our own private Gethsemane. As Jesus cried in the garden, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death...Nevertheless, not what I will, but what Thou wilt." (Mark 14:34-36) During this dark season, God teaches us to say, just as Jesus did, "Not my will, but Thine." (Matthew 26:39)

During this time, God can begin to transform our reliance on physical things to things of the spirit. He wants us to learn to walk by faith, not by our senses, our feelings or our understanding. God wants to teach us how to detach ourselves from all physical, emotional and spiritual supports, so that we will be able to respond with "Not my will, but Thine."

Because this season can often be a time of desolation, of dried bones and ruined hopes, many Christians - because they don't understand what God's will is or what He is doing - get so discouraged and defeated that they give up and turn back.

Many will feel like Job, who "looked for good" but only "evil came"; and for "light," but found only "darkness." (Job 30:26) Or like Isaiah, who uttered "We wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes; we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places like dead men." (Isaiah 59:9-10)

If we can only remember during our night season that the Holy Spirit has led us into this darkness on purpose. God is not angry at us, and He has not abandoned us – He paid the ultimate price for us, how could He ever abandon us? He brought us to a necessary place where precious things can happen. As he told Mary, whose brother Lazarus had died, "Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?" (John 11:40)

It is in these places, when our normal human securities are stripped away and all we have is Jesus, that He can begin to do in us those excellent things that can make all the difference in our lives and in our walk with Him. When the only thing we can do is cling to God, we come to that place where we see Him more clearly than ever before. That's when the fear goes away, and we can join Horatio Spafford in singing with greater appreciation:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,

It is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,

Let this blest assurance control,

That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,

And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought!

My sin, not in part but the whole,

Is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more,

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:

If Jordan above me shall roll,

No pain shall be mine, for in death as in life

Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

And Lord haste the day, when my faith shall be sight,

The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;

The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,

Even so, it is well with my soul.

-Koinona House

Do I wear the marks of a Christian?

Do I Wear the Marks?

"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him." - 1 John 5:13-15

Are you a Christian? How do you know?

You're not a Christian because you say you are anymore than you're in Cincinnati because you know how to get there. Being a Christian is not about knowing how to become a Christian; it's about knowing you are one.

If you don't have a mane; if you don't have sharp teeth; if you don't have a long tail - you're not a lion no matter what you say.

If you don't have tires; if you don't have a motor; and if you don't have a steering wheel - you're not a car no matter you say.

If you can't carry a tune; and if you can't hit a note; and if your singing doesn't bless people - stick to the shower, because you're not a soloist no matter what you say.

In the same sense, Christians have fruit; they have characteristics; they have evidence; they have identifying marks.

John said in 1 John 5:13, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life." You can have the assurance that you're saved. You don't have to wonder - just ask yourself, "Do I have the identifying marks?"

The book of 1 John repeatedly explains the distinguishing characteristics of followers of Christ. No one has them perfectly, but look at your life and ask yourself if you're increasing in these marks:

Am I loving more deeply? Not perfectly, but increasingly...

Am I obeying more faithfully? Not perfectly, but increasingly...

Am I living authentically? The Christian life is not a charade. I'm not wearing a mask. I'm not acting like I'm something I'm not. My heart is very tender to the Lord and He's growing me. That's part of being a real Christian.

When you see these marks in your life, and you know that you long to know Him more and be passionate about doing what pleases Him increasingly more in your life, then your heart swells with assurance. You belong to Him.

found this on flickr. i totally agree. I believe the church of Jesus Christ has the most important role in the world and that is to point to people to Jesus Christ, share the gospel, and make disciples.

the marks of an authentic christian.

James Mcdonald's Marks of an Authentic Christian.

1 JOHN 2:28 - 29

²⁸And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

²⁹If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.

the shack - william p young

After listening to Warren smith's message on New Age.. I started to research on certain things he said especially about the book called, "The Shack." by William P. Young. This book has gained alot of popularity in the past couple of months, becoming one of the best sellers. I stumbled upon many different articles, about what the author went through and some issues he had to deal with.. and how that led him to write this book, inorder to find himself, etc. I looked up the people that supported his book, which were mostly emergent church leaders and also some others. I stumbled on this one theologian name Dr. C. Baxter Kruger and read up on some of his blog. He mentioned the word Perichoresis so I looked it up and was a bit confused about the idea of the holy spirit. Dr. C. Baxter Kruger's blog addressed me to a page, Perichoresis.com and I saw a banner, "The shack conference" which was going to be held to share the theology that is behind the book.

This made me very alarmed. So I did some more research on to find a legit person who is biblically grounded, to break down the book. I'm not sure if the concept of Perichoresis is correct, but I will have to look into it. So, here's the link.

the shack breakdown

some parts:

Though common, such teaching is dangerous and directly detracts from the sufficiency of Scripture. When we admit that God has not, in the Bible, said all that He needs to say to us, we open the doors for all manner of new revelation, much of which may contradict the Bible. What authority is there if not the Bible? Ultimately the issue of revelation is an issue of authority and too many Christians are willing to trust their own authority over the Bible’s. What authority does Young rely on as he brings teaching here in The Shack? Does he look to a higher authority or does he look mostly to himself? The reader can have no confidence that Young loves and respects God’s Word has He chose to give it to us in Scripture.

The book contains surprisingly little teaching about salvation. When Young does discuss conversion, he places it firmly in the camp of relationship but also uses the stereotypical phrases such as “this is not a religion” and “Jesus isn’t a Christian.” Jesus apparently loves all people in exactly the same way, having judged them worthy of his love. Young also wades dangerously close to universalism saying that Jesus has no interest in making people into Christians. Rather, no matter what faith they come from, he wishes to “join them in their transformation into sons and daughters of my Papa.” He denies that all roads lead to him (since most roads lead nowhere) but says instead, “I will travel any road to find you.” Whether Young holds to universalism or not, and whether he believes that all faiths can lead a person to God, the book neither affirms nor refutes.

oh wow.

run this town

A friend's friend from Florida.

We are in the last hour!

hello.

There is not much time left.
We're at the end of the hour!
For those who do not know our Lord Jesus Christ. Please take this time as mercy.
Be awake brothers and sisters. There's ALOT of new age ideas infiltrating into our churches. We must discern. Satan comes as an angel of light. It appears to be wise. It appears to be logical.

WARREN SMITH: THE LIGHT THAT WAS DARK

JAMES MCDONALD: DO NOT BE DECEIVED SERMON.

Matthew 24:4-45
4Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. 5For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,[a]' and will deceive many. 6You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8All these are the beginning of birth pains.

9"Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

15"So when you see standing in the holy place 'the abomination that causes desolation,'[b] spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— 16then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17Let no one on the roof of his house go down to take anything out of the house. 18Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. 19How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. 21For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. 22If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. 23At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'There he is!' do not believe it. 24For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible. 25See, I have told you ahead of time.

26"So if anyone tells you, 'There he is, out in the desert,' do not go out; or, 'Here he is, in the inner rooms,' do not believe it. 27For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.

29"Immediately after the distress of those days
" 'the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.'[c]

30"At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. 31And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

32"Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 33Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it[d]is near, right at the door. 34I tell you the truth, this generation[e] will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 35Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

The Day and Hour Unknown

36"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,[f] but only the Father. 37As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.
42"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

45"Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. 47I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, 'My master is staying away a long time,' 49and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. 50The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. 51He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

I have been questioning a lot of things happening in the church. I've received a teaching by Warren Smith from a friend and have been astounded by the deception that we are in. Experience over the word of God? We must uphold the word of God.. in any circumstance and in any situation. We cannot compromise the word so that we can get some kind of experience out of it. If you want experience more than the word, you will be deceived. The word of god is our light. It directs our path so we don't fall away from the faith. Let us contend for the faith.

Jude 1:3-4 "I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord."

There is many i mean many that are considered pastors in the church but are actually not of Christ, but are godless men. They do not have God and we as the church must discern this and watch out for the people. We cannot put our guards down thinking it's going to be okay. We must be like the watchmen on the walls in ezekiel.

Ezekiel 33:2-3 Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;

Church, wake up. Jesus is coming. We must be prepared for what's to come. Stand firm and hold fast to your shield, with your feet firmly planted in the ground for the enemy is warring against us. He is bringing great deception and will cause many to fall away from the faith.

Ephesians 5:11
Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

Books that contain NEW AGE ideologies:

The Third Jesus
The New Earth
The Secret
Da Vinci Code
The Shack

Lord, give your church discernment in this last hour! Behold, He is coming soon! Blessed are those who wait and endure til the end!

Failure to Yield

Failure to Yield - james mcdonald

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness." - James 1:2-3

Do you remember when we used to have those yellow triangle yield signs at intersections? Have you seen one lately? Unlikely. The traffic police had to make them all into four-way stops. Why? Because we stink at yielding. Each person drives up to the corner and thinks, "Clearly it's my right to go and clearly he needs to yield." So we have an epidemic of traffic crashes because no one wants to yield.

More important than a crazy traffic sign, how good are you at yielding to God? Do you think, "Clearly, my way is better. If I go that way, that will take my life in a direction that isn't in my plan so I'm going to run the sign." Ever stop to think, "What if that way signals God’s plan of taking my life in a different direction?"

Hebrews 12:9 says, "Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?"

The Greek word for "be subject to" is hupopaso, translated "submission" in other places in the New Testament. It’s got a special twist in the original language, which means "submit yourself," as in, you’re the one who willingly makes this choice.

God wants you to yield to His direction by your own choice, willingly yielding yourself to God so that "the testing of your faith produces steadfastness" (James 1:3). Following Christ into unfamiliar territory binds your heart to Him. Trusting Him in uncertain situations will make you irreversibly devoted and committed to Jesus Christ.

Submission doesn't come easily in a culture of individuals. But the only way through is to yield to God. You're headed for a wreck, until you let Him go first. "This isn't where I thought my life would be today, but I'm going to yield. I'm stopping, God. You go. I'm going to fall in behind You." Let God have His way; yield to His purposes for your life.

In loving others.

To be Christ-like is to acknowledge Jesus in others. In my travels I meet many precious men and women whom I know are given wholly to the Lord. The moment I meet them, my heart leaps. Even though we’ve never met before, I have a witness from the Holy Spirit that they are full of Christ.

I can still see some of their faces: pastors, bishops, poor street evangelists. And the moment I met them, I realized without a word being spoken, “This man has been with Jesus. This woman is satisfied in Christ.” In greeting them, I always say the one thing I would want othes to say of me: “Brother, sister, I see Jesus in you.”
Christ-likeness has to do with how I treat those outside my family, loving others as he loves us. Yet it also means loving our enemies—those who hate us, who despitefully use us, who aren’t capable of loving us. And we’re to do this expecting nothing in return. Loving this way is impossible, in human terms. There aren’t any how-to books, any sets of principles, or any amount of human intelligence to show us how to love our enemies as Christ loved us. Yet we are commanded to do it. And we are to do it with an ever-increasing purpose.

So, how do we do it? How do I love the Muslim who spit in my face a block from our church? How do I love the people who run Internet websites calling me a false prophet? How do I love homosexuals who parade down Fifth Avenue carrying signs declaring, “Jesus Was Gay”? How do I truly love them in Christ? I don’t even know how to love other Christians in my own ability.
It has to be the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus prayed to the Father, “That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26). Christ asks the Father to put his love in us. And he promises that the Holy Spirit will show us how to live out that love.
The Holy Ghost will faithfully gather up all the ways Christ loved others and show it to you (John 16:15). Indeed, the Spirit delights in showing us more of Jesus. It’s the reason he dwells in our bodily temples: to teach Christ to us. “Ye shall know him: for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you…He shall teach you all things” (John 14:17:26).

-David Wilkerson

Lord, teach me this kind of love. Clothe me in humility so that others may come to seek you.

Jeremiah 12:5 (New International Version)

God's Answer

5 "If you have raced with men on foot

and they have worn you out,

how can you compete with horses?

If you stumble in safe country, [a]

how will you manage in the thickets by [b] the Jordan?

If I don't choose to surrender, worship, love him now when it's all good and life is a cruise, how will I be able to do all those things when it gets difficult? How will I love people if I can't love them when I do wrong to them?

God, help me to stand when everyone sits. Help me to run when everyone is still. Help me to love when no one wants to.

4 ways to miss heaven - john macarthur

Truth is spoken out of love for the lost.

I advise all of you to read this.

4 ways to miss heaven.

A bit of what it contains

"These Jews were trying to earn salvation, like a lot of other folks. In all the world of religions of human achievement, all the religions of the world that attempt to earn salvation by human effort fall into the same category. They believe they had by their own works satisfied God's requirement, and thus they had achieved salvation, were headed for heaven. And the only place Jesus would go where they wouldn't be would be in Hades in some dark pit of hell belonging to those who kill themselves. So, you guarantee that you'll die in your sin by just being self-righteous. Just be certain that you're not a sinner. Just be certain that you don't need saving. Just invent a life style of religion that fits you. Don't admit you need a Savior. Don't pound on your breast and say, "God, be merciful to me a sinner." Trust your works, trust your religion, trust your rituals and I'll guarantee you you'll die in your sin."

"How do we have any difficulty understanding that this is the Christ whom we must believe? This is the truth and this is what Christians believe. If you don't believe that, you're not a Christian. You say, "Well what about people who believe in God?" They're not Christians, they will die in their sins. "Well what about the people that believe all of that about Jesus but also believe that they do have do some works...get baptized or do some ceremonies or keep some laws in order to add to their salvation?" They won't...they won't get to heaven either, they'll die in their sins and go eternally to hell. Why? Because they will not recognize that Christ alone and Christ completely is the sacrifice for sin to which nothing can be added. It is by grace through faith alone. And any attempt to add anything to it negates it, grace is no more grace. Anything you try to do to earn any part of your salvation misunderstands the sacrifice of Christ. And any misunderstanding of the meaning of Christ in His sacrifice is something less than the gospel. Believe it, Christianity or Christendom, as such, is full of people who have a lot of information about what I've just said regarding the gospel but who do not have that total trust in Jesus Christ alone being who He is and being the only and the complete sacrifice for sin, therefore trusting in nothing of their own efforts or works. Sad to say, many, many who name the name of Christ and say, "Lord, Lord, we did this, we did that," are not known to Him and will die in their sins and where He has gone they will never come."

"We use the word "world" in that way. We talk about the world of politics, the world of business, the world of medicine, the world of sports. What we mean by that is the environment or the sphere in which those things dominate. And there is a world in which we live as human beings, it is the organized system of satanic lies and deception raised up against the knowledge of God, Satan's system opposing Christ's. And in Luke 16:8 Jesus calls the unbelievers "children of the system." They buy into the ideology somewhere. The system is hostile to God, it's hostile to Christ, it is dominated by materialism. That is to say a preoccupation with that which passes away. It is dominated by humanism, the worship of man and the elevation of man's mind even to the place where he can redeem himself. It's dominated by sex, by physical fulfillment in pleasure, by carnal ambition, by pride, by greed, by self-pleasure, by self-desire. Its opinions are wrong. Its aims are selfish. Its pleasures of sinful. Its influence is demoralizing. Its politics are corrupt. Its honors are empty. Its smiles are fake. Its love is fickle, etc., etc. That's the world system. It is a lot of philosophies and psychologies and religions and ideologies that make up unregenerate, ungodly, unbiblical thinking. And it is a world that will be destroyed. The world and all that is in it will pass away, John said. And that's why he said in 1 John 2:15, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world; for anyone who loves the world can't love the Father; where there is the love of the world, the love of the Father doesn't exist."

"You want to die in your sins? Just continue in your course, just believe you're good enough the way you are. Just carry on with your love affair with human ideologies. Just refuse to believe the great truths concerning Christ. Love your sin so much that you choose the darkness and are willfully ignorant. But to do this you're going to have to stumble over the cross. That's right, you're going to have heartlessly, irreverently trample Christ's blood because you know the gospel. So you're going to have to stumble across the cross. Even this morning as we come to the Lord's table the cross is going to be demonstrated again and you're going to have to reject it again to continue the course you're in. Inconceivable, really, why will you die when you can live? Why will you not be like those many who believed and didn't want to die in their sin? Why will you not accept an atonement for your sin? That's the all encompassing question. And the answer is your self-righteous, you're good enough the way you are, you love the world too much, you refuse to believe or you love your sin and you cherish the darkness and the ignorance that comes with it. In any case, the price is eternal."

gosh, I need to pray for my friends and my coworkers and everyone i just pass by.

=_=.