I have found that there are three stages in every great work of God: first, it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done.
– James Hudson Taylor
This is an amazing quote and gives me great hope for some very difficult situations that are going on right now.
Please pray for a little girl named Teagan who is very very sick, currently in critical condition at the hospital in a medical comma. She’s had seizures all her life and last week a 2.5hr seizure prompted her parents, good friends of ours, to bring her to the hospital where a CT scan revealed a swollen brain; she also has pneumonia. She is the most beautiful little girl, and she is not even five and she desperately needs our prayers. Please pray for the doctors to have wisdom to figure out what is causing the seizures (they’ve never figured it out), pray for strength for the family, and pray for complete healing in Jesus’ Name for little Teagan. Right now it is impossible, but we’re praying for done, that Teagan can be used by God as a testimony of His grace, kindness, and mercy.
A great example is the man who was blind from birth. When asked who had sinned to cause that blindness, Jesus said that no one had sinned, but that he had been born this way to demonstrate the power of God (John 9:1-11). I hope and pray and believe that it is the same for little Teagan, that her long life would be a testimony of the power of God.
A friend posted a link to a blog post entitled What Does It Mean to REALLY Follow Jesus?, and that is a profoundly good question. I think the author, who is a pastor of one of the “mega churches” in the United States, makes some very good points. It is definitely worth a read, and the time to consider.
I’ve talked about obedience on here in the past, and I think that is the biggest issue, and one that I struggle with as well. Are we going to conform ourselves to the Jesus of the Bible, or try to conform our idea of Jesus to suit ourselves? Sadly, I think for most Christians it’s the latter. But it shouldn’t be this way. As Christians, particularly in North America, we’re always looking for the finances, the life of ease, a God who gives us stuff when He asks us to give it all to Him instead. God never promised us an easy life… what He promised was that He would never abandon us, never forsake us. He promised that if we were obedient to Him, He would put our feet on a sure foundation so that when the storms of life hit us (not if, not that if we were obedient that they wouldn’t), we wouldn’t be blown away, that we would stand firm in His embrace. He promised to walk with us, not to give us “stuff”.
This is a challenging article and well worth the read. I highly encourage you to take some time to read it and then examine your own heart, and challenge yourself about what it really means to follow Jesus, to be a servant of our King, to really love and worship Jesus, and make of ourselves living sacrifices that honour and glorify His Name.
This is an amazing video for a few reasons. For one, it truly showcases the power of God in desperate situations. For another, it shows what amazing things these kinds of ministries can do for people with addictions and other problems. It also shows why it’s important not to just write off people you see on the streets because we all make gross assumptions as to why they are there, but we can never really know why. Most people look and have no pity, or don’t bother looking at all, but these are real people that are hurting and most aren’t on the streets by choice.
It also really illustrates that God does indeed mean it when He says “come as you are”. If we had to be perfect to come to God, we wouldn’t need God because we would be perfect. But since we are not perfect, it is through His boundless grace that He takes us in, regardless of what we’ve done in the past or what we’re doing now. The first step is simply to acknowledge the fact that we need God and to make that first step… to come to Him with all our problems and baggage and pain intact. He will work with us and in us after we take that first step; we don’t have to do any more than simply admit that we need Him more than anything.
Please pray for the work the Dream Centre and other similar ministries are doing. It is of vital importance to the people that go through those doors every day.
I saw this skit earlier this year at a Promise Keeper’s conference and it really had an impact on me. I found it the other day on YouTube and thought I would share it. It’s very powerful, and very true. God doesn’t make junk! And He wants to turn us into His masterpiece. The Bible calls God the Potter, and we are the clay (Jeremiah 18:1-6). That means that if we submit to Him, to His working in and on our lives, He can transform us from a shapeless lump of clay into an exquisite vessel that He can then pour into, and in turn pour us out to those around us. As He blesses us, we can bless others.
Last night, the worship pastor quoted from Psalm 134, which contains a promise if you’re looking for it. I’ve read this Psalm probably a dozen times in my life, and never really paid attention to the clear promise of God it contains:
“Behold, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who by night stand in the house of the Lord! Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord. The Lord who made heaven and earth bless you from Zion!” (Psalm 134, NKJV)
There is a command and a promise here, and we can examine it using the “Five W’s” of standard journalism. The who is the servants of the Lord, people who serve and love God. The what is to bless the Lord, to worship and lift Him up. The when is at night. The where is in the sanctuary, in the house of the Lord (the church). The why is also to bless the Lord (this is both the what and the why — we bless the Lord and worship Him as an act and also as a reason). The how is by lifting up your hands.
And the reward? That the Lord who made Heaven and Earth would bless you (you, who keep His commandments to bless God, at night, in His house, by lifting holy hands and standing in the sanctuary). Think about it! For those who love God, this is not a hard command to keep. It really isn’t. And the benefit, the blessing of God for those who are faithful? Priceless!
If we honor the God who sent His Son to save and redeem us, and we honor the sacrifice Jesus made for us, then going to church at night is no chore. We should be more than eager to spend time with our brothers and sisters in Christ, raising our voices and our hands in one accord, pouring out blessing and honor and glory to Jesus Christ, who loved us enough to die for our sins and paved the way for right relationship with Father God.
It is not our duty to go to church twice on Sunday. It is our privilege! When do we start to realize this and live our lives according to that truth? It isn’t a chore, it’s an honor!
I am often prone to dark mood swings, and in those times there are a few songs that really lift me up. As opposed to listening to music that further darkens my mood, I’ve been listening to praise music instead, and what an awesome transformation it makes! Instead of feeding the mood, I can overcome it by worship and prayer, and just abandoning and losing myself in God. So the lyrics to this song really speak to me, particularly “The art of losing myself in bringing you praise“… and it is an art! It’s so easy to just get swept up in the mood and the feelings, but for the past few months I’ve decided to take a stand against that and just lose myself in offering praise.
This song is called “From the Inside Out” by Hillsong United and can be found on the United We Stand album (I have it from the iWorship 24/7 album, which is a compilation of some really great worship songs).
If you were like me and fed the mood, try breaking through with worship. Guaranteed it works. Lose yourself in worshipping God. You might as well get used to it now… if you are a Christian, this is what we’ll be doing for eternity. Get some practice in!
Sometimes when we feel that God has not responded sufficiently, we need to look at ourselves first to see if we have responded sufficiently. This morning I thought about the story of Elisha and Joash when Israel was threatened by Syria. This story really illustrates how God responds and makes promises, and gives us direction, and yet the end result is still due to our response. The fulfillment of that promise is wholly based on us, not God.
Here we can see God’s direction played out, and Joash’s obedience to the Word of God:
“And Elisha said to him, ‘Take a bow and some arrows.’ So he took himself a bow and some arrows. Then he said to the king of Israel, ‘Put your hand on the bow.’ So he put his hand on it, and Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands. And he said, ‘Open the east window’; and he opened it. Then Elisha said, ‘Shoot’; and he shot. And he said, ‘The arrow of the Lord’s deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from Syria; for you must strike the Syrians at Aphek till you have destroyed them.’” (2 Kings 13:15-17, NKJV)
Joash obeyed everything that Elisha said, and Elisha gave him detailed instructions. This clearly shows obedience. Yet the following verses, while showing obedience, also show a lack of passion, zeal, and enthusiasm — which are things that God wants from us as well:
“Then he said, ‘Take the arrows’; so he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, ‘Strike the ground’; so he struck three times, and stopped. And the man of God was angry with him, and said, ‘You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it! But now you will strike Syria only three times.’” (2 Kings 13:18-19, NKJV)
Obedience is important, absolutely! If Joash had not obeyed the Word of God through Elisha, he would not have struck Syria at all, and God’s deliverance would not be evident whatsoever. Yet, even though he was obedient, he was not zealous about what God had said. He was not given the specifics of what striking the ground would produce, yet his lack of response ultimately meant that God did not respond as fully as He wanted to. God wanted to give Joash complete victory, but the king’s response limited God. And as a result of that limitation, complete victory was not attained. More
That is the real question isn’t it? What is a Christian? And am I (or you) one?
The term Christian is thrown about quite loosely and I think a lot of people call themselves a Christian because they believe in God. Or they (mostly) do nice things for people. Or they go to church for Christmas… and maybe Easter if they feel like it. Maybe they think they are Christian because they were baptized as a baby. Or maybe they asked Jesus into their heart as a child.
Do any of these things make you a Christian? In and of themselves, no. Being baptized doesn’t make you a Christian. Asking Jesus into your heart once, or twice, or a whole bunch of times even, doesn’t make you a Christian. These are stepping stones on the way to becoming a Christian, sure. But making you a Christian? No way.
Let’s put it this way. Do your friends and family and co-workers know that you are a Christian? If not, then you need to do some serious soul-searching and figure out why that is. I’m not saying you need to evangelize to them all (but if you are at all concerned about their eternal souls, which you should be, then you should be talking to them about the hope within you, right?), but you need to live a lifestyle that, without a doubt, reflects that you are a Christian. Does this mean you need to be perfect? Nope. I’m far from perfect. And I am pretty much scared spitless to evangelize to people — I am more than willing to talk about Jesus and my hope and faith and love for Christ if it is brought up, but to just out of the blue talk to someone about it? I have a real hard time with that, and it really takes some prayer and dependency on the Holy Spirit to move me beyond my natural tendency to clam up. More
This is perhaps a more practical teaching, but one I feel needs to really be taught (this is also a bit of a followup to an earlier posting: What is faithfulness?). As Christians, we should be exceptional workers, in whatever occupation God has called us to. As Christians, we should be the most sought after employees, working hard and diligently for our “earthly masters”.
But, we’re also called to do the work of God, because while God has called each of us to a particular occupation at a certain point in time, He has also called each of us to ministry. No, he has not called all of us to be preachers or evangelists or full-time ministry workers, but we all have a ministry. The trick, then, is to balance. Do we forsake God’s work for the sake of a natural occupation, or do we forsake the natural occupation for the sake of God’s work?
I believe the answer is neither. God has called us to be good stewards — both of career and calling. We are to be faithful in our natural work, and faithful in our spiritual work. So the real answer is there needs to be balance (unless, of course, your career is also your calling, such as with full-time ministers).
I believe that, even as Paul preached and did miraculous things, yet still worked, we need to do the same. The key is balance, but before someone thinks this is a message about balancing TV and prayer, or balancing video games and reading the Word, I think when it comes to worldly pursuits of recreation (sports, games, TV, whatever), there is no call to be balanced. You can completely forsake those pursuits, or enjoy a game of golf, or go to a hockey game, etc. and still be unbalanced because you’re feeding on the Word, praying, and going to church — that is a healthy unbalancing. This isn’t supporting “balance” in terms of going to church on Sunday and staying home to watch the hockey game on TV instead of going to church Sunday night (i.e. “honey, we’ve been to church already so let’s stay home and watch the game… we need balance after all!”). Not at all. This is strictly talking about balance of calling (ministry) and career (occupation) because God wants us to work. We weren’t created to have recreation, we were created to work.
The first thing in the Bible that tells us about the nature of God is that He works — He created the heavens and the earth. As early as Genesis 1:3, God is working. God created man with a “dominion mandate” or a call to work:
“Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”” (Gen 1:28, NKJV)
The first words out of God’s mouth to Adam and Eve were that they should work! More
“‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, Thanksgiving and honor and power and might, Be to our God forever and ever. Amen.’” (Rev 6:12, NKJV)
“Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice: ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!’ And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: ‘Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sites on the throne, and to the Lamb forever and ever!’” (Rev 5:12, NKJV)
Can you imagine the glory, the praise, the continual worship, the adoration and love and gratitude and blessing poured upon Almighty God and His Son Jesus Christ, in heaven? I can’t. This world is such a shadow, such a dim thing compared to what eternity will be like. And even here on earth, with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the absolute abandonment and joy we can receive when we worship our Lord Jesus in spirit and truth, that anointing and blessing that comes from God the Father… I honestly believe it pales in comparison to what heaven will be like, despite how absolutely beautiful and fantastic it is.
Last night at church, as we were worshipping, I felt such an impression of “worthy, worthy, worthy”… it was so heavy, like it had weight, an importance behind it. It bubbled out of me like a desperate cry… God, You are so infinitely worthy! Worthy of my love, my time, my attention, my energy, my hopes, my dreams. You are worth more than I could possibly ever offer You!
And after such a wonderful encounter with God, and an awesome message, the reality hit me.
If He is so worthy (and He is) why aren’t we giving Him our best?
I mean, we sing songs about how worthy He is, how He sent His Son to die for us, how we owe Him everything. We sing songs about living lives pure and holy before Him, about inviting Him in, about becoming living sacrifices. And yeah, singing those songs are great and there can be a real heartfelt passion there, but… if He is so worthy, why aren’t we giving Him our best. I mean our absolute best? More
To submit your testimony, story, or praise report to be displayed on this site, please use the Submit Story form. All submissions will be posted anonymously, and your privacy will be respected.
We look forward to reading and sharing your stories. Thank you, and God bless!
RSS
Recent Comments