"Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.” Jim Elliot Next week my husband and I will be enjoying a crazy fun family get-together! It's his side of the family, the ones who got me enjoying the Muppets. :) Anyway, I'll be unplugging for most of the way, so I can be "all there" and truly enjoy our time together. I've got some posts scheduled, and will probably jump on once a day to check email, but if you don't hear from me... that's why! And now, some giveaways and highlights from the past week: Book Giveaway from Jana's 3 Dresses You may have heard about Jen Hatmaker's book, [...Read More]
Love loves unto purity.
June 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment
George MacDonald was a pastor and author in the late 1800s. He penned a volume called Unspoken Sermons in 1867. This is an excerpt from one of those sermons, "The Consuming Fire" {emphasis mine}: "Nothing is inexorable but love. Love which will yield to prayer is imperfect and poor. Nor is it then the love that yields, but its alloy. For if at the voice of entreaty love conquers displeasure, it is love asserting itself, not love yielding its claims. It is not love that grants a boon unwillingly; still less is it love that answers a prayer to the wrong and hurt of him who prays. Love is one, and love is changeless. For love loves unto purity. Love has ever in view the absolute [...Read More]
That One Needful Thing
March 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment
"The... believer must understand that he has no power of his own to maintain his spiritual life. No, he needs each day to receive new grace from heaven through fellowship with the Lord Jesus. This cannot be obtained by a hasty prayer, or a superficial reading of a few verses from God's Word. He must take time quietly and deliberately to come into God's presence, to feel his weakness and his need, and to wait upon God through His Holy Spirit to renew the heavenly light and life in his heart. Then he may rightly expect to be kept by the power of Christ throughout all the day and all its temptations" (Andrew Murray, emphasis mine). How can we hope to know God, rather than just know about God, [...Read More]
The Disciple a Slave
February 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment
"From the teaching of Jesus we learn that slaves are not greater than their master; neither are they privy to the master's plans.They are accountable to the master for how they use his resources, even in his absence. They are also liable for how they treat their fellow slaves and are subject to considerable punishment if they are unmerciful to others. Slaves are expected to obey and honor their master without complaint, though the faithful slave will be honored for his diligent service. Moreover, slaves can expect to be treated by outsiders the way their master is treated. If the master is treated with contempt, slaves should expect their treatment to be no better. Jesus also used slave [...Read More]
True Christianity
February 3, 2011 By 1 Comment
"True Christianity is not about adding Jesus to my life. Instead, it is about devoting myself completely to Him - submitting wholly to His will and seeking to please Him above all else. It demands dying to self and following the Master, no matter the cost. In other words, to be a Christian is to be Christ's slave" (Slave, John MacArthur). Have we tried to turn Christianity into a religion that's all about us, rather than all about Christ? It should not be about making us feel good or bringing us success; rather, true Christianity is about pleasing God and bringing honor to Him. We are His slaves, His property, for Him to do with as He will. We belong to Him. Are we living so that others can [...Read More]
Abiding in Christ
November 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment
"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). "Abide in me, and I in you" (John 15:4). Notice the verbs in these two verses - come and abide. And notice who is to do these actions. Christ calls out to us to come to Him for rest, and He calls to us to abide in Him for fullness of life; we are the ones who need to go and abide. He may call us for a lifetime, but unless we consciously choose to do something about it, His call is meaningless to us. These commands are ours to obey. And why don't we obey these commands? Some may fear that this constant abiding is not within their reach; yet if we make the first few steps, Christ will draw us in. We must [...Read More]
Practicing Contentment
November 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Quoted from Affliction, by Edith Schaeffer (emphasis hers):"You and I are to really learn to be content. We need to practice this as we would practice the scales on the piano. It came to me that an active contentment is a moment-by-moment practice, not a big sweeping thing. The major ingredient of contentment is not necessarily some overwhelming emotional or spiritual experience, after which one is always content, no matter what. The raw materials which bring about contentment are a varied, diverse number of things, differing from moment to moment, hour to hour, day to day. It is the active noticing of what we have been given in any one moment to enjoy which brings the active result of [...Read More]
Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences
October 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Allow me to preface this post by saying that I do not celebrate "Halloween" or "Reformation Day" or any such "holiday" on October 31. However, I do think it profitable to spend some time considering the events of this day in 1517, and if it happens to fall on October 31, so be it. This is when I felt the tug of the Spirit to share it. Many of you know the Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences as the Ninety-Five Theses, which Martin Luther nailed to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany in 1517. Relevant to these Theses is some background information regarding the practices of the Roman Catholic Church during that time: The Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, [...Read More]
You Matter, Part 2
October 26, 2010 By 1 Comment
How do you respond to any sort of affliction or unexpected change in your life? Edith Schaeffer, in her book Affliction, penned the following words regarding the significance of our responses to difficulties (whether "major" problems like illness or imprisonment, or "minor" problems like headaches or criticism): "The wonderful discovery is that our finite, weak, imperfect, human actions and reactions - the attitudes of our minds and emotions and the things we whisper to God, as well as the things we do - matter to God. This is a discovery that can change all of life for us, when we begin to realize fully that we can have a part on God's side of the heavenly battle, bringing joy to God and [...Read More]
How Shall They Hear?
October 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment
"For 'everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.' How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?" (Romans 10:13-15). Our church just finished a weekend mission's conference, and although I was only able to be at a few of the services, it was a blessing and a challenge to hear their exhortations to us and to focus on the need for spreading the Gospel wherever you happen to be. We don't need to go to a foreign field or even another part of the country to be in a mission field: the fields are white [...Read More]
