For the first time in my life I am intent on observing Advent. I wish I had done this many years ago! I have a daughter-in-law who, with her children, is very purposeful in her enjoyment of these days leading up to Christmas. I find myself wishing I could go back and do the same with mine. But I cannot - those days are past, and regretting what I didn't do accomplishes nothing. Thankfully, I do have today... and tomorrow... And I know that whatever work God does in me at this late stage of life will not be lost on them, and for that I am grateful.
As I was looking for a little guidance on the i-net, I came across a Day 1 writing that was meaningful to me, but on December 2 when I went to read Day 2, I realized I had neglected to note where I had found the first one. Google helped me find Day 1 again, but for the life of me, I cannot find anything more than that by the same author. I don't even know who the author is, other than it seems to be someone from Illinois or Iowa State University.
So... I have decided to venture out a bit on my own. I'm intending to post my thoughts for future reference, but if the writing begins to overtake the real purpose of focusing on the Savior, I'll not continue in it.
The words of Day 1 come from someone else from ISU...
Week 1: Hope
Day 1: The Foundation
What is hope? We use the word all the time. I hope I don’t get sick. I hope my boss is nice to me. I hope my favorite sports team is good this year.
When we use “hope” this way, we really mean something more like wish – a desire for something we want to have happen regardless of feasibility. Biblical hope, on the other hand, is “the confidence that what God has done for us in the past guarantees our participation in what God will do in the future.” The word “guarantees” demonstrates the vast difference between the fleeting wishes of casual hope and strong promise of biblical hope.
Hope is a future-oriented term, but it is grounded in past events. In the Old Testament, the source of hope for God’s people was God’s proven character and His mighty deeds in history. The Psalmist says, “Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever, who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry” (Psalm 146:5-7). His hope is founded in who God is and what He has done.
When God called Moses to deliver his people from slavery in Egypt, Moses had a list of excuses and doubts. God responded not by building up the person of Moses or even directly answering Moses’ doubts; rather, God redirected Moses’ hope to Himself. He appeals to the foundation of His promise and His ability to perform great deeds on earth (Exodus 6:1-8). After Moses, the Exodus event formed the basis of hope for the people of God. They told the story over and over again. This is why their concept of Messiah was closely linked with terms like “Deliverer.”
Throughout the Bible, true hope is not tested against our ability to hope, but rather against the foundation of God’s ability to deliver. It is a deep longing for God to show himself for who He is again. Jean-Paul Sartre, a famous philosopher and atheist, said a month before he died that he so strongly resisted feelings of despair that he would say to himself, “I know I shall die in hope.” Then in profound sadness, he would add, “But hope needs a foundation.” Without a foundation, we have only wishful thinking or personal ability.
Advent is a season of hope because we look back to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, for “no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 3:11). We also look forward to the day when Jesus will return, and fulfill our deepest longing to see him face to face. Come, Lord Jesus, Come!
Reflection & Prayer: Advent awakens us to this question: “What do I long for now?” If we are weak in hope, perhaps we have vested our hope in weak things: wealth, possessions, reputation, relationships. Perhaps these are the things we long for now. The more we walk around with that question and let it penetrate through the layers of distraction and self-protection, the more powerfully we will experience Advent. “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23-24)
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Hold Me Up!
It's early morning, and the house is quiet - it's dark outside, and everyone is still sleeping. I love this time! I sit in comfort (please don't let that be an idol!), and I soak in the beautiful truths in Your Word. I feel like I can walk victoriously through anything. But last night reminded me again that I cannot!
Not even half of our family is here under one roof, but still there are 11 kids, with eight of them being six and under. That makes for lots of noise and lots of mess; lots of cooking and lots of dishwashing; lots of crying and lots of "Hey, Mimi...you know what?" And things are not yet as they should be with my husband, family... Trying to function in the midst of chaos has always been a challenge for me. And while I know that I am growing in my walk with You, I still fail so often and so miserably. Like last night...
My attitude went completely south by the evening hours. My focus turned inward and it became all about me - "Oh, woe is poor me!" "No one cares! No one understands! No one has it as hard as I do!" "Am I even a believer? How can I be and still feel this way??" "God, why aren't You faster at changing me? I want to be perfect, as You are perfect!"
In the quiet of the early morning hours I see things so differently. Last night even my desire for perfection was all about me - so that I wouldn't have to suffer the humiliation of not being seen as perfect!! So easily I move to worldly sorrow and take my eyes off of You, the Beginner and the Completer of my faith. So quickly my soul begins to shrivel!
Thank you for Romans 7 this morning!! "For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate! For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!!!"
Thank you for this prayer verse this morning... "Hold me up, that I may be safe and have regard for Your statues continually." (Psalm 119:117) Please do that, Lord! Thank You for reminding me it IS all about You. You hold me up! So that I may be safe - yasa' - open, wide, free! Not shriveled!! You support me so that I am free to have regard for Your statutes continually...like "suffer the little children!" And "prefer one another!" And "reverence Your husband!" With Your support I am free to love the 1 Corinthians 13 way - in patience and kindness; without envy or boasting; without insisting on my own way; WITHOUT BEING IRRITABLE OR RESENTFUL!!" With You holding me up, I can bear all things and endure all things...and count it all joy!!
Lord, only by Your power can this day end differently. Please let me be singing when the evening comes! And when I do, let me remember that it is ONLY because YOU hold me up!
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Lord, Send Us a Man!
I've been slowly making my way through a large book on prayer by E.M. Bounds. It's actually a collection of smaller books on the subject by that author. The last several days, the name of the book within the book that I've been reading is "Power through Prayer." It deals with the man in the pulpit, and how above all else, he must be a man of prayer. With that in mind, I have been turning selections of E.M. Bounds' words into prayer as we seek a man for the pulpit of our own church...
Lord, send to us a man-
-whom the Holy Spirit can use - a man of prayer, a man mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men - men of prayer!
-whose preaching is not performance, but the outflow of his life!
-who is not a timid timeserver, place-seeker, men-pleaser, men-fearer, but is strong in faith in God and His Word!
-who is great in holiness, great in faith, great in love, great in fidelity, great for God!
-whose sufficiency is not in learning or planning, but whose sufficiency is in You!
-whose life and words are energized by the Spirit. Truth unquickened by God's Spirit deadens as much as, or more than, error.
-who has been broken down in the inner man - surrendered to You; who has died to self. Only crucified preaching can give life. Crucified preaching can only come from a crucified man.
-who has sought, studied, fathomed, experienced the deep things of God; who has stood before the "throne, high and lifted up."
-who knows how to pray short, live, real heart prayers - direct, specific, ardent, simple, anointed prayers in the pulpit. Whose short public prayers are effective and efficient because long, private ones have preceded them. Who can say with Martin Luther, "I have so much business, I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer."
-who goes to the (prayer) closet first, the study and activities second; who understands that prayer is the most serious work of our most serious years. Preachers who are the mightiest in their closets with You are the mightiest in their pulpits with men.
-who understands that talking to men about God is a great thing, but talking to God for men is still greater. Prayerless words, both in and out of the pulpit, are deadening.
-who prays "always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watches thereunto with all perseverance." (Eph. 6:18)
-who seeks You and seeks You early; who follows hard after You!
-who understands that there is an infinite distance between the betterment of an age by the force of an advancing civilization and its betterment by the increase of holiness and Christlikeness by the energy of prayer. "The Jews' golden, religious age crucified Christ. During the time of Christ, there was never more so-called piety, never less praying; never more indulgence, never less sacrifice; never more idolatry, never less devotion God; never more temple worship, never less God worship; never more lip service, never less heart service; never more churchgoers, never fewer saints." (pg. 494)
-who realizes that a prepared heart is much more important than a prepared sermon. A prepared heart will make a prepared sermon!
-who watches and fasts and prays!
-who has the simplicity, docility, humility, and faith of a child's heart.
-who has grace enough to preach the Gospel; who has struggled with his own heart and taught it humility, faith, love, truth, mercy, sympathy, and courage.
-who does not, in his sermons, make the mistake of including more thought than prayer, more head than heart.
-who sows with his heart in his study so as to reap a harvest for God. The closet is the heart's study.
-who is not afraid to weep, because it is he who "goes forth weeping, bearing precious seed." He it is who will come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." (Psalm 126:6)
-who is not earnest, but anointed! Oftentimes men grow exceedingly earnest over their own plans or movements. Earnestness may be selfishness in disguise. Anointing comes to the preacher not in the study but in the closet. It is the sweetest exhalation of the Holy Spirit. Earnestness is good and impressive; genius is gifted and great. Thought kindles and inspires, but it takes a divine endowment - a more powerful energy than earnestness, genius, or thought - to break the chains of sin. Unction is the anointing of the Holy Spirit, separating the believer for God's work and qualifying him for it. Without it, no true spiritual results are accomplished. Without anointing, the preacher is as potent as the pulpit itself.
-who realizes that anointing is a conditional gift. Its presence is perpetuated and increased by the same process by which it was at first secured - by unceasing prayer to God, by impassioned desires after God, by seeking it with tireless zeal, by deeming all else loss and failure without it.
-who understands that this anointing comes directly from God in answer to prayer. Only praying hearts are filled with this holy oil. Only praying lips are anointed with this divine unction!
-who gives himself "continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the Word." (Acts 6:4)
-who prays exceedingly night and day!! (1Thess. 3:10)
"God wants elect men, men of whom self and the world have been severely crucified. Their bankruptcy has so totally ruined self and the world that there is neither hope nor desire of recovery. God wants men who by this insolvency and crucifixion have turned toward Him with perfect hearts." (It appears Bounds calls a "perfect" heart one that truly knows its own total depravity! Much food for future thought here...)
It was in my reading today that prayer for "a man" turned to conviction in my own heart...
He quotes Jonathan Edwards... "If some Christians who have been complaining of their ministers had said and acted less before men and had applied themselves with all their might to cry to God for their ministers - has, as it were, risen and stormed heaven with their humble, fervent, and incessant prayers for them - they should have been much more in the way of success."
And back to E.M. Bounds... "Our laborers must be God-chosen, God-sent, and God-commissioned. But God does not send these laborers into His harvest without prayer. The failure of the laborers is owing to the failure of prayer. The scarcity of laborers in the harvest is due to the fact that the church fails to pray for laborers according to His command."
I have not prayed near enough for previous pastors! Lord, I cannot ask for a praying man in the pulpit while I am not a praying woman in the pew! Lord, send us a praying man - YES!! But more than that, MAKE US a praying people! Make ME a praying woman!
Lord, send to us a man-
-whom the Holy Spirit can use - a man of prayer, a man mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men - men of prayer!
-whose preaching is not performance, but the outflow of his life!
-who is not a timid timeserver, place-seeker, men-pleaser, men-fearer, but is strong in faith in God and His Word!
-who is great in holiness, great in faith, great in love, great in fidelity, great for God!
-whose sufficiency is not in learning or planning, but whose sufficiency is in You!
-whose life and words are energized by the Spirit. Truth unquickened by God's Spirit deadens as much as, or more than, error.
-who has been broken down in the inner man - surrendered to You; who has died to self. Only crucified preaching can give life. Crucified preaching can only come from a crucified man.
-who has sought, studied, fathomed, experienced the deep things of God; who has stood before the "throne, high and lifted up."
-who knows how to pray short, live, real heart prayers - direct, specific, ardent, simple, anointed prayers in the pulpit. Whose short public prayers are effective and efficient because long, private ones have preceded them. Who can say with Martin Luther, "I have so much business, I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer."
-who goes to the (prayer) closet first, the study and activities second; who understands that prayer is the most serious work of our most serious years. Preachers who are the mightiest in their closets with You are the mightiest in their pulpits with men.
-who understands that talking to men about God is a great thing, but talking to God for men is still greater. Prayerless words, both in and out of the pulpit, are deadening.
-who prays "always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watches thereunto with all perseverance." (Eph. 6:18)
-who seeks You and seeks You early; who follows hard after You!
-who understands that there is an infinite distance between the betterment of an age by the force of an advancing civilization and its betterment by the increase of holiness and Christlikeness by the energy of prayer. "The Jews' golden, religious age crucified Christ. During the time of Christ, there was never more so-called piety, never less praying; never more indulgence, never less sacrifice; never more idolatry, never less devotion God; never more temple worship, never less God worship; never more lip service, never less heart service; never more churchgoers, never fewer saints." (pg. 494)
-who realizes that a prepared heart is much more important than a prepared sermon. A prepared heart will make a prepared sermon!
-who watches and fasts and prays!
-who has the simplicity, docility, humility, and faith of a child's heart.
-who has grace enough to preach the Gospel; who has struggled with his own heart and taught it humility, faith, love, truth, mercy, sympathy, and courage.
-who does not, in his sermons, make the mistake of including more thought than prayer, more head than heart.
-who sows with his heart in his study so as to reap a harvest for God. The closet is the heart's study.
-who is not afraid to weep, because it is he who "goes forth weeping, bearing precious seed." He it is who will come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." (Psalm 126:6)
-who is not earnest, but anointed! Oftentimes men grow exceedingly earnest over their own plans or movements. Earnestness may be selfishness in disguise. Anointing comes to the preacher not in the study but in the closet. It is the sweetest exhalation of the Holy Spirit. Earnestness is good and impressive; genius is gifted and great. Thought kindles and inspires, but it takes a divine endowment - a more powerful energy than earnestness, genius, or thought - to break the chains of sin. Unction is the anointing of the Holy Spirit, separating the believer for God's work and qualifying him for it. Without it, no true spiritual results are accomplished. Without anointing, the preacher is as potent as the pulpit itself.
-who realizes that anointing is a conditional gift. Its presence is perpetuated and increased by the same process by which it was at first secured - by unceasing prayer to God, by impassioned desires after God, by seeking it with tireless zeal, by deeming all else loss and failure without it.
-who understands that this anointing comes directly from God in answer to prayer. Only praying hearts are filled with this holy oil. Only praying lips are anointed with this divine unction!
-who gives himself "continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the Word." (Acts 6:4)
-who prays exceedingly night and day!! (1Thess. 3:10)
"God wants elect men, men of whom self and the world have been severely crucified. Their bankruptcy has so totally ruined self and the world that there is neither hope nor desire of recovery. God wants men who by this insolvency and crucifixion have turned toward Him with perfect hearts." (It appears Bounds calls a "perfect" heart one that truly knows its own total depravity! Much food for future thought here...)
It was in my reading today that prayer for "a man" turned to conviction in my own heart...
He quotes Jonathan Edwards... "If some Christians who have been complaining of their ministers had said and acted less before men and had applied themselves with all their might to cry to God for their ministers - has, as it were, risen and stormed heaven with their humble, fervent, and incessant prayers for them - they should have been much more in the way of success."
And back to E.M. Bounds... "Our laborers must be God-chosen, God-sent, and God-commissioned. But God does not send these laborers into His harvest without prayer. The failure of the laborers is owing to the failure of prayer. The scarcity of laborers in the harvest is due to the fact that the church fails to pray for laborers according to His command."
I have not prayed near enough for previous pastors! Lord, I cannot ask for a praying man in the pulpit while I am not a praying woman in the pew! Lord, send us a praying man - YES!! But more than that, MAKE US a praying people! Make ME a praying woman!
Monday, November 11, 2013
Monday, November 4, 2013
Friday, September 27, 2013
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
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