There is a secret place

and it’s not on a pedestal under a spotlight.

He that dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Psalm 91:1

One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret place of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock. And now shall my head be lifted up above my enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD. Psalm 27:4-6

That which we waste

we don’t deserve to have.

One ‘small’ step of obedience

could change a person’s life forever.

A ‘small’ prompting of the Holy Spirit to share the gospel with someone could have eternal consequences.

The man who plants a small seed may be amazed to come back years later and find a beautiful, majestic tree.

He was manifested to take away our sins

Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God: therefore the world knows us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure. Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. And you know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. Whosoever abides in him sins not: whosoever sins has not seen him, neither known him.

Little children, let no man deceive you: he that does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that commits sin is of the devil; for the devil sins from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; for his nature remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever does not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loves not his brother.

For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And why slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hates you.

We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loves not his brother abides in death. Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer: and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother have need, and shuts up his heart of compassion from him, how dwells the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart condemns us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. And he that keeps his commandments dwells in him, and he in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us. 1 John 3:1-24

BH & PW

Benny ain’t that dumb. He may be a lot of things, but he ain’t stupid.

No one seriously believes that if they had both been shacked-up in the same hotel room, that they would leave together by the front door, holding hands? C’mon.

Therefore the scandal is just a distraction for Christians.

To ‘speak out’ your worship

Last sunday i had this brief word for our group: That expressions of worship need not be limited if one is not a singer. Why not just speak out the words from your heart, of worship to your LORD? Jesus doesn’t care if you can’t sing. It’s what comes from our heart that matters.

There is no limitation. But why do people restrict themselves to certain forms, and to looking up songs in chorus books? (not that there’s anything wrong with that) Why isn’t there a spontaneous river of life flowing?

Where can I go where you are not there?

Where shall I go from your Spirit? or where shall I flee from your presence? Psalm 139:7

Kingdom life is so different to the life of externals. Many are so near to the Kingdom, and yet so far.

Loneliness can be lethal

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/07/29/2967353.htm?section=justin

Reach out to someone who is lonely, today.

Mental or Spiritual

by T. Austin-Sparks

There is a vast amount of intellectual comprehension of truth and doctrine which is not touching the situation, not meeting the need… A person may know Scripture most thoroughly and yet be the most awkward, cantankerous and peevish person in daily life; or go into business relationships, drive a hard bargain and send another man to the wall for his own ends. You may have all knowledge and yet profit nothing. It is the natural man receiving on the plane of the natural man. It is mental apprehension of Divine truth, and it is not alive, it is not the ‘water of Life, clear as crystal.’

Services may be very beautiful but dead… You may have very high ideals, sublime thoughts, and yet there may be just something that renders it all ineffective and you get nowhere. The modern pulpit goes as far as it can, with its own human mental outfit. If a man happens to be more scholarly and better educated than another, his interpretation is thought to be nearer the truth than that of anyone else. If he can put a construction upon the Word of God which is fresh, interesting, and fascinating and just satisfies the inquiring minds of his hearers, they go away with the idea that that is truth. That is no argument at all – no criterion whatever. To make the whole thing a matter of scholarship is to get off the road.

Moses was learned in all the knowledge of the Egyptians, and yet he had to have forty years of isolation and discipline. At the end, Moses had to say, ‘I cannot,’ and then God was able to say ‘Now I have got you down to a level where I can say, ‘I can.’ Before Saul of Tarsus could go anywhere for God, he had to talk like this: ‘Sinners, of whom I am chief’; ‘I am the least of all the apostles and not meet to be called an apostle’; ‘the things that I counted gain, I now count but loss’; ‘I received it not from men, it was made known to me by revelation’; ‘it pleased God to reveal His Son in me.’ That is not objective achievement; that is subjective experience, and between the two there is all the difference that there is between life and death…

The man who brags of scholarships and argues that because he has a higher brow than anybody else and is therefore nearer the truth is probably the most blind of all men… The moment you introduce the element of the natural man into the ministry you kill it. The river of the water of Life clear as crystal will not flow through the channel of the flesh.

What you minister must be born of the Spirit of God in your spirit, and it must not be interfered with by the flesh. God will not let the stream of living ministry flow until the flesh is laid forever in death and it is no longer I but Christ.

First published in “A Witness and A Testimony” magazine, May-Jun 1926, Vol 4-3

http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/003197.html

Singing and Screaming

Above us today, they’re singing.

Below us today, they’re screaming and weeping.

We stand between these two real worlds as ambassadors for Christ, urging all to be reconciled to God.

AC watch

This guy has come across my radar as a prospective AC :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Finkelstein

He is a Jewish intellectual, yet amazingly a Holocaust denier, and he hates the nation of Israel. I heard him speak last night on Russian TV about his lobbying to address the UN and present the ultimate peace plan for the Middle East. He spoke of “the rule of law” being the only way to settle the conflict. He means by “law” the opinion that Israel does not have a divine mandate to the land. By invoking “law” (the new world order “law”) he is setting up Israel to come under “international law” or jurisdiction. “International law” will strip them of their divine right. It criminalizes their divine right. It sets them at odds with the rest of the world, making them pariahs.

If they truly have a divine right to the land (and they do) then the world is picking a fight with God.

When Jesus comes…

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Matthew 25:31-33

All will be gathered before Him, on the earth, in Israel.
This will be very soon.

He has overcome, He has overcome…

How could the righteous live even one day in the midst of this wicked world, surrounded by enemies, if Jesus hadn’t overcome the world and if He didn’t rule over all things?

Each day we live, as lights in this dark world, is a testimony that Jesus rules over and has overcome the world.

Father

We are your children.

Knowing i am your child determines my life.

I look to you for all my needs, and no one else. I don’t have any other father than you.

Rivers of Living Water

In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spoke he of the Spirit, whom they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Spirit was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) John 7:37-39

Such is the outcome of believing and obeying Jesus: rivers of living water flowing out of our hearts.

Can you believe this?

Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name

After this manner therefore pray: Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name… Matthew 6:9

Hallowed

G37
ἁγιάζω
hagiazō
hag-ee-ad’-zo
From G40; to make holy, that is, (ceremonially) purify or consecrate; (mentally) to venerate: – hallow, be holy, sanctify.

May your name be hallowed, today.

In what ways is the Father’s name hallowed in your life today?

Our LORD Jesus showed us how to hallow His name. The only Man to ever FULLY hallow the Father’s name.

But sanctify the LORD God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good behavior in Christ. 1 Peter 3:15-16

Sanctify the LORD God in your hearts… Sanctify is the same word as hallowed: Hagiazo.

So, May your name be sanctified, today. What does this mean? It means separated, a distinction, a recognition and a placing in order. When the Father’s name is sanctified by me, then i live for Him and can distinguish what is of Him and what isn’t, and order my life accordingly.

What is your sincerest desire?

……….

The Last Frontier: The Tongue

If any man among you seems to be religious, and bridles not his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. James 1:26

My brethren, be not many teachers, knowing that we shall receive the severer judgment. For in many things we all offend. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.

Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven by fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small rudder, wherever the pilot desires.

Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things. Behold, how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.

For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and has been tamed by mankind: But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With this bless we God, even the Father; and with this curse we men, who are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing.

My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Does a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him show out of a good life his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, boast not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descends not from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by them that make peace. James 3:1-18

Emotions

Our spirit is deeper than our emotions/soul, and our soul should be subject to our spirit. Meaning, our spirit should govern our emotional make-up, and not our emotions/soul govern our spirit. If believers had a firmer grip on this they wouldn’t so easily be led astray by false prophets et al, who place experiences above truth.

Having a “handle” on it, or having the “reins” on it, would surely be true of our spirit over our soul.

Especially clear if we consider the emotion of anger. How would it be if we didn’t have a handle on that?

I think our spirit’s place is not to bottle up emotions but rather to channel them according to the purpose of God. Like with anger. We can’t deny it if we have it, but we can either channel it productively or destructively. Meaning: just bcos you are angry it doesn’t mean there has to be a negative/carnal outcome.

And if we take the Toronto scenario, where some pastors claimed to be so overwhelmed that they couldn’t teach or preach the Word of God…. They let their soul rule over their spirit and they became useless to God.

Preaching at the funeral of someone you love dearly is a good example where its good if our spirit governs our soul: you want to just let go and weep it all out. But the occasion calls for self-control in order to speak the things we should speak. Then there’s a balance. You’ve not denied your emotions, yet they don’t rule you.

What’s the main attraction?

I mean, who is the star of the show? Who is the talk of the town? Who is the greatest celebrity? Who is the greatest, period? Who is the one you would just die to meet? The one everyone just can’t stop talking about?

Is it Jesus?

Is Christianity about Him?