Saturday, January 31, 2009

01-31-09 Quote

The only right a Christian has, is the right to give up his rights. ~ Oswald Chambers

01-31-09 Scripture

He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;

Eph 4:10-13

01-31-09 Concert

This was sent to me this last night from a little Internet cafe in Hong Kong by Dick and Juliette Bates. They are missionaries to the Philippines and have made the right connections to be able to also go to Hong Kong.

The Concert

When the house lights dimmed and the concert was about to begin, the mother returned to her seat and discovered that her child was missing. Suddenly, the curtains parted and spotlights focused on the impressive Steinway on stage. To her horror, the mother saw her little boy sitting at the keyboard, innocently picking out "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star".

At that moment, the great piano master made his entrance, quickly moved to the piano, and whispered in the boy's ear, Don't quit . . keep playing.' Then, leaning over , Paderewski reached down with his left hand and began fillingin a bass part. Soon his right arm reached around to the other side of the child, and he added a running obbligato. Together, the old master and the young novice transformed what could have been a frightening situation into a wonderfully creative experience. The audience was so mesmerized that they couldn't recall what else the great master played. Only the classic,"Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star".

Perhaps that's the way it is with God. What we can accomplish on our own is hardly noteworthy. We try our best, but the results aren't always graceful flowing music.

However, with the hand of the Master, our life's work can truly be beautiful..

The next time you set out to accomplish great feats, listen carefully... you may hear the voice of The Master, whispering in your ear, 'Don't quit . . Keep playing.'

May you feel His arms around you and know that His hands are there, helping youturn your feeble attempts into true masterpieces.

Remember, God doesn't seem to call the equipped, rather, He equips the 'called'..

Life is more accurately measured by the lives you touch than by the things you acquire.

May God bless you and be with You Always and remember....Don't quit . . Keep playing..'

Friday, January 30, 2009

01-30-09 Scripture

"As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.
-Jesus - JN 15:9

Thursday, January 29, 2009

01-30-09 Scripture

SANCTIFICATION: a state of consecration to God. To sanctify is to set apart to a holy use--to consecrate a thing to the service of God.


For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your SANCTIFICATION, that ye should abstain from fornication: That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in SANCTIFICATION and honor. (1Th_4:2-4)

01-30-09 Sifting

And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
(Luke 22:31,32)


Has there come a time in our walk with God, wanting to know Him more and more, and He is requiring of us to be sifted like wheat? What is this sifting? What does it look like?
I would rather be sifted now, and as Jesus said to Peter, when you are converted…I do not want my sifting to be at the time of tribulation as many will experience.


Sifting is a hard thing to go through. It must be recognized as an “honor” and not a punishment. You will know the time of your sifting. The wind will be different, the clouds will be different, there will be an eerie feeling in the air, and we must see it as an opportunity being performed in our life that is a “Sanctification” process.

Many that go through the sifting process will instantly want to return to the “garden of their souls”, take a quick inventory of the “weeds” left there and how well they have grown. The decision to make at this time is whether or not we are going to pull those weeds up for good, bear the roots to the open air and let them dry up and die, or water those weeds once again so they continue to grow, always available, just in case things go wrong and then that individual will have something to turn to for comfort, a false comfort.


It can be a great discomfort to look at those weeds while things are going well in our lives, at times when it seems that God is pouring out His revelation and blessings. We hear God, we see Gods hand at work, and we set aside and do not even want to look at those weeds that remain inside of us in our garden. But I say that a season of sifting will now require us to look into that garden, see the weeds for what they are, “Sins”, and pull the root systems up. We must look at the Sin, and despise, “Hate”, the sin as much as God does. To truly repent, we must bring ourselves to a place of dying to these massive well nurtured weeds that can take us from the realm of spiritual obedience to torment of soul. “Can we truly Travail in our soul if we are farming the iniquities”?


We can look at sifting as a beckoning from God, a beckoning for us to return, and be converted. We must make a decision to either pull weeds once and for all, or sign up for our due judgment that will come. He is coming as an all consuming fire, to burn all things that are built with wood, hay and stubble. As we build we must rid our lives of the materials that will be consumed. You are constantly building, one day at a time, but which foundation are you building on and what are you building with? The sifting in our lives allows our vessels to be inspected by a spiritual building inspector, this is God. Listen to his voice when He tells you to rid your life of these items that keep you far from sanctification. Which temple are we? Are we a Holy Temple? Or are we just holy looking people on the outside?


Blessings,
Larry D.

01-29-09 Scripture

Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is.
-Jesus-
Mark 13:33

01-29-09 Quote

Fall on your knees and grow there. There is no burden of the spirit but is lighter by kneeling under it. Prayer means not always talking to Him, but waiting before Him till the dust settles and the stream runs clear.

~ F. B. Meyer

01-29-09 Pray Till We Pray

Dr. Moody Stuart, a great praying man of a past generation, once drew up a set of rules to guide him in his prayers. Among these rules is this one: "Pray till you pray." The difference between praying till you quit and praying till you pray is illustrated by the American evangelist John Wesley Lee. He often likened a season of prayer to a church service, and insisted that many of us close the meeting before the service is over. He confessed that once he arose too soon from a prayer session and started down the street to take care of some pressing business. He had only gone a short distance when an inner voice reproached him. "Son," the voice seemed to say, "did you not pronounce the benediction before the meeting was ended?" He understood, and at once hurried back to the place of prayer where he tarried till the burden lifted and the blessing came down.

The habit of breaking off our prayers before we have truly prayed is as common as it is unfortunate. Often the last ten minutes may mean more to us than the first half hour, because we must spend a long time getting into the proper mood to pray effectively. We may need to struggle with our thoughts to draw them in from where they have been scattered through the multitude of distractions that result from the task of living in a disordered world.

Here, as elsewhere in spiritual matters, we must be sure to distinguish the ideal from the real. Ideally we should be living moment-by-moment in a state of such perfect union with God that no special preparation is necessary. But actually there are few who can honestly say that this is their experience. Candor will compel most of us to admit that we often experience a struggle before we can escape from the emotional alienation and sense of unreality that sometimes settle over us as a sort of prevailing mood.

Whatever a dreamy idealism may say, we are forced to deal with things down on the level of practical reality. If when we come to prayer our hearts feel dull and unspiritual, we should not try to argue ourselves out of it. Rather, we should admit it frankly and pray our way through. Some Christians smile at the thought of "praying through," but something of the same idea is found in the writings of practically every great praying saint from Daniel to the present day. We cannot afford to stop praying till we have actually prayed.
-A.W.Tozer

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

01-28-09 The Open Secret

The God we must see is not the utilitarian God who is having such a run of popularity today, whose chief claim to men's attention is His ability to bring them success in their various undertakings and who for that reason, is being cajoled and flattered by everyone who wants a favor. The God we must learn to know is the Majesty in the heavens, God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, the only wise God our Savior. . . . The knowledge of the holy God is a free gift to men who are open to receive it.

First, we must forsake our sin. . . . "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God."

Second, there must be an utter committal of the whole life to Christ in faith. This is what it means to "believe in Christ." It involves a volitional and emotional attachment to Him accompanied by a firm purpose to obey Him in all things. . .

Third, there must be a reckoning of ourselves to have died unto sin and to be alive unto God in Christ Jesus, followed by a throwing open of the entire personality to the inflow of the Holy Spirit. Then we must practice whatever self-discipline is required to walk in the Spirit, and trample under our feet the lust of the flesh.

Fourth, we must boldly repudiate the cheap values of the fallen world. . . .

Fifth, we must practice the art of long and loving meditation upon the majesty of God. . . The focal point of man's interest is now himself. Humanism in its various forms has displaced theology as the key to the understanding of life. . . .

God is a Person and can be known in increasing degrees of intimate acquaintance as we prepare our hearts for the wonder. . . .

Sixth, as the knowledge of God becomes more wonderful, greater service to our fellow men will become for us imperative. This blessed knowledge is not given to be enjoyed selfishly. The more perfectly we know God the more we will feel the desire to translate the new-found knowledge into deeds of mercy toward suffering humanity. The God who gave all to us will continue to give all through us to know Him better.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied (Matthew 5:6).
-A.W. Tozer-

01-27-09 Hearing The Mysteries

When God totally effects your life with scriptures filled with revelation of truth, you will walk through a door and see laid out “As a Table to Heaven”, never being able to consume it all, “The Truths and Mysteries of our God", then you come quickly to an understanding that the whole Bible is common thread, from the beginning to the end..
When Paul writes his pastoral letter to the Church at Corinth he says in 1Cor 2:7- We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory.

But as it is written: "EYE HAS NOT SEEN, NOR EAR HEARD, NOR HAVE ENTERED INTO THE HEART OF MAN THE THINGS, ( The things, A banqueting table) WHICH GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM."
But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For "WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD THAT HE MAY INSTRUCT HIM?" But we have the mind of Christ. 1Co 2:9-16


Carnal can by no means judge anything Spiritual, as natural can not “See” or judge anything supernatural. Without the “Mind of Christ” (The Spirit Who is from God) we read many scriptures without understanding the depth of what God is trying to say. In the same manner we are unable to truly hear what God is saying without putting on the "Mind of Christ" . Is this not the great exhortation throughout the whole New Testament? "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."

Monday, January 26, 2009

01-26-09 Quote

"God is not looking for the man with the medals,
He is looking for the scars."
-Leonard Ravenhill-

01-26-09

Revival is no more a miracle than a crop of wheat. Revival

comes from heaven when heroic souls enter the conflict

determined to win or die- or need be, to win and die!

"The Kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and

the violent take it by force".

-Charles Finney

Sunday, January 25, 2009

01-26-09 Confidence

Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?"
Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.
And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me." Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!"
( John 11:40-43)

Many times this scripture in John 11 is looked at as one of the great miracles of Jesus, and I take nothing from that, because it truly was. What I would like to focus on today is what Jesus spoke to the Father - "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me”.

“Oh”, the relationship between the Father and Son in which no circumstance could create a distance. Many more miracles can happen in our time on this earth if we can just get a hold of this, because this is the “True Intersession” that we must all pursue. Only in a fervent relationship with the Father can we now have confidence that what we pray for will come to past, because we know He heard us.

Corey Russell stated this: Confidence is the word and the ministry of Intersession. Confidence is a settling on the inside of your ability before God, and your know ability of God, “your access to God and your knowledge of God”. Confidence brings settle-ness, peace and authority in prayer. Intersession is not about getting God’s attention about the injustices of the world, but Intersession is about God getting our attention about the injustices.

Today, can we come before the Throne in prayer and feel confident that God has heard us? Are we confident that we are filled with the knowledge of His will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding? Do we truly have a fervent relationship with God, in the spirit? Can we say, “And I know you always hear me”?

Blessings,
Larry

01-25-09 Do You Live A Chastened Life

And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: "MY SON, DO NOT DESPISE THE CHASTENING OF THE LORD, NOR BE DISCOURAGED WHEN YOU ARE REBUKED BY HIM;
FOR WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE CHASTENS, AND SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES."
If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?
But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. –HEB 12:5-8


The all-important matter in connection with Divine chastenings, so far as the Christian is concerned, is the spirit in which he receives them. Whether or not we "profit" from them, turns entirely on the exercises of our minds and hearts under them. The advantages or disadvantages which outward things bring to us, is to be measured by the effects they produce in us. Material blessings become curses if our souls are not the gainers thereby, while material losses prove benedictions if our spiritual graces are enriched therefrom. The difference between our spiritual impoverishment or our spiritual enrichment from the varied experiences of this life, will very largely be determined by our heart-attitude toward them, the spirit in which they are encountered, and our subsequent conduct under them. It is all summed up in that word "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he" (Prov. 23:7). –A.W. Pink-

Saturday, January 24, 2009

01-24-09 Eternal Life Support

Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
John 6:53,54


To know that you have been saved is not only that you claim to have made a confession, but, that you have died to the world, “self”. As you die to the things of this world you are now getting a “blood transfusion” and “new breath” is coming into you, and then you become alive in Christ. You now will become a transformed person of which you are not your own.

I like to refer to this as “Eternal Life Support”, The Blood of Jesus running through our veins, renewing us.

The old soul tyranny and disposition, the old selfish determination to seek our own ends, manifests itself in our body, through our blood; and when that disposition of soul is altered, the alteration shows itself at once in the blood also.
-Oswald Chambers-

Oswald Chambers also quotes: “The Ruling Disposition of the soul always shows itself in the blood, the physical blood. In every language, good blood and bad blood is referred to; merciful blood and tender blood, hot or cold blood, and this is based on Scriptural teaching. Jesus Christ insists on the fact that if we are His disciples it will be revealed in the blood, i.e., the physical life”.

Blessings,
Larry D

Friday, January 23, 2009

01-23-09 Examine Ourselves

Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
-Psa 139:23,24-

Are there chambers of the mind with unclean pictures hanging on them? Have we skeletons in the cupboards of our hearts? Can the Holy Ghost be invited to take us by the hand down the corridors of our souls? Are there not secret Springs, and secret Motives that control, and secret Chambers where polluted things hold empire over the soul?
There are three persons living in each of us: the one we think we are, the one other people think we are, and the one God knows we are.
-Leonard Ravenhill-

01-22-09 Authentic Identity in God

It is in the sometimes-difficult acceptance of our true inward condition, that we find the grace or “power” to overcome. For those who recognize they are “poor in spirit”, all the resources of Heaven are available! (Matt 5.3) God gives grace to those who acknowledge their need for Him (humility), but resists those who think that they don’t (pride). Whether voluntary or involuntary, the Lord’s desired outcome is that we would encounter Him there in the wilderness of our soul and our hearts would be changed to be like His – authentic in identity and “fully alive in love”.


John 8.32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.


Why is this important? Because we can only impart and multiply what we are- (Gen 1.11). When we operate in the “flesh, false self, old man”, we have no spiritual power to impart the life of Christ (John 15.1-8). Therefore, for our own good, God wants to remove these false identities that choke our hearts and reveal the truth of Christ in us (Gal 1.15-16; 2.20) by releasing genuine power to “turn our hearts” to the Truth, as we acknowledge our need for Him. We become, not only messengers with a message, but we embody the very message itself, “an authentic voice not merely and echo”, those with an overcoming testimony (Rev 12.11) that can give hope, strengthen faith and release true spiritual power as a catalyst to “turn the hearts” of others.


John 15.4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.