"Be sure that the ins and outs of your individuality are no mystery to Him; and one day they will no linger be a mystery to you. The mold in which a key is made would be a strange thing, if you had never seen a key: and the key itself a strange thing if you had never seen a lock. Your soul has a curious shape because it is a hollow made to fit a particular swelling in the infinite contours of the divine substance, or a key to unlock one of the doors in the house with many mansions. For it is not humanity in the abstract that is to be saved, but you - you, the individual reader, John Stubbs or Janet Smith. Blessed and fortunate creature, your eyes shall behold Him . . . Your place in heaven will seem to be made for you and you alone, because you were made for it - made for it stitch by stitch as a glove is made for a hand. C. S. Lewis

Read full post >>

Your heart means far more to Christ than anything. That your heart is utterly taken with Christ is more important (to Him) than any amount of service you could render or rules you could keep . . . God wants to completely captivate your heart and cause it to burn with passion for Him. It is His absolute priority for you . . . Beth Moore

Read full post >>

Oh! you people that today hear the words of Jesus! you are now this day invited to come to the mountain of his church on which stands his cross and his throne. You weary, heavy laden, sin-destroyed, sin-ruined souls; you that know and feel your need of Jesus; you that weep because of sin; you are bidden to come now to Christ's cross, to look to him who shed his blood for the ungodly, and looking to him, you shall find peace and rest; so that when he comes with rainbow wreath and robes of storm, you shall be able to see him not with alarm and terror, but with joy and gladness. For you shall say, 'Here he is, the man who died for me has come to claim me, he who bought me has come to receive me; my judge is my Redeemer, and I will rejoice in him.' O Lord Jesus! by your grace turn every one of us to yourself!
Charles Spurgeon

Read full post >>

"When any of us has presented his best prayer before God, if he saw it as God sees it, he would lament over it. For there is enough sin in the best prayer that was ever prayed to secure its being cast away from God. But our King does not maintain a stately etiquette in His court like that which has been observed by princes, where a little mistake or a flaw would secure the petitioner's being dismissed with disgrace. No, the faulty cries of His children are not criticized. Our Lord Jesus Christ takes care to alter and amend every prayer before He presents it. and He makes the prayer perfect and prevalent with His own merits. God looks upon the prayer as presented through Christ and forgives all its own inherent faultiness. How this ought to encourage any of us who feel ourselves to be feeble, wandering, and unskillful in prayer. If you feel as if somehow or other you have grown rusty in the act of supplication, never give up, but come still, come more often, for it is a throne of grace (not a throne of justice) to which you come." Charles H. Spurgeon

Paul wrote to the church at Rome: ". . . the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will" Rom. 8:26-27 Brothers and sisters, we need to truly 'pray without ceasing' or, to put it another way, we should continue to take every issue in our lives to God. Thankyou, Lord, for letting me 'come (humbly) but boldly to Your throne of grace' in the name of Jesus, knowing that I and all my concerns will not be kicked out as being inappropriate. What is inappropriate is not to come.

Read full post >>

As we enjoy the Thanksgiving season, and all the blessings that God has given to us, Johnathan Edwards, commenting on John 6:35 - 'Jesus replied, "I am the bread of life. No one who comes to me will ever be hungry again. Those who believe in me will never thirst." - shares these thoughts:

"The excellency of Christ is such, that the discovery of it is exceedingly contenting and satisfying to the soul . . . This excellency of Jesus Christ is the suitable food of the . . . soul. The soul that comes to Christ, feeds upon this, and lives upon it; it is that bread which came down from heaven, of which he that eats shall not die; it is angels' food, it is that wine and milk that is given without money, and without price. This is that fatness in which the believing soul delights itself; here the longing soul may be satisfied, and the hungry souls may be filled with goodness. The delight and contentment that is to be found here, passeth understanding, and is unspeakable and full of glory."

Daily I need to ask God to remind me that, though His specific blessings are gracious and bountiful - a great family, many close friends, satisfying material benefits, etc. - I do not serve Him for these - I do not serve Him to 'Git!' - I serve Him for Him. Paul to the church at Phillipi:

"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes form the law, but that which is through faith in Christ - the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead." Philippians 2:7-11 NIV

What I need to remember this Thanksgiving season - and every season, for that matter, is that in Christ I have all that I need - spiritually, physically, emotionally, financially - any '...ally' that you can think of. The Spirit reminds us from Paul's writings to the Church at Rome: "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with Christ, graciously give us all things?' Rom. 8:32 Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!

Read full post >>

A great word today from the pages of church history - Pope Leo I - about what it means for 'church work' - the church and any individual church, and any and all individual Christians - for we are all individually the church - when God the Holy Spirit is allowed to have His way with and in us:

"It is great and very precious in the Lord's sight, beloved, when all of Christ's people work together at the same duties and every rank and degree of both sexes cooperates with the same intent. How wonderful it is when one purpose motivates everyone to stay away from evil and do good. How excellent it is when God is glorified in His followers' work and the Author of godliness is blessed by heartfelt gratitude. The hungry are nourished, the naked are clothed, the sick are visited. People don't seek their own interests but 'that which is another's', as long as they make the most of their own means to relieve others' misery . . . In such a community there isn't disorder or diversity for the members of the whole body agree on their one purpose - godliness . . . For the excellence of every person's portion is the glory of the whole body. When we are all led by God's Spirit, we rejoice not only over the things we do on our own but also the things others do."

Read full post >>

I don't know about you, but I need to continue to ask God just what does it mean to be a follower of Christ's? This morning God spoke to me through the writing of Rob Bell:

"For thousands of years followers of Jesus, like artists, have understood that we have to keep going, exploring what it means to live in harmony with God and each other. The Christian faith tradition is filled with change and growth and transformation. Jesus took part in this process by calling people to rethink faith and the Bible and hope and love and everything else, and by inviting them into the endless process of working out how to live as God created us to live. The challenge for Christians then is to live with great passion and conviction, remaining open and flexible . . . Times change. God doesn't, but times do. We learn and grow, and the world around us shifts, and the Christian faith is alive only when it is listening, morphing, innovating, letting go of whatever has gotten in the way of Jesus and embracing whatever will help us be more and more the people God wants us to be."

Father, as never before in my life, I need You today to define for me what it means to follow You as my Lord and King; to let me know in no uncertain terms if there is anything - any preconceived notion, any closely-held tradition, any jealously-guarded thought, idea, habit, attitude, desire, goal, or treasure that is 'in the way' between You and me. You are God in my life and must be; please make it so today. In Jesus' Name - Steve

Read full post >>

The slothful man loses both this world and the next; for he bears no fruit and he profits not another. It is impossible for a man to gain virtue without diligence and great toil. When you can abide in a safe place, do not stand in a perilous place: he abides in a safe place who strives and suffers and works and toils through God, and for the Lord God, not through fear or punishment, or for a price, but for love of God . . . St. Francis of Assisi

And the good news of the gospel is that God the Holy Spirit will put this love in our hearts in ever-increasing measure if and as we ask Him to. God the Holy Spirit will take away our innate spiritual laziness and selfishness by first making us aware of our sinful, slovernly selves; by then putting a desire in our hearts for spiritual zest and desire for God; and by then causing us to realize that we have but to ask for God to begin building this 'thirsting after righteousness' that is so pleasing to our Father and that really is the essence of the Holy, Christ-filled, authentic Christian life. Any demand that God makes of us - even the demand to desire Him - He fills. This is grace - This is salvation!

Read full post >>

I received this from a friend here in Fresno and like it very much.

'Our vocation, our mission in life, our "one thing" is simply to know Jesus Christ; to walk in union and communion with Him; making the knowledge and pursuit of Him our one consuming obsession. As Paul stated

"For to me, to live is Christ . . . Christ . . . is your life' (Phil. 1:21a; Col 3:4b)

Possessed by this singular passion, He will begin transforming us into His likeness as evidenced by purity of heart, compassion, gentleness, humility, and sacrificial service to others.

Father, if You and loving You and seeking You and serving You - despite all my weaknesses and sinfulness - is not the main pursuit and desire of my life right now, please change me and make it so - for I cannot help myself! Help me to want more, and more, and more of You. In Jesus' Name, Steve

Read full post >>

I think that it must be a never-ceasing element of a believer's life of faith, growth and maturity to continue to ask God to show him what it truly means to be 'Christian.' What is this "I-am-dead-and-my-life-is-hid-with-Christ-in-God" life all about, anyway? One of the most important reasons that God wants us to meet with Him on a daily basis - in His Word and in Prayer and worship - is that He wants to show us individually, today, whoever we are and wherever we might find ourselves in life, just what it means to walk with Him. Recently I had a great 'reawakening moment' as I read this thought from Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

"We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God, who will thwart our plans and frustrate our ways time and again, even daily, by sending people across our path with their demands and requests. We can, then, pass them by, preoccupied with our more important daily tasks, just as the priest - perhaps reading the Bible - passed by the man who had fallen among robbers (Luke 10:31). When we do that, we pass by the visible sign of the cross raised in our lives to show us that God's way, and not our own, is what counts. It is a strange fact that, of all people, Christians and theologians often consider their work so important and urgent that they do not want to let anything interrupt it. They think they are doing God a favor, but actually they are despising God's 'crooked yet straight path' (Gofffried Arnold). They want to know nothing about how human plans are thwarted. But it is part of the school of humility that we must not spare our hand where it can perform a service. We do not manage our time ourselves but allow it to be occupied by God.

Father, again I thank you for reminding me that my task today is not to establish my way of doing things and then enlist Your aid, support, and Presence to go with me. Rather, it is my job, totally through the Spirt's strength and leadership, to find out which way You are going and to go with You. Father, interrupt me anytime You like. Show me what my true priorities are anytime and in anyway that You choose. Today, like Samuel in the Old Testament, help me to say 'Speak, Lord, for Your servant in listening' whenever You call to me. In Jesus' Name, Steve

Read full post >>