Francois Fenelon wrote to a counselee:

"Evil circumstances are changed into good when they are received with an enduring trust in the love of God, while good circumstances may be changed into evil when we become attached to them through the love of self. Nothing in us or around us is truly good until we become detached from the world and totally abandoned to God. So, even though you are now in these bad circumstances put yourself confidently and without reserve into His hand. I would give anything to see you in better circumstances. But if evil circumstances have taught you to be sick of the love of the world, then that is good. The love of self, which the world advocates, is a thousand times more dangerous than any poison."

A baseball umpire was asked one day when it was that he determined that a pitch was a ball or strike: was it when the ball initially came over the plate or was it where the ball finally hit the catcher's mitt? His response? It doesn't matter where the ball comes over the plate at or where it hits the catcher's mitt, the pitch is nothing, he said - neither ball nor strike - "until I say that it is a ball or strike!" Serving God isn't so much about keeping a checklist of things that I can or can't do - 'Well, I didn't cuss today, or smoke today, or kill somebody today, so I must be a christian' - and still be okay with God and have my place reserved in heaven. Serving God is about falling in love with Him to the degree that we cannot live without His smile. And, to attain this smile, we want Him to dictate His desires - knowing that what He desires He will bring about in my life, for without Him I can do nothing - for every aspect of my life. 'You tell me, God, what is right, what is pleasing to Yourself, and what is wrong - in me, to me, and for me. More and more Father, make me a living sacrifice to Yourself: holy - and wholly - acceptable in your sight!'

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'Nothing so reveals defective spiritual life . . . as the lack of believing and unceasing prayer. Prayer is in very deed the pulse of spiritual life. It is the great means of bringing . . . the blessing and power of heaven. Persevering and believing prayer means a strong and an abundant life' Andrew Murray

And what is the essence of prayer? Believing - and telling God that you believe - that He is going to do in every situation in our lives everything that He promises to do in His Word. I am praying right now for some financial help -as are a zillion other people in this world. Nowhere does it say in the Bible that: 'Steve Mounts' financial need will be taken care of in this way at this time or in this manner.' What is promised is that, if we have put our faith and confidence in Jesus as our Savior, 'He will supply all of our need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus' Phil. 4:19. I believe, then, that I can go to God and say, 'Father, You know I have this financial need and I believe on the basis of this promise that in Your way - which is the right way - and at Your time - which is the right time - You will give me what I need. I believe that prayer is claiming a promise from God's Word and allowing Him to define for us what that promise means in the details of our lives. As we consistently come to God as we are told to do and, through His grace, peacefully wait for Him to do for us what we really need for Him to do, we can be confident that He will hear us and intervene in our lives and save us as we must have Him to do - FOR HE HAS PROMISED, AND HE DOESN'T LIE!

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'Today God is calling his Church back to worship. This can be seen in high church circles where there is a renewed interest in intimacy with God. It can be seen in low church circles where there is a new interest in liturgy. It can be seen everywhere in between these two. It is as if God is saying, "I want the hearts of my people back!" And if we long to go where God is going and do what God is doing, we will move into deeper, more authentic worship.' Richard J. Foster

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Many, many years ago my wife and I attended a church conference in the state of North Dakota. One of the sessions at this gathering dealt with the power of prayer. At one point in the proceedings we were each asked to share with the group some personal example of God's gracious movement in our own lives. Great testimonies of salvation, spiritual victory, financial help, and God's power were shared and enjoyed by all. When it came her turn, we listened as a young mother - tears streaming down her face - asked this question: 'Do you think that the God you all are talking about - with all these great things that He is doing - can help my little boy stop wetting the bed?' As we took special time to pray for this mother and her frustrating situation, our leader said to her: 'Ma'am, bed-wetting problems arn't to big - or to small - for our God. He just wants us to come to Him.' I believe our leader was spot-on correct. Anything that bothers God's children bothers Him. His response: COME!
Commenting on Hebrews 4:16 -

"Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."

- James Montgomery Boice shares:

"Because of who God is and what Jesus Christ has done in dying for us, changing the throne of judgment into a throne of grace, we who trust Christ are to draw near the throne of grace in confidence. If we came in our own merit, we could have no confidence at all. The throne of God would be a place of terror. But since God has done what was needed to take away all judgment for our sin, it is now sin for us to come in any other way but with confidence. If we come in confidence, we can come knowing that God will do exactly what the author of Hebrews says he will do and we will indeed 'find grace to help us in our time of need' - Whatever our need may be! Do you seek forgiveness for sin? You will find God's grace forgiving you for every sin. Do you need strength for daily living: You will find the grace of God providing strength. Do you need comfort because of some great loss? God will provide comfort. Direction for some important decision? You will receive direction. Encouragement? You will receive encouragement. Wisdom? That too."

I believe that God's grace for us is not just for heaven, but that it includes our needs, concerns, fears, pain, joys, desires, goals, and ambitions right now. Jesus cares - Come to Him!

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Commenting on Ephesians 2:4-6:

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved - and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." ESV

Frederick Buechner writes:

"We think of Eternal life, if we think of it at all, as what happens when life ends (here). We would do better to think of it as what happens when life begins. St. Paul uses the phrase Eternal Life to describe the end and goal of the process of salvation. Elsewhere he writes the same thing in a remarkable sentence in which he says that the whole purpose of God's slogging around through the muck of history and of our own individual histories is somehow to prod us, jolly us, worry us, cajole us, and if need be, bludgeon us into reaching 'mature manhood . . . the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13). In other words, to live Eternal Life in the full and final sense is to be with God as Christ is with him, and with each other as Christ is with us."

And, though there is a literal heaven to gain that Jesus and the Apostles and the Scriptures speak of, it is also just as true that if I right now 'am walking in the light as He is in the light and Christ's blood is cleansing me from all sin,' then I am having unbroken fellowship with Him and heaven - or as much as I can know of it down here on this earth - has begun for heaven is Jesus - in this life and the next - and fellow shipping with Him.

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Michael Green writes:

'The miracles are pictures of what Jesus offers to do in the human heart. His opening the eyes of a blind beggar, Bartimaeus, is a picture of the new vision He offers to us all. His healing of paralyzed people is a picture of the new power He makes available to those who put their lives in His hand. His turning of water into wine shows how He can change the ordinary drudgery of life into high-octane living. His feeding of the multitude shows how He longs to be the bread that satisfies the believer's heart. His raising of Lazareus from the grave points to His ultimate offer: to give new and eternal life to all who trust themselves to Him. That is one of the main reasons why Jesus worked miracles. He wanted to make concrete before the imaginations of His contemporaries (and their successors) the spiritual revolution He was (and is) longing to bring about in their lives.'

It is a basic fact of God's operational plan with man that, though He will accept anybody who will come to Him seeking mercy and salvation in Jesus just as they are, He will immediately begin changing them into the people He wants them to be. He will make the thief honest, the hater loving, the hard and cold person loving, kind, and forgiving. Through the Presence and power of His Holy Spirit He will - day by day, step by step, issue by issue - changes us into the image of Jesus. And I believe that the first thing He begins to change is our desires in this whole process. He makes us who - in our natural, sinful state want nothing more in life than our own way - to want more and more to be like Christ -finally, at whatever cost. That is a revolution indeed.

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