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When God Takes You Off Your Throne
It’s not easy to be your own God. Think of all the variables you must foresee, have access to, manipulate and mold to your best interest. It’s a heavy task. So heavy, in fact, you will be emotionally and spiritually spent at the end of most days. You will sink onto your sofa for some distraction, take something to help you sleep, and wake up the next day with the same dilemma: If I can’t trust God, I have to trust myself. But wait! Because you are the Lord’s beloved, the day will come when He relieves you of those fragile substitutes. One by one, they must be exposed for…
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“Take My Yoke Upon You,” Matt 11:29
The Yoke You Can Give Up Yokes speak of confinement, heaviness, work. But what of the yoke described in Matthew 11:29 as “easy, light, and restful”? Is this a yoke from a different world? A yoke which is beyond our experience today? Right here? Right now? No. It’s ours and it’s ours right now, today. This is the yoke offered by Christ to all of His followers. This yoke takes hold of the mind of Christ as eagerly as Jacob took the firstborn’s birthright. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that a freely…
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You’re a Jacob Not an Esau
You know you’re different. From the beginning, you made your relationship with God number one. You wanted HIM and everything else paled in comparison. The depth of your love made you feel different from others but, How can anyone be lukewarm toward such a God? You’re a Jacob. You want what every firstborn wants: His kingdom come. Don’t feel bad that you held Esau’s heel. Don’t feel bad that the Esau’s around you despise their birthright. You’re a Jacob. You fight for your blessing! Even if the fight takes all night long. Your passion, your desire to know Him blesses Him; He loves Jacobs! “He shall choose our inheritance for…
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The Mind of Christ During Difficulties
Facing a trial with the Mind of Christ invites us into a dimension of glory foreign to our knowledge of good and evil. This glimpse into the eternal value of what we are suffering can set us above the landscape with its rocks and thorns. Remember when Satan tempted the suffering Jesus in the wilderness? None of his appeals to the flesh had any power when up against the Mind of Christ. In Christ, The Sum of All Spiritual Things, Watchman Nee describes what it is like to face obstacles with The Mind of Christ: “In 1923 I was invited to preach in a certain city. I took a small…
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One Foot Planted in the Dust of the Soul, John Wright Follette
Growth. The process is often not what we expect. It helps to smile at our dustiness. John Wright Follette expresses this masterfully in, Fruit of the Land: “. . . at times it is quite overwhelming for a soul tabernacling in a house of dust. A bit of truth like that was too overwhelming for my dust. God said, ‘Remember you are made of dust.’ I said, Thank You.’ He said, ‘Remember that you are made of dust; and since you are made of dust I will reveal Myself to you in a form to suit your need as dust. I am you Heavenly Father. I said, ‘Thank You. Now…
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Hebrews 4 Sabbatism: The Rest Which Is Christ
Imagine a Sabbath which is not temporal: not a day, not a practice, not a law. Imagine a Sabbath Who is a Person. Imagine this Person has given His wholeness in place of your brokenness. Imagine this Person says His work is finished. Imagine this Person is Your God. This is the rest which is Sabbatism. “There remains then a sabbatism to the people of God. For he that has entered into his rest, he also has rested from his works, as God did from his own. Let us therefore use diligence to enter into that rest, that no one may fall after the same example of not hearkening to…
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The Power of the Comforter in the Body of Christ
If your summer has been like mine, it has unleashed trials, many severe, in the lives of many of your friends and relatives. Human comfort is helpful and necessary and the Body of Christ knows how to comfort because they know The Comforter. The Holy Spirit LOVES to comfort. It’s His nature. Let Him speak through you and you will find your words can be like a warm, embracing blanket. When words don’t come, don’t worry. Often, His presence through you is fully enough. Go forward and trust His comfort flowing through you. Binsey, Administrator of Tree Thoughts. “Return to the battle again, no longer trusting in the false and…
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Lovely Lion of Judah, Dedicated to Judah Immanuel Miley
“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.” Isaiah 11:6 In the Spirit, Love allows us to unlearn what we think we know about the natural order of life. We can trust Him because He IS our Life. Hidden within the Lion of Judah is the Lamb of God who did more eternal work with His hands and feet nailed down than any man had ever done. Love’s eternal works are hidden beneath the most painful, the most trying, the most loss. All…
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Perpetual Filling, A. B. Simpson
“Christ is not a reservoir but a spring. His life is continual, active and ever passing on with an outflow as necessary as its inflow. If we do not perpetually draw the fresh supply from the living Fountain, we shall either grow stagnant or empty, It is, therefore, not so much a perpetual fullness as a perpetual filling.” A. B. Simpson Please follow and like us:
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You Are Not a Victim, Kay Arthur
“In any trial, in any bitter situation, you are not alone, you are not helpless, you are not a victim. You have a tree, a cross, shown to you by the Sovereign God of Calvary. Whatever the trial or temptation, it is not more than you can bear. It is bearable. It can be handled. You can know as Joseph knew, ‘You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive’ (Genesis 50:20).” Kay Arthur (1933-present) Please follow and like us:
