Perfect in weakness...

Whatever God requires of us He provides.

You think?

"My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me" (2 Corinthians 12:9).

"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh...casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:3,5).

Hard when you're hurting.

Thoughts on Thanksgiving

Thoughts on Thanksgiving | The Doctor Is In

Thanksgiving tells us that we have a higher purpose, a calling which draws us toward the divine, in order that His highest purposes are fully served. It tells us we are hopelessly handicapped in our pursuit of this noble calling, waylaid in wanton selfishness and frivolous foolishness, distracted from our goal by baubles and the banal. Indeed there is little hope of restoring our vision but by grace, by the gracious hand of God to guide, empower, and correct us. It is in this extraordinary reality that true gratitude is found, that we who have hated the good have, in spite of ourselves, been called back home, in forgiveness and with vision restored, to be made useful and purposeful again, to be made new.

This grace empowers gratitude, for it opens all things, both good and bad, to the possibility of redemption. For the good we may be grateful, not merely that it blesses us, but that it enables and empowers us to serve and give to others. Our trials and liabilities, too, become tools by which we may reassess and redirect our lives, growing in empathy for the suffering of others, and in trust in the inscrutable goodness and wisdom of God, who uses evil for good. Our thanksgiving is a celebration of freedom — the freedom to transform all things, whether good or evil, to the higher purposes of God.


Let us, then, be truly grateful this Thanksgiving, for the grace of redemption, the hope of transformation, and the mercy shown to us through Him who is most gracious.

Svenska Scripture

Luke 6:43-45 Ett bra träd kan aldrig bära dålig frukt, och ett dåligt träd kan aldrig bära bra frukt. Trädet känns igen på den frukt det bär. Man hittar inte fikon på tistlar eller vindruvor på törnbuskar. På samma sätt visar en god människas ord på den godhet som finns i hennes hjärta, medan en ond människas ord avslö...jar den ondska som finns inom henne. Munnen talar ju det som hjärtat är fullt av.

Love to try and figure out verses written in Swedish.

Isn't it amazing how God's Word is translated in different languages and more amazing that people are reading and God is working in them, through this Word in their language? God is good to all.

The Sword of Grace

What exactly is the nature of this transformation, this re-creation, which lays claim to a man in such mysterious manner? It is perhaps best described by what it is not.

It is not simply a change in thinking, a new perspective, a different set of opinions or a new worldview. If anything, the mind is the last bastion of resistance to its influence, and often the greatest enemy of the very change needed to transform the whole of one’s being.

It is not simply an emotional experience. Although emotions may be powerfully affected, emotions often serve to inhibit or distract from true progress, and are notoriously unreliable guides to its course.

It is not simply a change of the will, a setting of a new direction and discipline to achieve new goals and improve one’s life. The will, indeed, must be conquered, shackled, broken like a wild stallion to suit the purposes of this new Master. The will becomes but servant — rebellious, recalcitrant, resistant, remorseless, fighting its new overlord at every turn.

It is not simply a change of heart — although the heart lies closest to the seat of change, and senses its arrival before all else.

It is perhaps best described as a genesis; an arid fountainhead bursting forth with fresh spring water; an ancient stygian chamber shot through with dazzling shafts of light; a Phoenix arising from the ashes of the heart. There is a primordial recess in the soul of man, a silent sarcophagus unheralded and unseen, which springs to life like the burst of new flora at winter’s demise, when this dawn first breaks.

Thus is the experience of this new creation — but it is far more than mere renewal. It is as well — unexpectedly, surprisingly — a force of sedition with an unassailable foothold in a hostile land, seeking to undermine and overturn the tyranny of self with the sword of grace.

We are now at war. “I have come, not to bring peace, but the sword.”

Its effects are immediate, and often profound. There is a new vision, a grasp of things formerly hidden, a new light disclosing much which was cloaked in darkness, a profound and unbounded joy of discovery, and purpose, and optimism.

The Sword of Grace | The Doctor Is In

(The good Doctor has hit the mark of what it is to be a new-creature in Christ. Alleluia! Alleluia! How wonderful when we apprehend it even a little. It is spiritually discerned and out of reach of the atheist thinking...in fact the atheist mind seems puny and small. Thank you, Dr. Bob. -Linda)

Have I forgotten?

- If I can’t forgive then I have forgotten where I came from. I did not deserve to be forgiven by a Holy God, but I was.

- When I look with disdain at another person I have forgotten where I came from. That person is made in the image of God and deserves my respect.

- When I don’t accept another brother or sister I have forgotten that I was unacceptable to a Holy God. Jesus said you are acceptable because of Me. We must offer the same grace because of Jesus.

- When I can’t serve without expectation of personal return I have forgotten where I came from. If I remember where I came from I will serve because I am grateful for what Christ did for me.

- When I don’t give joyfully of my time and treasure I have forgotten where I came from. If you truly understand where you came from the natural response is to serve Him joyfully.

I don’t want to forget where I came from both as a person and as a child of God. My small town roots are a big part of who I am. And my encounter with grace at the foot of the Cross defines who I am spiritually. I pray that I will remember every day who I am and where Jesus brought me from.

“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”
--C. S. Lewis

(From Dave Burchett, World Magazine article.)

Divine love . . .

"Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned" (Song of Solomon 8:7 KJV).

Many waters, or floods cannot extinguish God's love which is pictured as "coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame" in verse six.

cannot quench = earthly things cannot destroy that which is divine.

"Many waters cannot quench the flame of love, neither can the floods drown it. If a man tried to buy it with everything he owned, he couldn't do it" (TLB).

Can't buy me love...Beatles

"But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).

Holy Ghost

Furthermore, the Holy Spirit is given so that "we ordinary mortals can become, in a measure, what Jesus himself was: part of God's future arriving in the present; a place where heaven and earth meet; the means of God's kingdom going ahead".

The Spirit is given so that we might "share in the life and continuing work of Jesus himself," and "to begin the work of making God's future real in the present." This Spirit "comes to us from that new world, the world waiting to be born," so that to live as a Christian is "to live by the rules of God's future world, even as we are continuing to live within the present one." Which is why Paul "speaks of the Spirit as the guarantee or down-payment of what is to come." He actually uses the Greek word for "engagement ring," as "a sign in the present for what is to come in the future."
One Cosmos: Timelessness Takes Time

Olivia, our 3 1/2 year old grand-daughter, told me about the Holy Ghost today...we were talking about Jesus being with His Father in heaven for real, but He lives in us too. She then spoke of the Holy Ghost living in us.

Mom and Dad or church-school is doing a great job.

All we need is love...

"The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee" (Jeremiah 31:3).

"Remember, O LORD, Thy tender mercies and Thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old" (Psalm 25:6).

Prayer - - My Declaration of Dependence.

Praying Ephesians 1:15-23:

Heavenly Father,

In the name of Jesus Christ,

I praise and thank You for all of the spiritual blessings you have given me, in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus .

I thank You for accepting me in the Beloved, and that You have redeemed and forgiven me of all my sins; past, present, and future.

I praise You for abounding toward me in wisdom and foresight as well as revealing the mystery of Your will.

I thank You for giving me an inheritance in Jesus Christ and sealing me with Your Holy Spirit unto the day of redemption.

Open the eyes of my understanding that I might fully comprehend and appreciate the hope of Your calling.

Help me to understand the riches and glory and the exceeding greatness of Your power toward me because I believe that Jesus Christ died, was buried, and rose again in payment of my sin.

Thank You for giving me a position in Your exalted Son.

Amen

The Inner Man

Praying The Powerful Prayers Of Paul
(my notes from Pastor Bryan Ross message)

“That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man" (Ephesians 3:16).

grant = give
riches of His glory = grace never runs out
strengthened = made strong
Spiritual strength with might = power
by His spirit = Holy Spirit
in the inner man = in our soul and spirit;
not in the outward man = our flesh and senses, our temporary tent
unsaved = body, soul and spirit but the spirit is dead
saved = body, soul and spirit is alive unto God

How do we know we are saved?
Essence with essence - God’s spirit with our spirit (2 Corinthians 1:22). “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God“ (Romans 6:16 ).

The power of God is in the transforming message for everyone
to be changed from death unto life.

“For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe" (1Thessalonians 2:13).

Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost (Romans 15:13).

If you had your choice to be healthy, wealthy, and all your wants realized in this present world, or to be “strengthened with all might, according to His (God’s) glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness(Colossians 1:11) in the inner man" -- which would you choose?

With patience and meekness...

Master, we would no longer be
At home in that which hated Thee,
But patient in Thy footsteps go,
Thy sorrow as Thy joy to know;
We would-and O confirm the power-
With meekness meet the darkest hour,
By shame, contempt however tried,
For Thou wast scorned and crucified.

J. G. Deck, quoted in William MacDonald, Worlds Apart

Faith, hope and love abides...

We live in a troubled place, and we have to choose sides. To do so with intelligence, we have to risk something. But the alternative is cowardice or betrayal.

No, time is not dishonest. It is brutal in its wisdom. It separates seed from seed, and it shows who has finished the race and who has turned away. Harsh and necessary truths, which none of us in the field may know before the proper time.

So it must be for our little ones as well. One of the few certainties in life is that pain is coming. How we would thrust ourselves between them and the hardship that awaits them. How we would take their fate into ourselves if we could. What deal wouldn't we make? We tear open our organs that God might show mercy -- our senses pour out their humours and something in us must be melting -- like fat over the flames of an altar. Is God moved? What dignity wouldn't we shed in our begging that those we love be spared? But they are not spared. There is only one salvation, and that is by way of a cross.

We don't need a God who passes by. Such a God might as well be made of stone, for all he hears. We need the God who comes up along side of us, and who stops and abides a while. We need the God who loves little children. We need the God who weeps.

From: FORGOTTEN PROPHETS

No matter what befalls in this life; faith, hope, and love abides unabated (I Corinthians 13:13). This is why we can rejoice over the coming of a new life. I will rejoice and be glad.

TUNING PIANOS

Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow.

So one hundred worshippers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become "unity" conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.

--A.W. Tozer

God Is Able

" our sufficiency is of God; who also hath made us able ministers ...not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. (II Corinthians 3:5,6)

"...God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye always having all sufficiency is all things, may abound to every good work" (II Corinthians 9:8).

"Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." (Ephesians 3:20-21).

"...our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself (Philippians 3:21).

"Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers" i.e.those who contradict or dispute (Titus 1.9).

God is able.

God has made us able.

This is encouragement for our every circumstance.