We are not only to sing the doxology...

 We are not only to sing the doxology,
but to be the doxology.

...Francis A. Schaeffer image

Cultivate a thankful spirit!

Cultivate a thankful spirit! It will be to thee a perpetual feast. There is, or ought to be, with us no such thing as small mercies; all are great, because the least are undeserved. Indeed a really thankful heart will extract motive for gratitude from everything, making the most even of scanty blessings.
...JR MacDuff image

Revival cannot be organized...

Revival cannot be organized, but we can set our sails to catch the wind from heaven when God chooses to blow upon His people once again. ...G. Campbell Morgan image

True worship is not about me...

True worship is not about me. It is not about my knowledge, my experience, my healing, my empowerment. True worship proclaims and enacts the narrative of God's story. It is about the God of character, the God who is just, righteous, holy, merciful, and loving. It is about the God who acts, the God who creates a good world, the God who mourns over a world gone astray, the God who rescues the world-not by power but by weakness. It is about the God who cannot be contained in all the heavens, yet became contained in the womb of the Virgin Mary, born of her the Savior of the world. Worship is about the God who does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. It thankfully remembers how God became incarnate as the second Adam to reverse the human situation. He who knew no sin became one of us, and took on the consequence of our sin, death. By death he destroyed death, restored the nature of humanity, and opened the way to heaven. ...Robert Webber
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Prayer is something deeper than words...

Prayer is something deeper than words. It is present in the soul before it has been formulated into words. And it abides in the soul after the last words of prayer have passed over our lips. 

Prayer is an attitude of our hearts, an attitude of mind. Prayer is a definite attitude of our hearts toward God, an attitude which He in heaven immediately recognizes as prayer, as an appeal to His heart. Whether it takes the form of words or not, does not mean anything to God, only to ourselves.
...O. Hallesby image

Unless we know the difference between flowers and weeds...

Unless we know the difference between flowers and weeds, we are not fit to take care of a garden. It is not enough to have truth planted in our minds. We must learn and labor to keep the ground clear of thorns and briars, follies and perversities, which have a wicked propensity to choke the word of life. ...Clyde Francis Lytle image

Meditation: Seven Ways to Pray for Your Heart

by Jon Bloom
July 19, 2013

Over the years, as I’ve prayed for my own heart, I’ve accumulated seven “D’s” that I have found helpful. Maybe you’ll find them helpful as well. With seven you can use them a number of ways.

You might choose one “D” per day. Or you could choose one “D” as a theme for a week and pray through these every seven weeks. You’ll also note that I have a verse for each prayer. But over time as you pray more verses will come to mind and you might find it helpful to collect them so they are right at hand as the Spirit leads.

I begin each prayer with the phrase “whatever it takes, Lord” because the Bible teaches us to be bold and wholehearted in our praying, not reticent. I also use the phrase because it tests my heart. How much do I want God and all he promises to be for me in Jesus? Do I really want true joy enough to ask for my Father’s loving discipline to wean me from joy-stealing sin? And how much do I trust him? Do I really believe that he will only give me what is good when I ask in faith (Luke 11:11–13)? “Whatever it takes” prayers help me press toward and express childlike trust in the Father... Here-excellent!  image

Father, I want to know Thee...

Father, I want to know Thee, but my coward heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide from Thee the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but I do come. Please root from my heart all those things which I have cherished so long and which have become a very part of my living self, so that Thou mayest enter and dwell there without a rival. Then shalt Thou make the place of Thy feet glorious. Then shall my heart have no need of the sun to shine in it, for Thyself wilt be the light of it, and there shall be no night there. In Jesus Name, Amen. ...AW Tozer image

Friday Meditation: So You Want To Sin, Do You?

So  you want to sin, do you? I get that. I’ve been there. I've been there today. And yesterday. And the day before. Can I beg just four or five minutes of your time? Then you can go and sin all you want. But first I want you to read just a few words and take a moment to consider them.

Consider, Christian, that Christ came from his Father’s side, where he had existed eternally, to this world of sorrow and death; that God himself was manifested in the flesh, the Creator made a creature; that he who was clothed with glory would now be clothed with mortal flesh; he who filled heaven and earth with his glory would be cradled in a manger; that the almighty God would flee from weak man—the God of Israel escaping into Egypt; that the God of the law would become subject to the law, the God of the circumcision circumcised, the God who made the heavens and earth laboring with Joseph as a small-town carpenter...  
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Jesus! where’er thy people meet...

Jesus! where’er thy people meet,

There they behold thy mercy-seat;

Where’er they seek thee, thou art found,

And every place is hallow’d ground.
 

Dear Shepherd of thy chosen few!

Thy former mercies here renew;

Here to our waiting hearts proclaim

The sweetness of thy saving name.

...William Cowper image

Oh, just as a mother’s love covers her children...

God keep me from saying anything that would be unloving; God shut my mouth if I am not to speak in tender love. But what I am saying is a fact. How often there is found among Christians who are banded together in work, sharp criticism, sharp judgment, hasty opinion, unloving words, secret contempt of each other, secret condemnation of each other. Oh, just as a mother’s love covers her children and delights in them and has the tenderest compassion with their foibles or failures, so there ought to be in the heart of every believer a motherly love toward every brother and sister in Christ. Have you aimed at that? Have you sought it? Have you ever pleaded for it? ...Andrew Murray image

When prayer is a struggle...

When prayer is a struggle, do not worry about the prayers that you cannot pray. You yourself are a prayer to God at that moment. All that is within you cries out to Him. And he hears all the pleas that your suffering soul and body are making to Him with groanings which cannot be uttered. ...O. Hallesby image 

It is a great deal better to live a holy life...

It is a great deal better to live a holy life than to talk about it. Lighthouses do not ring bells and fire cannons to call attention to their shining-they just shine. ...Dwight L Moody image

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord...

Let all the earth fear the Lord;

let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!

For he spoke, and it came to be;

he commanded, and it stood firm.
 

The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;

he frustrates the plans of the peoples.

The counsel of the Lord stands forever,

the plans of his heart to all generations.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,

the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!
 

The Lord looks down from heaven;

he sees all the children of man;

from where he sits enthroned he looks out

on all the inhabitants of the earth,

he who fashions the hearts of them all

and observes all their deeds.

The king is not saved by his great army;

a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.

The war horse is a false hope for salvation,

and by its great might it cannot rescue.
 

Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,

on those who hope in his steadfast love,

that he may deliver their soul from death

and keep them alive in famine.
 

Our soul waits for the Lord;

he is our help and our shield.

For our heart is glad in him,

because we trust in his holy name.

Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,

even as we hope in you.

-Psalm 33:8-22  image

Righteousness exalts a nation,
    but sin is a reproach to any people.
-Proverbs 14:34

Lord, what a change within us one short hour...

Lord, what a change within us one short hour
Spent in Thy presence will prevail to make!
What heavy burdens from our bosoms take,
What parched ground refresh as with a shower!
We kneel, and all around us seems to lower;
We rise, and all, the distant and the near,
Stands forth in sunny outline brave and clear;
We kneel, how weak! we rise, how full of power!
Why, therefore, should we do ourselves this wrong,
Or other, that we are not always strong,
That we are ever overborne with care,
That we should ever weak or heartless be,
Anxious or troubled, when with us is prayer,
And joy and strength and courage are with Thee!
... Richard Chevenix Trench image

Look to Jesus and believe...

Keep your eye steadily fixed on the infinite grandeur of Christ's finished work and righteousness. Look to Jesus and believe, look to Jesus and live! Nay, more; as you look to him, hoist your sails and buffet manfully the sea of life. Do not remain in the haven of distrust, or sleeping on your shadows in inactive repose, or suffering your frames and feelings to pitch and toss on one another like vessels idly moored in a harbor. The religious life is not a brooding over emotions, grazing the keel of faith in the shallows, or dragging the anchor of hope through the oozy tide mud as if afraid of encountering the healthy breeze. Away! With your canvas spread to the gale, trusting in Him, who rules the raging of the waters.
...JR Macduff image

O for a closer walk with God,,,

O for a closer walk with God,
A calm and heavenly frame,
A light to shine upon the road
That leads me to the Lamb.

Return, O holy Dove, return,
Sweet messenger of rest!
I hate the sins that made Thee mourn
And drove Thee from my breast.

The dearest idol I have known,
Whate'er that idol be,
Help me to tear it from Thy throne,
And worship only Thee.

So shall my walk be close with God,
Calm and serene my frame;
So purer light shall mark the road
That leads me to the Lamb.... William Cowper image

We judge of things by their present appearances...

I can hardly recollect a single plan of mine, of which I have not since seen reason to be satisfied, that had it taken place in season and circumstance just as I proposed, it would, humanly speaking, have proved my ruin; or at least it would have deprived me of the greater good the Lord had designed for me. We judge of things by their present appearances, but the Lord sees them in their consequences, if we could do so likewise we should be perfectly of His mind; but as we cannot, it is an unspeakable mercy that He will manage for us, whether we are pleased with His management or not; and it is spoken of as one of his heaviest judgements, when He gives any person or people up to the way of their own hearts, and to walk after their own counsels. ...John Newton image