May the fiery and sweet strength of Thy love...

May the fiery and sweet strength of Thy love, I pray Thee, O my Lord, absorb my soul, and make all things under heaven as nothing unto me, that for the love of Thy love I may die, as Thou didst deign to die for love of mine. Amen. ...St. Francis of Assisi image

Feast of Michael and all Angels

Everlasting God, you have ordained and constituted in a wonderful order the ministries of angels and mortals: Mercifully grant that, as your holy angels always serve and worship you in heaven, so by your appointment they may help and defend us here on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. image

Just Disconnect
It was said of John Henry Newman that he was never less alone than when alone. Newman liked the peace and quiet of isolation: it allowed him to read, to think and to write.

I confess to some sympathy for Newman on this. I do not like the hyperconnectivity of the current world. As an administrator at Westminster, I had a seminary cell phone. I had to upgrade it to a smartphone last year because Verizon indicated they would no longer support the vintage model I then possessed. I remember that, when I went in to exchange it, the man behind the counter looked at the phone, looked at me and then, choking back the laughter, declared "You're that guy!" Shamed into silence, I nodded mutely and mumbled my mandated request for a smartphone.

Now, having stepped down from the administration, I have rid myself of the thing and reverted to a phone that (and yes, this sounds terribly outdated, I know) simply allows me to phone people. You know, like they did in the olden days. Sadly, I am sure that the free market will ensure that it will be 'no longer supported' within a few years. At that point I will have to pay extra every month for a data package to provide data which I have no interest in receiving, but until then, I can resist, Canute-like, the incoming tide of things I really do not need or like but which others have determined that I apparently 'must have.'...

Changing the World Begins with Prayer
...The work of reaching and changing the world is, indeed, a work done on our knees. And, it is a work that takes on the nature of fierce and intense warfare. After all, one of Satan’s chief weapons is to cut off communication with God, communication that takes place in prayer. John Piper is certainly correct when he writes, “Prayer is meant by God to be a wartime walkie-talkie, not a domestic intercom … not for the enhancement of our comforts but for the advancement of Christ’s Kingdom.”...

The incentive to peacemaking is love...

The incentive to peacemaking is love, but it degenerates into appeasement whenever justice is ignored. To forgive and to ask for forgiveness are both costly exercises. All authentic Christian peacemaking exhibits the love and justice-and so the pain-of the cross. ...John Stott image by Ben

The risen life of Jesus...

The risen life of Jesus is the nourishment and strengthening and blessing and life of a Christian. Our daily experience ought to be that there comes, wavelet by wavelet, that silent, gentle, and yet omnipotent influx into our empty hearts, this very life of Christ Himself. ...Alexander MacLaren image by Les Chatfield

Let's knock holes in the darkness...

Robert Louis Stevenson, one evening, stood transfixed at his nursery window watching the lamplighter in the street. When his nanny asked the boy what he was doing he replied: "I'm watching the man knocking holes in the darkness." We live in a universe made dark by sin. Let's knock holes in the darkness. ...Selwyn Hughes  image by Kevin Dooley

How comforting it is to know...

How comforting it is to know the Bigness of God in the times of our deepest pain. What a blessed salve it is to our broken and wounded hearts to know that the Creator of the universe, he who holds all the stars in his hand, carries us in his heart. He knows us by name, he is intimately acquainted with every thought, he hears every heart cry and understands every motive of our heart and he loves us still. ...Katherine Walden image

For the first two or three years after my conversion...

For the first two or three years after my conversion, I used to ask for specific things. Now I ask for God. Supposing there is a tree full of fruits, you will have to go and buy or beg the fruits from the owner of the tree. Every day you would have to go for one or two fruits. But if you can make the tree your own property, then all the fruits will be your own. In the same way, if God is your own, then all things in Heaven and on earth will be your own, because He is your Father and is everything to you; otherwise you will have to go and ask like a beggar for certain things. When they are used up, you will have to ask again. So ask not for gifts, but for the Giver of Gifts: not for life but for the Giver of Life—then life and the things needed for life will be added unto you. ...Sadhu Sundar Singh image by Liz West

One of the most essential qualities of faith...

One of the most essential qualities of faith that is to attempt great things for God and expect great things from God, is holy audacity. Where we are dealing with a supernatural Being, and taking from Him things that are humanly impossible, it is easier to take much than little; it is easier to stand in a place of audacious trust than in a place of cautious, timid clinging to the shore. Likewise, seamen in the life of faith, let us launch out into the deep, and find that all things are possible with God, and all things are possible unto him that believeth. ...AB Simpson image by Shelly Prevost

Pride is the king of vices...

Pride is the king of vices...it is the first of the pallbearers of the soul...other vices destroy only their opposite virtues, as wantonness destroys chastity; greed destroys temperance; anger destroys gentleness; but pride destroys all virtues.
...Bishop Fulton J. Sheen image by Hamed Saber

When night comes...

When night comes, list thy deeds; make plain the way

’Twixt heaven and thee; block it not with delays;

But perfect all before thou sleep’st: then say:

There’s one sun more strung on my bead of days.

What’s good, score up for joy; the bad, well scann’d.

Wash off with tears, and get thy Master’s hand.

...Henry Vaughan image

When we come to faith and grow in Christlikeness...

When we come to faith and grow in Christlikeness, the Lord pours more light into our lives and illuminates our circumstances. He does this to call us to partnership with him in transforming his creation. It is a call to thoughtfully and intentionally participate in Kingdom building. While he need not count on us, he delights to do so. We do this in loving response to all he has done for us, as a response to his grace. When we partner with him, we achieve great things for the sake of his Kingdom and the glory due his name.
...Jonathan S. Raymond image by Lars Kasper

Christian community...

Christian community is not an ideal that we must realize, but rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate. The more clearly we learn to recognize that the ground and strength and promise of all our community is in Jesus Christ alone, the more calmly shall we think of our community and pray and hope for it. ...Dietrich Bonhoeffer picture by Raymond Dague

If you observe events in our day...

If you observe events in our day that you consider to be God's judgement, don't doubt or lose hope. Look up and see God Almighty. His work of chastisement is to prepare us for the power. Like the early church we are to gather in unity, humility and repentance, waiting for the Spirit to be poured out-and continuing to believe for revival. ...John Dawson image

The Precious Word of God

by Justin Edwards
August 13, 2012

How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! – Psalm 119:103

It has been a week since I returned from London when the Lord sent a group of evangelists to proclaim the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ during the 2012 Summer Olympics. While I am adjusting to the “normal routine” of life, my heart still lingers in London with all that the Lord accomplished for His glory. I miss my brothers and sisters who I labored with from the States, as well as my new friends who the Lord blessed me to meet and labor beside. While I cannot possibly remember all the good things that happened during our mission, I hope I will be able to share some things the Lord has used to teach me and grow personally as a result of the trip. I’ll share two such stories in this article (note: names have been changed to protect identities).  Here-very uplifting!

Speak for eternity...

Speak for eternity. Above all things, cultivate your own spirit. A word spoken by you when your conscience is clear, and your heart full of God’s Spirit, is worth ten thousand words spoken in unbelief and sin. ...Robert Murray M’Cheyne image by D. Sharon Pruitt

As every pilgrim in the spiritual life knows...

As every pilgrim in the spiritual life knows, it is hard to hold the unseen in our mental and spiritual grasp. Visions of eternal truth, crystal-clear at the time, have a disconcerting way of fading from our memory. But here I may reassure myself. Here I know that Christ Himself, taking pity on our blindness, and understanding our limitations, is allowing the seen and the unseen, the material and the spiritual, to coincide. Here, by His appointment, I can receive and absorb things that are physical and know that they are really things which are spiritual. It is no mere piece of bread or sip of wine that I receive—I receive the very Body and Blood of Christ into my own imperfect self. ...JB Phillips image by Kevin Rawlings

True fidelity consists in obeying God in all things...

 

True fidelity consists in obeying God in all things, and in following the light that points out our duty, and the grace which guides us; taking as our rule of life the intention to please God in all things, and to do always not only what is acceptable to Him, but, if possible, what is most acceptable; not trifling with petty distinctions between sins great and small, imperfections and faults, for, though there may be such distinctions, they should have no weight with the soul that is determined to do all His will.

To this sincere desire to do the will of God, we must add a cheerful spirit, that is not overcome when it has failed, but begins again and again to do better; hoping always to the very end to be able to do it; bearing with its own involuntary weakness, as God bears with it; waiting with patience for the moment when it shall be delivered from it; going straight on in singleness of heart, according to the strength that it can command; losing no time by looking back, nor making useless reflections upon its falls, which can only embarrass and retard its progress. ...Francois Fenelon image by Misko

Never tolerate through sympathy with yourself or with others...

Never tolerate through sympathy with yourself or with others any practice that is not in keeping with a holy God. Holiness means unsullied walking with the feet, unsullied talking with the tongue, unsullied thinking with the mind - every detail of the life under the scrutiny of God. Holiness is not only what God gives me, but what I manifest that God has given me. ...Oswald Chambers image by Simon Monk

The chosen three, on mountain height..

The chosen three, on mountain height,

While Jesus bowed in prayer,

Beheld His vesture glow with light,

His face shine wondrous fair.

And lo! with the transfigured Lord,

Leader and seer they saw;

With Carmel’s hoary prophet stood

The giver of the law.

From the low bending cloud above,

Whence radiant brightness shone,

Spake out the Father’s voice of love,

“Hear My belovèd Son!”

Lord, lead us to the mountain height;

To prayer’s transfiguring glow;

And clothe us with the Spirit’s might

For grander work below.

...David H. Ela image

The holiest moment of the church service...

The holiest moment of the church service is the moment when God's people go out of the church door into the world to be the Church. ...Ernest Southeon image by Simon Cocks