Changing

Something is happening in me.
There is a growing desire within me. A desire that I did not put there. A desire that is beyond me. A desire that I have tried to have, but couldn't. Not in my own strength.
I have wanted to want to read my Bible, but often found myself doing it just because it was the things to do.
I have wanted to want to be with Jesus, but often found myself spending time with Him out of duty.
Not that I haven't ever wanted to read my Bible or spend time with Jesus, but I cannot truthfully say that I have hungered and thirsted after more of Him...until now.
This past month, actually I think it started way before that, more like this past year, there has been an increasing desire growing within me.
I have often sang with Shane and Shane "Lord I want to yearn for You! I want to burn with passion over You and only You!" and I really did.
As I was going through Ellerslie I think I caught a more fuller glimpse of that yearning, but even there there was the pressure of doing studying and spending time with Jesus just because it was the thing to do, it was encouraged, everyone else was doing it. Not that that is a bad thing. Quite the opposite, it is wonderful to be pressed toward Christ! But then Ellerslie ended and with it the season of living in an environment where everything was so Christ focused to going out into the world once again, where at every corner there is something to try and lure, tempt and distract ones thoughts, focus, and life from being fully centered on Christ.
It is so easy to get caught up in this world like a leaf carried on the back of so many ants and hardly even pay any attention to what is happening.  Perhaps that is the reason for the warning in 1Pet 5:8.

But this is not the way that things have to be.
We do not have to be swept along by the waves of fashion, pop-culture, media, electronics. We do not have to get caught up in the drama of those around us.
We can be free from the things of this world. We can set our affections on things above, and not on things on this earth (Col 3:2). For we can do all things through Christ Who strengthens us (Phi 4:13). Not in our own strength mind you, but in Christ.
I have often felt my lack and tried to come up with ways to fill it "If I just got up earlier..." "If I just..." 
But I, and let me stress that I, cannot do it in my own strength. O how easy it is so say "surrender", and how hard to actually do it. It goes against the very grain of our controlling, self-protecting nature to give up our own rights and desires and to place ourselves, unreservedly, into the Almighty hands of God and say "not my will, but Thine Lord". 
So how are we to do it then? 
For we can do ALL things through CHRIST Who strengthens us! (Phi 4:13*)
"I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord'' (Rom 7:25a*)
And even thou Paul wrote this to the Church of Galatia I think it rings true for us today that Jesus is the One "who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen." Gal 1:4-5

* emphasis mine

Jesus

O what a name!
It causes the corners of my mouth to sort of perk up.
It resounds with a steadfast peace, calm and joy within my heart.
It is a name I love.
Why?
Am I some supper spiritual nut who has nothing better to do than go around with a silly grin on her face whenever she hears the name of her Savior?
Well, I guess the answer is yes:-)
However, my interpretation of "supper spiritual nut" may be different than yours:-)
By answering yes to the above question I do not mean that I am someone without a brain or who lives in some loony fantasy world. Not by a long shot!
I mean someone who has experienced Something better, and is so wrapped up in that Something that she can not help but go around with smile upon her face for Those who look to him are radiant (Psa 34:5a)!
Even if it means I look like a nut to this world, may I ever be willing to appear like a fool for Christ's sake (1Cor 4:10)!

Oh my dear readers, Jesus is worth our all!
He, being God, came to this earth and lived a sinless life. Mary, thought Him worthy enough to pour out her very best upon his feet! (Joh 12:3) He bore our sin and the wrath of God that was rightfully ours upon the cross over 2000 years ago and He died. But Glory to God in the highest! He did not stay dead! He rose again on the third day and He now sits enthroned at the right hand of God and They have sent the Holy Spirit to be our helper. We need no longer live in bondage to sin or our own desires! We can be free!
Have you ever heard the saying "The truth will set you free"?
Well it is true my friends!!
Jesus says in John 14:6 "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
He is the TRUTH!
The TRUTH will set you free if you will but turn to Him!

May we ever lean more fully upon Him. Ever desire Him more! Ever be willing, as Mary, to pour out our best, our ALL upon our Lord! May we ever live for HIS glory!!


*Picture credit goes to Christy Osborne

I Miss You Bereket!

Peace. Joy. Love. Hope.
The list goes on and on. These are the things that I find when I focus my gaze upon my Savior, rather than my self.

I need Thee, O I need Thee! Every hour I need Thee!

Chapter VI - Missed Ends

The tom-toms thumped straight on all night, and the darkness shuddered round me like a living, feeling thing. I could not sleep, so I lay awake and looked; and I saw, as it seemed, this:
That I stood on a grassy sward, and at my feet a precipice broke sheer down into infinite space. I looked, but saw no bottom; only cloud shapes, black and furiously coiled, and great shadow-shrouded hollows, and unfathomable depths. Back I drew, dizzy at the depth.
Then I saw forms of people moving single file along the grass. They were making for the edge. There was a woman with a baby in her arms and another little child holding on to her dress. She was on the very verge. Then I saw that she was blind. She lifted her foot for the next step...it trod air. She was over, and the children over with her.
Oh, the cry as they went over!
Then I saw more streams of people flowing from all quarters. All were blind, stone blind; all made straight for  the precipice edge. There were shrieks as they suddenly knew themselves falling, and a tossing up of helpless arms, catching, clutching at empty air. But some went over quietly, and fell without a sound.
Then I wondered, with a wonder that was simply agony, why no one stopped them at was the edge. I could not. I was glued to the ground, and I could not call; though I strained and tried, only a whisper would come.
Then I saw that along the edge there were sentries set at intervals. But the intervals were far too great; there were wide, unguarded gaps between. And over these gaps the people fell in their blindness, quite unwarned; and the green grass seemed blood-red to me, and the gulf yawned like the mouth of hell.
Then I saw, like a little picture of peace, a group of people under some trees, with their backs turned towards the gulf. They were making daisy chains.
Sometimes when a piercing shriek cut the quiet air and reached them it disturbed them, and they thought it a rather vulgar noise. And if one of their number started up and wanted to go and do something to help, then all the others would pull that one down. "Why should you get excited about it? You must wait for a definite call to go! You haven't finished your daisy chain yet. It would be really selfish," they said "to leave us to finish the work alone."
There was another group. It was made up of people whose great desire was to get more sentries out; but they found very few wanted to go, and sometimes there were no sentries set for miles and miles of edge.
Once a girl stood alone in her place, waving the people back; but her mother and other relations called, and reminded her that her furlough was due; she must not break the rules. And being tired and needing a change, she had to go and rest for awhile; but no one was sent to guard her gap, and over and over people fell, like a waterfall of souls.
Once a child caught at a tuft of grass that grew at the very brink of the gulf; it clung convulsively, and it called- but nobody seemed to hear. Then the roots of the grass gave way, and with a cry the child went over, its two little hands still holding tight to the torn-off bunch of grass. And the girl longed to be back in her gap thought she heard the little one cry, and she sprang up and wanted to go; at which they reproved her, reminding her that no one is necessary anywhere; the gap would be well taken care of, they knew. And then they sang a hymn.
Then through the hymn came another sound like the pain of a million broken hearts wrung out in one full drop, one sob. And horror of great darkness was upon me, for I know that it was- the Cry of the Blood.
Then thundered a Voice, the Voice of the Lord: "And He said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brothers' blood crieth unto Me from the ground."
---------
The tom-toms still beat heavily, the darkness still shuddered and shivered about me; I heard the yells of the devil-dancers and the weird wild shrieks of the devil-possessed just outside the gate.
What does it matter, after all?
It has gone on for years; it will go on for years. Why make such a fuss about it?
God forgive us! God arouse us!
Shame us our of our callousness! Shame us out of our sin!

~Amy Carmicheal,  Things As They Are Mission Work in Southern India

Christ is Risen

Christ is risen from the dead,
Trampling over death by death, come awake, come awake
Come and rise up from the grave.
Christ is risen from the dead,
We are one with Him again, come awake, come awake
Come and rise up from the grave.

O death, where is your sting?
O hell where is your victory?
O church, come stand in the light,
The glory of God has defeated the night
O death, where is your sting?
O hell, where is your victory?
O church, come stand in the light
Our God is not dead He's alive, He's ALIVE!

It has to be Settled

T. Austin Sparks

It has to be Settled

The whole history of the Church is one long story of this tendency to settle down on this earth and to become conformed to this world, to find acceptance and popularity here and to eliminate the element of conflict and of pilgrimage. That is the trend and the tendency of everything. Therefore outwardly, as well as inwardly, pioneering is a costly thing.

It is a costly and a suffering thing to come up against the religious system that has ' settled down ' here. It is far more costly than coming up against the naked world itself. The religious system can be more ruthless and cruel and bitter; it can be actuated by all those mean things, contemptible things, prejudices and suspicions things that you will not even find in decent people in the world. It is costly to go on to the heavenlies, it is painful; but it is the way of the pioneer, and it has to be settled that that is how it is.

The Christian life is not by effort, and not by struggle; not merely by trying to put into practice certain maxims, or by trying to attain to a certain measure; but from beginning to end, and all together, it is a matter of knowing the Lord Jesus within.

His Hands

It is so amazing to think that the God of the universe would entrust anything as precious as these fourteen “foreign treasures” into these hands.
How precious, how beautiful, how amazing are these little lives. Like so many different jewels, each one so unique, yet all beautiful.
There have been many times when I have marveled at the precious gift that my Lord has given to me, the gift of serving Him (Mat 25:40).
Sweet times of holding a beautiful dark little hand during prayer time, rubbing my fingers over it's soft chocolaty smoothness and realizing that this is God's hand. Times of rubbing these hands laden with lotion over rough little feet. Times of using many hand signs and gestures to discus complex Spiritual concepts in simple child-like terms. Times of running and dodging and huffing for breath while avoiding the little hands propelled by quick little feet which try desperately to tag some part of me. Times of laying a cool hand on a feverish brow. Times of laying a gentle hand on a stiffened shoulder and asking God for wisdom in how to help them. Times of stretching out a hand to grasp a smaller one and help them to their feet. Times of putting my face in these hands as I pray to God to open hearts. Times of picking my footing carefully and feeling with these hands in the dark night through a strange house, as I accompany the little form beside me to the bathroom. Times of taking up my Bible in these hands and thumbed through the pages, preparing to share Truth with these little ones. Times of clapping these hands together loudly and cheering for the little group singing for Jesus on the stage in front. Times of reaching out these hands to get yet another tisue to wipe yet another dripy nose. Times of poking the little needle that is held in these hands in and out, in and out, working to repare rips. Times of drumming these hands in time to the music as my little ones sing and dance. Times of lifting these hands high in worship and praise to the One Who has given me all of this. To the One Who's hands these are.
May He ever be glorified by the actions of His hands!