Monday, May 26, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
GOD HIMSELF WILL STABLISH YOU IN HIM - Part 3
Listen to what the Word teaches you:--"The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto Himself"; "O Lord God, stablish their heart unto Thee"; "Thy God loved Israel, to establish them for ever"; "Thou wilt establish the heart of the humble"; "Now to Him that is of power to establish you, be glory for ever"; "To the end He may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness" ; "THE LORD IS FAITHFUL, who shall stablish you and keep you from all evil"; "The God of all grace, who hath called us in Christ Jesus, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you." Can you take these words to mean anything less than that you too--however fitful your spiritual life has hitherto been, however unfavourable your natural character or your circumstances may appear--can be established in Christ Jesus--can become an established Christian? Let us but take time to listen, in simple childlike teachableness, to these words as the truth of God, and the confidence will come: As surely--as I am in Christ, I shall also, day by day, be established in Him.
The lesson appears so simple; and yet the most of us take so long to learn it. The chief reason is, that the grace the promise offers is so large, so God-like, so beyond all our thoughts, that we do not take it really to mean what it says. The believer who has once come to see and accept what it brings, can bear witness to the wonderful change there comes over the spiritual life. Hitherto he had taken charge of his own welfare; now he has a God to take charge of it. He now knows himself to be in the school of God, a Teacher who plans the whole course of study for each of His pupils with infinite wisdom, and delights to have them come daily for the lessons He has to give. All he asks is to feel himself constantly in God's hands, and to follow His guidance, neither lagging behind nor going before. Remembering that it is God who worketh both to will and to do, he sees his only safety to be in yielding himself to God's working. He lays aside all anxiety about his inner life and its growth, because the Father is the Husbandman under whose wise and watchful care each plant is well secured. He knows that there is the prospect of a most blessed life of strength and fruitfulness to every one who will take God alone and wholly as his hope.
(c) Abide in Christ by Andrew Murray
The lesson appears so simple; and yet the most of us take so long to learn it. The chief reason is, that the grace the promise offers is so large, so God-like, so beyond all our thoughts, that we do not take it really to mean what it says. The believer who has once come to see and accept what it brings, can bear witness to the wonderful change there comes over the spiritual life. Hitherto he had taken charge of his own welfare; now he has a God to take charge of it. He now knows himself to be in the school of God, a Teacher who plans the whole course of study for each of His pupils with infinite wisdom, and delights to have them come daily for the lessons He has to give. All he asks is to feel himself constantly in God's hands, and to follow His guidance, neither lagging behind nor going before. Remembering that it is God who worketh both to will and to do, he sees his only safety to be in yielding himself to God's working. He lays aside all anxiety about his inner life and its growth, because the Father is the Husbandman under whose wise and watchful care each plant is well secured. He knows that there is the prospect of a most blessed life of strength and fruitfulness to every one who will take God alone and wholly as his hope.
(c) Abide in Christ by Andrew Murray
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
NO STRINGS ATTACHED
Why do we as humans feel a need to attach ourselves to objects, positions and people? Why do we always seem to have alternative motives?
In December 2006 I had a picture that I would like to share with you all. In this vision I saw people hugging each other, as they embraced they would place these “tacks” in each others side. These tacks were attached to small, inconspicuous strings, almost like fishing line. Over and over as people embraced each other, they continued to attach more and more of these “tacks” onto others. At one point I felt as if I was looking above these people, they were all tangled together, attached by everyone else’s strings, tangled and confused, they were not their own. Each person was enslaved to another, appeasing the others will.
In my picture I saw these tacks and strings, and God spoke to me of motives, expectations and ownership of men. A person would embrace another, and place their own agenda (plan) on that person.
During this time in 2006 I had a deep cry in me to be released from the ownership of men and from man’s expectations. Even now, three years later God is still teaching me more about what I saw and what this really means!
There is a deep stirring, a cry within to breakout; to risk your reputation and relationships... everything you think you know... To yell out “You don’t own me!" I am not my own, I WAS bought with a price; I am HIS and HIS alone.
Let us go forward, truly learning to love someone with no strings attached.
Father, teach us love. Let us know you.
In December 2006 I had a picture that I would like to share with you all. In this vision I saw people hugging each other, as they embraced they would place these “tacks” in each others side. These tacks were attached to small, inconspicuous strings, almost like fishing line. Over and over as people embraced each other, they continued to attach more and more of these “tacks” onto others. At one point I felt as if I was looking above these people, they were all tangled together, attached by everyone else’s strings, tangled and confused, they were not their own. Each person was enslaved to another, appeasing the others will.
In my picture I saw these tacks and strings, and God spoke to me of motives, expectations and ownership of men. A person would embrace another, and place their own agenda (plan) on that person.
During this time in 2006 I had a deep cry in me to be released from the ownership of men and from man’s expectations. Even now, three years later God is still teaching me more about what I saw and what this really means!
There is a deep stirring, a cry within to breakout; to risk your reputation and relationships... everything you think you know... To yell out “You don’t own me!" I am not my own, I WAS bought with a price; I am HIS and HIS alone.
Let us go forward, truly learning to love someone with no strings attached.
Father, teach us love. Let us know you.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
GOD HIMSELF WILL STABLISH YOU IN HIM - Part 2
To the blessedness of such a faith, and the experience it brings, many can testify. What peace and rest, to know that there is a Husbandman who cares for the branch, to see that it grows stronger, and that its union with the Vine becomes more perfect, who watches over every hindrance and danger, who supplies every needed aid! What peace and rest, fully and finally to give up our abiding into the care of God, and never have a wish or thought, never to offer a prayer or engage in an exercise connected with it, without first having the glad remembrance that what we do is only the manifestation of what God is doing in us! The establishing in Christ is His work: He accomplishes it by stirring us to watch, and wait, and work. But this He can do with power only as we cease interrupting Him by our self-working--as we accept in faith the dependent posture which honours Him and opens the heart to let Him work. How such a faith frees the soul from care and responsibility! In the midst of the rush and bustle of the world's stirring life, amid the subtle and ceaseless temptations of sin, amid all the daily cares and trials that so easily distract and lead to failure, how blessed it would be to be an established Christian--always abiding in Christ! How blessed even to have the faith that one can surely become it--that the attainment is within our reach!
Dear believer, the blessing is indeed within your reach. He that stablisheth you with us in Christ is God. What I want you to take in is this--that believing this promise will not only give you comfort, but will be the means of your obtaining your desire. You know how Scripture teaches us that in all God's leadings of His people faith has everywhere been the one condition of the manifestation of His power. Faith is the ceasing from all nature's efforts, and all other dependence; faith is confessed helplessness casting itself upon God's promise, and claiming its fulfilment; faith is the putting ourselves quietly into God's hands for Him to do His work. What you and I need now is to take time, until this truth stands out before us in all its spiritual brightness: It is God Almighty, God the Faithful and Gracious One, who has undertaken to stablish me in Christ Jesus.
(c) Abide in Christ by Andrew Murray
Dear believer, the blessing is indeed within your reach. He that stablisheth you with us in Christ is God. What I want you to take in is this--that believing this promise will not only give you comfort, but will be the means of your obtaining your desire. You know how Scripture teaches us that in all God's leadings of His people faith has everywhere been the one condition of the manifestation of His power. Faith is the ceasing from all nature's efforts, and all other dependence; faith is confessed helplessness casting itself upon God's promise, and claiming its fulfilment; faith is the putting ourselves quietly into God's hands for Him to do His work. What you and I need now is to take time, until this truth stands out before us in all its spiritual brightness: It is God Almighty, God the Faithful and Gracious One, who has undertaken to stablish me in Christ Jesus.
(c) Abide in Christ by Andrew Murray
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