On missionary work, and the complexities of the Bible.

Personal attachment to the Lord Jesus and to His perspective is the one thing that must not be overlooked. In missionary work the great danger is that God’s call will be replaced by the needs of the people, to the point that human sympathy for those needs will absolutely overwhelm the meaning of being sent by Jesus. The needs are so enormous, and the conditions so difficult, that every power of the mind falters and fails. -Oswald Chambers

The Bible is indeed a very large Book, so that the greatest of us will never understand it all. Moreover, it is God’s Book and must necessarily contain much that is “hard to understand.” But this makes it the greater challenge to the believing heart to seek divine aid in exploring its depths and the greater joy when precious stones are brought up from this exhaustless mine.  -Cornelius Stam

10.26.22 Verse of the Day.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. -2 Timothy 3

 If a brother comes to you and you realize that he is weak, you should water him. Instead of calling for the elders, you should feed him and nourish him. It is crucial for us all to learn this. You may feel that you are weak and very low in life. However, other saints are even weaker and lower than you are. Should one of these weaker ones contact you, you need to water him. Then you will be watered also. This is true revival. -Witness Lee

our first responsibility is not to make converts but to uphold the honor of God in a world given over to the glory of fallen man. No matter how many persons we touch with the gospel we have failed unless, along with the message of invitation, we have boldly declared the exceeding sinfulness of man and the transcendent holiness of the Most High God. -AW Tozer

No possible complexity which we can give to our picture of the universe can hide us from God: there is no copse, no forest, no jungle thick enough to provide cover…In the twinkling of an eye, in a time too small to be measured, and in any place, all that seems to divide us from God can flee away...  -CS Lewis
 

Oswald Chambers on ministry, plus the Center for Christogenesis

 

 

Unless we have the right purpose intellectually in our minds and lovingly in our hearts, we will very quickly be diverted from being useful to God. We are not workers for God by choice. Many people deliberately choose to be workers, but they have no purpose of God’s almighty grace or His mighty Word in them. Paul’s whole heart, mind, and soul were consumed with the great purpose of what Jesus Christ came to do, and he never lost sight of that one thing. -Oswald Chambers

 let us not be too ready to condemn Jonah, for we may be more guilty than he. Surely the world today is passing through a fearful storm and souls all about us are in peril of their lives. -anonymous

daily 10.25.22 Maybe we ARE the happiest people in the world, and with good reason.

 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ  -KJV, Ephesians 5:19-5:20

"We oughtta be the happiest people in the world, we Christians, because we're not going to hell."  -Joyce Meyer

This is the age of the Laodiceans. The great goddess Numbers is worshiped with fervent devotion and all things religious are brought before her for examination. Her Old Testament is the financial report and her New Testament is the membership roll. To these she appeals as arbiters of all questions, the test of spiritual growth and the proof of success or failure in every Christian endeavor.
-AW Tozer

What a thousand mercies are wrapped up in the assurance that the truth will be with us forever; will be our living support, our dying comfort, our rising song, our eternal glory; this is Christian privilege, without it our faith were little worth. Some truths we outgrow and leave behind, for they are but rudiments and lessons for beginners, but we cannot thus deal with Divine truth, for though it is sweet food for babes, it is in the highest sense strong meat for men. The truth that we are sinners is painfully with us to humble and make us watchful; the more blessed truth that whosoever believeth on the Lord Jesus shall be saved, abides with us as our hope and joy. -Charles H Spurgeon

God's work in nature: we have but to see, feel or hear the natural world.

 We can experience God in nature, and in fact, so often, we experience the Lord and moves of the spirit in less natural places.  But it's in nature that we not only can hear ourselves breath, get comfortable in our thoughts, but also open ourselves to the recognition and appreciation of God as he works in nature.

They use some terms like "theophany" and "Christogenesis", particularly in talking about how God dealt with Moses.  It was Gregory of Nyssa who wrote that looking at either the water from the stone or the burning bush, was like looking at the face of God, through his direct manifestation in handiwork.

This morning I was outside early, up early and outside, the dawn was beginning to break, but there were pines and oaks between me and thee.  There were clouds crossing near the horizon, and I was thinking to myself....

"I'm watching God paint the sky."  It was beautiful radiance on the underside and trailing edges of the clouds, almost sun-like brilliance, that luminous hit of reflected sunshine.

We can experience God everyday, instead of only moments of pure inspiration, if we open ourselves to the experience.

Seemingly random drawing of Bible verses as a message from the Lord.

I petitioned the Lord.

I asked, within me, directed to Him, what I could do to improve my walk.  I asked for a sign, and remember, I hesitate in part to ask for signs because Jesus seemed almost exasperated that people in his day continually wanted signs.  But they wanted signs to prove their faith.

I have the faith, on the other hand, have the belief, and asked for direction from the Lord, not proof of his superiority.  I have zero doubt in the Lord.  I submit to the Lord.

What I wanted was direction.

So I did something strange.

I took my fingers along the pages of the Bible and seemingly randomly selected a word, not unlike a gambler drawing a random card, or like a Tarot reader might select a seemingly random card as an insight.

Top of the page, in the book Luke, Christ teaching the disciples how to pray.  

So that was what I needed.  Christ's instruction on how to pray.

And from there, my hope grows, hope through faith, hope through the word on a bedrock of faith.

So I could do it through prayer, advance my case.  Prayer, the way.

On salvation in conversation with Pastor Milton.

I read in 1 Timothy that even fornicators and murderers could get salvation.

Indeed, salvation is bigger than any sin, and God's love is bigger than any sin, stronger and more capable.  Think of people saying of the "leaven and the lump", that a little harm goes a long way in a group, while conversely, a little good can cover a multitude of sins.

There was an evangelist in Texas, one told of as a heretic, a millionaire preacher who jets around the globe collecting money.  He did something we can point to as a good, in the form of ministering to a death row inmate, ministering to him of Christ's love and forgiveness.

Christ's goodness and God's love is so much stronger, so much more important than anything we could do, good or bad in the long run, and we'd be apt to remember that.  In conversation my with my first home pastor, we talked, and I was explaining that a friend said I was supposedly, "better than him" because I had gotten saved, but I told him that I was still a man, still broken and sin riddled, but what separated me from him was my hope in glory.

I had realized God's love and Christ's goodness, and that gave me hope.  I had accepted the love of Christ, where some say they had "received it".  But my, I was always "receiving" Christ, but I was sin-blind until my thirty-fifth year on earth before I could grab hold of the message and feel that hope, real Christian joy and peace.