Links & Quotes

link quote

“How can you know when you are trusting in man rather than in God? If you fall apart when someone else lets you down, or if the actions of others affect your walk with God, then you know you are leaning on the arm of flesh!” —David Wilkerson

“Hypocrisy turns people against God, so He has a no-tolerance policy. Let’s take hypocrisy as seriously as God does. For starters, expect no credit for good deeds. None! If no one notices, you aren’t disappointed. If someone does, you give the credit to God. If no one knew of the good you do, would you still do it? If not, you’re doing it to be seen by people.” —Max Lucado

Intersting ongoing studies about the brain development of children born before full-term pregnancy.

“Let not the fact that the answer seems farther off than ever be any discouragement to you. Remember that to trust God in the light is nothing, but to trust Him in the dark—that is faith. To rest upon God when everything witnesses with God—that is nothing; but to believe God when everything gives Him the lie—that is faith. To believe that all shall go well when outward providences blow softly is any fool’s play, but to believe that it must and shall be well when storms and tempests are round about you, and you are blown farther and farther from the harbor of your desire—this is a work of grace.” —Charles Spurgeon, commenting on Romans 4:19-20

For my pastor friends: “As a minister of the gospel, have you ever considered why you have a salary and a place to live, and so are freed from the need of holding a regular job? The reason is so that you can continue in prayer and the ministry of the Word. These will give you the necessary wisdom and anointing for your work. And that is the secret of a fruitful ministry. No wonder there are often complaints about the ineffective spiritual life of a minister and his congregation. That which is of prime importance—perseverance in prayer—does not occupy its rightful place.” —Andrew Murray

A.B. Simpson On Prayer

A.B. SimpsonSome quotes from A.B. Simpson on prayer …

“Help me to work and pray, help me to live each day, that all I do may say, Thy kingdom come.” —A.B. Simpson

“Prayer, always prayer; when sickness wastes thy frame, prayer brings the healing power of Jesus’ name.” —A.B. Simpson

“All earth-born hopes with time must pass away; prayer grasps eternal things; pray, always pray.” —A.B. Simpson

Purple Fish (book review)

Purple FishThere’s a quote from Becky Pippert right near the beginning of Mark O. Wilson’s book Purple Fish that sets the tone for the whole book: “Christians and non-Christians have something in common: we are both uptight about evangelism.”

My question is: why? And that’s Mark’s question as well. So Mark uses a candid look at his own journey of discovery, personal stories, thoughts from Scripture, and insights from others to slowly, surely change our paradigm about what “evangelism” really means for a Christian.

The idea of a “purple fish” relates to a fantastic treasure (but you’ll learn more as you read this fascinating book). Let me also add that Mark Wilson is a fisherman, and uses tons of fishing analogies that other sportsmen will really relate to. But whether you enjoy fishing or not, there is so much to appreciate in this book about how Mark makes Christians excited about sharing their faith every single day.

I’m looking forward to reading and discussing this book with lots of other folks!

Links & Quotes

link quote

“Who among you today is doing the most for your Master’s kingdom? I will tell you. Lend me a spiritual thermometer by which I may try the heat of your heart, and I will tell you the amount of your success.” —Charles Spurgeon

Max Lucado shares A Prayer For America.

A couple of free ebooks for you―

“Someday there will be a community where everyone behaves and no one complains. But it won’t be this side of heaven. So what do we do? We reason. We confront. We teach. But most of all, we love.” —Max Lucado

“It turns out that the most productive thing we can do is to stop working on someone else’s task list and figure out a more useful contribution instead. This is what separates great organizations from good ones, and extraordinary careers from frustrated ones. The challenge is that the final step requires a short-term hit to your productivity. But, if you fail to invest the time and effort to find a better path, it’s unlikely you’ll find one.” Read more of Seth Godin’s post The Productivity Pyramid.

[PHOTOS] Some really cool pictures from the scientific world.

And for some pseudo-science: Was 2014 “the hottest year on record”? Better read this for the facts.

3 Reasons Why We Don’t Ask Largely Of God

Ask LargelyI don’t have a clever introduction for this post, so let me just give you the conclusion right up front―God has more desire to give than most of us have desire to ask.

Elisha told King Jehoash that God was ready to give him complete victory over Israel’s enemy, but Jehoash had a hard time grasping this (see 2 Kings 13:14-19). He was hesitant to ask God for too much, so he only asked for a little. This made Elisha mad!

I think the reasons why Jehoash was timid in his asking of God are some of the same reasons we wrestle with today.

(1) Elisha was dying, so maybe he thought God’s Spirit would depart with him.

Maybe you’ve had a spiritual giant in your life, and when they died you thought, “Who is going to be able to pray for me now?” God doesn’t have favorites. He desires that all of us come to Him.

(2) Jehoash was sinful and didn’t think God would want to help him.

You can’t increase your value in God’s sight because you live perfectly. God loves you perfectly just as you are. Don’t get me wrong: the Holy Spirit will speak to you if you need to repent, but God doesn’t only listen to “perfect” people.

(3) Jehoash thought God had a limited supply, or he thought he had a quota in how many requests he could make of God.

The whole genie-in-the-lamp concept has crept into the mindset of too many Christians. We think our genie-God will grant us a limited number of wishes, or we think He will try to find a loophole to get out of a difficult request. God desires that we keep on asking Him, keep on seeking Him, and keep on knocking on His door (see Matthew 7:7-11).

God is glorified when we ask Him to do what only He can do.

God is pleased when we keep asking of Him largely.

Again. And again. And again. AND AGAIN!

I’ll say it again―

God has more desire to give than most of us have desire to ask

If you would like to read some other thoughts on prayer from our series The Prayers Of Elishaplease click here and check out all the links in the comments.

Links & Quotes

link quote

Do you suffer from any of these? Things that hold us back from serving others.

Dave Barringer shares 10 subtle actions that you should pay attention to in your marriage.

“Let me warn you of second-hand spirituality; it is a rotten soul-deceiving deception. Beware of all esteeming yourself according to the thoughts of others, or you will be ruined. … O I do pray you, do not be satisfied with being persuaded into something like an assurance that you are in Christ, but do know Him—know Him for yourself.” —Charles Spurgeon

“Sinning is believing a false promise from the world above a true promise from God.” Read more in Jared Mulvihill’s post We Should Be Weeping.

Eurasia Northwest has a really cool infographic on the use of healing words in the Bible.

Seth Godin says, “The chances that everyone is going to applaud you, never mind even become aware you exist, are virtually nil. Most brands and organizations and individuals that fail fall into the chasm of trying to be all things in order to please everyone, and end up reaching no one. That’s the wrong thing to focus on. Better to focus on and delight almost no one.” Check out the rest of his post Almost No One.

[VIDEO] This year’s NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers is doing some cool stuff for kids―

Poetry Saturday―I Will Do More

William Arthur WardI will do more than belong―I will participate.
I will do more than care―I will help.
I will do more than believe―I will practice.
I will do more than be fair―I will be kind.
I will do more than forgive―I will forget.
I will do more than dream―I will work.
I will do more than teach―I will inspire.
I will do more than earn―I will enrich.
I will do more than give―I will serve.
I will do more than live―I will grow.
I will do more than suffer―I will triumph. ―William Arthur Ward

Links & Quotes

link quote

John Stonestreet shares some scientific evidence for the value of traditional families.

“This very obvious fact—that each generation is taught by an earlier generation—must be kept very firmly in mind…. None can give to another what he does not possess himself. No generation can bequeath to its successor what it has not got. You may frame the syllabus as you please. But when you have planned and reported ad nauseam, if we are skeptical we shall teach only skepticism to our pupils, if fools only folly, if vulgar only vulgarity, if saints sanctity, if heroes heroism. Education is only the most fully conscious of the channels whereby each generation influences the next. It is not a closed system. Nothing which was not in the teachers can flow from them into the pupils. We shall all admit that a man who knows no Greek himself cannot teach Greek to his form; but it is equally certain that a man whose mind was formed in a period of cynicism and disillusion, cannot teach hope or fortitude. A society which is predominantly Christian will propagate Christianity through its schools: one which is not, will not. All the ministries of education in the world cannot alter this law. … [E]ven if we were permitted to force a Christian curriculum on the existing schools with the existing teachers we should only be making masters hypocrites and hardening thereby the pupil’s hearts.” ―C.S. Lewis

Did you know that only three nations in the world allow the atrocity of late-term abortions―the dismembering of innocent children? China, North Korea, and … the United States of America! Read more from the ACLJ and sign their petition to Congress to outlaw this brutal practice.

“This world is not so lovely as to tempt us away from Heaven. Here we are strangers and foreigners; here we have no abiding city; but we seek one to come. There is one wilderness, but we bless God there are not two. There is one Jordan to be crossed, but there is not another. There is one season when we must walk by faith and not by sight, and be fed with manna from Heaven; but blessed be God there is not another, for after that comes the Canaan—the rest which remaineth for the people of God.” —Charles Spurgeon

Links & Quotes

link quote

How do you define “healing”? Check out this comprehensive list of Scriptures posted by Eurasia Northwest that may expand your definition.

Parents, beware of the book-turned-movie Fifty Shades Of Grey! Dr. Miriam Grossman has four blog posts about the dangers of seeing this movie or letting your kids see it. Check out the posts here.

“Unceasing prayer may sound complicated, but it needn’t be that way. Do this. Think of prayer less as an activity for God and more as an awareness of God. Seek to live in uninterrupted awareness. As you stand in line to register your car, think, ‘Thank you, Lord, for being here.’ In the grocery store as you shop, think, ‘Your presence, my King, I welcome.’ As you wash the dishes, worship your Maker.” ―Max Lucado

Tim Elmore reminds us that the next time a young leader approaches you with a “zany idea,” you might do well to listen to him/her. After all, he lists some really smart people who totally missed the future!

“If there be any deed of kindness or love that we can do for the very meanest and most obscure of God’s people, we ought to be willing to do it—to be servants to God’s servants.” —Charles Spurgeon

John Piper and the Desiring God crew have a list of 24 free ebooks. Good stuff!

[VIDEO]

A beautiful stories about a sister’s love for her brother―

13 More Quotes From “Notes On Ezekiel”

The Complete Works Of Oswald ChambersHere are some more quotes from Oswald Chambers’ book Notes On Ezekiel. My book review is here, and my first set of quotes from this book is here.

“We are too shallow to be afraid of God. … It requires a miracle of grace before we believe this, consequently we are foolishly fearless, but when the grace of God lifts us into the life of God we fear nothing and no one saving God alone. … Confusion arises when we do not see God as Almighty.”

“God will put us in circumstances where we have to take steps of which we do not see the meaning, only on looking back do we discern that it was God’s will for us.”

“We are always on the wrong line when we come to God with a pre-occupied mind because a pre-occupied mind springs from a disloyal heart: ‘I don’t want to do God’s will, what I want is for God to give me permission to do what I want to do.’” 

“What God burns is not weakness, not imperfection, but perverted goodness.”

“Every part of our human nature which is not brought into subjection to the Holy Spirit after experiencing deliverance from sin will prove a corrupting influence.”

“We all have the sneaking idea that we are the favorites of God—‘It’s alright for me to do this, God will understand.’ If I as a child of God commit sin, I will be as sternly dealt with as if I were not His child.”

“Don’t tie God up in your own conceptions, or say too surely you know what God will do. … The sovereign purposes of God work out slowly and inexorably, but ever be careful to note where God’s sovereignty is at work among men in matters of history and Time, and where it is at work in matters of eternal destiny. Beware of allowing your memory of how God has worked to take the place of present vital moral relationship to Him.”

“When I have been using ‘the sword of the Spirit’ in a spirit of indignation against another, it is a terrible experience to find the sword suddenly wrested out of my hand and laid about me personally by God. Let your personal experience of the work of God’s Spirit instruct you at the foot of Calvary; let the light of God riddle you through, then you will never use the Word of God to another, never turn the light of God on him, without fear and trembling.”

“Liberty is the ability to obey the law of God, with the power to live according to its demands; license is the unrestrained impulse to traffic against the law of God. … The seal of immorality is that I do what I like; the seal of freedom is that I do what God likes.”

“If the Holy Spirit is obeyed the stubbornness is blown out, the dynamite of the Holy Ghost blows it out.”

“Pride in its most estimable as well as its most debased form is self-deification; it is not a yielding to temptation from without, but a distinct alteration of relationships within.”

“I may suffer because of the sins of my progenitors—I am never punished for them.”

“In dealing with Bible experiences we must ever make allowance for the miraculous, which never contradicts reason, but very often does contradict common sense. The miraculous transcends reason and lifts it into another world than the logical one, consequently spiritual experience is something I have lived through, not thought through.”