“It’s not easy to overcome recurring sexual temptation. That’s because sexual sin is, at the most basic level, an illegitimate way of fulfilling a deep and legitimate human need: the need for love and intimacy.” —Focus On The Family
“Here is the secret of the power of faith to break the enslaving force of sinful attractions. If the heart is satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus, the power of sin to lure us away from the wisdom of Christ is broken.” —John Piper
I remember visiting Denver, Colorado. The scenery was so breathtaking, so I decided to go for an early morning hike. Quickly I discovered that my hike became breathtaking in more than one way! Even though I was in good shape, I had a hard time getting my breath because of the mile-high atmosphere.
I learned later that this is why many top athletes train in high elevation: it increases their lung capacity and endurance so that they now have an advantage when they compete against others.
God trains us on His mountains, but He made us to live and minister in the valleys. Our ascent into God’s mountaintop presence is so important for godly maturity!
In the first song of ascent, I noticed something unusual in the very first verse. Some Bibles translate the verbs in the present tense (I call on the Lord and He answers me), but some translations use the past tense (I called on the Lord and He answered me). Which is correct? Actually both of them are correct!
The verbs are written in the perfect tense—something done at a specific point in the past, but still relevant and powerful in the present. In other words, we can say it like this, “I called on the Lord in the past and He most definitely answered me. That gives me confidence to call on the Lord today, knowing that He will answer me again.”
But—oh wow!!—check out how God answers us! The word literally means that God answers us in song. God so loves it when you trust Him enough to bring all your cares to Him, that He sings His answer to you. For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty Savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With His love, He will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs (Zephaniah 3:17).
If we don’t continue to recall how God has answered us in the past, we’re missing out on the blessing of hearing Him sing His answers over us again today. As a result, we begin to live in the world’s valley-level turmoil and anxiety.
Peace is longed for in verses 6 and 7. The Christian wants to live in peace, but the world loves turmoil. Want proof? Just look at what makes the headlines today! The solution is to keep going back to God again and again and again—
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)
Check out the full message to find the peace you are longing for!
If you don’t have a home church, please join us this Sunday as we continue our look at the psalms of ascent, or you can tune in to our live Periscope broadcast from wherever you are.
If you’ve missed any of the messages in this series, you can access the complete list by clicking here.
Out of all the unlikely places, I never would have expected that guy to be a theologian! After all, the ones with the amazing insight into how God works are supposed to be deep into Scripture, know the ancient biblical languages, and be able to preach profound sermons. This guy had none of that.
He was simply an officer in the military who had an aide-de-camp who was sick. He had enough basic knowledge to see that Jesus could do something for his faithful assistant, but—strangely enough—he didn’t think he was worthy of having Jesus come into his home.
He said something that caused Jesus to be amazed. When Jesus is amazed by something a man does, that gets my attention!
This military officer said, “Although I’m an officer who can tell people what to do—when I say, ‘Jump!’ they say, “How high, sir?’ When I say, ‘Go!’ they say. ‘Yes, sir!’—I’m also a man under authority. I recognize that you too, Jesus, are a Man of authority. So if You simply say, ‘Go!’ to this disease, it will go.”
Jesus was amazed!
What theology came from that guy—a Roman centurion! This military officer saw that authority came from being under authority. Jesus had authority because He remained under the authority of His Heavenly Father (see John 12:49-50; Philippians 2:5-11).
We can learn a valuable lesson from this unlikely theologian. Authority comes NOT from trying to get our way, but from doing things God’s way … from staying under His authority. All the authority you will ever need is found in the Word of God (see Matthew 9:6-8; 10:1; 16:19).
This is a great story. Check it out for yourself here.
Over the course of the last year in reading Andrew Murray’s Daily Reader, I literally took down over 40 pages of Murray’s quotes! The quotes I have listed below are not my favorites, but just some of the quotes from the first few pages of my notes. You can read my book review of this truly amazing devotional book by clicking here.
“The true practice of Christianity strives toward having the character of Christ so formed in us that in our most common activities His temper and disposition will be displayed.”
“May this high privilege awaken your desire for relationship with God, to dwell in sweet fellowship with Him and He with you. May it become impossible for you to be satisfied with anything less.”
“The power to believe a promise depends entirely on our faith in the one who promises. It is only when we enjoy a personal loving relationship with God Himself that our whole being is opened up to the mighty influence of His holy presence and the capacity will be developed in us for believing that He gives whatever we ask.”
“Sin consists in nothing but this, that man determined to be something and would not allow God to be everything.”
“Even as believers we often make it our first aim to find out who we are, what we desire, what pleases us and makes us happy. Then we bring in God in the second place to secure this happiness.”
“Nothing except constant fellowship with God can teach you as His child to hate sin as God hates it. Nothing but the close fellowship of the living Christ can make it possible for you to understand what sin is and to detest it. Without this deeper understanding of sin, we cannot truly appropriate the victory that Christ made possible for us.”
“To pray constantly only for ourselves is a mark of failure in prayer. It is in intercession for others that our faith and love and perseverance will be stirred up and that the power of the Spirit will be found to equip us for bringing salvation to people.”
“Here is God’s provision for our holiness, God’s response to our question ‘How can we be holy?’ When we hear the call ‘Be holy, even as I am holy,’ it seems as if there is, and ever must be, a great gulf between the holiness of God and that of humankind. But in Christ is the bridge that spans the gulf—or better, His fullness has filled it up.”
“To worship is our highest privilege. We were created for fellowship with God: of that fellowship, worship is the most sublime expression. All the disciplines of the Christian life—meditation and prayer, love and faith, surrender and obedience—culminate in worship. Recognizing what God is in His holiness, His glory, and His love; realizing what I am as a sinful creature and as the Father’s redeemed child, in worship I gather up my whole being and present myself to my God. I offer Him the adoration and the glory that is due Him. The truest, fullest, and nearest approach to God is worship.”
“We are in such a habit of evaluating God and His work in us by what we feel that it is very likely that on some occasions we will be discouraged because we do not feel any special blessing. Above everything, when you wait on God, do so in the spirit of hope. It is God in His glory, His power, and His love who is longing to bless you.”
“I would like to convince every believer that Jesus loves you; He does not wish to be separated from you for a moment. He cannot bear it. No mother has delighted more in the baby in her arms than does Christ delight in you. He wants both intimate and unceasing fellowship with you. Receive it, dear believer, and say, ‘If it is possible, God helping me, I must have this filling of the Holy Spirit so that I may know and sense the presence of Jesus always dwelling in my heart.’”
“Discovering the New Testament standard of commitment is not an easy matter. Our preconceived opinions blind us; our surroundings will exercise a powerful influence. Unless there is a sincere desire to truly know the entire will of God, and a prayerful dependence on the Holy Spirit’s teaching, we will search in vain.”
“If you would be full of the Spirit, be full of the Word. … Just as the Scriptures were spoken and written down as men were moved by the Spirit of God, it is only by the Spirit of God that they can be fully understood.”
“Our waiting on God can have no higher goal than to have His light shine on us and in us and through us all day.”
“May our daily lives be the bright and blessed proof that a hidden power dwells within, preparing us for the glory to be revealed. May our abiding in Christ the Glorified One be our strength to live to the glory of the Father, our enabling to share in the glory of the Son.”
“Take every opportunity to humble yourself before God and man. Accept with gratitude everything that God allows from within or without, from friend or enemy, in nature or in grace, to remind you of your need for humbling and to help you in it. Reckon humility to be the mother-virtue, your very first duty before God, the one perpetual safeguard of the soul, and set your heart upon it as the source of all blessing. The promise is divine and sure: He that humbles himself shall be exalted.”
“Love for God and love for our neighbor are inseparable; prayer from a heart that is not right with God or that cannot get along with others can have no real effect. Faith and love are interdependent.”
“In the annoyances of daily life, we must be careful not to excuse a hasty temper, sharp words, or rash judgment by saying that we meant no harm, that we did not hold the anger long, or that it is too much to ask of our human nature not to behave in such a manner. Instead, we must seek to forgive as God in Christ has forgiven us, diffusing anger and judgment.”
“God has called us to live a life in the supernatural. Allow your devotional time each day to be as the open gate of heaven through which light and power stream into your waiting heart and from which you go out to walk with God all day.”
“Every soul is worth more than the world and nothing less than the price paid for it by Christ’s blood. Each is within reach of the power that can be tapped through intercession. We have no concept of the magnitude of the work to be done by God’s intercessors or we would cry out to God for an outpouring of the Spirit of intercession.”
“Prayer and the Word are inseparably linked; power in the use of either depends upon the presence of the other. The Word gives you a subject for prayer. It shows you the path of prayer, telling you how God would have you come. It gives you the power for prayer—courage in the assurance that you will be heard. And it brings you the answer to prayer as it teaches what God will do for you. On the other hand, prayer prepares your heart to receive the Word from God himself, to receive spiritual understanding from the Spirit, and to build faith that participates in its mighty working.”
“God’s purpose was to bring us back to Himself as our Creator, in whose fellowship and glory our happiness can alone be found. God could attain His purposes and satisfy the love of His own heart only by bringing us into complete union with Christ, so that in Him we can be as near to God as Christ is. Oh, the mystery of the love of God!”
“The knowledge of God’s Father-love is the first and simplest—but also the last and highest—lesson in the school of prayer. It is in personal relationship to the living God and fellowship with Him that prayer begins.”
“As one of His redeemed ones you are His delight, and all His desire is to you, with the longing of a love that is stronger than death, and which many waters cannot quench. His heart yearns for you, seeking your fellowship and your love. If it were needed, He would die again to possess you. As the Father loved the Son, and could not live without Him—this is how Jesus loves you. His life is bound up in yours; you are to Him inexpressibly more indispensable and precious than you can ever know.”
The absence of problems in a church does not mean that everything is fine. It might mean that the church is dead.
Check out these words from A.W. Tozer—
“Some misguided Christian leaders feel that they must preserve harmony at any cost, so they do everything possible to reduce friction. They should remember that there is no friction in a machine that has been shut down for the night. Turn off the power, and you will have no problem with moving parts. Also remember that there is a human society where there are no problems—the cemetery. The dead have no differences of opinion. They generate no heat, because they have no energy and no motion. But their penalty is sterility and complete lack of achievement. What then is the conclusion of the matter? That problems are the price of progress, that friction is the concomitant of motion, that a live and expanding church will have a certain quota of difficulties as a result of its life and activity. A Spirit-filled church will invite the anger of the enemy.” (emphasis added)
What do you think?
Here are some of the quotes I used in my message this morning…
“The Holy Spirit is not a luxury, not something added now and again to produce a deluxe type of Christian once in a generation. No, He is for every child of God a vital necessity, and that He fill and indwell His people is more than a languid hope. It is rather an inescapable imperative.” —A.W. Tozer
“There is nothing so still and gentle as the checks of the Holy Spirit if they are yielded to, emancipation is the result; but let them be trifled with, and there will come a hardening of the life away from God. Don’t quench the Spirit. … Guard as your greatest gift the anointing of the Holy Spirit.” —Oswald Chambers
“Jesus doesn’t say we will baptized with the Holy Spirit and power (see Acts 1:8), but that we will be baptized with the Holy Spirit AS power. There’s a huge difference! It means we will have everything we need to always overcome, to never be at a loss!” —CTO
I love this insight from Dick Brogden regarding too many Christians’ view of the Holy Spirit—
“Often our heads become stumbling blocks to our hearts. We cognitively admit that the Holy Spirit is a Person in the triune Godhead, but we live as functional binitarians. Comfortable with Father and Son, we are not quite sure how to interact with the Spirit….” —Dick Brogden
The promise of the Holy Spirit’s help for those who desire to follow God with all of their hearts permeates the entire Bible. Passage after passage in both the Old Testament and New Testament tell of the incredible life-altering, heart-molding, stronghold-breaking, love-creating, Christlike-empowering of the Holy Spirit.
“And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as My Father promised….” —Jesus
“…You will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” —Peter
“But you shall receive power (ability, efficiency, and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses….” —Jesus
“Now we have not received the spirit that belongs to the world, but the Holy Spirit Who is from God, given to us that we might realize and comprehend and appreciate the gifts of divine favor and blessing so freely and lavishly bestowed on us by God.” —Paul
“But you have received the Holy Spirit, and He lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what He teaches is true….” —John
Please join me next Sunday as I continue our series called Come Holy Spirit.
Over the past couple of days I’ve been thinking a lot about something: What does it mean to serve? Or more specifically, what does God say about how we should serve?
The typical image that comes to mind when someone says “servant” is a person of lower status—someone who is at the lower end of the organizational chart, someone who is expected to do more with less, someone who doesn’t have many opportunities for advancement (or even a day off), or maybe someone who is expected to be tuned into everyone else’s needs but seldom has his own needs met.
Is being a servant the same thing as being a doormat?
Consider Jesus:
He now showed them the full extent of His love…. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His power, and that He had come from God and was returning to God; so He got up from the meal, took off His outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around His waist. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around Him.
Jesus was the most important person in the room: Jesus KNEW that the Father had put all things under His power. He was also the most love-filled person in the room. What did He do with all of His love and power? He served others.
When He finished, John writes that He returned to His place, and asked His disciples a question, “Do you understand what I just did?” Then in the only instance of Scripture where Jesus Himself said this, “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done.”
Servants don’t serve because someone else forces them to serve. Servants serve because the love of God empowers them to serve.
Do you love your spouse enough to serve him/her? Do you love your family enough to serve them? Do you love your coworkers enough to serve them? The greater the love we have for others, the greater the empowerment to serve. Love empowers us for service.
Craig T. Owens 