Links & Quotes

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“When we go through the trial of faith we gain so much wealth in our heavenly banking account, and the more we go through the trial of faith the wealthier we become in the heavenly regions.” —Oswald Chambers

“The promise that frees us from an unforgiving, bitter, vengeful spirit is the promise that God will settle our accounts. He will do it more justly and more thoroughly than we ever could. Therefore we can back off and leave room for God to work.” —John Piper, commenting on Romans 12:19

“‘Revenge is sweet;’ but not to the man who has tasted Christ, for he says, ‘How can I have vengeance upon my fellow, when Christ has put away my sin?’ Now, forgiveness is sweet, and he loathes malice, and turns aside from it as from venom itself.” —Charles Spurgeon

The Isaiah 53:5 Project reblogged one of my all-time favorite blog posts: The Parable Of The Lifeguard. Thanks, James!

Melinda Penner reminds us of the dangers of abusing our freedom. “If there is nothing objective to constrain our freedom, then there’s nothing objective to constrain the government. Our rights become whatever we declare them to be and whatever the government at any time and place declares them to be, changing with the fashions of the day.”

I Missed It

Greg Koukl does a good job explaining how the books of the Bible were compiled in this video.

Thursdays With Oswald—Standing In A Crisis

Oswald ChambersThis is a periodic series with things I’m reading and pondering from Oswald Chambers. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Oswald” in the search box to read more entries.

Standing In A Crisis

     If, when no one is watching us, we are building ourselves up in the Word of God, then, when a crisis comes, we shall stand; but if we are not building on the Word of God, when a crisis comes we shall go down, no matter what our wills are like. …

     We may be able to give a testimony as to what God has done for us, but does the life we live evidence that we are not listening now, but living only in the memory of what we once heard? We have to keep our ears trained to detect God’s voice, to be continually renewed in the spirit of our mind. If when a crisis comes we instinctively turn to God, we know that the habit of harkening has been formed. … We have to learn to hearken to Jesus in everything, to get into the habit of finding out what He says. … The Holy Spirit will bring back to our remembrance a certain word of our Lord’s and apply it to the particular circumstance we are in, the point is—are we going to obey it?

From Our Brilliant Heritage

Standing in a crisis involves two things: (1) Reading the Word of God regularly, and (2) Obeying the Word of God every time the Holy Spirit illuminates it to our heart and mind. It’s not a matter of if a crisis will come in your life, but when. Will you be ready?

Links & Quotes

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“Historically speaking, God’s glory has often shone the brightest when the church was at its weakest. In fact, Christians should see times of cultural/political weakness as a time of the greatest opportunity to exhibit Christ.” So true! Check out the post God’s Glory And The Church’s Weakness.

For anyone who interacts with teenagers, Mark Merrill has a helpful post: 7 Cs For Communication With Teens.

Seth Godin says, “Do overs are possible, but they take guts.” Read more in his post The Do Over.

Yep, it’s true…

Death of a social media outlet

Links & Quotes

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“We may ignore but can nowhere evade the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito.” —C.S. Lewis

“It has been the Cross which has revealed to good men that their goodness has not been good enough.” ―Johann Hieronymus Schroeder

“God did not die for man because of some value He perceived in him. The value of each human soul considered simply in itself, out of relation to God, is zero. As St. Paul writes, to have died for valuable men would have been not divine but merely heroic; but God died for sinners. He loved us not because we were lovable, but because He is Love.” ―C.S. Lewis

“Your tribulations will yet yield you music.” —Charles Spurgeon

“Imagine the scene at the Cross. Soldiers huddled in a circle, dice-throwing—casting lots for the possessions of Christ. Common soldiers witnessing the world’s most uncommon event. To them He is just another criminal; the Cross is forgotten. It makes me think of us. The religious. Those who claim heritage at the Cross. All of us. The strict…the loose…the simple…Spirit-filled…evangelical. All of us! We’re not so unlike these soldiers. We too, play games at the foot of the Cross. We compete for members. We scramble for status. Competition. Selfishness. Personal gain. It’s all there. We major in the trivial, we split into little huddles. Another name. Another doctrine. So close to the Cross but so far from the Christ. ‘May they all be one,’ Jesus prayed. One. Not one in groups of two thousand. One church. One faith. One Lord. No hierarchies. No traditions. Just Christ.” —Max Lucado

“If man had his way, the plan of redemption would be an endless and bloody conflict. In reality, salvation was bought not by Jesus’ fist, but by his nail-pierced hands; not by muscle but by love; not by vengeance but by forgiveness; not by force but by sacrifice. Jesus Christ our Lord surrendered in order that He might win; He destroyed His enemies by dying for them and conquered death by allowing death to conquer Him.” —A.W. Tozer

[VIDEO] What are atheists stealing from God? …

Links & Quotes

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The folks from The Overview Bible Project have a huge infographic about the 12 tribes of Israel. Check it out!

“The God who in the old creation did all this, can He not work today? He made the world out of nothing, can He not make new creatures without the aid of human will? His Word fashioned the creation of old, and His Word can work marvels still.” —Charles Spurgeon

“This verse [Psalm 119:67] shows that God sends affliction to help us learn His Word. We should ask how affliction helps us understand God’s Word and keep it. There are innumerable answers, as there are innumerable experiences. But here are five: (1) Affliction takes the glibness of life away and makes us more serious so that our mindset is more in tune with the seriousness of God’s Word. (2) Affliction knocks worldly props from under us and forces us to rely more on God, which brings us more in tune with the aim of the Word. (3) Affliction makes us search the Scriptures with greater desperation for help, rather than treating it as marginal to life. (4) Affliction brings us into the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings so that we fellowship more closely with Him and see the world more readily through His eyes. (5) Affliction mortifies deceitful and distracting fleshly desires, and so brings us into a more spiritual frame which fits God’s Word more.” —John Piper

[VIDEO] Duane from DW Video has a new project for any organizations operating in Michigan called “Buy Local.” I did a promotional video for the En Gedi Youth Center which turned out pretty nice. (By the way, if you’re in Michigan and you would like to have a free promo done by Duane for your organization, please click here.)

Links & Quotes

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“Search the Scriptures. Do not merely read them—search them; look up the parallel passages; collate them; try to get the meaning of the Spirit upon any one truth by looking to all the texts which refer to it. Read the Bible consecutively: do not merely read a verse here and there—that is not fair.” —Charles Spurgeon

“How does the Lord reward His diligent ones? It has been my experience that when I walk arm in arm with Jesus, so in love with Him, rewards break out on all sides. Everything I do or have is blessed: my wife, children, friends, ministry. There comes a life of Christ within that flows like a mighty river. Yes, we’ll have trials and tribulations. But through it all He rewards us with manifestations of His presence. … Those who neglect the Lord soon spin out of control as the devil moves in and takes over. Such a person has a devastated self-image. His or her feelings and thoughts cannot be curbed, and their tongue wags and moves under the power of bitterness and anger.” —David Wilkerson

Small problems can become huge problems if they are not addressed early on. Max Lucado has a great reminder in his post Go After The Small Drips.

Here is a great way to check out lots of books. Frank Viola has a link to a special offer from Leaders Book Summaries.

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

[VIDEO] John Maxwell reminds us that only mature people can compromise to make relationships successful. Check this out―

Links & Quotes

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Some good reading from today…

“Every deadly calamity is a merciful call from God for the living to repent.” —John Piper

“Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.” —C.S. Lewis

“I ask you, dear Christian friends, to come nearer to it [the blood Jesus shed on the Cross] this morning than ever you have been. Think over the great truth of substitution. Portray to yourself the sufferings of the Savior. Dwell in His sight, sit at the foot of Calvary, abide in the presence of His Cross, and never turn away from that great spectacle of mercy and of misery. Come to it; be not afraid. You sinners, who have never trusted Jesus, look here and live! May you come to Him now.” —Charles Spurgeon

“Our most pressing obligation today is to do all in our power to obtain a revival that will result in a reformed, revitalized, purified church. It is of far greater importance that we have better Christians than that we have more of them.” —A.W. Tozer

Links & Quotes

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Some good reading from today…

I was totally blown away when I saw this morning that BibleGateway featured my chart The Kings & Prophets Of Judah & Israel!

[INFOGRAPHIC] 22 Surprising Facts About Sleep from the Cleveland Clinic. Here’s a great book resource: Sleep: It Does A Family Good.

Very powerful: An open letter to my friends struggling with eating disorders.

“In times of extraordinary crisis ordinary measures will not suffice. The world lives in such a time of crisis. Christians alone are in a position to rescue the perishing. We dare not settle down to try to live as if things were ‘normal.’ Nothing is normal while sin and lust and death roam the world, pouncing upon one and another till the whole population has been destroyed.” —A.W. Tozer

“I want you to know how to study theology in the right way. I have practiced this method myself. … The method of which I am speaking is the one which the holy king David teaches in Psalm 119. … Here you will find three rules. They are frequently proposed throughout the psalm and run thus: Oratio, meditatio, tentatio [prayer, meditation, trial]. …

“You should completely despair of your own sense and reason, for by these you will not attain the goal. … Rather kneel down in your private little room and with sincere humility and earnestness pray God through His dear son, graciously to grant you His Holy Spirit to enlighten and guide you and give you understanding. [Psalm 119:18, 27, 33, 34-37]. …

“Second, you should meditate. This means that not only in your heart but also externally you should constantly handle and compare, read and reread the Word as preached and the very words as written in Scripture, diligently noting and meditating on what the Holy Spirit means. … Therefore, you observe how in this psalm David always says that he will speak, think, talk, hear, read, day and night and constantly—but about nothing else than God’s Word and Commandments. For God wants to give you His Spirit only through the external Word. [119:11, 15, 48, 24, 47, 93, 97] …

“Third, there is the tentatio, the trial. This is the touchstone. It teaches you not only to know and understand, but also to experience how right, how true, how sweet, how lovely, how mighty, how comforting God’s Word is: it is wisdom supreme. This is why you observe that, in the psalm indicated, David so often complains of all sorts of enemies. … For as soon as God’s Word becomes known through you, the devil will afflict you, will make a real [theologian] of you.” [119: 67-68, 71] —Martin Luther, on the 119th Psalm

7 Final Quotes From “The Ministry Of God’s Word”

The Ministry Of God's WordI’ve been sharing some of the many quotes I highlighted in Watchman Nee’s book The Ministry Of God’s Word. You can read previous quotes by clicking here, here, here, here, and here. This is a book that I have called a must read for pastors, and you can read my full book review by clicking here.

“A minister of the Word ought to be attentive to how he speaks. The words he speaks must come through discipline, since God creates the words for us through His disciplining us. … How much you can speak depends upon how much you have learned inwardly. … It is more than your preaching His Word; you as a person must be so chiseled and tested by Him that the word which comes out of you is God’s Word.” 

“Let us realize that the minister of the Word must be tried first. Without any trial there can be no word. If other brothers and sisters should enter into trial before you, you have nothing to help them. Even if you should try to say something, it falls as an empty word. What use is an empty word? Word is formed in fire. … Hence the ministers of the Word are those who are chosen by God to be dealt with first, to be tried first, and to know the Lord first, so that they may minister Christ to God’s children. … If we expect to have a big ministry we should be ready to receive more dealings.”

“The Word of God is full of emotion. It should not be recited verbatim in a mechanical way. It ought to be pressed out through deep feeling. … One’s emotion must be so refined that he can rejoice when God’s Word is joyful and wail when the Word of God is sorrowful. His feeling follows the Word of God closely. This is not performance. Please never learn to perform. … The more spiritual a man is, the richer his feeling. … The more lessons one learns before God the more enriched his feeling will be.” 

“A minister of the Word should know that God is building up his ministry through each trial and difficulty. Do not be so foolish as to deem it best to flee from trial. If no thorn, then no grace, hence no power and little ministry. You may speak the Word but you do not possess the strength of the spirit to push it out. You need the Word; you also need a usable spirit.”

“In preaching the gospel, if you make men a little bigger, you make the gospel somewhat smaller. … Spiritual humility comes through our being enlightened by God to a real knowledge of our self, where as soulish self-abasement is the result of looking at man, comparing ourselves with others, and being afraid of men.” 

“We need to take good care of our mind that it may be usable when God wants it.”

“He who desires to minister the Word must learn how to speak simply. … Always remember that God’s Word is for men to understand, not for them to become confused about. … Hence a very important point in ministering the Word is to climb high before God. The higher we climb the more God’s Word is released. God rejects low thought, low-quality persuasion, cheap metaphors or words. Reach high and yet be clear.” 

 

Thursdays With Oswald—God Is Love

This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Oswald Chambers. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Oswald” in the search box to read more entries.

Oswald Chambers

God Is Love 

     In the future, when trial and difficulties await you, do not be fearful, whatever and whoever you may lose faith in, let not this faith slip from you—God is Love; whisper it not only to your heart in its hour of darkness, but here in your corner of God’s earth and man’s great city, live in the belief of it; preach it by your sweetened, chastened, happy life; sing it in consecrated moments of peaceful joy…. 

     The world does not bid you sing, but God does. Song is the sign of an unburdened heart; then sing your songs of love unbidden, ever rising higher and higher into a fuller conception of the greatest, grandest fact on the stage of Time—God is Love. 

From The Love Of God 

Here’s to a new year filled with a greater revelation in your heart of God’s amazing love! May 2014 be full of your love songs to the Greatest Love Of All!