Each of us needs to listen to this penetrating ministry in a similar style to Paul Washer, and not only listen to it, but ask the Lord to show us how to live with Him in this incredible relationship that He has given to us, as He designed it to be. But be aware, it is a painful process that we have to go through to get to it…and one that brings a far greater reward than the cost.

Bless you

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Ligonier Ministries have a fantastic on-line teaching lectures of the study and history of Reformed Theology, presented by RC Sproul.

It is called, What is Reformed Theology? and is very easy to follow and can only edify and grow you as you work your way through it.

There are 12 lectures in total and you can find all of them on the right-hand, drop-down menu next to the video on the link above.

May this bless you.

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1. What is Amillennialism?

Lane Chaplin -- 10  Signs You May Have Just Entered… The Emergent Church Zone

This is what he has to say about it: Have you ever heard an emergent post-modern speak and thought something was just off? Do you get tired of people telling you there is no absolute truth without realizing that their statement would have to be absolutely true? If you walk into a church that’s saying things like this, you may have just crossed into… the emergent zone.

The Bible actually spoke about the emergent post-modern church at great length. Just look up these terms: “hypocrisy” and “hypocrite”. You’ll find plenty of verses addressing the subject matter these people are putting forth.

This video was originally posted by Doug Eaton. I highly encourage you to visit his page and subscribe. Along with videos like this, he has some wonderfully encouraging ones as well. You can get there via this link:
http://www.youtube.com/deaton29

For a lecture Doug Eaton gave on Postmodernism and the Emergent Church, click here:
http://www.tiu.edu/files/law/Postmode…

Roger Oakland has a video on the Emerging Church.

The Emergent Church is a seeker friendly Christian movement touted to be the “New” Christianity for the Post-Modern World. But is the Emergent Church really a fresh approach to teaching sound doctrine, or is it part of the great end times apostasy predicted in the Bible?

In this commentary, Roger Oakland explores the apostate pattern emerging from the Emergent Church.

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Beautiful, comforting words from an old hymn penned way back in 1752. Only a person who had a true relationship with the Lord Jesus could have written like this.

I trust you will be blessed.

Be Still My Soul

Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side.
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change, He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake
To guide the future, as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know
His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart,
And all is darkened in the vale of tears,
Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears.
Be still, my soul: thy Jesus can repay
From His own fullness all He takes away.

Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord.
When disappointment, grief and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past
All safe and blessèd we shall meet at last.

Be still, my soul: begin the song of praise
On earth, believing, to Thy Lord on high;
Acknowledge Him in all thy words and ways,
So shall He view thee with a well pleased eye.
Be still, my soul: the Sun of life divine
Through passing clouds shall but more brightly shine.

Words originally in German by Katharina von Schlegel, and translated into English by Jane L Borthwick in 1855 (see CyberHymnal )

Here is St Philips Boys’ Choir and Libera singing this glorious Hymn if you would like to hear it being sung.

Bless you

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai1WP9P8EaA

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Take a moment to think about that.

God could not look upon Him because of what He had become, and the heart-wrenching brokenness that God had separated from Him for that time until the Atonement was paid in full, caused our beloved Jesus to cry out, “Lord, Lord, why have you forsaken me!?”

In the light of this, is the cost really too much?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=13xAYg31vcU

I will offer up my life
In spirit and truth,
Pouring out the oil of love
As my worship to You
In surrender I must give my every part;
Lord, receive the sacrifice
Of a broken heart

CHORUS:
Jesus, what can I give, what can I bring
To so faithful a friend, to so loving a King?
Saviour, what can be said, what can be sung
As a praise of Your name
For the things You have done?
Oh my words could not tell, not even in part
Of the debt of love that is owed
By this thankful heart

You deserve my every breath
For You’ve paid the great cost;
Giving up Your life to death,
Even death on a cross
You took all my shame away,
There defeated my sin
Opened up the gates of heaven
And have beckoned me in

(Thanks to John for this video link)

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My Utmost For His Highest
July 29th

WHAT DO YOU SEE IN YOUR CLOUDS?

“Behold, He cometh with clouds.” Revelation 1:7

In the Bible clouds are always connected with God. Clouds are those sorrows or sufferings or providences, within or without our personal lives, which seem to dispute the rule of God. It is by those very clouds that the Spirit of God is teaching us how to walk by faith. If there were no clouds, we should have no faith. “The clouds are but the dust of our Father’s feet.” The clouds are a sign that He is there. What a revelation it is to know that sorrow and bereavement and suffering are the clouds that come along with God! God cannot come near without clouds, He does not come in clear shining.

It is not true to say that God wants to teach us something in our trials: through every cloud He brings, He wants us to unlearn something. His purpose in the cloud is to simplify our belief until our relationship to Him is exactly that of a child – God and my own soul, other people are shadows. Until other people become shadows, clouds and darkness will be mine every now and again. Is the relationship between myself and God getting simpler than ever it has been?

There is a connection between the strange providences of God and what we know of Him, and we have to learn to interpret the mysteries of life in the light of our knowledge of God. Unless we can look the darkest, blackest fact full in the face without damaging God’s character, we do not yet know Him.

“They feared as they entered the cloud . . .” – Is there anyone “save Jesus only” in your cloud? If so, it will get darker; you must get to the place where there is “no one any more save Jesus only.”

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We too come to a place before the Lord when our sin overwhelms us and we throw ourselves upon His mercy, just as David has done here. We too also know that no Other can blot out our iniquity and we crave His cleansing and His restoration and joy of His salvation. No sweeter sound than that of the Lord saying, “Come unto Me, my child, you are forgiven”. Nothing can cause us to worship God more than knowing we are truly His.

¹⁵ O Lord, open my lips,
And my mouth shall show forth Your praise.
¹⁶ For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering.
¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbILLkOmLdc

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1. Righteous Judge, and Merciful Justifier.

Isaiah 2:10 ¶ Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty.

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy riven side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Cleanse me from its guilt and pow’r.

Not the labors of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone:
Thou must save, and Thou alone.

Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress;
Helpless, look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Saviour, or I die.

While I draw this fleeting breath,
When my eyelids close in death,
When I soar to worlds unknown,
See Thee on Thy judgment throne;
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.

Then above the world and sin,
Thro’ the veil, drawn right within,
I shall see Him face to face,
Sing the story, saved by grace,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me ever be with Thee.

HYMN HISTORY:

The Rev. Augustus Montague Toplady, is one name which must be included in any list of the great hymn writers.

One day Toplady was travelling through the pleasant English countryside when a sudden, fierce storm sent him scurrying for shelter. He found it nearby, in the cleft of a great rock.

There are several places throughout Britain and Ireland where local people will point positively to the exact location of Toplady’s place of refuge. However, since it’s such a matter of uncertainty and dispute I’ll refrain from favouring any one in particular.

The important thing is that the great man found the shelter he needed; and the wonderful thing for us is that, while there, and inspired by the situation and surroundings, he penned those immortal lines: “Rock of ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee.”

The Rev. Toplady was also the editor of a little religious periodical entitled, “The Gospel Magazine,” and sometime later he used the lines he had written beneath the shelter of the rock in an article he had prepared for that paper.

In this he sought to establish the utter sinfulness of man and the absolute necessity of receiving Christ’s pardon. It was a totally scriptural essay and to prove his point he compared the sins of the average individual to the national debt of England.

Toplady had calculated that a fifty year old man in his lifetime would be guilty of; one billion, five hundred and seventy-six million, eight hundred thousand sins. He quite rightly argued that it was humanly impossible for anyone to pay off such a staggering debt of iniquity. Therefore, sinners must needs avail themselves of the mercy and pardon of the Lord Jesus, who died upon the Cross to ‘redeem us from the curse of the law.’

He concluded the article with – ‘A living and dying prayer for the holiest believer in the world’ – which contained the recently written hymn “Rock Of Ages”.

Just two years after those blessed words were first published, Augustus Toplady, at only 38 years of age, passed from this scene of time, into eternity; and to the everlasting shelter of “The Rock of ages.”

Rock of Ages, cleft for me- Psalm 62:5-8
Let me hide myself in Thee – Exodus 33:22
Let the water and the blood – 1 John 5:6
From Thy riven side which flowed – John 19:34
Be of sin the double cure – 2 Kings 2:9-10
Cleanse me from its guilt and power- Isaiah 1:19

Not the labour of my hands- John 5:30 (first clause)
Can fulfil the law’s demands- Exodus 33:22
Could my zeal no respite know- Psalm 69:6 (first clause)
Could my tears forever flow – Psalm 6:6
All for sin could not atone – Heb. 10:5-6
Thou must save and Thou alone – Hebrews 10:8-10

Nothing in my hand I bring – Isaiah 4:1
Simply to Thy Cross I cling – Galatians 6:14
Naked come to Thee for dress- Rom. 13:14 (first clause)
Helpless look to Thee for grace- Philippians 4:I3
Foul, I to the fountain fly – Psalm 2:7
Wash me Saviour, or I die – John 13:8 (second clause)

While I draw this fleeting breath- Psalm 103:15-16
When my eyelids close in death – Ecclesiastes 12:3-7
When I soar to worlds unknown – John 14:2-3
See Thee on Thy judgment throne – Matthew 25:31
Rock of Ages cleft for me- 1 Corinthians 10:4 (third clause)
Let me hide myself in Thee – Psalm 16:1-8

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4. Quote (6) – C.H. Spurgeon

“Many tender-minded Christians fear to sin against love by daring to inquire into anything that comes wearing the cloak of Christianity and breathing the name of Jesus. They dare not examine the credentials of the latest prophet to hit their town lest they be guilty of rejecting something which may be of God.

They timidly remember how the Pharisees refused to accept Christ when He came, and they do not want to be caught in the same snare, so they either reserve judgement or shut their eyes and accept everything without question. This is supposed to indicate a high degree of spirituality. But in sober fact it indicates no such thing. It may indeed be evidence of the absence of the Holy Spirit.

Gullibility is not synonymous with spirituality. Faith is not a mental habit leading its possessor to open his mouth and swallow everything that has about it the colour of the supernatural. Faith keeps its heart open to whatever is of God, and rejects everything that is not of God, however wonderful it may be. ‘Try the spirits’ is a command of the Holy Spirit to the Church. We may sin as certainly by approving the spurious as by rejecting the genuine. And the current habit of refusing to take sides is not the way to avoid the question. To appraise things with a heart of love and then to act on the results is an obligation resting upon every Christian in the world. And the more as we see the day approaching.” ( A.W. Tozer)

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Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?” John 11:40

Every time you venture out in the life of faith, you will find something in your common-sense circumstances that flatly contradicts your faith. Common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense; they stand in the relation of the natural and the spiritual. Can you trust Jesus Christ where your common sense cannot trust Him? Can you venture heroically on Jesus Christ’s statements when the facts of your common-sense life shout – “It’s a lie?” On the mount it is easy to say – ‘Oh, yes, I believe God can do it’; but you have to come down into the demon-possessed valley and meet with facts that laugh ironically at the whole of your mount-of-transfiguration belief. Every time my programme of belief is clear to my own mind, I come across something that contradicts it. Let me say I believe God will supply all my need, and then let me run dry, with no outlook, and see whether I will go through the trial of faith, or whether I will sink back to something lower.

Faith must be tested, because it can be turned into a personal possession only through conflict. What is your faith up against just now? The test will either prove that your faith is right, or it will kill it. “Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in Me.” The final thing is confidence in Jesus. Believe steadfastly on Him and all you come up against will develop your faith. There is continual testing in the life of faith, and the last great test is death. May God keep us in fighting trim! Faith is unutterable trust in God, trust which never dreams that He will not stand by us.

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^{Mark 4 36-41( KJV)}

³⁶And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships.

³⁷And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.

³⁸And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?

³⁹And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

⁴⁰And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye yet have no faith?

⁴¹And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

This story is in Matthew 8, Mark 4 and Luke 8 and all tell the same story, but from a slightly different viewpoint. The passage in Mark 4 in KJV above, is the most descriptive and gives a little more detail of the seeming direness of their circumstances and the most detail of Jesus’ response and for my purposes here, I chose it for that. I say ’seeming direness’ because that is exactly what it was because of the simple fact that the Son of God was on their boat with them, in the midst of the storm.

So,  Who’s asleep on your boat?

I have heard many sermons about this passage and always I am left with a feeling of kindred spirits with the disciples and a good dose of,  “Oh no, I do that too at times.”  These were well-seasoned fishermen who I am sure had seen their fair share of storms on the Sea of Galilee, so what was the difference now?

If we look at the Greek words describing the great storm mentioned in the passage,  it describes the word great as -

Thayer Definition – G3173  μέγας  megas  -

Big  (+ fear) exceedingly, great (-est), high, large, loud, mighty,   and also used of intensity and its degrees:  of natural events powerfully affecting the senses: violent, mighty, strong.

Strongs Definition G3176 μέγιστος megistos meg’-is-tos
Superlative of G3173; greatest or very great: – exceeding great.

We see very clearly there was something rather different about this storm – it had a definite purpose to it.

The waves are described like this -

Strongs Definition G1911 ἐπιβάλλω  epiballō  ep-ee-bal’-lo

From G1909 and G906; to throw upon  – beat into, cast (up-), on, fall, lay (on),

also taken from

Strongs Definition G4496 ῥίπτω rhiptō̄  hrip’-to

A primary verb (perhaps rather akin to the base of G4474, through the idea of sudden motion); to fling (properly with a quick toss, thus differing from G906, which denotes a deliberate hurl; and from τείνω teinō (see in G1614), which indicates an extended projection); by qualification, to deposit (as if a load); by extension to disperse: – cast (down, out), scatter abroad, throw.

The wind is described as :

G417 ἄνεμος anemos

Thayer Definition:
1) wind, a violent agitation and stream of air
2) a very strong tempestuous wind
3) the four principal or cardinal winds, hence the four corners of heaven

I am sure you clearly get the picture that this could be described as an extraordinarily, violent storm.

And Jesus slept soundly while it was going on around them with all it’s mighty force. Where was He asleep?- the KJV uses an old term – the hinder part of the boat – the helm, the pilot’s place. There is great significance in this too.

Is He at your helm?

How did the disciples, these hardened fishermen react? By calmly sitting down and having a good old natter, perhaps chatting about the weather patterns of their day? No. They did what any person who does not fully understand Who is asleep in their boat, would do. They more than likely took it upon themselves to solve their immediate problem, their own way by reacting as they would have in the past before Jesus came into their lives.  They eventually turn to Jesus when they realise they can of themselves do no more to save the situation, and in utter terror, awaken Him.

Lets look a little closer at their wording again ” Master, carest Thou not that we perish?” Do you see something here? The first thing they do in their panic is turn it on the Lord questioning His care of them – “don’t you care about us?” or, “Lord, why is this happening to us?” , “What  about  ‘me, me, me’.” How many times in our lives have we asked this of the Lord, whilst going through a storm of any size?

I love the fact that they had to waken Him

Jesus knew fully, and lived even before the storm, knowing that there was nothing happening that His Father did not already know about or would possibly overlook or forget. The second thing that Jesus also knew was that His life and the timing in His life was fully in the hands of His Father. He knew that His Father’s will was what His life was all about, and that He came to do the will of His Father, and it is in the confidence of this knowledge and in the confidence of His Father Himself, that He was able to sleep. And when He awoke, He did not panic alongside His disciples, but stood up and rebuked the sea -

Strong’s  Definition G2008   ἐπιτιμάω    epitimaō    ep-ee-tee-mah’-o

From G1909 and G5091; to tax upon, that is, censure or admonish; by implication forbid: – (straitly) charge, rebuke.

to be quiet -

Strong’s Definition G4623 σιωπάω  siōpaō   see-o-pah’-o

From σιωπη siōpē (silence, that is, a hush; properly muteness, that is, involuntary stillness

and still -

Strong’s Definition G5392 φιμόω phimoō  fee-mo’-o

From φιμός phimos  to muzzle

The winds and the waves obeyed Him, not in half-an-hour, but straight away, so there was not a single chance that they could have calmed down ‘naturally’ and the glory gone to anyone else. This now caused an awe and great fear in the disciples.  How might it have affected us had we been there, how do we feel when it happens in our lives now?

He was also telling the disciples to be calm and quiet too. He then goes on to say to them, “Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye yet have no faith?”  In other words, “Do you not know Who is asleep on the boat with you? Do you not yet know Who I AM?”

Have you heard Him ask you this question too?

Let me ask you another and one that I still have to face many times myself: Is your life all about what you want and your ideas and your agendas  or are you prepared to be taken through absolutely anything that the Lord has ahead of you regardless of the size of the storm, for Him to get you to where He wants you and needs you to be?

I use the words again, “Do you not know Who I AM?”

Is there anything more important in our life here on earth, with Jesus as both Lord and Saviour,  than about us getting to know Him and whatever that might involve, no matter the storms involved? – see Philippians 3

The last sentence in this passage reads, ” ⁴¹And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, “What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

Even though they had been with Him for some while and had faith in Him, and had watched Him perform many miracles, they still had not been in a situation like this one. And here they failed. Nothing before had tested and tried their faith in Him like this episode. And as a result of His quieting the storm, they greatly feared Him far more than they ever feared the storm itself.

Strongs: G5399 φοβέω phobeō fob-eh’-o
From G5401; to frighten, that is, (passively) to be alarmed; by analogy to be in awe of, that is, revere: – be (+ sore) afraid, fear (exceedingly), reverence

With this experience, they moved into a new understanding and awe of Him through His command of the storm, just as we do too, when coming through and out the other side of a storm in our own life and have seen that He has indeed been there all along and is in control of it too.

‘This Man’  lived and moved and had His being in God, was man as he was originally intended to be with God from the beginning.   Not even Adam, before the fall, was ever such a man.  This man was in reality, God Incarnate, God in the flesh. No wonder they were exceedingly, sore-afraid.

So, Who’s asleep in your boat?

Do we go through the storms that are threatening to overload our boat and sink us, reacting in our common sense that prevails often resulting in a state of panic or are we sure and confident in the One Who is at the helm even though it appears he has no tiller in hand? A time comes when our best is not good enough to resolve things and we have no where else to go, but to throw ourselves upon Him in prayer and allow the Lord to do His divine best and that is when He expects us to have utter confidence in His ability and in His power. Will He be able to rely upon us as His children to have calm and steady ’sea-legs’ when the storm hits?

He may at times appear to be asleep as we sleep, but the Bible makes it very clear in Psalm 121:4 that,  Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep. In the Song of Solomon 5:2 it says, ” I sleep, but my heart is awake;  It is the voice of my beloved!.  Jesus is ever before the Father interceding for us, His children.  Hebrews 7:25 tells us that, “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”

Whatever the storm is you are going through, are you prepared to allow the Lord to waken up at His leisure, knowing you can have utter confidence in Him; that He knows already what the outcome is and is already interceding on your behalf before the Throne of Grace and Mercy? Does He not deserve our absolute confidence and trust in Him in each and every situation or circumstance in our lives, as Lord of all?

We need to learn that He Who is asleep on the boat, is more capable than we will ever be, to manage the boat.

I end with some words from Oswald:

Is Jesus Christ a Carpenter, or is He God to me? If He is only man, why let Him take the tiller of the boat? Why pray to Him? But if He be God, then be heroic enough to go to the breaking-point and not break in your confidence in Him.

So, Who’s asleep on your boat?

In His love

All Glory to God

Steph

1. Discipleship means personal, passionate devotion to a Person, Our Lord Jesus Christ and not to a religious creed.
2. Reality in our Christian walk

Sourced from: Surrender All

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Psalm 148

Praise to the LORD from Creation

¹ Praise the LORD!

Praise the LORD from the heavens;
Praise Him in the heights!
² Praise Him, all His angels;
Praise Him, all His hosts!
³ Praise Him, sun and moon;
Praise Him, all you stars of light!
⁴ Praise Him, you heavens of heavens,
And you waters above the heavens!

⁵ Let them praise the name of the LORD,
For He commanded and they were created.
⁶ He also established them forever and ever;
He made a decree which shall not pass away.

⁷ Praise the LORD from the earth,
You great sea creatures and all the depths;
⁸ Fire and hail, snow and clouds;
Stormy wind, fulfilling His word;
⁹ Mountains and all hills;
Fruitful trees and all cedars;
¹⁰ Beasts and all cattle;
Creeping things and flying fowl;
¹¹ Kings of the earth and all peoples;
Princes and all judges of the earth;
¹² Both young men and maidens;
Old men and children.

¹³ Let them praise the name of the LORD,
For His name alone is exalted;
His glory is above the earth and heaven.
¹⁴ And He has exalted the horn of His people,
The praise of all His saints—
Of the children of Israel,
A people near to Him.

Praise the LORD!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-suJ5su5GcM

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Bless you as you read.

The process of regeneration and sanctification is an ongoing process in our lives, by God. It is often one that causes us much agony as we learn to let go of ourselves and our lives bit by bit, with the help of His Holy Spirit and of course, yet again, His grace.

If we are to get to know God more and more, and also benefit the Body of Christ in any small way, these things have to take place.

There is no short-cut way to reach it. Not one.

It has to be His way or no way.

Do we allow God to bring this about in our lives, or are we like the marble that escapes, mentioned below by Oswald Chambers? If we are like the marble, all we do is prolong both the agony and the blessing that is sure to come afterwards.

Why not just throw all caution to the wind and throw ourselves on Him and let Him handle the rest? What is it that makes us hold on so hard to ourselves and our lives, when in the eternal view of things, they and we are both but a vapour and dust?

I can only speak from my own life and see clearly that the reason I fail to do this at times is because I mistakenly think I am protecting myself.  How absurd can one get? How revolting? Here I am, thinking I know better than the One who spoke the very universe into existence. In the book of Job and chapter 38, God clearly lays out His Omnipotence to Job. (if you have not read it or not read it for awhile, go an take a look – it is wonderful)

When I first read it, I sat back in my chair in both wonder and repentance.  David saying to the Lord, ‘What is man that you are mindful of him?” came to mind. God is Sovereign. Period. God may do with us as He pleases – even to the point of what Job says below.

Job 13:15 Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him

Could any of us say this? Oh that I might be able to if called to! You see we all have pride, and it is that which has to go and God surely knows best which way it has to go in each of us. We are all different, yet we all have  a common thread of pride which still resists God at times. God knows exactly what to do with us or to allow in our lives to get rid of that pride – that need to say “I can do it or I will do it my way, regardless of what You or anyone else says.”

God really knows what He is doing with each one His children, no matter what we see, feel or experience.Trust Him regardless of the circumstances and watch as He grows you in faith and hope and love.

Praise and thank God that He is so long-suffering, and patient with us. I would have been utterly lost and on my way to hell, if He was not.

Let us not hold onto ourselves or ‘protect’ ourselves from the Lord or anything that He deems necessary, to take us the the place where we truly can say and not with our mouths only, but with our every breath,

“All to Thee my blessed Saviour, I surrender all…”

Here Oswald Chambers makes it very clear why this squeezing and breaking of us, by God is so necessary in our process of dying to self thereby living freely in Christ.

THE COMMISSION OF THE CALL

“Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body’s sake.” Colossians 1:24

We make calls out of our own spiritual consecration, but when we get right with God He brushes all these aside, and rivets us with a pain that is terrific to one thing we never dreamed of, and for one radiant flashing moment we see what He is after, and we say – “Here am I, send me.” This call has nothing to do with personal sanctification, but with being made broken bread and poured-out wine.

God can never make us wine if we object to the fingers He uses to crush us with. If God would only use His own fingers, and make me broken bread and poured-out wine in a special way! But when He uses someone whom we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, and makes those the crushers, we object. We must never choose the scene of our own martyrdom.

If ever we are going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed; you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed. I wonder what kind of finger and thumb God has been using to squeeze you, and you have been like a marble and escaped? You are not ripe yet, and if God had squeezed you, the wine would have been remarkably bitter. To be a sacramental personality means that the elements of the natural life are presenced by God as they are broken providentially in His service.

We have to be adjusted into God before we can be broken bread in His hands. Keep right with God and let Him do what He likes, and you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children.

Sourced from: Surrender All

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This old hymn, At Calvary, came to mind as we were chatting that is where the freedom in the Lord comes from, where it is all based. Mercy there was great and grace was free. I found 2 renditions. The first one is a wonderful lively rendition that you will find you want to sing along as you listen or at least tap your foot! and the second one is music only played on a lovely traditional church pipe organ   ENjoy both

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YcJPu_iE7Q

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1. The Tender Mercies of God
2. Precious Child

I sit at Your feet quietly
Adoring
Taking in every moment of  Your presence
Finally understanding without any hesitancy
Knowing that I cannot drink enough of You
And am left constantly thirsty for more.

I sit at Your feet quietly
Worshipping
My beloved Saviour and Lord
Without any reserve, my heart fully open
Content to just be in Your presence
Loving and being loved in return
My joy overflowing
At the wonder of my closeness
Only through the cross
To You
The beloved Son of God

I sit at Your feet
Breathing in
Your sweet aroma
Sweet Rose of Sharon

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lF2_fHXOS8

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A few years ago, I wanted to go into a deeper walk with the Lord. I had never even known it was possible until a few things took place in my life. Until that point, God was just Someone who was kind of real and ‘way out there’ somewhere. You know, ‘out there’

When we ask Him to take us into the deeps with Him, He requires of us. He requires our very lives. He requires that we give up all our rights to ourselves. We can hold on to nothing. Not even a tiny bit. In us there is no good thing. If there was any good thing, then Jesus would not have had to come to be crucified in our place. We need to see ourselves as God sees us outside of Jesus in our unsurrendered state – in our humanness. The only reason we can stand before Him at all, is because of Jesus.

I once asked the Lord to show me, me, as He sees me – what is still living in me, where I am holding on to my life, even though I thought I had given it all to Him. What He showed me was horrific to face. But as I mentioned in my “Dying to self and suffering go hand-in-hand” post, over at The Faith Defenders Forum, it is what we do when being faced with the next wedge of our life that He requires from us, that is all important.

There has to be a breaking, a crushing, a letting go, so that we can be brought to fulfilment in Him in our lives. We cannot become poured out wine for Him if the grape is still whole. Wine is made from crushed grapes…. Are we prepared to be crushed by Him, to be made poured out wine for others?

I really pray that you will ask Him to show you, you….
In the love of Jesus
Steph

My Mirror
Tearing and breaking inside with no sound
Limping, crawling, lying face down
Look into My mirror
If you dare
And let Me show you
what I see there

Stiff-necked and proud – too haughty for Me
Dark hidden agendas and thoughts flowing free
Egocentric and selfish, arrogant and callous
Self-driven, self-serving, unyielding and jealous

Look into My mirror
If you dare
And let Me show you
what I see there

Short-tempered and angry, hard-done by, unrelenting
Sharp tongued and self-righteous, harsh, unrepenting
Cruel and unkind, thoughtless and unfeeling
All this and much more in your heart, I am seeing

Look into My mirror
If you dare
And let Me show you
what I see there

My mirror never lies, there’s no false reflection
Through the Cross, I’ve reached out and don’t want you rejection
My Son’s life for yours, no greater love than this
If you just want Me for ‘things’, then you’re asking amiss.

Now, look into My mirror
If you dare
But first, let Me show you
what I want to see there

Love, Peace, patience, Self-control and Faithfulness
Kindness, Joy, Goodness and of course, Gentleness
If you dare to look in My mirror this day
Then know through My son, Jesus, you can live My way
I ask for your life, your heart and your soul
To be given up fully, to be given in whole
Nothing withheld from Me, not now, not ever
And to live in Me now, and always, and forever

So,
What will it be?

Are you prepared to look into My mirror this day
And let Me clean out all this rot and decay
Death and destruction were all washed away
Long ago on a hill,
called Calvary.

Tearing and breaking inside with no sound
Limping, crawling, lying face down
Look into My mirror
With Me, you can dare
And let Me help you see
what I see there

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1. Are we prepared to be squeezed by God?

The original written post of this video was taken from here.

Bless you as you watch

www.youtube.com/watch?v=f61ZN60Miqs

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1. The false prophet Marjoe Gortner

(London, December 29, 1893)

Away from the world and the cruel,

Away from the day and its strife;

Away from the sad and the joyful,

Away from the struggle of life.

Away through the high hush of midnight,

Away from myself am I borne,

Away to the region of music,

Where the beautiful ever is worn.

Like a strange eager thing, half-frightened,

Like the rushing of wind held back,

My soul, yearning, longing was waiting,

Strained intensely, as held on a rack.

Far away, now so near—now so far

Came a presence so painfully dear;

Away burst my soul from its longing,

Away burst my heart from the fear.

Home from those wayward wanderings,

Home from that cold foreign clime,

Home, to the arms of “Our Father,”

Where I am all His and He’s mine.

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1. Prayer Pleading

Carter Conlon form Times Square Church, New York, is pleading passionately, calling you to RUN! Run from the false gospels that are so candy-coated and sly and gilt-edged and flesh-pleasing.

This video will surely touch you in some way. Perhaps to move you away from what you are following, or perhaps to your knees in thanksgiving and adoration that He has moved you out and away already, or still on your knees,  that that you have never gone the way of the other gospels.
Bless you

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