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Showing posts from 2012

Light of My Presence...

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Let Me infuse My Peace into your innermost being. As you sit quietly in the Light of My Presence, you can sense Peace growing within you. This is not something that you accomplish through self-discipline and willpower; it is opening yourself to receive My blessing. In this age of independence, people find it hard to acknowledge their neediness. However, I have taken you along a path that has highlighted your need for Me: placing you in situations where your strengths were irrelevant and your weaknesses were glaringly evident. Through the aridity of those desert marches, I have drawn you closer and closer to Myself. You have discovered flowers of Peace blossoming in the most desolate places.You have learned to thank Me for hard times and difficult journeys, trusting that through them I accomplish My best work. You have realized that needing Me is the key to knowing Me intimately, which is the gift above all gifts. The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a

Crowned with Glory and Honor...

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I am currently doing a study on Genesis and also preparing to write my thesis on what it means to be created in the image of God. As I was studying and reading these two verses the lines highlighted really stood out to me. Being created in the image of God is a bigger deal than we often believe. God created us lower than the angels, but crowned us with glory and honor. He said the same of Christ when he descended on earth. Soak that up and think on that. Often we take for granted the beauty of how we were created and the power we have in God through Christ. There was no other way to be justified but through a perfect human sacrafice for our sake. We often make excuses like those in Exodus 32 for the way we behave, but in reality God's glory is in front of us and he has even crowned us with his glory and honor. We must not lose sight of the awesome and holy God we serve. We must fight to know WHO WE ARE and WHO WE SERVE! We must look to the Lord to grow us in understanding of wha

God is for me...

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Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me. Psalm 56:9 It is impossible for any human speech to express the full meaning of this delightful phrase, "God is for me." He was for us before the worlds were made. He was for us or He would not have given His well-beloved Son; He was for us when He smote the Only-begotten and laid the full weight of His wrath upon Him—He was for us, though He was against Him. He was "for us" when we were ruined in the Fall—He loved us notwithstanding all. He was for us when we were rebels against Him and with a high hand were bidding Him defiance. He was for us or He would not have brought us humbly to seek His face. He has been for us in many struggles; we have been summoned to encounter hosts of dangers; we have been assailed by temptations from without and within—how could we have remained unharmed to this hour if He had not been for us? He is for us with all the infinity of His bei

Christ Loved Me

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. . . Anyone who does not love does not know God. 1 John 4:8 The distinguishing mark of a Christian is his confidence in Christ's love for him and in the offering of his love to Christ. First, faith sets her seal upon the man by enabling the soul to say with the apostle, "Christ loved me and gave himself for me."1 Then love gives the countersign and stamps upon the heart gratitude and love to Jesus in return. "We love because he first loved us."2 In those grand old ages, which are the heroic period of the Christian religion, this double mark was clearly seen in all believers in Jesus; they were men who knew the love of Christ and rested upon it as a man leans upon a staff whose trustiness he has proved. The love that they felt toward the Lord was not a quiet emotion that they hid within themselves in the secret place of their souls and that they only spoke about in private or when they met on the first day of the week and sang hymns in honor of Chr

Dear God...

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The Kaleidoscope...

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Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved. Song of Songs 1:16 From every angle our Well-beloved is most fair. Our various experiences are meant by our heavenly Father to provide new vantage points from which we may view the loveliness of Jesus. How friendly are our trials when they allow us a clearer view of Jesus than ordinary life could afford us! We have seen Him from the mountain peaks, and He has shone upon us as the sun in His strength; but we have seen Him also from the lions' dens, and even there He has lost none of His loveliness. In the experience of suffering and pain, from the borders of the grave, we have turned our eyes to our soul's spouse, and He has never been other than "beautiful." Many of His saints looked upon Him from the gloom of dungeons and from the martyr's flames; yet they never uttered an ill word of Him, but died extolling His surpassing charms. To keep our gaze on the Lord Jesus is noble and pleasant employment. Is it not unspea

God's Chosen Servants

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You are my servant, I have chosen you. Isaiah 41:9 If we have received the grace of God in our hearts, its practical effect has been to make us God's servants. We may be unfaithful servants, we certainly are unprofitable ones, but yet, blessed be His name, we are His servants, wearing His uniform, eating at His table, and obeying His commands. We were once the servants of sin, but He who made us free has now taken us into His family and taught us obedience to His will. We do not serve our Master perfectly, but we would if we could. As we hear God's voice saying unto us, "You are My servant," we can answer with David, "I am your servant. . . . You have loosed my bonds."1 But the Lord calls us not only His servants, but His chosen ones—"I have chosen you." We have not chosen Him first, but He has chosen us. If we are now God's servants, it wasn't always so; the change must be ascribed to sovereign grace. The eye of sovereignty

Spurgeon...

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I do not come into this pulpit hoping that perhaps somebody will of his own free will return to Christ. My hope lies in another quarter. I hope that my Master will lay hold of some of them and say, "You are mine, and you shall be mine. I claim you for myself." My hope arises from the freeness of grace, and not from the freedom of the will. Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Abide in Me...

Abide in Me John 15:4 Communion with Christ is a certain cure for every ill. Whether it be the woodworm of sadness or the smothering impact of earthly treasure, close fellowship with the Lord Jesus will take bitterness from the one and excess from the other. Live near to Jesus, Christian, and it is a matter of secondary importance whether you live on the mountain of honor or in the valley of humiliation. Living near to Jesus, you are covered with the wings of God, and underneath you are the everlasting arms. Let nothing keep you from that hallowed communion that is the unique privilege of a life hidden in Christ. Do not be content with the occasional meeting, but always seek to retain His company, for only in His presence will you find either comfort or safety. Jesus should not be for us a friend who calls us now and then, but one with whom we are in constant touch. You have a difficult road before you: Make sure, pilgrim, that you do not go without your guide. You have to pass thro

I am Yours and You are Mine

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Say to my soul, 'I am your salvation!' Psalms 35:3 What does this sweet prayer teach me? It shall be my evening's petition; but first let it grant me an instructive meditation. The text informs me first of all that David had his doubts; for why should he pray, "Say to my soul, 'I am your salvation'" if he were not sometimes exercised with doubts and fears? Let me, then, be encouraged that I am not the only saint who has to face such faltering faith. If David doubted, I need not conclude that I am not a Christian because I have doubts. The text reminds me that David was not content while he had doubts and fears, but he proceeded directly to the mercy-seat to pray for assurance, for he valued it as much as gold. I too must work to foster a continual sense of being accepted in the Beloved and must have no joy when His love is not shed abroad in my soul. When my Bridegroom is gone, my soul must long for Him. I learn also that David knew where to o

130 Things I Learned from "Attitudes of a Transformed Heart"

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“Attitudes of a Transformed Heart” by: Martha Peace Chapter 1: • God wants us to have a high and proper view of Him and to bow before Him in complete allegiance. Daniel 1:8 • What matters is that God must give you a new heart and thus the capacity, as well as the desire, to bow before Him. John 14:6 • Through Daniel’s story we see that Daniel was much more concerned about promoting God’s glory than he was in protecting himself. Daniel 2:20-23 • Daniel turned to God for help. Daniel 2:21 • Daniel gave thanks and credit to God whom he called the God the God of my fathers. Daniel 2:45 • Their faith in God was unshakable in spite of the extreme danger. Daniel 3:17 • Even in the midst of fear you defend the Lord and make His name known. Daniel 4:17 • The things of this world will eventually end, but God’s kingdom would endure forever. Daniel 2:44 • Daniel thanked his high and holy God. Daniel 2:23 • Man perverts his concept of God by inventing a god in his mind who is comfor

The Great Marvels of Our God

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And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. Luke 2:18 We must not cease to wonder at the great marvels of our God. It would be very difficult to draw a line between holy wonder and real worship; for when the soul is overwhelmed with the majesty of God's glory, though it may not express itself in song or even utter its voice with bowed head in humble prayer, yet it silently adores. Our incarnate God is to be worshiped as "the Wonderful." That God should consider His fallen creature, man, and instead of sweeping him away with the broom of destruction should Himself undertake to be man's Redeemer and to pay his ransom price is indeed marvelous! But to each believer redemption is most marvelous as he views it in relation to himself. It is a miracle of grace indeed that Jesus should forsake the thrones and royalties above to suffer ignominiously below for you. Let your soul lose itself in wonder, for wonder is in this way a very practical em