2Co 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: 2Co 9:9 (As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth for ever. 2Co 9:10 Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;) 2Co 9:11 Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God. The allusion is to the act of sowing seed. The idea is, that when a man scatters seed in his field God provides him with the means of sowing again. He not only gives him a harvest to supply his needs, but he blesses him also in giving him the ability to sow again. Such was…
Tag: <span>acceptance</span>
“The Lord cannot fully bless a man until He has first conquered him.” —The call to nearness enables the resistance of worldly temptation.” A.W. Tozer We surrender when conquered, we yield when broken, we capitulate when exhausted; we “cease from our own works.” Ironically, a faith begins here, and also a hope, and also love. As the project stalemates we find contentment with the Project Manager. His presence defines our new beginning; He-in-us becomes hope-of-glory. His nature in us describes love. Oddly enough, finding Him and losing me arrive simultaneously. My dreams dash, my visions smash, my passivity or enterprise collapses and burns. Will breaks now and resolve , conscience bears hampering , and emotions lose care. Rational explanations wanting, we concede. As children we wrestled with my Dad for fun. He would pin us down and cry out, “give up?” We would squirm only to be pinned again. “Give up?” Finally, we got tired, pinned us…
Have you ever met a passive aggressive person? Their blitzkrieg finds an area of release that you vehemently need and refuses it militantly. These are masters of the shut-down, czars of the melt-down, monarchs of the stare-down, and sultans of let-down with swagger. They live for driving people up a tree, frustration’s outer limits, and leave their friends headed toward the nuttery. Really they may be very lonely folk, grown up, but far from mature in some areas —particularly conversation. They don’t know if they can trust you yet to speak their mind; they are afraid that their lousy people skills will potentially turn you off. Could be they are scared of commitments, insecure and suspicious. Often wounded, they move past caring about relationships in general. Because we love these ones, the frustration manifests. A believer who gets converted later in life aggravates the conversing problem. Ephesians tells us of…
For many people, an excuse is better than an achievement because an achievement, no matter how great, leaves you having to prove yourself again in the future; but an excuse can last for life. Eric Hoffer A great statement and wise observation, it grabs us because the folly of human nature often exposes itself so loudly. Hoffer above describes a person who thinks wrongly, but why? We can call him or her a legalistic thinker, because they view life as a proving, a measuring up to a standard, a trying to please or appease a serious onlooker who holds their fate. It’s no shock to us that this law-beaten type of individual must turn their mind toward evasion tactics and ploys of excuse making. Their life is drudgery. They stay with a project for a while and try it on. They wait for the prospect of fulfillment —on their own…
Emotions and the cross of Christ connect uniquely, but rarely. These Feelings follow right thinking and the center of thought is the key. When old patterns of thinking are discarded for Bible-based new ones, the responders rejoice and these are new emotions. So, what of the old feelings? Crucified with Christ, they live, yet not them but Christ lives in them, and consequently they then live by the faith if the Son of God. Cool, huh? See, God wants more for us than just feeling good, or lovely sentiment or even good-heartedness. God sent His Son to crucify the old letter-bound man to create a new one. All things are brand new in Him. We ought not, going forward, think in terms of “how-to,” but in terms of “who I am,” and if my “I am” is in Christ, my old emotions are dead and my new ones are alive.…
Brain-dead, stumped, with empty-headed stupor, I shiver and slap the side of my ear—a futile hope-to-jar-something-loose ritual. I dig deep, but words are not surfacing into consciousness. I scratch aggressively only to overturn more substance-forsaken fragments. “useless to inquire at the bank of ‘rationale,’ nothing of logic answers this event.” It doesn’t make any difference. “It doesn’t make any sense.” A nephew is paralyzed and in a coma after attempting to take his own life and the family calls. A dear friend gets a report that they have 6 months to live. There are no words of comfort, there are no answers. But we must talk, we must call back! Is there a hidden spring of wisdom, applied knowledge, or heavenly utterance to tap? O, The moment requires supernatural help, at the very least. Verily, answers don’t come because the only explanation seems to exist in the sphere of…
We live out here and have accumulated enough to stay. This is our separation, our disjointing, our escape, or harbor of strength. The great divide between soul and spirit deepens out here. Old world, both goods and bads, detach from emotions and self-imposed exactings; we are free. Our path of insight has taken us wholly apart to Him through His rent veil. He is our refuge and strength in the crimson secret. Our life is hid with Christ in God. Sadly, others seek refuge in a counterfeit way. These want cake, and eating of cake both, a snare of the soul. Nevertheless, evil accommodates the earthly impossibility. Unfortunately, their false “security dream” cannot hold up. Indeed, they are motivated stealthy. Their end, thereof, are the ways of death. “Wisdom” builds a house, “understanding” moves in. Likewise, false wisdom also fabricates a refuge, tearing down the true. The fool moves in. The wise…
“What God wants is that we would weep with people when things are being broken in their lives. Often we can understand and identify because we have been through it.” “When these strokes fester into wounds, they paralyze capacities to function in the receptivity of grace and truth. A person who is easily angered in his motions is most likely a very wounded person. His wounds probably are very deep, and he does not know how to regulate his responses. This brings feelings of guilt and defeat. These issues must be resolved by the grace and love of Christ.” Pastor Carl Stevens Sometimes a counselor will ask his client, “Have you made a commitment?” Corrective betterment goes this way, “ I (the counselor) am going to make a commitment to you (the client). “Why is this more good? To answer that question, we must only realize; a commitment remains a mere…
Storage bins: they hold stuff. They serve best when dry, unbroken. Where many accumulate, markings identify each…maybe they are color-coded or tagged. These bins survive in protected cargo space. I worked a small warehouse once, primarily because I lacked production side skills. My job was to label and categorize things previously “hit and miss.” In my case, this meant putting steel with steel, or copper with copper. Sometimes I put red with reds, and yellow with yellows. I took boxes of arbitrary screws or nails and sorted them, marked them, and placed them in individual jars on shelves. I threw out a lot of useless junk. Indexing and making things readily accessible to the production engineers started saving time on their projects. I so enjoyed the job. An outside business evaluater complimented my work, and encouraged me about how vital it was to the company. Nevertheless, she said, most employers…
God has begun a Project in us, are we available? Yes, God will perform the thing concerning us, no problem. Will we let Him? He’ll work the plan in faithfulness, will we faithfully cooperate? Explain? It’s easier to understand this relationship when we consider God’s ends for us. When we do, our part simply responds, responds, responds. God has marked out boundaries for a believer’s life, did you know that? What kind of boundaries? —boundaries set from God’s foreknowledge. For instance, He already knows beforehand the number of people we will meet in our whole life. He knows how much money we will make. He knows every decision we will encounter and the ultimate outcome of our choices. He knows how many times we will ignore our choices. He knows our thoughts afar off, and yes, He knows our name, and our wife and children too. So, with the advantage…