Our God is Able - Do You Believe That?

My Utmost For His Highest

 

'Certainty is the mark of the commonsense life—gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life. To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, not knowing what tomorrow may bring. This is generally expressed with a sigh of sadness, but it should be an expression of breathless expectation. We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God. As soon as we abandon ourselves to God and do the task He has placed closest to us, He begins to fill our lives with surprises.’ CHAMBERS

 

It is not important to know what is going to happen next but to have confidence in knowing that God does. Life is filled with uncertainty.  Living by faith is to rest in the midst of that uncertainty trusting that God will be true to His promises.  There are many trite phrases I have heard or read over the years that come to my mind as I write this, but the essence of this truth is in Proverbs 3:5,6 and Hebrews 11:1.

 

Life is filled with uncertainty … which is nothing more than opportunity to trust God.  Uncertainty of life reveals the fallibility of man.  Some of us are frozen in fear by our not knowing what will happen next. The key to peace and joy is resting in the sovereignty of God.

 

He Is Able

 

‘He is able .. more than able .. to accomplish what concerns me today … He is able, more than able to handle anything that comes my way ..’

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

Who or What Do You Love?

My Utmost For His Highest

 

‘Are you seeking great things for yourself? Have you said, “Oh, Lord, completely fill me with your Holy Spirit”? If God does not, it is because you are not totally surrendered to Him; there is something you still refuse to do. Are you prepared to ask yourself what it is you want from God and why you want it? God always ignores your present level of completeness in favor of your ultimate future completeness. He is not concerned about making you blessed and happy right now, but He’s continually working out His ultimate perfection for you— “. . . that they may be one just as We are one . . .” (John 17:22).’ CHAMBERS

 

Rick Warren said that God is more concerned with your character than your comfort.  What is it that you seek from God?  When you prayed to accept Jesus and the salvation we find in Him, what were you focused on?  Grace, mercy, the love of God?  When you think about your faith today, what do you focus on?  The relationship or the benefits of that relationship?

 

There is nothing more frustrating to me than to realize that a person I know is only interested in what they can get from me and not in me, personally.  It is like I am extra baggage … they don’t value me, but only what I have.  That is often the way we treat God.  He loved us and sent His Son … Do we seek Him so we can have a better life .. an easier time … more things?  Or do we seek Him because we love Him …

 

The Love Of God – Frederick Lehman

 

The love of God is greater far Than tongue or pen can ever tell;

It goes beyond the highest star, And reaches to the lowest hell;

The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win;

His erring child He reconciled, And pardoned from his sin.

 

Refrain:

Oh, love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong!

It shall forevermore endure— The saints’ and angels’ song.

Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made,

Were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade;

To write the love of God above Would drain the ocean dry;

Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky.

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

How Do You Spell Success?

My Utmost For His Highest

 

‘Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you . . . —Luke 10:20

 

Worldliness is not the trap that most endangers us as Christian workers; nor is it sin. The trap we fall into is extravagantly desiring spiritual success; that is, success measured by, and patterned after, the form set by this religious age in which we now live. Never seek after anything other than the approval of God, and always be willing to go “outside the camp, bearing His reproach” (Hebrews 13:13). In Luke 10:20  , Jesus told the disciples not to rejoice in successful service, and yet this seems to be the one thing in which most of us do rejoice. We have a commercialized view— we count how many souls have been saved and sanctified, we thank God, and then we think everything is all right. Yet our work only begins where God’s grace has laid the foundation. Our work is not to save souls, but to disciple them. Salvation and sanctification are the work of God’s sovereign grace, and our work as His disciples is to disciple others’ lives until they are totally yielded to God.’ CHAMBERS

 

Spiritual Success

 

I have seen and experienced some amazing things during the past two years in Haiti and the previous 5 years in Mississippi.  God moving in a powerful way .. doing incredible things in the lives of people ... Americans and Haitians.  We have rejoiced and praised God in all of those experiences.  We were quick to give God the credit, yet many times we felt that those things that God had done somehow validated our service.  We did this and God did that and something cool happened.

 

Chambers causes me to think .. what if nothing happened .. what if we toiled in the fields and never saw fruit from our labor .. is there some point where we would give up ... thinking that we had failed in our calling.. or had missed what God had "really" shaped us for?

 

It is easy to shift focus off of God and on to the world.  To use the world's standards to measure the effectiveness of ministry.  Numbers are important in our culture.  King David thought that .. counted the people .. God was not happy. (2 Samuel 24, 1 Chronicles 21)  The truth is that anything that God accomplishes through us is still God's accomplishment.  We should not take personal pleasure or find affirmation in God's mighty acts.  But we should stand in awe of God.  And what if there are no apparent supernatural interventions in our spiritual service?  Well, we should still stand in awe of God ... He is not bound to our calendar or this world's chronology ...  He is eternal ... He causes all things to work together for good (Romans 8:28).  And that is good enough for me to serve Him to the end of my days ....

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

Laying It All Down ... Or Most Of It

My Utmost For His Highest

 

“We have no right to decide where we should be placed, or to have preconceived ideas as to what God is preparing us to do. God engineers everything; and wherever He places us, our one supreme goal should be to pour out our lives in wholehearted devotion to Him in that particular work. “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might . . .” (Ecclesiastes 9:10).” CHAMBERS

 

What does it mean to pour out your life?  Imagine the essence of your life is a liquid in a pitcher.  The Lord tips the pitcher and its contents, your life, are poured out until the pitcher is empty.  There is nothing held back .. nothing saved for another day ... nothing to be used for another purpose that you might have imagined.  Nothing left.  Romans 12:1 says offer yourself as a sacrifice. The sacrifice does not decide how it will be sacrificed or for what purpose.  We are to be yielded to God ..." Have thine own way Lord .. You are the Potter, I am the clay ... mold me an make me, after Thy will, while I am waiting yielded and still."

 

Are you ready to live that life?  To consider everything as dung compared to the life that God has called you to and the purpose that He has given you?  Or are you still clinging to your natural life .. to the things that make you feel safe and successful?  Things that everyone else says are "OK" for a Christian to want and to have ... The question is what or who has your heart?

 

"Lord you have my heart And I will search for yours Jesus take my life and lead me on.

 

Lord you have my heart And I will search for yours Let me be to you a sacrifice."

 

Amen and Hallelujah

Misplaced Trust

My Utmost For His Highest

 

"Asa […] was obedient in what he considered the most important areas, but he was not entirely right. Beware of ever thinking, “Oh, that thing in my life doesn’t matter much.” The fact that it doesn’t matter much to you may mean that it matters a great deal to God. Nothing should be considered a trivial matter by a child of God. How much longer are we going to prevent God from teaching us even one thing? But He keeps trying to teach us and He never loses patience. You say, “I know I am right with God”— yet the “high places” still remain in your life. There is still an area of disobedience. Do you protest that your heart is right with God, and yet there is something in your life He causes you to doubt? Whenever God causes a doubt about something, stop it immediately, no matter what it may be. Nothing in our lives is a mere insignificant detail to God. […]  You no more need a day off from spiritual concentration on matters in your life than your heart needs a day off from beating. As you cannot take a day off morally and remain moral, neither can you take a day off spiritually and remain spiritual. […]  It also takes a tremendous amount of time. Yet some of us expect to rise above all of our problems, going from one mountaintop experience to another, with only a few minutes’ effort."

 

Romans 3:23 says “All have sinned..” I don’t think I could find a Christian who was not willing to admit that.  But few like to admit that “I still sin.”  To agree with both is to agree with the Word of God.  To deny the latter is to struggle in your Christian life.  The Bible is replete with examples of people who hung on to things in their lives that displeased God.  That is a soft way of describing sin isn’t it?  “Displeased God” When I look out on the Haitian congregations that I am preaching to, I see people, just like those in the United States that are seeking after God but many are seeking Him with half their hearts.  Matthew 22:37 says that we are to love God with all of our hearts.  That there should be no room for high places where other idols and gods reside.

 

American volunteers often want to know about Voodoo in Haiti.  The truth of the matter is that it is just another high place … where people have misplaced trust … The American version of Voodoo is materialism… the love of money and what it buys.  Proverbs 3:5,6 (which I often quote) says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.”

 

Our new life in Christ requires trust .. faith .. to tear down the high places in our lives… to love and trust with all of our hearts … A song that the English class sings is “Our God is so big, so strong and so mighty.  There’s nothing that He cannot do.”  Nope not one thing is outside the power of God .... so . “Why be downcast oh my soul, put your trust in God!” Psalm 42:5

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

What A Friend We Have In Jesus

My Utmost For His Highest

 

‘Many servants set out to serve God with great courage and with the right motives. But with no intimate fellowship with Jesus Christ, they are soon defeated. They do not know what to do with their burden, and it produces weariness in their lives. Others will see this and say, “What a sad end to something that had such a great beginning!”’ CHAMBERS

 

Matthew 11:28-30  “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

 

1 Peter 5:6-7  “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time,  casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”

 

John 15:5  "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”

 

The key to successful living is not getting an education or a good job.  Although those are certainly good things.  The key to successful living is having an intimate fellowship with Jesus Christ.  We all know that there is ample opportunity to feel the weight of this life .. to let troubles and disappointments wear us down … to rob us of our joy and hope.  But drawing close to the Lord, being intentional about our relationship with Jesus is the secret to overcoming those things.

 

What A Friend We Have In Jesus. (Joseph Scriven)

 

"What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!  What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!

 

O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,  All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

 

Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?  We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer.

 

Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share?  Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer.

 

Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care?  Precious Savior, still our refuge, take it to the Lord in prayer.

 

Do your friends despise, forsake you? Take it to the Lord in prayer!  In His arms He’ll take and shield you; you will find a solace there."

 

Spend some time with the Lord today.

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

Let It Go And Live

My Utmost For His Highest

 

Death no longer has dominion over Him. . . . the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God . . . —Romans 6:9-11

 

‘Even the weakest saint can experience the power of the deity of the Son of God, when he is willing to “let go.” But any effort to “hang on” to the least bit of our own power will only diminish the life of Jesus in us. We have to keep letting go, and slowly, but surely, the great full life of God will invade us, penetrating every part. Then Jesus will have complete and effective dominion in us, and people will take notice that we have been with Him.’ CHAMBERS

 

Are you hanging on to something in your life.  Something that you feel you just can’t release to God? Something that defines you.  Makes you feel safe. Perhaps it is un-forgiveness or a deep hurt that you cannot release from your grip.  You might be thinking .. I prayed the prayer of salvation and I read my Bible. I go to church to worship.  But you know that there is something deep within you that remains .. something hidden from others .. or maybe you just think it is hidden … but that something keeps you from experiencing the fullness of the new life you have been given in Christ. Let it go …. Put it at the foot of the cross.

 

Romans 12:1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Message)

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

Being Made Holy In An Unholy World

My Utmost For His Highest

 

‘. . . our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin —Romans 6:6

 

[…] Have you made the following decision about sin—that it must be completely killed in you? It takes a long time to come to the point of making this complete and effective decision about sin. It is, however, the greatest moment in your life once you decide that sin must die in you-not simply be restrained, suppressed, or counteracted, but crucified—just as Jesus Christ died for the sin of the world. No one can bring anyone else to this decision. We may be mentally and spiritually convinced, but what we need to do is actually make the decision that Paul urged us to do in this passage.’ CHAMBERS

 

Do you sometimes feel like you are still a slave to sin?  You may have been a Christian for a long time, but you still struggle with  your sin nature .. sometimes  you feel that you are captive to the whims of your flesh.  Paul talks about that problem in his life in Romans chapter 7.  I wish I had the answer for this.  Denominations have risen up over the issue of sin in the Believer’s life.  Some take it to the point of believing that if you continue to sin .. you are not saved.

 

I think the issue of our continuing to sin after we are saved is really about the process of sanctification .. we being made holy in an unholy world … The fact that I can sin is a constant reminder to me that my flesh and will do not give me entrance to heaven and the presence of the Father .. Only Jesus can do that (John 14:6).  We are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8,9) The fact that I continue to sin humbles me before God.

 

Galatians 2:20 says that we are crucified “with” Christ .. and it’s not me but Christ in me that is acceptable to God.  It is never what I can do but what Jesus can do through me. 

 

Romans 7:24-25, 8:1-2  “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?  I thank God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”

 

Do I continue to sin? Yes. Am I forgiven? Yes. Is there any hope? Yes. “My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus and His righteousness. .. On Christ the solid rock I stand . .all other ground is sinking sand … “

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

I Want To See Jesus

My Utmost For His Highest

 

‘Jesus must appear to you and to your friend individually; no one can see Jesus with your eyes. And division takes place when one has seen Him and the other has not. You cannot bring your friend to the point of seeing; God must do it. Have you seen Jesus? If so, you will want others to see Him too. “And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either” (Mark 16:13). When you see Him, you must tell, even if they don’t believe.’ CHAMBERS

 

Have you experienced that division in your relationships?  Because of your faith, even your relationship with family members is not the same.  The reason is that you are not the same.  Now, you might be considered an oddity or someone who is tolerated, because “you mean well”.  Those who have not ‘seen’ Jesus have not because they are spiritually blind.  Just like you once were. It is like you live in a place where there is no water.  Everyone is struggling.  Then, one day, you find water.  You tell everyone you meet, but they don’t believe you. "But it’s true!", you say.  And still they don’t believe it. They think you are a nut.  Try as you might, you can’t convince them go to the water.  All you can do is tell them what you've found.

 

2 Corinthians 4:3-4  “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,  (4)  whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”

 

1 Corinthians 2:14  “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

 

Salvation .. seeing Jesus for who He is, is a spiritual event .. not a result of logical persuasion.  Our part  is to go and tell … not to save … So go!

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

Feeling The Spirit

My Utmost For His Highest

 

‘The term Holy Spirit is actually another name for the experience of eternal life working in human beings here and now. The Holy Spirit is the deity of God who continues to apply the power of the atonement by the Cross of Christ to our lives. Thank God for the glorious and majestic truth that His Spirit can work the very nature of Jesus into us, if we will only obey Him.’ CHAMBERS

 

Ephesians 1:13-14  In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,  who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

 

1 Corinthians 6:18-20  Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.  Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?   For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

 

Are you aware of the Spirit’s presence in your life?  Unfortunately, for most of us, the reality of His presence because to us like the shoes we wear.  You know you have your shoes on your feet, but you don’t feel them … unless they don’t fit well, that is.  Everywhere we go, we take our shoes with us. And in a similar way, everywhere we go, we take the Spirit of God with us.  There is never a time when the Spirit is not in us.  How can we behave as if God is not watching .. aware .. present?

 

Our challenge is to be constantly aware of the Spirit’s presence in our lives .. the way we do that is by feeding the Spirit, if you will.  The more we seek God, the less we follow the ways of the world.  The less of the world that is in us and more of the Word, the brighter the light that radiates from our lives.

 

A brief word about sexual immorality (1 Corinthians 6) Jesus said of you think the sin, then you have committed the sin in your heart.  Be careful about what you consider acceptable entertainment.  You cannot watch sexual immorality on TV or in the movies and not sin. WHAT! Does that sound extreme?  Our hearts become hardened toward those things that the Word says are sin … in fact we consider them entertainment … I encourage you to pray through this .. search the scriptures before you discount what I say.

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

Who Is On The Thrown?

My Utmost For His Highest

 

‘We must have a oneness with His risen life before we are prepared to bear any particular truth from Him. Do we really know anything about the indwelling of the risen life of Jesus? The evidence that we do is that His Word is becoming understandable to us. God cannot reveal anything to us if we don’t have His Spirit. And our own unyielding and headstrong opinions will effectively prevent God from revealing anything to us. But our insensible thinking will end immediately once His resurrection life has its way with us.’ CHAMBERS

 

The Navigators use a picture that shows  a cross,  a circle and a thrown. It represents Jesus, a person’s life and their heart.  The point they make with it is that at one time Jesus was outside of the circle, my life.  When I become a Christian, Jesus is inside the circle but the question is, “Does He sit on the throne of my heart?”  Am I a carnal Christian or a Spiritual Christian?  We don’t like to think in those terms.  But the truth is that unless Jesus is on the throne .. commands our heart … we will live in carnality .. following the old nature ….

 

Galatians 4:3-9  “Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.  (4)  But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,  (5)  to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.  (6)  And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!"  (7)  Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.  (8)  But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods.  (9)  But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?”

 

Lord help us to live by Your Spirit and not our own flesh.  The Spirit gives life .. the flesh … death … “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it.  Prone to leave the God I love.  Take my heart now, Lord and seal it.  Seal it for Thy courts above.”

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

Oh The Deep Deep Love Of Jesus

My Utmost For His Highest

 

‘“God was manifested in the flesh. . .” […] “. . . He made Him. . . to be sin for us. . .” (1 Timothy 3:16 ; 2 Corinthians 5:21). The purpose of the incarnation was redemption. God came in the flesh to take sin away, not to accomplish something for Himself. The Cross is the central event in time and eternity, and the answer to all the problems of both.’ CHAMBERS

 

‘The central event in time and eternity’.  Does that give you perspective on the significance of your faith and what God has done?  Imagine that someone gives you a beautiful painting … You look at it … comment on its beauty and then set it on your back porch, leaning against the house, with the back facing out. Occasionally you might think about it, but mostly you don’t.  Then, one day, you pass away, and those who come to clean out your possessions find the painting, have it appraised and discover it is worth millions of dollars.  The story is all over the internet and television news.  People wonder why did you not know how valuable the painting was.  Why did you live and die in poverty when you had such a great treasure in your possession.

 

Why do so many live and die in spiritual poverty when they have such a great possession in their faith in Jesus?  The answer, I think, is that many Christians prefer to live their lives like everyone else in their culture, leaving their spirituality on the back porch.  They have a great treasure but live like they don’t.

 

Ephesians 3:14-19  'For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,  from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,  that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,  that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,  may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height-- to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.'

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

Do You Remember?

My Utmost For His Highest

 

‘We can never fully comprehend Christ’s agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, but at least we don’t have to misunderstand it. It is the agony of God and man in one Person, coming face to face with sin. We cannot learn about Gethsemane through personal experience. Gethsemane and Calvary represent something totally unique— they are the gateway into life for us.’ CHAMBERS

 

Understanding what God has done for us through Jesus, spiritually, requires spiritual insight.  I believe that everyone has at least that understanding at the point that they trust in Jesus for their salvation.  But, unfortunately, we don’t always remember it.  If we did, there would be a greater commitment to the Lord than what we have.  To the Ephesians, Paul wrote ....

 

Ephesians 1:15-20  ‘Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,  do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers:  that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,  the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,  and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power  (20)  which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,’

 

What Jesus experienced for us is something that we will not have to experience … we should and must be grateful every day for that … the only way that you can keep that truth fresh in your mind is by maintaining a close relationship with our Lord.  Ephesians 6:10  ‘Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.’ Paul then goes on to describe the armor of God .. what we need to do spiritually every day to live this life successfully.  It’s time to suit up for another day … praise God for the opportunity.

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

More Than Conquerors

My Utmost For His Highest

‘Are we prepared to let God do what He wants with us? Are we prepared to be separated from the outward, evident blessings of God? Until Jesus Christ is truly our Lord, we each have goals of our own which we serve. Our faith is real, but it is not yet permanent. And God is never in a hurry. If we are willing to wait, we will see God pointing out that we have been interested only in His blessings, instead of in God Himself.’ CHAMBERS

 

What attracts you most about faith in God and a relationship with Jesus Christ? Salvation and eternal security … or more earthly issues like … provision … protection … personal comfort? God’s purpose is that He be glorified through us and His Son be proclaimed by us … by both words and deeds. Deeds are not just doing good things for other people, but demonstrating our faith to the world no matter what comes our way.

 

When we are abundantly blessed we are generous with that blessing toward others … focused on God and not ourselves …. when we face hardship we are confident in God’s providence and at peace in our circumstance.  And still we are generous toward others even in our poverty and pain.  How can that be?  It is because we are more than conquerors  ….

 

Romans 8:35-39  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  As it is written: "FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE KILLED ALL DAY LONG; WE ARE ACCOUNTED AS SHEEP FOR THE SLAUGHTER."  Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,  nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

Is that the faith you are living?  It is the faith you have been given …. You can have assurance not because of what you have, but because of Who has you.

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

Memories ..

My Utmost For His Highest

 

‘Never be afraid when God brings back your past. Let your memory have its way with you. It is a minister of God bringing its rebuke and sorrow to you. God will turn what might have been into a wonderful lesson of growth for the future.’ CHAMBERS

 

Are there memories of times past that you deeply regret.  You know that your sins are forgiven in Jesus, but they still wield some control over you.  Remembering may cause you think that you are failing even today.  There are experiences in all of our lives that we wish we could undo.  Chambers says to ‘let your memory have its way with you’ … to not reject the feeling of sorrow but to use it as a reminder of what God has saved you from .. and that the future, with Him, has great promise.  That is not to say that you should be a slave to that memory.  But let it simply serve as a reminder of His great love.  Rick Warren said "God never wastes a hurt."

 

‘I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore, Very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more,

 

But the Master of the sea heard my despairing cry, From the waters lifted me, now safe am I.

 

Love lifted me! Love lifted me! When nothing else could help, Love lifted me!

 

All my heart to Him I give, ever to Him I’ll cling, In His blessed presence live, ever His praises sing,

 

Love so mighty and so true, merits my soul’s best songs, Faithful, loving service, too, to Him belongs.'

 

"Love Lifted Me" James Rowe 1912

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)