Just About Sums it Up

Knickerbockers Lyrics
"Knickerbockers The Lust, The Flesh, The Eyes & The Pride Of Life lyrics"


Well, I Feel
Like I Have to Feel
Something Good All of the Time
With Most of Life I Cannot Deal
But a Good Feeling I Can Feel
Even Though It May Not Be Real
And If a Person, Place Or Thing Can Deliver
I Will Quiver With Delight
But Will It Last Me For All My Life
Or Just One More Lonely Night

The Lust, the Flesh
The Eyes
And the Pride of Life
Drain the Life
Right Out of Me

Well, I See Something and I Want It
Bam! Right Now!
No Questions Asked
Don't Worry How Much It Costs Me Now Or Later
I Want It and I Want It Fast
I'll Go to Any Length
Sacrifice All That I Already Have
And All That I Might Get
Just to Get
Something More That I Don't Need
And Lord, Please Don't Ask Me What For

The Lust, the Flesh
The Eyes
And the Pride of Life
Drain the Life
Right Out of Me

And I Love When Folks
Look Right At Me
And What I'm Doing
Or Have Done
And Lay It On About
How Groovy I Am
And That I'm Looking Grand
And Every Single Word
Makes Me Think I'll Live Forever
Never Knowing That They Probably
Won't Remember What They Said Tomorrow
Tomorrow I Could Be Dead

The Lust, the Flesh
The Eyes
And the Pride of Life
Drain the Life
Right Out of Me

Valley of Decision

1 Kings 18:20-22 (Contemporary English Version)
Ahab got everyone together, then they went to meet Elijah on Mount Carmel. Elijah stood in front of them and said, "How much longer will you try to have things both ways? If the LORD is God, worship him! But if Baal is God, worship him!"

A quality decision is one that is made but once. With regard to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, choose you this day to:

1. Surrender your will to the will of God
2. Praise God in every circumstance
3. Love and study the Scriptures
4. Forgive everyone for everything
5. Submit to the King and His Kingdom

God has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 2 Cor 5:18-20

His royal priesthood, the king-priest ministry out of Zion, presently stands in the earth and "pleads" with men to be reconciled to God.

This present or future Kingdom operation of reconciliation, in the Valley of Decision means lights out for the "old order" (Joel 2:10,31) the abolishing of the old administration, the old mindset, the old way of thinking and living. (Luke 21:25; Rev. 8:12)

God's restoration saw its vindication in the valley. Once this is accomplished, the Lord will dwell with us in complete victory - his permanent dwelling - the Bride of Christ!

Trip to National House of Prayer

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The song in the video is called "Song for Canada" written and sung by Lianna Klassen.

On Mentoring..

‘Mentoring is the fine art of passing onto others what God has given to you. A mentor provides sculpting, and discipling - developing teachable people, giving modeling, supervision, individual help, discipline, encouragement, correction, confrontation, and a calling to accountability. He/she is genuinely interested in his/her protégé. Mentoring was the chief learning method in the society of artisans where an apprentice spent years at the side of the craftsman; learning not only the mechanics of a function, but the way of life surrounding it. Preaching and acquisition of biblical knowledge, is not enough to develop the sort of Christ-likeness which is a major segment of the Church’s mission inthe world’

– Ted W Engstrom The Fine Art of Mentoring, Wolgemuth & Hyatt publishers.

When all you can do is breathe - keep breathing!

My heart's prayer for you is for your Daddy God to be ALL that you need. Indeed, with God as your source, friends may leave, people may abandon or betray you, but you will NOT be shaken for your strength is not found in people but in Him.

God loves you more truly and completely than any one on earth can ever love you. Embracing His love will give you tremendous power to stand against life's tragedies and become all that God has destined for you to become. 

He loves you that much and He wants to be everything to you. He wants to love you when no one else does. He wants to stand by you when everyone else turns away. He will be your family when you have none of your own. He will restore your soul, lighten your load and fill you with His joy.

You have only to turn to Him and give yourselves to Him, body, soul and spirit - to lay down your life, your longings and desires and give Him your every breath. And with every breath you breathe, you will be declaring your love for Him. 

The Ex-Gay Story in the Pop Music World

An interesting article by Roberto Marchesini

NARTH International Representative - NARTH Italia

Italy's "Festival di San Remo," the most important musical happening in my country which is seen on T.V. by millions of Italians, became the unlikely platform this year for a powerful ex-gay testimony. The singer, Giuseppe Povia, winner of the festival in 2006, presented a song entitled, "Luca Era Gay" (Luca was once gay) -- SEE VIDEO HERE. The title of his song, implying that some gays can change to heterosexuality, was sufficient to destabilize the Italian gay movement. Gay activists threatened to block the festival, and Europarlimentary member Vittorio Agnoletto asked for a European resolution to stop Povia from peforming the song. Povia, himself, received death threats. The gay association "Everyone" denounced Povia to the Procura of the Republic for alleged "homophobia." These efforts failing, gay activists then asked the Festival organizers to "counterbalance" Povia with a song by a gay singer, about "the perfection of homosexual love." That effort too, failed.

Finally, on February 17th., Povia sang his song on the first evening of the Festival. "Luca Era Gay" recounts the transformation of a man named Luca from the gay lifestyle. Without the help of psychologists and psychiatrists, he digs deep within himself to understand the sources of his homosexual attractions. An emotionally disconnected, detached father and a smothering mother, he says, created confusion about his sexual identity: "I looked for men who would be my father, I went with men not to betray my mother." The song also alludes to a superficiality in homosexual relationships. He says, "between love and deceit, often we betrayed each other." The song ends with this verse: "This is my story, only my story. No disease. No healing. Dear dad, I forgive you even if you didn't come back. Mum, I often think of you, I love you and sometimes I still bear your reflection, but now I am a father and I am in love with the only woman I have ever loved." The music, a soft rap with dramatic tunes, carries a direct and honest text while never judging homosexually oriented people for their own personal lifestyle choices.

Before Povia's song was aired, the Italian comedian Roberto Benigni presented a twenty-minute show in which he condemned Povia, saying that homosexuality isn't a sin and that gays have been persecuted historically "because they love someone." He then read an excerpt from Oscar Wilde's "De Profundis."

After Povia's song, contrary to all custom, the conductor gave the microphone to Franco Grillini, former parliamentary member and former president of ARCIgay, the foremost gay association in Italy. Grillini said he had received a cellphone message from a friend (although all celphones were supposed to be turned off during the festival...), who had cried when he had just heard Benigni reading "De Profundis," because it brought to mind his partner who had died of AIDS. Grillini concluded by saying that Povia must learn what gay love is.

Then, the unforseeable happened: people in the theater started to hiss at Grillini (in Italy, hissing is like booing)! The crowd's sympathy was with Povia, not with the gay activist.

Povia's song went on to the finals and Saturday night, won second place in the San Remo Festival, while outside the theatre, gay activists continued to protest against him. Povia himself said: "I too had a gay phase--it lasted seven months and then I got over it."

The popularity of "Luca Era Gay" has given courage and dignity to the ex-homosexual community in Italy, who, until now, have been thoroughly intimidated by gay activists. The text's real-life insights regarding the ex-gay experience are undeniable.

TO SEE VIDEOS OF THIS SONG, CLICK HERE.

[By the way, the english words are subtitled in the first video at the top of the page]

Timothy Keller, The Prodigal God

“Jesus’s teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect. The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones. We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did.”

Henri Nouwen

Real caring 
is the willingness 
to help each other 
in making our brokenness 
into the gateway to joy. 

Solastalgia for His Presence

There is a modern day phenomenon that is sweeping across our world. It is characterized by an underlying sense of loneliness, melancholia or homesickness. The thing that is different about this malady is that this sense of loneliness, of melancholia and homesickness is experienced by people who remain in their home, and familiar environments. Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht has stated that, Humans are experiencing epidemics of physical and mental disease that have connections to the environment. He has called this phenomenon, Solastalgia, nostalgia of the soul. Albrecht relates this Solastalgia to environmental issues, but in reality, even in the church, amid our myriad of activities, and busyness we find countless Christians who would say that they too are suffering from a form of Solastalgia. Homesickness when they have never left home. This is simply homesickness for the Presence of God.

Missing Him

Most observers of the modern Church movement tell us that we live in a time in the West of unprecedented wealth, and activity. We have more resources than ever before in the history of the Church. Our calendars and our mail boxes are filled with opportunities for seminars, training weekends, conferences and conventions. We are more highly trained and equipped than ever before. Yet in increasing numbers we have people who are jumping off the Gospel Ship in droves looking for something to fill the Solastalgia that they feel. And honestly, many may not be able to even articulate what it is they are homesick for. They only know that deep within there is a longing that is not being filled with the activities and programs of the modern church. Many have gone from church to church looking for something that would fill this void, and not finding churches that meet that need, drop out completely. Because they have never known it, they do not realize that the nostalgia they feel is a longing for the Presence of God.

Reasons for His Absence

The question then needs to be asked, Why is God not with us? Are there reasons for His absence? Of course, we have used theological arguments to justify our lack of the Manifest Presence of God in our midst. We say that God is everywhere, so He is indeed here with us. But our hunger for Him belays the reality there is more that God wants, and more that we hunger for. A careful study of Scripture and of history will yield many examples of periods of time where the Presence of God came into a community in such glory and power that even the unbelieving world recognized that God had come to the community. It is the desire of God to dwell in our midst, but there are clear reasons why God does NOT. A passage that we have looked at before is clear. Hosea 5: 15 Then I will go back to my place until they admit their guilt. And they will seek my face; in their misery they will earnestly seek me. Though God loves us passionately, his holiness and justice are such that he cannot live with evil. As the prophets Habakkuk and Isaiah put it, Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong (Habakkuk 1:13), Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you (Isaiah 59:2). 

Getting Real

If this is all we had, we might be tempted to conclude that is does not get any better than this. However, in communities all across our globe today, God is showing up in power and grace. This is happening, not by chance, but where God is finding a core of people who are getting real with Him and with one another. People who are so desperate and hungry for God’s presence, people who are sick of the solastalgia, that they are willing to do whatever is necessary to see Him come to their communities. It does not matter who they are, and most of the time they are the unknowns in a location who are the catalysts for God’s entrance. In Northern Thailand, a mighty revival is being led by Kindergarten children who spend up to eighteen hours at a time in prayer and worship. God is not impressed by all our posturing and programs. He reads the heart and will respond to sincerely hungry hearts. Today He is looking for those in our communities who will have the courage to get real with Him, gather with others of like heart and passion, and seek Him until He comes.

Living in Expectation

Too long as a Christian community we have lived in an atmosphere of unspoken defeatism. We live with the attitude that we can work hard and do our best, but really it will not get much better than this. Confessing and forsaking sin, dealing ruthlessly with everything that keeps God at bay must be accompanied with a Biblically based expectation that if we indeed to what He tells us, He will come! We cannot produce transforming revival, but we can prepare our hearts and prepare the highway for God, and know with a certainty that when we do that. HE WILL COME! (Hosea 6:3; II Chronicles 7:14) 

Now is the time. Are you tired of your solastalgia? How hungry are you for His Presence?

Our Loving and Gracious Lord, we thank You that Your desire more than we can ever know to dwell in our midst. Forgive us for living with a defeatist solastalgia that is not what Your desire for us. Grant us the fortitude to break free from our bondages and seek You until You come to our lives, our churches, and our communities in all Your manifest power and glory. We confess there and now, only You can make the changes our society needs today. Lead us to others with hungry hearts, that we might seek you together. We pray this in Jesus Name. Amen.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solastalgia

quote

“For just as sin, addiction, and misery typically go together, so do confession, healing, and the long process of redemption. We need redemption not just from our sins and addictions but also from their miseries - particularly those miseries that occasion more sin and deeper addiction. As all recovering sinners know, this process of healing and liberation, this ‘conversion unto life,’ this set of lessons to teach us how to dance again will prove to be as cunning, baffling, powerful, and patient as addiction itself.”

- Cornelius Plantinga, Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be 

An email from a friend:

Let's pray that our generation wakes up to the fact that what we need isn't in the unhealthy relationships and same-sex relationships we crave or are in. That what we really need is healing from our wounds, and forgiveness and freedom from our sins, which can only be found in Jesus, and in the Father's love, which Christ has secured for us. Pray that our generation, by God's mercy and grace, will see this, that the veil will be torn away from the hardened, wounded hearts of many. And that we will respond by receiving His love for us in Christ, growing in it, and becoming true worshipers of the Living God.

--Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

Proverbs 19:22

~What a man desires is unfailing love; better to be poor than a liar ~

People who pray regularly recognize and must accept that they don't always desire God as much as they wish they did. It is an uncomfortable truth that requires a certain amount of courage before we can even admit it to ourselves. But once we do -- once we accept that weare weak in our desires for God -- a new path opens up for us. We come to recognize that it is "better to be poor than a liar." 

From such a place of honesty we are now free to choose whether agenuine desire for God is something that we really wish to have or not. If it isn't, then at least we are being true with ourselves and can now ask God to continue working in us so that this might someday become somethingwe actually desire. Perhaps this is the very "poverty of spirit" that Jesus spoke of as, paradoxically, a blessed state. If, however, a desire for God is something that we do wish for ourselves, then we simply and earnestly have to begin asking for it. 

If, in examining ourselves, we recognize that our hearts have become tepid, it is quite legitimate for us to take a step back and pray for the desire to desire. If we feel that we have lost our passion, we can simply be honest about it and ask the Holy Spirit to increase our desire for God, to restore us to our first love, or to wean us away from the things that now distract us. 

A sincere desire for God is something that can always be restored to us. But, before that can happen, it might be necessary for us to first recognize and admit to ourselves that it is absent. 

O Jesus, my desires are often weak and wayward, and I don't know what I can do about it. I wish to see them increase and to have my life directed more towards what I know I desire most -- You. 

Thank You Lord that this relationship does not wholly depend on me. For I know that I would be lost and without hope if it did. 

Thank You that You continually create for me the path that I am to follow. There is nowhere else from which to begin this path than from where I am right now. 

Thank You that, though You call me to seek You, You also reveal Yourself as the One who has already found me. In such faith, I know I am saved. Amen

Article by Rob Des Cotes 

Spiritual Fulfillment

Understand the difference between ambition and true leadership and it is this: Ministry is not a call to lead, but to die.

Every advance that I have made spiritually was preceded by an opportunity to die to self. The power in my life comes from where I have died to self and now live unto Christ.

Do you want to advance spiritually? The gateway to resurrection power is crucifixion. God will arrange opportunities for you to die to self. You must discern them. Dying to self and its ambition is the means of reaching true spiritual fulfillment. If you react to the opportunity to die with fleshly anger or resentment, you will fail to reach fulfillment. However, if you can maintain your vision even while your ambition dies, you will succeed. 

Hopeful Expectation!

“Coming events cast their shadows before them, and when God is about to bless his people his coming favour casts the shadow of prayer over the church. When he is about to favour an individual he casts the shadow of hopeful expectation over his soul. Our prayers, let men laugh at them as they will, and say there is no power in them, are the indicators of the movement of the wheels of Providence. Believing supplications are forecasts of the future, He who prayeth in faith is like the seer of old, he sees that which is to be: his holy expectancy, like a telescope, brings distant objects near to him.”

- Charles Spurgeon, The Holy Spirit’s Intercession

The Sexual Resolution

I like this..its originally posted by Renee on January 17, 2009

This is the premier month of Joe Dallas podcast, The Sexual Resolution with Joe Dallas.
Check out the podcast here.

What is The Sexual Resolution?
In essence, making a resolution means we’re hoping we can change a behavior we’ve engaged in so it will be back in alignment with our value system. If I value having a fit body or a healthy heart, I may resolve to quit smoking or lose that last ten pounds. In so doing, my behavior and my values line up.

But resolution also has a synonym—courage. That may explain why resolutions are so often abandoned when tested: It takes courage to live according to one’s beliefs.

Webster’s Dictionary has a few interesting definitions of the word “resolution” which communicate concepts I think are helpful in understanding what it means to be striving for “sexual resolution”. Let’s consider a few:

1) progression from dissonance to consonance

Many of us are living our lives in ways that conflict with our values and so we are in a state of dissonance. Think back to the last third grade band recital you attended and you’ll know what I’m talking about. One instrument may be playing in tune, but another instrument isn’t. When they play together, you have dissonance! And it can be very painful to listen to. In the same way, our values are like the instrument that plays in tune and our behavior is like the instrument that’s out of tune. The lack of harmony between the two creates a stressful, uncomfortable life until the dissonance is resolved.

Sexual Resolution depends on our getting back in tune with our belief system.


2) the point in a literary work at which the chief dramatic complication
is worked out

When we live our lives out of tune with our values, we create drama, don’t we? It starts with us, moves into our marriages, our finances, our jobs and complicates just about every relationship we have. Whether we want to admit it or not, our behavior may be causing us to be the “chief dramatic complication” in our loved one’s lives. Instead of a relationship of love and mutuality, we become a burden they have to deal with day after day.

Sexual Resolution is when the complications created by our wrongful behavior begin to cease because we’re “owning our stuff” and working towards living back in line with our beliefs.

3) a measure of the sharpness of an image i.e. the total number or density of pixels in the image

Sometimes we can be like a low resolution digital photo, or a fragmented hard-drive. When we join ourselves in sexual behavior outside of God’s design, little pieces of our emotions get bonded to this person, then that person, or that image, until little pieces of us are all over the place. When a partner has been engaged in sexual activity outside the marriage, neither partner can be content or fully functional in the relationship until God is allowed to reclaim those pieces, bring them back into focus and align them with His image of us.

Sexual Resolution is when my fragmented, pixilated emotions are recaptured, reexamined, and reassembled to form a sharp, focused picture of the true person I was meant to be in Christ.

So, courage my friend. And commitment. And take a minute to listen to The Sexual Resolution podcast. -R

http://www.oneplace.com/Ministries/sexual_resolution/

Holiness

taken from Innocence Restored
http://innocencerestored.wordpress.com/


Was the title of this post a turnoff? That question isn’t meant to be in-your-face. It’s just an honest question. Holiness is not a popular word. It’s practically fallen out of our vocabularies. When uttered, it now almost has a pejorative hue to it. It sounds stuffy. It sounds Victorian. It sounds like something that strips the relevance right out of Christianity. If someone were to call you or me holy, would we recoil because it isn’t true, or because it makes us sound flat-out irrelevant? It’s an easy question to gloss over without any true introspection. Do we avoid the word holiness because it is condemning or because it is seen as a liability or hindrance?

We don’t pray that God would make us holy anymore. We ask God to make us “Christ-like.” We ask God to pry our clutching fingers from the sin we love. We ask God for wisdom and guidance. But we don’t ask God for holiness. But isn’t praying for Christ-likeness the same as praying for holiness? Biblically, yes. But American Christianity is enamored with the idea that you can be Christ-like and not be set apart. It’s bent on trying to prove that you can listen to the music that glorifies the ungodly, and watch the peeping-tom movies, and pepper your speech with innuendo for humor’s sake and still be “Christ-like.” Throughout church history, that wasn’t considered relevance. That was considered irrelevance. What good was a Christian who looked like the world?

Our culture detests anything holy. The great American motto is: “Don’t rock the boat.” We don’t care who you are, what you do, or what you believe so long as you look like everybody else. And yet true, authentic Christ-likeness means to be different. How did the Romans know who to toss to the lions? God’s holy people couldn’t blend in. How did the Roman Catholic Church know who to burn at the stake? The people who were rocking the boat. The world is always unholy. Therefore the world’s culture will always be unholy. Being Christ-like means being set apart. It means rocking the boat.

I think it is undeniable that our generation, our Christian culture, is horrified to call something sinful that really isn’t sinful. And I think we really don’t care about compromising holiness because we consider looking like Bob Jones or Pensacola to be a far greater sin than “crude jesting” or “filthy talk” or “walking in darkness.” Christian witness isn’t destroyed by looking different than the world. It’s destroyed by looking just the same as everybody else. What unbeliever wants a Savior that will change them into what they already are?

So when we pray for Christ-likeness, are we praying for holiness? Are we praying that God would set us apart and make us look different than the world and culture around us? If we are, then we’ll suffer for it. Satan will not tolerate those who do not participate in his culture of wickedness. And sadly, many Christians respond to holiness by turning their weapons upon their brothers and sisters whose lives stand in contrast to their own lack of holiness. Living a holy life is the same as painting a bull’s-eye right over your heart. Suffering is sure. But then again, Jesus told us it would be this way. These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage,; I have overcome the world…For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it…Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. ( John 16:33…Mark 8:35…Matthew 5:8 )

Charles Finney

This great revivalist and evangelistic, spent long hours everyday in prayer. He knew the power of prayer and could teach it too. One very powerful statement Charles Finney said was, “Truth, by itself, will never produce the effect without the Spirit of God., and the Spirit is only given in answer to prayer. The truth by itself will do nothing more that harden men unto repentance.” Selah!

Find God!

by Francis Frangipane

There is only one thing that keeps most churches from prospering spiritually. They have yet to find God.

Holiness Comes From Seeking The Glory Of God
"How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another, and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?" (John 5:44) If we are displaying our spirituality to impress men, still seeking honor from others, still living to appear righteous or special or "anointed" before people, can we honestly say we have been walking near to the living God? We know we are relating correctly to God when our hunger for His glory causes us to forsake the praise of men.

Does not all glory fade in the light of His glory? Even as Jesus challenged the genuineness of the Pharisees' faith, so He challenges us: "How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another?"

What a weak comfort is the praise of men. Upon such a frail ledge do we mortals build our happiness. Consider: within but a few days after the Lycaonians attempted to worship Paul, they were congratulating themselves for having stoned him! (See Acts 14:11-19.) Consider: was it not the same city whose songs and praise welcomed Jesus as "King . . . gentle, and mounted on a donkey" (Matt. 21:5-9), that roared, "Crucify Him!" (Luke 23:21) less than one week later? To seek the praise of men is to be tossed upon such a sea of instability!

We must ask ourselves, whose glory do we seek in life, God's or our own? Jesus said, "He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory" (John 7:18). When we speak from ourselves and of ourselves, are we not seeking to solicit from men the praise that belongs only to God? To seek our glory is to fall headlong into vanity and deception. "But," Jesus continued, "He who is seeking the glory of the one who sent Him, He is true and there is no unrighteousness in Him" (John 7:18). The same quality of heart that made Christ's intentions true must become our standard as well. For only to the degree that we are seeking the glory of God are our motivations true! Only to the degree that we abide in the glory of Him who sends us is there no unrighteousness in our hearts!

Therefore, let us give ourselves to seeking the glory of God, and let us do so until we find Him. As we behold the nature of Christ, as our eyes see Him, like Job we "abhor" ourselves and "repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:1-6 KJV). As we are bathed in His glory, we shall be washed from seeking the glory of man.

If we truly find Him, no one will have to tell us to be humble. No one need convince us our old natures are as filthy rags. As we truly find God, the things which are so highly esteemed among men will become detestable in our sight (see Luke 16:15).

What could be more important than finding God? Take a day, a week or a month and do nothing but seek Him, persisting until you find Him. He has promised, "You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart" (Jer. 29:13). Find God, and once you have Him, determine to live the rest of your life in pursuit of His glory. As you touch Him, something will come alive in you---something eternal, someone Almighty! Instead of looking down on people, you will seek to lift them up. You will dwell in the presence of God. And you will be holy, for He is holy.

Convicted by mercy

“Repentance out of mere fear is really sorrow for the consequences of sin, sorrow over the danger of sin — it bends the will away from sin, but the heart still clings. But repentance out of conviction over mercy is really sorrow over sin, sorrow over the grievousness of sin — it melts the heart away from sin. It makes the sin itself disgusting to us, so it loses its attractive power over us. We say, ‘this disgusting thing is an affront to the one who died for me. I’m continuing to stab him with it!’”

- Timothy Keller, Church Planter Manual

Less of Me

Dig the mud from my mossy wells
On these manicured lawns rake away the stones
Weed the weeds from all my beds
Take the cold from all my bones
Stoke my coals that barely ember
When I should be burning in heaven’s consuming hearth
In my eyeballs blue those flames reflect

Un-sear my conscience burnt with iron cast
Blinded by the steam of seeing
In my weakness let Your strength
All Your life to speak from me
Mine eyes be light and single
Un-erred by fear of men
That they may see less of me

Trawl my heart for hidden splinters
Scan my mind of worldly kosmos
That hangs my neck time after time
Like fish on the hook
The secrets are in Your book
Thank You for the thorns that pierce
That prick with needles crusty dust
Turning to Your face I can
Eye to eye cheek to cheek
Hand to hand to You we turn we must

Break the jawbones of my foes
Re-arrange my heart and soul
Smash my tongue with heated coal
Don't hold back Your perfect work
Prepare me for the kiln of truth
The Highlands sing the song of clans
I can hear Your song for me
Your tender hand extending nigh
That I may live the truth and kill the lie

For You I long from this unpleasant tent
I long for ownership dominion all
Not to dance in tattered clothes for rent
I call my lover Lord
King, Warrior, Friend and Brother
The urbane blend of sundry heavens
Take all my leaven that falsifies this loaf
My incense I yearn to fill the air
But pure must it surely be
Aroma sweet to smell for You
So dig it deep my beautiful reverent King
And let it be less of me.

On the train England
9th February 2000
Stephen Bennett

'I have overcome the world'

Article from:
The National Post Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Page: A16
Section: Editorial
Source: National Post

Sic transit gloria mundi -- thus passes away the glory of the world, the old Latin phrase puts it. In 2008, the glory of money took the biggest hit. The economic ground shifted beneath our feet, and so much that was solid, so much that was powerful, so much that was thought stable, has passed away.

The mightiest of them all, General Motors, has devoted its most intense recent energies not to production, but to begging. The year began with five famous investment banks on Wall Street.

In 2007, they distributed year-end bonuses to their combined 186,000 employees of some $38-billion -- more than the GDP of Bulgaria, to put it in perspective. In 2008, Bear Sterns and Merrill Lynch were bought out to save them from going bust; Lehman Brothers went belly up; Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley converted themselves into regular banks. Transit: 5; gloria mundi: 0.

We learned some ancient lessons anew in 2008. There are no entirely safe investments, and if something seems too good to be true -- like owning a house with bad credit, little income and no assets -- it probably is. We learned again, too, that the innocent suffer for the sins of the wicked, as many charities the world over are now discovering, thanks to Bernard Madoff.

In Christian language, we might say we learned that original sin has not gone away. In a time of prosperity, we are inclined to forget that; thinking
that money -- privately earned or spent by governments -- can solve just about any problem. In times of crisis, we remember that isn't true.

The fundamental Christian telling of history is that we are always in crisis to a greater or lesser degree. Man is estranged from God and consequently estranged from his neighbour; therefore he lurches through history trying to avoid one calamity or another. The Christian believer knows we need Christmas.

We need Christmas because, contrary to a certain messianic politics that took hold of so many this past year, the simple answer is that we can't save ourselves. The things we make and manufacture, whether automobiles or mortgage-backed securities, are not the stuff of salvation.

"Yes, we can" is good politics but bad theology. "No, we can't" won't inspire a campaign rally, but the realization that the glory of this world is constantly passing away is the first step in the search for another, more enduring glory.

At the conclusion of his magnificent sermon, The Weight of Glory, C. S. Lewis reminded us that the possibility of glory lies as close as the next human soul: "There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization -- these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit -- immortal horrors or everlasting splendours ... Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses."

The earliest Christian preachers learned that lesson at Bethlehem, that God had become man, and He had come to be with us so that we might be eternally with Him. The immortal God who comes as a baby at Bethlehem clothes His glory in the flesh of this world, so that the flesh of this world may be taken up into a glory that does not pass away.

"Take courage; I have overcome the world." So Jesus would eventually preach to crowds who knew that the world needed overcoming. Perhaps they thought then, as many do now, that what needed overcoming was this or that political authority, or this or that economic problem.

Yet what most needs overcoming is that everything in this world is coming and going, passing by and passing away before our eyes. Those of us in the newspaper business know that better than most; yesterday's news so often is just that -- yesterday's.

This year we have been reminded that the glory of newspapers, too, can pass away, as so many of our colleagues have faced cutbacks, layoffs and even bankruptcy.

The Christian faith is that the Child in Bethlehem came to save us from this passing world, entering into it that we might, with Him, overcome it. This year we may be more disposed to considering that possibility than most.

To our readers then, who do us the daily honour of passing some of their time with us, we wish a Merry
Christmas and a new year abundantly blessed by those things that do not pass away.

FPinfomart.ca Page 1

“Everywhere creation calls for the honoring of God’s standards. Everywhere humanity’s sinfulness disrupts and deforms. Everywhere Christ’s victory is pregnant with the defeat of sin and the recovery of creation.”
- Albert M. Wolter

BEING MISUNDERSTOOD

"They said, He is beside himself." What had He done the seemed insane to them? It could not have been His signs and mighty works--men do not count a man demented for that. Indeed His works were the best proof that He was not insane. "And many of them said, He hath a demon and is made; why hear ye him? Others said, These are not the sayings of one possessed with a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?" (John 10:20, 21). But the manner of His life, perfectly devoted to the Father's will, and the truth which He spoke, which sounded so strange to their ears; also the high place He claimed for Himself, and His demand that they should have faith in Him--that was the reason they thought Him crazed.

Who thought He was "beside Himself"? If it had been His enemies only it would have been natural. But it was His friends, those who knew and loved Him best. That was hard to bear. In verses 31-35, His mother and His brethren tried to get Him off to Himself--for what purpose is not stated, but in the light of v. 21, and judging by the way He ignored their attempt, it was for no worthy reason. The Lord Jesus did not even send them an answer. He merely said to His hearers that He acknowledged only those as mother and brethren who hear the word of God and do it.

Where all is wrong, the right seems odd and strange. Where falsehood has right of way the truth is evil spoken of. Where all are selfish and sinful a pure and true life looks abnormal. Paul, accused of being beside himself, gave an explanation of his life that the love of Christ constrained him to do as He did. That sort of life demands explanation. (2 Cor. 5:13-15). Even among fairly good people a truly devoted life and an unselfish work, is looked on with a little secret misgiving, as a sort of mild insanity. Partly because there is so much that is false and fanatical, a man would be counted as "beside himself" if he should really love the Lord his God with all his heart and soul and strength and his neighbor as himself. Such a one must be content to be misunderstood and misjudged as Jesus was.

~ LEONARD RAVENHILL ~

“Revival is the act of the Spirit upon believers who have lost their first love. Revival is the restoration of true doctrine. Revival is the rekindling of the power of prayer in individuals and in groups. Revival is seeing that God must be vindicated either by His mercy in pardoning - or by judgment! Revival is the ascendancy of the spiritual over the material. Revival is the Spirit's passion within the believer to know and to obey the total will of God. Revival is the willingness to forsake all, that God might be all in all to the individual and to the Church. Revival is the "no-time-limit" operation of God on the saints, resulting in a moving of God among the sinners. Revival is the redeemed sobbing with broken hearts over a nation of broken lives from breaking the commandments of God. Revival is not a luxury, but a necessity for our nation; not an alternative, but an imperative.

I am bombarded with talk or letters about the coming shortages in our national life: bread, fuel, energy. I read between the lines from people not practiced in scaring folk. They feel that the "seven years of plenty" are over for us. The "seven years of famine" are ahead. But the greatest famine of all in the nation at this given moment is a FAMINE OF THE HEARING OF THE WORDS OF GOD (AMOS 8:11). WHAT IS REVIVAL?”

Fathers Heart ..

John Hutchinson, a wonderful teacher who passionately teaches on the Fathers heart..the first few minutes are just introduction so just be patient..its a message worth listening to:

http://www.uchurch.ca/media/messages/public/week_24_message.mp3

God is Amazing..

Check out this amazing story from The Sentinel Group - Prayer Tranformation Ministries about a small town in Brazil:


http://www.prayertransformation.com/pdf_files/stories/Report%20-%20Transformation%20of%20Algodao%20de%20Jandaira.pdf

fasting..

Do you have a hunger for God? If we don’t feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because we have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because we have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Our soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great. If we are full of what the world offers, then perhaps a fast might express, or even increase, our soul’s appetite for God. Between the dangers of self-denial and self-indulgence is the path of pleasant pain called fasting.

- John Piper -

Timely Word..

I was on a tele-conference prayer call the other day and want to pass along a very timely word that was delivered:

THE HOUR OF OPPORTUNITY Marie Chapian Nov 24, 2008

This is the hour of opportunity for you. The Lord wants you to know that He has put a door of great opportunity before you. He is urging you to be unafraid, to be courageous even if you can’t foretell the consequences of your faith-filled actions.

If you hold back you will bring the Lord no pleasure (Hebrews 10:38). In the past you’ve been afraid to make certain great and noble steps of faith, afraid you might fail, afraid maybe you might be acting in presumption.

Now the doors of opportunity are open for you as heaven’s angels murmur around you encouraging you. Have you not recognized the Holy Spirit whispering to you in the night hours? He has awakened you before dawn to draw you to the Word of God and prayer.

He is eager and delighted to show you great and mighty things in the Spirit. Answer. Respond. The hour is now.

Added note:

I feel this word very strongly that this is your hour of opportunity. It requires a response in faith. It requires we step out and take risks. Risks of what? Rejection? Failure? Loss? I want to remind you that you are intelligent, sound and wise in the Lord. We don’t act irrationally (we’ve learned from experience) -- we seek first the Kingdom of God in this life. We are brave, strong and Spirit-filled. Our souls are meant to prosper (3John 2). In fact, whatsoever we do prospers! (Psalm 1:3)

The Gift of Woundedness

This is an excellent article by Francis Frangipane:

The world and all it contains was created for one purpose: to showcase the grandeur of God's Son. In Jesus, the nature of God is magnificently and perfectly revealed; He is the "express image" of God (Heb. 1:3 KJV). Yet to gaze upon Christ is also to see God's pattern for man. As we seek to be like Him, we discover that our need was created for His sufficiency. We also see that, once the redemptive nature of Christ begins to triumph in our lives, mercy begins to triumph in the world around us.

How will we recognize revival when it comes? Behold, here is the awakening we seek: men and women, young and old, all conformed to Jesus. When will revival begin? It starts the moment we say yes to becoming like Him; it spreads to others as Christ is revealed through us.

Yet to embrace Christ's attitude toward mercy is but a first step in our spiritual growth. The process of being truly conformed to Christ compels us into deeper degrees of transformation. Indeed, just as Jesus learned obedience through the things that He suffered (see Heb. 5:8), so also must we. And it is here, even while we stand in intercession or service to God, that Christ gives us the gift of woundedness.

"Gift?" you ask. Yes, to be wounded in the service of mercy and, instead of closing our hearts, allow woundedness to crown love, is to release God's power in redemption. The steadfast prayer of the wounded intercessor holds great sway upon the heart of God.

We cannot become Christlike without being wounded. You see, even after we come to Christ, we carry encoded within us preset limits concerning how far we will go for love, and how much we are willing to suffer for redemption. When God allows us to be wounded, He exposes those human boundaries and reveals what we lack of His nature.

The path narrows as we seek true transformation. Indeed, many Christians fall short of Christ's stature because they have been hurt and offended by people. They leave churches discouraged, vowing never again to serve or lead or contribute because, when they offered themselves, their gift was marred by unloving people. To be struck or rejected in the administration of our service can become a great offense to us, especially as we are waiting for, and even expecting, a reward for our good efforts.

Yet wounding is inevitable if we are following Christ. Jesus was both "marred" (Isa. 52:14) and "wounded" (Zech. 13:6), and if we are sincere in our pursuit of His nature, we will suffer as well. How else will love be perfected?

Yet, let us beware. We will either become Christlike and forgive the offenders or we will enter a spiritual time warp where we abide continually in the memory of our wounding. Like a systemic disease, the hurtful memories infect every aspect of our existence. In truth, apart from God, the wounding that life inflicts is incurable. God has decreed that only Christ in us can survive.

The Wounds of a Prayer Warrior
Intercessors live on the frontier of change. We are positioned to stand between the needs of man and the provision of God. Because we are the agents of redemption, Satan will always seek the means to offend, discourage, silence, or otherwise steal the strength of our prayers. The wounding we receive must be interpreted in light of God's promise to reverse the effects of evil and make injustice work for our good (see Rom. 8:28). Since spiritual assaults are inevitable, we must discover how God uses our wounds as the means to greater power. This was exactly how Christ brought redemption to the world.

Jesus knew that maintaining love and forgiveness in the midst of suffering was the key that unlocked the power of redemption. Isaiah 53:11 tells us, "By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities."

Jesus possessed revelation knowledge into the mystery of God. He knew that the secret to unleashing world-transforming power was found at the cross, in suffering. At the cross, payment for sin was made. As Christ forgave His enemies, heaven's power rent the temple veil in two. Christ's stripes purchased our healing. I am not just talking about suffering, but the suffering of love.

The terrible offense of the cross became the place of redemption for the world. Yet, remember, Jesus calls us to a cross as well (see Matt. 16:24). Wounding is simply an altar upon which our sacrifice to God is prepared.

Listen again to Isaiah's prophetic description of Jesus' life. His words at first seem startling, but as we read, we discover a most profound truth concerning the power of woundedness. He wrote, "But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand" (Isa. 53:10).

How did the power of God's pleasure prosper in Christ's hand? During His times of crushing, woundedness and devastation, instead of retaliating, Jesus rendered Himself "as a guilt offering."

The crushing is not a disaster; it is an opportunity. You see, our purposeful love may or may not touch the sinner's heart, but it always touches the heart of God. We are crushed by people, but we need to allow the crushing to ascend as an offering to God. The greatest benefit of all is the effect our mercy has on the Father. If we truly want to be instruments of God's good pleasure, then it is redemption, not wrath, that must prosper in our hands. If we are Christ-followers, we must offer ourselves as an offering for the guilt of others.

Conformed to the Lamb
When Christ encounters conflict, though He is the Lion of Judah, He comes as the Lamb of God. Even when He is outwardly stern, His heart is always mindful that He is the "guilt offering." Thus, Jesus not only asks the Father to forgive those who have wounded Him, but also numbers Himself with the transgressors and intercedes for them (see Isa. 53:12). He does this because the Father takes "no pleasure in the death of the wicked" (Ezek. 33:11), and it is the pleasure of God that Jesus seeks.

Is this not the wonder and mystery, yes, and the power, of Christ's cross? In anguish and sorrow, wounded in heart and soul, still He offered Himself for His executioners' sins. Without visible evidence of success, deemed a sinner and a failure before man, He courageously held true to mercy. In the depth of terrible crushing, He let love attain its most glorious perfection. He uttered the immortal words, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34).

Christ could have escaped. He told Peter as the Romans came to arrest Him, "Do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?" (Matt. 26:53). In less than a heartbeat, the skies would have been flooded with thousands of warring angels. Yes, Jesus could have escaped, but mankind would have perished. Christ chose to go to hell for us rather than return to heaven without us. Instead of condemning mankind, He rendered "Himself as a guilt offering" (Isa. 53:10, italics mine). He prayed the mercy prayer, "Father, forgive them" (Luke 23:34).

Jesus said, "He who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also" (John 14:12). We assume He meant that we would work His miracles, but Jesus did not limit His definition of "works" to the miraculous. The works He did---the redemptive life, the mercy cry, the identification with sinners, rendering Himself a guilt offering---all the works He did, we will "do also."

Thus, because He lives within us, we see that Isaiah 53 does not apply exclusively to Jesus; it also becomes the blueprint for Christ in us. Indeed, was this not part of His reward, that He would see His offspring? (see Isa.. 53:10) Beloved, we are the progeny of Christ!

Read these words from Paul's heart:

"Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions" (Col. 1:24).

What did the apostle mean? Did not Christ fully pay mankind's debts once and for all? Did Paul imply that we now take Jesus' place? No, we will never take Jesus' place. It means that Jesus has come to take our place. The Son of God manifests all the aspects of His redemptive, sacrificial life through us. Indeed, "as He is, so also are we in this world" (1 John 4:17).

Paul not only identified with Christ in his personal salvation, but he was also consumed with Christ's purpose. He wrote, "That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death" (Phil. 3:10).

For those who blame others for the decline of our nation, to be a follower of the Lamb, you must render yourself as an offering for their sin. By your wounds they shall be healed.

What a wondrous reality is the "fellowship of His sufferings." Here, in choosing to yoke our existence with Christ's purpose, we find true friendship with Jesus. This is intimacy with Christ. The sufferings of Christ are not the sorrows typically endured by mankind; they are the afflictions of love. They bring us closer to Jesus. We learn how precious is the gift of woundedness.

Let's pray: Father, I see You have had no other purpose in my life but to manifest through me the nature of Your Son. I receive the gift of woundedness. In response, in surrender to Christ, I render myself an offering for those You've used to crush me. May the fragrance of my worship remind You of Jesus, and may You forgive, sprinkle and cleanse the world around me.

Awesome Testimony!

I found this article here- THANKS RANDY!!:
http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001897.cfm

Chased, Caught
by Randy Thomas
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. (Psalm 68:5)

Four-year-old Isaac, with a flash of his bright eyes and curly blond hair, can pretty much convince you to do just about anything. That boy is going to be trouble and all you can do is smile as you pull him off the next piece of furniture.

The staff were all gathered together for lunch one day when Isaac came by the office, along with his mother and sister, to visit his dad. After the meal was over, Isaac ran around the conference table and taunting his father, "Catch me Daddy!" Every time he passed one of the guys that had gathered around for lunch we would growl and try to hook him with our arms. He giggled that 4-year-old sunshine of a giggle, eluding our scary traps as he playfully derided us, "I passed you!"
"Lately, he likes to be chased and get caught," his dad later explained to me.

One of my delights in life, as a single man, is watching good parents love their children, and seeing those children flourish in that loving environment. I love watching little Isaac's eyes when his daddy "catches" him and he no longer wants to escape the embrace and just smiles and rests.
Rests, that is, for about two minutes and then is off to the races again. I like that part too.

A Different Kind of Chase
I only remember brief encounters with my Bio Dad when I was Isaac's age. And then there are a few brief drunken snapshots of him when I was in fifth and sixth grades in Nashville. That's pretty much it.

My dad did all the running then and there was no catching him.

One fateful day, during the "snapshot" time-frame, he got in a fight with my mom and her new boyfriend, Wallace, a man who would eventually become my stepfather. I stood at the screen door, watching this mystery called "Daddy" go huffing out to his car. I called after him, "Are you going to come back?" He jumped in his car, rolled down the window and said, "I'll call you tomorrow."

He never called.

He never knew I wanted to be chased and caught by a loving father. He never knew I wanted him to roughhouse with me, to throw me up in the air or spin me around the room. He didn't know that the only attention I did get was abusive. The arms that reached for me were usually scary, and I didn't have anyone to rescue me. I wanted to chase after my Bio Dad, but my young heart knew that he didn't want me too.

I found my Bio Dad eight years later. I had become a drug addict and he was an alcoholic. Six more years passed; six tumultuous years.

Still Not Accepted
Eventually, I discovered Narcotics Anonymous, got myself clean, and found myself on a very odd spiritual quest that led to a saving knowledge of Christ.

In time, my head cleared. I found myself unable to ignore the fact that my Bio Dad's solitary goal was to live out a narcissistic projection, one that did not allow for anyone to disagree with him or challenge his view of life. He'd try to coerce me to repeat his version of our past and his views of life, and if I didn't play along, he would become furious and verbally lash out at me.

During our last phone call, 14 years ago, six years after finding him, he complained that at first he had to "deal with" a son who used to [insert graphic homosexual act here]. He followed that with, "and now he's a &*@! Christian!" He said he liked me better as a flaming faggot than a bleeping Christian. I was stunned. He ended the phone call with a blasphemous joke about Christ.

He'll Pay For His Sins
I hung up the phone, angry at how selfish and awful my father was. Instead of going to a bar and getting wasted, as I might have done a few years earlier, I directed all of it toward my imagination.

I imagined my father hanging over an abyss. The only thing keeping him from falling was his fingers on the edge of a cliff. In my mind's eye, I crouched down to glare at him. He didn't see me. I didn't necessarily want him to fall, but inside I was getting an evil pleasure imagining him squirming in terror.

Then I felt the Lord remind me that He was now my Father, and not my Bio Dad. And then I felt Him say something unexpected: "Randy, you know that if your dad asked me for forgiveness, I would forgive him, without hesitation and without your permission."

I was conflicted. In my head I knew why God would forgive my Dad. He would forgive him because Christ paid the price for all sin, including my dad's sins against me. Yet my heart was angry. I wanted ... but didn't want ... my dad to pay for the abuse he had committed against me as a child and never apologized for. I wanted him to hurt for every bruise and strike that had been dealt to me in his absence, pain from which he should have protected me. I wanted him to hurt ... and yet I knew that this is not what God, our Heavenly Father, would want.

It was the most painful ambivalence I had ever experienced to that point.

At that point I believe the Holy Spirit reminded me of a litany of abusive words and violent acts my Bio Dad had committed against me. Each memory was followed by a vision of Jesus being tortured, scoured, crucified. My father's sins against me were sins that Christ absorbed into Himself.

Convicted of the malice I felt toward my dad, I wept so hard and for so long that I lost track of time. Something in my spirit clicked and I started begging God to lead my dad to repentance. I even found myself repeating a paraphrase of the words of Jesus Himself as He hung on the cross: "Please forgive Dad! He has no idea what he has done!"

My True Father Caught Me
From that point on I no longer hated my Bio Dad. Anger over specific events and situations still took time to diminish, but I no longer hated him.

This is the part of a testimony where you normally hear the "good stuff." You might expect to hear about how my dad came to know Christ and today we are best buds. Well, that didn't happen. I can't find him. I haven't heard from him in years.

If he does show up, I'd probably still want to maintain some boundaries, but my love would be unconditional. I would hope to be more gracious and forgiving, but forgiveness doesn't require one to be a needless martyr. I just want to hold my Bio Dad's hand and ask him to tell me about his life. Instead of sneering as he waivers perilously over an abyss of my own creating, or perhaps even his, I'll extend a hand and simply listen. My hope is that he'd see Christ in me and be drawn out of the pit and to the foot of the Cross.

I can't relive my life; I can't start over again, hoping for a better home life; the carefree blond 4-year-old has grown up. And the truth is that my Bio Dad blew it; I've had to grieve this reality and let it go.

Yet, where my Bio Dad failed as a father, God my Father has more than compensated. Where my Bio Dad failed to be a daily part of my life and constant influence of wisdom and good, my Heavenly Father often steps in before I even know what to ask. And just like many earthly dads, He seems always ready to give advice, warnings, challenges. And not in a patronizing way; I'm no longer a little boy, after all, I am His son.

Back to That Blond Kid
When I watch my friend look at his son's silly antics with absolute delight, I notice that Isaac is oftentimes not even aware of his dad's pleasure. When I see that dynamic at work, I think of how unaware I am of my heavenly Father's countenance. I wonder if He has enjoyed watching me as I walk out my faith.

I was a tow-head like Isaac until I was 4 years old. I was and am very extroverted just like little Isaac. And when I see my friend love on his son it makes me think of how my heavenly Father viewed me when I was that young. Though I was unaware of Him, He's chased me my whole life. As I rode my "Green Machine," He pursued me. As I cried myself to sleep at night during the awful times, He sang softly over me. Through my hellacious teen years, He chased me. He sought me through gay bars as a young confused man, and trailed me across state lines and relationship after relationship.

Though I did a lot of running, in my heart I wanted to be caught by unconditional love; I just didn't know what that looked like until I was apprehended by Christ. And like little Isaac, now that I'm caught, in my Father's embrace I am content.

"Alive In This Moment"

It's been so long since I have met You here
Since I have said these words or cried these tears
And like a child would come I run into our secret place
And as the music fades, the tears are rolling down my face

I am alive in this moment
In this moment I am found
I am alive in this moment
In this moment I belong

It's been so long since I have met You here
Since I have heard You speak or let You near
And like a wayward son I've come with nothing left to hide
Here in this moment I have come to offer up my life

Here only one fire burns, it burns
Here only one melody is heard
Once again for the very first time

My eyes are opening

~Starfield

Lifehouse - Broken

Dedicated to all those twenty somethings, the ones I know, and the ones I have not met yet....


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The broken clock is a comfort
It helps me sleep tonight
Maybe it can stop tomorrow
From stealing all my time

And I am here still waiting
Though I still have my doubts
I am damaged at best
Like you've already figured out

I'm falling apart
I'm barely breathing
With a broken heart
That's still beating
In the pain
There is healing
In your name
I find meaning
So I'm holding on
I'm holding on
I'm holding on
I'm barely holding on to you

The broken locks were a warning
You got inside my head
I tried my best to be guarded
I'm an open book instead
And I still see your reflection
Inside of my eyes
That are looking for purpose
They're still looking for life

I'm falling apart
I'm barely breathing
With a broken heart
That's still beating
In the pain
Is there healing

In your name
I find meaning
So I'm holding on
I'm holding on
I'm holding on
I'm holding on
I'm barely holding on to you

I'm hanging on another day
Just to see what you will throw my way
*And*I'm hanging on to the words you say
You said that I will
I will be okay

Broken lights on the freeway
Left me here alone
I may have lost my way now
I haven't forgotten my way home

I'm falling apart
I'm barely breathing
With a broken heart
That's still beating
In the pain
There is healing
In your name
I find meaning
So I'm holding on
I'm holding on
I'm holding on
I'm barely holding on to you

I'm holding on
I'm holding on
I'm barely holding on to you

Litany of Humility

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, hear me.

From the desire of being esteemed, deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being loved, deliver me, O Jesus
From the desire of being extolled, deliver me, O Jesus
From the desire of being honored, deliver me O Jesus
From the desire of being praised, deliver me O Jesus
From the desire of being preferred to others, deliver me O Jesus
From the desire of being consulted, deliver me O Jesus
From the desire of being approved, deliver me O Jesus

From the fear of being humiliated, deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being despised, deliver me, O Jesus
From the fear of suffering rebukes, deliver me, O Jesus
From the fear of being calumniated, deliver me, O Jesus
From the fear of being forgotten, deliver me, O Jesus
From the fear of being ridiculed, deliver me, O Jesus
From the fear of being wronged, deliver me, O Jesus
From the fear of being suspected, deliver me, O Jesus

That others may be loved more than I, O Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be esteemed more than I, O Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That, in the opinion of the world, others may, increase and I may decrease, O Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be chosen and I set aside, O Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be praised and I unnoticed, O Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be preferred to me in everything, O Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should,
O Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

O Jesus, deliver us from pride and grant us the grace to desire true humility

This prayer was written by Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val (1865-1930), the secretary of state for Pope Saint Pius X.

May All Your Expectations Be Frustrated

I heard his little prayer a few weeks ago while at a talk on Spritual Authenticity and thought I'd post it on the blog. I realize this can be a slap in the face to someone in great pain, but for folks on the other side of it, it is a powerful affirmation of what God does in his people. Only as we lose our agenda to put our lives together the way we think best, can we enjoy Father in the midst of our trials and tragedies…

This ‘blessing’ was prayed over Henri Nouwen by his spiritual mentor:

May all your expectations be frustrated.
May all your plans be thwarted.
May all your desires be withered into nothingness.
That you may experience the powerlessness and the poverty of a child and sing and dance in the love of God the Father, the Son and the Spirit.

Take Up Your Cross

Your pain is deep and it won't just go away. It is also uniquely yours, because it is linked to some of your earliest life experiences. Your call is to bring that pain home. As long as your wounded part remains foreign to your adult self, your pain will injure you as well as others. Yes, you have to incorporate your pain into yourself and let it bear fruit in your heart and the hearts of others.

This is what Jesus means when he asks you to take up your cross. He encourages you to recognize and embrace your unique suffering and to trust that your way to salvation lies therein. Taking up your cross means, first of all, befriending your wounds and letting them reveal to you your own truth....

.... Once you have taken up that cross, you will be able to see clearly the crosses that others have to bear, and you will be able to reveal to them their own ways to joy, peace, and freedom.

~ Henri Nouwen

Suffering and Worship

Several months ago, I started a new series of messages in my church on worship. As I looked at Scriptures and all the books on worship, I thought maybe I would speak on how to give thanks to God, how to worship God, how to love him, how to praise him, how to sing, how to pray, how to wait upon him—all the different elements of worship. But I sensed that the Lord wanted me to speak first on the connection between suffering and worship.

Usually, when we reflect on worship, when we think about worship, we do not put suffering and worship together. Some of us have a certain idea about worship. We think that it is so esthetic, that it is a very deep spiritual experience with God. And so it is. But I believe that if we are to understand what worship is all about, if we are to be moved by the Spirit of God deeper into the very core and heart of God himself, we have to understand that, as fallen human beings, we live in a fallen, sinful world.

We all know theologically that the Kingdom has come—but that it is not fully come as yet. We have glimpses of heaven to come, but heaven has not fully come on earth yet. We long for heaven to come. We long for that day when we shall see the Lord face to face. Then there shall be no more pain, no more sorrow, no more tears, no more suffering. But until then, we are living in a fallen world.

We Christians too, even if we are redeemed, are fallen people. So in order to understand and to know God in a deeper way, in order to worship him, we need to understand the place of suffering in our lives.

I have only one main point today. (The homileticians will say that this is not good homiletics, I know.) The one point I want to share with you from our text in First Peter is this: Jesus himself suffered in the flesh, not in terms of the sinful nature, but in the body (see the NIV translation). He suffered in human suffering when he was on earth. And First Peter tells us we are to arm ourselves with the same attitude toward suffering. We are to understand that there is a special place for suffering in our lives that enables us to move deeper into worship of God. If we are open to the place of suffering in our lives, our suffering will enable us to cease more and more from sin and to obey more and more the will of God. Then, ultimately, we will come to know him the way that he wants us to know him. Than we will find our deepest satisfaction in God.

John Piper wrote that God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in him. As human beings, we derive our deepest satisfaction and fulfillment in God himself. We are to have no other gods, no other idols, no other substitutes before us.

So my point is this: We must learn to embrace suffering, whether allowed—or even appointed by God. Whether we understand that such suffering is sent by God, or allowed by God, we are to yield to God and embrace our suffering and cooperate with the Holy Spirit's work in our school of life. Then our suffering will enable us to become more purified, more purged from sin, and we will be able to live more within the will of God. Then we can be driven (in a good sense of the word) deeper into the very heart of God and his love—into deeper worship of God.

As a psychologist, of course I would be one of the last people on earth to try to glorify suffering. We must not misunderstand the text and the point I am trying to share with you. If we know anything about pain in human hearts and human beings, we know that we do not want to wish suffering on anyone. I am not trying to glorify suffering.

We know that there is some suffering that needs to be healed. And there is some suffering that God will give us grace to overcome. Our text, however, is talking about suffering that comes after we have chosen to follow Jesus—and then suffering happens. Trials and tribulations. The ups and downs of life. Suffering that is there, given, allowed, or appointed by God. What do we do about such suffering? Is there a place for suffering in our lives? Can suffering help us in our worship of God?

In chapter 1 of the book of James, in verses 2 to 4, we read: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

In the school of life, this is not an elective course. Chuck Swindoll pointed out one time that "suffering is a required course." And we will move from suffering 101 to 201 to 301 and beyond. As long as we are on earth, suffering will exist. But there is something about suffering that can purify us and drive us deeper into the very heart of God that nothing else can do.

As I visit with people (especially the terminally ill) and as you face illness in your own life, or as I face illness in my own life, or my family's life, or in other people's lives—there is something about suffering from physical disability or illness or infirmity that reminds us that life is frail, that life is fragile, that life is not going to last forever on this side of the Kingdom.

There's something about physical suffering that enables us to realize that we are 100 percent dependent upon God. And all the things that we hold so dearly, all the things in life that can become idols, that can become false gods in our lives, will tend to fade into mere insignificance. For example, the idols of money, sex, pleasure, or power oftentime become gods in our lives. Only a certain amount of suffering in our lives can help us let go of those false gods and idols in our lives. Suffering will make us realize that those things are not what ultimately satisfy us. And suffering will enable us, as we respond appropriately to God, to be driven deeper into the heart of God, into deeper worship of him.

I want to share just a few thoughts that John Piper has written in Let the Nations Be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions. In chapter 3 he says:

"We need to make the call even more clear. Peter says, 'Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same thought' (1 Peter 4:1). The suffering of Christ is a call for a certain mindset towards suffering. Namely, that it is normal and that the path of love will often require it. Thus Peter says, 'Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes upon you to prove you, as though something strange were happening to you' (1 Peter 4:12). Suffering with Christ is not strange. It is your calling, your vocation. It is the 'same experience of suffering required of your brotherhood throughout the world' (1 Peter 5:9). This is the 'thought' that we need to put on like armor, lest we be vulnerable to suffering as something strange."

This is why suffering is so central to the mission of the church. The goal of our mission is that people from all the nations worship the true God. But worship means cherishing the preciousness of God above all else, including life itself. It will be very hard to bring the nations to love God from a lifestyle that communicates a love of things. Therefore, God ordains in the lives of his messengers that suffering will sever our bondage to the world. When joy and love survive this severing, then we are fit to say to the nations with authenticity and power: Hope in God.

I believe that these words are powerful and true. And based on First Peter, and on James, and many other passages in Scripture, we know that the Bible does teach us that there is a place for appropriate suffering and trials in our lives from time to time. Because God knows that there is no other way to prune us, to purge us, to purify us to the point where we love God for who he is, and not just for the gifts that he gives us.

Roger Helland, senior pastor of a New Life Vineyard Fellowship in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, wrote in The Revived Church:

"The key to pure spiritual power is humility. As Jim Cymbala declares: 'God is attracted to weakness. He can't resist those who humbly and honestly admit how desperately they need him.' The Bible says, 'Humility and the fear of the Lord bring wealth and honor and life' (Proverbs 22:4). As in Saul's case, we can be filled with the Spirit and still be no good. We can look for God's power, but not his presence. We can seek his hand, but not his face. God doesn't build revived churches with powerful people. He builds them with pure people. Again, Gene Edwards says: 'What does this world need? Gifted men [and women] outwardly empowered? Or broken men [and women] inwardly transformed?'"

And so suffering and worship are connected. Because suffering, if we cooperate with God in the process, enables us to become purer people—and humbler people. It is the pure and humble who have truly learned to love God for who he is and to worship him most deeply.

I want to share with you a true story, published in Leadership Magazine recently, in an article titled, "Taking Care of Busyness" (Fall, 1998). It is about a friend of mine that many of you know. He is on our Board of Trustees at Fuller Seminary—Dr. John Ortberg. He is also a graduate from our School of Psychology. Dr. Ortberg is a pastor. A few years ago, he and I wrote a couple of books together on depression. And shortly after we finished one manuscript, he accepted a call from Bill Hybels to become an associate pastor at Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago. Every Wednesday night he teaches the Bible to thousands of people. That's lot of people to minister to! So, one day, John called one of his spiritual mentors long distance, and this is what he asked his spiritual mentor:

"What do I need to do to be spiritually healthy?" There was a long pause. This very wise mentor told John, "You must ruthlessly eliminate hurriedness from your life." John then asked, "What else should I do?" There was another long pause. And then this very wise spiritual man said to John, "There is nothing else that you should do. You must only ruthlessly eliminate hurriedness from your life."

John Piper emphasized that missions is not ultimate—worship is ultimate. Missions exists because worship doesn't. Once we are all worshipers, missions will be over, and we will be in heaven worshiping God forever. But in order to learn to worship like that, we must have time and solitude to be with God. We therefore need to ruthlessly eliminate hurriedness from our lives.

I'm going to close with two "S's" for us to consider. The first S refers to the spiritual discipline of solitude--to take time, long periods of time, to just bask in the presence of God, to be in the wilderness alone with him. There's no other way to really know God and worship him except to practice the discipline of solitude. So we need to make time for God, and ruthlessly eliminate hurriedness from our lives.

Solitude alone, however, is not going to cut it. The second "S" is the S of suffering. Embrace it. Thank God for the trials and tribulations that come from time to time. And thank God that they do not come all the time. God is gracious; God is merciful. But go through that suffering. Let us ask the Spirit of God to help us become better people, not bitter people, through all of our suffering, with a deeper and more purified worship of God himself.

We tend to have two other S's in our church life here in America. We tend to go after self-esteem, and satisfaction. But God is calling us to embrace solitude and suffering, so we can come to know him and worship him more deeply, Then satisfaction and appropriate self-esteem will come to us as side effects.

May God bless us and help us, by his Spirit, to learn to grow in redemptive suffering and worship of him.

SIANG-YANG TAN, Ph.D.

Exchanging the Glory of God

These sermon notes written by John Piper are a very good expository on Homosexualtity..Part 1 and Part 2

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TopicIndex/80_Homosexuality/1053_The_Other_Dark_Exchange__Homosexuality_Part_1/

Help Here…Help Now! - Tom Barnard

“He heals the brokenhearted, binding up their wounds.
He counts the stars and calls them all by name.
How great is our Lord! His power is absolute!
His understanding is beyond comprehension.”
(Psalm 147:3-5)

“Only an Infinite God can be equal to the infinite needs of individual men.
But a limitless love can be a refuge for the least and lowliest.”
(James Reid, in The Springs of Life. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1936)

Someone has said, “When we really think about God, we have our hand on a door which will lead us out into a new world.” If this is true (and I believe it is), why is God the second or third or even fourth source to whom we look in times of trouble? It doesn’t make sense to me. If you knew someone whose understanding was “beyond comprehension,” why wouldn’t you turn to him at the first hint of a problem? If you knew someone who was willing to “heal the brokenhearted, binding up their wounds”—and he was willing to do it now, why wouldn’t you turn to him when you are hurting? If you knew someone who was so infinite that he not only knows how many stars there are in the universe but also calls them by name, why would you read a horoscope to discover what good or bad things might (or might not) happen to you today?

The fact is that we tend to trust our stockbroker more than we trust our future to God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. I wonder if the timing might be right to dig out one of Isaac Watts’ old hymns and sing it today. You start, and I’ll join you on the second stanza.

O God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast, And our eternal home!

Under the shadow of Thy throne, Still may we dwell secure;
Sufficient is Thine arm alone, And our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood, Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting Thou art God, To endless years the same.

Heavenly Father, I have been listening to news commentators far too much this week. Their “spin” on the events of the day is depressing. They are so persuasive; their views are so reasonable; their reputations are so solid; they are so easy to believe. But they don’t know one galaxy from the next. Their words have never healed anybody. They have no clue about what the future holds. And they don’t care one bit about me. I need help here, and I need it now! Please listen to my heart’s cry, and whisper confidence in my ear. Point me in the right direction, and lead me there. I’m ready to follow you wherever you take me. Amen.

The aim of gospel ministry

“To cut off the sinner from all reliance upon himself, his merits and his powers; and throw him, naked and helpless, into the hands of the Holy Spirit to lead him to Christ in faith; should be the one great aim of the ministry.”

- Ichabod S. Spencer

A new song..can you hear it?

Shine - Shannon Noil

Get up, get up, get up, get up, lift your head
Come on, come on, get up out of bed
Today's the day you hold the world with your song
Go now, go now, go now, help escalate
Angels come down, help with this parade
To hear your voice ring out
Come on and shout it
Let your song be heard

This is the time
This is the day that we've been waiting for
All the world will stop to watch you shine

Hey now, hey now, hey now, hey now sing your hymn
This is the new national anthem
We will all stand on guard to let you be heard
Let go, let go, let go all the cannons
How beautiful this world has become
Now everyone will see what I believe
That these words should be sung

This is the time
This is the day that we've been waiting for
All the world will stop to watch you shine
This is the time
This is the day that we've been waiting for
All the world believes that you will shine

And if you fall
And if you fall
And if you trust and
Yes it will come true

Hey, hey Yeah!

This is the time
This is the day that we've been waiting for
All the world will stop to watch you shine
This is the time
This is the day that we've been waiting for
When all the world will stop to watch you shine

Another good quote:

“God’s clean up operations are very strange.”

“A deep spiritual walk with God does not usually happen immediately after conversion. When the Holy Spirit invades the enemy territory of our lives and sets up Jesus Christ as King in the capital city of our heart, his strategy for conquering the rebel forces of the flesh that keep up their guerrilla warfare is different for each person. It may be fast or slow. God’s clean up operations are very strange.”

- John Piper, “The Danger of Being Merely Human“

The Vision for The Warriors

The vision is Jesus- obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus. The vision is an army of people, intergenerational, all ages all races. You see bones? I see an army. And they are FREE from materialism. They laugh at 9-5 little prisons. They could eat caviar on Monday and crust on Tuesday. They wouldn't even notice. They are mobile like the wind; they belong to the nations. They need no passport. People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence. They are free yet they are slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying.

What is the Vision? The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes. It makes children laugh and adults angry. It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars. It scorns the good and strains for the best. It is dangerously pure. Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation. It loves people away from their suicide leaps, their Satan games. This is am army that will lay down its life for the cause. A million times a day its soldiers choose to lose that they might one day win the great 'Well done' faithful sons and daughters. Such heroes are as radical on Monday mornings as Sunday night. They don't need fame from names. Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again "COME ON!" And this is the sound of the underground. The whisper of history in the making. Foundations shaking. Revolutionaries dreaming once again. Mystery is scheming in whispers. Conspiracy is breathing…

And the army is disciplined. People who beat their bodies into submission. Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms. The tattoo on their back boasts for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes, Winners, Martyrs. Who can stop them? Can hormones hold them back? Can failure succeed? Can fear scare them or death kill them? And the generation PRAYS like a dying man with groans beyond talking, with warrior cries, sulphurous tears and with great barrow loads of laughter! Whatever it takes they will give. Breaking the rules. Shaking the mediocrity from its cozy little hide. Laying down their rights and their precious little wrings, laughing at labels, fasting essentials. The advertisers cannot mould them. Hollywood cannot hold them. Peer pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries. They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive inside.

On the outside? They hardly care. They wear clothes like a costume to communicate and celebrate but never to hide. Would they surrender their image or popularity? They would lay down their very lives- swap seats with the man on death row- guilty as hell. A throne for an electric chair. With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days, they pray as if it all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them. Their DNA chooses Jesus. (He breathes out, they breathe in). Their subconscious sings. They had a blood transfusion with Jesus. Their words make the demons scream in shopping centers. DON"T you hear them coming? Heralds the weirdo's! Summons the losers and the freaks. Here comes the frightened and forgotten with the fire in their eyes. They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension. Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.

And this vision will be. It will come to pass; it will come easily; it will come soon. How do I know? Because this is the longing of creation itself, the groaning of the Spirit, the very dream of God. My tomorrow is his today. My distant hope is his 3D. And my feeble whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking 'AMEN!' from countless angels, from hero's of the faith, from Christ himself. And he is the original dreamer, the ultimate winner. Guaranteed!

Date: January 01, 2000 Author: Kim Clement

QUOTE

"Watch out when the music of your nation changes. A new kind of music upsets every department of living—both public and private. The beat of the music changes first and everything else falls in line with the beat—fashions, language, customs and morals."

The character, Fred Fisher, "quoting" Plato in the movie "O You Beautiful Doll" (1949).

Prayer and Providence

“Coming events cast their shadows before them, and when God is about to bless his people his coming favour casts the shadow of prayer over the church. When he is about to favour an individual he casts the shadow of hopeful expectation over his soul. Our prayers, let men laugh at them as they will, and say there is no power in them, are the indicators of the movement of the wheels of Providence. Believing supplications are forecasts of the future, He who prayeth in faith is like the seer of old, he sees that which is to be: his holy expectancy, like a telescope, brings distant objects near to him.”

- Charles Spurgeon, The Holy Spirit’s Intercession

Henri Nouwen quote

My pastor sent me this from Henri Nouwen...

"A part of you was left behind very early in your life: the part that never felt completely received. It is full of fears. Meanwhile, you grew up with many survival skills. But you want your self to be one. So you have to bring home the part of you that was left behind. That is not easy, because you have become quite a formidable person, and your fearful part does not know if it can safely dwell with you. Your grown-upself has to become very childlike - hospitable, gentle, and caring - so your anxious self can return and feel safe. You complain that it is hard for you to pray, to experience the love of Jesus. But Jesus dwells in your fearful, never fully received self. When you befriend your true self and discover that it is good and beautiful, you will see Jesus there. Where you are most human, most yourself, weakest, there Jesus lives. Bringing your fearful self home is bringing Jesus home."