Words of Mother Theresa

“People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.
Succeed anyway.If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”
– from Mother Teresa’s wall

God Speaks

June 6, 2009
"Work Out" What God "Works in" You
. . . work out your own salvation . . . for it is God who works in you . . . —Philippians 2:12-13

Your will agrees with God, but in your flesh there is a nature that renders you powerless to do what you know you ought to do. When the Lord initially comes in contact with our conscience, the first thing our conscience does is awaken our will, and our will always agrees with God. Yet you say, "But I don’t know if my will is in agreement with God." Look to Jesus and you will find that your will and your conscience are in agreement with Him every time. What causes you to say "I will not obey" is something less deep and penetrating than your will. It is perversity or stubbornness, and they are never in agreement with God. The most profound thing in a person is his will, not sin.
The will is the essential element in God’s creation of human beings— sin is a perverse nature which entered into people. In someone who has been born again, the source of the will is Almighty God. ". . . for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." With focused attention and great care, you have to "work out" what God "works in" you— not work to accomplish or earn "your own salvation," but work it out so you will exhibit the evidence of a life based with determined, unshakable faith on the complete and perfect redemption of the Lord. As you do this, you do not bring an opposing will up against God’s will— God’s will is your will. Your natural choices will be in accordance with God’s will, and living this life will be as natural as breathing. Stubbornness is an unintelligent barrier, refusing enlightenment and blocking its flow. The only thing to do with this barrier of stubbornness is to blow it up with "dynamite," and the "dynamite" is obedience to the Holy Spirit.
Do I believe that Almighty God is the Source of my will? God not only expects me to do His will, but He is in me to do it.

"I am In This"

So I've been planning Global Day of Prayer here in Saskatoon with two friends of mine for this year. It's coming up really fast, in less then a week now. We still seem to have so many details to pull together and as I've called people to be involved and looked for people who are eager to serve I haven't gotten a lot of positive results. It's been frustrating for me, being new at this and really not knowing how to plan such a big event in the first place, the lack of response seems to add to the frustration. I think in some ways I've lost some motivation and also have allowed myself to become lazy.

This morning I was reading from John Eldridge's blog, a well known christian author. I came across this:

“Both the Scriptures and the history of the church teach that if the Holy Spirit is working, the whole man will be involved and there will be much cost to the Christian. The more the Holy Spirit works, the more Christians will be used in battle, and the more they are used, the more there will be personal cost and tiredness. It is quite the opposite of what we might first think. People often cry out for the work of the Holy Spirit and yet forget that when the Holy Spirit works, there is always tremendous cost to the people of God, weariness and tears and battles.”

I asked God to use me and I guess in some ways I figured once the oppertunity came it would be easy. But it's a battle. Inward and outward. Further down in John's blog he wrote something that literally came off the page as though God were speaking those exact words to me, he wrote, "The consolation was also Jesus saying, 'You didn’t blow it; I asked you to do this. I am in this'".

Just a little thought for the day...

Since mine eyes have looked on Jesus, I’ve lost sight of all beside, So enchained my spirit’s vision, Gazing on the Crucified.

Worship and Intercession

Holiness or Hardness Toward God?

He . . . wondered that there was no intercessor . . . —Isaiah 59:16
The reason many of us stop praying and become hard toward God is that we only have an emotional interest in prayer. It sounds good to say that we pray, and we read books on prayer which tell us that prayer is beneficial— that our minds are quieted and our souls are uplifted when we pray. But Isaiah implied in this verse that God is amazed at such thoughts about prayer.
Worship and intercession must go together; one is impossible without the other. Intercession means raising ourselves up to the point of getting the mind of Christ regarding the person for whom we are praying (see Philippians 2:5 ). Instead of worshiping God, we recite speeches to God about how prayer is supposed to work. Are we worshiping God or disputing Him when we say, "But God, I just don’t see how you are going to do this"? This is a sure sign that we are not worshiping. When we lose sight of God, we become hard and dogmatic. We throw our petitions at His throne and dictate to Him what we want Him to do. We don’t worship God, nor do we seek to conform our minds to the mind of Christ. And if we are hard toward God, we will become hard toward other people.
Are we worshiping God in a way that will raise us up to where we can take hold of Him, having such intimate contact with Him that we know His mind about the ones for whom we pray? Are we living in a holy relationship with God, or have we become hard and dogmatic?
Do you find yourself thinking that there is no one interceding properly? Then be that person yourself. Be a person who worships God and lives in a holy relationship with Him. Get involved in the real work of intercession, remembering that it truly is work-work that demands all your energy, but work which has no hidden pitfalls. Preaching the gospel has its share of pitfalls, but intercessory prayer has none whatsoever.

If there are two things that I'm most passionate about it's worship and intercession. Those two things are the most important aspects of my relationship with the Lord because it's through worship and intercession that I am changed. As we seek and pursue God in our lives he honors that and begins to change us. And I so want to be changed by Him. Everyday I long to become more and more a reflection of my God. I long to be free from the flesh, the sinful nature that so often controls me. I want so badly for the lost to be found, for the blind to see and for the hurting to find healing in Jesus Christ. I long to go deeper and deeper into the heart of God...as deep as I can possibly go. I want to know every corner and every part. I want to know the heart of God, I want to cry for what He cries for, I want to rejoice in what He rejoices in. I want to be so intimately connected to my God, to the point where I'm undeniably His alone.

Won't you come home?

I'm SO hungry for God. And I want so badly for the church to truly seek and find the Lord. I believe that God is taking the church to a whole new place. A place this generation has not yet seen. God wants to bring us into a place of intimacy with him. A place where he can speak softly to us of his love and beakon the darkness out of us. A place that is so safe, a place that is so sacred. And my whole body craves that...my mind, my heart and my spirit. Hebrews 4: 12 says "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart". God wants to take us to a place where his word speaks to us...and begins to cut away the selfish flesh, and everything that is not of his heart. And I want so badly to go there. Not just me...but along with the whole church. And God, wants it so much more. He keeps beckoning us. He keeps calling out, longing for us to come. He says "won't you come home to me?"

A Thought for Today

"The well of your incompleteness runs deep, but make the effort to look away from yourself and to look toward Him."

...Sometimes I become discouraged when I see how deep the well of my incompleteless runs. When I think of how much work the Lord still needs to do in me. But this encouraged me when I read it. That discouragement does not come from God. That discouragement comes from the enemy. Because as long as he can get us to believe that God is not capable of changing us, we'll stay right where we are, or worse, turn and walk the other way. But God is MORE then capable of changing us. His grace goes beyond anything we can imagine. So when you start to feel discouraged about your incompleteness and begin to think that God is in-capable of saving you from every hurt and every bit of shame and sin, think again. He IS capable. Nothing is impossible for the Almighty God.