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| Pat was right...I got the new John Mayer album off iTunes this morning. It's good. I was very wrong about John in previous years. I heard "Your Body is a Wonderland" and wrote him off as an emo frat boy. He's got chops, and he's got some sweet sounds. If you have an extra $10...give it to Stonebrook and steal this album from Best Buy :). | | |
| Governance, Morality, and God's voice*Post Removed by Author* | | |
| Long time no write...From The New Life, Words of God for Young Disciples
Chapter V: Faith (Pointers at end of chapter)
By Andrew Murray
"1. The Christian must read and search the Scriptures to increase his knowledge. For this purpose he daily reads one or more principal portions. But he reads the Scriptures also to strengthen his faith. And to this end he must take one or two verses to make them the subject of special reflection, and to appropriate them trustfully for himself.
2. Pray, do not suffer yourselves to be led astray by those who speak as if faith were something great and unintelligible. Faith is nothing other than the certitude that God speaks truth. Take some promises of God and say to Him: I know for certain that this promise is truth, and that Thou wilt fulfill it. He will do it.
3. Never mourn over unbelief as if it were only a weakness which you cannot help. As God’s child, however weak you may be, you have the power to believe, for the spirit of God is in you. You have only to keep in mind this: no one apprehends anything before that he has the power to believe; he must simply begin and continue with saying to the Lord that he is sure that His word is truth. He must hold fast the promise and rely upon God for the fulfillment."
Murray defines faith as simply believing that what God says is true. It makes sense then, that when we find it hard to believe something that God has said, we are believing something else is truer or better, in other words, a lie. I’ve been slowly uncovering lots of lies lately, mainly through a re-reading of Wild at Heart. Most of them deal with my past, especially my dad.
One of the big ones was that other guys are just a bunch of jerks deep down, that they are “just as bad as me,” and that all they would do was tell me I was a loser right when I needed them. That probably came from my dad never telling me I was any good, and quite often telling me the opposite. This one belief has kept me from really being able to follow or lead other guys, because I just didn’t trust them or myself. Along with that, it has given me a really rebellious attitude; made me think that the only way I was going to get anywhere was to do it on my own, but not being quite sure if I was up to it. Dealing with it has made me a little more vulnerable than I like. Honestly, the first step in all of it was just recognizing that I wasn’t ok in the first place. The next step was really accepting God’s new life in me. I have been transformed, I am not the man I was. That is a comforting thought.
Murray tied a lot of this together for me in a few ways. He simplifies all the discouragment that can come with discovering big things in my life that I want to change. He says that simple trust is all this required. What God says is true, and God says that my heart is good. I can trust God that He has indeed changed me. Instead of being discouraged by my habits, I can look deeper into where they come from, and root out the lie that is causing my spiritual self to throw in the towel. It is not ME that is doing it, but sin living in me, sin that has slipped past the defenses. When I find it hard to believe something, but also know that God is true, I can pray through my unbelief and discover what lie is confusing me and causing me to sin.
With God’s grace I’ll be learning these lessons in a deeper way through this next school year.
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| Psalm 104Psalm 104
1BLESS (AFFECTIONATELY, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, You are very great! You are clothed with honor and majesty--
2[You are the One] Who covers Yourself with light as with a garment, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain or a tent,
3Who lays the beams of the upper room of His abode in the waters [above the firmament], Who makes the clouds His chariot, Who walks on the wings of the wind,
4Who makes winds His messengers, flames of fire His ministers.(A)
5You laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be moved forever.(B)
6You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains.(C)
7At Your rebuke they fled; at the voice of Your thunder they hastened away.
8The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place which You appointed for them.
9You have set a boundary [for the waters] which they may not pass over, that they turn not again to deluge the earth.
10He sends forth springs into the valleys; their waters run among the mountains.
11They give drink to every [wild] beast of the field; the wild asses quench their thirst there.
12Beside them the birds of the heavens have their nests; they sing among the branches.(D)
13He waters the mountains from His upper rooms; the earth is satisfied and abounds with the fruit of His works.
14He causes vegetation to grow for the cattle, and all that the earth produces for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food out of the earth--
15And wine that gladdens the heart of man, to make his face shine more than oil, and bread to support, refresh, and strengthen man's heart.
16The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly and are filled with sap, the cedars of Lebanon which He has planted,
17Where the birds make their nests; as for the stork, the fir trees are her house.
18The high mountains are for the wild goats; the rocks are a refuge for the conies and badgers.
19[The Lord] appointed the moon for the seasons; the sun knows [the exact time of] its setting.
20You [O Lord] make darkness and it becomes night, in which creeps forth every wild beast of the forest.
21The young lions roar after their prey and seek their food from God.
22When the sun arises, they withdraw themselves and lie down in their dens.
23Man goes forth to his work and remains at his task until evening.
24O Lord, how many and varied are Your works! In wisdom have You made them all; the earth is full of Your riches and Your creatures.
25Yonder is the sea, great and wide, in which are swarms of innumerable creeping things, creatures both small and great.
26There go the ships of the sea, and Leviathan (the sea monster), which You have formed to sport in it.
27These all wait and are dependent upon You, that You may give them their food in due season.
28When You give it to them, they gather it up; You open Your hand, and they are filled with good things.
29When You hide Your face, they are troubled and dismayed; when You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.
30When You send forth Your Spirit and give them breath, they are created, and You replenish the face of the ground.
31May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in His works--
32Who looks on the earth, and it quakes and trembles, Who touches the mountains, and they smoke!
33I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have any being.
34May my meditation be sweet to Him; as for me, I will rejoice in the Lord.
35Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul! Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)
I've got a few things coming up that feel huge to me, but God is bigger than them. | | |
| AbidingFrom The School of Obedience
by Andrew Murray
"In the Sermon on the Mount He began with it: No one could enter the kingdom, ‘but he that
doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven.’ And in the farewell discourse, how wonderfully
He reveals the spiritual character of true obedience as it is born of love and inspired by it, and as
it also opens the way into the love of God. Do take into your heart the wonderful words, (John
14:15, 16, 21, 23), ‘If ye love Me, ye will keep my commandments. And the Father will send forth
the Spirit. He hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he shall be
loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself unto him. If a man love Me, he
will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our
abode with him.’
No words could express more simply or more powerfully the inconceivably glorious place
Christ gives to obedience, with its twofold possibility, (1) as only possible to a loving heart, (2) as
making possible all that God has to give of His Holy Spirit, of His wonderful love, of His indwelling
in Christ Jesus. I know of no passage in Scripture that gives a higher revelation of the spiritual life,
or the power of loving obedience as its one condition. Let us pray God very earnestly that by His
Holy Spirit its light may transfigure our daily obedience with its heavenly glory.
See how all this is confirmed in the next chapter. How well we know the parable of the vine!
How often and how earnestly we have asked how to be able to abide continually in Christ We have
thought of more study of the Word, more faith, more prayer, more communion with God, and we
have overlooked the simple truth that Jesus teaches so clearly, ‘If ye keep My commandments, ye
shall abide in My love,’ with its divine sanction, ‘Even as I kept My Father’s commandments, and
abide in His love.’
For Him as for us, the only way under heaven to abide in divine love is to keep the
commandments. Do let me ask, have you known it, have you heard it preached, have you believed
it and proved it true in your experience: obedience on earth is the key to a place in God’s love in
heaven? Unless there be some correspondence between God’s whole-hearted love in heaven, and
our whole-hearted, loving obedience on earth, Christ cannot manifest Himself to us, God cannot
abide in us, we cannot abide in His love."
Boy, it makes sense, but geez, is it hard! | | |
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