Month: August 2015

In a discussion about prayer…
Poverty-stricken as the church is today in many things, she is the most stricken here, in the place of prayer.

Failing here, we fail everywhere.
–Leonard Ravenhill

Will you spend significant time in prayer at any point during this week? during this day?

Maybe you could even start right now by praying that God would increase your passion for prayer.

Jesus calls us to His rest, and meekness is His method. The meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort. He develops toward himself a kindly sense of humor and learns to say, “Oh, so you have been overlooked? They have placed someone else before you? They have whispered that you are pretty small stuff after all? And now you feel hurt because the world is saying about you the very things you have been saying about yourself? Only yesterday you were telling God that you were nothing, a mere worm of the dust. Where is your consistency? Come on, humble yourself, and cease to care what men think.”
–A. W. Tozer

The word “meek” has developed a connotation of weakness in American society. We value boldness and pride and strength and independence much more than humility and meekness. But the values of God’s Word remind us that God’s priorities and kingdom qualities are very different than our world’s. Humility and meekness are not signs of weakness, but are signs of servanthood – and Jesus was the great Servant King and our greatest example of how to be a person of strength who willingly exhibits humility and meekness. One of our biggest problems with embracing these character traits is that we care too much what men think while caring little about what God things. May we follow the model of Jesus and cease to care what men think and begin caring greatly for what God thinks.

When church is reduced to that place on the corner where we go on Sundays, we reduce the church and kingdom to something smaller than God intended.
–Ed Stetzer & Thom Rainer

May we who are believers realize that we don’t go to church, but rather we are to be the church 24/7/365.
Not just on Sunday.

Go join your church family and celebrate Jesus today.
And then leave there as the church on mission to your school, workplace, and community.

When the Word of God, faithfully taught by the people of God and empowered by the Spirit of God, falls down, people become different. Lusting people become pure, fearful people become courageous, thieves become givers, demanding people become servants, angry people become peacemakers, complainers become thankful, and idolaters come to joyfully worship the one true God. The ultimate purpose of the Word of God is not theological information but heart and life transformation. Biblical literacy and theological expertise are not, therefore, the end of the Word but a God-ordained means to an end, and the end is a radically transformed life because the worship at the center of that life has been reclaimed.
–Paul David Tripp

God’s desire is for you to be changed.
Are you growing in Him in such a way that you are allowing Him in to do that important transformational work?

Are you reading God’s Word?
Are you connected to a church family?
Are you engaging with a small group of fellow believers who are helping to sharpen you spiritually?
Are you spending time communicating with God through prayer?

These are the key ways that God is going to transform you – and change those sinful behaviors & thoughts into God-honoring ones.