The man who really loves God can do as he chooses, for if he really loves God he will choose to do the will of God.
–Bruce Shelley
What will you choose to do today?
Categories
How Well Do You Know Yourself?
Do you know yourself?
If we know ourselves at all, we know we are not fit to face Him.
What then are we to do?
The New Testament answer is: Call on the coming Judge to be your present Savior.
As Judge, He is the law, but as Savior He is the gospel.
Run from Him now, and you will meet Him as Judge then — and without hope.
Seek Him now, and you will find Him, and you will then discover that you are looking forward to that future meeting with joy, knowing that there is now “no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
–J. I. Packer
Enough said!
Categories
The Rule of Busyness and Efficiency
Busyness and efficiency rule in our American lives – and these two items thwart our ability to reach the deeper life. If a deeper relationship with God were able to be obtained through my willing it, then we would have it down pat – living the American Dream is about control.
However, true spirituality is counter-cultural – we must decide NOT to act. By choosing silence and solitude we have an opportunity to hear from God. But that is so out of the norm for us….
We decide that to have the silence and solitude to wait on and listen to God, we must take a vacation to somewhere…. That is not the case – owning more or having to go somewhere is not the way to get closer to God. We can find times to carve out during our day to listen to and wait for Him.
Without making time for solitude with God, time continues to slip by until years have passed and we realize that we wouldn’t know how to hear from God if He audibly spoke to us.
–David Goetz
Don’t let the years pass by without hearing from God.
Carve out time with Him today!
Categories
Dutiful and Obedient Love
A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none;
a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one.
Although these statements appear contradictory, yet, when they are found to agree together, they will be highly serviceable to my purpose. They are both the statements of Paul himself, who says: “Though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all,” and: “Owe no man anything, but to love one another.”
Now love is by its own nature dutiful and obedient to the beloved object. Thus even Christ, though Lord of all things, was yet made of a woman; made under the law; at once both free and a servant; at once both in the form of God and in the form of a servant.
–Martin Luther
Though you are a person who is free, have you placed yourself into a love relationship with God and others, choosing voluntary service to them?
You have told your spouse that you love her. Would she say that you serve her well?
You hug your children and tell them that you love them. Would they say that you serve them well?
You tell God that you love Him. Would He say that you serve Him well?
God told you that He loved you. Then He died on the cross for you. Jesus served you well with dutiful and obedient love! It is now my calling and your calling to go do the same for Him and for others.
Categories
Be Free for Other People
Are you free for other people?
Jesus was “the man for others,” in Bonhoeffer’s fine phrase. He kept himself free — free for the other person. He would accept almost anybody’s invitation to dinner, and as a result no public figure had a more diverse list of friends, ranging from rich people, Roman centurions, and Pharisees to tax collectors, prostitutes, and leprosy victims. People liked being with Jesus; where He was, joy was.
–Philip Yancey
Free for other people… and where He was, joy was!
Would people say the same about me? About you?