"All things are possible to them that believe." Mark 9:23
"All things" do not come easily for the asking because God is always teaching us the way of faith, and in our training, the patience of faith...its courage.
Moral fiber is built through the discipline of faith. You may have made your request to God but the answer may not come so soon. What should be our response?
Continue to believe God's Word. Never be moved from this strategic posture regardless of what you may see or feel. Looking long at the apparent contradiction between what you see and God's Word to you from this position of faith, makes you stronger as time goes on.
God worked this way in the lives of all the great Bible characters. They were not great in the beginning but were made great through the things they suffered in faith. This equipped them for the positions God had called them to.
So remember, when Heaven seems quiet, the answer lingers and the process seems long, that God is busy. "Be confident...that He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus." (Philippians 1:6)
Adapted from "Streams In The Desert" by Mrs. Chas. E. Cowman
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Stand and Consider the Wonders of God - Job 37:14
In Psalm 8 the psalmist says, "When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained...I think...what is man that Thou dost take thought of Him...?"
In reading John Piper's "A Godward Life", I was taken by these paragraphs. Contemplating the greatness of our God is the remedy for much that ails us. I share these thoughts with you...take time to read, acknowledge and be amazed.
The moon rises about 240,000 miles above the earth, soaring about 500,000 times higher than the highest fireworks. The moon travels at 2,300 miles per hour in its outward serenity around the earth, which is probably five times faster than fireworks. The moon is 2,160 miles in diameter (from San Francisco to Cleveland). It weighs 81 quintillion tons (three more zeros than a trillion). It has mountain ranges with peaks almost as high as Mount Everest. It has empty seas 750 miles across and craters 146 miles wide and 20,000 feet deep.
The power of the moon is unimaginable. Nothing on earth that man has ever made can compare. Every day the moon takes the oceans of the earth and lifts them quietly; millions upon millions upon millions of tons of water quietly and irresistibly lifted into the air. In Boston the tide recedes ten feet. In Eastport, Maine, it recedes nineteen feet. In Nova Scotia, in the Bay of Fundy, the tides vary up to fourty-three feet.
The moon is an awesome thing. If you stood in the sunlight on the moon, the fluids in your body would boil, but if you walked into the shadow of a large rock, you would quickly freeze solid.
But who sees the moon? Who stands in awe of the moon? Who looks at the moon on any night and especially Independance Night when there are manmade fireworks to watch? Who notices the really great things in life? No wonder we are oblivious to the glory of God when there are such clear parables of our blindness built into everyday experience.
Then call this to mind, that the moon is but a reflection of the sun, which quietly keeps its ninety-three-million-mile distance lest we be consumed. Then think that the sun is but a medium-size star. Then think that God created them all and leads them out by number and calls them by name. "Because of the greatness of His might and strength of His power, not one of them is missing" (Isaiah 40:26).
Read your emotional barometer. Do the amazements and delights of your life correspond to God's reality? Or do they rise and fall on the passing waves of human glitz.
Selah...
Mitch
In reading John Piper's "A Godward Life", I was taken by these paragraphs. Contemplating the greatness of our God is the remedy for much that ails us. I share these thoughts with you...take time to read, acknowledge and be amazed.
The moon rises about 240,000 miles above the earth, soaring about 500,000 times higher than the highest fireworks. The moon travels at 2,300 miles per hour in its outward serenity around the earth, which is probably five times faster than fireworks. The moon is 2,160 miles in diameter (from San Francisco to Cleveland). It weighs 81 quintillion tons (three more zeros than a trillion). It has mountain ranges with peaks almost as high as Mount Everest. It has empty seas 750 miles across and craters 146 miles wide and 20,000 feet deep.
The power of the moon is unimaginable. Nothing on earth that man has ever made can compare. Every day the moon takes the oceans of the earth and lifts them quietly; millions upon millions upon millions of tons of water quietly and irresistibly lifted into the air. In Boston the tide recedes ten feet. In Eastport, Maine, it recedes nineteen feet. In Nova Scotia, in the Bay of Fundy, the tides vary up to fourty-three feet.
The moon is an awesome thing. If you stood in the sunlight on the moon, the fluids in your body would boil, but if you walked into the shadow of a large rock, you would quickly freeze solid.
But who sees the moon? Who stands in awe of the moon? Who looks at the moon on any night and especially Independance Night when there are manmade fireworks to watch? Who notices the really great things in life? No wonder we are oblivious to the glory of God when there are such clear parables of our blindness built into everyday experience.
Then call this to mind, that the moon is but a reflection of the sun, which quietly keeps its ninety-three-million-mile distance lest we be consumed. Then think that the sun is but a medium-size star. Then think that God created them all and leads them out by number and calls them by name. "Because of the greatness of His might and strength of His power, not one of them is missing" (Isaiah 40:26).
Read your emotional barometer. Do the amazements and delights of your life correspond to God's reality? Or do they rise and fall on the passing waves of human glitz.
Selah...
Mitch
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
It's Enough...
"By faith, Abraham, when called to go out to a place which he should receive for an inheritance, obeyed." Hebrews 11:8
He didn't know where he was going but it was enough for him to know that he was going with God. He didn't lean so much upon the promises as he did on the One who promises. He did not look so much at the difficulties that he was facing but toward his King, the One who is eternal, immortal, invisible and wise, who had assigned him his course and would ultimately bring glory to Himself in it. What faith! The willingness to launch out with "sealed orders" because of an unwavering confidence in God, his Heavenly Father...willing to leave all and follow Christ because of joyous assurance that the best earth offers cannot compare to what Heaven guarantees.
It is enough to set out with God on any venture. But make sure and tear up any itinerary you may have set, for things usually will not go as "planned". Your Guide will not necessarily keep to a beaten path but will lead in ways you never dreamed and you'll see things you've never seen before. He has no fears and therefore we should not, for He is with us.
Adapted from "Streams In The Desert"
Give Him Praise!
Mitch
He didn't know where he was going but it was enough for him to know that he was going with God. He didn't lean so much upon the promises as he did on the One who promises. He did not look so much at the difficulties that he was facing but toward his King, the One who is eternal, immortal, invisible and wise, who had assigned him his course and would ultimately bring glory to Himself in it. What faith! The willingness to launch out with "sealed orders" because of an unwavering confidence in God, his Heavenly Father...willing to leave all and follow Christ because of joyous assurance that the best earth offers cannot compare to what Heaven guarantees.
It is enough to set out with God on any venture. But make sure and tear up any itinerary you may have set, for things usually will not go as "planned". Your Guide will not necessarily keep to a beaten path but will lead in ways you never dreamed and you'll see things you've never seen before. He has no fears and therefore we should not, for He is with us.
Adapted from "Streams In The Desert"
Give Him Praise!
Mitch
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
It's Inevitable!
As you browse the posts of my blog through the years you may notice a number of thoughts on issues regarding suffering and difficulties. I'm convinced that it is one of God's primary ways of forming us spiritually. The last two weeks I've discussed humbling ourselves and being strong in this life that has been sovereignly put before us...not to desire an easy life. An easy life does not give the results we hope for. I wish it were different. I'm sure that if there were any other way, God would pursue it. It's inevitable.
One of the painful things we suffer through is temptation. Jesus was tempted and I would say severely. This often comes upon a man or woman with its strongest power when he /she is closest to God. Someone once said. "The devil aims high." He even got Peter to say he never knew Christ!
One of the benefits of reading the biographies of great Christian men and women is that it gives us a glimpse into the challenges, obstacles and suffering they passed through to achieve God's intended purposes for them. It encourages us to know that we are not alone and that enduring all things builds great men and women.
God permits it because it does for us what storms do for big oaks - it roots us; and what fire does for paintings on porcelain - it makes it permanent.
You never really know that you have Him and that He has you until you face the onslaught of the world, the flesh and our enemy, unleashed to pull you away; it is then that you feel the pull of His right hand. What a glorious experience, knowing in your "knower" that you "know" and are known.
Bad things are not always the punishment for bad sins, but rather the trial of Amazing Graces. I was thinking of John the Beloved on the isle of Patmos...exiled there because of his faith (Revelation 1:9). I feel he had to wonder, "Lord, why am I here? Am I here because I handled things all wrong, failed in some way, because I didn't do enough, because I didn't love you more, because I disobeyed or missed You somehow in the process?" Whatever the case, he had finally settled the issue by the time He wrote the words in Revelation 1:9...he was there because he did exactly what God wanted him to do...many times this is difficult to fully receive...Selah....
Amazing Graces must be revealed in and through ignoble places...allowed by God. Yes, God has many sharp cutting instruments, and rough files for shaping and polishing His jewels, those He means to make most extraordinary. His tools are often on those who are His.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon stated: I owe more to the fire, the hammer and the file, than to anything else in my Lord's workshop. I question whether I have ever learned anything except through the rod. When my "schoolroom" is darkened, I see the best.
It's inevitable, but endure! For the harvest will far outweigh the pain incurred.
Some material adapted from "Streams In The Desert"
Give Him Praise!
Mitch
One of the painful things we suffer through is temptation. Jesus was tempted and I would say severely. This often comes upon a man or woman with its strongest power when he /she is closest to God. Someone once said. "The devil aims high." He even got Peter to say he never knew Christ!
One of the benefits of reading the biographies of great Christian men and women is that it gives us a glimpse into the challenges, obstacles and suffering they passed through to achieve God's intended purposes for them. It encourages us to know that we are not alone and that enduring all things builds great men and women.
God permits it because it does for us what storms do for big oaks - it roots us; and what fire does for paintings on porcelain - it makes it permanent.
You never really know that you have Him and that He has you until you face the onslaught of the world, the flesh and our enemy, unleashed to pull you away; it is then that you feel the pull of His right hand. What a glorious experience, knowing in your "knower" that you "know" and are known.
Bad things are not always the punishment for bad sins, but rather the trial of Amazing Graces. I was thinking of John the Beloved on the isle of Patmos...exiled there because of his faith (Revelation 1:9). I feel he had to wonder, "Lord, why am I here? Am I here because I handled things all wrong, failed in some way, because I didn't do enough, because I didn't love you more, because I disobeyed or missed You somehow in the process?" Whatever the case, he had finally settled the issue by the time He wrote the words in Revelation 1:9...he was there because he did exactly what God wanted him to do...many times this is difficult to fully receive...Selah....
Amazing Graces must be revealed in and through ignoble places...allowed by God. Yes, God has many sharp cutting instruments, and rough files for shaping and polishing His jewels, those He means to make most extraordinary. His tools are often on those who are His.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon stated: I owe more to the fire, the hammer and the file, than to anything else in my Lord's workshop. I question whether I have ever learned anything except through the rod. When my "schoolroom" is darkened, I see the best.
It's inevitable, but endure! For the harvest will far outweigh the pain incurred.
Some material adapted from "Streams In The Desert"
Give Him Praise!
Mitch
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