Surrender All » Abandoned to God

Come unto Me and I will give you rest…

Steph — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 19:52:21 +0000

A wonderful devotional for the end of a week…

My Utmost for His Highest August 20th

COMPLETENESS

“And I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

Whenever anything begins to disintegrate your life with Jesus Christ, turn to Him at once and ask Him to establish rest. Never allow anything to remain which is making the dis-peace. Take every element of disintegration as something to wrestle against, and not to suffer. Say – Lord, prove Thy consciousness in me, and self-consciousness will go and He will be all in all. Beware of allowing self-consciousness to continue because by slow degrees it will awaken self-pity, and self-pity is Satanic. Well, I am not understood; this is a thing they ought to apologize for; that is a point I really must have cleared up. Leave others alone and ask the Lord to give you Christ-consciousness, and He will poise you until the completeness is absolute.

The complete life is the life of a child. When I am consciously conscious, there is something wrong. It is the sick man who knows what health is. The child of God is not conscious of the will of God because he is the will of God. When there has been the slightest deviation from the will of God, we begin to ask – What is Thy will? A child of God never prays to be conscious that God answers prayer, he is so restfully certain that God always does answer prayer.

If we try to overcome self-consciousness by any common-sense method, we will develop it tremendously. Jesus says, “Come unto Me and I will give you rest,” i.e., Christ-consciousness will take the place of self-consciousness. Wherever Jesus comes He establishes rest, the rest of the perfection of activity that is never conscious of itself.

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Pray without Ceasing

Romans 14:8

Steph — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 13:20:51 +0000

Today after visiting my old church, a couple of my older sisters in the Lord were going to visit another even older sister that used to be a regular but has been quite ill of late. I have a very soft heart for her and I have not seen her for a while and so asked if I might join them for a wee hello too.

When we arrived, we were welcomed so lovingly and promptly invited to stay for lunch, which we ended up doing – we felt we could not refuse them as they expressed such a joy that we popped in and it gave us joy that they were so excited to see us.

We had the most wonderful time amidst lots of laughter and people talking over one another because 5 out of the 7 battled to hear and none had hearing-aids It was not a quiet, demure affair that you imagine the elderly would have. I have not seen so much food on a diningroom table as was on this one. We had a mixture of Greek, Italian and South African ‘Boerekos” (farm food) It was a delectable feast.

One of the loveliest things I experienced was listening to them reminiscing about days from long ago and a hearty dose of laughter accompanied these stories. Stories from when they were children, of the men they were married to, stories from the time of WW2 , of Cyprus, of South Africa ,of London of America- it was a merry time.

Three of the ladies have known each other for 67 years – that’s almost as old as the youngest sister next to me in age, and I am 45 The one and only Gent was a Cypriot who was well into his eighties and he was the most deaf of them all and he has Macular Degeneration which means he is almost blind. Another surprise was that I always thought that as you got older, you don’t eat much, well these lovely people did justice to the spread laid out. It was a wonderful afternoon indeed.

As I was leaving the sister we had originally gone to see, asked to speak to me alone. She is 81 now and although recently had a gallbladder op and also suffers from a severe type of Fybromyalgia, but instead of finding her poorly in bed, she was up and about and wanting so much to talk about her Lord. She asked me why I had first left the worship group then the church those 5 years ago. I was able to sit with her and gently explain the work that the Lord Jesus had done in my life and my life with Him and all that he had to remove in me and in my life. It was a wonderful thing to be able to sit with one so elderly and just worship the Lord with her, in both what and how He brought about the changes that were so desperately needed in my life back then, and how those things are ongoing even now. It made me so grateful to Him to be reminded of things I now at times, take for granted. She then asked me to pray for her as there are things that the Lord is bringing about in her that she is afraid of. Dying physically with pain is one of them.

You may or may not remember I wrote a post a few months ago regarding another elderly sister, Marge, who died a day or so after we had said au-revoir to her. I was able to remind this lovely sister now of the journey the Lord took Marge on over the years since the onset of her illness and that she too had been afraid of dying and how He took her ever so gently and nurtured her and drew her close to Him and so when the time came, she was able to slip away into His arms. I was also able to tell her that her right to herself is what the Lord is after and that He wants for her to give herself up completely to Him – everything including what she is battling with physically and where and how she will end out her days on earth.

Being with all these lovely elderly people gave me a new perspective on growing older, seeing it from both sides of living with Him and how it is to live without Him. Those walking with the Lord talk about Him every other conversation, those who don’t, don’t talk about Him other than to say things like “Thank God! for such and such” and it is just a turn of phrase, not really a Thanking of God.

How will it be when you and I are near that time in our lives? Losing bits of ourselves along the way to surgery and infirmity and possibly bits of our mind too? Who will be there for us to cling on to when we can no longer get out of bed or even do simple things like wash our hair or bathe unaided?

Twenty years ago I was a youthful, wrinkle-free 25 year old. 20 years from now I will be almost my parents’ age and they look so elderly and due to ill health, quite frail now. I found pictures of my 21st Birthday on Friday and could not believe how young my mum looked – she was about my age now. The most incredible thing about it, is that it has gone so terribly fast from age 25.

As the Scripture says above, ^“ For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.”

Let’s make sure we seek the Lord to live out the rest of our days, however long or short they may be and as He pleases them to be just like Romans 8:14 says, eh? Where our lives only count for Him, regardless of what that might mean.

To God be all the glory!

In His love,

Steph

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“The cedars of Lebanon which he hath planted.”

Steph — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 17:33:20 +0000

Great Cedars of Lebanon

With thanks to Heartlight’s Spurgeon’s Daily Devotional Morning and Evening

“The cedars of Lebanon which he hath planted.”

Psalms 104:16

Lebanon’s cedars are emblematic of the Christian, in that they owe their planting entirely to the Lord. This is quite true of every child of God. He is not man-planted, nor self-planted, but God-planted. The mysterious hand of the divine Spirit dropped the living seed into a heart which he had himself prepared for its reception. Every true heir of heaven owns the great Husbandman as his planter. Moreover, the cedars of Lebanon are not dependent upon man for their watering; they stand on the lofty rock, unmoistened by human irrigation; and yet our heavenly Father supplieth them. Thus it is with the Christian who has learned to live by faith. He is independent of man, even in temporal things; for his continued maintenance he looks to the Lord his God, and to him alone. The dew of heaven is his portion, and the God of heaven is his fountain. Again, the cedars of Lebanon are not protected by any mortal power. They owe nothing to man for their preservation from stormy wind and tempest. They are God’s trees, kept and preserved by him, and by him alone. It is precisely the same with the Christian. He is not a hot-house plant, sheltered from temptation; he stands in the most exposed position; he has no shelter, no protection, except this, that the broad wings of the eternal God always cover the cedars which he himself has planted. Like cedars, believers are full of sap, having vitality enough to be ever green, even amid winter’s snows. Lastly, the flourishing and majestic condition of the cedar is to the praise of God only. The Lord, even the Lord alone hath been everything unto the cedars, and, therefore David very sweetly puts it in one of the psalms, “Praise ye the Lord, fruitful trees and all cedars.” In the believer there is nothing that can magnify man; he is planted, nourished, and protected by the Lord’s own hand, and to him let all the glory be ascribed.

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Who’s asleep in your boat?

Steph — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:00:32 +0000

^{Mark 4 36-41( KJV)}

³⁶And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships.

³⁷And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.

³⁸And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?

³⁹And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

⁴⁰And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye yet have no faith?

⁴¹And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

This story is in Matthew 8, Mark 4 and Luke 8 and all tell the same story, but from a slightly different viewpoint. The passage in Mark 4 in KJV above, is the most descriptive and gives a little more detail of the seeming direness of their circumstances and the most detail of Jesus’ response and for my purposes here, I chose it for that. I say ‘seeming direness’ because that is exactly what it was because of the simple fact that the Son of God was on their boat with them, in the midst of the storm.

So, Who’s asleep on your boat?

I have heard many sermons about this passage and always I am left with a feeling of kindred spirits with the disciples and a good dose of, “Oh no, I do that too at times.” These were well-seasoned fishermen who I am sure had seen their fair share of storms on the Sea of Galilee, so what was the difference now?

If we look at the Greek words describing the great storm mentioned in the passage, it describes the word great as -

Thayer Definition – G3173 μέγας megas -

Big (+ fear) exceedingly, great (-est), high, large, loud, mighty, and also used of intensity and its degrees: of natural events powerfully affecting the senses: violent, mighty, strong.

Strongs Definition G3176 μέγιστος megistos meg’-is-tos
Superlative of G3173; greatest or very great: – exceeding great.

We see very clearly there was something rather different about this storm – it had a definite purpose to it.

The waves are described like this -

Strongs Definition G1911 ἐπιβάλλω epiballō ep-ee-bal’-lo

From G1909 and G906; to throw upon – beat into, cast (up-), on, fall, lay (on),

also taken from

Strongs Definition G4496 ῥίπτω rhiptō̄ hrip’-to

A primary verb (perhaps rather akin to the base of G4474, through the idea of sudden motion); to fling (properly with a quick toss, thus differing from G906, which denotes a deliberate hurl; and from τείνω teinō (see in G1614), which indicates an extended projection); by qualification, to deposit (as if a load); by extension to disperse: – cast (down, out), scatter abroad, throw.

The wind is described as :

G417 ἄνεμος anemos

Thayer Definition:
1) wind, a violent agitation and stream of air
2) a very strong tempestuous wind
3) the four principal or cardinal winds, hence the four corners of heaven

I am sure you clearly get the picture that this could be described as an extraordinarily, violent storm.

And Jesus slept soundly while it was going on around them with all it’s mighty force. Where was He asleep?- the KJV uses an old term – the hinder part of the boat – the helm, the pilot’s place. There is great significance in this too.

Is He at your helm?

How did the disciples, these hardened fishermen react? By calmly sitting down and having a good old natter, perhaps chatting about the weather patterns of their day? No. They did what any person who does not fully understand Who is asleep in their boat, would do. They more than likely took it upon themselves to solve their immediate problem, their own way by reacting as they would have in the past before Jesus came into their lives. They eventually turn to Jesus when they realise they can of themselves do no more to save the situation, and in utter terror, awaken Him.

Lets look a little closer at their wording again ” Master, carest Thou not that we perish?” Do you see something here? The first thing they do in their panic is turn it on the Lord questioning His care of them – “don’t you care about us?” or, “Lord, why is this happening to us?” , “What about ‘me, me, me’.” How many times in our lives have we asked this of the Lord, whilst going through a storm of any size?

I love the fact that they had to waken Him

Jesus knew fully, and lived even before the storm, knowing that there was nothing happening that His Father did not already know about or would possibly overlook or forget. The second thing that Jesus also knew was that His life and the timing in His life was fully in the hands of His Father. He knew that His Father’s will was what His life was all about, and that He came to do the will of His Father, and it is in the confidence of this knowledge and in the confidence of His Father Himself, that He was able to sleep. And when He awoke, He did not panic alongside His disciples, but stood up and rebuked the sea -

Strong’s Definition G2008 ἐπιτιμάω epitimaō ep-ee-tee-mah’-o

From G1909 and G5091; to tax upon, that is, censure or admonish; by implication forbid: – (straitly) charge, rebuke.

to be quiet -

Strong’s Definition G4623 σιωπάω siōpaō see-o-pah’-o

From σιωπη siōpē (silence, that is, a hush; properly muteness, that is, involuntary stillness

and still -

Strong’s Definition G5392 φιμόω phimoō fee-mo’-o

From φιμός phimos to muzzle

The winds and the waves obeyed Him, not in half-an-hour, but straight away, so there was not a single chance that they could have calmed down ‘naturally’ and the glory gone to anyone else. This now caused an awe and great fear in the disciples. How might it have affected us had we been there, how do we feel when it happens in our lives now?

He was also telling the disciples to be calm and quiet too. He then goes on to say to them, “Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye yet have no faith?” In other words, “Do you not know Who is asleep on the boat with you? Do you not yet know Who I AM?”

Have you heard Him ask you this question too?

Let me ask you another and one that I still have to face many times myself: Is your life all about what you want and your ideas and your agendas or are you prepared to be taken through absolutely anything that the Lord has ahead of you regardless of the size of the storm, for Him to get you to where He wants you and needs you to be?

I use the words again, “Do you not know Who I AM?”

Is there anything more important in our life here on earth, with Jesus as both Lord and Saviour, than about us getting to know Him and whatever that might involve, no matter the storms involved? – see Philippians 3

The last sentence in this passage reads, ” ⁴¹And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, “What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

Even though they had been with Him for some while and had faith in Him, and had watched Him perform many miracles, they still had not been in a situation like this one. And here they failed. Nothing before had tested and tried their faith in Him like this episode. And as a result of His quieting the storm, they greatly feared Him far more than they ever feared the storm itself.

Strongs: G5399 φοβέω phobeō fob-eh’-o
From G5401; to frighten, that is, (passively) to be alarmed; by analogy to be in awe of, that is, revere: – be (+ sore) afraid, fear (exceedingly), reverence

With this experience, they moved into a new understanding and awe of Him through His command of the storm, just as we do too, when coming through and out the other side of a storm in our own life and have seen that He has indeed been there all along and is in control of it too.

‘This Man’ lived and moved and had His being in God, was man as he was originally intended to be with God from the beginning. Not even Adam, before the fall, was ever such a man. This man was in reality, God Incarnate, God in the flesh. No wonder they were exceedingly, sore-afraid.

So, Who’s asleep in your boat?

Do we go through the storms that are threatening to overload our boat and sink us, reacting in our common sense that prevails often resulting in a state of panic or are we sure and confident in the One Who is at the helm even though it appears he has no tiller in hand? A time comes when our best is not good enough to resolve things and we have no where else to go, but to throw ourselves upon Him in prayer and allow the Lord to do His divine best and that is when He expects us to have utter confidence in His ability and in His power. Will He be able to rely upon us as His children to have calm and steady ‘sea-legs’ when the storm hits?

He may at times appear to be asleep as we sleep, but the Bible makes it very clear in Psalm 121:4 that, Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep. In the Song of Solomon 5:2 it says, ” I sleep, but my heart is awake; It is the voice of my beloved!. Jesus is ever before the Father interceding for us, His children. Hebrews 7:25 tells us that, “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”

Whatever the storm is you are going through, are you prepared to allow the Lord to waken up at His leisure, knowing you can have utter confidence in Him; that He knows already what the outcome is and is already interceding on your behalf before the Throne of Grace and Mercy? Does He not deserve our absolute confidence and trust in Him in each and every situation or circumstance in our lives, as Lord of all?

We need to learn that He Who is asleep on the boat, is more capable than we will ever be, to manage the boat.

I end with some words from Oswald:

Is Jesus Christ a Carpenter, or is He God to me? If He is only man, why let Him take the tiller of the boat? Why pray to Him? But if He be God, then be heroic enough to go to the breaking-point and not break in your confidence in Him.

So, Who’s asleep on your boat?

In His love

All Glory to God

Steph

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The Revival Hymn; Ten Shekels and a Shirt

Steph — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:54:49 +0000

I first heard The Revival Hymn a couple of years ago and it had quite a profound effect on me, most of which was where the speaker (I now know to be Paris Reidhead) said that we do not just move over into the passenger seat when Jesus takes the wheel, we don’t even go into the back-seat, but into the trunk of the car, after having given Jesus the keys and slammed the lid of the trunk closed, then whisper to Him something like, “fill her up and where do you want to go?” It left me hilariously excited! That is what is required of us -that is what the Lord wants from us, our lives and our hearts.

I watched it a day or so ago and it caused a shift inside my inner core this time. I then went to find Paris Reidhead’s Ten Shekels and A Shirt, which is used extensively in the Revival Hymn itself.

Please don’t think to yourself, “Oh I’ve heard that one…” Please listen to it again and allow the Lord to speak to you as He wants. Hide nothing, keep your heart as a softly ploughed field that is ready and expecting of the showers that cause the seed which has been planted to burst open and grow. I am not talking about salvation in particular, but am talking to Christians who need a special ‘something’, a special moment from the Lord that will encourage and perhaps get you to face certain truths that you have been avoiding or avoiding the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Only the Lord and us ourselves know what those things are. It is between us individually and Him and all for His glory. Run towards Him and Leap with total abandon knowing He will catch you.

Be so very blessed.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec5dJHtMTSg

Ten Shekels and a Shirt

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Knowing Jesus – Major Ian Thomas

Steph — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 04:39:16 +0000

My very dear brother Andy, over at Your Word is Truth posted this video a wee while ago, which is an excerpt from a longer sermon. I came upon it yesterday and got so terribly excited about how much was able to be conveyed about the reality of being a Christian, in a matter of 5 minutes and so wanted to share it here with you. I don’t think that in all my time listening to on-line sermons, that I have heard anything so succinctly truthful as this one by the late Major Ian Thomas.

How well do you know Jesus? How well do you think He knows you? Do you really know what He wants from you in your relationship with Him, or is it a relationship that is so casual that you kind of pick it up and put it down as your needs change and usually when you cannot see your way through a situation? Is it really all about your wants, your prayer requests, your deliverance from situations, or is it truly wanting to go into a real relationship with the real person of the Lord Jesus to get to know Him for Himself, but not sure how to begin? Perhaps you don’t even know there is much more than going to church or youth or reading your Bible, simply because that’s how you have always done it or that is what you have been shown.

Or perhaps you are like I was until not too long ago, where I thought that only pastors and suchlike could have a real relationship with Jesus -- that they had something special that allowed them to communicate with God ‘away up there’, and that we ‘others’ could never attain such a thing. I rejoice to tell you now, how terribly wrong I was…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-r-nN9Mr0k

I really encourage you to now go to the Sermon Index link below to hear the full-length sermon -(you can download it to listen to later if you want). Ian’s tenderness and love of Christ for the congregation is lovely to listen to as he shares the cutting truth of God’s Word and what God is still looking for in His children today.

The full sermon: Knowing Jesus (scroll down until you find this title)

May the Holy Spirit speak to you and may He bring about the changes needed and the way you may look at the Lord Jesus where necessary.

To God be all the glory!

In His Love, Steph

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I Will Not Be Inquired Of By You

“The reality of God’s presence is not dependent on any place, but only dependent upon the determination to set the Lord always before us.”

Steph — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 09:24:30 +0000

Be so blessed and encouraged with this spiritually, practical word from Oswald Chambers this morning.

July 20th.

DEPENDENT ON GOD’S PRESENCE

“They that wait upon the Lord . . . shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31

There is no thrill in walking; it is the test of all the stable qualities. To “walk and not faint” is the highest reach possible for strength. The word “walk” is used in the Bible to express the character – “John looking on Jesus as He walked, said, Behold the Lamb of God!” There is never any thing abstract in the Bible, it is always vivid and real. God does not say – Be spiritual, but – “Walk before Me.”

When we are in an unhealthy state physically or emotionally, we always want thrills. In the physical domain this will lead to counterfeiting the Holy Ghost; in the emotional life it leads to inordinate affection and the destruction of morality; and in the spiritual domain if we insist on getting thrills, on mounting up with wings, it will end in the destruction of spirituality.

The reality of God’s presence is not dependent on any place, but only dependent upon the determination to set the Lord always before us. Our problems come when we refuse to bank on the reality of His presence. The experience the Psalmist speaks of,-

Psalm 46:2
“Therefore we will not fear…”

will be ours when once we are based on Reality, not the consciousness of God’s presence but the reality of it – Why, He has been here all the time!

At critical moments it is necessary to ask guidance, but it ought to be unnecessary to be saying always – “O Lord, direct me here, and there.” Of course He will! If our common-sense decisions are not His order, He will press through them and check; then we must be quiet and wait for the direction of His presence.

(Green italics mine)

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My Mirror – a video

Steph — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 07:34:19 +0000

A very dear brother from the other ministry site that I am involved with called Faith Defenders, put this video together with a poem My Mirror, that the Lord gave me a while back.

Thanks Andy!

I trust you will be blessed by it as much as I am.

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The Name Above All Names!

Steph — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 08:46:58 +0000

Praise God! How wonderful are His ways and how good is our Lord to us? He healed us who were the broken-hearted and set us, the once captive, free! He gave us who were blind, sight to see Him and to acknowledge that He alone is God!! How mighty is His Name! How glorious are His thoughts towards us that while we were unsaved sinners, Christ died and took our sin upon Him for us and gave Himself up that through Him we might be saved to Him as a reward for His suffering!

Think about that for a moment, Christ died for us and gave Himself up that through Him we might be saved to Him as a reward for His suffering! When last did you hear that, if ever? We are too often told “He died so YOU don’t need to go to Hell”, “YOU need to make a decision for Jesus”, “YOU are so important to God that He died for YOU.” It is more often than not presented to us with our needs way out in front, instead of God’s needs. He rarely gets a mention like this. It is always about what God can do for you.

Have you ever truly considered that God came down and died for His own reward, His glory for Himself, for His Name’s sake?

Here’s something else to consider: God did something with Jesus that He will never do with us. We are told in

Mark 15:34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”.

Because of the finished work of Jesus on the cross and because of the Life of Jesus in those of us now who have surrendered our lives fully to Him, He has promised never to forsake us or leave us. God never changes and He never lies. His Name is I AM and that Name is above all other and His glory He will never share with another.

Isaiah 42:8
I am the LORD, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another, Nor My praise to carved images.

In Psalm 20 we see clearly how we are called to live in the Lord, with Him in everything as the answer to everything, that anything outside of Him is utterly futile and will pass away and be eaten by the moth and rust. All that will remain is I AM.

Psalm 20

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

¹ May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble;
May the name of the God of Jacob defend you;
² May He send you help from the sanctuary,
And strengthen you out of Zion;
³ May He remember all your offerings,
And accept your burnt sacrifice. Selah

⁴ May He grant you according to your heart’s desire,
And fulfill all your purpose.
⁵ We will rejoice in your salvation,
And in the name of our God we will set up our banners!
May the LORD fulfill all your petitions.

⁶ Now I know that the LORD saves His anointed;
He will answer him from His holy heaven
With the saving strength of His right hand.

⁷ Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;
But we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
⁸ They have bowed down and fallen;
But we have risen and stand upright.

⁹ Save, LORD!
May the King answer us when we call.

We can trust in that Name like in no other.

In 1 Kings 18:24, Elijah speaks to the prophets of Baal and says to them
And you call upon the name of your god, and I will call upon the name of the LORD, and the God who answers by fire, he is God.” And all the people answered, “It is well spoken.”

(If you have not read the account of the prophets of Baal recently have a read. It is a wonderful glorifying account of the power of the Name of God)

In Acts 4, the Disciples had been arrested for preaching a resurrected Jesus and that they had healed a man on the Sabbath. In Acts 4:7 the Sanhedrin went to Peter and asked him full of anger at this outrage, “By what power or by what name have you done this?”

Peter was not afraid and aswered them boldly, ⁸ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: ⁹ If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, ¹⁰ let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. ¹¹ This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.¹² Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Further down the passages, The Sanhedrin said in Acts 4:18 “So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.” They knew that something far greater than what they understood was taking place and they marvelled that these ignorant fishermen were able to do what they did.

Even the demons know this Name:

Luke 4:41
And demons also came out of many, crying out and saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of God!” And He, rebuking them, did not allow them to speak, for they knew that He was the Christ.

Acts 19:15
And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?”

We are called, repent, saved, baptized, sanctified, justified, regenerated, held, perfected, glorified by that and in that Name. It is all about Him! If you go this wonderful Link you will see more in depth how the Lord does it.

In closing, my prayer for you is that you truly know that His Name is above all Names and that you will give Him His rightful place of 1st, 2nd and 3rd in your life.

I leave you with these treasured words of our Beloved Jesus who fully understood the Name above all Names.

In His love

Steph

John 17

Jesus Prays for Himself

¹ Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, ² as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. ³ And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. ⁴ I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. ⁵ And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

Jesus Prays for His Disciples

⁶ “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. ⁷ Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. ⁸ For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.
⁹ “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. ¹⁰ And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. ¹¹ Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. ¹² While I was with them in the world^, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. ¹³ But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. ¹⁴ I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁵ I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁷ Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. ¹⁸ As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

Jesus Prays for All Believers

²⁰ “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; ²¹ that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. ²² And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: ²³ I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
²⁴ “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. ²⁵ O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. ²⁶ And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

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Discipleship means personal, passionate devotion to a Person, Our Lord Jesus Christ and not to a religious creed.

Steph — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 12:53:14 +0000

We find out very quickly when faced with adversity, whether we are following a religious creed or following the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, by how we respond.

Our confidence has to be rightly placed, i.e. in Jesus Himself. Oswald shares that, “Many hundreds who accept creeds but refuse to act on their belief; the consequence is they fling their creeds overboard and ignore the central test of Christianity, viz., Who is Jesus Christ to me?”

If our confidence is placed in following a creed or a tradition, we will turn tail and flee with faltering hearts when we see it does not ‘deliver the goods’, turn our back on it and say something along the lines of , “Christianity does not work, it’s not for me.”

My response to that is, “Your faith is anchored in a what, not a Whom…”‘

Jesus Christ teaches us to build our confidence in the abiding reality of Himself in the midst of everything. If a man puts his confidence in the things which must go, imagine his incomprehensible perplexity when they do go. No wonder Jesus said “men’s hearts failing them for fear.” These words describe the time we are in now*. Our true life is not in the things which are passing, and if we build ourselves on God and His word, when they go, the marvel is that we are not scared. The thing to examine spiritually is, am I connected with Jesus Christ personally? If I have only a form of belief or a creed, all that may go when the elemental trouble comes and I shall have nothing to cling to, but if I build my “house” on the words of Jesus and do them, then no matter what happens I shall find I am founded upon the Rock .

* World War I 1914-1918

Chambers, O. 1996, c1946. He shall glorify me : Talks on the Holy Spirit and other themes. Marshall, Morgan & Scott: Hants UK

Oswald says in the excerpt from the devotion of 2 July below, “Men pour themselves into creeds, and God has to blast them out of their prejudices before they can become devoted to Jesus Christ.” Does that perhaps describe you? It sure described me a few years ago.

So before I share the excerpt from the devotional and if we are to understand the wholeness of this posting little further, what exactly is a creed anyway?

Free dictionary.com Creed 1. A formal statement of religious belief; a confession of faith.

A creed in itself, has no saving ability i.e. it will not make me a Christian because I agree with it or believe it.

Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the Way the Truth and the Life”, not, ” I am the creed, church and doctrine.”

Oswald again shares here how the difference is made apparent. One, is the ‘set of rules’ which is dead and the other, the revelation of Christ which brings eternal life to those who are in a personal relationship with Him.

The institutions of Churchianity are not Christianity. An institution is a good thing if it is second; immediately an institution recognises itself it becomes the dominating factor. When the war* struck us in civilised Britain we were members of certain churches and institutions, and were called Christians because we held certain doctrines and creeds. The bedrock of membership of the Christian Church is that we know Who Jesus Christ is by a personal revelation of Him by the Spirit of God. The essence of Christianity is not a creed or a doctrine, but an illumination that emancipates me—“I see who Jesus Christ is.” It is always a surprise, never an intellectual conception.

*World War I (1914-18).

Chambers, O. 1996, c1946. Approved unto God. Marshall, Morgan & Scott: Hants UK

Excerpt from July 2nd. My Utmost For His Highest -- Daily Devotion

There is a difference between devotion to a Person and devotion to principles or to a cause. Our Lord never proclaimed a cause; He proclaimed personal devotion to Himself. To be a disciple is to be a devoted love-slave of the Lord Jesus. Many of us who call ourselves Christians are not devoted to Jesus Christ. No man on earth has this passionate love to the Lord Jesus unless the Holy Ghost has imparted it to him. We may admire Him, we may respect Him and reverence Him, but we cannot love Him. The only Lover of the Lord Jesus is the Holy Ghost, and He sheds abroad the very love of God in our hearts. Whenever the Holy Ghost sees a chance of glorifying Jesus, He will take your heart, your nerves, your whole personality, and simply make you blaze and glow with devotion to Jesus Christ.

The Christian life is stamped by ‘moral spontaneous originality,’ consequently the disciple is open to the same charge that Jesus Christ was, viz., that of inconsistency. But Jesus Christ was always consistent to God, and the Christian must be consistent to the life of the Son of God in him, not consistent to hard and fast creeds. Men pour themselves into creeds, and God has to blast them out of their prejudices before they can become devoted to Jesus Christ.

So when the life you have always known falls apart, or something in your life goes horribly wrong, or even just simply for your day to day living in the world around us, will you look to be anchored by your creed or by the the Lord Jesus Himself, to receive a word, a direction, some wisdom, to still you?

In closing I share with you an old, very beloved hymn by Priscilla J. Owens, called, ‘Will Your Anchor Hold?’

I know mine certainly does!

Bless you

To God be all the glory!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQQO8v-0VBo

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