Surrender All

Our Blessed Hope

Steph — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:09:36 +0000

From Mike at Possessing The Treasure – be encouraged, drink deep and enjoy!

Where is your Blessed Hope?

August 24, 2010 — Mike Ratliff

by Mike Ratliff

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. (Titus 2:11:14 ESV)

The following is a quote from a sermon by John MacArthur titled ‘The Undying Faith of Christians Facing Death’ in the context of Matthew 24.

“There are false Christians today in the world, there were in the past, there will be in the future. The world is always full of false Christians. There are more false Christians than true ones. I’m afraid to say there may be more false prophets than true prophets. They’re certainly more false representatives of Jesus Christ than true representatives of Christ. But as things get worse, as persecution escalates. The false are going to fall away, they’re going to fall away for reasons that He gives us here. “False prophets will lead them astray,” verse 12, “because of iniquity being increased, their love will grow cold,” they’ll hold on to their sin. The world as it moves is going to get worse and worse and worse. The world’s evil is going to escalate and escalate, we’re seeing it in our own culture today. And people love their sin and as their sin is legitimized, as their sin is normalized, as their sin is legalized they’re going to cherish their sins more openly and more publicly and they’re not going to be interested in the things of Christ and suffering for the cause of Christ.”

That statement really shouldn’t have surprised us. It didn’t me. I’m really not very good at this apologist stuff in that I get discouraged very easily as I research the doctrine, sermons, and what is said by false prophets, and so-called christian leaders. Over time, I need to get away from it and rest in my Lord for awhile and get refocused on where my hope really lies. These jokers talk a lot about ‘vision’ and ‘hope’ and ‘transformation’ et cetera, but it doesn’t take very long to see that they are looking for all that from within. They see the potential to be within themselves to do it all. Their hope is in themselves. They may throw God and Jesus around a lot in there sermons, but the focus is all about what they can do and how God has to bless them because they are doing or because they have developed and are pursuing their vision.

Carefully read the passage I placed at the top of this post. Let’s unpack this passage and be encouraged together in the Lord. The way the translators of the ESV worded this passage by using “For” tells us that this is a continuation of thought or an explanation of what point came before. Therefore, we look back. In Titus 2:1-10 Paul said:

But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. Slaves are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. (Titus 2:1-10)

Here we have the Christian lifestyle lived out in the context of applied sound doctrine. It is a masterful statement of the proper way Christians should live in this fallen world. Then He gives us the Gospel basis for this in vv11-14. Here is the Greek for vv11-14:

᾿Επεφάνη γὰρ ἡ χάρις τοῦ Θεοῦ ἡ σωτήριος πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις, παιδεύουσα ἡμᾶς, ἵνα ρνησάμενοι τὴν ἀσέβειαν καὶ τὰς κοσμικὰς ἐπιθυμίας σωφρόνως καὶ δικαίως καὶ εὐσεβῶς ζήσωμεν ἐν τῷ νῦν αἰῶνι, προσδεχόμενοι τὴν μακαρίαν ἐλπίδα καὶ ἐπιφάνειαν τῆς δόξης τοῦ μεγάλου Θεοῦ καὶ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ὃς ἔδωκεν ἑαυτὸν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν, ἵνα λυτρώσηται ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ πάσης ἀνομίας καὶ καθαρίσῃ ἑαυτῷ λαὸν περιούσιον, ζηλωτὴν καλῶν ἔργων.

Here is a word-for-word translation of vv11-14:

Appeared for the grace of the God deliverance to all men instructing as child us, that having denied the irreverence and the worldly desires, sobermindedly and rightly and reverently we might live in the now age, awaiting the blessed hope and appearance for the splendor of the great God and deliverer of us Jesus Christ, who gave himself on behalf of us, that he might redeem us from all lawlessness and might clean to himself people special, jealous of good works.

This is the theological basis for the way real Christians should live as God has commanded. It is because the grace of God (χάρις τοῦ Θεοῦ) saves and instructs us to live in a new way. No one can truly claim to be a genuine Christian, a recipient of this saving grace, without also being a pupil of God’s training grace. This causes us to rejoice in our changed lifestyles. We see the atonement through the eyes of the truly redeemed not as simply students of theology. Because Christ gave Himself on our behalf, we become a people zealous for good works and the μακαρίαν ἐλπίδα, “blessed hope” becomes precious to us. What is this μακαρίαν ἐλπίδα? Paul gives us the answer in the following phrase, “καὶ ἐπιφάνειαν τῆς δόξης τοῦ μεγάλου Θεοῦ καὶ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ.“ That is, our blessed hope is the appearance of the splendor of the great God and deliverer of us Jesus Christ. Amen! What true believer doesn’t anxiously await to be united with the Lord forever. I yearn for this day after day. This is my blessed hope. Is it yours?

I heard a sermon once in which my pastor at that time was preaching about the death of believers. I actually heard him stop in the middle of his sermon and pray for God to not take him to Heaven yet, because he wasn’t ready. He still had a lot more stuff to do. I lost a lot of respect for that man that day. It wasn’t long after that that I got a job in another city and we moved. He moved on as well to a much larger church in another state. It was just a few years later that he had to leave the ministry. The last I heard, he was real estate agent. Where was his blessed hope? Where is yours?

The word μακαρίαν is the accusative, singular form of μακάριος which, in the context of the Christian describes being especially favored: “blessed, happy, or privileged.” It should be understood by Christians that we are blessed now and yet we have an enormous prospect of future consolation and reward from God and thus are able to face the present with courage and hope.

The word ἐλπίδα is the accusative, singular form of ἐλπίς which, in the Christian context, describes solid assurance. This assurance or hope is directed toward the future. This hope is strengthened by Sacred Scripture, by the work of Jesus, and by God’s present gift of the Holy Spirit to believers.

Those who do not have God in their lives are without hope (Ephesians 2:12).

Soli Deo Gloria!

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Down in the river to pray

Steph — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 12:41:11 +0000

A very beloved sister of mine got baptised to this music recently. A truly beautiful, emotional, old-fashioned sound. Just had to share it with you here.

Bless you

Steph

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSif77IVQdY

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Lay it down

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

Big Oops! Correction on last post :-D

Steph — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 09:30:33 +0000

For those for you who think I am a bit daft, I am happy to tell you that you are right I managed rather magnificently to mix my 14s and 8s – (even on my picture which I will now fix) – the last post scripture ought to have read Romans 14:8 and not 8:14. I just went and had a look at Romans 8:14 again to look at the other verses around it and could not see how I got the verse meaning what I did. Hey I am glad it was me and not you who saw it

Apologies all round.

Bless you

Steph

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Let’s try again…

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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Your Surrender – Joe Niemand

Steph — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 12:54:12 +0000

We have a South African Gospel Singer called Joe Niemand. He is a humble, un star-like musician -there is no ’show’ with him. He is a down-to-earth brother in the Lord who happens to have been blessed with a beautiful voice along with an incredible lyric and musical ability.

This album is titled simply, ‘LOVE -- scenes from Song of Songs’, and this song is inspired by the Song Of Solomon Ch 6:4-10

Song of Solomon 6:4-10

THE Beloved

⁴ O my love, you are as beautiful as Tirzah,
Lovely as Jerusalem,
Awesome as an army with banners!
⁵ Turn your eyes away from me,
For they have overcome me.
Your hair is like a flock of goats
Going down from Gilead.
⁶ Your teeth are like a flock of sheep
Which have come up from the washing;
Every one bears twins,
And none is barren among them.
⁷ Like a piece of pomegranate
Are your temples behind your veil.
⁸ There are sixty queens
And eighty concubines,
And virgins without number.
⁹ My dove, my perfect one,
Is the only one,
The only one of her mother,
The favourite of the one who bore her.
The daughters saw her
And called her blessed,
The queens and the concubines,
And they praised her.
¹⁰ Who is she who looks forth as the morning,
Fair as the moon,
Clear as the sun,
Awesome as an army with banners?

This song is called Your Surrender.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSaHdsPxrIE

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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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