Wednesday, January 30, 2008
C. J.'s blog
Today I learnt that C.J. Mahaney has started a blog. I can't tell you how grateful I am to God for bringing that man of God into my life (though we have not met yet on this earth!). You can check it here and may we all grow in our knowledge of "Christ and Him crucified"!
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Fellowship
Cleaning up old files I found this. Enjoy!
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Fellowship between Christians is the gift of God. It is a true means of grace. Christians are spiritual people and they feel comparatively isolated in this world. But God gives them this compensation, that the fellowship they enjoy with like-minded believers is marvelously therapeutic and sweet. Fellowship exists between all believers because they have the principal things in common: the experience of saving grace, the enmity of the world, the expectation of coming glory, a thirst for God, grateful love to Christ and acceptance of Holy Scripture. Basic to the New Testament idea of fellowship is this very one of ‘having things in common’. The Greek term is koinonia. But to know the New Testament word does not give us the experience. The meaning of New Testament fellowship can only be know by us if we are spiritual and lively Christians. A great deal of what passes for ‘fellowship’ is often no more than human friendship such as men might have in a club or lodge. It is good and necessary but not equivalent to the precise thought conveyed in God’s word by the term ‘fellowship’. A believer’s duty is to promote true fellowship by all the means open to him in this life. He should also regard it as his privilege and duty to improve the quality of his fellowship as far as he can. We probably do not do enough in our day to promote spiritual and edifying fellowship. And yet it is something which is most urgently needed.
by Maurice Roberts
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Fellowship between Christians is the gift of God. It is a true means of grace. Christians are spiritual people and they feel comparatively isolated in this world. But God gives them this compensation, that the fellowship they enjoy with like-minded believers is marvelously therapeutic and sweet. Fellowship exists between all believers because they have the principal things in common: the experience of saving grace, the enmity of the world, the expectation of coming glory, a thirst for God, grateful love to Christ and acceptance of Holy Scripture. Basic to the New Testament idea of fellowship is this very one of ‘having things in common’. The Greek term is koinonia. But to know the New Testament word does not give us the experience. The meaning of New Testament fellowship can only be know by us if we are spiritual and lively Christians. A great deal of what passes for ‘fellowship’ is often no more than human friendship such as men might have in a club or lodge. It is good and necessary but not equivalent to the precise thought conveyed in God’s word by the term ‘fellowship’. A believer’s duty is to promote true fellowship by all the means open to him in this life. He should also regard it as his privilege and duty to improve the quality of his fellowship as far as he can. We probably do not do enough in our day to promote spiritual and edifying fellowship. And yet it is something which is most urgently needed.
by Maurice Roberts
Friday, January 18, 2008
Virtue and its impostors
Three things confuse a Christian;
Yeah, four confound any man.
Unbelief masquerading as wisdom,
Enthusiasm presenting itself as faith,
Fear pretending to be patience,
and permissiveness claiming to be love.
(HT: Thabiti Anyabwile)
Yeah, four confound any man.
Unbelief masquerading as wisdom,
Enthusiasm presenting itself as faith,
Fear pretending to be patience,
and permissiveness claiming to be love.
(HT: Thabiti Anyabwile)
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Thank you Jesus for John Schuessler my blessed friend
There is no better start for a year than starting with prayer. I wish I could have said I started that way. I was rather thinking on my friend John while driving past the bridge over the highway nearby the house where I live. I saw fancy fireworks afar but it didn’t matter. I was heading home.
It is interesting that a couple of weeks before I almost got hit on the road ahead of me by a guy who was swerving toward me. I pulled over into the shoulder and then I continued traveling home with my heart still pounding and thinking that that could have been my last drive home –the road speed limit is set at 65 MPH. When I got home I did not say anything to anybody and went home to sleep. I was greatful to God that He spared me that time.
Language fails many times in letting us convey what our hearts think. What do I mean by God sparing my life? Is life on earth to be desired more than to be with Christ? I guess there are no simple answers to that. Yet one thing I know. That ‘no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly’.
Today reading my e-mail correspondence with John, one of his letters stood out to me. I guess I had left it as 'unread’. So I read it again and this line hit me: “I hope we will still be friends until we go home with the Lord”. I just smiled and thanked God for his life, for blessing me with the friendship and love of this blessed friend. How can one summarize in a few words a life lived to the full! But let me try and say it like this: John’s whole life was Jesus.
Now Father, I pray to you: teach me to speak with such passion for truth and tenderness of spirit that my love for you, your people and the peoples of this earth grow to new heights this year 2008. I make no resolutions but I cast myself on your unmeasured grace.
For who can grow this love in me but You?
And then when on That Day
I’ll see You face to face Beloved Friend,
my joy will be complete at last!
My eyes will look for You,
my head I’ll lean on You and then
what else I’ll do I do not know.
And then on that great cloud,
of witnesses and saints,
I’ll see him run again,
embrace me like a bear,
and then we’ll cry with joy
partaking on Your feast
You’d made for those You loved.
Thank you Jesus!
It is interesting that a couple of weeks before I almost got hit on the road ahead of me by a guy who was swerving toward me. I pulled over into the shoulder and then I continued traveling home with my heart still pounding and thinking that that could have been my last drive home –the road speed limit is set at 65 MPH. When I got home I did not say anything to anybody and went home to sleep. I was greatful to God that He spared me that time.
Language fails many times in letting us convey what our hearts think. What do I mean by God sparing my life? Is life on earth to be desired more than to be with Christ? I guess there are no simple answers to that. Yet one thing I know. That ‘no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly’.
Today reading my e-mail correspondence with John, one of his letters stood out to me. I guess I had left it as 'unread’. So I read it again and this line hit me: “I hope we will still be friends until we go home with the Lord”. I just smiled and thanked God for his life, for blessing me with the friendship and love of this blessed friend. How can one summarize in a few words a life lived to the full! But let me try and say it like this: John’s whole life was Jesus.
Now Father, I pray to you: teach me to speak with such passion for truth and tenderness of spirit that my love for you, your people and the peoples of this earth grow to new heights this year 2008. I make no resolutions but I cast myself on your unmeasured grace.
For who can grow this love in me but You?
And then when on That Day
I’ll see You face to face Beloved Friend,
my joy will be complete at last!
My eyes will look for You,
my head I’ll lean on You and then
what else I’ll do I do not know.
And then on that great cloud,
of witnesses and saints,
I’ll see him run again,
embrace me like a bear,
and then we’ll cry with joy
partaking on Your feast
You’d made for those You loved.
Thank you Jesus!
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