from today's devotions

Watching Quietly, Praying Silently
The man whom Abraham sent to find a wife for his son Isaac had been long in Abraham's service. No doubt he had learned much of trust and obedience through watching his master walk with God. He set out on his mission, confident that God would help him.
Beside the Well of Aram of Two Rivers he halted his camels and was praying silently when a beautiful young woman appeared with her water jar on her shoulder. She responded to his request as he had prayed she would, and he watched quietly to see whether the Lord had made his journey successful (Gn 24:21).
Very possibly we often miss what God wants to show us because we don't take time to pray silently and watch quietly. It was by doing those two things, along with the obvious practical things (let us not leave those undone) that the servant was able to say, "I have been guided by the Lord" (Gn 24:27 NEB).


~I'm really trying to take this to hart. I am learning to "be still and know that He is God"...that He is in control of all things...that He is directing me every step.

Good information that always needs to be remembered

You’ll never have to check your luggage for a weekend trip again with these smart packing tips:

*Lay your clothes out on your bed to go over your selections. Select one outfit per day and one outfit per night out. Always bring a sweater, even if you’re headed to the beach, because the weather can be unpredictable, as can air conditioning levels.
*Limit the number of shoes you bring. Shoes are heavy and take up a lot of room in your suitcase. Try to keep it to no more than three pairs of shoes (daytime, evening and sneakers).
*Take the biggest bag you can carry on, currently that’s 24” x 16” x 10” for most domestic flights. (the Alpha bag from Tumi is nice)
*You may not think you’ll need all the room, but you never know. You may end up shopping, have work folders to carry home or may even be in a rush when you repack to come home. If your bag is bigger, you can toss everything in easier.
*Roll your clothes first, before you pack anything, except for items that will wrinkle. Stuff smaller items like tanks, panties and socks in your shoes. Pack the shoes with the clothing in them at the bottom of your bag. This keeps your bag balanced. Fill in the space with the rolled clothes, making sure to fill every nook and cranny of the bag.
*Once you have all the rolled items in, place the items you don’t want to get wrinkled in a dry cleaning bag. Fold them carefully across the top.
*Pack all liquids and other toiletries in your purse, where you can easily retrieve them at the security line.

From today's devotions

A Devious Repentance

Recently I committed a sin of what seemed to me unpardonable thoughtlessness. For days I wanted to kick myself around the block. What is the matter with me? I thought. How could I have acted so? "Fret not thyself because of evildoers" came to mind. In this case the evildoer was myself, and I was fretting. My fretting, I discovered, was a subtle kind of pride. "I'm really not that sort of person," I was saying. I did not want to be thought of as that sort of person. I was very sorry for what I had done, not primarily because I had failed someone I loved, but because my reputation would be smudged. When my reputation becomes my chief concern, my repentance has a hollow ring. No wonder Satan is called the deceiver. He has a thousand tricks, and we fall for them.
Lord, I confess my sin of thoughtlessness and my sin of pride. I pray for a more loving and a purer heart, for Jesus' sake.

Thought that made me go, "hmmmmmmm"

"The real test of being in the presence of God is that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small, dirty object. It is better to forget about yourself altogether".
~C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Something to work on...

No Further Than Natural Things
"Well, it's perfectly natural for you to feel that way," I was telling myself when I was upset with the way someone had treated me. "It's a normal reaction."
It was a normal reaction for a carnal mind. It was not normal for a spiritual one. The carnal attitude deals with things on one level only--this world's. It "sees no further than natural things" (Rom 8:5 JBP).
Is there a telescope that will bring into focus things I would not see with merely "natural" vision? There is.
"The spiritual attitude reaches out after the things of the spirit." It is a different means of perceiving. It will enable me to see what I could not have seen with the naked--that is, the carnal--eye.
It works. When I looked at that person who had offended me through the "spiritual eye," I saw in him one of God's instruments to teach me, instead of one of the devil's to torment me. I saw something more. I saw a person God loves, and whom He wants to love through me.

thought

To struggle--that is, to allow a "little bit" of sin, to be cautious with ourselves, tolerant of a certain amount of plain disobedience, is to try to keep both eyes. (If it is your eye that is your undoing, tear it out and fling it away; it is better to enter into life with one eye than to keep both eyes and be thrown into the fires of hell" Matthew 5:29)

I am learning to wait...

Waiting for God's Time
11 Samuel 2:1-11
Second Samuel 2 opens with these words: "And it came to pass after this, that David inquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah? And the LORD said unto him, Go up. And David said, Whither shall I go up? And he said, Unto Hebron" (v. 1).
David found, as we will too, that we never lose anything by believing God and then patiently waiting on Him. But we will surely suffer if we take things into our own hands and rush blindly ahead.
The word "Hebron" means "alliance" or "communion" in contrast to Ziklag, which refers to self-will. Being allied with God and being in communion with Him, David was in a place to be led in the will of God.
David's reign began by reigning first over Judah. It was not necessary for David to take the throne; God saw that he received it. God moved him back to Hebron, and his own tribe anointed him king.
Seven and a half years went by, however, before the whole kingdom was put under his hand. David still had to wait, but it was God's time he was waiting for, not people's.
"There is a time there for every purpose and for every work" (Eccles. 3:17).
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Could the 7.5 years be a significant time frame for me as well?

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Do You Want an Answer?
This is the question we need to ask ourselves when we are seeking "solutions" to our problems. Often we want only an audience. We want the chance to air grievances, to present our excuses, to make an explanation for our behavior, rather than a cure. More often than not the clearest and most direct answer can be found in the Word, but it must be sought honestly.
"The way of the Lord gives refuge to the honest man, but dismays those who do evil" (Prv. 10:29 NEB).
We can approach God's word with a will to obey whatever it says to us about our present situation, or we can avoid it and say to anyone who would try to point us to it, "Don't throw the Book at me." The latter is an evasion, which supports our suspicion that our problems are, in fact, insoluble. The honest (i.e., humble) heart will indeed find the Lord's way to be a refuge.
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I do want answers; however, I am content to to wait on the Lord and on His perfect timing.
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Holy Spirit, enable your kindness to take root and flourish in me. Make me more like Jesus, who, though he was rich, was willing to become poor for my sake. In his name, Amen.

today...

Lord, may no gift of yours ever take your place in my heart. Help me to hold them lightly in an open palm, that the supreme object of my desire may always be You and You alone. Purify my heart--I want to love You purely.

for today..

How Long Will This Last?


A couple years ago I shared my experience of enduring a spiritual storm, a crisis of faith. Since then I've had the privilege of corresponding with numerous precious saints who are enduring similar storms.
A common experience is that after the initial blast of the storm, it often takes a long time to regain a sense of spiritual equilibrium. A friend wrote me recently essentially asking me how long it will take to "get past this" to feeling normal again. I thought I would share my response to him in case others of you are finding yourselves asking, "How Long, O Lord" (Ps. 90:13)

Thank you for the update. Yes, I remember well. I would say it took me a good year from the time I experienced an initial breakthrough until I really felt my spiritual equilibrium was more "normal." Changing metaphors, if the initial crisis was a massive earthquake, I felt aftershocks for a long time. And some were strong.
My experience is that God brings deliverance from these things gradually. Because his purpose is to strengthen faith and character. A different analogy: it is similar to endurance and strength training. It's the adversity of the struggle that builds spiritual understanding, muscle, and endurance. And it generally takes longer and is more difficult and painful than we imagine at first.
One last analogy. Remember Frodo in The Lord of the Rings? He is stabbed with the Mordor blade of the wraith king on Weathertop. It almost kills him. But thanks to the divine healing gift of Elrond the elf lord, the evil poison is removed. However, for the rest of his life, Frodo still sometimes feels the icy pain in the scar.
It's like that with such wounding as you and I have experienced. I still feel the icy pain occasionally in the scar. But it has become a reminder of grace and a reminder to set my hope on God and his promises. It is a reminder that I walk by faith and not sight.
I will pray for you. The Lord will not forsake you. It is he who will get you past this. Keep following Jesus who endured Gethsemane, the trial, the scourging, the cross, and death for you.
He showed you that sometimes the path of faith takes you through indescribably deep darkness. He is not asking you to endure what he has not already endured—and infinitely worse. And he showed that you can trust the Father, whose will sometimes is that you drink a cup you really wish you didn't have to drink.
But it's only because there is joy unspeakable and full of glory for those who do.

"No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it" (1 Cor. 10:13).
Grace be with all of you who are struggling now.

Thought that made me go, "hmmmmmmm".

The Society of International Law in London recently reported a startling statistic: the world has been at peace for less than 8 percent of its history. The study stated that in the past 3,530 years, there have been only 286 years of peace. Over the same time period, more than 8,000 peace treaties have been made—and broken.

today...

"My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him" (Ps. 62:5).

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Wait Quietly

Few of us enjoy having to wait for something we want. It is human nature to desire instant gratification, and it is divine nature to do many things very, very slowly. Growth is always imperceptible. But the farmer exercises long patience in waiting for his crop. He has done his work and is assured of the result, hence he waits quietly. He is at rest because the outcome (barring disastrous "acts of God") is certain. If we could simply remember that this is true of everything--that God's purposes are slowly being worked out for his glory and our good--we would, like the farmer, keep faith and wait quietly.

Lord, take from us all fretting and hurrying and teach us to rest our hearts in the "ultimate certainty" (Jas 5:7 JBP).
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JOY FROM WITHIN

Scripture Reading: Psalm 126
Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy.
Psalm 126:2

Joy is often confused with happiness. Happiness depends on our outward circumstances—how things are going in our jobs, our relationships, or our health, for example. But joy isn’t dependent on the weather, or on our weight, or on our bank accounts. Joy is a quality of the spiritual fruit (love) that grows within us.
Psalm 126 was written at a difficult time in the -history of God’s people. They had been released from exile in Babylon, and as the people returned to their homeland, they found it in ruins. Jerusalem had been destroyed, and their temple had been flattened. Enemies still surrounded them on every side.
It’s no wonder that as they journeyed home, they prayed, “Restore our fortunes, LORD.”
Despite the people’s circumstances, however, their “mouths were filled with laughter” and their “tongues with songs of joy.” Why? Because they had determined to be joyful.
Centuries later, the apostle Paul wrote to Christian believers in Philippi, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances” (Philippians 4:11). God’s people returning to the land of Israel after exile had learned the same lesson. Happiness may depend on the condition of our outward lives, but joy is something the Spirit grows within us, reflecting God’s unfailing love.
Prayer:
Father, grant me a sense of joy that does not depend on circumstances. Cultivate an inner joy that reflects your love within me, and help me to share it with others. In Jesus, Amen.
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This is all so timely right now.

Anyone get the feeling/idea that God is trying to tell me something?

For today..

Discerning the Will of God

The primary condition for learning what God wants of us is putting ourselves wholly at his disposal. It is just here that we are often blocked. We hold certain reservations about how far we are willing to go, what we will or will not do, how much God can have of us or of what we treasure. Then we pray for guidance. It will not work. We must begin by laying it all down--ourselves, our treasures, our destiny. Then we are in a position to think with renewed minds and act with a transformed nature. The withholding of any part of ourselves is the same as saying, "Thy will be done up to a point, mine from there on."
Paul gives four important steps to discerning the will of God:
1. "Offer your very selves to Him,"
2. "Adapt yourselves no longer to the pattern of this present world."
3. "Let your minds be remade."
4. "Your whole nature transformed."
"Then you will be able to discern the will of God" (Rom 12:1,2 NEB).

Happy Birthday Walkman!

An interesting article on a 13 year olds first encounter with an iPod. Clicky Link! (really, you should click the link and check out the article)