Lofty Opinions

"I remember one of the most shameful moments of my spiritual life, hiking in East Asia going in and out of unreached villages with Gospel literature trying not to get caught, a tough trip, a grueling trip. And we'd set up camp one night, [there was a] little bit of daylight left so I went off by myself to read for a couple of minutes. I had a copy of Tozer's Knowledge of the Holy with me and I sat down. I looked across the countryside, I thought about our hard day of hiking in this difficult area and the thought that came to my mind was 'God must be glad to have me on His team.' And I opened up Tozer's book where I just so happened to be on the chapter dealing with the self sufficiency of God and Tozer said to me:


'Almighty God just because He is all mighty needs no support. The picture of a nervous and graciating God fawning over men to win their favor is not a pleasant one yet if we look at the popular conception of God that is precisely what we see. Twentieth century Christianity has put God on charity, so lofty is our opinion of ourselves that we find it quite easy not to say enjoyable to believe that we are necessary to God. Probably the hardest thought of all for our natural egotism to entertain is that God does not need our help. We commonly represent Him as a busy, eager, somewhat frustrated Father hurrying about seeking help to carry out His benevolent plan to bring peace and salvation to the world. Too many missionary appeals are based upon this fancy frustration of Almighty God. An effective speaker can easily excite pity in his hearers not only for the heathen but for the God who has tried so hard and so long to save them and has failed for want of support. I fear that thousands of younger persons enter Christian service for no higher motive than to help deliver God from the embarrassing situation His love has gotten Him into and His limited abilities seem unable to get Him out of. Add to this a certain degree of commendable idealism and a fair amount of compassion for the underprivileged and you have the true drive behind much Christian activity today.'


Brothers and sisters let me remind us from the start God does not need us... He does not need you, He does not need me. He does not need your specific church or my specific church... Every one of us, every one of our churches... all our denominations and our associations could drop dead and turn to dust and God will still make a great name for Himself among the nations. God involves us in His mission, not because He needs us but because He loves us and in His mercy He has invited us to be involved in His sovereign design for the spread of the Gospel to the ends of the earth..."


~ David Platt
Divine Sovereignty: The Fuel of Death-Defying Missions

HT: Liyah McDonnell

Persist To The End

'Your work and your life must go off the stage together. Persisting to the end will be the burr in your saddle- the thorn in your flesh- when the road ahead seems endless and your soul begs an early discharge. It weighs down every other difficulty of your calling. We have known many who have joined the army of Christ and liked being a soldier for a battle or two, but have soon had enough and ended up deserting. They impulsively enlist for Christian duties, are easily persuaded to take up a profession of religion, and are just as easily persuaded to lay it down. Like the new moon, they shine a little in the first part of the evening, but go down before the night is over.

This persevering is a hard word! Taking up the cross daily, praying always, watching night and day and never laying aside our armour to indulge ourselves, sends many sorrowful away from Christ. Yet this is your calling: to make the Christian faith your daily work, without any vacation from one end of the year to the other.'
~ William Gurnall

HT: Liyah McDonnell

Ezekiel 37

""The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”" Ez 37:1-2

"O Lord God, You know that these bones can not live! They are not just dry, but they are very dry! Perhaps You could cause them to live if they were just men who died a few hours before, or even if the flesh had still been on them, You could possibly breathe life into these dead men, but no, Lord, these bones can not live. There is not even the remotest possibility that these bones can live!"

The above would have been my response had the Lord come to me with the question of whether or not these dry bones could live. I have put God into a box, thinking that He can only do that which is in the ordinary or that He works only through things that can be explained. It is true that God is a god of order and reason, but just because He has set the world up in that way does not mean that He can not do the impossible. He has made the heaven's and the earth, nothing is to difficult for Him! (Jer. 32:17) Ezekiel was a man of faith, humility, and honesty; his answer was not what mine would have been, but one of faith. Ezekiel knew that the Lord could cause these dry bones to live if He but said a word.

May our faith in the Lord be like that of Ezekiel's. May we learn to trust in the Lord and lean not on our own understanding.. When all seems impossible, may we learn that we serve a very big God, and He alone knows what the outcome will be.

Life

As I was sitting in the cemetery  I thought about the brevity of life. As I walked around looking at the tombstones   it occurred to me that these were people just like me. They had a life, a family, friends, things that they enjoyed doing, and things that they despised.  They laughed and they cried.  They loved people and, at times, were hurt by those very same people. They each had their own story; their own quirks.  They lived a life that was unique, but now they are gone.  There is nothing left to show that they were here, except for a cold lifeless stone stating the facts: name, birth, death.  Even those things may not be seen on the tombstones.  Some of the names are hard to read because they have been worn away with the years and changing of the season. Some of the tombstones have fallen or can not be found because they are buried under the dirt now. Some of these graves, I am sad to say, have had moles and other creatures digging through them, but this is reality! We are born, we live, we die.  This is all there is to this, right? Wrong!  That can not be it, that can't be the only reason we live.  If all there is to this world is to live and die, to be forgotten then what is the point of living in the first place?  Though these people are dead in physically their soul is still alive.  I sat looking at the tombstones and I wondered how many knew their Father in life and therefore are with Him now.  I wonder how many had a stiff neck and refused to come to Christ in life and as a consequence are paying for their own sins in eternal destruction.  Who were the religious ones, who put faith in their own works? Who were the ones who did not seek but were found? Who were the ones that walked many years with God or the ones who found Him as the thief on the cross did, in the last moments? Are they among the forgotten? Their Father has not forgotten them even if man has.  God had a purpose for them and knew what their life and death would bring in the end.  Praise Him! Though I may be forgotten by man, my accomplishments along with my failures, God won't forget me.  He will remember the things I have accomplished through Christ in this life and because of Christ my failures (sins) have been paid for already.  I stand before God clothed in the righteousness of Christ in life as well as death!