The cup of suffering

John 18:11
……………………… Shall I not drink from the cup of suffering the Father has given me?"NLT
My devotion came out of John chapter 18 this morning. Once again it stopped me right in my tracks. When I think back how many times I have gone through something bad, like a major trial ….. That I prayed for the Lord to get me out of this situation that I am in. Only to find out later that I needed to go through what I was going through to be a better man, husband, father and business owner. I had to go through the suffering to become the man I am today. Jesus made a choice that day and so can you. You can walk it out or you can run. 

What are you going to do?


Be blessed today!

D.T.R

Matthew 7:21-23
21 "Not everyone who calls out to me, 'Lord! Lord!' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. 22 On judgment day many will say to me, 'Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.' 23 But I will reply, 'I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God's laws.'NLT
Are you a follower of Jesus?
Reading a new book, the first chapter really made me think. Think back to when you were on your first date and the person you were dating wanted to have the D.T.R. talk with you…… you know the talk "where do you see this relationship going?" That talk would make some people run and some stay.
Define the relationship
Let's say you are in the back of a restaurant sitting by yourself eating a little snack and drinking coffee. Just imagine for a moment and picture Jesus walking in and He comes back to where you are and sits down with you. You feel awkward so you try a little small talk to break the ice and ask Jesus to turn your coffee into wine. Jesus looks at you like He used to look at Peter and before He can answer you realize you forgot to pray over your food. So you start praying and your feeling nervous but you continue to pray when you realize the prayer you just said was a quote from a movie (that is what the book said)
You stop praying and Jesus immediately skips the small talk and gets right to the point. He looks you right in the eye and says, "It is time we define this relationship" He wants to know how you feel about Him. Is your relationship with him exclusive? Is it just a casual weekend thing or has it moved past that?
How would your relationship with Him be defined? What exactly is your level of commitment? I am sure Jesus would have no problem clearly defining His relationship with you. He would not sugar coat it either.
I can tell you for me sitting in that coffee shop and listening to what he wants from me in a relationship would a little different than what I have actually been giving Him myself. I want to be on the same page as Jesus. I can honestly say I am not as committed to Jesus as I would like to think I am. So I have work to do. I will get there someday.  

If you had to write Jesus a letter defining your relationship with Him, how would it read?  I think some of you will ignore this question because you do not want to face reality.

23 pounds

1 Corinthians 3:16-17
Don't you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.NLT

My devotion was out of 1 Cor. 3 so I read all the way to 7. I have wanted to write about this for a while, but have not been allowed to until today. The Lord has convicted me on numerous occasions since January 2009 about my weight and eating habits. This January He really got me. I am supposed to be around 215 to 220. On Feb. 12 this year I stepped on the scales at 268 (the most I have ever weighed in my entire life). In my mind I had a shift in my thinking. It was instantaneous and I felt new strength and I knew it was on. The Lord had been showing me through many people and His word what I needed to do. Three years ago I fasted for 40 days without food for my marriage. I also found out during that time it was about my eating and discipline as well. I got down to 220 and stayed there for a while. I let the sin creep back into my life very slowly.

Discipline ……… what a strong word. I have noticed that since I have developed discipline in my eating it is carrying over into other areas of my life. Today I weigh 245 (23 pounds lost) and I am on my way down 220 at least. I am not eating special foods I am not doing HCG. I am not doing weight watchers. What I am doing is eating right and not stuffing my face. I have stopped drinking DR. Pepper and eating fast food. What has made the biggest difference I feel is where I am getting my strength. My prayer life and time with the Lord plays a huge part in my life. I do not eat over 2000 calories a day where I was eating 4500 to 5500 a day. Am I doing this for me? Yep. More importantly though I am doing it for Him.

One morning I got really convicted. I felt like I heard "Kevin how do you speak to someone about how they are living when you live in gluttony and have NO discipline in your own life? How?"

How do you answer that question?

1 Corinthians 6:19
Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself,NLT

Luke 24.16

Luke 24:16
But God kept them from recognizing him. NLT

There is much precious significance in this. The Lord is often present in our lives in things that we do not dream possess any significance. We are asking God about something which needs His mighty working, and the very instrument by which He is to work is by our side, perhaps for weeks and months and years all unrecognized, until suddenly, some day it grows luminous and glorious with the very presence of the Lord, and becomes the mighty instrument of His victorious working. He loves to show His hand through the unexpected. Often he keeps us from seeing His way until just before He opens it, and then, immediately that it is unfolded, we find that He was walking by our side in the very thing, long before we even suspected its meaning.

1. B. Simpsom
   

How many times has this happened to you? You have something going on in your life that you have been praying about ….. and you wonder …….. Where is God in all of this? Then suddenly you realize that God has been right in the middle of it the whole time. YOU just didn't see Him or better yet you chose not to see Him, because you didn't like where it was going. In the end you are glad for the results; you just didn't like the road you traveled.

 

At this time last year I was on crutches recovering from a broken leg. It sucked! It was very hard to see God in that picture. When I look back, I see what He was doing. It gave me an opportunity to learn my design software, refine my paperwork, and refine my advertising. I may have been down for three months, but starting in June I did more work last year and had my best year in business ever and I did it in six months. Thank you Lord!

 

Think back…… where was the Lord when at the time you thought He had left you.

Bless you

Apologetics

This morning my devotion comes from Colossians 2. Immediately I think of apologetics. Apologetics (from Greek ἀπολογία, "speaking in defense") is the discipline of defending a position (often religious) through the systematic use of information. Early Christian writers (c. 120-220) who defended their faith against critics and recommended their faith to outsiders were called apologists. Colossians 2:4 I am telling you this so no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments.NLT Colossians 2:8 Don't let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.NLT You have to pay attention to what you are listening to. You have to quit listening to what the world says. Be transformed by the daily renewal of your mind. Romans 12.2

Lee Strobel's wrote a book called The Case for Christ. Lee was an atheist who set out to prove the Jesus and the bible was just a book of stories and Jesus was not real. What he found out was Holy Spirit is very real and Jesus is real and he could not prove the bible was false. He came to know the Lord through his research. Here are some examples:

The bible has parables, prophecy, song, romance, biography, law, etc. And, depending on the translation, there are some 785,000 words comprised in 31,101 verses, which hold 8,000 predictions, 6,468 commands, 3,294 questions, and 1,260 promises. You can't prove the bible wrong! No matter how hard you try. Archeologists have found over 25000 sites that prove and validate the Old Testament.

From Bible Believers.org For example, what's the likelihood of a person predicting today the exact city in which the birth of a future leader would take place, well into the 21st century? This is indeed what the prophet Micah did 700 years before the Messiah. Further, what is the likelihood of predicting the precise manner of death that a new, unknown religious leader would experience, a thousand years from now - a manner of death presently unknown, and to remain unknown for hundreds of years? Yet, this is what David did in 1000 B.C. Again, what is the likelihood of predicting the specific date of the appearance of some great future leader, hundreds of years in advance? This is what Daniel did, 530 years before Christ. If one were to conceive 50 specific prophecies about a person in the future, whom one would never meet, just what's the likelihood that this person will fulfill all 50 of the predictions? How much less would this likelihood be if 25 of these predictions were about what other people would do to him, and were completely beyond his control? For example, how does someone "arrange" to be born in a specific family? How does one "arrange" to be born in a specified city, in which their parents don't actually live? How does one "arrange" their own death - and specifically by crucifixion, with two others, and then "arrange" to have their executioners gamble for His clothing (John 16:19; Psalms 22:18)? How does one "arrange" to be betrayed in advance? How does one "arrange" to have the executioners carry out the regular practice of breaking the legs of the two victims on either side, but not their own? Finally, how does one "arrange" to be God? How does one escape from a grave and appear to people after having been killed? http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/radio034.htm

There is so much more than just this. The point is this. You need to know apologetics so when you come up against the person who says. The bible is just a book ….. just a bunch of made up stories, you need to know this information it will help you. The flip side is if you come against someone who just doesn't want to believe, it will not matter what you say. Then you just have to shut up and let Holy Spirit do his job.

You couldn't make me believe when I wasn't ready.

 

 

 

Fruit

First of all, I would like to apologize for my writing skills. I don't always punctuate in the right places and I tend to write how I talk. Secondly I don't normally write this much, but I am hearing so I am writing. I don't write for your comments, but I would be lying if I said I didn't like them. So keep them coming! You comment may be the very thing someone else needs to hear so always reply to all. Your comment may set someone free!

This morning my devo took me to Matthew 3 and the verses speak for themselves. Matthew 3:8-10
Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. Don't just say to each other, 'We're safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.' That means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones. Even now the ax of God's judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire.NLT

Ask someone close how your fruit taste?

Bless you this day! May you have favor today!

Are you doing what you’re supposed to be doing?

So today I am reading in my devo (from my Oswald devo) one sentence just sent me over the top! "But if we walk in the light as He is in the light." Walking in the light means for many of us walking according to our standard for another person. O.C. day 16 Which basically means "This is what you need to do to get free, but I will not do that myself. How many times have you given advice, Godly counsel to someone and it was really for yourself? If you followed that counsel yourself your life would be better! So, if you are living by the very counsel that you give out then I think you would be walking in the light and therefore you would be keeping the same standard as you hold your friend. That quote led me to the next scripture that I got out of 2 Corinthians 5:9
So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him.NLT So I feel if you are doing what you are supposed to be doing then you are pleasing Him and if you are not ……… well then we have this scripture below to contend with. This one always nails me. James 4:17
Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin. NASB95 James 4:17
In fact, if you know the right thing to do and don't do it, that, for you, is evil. The Message

The scripture covers everything the God's word does not cover; the scripture right here makes it personal. This word is about you, your heart and the Lord. It is about personal conviction. For me, female magazine covers are porn, today I will not look. You tube .. stay off. Not enabling our children, but teaching. There is more, but I think you get the point.

Guess what? If you are not doing what you are supposed to be doing … what is that called disobedience! When you walk in disobedience then doors get closed.

What is the Lord showing you that you need to do and you are not doing it?

Ask Holy Spirit right now, close your eyes and ask and then obey.

 

 

 

 

Be Alert

This morning my devotion took me to 1 Thessalonians 5 I just stopped when I got to verse 22. 1 Thessalonians 5:22 Stay away from every kind of evil. Can it get any plainer than that? When I come across scripture that stops me right in my tracks I have to realize that it is a warning for me that something is coming. Right now that evil could be in any form. I have to be on the alert today. We all know that the enemy is prowling around just waiting for his moment. So today it is about guarding my heart and my eyes.

So today be watchfull!

Forgiveness

 

What is forgiveness?

It is a burden lifted off your back.

Forgiveness will allow you to put your life back on track.

Forgiveness runs hand in hand with faithfulness.

 

Forgiveness comes from the heart.

Forgiveness is needed when two grow apart.

Forgiveness is what God does for us.

That is why He sent His Son, Jesus.

 

We want to learn to forgive,

Or it will be very hard to live.

Forgiving others for what they have done,

Will allow the Father and us to be as one.

 

Forgiving will break down the wall,

Between Heaven, Earth and us.

This will allow us to have,

A loving relationship with Jesus.

 

Forgiveness is a decision,

Only we can make that choice.

Forgiveness is obeying God,

Listening to his voice.

 

If you have anger that you repress.

Let it go or you will digress.

This emotion will eat you up inside.

One day you will wake and have no pride.

 

Your life may be a mess,

Therefore, you must look to Jesus.

Through Him, you will have success.

He is there for all of us.

 

Forgiveness is getting your heart right with God.

Whatever you do, do not put on a facade.

Make the decision and turn it over to Him.

He will forgive you and your sin.

 

Is there someone in your life that you need to forgive today?

 

By kevin gwyn

Ó Copyrighted 4/20/2002

The other little dog

A little story about another little dog from a few years back. A Rat Terrier named Duchess. I had a wrought iron fence in my back yard that was bent in one spot. This is where she would get out. Every morning I would let her out and she would go to the bathroom and then come back to the door and scratch to come in. One day I heard Holy Spirit say "you better fix that fence or the coyotes are going to get her" I said, "I will" (but I didn't) Holy Spirit reminded me several times for the next three weeks. I kept saying (I will!) How many times to we tell Holy Spirit I WILL AND THEN WE DON'T DO IT! So one morning I let Duchess out and she didn't didn't come back as quick as she normally does and I could not wait, so I left. Later I called home and my wife said she had not come home yet and I got a really bad feeling in my stomach. That afternoon I was driving home and I see buzzards flying over my home …. Not a good feeling. I had a feeling she was out in the field behind my house. I put on my pants and went looking for her. I looked for about 10 minutes no luck. I prayed and asked the Lord "where is my dog?" I then felt that I need to turn left so I did …. I walked 10 feet and one buzzard flew up and there was my dog, one head and two front legs. I was heartbroken. I said, "Lord, I don't understand why this happened, but I will stay praise you." ………… So I just stood there with tears in my eyes and I hear "Son, your procrastination killed your dog" When I heard that I just broke, because I knew it was my fault. So here is the moral of the story and my devo this morning. Duchess was always safe around the family. She was always safe in the back yard. One day she was tempted to leave the back yard away from the safety of family and went off on her own. She got isolated and got picked off. She was all alone and that is what the enemy does to us. He tempts us by telling us lies to get us alone. You know what the lie is … rejection …… UN forgiveness ……..judgment …. Need I go on? I leave you with this. If you are meeting with men or women but you are lying to them when you meet. Then you are still isolating or posing or wearing a mask. Whatever you do stop it and get honest. The enemy will pick you off if you don't. 
If you are not meeting with anyone ……. then start,  You can’t do life by yourself.  Your spouse does not count.  You need other men in your life to meet with or other women.

Hebrews 10:24-25
let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.NLT
Proverbs 27.17 As iron sharpens iron; so one man sharpens another

 

I failed

I failed yesterday; I let my flesh get the best of me. It just goes to show that even though I walk with Jesus … That I spread His word. That I do my best to live a life worthy of the call. I will fall. It is not a matter of why, but only a matter of when. I am driving yesterday having a great conversation about Jesus with a friend. I look in my mirror and this person is tailgating me so close I can't even see his headlights. I am speeding 10 mph over the limit myself. So when I can finally get over, the person fly's by and gives me the finger. What do I do? Well, I did not do 1^st Timothy 2:1 I flipped him back off myself, Why, because I judged him and he pissed me off. How dare that person tailgate me! So this morning I am reading. I read all of 2 Timothy, but it was 1^st Timothy that nailed me. I actually thought about praying for that person. Lord, cause them to have a wreck so they will slow down. Character is what you do when no one is around. It weighed on me for a couple of hours. That is not who I am, I really hate it when the old man comes out of me. It is not pretty. It happens though, it happens to all of us.

I did pray for that person later on and I did pray for protection. That person I became for that couple minutes is as far from whom I want to be as I can get. Lord thank you for reminding me that I am just a man and not perfect.

The stick was laid down yesterday…. Very quickly.

1 Timothy 2:1
I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them..NLT

1 Timothy 2:1
The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know..The Message

Canaan part IV

Fornication

Actually, this sin includes every kind of sex sin. Sin is still sin, no matter how you spell it. Fornication is popular and sexual promiscuity is acceptable everywhere today—except in the Bible. No wonder men want to burn it, deny it, or crucify it. The Word still sets the standard of faith, gives the rule of conduct, and reveals the character of God. Reading about Samson, David, and others in Scripture is in itself a vital lesson concerning the results of sex sins. But the roll call goes on today. Man after man, who in many areas of life develops the potential of his manhood, is limited because of his sex sins. Both single and married men, young and old, are subject to the desires, appetites, passions, and temptations that take their toll and prohibit them from becoming what God intends them to be. Men's ministries are undeveloped or lost. Men's characters are underdeveloped or weak. God's promise to sit with Him on His throne is given to those who are called overcomers. Overcomers are godly achievers. Every man is given opportunity to enter his Canaan, to develop his potential of manhood to the maximum. When the men of Israel committed fornication, they died in the wilderness, never seeing Canaan. Men still die in their wildernesses, bogged down in a moral morass, missing God's best for their lives.

It wasn't God's plan then or now.

The Word says …… Jesus says ……

Matthew 5:28
but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. NASB95 This is why I lost my first marriage ………. Pornography. I might not have had slept with other women physically but I did in my heart. I gave a part of me away that was not mine to give. I have struggled in this area before since I found freedom. Today it is more like a hiccup. Like gorging my face with food, or being jealous, or being judgmental. I don't sin in those areas every day. I am free! I told my wife yesterday that I just feel joyful. She said, "The joy of the Lord is your strength" I think for the first time I actually understood what that meant.

So what is Holy Spirit telling you?

 

Lead a life worthy of your calling.

Ephesians 4:1-2
1 Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. 2 Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love.NLT

This morning's devotion took me to Ephesians chapter 4. I don't know if there is much to say other than when I walk in forgiveness and I am humble, my life has so much peace in it. When I am mad at my children or my spouse all the time for reasons I cannot control or my co-workers. It makes it very hard to live by Ephesians 1-2 and 32

Ephesians 4:32
instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.NLT

So I guess for me the big question would be, do you have peace in your heart? Or do you have anger and un-forgivenenss? Are you still bringing up the past or are you living in the present?

 

 

 

 

Canaan part III

Idolatry page 25 Maximized Manhood

Idolatry is a value system that we create, in which we esteem something to be more worthy of our devotion than devotion to God. Power, prestige, education, money, business, religion, popularity, ego, pornography—can all become idols. Some men worship at the shrine of their businesses; others at temples of recreation and sports. Still others may bow at the sound of the cash register. For some ministers, even their ministry can become an idol. They become so devoted to it that they cannot take time to worship God, wait in His presence, or spend time ministering to Him. For others, their television set has become an idol. All pornography is idolatrous. It's based on man's ability to create in his mind a fantasy or image that satisfies him, and to which he can devote himself. Corporate life in America today has become idolatrous in many instances. Men sacrifice their families for the sake of the company 1 Peter 4:3
For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries.NASB95 1 Samuel 15:23
"For rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king."NASB95 Colossians 3:5
therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.NASB95 These are three very powerful scriptures. The last one really spoke to me. It says all these things are dead in my earthly body. So to me that means when they come back it is not because the enemy is attacking me; it is because I made the choice to bring them back. For me if the temptation of porn comes up, that could very well be the enemy. What I choose to do next is not. If I click the mouse at an ad on the computer or phone, now I have made the choice. The enemy did not make the choice for me. So many times we give the enemy way to much credit when in reality it is our own choices that give in. For me over the years sexual lust has been my idol. Thank you Lord for bringing me women who is mature enough in her walk to see me as just a man and not perfect. So if or when I fall as a man she prays for me and helps me instead of falling apart and making it all about her. A Godly woman who will pray for me so that I can be healed. Thank You Lord!

Right now I can honestly say I have no idols in my life today. I am not going to live in the future nor am I going to live in the past.

If you don't change then nothing changes.

Do you have an idol? Ask Holy Spirit right now.

Canaan pt. II

Murmuring: from Maximized Manhood
Murmuring in its simplest form is nothing more or less than "negative confession."
Complaining, criticizing, faultfinding, rumoring—all and more are classified as murmuring. First Corinthians 5:11 KJV speaks of a "railer," a word we don't ordinarily use today. A railer is a slanderer, a blasphemer, a reviler, and God requires us to deal with them in vehemence and discipline.
1 Corinthians 5:11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.KJV

James 3:5-6
So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.NASB95
The tongue is like that. Small remarks, cutting comments, or sarcastic jibes eventually create roaring bonfires of hate, warfare, and enmity. Consuming relationships, it leaves nothing but embers. Men murmur about their company or boss at the water cooler, and then complain because they do not get promoted. They murmur against the preacher, and wonder why their children don't respond to the Gospel. They murmur against God's Word, and then complain when they don't see faith take effect in their lives.
Here is my confession "I have done this" There has been many times I have murmured where I have worked or served in because I don't like what I see sometimes. Instead of going straight to the person and just asking questions, I will murmur which turns into judgment and then it gets even uglier. I will murmur with my wife, and instead of making a situation better, I make it worse. It is just a bad deal. I could write more but I think you get the point, You have to be very careful, because when you murmur with anyone and they murmur back. You then just make the situation worse. I have the hat and Tee-shirt for that one.  
 
I think for me the next time I feel like I need to murmur then I should take that problem straight to Holy Spirit and see what He thinks about that.

Do you murmur?

Holy Spirit I ask you to reveal yourself right now and show this person if they murmur and to walk as a Son or Daughter ….. To live free!

Canaan pt. 1

I had a conversation with someone the other day and it stirred something up in me. I have read a book called Maximized Manhood by Ed Cole. This book really spoke to me about the 5 sins that kept the Israelites out of the land of Canaan. Canaan is where God wanted the Israelites to live after they were delivered out of their bondage. I sometimes wonder about my on Canaan
1 Corinthians 10:9
nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents;NKJV
Page 27 When the crowds demanded that Christ come down from the cross, they tempted Him. Tempting Christ is demanding that God do what is contrary to His will or inconsistent with His character. Today, men still do the same by demanding that God provide some way of salvation other than the Cross. Lying and cheating in business and demanding that God bless and prosper the results is tempting Christ. Men and women pursuing promiscuity, though they know it is wrong; children rejecting the godly counsel of parents; congregations demanding the pastor build the church on social programs rather than the Word of God and prayer; believers wanting to enjoy the benefits of salvation and the pleasures of sin at the same time—all are tempting Christ.
It kept Israel from Canaan.
It keeps men from their Canaan today.
This one has always stuck out for me. My website for my business www.cchomeimprovements.com (this is not an advertisement) Says Honesty, Integrity, and Quality Workmanship this is how I treat my customers and it is how I treat my employees and subs. I have never put money in my pocket to avoid paying the taxes. If someone pays me cash. It goes in to my account. I could be audited by the IRS and everything is legitimate. The flip side to that is I never pay anyone without keeping a record. In other words, I never pay anyone under the table as some do. That is stealing. Seriously! Lord, would you bless my business, then turn around and pay an employee with cash so you don't have to pay the taxes or get paid cash for a big job and not report it. I love this one, you want the Lord to bless your marriage but, you go home and look at pornography. Lord please bless my finances, but you don't tithe. I think you get the point. Now before anyone thinks I am throwing stones I struggle in other areas of my life that are keeping me from my Canaan. The positive side is this, I believe the reason I never worry about my business. Even when I have down time is because I trust the Lord in this area of my life and I know He is going to provide. The problem is I need to carry this over into other areas of my life.
What is keeping you from your Canaan?
Lord I pray right now that you reveal yourself to those who are asking you this question right now. In Jesus name.

 

Rest

Hebrews 4:6-12
So God's rest is there for people to enter, but those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God. So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David much later in the words already quoted:

"Today when you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts."

Now if Joshua had succeeded in giving them this rest, God would not have spoken about another day of rest still to come. So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who have entered into God's rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall. For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.NLT

Are you resting? Holy Spirit says, if we don't rest we will fall! When was the last time you rested? When was the last time you got away by yourself for a couple of days and rested? I don't mean away with your spouse I mean by yourself! Go to someone's cottage or a hotel and have the TV removed and just get alone and rest no phone to computer just rest.

 

Rest today

If you will ask chpt II

Chapter II

The Secret of the Sacred Simplicity of Prayer

Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Matthew 26:41

These words were spoken in the supreme moment of our Lord's agony; we are immensely flippant if we forget that. No words our Lord ever spoke ought to weigh with us more than these words. We are dealing with the sacred simplicity of prayer. If prayer is not easy, we are wrong; if prayer is an effort, we are out of it. There is only one kind of person who can really pray, and that is the childlike saint, the simple, stupid, supernatural child of God; I do mean "stupid." Immediately you try to explain why God answers prayer on the ground of reason, it is nonsense; God answers prayer on the ground of Redemption and on no other ground. Let us never forget that our prayers are heard, not because we are in earnest, not because we suffer, but because Jesus suffered. It is because our Lord Jesus Christ went through the depths of agony to the last ebb in the Garden of Gethsemane, because He went through Calvary, that we have "boldness to enter into the holy place."

Let us take ourselves across Kedron to the Garden of Gethsemane. We can never fathom the agony in Gethsemane, but at least we need not mis-understand. This is not the agony of a man: this is the distress of God in Man, or rather the distress of God as Man. It is not human in any phase, it is fathomless to a human mind, but we have got several lines to go on so as not to mis-understand. Always beware of the tendency to think of our Lord as an extraordinary human being; He was not, He was God Incarnate.

The Line of the Undiscerned Word of Our Lord

Watch and pray . . .

"Tarry ye here, and watch with Me."Is my idea of prayer based on the keen watching that Jesus Christ asked of His disciples? He did not say, "pray for anything," or, "ask God for anything"; the whole of His attitude toward them was wrapped up in the words, "watch with Me." Our Lord did not say sentimental things or pious things about prayer He said practical and intensely real things, and this is one of them. This is a line of things that opens up nothing to us until it does, because we bring in our own ideas of prayer and do not take into account the Mastership of our Lord. Probably that is our biggest difficulty—that our Lord is not really Master. We use the phrase "Master," but we use it in a more or less pious way, we do not intend to make Him Master practically; we are much more familiar with the idea that Jesus is our Saviour, our Sanctifier, anything that puts Him in the relationship of a supernatural Comrade. We advocate anything that Jesus does, but we do not advocate Him.

(a) The Appropriate Place of Our Lord's Arranging

"Sit ye here, while I go yonder and pray . . ."It is customary, and in one sense quite right, to take our Lord as an example of how to pray, but in the fundamental sense He is not. The relationship we have to God is not the same as Jesus Christ's relationship to His Father—especially on this occasion; His is not a relationship: it is a Redemption. So until you are sure about our Lord's Redemption—"sit here, wait." People say, "Why do you waste your time in a Bible Training College? Fancy spending all your time studying the Bible! Think of the people who need to be looked after; think of the thousand and one things there are to do!" Well, they have to be done, but that is not the point. The point is, are we prepared for our Lord to say to us, "Sit ye here, while I go yonder"? Are we prepared to give due weight to the fact that we are not our own masters? Are we devotees to a cause or disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ? He said to the disciples, "Sit ye here"; if they had been like some of us they would have said, "No, it is absurd, we must go and do something."

The more we get into the atmosphere of the New Testament the more we discover the unfathomable and unhasting leisure of our Lord's life, no matter what His agony. The difficulty is that when we do what God wants us to do, our friends say, "It is all very well, but suppose we all did that!" Our Lord did not tell all the disciples to sit there while He prayed; He told only three of them. The point is that we must take the discerning of the haphazard arrangements of our lives from God. If once we accept the Lord Jesus Christ and the domination of His Lordship, then nothing happens by chance, because we know that God is ordering and engineering circumstances; the fuss has gone, the amateur providence has gone, the amateur disposer has gone, and we know that "all things work together for good to them that love God." If Jesus says, "Sit ye here, while I go yonder and pray," the only appropriate thing we can do is to sit there.

(b) The Appointed Place of Our Lord's Associates

"And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee . . ."Our Lord opened His sorrow to these three, as far as human beings could appreciate it. Peter may stand well for the phase of the first temptation that betook our Lord—the sensible, material side of things, for help and assistance. James may stand for the second temptation that betook our Lord—the intensely ritualistic; and John may stand for the last temptation—the temptation to compromise with everything in order to win, a great loving monopoly. These three men were taken and appointed by our Lord for one purpose—to see His agony. "Tarry ye here, and watch with Me." He did not put them there to go to sleep; He put them there to wait and watch. Remember, the twelve disciples were all He had; He knew one had gone to betray Him, and that Peter would shortly deny Him with oaths and curses, and that all of them would forsake Him and flee; but He took these three with Him to see the unveiling of His heart—and they slept for their own sorrow.

(c) The Autobiographic Place of Our Lord's Agony

". . . and began to be sorrowful and sore troubled."Our Lord said to these disciples what He never said to the others; in John 12:27, He said in soliloquy something similar ("Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say?"), but here He really said to these three, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." Have we for one second watched Jesus pray? Have we ever understood why the Holy Ghost and our Lord Himself were so exceptionally careful about the recording of the agony in Gethsemane? This is not the agony of a man or a martyr; this is the agony of God as Man. It is God, as Man, going through the last lap of the supreme, supernatural Redemption of the human race. We ought to give much more time than we do—a great deal more time than we do—to brooding on the fundamental truths on which the Spirit of God works the simplicity of our Christian experience. The fundamental truths are—Redemption and the personal presence of the Holy Ghost, and these two are focused in one mighty Personality, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank God for the emphasis laid by the Pentecostal League of Prayer on the efficacy of the Holy Ghost to make experimentally real the Redemption of Jesus Christ in individual lives.

Remember, what makes prayer easy is not our wits or our understanding, but the tremendous agony of God in Redemption. A thing is worth just what it costs. Prayer is not what it costs us, but what it cost God to enable us to pray. It cost God so much that a little child can pray. It cost God Almighty so much that anyone can pray. But it is time those of us who name His Name knew the secret of the cost, and the secret is here, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." These words open the door to the autobiography of our Lord's agony. We find the real key to Gethsemane in Matthew 4, which records the temptations of our Lord. Here they come again in a deeper and more appalling manner than ever before. We are not looking here (as we do when we deal with the temptations) at the type of temptation we have to go through; we are dealing here with the grappling of God as Man in the last reaches of historic Redemption.

"But these truths are so big." Why shouldn't they be? Have we to be fed with spooned meat all the time? Is it not time we paid more attention to what it cost God to make it possible for us to live a holy life? We talk about the difficulty of living a holy life; there is the absolute simple ease of Almighty God in living a holy life because it cost Him so much to make it possible. Beware of placing the emphasis on what prayer costs us; it cost God everything to make it possible for us to pray, Jesus did not say to these men, "agonise"; He said, "Watch with Me." Our Lord tried to lift the veil from before these disciples that they might see what He was going through. Think Who He was—the Son of God: "My soul"—the reasoning Mind of the Lord Jesus Christ—"is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with Me."

The Lure of Wrong Roads to the Kingdom

that ye enter not into temptation . . .

Whenever Jesus talked about His kingdom the disciples misinterpreted what He said to mean a material kingdom to be established on this earth; but Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world: if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews." And again He said, "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation . . . for lo! the kingdom of God is within you." The only way in which we can be saved from the lure of the wrong roads to the kingdom is by doing what our Master tells us, viz., "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation." If we do not watch and pray we shall be led into temptation before we know where we are. "Howbeit when the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" said Jesus. He will find faith in individual men and women, but the general organised form of the Christian Church has slipped almost wholesale on to wrong roads to the kingdom.

(a) The Material Road of Deliverance (Matthew 4:1-4)

"If Thou art the Son of God, command that these stones become bread" (Matthew 4:3). This temptation is profoundly human. If we could only find some means of curing everybody of disease, of feeding them and putting them on a good social basis what a marvellous thing it would be. That is the way we are being told that the kingdom of God is to be established on this earth. "We do not need any more of this talk about the Atonement, and the shedding of blood; what is needed to-day is to spend ourselves for others." That is the lure of the wrong road to the kingdom, and we cannot keep out of it if we forget to watch and pray. "Watch with Me," said Jesus; "mine is the only road to the kingdom." We have to continue with Him in His temptations. "Command that these stones become bread"—"satisfy Your own needs and the needs of men and You will get the kingship of men." Was Satan right? Read John 6:15, "When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take Him by force to make Him a king . . ." Why? He had just fed five thousand of them! yes, but we read that Jesus "departed again into a mountain Himself alone"; He would not be king at that price.

(b) The Mysterious Road of Devotion (Matthew 4:5-7)

Remember, we are dealing with our Lord's presentation of His own temptation; in the most sacred matters rely only on the Holy Ghost, trust no one else.

This temptation presents a wild reach of possibility—"You are the Son of God, do something supernatural that will stagger men, and the world will be at your feet." Was Satan right? Absolutely. Is there not a lure along that road springing up to-day more than ever? There are miraculous dealings which lure to destruction, the tongues movement, the seeking for signs and wonders. Almost without exception the people who are lured on this wrong road are those who have been told to fast and concentrate for something for themselves whereby the Lord may show how marvellous He is. It does look right to human reason when it is just touched on the first outer fringe by the Holy Ghost, but it contradicts emphatically what our Lord teaches, viz., that importunity in intercession is never for ourselves but for others.

"The kingdom of God cometh not with observation": it is at work now; the manifestation of the kingdom of God externally is another thing. The disciples had still got their own ideas of the kingdom, they were blind to what Jesus Christ's kingdom meant, and they were so totally depressed that they slept for their own sorrow. "Watch with Me." How could they? They had no idea what He was after.

(c) The Mental Road of Dominion (Matthew 4:8-10)

This is the temptation to compromise—"Evil is in the world, compromise with it, work with it judiciously." "All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me." This temptation is the most subtle of all. "Don't be so strait-laced; we have passed the day when we believe in a personal devil." May God forgive us, I am afraid we are past that stage. Will the Church that bows down and compromises succeed? Of course it will. It is the very thing that the natural man wants, but it is the lure of a wrong road to the kingdom. Beware of putting anything sweet and winsome in front of the One Who suffered in Gethsemane.

The Light of Undisciplined Vision

. . . the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

It is so easy when we see things in vision to start out and do them. We are caught up into the seventh heaven, far above all the grubby things of earth and it is magnificent for a time, but we have got to come down. After the Mount of Transfiguration comes the place where we have to live, viz., the demon-possessed valley. The test of reality is our life in the valley, not that we fly up among the golden peaks of the early morning.

(a) The Triumphant Minute

"Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona" (Matthew 16:17; cf. John 21:15-19). Peter had his triumphant minute, but he had to go through the mill after it; he went through a tremendous heart-break before he was fit to hear Jesus say, "Feed My sheep." Peter would have done anything for his Lord, the spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. We make allowances for the flesh, but we have no business to; we have to make manifest in the flesh the visions of the spirit. Thank God we are going to Heaven when we die, but thank God we are not going before we die. We get glimpses of Heaven, then we are brought down instantly into actual circumstances. Do not go too long in the light of undisciplined vision. Thank God for the triumphant minute, but we have to walk on earth according to what we saw in vision.

(b) The Transfiguration Moment

"And He was transfigured before them" (Matthew 17:2). Put alongside that moment on the Mount, Jesus standing after the Resurrection on the sea-shore in the early morning with "a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread." Thank God for seeing Jesus transfigured, and for the almightiness of the visions He does give, but remember that the vision is to be made real in actual circumstances; the glory is to be manifested in earthen vessels. It has to be exhibited through finger-tips, through eyes and hands and feet; everywhere where Jesus exhibited it. We are so like Peter on the Mount and say, "O Lord, let me stay here."

(c) The Transcendent Moment

"Even if I must die with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee" (Matthew 26:35). Peter meant it every bit, it was a transcendent moment to him, he would have done anything for Jesus Christ; and yet he denied with oaths and cursesthat he ever knew Him. Peter was no hypocrite, but he did not watch and pray. Peter based his declaration on the keen generosity of his own heart, but he did not understand that he needed to be on another basis altogether, the basis of Redemption.

Thank God for the heroic moments of life! It is comparatively easy to live in the heroic moments. We can all have haloes at times; if we stand in the right place, with stained-glass windows behind us, and have the right kind of dress on, it is not at all difficult to look remarkably fine; but there is nothing in it, not only is there nothing in it, but excessive dangers arise out of it. Beware of the transcendent moment that is a pose. A humorous sense of criticism is wholesome. Some people get to a transcendent moment and someone tells them they look remarkably fine, and everlastingly afterwards they try to live in that transcendent moment. We have to get down to the level where the reality works out, and the whole counsel comes back to this, "Watch and pray"—the secret of the sacred simplicity of prayer. Prayer imparts the power to walk and not faint, and the lasting remembrance of our lives is of the Lord, not of us.

O Lord, unto Thee do I come that I might find grace to praise and worship Thee aright. Lord lift up the light of Thy countenance upon us; send power and majestic grace. ♦ ♦ ♦ O Lord, how good it is for me to know Thee; how essentially necessary it is for me to draw nigh to Thee. How can I falter when Thou art my Life! ♦ ♦ ♦ Lord, our God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of Whom Jesus is the very image, I look to Thee and make my prayer. Bless me this hour with the feeling of Thy presence and the glow of Thy nearness, for I do trust Thee and hope only in Thee.

Lecture: Bible Training College, May 7, 1915

 

What’s the good of prayer?

Chapter I

What's the Good of Prayer? Oswald Chambers

1 Timothy 2:1-8

Because We Need To (Luke 11:1)

For Human Wits Have an End (Psalm 108:13, 19, 28)

For Human Wills Have an End (Romans 8:26)

For Human Wisdom Has an End (James 1:5)

Prayer alters ME

Because We Must Do (James 5:16)

If We Would Know God (Matthew 6:8)

If We Would Help Men (John 14:12-13)

If We Would Do God's Will (1 John 5:14-16)

Prayer alters OTHERS

Because We Can Do (Luke 18:1)

By Asking

By Seeking (Luke 11:9-13; John 15:7)

By Knocking

Prayer alters CIRCUMSTANCES through me

It is only when a man flounders beyond any grip of himself and cannot understand things that he really prays. It is not part of the natural life of a man to pray. By "natural" I mean the ordinary, sensible, healthy, worldly-minded life. We hear it said that a man will suffer in his life if he does not pray; I question it. Prayer is an interruption to personal ambition, and no man who is busy has time to pray. What will suffer is the life of God in him, which is nourished not by food but by prayer. If we look on prayer as a means of developing ourselves, there is nothing in it at all, nor do we find that idea of prayer in the Bible. Prayer is other than meditation; it is that which develops the life of God in us. When a man is born from above (rv mg), the life of the Son of God begins in him, and he can either starve that life or nourish it. Prayer is the way the life of God is nourished. Our Lord nourished the life of God in Him by prayer; He was continually in contact with His Father. We generally look upon prayer as a means of getting things for ourselves, whereas the Bible idea of prayer is that God's holiness and God's purpose and God's wise order may be brought about, irrespective of who comes or who goes. Our ordinary views of prayer are not found in the New Testament.

When a man is in real distress he prays without reasoning; he does not think things out, he simply spurts it out—"Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses." When we get into a tight place our logic goes to the winds, and we work from the implicit part of ourselves.

"Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him." Then why ask? Very evidently our ideas about prayer and Jesus Christ's are not the same. Prayer to Him is not a means of getting things from God, but in order that we may get to know God. Prayer, that is, is not to be used as the petted privilege of a spoiled child seeking for ideal conditions in which to indulge his spiritual propensities ad lib.; the purpose of prayer is to reveal the Presence of God, equally present at all times and in every condition.

A man may say, "Well, if the Almighty has decreed things, why need I pray? If He has made up His mind, what is the use of me thinking I can alter His mind by prayer?" We must remember that there is a difference between God's order and God's permissive will. God's order reveals His character; His permissive will applies to what He permits. For instance, it is God's order that there should be no sin, no suffering, no sickness, no limitation and no death; His permissive will is all these things. God has so arranged matters that we are born into His permissive will, and we have to get at His order by an effort of our own, viz., by prayer. To be children of God, according to the New Testament, does not mean that we are creatures of God only, but that we grow into a likeness to God by our own moral character.

I question whether the people who continually ask for prayer meetings know the first element of prayer. It is often an abortion of religious hysterics, a disease of the nerves taking a spiritual twist. Jesus says we are to pray in His name, i.e., in His nature, and His nature is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost when we are born from above (rv mg; see Luke 11:13; Romans 5:5). Again, Jesus did not promise to be at every prayer meeting, but only at those "where two or three are gathered together in My name," i.e., in His nature (Matthew 18:20). Jesus Christ does not pay any attention to the gift of "religious gab," and His words—"But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking," refer not to the mere repetition and form of words, but to the fact that it is never our earnestness that brings us into touch with God, but our Lord Jesus Christ's vitalising death. (See Hebrews 10:19)

Our Lord in His teaching regarding prayer never once referred to unanswered prayer; He said God always answers prayer. If our prayers are in the name of Jesus, i.e., in accordance with His nature, the answers will not be in accordance with our nature, but with His. We are apt to forget this, and to say without thinking that God does not always answer prayer. He does every time, and when we are in close communion with Him, we realise that we have not been misled.

"Ask, and it shall be given you." We grouse before God, and are apologetic or apathetic, but we ask very few things; yet what a splendid audacity a child-like child has! and our Lord says, "Except ye . . . become as little children. . . ." Jesus says, "Ask, and God will do." Give Jesus Christ a chance, give Him elbow-room, and no man ever does it until he is at his wits' end. During the war many a man prayed for the first time in his life. When a man is at his wits' end, it is not a cowardly thing to pray, it is the only way to get in touch with Reality. As long as we are self-sufficient and complacent, we don't need to ask God for anything, we don't want Him; it is only when we know we are powerless that we are prepared to listen to Jesus Christ and to do what He says.

Then again our Lord says, "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will," i.e., what your will is in. There is very little our wills are in, consequently it is easy to work up false emotions. We intercede in a mechanical way, our minds are not in it. When we see a man going wrong, it is a false way to "buttonhole" him and tell him about it; Jesus Christ says, Come and tell Me, and I will give you life for him that sins not "unto death" (see 1 John 5:16).

Be yourself exactly before God, and present your problems, the things you know you have come to your wits' end about. Ask what you will, and Jesus Christ says your prayers will be answered. We can always tell whether our will is in what we ask by the way we live when we are not praying.

The New Testament view of a Christian is that he is one in whom the Son of God has been revealed, and prayer deals with the nourishment of that life. One way it is nourished is by refusing to worry over anything, for worry means there is something over which we cannot have our own way, and is in reality personal irritation with God. Jesus Christ says, "Don't worry about your life, don't fear them which kill the body; be afraid only of not doing what the Spirit of God indicates to you."

"In every thing give thanks." Never let anything push you to your wits' end, because you will get worried, and worry makes you self-interested and disturbs the nourishment of the life of God. Give thanks to God that He is there, no matter what is happening. Many a man has found God in the belly of hell in the trenches during the days of war, i.e., they came to their wits' end and discovered God. The secret of Christian quietness is not indifference, but the knowledge that God is my Father, He loves me, I shall never think of anything He will forget, and worry becomes an impossibility.

It is not so true that "Prayer changes things" as that prayer changes me, and then I change things; consequently we must not ask God to do what He has created us to do. For instance, Jesus Christ is not a social reformer; He came to alter us first, and if there is any social reform to be done on earth, we must do it. God has so constituted things that prayer on the basis of Redemption alters the way a man looks at things. Prayer is not a question of altering things externally, but of working wonders in a man's disposition. When you pray, things remain the same, but you begin to be different. The same thing when a man falls in love, his circumstances and conditions are the same, but he has a sovereign preference in his heart for another person which transfigures everything. If we have been born from above (rv mg) and Christ is formed in us, instantly we begin to see things differently—"If any man is in Christ, there is a new creation" (rv mg).

Heaven above is brighter blue, Earth around is sweeter green! Something lives in every hue Christless eyes have never seen. Birds with gladder songs o'erflow, Flowers with deeper beauties shine, Since I know, as now I know, I am His, and He is mine.

The good of praying is that it gets us to know God and enables God to perform His order through us, no matter what His permissive will may be. A man is never what he is in spite of his circumstances, but because of them. Circumstances, as Reader Harris once said, are like feather beds—very comfortable to he on top of, but immensely smothering if they get on top of you. Jesus Christ, by the Spirit of God, always keeps us on top of our circumstances.

How beautiful this undisturbed morning hour is with God! ♦ ♦ ♦ O Lord, this day my soul would stay upon Thee as Creator of the world, and upon our Lord Jesus Christ as Creator of His life in me. Oh for the power of Thy Spirit to adore Thee in fuller measure! ♦ ♦ ♦ "What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation. . . ." Can I think of anything so gracious and complete in surrender and devotion and gratitude as to take from Thee? O Lord, I would that I had a livelier sense of Thee and of Thy bounties continually with me. ♦ ♦ ♦ O Lord, this day may Thy beauty and grace and soothing peace be in and upon me, and may no wind or weather or anxiety ever touch Thy beauty and Thy peace in my life or in this place.

Lecture: Bible Training College, April 6, 1915