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What do you do when you realize that your love for God is sub-par at best? How do you respond when you feel like you’ve forgotten how to pray? What steps do you take when you recognize a deficiency in your walk with the Lord, but you don’t know how to fix the problem?
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Here’s the setting: You’re sitting in a restaurant with your friends enjoying dinner. This is one of those restaurants that offers complimentary ice cream cones after every meal, and the ice cream machine has been getting a steady stream of traffic since you sat down. As you watch, kids all across the building scarf down their food with enthusiasm before turning (with mouths still full of their last bites) to their parents to get permission to go get ice cream. The kids can hardly stay in their chairs, hopping down and running to the ice cream machine as soon as they get the go ahead. You watch as little boys and girls figure out just how high they can get their soft serve to go on their little cones, and you laugh as the once clean faces are now being painted with vanilla. But then you notice one little boy crying.
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What God has spoken then
Seems lost before the now,
The call to enter in
Eclipsed before the how.
The weight of life doth wear
Upon the focused brow,
But God knows ev’ry care.
He ever keeps his vow.
So trust we now our King
And hope in his command
And with the angels sing,
For he has made us stand.
We do not face his wrath-
Eternal reprimand-
For we now walk his path,
The purpose he hath planned.
Though circumstances prod,
Fulfilment we shall see,
In spite of shield or sword
Or strong desire to flee.
Thus says the Lord our God,
And thus it comes to be.
The promise of the Lord-
Reliability.
“The third wheel is what makes it a tricycle.” – Michael Scott (“The Office”)
Oh how quickly we abandon
Our morality and will
When, to our complete confusion,
Circumstances strike us ill.
Ill-advised is our rebellion,
Yet the rebel’s part we play:
From disciple into hellion
When the storm invades the day.
Can we not remember glory,
That our Lord has won the fight?
Do we yet forget the story?
Light has broken through the night!
Suffering is light and fleeting
When compared to Christ above.
No bereavement, bane, or beating
Breaks the grip of God’s great love.
Persecution serves to purge us.
Suffering now sanctifies.
We are bought by Christ’s own purchase,
Seeing now with open eyes.
Therefore, we count joy our sorrow,
Singing praise in deepest pain.
Should we face our death tomorrow,
Even this is wond’rous gain.
My life is not what I had thought ‘twould be
When I thought future thoughts in yesteryear.
I saw as if upon a serene sea,
And set the sail with very little fear.
In hope, I left to follow heaven’s Way,
Believing that the path I saw was set;
But storms of life began to cloud the day
Until the plan I knew I did forget.
So have I learned to let the rudder keep
Within the hand of One who knows the course:
The Savior and the Shepherd of the sheep,
He is the destination and the source.
I need not fear though faced with darkest night.
By grace I sail by faith and not by sight.
The war is won, for one we are
With One who wore the whip and thorn.
He condescended from afar,
For Father’s glory being born.
Into a world that was His own,
For He created and sustains,
He came to claim His rightful throne
For He, in love and justice, reigns.
His own, however, knew him not,
Nor understood His holy name,
Devising their devilish plot
To stifle their salvation’s flame.
But God almighty reigns above
The wicked plans of wicked men.
He brought the victory of love
To light through mankind’s darkest sin.
The depth of man’s depravity
Was part of heaven’s perfect plan.
Infinity in brevity
Confounded ev’ry mind of man.
So do not think that God most high
Could ever fall to circumstance.
Your hope and help can never die,
So trust the Truth and dare to dance.
The Ten Commandments.
When you read those words, you probably thought about one of three things: The Law of God, Moses, or Charlton Heston. It’s possible that you pictured Christian Bale, but I’m assuming there aren’t many who made that specific connection. Regardless of what your mind associates that title with, I doubt that the Ten Commandments are totally foreign to you. You may even be trying to count how many you know from memory, listing them off in classic King James Version English (“Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal,” etc. (Exodus 20:13-15, KJV)). Continue reading
Counted righteous, yet we sin
Broken, but He lives within
Dying daily while we live
We are paupers, yet we give
Owning, but cannot afford
Wealth belonging to the Lord
Rich beyond all human dreams
In the desert finding streams
Walking from the state of death
Lungs of dust inflate with breath
Weakness shows a deeper might
Faith replaces eyes for sight
Hope endures when hope has died
Tortured souls in peace abide
Counting joy the deepest strife
Dying Son; eternal life
Have you ever read something that made you second guess your level of devotion to the Lord? I recently started reading through The Journals of Jim Elliot, and I’ve started wondering if I even know the Lord at all. Ok, that’s probably an exaggeration. But Elliot’s heart for God, his concern for holiness, and his bold prayers challenge my weak faith. He follows a simple model in journaling: he simply reads a chapter in Scripture, finds a point of application, and then prays for growth in godliness. His method isn’t complicated. Even the youngest Christian can follow his format. And yet, by his simple faith and obedience, Elliot models a vibrant walk with the Lord. I’m currently reading through his thoughts on Exodus (which have been incredibly sobering), and I’ve found myself speechless before his testimony. As I was reading through his journal entries, one entry in particular struck me.
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as i learn to walk 