Man - Doesn't Need Improvement - C S Lewis

Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms.


Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realising that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor -- that is the only way out of our 'hole.'


This process of surrender -- this movement full speed astern --is what Christians call repentance.


Remember, this repentance, this willing submission to humiliation and a kind of death, is not something God demands of you before He will take you back and which He could get you out of if He chose: it is simply a description of what going back to Him is like.


If you ask God to take you back without it you are really asking Him to let you go back without going back. It cannot happen.

 -- From Mere Christianity by C S Lewis

Does God Really Want To Be With Us?

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

"My Father's house has many rooms...I am going to prepare a place for you...I will come back and take you to be with me so that you will be where I am." (John 14:2-4)

"And so we will be with the Lord forever" (I Thessalonians 4:17)

                                        God wants us to be with Him forever!

                                               He takes that very seriously.

                             Looks like He would rather die than live without us!

                             

                                                        .... and so He did...

Engraved on His Hands - Charles Spurgeon

      Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands...
                                               Isaiah 49:16

No doubt part of the wonder that is concentrated in the word "behold" is on account of the contrast with the unbelieving lament in the proceeding sentence: "Zion said, 'The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.'"

How amazed the divine mind seems to be at the wicked unbelief! What can be more astonishing than the unfounded doubts and fears of God's favored people?

The Lord's loving word of rebuke should make us blush.

He cries, "How can I have forgotten you when I have engraved you on the palms of My hands? How dare you doubt My constant remembrance when the memorial is carved upon my own flesh?"


O unbelief, what a strange marvel you are! We do not know what to wonder at most -- the faithfulness of God or the unbelief of His people.

He keeps His promise a thousand times, and yet the next trial makes us doubt Him.

He never fails. He is never a dry well. He is never a setting sun, a passing meteor, or a melting vapor, and yet we are as continually troubled with anxieties, molested with suspicions and disturbed with fears as if our God were a mirage of the desert.

"Behold" is a word intended to stir up our admiration.

Here, indeed, we have a theme for marveling. Heaven and earth may well be astonished that rebels should obtain such a closeness to the heart of infinite love as to be written on the palms of His hands.

"I have engraved you." It does not say, "your name."  The name is there, but that is not all: I have engraved you.

Consider the depth of this!  "I have engraved your person, your image, your circumstances, your sins, your temptations, your weakness, your wants, your works; I have engraved you - everything about you, all that concerns you - I have put all of this together here."

Will you ever say again that your God has forsaken you when He has engraved you on His own palms?

Paul Miller - A Praying Life - The 1st Idea

Praying in Jesus' Name...

     Imagine that your prayer is a poorly dressed beggar reeking of alcohol and body odor, stumbling toward the palace of the great king.

You have become your prayer.

As you shuffle toward the barred gate, the guards stiffen. Your smell has preceded you. You stammer out a message for the great king: "I want to see the king."

Your words are barely intelligible, but you whisper one final word: "Jesus. I come in the name of Jesus."

At the name of Jesus, as if by magic, the palace comes alive. The guards snap to attention, bowing low in front of you. Lights come on and the door flies open.

You are ushered into the palace and down a long hallway into the throne room of the great king, who comes running to you and wraps you in his arms.

The name of Jesus gives my prayers royal access. They get through.

Jesus isn't just the Savior of my soul. Jesus is the Savior of my prayers.

               - Paul Miller, A Praying Life


The palace guards bow to me...

          The Father runs toward me and wraps me
              in His arms....

It's truly Amazing Grace.

                                                       ~~~~

     Let us then approach with confidence the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

- Hebrews 4:16

How Do We Build Unity?

 

Ephesians 4:3 tells us, "Make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace."

Jesus prayed, on His last night on earth, "My prayer is not for them [His apostles] alone. I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message [that's us], that all of them may be one...that they may be brought into complete unity." (John 17)

Nowhere in Scripture are we told to "build unity." We are told to keep unity, guard it, preserve it.

We don't create unity - we are to protect it!

God, through His Son, has already done all the work to establish unity. We are to maintain it!

We are to "Make every effort to keep the unity".

How do we do that?

In our love for each other. 

When we disagree....we do it in love!

According to 1 Corinthians 13 --  "Love suffers long and is kind, does not envy, does not parade itself [parades others], is not rude, endures all things...never fails.

Jesus told us, "All men will know you are My disciples if you love one another."

That's how we keep our unity!