The Place and Person of Victory

Jesus is Victor. Calvary is the place of victory. Obedience is the pathway of victory, Bible study and prayer the preparation. Courage, faith, the spirit of victory--every temptation is a chance for victory, a signal to fly the flag of our Victor, a chance to make the tempter know anew that he is defeated. Roy Hession writes in Calvary Road: "Jesus is always victorious. We have only to kep the right relationship with Him and His victorious life will flow through us and touch other people."

--Corrie ten Boom

A Prayer for Joy

“A Prayer for Joy”

Help me, O God,

To listen to what it is that makes my heart glad

And to follow where it leads.

May joy, not guilt,

Your voice, not the voices of others,

Your will, not my willfulness,

Be the guides that led me to my vocation.

Help me to unearth the passions of my heart

That lay burred in my youth.

And help me to go over that ground again and again

Until I can hold in my hands,

Hold and treasure,

Your calling on my life.

--Ken Gire, Windows of the Soul

True Servanthood: Mary not Martha

  I believe servant leadership is living like Christ—obeying only the will of our Father. It is not attempting to fulfill everyone’s expectation, whim or request in an effort to be a slave. We are slaves of Christ alone, not man. I believe the most basic thing a minister can do to cultivate the qualities of servant leadership involves two sides of the same coin: one abide in a life of worship of Christ, resting in His vine and easy yoke (be a Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet & not a Martha running around in one’s own strength to win the world for Christ), and obeying Christ

The Righteous Choose thier Friends Carefully

 

The righteous shall choose his friends carefully,

for the way of the wicked leads them astray.

In the way of righteousness is life.

Proverbs 12:26,28 NKJV

 

 

Scripture on Anxiety

 

Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad.

Proverbs 12:25 NKJV

 

 

On Unbelief by Frangipane

"We have received too much from God to allow ourselves opportunities for unbelief. We have received too many gifts and privileges to allow a grumbling, murmuring heart to disqualify us of our destiny. In contrast, the thankful heart sees the best part of every situation. It sees problems and weaknesses as opportunities, struggles as refining tools, and sinners as saints in progress." --Francis Frangipane

bear another's burdens

Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

Gal 6:2 (KJV)

     However perplexed you may at any hour become about some question of truth, one refuge and resource is always at hand: you can do something for some one beside yourself. At the times when you cannot see God, there is still open to you this sacred possibility, to show God: for it is the love and kindness of human hearts through which the divine reality comes home to men, whether they name it or not. Let this thought, then, stay with you: there may be times when you cannot find help, but there is no time when you cannot give help. –George Merriam

A Daily Load

A daily rate for every day.

2 Kings 25:30 (KJV)

   One staff aids a traveler, but a bundle of staves is a heavy burden. –Spurgeon

He leads His Flock

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

Psalms 23:2 (KJV)

    This suggests the rest into which our Good Shepherd leads His flock. Life is not all toil. God gives us many quiet resting-places in our pilgrim way.

     Night is one of these, when, after the day’s toil, struggle, and exhaustion, we are led aside, and the curtains are drawn to shut out the noise, and He giveth his beloved sleep, in sleep giving wonderful blessings of renewal. The Sabbath is another of these quiet resting-places. God would have us drop our worldly tasks, and have a day for the refreshing of both body and soul. . . . Friendship’s trysts are also quiet resting-places, where heart may commune with heart, where Jesus comes, too, unseen, and gives His blessing. All ordinances of Christian worship—seasons of prayer and devotion, hours of communion with God—are quiet resting-places.

      Far more than we are apt to realize do we need these silent times in our busy life, needing them all the more the busier the life may be. –J.R. Miller

Giants Keeping you from the Promised Land?

We came unto the land whither thou sentest us . . . we saw the children of Anak there.

Num 13:27-28 (KJV)

   It is when we are in the way of duty that we find giants. It was when Israel was going forward that the giants appeared. When they turned back into the wilderness they found none. #ThoughtsfortheQuietHour

Distracted by Other's Needs

They made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.

Song 1:6 (KJV)

   Our attention is here drawn to a danger which is preeminently one of this day: the intense activity of our times may lead to zeal in service to the neglect of personal communion; but such neglect will not only lessen the value of service, but tend to incapacitate us for the highest service. –J. Hudson Taylor

Not Succeeding in this World

That night they caught nothing.

John 21:3 (KJV)

   God may let the sinful world succeed in their forbidden schemes, but, blessed be His name, He does not allow His chosen ones to prosper in the path which leads them out of His holy will! He has a storm to send after every Jonah, and an empty net for every unbelieving and inconsistent Simon. –A.B. Simpson

A Quiet Hour with God

In the morning came the word of the Lord unto me.

Ezek 12:8 (KJV)

    A quiet hour spent alone with God at the beginning of the day is the best beginning for the toils and cares of active business. A brief season of prayer, looking above for wisdom and grace and strength, and seeking for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, helps us to carry out religion into the business of the day. It brings joy and peace within the heart. And as we place all our concerns in the care and keeping of the Lord, faithfully striving to do His will, we have a joyful trust that however dark or discouraging events may appear, our Father’s hand is guiding everything and will give the wisest direction to all our toils. #ThoughtsfortheQuietHour

Little Compromises

Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom.”

Song 2:15 (ESV)

    How numerous the little foxes are! Little compromises with the world; disobedience to the still, small voice in little things; little indulgences of the flesh to the neglect of duty; little strokes of policy; doing evil in little things that good may come; and the beauty, and the fruitfulness of the vine are sacrificed!—J. Hudson Taylor