Communion with Christ

He that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please Him.

John 8:29 (KJV)

  He who holds nearest communion with heaven can best discharge the duties of everyday life. #ThoughtsfortheQuietHour

Are you Near to God?

But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works. Psalms 73:28 (ESV)

Ascend the Mountain and Look

 

  Go up the mountain, and the things in the plain will look very small; the higher you rise the more insignificant they will seem. Hold fellowship with God, and the threatening foes here will seem very, very unformidable. Another way is, pull of the curtain and gaze on what is behind it. …So the world’s hindrances and the world’s difficulties look very lofty till the cloud lifts. But when we see the great white summits, everything lower does not seem so very high after all. Look to Jesus, and that will dwarf the difficulties. –Alex. McLaren

 

 

Do You Need More Time in His Presence?

We mutter, we sputter—

We fume and we spurt.

We mumble and grumble—

Our feelings get hurt.

We can’t understand things—

Our vision get’s dim,

When all that we need—

Is a Moment with Him.

  Anonymous

                                                                                                                                                                                                        




 
  
 Related Resources

 

 

Cleanse Me, Lord!                          Drawing Near to God

 

  

Work your way into a Feeling

Work your way into a Feeling

       We like to feel good, empowered, confident, and successful, but how do we go about doing so? Is our “good” feelings grounded in Christ or in selfishness?

       We often work our way into feelings. For example, when we pursue the Lord and seek His presence, He may seem to hide His face for a while, but just as He did for David, He eventually pulls back the veil and allows us to feel the warmth of His love. But we do not often just have a “good” feeling “by chance.” The feelings which come at us without any effort usually are discouragement, doubt, fear, hate, pride, and the like (tools and attacks of the Enemy)—these feelings are the type that destroy us and keep us from doing anything if we embrace them; however, the Peace of God which comes through Jesus Christ is received as we seek the Lord Jesus. We should study the Lord’s Word and repeat His words of peace to ourselves until our work has become the feeling; and the sense or the perception of His peace surrounding us.

“Good” Feelings aren’t bad, but they are not the determiner of our success as a Christian.

     In times of persecution, we must work our way into feelings. After hard days at work and spiritual battle, we must set aside time for the Lord, time to simply tell Him about our frustrations, meditate on His Word, listen (to recorded or live) sermons, pray with a Christian brother, or just cry out in brokenness.

     I have found myself, more and more, over the last few years just letting out my problems to the Lord, pursuing Him when life gets tough—in short, casting all my cares upon Him. Now, I’m not perfect and often struggle for a while trying to brave things out in my own strength before I turn to Christ for my strength. But when I do turn to Him, when I simply pause and work on spending time with the Lord; peace, rest, and contentment eventually follow even if the situation has not become easier.

    Remember that you do work yourself into many feelings, and you can “work your way” into the presence of God to experience joy, peace, and contentment as you seek Him as David did. Study David’s Psalms today and notice how He pressed into the Presence of the Lord in the Hard times and often came out feeling completely different.

 

Daily Devotion from Ryan Marks book Thoughts

Thought 126

Music

          The type of music you listen to impacts your spirit. Music can uplift and encourage you or it tear you down and depress you. You can praise God with music or you can worship human ideals, the body, or perverted interests with music. You can choose to guard your ears or you can listen to anything. Either way, you have a choice to make. No one can force you not to listen to a certain type of music. The point is do you believe that music impacts you? Do you live like it does? Do you think that it can arouse emotions that should not be aroused?

           What about the rebellious spirit in the youth of America? A lot of songs from famous young singers are about independence, and the other bulk of their songs are about “love” and sex. Should these things be in the minds of the young people of America? Should they be saturating themselves with such worldly ideals? They will have to make the choice for themselves: whether to guard themselves or listen to anything . . . . and you have a choice as well. What type of music will you feed your soul with? What type of music do you feed your soul with?. . . .

“Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?" Daniel 3:15 NIV

“All these men were under the supervision of their fathers for the music of the temple of the LORD, with cymbals, lyres and harps, for the ministry at the house of God. Asaph, Jeduthun and Heman were under the supervision of the king.” 1 Chronicles 25:6 NIV

“Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him. Praise the Lord with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre. Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.” Psalm 33:1-3 NIV

"And now their sons mock me in song; I have become a byword among them.” Job 30:9 NIV

”And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps.” Revelation 14:2 NIV

“Let our lord command his servants here to search for someone who can play the harp. He will play when the evil spirit from God comes upon you, and you will feel better.”  So Saul said to his attendants, “Find someone who plays well and bring him to me.” One of the servants answered, “I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the harp. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the Lord is with him.” Then Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, “Send me your son David, who is with the sheep.” So Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a skin of wine and a young goat and sent them with his son David to Saul. David came to Saul and entered his service. Saul liked him very much, and David became one of his armor-bearers. Then Saul sent word to Jesse, saying, “Allow David to remain in my service, for I am pleased with him.” Whenever the spirit from God came upon Saul, David would take his harp and play. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him.” 1 Samuel 16:16-23 NIV

    Music does affect us; either negatively or positively. Think on these verses that have been given.