Tag Archives: spiritual growth

Dust Kiddies Pt. 4

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles
Little Lamb! Little Lamb! Who hath made thee?

Little Lamb! Little Lamb! Who hath made thee?

 

Today’s post is 4th in a series on the frailty of man and the strength of God. If you missed any of the previous posts you can find them at:

https://josephelonlillie.com/2014/09/09/dust-kiddies-pt-1/

https://josephelonlillie.com/2014/09/10/dust-kiddies-pt-2/

https://josephelonlillie.com/2014/09/11/dust-kiddies-pt-3/

 

Yesterday we discussed how the Lord wants to help us overcome our weakness and proclivity towards sin. That is good news! But there is more besides. Not only does God want to help us overcome our weakness, He wants to fill us with power that is not ours to accomplish great things. We  were meant from something great but before we can do that great thing we must realize we cannot do it in our own strength.

Speaking through the apostle Paul God tells us,

6 For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.

7 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure.[a] This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. 2 Cor. 4:6, 

When I first became a Christian the church was singing this song,

 

 

 

 

 

 

We dust kiddies were meant to be the temples of the Holy Ghost ; And because we are the temples of the Holy Spirit we are “Filled with praise, with power and with glory.”

You are the temple of the Holy Ghost Dust Kiddie and you were meant to do something great.

You may say “I can’t do anything great.” 

But that is not true. Madeleine L’Engle writes,

“In a very real sense not one of us is qualified, but it seems that God continually chooses the most unqualified to do his work, to bear his glory. If we are qualified, we tend to think that we have done the job ourselves. If we are forced to accept our evident lack of qualification, then there’s no danger that we will confuse God’s work with our own, or God’s glory with our own.”

― Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art

And that great missionary James Hudson Taylor said,

“All God’s giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on God being with them.”

― James Hudson Taylor

 

Listen! Our lives with God and our service to God should challenge us. Our Christianity should make us realize we are living out the impossible.

When was the last time your service to God drove you to your knees?

When was the last time you allowed  God to give you a task that was outside of your comfort zone?

Our work for God should drive us to our knees on a regular basis not because we are so righteous and godly we always pray but out of desperation because it is beyond us.Our work for God needs to be bigger than our own power to accomplish it. It needs to challenge us to a place beyond our own ability. It needs to drive us to prayer.

If you have gotten to a place where you have allowed ministry to become comfortable, if you have lost the challenge of ministry today or maybe you have never allowed the Lord to challenge you in ministry will you allow Him today to offer that challenge? Will you begin to ask Him to fill your earthen vessel with a light that will bring you into the challenge of changing the world?

 

 

Dust Kiddies Pt. 3

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles
Little Lamb! Little Lamb! Who hath made thee?

Little Lamb! Little Lamb! Who hath made thee?

This is part three of our sermon series Dust Kiddies. If you missed parts 1 and 2 they can be found at the links below.

https://josephelonlillie.com/2014/09/09/dust-kiddies-pt-1/

https://josephelonlillie.com/2014/09/10/dust-kiddies-pt-2/

Now let’s get on with today’s portion of the study:

We have established in the two previous posts that spiritually we are totally unable to help or save ourselves but that God wants to help us if we will just admit our need of Him.

God wants to help us in two ways. Today let’s discuss the first.

God  wants to help us overcome our weakness and our proclivity towards sin.

Dillon Burroughs writes, “The solution to our human frailty is not to try harder, but to turn Godward.”

― Dillon Burroughs, Hunger No More: A 1-Year Devotional Journey Through the Psalms

The truth is, that while your weakness may have defined who you are up to this present time it does not have to define you anymore.  The GOOD NEWS of Christianity is that we can be born again! We used to sing a song when I first became a Christian that went something like,

” There’s been a great great change since I’ve been born. There’s been a great great change since I’ve been born. There’s been a great great change since I’ve been born again.”

Jesus himself  said that the process of becoming a Christian is literally being “BORN AGAIN”

Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again,[a] you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

4 “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”

5 Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.[b] 6 Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.[c] 7 So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You[d] must be born again.’ John 3:3-7 NLT

In the end of the matter, we are set free from our lives of weakness not by trying harder but being born again and we are born again when the Spirit of God comes into our hearts by our prayerful invitation.

Let’s pray together now:

Father God I realize I cannot help myself or work my way out of a life of sin. Only you can help me. I admit that. So Lord come into my life right now. Cause me to be born again. Forgive all my sin and give me a new start a new life birthed by the Spirit of God. I believe it is possible through Jesus Christ, his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. Amen.

Hey if you prayed that prayer with me for the first time would you drop me a comment to let me know?

Dust Kiddies Pt. 2

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles
Little Lamb! Little Lamb! Who hath made thee?

Little Lamb! Little Lamb! Who hath made thee?

“Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.

 Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made…The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it.” Ge. 2:7,8,15

 

“The Lord is like a father to his children,
    tender and compassionate to those who fear him.

 For he knows how weak we are;
    he remembers we are only dust.” Psalm 103:13,14

 

“For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.

 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.” 2 Cor. 4:6,7

For all the posturing we have heard in the world about the greatness of the human race and the glorious future of mankind, the truths of Scripture listed above are echoed again and again throughout our history.

 Shakespeare said:

“We all are men, in our own natures frail, and capable of our flesh; few are angels.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry VIII

And Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe said

Some of our weakness is born in us, some of it comes through education; it is a big question as to which gives us the most trouble.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

 

The point is that the weakness of man is simply a truth. The sinfulness of man is simply a truth. Our culture may deny it and tell us we are good people who only sometimes do evil. Our culture may tell us that mankind is getting better and better under its own power but that is a lie the truth is spelled out by Paul quoting the prophet Isaiah to the Romans,

10 As the Scriptures say,

“No one is righteous—
    not even one.
11 No one is truly wise;
    no one is seeking God.
12 All have turned away;
    all have become useless.
No one does good,
    not a single one.” 

Romans 3:10-12

I am not strong I am weak. You are not strong you are weak. We are all of us dust kiddies and God knows it; The world around us knows it; The only ones who ever deny it are ourselves. We can easily admit that the person next to us is weak but to admit it to ourselves is another matter. 

Today it is time for us to pull back the veil on our vanity and simply admit we are weak. We were formed of dust. Our strength is dust and we shall return to dust in a very few short years. We cannot save ourselves. We cannot help ourselves. We cannot fix ourselves because there is nothing of strength in us. 

That is the beginning of the Gospel, the Good news. Now, if that is where the Good news ended I don’t think any of us would think it was very good news. The truth is though we cannot start out on the road to good news without at first acknowledging the bad news. The good news is, though we cannot help ourselves there is a God who wants to help us! And the better news is the only thing standing in the way of His helping us is our own foolish notion that we can help ourselves. Once we line ourselves up with the truth of Scripture that, we are in and of ourselves completely helpless, then God is able to come and give us the help we need! AND HE WANTS TO HELP US!

 

If you missed part one of this sermon go to:

https://josephelonlillie.com/2014/09/09/dust-kiddies-pt-1/

Dust Kiddies Pt. 1

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles
Little Lamb, Little Lamb Who hath made thee?

Little Lamb, Little Lamb Who hath made thee?

I was recently at a meeting in which someone had the gall to ask “who do you think you are? Why should I listen to you?”

My initial reaction was “Well let me tell you who I am. I am Pastor J. Lillie I’ve been….”

Then God asked me “Who do you think you are?”

And as He asked it these verses came to mind.

“Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.

 Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made…The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it.” Ge. 2:7,8,15

 

“The Lord is like a father to his children,
    tender and compassionate to those who fear him.

 For he knows how weak we are;
    he remembers we are only dust.” Psalm 103:13,14

 

“For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.

 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure.[b] This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.” 2 Cor. 4:6,7

I am a created being made from the dust of the earth. From dust I come and to dust I will return. My life span in this body is 70 years and a few. I am a sinner saved by grace totally irredeemable apart from the miracle of the cross of Christ and the miracle of His resurrection. All my righteousness or good works is nothing more than filthy rags . I have no real glory apart from what He gives me.

Who am I?

I am nothing more than a dust kiddie, a child of dust roaming the earth looking for a place to land, an empty vessel with nothing inside but generations of dust and death to my credit. Under my own power I can never become anything more than dust and death and my friend neither can you. 

Do you ever feel like me, a dust kiddie? What do you do with those feelings?

Check in for the next portion of our study tomorrow!