For me literature must have ethical dimension. the aim of literature…is to disturb. I disturb the reader because I dare to put questions to God, the source of all faith. I disturb the miscreant because despite my doubts and questions, I refuse to break with the religious and mystical universe that has shaped my own. Most of all, I disturb those who are comfortably settled within a system-be it political, psychological, or theological. If I have learned anything in my life, it is to distrust in intellectual comfort.” Elie Weisel
Tag Archives: spiritual growth
Humility Quote 20
Nothing is in vain or without profit to the humble soul; it stands always in a state of divine growth. Everything that falls upon it is like a dew of Heaven to it.” Andrew Murray, Humility, p 79
This is the last quote I took from Andrew Murray’s book, Humility . I may have read the whole book just for this quote! I so want God to bring me to this perspective!
Which of the Humility quotes was your favorite?
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Heaven Pt. 153: The Persecution Of the Saints
O God, the nations have come into your inheritance;
they have defiled your holy temple;
they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
2 They have given the bodies of your servants
to the birds of the heavens for food,
the flesh of your faithful to the beasts of the earth.
3 They have poured out their blood like water
all around Jerusalem,
and there was no one to bury them.
4 We have become ha taunt to our neighbors,
mocked and derided by those around us.
5 How long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever?
Will your jealousy burn like fire?
6 Pour out your anger on the nations
that do not know you,
and on the kingdoms
that do not call upon your name!
7 For they have devoured Jacob
and laid waste his habitation.
8 Do not remember against us our former iniquities;
let your compassion come speedily to meet us,
for we are brought very low.
9 Help us, O God of our salvation,
for the glory of your name;
deliver us, and atone for our sins,
for your name’s sake!
10 Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants
be known among the nations before our eyes!
11 Let the groans of the prisoners come before you;
according to your great power, preserve those doomed to die!
12 Return sevenfold into the lap of our neighbors
the taunts with which they have taunted you, O Lord!
13 But we your people, the sheep of your pasture,
will give thanks to you forever;
from generation to generation we will recount your praise. Psm 79 ESV
The persecution we see of our Christian brothers around the world is nothing new in practice. Christians and believing Jews throughout the ages have been martyred since the dawn of faith in practice. What is new is the scope. More believers have been martyred in the last century than in the first 19 combined; But that is nothing more than is to be expected. Jesus said,
“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. 17Be on your guard; you will be handed over to the local councils and be flogged in the synagogues. 18On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles.19But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, 20for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
21“Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 22You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 23When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. Ma. 10:16-23 NIV
So what are we to do in the light of the growing persecution of our faith? We are to respond with the same prayer that the 1st century saints responded, “
“Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:
“ ‘Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
26The kings of the earth rise up
and the rulers band together
against the Lord
27Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.28They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 29Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” Acts 4: 25-30 NIV
It is the prayer of faith that asks for deliverance in the trouble not from the trouble that will bring the shaking of our places of worship into order!
So Pray to be able to speak boldly
Pray for the power to heal
Pray for signs and wonders in the name of Jesus!
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Humility Quote 19
“Till the spirit of the heart is renewed, till it is emptied of all earthly desires and stands in an habitual hunger and thirst after God, wich is the true spirit of prayer; till then, all our prayer will, be more or less, but too much like lessons given to scholars; and we will mostly say them, only because we dare not neglect them.” Andrew Murray, Humility, 78
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Humility Quote 18
It is indeed blessed, the deep happiness of Heaven, to be so free from self that whatever is said of us or done to us is lost and swallowed up, in the thought that Jesus is all.” Andrew Murray, Humility, p. 69
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A True Beginner
Recently I decided it was time to start getting rid of some of my baby fat (after all I have been carrying it around for some 45 years now), and to start toning up this aging body of mine. My problem is always finding time. I’ve considered a gym but I just don’t have the time to drive there work out and then drive back home. I thought about bow-flex but frankly I just can’t see buying another clothes rack I mean exercise machine. Then I heard about this site on-line called the Daily Burn and thought I’d give it a try. I signed up and answered the site’s preliminary questions and from that they placed me in the “True beginner” category.
Now at first I was a little offended. I am not a true beginner. I’ve started hundreds of exercise programs (or maybe 10) ; But hey! that ought to at least put me in the moderately knowledgable category, shouldn’t it?
Here’s the thing I am learning. It’s not about the past or where I have been. It is about right now and what I can handle in the present. The fact that twenty seven years ago I found a great program and lost 30 pounds does not mean that as a forty -seven year old who has gained back 80 of those 30 pounds I can pick right back up where I left off. I have much lost ground to recover before I can even dream of doing the things I was able to do back then.
As I started the first “True Beginner” exercise session I learned I was in the right spot after all. I think I was in the middle of my third set of squats when I began having this sensation that my quadriceps were going to pop right out through my skin and run screaming through the streets that there was someone trying to murder them. Knowing what a squat was or that it was working my quads did little to change the fact that it hurt like the dickens.
The spiritual application should be apparent. We can have all the book learning about God there is to be had but in the end all the head knowledge in the world cannot make us mature Christians. It’s not knowledge about how to walk the walk that makes us strong; It’s walking the walk and putting the biblical principles into practice that strengthens us.
Just like starting a new exercise program pains the body, so applying biblical principles for the first time will cause our spirits to be stretched. It has little to do with how long we have been Christians or how long we have known the truth. It has everything to do with being new to the exercise.
Sometimes we think that if we just hang around the church long enough our problems will just solve themselves. Sometimes we think that if we just believe long enough temptation will stop being tempting.
“That’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works!” as the popular ad here in the States says.
As I approach this new exercise program I have to accept that I am a true beginner. I have to work through the aches and pains until my body gets used to the principles of use. Every time I practice a new spiritual discipline or confront a new spiritual stronghold I have to accept that once again I am in “True beginner” territory. I have to expect some discomfort to come with change. I have to give my spiritual muscles time to get use to the new principles the Holy Spirit is working inside me. But with both spiritual and physical exercise, I can rejoice that in the discomfort progress is being made.
So let me ask how do you work through the uncomfortable places of spiritual growth?
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Humility Quote 17
“Humility means the giving up of self and the taking of the place of perfect nothingness before God.” Andrew Murray, Humility, p 60
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Humility Quote 15
“Pride renders faith impossible. Salvation comes through a cross and a crucified Christ. Salvation is the fellowship with the crucified Christ in the Spirit of His cross. Salvation is union with and delight in, salvation is participation in, the humility of Jesus.” Andrew Murray, Humility, p. 55
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Humility Quote 14
“Humility is simply the disposition which prepares the soul for living on trust.” Andrew Murray, Humility, p. 54
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Fresh Cream and the Sacred Creamers
“…Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.” Ma. 9:17 ESV
My grandfather was once asked to host a dinner for his church. As a restaurant owner,Gramps was an old hand at serving food to large groups of people (that’s why the church asked him after all); So he went about preparing for the meal and setting things up so that feeding the community would go off with maximum efficiency and minimum effort.
He ordered the meats and supplies through his wholesaler and brought in some of his equipment from the restaurant for the event itself. One of the things he ordered to expedite the coffee service was a box of individualized creamers.
The day of the event he set up his teams and then posted himself in the kitchen to tend the meats while the dining room staff set up the tables, coffee service and dessert centers. Alan was in charge of the coffee service.
Once he saw that the ham and beans were well situated Gramps took a spin around the fellowship hall to make sure things were going all right: table cloths were on, silver was set out, the dessert table was on its way to completion and there was Alan busily opening each individual creamer and pouring them all into the old silver creamer sets the church owned.
“Alan what are you doing?.” My grandfather asked.
“Well I am trying to get all the cream into the church pitchers, Joe.” Alan replied matter-of-factly.
“But Alan those are individual creamers. They aren’t meant to go into the pitchers. You just need to put them in a bowl with some ice and people serve themselves.”
Alan looked at my grandfather completely astonished at what Gramps was suggesting, “Well Joe that just ain’t Christian!”
We Christians really do hate change. We get used to God moving in a certain way and we make a sacred cow out of the method forgetting that God only uses certain wine skins (or certain creamer pitchers) for certain seasons.
Our church, not just Cornerstone but the universal church, is going into a new season. Let’s not forget that the way God moved up until now may not be the way God chooses to move in the days ahead.
I am not talking about matters of biblical directive (which are set in stone). I am talking about methods and structures of church living (which change with the generations and culture). A new harvest field, a last days harvest field requires a new set of tools to effectively bring in the harvest.
God is setting us up for change folks and we have to be ready for it. We cannot complain when it comes, after all we prayed for it; So as the church changes around us to accommodate for this new harvest remember these words from the Apostle Paul:
“that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Lights in the World
12Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
14Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, ” Phil. 2:10-15 ESV
Change often makes us feel like this
Let’s set our determination so that when every thing inside feels like screaming for a halt to the changes, we instead react like the little child of faith who simply bends his knee to speak with the King about the concerns at hand.
Lillie-Put 
