Me in brief

I feel it's about time I shared my testimony. I grew up going to a small methodist church. Most of the time I tried not to fall asleep, paying little or no attention to the message. I was almost always the quiet child, except when my temper was getting the better of me. Not only was my temper bad, but I cursed like a salor. If the first two werent enough, Sometime my junior year of high school we got dial up internet, and I discovered pornography. This discovery would consume me for several years. I would try to fight it, but I would seldom win.

Then jesus...

I began attending a growing church and the intersection of port republic and boyers road. It was a different kinda service than I was used to. I was only familiar with traditional... but services here were vibrant truthful. At easter services I gave my life to christ. A few years later my twins were born. Seeing my children born solidified my faith that jesus not only was born, bled and died. But he loved me and my newborn children enough to give his life for us.



Galatians 2:20 NLT

My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Ephesians 6:18 NLT

Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.

Carnal 0r Spiritual?

"And Peter went out and wept bitterly." Luke xxii. 62. THESE words indicate the turning-point in the life of Peter, — a crisis. There is often a question about the life of holiness. Do you grow into it? or do you come into it by a crisis suddenly? Peter had been growing for three years under the training of Christ, but he had grown terribly downward, for the end of his growing was, he denied Jesus. And then there came a crisis. After the crisis he was a changed man, and then he began to grow aright. We must indeed grow in grace, but before we can grow in grace we must be put right. You know what the two halves of the life of Peter were. In God's Word we read very often about the difference between the carnal and the spiritual Christian. The word "carnal" comes from the Latin word for flesh. In Romans viii., and in Gal. v., we are taught that the flesh and the Spirit of God are the two opposing powers by which we are dominated or ruled, and we are taught that a true believer may allow himself to be ruled by the flesh. That is what Paul writes to the Corinthians. In the 3rd chapter, the first four verses, he says four times to them, "You are carnal, and not spiritual." And just so a believer can allow the flesh to have so much power over him that becomes "carnal." Every object is named according to its most prominent characteristic. If a man is a babe in Christ and has a little of the Holy Spirit and a great deal of the flesh, he is called carnal, for the flesh is his chief mark. If he gives way, as the Corinthians did, to strife, temper, division, and envy, he is a carnal Christian, He is a Christian, but a carnal one. But if he gives himself over entirely to the Holy Spirit so that He (the Holy Spirit) can deliver from the temper, the envy, and the strife, by breathing a heavenly disposition; and can mortify the deeds of the body; then God's Word calls him a "spiritual" man, a true spiritual Christian.


Selected text from the deeper christian life by andrew murry

Rest

At Thy bidding I take Thy yoke : T under take the duty without delay ; I abide in Thee.' Let each consciousness of failure only give new urgency to the command, and teach us to listen more earnestly than ever till the Spirit again give us to hear the voice of Jesus saying, with a love and authority that inspire both hope and obedience, ' Child, abide in me.' That word, listened to as coming from Himself, will be an end of all doubting, — a Divine promise of what shall surely be granted. And with ever-increasing simplicity its meaning will be interpreted. Abiding in Jesus is nothing but the giving up of oneself to be ruled and taught and led, and so resting in the arms of Everlasting Love.

Blessed rest ! the fruit and the foretaste and the fellowship of God's own rest ! found of them who thus come to Jesus to abide in Him. It is the peace of God, the great calm of the eternal world, that passeth all understanding, and that keeps the heart and mind. With this grace secured, we have strength for every duty, courage for every struggle, a blessing in every cross, and the joy of life eternal in death itself. O my Saviour ! if ever my heart should doubt or fear again, as if the blessing were too great to expect, or too high to attain, let me hear Thy voice to quicken my faith and obedience : ' Abide in me ; ' ' Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; ye shall find rest to your souls.'

Andrew murry abide in christ

Tuning fork

“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers meeting together, each one looking to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.  Social religion is perfected when private religion is purified.  The body becomes stronger as its members become healthier.  The whole church of God gains when the members that compose it begin to seek a better and higher life.”

 

A W Tozer

Which tuning fork are you using? Gods tuning fork or the worlds tuning fork?

Yoke

But, alas ! I hear some one say, it is just this abiding in Jesus, always bearing His yoke, to learn of Him, that is so difficult, and the very effort to attain to this often disturbs the rest even more than sin or the world. What a mistake to speak thus, and yet how often the words are heard ! Does it weary the traveller to rest in the house or on the bed where he seeks repose from his fatigue ? Or is it a labour to a little child to rest in its mother's arms ? Is it not the house that keeps the traveller within its shelter ? do not the arms of the mother sustain and keep the little one ? And so it is with Jesus. The soul has but to yield itself to Him, to be still and rest in the confidence that His love has undertaken, and that His faithfulness will perform, the work of keeping it safe in the shelter of His bosom. Oh, it is because the blessing is so great that our little hearts cannot rise to apprehend it ; it is as if we cannot believe that Christ, the Almighty One, will in very deed teach and keep us all the day. And yet this is just what He has promised, for without this He cannot really give us rest. It is as our heart takes in this truth that, when He says, ' Abide in me,' ' Learn of me,' He really means it, and that it is His own work to keep us abiding when we yield ourselves to Him, that we shall venture to cast ourselves into the arms of His love, and abandon ourselves to His blessed keeping. It is not the yoke, but resistance to the yoke, that makes the difficulty ; the whole-hearted surrender to Jesus, as at once our Master and our Keeper, finds and secures the rest. Come, my brother, and let us this very day commence to accept the word of Jesus in all simplicity. It is a distinct command this : ' Take my yoke, and learn of me,' 'Abide in me.' A command has to be obeyed.

The above is taken from abide I christ by andrew murry





His yoke is easy, will we accept it will we cast our burdens on him? Or Would we rather keep the stress of this life and try to do it all on our own? I for one surrender all I am, all I will ever be In my life to his will! Will you?

Your will, not mine

how it is that the rest you at times enjoy is so often lost. It must have been- this : you had not under stood how entire surrender to Jesus is the secret of perfect rest. Giving up one's whole life to Him, for Him alone to rule and order it ; taking up His yoke, and submitting to be led and taught, to learn of Him ; abiding in Him, to be and do only what He wills ; — these are the conditions of discipleship without which there can be no thought of maintain ing the rest that was bestowed on first coming to Christ. The rest is in Christ, and not something He gives apart from Himself, and so it is only in having Him that the rest can really be kept and enjoyed. It is because so many a young believer fails to lay hold of this truth that the rest so speedily passes away. With some it is that they really did not know ; they were never taught how Jesus claims the undivided allegiance of the whole heart and life ; how there is not a spot in the whole of life over which He does not wish to reign ; how in the very least things His disciples must only seek to please Him. They did not know how entire the conse cration was that Jesus claimed. With others, who had some idea of what a very holy life a Christian ought to lead, the mistake was a different one : they could not believe such a life to be a possible attain ment. Taking, and bearing, and never for a moment laying aside the yoke of Jesus, appeared to them to require such a strain of effort, and such an amount of goodness, as to be altogether beyond their reach.


Above paragraphs taken from abide in Christ, by Andrew murry.


Let us abide in him, he wants all our life not part of it. I gladly and whole heartedly surrender all I am and all I have to him!

Brakes the good, the bad and the ugly

You might wonder, why is he writing about brakes and an old clint Eastwood movie and car parts!? Well a couple reasons. Brakes represent beleivers who put the brakes on when jesus wants us to live beyond ourselves, and go where he leads us. He wants us to be light in dark places, to not hide our light under a basket but to lift it high for all to see.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJK0gu3X5kM&feature=youtube_gdata_player



The good, the bad, and the ugly

I would feel safe to say we all could be described by this statement at one time or another. This video could be the ugly. We drift further and further from his will...till we fall off the edge. Plummeting further and further from gods will for us. Sinking to lowes we never thought we could.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QASREBVDsLk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

The next video is the ugly. We as christians sometimes miss the people who just need someone to be there for them. We are jesus hands and feet but we feel too embarrassed, or afraid to go introduce ourselves...we trade his peace and love for Satan's lies and worry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEhRucEVzH8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

There is a way out! Prayer! If you are in any of the above jesus died so ee wouldnt have to. He wants to forgive us, tonhelp us...but we must ask. Pray to him, jesus i have been wrong, running away, I want to run to you. I admit I have been wrong, forgive me father. Inhabit me, consume me with your spirit from the inside out. In jesus name, amen.

The good is when we lean in to what gods will is for us. We seek him, not because others think we should, but because we cant imagine any other way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpbToEa6iP0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Crutches

These are not my words, but I feel it is important to share.


S. D. Gordon
"Not My Crutches"


This delightful story is found in Gordon's Quiet Talks with Workers and tells how a child surrendered her crutches, the most precious things she owned, for the sake of missions. This would be a good story to share with children.

There is a simple tale that I love, and have told many times. A minister in our Eastern country, in Pennsylvania, received a letter from his church board speaking of the great need of our Western country; where it is almost all mission field, asking for a special sermon and a special offering. Literature accompanied the request, which he read. He prepared a sermon with good heart. Sabbath morning came, and he rose to preach it. But somehow it did not seem to catch fire. That banker over there, who could easily give £10, looked at his watch two or three times politely under cover of his hand. And this merchant over here, who could easily give £10, yawned behind his hand, once or twice politely. The thing did not seem to catch fire. And at the end of the sermon the minister sat down with a heavy heart. The thing had not caught fire. It had not hooked in, and he sat praying that things might turn out better than he feared they would while the offering plates were passed.

And meanwhile a little scene was taking place in the very last pew, where a little cripple girl sat, a child of maybe nine or ten years. An accident had taken away a part of one of her limbs, and all her life was darkened. Then some friends in the church made up a small purse, and bought her a pair of crutches. And that changed everything, and she went hobbling about on her crutches just like a ray of sunshine, cheery and bright. Everybody liked her just because of her sunny ways. She was in the last pew alone. She listened, and she said: "I wish I could give something, but I can't. I haven't got even a copper."
And a very soft voice inside said: "There are your crutches! "Oh! her crutches! She could not give her crutches. "Yea," the strangely quiet voice said: "You can, and if you did they would learn about the Lord Jesus yonder. He has done so much for you. Somebody will learn about Him. It will mean so much when they hear it. Give your crutches! " "No, no! "she said passionately. "Yes, yes! "the quiet, soft voice said insistently. And she had her fight. How every true life has its fight and its battlefields, scarred and ploughed. By and by the victory came, and she said, "Yes." And she sat quietly, her eyes very glistening with something wet, and a smile just coming to the corners of her lips, that were yet twitching with the battle she had been through.

Just then the church officer came down the aisle with the plate. He looked in; only cripple Maggie; not worthwhile putting the plate in there! But with fine courtesy he passed in the plate, and in her childlike simplicity she took up her crutches and tried rather awkwardly to lay them on the plate. And he swallowed hard on something in his throat, and put out his hand and steadied the crutches on the plate, and commenced walking back the middle aisle of the church with the plate and the crutches. And everybody looked! They all knew Maggie and her crutches. Maggie giving her crutches. Then the banker blew his nose; it is surprising the emotions that you can hide behind the blowing of a nose! And the merchant reached for his pencil!

And the minister said: "Our little friend has given us a wonderful example of sacrifice." Somebody said: "I want those crutches. I will give £10 for them." And they were sent back to the last pew.

And then they passed the plate back by general request, and by and by, when it came back, there was £160 or thereabouts. And little Maggie hobbled out of church crippled in body, but in no other way. The £160 was simply the interest on the investment, and the capital went out with her, just where it had been before! She obeyed the voice. That was all. She had a passion for her Master, and the voice said, "Give," and she obeyed. That is the touchstone of service. And mark you this—that may not sound very much to you, a little child with a pair of crutches— but, mark you, please, if you listen softly this morning you will find an inner voice saying: "Your crutches, please!" That means the thing you think you can't do without. The Master says: "I want your crutches." And your heart passionately cries out, "Not this thing! Not my crutches." Only as we give our crutches, because of our passion for Him, can He carry out His plan through us in His world. Oh! Jesus, Master, help us to give our crutches, because Thou dost ask them!

By S. D Gordon, from Quiet Talks for Workers pp. 27-32.

When asked to give, she gave all she had. Will you?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJK0gu3X5kM&feature=youtube_gdata_playe