A great invitation

CH Spurgeon invites his church to boldly enter into the throne room of grace. When I read this quote it got me excited.

We have known the washing of water by the Word, and we have been sanctified by the Spirit of his grace; therefore let us enter into the holiest. Why should we stay away? Hearts sprinkled with blood, bodies washed with pure water—these are the ordained preparations for acceptable entrance. Come near, beloved! May the Holy Spirit be the spirit of access to you now. Come to your God, and then abide with him! He is your Father, your all in all. Sit down and rejoice in him; take your fill of love; and let not your communion be broken between here and heaven. Why should it be? Why not begin to-day that sweet enjoyment of perfect reconciliation and delight in God which shall go on increasing in intensity until you behold the Lord in open vision, and go no more out? Heaven will bring a great change in condition, but not in our standing, if even now we stand within the veil. It will be only such a change as there is between the perfect day and the daybreak; for we have the same sun, and the same light from the sun, and the same privilege of walking in the light. “Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Division.” Amen, and Amen.

Amen

My own psalm of Praise

Praise God, for He is good.
Praise God, For He is faithful
Praise God, because He is just.
Praise God, because He gives.
Praise God because He loves.
Praise God because He is a God of glory!

You are always faithful,
You are consistently and constantly just.
You love Me.
Praise God.

It Takes Courage to Be Courageous

I think a common misconception about courage is that for the courageous, being brave, and doing the right thing, is easy, this is not the case at all. Being courageous is exactly the opposite. Being courageous by definition is feeling weak, feeling incapable and against all odds, yet continuing anyway.

It takes courage to be a Christian.
I don't always feel like I have the strength, or the tools, or the power to change anything, but I want to have enough courage to act.

"God give me your courage!" sings Tim Hughes.

I need courage to do what God wants. I need courage when I see the hurting, I need courage to do the right thing when I see the weak.


"Then He said, 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor." Luke 4:17b-19

Feeling empowered

For the last week or so I have to admit I've felt pretty empowered. I generally battle feelings of exhaustion and being over-stretched but not lately. So I've been filling my time with things that I love. I've been volunteering at Krochet Kids, Reading, hanging out at church... all kinds of stuff. Also, Collective lights launched today. that's something I've been working on for a while and it finally got rolling today.

I'm confident that it's been God who's been giving me strength, for, it wasn't until after I listened and relistened to a message by Tim Kellar about doing work that I prayed that God would give me the strength I needed to do his will that I started rested. Hebrews 3 and 4 commands us to have rest. David in the psalms constantly states that he desires rest or is finding rest. Rest, before we work, is finding out place in God trusting in Him.

The rest I've found has led me to action. One of the books I've been reading has really challenged me lately and maybe that's a reason to push on. The book is Good news about Injustice and it's a great read and should be read by every Christian I think. The book is reminding me of God's will for my life and his church and it's giving me a mission to do, therefore, I'm using what I have been given to give back to Him.

Jesus is Alive

The one thing that separates Christianity from everything else, is the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. While Mohammed and Buddha, Ghandi, Nietzche, Sartre and rest have made claims about God, existence and Truth, Jesus is different. The fact that Jesus rose from the dead turns a dead faith into a living faith with the Almighty God.

Jesus' resurrection exclusively separates Christianity from every other religion simply because he is alive.

Paul said in I Corinthians 15:17 that if Christ is not risen our faith is futile and we are still as lost as ever, we are dead and we are alone, but Christ did rise.

I know that this is elementary, but for me, it was this that really made an impact on me today. Although I heard a lot about the hope of Jesus Christ this weekend, it just didn't really sink in til I started thinking about the mystery of his resurrection.

The resurrection of Jesus did a few different things
1. It was the proof of God's acceptance for the work done on the cross.
2. It was Jesus opening up the door to a relationship with God.
3. It was Jesus proving who He said he was.
4. it was representation of the victory over the cross.
and these are just a few...

If Jesus didn't rise, we'd be hopelessly lost. But, he most definitely rose and it's by that authority we can claim the Life God intended for us.