oh Praise God!!!
just the title ALONE captures my heart, I haven't even read the body of the article, or what you or somebody else wrote...JUST the title ALONE made my heart leap!
when I tell family...or friends, that every morning, in the EARLY morning, 4, 5 AM, I start the day by "reading the Bible"....and that always seems inadequate by saying/writing that I "read" the Bible....because what my spirit feels is that I am "eating" of the Word....and how can I say, that this "eating" is as necessary to me, as if I was talking about eating physical food to stay alive?
Then, when I think of this, instead of having a sort of reflexive "superiority" to others, I am overcome by gratitude, Love and Thanks to and for God...FOR this Gift.....because IT IS A GIFT, from God the Holy Spirit!!
and those early morning hours?...how can I even describe in human words WHAT goes on between me and Yahweh, between Jesus and me...I don't only read/eat of the Word...I also am given the Divine Privilege of talking with God....and what I would LOVE to tell ANYONE...EVERYONE...is that YOU can have This Gift as well!!
but tragically, that's not the case...oh so tragically.
You know...I hear people talking about what is called "predestination"....and I ALWAYS veer AWAY from any "doctrine" discussions...I get very uncomfortable "arguing" the Deep Things of God....but sometimes I DO wonder.....why me, O LORD?
Jesus knows I love Him SO MUCH...Yahweh the Father, God the Holy Ghost...His steadfast love and faithfulness...His Beauty, Majesty, Mystery, Simplicity....the very Mind of God...I get consumed with Love for Him....and in that process, and FILLED with love for all His children....and I mean ALL.....when I see the most hard hearted atheist, or even some hard core Islamic jihadist raving about taking out my beloved Israel....I don't even get angry...or bloodthirsty..or frightened...I just get SAD....filled with grief....its like that Moment on the Cross, "forgive them Father, they know not what they do"...because His Heart is now my heart....or do you remember when Jesus was talking about His Flesh being real food?....and people just LEAVING...it was a Teaching that "too hard for them"...amd Messiah turns to the 12, and says, you want to go too?...and I love what Peter says..."where can we go to...Whom can we go to?"
Basically saying...once Called?...its about..NO CHOICE. You have NO CHOICE once Messiah calls you...you see, I believe that what Revival, in its true and pure form DOES...God DEIGNS to come down and saturate a particular area, and people. convicts them of their hopeless and helpless state, reveals His Call, Reveals His Mercy, Steadfast Love and Faithfulness, Reveals His Son, TO and IN them....then they are left alone with THE Decision...I cant explain it...I know what happened to me...alone, in a house trailer, on a lonely mountainside, and Jesus "took" me...what can I say?
all I can do is testify....then all I can do is do everything for the Glorification of His Name, which means to be a Son of the Light...walk in the Light, in the Way. Because He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
I did not heed His Call as a cheap and easy "get out of hell free card".....I had NO CHOICE, and what a Blessed Call It is!!!! do I stumble? yes....do I sometimes fail? yes, but He knows, that in my smallness I am a man after His Own Heart.....now i'll read the body of your post, my dear brother.
let me tell you why I haven't yet read Gospel Fellowships...I got caught up in "Why Revival Tarries"...THEN I get caught up in "Revival Praying"...now I just got that E.M. Bounds compilation that brother Len did called, "A Treasury of Prayer".....and I want to give Gospel Fellowships, my WHOLE heart mind and soul...BECAUSE
we go to do something.....first thing, as I am led, is that we all, each to ourselves HAVE TO burnish and refurbish OUR OWN ministries of secret travailing prayer.....that is just crucial.....and I am in the process, May God help and assist me. of doing just that...along with writing the work He gave me, "The Basis'"...what I told you about...i'm still in the Psalter, Book Three (Psalm 73-89)...then to the New Testament...the Four Gospel Accounts....and I think I have to include all the Epistles, Acts, Hebrews, The Revelation....and I've noticed, when you write of the Faith....you BETTER take care, no carelessness.
But we all have to do something here...time is short, the news of the world grows darker...the dogs of war are yowling like demons, the hearts of many grow cold....but what an environment to walk out our Faith?...amen?
I love you and the saints at SI, May the Grace of the LORD be with you, always, neil |