What an exciting day awaits!

A sense of being compelled to start and to share what is prompting us forward, to exhort and edify... What is the particular 'line' ringing through your soul? A theme perhaps, a scripture, a 'line' reverberating in your mind that the Lord has placed or that has you gripped, that finds the Holy Spirit teaching and guiding into all truth?

Glad you asked.

For the past couple of months this simple thought has been repeating itself, something at a glance or maybe even the absurdity of it's seeming insult to our intelligence could be just quickly dismissed with a [i]well, of course[/i];

"[i]Let it be once admitted that with God, no miracle is impossible. Let it be acknowledged that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, no true prayer will remain unblessed. But faith in God is by no means a light or trivial thing. Robert Bruce of Edinburgh used sometimes to pause in his preaching, and, bending over the pulpit, say with much solemnity, [b]"I think it's a great matter to believe there is a God."[/b] Once he confessed that during three years he had never said, "My God," without being "challenged and disquieted for the same." "These words, 'My God,'" said Ebenezer Erskine, "are the marrow of the Gospel." To be able to hold the living God within our feeble grasp, and say with assurance, "God, even our own God, shall bless us" (Psa. 67:6), demands a faith which is not of nature's birth.[/i]"

http://www.fivesolas.com/hidden3.htm
The Hidden Life of Prayer
by David MacIntyre
([i]With gratitude to Leonard Ravenhill for the mention of this wonderful little book[/i])

The wonder of it all is in how often this has been brought to the forefront and shared with other parallel lines. One would be from a Tozer message I believe on the bible itself and in his inimitable way, Tozer gave a somewhat chastising response to the thought of how far we can go in our piety as to be dishonest; That we ought not to think of God and the Lord Jesus as something of our 'own' in which he responded with a terse, if I can paraphrase [i]"I don't know about you, but He IS MY God and I am not about to apologize for it. David didn't and neither did Thomas when he cried out 'My Lord and my God.[/i]"

Why I find that measuring along the same line I think is that we can lose the great and vast wonder of it all in getting bogged down in theology and other controversies to the point of missing the stark revelation and privelage we have as children of the most High. It is a stark thing to confront ourselves with the reality of God.

This has caused much faith to build to muse on things at any given moment of time. Doing daily chores of this life, when our hearts may be cold, indifferent or just caught up in the machinery of daily living. BUT! You CAN stop in the noise of the mind and throw yourself upward in a microsecond and admit the coldness, ask for mercy, ask for help in that time of need, realise that our feelings ebb and flow, but He remains the same... [i]...it's a great matter to believe there is a God.[/i]

O the possibilites of faith! I could very well carry this on for pages on end. Last week was privelaged to be a spectator of just an incredible display of the [i]power[/i] of God as a thunderstorm and grand light show was put on right before my eyes. The sense of reverential fear and yet awe inspiring sense of "this is my God back of all this"... coupled with;

Luk 17:24 For just as lightning flashes and shines from one end of the sky to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day.

Made me think of how this was really 'small' in scale being located into just a local region even as the whole sky light up like at noonday. Just incredible, what can one do but worship and praise, gaze in wonder and awe!

One last thought. This morning found another tenacle growing out as I started out with a somewhat flatness of spirit before this line came back once again. The jumpstart from Chip Brodgren:

"I know Whom I have believed" (II Timothy 1:12ff).

"[i]We don't know this Jesus we think we know. He is Wholly Other, totally, supremely, magnificently GOD. Only God can remain silent while we speak blasphemies and heresies in His name. He allows mankind to distort and misrepresent and bring people to a place of despair, just so He can then step in and reveal Himself for Who He really is. And He is never, ever, ever, ever what you thought. Nothing is as you have been told. And then, once you meet Him, you cannot describe Him, except to say He is nothing like what you had been told. Beyond description.

When we realize we don't know, then Christ becomes our Wisdom so we CAN know. When we are children we are apt to say, I know WHAT I believe. As we grow out of infancy and begin to wrestle with the deeper questions and issues of the Christian faith we will learn to say, I know WHY I believe. The ultimate experience, however, is to be brought to a place where we can say with confidence, I know WHOM I believe.[/i]"

http://www.watchman.net/daily

It brought back another scripture;

2Ti 1:6 Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou [b]stir up the gift of God[/b], which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.

To think of it, to think of the possiblities of today, to think of Him who IS back of it all, who laughs at impossibilities. Stir up the gift [i]which is [b]in thee![/b][/i]

[b]"I think it's a great matter to believe there is a God."[/b]

So, how about you? What's your 'line' ?

_________________
Mike Balog

Some wonderful thoughts there Mike, thank you for sharing that.

There has been a ‘line’ ringing through my mind of late, it is from John 15:11...

"...[i]and that your joy might be full.[/i] "

I believe verse 10 tells us what the fullness of our Lord’s joy was, to keep the Father’s commandments. There was no greater joy for His heart than to obey the Father’s will. I have been challenged to consider where my joy is taken. Over and over in my prayer time this verse has been coming to mind.

I can take great joy in the many blessings the Father has bestowed, spiritual and natural, I can take joy in the hope of an inheritance beyond imagination, I can take joy in seeing a soul saved, I can and should take joy in these wonderful things, but is the fullness of my joy found in simple obedience and utter dependence on the Father?

Do I rejoice in giving, even if it hurts? Do I rejoice in taking a back seat to others? Do I rejoice in laying down my life? Do I rejoice in these things simply because it glorifies my Father in Heaven? This type of joy is foreign to me, that is my flesh, it is utterly alien. Certainly nothing that I can work up in my own strength. As the previous verses in chapter 15 explain, it comes only by a simple abiding in the vine that this fruit of the Spirit, this joy, can be full.

It is the cry of my heart that His joy might remain in us...[i]that our joy may be full.[/i]

In Christ,

Ron

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Ron Halverson

For me?

I have been drawn in again to the extraordinary state of the church of Ephesus as we find it in the Revelation. Surely no local assembly was ever more blessed than Ephesus. Their 'ministers' had included Apollos, Paul, Timothy and, very likely, John. They had experienced their own personal Pentecost and received a letter from Paul that is amongst the greatest pieces of scripture we have. It is difficult to imagine a more favoured group of people and yet at the time of the Revelation letter they stood in danger of being extinguished by the Lord Himself, and the 'only' thing they got wrong was they had 'left behind' their 'first love'.“Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (1Cor. 10:12-13, KJVS)

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Ron Bailey

God allowed me to preach at a church last night and I got off on describing Hell. I said something that I have never really thought about and didn't untill after the service. I said "There are people in hell today that dont fully know why they are there. They thought they were good people. They went to sleep one night and woke up in hell. They might not know why they are there untill the Great White Throne Judgement, but some of us will find out why they are there when we are judged."

Wow that was sobering to me! Let our witness not distort Christ! We have got ot preach the Gospel to every creature!

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Josh Parsley

Glad you asked :-) .

First 'line' of thought first ~ Mike, did you drop off of the planet, once you posted this ?
Or did that Chariot of fire come get ya ?

Secondly, I read quite a few articles tonite on this particular site below, but this one stuck in my craw ... so I hope I [u]can[/u] keep it "reverberating in my mind."

It's in bigger font on the site, then if I posted it.... http://www.watchman.net/articles/apostasy.html

Another line of thought that went through my mind - 'sort of' crosses with your line of thought up there Mike ..... are we asking God for things that we Already possess ?

When we ask for "grace to get through the day or whatever" .... don't we [b]already have it[/b] inside of us ... when [u]He[/u] moved in ?

A bunch of verses went through my mind when I thought that, and I felt sorta silly that I forget just WHO IS living [u]inside[/u] and [u]why[/u] He's in there and what HE'S capable of doing.

I forget [u]we already have been equipped with all that we'll ever need.[/u] Power, gifts, wisdom, endurance, Truth, etc. etc. etc., are available through His Holy Spirit inside of us.
Though it never hurts to ask for more, wisdom, love, humility, etc. etc.

After Pentecost, the Apostles just went out and starting Doing. They didn't wait to ask for what they already had.

I guess we need to go back and look over the Scriptures that tell us what we already have and just walk in/by Faith after that. Build up our faith more with Scripture, so we don't waste precious time 'waiting' for what's already resident and have the power to deal with things and what's coming and be used mightily, by [u]faith[/u] in What and [u]Who[/u] we have inside.

These are just a few verses I thought of ...

Col 2:6 -10 ~ [b]As[/b] ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord [u](By Faith -), so 'walk' ye in him:[/u] rooted and built up in him, and established in the [u]faith[/u], as ye have been taught, [u]abounding therein with thanksgiving.[/u] Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ, [u]Because[/u] in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily [u]and ye are 'complete' in him,[/u] which is the head of all principality and power

Eph 1:23 Which is his body,[u] ' the fullness' of Him[/u] that filleth all in all.

1Jo 2:20 But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.

1Jo 2:27 But the anointing which ye have received of him [u]abideth in you[/u], and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. {Jn.16:13}

2Pe 1:3 According as his divine power [u]hath given unto us all things[/u] that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue

1Pe 4:11 If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of [u]the ability which God giveth: that God, in 'all things', may be glorified through Jesus Christ[/u], to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. [u]Amen.[/u]

Phi 4:11-13 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. [u] I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.[/u]

Eph 1:2-12 Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ....

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who [u]hath blessed us with All spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:[/u] according as [u]he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved[/u], in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; [u]wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:[/u] that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, [u]being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of his Own Will: that we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ.[/u]

1Co 3:21-23 Therefore let no man glory in men. [u]For all things are yours[/u]; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, [u]or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.[/u]

This ain't hyperfaith ... but it is, in the sense of just having hyper-faith in what Christ died to send us, which dwells inside of us ~ His Holy Spirit and all He's been sent to do, in and through us.

I thought, like Corrie Ten Boom said, we should write down verses that will "get us through, unto the end" ... for strength, confidence in the Lord and His Spirit, etc.

Sounds like a good summer project.

Praying you're well.

Annie

Hi Mike,

Beautiful start to this thread. Do you know that 'laughs at impossibilities' is from a Wesley hymn? I think there are another 8 verses, but the cyberhymnal offers these -

[i]Father of Jesus Christ, my Lord,
My Savior and my Head;
I trust in Thee, Whose powerful Word
Hath raised Him from the dead.

I hope, against all human hope,
Self desperate, I believe;
Thy quickening Word shall raise me up,
Thou shalt Thy Spirit give.

To Thee the glory of Thy power
And faithfulness I give;
I shall in Christ, at that glad hour,
And Christ in me shall live.

Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees,
And looks to that alone;
[u]Laughs at impossibilities[/u],
[b]And cries, “It shall be done!”[/b][/i]

The Lord is speaking to me about 'love'.

Separately.

The Lord is speaking to me about 'relationship'.

That's how spaced out I am. :-P

The Lord is speaking to me about 'knowing' Him.

The Lord is speaking to me about His 'calling' on my life. 8-)

This is the most recent, and was given a new shaft of light through one line of what Annie quoted: 'that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ,'

Finally I have to say this, that since I joined SI, like so many others, my spiritual life has received the proverbial kick towards greater glory. :-?

Amen. Bless the Lord at all times! GOD IS GOOD!

Hey, Good News, Mike's still alive. :lol:

Guess he would have been happier in that "Chariot to Heaven" scenario I asked about, but, nonetheless, the poor guy has to stick around and suffer here with us (or suffer under the weight of us, is more like it). :-?

I was checking my emails, and since SI is a shortcut on my desktop, I decided to peek - just in time to see him sign-off.

Shhhh ! - don't tell anybody, O.K. ?


Love youse guys. (Jersey talk) :-P

Annie

Great response's here ... Am still a bit disoriented, been out of state, make that InTheLight's home state for the past 8 days. Unable to get at my PM's at the moment and am unsure if it is related to the the hacking that took place, hope there is much prayer going out over this.

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Mike Balog

"Am still a bit disoriented"

It's O.K. brother Mike. We've known that for some time now. :-D

But when your "Seated in Heavenly places" but your feet are still on this planet, who ain't 'Disorientated' ?

We're pecular, strangers and pilgrims in this world, according to Peter. No debate there. :-?

I've been "strait betwixt" for a long time (hey, that would make a good sign-on name-hmm ?), but I seriously doubt that for me "to abide in the flesh is more needful for you" ... or anyone else here :lol: .


I'm sorry, it's nearing midnite again, when I "lose it".


Just glad to have you back, to suffer a bit longer with us. Misery loves company ~ ha.


Keep them good posts a'coming.
Blessings !