Sunday, May 31, 2020
Picking on Preachers
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
Chapter 5 Questions
Revival and Me: Week 5 What About Revival? Part IV Chapter 5
1. In what ways am I not thoroughly dissatisfied about sin in my life?
2. How might I further develop my hunger for righteousness?
3. What aspects of my life are not being lived in clear obedience to the mandates of scripture?
4. Am I willing to assume the role of a servant, where I am?
5. What is God saying to me about this?
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
Five More Things
Put yourself in the way of blessing - as Tozer suggests, for us to desire revival while neglecting prayer and devotion (and, I would hasten to add, scripture reading, obedience, etc) is to wish one way and walk another. God is always at work around us, as Blackaby reminds us. We need to find Him and join Him where He is.
Do a thorough job of repenting – the consciousness of our sin needs to do it’s work and that requires a conviction. The world would ask us to repent of anything and everything that makes others uncomfortable. When conventional social standards determine our sin we miss the gospel conviction that only the Holy Spirit can bring. This takes time, and must be a work of the Holy Spirit, not unholy society.
Make restitution
whenever possible – clear your indebtedness to others, this is
related intimately to repentance. Where we owe we must needs pay. Settling our accounts with others is a part of renewal.
Bring your life
into accord with the Sermon on the Mount – and this is a work
in progress, what we do along the pathway or revival, but we must learn that, in God, the life of
blessedness is prescribed. It is defined. It is laid our for us, hence our inability to live a good and godly life apart from a deep knowledge of scripture.
Begin to witness
– attempt great things for God, in word and in deed.
Have faith in God
– Expect great things from God and follow as He leads.
We will be talking in specifics in the chapters to come. We'll talk about movies, the use and abuse of good books, too much of something or the wrong kind? and other matters but for now these nine items are a good framework for our consideration.
I'm thinking I need to make a list for some of these matters, things I will need to address over time. People with whom I may need to have a conversation; habits I ought to develop; work I can and should be doing; steps I might take to demonstrate my trust in God.
But for now, I'm tapped out. A lot to think about, pray about, consider for action...
Chapter 5's questions will be posted early tomorrow morning, before we start the trek back south. We've had a good visit in the 'boro but are anxious to get back to work on the house. Changes are a comin'!!!
The First Four Things...
- Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. [Colossians 3:12]
- For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.[Romans 8:5]
- Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. [2Timothy 2:15]
- Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us... [Hebrews 12:1]
Saturday, May 23, 2020
Transparency
Obedience is a maligned word these days. Do I consider myself obedient? To whom or what?
I do consider myself to be obedient in the ways in which I discern I am being challenged to be obedient. But there is so much about which I am uncertain.
I am trying to discern more clearly the way in which I should go. In the midst of a rather challenging professional situation there are many possible responses, many ways I might address the situation, and a lot of input being received. I am praying, spending a lot of time contemplating outcomes, and attempting to discern, as prayerfully as possible, which of those outcomes might be God’s plan and therefore determine the correct path of obedience. My obedience to Christ must be the priority. Counting the cost isn’t difficult. Rather, it is discerning which end would be most pleasing to Him.
What has been the most difficult act of obedience I have ever had cause to regard personally?
There have been many challenges - l
eaving my life of sin and losing most all of my friends in order to go into ministry; leaving a beloved congregation, twice, to go into, and then to return to, the mission field (with all of the family challenges and other implications thereof); losing relationships with colleagues as I continue to abide in Biblical fidelity amidst a “progressive” denomination; and several other such events that force my own choice between acceptance or popularity or friendship and obedience to scripture. But the most difficult has been a decision that I have made this week which will not become public for some time and that time frame will create it’s own stress on some of my relationships.
In what, am I not now being obedient?
Most likey in the area of forgiving those whose actions have cost me and so many others so much. I REALLY need to work on forgiveness. But, events this very week have opened up some new possibilities for this.
In what ways will my future ability to perceive God’s call depend on my obedience today?
Wow! Just wow! I believe that my future ability to discern His call, is so intimately dependent upon the decisions I have made this week, and even today, that I would need to write volumes to explain it. The train is leaving the station!
What is God saying to me about this?
I can without any reservations affirm Matthew 5: 12-14
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Tozer writes in this week’s chapter: “It is nature’s last drastic effort to rouse the imperiled life to seek to renew itself...How can he find that after which his soul is yearning?”
He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. [John 14:21]
And that is the end game of the hunger, the last drastic effort to rouse the imperiled spiritual life; to ask that one might receive; to seek, that one might find; to knock that it might be opened.
Keep His commands and thereby love Christ; and
thereby be loved by the Father;
which enables Christ to love us; and
thereby manifest Himself to us.
Greater is He who is at work in me than he who is in the world!
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Chapter 4 Questions
Revival and Me: Week 4 What About Revival? Part III Chapter 4
Obedience is a maligned word these days. Do I consider myself obedient? To whom or what?
2. What has been the most difficult act of obedience I have ever had cause to regard personally?
3. In what, am I not now being obedient?
4. In what ways will my future ability to perceive God’s call depend on my obedience today?
5. What is God saying to me about this?
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
When Prayer Isn't Enough
Sunday, May 17, 2020
Where once a well-traveled path...
Prayer is Not Enough These words are addressed to those of God's children who have been pierced with the arrow of infinite desire, who yearn for God with a yearning that has overcome them, who long with a longing that has become pain...
Thursday, May 14, 2020
The Prayer and The Apple
Why is it that when we speak to God, we are called pray-ers but when He speaks to us, we are called schizophrenic?
Lily Tomlin
Habits and Addictions
...difficulty in managing the stress of life a “normal” way resulting in behaviors that are often destructive in nature to help to release the stress. In addition to being hypersensitive to stress, individuals are often also prone to impulsive behavior and may show a significant lack of self esteem. For these individuals, engaging in addictive behaviors is a way to help to try to alleviate the negative emotions being felt as a result of all of these factors.
- Drug/Alcohol abuse/addiction
- Gambling Addiction
- Shopping Addiction
- Sex Addiction
- Eating Disorders and Food Addiction
- Overworking and Work Addictions
- Over-Exercising/ Exercise Addiction
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Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
Wednesday, May 13, 2020
Thoughts on Individuality...
Chapter 3 Questions
Revival and Me: Week 3 What About Revival?
Tuesday, May 12, 2020
Maxie Dunnam Interview on IRD
The Church Invisible?
A.W.Tozer
Friday, May 8, 2020
Psalm 27: 13-14
Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.”
Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.”
Then I said, “Put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the Lord stood by.
The angel of the Lord gave this charge to Joshua: “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘If you will walk in obedience to me and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here.
I was immediately struck to the very core of my being. Tears flooded my face, uncontrollable, volumes of pent up regret poured forth. I still well up when I reflect on this bitter cold and lonely January evening when everything changed. My life would never be the same.I will see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the Lord.
Hallead Day Inn, Abacos
Today, we had a wonderful visit with former missionary colleagues, Ron and Denise Hamme, from Thailand whom we hadn't seen since 2006!...

