Hey there,
I learned of a corporate call to personal consecration and prayer for revival issued by Billy Graham's daughter, Anne Graham Lotz. Subsequently, The LORD has been laying a burden upon my heart and I feel compelled to share it with you so that you may have opportunity to discern for yourselves what the LORD is telling you.
http://www.annegrahamlotz.com/blog/
When I heard of the call to prayer, I immediately thought of times in the OT when nations were called to pray and fast because of God's impending judgement upon them for their sins. There were times when the leaders of the People of God declared solemn assemblies and the people as one voice repented of their sins and cried out for mercy. I wondered, what would that look like today? How am I supposed to respond? God, what should I do? I do not know whether anything will happen by responding to this call to prayer, but I do not want to stand before God on judgement day and find out that I missed God's voice because I was too lethargic or apathetic! I want to stand with the broader body of Christ. I want to be in agreement with what our leaders are saying.
Here is a message by Allen Hood regarding the urgent call to prayer: http://www.ihopkc.org/sounding-the-alarm/
Here are some points from Allen Hood's message:
Evan Robert's 4 points of personal consecration:
1. Repent of all known sin.
2. Remove anything of which you are unsure or have doubts about.
3. Be ready to obey the Holy Spirit instantly.
4. Publicly confess the LORD Jesus as Christ.
Seven Hindrances to Discerning God's Coming Judgement:
1. Comforting ourselves with Biblical principals from the wrong context.
2. Confusing our individual standing before God with a nation's corporate standing before God.
3. Religious traditions can cloud our understanding. (such as pitting the OT against the NT, or Abba vs. Yahweh).
4. We can be deceived by the lull in the crisis.
5. Lethargy and compromise.
6. Prayerlessness.
7. We lack understanding of God's involvement in the process of judgement.
LORD, may you delight to use these weak and humble words for your glory, Amen.
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Monday, April 28, 2014
When I Am Weak, Then I Am Strong
God has been helping me to realize, again, that I am weak. I am unable, on my own, to do the things that need to be done, such as loving my neighbours and sharing the gospel. I may find myself in various situations and circumstances where I need to bring the life and light of Jesus. However, on my own, I can't. I need help, I am weak. In addition to my weakness I have a natural tendency towards sin and rebellion. God has also shown me that my heart grows dull very, very quickly! LORD have mercy!
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." - Matthew 5:3
"For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." - 2 Corinthians 12:10
When Jesus sent a letter, through the Apostle John, to the church in Laodicea, it was because of his love. He wanted them to know the truth. They believed all was well. However, it was very important to Jesus that they should know they were not doing as well as they thought.
"For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourselves and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see." Revelation 3:17-18
Are these words harsh? I believe that these are words of life. It is not the healthy who need a doctor but those who are sick. If anyone would follow Jesus Christ as LORD they must first acknowledge the wickedness of their sins against God. They must acknowledge that they cannot save themselves. And this doesn't change no matter how long we have been saved. We will always be weak and needy this side of eternity. By the grace of God we walk in victory, in the light. But may we never assume we can stop turning away from our sins because we repented once in the past!
What would Jesus say to us today if he were to right another letter to our churches? I think it would be very similar to what we already find in the Bible, "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near!" "If anyone would enter the kingdom of God they must be born again." "Whoever puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of Heaven."
I am grateful to God for his mercy in allowing me to see my desperate need for him everyday, and I am grateful for his grace to turn away from my sins everyday. Amen, Hallelujah.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." - Matthew 5:3
"For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." - 2 Corinthians 12:10
When Jesus sent a letter, through the Apostle John, to the church in Laodicea, it was because of his love. He wanted them to know the truth. They believed all was well. However, it was very important to Jesus that they should know they were not doing as well as they thought.
"For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourselves and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see." Revelation 3:17-18
Are these words harsh? I believe that these are words of life. It is not the healthy who need a doctor but those who are sick. If anyone would follow Jesus Christ as LORD they must first acknowledge the wickedness of their sins against God. They must acknowledge that they cannot save themselves. And this doesn't change no matter how long we have been saved. We will always be weak and needy this side of eternity. By the grace of God we walk in victory, in the light. But may we never assume we can stop turning away from our sins because we repented once in the past!
What would Jesus say to us today if he were to right another letter to our churches? I think it would be very similar to what we already find in the Bible, "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near!" "If anyone would enter the kingdom of God they must be born again." "Whoever puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of Heaven."
I am grateful to God for his mercy in allowing me to see my desperate need for him everyday, and I am grateful for his grace to turn away from my sins everyday. Amen, Hallelujah.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
If Jesus Christ be God and died for me...
I would exhort you dearly beloved, who walk in the fear of the LORD, to stand firm. Do not allow your hearts to drift from the truth of the gospel. In Mark 8, Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do people say I am?" His disciples gave him a variety of answers. He then asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter knew the answer, Matthew records his answer as, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16). "And Jesus answered him, 'Blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven."
If you talk with people today about Jesus you will get a variety of ideas about him. Most commonly people will correctly acknowledge that Jesus is a good person who embodies love better than any other. Beyond that however you may get a variety of ideas. And people will draw differing conclusions from the same ideas. But Jesus told us that he would give us the Holy Spirit who would guide us into all the truth (John 16). We do not have to be content with the ideas of people, even sincere, knowledgable people. We can search the scriptures to know the heart of God for ourselves! Following the last supper when Jesus prayed to the Father he said that the Father had given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom the Father had given him (John 17). Then he defined eternal life: "And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." If eternal life is knowing Jesus, then surely one of the most valuable things we can do with our time is to search the Word of God to understand the heart of Jesus, by the help of the Holy Spirit, who will take what belongs to Jesus and declare it to us (John16).
I want to share what I think must be one of the most life giving truths from the Word of God: "Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matthew 10). This may sound like a very harsh thing to say, but I am so thankful to God for his love for me to reveal this truth to me. It is true that this is difficult, but as the Spirit of God gives us grace to embrace this truth and live it out then we will find life! This calls for dying to ourselves daily, continually surrendering our desires to the will of God and laying down our lives by putting God first and others before us. The cost of not doing this is too great, and the reward is to see the name of Jesus lifted high and to hear him say, "Well done, my good and faithful servant".
"If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him." - C.T. Studd
If you talk with people today about Jesus you will get a variety of ideas about him. Most commonly people will correctly acknowledge that Jesus is a good person who embodies love better than any other. Beyond that however you may get a variety of ideas. And people will draw differing conclusions from the same ideas. But Jesus told us that he would give us the Holy Spirit who would guide us into all the truth (John 16). We do not have to be content with the ideas of people, even sincere, knowledgable people. We can search the scriptures to know the heart of God for ourselves! Following the last supper when Jesus prayed to the Father he said that the Father had given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom the Father had given him (John 17). Then he defined eternal life: "And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." If eternal life is knowing Jesus, then surely one of the most valuable things we can do with our time is to search the Word of God to understand the heart of Jesus, by the help of the Holy Spirit, who will take what belongs to Jesus and declare it to us (John16).
I want to share what I think must be one of the most life giving truths from the Word of God: "Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matthew 10). This may sound like a very harsh thing to say, but I am so thankful to God for his love for me to reveal this truth to me. It is true that this is difficult, but as the Spirit of God gives us grace to embrace this truth and live it out then we will find life! This calls for dying to ourselves daily, continually surrendering our desires to the will of God and laying down our lives by putting God first and others before us. The cost of not doing this is too great, and the reward is to see the name of Jesus lifted high and to hear him say, "Well done, my good and faithful servant".
"If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him." - C.T. Studd
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Give Me Peace
For this last New Years celebration I was in Kansas City at the International House of Prayer. Each year they have a conference, called One Thing, to bring in the new year. There are many wonderful and cool things about the One Thing conference. There were over 30,000 people in the same building, gathered because they love Jesus. There were wonderful times of praise and worship, great teaching, a very expansive book store with all kinds of resources. My favourite thing about going down to IHOPKC however is spending time in their prayer room. They have singers, musicians and intercessors in their prayer room 24 hours a day, every day of the year. The thing I love about the prayer room is the tranquil presence of God. Even though it can be crowded and noisy (and I am NOT drawn to crowds and noise) I think it must be one of the most peaceful places I have ever been. It is almost hard to believe, even hough I have been there and experienced it, but when I walk into the prayer room I feel as though I am walking through an invisible barrier into the presence of God. I don't know if everybody feels that way in there, but that is what it feels like to me.
I grew up in Mitchell, MB, a small town outside of Steinbach. I happen to like peace and calm. Living in Winnipeg, where it sometimes seems as though you can hear sirens every half-hour, does not always make sense to me. I sometimes wonder why God brought me, of all people, to Winnipeg. I don't like all the noise and busyness of being in a city. I want peace and calm. Not only that, the lives and relationships of many of the people I rub shoulders with day to day are filled with strife. Peace and calm are foreign ideas. A significant factor in all of the strife is often addiction. Many people live their lives with chemicals flowing through their blood most of the time. It is impossible to ever have contentment and peace when your body or mind is screaming for more, more, more and now, at any cost.
I think God brought me to Winnipeg's North End exactly because of the stark contrast between the desire of my heart and the context all around me. If your food is bland, add salt. If your porridge is too thick, add milk. If life is grey, add some colour. If I don't like the strife, I may as well cry out for peace, and seek to live out the beatitudes and be a maker of peace. I believe that the Prince of Peace, the creator who rested on Day 7, is able to give us rest. He will bring peace. Amen.
I grew up in Mitchell, MB, a small town outside of Steinbach. I happen to like peace and calm. Living in Winnipeg, where it sometimes seems as though you can hear sirens every half-hour, does not always make sense to me. I sometimes wonder why God brought me, of all people, to Winnipeg. I don't like all the noise and busyness of being in a city. I want peace and calm. Not only that, the lives and relationships of many of the people I rub shoulders with day to day are filled with strife. Peace and calm are foreign ideas. A significant factor in all of the strife is often addiction. Many people live their lives with chemicals flowing through their blood most of the time. It is impossible to ever have contentment and peace when your body or mind is screaming for more, more, more and now, at any cost.
I think God brought me to Winnipeg's North End exactly because of the stark contrast between the desire of my heart and the context all around me. If your food is bland, add salt. If your porridge is too thick, add milk. If life is grey, add some colour. If I don't like the strife, I may as well cry out for peace, and seek to live out the beatitudes and be a maker of peace. I believe that the Prince of Peace, the creator who rested on Day 7, is able to give us rest. He will bring peace. Amen.
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