Something I read today.... - Page 12

mizpeh · #**111** 05-22-2010, 07:52 PM

"When you think about a problem over and over in your mind, that's called worry. When you think about God's word over and over in your mind, that's meditation. If you know how to worry, you already know how to meditate! You just need to switch your attention from your problems to Bible verses. The more you mediate on God's word, the less you will have to worry about."

Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, page 90.

mizpeh · #**112** 05-23-2010, 08:11 PM

" We are often challenged to do "great things" for God. Actually, God is more pleased when we do small things for him out of loving obedience. They may be unnoticed by others, but God notices them and considers them acts of worship.

Great opportunities may come once in a lifetime, but small opportunities surround us every day. Even through such simple acts as telling the truth, being kind, and encouraging others, we bring a smile to God's face. God treasures simple acts of obedience more than our prayers, praise, and offerings. The Bible tells us, "What pleases the Lord more: burnt offerings and sacrifices or obedience to his voice? It is better to obey than to sacrifice."

Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, page 95-56.

mizpeh · #**113** 05-23-2010, 08:26 PM

"--you are as close to God as you choose to be. Intimate friendship with God is a choice, not an accident. You must intentionally seek it. Do you really want it-- more than anything? What is it worth to you? Is it worth giving up other things?"

"There is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- more important than developing a friendship with God. It's a relationship that will last forever. "

Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, pages 98-99.

mizpeh · #**114** 05-26-2010, 01:26 AM

Quote:

Piper offers a list of reasons why we should memorize Scripture. They are:

-Conformity to Christ - Bible memorization has the effect of making our gaze on Jesus steadier and clearer.

-Daily Triumph over Sin - As sin lures the body into sinful action, we call to mind a Christ-revealing word of Scripture and slay the temptation with the superior worth and beauty of Christ over what sin offers.

-Daily Triumph over Satan - When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness he recited Scripture from memory and put Satan to flight.

-Comfort and Counsel for People You Love - When the heart full of God's love can draw on the mind full of God's word, timely blessings flow from the mouth.

-Communicating the Gospel to Unbelievers - Actual verses of the Bible have their own penetrating power. And when they come from our heart, as well as from the Book, the witness is given that they are precious enough to learn.

-Communion with God in the Enjoyment of His Person and Ways - The way we commune with (that is, fellowship with) God is by meditating on his attributes and expressing to him our thanks and admiration and love, and seeking his help to live a life that reflects the value of these attributes.

http://www.challies.com/christian-li...rize-scripture

Mirth1981 · #**115** 05-26-2010, 01:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mizpeh

From The Grace Awakening by Charles Swindoll page 19

"Instead of striving for a manmade ticket to heaven based on high achievemnet and hard work (for which we get all the credit), I suggest we openly declare our own spiritual bankruptcy and accept God's free gift of grace. "Why?" you ask. "Why not emphasize how much I do for God instead of what He does for me?" Because that is heresy, plain and simple. How? By exalting our own effort and striving for our own accomplishments, we insult His grace and steal the credit that belongs to Him alone."

mizpeh · #**116** 05-26-2010, 02:21 PM

...in the Pentecostal Herald. I was thinking about starting a thread with it but I thought I'd put it here instead.

"Of course, neither the name nor the organization [UPCI] is necessary or sufficient for salvation. Salvation is by grace through faith, purchased by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and experienced by all who obey the gospel of Jesus Christ. We cannot claim to be the only group who embraces truth and has an experience with God."

by David K. Bernard from the article, Apostolic Revival, page 7.

Pressing-On · #**117** 05-26-2010, 02:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mizpeh

...in the Pentecostal Herald. I was thinking about starting a thread with it but I thought I'd put it here instead.

"Of course, neither the name nor the organization [UPCI] is necessary or sufficient for salvation. Salvation is by grace through faith, purchased by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and experienced by all who obey the gospel of Jesus Christ. We cannot claim to be the only group who embraces truth and has an experience with God."

by David K. Bernard from the article, Apostolic Revival, page 7.

mizpeh · #**118** 05-27-2010, 10:43 AM

A commentary by Matthew Henry on the last part of Isaiah 28:

Husbandry a Divine Art. B. C. 725.

Quote:

23 Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech. 24 Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground? 25 When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their place? 26 For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him. 27 For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod. 28 Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen. 29 This also cometh forth from the LORD of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.

This parable, which (like many of our Saviour's parables) is borrowed from the husbandman's calling, is ushered in with a solemn preface demanding attention, He that has ears to hear, let him hear, hear and understand, Isaiah 28:23.

I. The parable here is plain enough, that the husbandman applies himself to the business of his calling with a great deal of pains and prudence, secundum artem--according to rule, and, as his judgment directs him, observes a method and order in his work. 1. In his ploughing and sowing: Does the ploughman plough all day to sow? Yes, he does, and he ploughs in hope and sows in hope, 1 Corinthians 9:10. Does he open and break the clods? Yes, he does, that the land may be fit to receive the seed. And when he has thus made plain the face thereof does he not sow his seed, seed suitable to the soil? For the husbandman knows what grain is fit for clayey ground and what for sandy ground, and, accordingly, he sows each in its place--wheat in the principal place (so the margin reads it), for it is the principal grain, and was a staple commodity of Canaan (Ezekiel 27:17), and barley in the appointed place. The wisdom and goodness of the God of nature are to be observed in this, that, to oblige his creatures with a grateful variety of productions, he has suited to them an agreeable variety of earths. 2. In his threshing, Isaiah 28:27,28. This also he proportions to the grain that is to be threshed out. The fitches and the cummin, being easily got out of their husk or ear, are only threshed with a staff and a rod; but the bread-corn requires more force, and therefore that must be bruised with a threshing instrument, a sledge shod with iron, that was drawn to and fro over it, to beat out the corn; and yet he will not be ever threshing it, nor any longer than is necessary to loosen the corn from the chaff; he will not break it, or crush it, into the ground with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it to pieces with his horsemen; the grinding of it is reserved for another operation. Observe, by the way, what pains are to be taken, not only for the earning, but for the preparing of our necessary food; and yet, after all, it is meat that perishes. Shall we then grudge to labour much more for the meat which endures to everlasting life? Bread-corn is bruised. Christ was so; it pleased the Lord to bruise him, that he might be the bread of life to us.

II. The interpretation of the parable is not so plain. Most interpreters make it a further answer to those who set the judgments of God at defiance: "Let them know that as the husbandman will not be always ploughing, but will at length sow his seed, so God will not be always threatening, but will at length execute his threatenings and bring upon sinners the judgments they have deserved; but in wisdom, and in proportion to their strength, not that they may be ruined, but that they may be reformed and brought to repentance by them." But I think we may give this parable a greater latitude in the exposition of it. 1. In general, that God who gives the husbandman this wisdom is, doubtless, himself infinitely wise. It is God that instructs the husbandman to discretion, as his God, Isaiah 28:26. Husbandmen have need of discretion wherewith to order their affairs, and ought not undertake that business unless they do in some measure understand it; and they should by observation and experience endeavour to improve themselves in the knowledge of it. Since the king himself is served of the field, the advancing of the art of husbandry is a common service to mankind more than the cultivating of most other arts. The skill of the husbandman is from God, as every good and perfect gift is. This takes off somewhat of the weight and terror of the sentence passed on man for sin, that when God, in execution of it, sent man to till the ground, he taught him how to do it most to his advantage, otherwise, in the greatness of his folly, he might have been for ever tilling the sand of the sea, labouring to no purpose. It is he that gives men capacity for this business, an inclination to it, and a delight in it; and if some were not by Providence cut out for it, and mad to rejoice (as Issachar, that tribe of husbandmen) in their tents, notwithstanding the toil and fatigue of this business, we should soon want the supports of life. If some are more discreet and judicious in managing these or any other affairs than others are, God must be acknowledged in it; and to him husbandmen must seek for direction in their business, for they, above other men, have an immediate dependence upon the divine Providence. As to the other instance of the husbandman's conduct in threshing his corn, it is said, This also comes forth from the Lord of hosts, Isaiah 28:29. Even the plainest dictate of sense and reason must be acknowledged to come forth from the Lord of hosts. And, if it is from him that men do things wisely and discreetly, we must needs acknowledge him to be wise in counsel and excellent in working. God's working is according to his will; he never acts against his own mind, as men often do, and there is a counsel in his whole will: he is therefore excellent in working, because he is wonderful in counsel. 2. God's church is his husbandry, 1 Corinthians 3:9. If Christ is the true vine, his Father is the husbandman (John 15:1), and he is continually by his word and ordinances cultivating it. Does the ploughman plough all day, and break the clods of his ground, that it may receive the seed, and does not God by his ministers break up the fallow ground? Does not the ploughman, when the ground is fitted for the seed, cast in the seed in its proper soil? He does so, and so the great God sows his word by the hand of his ministers (Matthew 13:19), who are to divide the word of truth and give every one his portion. Whatever the soil of the heart is, there is some seed or other in the word proper for it. And, as the word of God, so the rod of God is thus wisely made use of. Afflictions are God's threshing-instruments, designed to loosen us from the world, to separate between us and our chaff, and to prepare us for use. And, as to these, God will make use of them as there is occasion; but he will proportion them to our strength; they shall be no heavier than there is need. If the rod and the staff will answer the end, he will not make use of his cart-wheel and his horsemen. And where these are necessary, as for the bruising of the bread-corn (which will not otherwise be got clean from the straw), yet he will not be ever threshing it, will not always chide, but his anger shall endure but for a moment; nor will he crush under his feet the prisoners of the earth. And herein we must acknowledge him wonderful in counsel and excellent in working.

*AQuietPlace* · #**119** 05-27-2010, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mizpeh

...in the Pentecostal Herald. I was thinking about starting a thread with it but I thought I'd put it here instead.

"Of course, neither the name nor the organization [UPCI] is necessary or sufficient for salvation. Salvation is by grace through faith, purchased by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and experienced by all who obey the gospel of Jesus Christ. We cannot claim to be the only group who embraces truth and has an experience with God."

by David K. Bernard from the article, Apostolic Revival, page 7.

I wonder how far he's taking that? If he means other Pentecostal groups outside of the UPCI, or if he means Christianity at large?

mizpeh · #**120** 05-27-2010, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by *AQuietPlace*

I wonder how far he's taking that? If he means other Pentecostal groups outside of the UPCI, or if he means Christianity at large?

My guess is if someone does both 1) embraces the truth (depends on what Bernard means by "truth") and 2) has an experience with God (whatever that means) then those are the folks he is talking about.

There are some people who have had an experience with God who have never repented. Acts 13:11

I suppose Bernard would have to define his terms.