Pick Up Your Cross

Jesus invites us to be his disciples. If we choose to accept his loving invitation, we must understand that there are certain conditions to be fulfilled. One of them is a willingness to accept the cross. Is this a once-for-all taking up of one particular burden? I don't think so. It seems to me that my "cross" is each particular occasion when I am given the chance to "die"--that is, to offer up my own will whenever it crosses Christ's. This happens very often. A disagreement with my husband can cause an argument and harsh words, even if the matter is ridiculously small--"When are you going to get that dashboard light fixed in the car?" I have already mentioned the light three times. It may be time to keep my mouth shut, but I don't want to keep my mouth shut. Here, then, is a chance to die. A decision which affects both of us may be a fairly big one, but we find ourselves on two sides of the fence. One of us, then, must "die."
It is never easy for me. Shall I make excuses for myself (that's the way I am; it's my personality; it's the way I was raised; I'm tired; I can't hack it; it doesn't turn me on; you don't understand)--or shall I pick up this cross?
Perhaps my illustration seems to trivialize the cross of Christ. His was so unimaginably greater. What cross could I possibly take up which would be analogous? Just here is the lesson for me: when Jesus took up his cross, He was saying yes with all his being to the will of the Father. If I am unwilling to say yes in even a very little thing, how shall I accept a more painful thing? What sort of practice does it take for a disciple to learn to follow the Crucified? A friend hurts us, a plan goes awry, an effort fails--small things indeed. But then cancer strikes, a daughter marries unwisely, a business folds, a wife abandons her home and family. The call still comes to us: Take up your cross and come with Me. With You, Lord? Yes, with Me. Will You give me strength and show me the way? That was my promise--is it my custom to break promises?
(Elisabeth Elliot)

Die Quickly

To hold onto something with a desperate grip is not the way to die. Death is a painful process, and restoratives offered to the dying wretch bound to his wheel only prolong his agony. There are times when the thing to do is simply to die. I am thinking, of course, of dying to the self. We clutch so tenaciously to our rights, hopes, ambitions, something to which God has perhaps said a plain no. If would-be comforters offer us consolation and sympathy, if they assist us to strengthen our grasp when it should be loosened, they do not love us as God loves us. The way into life is death, and if we refuse it we are refusing Him who showed us that way and no other. The love which is strong as death is not only willing to save the beloved, it is willing to seem, if necessary, pitiless, insensitive, unloving, if that is what will help the beloved to die--that is, to be released from the bondage of self, which is death, and thus enter the gateway of life.

Archbishop Fenelon wrote to the countess of Montberon, "You want to die, but to die without any pain.... You must give all or nothing when God asks it. If you have not the courage to give at least let Him take."
(Elisabeth Elliot)

Faith Is Holding Out Your Hand

Sometimes when I was a child my mother or father would say, "Shut your eyes and hold out your hand." That was the promise of some lovely surprise. I trusted them, so I shut my eyes instantly and held out my hand. Whatever they were going to give me I was ready to take. So it should be in our trust of our heavenly Father. Faith is the willingness to receive whatever He wants to give, or the willingness not to have what He does not want to give.

I am content to be and have what in Thy heart I am meant to be and have.
--(George MacDonald, Diary of an Old Soul)

From the greatest of all gifts, salvation in Christ, to the material blessings of any ordinary day (hot water, a pair of legs that work, a cup of coffee, a job to do and strength to do it), every good gift comes down from the Father of Lights. Every one of them is to be received gladly and, like gifts people give us, with thanks.
Sometimes we want things we were not meant to have. Because He loves us, the Father says no. Faith trusts that no. Faith is willing not to have what God is not willing to give. Furthermore, faith does not insist upon an explanation. It is enough to know his promise to give what is good--He knows so much more about that than we do.
(Elisabeth Elliot)

Being a Lens

Being a Lens

Scripture verses: Psalm 35:22-28; Philippians 1:20

Each of us is a lens that magnifies what we live for. People can look at and through our lives and see what is really important to us. The athlete magnifies his sport, his team and his winning record. The musician magnifies the instrument he plays. The scholar magnifies his discipline. As God's people, we should magnify the Lord.
The sinner, however, wants to magnify only himself. David said, "Let them be ashamed and brought to mutual confusion who rejoice at my hurt; let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me" (v. 26). Notice the phrase "who magnify themselves against me." Whenever you live to magnify yourself, you are always against someone else. This means competition. And God doesn't want us to live competitively.
Our great desire should be to magnify the Lord, not ourselves. David said, "Let them shout for joy and be glad, who favor my righteous cause; and let them say continually, 'Let the Lord be magnified'" (v. 27). The Apostle Paul said, "Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death" (Phil. 1:20). Are you magnifying the Lord today? Can people listen to your words, look at your life, measure your actions and say, "She belongs to the Lord. He belongs to the Lord"? It's important that people see the Lord, not us.
The most important quality of a lens is cleanliness. When the lenses of my glasses get dirty, I see the dirt. So I have to clean them. When we are dirty, people see us rather than the Lord. Let's keep our lives clean today. Let's magnify the Lord together; He is worthy of all praise.
Christians are on display before the world. What an opportunity and responsibility you have to impact others for Christ! If you love the Lord, you will want to magnify Him. Watch your words and actions. Are you living for Jesus? Keep the lens of your life clean so that He may be magnified through you.

By Warren Wiersbe

"O Lord!"

The following is an excerpt by Elisabeth Elliot from her book On Asking God Why. It contains a bit of her personal story - of some of the trials she's faced - and how God has led her through them. It is a great reminder of God's constancy, no matter how we feel.


Thirty years ago I was standing beside a shortwave radio in a house on the Atun Yacu, one of the principal headwaters of the Amazon, when I learned that my husband, Jim Elliot, was one of the five missionaries missing. They had gone into the territory of the Auca Indians, a people who had never heard even the name of Jesus Christ. What did I do? I suppose I said out loud, "O Lord!"

And he answered me. Not with an audible voice (I've never heard him speak that way in my life). But God brought to mind an ancient promise from the Book of Isaiah: "I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned....For I am the Lord your God" (Isaiah 43:1, 2).

l am the Lord your God. Think of it! The One who engineered this incredible universe with such exquisite precision that astronomers can predict exactly where and when Halley's comet will appear--this God is my Lord.

Evelyn Underhill said, "If God were small enough to be understood, He would not be big enough to be worshiped."

Can we imagine that God, who is concerned with so many stupendous things, can possibly be concerned about us? We do imagine it. We hope he is. That is why we turn to him in desperation and cry out, as I did, "O Lord!" Where else can we possibly turn when we have come to the end of our resources?

Does God love us? Karl Barth, the great theologian, was once asked if he could condense all the theology he had ever written into one simple sentence.
"Yes," he said. "I can. 'Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.'"

Think about the account of the Crucifixion in Mark 15. Jesus was fastened to a cross. It was a man-made cross, and man-made nails were hammered through his hands--the hands that had formed the galaxies. Wicked men put him up there. Then they flung at him a bold and insolent challenge: "If you're the Son of God, come down! Then we'll believe."

Did he come down? No. He stayed there. He could have summoned an army of angels to rescue him, but he stayed there. Why? Because he loved us with a love that gives everything.
Because of the love of the father for us, he gave his son. Because of the love of the son for his father, he was willing to die, "so that by God's gracious will, in tasting death, he should stand for us all" (Hebrews 2:9).

When I heard Jim was missing, my first response was "O Lord!" God answered by giving me a promise: "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you."

Was that enough for me? Was that all I wanted? No, I wanted Jim back alive. I didn't want to go through that deep river, that dark tunnel. Five days later I got another radio message: Jim was dead. All five of the men were dead.

God hadn't worked any magic. He is not a talisman, a magic charm to carry in our pocket and stroke to get whatever we want. He could have sent a rescue squad of angels to save Jim and the others, but he didn't. Why not? Didn't he love us?

Fourteen years later God brought another man into my life. I thought it was a miracle I'd gotten married the first time! Now, once again, I was a wife.
However, Addison Leitch and I had not yet reached our fourth anniversary when we learned he had cancer. O Lord, I thought, another dark tunnel. The medical verdict was grim, but we prayed for healing. We did not know positively what the outcome would be, but we knew our Father. We had to keep turning our eyes from the frightening things to him, knowing him to be utterly faithful.

Whatever dark tunnel we may be called upon to travel through, God has been there. Whatever deep waters seem about to drown us, he has traversed. Faith is not merely "feeling good about God" but a conscious choice, even in the utter absence of feelings or external encouragements, to obey his Word when he says, "Trust Me." This choice has nothing to do with mood but is a deliberate act of laying hold on the character of God whom circumstances never change.

Does he love us? No, no, no is what our circumstances seem to say. We cannot deduce the fact of his unchanging love from the evidence we see around us. Things are a mess. Yet to turn our eyes back to the Cross of Calvary is to see the irrefutable proof that has stood all the tests of the ages: "It is by this that we know what love is: that Christ laid down his life for us" (John 3:16 NEB).

Cumbered With Much Serving

Here is another fantastic reading by Charles Spurgeon:

“Martha was cumbered about much serving.”

– Luke 10:40

Her fault was not that she served: the condition of a servant compliments every Christian. “I serve,” should be the motto of all the princes of the royal family of heaven. Nor was it her fault that she had “much serving.” We cannot do too much. Let us do all that we possibly can; let head, and heart, and hands, be engaged in the Master’s service. It was no fault of hers that she was busy preparing a feast for the Master. Happy Martha, to have an opportunity of entertaining so blessed a guest, and happy, too, to have the spirit to throw her whole soul so heartily into the preparation. Her fault was that she grew “cumbered with much serving,” so that she forgot Him and only remembered the service. She allowed service to override communion, and so presented one duty stained with the blood of another.
We ought to be Martha and Mary in one: we should do much service and have much communion at the same time. For this we need great grace. It is easier to serve than to commune. Joshua never grew weary in fighting with the Amalekites; but Moses, on the mountaintop in prayer, needed two helpers to sustain his hands. The more spiritual the exercise, the sooner we tire in it. The choicest fruits are the hardest to rear: the most heavenly character traits are the most difficult to cultivate. Beloved, while we do not neglect external things, good enough in themselves, we ought also to see to it that we enjoy living, personal fellowship with Jesus. See to it that sitting at the Saviour’s feet is not neglected, even though it be under the specious pretext of doing Him service. The first thing for our soul’s health, the first thing for His glory, and the first thing for our own usefulness, is to keep ourselves in perpetual communion with the Lord Jesus, and to see that the vital spirituality of our religion is maintained over and above everything else in the world.
(C.H. Spurgeon)

The Snare of the Fowler

“Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler.”

– Psalm 91:3

God delivers His people from the snare of the fowler in two senses. From, and out of. First, He delivers them from the snare or does not let them enter it; second, if they should be caught therein, He delivers them out of it. The first promise is the most precious to some; the second is the best to others.
“He shall deliver thee from the snare.” How? Trouble is often the means whereby God delivers us. God knows that our backsliding will soon end in our destruction, and in mercy He sends the rod. We ask, “Lord, why is this?” not knowing that our trouble has been the means of delivering us from far greater evil. In this way many have been saved from ruin by their sorrows and their crosses; these have frightened the birds from the net. At other times, God keeps His people from the snare of the fowler by giving them great spiritual strength, so that when they are tempted to do evil they say, “How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”
But what a blessed thing it is that if the believer comes into the net in an evil hour, yet God will bring him out of it! O backslider, be cast down, but do not despair. Though you have been a wanderer, hear what your Redeemer says: “Return, O backsliding children, I will have mercy upon you.” But you say you cannot return, for you are a captive. Then listen to the promise: “Surely He shall deliver thee out of the snare of the fowler.” You will yet be brought out of all evil into which you have fallen, and though you will never be able to cease repenting of your ways, yet He who has loved you will not cast you away. He will receive you, and give you joy and gladness, so that the bones He has broken may rejoice. No bird of paradise shall die in the fowler’s net.
(C.H. Spurgeon)

Money

Money holds terrible power when it is loved. It can blind us, shackle us, fill us with anxiety and fear, torment our days and nights with misery, wear us out with chasing it. The Macedonian Christians, possessing little of it, accepted their lot with faith and trust. Their eyes were opened to see past their own misery. They saw what mattered far more than a bank account, and, out of "magnificent concern," contributed to the needs of their brothers. If through losing what this world prizes we are enabled to gain what it despises -- treasure in heaven, invisible and incorruptible -- isn't it worth any kind of suffering? What is it worth to us to learn a little bit more of what the Cross means -- life out of death, the transformation of earth's losses and heartbreaks and tragedies?God has allowed in the lives of each of us some sort of loss, the withdrawal of something we valued, in order that we may learn to offer ourselves a little more willingly, to allow the touch of death on one more thing we have clutched so tightly, and thus know fullness and freedom and joy that much sooner. We're not naturally inclined to love God and seek His Kingdom. Trouble may help to incline us -- that is, it may tip us over, put some pressure on us, lean us in the right direction.
(Elisabeth Elliot)

I Will Be Their God

“I will be their God.”

– Jeremiah 31:33

Christian! Here is all you can require. To make you happy you want something that will satisfy you; is this not enough? If you can pour this promise into your cup, will you not say with David, “My cup runneth over; I have more than my heart can wish”? When this saying “I am thy God” is fulfilled, are you not possessor of all things? …Are you complete when God is yours? Do you want anything but God? Isn’t His all-sufficiency enough to satisfy you if all else should fail? But you want more than quiet satisfaction; you desire rapturous delight. Come, soul, here is music fit for heaven in this your portion, for God is the Maker of Heaven…
“I will be their God.” If this does not make your eyes sparkle, and your heart beat high with bliss, then assuredly your soul is not in a healthy state. But you want more than present delights – you crave something concerning which you may exercise hope; and what more can you hope for than the fulfillment of this great promise, “I will be their God”?
… Dwell in the light of the Lord, and let your soul be always ravished with His love… live up to your privileges, and rejoice with unspeakable joy.
(C.H. Spurgeon)

Patience

Patience

To want what we don't have is impatience, for one thing, and it is to mistrust God. Is He not in complete control of all circumstances, events, and conditions? If some are beyond His control, He is not God.
A spirit of resistance cannot wait on God. I believe it is this spirit which is the reason for some of our greatest sufferings. Opposing the workings of the Lord in and through our "problems" only exacerbates them. It is here and now that we must win our victories or suffer defeats. Spiritual victories are won in the quiet acceptance of ordinary events, which are God's "bright servants," standing all around us.
Restlessness and impatience change nothing except our peace and joy. Peace does not dwell in outward things, but in the heart prepared to wait trustfully and quietly on Him who has all things safely in His hands. "Peace I leave with you; I do not give to you as the world gives" (John 14:27, NEB). What sort of peace has He to give us? A peace which was constant in the midst of ceaseless work (with few visible results), frequent interruptions, impatient demands, few physical comforts; a peace which was not destroyed by the arguments, the faithlessness, and hatred of the people. Jesus had perfect confidence in His Father, whose will He had come to accomplish. Nothing touched Him without His Father's permission. Nothing touches me without my Father's permission. Can I not then wait patiently? He will show the way.
If I am willing to be still in my Master's hand, can I not then be still in everything? He's got the whole world in His hands! Never mind whether things come from God Himself or from people-- everything comes by His ordination or permission. If I mean to be obedient and submissive to the Lord because He is my Lord, I must not forget that whatever He allows to happen becomes, for me, His will at that moment. Perhaps it is someone else's sinful action, but if God allows it to affect me, He wills it for my learning. The need to wait is, for me, a form of chastening. God has to calm me down, make me shut up and look to Him for the outcome.
His message to me every day
Is wait, be still, trust, and obey.

- Elisabeth Elliot

Light

Here is a great devotion reading by Kay Arthur:

“You are the light of the world,” Jesus declared to His followers in Matthew 5:14. And we know that light has one purpose: to dispel darkness. Light serves its purpose only when it shines forth, to be seen of men. If a lamp or candle doesn’t give light, what good is it?
Therefore Jesus admonishes us: “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
I want you to notice something important here: our good works cause the light to shine. But those good works are to be done in such a way that they do not glorify us but our Father. If they do not point men beyond us to the Father, then something is wrong with the way we are letting our lights shine.
I’m not saying that it’s wrong for people to love and appreciate you. This is obviously going to happen if you’re used of God in a significant way in somebody’s life. That love and appreciation, however, should never stop with you. It should rather be primarily directed toward the Source of all Light, Jesus Christ. The lampstand is not significant, but the light that comes from the lampstand is. The lampstand is merely a vessel to bring light to those who are in its presence. Just as the moon reflects the sun’s light, so we are to reflect the Son’s light!

Known By God

One of my favourite preachers has always been Charles Spurgeon, and his daily devotional "Morning & Evening" is just wonderful. The following is an excerpt from one of the readings of that book...


Unknown By Men, But Known By God

Observe how the angel begins, “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy… for unto you is born this day…” So then the joy began with the first who heard it, the shepherds. “To you,” He says; “for unto you is born.” Shall the joy begin with you today? – for it profits you little that Christ was born or that Christ died, unless unto you a child is born, and for you Jesus bled. A personal interest is the main point. “But I am poor,” one says. So were the shepherds. You poor, to you this mysterious child is born. “But I am obscure and unknown,” says another. So were the watchers on the midnight plain. Who knew the men who endured hard toil and kept their flocks by night? But you, unknown by men, are known to God: Shall it not be said that “unto you a child is born?” The Lord does not regard the greatness of men but as respect to the lowly. …Receive gladly the simple truth as it is in Jesus.

Lasting Newness

They say the day after Christmas is the greatest shopping day of the year. You would think we’d had enough of the new things of this life! Yet we always seem to want something more, something new.
The word new carries an element of hope, doesn’t it? Well, New Year’s is coming. How about making this a year of lasting newness, of continual hope? What might happen if your life, beginning today, centered not on the world’s newest or latest great things but on reveling in all that is new to us because we belong to Christ?
There’s the new self – what you became when you received the Christ of Christmas. “[You] have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him” (Colossians 3:10). This new self “has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Ephesians 4:24). The new self also includes a new mind, a mind tuned to truth. You’re able to appraise things to see if they’re true because you “have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:15-16).
Colossians tells us to “set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (3:2). Why not make it your goal this year to study some portions of the Bible that you’ve never really studied before? Discover new insights, new precepts, new promises as you study book by book. It will give you a new appreciation of what it means to be His and will keep you from being caught up in the world.
- Kay Arthur

What Is Christmas?

A great reading by Kay Arthur:

As you picture the original nativity scene, place two spikes in the baby’s soft pink fists and lay another at His squirming feet. Jarring though it may be, that’s the message of God’s gift to the world, a message to all who long for healing of the spirit, healing from the ravages of sin.
The Promised One from God became a human being like you and me so He might not only die for us but also represent us before God. He experienced all the flesh-and-blood realities of life, including temptation and suffering, so that as our high priest He could sympathize with our weaknesses.
Isaiah 53:4-5 says, “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitted of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.”
Healed of what? Of the consequences of sin, which is death. “And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24).
What is Christmas? Christmas is God’s sending His Son to become flesh and blood, to experience our sufferings, and to be “tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Christmas is Jesus’ being nailed to a cross where He paid for your sins and mine once for all!Christmas is the promise of healing from sin for all who believe.

Son of Man and Son of God

Who is this One whose birth we celebrate at Christmas? Why does He bear the titles “Son of Man” and “Son of God”?
John opened his gospel with a description of Jesus: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1-2). Do you see the truth revealed here? John tells us that the Word – Jesus – was with God and the Word was God. Jesus is a member of the triune Godhead!
But John has more to tell us about the Word: “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (1:14). The Word begotten – born of God – became the Son of Man. Because you and I are flesh and blod, Jesus became the same: a human being. Yet He remained God. It’s the mystery of the incarnation. The Christ of Christmas was – is – God in the flesh. Every bit God and every bit man.
And what was the purpose of His becoming flesh? Hebrews 2:17 tells us that “He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might… make propitiation for the sins of the people.” The Word became flesh to die in your place, because even when you were yet a sinner, you were beloved of God!
(Kay Arthur)

Focus Shift

Have you ever wondered how the focus of Christmas shifted from Christ our Saviour wrapped in swaddling cloths in a Bethlehem manger to jolly ol’ Saint Nick dressed in a bright red suit with white fur in a North Pole workshop?
It started out quite innocently. The man who came to be known as Saint Nicholas was born around AD 280 in what is now Turkey. As a follower of Christ, this dear man gave away his inherited wealth to help the poor. Centuries later, the day of his death, December 6, became a feast day that included the giving of gifts to children and the poor.
By the time of the Renaissance, Saint Nicholas was the most popular saint in Europe. In the Netherlands, Sinterklaas, as he was called, brought presents to good children. In Germany and elsewhere, Saint Nicholas was believed to be accompanied in his gift giving by the Christ Child or “Christkindl,” from where we get the name “Kriss Kringle.”
Eventually immigrants brought their various traditions to America, where writers and illustrators added new details to the character of Saint Nicholas until our modern Santa Claus gradually emerged in the late 1800s. Then it happened: the marketing of Christmas without the Christ.
“The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4). The shift came subtly, as often happens when we don’t evaluate everything against the plumb line of God’s Word. We veer slightly off center, and we soon lose track of the center altogether.
(Kay Arthur)

According to Your Word

Here is a great reading by Kay Arthur, from her devotional Lord, I Give You This Day...

After we’ve been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ from an evil conscience (Hebrews 10:22), how do we stay pure? How do we keep our hearts from being stained all over again?
Listen to the answer from Psalm 119:9: “How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word.” We keep our hearts cleansed through the Word of God. When the Word cleanses us, it cleanses from wrong thinking, wrong doctrine, and wrong behaviour. This is why Jesus prayed to the Father on behalf of His followers, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth” (John 17:17).
How often do you think such sanctification, such cleansing by the Word, is necessary? How much do you think it takes to make or keep you clean?
I’ve heard some people say, “Just spend three minutes a day alone with God.”
I can understand where they’re coming from. Some believers go through their days without spending any time with the Lord. And three minutes with God is better than none!
But the question is, are we selling God short? Are we selling God’s Word short? Is Deuteronomy 8:3 true when it says that “man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD”? In three minutes a day can I really present myself “approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15)?

Prayerfully evaluate how much time you are spending in God’s Word. If you’ve been short-changing God, ask Him to show you how to reprioritize your schedule.

Idolatry

It seems odd to think of ourselves as idol worshipers in our modern culture, doesn’t it? And yet so many of us are. The idols that tend to attract out attentions are not as easy to spot as the icons of Old Testament times or the fetishes of superstitious people who still worship other gods. But they are just as real. They are just as damning. And God’s warning remains just as true: “Do not go after other gods to serve them and to worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands” (Jeremiah 25:6).
Why is God against idolatry? Because its focus is on what man creates rather than on the Creator. God loves us and desires our highest good. He made us for Himself. Nothing – no person, no object – is to take His rightful place in our affections or attention.
Think about it. Does He have the pre-eminence in your affections? Do you desire Him above all else and everyone else? Or have others – idols – crowded Him out so that you live for others, seeking to please them above your God? And what priority do you give Him? How much of your attention does He receive? Do you talk with Him daily? Weekly? Monthly? Annually? Do you take vacations from God or with God?I urge you to take a moment and think about these things. If you have idols in your life, you must realize they are as great a sin as adultery or murder. Hear the word of the Lord in Exodus 20:3: “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Have you?
(Kay Arthur)

Come To The Quiet

I wanted to do a quick entry about “quiet time with the Lord.” I read a great piece about this from Elisabeth Elliot and am going to paraphrase what she said.

First, I couldn’t agree more with Elliot when she said “having a quiet time with the Lord every day is absolutely essential if you expect to grow spiritually.” But so many of us have excuse after excuse as to why we don’t have time to sit and do devotions. A lot of reasons are very valid – but overall, if you really want to spend time with the Lord, you can make time. And this may take actual planning… plan the time and make sure you stick with it. :)
As for just reading the Bible, here are some great ideas of how to make this time a bit deeper and also to really help you focus and glean from it, rather than doing a mere quick read and move on.

Pray: Pray, first, for the Holy Spirit’s teaching.

Questions: After you’ve done your reading, ask yourself some questions about it.

What does this passage teach me about…

• God
• Jesus Christ
• The Holy Spirit
• Myself
• Sins to confess or avoid
• Commands to obey
• What Christian love is

Keep a notebook and write down some of your answers that you’ve found to the above questions, or anything else you learned.

If you really enjoy journaling, here are a few more ideas of things to focus on in your notebook:

Application: Note ways in which you intend to apply what you’ve learned to your life.

Key Verse: Jot down a key verse (or verses) that you may want to memorize.

Quotations: Quotes from your spiritual reading other than the Bible; also, perhaps prayers from the words of hymns that you want to make your own.

Prayer Requests: Write down some of your special prayer requests with the date. Record the answer when it comes.

Thanksgiving: Reasons for thanksgiving.

I really believe that doing these things make for a much deeper and intimate quiet time with the Lord, and I hope if there is anyone struggling in this area, they’ll give these ideas a try!

Also, for anyone who also enjoys reading another book along with their Bible in their devotional time, here are a few that I absolutely love and highly recommend:

• Lord, I Give You This Day by Kay Arthur
• Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
• The Valley of Vision by Arthur Bennett
• My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers
• A 30-Day Walk With God in the Psalms by Nancy Leigh DeMoss

And I also recommend any studies by Kay Arthur – for example Speak to My Heart, God or Lord, I Want To Know You.