PEARLS of GREAT VALUE
The more deeply you walk with Christ, the hungrier you get for Christ. The more homesick you get for heaven, the more you want all the fullness of Go and the more you want to be done with sin. The more you want the Bridegroom to come again, the more you want to church revived and purified again.
The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but the apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetites for heaven, but endless nibblings at the table of the world. It is not the X-rated DVD but the prime time dribble of triviality we drink in every nigh…
For When These Replace Our Appetite For God Himself, The Idolatry Is Scarcely Recognizable And Almost Incurable.
Pride blows us up like balloons, but grace punctures our conceit and lets the hot, proud air out of the system.
The life of true holiness is rooted in the soil of awed adoration. It does not grow elsewhere.
Worship does not satisfy our hunger for God.
It Whets Our Appetites.
Imperfection is the prerequisite for grace.
Light Only Gets In Through The Cracks.
The power of the church is not a parable of flawless people, but of a flawless Christ who embraces our flaws.
The Church Is Not Made Up Of Whole People, Rather Of Broken People Who Find Wholeness In A Christ Who Was Broken For Us.
Sociologists have a theory of the looking glass self; you become what the most important person in your life (wife, father, boss etc) thinks you are.
How Would My Life Change If I Truly Believed the Bible’s Astounding Words about God’s Love for Me, If I Looked in the Mirror and Saw What God Sees?
You are free to choose
But You Are Not Free from the Consequences of Your Choice.
QUOTABLE QUOTES
Your mind is like a garden; your thoughts are the seeds.
The Harvest Can Either Be Flowers Or Weeds.
Fill Your Paper With The Breathings Of Your Heart.
Sometimes, When You Are In A Dark Place, You Think You Are Buried
When You Are Planted.
Yesterday’s the past, tomorrow is the future but today is a gift.
That’s Why It Is Called the Present.
It doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white.
As Long As It Catches Mice.
REFLECTION
THREE MILE AN HOUR GOD
There is a great value in efficiency and speed. But let me make one observation. I find that God goes ‘slowly’ in his educational process of man. ‘Forty years in the wilderness’ points to his basic educational philosophy. Forty years of natural migration through the wilderness, three generations of the united monarchy (Saul, David, Solomon), nineteen kings of Israel (up to 722 BC) and twenty kings of Judah (up to 587 BC), the hosts of the prophets and priests, the experience of exile and restoration – isn’t this rather a slow and costly way for God to let his people know the covenant relationship between God and man?
God walks ‘slowly’ because he is love. If he is not love he would have gone much faster. Love has its speed. It is an inner speed. It is a spiritual speed. It is a different kind of speed from the technological speed to which we are accustomed. It is ‘slow’ yet it is lord over all other speeds since it is the speed of love. It goes on in the depth of our life, whether we notice or not, whether we are currently hit by storm or not, at three miles an hour. It is the speed we walk and therefore it is the speed the love of God walks.
(In 1970/1, I had interesting theological conversations with Dr Koyama. He was then lecturing at Trinity Theological College, Singapore)
HEAD’S UP
By Working Faithfully For Eight Hours A Day, You May Eventually Become The Boss And Work 12 Hours A Day
When The People Of God Have Their Hearts Quickened, And Roused To Pray, Prayer Can Open Heaven, Open Prisons And Strike Off Fetters.
