Saturday March 24, 2007

  I woke up this morning around 8am.  I had a good quiet time in the Word.  I did my reading for the Financial Peace class.  I relaxed and watched a movie.  Around noon I got dressed.  I had a good conversation with two of my neighbors.  One of whom is a new one.  It was good to get to know him a little better.  Then, I saw John & Jan Kellogg out in their yard.  I pulled in because it had been too long since I had caught up with them.  John and I had a great conversation about what the Lord is doing in our lives.  He is teaching us to rejoice in Him in ALL things.  It was so encouraging.  I then drove and grabbed lunch.  I loved the beautiful weather the Lord gave us today.  I’m still slowly getting over the virus and the lunch I got didn’t help, but the Lord is faithful in it all the hard and the easy. 
    I spend the evening reading some in the Word and in “The Man God Uses” by Blackaby.  The chapter I read dealt with a lot of the things John and I had discussed and a lot of the things the Lord is teaching me.  I will pass on some nuggets from the Word and from the book.  I pray that it encourages you as much as it did me.

Ps. 27:4 “One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek:  That I my dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple.”
Ps. 27:8 “When you said , “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, O Lord, I shall seek.”
Ps. 27:14 “Wait for the Lord; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord.”

“Don’t confuse understanding with doing.  Some us feel if we’ve read the Scripture and understand it that God’s revelation is automatically going to happen.  It won’t automatically happen until we adjust our lives to begin to be obedient to what God has said.  Scripture is not a concept; Scripture is a person (John 1:1, 14) . . . The moment you choose to read his Word, you choose to come into his presence, face-to-face.  When you stand before God, what ever you do next reveals the nature of your relationship to him. . . ” (Blackaby, 83)

“Love for God causes you to want to do what he says.  It keeps your “doing” from becoming burdensome and causes you to find joy in your obedience (John 15:9-11). . .  Pain in the Christian live leads us to a focused alertness to the activity of God, whose purpose is to lead us to obedience.  If we felt not pain when we were disobeying God and , therefore, had nothing to restrain us, we could self-destruct.” (Blackaby, 85)

“God is not a footnote we add to legitimize our plans and programs.  The man God uses knows that God is the essence of redeeming a people to himself.” (Blackaby, 88)

“. . .we often ask for something good when asking for whatever God has to give would bring us the best. . . We must direct our prayers so that they do not limit God by our limited understanding.  I have found over and over that God usually wants far more for us that we ask.  Just read Ephesians 3:20 and I Corinthians 2:9.  We generally “underask” God in our prayers.” (Blackaby, 90)

“Our ultimate goal as Christians is to be one with Christ as he is one with his Father.  This means to be of the same attitude, mindset and desires as Christ.” (Blackaby, 91)

“God has the right to help himself to your life anytime he wants.  The essence of becoming a Christian is releasing your life into the lordship of Jesus Christ unconditionally.” (Blackaby, 93″

“The church is the primary example of how God can put so many diverse and otherwise unrelated people together as equals to accomplish amazing feats.” (Blackaby, 103)

The Man God Uses by Henry and Tom Blackaby Copyright 1999 (emphasis is mine)