i must go till he comes

I’m part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have the Holy Spirit power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made – I’m a disciple of His. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure. I’m finished and done with low living, sight walking, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, worldly talking, cheap giving, and dwarfed goals. I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don’t have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience, am uplifted by prayer and I labor with power. My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, but my Guide is reliable. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, pander at the pool of popularity or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won’t give up, shut up, let up, until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, preached up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, and work until He stops me. And, when He comes for His own, He will have no problem recognizing me…my banner will be clear.

Muriithi Wanjau (Kenya).

he isn’t here

He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen.

And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.

Matthew, Paul, respectively.

complaining in prayer

The Bible, by contrast, sees the heart and its loves, hopes, and faith commitments as the seat of both reasoning and feeling. We are to offer and submit both our thoughts and our feelings in prayer to God. [J. I.] Packer concludes: “Complaints . . . are integral to this new, regenerate life of communion and prayer . . . so complaint will be, or at least should be, a recurring element in the praying of the born again.

Timothy Keller, Prayer, p. 235.

worship from psalm 95

Summary of Psalm 95

1. Worship God with both rejoicing and reverence. God doesn’t ask which way we are comfortable with.
2. Worship is based on God’s character as Creator and personal Shepherd. Thanking is based on our circumstances; worship is based on God’s character.
3. Worship must be from the heart (a hardened heart doesn’t feel or respond).
4. There is punishment for abusing worship (See I Cor 11)

Samir Massouh, Introduction to the Old Testament, lecture, Oct 22, 2002.

the valley provides rest

As I went down from the present peak into the valley between the mountains, I was often shadowed by the very peak I had been enjoying. This I interpreted in a sense of failure and this often led to despair. I felt I was going down into the ‘slough of despond.’ I see now that I was wrong in this ‘feeling.’ The going down was merely an initial moving forward towards the next higher ground, never a going back to base level. The shadow was only relative after the brightness of the sun; the valley could provide rest for working out the experiences previously learnt, a time for refreshment before the next hard climb. Had I understood this meaning of the sunshine and shadow in my life rather than interpreting my experiences along life’s way as ‘up’ and ‘down,’ I might have saved myself many deep heartaches.

Dr. Helen Roseveare, Give Me This Mountain, page 8.

science will bring you closer to god

I build molecules for a living, I can’t begin to tell you how difficult that job is. I stand in awe of God because of what he has done through his creation. Only a rookie who knows nothing about science would say science takes away from faith. If you really study science, it will bring you closer to God.

James M. Tour, Nanoscientist.

without god there is no justice

Unbelievers might wish to stop for a moment and consider how completely God – this Jewish God of justice and compassion – undergirds all our values and that it is just possible that human effort without this God is doomed to certain failure. Humanity’s most extravagant dreams are articulated by the Jewish prophets. In Isaiah’s vision, true faith is no longer confined to one nation, but “all the nations” stream to the House of YHWH “that he may teach us his ways” and that we may learn to “beat [our] swords into plowshares.” All who share this outrageous dream of universal brotherhood, peace, and justice, who dream the dreams and see the visions of the great prophets, must bring themselves to contemplate the possibility that without God there is no justice.

Thomas Cahill, The Gifts of the Jews, p. 251-252.

this is not a god to be neglected

If he be good, and infinitely good, there is all the reason in the world that you should love him; and there is no show of reason that you should love the world of sin before him. If he be faithful and true, his threatenings must be feared, and his promises must not be distrusted; and there is no reason that you should make any question of his word. If he be holy … then he must be an enemy to sin, and to all that are unholy, because they are contrary to his nature. Consider that he is almighty, and there is no resisting him … in the twink of an eye can he snatch thy guilty soul from thy body, and cast it where sin is better known. A word of his mount can set all the world against thee, and set thine own conscience against thee too … and if he be thine enemy, it is no matter who is thy friend; for all the world cannot save thee, if he do but condemn thee … He was from eternity, and thou art but as it were of yesterday; thy being is from him; thy life is always in his hands, thou canst not live an hour without him, thou canst not fetch a breath without him, nor think a thought, nor speak a word, nor stir a foot or a hand without him … no love can be great enough for such a God … this is not a God to be neglected, or dallied with; nor a God to be resisted, not provoked by the wilful breaking of his laws … O therefore dwell on the mediations of the almighty.

J. I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness, p. 168-169,
Quoting Richard Baxter, Works, II:589f.

the place of help

P. T. Forsyth used to insist that prayerlessness is the root of all sin. When we do not give time each day to earnest and believing prayer, we are saying that we can cope with life without divine aid. It is human arrogance at its worst. … To be prayerless is to be guilty of the worst form of practical atheism. We are saying that we believe in God but we can do without him. It makes us careless about our former sins and heedless of our immediate needs. … To neglect the place of prayer is to rob ourselves of immense and timely resources. For the Christian the throne of grace is the place of help.

Raymond Brown, The Message of Hebrews, p. 96-97.

so was born the altar call

The Methodists and the Frontier-Revivalists gave birth to the “altar call.” This practice began with the Methodists in the eighteenth century. The practice of inviting people who want prayer to stand to their feet and walk to the front to receive prayer was given to us by a Methodist minister named Lorenzo Dow.

In time, the “anxious bench” in the outdoor camp meeting was replaced ty the “altar” in the church building. The “sawdust trail” was replaced by the church aisle. And so was born the famous “altar call.”

Frank Viola & George Barna, Pagan Christianity, p. 66-97.

recognize the spirit-driven desire

It is absolutely vital to the ongoing life of the church that the elders recognize the Spirit-driven desire of others to shepherd the flock. If a brother desires to shepherd the church and truly exhibits that desire through appropriate action, and if he is morally qualified, then the elders are obligated to see that such a person is not frustrated in his desire. Such a brother needs to be officially made a member of the church eldership team.

Alexander Strauch, Biblical Eldership, p.278.

birth of the church

Properly conceived, the goal of preaching is not the salvation of souls, it is the birth of the church. As one scholar put it, “Conversion can only be the means, the goal is the extension of the visible church.” Kari Mueller, ed. Dictionary of Missions: Theology, History, Perspectives, 431. Scholar D. J. Tidball has echoed the same thought, saying, “Paul’s primary interest was not in the conversion of individuals but in the formation of Christian communities.” Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, 885. The Frontier-Revivalists had no concept of the ekklesia.

Frank Viola & George Barna, Pagan Christianity, p. 69.