He is No Fool

Hidden Sanctification of the Soul

 

It is good that we should have to submit to what we do not understand.  It teaches us the laws of faith and hope.  

It is good that we should have to do what we would rather not, in circumstances not of our choice.  

It is good that there should be always something to prick us on, something to remind us that we are in an enemy's country, belong to a marching column.  

It is good that we should meet with checks and failures in what we undertake, to keep us humble and prayerful.  

All these things belong to sowing in tears.

God seems to have laid out the order of things in His Church, not for a general and brilliant triumph but for the hidden sanctification of the individual souls which compose it.

~ Janet Erskine Stuart in Prayer in Faith

~Breanna

Trust~The Secret to Having a Quiet Heart

Will you say to the Lord,

“I am willing to receive what You send,

to lack what You withhold,

to relinquish what You take,

to suffer what You inflict,

and to do what You command

and to be what You require.”?

~Quote shared by Elisabeth Elliot in her message A Loving Providence

~Breanna

Losing to Gain

"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?
Poverty has not been my experience, but 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

Our pastor, Pastor Chris Pappas, often speaks of us needing to break our sword in surrender to Christ's lordship over our lives.  This verbiage came into my mind the other day as I was praying:  May He break our flesh that we would break our sword!

~Brittany

Learning to Trust the Father's Love

When my brother Dave was very small, we spent a week at the seaside in Belmar, New Jersey.  In vain my father tried to persuade the little boy to come into the waves with him and jump, promising to hold him safely and not allow the waves to sweep over his head.  He took me (only a year older) into the ocean and showed Dave how much fun it would be.  Nothing doing.  The ocean was terrifying.  Dave was sure it would mean certain disaster, and he could not trust his father.  On the last day of our vacation he gave in.  He was not swept away, his father held him as promised, and he had far more fun than he could have imagined, whereupon he burst into tears and wailed, "Why didn't you make me go in?"
An early lesson in prayer often comes through an ordeal of fear.  We face impending adversity and we doubt the love, wisdom and power of our Father in heaven.
When the people of Israel were encamped in Pi-hahiroth and saw the Egyptians coming after them, they felt they were looking death in the face and it was all Moses' fault - "as if there weren't enough graves in Egypt that you brought us out here to die!"
"Don't be afaid," said Moses.  "Stand by.  The Lord will fight for you if you'll just be quiet."
You know the story of deliverance.  The song of victory Moses and Israel sang reveals their recognition not only of the strength, majesty and wonder-working of the Lord, but of His loving-kindness, immeasurably  beyond anything they had dared to hope.
Poor Dave!  His father could have forced him to come into the water, but he could not have forced him to relax and enjoy it.  As long as the child insisted on protecting himself, saving the life he was sure he would lose, he could not trust the strong love of his father.  He refused to surrender.  In this simple story we hear echoes of the most ancient story, of the two who, distrusting the word of their Father, fearing that obedience to Him would ultimately bar them from happiness, chose to repudiate their dependence on Him.  Sin, death, destruction for the whole race were the result.
Learning to pray is learning to trust the wisdom, the power, and the love of our Heavenly Father, always so far beyond our dreams.  He knows our need and knows ways to meet it that have never entered our heads.  Things we feel sure we need for happiness may often lead to our ruin.  Things we think will ruin us (the chariots of Egypt, the waters of the sea, or the little waves in Belmar!), if we believe what the Father tells us and surrender ourselves into His strong arms, bring us deliverance and joy.
The only escape from self-love is self-surrender.  "Whoever loses his life for Me will find it" (Matthew 16:25, NIV).  "Dwell in my love.  If you heed my commands, you will dwell in my love, as I have heeded my Father's commands and dwell in His love.  I have spoken thus to you, so that my joy may be in you, and your joy complete" (John 15:9-11, NEB).  My father knew far better than his small, fearful, stubborn son what would give him joy.  So does our Heavenly Father.  Whenever I have resisted Him, I have cheated myself, as my little brother did.  Whenever I have yielded, I have found joy.
- taken from Elisabeth Elliot's book, Keep a Quiet Heart
~Brittany

Take My Life and Let It Be . . . Song and history

Take My Life and Let it Be, the Song and the Story

Composer Francis Ridley Havergal Writes Take My Life and Let it Be

During her relatively short life of 46 years, Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879) learned Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and memorized the Psalms, the book of Isaiah, and most of the New Testament. She published four books, and composed more than 80 hymns, including I Gave My Life for Thee and God Will Take Care of You.

In 1873, Francis had a dramatic personal spiritual experience in which she realized the importance of complete surrender to God. Soon thereafter, she was visiting a home in which 10 people lived. Several of the 10 were unconverted; the others were uncommitted Christians. Frances, who was staying in the home for an extended visit, prayed "Lord, give me all this house." Before her stay had ended, all 10 members of the household had committed their lives completely to Jesus. On the last night of her visit Francis was too excited to sleep - It was then and there she wrote the lyrics to the beautiful Take My Life and Let it Be.

This hymn has stirred many hearts towards a deeper commitment to Christ. Even as she was writing the words, Francis herself was motivated to submit more to her Lord. As she wrote the words Take my voice and let me sing..., she made a decision to give up her career as a concert soloist, and sing only for Him. As she wrote the words Take my silver and my gold..., she made a choice to donate her considerable jewelry collection for the sake of missions.

No less than seven melodies have been written to accompany Take My Life and Let it Be. The one most commonly seen in contemporary hymnbooks, was written in 1827, by Henri A. Cesar Malan (1787-1864), who was one of the men responsible for the hymn movement within the French Reformed Church.

Take My Life and Let it Be

Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my voice, and let me sing always, only, for my King.
Take my lips, and let them be filled with messages from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect, and use every power as Thou shalt choose.

Take my will, and make it Thine; it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.

“I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual act of worship.” (Romans 12:1) 

http://www.sharefaith.com/guide/Christian-Music/hymns-the-songs-and-the-stories/take-my-life-and-let-it-be-the-song-and-the-story.html

Keep Making Me

I am always amazed when the Lord seems to bring something to you unexpectedly, but at just the right moment.  He is SOOO good!  This song is one of those mercies of the Lord.  Yesterday when I had gotten on youtube for a specific purpose, somehow or another I ended up coming across this precious song.  I fully believe it was the Lord guiding me to it to minister to me and my family.  It is the currently most played song here today.  :-)   May it be our hearts desire that the Lord be everything in our lives -our desires, love, breath, being, hopes and dreams.  Lord, keep making us, no matter what it takes! He is worth it and worthy of everything we can give Him and far more!  Strip us of everything until we desire no one and nothing but You, oh Lord! 

~Breanna

 

Learning the Father's Love

 "When my brother Dave was very small, we spent a week at the seaside in Belmar, New Jersey.  In vain my father tried to persuade the little boy to come into the waves with him and jump, promising to hold him safely and now allow the waves to sweep over his head.  He took me (only a year older) into the ocean and showed Dave how much fun it would be.  Nothing doing.  The ocean was terrifying.  Dave was sure it would mean certain disaster, and he could not trust his father.  On the last day of our vacation he gave in.  He was not swept away, his father held him as promised, and he had far more fun than he could have imagined, whereupon he burst in to tears and wailed, "Why didn't you make me go in?"
An early lesson in prayer often comes through an ordeal fo fear.  We face impending adversity and we doubt the love, wisdom and power of our Father in heaven.  Wev'e tried everything else and in our desperation we turn to prayer--of the primitive sort: Somebody who's reputed to be able to do anything.  The great question is, can I get Him to do what I want?  How do I twist His arm, how persuade a remote and reluctant deity to change His mind?
When the people of Israel were encamped in Pi-hahiroth and saw the Egyptians coming after them, they felt they were looking death in the face and it was all Moses' fault--"as if there weren't enough graves in Egypt that you brought us out here to die!"
"Don't be afraid," said Moses.  "Stand by.  The Lord will fight for you if you'll just be quiet."
You know the story of deliverance--the sea was rolled back, Israel marched through it dry shod, and when the Egyptians pursued them the sea swamped their horses, their chariots,a nd the whole army.  "Not even one of them remained."  The song of victory Moses and Israel sang reveals their recognition not only of the strength, majesty and wonder-working of the Lord, but of His loving-kindness, immeasurably beyond anything they had dared to hope.
Poor Dave!  His father could have forced him to come into the water, but he could not have forced him to relax and enjoy it.  As long as the child insisted on protecting himself, saving the life he was sure he would lose, he could not trust the strong love of his father.  He refused to surrender.  In this simple story we hear echoes of the most ancient story, of the two who, distrusting the word of their Father, fearing that obedience to Him would ultimately bar them from happiness, chose to repudiate their dependance on Him.  Sin, death, destruction for the whole race were the result.
Learning to pray is learning to trust the wisdom, the power, and the love of our Heavenly Father, always so far beyond our dreams.  He knows our need and knows ways to meet it that have never entered our heads.  Things we feel sure we need for happiness may often lead to our ruin.  Things we think will ruin us (the chariots of Egypt, the waters of the sea, or the little waves in Belmar!), if we believe what the Father tells us and surrender ourselves into His strong arms, bring us deliverance and joy.
The only escape from self-live is self-surrender.  "Whoever loses his life for Me wil find it" (Matthew 16:25, NIV).  "Dwell in my love.  If you heed my commands, you will dwell in my love, as I have heeded my Father's commands and dwell in His love.  I have spoken thus to you so that my joy may be in you, and your joy complete" (John 15:9-11, NEB).  My father knew far better than his small, fearful, stubborn son what would give him joy.  So does our Heavenly Father.  Whenever I have resisted Him, I have cheated myself, as my little brother did.  Whenever I have yielded, I have found joy."
~taken from Keep A Quiet Heart, by Elisabeth Elliot
~Brittany

Confessions of a Yelling Mom (now reformed)

What an encouragement and challenge this post by Lisa Jacobson from Club31Women blog was to me! Very convicting, but also encouraging.  I hope you will be blessed by reading it.

 

Nobody would have pegged me for a yeller.

Actually, I wouldn’t have guessed it either. Maybe my memory is faulty, but I don’t remember ever having shouted before – except maybe at a college football game or catching a friend’s attention across the parking lot.

Other than that, I’d say I’m a fairly soft-spoken person.

But something seemed to have happened once I had small children. Yeah, it’s like something snapped!

I became a yeller.

A yeller? Me??

At first I blamed it on all kinds of things. Hormones. Stress. Sleep-deprivation. But after a while, I had to face up to the facts. No matter what the cause, I’d turned into a yelling mom.

And I hated it and wanted to change.

I cried out to God to miraculously overcome this awful struggle, secretly hoping for some kind of instantaneous healing. But it turned out to be more of a journey – by His grace, in His strength, and with a lot of determined effort on my part.

One of the first steps of my journey was to start an anger journal. I wrote down each time I lost my cool. I recorded the time of the day, the setting, the person, and the circumstance – much like you would in a food journal. Then I looked for patterns. When did I most often lose it? Under what conditions?

I tried to identify the specific situations I could do something about. For instance, I often unraveled in the late morning and much of it was due to being HUNGRY. A mid-morning snack went a long way toward that trouble. Also, I found that taking a short nap after lunch helped me better handle our afternoons. Setting up a basic routine with our young ones reduced the general chaos which made it a bit easier on my nerves too.

Now those were some problems I could address. But what about those things that I couldn’t control or anticipate? Spilled cereal bowls. Poopy diapers. Arguing children. Seemingly incessant demands on my time and body all day long. Yes, what about those?

Next step….

Unknowingly, I’d always orchestrated my life around what I wanted out of the day. As a single woman, I’d set out goals for myself and then I accomplished them. But my life changed dramatically when I had children. It was no longer all about me and what I thought a day should look like.
So a change was needed – a change in my perspective. It wasn’t merely about what I wanted anymore. My goals. My purposes. My life.

My question needed to be, “Lord, what do You have for us today?”

What if He wanted me to learn “serving” by cleaning up one spill after another that morning? Then I could view the disaster as more of “an opportunity” than a “trial”.

What if our children ruined our trip to the library because of all their bickering? Hmm…looks like The Lord wants us to learn more about loving each other than about reptiles and kangaroos.

When I began looking at our day in this light, that “snappish” feeling wasn’t nearly so strong. And, even if it was one of those terribly trying times, I could ask, “Please, Lord, help me to see what You want for us here?”

While this was a slow, and sometimes painful, process, I eventually got better. Quieter and calmer. Peaceful.

And if you happen to be on just such a journey? Here’s what I’d say:

• Don’t listen to the Enemy that you can’t change. Because you can.

• Don’t be overly hard on yourself if you mess up. Simply start anew the next day. Or  even the very next moment. (On occasion, I’d stop mid-yell…then say aloud, “Nope. I want to try that again.”)

• Don’t attempt to overcome this in your own strength. Rather in Christ (Phil. 4:13).

• Do ask for support and prayer from people who love you. While rather humbling, I’m thankful for a couple of close friends and a husband who stood with me on this one.

So, yes, by God’s grace I’m no longer a yeller.

Well, unless my kids do something really wonderful, that is. Then you’ll hear me shouting as loudly as the next mom.

Yelling and cheering.

And I’ll be cheering for you too.

In His Grace,
Lisa Jacobson

~Posted By Breanna

When God Has Another Plan

This is another song I found recently that was very encouraging.  The Lord's ways are so not our ways.  I am learning that it is when I cannot rationalize or deal with things in my own strength that the Lord is asking me to truly surrender.  It is surrender because it's not what I want, and I can't convince myself of any good reason for what is happening to for letting go.  This is exactly where the Lord wants us - fully dependent on and surrendered to Him.

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."  - Romans 8:28

"But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.  For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him."  - Job 23: 10&14

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.  He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal."  - John 12:24&25

When God Has Another Plan

 Forsaken by his brothers, didn’t fit the scene

Being made a slave was not what Joseph dreamed

The coat of many colors was stained with blood and lies

But from this divine appointment, a Ruler would arise

When God has another plan, walk on and just say yes

When God has another plan, be assured that He knows best

When all your dreams are shattered, rest in His sufficient grace

We don’t have to understand, when God has another plan

Alone and broken hearted, questions fill your mind

Changes can be hard that come by God’s design

But if you could see tomorrow with a view from heaven’s throne

Every unexpected struggle has led you closer home

When God has another plan, walk on and just say yes

When God has another plan, be assured that He knows best

When all your dreams are shattered, rest in His sufficient grace

We don’t have to understand

No, we don’t have to understand, when God has another plan

~Brittany

Are You Willing . . .

I so wish I was able to share the sermon that our pastor preached yesterday on here.  He has been preaching through the book of Romans as of the first of the year.  If you are interested in hearing it send me an email and I will email it to you, as I am able to do that. :-)

One of the main points that thus far Pastor Lederman has really brought out to us is . . .

Who is your master?

One of the key verses that he brought out in the message, although not from Romans, was . . .

And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.
(2Co 12:15)

This morning I awoke to a yet another grey dreary Ohio winter day.  I went to bed last night irritated by how demanding my littles are.  I sat here this morning and was thinking and praying about these things and the Lord brought to my mind this . . .

I am selfish! 

That was exactly the problem.  I was being selfish.  I needed to gird up the loins of my mind.  I have so much to be thankful for!  So I started counting my blessings.  I was quickly reminded of yesterday's sermon and 2 Corinthians 12:15 came again to my mind.  Am I willing to spend and be spent for those that God has placed in my life to minister to?  Am I willing to love the body of Christ and look for needs that need to be met?  I was challenged!  Thus I must tell you, my whole attituded changed and as I walk away from being with the Lord this morning I am asking the Lord to spend me today.  For this truly is what it is all about!  

So  . . . are you willing to spend and be spent?  

  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
(Php 4:13)