GOLDEN WORDS
Finally, brothers, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is
lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about
such things.
Philippians 4.8 NIV
Thought is supreme. Preserve a mental attitude the attitude of courage, frankness - and
good cheer. To think rightly is to create. All things come through desire and every
sincere prayer is answered. We become like that on which our thoughts are fixed.
E Hubbard
Daily Meditations by Pat Nordman ©
May 7
"I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be
complete." John 15:11.
"Happiness is pleasure; joy is peace. Happiness is a tangible result, dependent on
circumstances; joy is the result of faith, independent of happenings in life.
"Joy and religion seem opposites, because too many of us are morose Christians, but
Jesus was/is a Man of Joy as well as a Man of Sorrows. The only contrariness here is we
who proclaim Jesus as Lord and then walk around, down in sole and soul.
"Joy is internal, solid and light; pleasure is external, liquid and gray. Joy is and
will be; pleasure is a hasbeen. Joy is character; pleasure is a condition. Joy is
expansive; pleasure is expensive. Joy is reflection on the way to perfection; pleasure is
deflection. Joy is sense; pleasure is senses. Joy has reserves; pleasure has reservations.
Joy is sharing; pleasure is shearing. Joy is a variety of blessings; pleasure is a
variable of emotions." Pat Nordman, Living Words, April 27, 1989.
"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy
set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame..." Hebrews 12:2. Jesus's joy
was and is as our Mediator, the Maker of Peace, the Reconciler. There is a misconception
that Christianity is synonymous with suffering. His cousin John dwelt in the wilderness,
but Jesus joined in the festivities of life. His joy was and is as our compassionate
Savior. He was as full of sensibility and enthusiasm as any man who ever lived and He
experienced great joy, as well as great suffering. In His suffering, His full joy was in
knowing that, especially in this, He and His Father gave the magnificent gift of
liberation to us all.
Pat Nordman ©
Excerpts from today's Spurgeon's Devotions |
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| "Great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all." - Matthew 12:15 |
"Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk." - John 5:8 |
Whatever my own case may be, the beloved Physician can heal me; and whatever may be the state of others whom I may remember at this moment in prayer, I may have hope in Jesus that he will be able to heal them of their sins. |
It is a very sad reflection that tens of thousands are now waiting in the use of means, and ordinances, and vows, and resolutions, and have so waited time out of mind, in vain, utterly in vain. Meanwhile these poor souls forget the present Saviour, who bids them look unto him and be saved. |
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Current Bible Question ?
Who did the Lord strike down because he touched the Ark?
Previous question and Answer:
Thomas - often called Doubting Thomas - is also known as who?
Didymus (John 20:24)
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Loneliness Met by Cathy Vinson
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As the Church's songwriter/prophet Michael Card puts it, the true essence our Father desires from worship is "to be with Him." The following passage of AWTozer has been so helpful in bearing this out: "...We habitually stand in our 'now' and look back by faith to see the past filled with God. We look forward and see Him inhabiting our future; but our 'now' is uninhabited except for ourselves. Thus we are guilty of a kind of pro tem atheism which leaves us alone in the universe while, for the time, God is not. We talk of Him much and loudly, but we secretly think of Him as being absent, and we think of ourselves as inhabiting a parenthetical interval between the Lord who was and the God who will be. And we are lonely with an ancient and cosmic loneliness. We are each like a little child lost in a crowded market who has strayed from his mother, yet because she cannot be seen the child is inconsolable. So we try every method devised by religion to relieve our fears and heal our hidden sadness; but with all our efforts we remain unhappy still, with the settled despair of men alone in a vast and deserted universe.... "Wherever faith has been original, whenever is has proved itself to be real, it has invariably had upon itself the sense of the 'present God.' The Holy Scripture possess in marked degree this feeling of actual encounter with a real Person. The men and women of the Bible talked with God. They spoke to Him and heard Him speak in words they could understand. With Him they held person-to-person converse, and a sense of shining reality is upon their words and deeds." May we be encouraged that our loneliness uncovered is not desirable. Let us open up the shade again to the willing presence of the One who died for our fellowship. © Send a note to Cathy Vinson
, the writer of this devotion. |
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More Whispers from the Wilderness
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