Monday, January 24, 2005

father bursting

"This is the best of good news: God loves us for ourselves. He values our love more than He values galaxies of new created worlds. He remembers our frame and knows that we are dust.

"The God we love may sometimes chasten us, it is true. But even this He does with a smile - the proud, tender smile of a Father who is bursting with pleasure over an imperfect but promising son who is coming every day to look more and more like the One whose child he is.

"We should revel in the joy of believing that God is the sum of all patience and the true essence of kindly good will. We please Him most, not by frantically trying to make ourselves good, but by throwing ourselves into His arms with all our imperfections and believing that He understands everything - and loves us still."

- A.W. Tozer, Whatever Happened to Worship?, p 29.

Live free! Live in Father's love!

January snowfall in Lancaster County, PA Posted by Hello

Saturday, January 22, 2005

breathless adoration

"There is the point of reality where we begin our fellowship and friendship and communion with God. But where we stop no man has yet discovered, for there is in the mysterious depths of the Triune God neither limit nor end.

"When we come into this sweet relationship, we are beginning to learn astonished reverence, breathless adoration, awesome fascination, lofty admiration of the attributes of God and something of the breathless silence that we know when God is near.

"You may never have realized it before, but all of those elements in our perception and consciousness of the divine Presence add up to what the Bible calls 'the fear of God.'

"What we need to plainly recognize is that the fear of God the Bible commends can never be induced by threats or punishment of any kind."

- A.W. Tozer, Whatever Happened to Worship?, p 30.

Live free! Live in Father's love!

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

islam

"Since the horrendous events of September 11, 2001, anti-Muslim attitudes have increased among most Americans. Within the Christian community, prominent spokespersons have used inflammatory remarks to feed negativism toward Islam. One television evangelist has called Islam an 'evil religion.' Another of America's best-known evangelists has gone on record declaring Islam to be wicked.

"Christian missionaries serving in Islamic countries find themselves increasingly threatened by Muslims who react to such accusations by viewing these missionaries as people who despise them. It is no surprise that in some places, Muslim extremists have physically attacked and even killed missionaries.

"On simply pragmatic grounds, we have to ask what good we accomplish with such inflammatory rhetoric. And we have to ask if those outspoken Christian leaders who claim to be committed to winning Muslims to Christ have given any consideration to the possibility that their accusations might make Muslims even more resistant to the Christian gospel.

"At just about every missionary conference I attend, the speakers talk about the need to evangelize those who live within 'the 10/40 window.' This is a reference to that part of the world between 10 degrees and 40 degrees north of the equator, which covers North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

"What evangelicals have to recognize is that the majority of the people who live within that 10/40 window are Muslims. And if we really want to evangelize them, we had better find ways to show love to them rather than wage war against them. To that end, we must critique our rhetoric about Muslims, study who they are and what they believe, and seek out common ground for a creative dialogue in which we can tell them about Jesus and His salvation."

- Tony Campolo, Speaking My Mind, pp 138-141.

...God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all.... (1 Timothy 2:3-6)

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood.... (Ephesians 6:12)

Live free! Live in Father's love!

Monday, January 17, 2005

muslim

What a beautiful testimony of the Father's heart for a young Muslim -

"Suddenly a breakthrough of hope flooded me. Suppose, just suppose God were like a father. If my earthly father would put aside everything to listen to me, wouldn't my heavenly Father? ...Shaking with excitement, I got out of bed, sank to my knees on the rug, looked up to heaven and in a rich new understanding called God 'My Father.' I was not prepared for what happened.

"Suddenly the room wasn't empty any more. He was there! I could sense His presence. I could feel His hand laid gently on my head. It was as if I could see His eyes, filled with love and compassion. He was so close that I found myself laying my head on His knees like a little girl sitting at her father's feet. For a long time I knelt there sobbing quietly, floating in His love. I found myself talking with Him, apologizing for not having known Him before. And again came His loving compassion like a warm blanket settling around me.... I reached over to the bedside table where I kept the Bible and the Koran side by side. I picked up both books and lifted them, one in each hand. 'Which, Father?' I said. 'Which is your book?'

"Then a remarkable thing happened. Nothing like it had ever occurred in my life in quite this way. For I heard a voice inside my being, a voice that spoke to me as clearly as if I were repeating words in my inner mind. They were fresh, full of kindness, yet at the same time full of authority. It asked, 'In which book do you meet Me as your Father?'"

- Bilquis Sheikh, I Dared to Call Him Father: The Miraculous Story of a Muslim Woman's Encounter With God.

In light of the Father's heart, what should our heart be towards those who call themselves "Muslim"?

Live free! Live in Father's love!

Sunday, January 16, 2005

father's pleasure

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him.

He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

He is also head of the body, the church;

and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.

For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross;

- Colossians 1:15-20

It was the Father's good pleasure to reconcile you to Himself through His beloved Son, Jesus! How much more does the Father take pleasure in the fruit of that reconciliation - an intimate, ongoing relationship with you!

"We please Him most, not by frantically trying to make ourselves good, but by throwing ourselves into His arms with all our imperfections, and believing that He understands everything and loves us still."

- A.W. Tozer, The Root of the Righteous, p 16.

Live free! Live in Father's love!

Friday, January 14, 2005

next

This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children.

- Romans 8:15,16, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language.

Live free! Live in Father's love!

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

his mercy

"Run into My mercy!"

These are the words the Father spoke through a dear brother last night. When we've failed, when we've fallen, when there seems to be no hope - "Run into My mercy!"

But the Father, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were lost in our transgressions, (Ephesians 2:4-5a)

Even at our worst, love and mercy flow freely from the Father's heart.

Live free! Live in Father's love and mercy!

Saturday, January 08, 2005

no fear

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

- 1 John 4:18

Live free! Live in Father's love!

Thursday, January 06, 2005

no rules

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God's grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.

- Galatians 2:21, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language.

Live free! Live in Father's love!

Tuesday, January 04, 2005

father's heart

"And he said to him, 'Son, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours.'" - Luke 15:31

"We have here two things describing the privilege: First, 'Son, thou art ever with me' - unbroken fellowship with thy Father is thy portion; Second, 'All that I have is thine' - all that God can bestow upon His children is theirs."

"'Thou are ever with me;' I am always near thee; thou canst dwell every hour of thy life in My presence, and all I have is for thee. I am a father, with a loving father’s heart. I will withhold no good thing from thee. In these promises, we have the rich privilege of God’s heritage."

- Andrew Murray, The Deeper Christian Life, Chapter II.

Sunday, January 02, 2005

i believe

Here's a "less is more" challenge for the new year:

State your "theology" in ten words or less. Here's mine -

1. Father is great!

2. Father is good!

3. Father loves me!