Spontaneous Love / Oswald Chambers

 

Spontaneous Love Love suffers long and is kind…  1 CORINTHIANS 13:4 Love is not premeditated– it is spontaneous; that is, it bursts forth in extraordinary ways. There is nothing of precise certainty in Paul’s description of love. We cannot predetermine our thoughts and actions by saying, “Now I will never think any evil thoughts, and I will believe everything that Jesus would have me to believe.” No, the characteristic of love is spontaneity. We don’t deliberately set the statements of Jesus before us as our standard, but when His Spirit is having His way with us, we live according to His standard without even realizing it. And when we look back, we are amazed at how unconcerned we have been over our emotions, which is the very evidence that real spontaneous love was there. The nature of everything involved in the life of God in us is only discerned when we have been through it and it is in our past. The fountains from which love flows are in God, not in us. It is absurd to think that the love of God is naturally in our hearts, as a result of our own nature. His love is there only because it “has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit…” (Romans 5:5). If we try to prove to God how much we love Him, it is a sure sign that we really don’t love Him. The evidence of our love for Him is the absolute spontaneity of our love, which flows naturally from His nature within us. And when we look back, we will not be able to determine why we did certain things, but we can know that we did them according to the spontaneous nature of His love in us. The life of God exhibits itself in this spontaneous way because the fountains of His love are in the Holy Spirit. From My Utmost for His Highest Updated Edition

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS We never enter into the Kingdom of God by having our head questions answered, but only by commitment. from The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption

Basing Expectations on Truth / Charles Stanley

 

Basing Expectations on Truth

Mark 9:30-32

We all jump to conclusions and make assumptions—even the disciples missed important truth in this way. Jesus told them repeatedly that He was going to be crucified and raised to life after three days. Their ears heard His words, but their minds and hearts didn’t. 

The disciples knew Jesus was the Messiah, but their assumptions about how and when His kingdom would come kept them from hearing how the Lord actually said it would happen. They were looking for a Savior who would overthrow Rome and then rule with the disciples by His side. However, Jesus’ words of death and resurrection were the exact opposite of that. They hadn’t understood the promise of the resurrection, so when Jesus died, their dreams died too, which left them feeling hopeless (Luke 23:46; Luke 23:48). 

We might wonder, How could they be so dense? But before we judge them too harshly, let’s remember that we, too, often have ideas about how the Lord should work in our life and in the world. 

God’s ways won’t always match ours, because He works from an eternal perspective and we don’t. So we must remember that His ways are best. Let’s drop our expectations and trust Him.

Milk Comes First / ODB

 

Milk Comes First Solid food is for the mature. Hebrews 5:14 READ HEBREWS 5:11–6:2

In the seventh century, what is now called the United Kingdom was many kingdoms often at war. When one king, Oswald of Northumbria, became a believer in Jesus, he called for a missionary to bring the gospel to his region. A man named Corman was sent, but things didn’t go well. Finding the English “stubborn,” “barbarous,” and uninterested in his preaching, he returned home frustrated. “I am of the opinion,” a monk named Aidan told Corman, “that you were more severe to your unlearned hearers than you ought to have been.” Instead of giving the Northumbrians “the milk of more easy doctrine,” Corman had given them teaching they couldn’t yet grasp. Aidan went to Northumbria, adapted his preaching to the people’s understanding, and thousands became believers in Jesus. Aidan got this sensitive approach to mission from Scripture. “I gave you milk, not solid food,” Paul told the Corinthians, “for you were not yet ready for it” (1 Corinthians 3:2). Before right living can be expected from people, Hebrews says, basic teaching about Jesus, repentance, and baptism must be grasped (Hebrews 5:13-6:2). While maturity should follow (5:14), let’s not miss the order. Milk comes before meat. People can’t obey teaching they don’t understand. The faith of the Northumbrians ultimately spread to the rest of the country and beyond. Like Aidan, when sharing the gospel with others, we meet people where they are.  By Sheridan Voysey Jesus, thank You for reaching me in ways I could understand. In simple terms, how would you explain the gospel? How can you avoid expecting people who aren’t believers in Jesus to think or behave as you do?

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT It’s important for believers in Jesus to be able to explain their faith in easily understood terms, but the writer of Hebrews was in fact urging his readers to “move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity” (6:1). This section of the letter contains a hint of exasperation with these believers. They had stagnated. Yet there’s a strong thread of encouragement throughout Hebrews. The writer is laying out the case for Jesus as superior to everything else (chs. 1-5); now he wants to build up these believers. “We are convinced of better things in your case,” he wrote, “the things that have to do with salvation” (6:9). Later, he exhorts his readers to emulate the faithful who’d gone before them (ch. 11) and to “run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus” (12:1-2). Tim Gustafson

Spiritual Leadership / Chuck Swindoll

Spiritual Leadership

by Pastor Chuck SwindollScriptures: Exodus 3:10-4:14; Amos 7:10-17; 2 Chronicles 16:9a; Ezekiel 22:30

Leadership is influence. To the extent we influence others, we lead them.

If I were asked to name some of the standard qualities or characteristics usually found among natural-born leaders, I would list:

Enthusiasm	Optimism
Persistence	Ambition
Competitiveness	Knowledge
Insight	Inquisitiveness
Independence	Friendliness
Adventurousness	Integrity
Flexibility	Discipline
Sense of Humor	Creativity
Practicality	Poise
Aggressiveness

None can deny that these are standard qualities found in "natural" leaders. But myquestion is: Are these qualities necessary in "spiritual" leaders too? Before you answer too quickly, I would refer you to some biblical leaders who would've done rather poorly on a "natural" leadership test. The incredible thing is that God picked people whom we would have overlooked!

How about withdrawn, insecure, fearful, doubting Moses? (Read Exodus 3:10–4:14.) Or the uncultured, negative, ill-prepared, unwanted, dogmatic, clumsy fig-picker Amos? (Get acquainted with him in Amos 7:10–17.) And we dare not forget impulsive, short-sighted, boastful Peter, who frequently suffered from foot-in-mouth disease!

I am not suggesting these men did not have any natural traits of leadership—but rather that they broke the mold of what we generally classify as "a model leader." God's remnant of leaders is often a ragged lot . . . frequently made up of fresh-thinking, non-conforming, even weird-looking characters who desperately love the Lord Jesus Christ and are remarkably available to Him and His will. These people (and you may be one!) possess the basic ingredients of faith, vision, teachability, determination, and love—and they are involved in changing the world.

When I read that God is searching this planet for men and women (please stop and read 2 Chronicles 16:9a and Ezekiel 22:30), I do not find that He has a structured, well-defined frame into which they must fit. In fact, some of those God used most effectively were made up of the strangest mixture you could imagine. If you doubt this, check out that rough gang of 400 indebted, unorganized malcontents that surrounded David in the cave of Adullam (1 Samuel 22:1–2). I find myself extraordinarily challenged to trace these men through the balance of David's life and discover that these became his elite, courageous band of fighting men—heroes, if you please—from whom a number of leaders emerged.

I believe you anticipate my point. Let's be as open and flexible and tolerant as God is! Perhaps you don't fit the mold. Maybe you don't embrace the party-line system, so you're beginning to think "I'm not useful to God—I'll never be a leader in the ranks of Christianity." Take heart, discouraged believer! I rather suspect that others of you are about to write off your maverick kids. Listen, they may be right on target. God may have a distinct, unique role of leadership just for that youngster of yours. Hang in there, parents! These young people may look and sound strange to some adults . . . but I'm not about to sigh and ask why. For all we know, God is on the verge of doing something great through their leadership.

Let me assure you—if all adults had written off a young, repulsive, aggressive, strong-willed teenager many years ago . . . the book you hold in your hands would have never existed.

 

Can You Talk God into Something He Doesn’t Want to Do? / Adrian Rogers

 Can You Talk God into Something He Doesn’t Want to Do? 

Now this is the confidence we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 1 John 5:14 

Do you know why our prayers sometimes are not answered? We’re saying, “Not Thywill, but mine be done.” Let me tell you something: prayer is not some exercise where you talk God into doing what He doesn’t want to do. You’ll never do that. Prayer is not bending God’s will to fit your will. Prayer is finding the will of God and getting in on it. Do you know where man got into trouble? In the Garden of Eden when the first Adam said, “Not Thy will, but mine be done.” 

Thank God for the second Adam, the Lord Jesus, who prayed in another garden, saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me. Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). Are you submitted to the will of God?

For more from Love Worth Finding and Pastor Adrian Rogers, please visit www.lwf.org. 

You can also listen to Adrian Rogers at OnePlace.com.

Watch Adrian Rogers and Love Worth Finding Video Online.

Children and Parenting / NKJV 365

 

Children and Parenting

Luke 15 records an encounter between Jesus and some Pharisees and scribes who grumbled that He was hanging out with “tax collectors” and “sinners” (Luke 15:1), the losers of ancient Jewish society – This time He confronted the Philistines’ hard hearts with not one, not two, but three parables: the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Lost Son.

In the Lost Sheep, a shepherd leaves behind ninety-nine sheep to find the one sheep that had wandered off. When the sheep is found, the shepherd carries the sheep home on his shoulders and joyfully calls his friends and neighbors to celebrate with him, “for I have found my sheep which was lost!” (verse 6).

In the Lost Coin, a woman who had ten silver coins, but lost one of them, searches every nook and cranny until she finds it. Like the shepherd, this woman gathers her friends and neighbors, saying “Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!” (verse 9).

Finally, Jesus tells the story of the Lost Son, perhaps the most moving of this trio of parables. In this story about two sons, the younger son goes to his dad to demand his share of his inheritance.

So the father in Jesus’ story agrees to the son’s request, and, sure enough, the son takes off to party like there’s no tomorrow. But not too long after living the high life with the wrong crowd, spending everything he had on wild living, the prodigal son fell on hard times – Coming to his senses, the son humbled himself and headed home with a prepared speech, hoping to patch things up with his father enough that he would be allowed to live as one of his servants. He was probably anticipating the dreaded “I told you so” speech, but he was just that desperate.

Yet to his astonishment, his father . . . ran to embrace him and welcome him back as his beloved child. Instead of a lecture, the son receives mercy and grace, and a party to celebrate his homecoming!

These three parables demonstrate that our heavenly Father seeks us when we are lost, and He rejoices when we are found and restored to fellowship. . . .

So when we know someone who is living apart from God, how should we respond when they return to the fold? The Bible makes it clear that imitating the Father, not the judgmental Pharisees, is the way to go. Let’s greet the prodigals in our lives by welcoming them into our fellowship with unconditional love, not an “I told you so.”

Taken from The Duck Commander Faith and Family Bible

“So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭15:20

No Fear of Bad News / David Jeremiah

 

No Fear of Bad News He will not be afraid of evil tidings; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord. Psalm 112:7   Psalm 112 begins with a Hallelujah—“Praise the Lord!” Then it lists the blessings of those who fear the Lord and delight in His commands. God will watch over our families (verse 2); provide our needs (verse 3); give us light in darkness (verse 4); and we will never be shaken (verse 6). The next verse is an amazing promise: “They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord” (verse 7, NIV).

Recommended Reading: Psalm 112

God’s blessings aren’t just here today and gone tomorrow. His eternal presence spans time, and He knows the events of the coming days. He comprehends all contingencies, and nothing will touch us apart from His fatherly will. Our worries disappear when we remember that God is in control of the future. Fear God, study His commands, and claim His blessings—starting today!   Jehovah is so great that He is to be feared and held in reverence of all them that are round Him, and He is…so infinitely good that…the fear is sweetened into filial love and becomes a delightful emotion….There is a slavish fear which is accursed; but that godly fear which leads to delight in the service of God is infinitely blessed. Charles Spurgeon

April 30 / Wisdom from the Psalms

 Psalms 52:2

Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp rasor, working deceitfully.

Ed ran the blade along the cardboard cartons with speed and skill. He broke down the boxes and stuffed them in a crate. He had done the job a thousand times before, and it had become second nature to him. Often he let his mind wander. On this occasion, it was a poor idea. With lightening speed, the blade ran across the back of Ed's hand, cutting deep and wounding him severely.

Just as a blade cuts deep into flesh, unkind words cut into the heart. A sacred trust has been entrusted to Christians. That trust is the dignity and feelings of the rest of God's children. We become our neighbor's keeper. It is our duty to love and defend them. The tongue has enormous power to build up or to tear down. How will we choose to use it?

Prayer: May every word out of my mouth be one that encourages, builds up, or praises. Remove from my heart the desire to hurt others by my words. Fill my mouth with Your thoughts and words, Lord. Amen.

Are You a Grumbler? / Alistair Begg

 

Are You a Grumbler? 

And all the people of Israel grumbled. 

Numbers 14:2

There are grumblers among Christians now, just as there were in the camp of Israel of old. There are those who, when punished, cry out against the affliction. They ask, “Why am I afflicted? What have I done to be chastened in this manner?”

A word with you, grumbler! Why should you grumble against the dealings of your heavenly Father? Can He treat you more severely than you deserve? Consider what a rebel you once were, but He has pardoned you! Surely, if He in His wisdom considers it necessary to chasten you, you should not complain. After all, are you punished as severely as your sins deserve? Consider the corruption that is in your heart, and then will you wonder that so much of the rod is necessary to root it out? Weigh yourself, and discern how much dross is mingled with your gold; and do you think the fire is too hot to purge away the amount of dross you have? Doesn’t your proud rebellious spirit prove that your heart is not thoroughly sanctified? Aren’t those grumbling words contrary to the holy, submissive nature of God’s children? Isn’t the correction necessary?

But if you will grumble against the chastening, pay attention, for it will go hard with grumblers. God always chastises His children twice if they do not respond properly the first time. But know this—“He does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.”1 All His corrections are sent in love, to purify you and to draw you nearer to Himself. Surely it must help you to bear the chastening with submission if you are able to recognize your Father’s hand. “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”2 “. . . nor grumble the way some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.”3

1) Lamentations 3:33 
2) Hebrews 12:6 
3) 1 Corinthians 10:10

How God uses your weakness for His glory / Senior Living

 How God uses your weakness for His glory

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. - >2 Corinthians 12:9-10

A man lay seasick in his bunk one stormy night during a long voyage across the Atlantic. He could hardly move from the severe discomfort. All of a sudden, he heard a cry of “Man overboard!” from the deck above. His first thought was, God help that poor fellow – there’s nothing I can do.

Then the thought struck him, There is something I can do. So he took his lantern and held it up to the porthole next to his bunk. The drowning man was rescued, and the next day he recounted, “I was going down in the darkness when someone put a light in a porthole. It shone on my hand and a sailor in a lifeboat grabbed my hand and pulled me in.”

“I’m too sick …” “I’m too weak …” “I’m not able enough …” Very often, people who fail to attempt anything for the Kingdom of God will use excuses like these. They see their weaknesses as debilitating and never take the initiative to do what they can.

But weakness is no excuse for not putting forth all of the strength we have for God’s purposes. And the truth is it’s in our weakness that God’s power is often shown the strongest. So whatever situation you may be in today, put forth the effort to share Christ and watch how God will use your weakness for His glory!

Prayer Challenge

Pray that God would open your eyes to the ministry opportunities He’s placed around you – even when you face tough challenges.

Questions for Thought

In your life today, how are you tempted to let your challenges become excuses for not doing the ministry God has called you to do?

How might God use your challenges to make His name great in the world around you?

“What If . . . ?” / Greg Laurie

 “What If . . . ?”

“For he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go. They will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone” (Psalm 91:11-12 NLT).

When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, He retaliated against the Devil’s statements with the Word of God.

The Devil said, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become a loaf of bread” (Luke 4:3 NLT).

But Jesus answered, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone’” (verse 4 NLT).

Then the Devil said, in effect, “Why don’t you fall down and worship me right now?”

But Jesus told him, “The Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him’” (verse 8 NLT).

Next the Devil tried to lure Jesus into jumping off the highest point of the Temple. He quoted Scripture, which he took out of context: “He will order his angels to protect and guard you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone” (verses 10-11 NLT).

The Devil tried to use this verse to say that Jesus could recklessly test the Lord without consequences. But Jesus brought it back into context, saying, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God’” (verse 12 NLT).

God isn’t saying that we should go out and unnecessarily endanger our lives. What these verses from Psalm 91 are really saying is that God has a work He will do in your life. And until He is done, you are indestructible. On the other hand, you shouldn’t foolishly test the Lord.

We see this illustrated in the story of the apostle Paul when he was shipwrecked. He went to warm himself at the fire, where a venomous snake fastened itself to Paul’s arm. Paul just shook it off. He wasn’t affected by the venom, because God wasn’t done with him yet.

So don’t worry about it. Know that God will be with you until He has completed His work.

Copyright © 2021 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.

For more relevant and biblical teaching from Pastor Greg Laurie, go to www.harvest.org
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Questioning / Billy Graham

 

Questioning

It is not unusual for persons in their early twenties to defect from their early teaching. The reasons are many. Perhaps their exposure to unbelief “took” better than their exposure to belief. This is often the case, for the Bible says, “The heart of man is deceitful above all things.”The human heart is as prepared by sin to accept unbelief as faith. Some person they regard highly has undoubtedly influenced their thinking; and for the time being they look on their early training as “bunk.” As someone has said, “A little learning may take a man away from God, but full understanding will bring him back.” 

Some of the staunchest Christians I know are people who had periods in their life when they questioned the Bible, Christ, and God. But as they continued to examine the matter, there was overwhelming evidence that only “the fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”

Daily Prayer

I pray for all the questioning people today, Lord, remembering times in my own life when unbelief reigned.

“Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭51:12‬

April 30 / C.S. Lewis

 On kindness

Love is something more stern and splendid than mere kindness. For about a hundred years we have so concentrated on one of the virtues—“kindness” or mercy—that most of us do not feel anything except kindness to be really good or anything but cruelty to be really bad. Such lopsided ethical developments are not uncommon, and other ages too have had their pet virtues and curious insensibilities. And if one virtue must be cultivated at the expense of all the rest, none has a higher claim than mercy. . . The real trouble is that “kindness” is a quality fatally easy to attribute to ourselves on quite inadequate grounds. Everyone feels benevolent if nothing happens to be annoying him at the moment. Thus a man easily comes to console himself for all his other vices by a conviction that “his heart’s in the right place” and “he wouldn’t hurt a fly,” though in fact he has never made the slightest sacrifice for a fellow creature. We think we are kind when we are only happy: it is not so easy, on the same grounds, to imagine oneself temperate, chaste, or humble. You cannot be kind unless you have all the other virtues. If, being cowardly, conceited and slothful, you have never yet done a fellow creature great mischief, that is only because your neighbour’s welfare has not yet happened to conflict with your safety, self-approval, or ease. Every vice leads to cruelty.

From The Problem of Pain
Compiled in Words to Live By

The Problem of Pain. Copyright © 1940, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Copyright restored © 1996 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Words to Live By: A Guide for the Merely Christian. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Fresh Touch with God / Streams

Fresh Touch with God

And the ill favored and lean-fleshed kine did eat up the seven well favored and fat kine...and the thin, ears swallowed up the seven rank and full ears - Gen 41:4,7

There is a warning for us in that dream, just as it stands: It is possible for the best years of our life, the best experiences, the best victories won, the best service rendered, to be swallowed up by times of failure, defeat, dishonor, uselessness in the kingdom. Some men’s lives of rare promise and rare achievement have ended so. It is awful to think of, but it is true. Yet it is never necessary.

S. D. Gordon has said that the only assurance of safety against this tragedy is “fresh touch with God,” daily, hourly. The blessed, fruitful, victorious experiences of yesterday are not only of no value to me today, but they will actually be eaten up or reversed by today’s failures, unless they serve as incentives to still better, richer experiences today.

“Fresh touch with God,” by abiding in Christ, alone will keep the lean kine and the ill favored grain out of my life.—Messages for the Morning Watch

Deconstructing David by Ryan Duncan

 Deconstructing David

by Ryan Duncan

But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
1 Samuel 16:7

The first time I read the story of King David, it was from a small, animated Bible my parents had bought me as a boy. As I flipped through the pages of that little book, I can remember looking on David as something of a superhero. Think about it: he defeated Goliath with nothing but a sling and five stones. After that, he became King of Israel, replacing Saul, who had done a pretty terrible job to begin with. He was referred to as a man after God’s own heart, and nothing could touch him.

After a while, I began to see the life of David as more of a fairytale. I still believed it to be true, but a part of me resented God for showing David so much favor. Why had his life been so perfect when the rest of us had to struggle? Why did God allow so many people to suffer pain, but always seem to step up for David? It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I stumbled onto this psalm written by David:

“Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths,where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me. I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God.Those who hate me without reason outnumber the hairs of my head; many are my enemies without cause, those who seek to destroy me. I am forced to restore what I did not steal. You know my folly, O God; my guilt is not hidden from you.” – Psalms 69

Now that I’m older I realize David’s life wasn’t perfect; in a lot of ways it was actually pretty lousy. He was hounded by Saul for years, he lost loved ones to sickness and war, and he even committed some pretty serious sins. Being a man after God’s own heart didn’t mean David would be shielded from harm, and being a Christian doesn’t guarantee us prosperity. The thing that made David a great man, and the thing that makes our lives as Christians meaningful, was that he never turned away from God. We will all experience trials and tribulations in our lives, but by trusting God we can overcome them.

That is how we become people after God’s own heart, and in the end, that’s all God really wants.

Intersecting Faith and Life: Take a moment to look past your troubles and consider what can bring you closer to God.

Further Reading: Psalm 69

God’s Plan in God’s Land / Max Lucado

 

God’s Plan in God’s Land

Listen to Today's Devotion Joshua 21:45 says, “Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass.” Joshua and his men went from dry land to the Promised Land. From manna to feasts. From arid deserts to fertile fields. They inherited their inheritance: the glory days of Israel. This is God’s vision for your life. You at full throttle. You as victor over the Jerichos and giants. Paul describes it as a life in which “Christ’s love has the first and last word in everything we do.” A life in which Paul says, “We do not lose heart.” A life defined by grace, refined by challenge, and aligned with a heavenly call. In God’s plan in God’s land, God’s promises outweigh personal problems, and victory becomes a way of life. Your glory days await you!

Gracious Uncertainty / Oswald Chambers

 

Gracious Uncertainty …it has not yet been revealed what we shall be…  1 JOHN 3:2 Our natural inclination is to be so precise– trying always to forecast accurately what will happen next– that we look upon uncertainty as a bad thing. We think that we must reach some predetermined goal, but that is not the nature of the spiritual life. The nature of the spiritual life is that we are certain in our uncertainty. Consequently, we do not put down roots. Our common sense says, “Well, what if I were in that circumstance?” We cannot presume to see ourselves in any circumstance in which we have never been. Certainty is the mark of the commonsense life– gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life. To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, not knowing what tomorrow may bring. This is generally expressed with a sigh of sadness, but it should be an expression of breathless expectation. We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God. As soon as we abandon ourselves to God and do the task He has placed closest to us, He begins to fill our lives with surprises. When we become simply a promoter or a defender of a particular belief, something within us dies. That is not believing God– it is only believing our belief about Him. Jesus said, “…unless you…become as little children…” (Matthew 18:3). The spiritual life is the life of a child. We are not uncertain of God, just uncertain of what He is going to do next. If our certainty is only in our beliefs, we develop a sense of self-righteousness, become overly critical, and are limited by the view that our beliefs are complete and settled. But when we have the right relationship with God, life is full of spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy. Jesus said, “…believe also in Me” (John 14:1), not, “Believe certain things about Me”. Leave everything to Him and it will be gloriously and graciously uncertain how He will come in– but you can be certain that He will come. Remain faithful to Him. From My Utmost for His Highest Updated Edition

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS A fanatic is one who entrenches himself in invincible ignorance. from Baffled to Fight Better, 59 R