I do not need any
Jerusalem artefact to base my faith on. What I need is to feel the
consciousness of God's presence within me, to know that He dwells within me as
the Holy Spirit. To cling to Him is the sole goal for this day and every other day.
Despite a sinking
feeling I put my trust in God today to solve my unending problems.
The requirement of
God can be met only with the help of God. When we are told to deny ourselves we
are told to deny our selfish and sinful desires. But we cannot deny them in our
strength. We try and fail miserably. And then we find out that only God can
enable us to do such an impossible task, and that He does it not abruptly but
gradually as we yield ourselves to him. Even then he does not empower us over
sin completely, certainly not in this lifetime. As long as we are in the flesh
we are not totally immune to its inherent sinfulness.
We tend to drift in
life not caring about the bitter feelings we harbour towards certain people. We
have these bitter feelings regarding them because we have not forgiven their
mistakes. But we must take care to let go of these bitter feelings and forgive
those people. If we don't forgive them we cannot expect God to forgive us. God
has made this amply clear in his word. So to withhold forgiveness is to welcome our own punishment.
There is only one
reason why we are alive today and that is to glorify God.
In this continual
fight against evil I must believe that Jesus Christ is living His life in me,
and thinking His thoughts in me and expressing His feelings through me and so
fighting this evil with me. I must believe that I have the mind of Christ. I
must believe that I have Christ Himself lodged within me. So if He is in me and I
am in Him we are one. And I know that as we remain united He will help me
face every challenge in my life and that I will learn to overcome every
difficulty in His strength.
There is no better
life than the one that is dedicated to God. There are various levels of
dedication and you must find out the level that is intended for you. It cannot
happen immediately. At least it should not. Even the disciples of Jesus had
three years to think it through. Later the Holy Spirit guided them. You should
think this matter through. And you should certainly pray about it continually.
And after that if you still want to do it, you should do it.
The despair in the
darkness and the dread in the silence are the ingredients of the night of
faith.
God has made me a
city on a hill visible to everyone. He has done this so that my faith in God is
visible to everyone. This is not to glorify me but to show that God is working
in me despite difficult circumstances in my life. May those who see me see God
living in me.
Some strong
impulses should be delayed for at least an hour.
To hang on to God
despite his silence, to believe in God's goodness even though it seems
unlikely, to lay down one's life and not see the desired life happen - this is
the madness, this is the faith.
Evil is unmade only
in the place where it was made. To overcome wrong desires and unnecessary fears
we must understand them. We cannot understand them without experiencing them.
We must experience them to know them and to study how they wield power over our
minds and hearts. We must find out why and how they lead us into unhealthy and
undesirable behaviours. It is only when we get to the roots of these desires
and fears, it is only when we see their origins that we recognize their basic
distortions. And when we see these distortions we can totally reject them
and truly detach ourselves from the resultant compulsive desires and fears. We
cannot rush this process.
It is God who
planted powerful impulses in human beings. It is not his intention to direct
human beings to suppress these drives. But it is human beings who in their
fallen state misdirect these impulses towards sinful thoughts and actions.
Therefore God requires humans to know his ways and his plan for human life,
which includes the proper employment of these impulses. And humans must place
their trust in God as he reveals his intentions degree by degree.
What sort of a life
is a life without God? God is the best thing I know. God is the most beautiful
person that I know. If you say that my life will be happier without God I say
in response, "No way!"
There are many
words in my vocabulary and many expressions in my speech. There are many
thoughts in my mind and many feelings in my heart. But I will use very few of
these, as I must be careful in what I communicate. What I say or write has the
potential to build or destroy someone. I choose to build with my words. I will
almost always choose not to destroy, because it is an ugly thing to cast doubt
on another person's character and it is not heroic to dismantle a person's confidence. God alone is judge of the mind and the heart, so let no man
usurp that role.
After many years of
letting my thoughts control me I have realized that I can now control my
thoughts. This is no feat of mine. It is the outcome of the realization that I
have the mind of Christ. Everyone who belongs to Christ has the mind of Christ.
This is a fact. However one does not discover this experientially until one
exercises this mind in faith. And when one exercises this mind the thoughts of
one's natural mind are undermined.
There is no desire
in me that is as powerful as the desires that God feels in me. There is no
thought in my head that is as powerful as the thoughts that God thinks in me.
There is no act that I perform that has as great an effect on others as those
acts that God performs in me. Yes God feels, thinks and acts in me. He lives in
me and through me. And there is nothing in this world that can come between God
and me.
You will live with the data that God has given you. You shall not remove any data, for every datum has made you what you are today. Do not forget that.
To be able to love
unconditionally is a supreme privilege.
Prayer is not
enough. You must show that you care by doing something about it.
Don't take pride in
your humility.
Miss out on
everything. But don't miss out on God.
You can't judge a
person by his face. Of all deceptions the human face is mightily potent.
It is true that Jesus Christ paid for all my sins, even my future sins. I should be relieved to hear this and must not feel hopeless about sin, for in Christ I have conquered sin and am more than a conqueror. However I cannot just stop caring about sin and feel indifferent to it in my life. I am responsible for my life and what I do on this earth. Even though the Holy Spirit is in me, it is I who must consciously accommodate Him every day. I must allow Him to transform me through the power of His word, and this I must do to counteract the effects of my flesh, which is bent on evil. So I must submit to God and resist sin.
There are certain
things you must force yourself to read and force yourself to think.
We're all
struggling. This is a struggle. It is the truth.
If I have nothing
unique to offer then I will stop working.
When an undesirable
thing happens and you take it to God and it still happens, there must be a good
reason for it. Just wait for God to reveal the reason in his time.
Pride is not good.
It is not at all good. It keeps me from tasting the truth and living the life
that God has for me. Every day God breaks my pride degree by degree. Every day God reveals to me my littleness and my wickedness. And for
this I am thankful.
My deadness to sin
I must declare every moment of my life. Sin must not reign in me; at least sin
must never think that it has a prominent place in my life.
Wait till it
happens. Then you may speak.
It is when I lose
something that I pay attention to it.
