"God is in the silence, but He is not silent"

Prayer Room

I go to my room and I shut the door, it's the simple things that my heart is longing for
With an open heart and a listening ear, I focus on Your Presence
And here I find You in the safety of Our hidden meeting place
Where no man can judge the progress of my heart's surrendered in Your grace

I go to my room and I shut the door, it's the simple things that my heart is longing for
With an open heart and a listening ear, I focus on Your Presence
And here I find You in the safety of Our hidden meeting place
Where no man can judge the progress of my heart's surrendered in Your grace

Oh in the garden here alone I'll stay
It took me so long just to calm down and find You where You would be found
With an open heart and listening ear, You promised that Your presence would be

Here I find You in the safety of Our hidden meeting place
Where no man can judge the progress of my heart's surrendered in Your grace
Oh in the garden here alone I'll stay

And, Yes, find me in garden, find me in the garden, find me in the garden with my Beloved
Find me in garden, find me in the garden, find me in the garden with my Beloved
Find me in garden, find me in the garden, find me in the garden with my Beloved

And He walks with me and He talks with me
and He tells me I am His own
and the joy We share as We tarry there
None other has ever known

Yes He walks with me and He talks with me
and He tells me I am His own
and the joy We share as We tarry there
None other has ever known

Oh my God my joy
You're my Delight
My God my joy,
You're my Delight
Oh my God my joy
You're my Delight
My God my joy,
You're my Delight

"Intimacy will be my strength. The knowledge of You, my inheritance."

Don’t Let Discouragement Choke You

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. (John 14:1)

Discouragement is a temptation “common to man” (1 Corinthians 10:13). And in dealing with it sometimes we need tenderness and other times we need toughness. But either way discouragement is not to be tolerated or wallowed in. It’s to be fought.

If we linger in discouragement it can be costly. Its sense of defeat and hopelessness saps us of energy and vision. It can consume a lot of time. It can keep us from doing what we need to do because we don’t want to face it. And it can even be contagious, weakening others’ faith.

When we feel discouraged we want comfort, which is right to feel. But the comforts we often turn to are ways to avoid our fears rather than ways to muster our courage to face and overcome them. When this happens discouragement simply becomes sinful indulgence in unbelief, no different than indulging in lust or anger or other sins of unbelief.

Jesus does not want us to be discouraged. In fact, he commands us not to be. Listen to what Jesus says to his disciples just before what probably was the most discouraging experience of their lives — his brutal death: “Let not your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1, emphasis added).

Note Jesus’s words, “let not.” These are not merely comforting; they are commands. He knew they would be tempted to fear. Things were going to look very bad, like the whole mission was imploding. What were they to do instead of being afraid? Believe! “Believe in God; believe also in me.”

In other words, “Don’t let your hearts be ruled by what you see. Let them be ruled by what I promise you.” And that’s what he’s saying to you and me too.

What’s tempting you to discouragement today? Are you having a hard time believing that God really will work for good what looks so bad to you (Romans 8:28)?

Then it’s time to fight, not pout or shrink. Think of discouragement as your faith being choked. When you’re choking, it’s not the time to plop down in front of the TV with a plate of comfort food to medicate your melancholy. You need to dislodge the obstruction so you can breathe. You need to fight for life. You may need to get someone to give you the Heimlich.

Go get encouragement — faith-fueled courage. Don’t let discouragement choke you. It’s dislodged by believing promises. God gave us the Bible so that “through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4). It says amazing things like:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8:35,37)

Don’t let your heart be ruled by what you see. Let it be ruled by what Jesus promises you.

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

by Jon Bloom 

"It's not about my ministry, or the fruit that I do or I do not see, it's about You and me!" - Justin Rizzo

Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire: From Multiply

“The apostles weren’t trying to finesse people. Their communication was not supposed to be ‘cool’ or soothing. They aimed for a piercing of the heart, for conviction of sin. They had not the faintest intention of asking, ‘What do people want to hear? How can we draw more people to church on Sunday?’ That was the last thing in their minds. Such an approach would have been foreign to the whole New Testament.

Instead of trying to bring men and women to Christ in the biblical way, we are consumed with the unbiblical concept of ‘church growth.’ The Bible does not say we should aim at numbers but rather urges us faithfully to proclaim God’s message in the boldness of the Holy Spirit. This will build God’s church God’s way.

Unfortunately, some churches now continually monitor how pleased people are with the services and ask what else they would like…

We have no permission whatsoever to adjust the message of the gospel. Whether it seems popular or not, whether it is ‘hip’ to the times, we must faithfully and boldly proclaim that sin is real but Jesus forgives those who confess.

God nowhere asks anyone to have a large church. He only calls us to do his work, proclaiming his Word to people he loves under the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit to produce results that only he can bring about. The glory then goes to him alone—not to any denomination, local church, local pastor, or church-growth consultant. That is God’s only plan, and anything else is a deviation from the teaching of the New Testament.”

– Jim Cymbala, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, 124-125

The back-story to my dad’s death five years ago is told, in part, here.  A quote that had made a profound impact on my dad was this:

“Believers may not often realize it, but even as believers we are either centered on man or centered on God.  There is no alternative.  Either God is the center of our universe and we have become rightly adjusted to him, or we have made ourselves the center and are attempting to make all else orbit around us and for us.”

Dad gladly kept Christ as his personal center, moment by moment.  Even my dad’s dying and death were, to him, acts of worship.  I did not see him cross a line at any point and start thinking, “This is becoming too difficult.  It’s about me now.”  He faithfully lived and died adjusting to the Lord as his personal center.

In a way, that humble revering of Christ seems simple.  What is Christianity, if not that?  But moment-by-moment adjusting to Christ is humble, radically humble, and very costly to our natural sense of how our lives are supposed to go.

The moment of death is not the best time to choose the path of humility before the living Christ.  We do not easily find our way to that deep place.  The time to start is now.  Even this instant.

How to die well

is a post from: Ray Ortlund

Struggling with being in a relationship.

Though I'm not married, I can already feel the hurt and the pain that may come in a marriage. For sanctification sake, it tastes like to death to love someone that's difficult to love, especially when you see some of the things that you despise and hate, only to realize that you're just as repugnant. Only Jesus can break that taste into sweet serenity when one tastes the breadth, length, height and depth of His love. The grace and mercy that He has upon our weary and broken soul is beyond my absolute comprehension.

Marriage is not for the faint of heart. And I can see a glimpse of why marriage has to be an abiding journey with the Divine Maker. Man cannot handle marriage (hardcore sanctification) without the Creator, Himself. 

Though there is joy in marriage, there is also pain. 

I'm going to be honest: Today is one of those days that I wish I wasn't dating.

Jesus, open my eyes and expand my heart to receive Your refining fire for my sin-ridden heart. Make me new, bright, and fiery, that burns with Your Presence upon my failing soul. Create in me a new heart, for my heart is hard as stone. 

"Don't take God's blessings to motivate you to passivity, use them to catapult you into wholehearted pursuit."