"An Urgent Message, (March 7)"
http://davidwilkersontoday.blogspot.com/
Prophet?
lundi 16 mars 2009
lundi 9 mars 2009
Proximity
Michel-Ange : La Création d'Adam, fresque de la Chapelle Sixtine.
In this painting, we have Man represented by Adam on the left, and God on the right.
Let's analyze. Who is making the effort in this scene?
Clearly, God is doing all He can: Going against the wind, beard blowing around, turned towards Adam, Fully outstretched arms and hand and finger.
Adam: By the way his arm's leaning casually, we can say that he'd been gazing in the other direction, just chilling nonchalantly, barely exerting any force or effort to make the connection.
Closer Look: There is no connection. No physical touch.
HOWEVER!!!!!!! Look how close the fingers are! Not a long way off at all. God has already extended as much as He can. All MAN needs to do, is flick his finger up 1 cm! The ball is in his court to act (or not).
Does this put things into perspective?
(image from https://qyzs9q.blu.livefilestore.com/y1m0vkdXTby-r8_27rAsHCA2-SX0hueBb0lKYA0-SMWGTexFdX_5HOQLAAu_AOxlKp07KPVPqvw7Ada7JOoZ5zvgdc5VkUREFr3QbA-YLnnW2cqqlqGZimCZBTiLQ5UtenyYxvWyaLW43k/mains_michel_ange.jpg)
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mardi 3 mars 2009
Cheeel
Concerning My friend:
One day, I shared with him the gospel.
The next day, I handed him a verse-a-day calendar.
Today, he was offered an opportunity.
This weekend, he might come to a retreat.
Next week, we're going to a Christian event.
One day, he might meet Christ.
WHAT JOY it is!
To know that we are not alone.
To know that we are not without help.
To know that we are surrounded by brothers and sisters.
To know One God, one vision, one goal, it's one der ful!
I thought, "this is it.. Now or never!" Blood on my hands! So I desperately blurt out all I could.
I don't know another way to put it but "unsuccessful, unwise in all aspects." That day left me very discouraged.
I thought it was over.
It's never over.
Some say people need to hear the gospel 7 times before they consider it.
Who knows if it's the first, the 3rd, or the 7th? They all play their crucial role.
I was the 6th.
Many times I feel like the guy on all fours. Hehe.
God give me strength to rise up and speed with all I have towards you!!
Why worry when we can trust?
God makes me so happy. He cares.
One day, I shared with him the gospel.
The next day, I handed him a verse-a-day calendar.
Today, he was offered an opportunity.
This weekend, he might come to a retreat.
Next week, we're going to a Christian event.
One day, he might meet Christ.
WHAT JOY it is!
To know that we are not alone.
To know that we are not without help.
To know that we are surrounded by brothers and sisters.
To know One God, one vision, one goal, it's one der ful!
I thought, "this is it.. Now or never!" Blood on my hands! So I desperately blurt out all I could.
I don't know another way to put it but "unsuccessful, unwise in all aspects." That day left me very discouraged.
I thought it was over.
It's never over.
Some say people need to hear the gospel 7 times before they consider it.
Who knows if it's the first, the 3rd, or the 7th? They all play their crucial role.
I was the 6th.
I found out later that my other friend started talking to her. (She was the "7th")
What relief! That my 'failure' wasn't the end of the story! It was a stepping stone that fueled her curiosity to accept another invitation.. that leads her ultimately to the crossss! WHAT JOY!!!
Again, after having invited a friend to a soirée d'évangelisation, I was sad that she didn't reply to my text if she was coming or not. Later she showed up with my other friends; they had met on the way there (she was lost) and they came all together! What JOY!!!
Why worry?? The pieces come together in the end. Trust God.
It's so relieving, so calming and peace-inducing. To Let go and Let God. Stress or not, it'll be okay. Doubt does not change truth.
Story: A guy from Brasil, who never seen snow in his life went to Northern Canada, where there's TONS of it! To get to where he wanted, he had to cross a lake that was frozen over, iced. He was scared to cross it, how was he supposed to know if it would be stable?? He got on all fours and started slowly creeping his way across. Just then, another guy, a Canadian who's seen snow and frozen lakes before, went zooooming by on his bicycle over the lake confidently. It's kind of like that with faith. We all have it, some just different levels. Whether we cross cautiously on all fours or we speed across without a doubt, we in the end cross that lake.
Many times I feel like the guy on all fours. Hehe.
God give me strength to rise up and speed with all I have towards you!!
Why worry when we can trust?
God makes me so happy. He cares.
mercredi 25 février 2009
All-out War
Yet another passage from Piper's book:
"...there is a mean streak to authentic self-control.... Self-control is not for the timid. When we want to grow in it, not only do we nurture an exuberance for Jesus Christ, we also demand of ourselves a hatred for sin... The only possible attitude toward out-of-control desire is a declaration of all-out war.... There is something about war that sharpens the senses... You hear a twig snap or the rustling of leaves and you are in attack mode. Someone coughs and you are ready to pull the trigger. Even after days of little or no sleep, war keeps us vigilant." (Ed Welch)
"It's a violence against all the impulses in our own selves that would make peace with our own sin and settle in with a peacetime mentality. Against all lust in ourselves and all enslaving desires for food or caffeine or sugar or chocolate or alcohol or pornography or money or the praise of men and the approval of others or power or fame.
When Jesus said, "the truth will set you free" (John 8:32), he didn't mean without a battle. He meant that truth would win the war of liberation in the soul. Christianity is war. It is a declaration of all-out combat against our own sinful impulses. "Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the fles, which wage war against your soul" (1 Pet. 2:11). To become a Christian is to wake up to the reality that our soul is at stake. Therefore, Christianity is mortal combat for true and lasting joy." (Piper)
Gird up them loins souljahs! >=)
"...there is a mean streak to authentic self-control.... Self-control is not for the timid. When we want to grow in it, not only do we nurture an exuberance for Jesus Christ, we also demand of ourselves a hatred for sin... The only possible attitude toward out-of-control desire is a declaration of all-out war.... There is something about war that sharpens the senses... You hear a twig snap or the rustling of leaves and you are in attack mode. Someone coughs and you are ready to pull the trigger. Even after days of little or no sleep, war keeps us vigilant." (Ed Welch)
"It's a violence against all the impulses in our own selves that would make peace with our own sin and settle in with a peacetime mentality. Against all lust in ourselves and all enslaving desires for food or caffeine or sugar or chocolate or alcohol or pornography or money or the praise of men and the approval of others or power or fame.
When Jesus said, "the truth will set you free" (John 8:32), he didn't mean without a battle. He meant that truth would win the war of liberation in the soul. Christianity is war. It is a declaration of all-out combat against our own sinful impulses. "Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the fles, which wage war against your soul" (1 Pet. 2:11). To become a Christian is to wake up to the reality that our soul is at stake. Therefore, Christianity is mortal combat for true and lasting joy." (Piper)
Gird up them loins souljahs! >=)
vendredi 13 février 2009
mardi 10 février 2009
pREACH it
I've been reading Piper's book When I Don't Desire GOD
and this passage spoke right to my heart:
"We should not only be preached to; we should become preachers and preach the word of the cross to ourselves every day. We must not rely only on being preached to, but must become good preachers to our own soul. The gospel is the power of God to lead us joyfully to final salvation, if we preach it to ourselves. The following is from Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) a minister who greatly emphasized this truth:
Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them but they are talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man's treatment [in Psalms 42] was this: instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says, "Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you."
The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourslef. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself.... You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself; "Hope thou in God" --instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way, and then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and ...what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: "I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God."
(Piper) Of course, the "self" is not the only one who talks to us in our head. So does the devil, and so do other people as we replay their coments in our memories. Therefore, when Lloyd-Jones tells us to preach to ourselves, he knows we must be addressing all these joy-killing messages. That's why he talks about defying self, Satan, and other people. When we preach the gospel to ourselves, we are addressing every word of every enemy of every kind."
(me) That makes me think of the song "Voice of Truth" by Casting Crowns. Check out their lyrics sometime, it relates. C'est vrai que dans la vie, il y a toujours beaucoup de voix qui parlent et disent des choses different.. mais, laquelle on va écouter? In TheTwo Towers a character speaks words of poison, deceiving the king, mentally enslaving him by lies. In Revolutionary Roads, the last scene was my favorite. The old man turns down the volume of his hearing aids, muting the old woman blabbering on. That's what we must do to false voices-Tune them out! We don't want that! If there's "cold-shoulder", why can't we do "deaf-ear"? Our ears have holes, so they gotta be filled with SOMething. Do we want gunk or truth?
So when we wake up in the morning and look at ourselves in the mirror, we gotta Preach it Preacher!
and this passage spoke right to my heart:
"We should not only be preached to; we should become preachers and preach the word of the cross to ourselves every day. We must not rely only on being preached to, but must become good preachers to our own soul. The gospel is the power of God to lead us joyfully to final salvation, if we preach it to ourselves. The following is from Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) a minister who greatly emphasized this truth:
Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them but they are talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man's treatment [in Psalms 42] was this: instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says, "Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you."
The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourslef. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself.... You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself; "Hope thou in God" --instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way, and then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and ...what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: "I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God."
(Piper) Of course, the "self" is not the only one who talks to us in our head. So does the devil, and so do other people as we replay their coments in our memories. Therefore, when Lloyd-Jones tells us to preach to ourselves, he knows we must be addressing all these joy-killing messages. That's why he talks about defying self, Satan, and other people. When we preach the gospel to ourselves, we are addressing every word of every enemy of every kind."
(me) That makes me think of the song "Voice of Truth" by Casting Crowns. Check out their lyrics sometime, it relates. C'est vrai que dans la vie, il y a toujours beaucoup de voix qui parlent et disent des choses different.. mais, laquelle on va écouter? In TheTwo Towers a character speaks words of poison, deceiving the king, mentally enslaving him by lies. In Revolutionary Roads, the last scene was my favorite. The old man turns down the volume of his hearing aids, muting the old woman blabbering on. That's what we must do to false voices-Tune them out! We don't want that! If there's "cold-shoulder", why can't we do "deaf-ear"? Our ears have holes, so they gotta be filled with SOMething. Do we want gunk or truth?
So when we wake up in the morning and look at ourselves in the mirror, we gotta Preach it Preacher!
vendredi 6 février 2009
STRIKE
"Pourquoi vous etes-là?"
Why are you guys here?
"Allez à l'Assemblée Générale"
Go to the strike meetings!
Then the prof talked about her fears for the future and the government, for about 30 min. Then she let us go.
Empty classrooms, no-show professors, tagged-walls, . . .
Already 3 weeks into the semester, we've hardly had classes because the students AND professors are on strike. Certain days the trams don't run its normal course, or they're blocked off. It's like that all over the country.. Vive la France!
. . . chaos? NopE!
there is always HoPe!
Please pray for change, reconciliation, peace. Merci~
Why are you guys here?
"Allez à l'Assemblée Générale"
Go to the strike meetings!
Then the prof talked about her fears for the future and the government, for about 30 min. Then she let us go.
Empty classrooms, no-show professors, tagged-walls, . . .
Already 3 weeks into the semester, we've hardly had classes because the students AND professors are on strike. Certain days the trams don't run its normal course, or they're blocked off. It's like that all over the country.. Vive la France!
. . . chaos? NopE!
there is always HoPe!
Please pray for change, reconciliation, peace. Merci~
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