January 2012
1 post
3 tags
The Giver by George MacDonald
To give a thing and take again Is counted meanness among men; To take away what once is given Cannot then be the way of heaven! But human hearts are crumbly stuff, And never, never love enough, Therefore God takes and, with a smile, Puts our best things away a while. Thereon some weep, some rave, some scorn, Some wish they never had been born; Some humble grow at last and still, And then God gives...
September 2011
1 post
3 tags
My Rights–from George MacDonald
“I want nothing but my rights. What can matter to me more than my rights?”
“Your duties–your debts. You are all wrong about the thing. It is a very small matter to you whether the man give you your rights or not; it is life or death to you whether or not you give him his. Whether he pay you what you count his debt or not, you will be compelled to pay him all you own him. If you...
July 2011
1 post
1 tag
The Wearied Christ
by Alexander MacLaren “Jesus therefore, being wearied with His journey, sat thus on the well.”
“He said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.”— John iv. 6 and 32.
Two pictures result from these two verses, each striking in itself, and gaining additional emphasis by the contrast. It was near the close of a long, hot day’s march that a tired band of...
May 2011
2 posts
5 tags
He's That Good
I would really feel awful if the apostle Paul told me “you have become estranged from Christ… you have fallen from grace.” That’s what he said to the Gentiles who were Christians, but were compelled to be circumcised by the Jewish Christians. He told them “This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you.” I have never been compelled to undergo surgery for...
Tuscaloosa, AL before and after the worst tornado... →
April 2011
1 post
4 tags
Make Yourself at Home
My sister works in a coffee shop. On some days, I do too; it’s just that I don’t make any coffee. Twice a week I meet a Korean student for tutoring in English as a second language. I have no office for tutoring; propriety precludes meeting at my house; a restaurant would be too expensive and noisy; and if we met out of doors the wind and Texas weather would prove distracting. ...
February 2011
2 posts
2 tags
This is interesting—after his death, someone found a prayer in the journal of James Clerk Maxwell (physics, not coffee), showing that man’s creation in God’s image and Genesis 1:28 were great motivators for his life as a scientist.
James Clerk Maxwell’s name is often placed at number 3 for greatest physicists we know of, right behind Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton (even...
4 tags
What does it take to be a missionary?
Being a Missionary - What Does it Take? (taken primarily from Pratney’s ppt “Revolutionary Faith”)
This is really long and kind of skeletal—I’m mainly posting it for my resource but it is mostly from Winkie and I thought somebody else might find it useful.
You don’t become a missionary by crossing the sea, but by seeing the cross. When God gets ready to again...
January 2011
3 posts
4 tags
Project a man into a god, and you get a proud pharaoh; project God into a man, and you get meek Moses. The true God is as humble as he is great, and that is what it means when it says that the Messiah would be a “prophet who is like Moses.”
2 tags
Switchbacks
I wrote this in Big Bend National Park two years ago; I reread it again today, changed it a little and I am reposting it for a friend. I hope it is some help to those who read it. There is really only one way to hike up a mountain: You must use the switchbacks. It would seem shorter to walk straight uphill, but you’d have to leave the trail that everyone else has been taking, which is...
The Maker of the Universe (by Phil Keaggy)
The Maker of the universe, As Man for man was made a curse. The claims of Law which He had made, Unto the uttermost He paid. His holy fingers made the bough, Which grew the thorns that crowned His brow. The nails that pierced His hands were mined In secret places He designed. He made the forest whence there sprung The tree on which His body hung. He died upon a cross of wood, Yet made...
November 2010
3 posts
4 tags
A vignette of Adoniram Judson
Bethany and I started a book together on our honeymoon called “The Life of Adoniram Judson.” It is a pretty beasty book, but we figured we would be married a while… . It tells how he was one of the first people in America to become a missionary. Not long after William Carey had left for India, Adoniram Judson and his wife left (and ended up being with William Carey’s...
2 tags
“Once it was the blessing;
Now it is the Lord.
Once His gifts I wanted…...”
– A.B. Simpson, quoted by Tozer in I Talk Back to the Devil
“I can’t perceive or understand
The kindness of your hand
Or the mercy in your...”
– Charlie Hall - All My Love From the album “Flying Into Daybreak”
October 2010
1 post
3 tags
Tozer quote
“God wills that we should push on into His Presence and live our whole life there. This is to be known to us in conscious experience. It is more than a doctrine to be held, it is a life to be enjoyed every moment of every day. This Flame of the Presence was the beating heart of the Levitical order. Without it all the appointments of the tabernacle were characters of some unknown language;...
September 2010
3 posts
1 tag
He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater
He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater, He sendeth more strength as our labors increase; To added afflictions He addeth His mercy, To multiplied trials he multiplies peace.
When we have exhausted our store of endurance, When our strength has failed ere the day is half done, When we reach the end of our hoarded resources Our Father’s full giving is only begun.
His love has no...
2 tags
George Mueller
http://www.amazon.com/George-Muller-Bristol-Arthur-Pierson/dp/1406893757/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1283196781&sr=1-1 I have been reading a biography of George Mueller for several months. I love reading biographies of great Christians, and this one is one of the best I have looked at. For more than half of his long life, George Mueller was head over a very large orphanage in...
August 2010
1 post
Campus Missionary Associate
I was approved recently to be on staff (part-time) with XA at Texas A&M. More info to come …
June 2010
1 post
prayer
It doesn’t depend on me… It depends on God. or rather I depend on God! It depends on depending on God. Christ said “Without me you can do nothing” and admitted that without the Father he could do nothing! He only did what he saw the Father doing; He only spoke what the Father said. One way of describing prayer is that it is placing things in the Father’s hands,...
April 2010
1 post
Okay
Okay. It might be the worst state in the world for a man to be “okay.” Okay means that you have learned to cope with life’s difficulties instead of actually getting past them. You have learned to ignore your guilt instead of getting rid of it. Misery is a better state. Misery means that you still know that there is something wrong with the world. Misery means that there is a...
February 2010
1 post
“Man finds it hard to get what he wants, because he does not want the best; God...”
– George MacDonald, “Life”
October 2009
1 post
Graveyards
If I can, I like to spend time praying outdoors rather than inside, and in Huntsville I found that the field behind a graveyard was a great place. I’m not sure who was there, but the tenants were always silent.
No one plays in a graveyard; or, if anyone does, they don’t for long, I think.
Every time I walked to the field, I had to walk through the graveyard, because there were fences on the...
September 2009
4 posts
That I May Dwell Among Them
Ex. 25:8 And let them make a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.
God wants to dwell among the Israelites, and he even says this was the reason for the Exodus:
“I will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God, and they shall know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them. I am the LORD their God.” (Ex. 29:45-46)
...
Letter from the Front Lines
Be careful that you don’t think they’re winning. They are the majority here but the minority abroad. They have many allies, but we have many more. This is the only land where anyone has tried to usurp the True King. His dominion stands unchallenged in all the faraway shores outside of this small but bloody battlefield. So you don’t have to be afraid of them. You were a part of the problem...
Break or Be Broken
Now that we have answered the question of what the LORD really wants, this should shed some light on his anger and judgment towards Pharaoh and Egypt.
Is it possible that even in anger and punishment God was choosing for the Pharaoh’s highest good? Can you be angry at someone because you love them? Many parents would say yes: even punishment should be motivated by love and concern for...
Knowing the Lord
And the LORD said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians… . Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”
But Moses said to...