May 2013
5 posts
Adam Young: You do not lose your own personality... →
adamyoungofficial:
You do not lose your own personality when by faith you take your place with Christ in death. On the contrary, a transformation takes place within your personality. You simply come under new management. “Therefore if any person is ingrafted in Christ, he is a new creation; the old, previous moral…
9 tags
The Most Important Stipulation
“Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God; the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
Christians know the second part of this as the most important command because Jesus called it so (Mark 12:28-34). In reality, many had called it the most important command before Jesus affirmed it as such (see, for instance, the expert...
Stephen Lovegrove: My Jesus Story →
stephenlovegrove:
The story begins in an extremely conservative family in the religious hotspot of Greenville, South Carolina. My childhood revolved around rules. From the moment I entered elementary school, every year contained a new handbook with dozens of pages of rules to know and obey.
In elementary…
6 tags
The Race and the Goal
“I labour if that I may lay hold of that for which also I have been laid hold of by Jesus Christ.”… So then Paul took God’s purpose in calling, and Christ’s purpose in redeeming him, as being his great object in life. God’s aims and Paul’s were identical. What, then, is the aim of God in all that He has done for us? The production in us of God-like and...
6 tags
“Man finds it hard to get what he wants, because he does not want the best; God...”
– George MacDonald
April 2013
4 posts
6 tags
Let the Fruit be Your Heart
God told them “be fruitful and multiply,” not “be fashionable and add.” Fruitfulness and spiritual abundance lead to influence that cannot help but multiply where there is hunger. Catering to listeners may lead to people who will join our Christian club, but the abundance ends there: a cool club.
The fruit (or harvest, Gk. karpos) of the Spirit is not followers;...
6 tags
"I believe. Help my unbelief!"
This phrase has two possible meanings: either the man was asking Christ to enable him to believe, or he was asking Christ to help him despite his unbelief—that is, by answering his prayer and healing his son.
“Christ paid no heed in words to this confession of unbelief, but proceeded to do the work which answered the prayer in both its possible meanings. He responded to imperfect...
March 2013
1 post
5 tags
Mistakes in the Bible
The Bible is full of mistakes…
The first mistake was when Eve doubted the Word of God
The second happened when her husband did, too
And mistake after mistake is still being made because people insist on doubting God’s Word
The Bible is full of contradictions…
It contradicts pride and prejudice
It contradicts lust and lawlessness
It contradicts sin, yours and mine
The Bible is...
3 tags
Jesus is a Forerunner
Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus,…. Christ was a runner; he had a race to run, which lay in going about to heal diseases, in preaching the Gospel, in obeying the law, and in suffering death for his people; which race was run by him with great swiftness, strength, and courage, with patience, cheerfulness, and joy, and is now ended; as appears from the accomplishment of...
February 2013
2 posts
Many people say that salvation is the work of God alone, and that to say that God requires surrender is requiring “a work” which leads to salvation, and therefore false. But I always think, “how is it a work to lay down a burden of guilt?” Isn’t it the opposite of work to take what you’ve been trying to bear on your back all your life and finally give it to the...
January 2013
3 posts
8 tags
Go To Jail
The Bible does not say a ton about the devil, but there is one passage that tells most obviously about his beginnings and one passage that tells most obviously about his end. These are found in Ezekiel’s prophecy, and the book of Revelation, chapters 18-20. There is one interesting cross-reference between the two that, as far as I know, is not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible: human...
Ricardo: Creativity →
rickypoo94:
I’m reading a book written by Michael Gungor and so far (the first two chapters) this book has made me view creativity completely different. When I would think about creativity I always imagined the streets of Europe with all these crazy hobo art looking people, painting some potrait that’s so…
December 2012
1 post
1 tag
“God is too good to be unkind. He is too wise to be confused. If I cannot trace...”
– Charles Spurgeon (via yesdarlingido)
November 2012
1 post
9 tags
A Brand Plucked From the Burning
Here in Sam Wesley’s words are the awful event which was to precipitate in a child’s heart the desire to change the world: “I ran down and went to my children in the garden to help them over the wall. When I was without, I heard one of my poor lambs left still above stairs about six years old cry out dismally “Help me!” I ran in again, to go upstairs, but the...
July 2012
1 post
3 tags
Nature Untouched
Nature in the raw, fallen though it is, is not as violent as nature hurt by sinful men and women. Hunters who come into areas of wildlife untouched by man find an odd thing. They remark on the incredible sense of peace and quietness they find, so tangible they may catch themselves speaking in whispers, just as when you enter the quiet sanctuary of an immense and ancient church. In fact, these...
June 2012
1 post
7 tags
Inspired by Psalm 8
Psalm 8
To the Chief Musician. On the instrument of Gath. A Psalm of David.
1 O Lord, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth, Who have set Your glory above the heavens!
2 Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, Because of Your enemies, That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your...
April 2012
1 post
The Furnace
If the devil hates me, God loves me. If I am pressed on every side, I am yet constrained within. I must allow frustrations to breed within me an indomitable sense of the importance and purpose of my life. I must allow patience to have its perfect work; the old word for patience was longsuffering. I will trade my pain for purposefulness. I will trade my turmoil for tenacity.
The devil holds the...
March 2012
1 post
Triunity
Created a page on the Triunity of God: http://markshockley.tumblr.com/triunity Had formatting problems with trying to post the table into a blog post, so I just made it a new page. Excuse the rather “empty” formatting.
Also props to this website for having a free, online HTML Editor. (It’s “wysiwyg”, so it is like Microsoft Word or FrontPage but creates HTML code for...
February 2012
1 post
3 tags
Denominations
aren’t meant to be molds; they’re meant to be movements. The Quakers was a movement started by a man who was not afraid to face pain and persecution with the power of the gospel that people might worship truely; Martin Luther didn’t register the Lutheran Church with the German Evangelicals Association—he registered his spiritual grievances boldly and with Scriptural support, and...
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...
