Posted on 08/22/2006 7:56:23 PM PDT by JockoManning
God bless you too.
God's word does not return to Him void.
Prayers for your situation and your wellbeing,
jm
Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: A Lamp For My Feet
Where There Is Injury
Have you ever found the taste of revenge sweet? Does there lurk in your heart, as in mine at times, a desire for at least the milder forms of revenge if you have been hurt--a desire to see the person apologize, an urge to remind him that he was nasty to you, or even the temptation to pay him back somehow? It was not God's plan that man should take revenge. That He has reserved for Himself, and when we seize that power we are taking a huge risk. It is, in another form, the risk Adam and Eve took when they ate the forbidden fruit--arrogating to themselves powers, lethal burdens, for which they were never designed.
What if God paid us for our sins? What if He were not Love? His mercy is everlasting and has brought us salvation and forgiveness. Remembering that, and how we ourselves have offended Him times without number, shall we dare to retaliate when someone sins against us? Think of the measure of forgiveness God has offered us. Think of the price. Think what the cross means. Then pray the prayer of St. Francis:
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace--
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon....
For it is in forgiving that we are forgiven,
It is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.
Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: A Lamp For My Feet
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 5:2
Let Thy Words Be Few
A Christian businessman who served on the board of a college with my father told me what sort of board member my father was. He would wait until others had had their say and would then rise. He felt it was important to stand, though others did not usually do so, in order to be heard clearly. With a few well-chosen words he would then state his own position. He could be counted on to say more in these few words, and to say it more clearly and simply, than any of the others. My friend said he found himself waiting for what my father would say.
I knew from our home training how valuable time was to him. He was deeply conscientious not to waste it, whether it was his own or (especially) others'.
He did not like to waste words. They were tools to be used skillfully and carefully.
"God is in heaven and thou upon earth, therefore let thy words be few" (Eccl 5:2 AV).
Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: Keep A Quiet Heart
Scripture: Psalm 16:5 Isaiah 66:13 Philippians 3:13-14 Psalm 27:4 Mark 10:21 1 Corinthians 10:13
A Quiet Heart
Jesus slept on a pillow in the midst of a raging storm. How could He? The terrified disciples, sure that the next wave would send them straight to the bottom, shook Him awake with rebuke. How could He be so careless of their fate?
He could because He slept in the calm assurance that His Father was in control. His was a quiet heart. We see Him move serenely through all the events of His life--when He was reviled, He did not revile in return. When He knew that He would suffer many things and be killed in Jerusalem, He never deviated from His course. He had set His face like flint. He sat at supper with one who would deny Him and another who would betray Him, yet He was able to eat with them, willing even to wash their feet. Jesus in the unbroken intimacy of His Father's love, kept a quiet heart.
None of us possesses a heart so perfectly at rest, for none lives in such divine unity, but we can learn a little more each day of what Jesus knew--what one writer called the negligence of that trust which carries God with it. Who would think of using the word negligence in regard to our Lord Jesus? To be negligent is to omit to do what a reasonable man would do. Would Jesus omit that? Yes, on occasion, when faith pierced beyond reason.
This "negligent" trust--is it careless, inattentive, indolent? No, not in His case. Jesus, because His will was one with His Father's, could be free from care. He had the blessed assurance of knowing that His Father would do the caring, would be attentive to His Son's need. Was Jesus indolent? No, never lazy, sluggish, or slothful, but He knew when to take action and when to leave things up to His Father. He taught us to work and watch but never to worry, to do gladly whatever we are given to do, and to leave all else with God.
Purity of heart, said Kierkegaard, is to will one thing. The Son willed only one thing: the will of His Father. That's what He came to earth to do. Nothing else. One whose aim is as pure as that can have a completely quiet heart, knowing what the psalmist knew: "Lord, You have assigned me my portion and my cup, and have made my lot secure" (Psalm 16:5 NIV). I know of no greater simplifier for all of life. Whatever happens is assigned. Does the intellect balk at that? Can we say that there are things which happen to us which do not belong to our lovingly assigned "portion" (This belongs to it, that does not")? Are some things, then, out of the control of the Almighty?
Every assignment is measured and controlled for my eternal good. As I accept the given portion other options are cancelled. Decisions become much easier, directions clearer, and hence my heart becomes inexpressibly quieter.
What do we really want in life? Sometimes I have the chance to ask this question of high school or college students. I am surprised at how few have a ready answer. Oh, they could come up with quite a long list of things, but is there one thing above all others that they desire? "One thing have I desired of the Lord," said David, "this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life..." (Psalm 27:4 KJV). To the rich young man who wanted eternal life Jesus said, "One thing you lack. Go, sell everything" (Mark 10:21 NIV). In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus tells us that the seed which is choked by thorns has fallen into a heart full of the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desire for other things. The apostle Paul said, "One thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus" (Phil 3:13-14 NIV).
A quiet heart is content with what God gives. It is enough. All is grace. One morning my computer simply would not obey me. What a nuisance. I had my work laid out, my timing figured, my mind all set. My work was delayed, my timing thrown off, my thinking interrupted. Then I remembered. It was not for nothing. This was part of the Plan (not mine, His). "Lord, You have assigned me my portion and my cup."
Now if the interruption had been a human being instead of an infuriating mechanism, it would not have been so hard to see it as the most important part of the work of the day. But all is under my Father's control: yes, recalcitrant computers, faulty transmissions, drawbridges which happen to be up when one is in a hurry. My portion. My cup. My lot is secure. My heart can be at peace. My Father is in charge. How simple!
My assignment entails my willing acceptance of my portion-in matters far beyond comparison with the trivialities just mentioned, such as the death of a precious baby. A mother wrote to me of losing her son when he was just one month old. A widow writes of the long agony of watching her husband die. The number of years given them in marriage seemed too few. We can only know that Eternal Love is wiser than we, and we bow in adoration of that loving wisdom.
Response is what matters. Remember that our forefathers were all guided by the pillar of cloud, all passed through the sea, all ate and drank the same spiritual food and drink, but God was not pleased with most of them. Their response was all wrong. Bitter about the portions allotted they indulged in idolatry, gluttony, and sexual sin. And God killed them by snakes and by a destroying angel.
The same almighty God apportioned their experience. All events serve His will. Some responded in faith. Most did not.
"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it" (1 Corinthians 10:13 NIV).
Think of that promise and keep a quiet heart! Our enemy delights in disquieting us. Our Savior and Helper delights in quieting us. "As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you" is His promise (Is 66:13, NIV). The choice is ours. It depends on our willingness to see everything in God, receive all from His hand, accept with gratitude just the portion and the cup He offers. Shall I charge Him with a mistake in His measurements or with misjudging the sphere in which I can best learn to trust Him? Has He misplaced me? Is He ignorant of things or people which,in my view, hinder my doing His will?
God came down and lived in this same world as a man. He showed us how to live in this world, subject to its vicissitudes and necessities, that we might be changed-not into an angel or a storybook princess, not wafted into another world, but changed into saints in this world. The secret is Christ in me, not me in a different set of circumstances.
He whose heart is kind beyond all measure
Gives unto each day what He deems best,
Lovingly its part of pain and pleasure,
Mingling toil with peace and rest.
--Lina Sandell, Swedish
September 8, 2006
In a vision, I saw Someone take a pair of scissors and cut the top off an envelope which contained a United States Treasury check. The scissors cut right through the words “United States Treasury.” I thought, “That check is going to be ruined!” Here is what the Lord has to tell us about this vision:
I am the Lord God Almighty, Maker, of heaven and earth. I look on each individual heart with a deep yearning to draw that one close to Me. I look on each heart with eyes of love, longing for that one to come into My fold – My fold that offers life.
In this hour, I am seeing many in a state of complacency. I see many looking in the wrong direction, and not into the eyes of the One Who is deep, compassionate love. I want you to know that My heart longs for you. I want you to know that I long to take you deeper into the knowledge of My true love for you.
Will you draw closer? Will you lean NOT on your own understanding, but follow after My heart’s desire for you, and enter into all that I have planned so expertly for your well-being?
You are going to see things, beloved. You are going to see things come into being that will surprise you – things that may not be pleasing to one who is leaning NOT on the arm of the Almighty.
I am telling you this for a good reason. I want you ready. I do not want you to be ignorant about what is about to come forth. I want you ready, willing, and able to follow My lead. I don’t want you looking to the world. I want you fully prepared for all that is coming, and I want you abiding in Me, looking to Me to bring about My will in your life with My expert hand and timing.
So know this, dear one: Things are about to take on a new look in your midst. Things that once looked stable will topple. Things that you once looked to as being written in stone are about to be erased, for the Lord God Almighty has a mighty work to do in your midst, and in order for things to develop according to My most exact will, some things will have to GO – to topple – to be dismissed permanently from life as you have known it.
It won’t hurt a bit, beloved, if you will focus on Me, looking to Me to see you through. In fact, you will find deep delight in what I am bringing forth. You will look at the sequence of events that is coming and be astounded at My magnificent sense of timing. You will see some lives take on a new dimension – a new look that could only come by the hand of the living God. This, beloved, will thrill you.
I am taking away some crutches from lives in this hour – crutches that many have looked to as their source of sustaining life. I am taking those crutches away – away, beloved. They will be so far removed from lives that those who have been depending on them will wonder how in the world they ever looked to these things for their sense of peace and purpose.
So know this: The hour is soon to come when the Beloved will take away many things from the lives of those on planet earth.
He will take away those things to which many have looked and worshipped. He will take away those things to which many have looked to sustain them in this life. He will remove those things that are detrimental to ANY one’s walk. And why would I do this? It is quite simple. I am readying you for My purposes to shine forth in your life. I am readying you for the events that lie ahead – events that can only be lived by one who is looking to the Almighty for His expert hand to guide him through.
Yes, I am about to topple finance as man knows it. I am about to topple dynasties that many look on as everlasting. I am about to show mankind that only the living God is from everlasting to everlasting. There is no man who can equal the ways of the Beloved.
No man can shine forth the all-prevalent goodness of the living God. No man can build anything that I cannot topple at My discretion. No man can shine forth the glory of the living God. No man can equal My ways. No man can EVER equal the ways of the living God, for they are replete in perfection and no man is perfect.
So hear Me. Hear Me LOUD and clear: I am about to take away the props to which man has looked. I am about to make man solely dependent on Me, the living God. This will be a GOOD thing, beloved. You will see that I will supply all of your needs in supernatural ways. I will lead you in My goodness. Life will never seem better than it will when I remove those things to which you have leaned on for support.
Be of good cheer. I am doing a mighty work – a sustaining work for those who serve the living God. I am bringing about My most exact will in lives. I am showing Myself true. I want you looking to Me. I want you looking solely to Me and My strong purpose for your life. Only the wonders that I give can ever satisfy a heart. So get ready for the unexplainable to appear in your life. Get ready to walk with an allegiance to My cause that will bring happiness to your life – a stride of purpose in your walk, and a genuine smile on your face.
Know this: I am the One, True God. I bring happiness to hearts many times over. I bring happiness to a heart that nothing on earth could match. So know, beloved, when things begin to change, when I cut away those things which you have looked to for security, when things that you once thought everlasting begin to topple, I am at work. I am bringing about My most exact will, and you will see and experience a sense of purpose and meaning that will delight, providing hope and expression of My heart the likes of which you have never known.
That is My dissertation to you for today. Take it to heart. Take it into your heart. Live with this knowledge: The living God is at work bringing about an end-time revival that will show the world His power and His goodness, and no man can stand in the way of this eventful hour.
Nothing man has, or could achieve, can thwart this hour. Get ready to behold the wonders of the living God. Get ready to behold Me in all of My glory.
For the hour is surely upon mankind. The hour is surely coming as I speak. Get ready to rise up to My cause, by the power of My Spirit, looking to Me to confound the wise, and place My beloved on a pinnacle of hope that will bring happiness to your heart, satisfying you right down to every fiber of your being.
This is My declaration. It is truth! Take it to heart, beloved. I want you to take it into your heart today – NOW! – and live with the knowledge that the One True God is at last having His way and presenting that shining hour – that hour that offers hope to the oppressed – hope to every heart that has longed to be set free from the powers of darkness.
The powers that have oppressed My beloved will cease in their endless pursuit, and once again the world will see that I am a God of My word. I am a God of truth. I am a God of great and meaningful love. I, and I alone, am God from everlasting to everlasting. I am God!!!
http://www.etpv.org/whatsnew.html
Thanks.
QUOTEMEAL from HEARTLIGHT -- http://www.heartlight.org/
Christians ought not to be smothered in fear. There is a spiritual readiness, where we return to having the peace of God stand guard over our hearts and minds.
What an incredible witness it is to a lost and fearful society when the Christian acts like a child of God, living under the loving sovereignty of the Heavenly Father.
The Christian needs to walk in peace, so no matter what happens they will be able to bear witness to a watching world.
-- Henry Blackaby
Author: Woodrow Kroll
Source: Lessons on Living From Joshua
Scripture: James 1:5 James 3:17 Deuteronomy 34:9
Wisdom From Above
Deuteronomy 34:9
Now Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him; so the children of Israel heeded him, and did as the Lord had commanded Moses.
Wisdom From Above
Life is filled with predicaments that require wisdom. Two men were hiking when they spotted a mountain lion staring at them. One froze in his tracks, but the other sat down on a log, tore off his hiking boots, pulled a pair of running shoes from his backpack and hurriedly began to put them on. "For crying out loud, you can't outrun a mountain lion!" his companion said. "I don't have to," the other shrugged. "I just have to outrun you."
There is some wisdom to what this man said, but this type of earthly wisdom is not sufficient to accomplish God's purposes. Joshua needed much more than common sense if he were to be the leader God wanted him to be. Therefore, as Moses laid hands upon him in prayer, God granted Joshua a supernatural measure of wisdom through His Holy Spirit.
God still offers such wisdom today. James says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him" (James 1:5). But this is not just any wisdom; it is a godly wisdom. James calls it "the wisdom that is from above" (3:17). God, who is the giver of all good gifts, delights in giving godly wisdom to those who truly desire it. We all need it; do we all desire it as well?
If you are facing a situation that calls for real wisdom, don't settle for earthly wisdom. So much more is available to you. Ask God to give you the wisdom that comes from above. Only by godly wisdom can you meet God's expectations.
Godly work always requires godly wisdom.
[James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.]
[James 3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.]
Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: Keep A Quiet Heart
Scripture: Isaiah 51:14
The Angel in the Cell
My brother Dave Howard does a lot of traveling and comes back with wonderful stories. One summer when the six of us Howards with our spouses got together for a reunion, Dave told us this one, heard from the son of the man in the story.
A man whom we'll call Ivan, prisoner in an unnamed country, was taken from his cell, interrogated, tortured, and beaten nearly to a pulp. The one comfort in his life was a blanket. As he staggered back to his cell, ready to collapse into that meager comfort, he saw to his dismay that someone was wrapped up in it--an informer, he supposed. He fell on the filthy floor, crying out, "I can't take any more! whereupon a voice came from the blanket: "Ivan, what do you mean, you can't take any more?" Thinking the man was trying to get information to be used against him, Ivan didn't explain. He merely repeated what he had said.
"Ivan," came the voice, "Have you forgotten that Jesus is with you?"
Then the figure in the blanket was gone. Ivan, unable to walk a minute before, now leaped to his feet and danced round the cell praising the Lord. In the morning the guard who had starved and beaten him asked who had given him food. No one, said Ivan.
"But why do you look so different?"
"Because my Lord was with me last night."
"Oh, is that so? And where is your Lord now?"
Ivan opened his shirt, pointed to his heart--"Here."
"OK. I'm going to shoot you and your Lord right now," said the guard, pointing a pistol at Ivan's chest.
"Shoot me if you wish. I'll go to be with my Lord."
The guard returned his pistol to its holster, shaking his head in bewilderment.
Later Ivan learned that his wife and children had been praying for him on that same night as they read Isaiah 51:14: "The cowering prisoners will soon be set free; they will not die in their dungeon, nor will they lack bread" (NIV).
Ivan was released shortly thereafter and continued faithfully to preach the gospel until he died in his eighties.
Amen.
Make it so in each of us, Lord, Please make it so.
Thanks tons for your kind, humbling words.
PRAISE GOD FOR HIS FAITHFULNESS to teach all willing to learn.
You are very welcome.
jm
Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: A Lamp For My Feet
Scripture: Psalm 73:22-28
A Small Section of the Visible Course
The house where I was born, at 52 Rue Ernest Laude in Brussels, looks exactly as it does in the picture in my mother's photo album. The old snapshot is a study in grays. The one my husband Lars took much more recently is in color. The cobblestone street is the same in both. The bricks of which the house is built turn out to be rather pink; the white marble facade of the second and third stories has not changed. They have put new shades in the two first-floor windows, and the people in the pictures are different. In the first, on the second-floor wrought-iron balcony in sunshine, stands my mother, twenty-four years old, slim and straight, with a wonderful pile of dark satiny hair. She is wearing a dark ankle-length dress with a wide white cape-collar.
In the colored picture there are two cars, and near the front door, very wind-blown, stand I. How I longed to ask the present tenants to allow me to go up to the balcony, even into the kitchen where I was born.
Over sixty years have passed since I was last there. My mother had locked the front door when she fumed to the Dutch lady who was her helper.
"I feel as though I've forgotten something."
Adri knew very well what it was and wondered how far my mother would get before realizing that the five-month-old baby was still upstairs, wrapped in her bunting, ready for the ocean voyage.
There was something wondrously comforting about knowing, as I stood before that unremembered house, that this is where my parents lived, where they loved, where they welcomed into their small cold-water flat the newborn sister of their son Philip.
They were missionaries, working with what was then the Belgian Gospel Mission. Lars and I visited the old buildings; the little Flemish chapel where my father taught Sunday School and probably played the Steinway piano that stands there--bought by Mrs. Norton, wife of the founder of the mission (she sold her jewels to pay for it). We looked at an old photo album there with pictures of my grandparents, my great uncle, and my parents.
All of the past, I believe, is a part of God's story of each child of His--a mystery of love and sovereignty, written before the foundation of the world, never a hindrance to the task He has designed for us, but rather the very preparation suited to our particular personality's need.
"How can that be?" ask those whose heritage has not been a godly one as mine was, whose lives have not been peaceful. "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter" (Proverbs 25:2, NIV). God conceals much that we do not need to know, yet we do know that He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. When does that begin? Does the Shepherd overlook anything that the sheep need?
William Kay, who translated the Psalms in 1870, gives this note on Psalm 73:22: "Though I was supported by Thee and living 'with Thee' as Thy guest, yet I was insensible to Thy presence;--intent only on a small section of the visible course of things;--like the irrational animals that are ever looking down at the ground they are grazing.
"Yet I am perpetually with Thee, Thou hast laid hold on my right hand," wrote the psalmist. "Thou wilt guide me with Thy counsel and afterwards receive me in glory.... And as for me, nearness to God is my good; I have put my trust in the Lord God" (vv. 23, 24, 28, WK).
HIGHLIGHT: All of the past, I believe, is a part of God's story of each child of His--a mystery of love and sovereignty, written before the foundation of the world, never a hindrance to the task He has designed for us, but rather the very preparation suited to our particular personality's need.
"How can that be?" ask those whose heritage has not been a godly one as mine was, whose lives have not been peaceful. "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter" (Proverbs 25:2, NIV).
Author: Woodrow Kroll
Source: Lessons on Living From Joshua
Scripture: Philippians 4:7 Hebrews 13:5 Matthew 28:20 Joshua 1:5
Never Forsaken
Joshua 1:5
"No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you."
Never Forsaken
In 1970 an Arizona lawyer named Russel T. Tansie filed a $100,000 damage suit against God. The suit was filed on behalf of Mr. Tansie's secretary, Betty Penrose, who accused God of negligence in His power over the weather when He allowed a lightning bolt to strike her home. The woman won the case when the Defendant failed to appear in court. I wonder if she ever collected?
When trials come or disaster strikes, it's easy to feel as if God is being negligent. When something we can't explain happens, we believe God has let us down. But the Bible makes it very clear that this is not true. God told Joshua that He would not leave nor forsake him. Actually, in the Hebrew language, the negative comes first and makes the thought even stronger: "not will I leave you" and "not will I forsake you." The order of these words emphasizes the fact that, no matter how difficult Joshua's circumstances might become, God would not leave and He would not forsake. He was as committed to Joshua as He had been to Moses. Could you use that same kind of commitment from God today? You have it.
Read Hebrews 13:5, "Let your manner of living be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have. For He hath said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee"."
God's presence doesn't mean that things will always go smoothly. Christians don't walk around with protective plastic bubbles surrounding them. God's promise, however, is that He will continue to walk with us and be faithful to us even in our sorrows or failures.
His company will bring you comfort that will exceed your understanding (Phil. 4:7).
Be assured that as God was with Moses and Joshua, He is with you as well. Jesus promised, "I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matt. 28:20). Whatever difficulties you face, you will not have to face them alone. He will never, no never, fail you nor forsake you. That's His promise to you.
Only God can say "never" -- and really mean it.
Author: Woodrow Kroll
Source: Lessons on Living From Joshua
Scripture: Numbers 14:28-30
Faithfulness Rewarded
Numbers 14:28-30
"Say to them, ‘As I live,' says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you: the carcasses of you who have murmured against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above. Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in.'"
Faithfulness Rewarded
It was a stormy night in Birmingham, England, and Hudson Taylor was to speak at a meeting at the Severn Street schoolroom. His hostess assured him that nobody would attend on such a stormy night, but Taylor insisted on going. "I must go even if there is no one but the doorkeeper." Fewer than a dozen people showed up, but the meeting was marked with unusual spiritual power. Half of those present either became missionaries or gave their children as missionaries; and the rest were faithful supporters of the China Inland Mission for years to come. Taylor was faithful and God rewarded him.
Faithfulness always has it rewards, both in heaven and on earth. Joshua stood faithful to God's promises. When the ten spies brought back discouraging reports about the land of Canaan, Joshua and his partner, Caleb, stood firm on God's assurance of victory. When the people threatened to stone him, he refused to back down from his convictions. It's no wonder, therefore, that Joshua and Caleb were given the privilege of entering the Promised Land when everyone else was condemned to die in the wilderness.
Being faithful often puts you on the wrong side of popular opinion. Standing steadfast on the Word of God can make you the object of ridicule, if not hatred. Being firm about your beliefs sometimes causes people to think of you as narrow-minded, unenlightened or even worse. But be faithful to what you know is right. Ultimately your faithfulness will be rewarded.
Don't be discouraged by what others say or do. Be faithful to God's Word and His work. God promises He will make it all worthwhile.
Faithfulness is the process; God's blessings are the product.
| Author: Woodrow Kroll Source: Lessons on Living From Joshua Scripture: Deuteronomy 1:36 Joshua 14:8-14 Numbers 32:11-12 Numbers 32:11-12 Surely none of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and above, shall see the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because they have not wholly followed Me, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the Lord. Total Commitment A few years ago, prominent members of society gathered in the Saints Peter and Paul Church in San Francisco for a wedding. The bride was dazzling in her wedding gown and the service was elegant in its execution. But when it came to that all-important moment to say "I do," the bride hesitated and then replied, "I just can't make up my mind." The minister waited a moment and then announced to the audience that the wedding was off. The reception was canceled and thousands of dollars' worth of food was given away. A week later, however, the bride asked for the wedding to proceed. Her uncertainty, she claimed, "was just due to nerves." Fortunately, Joshua, along with Caleb, never had such moments of uncertainty. No less than five times (Num. 32:12; Deut. 1:36; Josh. 14:8, 9, 14) the Bible says Joshua "wholly" followed the Lord. There was no hesitation, no second thoughts, no vain regrets. Instead, he gave himself to be and do all that God desired of him. His life had no room for a "maybe," or a tentative "let me think about it." Joshua's mind was made up; he would totally serve the Lord. When it comes time to give a clear testimony for the Lord, Christians often seem to be afflicted with a bad case of the nerves. They stutter and stumble and just can't seem to "make up their minds." George Gallup, in his studies on American church life, noted that America is a nation of nominal believers, many belonging to a church but few attending. They just can't make up their minds to take a stand for the Lord. Let's put behind us all our indecisiveness. When the opportunity comes to take a stand for Christ, whether by witnessing for Him or simply identifying with a local assembly of believers, don't hesitate. "Wholly" follow the Lord. A holy response comes from a wholly committed heart.
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He is so faithful to orchestrate circumstances to give us a willing spirit, to break our hard hearts in His Infinite Mercy.
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