Simple Rules when You are Discouraged: by AW Tozer (slightly modified)

Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation." Isaiah 12:2

Christian men and women should be aware that there is a danger in a defeated spirit within us, for it can plunge us into discouragement.

Discouragement, by the way, is hardly a sin.  However, it can lead to any number of sins, for to discourage is to dishearten. In such a case we may still go to church but have little appetite for it.  Nothing means anything. Even the hymns and choruses are dull and tasteless and the sermon is a bore.

I want to give you some rules for the time of discouragement:

One thing you may want to do first is: NEVER accept the judgment of your own heart about the matter. A discouraged heart will always go astray, so do not think about yourself the way you feel about yourself. 

Instead, go to Christ, and more often than not, he will tell you like he did Gideon who was discouraged, “Get up, thou mighty man of God.”

Secondly is:  Make no important decisions while you are discouraged.  DON’T resign your job.  DON’T sell your property.  DO ask God to remove defeat out of your spirit and TRUST Him again. GOD IS NOT THE GOD OF SECOND CHANCES.  HE IS THE GOD OF AS MANY CHANCES AS YOU NEED, JUST CALL ON HIM.

Thirdly, get your Bible from its dusty space, wipe if off, and read about the promises of God for all of us. Claim His promises, and remember this: THE LIVING GOD IS EVERYTHING. OUR VICTORIES CANNOT ENRICH HIM AND OUR DEFEATS CANNOT IMPOVERISH HIM.  Live in the brightness of his love and promises, not in the darkness that is away from Him.  

Life is in Jesus: by TA Sparks

You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me to have life. (John 5:39-40)

The value of everything is its livingness. The value of the Scriptures is not that we know our Bibles and can handle our Bibles and can give addresses, wonderful addresses, from our Bibles, and that we can quote Scripture fully and accurately and all that sort of thing. It is not that we bear the name of associates of Christ, Christians, not that we have this great inheritance and tradition. It is the livingness of it all which is proving itself in all ways, that this risen Life of Christ should prove itself.... That is a strong thing to say, it is a searching thing to say. You have the Christian tradition and a great deal of Christian teaching, perhaps you know your Bibles very well, or think you do, perhaps you have many advantages in your associations, but the question arises. Not do you know it all, have you got it all, all the teaching, the truth, the Bible knowledge, the association, and that you are at all the meetings and you have heard it for years and years past and your association with it has been very close. That is not it. You can have all that and yet you yourself not be marked by this vital something that you become a vital factor in the whole thing. You are still a passenger, perhaps a parasite; not really in the good of it yourself. Let us be frank about it. We must face this as a personal matter.

The answer is in the resurrection.... Resurrection is not to be only something that happened with Jesus, but it is something that has happened in us and taken place inside of us. There is a counterpart of that by His risen Life imparted, that we have been raised together with Him. And that is not just doctrine either. That is real, that is vital truth and something to happen in us as well as in Jerusalem so many years ago. It is not just history and tradition, it is experience.... We have not only to believe that Jesus rose from the dead, but we have got to be alive ourselves with Him in that resurrection and on that ground.

We Have Within Us the Spirit of Optimism: by AW Tozer

and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:20

As earnest Christian believers, we must face today as children of tomorrow. We must meet the uncertainties of this world with the certainty of the world to come!

The political, social and economic convulsions of our day only confirm the long-range wisdom of Jesus Christ and prove the authenticity of the prophetic Word. Christians who may live even in the worst of times will still know within themselves a spirit of optimism. They are on the winning side and they cannot lose!

The promise of the Lord Jesus, “Lo, I am with you!” makes ultimate defeat impossible.

To any man or woman, pure in heart, nothing really bad can happen. They may die, but what is death to a Christian?

Not death, but sin, should be our great fear. Without doubt the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Sooner or later that will come.

But what of it?

Do not we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness?

Let us beware allowing our spiritual comforts to rise and fall with world news or the changing world situations. We who lean upon Jesus and trust in the watchful love of a heavenly Father are not dependent upon these things for our peace.

For children of the new creation, the darker the night the brighter faith shines and the sooner comes the morning!

Remain: By T. Austin-Sparks

Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. (John 15:4)

He has chosen us from the foundation of the world in Christ. He has selected One in whom we shall find Him, and in whom alone we shall find Him. All the forces of hell will be at work, in the first place, to keep us out of Christ. They rage to prevent people coming into Christ, and when once they have come in, these forces are unceasing and relentless in their efforts to get them off the ground of Christ, on to things possibly, or on to any other ground. There is an immense meaning in Christ's word: "Abide in Me... except ye abide in Me..." (John 15:4). It is a warning, governing word. Where and how shall we find the Lord? Only on the line of Christ, where Christ's interests are the object of our being here, where it is true "For me to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21). You find the Lord there. Get off that ground, be driven off, be allured off, and you lose the Lord. It is there, on that ground, that the explanation of the Christian life is found. It is on that line that the very purpose for which we are created will have its out-working. It is on that line that we shall find Divine guidance.

This Divine law of God's way has many practical applications in the life of the Christian. How many spiritual tragedies we have known brought about by human selectiveness apart from the first and supreme interest of Christ. It might be the choice of residence, location, for instance, for reasons of convenience, pleasure, escape, or seeming necessity, as in the case of Abraham to which we have referred. No less a question than having the Lord with us is bound up with such choices and decisions. We cannot move off the Lord's ground without the consequence of spiritual disaster. How costly it was in the case of Elimelech! If Christ is the Way, the Directive; then He is the Example. How meticulously careful He was not to move, or be moved by any consideration but the directive of the Father! Many motives were put to Him for action and movement, but He abided in the Father, and, often at great cost, refused other considerations.

Big VS Great: by TA Sparks

God, who has called you into fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful. 1 Corinthians 1:9

This is an age of cheapness. Get it as cheaply and as quickly as you can, with just as little cost and tiresomeness. "Get it quickly: get it easily." That thought governs the whole world system. Everything is now aligned to getting it done easily and getting it done quickly. It is that way in your kitchen, your scurrying, your household affairs, and in every other realm. What is true in the secular has now become very largely true in the spiritual. The standards have been terribly lowered. Bigness has substituted greatness. Greatness, the true meaning of the word, is no longer considered. Oh, how we hear, "Big, oh yes, the bigger, then assuredly that is the most successful," but this is absolutely contrary to the Bible, to all gospel. It is like that. Ease and easiness, lightness, glamorousness, excitement, emotion: this is the order of our day. This hurrying that we are speaking of comes so largely into Christianity: and the result is that we have quite a poor type of Christian....

I am very glad that there is a manifest outreach, especially on the part of young people, for reality. They are tired and sick of unreality. That is a very good thing indeed if only they find reality and do not go in for the substitutes that are today being retailed so lavishly, the substitutes which seem to be real and are an illusion.... While we are going to be joyful in the Lord, sometimes there is a large gap between being happy and joyful. "Happy" depends upon "hap": "Joy" goes on whatever "happens." There is a need of a recovery or reappraisal of the true nature of that into which we have come when we have come into Christ.... Paul opens a window and just gives us a glimpse in that letter to the Philippians when he says, "...Who, existing in the form of God." A long way back before anything else was this One to Whom we have come; and in the terms of fellowship, we are "called into the fellowship" of this One.... We have not come into some very small, light, frivolous thing. However we may joyfully sing our choruses and so on, but remember, this is no cheap thing. This is no small thing. This is no easy thing. This is a thing which embraces the universe, and we are called into that fellowship. I pray that you may have a new glimpse of the wonder of the One Whom you love and Whom you call, Savior AND LORD.

The Devil Never Forgives Those Who Escape Bondage: by AW Tozer

Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Acts 5:3

As we move farther on in the Christian life we may expect to encounter increased hostility from the enemy of our souls. Although this is seldom presented to Christians as a fact of life it is a very solid fact indeed as every experienced Christian knows, and one we shall learn how to handle or stumble over to our own undoing.

If Satan opposes the new convert he opposes still more bitterly the Christian who is pressing on toward a higher life in Christ. The Spirit-filled life is not, as many suppose, a life of peace and quiet pleasure. It is likely to be something quite the opposite.

Satan hates the true Christian for several reasons. One is that God loves him, and whatever is loved by God is sure to be hated by the devil. Another is that the Christian, being a child of God, bears a family resemblance to the Father and to the household of faith.

A third reason is that a true Christian is a former slave who has escaped from the galley, and Satan cannot forgive him for this affront. A fourth reason is that a praying Christian is a constant threat to the stability of Satan’s government. The Christian is a holy rebel loose in the world with access to the throne of God.

Satan never knows from what direction his danger will come. Who knows when another Elijah will arise, or another Daniel? or a Luther, a Finney or a Booth?

Nurturing Spirituality: part 4: The Process, Product, and Context of Discipleship

Our society has replaced heroes with celebrities, the quest for a well-informed character with the search for a flat stomach, substance and depth with image and personality. In the political process, the makeup man is more important than the speech writer, and we approach the voting booth, not on the basis of a well-developed philosophy of what the state should be, but with a heart full of images, emotions, and slogans all packed into thirty-second sound bites. The mind-numbing, irrational tripe that fills TV talk shows is digested by millions of bored, lonely Americans hungry for that sort of stuff.”

Love Your God with All Your Mind, J. P. Moreland

“Suppose someone invented an instrument, a convenient little talking tube which, say, could be heard over the whole land. . .

I wonder if the police would not forbid it, fearing that the whole country would become mentally deranged if it were used.”

Søren Kierkegaard, who died in 1855, speculated about the impact of radio and television long before they were invented.

The Process of Discipleship

1. Exposing

 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:9

2. Equipping

Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:9

·        Teaching

ü A biblical view of the authority and truth of Scripture

ü A biblical value system

ü A biblical view of hope

ü A biblical view of purpose

ü A biblical view of motivation

ü A biblical view of contentment and gratitude

ü The development of personal convictions

ü The role of tribulation in our lives

ü A biblical view of work and leisure

ü The challenges of our culture to the application of biblical truth

ü The nature of the spiritual warfare and of our spiritual resources

ü The process of spiritual formation

·        Training (good studies, good books)

3. Encouraging and Exhorting

·        Be FAT (Faithful, Available, Teachable)

·        Be HOT (Honest, Open, Transparent)

·        The Devil

It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth; you made both summer and winter. Psalm 74:17
 In that day, the LORD will punish with his sword, his fierce, great and powerful sword, Leviathan the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent; he will slay the monster of the sea. Isaiah 27:1
 The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully upon Saul. He was prophesying in his house, while David was playing the harp, as he usually did. Saul had a spear in his hand 1 Samuel 18:10
 But an evil spirit from the LORD came upon Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. While David was playing the harp, 1 Samuel 19:9

Contemplating the Sweet Mystery of the Godhead: by AW Tozer

O the depths of the. riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! Romans 11:33

Christian theology teaches that God in His essential nature is both inscrutable and ineffable. By simple definition this means that He is incapable of being searched into or understood, and that He cannot tell forth or utter what He is.

This inability lies not in God but in the limitations of our creaturehood: “Why inquirest thou after my name, for it is secret?”

Only God knows God in any final meaning of the word know: “Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.”

God in His essential Being is unique in the only sense that word will bear. That is, there is nothing like Him in the universe. What He is cannot be conceived by the mind because He is “altogether other” than anything with which we have had experience before. The mind has no material with which to start. No man has ever entertained a thought which can be said to describe God in any but the vaguest and most imperfect sense. Where God is known at all it must be otherwise than by our creature-reason.

In a famed treatise on the Trinity written in the third century, Novatian said: “Every possible statement that can be made about God expresses some possession or virtue of God, rather than God Himself. The conception of God as He is can only be grasped in one way—by thinking of Him as a Being whose attributes and greatness are beyond our powers of understanding, or even of thought.”