True Happiness
Posted by jerrywhite on Jul 21, 2010
“I do not know when I have had happier times in my soul than when I have been sitting at work, with nothing before me but a candle and a white cloth, and hearing no sound but that of my own breath; with God in my soul and heaven in my eye. I rejoice in being exactly what I am—a creature capable of loving God, and who, as long as God lives, must be happy. I get up and look a while out the window. I gaze at the moon and stars, the work of an Almighty Hand. I think of the grandeur of the universe and then sit down and think myself one of the happiest beings in it.”
“ A Poor Methodist Woman” (an anonymous eighteenth-century woman)
Quoted by R. Kent Hughes
Set Apart, 40
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The one who has learned to live in the gladness of the Lord’s fellowship is peacefully content, not because he has much of this world’s goods but because he has true wealth in the Lord Jesus. He has discovered that life does not consist in the abundance of things but in the abundance of the Father’s love. Nothing truly satisfies his or her soul but the Lord’s presence and fellowship with Him. He may possess many things but they do not possess him. He may be poor but it does not matter. His perspective is eternal rather than temporal. As one old saint said, a cup of water tastes like wine when He is present.
The world, the flesh and the devil try to stir up discontent so that there must be one more possession or experience or position in order for there to be true happiness. Little do many suspect that this is the same temptation that drew Adam away from intimate fellowship with his Creator. What the loving Lord provided is not enough, so the temptation goes. How slow we are to learn the serpent’s old tricks.
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Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.
1 Timothy 6:6-8 (ESV)
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The Oases Of Life
Posted by jerrywhite on Jul 1, 2010
But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.
Luke 5:16 (NASB)
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“For the man or woman who has come to know and love the Lord God in the depths of such intimacy, the times of solitude are the most precious in all of life. They are a rendezvous with the Beloved. They are anticipated with eagerness. They are awaited with expectancy…. For the person who has found in God a truly loving heavenly Father, gentle interludes with him alone are highlights of life. For the one who has found Christ the dearest friend among all the children of earth, quiet times in his company are the oases of life. For the individual conscious of the comradeship of God’s gracious Spirit in the stillness of solitude, these intervals are the elixir of life.”
W. Phillip Keller
Quoted by Joyce Huggett
The Joy Of Listening To God, 64
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“It would seem that admission to the inner circle of deepening intimacy with God is the outcome of deep desire. Only those who count such intimacy a prize worth sacrificing anything else for are likely to attain it. If other intimacies are more desirable to us, we will not gain entry to that circle.
The place on Jesus’ breast is still vacant, and open to any who are willing to pay the price of deepening intimacy. We are now, and we will be in the future, only as intimate with God as we really choose to be.”
J. Oswald Sanders
Enjoying Intimacy With God, 17
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The Lord Jesus’ lifestyle points to the oases in this arid world where we also can drink deeply and become refreshed with Heaven’s pure living water.
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The Power of Stillness
Posted by jerrywhite on Jun 24, 2010
“It was a ‘still small voice’ or the ’sound of gentle stillness.’ Is there any note of music in all the chorus as mighty as the emphatic pause? Is there any word in all the Psalter more eloquent than the one word, Selah (Pause)? Is there anything more thrilling and awful than the hush that comes before the bursting of the tempest and the strange quiet that seems to fall upon all nature before some preternatural phenomenon or convulsion? Is there anything that can so touch our hearts as the power of stillness?
The sweetest blessing that Christ brings us is the Sabbath rest of soul, of which the Sabbath of creation was the type. There is, for the heart that will cease from itself, ‘the peace of God that passeth all understanding’; a quietness and confidence, which is the source of all strength; a sweet peace, ‘which nothing can offend.’ There is, in the deepest center of the believer’s soul a chamber of peace where God dwells, and where, if we will only enter in and hush every other sound, we can hear His ‘still voice’….
We cannot go through life strong and fresh on constant express trains, with ten minutes for lunch; but we must have quiet hours, secret places of the Most High, times of waiting upon the Lord, when we renew our strength, and learn to mount up on wings as eagles, and then come back to run and not be weary, and to walk and not faint.
The best thing about this stillness is that it gives God a chance to work. ‘He that is entered into His rest hath ceased from his own works, even as God did from His.’ When we cease from our works, God works in us; when we cease from our thoughts, God’s thoughts come into us; when we get still from our restless activities, ‘God worketh in us both to will and to do his good pleasure,’ and we have but to work it out.
Beloved! Let us take His stillness; let us dwell in ‘the secret place of the Most High’; let us enter into God and His eternal rest; let us silence the other sounds, and then we can hear ‘the still, small voice.’”
Dr. A. B. Simpson (1844-1919)
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Saints through the ages learned the necessity, privilege, and blessing of time alone with the Lord Jesus to sit at His feet in silence like Mary (Luke 10:39). We do well to learn from them what the Lord Jesus said was the good portion—the one thing necessary.
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A Strong Devotional Life
Posted by jerrywhite on May 17, 2010
“When I was very young and green in the Lord, a missionary friend from Japan shared with me an incident in his life, which left an indelible impression on my own. He approached the godliest man he knew and asked him a very serious question, ‘What is the great key to becoming a man of God?’ The older saint answered without a moment’s hesitation, ‘Maintain a strong devotional life.’
Anyone who has read the biographies of godly saints would have to agree that this is certainly a common denominator with the godly. All of them maintained consistent devotional times with the Lord. John Wesley maintained the lifelong habit of rising every morning at four to seek his Lord. It was said of Hudson Taylor that the sun never rose over China but that it found Hudson Taylor on his face before God. Amy Carmichael was always seeking her Lord early in the morning and praying her way through her well-worn edition of Daily Light. The great Chinese Christian, Pastor Hsi often went to bed with his clothes on in order to rise more quickly in the early morning hours. All who have read A. W. Tozer’s books can testify to the freshness and uniqueness of his insights. This man would rise every morning at five thirty and seek his Lord in prayer.
The men of God in the Bible set the same pattern. David sought the Lord seven times a day (Psalm 119:164). Daniel, even as busy as he was as the Prime Minister of a world empire, sought the Lord three times a day (Daniel 6:10). And Jesus, the perfect Man, continually took time aside to pray alone with His Father (Mark 6:46).
Dan Johnson
Those Who Wait on the Lord…, 4
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“Is it likely that God would call you to do more than he gives you time to do? No one who believes God is good and wise could answer yes. So when it seems you don’t have enough time to do your work, care for your family, love your friends, and devote yourself to prayer and meditation, the problem isn’t God’s providence. The problem may be that you’ve taken on yourself more than God intended.”
Kris Lundgaard
The Enemy Within, 74-75
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Longing For Living Water
Posted by jerrywhite on Apr 1, 2010
“How many Christians look upon it as a burden and a duty and a difficulty to get much alone with God! That is the great hindrance to our Christian life everywhere. We want more quiet fellowship with God, and I tell you in the name of the heavenly Vine that you cannot be healthy branches, branches into which the heavenly sap can flow, unless you take plenty of time for communion with God. If you are not willing to sacrifice time to get alone with Him, and to keep up the link of connection between you and Himself, He cannot give you that blessing of His unbroken fellowship. Live in close communion with Him!”
Andrew Murray
Absolute Surrender, 138, 1962 edition
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“I want to deliberately to encourage this mighty longing after God. The lack of it has brought us to our present low estate. The stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire. Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people. He waits to be wanted. Too bad that with many of us He waits so long, so very long, in vain.”
A. W. Tozer
The Pursuit of God
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Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
Jeremiah 2:12-13
You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, declares the Lord.
Jeremiah 29:13-14 (ESV)
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