Recentely I have come across a thought that has challenged me. It is: Let God evaluate your life.
That sentence speaks to me because, as a recovering people pleaser, I can tend to let people's evaluation come before God's. I can tend to connect my worth to people's opinion of me. I can tend to let their evaluation didcate my moods. And after years of struggling with this I have learned: If you are unsuccesful people will criticize you. If you are successful people will criticize you. No matter what you do people will criticize you. Therefore, let us live for an audience of one.
I want to encourage you to let God evaluate your life. Live for an audience of one. One day you and I will have to give an account for our life. And it won't be to our negative relatives. It won't be to our critics. It will be to God.
Sense he is the one who will evaluate us anyways, why don't we let him evaluate our life.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Stirred!
I have been immersing myself in the life of a man named George Muller. He was born in 1805 and died in 1898. He was used by God to raise up orphanages, and in his lifetime his ministry tocuhed and cared for over 10, 024 orphans.
What touched me the most about him, however, was his faith and strong belief in prayer. His single life purpose was to glorify God by helping people take God at his word. I would like to include some powerful quotes he said. I pray they will bless you the way they have blessed me.
1. He was a theif, drunk and liar as a young man. Then he went to a bible study and his life was changed.
“It was to me as if I had found something after which I had been seeking all my life long. I immediately wished to go.” “They read the Bible, sang, prayed, and read a printed sermon.”To his amazement Mueller said, “The whole made a deep impression on me. I was happy; though, if I had been asked, why I was happy I could not have clearly explained it. “I have not the least doubt, that on that evening, [God] began a work of grace in me. . . . That evening was the turning point in my life.” (john Piper, Muller's strategy for showing God).
2. He trusted God to meet the needs of the ministry. He wrote:
When faced with a crisis in having the means to pay a bill he would say, “How the means are to come, I know not; but I know that God is almighty, that the hearts of all are in His hands, and that, if He pleaseth to influence persons, they will send help.”That is the root of his confidence: God is almighty, the hearts of all men are in his hands, and when God chooses to influence their hearts they will give. (Ibid)
3. Read this plea:
My dear Christian reader, will you not try this way? Will you not know for yourself . . . the preciousness and the happiness of this way of casting all your cares and burdens and necessities upon God? This way is as open to you as to me. . . . Every one is invited and commanded to trust in the Lord, to trust in Him with all his heart, and to cast his burden upon Him, and to call upon Him in the day of trouble. Will you not do this, my dear brethren in Christ? I long that you may do so. I desire that you may taste the sweetness of that state of heart, in which, while surrounded by difficulties and necessities, you can yet be at peace, because you know that the living God, your Father in heaven, cares for you.
Trust God! Take him at his word! Pray!
What touched me the most about him, however, was his faith and strong belief in prayer. His single life purpose was to glorify God by helping people take God at his word. I would like to include some powerful quotes he said. I pray they will bless you the way they have blessed me.
1. He was a theif, drunk and liar as a young man. Then he went to a bible study and his life was changed.
“It was to me as if I had found something after which I had been seeking all my life long. I immediately wished to go.” “They read the Bible, sang, prayed, and read a printed sermon.”To his amazement Mueller said, “The whole made a deep impression on me. I was happy; though, if I had been asked, why I was happy I could not have clearly explained it. “I have not the least doubt, that on that evening, [God] began a work of grace in me. . . . That evening was the turning point in my life.” (john Piper, Muller's strategy for showing God).
2. He trusted God to meet the needs of the ministry. He wrote:
When faced with a crisis in having the means to pay a bill he would say, “How the means are to come, I know not; but I know that God is almighty, that the hearts of all are in His hands, and that, if He pleaseth to influence persons, they will send help.”That is the root of his confidence: God is almighty, the hearts of all men are in his hands, and when God chooses to influence their hearts they will give. (Ibid)
3. Read this plea:
My dear Christian reader, will you not try this way? Will you not know for yourself . . . the preciousness and the happiness of this way of casting all your cares and burdens and necessities upon God? This way is as open to you as to me. . . . Every one is invited and commanded to trust in the Lord, to trust in Him with all his heart, and to cast his burden upon Him, and to call upon Him in the day of trouble. Will you not do this, my dear brethren in Christ? I long that you may do so. I desire that you may taste the sweetness of that state of heart, in which, while surrounded by difficulties and necessities, you can yet be at peace, because you know that the living God, your Father in heaven, cares for you.
Trust God! Take him at his word! Pray!
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Worship
I started reading a book yesterday on worship. It really, really blessed me. There where four ideas about corporate worship that really hit home.
1. How does God regard our worship? Many times we are so focused on others, we forget that worship is about God.
2. "Expect wonders," sats Bayor Asprin. We should expect wonders when we come to worship God.
3. We don't want people to watch worship; we want them to actually worship. Do you watch worship? Or do you enter in and focus your attention on worshipping God?
4. We are all the worship team not just the people on the stage. God is the audience; we are all the worship team.
1. How does God regard our worship? Many times we are so focused on others, we forget that worship is about God.
2. "Expect wonders," sats Bayor Asprin. We should expect wonders when we come to worship God.
3. We don't want people to watch worship; we want them to actually worship. Do you watch worship? Or do you enter in and focus your attention on worshipping God?
4. We are all the worship team not just the people on the stage. God is the audience; we are all the worship team.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Thanks for your input!
Yesterday we had our last input meeting. We discussed our five year plane for the future. We listend to about half of the familes that come to CCC. What a smashing success. I was delighted to hear from all of you. Thank you for caring enough to share, we will consider your input prayerfully, and go from there.
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