Sunday, March 30, 2008

Holiness or Hardness to God?

3/30 My Utmost for His Highest

The reason many of us stop praying and become hard toward God is that we only have an emotional interest in prayer. It sounds good to say that we pray, and we read books on prayer which tell us that prayer is beneficial— that our minds are quieted and our souls are uplifted when we pray. But Isaiah implied in this verse that God is amazed at such thoughts about prayer.

Worship and intercession must go together; one is impossible without the other. Intercession means raising ourselves up to the point of getting the mind of Christ regarding the person for whom we are praying (see Philippians 2:5 ). Instead of worshiping God, we recite speeches to God about how prayer is supposed to work. Are we worshiping God or disputing Him when we say, "But God, I just don’t see how you are going to do this"? This is a sure sign that we are not worshiping. When we lose sight of God, we become hard and dogmatic. We throw our petitions at His throne and dictate to Him what we want Him to do. We don’t worship God, nor do we seek to conform our minds to the mind of Christ. And if we are hard toward God, we will become hard toward other people.

Are we worshiping God in a way that will raise us up to where we can take hold of Him, having such intimate contact with Him that we know His mind about the ones for whom we pray? Are we living in a holy relationship with God, or have we become hard and dogmatic?

Do you find yourself thinking that there is no one interceding properly? Then be that person yourself. Be a person who worships God and lives in a holy relationship with Him. Get involved in the real work of intercession, remembering that it truly is work-work that demands all your energy, but work which has no hidden pitfalls. Preaching the gospel has its share of pitfalls, but intercessory prayer has none whatsoever.

Friday, March 28, 2008

Hanon hurts my hands, and self-pity my heart...

I never know what to post when I'm at school as opposed to being home. All I can say is I'm doing school. And more school.

Last night was opening night of pride and prejudice. It went pretty well! It was funny though... I'm supposed to have a bonnet for the first scene but we couldn't find one, so I am supposed to change my line from, "how do you like my new bonnet?" to "how do you like my new jacket?"... I practiced the first one too much... so in other words Lizzie said that my non-existent bonnet was, "sweetly pretty"... whoops... :p

My heart right now is really in the article below. It is an excerpt from one of my favorite books, a book that really changed my life. My feelings want to deny that suffering is anything to be considered good, but it is yet another aspect of our lives to glorify God with, and if we do, He will strengthen and shape us into well equipped and persevering Christians. In fact, I think God is glorified most in our suffering and difficult days, because when we are at our weakest, we allow Him to come into our lives and be our strength! If only we could have that attitude at all times. So, read and ponder. It really will change your outlook on pain, frustration, and suffering.

SHOULD CHRISTIANS HAVE TO SUFFER?

Many modern- day evangelistic efforts have promised sinners unending peace, joy, a home in heaven, and a prosperous life between here and there, if they will simply come to Jesus. That kind of preaching, stripped of the call to discipleship and cross bearing, has produced a generation of soft, flabby "disciples" who have no stomach for the battles of the Christian life. When their hopes are dashed by the inevitable trials and tribulations, they whimper and whine and make a dash for the quickest escape route.

By convincing us that our suffering is undeserved or unnecessary, the Enemy succeeds in getting us to resent and resist the will and purposes of God.

The message that was preached by the Lord Jesus Himself and by the apostles who followed Him was a call to take up the cross; it was a call to sign up for battle; it was a call to suffer.

The apostle Paul taught that suffering is an essential course in God's curriculum for all believers: "We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22).

Arthur Mathews served as a missionary in China from 1938-49, when the Communists took control. He was one of the last China Inland Mission missionaries to leave China in 1953, after being held under house arrest for four years with his wife and daughter. His writings relfect a commitment to self-denial and a willingness to embrace the plan and purposes of God in suffering:

"We tend to look at the circumstances of life in terms of what they may do to our cherished hopes and convenience, and we shape our decisions and reactions accordingly. When a problem threatens, we rush to God, not to seek his perspective, but to ask him to deflect the trouble. Our self- concern takes priority over whatever it is that God might be trying to do thorugh the trouble....

An escapist generation reads security, prosperity, and physical well- being as evidences of God's blessing. Thus when he puts suffering and afflictions into our hands, we misread his signals and misinterpret his intentions."

If we do not trust the heart and intentions of God, we will naturally resist suffering. But, as seventeenth- century Puritan author William Law exhorts us, we must learn to welcome and embrace suffering as a pathway to sanctification and a doorway into greater intimacy with God:

"Receive every inward and outward trouble, every disappointment, pain, uneasiness, temptation, darkness, and desolation, with both thy hands, as a true opportunity and blessed occasion of dying to self, and entering into a fuller fellowship with thy self- denying, suffering Saviour."

The Truth is, God is far more interested in our holiness than in our immediate, temporal happiness-- He knows that apart from being holy, we can never be truly happy.

The Truth is, it is impossible to be holy apart from suffering. Even Jesus Himself, during His years here on earth, was in some unexplainable way made "perfect through suffering" (Hebrews 2:10); and "although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered" (Hebrews 5:8). We say we want to be like Jesus, and then we resist the very instrument God chooses to fulfill that desire.

All the New Testament authors recognized that there is a redemptive, sanctifying fruit that cannot be produced in our lives apart from suffering. In fact, Peter goes as far as to insist that suffering is our calling-- not just for some select group of Christian leaders or martyrs but for every child of God: "To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps" (1 Peter 2:21).

True joy is not the absence of pain but the sanctifying, sustaining presence of the Lord Jesus in the midst of the pain. Through the whole process, whether it be a matter of days, weeks, months, or years, we have His promise:

"The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast."
1 Peter 5:10

-Nancy Leigh Demoss

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Spring Break...





Here are pictures of the craft room... I took them tonight and there was no natural light to work with, so they are not THE BEST, but they will work for now!!!


































In other news, I have so much homework to finish that I'm really fighting against being completely overwhelmed...

None of that! Tomorrow is a great reminder about ALL the things we have to be thankful for!!!

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."
Romans 5:6-11

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Monday, March 10, 2008

In other news... Katie is a music major again!

four days and counting...

Friday, March 7, 2008

SPRING!


It is screaming spring outside! And I am... inside! Friday is screaming, "let me out of class"! Friday does not know of my three remaning classes or the fact that I have a 10 page paper to write before tonight... or the large amount of music theory I have to catch up on. Friday knows nothing!!!
In other news, yesterday we began putting the set together for our play, Pride and Prejudice. Most of the girls are having their dresses made in period style- mine is gray!
At the moment we are watching The Barber of Seville in class. Wednesday we watched The Pirates of Penzance. I think Pirates is one of the only operas I can say I really like!
NNU is in the process of picking a new president, and the Board of Trustees should have made a decision by tonight. There is quite the air of excitement over here, between the presidential search, the South Pacific performances, and Spring's grand enterance; which brings me back to my original dilemma- I'M INSIDE!!!