Breaking Open the Flask

     Our Goal is complete Abandonment to Him.  It probably isn't enough to just consider what Jersusalem represents to us: Salvation and Sanctification.  It may be that we must go up ourselves to Jerusalem to fully understand Our Lord Himself.  Eph 4:13, "... until we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure (the required, due, fit measure) of the stature (length of life, maturity) of the fullness (filled, completeness, abundance of His presence, power, and riches) of Christ."  It's really not about  our idea of this "life walk".  Our goal, our aim is to  do God's will and in that "life walk" He will render us useful to His purpose: drawing all men unto Him.       Jesus was never discouraged in the least by his circumstances or the events along the way (the road to Jerusalem).  He wasn't in a hurry to get through ...

     Upon salvation, we receive the very nature of God (His own Righteousness and Holiness); therefore, He demands absolute Righteousness and Holiness from us.  Once His nature enters us it meets with our human nature which is bent to preconceived ideas, narrow minded thinking and all other allegiances.  Our sinful nature never alters God's purpose in us.  We are created by Him.  He made us to worship Him and glorify Him.  Then, we must rely, rest, and force through to this amazing realization; never allowing our intended purpose to be thwarted for very long without getting back on a course of Righteousness and Holiness.  ~ Amy

      Pray in the secret place; not to be seen but to be in communion with our Father.  Wrap your head and heart around HIS will and pray.  Prayer is not getting things from God.  Rather it is the coming together in your secret place to know Him better.   Since we have been born again into a new life, His life will be formed in us through prayer.  His will, will press itself to the forefront of our thoughts and change our attitude, our hearts and minds, about the thing which we are praying.       My thoughts are brief today and refreshing after a period of Spritiual Confusion.  Leaving the secret place just now and headed out to the great adventure He has waiting for me.  ~ Amy

     Some days are a struggle as we believe we are handling our circumstances well and then out of nowhere we find ourselves in Spiritual Confusion.  The Bible tells us in I Cor 14:33, "For God is not the author of confusion but of peace..." From that we surmise that God is not a God of confusion.  True that!  He created this world and ordered it completely.  How can God be confused?  Key word in the verse: "author of."  God does not author confusion.  Spiritual Confusion is; however, authored in our minds and manifested in our human flesh.  God will not reveal the full measure of our circumstances until such a time as He is ready and He knows we are ready.  If at times, we feel the circumstances are keeping us from seeing the face of Christ or understanding fully, we need to take refuge in His shadow; in His Sovereignty and WAIT.  The real consideratio...

In today's reading of My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers says "A private relationship of worshiping God is the greatest essential element of spiritual fitness." It is the daily Bible study and prayer times than enable us to deal with any crisis that might come our way. Just as a marathon runner cannot run a marathon without daily training, we cannot be prepared for the struggles that come into our lives if we have not been spiritually training through daily worship times. "God's training ground is the hidden, personal worshiping life of the saint."

     God has given us His Divine Strength and Power through the Holy Spirit at Salvation to fight off the things of our flesh which become so deeply embedded in us as to destroy our river of blessing in this world.  Our impulsive actions quench His Spirit.  Our impulsive plans and projects carried out before we take them captive to prayerful consideration make a mess of things.  Then, we wonder, "What went wrong?" So, we analyze it and recreate it and then we tweak it, again and again.  Where once the project could have been an innocent act of Obedience to Him, it now became a work of the flesh.  Impulsively, we put the project into play before being disciplined to stand still and wait on Him to approve it one step at at a time.  Our flesh distinguished itself from His making it our own project/plan.  It took away from the time He wanted a...

       My Utmost  encourages us that we should "'be being filled' (Eph 5:18) and the sweetness of the vital relationship with Jesus will flow out as lavishly as it is imparted to (us).  If not, something has obstucted the flow."  It would seem to say that even in the struggles and trials of this life as we remain focused on the Source, Jesus Christ, our circumstances may  not seem blessed, but rivers of living water will still flow.  So, I stopped this morning and examined the "flow," taking into consideration all types of circumstances/obstacles in life today.  What obstructs the Source of your flow?  Busyness and Stress, Rebellion, Terminal Illness, Death and Sorrow, Frustration?  Yea, all of these can obstruct the flow of His living water - not from entering your spirit but from exiting your spirit.  (John 7:38, "... shall flow rivers of living water.)  Won't you t...

     Rivers begin at a higher source and as Oswald Chambers is quick to point out, "A river touches places of which it's source knows nothing.... a river is victoriously persistent, it overcomes all barriers."  When a river flows into a deep canyon the canyon can become so narrow as to hide the river from site.  As it runs it's course through the canyon it picks up minerals from the boulders and various deposits that fall into it's waters.  These minerals become life giving nutrients.  Then the river breaks from the canyon and the water's velocity becomes smoother and wider.  Those minerals deposited in the canyon now offer nourishment to whatever it makes contact with.  The time spent overcoming the obstacle of the canyon is purposeful and meaningful long after enduring the stress it brings.       Our lives are quite similar.  When we keep our fo...

Matthew 26:40, "Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?"        It's easy to think, "I would not have done that; no, no way." Then the Lord gently reminds me of a request He made of me this time or that time or even another time and I'm suddenly humbled to realize that I too, would mostly likely have fallen asleep that night in The Garden of Gethsemene.  Would you take a moment to go deeper with Him, "Lord, show me when I have missed out on 'watching with you'?"  Would take a moment to sit and listen as He reminds you of an event or circumstance or perhaps a person.  Let Him draw you into His thoughts.  Be patient and wait on Him to speak to you just now.       We have to get out of our finite minds and into the INFINITE wisdom that is available to us when we "watch with Him" as His word is revealed to us and our circumstances reveal Him to us....

Yes. This quest to conquer worry has been life changing for me as well as the weekend renewal with my dear friend Amy. It is "the cares of the world" that can keep us from living the abundant life Jesus wants us to. Although many of the problems we have in life can be prevented just by praying for guidance and doing the right thing in the first place, many circumstances are beyond our control. It is our reaction to these circumstances that can "make" or "break" us. Will we worry and fret and become depressed? Or, will we pray and trust in God and leave the outcome to Him? Worry and trust cannot exist at the same time. If we are worrying about our problems we are not trusting in God. God can and will do wonderful things in the midst of our struggles if we have faith and trust in Him. Patti

About 2 months ago, I arranged to meet an old friend I had not seen in 17 years.  We both needed a break from our "life" and decided to spend a weekend together renewing our friendship and breaking bread together.  We were greeted almost immediately by our Father at a rather common intersection of our communes, Worry Wort Ave. and Fret NOT Blvd.  It seems we both have a tendency to travel to this intersection quite often but had not noticed the other one as we passed through.  Little did we know that our BIG God was going to use this particular weekend to painstakingly press down this burden we had created for ourselves.  From the mouth of an innocent little 5 year old boy and his crayon coloring book frog came the words we were to learn to live by, "God is great, trust in Him, He will help you Miss Patti!" Thus began the "Steps to Conquering Worry" assignment: Identify the moment you begin to worry and NIP...