Letters From the Heart

"If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be..."

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 09:55:59 -0400

“If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?”

- David Livingstone

"You’re exhausted in the faith because you’re looking at you. The more you look at yourself and the..."

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 15:57:43 -0400

“You’re exhausted in the faith because you’re looking at you. The more you look at yourself and the less you look at God, the more you get frustrated at yourself.”

- Matt Chandler

"The Christian life is about Jesus for us, Jesus in us, Jesus through us, and Jesus in spite of us!"

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 13:14:16 -0400

“The Christian life is about Jesus for us, Jesus in us, Jesus through us, and Jesus in spite of us!”

- Mark Driscoll

15 July 2012. I am trying to hold back the tears right now; I fear I may join David in his lament...

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 14:40:00 -0400

15 July 2012.

I am trying to hold back the tears right now; I fear I may join David in his lament over rivers running from his eyes. This thought refuses to escape my mind and put my soul at ease: When are we going to stop just going to church and start actually being the church? Church is not something we do on Sundays; it’s who we are everyday. If we pursued lost sinners with the same enthusiasm we pursue our own stinkin’ piety, we would set this world on fire! We ascribe so much holiness to the act of gathering in a deemed-to-be-sacred building shut off from the big bad world and commend ourselves for our bold piety while the blood of every dying soul we do our best to avoid is on our hands. When will the Church wake up from her coddled slumber and finally get a grasp on eternity?

"The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."

Sat, 25 Aug 2012 12:40:00 -0400

— Brennan Manning

“The Gospel is not an old story, freshly told. It is a fire in Spirit, fed by the flame of...

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 23:02:18 -0400

“The Gospel is not an old story, freshly told. It is a fire in Spirit, fed by the flame of Immortal Love, and woe unto us, if, through our negligence to stir up the Gift of God within us, that fire burns low.

— Dr. R. Moffat Gautrey

"It may be that Satan has little cause to fear most preaching. Yet past experiences sting him to..."

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 23:00:35 -0400

““It may be that Satan has little cause to fear most preaching. Yet past experiences sting him to rally all his infernal army to fight against God’s people praying.””

- Leonard Ravenhill | Why Revival Tarries

hope-movement: Lord, when a lens is placed before my life, and...

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 22:57:52 -0400

hope-movement:

Lord, when a lens is placed before my life, and an image of who it is I have become, is being processed, developed and presented - Father, prepare me, so that it may be a sweetened image of You, Your love and Your handiwork. Let Your name be written on my heart, and Your will be placed firmly within my purpose. Let Your holiness, goodness and greatness be imprinted on the soles of my feet and engraved deeply within the palms of my hands; where You once thought of me, and blew my lifeless body from dust into existence. Let my entire being be enveloped, saturated and captured within Your intentions, Your desires and Your will for me Lord. That the prayer of my heart would ring true - that my eyes would gleam Your glory, present Your hope and provide Your promise. That my stance would present that I am eternally steadfast in Your grasp. That my clothes would show my intricately knitted place within Your kingdom, and my smile show the joy, that is eternally everlasting in You. That despite circumstance, regardless of situation and irrelevant of any emotional, physical or spiritual struggle; my life would bare the very name of You, my King. That my scent would be a sweet acknowledgement of Your grace, and that my words would be nothing less than an example of all that You once were, are and forever will be. Hear my cries Father, let my image, my legacy, my cause and my life - be the very reflection of nothing less than You in all Your beauty and wonder.

We figure as long as we are following the Ten Commandments or are giving it our best effort we are okay but we aren’t. We aren’t okay. We are far from okay. Unless an encounter with Jesus Christ makes a radical change in everything we know we are nowhere near being okay. The world and everything in it cannot remain the same to us after being possessed by the Holy Spirit. It is impossible.

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 22:56:28 -0400

PREACH IT!

We are filled up, so that we can pour out. We are encouraged, so that we can go forth and encourage...

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 22:52:39 -0400

We are filled up, so that we can pour out. We are encouraged, so that we can go forth and encourage others. We have been set free, so that we can point others to freedom. We have been reconciled, so that we can join in the ministry of reconciliation. We have been sent out, so that we can in turn send others.

Jesus has commanded us to take action. As His Bride we are His partner in furthering the Kingdom, so let us truly live like it.

One man yielded to the Spirit can do more in the Kingdom than one hundred men can do who are just...

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 22:51:56 -0400

One man yielded to the Spirit can do more in the Kingdom than one hundred men can do who are just merely committed to religion.

I'm too busy for God. I have church...

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 17:39:44 -0400

We’ve heard those excuses before: I’m to busy to spend time with God— I have work, family, school, friends, fun, etc… But today I heard an interesting excuse that sparked my cerebral activity and incited my spirit a bit. “I’m too busy for God— I have church…” and he went on to enumerate the various church activities he had become involved in.

It seems that we have become deceived. We have begun looking to our own efforts, our own understanding of God, and our own strength, in order to fulfill the work of the Lord. We have Bible studies— or rather discussions—small groups, conferences, worship concerts, charity events, etc. We spend our days “doing things for God” that we neglect being with Him. Suddenly it becomes all about us, our comforts, and what we can accomplish. We lose sight of the Gospel and we lose sight of the whole point. We have become Martha’s when Jesus is calling us to be Mary’s.

We read the Bible and see a checklist of things to do; we look at Jesus and see a teacher— merely a good example to follow. How foolish we are! Paul saw the church of Galatia falling into this very snare and he wrote to urge them:

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?

Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

— Galatians 3:1-14

Jesus Christ is our propitiation, our redeemer, restorer, empowerer, our very essence of life. Instead of blindly following his teachings, attempting them in our own strength, it’s time we let Him invade us, fill us, and transform us. His blood is mighty to cover all our sins and bring us to life.

It is time we stop doing things for God and start doing things with God.

"Not called!” did you say? “Not heard the call,” I think you should say. Put your..."

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 17:38:14 -0400

““Not called!” did you say? “Not heard the call,” I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father’s house and bid their brothers and sisters, and servants and masters not to come there. And then look Christ in the face, whose mercy you have professed to obey, and tell him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish his mercy to the world.”

- William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army

"In the end, there is nothing under the sun that brings lasting fulfillment. You have to look beyond..."

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 19:09:52 -0400

“In the end, there is nothing under the sun that brings lasting fulfillment. You have to look beyond the sun. The groove in our hearts cannot be filled with the temporal. It demands eternity. Therefore, our very searching for more and more, for bigger and bigger, and for better and better, is our sense that something is off, amiss, deformed, and broken. In the same sense that death, pain, and suffering tell us that something in the world is broken, our insatiable searching tells us that something bigger than the earth itself is missing from our soul.”

- Matt Chandler, The Explicit Gospel

mikeclevenger: Met a man named Amos today who rode a bus for a day and walked for two days to get...

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 21:51:20 -0400

mikeclevenger:

Met a man named Amos today who rode a bus for a day and walked for two days to get to our bible distribution ministry in Kathmandu. Wake up oh sleeper. I’m still trying to process this…

“The indigenous churches in India have a great burden for America just now… and are praying...

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 08:33:00 -0400

“The indigenous churches in India have a great burden for America just now… and are praying that God will visit your country with revival… You feel sorry for us in India because of our poverty in material things. We who know the Lord in India feel sorry for you in America because of your spiritual poverty. We pray that God may give you gold tried in the fire which He had promised to those who know the power of His resurrection… In our churches we spend four or five or six hours in prayer and worship, and frequently our people wait on the Lord in prayer all night; but in America after you have been in church for one hour, you begin to look at your watches. We pray that God may open your eyes to the true meaning of worship… To attract people to meetings, you have a great dependence on posters, on advertising, on promotion, and on the build-up of a human being; in India we have nothing more than the Lord Himself and we find that He is sufficient. Before a Christian meeting in India we never announced who the speaker will be. When the people come, they come to seek the Lord and not a human being or to hear some special favorite speaking to them. We have had as many as 23,000 people come together just to worship the Lord and to have fellowship together. We are praying that the people in America might also come to church with a hunger for God and not merely a hunger to see some form of amusement or hear choirs of the voice of any man.”

- Bakht Singh. Conquest for Christ.

Plot twist: we all get off tumblr and tinychat and facebook and start evangelizing to a perishing...

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 19:15:40 -0400

Plot twist: we all get off tumblr and tinychat and facebook and start evangelizing to a perishing world that is in desperate need of a real, tangible, loving, holy, perfect, good, redeeming, and atoning Savior.

“If your heart takes more pleasure in reading novels, or watching TV, or going to the movies,...

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 18:02:48 -0400

“If your heart takes more pleasure in reading novels, or watching TV, or going to the movies, or talking to friends, rather than just sitting alone with God and embracing Him, sharing His cares and His burdens, weeping and rejoicing with Him, then how are you going to handle forever and ever in His presence? You’d be bored to tears in heaven, if you’re not ecstatic about God now!!”

— Keith Green

If you see me going crazy behind the wheel, with one arm out the...

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 11:35:00 -0400

If you see me going crazy behind the wheel, with one arm out the window, the other fist pumping through the sun roof, you will know this song is playing. I just love Messianic music!

"Do not we rest in our day too much on the arm of flesh? Cannot the same wonders be done now as of..."

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 11:26:58 -0400

““Do not we rest in our day too much on the arm of flesh? Cannot the same wonders be done now as of old? Do not the eyes of the Lord still run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong on behalf of those who put their trust in Him? Oh, that God would give me more practical faith in Him! Where is now the Lord God of Elijah? He is waiting for Elijah to call on Him.””

- James Gilmour of Mongolia