Longing after God

Live before God’s face in the secret place and let there be a constant cry in your heart after Him. Christianity becomes a dry, empty religion when this longing after God is gone. So, preserve that longing after God at any cost. That is the most important part of your faith. We must constantly long after God like the thirsty deer pants for water (Psalm 42:1).

“Our testimony as Christians must be far above the standard of the world.”
God’s education for us includes many things that the world calls “disappointments”. But these are “His-appointments” for something better for us. If we don’t face such disappointments, we will never be able to counsel others. Life’s education includes failing as well, for failure is necessary if we are to help others in a world in which 99.9% of people are failures. Two purposes of failure are (1) to humble us (break us) and (2) to make us compassionate towards others.

Your spiritual battles are also part of your education. If you work so hard for temporal earthly degrees, how much harder you must be willing to battle for an eternal, heavenly one. The time is short, and the days are evil. We must keep the eternal perspective in mind, in all our earthly pursuits. Live in a constant judgment of yourself and in a pure inner walk with the Lord at all times.

Paul told Timothy, “Guard through the Holy Spirit Who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you” (2 Tim.1:14). God has given us our bodies as a sacred treasure that we must preserve for Him during our earthly journey. We are to present these to Him every day so that they can be cleansed of all sin and preserved in holiness, until one day we complete life’s journey.

To use an illustration: It is like a company having given us five million rupees to carry safely from one place to another. But we have wasted some of it and lost the rest of it along the way. Now we repent and come back to the Lord in failure. What does He do? He does not reject us. Instead, He forgives us and gives us another five million rupees and tells us to carry that safely till the end of our lives. How good God is.

Our testimony as Christians must be far above the standard of the world. We must not do anything that has even the appearance of evil. It is better when in doubt to err on the side of caution and discretion rather than on the opposite side.

** By Zac Poonen © Copyright – Zac Poonen. No changes whatsoever are to be made to the content of the article without written permission from the author. https://www.cfcindia.com/

The Judge – Upholding what is right comes at a cost

There’s a story about a judge whose own son was brought before him for a crime he had committed. The judge felt a deep grief that his son would violate the laws upon which he based his entire life. Tears welled in his eyes and he listened painfully as the evidence against his son was presented. The courtroom sat in silence wondering how the judge would rule. Would he just give him a reprimand in an act of mercy? Would he give him the minimum penalty for the offense? Much to their surprise, he handed down the maximum fine, upholding the law to its fullest degree. The son was in shock, for he knew that he couldn’t pay the fine and was anguished at the thought of imprisonment. He looked up at him in disbelief.

But then something happened that nobody expected. He stepped down from the bench, took off his judge’s robe, told his son how much he loved him and then paid, out of his own pocket, the fine he had just handed down. Not everyone understood what he had done. As a judge, he showed his commitment to honor the law to its fullest, but he then stepped down from that seat of honor and showed his love for his child. His son never understood the depth of his father’s commitment to the law until that moment, and, until that moment, he never knew the depth of his father’s love for him. He felt deep sorrow for the pain he had caused him and for those he had hurt by his act of crime. With his head bowed, and his tears flowing freely, he asked for his forgiveness, which he willingly and freely gave to him.

This story is actually an allegory for God’s relationship to us. Our crimes are our willful departure from the laws given us by God for the way we are to live. When we break those laws, God is grieved and pained. Inevitably there are natural consequences of our failings that hurt others, sometimes affecting lives for generations to come. This is why God’s laws say that the penalty for sin is death. His holy nature demands that He not just let us off the hook or go easy on us. So what did He do? He came down from heaven to us in Jesus Christ to help us to understand His laws, to show us the depth of His love for us and to pay the price of our sin with His own life. This never made sense to me until I understood how I fell short of God’s standards for life and how deeply that had hurt those who depended on me the most. But once I knew the love and forgiveness of God, I turned away in disgust from my deepest sins and understood, in a way I never had before, how to love and forgive others.


For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:9-10)

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. (Luke 6:36-37)

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If you don’t know the love of Christ yet and how He came to save us from our sins and restore our relationship unto the Father, I say to you today: Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, no one comes unto the Father but by Him. If you haven’t welcomed Jesus into your heart and into your life, now is the time. Do it before it’s to late, for today is the day of salvation! Ask for the forgiveness of your sins (the wrong things you have done), repent (turn from them) and leave your old ways behind, and begin a new life trusting in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Saviour and soon coming King!

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*** By Snapshotsofgod.com

The North Wind and the Sun

The North Wind and the Sun had a quarrel about which of them was the stronger. While they were disputing with much heat and bluster, a Traveler passed along the road wrapped in a cloak.

“Let us agree,” said the Sun, “that he is the stronger who can strip that Traveler of his cloak.”

“Very well,” growled the North Wind, and at once sent a cold, howling blast against the Traveler.

With the first gust of wind the ends of the cloak whipped about the Traveler’s body. But he immediately wrapped it closely around him, and the harder the Wind blew, the tighter he held it to him. The North Wind tore angrily at the cloak, but all his efforts were in vain.

Then the Sun began to shine. At first his beams were gentle, and in the pleasant warmth after the bitter cold of the North Wind, the Traveler unfastened his cloak and let it hang loosely from his shoulders. The Sun’s rays grew warmer and warmer. The man took off his cap and mopped his brow. At last he became so heated that he pulled off his cloak, and, to escape the blazing sunshine, threw himself down in the welcome shade of a tree by the roadside.

The moral of the story is that gentleness and kind persuasion achieve what force and bluster cannot. The lesson here is that it is more effective to warm someone’s heart with love than to try to control them with anger or force.

Is our Heavenly Father like the wind or the sun? The Bible tells us that it is God’s love that draws us to Him (1 John 4:19), and His kindness that leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4). I believe this principle also applies in our relationships with others. When we love others with patience and selflessness, we foster unity and understanding, rather than engaging in conflict or trying to force them to agree with us or treat us a certain way.

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**Parable By Aesop and conclusion by Bobby McDonald at NCCF Church based on article: Difficult People / Pictures by Library of Congress

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Out Of the Mouth of Babes

One day a very wealthy father took his son on a trip to the country for the sole purpose of showing his son how it was to be poor. They spent a few days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

After their return from the trip, the father asked his son how he liked the trip. “It was great, Dad,” the son replied. “Did you see how poor people can be?” the father asked. “Oh Yeah,” said the son.

“So what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father. The son answered, “I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.

“We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.”

“We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them.” The boy’s father was speechless. Then his son added, “It showed me just how poor we really are.”

Too many times we forget what we have and concentrate on what we don’t have. What is one person’s worthless object is another’s prize possession. It is all based on one’s perspective.

Sometimes it takes the perspective of a child to remind us of what’s important.

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*** Story shared By Dan Asmussen on Facebook

Not I, But Christ

“Lord, bend that proud and stiffnecked “I,”
Help me to bow the neck and die,
Beholding Him on Calvary,
Who bowed His Head for me.”

The following are some of the features and manifestations of the self-life. The Holy Spirit alone can interpret and apply this to your individual case. As you read, examine yourself in the very presence of God. Are you ever conscious of:

A secret spirit of pride-an exalted feeling in view of your success or position; because of your good training or appearance; because of your natural gifts and abilities. An important, independent spirit?

Love of human praise; a secret fondness to be noticed; love of supremacy, drawing attention to self in conversation; a swelling out of self when you have had a free time in speaking or praying?

The stirrings of anger or impatience, which, worst of all, you call nervousness or holy indignation; a touchy, sensitive spirit; a disposition to resent and retaliate when disapproved of or contradicted; a desire to throw sharp, heated flings at another?

Self-will; a stubborn, unteachable spirit; an arguing, talkative spirit; harsh, sarcastic expression; an unyielding, headstrong disposition; a driving, commanding spirit; a disposition to criticize and pick flaws when set aside and unnoticed; a peevish, fretful spirit; a disposition that loves to be coaxed and humored?

Carnal fear; a man-fearing spirit; a shrinking from reproach and duty; reasoning around your cross; a shrinking from doing your whole duty by those of wealth or position; a fearfulness that someone will offend and drive some prominent person away; a compromising spirit?

A jealous disposition, a secret spirit of envy shut up in your heart; an unpleasant sensation in view of the great prosperity and success of another; a disposition to speak of the faults and failings, rather than the gifts and virtues of those more talented and appreciated than yourself?

A dishonest, deceitful disposition; the evading and covering of the truth; the covering up of your real faults; leaving a better impression of yourself than is strictly true; false humility; exaggeration; straining the truth?

Unbelief; a spirit of discouragement in times of pressure and opposition; lack of quietness and confidence in God; lack of faith and trust in God; a disposition to worry and complain in the midst of pain, poverty, or at the dispensations of Divine Providence; an overanxious feeling whether everything will come out all right?

Formality and deadness; lack of concern for lost souls; dryness and indifference?

Selfishness; love of ease; love of money?

These are some of the traits which generally indicate carnality in the heart. By prayer, hold your heart open to the searchlight of God. “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me” (Psalms 139:23-24).

The Holy Spirit will enable you, by confession and faith, to bring your “self-life” to the death (Romans 8:12-13). Do not patch over, but go to the bottom. It alone will pay.

Oh, to be saved from myself, dear Lord,
Oh, to be lost in Thee;
Oh, that it might be no more I,
But Christ that lives in me.
“Create in me a clean heart, O God;
and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10).

~ Poem by Roy Hession author of ‘The Calvary Road’

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