Category: advice

Making Time Count, [Five Minutes]

bowing-before-him (2)

“There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.”

Genesis 12:8, NIV

“Serve God by doing common actions in a heavenly spirit, and then, if your daily calling only leaves you cracks and crevices of time, fill them up with holy service.”

–Charles Spurgeon

Many believers desire to have a daily time with God, praying and reading His Word. It so happens that many Christians are distracted by the cares of this world. They can never seem to be able to carve out a devotional life out of a busy day.

Oswald Chambers once wrote of the transforming nature of just five minutes in the presence of the Lord. This small effort for just a brief moment can change the course of a busy day.

Five minutes with the Lord can alter ones walk and certainly one’s perspective. Powerful results can come from just a brief connection. These moments can be the most significant of your entire day. It can stabilize your walk and daily lead you straight toward Him.

Sometimes our life is filled with busy demands– we hit the ground running just to keep up.

Remember there is no condemnation in this, but there is lost opportunity. It is wasted time that we will miss; it’s something we can grow to regret.

Abraham found time to build an altar to the Lord. Perhaps that act was a turning point for him. A heavy door just needs a little hinge on which to turn. Maybe constructing an “altar” can make a difference for us.

If you’re having a struggle in your daily walk, just start with five minute with Him.

You will be pleasantly surprised with what happens. Just five minutes can stabilize your soul. Our God longs to meet with us and to show His power in our lives.

1brobry-sig4 (2)

 

cropped-christiangraffiti1-3-1

Simple Discipleship, [Understanding]

simple_icon

Each of us who are broken believers will take the following steps. This is simple discipleship. These four will be at the root of everything we do. Our mental illness may influence this walk, but it can’t derail the process. Because it is a supernatural one, everyone starts at the same spot— whether we’ve an illness or not. Each of us must take these four steps and engage them:

  1. Come to Me

  2. Learn of Me

  3. Follow Me

  4. Remain in Me

Disciples will build their lives on these. They are solidly basic but extrapolated out into different unique variations. Each one will be uniquely yours.

COME TO ME:

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28, ESV

The source is Jesus, and his presence is sought. Our heavy issues are relieved by his nearness.

 

LEARN OF ME:

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matthew 11:29

Jesus shares his yoke with every disciple. We are to learn at his feet, and it’s there we learn of his humility. Rest is your evidence of his proximity.

 

FOLLOW ME:

 “Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Matthew 16:24

A cross awaits every disciple. Self-denial is critical for every believing disciple. Jesus will show us how it’s to be done.

 

REMAIN IN ME:

“Remain [abide] in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.” John 15:4

This involves drawing and extracting life from him. We are a branch that pulls its life essence from its core, he is our vitality and our strength.

“Whatsoever one would understand what he hears must hasten to put into practice what he has heard.” –Gregory the Great

 

bry-signat (1)

cropped-christiangraffiti1.jpg

 

Grace, Without Any Additives

grace1
We have been touched by the light

I believe that God’s grace goes far, far beyond what we have learned up to now.

It  seems everywhere we look in the Gospels we are accosted by extravagant love and bottomless mercy. Jesus fully explains God’s grace; He reveals the true nature of God’s graciousness. Often Jesus’ parables come ‘fully loaded’ and are precise explanations of God’s steady love for people.

When you finally see it, you want it, and you will sell all you have to hold it. Grace is everywhere, and it shouts to us of ‘agape’ love– love without limits, because it is God’s love. Deep inside us is an empty chamber that only grace can fill.

flourish15

“My life is a witness to vulgar grace–a grace that amazes as it offends.  A grace that pays the eager beaver who works all day long the same wages as the grinning drunk who shows up at ten till five.  A grace that hikes up the robe and runs breakneck toward the prodigal reeking of sin and wraps him up and decides to throw a party no ifs, ands, or buts.  A grace that raises bloodshot eyes to a dying thief’s request–’Please, remember me’–and assures him, “You bet!”  

A grace that is the pleasure of the Father, fleshed out in the carpenter Messiah, Jesus the Christ, who left His Father’s side not for heaven’s sake but for our sakes, yours and mine.  This vulgar grace is indiscriminate compassion.  It works without asking anything of us.  It’s not cheap.  It’s free, and as such will always be a banana peel for the orthodox foot and a fairy tale for the grown-up sensibility.  Grace is sufficient even though we huff and puff with all our might to try to find something or someone it cannot cover.  Grace is enough.  He is enough.  Jesus is enough.”

–Brennan Manning “All is Grace,“ (everywheregospel.wordpress.com)

bry-signat (1)

cropped-christiangraffiti1.jpg

Related Links:

https://brokenbelievers.com/2012/11/17/brokenness-depression-brennanmanning/

https://brokenbelievers.com/2012/10/03/ct-interview-with-brennan-manning/

Limits of Mental Illness

748

Mental illness is so limited,

It cannot cripple love, 

It cannot shatter hope.

It cannot corrode our faith.

It will never destroy peace.

It cannot.

It will never kill friendship, 

It cannot suppress memories. 

It cannot invade the soul.

It cannot steal eternal life.

It cannot conquer eternal life.

It cannot conquer your spirit.

Amen.

flourish2

 

 P.S. I have received some criticism over the contents of this post. The argument is that mental illness is very destructive, and that I’m misleading others by suggesting it isn’t. The thinking is that we dwell on the past and how it effects the present moment. I believe we have a mental illness. But I also believe more strongly so that Christ redeems us completely. “Because he lives,” goes the old hymn, “I can face tomorrow.”

In the “heat of the moment” the situation can seem overwhelming. Our illness can be completely devastating. However the Holy Spirit is yet to fully redeem us, yet we still must view this coming event as something triumphant and total. This life is not the end. What a relief to shed this mortal darkness!

“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Revelation 21:3-4

1brobry-sig4

 

 

cropped-cropped-christiangraffiti1.jpg