Pondering Knoll: January 2012

Monday, January 23, 2012

Bitter shame and sorrow

O the bitter shame and sorrow that a time could ever be when I let the Savior's pity plead in vain, and proudly answered, All of self and none of Thee

Yet He found me, I beheld Him bleeding on the accursed tree; Heard Him pray: Forgive them Father! And my wistful heart said faintly, Some of self and some of Thee

Day by day His tender mercy healing, helping, full and free; Sweet and strong and ah, so patient, brought me lower while I whispered, Less of self and more of Thee

Higher than the highest heaven, deeper than the deepest sea, Lord, Thy love at last hath conquered; Grant me now my supplication - None of self and all of Thee

-Theodore Monod

"Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me." Philippians 3:12

Friday, January 6, 2012

“This I know. That if next year is as full of sweet surprises and things to be wondered at as has been this last one (and I have no reason now to expect anything less; the situations are analogous in their impossibilities) it will be but stronger evidence of the good hand of God upon and over us, keeping His promises and confirming all we have hoped in Him. Is it not, for all its sting, a wonderful way to live, Betty? To dream, and want and pray, almost savagely; then to commit and wait and see Him quietly pile all dreams aside and replace them with what we could not dream, the realized Will?”
- Jim Elliot, "Shadow of the Almighty"

May your new year be full of sweet surprises and things to be wondered at. May it be stronger evidence to you of the Fathers good hand upon and over you. May you be reminded of His promises and may it confirm to you all you have hoped in Him. May you find it a wonderful year to live. May you dream, and want and pray, almost savagely; but commit and wait and see Him quietly pile those dreams aside. May you let Him replace them with what you could not dream...to realize His Will is perfect. Happy New Year :)

"May you be blessed by the Lord, who made heaven and earth." Psalm 115:15

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“In order to be a disciple we must deny ourselves - this is to exercise authority over our own spirit. We must take up the cross - this is to submit to Christ’s authority. And we must follow - this is continued obedience. This is the road not to confinement, to bondage, to a stunted or arrested development, but to total personal freedom. It means not death but life, not a narrowly circumscribed life but “abundant” life. The gate is narrow but not the life. The gate opens out into largeness of life.”

-Elisabeth Elliot

“No sigh ever reached the Most High, except through Christ—I mean so as to move His heart to pour out His grace. Prayers, groans, tears, all these are like arrows without a bow, till Christ comes and fits them to the string, and shoots them home for you and me. All our prayers are like a victim, with the wood and altar; Christ must bring the fire, and then the sacrifice smokes to heaven. He is the messenger. Oh Christian, do you not rejoice in Him then as the Messenger of the Covenant? He is doing thy errands before the throne tonight, pleading for me, pleading for you."

~C. H. Spurgeon

“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might, He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

Isaiah 40:28-31

"...The central place of faith in Christianity, and its significance...is precisely that which, on man's side, adjusts him to the living and merciful presence and action of a trusted God. In its nature, not by any mere arbitrary arrangement, it is his one possible receptive attitude, that in which he brings nothing, so that he may receive all. Thus "faith" is our side of union with Christ. And thus it is our means of possessing all His benefits, pardon, justification, purification, life, peace, glory."

-Handley Dunelm