It has been a while since I have last written in this blog. It's a mixture of laziness, and thoughts of pointlessness. For who am i to speak when there is "Nothing new under the Sun"? Well, lets just say with that said I think I am going attempt more quoting on those who have said it before me. John Wesley was a famous preacher or the seventeenth century. Born in to poverty with 18 brothers and sisters, he managed to go to Oxford. May 24Th, 1738 at a prayer meeting God got a hold of him. I am taking an excerpt from his writings "Christian Perfection". Two of my greatest weaknesses of late are laziness and allowing my pleasures to not be fully rooted in Christ. "... (do not) expect the end without the means: expecting knowledge, for instance, without searching the scriptures and consulting with the people of God or expecting spiritual strength without constant prayer and steady watchfulness, or expecting God to bless you without hearing the word of God at every opportunity."
There are times I think that I can resist the temptations of this world, but I can't without diligence in my relationship with the Father. Wesley reminds me of this truth.
"Beware of thinking, 'because I have the love of God I do not need holiness,' or 'since I pray all the time I have no need for set times of private prayer' or 'because I am spiritual I have no need for self examination'"..."Do not allow the desire for tasteful food or any other pleasure of the senses, the desire of pleasing the eye or the imagination, the desire for money or praise or power, to rule you. While you have the ability to feel these desires, you are not compelled to feel them. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free...Let others see that you are not interested in any pleasure that does not bring you nearer to God, nor regard any pain which does."
That is an intense statement, for I am quite far from only seeking the pleasure that appeases God. I truly realize what this means. If reading a book or watching a movie isn't glorying God, we must not pursue it. If playing a game or singing a song does not Glorify God, it probably isn't what we want to be doing. While this may seem somewhat legalistic, I assure you that a Spirit totally surrendered to God will have natural inclinations such as these. Perhaps we should all consider what it means to be "co-laborers". Being a Christian involves regular disciplines of prayer, fasting, solitude. There is no short-cuts to the "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor. 3:9, Rom 14:17).
5 comments:
Good to see a post from you. ...and thanks for the words from JW.
Haven't talked to you in a long time... how have you been?
doing great Tim. Ironically I was just watching the West Virginia trip DVD yesterday. Jason Veach just sent me a copy. Have you gotten one? If not, let me know and I can sent one to you. So how are you bud?
Nate
Nate, sorry about that, I was trying to sign in and somehow I published, "Nate."
I don't know if I've ever been to this blog before, very interesting. What are you doing these days? Being a bit of a lazy ass, eh?
Maybe your body is just telling you that it needs rest.
I thought of you yesterday, I found a bunch of Jack Handy quotes online, and I was remembering how you used to love to read those.
Keep up the good blogging.
Nate-
It's Ironic you talk about laziness and the fact that we can't expect knowledge if you don't search for it. A few days ago Pastor Deneff preached at summit, one of the qoutes throught the week he used over and over was, "Who you are determines what you want, what you want determines what you do, and what you do determines what you get." He continually said that we only get one choice, we can choose what we "do" or what we "get" we can't choose both. If we want to be productive, we must DO what we need to do...if we choose not to be productive, then we don't get to choose the outcome. If we want good grades (which is what gets me) then we must DO what we need to do, to get what we want to get, we can't choose both. And all of this goes back to who we are. If we aren't getting what we want out of life, maybe we need to go back and see who it is we really are. That was a HUGE post....but, it's something I have been thinking about, and it seemed to pertain to what you were talking about. I have a whole notebook full of the sermon notes if you want to see. Later!
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