The test of reality is our life in the valley, not that we fly up among the golden peaks of the early morning
Today's gleanings
“Too many preachers get caught in the vicious circle of last-minute sermon preparation. The habit not only wastes their talents, but it harms the people of God. On top of that, it takes its toll on the physical and emotional makeup of the pastor.”
Bruce Mawhinney,
Preaching with Freshness (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1997), 36.
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Early exegesis helps to prevent late eisegesis.
Bruce Mawhinney,
Preaching with Freshness (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1997), 41.
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God answers prayer on the ground of Redemption and on no other ground. Let us never forget that our prayers are heard, not because we are in earnest, not because we suffer, but because Jesus suffered.
Oswald Chambers,
If Ye Shall Ask (Hants UK: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1996).
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We use the phrase “Master,” but we use it in a more or less pious way, we do not intend to make Him Master practically; we are much more familiar with the idea that Jesus is our Saviour, our Sanctifier, anything that puts Him in the relationship of a supernatural Comrade.
Oswald Chambers,
If Ye Shall Ask (Hants UK: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1996).
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If once we accept the Lord Jesus Christ and the domination of His Lordship, then nothing happens by chance, because we know that God is ordering and engineering circumstances; the fuss has gone, the amateur providence has gone, the amateur disposer has gone, and we know that “all things work together for good to them that love God.” If Jesus says, “Sit ye here, while I go yonder and pray,”† the only appropriate thing we can do is to sit there.
Oswald Chambers,
If Ye Shall Ask (Hants UK: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1996).
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The test of reality is our life in the valley, not that we fly up among the golden peaks of the early morning.
Oswald Chambers,
If Ye Shall Ask (Hants UK: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1996).
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“A man finds no sweeter voice in all the world than that which chants his praise.”
Mary A. Kassian,
Girls Gone Wise in a World Gone Wild (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2010).
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The difference between a legitimate compliment and flattery is accuracy and motive. A legitimate compliment is not false, exaggerated, or motivated by self-interest. It’s simply intended to encourage and give credit where credit is due. Flattery is self-serving and insincere.
Mary A. Kassian,
Girls Gone Wise in a World Gone Wild (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2010).
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The longer you are in the same place the more deliberately you must work to preach with freshness. You have to dig deeper in order to say more and say it differently. Don’t try to rely on the inspiration of the moment.
Bruce Mawhinney,
Preaching with Freshness (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1997), 53.
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It is not prayer that is strenuous, but the overcoming of our own laziness. If we make the basis of prayer our effort and agony and nights of prayer, we mistake the basis of prayer. The basis of prayer is not what it costs us, but what it cost God to enable us to pray.
Oswald Chambers,
If Ye Shall Ask (Hants UK: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1996).
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Confidence in the natural world is self-reliance, in the spiritual world it is God-reliance.
Oswald Chambers,
If Ye Shall Ask (Hants UK: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1996).
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Principles of guidance: (1) never allow plans to be so “scheduled” that you find it difficult to respond to the Spirit’s working. Let your walk be flexible; (2) work where God is working. Don’t hammer at unprepared soil when there is ready ground nearby.
Elisabeth Elliot,
The Journals of Jim Elliot: Missionary, Martyr, Man of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Revell, 2021), 275.
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Maxims:
1. Answer to the Rudder, or answer to the rocks.
2. Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.
3. Determination, not desire, determines destiny.
Elisabeth Elliot,
The Journals of Jim Elliot: Missionary, Martyr, Man of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Revell, 2021), 278.
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Obedience is the basic ingredient in overcoming. All the foes of God cannot unseat the man who observes obedience as his first and last qualification for usefulness.
Jack R. Taylor,
After the Spirit Comes (Bedford, TX: Burkhart Books, 2013), 49.
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Language school usually occupies the first year of a missionary term, and that schooling only begins the process of language learning. Fluency is generally two or three more years down the road.
Sherwood G. Lingenfelter, Marvin K. Mayers, Ministering Cross-Culturally: An Incarnational Model for Personal Relationships (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003), 27.
