THE BAMBOO AND YOU

One day I decided to quit....
I quit my job, my relationships,
my Spirituality..
I wanted to quit my life.
I went to the woods to have
One last talk with God.

'God', I said.
'Can you give me one good reason
not to quit?'

His answer surprised me...

'Look around', He said.
'Do you see the fern and the bamboo?'

'Yes', I replied.

'When I planted the fern and
the bamboo seeds, I took very good
care of them. I gave them light.
I gave them water.
The fern quickly grew from the earth.
Its brilliant green covered the floor. Nothing came from the bamboo seed.
But I did not quit on the bamboo.

In the second year the Fern grew more vibrant and plentiful.. And again,
Nothing came from the bamboo seed.
But I did not quit on the bamboo'.

He said. 'In the third year, there was still nothing from
the bamboo seed. But I would not quit.

In the fourth year, again, there was nothing from
the bamboo seed. But I would not quit.

He said. 'Then in the fifth year a tiny sprout emerged from the earth.
Compared to the fern it was seemingly small and insignificant.

But just 6 months later the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall.
It had Spent the five years growing roots.
Those roots made it strong and gave It what it needed to survive.
I would not give any of my creations a Challenge it could not handle.'

He said to me. 'Did you know, my child, that all this time
you have Been struggling, you have actually been growing roots?
I would not quit on The bamboo. I will never quit on you.
Don't compare yourself to others..'

He said. 'The bamboo had a different purpose than the fern, yet, they
Both make the forest beautiful.'

'Your time will come, ' God said to me. ' You will rise high!'

'How high should I rise?' I asked.

'How high will the bamboo rise?' He asked in return.

'As high as it can?' I questioned..

'Yes.' He said, 'Give me glory by rising as high as you can..'

I left the forest and brought back this story. I hope these words can help you see that God will never give up on you.....

Never regret a day in your life.
Good days give you Happiness.
Bad days give you Experiences.
Both are essential to life.
Keep going...
Happiness keeps you Sweet,
Trials keep you Strong,
Sorrows keep you Human,
Failures keep you Humble,
Success keeps You Glowing,
But Only God keeps You Going!

Have a great day!
The Son is shining!!

God is so big He can cover the whole world with his Love, and so small He can curl up inside your heart.

Author Unknown

THE MEASURE OF THE CROSS

The Cross of Christ encompasses ALL things.  In particular it brings the whole race in Adam to an end, and it begins an entirely new race in Christ risen!

Our God is become that consuming fire of the Alter of His Son Christ Jesus.
The letter to the Romans presents the Cross there in its full measure.

The Cross of Christ is the alter to which each of us must go to lay our lives in surrender to Him.  It is a place where the natural and carnal man must come.  Jesus said that flesh and blood could not enter into the Kingdom of God. 
What does that say of Jesus of Nazareth who was flesh and blood?  He himself suffered the pouring out of His life's blood, becoming the first born of those risen from the dead.

How can we compromise the Way, the Truth and His life for anything less than following Him into the requirements and full apprehension of His perfect will and purpose for our lives?

Nothing that flows out of the flesh will secure our right and relationship to the risen Christ.  It is only at the Cross where we can be filled with the streaming flow of His precious blood for ministry of any kind.  It is a ministry which flows from a broken and humbled vessel, from the least to the greatest.

The Cross of Christ defies making Christianity into a legal system of bondage.  For the Church is built outside of time and the world.

The Cross of Christ is applied to all that spoils the harmony of the Body of Christ.  There is an excruciating dislocation within the Body when there is discord like yeast __it ferments until the whole Church is filled with self interest and pride, offence and unforgiveness, until there is nothing left but a false spirituality that is left to make merchandise of the things of God.

Anything that we add to the Cross, makes Christ less than He is.  Again I say, "It is at the cross, the alter, where we find the ALL_NESS of Christ for our lives.  He becomes our spiritual strength, supported by a sound mind, grounded in truth and righteousness.  He is our inspiration, our hope and eternal salvation.  Not because I have told you so, not because you heard a sermon of this truth, but because when we take hold of this Spirit Word by faith, we will experience the reality of the new nature of His life in us,  His mind through the gift of the Holy Spirit that will reveal Him more and more to us as we come seeking Him in ALL things.

The full measure of the Cross brings us to Christ's Kingdom which dwells within us, to overcoming, to victory in Jesus, our Messiah.

Now All things relate to our inner life.  It touches our nature, our conduct, order and ministry.  (Ministry to our family, friends, community and nation).  We will manifest the rule of His kingdom effectively and eternally to the pulling down of strongholds, by letting Christ reign from the Alter of His sacrifice for our lives.  It is the place where the fire will come down before many witnesses and consume that which is false and would challenge the WORD among God's people.

Run to the Alter of the Lord, run to the Cross,  let Him crucify your flesh, for only the truly crucified will walk in the Spirit, will partake of the things of His kingdom, will be defended and kept from the things of this world.

This is not doctrine.  I'm not preaching.  It is a place of redemption, it is a place of power,  it is a "real" experience of crisis and revolution, it is where the most important decision of your life will be made.  Everything will be shaken, overturned, and in some ways a reversal of what you have been taught and have known. 

I pray that what I have shared will draw and motivate you to investigate the tremendous and personal invitation that is yours in approaching the One who is perpetually waiting to make you His own.  To make you alive by the blood of His sacrifice __by the full measure of His Cross.

A WATCHING OVER THE BARS

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Under the custody and charge of the sons of Merari shall be the boards of the tabernacle, and the bars. (Numbers 3:36)

I am glad the bars are mentioned as well as the boards. The bars are the things that unite the whole, and if those things are kept always under your eye you will not move in cliques, and you will not have personal preferences, and ones and twos moving off on their own because they get on together. We have to remember that in the body of Christ there is nothing clannish, nothing that is merely of human preference, but all the members are held together in oneness. That is a responsibility. How much damage has been done by preferences, by human affinities having a place among the Lord’s people! There must be a personal care, there must be a watching over the bars, all maintained together. It is what the apostle means when he says, “Give diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit.” We shall never keep the unity of the Spirit by taking sides with one against another. We may think that is care for the one. Oh, but what about the other? The bars will be a corrective, will keep the balance, and will give due regard to every member. Then there are the pillars. Here we have each one’s responsibility, for something hangs upon them, and we have to help one another in our responsibility before God, for each one is called to carry a responsibility, to carry a weight from God. It is bearing one another’s burdens.... There must be mutuality in this responsibility, each one carrying his own weight before the Lord, and yet all one.

The peril is that we should begin to make our ministry something that is watertight.... Draw in your mind’s eye three squares, separate, standing each alone, and you will have what represents a very great deal of the nature of work for the Lord in our day from time to time. “Oh, this is my work, this is my department, this is my line; I am called to be this, I am called to do that! You have your work, you have your particular line, and I have mine! You go on with yours, and I will get on with mine, and don’t let us get overlapping!” That is where the breakdown comes. “I am an evangelist, not a teacher! You get on with your teaching, and I will get on with my evangelism; don’t let us interfere with one another!” That is putting responsibility into watertight compartments. The result is always loss.... It is a blessed calling, but it is a responsible one, it is a solemn one. Oh, that today you and I might find adjustment to this. The test is as to whether it is the Lord Himself to whom we are devoted, or whether it is to some personal thing.

 “Give diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit.”
Gleaned from T. Sparks writings.

WHAT A DAY OF REJOICING THAT WILL BE.

"I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord."  Philippians 3:8

What is it that causes us to procrastinate at the decisions to leave all for Christ.  Is it,  "What will people think?" __ "I'm so busy with raising a family, providing for their needs."__ "I'm doing everything I possibly can right now, church involvement, charity work, I volunteer all my extra time as it is." __ "Just how much knowledge does a person need to be at peace?  I read my bible faithfully, go to bible study, what do you mean, "the excellency of the knowledge of Christ?"

Most of us move through our Christian lives feeling the frustration of not doing enough, not giving enough, not praying enough, not feeling enough, just totally incapable of approaching the patient grace of the Living person of Jesus Christ.

This is the excellency __ to move and have our being in the WORD.  To see, and hear and know Him as our Lord, our friend, our guide in the moment by moment, every day hour of our lives.

He will make us His Testament, of living epistles to those around us.  The more you seek to know Him __ the more He reveals the power of His Spirit who will arrest your apprehension with His legal authority to give you "new life" in Him.  This new life is His gifting to you __ that comes to rest in the joy of His intimate and Living Word.

To the new believer, it is the surrendering of the flesh life to a life of Spirit.  This is nothing that we can accomplish on our own.  It is a birthing into Christ's Life which only can come forth from faith and confession of our own inability to produce what is required of the Spirit.

To those who have been born from above __
When your faith is become restless, and weary in waiting __ When the passion of your first love smolders to dying embers __ When the voice of the mortal enemy of your soul is heard above the still small voice of  "The One Crying in the Wilderness"
__Press on!  Hold fast!  Be still!  Wait!  Stand on His promises!  They are true and trustworthy. 

You may have to let go of everything to take hold of Him __ but I tell you this __In Him is life, life more abundant, life full of the peace that this world cannot give, joy unspeakable and full of glory, and all the treasures of God's kingdom reserved for that Day when we meet Him face to face __What a day of rejoicing that will be.  __Raf

LORD, YOU ARE MY DAILY BREAD

Though we are many, we all eat from one loaf of bread, showing that we are one body. (1 Corinthians 10:17 NLT)

We do feed upon Christ in prayer. To put that in another way, there is an imparting of Himself to His Own in prayer. We may go to prayer in weariness, and rise in freshness; we may go to prayer exhausted, and rise renewed. Is it that we have simply uttered some form of prayer, prayed some prayer? We know quite well if that is so we do not get up very much invigorated. Formal praying does not bring very much Life. Going through a form of prayers sometimes only ministers death. But really seeking the Lord, reaching out, taking hold of the Lord, giving ourselves up to the Lord in prayer, never fails to have renewing, uplifting, strengthening results. You say prayer may wear you out? Yes, but there is a wonderful strength that comes by wearing out prayer. There is vitality given to the spiritual life even in prayer that tires us physically, and we go in the strength of it. Yes, prayer is a way in which Christ is ministered to us by the Holy Spirit. Prayer is a way in which we feed upon Christ; He becomes our Life....

We feed upon the Lord, and He becomes our Life when we recognize the Divine order of spiritual fellowship. That is a Divine order. You have it brought in with Acts: "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers." There is a tremendous means of grace, a tremendous enrichment of Christ in the fellowship of the Lord's people. I believe the enemy will get believers, when they are together, to talk about anything under the sun rather than about the Lord. It is easy when you meet together with the Lord's people to be carried off with all kinds of matters of interest, and not to begin to talk about the Lord; but if you do there is always an enrichment, always a strengthening, always a building up; it is the Divine way. Fellowship is a means of imparting Christ to the believer. And wherever spiritual fellowship is possible, you and I ought to seek it, look after it, and cherish it. There are all too many of the Lord's children today, who have no chance of spiritual fellowship, and who would give anything to have it. The Lord would have us at least two together. That is His order, and there is something in ministering Christ to one another. There will be something lost unless that is so. These are ways in which we feed upon the Lord.
By T. Austin-Sparks