THOUGHTS

March 24, 2020

One inside game, even before this shelter in place, was to build forts.

A sheet over the table made us feel invisble.

We could pretend like we were anything;

a knight of the Round Table,

a king or a queen with a vast kingdom in our castle,
pirates with our booty,

a doggie in the pound waiting to be adopted,

a teacher in a school of stuffed animals...

But then we would grow weary of the game,

and maybe get a little bit hungry

and crawl out to eat the cookies
waiting for us atop the table, 
not under it.

"Anything we try to cover, 

God will uncover;

but anything we uncover,

God will cover."

"The tendency is strong to say...

'God won't be so stern as to expect me to give that up!'

But He will;

'He won't expect me to walk in the light so that I have nothing to hide;'

But He will;

'He won't expect me to draw on His grace for anything; 

but He will."

Oswald Chambers

"Others may be content with being kept 

from what is visibly and grossly sin,

but the obedient heart, seeking to walk with Him

in unbroken communion, cannot excuse the faintest

disobedience or lack of sensitivenes to His will."

"Thy Hidden Ones" by Jessie Penn-Lewis

Here's an excerpt from Colonel Brengle's "The Way of Holiness..."

"We must see our need of the blessing, and to see this need, we must be clearly justified.  No sinner has his spiritual eyes open to see the need of a clean heart.  He is blind to these things.  He may have dreadful hatred in his heart, but so long as he restrains himself, and does the person he hates no harm, he thinks he is a very good sort of fellow.  He cannot see that in the eyes `of God he is a murderer, for does not God say, 'Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer'? (I John 3: 14.)  He may have lust in his heart, but so long as he does not commit adultery, he flatters himself that he is quite respectable in God's sight, in spite of the fact that Jesus says that the look of lust is adultery."

"The first thing, then, is to be well saved, and so fully in the light of God's smile that we can see our need of cleansing."

2.  We must not try to hid the need, but frankly confess it.  Let me ask you, do you know that you are saved?  You say, 'Oh, yes, I know that I have given my heart to God, and I feel that my sins have been forgiven and my life has been changed, and I feel that I am saved just now.'"

"Good, but do you know that your heart is clean?  Are all the roots of bitterness gone?  Do you hear patiently the faults of others?  Do you bear meekly, and with a forgiving spirit, the unkindness of others?  Do you love God with all your heart and soul and mind, and your neighbor as yourself?  Do you feel that all malice and pride, and jealousy and envy, and evil and filthy desire, and unholy ambition and unbelief, and all foolish things have been taken out of your heart, and that the Holy Spirit has His own way in you all the while?  Remember that holiness has to with the heart, and that, as Solomon says, 'Out of the heart are the issues of life.'  It is at the heart that Jesus looks, and He says, 'Blessed are the pure in heart.'"

"Now, if your heart is not clean, do not be afraid or ashamed to say so, but frankly tell your Heavenly Father the whole truth about the matter."