Sentences

Beginning A Journal of Sentences and Short Devotional Thoughts the Lord gives me from time to time. I pray it will Be encouraging and insightful to some. You are continually in my prayers. Please pray for me and these words also. Blessings.

* I sometimes bring myself before the throne and pretend I am the 5 loaves and 2 Fish. It isn't much but He was able to feed so many. I then am not so worried about my words or my poor prayers.

* How was it the scholars and learned of the word missed Him, but some fisherman, harlots and tax collectors did not?

* The Plan God used to usher in and prepare the way for the biggest event in the history of the world was to send some seeming Madman out into the middle of the desert living off of insects and honey yelling Repent! I wonder how well that word would have been received by the church planners of today?

* One word spoken in the Spirit is far more powerful than a thousand spoken in the flesh though perhaps theologically correct.

* The Psalmist were right. Better one day in His courts than a thousand elsewhere.

* The road to Emmaus is still one of the busiest in Christianity today. Sometimes we are just looking at the whole thing wrong.

* My heart was grieved, and my mind was vexed. I was like a brute beast, so foolish and ignorant before you. It was too painful for me - Until I went into the sanctuary of God. Psalm 73
Has life brought you to a point where you want to rage against the cage so to speak? Somehow in the Sanctuary of God everything gets sorted out. Nothing may change but everything will. I pray you can be still today and know He is God.

* It is proven the shortest distance to Peace is through Acceptance.


* Lessons from the Boat. The waves are very high, the wind is growing to a steady gale. You spend part of your time running back and forth trimming sail , manning oars, holding steady the helm, but it's futile. You spend the other half of your time running back trying to get Jesus to His feet, awaken Him, doing anything you can to arouse Him from His apparent slumber to save you from this mess. But no matter how hard you try the storm doesn't abate. Perhaps at this point there is something else Christ wants you to do?

* We can do nothing for God. But we can do plenty to keep Him from doing anything in us.
See The Parable of the Sower For example.

* The Crisis of Jehoshaphat: We have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon you 2 Chronicles 20:12 . Sound Familiar! Think it not Strange!

* He was in the World but He was Not of The World, and in needing nothing from the world, He could love the world. In taking nothing the world could give Him, He overcame the world. In overcoming the world, He trampled the enemy under His feet. There is a lesson there somewhere.

* To be in it but not of it is the Highest attainment of freedom. To love it we must be free of it. The more we need it the weaker we become. The weaker we become, the more our resentment and self-pity grows. The more resentment and self-pity grow, the more misery and finger pointing become our best friends.

* True humility never hides from the light.

* Stand where God places you. When that is enough, and He alone is all you need, your Peace will flow like a river. You will know the peace that transcends all understanding.

* The only possessions Christ had left to His name when He went to the cross was His stripped, naked, beaten body, His love, and His Father's will. Everything else had been forfeited by Him or taken.

* He could have called 12 legions of angels. He didn't. I wonder what we would have done? He could have proved Himself at any point. He only gave them the sign of Jonah. He was who He was. He was the man of no reputation. This is who we follow. May He have mercy on us all.

* The thing He really wants from us is our very lives. But so many will often go to the ends of the earth in His name or do any sort of other things in His name before they will give Him that.

* It doesn't matter as long as it matters to Him. When any other consideration creeps in from that point, down like Peter we go into the depths. Our freedom then is but a word.

* The best way we can love others is to die to self.

* The only thing that can travel faster than light is intercession.

* Nebuchadnezzar's words could move any man. His servant Daniel's prayers could move the heavens.

* Self has the potential to rise up in us at any time. The good news is so does Christ. Let us plead His mercy, deny ourselves, and if by any means possible always choose the latter.

* You are good precious Lord. Your ways are good. Your ways are perfect for me. I will take your hand and step out into the unknown.

* Your eyes saw the substance of my being when yet unformed. And in your book they all were written. The days fashioned for me when as yet there were none (Psalm 139:16) Considering that then - How can we ever question His love?

* A thousand whys? One Answer: I AM

* The world is what it is. He is who He is. And until the world knows who He is. He is going to keep on letting the world be what it is, until the whole thing comes crashing down.

* The world does continually have flashes of God. Unfortunately until He returns they are usually followed by a thousand flashes of hell.

* Sometimes the best place to look to the answer of all the why's in the world is the mirror.

* Under the right conditions we are capable of anything apart from God. Anyone who doesn't believe that is kidding themselves. They have never seen their true condition in the full light of God.

* The nations have sunk down in the pit which they themselves have made; in the net which they themselves hid - their own foot is caught. The Lord is known by the judgement He executes; The wicked is snared in the works of his own hands (Psalm 9:15-16) Man will find the answer is not in man. He is handing man over to the very things of man. He will let these be his undoing. That very net is tightening in this day before our very eyes. It is the only way to bring man to the end of himself and down on his knees. Sometimes the poison is the cure. See the story of the Prodigal son for example.

* When all that remains is His love our motives are as pure as the streets of the celestial city.

* Fire can still be called down from heaven, it is called intercession. It can strike any part of this earth, break the powers of hell, encourage the most downtrodden of saints, and shine light into the darkest of prisons.

* I would rather be washing dishes in the Spirit and pure presence of the Lord, than preaching a sermon to a hundred thousand people with even a speck left of something being sought for self. The dishes would have far more impact for the Kingdom of God and the Lord would be much more pleased.

* Anything truly done in His Spirit matters.

* It matters greatly!

* It matters more than you know!

* I will remove from among you those who rejoice in their pride... But I will leave within you a meek and humble people and they will trust in the name of the Lord ( Zephaniah 3:11-12)

Prayer: May you strike the viper of Self each day and blow by blow do whatever it takes to conform me into the image of Your Son.

* Only that which was truly of Him will remain in the end. May He then come and sort everything out in us in the meantime. Whatever the cost! Whatever the means!

* Is Christ alone not enough anymore? We are dangerously close to derailing if we think He is not so.

* Do you think you are unique? You are not. Do you think your case is unique? It is not. Millions of people have come to this conclusion and they have all been wrong.

* You do not want to leave too, do you? Jesus asked. Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." Is this the question Jesus confronts you with today? If so, when Peter's answer is no longer correct for us, there is only left option B. I wish you well.


* Do you think I do not not have my own backstory to tell? My own sorrows and woes? We can trade our war stories all day, but at some point we must get on to the answer.

* The only thing left past the door of Truth is the abyss.

* Despair is the place where we have slammed the door to truth and feel justified in our misery.

* The hour is late, the storm clouds gather my friend, the world and much of Christianity with it are heading for the cliff. I would love to sit here and debate theology, talk politics, trade salvos of scriptures and point fingers, but unfortunately this is my exit.

* Why am I still writing? Does it matter anymore?

* For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified
(1Corinthinas 2:2). That is all I have. That is all I know. I am sorry if you need more.

* The thing that most often keeps us from being able to hear God is not wanting to hear God.

* Where your treasure is, there you heart will also be (Matthew 6:21). Let Him reach His hand in and take the entire chest. There will then be nothing left between you.

* No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier ( 2 Timothy 2:4) Ahhhh Detachment, Disentanglement, Simplicity; are there any sweeter words? Come to those fortresses and all the powers of hell will no longer be able to move you.. You will enter the world of the divine

* When you no longer need anything from the world you can no longer be destroyed by the world. You will have disarmed it of all of its weapons at the cross. See Colossians 2:15

* Where self-seeking ends Peace begins.

GDL said:

Yes.

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I remember the day I wrote that sentence. I was feeling a little down. Is all of this just throwing dust into the wind kind of day? Writing can be like that sometimes, heck life is like that heh? You feel like you throw everything God has given you at it. But at the end of the day is it enough? Then you realize it doesn't really matter. It is enough if it is of the Lord. He will do with it what He will.

There was a story in a devotional I read once that said a soldier was given an important task to do that required him to go by a way fraught with risk. He came upon a villager to whom the soldier asked the way to his appointed destination. The villager told him of the way to take, but then added, "but you would be a fool to go that way. Surely you will die tonight if you do." To which the soldier replied, "Dear Sir, It is not important whether I live or die, but it is important that I should go."

The Story has always stuck with me. I think that's the way God wants our hearts to be. And then when we do, every once in awhile He pulls up beside us and says "Be of good cheer. All is well." Sometimes He even does that through a kind soul we meet along the way to the celestial city. He has done that with you of late my friend. So thanks for pulling up beside me in the last couple of days and encouraging me on.

* Humility is not thinking bad things about yourself, it is coming to and end of yourself.

* You can be in a place that is full without but desolate within and one desolate without but full within. It is not where we are, but who we are with that counts. If we have gone there with Him it is enough. Until He is the only thing left there we see, there will always be something we feel we lack.

* Some of the most beautiful music ever composed in the world is comprised of some of the most somber notes. Perhaps this is the reason for some of our trials.

* There is nothing about our flesh that is for God. It is always working in cahoots with the devil.

* May He strike all the Hell within us to extract all the Heaven that is in Him. Whatever it takes precious Lord. Whatever it takes.

* The whole world is before us. But there is only one path He would have us to walk.

* To see Him in the moment. Is to see the beauty of everything.

* Our circumstances are doing their best to Hide the miracle at hand. They are but the tools in His hand to conform into the image of His Son.

* Do not despise the day of small things. Does it appear before your eyes as nothing? Look these two scriptures up. There may not be two more important versus in the Bible as to what He is doing individually and corporately today. Ask Him, and pray fervently to know their meaning.

* The road may seem long and narrow, but the most important thing is He is there walking it with you. Would you rather be on a broader, easier road and no longer be able to see Him at all?

* Even birds know their appointed seasons. And they go to great lengths, at great odds to diligently be where they are appointed to be.

* Just one word from the Lord has the power to break through the blackest of nights. But even if it should not come today, praise Him anyway. For in this He is well pleased.

* Foreknew, Predestined, Called - These are much fought over words amongst God's children. But let's perhaps take another look. Foreknew? God foreknew the church and its destiny. He knew its mission and its purpose. Predestined? Yes, but to what, salvation? No, to be conformed to the image of His Son. Called? Yes, but to what? Called according to His purpose. His Purpose? That the fullness of Christ would be in HIs creation. He would have the preeminence. He would be all in all. The Church being the firstborn from the dead. Called to the glory of His Son. (Romans 8:28-30) (Colossians 1:15-19)

* Some will be saved by being snatched from the fire (Jude 1:23). Praise God! But sounds to me like there is a lot of work left to be done. A good day to celebrate, for sure! But tomorrow the real work of being conformed to His image and learning what it means to be brought into His purpose begins.

* When Jesus drew near Jerusalem He wept over it saying, Would that you, even you, had known this day the things that make for your peace (Luke 19:41-42)! Sounds to me like a Messiah weeping over a choice, not feigning tears over an already predetermined outcome.

* And Likewise: The Gospel was preached to them, as it was to us, but it did not profit them because they did not work it out in faith. Even though the works were finished from the foundation of the world (Hebrews 4:1-3). Sounds to me like a God who graciously loved them, laid out every provision for them, and gave them every opportunity to enter His rest, but a choice was made not to do so, and that is what cost them, not a predetermined wrath.

* The foreknowledge God had for His true people, His church, its true mission, what it was called into, Its importance to Him, Its importance to creation, its role in the overthrow of Satan, and all that encompasses: Is the most misunderstood, misappropriated, underestimated, underappreciated, functioning body in the history of the world.

* There is no other way to look at earth other than the front lines of a war that began in heaven.

* What had happened on earth before it became what we know? It is wrapped in mystery. What does it mean darkness was on the face of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters (Genesis 1:2)? Had there been a prior judgment? A Cataclysmic event? All we do know is there were two dispatches from the heavenlies that were sent down here. One, Satan was Cast down, and was on this earth waiting in the garden. And two God's Son was sent down to the earth, and a church was raised up, to slay the dragon and rule and reign with Christ. We may not understand all of that. We may sometimes question God, and even be tempted to disagree. But let us face it now, this is ground zero, and the church is heavily involved.

* So in light of all of that let us look at it like this. Grace is easy, to hear His Spirit's voice and respond to it is Free. But to be conformed into the image of Christ, to be called into the purpose of that, is no joke. Let us then be good soldiers of Christ, and come into a deeper appreciation of what is going on here, and how much this thing involves.

* How would we know what light is without darkness? Perhaps some of the things we question God on most, cause us to know Him, instead of drive us from Him, as we originally thought.

* The Ships of God are the most sturdiest sailing vessels in the world. Able to withstand the roughest of seas.

* Spiritual Breakthroughs often are preceded by Spiritual Breakdowns. He is the Voice that shakes the wilderness (Psalm 29:8). There is no darkness His voice cannot penetrate.

* The Humility of God creates a world where there is the potential of everything going wrong, only for His love to restore it afterwards more beautiful, more true, more real than it ever was before.

* What you carry in you may not seem very much. It is only the Kingdom of God after all!

* I searched for the answer the world over only to find it within.

* The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand (Matthew 10:7). The cross is the door to that kingdom. We are continually living between two worlds.

* Every time you lay down your life to do God's will death works life (2 Corinthians 4:11). The Kingdom of God awaits you on the other side. From that point onward you are in this world but not of it. You are working under a completely different operating system.

* The Kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21). But are your outward border walls too thick for it to come shining through? Stands to reason why God often has to break through our earthiness to get to a little bit of heaven.

* Christ would not have defined Himself as liberal or conservative. Those are mans terms and you cannot reduce Him to a thing like that. Christ was so utterly other. So utterly above it all. Just as soon as you think you have Him on your side of the fence, you look up only to find Him wandering far on the other side.

* Ideology and Christ are diametrically opposed. You either are going to follow one or the other.

* Many of men have built their Christianity around the scriptures that are most palatable or desirous to them. It's understandable. It's easy to make Christ fit into the image of who we want Him to be. It is quite another thing however to fully let go and let Him dictate the terms.

* Left and Right are terms alien to Christ. There is only the straight and narrow. Both sides will be severely disappointed if we truly set out to follow Him.

* To allow the fullness of Christ to come in, in the fullness of who He desires to be, is no small thing.

* To truly know Christ as Lord, is going to require a lot of humility, and a lot of dismantling of who we thought or wanted Him to be.

* To follow the Spirt has nothing to do with our intellectual understanding. This is not about reason, this is about Christ. We can know a lot about Him, but not know Him at all. We can be a biblical scholar and yet be a spiritual infant.

* The door of true wisdom is not entered into at a university or through the reading of a lot of books . It is always entered into through the cross. True wisdom is costly. A wisdom the world knows nothing of, and no amount of money can buy.

* Paul was one of the most well versed, scholarly men of his day. A Pharisee of Pharisees. Yet for all of that he was bent on destroying the very thing God had raised up. That should tell us something.

* It is not that we shouldn't learn. If the Spirit leads one onward to higher learning for a relevant field of His service so be it. But the school of man and the school of Christ are two completely separate things. As long as we keep that in perspective we will be fine.

* It is not the things we do that matter. It is the Spirit in which we do them. Is He in it? That is the big question. Nothing of true relevance will follow unless we can answer affirmative to the first. It may be extremely relevant in the world's eye's apart from Him, but be completely void of any eternal value.

* To know Christ is the greatest lesson we can learn. If our life's path is not leading to a deeper knowledge and understanding of Him we need to check the route.

* We do not make choices and ask Christ to bless them. No matter how we may justify them and have great plans for serving Christ with them. If they are not from Him, they are not of Him, and if they are not of Him, how can they serve Him? They may make us feel better about ourselves, but they do nothing for Him.

* Let us never mistake the means for the end. If the means are not getting to the end, which is being conformed to the image of Christ in us, then they are getting us nowhere.

* Do not look at the means God is using as the thing in of itself. As marvelous as it may seem, and wonderful at the time, it is only a tool in His hands to lead you more and more to Himself.

* God has many means, but one path that always leads to Him.

* The means God may use for one, may be completely different than the means He uses for you. But it is not wise to think of such things. "What is that to you?" He will say to us. "You must follow Me." He knows what He is doing. For each one He knows what is best.

* Love: Mark 12:30-31 And how do we fulfill the commandments of love? Love is simply Him. Where He is there is love. Apart from Him we can do nothing, no matter how good it looks.

* True love is a by-product of being in the Spirit. Nothing more, nothing less.

* The irony is this. Only He can fulfill in you what He asks, including loving Him and loving our neighbor. Go and cut a branch off from a tree and sees what happens. This is you apart from Him. Let that sink in until you realize how futile it really is.

* You can check a lot of boxes, and miss the one that really counts. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 is full of such seemingly amazing, wonderful, noble and kind things. But then you learn love is not about doing a lot of things, love is about doing one thing. And then you learn to your amazement that true love may not resemble what your ideal of love was at all.

* The only way I can love my neighbor is to fulfill 2 Corinthians 4:11 day by day, minute by minute. But since the cost of such love is everything, it is rarely purely seen.

* Christ lived 33 years on this earth not 3. Perhaps we need to think about this more.

* Let me ask you did Christ love us any less in His first 30 years on this earth as He did in His final 3?

* What I'm trying to get you to see is Love is a mystery. Only God knows where it truly lives.

* This is my beloved Son whom I am well pleased (Matthew 3:17) ! But what had he "done" up until that point. Well to know what true love is perhaps it's worth finding out.

* I have found Christ takes all of our ideas of how to serve Him and throws them out the window on day 1.

* True Christianity goes as Matthew 10:38-39 goes. Only He is on the other side of that door. That is reality. Everything else ceases. But until we get a stomach for that, the arguments and scripture throwing will rage on.

* I just want to be where He is at- that is all. That is what it has always been about. That is the summation of it all. The entire Bible is summed up in Christ. The entire Bible funnels to that one central thought. And if we are there it is enough. There is rest for our souls.

* Morality and Righteousness are not the same thing. A man can be morally sound as to the world's standards without being righteous. One is a governing principal that keeps creation from falling completely off the cliff, the other is Christ Himself. We can return the wallet we found on the street to its rightful owner without knowing anything of the transforming work of Jesus Christ ourselves. One is a principle. The other is heavenly. They may look the same at times but they are utterly different.

* Romans 1:20-21 There is a God consciousness that the Father puts in all men whether they recognize or understand it or not. He does this in His mercy. His ultimate purpose is to bring man to Himself, but in the meantime it is His merciful way to keep creation from imploding. It is part of the DNA in all of us that at least has a semblance of knowing right from wrong. If we were totally animals our day would resemble more of the dangers and life and death drama played out at an African Savanna watering hole than the slight remark we received at the company water cooler. That doesn't mean one day soon the latter will not look more and more like the former.

* I am not saying man's motives are pure. God says man became futile in their thinking and becomes more and more darkened in their hearts by the day. He says Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools (Romans 1:22). All of this is true. And it will be being handed over completely to this foolishness that will be man's end. I am just saying all of this can be happening while the fund drive at the animal shelter goes well, a neighbor goes over and cuts the other's grass, and the breast cancer run gets more participants this year than it did the year before.

* That does not mean God cannot work with the mysterious quality in man to consciously be aware of what is right. It could be the very thing that God uses to bring him to Christ. On the other hand if he gets carried away with himself, it may be the very obstacle that prevents him from ever knowing the real thing.