Search This Blog

Friday, January 29, 2010

Thirsty

One of the aspects of human beings that I’m fascinated with is how many different interests people have. It has always intrigued me how many different periodicals there are at Barnes and Noble about an amazing variety of interests. There are periodicals on: model railroading, airplanes, boating, quilting, bird watching, chess, dress making, weight lifting, kite boarding, skate boarding, guns and ammo, motorcycles, etc, etc, etc. The list is almost endless!


These various periodicals exist because people are ‘thirsty’ for information about their area of interest. What do others know? What are some of the other ideas out there about my interest? What’s new, what’s being tried?

You and I know what being ‘thirsty’ for an interest is about. We’ve experienced that thirst. We think about the interest. We spend time on the interest. We research, we plan, we talk to others, we ‘flock’ with people who share our interest and often times we are willing to make sacrifices to pursue our interest.

There is a spiritual application to this reality in life. When a person is ‘thirsty’ for God, they will read, plan, think, research, talk about their thirst and flock with other people who are thirsty for God.


The sons of Korah were ‘thirsty’ for God. They wanted more because they had experienced some. What they had experienced made them ‘thirsty’ for more.

As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for You, O God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I go and stand before Him? (Psalms 42:1-2 NLT)


‘God make me thirsty!’ is a great, simple prayer for each of us to pray daily.


God is the one who can create a thirst in our life. I can try to work up a thirst. I can try to force myself to thirst. If I do get thirsty, it only lasts for a short time. When God makes us thirsty – it lasts and it causes us to pursue Him!


God make me thirsty!

Friday, January 22, 2010

Journey of Spiritual Formation

The journey of spiritual formation – “Christ formed in you” – is a journey whereby our love for God and our love of God are worked into every fiber of our being, and is then manifested in a God-given love for our neighbors.

Jesus told his first followers that the greatest commandments are: You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.' The [second commandment] is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' No other commandment is greater than these." (Mark 12:30-31 NLT)

The dilemma is the 'I must love the Lord and love my neighbor' but I can’t love like I’m supposed to. The only way that I can love God and others like I’m supposed to is because of the flow of the Holy Spirit in me. Jesus told the disciples: ‘The Spirit can make life. Sheer muscle and willpower don't make anything happen. Every word I've spoken to you is a Spirit-word, and so it is life-making.’ (John 6:63 MSG) I have to have the flow of the Holy Spirit in my life if I’m going to love like God expects me to. “Sheer muscle and willpower don’t make anything happen.”

Remember the Word is given to show us that we need the Messiah. The commandment to 'love God with all my heart' is given to show me that I can’t love God as I’m expected to. It is given to show me how desperately I need the delivering and empowering work of the Holy Spirit. That is what Paul was writing about in Romans 7 when he wrote: “I love God's law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.” (Romans 7:22-23 NLT) He saw, through the law, that His only hope for loving God and others was the work of the Holy Spirit.

But isn’t that what Jesus was talking about when he said: “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” John 15:4-5 NASB
APART FROM ME YOU CAN DO NOTHING. This is ABSOLUTELY true. Apart from the flow of Jesus in my life through the Holy Spirit there is nothing that I can do that creates life.

Christ formed in you! Christ flowing in you! Christ flowing through you! That is what this journey is about.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Bible Reading online tool

You've got to check out this great online tool. You can customize your own Bible reading plan, link it to your mobil phone and even listen to a dramitized reading. Very, very cool.

Check it out