Once I was praying and asked God to tell me about myself. He said you are like an oil lamp. Your body is the vessel, filled with oil, and the oil is the Holy Spirit. The wick is the Word. Trim the wick each day, cut off the old ashes of yesterday, pull up the wick (read some more to meditate on) for a bright flame. The flame is the Light of Christ, The Living Word, Jesus Himself. You are alive in me, and I am alive in you. Fire. Holy Fire. Illumination, warmth, joy, discernment, driving away darkness, yes, let there be Light.
Relationship with God
Ted Dekker
What wife or husband among us would say that the point of marriage is the legal contract, rather than a living, breathing, life-giving union experienced each day in relationship? In as much we are the bride of Christ, it seems that some are more interested in their marriage certificate than in communion with (knowing) the One who is in us and whom we are in.
Harold Eberle
Abraham was not being blindly obedient. The most obvious message of the Abrahamic story is that he knew God. Abraham had walked with God for many years. Before preparing his son Isaac for the sacrifice, Abraham confidently stated, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering….” (Gen. 22:8). Abraham knew that God would intervene. He knew that God would somehow provide a sacrifice or even raise Isaac from the dead if necessary. Therefore, he was not taking a blind leap of faith. Abraham was acting based on his knowledge of God.
Howard G. Hendricks
Perhaps the Spirit of God is saying to many of us today, “I want to minister through you. But before I can ever minister through you, I must minister to you.” Don’t despise the educational experience of your drying brook. Don’t throw in the towel… Let patience have her perfect work, so that you may be mature and complete. He wants to make you just like His Son.
Kay Arthur
Are you weak? Weary? Confused? Troubled? Pressured? How is your relationship with God? Is it held in its place of priority? I believe the greater the pressure, the greater your need for time alone with Him.
Samuel Logan Brengle
He [God] has been with my mouth and helped me to speak of Jesus and his great salvation in a way to instruct, comfort, and save other souls. He has been light to my darkness, strength to my weakness, wisdom in my foolishness, knowledge in my ignorance. When my way has been hedged up and it seems that no way could be found out of my temptations and difficulties, he has cut a way through for me just as he opened the Red Sea for Israel. When my heart has ached, he has comforted me; when my feet had well-nigh slipped, he has helped me up; when my faith was trampled, he has encouraged me; when I have been in sore need he has supplied all my need; when I have been hungry, he has fed me; when I have thirst, he has given me living water. All glory to God! What has he not done for me? What has he not been it to me? I’ll recommend him to the world.
Rob Coscia
Peace isn’t just an absence of conflict. Peace is your powerful state in Jesus, the reality of his rest, wholeness, perspective, and presence in your life. It’s the ultimate defense against the enemy, because he has no answer for it. He can’t intimidate, manipulate, or corrupt anyone who lives in God’s peace. If you’ve lost your peace, it’s usually because you’ve stopped letting God be your source. Peace that depends on circumstances, or on what others do or don’t do, is going to get broken quickly.
Roy Hession
The glorious, central fact of Christianity is that God has made a full and final revelation of Himself which has made Him understandable, accessible, and desirable to the simplest and most fearful of us.
Katherine Walden
God welcomes questions that invite conversation, but He doesn’t tolerate cynicism. Don’t disguise cynicism under a cloak of rational and logical dialogue.
James Hudson Taylor
Separation never comes from His side. He is always ready for communion with a prepared heart, and in this happy communion the bride becomes ever fairer, and more like to her Lord. She is being progressively changed into His image, from one degree of glory to another, through the wondrous working of the Holy Spirit, until the Bridegroom can declare:— Thou art all fair, My love; And there is no spot on thee. And now she is fit for service, and to it the Bridegroom woos her; she will not now misrepresent Him.