Revisiting Jabez

About 10 years ago a lot of Christians were talking about "The Prayer of Jabez". Sermons were preached, classes were taught, books were written, and this little prayer tucked away in 1 Chronicles 4:10 became very personal to many sincere souls. It's been quite awhile since I've thought about it. Maybe it's time to revisit the prayer of Jabez and make it our very own.

"Now Jabez called to the God of Israel, saying, "Oh that You would bless me indeed and enlarge my border, and that Your hand might be with me, and that You would keep me from harm that it may not pain me!"" I Chron. 4:10 NASB

Knowing the Will of God

"God makes His will known:(1) through His Word-- as we stop and study it. (2) through circumstances--as we look within and sense what He is saying, and (3) through the counsel of others--as we listen carefully." Charles R. Swindoll

Counsel which violates the principles of Scripture is simply poor counsel. And ignorance of God's Word leaves a person vulnerable to his own sense of what is right and wrong. Therefore, it is essential to know and understand what God has already revealed in His Word about His will for our lives, and pattern our decisions after Scriptural principles.

Selective Hearing

"You can not listen to just half of what the Holy Spirit has to say. It's a package deal. If you aren't willing to listen to everything He has to say, you won't hear anything He has to say. If you tune out His convicting voice, you won't hear His comforting voice or guiding voice either." from the book "Primal,a Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity", by Mark Batterson.

Does it really matter what He said?

I just picked up an old book, "What Jesus Said". It catagorizes by subject matter all of the words of Jesus Christ recorded in the New Testament. I'm going to read and study this book in the next few months because what He said matters more than anything else.

Col. 3:16 "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly..."

Jesus said,"I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock." Luke 7:47,48

Do you know what Jesus said about ______? Does it really matter?

Excuses, excuses, excuses. Please, give me a break.

L.E. Maxwell made a profound impression on my life and the lives of thousands of young men and women who studied under him. He was an avid outdoorsman and big game hunter and from this brought some lively illustrations into the classroorm.

He used the taxidermists art of preserving big game trophies to give a word picture of what an excuse really is. "An excuse is the skin of a reason, stuffed with a lie."

It may look like the genuine article, but it doesn't have an ounce of life in it.

Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

"Every spiritual problem is at bottom theological. Its solution will depend upon the teaching of Holy Scriptures plus a correct understanding of that teaching. That correct understanding constitutes a spiritual philosophy, that is, a viewpoint, a high vantage ground from which the whole landscape may be seen at once, each detail appearing in its proper relation to everything else. Once such vantage ground is gained, we are in a position to evaluate any teaching or interpretaton that is offered us in the name of truth." A.W. Tozer

HERO or ZERO ??

Hero or Zero? There's a big difference between HERO WORSHIP and HERO IMMITATION.
If it's immitation, that person really is a hero. If it's worhip, (adulation without immitation) then that person is not a hero but a zero.

Leonard Ravenhill wrote: "Ah! brother preachers, we love the old saints, missionaries, martyrs, reformers: our Luthers, Bunyans, Wesleys, Asburys, etc. We will write their biographies, reverence their memories, frame their epitaphs, and build their cenotaphs. We will do anything except imitate them. We cherish the last drop of their blood, but watch the first drop of our own!