Sincerity is not Enough

Sincerity is no substitute for truth. One can be sincerely wrong. I stopped for gas on the freeway that runs through the flat and somewhat boring Iowa countryside. It was one of the places where you exit then cross over the freeway and then make a left turn into the gas station. Upon filling up I proceeded on my way to Denver. After about 10 miles a sign shocked me into the realization that I was going in the wrong direction. I didn't have a compass, and it "felt" like I was going West when I was actually going East.

In spiritual matters, feeling and sincerity, without the compass of God's Word, can send us in the wrong direction. Not the "subjective" use of God's Word, ie., "what do you feel that means to you", but the objective truth statements derived from sound exegesis and the application of time honored principles of interpretation.

"Thus saith the Lord", like the signpost, can turn you around in a heartbeat, unless you want to argue with what is written and would rather go with your feelings.

How to Change a Lamb into a Pig and Vice-versa.

How to change a lamb into a pig.
The lamb gives a little lamb and takes a little pig. Give a little,take a little; give a little, take a little, etc, etc, etc, etc. Soon the little lamb can no longer say bah, bah, bah. All he can say is oink, oink, oink.

How to change a pig into a lamb.
The little pig needs to get born again, into a Lamb's family. "Therefore, if anyone is in (The Lamb), he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come."

Want to Get Involved?

"There is no more significant involvement in another's life than prevailing, consistent prayer. It is more helpful than a gift of money, more encouraging than a strong sermon, more effective than a compliment, more reassuring than a physical embrace."

Charles Swindoll in "The Quest for Character"

"As for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you."

I Sam. 12:23

A Spirit Filled Moment or a Spirit Filled Life?

There is a big difference between a Spirit filled moment, and a Spirit filled life. God, the Holy Spirit, makes Himself known and felt in a wonderful way when He comes upon us in great power or softly and as gently as a dove. One "Spirit filled moment" can change the direction of a life forever because God steps out of the realm of doctrine and theology and into the realm of experience. However, God does not want us to always be looking back to that mountain top experience. He wants us to walk in the Spirit and to constantly be being filled with the Spirit. Then, and only then, will we be where God wants us to be in our Christian life.

Gal. 5:16-26; Eph. 5:18

Got unanswered prayer?

"Unanswered yet! Nay, do not say ungranted,
Perhaps your work is not wholly done.
The work began when first your prayer was uttered,
And God will finish what He has begun.
If you will keep the incense burning there,
His glory you shall see -- sometime -- somewhere."

E.B. Browning

Is Fatherhood just an Institution?

"Sons of great men have sometimes remembered their father as an institution rather than as a father, and God is to some of His children little more than an institution. It was not thus that Jesus revealed Him. ..... There are many revelations of the Divine Glory and Majesty, and it is well to ponder them in adoring worship; but Jesus turned them into terms of filial value. He is our Father. That is the crowning fact. Others may cringe in fear, but the child heart is a stranger to terror."

Samuel Chadwick from the book "God Listens to the Crying Heart in The Secret Place".

The Basis of Prayer

"The basis of prayer is sonship. Prayer is possible and reasonable because it is filial. It is natural for a child to ask of its father, and it is reasonable for the father to listen to the request of his child." Samuel Chadwick