Anyone who is following the current general election campaign will have heard that David Cameron is speaking a lot about change.
Whatever your political views maybe as Christians we all know that God will challenge us about the changes that are needed in our life. But are we willingly to change?
Here is a link to an article I previously wrote on change.
This morning I read the following verse which is the final one in the book of Judges: “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.” If ever there is a receipe for disaster then that is it!
I got an email devotional this afternoon from The High Calling entitled Stunted Shrubs or Towering Trees? which contained the following quote:
When I live for myself, my goals, and my glory, when I rely on my own moral judgments rather than God’s revelation, I stop growing as a Christian. Yet when I trust more consistently in the Lord, when I entrust my life to Him, when I seek Him and His ways above all else…….. My growth is strong and steady, and I can see the fruit of God’s Spirit growing in my life.
It’s obvious which of the two is the best way to live. May God help us daily to choose the right way.
Mark Roberts challenges us to consider if we have stubborn hearts and to consider what helps us to have an open and repentant heart.
The whole article can be found here.
Ray Ortlund quotes from Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ book on revival reminding us that we cannot play with sin. Oh that I might take that lesson to heart!
In Ezekiel 33:11 the prophet is instructed to bring the following word to God’s people:
Say to them, “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?
This wonderful verse challenges us to turn to God and forsake our sin. Even though sin may sometimes seem attractive in the short term it always ultimately leads to death. Why would we choose death instead of life? It’s crazy to do that yet sadly we often do.
God takes no pleasure in our death He would rather we turned and lived. Let us then give Him pleasure by turning back to Him!
Prayer ” Dear Lord, please give us the grace to turn from our wicked ways and truly return to you and live. Amen”
Some very wise words from Professor R. Scott-Clark on true repentance: Crouching Tiger, True Repentance
I came across this challenging article by Paul Tripp which was written on BuildingChurchLeaders.com yesterday. It is called The Heart is the Target
Paul Tripp makes some interesting observations including the following comments which are worth pondering:
People and situations do not determine our behaviour; they provide the occasion where our behaviour reveals our hearts.
Any agenda for change must focus on the thoughts and desires of the heart.
Therefore, the heart is our target in personal growth and ministry. Our prayer is that God will work heart change in us and use us to produce heart change in others that results in new words, choices, and actions.
This morning in Spurgeon’s devotions he focused on the phrase in Joel 2:13 “Rend your heart, and not your garments.” In particular I found his comments below on rending our hearts both challenging and helpful:
HEART-RENDING is divinely wrought and solemnly felt. It is a secret grief which is personally experienced, not in mere form, but as a deep, soul-moving work of the Holy Spirit upon the inmost heart of each believer. It is not a matter to be merely talked of and believed in, but keenly and sensitively felt in every living child of the living God. It is powerfully humiliating, and completely sin-purging; but then it is sweetly preparative for those gracious consolations which proud unhumbled spirits are unable to receive; and it is distinctly discriminating, for it belongs to the elect of God, and to them alone.
The text commands us to rend our hearts, but they are naturally hard as marble: how, then, can this be done? We must take them to Calvary: a dying Saviour’s voice rent the rocks once, and it is as powerful now. O blessed Spirit, let us hear the death-cries of Jesus, and our hearts shall be rent even as men rend their vestures in the day of lamentation.
Thanks to both E-Sword and Heartlight for providing access to this wonderful material.
An open letter to backsliding Christians written in the 4th century is still as relevant today as when it was first written.
The men of integrity devotionals this week on Christianity Today are on the theme of “What’s to confess?”
Today’s devotional is entitled “Repent” and it reminds us of the importance of change. Repentance always involves change and without change there is no repentance.