Abounding in hope
Discipleship- chapter 12
Abounding in Hope
- F.R. Maltby used to say that Jesus promised his disciples three things: they would be absurdly happy, completely fearless and in constant trouble!
- Joy and woe were woven fine at Pentecost, and have been ever since when the Spirit has moved in refreshing and renewing power upon God’s people.
- Our lives, personally and corporately, are like the seasons of the year. It cannot always be harvest. All sunshine makes a desert is a wise Arabian proverb. We need the cold, hard winter’ we need the rain. Yet through those bleaker days we also need the hope of spring and summer: If winter comes can spring be far behind?
- In practical terms, it means dying to our respectability, dying to our rights and privileges, dying to our prejudices, dying to our ambitions, dying to our comforts, dying to our independence and self-sufficiency, dying to our self-preservation. Unless we die to ourselves in these and other ways, there will be no fruit, no harvest and no hope for this world.
- When we are not willing for the cost of discipleship and for the price of spiritual renewal, it reveals that we are holding on to our lives, clinging to our temporal privileges and insecure in the love of God. We are afraid that, if we let go, God may leave us with nothing but himself. What a terrible indictment about our faith, hope and love.
- The apostle Paul had one supreme ambition, that of knowing Christ more and more.
- If we know God only when the sun is shining, our knowledge will be superficial, but when we trust him in the storms, the relationship will mature.
- God is love, and such is the nature of God’s love that he gave his only Son for the sake of the world. God’s love always gives, it is never marked by sacrificial service. We must open our lives to the love of God, and open our hearts to one another. Such vulnerability will lead to pain, but also to a living hope and to the possibility of God’s love reaching those who are harassed and helpless.
- Paul mentioned the depressing spiritual blindness that kept so many from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. He referred also to the physical and mental exhaustion experienced by many dedicated Christian workers, and talked about being afflicted, perplexed, persecuted and struck down.
- Not only can we know God for ourselves, but God has called us to be ambassadors of Christ and to bring his love and mercy to others.
- Aim at Heaven and you will get earth thrown in: aim at earth and you will get neither.
Abounding in Hope
- F.R. Maltby used to say that Jesus promised his disciples three things: they would be absurdly happy, completely fearless and in constant trouble!
- Joy and woe were woven fine at Pentecost, and have been ever since when the Spirit has moved in refreshing and renewing power upon God’s people.
- Our lives, personally and corporately, are like the seasons of the year. It cannot always be harvest. All sunshine makes a desert is a wise Arabian proverb. We need the cold, hard winter’ we need the rain. Yet through those bleaker days we also need the hope of spring and summer: If winter comes can spring be far behind?
- In practical terms, it means dying to our respectability, dying to our rights and privileges, dying to our prejudices, dying to our ambitions, dying to our comforts, dying to our independence and self-sufficiency, dying to our self-preservation. Unless we die to ourselves in these and other ways, there will be no fruit, no harvest and no hope for this world.
- When we are not willing for the cost of discipleship and for the price of spiritual renewal, it reveals that we are holding on to our lives, clinging to our temporal privileges and insecure in the love of God. We are afraid that, if we let go, God may leave us with nothing but himself. What a terrible indictment about our faith, hope and love.
- The apostle Paul had one supreme ambition, that of knowing Christ more and more.
- If we know God only when the sun is shining, our knowledge will be superficial, but when we trust him in the storms, the relationship will mature.
- God is love, and such is the nature of God’s love that he gave his only Son for the sake of the world. God’s love always gives, it is never marked by sacrificial service. We must open our lives to the love of God, and open our hearts to one another. Such vulnerability will lead to pain, but also to a living hope and to the possibility of God’s love reaching those who are harassed and helpless.
- Paul mentioned the depressing spiritual blindness that kept so many from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. He referred also to the physical and mental exhaustion experienced by many dedicated Christian workers, and talked about being afflicted, perplexed, persecuted and struck down.
- Not only can we know God for ourselves, but God has called us to be ambassadors of Christ and to bring his love and mercy to others.
- Aim at Heaven and you will get earth thrown in: aim at earth and you will get neither.
posted by Mim @ 3:34 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home