I had a very pleasant day. Much of time was spent reading on my bed. I have a fairly decent view from my room, so I felt a certain happiness reading and looking out my window. It rained part of the day which only added to the comfort and sweetness of my day.
I read two books: Wrestling with Angels: in the Grip of Jacob's God by Larry Lichtenwalter and Abide in Me: Our Lord's Supreme Invitation to the Believer by N.A. Woychuk. The first book gave me courage as I read about how God worked through Jacob's failures and weaknesses. The second book was a-hike-up into-a-mountain or jump-in-a-cold-lake-kind of book. The more I read it, the more refreshed and clear minded I felt.
Here are some quotes from it:
"Abide in Christ beloved, and let his words abide in you. Cling to Him. Strike fast to Him. Live the life of intimate fellowship with Him. Get closer and closer to Him. Roll every care and every burden upon Him" (9).
"To abide in Christ means to enjoy Him, to delight in Him, to love Him and to worship Him. To abide in Christ means to trust Him in every situation and to keep the mind and heart ever open before Him, and to have His word abiding in us. It involves walking in the light as He is in the light, and having a joyful readiness to do his will" (pgs.8,9).
"And now the Lord invites every believer to this celestial, sublime fellowhship with Himself personally: Abide in me and I in you! Life in such a communion with the Son of God disallows the presence of sin" (p.2).
"'Christians will abide in Christ' said Puritan John Brown, 'just in the degree in which they let Christ abide in them.' The abiding of His words in us is largely the means of His abiding in us. We have learned that 'I in you' is the same as 'my My Words in you.' This obviously means a great deal more than an intellectual acceptance of His word. It is something very different from reading a verse or two in the morning and forgetting all bout it the rest of the day, it is something far superior to coming in contact with the Bible truth on [Sabbath], and taking a little of it home with us. Having the word itself actually in our mind and heart, and our desires, our affections, our understanding, our will our whole being steeped in these great truths, so they hold sovereign sway in our life and control all our thoughts and all our movements (p.20).
"It is an unbroken stream of grace from justification through the various stages of sanctification to everlasting life, every new wave taking the place of an overwhelming work though not superseding or destroying the other. The Lord, the true vine has in Himself, as Teacher and Redeemer, all that we need. He means to teach us that He Himself, in His divine-human personality is the middle and the end of our spiritual life and fruit bearing" (Schaff qtd in Woychuk, p. 25,26).
"It is not enough that I turn away from myself with disgust, I must turn to Christ with delight" (p.28).
"This infinite love which permeates heaven now fills the life of the Christian who lives in communion with Christ" (p.29).
2 comments:
That's a great idea! I think I'll try it, too! Hope you felt refreshed and re-energized in every way!
It was refreshing. It was the combination of lazy day + God time.
Post a Comment