What follows is a chapter from “The Imitation of Christ”, by Thomas a Kempis.. A very good book!

Chapter 39
How Truth Instructs us in Silence
THE DISCIPLE. `Speak, Lord, for Your servant listens.’(I Sam 3:9) `I am Your servant; grant me understanding, that I may know Your testimonies.’(Ps.119:125) `Incline my heart to the words of Your mouth;(Ps. 128:1) let Your speech descend on me like the dew.’(Deut.32:2) The people of Israel of old time said to Moses, `Speak with us and we will hear: let not God speak with us, lest we die.’( Ex. 20:19) But I do not pray thus, O Lord; but with the Prophet Samuel, I humbly and earnestly beg, `Speak, Lord, for your servant listens.’ Let not Moses or any of the Prophets speak to me, but rather do You speak, O Lord God, who inspire and enlighten the Prophets. You alone can perfectly instruct me without their aid, but without You they can do nothing.
The Prophets can preach the word, but they cannot bestow the Spirit. They speak most eloquently, but if You are silent, they cannot fire the heart. They instruct in the letter, but You open the understanding. They set forth the mysteries, but You reveal the meaning of all secrets. They teach your commandments, but You help us to observe them. They point the way, but You grant us strength to follow it. Their action is external; You instruct and enlighten the heart. They water the seed; You make it fruitful.(I Cor. 3:7) They proclaim the words, but You impart understanding to the mind.
Therefore, let not Moses speak to me, but You, O Lord my God, the Everlasting Truth, lest I die and bear no fruit if I am but warned in word, and not kindled at heart; lest it turn to my condemnation, if I hear Your word, but do no obey it; know it, but do not love it; believe it, but do not keep it.
Therefore, Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening. `You have the words of eternal life.’(John 6:68) Speak to me, Lord, and comfort my soul: order my life to Your praise, glory, and eternal honour.

How many times have we passed a person with car trouble and thought, “I should stop and help”. Hopefully we haven’t gotten too numb to at least “think” this. But most times we just keep going justifying our actions by saying, ‘well they have a cell phone, probably already called for help”, and ” I’ll be late if I stop”, and so on. A while back, (last winter), I finally stopped making excuses. I saw a man walking a few hundred yards ahead of an old pickup truck along side the road. He was carrying a can ( obviously for gas). I went by, and thought ‘it’s 8 degrees outside, I hope he stays warm’. I then realized there was no gas station for miles. I turned around. I picked him up and took him to get gas, brought him back and waited till he was on his way. His name was Greg and he was a crane operator.
We have to fight the urge to be closed and stop thinking that ’someone else’ will be the hands of Jesus.
I only tell this story from shame. I have passed by 95% of the chances I have had to help someone. We have to stop hoping they’ll be warm, and start giving them our coat.
Seeing the opportunity is only halfway there. Seize it!

Just listening to a song by David Crowder, “You Make Everything Glorious”.. In that song he says ‘you make everything glorious and I am yours..so what does that make me?’

We don’t use the word glorious much in our conversations, so it seems a little odd when you hear it. One definition of glorious is “Characterized by great beauty and splendor; magnificent.”

God is glorious. And God makes everything glorious, and I am His… so what does that make me?

Valuable is His sight.

Remember who you are, and Who you belong to. Those words ring in my mind. Maybe because so many times in my life , I have not acted like that was true. The video above is Dave Robinson, who was my son’s youth leader and this was at a high school graduation lunch. The key little phrase he says is, “now act like it”. You could miss that if you weren’t really paying attention. But to me, that phrase is so powerful. If you are a child of God, you are eternal.. Now act like it!. You are a royal priesthood, now act like it! You are more that a conqueror, now act like it!….Don’t let the cares of this temporary world get a hold on you. You are an eternal being. You will live out eternity somewhere. If that somewhere is heaven for you, act like it!

Have ever heard the song? “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die”. If you haven’t look it up on the net. It is an old song. There are scary and contemplative things in that thought. If I truly believe what God says and I am a child of God, and I believe going to be with Jesus, then that is what I should want, why are we scared to die? I don’t know. I think it’s our old nature, begging us to hold on to this life with all we have.

Another thought occurs to me that is even more true. Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to make Jesus Lord. Oh, we want Him to be our Saviour, and we cry out, “Save us, God”. But be our Lord? Does that mean I have to get off the throne of my life and let you sit there? What will you want me to do, if you are king of me?

We don’t want that.. Do you know what that would look like? We would no longer be able to fuss with the guy who cuts us off in traffic. We would no longer be acquiring wealth, we would be giving it all away. We would no longer be buying cars that cost $20,000.00 dollars when a $10,000 car would do , and we would give the other $10,000 to God.
Wow, that would be different. If God was our Lord, not just our Saviour.

But in the end, what leaves you broken — In the end, makes you better.

I was just hearing that song by Plumb, over and over in my mind.. There is a lot of truth in those words. What breaks us, usually leaves us better. Makes us stronger. If we determine to use it that way.

Fishing