Saturday, February 17, 2007
jralphengland@yahoo.com
“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.”
(Ephesians 2:1 KJV)
When I was a kid I used to bite my fingernails. I don’t know how I got started at that, but at a very young age I remember gnawing away at my nails. I carried the habit through adolescence and into adulthood. Finally at a point I realized that biting my nails was not cool and I just quit. I had no problem quitting because it was just a habit, I don’t think it was a severe nervous disorder, just a bad habit. Today my nails show evidence of some kind of trauma. They are not long and only grow close to the tips of my fingers. I suppose this is from being trimmed back close for so many years. I can remember as a kid getting my teeth on a small bit of nail and pulling at it until it would tear. Then I would continue to work at it and get it to tear all the way across the top end of the nail. Many times I would tear the hard lifeless part of the nail away from the soft red under part of the nail known as the quick, exposing the red flesh. Often my nails would bleed. I knew exactly when I had torn the nail too far. Pain used to shoot through my whole body, and many times would ache and throb for some time. I have not painted a pretty picture here, but that is how I related to the way the apostle Paul describes the way we were, what happened, and the way we are now. There is a big difference between the hard dead part of the nails, and the soft full of life quick underneath. As I look back over my life I realize that there was a time when I would consider myself to have been hard, calloused, and dead to the feeling of others and myself. Hard and dead, that’s what I was. You could trim a little bit of me away by taking my freedom, your friendship, and my money and I didn’t care. It didn’t hurt; I was dead to spiritual life. Trespassing didn’t bother me, I could walk all over you and it didn’t matter. The Greek word that the apostle Paul uses for sins is harmartia and it paints a different picture of how we think of the word sins. It means to miss the mark, always in a moral sense, a sin of thought, word or deed. When I was dead to spiritual life my life was lived missing the mark. I didn’t even try to hit the mark and live life as I should, caring for the lives and feelings of others. The kind of life I lived, living only for myself, collapsed in on itself and left me nowhere to turn but up. Reaching up for help God sent Jesus to show the way. Jesus through the forgiveness of my sins put me in the quick of my life, not the old hard dead part. Now when I miss the mark I feel…I feel the sting and pain of not living in God’s will for my life. I have been quickened. Being quickened sometimes hurts, but it reminds me that I am alive. Thanks for letting me share, God is doing for me what I could not do for myself…………….JRE
“But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved). Ephesians 2:4-5 KJV
Biting my nails
“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.”
(Ephesians 2:1 KJV)
When I was a kid I used to bite my fingernails. I don’t know how I got started at that, but at a very young age I remember gnawing away at my nails. I carried the habit through adolescence and into adulthood. Finally at a point I realized that biting my nails was not cool and I just quit. I had no problem quitting because it was just a habit, I don’t think it was a severe nervous disorder, just a bad habit. Today my nails show evidence of some kind of trauma. They are not long and only grow close to the tips of my fingers. I suppose this is from being trimmed back close for so many years. I can remember as a kid getting my teeth on a small bit of nail and pulling at it until it would tear. Then I would continue to work at it and get it to tear all the way across the top end of the nail. Many times I would tear the hard lifeless part of the nail away from the soft red under part of the nail known as the quick, exposing the red flesh. Often my nails would bleed. I knew exactly when I had torn the nail too far. Pain used to shoot through my whole body, and many times would ache and throb for some time. I have not painted a pretty picture here, but that is how I related to the way the apostle Paul describes the way we were, what happened, and the way we are now. There is a big difference between the hard dead part of the nails, and the soft full of life quick underneath. As I look back over my life I realize that there was a time when I would consider myself to have been hard, calloused, and dead to the feeling of others and myself. Hard and dead, that’s what I was. You could trim a little bit of me away by taking my freedom, your friendship, and my money and I didn’t care. It didn’t hurt; I was dead to spiritual life. Trespassing didn’t bother me, I could walk all over you and it didn’t matter. The Greek word that the apostle Paul uses for sins is harmartia and it paints a different picture of how we think of the word sins. It means to miss the mark, always in a moral sense, a sin of thought, word or deed. When I was dead to spiritual life my life was lived missing the mark. I didn’t even try to hit the mark and live life as I should, caring for the lives and feelings of others. The kind of life I lived, living only for myself, collapsed in on itself and left me nowhere to turn but up. Reaching up for help God sent Jesus to show the way. Jesus through the forgiveness of my sins put me in the quick of my life, not the old hard dead part. Now when I miss the mark I feel…I feel the sting and pain of not living in God’s will for my life. I have been quickened. Being quickened sometimes hurts, but it reminds me that I am alive. Thanks for letting me share, God is doing for me what I could not do for myself…………….JRE
“But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved). Ephesians 2:4-5 KJV
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
jralphengland@yahoo.com
Thought for the day: “To fear and not be afraid, that is the paradox of faith.”
A. W. Tozer
This morning after I studied the Word of God I read a chapter from A. W. Tozer’s book The Knowledge Of the Holy. The chapter I read is titled The Goodness of God. God truly is a good and loving God, but my concept of God has not always been one of a good God. As a child I can recall thinking of God as One who punishes more than One who commends us for our good deeds. Last night at an AA meeting I heard someone say that they were turned around when they realized that God was not a “Gonna gets ya” kind of God, but a good and loving God. Much of God’s goodness I don’t understand, and this morning Tozer has shed some light on the subject. Please share with me this excerpt from his book……………..JRE
“Repentance, though necessary, is not meritorious but a condition for receiving the gracious gift of pardon which God gives of His goodness………….
“The whole outlook of mankind might be changed if we could all believe that we dwell under a friendly sky and that the God of heaven, though exalted in power and majesty, is eager to be friends with us.
“But sin has made us timid and self-conscious, as well it might. Years of rebellion against God have bred in us a fear that cannot be overcome in a day. The captured rebel does not enter willingly into the presence of the king he has so long fought unsuccessfully to overthrow. But if he is truly penitent he may come, trusting only in the loving-kindness of his Lord, and the past will not be held against him. Meister Eckhart encourages us to remember that, when we return to God, even if our sins were as great in number as all mankind’s put together, still God would not count them against us, but would have as much confidence in us as if we had never sinned.
“Now someone who in spite of his past sins honestly wants to become reconciled to God may cautiously inquire, ‘If I come to God, how will He act toward me? What kind of disposition has He? What will I find Him to be like?’
“The answer is that He will be found to be exactly like Jesus. ‘He that hath seen me,’ Jesus said, ‘hath seen the Father.’ Christ walked with men on earth that He might show them what God is like and make known the true nature of God to a race that had wrong ideas about Him. This was only one of the things He did while here in the flesh, but this he did with beautiful perfection.
“From Him we learn how God acts toward people. The hypocritical, the basically insincere, will find Him cold and aloof, as they once found Jesus; but the penitent will find Him merciful; the self-condemned will find Him generous and kind. To the frightened He is friendly, to the poor in spirit He is forgiving, to the ignorant, considerate; to the weak, gentle; to the stranger hospitable.”
A. W. TOZER…………The Knowledge Of The Holy, page 83-84
Goodness
Thought for the day: “To fear and not be afraid, that is the paradox of faith.”
A. W. Tozer
This morning after I studied the Word of God I read a chapter from A. W. Tozer’s book The Knowledge Of the Holy. The chapter I read is titled The Goodness of God. God truly is a good and loving God, but my concept of God has not always been one of a good God. As a child I can recall thinking of God as One who punishes more than One who commends us for our good deeds. Last night at an AA meeting I heard someone say that they were turned around when they realized that God was not a “Gonna gets ya” kind of God, but a good and loving God. Much of God’s goodness I don’t understand, and this morning Tozer has shed some light on the subject. Please share with me this excerpt from his book……………..JRE
“Repentance, though necessary, is not meritorious but a condition for receiving the gracious gift of pardon which God gives of His goodness………….
“The whole outlook of mankind might be changed if we could all believe that we dwell under a friendly sky and that the God of heaven, though exalted in power and majesty, is eager to be friends with us.
“But sin has made us timid and self-conscious, as well it might. Years of rebellion against God have bred in us a fear that cannot be overcome in a day. The captured rebel does not enter willingly into the presence of the king he has so long fought unsuccessfully to overthrow. But if he is truly penitent he may come, trusting only in the loving-kindness of his Lord, and the past will not be held against him. Meister Eckhart encourages us to remember that, when we return to God, even if our sins were as great in number as all mankind’s put together, still God would not count them against us, but would have as much confidence in us as if we had never sinned.
“Now someone who in spite of his past sins honestly wants to become reconciled to God may cautiously inquire, ‘If I come to God, how will He act toward me? What kind of disposition has He? What will I find Him to be like?’
“The answer is that He will be found to be exactly like Jesus. ‘He that hath seen me,’ Jesus said, ‘hath seen the Father.’ Christ walked with men on earth that He might show them what God is like and make known the true nature of God to a race that had wrong ideas about Him. This was only one of the things He did while here in the flesh, but this he did with beautiful perfection.
“From Him we learn how God acts toward people. The hypocritical, the basically insincere, will find Him cold and aloof, as they once found Jesus; but the penitent will find Him merciful; the self-condemned will find Him generous and kind. To the frightened He is friendly, to the poor in spirit He is forgiving, to the ignorant, considerate; to the weak, gentle; to the stranger hospitable.”
A. W. TOZER…………The Knowledge Of The Holy, page 83-84
Monday, February 05, 2007
jralphengland@yahoo.com
Thought for the day: “To listen well is as powerful a means of influence as to talk well.”
(Chinese proverb)
“Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between prosperity and disaster, between life and death.” (Deuteronomy 30:15 NLT)
I think that being a good listener is as much a spiritual gift as being a good speaker. It seems that my whole life I have had a problem with listening. I could hear all right, I just didn’t listen well. Today I am starting to understand the importance of being a good listener. This is not an easy thing to accomplish. Most of my personal problems and character defects stem from my self-centeredness and selfishness, so it is easy to understand how a life built on self-will is not primarily interested in listening, but in speaking. As far back as I can remember I recall being a daydreamer. I can remember in elementary school finding myself looking out the school windows thinking about playing. In high school I remember looking out the windows at the birds and squirrels in the trees. I remember hearing the sounds of the cars going up and down the streets and dreaming of hot rods. I can remember my mother and grandparents giving me sound advice and it going in one ear and out the other. I remember that often I was guilty of hearing but not wanting to listen. In February of 1966 I was drafted into the US Army and it was at this time that I was forced to listen. I can still hear Sgt. Croozer saying in basic training, “It would behoove you to listen to what I am saying.” After my military experience and Vietnam I again started thinking that I knew it all. People tried to tell me that drugs and alcohol were going to screw me up, but I didn’t listen. A low point in my life could have been my possible death in Vietnam, so anything above that I considered to be fairly good. Having such a low bottom to hit, my alcoholism and drug addiction spiraled out of control. The whole time I was failing to listen to those who cared about me. I had been in and out of AA and NA meetings for years, but it won’t do you any good if you don’t listen. Today after more than eight years of clean and sober time, I still find myself sitting at meetings and instead of listening I will be thinking of all the things I want to say. I also find myself at times sitting in church, looking around, and thinking about everything from A to Z instead of listening to the Word of God as it offers me a choice between prosperity and disaster, between life and death. Today I have made it a habit to carry a pen and paper into my meetings and church services. I have heard some of the most profound words come out of the mouths of newcomers and babes in Christ. The pen and paper help me remember. Listening does not really work if we don’t remember. Today when I think of the gift of listening I am reminded of an older gentleman in my church, who when you speak to him, he listens with his eyes. As I speak to him, he makes eye-to-eye contact and my words seem to enter his spirit through his eyes. I know that he hears me with his ears, but his eyes show that he is listening. Thanks for letting me share, God is still doing for me what I could not do for myself……………….JRE
“I think a new world will arise out of the religious mists when we approach our Bible with the idea that it is not only a book which was once spoken, but a book which is now speaking.” (A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit Of God, page 77)
Are you listening?
Thought for the day: “To listen well is as powerful a means of influence as to talk well.”
(Chinese proverb)
“Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between prosperity and disaster, between life and death.” (Deuteronomy 30:15 NLT)
I think that being a good listener is as much a spiritual gift as being a good speaker. It seems that my whole life I have had a problem with listening. I could hear all right, I just didn’t listen well. Today I am starting to understand the importance of being a good listener. This is not an easy thing to accomplish. Most of my personal problems and character defects stem from my self-centeredness and selfishness, so it is easy to understand how a life built on self-will is not primarily interested in listening, but in speaking. As far back as I can remember I recall being a daydreamer. I can remember in elementary school finding myself looking out the school windows thinking about playing. In high school I remember looking out the windows at the birds and squirrels in the trees. I remember hearing the sounds of the cars going up and down the streets and dreaming of hot rods. I can remember my mother and grandparents giving me sound advice and it going in one ear and out the other. I remember that often I was guilty of hearing but not wanting to listen. In February of 1966 I was drafted into the US Army and it was at this time that I was forced to listen. I can still hear Sgt. Croozer saying in basic training, “It would behoove you to listen to what I am saying.” After my military experience and Vietnam I again started thinking that I knew it all. People tried to tell me that drugs and alcohol were going to screw me up, but I didn’t listen. A low point in my life could have been my possible death in Vietnam, so anything above that I considered to be fairly good. Having such a low bottom to hit, my alcoholism and drug addiction spiraled out of control. The whole time I was failing to listen to those who cared about me. I had been in and out of AA and NA meetings for years, but it won’t do you any good if you don’t listen. Today after more than eight years of clean and sober time, I still find myself sitting at meetings and instead of listening I will be thinking of all the things I want to say. I also find myself at times sitting in church, looking around, and thinking about everything from A to Z instead of listening to the Word of God as it offers me a choice between prosperity and disaster, between life and death. Today I have made it a habit to carry a pen and paper into my meetings and church services. I have heard some of the most profound words come out of the mouths of newcomers and babes in Christ. The pen and paper help me remember. Listening does not really work if we don’t remember. Today when I think of the gift of listening I am reminded of an older gentleman in my church, who when you speak to him, he listens with his eyes. As I speak to him, he makes eye-to-eye contact and my words seem to enter his spirit through his eyes. I know that he hears me with his ears, but his eyes show that he is listening. Thanks for letting me share, God is still doing for me what I could not do for myself……………….JRE
“I think a new world will arise out of the religious mists when we approach our Bible with the idea that it is not only a book which was once spoken, but a book which is now speaking.” (A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit Of God, page 77)
Thursday, February 01, 2007
jralphengland@yahoo.com
Thought for the day: “I’ve got sunshine, on a cloudy day.”
(William “Smokey” Robinson)
“For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” (2 Corinthians 1:20 KJV)
It snowed a couple of inches last night and today as I look out my window at the bird feeders I see hundreds of birds. Possibly thousands, I have no way of counting them. My granny started feeding the birds outside this window years ago. How many years ago, I don’t know. Somewhere between fifty to eighty years ago the birds were being fed here in the same spot by my granny. As a kid in the 1950’s I remember birdhouses sitting on post all around the farmhouse. Some are still there and have been used by generations upon generations of birds. Out by the shop on a post there is an antique Krispy Saltine Cracker can that the birds have nested in ever since crackers came in cans. Feeding the birds here is a family tradition, and since my granny has been gone, I have tried to carry it on. The bird populations have changed over the years though. Today I still have the cardinals, blue jays, sparrows, finches, chickadees, juncos, doves, tufted titmouse, brown-headed cowbirds, and various woodpeckers. What are new are the starlings and the black birds. Hundreds upon hundreds of them seem to find their way to my feeders when the weather is cold and snowy. I think they have flourished because of the number of cattle that are raised in the area. Many acres have been cleared over the years to produce pastures for cattle, where as fifty years ago there was much more timber for the songbirds. Some people don’t want the black birds at their feeders, but I feel that as long as God gives me the resources to feed birds, they are welcome. In the winter it is not unusual to use over one hundred pounds of seed a month for the birds. It is one of God’s promises that the birds will be fed, share this with me, “Behold the fowls of the air for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them” (Matthew 6:26). The Father feeds them and it is my pleasure to and honor to do the labor involved. Such a small task indeed. As Matthew recorded the words of Jesus, He went on to say that that same promise will apply to my life also. Share this we me, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). Now there’s a promise I don’t want to miss out on. It has been tried and tested in my life today and I have found it to be true. “But my god shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). God is doing for me what I could not do for myself…………..JRE
“All God’s promises are yes and so be it, or yes and truth. In Him they are always yes, and in Him they are always truthful. Not one promise of God is no to the one who will believe and meet the conditions.” (The Dake Bible, page 192)
“Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them.” (Alcoholics Anonymous, page 84)
the promises
Thought for the day: “I’ve got sunshine, on a cloudy day.”
(William “Smokey” Robinson)
“For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” (2 Corinthians 1:20 KJV)
It snowed a couple of inches last night and today as I look out my window at the bird feeders I see hundreds of birds. Possibly thousands, I have no way of counting them. My granny started feeding the birds outside this window years ago. How many years ago, I don’t know. Somewhere between fifty to eighty years ago the birds were being fed here in the same spot by my granny. As a kid in the 1950’s I remember birdhouses sitting on post all around the farmhouse. Some are still there and have been used by generations upon generations of birds. Out by the shop on a post there is an antique Krispy Saltine Cracker can that the birds have nested in ever since crackers came in cans. Feeding the birds here is a family tradition, and since my granny has been gone, I have tried to carry it on. The bird populations have changed over the years though. Today I still have the cardinals, blue jays, sparrows, finches, chickadees, juncos, doves, tufted titmouse, brown-headed cowbirds, and various woodpeckers. What are new are the starlings and the black birds. Hundreds upon hundreds of them seem to find their way to my feeders when the weather is cold and snowy. I think they have flourished because of the number of cattle that are raised in the area. Many acres have been cleared over the years to produce pastures for cattle, where as fifty years ago there was much more timber for the songbirds. Some people don’t want the black birds at their feeders, but I feel that as long as God gives me the resources to feed birds, they are welcome. In the winter it is not unusual to use over one hundred pounds of seed a month for the birds. It is one of God’s promises that the birds will be fed, share this with me, “Behold the fowls of the air for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them” (Matthew 6:26). The Father feeds them and it is my pleasure to and honor to do the labor involved. Such a small task indeed. As Matthew recorded the words of Jesus, He went on to say that that same promise will apply to my life also. Share this we me, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). Now there’s a promise I don’t want to miss out on. It has been tried and tested in my life today and I have found it to be true. “But my god shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). God is doing for me what I could not do for myself…………..JRE
“All God’s promises are yes and so be it, or yes and truth. In Him they are always yes, and in Him they are always truthful. Not one promise of God is no to the one who will believe and meet the conditions.” (The Dake Bible, page 192)
“Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them.” (Alcoholics Anonymous, page 84)
