A challenge by Paul Washer.

HT: Symphony of Scripture.

“Looking unto Jesus and not to our brethren, not even to the best among them and the best beloved. In following a man we run the risk of losing our way; in following Jesus we are sure of never losing our way. Besides, in putting a man between Jesus and ourselves, it will come to pass that insensibly the man will increase and Jesus will decrease; soon we no longer know how to find Jesus when we cannot find the man, and if he fails us, all fails. On the contrary, if Jesus is kept between us and our closest friend, our attachment to the person will be at the same time less enthralling and more deep; less passionate and more tender; less necessary and more useful; an instrument of rich blessing in the hands of God when He is pleased to make use of him; and whose absence will be a further blessing, when it may please God to dispense with him, to draw us even nearer to the only Friend who can be separated from us by ‘neither death nor life’ (Romans 8:38-39).”

-Taken from Looking Unto Jesus, Theodore Monod, p. 9-10 (emphasis mine).

By Randall Fox

“Be filled with the Spirit” Ephesians 5:18

The command to be Spirit-filled is one of the most vital imperatives for the Christian life. Yet one of the most misunderstood and neglected. The meaning of the command to be filled with the Spirit further unfolds as we look at other usages of the word “filled.” In John 12:3, the word “fill” is used to describe a permeating fragrance when Mary anointed the feet of the Lord: the house was “filled with the fragrance of the oil.” Being filled means to allow the Spirit to pervade every area of our lives. He must have the whole. Anyone who has the mentality that he can be filled with the Spirit yet keep some areas of his life closed to Him will never experience this. This word “filled” is often associated with human emotions. The New Testament speaks of being filled with sorrow (John 16:6), fear (Luke 5:26), or anger (Luke 6:11). Just as an immaterial emotion can dominate (”fill”) a material human body, the immaterial Spirit of God can govern a physical human being.

What does the Spirit-filling look like? Scripture gives us examples of people who were filled with the Spirit. When the Holy Spirit came at Pentacost, the ensuing preaching is attributed to being filled with the Spirit (Acts 2:4). Peter, who denied Christ before a servant girl only weeks earlier, is now bold as a lion before the Sanhedrin because he was filled with the Spirit (Acts 4:8). Stephen’s fidelity to Jesus Christ and his disregard for his own life are attributed to being filled with the Spirit (Acts 7:55). That supernatural quality that characterised the early church is explained as being filled with the Spirit. The reason the early church’s courage, dedication, and love seem supernatural is because they were.

The helpful parallel passage in Colossians 3:16 replaces the phrase “Be filled with the Spirit” with “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” When you let the Word of God have its home (dwell) in your heart, you are letting the Spirit of God control you. The will of the World and the will of the Spirit are not two distinct things but one, since the Spirit wrote the Word.

Finally, it is important to distinguish the filling of the Spirit from spiritual maturity. Spiritual growth is Read the rest of this entry »

By Nabeel Zaydan

As we live our days, sometimes we’re going along and suddenly we’re knocked down by some unexpected circumstance. Everything is out of focus and we begin gasping for our spiritual breath. Nothing seems to matter then except our circumstances. It may be a tragedy, a physical illness, a loss of job, children in trouble, financial problems, or one of a hundred things. At such a time as this, the most important thing is to know how to survive it and regain our spiritual breath. The only sure footing we have is the Word of God and absolute confidence in the Providential Sovereignty of God.

I. What is meant by Divine Providence?

Providence sums up the basic biblical teachings about God’s relationship to His World. It indicates God’s care for and supervision of all things, from the moment of creation on into eternity. “Pro” means “before””””Video” means “to see”””Providence means “to see before.” This means that God sees before and plans accordingly. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jason Harris

You may expect me to say that what Australia really needs is revival, and that is what we need, but not the kind of revival that you may be thinking. Many think of revival as a mysterious religious fervor that God sends arbitrarily depending on what mood He is in and how frantic we are in prayer. I’m not saying God doesn’t move in amazing ways at various places and times, but I am saying that we must never let a lack of that kind of revival keep us from the revival that matters most—daily revival.

Face it, we are Romans three humans. The flesh is still resident within us. Until we take our focus off of some mysterious thing that God may do, and put it on the objective thing that God has told us to do, we are missing the point. God wants us to walk in daily submission to Him. That’s daily revival. Read the rest of this entry »

By Mardi Collier

This is a start to a list of the characteristics of God that will help you in your study of beginning to know Him. It is vitally important to study Who our God is and have a knowledge of Him because it is the very foundation of our Christian faith. Every decision we make in our “every-day lives” should be impacted by what we believe about our God. Satan is the father of lies, and he wants us to believe lies about God, while the Bible teaches us the truth about God. Unless we study God’s Word and learn the truth about God, we will easily believe the lies of Satan instead of the truth about God. (Ex: If a loved one is seriously ill, I can either believe that God doesn’t love me and isn’t in control, or I can believe that God always loves me, hears my prayers, is always in control and wants me to grow to be more like Christ through this trial.) Read the rest of this entry »

A closer look at our worship.
By Jason Harris

Speaking with various leaders about music and the worship service, people kept saying “something’s missing.” Maybe we can’t put our finger on it, but we know that what we have isn’t everything we’re supposed to have””something’s missing. We know the answer isn’t to go the way of Hillsong and the Praise & Worship Movement, but we also know that we don’t have it… whatever “it” is, we don’t have it. Read the rest of this entry »