Christmas. Peace on Earth, good will to men.
Too bad the bad guys in this part of the world don't believe in Christmas, or in wishing peace or good will - to anyone. Well, they do but only if you share their beliefs. Otherwise they sing carols to Allah calling for our doom. And this Christmas I will be right in their midst, among people who would much rather wish me ill simply because all I claim to know is Jesus & Him crucified.
Looking around the countryside one would never be able to guess that Christmas is near. No Christmas trees, no Christmas lights, no effigies of Santa Claus & certainly no Nativity scenes dot the landscape as they do in America. It's kind of eerie.
As such, this Christmas does not feel like Christmas. But Christmas shouldn't be about me or my feelings; it is about our Lord born to a virgin for the sole purpose of dying for us. And to ultimately rise again. Hence, it doesn't matter where you or I are, for it's still Christmas.
I want you all to know how much I appreciate & love you. Thank you for the support you have extended to my family in my absence, for that is the greatest Christmas gift you all could have ever given me. Further, thank you for the prayers, e-mails & posts. I read them all.
But, most importantly, Merry Christmas & peace be unto you. Even if there is seemingly no peace on Earth.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Repentance: Another Gift from God
It has been my heart's desire to post more often on my blog but, lately, I've been prevented from doing so. Access to a computer connected to the Internet has been spotty to say the least due in no small part to the unusually high number of people staying here at this time. A vast majority of them, unlike myself, are transients either ultimately heading north to Iraq or going home. Regardless it doesn't really matter to me I just wish they would leave so everything can get back to normal & I can once again freely access the Web.
We have been staying busy, which is good, because otherwise time would appear to be at a stand-still. I know it isn't wise to wish away my life, for it is already short, like a breath of wind; but I consider this case to be an exception to the rule, an aberration of the norm. Yet in spite of what I feel, I know that I will one day look back at this time as a moment when God sovereignly moved in my life.
Privacy here is almost unheard-of. Before I wouldn't have cared as much but now that a desire to be with the Lord is becoming more insistent in me I am discovering that escape is not so easy. There are no closets to which I can run nor are there any bathrooms where I can lock the door & hide. Well, there are those portable toilets but they're plastic with no "clean" seats & they smell like - well - a sewer which is a distraction more than anything else.
Why do I have a desire for solitude? Quite simply, because I believe the Lord is calling me to repentance. And I need that solitude so I can vocalize that of which I'm repenting. Through this repentance will come revival, for God is quick to visit the repentant & humble soul. Since God resists the proud I have come to firmly believe that unless a man first humbles himself & repents he will never know God.
Of course I did not come to this conclusion on my own but with the help of a couple of books I recently read called "Repentance" by Richard Owen Roberts & "No Compromise: The Life Story of Keith Green" by Melody Green. Mr. Roberts' book expounds more on the practicality of the issue than does "No Compromise" but Mr. Green's biography does serve as a competent real-life example of someone who lived a life of repentance.
Both of these books were convicting & were sufficiently used by God to grasp my attention & to shake me out of the spiritual complacency to which I had fallen prey. By the grace of God I now know that repentance is not an act performed only at the point of salvation but it is something that I need to do continually. Repentance of sins should not be general or all-inclusive; it should be specific or itemized in my prayers. Repentance demands change not only of my outward actions but also of my inward heart. And, like our salvation, true repentance is not inherently a desire of my heart but a gift from God.
May it always be, Lord, may it always be!
Amen.
We have been staying busy, which is good, because otherwise time would appear to be at a stand-still. I know it isn't wise to wish away my life, for it is already short, like a breath of wind; but I consider this case to be an exception to the rule, an aberration of the norm. Yet in spite of what I feel, I know that I will one day look back at this time as a moment when God sovereignly moved in my life.
Privacy here is almost unheard-of. Before I wouldn't have cared as much but now that a desire to be with the Lord is becoming more insistent in me I am discovering that escape is not so easy. There are no closets to which I can run nor are there any bathrooms where I can lock the door & hide. Well, there are those portable toilets but they're plastic with no "clean" seats & they smell like - well - a sewer which is a distraction more than anything else.
Why do I have a desire for solitude? Quite simply, because I believe the Lord is calling me to repentance. And I need that solitude so I can vocalize that of which I'm repenting. Through this repentance will come revival, for God is quick to visit the repentant & humble soul. Since God resists the proud I have come to firmly believe that unless a man first humbles himself & repents he will never know God.
Of course I did not come to this conclusion on my own but with the help of a couple of books I recently read called "Repentance" by Richard Owen Roberts & "No Compromise: The Life Story of Keith Green" by Melody Green. Mr. Roberts' book expounds more on the practicality of the issue than does "No Compromise" but Mr. Green's biography does serve as a competent real-life example of someone who lived a life of repentance.
Both of these books were convicting & were sufficiently used by God to grasp my attention & to shake me out of the spiritual complacency to which I had fallen prey. By the grace of God I now know that repentance is not an act performed only at the point of salvation but it is something that I need to do continually. Repentance of sins should not be general or all-inclusive; it should be specific or itemized in my prayers. Repentance demands change not only of my outward actions but also of my inward heart. And, like our salvation, true repentance is not inherently a desire of my heart but a gift from God.
May it always be, Lord, may it always be!
Amen.
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