Sunday, October 16, 2011

Intreat me not to leave thee...

I've been studying the book of Ruth lately and I've been intrigued with the willingness of Ruth to be obedient and to be committed to Naomi. The scripture that struck my heart was: And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Ruth 1:16. This is how I feel spiritually with the Lord. Before anything else, there must be a relationship with God. God desires for us to be close to him and when I look at this scripture, I think of a cry or prayer to God: "Lord, I'll follow you wherever you lead me. Don't Pass me by. Lord, I'm committed to you" This passage reminds me of when Jesus says to the disciples; "Will you leave also?" and Peter says, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life? ( John 6:66-67) This has to be the reality of this walk; that without Christ we are nothing. There has to be reverence and a fear to the Lord. Without Christ, there is no hope. We live because Christ lives within us.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Enoch walked with God

I haven't posted anything in a while. I was reading my devotion today in "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers and the devotional sums up everything that has been going on for the last couple of months. Here it is: Enoch walked with God . . . —Genesis 5:24 The true test of a person’s spiritual life and character is not what he does in the extraordinary moments of life, but what he does during the ordinary times when there is nothing tremendous or exciting happening. A person’s worth is revealed in his attitude toward the ordinary things of life when he is not under the spotlight (see John 1:35-37 and John 3:30). It is painful work to get in step with God and to keep pace with Him— it means getting your second wind spiritually. In learning to walk with God, there is always the difficulty of getting into His stride, but once we have done so, the only characteristic that exhibits itself is the very life of God Himself. The individual person is merged into a personal oneness with God, and God’s stride and His power alone are exhibited. It is difficult to get into stride with God, because as soon as we start walking with Him we find that His pace has surpassed us before we have even taken three steps. He has different ways of doing things, and we have to be trained and disciplined in His ways. It was said of Jesus— “He will not fail nor be discouraged . . .” (Isaiah 42:4) because He never worked from His own individual standpoint, but always worked from the standpoint of His Father. And we must learn to do the same. Spiritual truth is learned through the atmosphere that surrounds us, not through intellectual reasoning. It is God’s Spirit that changes the atmosphere of our way of looking at things, and then things begin to be possible which before were impossible. Getting into God’s stride means nothing less than oneness with Him. It takes a long time to get there, but keep at it. Don’t give up because the pain is intense right now— get on with it, and before long you will find that you have a new vision and a new purpose.