Just so you know, I did not make any New Years resolutions to write more or to write on a regular basis this year. None of that even came to mind this year. My only thought for the new year was that I was unemployed and wondering what I was going to do for income. My last job ended mid November and I am still in the ranks of the unemployed. My best opportunity for work has been in studying for licensing exams with the TN insurance board and an invitation to work as a Farmers Insurance agent. This I have been pursuing and struggling with learning terminologies, facts, figures and lots of laws and details to pass the exam with. Please pray for me that I will be able to retain and regurgitate the information necessary to pass those exams.
I am re-posting an article I received in my email from Andrew Strom's website. Yes, he does give permission to re-post and sometimes I do this because I can't find better words to write for a subject matter. His contributing authors and quotes from other sources are worth reading and contemplating. Click on the title below for a link to his website and see for yourself. At the bottom of this blog post you will find some additional links to our mission websites in Africa and Mexico. Please check them out, too. They could use your support in prayer and monetary support if you are able and moved of God to do so. Thanks.
OTHERS MAY; YOU CANNOT
-Author Unknown.
IF God has called you to be really like Jesus He will draw you into
a life of crucifixion and humility, and put upon you such demands
of obedience, that you will not be able to follow other people, or
measure yourself by other Christians, and in many ways He will
seem to let other people do things which He will not let you do.
Other Christians and ministers who seem very religious and useful,
may push themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out
their plans, but you cannot do it, and if you attempt it, you will
meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you
sorely penitent.
Others may boast of themselves, of their work, of their successes,
of their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any
such thing, and if you begin it, He will lead you into some deep
mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.
Others may be allowed to succeed in making money, or may have
a legacy left to them, but it is likely God will keep you poor,
because He wants you to have something far better than gold,
namely, a helpless dependence upon Him, that He may have the
privilege of supplying your needs day by day out of an unseen treasury.
The Lord may let others be honored and put forward, and keep
you hidden in obscurity, because He wants to produce some
choice fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be
produced in the shade. He may let others be great, but keep you
small. He may let others do a work for Him and get the credit for
it, but He will make you work and toil on without knowing how
much you are doing; and then to make your work still more
precious He may let others get credit for the work which you have
done, and thus make YOUR REWARD TEN Times GREATER
When JESUS COMES.
The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you, with a jealous love,
and will rebuke you for little words and feelings or for wasting your
time, which other Christians never feel distressed over. SO make
up your mind that God is an Infinitely Sovereign Being, and has a
right to do as He pleases with His own. He may not explain to
you a thousand things which puzzle your reason in His dealings
with you, but if you absolutely sell yourself to be His love slave,
He will wrap you up in Jealous Love, and bestow upon you many
blessings which come only to those who are in the inner circle.
Settle it forever, then that you are to DEAL DIRECTLY WITH
THE HOLY SPIRIT, and that He is to have the privilege of tying
your tongue, or chaining your hand, or closing your eyes, in ways
that He does not seem to use with others. Now, when you are
so possessed with the living God that you are, in your secret
heart, pleased and delighted over this PECULIAR, PERSONAL,
PRIVATE, JEALOUS GUARDIANSHIP and MANAGEMENT OF
the HOLY SPIRIT OVER YOUR LIFE, then you will have found
the vestibule of Heaven.
WHEN YOU ARE forgotten, neglected, or purposefully set at
naught, and you smile inwardly, glorying in the insult or the
oversight, because thereby you are counted worthy to suffer with
Christ, THAT IS VICTORY.
WHEN YOUR GOOD is evil spoken of, when your wishes are
crossed, when your taste is offended, when your advise is
disregarded, when your opinions are ridiculed, and you take it
all in patient, loving silence, THAT IS VICTORY.
WHEN YOU ARE content with any food, raiment, climate,
society, solitude,or any interruption by the will of God, THAT
IS VICTORY.
Africa Links
www.stonehousegospel.org
http://stonehousegospel.blogspot.com/
www.learn-nakuru.org
http://kenyalearn.blogspot.com/
Mexico Links
http://horstinmexico.blogspot.com
