The High Calling of God

Draw Near To God James 4:8 “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded” The word “draw” in this verse means to “prefer, to choose”. It is our choice to draw near to God or not. The book of James was written to Christians, and yet he is telling them to cleanse their hands and purify their hearts. The choice was up to them as it is also up to us. The book of the Song of Solomon is a beautiful illustration of a Christian’s progressive development in their relationship with Jesus Christ. We can stay where God found us in the first place. Or we can choose to go on in our walk, our relationship with the Lord. Song of Solomon- 1:4 “Draw me away! We will run after you. The king has brought me into his chambers…” The bride’s first response was to ask to be drawn away by the Beloved. Then she committed her entire being to Him. She made a covenant with Him that if He drew her, she would foll...

Recently my husband and I had the opportunity to attend a Regional Conference for Voice of the Martyrs. I had never been to one of their meetings and I really didn’t know what to expect, only that God was urging me to go. There was one particular speaker I was anticipating hearing, other than that I thought I would be bored with a whole lot of statistics and slides. But that was not the case. We met and heard about people who truly had a passion for the Lord, a passion to follow Jesus wherever it leads. All during the day I felt the Lord dealing with me on things in my own life. No- He wasn’t calling us to a foreign country, but by the end of the day we were more determined than ever to do and live for God the way He wanted us to. Both me and my husband came away very touched by God’s Spirit and more determined than ever to do His will, with His help. I was very inspired and challenged by the testimonies of those who have followed the Lord through fire and storm, and have come...

Recently I was thinking about how the Lord is sifting His people like never before. This is a time of sifting, of separation. Many people are leaving the local church and the Lord. They are those who have not allowed His Spirit to come into their lives and sift it. They never allowed themselves to be crushed; they have become ‘foreign objects’ in the flour- they won’t sift through. How many of us can remember that almost every recipe called for the flour to be sifted. We had to sift it with the baking powder, salt, baking soda and other ingredients. How many times were there pieces that were hard and would not sift? We threw it out. We didn’t want those hard, mineralized pieces to be in our batter. It is the same process for the Lord, though He doesn’t throw us out. He usually gives us another chance to be sifted, over and over again. There are those who are willing to go through the sifting process, the refining process. Others have refused-when the heat is turned up...

Slowly, softly, so gently, the Lord allows the warmth of the sun to filter through the clouds to soothe your aching spirit. It trickles down from His heart and once again your spirit is beginning to feel new life. Not in the earthquake, not in the tornado, not in the fire- but in that still small voice: "Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10. After a time of darkness and silence, life begins to filter inside, deep into the caverns. As you weep and pour out your heart before the Lord, somewhere in the midst of the storm He begins to calm, soothe and restore. He reaches down and fashions you anew. He comes inside and heals and restores. In the midst of the pain, in the deep of the night, in the center of the storm, He is there, ever interceding, ever present. Even when you are not aware of His presence, when you acknowledge Him He is released into the very canyons of your spirit. 1 Kings 19:11-12 : "And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the L...

John 3:30 : “He must increase, but I must decrease- He must grow more prominent, I must grow less so.” (Amplified Version) I recently taught a Bible Study on this verse. Jesus Christ must be manifested in our life. He is the One that is to be seen, not us. Yes, God uses people- but the world should see Jesus Christ in us. 2 Corinthians 4:7 states: “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.” And Colossians 1:27 tells us that Jesus Christ in us is the hope of glory. All through the New Testament you can find verses that tell us that Jesus Christ is this treasure inside of us—we are the clay pots and He is the treasure. Others should not see the clay pot- they should see the treasure- Jesus Christ- inside of us. In order for this to happen, we must decrease—yield our lives to Him, submit our wills to Him—and Christ must increase- be magnified in our bodies and in our lives, be Lord of all we say and do. While st...

A few years ago my husband and I had the opportunity to visit Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina. It is located near the Blue Ridge Parkway in Linville and is one of the highest peaks in the Blue Ridge Mountains. One of the main attractions there is the Mile High Swinging Bridge, a 228 foot galvanized steel suspension bridge which spans an 80 foot chasm and is one mile high in elevation. On the bridge a person has a 360 degree panoramic view of the beautiful mountains and scenery below. As I always do when planning a vacation I spend hours on the computer, looking up web sites of the places we are going to visit. This was going to be one of the highlights of our southern trip along the Blue Ridge Parkway. I gazed for countless hours at the photographs and imagined what it was going to be like once we got on the bridge. I could have never imagined just what the experience would mean to me. The ride to the top was a twisty winding road that at times seemed to direct our car s...

Colossians 1:9,10 "For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;" For several years I have daily prayed these verses plus verses 11 and 12. I am often reminded especially of verse 10- to walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him and to be fruitful in everything I do. He often reminds me that “It’s not the quantity of what I do each day but the quality” .  It isn’t how MUCH I get accomplished each day but the QUALITY of what I do- how effective is it, was it God’s will, is it being fruitful, productive, how do I treat people. I do realize sometimes we don’t know how fruitful our works or words are, but the Word of God does tell us that His Word will not return void. I can do a lot of things each...