Reboot your attitude ...

Good Monday morning, my friends.

As I have said before, I believe we need to preach the Gospel to ourselves every day.  This resets us to a starting point of humility from which we can view ourselves and others more objectively (and more as God sees us/them).  A "reboot" for our attitude, if you will.

To assist in this endeavor this morning, I offer a prayer from well known theologian William Barclay.  

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Bruce

O Father, give us the humility which 

Realizes its ignorance,

Admits its mistakes, 

Recognizes its need, 

Welcomes advice,

Accepts rebuke. 

Help us always 

To praise rather than to criticize,

To sympathize rather than to discourage, 

To build rather than to destroy,

And to think of people at their best rather than at their worst.

This we ask for thy name's sake.

Prayer of William Barclay

(http://www.ramshornstudio.com/humility.htm)

Bruce MacPherson  macpherson@celtic.ca / Blog: The Celtic Christian / Home: 613.489.4174 Cell: 613.720.0821 You are receiving this email because you have requested it or I felt you would be interested in this material. If you would like to be removed from this email list, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address.  Likewise, if you know of someone else who you believe would appreciate receiving these messages, please let me know.

Life Lessons

Good Friday morning, my friends.

I am sure most of you have seen these before, but they are worth seeing again.  These are "Regina Brett's 45 life lessons and 5 to grow on".  My favourites are 4, 8, 29, especially 34, 40.  What are yours?  Do you have some lessons of your own?

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.

16. Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy dying.

17. You can get through anything if you stay put in today.

18. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.

19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Overprepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: "In five years, will this matter?"

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.

35. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

36. Growing old beats the alternative - dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.

38. Read the Psalms. They cover every human emotion.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.

41. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

42. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

43. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

44. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

45. The best is yet to come.

46. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

47. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

48. If you don't ask, you don't get.

49. Yield.

50. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Bruce

Do not look forward to what may happen tomorrow; 

the same everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow and every day. 

Either He will shield you from suffering,

or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it.

Be at peace, then. 

Put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations, and say continually: 

"The Lord is my strength and my shield. 

My heart has trusted in Him and I am helped. 

He is not only with me but in me, and I in Him."

St. Francis de Sales

(http://www.prayers-for-special-help.com/Inspirational-Prayers.html)

Bruce MacPherson  macpherson@celtic.ca / Blog: The Celtic Christian / Home: 613.489.4174 Cell: 613.720.0821 You are receiving this email because you have requested it or I felt you would be interested in this material. If you would like to be removed from this email list, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address.  Likewise, if you know of someone else who you believe would appreciate receiving these messages, please let me know.

Spirit starved?

Good Thursday morning, my friends.

Yesterday's post, "The Holy Spirit - Forgotten God?", obviously struck a chord with a number of you.  Here are some of the replies I received:

You asked us for our thoughts, well here's how I feel; firstly, I couldn't agree more with what he has written. It is quite a coincidence that you've raised this issue today - just this morning as I was heading out the door I was thinking that I haven't felt God's spirit (presence) in a real and deep way for a long, long time - years in fact! I am faithful in my devotions / quiet time and take my walk with God seriously, but still feel a big lack inside. I want to FEEL God. I want to KNOW He's there because I can feel Him - not just know it by faith. I fully realize that we (Christians) are to walk by faith - I'm cool with that! But, when it is all faith, all the time, I can't help but feel discouraged and have a real nagging sense that the God I read about is so much different than the God I personally experience. It's hard to feel excited about a God that doesn't excite me! I have a gut twisting pang sometimes when I truly reflect upon how different I would have to be in order for God to have the freedom to "inhabit" me the way He would like to. Am I willing to be radically different in order to give God the access to me that is required to have His spirit "live" in me like I would like? If I'm truly honest, the answer currently is NO. I am where I am because I am really not willing to be that different. You can't have the world and the spirit of God at the same time! My longing (and initial strivings at this point) are to be truly different so that I will be available and open to God so that His spirit can freely inhabit me. I have to let go of my fear of being different - a "nut case"!

====================================

What I find scary is the thought that I might "live the remainder of my life where I am right now, stagnating at this point". I am with Chan. I want more. I know there's more and I'm tired of just talking about God. The books, the studies, the groups, they are all good. But there is something missing. My church is good and getting better. But there is something missing. I haven't been able to put my finger on it but maybe Francis Chan just has. He gives words to what I know. 

My husband just came back from a mission trip to Guatemala. For the whole year or more of the planning he didn't know why he was going. He didn't think he was the right person because he wasn't really spiritual like the rest. He struggled with just the very basics of God. But he felt like he was suppose to go and was very confused by that. But he went and he changed. Now we pray together every day (God never ceases to shock me!). It is a complete and utter change. He's talked about wanting to go back. And so we've talked about what the difference was between the faith there and the faith here. And the thing that came out and the thing that I now pray for and our hearts beg for is Immersion. I want to be immersed in His Grace, His Presence. On a mission trip everything revolves around what God is doing. The people within the ministry, the children in the schools, all focus on God completely in every thing they do. The kids grow up in complete God-immersion. Many parents come to know Him because of it. Why? Because He attracts with purity, truth, justice, love, faithfulness, joy. He changes people. He changes everything. Why can I not have Him here? I want complete immersion but I too feel a twinge of fear of "freak-dom" and try to set it aside because I want to go and feel that Presence.

Many in our small group are feeling the same and trying to give voice to it. We talk of feeling something changing, being at a crossroads, wanting more. We are not satisfied with what we've come to know as religion or spirituality. God has done SO much for me and I have been close to Him. Close enough to know I want to live that way and not lose it ever again. I need to learn Spirit-Immersion. Your post has turned on a light for me. It gave voice to the missing link. Maybe this is it. May the lost be found. 

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For the last couple of months, I have had very strong feelings during my morning prayer and study sessions about a new revival coming.  A fresh moving of the Spirit in the body of Christ.  I, myself, am feeling Spirit starved.  I long and thirst for a greater filling of the Spirit.  I, too, long for more and feel that something is greatly lacking in our churches.  But I truly feel God is preparing me and many others for the new awakening that is coming.  I have been praying Jesus' prayer that we become one in Him, as He is one with the Father.  That we will become a great army that will march across this land and win back for Jesus what satan has stolen from us.  Namely, our children, our loved ones, and our friends.  We will face much persecution, but Jesus will lead us and He will win.

"I have a real nagging sense that the God I read about is so much different than the God I personally experience. It's hard to feel excited about a God that doesn't excite me!"

"I have to let go of my fear of being different - a 'nut case'!"

"I want complete immersion but I too feel a twinge of fear of 'freak-dom' "

"I, myself, am feeling Spirit starved."

Can you relate?  I sure can.  

Have we been deluded into believing that there is something "more"?  That there is a life "filled with the spirit" that is very different than what we are now experiencing? I don't think it is a delusion, I think it is reality, and like the last commenter above, I believe it is coming.  But, as the John Waller song that I use for a prayer today says: "While I'm waiting, I will serve You. While I'm waiting, I will worship."

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Bruce

I'm waiting

I'm waiting on You, Lord

And I am hopeful

I'm waiting on You, Lord

Though it is painful

But patiently, I will wait

I will move ahead, bold and confident

Takeing every step in obedience

While I'm waiting

I will serve You

While I'm waiting

I will worship

While I'm waiting

I will not faint

I'll be running the race

Even while I wait

I'm waiting

I'm waiting on You, Lord

And I am peaceful

I'm waiting on You, Lord

Though it's not easy

But faithfully, I will wait

Yes, I will wait

I will serve You while I'm waiting

I will worship while I'm waiting

I will serve You while I'm waiting

I will worship while I'm waiting

I will serve you while I'm waiting

I will worship while I'm waiting on You, Lord

Bruce MacPherson  macpherson@celtic.ca / Blog: The Celtic Christian / Home: 613.489.4174 Cell: 613.720.0821 You are receiving this email because you have requested it or I felt you would be interested in this material. If you would like to be removed from this email list, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address.  Likewise, if you know of someone else who you believe would appreciate receiving these messages, please let me know.

The Holy Spirit - Forgotten God?

Good Wednesday morning, my friends.

I started reading another Francis Chan book yesterday called "Forgotten God".  The introduction begins with these thoughts:

You might think that calling the Holy Spirit the "forgotten God" is a bit extreme. Maybe you agree that the church has focused too much attention elsewhere but feel it is an exaggeration to say we have forgotten about the Spirit. I don't think so. 

From my perspective, the Holy Spirit is tragically neglected and, for all practical purposes, forgotten. While no evangelical would deny His existence, I'm willing to bet there are millions of churchgoers across America who cannot confidently say they have experienced His presence or action in their lives over the past year. And many of them do not believe they can.

The benchmark of success in church services has become more about attendance than the movement of the Holy Spirit. The "entertainment" model of church was largely adopted in the 1980s and '90s, and while it alleviated some of our boredom for a couple of hours a week, it filled our churches with self-focused consumers rather than self-sacrificing servants attuned to the Holy Spirit. 

Perhaps we're too familiar and comfortable with the current state of the church to feel the weight of the problem. But what if you grew up on a desert island with nothing but the Bible to read? Imagine being rescued after twenty years and then attending a typical evangelical church. Chances are you'd be shocked (for a whole lot of reasons, but that is another story). Having read the Scriptures outside the context of contemporary church culture, you would be convinced that the Holy Spirit is as essential to a believer's existence as air is to staying alive. You would know that the Spirit led the first Christians to do unexplainable things, to live lives that didn't make sense to the culture around them, and ultimately to spread the story of God's grace around the world. 

There is a big gap between what we read in Scripture about the Holy Spirit and how most believers and churches operate today. In many modern churches, you would be stunned by the apparent absence of the Spirit in any manifest way. And this, I believe, is the crux of the problem. 

If I were Satan and my ultimate goal was to thwart God's kingdom and purposes, one of my main strategies would be to get churchgoers to ignore the Holy Spirit. The degree to which this has happened (and I would argue that it is a prolific disease in the body of Christ) is directly connected to the dissatisfaction most of us feel with and in the church. We understand something very important is 

missing. The feeling is so strong that some have run away from the church and God's Word completely. 

I believe that this missing  something is actually a missing Someone—namely, the Holy Spirit. Without Him, people operate in their own strength and only accomplish human-size results. The world is not moved by love or actions that are of human creation. And the church is not empowered to live differently from any other gathering of people without the Holy Spirit. But when believers live in the power of the Spirit, the evidence in their lives is supernatural. The church cannot help but be different, and the world cannot help but notice.

What do you think?  Do you think Satan has subverted the church by getting it's members to ignore the Holy Spirit?  I see a lot of truth in this observation, but I also believe that the Holy Spirit is starting to move again in a bigger way within the church.  I would love to hear what you think about this.

Francis Chan goes on:

I am tired of merely talking about God.  I want to see God move through me ... and through the worldwide body of Christ. I know there's more. We all know there's more. ... I refuse to live the remainder of my life where I am right now, stagnating at this point. Don't get me wrong: God has already done so much in my life, and I am grateful for it. I'm just convinced there's more. There's more of the Spirit and more of God than any of us is experiencing. I want to go there—not just intellectually, but in life, with everything that I am.

Challenging, isn't it?  Actually, I find it scary.  But I would love to know what it would be like to be living with the Spirit that infiltrated the first century church.

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Bruce

Holy Spirit, be with me today.

Be my teacher, my guide, my counselor, my friend.

Fill me with your gifts, especially the gifts of

wisdom, discernment, knowledge, understanding, compassion, love, and awe in God's presence.

In all that I think, say, and do, let it be in accordance with your most holy and perfect will.

I ask this in Jesus' name.

AMEN.

(http://www.yenra.com/catholic/prayers/totheholyspirit2.html)

Bruce MacPherson  macpherson@celtic.ca / Blog: The Celtic Christian / Home: 613.489.4174 Cell: 613.720.0821 You are receiving this email because you have requested it or I felt you would be interested in this material. If you would like to be removed from this email list, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address.  Likewise, if you know of someone else who you believe would appreciate receiving these messages, please let me know.

Lord, I do not understand Your ways, but You know the way for me

Good Tuesday morning, my friends.

Yesterday kind of got away on me, and I did not get a prayer sent out.  I trust you compensated with one of your own!

Rosemary and I were watching a movie on the weekend in which there was an interesting exchange between two men.  One of them was struggling with his faith, wondering how God could have allowed some terrible things to happen.  The other man told him a story about something that happened to him when he was about five years old.  He had a puppy that died.  When that happened, that five year old boy was very frustrated with God, wondering how this puppy, that was the most important thing to him in the entire world, could be taken from him.

I thought about that story and what the man was trying to convey to his friend.  What I think is that we are like the five year old boy.  We are so narrow in our focus, so immature in our thinking, that we cannot see outside the bubble of our current circumstances.  The adults around that boy surely would have sympathized with him, but would also have understood that there was going to be a lot more to that boy's life as he grew than that one puppy.  They knew he would learn lessons about life from the death of the puppy.  They knew he would go on to love other pets and people.  Well, God looks at our lives the same way.  While we can only see, and feel, what is going on around us at this moment, God has a much bigger perspective.  We must learn to trust more and more that He will heal, lead, and protect us.

Do you have any dying puppies in your life today?  Can you turn to God and say "I trust You"?  In Isaiah 49:14-18, God speaks to his people who believe he as abandoned them:

But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me, 

   the Lord has forgotten me."

"Can a mother forget the baby at her breast 

   and have no compassion on the child she has borne? 

Though she may forget, 

   I will not forget you! 

See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; 

   your walls are ever before me. 

Your children hasten back, 

   and those who laid you waste depart from you. 

Lift up your eyes and look around; 

   all your children gather and come to you. 

As surely as I live," declares the LORD, 

   "you will wear them all as ornaments; 

   you will put them on, like a bride.

You are engraved like a tattoo on palm of His hand.

Amazing Grace and Eternal Peace be yours today,

Bruce

O God, early in the morning I cry to you. 

Help me to pray and to concentrate my thoughts on you: 

I cannot do this alone. 

In me there is darkness, but with you there is light. 

I am lonely, but you do not leave me. 

I am feeble in heart, but with you there is help. 

I am restless, but with you there is peace. 

In me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience. 

I do not understand your ways, but you know the way for me... 

Restore me to liberty, and enable me so to live now that I may answer before you and before me. 

Lord, whatever this day may bring, your name be praised. 

(Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) - Composed in a Nazi prison while awaiting his execution.)

Bruce MacPherson  macpherson@celtic.ca / Blog: The Celtic Christian / Home: 613.489.4174 Cell: 613.720.0821 You are receiving this email because you have requested it or I felt you would be interested in this material. If you would like to be removed from this email list, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address.  Likewise, if you know of someone else who you believe would appreciate receiving these messages, please let me know.

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace

Good Friday morning, my friends.

This morning I was listening to Ephesians on my audio Bible while driving to work.  Ephesians 5:18b-20 stood out to me:

be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

"Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord."  It made me think of something  my friend Garth said a couple weeks ago.  He talked about having worship songs playing in his head.  He woke up to them, and went through his day with them.  I experience this sometimes as well - I particularly like waking up that way.

The first verse of the old hymn "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" picks up on this theme - "tune my heart to sing Thy grace".  This is a beautiful song, and I offer it this morning as a prayer for us.

(As I read the lyrics this morning, I was confused by the line "Here I raise my Ebenezer" in the second verse.  I looked it up and there is a great explanation here.)

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Bruce

Come Thou Fount of every blessing

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;

Streams of mercy, never ceasing,

Call for songs of loudest praise

Teach me some melodious sonnet,

Sung by flaming tongues above.

Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,

Mount of God's unchanging love.

Here I raise my Ebenezer;

Hither by Thy help I'm come;

And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,

Safely to arrive at home.

Jesus sought me when a stranger,

Wandering from the fold of God;

He, to rescue me from danger,

Interposed His precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I'm constrained to be!

Let that grace now like a fetter,

Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here's my heart, O take and seal it,

Seal it for Thy courts above.

Robert Robinson

Bruce MacPherson macpherson@celtic.ca / Blog: The Celtic Christian / Home: 613.489.4174 Cell: 613.720.0821 You are receiving this email because you have requested it or I felt you would be interested in this material. If you would like to be removed from this email list, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address. Likewise, if you know of someone else who you believe would appreciate receiving these messages, please let me know.

May feel our hearts burn within us

Good Thursday morning, my friends.

No sermon this morning, just this beautiful prayer by George Dawson.  Take the time to read it a few times and meditate on it's soul refreshing message.

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Bruce

Grant unto us, Almighty God, that we, 

communing with one another and with Thee, 

may feel our hearts burn within us, 

until all pure, and just, and holy, and noble things of God and man may be to us lovely, 

and we may find nothing to fear but that which is hateful in Thine eyes, 

and nothing worth seeking but that which is lovely and fair therein. 

Let the divine brightness and peace possess our souls, 

so that, fearing neither life nor death, 

we may look to Thy lovingkindness and tender mercy to lift us above that which is low and mean within us, 

and at last to give the spirit within us the victory, 

and bring us safe through death into the life everlasting. 

Hear us of Thy mercy, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

-- George Dawson

(http://kenanderson.net/bible/html/february.html)

Bruce MacPherson  macpherson@celtic.ca / Blog: The Celtic Christian / Home: 613.489.4174 Cell: 613.720.0821 You are receiving this email because you have requested it or I felt you would be interested in this material. If you would like to be removed from this email list, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address.  Likewise, if you know of someone else who you believe would appreciate receiving these messages, please let me know.