From Mr. Hession's book on pages 149-150, he speaks of something I think is related to our recent discussions - how do I stay current and on fire for Jesus Christ, like Paul or Peter did?
He says:
I do not get blessed when I read my Bible as a matter of duty for a daily quiet time. Rather, when I come feeling bad, those are the times when it speaks, livingly! And again and again I have to say to the Lord, “I want to tell You something: I’m not in spiritual good shape.”
“Just fine,” says the Lord. “Anything more?”
“Well, I haven’t got much peace.”
“Anything more? Come on, let it all out.”
And when I come like that, grace meets me; because when I admit that I’m in that position, in the very nature of the case I become a candidate for that marvelous grace of our loving Lord, grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt.
Grace is not God’s reward for the faithful, it’s His gift for the empty and the feeble and the failing. When I am feeling like that, I’m just the one who is going to be blessed.
. . .
Grace is the undeserved favor of God, and you are no candidate for grace unless you are undeserving.
My thoughts:
This is such an awesome paragraph! I really appreciate Roy’s way of explaining this as just a real conversation between our great God and my piddly self.
What is man that God is mindful of him? Yet He’s crowned us with a crown of glory and given us dominion over the works of His very hand!
This is what we recently talked about, I think.
Speaking for myself (and probably for many men), we are naturally “SELF-sufficient”; not in a good way, but in a way in which we’re continually trying to make things work on our own. We seem to think that we have some ability, to discern on our own, which things, little or large, need the high power of our God. So ,we stand before him in our obstinance and God patiently watches us, always at the ready to pour into us if we will just stop, bow, and say, “Lord, help!”
This truth is so fundamental—if we think we have no sin, we are not in need of a Savior or of His blood to wash us; and it that’s the very case, in which IT WILL NOT WASH US! But if we finally humble ourselves before the One who loves mercy and at the same time does justly, He will pour into us His grace beyond measure!
Final fundamental thought: If you are deserving of grace, then you have no need of it.
Then from Page 156, Hession makes the statement about what God is continually doing in the lives of His saints:
"They are hungry as never before; and I want to spend my remaining days in helping to lead people back to Calvary, back to the blood, back to liberty, back to revival."
My thoughts:
What a statement! This is an exhortational challenge. Does this sound like something you want to do? Has it ever been something you wanted do? If it was, but isn’t now, what happened? If it never was, why not? How did you get saved and manage to not come to the reckoning of what the cost of being silent is? It’s not just a lost soul (even though that should be motivation enough) but it’s the cost of our Father’s and Lord’s grief—He paid the penalty so they could be cleansed and if they don’t understand that, they will be lost to the One who loves them more than anyone ever will, forever! So, yes, I want that heart to serve and help lead people back to Calvary too!
How about you?
He says:
I do not get blessed when I read my Bible as a matter of duty for a daily quiet time. Rather, when I come feeling bad, those are the times when it speaks, livingly! And again and again I have to say to the Lord, “I want to tell You something: I’m not in spiritual good shape.”
“Just fine,” says the Lord. “Anything more?”
“Well, I haven’t got much peace.”
“Anything more? Come on, let it all out.”
And when I come like that, grace meets me; because when I admit that I’m in that position, in the very nature of the case I become a candidate for that marvelous grace of our loving Lord, grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt.
Grace is not God’s reward for the faithful, it’s His gift for the empty and the feeble and the failing. When I am feeling like that, I’m just the one who is going to be blessed.
. . .
Grace is the undeserved favor of God, and you are no candidate for grace unless you are undeserving.
My thoughts:
This is such an awesome paragraph! I really appreciate Roy’s way of explaining this as just a real conversation between our great God and my piddly self.
What is man that God is mindful of him? Yet He’s crowned us with a crown of glory and given us dominion over the works of His very hand!
This is what we recently talked about, I think.
Speaking for myself (and probably for many men), we are naturally “SELF-sufficient”; not in a good way, but in a way in which we’re continually trying to make things work on our own. We seem to think that we have some ability, to discern on our own, which things, little or large, need the high power of our God. So ,we stand before him in our obstinance and God patiently watches us, always at the ready to pour into us if we will just stop, bow, and say, “Lord, help!”
This truth is so fundamental—if we think we have no sin, we are not in need of a Savior or of His blood to wash us; and it that’s the very case, in which IT WILL NOT WASH US! But if we finally humble ourselves before the One who loves mercy and at the same time does justly, He will pour into us His grace beyond measure!
Final fundamental thought: If you are deserving of grace, then you have no need of it.
Then from Page 156, Hession makes the statement about what God is continually doing in the lives of His saints:
"They are hungry as never before; and I want to spend my remaining days in helping to lead people back to Calvary, back to the blood, back to liberty, back to revival."
My thoughts:
What a statement! This is an exhortational challenge. Does this sound like something you want to do? Has it ever been something you wanted do? If it was, but isn’t now, what happened? If it never was, why not? How did you get saved and manage to not come to the reckoning of what the cost of being silent is? It’s not just a lost soul (even though that should be motivation enough) but it’s the cost of our Father’s and Lord’s grief—He paid the penalty so they could be cleansed and if they don’t understand that, they will be lost to the One who loves them more than anyone ever will, forever! So, yes, I want that heart to serve and help lead people back to Calvary too!
How about you?