Spiritual people are indifferent to their feelings—they live by faith in God with little care about their emotions. They think God’s thoughts and see things as God sees them. They rejoice in Christ and have no confidence in themselves. They are more concerned with obedience than with happiness. This is less romantic, perhaps, but it … Continue reading “EMOTIONS;
HAPPINESS”
EMOTIONS; EMOTIONALISM; PREACHING: MANIPULATION
I have to disagree with religious appeal that supposes if someone in the audience can be moved to shed a tear, a saint has been made. Or that if a husky listener can be touched emotionally to the point that he must blow his nose as though it was Gabriel’s trumpet, all will be well … Continue reading “EMOTIONS;
EMOTIONALISM; PREACHING: MANIPULATION”
EMOTIONALISM; OBEDIENCE: NEED FOR
When they want to get blessed, some people try getting worked up psychologically.… Some people try group dynamics.… What is needed is some old-fashioned, salty horse sense. I am sure there are 189 mules in the state of Missouri that have more sense than a lot of the preachers who are trying to teach people … Continue reading “EMOTIONALISM;
OBEDIENCE: NEED FOR”
EGOS; HUMILITY
Years ago God gave me an ice pick and said, “Now Son, among your other duties will be to puncture all the inflated egos you see. Go stick an ice pick in them.” And there has been more popping and hissing in my ministry as the air goes out of egos. People hate me for … Continue reading “EGOS;
HUMILITY”
EARTHLY THINGS; PRIORITIES
The roots of our hearts have grown down into things, and we dare not pull up our rootlet lest we die. Things have become necessary to us, a development never originally intended. God’s gifts now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution. Matthew 6:19–21, 23; … Continue reading “EARTHLY
THINGS; PRIORITIES”
EARTHLY THINGS; PRAYERS; GOD: HIS PRESENCE
O God and Father, I repent of my sinful preoccupation with visible things. The world has been too much with me. Thou hast been here and I knew it not. I have been blind to Thy presence. Open my eyes that I may behold Thee in and around me. For Christ’s sake, Amen. Matthew 16:23; … Continue reading “EARTHLY
THINGS; PRAYERS; GOD: HIS PRESENCE”
EARTHLY THINGS; KNOWLEDGE OF GOD: SUPREME VALUE OF
The way to deeper knowledge of God is through the lonely valleys of soul poverty and abnegation of all things. The blessed ones who possess the Kingdom are they who have repudiated every external thing and have rooted from their hearts all sense of possessing. These are the “poor in spirit.”… These blessed poor are … Continue reading “EARTHLY
THINGS; KNOWLEDGE OF GOD: SUPREME VALUE OF”
EARTHLY THINGS; ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE
A friend of mine has been quite irked because I cannot get excited and steamed up about earthly things. I just cannot stand and strike an attitude of awe when a friend drives up with one of the classy new automobiles. I hear people describing the magnificent new houses that they are building, and they … Continue reading “EARTHLY
THINGS; ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE”
EARTHLY THINGS
There are three very distinct marks of the ancient curse resting upon everything in this world. First, everything is recent. Second, everything is temporal. Third, everything is transient.… Temporal and transient things surround us—but their curse is that they belong to us only for a brief day.… I am sure you have watched a small … Continue reading “EARTHLY
THINGS”
EARTHLY LOVES; DEEPER LIFE
For the Spirit-filled Christian life means that I am delivered from earthly loves to a point where there is no love that I would not allow Jesus Christ to take away. Be it money, reputation, my home, my friends, my family or whatever it may be. The love of Jesus Christ has come in and … Continue reading “EARTHLY
LOVES; DEEPER LIFE”