Broken or Broken Down

I was introduced to The Calvary Road by Roy Hession about 6 years ago. It took me two weeks to get past the first three paragraphs. It was that powerful. We either become broken or broken down. Check it out for yourself. You'll need a highlighter. It's in my recommended reading book list - to the right of this post. You can get the book online and at most bookstores, or you can read it for free online at http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/hession/calvary%20road/

The following 3 paragraphs are from chapter 1: Brokenness

We want to be very simple in this matter of Revival. Revival is just the life of the Lord Jesus poured into human hearts. Jesus is always victorious. In heaven they are praising Him all the time for His victory. Whatever may be our experience of failure and barrenness, He is never defeated. His power is boundless. And we, on our part, have only to get into a right relationship with Him, and we shall see His power being demonstrated in our hearts and lives and service, and victorious life will fill us and overflow through us to others. And that is Revival in its essence.

If, however, we are to come into this right relationship with Him, the first thing we must learn is that our wills must be broken to His will is the beginning of Revival. It is painful, humiliating, but it is the only way. It is being " Not I ,but Christ,(Gal 2:20)' and a " C " is a bent " I." The Lord Jesus cannot live in us fully and reveal Himself through until the proud self within us is broken. This simply means that the hard unyielding self, which justifies itself, wants its own way, stands up for its rights, and seeks its own glory, at last bows its head to God's will, admits its wrong, gives up its own way to Jesus, surrenders its rights and discards its own glory - that the Lord Jesus might have all and be all. In other words it is dying to and self-attitudes.

And as we look honestly at our Christian lives, we can see how much of this self there is in each of us. It is so often self who tries to live the Christian life (the mere fact that we use the word " try " indicates that it is self who has the responsibility). It is self, too, who is often doing Christian work. It is always self who gets irritable and envious and resentful and critical and worried. It is self who is hard and unyielding in its attitudes to others. It is self who is shy and self-conscious and reserved. No wonder we need breaking. As long as self is in control, God can do little with us, for all the fruits of the Spirit (they are enumerated in Galatians 5), with which God longs to fill us, are the complete antithesis of the hard, unbroken spirit within us and presupposes that it has been crucified."

 -----------------------------------

When we break God's law, guilt, anguish, anger, bitterness, emptiness, or despair will follow. Why? Because we practice (do) only what we really believe. If we don't really believe what God says, then we believe and live a lie. We can search for truth, or we can search for excuse. Choose truth.    PM 

Joshua 24:14-15

Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: 

and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, 

and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.

 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, 

choose you this day whom ye will serve; 

whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, 

or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: 

but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

     

3 Men, 10 Mattresses, a Car, a Rope, & a Plan - Priceless (A Must See Video)

The video was taken this afternoon in Chandler, AZ around 4pm on the 202 during rush hour traffic. The vehicle was doing 55-60 mph with eight layers of mattresses roped to the top. There were 4 twins and 6 larger mattresses. It was a very unbalanced load that was constantly shifting. Most of the other drivers were laughing just like us. Mrs. Max recorded the event as I drove. Many of the drivers (and I did say drivers) were recording the event with their cell phones. I’m sure this will be on YouTube soon. I hope they made it safely. Foolish? Well, of course. Read on.


Often when I counsel struggling teens, they admit to not praying and not reading God's Word. Because of a lack of surrender, they do everything in their own wisdom and with their plan. They miss out on the direction and power that God would otherwise supply (Psalm 1). Internally they are bored and empty. Externally they appear bored and directionless. When in conflict they typically respond fearfully, angrily, or bitterly.  


When asked if they want to do right, the answer is usually YES. When asked if they are willing to do right, the answer is NO. When asked if they are willing to be made willing to do right, the answer is a resounding NO. This is hypocrisy: hypocrisy that is often hidden behind churchy faces, churchy words, churchy apparel, and churchy actions. They know how to play the Game of Church.



More and more now teens tell me that they don't read the Bible, but they do pray. They seem to take comfort in this and think that the idea of being "somewhat surrendered" puts them ahead in the Game of Church. But it doesn't. It's merely partial obedience, and church is NO game. Dr. Michael Sproul often says that partial obedience is complete disobedience. Did you get that? Complete disobedience.
 
Good relationships are founded on good communication (two-way conversation). It's talk and listen, speak and spoken to, ask and answer, teach and learn. A person who prays without reading God's Word doesn't want conversation or relationship. He wants a rabbit's foot for good luck and a genie for great stuff. The message is clear, "God, you need to hear me, but I don't need to listen to you." It is selfish pride on parade.


It reminds me a bit of the guys in the car with the mattresses piled on top. In their own eyes it might have seemed like an okay plan, but the potential for harm (to themselves and to others) was evident. Without God’s Word we have no light, no guide, no wisdom, no strength, and no direction. We have our own bad plan – a really bad plan. It’s a sinful plan that will bring unhappiness to self and will bring misery or distraction to others.


The solution: There must be surrender to God, and this surrender must be complete and unconditional.  A lack of surrender means a continuing of hostilities to God. Yikes! Remember, God resists those who are proud and fight against Him but gives grace to those who are humble themselves before Him (James 4:6). So, when does a person get to the point of unconditional surrender to the will of God? When that person is without strength and completely incapable of continuing the hostilities. We call that brokenness.


It's true in war.
It's true in strife.
It brings real peace
It gives new life.


It's time to raise the white flag to God
PM