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."

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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.

     

Thankful Enough To Share

Mrs. Max and I had the privilege of buying our first home in March of 1999. (We would have had it paid for on my 65th birthday, but we moved to Arizona!) We thanked God for His marvelous provision. The house and yard were beautiful and in excellent shape.  The boys enjoyed the room to run, the extra bedroom, the yard, the basketball hoop, and, especially, the pool.
  
We spent many hours planting, pruning, and doing general yard work. We completed several in-door projects: hanging ceiling fans, painting, stenciling, and wallpapering. I especially enjoyed puttering around in the garage ~ it’s a guy thing. It was a great house.
  
Hunting for a new home was sometimes fun but was often frustrating: big house--small yard, big yard--small house, nice living room--small bedrooms, nice everything--too expensive, inexpensive--bad neighborhood, or bad everything. When we think back on all of the homes that we considered purchasing, none compared to the one that we bought. We loved that new house and were proud of it.
  
Some might not have found our new home to be that great, others might have thought it average, while still others might have found it to be an excellent house. But even if others had really liked our house, they wouldn’t have appreciated it like we did. We spent nine years with three boys in a two-bedroom condo with one, just one, bathroom. We were happy there, but we really appreciated the new, bigger space. We thanked God for His provision. We appreciated what we had, and even more so because of what we didn’t have before.

  
Proverbs 17:22 tells us that a merry (joyful) heart is good like a medicine but a broken (crushed) spirit dries the bones. Joyful people are thankful people who like to share their joy. Complaining people are unthankful people who like to share their misery. A thankful person who finds a dollar might excitedly say, “Can you believe it? I found a dollar - way cool!” An unthankful person might sarcastically say, “Look at me. I found  a whole dollar.” Same find - completely different responses. You’ve probably already thought of people who might react in these same ways.     

  
When something special or exciting happens to us, we want to share it with others. Sharing the blessings of God can work like a medicine to a discouraged heart. That’s what caring and sharing is all about.
  
Do you remember what you didn’t have before (salvation), how lost you were, and what God did for you? Are you thankful for God’s great provision of grace? “Why should I care?” Because God cared enough to send His Son to rescue me from my sin and its punishment. Care enough to share your faith.  
    

Read the following verses. Take note of God’s provisions for which we should be thankful.

Romans 5:1-8

Matthew 6:25-33

John 14:1-3