I just heard these quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and I wanted to help myself remember them and so, you get to read them too. Enjoy.

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

“Ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus.”

I know that Dr. King gave the same speech more than once and I read the following quote and was not sure if it was at a different time or had been changed. Either way, I like it as well.

“A man of conscience can never be a consensus leader. He doesn’t take a stand for consensus. He is ultimately a molder of consensus. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in moments of great challenge and controversy.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Genesis 49:33 “When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people.”

I read that verse and thought “I would like to die like that”. Jacob had just finished his last words to his sons and then had the ability to draw his feet up into the bed and boom, he’s out. Immediately my thoughts ran to the time Jesus told Peter about someone else leading him where he would not want to go “signifying by what death he would glorify God” (John 21:18-19). So, in truth, I just want to die however God would grant that I die. “It is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment”.

What I find fascinating is that death is a gift. Not always, and not originally (as mankind has known it)… but such is the power of Christ’s redemption. God judges the first man with death (using what Satan had wrought) and yet the last Man destroyed him who had the power of death (as any power that Satan has must be delivered to him from God) (Heb 2:14 “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.”).

So now, in Christ, even death is gain! A person being in Christ, being the key for receiving, knowing, and experiencing all that is good and perfect, and a person being out of Christ being the key for receiving, knowing, and experiencing wrath, condemnation, and the destruction that death brings.

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus…” Rom 8:1
“…he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” John 3:36
“For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,” 1 Thess, 5:9

Ah, Jacob… what a way to go. I am think I am just fascinated at how this plays out… that is, at the confidence, and inspiration that it brings… and as Heb, 2:14 said, it destroys the fear of death as well. That is just more good news. I am not consumed with death by any means, in fact, I am enjoying eternal life right now. What is eternal life? John 17:3 tells us: “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Hellooo.

Through all of the wrestlings and wranglings of our soul it is nice to have a steadfastness upon which to lean. “The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run to it and are safe” (Prov. 18:10).

So many days I feel weak. I feel really, really weak inside. On those days I think “Trust in the Lord with all your heart”. Really? With all of my heart? “Lean not on your own understanding”. Really? Do not lean on my own understanding? “In all your ways acknowledge Him”. Really? Acknowledge God in all of my ways? Well. Ok. Then I hold on tightly to the “and He shall direct your paths” part.

Feelings can be swayed so easily. So easily. In realizing that right thinking leads to right feeling, and that what we feed our minds is what our minds are given over to, it has become quite clear to me over the past couple of years that I have to preach to myself. I have to speak the truth to myself or else I am moved too easily. I love it when David says in Psalm 16:8 “I have set the LORD always before me; because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.”

Sometimes I get so numb to the word “faith” that I need to switch it out with the word “confidence”, in order to really get it. When I read God tell Jeremiah “I am the God of all flesh, is there anything too hard for me?” (32:17), it leaves me thinking “No, of course there isn’t and yes I can have confidence in You”. I think I associate certainty and a firm trust with the word “confidence” more so than the word “faith”.

As I go through different seasons of life, it is nice to have confidence that God has ordained my seasons just as surely as He has ordained “seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night”. Though it feels cold and rainy, sometimes amidst the gray, the light mist feels good against your face.

I woke up thinking about Haiti this morning. It has been almost twelve years since I went there for a mission trip. I remember vividly the night sky and staring up at the stars from the roof of the mission I was staying at. I remember the sound of the voodoo drums resonating across the mountains and valleys as we traveled to a “mountain church”. I remember the signs of spirituality everywhere… spirituality with great darkness.

I have seen several posts or comments related to the tragedy in Haiti, as well as other tragedies, typically they are from atheists, that say things like, “a single penny to help the cause is better than all the prayers in the world”. I hate that saying. It is a lie.

I am well aware that there are people who hide behind words and “saying a prayer” so that they do not actually have to give or move. I am well aware that the heart that is truly moved by the love of God will manifest itself with deeds of love. I am well aware that faith without works is dead.

Don’t think for a second that money given to relief is worth more than your prayers. James 5:17 says, “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.” God ordained and used Elijah’s prayer to shut up rain on the land of Israel for 3 1/2 years. God can ordain and use your prayer to awaken the hearts of Haitians to the light of the glorious good news of Jesus Christ.

I keep going back to read in Luke 18:1 when it says the reason Jesus spoke the parable to them was to teach them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. Men always ought to pray and not lose heart. Men always ought to pray and not lose heart. It’s easy to lose heart. Pray.

If you cannot give abundantly physically, you can give abundantly through prayer. Not through a flippant prayer, but through earnest and fervent prayers. The “effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much”. God honors fervent praying. Praying that shows a broken and contrite spirit.

There are times that you may be moved to pray and that prayer comes easily. There also may be times that you have to labor and wrestle not only in prayer but just to start praying. Regardless of how easy or hard it is we must continue earnestly in prayer, pray without ceasing, and pray always and not lose heart. God hears our prayers, God uses our prayers, God ordains our prayers as the means to carry out His will in the world, and who knows what other great things are happening which we cannot see?

God is good.

I have been meaning to read Jonathan Edwards on Religious Affections and was looking over some quotes from it and found this one:

“Spiritual good is of a satisfying nature; and for that very reason, the soul that tastes, and knows its nature, will thirst after it, and a fullness of it, that it may be satisfied. And the more he experiences, and the more he knows this excellent, unparalleled, exquisite, and satisfying sweetness, the more earnestly will he hunger and thirst for more, until he comes to perfection. And therefore this is the nature of spiritual affections, that the greater they be, the greater the appetite and longing is, after grace and holiness.” – Jonathan Edwards from A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections

I am in awe how this works… how it plays out in my own life and the lives of those I know. I’m thirsty.

Now I really want to read it. It is moving up the docket.

For my quiet time I am reading in Corinthians. I just finished 1 Corinthians and have started 2 Corinthians. Like always, there are so many things that hit me and prick my heart, but I want to share one of them from 2 Corinthians 5:1-8.

In verse two it talks about groaning with earnest desire to be clothed with our heavenly habitation (dwelling). It is speaking of being in this current ‘tent of the body’ and longing to be further clothed. Just like 1 Corinthians 15:35-49 talks about how corruption will put on incorruption so here in 2 Cor 5:4 Paul says, “…that mortality may be swallowed up by life.”

Then it blows me away that in verse 5 when it talks about God preparing us for this very thing (being clothed with our heavenly body and habitation) it says that He has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. A deposit. A down payment. Like earnest money.

How great is it that God who is supreme and cannot lie and cannot be moved puts a down payment on us? He secures us with Himself so that nothing can annul it. He prepares us to receive that for which He has prepared for us.

Now. What REALLY hit me was the next 3 verses. Verse 6 starts like this “So we are always confident”. Love that. Always confident huh. About what? Sorry, let me finish the verse, “So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord, For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”

The point is that we know, by faith, that when we are in the current ‘tent of this body’ that we are absent from the Lord and when we are absent from the body that we will be present with the Lord. I like how then Paul says, “well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord”.

It seems like a lot of people do not groan for their heavenly habitation. It seems like a lot of people would not be well pleased to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. We are consumed far too much with our desires (which are weak desires) so that we think if only we had this or that before we die or if only we accomplished such and such. Everything good and perfect comes from God so to go to His presence is far better than anything we could ever think or imagine. We should be well pleased to say “To live is Christ and to die is gain”.

There is confidence in living that way. For who or what can separate you from the love of Christ which passes knowledge?

Verse 9 starts with “therefore”. So because of everything we just said, “we make it our aim whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.”

Can I get an amen. Sure. Amen.

I got a new Bible for Christmas. I asked for a new Bible for Christmas. BUT… I have such a hard time switching to a new Bible from my old Bible.

I have tried to make the switch before but I failed miserably. I have been using my current Bible for about 19 years. I remember it was hard making the switch to it. It is a New King James Version, which I like. I had tried going back to King James Version which did not happen. I have a beautiful Cambridge King James Version Bible that just sits there looking beautiful.

My current Bible has duct tape on it. Yeah, it has some wear. So I am glad that I got a new Bible for Christmas and I like the ESV (English Standard Version) so I think that will make the transition easier. It is just that I can picture the pages in my old Bible and I remember where passages are by how the page looks. I will most likely feel somewhat lost in the new Bible.

I haven’t decided how I should start working it in. I know I need to start using it in my quiet time, but it feels weird underlining in a new Bible… you know? It is all clean and fresh and new. Maybe I will just finish my current reading schedule and then start my next reading schedule with the new Bible. I don’t know… I just don’t know.