Missing Out
Dearest Friends (because that is what you are),
It's the first of March. The month of February has now passed, the shortest month in the year despite having one extra day. I wonder what people did yesterday? In my last blog I mentioned this wierd law which I don't really want to repeat because there is no need to... I wonder how maay people took that "opportunity". I wonder how many people celebrated the oce in 4 year birthdays? I wonder how many people took the chance to do something outrageous or different? Hmmmm...
Yesterday was OCF and we were looking into Hebrews 9. Somewhere along the line, some of the group got into a little discussion about how the old testament people got saved. Although I do wonder how it all worked, I think we are totally missing out on what's important. The whole scripture afterall is about GOD! It didn't really matter HOW God saved them but He did. He, in His mercy and I sovereignty made provision for them to be His people and to have some kind of access to Him, though they had to go through the High Priest. How much more then, that since we now have Christ the ultimate High Priest that we can come directly to God because of he lives in us, should we even more constantly come into His presence and enjoy that freedom? We now have so much less excuses to make and so much more opportunity... we should be crawling on our knees in total gratitude, brokeness of spirit that we have fallen SO short, in absolute awe of Him. Isn't all this all about Him? I'm sure you know the song, "I'm coming back to the heart of worship and it's all about you, all about you JESUS".
I've recently discovered this treasure of a website (www.ravenhill.org) that has all these messages by Leonard Ravenhill who unfortunately for us here on earth, has gone to be with Jesus already. Nonetheless, I was so excited to find that you can still listen to his messages online, and I've been informed of other names that I will definitely want to look up and see if I can find stuff... To get to my point, I guess, I managed to figure out how to download the messages onto my little ol' MP3 player and have listened to a few as I travel to school in the morning. I almost feel "sorry" for the people sitting near me on the train because I guess I kept making funny faces as I listened to this amazing man of God speak. Some things, of course, I have already heard before but he really spoke with the authority of the Holy Spirit and the way he said things was just inspiring. Isn't it amazing what we can do with technology now? We can actually download sermons from people who are dead... I guess it's the same with songs- we can still listen to music by people who have alrepassed away. I amazes me because the people in the old testament must have had just an amazing memory or they would perish or something like that.
I wonder how many times I have read passages in the Bible and totally missed out. Do we hear God speak? My dad's always asking this question in some of his messages and it's sadly true that so many people read the Bible but don't expect God to speak to them through His word. The word then remains dead. We have missed out on life! That's a pretty major thing to miss out on don't you think? My goodness, I wonder how many countless times I need to repent from that? How many countless times and more does God forgive me? How much more thankful should I be now that He HAS forgiven me and STILL allows me to enter His presence with confidence? No wonder Paul considered himself the least of these... if Pauk thinks he's the least, what am I? How on earth could God still love me and yet He does... Praise the LORD! Let EVERYTHING that has breath Praise the LORD!
Yesterday we sang 'Amazing Grace' which was so beautiful since one of the messages I was listening to previously mentioned the in the context of the message but I have to admit I was a little disappointed that we sang the new version that cut out some of the original verses. One in particular that I guess I will end with because is blog got a little longer than I realised: "When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining like the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun."
