for thought and meditation on a Thursday

[Markopolo]

still only clouds here... do I sense a hint of Fall in the air? oh crud!!!


Do Not Quench the Spirit”
By Oswald Chambers

Do not quench the Spirit. —1 Thessalonians 5:19

The voice of the Spirit of God is as gentle as a summer breeze— so gentle that unless you are living in complete fellowship and oneness with God, you will never hear it. The sense of warning and restraint that the Spirit gives comes to us in the most amazingly gentle ways. And if you are not sensitive enough to detect His voice, you will quench it, and your spiritual life will be impaired. This sense of restraint will always come as a “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12), so faint that no one except a saint of God will notice it.

Beware if in sharing your personal testimony you continually have to look back, saying, “Once, a number of years ago, I was saved.” If you have put your “hand to the plow” and are walking in the light, there is no “looking back”— the past is instilled into the present wonder of fellowship and oneness with God (Luke 9:62 ; also see 1 John 1:6-7). If you get out of the light, you become a sentimental Christian, and live only on your memories, and your testimony will have a hard metallic ring to it. Beware of trying to cover up your present refusal to “walk in the light” by recalling your past experiences when you did “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7). When-ever the Spirit gives you that sense of restraint, call a halt and make things right, or else you will go on quenching and grieving Him without even knowing it.

Suppose God brings you to a crisis and you almost endure it, but not completely. He will engineer the crisis again, but this time some of the intensity will be lost. You will have less discernment and more humiliation at having disobeyed. If you continue to grieve His Spirit, there will come a time when that crisis cannot be repeated, because you have totally quenched Him. But if you will go on through the crisis, your life will become a hymn of praise to God. Never become attached to anything that continues to hurt God. For you to be free of it, God must be allowed to hurt whatever it may be.

have a blessed Thursday

[USMC87]

A great lesson, Amen!

[Boaz]

'Small still voice' .....Exactly ! I hear that voice regularly . Actually it's more of a thought that comes out of the blue . At times it is urging and presenting a way or alternative choice . At times it states a warning . But I rarely hear it if I'm distracted by things or events around me . It has to be sought calmly . I think many here will understand . But the lost ? Well they are....lost .

[Blackwater]

Bad things happen to good people to keep them mindful of all that Christ offered and offers us, and to keep us mindful of the fact that not one of us is due anything but judgment. And yet, Christ loves us, and blesses us in so many, many ways, most of which we don't even realize when we receive them. We are weak, so Christ allows things to befall us in order that we won't forget whence our virtues and blessings come. When untried, we get lazy and drift away. Only when we're consistently tried do we remember Christ, and all His healing powers and love and devotion. What a wonderful and wise Lord we serve!