Marching Forth!

As I walked back home from dropping off the kids at the bus stop, I sang the words to the familiar song by Chris Tomlin:  " We bow our hearts, we bend our knees, oh Spirit come make us humble.  We turn our eyes from evil things, oh Lord we cast down our idols.  Give us clean hands and give us pure hearts; let us not lift our souls to another... "  I thought carefully about the lyrics of this song I enjoy singing to God.  My mind focused on the phrase, " Give us clean hands and give us pure hearts ." Immediately my mind went to James 4:8:  " Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded ."  When I compared the song to the verse, I saw a subtle but profound difference.  Now don't get me wrong - I am not trashing the song by any means.  When singing the song, I asked God to give me clean hands and a pure heart.  When I read the passage in James, these are things ...

The Bible is an amazing book because it is the living Word of God.  It is also amazing how many books have been spawned through biblical wisdom.  Though thousands of commentaries and millions of books (and blogs such as this!) have been penned inspired by the Bible, not one of them excels the divine inspiration of the original.  Books written by godly men and women can be beneficial and influential in sparking ideas and bringing clarity to our minds.  Though valuable resources, they should never replace the Bible. It seems like today people are interested in methods.  People want to know what "works" or has been found successful and seek to emulate the process to achieve a desirable result.  They read book after book in a quest to discover a machine where raw materials can be combined in a prescribed order to receive what we want:  three elders, laying on of hands, 10 mils of oil applied just right - and divine miraculous healing is the result! ...

This past weekend at Calvary Chapel Sydney we hosted a conference on the Holy Spirit-filled life.  We were blessed to have two pastors share with us currently ministering in New Zealand, Mark Walsh and Scott Clifford .  All who attended were no doubt encouraged, challenged, and strengthened in our walks with Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.  It was a great opportunity for the fellowship to gather together, open the Word of God, and enter into the presence of the LORD.  I have no doubt that it was fruitful and will continue to be so as we appropriate all God has for us by His grace. I would say Christians are quite at ease with the idea of God revealed in the person of the Father and the Son, Jesus Christ.  But the same people can be uneasy with the operations of the Holy Spirit.  The reservations people have about the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives can be infinite.  If we were to do a word association with "baptism with the Holy...

A difficult thing for Christians to balance is the necessity of hard work.  I have heard it preached (myself included!) that spiritual growth is a natural product of abiding in Christ.  The life of a Christian will produce spiritual fruit due to the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.  This is completely true.  At the same time, we have been called and empowered by God to labour for Him.  These are not a conflicting statements, but are intended to compliment one another.  We have a responsibility to choose to follow Christ, submit to the leading of the Spirit, and work hard motivated by the love of Jesus Christ. In our modern society, we seem to grasp at anything to make life easier or find ways to eliminate work or effort to obtain the results we want.  Some body-builders and athletes resort to supplements to achieve faster results from workouts.  We buy all sorts of kitchen appliances and gizmos to make meal preparation and household chore...