A Look in the Rear-View Mirror
I've found the best way to see what God is doing in my life as a born-again Christian is to look in the rear-view mirror occasionally to see where I was spiritually a short while ago. It's a pretty humbling experience! :-( For instance, I was just checking back issues of E-CLIPS for references to ListBot's subscription service...
... and I discovered what a totally self-centred egotist I was only a short while ago. OUCH! How have you folks ever put up with me this long?
Then I read through my original outline for this issue, and thought, 'OUCH!' again - cuz I'm not much better even now. Sigh. Thank God the Lord isn't through with me yet! :-)
Ego is just one of the things He's been working on in my life, though. He's also been STRONGLY on my case to tell things exactly as He reveals them to me, regardless of my personal desire to be gentle with my friends. Soooo... sorry, folks, gotta tell it as He sees it, and this is gonna hit some of you awfully hard. Hang in there, okay, and ask Him to confirm these words in your spirit if they are indeed of Him? You may be surprized to find that they are.
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Keep on raining --- I won't drown;
My feet are planted on higher ground.
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Thoughts on the Jabez Prayer:
And Jabez was more honourable than his brethren: ... And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldst bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldst keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.1 Chr. 4:10 (J.B. Phillips' translation)
A couple of months ago I attended a leadership training seminar for evangelical Christians. Perhaps two dozen of my fellow attendees sported 'Jabez Prayer' sweatshirts, and their enthusiasm was something to see: joyous faces, upraised arms, vibrant praises -- it was wonderful! It wasn't until some days later that the Lord showed me what was wrong with the picture...
HE wasn't its focus, THEY were!
Look at Jabez' prayer again:
- bless ME;
- enlarge MY coast;
- with ME;
- keep ME;
- not grieve ME.
It's a string of commands to God, turning Him into an almighty "go-fer" - a Servant taking orders!!!
I have just one question for the Jabez enthusiasts. If Jabez' prayer was so powerful, why didn't Jesus just take five minutes to teach it to His disciples and then retire to a life of ease Himself?
Instead He taught them to pray... (c'mon, everybody, repeat it after me cuz you all *know* it, I'm sure):
Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE...
What a string of THYs!!! And not a "me" in it, aside from requests for daily needs (bread), forgiveness (AS we forgive others), guidance and deliverance.
Dear friends, Jabez was more honourable than his brethren by the simple fact that he lived centuries before Christ and yet prayed in faith. God bless him for that! -- but let's not turn the Bible into yet another search for hidden clues to how WE should live and pray, because we have the advantage of the direct example of God's own Son. His words are not buried in an Old Testament genealogy, they're the meat and potatoes of the whole Gospel...
and central to them is His command to love and honour God "with all thy heart, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and with all thy soul; and to love thy neighbour as thyself."
Please, dear ones, don't lose sight of the King and His commands, by seeking only His gifts and His protection while you 'do your own thing'. SEEK YE FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, and all these things shall be added unto you - at HIS discretion and in accordance with HIS will.
If you're really, really looking for a short prayer that says it all and has more power than I'd ever imagined possible to change lives, try this one that changed my life and Archie's many years ago:
Lord, work Thy perfect will in our life this day. In Jesus' wonderful Name we ask it. Amen.
Then praise Him for everything the day may bring, be it good, bad or indifferent in *your* eyes -- because He will be working through those circumstances to bring about His perfect will for your life. HALLELUJAH!!!
Yes, Jabez was more honourable than his brethren. He's also DEAD.
JESUS LIVES!!!
Praise the Lord, people, cuz Christ is King!
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Keep on raining --- I won't drown;
My feet are planted on higher ground.
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What about PromiseKeepers?
All men of faith share the blessing of Abraham who "believed God". Everyone, however, who is involved in trying to keep the Law's demands falls under a curse, for it is written:
Cursed is everyone which continueth not
In all things which are written in the book of the Law,
It is made still plainer that no one is justified in God's sight by obeying the Law, for:
The righteous shall live by faith.
And the Law is not a matter of faith at all but of doing, as, for example, in the scripture:
He that doeth them shall live in them.
Galatians 3:9-12 (J.B. Phillips' translation)
Those who contend that all they need is contained in the first five books of the Bible are by God's own Word given a set of rules and regulations for every aspect of their lives. Now, no doubt these gentlemen already obey all the traffic laws in their respective communities; they don't help themselves to so much as a sheet of paper from their employers; they pay for every personal telephone call they make from work; they don't cheat on their taxes; and they are highly respected men of integrity, without flaw or blemish in their personal lives. That being the case, OF COURSE they will have no problem keeping EVERY WORD of the law as laid out in the Pentateuch...
because if they break even one small fraction of that Law, they are guilty of breaking the whole and are subject to the entire penalty for that offense. Go for it, guys -- but don't expect the Lord to bail you out if you fall, for you have told Him by your actions that you prefer to rely on your own strength of will than to claim the protection of His precious blood. Personally I wouldn't have the guts(?) to sever relations with the Son of God so willingly.
The Law was like a strict governess in charge of us until we went to the school of Christ and learned to be justified by faith in him. Once we had that faith we were completely free from the governess's authority. For now that you have faith in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God.Galatians 3:23-26 (J.B. Phillips' translation)
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Keep on raining --- I won't drown;
My feet are planted on higher ground.
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Reconnecting to our Jewish Roots?
To all the dear born-again souls on this planet who are urgently seeking to "reconnect to our Jewish roots", I would quote Paul's words in Gal.3:1-8 (Phillips translation):
O you dear idiots of Galatia, who saw Jesus Christ the crucified so plainly, who has been casting a spell over you? I will ask you one simple question: did you receive the Spirit by trying to keep the Law or by believing the message of the gospel? Surely you can't be so idiotic as to think that a man begins his spiritual life in the Spirit and then completes it by reverting to outward observances? Has all your painful experience brought you nowhere? I simply cannot believe it of you! Does God, who gives you his Spirit and works miracles among you, do these things because you have obeyed the Law or because you have believed the gospel? Ask yourselves that.
You can go right back to Abraham to see the principle of faith in God. He, we are told, "believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness". Can you not see, then, that all those who "believe God" are the real "sons of Abraham? The scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the gentiles "by faith", really proclaimed the gospel centuries ago in the words spoken to Abraham, "In thee shall all nations be blessed." All men of faith share the blessing of Abraham who "believed God".
To what would you connect, dear ones? Surely not the outward observances - and what else is there? Have you not noticed it is the Jewish people (or at least some among them, bless them) who are coming to accept that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was indeed the promised Messiah? What are you trying to do, reverse the trend? Somebody somewhere here is going against the flow. Are you sure it isn't YOU?
Just a thought.
"Do not lose sight of the fact that you were born 'gentiles', known by those whose bodies were circumcised as 'the uncircumcised'. You were without Christ, you were utter strangers to God's chosen community, Israel, and you had no knowledge of, or right to, the promised agreements. You had nothing to look forward to and no God to whom you could turn. But now, through the blood of Christ, you who were once outside the pale are with us inside the circle of God's love in Christ Jesus. For Christ is our living peace. He has made a unity of the conflicting elements of Jew and gentile by breaking down the barrier which lay between us. By his sacrifice he removed the hostility of the Law, with all its commandments and rules, and made in himself out of the two, Jew and gentile, one new man, thus producing peace. For he reconciled both to God by the sacrifice of one body on the cross, and by this act made utterly irrelevant the antagonism between them. Then he came and told both you who were far from God and us who were near that the war was over. And it is through him that both of us now can approach the Father in the one Spirit.
"So you are no longer outsiders or aliens, but fellow-citizens with every other Christian -- you belong now to the household of God. Firmly beneath you is the foundation, God's messengers and prophets, the actual foundation-stone being Christ Jesus himself. In him each separate piece of building, properly fitting into its neighbour, grows together into a temple consecrated to the Lord. You are all part of this building in which God himself lives by his spirit."
Ephesians 2:11-22 (J.B. Phillips' translation)
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Keep on raining --- I won't drown;
My feet are planted on higher ground.
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EDITORIAL
I was going to focus on some of the publishing and epublishing scams that are proliferating on the net these days, but decided I've jumped on enough groups and issues for one session, soooo... here's a wonderful little poem that has blessed me mightily recently. Enjoy, my friends! :-)
I'VE NOW TO PLEASE BUT ONE
"From all its cares my heart retires,
I've now to please but One;
Though deep and boundless my desires,
I've now to please but One.
My will to Him I gladly bow,
With Him is all my business now,
Myself at His dear feet laid low;
I've now to please but One.
"Christ is my way, my truth, my life,
I've now to please but One;
The end of sorrow, doubt, and strife,
I've now to please but One.
My Lord, in love I look to Thee,
Childlike attend what Thou wilt say,
Go forth and toil while yet 'tis day,
I've now to please but One.
"Redeemed and saved by Christ the Lord,
I've now to please but One;
He bought me with His precious blood,
I've now to please but One.
Out of this world by Jesus drawn,
My eye on Him, and Him alone,
In simple trust I follow on:
I've now to please but One.
"In this my happy lot is cast,
I've now to please but One;
In gardens fair, or deserts waste,
I've now to please but One.
Though shame and poverty be mine,
Or prosperous suns upon me shine,
On Jesus I will still recline:
I've now to please but One."
From: LIFE, WARFARE and VICTORY
by D.W. Whittle
©1884 by F. H. Revell
Y'know, folks, perhaps that's an editorial after all, all by itself! As D.W. Whittle put it on page 72 of the priceless little book I bought at a second-hand shop recently:
"Popular with one Man." May this be our ambition, the only ambition the gospel enjoins. "Wherefore also we are ambitious whether at home or absent, to be well-pleasing unto him (II Corinthians 5:9, R.V. marg.).
If we please Him we cannot please the world; and if we please the world we cannot please Him.
Dear child of God, which is your ambition?
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Keep on raining --- I won't drown;
My feet are planted on higher ground.
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OHzone UPdates...
OH GOODIES! has developed an excellent selection of links of particular interest to writers and would-be authors... Lots of learning resources for newcomers to the web, too! :-) Check it out at http://www.ohzone.net/ohgoody/index.html
OHzone's Christian communities are expanding rapidly, praise the Lord, and now include prayer and praise links on CHURCH HILL (http://www.ohzone.net/ohsown/ohchurch.htm), and prophetic sites at the PROPHET CENTRE
(http://www.ohzone.net/ohsown/ohproph.htm), plus many other on-line communities. Hundreds of Christian links for your surfing pleasure! :-)
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Keep on raining --- I won't drown;
My feet are planted on higher ground.
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Great Links!
- Billboards for Christ, Inc.
www.billboardsforchrist.org
Email: info@billboardsforchrist.org
Description: Billboards for Christ is dedicated to posting God's Word on highway billboards all across the USA and beyond. The drivers can see the website listed below and learn Who Jesus Is and receive Him as their Lord and Savior on the website! 100% of each donation goes to the posting of Holy Scripture. God Alone is glorified, for His Word is exalted on billboards and on the website! Please come and enjoy! And please spread the Word about us! God Bless you!
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Keep on raining --- I won't drown;
My feet are planted on higher ground.
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News Bytes
The Christian Online Magazine
Darlene Osborne, Publisher/Editor-in-chief
http://www.ChristianMagazine.org
Email: darlene@christianmagazine.org
Darlene says,
Our Magazine endeavors to bring you the best Christian
information on the net. We provide our readers with
Christian articles, columns, news reports, daily
scripture reading, prose and poetry, written by our
staff as well as other famed authors. We also provide
links to beautiful homepages. A view of our columns
are updated daily so visit often! If you are a
Christian writer you may send us your article for
possible publication to darlene@christianmagazine.org
DISTANTMAIL.COM!!!
This one is a real God-send for you travellers... and for all the rest of us who run into problems with our local email servers from time to time. (Surely I'm not the only one, right?) Rudy Brinkman and his younger brother have developed a FREE service that allows you to log into your POP3 email account from anywhere in the world, without paying long-distance charges. See for yourself at http://www.distantmail.com. I think it's NEAT!
Tip: I use DistantMail.com to log on, check my POP3 mailbox on my ISP... and delete *known* virus-carriers before they ever reach my computer! (You know, those ubiquitous messages from HAHA about the Seven Dwarfs, etc., that keep surfacing every now and again? THOSE types.)
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Keep on raining --- I won't drown;
My feet are planted on higher ground.
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That's about it for now, folks. God bless you and keep you, one and all...
... and y'know what? I really, truly love every one of you - and so does He, no matter how down-and-out, totally-fed-up and/or useless you happen to be feeling at the moment.
Have a happy, dear ones!
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Keep on raining --- I won't drown;
My feet are planted on higher ground.
Keep on reigning; You're my Lord!
Sharpen my mind by Your Spirit's sword.
Compliments of NicksHumor.net
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PAYMENT DUE!!
The OHzone E-Clips is no longer free... it is now 'Helpware.'
Each week you must help one person on the web who has less knowledge
than you. Pick a newsgroup posting or an email each week and help
that person even if you have to visit their site to find the best
answer or do a little research and get back to them. Trust me, this
will make you feel better, and will help a lot of people get their
sites running better. That includes me, so if you've got a great idea you'd like to see on OHzone, let me know, okay? dhowie@ohzone.net
OK, you're on your honor.... Ready... set... GO HELP SOMEBODY!!! -)
(((HUGS))) and blessings to you all,
(Mrs.) Doris E. Howie <><
Editor, OHzone E-CLIPS
