A Call to Anguish
David Wilkerson
Quotations from David's message. Full version : http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/mydownloads/singlefile.php?lid=3843
Description: Wilkerson in this message gives out a call for all Believers to allow the anguish of God's heart for His Church and the world, into their own. Be prepared to be stirred by the Holy Spirit. You will truly never be the same!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
Unrivaled Devotion
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
(Mat 10:37)
After teaching His disciples about the cost of discipleship (context Matt 10:16-34), Jesus than said something strange as though there is no connection; he came to bring division (Matt 10:34), not for the worst but for the best… is there a clear cut distinction of our love towards Him. ‘And a man's foes shall be they of his own household’ (Matt 10:36), because family will be the truest test of the good that can become the enemy of the best. Not that He ask us to contradict the moral truths of His Word to honor parents, love our spouses and children, but rather He is asking us if there is any competing devotion even between our closest ones with Him. We are commanded to love each other sacrificially, but never to be drawn away by it from our First Love. Jesus is asking us to show Him unrivaled devotion even when faced with greatest of challenges in sufferings and pain in times or persecution.
……. lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.
(John 21:15)
Peter was brought back to the time of his trice denial of Jesus after he declared his total devotion to the Lord and never deserting Him (Matt 26:33). He knew of the failure at the time of greatest threat to his own life. In the face of hardest persecution and suffering, Jesus is asking us to make a definite decision… self, family or Him. Perhaps for Peter the ‘these’ that Jesus was asking him was about the strong ‘self’ in both public heroism and declaration of loyalty, however even the ‘these’ need to be tested with fire of trials. Whatever the ‘these’ are for us, Jesus will confront us not for Himself, but for ourselves to find out if there is indeed unrivaled devotion for Him as He did with Peter… ‘Lord, you know’.
…… should not the shepherds feed the flocks?
(Eze 34:2)
When the question of unrivaled love is settled, His commandment comes to us clearly to live our lives in total fulfillment of His will. A true disciple of Jesus Christ is in total obedience and oneness with the First and Greatest Commandment; the second is the overflowing life to feed His lambs.
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
(Mat 10:37)
After teaching His disciples about the cost of discipleship (context Matt 10:16-34), Jesus than said something strange as though there is no connection; he came to bring division (Matt 10:34), not for the worst but for the best… is there a clear cut distinction of our love towards Him. ‘And a man's foes shall be they of his own household’ (Matt 10:36), because family will be the truest test of the good that can become the enemy of the best. Not that He ask us to contradict the moral truths of His Word to honor parents, love our spouses and children, but rather He is asking us if there is any competing devotion even between our closest ones with Him. We are commanded to love each other sacrificially, but never to be drawn away by it from our First Love. Jesus is asking us to show Him unrivaled devotion even when faced with greatest of challenges in sufferings and pain in times or persecution.
……. lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.
(John 21:15)
Peter was brought back to the time of his trice denial of Jesus after he declared his total devotion to the Lord and never deserting Him (Matt 26:33). He knew of the failure at the time of greatest threat to his own life. In the face of hardest persecution and suffering, Jesus is asking us to make a definite decision… self, family or Him. Perhaps for Peter the ‘these’ that Jesus was asking him was about the strong ‘self’ in both public heroism and declaration of loyalty, however even the ‘these’ need to be tested with fire of trials. Whatever the ‘these’ are for us, Jesus will confront us not for Himself, but for ourselves to find out if there is indeed unrivaled devotion for Him as He did with Peter… ‘Lord, you know’.
…… should not the shepherds feed the flocks?
(Eze 34:2)
When the question of unrivaled love is settled, His commandment comes to us clearly to live our lives in total fulfillment of His will. A true disciple of Jesus Christ is in total obedience and oneness with the First and Greatest Commandment; the second is the overflowing life to feed His lambs.
Friday, September 04, 2009
Preciousness in Death
Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.
(Psa 116:15)
Death is probably the greatest heartfelt loss in one’s lifetime, especially if it is of a very dear one. It bears with it a pain that others would not have the slightest inkling, unless the sympathizer also has undergone such an experience. Recently there was a death of a pastor’s child; such sorrow is probably one of the most difficult griefs to come to terms with. Many questions would be asked by parents, family and church members alike. It will be times like this when our faith in everything Jesus has said and promised will be put to the test. How do we perceive His Word, perhaps the truth of Psalm 91 doesn’t have any bearing anymore?
For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: …..
(Eze 18:32)
There is a death that is precious to the Lord, and there is death that He unwelcomes. A ‘saint’ is one whose life is of highest virtue and benevolence. So the Father esteems the death of one whose life has walked in His ways in unquestionable obedience and know what it means to ‘pour out unto the Lord’ (2 Sam 23:16). A life that lives with unclasps hands that freely receives and freely gives (Matt 10:8). A life poured out bears no self consciousness because he or she only sees a trickle or glassful, but in the hand of the Sovereign God it is a river of living waters (John 7:38) that blesses myriads beyond our human imagination. A life poured out will bear the cross of people's criticism and counted as waste. Jesus poured out His life and the reverberation of salvation’s power stretches from alpha to omega.
Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, ……. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.
(Job 1:20-22)
Job faced great loss of his children and all that he ever owned, yet not a hint of spiritual pseudo-city in dealing with grief. Expressing the sorrow of loss he did, but conducted himself with such self-control and wisdom. The mantle was rent, the head was shaved in sorrow, yet with patient submission He worshipped the God whom he honored and served. A worship that must have been poured out with such depth that only heaven will respond; even the closest ones to him could never comprehend. Paul could understand sufferings (Col 1:24, 2 Cor 1:6, 7, Rom 8:18), but does the Almighty understand? Yes He does; it was so agonizing that the Father had to turn His face away (Matt 27:46). Jesus sorrow wasn’t in the pain He had to endure but to this brief moment of eternity when oneness with His Father was broken. This is the kind of death that the Father finds such preciousness.
May God in His mercy give us this spiritual stature to grasp this kind of preciousness in death, whether is be for our loved ones or even for ourselves. We may not attain to this as of yet, but God prepares us and gives us His enabling grace when it does come…..after all the centrality of the Christian life is culminated in the Cross (Luke 9:23).
"In his hearing before the Gestapo during his imprisonment, defenseless and powerless as he then was only fortified by the word of God in his heart, he stood erect and unbroken before his tormentors. He refused to recant, and defied the Gestapo machine by openly admitting that, as a Christian, he was an implacable enemy of National Socialism and its totalitarian demands toward the citizen—defied it, although he was continually threatened with torture and with the arrest of his parents, his sisters and his fiancée… In 1944, when friends made an attempt to liberate him and to take him to safety abroad, he decided to remain in prison in order not to endanger others.
"The last service which Dietrich Bonhoeffer held on the day before his death... 'moved all deeply....'
"Bonhoeffer, who was never tried, went steadfastly on his last way to be hanged, and died with admirable calmness and dignity. God heard his prayer and granted him the 'costly grace'—that is, the privilege of taking the cross for others and of affirming his faith by martyrdom."
"Memoir" by G. Leibholz
Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.
(Psa 116:15)
Death is probably the greatest heartfelt loss in one’s lifetime, especially if it is of a very dear one. It bears with it a pain that others would not have the slightest inkling, unless the sympathizer also has undergone such an experience. Recently there was a death of a pastor’s child; such sorrow is probably one of the most difficult griefs to come to terms with. Many questions would be asked by parents, family and church members alike. It will be times like this when our faith in everything Jesus has said and promised will be put to the test. How do we perceive His Word, perhaps the truth of Psalm 91 doesn’t have any bearing anymore?
For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: …..
(Eze 18:32)
There is a death that is precious to the Lord, and there is death that He unwelcomes. A ‘saint’ is one whose life is of highest virtue and benevolence. So the Father esteems the death of one whose life has walked in His ways in unquestionable obedience and know what it means to ‘pour out unto the Lord’ (2 Sam 23:16). A life that lives with unclasps hands that freely receives and freely gives (Matt 10:8). A life poured out bears no self consciousness because he or she only sees a trickle or glassful, but in the hand of the Sovereign God it is a river of living waters (John 7:38) that blesses myriads beyond our human imagination. A life poured out will bear the cross of people's criticism and counted as waste. Jesus poured out His life and the reverberation of salvation’s power stretches from alpha to omega.
Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, ……. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.
(Job 1:20-22)
Job faced great loss of his children and all that he ever owned, yet not a hint of spiritual pseudo-city in dealing with grief. Expressing the sorrow of loss he did, but conducted himself with such self-control and wisdom. The mantle was rent, the head was shaved in sorrow, yet with patient submission He worshipped the God whom he honored and served. A worship that must have been poured out with such depth that only heaven will respond; even the closest ones to him could never comprehend. Paul could understand sufferings (Col 1:24, 2 Cor 1:6, 7, Rom 8:18), but does the Almighty understand? Yes He does; it was so agonizing that the Father had to turn His face away (Matt 27:46). Jesus sorrow wasn’t in the pain He had to endure but to this brief moment of eternity when oneness with His Father was broken. This is the kind of death that the Father finds such preciousness.
May God in His mercy give us this spiritual stature to grasp this kind of preciousness in death, whether is be for our loved ones or even for ourselves. We may not attain to this as of yet, but God prepares us and gives us His enabling grace when it does come…..after all the centrality of the Christian life is culminated in the Cross (Luke 9:23).
"In his hearing before the Gestapo during his imprisonment, defenseless and powerless as he then was only fortified by the word of God in his heart, he stood erect and unbroken before his tormentors. He refused to recant, and defied the Gestapo machine by openly admitting that, as a Christian, he was an implacable enemy of National Socialism and its totalitarian demands toward the citizen—defied it, although he was continually threatened with torture and with the arrest of his parents, his sisters and his fiancée… In 1944, when friends made an attempt to liberate him and to take him to safety abroad, he decided to remain in prison in order not to endanger others.
"The last service which Dietrich Bonhoeffer held on the day before his death... 'moved all deeply....'
"Bonhoeffer, who was never tried, went steadfastly on his last way to be hanged, and died with admirable calmness and dignity. God heard his prayer and granted him the 'costly grace'—that is, the privilege of taking the cross for others and of affirming his faith by martyrdom."
"Memoir" by G. Leibholz
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