Pictorial Parade / Getty
Ruth Graham, 87 wife of evangelist Billy Graham, died today, June 14, 2007 in Montreat, North Carolina.
Billy Graham’s wife and partner passes away after a lifetime of evangelism and celebrity
I was really struck by this prayer by John Piper at the end of chapter 11 in this book.
A Prayer
Lord, thicken our skin. Not that we be less tender, but that we be less easily offended. Take away our bent to self-pity. Give us a passion for the truth that is stronger than our inborn passion for being praised. Forgive us, Father, for calling words unloving just because they were tough. Forgive us for attributing malicious motives to people when we don’t know their motives. Help us to learn from Jesus when to be tough and when to be tender. Guard us from justifying merely human anger with the hard sayings of Jesus. But don’t let us become so mushy that we can’t speak a firm word in season. We marvel at the words of our Lord Jesus. How unpredictable he was! No one ever spoke like he did. He is in a class by himself. We bow before him and shut our mouths. We are eager for him to speak – and to speak any way he pleases. We are the silent learners. He is the sinless teacher. We put our hands upon our mouths and take our place at his feet. Do with us as you please, Father. We are not your judge, nor the judge of how your Son speaks. Have mercy on us – tough or tender – and lead us to your everlasting joy. In the name of your Son, our Lord Jesus, amen.”
Blessings on you this day…
I didn’t catch everything that was preached but here are some thoughts I thought would be good to share. These notes were taken from Sunday’s sermon preached by Steve Larson, Evangelical Free Church Conejo Valley.
Deuteronomy 12 -13 ~ Worship that Pleases God
Learning to worship God properly will change your life. Worship focuses our attention on God and changes our hearts and lives. Worship God with all your heart…
Thanksgiving: focuses on the past – reminds us that all we have has come from the hand of God – when we are thankful the result is joy and contentment.
Praise: focuses on the present – reminds us of the greatness of our God – when we praise the result is trust and courage and peace.
Submission: Ultimate act of worship – bowing your will to the will of God – when we submit to God we are in a place where God can bless us – He gives us fullness of life.
Practical ways to get to the place where God can be #1 in your life ~
~ Thank God right now (when you wake up, when you lie down) Declare it – speak it out loud!
~ Praise God for who He is right now. Declare the praises – say them out loud. Declare a new attitude “I work to honor God”
What you talk about deepens what you believe…
~ Closing the door: create fences in your life that make it harder for you to sin in the area of idolatry. Make decisions that help you focus on God.
True worship puts God in His right position in our lives, before our spouses, children, family, friends, job …
Deuteronomy 12:1-3, Mt. 22:37-38 ~ tear down the altars and love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind…
Worship God as He desires to be worshipped, Deut. 12:5-32, John 4:23-24, Romans 12:1-2, Heb. 13:15,16, Isa. 58: 1-11
Our worship offerings to God…
Romans 12: 1: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.
Hebrews 13:15: “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that confess his name.”
Hebrews 13:16: “And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
I want to worship God in these ways and declare it out loud and be changed…
Blessings on you ~
After I posted this I woke up at 3:00 A.M. with this old Sunday School Song going through my mind that reinforces some of the sermon…do you remember this one?
Thank Him, thank Him, all ye little children, God is love, God is love (repeat)
Praise Him, praise Him, all ye little children, God is love, God is love (repeat)
Serve Him, serve Him, all ye little children, God is love, God is love (repeat)
Love Him, love Him, all ye little children , God is love, God is love…(repeat)
http://www.evfree.net/templates/System/details.asp?id=20569&PID=33526&Style=
Colossians 3:1-4 (NIV)
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Colossians 3:1-4 (ESV)
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
This quote by C.S. Lewis comes from Mere Christianity
Most of us find it very difficult to want “Heaven” at all – except in so far as “Heaven” means meeting again our friends who have died. One reason for this difficulty is that we have not been trained: our whole education tends to fix our minds on this world. Another reason is that when the real want for Heaven is present in us, we do not recognise it. Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise.”
In 1972 I met Dear at a concert he was singing in. My best friend just started singing with this group and I accompanied her to the concert. Dear and I became attracted to each other later that year after I auditioned for the group and joined. In the summer of 1973 and 1974 Dear and I toured England with this American Christian Rock Group. We were called the “Contemporaries”. Never to be confused with the Continentals! These articles and photos are a combination of our tours in ’73 and ’74. Dear and I were engaged during the ’74 tour and got married December of that year.
I’m one of the singers on the far right and Dear is right next to me.
“The American evangelical folk-rock group The Contemporaries received a superstar welcome when they played last week in St John’s Church, Waterloo. More than 600 children between the ages of 12 and 18, together with a small number of adults, packed the building for the hour-long concert which featured the latest in religious music. Outside local residents opened doors and windows to hear the music from the church and later a spokesman for the group said ‘The audiences on Merseyside are far warmer than any we ever had in ten years of playing in the states.”
“A band of young people spreading the word of God in their own unique way are the Contemporaries. The young American group have been touring England for the last two weeks at their own expense. The group visited Liverpool before making a tour of local schools.”
I’m in the front row standing on the right with Dear next to me of this picture with Dear.
“Hymns gave way to Jesus rock in morning assembly at St. George’s Church of England School, in Meadow Road, Gravesend yesterday. The concert was given by the Contemporaries, 14 musicians from the United States, who are in the middle of a world tour. They have already completed a number of successful “gigs” in Liverpool. They are all professional musicians, but they are giving their services free. They have also appeared at Gordon Secondary School for Girls and today they will be at Northfleet Count Secondary School for Girls. On Friday they will be at Gordon Secondary School for Boys and on Monday Southfields High School.” [this article was pretty sensationalized…the band were professionals, not the vocalists. Our World tour consisted of 4 weeks in England]
We have great memories of our tours in England. Dear went on 2 previous tours before I joined the group. We were able to sing in schools for their religious hour. It was exciting for us to be able to give testimonies and talk about Jesus at schools. (couldn’t do that in the U.S.)
It was hilarious that the kids would chase after us and want to get our autographs. After our school concerts during the day we would sing at a town hall or church at night and many of the students from the schools would come again to hear us.
I’m in the middle of all those young girls!
Dear and I left the group in the mid 70’s after we were married.
‘Stand Up for Jesus’ was the dying message of the Reverend Dudley A. Tyng to the Young Men’s Christian Association…The Sabbath before his death he preached in the immense edifice known as Jaynes’ Hall, one of the most successful sermons of modern times. Of the five thousand men there assembled, at least one thousand, it was believed were ‘the slain of the Lord’…The following Wednesday, leaving his study for a moment, he went to the barn floor, where a mule was at work on a horse-power, shelling corn. Patting him on the neck, the sleeve of his silk study gown caught in the cogs of the wheel, and his arm was torn out the roots! His death occurred in a few hours…The author of the hymn preached from Eph. 6:14, and the…verses were written simply as the concluding exhortation. The superintendent of the Sabbath school had a fly-leaf printed for the children—a stray copy found its way into a Baptist newspaper, from that paper it has gone…all over the world.
George Duffield, Jr.
Stand Up For Jesus ~ G. Duffield, Jr. (1858 – 1888)
Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross;
Lift high His royal banner, it must not suffer loss.
From victory unto victory His army shall He lead,
Till every foe is vanquished, and Christ is Lord indeed.
Stand up, stand up for Jesus, the solemn watchword hear;
If while ye sleep He suffers, away with shame and fear;
Where’er ye meet with evil, within you or without,
Charge for the God of battles, and put the foe to rout.
Stand up, stand up for Jesus, the trumpet call obey;
Forth to the mighty conflict, in this His glorious day.
Ye that are brave now serve Him against unnumbered foes;
Let courage rise with danger, and strength to strength oppose.
Stand up, stand up for Jesus, stand in His strength alone;
The arm of flesh will fail you, ye dare not trust your own.
Put on the Gospel armor, each piece put on with prayer;
Where duty calls or danger, be never wanting there.
Stand up, stand up for Jesus, each soldier to his post,
Close up the broken column, and shout through all the host:
Make good the loss so heavy, in those that still remain,
And prove to all around you that death itself is gain.
Stand up, stand up for Jesus, the strife will not be long;
This day the noise of battle, the next the victor’s song.
To those who vanquish evil a crown of life shall be;
They with the King of Glory shall reign eternally.
This is a quote from Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer from the section on Community:
Christian community is like the Christian’s sanctification. It is a gift of God which we cannot claim. Only God knows the real state of our fellowship, of our sanctification. What may appear weak and trifling to us may be great and glorious to God. Just as the Christian should not be constantly feeling his spiritual pulse, so, too, the Christian community has not been given to us by God for us to be constantly taking its temperature. The more thankfully we daily receive what is given to us, the more surely and steadily will fellowship increase and grow from day to day as God pleases.
Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate. The more clearly we learn to recognize that the ground and strength and promise of all our fellowship is in Jesus Christ alone, the more serenely shall we think of our fellowship and pray and hope for it.
Life Together. Copyright 1954 by HarperCollins Publishers.
There are certain books that I keep on my nightstand that I only read a chapter at a time. Future Grace by John Piper is one of these. This is a quote from Chapter Thirteen.
In God’s Place, At God’s Pace, By Future Grace
Impatience is a form of unbelief. It’s what we begin to feel when we start to doubt the wisdom of God’s timing or the goodness of God’s guidance. It springs up in our hearts when our plan is interrupted or shattered. It may be prompted by a long wait in a checkout line or a sudden blow that knocks out half our dreams. The opposite of impatience is not a glib denial of loss. It’s a deepening, ripening, peaceful willingness to wait for God in the unplanned place of obedience, and to walk with God at the unplanned pace of obedience – to wait in his place, and go at his pace. And the key is faith in future grace.
…God is ruling the world. He is ruling history. And it is all for the good of his people and the glory of his name. ‘From of old they have not heard nor perceived by ear, neither has the eye seen a God besides Thee, who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him’ (Isaiah 64:4) The power of patience flows through faith in the future, sovereign grace of God.”
The Lord is good to those who wait for Him. (Lamentations 3:25)
Blessings on your day as you live in faith for our future grace!
Colossians 3:12-17 (ESV)
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
Here it is in one passage, Christianity 101, 201, 301 and 401! Now to go and do and be what we were chosen to be, holy and beloved ones. Grace and blessings on you today!
My husband and I have decided it’s time to stop dancing between our church in Seattle and our church in Southern California. We are going to settle into reality. Although I’ve been traveling back and forth we live in Southern California because that’s where “Dear” is working full-time. To make our departure official we gave our two pastors whom we love dearly a copy of Preaching the Cross by Mark Dever, J. Ligon Duncan III, R.Albert Mohler Jr., C. J. Mahaney with contributions by John MacArthur, John Piper, R.C. Sproul. It was hard to “join” another church after 18 years of being faithful to our church in Seattle.
We love this body of believers and we have grown significantly through our experiences here. Our very closest friends and children have gone to this church. “Dear” was an elder at this church, I was a deaconness. But…God is calling us to something new, a change, something different. We choose to be obedient and though it’s hard we look forward to what new thing God will do with us for His Kingdom and we hope we can be faithful servants in this new thing. There is a quote by A.W. Tozer in the introduction to Preaching the Cross that I thought was very good reminder to all of us in the Body of Christ.
“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.” -A.W. Tozer
Thank you Lord for Sunrise, where we learned to love you more, love your people, we learned through experience what true forgiveness and reconciliation look like, and learned that suffering makes us more like you.
My prayer is that we all bow the knee to Jesus and keep our eyes on Christ, our Standard, so we can truly become nearer to each other as the Body of Christ.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 