Don't be afraid to pray for a real experimental encounter with the living God. Don't be afraid to get beyond believing about God, to actually sensing the living presense of God. Don't be afraid of your feelings; feelings aren't necessarily the enemy of faith. Handled rightly they are faith's great ally.

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At last I asked if she had ever thought of going to church for help. I will never forget the look of pure, naive shock that crossed her face. "Church!" she cried. "Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They'd just make me feel worse."

What struck me about my friend's story is that women much like this prostitute fled towards Jesus, not away from him. The worse a person felt about herself, the more likely she saw Jesus as a refuge. Has the church lost that gift? Evidently the down-and-out, who flocked to Jesus when he lived on earth, no longer fell welcome among his followers. What has happened?

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"Transforming Grace" p16 (Jerry Bridges)

However, I think that most of us actually declared temporary bankruptcy. Having trusted in Christ alone for salvation, we have subtly and unconsciously reverted to a works relationship with God in our Christian lives. We recognise that even our best efforts cannot get us to Heaven, but we do think they earn God's blessings in our daily lives. After we become Christians we begin to put away our more obvious sins. We also start attending church, put money in the offering plate, and maybe join a small group Bible study. We see some positive change in our lifestyles, and we begin to feel pretty good about ourselves. We are now ready to emerge from bankruptcy and pay our own way in the Christian life. Then the day comes when we fall on our face spiritually. We lapse back into an old sin, or we fail to do what we should have done. Because we think we are now on our own, paying our own way, we assume we have forfeited all blessing from God for some undetermined period of time. Our expectations of God's blessing depends on how well we feel we are living the Christian life. We declared temporary bankruptcy to get into His Kingdom, so now we think we can and must pay our own way with God. We were saved by grace, but we are living by performance.

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".. the pursuit of holiness is a joint venture between God and the Christian. No one can attain any degree of holiness without God working in his life, but just as surely no one will attain it without effort on his own part. God has made it possible for us to walk in holiness. But He has given to us the responsibility of doing the walking; He does not do that for us." (P14)

"... holiness is a process, something we never completely attain in this life. Rather, as we begin to conform to the will of God in one area of life, He reveals to us our need in another area. That is why we will always be pursuing - as opposed to attaining - holiness in this life." (P15)

"The idea of exactly how to be holy has suffered from many false concepts. In some circles, holiness is equated with a series of prohibitions - usually in such areas as smoking, drinking, and dancing. The list of prohibitions varies depending on the group. When we follow this approach to holiness, we are in danger of becoming like the Pharisees with their endless lists of trivial do's and don'ts, and their self-righteous attitude. For others, it means a particular style of dress and mannerisms. And for still others, it means unattainable perfection, an idea that fosters ether delusion discouragement about one's sin. All of these ideas, while accurate to some degree, miss the true concept. To be holy is to be morally blameless. It is to be separated from sin and, therefore, consecrated to God. The word signifies " separation to God, and the conduct befitting those so separated." (P19)

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"Whenever I doubted something about God , I felt guilty and wondered whether I was really a Christian or not. This only led me to try harder at being a "super Christian". Finally, I was worn out, fed up and didn't know what to do. If this depressing you, stay tuned because it was at this point that I learnt the most important lesson of my Christian life. It's taken me about two hours to think how to summarise this lesson into one sentence, but here it is:

God is happy with his children.

I know this sounds simple but the implications of it are huge. I discovered from the Bible that I could not become a better or more stable Christian , by my own effort. God is pleased with me because Christ took all my guilt on himself. It has nothing to do with how much I pray, or how often I tell others about Jesus. Even when I disobey him, God does not think to himself, "You bad Christian. How dare you disobey me?" As it say in Romans 8:1 "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

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"Truly, when the day of judgment comes, we shall not be examined as to what we have read, but what we have done, not how well we have spoken but how we have lived"

(Thomas a Kempis)

"What can the world offer you without Jesus? To be without Jesus is hell most grievous , to be with Jesus is to know the sweetness of heaven. If Jesus is with you , no enemy can harm you. Whoever finds Jesus , finds a rich treasure , and a good above every good. He who loses Jesus loses much indeed, and more than the whole world. Poorest of all is he who lives without Jesus, and richest of all is he who stands in favour with Jesus. "

"Jesus has many who love his kingdom in heaven , but few who bear his cross. He has many who desire comfort , but few who desire suffering. He finds many to share his feast, but few his fasting. All desire to rejoice with him , but few are willing to suffer for his sake. Many follow Jesus to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the cup of his passion. Many admire the miracles but few follow him to the humiliation of his cross. Many love Jesus as long as no hardship touches them... They who love Jesus for his own sake, and not for the sake of the comfort for themselves , bless him in every trial and anguish of heart, no less than in the greatest joy. And were he never willing to bestow comfort on them, they would still always praise him and give him thanks.

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"MERE CHRISTIANITY" pg 107 (C.S Lewis) According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison : it was through Pride that the devil became the devil : Pride leads to every other vice : it is the complete anti-God state of mind. Does this seem to you exaggerated? If so, think it over. I pointed out a moment ago that the more pride one had, the more one disliked pride in others. In fact, if you want to find out how proud you are the easiest way is to ask yourself , "How much do I dislike it when other people snub me, or refuse to take any notice of me, or shove their oar in, or patronise me, or show off?" The point is that each person's pride is in competition with every one else's pride. It is because I wanted to be the big noise at the party that I am so annoyed at someone else being the big noise. Two trades never agree. Now what you want to get clear is that Pride is essentially competitive - is competitive by its very nature - while the other vices are competitive only , so to speak , by accident. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If every one else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud : the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition had gone, pride has gone. That is why I say that Pride is essentially competitive in a way the other vices are not.

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"If we only spent more of our time in looking at Him we should soon forget ourselves."

"It is grace at the beginning, and grace at the end. So that when you and I come to lie upon our death beds, the one thing that should comfort and help and strengthen us there is the thing that helped us in the beginning. Not what we have been, not what we have done, but the Grace of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. The Christian life starts with grace , it must continue with grace, it ends with grace. Grace wondrous grace. By the grace of God I am what I am. Yet not I, but the Grace of God which was with me."

"It is not the works that are wrong, it is the faith in your works, trusting in your works."

"Circumstances are constantly affecting us and their purpose is to produce our sanctification. Pleasant circumstances and unpleasant circumstances. We should therefore be observant and always watching for lessons, seeking and asking questions."

"Look at the lives of those men and the time they gave to Scripture reading and prayer and various other forms of self-examination and spiritual exercises. They believed in the culture and the discipline of the spiritual life and it was because they did so that God rewarded them by giving them these gracious manifestations of himself and these mighty experiences which warmed their hearts."

"Indeed I can put it, finally like this; the ultimate cause of all spiritual depression is unbelief. For if it were not for unbelief even the devil could do nothing. It is because we listen to the devil instead of listening to God that we go down before him and fall before his attacks."

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"It's not how long you live, it's how well you live."

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but when he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

"Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've been to the mountain top. I won't mind. Like anybody, I would like to have a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And I've looked over , and I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. So I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord." (The day before his assassination)

"A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject of all, subject to all."

Martin Luther "Unless I am convicted of error by the testimony of Scripture or by manifest reasoning I stand convicted by the Scriptures to which I have appealed, and my conscience is taken captive by God's word. I cannot or will not recant anything. For to act against our conscience is neither safe for us, nor open to us."

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Holiness: Floyd McClung
"In the final analysis our greatest problem with holiness is not that our concepts of holiness are feeble, but that our hearts are rebellious. We are selfish , that's our problem. And the fact that we often won't admit our selfishness shows how deep the pride goes."

"The fact that God accepts us should be our motivation for accepting ourselves. If we cannot accept ourselves the way are, with our limitations and assets, weaknesses as well as strengths, shortcomings as well as abilities; then we cannot trust anyone else to accept us the way we are. We will always be putting on a front, building a facade around ourselves, never letting people know what we are really like deep down inside."

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"We see now what it meant for the Son of God to empty Himself and become poor. It meant a laying aside of glory ; a voluntary restraint of power; an acceptance of hardship, isolation, ill-treatment, malice, and misunderstanding ;finally, a death that involved such agony - spiritual , even more than physical - that His mind nearly broke under the prospect of it (see Luke 12:50 ,and the Gethsemane story). It meant love to the uttermost for unlovely men, who 'through his poverty , might become rich'. The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity - hope of pardon , hope of peace with God, hope of glory - because at the Father's will Jesus Christ became poor, and was born in a stable so that thirty years later He might hang on a cross. It is the most wonderful message that the world has ever heard, or will hear. We talk glibly of the 'Christmas spirit' , rarely meaning more by this than sentimental jollity on a family basis. But what we have said makes it clear that the phrase should in fact carry a tremendous weight of meaning. It ought to mean the reproducing in human lives of the temper of Him who for our sakes became poor at the first Christmas. And the Christmas spirit itself ought to be the mark of every Christian all the year round. It is our shame and disgrace today that so many Christians - I will be more specific : so many of the soundest and most orthodox Christians - go through this world in the spirit of the priest and the Levite in our Lord's parable , seeing human needs all around them, but (after a pious wish , and perhaps a prayer , that God might meet them) averting their eyes , and passing by on the other side. That is not the Christmas Spirit. Nor is it the spirit of those Christians - alas , they are many - whose ambition in life seems limited to building a nice middle-class Christian home, and making nice middle-class Christian ways , and who leave the sub-middle class sections of the community , Christians and non-Christian to get on by themselves. The Christmas spirit does not shine out in the Christian snob. For the Christian spirit is the spirit of those who, like their Master , live their whole lives on the principle of making themselves poor - spending , and being spent - to enrich their fellowmen , giving time, trouble care and concern , to do good to others - and not just their own friends - in whatever way there seems need. There are not as many who show this spirit as there should be. If God in mercy revives us, one of the things He will do will be to work more of this spirit in our hearts and lives. If we desire spiritual quickening for ourselves individually, one step we should take is to seek to cultivate this spirit. "For you know the grace of our Jesus Christ , that though he was rich , yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich" ( 2 Corinthians 8:9 ) "I will run the way of thy commandments , when thou shalt enlarge my heart "(Ps. 119:32).

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The first truth is that we are all invalids in God's hospital. In moral and spiritual terms, we are all sick and damaged, diseased and deformed, scarred and sore, lame and lopsided, to a far, far, greater extent than we realize.

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"Christ was raised as the first example of what we shall become and to show that sin's debt was fully paid. The resurrection therefore points to the fact that sin which is so much a part of us now has not been dealt with legally in God's eyes, but also one day it will be completely removed from us. Therefore, God can value and love us now as Christians for he foresees what he will one day make us in Christ. Martin Luther has a helpful way of putting this idea in his commentary on Romans: "It is just like someone who is sick, and who believes the doctor who promises full recovery. In the meantime he obeys the doctor's orders in the hope of the promised recovery, and abstains from those things which he has been told to lay off. Now it this sick man well? In fact, he is both sick and well at the same time. He is sick in reality - but he is well on account of the sure promise of the doctor whom he trusts, and who reckons him as already cured." Luther goes on to explain concerning a Christian, "So he is at one and the same time both sinner and righteous. He is a sinner in reality, but righteous by the sure imputation and promise of God who will continue to deliver him from sin until he has completely cured him"

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Advice given to new Christians after missions "It is important join a church - but don't go around looking for the perfect church. However , if you do find one that is perfect , join it quickly. But remember - as soon as you join it, it will cease to be perfect."

Where Flies Don't Land "I wrestle with a lot of things. I'm not an angel or a saint. I'm still a human being struggling through my mornings and afternoons but because of the grace of God who removed me form a lifestyle and a life in prison - where I would still be - I can overcome the world. I'm out here struggling , but the struggle isn't that hard. I've got him to go to and ask forgiveness to pick it up and go on. I continually pray that the Holy Spirit will come into my life and give me strength where I am weak , because that's what God promises as in the Scriptures. I know that."

Bridges that are Never Crossed "When we perceive people in their lost nature , we will be less worried about building secure bridges and more concerned about getting across to them. When we perceive people as the objects of Christ's love then we will be less worried about their loving us and more worried about them coming to know the saviour."

"love ever gives forgives , outlives And everstands with open hands And while it lives it gives. For this is love's prerogative , to give and give and give."

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As I checked in for an outpatient test at a local hospital last week, the admissions lady asked for the usual, name, rank, serial number, insurance and ailment. Then she inquired, "What is your religious preference?" I was tempted to say, "I think Buddhism is the coolest of all, but I happen to be Jewish." My second impulse was to repeat what Jonah said when asked by the shipmates of his foundering skiff to identify himself: "I am a Hebrew, ma'am. And I fear the Lord, the God of Heaven, who made the sea and the dry land." But that would surely have got me sent to psychiatry rather than X ray. So I desisted. In ancient times, they asked, "Who is your God?" A generation ago, they asked your religion. Today your creed is a preference. Preference? "I take coffee black, my wine red, my sex straight and my shirts lightly starched. Oh yes, and put me down for Islam." Of course, the only reason hospital folk bother to ask about religion at all is prudence, not theological curiosity. In case they accidentally kill you or otherwise expire on their watch, they want to make sure they send up the right clergy to usher you to the next level, as it were. We're not talking belied here. We're talking liability protection. According to Chesterton, tolerance is the virtue of people who do not believe anything. Chesterton meant that as a critique of tolerance. But it captures nicely the upside of unbelief: where religion is trivialised, one is unlikely to find persecution. When it is believed that on your religion hands the fate of your immortal soul, the Inquisition follows easily; when it is believed that religion is a breezy consumer preference, religious tolerance flourishes easily. After call, we don't persecute people for their taste in cars. Why for their taste in gods? Oddly, though, in our thoroughly secularised culture, there is one form of religious intolerance that does survive. And that is distain bordering on contempt of the culture makers for the deeply religious, i.e., those for whom religion is not a preference but a conviction.

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"How did life begin" TIME Australia , Oct 11, 1993

"In an oft quoted letter , written in 1871, Darwin suggested that life arose in a "warm little pond" where a rich brew of organic chemicals, over eons of time, might have given rise to the first simple organisms... Researchers decided that the "pond" was really the ocean and began trying to figure ut where the building blocks of life could have come from. In 1953 University of Chicago graduate student Stanley Miller provided the first widely accepted experimental evidence. In a glass jar he created a comic-strip version of primitive earth. Water for the ocean. Methane, ammonia and hydrogen for the atmosphere. Sparks for lightning and other forms of electrical discharge. One week later he found in his jar a sticky goop of organic chemicals, including large quantities of amino acids, Lego blocks for the proteins that make up cells. Case closed or nearly so , many scientists believed. Now this textbook picture of how life originated , so familiar to college students just a generation ago , is under serious attack. New insights into planetary formation have made it increasingly doubtful that the clouds of methane and ammonia ever dominated the atmosphere of primitive earth. And although Miller's famous experiment produced the components of proteins , more and more researchers believe that a genetic master molecule - probably RNA - arose before proteins did. Meanwhile , older and older fossils have all but proved that life did not evolve at the leisurely pace Darwin envisioned. Perhaps most intriguing of all, the discovery of organisms in oceanic hot springs has provided a Stygian alternative to Darwin's peaceful picture. Life , says microbiologist Karl Stetter of the University of Regensburg in Germany , may not have formed in a nice, warm pond, but in "a hot pressure cooker."...

"Some people will always hold to the belief that it is a divine spark , not clever chemistry , that brings matter to life, and scientists have yet to produce anything in a test tube that would shake a Fundamentalist's faith. The molecule in Joyce's lab, after all, is not as sophisticated as a virus and is still many orders of magnitude less than a bacterium. Indeed, the more scientists learn about it , the more extraordinary life seems. Just as the Big Bang theory has not demystified the universe, so progress in understanding the origin of life should ultimately enhance , not diminish the wonder of it."

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