You're my majesty.

desire to be in You.

The Prayer of a Minor Prophet by A.W Tozer

The Prayer of a Minor Prophet by A. W Tozer (minor edits done for translation into Mordern English)

This is the prayer of a man called to be a witness to the nations. This is what he said to his Lord on the day of his ordination. After the elders and ministers had prayed and laid their hands on him he withdrew to meet his Saviour in the secret place and in the silence, farther in than his well-meaning brethren could take him. And he said:

O Lord, I have heard Your voice and was afraid. You have called me to an awesome task in a grave and perilous hour. You are about to shake all nations and the earth and also heaven, that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. O Lord, our Lord, Tou has stopped to honour me to be Your servant. No man takes this honour upon himself save He that is called of God as was Aaron. You have ordained me Your messenger to them that are stubborn of heart and hard of hearing. They have rejected You, the Master, and it is not to be expected that they will receive me, the servant.

My God, I shall not waste time deploring my weakness nor my unfittedness for the work. The responsibility is not mine but Yours. You have said, “I knew you—I ordained you—I sanctified you,” and You has also said, “You shalt go to all that I shall send you, and whatsoever I command you you shall speak.” Who am I to argue with You or to call into question Your sovereign choice? The decision is not mine but Yours. So be it, Lord. Your will, not mine, be done.

Well do I know, to God of the prophets and the apostles that as long as I honour You, You will honour me. Help me therefore to take this solemn vow to honour You in all my future life and labours, whether by gain or by loss, by life or by death, and then to keep that vow unbroken while I live.

It is time, O God, for You to work, for the enemy has entered into Your pastures and the sheep are torn and scattered. And false shepherds abound who deny the danger and laugh at the perils which surround Your flock. The sheep are deceived by these hirelings and follow them with touching loyalty while the wolf closes in to kill and destroy. I beseech You, give me sharp eyes to detect the presence of the enemy; give me understanding to distinguish the false friend from the true. Give me vision to see and courage to report what I see faithfully. Make my voice so like Yours own that even the sick sheep will recognize it and follow You.

Lord Jesus, I come to You for spiritual preparation. Lay Your hand upon me. Anoint me with the oil of the New Testament prophet. Forbid that I should become a religious scribe and thus lose my prophetic calling. Save me from the curse that lies dark across the face of the modern clergy, the curse of compromise, of imitation, of professionalism. Save me from the error of judging a church by its size, its popularity or the amount of its yearly offering. Help me to remember that I am a prophet; not a promoter, not a religious manager—but a prophet. Let me never become a slave to crowds. Heal my soul of carnal ambitions and deliver me from the itch for publicity. Save me from the bondage to things. Let me not waste my days puttering around the house. Lay Your terror upon me, O God, and drive me to the place of prayer where I may wrestle with principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world. Deliver me from overeating and late sleeping. Teach me self-discipline that I may be a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

I accept hard work and small rewards in this life. I ask for no easy place. I shall try to be blind to the little ways that I could make my life easier. If others seek the smoother path I shall try to take the hard way without judging them too harshly. I shall expect opposition and try to take it quietly when it comes. Or if, as sometimes it falls out to Your servants, I shall have grateful gifts pressed upon me by Your kindly people, stand by me then and save me from the blight that often follows. Teach me to use whatever I receive in such manner that it will not injure my soul nor diminish my spiritual power. And if in Your permissive providence honour should come to me from Your church, let me not forget in that hour that I am unworthy of the least of Your mercies, and that if men knew me as intimately as I know myself they would withhold their honours or bestow them upon others more worthy to receive them.

And now, O Lord of heaven and earth, I consecrate my remaining days to You; let them be many or few, as You will. Let me stand before the great or minister to the poor and lowly; that choice is not mine, and I would not influence it if I could. I am Your servant to do Your will, and that will is sweeter to me than position or riches or fame and I choose it above all things on earth or in heaven. Though I am chosen of You and honoured by a high and holy calling, let me never forget that I am but a man of dust and ashes, a man with all the natural faults and passions that plague the race of men. I pray You therefore, my Lord and Redeemer, save me from myself and from all the injuries I may do myself while trying to be a blessing to others. Fill me with Your power by the Holy Spirit, and I will go in Your strength and tell of Your righteousness, even Yours only. I will spread abroad the message of redeeming love while my normal powers endure.

Then, dear Lord, when I am old and weary and too tired to go on, have a place ready for me above, and make me to be numbered with Your saints in glory everlasting. Amen

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Lord, let it be my prayer too. 

Relationship

RELIGION.

Ever since young, I am a Christian. I sort of believed that Jesus is real, and without questioning accepted it as my faith.

When presented the question, my answer has always been the same: "I am a Christian."
But what I know as my religion, I slowly begin to realize how much I hate religion.

I really only care about the relationship(s).

The relationships I had with the people in Church.
The relationships I had with people of the similar faith, as (at least) most Christians are nice.
Then I realize, it is the same with God.

God in the Old Testament gave us the Ten Commandments to follow. That is the Law.
In the Age of Law, the following of it ensures safety and blessing. Disregard leads only to banishment from His presence.
Seems very much like "Either obey Me or die".

But God isn't like that. Which is why He offered an alternative.

Which is Jesus.

Jesus says this: That if you believe in Him that He can be the Way for you, to lead you in Truth to Life with God, He can cleanse and forgive your sins and heal your land.

But how?

The answer is actually to have a relationship with God.

When you have a girlfriend, you like her at the start may be due to her appearance, her sweet sweet smile, cheerful disposition and just how everything falls together. BUT, you end up doing things that she approves of, and halt habits against her disapproval because you want to be aligned with her values.

Similarly, God wants us to be able to go up to a higher level with Him, and is willing to take us higher and soar alongside us. 

2 Corinthians 3:16-18 The Message (MSG) 16-18 Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.

When we enter into a relationship with God, a communal relationship, we are saying

God let us be like lovers, 
let us be like friends. 
We'll go through stuff together, 
all things hand in hand.
Lead me down the path
Mountains and valleys low
Your presence is enough
It's all I need to know

When we see that God has let Jesus tear the veil, and we see Him, face to face! And as Jesus washed us clean, now we stand facing God, shirt painted white without blemish. We realize that all He really wanted was for us to be clean and enjoy life, to depend on Him for everything, for He longs to take care of us. Really! That truth be told, He is the One beside us through every toss and turn, up and down the roller-coaster of life. He let us do the stuff that we can on our own, and He will NOT interfere, for He believes in us. As we understand that, we realize that it is not some commandments binding us anymore. We can simply choose NOT to sin because we do not want to be dirtied, it pains for us to see Jesus willingly die for us again.

And that is when we say: God, am I sick and tired of doing things my way and fail! And not only fail, because of it:

I feel lousy about myself and I cannot find validation for my mistakes. 
Nothing is able to justify, what I have said, every lie. 
Nothing could recuperate, the loss I've caused, the mess I've made.

So I choose to live a life that is pleasing and respectable, a life worthy to be known as Jesus' bride. His beloved that He is longing for.

This is why Christianity is a relationship for me.



Because of this Cross.

Because of this cross, I am going to pursue a relationship with who I call God.

Nuff said.

-huangxi

So you need Faith? Well, start with your quiet time.

So just because I'm paranoid of being different, doesn't mean I cant ask this question, so i am going to ask it. Do you brush your teeth only when you are experiencing tooth decay? No, but every day, once in the morning and once at night, right?
Now this is the same thing with our attitude.
We must not come to God only when we have a problem. Now understand this, there is nothing wrong with that, but that cannot be the only reason that exist. But we should come to God everyday, to build a relationship with him.
So what is the relation between these two examples?
Now the thing here is this: We brush our teeth everyday, to prevent tooth decay.
Similarly, we must pray and seek God everyday in our quiet time, in his word, so that we can build up our faith in him! And when we have our faith built up in him, we are able to overcome the obstacles with our faith in our God who is mighty to save.
It is important that we build up our faith.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
To build up our faith, we must have our quiet time. A quiet time is a period of time where we use to solely seek after God.
When we are in our quiet time, one thing that we do is to pray. And more often than not, don't we always find ourselves lacking in an area, and that we start praying for our God to deliver us from the situation? The thing is that when we pray, we must not just state our problems, but that we confess that our God is bigger than our problems! There is really, nothing too great for a God who created the heavens and the earth!
I dont know about you, but for me, sometimes i pray and when I'm done, i go back and think to myself, i am so gonna die(in that area, context not meant to be taken literally)! NO! When you pray, confess and belief in the positive!
We must exercise our faith in God.
Yes, people may let you down, but God will never let you down. Now, certain times, due to our previous experience in a particular area, which have always been unsuccessful, we tend to instill upon ourselves that no matter how we pray, God may(MAY) deliver me(if he is kind that day) but most likely he can't even be bothered. No! That is the lack of faith! We must have faith, especially in an omnipotent God.
So how do we receive faith?
Now this is not just limited to a person- god relationship, but even person-person relationship. The more you know somebody, the more you understand somebody, the more comfortable you are with somebody, the more you will trust that person. Yes? That is why it is important that we must know God more. And not only that, we are to enter into a fellowship with God.
Now the word fellowship used in the bible was the greek word koinonia, which means the communion by intimate participation. And it is also only when we come into a fellowship with God, that we are able to receive fullness of joy. Now that when we are together in communion with the Lord, we are able to now, put our faith in God because why, because we know that the thoughts he has for us are thoughts of peace, and to give us a future and a hope, thoughts that are not of evil! And that greater is he who is in me, that he who is in the world! And that He is our strength and our refuge, and that he watches over us even more than the sparrows, whom(the sparrows) are seen and cared for by He Himself, how much more us! And how do we know this? When we read his word! Which is, the bible, and since the bible is jesus(for the word was God, and is God). Therefore reading the bible is equivalent to understanding God!
And now, it is only that when we come into a place of intimate communion, a secret place, our prayer closet, our altar that we built before with a heart of worship and sacrifice of praise, then can we know him more, then can we trust him more, and then and only then, can we truly walk in his ways, as his word directs our path.
Let me end off with an example.
In many countries, not really in my church though, the 40 days before easter is called the Lent. It is where we start to be holy and pure and we repent of our sins and do a reflection of our lives. To me, i think that is a great idea. But for me, especially starting today(I am going to ignore my past), I want to live a life that everyday, I commune with him, everyday, he wakes me up and reminds me of his goodness and mercy. Yes it is good to have the Lent, and all, but why not today, since you have read my sharing till this part, spend just a minute. If you can spent 10 waiting in line for a burger queue, spent just one, saying, Hey jesus pop, i love you. And share with him. And if you can, note that this is just an encouragement, every night before you sleep, just spent those 10 minutes you have before you brush your teeth, saying, hey God, and start telling him about your day. Then read the word. Just a chapter a day will do. Even if you dont feel like doing it, do it. It is like sometimes we say, Who cares, one day without that colgate wont hurt me, imma sleep now. But no, make it a habit to talk to God and read his word. In fact, spent a minute after reading the word just trying to ask God, God, what is it that i need to know? And as you slowly develop this habit, as God's word, and his promises, and his blessings, as He reminds you daily of them, then you will be able, to have, more faith, and then, your inner man will be built up, and then, you will be able to face those challenges, those areas of your life which you never thoyght you could. Just give him a week where you read his word and pray. And confess those promises God has for you. I ensure you, your life will never be the same.
This Jesus I have been talking about is able to change your life, he holds the key to eternal life, he is the prince of peace, and has overcomed the world. If you would believe in him wholeheartedly, and  that this Jesus can save you, and that when you pray to him, and that when you read the bible, your whole life can change and take a 180 degree turn.

Post script:
Ok, now pardon my lack of arrangement of points and all, but this post was pretty impromptu. I just wanted to share what I felt.

This is cricantrail, and i will see you again soon.

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