DAILY ENCOURAGEMENT MONDAY – A HEART STARTER #70.

Well folks, the weekends over, and it’s back to work for those who live in the Southern Hemisphere, for those who don’t, please continue to enjoy your weekend, but remember, Mondays coming! And as we know by experience, Mondays can be very sluggish, especially after a lovely weekend, where we managed to spend some quality time with our families and friends, and suddenly it’s back to the grind.

I thought by way of encouragement, that we could have a ‘Heart Starter’ from the word of God, rather than the six cups of coffee, or whatever it takes, to get started for the rest of the week!

Our ‘Heart Starter’ today is, The Call of Christ Part 2, by A.W. Tozer…

The activities in which men engage may be divided into two categories: the morally bad and the morally neutral. The activities of the burglar, the gambler, the dictator, the procurer, the dope addict, the gangster and all who prey upon society are bad; nothing can make them better. The call of Christ is away from all such. This is not to be questioned or debated, but accepted without delay and acted upon at once.

But the majority of our human activities are not evil in themselves; they are neutral. The laborer, the statesman, the housewife, the doctor, the teacher, the engineer-such as these engage in activities that are neither good nor bad. Their moral qualities are imparted by the one who engages in them. So the call of Christ is not away from such things, for they may be sanctified by the prayer and faith of the individual, and thus turned into a positive good.

One thing is certain: the call of Christ is always a promotion. Were Christ to call a king from his throne to preach the gospel to some tribe of aborigines, that king would be elevated above anything he had known before. Any movement toward Christ is ascent, and any direction away from Him is down.

Yet though we recognize the honor bestowed upon us, there is no place for pride, for the follower of Christ must shoulder his cross and a cross is an object of shame and a symbol of rejection.

Before God and the angels it is a great honor to follow Christ, but before men it is not so. The Christ the world pretends now to honor was once rejected and crucified by that same world. The great saint is honored only after he is dead. Rarely is he known as a saint while he lives. The plaudits of the world come too late, when he can no longer hear them; and perhaps it is better that way. Not many are selfless enough to endure honor without injury to their souls.In those early Galilean days Christ's followers heard His call, forsook the old life, attached themselves to Him, began to obey His teachings and joined themselves to His band of disciples. This total commitment was their confirmation of faith. Nothing less would do.

And it is not different today. He calls us to leave the old life and to begin the new. There must never be any vacuum, never any place of neutrality where the world cannot identify us. Peter warming himself at the world's fire and trying to seem unconcerned is an example of the kind of halfway discipleship too many are satisfied with. The martyr leaping up in the arena, demanding to be thrown to the lions along with his suffering brethren, is an example of the only kind of dedication that God approves.

Wow! Now that our hearts are beating regularly, let’s consider what we have just read over a cup of Java, and ask the Lord to help us by the power of the Holy Spirit, to realise the call of Christ in our lives.

Loving Father, I thank you for the beautiful weekend that I have just had. Help me by the power of the Holy Spirit to start off this week, by taking on board, some of the advice and inspirations that I have just read. In the wonderful and mighty name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged!
GBYAY

DAILY ENCOURAGEMENT – WEDNESDAY WARRIOR. #33… A.W. TOZER.

We Must Have Better Christians…

To talk of "better" Christians is to use language foreign to many persons. To them all Christians are alike; all have been justified and forgiven and are the children of God, so to make comparisons between them is to suggest division and bigotry and any number of horrible things.

What is forgotten is that a Christian is a born-one, an embodiment of growing life, and as such may be retarded, stunted, undernourished or injured very much as any other organism. Favorable conditions will produce a stronger and healthier organism than will adverse conditions. Lack of proper instructions, for instance, will stunt Christian growth. A clear example of this is found in Acts 19, where an imperfect body of truth had produced a corresponding imperfect type of Christian. It took Paul, with a fuller degree of truth, to bring these stunted disciples into a better and healthier spiritual state.

Unfortunately it is possible for a whole generation of Christians to be victims of poor teaching, low moral standards and unscriptural or extra-scriptural doctrines, resulting in stunted growth and retarded development. It is little less than stark tragedy that an individual Christian may pass from youth to old age in a state of suspended growth and all his life be unaware of it. Those who would question the truth of this have only to read the First Epistle to the Corinthians and the Book of Hebrews. And even a slight acquaintance with church history will add all the further proof that is needed.

Today there exist in the world certain Christian bodies whose histories date far back. These have perpetuated themselves after their kind for hundreds of years, but they have managed to produce nothing but weak, stunted Christians, if Christians they can be called. Common charity forbids that we identify these by name, but any enlightened believer will understand.

Evangelicalism as we know it today in its various manifestations does produce some real Christians. We have no wish to question this; we desire rather to assert it unequivocally. But the spiritual climate into which many modern Christians are born does not make for vigorous spiritual growth. Indeed, the whole evangelical world is to a large extent unfavorable to healthy Christianity. And I am not thinking of Modernism either. I mean rather the Bible-believing crowd that bears the name of orthodoxy.

We may as well face it: the whole level of spirituality among us is low. We have measured ourselves by ourselves until the incentive to seek higher plateaus in the things of the Spirit is all but gone. Large and influential sections of the world of fundamental Christianity have gone overboard for practices wholly unscriptural, altogether unjustifiable in the light of historic Christian truth and deeply damaging to the inner life of the individual Christian.

They have imitated the world, sought popular favor, manufactured delights to substitute for the joy of the Lord and produced a cheap and synthetic power to substitute for the power of the Holy Ghost. The glowworm has taken the place of the bush that burned and scintillating personalities now answer to the fire that fell at Pentecost.

The fact is that we are not today producing saints. We are making converts to an effete type of Christianity that bears little resemblance to that of the New Testament. The average so-called Bible Christian in our times is but a wretched parody on true sainthood. Yet we put millions of dollars behind movements to perpetuate this degenerate form of religion and attack the man who dares to challenge the wisdom of it.

Clearly we must begin to produce better Christians. We must insist on New Testament sainthood for our converts, nothing less; and we must lead them into a state of heart purity, fiery love, separation from the world and poured-out devotion to the Person of Christ. Only in this way can the low level of spirituality be raised again to where it should be in the light of the Scriptures and of eternal values. - Excerpted from Of God and Men.

Loving Father, guard my soul from pride, my heart from callousness, and my mind from too much focus on unimportant things, and not enough on your things. Teach me in my heart, by the power of the Holy Spirit, what it means to be about my Father's business, especially in the area of availability to my Lord and Saviour, that I may be a better Christian! I ask this in the wonderful and mighty Name of Jesus. Amen.

Be encouraged!
GBYAY

DAILY ENCOURAGEMENT – WEDNESDAY WARRIOR. #29. We Must Have Better Christians… A.W. Tozer.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. - Mt 16:24.

Excerpted from Of God and Men…

To talk of "better" Christians is to use language foreign to many persons. To them all Christians are alike; all have been justified and forgiven and are the children of God, so to make comparisons between them is to suggest division and bigotry and any number of horrible things.

What is forgotten is that a Christian is a born-one, an embodiment of growing life, and as such may be retarded, stunted, undernourished or injured very much as any other organism. Favorable conditions will produce a stronger and healthier organism than will adverse conditions. Lack of proper instructions, for instance, will stunt Christian growth. A clear example of this is found in Acts 19, where an imperfect body of truth had produced a corresponding imperfect type of Christian. It took Paul, with a fuller degree of truth, to bring these stunted disciples into a better and healthier spiritual state.

Unfortunately it is possible for a whole generation of Christians to be victims of poor teaching, low moral standards and unscriptural or extra scriptural doctrines, resulting in stunted growth and retarded development. It is little less than stark tragedy that an individual Christian may pass from youth to old age in a state of suspended growth and all his life be unaware of it. Those who would question the truth of this have only to read the First Epistle to the Corinthians and the Book of Hebrews. And even a slight acquaintance with church history will add all the further proof that is needed.

Today there exist in the world certain Christian bodies whose histories date far back. These have perpetuated themselves after their kind for hundreds of years, but they have managed to produce nothing but weak, stunted Christians, if Christians they can be called. Common charity forbids that we identify these by name, but any enlightened believer will understand.

Evangelicalism as we know it today in its various manifestations does produce some real Christians. We have no wish to question this; we desire rather to assert it unequivocally. But the spiritual climate into which many modern Christians are born does not make for vigorous spiritual growth. Indeed, the whole evangelical world is to a large extent unfavorable to healthy Christianity. And I am not thinking of Modernism either. I mean rather the Bible-believing crowd that bears the name of orthodoxy.

We may as well face it: the whole level of spirituality among us is low. We have measured ourselves by ourselves until the incentive to seek higher plateaus in the things of the Spirit is all but gone. Large and influential sections of the world of fundamental Christianity have gone overboard for practices wholly unscriptural, altogether unjustifiable in the light of historic Christian truth and deeply damaging to the inner life of the individual Christian. They have imitated the world, sought popular favor, manufactured delights to substitute for the joy of the Lord and produced a cheap and synthetic power to substitute for the power of the Holy Ghost. The glowworm has taken the place of the bush that burned and scintillating personalities now answer to the fire that fell at Pentecost.

The fact is that we are not today producing saints. We are making converts to an effete type of Christianity that bears little resemblance to that of the New Testament. The average so-called Bible Christian in our times is but a wretched parody on true sainthood. Yet we put millions of dollars behind movements to perpetuate this degenerate form of religion and attack the man who dares to challenge the wisdom of it.

Clearly we must begin to produce better Christians. We must insist on New Testament sainthood for our converts, nothing less; and we must lead them into a state of heart purity, fiery love, separation from the world and poured-out devotion to the Person of Christ. Only in this way can the low level of spirituality be raised again to where it should be in the light of the Scriptures and of eternal values.

Loving Father, guard my soul from pride, my heart from callousness, and my mind from too much focus on unimportant things and not enough on your things. Teach me in my heart, by the power of the Holy Spirit, what it means to be about my Father's business, especially in the area of obedience! I ask this in the wonderful and mighty Name of Jesus. Amen.

Be encouraged!
GBYAY

WHEN I SAW MY DAD JAILED I FOUND BOXING AND JESUS!

I found this article in the Scottish Sunday Mail Newspaper, and foun it very refreshing, in other words, a 'Knock Out"...

SCOTS boxer "Amazing" Alex Arthur has revealed he would never have won his world title without his secret weapons... his loving wife Debbie and his religion. The super featherweight says it was Debbie's inner strength which helped him win the interim WBO belt when he defeated Koba Gogoladze in Cardiff last weekend.

As family man Alex relaxed at his Edinburgh home - with sons Alex Jr, five, Liston, two, and five-month-old Machlan - he dedicated the biggest win of his career to beautiful Debbie. And the devout Christian revealed he found religion aged 10 when his father, Alex Sr, was jailed for attempted murder.

He said: "I could never have won my world title without Debbie's love and strength...I'm absolutely useless without her. "Most boxers like to be cut off from their wife and kids before a big fight but I'm the opposite. If I go to training camp I take them with me. Every boxing trainer would probably tell you that's NOT the way to do it...but it works for me. "Debbie and the boys are part of my strength - they're my rock. When the going gets tough during training I think about them. That's what keeps me going."

Stitched and bruised from his brutal 10-round battle with Gogoladze, the 29-year-old champ spoke with disarming frankness about his tough upbringing. He said: "My dad didn't want me to be a boxer. He barred me from fighting. But he'd wake me up in the middle of the night to watch early Mike Tyson fights live on TV.
"In the late 1980s, he was sentenced to a prison term for attempted murder. "It was heartbreaking to see him being taken away - a very difficult time for me. My dad was a hero. I looked up to him. It was hard to cope with what happened.
"When he went to jail I went to a boxing gym. He couldn't stop me.

"I found boxing and Christianity at exactly the same time. I met a young lad, Thomas McCallum, who came from a similar background to myself. "He took me along to his church to play for their football team. The great thing was that after every game they laid on a huge spread of soft drinks, cakes and biscuits. "With my dad in jail, chocolate biscuits were in short supply in our house so I went along.

"One day a church elder said: 'Do you know anything about Jesus?' "I said, 'No, I just come here for the sweeties'.
"But when I stayed back I really got into the Bible stories and scriptures and became fascinated by Christianity. I decided there and then to dedicate my heart to Jesus."

Alex's faith is not unique in the fight game. Muhammad Ali refused the US draft in the 60s because of his devout Muslim beliefs. His famous heavyweight rival George Foreman became a preacher when he found God in the wake of his now legendary defeat by Ali in Zaire in 1974.
Other British ex-boxers such as Nigel Benn and Prince Naseem Hammed are also deeply religious.

Alex said: "I believe I've been given a gift from God to let people know there's more to life than money, sex, drinking and drugs. "I feel I can encourage people to live a better life. My faith helps me to live the life I need to be a successful boxer. "And it's helped me be morally a much better man. I live by the Ten Commandments. They've made me the man I am.

"Some people think I'm strange. They see me as a Holy Joe but it's more of a problem for them than it is for me." And tongue firmly in his cheek, he added: "I know I'm also extremely handsome and sought after by thousands of women but I'd never mess around with another girl. It's something I'd never dream of doing."

But Alex revealed his romance with Debbie almost never got by Round 1. The couple, who wed on February 5, 2005, had to cancel their wedding four times because he was training. Alex admits Debbie must have been attracted by his rugged good looks and not his social skills.
He said: "At 14, I preferred to stay in my bedroom, where I had punchbags hung up, doing my training. My dad forced me to go to a junior disco in Edinburgh. That's where I met Debbie. "When we started going out I must have bored the living daylights out of her. I never took her for pizza or to a movie and if boxing came on TV I'd sit glued to it and wouldn't speak to her."If I'd have been her dad I'd have said, 'Get rid of him'. I don't know how she stuck by me during those years."

Luckily, she did and the couple fell in love. Alex said: "I did everything I could for a kiss but she was having none of it. We went out for 18 months before she let me kiss her. When we had to cancel our wedding four times Debbie never complained. She's a rare breed."

Debbie was by his side when Alex suffered his only professional defeat in 2003 against Michael Gomez. He said: "She actually became a pain in the butt. She refused to leave my side and slept on a chair at the hospital all night when I was being treated for cuts and concussion."If I sneezed she was there with a hanky. It did become annoying in thedidthatI'ddie end because I just wanted to be left alone. But I realised Debbie was only trying to look after me."

Alex's fighting future is being steered by the UK's top boxing promoter, Frank Warren, who is confident he can get him multi-million dollar fights in Las Vegas. But the Scot's ambitions lie closer to home. He would like to defend his title on the esplanade at Edinburgh Castle - a short walk from his childhood home.

He said: "I don't care who I fight next. As long as they've got gloves and shorts on, I'll fight anybody. "Defending my title at the castle would put a stamp on my career. If I did that I'd die happy and go to Heaven. "I live a very Scottish life so I'd love to be regarded as the People's Champion."

Be encouraged!

GBYAY