DOES YOUR HEART HAVE CAMEL KNEES?
We have all observed the knees of a camel – they are calloused from kneeling so often. James, the brother of Jesus, was the writer of the Book of James and has been known in history as, “Old Camel Knees,” because his knees were calloused due to his kneeling frequently in prayer. We don’t have to, but when bowing our knees when we pray there is that sense of humility that God honors. The most important thing to God is not the posture of the knees but the posture of the heart.
Do we come often, perseveringly (I Thess.5:17), with ‘bowed’ heart, recognizing our complete need of our Lord; adoring Him, praising Him for Who He is, thanking Him for His goodness to us and presenting our petitions to Him, all in faith believing? If we are doing this daily, and even momentarily, our hearts will develop “camel knees.”
In James 5:16, he tells us that with this fervent heart posture our prayers will be powerful and effective, heard and answered. In this book James warns us of some hindrances to answered prayer: 1) a doubtful and unbelieving heart (1:6-8), 2) we do not ask (4:2c),
3)we ask with wrong motives (4:3).
God is not reluctant to answer our prayers. In fact, He longs to answer our prayers. But when we come, we must come with a bowed (humble) heart, godly motives, specific requests, all with trusting hearts. You may bow on your knees when you pray but the only prayers God will acknowledge are those offered with a ‘bowed’ heart.
Does your heart have ‘camel knees’? If it does, your reward will be great here and for eternity!
SWEET HOUR OF PRAYER
(William W. Walford)
Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, that calls me from a world of care,
And bids me at my Father’s throne, Make all my wants and wishes known.
In seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief, and oft escaped the tempter’s snare, by thy return, sweet hour of prayer.
Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, thy wings shall my petition bear, to Him whose truth and faithfulness engage the waiting soul to bless. And since He bids me seek His face, believe His Word and trust His grace, I’ll cast on Him my ev’ry care and wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer.
The sweetest time of the day is the time you are in prayer.
Mary Jones
Monday, September 22, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
MORE ABOUT JESUS, LET ME KNOW
I love to look at, study and meditate on the names and attributes of Jesus, my Lord. Just perusing the kaleidoscope of the glorious names and their meanings never fails to lift my faith and spirit. I cannot complete in this blog the magnitude of Who this “Jesus” is but I will make a start and I might go on forever (because I could). In the process, hopefully it will reacquaint or introduce you to the glorious Savior I know and His love.
Only with the acceptance that Jesus is the third person of the “Godhead” can we even begin to comprehend that all that God the Father is, likewise is the Son and the Holy Spirit. So when I speak of any of the Father’s attributes I am speaking of the Son and Holy Spirit as well.
Because of our complete finiteness we cannot comprehend this infinite God Who is three entities but exists separately, yet is of one essence (nature). We must accept it by faith. Here are two scriptures in point: Matthew 28:19 and Luke 3:22. So having said all that let’s begin another look at Jesus.
Out of all God’s attributes there is one that envelopes all of the others that become shining facets of the one. That one is LOVE. God is love (I Jn.4:8). Love is His essence, His character, His nature; love is His very being. He can be nothing else. The word love can be a noun (person, place or thing), or a verb (an action, word, thought or deed). When we say that “God is love” we are speaking of the noun “love,” we are speaking of His personhood, His very DNA. When we speak of the verb “love,” we are speaking of His thoughts, words and actions toward us. The Bible is full from beginning to end telling us about how He is love (noun) and how He loves (verb) mankind (you and me).
What does just a small scratching of His DNA look like? Because He is love He always acts out of love. “But God shows and clearly proves His own love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom.5:8). “For God so greatly loved and greatly prized the world that He gave up His only unique Son, so that whoever believes in, trusts in, clings to and relies on Him shall not be lost but have everlasting life. “(Jn.3:16). “See what an incredible quality of love the Father has shown us, that we should be permitted to be counted the children of God” (I Jn.3:1). When we become His children He pours out His love in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us. We have become new creations (II Cor.5:17). His spiritual blood is flowing through our spiritual veins. We have His spiritual DNA. That is the only way we can love like God loves.
Just as He enables His children to love as He loves (through the Holy Spirit that lives in us), He gives us the power to overflow with joy, peace and hope (Rom.15:13). He also enables us to do the most difficult, and even impossible, for us (Phil.4:13), and He reveals the deep things of God to us (I Cor.2:10-16; Rom.11:33,34). Through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit God gives us “Victory in Jesus.”
I have heard some ask the question, “If god was a loving God, how could He permit war, sickness, cruelty and wickedness of men?” Whether or not we can grasp the tension between the sovereignty of God and the free will He gives man to choose good or evil, we must accept, by faith, that God’s loving will and plan is at work in it all (I Cor. 13:10,12). One simple answer to this question is that unredeemed man doesn’t have God’s love in their hearts and are acting out of their selfish, self-centered and darkened nature.
So how does God’s love act, think and speak? First Corinthians tells us,“If I can speak in the tongues of men and even of angels, but have not love (such as is inspired by God’s love for us and in us), I am only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
And if I have the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose and understand all the secret truths and mysteries and possess all knowledge, and if I have sufficient faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love (God’s love in me) I am nothing (a useless nobody).
Even if I dole out all that I have to the poor and if I surrender my body to be burned (in order that I may glory, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. It is not arrogant; it is not rude and does not act unbecomingly. God’s love in us does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it pays no attention to a suffered wrong. It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.
God’s kind of love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything without weakening. Love never fails or becomes obsolete or comes to an end. And so faith, hope, love abide – these three; but the greatest of these is LOVE, God’s kind of love.” Amp.
Question: “How can we possibly love like this?” Answer: “In ourselves we can’t, only as we permit the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts and let Him control us.
“O love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong!
It will forevermore endure the saints’ and angels’ song.”- Frederick M. Lehman
Mary Jones
I love to look at, study and meditate on the names and attributes of Jesus, my Lord. Just perusing the kaleidoscope of the glorious names and their meanings never fails to lift my faith and spirit. I cannot complete in this blog the magnitude of Who this “Jesus” is but I will make a start and I might go on forever (because I could). In the process, hopefully it will reacquaint or introduce you to the glorious Savior I know and His love.
Only with the acceptance that Jesus is the third person of the “Godhead” can we even begin to comprehend that all that God the Father is, likewise is the Son and the Holy Spirit. So when I speak of any of the Father’s attributes I am speaking of the Son and Holy Spirit as well.
Because of our complete finiteness we cannot comprehend this infinite God Who is three entities but exists separately, yet is of one essence (nature). We must accept it by faith. Here are two scriptures in point: Matthew 28:19 and Luke 3:22. So having said all that let’s begin another look at Jesus.
Out of all God’s attributes there is one that envelopes all of the others that become shining facets of the one. That one is LOVE. God is love (I Jn.4:8). Love is His essence, His character, His nature; love is His very being. He can be nothing else. The word love can be a noun (person, place or thing), or a verb (an action, word, thought or deed). When we say that “God is love” we are speaking of the noun “love,” we are speaking of His personhood, His very DNA. When we speak of the verb “love,” we are speaking of His thoughts, words and actions toward us. The Bible is full from beginning to end telling us about how He is love (noun) and how He loves (verb) mankind (you and me).
What does just a small scratching of His DNA look like? Because He is love He always acts out of love. “But God shows and clearly proves His own love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom.5:8). “For God so greatly loved and greatly prized the world that He gave up His only unique Son, so that whoever believes in, trusts in, clings to and relies on Him shall not be lost but have everlasting life. “(Jn.3:16). “See what an incredible quality of love the Father has shown us, that we should be permitted to be counted the children of God” (I Jn.3:1). When we become His children He pours out His love in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us. We have become new creations (II Cor.5:17). His spiritual blood is flowing through our spiritual veins. We have His spiritual DNA. That is the only way we can love like God loves.
Just as He enables His children to love as He loves (through the Holy Spirit that lives in us), He gives us the power to overflow with joy, peace and hope (Rom.15:13). He also enables us to do the most difficult, and even impossible, for us (Phil.4:13), and He reveals the deep things of God to us (I Cor.2:10-16; Rom.11:33,34). Through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit God gives us “Victory in Jesus.”
I have heard some ask the question, “If god was a loving God, how could He permit war, sickness, cruelty and wickedness of men?” Whether or not we can grasp the tension between the sovereignty of God and the free will He gives man to choose good or evil, we must accept, by faith, that God’s loving will and plan is at work in it all (I Cor. 13:10,12). One simple answer to this question is that unredeemed man doesn’t have God’s love in their hearts and are acting out of their selfish, self-centered and darkened nature.
So how does God’s love act, think and speak? First Corinthians tells us,“If I can speak in the tongues of men and even of angels, but have not love (such as is inspired by God’s love for us and in us), I am only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
And if I have the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose and understand all the secret truths and mysteries and possess all knowledge, and if I have sufficient faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love (God’s love in me) I am nothing (a useless nobody).
Even if I dole out all that I have to the poor and if I surrender my body to be burned (in order that I may glory, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. It is not arrogant; it is not rude and does not act unbecomingly. God’s love in us does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it pays no attention to a suffered wrong. It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.
God’s kind of love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything without weakening. Love never fails or becomes obsolete or comes to an end. And so faith, hope, love abide – these three; but the greatest of these is LOVE, God’s kind of love.” Amp.
Question: “How can we possibly love like this?” Answer: “In ourselves we can’t, only as we permit the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts and let Him control us.
“O love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong!
It will forevermore endure the saints’ and angels’ song.”- Frederick M. Lehman
Mary Jones
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