Month: September 2018

“If we allow natural affection and human admiration or the lack of these to govern our efforts, we will surely fail in our work and our lives shall be ruined. To obtain genuine fruitfulness, we frequently need to disregard fleshly relationships. Our thoughts and desires must be offered completely to the Lord.” -Watchman Nee

 

When Jacob Deshazer went as one of Jimmy Doolittles raiders on Japan on April 18, 1942, he was an atheist. He was captured and imprisoned by the Japanese. He saw two of his companions shot by a firing squad. He saw another die of slow starvation.

During the long months, he pondered the question of why the Japanese hated him, and why he hated them. He began to recall some of the things he had heard about Christianity.

Boldly, he asked his, jailers if they could get him a Bible. At first they laughed boisterously, as at a good joke, then grew ugly and warned him to stop making a nuisance of himself. But he kept asking.

A year and a half later – May 1944 – a guard brought him a Bible, flung it at him, and said, “Three weeks you have. Three weeks, then I take it away.”

True to his word, in three weeks the guard took the Bible away, and DeShazer never saw it again.

In 1948, DeShazer, his wife, and infant son were on their w back to Japan as missionaries, all because he asked for a Bible and a Japanese guard gave him one for three weeks.

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword…” (Hebrews 4:12)

 

“We would worry less if we praised more. Thanksgiving is the enemy of discontent and dissatisfaction” –H.A. Ironside

“Never think that you can live to God by your own power or strength; but always look to and rely on him for assistance, yea for all strength and grace.” –David Brainerd

“There is power through prayer. For many Christians, prayer is nothing special, just something we’re supposed to do-go to church, tithe, read the Bible, pray. But prayer should be so much more than an item on our ‘to do list.” –E.M. Bounds

A burden is something carried in a sea-going vessel (Acts 21:3). God’s people carry burdens in their earthen vessels (2 Corinthians 4:7). The use of this word in connection with a ship’s cargo teaches us that a burden may weigh down a man, but that he is well suited for the purpose of burden bearing. In fact, for a ship to sail without a burden would be very dangerous. It needs to sit low in the water or it cannot be rightly governed. When a ship has no cargo, its hold will be filled with ballast to ensure that it does not sit too high in the water. This elevated position would cause it to fall over, so it is deliberately weighed down for its own safety.

Thus, every man has burdens and though some may help him carry them (Galatians 6:2) none can, or should, remove them (Galatians 6:5).

It is often said by preaches that Jesus will take away one’s burdens. This is not true. He will make that burden light by assisting us in carrying it (Matthew 11:30) but He knows we cannot sail safely without a burden.