BUT IT IS HARDLY CREDIBLE THAT ONE COULD BE SO POSITIVELY IGNORANT !!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Who art thou, Lord?" (ACTS 26:15)The Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand." There is no escape when Our Lord speaks, He always comes with an arrestment ounderstanding. Has the voice of God come to you directly? If it has, you cannot mistake the intimate insistence with which it has spoken to you in the language you know best, not through your ears, but through your circumstances. God has to destroy our determined confidence in our own convictions. "I know this is what I should do"__and suddenly the voice of God speaks in a way that overwhelms us by revealing the depths of our ignorance. We have shown our ignorance of Him in the very way we deyermined to serve Him. We serve Jesus in a spirit that is not His, we hurt Him by our advocacy for Him, we push His claims in the spirit of the devil. Our words sound all right, but our spirit is that of an enemy. "He rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of." The spirit of our Lord in an advocate of His is described in 1 Corinthians 13.

Have I been persecuting Jesus by a zealous determination to serve Him in my own way? If I feel I have done my duty and yet have hurt Him in doing it, I may be sure it was not my duty, because it has not fostered the meek and quiet spirit, but the spirit of self-satisfaction. We imagine that whatever is unpleasant is our duty! Is that anything like the spirit of our Lord, "I delight to do Thy will, O My God."


BUT IT IS HARDLY CREDIBLE THAT ONE COULD SO PERSECUTE JESUS !!
"Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" (ACTS 26:14) __Am I set on my own way for God? We are never free from this snare until we are brought into the experience of the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire. Obstinacy and self-will will always stab Jesus Christ. It may hurt no one else, but it wounds His Spirit. Whenever we are obstinate and self-willed and set upon our own ambitions, we are hurting Jesus. Every time we stand on our rights and insist that is what we intend to do, we are persecuting Jesus. Whenever we stand on our dignity we systematically vex and grieve His Spirit; and when the knowledge comes home that it is Jesus Whom we have been persecuting all the time, it is the most crushing revelation there could be. Is the Word of God tremendously keen to me as I hand it on to you, or does my life give the lie to the things I profess to teach? I may teach sanctification and yet exhibit the spirit of Satan, the spirit that persecutes Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Jesus is conscious of one thing only__a perfect oneness with the Father, and He say, "Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart." All I do ought to be founded on a perfect oneness with Him, not on a self-willed determination to be godly. This will mean that I can be easily put upon, easily over-reached, easily ignored; but if I submit to it for His sake, I prevent Jesus Christ being persecuted.

LOOK AGAIN AND THINK !!!!!!
"Take no thought for your life."
        (MATTHEW 6:25)
A warning which needs to be reiterated is that the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things entering in, will choke all that God puts in. We are never free from the recurring tides of this encroachment. If it does not come on the line of clothes and food, it will come on the line of money or lack of money; of friends or lack of friends; or on the line of difficult circumstances. It is one steady encroachment all the time, and unless we allow the Spirit of God to raise up the standard against it, these things will come in like a flood. "Take no thought for your life." "Be careful about one thing only," says our Lord, "Your relationship to Me." Common sense shouts loud and says, "That is absurd, I must consider how I am going to live, I must consider what I am going to eat and drink." Jesus says you must not. Beware of allowing the thought that this statement is made by One Who does not understand our particular circumstances. Jesus Christ knows our circumstances better than we do, and He says we must not think about these things so as to make them the one concern of our life. Whenever there is competition, be sure that you put your relationship to God first. "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." How much evil has begun to threaten you today? What kind of mean little imps have been looking in and saying__Now what are you going to do next month__this summer? "Be anxious for nothing," Jesus says. Look again and think. Keep your mind on the "much more" of your heavenly Father.


LOOK AGAIN AND CONSECRATE !!!!
"If God so clothe the grass of the field. . .shall He not much more clothe you?"
          (MATTHEW 6:30)
A simple statement of Jesus is always a puzzle to us if we are not simple. How are we going to be simple with the simplicity of Jesus? By receiving His Spirit, recognizing and relying on Him, obeying Him as He brings the Word of God, and life will become amazingly simple. "Consider," says Jesus, "how much more your Father Who clothes the grass of the field will clothe you, if you keep your relationship right with Him." Every time we have gone back in spiritual communion it has been because we have impertinently known better than Jesus Christ. We have allowed the cares of the world to come in, and have forgotten the "much more" of our Heavenly Father. "Behold the fowls of the air"__their main aim is to obey the principle of life that is in them and God looks after them. Jesus says that if you are rightly related to Him and obey His Spirit that is in you, God will look after your "feathers." "Consider the lilies of the field"__they grow where they are put. Many of us refuse to grow where we are put, consequently we take root nowhere. Jesus says that if we obey the life God has given us, He will look after all the other things. Has Jesus Christ told us a lie? If we are not experiencing the "much more" it is because we are not obeying the life God has given us, we are taken up with confusing considerations. How much time have we taken up worrying God with question when we should have been abso-lutely free to concentrate on His work? Consecration means the continual separating of myself to one particular thing. We cannot consecrate once and for all. Am I continually separating myself to consider God every day of my life?  



LEAVE ROOM FOR GOD !!!!!!
"But when it pleased God. . . ."               (GALATIANS 1:15)
As workers for God we have to learn to make room for God__to give God "elbow room." We calculate and estimate, and say that this and that will happen, and we forget to make room for God to come in as He chooses. Would we be surprised if God came into our meeting or into our preaching in a way we had never looked for Him to come? Do not look for God to come in any particular way, but look for Him. That is the way to make room for Him. Expect Him to come, but do not expect Him only in a certain way. However much we may know God, the great lesson to learn is that at any minute He may break in. We are apt to overlook this element of surprise, yet God never works in any other way. All of a sudden God meets the life, "When it was the good pleasure of God. . . ." Keep your life so constant in its contact with God that His surprising power may break out on the right hand and on the left. Always be in a state of expectancy, and see that you leave room for God to come in as He likes.


THE OVERMASTERING DIRECTION !!!!!
"I have appeared unto thee for this urpose."
                 (ACTS 26:16)
The vision Paul had on the road to Damascus was no passing emotion, but a vision that had very clear and emphatic directions for him, and he says, "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision." Our Lord said, in effect, to Paul__Your whole life is to be overmastered by Me; you are to have no end, no aim, and no purpose but Mine. "I have chosen him." When we are born again we all have vision, if we are spiritual at all, of what Jesus wants us to be, and the great thing is to learn not to be disobedient to the vision, not to say that it cannot be attained. It is not sufficient to know that God has redeemed the world, and to know that the Holy Spirit can make all that Jesus did effectual in me; I must have the basis of a personal relationship to Him. Paul was not given a message or a doctrine to proclaim, he was brought into a vivid, personal, overmastering relationship to Jesus Christ. Verse 16 is immensely commanding, "to make thee a minister and a witness." There is nothing there apart from the personal relationship. Paul was devoted to a Person not to a cause. He was absolutely Jesus Christ's, he saw nothing else, he lived for nothing else. "For I determined not to kown anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified."



TRANSFORMED BY INSIGHT !!!!!!!
"We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image." (2 CORINTHIANS 3:18)
The outstanding characteristic of a Christian is this unveiled frankness before God so that the life becomes a mirror for other lives. By being filled with the Spirit we are transformed, and by beholding we become mirrors. You always know when a man has been beholding the glory of the Lord; you feel in your inner spirit that he is the mirror of the Lord's own character. Beware of anything which would sully that mirror in you; it is nearly always a good thing, the good that is not the best. The golden rule for your life and mine is this concentrated keeping of the life open towards God. Let everything else__work, clothes, food, everything on earth__go by the board, saving that one thing. The rush of other things always tends to obscure this concentration on God. We have to maintain ourselves in the place of beholding, keeping the life absolutely spiritual all through. Let other things come and go as they may, let other people criticize as they will, but never allow anything to obscure the life that is hid with Christ in God. Never be hurried out of the relationship of abiding in Him. It is the one thing that is apt to fluctuate but it ought not so. The serverest discipline of a Christian's life is to learn how to keep "beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord."


WHAT AM I LOOKING AT ?
"Look unto Me, and be ye saved."
                 (ISAIAH 45:22)
Do we expect God to come to us with His blessings and save us? He says__Look unto Me, and be saved. The great difficulty spiritually is to concertrate on God, and it is His blessings that make it difficult. Troubles nearly always make us look to God; His blessings are apt to make us look elsewhere. The teaching of the Sermon on the Mount is, in effect__Narrow all your interests until the attitude of mind and heart  and body is concentration on Jesus Christ. "Look unto Me." Many of us have a mental conception of what a Christian should be, and the lives of the saints become a hindrance to our concentration on God. There is no salvation in this way, it is not simple enough. "Look unto Me" and__not "you will be saved," but "you are saved." The very thing we look for, we shall find if we will concentrate on Him. We get preoccupied and sulky with God, while all the time He is saying, "Look up and be saved." The difficulties and trials__the casting about in our minds as to what we shall do this summer, or tomorrow, all vanish when we look to God. Rouse yourself up and look to God. Build your hope on Him. No matter if there are a hundred and one things that press, resolutely exclude them all and look to Him. "Look unto Me," and salvation is, the moment you look. 



RECALL WHAT GOD REMEMBERS !!!!!!
"I remember. . .the kindness of thy youth." (JEREMIAH 2:2)
Am I as spontaneously kind to God as I used to be, or am I only expecting God to be kind to me? Am I full of the little things that cheer His heart over me, or am I whimpering because things are going hardly with me? There is no joy in the soul that has forgotten what God prizes. It is a great thing to think that Jesus Christ has need of me, "Give Me to drink." How much kindness have I shown Him this past week? Have I been kind to His reputation in my life? God is saying to His people__You are not in love with Me now, but I remember the time when tou were, "I remember. . .the love of thine espousals." Am I as full of the extravagance of love to Jesus Christ as I was in the beginning, when I went out of my way to prove my devotion to Him? Does He find me recalling the time when I did not care for anything but Himself? Am I there now, or have I become wise over loving Him? Am I so in love with Him that I take no account of where I go? or am I watching for the respect due to me; weighing how much service I ought to give? If, as I recall what God remembers about me, I find He is not what He used to be to me, let it produce shame and humiliation, because that shame will bring the godly sorrow that works repentance.


ARE YOU FRESH FOR EVERYTHING ????
"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (JOHN 3:3)
Sometimes we are fresh for a prayer meeting but not fresh for cleaning boots! Being born again of the Spirit is an unmistakable work of God, as mysterious as the wind, as surprising as God Himself. We do not know where it begins, it is hidden away in the depths of our personal life. Being born again from above is a perennial, perpetual and eternal beginning; a freshness all the time in thinking and in talking and in living, the continual surprise of the life of God. Staleness is an indication of something out of joint with God, "I must do this thing or it will never be done." That is the first sign of stalrness. Are we freshly born this minute or are we stale, raking in our minds for something to do? Freshness does not come from obedience but from the Holy Spirit; obedience keeps us in the light as God is in the light. Guard jealously your relationship to God. Jesus prayed "that they may be one, even as we are one"__nothing between. Keep all the life perennially open to Jesus Christ, don't pretend with Him. Are you drawing your life from any other source than God Himself? If you are depending upon anything but Him, you will never know when He is gone. Being born of the Spirit means much more than we generally take it to mean. It gives us a new vision and keeps us absolutely fresh for everything by the perennial supply of the life of God.


VISION AND DARKNESS !!!
". . .An horror of great darkness fell upon him." (GENESIS 15:12)
Whenver God gives a vision to a saint, He puts him, as it were, in the shadow of His hand, and the saint's duty is to be still and listen. There is a darkness which comes from excess to light, and then is the time to listen. Genesis 16 is an illustration of listering to good advice when it is dark instead of waiting for God to send the light. When God gives a vision and darkness follows, wait. God will make you in accordance with the vision He has given if you will wait His time. Never try and help God fulfill His word. Abraham went through thirteen years of silence, but in those years all selfsufficiency was destroyed; there was no possibility left of relying on common-sense ways. Those years of silence were a time of discipline, not of displeasure. Never pump up joy and confidence, but stay upon God (ISAIAH 50:10__11). Have I any confidence in the flesh? Or have I got beyond all confidence in myself and in men and woman of God; in book and prayers and ecstasies; and is my confidence placed now in God Himself, not in His blessing? I am the almighty God"__El-Shaddai, the Father-Mother God. The one thing for which we are all being disciplined is to know that God is real. As soon as God becomes real, other people become shadows. Nothing that other saints do or say can ever perturb the one who is built on God.

IT IS THE LORD !!!!!!
"Thomas answered and said unto Him, My Lord and my God." (JOHN 20:28)
Give Me to drink." How many of us are set upon Jesus Christ slaking out thirst when we ought to be satisfying Him? We should be pouring out now, spending to the last limit, not drawing on Him to satisfy us. "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me"__that means a life of unsullied, uncompromising and unbridled devotion to the Lord Jesus, a satisfaction to Him wherever He places us. Beware of anything that competes with loyalty to Jesus Christ. The greatest comperitor of devotion to Jesus is service for Him. It is easier to serve than to be drunk to the dregs. The one aim of the call of God is the satisfaction of God, not a call to do something for Him. We are not sent to battle for God, but to be used by God in His battlings. Are we being more devoted to service than to Jesus Christ?


THE VOCATION OF THE NATURAL LIFE !!!!!
"But when it pleased God. . .to reveal His Son in me. . ." (GALATIANS 1:15__16)
The call of God is not a call to any particular service; my interpretation of it may be because contact with the nature of God has made me realize what I would like to do for Him. The call of God is essentially expressive of His nature; service is the outcome of what is fitted to my nature. The vocation of the natural life is stated by the apostle Paul, "When it pleased God to reveal His Son in me that I might preach Him" (sacramentally express) "among the Gentiles." Service is the overflow of superabounding devotion; but, profoundly speaking, there is no call to that, it is my own little actual bit and is the echo of my identification with the nature of God. Service is the natural part of my life. God gets me into a relationship with Himself whereby I understand His call, then I do things out of sheer love for Him on my own account. To serve God is the deliberate love-gift of a nature that has heard the call of God. Service is expressive of that which is fitted to my nature: God's call is expressive of His nature; consequently when I receive His nature and hear His call, the voice of the Divine nature sounds in both and the two work together. The Son of God reveals Himself in me, and I serve Him in the ordinary ways of life out of devotion to Him.



THE VOICE OF THE NATURE OF GOD !!!!!
"I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send?" (ISAIAH 6:8)
When we speak  of the call of God, we are apt to forget the most important feature, viz, the nature of the One Who calls. There is the call of the sea, the call of the mountains, the call of the great ice barriers, but these calls are only heard by the few. The call is the expression of the nature from which it comes, and we can only record the call if the same nature is in us. The call of God is the expression of God's nature, not of our nature. There are strands of the call of God providentially at work for us which we recognize and no one else does. It is the threasing of God's voice to us in some particular matter, and it is no use consulting anyone else about it. We have to keep that profound relationship between our souls and God. The call of God is not the echo of my nature; my affinities and personal temperament are not considered. As long as I consider my personal temperament and think about what I am fitted for, I shall never hear the call of God. But when I am brought into relationship with God, I am in the condition Isaiah was in. Isaiah's soul was so attuned to God by the tremendous crisis he had gone through that he recorded the call of God to his amazed soul. The majority of us have no ear for anything but ourselves, we cannot hear a thing God says. To be brought into the zone of the call of God is to be profoundly altered.



DO YOU WALK IN WHITE !
"Buried with Him. . .that. . .even so we also should walk in newness of life."
              (ROMANS 6:4)
No one enters into the experience of entire sanctification without going through a "white funeral"__the burial of the old life. If there has never been this crisis of death, sanctification is nothing more than a vision. There must be a "white funeral," a death that has only one resurrection__a resurrection into the life of Jesus Christ. Nothing can upset such a life, it is one with God for one purpose, to be a witness to Him. Have you come to your last days really? You have come to them often in sentiment, but have you come to them really? You cannot go to your funeral in excitement, or die in excitement. Death means you stop being. Do you agree with God that you stop being the striving, earnest kind of Christian you have been? We skirt the cemetery and all the time refuse to go to death. It is not striving to go to death, it is dying, "baptized into His death." Have you had your "white funeral," or are you sacredly playing the fool with your soul? Is there a place in your life marked as the last day, a place to which the memory goes back with a chastened and extraordinarily grateful remembrance, "Yes, it was then, at that 'white funeral,' that I made an agreement with God," "This is the will of God, even your sanctification." When you realize what the will of God is, you will enter into sanctification as naturally as can be. Are you willing to go through that "white funeral" now? Do you agree with Him that this is your last day on earth? The moment of agreement depends upon you.


CALLED OF GOD !!!!!!
"Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me."
                 (ISAIAH 6:8)
God did not address the caaiah; Isaiah overheard God saying, "Who will go for us?" The call of God is not for the special few, it is for everyone. Whether or not I hear God's call depends upon the state of my ears; and whatI hear depends upon ny disposition. "Many are called but few are chosen," that is, few prove themselves the chosen ones. The chosen ones are those who have come into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ whereby their disposition has been altered and their ears unstopped, and they hear the still small voice questioning all the time, "Who will go for us?" It is not a question of God singling out a man and saying, "Now, you go." God did not lay a strong compulsion on Isaiah; Isaiah was in the presence of God and he overheard the call, and realized that there was nothing else for him but to say, in conscious freedom, "Here am I, send me." Get out of your mind the idea of expecting God to come with compulsions and pleadings. When our Lord called His disciples there was no irresistible compulsion from outside. The quiet passionate insistence of His "Follow Me" was spoken to men with every power wide awake. If we let the Spirit of God bring us face to face with God, we too shall hear something akin to what Isaiah heard, the still small voice of God; and in perfect freedom will say, "Here am I; send me."

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ALONE WITH GOD ????
"When He was alone. . .the twelve asked of Him. . ."  (MARK 4:10)
His Solitude with Us. When God gets us alone by affliction, heartbreak, or temptation, by disappointment, sickness, or thwarted affection, by a broken friendship, or by a new friendship__when He gets us absolutely alone, and we are dumbfounded, and cannot ask one question, then He begins to expound. Watch Jesus Christ's training of the twelve. It was the disciples, not the crowd outside, who were perplexed. They constantly asked Him questions, and He constantly expounded things to them; but they only understood after they had received the Holy Spirit (See JOHN 14:26). If you are going on with God, the only thing that is clear to you, and the only thing God intends to be clear, is the way He deals with your own soul. Your brother's sorrows and perplexities are an absolute confusion to you. We imagine we understand where the other person is, until God gives us a dose of the plague of our own hearts. There are whole tracts of stubbornness and ignorance to be revealed by the Hoy Spirit in each one of us, and it can only be done when Jesus gets us alone. Are we alone with Him now, or are we taken up with little fussy notions, fussy comradeships in God's service, fussy ideas about our bodies? Jesus can expound nothing until we get through all the noisy questions of the head and are alone with Him.


HAVE YOU BEEN ALONE WITH GOD ??????
"When they were alone, He expouded all things to His disciples."  (MARK 4:34)
Our Solitude with Him. Jesus does not take us alone and expound things to us all the time; He expounds things to us as we can understand them. Other lives are parables. God is making us spell out our own souls. It is slow work, so slow that it takes God all time and eternity to make a man and woman after His own purpose. The only way we can be of use to God is to let Him take us through the crooks and crannies of our own characters. It is astounding how ignorant we are about ourselves! We do not know envy when we see it, or laziness, or pride. Jesus reveals to us all that this body has been harbouring before His grace began to work. How many of us have learned to lookin with courage? We have to get rid of the idea that we understand ourselves; it is the last conceit to go. The only One Who understands us is God. The greatest curse in spiritual life is conceit. If we have ever had a glimpse of what we are like in the sight of God, we shall never say, "Oh, I am so unworthy," God will keep narrowing us in until He gets us alone. Wherever there is any element of pride or of conceit, Jesus cannot expound a thing. He will take us through the disappointment of a wounded pride of intellect, through disappointment of heart. He will reveal inordinate affections__things over which we never thought He would have to get us alone. We listen to many things in classes, but they are not an exposition to us yet. They will be when God gets us alone over them.



WHAT MY OBEDIENCE TO GOD COSTS OTHER PEOPLE !!!!!!
"They laid hold upon one Simon. . . and on him they laid the cross."
If we obey God it is going to cost other people more than it costs us, and that is where the sting comes in. If we are in love with our Lord, obedience does not cost us anything, it is a delight, but it costs those who do not love Him a good deal. If we obey God it will mean that other people's plans are upset, and they will gibe us with it, "You call this Christianity?" We can prevent the suffering; but if we are going to obey God, we must not prevent it, we must let the cost be paid. Our human pride entenches itself on this point, and we say__I will never accept anything from anyone. We shall have to, or disobey God. We have no right to expect to be in any other relation than our Lord Himself was in (See LUKE 8:2__3).
Stagnation in spiritual life comes when we say we will bear the whole thing ourselves. We cannot. We are so involved in the universal purpose of God that immediately we obey God, others are affected. Are we going to remain loyal in our obedience to God and go through the humiliation of refusing to be independent, or are we going to take the other line and say__I will not cost other people suffering? We can disobey God if we choose, and it will bring immediate relief to the situation but we shall be a grief to our Lord. Whereas if we obey God, He will look after those who have been pressed into the consequences of our obedience. We have simply to obey and to leave all consequences with Him. Beware of the inclination to dictate to God as to what you will allow to happen if you obey Him.


THE OPENED SIGHT !!!!
"To open their eyes. . .that they may receive. . . ." (ACTS 26:18)
This verse is the grandest condensation of the propaganda of a disciple of Jesus Christ in the whole of the New Testament. The first sovereign work of grace is summed up in the words, "that they may receive remission of sins." When a man fails in personal Christian experience, it is nearly always because he has never received anything. The only sign that a man is saved is that he has received something from Jesus Christ. Our part as workers for God is to open men's eyes that they may turn themselves from darkness to light; but that is not salvation, that is conversion__the effort of a roused human being. I do not think it is too sweeping to say that the majority of nominal Christians are of this order; their eyes are opened, but they have received nothing. Conversion is not regeneration. This is one of the neglected factors in our preaching today. When a man is born again, he knows that it is because he has received something as a gift from Almighty God and not because of his own decision. People register their vows, and sign their pledges, and detemine to go through, but none of this is salvation. Salvation means that we are brought to the place where we are able to receive something from God on the authority of Jesus Christ, viz, remission of sins. Then there follows the second mighty work of grace__"and inheritance among them which are sanctified." In sanctification the regenerated soul deliberately gives up his right to himself to Jesus Christ, and identifies himself entirely with God's interest in other men.


INTERCESSORY INTROSPECTION !!!!!!
"And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless."
      (1 THESSALONIANS 5:23)
Your whole spirit . . ." The great mystical work of the Holy Spirit is in the dim regions of our personality which we cannot get at. Read the 139th Psalm; the Psalmist implies, "Thou art the God of the early mornings, the God of the late at nights, the God of the mountain peaks, and the God of the sea; but, my God, my soul has further horizons than the early mornings, deeper darkness than the nights of earth, higher peaks than any mountain peaks, greater depths than any sea in nature__Thou who art the God of all these, be my God. I cannot reach to the heights or to the depths; there are motives I cannot trace, dreams I cannot get at__my God, search me out." Do we believe that God can garrison the imagination far beyond where we can go? "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin"__if that means in conscious experience only, may God have mercy on us. The man who has been made obtuse by sin will say he is not conscious of sin. Cleansing from sin is to the very heights and depths of our spirit if we will keep in the light as God is in the light, and the very Spirit that fed the life of Jesus Christ will feed the life of our spirits. It is only when we are garrisoned by God with the stupendous sanctity of the Holy Spirit, the spirit, soul and body are preserved in unspotted integrity, underseving of censure in God's sight, until Jesus comes. We do not allow our minds to dwell as they should on these great massive truths of God.


DOES MY SACRIFICE LIVE !!!!!
"And Abraham built an alter. . .and bound Isaac his son." (GENESIS 22:9)
This incident is a picture of the blunder we make in thinking that the final thing God wants of us is the sacrifice of death. What God wants is the sacrifice through death which enables us to do what Jesus did, viz, sacrifice our lives. Not__I am willing to go to death with Thee, but__I am willing to be identified with Thy death so that I may sacrifice my life to God. We seem to think that God wants us to give things! God purified Abraham from this blunder, and the same discipline goes on in our lives. God nowhere tells us to give up things for the sake of the only thing worth having__viz, life with Himself. It is a question of loosening the bands that hinder the life, and immediately those bands are loosened by identification with the death of Jesus, we enter into a relationship with God whereby we can sacrifice our lives to Him. It is of no value to God to give Him your life for death. He wants you to be a "living sacrifice," to let Him have all your powers that have been saved and sanctified through Jesus. This is the thing that is acceptable to God.



INTIMATE WITH JESUS !!!
"Have I been so long with you, and yet hast thou not known Me?" (JOHN 14:9)
These words are not spoken as a rebuke, nor even with surprise; Jesus is leading Philip on. The last One with whom we get intimate is Jesus. Before Pentecost the disciples knew Jesus as the One Who gave them power to conquer demons and to bring about a revival (See LUKE 10:18__20). It was a wonderful intimacy, but there was a much closer intimacy to come__"I have called you friends." Friendship is rare on earth. It means identity in thought and heart and spirit. The whole discipline of life is to enable us to enter into this closest relationship with Jesus Christ. We receive His blessings and know His Word, but do we know Him? Jesus said, "It is expedient for you that I go away"__in that relationship, so that He might lead them on. It is a joy to Jesus when a disciple takes time to step more intimately with Him. Fruit bearing is always mentioned as the manifestation of an intimate union with Jesus Christ (JOHN 15:1__4). When once we get intimate with Jesus we are never lonely, we never need sympathy, we can pour out all the time without being pathetic. The saint who is intimate with Jesus will never leave impressions of himself, but only the impression that Jesus is having unhindered way, because the last abyss of his nature has been satisfied by Jesus. The only impression left by such a life is that of the strong calm sanity that Our Lord gives to those who are intimate with Him.


WORSHIP !!!!!!
"And [he] pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar." (GENESIS 12:8)
Worship is giving God the best that He has given you. Be careful what you do with the best you have. Whenever you get a blessing from God, give it back to Him as a love gift. Take time to meditate before God and offer the blessing back to Him in a deliberate act of worship. If you hoard a thing for yourself, it will turn into spiritual dry rot, as the manna did when it was hoarded. God will never let you hold a spiritual thing for yourself, it has to be given back to Him that He may make it a blessing to others. Bethel is the symbol of communion with God; Ai is the symbol of the world. Abraham pitched his tent between the two. The measure of the worth of our public activity for God is the private profound communion we have with Him. Rush is wrong every time, there is always plenty of time to worship God. Quiet days with God may be a snare. We have to pitch our tents where we shall always have quiet times with God, however noisy our times with the world may be. There are not three stages in spiritual life__worship, waiting and work. Some of us go in jumps like spiritual frogs, we jump from worship to waiting, and from waiting to work. God's idea is that the three should go together. They were always together in the life of Our Lord. He was unhasting and unresting. It is a discipline, we cannot get into it all at once.



THE AFTERWARDS OF THE LIFE OF POWER !!!!
"Whither I go, thou canst not follow Me now; but thou shalt follow Me afterwards."
                  (JOHN 13:36)
And when He had spoken this, He saith unto him, Follow Me." Three years before, Jesus had said, "Follow Me," and Peter had followed easily, the fascination of Jesus was upon him, he did not need the Holy Spirit to help him to do it. Then he came to the place where he denied Jesus, and his heart broke. Then he received the Holy Spirit, and now Jesus says again, "Follow Me." There is no figure in front now saving the Lord Jesus Christ. The first "Follow Me" had nothing mystical in it, it was an external following; now it is a following in internal martyrdom (JOHN 21:18). Between these times Peter had denied Jesus with oaths and curses, he had come to the end of himself and all his self-sufficiency, there was not one strand of himself he would ever rely upon again, and in his destitution he was in a fit condition to receive an impartation from the risen Lord. "He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost." No matter what changes God has wrought in you, never rely upon them, build only on a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, and on the Spirit He gives. All our vows and resolutions end in denial because we have no power to carry them out. When we have come to the end of ourselves, not in imagination but really, we are able to receive the Holy Spirit. "Receive ye the Holy Ghost"__the idea is that of invasion. There is only one lodestar in the life now, the Lord Jesus Christ.

WHY CANNOT I FOLLOW THEE NOW ?????
"Peter said unto Him, Lord, why cannot I follow Thee now???  (JOHN 13:37)
There are times when you cannot understand why you cannot do what you want to do. When God brings the blank space, see that you do not fill it in, but wait. The blank space may come in order to teach you what sanctification means, or it may come after sanctification to teach you what service means. Never run before God's guidance. If there is the slightest doubt, then He is not guiding. Whenever there is doubt__don't.
In the beginning you may see clearly what God's will is__the severance of a friendship, the breaking off of a business relationship, something you feel distinctly before God is His will for you to do, never do it on the impulse of that feeling. If you do, you will end in making difficulties that will take years of time to put right. Wait for God's time to bring it around and He will do it without any heartbreak or disappointment. When it is a question of the providential will of God, wait for God to move. Peter did not wait on God; he forecast in his mind where the test would come, and the test came where he did not expect it. "I will lay down my life for Thy sake." Peter's declaration was honest but ignorant. "Jesus answered him. . . The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied Me thrice." This was said with a deeper knowledge of Peter than Peter had of himself. He could not follow Jesus because he did not know himself, of what he was capable. Natural devotion may be all very well to attract us to Jesus, to make us feel His fascination, but it will never make us disciples. Natural devotion will always deny Jesus somewhere or other.


CLOUDS AND DARKNESS !!
"Clouds and darkness are around about him."
        (PSALM 97:2)
A man who has not been born of the Spirit of God will tell you that the teachings of Jesus are simple. But when you are baptized with the Holy Ghost, you find "clouds and darkness are round about Him." When we come into close contact with the teachings of Jesus Christ we have our first insight into this aspect of things. The only possibility of understanding the teaching of Jesus is by the light of the Spirit of God on the inside. If we have never had the experience of taking our commonplace religious shoes off our commonplace religious feet, and getting rid of all the undue familiarity with which we approach God, it is questionable whether we have ever stood in His presence. The people who are flippant and familiar are those who have never yet been introduced to Jesus Christ. After the amazing delight and liberty of realizing what Jesus Christ does, comes the impenetrable darkness of realizing Who He is. Jesus said, "The words that I speak unto you," not the words I have spoken, "they are spirit, and they are life." The Bible has been so many words to us__clouds and darkness__then all of a sudden the words become spirit and life because Jesus re-speaks them to us in a particular condition. That is the way God speaks to us, not by visions and dreams, by by words. When a man gets to God it is by the most simple way of words.


WILL YOU GO OUT WITHOUT KNOWING !!!!!!
"He went out, not knowing whither he went" (HEBREWS 11:8)
Have you been "out" in this way? If so, there is no logical statement possible when anyone asks you what you are doing. One of the diffculties in Christian work is this question__"What do you expect to do?" You do not know what you are going to do; the only thing you know is that God knows what He is doing. Continually revise your attitude towards God and see if it is a going out of everything, trusting in God entirely. It is this attitude that keeps you in perpetual wonder__you do not know what God is going to do next. Each morning you wake it is to be a "going out," building in confidence on God. "Take no thought for your life, . . . nor yet for your body"__take no thought for the things for which you did take thought before you "went out." Have you been asking God what HE is going to do? HE will never tell you. GOD does not tell you what HE is gong to do; HE reveals to you Who HE is. Do you believe in a miracle-working GOD, and will you go out in surrender to HIM until you are not surprised an atom at anything HE does?
Suppose GOD is the GOD you know HIM to be when you are nearest to Him__what an impertinence worry is! Let the attitude of the life be a continual "going out" in dependence upon God, and your life will have an ineffable charm about it which is a satisfaction to Jesus. You have to learn to go out of convictions, out of creeds, out of experiences, until so far as your faith is concerned, there is nothing between yourself and God.


LET US KEEP TO THE POINT !!!!!!!
"My eager desire and hope being that I may never feel ashamed, but that now as ever I may do honour to Christ in my own person by fearless courage." (PHILLIPPIANS 1:20)
My Utmost for HIS Highest. "My eager desire and hope being that I may never feel ashamed." We shall all feel very much ashamed if we do not yield to Jesus on the point He has asked us to yield to HIM. Paul says__"My determination is to be my utmost for HIS HIGHEST." To get there is a question of will, not of debate nor of reasoning, but a surrender of will, an absolute and irrevocable surrender on that point. An over-weaning consideration for ourselves is the thing that keeps us from that decision, though we put it that we are considering others. When we consider what it will cost others if we obey the call of Jesus, we tell God HE does not know what our obedience will mean. Keep to the point; HE does know. Shut out every other consideration and keep yourself before God for this one thing only__My Utmost for HIS HIGHEST. I am determined to be absolutely and entirely for HIM and for HIM alone. My Undeterredness for HIS HOLINESS. "Whether that means life or death, no matter!" (See 1:21.) Paul is determined that nothing shall deter him from doing exactly what God wants. God's order has to work up a crisis in our lives because we will not heed the gentler way. HE brings us to the place where HE asks us to be our utmost for HIM, and we begin to debate; then HE produces a providential crisis where we have to decide__for or against, and from that point the "Great Divide" begins. If the crisis has come to you on any line, surrender your will to HIM absolutely and irrevocably.
       

LOVE OUTLAST ANGER !!!!!!!

LOVE OUTLAST ANGER !!!!!!
His anger lasts only a moment, but His favor, a lifetime. Weeping may spend the night, but there is joy in the morning. (PSALM 30:5)
Anger, being a powerful emotion, sometimes flares up quicker than our better judgment can head it off. We feel it rising up within us, leaving only a few seconds for us to choose whether or not to act on it. But once we recognize its appearance and we realize it wants to take over the situation, the wise man or woman restrains it. Anger may feel like lashing out from within us, but love won't let it take a breath. Even God's anger, though always holy and justified, is quickly put behind Him after serving its purpose. Our anger, too, though sometimes appropriate, must remain under love's control. Otherwise, it will always want to write the script for what happens next, rather than playing its rightful role under the direction, authority, and restraint of godly patience. If our love is to be like God's love, it must be slow to anger, ready to release, and quick to forgive. 

LOVE IS GOD'S WORD !!!!!!
Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path.
                                 (PSALM 119:105)
For some people, the Bible seems just too big to understand. It's like an impossible challenge. But as a Christian, you're not left alone to try grasping the major themes and deep meanings of the Bible. The Holy Spirit, who now lives in your heart by way of salvation, is an illuminator of truth. "For the Spirit searches everything, even the deep things of God" (1 CORINTHIANS 2:10). And because of His internal lamp, the Scriptures are now yours to read, absob, and live by. If this is not already a habit of yours, now is the time to begin reading a portion of the Bible every day. Ideally, read it together as husband and wife__in the morning, perhaps, or before bed. Be like the writer of Psalm 119, who could say, "I have sought You with all my heart; don't let me wander from Your commands. I have treasured Your word in my heart so that I may not sin against You" (PSALM 119:10__11).


LOVE IS CONSISTENTLY PATIENT !!!!!
Return to the Lord your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in faithful love. (JOEL 2:13)
God's patience is a major theme of Scripture. God revealed it to Moses and then consistently displayed it to His people. Nehemiah recalled it during a confession of the nation's sin (NEHEMAIH 9:17). David sought it for himself in seeking rescue from his enemies (PSALM 86:15), as well as forgiveness for his failings (PSALM 103:8). The prophets Joel, Jonah, and Nahum all experienced it firsthand. The apostle Paul likely had this attribute of God in mind when he began his description of love by saying, "Love is patient; love is kind" (1 CORINTHIANS 13:4). God's brand of patience__the patience He calls us toembody__is not an occasional thing. It is an ongoing, repetitive response that we keep doing, again and again. There may come a time when patience must act in judgment (NUMBERS 14:22__23), but it's a lot further down the line than most of us typically wait for. To be like God's is to be patient.




LOVE CAN BE CALLED ON !!!!!
"Please pardon the wrongdoing of this people in keeping with the greatness of Your faithful love."  (NUMBERS 14:19)
In Numbers 13, Moses sent spies into Cannan. But instead of trusting God, they brought back a fearful report to the people. After days of rebellion, God was most displeased with the lack of faith these leaders revealed. They doubted His ability to give them the Promised Land. But Moses interceded for these distrusting people. And when he did, he appealed to God's loving patience in his intercession. Moses depended on the Lord's being "slow to anger and rich in faithful love, forgiving wrongdoing and rebellion" (NUMBERS 14:18). This was the solid-rock basis of his prayer. In much the same way, your patience love should be an attribute your mate is able to call on at any time from you, even when they have clearly been in the wrong and your anger is justified. How will you respond the next time they need your patience??





LOVE IS FORBEARING !!!!!!
"The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth." (EXODUS 34:6 - NASB)
God's people had always known Him as their Creator, their Provider, and the Ruler over all creation. But at a key moment in history__after God gave the law on Mount Sinai and after the golden calf incident that followed__God reveraled to Moses another facet of His nature: His forbearing patience. The scene in EXODUS 34, as seen through the somky mist of God's glory on the mountaintop, pictures just the two of them there. The Lord appeared in front of Moses, proclaiming this truth as He passed by. No, "He will not leave the guilty unpunished," but He is not a God who quickly flashes His anger, although it would still be righteous to do so. Our God is "slow to anger."
This is why patience is called for in your marriage__not just because your spouse benefits from it, but because it is God's nature to be "compassionate and gracious." When you are patient with youe spouse, you are being like your heavenly Father.




LOVE LISTENS !!!!!
Understand this: everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.  (JAMES 1:19)
The way you communicate to your spouse will reflect the condition of your heart. If you are angry because of your unmet expectations or their hurtful words, you will tend to respond harshly. But this is where love takes time to patiently listen and to give the other person consideration, even if it is undeserved. It takes true resolve, but that's where love must become your motivation. Few of us listen patiently, and none of us do it naturally. But a wise man or woman will pursue it as an essential ingredient to their marriage relationship. Patience is a good starting point to demonstrate true love. It may be more of a process, but it is a resolution worth adopting. Think of it as a marathon, not just a spirit. You can set a new tone in your communication by committing to patiently listen. Don't interrupt. Don't talk over them. Make sure they've said everything they need to say before you choose to respond. And when you do, let love lead.



LOVE RESPONDS WISELY !!!!!
A hot-tempered man stirs up conflict, but a man slow to anger calms strife. (PROVERBS 15:18)
Patience is where love meets wisdom. As sure as a lack of it will turn your home into a war zone, the practice of patience will foster peace and quiet. Responding with wisdom is something every marriage needs if you want your relationship to stay healthy. Patience helps you give your spouse permission to be human. It understands that everyone fails. When a mistake is made, it chooses to give them more time than they deserve to correct it. Patience gives you the ability to hold on during the tough times in your relationship rather than bailing out under the pressurs. It is the gift another chance, the promise that you will wait this one out for as long as it takes. It turns out that few people are as hard to live with as an impatient person. Can your spouse count on having a patient wife or husband to live with?



LOVE IS SLOW TO ANGER
A patient person shows great understanding, but a quick-tempered one promotes foolishness.
                  (PROVERBS 14:29)
If your spouse offends you, do you quickly retaliate or do you stay under control?? Do you find that anger is your emotional default when treated unfairly?? If so, you are spreading poison rather than medicine. No one likes to be around an impatient person. Impatience causes you to overreact in angry, foolish, and regrettable ways. The irony of anger toward a wrongful action is that it spawns new wrongs of its own. Anger almost never makes things better. It usually generates additional problems. But patience stops problems in their tracks. It allows you to take a breath and clear the air. It acts with wisdom and doesn't rush to judgment, choosing instead to listen to what the other person is saying. Patience stands in the doorway, where anger is clawing to burst in, and waits to see the whole picture before passing judgment.




LOVE IS PATIENT !!!!!!
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
        (EPHESIANS 4:2 - NIV)
No one likes the fact that life requires patience. But the more you learn to love, the greater your capacity will be to demonstrate patience towards others. In fact, patience is one of the attributes that best defines what love is. When you choose to be patient, you responed in a positive way to a negative situation. You are slow to anger, choosing to have a long fuse instead of a quick temper. Rather than being restless and demanding, love helps you settle down and begin extending mercy to those around you. Patience brings an internal calm during an external storm. It is the choice to control your emotions rather than allowing your emotions to control you, and it shows discretion instead of returning evil for evil. "Bearing with one another in love" should become a motto you carry into every day and every potential altercation with your mate.
 (HOW MANY OF YOU PRAY FOR PATIENTS??????)
TO HAVE PATIENT IT SEEMS IT IS HARD TO HAVE AT TIMES!!!!!!




LOVE PREPARES US FOR HEAVEN !!!!!!
I also saw the Holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down  out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.
            (REVELATION 21:2)
There will come a time when love and its many remarkable attibutes will no longer take an effort to maintain. Instead, love will flow so naturally from us, it will be the only thing we consider doing. It will be like Jesus love__freely given and totally selfless. Till then, marriage is one of our main instructors on how love is supposed to be given and received. It teaches us how to defer to another, giving ourselves completely without reservation. It teaches us how to love someone without basing our affections on how hard they're working to please us. Day after day, we should learn more about our relatioship with God by seeing it portrayed in our dealings with each other. Marriage is not just an analogy He came up with to try describing His love for us. The marriage of Christ with His bride, the church, is life's ultimate story. By participating in it here, we get glimpses of it there.



LOVE GLORIFIES GOD !!!!
This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church.
               (EPHEIANS 5:32)
At its heart, marriage is more than a man and a woman falling in love and spending life together. God has many priceless purpose for marriage. He created it to eliminate loneliness through companionship, multiply our effectiveness through teamwork, and mature us into Christlikeness. He designed marriage to guard our purity through sexual fulfillment, grow families through procreation, and bring about the enjoyment of walking in love and oneness. But God's ultimate purpose for marriage is a hidden mystery that is greater than all of those combined.
God masterfully orchestrated marriage to reveal the beauty of His glory. In fact, each of His purposes for marriage reveals a charateristic of God in eternity. Our oneness and compionship reflect His union in the Trinity. Our purity honors His holiness. Our procreation reflects Him as Creator of life. Our love is founded in the truth that God is love. And our love provides a living portrait of the gospel__Christ's unconditional love for His people, His church, His bride (REVELATION 21:9). Your marriage is a mystery revealing His majesty.


LOVE CAUSES GROWTH !!!
Husbands, love your wives, just as also Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her, to make her holy. (EPHESIANS 5:25__26)
Marriage was intended to help us mature. A wife can be God's instrument to help make a man out of the boy she married. A strong man will help mature and polish his wife by his positive influence and loving interaction with her. Good friends and mentors sharpen you when you are around them. Part of marrige's purpose is to help us refine and strengthen each other. Your spouse is given a front row seat for viewing your rough edges that don't resemble Christ. When your spouse exposes a flaw or weakness in your character, your first reaction should be to listen and learn. You should receive it as heavenly sandpaper, buffing you into a more complete Christlike image.
Your mate stands before you like a mirror, reflecting and exposing who you are. He or she is positioned like no one else to reveal areas in your life where correction is warranted. Allow God to use this person to make you more like Jesus, even as He works through you to cause growth in their life as well. You and your spouse should both bloom into Christlikeness from being with each other.










LOVE IS FUN !!!!!!!
Enjoy life with the wife you love all the days of your fleeting life. (ECCLESIASTES 9:9)
Marriage was designed to bring delight. The Bible says a man should rejoice in his wife and be "eexhilarated always with her love" (PROVERBS 5:19 - NASB). It says he should seek "how he may please his wife," and she should seek "how he may please his wife," and she should seek "how she may please her husband" (1 CORINTHIANS 7:33__34). God intends marriage to be pleasurable for both of you in countless ways.
So while marital love goes much deeper than emotions, God created it to be rich with feeling. He made sexual interaction not merely a fruitful experience but a pleasurable one. Even though marriage is a oneness that requires hard work, we must not let it lose its sense of joy. God wants the smile on your spouse's face to bring a smile to yours.
Being with the person you love the most was never meant to dissolve into mere duty and obligation. So take pleasure in what God has begun and continues to grow in you. You were not born to bicker, but to bask in joy together. It's one of God's key places where life united in Him becomes abundant.




LOVE INSPIRES PURITY !!!
Because of immoralities, each man is to have own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband.  (1 CORINTHIANS 7:2 - NASB)
God designed marriage to keep us sexually pure. The One who conceived the beauty of sexuality also ordained marriage as His perfect way for us to enjoy His gift to the fullest. God desires for us to have the rich blessings of His best. He created a context for sexuality that always promotes love, honors purity, guards safety, and rewards lifelong commitment. Sex is God's holy wedding gift to seal and bless the covenant a husband and wife have made. Those who seek to satisfy their sexual desires outside of His design fall into the poisonous trap of sinning against their own body, their spouse, and God.
If cultures honored God's holy design, sexually transmitted diseases and unwed pregnancies would cease. Marriage is God's ideal solution to sexual immorality. As you fully meet your spouse's needs, you're helping them walk in purity. But purity is much more than just avoiding affairs. It extends to keeping your eyes, viewing habits, and emotional attachments honoring to God. This brings a joyful peace to your marriage that only purity can offer.



LOVE UNITES FAMILIES !!!
"May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel". . . . Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife.
        RUTH 4:11__13 NIV
Marriage  connects entire families. Your relationship is not only a union between you and your mate, but also a bridge builder between you and a new set of parents, siblings, grandparents, and cousins__all who may possess little in common with you except for the kinship your marriage creates. But consider that this bond has the potential to bring the best of the fellowship, counsel, support, and love from both families into yours. This connection also calls forth from you depths of understanding, sacrifice, and forgiveness on a most personal level to them. This is an ongoing opportunity for you to practice Christian love and an edifying influence toward in-laws and extended families. Even when friction occurs, love demands that you continually seek to support and share life with these individuals who are part of your spouse's history, DNA, and heartbeat.



LOVE BUILDS FAMILIES !!!
God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it."  (GENESIS 1:28)
God lovingly created and highly honors the institution of family__both physically and spiritually. He has uniquely designed marriage with all the elements for adding and multiplying families. One of His great purpose of marriage is the leaving and cleaving that forms a new family unit, forged by the union of a man and woman from two different homes. Marriage is also the God-ordained environment to multiply and produce life through the bearing and raising of children. Married love comes with built-in construction and expansion plans, initiated by the One who desires for us to give Him "godly offspring" through our love for one another (MALACHI 2:15). This new family you've originated in marriage is not simply a foundational building block of society. Your union and your children are a testimony to the living God, who continues to add and multiply His blessings on earthly families that will expand His heavenly family. 



LOVE MULTIPLIES ITSELF !!!!!!
Two are better than one, because they have a good return fot their work. . . .Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.
              (ECCLESIASTES 4:9, 12)
Marriage is not as simple as one plus one. Because marriage is a God-ordained design that reflects His boundless nature, the union of a husband and wife produces much more than the sum of its parts. We don't merely add to one another's life; we multiply one another's effectiveness. A person hopping on one leg cannot get very far, very fast. But two legs joining together become that action of running__making you faster and taking your farther. Two wings don't merely create balance; they enable the other to fly. What's generated by shared momentum creates an exponential increase in what's accomplished. A husband and wife working together offer a solid defense for their families against the influence of a godless culture.
Likewise, a man and wife praying together form a spiritual bond as God joins them in single-minded purpose (MATTHEW 18:19__20). By uniting in His name and agreeing in prayer, their intercession goes to another level. That's when one united with one has won.




LOVE EXTENDS HELP !!!!
"I will make him a helper suitable for him."
                       GENESIS 2:18 _ NASB
Let's be honest__men need help. They try to function alone, but consistently fall short. God assigned Adam to a specific work, but knew he needed a helper to succed. A wife's title as "helper" to her husband is a high compliment, not a criticism. In fact, God Himself is referred to as our Helper (PSALM 124:8). Jesus called His Spirit a Helper. A husband who has a wife willing to help him fulfill God's assignments for his life has a priceless treasure.
Marriage is one God's unique ways of showing both men and woman that we're not all-sufficient in ourselves. We both need our spouse and cannot fulfill God's plans for us without their help. This is why a single mother or father struggles so desperately__though often courageously__to be what their children need. Each role is dependent on the other's help, and it becomes impossible (without God's provision) for one person to perform both jobs alone. God made it that way. He intended for you to assist your spouse as a primary purpose in your marriage. It even meets a need in you to know that you are needed.


LOVE BRINGS COMPLETENESS !!!!
"A man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh."
In the finale of God's creation, He made the first marriage by taking one man, removing part of him, and fashioning another person. Then, in the mystery of matrimony, two could come together and become one. Adam, though complete with God alone, found his God-given needs met even more fully with Eve, his complement, in life. This is true in your marriage. The Lord knew before you were  born that you would one day marry your mate. And His design of your gender differences and uniqueness, God intentionally created needs in both of you that the other would be exclusively designed to help meet. The devil's desire is to use your distinctiveness to push your apart__to operate independently__as though what your spouse brings to you is unnecessary. But marriage has made you "one flesh." Now neither of you should live without the other. Though distinct in personality and ability, you have been designed to experience oneness in your diversity. You are no longer just you. You are so intimately combined with your mate that together you are to live as one complete person.




LOVE OFFERS COMPANIONSHIP !!!!!!
Then the Lord God said, "It is not good for man to be alone." (GENESIS 2:18)
The reeated phrase during the Creation account is: "It was good." Water, sky, plants and animals__everything God made was declared by the Creator Himself to be "good." But when God gazed on His perfect creation, He saw one thing that was "not good"__the man was alone. Adam deeply needed companionship. God's loving solution was the creation of a lifelong, intimate relationship: marriage. Truly, "a man who finds a wife finds a good thing" (PROVERBS 18:22).
Among the truths we learn from the Trinity is that God, though One, maintains constant fellowship within the three Persons of the Godhead. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit enjoy one another in unbroken companionship. None is ever alone. This mysterious communion is also intended in marriage. Between a husband and wife, God offers the most intimate companionship a person can know with another individual on Earth. You have the opportunity and responsibility each day to eliminate the sense of loneliness inherent in your spouse. It is not good enough to live together but remain emotionally distant Loneliness should be absent. Love builds bridges between lonely hearts to make you close companions for life.





LOVE WALKS WITH GOD !!!!!!!
"By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
Good disciples of Christ also tend to make good spouses. Your role as husband or wife is greatly enhanced by being a faithful and growing Christian. People who are not pursuing an intimate relationship with God are significantly limited, left to rely on their own feelings, thoughts, and efforts. When we refuse to obey Christ's commands, our spouses are left to deal with the fallout. Only those living in fellowship with Christ are able to access His toolbox for marriage. His Word will nourish you spiritually and equip you for every good work. His counsel can guide your decisions with divine wisdom. Rather than your spouse having to depend on their own influenc to change you, they know the Holy Spirit is already busy working on you and maturing you from the inside out. It's romantic for a woman to see her strong husbans humbling himself before God. It's inspiring for a man to see his wife living with deep conviction and passion. Walking with God is better than a thousand marriage books or counseling sessions.




LOVE KEEPS GOD'S COMMANDS !!!!!!
"The one who has My commands and keep them is the one who loves me." (JOHN 14:21)
Loving God is a wholehearted, lifelong adventure. It's not a part-time job or Sunday-only affair but a comlete devotion of ourselves to seeking and treasuring who God is. Every thought, value, and action can become another way to say "I love You" to God. And loving Him is the perfect why behind what we do. It begins by confessing our faith in His Son Jesus (1 JOHN 4:15; 5:1), and then is fueled by an on going obedience to Him__in everything (JOHN 14:21). But our love makes following Him a relational delight rather than a religious chore (1 JOHN 5:13). And as we daily abandon sin and do what He says, the peace and joy we derive makes us love Him even more. God's Word says we also love Him through the ways we treat, serve, and love others (1 JOHN 3:17; 4:11__21). So every conversation and interaction in your marriage is a new opportunity to bless your spouse and to demonstrate your love for God as well. Ultimately, how you love and respect your mate reveals every day the sincerity of your love and respect for God.


LOVE IS MOST WHEN GOD IS FIRST !!!!!!!
By this we know that we love the children of god, when we love God and observe is commandment. (1 JOHN 5:1__2 - NASB)
Keeping God first blesses your marriage more than any other practice. Everything in life takes on new value and meaning when it becomes an instrument for you to live out your love for God. Rather than placing yourself at the center of your relatioship, all your energies and assest should be tools for worshipping Him. A husband might think his marriage would suffer from making God his greatest delight. On the contrary, it will flourish as he draws closer to the ONE who created marriage and loves his wife infinitely more than he does. God understands more than anyone what your marriage needs. As you abide in Christ's love, the love you have for your spouse will increase in the overflow. Drinking HIS love in daily and expressing it back to HIM fulfills you in ways your spouse cannot. This enables you to cherish your bride or groom like never before. The closer you get to HIM, the more you will be like HIM, think like HIM, and passionately love your mate like HE does.






LOVE IS BEST WHEN GOD IS FIRST !
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart." (MATTHEW 22:37 - NASB)
Loving your spouse more than love God is a form of idolatry. Far too many marriages suffer from this inversion. It places a created thing higher than the Creator. God should always be first and primary object of our affection. He created us to love Him, and something unexplainably beautiful happens when we direct all of who we are at delighting in all of who He is. It is proper worship of the ONE who is worthy. If love is the greatest thing you can do, then loving with all you are is the greatest expression you could ever make. Furthermore, if God is the greatest object of love, then awaken to the priceless purpose you have been given. You are wired, commanded, and invited to do the greatest thing in the greatest way for the greatest ONE. There is no higher calling. Yours is the most important over all of creation because you have been made in HIS image and are uniquely designed to express love in ways the rest of nature cannot. Embrace this eternal privilege. Let every breath be an opportunity to learn how to better love the GOD who first loved you.




LOVE IS FERTILE SOIL !!!!! that you bring rooted and grounded in love (EPHESIANS 3:17 - NASB) When we plant a living seed into healthy soil, we expect it to blossom. And just as flowers in a greenhouse are supplied with an ideal environment for growth, so a home filled with love provides the ideal atmosphere for people to bloom. We know that children who grow up in loving families tend to sleep deeper, stand taller, and venture farther than those who are never secure in their parents love. Likewise, when you provide safe, loving soil for your spouse to grow in, they will be more likely to flourish with confidence, knowing they are valued and secure. What happens when someone is loved over the years? Their needs are met, dreams encouraged, opinions heard, and successes praised. They're assured of your patience and forgiveness when they fail, and free to express themselves honestly without fear of your judgment. They'll even weather intense seasons of disappointment with the stability your love supplies. Admit it__we'd all love to be loved like that.