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Paraphrased excerpts from Power Through Prayer by E.M. Bounds.

“We are on a constant search for better methods, more clever plans, and new ways to organize in order to advance the church. The church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men and women. The church needs men and women whom the Holy Spirit can use—men and women of prayer—mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods, but through people; people wholly yielded to Him.

The personal character of leaders has more to do with the revolution of nations than any other factor. The character and conduct of followers of Christ have more to do with the impact of the Gospel on a nation than any other factor. The individual makes the servant of the Gospel. God must make the individual. The individual, the whole individual, lies behind the work of God. Our work is not the performance of an hour; it is the outflow of a life. Our work for God must be a thing of life. Our work grows, because we grow. Our work is holy, because we are holy. [Read more →]

Recently, I found myself crying out to God after a team meeting, “Lord, why are our relationships so fragile?!” This particular team had experienced seasons of strong, healthy interaction. Yet, in one session the team relationships seemed to crumble. It’s as though we suddenly, inexplicably found ourselves on the verge of losing all we had worked for till now. This brought me to my plea before God, “Why are relationships so fragile?”

Occasionally, when I’ve cried out to God in desperation like that, I’ve sense His immediate, clear response. This was also such an occasion. I perceived God saying, “I don’t want your relationships to be fragile!” His response jarred me, because I’ve often thought of the health of relationships as fragile in terms of how volitile or easily they disintigrate. I had always assumed that frailty was simply the nature of our earthly relationships.  All that evening and into the next morning I mulled over the characteristics of fragile relationships and contrasted them with the characteristics of durable relationships. My brainstorming over these characteristic yielded the list below. I trust that God will use this contrast in your heart and life. May all your relationships become durable ones!

©2011 Rob Fischer

The Scripture is clear that followers of Christ obey Christ. In the Great Commission, Jesus said, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

God’s Word also plainly distinguishes between the kind of obedience that was demanded of the Mosaic Law and the kind of obedience we strive for as followers of Christ. This distinction is crucial because many well-meaning Christians have merely exchanged the Old Testament set of laws for a New Testament set. This exchange is not God’s intent at all! [Read more →]

There are times when someone hurts us so severely or so repeatedly that we feel we cannot forgive them. We feel justified in not extending them forgiveness, because what they did was so awful, so despicable. If the offending person is our spouse, his or her cruel or thoughtless act may have been repeated so many times that we no longer trust them. We withhold forgiveness because if we do forgive them—again—we cannot trust that they won’t do this awful thing again.

Our forgiveness, however, cannot be based on trust or on the likeliness that the offender will not hurt us again. Instead, our forgiveness must be based on the character and example of God Himself. In three primary passages of the Scripture on forgiveness, every one of them draws attention to God’s character and His example of forgiving us. [Read more →]

God delights in turning misfortune to good fortune, calamite into blessing and great need into abundance! In 1 Samuel 1 we read the account of a woman named Hannah. Although she and her husband had been married for many years, she remained childless. Her inability to bear a child was a source of “great anguish and grief” to her. Not only did she personally long to hold and nurture her own child, but her rival cruelly mocked and taunted her because she couldn’t bear children.

One year, while Hannah and her husband were worshiping at Shiloh, Hannah prayed a desperate prayer to God again begging him to give her a son. It’s striking that she specifically asked for a son. Furthermore, she promised that she would devote this son to the Lord and His service all his life. Meanwhile, Eli the priest saw her praying and told her, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.” (1 Samuel 1:17) [Read more →]

Enthralled with God

God created us for relationship with him, but what does that look like? How do we interact with God? What does he expect from us? We are to love God, but what is this about enjoying him? Two-way communication is a hallmark of any relationship, so how does communication function in our relationship with God? How does God speak to us? How do we recognize his voice? What do we do with what he tells us? Rob seeks to answer all these questions and more through the Scriptures and lots of examples from his own life, so that you too may be enthralled with God!

Enthralled with God–Cultivating a Joy-Filled Relationship with Him is available on Amazon.com! You will find the book in both soft-cover and e-version.

Below is the brief introduction from this book that I’m sure you’ll want to read. [Read more →]

Yet another benefit of hardship, suffering and trials is that they offer us the opportunity, like nothing else, to demonstrate the all-sufficiency of Christ in our lives. The apostle Paul was uniquely chosen by God to represent to others the all-sufficiency of Christ in the midst of suffering. In fact, when Paul came to know Jesus, the Lord said of him, “I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” (Acts 9:16)

After many years of serving Christ and taking the Gospel to those who had not yet heard the good news of Christ, Paul recounts some of his sufferings, persecutions and trials in 2 Corinthians 11. He had been flogged, beaten and imprisoned numerous times. He had been ship-wrecked three times and once had spent a day-and-a-half in the open sea. He’d been in danger from bandits, from his own countrymen and from the Gentiles. He had often worked hard to support himself and others, often gone without sleep, food, shelter and even clothes. Besides all this he often felt overwhelmed by his concern for the welfare of the churches he and his co-workers had established. (2 Corinthians 11:23-28) [Read more →]

A sixth benefit from hardship and suffering is that they center our focus on the eternal.

In Hebrews, the writer reminds his readers of the severe persecution and trials they experienced after coming to Christ. He urges, “Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.” (Hebrews 10:32-34 NIV) [Read more →]

A fifth benefit of hardship is that it stretches us and builds character. Romans 5:3 explains, “We rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” The perseverance produced by suffering molds and shapes our character.

I can’t think of a better example from the Bible of this benefit and principle of hardship and suffering than the account of Joseph in Genesis. Although Joseph’s brothers meant to harm him by selling him as a slave, God turned it into something profoundly good. But for 13 years Joseph suffered severe hardship as a slave and then an inmate in an ancient Egyptian prison. His hardships also included the pain and agony of being separated from his family and the cruel rejection he had experienced at the hands of his brothers. [Read more →]

A fourth benefit of hardship, suffering and trials is that they expose and help us root sin out of our lives. In Isaiah 48:10 God says, “See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.” In refining a precious metal like gold or silver, the metal is heated to a liquid state and then the dross or imperfections are skimmed from the surface to make it more pure.

In the same way, God uses “heat” and “pressure” in our lives to bring sinful patterns to the surface. For instance, it’s easy to love others when they too are loving and caring toward us. But when the heat is cranked up and someone treats us with anger and malice we are tempted to throw back at them what they threw at us. Christ wants to change that in us, but without the heat and pressure of the moment, our sin won’t be revealed. [Read more →]