Search Me...

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
try me, and know my anxieties;
and see if there is any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
--Psalm 139:23-24

"I suppose my suggestion will not receive much serious attention, but
I should like to suggest that we Bible-believing Christians announce
a moratorium on religious activity and set our house in order
preparatory to the coming of an afflatus from above. So carnal is the
body of Christians which composes the conservative wing of the
Church, so shockingly irreverent are our public services in some
quarters, so degraded are our religious tastes in still others, that
the need for power could scarcely have been greater at any time in
history. I believe we should profit immensely were we to declare a
period of silence and self-examination during which each one of us
searched his own heart and sought to meet every condition for a real
baptism of power from on high. "
-AW Tozer



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Revival of Prayer

"The evangelization of the world in this generation depends first of all upon a revival of prayer. Deeper than the need for men; deeper, far, than the need for money; aye, deep down at the bottom of our spiritless life is the need for the forgotten secret of prevailing, world-wide prayer."
– Robert E. Speer



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Quote for the Night

"Not once in the next billion years to come will you regret that which you did not do for yourself because you cared for someone who was in need, someone who needed to grow in the ways of the Lord. What we will regret is that which we did not spend because we weren’t living as though the Samaritan was really coming back.

The Lord has entrusted to you more than enough to take care of the half-dead people who come our way. The question is, will you release what He’s given you?

Will you let it go?

Will you make the time?

Will you expend the energy?"

-Jon Courson

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Astounding

This devotional reminded me of the verses in Psalm 19.

"Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.
Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins;
Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless,
And I shall be innocent of great transgression.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer." (vs.12-14)

It truly is "astounding how ignorant we are about ourselves!"

"HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ALONE WITH GOD?
"When they were alone, He expounded 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 look in 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," because we shall know we are, beyond the possibility of stating it. As long as we are not quite sure that we are 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 affection - 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." -Oswald Chambers

May the words of my mouth....the thoughts of my mind....the meditations of my heart.....the actions that I do....be pleasing in my Lord's sight.


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Loyal in Obedience

"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."

-Oswald Chambers

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1 January 2010

"Leave the Irreparable Past in His hands, and step out into the Irresistible Future with Him."
Oswald Chambers

I am so looking forward to the future....to all that the Lord has in store for me in 2010....2009 was amazing, such a journey, full of ups and downs and surprises! I began the year in Cali and ended it here in my beloved Romania. Ironically enough, both January in Cali and December in Romania have been pretty warm...not as much snow as I had been promised by everyone, but that's ok, it has been beautiful none the less.

I spent the evening with friends last night just hanging out, eating and playing games, then watching the fireworks over the city from my friend's balcony. It was beautiful and memorable. This year has once again fit perfectly with Proverbs 16:9,

"A man’s heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps."

My days have been full of my plans....and the Lord has taken those plans and molded them to His own...when I moved to Brasov in March, I never thought I would be working so much with teen Roma (gyspy) girls, but the Lord opened up that door and it has been great. It was also cool to see how the Lord answered my heart's desire to work with the elderly by giving me an elderly neighbor to spend time with!

Such a big part of being a missionary is relationships. I think people get it all wrong when they try to make the big part about a program....or doing doing doing....the Romanian people are a culture of "being"...they like to hang out, they want a friend, they want to know you are not just some American coming in with your ideas to "fix" the "poor Romanians" but that you are here to love them and be there for them. Being light and salt in the world is just that...being a friend, being there and having a real relationship with people.....something that will make a lasting impression.

Well anyway, it's a new year...2010...I can't believe that....I am not really a "goal" person...so I have no new year's resolutions....other than to continue following my Savior wherever He may lead me, to be obedient to His Word and to grow in my relationship with Him....I think everything else will find it's place in my life if I seek Him first.

Happy 2010 friends.

xo



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My Utmost...

from My Utmost for His Highest this morning:
:)

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"Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." 2 Timothy 2:15

If you cannot express yourself on any subject, struggle until you can. If you do not, someone will be the poorer all the days of his life. Struggle to re-express some truth of God to yourself, and God will use that expression to someone else. Go through the winepress of God where the grapes are crushed. You must struggle to get expression experimentally, then there will come a time when that expression will become the very wine of strengthening to someone else; but if you say lazily - "I am not going to struggle to express this thing for myself, I will borrow what I say," the expression will not only be of no use to you, but of no use to anyone. Try to state to yourself what you feel implicitly to be God's truth, and you give God a chance to pass it on to someone else through you.

Always make a practice of provoking your own mind to think out what it accepts easily. Our position is not ours until we make it ours by suffering. The author who benefits you most is not the one who tells you something you did not know before, but the one who gives expression to the truth that has been dumbly struggling in you for utterance.


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Happy Thanksgiving!

It seems more true this year than ever before that I am truly blessed and have so much to be thankful for. The Lord has kept me from harm, He has guided me on the path that He has for me, He has blessed me beyond belief with this life here in Romania.

Tonight we had such a great time, it was a big group of us from America, Germany, Canada and Romania.

We had such a wonderful turkey dinner, the food and dessert were fabulous! The time spent talking and hanging out were great. The community of friends here in Brasov is such a blessing. Everyone is such a servant here. Sure we are all human and no one is perfect, but honestly I can’t believe how great the atmosphere is here. It’s great to be surrounded by good friends who want to serve the Lord and the kids here in Romania and who give so much to make Brasov feel like a Home and like family.

It’s always a little sad to be away from friends and family back in the States on holidays, but today was truly blessed for me, and I am thankful to my Lord and Savior for all He has done to bring me to this place and to this point in my life.

Truthfully I almost feel most thankful for the fact that He has not left me alone, that He did not allow me to settle for a different life in Cali, but that He drew me here, that He kept prompting me back to Romania, and that He has provided for me all the way, and has shown me the goodness of who He is….such a loving Father we serve!

Anyway friends, just really resting in how great our God is tonight…

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving as well!!

Grace and Peace,
Rachel






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Grace

Grace
Originally uploaded by rachel_titiriga

"The sweetest part, if one may speak of one part being sweeter than another, is the rest which full identification with Christ brings. I am no longer anxious about anything, as I realize this; for He, I know, is able to carry out His will, and His will is mine. It makes no matter where He places me, or how. That is rather for Him to consider than for me; for in the easiest position He must give me His grace, and in the most difficult His grace is sufficient. It little matters to my servant whether I send him to buy a few cash worth of things, or the most expensive articles. In either case he looks to me for the money and brings me his purchases. So, if God should place me in serious perplexity, must He not give me much guidance; in positions of great difficulty, much grace; in circumstances of great pressure and trial, much strength? No fear that His resources will prove unequal to the emergency! And His resources are mine, for He is mine, and is with me and dwells in me. "

-Hudson Taylor


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AW Tozer Devo

Day 38 - 2 Corinthians 4:6
Originally uploaded by rachel_titiriga

Evangelism: Only the Spirit Can Give Sight

But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
--2 Corinthians 4:3-4

The uncomprehending mind is unaffected by truth. The intellect of the hearer may grasp saving knowledge while yet the heart makes no moral response to it. A classic example of this is seen in the story of Benjamin Franklin and George Whitefield. In his autobiography Franklin recounts in some detail how he listened to the mighty preaching of the great evangelist. He even walked around the square where Whitefield stood to learn for himself how far that golden voice carried. Whitefield talked with Franklin personally about his need of Christ and promised to pray for him. Years later Franklin wrote rather sadly that the evangelist's prayers must not have done any good, for he was still unconverted....

The inward operation of the Holy Spirit is necessary to saving faith. The gospel is light but only the Spirit can give sight. When seeking to bring the lost to Christ we must pray continually that they may receive the gift of seeing. And we must pit our prayer against that
dark spirit who blinds the hearts of men. Born After Midnight, pp. 62-63

Pretty Harsh...But Sadly...Too Often True...

My AW Tozer devo for today...

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The business of the Church is God. She is purest when most
engaged with God and she is astray just so far as she follows
other interests, no matter how "religious" or humanitarian they
may be.

The Set of the Sail, 80.


July 8

The Church: Activities

Til I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
--1 Timothy 4:13

In an effort to get the work of the Lord done we often lose contact
with the Lord of the work and quite literally wear our people out
as well. I have heard more than one pastor boast that his church
was a "live" one, pointing to the printed calendar as a proof--
something on every night and several meetings during the day. Of
course this proves nothing except that the pastor and the church are
being guided by a bad spiritual philosophy. A great many of these
time-consuming activities are useless and others plain ridiculous.
"But," say the eager beavers who run the religious squirrel cages,
"they provide fellowship and they hold our people together."

To this I reply that what they provide is not fellowship at all, and
if that is the best thing the church has to offer to hold the people
together it is not a Christian church in the New Testament meaning
of that word. The center of attraction in a true church is the Lord
Jesus Christ....

If the many activities engaged in by the average church led to the
salvation of sinners or the perfecting of believers they would
justify themselves easily and triumphantly; but they do not. My
observations have led me to the belief that many, perhaps most, of
the activities engaged in by the average church do not contribute in
any way to the accomplishing of the true work of Christ on earth. I
hope I am wrong, but I am afraid I am right.

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