Day 12: Examine the Heart's Desires (Imitation of Christ. Bk. 3. Ch. 11-13)

Day 12: Examine the Heart's Desires (Imitation of Christ. Bk. 3. Ch. 11-13). Our hearts’ desires need to be purified. Examine your desires and align them with God’s will. Practice patience and obedience in your vocations. [I am nothing, yet God continues to choose me.]

• Your desire is often inflamed and drives you strongly.
• Not every affection that seems good should be followed right away.
• You must sometimes use violence and manfully oppose the appetites of the senses.
• True peace of heart is discovered by resisting passions rather than indulging them.

Day 11: The Way of Humility (Imitation of Christ. Book 3. Chapter 7-10)

Day 11: The Way of Humility (Imitation of Christ. Book 3. Chapter 7-10). Humility is keeping God’s grace quietly hidden, trusting His timing, and placing Him above all else.

• Purify your affection, which is so often badly bent back on itself and toward creatures.

• Those who cast aside all fleshly (bodily) pleasure for love of you will discover (enjoy) the most tender (sweet) consolation of the Holy Spirit. 
• [I easily find comfort and consolation in my work, my family, my favorite food--which comes 1st and God 2nd. Lord, have mercy!]

• Left to myself I am nothing (but a zero) and totally weak (abound with frailties). [Hold on to this.]

The Imitation of Christ. Day 10: Walking in Truth. Book 3. Chapter 4-6.

Day 10: Walking in Truth (Book 3. Chapter 4-6 emphasize humility, the vanity of worldly knowledge and possessions, and the importance of a pure conscience and a virtuous life over intellectualism.) Walking in the truth is to see reality clearly: who God is, who we are, and how deeply we need His grace. [The sad truth is I want God, but I also don't want God.]

Ch. 4: We must live before God in humility and truth. The one who walks in truth will be safe from the assaults of the wicked. Think of your sins with great displeasure and grief. Never consider yourself to be something because of good works. Let what you most dislike be your own great baseness. Fear and flee nothing like you do your own vices and sins. [There is good in me and brokenness in me. Both good works alone {leads to pride} and brokenness alone {leads to despair, discouragement, despondency, dejection, depression, defeat} are lies.]

The Imitation of Christ. Day 9: Listening to God's Voice. Book 3. Chapter 1-3

Day 9: Listening to God's Voice (Book 3, Chapter 1-5). God is always speaking—but we're too distracted to listen by noise, vanity, or even good things. Quiet your hearts so we can truly hear and act on God’s voice.

Ch. 1: Christ speaks within to the faithful soul. Truly blessed are the ears that listen, not to a voice making noise outside, but to one that teaches the truth within.

The Imitation of Christ. Book 1, Chapter 1-25. Day 1-5.

Day 1. The Ultimate Good (Chapter 1-7).

• Ch. 1. Because there is so much good in the world God made, we are always tempted to make good things ultimate things (Exo 20:3-4). Even knowledge of the Trinity without humility displeases God; only a virtuous life makes you dear to God.

The Imitation of Christ. Day 8: When the Cross Finds You. Book 2. Chapter 10-12.

Day 7. When the Cross Finds You (Book 2. Chapter 10-12). The only way God makes us more like His Son is through the Cross. It is through both active and passive mortification that the Cross finds you.

• Ch. 10: Gratitude for God's grace. Grace is always offered to one who gives proper thanks. It is given to the humble and taken away from the proud.

• Seek patience more than consolation and carrying the cross more than enjoyment. Spiritual consolation surpasses all wordly delights and the bodily pleasures. I do not want any consolation that would take away my repentance/compunction.

• Be grateful even for punishment and chastisement.

The Imitation of Christ. Book 2. Chapter 6-9: The Joy of a Clean Conscience. Day 7.

Day 7. Book 2. Chapter 6-9: The Joy of a Clean Conscience. A clean conscience always brings peace. Profound freedom is found in detachment from praise and criticism. Accept the truth of who you are before God.

• Love God more than yourself, more than what you desire. (Dt 6:5)

• God wants you for Himself and will tolerate no rivals. (Exo 20:3-4)

• With Jesus everything is good; without Him everything is hard. (Rom 8:28)

• Blessed are you to disregard yourself for Jesus' sake. (Lk 9:23)

• A clean conscience is a good man's pillow.  If you have a good conscience you will always have joy, even in adversity (Ac 24:16; 1 Pet 3:16; 1 Tim 1:5; 2 Cor 7:4)

• Don't rejoice when you're praised or be depressed when you're criticized or rejected. (1 Cor 4:3-5)

• Who you are right now is who you actually are. You are not greater than what God knows you to be. (2 Cor 5:17; Gal 2:20; Eph 2:10; Col 3:3)

• If God gives you consolation, know that it's a gift and not what you deserve. (Eph 2:8-9)

The Imitation of Christ. Book 2. Chapter 1-5: Distrust of Self.

Book 2. Day 6. Chapter 1-5 (Distrust of Self) focus on the vanity of worldly things, the importance of humility, and the pursuit of inner peace through God. The 2 movements of conversion are distrust of oneself and trust in God.

• Ch. 1. Learn to disregard externals and give yourself to what is within, for the kingdom of God is within you (Lk 17:21).
• When Christ is within you He is enough for you...and you will have no need of hoping in human beings. Do not have much confidence in human beings, who are frail and mortal and soon change (Jn 2:24-25).
• If you love Jesus you will disregard your very self, and totally disregard personal convenience or inconvenience.
• Nothing stains and binds the human heart quite like an impure love for creatures (Exo 20:3-4, 17; Rom 7:8, 24).

Christians were Never Meant to be Normal. Extremism. Evil People.

“Christians were never meant to be normal. We’ve always been holy troublemakers, we've always been creators of uncertainty, agents of dimension that’s incompatible with the status quo; we do not accept the world as it is, but we insist on the world becoming the way that God wants it to be. And the Kingdom of God is different from the patterns of this world.” Jacques Ellul. 1912-1994, died 82. 20th-century French social theorist and resistor against Nazi occupation.

The Cross of Christ, A.W. Tozer

The cross of Christ is the most revolutionary thing ever to appear among men. The cross of old Roman times knew no compromise; it never made concessions. It won all its arguments by killing its opponent and silencing him for good. It spared not Christ, but slew Him the same as the rest. He was alive when they hung Him on that cross and completely dead when they took Him down 6 hours later. That was the cross the first time it appeared in Christian history.

God's Object in Sending Trials, Andrew Murray

"...every branch that does bear fruit he prunes [purges] so that it will be even more fruitful" (Jn 15:2).

The Father's object in sending trials is for us to Abide in Christ--"remain in me" (Jn 15:4). In the storm the tree strikes deeper roots in the soil; in the hurricane the inhabitants of the house abide within, and rejoice in its shelter. So by suffering the Father would lead us to enter more deeply into the love of Christ. Our hearts are continually prone to wander from Him; prosperity and enjoyment all too easily satisfy us, dull our spiritual perception, and unfit us for full communion with Himself.

DARKNESS (Psalm 88)

Psalm 88 is considered one of the most despairing and bleak passages in the Bible with its themes of darkness, suffering, and the apparent absence of God. It is a profound expression of anguish and despair in the OT. It doesn't contain the uplifting or hopeful themes often associated with other Psalms, yet it still holds a significant place in religious discourse.

"Lord, you are the God who saves me; day and night I cry out to you" ["by day I have screamed, by night, in front of you" {Motyer}] "...darkness is my closest [best] friend" (Ps 88:1, 18).

• Can you live a life without comfort (1-9a)? Die without hope (9b-12)? Have questions without answers (13-18)?
  
• How do you live when there is no light at the end of the tunnel?
• How do you go on when you feel abandoned?
• How do you live by faith when the future seems dark and bleak?