Body to Soul.

Never think that the bodily position makes no difference to your prayers; we are human beings and whatever we do with our bodies directly affects the state of our souls. It would be a great lie to say that being tired or awake, hungry or full, or dead or alive have no impact on the state of our souls. These "small" things have too great of an influence. Get down on your knees and pray. You will soon understand in a physical, metal, and spiritual sense that praying on your knees makes all the difference.



Burton 261E

Hungry? Chew on this.

If we are hungry and we deny ourselves the nutrition needed to sustain our bodies, it forces our souls to cry out and ask God to sustain us. The hunger is our bodily function and the denial of this hunger is our soul function. The denial of this hunger is our soul function because it does exactly the opposite of what our bodily organs are telling us to do, which is to depend on something other than mere matter and to depend on what is unseen. The soul functions to unite us with the living God, and when it cannot bring us into His presence it is because we have our bodily functions functioning on a level too high, overpowering the objective of the soul function. Turn down your bodily function or crank up that soul function!



Burton 261E

Grand Desire.

One of God’s greatest desires is to fill the world with a vast amount of miniature duplicates of Himself. Miniature figures who model their Creator with their lives, not because they are required to model Him, but because in the depth of their hearts they freely want to conform to His will. Miniature figures who serve God not with the intention of looking full on the outside, but because they are so richly fulfilled from their relationship with Him on the inside. This is one grand desire.



Burton 261E

My Acronym for Easter.

E ternal
A tonement
S urrounding
T he
E verlasting
R esurrection of Christ


How glorious for the world to have remembered this remarkable day!
Christianity and the faith of all of its followers primarily hinges upon the extravagant atoning work of the resurrected Christ. Without the resurrection we have no hope. And without hope, life is truly meaningless. Thank our God in heaven that He has given us hope, and more than just hope; a deep, unwavering, and intimate relationship with the hands that fabricated the entire cosmos! Amen.


Burton 261E

Tears of Joy

Since the beginning of last Fall semester the fear of losing my Dad to cancer weighed very heavily on me. When my Dad told me about his condition I was forced on my knees to cry out to God. It's been a rough seven months since that day, but God has ALWAYS been faithful to me and my family. He has carried us through this, and has brought us out of all of this so much stronger. This morning my Mom left me a voicemail. She said that Dad's doctor's report was great! His doctor indicated his blood report was normal and his spleen was not enlarged. He will take the Rituxan next week and should be in remission for years. God is so good! I can't believe that I'm going to have my Dad around for more years to come! God I can't thank you enough! Thank you to all who prayed faithfully for my Dad, thank you! Thank you for this wonderful moment of bathing in these tears of joy.

PSALM 66:16-20
All believers, come here and listen,
let me tell you what God did for me.
I called out to him with my mouth,
my tongue shaped the sounds of music.
If I had been cozy with evil.
the Lord would never have listened.
But he most surely did listen,
he came on the double when he heard my prayer.
Blessed be God; he didn't turn a deaf ear,
he stayed with me, loyal in his love.


Amen.


-burton 261E

Good. Bad. Both?

What makes up good theology? What makes up bad theology? How are we to know if theology is good or bad when one individual claims that God has led them through revelation to believing something and another person claims that God has led them through revelation to believing the exact opposite of the theology of the first person? In logic, it is impossible for both sides to be right and one of the two must be wrong. But what if by chance, both sides are wrong? It may be more profitable then to place higher emphasis on the reading of the holy scriptures above the theology of the next person to see what God has to reveal in your own understanding of theology.

Presence

It's encouraging to hear from God, to know that He is with you always, to know that He is speaking to you, to know that He is confident in you, to know that He will never depart from you, to know that He loves you.

I was reading in Joshua today and I want to put up something that absolutely stuck out to me. No real reason for this post other than that. Enjoy..

Joshua 1:5-9 (NASB)
5 "No man will {be able to} stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.
6 "Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
7 "Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go.
8 "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.
9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."


Burton 261E