under the oak tree

Text from The Rule of St Benedict: Insight for the Ages.

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 22:37:57 +0800

“How does a person seek union with God?’ the seeker asked.
“The harder you seek,” the teacher said, “the more distance you create between God and you.”
“So what does one do about the distance?”
“Understand that it isn’t there,” the teacher said.
“Does that mean that God and I are one?” the seeker said.
“Not one. Not two.”
“How is that possible?” the seeker asked.
“The sun and its light, the ocean and the wave, the singer and the song. Not one. Not two.“

"When all our hopes are gone, ‘Tis well our hands must keep toiling on For others’..."

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 23:36:43 +0800

““When all our hopes are gone,
‘Tis well our hands must keep toiling on
For others’ sake:
For strength to bear is found in duty done;
And he is best indeed who learns to make
The joy of others cure his own heartache.””

An Hour in the Garden

Sat, 27 Oct 2012 09:29:48 +0800

An Hour in the Garden

spiritualinspiration: “But they that wait upon the LORD shall...

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 22:50:57 +0800

spiritualinspiration:

“But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31, KJV)

We serve a God of increase. He wants you to continually rise up higher in Him. He wants you to know Him more so He can reveal His glory through you. He wants you to be blessed so that you can be a blessing to others. He wants to take you to the next level in every area of your life!

The “next level” looks different for each of us. For you, it may be seeing your family restored. It may be healing in your body. It may be a promotion at work or new friendships that you’ve desired. No matter what it is, know that God has your best in His heart. He desires to do exceedingly, abundantly above and beyond what you could ask, think or imagine. He loves to do above and beyond and show Himself strong on your behalf.

Today, meditate on the fact that God loves you so much. As you submit every area of your life to Him, He will cause you to rise up higher. He will give you strength and take you to the next level in every area of your life.

I ASK not that my course be calm and still;No, here too, Lord, be done Thy holy will:1 ask but for a...

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 01:22:22 +0800

I ASK not that my course be calm and still;
No, here too, Lord, be done Thy holy will:
1 ask but for a quiet childlike heart;
Though thronging cares and restless toil be mine,
Yet may my heart remain forever Thine;
Draw it from earth, and fix it where Thou art.

—C. J. P. SPITTA

spiritualinspiration:

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 12:10:33 +0800

spiritualinspiration:

spiritualinspiration: “…Joshua said to the people: ‘Shout, for...

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 04:24:24 +0800

spiritualinspiration:

“…Joshua said to the people: ‘Shout, for the LORD has given you the city!’…And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat” (Joshua 6:16 & 20, NKJ)

If you are facing difficulty today, if there seems to be massive walls standing in the way of your breakthrough, remember, praise precedes the victory. Why don’t you do like the Israelites and give a shout of praise anyway. Stand and believe that God is at work even if you don’t see it. Before long, those walls will come down, and you’ll move forward into the victory He has prepared for you!

A Prayer for Today

“Father in heaven, thank You for Your promise of victory. I choose to stand in faith, giving You the praise until I see my breakthrough. Thank You for strengthening me and directing my every step. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.”

girlyme: jar-of-elixir: periwinkle-breeze: (via...

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 04:23:32 +0800

girlyme:

jar-of-elixir:

periwinkle-breeze:

(via mischiefmanaged)

spiritualinspiration: www.facebook.com/naeemcallaway

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 04:19:52 +0800

spiritualinspiration:

www.facebook.com/naeemcallaway

Hiding Place by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 12:21:50 +0800

“Hide thyself by the brook Cherith” (1 Kings 17:3).

God’s servants must be taught the value of the hidden life. The man who is to take a high place before his fellows must take a low place before his God. We must not be surprised if sometimes our Father says: “There, child, thou hast had enough of this hurry, and publicity, and excitement; get thee hence, and hide thyself b the brook—hide thyself in the Cherith of the sick chamber, or in the Cherith of bereavement, or in some solitude from which the crowds have ebbed away.”

Happy is he who can reply, “This Thy will is also mine; I flee unto Thee to hide me. Hide me in the secret of Thy tabernacle, and beneath the covert of Thy wings!”

Every saintly soul that would wield great power with men must win it in some hidden Cherith. The acquisition of spiritual power is impossible, unless we can hide ourselves from men and from ourselves in some deep gorge where we may absorb the power of the eternal God; as vegetation through long ages absorbed these qualities of sunshine, which it now gives back through burning coal.

Bishop Andrews had his Cherith, in which he spent five hours every day in prayer and devotion. John Welsh had it—who thought the day ill spent which did not witness eight or ten hours of closet communion. David Brainerd had it in the woods of North America. Christmas Evans had it in his long and lonely journeys amid the hills of Wales.

Or, passing back to the blessed age from which we date the centuries: Patmos, the seclusion of the Roman prisons, the Arabian desert, the hills and vales of Palestine, are forever memorable as the Cheriths of those who have made our modern world.

Our Lord found His Cherith at Nazareth, and in the wilderness of Judea; amid the olives of Bethany, and the solitude of Gadara. None of us, therefore, can dispense with some Cherith where the sounds of human voices are exchanged for the waters of quietness which are fed from the throne; and where we may taste the sweets and imbibe the power of a life hidden with Christ.—Elijah, by Meyer.

Photo

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 17:14:39 +0800

spiritualinspiration:

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 17:12:45 +0800

spiritualinspiration:

The End Of Our Strength by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 01:31:37 +0800

“Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29).

How strong is the snare of the things that are seen, and how necessary for God to keep us in the things that are unseen! If Peter is to walk on the water he must walk; if he is going to swim, he must swim, but he cannot do both. If the bird is going to fly it must keep away from fences and the trees, and trust to its buoyant wings. But if it tries to keep within easy reach of the ground, it will make poor work of flying.

God had to bring Abraham to the end of his own strength, and to let him see that in his own body he could do nothing. He had to consider his own body as good as dead, and then take God for the whole work; and when he looked away from himself, and trusted God alone, then he became fully persuaded that what He had promised, He was able to perform. That is what God is teaching us, and He has to keep away encouraging results until we learn to trust without them, and then He loves to make His Word real in fact as well as faith.—A. B. Simpson

I do not ask that He must prove
His Word is true to me,
And that before I can believe
He first must let me see.
It is enough for me to know
‘Tis true because He says ‘tis so;
On His unchanging Word I’ll stand
And trust till I can understand.
—E. M. Winter

Photo

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 02:41:12 +0800

spiritualinspiration: ” And we know that in all things God...

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 02:29:05 +0800

spiritualinspiration:

” And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28, NIV).

God has a plan to take every adversity and every hardship you go through and use it. He’s not going to beat you down and make your life miserable. No, God’s dream is to take that difficulty and supernaturally turn it around and use it to bring you good. He will use those tough times to bring you out stronger, more mature and prepared for promotion! Goodness, mercy and unfailing love are God’s plan for you!

You may not understand everything that’s going on in your life right now, but I encourage you to keep your head held high. Know that God is working in your life. Keep being faithful. Keep doing the right thing, knowing that in the end God is going to turn things around in your favor. If God is for you, who can be against you? No one. Greater is the One who is in you than anyone who can be against you. No matter what’s going on around you today, you can put your shoulders back and put a smile on your face because God is working things together for your good because He loves you!

spiritualinspiration: www.facebook.com/naeemcallaway

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 02:24:23 +0800

spiritualinspiration:

www.facebook.com/naeemcallaway

Nothing Satisfies by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 11:14:16 +0800

“It is not in me” (Job 28:14).

I remember a summer in which I said, “It is the ocean I need,” and I went to the ocean; but it seemed to say, “It is not in me!” The ocean did not do for me what I thought it would. Then I said, “The mountains will rest me,” and I went to the mountains, and when I awoke in the morning there stood the grand mountain that I had wanted so much to see; but it said, “It is not in me!” It did not satisfy. Ah! I needed the ocean of His love, and the high mountains of His truth within. It was wisdom that the “depths” said they did not contain, and that could not be compared with jewels or gold or precious stones. Christ is wisdom and our deepest need. Our restlessness within can only be met by the revelation of His eternal friendship and love for us.—Margaret Bottome

“My heart is there!
‘Where, on eternal hills, my loved one dwells
Among the lilies and asphodels;
Clad in the brightness of the Great White Throne,
Glad in the smile of Him who sits thereon,
The glory gilding all His wealth of hair
And making His immortal face more fair
THERE IS MY TREASURE and my heart is there.

“My heart is there!
‘With Him who made all earthly life so sweet,
So fit to live, and yet to die so meet;
So mild, so grand, so gentle and so brave,
So ready to forgive, so strong to save.
His fair, pure Spirit makes the Heavens more fair,
And thither rises all my longing prayer
THERE IS MY TREASURE and my heart is there.”
—Favorite poem of the late Chas. E. Cowman

You cannot detain the eagle in the forest. You may gather around him a chorus of the choicest birds; you may give him a perch on the goodliest pine; you may charge winged messengers to bring him choicest dainties; but he will spurn them all. Spreading his lofty wings, and with his eye on the Alpine cliff, he will soar away to his own ancestral halls amid the munition of rocks and the wild music of tempest and waterfall.

The soul of man, in its eagle soarings, will rest with nothing short of the Rock of Ages. Its ancestral halls are the halls of Heaven. Its munitions of rocks are the attributes of God. The sweep of its majestic flight is Eternity! “Lord, THOU hast been our dwelling place in all generations.”—Macduff.

“My Home is God Himself”; Christ brought me there.
I laid me down within His mighty arms;
He took me up, and safe from all alarms
He bore me “where no foot but His hath trod,”
Within the holiest at Home with God,
And bade me dwell in Him, rejoicing there.
O Holy Place! O Home divinely fair!
And we, God’s little ones, abiding there.

“My Home is God Himself”; it was not so!
A long, long road I traveled night and day,
And sought to find within myself some way,
Aught I could do, or feel to bring me near;
Self effort failed, and I was filled with fear,
And then I found Christ was the only way,
That I must come to Him and in Him stay,
And God had told me so.

And now “my Home is God,” and sheltered there,
God meets the trials of my earthly life,
God compasses me round from storm and strife,
God takes the burden of my daily care.
O Wondrous Place! O Home divinely fair!
And I, God’s little one, safe hidden there.
Lord, as I dwell in Thee and Thou in me,
So make me dead to everything but Thee;
That as I rest within my Home most fair,
My soul may evermore and only see
My God in everything and everywhere;
My Home is God.
—Author Unknown

spiritualinspiration: Hillsong - Hosanna

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 01:01:14 +0800

spiritualinspiration:

Hillsong - Hosanna

spiritualinspiration: https://www.facebook.com/naeemcallaway

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 00:59:22 +0800

spiritualinspiration:

https://www.facebook.com/naeemcallaway

spiritualinspiration: It’s easy to focus on what we don’t...

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 00:52:38 +0800

spiritualinspiration:

It’s easy to focus on what we don’t have—the talent, education, personality or connections, but Zechariah 4:6 says, “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty.” You see, it’s not just our talent, education, or what family we come from that causes us to excel and overcome obstacles much bigger than us. What causes us to go places we’ve never dreamed of is the Most High God breathing in our direction. When you give God what you do have, He will multiply it. Just like Jesus fed the crowd of five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fish, when you give God what you have, He will do the same for you.