if anyone was curious why i never capitalize anything…
it is because i believe that only the Lord is worthy of being ”capitalized” :) 

 (well, that’s just my theory anyways…)

as i finish reading this (very good) book tonight (and, believe me i will read this book many more times…over and over again..) the Lord has opened my eyes to see what true humility is. not only what true humility is, but how much humility we, as Christians are lacking. i have found that once we finally find what true humility is (losing ourselves in Christ,) everything else will fall into place. missions, revival, evangelism, should be pushed aside until we are fully able to see the true light of Him and His humility. we can not make ourselves more holy, more righteous, more spirit-filled….it is only through His grace that we may humble ourselves before Him….then He will be able to work in and through us for His glory. if the Church was to preach the abundance of humility today! if the Church was to practice and live out true humilty! how our eyes would be opened…how our senseless wants and desires as Christians would pass away. oh Lord, may we lose ourselves–everything we are– in finding all that You are….for there is none like You.

“he who humbles himself will be exalted.” luke 14:11

“God gives grace to the humble…humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” james 4:6,10

“humilty is simply the sense of entire nothingness that comes when we see how truly God is everything.
humility is the secret of blessedness, the desire to be nothing, that allows God to be all in all.
humility is nothing but the simple consent of the creature to let God be all, the surrender of itself to His working alone.
humility before God is nothing if it is not proven in humility before others. the one infallible test of our holiness will be our humility before God and others. humility is the bloom and beauty of holiness.
humility is nothing but the dissapearance of self in the vision that God is all.

it is the soul that finds God to be everything that is so filled with His presence there is no place for self.
it is humility that brings a soul to be nothing before God and that also removes every hindrance to faith and makes it only fear lest it dishonor Him by not trusting Him completely.

self has nothing good in it, except as an empty vessel for God to fill. the highest glory of the creature is in being a vessel, to recieve and enjoy and show forth the glory of God. it can do this only as it is willing to be nothing in itself, that God may be everything.

in God’s presence, humility is not a posture we assume for a time-when we think of Him or pray to Him-but the very spirit of our life.

the seemingly insignificant acts of daily life are the tests of eternity, because they prove what spirit possesses us. it is in our most unguarded moments that we truly show who we are and what we are made of. to know a truly humble person, you must follow that one in the common course of daily life.

how little this is preached. how seldom it is practiced. how faintly the lack of it is felt or confessed. i cannot say how few attain to some regonizable measure of likeness to Jesus in His humility. but fewer ever think of making it a distinct object of continual desire or prayer. how little the world has seen it. how scarcely it is seen in the inner circle of the Church.

to how many of us has it been a new joy in the Christian life to know that we may yield ourselves as servants, as slaves of God, and to find that His service is our highest liberty-the freedom from sin and self?

is it any wonder that the Christian life is so often weak and fruitless, when the very root of the Christian life is neglected or unknown? is it any wonder that the joy of salvation is so little felt, when that by which Christ brings it is so seldom sought? until a humility that rests in nothings less than the end and death of self, and which gives up all the honor of man as Jesus did to seek the honor that comes from God alone (which absolutely makes and counts itself nothing) that God may be all, that the Lord alone may be exalted-until such a humility is what we seek in Christ above our chief joy, and welcome at any price, there is very little hope of a faith that will conquer the world.” ~ andrew murray

“the only hope of a decreasing self is an increasing Christ.” f.b. meyer

“God created the world out of nothing, and as long as we are nothing, He can make something out of us.” martin luther

“there are many Christians who discover that the best time of the day is when they can read and explore their bibles, and they love nothing more than to get a new spiritual insight. as a person who mines diamonds rejoices when he has found a diamond, or someone who digs for gold when he has found a nugget, they delight when they get some new thought from the bible, and they feed upon it. yet, even with all their interest in God’s word, and with all the joy that is stirred within their hearts, when they go to their work or attend to their daily duties, they find that there is still something missing in their lives.

from time to time, we must leave all the many and diverse blessings that Jesus gives us, and come to the one blessing that encompasses them all: the blessing that Jesus makes Himself known, that Jesus is willing to make Himself known to us.

“their eyes were opened and they knew Him.” luke 24:31

it is very possible to have Jesus Himself with you and not know it. is is very possible to listen to all the truth about Jesus, and even preach about it, and yet not know Him. many Christians know that Christ has risen from the dead. they believe in Him; they frequently have blessed experiences that come from the risen Christ. very often, at a Bible conference or in a time of silent Bible reading or when God gives His grace in a special way. yet, it can be said of many Christians, whose hearts are burning within them, that they do not know it is Jesus Himself who is with them.” ~andrew murray

(i do not want to just hear about the Lord, to talk about Him,
 to read about Him, but to know Him to the fullest.)

one thing
this is what i desire
sweet illumination
that i may gaze upon His face
oh, to know this man

sweet illumination
to glory in the presence of the King
behold the sweet essence of this one thing
that i may know the Spring within me
as it rises the Spring, so sweet
~shane barnard

…please be keeping lois, (myexodus) in your prayers
she has had a mild heart attack and is currently in the hospital.
 i cannot even begin to tell you how much of a blessing she has been
 to me and my walk with the Lord.  
please keep this very dear sister in your prayers…

lately, i feel as if some friends of mine, even the Christians….are not so much really as close to me as i thought them to be. it is even harder to be around them and not in some way, be swayed into the world and what it has to offer. (how much easier it would be to go back to where you used to be…blending in with the rest of the world and lukewarm ‘Christianity.’) however, i see a separation…and, often it is hard not to feel sorry for yourself, not to throw a pity party, and say “hey! look at me…i’m alone and have no where to go…poor me…” you’ve got to get back up on your feet, understand that there are few, and continue on that narrow road. many times, i feel led to read tozer’s “the saint must walk alone…“


“the loneliness of the Christian results from his walk with God in an ungodly world, a walk that must often take him away from the fellowship of good Christians as well as from that of the unregenerate world. his God-given instincts cry out for companionship with others of his kind, others who can understand his longings, his aspirations, his absorption in the love of Christ; and because within his circle of friends there are so few who share inner experiences, he is forced to walk alone.

a certain amount of social fellowship will of course be his as he mingles with religious persons in the regular activities of the church, but true spiritual fellowship will be hard to find. but he should not expect things to be otherwise. after all he is a stranger and a pilgrim, and the journey he takes is not on his feet but in his heart. he walks with God in the garden of his own soul – and who but God can walk there with him?

the lonely saint finds few who care to talk about that which is the supreme object of his interest, so he is often silent and preoccupied in the midst of noisy religious shoptalk. for this he earns the reputation of being dull and overserious, so he is avoided and the gulf between him and society widens. his loneliness makes him sympathetic to the approach of the brokenhearted and the fallen and the sin-bruised. because he is detached from the world, he is all the more able to help it.

the weakness of so many modern Christians is that they feel too much at home in the world. in their effort to achieve restful “adjustment” to unregenerate society they have lost their pilgrim character and become an essential part of the very moral order against which they are sent to protest. the world recognizes them and accepts them for what they are. And this is the saddest thing that can be said about them. they are not lonely, but neither are they saints.

always remember: you cannot carry a cross in company. though a man were surrounded by a vast crowd, his cross is his alone and his carrying of it marks him as a man apart. society has turned against him; otherwise he would have no cross. no one is a friend to the man with a cross. “they all forsook Him, and fled. (mark 14:50)”
-a.w. tozer (the saint must walk alone)


“whatever was to my profit i now consider loss for the
 sake of Christ. what is more, i consider everything a loss
 compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus
Christ my Lord, for whose sake i have lost all things.
 i consider them rubbish, that i may gain Christ and be found in Him,
 not having a righteousness of my own….” phil. 3:7-9

Lord, please, break me, rearrange me, and take my mind off of me
…i am but Your clay-mold me! i let go of all else…and hold on to You…

start a fire in me
let the flames run free
burn away the dross
Holy fire of God

let it begin, let it be new
let me be used for Your sake
bringing glory to Your Name
i can live knowing that You
reside in my heart
oh Lord You are the fire
…fire of God
-darin sasser & jason harrison


“lead us, lead us, blessed Spirit, to the open land of prayer,
trusting in the Savior’s merit, we would meet our Father there.
burn, oh, burn Holy Fire ..let the hindering flesh retire.”
-amy carmichael

“therefore, since we know we are recieving a kingdom that cannot be shaken,
let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,
 for our God is a consuming fire.” hebrews 12:28-29