Post Category → L.B. Cowman

Question & Thought for September 24th, 2016!

Question & Thought for September 24th, 2016!
Good Saturday Morning!
1. Question – Why doesn’t the Holy Spirit fill us like it should?
2. Thought – Some of us are troubled, wondering why the Holy Spirit doesn’t fill us. The problem is that we have plenty coming in but we are not giving out to others. If you will give the blessing you have received, planning your life around greater service and being a blessing to those around you, then you will quickly find that the Holy Spirit is with you. He will bestow blessings to you for service, giving you all He can trust you to give away to others. (Steams in the Desert, daily devotional for September 23rd, yesterday, by L.B. Cowman)
“Where is your brother Abel?” (Genesis 4:9)
rem – “I’ve never let my schooling interfere with my education.” (Mark Twain)
Question & Thought & ANDs.

Questions and Thought for June 26th, 2016!!!

Questions and Thought for June 26th, 2016!!!
Good Sunday Morning as June closes this week!!!
1. Question – Have you asked yourself, ‘How’s my hope glass?’ Full, Dwindling? Empty? Is my future bright with hope? Do you pray without faith?’
2. Thought – from Streams in the Desert, daily devotion for June 26th, by L. B. Cowman.
I suspect that the source of every bit of sorrow in my life can be traced to simple unbelief. If I truly believe the past is totally forgiven, the present is supplied with power, and the future is bright with hope, how could I be anything but completely happy?
Yes, the future is bright, because of God’s faithfulness. His abiding truth does not change with my mood, and He never waivers when I stumble and fall over a promise of His through my unbelief. His faithfulness stands firm and as prominent as mountain peaks of pearl splitting the clouds of eternity. And each base of His hills is rooted in an unfathomable depth on the rock of God.
Mont Blanc does not disappear, become a passing vision or a whimsical mist, simply because a climber grows dizzy on its slopes.
Is it any wonder that we do not receive God’s blessing after stumbling over His promise through unbelief? I’m not saying that faith merits an answer or that we can work to earn it. But God Himself has made believing a condition of receiving, and the Giver has a sovereign right to choose His own terms for His gifts.
Unbelief continually asks, ” How can this be possible?” It is always full of ‘how’s,” yet faith needs only one great answer to even ten thousand “how’s.” That answer is – GOD!
No one accomplishes so much in so little time as when he or she is praying. And the following thought certainly aligns well with all that the Lord Jesus Christ taught on prayer: If only ONE BELIEVER WITH TOTAL FAITH rises up, the history of the world will be changed.
​Will YOU be that one that rises up, submitting yourself to the sovereignty​ and guidance of God our Father?
Prayer without faith quickly degenerates into an aimless routine or heartless hypocrisy. However, prayer with faith brings the omnipotence of God to the support of our petitions. It is better not to pray until your entire being responds to, and understands, the power of prayer. When genuine prayer is even whispered, earth and heaven, and the past and future, say, “Amen!”
This is the kind of prayer Christ prayed. (P.C.M. & A.E. McAdam & James Smetham & Samuel Hart)
“What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness?” (Romans 3:5)
“Nothing lies beyond the reach of prayer except those things outside the will of God.”
While walking and exercising the other day I was pondering hope. Lewis has a great chapter on hope in Mere Christianity. The question that kept coming back at me was this: ‘Do you think God would of sent His Son here to save us if we didn’t have hope?’   ‘How’s my hope glass?’
Have a great close of June!
 
rem – I had no knowledge that I had no knowledge.
Question & Thought & ANDs.

Question & Thought for June 3rd, 2016!!!

Question & Thought for June 3rd, 2016!!!
Good Friday Morning!!!
1. Question – Are you persistent in knowing?
2. Thought – Years ago there was an old German professor whose beautiful life was a wonder to his students. Some of them were determined to learn the secret of it, so one night they sent someone to hide in the study where the professor spent his evenings.
It was quite late when the teacher finally came. He was very tired but sat down and spent one hour with his Bible. Then he bowed his head in silent prayer, and finally closing the Book of books, he said, “Well, Lord Jesus, we still have the same old relationship.”
“To know Christ” (Phil. 3:10) is life’s greatest achievement. At all costs, every Christian should strive to “have the same old relationship” with Him.
The reality of knowing Jesus comes as a result of hidden prayer, and personal Bible study that is devotional and consistent in nature. Christ becomes more real to those who persist in cultivating His presence. (Streams in the Desert, May 29th devotional, by L.B. Cowman)
“The problem is to get [people] to reject irrational and super-natural explanations of the world, the demons that exist only in their imaginations, and to accept a social and intellectual apparatus, Science, as the only begetter of truth.” (Harvard geneticist Richard Lewontin)
Schools almost out and hopefully you’ve reminded them of cell phones and cars. Are you setting a good example? Is that phone that important?
Get in shape for Summer!
rem – I had no knowledge that I had no knowledge.
Question & Thought & ANDs.

Question & Thought for February 26th, 2016!!!

Question & Thought for February 26th, 2016!!!
Good Friday Morning!
1. Question – Are you dissatisfied with yourself?
2. Thought – Perhaps you are very dissatisfied with yourself. You are not a genius, have no distinctive gifts, and are inconspicuous when it comes to having any special abilities. Mediocrity seems to be the measure of your existence. None of your days are noteworthy, except for their sameness and lack of zest. Yet in spite of this you may live a great life.
John the Baptist never performed a miracle, but Jesus said of him, “Among those born of women there is no one greater” (Luke 7:28). His mission was to be “a witness to the light” (John 1:8), and that may be your mission and mine. John was content to be only a voice, if it caused people to think of Christ.
Be willing to be only a voice that is heard but not seen, or a mirror whose glass the eye cannot see because it is reflecting the brilliant glory of the Son. Be willing to be a breeze that arises just before daylight, saying, “The dawn! The dawn!” and then fades away.
Do the most everyday and insignificant tasks knowing that God can see you. If you live with difficult people, win them over through love. If you once made a great mistake in life, do not allow it to cloud the rest of your life, but by locking it secretly in your heart, make it yield strength and character.
We are doing more good than we know. The things we do today – sowing seeds or sharing simple truths about Christ – people will someday refer to as the first things that prompted them to think of Him. For my part, I will be satisfied not to have some great tombstone over my grave but just to know that common people will gather there once I am gone and say “He was a good man. He never performed any miracles, but he told me about Christ, which led me to know Him for myself.” (George Matheson, from Streams in the Desert, by L.B. Cowman -February 24th devotional)
“Indeed this is the best part of my job. In every given year the pupils I really like are in a minority; but there is hardly a year in which I do not make some real friend. I am glad that people become more and more one of the sources of pleasure as I grow older.” (C.S. Lewis)
DON”T TEXT AND DRIVE. Read and be good!
rem – I had no knowledge that I had no knowledge.
Question & Thought & ANDs.