By Robert Flynn on
9/8/2008 3:55 PM
Brevity: Shortness; conciseness; contraction into few words; applied to discourses or writings.
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By Robert Flynn on
8/28/2008 10:44 AM
The wondrous ministry of prayer is an opportunity of the heart to be lifted to places never imagined! We oftentimes think of prayer as a duty (it certainly is that) or heavy work (a weight upon the soul), but when we truly experience a sojourn within the Holy of Holies we experience a foretaste of our new nature.
"Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:6-7 NLT)
The soul must solemnly remind itself of Who it is that is to be approached, even the Most High, before whom the very seraphim veil their faces (Isaiah 6:2). Though Divine grace has made the Christian a son, nevertheles
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By Robert Flynn on
8/16/2008 4:09 PM
Bless to us our extraordinary mercies; if the day come when these must be taken, brace us to play the man under affliction. Robert Louis Stevenson - Vailima Prayers and Sabbath Morn
The armor of His peace surrounds me undisturbed so I need not be anxious for the Lord of Glory guards my heart.
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By Robert Flynn on
8/15/2008 4:08 PM
The sea around us, which this rain recruits, teems with the race of fish; teach us, Lord, the meaning of the fishes. Let us see ourselves for what we are, one out of the countless number of the clans of thy handiwork. Robert Louis Stevenson-Vailima Prayers and Sabbath Morn
I, like George, think I have mastered the little things only to find that there is a complexity hidden from my eyes that I am incapable of understanding. In the very midst of the process, I have failed to give thanks for the providence unfolded.
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By Robert Flynn on
8/13/2008 4:08 PM
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By Robert Flynn on
8/12/2008 4:07 PM
"Aid us, if it be thy will, in our concerns. Have mercy on this land and innocent people." Robert Louis Stevenson - Vailima Prayers and Sabbath Morn
What a great sentiment of the Father's love who does not relate to us based upon the pain we cause Him. Rather He relates to us based upon what we need!
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By Robert Flynn on
8/11/2008 4:06 PM
For our absent loved ones we implore thy loving-kindness. Keep them in life, keep them in growing honor; and for us, grant that we remain worthy of their love....Robert Louis Stevenson—Vailima Prayers and Sabbath Morn
Let us not only be a gentle rain of blessing to a parched land but also a mighty river that flows through the desert bringing a valley of dry bones back to life.
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By Robert Flynn on
8/11/2008 3:44 PM
Your wickedness has deprived you of these wonderful blessings. Your sin has robbed you of all these good things. (Jeremiah 5:25 NLT)
“These mercies were kept back from them in order to humble them, and to bring them to a sense of their sins, and an acknowledgement of them.” Dr. John Gill
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By Robert Flynn on
8/11/2008 1:14 PM
No matter how much we anticipate the pending loss of a loved one, knowing the result of age, ill health, or injury will have its way in the end, their death still comes unexpectedly. Our hearts are never ready to say goodbye. Isaiah says that "we all do fade as a leaf." James says that our life is like a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Why is it then that as vapors we should cling so tightly to our sojourn here? When faith call us onward and we trust to take
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By Robert Flynn on
8/10/2008 8:42 AM
We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy. (1 John 1:4 NLT)
Before we show how that possibility may be realized, let us solemnly ponder what brought that poor soul into such a sorry plight a plight into which both writer and reader will certainly fall unless we are ever on our prayerful guard. Arthur W. Pink, Practical Christianity
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By Robert Flynn on
8/9/2008 4:05 PM
And now, when the clouds gather and the rain impends over the forest and our house, permit us not to be cast down; let us not lose the savour of past mercies and past pleasures; but, like the voice of a bird singing in the rain, let grateful memory survive in the hour of darkness....Robert Lewis Stevenson
It is easy to say that I trust in the Lord when all in my world is right. But what of the days that are dark beyond description when the pain of Job is felt to the core of the heart?
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By Robert Flynn on
8/8/2008 4:04 PM
Grant that we here before Thee may be set free from the fear of vicissitude and the fear of death, may finish what remains before us of our course without dishonor to ourselves or hurt to others, and, when the day comes, may die in peace.... Robert Lewis Stevenson
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By Robert Flynn on
8/8/2008 4:04 PM
The day returns and brings us the petty round of irritating concerns and duties. Help us to play the man, help us to perform them with laughter and kind faces, let cheerfulness abound with industry....Robert Lewis Stevenson—Vailima Prayers and Sabbath Morn
One would hardly think of morning as a time of rest....For that is why He has created a new day and called it Today so that we may enter into His Sabbath Rest.
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By Robert Flynn on
8/7/2008 4:03 PM
"Beware in your prayers, above everything else, of limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do." Andrew Murray
When Isaiah saw the throne room of Grace he remarked that he was a man of unclean lips. I often share the same thought. Who am I that I would speak in any way to to the power the created the universe.
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By Robert Flynn on
8/5/2008 4:01 PM
"But obedience in the matter of prayer is costly and takes commitment. On Monday night as our week of prayer began, a mere thirty-four adults showed up out of a regular church attendance of twenty-three hundred. By Thursday, only seventeen adults were praying. I was totally discouraged." Stephen Arterburn, Every Man's Battle
Perhaps some would find a book on the temptations men face and their fight for purity a strange place to find the aforementioned comment on prayer. However, I find it most timely indeed.
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By Robert Flynn on
8/4/2008 4:00 PM
"There is in the Christian life great need of watchfulness and of prayer, of selfdenial and of striving, of obedience and of diligence. But "all things are possible to him that believeth." "This is the victory that overcometh, even our faith."
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By Robert Flynn on
8/2/2008 6:50 PM
What a difference there is between a deeply exercised and spiritually burdened heart pouring out itself before God in fervent supplication and the utterance of verbal petitions by rote! Arthur W. Pink
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By Robert Flynn on
7/31/2008 3:58 PM
A much loved prayer of St Francis of Assisi:
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By Robert Flynn on
7/30/2008 3:57 PM
"By consequence, 'whatsoever he doeth , it is all to the glory of God.' In all his employments of every kind, he not only aims at this (which is implied in having a single eye ), but actually attains it. His business and refreshments, as well as his prayers, all serve to this great end. Whether he 'it in the house, or walk by the way,' whether he lie down, or rise up, he is promoting, in all he speaks, or does, the one business of his life. Whether he put on his apparel, or labor, or eat and drink, or divert himself from too wasting labor, it is to advance the glory of God, by peace and goodwill among men. His one invariable rule is this: 'Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God, even the Father, through Him.'" John Wesley, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection.
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By Robert Flynn on
7/27/2008 3:56 PM
We are evil, O God, and help us to see it and amend. We are good, and help us to be better. Look down upon thy servants with a patient eye, even as Thou sendest sun and rain; look down, call upon the dry bones, quicken, enliven; recreate in us the soul of service, the spirit of peace; renew in us the sense of joy.
When we look into the mirror, what do we see? We see with Earthly eyes! But when we look to the Savior, we see with the eyes of Christ. Then will we know the true...
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By Robert Flynn on
7/26/2008 3:55 PM
To-day we go forth separate, some of us to pleasure, some of us to worship, some upon duty. Go with us, our guide and angel; hold Thou before us in our divided paths the mark of our low calling, still to be true to what small best we can attain to. Help us in that, our maker, the dispenser of events — Thou, of the vast designs, in which we blindly labor, suffer us to be so far constant to ourselves and our beloved. Robert Louis Stevenson-Vailima Prayers and Sabbath Morn
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By Robert Flynn on
7/25/2008 3:54 PM
Lord, receive our supplications for this house, family, and country. Protect the innocent, restrain the greedy and the treacherous, lead us out of our tribulation into a quiet land.
Look down upon ourselves and upon our absent dear ones. Help us and them; prolong our days in peace and honour. Give us health, food, bright weather, and light hearts. In what we meditate of evil, frustrate our will; in what of good, further our endeavours. Cause injuries to be forgot and benefits to be remembered.
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By Robert Flynn on
7/16/2008 8:29 AM
That is why it was not surprising that, at that time, I did not rejoice over the wonder of redemption, and that others could not see the joy of Jesus in me. And it was no wonder that I was not happy. I had taken the wrong path, the path of cheap grace, which was not the way of Jesus Christ and which could never lead me to the goal. If we do not fight, we will not be crowned. And what a fight the Lord demands of us! It is a fight to the point of shedding blood, as the letter to the Hebrews tells...
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By Robert Flynn on
7/11/2008 6:40 AM
Giving thanks for the providence and tender mercies of the day is fitting lest we presume upon the watchcare of His Sabboth Rest while we sleep defensless were it not for His Grace.
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By Robert Flynn on
7/10/2008 7:47 PM
How do you start your day? Is it with coffee only? We would think ourselves misused if we did not fill our stomachs with food. But what if we began our day without fellowship with the Father? Take a short sojourn with the Lion of Dundee and see if you might find some encouragement for your souls.
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By Robert Flynn on
7/9/2008 7:45 PM
"When thou prayest let thy words be few, but thy thoughts and affections many, and above all let them be profound. The less thou speakest the better thou prayest....External and bodily prayer is that buzzing of the lips, that outside babble that is gone through without any attention, and which strikes the ears of men; but prayer in spirit and in truth is the inward desire, the motions, the sighs, which issue from the depths of the heart. The former is the prayer of hypocrites and of all who trust...
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By Robert Flynn on
7/8/2008 6:31 AM
We are His lambs, and therefore ought to be ready to suffer, even to the death, without complaining. John Wesley, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection
"Do everything without complaining and arguing," (Philippians 2:14 NLT)
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By Robert Flynn on
7/4/2008 6:33 AM
Lord, enlighten us to see the beam that is in our own eye, and blind us to the mote that is in our brother’s. Robert Louis Stevenson-Vailima Prayers and Sabbath Morn
How quick we are to see fault in others! How crafty we are to justify our own actions and rationalize their effect.
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By Robert Flynn on
7/3/2008 6:23 AM
No matter how much we anticipate the pending loss of a loved one, knowing the result of age, ill health, or injury will have its way in the end, their death still comes unexpectedly. Our hearts are never ready to say goodbye. Isaiah says that "we all do fade as a leaf." James says that our life is like a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Why is it then that as vapors we should cling so tightly to our sojourn here? Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7 NASB)
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By Robert Flynn on
7/2/2008 6:29 AM
Lord, the creatures of thy hand, thy disinherited children, come before Thee with their incoherent wishes and regrets:
"Don't you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don't fool yourselves." (1 Corinthians 6:9 NLT)
We often wallow in our "vain resentments" and miss the blessing of Christ's work of Grace upon our hearts.
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By Robert Flynn on
7/1/2008 6:17 AM
PRAYER has to do with the entire man. Prayer takes in man in his whole being, mind, soul and body. It takes the whole man to pray, and prayer affects the entire man in its gracious results. E. M. Bounds — The Essentials of Prayer
"Yes you have been with me from birth; from my mother's womb you have cared for me. No wonder I am always praising you!" "Psalm 71:6 NLT)
The heart of prayer is found in the bending of the knee. It is found in the contrite heart of him who would confess that his heart is like a valley of dry bones that needs to be brought back to life (Ezekiel 37).
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