I got to see "Amazing Grace" this weekend...what a powerful movie...such an inspiring story... about one obedient man united with an extraordinary GOD to free a precious people!
I was touched to watch the story of this man, his heart was so completely surrendered to God, he gave up his entire life for a cause greater then himself, a greater glory! ...and so we must too!
William Wilberforce, truly was a great man empowered by his Father in Heaven to take an incredible journey to blaze a pathway to freedom for his fellowman... His heart truly burned for God...
"Catch on fire with enthusiasm and people will come for miles to watch you burn." Charles Wesley
"Give me the love that leads the way, The faith that nothing can dismay, The hope no disappointments tire, The passion that will burn like fire, Let me not sink to be a clod: Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God." Amy Carmichael, (1867–1951) Christian missionary in India, who opened an orphanage and founded a mission in Dohnavur. She served in India for fifty-five years.
"God, I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my life, that I may burn for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life, but a full one, like You, Lord Jesus." Jim Elliot ( 1927 – 1956) evangelical Christian missionary to Ecuador who, along with four others, was killed while attempting to evangelize the Huaorani people during what may be referred to as Operation Auca.
...oh, that our hearts would burn so fervently, so brightly, so completely...
I believe that there are only two things that we really need to help guide our steps and keep the flame of passion alive...
* an intimate relationship with God, knowing Him deeply
and some good friends that know Him too...friends that we can be
transparent with and accountable too, to strengthen us in the journey.
What I loved about Wilberforce is that he was a lot like you and me, he was not immune to insecurity and a sense of lack...in his writings we find these words...
"I feel the great importance of the subject and I think myself unequal to the task allotted to me."
"My walk is a public one," he wrote in his diary. "My business is in the world, and I must mix in the assemblies of men or quit the post which Providence seems to have assigned me."
How often in our God ordained assignments do we feel unequal to the task given??? Hopefully in all... that He may receive the glory, all the glory....
"to God be the glory for the things He's brought me through..."Andre Crouch
...and so He gives us Himself, "For when I am weak, then I am strong."2Cor. 12:10
and He gives us friends in faith, brothers and sisters whose hearts also burn for Him...(Wilber had the Clapham Sect, evangelical Christians) ...
likeminded, like hearted friends whose eyes are on the Heavenly prize, with an undivided focus, a steady gaze into His eyes...
"I will guide you with my eyes..." Psalm 32:8
"...complete my joy by living in harmony and being of the same mind
and one in purpose, having the same love, being in full accord and
of one harmonious mind and intention." Phil 2:2
So we must, by His grace, link our hearts and hands and faith and force to bring His will to pass...
...let unity be enjoined in us...
that from this place of global devotion
and brotherly love the world will come to know Him...
"For God so loved the world
that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever in Him should not perish
but have everlasting life." John 3:16
And so we pray for the church, we encourage one another and we stay close to the one that our heart loves...believing that in Him, we will usher in His Kingdom and summon our King to return,
to rule and reign ...
come Lord Jesus...
"Gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble—
every man's work shall be made manifest;
for the day shall declare it, because it shall be declared by fire;
and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
If any man's work abide." 1Cor 3:12-14
"He who testifies to these things says,
"Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!" Rev 22:20
.................selah.....................
