roniya“Live for the glory of God and the good of many.”

Robert Murray M’Cheyne
1813-1843

It is not how long you live, but how you live that counts.” Robert Murray M’Cheyne was a living example of this often neglected truth. At twenty-three years old he was ordained and inducted into the church of St. Peters at Dundee. At thirty years old he finished his course, dying in the spring of 1843.

Like John the Baptist and the Savior Himself, M’Cheyne ushered in Christ’s kingdom in just a few short years. It was during his brief public ministry that Scotland experienced one of its greatest revivals. From 1839-1842 much of Scotland was turned upside down through the Spirit-filled labors of W. C. Burns and Robert Murray M’Cheyne.

For every time M’Cheyne directed men to look at their sins he pointed them ten times to look on Jesus. This was the key to his tender and passionate preaching. To him Christ was not just one of many theological concepts in a message, Christ Jesus was the message! M’Cheyne’s power in the pulpit was the result of his intimate knowledge of Jesus. He could boldly say, “I am better acquainted with Jesus Christ than I am with any man in the world.”

Often as he preached the entire congregation was brought to tears. M’Cheyne’s diary and letters describe for us some of these precious meetings. He wrote, “It was like a pent-up flood breaking forth; tears were streaming from the eyes of many, and some fell on the ground groaning and weeping and crying for mercy.” At other times men and women were so overcome with grief and conviction that they literally had to be carried out of the church – “In some areas whole congregations were frequently moved as one man, and the voice of the minister was drowned out by the cries of anxious souls.”

M’Cheyne’s voice, eyes and gestures spoke of the tenderness of Christ. It was not Robert Murray M’Cheyne the people saw, it was Jesus. M’Cheyne declared, “A man cannot be a faithful minister, until he preaches Christ for Christ’s sake – until he gives up striving to attract people to himself and seeks only to attract them to Christ.”

Perhaps more powerful than M’Cheyne’s preaching was his praying. To him the prayer closet was a refuge of fellowship, holiness and intercession. M’Cheyne’s diary and letters are replete with examples of his prayerful life. He wrote, “I rose early to seek God, and found Him whom my soul loveth. Who would not rise early to meet such company?” “King Jesus is a Good Master. I have had some sweet seasons of communion with the unseen God which I would not give up for thousands worth of gold and silver.”

Only a few months before his death M’Cheyne drew up some considerations concerning “Reformation in Secret Prayer”. “I ought”, said M’Cheyne, “to spend the best hours of the day in communion with God. It is my noblest and most fruitful employment.” It is said that Robert Murray M’Cheyne had a special place in his church where he would pour over the names on the church role and weep with groans of intercession. Though only a young man, M’Cheyne possessed that rarest of jewels; a TRUE shepherd’s heart. M’Cheyne fervently labored among the people of Dundee, as if he somehow knew he would soon die.

He was a man motivated by eternity. He wrote, “As I was walking in the fields, the thought came over me with almost overwhelming power, that every one of my flock must soon be in heaven or hell. Oh how I wished that I had a tongue like thunder, that I might make all hear; or that I had a frame like iron, that I might visit every one and say, ‘Escape for thy life! Ah sinner! You little know how I fear that you will lay the blame of your damnation at my door.’”

To love Jesus is to love holiness. Many professing Christians shrink from the message of purity and thus draw back from the Savior they claim to love. Robert Murray M’Cheyne understood the necessity of a holy life. He wrote, “Study holiness of life. Your whole usefulness depends on this, for your sermons last but an hour or two; your life preaches all the week. If Satan can only make a covetous minister, a lover of praise, and pleasure, he has ruined your ministry.

A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God. A word spoken by you when your conscience is clear, and your heart is full of God’s Spirit is worth ten thousand words spoken in unbelief and sin.” Lying upon his deathbed with a raging fever, M’Cheyne lifted his hands in prayer, he exclaimed, “This parish Lord, this people, this whole place.” Robert Murray M’Cheyne ended his life like he lived it, full of fervent prayer.

1. Never neglect daily private prayer; and when you pray, remember that God is present, and that He hears your prayers. (Heb. 11:6). Read the rest of this entry »

There is no habit that we should more sedulously form

(J. R. Miller, “Prayer in the Christian life” 1903)

What place should prayer have in a Christian’s life? Should we pray little or much? Should we confine our praying to certain days–Sundays, for example; or to certain hours or moments of our days–mornings, for example? Should we pray only about certain things, certain affairs, certain portions of our life? Are there things we have no permission to take to God in prayer? Should we pray only in certain places–in our accustomed room at home, or in places ‘set apart for divine worship’? Is there any place, where we may not pray? …… Read the rest of this entry »

Greetings in the Lord,

Just a quick update before we head off to Wales.

The conference ended off well with a challenging message by David Legge on the call to be a soldier of Christ in His battle.  Some of the messages are already available for download on Sermonindex.net:

Dublin Ireland Revival Conference Messages

I highly recommend brother Paul’s message on Busyness and Spiritual Discipline.

One of the wonderful blessings that are a part of conferences like these is the opportunity to meet precious saints and have sweet fellowship that is centered on Jesus Christ.  I met three very dear sisters from southern India and we had a wonderful time sharing in the Word and praying together.  I thank God for Prima, Hefseeba and Bincy and their love for Jesus Christ.  On Saturday I met Laura and Isa and they ended up staying here in this home Saturday night and the Lord blessed us with sweet fellowship.  I also thank God for their zeal and love for Christ.  On Sunday we met more brothers and sisters from southern and northern Ireland and were blessed by more sweet fellowship.  I love the body of Christ!

On Sunday morning we went back to the church where the conference was to hear brother Paul preach.  It is a Nigerian church that originally came out of Africa.  It was an amazing experience going to a Nigerian service.  They have a lot of enthusiasm and zeal in their worship.  Really precious people.  Bro Paul preached a powerful message on marriage that I highly recommend. : )  I’ll try to put up a link for it when it is available online.  To his surprise, Dad ended up preaching at another church (a branch of the one we were at) and the Lord blessed his time at that church.

Sunday afternoon was very peaceful and relaxed.  Over the past few days we’ve been able to rest, spend time with the family here and seek the Lord.  It’s been good.

Sunday evening we all headed off to hear brother Paul Washer preach at a small reformed Baptist church.  He preached on 2 Cor. 5:21 and it was a wonderful message on Jesus Christ and some of the aspects of what He went through in dying for our sins.  It was a rich, rich message and I just wanted to worship our amazing Christ when it was over.  I hope the audio recording will also be available for that message.

Today (Monday) has been a very relaxed day.  We’ve done some shopping, resting, packing, and the Lord has given us some more wonderful fellowship with our beloved host family, Isaac and Sara and their two children Daniel and Bana.  I’m so encouraged at how the Lord is working in this family and has worked over the past few days.  It’s really amazing how He is leading these precious people in the path of His truth.  Pray for the Lord to bless them with strength and grace to follow Christ with absolutely everything.

Jon and Taylor left this morning for Wales.  They rode in the car with bro Steve Evans and a few other brothers.  I haven’t heard yet how the ferry crossing went.  They were crossing the Irish Sea by ferry.

Tomorrow morning, Dad, Jennifer and I are flying out of Dublin at 8:25am and will be flying into Cardiff, Wales.  From there our host family will take us home and we will freshen up and prepare for the next revival conference which starts tomorrow afternoon at Moriah Chapel in Loughour Wales.  You can watch the live webcast for the conference at www.revivalconference.com

I don’t know how much blogging I’ll be able to do over the next few days.  The place we’re staying is about an hour’s drive from the conference so it will probably be a very full three days.  We will spend Friday with our host family doing some site seeing in Wales and then on Saturday we will travel to London….and all of that is Lord willing.

As to pictures….Jon as the pictures from the conference.  Maybe he will upload a few that I can share on here.

Please pray for the conference in Wales.  Pray for every stumbling block to be cast up out of the way and for the Lord to have the freedom to work in the hearts of His people and all those who come.  Pray for the messages that GOD has burned onto the hearts of His messengers to be delivered under the anointing of the Holy Ghost.  And oh pray! for the ears of people to be open.  Oh! may the Lord open our eyes and help us to really see, and may He open our ears that we might really hear!

Pray also for brothers Ryan and Sean.  They are also over here.  Pray for the Lord to give them opportunities to share the Words that He is burning onto their hearts.  http://youmustbebornagain.org/

For those who haven’t noticed, I am using twitter and the tweets are showing up on the right side of this website.  I’m sorry that it’s a little hard to read.  You can also follow my twitter page here: http://twitter.com/joycourville

The grace and peace of Jesus Christ be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

Keep seeking the Lord and His kingdom FIRST!  Jesus Christ is the Worthy One!

Cheerily in Christ,

Joy

“The greatest privilege God gives to you is the freedom to approach Him at any time. You are not only authorized to speak to Him; you are invited. You are not only permitted; you are expected. God waits for you to communicate with Him. You have instant, direct access to God. God loves mankind so much, and in a very special sense His children, that He has made Himself available to you at all times.”

(Wesley L. Duewel)

“We are allowed to worship Him.”

And not only are we allowed to worship the Lord GOD Almighty, we are allowed and bidden to draw intimately near to His Throne on the intimate terms of coming to our Abba Father.  And we have this blessed and holy privilege because of Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of the Father!

We are allowed to draw near and lift up our heart and voices with child-like confidence as we proclaim our great and good our Abba God is!

“Father loves the sound of our prayers.”

The sound of our voices proclaiming what He has done, boasting in WHO He is, His holy character that is so vast and infinite, giving thanks to Him for His mercies and grace toward we His children.  He delights in hearing our voices thank Him even for the smallest things as we recognize that they came directly from His Hand into our lives.

For those who are the Father’s children by adoption, who have His Spirit within them witnessing that we are indeed the sons and daughters of God….for us, we are allowed and bidden to come exceedingly nigh unto the holy Throne of the Most High, El Elyon, and when we do, He is delighted and thrilled with us.  And as an earthly father swells with joy when their child ‘brags’ on daddy, so our Abba above swells with joy when we boast in Him.

May we be quick to often lift up our voices in praising and exalting our Father, in the name of His holy Son, Jesus Christ.  It is all because of Jesus Christ.  All.  He is worthy!

My friend, if you feel unworthy, Jesus makes you worthy to approach His Father’s throne because of His blood.  Approach the throne casting yourself totally on the merits of Jesus Christ.  It is at the Father’s throne that we are made worthy!  Thank you, Jesus!

If you feel you cannot pray or praise Him as He deserves…take courage, His Spirit is given to assist us in this high and great task.  And Our Father is the Creator of our tongues, He can and will fill our mouths with praise.

Consider how sweet to a father or mother’s ears is the sound of the praise of a prattling baby who can barely talk, but can say, ‘I wuv you’.  It is not the high and eloquent words that a parent rejoices in, but the sincerity, the reality that lies behind the words.

Whatever the reasons may be for holding back from Abba’s throne, the answer lies in Jesus, the Son.  Look to Jesus and approach the Father’s throne leaning on the bosom of our beloved Christ.

His love is great and vast towards us.  Not because of our merits, but because of Jesus.

Now that is reason to praise our God!  Alleluia!

A couple weeks ago I discovered an excellent series on prayer by Pierre Chiasson on Sermonindex.  I don’t know anything about the speaker other than what is found in these messages, but I do know that God has given him much insight and wisdom in regards to prayer!  The length of each one ranges from 15 to 30 minutes, and Mr. Chiasson covers some very fundamental principles of prayer.  As I listened to him teach on prayer I recognized some of these principles that the Lord has taught me in my own prayer life and can testify that this is good stuff.  I highly recommend the series to you.  It won’t take long and they’re easy to listen to.

Thoughts on Prayer -

1. Love the Lord

2. God’s Willingness

3. One Thing I Have Desired

4. Praying With Others

5. Prevailing Prayer

6. Abiding With Christ

As an encouragement cheerfully to offer intercessory prayer, remember that such prayer is the sweetest God ever hears, for the prayer of Christ is of this character. In all the incense which our Great High Priest now puts into the golden censer, there is not a single grain for Himself. His intercession must be the most acceptable of all supplications–and the more like our prayer is to Christ’s, the sweeter it will be; thus while petitions for ourselves will be accepted, our pleadings for others, having in them more of the fruits of the Spirit, more love, more faith, more brotherly kindness, will be, through the precious merits of Jesus, the sweetest oblation that we can offer to God, the very fat of our sacrifice. Remember, again, that intercessory prayer is exceedingly prevalent. What wonders it has wrought! The Word of God teems with its marvellous deeds.

Believer, thou hast a mighty engine in thy hand, use it well, use it constantly, use it with faith, and thou shalt surely be a benefactor to thy brethren. When thou hast the King’s ear, speak to Him for the suffering members of His body. When thou art favoured to draw very near to His throne, and the King saith to thee, “Ask, and I will give thee what thou wilt,” let thy petitions be, not for thyself alone, but for the many who need His aid.

If thou hast grace at all, and art not an intercessor, that grace must be small as a grain of mustard seed. Thou hast just enough grace to float thy soul clear from the quicksand, but thou hast no deep floods of grace, or else thou wouldst carry in thy joyous bark a weighty cargo of the wants of others, and thou wouldst bring back from thy Lord, for them, rich blessings which but for thee they might not have obtained:–

“Oh, let my hands forget their skill, My tongue be silent, cold, and still, This bounding heart forget to beat, If I forget the mercy-seat!”

C.H. Spurgeon

Lord willing, on June 2-4, 2009 my family and I will be attending the Revival Conference in Barnsdall, Oklahoma.  You can see a list of the speakers here 

I am excited about this upcoming conference.  The Lord has been working in the small town of Barnsdall over the past few months.  Through the influence of a small book on praying for souls special meetings began between around five different churches (different denominations) in Barnsdall.  Their focus was to go through this book and pray for souls.   And the Lord started answering prayer.  I have heard awesome testimonies of what GOD has been doing in lives in this town. If the Lord leads you to, please pray for the town of Barnsdall and the surrounding communities.  Pray for the work of salvation to continue and for the Lord to use this revival conference to revive the hearts of all who attend.  Our God does answer prayer….Barnsdall is a living testimony of that! 

The revival conference is hosted by the ministry of www.sermonindex.net

Here is a list of some of the sermons that have blessed me recently from Sermonindex:

Draw Near to Jesus by Mark Greening

Streams in the Desert by Mark Greening

Submit Yourselves by Mark Greening

Singles Table Talk with Keith Daniel (highly recommended)

You Are Dearly Loved by God by Paul Washer

Coming next is a list of some of the books that have blessed and challenged me over the past few months.

“If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and He shall give him Life for them that sin not unto death.” 1 John 5:16

If we are not heedful of the way the Spirit of God works in us, we will become spiritual hypocrites. We see where other folks are failing, and we turn our discernment into the gibe of criticism instead of into intercession on their behalf. The revelation is made to us not through the acuteness of our minds, but by the direct penetration of the Spirit of God, and if we are not heedful of the source of the revelation, we will become criticizing centres and forget that God says – “. . . he shall ask, and He shall give him life for them that sin not unto death.” Take care lest you play the hypocrite by spending all your time trying to get others right before you worship God yourself.

One of the subtlest burdens God ever puts on us as saints is this burden of discernment concerning other souls. He reveals things in order that we may take the burden of these souls before Him and form the mind of Christ about them, and as we intercede on His line, God says He will give us “life for them that sin not unto death.” It is not that we bring God into touch with our minds, but that we rouse ourselves until God is able to convey His mind to us about the one for whom we intercede.

Is Jesus Christ seeing of the travail of His soul in us? He cannot unless we are so identified with Himself that we are roused up to get His view about the people for whom we pray. May we learn to intercede so whole-heartedly that Jesus Christ will be abundantly satisfied with us as intercessors.

~Oswald Chambers