A Heart Attack - A Spiritual Lesson

...So often I flip flop in my life. Knowing the truth and letting the truth (Christ in me) live is a daily challenge. God has His way of teaching you. He used the heart attack to speak to my spirit and reinforce the work of the Cross in my life.

I would like to share it with you. Upon arriving at the hospital, I was stabilized within twenty minutes of arrival. Everything looked good and they were getting ready to transfer me to Buffalo NY General, a cardiac hospital. As I was being transferred from the bed to the ambulance guerney my heart stopped for a lengthy period of time. They were able to shock me back to life using the paddles. Again I went into cardiac arrest and brought back a second time. I have no recollection of this happening but I am now known in St. Mary's Hospital in ER as "the miracle."

My physical life was totally dependent on Him. I had no strength to literally lift a finger. I cried out to Jesus and told Him that I had no strength and asked Him to be my strength in this dark hour, and He was. God impressed my spirit at this time very clearly: "This is how I want to you to live from this day forward, totally dependent on me. As you have no physical strength to lift your finger, you have no strength in yourself to live the Christian life...let My Life live through you. I am your strength and I am your life."

It's been six weeks since my heart attack and I hear these word in my spirit daily. I have been trying to figure out what to do and that usually gets me into "self."  Pastor Wade Steelman's words spoke to me very clearly again, "Let me live through you, stop planning and figuring and let Me live."

I want to apply this and make it real in every area of my life. ...I am yielding myself to God to do what He pleases in me. I want to be sure that I am obedient to the Spirit's leading and not operate out of my flesh. Pray for me that I will not pull back and rationalize, but rather say, "Yes Lord, go ahead and I will follow."

Bill F.

Bill O'Reilly Touts Self-Sufficiency

Multi-millionaire Bill O’Reilly, host of “The Factor” on Fox News, the most-watched “news” program on cable TV, wants to let you in on some secrets to help you become a millionaire and thereby self-sufficient. He claims it all comes out in the book, The Automatic Millionaire, by David Bach.
... For now, I want to limit my focus to the concept of self-sufficiency.

Targeting the weak and impressionable

By “self-sufficiency,” O’Reilly alters the meaning of the concept that plays off the long-cherished virtues of the self-made man, self-reliance, and rugged individualism that are hallmark characteristics of the lofty notion of the American Spirit. Indeed, the target of the pitch is not the strong man but rather the insecure weakling who wants to become a secure and confident strong man—the guy whose self-sufficiency has been insufficient...

A choice of books

So it’s The Automatic Millionaire vs. the Bible. And O’Reilly has revealed his choice. I’m weighing in on this because I’ve been writing about self-sufficiency from the biblical perspective for going on 40 years....

As I’ve noted, self-sufficiency is a concept. And it has many elements. You probably can’t find “self-sufficiency” listed as such in a Bible concordance. But you can find what you’re looking for under numerous related topics, foremost among them: self and flesh.

Self-sufficiency is such an important topic that it’s introduced right up front in the Bible—in the first book, Genesis, chapter three. It’s part of the story of Adam and Eve, who wanted to be Selfers—self-sufficient, independent of God. Further on, we read about their sons, Cain and Able. Cain is portrayed as an evil Selfer and Able as a righteous man, according to Jesus (Matthew 23:35).... Adam and Eve and their son Cain were duped by that crafty Satan into believing The Big Lie that man can become independent of God and autonomous like God through self-sufficiency. And the deceit continues to this day.

Self-sufficiency is a common pursuit by natural man—as well as most “fleshly,” “carnal,” or “Half-Hearted Christians,” particularly Worldly or Fat-Hearted Christians...

Since we belong to Christ, then all we have belongs to Him. We are to be good stewards of what He has entrusted to us, whether much or little. Each of us must examine the motives of our hearts and learn to trust Him in all things, to be content in all things and not covet, and to be good stewards.
The Half-Hearted Christian is yet to learn of the insufficiency of self-sufficiency.

The Whole-Hearted Christian has learned that lesson, quite often through brokenness, and has come to experience what God said to Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). And, like Paul, we can say: “Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9, 10).

It’s something I suggest that all Bill O’Reillys factor in.

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from Frankly Speaking: Current Events Commentaries from a Biblical Perspective by Frank Allnut. (See link for the full article.) For further reading, order Allnutt's book The Whole-Hearted Christian.

Why fly like a chicken if you can soar like an eagle?

by Dr. Greg Burts

God says 'I am like an eagle that carries you on wings of deliverance.' (Ex. 32) Isaiah says "those who hope in the Lord… will soar on wings like eagles (40:31). Some eagles' wings can be nearly 7 feet across. The 'bald eagle' rides on columns of rising air and can average speeds of 30 miles per hour. With wings  like that, isn't it obvious eagles were born to fly?

There is no bird more dissimilar from the eagle than a barnyard chicken. Chickens are quite content being earthbound and confined. Even when a chicken tries to fly, he barely gets more than a few feet off the ground! Since we possess a 'heavenly' spirit, there is something wrong if we are satisfied with the comfort and familiarity of earth. Created to fly like eagles, we cannot be content unless we soar in the wide-open spaces of the heavens.

Jesus said "I am from above." Even so, we too are "born from above" and possess an innate desire to soar above the earth. I know what someone is saying right now. In your circumstances, it seems like God has clipped your wings and cooped you up. But if you will set your mind on things above and stop thinking about things on earth (Col. 3:2), you will soon be soaring like an eagle.

Grace Under Pressure

"And Jesus said, 'Who touched Me?' When all denied it, Peter and those with him said, 'Master, the multitudes throng and press You, and You say, "Who touched Me?" But Jesus said, 'Somebody touched Me, for I perceived power going out from Me.'

Now when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before Him, she declared to Him in the presence of all the people the reason she had touched Him and how she was healed immediately.

And He said to her, "Daughter, be of good cheer; your faith has made you well. Go in peace.'" (Luke 8:45-48, NKJV.)

Many know that crushed feeling. I think our Lord must have thought of how often His followers would be "pressed out of measure, above strength,"[1] as one of them said, because of the throng of things, and because power had gone out of them; and so He allowed this lovely story to be told. Thronged, pressed, crushed, tired-for a man is tired when in some special way power has gone forth from him, and as He was man as well as God He must have been tired then-yet He was so peaceful that He could bring peace to the one who was fearing and trembling. The more one ponders such a story, the marc one sees in it, and the more one longs to live that life of victory over circumstances, the life which, though outwardly crowded and crushed, is yet overflowing with peace. May the peace of our dear Lord fill every hour with peace to-day. 

[1] 2 Cor. 1:8

- Amy Carmichael, Edges of His Ways, p. 68

Blog opens

Today we are opening this blog. We plan to post relevant content at least weekly as we get www.revitalizingpastors.org up and running.


Let's soak in the comforting words from God as recorded in Isaiah:  


Why do you say, O Jacob,
And speak, O Israel:
“My way is hidden from the LORD,
And my just claim is passed over by my God”?
Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the LORD,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints nor is weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the weak,
And to those who have no might He increases strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall,
But those who wait on the LORD
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:27-31)