Book of the month
Experiencing God by Henry and Richard Blackaby and Claude King.
There are a lot of books under the series of Experiencing God and the one I chose for this month is ‘Knowing and Doing the Will of God.’ A study book for the church’s spiritual growth.
Make sure to grab the revised and expanded version; more than seventy percent of its material is newly written.
About the authors:
Henry T. Blackaby, the founder of Blackaby Ministries International and an influential evangelical pastor, has had a significant impact upon the religious life of many evangelicals in the United States and in Canada.
Henry and his wife Marilynn have five children and all of them sensed God calling them into full-time ministry. Richard is their oldest son. He is the president of Blackaby Ministries International, resides in Atlanta and is the co-author of this book and several other books.
Through the years, God has used the Blackabys to help people around the world experience God.
Claude King serves as a discipleship and church health specialist at LifeWay Christian Resources. For over a quarter of a century, he has been involved in helping people and churches make disciples. He holds degrees from Belmont College and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and lives with his wife in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
Some excerpts from the book.
Many people have grown up attending church and hearing about God all their lives, but they do not have a personal, dynamic, growing relationship with God.
Whatever your present circumstances, my sincere prayer is that this book may help you to do the following: Believe and experience daily God’s infinite love for you. Hear when God is speaking to you. Identify God’s unmistakable activity in your life. Believe Him to be and to do everything He promises. Adjust your beliefs, character, and behaviour to Him and His ways. Identify a direction He is taking in your life, and recognize what He wants to do through you. Know clearly how to respond to what He shows you. Experience God doing through you what only He can do.
God created you for a love relationship with Him. He yearns for you to love Him and respond to His immeasurable love for you. God’s nature is perfect, holy, total love. He will never relate to you in any other way although you may not always understand His actions. There will be times when you do not comprehend why He allows certain things to occur, and that is to be expected. He is the infinite God while we are limited human creatures. He sees the eternal ramifications of everything that happens. We don’t.
Song of the month
Captivate us by Watermark
From the Album: A Grateful People
The lyrics of this song talk about the beauty of God in the first few lines. It reads so real like the songwriter was looking at God while writing the lyrics. While our imagination tries to sketch His face, our heart profusely shouts, “None can comprehend or fathom His beauty”; and all we get are blurred strokes of the paintbrush.
Your face is beautiful
And Your eyes are like the stars
Your gentle hands have healing
There, inside the scars
Your loving arms, they draw me near
And Your smile, it brings me peace
Draw me closer, oh, my Lord
Draw me closer, Lord, to Thee
The chorus sounds like David—a cry to help us keep our focus on Him. To keep us captivated.
Captivate us, Lord Jesus
And set our eyes on You
Devastate us with Your presence
Falling down
And rushing river, draw us nearer
And holy fountain, consume us with You
And captivate us, Lord Jesus, with You
And now, for my favourite lines in this song, the ones that I keep singing repeatedly:
And let everything be lost in the shadows
Of the light of Your face
Let every chain be broken from me
As I’m bound in Your grace
For Your yoke is easy, Your burden is light
You’re full of wisdom, power and might
And every eye will see You