Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

This was the prayer of Sir Francis Drake in 1577, as he left England on the voyage that would result in the first circumnavigation of the world by an Englishman, the first English presence in California, and his knighthood. I am, incidentally, directly descended from his family.

We serve a great God!!!

“He is not the God of the ‘half-empty’ or the ‘half-full’ in our lives. He is the God of the ‘Exceeding abundantly above all we could ask or think.’

“His will for is not just joy but ‘great joy’
Not just peace but the ‘peace that passes understanding.’

Not just love but ‘fullness of love.’

Not just to be a conqueror but to be ‘more than a conqueror.’

“When he fills our cup, it is overflowing.
When He flows through us, it is as rivers of living water.</br
When He meets a need, he does it out of the riches that are in Christ.”

(Roy Lessin, minister, co-founder of Dayspring cards)

When a nation calls its prime men to battle, homes are broken, weeping sweethearts say their goodbyes, business are closed, college careers are wrecked, factories are refitted for wartime production, rationing and discomforts are accepted, all for war. Can we do less for the greatest fight that this world has ever known outside of the cross, this end time siege on sanity, morality, and spirituality?"

–Leonard Ravenhill

Question of the Day: How do you want to be remembered?

“Christ, of all my hopes the ground, Christ, the spring of all my joy,
still in you may I be found,
still for you my pow’rs employ.

“Let your love my heart inflame;
Keep your fear before my sight,
Be your praise my highest aim,
Be your smile my chief delight.

“Thus, O thus, an entrance give,
to the land of cloudless sky;
having known it ‘Christ to live,’
let me know it ‘gain to die.’”

-Ralph Wardlaw

Strong men always proclaim a strong message. They do not read the polls and check the surveys before they give their opinions. In fact they do not even have opinions—they have convictions. They bleed convictions. They are strong men anchored in the strong Word of God, and, as such, they bring a message with gravitas and punch. When they stand to speak, they actually have something to say—and they say it, whether anyone listens or not. When they sit to write, they do not skirt the issues—they tackle them. When they address the times in which they live, they do not tickle ears—they box them. They do not have one message for one group and a different message for a different group. Wherever they go and whomever they address, they have only one message—God’s message. This is what makes them strong men. They speak God’s Word, or they do not speak at all.

Steven Lawson, Foundations of Grace