I have never seen Him, I have never heard Him, I have never touched Him, but I know He's there.

Money is for blessing others

"I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings." - Luke 16:9

"Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of God and no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son." - Hebrews 12:14-16 NIV

My Shield and Sword.

Henri Nouwen: "How much longer will I live? …. Only one thing seems clear to me. Every day should be well-lived."

I love you Lord, simply because You are God.

And You love me unconditionally Lord, simply because I am your child.

This was something that the Lord impressed upon me (esp the second line) during QT today. How great is the depth of love of God.

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. - Thomas Merton

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God", Chapter 15: Passion and the Desert, by Philip Yancey

De Sales decried those who stumbled and then wallowed in their wretchedness: "How miserable I am! I am fit for nothing!"

True followers of God quietly humble themselves and rise again courageously.

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 15: Passion and the Desert, by Philip Yancey

Francis de Sales wrote, "Now the greater our knowledge of our own misery, the more profound will be our confidence in the goodness and mercy of God, for mercy and misery are so closely connected that the one cannot be exercised without the other."

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 15: Passion and the Desert, by Philip Yancey

In addition, a relationship with God does not switch on or off depending on my behaviour. God does not send me to a vacant room down the hall when I disobey him. Quite the opposite. The times when I feel most estranged from God can bring on a sense of desperation, which presents a new starting point for grace. Sulking in a cave in flight from God, Elijah heard a gentle whisper that brought comfort, not a scolding. Jonah tried his best to run from God and failed. And it was at Peter's lowest point that Jesus lovingly restored him.

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 15: Passion and the Desert, by Philip Yancey

God's approval depends not on my "good conduct" but on God's grace.

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 15: Passion and the Desert, by Philip Yancey

From the spiritual giants of the Bible, I learn this crucial lesson about relating to an invisible God: Whatever you do, don't ignore God. Invite God into every aspect of life. The general busyness of life gradually edges God away from the center of my life. Some days I meet people, eat, work, make decisions, all without giving God a single thought. And that void is far more serious than what Job experienced, for not once did Job stop thinking about God.

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 15: Passion and the Desert, by Philip Yancey

A healthy relationship sustains passion through sad or happy times, through victory or failure, and even through physical separation. Absence provokes as much passion as presence. When a soldier leaves home on active duty or a teenager graduates from high school and heads for college, emotions do not fade away; they may intensify. Estrangement arouses passion too, as any divorcing family can testify.

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 15: Passion and the Desert, by Philip Yancey

God's favourites responded with passion in kind. Moses argued with God so fervently that several times he persuaded God to change his mind. Jacob wrestled all night long and used trickery to grab hold of God's blessing. Job lashed out in sarcastic rage against God. David broke at least half the Ten Commandments. Yet never did they wholly give up on God, and never did God give up on them. God can handle anger, blame, and even willful disobedience. One thing, however, blocks relationship: indifference. "They turned their backs to me and not their faces," God told Jeremiah, in a damning indictment of Israel.

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 15: Passion and the Desert, by Philip Yancey

Jesus said we must enter the kingdom as little children. Children do not understand relationship; they simply live it.

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 15: Passion and the Desert, by Philip Yancey

As I look back over the giants of faith, all had one thing in common: neither victory nor success (in their prayer life), but passion. An emphasis on spiritual technique may well lead us away from the passionate relationship that God values above all. More than a doctrinal system, more than a mystical experience, the Bible emphasizes a relationship with a Person, and personal relationships are never steady-state.

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 15: Passion and the Desert, by Philip Yancey

"Prayer arises, if at all, from incompetence, otherwise there is no need for it." - Therese of Liseux

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 15: Passion and the Desert, by Philip Yancey

"Take me seriously! Treat me like an adult, not a child!" is the cry of every teenager. God honours that request. He makes me a partner for his work in and through me. He grants me freedom in full knowledge that I will abuse it. He abdicates power to such an extent that he pleads with me not to "grieve" or "quench" his Spirit. God does all this because he wants a mature lover as a partner, not a puppy-love adolescent.

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 14: Out of Control, by Philip Yancey

Like a proud parent, God seems to take more delight as a spectator of the bumbling achievements of his stripling children than in any self-display of omnipotence.

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 14: Out of Control, by Philip Yancey

After considering the various words used of the Holy Spirit, both in Greek and in English, James Houston summarizes them in the simple word "friend." A true friend always has my best interest at heart. Sometimes the Spirit must, like a good friend, use tough love to remind me of what needs to change - knowing me from the inside out.

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 14: Out of Control, by Philip Yancey

I ask myself at the end of the day, Did I do anything today that would give God pleasure? Since God longs to feel delight in me, did I give him such opportunity? No matter what answers I come up with, I still relax in God's love and ask him to enfold me in grace and forgiveness. I try to quiet the clamour of my own self and create space for the quiet of God to enter. What matters most to God in prayer, I am convinced, is my longing to know Him.

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 13: Makeover, by Philip Yancey

"What do we want from our meditation?" asked Dietrich Bonhoeffer. "We want to rise up from our meditation in a different state from when we sat down."

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 13: Makeover, by Philip Yancey

"Some things are loved because they are worthy; some things are worthy because they are loved." - Ian Pitt-Watson

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 13: Makeover, by Philip Yancey

My friend Ken, a committed Christian who struggles with his faith, told me, "Frankly, I see more evidence for the Spirit than for the other two members of the Trinity. The hunger for God that I feel - that is a sign of the Spirit's presence in me. My fitful battles with lust, my conviction of pride, the strong sense of when I need to apologize, and when to forgive, these signs of God are to me every bit as impressive as a burning bush. They let me know God is still at work inside me."

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 12: The Go-Between, by Philip Yancey

Logic sees as far as one can see before the jump; faith sees God at the end of the jump. From that vantage point, we catapult with courage, knowing He provides a safe landing.

© Hariette Petersen, SelahV Today, 2010

Here is how Augustine expressed the paradox:

Man's maker was made man that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother's breast; that the Bread might hunger, the Fountain thirst, the Light sleep, the Way be tired on its journey; that Truth might be accused of false witnesses, the Teacher be beaten with whips, the Foundation be suspended on wood; that Strength might grow weak; that the Healer might be wounded; that Life might die.

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 11: Rosetta Stone, by Philip Yancey

"The most costly sins I have committed came at a time when I briefly suspended my reverence for God. In such a moment I quietly (and insanely) concluded that God didn't care and most likely wouldn't intervene were I to risk the violation of one of His commandments."

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 10: In the Name of the Father, by Philip Yancey

I have learned one absolute principle in calculating God's presence or absence, and that is that I cannot.

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 9: Personality Profile, by Philip Yancey

We do know that in his relationships with people God places a premium on faith, which can only be exercised in circumstances that allow for doubt - circumstances such as God's hiddenness.

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 9: Personality Profile, by Philip Yancey

Love is a decision, not a feeling.

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 8: Knowing God, or Anyone Else, by Philip Yancey

Likewise, I conceive of the spiritual life as a capacity built into the human person, but one that can only develop in relationship with God.

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 8: Knowing God, or Anyone Else, by Philip Yancey

In knowing one another, we always fall short.

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 8: Knowing God, or Anyone Else, by Philip Yancey

Elton Trueblood, The Quaker philosopher: "In many areas the gospel, instead of taking away people's burdens, actually adds to them." (the burden of environment, homelessness and poverty, racism and religious persecution, injustice and violence etc..)

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 7: Mastery of the Ordinary, by Philip Yancey

Andrew Greeley said, "If one wishes to eliminate uncertainty, tension, confusion and disorder from one's life, there is no point in getting mixed up either with Yahweh or with Jesus of Nazareth."

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 7: Mastery of the Ordinary, by Philip Yancey

Exercising Faith in tasks

Great victories are won when ordinary people execute their assigned tasks - and a faithful person does not debate each day whether he or she is in the mood to follow the sergeant's orders or show up at a boring job. We exercise faith by responding to the task that lies before us, for we have control only over our actions in the present moment.

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 7: Mastery of the Ordinary, by Philip Yancey

Faith requires obedience without full knowledge.

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 7: Mastery of the Ordinary, by Philip Yancey

I do not get to know God, then do His will; I get to know Him by doing His will.

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 7: Mastery of the Ordinary, by Philip Yancey

The Journey of Faith

Jesus said, "If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own." Note the sequence: Choose to do God's will, and the confidence will later follow. Jesus presents the journey of faith as a personal pilgrimage begun in uncertainty and fragile trust.

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 7: Mastery of the Ordinary, by Philip Yancey

Exercising Faith in the Present

Exercising faith in the present means trusting God to work through the encounter before me despite the background clutter of the rest of my life.

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 7: Mastery of the Ordinary, by Philip Yancey