Lost the Old-Time Faith 5/13 Friday Faith

Is He with us still?  Yes, bless God.  Is He changed?  No. "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).  "I am the Lord, I change not" (Malachi 3:6).  "For the gifts and calling of God are without repentances" (Romans 11:29).  God has never repented of having placed the gifts of the Holy Ghost in the Church.  In the name of Jesus Christ, I challenge any man to show by the Word of God that the gifts and power of God were withdrawn.  We have lost the old-time faith, that is where the trouble is!  Having forsaken God to lean upon the arms of flesh, and the fountain of living waters for broken cisterns that can hold no water.  (Jeremiah 2:13)  Let us honestly acknowledge our sin and return to the Lord our God.

--John G. Lake

Fruitful Spirit Life 5/12 Thursday Thoughts

(continued from yesterday)On the other hand, you spirit life is fruitful and built up and enriched by communion with the Father and by reading His Word.  And your spirit becomes strong and vigorous.  There issues from it a faith that is triumphant and creative.  I venture to say this:  The men and women who are weak in faith, that once were mighty in faith, are so because they have stopped feeding on the Word of God and stopped close, intimate fellowship with the Father.

--John G. Lake

Depleted Spirits 5/11 Wednesday Wisdom

The reason people do not have rich, beautiful faith is because their spirit is denied the privilege of communion and fellowship with the Father.  You understand me?  You don't read your Bible; you don't pore over it; you don't live in it; you don't spend any time in fellowship with the Father.  Consequently your spirit is depleted and weakened.  Faith springs out of it and the faith that grows out of it is a sickly plant.   (to be continued) 

--John G. Lake

The Value of Healing 5/5 Thursday Thoughts

The value of the ministry of healing is not in the mere fact that people are healed.  The value of healing is more largely in the fact that it becomes a demonstration of the living, inner, vital power of God, which should dwell in every life and make us new and mighty men in the hands of God.

--John G. Lake

This will be the last post until the next Wednesday Wisdom, as I will be on vacation. 

My Favorite Lake Quote 5/4 Wednesday Wisdom

I've posted this a few years ago.  It remains one of my all-time favorite quotes.  I used it in church once for my elder-of-the-day discourse:

Have you been in Canada?  Do you know when I went to Canada for the first time there was one thing that struck me peculiarly?  The signs would read, "John Brown, Ltd." ... I was holding meetings in the old St. Andrews Church in Sidney.  I asked them one night why they did not put their national symbol on their churches.  They wondered what I meant.  I said, "Every other business house is 'Ltd' (Limited)."  Why don't you put it over the church?"
An old Scotchman said, "We don't have to.  Everybody knows it." 
Limited?  Sure it is limited.  Limit God, limit ourselves, limit His grace, limit the Word.  Sure our God is a little bit of a God.  Most of us could carry Him in our vest pocket and it wouldn't bulge the pocket -- our God with the "Ltd." on Him.
Brother, sister, that challenge comes to us today to let God loose.

-- John G. Lake

Tomorrow's post will be the last for a few days, as I will be on vacation. 

Don't Magnify Failure 5/3 Tuesday Truth

Another man said, "Brother, I believe in the dual nature.  I believe that when I would do good, evil is always present with me, and I thank God that evil is always there."  You live it and believe it, and God cannot do anything with you.  You magnify failure and you deify failure until to the majority of you the devil is bigger than God.  And you are more afraid of the devil than you are of God. You have more reverence for the devil than you have for God.

--John G. Lake

A Divine Secret 5/2 Monday Meditation

Suppose I could get inside of Mrs. Lake.  Can you imagine such a thing  She would be 190 pounds heavier than she is now.  She would have a voice like a pirate, and all the other characteristics of me.  She would be me.  Do you see it?

Oh, listen.  There is a divine secret in Christ's salvation.  It is Christ in fact in you by the Holy Ghost, dwelling in you, speaking in you, being in you, blazing in you, flashing from you, bless God.

--John G. Lake