the liberating secret

“There is a world of difference between the nagging, corroding condemnations of the devil, and the clear convictions of the Spirit. The devil speaks in generalities, seeking to smear us by a general sense of failure, uncleanness, confusion, heaviness of spirit. The answer to that is there is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. The Spirit speaks specifically, and His voice, although rebuking us, is sweet and clean and true and acceptable. He points out some exact and immediate action by which we have given temporary entrance to sin. Satan points downward to despair, but the Spirit points upwards to cleansing.

So the detection of sin in our daily lives is no difficulty. If the cups do not run over, the red light is on. There is sin somewhere. But the One with whom we walk is light. Look honestly and frankly to Him, and it won’t take Him long to clarify for us the point where we have sinned.

Now comes the crucial moment. Having seen the light, will we walk in it? Walking is not standing still! It is progressing. Will we now walk forward, take the next step, and admit the truth about ourselves? That is what John calls confessing (1:9), which is the same word in the original as “saying”, but with the preposition “con” attached—saying with. Saying not what I think, but what the other person thinks: saying the same as God. Such confessing, of course, implies shame and contrition for the sin.

If we do that, we are walking in the light and, says John, immediately another fact of permanent validity comes into automatic operation; “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1:7). That is a fact for all time since Calvary. The blood is always cleansing. But we only see and realize our title to the glorious fact when we are fulfilling the condition of walking in the light, as He is in the light. That means the specific confession of specific sins. We are then told in an equally specific way that “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”. The light that first shone on the sin is also shining on the blood. While we are walking with Him in the light with nothing known between, the blood is automatically cleansing unrecognized sin. Where known sin intervenes, there is this simple way of confession and cleansing.

Sometimes we may wonder just what is the meaning of that phrase, “the cleansing blood”. Why is the blood called precious? And why is it the glory of the saints through eternity? Moses had the priceless privilege of being the first in human history to reveal the blood to the world. To him was given the wonderful symbolic sacrifice of the Passover, with its constantly quoted word, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” He gave Israel all the details of the sacrifices, according to the pattern shown him in the mount, and culminating in that great revelation of Lev. 17, “for the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” Perhaps the greatest contribution Moses made for the blessing of the world was not the deliverance of Israel, nor the mighty exploits of faith, but the revelation of the centrality of the precious blood.

The completed revelation of the meaning of the blood, given us in the New Testament, is found in Heb. 9. The life is in the blood, therefore the shedding of the blood means the pouring out of the life. It is the public evidence of the completed sacrifice (9:22). Thus whenever the blood of Christ is mentioned as the ground of our salvation and cleansing, the meaning is that the shedding of that blood in public two thousand years ago was conclusive evidence that He paid the full price for the remission of sins. To make the evidence unmistakable is the reason why John so stressed that he saw the blood and water come from His side, and “bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe”; and says again that “there are three that bear witness on earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood”.

The sacrifice once made, completed and witnessed, is our solid ground and title for having no more consciousness of sins. This is the cleansing in the blood, and this is what it means when we say a thing is “under the blood”. For this reason we glory in the blood, and count it supremely precious. Our consciences, defiled and guilty through conviction of some sin committed, are freed and cleansed as we see with the eye of faith that blood shed on Calvary, and its silent message to us over the years that full atonement was made by the outpoured life of our Saviour. “How much more shall the blood of Christ . . . cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” So now in our daily walk with Jesus, we have come full circle. Undisturbed fellowship means the cup running over. When it doesn’t run over, it means that there is sin in our hearts. God, who is light, is revealing to us what that sin is. Recognizing that sin, we confess it and repent of it. Where there is confession, there is also the revelation of the cleansing blood, the token of the completed remission. And where the blood is applied by faith, the Spirit always bears witness. The fellowship is restored, and the cup again runs over.”

—Norman Grubb, The Liberating Secret, 1955

(i’ve written about how the Lord used this book to bring liberty to my own soul here…)

true & proper worship

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:1-2

”Lord, I’m Yours. Whatever the cost may be, may Your will be done in my life. I realize I’m not here on earth to do my own thing, or to seek my own fulfillment or my own glory. I’m not here to indulge my desires, to increase my possessions, to impress people, to be popular, to prove I’m somebody important, or to promote myself. I’m not here even to be relevant or successful by human standards. I’m here to please You.

I offer myself to you, for You are worthy. All that I am or hope to be, I owe to You. I’m Yours by creation, and every day I receive from You life and breath and all things. And I’m Yours because You bought me, and the price You paid was the precious blood of Christ. You alone, the Triune God, are worthy to be my Lord and Master. I yield to You, my gracious and glorious heavenly Father; to the Lord Jesus who loved me and gave Himself for me; to the Holy Spirit and His gracious influence and empowering.

All that I am and all that I have I give to you.

I give You any rebellion in me, that resists doing Your will. I give You my pride and self-dependence, that tell me I can do Your will in my own power if I try hard enough. I give you my fears, that tell me I’ll never be able to do Your will in some areas of life. I consent to let You energize me…to create within me, moment by moment, both the desire and the power to do Your will.

I give You my body and each of its members…my entire inner being : my mind, my emotional life, my will…my loved ones…my marriage or my hopes for marriage…my abilities and gifts…my strengths and weaknesses…my health…my status (high or low)…my possessions…my past, my present and my future…when and how I’ll go Home.

I’m here to love You, to obey You, to glorify You. O my Beloved, may I be a joy to You!”

—Ruth Myers, from part IV of 31 Days of Praise : Enjoying God Anew, 1994.

* * * * * * *

i just remembered this little gem yesterday, triggered by the discovery of joy ridderhof’s 31 days of devotionals on praise. i first read 31 days of praise in 2003, at the beginning of a two-year break-up from my now-husband josh. it was a lifeline to me! ruth herself first discovered the power of praise when she lost her first husband at the age of thirty-two, leaving her a single mother of two young children. “I grieved and shed my tears; I felt deep loneliness, along with the pressures of being left alone to raise two young children. At times I felt overwhelmed at making all the family decisions. Yet at the same time I found bright rays of sunlight shining into my heart. How grateful I was to the Lord for His many blessings…As my human aloneness pressed me to love and adore the Lord in new ways, He gave me joy in the midst of sorrow.”

here’s a sample :

“I praise You for Your sovereignty over the broad events of my life and over the details. With You, nothing is accidental, nothing is incidental, and no experience is wasted. You hold in Your own power my breath of life and all my destiny. And every trial that You allow to happen is a platform on which You reveal Yourself, showing Your love and power, both to me and to others looking on. Thank You that I can move into the future non-defensively, with hands outstretched to whatever lies ahead, for You hold the future and You will always be with me, even to my old age…and through eternity.”

—from Day 5 of 31 Days of Praise : Enjoying God Anew by Ruth Myers, 1994.

rejoice evermore!

“Joy Ridderhof had the vision of sharing the gospel with records. She recorded with her own voice, and pressed the records in her garage (in 1939)…”

“How can we ever tell the blessings of rejoicing? I recall the undertakings, impossible and out of reach, which we have attempted just because we knew God could not fail!! And the recording trips we have taken – almost to the ends of the earth – because we believed the promises and could give thanks for them long before our eyes saw the answer! Nothing puts the world so within our reach as rejoicing faith.”

”Faith makes us know that God is able to give us the heathen for our inheritance; rejoicing faith sends us forth to appropriate!”

”Faith makes us know for sure that we can possess the land; but rejoicing faith causes us to wield the mighty weapon which will pull down the strongholds of Satan!”

”Faith looks beyond the great barriers into the lands of the heathen and tells us we can get the
Gospel to everyone; but rejoicing faith is the power that lifts us over every wall and thrusts us
through every troop, conquering and to conquer!”

Obedience to the command “REJOICE EVERMORE!” makes faith vibrant and active, Through
it each day our hearts can be kept singing in the expectation of His manifold blessings and
benefits that He delights to bring to those who expect and look for them.

Are you expecting? Are you looking? Are you rejoicing?!” —Joy Ridderhof, 1903-1984

(from Joy Ridderhof’s 31 Days of Devotionals)

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this video is PRECIOUS!!! watch it with your kids!🤎

“The ministry of Gospel Recordings, now known as Global Recordings Network, was founded in Los Angeles in 1939. Joy Ridderhof returned home ill after a time as a missionary in Honduras. She felt a deep sense of sorrow at having to leave her beloved Honduran village behind, whose people in many cases were unable to read or write and thus relied on a verbal message to introduce them to Christ. If only she could have left behind recorded messages in their native Spanish to continue to nourish their newfound faith!

Thanks to several friends’ generosity, this vision began to come to fruition as she recorded the first Gospel record in Spanish at the end of 1939. Requests for more records started trickling in from Honduras and soon after, requests came flooding in from Honduras and other Spanish-speaking countries in Central and South America, as well. “Spanish Gospel Recordings” was born…

…Each additional language recorded would lead to requests for more languages to be served. Joy continued to respond, starting to see this as a fulfillment of the call to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Joy’s health improved, and she and others with her began traveling the world and producing recordings in many areas. As they traveled, Joy and her fellow recordists inspired believers in other countries to join them and support this growing global work. First Australia, then the Philippines, then in Asia… centres for the mission, now called simply Gospel Recordings, popped up on many continents.

this will be our next read-aloud!

Within decades, attracted by Joy’s example of faith, prayer, and rejoicing, Christians in many countries were working with her and the growing team in Los Angeles to produce audio recordings of Bible stories. Record presses were maintained in Sydney, India, South Africa, Mexico, and USA. Later cassettes were distributed, then CDs, and now SD cards and social media carry the message. Over time GR’s vision of the Gospel in every language began to set trends in the global mission community. Recognition grew of the need for oral cultures to have access to Christian audio materials… (via global recordings usa)

the mission of the twelve

from pray-as-you-go this week… (best when listened to on the app)

July 9, 2025

Matthew 10:1-7

“Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax-collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: ‘Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.”

In this passage we are given the names of some of Jesus’s closest followers. Some are well-known to us, others hardly at all. What would it be like to hear your own name included in that list?

The apostles are told to spread the good news of the gospel. They are also given the authority to do so. If you see yourself as in some way called to spread the good news of the gospel, what might it mean for you to be given authority to do so in the same way?

“The kingdom of heaven has come near.” You can only give others that message if you have first heard it yourself. What convinces you that the kingdom has indeed come near?

Notice, as the passage is read again, that Jesus chooses exactly who to send his apostles to. Who might you be sent to with this good news?

You might like to finish this prayer by speaking to Jesus about your own sense of being called and sent.

July 10, 2025

Matthew 10:7-15

“As you go, proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for labourers deserve their food. Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. As you enter the house, greet it. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgement than for that town.”

This passage reflects the specific ways in which first-century apostles were to carry out their mission. In what ways is spreading the gospel today the same? In what ways is it different?

“You received without payment.” You didn’t pay to become a Christian, or to know God. What difference does this make to your response to all that God calls you to?

The passage assumes that an apostle will bring a sense of peace that will share itself with a worthy house. Can you recall times when you have been able to bring peace to others, or they have brought peace to you?

Listen again to the ways in which Jesus wants his followers to act, and notice what most strikes you about them.

Speak, finally to Jesus about how far (or not) you see your own life reflected in this passage.

everyone can!

“For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to win obedience from the Gentiles, by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and as far around as Illyricum I have fully proclaimed the good news of Christ. Thus I make it my ambition to proclaim the good news…” Romans 15:18-20a

my friend kristie posted this in our house church text thread…

“For years, the people of God have waited for Him to do what He instructed us to do. Go, in Jesus’ name, and demonstrate His love and share His kingdom. It costs nothing but Jesus’ heart and our time…”

“Whenever you gather, everyone has, everyone can. Allow this, expect this, encourage this. Stir it up, fan it into flame.”

“Unbelievers have revelations and visions of Jesus as we pray for them. And we expect the Holy Spirit to make Him known. This doesn’t, of course, preempt the need for us to wash toilets, help with the immigrant kid’s homework—the normal, practical gospel stuff. It’s all part of the same gospel—words, deeds, signs & miracles through the power of the Holy Spirit. Fully proclaim the gospel of Christ. Everyone can!”

once reserved for a favored few…

“What may not one man do in one brief life, if he is willing to be simply a living conduit-pipe through which the power of God may descend to men? There is no limit to the possible usefulness of such a life. There is, on the one hand, the oceanic fullness of God; on the other, the awful need and desolation of man; guilty, weak, bankrupt, diseased: all that is required is a channel of communication between the two. When that channel is made and opened and kept free from the silting sand, there will ensue one great, plenteous, and equable flow of power carrying the fullness of God to the weary emptiness of man…

…If I may venture so to put it, God is in extremity for men who, thoughtless for themselves, will desire only to be receivers and channels of His power. He will take young men and women, old men and children, servants and handmaidens in the waning days of this era and will fill them with the selfsame Spirit whose power was once reserved for a favored few. Besides all this, the positive command has never been repealed which bids us be "filled with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18). And we cannot reiterate too often that those who feel themselves bound to strict temperance in respect to wine by the former clause, should feel the latter one to be equally imperative. Moreover, what God commands, He is prepared to do all that is needful on His side to effect. Then when, like John the Baptist, we are filled with the Holy Ghost, like John the Baptist we "shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord" (Luke 1:17).”

—FB Meyer in “Filled with the Holy Spirit”

FB Meyer, 1847-1929, was a british pastor, evangelist, and writer. he was a contemporary and close friend of DL Moody, and played an important role in the beginning of the welsh revival // this is an excerpt from “filled with the Holy Spirit” from sermonindex.net. the article in full (a short read—3 pages) can be read here.

all the ground for Jesus

"submit to the Holy Ghost when He claims all the ground for Jesus. submit to Him when He seeks to turn your eyes from idols, from yourself; from the past, or the dream of the future. submit to Him when He labours patiently night and day to make you the prisoner of Jesus Christ, and to wipe out of your horizon every other thing to make room for the Lord of All. submit to be broken down, if up to the present you have resisted the Holy Ghost. let the Word of God be fulfilled in you every hour, that the pattern and life of Jesus may be seen, by making every verse of Scripture your own experience as the Holy Ghost works in you. the Lord must break and revive and break again to transform and mould His instruments, before He can use them for His highest purposes."

—otto stockmayer in “the enduement of power” by oswald j. smith

welcome to florilegium!

as an avid reader of devotional classics & christian biographies/autobiographies for the past fifteen years or so, i wanted a place to share excerpts from some of my favorites, past & present. so…i’ve also just added this new tab to the blog : florilegium.

a florilegium is a collection of literary extracts—an anthology, a bit of a commonplace book; it literally means a gathering of flowers. in medieval times, florilegia were collections of extracts taken mainly from the writings of the church fathers or the early church. the purpose was to take passages that illustrated certain topics, doctrines or themes, & place them together into one book. i discovered this genre (with a lovely name!) while reading the little flowers of st. francis, & thought it would be fun to create a running digital scrapbook on life in the Spirit. i’ll also post here some things i’m currently reading, listening to, and copying by hand into my own journal.

i hope this new addition to the site can be a source of continual encouragement to you, as this great cloud of writers bears witness to the ongoing presence & power of the risen Lord!