The Turning Point - Chesterton

Paul stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you." (Acts 17:22-23)

In rereading this simple account of Paul's message from Mars Hill to the Athenian philosophers I am reminded of how things basically remain much the same -- through the last two thousand years of human history, very little has changed.

The Areopagus was a high court of Athenian justice - the greatest scholars and philosophers of Athens formed this august group - they would have prided themselves on their modern, broad-minded approach to religion - they were sophisticated and non-committed
and non-judgmental in their evaluations - quick to wisely nod their heads and agree that all "religions" were acceptable - all roads would lead to the same place - certainly there was no room for bigoted, narrow-minded, exclusive religious views.


That was an easy conclusion for them, because no religion of their day demanded full commitment. No religion of the ancient world claimed to be the "only way." They were not really 'religions,' anyway. They did not attempt to explain or reach God - they only tried to talk about their lives and cultures in sort of  'spiritual' or 'super-natural' ways.'

No religion of the Roman and Greek world took itself very seriously. Except for the Jews, of course.

Certainly Paul was fully aware of the great Pantheon in Rome - the temple to honor all gods - built by Herod Agrippa in 27 BC.

Religious thought was a sort of melting pot of all myths and legends of the classical world. Except for the Jews, of course.

When the early church began to expand, all they were asked to do was to incorporate their new religion into the smorgasbord of existing philosophies. That's all -- just add their ideas into the mix -- don't make claims - don't stand out - don't be peculiar - just be 'one of the guys!'

Certainly don't talk about sin and death and resurrection and eternal life - don't claim your leader/founder actually rose from the dead? And promises his followers the same --

But here's what happened -



From The Everlasting Man, by G. K. Chesterton

....a pantheon had been set up two thousand years ago by the shores of the Mediterranean; and Christians were invited to set up the image of Jesus side by side with the images of Jupiter, of Mithras, of Osiris, of Arys...

It was the refusal of the Christians that was the turning-point of history.

If Christians had accepted, they and the whole world would have certainly, in a grotesque but exact metaphor, gone to pot.

They would have all been boiled down into one lukewarm liquid in that great pot of cosmopolitan corruption in which all the other myths and legends were already melting.

It was an  awful and an appalling escape.

Nobody understands the nature of the Church, or the ringing tone of the creed descending from antiquity, who does not realize that the whole world once very nearly died of broadmindedness and the brotherhood of all religions.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Haven't we made a complete circle? Here we are again -- will we be as faithful as our forefathers? They died cruel deaths for their commitment to their unique faith....



P.S. The famous Pantheon in Rome later, in 609 AD, became a
Christian church, as it is to this day.



 

Quoteworthy - PRAISE MUSIC by Oswald Chambers

Everything that God has created is like an orchestra praising Him. "All Thy works shall praise Thee."

In the ear of God everything He created makes exquisite music, and man joined in the paean of praise until he fell; then there came in the frantic discord of sin.

The realization of Redemption brings man by way of the minor note of repentance back into tune with praise again. The angels are only too glad to hear that note, because it blends man into harmony again (See Luke 15:10).

  Likewise I say to you, there is joy in the presence

of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

Praising God is the ultimate end and aim of all we go through. "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth Me." What does it matter whether you are well or ill! whether you have money or none! It is all a matter of indifference; but one thing is not a matter of indifference, and that is that we are pleasing to the ears of God.
                                           --Oswald Chambers

Singing the Story

At the close of a worship service recently we sang my mother's favorite hymn: I Love to Tell the Story.

The memorable words were written by an English woman, Kate Hankey, who also wrote Tell Me the Old, Old Story. (Both of the songs have similar phrases. Most hymnals don't include both songs).

Kate Hankey died in 1911, at age 78, when my mother was 2 years old. We don't know much about Kate. She accepted Christ at a young age. She taught Bible classes to the women factory workers in London for many years.

During an extended time of illness, when she could no longer teach, she wrote these two hymns. Later in life she began a ministry in the prisons in London.

My mother's favorite verse is (funny, I just wrote "is", and she died in 2000, so I guess I should say "was," but, on the other hand, I guess maybe it still is her favorite) the third verse: I love to tell the story, for those who know it best seem hungering and thirsting to hear it, like the rest. And when in scenes of glory, I sing the new, new song, 'twill be the old, old story that I have loved so long.

I woke up to that song this morning, and those particular words. My background "group" was the trilling songs of birds. Then the song inside me went to: Morning has broken like the first morning, blackbird (cardinals, mockingbirds, chick-a-dees, even some owls) is singing like the first bird. Praise for the singing! Praise for the morning! Praise for them springing fresh from the Word!

God's Word speaks often about "new songs."

In Psalm 33 we are told to Sing joyfully to the LORD you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise Him...Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully and shout for joy!"

Psalm 40 tells us where we get our song and what it is about: I waited patiently for the LORD, He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.

Psalms 96 and 98 tell us who is to sing and why: Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth, Sing to the LORD, praise His name; proclaim His salvation day by day.
(Psalm 96:1)

Sing to the LORD a new song, for He has done marvelous things (Psalm 98:1).

And I love the personal touch in Psalm 144:9: I will sing a new song to you, O God; on the ten-stringed lyre I will make music to you.

Job talks about the the sons of God singing. I guess they are singing a creation song. In Psalms the "new songs" are praise and worship and thanksgiving. In Revelation the "new song" is a song of redemption.

What about our new song that we sing to the LORD?

Maybe it refers to our daily walk with Christ. Every praise we give Him will come from a new, fresh experience of His grace. Each and every praise song should flow spontaneously from a brand-new awareness of what He has done, and is doing, and will do, for us. Like repeating the gospel to ourselves all day, every day.

Proclaim His salvation day by day. Psalm 96:1-2


...His compassions never fail, they are new every morning.(Lamentations 3:23)

 And so our songs of praise should be new every morning.


Today is the first day of the rest of my life.

I noticed that Kate Hankey's Tell Me the Old, Old Story is most often the one left out of hymnals.

Here are the words:

Tell me the old, old story of unseen things above,
Of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love.
Tell me the story simply, as to a little child,
For I am weak and weary and helpless and defiled.

Tell me the story slowly, that I may take it in,
That wonderful redemption, God's remedy for sin.
Tell me the story often, for I forget so soon.
The early dew of morning has passed away at noon.



And we can't forget Fannie Crosby: I sing, for I cannot be silent, His love is the theme of my song!



Praise God for music--music of the spheres, music in our souls, and music in nature! Praise God for mornings! Praise God for instruments! Praise God for voices! Praise God for ears! Praise God for the capacity to remember great music and re-play it in our minds! Praise God for Bach and Handel! Praise God for great singers! Praise God for giving us that melody in our hearts that Jesus whispers sweet and low!

Praise God for that great choir we will be part of someday! Praise God for giving us so many reasons to sing!

How can I show God I really love Him?

If you love Me, you will obey what I command...whoever has My commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me...

He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I, too, will love him and show Myself to him...

If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him and we will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me will not obey My teaching.
                      John 14:15, 21, 23, 24


What we learn from these verses:

• Obedience is our action toward God in response to His love for us.

• Obedience is the outward expression to others of our love for Him.

• Obedience is doing what He tells us to do - when He tells us to do it - with the right heart attitude! (That's what we learned in Sunday School!)

• Obedience is how we show God we really love Him.

• The result of our obedience (love) for God is that He will come to us and reveal Himself to us (make His home with us!)

• If we have an obedience problem, we have a love problem!

• If we love God we will obey Him!

It's so profoundly simple!



From Experiencing God, by Henry and Richard Blackaby and Claude King....

Obey What You Already Know to be God's Will

Some people want God to give them an assignment to do for Him. They vow that they will do whatever He asks. God observes their lives. He notices that they have not obeyed what He has already told them to do.

Do you think God would give new assignments to a servant who had not obeyed what He previously commanded?

When God gives you the Ten Commandments, are you obeying them?

When Jesus tells you to love your enemies, are you doing that?

When Jesus tells your church to make disciples of all nations, are you doing all you know to obey Him?

When God tells you through Scripture to live in unity with your Christian brothers and sisters, are you doing it?

God doesn't give you His commands so you can choose the ones you want to obey and neglect the rest. He wants you to obey all His commands from your love relationship with Him.

When He sees you are faithful and obedient in a little, He will trust you with more. The Holy Spirit will guide you daily to the specific commands God wants you to obey that day.

Come In Out of the Wind - C. S. Lewis

  


Come In Out of the Wind - C. S. Lewis


Then real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals.

And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from your natural fussing and fretting; coming in out of the wind.

We can only do it for moments at first. But from those moments the new sort of life will be spreading through our system: because now we are letting Him work at the right part of us.

It is the difference between paint, which is merely laid on the surface, and a dye or stain which soaks right through. He never talked vague, idealistic gas. When He said, "Be perfect," He meant it.  He meant that we must go in for the full treatment.

--  From Mere Christianity

Our Own Road to Emmaus

On that first Easter morning....


Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem.
Luke 24:13

The two were hopeless and heartbroken. Their dreams were shattered and lost forever. The  One they hoped was the Messiah had been killed, brutally crucified,  and the only future ahead of them was a long, dark, empty tunnel.

As they walked a Stranger approached them and spoke with them.
You know the story - it was Jesus, who appeared to renew their hope and vanquish their fears.

What did He do? Speak a bunch of cliches? Tell them everything was going to be okay....just hang in there...it's always too soon to give up, etc.

No, He explained the Old Testament Scriptures to them. How it proved the Messiah would come, suffer and die and rise again. 

He corrected their misunderstanding. 

What happened? Their discouragement faded away, and surging joy came into their hearts, as they realized the truth God had spoken in His Word.  As they understood what He had said in the Scriptures.

"Their hearts burned within them," we are told.

Re-read the whole story again in Luke 24:13-27. Re-read it and imagine their joy as they began to really understand God's message.

And recognize that it is our story, too. We are walking that Emmaus Road with Him right now and every day. What joy comes when we read and study His Word! And we realize the entire story is all about Him, from Genesis to Revelation. And our hearts "burn within" us, too!

His Word always revives our hearts!

Have an Emmaus Road experience today as you read and meditate   on the truths of His Word.

Secret and Revealed Things

The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.   (Deuteronomy 29:29)

Moses is speaking here, solemn words addressed to the Israelites on his last day on earth.

We always pay close attention to people's last words.

He is saying that some things God keeps silent about, but the things He does reveal to us are to be obeyed, and passed down to future generations.

Why? "That we may follow all the words" of His law.

Jesus expressed the same sentiment in His last day on earth.

The disciples asked Him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"

He answered, "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority..."
(Acts 1:6-7)

He continued in verse 8, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

We are not to focus on the ends times and those "secret things that belong to God," but we are to obey His revealed will.

Those were His last words before He was taken from them and ascended into heaven.

He had already explained that to His disciples, saying, "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Matthew 24:36).

But God is not silent about all His plans.

"The LORD confides in those who fear Him; He makes
His covenant known to them" we read in Psalm 24: 14.

And Isaiah 42:9 tells us, "See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you."

There are many examples of God disclosing His intentions in Scripture: from Noah, and Abraham, through the prophets in the Old Testament, and many in the New Testament. Examples of His "confiding in those who fear Him."

We often experience His confiding in us in our lives , giving us a glimpse of that is happening, giving us eyes to see His hand at work and ears to hear the mysterious rumblings around us.

But the exact details of the last days are not for us to know.

What does He want us to know?

"Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches.

"But let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 9:24).

That's pretty clear. He wants us to know Him, not just understand about Him, and notice His kindness, justice and righteousness.....for in these He delights.

God's character is revealed to us in Scripture and that is what we are supposed to know and pass down to the next generations.

We know from His Word that He is holy, loving, merciful, all-knowing, sovereign over all, demands our worship and that He relentlessly pursues us.

And we know how He wants us to live. It's all right here in His Book of Knowledge, the Scriptures.

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.

Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (2 Peter 1:3-4)



He has given us everything we need for  godliness....so that we can participate in His divine nature...

That's what He wants us to know.

We'll see the details of His final plans later, when we will witness them with our own eyes! 

Prime's Practical Prayer - Journal

Last summer I published this blog item about Derek Prime and his great book on prayer, Practical Prayer. As I was skimming through some older bogs, I noticed this particular item was visited more often than any other blog on prayer. And I realized that the system he suggests is still the one I use for my prayer time.  It is still effectively helping me sort through and focus my thoughts during my TAWG -- (Time Alone With God). So I decided to publish it again. The only changes I have made on my journal are listed at the bottom.


~~~~~~~~~~~~

Derek Prime has a great book on prayer: Practical Prayer. In it he tells us about his prayer Journal. This is how he describes it for us: 

A small loose-leaf book which can take a good number of pages, and it is made up of three parts.

First (Section 1) there is a page that lists urgent and/or current needs. This page is regularly updated or replaced.

Second (Section 2) there are 7 pages, one for each day of the week, on which I write names of people and matters of concern. (I just divide up my list of regular prayer items and list some on each page. In the course of 1 week every one/thing is covered at least once.)

Third (Section 3) there are 31 pages for the days of the month to assist me in praying regularly monthly for people I know casually and yet feel a concern for.


At the beginning of a new year I review the whole of my prayer diary, sometimes even rewriting it.

The benefit of using a loose-leaf book, however, is that it can be reviewed, changed and amended as the year goes on without having to rewrite the whole diary. I find it an invaluable asset to private prayer.

He goes on to say:

On the pages of the days of each week, I may write down regular events that occur on certain days so that I remember to pray for them, like Prayer Meeting on Wednesdays, youth  group meetings, etc.

He says that he uses the monthly sheets to list other people he has met more casually and people whose ministry he wants to remember. He prays for them once a month.

So for example, on Wednesday the 3rd, he will pray for the urgent needs (Section 1) and then turn to Wednesday (Second Section) and then to Day 3 in the 3rd section.

Here are some more of his helpful suggestions:

On the weekly pages I have taken the 6 points we have identified from the Lord's Prayer (see Part 2)) and put one down for each day in order, omitting one day. For me that day is Tuesday. That day is my "day off," and so as to not get into a rut I often pray that day without using my prayer diary.

At times I find my praise and worship of God do not flow as they ought, or I feel I am using the same words without freshness. It is a helpful exercise to put at the top of each weekly page of the prayer diary some attribute or characteristic of God for which you can praise and thank Him (faithful, unchanging, just, merciful, loving, holy, wise, righteous, etc).

This means you can praise Him in a different way each day. In addition, every time I come across a Scripture which stirs me up to praise God, or presents a promise which is especially meaningful, I write it out in full under one of the page headings for one of the days of the month. I find this adds freshness to my worship and my petitions.

Note: I'm going to do this -- make this kind of a Journal. I get so lethargic sometimes. Since prayer is such an important part of our lives we should put more effort into it. I know that, of course, but I need to be reminded. So, I am going to give this a try.

~~~~~~~~~~~

New Note: 05.22.15 - Though this article is months old, I am
still being helped by it....the only change I have made is that  my Section 2 (Days of the Week) is 6 days, not 7, because I just never get around to Quiet Time on Sundays --

Also, in Section 1 (urgent for daily reference) I started putting in dates, for the first petition and also for the answers....and I keep these sheets - it is amazing to go back and re-view your prayer items later and see how God is moving!

They say, "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world" and no doubt that is true - but also, "The prayer that radiates from us to God changes the world!"

Here is how my weekly pages (Section 2) look now:

(As Derek Prime suggested, they correspond to phrases in The Lord's Prayer.)

Monday - The honor of God's Name in the World

Tuesday - The extension of the Church and the coming of God's Kingdom through the preaching of the Gospel. (I put a lot of church/ministry requests here).

Wednesday - The obedience of God's people to God's will and God's overruling control of all events. (Usually I put current events and political issues here and for God's guidance for our leaders - national concerns.)

Thursday - Our daily practical needs and our work

Friday - Our relationships both with God and with each other
(A lot of family needs/requests here)

Saturday - Our temptations and the spiritual battle in which all Christians are involved.


TAWG is something I have to keep working on..maybe you do, too....

Kingdom Come!

     To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve His God and Father--to  Him be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen. (Revelation 1:5-6)


He has made us to be a kingdom...We are His kingdom.....We are His priests....we are His Church...we are His Bride....we are HIS!


Thy Kingdom come....Thy will be done....on earth,
as it is in heaven....


The King is coming!


     Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen. (Revelation 1:7)


When the King is here!

     That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:10-11)


The King is coming!

The Really Perfect Storm

Sometimes the hardest storms to get through

are the ones your soul needs the most.

And once the storm is over, you won't remember

 how you made it through, how you managed to survive.

But, survive you did.

And one thing is certain: when you came out of the storm

you weren't the same person who walked into it.

And that's the storm was all about...

Yes, that's what the storm was all about.....

Open Letter to Cynics

We hear people sometimes wondering why the fruit of the Spirit -- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control -- are so hard to feel in our hearts and display in our Christian lives.

I think I know part of the answer: The role of cynicism in our culture and our own lives. John Stuart Mill spoke about "the tyranny of public opinion." And today a prevailing attitude in our society is cynicism. It dominates everything we hear. We have "crowned it with many crowns" and let it rule us. We have let it dictate how we experience our culture. It has become a tyrant with unlimited rule over us.

Remember Lily Tomlin? She said once, "Every year I get more and more cynical, and I still keep falling behind!"

The most famous cynic was Diogenes of Ancient Athens. Around 400 BC. He lived in a tub on the streets -- taught that extreme poverty was the highest virtue and nothing else had any good.

We are becoming like him. Because of our cynicism we are becoming spiritually impoverished. That's because cyncism is a a thief -- a robber that reaches into our hearts and minds and steals everything good -- love, faith, hope, joy -- and along with those things, the expectation and acceptance of God's goodness.

Everything God wants to give us is leeched away through cynicism.

Want to stand out in the world and let others see God's grace in our lives? Want to be different from the world? Want to stop being conformed to the world's mold and be transformed by the Holy Spirit?

Then we can start by rejecting cynical attitudes and expressions. Deleting it from our internal computer. Expecting and accepting God's undiluted and unlimited goodness....and pay it forward...(we can't pay it back)...so we pay it forward to others!

What a shock they are in for! It's a whole other way of looking at life! Maybe all Congressmen are not crooks -- now that's a novel thought!

Maybe some people have good, pure motives, at least some of the time. Maybe we don't always have to follow the money....Maybe some contractor does a reliable job and actually gives us an honest quote on the materials. Maybe someone on welfare is not cheating the government.....

Diogenes was also known for walking around with a lantern through the streets of Athens, day and night, looking, hopelessly, he said, "For just one honest man."
(That's when he wasn't curled up in his tub.)

If he had been an honest man himself, he could have just looked in the mirror.

He should have started with himself. What a wasted life...and look at what we are wasting. Let's start with ourselves.

Hope is a Golden Cord - Sarah Young

Hope is a golden cord connecting you to heaven.

This cord helps you hold your head up high, even when multiple trials are buffeting you.

I never leave your side, and I never let go of your hand.

But without the cord of hope, your head may slump and your feet may shuffle as you journey uphill with Me.

Hope lifts your perspective from your weary feet to the glorious view you can see from the high road.

You are reminded that the road we're traveling together is ultimately a highway to heaven.

When you consider this radiant destination, the roughness or smoothness of the road ahead becomes much less significant.

I am training you to hold in your heart a dual focus: My continual Presence and the hope of heaven.

   -- From Jesus Calling, by Sarah Young

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Romans 12:12

And surely I am with you always...

Matthew 28:20

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul

And sings the tune without the words

and never stops -- at all.

And sweetest -- in the Gale -- is heard
And sore must be the storm -- that could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land and on the strangest sea
Yet, never in Extremity
It asked a crumb of me.

Emily Dickinson
 

Broken - C S Lewis

...There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness.

But in that casket--safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.


I believe that the most lawless and inordinate loves are less contrary to God's will than a self-invited and self-protective lovelessness...We shall draw nearer to God, not by trying to avoid the sufferings inherent in all loves, but by accepting them and offering them to Him; throwing away all defensive armor. If our hearts need to be broken, and if He chooses this as a way in which they should break, so be it.

C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves

Green Pastures? Where are they? Phillip Keller

The LORD is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures. 
--Psalm 23:1-2


Under the care of the great Shepherd, the contented sheep lack nothing. David, the Psalmist, knew that.

So he compared himself to a sheep.

In A Shepherd Looks at the Psalm 23, Phillip Keller describes how difficult it is a get a sheep to lie down.

Sheep do not easily lie down, he says.  In fact, "it is almost impossible for them to be made to lie down unless four requirements are met.

"Owing to their timidity they refuse to lie down unless they are free from all fear. Because of the social behavior within a flock, sheep will not lie down unless they are free from friction with others of his kind. If tormented by flies or parasites, sheep will not lie down...lastly, sheep will not lie down as long as they feel in need of finding food. They must be free from hunger."

To rest, a sheep made be free from fear, tension, aggravation, and hunger.

So the psalm begins with a picture of a sheep who has found its shepherd to be a good shepherd, able to meet its physical needs and provide release from anxiety.

I am the good Shepherd, Jesus said (John 10:11). 

The Scars - Philip Yancey at Virginia Tech

We gather here as Christians, and as such  aspire to follow One who came from God two thousand years ago.

Read through the Gospels and you'll find only one scene in which someone addresses Jesus directly as God: "My Lord and my God!"

It was doubting Thomas, the disciple stuck in sadness, the last holdout against believing the incredible news of resurrection.

Jesus appeared to Thomas in His newly transformed body, obliterating Thomas' doubts.

What prompted that outburst of belief, however--"My Lord and my God" -- was the presence of scars. Feel my hands, Jesus told him. Touch my side. Finger my scars.

In a flash of revelation Thomas saw the wonder of Almighty God, the Lord of the universe, stooping to take on our pain, to complete the union with humanity.

Not even God remained exempt from pain. God joined us and fully shared our human condition, including its distress. Thomas recognized in that pattern the most foundational truth of the universe, that God is love. To love means to hurt, to grieve. Pain manifests life.

           --- From What Good Is God? by Philip Yancey. From a message given at Virginia Tech, April, 2007, at the memorial service.

Healing?

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter--when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you. (Isaiah 58:6-8)


Sometimes we are so preoccupied with "formal religion" -- and keeping so busy in church activities -- that we neglect His righteous commands that we serve individuals -- they are all around us -- recognizing and meeting their physical and emotional and spiritual needs.

What I notice here in these verses is that our own healing is linked to serving others!

Paul wrote, "In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus Himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive'" (Acts 20:35).

Is this what we are taught? Not usually. We are told to take care of ourselves first, and then help others.

We seem most concerned about our own healing - our own inner pain and hurt - and forget that we are surrounded by a world of sad, grieving, hopeless fellow human beings.

But I am weak right now - I can't reach out and help someone else...I need someone to help me carry my burden, to listen to me, to understand me...

But Paul tells us to "carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2).

What is the 'law of Christ'? To love the Lord your God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself.

Each of us is called upon the help others, not matter how wounded we might be.

To set the oppressed free.

And so our own wounded hearts and lives will be healed.

And so your healing will quickly appear.

A New Mandate

A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love another. John 13:35

I have had problems with this verse. The commandment to love one another was well-known. It was written centuries before Christ and recorded in the Old Testament in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

And when the rich young ruler came to Christ, loving your neighbor as yourself was one of the commandments Christ mentioned to him and he was already familiar with.

And when the Pharisees tested Christ by asking which are the greatest commandments, Christ answered them:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and the greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.

All the Jews knew about those commandments. So why did Christ refer to a "new commandment"? This has bothered me for a while.

James Montgomery Boice, in his commentary on John tells us this:

The "New mandate" Christ spoke of raised the older commandments to an extraordinary new level and gave them an entirely new significance.

1. In the first place, the command to love had a new object. The command in Leviticus declares that Jews are to love their neighbors, who would be Jewish neighbors. In Christ's command the relationship is spiritual, for the neighbor in any believer in Jesus. (Remember the parable of the Good Samaritan?)

This also makes it unlimited. Jesus tells the disciples that evidence of this great love would be a witness to the unbelieving world.

And, as Jesus showed us, it was not to be withheld from non-believers. The Jews had no problem knowing who their neighbors were. Jews were to be loved and Gentiles were not to be loved. That was an easy distinction.

But when Christ made it a spiritual issue it became much wider.
Christ's death opened the way for everyone -- no matter what nation, what language, what race -- to receive the gospel message. So we are to love everyone, with that new kind of love -- because the door is open for all to enter into God's family.

2. Not only is the "new Mandate" showing a new object, it is to be exercised according to a new measure.

What did love mean to the Jews? A feeling of good will? A need to protect and watch out for your neighbor? Yes, and much more, but not anything like the degree to which Christ raised it. God's measure of love was that the Creator God, Sovereign of the Universe, would take a lowly human form, be humiliated and suffer and die a gruesome, horrible death -- for the ungodly, for those who humiliated and tortured Him!

"This is love," John wrote later, "not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sin."

The Jews, when they loved their neighbors, were loved in return. That's not the measure for the Christian. We are to love as Christ loved us -- whether or not we are loved in return.

3. The third difference in this "new mandate," was that, even though it would be impossible to love everyone as we should, we have access to a new power. Though we know we cannot ever love God and our neighbors as we ought, we can rely on the new power of the Holy Spirit to love God and our neighbors by pouring God's love into our hearts and directing it outwards
into the world.

Jesus is our prime example of this. He had just washed His disciples feet. He had been a picture of perfect humility.

So in these ways, Christ's 'new mandate' took the old law and raised
it to a higher level.

And the level He took it to was so much higher that it was, in reality, a New Mandate.

Saying Good-bye

When the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind...Elijah said to Elisha, "Stay here; the LORD has sent me to Bethel."


But Elisha said, "As surely as the LORD lives and you live, I will not leave you." So they went down to Bethel.


The company of the prophets at Bethel came out to Elisha and asked, "Do you know that the LORD is going to take your your master from you today?"


"Yes, I know," Elisha replied, "but do not speak of it."


Then Elijah said to him, "Stay here, Elisha; the LORD has sent me to Jericho."


And he replied, "As surely as the LORD lives and you live, I will not leave you."


So they went to Jericho.


The company of the prophets at Jericho went up to Elisha and asked him, "Do you know that the LORD is going to take your master from you today?"


"Yes, I know," he replied, "but do not speak of it."


Then Elijah said to him, "Stay here; the LORD has sent me to the Jordan."


And he replied, "As surely as the Lord lives and you live I will not leave you."


So the two of them walked on....


As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.


Elisha saw this and cried out, "My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!"



And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them apart.  (2 Kings 2)


                                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Elisha did not want to say good-bye. But he had to.
God's heavenly chariot had to actually separate the two.


It seems sometimes to me that life is just a series of letting go....of saying good-bye...over and over again......of letting go of, releasing,  earthly things and relationships...forcing us to cling faster (with both hands?) to Him who is leading us.

Over and over.  Letting go.

And sometimes it is really hard to say good-bye.

Monica's Prayers

A few years after St. Augustine accepted the gospel message of grace through faith in Jesus Christ, he wrote what we call The Confessions of St. Augustine, which is really a sort of autobiography of his life.

Augustine was born in 352 AD, struggled for many years with various heresies and was finally converted and baptized at Easter in 387. He is famous for his City of God, which he wrote during the time the Vandals were destroying Rome, and for his strong, intelligent leadership of the church.

When he was a young man he was widely known for his sinful ways and unholy life. His mother, Monica, prayed fervently for her son's conversion.

This is how Augustine remembered his mother's prayers:

And You sent Your hand from above and drew out my soul from that profound darkness, because my mother, Your faithful one, continued to weep before You on my behalf more than mothers weep over the bodily death of their children. For, by that faith and spirit which she had from You, she saw that I was dead.

You heard her, O Lord. You heard her and did not despise her tears which streamed down and watered the ground under eyes where she prayed. Yes, You heard her!

At one time she begged a bishop to see her son and try to dissuade him from the heretical teachings he embraced. The bishop did not want to talk to Augustine, but eventually relented, saying "Go your way and God bless you, for it is not possible that the son of these tears should perish."

She never gave up praying for her son. And today statesmen and theologians alike quote St. Augustine and credit him with many of our views on the role and function of governments and the foundational articles of Christian faith and doctrine.

God answered the prayers of Monica, His good and faithful servant, for her son.

We must never give up praying.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Out of the depths I cry to You, O LORD;

O LORD, hear my voice.

Let Your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.

If You, O LORD, kept a record of sins,
O LORD, who could stand?

But with You there is forgiveness;

Therefore You are feared.

I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,

And in His Word I put my hope.

 Psalm 130:1-5

I have heard your prayers and seen your tears...

2 Kings 20:5

Hear my prayer, O LORD,

Listen to my cry for help;

be not be deaf to my weeping...

Psalm 39:12

The Jesus Thing - Don't take it so seriously!?

Sometimes it looks like everybody thinks I'm crazy...

They say, "You take the Jesus thing too seriously!"


Well, I don't know...but Christ took me pretty seriously when He died for me on the cross...

A New Serenity Prayer

                     New Serenity Prayer
God, grant me the serenity to stop beating myself up for not doing things perfectly....

The courage to forgive myself because I am working on doing better...

and the wisdom to know that You already love me just the way I am.


[Note: This prayer is most effective if read several times a day....
Or "take as often as needed"]

Depression...?

I'm experiencing times of depression these days. .... not usual for me...and I am surprised at my feelings. Maybe I am watching too much news. It is depressing to see how ignorant much of our population is!

I think it depresses me because  it makes me feel discouraged. Are we too far gone to be rescued? At least this generation seems to be....but that can't be the whole story!

God never wants us to give up. It is always too early to give up, He tells us!

So I  turn to Scripture - 
Joshua 1:9 is a good place to start: "Have I not commanded you?
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."  

Very familiar words.... "discouraged" means "without courage."

So discouragement is sin...right?

 Lots of good news in this verse.

Then I turn to Ephesians 6:13: "Therefore put on God's complete armor, that you may be to stand your ground on the evil day [of danger], and having done all [the crisis demands] to stand firmly in your place."

That helps me...yes, times are hard, and as the angel told Daniel and John - things will be worse...evil people will grow more and more evil...but good and wise people will continue to stand firm....

And we must be like those people. We must stand firmly as God's people, knowing that the victory is coming...Amen and amen!

We must continue to battle, if we can't battle offensively, we can
still stand and defend!

Then there's Winston Churchill, who, during World War 2, counseled his countrymen: "Never give up. Never, never, never, 
never, never, never, never give up!"  

Yes, Churchill certainly had a way with words! He used "never"
8 times in those two sentences....reminding us it is always too early to give up!

We must keep fighting...with God's full armor - until He calls us home or comes for us!