..."and a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the way of holiness; evil minded people shall not travel on it, but it shall be for those wayfarers who are traveling toward God. (Isaiah 35:8, adapted)



Friday, August 29, 2008

Trample Not on Any Soul





The Jews would not willingly tread
upon the smallest piece of paper in
their way, but took it up; for possibly,
they say, the name of God may be on it.

Though there was a little superstition
in this, yet truly there is nothing but
good religion in it, if we apply it to
men. Trample not on any; there may be
some work of grace there, that thou
knowest not of. The name of God may be
written upon that soul thou treadest on;
it may be a soul that Christ thought so
much of, as to give His precious blood
for it; therefore despise it not.
... S. T. Coleridge (1772-1834),
Aids to Reflection,


photo taken on the Orient Express in
what used to be Yugoslavia

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Am I My Brother's Keeper? Final Thoughts on Todd Bentley

We can and should be distressed at the recent
events in Lakeland but they are indicative
of a larger problem that is pandemic throughout
the body of Christ. There are bigger issues to
contemplate than the fact of Todd Bentley's
individual fall and that is our
corporate shortcomings in the area of
accountability in our Christian communities.

The hard question we have to ask ourselves
is "What is so drastically wrong with the
way we generally practice Christianity
that Todd Bentley could have gotten so
far without those surrounding him in
authority seeing that the "crash and
burn" was imminent and as sadly predictable
as the losers at yesterday's horse race?

One of the ways we have strayed from the
simple truths of the gospel is how we
practice, or fail to practice, community.
Our faith was meant to be lived out, day
in and day out, in front of our brothers
and sisters. The clergy are not meant
to be sequestered from the congregation.
All of us are meant to live together
as simple Christians under God.
We not only need community, it is a
divine mandate. Leaders will then
rise organically out of the soil
of commitment, servanthood, accountability,
stability, and discipline.

Knowing what a person is like on Sunday
morning and what they actually are the
rest of the week should not be two
different things, but often, sadly are.

Our lives should be open books to each
other in the sanctity and protection
of God's house. We must live under
the Word of God together. We need to
be people of the Word of God or our community
will be just a human community with
opinions enforced by the strongest
members and not the Word of God.

Our strengths, our weaknesses, our
sins, our triumphs,our gifts and our
foibles need to be held by our
brothers and sisters. We need to
hold each other: both in accountability
and in nurture and admonishment through
biblical standards and the mercy and grace
of Christ.

When we are wrong we should expect
Godly correction from a caring
community. When we go off track,
many should be there calling us
back.

God knows how to work with each of
our souls, correcting, mending,
refining, adjusting, nurturing.

We, as God's hands and heart on
the earth, can not possibly have
the wisdom that this work needs
unless we have it TOGETHER.
Therefore we must have unity.
Not unity around a doctrine or
belief, but around the person
of Jesus reigning in our individual
and corporate lives.

There is a certain truth in the
folk truth that says, "it takes
a village to raise a child."
It takes a "village" of believers
to adequately raise up the
proper standards of the Son of God
and it takes a "village" to produce a
healthy and biblically sound
environment for His children.
This time the village failed.
What can we learn from it?

God has a divine order for us. He has
checks and balances built into it,
but for it to work, we must live
together closely enough and
open our lives to each other
so that transparency and
accountability, with all
their attendant difficulty
and beauty, prevail.

The truth is we are our brother's
keeper and the sobering truth is
that we are being held
accountable for this even if
we are not living like it.

The world has become such a
place of deceit that its sin routinely
enters the house of God and
is rarely found out until great
damage is done.

We raise up leaders because they
are gifted or beautiful, but not
because they are proven servants,
holy in character, and seasoned in
community. Hollywood images
rather than biblical truths affect
what we demand from those we empower.

We routinely trust people who
present themselves as prophets,
apostles, men of God, seers,
and yet, what do we know about
their personal lives? What does
anyone know about their personal
lives? To whom are they accountable
and is that real accountability
or some glossed over version of it
provided by "yes men" too weak
to speak up in the face of difficulty?

My lot in life has sometimes taken
me backstage into close proximity
with widely known Christian
leaders.

A few of them have personal lives
straighter than arrows, and others
could do with a large dose of
"iron sharpening iron": the rough and
tumble of community to knock the common
burrs of self-importance off and let
the excess air of overinflated ego out.
We all have large blind spots
that plague every last one of us.
Every last one of us needs the godly
boundaries of a healthy community
so badly that it makes one cry at the
thought of it.

More times than not, lack of healthy
community has failed our very human
leaders, who in turn, are then set up to
fail, or becomes pawns of dark
forces from within and without.

Then there are the people who
get into leadership and are
not just struggling with their
own personal issues, but have
evil agendas that thrive only in a
place where no light shines on the
dark underbelly of their motives.

We select our leaders by dubious
standards, and set them on pedestals
and when they fall off of them
we don't see that it is we
that have contributed to
their fall. We fail to demand
accountability from each other.
In the meantime, the kingdom
of God suffers loss.

The structure of our society allows
us to hide a great deal of
darkness while projecting a
sweet persona. How many times,
when they interview the community
that surrounds a child pornographer
or serial rapist, people say,
"He seemed such a nice man."?
Why do we now almost expect
to hear that the local minister
is an adulterer, an embezzler,
a charlatan?

Each voice of every member of the
community has a right to be heard and
then biblically discerned. I spent the
summer reading the major prophets
Jeremiah and Ezekiel. I was made
aware of the fact that
they functioned in community in
just the way that God wanted them
to--even though they were entirely
unwanted members of their community.

I would have understood if they chose
to run away from their communities,
but they were under mandate to
stay and proclaim the message
that God had given them. God even
told them that the people's blood
would be on their hands if they did
not speak out (Ezekiel 33:8).

The New Covenant community is
held to an even higher standard.
Each of us that belongs to God,
has the Holy Spirit dwelling
in us. Each of us has a gift or
gifts to bring. We are TOGETHER
members of Christ's body. We
are TOGETHER our brother's and
sister's keeper. The WHOLE body of Christ
is greater than even our leaders,
for leaders fail, but the Lord's
Body, His collective Body, is able
to discern, and balance and restore
in a way that just one or two cannot.

God will give wisdom to the collective
group as they honor, cherish, correct,
admonish and watch over EACH part.
Do not leave the job of discerning
to one or two people. Proverbs says,
"in the multitude of counselors is wisdom"
(Prov. 24:6).

We can feel distress,and should
feel distress, over the recent
events in Lakeland. But underneath
it all is the failure of the Body
to do the job God expects of it.

Just as in Belshazzar's day, the
writing was already on the wall just before
the judgment hit (Daniel 5). Why did so few heed
it?

Pray for your local expression of the
Body. If it is not healthy, you are in
grave danger, and so is your neighbor--
even the entire village.









Monday, August 25, 2008

Devotions From the Heart: We Love Him Because He First Loved Us

by Derek Gitsham


"We love Him because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19)

There is nothing we will be able to claim when
we meet the Lord. We will not be able to say to
Him, “Didn’t we do well?” Everything that has been
accomplished by the believer, wrought in him,
will all be of God. We will take credit for
nothing in that day, as we shall know even as
we are known, that alone will be the cause for
knowing God and thanking Him forever. Even our
phrase in 1 John 4:19 shows emphatically that
“We love Him because He first loved us.”

He has loved us, and this is the supreme
confidence that lies within us that we are
children of God. Even as John says also,
“Behold what manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon us that we should be
called the sons of God.” (I John 3:1).

He truly is first love to us, and what a
tragedy it was to read that a Church had
left their first love. He is our first love,
having loved us first before there was any
response in us. His love was unrequited,
yet still He loved with all heaven’s abandon.

What a wonder our God is! Endlessly His love
rolls on like the seas, like the tides ever
pressing up on the shores, everlasting. God’s
love is the reason why we love; to experience
His Love for us is beyond words, it is the
consummate experience, our Pentecost burned
into our hearts by His Spirit.

Who cannot love, once being loved by God?
God loving me has made me love God. “God hath
shed the love of God abroad in our hearts by
the Holy Spirit which he hath given us”
(Romans 5:5). This is the reason why
Jesus said, “I have come to send the fire
and what would I if it be already kindled?”
(Luke 12: 49). I cannot wait for the you to
know My love for you. It will be the all
saving power of God within you. A love
that saves can only be His love for me.

Praise Him today for His love for you.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Daniel Bible Study: Daniel 7: The Ancient of Days and The Little Horn

The seventh chapter of Daniel begins the
long hard road toward the end of the world!
The rise and fall of four worldly kingdoms
are telescoped across time and eclipsed by
the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ!

It is a fearsome vision which leaves
Daniel troubled and reeling because
he sees just how intense things will
become and just how much warfare will
happen before Israel is saved and
the Ancient of Days is victorious
in the earth.

Daniel sees the four great kingdoms of
world history. Babylon (the Lion); the
Medo-Persian Empire (the Bear); Greece
(the Leopard); and a terrible ten-horned beast
(a revived Roman Empire) are these kingdoms.

The first three kingdoms go the way of
all flesh and are superseded by the next
as dynasty gives way to dynasty. The
fourth is a fearsome beast and a latter
day formation of the old Roman Empire is
empowered by the "little horn" (vs 8) to
such an evil extent that God steps in.

The "little horn" is the Antichrist,
and to allow us to see the immensity of the
situation, the vision cuts to a scene
in heaven where the "Ancient of Days,"
even God Himself, is ruling and reigning
in glory.

The little horn blasphemes God and persecutes
His saints and it is God who steps in to avenge them.
The Antichrist (the little horn) continues to
unrelentingly persecute the saints even
until the coming of the Lord when they
possess the kingdom (vs 21 & 22). This gives
us pause in any thinking about "premature escape."

Has there not always been persecution against
the saints of God by the powers of Satan and
every antichrist spirit? Yes, and yet this is
a specific persecution speaking of a specific
time YET TO COME. When Jesus speaks of
"'the Abomination of Desolation' spoken of by
the prophet Daniel," He did not refer to it as
something already made manifest or consider it
a parable with no earthly manifestation
(Matthew 24: 15ff).

There are many antichrists that have gone
out into the world, John tells us (1 John 4:
1-3). And yet, Daniel went pale and weak
at what he was seeing: the final war
between the saints of God and the forces
of darkness. What God allows Him to see,
on our behalf, is the calm certainty
of our God reigning in heaven and
of His, and our, ultimate victory.

This is our hope! He that endures to
the end will be saved. Whether we
live unto the Lord, or die unto Him,
WE ARE THE LORD'S! No weapon formed
against us will ultimately prosper,
and yet we cannot underestimate the
magnitude of the persecution still
in front of the saints.

There is much we do not understand,
but there is much written here that
we can understand: that our allegiance
to God must be total and that we
can expect to bear persecution so
that His purposes might come to
pass and that Israel might be saved.
But more of that in lessons to
come.

Questions to ask: Have I actually
studied the bible for myself with
regard to those events and prophecies
related to the end times?

Do I think that others know better
and that I cannot "figure out"
what these prophecies mean?

Take time to study God's word
and to ask Him to teach you and
to reveal to you His perspective.
This does not come easily but
it will not come at all unless
you start!

To be forwarned is to be ready.
We need great humility in
approaching the Scriptures,
but we dare not be as the 5
foolish virgins who have not
prepared. Perilous days lay
ahead, there is no doubt about
that. Trust God. Prepare your heart.


Other installments of the Daniel
Bible study are in the archives of
this blog.








Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Waiting for That Day: Pray for Israel




And there shall come forth a rod out
of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall
grow out of his roots:

2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest
upon him, the spirit of wisdom and
understanding, the spirit of counsel and
might, the spirit of knowledge and of the
fear of the LORD;

3 And shall make him of quick understanding
in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not
judge after the sight of his eyes, neither
reprove after the hearing of his ears:

4 But with righteousness shall he judge the
poor, and reprove with equity for the meek
of the earth: and he shall smite the earth:
with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath
of his lips shall he slay the wicked.

5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his
loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.

6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and
the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the
calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
and a little child shall lead them.

7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young
ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall
eat straw like the ox.

8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole
of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his
hand on the cockatrice' den.

9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy
mountain: for the earth shall be full of the
knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

10 And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse,
which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it
shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.

11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the
Lord shall set his hand again the second time to
recover the remnant of his people, which shall be
left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros,
and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and
from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations,
and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and
gather together the dispersed of Judah from the
four corners of the earth. --Isaiah 11


photo taken near Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, Israel

--this image may not be reproduced or shared without
consent of the photographer.





Devotions From the Heart: You Shall Live Also

by Derek Gitsham

"Yet a little while and the world
seeth me no more, but ye see me:
because I live, ye shall live also.
At that day ye shall know that I am
in My Father, and you in Me, and I
in you." John 14:19-20


From the thirteenth chapter of John, to the
seventeenth, Jesus and His apostles were
alone. The atmosphere was intimate. Jesus had
chosen this time to reveal their need to
receive the Holy Ghost.

Much was spoken concerning the Holy Ghost
that was not spoken before by Jesus. It takes
an intimate meeting to reveal what was to
become a living intimacy with God. They had
known Jesus after the flesh, now they were to
know Him after the Spirit. The Holy Ghost
would be the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,
indwelling them. The long awaited miracle of
the New Birth, promised by Jesus in John
chapter 3 was now going to be enacted in all
those waiting for the Holy Ghost on the Day
of Pentecost.

The day He is referring to is Pentecost and
clearly He says "you will know I am in My Father,
and you in Me, and I in you." Paul says if any
man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Truly
this would be the day when the dead bones would
live (Ezekiel 38). As God asked Ezekiel, can
these bones live? Surely they would live being
indwelt by God’s Holy Spirit.

We live because He lives. He lives inside of
our hearts and if we, by obedience to His word,
walk the walk, He will live in us. We live
because He lives not vice-versa. What a wonder
it is to know that the Holy Ghost is in us to
live Jesus in us. If He lives, we live.

He will live your life for you if you step
aside, and believe His Word. He that loseth
his life for My sake shall find it. Your
life will be Another’s, the Lord's Himself.
What a wonder! Jesus has come to be our life.
He was saying to the Apostles, I will be in
heaven, but by My Spirit I will be in you
alive, living in you and continuing my work
of salvation. There can be no greater intimacy
than this. How much we have to thank the Holy
Ghost for. He is Jesus’ life in us.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Mercy & Patience: Love Others as God Has Loved You





When Abraham sat at his tent door,
according to his custom, waiting to
entertain strangers, he espied an old man,
stooping and leaning on his staff, weary
with age and travail, coming towards him,
who was a hundred years of age.

He received him kindly, washed his feet,
provided supper, caused him to sit down;
but observing that the old man ate and prayed
not, nor begged a blessing on his meat,
he asked him why he did not worship the
God of heaven.

The old man told him that he worshipped the
fire only, and acknowledged no other God. At
which answer Abraham grew so zealously angry,
that he threw the old man out of his tent,
and exposed him to all the evils of the
night and an unguarded condition.

When the old man was gone, God called to
Abraham, and asked him where the stranger
was. He replied, "I thrust him away, because
he did not worship thee." God answered him,
"I have suffered him these hundred years,
though he dishonored me; and wouldst thou not
endure him one night?"


... Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667),
The Liberty of Prophesying
[1647]

photo taken in the Wyre forest near Hanbury Hall,
Worcestershire, England







Thursday, August 14, 2008

Even Shrek Needs to Relax



It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind
that we make use, from time to time, of playful
deeds and jokes.--Thomas Aquinas


photo taken in Weekapaug, Rhode Island

Monday, August 11, 2008

Devotions from the Heart: From Faith to Faith

by Derek Gitsham

"For therein is the righteousness of God
revealed from faith to faith, as it is
written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’" (Romans 1:17)


Living by faith and exercising our faith
are two of the greatest challenges to the
believer in his walk with the Lord. Obstacles
abound to try and prevent the saint increasing
in faith. "From faith to faith" is a beautiful
phrase.

The phrase “the just shall live by faith”
points also to the fact that faith must
maintain us. Everything is by faith in our
relationship to Jesus faith from the
beginning and to the end. How glorified
Jesus will be to see faith when He comes.
Faith is the manner of how we progress;
we go on by faith, from faith to faith.

Paul, in the previous verse, is saying
“he is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
for it is the power of God unto salvation.
To everyone who believeth, to the Jew first,
and also to the Greek.” For therein is the
righteousness of God revealed, from faith to
faith.

There is nothing that gladdens the heart of
the Lord’s people more than to see how right
God is in all His dealings with mankind. He
says the gospel reveals the righteousness of
God from faith to faith. As the saints
continue their walk with God, by continually
believing Him, so the revelation of His
righteousness is revealed.

How wonderful and great is the marvelous
wisdom of God. His plan of salvation hangs on
this very thing from faith to faith. It is by
faith to more faith, and more faith and more
faith. God is not asking for us to reason Him
out, but go on believing, keep trusting Him,
and behold the power of the gospel being
enacted before your eyes. There will be
results if you believe, as Jesus said, “These
signs shall follow them that believe.”

We started by faith, by simply believing, we
continue by faith, we finish by faith. Herein
will all be revealed.

Bearing the Burden's of Others





A Monarch of long ago had twin sons. As they
grew to young manhood, the king sought a fair
way to designate one of them as crown prince.
All who knew the young men thought them equal
in intelligence, wit, personal charm, health,
and physical strength. Being a keenly observant
king, he thought he detected a trait in one
which was not shared by the other.

Calling them to his council chamber one day,
he said, "My sons, the day will come when one
of you must succeed me as king. The weight of
sovereignty is very heavy. To find out which
of you is better able to bear them cheerfully,
I am sending you together to a far corner of
the kingdom.

One of my advisors there will place equal
burdens on your shoulders. My crown will one
day go to the one who first returns bearing
his yoke like a king should." In a spirit of
friendly competition, the brothers set out
together. Soon they overtook an aged woman
struggling under a burden that seemed far too
heavy for her frail body. One of the boys
suggested that they stop to help her. The
other protested: "We have a saddle of our
own to worry about. Let us be on our way."

The objector hurried on while the other
stayed behind to give aid to the aged woman.
Along the road, from day to day, he found
others who also needed help. A blind man
took him miles out of his way, and a lame
man slowed him to a cripple's walk.

Eventually he did reach his father's advisor,
where he secured his own yoke and started home
with it safely on his shoulders. When he
arrived at the palace, his brother met him
at the gate, and greeted him with dismay.
He said, "I don't understand. I told our father
the weight was too heavy to carry. However
did you do it?"

The future king replied thoughtfully, "I
suppose when I helped others carry their yoke,
I found the strength to carry my own."
--author unknown

photo taken in Leuven, Belgium

Thursday, August 07, 2008

What I Don't Yet Know About God

"O the depth of the riches both
of the wisdom and the knowledge of
God! How unsearchable are his
judgments, and his ways past finding out!"
--Romans 11:33


Even as a young person I wanted to
know God. My early years with God
were robust beyond measure. There
was so much to learn about God,
and yet, He seemed so close,
so knowable, everything made
perfect sense.

I would sit and think about what
I would know about God if I lived
to be quite old. I wondered how
it would be different from what
I now knew of Him. The thing is
I could never seem to make a good
guess about what I might know
about God after a long life that
I didn't know about God already as a
fervent God-pursuing young person.
Oh, dear Lord!

What I certainly did not know is this:
"I... saw under the sun, that the race
is not to the swift, nor the battle to
the strong, neither yet bread to the wise,
nor yet riches to men of understanding,
nor yet favour to men of skill; but time
and chance happeneth to them all" (Ecc. 9:11).

I did not know that life batters everyone around
and how things turn out are not, perhaps,
as we think they should.

I am now a bit older and, as I think about
what I might know about God up the road
that I don't know now, I suddenly feel very
low to the ground.

You see, one thing for sure, knowing God
is not about book knowledge or facts or just
correct doctrine, but about knowing God
as He is: knowing His character. Our
character produces our actions. If we
know someone's character we will know
how they will act. The more we know
God, the more we will understand His ways,
and know how He will act.

You may think this is self-evident,
even boring, but it is actually
one of our greatest guards against
falling into error and heresy.

How many times have we thought
that God was going to act a
certain way and didn't?

How many times have we thought
something was God and it
wasn't?

How many times have we failed
to apprehend how God was
working in our individual or
collective midst's?

Then comes the collision.

Often these collisions with
divine reality press our souls
to the very limit and can even
cause us to question God or to
turn away from Him. Disappointment.
Disillusionment. Confusion. All
these are common feelings when
how we think God is collides with
how God really is!

These collisions come to all our
lives and are divine appointments
to help us to know God better.

I started this article with that
wonderful verse from Romans where
Paul is overwhelmed with the mind-
boggling ways of our wise and good
God. This verse is his reaction to
the seemingly difficult dealings
of God with Israel. Surely if God
was the kind of person who drew
predictably straight lines in His
dealing with Israel it would have
been different.

But He is the kind of God who
draws straight lines with crooked
people, allowing His very own
to stumble so that a greater grace
and a more magnificent salvation
could be accomplished.

If this He did with the nation of
Israel, who are we to expect anything
less in the outworking of our
individual lives?

And so Paul writes, "For God had
concluded them all in unbelief
so that He might have mercy upon
all" (vs. 32). Here is a large
clue for us all as to what we
don't yet know about God!

Because He is in covenant with us,
because He is who He is, God has
promised to use even our ignorance
and unbelief to enact and pour forth
a greater mercy. To catch a glimpse
of this is to have your life changed.

"While we were yet sinners Christ
died for us."
Even at our best
point our knowledge of God is
limited while we are still in
the flesh. We see "through a
glass darkly
." This is not to
say that we cannot know God.
Thank God that we can! Yet it
is with the humility that
produces mercy that we seek Him.

Something about the process of
not knowing God as we would like,
and finding even in the most
solid of hearts, unbelief,
can produce in us, if we are
rightly disposed, a great humility.
This humility can lead to a great mercy
in our dealings with others.
May we seek a great understanding of
the mercy of God in the history
of both Israel, and our own lives.

In Israel's case it is a severe
mercy, but it leads ultimately to
salvation. Again, if Israel is the
showcase of God's covenant and His
ability to keep His Word, can we
expect anything else in our own
lives? For we are to be a showcase
not only to the nations but
to Israel of the mercy
of God. The mercy He shows the
gentiles is meant to woo
Israel back to Himself.

Ah, but how does this make me
feel better in my little life in
my small neighborhood? How do I
cope with my ignorance of God
without becoming cynical and
hardened? How do I live as I
am, full of imperfection, yet
still seeking God, knowing that
I haven't crossed all my t's or
dotted all my i's in the arena
of knowing God?

Let the humility of knowing that
we have only begun to know God work
the mercy of God within your heart.
"..Blindness, IN PART, happened to
Israel so that the fullness of
the Gentiles be come in" (11:25).
God did not want Israel to fall
into sin and ignorance, just as He
does not want us to. But God, being
who He is, is able to redeem it
all so that it allows a greater and
wider salvation! This happens on
a grand scale, and on a individual
scale. Allow Him to do a work of
mercy in your heart so that others
might be saved.

Willful blindness is something to
repent of and seek God for healing
of. But some of my blindness is
just plain ignorance. Even the best of
us is being healed progressively of
spiritual blindness. A pure vision of
God, even for those who diligently
seek Him, is a work in progress.

As my heart becomes more pure, and as I
see God more clearly, much of what
I think about God today will tomorrow
show itself to be embarrassingly
inadequate. Accept God's mercy in
this, and that mercy shall pour through you
to others. In those moments when
your realize you have misapprehended
God, pray for Israel. On that Day
when she finally sees what she does
not yet know about God, even Jesus
Christ, she will appreciate mercy in
a new way. Consider yourself to be no
better and blessedly allowed to
see because of her blindness.

Imparting the knowledge of God
with a merciful spirit is something
I did not know when I was young.
It is a lesson worth learning even
if it comes through walking through
some severe landscapes.

I don't know what I will know about God
in the future that I yet do not know.
I suspect it will be more along these
lines, lines filled with mercy and
grace, with the unsearchable wisdom
and knowledge of God. So my best advice
is to stay low to the ground and
allow mercy to lead us forth.




Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Rely Upon Christ





To have faith is to rely upon Christ,
the Person, with the whole heart. It
is not the understanding of the mind,
not the theological opinion, not creed,
not organization, not ritual. It is the
koinonia of the whole personality with
God and Christ, ... This experience of
communion with Christ is itself the
continual attitude of dependence on
the Savior which we call faith.
... Kokichi Kurosaki (1886-1970),
One Body in Christ 1954]

photo taken on the path to St. Anne's Well,
Malvern, England.


Friday, August 01, 2008

A Pending Storm




So what to do? Two things, it seems
to me. At least two. Use up each day.
Fill it overflowing with good.
Deliberately enjoy it.

Two, begin now. Mend a fractured
friendship, mail an overdue letter,
repair a broken heart, lay aside a
griveance, act on a noble impulse.
As we all know, The night cometh.

- Lanny Henninger

Night indeed cometh. But the Light
overcomes the darkness.


photo taken near the English/Welsh border