The Relentless Hope of the Prophet

Prophetic speech, finally, is not an act
of criticism. It is rather an act of
relentless hope that refuses to despair
and that refuses to believe that the world
is closed off in patterns of exploitation
and oppression.

It stands against a closed present tense
that is either excessively complacent about
social relations or excessively despairing
about an unbearable present tense. This speech
knows that such closed-off life inevitably
produces brutality, the child of despair,
either out of strident control or out of
hopelessness. It dares to assert in any
and every circumstance the conviction
known since Abraham and Sarah and Moses
and Aaron, namely, that there is a God
who can and will make all things new,
even in the face of our most closed-down,
self-satisfied present tense.

This is what the text means when it asserts
that God works an impossibility in order that
“all the earth may know that there is a God
in Israel” (1 Sam. 17:46).

"Like Fire in the Bones"
Walter Brueggemann

Holiness and Revival

Holiness can never be separated from
revival. If some kind of spiritual
experience in an individual, or among
a community, has the label revival pinned
to it, we should always look at the lives
of the Christians and the new converts.

Are they a holy people who fear only God
and sin, and who allow God’s Word to rule
their lives? If not, then we are not looking
at revival.


--from Conviction Of Sin And A Revival Of Holiness,
By Brian H. Edwards

Disappointment with God: When Your Nest Falls

It has been a rainy few months in New England.
Seems like it rains almost every day. Each
morning I listen for the songs of the birds
that live in our yard. I know most of the
robins. You see, our family has a kind of
affinity with animals. Robins have lived
in our yard for decades. They are nearly
tame ones.

Many years ago, my mother saved a robin
who had come north from her
winter migration much too early. One
of those early spring snowstorms hit
and, my kindly mother, seeing the
hungry robin huddled in the back yard,
threw out some raisin bread for it.

The bird never forgot the kindness and
became sort of a family member. She learned to
trust us, and when she wanted
raisins she would sit on the clothes
line by our kitchen window and
peer steadily and impatiently
into the house. She would almost
eat out of our hands. She taught
her young that we were safe. And
they taught their young, on and on.

So the robins in our yards tend
to feel safe and tend to stick
around. This spring one nesting
season has already gone successfully
by despite that fact that the robin
youngster was not the brightest
bulb in robin-land.

A few days ago the mother robin
started to build another nest.
I heard a noise in the eaves and
looked out the window to see
that she had picked a spot
under the roof overhang and
on top of the downspout to build
her nest.

Really, all things being equal,
it was a good choice:protected
from rain, high off the ground,
and near the food supply.
But all things were not equal.
There was something she didn't
know. I had removed the downspout
pipe to try to clean a clog
from my window rather than
dragging out the 24 foot ladder.
I was able to clean out the clog
but was not able to get the
downspout securely back
into its position. When
it rained hard, it often fell out.

My heart sank as I saw her
happily and busily building
her new nest in this most
precarious place. It looked
secure, but it wasn't.
All day she worked. I half-
heartedly tried to warn her
away, but she was on a mission
and payed me no mind.

I kept thinking about that
nest and imagining her and
her babies plummeting to the
ground. My heart was sad.

Yesterday, we had another
downpour. Serious, heavy
rain. To my relief, I heard
the nest fall to the ground
along with the downspout.

I felt sad but happy!
That storm had really
saved her and her babies
to come.

She came by this morning
just to check on the
nest. I was waiting for
her. She sat on her
familiar perch and looked.
Looked and looked puzzled.
She saw the downed nest.

She saw me looking at her.
I wondered if she thought
that I had wrecked her nest?
I wonder if she understood
that it was the rain?
I could see her disappointment.
But off she went to look
for another place to build.

I thought about this, and thought
about what it teaches us about
life. How often have we built
our nest on something that we
thought looked secure, in
a place that delighted us,
and seemed safe, but was
precariously perched on something
that would give way in the
first storm?

Jesus warned us not to build
our house on the sand but to
build on rock, on a sure foundation.
This story can be translated
into the avian version of that
parable.

When that nest fell, it was
actually a blessing. There
were no eggs or little birds
in it yet. No real harm was
done. Just disappointment
and a few hours work.

God's grace was at work,
but did the bird understand?
Did she see me as God and
blame me for its fall?
Did she think that I
knocked it down to
be mean? Did she know
that the rain knocked
it down? Was she thankful
that the eggs were not
in it yet?

How often are we saved
from disaster but can
only see the downed nest
in our situation? We
blame God and accuse Him
of not protecting us, when
He is protecting us from
dangers we do not know of and
problems we cannot see.

How often do we get
comfortable in a situation,
with our nest built,
only to be pushed out
to another location?

Beloved ones, let us see the
hand of God in all this.
Storms may knock our nests
down, but God holds us in
His hands. Sometimes the
storm is our salvation.
Always, God knows what will
happen. If we in our ignorance,
build in a untoward location,
God can still save us.
So let us not be disappointed
in Him, for He is most surely
for us.

disappointment with God
inspirational stories

A Man That Truly Prays

A man that truly prays one prayer
shall after that never be able to
express with his mouth or pen
the unutterable desires, sense,
affection, and longing that went
to God in that prayer." --John Bunyan

prayer
John Bunyan

On Revelation 5 & 6: John Beheld You Safe

Angels crying "Holy" all around.
Elders at the Lamb's feet falling down.
Ten million and untold thousands more,
casting down their crowns
forevermore.


Behold Him,
worthy to unseal the seven mysteries,
to open and to close the doors of history,


Watch the Worthy Rider wax victorious,
Nothing else could ever be that glorious,


Sons of men are melting as they see You,
Creation groaning, as its hope in Christ
is proved true.


Time becomes eternity,
O true believer, can't you see
it written here:
John beheld you safe
on that Great Day!


Yet, night soon comes and then
no one can work.
An Enemy waiting,
always on the lurk.


Hearts failing from the fear,
Hours, minutes, months or years?


None but God
know what time is left.



Men's awful date with hell
is ours to intercept


So snatch your neighbor's soul
from pending doom,
from empty, eternal horrifying gloom.


Labor in the fields of the Lord,
with sober, joyful hearts and love in one accord,



Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord.
Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord

C. T. Studd on a Red-Hot, Unconventional, Unfettered Holy Ghost Religion

Christ's call is ... to save the lost,
not the stiff-necked; He came not to call
scoffers but sinners to repentance;
not to build and furnish comfortable chapels,
churches, and cathedrals at home in which to
rock Christian professors to sleep by means
of clever essays, stereotyped prayers and
artistic musical performances, but to capture
men from the devil's clutches and snatch them
from the very jaws of Hell.

But this can be accomplished only by a red-hot,
unconventional, unfettered Holy Ghost religion,
where neither man nor traditions are worshipped
or preached, but only Christ and Him
crucified.
... C. T. Studd (1860-1931), quoted in C. T. Studd--
Cricketer and Pioneer [1933],
Norman P. Grubb, p. 163

T.Austin Sparks on Pioneering

The whole history of the Church is
one long story of this tendency to
settle down on this earth and to become
conformed to this world, to find
acceptance and popularity here and to
eliminate the element of conflict and
of pilgrimage. That is the trend and
the tendency of everything.

Therefore outwardly, as well as inwardly,
pioneering is a costly thing.
--T. Austin Sparks

Prayer is for All Times

Reading is good, hearing is good, conversation
and meditation are good; but then, they are only
good at times and occasions, in a certain degree,
and must be used and governed with such caution as
we eat and drink and refresh ourselves, or they
will bring forth in us the fruits of intemperance.

But the spirit of prayer is for all times and
occasions; it is a lamp that is to be always burning,
a light to be ever shining: everything calls for it;
everything is to be done in it and governed by it,
because it is and means and wills nothing else but
the totality of the soul -- not doing this or
that, but wholly...given up to God to be where and
what and how He pleases.
- William Law