The Galilean Rising Up

I am just having a sense that God is getting ready
to rise up. God is known in both His strength
and His gentleness, known as both Lion and Lamb.
There are the strong risings of God which shake
the earth, and the still whispers of God that
split atoms. As C.S. Lewis wrote of
Aslan, "He is not a tame Lion"....

As I sit here feeling this impression I think fondly
of the large, powerful dogs that have graced my
life: Zoe, Fran, Patches. One of the things I grew
to love about all of them was the way they held
their tremendous strength. They were all known
for taking stuffed toys in their mouth, and in that terrier
way, shake their heads wildly from side to side
with big dog "grins" on their faces as the stuffing
would fly out in all directions. Right now I
can feel God looking at me with that same
kind of grin. :) I don't find that disconcerting
at all. I could do with a good shake in His
 mouth right now. Let all the stuff that is not
secured down fall out!

And now I come upon this quote from H.G. Wells,

He was too great for his disciples. And in view
of what he plainly said, is it any wonder that all who
were rich and prosperous felt a horror of strange
 things, a swimming of their world at his teaching?

Perhaps the priests and the rich men understood him
better than his followers. He was dragging out all
the little private reservations they had made from
 social service into the light of a universal religious
life. He was like some terrible moral huntsman
digging mankind out of the snug burrows in which
they had lived hitherto.

In the white blaze of this kingdom of his there
was to be no property, no privilege, no pride and
precedence; no motive indeed and no reward but
love. Is it any wonder that men were dazzled and
blinded and cried out against him?

Even his disciples cried out when he would not
spare them  the light. Is it any wonder that the
priests realized that between this man and
themselves there was no choice but that he or
priestcraft should perish?

Is it any wonder that the Roman soldiers,
confronted and amazed by something soaring over
their comprehension and threatening all their
discipline, should take refuge in wild laughter, and
crown him with thorns and robe him in purple and
make a mock Caesar of him? For to take him
seriously was to enter upon a strange and alarming
life, to abandon habits, to control instincts and
impulses, to essay an incredible happiness...

Is it any wonder that to this day this Galilean is
too much for our small hearts?


If there ever was a time for God to rise up and
be bigger than us it is now. If ever we needed
Him to dig us out of our "private reservations" and
our "snug burrows" it is now. If ever we need to
embark upon a strange and alarming life,
abandon our habits, control our instincts and
impulses, and give essay to incredible happiness,
now is the time.

Let the Galilean rise up and be too much for us.



quote taken from H. G. Wells (1866-1946),
The Outline of History, v. II
1920], The Review of Reviews Co., 1922, p. 598-599


H.G. Wells
the power of God
the gospel
not a tame Lion

The Pearl of Great Price: Have You Tasted God's Kingdom?

I have felt led to engage upon a time of
spiritual inventory in my own life and
to implore those around me to do likewise,
but even as I begin to do this, I feel
an equally large caution within to not
undertake this as a checklist of things
that I should be doing more or less of,
depending on if they are vice or virtue.
All that feels so repugnant and I was
wondering why. I think I know why.

I am reading Gerhard Lohfink's  "Jesus
and Community" and it striking such
deep chords within that I can't put it
down. I'm going to be writing a few articles
quoting some of what he says because it
is so rich and timely, and using it as
a challenge to the way we think about
how and why we serve God and engage
in spiritual disciplines.

He makes the most amazing point: that
the "reign of God which is now coming
to the world, which is actually in its
midst, is so appealing and fascinating
that it is not at all difficult to change
one's life and to live from now on
enthralled by what has been found"
(J & C, pg 60).

Somehow, it is that point that I feel
that we so desperately miss when we
view and review our Christian life.
Jesus does not call us to live just
a disciplined life according to a
set of high standards. He calls us
to live a humanly impossible life
in the company of His kingdom people
ON EARTH. It is a life of complete
abandonment to God not in a
restrictive sense, but in a
discovery of what freedom in
God's life and kingdom is really
all about. Jesus tells us this
in the parable of the buried
treasure and the parable
of the pearl:

"The kingdom of heaven is like a
buried treasure which a man found
in a field. He hid it again, and
REJOICING at his find, went and
sold all that he had and bought
the field". Or again, "the kingdom
of heaven is like a merchant's
search for fine pearls. When he
found one really valuable pearl,
he went back and put up for sale
all that he had and bought it."

Lohfink notes that nothing in
these parables seems grim or
heroic. "The men do give up
everything and act in a radical
manner, but they do so without
bitterness or heroism, They behave
like men who have made a great
discovery and have had extraordinary
luck in doing so. The attraction
of what they have found overwhelms
them and permeates everything they do
(J&C,pg 60)."

In other words, they are happier
than the "American Pickers" when they
find a junkyard of rusted vintage
signs and old motorcycles. It would
be like me going to an estate sale
and finding the whole house full
of every wonderful vintage item
I had ever hoped to find all
in the same place all marked "Free
if you take everything". My heart
would be racing and my joy would
be great! I'd be all over that!

Let me hammer the punchline now, "Do
you feel that kind of happiness
about your spiritual life?" I dare
to say that you might not. And
this is one of the great differences
between the early followers of Jesus and
us. We do not have that same fire
in our bones. We do not
recognize how full of ecstasy (even
with untold persecution) living
in the kingdom of God is because
we have not tasted it properly.

Somehow, the kingdom of God
has gotten equated with a bunch
of rules and regimens and not
about the discovery of God's
"unspeakable gift" in the kingdom
of Christ. Ah, but I see you asking,
"if I have never really tasted that
kingdom, how can I know that
kind of desire for it?"

Well, now we will see what you
are made of! That revelation must
come from God!  I ask you to prayerfully read
the gospels and ask God to reveal
His kingdom to you: a kingdom
built on love so selfless that human
hands cannot simulate it, a kingdom
of such brotherly and sisterly
affection that living and dying for one another
is an honor! Read the gospels in
the light of seeing what impelled
the early disciples to do what they
did joyfully and whole-heartedly

Brothers and sisters,
have you ever felt His Kingdom burning in
your heart? If you have than there is
enough fuel there for you to walk in
a heavenly life right here on earth.
A life that throws religious caution to the wind,
and makes total abandonment of every
lesser thing easy.

There is a pearl of great price, and 
field with a great treasure hid right
there where you are sitting. You ignore it at
your own sad loss and peril. There is
some chance that, even as a Christian,
you have never really experienced even
a glimpse of what Jesus
wants to hold out to us as His family.

You may have heard what you think is the
message; you may have heard
and not understood. You will
know how deeply you have heard
the message by how much joy
wells up in your heart when you think
of it, and how much you are willing
to let go of to keep it! Start your
spiritual inventory there!

What God's kingdom is really about
makes that choice a no-brainer and
a full-hearter! I need to get back
to this place in my heart and sit
with it.  I think Jesus calls it "First Love."
Its affect is amazing.



Gerhard Lohfink
the pearl of great price
spiritual inventory
Matthew 13:45
American Pickers

See that you buy the field where the Pearl is; sell all,
and make a purchase of salvation. Think it not easy:
for it is a steep ascent to eternal glory: many are lying
dead by the way, slain with security.”


--Samuel Rutherford

Lake District, UK

Cumbria,UK

Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and
rivers, the mountain and the sea, are
excellent schoolmasters, and teach some
of us more than we can ever learn from books.

--John Lubbock


photo taken at Wast Water, Cumbria, UK

Lake District, UK
Wast Water
Cumbria,UK

A true friend unbosoms freely, advises justly,
assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all
patiently, defends courageously, and continues
a friend unchangeably.
~William Penn


photo taken in the Lake District, UK

Lake District, UK
William Penn, UK
friendship, UK

Long did I toil, and knew no earthly rest,
Far did I rove, and found no certain home;
At last I sought them in His sheltering breast,
Who opens His arms and bids the weary come:
With Him I found a home, a rest divine,
And I since then am His, and He is mine.

photo taken in the Lake District, England

Lake District, UK

There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went,
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs--
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and ah! bright wings.

... Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889
 
photo of Lake Windermere, Ambleside, UK

Lake Windermere


Ambleside, UK

The Prayer of St. Brendan

Help me to journey beyond the familiar into the unknown.

Give me the faith to leave old ways
and break fresh ground with You.

Christ of the mysteries, I trust You
to be stronger than each storm within me.
I will trust in the darkness and know
that my times, even now, are in Your hand.

Tune my spirit to the music of heaven,
and somehow, make my obedience count
for You.

--Prayer of St. Brendan

photo taken in Cambridge, UK

Prayer of St. Brendan


Cambridge, UK

For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined
 in our hearts, to give the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ.


--2 Corinthians 4:6

photo taken at Lake Windermere, Ambleside, UK

Lake Windermere
Ambleside, UK

The Desire to Rule is the Beginning of Heresy

"The desire to rule is the beginning of heresy."
--John Chrysostom

photo taken in Colorado Springs, CO

Deep Inside: E. Stanley Jones on Conversion

The conscious mind determines the actions,
the unconscious mind determines the reactions;
and the reactions are just as important
as the actions. Many Christians are Christians
in their actions--they don't lie, steal, commit
adultery, or get drunk; but they react badly to
what happens to them--they react in anger, bad
temper, self-pity, jealousy, and envy...
When the depths are held by the Holy Spirit,
then the reaction is Christian.

- E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973), "Conversion"

photo taken in Worcester, England

Oswald Chamber on the Uncertainty of Faith

" It has not yet been revealed what we shall be"
 —1 John 3:2


Our natural inclination is to be so precise—trying
always to forecast accurately what will happen next
—that we look upon uncertainty as a bad thing.
We think that we must reach some predetermined
goal, but that is not the nature of the spiritual life.
The nature of the spiritual life is that we are
certain in our uncertainty. Consequently, we
do not put down roots.

Our common sense says, “Well, what if I were
in that circumstance?” We cannot presume to
see ourselves in any circumstance in which we
have never been in.

Certainty is the mark of the commonsense life
—gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual
life. To be certain of God means that we are
uncertain in all our ways, not knowing what
tomorrow may bring. This is generally expressed
with a sigh of sadness, but it should be an
expression of breathless expectation.

We are uncertain of the next step, but we are
certain of God. As soon as we abandon
ourselves to God and do the task He has placed
closest to us, He begins to fill our lives with
surprises. When we become simply a promoter
or a defender of a particular belief, something
within us dies. That is not believing God—it is
only believing our belief about Him.

Jesus said, “. . . unless you . . . become as little
children . . .” (Matthew 18:3 ). The spiritual life
 is the life of a child.

We are not uncertain of God, just uncertain of what
He is going to do next. If our certainty is only in our
 beliefs, we develop a sense of self-righteousness,
become overly critical, and are limited by the view
that our beliefs are complete and settled. But when
we have the right relationship with God, life is full of
spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy.

Jesus said, “. . . believe also in Me” (John 14:1 ), not,
“Believe certain things about Me”.

Leave everything to Him and it will be gloriously and
graciously uncertain how He will come in—but you can
be certain that He will come. Remain faithful to Him.


From My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers

The saint knows that to find oneself outside of the
 flame of God's love  means annihilation and  death."
--Catherine of Siena

photo taken at Smith College

A Easter Gift for Jesus

'If a man love not his brother that is seen
how can he love God whom he hath
not seen?"

Between ourselves and those about
us there is almost always going on
an open competition, or at least,
a secret comparison.

In that comparison others sink
as we apparently rise. To disparage
a rival is a selfish advantage; and
to selfish natures every neighbor
is a rival! Other people stand in our
way, or we fancy that they do, in
business, reputation, popularity,
etc. By that meaner disposition
that allies us more closely to devils
than angels, we try to drag others
down by uncharitable judgments.

To attack uncharitableness we need
to start with envy and pride! Or the
process may be subtler and
craftier yet. One form of self love
is self-complacency. By passing
severe denunciations on other
men's faults, we compliment the
delicasy of our own moral
discrimination and the keeness
of our sense of right. This is
how Pharisees are made! Three
crimes are committed
in one: we condemn our fellows;
we screen our own sin, we flatter
our own self-esteem.

Another part of uncharitableness is
the pleasurable exercise of unjust power.
Characters are torn to pieces, good
names tarnished, faults are exaggerated,
nor always with obvious gain but for
the sheer joy of seeing the blow take
effect. Men like to expend their
strength and this is what happens.
It is like a cat killing a mouse for sport.

You have seen two uncharitable talkers
in private get together over a drink
and rip someone up one side and down
the other. Then they will each go their
own ways and do the same thing
with someone else but this time
the victim will be the first person
they gossiped, or was that murdered,
with?

Lacking the finer ability to satirize
the failings of systems, they attack
individual men and women. Perhaps
it would be better doing good and
going about God's business than
finding what is the matter with everything.


Third, we must see that the pride
we have in our opinion, and the
impatience and disdain we have
with anyone who disagrees with us
is another monster. God created
us with a certain amount of healthy
diversity. We are not all going to
see it alike. Truth has many sides.


Narrow minds take the colored
refracted rays of God's great
heaven-filling light as insults to
their own vision. Don't argue
over non-essentials! We are
all confused about how far our
loyalty to truth and virture forbids
us to tolerate people who seem
to us to have departed from the
truth. You can see the tremendous
obstacles that beset our growth
in Christian grace.


So how shall we proceed?

First, we must distinguish
between the error itself and
the person who holds the error.
Hating the sin and loving the
sinner it is said, but hating the
sin because it has made someone
its victim is probably better.
But is this just playing around
with words and still making
excuse for ourselves?


We despise and wrong each
other for sheer neglect to
understand each other. Our
natural differences are great
and without Christ, we might
as well count the hope of
overcoming our entrenched
self-focus as impossible.

But do consider this: how
suddenly and completely
many of our most unqualified
condemnations would be silenced
if the whole early history of the
wretchd subject of them could be
laid open to us. Then, instead
of condemning, we would be
thanking God's providence
that those events that caused
such chaos and destruction
had not been dealt out to us.

We must also remember that
even though men do awful things
we do not know how much
more awful their deeds might
have been. Each of us is
fighting a terrible battle.

We are told that charity will
go on where all other exploits
will cease: Tongues, prophecies,
earthly knowledge--all will pass
away, but charity will go on
forever! Hallelujah!


In these days of tender commemoration
of our Lord's loving sorrow let us
multiply our acts of devotion, confirm
our faith, renew our hope. Are we
doing anything to enlarge our
hearts? Empty and profitless
before God will be our prayers if
we harbor enmity, uncharitable
grudges, unforgiving hatred,
and a heart unreconciled to any
child of God.

Why don't you give Jesus a
present this Easter? I think
He would love a heart that
is ready to let go of all this
hateful garbage and be ready
to love. Don't you?


New Helps for a Holy Lent, 1882
Abridged and Adapted

Palm Sunday

The beginning of Holy Week finds Jesus
in the family of Lazarus. He is a Man and
He knows what lays before Him. From
here on in we are able to follow,
step by step, the unfolding Passion.


He travels south toward Jerusalem
from a retired spot on the borders
of Samaria where He spent several
solitary days in prayer preparing for
all that was to come. He passes
along the wild and dangerous
Jericho Road (where the story
of the Good Samaritan happened)
and comes late on Friday to Bethany
which is about 3 or 4 miles from
Jerusalem. Here he enters the house
of His friends, one of whom He had
raised from the dead a few weeks
before!

There Simon makes a feast for this
Divine Guest, knowing the human well,
but the Divine, not so much. Here
Lazarus sits with the mysterious
experience of the grave, and of
the resurrection, hidden in his heart.
Martha is serving because that is
what Martha does. One of the Mary's
annoints His head for a burial that
awaits Him.

You don't need a fertile imagination
to feel what happened that evening:
a happy group in the shadow of
the Cross, the tender communion,
the thankful remembrance, the pledges
of eternal fidelity too touching to
spoil with words.

The next morning He moves towards
the Temple with its sacrifices, with
the companies of pilgrims, driving
sheep to the altar, One of them
the Lamb of God--the One final,
perfect and sufficient sacrifice.

The Hour is drawing near. He will
enter as a King, a different kind
of King. The donkey is brought;
the crowd grows large. Suddenly
as they raise to the top of the crest
where the City in its historic glory
breaks forth into sight: the familiar
words of prophecy come to pass:

"Tell ye the daughters of Zion, Behold
thy King cometh."

Soon a thousand voices mingle
together: "Hosannah to the Son
of David." But the King is to become
a Sufferer. All our humanity, with
all our moods and conditions is
known to Him, interpreted by Him,
mastered by Him. All the rooms
of the human house are for Him to
inhabit. It is not all one-sided.
He knows all and is with us in all.


The Saviour sighs for us that we may
not sigh forever. Imagine a pretend
Christ who demands our faith chiefly
on the score of His interest in us
when we are happy or brave or good.
How like the world that would be!
How unlike Christ! Without His suffering
Passion He cannot command the
souls of His people. "For it became
Him, for whom are all things, in bringing
many sons to glory, to make the captain
of their salvation perfect through sufferings."


Our truest self emerges more when we
suffer than when things are going well.
When all is well your soul is not proved,
it is not prosperity that refines your soul,
but adversity. Our deepest eternal
choices are born in the dark night
of the soul.

However fortunate your present lot
in life is, do not trust yourself to
Anyone but the Man of Sorrows. His
death is not a mechanical transaction
stamped cooly at a distance for our
sins. Oh not this! His suffering
redeems our own; His life and death
determine our life and death. We
know His crucifixion only as we are
crucified with Him. We will know
resurrection only by abiding in Him.

"So let us bear about the dying of
the Lord Jesus, so that the life
also of Jesus might be manifested
in these mortal bodies."


"New Helps for a Holy Lent" 1882.
Frederick Huntington, (abridged and adapted)



Palm Sunday
New Helps for a Holy Lent

Without Him, what a dreary, lonesome wilderness
would this be! But with Christ in the heart, and the
heart resting in Christ- He in the center of our souls,
and our affections and desires centering on Him- the
desert loses its solitude and its desolateness. To have
the eye resting on Jesus- all our heart-springs in Him-
the spirit in frequent excursions where He dwells in
light and glory- to lean upon Him and converse with
Him as though He were actually walking by our side,
sitting at our table, associating with us in our callings-
this, this is heavenly-mindedness.

--Octavious Winslow

photo taken at Smith College, Northampton, MA

Stop Complaining and Fault-Finding

"Do all things without murmurings"

A subtle snares lays in the sin of
excessive fault-finding.Self-knowledge
is rare, we rarely see our sins and
our shortcomings. But let me tell you
something: complainers make even
less progress in this area.

It is doubtful whether one person
in a hundred of those who are always
looking at the bad side of things,
always pointing fingers, always
trying to pick apart what other
people say will be found to be
in any degree aware at how far
their own hearts lay away from God.

They view themselves as spiritual,
as without major defect, having
a sweet tongue, and think they
are easy to live with. What a joke!

The clever critic has a bitter tongue
and a hard heart. God searches
within and none of this kind of thing
is pleasing to Him. Whatever
happened to "love thinks no evil
but suffers long and is kind?"

Critical people disturb the very
air in a room, they provoke
people to argue, make virtue
difficult, exasperate children,
degrade the testimony of
the Church as a gentle people
given to love. Do we forget
how much mercy Christ has
shown us?

Even if we are trying to be
"good Christians" we can be sadly
unaware at the ceaseless dribble
of ill natured comments and
antagonizing accusations
coming from our tongues.

A school child can be quick
to hurt with hateful, jealous,
unkind remarks. Even a
woman who stays at home
can speak poorly of those
that come to serve her. A mother
can mean well but tear down
rather than build up. She may
expect her children to go
astray and so they do.

If you find yourself caught
in this disastrous bondage
take heed to these four things:

1) One day a week keep a strict
account of EVERYTHING you say.
Ask yourself how much of this is
complaining, and present the sad
score to yourself and to God at
night for reckoning.

2) Dare to ask a trusted friend to
keep you accountable and to
tell you when you start to fall into
bad talk.

3) Count your blessings, they are many.

4) Ask God for strength to make
the changes you need to.

If you follow these four simple
things, you can begin to change
the ugly habits that make you
...well, ugly.


"New Helps for A Holy Lent"
F.D. Huntington
adapted and abridged

criticism
complaining
F.D. Huntington
the tongue

Oh that I was lowly in heart! Honor and dishonor, good report and
evil report would then be alike, and prove a furtherance to me in my
Christian cause.

—George Whitefield

photo taken at Smith College, Northampton, MA

Be inwardly still, Friends, and wait patiently
 upon the revelation of the living flame of love
 that burns in the hidden depths of our hearts.
Place your hope in the purifying, enlightening,
 and liberating working of that Holy Flame,
and rest in that hope, and trust that the secret
life of Christ within us is itself the answer,
ineffable but sure, to the unutterable longing
of our souls.

--George Fox --Letter to Lady Claypole

photo taken at Smith College, Northampton, MA

Smith College
George Fox

Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.-- Jonathan Swift

photo taken at Smith College, Northampton, MA
"Spring Tulip"

A Burst of Hope

"Ah, the hope found in a
single bloom of spring."


photo taken at Smith College,
Northampton, MA

In Patience Possess Your Souls

In patience, possess your souls.


Patience is the endurance of tribulation out
of the love of God, and being willing to see
God in all circumstances. The offices of
patience are as varied as the ills of this life.

We need patience with ourself and with
others; both with our authorities and those
 that we govern, not forget with our own
equals. We need it with those  who love us
and those who do not. We need
it with big things and small things, against
the sudden inroads of trouble, whether it
be from the weather or a broken heart.

We need it when our body is tired and
when our soul is tired, when we have
failed others and others have failed us,
when we are sick and as we get old;
in disappointment, loss, injury, reproach;
when our hopes are delayed and even
we are tired of the ever present struggle
against sin.

All of these things are endured by
patience because we love God and
want to be found to be pleasing to Him.

All other virtues have need of patience
to perfect them. Patience puts herself
between every dart that the Evil One
throws at us. Patience is the root
and guardian of all virtue.

Impatience is like waves troubling a smooth
pond, hindering the perfect image
of Christ from being seen. It makes
the soul either outrun or fall short of
the perfect will of God. Impatience
will not listen, heeds nothing, fears
nothing, hopes nothing, judges nothing
correctly, does not persevere, except
in being restless! It shakes every
virtue and enters into almost every
sin. Impatience made Cain a murderer,
and Absalom a father-killer and
Judas a Christ-killer.

How does impatience shake one's faith
and cause one to be impatient
with the world, the church or one's own
self! It chills love and extinguish's hope.
It blights humility, quenches long suffering,
mars gentleness. Impatience of bodily
wants, leads people into drug, drink,
illicit sex, and leads them to lie,
cheat, and steal.

"In patience," our Lord says, "possess
your souls." What does this mean?
It means to lead all our emotions,
decisions, and needs to the grace of God
so that He can command us.

In the world, when someone is
disciplined and has a clear, steady
commands of things, we call him
"self-possessed." We have need
of that same single-mindedness but
not fueled by human will power but
by the Spirit of God. "It is not by
might nor power, but by My Spirit,"
says the Lord. So let patience
have her perfect work in you
and you shall be found pleasing
in the sight of God.

adapted and abridged from
"New Helps for a Holy Lent"
by Frederick D. Huntington, 1886

'Prayer does not fit us for the greater works;
prayer is the greater work.
--Charles Spurgeon


photo taken in Garibaldi, Oregon

Lord, teach me to listen. The times are
noisy and my ears are weary with the
 thousand raucous sounds which
continuously assault them.

Give me the spirit of the boy Samuel
when he said to Thee, "Speak,
for Thy servant heareth." Let me hear Thee
speaking in my heart. Let me get used to the
 sound of Thy voice, that its tones may be
familiar when the sounds of earth die away
and the only sound will be the music of Thy
 speaking. Amen.

- A. W. Tozer


photo taken in Abergavenny, Wales

Abergavenny, Wales

Learn to Wait

In times of uncertainty, wait. Always, if you have any doubt, wait.

Do not force yourself into any action. If you have a restraint in your spirit, wait until all is clear, and do not go against it.

- Anonymous


photo taken in Garibaldi, Oregon
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Planted by the Waters

And he shall be as a tree that is planted by the waters, that spreadeth out its roots towards moisture:
and it shall not fear
when the heat cometh. And the leaf thereof
shall be green, and in the time of drought
 it shall not be solicitous, neither shall it
cease at any time to bring
forth fruit.
--Jeremiah 17:8


photo taken in Garibaldi, Oregon

What was feeble you cast away".....

For the Abbot must have the utmost solicitude
and exercise all prudence and diligence
lest he lose any of the sheep entrusted to him.
Let him know that what he has undertaken is
the care of weak souls and not a tyranny over
strong ones; and let him fear the Prophet's warning
through which God says, "What you saw to be fat
you took to yourselves, and what was feeble you cast
away" (Ezek. 34:3,4).


Let him rather imitate the loving example of the Good
Shepherd who left the ninety-nine sheep in the
mountains and went to look for the one sheep that
had gone astray, on whose weakness He had such
compassion that He deigned to place it on His
own sacred shoulders and thus carry it back to
the flock (Luke 15:4-5).

This is from the rule of St. Benedict, the most
well known rules created for Christians living
in community, and as contemporary and sensible
today as it was when it was written 1500 years ago!

It is an increasingly grievious time as those who
call themselves "Christian leaders" move farther
and farther away from the Shepherd-Heart
of Christ. I read these words today and wept
at their truth and wept because they described
more of the current state of the Church then we
want to know.

God had given me this same verse
from Ezekiel last year. It is sobering and heart
wrenching....let us be about our Great Shepherd's
business. Start where you are--shepherd
one, go after one lost one, strengthen the
feeble, feed the lambs....

Ezekiel 34:3,4
Rule of St. Benedict
spiritual corruption
false shepherds

What are My Motives?

True faithfulness knows no bounds between
great and small duties....From God's point
of view, nothing is great, nothing small, as
we measure it. The worth and quality of an
action depend on its motive and origin only.
Have I obeyed God in doing it? If it is done
by the Spirit, in faith, it pleases God. If it is
your own will, it is terrible.

You and I have a soul that will live forever,
and I can pour my immortal being into every
deed that I do. Nothing is small that
is born of the Spirit of God within me.

Faithfulness measures our actions as God
measures them. It is not the visible result that
matters but faithfulness. Faithfulness
is faithfulness on whatsoever scale it is set
forth: big or small holy obedience comes from
the same place.

So keep yourself free from the world. Walk
through your day with a perfect heart. Be honest
over the pence as well as the pound. Don't let
anger rise up even for a minute as it will
set you back hours! Do small duties rightly unto
 God. This is a true test of your conversion.


New Helps to a Holy Lent (abridged and adapted)
by Bishop Huntington. 1876, 1882

Looking to Jesus

" We all, with open face beholding as
in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are
changed into the same image, from
glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord."...


Let us run with patience the race that is set
before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and
 finisher of our faith."

"Looking to Jesus" is the only way we can completely
deny ourself. All other surrender than that which
is based upon love to Him, and faith in Him, is but
surface work and drives our sinful disease deeper
 into our bones.

The man that tries to wash off the external dirt,
or give up a bad habit, to hammar and tinker himself
into what he thinks a "perfect" man might look like,
 is doomed to fail miserably.

What will he have made of himself? A "whited
sepulchure" outside adorned and handsome
but inside--full of rottenness and dead man's
bones! That which has been whipped into shape
on the outside slinks deeper into the citadel of
the heart, there to fortify its venomous position.

The only answer is to look to Jesus. Put everything
on the altar and tell Him "All is lost without You!
Bring Him what is dark and maimed and broken
and He will give back to you that which is whole
and blessed and beautiful from the inside out.

The hand that is cut off, the eye that is plucked out,
the possessions that are given up, the idols that
are abandoned....from the graveyard of these tainted
offerings a new man emerges, a person made new
in Christ! We cannot change ourselves through
willpower or hope, all we can do is "look to Jesus."

Renew us in our inner parts, O God!
We look to You!

from:
New Hopes for a Holy Lent (abridged and adapted)

The best rule of friendship is to keep your heart a little softer than your head. ~Author Unknown


photo taken in Abergavenny, Wales

The soul which has come into intimate
contact with God in the silence of the
prayer chamber is never out of
conscious touch with the Father;
the heart is always going out to Him in
loving communion, and the moment
the mind is released from the task upon
which it is engaged, it returns as naturally to
God as the bird does to its nest. What a beautiful
conception of prayer we get if we regard it in this light.

- E. M Bounds


photo taken near Abergavenny, Wales

"In the midst of a world of light and love,
of song and feast and dance, [Lucifer] could
 find nothing to think of more interesting than
his own prestige."

C.S. Lewis:--A Preface to Paradise Lost






photo taken in Tilamook, Oregon

pride
C.S. Lewis

Jesus: Alive or Imaginary?

If we think that Jesus did not rise, but
"lives" and "reigns" only in his followers'
memories and imaginations, and is not
actively and objectively "there" in the
place of power, irrespective of whether he
is acknowledged or not, we should give up
hope of our own rising, and of Jesus'
public return, and admit that the idea
of churches and Christians being sustained
by the Spirit-giving energy of a living
Lord was never more than a pleasing illusion.

And, in that case, we ought frankly to affirm that,
though the New Testament is an amazing witness to
the religious creativity of the human spirit, its
actual message is more wrong than right, more
misleading than helpful; and we must reconstruct our
gospel accordingly. Only a weak, muddled, or cowardly
mind will hesitate to do this.

... James I. Packer (b. 1926), "Jesus Christ the Lord", in
The Lord Christ, John Stott, ed., vol. 1 of Obeying
Christ in a Changing World, John Stott, gen. ed., 3
vol., London: Fountain, 1977, p. 34

Let us be brave enough to examine our faith and
question what it is we truly believe and what
we are willing to base our entire existence on.
To do anything less, as Packer says, is cowardly.

photo taken at the Painted Mines, El Paso County, Colorado


J.I.Packer
John Stott

"When we honestly ask ourselves which
person in our lives mean the most to
us, we often find that it is those who, instead
of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have
chosen rather to share our pain and touch
our wounds with a warm and tender hand."

--Henri Nouwen


photo taken in Barnstable, MA

Henri Nouwen

In place of our exhaustion and spiritual
fatigue, God will give us rest. All
He asks is that we come to Him...that
we spend a while thinking about Him,
meditating on Him, talking to Him,
listening in silence, occupying
ourselves with Him--totally and thoroughly
lost in the hiding place of His presence.

-- Charles Swindoll

photo taken near Pueblo, Colorado

Oswald Chambers: What to Concentrate On

WHAT TO CONCENTRATE ON

"I came not to send peace,
but a sword." Matthew 10:34

Never be sympathetic with the soul whose
case makes you come to the conclusion that
God is hard. God is more tender than we
can conceive, and every now and again He
gives us the chance of being the rugged one
that He may be the tender One.

If a man cannot get through to God it is
because there is a secret thing he does
not intend to give up - I will admit
I have done wrong, but I no more intend
to give up that thing than fly. It is
impossible to deal sympathetically with a
case like that: we have to get right deep
down to the root until there is antagonism
and resentment against the message. People
want the blessing of God, but they will
not stand the thing that goes straight to
the quick.

If God has had His way with you, your
message as His servant is merciless insistence
on the one line, cut down to the very root,
otherwise there will be no healing. Drive
home the message until there is no possible
refuge from its application.

Begin to get at people where they are until
you get them to realize what they lack, and
then erect the standard of Jesus Christ for
their lives - "We never can be that."
Then drive it home - "Jesus Christ says
you must." "But how can we be?" "You cannot,
unless you have a new Spirit." (Luke 11:13.)

There must be a sense of need before your
message is of any use. Thousands of people are
happy without God in this world. If I was
happy and moral till Jesus came, why did He
come? Because that kind of happiness and
peace is on a wrong level; Jesus Christ came
to send a sword through every peace that is
not based on a personal relationship to Himself.

--Oswald Chambers

photo taken in Colorado Springs, CO

"Pressured man on the run is always
postponing his encounter with God to
a ‘free moment’ or a ‘time of prayer’
that must constantly be rescheduled,
a time that he must laboriously wrest
from his overburdened workday. A child
that knows God can find him at every
moment because every moment opens up
for him the very ground of time: as if
it reposed on eternity itself."

Hans Urs von Balthasar,
"Unless You Become Like This Child"


photo taken at Somers Congregational
Church, Somers, CT: nativity display.

Now men say, "I am in no wise prepared for this
work, and therefore it cannot be wrought in me,"
and thus they find an excuse, so that they neither
are ready nor in the way to be so. And truly there
is no one to blame for this but themselves. For if
a man were looking and striving after nothing but to
find a preparation in all things, and diligently
gave his whole mind to see how he might become
prepared; verily God would well prepare him, for
God giveth as much care and earnestness and love
to the preparing of a man, as to the pouring in of
His Spirit when the man is prepared.

... Theologia Germanica [1518], Anonymous

photo taken in Westford, MA

When we find our souls at all declining, it is best to raise them up presently by some awakening meditations, such as of the presence of God, of the strict reckoning we are to make, of the infinite love of God in Christ and the fruits of it, of the excellency of a Christian's calling, of the short and uncertain time of this life, of how little good all those things that steal away our hearts will do us before long, and of how it shall be for ever with us hereafter, as we spend this short time well or ill. The more we make way for such considerations to sink into our hearts, the more we shall rise nearer to that state of soul which we shall enjoy in heaven.

—Richard Sibbes (Puritan author)

photo taken in Garibaldi, Oregon

Show me where it hurts,

God said

And every cell in my body

burst into tears

Before His tender eyes.

- Rabia of Barsa (c. 717-801 C.E.)

PHOTO: The Wreck of the Peter Iredale, Ft Stevens,
Oregon (solarized)

The Peter Iredale was a four-masted steel barque
ailing vessel that ran ashore October 25, 1906,
on the Oregon coast en route to the Columbia River.
It was abandoned on Clatsop Spit near Fort Stevens
in Warrenton about four miles south of the Columbia
River channel. Wreckage is still visible, making it
a popular tourist attraction as one of the most
accessible shipwrecks of the Graveyard of the Pacific.


Oregon Photography
Peter Iredale

"Be persuaded, timid soul, that He
has  loved you too much to cease
loving you."
--Fenelon

photo taken in Garibaldi, Oregon


love of  God
encouragement

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise
and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how
nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the
stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence...
We need silence to be able to touch souls.

Mother Teresa


photo taken in Bloomfield, CT

Have you been holding back from a
risky, costly course to which you know
 in your heart God has called you?
Hold back no longer. Your God is
faithful to you, and adequate for you.
 You will never need more than He
can supply, and what He supplies,
both  materially and spiritually,
will always be enough for the
present.

--James I (J. I.) Packer

deer feeding by the wayside, Astoria, Oregon

Love all God's creation, the whole and every

 grain of sand of it. Love every leaf, every ray of

 God's light. Love the animals, love the

 plants, love everything.  If you love everything,

you will perceive the  divine mystery in things. Once you

perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every

day. And you will come at last to love the

 whole world with an all-embracing love.

-Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

photo taken past sunset  in Feeding Hills, MA

Letting Go: It Only Hurts for a Minute!

We are a funny lot. Adults, babies, dogs, cats,
birds, chipmunks, squirrels. All of us seem to
like to hang onto things. Babies, even from
a young age, have a sense of entitlement,
they can hang onto sweets for dear life only
minutes after they have learned to use their
hands. Dogs hold onto their toys with their
teeth. Chipmunks and squirrels pack their
mouths full. Crows gather shiny things. Me,
mine and more mine.

In the bible study that I have we have
been looking at hardness of heart. Its been
a penetrating study and I have had the
privilege of seeing how and why I hold
onto things way past when I should! :)
The things that we often hold onto
are intangible but they hold us as tightly
as any chain ever could.

We hold onto our sense of being right;
we hold onto our rights, our repugnance
at being "used" or taken advantage of,
we hold onto our sense of what is ours,
and what we place our value upon. We
hold onto our life and ourselves.

These things become part of us and
when we have to let them go, we feel
as if part of ourselves is going with them.

Recently as I have been made aware of
how I protect myself, and how I hold
things to prevent injury or loss, I have
heard the voice of the Lord coming
up quickly behind me. His calm,
authoritative Voice, with a hint of
playfulness, has often recently said,
"Let go, it only hurts for a minute."

We hang onto so very much: our rights, our
possessions, our sense of ourselves; and when
we think of letting go, of surrender,
of turning the other cheek, we often
feel something clench tightly inside.
We anticipate the ache of pain or loss.

But God's advice is to let it go. He
doesn't say there won't be pain, He says
that it just hurts for a minute. A wall
of pain that, once pierced through, sets us
loose into a calm, clear place of immense
freedom.

On the other hand, when we hang onto things
when we shouldn't, things like unforgiveness
or self-focus, or entitlement, or pride;
then we have hell to pay for hours, days,
weeks, months, or years after. We think
we are protecting ourselves but we are
only walling ourselves away from the life
of God flowing through us.

You see, "letting go" is another name for
surrendered obedience. It is meant to take
us deeper into the Kingdom of God. It is
meant to take us out of this world and
put us in the Kingdom of our God and of
His Christ.

We always see the whole idea of walking
the extra mile or turning the other cheek
as a burden, as something to steel ourselves
against, or at best, our "Christian" duty,
when it should be our delight and our joy
because of what it does within us and
where it brings us in God.

Letting go is the gateway into the Kingdom
of God. The Beatitudes (Matthew 5), those
that Jesus calls "blessed" are those that
have mastered the art of "letting go."
They are meek: they have let go of pride.
They are merciful: they have let go of the
spirit of retaliation; they are pure in heart
because they have let go of impurity; they
are peacemakers because there is no war in
their souls.

They inherit the earth, they see God, they
obtain mercy, they are truly called "sons
of God because they have learned one
beautiful thing: how to let go.

How much pain we will save ourselves if
we quickly let go when God says to.
The earlier the better. There
is always the moment of grace, early on,
when there is grace to let go. If you look
at any addiction, there was a moment, long
forgotten, when just one "no" would have
closed the door. Always God gives us
that moment, no matter how weak we are,
we have that moment, and it is held out
to all men and women, no matter what their
past was or what has happened to them.

We as human beings have something wonderful
given to us by God: the power to will to
forgive. Our animals friends may hold onto
things because their souls say they should.
Play tug of war with a large dog and see
what holding on is like. We, as humans,
have been given an additional grace to
let go, to choose not to serve ourselves,
to forgive, to go higher, to be like God.

It all starts with letting go when God
says to. It wont always be easy or
instanteous, but this I do know,
it is far easier then we are led to
believe by the world.

It is vitally important that we cultivate
a listening ear to the voice of God,
carefully listening to that moment when,
in the face of our many difficult day
to day situations, He urges us to "let go."

This is not a sign of weakness or a giving
in to evil or abuse. It is a making way for
God to act, and for God to change not only
our enemy or opposer, but WE OURSELVES.

I've noticed a marked change in my approach
to opposition lately. I can feel God,
and those great cloud of witnesses saying,
"For heaven sake, RM, let go!" I'm actually
having a good time...why don't you give
it a try? It only hurts for a minute.

surrender to God
forgiveness
spiritual preparedness
cloud of witnesses
letting go
beatitudes

A.W. Tozer: Taught by the Spirit?

“The church or individual who is Bible
taught without being Spirit taught has
simply failed to see that truth lies deeper
than the theological statement of it. We
only possess what we experience. The devil
is a better theologian than any of us and
is a devil still.”

~ A. W. Tozer

photo taken near Abergavenny, Wales

A.W.Tozer
Abergavenny, Wales

Relatives I Didn't Know I Had: Hebrews 11: 22-24

Recently I have been researching my family tree.
My relatives on my mom's side, the DelNegro's,
come from a tiny village in the mountains of Italy
called Atena Lucana. It's amazing to me all
that had to transpire for each of us to come into
the world, and we are largely unaware
of all those little destined moments crossing into
time so we could come to be!

I guess it has surprised me to find out just how
many relatives I do have, since the part of
our family that I know seems relatively limited.
I started to think about this, and how, even
on an earthly level, this fact somehow expanded
me, made me see a bigger picture. Then, I really
started to think about this concept spiritually.

No matter how large our earthly families are, most
of us have felt, at least at times, alone,
out of place, misunderstood, and longing
to find "our people." I think because the
Body of Christ seems fragmented (from our
point of view, anyway, from God's point
of view it really isn't) we feel a bit
more solitary than we need to. Let's face
it, sometimes its hard to find fellowship
with people who really love and understand us,
and are rooting for us!

What we fail to realize is how many relatives
we have that we don't know that we have!
Paul, and the person who authored the book
of Hebrews, and even John, in Revelation,
see things in terms of earth being a large
theatre for spiritual truths to play out
before those in the heavenlies. Angels watch
and learn, but listen to this:

"On the contrary you have come to Mount Zion,
and to the city of the ever-living God, the
heavenly Jerusalem, to countless hosts of angels,
to the great festal gathering and Church of the
first-born, whose names are recorded in Heaven,
and to a Judge who is God of all, and to the
spirits of righteous men made perfect,
and to Jesus the negotiator of a new Covenant,
and to the sprinkled blood which speaks in more
gracious tones than that of Abel."
"Hebrews 11:22-24 Weymouth translation"

Beloved, if we could know in our hearts just
what kind of glorious family surrounds us, if we
could know that "our people" are watching us and
cheering us on, if we could sense that we
are not alone in our little enclaves but actively
part of a universal Body, unhindered by the
constraints of space and time, and undivided
from God's point of view, we would have
a greatly enlarged perspective of what our
life means. The sinful, self-focused part of
our experience could be diminished and the
good, "I'm part of a greater Whole" part could
be increased. "Little ole me" would seem
both less important but also more important.

When Hebrews 12:1 says, "Therefore, surrounded
as we are by such a vast cloud of witnesses, let
us fling aside every encumbrance and the sin that
so readily entangles our feet. And let us run with
patient endurance the race that lies before us"

You go, men and women! boys and girls! You are
included in the spiritual genealogy of Jesus, and
of God, the Father! You have family immeasurable,
and holy, royal family at that! You are not alone,
not forgotten, not poor for resources! We can think
ourselves poor when we are rich beyond our wildest
dreams. We can think ourselves alone when we are
included in a Family more numerous than the grains of
sands are on the beach.

Dear hidden ones that dwell in the solitary wood (Micah
7:14) know you are well cared for. You are never alone!
Perhaps I am writing to just one person out there,
but I know in my spirit that I am writing to MANY
of you. Sleep well in the safety of your Shepherd,
know that you matter and are noticed, know that
in the heavenlies, your true family cheers you on.

And so do I.....

spiritual preparedness
cloud of witnesses
Hebrews 11:22-24
Hebrews 12:1
Micah 7:14
Atena Lucana, Italy

Seeking the Knowledge of His Will

To the individual believer indwelt
by the Holy Spirit there is granted
the direct impression of the Spirit
of God on the spirit of an individual,
imparting the knowledge of His will
in matters of the smallest and greatest
importance. This has to be sought and
waited for.
- G. Campbell Morgan

photo taken in Feeding Hills, MA

He that has light within his own clear breast
May sit i' the centre, and enjoy bright day:
But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts
Benighted walks under the mid-day sun;
Himself his own dungeon.
~John Milton


photo taken in Feeding Hills, MA

John Milton

Decide at Once

We Christians too often substitute prayer
for playing the game. Prayer is good; but
when used as a substitute for obedience,
it is nothing but a blatant hypocrisy,
a despicable Pharisaism... To your knees, man!
and to your Bible! Decide at once! Don't hedge!
Time flies! Cease your insults to God, quit
consulting flesh and blood. Stop your lame,
lying, and cowardly excuses. Enlist!

... C. T. Studd (1860-1931)

photo taken in Barnstable, MA

spiritual preparedness
C.T. Studd