The Church of God & the Church of Man

We [Paul and Silas] loved you so much that we were
delighted to share with you not only
the gospel of God but our lives as well, because
you had become so dear to us.
--1 Thessalonians 2:8

Priestcraft ... is fostered whenever
and wherever the ... whole people of God
begins to view the ordained ministry as an
office rather than as a function, and allows
the office to shape the function rather than
the function to shape the office.

Most churches and most Christians in
Britain--the denomination is immaterial--
conceive the ministry as a professionalized
caste with its own exclusive tabus...

The humblest and--in the ecclesiastical sense
--lowest Congregational or Methodist chapel
 is as vulnerable as any to priestcraft, even if
it possesses no ordained minister to play
the role of the priest, for it can and usually
does allow the very absence of a minister to
limit unnecessarily the ministry of its members,
both in the church and in the community.

Such chapels, indeed, quite often openly put
forward their lack of a paid, professional minister
as an excuse for their introversion. "We can't
possibly do this ... study this ... attend that.
We haven't got a minister." The corrosive
influence is especially visible in these churches'
pattern of  worship. Whoever is actually
conducting the services, ordained minister or
visiting lay preacher, the pattern is irretrievably
sacerdotal, the congregation neither speaking
by itself nor performing an action from start to
finish. Even the Lord's Prayer is commonly
"led" in a loud voice from the pulpit,
presumably in case the congregation forgets
the words.


... Christopher Driver (1932-1997), A Future for the Free
Churches?, London: SCM Press, 1962,

photo taken near Glencoe, Scotland

Making It Through the Fire

Heaven will be where no heretic
will bellow, no schismatic cause
dissension, where all will be of
one heart, where peace will abound."
- St Augustine

When we think of heaven we always seem
to make statements like Augustine's. Wow,
we are really expecting a lot
aren't we?  The human heart longs
for this sublime state in the Kingdom
to come.  And no doubt, Scripture
tells us that the kingdom of
heaven will be ruled happily by
God in peace and righteousness and
that His Kingdom will have no end!
Hallelujah!

But somehow I was having a hard
time wrapping my head around
how we can all live together
happily and in peace eternally
when now barely one Christian can
seem to live in peace with any other
given Christian, never mind all the
redeemed that ever were and ever will
be. And God, too!

I could feel God watching me think
about this and I kind of heard
inside, "It will all be burned away."
Yikes, "What will all be burned away?"

"Everything that is not of My Spirit."

Wow, I suddenly had the clear impression
of what would make it to the next world
and what wouldn't.

In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul talks about this
whole subject, but notice that he talks
about it in the context of division in
the Body of Christ.

1 And I, brethren, could not speak to
you as to spiritual people but as to
carnal, as to babes in Christ. 2 I
fed you with milk and not with solid
food; for until now you were not able
to receive it, and even now you are
still not able; 3 for you are still
carnal. For where there are envy,
strife, and divisions among you,
are you not carnal and behaving like
mere men? 4 For when one says,
“I am of Paul,” and another,
“I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?

9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you
are God’s field, you are God’s building.
10 According to the grace of God which
was given to me, as a wise master
builder I have laid the foundation,
and another builds on it. But let each
one take heed how he builds on it.

11 For no other foundation can anyone
lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with
gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,

13 each one’s work will become clear; for the
Day will declare it, because it will be revealed
by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work,
of what sort it is. 14 If anyone’s work which
he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.
15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss;
but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

In God's kingdom everything is built in accordance
with Christ and for the unity of His Body. When
an enemy is truly defeated it is not just the temporary
loss from a single battle that brings victory but the
undoing of the enemy to work any further mayhem.

His weapons are destroyed, his war stores decimated,
his war items dismantled. Here in First Corinthians,
 Paul says a great fire is coming to each of us
and everything that is not of God will burn up.
We who are Christ's,  will make it through the
fire, in varying states of  loss, but alive to God.

 Dear Ones, prepare to look and
be different. God doesnt throw us away when
moth and bug have eaten us nearly to death.
But in order to get rid of the moth and bug the
fire will burn out everything that pertains to it
so that it does not REINFEST! 

Our Enemy will be destroyed, but so will
all his work within us, and his ability to
do more damage. Sadly, we have become
so identified with the enemy's work within
us that it seems to actually be part of us.
But it is not. It will be separated out.
The true part of you that is born of
God is incorruptible. But the rest is
going to need an EXTRME makeover.

So, most likely, most of us will need some
heavenly restoration from the Master Carpenter
when we come through that Final Fire.
Just like a man in the war may lose
two legs and and arm but still be alive.

I do not mean our physical bodies of
course, nor do I mean that our spiritual
bodies, of double course. But that which
remains will need to grow fully into
what it was really meant to be. You will
grow into what you were really meant
to be. Some of us will be really starting from
little more than scratch. What I do mean is
 that if there is much of us that has  identified with
an old regime, prepare to violently part
ways with it.

In our old lives, and sadly even as Christians,
negative or even sinful attitudes and thought
patterns actually defined who we were. Although
God has made provision for it to be otherwise
I am not sure that many of us have availed
ourselves of that provision. And so we will
suffer, more profoundly, the effects of the fire.

I can hear you saying, "But Paul is really
talking about things we do for God, our
works. The fire wont touch me, it will
just judge my works." Well, the verse doesn't
really say that that the fire wont touch you,
it only says it won't destroy you. Bad works
come from a bad place inside that
also needs to be dealt with.

Speaking of fire,  James said
"the tongue also is a fire, a world of evil
among the body, it corrupts the whole
person and sets the whole course of
his life on fire, and is itself set on fire
by hell" (James 3:6).This is where he
asks if a a tree can produce both
good and bad fruit or a brook both
salt and fresh water.  It gets kind of
hard to separate the source from what
the source produces.  Only God can
do that.

Ah, but let's look at something else just
for a moment, the words of John
the Baptist as he describes the person
and work of  Jesus (Matthew 3):
"And now also the axe is laid unto the root
of the trees: therefore every tree which
bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down,
and cast into the fire.


11I indeed baptize you with water unto
repentance. but he that cometh after me
is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not
worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with
the Holy Ghost, and with fire:

12Whose fan is in his hand, and he will
throughly purge his floor, and gather his
wheat into the garner; but he will burn up
the chaff with unquenchable fire.

John the Baptist promises us that Jesus
will baptize us with the Holy Ghost and
with fire. Now I have heard thousands,
of sermons on this  and largely the fire
part  is either ignored or romanticized.
Its made to sound like you are going
to have a rolicking spiritual experience
(Lord, send the fire!) and then I will
 just go home and feel good and be
the same partially converted person I was.
Not so, my friends.

Jesus knew that this would happen, for right
after this, his disciples say that they are ready
for such a baptism of fire and basically Jesus said,
"Oh, its indeed coming" but insinuates they
have no clue as to what it will be like and
that particular passage only  seems to pertain
to their earthly troubles and death!  (Mark 10: 38-45)
Its very human to think that all the change
will happen mystically out there somewhere
or in the heart of my poor neighbor who
isn't as spiritual as I am. Not so, my friends.
Not so. Much will happen in the twinkling
of an eye. But maybe not what or how you
and I think for its exactly what and how you
and I think that is the problem .

And  sometimes a twinkling of an eye
can last a long times when its extremely
hot! Study to show yourself approved of God.
We have been taught many misconceptions
that effect how we live our daily lives.
In all of us are elements of the schismatic
and the heretic that Augustine knows have
no part in the world to come. We aren't
going to look like we do now. Just get
used to it. But we can start the process
of damage control. So you better buckle your
seatbelts and get down to seeking God
here and now for That Day is surely
coming and no-one escapes intact.


St. Augustine
baptism of fire
1 Corinthians 3

"Now since our eternal state is as certainly ours, as our
present state; since we are as certainly to live for ever,
as we now live at all; it is plain, that we cannot judge
of the value of any particular time, as to us, but by
comparing it to that eternal duration, for which we are created.



... William Law (1686-1761), A Serious Call
to a Devout and Holy Life [1728], London:
Methuen, 1899, p. 226


photo taken from Castlerigg, Lake District UK

Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity.


... Edwin Hubbel Chapin (1814-1880)

photo taken at Lake Windermere,
Cumbria, UK





Lake Windermere, UK

The Characteristics of the Kingdom

When Christians join together to accomplish
certain things, one may expect the organizations
they form to reflect the characteristics of the
Kingdom, but that will only happen as a
consequence of the way people live and relate
to each other in Christ. It will not necessarily
follow from structures, policies, or documents.

-- Graeme Irvine, former president, World Vision

photo taken in Glencoe, Scotland

Glencoe, Scotland
Scotland photography
the body of Christ
organic Christianity

T. Austin Sparks on Listening to the Lord

He who is able to hear, let him listen to and heed what the Holy Spirit says... (Revelation 3:22).


The man or woman who has no inner ear,
no inner silence, no inner place for
hearing the Lord is never going to be
of much use in the service of the Lord,
and mark you, it must be the Lord, and
we must be very careful that we do not
give even good men and good writers the
place that the Lord ought to have.

There is a time when we must sweep
our books aside, when we must shut
ourselves up from the voices of
men, when we must get quiet with the
Lord and listen, and more, we must
seek to cultivate, by the grace of
God, the ear that is always open to
the Lord even when all the other
sounds are around us.

It is difficult, yet not impossible,
that in the raging of the street and
the rush of business life the Lord
should say something; but He will
only speak to those who recognise the
value of listening to the Lord and who
are giving Him His place of silence
to speak when possible. The ear to
hear the Lord when all other sounds
and voices are around us is prepared
and trained in these times of detachment
which the Lord demands, and against which the
devil is eternally active to capture the ear again.

Now, that is elementary (we are not seeking to
be profound), but tremendously important. You
and I know, never mind how spiritually mature
we are - the one object of the devil is to capture
our ear from God, to make it impossible for us
to have the silent hour and the silent ear for God.

The pressing in, and all the things which happen
just when you have decided to have a little quiet
time; then it is you have to fight for the ear - you
know it is true. Do you see, there is something
bound up with that; the undoing of the work of
the devil, the registration of God's mind upon this
universe, everything which is meant by priestly
ministry, which is bringing God in, is bound up
with this: God having the ear.

T. Austin-Sparks,
"The Service and Servant of the Lord



photo taken at Monsal Dale, Derbyshire, UK



T.Austin Sparks

hearing God

spiritual hearing

Monsale Dale, Derbyshire, UK

Blessed are they who observe his decrees, who seek him with all their heart.

With all my heart I seek you;
let me not stray from your commands.

My soul is consumed with longing
for your ordinances at all times.

The way of truth I have chosen;
I have set your ordinances before me.


Behold, I long for your precepts;
in your justice give me life.

I gasp with open mouth
in my yearning for your commands.

(Ps 119:2, 10, 20, 30, 40, 131;)

photo taken on Cammo Walk, North Edinburgh, Scotland

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