tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12917822539718951852024-03-12T21:21:28.490-07:001 Month of DevotionsRowland Croucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13473460918145751334noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1291782253971895185.post-73180339879663533052007-06-18T20:01:00.000-07:002007-06-26T04:21:05.132-07:001 MONTH OF DEVOTIONS<span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-weight:bold;"> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNB0BoJkr7p13QmYxzWL62Op65epRqZx6gfacIoYol7Gfjo0cxBmKAP0pebXbOBEWa6RRZ2q9E46miiWxozTm0juvo6-xsteUL8RYjz_DPMHGmm4aml0YZgW2nmWJJwI_lYN0j-xQYheW_/s1600-h/swdw+larger.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNB0BoJkr7p13QmYxzWL62Op65epRqZx6gfacIoYol7Gfjo0cxBmKAP0pebXbOBEWa6RRZ2q9E46miiWxozTm0juvo6-xsteUL8RYjz_DPMHGmm4aml0YZgW2nmWJJwI_lYN0j-xQYheW_/s400/swdw+larger.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066257640404446466" /></a><br />Dear friends,<br /><br />Hi! This blog is part of a series attempting to answer the most important 300 + questions I've been asked in roughly 18,000 hours of counseling/ talking to people - and learnings from 70 years of a fulfilling life. Here we will take a journey through 30 devotional chapters from the best-selling <a href="http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/9645.htm">Still Waters Deep Waters</a> series of books. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXxs33q928arnojySOIFOcN9na3AmAzSCG-tT2fR9fe6huvYdj_CWNv4ShPBGcy20K82UzYGuItAo5GzTC1dwG4VnzvH8ARyo7Y2wIh6tAJc__OnqzoTnED0acGAkMGSb83S5T5pB5zB5k/s1600-h/mountain.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:5 0 0px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXxs33q928arnojySOIFOcN9na3AmAzSCG-tT2fR9fe6huvYdj_CWNv4ShPBGcy20K82UzYGuItAo5GzTC1dwG4VnzvH8ARyo7Y2wIh6tAJc__OnqzoTnED0acGAkMGSb83S5T5pB5zB5k/s400/mountain.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5064300890706108738" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Other Blogs in this series:<br /><br /><a href="http://1monthtomeetthebaptists.blogspot.com/">1 Month to Meet the Baptists </a><br /><br /><a href="http://1monthofbooksyoushouldread.blogspot.com/">1 Month of Books you should Read </a><br /><br /><a href="http://1monthtolearnabouttheinternet.blogspot.com/">1 Month to Learn About the Internet </a><br /><br /><a href="http://1monthtounderstandyourlocalchurch.blogspot.com/">1 Month to Understand your Local Church </a><br /><br /><a href="http://1monthanswerstotoughquestions.blogspot.com/">1 Month of Answers to Tough Questions </a><br /><a href="http://1monthtochangeyourlife.blogspot.com/"><br />1 Month to Change Your Life </a><br /><br /><a href="http://1monthtomeet30interestingpeople.blogspot.com/">1 Month to Meet Some Interesting People </a><br /><br /><a href="http://1monthtobecomeachristian.blogspot.com/">1 Month to Become a Christian </a><br /><br /><a href="http://1monthtomeetjesus.blogspot.com/">1 Month To Meet Jesus </a><br /><br />Basic idea: you read one of the 30 posts each day and complete one 'mini-course' in a month. (I might even organize a certificate for those who complete the 300 units!)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFdrDe2KnmGjJscIOFpkiEQXhEx0sLRgh50iYF6p3cuO1s25Vg_-B8FFXAILHVm7PGYg37xV8uTvk-OXgGAgsn_T4-bsfnvkkkOtTFKzczC-wS-aakqsmTeR755FyhzsOyCqTCDrkqwl48/s1600-h/rccbestpicture.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFdrDe2KnmGjJscIOFpkiEQXhEx0sLRgh50iYF6p3cuO1s25Vg_-B8FFXAILHVm7PGYg37xV8uTvk-OXgGAgsn_T4-bsfnvkkkOtTFKzczC-wS-aakqsmTeR755FyhzsOyCqTCDrkqwl48/s400/rccbestpicture.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5057979648034167842" /></a>Some of the material will be adapted from the 20,000 articles on the <a href="http://jmm.aaa.net.au/">John Mark Ministries</a> website. It's a big site, (although many of the 100,000+ unique visitors a month tell me it's easy to navigate).<br /><br />If you've read all these devotions and want some more, put the titles of any of my devotional books (Still Waters Deep Waters etc.) into the 'search this site' facility at the <a href="http://jmm.aaa.net.au">John Mark Ministries</a> website, and you'll find a couple of hundred more. Or you can visit this <a href="http://1yearofdevotions.blogspot.com/">blog</a> for a year's supply (eventually)!<br /><br />I look forward to journeying with you!<br /><br />Shalom/salaam!<br /><a href="http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/14044.htm"><br />Rowland Croucher </a></span></span><br /><br /><script type="text/javascript"><!--<br />google_ad_client = "pub-3332274643402156";<br />google_ad_width = 120;<br />google_ad_height = 60;<br />google_ad_format = "120x60_as_rimg";<br />google_cpa_choice = "CAAQwLOkgwIaCOn5BAc2GNUnKMi84IEBMAA";<br />google_ad_channel = "";<br />//--><br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"><br /></script>Rowland Croucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13473460918145751334noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1291782253971895185.post-3477400164788734912007-06-18T17:55:00.000-07:002007-06-18T20:11:14.287-07:00DEPRESSION<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqvDfp1FvXrZOmC23ecyiPrw785NGmeY242Z8fs3U-IgBcBIiTdUWd9SOavMNefCqCTGw03IpeqUKWjIC7T2gF8VwAbEgZByFHcC9NyyYLUhnopjMeDy7n9eSp4COXBgh8X5_vicuVOB1T/s1600-h/DEPRESSION.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqvDfp1FvXrZOmC23ecyiPrw785NGmeY242Z8fs3U-IgBcBIiTdUWd9SOavMNefCqCTGw03IpeqUKWjIC7T2gF8VwAbEgZByFHcC9NyyYLUhnopjMeDy7n9eSp4COXBgh8X5_vicuVOB1T/s400/DEPRESSION.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5077573393278011794" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"> <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?... O, my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent.'<br /><br />'I have been allotted months of futility, and nights of misery have been assigned to me. When I lie down I think, "How long before I get up?" The night drags on, and I toss till dawn.'<br /><br />'Your words have supported those who stumbled; you have strengthened faltering knees. But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged... Should not your piety be your confidence and your blameless ways your hope?'<br /><br />Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them... when the Lord binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.<br /><br />Now if we are children, then we are heirs... if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.</span><br /><br />(Psalm 22:1 and 2; Job 7:3 and 4; Job 4: 4-6; Isaiah 30:20 and 26; Romans 8:17 -- all NIV)<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqvDfp1FvXrZOmC23ecyiPrw785NGmeY242Z8fs3U-IgBcBIiTdUWd9SOavMNefCqCTGw03IpeqUKWjIC7T2gF8VwAbEgZByFHcC9NyyYLUhnopjMeDy7n9eSp4COXBgh8X5_vicuVOB1T/s1600-h/DEPRESSION.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqvDfp1FvXrZOmC23ecyiPrw785NGmeY242Z8fs3U-IgBcBIiTdUWd9SOavMNefCqCTGw03IpeqUKWjIC7T2gF8VwAbEgZByFHcC9NyyYLUhnopjMeDy7n9eSp4COXBgh8X5_vicuVOB1T/s400/DEPRESSION.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5077573393278011794" /></a><br />Dear Adam... A letter to South Africa<br /><br />This letter is a reflection on the struggles that both the writer and reader share in being people-helpers:<br /><br />Dear Adam, I feel so strange writing this letter to you, a person I don't know in a situation I know so little about, thousands of miles away. All we have is a mutual caring friend, who asked me to write to you, a mutual profession and a mutual dark night of the soul.<br /><br />I don't really know what to say as the same words at different times by well-meaning friends have injured or uplifted me, as I have dragged myself through the blackness of depression.<br /><br />All I can do is sit in the 'dust and ashes' with you, and place my shaking hand on your boil-infested body and quietly share your pain and cry for justice. Words are so inadequate, those around us are threatened by our cries and God seems deaf to our pleas.<br /><br />In my own room I have cursed the night as once more, like clockwork, my troubled spirit awakens at 2.00 am. I have lain there tossing, turning, shaking and sweating as wave after wave of fear and despair rolled over me like the fever of malaria. My God, what had I done to deserve this, night after night?<br /><br />The texts on the wall mocked me as they became readable in the growing light: 'Be joyful always...' 'they are new every morning...'<br /><br />I just want to turn my face to the wall and die.<br /><br />Yet 1 am still here, and have found out that I am not the only one like this. In some strange way I can begin to understand a little of what Paul means when he talks about sharing some of the sufferings and comfort of Christ so we can, in turn, comfort those experiencing similar valleys of shadows as we are.<br /><br />I also gain some strange comfort in knowing that some of the great men and women of the past and of this century have gone through similar expenences. These indude Elijah, David, Job, John of the Cross, Martin Luther, John Wesley, Spurgeon, J.B. Phillips... to name a few.<br /><br />But apart from this growing insight, I have few other answers, Adam, to your (our?) many questions. I don't know why, to quote you, God 'has brought together two people on different continents... two people sharing most of the inner distress of walking through a desert blindfolded...'<br /><br />However, I do draw strength from the progress I can read in your letters, faltering as it may be. In your August letter, your feelings of anxiety and depression, the lethargy and lack of energy, your critical spirit were to the fore, while your November letter seemed to indicate some slow but positive re-integration and ability to face others.<br /><br />Your January letter seems even to have some sense of excitement about 'the learnings that we are to discover and share with each other.' I hope I can catch that beginning sense of excitement. My feelings still fluctuate so much, yet I feel a little of the vision and energy returning, but for how long? I'm so afraid of being hurt further or of hurting those I love with my black moods and critical spirit.<br /><br />Perhaps you are right in thinking that part of the problem lies in our being 'driven people' rather than 'called', to quote Gordon MacDonald. Like you, I have tried to control my goals and direction and have been disappointed and angered by those who didn't live up to my expectations or 'vision'.<br /><br />I haven't been 'success-oriented' but, perhaps I have channelled such desires into my Christian life and ministry. Oh, how do I become called rather than driven? I suspect that the 'solutions' lie not only with me, but with the Christian Church as well.<br /><br />Personally I'm sure I need to learn how to wait and abide more in Christ; to listen to what he is calling me to. Perhaps this is why I have been forced to slow down. In the meantime, I need to forgive and let go those who have unknowingly hurt me and not close off completely to others.<br /><br />I need to spend more time with people that energise me and less with those who drain me. Gordon MacDonald's book Restoring Your Spiritual Passion has some good things to say about this.<br /><br />Also I think the Church has a lot to account for in the way it hasn't enabled the laity to recognise and follow God's calling for them. Because of this, much of the work is left to the very busy few who, in turn, are resentful of the lack of participation by the majority. This often leads eventually to apathy, depression and 'burnout' in these few workers.<br /><br />Finally, thankyou for sharing your thoughts with me; my attempting to reply has helped some things fall into place. Perhaps some of our questions will never be answered this side of heaven. Keep the faith, Shalom...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqvDfp1FvXrZOmC23ecyiPrw785NGmeY242Z8fs3U-IgBcBIiTdUWd9SOavMNefCqCTGw03IpeqUKWjIC7T2gF8VwAbEgZByFHcC9NyyYLUhnopjMeDy7n9eSp4COXBgh8X5_vicuVOB1T/s1600-h/DEPRESSION.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqvDfp1FvXrZOmC23ecyiPrw785NGmeY242Z8fs3U-IgBcBIiTdUWd9SOavMNefCqCTGw03IpeqUKWjIC7T2gF8VwAbEgZByFHcC9NyyYLUhnopjMeDy7n9eSp4COXBgh8X5_vicuVOB1T/s400/DEPRESSION.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5077573393278011794" /></a><br />Tragically, when people who are accustomed to their role as helpers get depressed, they experience more difficulty than the average person in seeking professional help and in making good use of it when they find it.<br /><br />John White, <span style="font-style:italic;">Masks of Melancholy</span><br /><br />Spurgeon himself was quick to admit that he was not immune to periodic bouts of depression. He said that he knew 'by most painful experience what deep depression means, being visited there-with at seasons by no means few or far between'. He then went on to cite from the biographies of Martin Luther and John Wesley, which are full of reports about their own experiences of depression.<br /><br />Arch Hart, <span style="font-style:italic;">Coping With Depression</span><br /><br />'This evil will come upon us, we know not why, and then it is all the more difficult to drive away. Causeless depression is not to be reasoned with... If those who laugh at such melancholy did but feel the grief of it for one hour, their laughter would be sobered into compassion.' (Charles Spurgeon)<br /><br />H. Norman Wright, <span style="font-style:italic;">Now I Know Why I Am Depressed</span><br /><br />I have always been plagued by depression, which has often been so excessive that I could neither work nor relate to people... This was so extreme, that I wished to die.<br /><br />Robert Girard, <span style="font-style:italic;">My Weakness: His Strength</span><br /><br />Walter Trobisch, a Christian counsellor, notes that the word for depression in German is schwermut... It means the courage to be heavyhearted, the courage to live with what is difficult. Strange as it may seem, courage is part of depression...<br /><br />Once I heard an experienced psychiatrist say, 'All people of worth and value have depressions.' Indeed, superficial people seldom have depressions. It requires a certain inner substance and depth of mind to be depressed.<br /><br />H. Norman Wright, <span style="font-style:italic;">Now I Know Why I Am Depressed</span><br /><br />Depression is a symptom which warns us that we're getting into deep water. It is, I believe, designed by God as an emotional reaction to slow us down, to remove us from the race, to pull us back so we can take stock... It is a protective device which removes us from further stress and gives us time to recover.<br /><br />Arch Hart, <span style="font-style:italic;">Coping with Depression</span><br /><br />There are many Christians -- true believers in the Lord Jesus, who are genuinely seeking to follow him -- who, like me, have, for too many years, been desperately lonely, and in great emotional distress, each thinking that he or she is the 'only one' who, as a believer, still struggles and fails so miserably against sin. Baffled by repeated defeat in areas where other Christians seem 'to have the victory', these miserable strugglers are on the point of giving up.<br /><br />Robert Girard, <span style="font-style:italic;">My Weakness: His Strength</span><br /><br />Friendship is born at the moment when one person says to another, 'What! You too! I thought I was the only one!' (C.S. Lewis)<br /><br />Robert Girard, <span style="font-style:italic;">My Weakness: His Strength</span><br /><br />Being fairly suddenly deprived of the ability to 'perform', my sense of security and of being useful deserted me and all kinds of nameless terrors swept over me, usually at night.<br /><br />Vera Phillips & Edwina Robertson<br /><br />..then we also should have an address book of our special friends... special friends are committed to helping each other discover and maintain spiritual passion.<br /><br />Gordon MacDonald, <span style="font-style:italic;">Restoring Your Spiritual Passion</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqvDfp1FvXrZOmC23ecyiPrw785NGmeY242Z8fs3U-IgBcBIiTdUWd9SOavMNefCqCTGw03IpeqUKWjIC7T2gF8VwAbEgZByFHcC9NyyYLUhnopjMeDy7n9eSp4COXBgh8X5_vicuVOB1T/s1600-h/DEPRESSION.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqvDfp1FvXrZOmC23ecyiPrw785NGmeY242Z8fs3U-IgBcBIiTdUWd9SOavMNefCqCTGw03IpeqUKWjIC7T2gF8VwAbEgZByFHcC9NyyYLUhnopjMeDy7n9eSp4COXBgh8X5_vicuVOB1T/s400/DEPRESSION.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5077573393278011794" /></a><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Dear Lord, at times I feel so tired and weary; I have so many questions to ask you, but I don't even have the strength to ask them now.<br /><br />Please let me rest a while in your arms and be carried close to your heart. Let me cry and drain out all the pain I carry deep inside me for myself and others.<br /><br />Lord, break me if you will, but do not crush me. ...Your Kingdom come, your will be done...! Amen.<br /></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqvDfp1FvXrZOmC23ecyiPrw785NGmeY242Z8fs3U-IgBcBIiTdUWd9SOavMNefCqCTGw03IpeqUKWjIC7T2gF8VwAbEgZByFHcC9NyyYLUhnopjMeDy7n9eSp4COXBgh8X5_vicuVOB1T/s1600-h/DEPRESSION.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqvDfp1FvXrZOmC23ecyiPrw785NGmeY242Z8fs3U-IgBcBIiTdUWd9SOavMNefCqCTGw03IpeqUKWjIC7T2gF8VwAbEgZByFHcC9NyyYLUhnopjMeDy7n9eSp4COXBgh8X5_vicuVOB1T/s400/DEPRESSION.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5077573393278011794" /></a><br /><br />A Benediction<br /><br />Here I am, Lord. Here is my body, Here is my heart, Here is my soul. Grant that I may be big enough to reach the world, Strong enough to carry it, Pure enough to embrace it without wanting to keep it. Grant that I may be a meeting place, but a temporary one; A road that does not end in itself, because everything to be gathered there, everything human, leads towards you.<br /><br />Michel Quoist, <span style="font-style:italic;">Prayers of Life</span><br /><br />Rowland Croucher ed., <span style="font-style:italic;">High Mountains Deep Valleys</span>, Albatross/Lion, chapter 17</span>Rowland Croucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13473460918145751334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1291782253971895185.post-59619948375253094782007-06-18T03:39:00.000-07:002007-06-18T03:46:16.576-07:00THE WAITING GAME<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6cMqIZnwPCXMOinVkmg5tvl7mDcH4KOba5B4or1P9-fg6fCyP8vbdPCieVUIxNaYWD0fmyDpza5_cv4JA-6rXDm1M1nmj1NfxRvHk2oo0TiUXdYNh-4zdoNAjboJ2BHLVQTuQnK6NGqRY/s1600-h/waiting.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6cMqIZnwPCXMOinVkmg5tvl7mDcH4KOba5B4or1P9-fg6fCyP8vbdPCieVUIxNaYWD0fmyDpza5_cv4JA-6rXDm1M1nmj1NfxRvHk2oo0TiUXdYNh-4zdoNAjboJ2BHLVQTuQnK6NGqRY/s400/waiting.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5077353228959451522" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"> <span style="font-style:italic;">Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the Lord.<br /><br />For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him.<br /><br />It will be said on that day 'Lo this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.'<br /><br />From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides thee, who works for those who wait for him.<br /><br />Be ready for action with belts fastened and lamps alight. Be like men who wait for their master's return... ready to let him in the moment he knocks.<br /><br />When he was abused he did not retort with abuse. When he suffered he uttered no threats, but committed his cause to the one who judges justly.<br /><br />We ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons.<br /><br />For to us, our hope of attaining the righteousness which we eagerly await, is the work of the Spirit through faith.<br /><br />Be patient my brothers until the Lord comes. The farmer looking for the precious crop his land may yield can only wait in patience, until the autumn and spring rains have fallen.</span><br /><br />(Psalm 27:14, RSV; Psalm 62:5, RSV; Isaiah 25:9, RSV; Isaiah (34:4, RSV; Luke 12:35-36, NEB; 1 Peter 2:23, NEB; Romans 8:23, RSV; Galatians 5:5, NEB; James 5:7-8, NEB)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6cMqIZnwPCXMOinVkmg5tvl7mDcH4KOba5B4or1P9-fg6fCyP8vbdPCieVUIxNaYWD0fmyDpza5_cv4JA-6rXDm1M1nmj1NfxRvHk2oo0TiUXdYNh-4zdoNAjboJ2BHLVQTuQnK6NGqRY/s1600-h/waiting.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6cMqIZnwPCXMOinVkmg5tvl7mDcH4KOba5B4or1P9-fg6fCyP8vbdPCieVUIxNaYWD0fmyDpza5_cv4JA-6rXDm1M1nmj1NfxRvHk2oo0TiUXdYNh-4zdoNAjboJ2BHLVQTuQnK6NGqRY/s400/waiting.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5077353228959451522" /></a><br /><br />Between our work and the fruit of it there is always a distance, the time of waiting. We all know this and we all have found it hard to bear. Yet waiting is built into the structures of living.<br /><br />Expectation of good is a joy that we could not have without waiting. Crises of courtship, birth, promotion, all make demands upon our patience. Would it have been better if these changes had fallen upon us, like Newton's apple? Would we have been better people? Something persuades us otherwise. We appreciate the good that has come to us the more when it comes, not by plain sailing, but through heavy seas; over the edge of the falls.<br /><br />All the same, we do not like being keep waiting; for appointments, for service at stores, restaurants or government offices. This understanding of the importance of not having to wait is reinforced by what we experience in hospitals and nursing homes. Patients (by definition sufferers, those who must wait) have to wait for everything -- for food, drink, nursing; wait even to be moved. Unemployed people are 'waiters'. People who work are 'doers'. The unemployed lack this apparent worth.<br /><br />We notice in the Scriptures that there is a premium set upon waiting for God. Waiting is a form of faithfulness, of endurance. It is the other side of seeking him. Waiting is so important that its demands are placed upon Jesus, who carries it up to the Father. He works steadily, patiently, in the day God has given him. He has time for people, time for God. When he is handed over to the Jews and to Pilate he accepts for himself exactly those marks of waiting which we see in the hospital and nursing-home patient. He waits for others, others serve him as they will move him, push him, give him food or drink or not, as they decide. Waiting thus is hallowed by God who voluntarily sets aside his rule over us and in Christ comes under its rule. So he encourages and blesses our waiting, our patience, our endurance.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6cMqIZnwPCXMOinVkmg5tvl7mDcH4KOba5B4or1P9-fg6fCyP8vbdPCieVUIxNaYWD0fmyDpza5_cv4JA-6rXDm1M1nmj1NfxRvHk2oo0TiUXdYNh-4zdoNAjboJ2BHLVQTuQnK6NGqRY/s1600-h/waiting.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6cMqIZnwPCXMOinVkmg5tvl7mDcH4KOba5B4or1P9-fg6fCyP8vbdPCieVUIxNaYWD0fmyDpza5_cv4JA-6rXDm1M1nmj1NfxRvHk2oo0TiUXdYNh-4zdoNAjboJ2BHLVQTuQnK6NGqRY/s400/waiting.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5077353228959451522" /></a><br />When our experience of waiting... comes home to us we speak of our frustration and, in doing so disclose our assumption that the waiting role, the condition of dependence, the status of patient, is improper to us, a diminution of our true function or status in the world, an affront to our human dignity.<br /><br />V.H. Vanstone, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Stature of Waiting</span><br /><br />Faith means just that blessed unrest, deep and strong, which so urges the believer onward that he cannot settle at ease in the world, and anyone who was quite at ease would cease to be a believer.<br /><br />Soren Kierkegaard, <span style="font-style:italic;">Gospel of Sufferings</span><br /><br />Perhaps, indeed, the better the gift we pray for, the more time is necessary for its arrival. To give us the spiritual gift we desire, God may have to begin far back in our spirit... He may be approaching our consciousness from behind, coming forward through regions of our darkness into our light, long before we begin to be aware that he is answering our request -- has answered it and is visiting his child.<br /><br />George MacDonald, <span style="font-style:italic;">Unspoken Sermons Second series</span><br /><br />'Passion' does not mean exclusively or even primarily 'pain': it means dependence, exposure, waiting, being no longer in control of one's own situation, being the object of what is done... If the truth of God is disclosed and the glory of God is manifest in Jesus, then the truth of God must be this, and the glory of God must appear in this -- that God so initiates and acts that he destines himself to enter into passion, to wait and to receive.<br /><br />W.H. Vanstone, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Stature of Waiting</span><br /><br />God himself cuts himself off from himself, he gives himself away to his people, he suffers with their sufferings, he goes with them into the misery of the foreign land, he wanders with their wanderings.<br /><br />Fritz Rosenweig, quoted by Jurgen Moltmann in <span style="font-style:italic;">Experiences of God</span><br /><br />Christ is our hope because Christ is our future. That means that we are waiting and hoping for his second coming, praying 'Come, Lord Jesus, come to the world, come to us'. Without the expectation of Christ's second coming there is no hope.<br /><br />Jurgen Moltmann, <span style="font-style:italic;">Experiences of God</span><br /><br />(With the example of Christ) before my mind, I will begin to desire with all the power of my will to practise this same patience according to my capacity in my own trials. Knowing at the same time the weakness and imperfection of my own soul lettered by attachments, I will above all pray earnestly and humbly for the grace without which I can never hope to conquer my impatience, irritability, aggressiveness and self-righteous impulses to judge and punish others.<br /><br />Thomas Merton, <span style="font-style:italic;">Spiritual Direction and Meditation</span><br /><br />When we love we hand ourselves over to receive from another our own triumph or our own tragedy.<br /><br />W.H. Vanstone, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Stature of Waiting</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6cMqIZnwPCXMOinVkmg5tvl7mDcH4KOba5B4or1P9-fg6fCyP8vbdPCieVUIxNaYWD0fmyDpza5_cv4JA-6rXDm1M1nmj1NfxRvHk2oo0TiUXdYNh-4zdoNAjboJ2BHLVQTuQnK6NGqRY/s1600-h/waiting.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6cMqIZnwPCXMOinVkmg5tvl7mDcH4KOba5B4or1P9-fg6fCyP8vbdPCieVUIxNaYWD0fmyDpza5_cv4JA-6rXDm1M1nmj1NfxRvHk2oo0TiUXdYNh-4zdoNAjboJ2BHLVQTuQnK6NGqRY/s400/waiting.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5077353228959451522" /></a><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Father, thank you for the hope you give me in Jesus, which makes me restless to go on and upwards in his calling of me, and impatient for change among the people with whom I work. May more of them come to love and serve you. I confess, Lord, that there are times when my impatience with them makes me judgmental. I forget how patient you have been with me, watching and waiting for me through times of dullness and rebellion and loss, waiting for me to grow up in all things into Christ.<br /><br />Because you love us you hand yourself over to us, giving us power over you. Help me to be modest, humble, and patient with them all.<br /></span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6cMqIZnwPCXMOinVkmg5tvl7mDcH4KOba5B4or1P9-fg6fCyP8vbdPCieVUIxNaYWD0fmyDpza5_cv4JA-6rXDm1M1nmj1NfxRvHk2oo0TiUXdYNh-4zdoNAjboJ2BHLVQTuQnK6NGqRY/s1600-h/waiting.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6cMqIZnwPCXMOinVkmg5tvl7mDcH4KOba5B4or1P9-fg6fCyP8vbdPCieVUIxNaYWD0fmyDpza5_cv4JA-6rXDm1M1nmj1NfxRvHk2oo0TiUXdYNh-4zdoNAjboJ2BHLVQTuQnK6NGqRY/s400/waiting.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5077353228959451522" /></a><br />A Benediction<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">I go on today, Lord, singing and making melody to you in my heart, ready to do and to suffer all that you ask of me, in Jesus Christ. I seek you in all things, I wait for you so. Amen.</span><br /><br />>From Rowland Croucher ed., <span style="font-style:italic;">Still Waters Deep Waters </span>(Albatross/Lion), chapter five.</span>Rowland Croucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13473460918145751334noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1291782253971895185.post-36400807777588417172007-06-17T02:38:00.000-07:002007-06-17T02:44:39.647-07:00LOVE WITHOUT LIMITS<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3KlEseKWT8ImzTC88AKlDGJNhbLBqbooc3cjnKqUVahJYAmNDQPYCe4sxMr59BOAgZseBcDMAjmiJKLZmgbXP-YLsmW11jj6HekPiK396AxTHLFwCNsJkoJRrSNZaM7wxYWAKLxH2ZzCy/s1600-h/CHRIST+CROSS.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3KlEseKWT8ImzTC88AKlDGJNhbLBqbooc3cjnKqUVahJYAmNDQPYCe4sxMr59BOAgZseBcDMAjmiJKLZmgbXP-YLsmW11jj6HekPiK396AxTHLFwCNsJkoJRrSNZaM7wxYWAKLxH2ZzCy/s400/CHRIST+CROSS.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5076966127852030322" /></a><span style="font-weight:bold;"> <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">You have learnt how it was said 'Eye for eye and tooth for tooth'. But I say this to you: offer the wicked man no resistance. On the contrary, if anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well; if a man takes you to law and would have your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.<br /><br />Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole. And with his stripes we are healed.<br /><br />You have learnt how it was said 'you must love your neighbour and hate your enemy'. But I say this to you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.<br /><br />For Christ suffered for you and left you a personal example, and wants you to follow in his steps. He was guilty of no sin, nor of the slightest prevarication. Yet when he was insulted he offered no insult in return. When he suffered he made no threats of revenge.<br /><br />Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.</span><br /><br />(Matthew 5:38-40, JB; Isaiah 53:4-5, RSV; Matthew 5:43-44, JB; Peter 2:21-23, Phillips; Luke 23:34, NEB)<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3KlEseKWT8ImzTC88AKlDGJNhbLBqbooc3cjnKqUVahJYAmNDQPYCe4sxMr59BOAgZseBcDMAjmiJKLZmgbXP-YLsmW11jj6HekPiK396AxTHLFwCNsJkoJRrSNZaM7wxYWAKLxH2ZzCy/s1600-h/CHRIST+CROSS.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3KlEseKWT8ImzTC88AKlDGJNhbLBqbooc3cjnKqUVahJYAmNDQPYCe4sxMr59BOAgZseBcDMAjmiJKLZmgbXP-YLsmW11jj6HekPiK396AxTHLFwCNsJkoJRrSNZaM7wxYWAKLxH2ZzCy/s400/CHRIST+CROSS.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5076966127852030322" /></a><br />Should we permit the behaviour of others towards us to change our standards, ideals and behaviour?<br /><br />In fact, the behaviour of others towards us does evoke changes within us. If we respond to our highest ideals and insights, we try to act patiently, tolerantly and lovingly. But when we receive in return nothing but misunderstanding, indifference, accusations of insincerity, and hostility, then we begin to change. We lose patience, we become defensive. Like Peter, we think it's a big deal to forgive up to seven times. But seventy times seven? No way.<br /><br />The change in us is the consequence of our allowing the attitudes and actions of another to gain power over us.<br /><br />We may even rationalise. We argue that it is in their interests that we do not allow them to get away with it.<br /><br />We may also argue that whilst Jesus' teaching is ideal, we've got to be practical and realistic.<br /><br />Jesus' prayer, 'Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing,' exemplifies his characteristic reaction to hostility and violence throughout his life. He dared to stake his whole being on the veracity and ultimate power of love. He refused at any point to allow the abuse and attacks of others to change one whit his attitudes or reaction towards them.<br /><br />Never once did he change his nature -- which was to save those who reviled him -- to accommodate or adjust himself to others.<br /><br />The cross is foolish not only to the unbelieving world. In his personal life the Christian also has a struggle with the foolishness of the cross -- the symbol of the uncompromising and unconditional love demonstrated by Jesus and demanded of his disciple.<br /><br />Yet it is the way the Master went. And a cross-less Christianity is a distortion and a travesty.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3KlEseKWT8ImzTC88AKlDGJNhbLBqbooc3cjnKqUVahJYAmNDQPYCe4sxMr59BOAgZseBcDMAjmiJKLZmgbXP-YLsmW11jj6HekPiK396AxTHLFwCNsJkoJRrSNZaM7wxYWAKLxH2ZzCy/s1600-h/CHRIST+CROSS.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3KlEseKWT8ImzTC88AKlDGJNhbLBqbooc3cjnKqUVahJYAmNDQPYCe4sxMr59BOAgZseBcDMAjmiJKLZmgbXP-YLsmW11jj6HekPiK396AxTHLFwCNsJkoJRrSNZaM7wxYWAKLxH2ZzCy/s400/CHRIST+CROSS.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5076966127852030322" /></a><br />An old man in India sat down in the shade of an ancient banyan tree whose roots disappeared far away in a swamp. Presently he discerned a commotion where the roots entered the water. Concentrating his attention, he saw that a scorpion had become helplessly entangled in the roots. Pulling himself to his feet, he made his way carefully along the tops of the roots to the place where the scorpion was trapped. He reached down to extricate it. But each time he touched the scorpion, it lashed his hand with its tail, stinging him painfully. Finally his hand was so swollen he could no longer close his fingers, so he withdrew to the shade of the tree to wait for the swelling to go down. As he arrived at the trunk, he saw a young man standing above him on the road laughing at him. 'You're a fool,' said the young man, 'wasting your time trying to help a scorpion that can only do you harm.' The old man replied, 'Simply because it is in the nature of the scorpion to sting, should I change my nature, which is to save?'<br /><br />William Sloane Coffin, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Courage to Love</span><br /><br />Love will conquer hate.<br /><br />Mohandas Gandhi<br /><br />Forgiveness does not mean ignoring what has been done, or putting a false label on an evil act. It means rather that the evil act no longer remains as a barrier to the relationship. Forgiveness is a catalyst which creates the atmosphere necessary for a new beginning. Agape is sheer unqualified, creative and redemptive goodwill for all people. Love alone is capable of transforming with redemptive power.<br /><br />I have lived with the conviction that unearned suffering is redemptive. There are some who still find the cross a stumbling block, others consider it foolishness. But I am more convinced than ever that it is the power of God to social and individual salvation.<br /><br />Martin Luther King, <span style="font-style:italic;">Strength to Love</span><br /><br />The meek only inherit abuse!<br /><br />Unknown<br /><br />The spirit of self-denial and the spirit of service coming together produce a new being: the most formidable being on earth -- the Terrible Meek! They are terrible in that they demand nothing, and hence cannot be bought or tempted, and that there are no lengths they are not prepared to go for others. Christ in the presence of Pilate is a picture of the terrible meek. He could not be bullied -- he could not be changed. Nothing could make him love less. He wanted nothing, except to give his life for the very people who were crucifying him. The future of the world will be in the hands of those who serve the world, suffer for the world, and so save the world.<br /><br />E. Stanley Jones, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Christ of the Mount</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3KlEseKWT8ImzTC88AKlDGJNhbLBqbooc3cjnKqUVahJYAmNDQPYCe4sxMr59BOAgZseBcDMAjmiJKLZmgbXP-YLsmW11jj6HekPiK396AxTHLFwCNsJkoJRrSNZaM7wxYWAKLxH2ZzCy/s1600-h/CHRIST+CROSS.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3KlEseKWT8ImzTC88AKlDGJNhbLBqbooc3cjnKqUVahJYAmNDQPYCe4sxMr59BOAgZseBcDMAjmiJKLZmgbXP-YLsmW11jj6HekPiK396AxTHLFwCNsJkoJRrSNZaM7wxYWAKLxH2ZzCy/s400/CHRIST+CROSS.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5076966127852030322" /></a><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Lord, in my head, and deep in my heart, I know that the way of Jesus is unquestionably right. The purity of his love leaves me wondering. But, Lord, you also know, better than I understand it, the struggle I have inside. The sheer practicalities of daily human interaction all tell me it won't work. I want to save myself. But then, didn't Jesus? The difference between us is that his final choices -- not to save himself -- were always the right ones. Mine almost never are. My natural impulse, Lord, is to defend myself, to protect myself, to refuse to become vulnerable to the hostility of others.<br /><br />The cross is so much heavier than I thought. In the first flush of discipleship, and the glow of my young faith, I picked it up readily. But now? I've discovered that the cross is not a comfortable symbol. It impinges on almost every decision I have to make -- even the small ones. I Want to choose against the path of pain, involvement, personal cost. I can easily love my friends -- and forgive them when necessary. But my enemies? Those who hurt me? Every day I let the attitudes of others determine my reactions.<br /><br />Lord, I see all this. And I know that your way, not mine, is right. Please help me, however stumblingly, to pick up the cross -- in little things and big -- until, by your grace, I become a little more like Jesus. Please help me. Amen.<br /><br />O Holy Spirit, who so deeply disturbs our peace, continue, we pray, your probings and promptings and goad us until we go your way, to our own greater blessing and deeper peace. In Jesus Christ our Lord.</span><br /><br />George Appleton, <span style="font-style:italic;">Journey for a Soul</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3KlEseKWT8ImzTC88AKlDGJNhbLBqbooc3cjnKqUVahJYAmNDQPYCe4sxMr59BOAgZseBcDMAjmiJKLZmgbXP-YLsmW11jj6HekPiK396AxTHLFwCNsJkoJRrSNZaM7wxYWAKLxH2ZzCy/s1600-h/CHRIST+CROSS.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3KlEseKWT8ImzTC88AKlDGJNhbLBqbooc3cjnKqUVahJYAmNDQPYCe4sxMr59BOAgZseBcDMAjmiJKLZmgbXP-YLsmW11jj6HekPiK396AxTHLFwCNsJkoJRrSNZaM7wxYWAKLxH2ZzCy/s400/CHRIST+CROSS.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5076966127852030322" /></a><br />A Benediction<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ make us gracious.<br />The love of God our Father make us loving<br />And the fellowship and power of the Holy Spirit fill and empower us<br />Until we show, in our lives, more of the spirit and the marks of Jesus Christ.<br /><br />Amen.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Still Waters, Deep Waters</span> ed. By Rowland Croucher pp. 238-241</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3KlEseKWT8ImzTC88AKlDGJNhbLBqbooc3cjnKqUVahJYAmNDQPYCe4sxMr59BOAgZseBcDMAjmiJKLZmgbXP-YLsmW11jj6HekPiK396AxTHLFwCNsJkoJRrSNZaM7wxYWAKLxH2ZzCy/s1600-h/CHRIST+CROSS.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3KlEseKWT8ImzTC88AKlDGJNhbLBqbooc3cjnKqUVahJYAmNDQPYCe4sxMr59BOAgZseBcDMAjmiJKLZmgbXP-YLsmW11jj6HekPiK396AxTHLFwCNsJkoJRrSNZaM7wxYWAKLxH2ZzCy/s400/CHRIST+CROSS.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5076966127852030322" /></a>Rowland Croucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13473460918145751334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1291782253971895185.post-25480841395307284242007-06-14T02:59:00.000-07:002007-06-14T03:10:09.363-07:00WHEN THROUGH THE DEEP WATERS<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW26IFB4u6qx3y1cZ_erI1ClNXH8fSPdvmgwtqR8zr9wa0X5_L6dn09ZaTs6ZYorzOkOpwwfmBsZ84dnhJk_97qsPwB_Av9hBvLWhA3ZYj7dumDr_NUlqpvqcpiqUi9j2TZP-UWby8BOut/s1600-h/flood.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW26IFB4u6qx3y1cZ_erI1ClNXH8fSPdvmgwtqR8zr9wa0X5_L6dn09ZaTs6ZYorzOkOpwwfmBsZ84dnhJk_97qsPwB_Av9hBvLWhA3ZYj7dumDr_NUlqpvqcpiqUi9j2TZP-UWby8BOut/s400/flood.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5075859005542205794" /></a><span style="font-weight:bold;"> <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">He was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering... He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth... After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied.<br /><br />If they persecuted me, they will persecute you too... The time will come when anyone who kills you will think that by doing this they are serving God.<br /><br />Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered... If we share Christ's sufferings, we will also share his glory... We rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope... You have been given the privilege of serving Christ, not only by believing in him, but also by suffering for him.<br /><br />Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ.<br /><br />I reckon that the sufferings we now endure bear no comparison with the splendour, as yet unrevealed, which is in store for us... In everything, as we know, [the Spirit] co-operates for good with those who love God and are called according to his purpose.<br /><br />Even if I go through the deepest darkness, I will not be afraid, Lord, for you are with me. </span><br /><br />(Isaiah 53: 3,7,11, NIV; John 15: 20; 16: 2, GNB; Hebrews 5: 8, NIV; Romans 8: 17b, GNB; Romans 5: 3-4, NIV; Philippians 1: 29, GNB; 1 Peter 4: 12-13, NIV; Romans 8: 18, 28, NEB; Psalm 23: 4, GNB)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW26IFB4u6qx3y1cZ_erI1ClNXH8fSPdvmgwtqR8zr9wa0X5_L6dn09ZaTs6ZYorzOkOpwwfmBsZ84dnhJk_97qsPwB_Av9hBvLWhA3ZYj7dumDr_NUlqpvqcpiqUi9j2TZP-UWby8BOut/s1600-h/flood.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW26IFB4u6qx3y1cZ_erI1ClNXH8fSPdvmgwtqR8zr9wa0X5_L6dn09ZaTs6ZYorzOkOpwwfmBsZ84dnhJk_97qsPwB_Av9hBvLWhA3ZYj7dumDr_NUlqpvqcpiqUi9j2TZP-UWby8BOut/s400/flood.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5075859005542205794" /></a><br />'I know that God will not let anything bad happen to me. I fully believe he has thrown a wall of protection around me.' It was the confident assertion of a new Christian. What she had not yet learned is that there have been those in every age who have claimed exemption from suffering and disaster, but have finally had to realise that these experiences are part of the fabric of life for every person -- the righteous, the wicked, the Christian, the non-Christian, the deserving, the undeserving.<br /><br />The book of Job is a very ancient drama that tells of a very good man who was struck by disaster. We are led to envisage a conference taking place between God and heavenly beings, including the adversary, Satan. 'Of course Job worships you,' says Satan. 'You protect him and everything he owns. Take away everything he has and he will curse you.'<br /><br />The idea persists in many circles. 'It pays to serve Jesus,' sings one. 'Do all the right things and God will give you prosperity,' says another. 'If people would only believe in God, bad things would not happen.'<br /><br />People who have such expectations do not understand a basic teaching of Jesus and the New Testament. Those who respond to Christ's call to follow him, to be his disciples, learn that, not only are they not exempt from the difficulties and calamities that come to all humankind; they have the added prospect of persecution and suffering that come from being a follower.<br /><br />Malcolm O. Tolbert says: 'A disciple is not a person who memorises vast amounts of religious tradition so that orthodox answers can be given to theological questions. The disciple is a person who follows after Jesus, gladly sharing in his redemptive suffering.'<br /><br />'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?' (John 9: 2). The question of the disciples expressed an old accepted view that all suffering came as the result of sin and that blame could be assigned. The friends of Job had the same idea. Said Eliphaz: 'Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed?' (Job 4: 7).<br /><br />But the lives of people such as Job and Jeremiah could not be explained in such a way. Their suffering needed a more adequate explanation.<br /><br />The English historian Herbert Butterfield writes: 'The period associated with the Jewish Exile provides us with a remarkable example of the way in which the human spirit can ride disaster and wring victory out of the very extremity of defeat... Through a long period of other vicissitudes, the Old Testament people vindicated human freedom and the power of personality. They showed that using resources inside themselves, they might turn their catastrophe into a springboard for human achievement, even when the catastrophe was of that irresistible kind which breaks people's backs.'<br /><br />Peter, writing to first century Christians, accepts that some of his readers were reacting with surprise that their Christian lives involved 'fiery ordeals'. He exhorted them to react positively, not in retaliation, but with acceptance in the name of Christ, making sure that the testimony of their lives did not give cause for reproach. His words must have challenged Christians in later centuries as churches increased in number and persecutions continued.<br /><br />Tertullian, the early church apologist, said, 'The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.' Many men and women through the centuries were content to suffer patiently for Christ's sake. Some even courted persecution, thinking that thereby their testimony would be more real.<br /><br />There is enough disaster and calamity in today's world without the need to look for it. Such trouble will not necessarily come in the form of persecution -- though that is not an impossibility in some countries. In a world where the popular belief is that life is meant to be easy, and the chief aims are affluence and ease, the Christian needs to be aware that no person is exempt from sorrow. As the writer O. Henry expressed it, 'Life is made up of sobs, sniffles and sighs, with sniffles predominating.'<br /><br />So: what to do when sorrow, pain or suffering strike? Some people allow themselves to become peevish and bitter, while others are sweetened and refined by adverse circumstances. The latter result will come when people let God use their experiences to become the means to a closer relationship with him. C.S. Lewis has said, 'God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.'<br /><br />Brian Hession, suffering from cancer, wrote: 'In our anguish we love that cry of Christ, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" We are glad he said it; we are glad that he was tempted in all points just as we are. In the midst of our dark tunnel of difficulties, depression or suffering, Christ is there. "My God, my God!" If he could cry that, so can we. If he could go through the barriers, the sound effects of suffering, and come out on the other side with God, so can we. It may not be in the wisdom of these things for us always to live. We have to learn to die gracefully or to live gracefully.'<br /><br />The Christian can express faith in the words of the eighteenth century hymn:<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">When through the deep water he calls thee to go,<br />The rivers of grief shall not thee overflow;<br />For he will be with thee in trouble to bless,<br />And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.<br /></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW26IFB4u6qx3y1cZ_erI1ClNXH8fSPdvmgwtqR8zr9wa0X5_L6dn09ZaTs6ZYorzOkOpwwfmBsZ84dnhJk_97qsPwB_Av9hBvLWhA3ZYj7dumDr_NUlqpvqcpiqUi9j2TZP-UWby8BOut/s1600-h/flood.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW26IFB4u6qx3y1cZ_erI1ClNXH8fSPdvmgwtqR8zr9wa0X5_L6dn09ZaTs6ZYorzOkOpwwfmBsZ84dnhJk_97qsPwB_Av9hBvLWhA3ZYj7dumDr_NUlqpvqcpiqUi9j2TZP-UWby8BOut/s400/flood.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5075859005542205794" /></a><br />The disciples wanted [Jesus] to save their lives. He said, 'Those who lose their lives for my sake shall find them.' This is a hard saying. It was hard for the disciples; they didn't want a suffering, dying, crucified God; they wanted a God alive and victorious, with priests and kings and Roman governors kneeling at his feet. It was hard for the martyrs; they didn't want a painful death; they wanted to be happy, ordinary citizens with wives and children and a small business.<br /><br />And it is hard for us. We don't want a Christianity that demands we give up our lives; we'd prefer a Christianity that would show us an easy way of keeping them. Though we often couple death and resurrection in one phrase, we are seldom quite as sure of our promised resurrection as we are of our inevitable death. And we hesitate to gamble our lives on Jesus' promise.<br /><br />Joy Davidman, <span style="font-style:italic;">Smoke on the Mountain</span><br /><br />We speak of martyrs in the past tense; the tyrannies of our own time have seen the folly of making martyrs. What, indeed, could be more self-defeating than the measures of the old Roman government? To pick the most distinguished, or the most stubborn of the Christians, and do them to death in amphitheatres, before ten thousand eyes, with all the circumstance and drama of a Spanish bullfight -- was it surprising that the blood of the martyrs proved to be the seed of the church? No anti-Christian regime is likely to repeat the error.<br /><br />Christians will be condemned for fiddling the currency, or leaguing with the national enemy; for economic sabotage or political subversion; not for loyalty to Christ. They will not be given the opportunity of attesting the faith they profess; they will be given the opportunity of confessing the crimes they have not committed; and they will do it; for they will be subjected to a technique of suspended torture and psychological persuasion capable of breaking any mind.<br /><br />So there are to be no more martyrs, only involuntary apostates; and this depressing fact seems to some of us the greatest obstacle in the way of faith.<br /><br />Austin Farrer, <span style="font-style:italic;">Love Almighty and Ills Unlimited</span><br /><br />The problem of pain is always with us. And he' (Jesus) chose pain. He never said that pain is a good thing; he cured it. But he chose it. The ancient world stumbled on that very thing. God and a Godlike person, their philosophers said, are not susceptible to pain, to suffering... Then if Jesus suffered, he was not God; if he was God, he did not suffer. The church denied that... he chose pain, and he knew what he was choosing. Then let us be in no hurry about refusing it, but let us look into it. He chose it -- that is the greatest fact known to us about pain.<br /><br />T.R. Glover, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Jesus of History</span><br /><br />The Christian doctrine of suffering explains, I believe, a very curious fact about the world we live in. The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world; but joy, pleasure and merriment he has broadcast. We are never safe, but we have plenty of fun and some ecstasy.<br /><br />It is not hard to see why. The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world and oppose an obstacle to our return to God; a few moments of happy love, a landscape, a symphony, a merry meeting with our friends, a bath or a football match, have no such tendency. Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.<br /><br />C.S. Lewis, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Problem of Pain</span><br /><br />Pain, considered in isolation, is, no doubt, an evil. But we easily misconceive the problem of pain as it presents itself to a Christian mind. The world, starting from a crude notion of justice as consisting in a correlation of pain and guilt, as though so much pain could be regarded as wiping out so much guilt, is bewildered by the suffering of the innocent. The Christian has no interest in solving the problem as thus stated; we must begin by formulating it afresh. For the evil of sin is so great that no amount of pain could ever be regarded as a counter-weight...<br /><br />Sin is the setting by us of our wills against God's -consciously (when guilt is also involved) or unconsciously. This is the essential evil; no pain is comparable to it... Pain is in fact evil only in a secondary sense; it is something which, other things being equal, it is right to avoid... it is harder to see the justification in the eyes of the righteous God of pain which degrades the sufferer, however guilty he may be, than of pain which ennobles the sufferer, however innocent she may be.<br /><br />William Temple, <span style="font-style:italic;">Readings in John's Gospel</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Amid my list of blessings infinite,<br />Stands this the foremost,<br />'That my heart has bled.'</span><br /><br />Edward Young<br /><br />Thou needest not to worry about me. I live my day through and it is never too long for me; and though on the surface it may be rough weather or a storm, at a depth of twenty fathoms it is quite calm. God has taken us thoroughly in hand and has cast us into his furnace, but telling us again and again, and proving to us, that he has our own good in mind. He will stop his bellows in good time, and we must let him carry on until he completes to his liking, in his wonderful wisdom, the whole of the work that has been such a care to thee.<br /><br />Anonymous German pastor in prison, 1939<br /><br />In the cross of Christ, God confronts the successful person with the sanctification of pain, sorrow, humility, failure, poverty, loneliness and despair. That does not mean that all this has a value in itself, but it receives its sanctification from the love of God, the love which takes all this upon itself as its just reward.<br /><br />Dietrich Bonhoeffer, <span style="font-style:italic;">Ethics</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW26IFB4u6qx3y1cZ_erI1ClNXH8fSPdvmgwtqR8zr9wa0X5_L6dn09ZaTs6ZYorzOkOpwwfmBsZ84dnhJk_97qsPwB_Av9hBvLWhA3ZYj7dumDr_NUlqpvqcpiqUi9j2TZP-UWby8BOut/s1600-h/flood.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW26IFB4u6qx3y1cZ_erI1ClNXH8fSPdvmgwtqR8zr9wa0X5_L6dn09ZaTs6ZYorzOkOpwwfmBsZ84dnhJk_97qsPwB_Av9hBvLWhA3ZYj7dumDr_NUlqpvqcpiqUi9j2TZP-UWby8BOut/s400/flood.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5075859005542205794" /></a><br />Take away out of our hearts, O Lord God, all self-confidence and boasting, all high and vain thoughts, all desire to excuse ourselves for our sins or to compare ourselves proudly with others; and grant us rather to take as Master and King him who chose to be crowned with thorns and to die in shame for others and for us all, thy Son our Saviour, Jesus Christ.<br /><br />Dean Vaughan<br /><br />Oh thou whose strength sustains us without cease,<br />Bestow us patience all our load to bear<br />In lonely days, oppressed with gloom and fear;<br />Oh, fill our hearts for ever with thy peace.<br />Oh, make us free from our self-centred will<br />And ready thine own holy will to serve,<br />Then may we near thy goal, and never swerve,<br />Till thou dost rise before us great and still.<br /><br />Anonymous German pastor in prison, 1939<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">We bring before you, O Lord, the troubles and perils of people and nations; the sighing of prisoners and captives; the sorrows of the bereaved; the necessities of strangers; the helplessness of the weak; the despondency of the weary; the failing powers of the aged. O Lord, teach them, in their hour of need, to draw near to you, and may they be conscious of your presence with<br /><br />O God, my Father, I thank you for those who take up their cross and follow you; for those who tread the way of sorrow in the calm of faith; for those who battle for the right in your strength; for those who bear pain with grace and patience; for those who are enabled to teach the way of true life; for those who love unselfishly in you.<br /><br />Enlarge my soul, O God, with a divine love, that I may hope all things and endure all things: and may I become a messenger of your healing mercy to the sorrows and sufferings of men and women. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW26IFB4u6qx3y1cZ_erI1ClNXH8fSPdvmgwtqR8zr9wa0X5_L6dn09ZaTs6ZYorzOkOpwwfmBsZ84dnhJk_97qsPwB_Av9hBvLWhA3ZYj7dumDr_NUlqpvqcpiqUi9j2TZP-UWby8BOut/s1600-h/flood.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW26IFB4u6qx3y1cZ_erI1ClNXH8fSPdvmgwtqR8zr9wa0X5_L6dn09ZaTs6ZYorzOkOpwwfmBsZ84dnhJk_97qsPwB_Av9hBvLWhA3ZYj7dumDr_NUlqpvqcpiqUi9j2TZP-UWby8BOut/s400/flood.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5075859005542205794" /></a>Benediction<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">O Lord our God, teach us, we beseech thee, to ask thee aright for the right blessings. Steer thou the vessel of our life towards thyself, thou tranquil haven of all storm-tossed souls. Show us the course wherein we should go. Renew a willing spirit within us. Let thy spirit curb our wayward senses, and guide us into that which is our true good, to keep thy laws, and in all our works evermore to rejoice in thy glorious and gladdening presence. For thine is the glory and praise from all thy saints, for ever and ever.</span><br /><br />Basil (329-379)<br /><br />May the grace of love, courage, gaiety and the quiet mind, which is the grace of the Lord Jesus, be with us now and always.<br /><br />Robert Louis Stevenson (adapted)<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Rivers in the Desert</span> ed. By Rowland Croucher pp. 229-236</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW26IFB4u6qx3y1cZ_erI1ClNXH8fSPdvmgwtqR8zr9wa0X5_L6dn09ZaTs6ZYorzOkOpwwfmBsZ84dnhJk_97qsPwB_Av9hBvLWhA3ZYj7dumDr_NUlqpvqcpiqUi9j2TZP-UWby8BOut/s1600-h/flood.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW26IFB4u6qx3y1cZ_erI1ClNXH8fSPdvmgwtqR8zr9wa0X5_L6dn09ZaTs6ZYorzOkOpwwfmBsZ84dnhJk_97qsPwB_Av9hBvLWhA3ZYj7dumDr_NUlqpvqcpiqUi9j2TZP-UWby8BOut/s400/flood.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5075859005542205794" /></a>Rowland Croucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13473460918145751334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1291782253971895185.post-14381893559241969812007-06-12T17:11:00.000-07:002007-06-12T17:25:50.750-07:00MIDLIFE<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSal7LPwWO6SWG_OeLUBT2PxCp3ShLFzgxqZvkfpuzK12Gi_KalIS_lztB_GZDkjzATCW-QI4pInEnJ4SKmkPNVcXtsc3RwFvB5_Zz54Q-cPPt62JAY75AtMUDtYW9q_aq8gOJhiyDWeo6/s1600-h/job's+comforters.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSal7LPwWO6SWG_OeLUBT2PxCp3ShLFzgxqZvkfpuzK12Gi_KalIS_lztB_GZDkjzATCW-QI4pInEnJ4SKmkPNVcXtsc3RwFvB5_Zz54Q-cPPt62JAY75AtMUDtYW9q_aq8gOJhiyDWeo6/s400/job's+comforters.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5075337033871755522" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"> Halfway through life<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">I was living in peace, but God took me by the throat and battered me and crushed me. God uses me for target practice and shoots arrows at me from every side - arrows that pierce and wound me; and even then he shows no pity. He wounds me again and again; he attacks like a soldier gone mad with hate. I mourn and wear clothes made of sackcloth, and I sit here in the dust defeated. I have cried until my face is red, and my eyes are swollen and circled with shadows, but I am not guilty of any violence, and my prayer to God is sincere.<br /><br />You like your ancestors before you, have turned away from my laws and have not kept them. Turn back to me, and I will turn to you. But you ask, 'What must we do to turn back to you?'<br /><br />The people of Judah had a song they sang: 'We grow weak carrying burdens; there's so much rubble to take away. How can we build the wall today?'</span><br /><br />(Job 16: 12-17; Malachi 3: 7; Nehemiah 4:10 -- all GNB)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSal7LPwWO6SWG_OeLUBT2PxCp3ShLFzgxqZvkfpuzK12Gi_KalIS_lztB_GZDkjzATCW-QI4pInEnJ4SKmkPNVcXtsc3RwFvB5_Zz54Q-cPPt62JAY75AtMUDtYW9q_aq8gOJhiyDWeo6/s1600-h/job's+comforters.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSal7LPwWO6SWG_OeLUBT2PxCp3ShLFzgxqZvkfpuzK12Gi_KalIS_lztB_GZDkjzATCW-QI4pInEnJ4SKmkPNVcXtsc3RwFvB5_Zz54Q-cPPt62JAY75AtMUDtYW9q_aq8gOJhiyDWeo6/s400/job's+comforters.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5075337033871755522" /></a><br />For the first twenty years or so of personal Christian pilgrimage, the 'high mountains' of experience keep us going: the weekend conference; the spiritual retreat; the inspiring preacher; the encouraging response to witness; the growth of the congregation. These high points give us sufficient stimulus to keep going through the boring and monotonous phases of life and of ministry.<br /><br />But my observation is that, as the years go past, and as one's own mortality creeps up, the high points are less frequent and the deep valleys predominate. When one turns fifty (and it happens at different ages for different people!), it is possible for a Christian to enter a deep valley of experience which seems to have no end - a kind of spiritual desert.<br /><br />It's hard even to remember the high points of experience of a few years back; external circumstances seem to press harder than ever; and one's own life-cycle catches up on one. Teenage children grow into adults and move away. The familiar worlds seem hostile instead of comforting; the secular environment seems hard against the gospel; and it is difficult to find something new about the Christian faith which gives stimulus and excitement any more.<br /><br />What do you do if you get into this situation - especially if you are in a position of Christian leadership in a congregation? It's very hard to keep pretending that all is well, but there must be some clues in the scriptures and Christian experience to lead us out of this valley.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSal7LPwWO6SWG_OeLUBT2PxCp3ShLFzgxqZvkfpuzK12Gi_KalIS_lztB_GZDkjzATCW-QI4pInEnJ4SKmkPNVcXtsc3RwFvB5_Zz54Q-cPPt62JAY75AtMUDtYW9q_aq8gOJhiyDWeo6/s1600-h/job's+comforters.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSal7LPwWO6SWG_OeLUBT2PxCp3ShLFzgxqZvkfpuzK12Gi_KalIS_lztB_GZDkjzATCW-QI4pInEnJ4SKmkPNVcXtsc3RwFvB5_Zz54Q-cPPt62JAY75AtMUDtYW9q_aq8gOJhiyDWeo6/s400/job's+comforters.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5075337033871755522" /></a><br />I look at Jesus in agony on the night before he died... I stand quite dose to him and watch him reaching out for human help... but no-one now can reach him; he is entirely on his own before he dies... As I watch I realise that man will ultimately come to terms with God, with destiny and with himself only when he dares to seek aloneness. I give myself a taste of what it means to be alone: I am living in a desert: no books... no occupation... no sound of human voice... -- for a whole day... a week... for months... I see how I react when I am thrown back on my own resources... when I am stripped of what I mostly use to run away from looking at myself: work and human company...<br /><br />Then I see myself in a solitary prison cell: sound-proof walls, a narrow room, the dim light of a bulb all day... never the glimpse of a human face... or of any living thing... or sun or sky... never a sound of human voice or Nature... for weeks... for months on end... not knowing when it will end...<br /><br />Finally -- I have lapsed into a coma: I can hear the words of people and feel their touch... but cannot reach them...<br /><br />Now I return to life: to my worries and my work... my comforts and attachments... the world of human beings... but I realise that I am not the same from having been exposed to the rigours of aloneness...<br /><br />Every now and then my heart returns to Jesus in his agony... I watch him as he grapples with God and with his destiny... and the sight gives me a wisdom that thinking never could.<br /><br />So I linger there and look...<br /><br />Anthony de Mello, <span style="font-style:italic;">'The Desert'</span><br /><br />Middle age -- that difficult period between juvenile delinquency and senior citizenship when you have to take care of yourself.<br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />Anonymous</span><br /><br />'I recently turned fifty,' America's most famous father, Bill Cosby, writes at the outset of his book Time Flies, 'which is young for a tree, midlife for an elephant, and ancient for a quarter-miler, whose son now says, "Dad, I just can't run the quarter with you any more unless I bring some thing to read"'.<br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />Time magazine</span><br /><br />It is said by Anthony Power that we date ourselves by the standards against which we rebel... The themes of great literature --' love, disappointment, the texture of time -- are the themes. of ordinary fife. Indeed, the older I get, the more I see the inexhaustible interestingness of the ordinary.<br /><br />It is said that God gave us memory so we could have roses in winter. But it is also true that without memory we cannot have a self in any season. The more memories you have, the more 'you' you have. That is why, as Swift said, no wise person ever wished to be younger.<br /><br />George E Will, <span style="font-style:italic;">'On Turning 40'</span><br /><br />The midlife crisis might be best understood as the 'crisis of limits'... the awareness of physical decline... the sense of one's own mortality. There is the sense of loss and limits in terms of one's role and relationships in the family, and in one's career...<br /><br />People can remain locked in the experience of brokenness or they can reject these feelings, deny them and pretend they are not there. Alternatively, the negative ex perience may become the purgatorial environment through which people can confront and own their brokenness and their resistance to the sense of threat that the experience of physical decline precipitates... To understand that there is fellowship in human existence as well as in human achievement, that developing and maintaining a relation ship may be as important as being a success requires one to rework one's dream and vision even more radically than before.<br /><br />Maryanne Conroy, <span style="font-style:italic;">'Challenges to Faith in Life's Journey'</span><br /><br />When everything takes on the taste of death and destruction then in actual fact it is the Holy Spirit who is at work in us. This then is the hour of his grace. Then the seem ingly uncanny, bottomless depth of our existence as experienced by us is the bottomless depth of his communicating himself to us, the dawning of his approaching infinity... which is tasted like nothing because it is infinity.<br /><br />Karl Rahner, <span style="font-style:italic;">'Reflections on the Experience of Grace'</span><br /><br />Where my bitterness overflowed all bounds was at the sight of the rifts developing in the Order and the intestinal strife now raging between the innovators and those who wished to remain strictly faithful to the rule.<br /><br />The disputes over the rule paralysed me. Unity was everything to me. Above all it was the sign of God's grace and loving response to our efforts to be faithful to him.<br /><br />The sight of the divisions among us, the sound of gospel texts being mouthed without meaning and twisted from their original simplicity, left me helpless.<br /><br />I really felt as though darkness had fallen on what I held most dear in the world -- my family.<br /><br />At the Pentecost Chapter, held in May 1221, the very triumph of numbers increased my uneasiness. There were more than five thousand of us.<br /><br />I no longer felt capable of guiding the Order. At the same time I wanted to keep a hand in everything.<br /><br />Fortunately, I was thrust aside, and Fre Elias was nominated General.<br /><br />Suddenly I felt better, relieved of a responsibility which had been weighing on me. But my peace did not last long.<br /><br />The most intransigent, those who claimed to be 1oyalest to me, returned to the assault, and the divisions became more acute than ever.<br /><br />'Francis, you must come back. You must take up the reins again. You must make your weight felt.'<br /><br />'Father, you must expel the most dangerous brothers...' And on the other hand, those who thought themselves the pure, the spiritual ones, and who, making fidelity to the original rule their excuse, were becoming eccentric and unbalanced, living in such a way as to attract rebuke from the bishops by their inhuman penances and their wild and repulsive appearance. No, I had certainly ruined everything.<br /><br />Carlo Carretto, <span style="font-style:italic;">I, Francis</span><br /><br />Bernie was staying for a while at Martha's, an Anglican shelter for homeless women. The age of the twelve women at Martha's averaged about thirty years. Some women had fled marriages or relationships involving physical abuse, some had been put out of the family home, some had children being cared for elsewhere. One young woman of nineteen had come from hospital where she had undergone brief psychiatric treatment and then had been sent to a place for care where ninety per cent of patients were well over seventy years. For two weeks no-one spoke to her.<br /><br />Bernie's life fell apart when her husband went off with someone else. Without children and under thirty years of age she was entitled to CAN$164 per month from welfare for her expenses. Even with an extra housing subsidy allowance, she could not make ends meet on her own. She seemed appalled at her homeless state:<br /><br />This is the second time that I have ended up living on the street and going to the women's shelter and staying there for a while. This time I ended up at Martha's. I never thought that I would ever end up on the street and I don't think any of us think that. We all think that we will get through our hardships and we'll never be this way and I don't think anyone plans being on the street, just somehow that's the way circumstances go -- you know, bad timing, not being prepared.'<br /><br />Joan Clarke, <span style="font-style:italic;">Motherhood Principles and Labour Pains: Women and Families</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSal7LPwWO6SWG_OeLUBT2PxCp3ShLFzgxqZvkfpuzK12Gi_KalIS_lztB_GZDkjzATCW-QI4pInEnJ4SKmkPNVcXtsc3RwFvB5_Zz54Q-cPPt62JAY75AtMUDtYW9q_aq8gOJhiyDWeo6/s1600-h/job's+comforters.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSal7LPwWO6SWG_OeLUBT2PxCp3ShLFzgxqZvkfpuzK12Gi_KalIS_lztB_GZDkjzATCW-QI4pInEnJ4SKmkPNVcXtsc3RwFvB5_Zz54Q-cPPt62JAY75AtMUDtYW9q_aq8gOJhiyDWeo6/s400/job's+comforters.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5075337033871755522" /></a><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Lord, I move in a twilight zone between the harsh reality of life around me, personal dilemmas, relationship difficulties, anxiety about children, feeling overwhelmed at how secular the world is. I used to be in a black-and-white world, where you could identify the Christians, where we had the right attitudes about everything, and we knew where evil resided. Now, Lord, I know that life has become so much more complex than that: Christian people do bad things, even manipulate others; and there are good people right outside the Christian fold who sometimes act better than the Christians in caring for one another and for me.<br /><br />In this twilight world, Lord, bring your light to bear on my life. Help my judgments to be clearer, my conscience to be forgiven, and my Christianity to be realistic. I ask this in the name of the greatest realist of all, Jesus Christ. Amen.<br /><br />Lord Jesus, you went into the desert and survived. Help me to live through this desert experience, to learn new things, to find God afresh without the normal props and supports that comfort me, and get me through to the other side of the desert so that I can enjoy life again. Amen.<br /><br />God, Father and Mother of us all, help me within the family and in my friendships to find a new vitality, a new energy, a greater capacity to forgive, new grace to face the next set of trials and difficulties. Lord, you lived on this earth in the context of an ordinary family which contained an extraordinary secret of divinity. Help me to live within my ordinary family with the extraordinary secret that God is with us, even though it may not be apparent to us or to others. Help us to know and experience your presence in the ordinary life-cycle that we are going through. In Jesus' name, Amen.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSal7LPwWO6SWG_OeLUBT2PxCp3ShLFzgxqZvkfpuzK12Gi_KalIS_lztB_GZDkjzATCW-QI4pInEnJ4SKmkPNVcXtsc3RwFvB5_Zz54Q-cPPt62JAY75AtMUDtYW9q_aq8gOJhiyDWeo6/s1600-h/job's+comforters.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSal7LPwWO6SWG_OeLUBT2PxCp3ShLFzgxqZvkfpuzK12Gi_KalIS_lztB_GZDkjzATCW-QI4pInEnJ4SKmkPNVcXtsc3RwFvB5_Zz54Q-cPPt62JAY75AtMUDtYW9q_aq8gOJhiyDWeo6/s400/job's+comforters.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5075337033871755522" /></a><br />A Benediction<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Let us pray that the Spirit of God will renew our lives: Lord, increase our eagerness to do your will and help us to know the saving power of your love.<br /><br />Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.</span><br /><br />Collect for Ordinary Sunday 34<br /><br />Rowland Croucher ed., <span style="font-style:italic;">High Mountains Deep Valleys</span>, Albatross/Lion chapter 21</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">(Note: I think the image used here is a painting of Job's Comforters by William Blake - can anyone confirm that?)</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSal7LPwWO6SWG_OeLUBT2PxCp3ShLFzgxqZvkfpuzK12Gi_KalIS_lztB_GZDkjzATCW-QI4pInEnJ4SKmkPNVcXtsc3RwFvB5_Zz54Q-cPPt62JAY75AtMUDtYW9q_aq8gOJhiyDWeo6/s1600-h/job's+comforters.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSal7LPwWO6SWG_OeLUBT2PxCp3ShLFzgxqZvkfpuzK12Gi_KalIS_lztB_GZDkjzATCW-QI4pInEnJ4SKmkPNVcXtsc3RwFvB5_Zz54Q-cPPt62JAY75AtMUDtYW9q_aq8gOJhiyDWeo6/s400/job's+comforters.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5075337033871755522" /></a>Rowland Croucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13473460918145751334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1291782253971895185.post-43371275040498868902007-06-12T00:32:00.000-07:002007-06-12T00:44:07.125-07:00LIKE THE CORNERS OF MY MIND<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6SsKUgwto1lnkZ3jV599Iupp1IlDHZmBHEzPUpLvlCyRp6R3FVvbfzAvKAcAiR8XmxYiogdVb-QbwbTRSCKJaVXpwTn3S1vHI1EOrj94OiczR_YFMK5WBh8p3Mhz8DlmsSVR7p17n7RX_/s1600-h/MEMORY.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6SsKUgwto1lnkZ3jV599Iupp1IlDHZmBHEzPUpLvlCyRp6R3FVvbfzAvKAcAiR8XmxYiogdVb-QbwbTRSCKJaVXpwTn3S1vHI1EOrj94OiczR_YFMK5WBh8p3Mhz8DlmsSVR7p17n7RX_/s400/MEMORY.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5075079894179743890" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Like the corners of my mind</span> (Alan and Marilyn Bergman)<br /><br /><span class="textArticleDetail"> <p style="font-style: italic;">This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast [Passover] to the Lord: throughout your generations you shall observe it as an ordinance for ever.</p> <p style="font-style: italic;">You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out thence with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.</p> <p style="font-style: italic;">By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion... How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither! Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you.</p> <p style="font-style: italic;">And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said: 'This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance Of me.'</p> <p style="font-style: italic;">'Why do you seek the living among the dead? Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise.' And they remembered his words.</p> <p style="font-style: italic;">As I remember your tears, I long night and day to see you, that I may be filled with joy.</p> <p>(Exodus 12:14; Deuteronomy 5:15; Psalm 137:1,4-6; 1 Corinthians 11:24; Luke 24:5-8; 2 Timothy 1:4 -- all RSV)</p> <p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6SsKUgwto1lnkZ3jV599Iupp1IlDHZmBHEzPUpLvlCyRp6R3FVvbfzAvKAcAiR8XmxYiogdVb-QbwbTRSCKJaVXpwTn3S1vHI1EOrj94OiczR_YFMK5WBh8p3Mhz8DlmsSVR7p17n7RX_/s1600-h/MEMORY.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6SsKUgwto1lnkZ3jV599Iupp1IlDHZmBHEzPUpLvlCyRp6R3FVvbfzAvKAcAiR8XmxYiogdVb-QbwbTRSCKJaVXpwTn3S1vHI1EOrj94OiczR_YFMK5WBh8p3Mhz8DlmsSVR7p17n7RX_/s400/MEMORY.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5075079894179743890" border="0" /></a></p> <p>The totality of our experience is stored in our memories, but, paradoxically, most of us spend an inordinate amount of energy trying to forget some of our past. We're prepared to linger over 'happy memories' but many of our memories appear to be too painful to recall. They remind us of past grief or loss; they evoke feelings of guilt or failure -- so we repress them.</p> <p>To a certain extent, this way of dealing with painful memories is probably necessary. Without the use of defence mechanisms such as repression, the burdens of the past may become too difficult to bear. But indiscriminate repression is unhealthy. If we never come to grips with our hurtful memories, we fail to learn from the experiences which caused us pain, stunting our growth and development as persons. We become enslaved by the tyranny of our past and don't really live in the present. Feelings of anxiety and pain lie embedded in our subconscious and because we have suppressed the memories associated with them, we have forgotten the cause of those feelings. Unidentifiable painful feelings are more crippling than their original cause. They can even cause us to become afraid of the future, in case the future brings us further pain.</p> <p>Henri Nouwen (The Living Reminder) points out that whilst good memories are visible in outer signs such as trophies, decorations, diplomas, gifts and portraits, painful memories tend to remain hidden, even from ourselves, in the corners of forgetfulness. It is only as we're prepared to make a conscious effort to remember them, as part of our life-story, that they again become available to us. Only as they are available to us can they be confronted and healed.</p> <p>The Jewish concept of remembrance stressed that creative memory is able 'to make present' the past so that it could become contemporaneous. Normally, the closest we Christians come to acknowledging the validity of this concept is in our celebration of the Lord's Supper. Perhaps it's time to apply it to other aspects of our Christian lives. Perhaps it's time to use our God-given talent for creative memory, recalling our hurtful memories so that God can heal them.</p> <p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6SsKUgwto1lnkZ3jV599Iupp1IlDHZmBHEzPUpLvlCyRp6R3FVvbfzAvKAcAiR8XmxYiogdVb-QbwbTRSCKJaVXpwTn3S1vHI1EOrj94OiczR_YFMK5WBh8p3Mhz8DlmsSVR7p17n7RX_/s1600-h/MEMORY.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6SsKUgwto1lnkZ3jV599Iupp1IlDHZmBHEzPUpLvlCyRp6R3FVvbfzAvKAcAiR8XmxYiogdVb-QbwbTRSCKJaVXpwTn3S1vHI1EOrj94OiczR_YFMK5WBh8p3Mhz8DlmsSVR7p17n7RX_/s400/MEMORY.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5075079894179743890" border="0" /></a></p> <p>When I use my memory, I ask it to produce whatever it is that I wish to remember. Some things it produces immediately; some are forthcoming only after a delay, as though they were being brought out from some inner hiding place; others come spilling from the memory thrusting themselves upon us when what we want is something quite different, as much as to say 'Perhaps we are what you want to remember?'... All this goes on inside me, in the vast cloisters of my memory. In it are the sky, the earth, and the sea, ready at my summons, together with everything that I have ever perceived in them by my senses... In it I meet myself as well. I remember myself and what I have done, when and where I did it, and the state of my mind at the time... The power of the memory is prodigious, my God. It is a vast immeasurable sanctuary. Who can plumb its depths? And yet it is a faculty of my soul. Augustine, Confessions</p> <p>Most of our human emotions are closely related to our memory. Remorse is a biting memory, guilt is an accusing memory, gratitude is a joyful memory, and all such emotions are deeply influenced by the way we have integrated past events into our way of being in the world. In fact, we perceive our world with our memories.</p> <p>Henri Nouwen, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Living Reminder</span></p> <p>Enter into yourself, then, and see that your soul loves itself most fervently; that it could not love itself unless it knew itself, nor know itself unless it remembered itself, because our intellect grasps only what is present to our memory.</p> <p>Bonaventure, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Soul's Journey into God</span></p> <p>The personal unconscious contains lost memories, painful ideas that are repressed (i.e. forgotten on purpose).</p> <p>Carl Jung, <span style="font-style: italic;">'On the Psychology of the Unconscious'</span></p> <p>Remembering is the beginning of freedom from the covert power of the remembered thing or occurrence.</p> <p>Max Scheler, <span style="font-style: italic;">On the Eternal Man</span></p> <p>Now there are some men who resemble the animal known as the lynx: according to Saint Jerome, they remember only what is before them, and once they turn their backs, they forget everything they cannot see. Then there are some we call idiots and fools because they wander about unaware with their mouths open wide to catch flies. Seneca says of them that they waste their lives because they do not think of the past... Memory is the place wherein is stored the treasure of the wise; it is the ark of truth, the living book of man, the womb where the soul cherishes her sons so that they are not killed by forgetfulness... Do not be a sickly stomach unable to digest what it has eaten, for if you are you will not retain the food of good teaching in the stomach of your memory and spiritually your life will be depleted.</p> <p>Francisco de Osuna, <span style="font-style: italic;">"The Third Spiritual Alphabet'</span></p> <p>For the past which we remember through Jesus Christ is not the serial but the enduring past. When we speak of the past in internal history we do not refer to events which no longer have reality in the world... Our past is what we are... Our past is our present in our conscious and unconscious memory. To understand such a present past is to understand one's self and, through understanding, to reconstruct.</p> <p>H. Richard Neibuhr, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Meaning of Revelation</span></p> <p>What is the ground for such faith in God's sovereignty and deliverance? As throughout the biblical record, it is memory. Remembrance of what God has done in the past gives rise to hopes for what he yet shall do to deliver his people. Just as Old Testament experience and faith grew out of reflection on memories of the exodus and covenant when God's mighty arm delivered his people from bondage to Egypt, so here God's great gift of himself and his forgiveness in Christ is the sufficient ground for confidence about what is really happening in present and future... Faith is grounded in memory but lives in hope.</p> <p>Gordon D. Kaufman, commenting on Romans 8 in <span style="font-style: italic;">Systematic Theology: A Historicist Perspective</span></p> <p>Memory came to my aid and made me feel God's presence; my heart, taking comfort, sought to embrace the cross.</p> <p>Jacopone da Todi, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Lauds</span></p> <p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6SsKUgwto1lnkZ3jV599Iupp1IlDHZmBHEzPUpLvlCyRp6R3FVvbfzAvKAcAiR8XmxYiogdVb-QbwbTRSCKJaVXpwTn3S1vHI1EOrj94OiczR_YFMK5WBh8p3Mhz8DlmsSVR7p17n7RX_/s1600-h/MEMORY.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6SsKUgwto1lnkZ3jV599Iupp1IlDHZmBHEzPUpLvlCyRp6R3FVvbfzAvKAcAiR8XmxYiogdVb-QbwbTRSCKJaVXpwTn3S1vHI1EOrj94OiczR_YFMK5WBh8p3Mhz8DlmsSVR7p17n7RX_/s400/MEMORY.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5075079894179743890" border="0" /></a></p> <p style="font-style: italic;">Almighty God, right now I'm allowing my memory to wander haphazardly through the past events of my life. It's like retracing my footsteps through a long corridor, occasionally stopping outside a closed door, having forgotten what was in that particular room.</p> <p style="font-style: italic;">Somewhat timidly I'm opening the first door, Lord... I'm looking upon the experiences of my childhood... The next door is slightly ajar and as I peek in memories of my adolescence and young adulthood come flooding back... I had forgotten that those people ever existed. They were so much a part of my life then... How could I have forgotten?</p> <p style="font-style: italic;">I'm savouring the happy moments, Lord -- but one or two memories are a little painful. I'm not sure if I want to open any more doors, especially not the one in that dark part of the corridor. I have the feeling that it leads to a room with very hurtful memories. See, there's a big padlock with chains on that door!</p> <p style="font-style: italic;">Lord, give me the courage to open that door after all. I want you to help me to deal with whatever I have to confront... Where forgiveness is called for, may I have the assurance of your forgiveness. Where reconciliation needs to be effected, grant me your strength to approach the person whom I have allowed to become estranged. Where the loneliness of grief is re-awakened, may I be comforted by the knowledge that you share my grief.</p> <p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6SsKUgwto1lnkZ3jV599Iupp1IlDHZmBHEzPUpLvlCyRp6R3FVvbfzAvKAcAiR8XmxYiogdVb-QbwbTRSCKJaVXpwTn3S1vHI1EOrj94OiczR_YFMK5WBh8p3Mhz8DlmsSVR7p17n7RX_/s1600-h/MEMORY.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6SsKUgwto1lnkZ3jV599Iupp1IlDHZmBHEzPUpLvlCyRp6R3FVvbfzAvKAcAiR8XmxYiogdVb-QbwbTRSCKJaVXpwTn3S1vHI1EOrj94OiczR_YFMK5WBh8p3Mhz8DlmsSVR7p17n7RX_/s400/MEMORY.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5075079894179743890" border="0" /></a></p> <p>A Benediction</p> <p style="font-style: italic;">Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his presence continually! Remember the wonderful works he has done, his miracles and the judgments he uttered. Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God.</p> <p>(Psalm 105:5; RSV; Philippians 4:6, RSV)</p> <p><span style="font-style: italic;">Still Waters, Deep Waters</span> ed. By Rowland Croucher pp. 264-268</p></span>Rowland Croucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13473460918145751334noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1291782253971895185.post-20548719728211100002007-06-11T00:01:00.000-07:002007-06-11T00:11:52.748-07:00TWO FRIENDS, ONE SOUL<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghNG9lYAe_yqaEJHhfqmGf3Px56ZQWOideQ-BjGR-AF-vM6vKmp7zzu56tjl6_VK0uVVr4rCIB2BUnbNwAx7HLY8PsWPGhnV9W4keSE47azED0E2I1DQeQomxb6gh9pWulguC090AZkJFJ/s1600-h/TWO+FRIENDS.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghNG9lYAe_yqaEJHhfqmGf3Px56ZQWOideQ-BjGR-AF-vM6vKmp7zzu56tjl6_VK0uVVr4rCIB2BUnbNwAx7HLY8PsWPGhnV9W4keSE47azED0E2I1DQeQomxb6gh9pWulguC090AZkJFJ/s400/TWO+FRIENDS.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5074700536898357346" border="0"></a><br />'Two friends, one soul' (Euripides)<font class="textArticleDetail"> <blockquote><p style="font-style: italic;">My commandment is this: love one another, just as I love you. The greatest love a person can have for his friends is to give his life for them. And you are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me; I chose you and appointed you to go and bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures. And so the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This, then, is what I command you: love one another.</p> <p style="font-style: italic;">Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. And God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him. .. We love because God first loved us. If someone says he loves God, but hates his brother, he is a liar. For he cannot love God, whom he has not seen, if he does not love his brother, whom he has seen. The command that Christ has given us is this: whoever loves God must love his brother also.</p> <p style="font-style: italic;">We were God's enemies, but he made us his friends through the death of his Son. Now that we are God's friends, how much more will we be saved by Christ's life! But that is not all; we rejoice because of what God has done through our Lord Jesus Christ, who has now made us God's friends</p></blockquote><p style="font-style: italic;">.</p> <p>(John 15: 12-17; 1 John 4: 7-9, 19-21; Romans 5:10 and 11 -all GNB)</p> <p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghNG9lYAe_yqaEJHhfqmGf3Px56ZQWOideQ-BjGR-AF-vM6vKmp7zzu56tjl6_VK0uVVr4rCIB2BUnbNwAx7HLY8PsWPGhnV9W4keSE47azED0E2I1DQeQomxb6gh9pWulguC090AZkJFJ/s1600-h/TWO+FRIENDS.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghNG9lYAe_yqaEJHhfqmGf3Px56ZQWOideQ-BjGR-AF-vM6vKmp7zzu56tjl6_VK0uVVr4rCIB2BUnbNwAx7HLY8PsWPGhnV9W4keSE47azED0E2I1DQeQomxb6gh9pWulguC090AZkJFJ/s400/TWO+FRIENDS.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5074700536898357346" border="0"></a></p> <p>Friendship with God is the ultimate friendship. In Jesus Christ, he reveals his nature as 'full of grace and truth'; by his Spirit, he awakens our desire to know him and respond to his love.</p> <p>One of the fruits of the divine friendship is a new intimacy with our brothers and sisters. Like pieces of metal attracted to a magnet, we find that as we are drawn closer to God, we are simultaneously drawn closer to each other. As our barriers of fear and mistrust are gradually broken down, we find that we want to reach out to others and offer them our gifts.</p> <p>We offer ourselves to each other in a spirit of servanthood, aware that each one is sent to us by God and reveals a different aspect of God's nature. The one may wash our dusty feet, another may allow us to pour the ointment of our tenderness on his wounds. There will be times of laughter and sharing, times of silence when together we adore our mutual friend.</p> <p>During his earthly ministry, Jesus loved his friends deeply and regarded them as gifts from God. They, in turn, comforted him with their love and encouraged him by their growth toward maturity. At the most crucial times of his life, he desired their company and support -- on the mountain of transfiguration, in the garden of Gethsemane, at Calvary. His final prayer was that his friends would be one with each other and with God.</p> <p>Committing ourselves to our friends in a covenant relationship will be costly: genuine Christian love, according to Morton Kelsey, is 'forged against the anvil of our selfishness and possessiveness, of our anger and our fear'. To be true friends we may have to confront others with the way they hurt us, and with the way we perceive they could be hurting themselves.</p> <p>As long as we have the intention to love, God will take our faltering attempts and transform them, using the process as a means towards union with himself. As we rest in our friend of friends, we will find that it is the Lord himself who is loving through us.</p> <p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghNG9lYAe_yqaEJHhfqmGf3Px56ZQWOideQ-BjGR-AF-vM6vKmp7zzu56tjl6_VK0uVVr4rCIB2BUnbNwAx7HLY8PsWPGhnV9W4keSE47azED0E2I1DQeQomxb6gh9pWulguC090AZkJFJ/s1600-h/TWO+FRIENDS.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghNG9lYAe_yqaEJHhfqmGf3Px56ZQWOideQ-BjGR-AF-vM6vKmp7zzu56tjl6_VK0uVVr4rCIB2BUnbNwAx7HLY8PsWPGhnV9W4keSE47azED0E2I1DQeQomxb6gh9pWulguC090AZkJFJ/s400/TWO+FRIENDS.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5074700536898357346" border="0"></a></p> <p>The intimate relationships in my life have been the source of the revelation of the mystery of Jesus. Through relationship I came to experience incarnation -- goodness and transcendence enfleshed in human form.</p> <p>Teresa M. Boernig, <font style="font-style: italic;">Prayer and Relationship</font></p> <p style="font-style: italic;">Your friend is your needs answered.<br />He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.<br />And he is your board and fireside.<br />For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace...</p> <p style="font-style: italic;">And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.<br />For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth;<br />and only the unprofitable is caught...<br />And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.<br />For in the dew of little things the heart finds<br />its morning and is refreshed.</p> <p>Kahlil Gibran, <font style="font-style: italic;">The Prophet</font></p> <p>I have described the goal of life as a deep and lasting relationship to God. But this relationship cannot be understood apart from two other relationships which are bound up with it: with other people and with ourselves. Indeed, the relationship to God, to other people and to ourselves forms a trinity in unity. Each relationship requires and depends upon the others, so that if one is defective the others will be defective too. It is through other people's love that God's love is first mediated to us.</p> <p>Christopher Bryant, <font style="font-style: italic;">The Search for God in Depth</font></p> <p>When we honestly ask ourselves which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not-knowing, not-curing, not-healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is the friend who cares.</p> <p>Henri Nouwen, <font style="font-style: italic;">Out of Solitude</font></p> <p>The real cure for loneliness is the healing interaction of two personalities.</p> <p>Katie E Wiebe, <font style="font-style: italic;">Alone: A Search for Joy</font></p> <p>While each of us has a personal journey to complete, there is no need for us to travel alone. If we travel together we are able to encourage each other. Our journeying involves us offering heart hospitality to others... It is ours to provide a free and empty space without evoking a sense of owing, a space uncluttered with personal furniture... Providing a free and empty space for others, we commit ourselves to accepting the strangeness of strangers. Each brings a gift, themselves. In our openness, we are challenged by each guest, changed by them unpredictably... It is thus that we entertain angels unawares, even Christ himself. We are most aware of his presence when the Christ in others reaches through to and engages the Christ in us.</p> <p>Graeme L. Chapman, <font style="font-style: italic;">Being Together in the World</font></p> <p>One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few... We can have a surfeit of treasures -an excess of shells, where one or two would be significant.</p> <p>Anne Morrow Lindbergh, <font style="font-style: italic;">Gift from the Sea</font></p> <p>One of the critical problems in society is the absence of trust. Men and women cannot trust because they do not have enough friendship in their life. If there were more friendships in the world there would be more trust, and the level of tension in societal relationships would decrease almost automatically.</p> <p>Andrew M. Greeley, <font style="font-style: italic;">The Friendship Game</font></p> <p>Sometimes I wonder ff it is wise to work directly at relationship. What matters is to be centred oneself, always ready for the moments or hours of meeting when they come. Then the relationship can be trusted to take care of itself... Meeting is of course always something of a miracle, and cannot be planned nor explained. Mercifully, real, vibrant meetings which always entail the presence of the mysterious 'third'... befall us as a grace, and stand out like beacons, and no forceful removal of barriers will, of its own accord, bring them about.</p> <p>Irene Claremont de Castillejo, <font style="font-style: italic;">Knowing Woman</font></p> <p>Every time I am given this unexpected awareness towards some other creature and feel this current of communication between us, I am touched and activated by something that comes from the fiery heart of the divine love, the eternal gaze of the Father towards the Son, of the Son towards the Father.</p> <p>John V. Taylor, <font style="font-style: italic;">The Go-Between God</font></p> <p>Community is that place where we enter into the presence of each other and the Lord who called us there, as fully and totally as we do in the engagements with ourselves and God. It is a place that calls me to abandon myself to you, for in so doing I discover myself. It is a place where I am available to you as I have learned to be with God and, because of my availability with you, I learn to be available to God. It is a place where I am totally present to you, aware of you and listening to you with the totality of my being. It is a coming together because Christ has called us to be committed to him and to each other through his gift of koinonia.</p> <p>William Clemmons, <font style="font-style: italic;">Discovering the Depth</font></p> <p style="font-style: italic;">No friendless man... can be truly himself;<br />What a man looketh for in his friend and findeth... is his own better self.</p> <p>Author unknown</p> <p>Self-revelation is both the indispensable core of personality expansion and the essential gift-giving of friendship. We become fuller, richer, warmer, more humane human beings precisely to the extent that we are able to enter into friendship relationships. The more we permit the lover to know us, the more worthy of his love we become; as his searching gaze probes even deeper into our personality, he discovers riches of which no-one else was ever aware and in which we scarcely dare to believe. But, because he sees within us, we actually become the good that he sees. By reinforcing the very tentative inclinations of the beloved, the lover actually creates his beloved. We become that which the lover wants us to be, and he becomes that which we want him to be. When he reacts positively to our tentative, fragile, yet courageous self-revelation, with warmth and affection and encouragement, we discover resources in ourselves of which we had always dreamed but whose reality we could not believe. The lover, in other words, is a person who makes our dreams about ourselves come true.</p> <p>Andrew M. Greeley, <font style="font-style: italic;">The Friendship Game</font></p> <p>No matter how much we love a person, accept him, give him support, have a warmth and affection for him; no matter how much we help him in so many ways, unless we can actually call him forth so that he is himself exercising the uniqueness God gave him, then the love is incomplete; he is not free; he is less than fully human.</p> <p>Gordon Cosby, from a sermon, <font style="font-style: italic;">‘The Calling Forth of the Charisma'</font></p> <p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghNG9lYAe_yqaEJHhfqmGf3Px56ZQWOideQ-BjGR-AF-vM6vKmp7zzu56tjl6_VK0uVVr4rCIB2BUnbNwAx7HLY8PsWPGhnV9W4keSE47azED0E2I1DQeQomxb6gh9pWulguC090AZkJFJ/s1600-h/TWO+FRIENDS.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghNG9lYAe_yqaEJHhfqmGf3Px56ZQWOideQ-BjGR-AF-vM6vKmp7zzu56tjl6_VK0uVVr4rCIB2BUnbNwAx7HLY8PsWPGhnV9W4keSE47azED0E2I1DQeQomxb6gh9pWulguC090AZkJFJ/s400/TWO+FRIENDS.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5074700536898357346" border="0"></a></p> <p style="font-style: italic;">Lord, I need friends...<br />to ease my loneliness;<br />to speak peace to me when I am distressed;<br />to walk with me when I am unsure of the way;<br />to provide a safe place where I can discover my true self.</p> <p style="font-style: italic;">I need friends...<br />who will laugh with me as well as pray with me;<br />who will embrace me without wanting to possess me;<br />who will explore their truth with me as it is continually revealed.</p> <p style="font-style: italic;">I need friends...<br />who will reflect you, Lord, as you reflect your Father;<br />who will recognise and call forth the Christ in me<br />as I do the same for them,<br />so that in mutual giving we may become<br />the persons you have always seen us to be. Amen.</p> <p>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</p> <p>A Benediction</p> <blockquote>May God who gives patience, steadiness and encouragement help you to live in complete harmony with each other -- each with the attitude of Christ toward the other. And then all of us can praise the Lord together with one voice, giving glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.</blockquote> <p>(Romans 15: 5-6, LB)</p></font><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghNG9lYAe_yqaEJHhfqmGf3Px56ZQWOideQ-BjGR-AF-vM6vKmp7zzu56tjl6_VK0uVVr4rCIB2BUnbNwAx7HLY8PsWPGhnV9W4keSE47azED0E2I1DQeQomxb6gh9pWulguC090AZkJFJ/s1600-h/TWO+FRIENDS.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghNG9lYAe_yqaEJHhfqmGf3Px56ZQWOideQ-BjGR-AF-vM6vKmp7zzu56tjl6_VK0uVVr4rCIB2BUnbNwAx7HLY8PsWPGhnV9W4keSE47azED0E2I1DQeQomxb6gh9pWulguC090AZkJFJ/s400/TWO+FRIENDS.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5074700536898357346" border="0"></a><font class="textArticleDetail"><p><font style="font-style: italic;">High Mountains, Deep Valleys</font> ed. By Rowland Croucher pp. 82-88</p></font>Rowland Croucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13473460918145751334noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1291782253971895185.post-26246144808855084252007-06-09T02:51:00.000-07:002007-06-09T04:40:10.706-07:00THE HEAVENLY VISION...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2pd5uc0uMRrksNDYWBgL4jOaQ3GRelTAfrctUPFQjzxzziRDU6Mzi302tKvHLtN4hwml5PupuvGpROILphQGJjeMZWtYZxfQmd0c4BnnHV8PJ-4dZv2z8Zpt1zczUOJyIHGl8CKNrGQzm/s1600-h/VISION.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2pd5uc0uMRrksNDYWBgL4jOaQ3GRelTAfrctUPFQjzxzziRDU6Mzi302tKvHLtN4hwml5PupuvGpROILphQGJjeMZWtYZxfQmd0c4BnnHV8PJ-4dZv2z8Zpt1zczUOJyIHGl8CKNrGQzm/s400/VISION.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5074001908928055346" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"> ... for the people of earth<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Stop dwelling on past events<br />and brooding over days gone by.<br />I am about to do something new;<br />this moment it will unfold.<br />Can you not perceive it?<br />Even through the wilderness I shall make a way,<br />and paths in the barren desert.<br />The wild beast will do me honour,<br />the wolf and the desert-owl,<br />for I shall provide water in the wilderness<br />and rivers in the barren desert,<br />where my chosen people may drink,<br />this people I have formed for myself,<br />and they will proclaim my praises.</span><br /><br />Isaiah 43: 18-21, REB<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2pd5uc0uMRrksNDYWBgL4jOaQ3GRelTAfrctUPFQjzxzziRDU6Mzi302tKvHLtN4hwml5PupuvGpROILphQGJjeMZWtYZxfQmd0c4BnnHV8PJ-4dZv2z8Zpt1zczUOJyIHGl8CKNrGQzm/s1600-h/VISION.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2pd5uc0uMRrksNDYWBgL4jOaQ3GRelTAfrctUPFQjzxzziRDU6Mzi302tKvHLtN4hwml5PupuvGpROILphQGJjeMZWtYZxfQmd0c4BnnHV8PJ-4dZv2z8Zpt1zczUOJyIHGl8CKNrGQzm/s400/VISION.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5074001908928055346" /></a><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, 'Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shah be very great.' But Abram said, 'O Lord God, what wilt thou give me, for I continue childless... ?' [The Lord] brought him outside and said, 'Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number.' Then he said to him, 'So shall your descendants be.' And he believed the Lord; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness.<br /><br />God spoke to Israel in visions of the night. '... do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will there make of you a great nation.'<br /><br />The Lord said, '...while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by.' Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.<br /><br />In those days there was no frequent vision. Where there is no vision the people perish. Her prophets obtain no vision from the Lord.<br /><br />In accordance with all... this vision, Nathan spoke to David. Of old thou didst speak in a vision to thy faithful one.<br /><br />The vision of Obadiah. The vision of Nahum of Elkosh. The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz. A stern vision is told to me.<br /><br />They seek a vision from the prophet... they shall eat their bread with fearfulness, and drink water in dismay... on account of the violence of all those who dwell in [the land]. The days are at hand, and the fulfilment of every vision.<br /><br />Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. 'Your dream and the visions of your head... are these: To you, O King, as you lay in bed came thoughts of what would be hereafter.' 'I saw in the visions of my head... a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven.' 'I saw in the night vision... there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.'<br /><br />I spoke to the prophets, it was I who multiplied visions.<br /><br />I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Write the vision; make it plain upon tablets, so he may run who reads it.<br /><br />They perceived that [Zechariah] had seen a vision in the temple.<br /><br />As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, 'Tell no one the vision, until the Son of man is raised from the dead.'<br /><br />They came back saying they had even seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive.<br /><br />The Lord said to him in a vision, 'Ananias'... Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision which he had seen might mean... A vision appeared to Paul in the night: 'Come over to Macedonia and help us.' The Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, 'Do not be afraid, but speak... for I have many people in this city...' 'King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.'</span><br /><br />(Genesis 15: 1-2, 5-6; 46: 2-3; Exodus 33: 22; 34: 29; I Samuel 3: 1 -- all RSV; Proverbs 29: 18, AV; Lamentations 2: 9; I Chronicles 17: 15; Psalm 89: 19; Obadiah 1: 1; Nahum 1: 1; Isaiah 1: 1; 21: 2; Ezekiel 7: 26; 12: 19-23b; Daniel 1: 17b; 2: 28b-29; 4: 13; 7: 13; Hosea 12: 10; Joel 2: 28; Habakkuk 2: 2; Luke 1: 22; Matthew 17: 9; Luke 24: 23; Acts 9: 10; 10: 17; 16: 9; 18: 9-10; 26:19 -- all RSV)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2pd5uc0uMRrksNDYWBgL4jOaQ3GRelTAfrctUPFQjzxzziRDU6Mzi302tKvHLtN4hwml5PupuvGpROILphQGJjeMZWtYZxfQmd0c4BnnHV8PJ-4dZv2z8Zpt1zczUOJyIHGl8CKNrGQzm/s1600-h/VISION.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2pd5uc0uMRrksNDYWBgL4jOaQ3GRelTAfrctUPFQjzxzziRDU6Mzi302tKvHLtN4hwml5PupuvGpROILphQGJjeMZWtYZxfQmd0c4BnnHV8PJ-4dZv2z8Zpt1zczUOJyIHGl8CKNrGQzm/s400/VISION.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5074001908928055346" /></a><br />We have always wanted to know the future. From the gypsy with her crystal, or tarot cards, or reading the lines in your palm, or the astrologer with his stars, we long to know what will happen to the world in general, and to our world in particular. And visions undoubtedly do sometimes relate to the future, as the Bible makes clear. Daniel's explanation of Nebuchadnezzar's vision of a mighty statue with its head of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet a mixture of iron and clay meant it would take centuries before its meaning was outworked. John's vision on the isle of Patmos is taking millennia to reach its fulfilment.<br /><br />But the scriptures also describe some visions that are for the here and now. Israel needs to know whether it is right to take the promised people into Egypt, away from the promised land. David is told that his idea of a temple is magnificent, but not for him to build. Paul is directed to go to Macedonia, or to stay in Corinth. Clearly not every decision we take is communicated through a vision, but some major turning points in the history of Israel and the church certainly have been.<br /><br />Whilst other people's visions are urgent and important, they make us realise that we need a vision, too -- something that we will follow, give our lives to undertaking, work for with all our heart. Peter Block suggests a vision should be both strategic and lofty. But your vision will be precisely that -- your vision. The scriptures show only Joseph and Pharaoh, and Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar had the same dreams or visions -- and both for the purpose of explanation. Your vision will be unique to you, just as God has made you unique, brought you specially to himself, and commissioned you to labour in his vineyard. Jesus says to his disciples, 'You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you' (John 15: 16).<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2pd5uc0uMRrksNDYWBgL4jOaQ3GRelTAfrctUPFQjzxzziRDU6Mzi302tKvHLtN4hwml5PupuvGpROILphQGJjeMZWtYZxfQmd0c4BnnHV8PJ-4dZv2z8Zpt1zczUOJyIHGl8CKNrGQzm/s1600-h/VISION.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2pd5uc0uMRrksNDYWBgL4jOaQ3GRelTAfrctUPFQjzxzziRDU6Mzi302tKvHLtN4hwml5PupuvGpROILphQGJjeMZWtYZxfQmd0c4BnnHV8PJ-4dZv2z8Zpt1zczUOJyIHGl8CKNrGQzm/s400/VISION.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5074001908928055346" /></a><br />Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;<br />Naught be all else to me, save that thou art<br />Thou my best thought, by day or by night,<br />Waking or sleeping, thy presence my Light.<br /><br />High King of heaven, after victory won,<br />May I reach heav'n's joys, O bright heaven's Sun!<br />Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,<br />Still be my vision, O Ruler of all.<br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />Ancient Irish Hymn</span><br /><br />This is no war of domination or imperial aggrandisement or material gain; no war to shut any country out of the sunlight and means of progress. It is a war, viewed in its inherent quality to establish, on impregnable rocks, the rights of the individual, and it is a war to establish and revive the stature of man.<br /><br />Winston Churchill, on the day Britain declared war in 1939<br /><br />The real problem is in defining reality. In my mind, reality is the market, the numbers, the comparisons with others. The first two or three months, I had many, many meetings - probably fifteen a day -- where we discussed facts. Not opinions, just facts. This was a company used to discussing ideas and opinions. My contribution was to transform this thinking to our way of behaving, from concepts to numbers. I am a great believer in the power of numbers. Of course you have to understand and interpret them. They are a good starting point for any plan, any action.<br /><br />Lee Iacocca<br /><br />If you are planning for one year, plant rice. If you are planning for ten years, plant trees. If you are planning for 100 years, plant people.<br /><br />Indian proverb<br /><br />The vision was to establish a workshop on the estate providing employment, help and outreach to the local community. It became a reality after much prayer and planning by the committee when a grant was given, premises became available in the school on the estate, and a workshop manager was appointed. By early February, the workshop began to function in the way that had been foreseen three years earlier, much to the excitement and encouragement of those who had worked for it.<br /><br />Information Sheet, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Carpenters' Shop</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">This very remarkable man<br />Commends a most remarkable plan.<br />You can do what you want<br />If you don't think you can't,<br />So don't think you can't; think you can.</span><br /><br />Charles Inge<br /><br />Let your vision be your commission.<br /><br />WEC motto<br /><br />Go ahead and do it; you can always apologise later.<br /><br />Rear Admiral Grace Hopper<br /><br />The first ingredient in [renewal] is a powerful vision -- a whole new sense of where a company [church, society or organisation] is going and how to get there. It is important to understand trends... but it is not enough. You must also discover the special way that your company fits into the business environment. The company's vision becomes a catalytic force, an organising principle for everything that the people in the corporation do.<br /><br />John Naisbitt, <span style="font-style:italic;">Re-inventing the Corporation</span><br /><br />One minister pointed out that there were no more jobs left for his people. Apparently some churches only need a third of the membership to keep the church ticking over. We are back again to the vision of the leadership. What are we here for? Visions that stop at the church door offer little challenge. Perhaps we should stop berating the 'less committed' and begin to ask the more committed what they are committed to.<br /><br />Peter Neilson, <span style="font-style:italic;">'Life and Work'</span><br /><br />The creation of humankind crowns the work [of God in Genesis 1 and 2], but the sabbath is its supreme goal. Now, what is the meaning of the sabbath that was given to Israel? It relativises the works of humankind, the contents of the six working days. It protects us from total absorption by the task of subduing the earth. It anticipates the distortion which makes work the sum and purpose of human life. And it informs us that we will not fulfil our humanity in our relation to the world which we are transforming [unless] we raise Our eyes above, in the blessed holy hour of communion with the Creator. With this meaning it would be no exaggeration to state that the sabbath sums up the difference between the biblical and the Marxist visions. The essence of humankind is not work!<br /><br />Henri Blocher, <span style="font-style:italic;">In the Beginning</span><br /><br />Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking Glass tackles the problem of attempting the impossible. The White Queen is speaking to Alice.<br /><br />'I can't believe that,' said Alice.<br /><br />'Can't you?' the Queen said, in a pitying tone. 'Try again: draw a long breath and shut your eyes.'<br /><br />Alice laughed: 'There's no use trying,' she said. 'One can't believe impossible things.'<br /><br />'I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. 'When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.'<br /><br />Most of us follow Alice- we don't believe in the impossible. The disciples felt that it was impossible for Jesus to have risen from the dead on the third day. No-one had ever done that before. Who would believe in blue snow? But that's what the scientists found on Jupiter's moon Io as Voyager, the spacecraft, took coloured photographs as it swept past -- a kind of volcanic precipitate.<br /><br />The seven last words of the church are said to be. 'We have always done it this way.' Change? Impossible! But we follow an impossible God who can give us a vision to do the impossible.<br /><br />Peter Brierley, <span style="font-style:italic;">Vision Building</span><br /><br />I am what I am becoming.<br /><br />Anonymous<br /><br />You see things as they are and ask 'Why?' But I dream things that never were and ask, 'Why not?'<br /><br />George Bernard Shaw<br /><br />Vision is imaginative insight, statesmanlike foresight, sagacity in planning.<br /><br />Concise Oxford Dictionary<br /><br />Vision is not a fragile thing. It is the heart of corporate strategy and purpose; an integrating force; it helps overcome barriers to change; it channels energies by enabling everyone to point in the same direction.<br /><br />Lyndon Bowring<br /><br />The Alpine climber who is trying to reach a summit can, on the upward path, scarcely see his goal except at certain fortunate moments. What he does see is the strong path that must be trodden, the rocks and precipices to be avoided, the unbending slopes that become even steeper. He feels the growing weakness, the solitude and the burden. And yet, the inspiration of the climber is the sight of the goal. Because of it, all the hardships of the journey count for naught.<br /><br />Samuel Zwemer, <span style="font-style:italic;">Call to Prayer</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2pd5uc0uMRrksNDYWBgL4jOaQ3GRelTAfrctUPFQjzxzziRDU6Mzi302tKvHLtN4hwml5PupuvGpROILphQGJjeMZWtYZxfQmd0c4BnnHV8PJ-4dZv2z8Zpt1zczUOJyIHGl8CKNrGQzm/s1600-h/VISION.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2pd5uc0uMRrksNDYWBgL4jOaQ3GRelTAfrctUPFQjzxzziRDU6Mzi302tKvHLtN4hwml5PupuvGpROILphQGJjeMZWtYZxfQmd0c4BnnHV8PJ-4dZv2z8Zpt1zczUOJyIHGl8CKNrGQzm/s400/VISION.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5074001908928055346" /></a><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Lead me, Heavenly Father, into your creative purpose for my gifts, skills and knowledge of your ways, limited though they are. Give direction not just for today but for the next five years, or ten years, or my lifetime. Then I will see more clearly what I must do more of this week in order to begin to fulfil your long-term desires for me.<br /><br />Oh, Lord Jesus, help me to be willing to go where I am led. Forgive my fears at being given a task that seems too long. Forgive my reluctance to move from my security. Forgive my complacency with the needs of a sinful world all round me. Help me to be conscious of your presence, grateful for your power, guided by your peace.<br /><br />Holy Spirit, thank you for making me what I have been becoming. Take me as I am, and continue to break me and mould me into becoming what you would have me to be. I do not ask for my sake, but for the glory of him who died for me, chose me and appointed me, that my life might bear fruit, even Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Almighty God,<br />whose chosen servant Abraham<br />faithfully obeyed your call<br />and rejoiced in your promise<br />that, in him, all the families of the earth should be blessed;<br />give us a faith like his,<br />that, in us, your promises may be fulfilled;<br />through Jesus Christ our Lord.<br /><br />Almighty and everlasting God,<br />increase this gift of faith;<br />that, forsaking what lies behind<br />and reaching out to that which is before,<br />we may run the way of your commandments<br />and win the crown of everlasting joy,<br />through Jesus Christ our Lord.</span><br /><br />Alternative Service Book<br /><br />~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br /><br />A Benediction<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">May God give us light to guide us, courage to support us and love to unite us, now and evermore. Amen.</span><br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2pd5uc0uMRrksNDYWBgL4jOaQ3GRelTAfrctUPFQjzxzziRDU6Mzi302tKvHLtN4hwml5PupuvGpROILphQGJjeMZWtYZxfQmd0c4BnnHV8PJ-4dZv2z8Zpt1zczUOJyIHGl8CKNrGQzm/s1600-h/VISION.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2pd5uc0uMRrksNDYWBgL4jOaQ3GRelTAfrctUPFQjzxzziRDU6Mzi302tKvHLtN4hwml5PupuvGpROILphQGJjeMZWtYZxfQmd0c4BnnHV8PJ-4dZv2z8Zpt1zczUOJyIHGl8CKNrGQzm/s400/VISION.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5074001908928055346" /></a><br />Rivers in the Desert</span> ed. By Rowland Croucher pp. 109-116</span>Rowland Croucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13473460918145751334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1291782253971895185.post-32091362295365054102007-06-07T17:49:00.000-07:002007-06-07T17:59:49.441-07:00HONEY FROM DEAD LIONS<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG7beigsOl_qYC-tj-80iGojYPzWYWq0f9N-Qpe9ATKO9WfUxjkfnBWaEnEpJDWUz5_o9Pc6X_s_T6zvZ6ue86A-5YKoGafI1txDvaPL8EcdNWal49vCD7H0rrJ58OCTNOqET5sIz36OIe/s1600-h/SUFFERING+CHRIST.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG7beigsOl_qYC-tj-80iGojYPzWYWq0f9N-Qpe9ATKO9WfUxjkfnBWaEnEpJDWUz5_o9Pc6X_s_T6zvZ6ue86A-5YKoGafI1txDvaPL8EcdNWal49vCD7H0rrJ58OCTNOqET5sIz36OIe/s400/SUFFERING+CHRIST.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5073490777755060034" /></a><span style="font-weight:bold;"> <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and Jacob's thigh was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, 'Let me go for the day is breaking.' But Jacob said, 'I will not let you go, unless you bless me...' And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place 'The face of God', ... 'for I have seen God face to face and yet my life has been preserved.'<br /><br />We do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of the affliction we experienced in Asia; for we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. Why, we felt that we had received the sentence of death; but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead; he delivered us from so deadly a peril, and he will deliver us; on him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.<br /><br />Yet it was the Lord's good plan to bruise him and fill him with grief. But when his soul has been made an offering for sin, then he shall have a multitude of children, many heirs. He shall live again and God's programme shall prosper in his hands. And when he sees all that is accomplished by the anguish of his soul, he shall be satisfied; and because of what he has experienced, my righteous Servant shall make many to be accounted righteous before God, for he shall bear all their sins. Blows and bruises tell for good; they go deep into the very soul.<br /><br />But I have this treasure (i.e. this shining light) in a mere earthen jar, to show that its amazing power belongs to God and not to me. I am hard pressed on every side, but never cut off: perplexed, but not driven to despair; routed, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; never free from the danger of being put to death like Jesus, so that in my body the life of Jesus may also be seen. For every day I live, I am being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be visible in my mortal nature.<br /><br />For us it is plain justice; we are paying the price for our misdeeds; but this man has done nothing wrong... Jesus, remember me...</span><br /><br />(Genesis 32:24-26, 29-30, RSV; 2 Corinthians 1:8-10, RSV; Isaiah 53:10-11, LB; Proverbs 20:30, Moffatt; 2 Corinthians 4:7-11, Goodspeed; Luke 23:41-42, NEB)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG7beigsOl_qYC-tj-80iGojYPzWYWq0f9N-Qpe9ATKO9WfUxjkfnBWaEnEpJDWUz5_o9Pc6X_s_T6zvZ6ue86A-5YKoGafI1txDvaPL8EcdNWal49vCD7H0rrJ58OCTNOqET5sIz36OIe/s1600-h/SUFFERING+CHRIST.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG7beigsOl_qYC-tj-80iGojYPzWYWq0f9N-Qpe9ATKO9WfUxjkfnBWaEnEpJDWUz5_o9Pc6X_s_T6zvZ6ue86A-5YKoGafI1txDvaPL8EcdNWal49vCD7H0rrJ58OCTNOqET5sIz36OIe/s400/SUFFERING+CHRIST.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5073490777755060034" /></a><br />We wrestle, in our service for God, with the failures we have in changing people. We know that this is the work of the Holy Spirit, that our contribution, though it take every part of us, is a modest one. Yet our hearts are hungry for such a valued seal of God's approval. Looking within, our hearts show that we are not much changed, either. This compounds our dissatisfaction. So much that we know sits on us cumbrously like Saul's armour.<br /><br />In God's economy, self-knowledge comes mostly through adversity. When we fall and break the pretty image we have of ourselves, we see through to God. The process is usually a lengthy one, even though the failure, shame, collapse and dismay may seem to come in a matter of a few days, or a few hours. We experience something like the desolation of Jeremiah when fair Zion was 'eaten by uglies'. People who imagined that we were immune, impregnable, incorruptible are saddened -- though some may breathe more freely. In our darkness, in our brokenness we taste the bitterness of being wholly wrong, only to find the consolation of God's love at a deeper level. We have become one of the poor and learn that we are blessed: When Christians become poor, they acquire a new respect for the poor everywhere. They begin to perceive people as they are: lost, dismayed, flawed, much as they see themselves to have been -- but also loved by the same patient, waiting Father. They learn not to make judgments upon other people's wretchedness, but to look within to the creatureliness that is God's handiwork. And, having themselves found hope in darkness, sweetness in the taste of defeat, joy in being wholly in the wrong with God, they become hopeful for others, for all the others whom God sends to cross their path.<br /><br />The poor are with us, everywhere -- sent by God in all the images of their plight. They become neighbours. ('Neighhours are nearby and far away. ') They may appear as intruders upon our contented domesticity, with their silent cry that they too are human, creatures of God, who have known the joy of family. The sacred indignity of their dying puts us in their debt. They have claims on our caring, upon the churches' and nations' resources and the whole family of man. In them does not God seek to make another breaking of our self-image, as persons and as communities of the Spirit? We are those who are caught up in a worldwide movement of living well upon the poverty of the poor. We look often to the crucified, for pardon and orientation; so are we to look upon the poor.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG7beigsOl_qYC-tj-80iGojYPzWYWq0f9N-Qpe9ATKO9WfUxjkfnBWaEnEpJDWUz5_o9Pc6X_s_T6zvZ6ue86A-5YKoGafI1txDvaPL8EcdNWal49vCD7H0rrJ58OCTNOqET5sIz36OIe/s1600-h/SUFFERING+CHRIST.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG7beigsOl_qYC-tj-80iGojYPzWYWq0f9N-Qpe9ATKO9WfUxjkfnBWaEnEpJDWUz5_o9Pc6X_s_T6zvZ6ue86A-5YKoGafI1txDvaPL8EcdNWal49vCD7H0rrJ58OCTNOqET5sIz36OIe/s400/SUFFERING+CHRIST.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5073490777755060034" /></a><br />But 'tis the poor who make the loving words.<br />Slowly they stoop; it is a sacrament:<br />The poor can feed the birds.<br />The feat of love, the love that is the cure<br />For all indignities -- it reigns, it calls,<br />It chains us to the pure.<br /><br />Shaw Neilson, <span style="font-style:italic;">'The Poor Can Feed the Birds'</span><br /><br />At some point early in his life Watchman had learned the lesson of 'brokenness', whereby the Christian, being once touched by God as to his own strength and permanently crippled there (as was Jacob at Jabbok) discovers in that experience the ever new strength of God.<br /><br />Angus Kinnear commenting on Watchman Nee's life in <span style="font-style:italic;">Against the Tide</span><br /><br />The ease with which the Adversary wounded Jacob makes us suspect that he could have won the struggle at any time. The meaning of the encounter was to change and test Jacob, not to destroy him. The wound Jacob received is the mark a person carries who encounters spiritual reality as deeply as did Jacob... The experience is indelible and changes us forever. It becomes like a wound, constantly reminding us of the spiritual reality we have known...<br /><br />John A. Sanford, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Man who wrestled with God</span><br /><br />The cross is the one totally realistic dialogue between the man God made us and the man we make ourselves.<br /><br />Sebastian Moore, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Crucified is No Stranger</span><br /><br />We shall always be learners, but at some point we shall learn that fundamental lesson, after which nothing can be the same again. There is now no way of not being a cripple. From that point begins a knowledge of God beyond anything we have ever dreamed... To what are we consecrated?. Not to Christian work, but to the will of God, to be and to do whatever he pleases.<br /><br />Watchman Nee, <span style="font-style:italic;">Against the Tide</span><br /><br />While the Saviour of the world is moaning 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?.' -- at the same time the thief is preaching by the Saviour's side, as becomes a preacher, first and foremost to his own edification... 'It is as a guilty man I suffer'.<br /><br />Soren Kierkegaard, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Gospel of Sufferings</span><br /><br />The greater the grief the greater the creative energy to which it gives rise. I am sure that is so in my own case. (Since my wife's death seven years ago) I am nearer to those who suffer and I understand them better.<br /><br />Paul Tournier, <span style="font-style:italic;">Creative Suffering</span><br /><br />Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you<br />As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;<br />That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend<br />Your force, to break, blow, burn and make me new.<br />I, like an usurp'd town, to another due,<br />Labour to admit you, but Oh, to no end,<br />Reason your viceroy in me, me should defend,<br />But is captiv'd and proves weak or untrue.<br />Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,<br />But I am betroth'd unto your enemy:<br />Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,<br />Take me to you, imprison me, for I<br />Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,<br />Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.<br /><br />John Donne, <span style="font-style:italic;">Holy Sonnet</span> 14<br /><br />When a man before God always suffers as a guilty one (Luke 23:41) then at every moment, no matter what may happen, it is guaranteed that God is love, or to be more precise, at every moment he is prevented from entering into doubt, by the sense of guilt asserting itself upon him...<br /><br />The thought that God is love holds within itself all joy.<br /><br />Soren Kierkegaard, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Gospel of Sufferings</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG7beigsOl_qYC-tj-80iGojYPzWYWq0f9N-Qpe9ATKO9WfUxjkfnBWaEnEpJDWUz5_o9Pc6X_s_T6zvZ6ue86A-5YKoGafI1txDvaPL8EcdNWal49vCD7H0rrJ58OCTNOqET5sIz36OIe/s1600-h/SUFFERING+CHRIST.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG7beigsOl_qYC-tj-80iGojYPzWYWq0f9N-Qpe9ATKO9WfUxjkfnBWaEnEpJDWUz5_o9Pc6X_s_T6zvZ6ue86A-5YKoGafI1txDvaPL8EcdNWal49vCD7H0rrJ58OCTNOqET5sIz36OIe/s400/SUFFERING+CHRIST.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5073490777755060034" /></a><br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />Father, I have many things in my past life to be embarrassed about, to be ashamed of. And perhaps tomorrow... I fed myself on egotism and folly and I mixed it with religion. To give to others I preached the cross yet wished desperately to live, to succeed in the esteem of others, my peers. But now, Father, now that your blessing has come to me in the struggling darkness, I know the light. You are without shadow!<br /><br />Father, I observe that now it is easier to be with people, it is very often a joy, this labour of loving. I'm pleased and grateful to be hopeful for them and encouraging to them. So much bread comes back! I feel I belong to them -- though it sounds grand to say it -- to this whole human race, especially those you send across my path and heart. You have certainly blessed my way with many angels, threatening to make me richer than I could have understood. Because I've been thus humbled I have to pray: keep me in that place, take me along the road of your choosing. You have my full permission, even though I'm occasionally surprised that you take me so literally and respond so speedily.<br /><br />Thank you for the gifts of all the Christian women and men I know. Prosper them. Thank you that we may do something for the poor whose gift it is often to be so generous as to make us appear unspontaneous, calculating, Bless all those who encourage others, who serve the poor. Blessed are the poor in spirit...</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG7beigsOl_qYC-tj-80iGojYPzWYWq0f9N-Qpe9ATKO9WfUxjkfnBWaEnEpJDWUz5_o9Pc6X_s_T6zvZ6ue86A-5YKoGafI1txDvaPL8EcdNWal49vCD7H0rrJ58OCTNOqET5sIz36OIe/s1600-h/SUFFERING+CHRIST.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG7beigsOl_qYC-tj-80iGojYPzWYWq0f9N-Qpe9ATKO9WfUxjkfnBWaEnEpJDWUz5_o9Pc6X_s_T6zvZ6ue86A-5YKoGafI1txDvaPL8EcdNWal49vCD7H0rrJ58OCTNOqET5sIz36OIe/s400/SUFFERING+CHRIST.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5073490777755060034" /></a><br /><br />A Benediction<br /><br />Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise;<br />thou mine inheritance, now and always;<br />thou and thou only the first in my heart;<br />high King of heaven my treasure thou art.<br /><br />High King of heaven, after victory won,<br />may I reach heaven's joys, O bright Heaven's sun;<br />Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,<br />still be my vision, 0 ruler of all.<br /><br />(Irish, about eighth century)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG7beigsOl_qYC-tj-80iGojYPzWYWq0f9N-Qpe9ATKO9WfUxjkfnBWaEnEpJDWUz5_o9Pc6X_s_T6zvZ6ue86A-5YKoGafI1txDvaPL8EcdNWal49vCD7H0rrJ58OCTNOqET5sIz36OIe/s1600-h/SUFFERING+CHRIST.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG7beigsOl_qYC-tj-80iGojYPzWYWq0f9N-Qpe9ATKO9WfUxjkfnBWaEnEpJDWUz5_o9Pc6X_s_T6zvZ6ue86A-5YKoGafI1txDvaPL8EcdNWal49vCD7H0rrJ58OCTNOqET5sIz36OIe/s400/SUFFERING+CHRIST.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5073490777755060034" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Still Waters, Deep Waters </span>ed. By Rowland Croucher pp. 218-223</span>Rowland Croucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13473460918145751334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1291782253971895185.post-32156246728843132432007-06-06T23:47:00.000-07:002007-06-06T23:56:06.803-07:00THE COMPASSIONATE LIFE<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9vE3IP0SeCpr945PNxm1cqhilwn_TwPa2kP4t5EbwBAzktapiWZqYm4wP6H2CbqHHvKuLs0gXJy85CWEDNLUKHvJk8zOLAPKmfM9ASCOzIL_zuNuYhPHRMiVd7BawZ90qMyQ8H59Ax7Mz/s1600-h/compassion.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9vE3IP0SeCpr945PNxm1cqhilwn_TwPa2kP4t5EbwBAzktapiWZqYm4wP6H2CbqHHvKuLs0gXJy85CWEDNLUKHvJk8zOLAPKmfM9ASCOzIL_zuNuYhPHRMiVd7BawZ90qMyQ8H59Ax7Mz/s400/compassion.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5073211299938142002" /></a><span style="font-weight:bold;"> <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">The Lord has told us what is good. What he requires of us is this: to do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with our God.<br /><br />Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every kind of disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.<br /><br />Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate. Do not judge, and you will not be judged yourselves; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned yourselves; grant pardon, and you will be pardoned.<br /><br />You have a permanent place in my heart, and God knows how much I miss you all, loving you as Christ Jesus loves you.<br /><br />You are God's chosen race, his saints; he loves you and you should be clothed in sincere compassion, in kindness and humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with one another; forgive each other as soon as a quarrel begins. The Lord has forgiven you; now you must do the same. Over all these clothes, to keep them together and complete them, put on love.<br /><br />Your life in Christ makes you strong, and his love comforts you. You have fellowship with the Spirit, and you have kindness and compassion for one another... The attitude you should have is the one that Christ Jesus had...<br /><br />'Which of these three, do you think, proved himself a neighbour to the man who fell into the brigands’ hands?’ The one who took pit on him,’ he replied.<br /><br />Jesus said to him, 'Go and do the same yourself.'<br /><br />We love because God first loved us. If someone says he loves God, but hates his brother, he is a liar. For he cannot love God, whom he has not seen, if he does not love his brother, whom he has seen. The command that Christ has given us is this: whoever loves God must love his brother also.<br /></span><br />(Micah 6: 8, GNB; Matthew 9: 35-36, NIV; Luke 6: 36-37, JB; Philippians 1: 7-8, JB; Colossians 3: 12-14, JB; Philippians 2:1 and 5, GNB; Luke 10: 36-37, JB; 1 John 4: 19-21, GNB)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9vE3IP0SeCpr945PNxm1cqhilwn_TwPa2kP4t5EbwBAzktapiWZqYm4wP6H2CbqHHvKuLs0gXJy85CWEDNLUKHvJk8zOLAPKmfM9ASCOzIL_zuNuYhPHRMiVd7BawZ90qMyQ8H59Ax7Mz/s1600-h/compassion.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9vE3IP0SeCpr945PNxm1cqhilwn_TwPa2kP4t5EbwBAzktapiWZqYm4wP6H2CbqHHvKuLs0gXJy85CWEDNLUKHvJk8zOLAPKmfM9ASCOzIL_zuNuYhPHRMiVd7BawZ90qMyQ8H59Ax7Mz/s400/compassion.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5073211299938142002" /></a><br /><br />Compassion is an 'okay' kind of word isn't it? We like to think of ourselves as a compassionate people who really are mostly good, gentle and understanding. We should like to think that the compassionate life was simply the human way of living. But being human and being compassionate are not the same. All the conflict, war, hatred, injustice and oppression in the world remind us that authentic compassion is not a response natural to every human.<br /><br />True compassion is tragically rare. Competition and not compassion seems to be the rule of life.<br /><br />As followers of Jesus we need to hear his call: 'Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate.' This is a radical dimension of Christ's call to us. It goes against our competitive nature. Indeed, we only begin to understand compassion when we understand that our Father has first loved us. Because he is compassionate towards us, we may grow in compassion and reach out to others.<br /><br />Christian compassion must be more than an emotional 'gut' reaction. It is often appropriate that we feel a deep anger at the sin, cruelty and injustice in our world. But true compassion will always move from emotion to action, in the spirit of the obedient and suffering Servant of God.<br /><br />Compassion must involve action, and yet prayer is central to authentic compassion for others. Prayer will lead us into the mysteries of suffering and enable us to reach out even to our enemies in compassion. Prayer calls us to be aware of the world in which we live and present it with all its horrors, violence, needs and pain to a God who is Compassion.<br /><br />Yet we are always aware that the evil, failure and hurt needing to be confronted by compassion has an echo in our own hearts. Our own sin, hurt and overwhelming need constitute a painful reminder of how we, too, need to receive from lives full of compassion.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9vE3IP0SeCpr945PNxm1cqhilwn_TwPa2kP4t5EbwBAzktapiWZqYm4wP6H2CbqHHvKuLs0gXJy85CWEDNLUKHvJk8zOLAPKmfM9ASCOzIL_zuNuYhPHRMiVd7BawZ90qMyQ8H59Ax7Mz/s1600-h/compassion.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9vE3IP0SeCpr945PNxm1cqhilwn_TwPa2kP4t5EbwBAzktapiWZqYm4wP6H2CbqHHvKuLs0gXJy85CWEDNLUKHvJk8zOLAPKmfM9ASCOzIL_zuNuYhPHRMiVd7BawZ90qMyQ8H59Ax7Mz/s400/compassion.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5073211299938142002" /></a><br /><br />One day, the three of us visited the late Senator Hubert Humphrey to ask him about compassion in politics... The Senator, who had just finished talking with the ambassador of Bangladesh and obviously expected a complaint, a demand or a compliment, was visibly caught off guard when asked how he felt about compassion in politics... But then, after having adapted himself to the somewhat unusual situation, Senator Humphrey walked back to his desk, picked up a long pencil with a small eraser at its end, and said in his famous high-pitched voice: 'Gentlemen, look at this pencil. Just as the eraser is only a very small part of this pencil and is used only when you make a mistake, so compassion is only called upon when things get out of hand. The main part of life is competition; only the eraser is compassion... in politics compassion is just part of the competition.'<br /><br />H.J.M. Nouwen, D.P. McNeill, D.A. Morrison, <span style="font-style:italic;">Compassion</span><br /><br />The life of Jesus illustrates the three vital elements of compassion in action. The first element is true understanding...<br /><br />Compassion is born from true understanding. Matthew noted that Jesus had compassion on the crowds because 'they were like sheep without a shepherd, harassed and helpless'... Compassion means that we have two cross hairs in the sights of our understanding: the fact that people are beings created by God in the image of God and the fact that people have fallen and live in a fallen world. Where the two lines cross is the centre of the sphere of compassion.<br /><br />The second element of Christian compassion is outrage. If we see what is wrong as God sees it, we will feel about it as God feels... to be moved with compassion denotes a gut reaction, an intense visceral emotion; and suggests strong anger at the situation which has reduced people to their present circumstances...<br /><br />The third element of Christian compassion is identification. The Latin root for 'compassion' is parallel to the Greek root for sympathy; both refer to deep fellow feelings 'with' or 'alongside' someone. Identification is at the heart of the incarnation.<br /><br />Os Guinness, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Dust of Death</span><br /><br />Just as our neighbour is in need and lacks that in which we abound, so we were in need before God and lacked his mercy. Hence, as our heavenly Father has in Christ freely come to our aid, we also ought freely to help our neighbour through our body and its works, and each one should become as it were a Christ to the other that we may be Christs to one another and Christ may be the same in all; that is, that we may be truly Christians.<br /><br />Martin Luther, <span style="font-style:italic;">Christian Freedom</span><br /><br />I quoted something I had heard a preacher say to Len, a Canning Town Christian. The preacher had said, 'What we want in this country is a voice.' I asked Len what his comments were. 'You'd have to have lips and a mouth and a body as well, wouldn't you?' he said.<br /><br />David Sheppard, <span style="font-style:italic;">Built as a City</span><br /><br />The bowels of compassion: a wonderful old phrase. They ought to be kept open.<br /><br />Norman Douglas, <span style="font-style:italic;">An Almanac</span><br /><br />If you think of your fellow creatures, then you only want to cry; you could really cry the whole day long. The only thing to do is to pray that God will perform a miracle and save some of them. And I hope I am doing that enough.<br /><br />Anne Frank, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Diary of Anne Frank</span><br /><br />The great news we have received is that God is a compassionate God. in Jesus Christ the obedient servant, who did not cling to his divinity, but emptied himself and became as we are, God has revealed the fullness of his compassion. He is Immanuel, God-with-us. The great call we have heard is to live a compassionate life. In the community formed in displacement and leading to a new way of being together, we can become disciples - living manifestations of God's presence in this world. The great task we have been given is to walk the compassionate way. Through the discipline of patience, practised in prayer and action, the life of discipleship becomes real and fruitful.<br /><br />H.J.M. Nouwen, D.P. McNeill, D.A. Morrison, <span style="font-style:italic;">Compassion</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9vE3IP0SeCpr945PNxm1cqhilwn_TwPa2kP4t5EbwBAzktapiWZqYm4wP6H2CbqHHvKuLs0gXJy85CWEDNLUKHvJk8zOLAPKmfM9ASCOzIL_zuNuYhPHRMiVd7BawZ90qMyQ8H59Ax7Mz/s1600-h/compassion.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9vE3IP0SeCpr945PNxm1cqhilwn_TwPa2kP4t5EbwBAzktapiWZqYm4wP6H2CbqHHvKuLs0gXJy85CWEDNLUKHvJk8zOLAPKmfM9ASCOzIL_zuNuYhPHRMiVd7BawZ90qMyQ8H59Ax7Mz/s400/compassion.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5073211299938142002" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Father, I confess my great need of your compassion. My failures, doubts, temptations and fears threaten to overwhelm me. Life seems to be a never-ending competition and I often feel as though I don't even know the rules. You understand and love me as you do all your children. Reach out to me so that in the depths of my being I may know your compassion. Thankyou that in the life, teaching and suffering of your Son I learn that you are a God of compassion.<br /><br />In my mind I know that to follow you means that I must live a life of compassion. But my heart is often so hard and my body so slow to help others, even when I become indignant over their plight. Show me that it is precisely because of my poverty and pain that I may be able to help others. Just as you love me, so may I love others. Amen.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9vE3IP0SeCpr945PNxm1cqhilwn_TwPa2kP4t5EbwBAzktapiWZqYm4wP6H2CbqHHvKuLs0gXJy85CWEDNLUKHvJk8zOLAPKmfM9ASCOzIL_zuNuYhPHRMiVd7BawZ90qMyQ8H59Ax7Mz/s1600-h/compassion.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9vE3IP0SeCpr945PNxm1cqhilwn_TwPa2kP4t5EbwBAzktapiWZqYm4wP6H2CbqHHvKuLs0gXJy85CWEDNLUKHvJk8zOLAPKmfM9ASCOzIL_zuNuYhPHRMiVd7BawZ90qMyQ8H59Ax7Mz/s400/compassion.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5073211299938142002" /></a><br /><br />A Benediction<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">May the Father who is Compassion, the Son who is still moved by the sight of the wounded people and the Spirit who is the Comforter transform our competitive souls into compassionate lives. Amen.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">High Mountains, Deep Valleys</span> ed. Rowland Croucher pp. 71-75</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9vE3IP0SeCpr945PNxm1cqhilwn_TwPa2kP4t5EbwBAzktapiWZqYm4wP6H2CbqHHvKuLs0gXJy85CWEDNLUKHvJk8zOLAPKmfM9ASCOzIL_zuNuYhPHRMiVd7BawZ90qMyQ8H59Ax7Mz/s1600-h/compassion.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9vE3IP0SeCpr945PNxm1cqhilwn_TwPa2kP4t5EbwBAzktapiWZqYm4wP6H2CbqHHvKuLs0gXJy85CWEDNLUKHvJk8zOLAPKmfM9ASCOzIL_zuNuYhPHRMiVd7BawZ90qMyQ8H59Ax7Mz/s400/compassion.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5073211299938142002" /></a>Rowland Croucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13473460918145751334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1291782253971895185.post-61144718661101467832007-06-05T19:48:00.000-07:002007-06-05T20:04:43.922-07:00THE DESERT IN THE HEART<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNKwAyhFNB9ibLtOOKYJshYpvyZJZGEEz-vVKWfasrAf55J60hqiokhHvadPCgEw7ck3BOFGbe4tY7FP6lVD6qb2uQ7PSqBE2ucrOhdUZXJ3JC-tLdIPYt0fC5qKGGnYCLyjYUqruC812v/s1600-h/DESERT+RAIN.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNKwAyhFNB9ibLtOOKYJshYpvyZJZGEEz-vVKWfasrAf55J60hqiokhHvadPCgEw7ck3BOFGbe4tY7FP6lVD6qb2uQ7PSqBE2ucrOhdUZXJ3JC-tLdIPYt0fC5qKGGnYCLyjYUqruC812v/s400/DESERT+RAIN.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5072779995027310066" /></a><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">As a hart longs for flowing streams, so longs my soul for thee, 0 God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?<br /><br />O God, thou art my God, I seek thee, my soul thirsts for thee; my flesh faints for thee, as in a dry and weary land where no water is. So I have looked upon thee in the sanctuary, beholding thy power and glory.<br /><br />I stretch out my hands to thee; my soul thirsts for thee like a parched land.<br /><br />'All my springs are in you.'<br /><br />With joy you will. draw water from the wells of salvation.<br /><br />I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.<br /><br />Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.<br /><br />For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water.<br /><br />And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fall, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.<br /><br />Then he showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.</span> <br /><br />(Psalm 42: 1-2; Psalm 63: 1-2; Psalm 143: 6; Psalm 87: 7; Isaiah 12: 3; Isaiah 41:18 -- all RSV; Isaiah 55: 1, NRSV; Isaiah 35: 6b-7a; Ezekiel 47: 12; Revelation 22:1-2 -- all RSV)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNKwAyhFNB9ibLtOOKYJshYpvyZJZGEEz-vVKWfasrAf55J60hqiokhHvadPCgEw7ck3BOFGbe4tY7FP6lVD6qb2uQ7PSqBE2ucrOhdUZXJ3JC-tLdIPYt0fC5qKGGnYCLyjYUqruC812v/s1600-h/DESERT+RAIN.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNKwAyhFNB9ibLtOOKYJshYpvyZJZGEEz-vVKWfasrAf55J60hqiokhHvadPCgEw7ck3BOFGbe4tY7FP6lVD6qb2uQ7PSqBE2ucrOhdUZXJ3JC-tLdIPYt0fC5qKGGnYCLyjYUqruC812v/s400/DESERT+RAIN.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5072779995027310066" /></a><br />The full text for this chapter heading comes from the English poet W.H. Auden:<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">In the desert of the heart<br />Let the healing fountains start,<br />In the prison of his days<br />Teach the free man how to praise.</span><br /><br />The first and third lines express complementary Interpretations of the human predicament. The second and fourth lines tell of the solution.<br /><br />There is more than one desert in the heart, and the poet of Psalm 84 speaks (probably from his own experience) of a vale of misery which the God-blessed person finds to be a well, with pools of water to refresh the journey. ,<br /><br />The most famous well in Palestine is Jacob's well near Nablus, several miles from biblical Samaria. The well is deep: a coin dropped into it takes several seconds before one hears the splash. The water is cold and clear, and visitors are invited to drink a small glassful by the guardian monk. The well is associated with the world's loveliest love story, that of Jacob and Rachel (Genesis 29), and even earlier with that of Abraham's steward sent to find a bride for Isaac (Genesis 24).<br /><br />For Christians there is the more heart-touching account of Jesus sitting tired by the well, and his request to the Samaritan woman to draw water for him to drink, followed by the conversation about the water of life which Christ supplies: 'Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give will never thirst... it will become a spring of water, welling up to eternal life', a spring from which others may drink (John 4).<br /><br />C.H. Dodd, one of the greatest New Testament scholars of the twentieth century, quotes a poem from Longfellow's Songs of King Olaf, the meaning of which I have witnessed in my own visits to the Abrahamic country of the Negev:<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">As torrents in summer,<br />Half-dried in their channels,<br />Suddenly rise, tho' the<br />Sky is still cloudless,<br />For rain has been failing<br />Far off at their fountains –<br />So hearts that are fainting<br />Grow full to o'erflowing,<br />And they that behold it<br />Marvel, and know not<br />That God at their fountains<br />Far off has been raining.</span><br /><br />Where there is water, trees will ultimately grow, and a passage from Isaiah gives a list of them drawing their nourishment from open rivers on the heights, previously rocky -- cedar, acacia, myrtle, olive, cypress, plane and pine. This may refer to God's control of national history: Israel may be as weak as a worm, but God will make it strong and great, so that all its people will rejoice in the Lord, the Holy One of Israel (Isaiah 41: 16-20).<br /><br />The poet who wrote the first psalm in the psalter makes this insight personal. The Jerusalem Bible makes verse 1 dear: 'How blessed is anyone who rejects the advice of the wicked and does not take a stand in the path that sinners tread, nor a seat in company with cynics, but who delights in the Law of Yahweh and murmurs -- reads meditatively -- his law day and night.' The godly person is like a tree growing near a stream, putting its roots down into the moist earth, so that the life-giving sap rises to every part of the tree -- branches, twigs, leaves and fruit.<br /><br />Ezekiel's vision and that of the seer in Revelation may have relevance to the task of restoring the decay of our inner cities, where towering office blocks and rejected beehives of slum flats, the lack of social amenities and inadequate family homes breed poverty, despair and greed for quick profits, as well as un-neighbourly relationships. We who care for the good life can thank God that we are becoming aware of our failure and the crying need of so many of our fellow humans.<br /><br />As we go further in our social and moral audit, there are other kinds of deserts in the heart. There is a desert of loneliness, with so many old people living alone and often spending a whole day without a visit or even a word from another human. The dialled telephone would seem a God-given gift for such a desert.<br /><br />There is the desert of language in our prayer life, trying to find a word to describe the Indescribable, the Inexpressible. That need not be too difficult practically, for God knows the silent feeling of the heart, and to him all hearts are open, all desires known and from that Eternal Wisdom and Love no secrets are hidden.<br /><br />And there is the desert of suffering that comes to disabled people or to those troubled by the diminishments and irritations of old age. When ill or in pain, or through failing eyesight or increasing deafness, it is difficult to pray. I often wish that our Lord had lived on into old age, so that he could have shown us a pattern for accepting such limitations.<br /><br />Two thoughts have helped me in my desert. The first is to make an immediate act of trust in God, shooting up an arrow of prayer to him. The second is to remember Paul's words, when his unspecified and unhealed 'thorn in the flesh' was hurting him -- 'I can do (or bear) all things through Christ, who strengthens me' (Philippians 4: 13).<br /><br />So in conclusion, I come back to Auden's verse from which I began, with a slight amendment to cheer the occasional stretches of depression in my own old age:<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">In the deserts of the heart<br />Let the healing fountains start;<br />In any prison of my days<br />Teach me freedom how to praise.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNKwAyhFNB9ibLtOOKYJshYpvyZJZGEEz-vVKWfasrAf55J60hqiokhHvadPCgEw7ck3BOFGbe4tY7FP6lVD6qb2uQ7PSqBE2ucrOhdUZXJ3JC-tLdIPYt0fC5qKGGnYCLyjYUqruC812v/s1600-h/DESERT+RAIN.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNKwAyhFNB9ibLtOOKYJshYpvyZJZGEEz-vVKWfasrAf55J60hqiokhHvadPCgEw7ck3BOFGbe4tY7FP6lVD6qb2uQ7PSqBE2ucrOhdUZXJ3JC-tLdIPYt0fC5qKGGnYCLyjYUqruC812v/s400/DESERT+RAIN.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5072779995027310066" /></a><br />Many people as they grow older fear the coming of old age. They regret the failing of physical and mental powers, the withdrawal from active life, posts of leadership and the satisfaction of being used creatively. These increasing diminishments can be seen as a hollowing-out of the material and the temporal, in order to be ready to be filled with the spiritual and the eternal.<br /><br />George Appleton, <span style="font-style:italic;">Journey for a Soul</span><br /><br />There are credits as well as debits in the aging process -but the debits gain greater prominence. Each stage of life brings its own rewards, and old age is no exception. The happy people are those who accept their age and major on the credits rather than the debits.<br /><br />Blind optimism is not warranted, however, for growing old is not all fun! The handicaps and limitations are not easy to take. Declining health, decreasing mobility, the waning of one's powers are, for many, too painfully real to be ignored.<br /><br />With his accustomed realism, Paul recognised this when he wrote, 'Outwardly we are wasting away' (2 Corinthians 4: 16). His own sufferings -- see 2 Corinthians 11:23-28 -- must have taken a heavy toll of his physical frame, so ,-he is speaking from painful experience. But he did not stop there; instead, he added the secret of his staying power: 'Yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.'<br /><br />Indeed, he shared something else he had learned over the years: 'I have learned the secret of being content in any and every circumstance... I can do everything through him who gives me strength' (Philippians 4: 12-13). His secret? A daily appropriation of Christ's strength to meet his weakness.<br /><br />J.O. Sanders, <span style="font-style:italic;">'Age is in Attitudes -- not Arteries'</span><br /><br />Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. .People grow old by deserting their ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interest wrinkles the soul. In the central place of every heart, there is a recording chamber; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer and courage, so long are you young. When the wires are all down and your heart is covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then, and then only, are you grown old.<br /><br />Douglas MacArthur<br /><br />The wisdom of the heart is its growing old in experience, recollected in tranquillity, and digested in grace, humility and love. What other wisdom is worth seeking and having? If people are rightly aging, they are showing in that wisdom and, as their years increase, so does this wisdom.<br /><br />Carroll E. Simcox, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Gift of Aging</span><br /><br />I love looking at you, hundred-year-old tree, loaded with shoots and boughs as though you were a stripling. Teach me the secret of growing old like you, open to life, to youth, to dreams, as somebody aware that youth and age are merely steps towards eternity.<br /><br />Dom Helder Camara, <span style="font-style:italic;">A Thousand Reasons for Living</span><br /><br />Old people are approaching a new frontier. Some will have a quiet faith in the God and Father of Jesus and will live each day as it comes, taking the crossing into the new dimension in their stride. Others will want to explore, experiencing the spiritual dimension within their own being, learning from those who left insights before they crossed, living now in the values of the beyond, recognising that the only currency they can take with them is love.<br /><br />George Appleton, <span style="font-style:italic;">Journey for a Soul</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Through all the changing scenes of life,<br />in trouble and in joy,<br />the praises of my God shall still<br />my heart and tongue employ.<br /><br />Of his deliverance I will boast,<br />till all that are distressed,<br />when learning this, will comfort take<br />and calm their griefs to rest.<br /><br />O make but trial of his love;<br />experience will decide<br />how blest are they, and only they,<br />who in his truth confide.</span><br /><br />Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady<br /><br />When the signs of age begin to mark my body (and still more when they touch my mind); when the ill that is to diminish me or carry me off strikes from without or is born within me; when the painful moment comes in which I suddenly awaken to the fact that I am ill or growing old; and above all at that last moment when I feel I am losing hold of myself and am absolutely passive within the hands of the great unknown forces that have formed me; in all those dark moments, O God, grant that I may understand that it is you (provided only my faith is strong enough) who are painfully parting the fibres of my being in order to penetrate to the very marrow of my substance and bear me away within yourself.<br /><br />Teilhard de Chardin<br /><br />Thank you, Lord!<br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />When trees are stripped, bent, bowed and torn<br />In howling gale, torrential rain;<br />For every wind which leaves forlorn,<br />Produces stronger growth through pain;<br />Though rain's sharp needles wound perchance,<br />They bring life-giving sustenance.<br />Thank you, Lord!<br /><br />For flames which purify life's dross,<br />Shifting all sediment and dross,<br />Till dear, bright purity can hold<br />Sure image of the Master's cross:<br />Praise for the fire; the icy blast;<br />Thank you, Lord, that your hold is fast.<br />Thank you, Lord!<br /><br />When powerful forces wrench a soul;<br />When sore heart's praise comes haltingly,<br />That shattered lives can be made whole<br />If handed to you willingly.<br />Then every stumbling 'Thank you, Lord!' <br />Will lift, expand, proclaim your word.</span><br /><br />Betty Stevens<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNKwAyhFNB9ibLtOOKYJshYpvyZJZGEEz-vVKWfasrAf55J60hqiokhHvadPCgEw7ck3BOFGbe4tY7FP6lVD6qb2uQ7PSqBE2ucrOhdUZXJ3JC-tLdIPYt0fC5qKGGnYCLyjYUqruC812v/s1600-h/DESERT+RAIN.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNKwAyhFNB9ibLtOOKYJshYpvyZJZGEEz-vVKWfasrAf55J60hqiokhHvadPCgEw7ck3BOFGbe4tY7FP6lVD6qb2uQ7PSqBE2ucrOhdUZXJ3JC-tLdIPYt0fC5qKGGnYCLyjYUqruC812v/s400/DESERT+RAIN.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5072779995027310066" /></a><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Grant, O Lord, that the years that are left may be the holiest, the most loving, the most mature. I thank you for the past and especially that you have kept the good wine until now. Help me to accept diminishing powers as the opportunity to prepare my soul for the full and free life to come in the state prepared by your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.</span><br /><br />George Appleton, <span style="font-style:italic;">Journey for a Soul</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNKwAyhFNB9ibLtOOKYJshYpvyZJZGEEz-vVKWfasrAf55J60hqiokhHvadPCgEw7ck3BOFGbe4tY7FP6lVD6qb2uQ7PSqBE2ucrOhdUZXJ3JC-tLdIPYt0fC5qKGGnYCLyjYUqruC812v/s1600-h/DESERT+RAIN.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNKwAyhFNB9ibLtOOKYJshYpvyZJZGEEz-vVKWfasrAf55J60hqiokhHvadPCgEw7ck3BOFGbe4tY7FP6lVD6qb2uQ7PSqBE2ucrOhdUZXJ3JC-tLdIPYt0fC5qKGGnYCLyjYUqruC812v/s400/DESERT+RAIN.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5072779995027310066" /></a><br />A Benediction<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">May the ever-present God, the source of living water, open rivers and streams before you in the deserts of your heart. May he be your life in times of spiritual barrenness, your companion in times of loneliness, your strength in times of weakness, and your provider of fruitfulness in your years of old age. Amen.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Rivers in the Desert</span> ed. By Rowland Croucher pp. 237-244</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNKwAyhFNB9ibLtOOKYJshYpvyZJZGEEz-vVKWfasrAf55J60hqiokhHvadPCgEw7ck3BOFGbe4tY7FP6lVD6qb2uQ7PSqBE2ucrOhdUZXJ3JC-tLdIPYt0fC5qKGGnYCLyjYUqruC812v/s1600-h/DESERT+RAIN.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNKwAyhFNB9ibLtOOKYJshYpvyZJZGEEz-vVKWfasrAf55J60hqiokhHvadPCgEw7ck3BOFGbe4tY7FP6lVD6qb2uQ7PSqBE2ucrOhdUZXJ3JC-tLdIPYt0fC5qKGGnYCLyjYUqruC812v/s400/DESERT+RAIN.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5072779995027310066" /></a>Rowland Croucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13473460918145751334noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1291782253971895185.post-20449205846493852252007-06-02T03:16:00.000-07:002007-06-02T03:18:42.216-07:00CLIMB EVERY MOUNTAIN<span style="font-weight:bold;"> <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Bless the Lord, all his angels, creatures of might who do his bidding. Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers who serve his will. Bless the Lord, all created things, in every place where he has dominion. Bless the Lord, my soul.<br /><br />And God gave Solomon depth of wisdom and insight, and understanding as wide as the sand on the sea-shore, so that Solomon's wisdom surpassed that of all the men of the east and of all Egypt.<br /><br />The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered. He lived in the house of his Egyptian master, who saw that the Lord was with him and was giving him success in all that he undertook.<br /><br />But the Almighty we cannot find; his power is beyond our ken, and his righteousness not slow to do justice. Therefore mortal men pay him reverence, and all who are wise look to him.<br /><br />O Lord our sovereign, how glorious is thy name in all the earth!<br /><br />O Lord, who savest man and beast, how precious is thy unfailing love!<br /><br />You are, I know, eager for gifts of the Spirit; then aspire above all to excel in those which build up the church.<br /><br />And now I will show you the best way of all. I may speak in tongues of men or of angels, but if I am without love, I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal.</span><br /><br />(Psalm 103: 20-23; 1 Kings 4: 29-30; Genesis 39: 2-3; Job 37: 23-24; Psalm 8: 1; Psalm 36: 7; 1 Corinthians 14: 12; 1 Corinthians 12: 31b - 13:1 -- all NEB)<br /><br />~~~<br /><br />Excellence, in the biblical sense, is possible. It is not to be confused with the worldly notion of 'success', which can so easily and uncritically be adopted by Christians, both individually and corporately.<br /><br />It is a perversion of the gospel to interpret this excellence in terms of the status symbols of worldly success, which include in our culture such things as wealth, positions of responsibility and status (induding in the church) size (of buildings, cars etc.), popularity numbers within the groups we lead, and so on. Rather, the gospel stands against the so-called wisdom which decrees that 'life' is to be found in achieving a perceived elevation in power. The gospel offers fulfilment and joy in the conscious reversal of the values of the world by calling us to engage in the gracious handing over of power and the symbols of power.<br /><br />The call of God is for us to climb the mountain of true excellence with him. This is the path of self-denial which is saturated in his love, and ours. How different is this call! We are not called to a competition based on frantic ego-activity whereby 'success' is measured in terms of self-fulfilment, no matter who else is hurt in the en deavour. We are called to embrace the 'higher way' of love.<br /><br />This call of God is also to be embraced by his people corporately. It is hardly the intention of God that we should adopt the destructive strategies of the world in determining how we relate to other groups of Christian people. Our group -- congregation, assembly, denomination -- has no mandate to engage in self-promotion, or to gloat over the difficulties experienced by other groups of Christians, or to have glib feelings of Pharisaic selfrighteousness about doctrine or practice. How can a Christian group ever think it has reached the top of the pile, when 'the pile' is steeped in humility? If the Kingdom of God is the sphere of loving service, of delighting in preferring others above one's own self or group, what place is there for feelings of superiority, or for the practice of undermining others who are God's people?<br /><br />We are the people of the rainbow, the children of promise. We live in the tension of the 'not yet'. We have not arrived. Our dream takes our acting, our loving, our praying and our witnessing beyond the tinsel of this present time into the reality of God's future. We dream of a new heaven and of a new earth, and we devote ourselves without reserve to that dream.<br /><br />~~~<br /><br />If I had my life to live over again, I'd try to make more mistakes next time... I would be crazier, I would be less hygienic. I would take more chances. I would take more trips. I would climb more mountains, swim more rivers and watch more sunsets...<br /><br />Source unknown<br /><br />Success is a shining city, a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. We dream of it as children, we strive for it through our adult lives, and we suffer melancholy in old age if we have not reached it.<br /><br />Success is the place of happiness. And the anxieties we suffer at the thought 'of not arriving there give us ulcers, heart attacks and nervous disorders. If our reach exceeds our grasp, and we fail to achieve what we want, life seems meaningless and we feel emotionally dead.<br /><br />Anthony Campolo, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Success Fantasy</span><br /><br />Success focusses its attention on the external -- becoming the taskmaster for the insatiable appetites of the conspicuous consumer.<br /><br />Excellence beams its spotlight on the internal spirit, becoming the quiet, but persuasive, conscience of the conscientious who yearn for integrity.<br /><br />Success engenders fantasy and a compulsive groping for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.<br /><br />Excellence brings us to reality, and a deep gratitude for the affirming promise of the rainbow.<br /><br />Success encourages expedience and compromise, which prompt us to treat people as means to our ends.<br /><br />Excellence cultivates principles and consistency, which ensure that we will treat all persons as intrinsically valuable ends -- the apex of our heavenly Father's creation... Success pales in the brilliance of excellence.<br /><br />Jon Johnston, <span style="font-style:italic;">Christian Excellence- An Alternative to Success</span><br /><br />Success exposes us to the pressure of people and thus tempts us to hold onto his gains by means of fleshly methods and practices, and to let ourselves be ruled wholly by the dictatorial demands of incessant expansion.<br /><br />Success can go to our heads... unless we remember that it is God who accomplished the work, that he can continue to do so without our help whenever he wants to cut us out.<br /><br />Charles Spurgeon<br /><br />The highest offices of State and Church resemble a pyramid whose top is accessible to only two sorts of animals -- eagles and reptiles.<br /><br />John Wesley<br /><br />The famous conductor Leonard Bernstein was once asked, 'What is the most difficult instrument to play?' Without hesitation he replied, 'Second fiddle.' Then he explained, 'I can get plenty of first violinists, but to find one who plays second violin with as much enthusiasm or second French horn or second flute, now that's a problem. And yet if no-one plays second, we have no harmony.'<br /><br />Charles Swindoll, <span style="font-style:italic;">Improving Your Serve</span><br /><br />I will seek elegance rather than luxury, refinement rather than fashion. I will seek to be worthy more than respectable, wealthy and not rich. I will study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly. I will listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with an open heart. I will bear all things cheerfully, do all things bravely await occasions and hurry never. In a word I will let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious grow up through the common.<br /><br />William Ellery Channing, '<span style="font-style:italic;">My Symphony</span>'<br /><br />~~~<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Lord, I find it difficult to accept that you accept me without reserve in Christ, and that you delight to embrace me as a father welcomes his prodigal child. Help me to experience that acceptance deep within, and to relish your presence. Deliver me from thinking that I have to prove myself, whether to you, or to others, or to myself.<br /><br />Grant me an openness of spirit so that I can be freed of the shackles of self-expectation and take whatever risks you desire for me today.<br /><br />I confess that self-promotion is a sin which clings so closely, and I claim your forgiveness and the gift of your self-giving Spirit.<br /><br />Be pleased to renew us with a fresh compassion for others in need, and a new desire and ability to share our wealth, power and status symbols. Hear my cry for a deeper love for you and for my neighbour.<br /></span><br />~~~<br /><br />A Benediction<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Lord, enable us to show a deeply generous attitude to all we meet, serve, love and listen to, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.</span><br /><br />Rowland Croucher, ed., <span style="font-style:italic;">High Mountains Deep Valleys</span> (Albatross/Lion) chapter 49</span>Rowland Croucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13473460918145751334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1291782253971895185.post-15353528001995474632007-06-01T17:03:00.000-07:002007-06-01T17:10:50.552-07:00ON VOCATION<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU9HdSucpu7BBoURg85w5jKOJ9b4yApZEIWE4ijrRoJBAXG3CTTyGbGugum__HLCZzSepsJ5ARHqWUr5INdawsNTuu5EEck_7Pxy8iKRcSCbWDtVnDWtcwxwJ3y6vKM2z5Nr9U0zr8MtMn/s1600-h/BURNING+BUSH.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU9HdSucpu7BBoURg85w5jKOJ9b4yApZEIWE4ijrRoJBAXG3CTTyGbGugum__HLCZzSepsJ5ARHqWUr5INdawsNTuu5EEck_7Pxy8iKRcSCbWDtVnDWtcwxwJ3y6vKM2z5Nr9U0zr8MtMn/s400/BURNING+BUSH.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5071252343772311842" /></a><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">The angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush... When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God <span style="font-style:italic;">called to him from within the bush, 'Moses! Moses!' And Moses said, 'Here I am.' ...the Lord said... 'So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.'<br /><br />'When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.'<br /><br />The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, 'Samuel! Samuel!' Then Samuel said, 'Speak, for your servant is listening.'<br /><br />In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple... Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I. Send me!'<br /><br />As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 'Come, follow me,' Jesus said, 'and I will make you fish for people.' At once they left their nets and followed him.<br /><br />Jesus looked at him and said, 'You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas...'<br /><br />But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any one...<br /><br />Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God... To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ...<br /><br />Each one should remain in the situation which they were in when the Lord called them.<br /><br />As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to lead a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit -- just as you were called to one hope when you were called -- one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us, grace has been given as Christ apportioned it... It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up... attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.</span><br /><br />(Exodus 3: 2,4,10; Hosea 11: 1; 1 Samuel 3: 10; Isaiah 6:1,8 -- all NIV; Mark 1: 17-18, NIV/NRSV; John 1: 42; Galatians 1: 15-16; 1 Corinthians 1: 1-2; 1 Corinthians 7: 20; Ephesians 4:1-7,11-13 -all NIV)<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU9HdSucpu7BBoURg85w5jKOJ9b4yApZEIWE4ijrRoJBAXG3CTTyGbGugum__HLCZzSepsJ5ARHqWUr5INdawsNTuu5EEck_7Pxy8iKRcSCbWDtVnDWtcwxwJ3y6vKM2z5Nr9U0zr8MtMn/s1600-h/BURNING+BUSH.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU9HdSucpu7BBoURg85w5jKOJ9b4yApZEIWE4ijrRoJBAXG3CTTyGbGugum__HLCZzSepsJ5ARHqWUr5INdawsNTuu5EEck_7Pxy8iKRcSCbWDtVnDWtcwxwJ3y6vKM2z5Nr9U0zr8MtMn/s400/BURNING+BUSH.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5071252343772311842" /></a><br />The notion of vocation or calling is one that has almost dropped out of our vocabulary. And we are all the poorer for its absence. Its biblical and Reformation roots hold together our sense of identity, history and community. Without a providential sense of vocation for the church and the individual, identity becomes individualistic, history becomes atomistic, and community becomes conformity.<br /><br />The biblical view of vocation exclaims vive la difference to our created diversity, enables us to breathe the fresh air of Christian freedom without fear of others' judgment because our calling is different to theirs, and exhorts us to find and develop our character and biography based on the prominent lines of God's providence in our lives, personally and corporately.<br /><br />In a day when managerial and therapeutic models of ministry are dominant (and they have many useful things to say), we must still ask ourselves what our distinctive calling or vocation in ministry is. In a schizophrenic world, the distinction between the real or whole self and the role (or work) self has become axiomatic.<br /><br />As a prescription to counter burnout, we are often rightly counselled to distinguish ourselves from our ministry, but we need to remember that we cannot completely separate real self and role self without losing our integrity and even our sanity. The notion of vocation enables us to see ourselves as more than just our ministry and the current preacher's popularity rating, and yet integrate ministry and identity.<br /><br />The nervous modern pursuit of personal identity, the search for one's self, is in considerable contrast to the situation of someone like Paul. Like Peter, even his name was changed because of his call. In fact, on countless occasions in scripture what you were named or called was directly related to your calling by God. In Galatians 1, it is clear that Paul found his person in the light of the purpose God had called him to as apostle to the Gentiles. Indeed, the sin he regularly refers to is his opposition to that purpose in his persecution of the church.<br /><br />In the call narratives of figures like Moses, Samuel, Isaiah and Paul, there is a rough pattern of vision -- of God in his glory; of admission -- of human unworthiness; of passion -- a single-mindedness that is not easily separated from who you are as a person; and mission -that gets you going and keeps you going into the world.<br /><br />Many of us today want the vision and experience of God without the mission or passion, and we cannot have it. God demands all our attention to the point of what many moderns would regard as obsession. To distinguish whether we have a divine or personal obsession is a difficult task. It is the distinction between being driven or called, the difference between being a Saul or a David.<br /><br />God's call, as distinct from a personal obsession, has a number of characteristics: it is a gift that flees us to be who we were made to be; it calls us out into Christian community, the ekklesia, the gathered people of God; and it calls us into the world as part of the scattered people of God; it calls us appropriately at different ages and stages of life, with partner and children or in singleness with friends; and above all it calls us to Christlike character where we find our role and real self in his story and are led in the direction of the kingdom.<br /><br />With such a sense of calling(s), discerned in direct relationship to God, and indirectly through his people, we find a balance that saves us from the imperialism of an individualistic, subjective sense of call that carries everyone else along with us, and yet enables us to maintain a critical sense of distance from those we serve, so that we and they know that God and not they are our master.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU9HdSucpu7BBoURg85w5jKOJ9b4yApZEIWE4ijrRoJBAXG3CTTyGbGugum__HLCZzSepsJ5ARHqWUr5INdawsNTuu5EEck_7Pxy8iKRcSCbWDtVnDWtcwxwJ3y6vKM2z5Nr9U0zr8MtMn/s1600-h/BURNING+BUSH.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU9HdSucpu7BBoURg85w5jKOJ9b4yApZEIWE4ijrRoJBAXG3CTTyGbGugum__HLCZzSepsJ5ARHqWUr5INdawsNTuu5EEck_7Pxy8iKRcSCbWDtVnDWtcwxwJ3y6vKM2z5Nr9U0zr8MtMn/s400/BURNING+BUSH.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5071252343772311842" /></a><br />The great social and cultural maladies of the modern age all have this common characteristic: that they deny personal vocation.<br /><br />Denis de Rougemont, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Christian Opportunity</span><br /><br />Here lies the body of Thomas Jones, born a man, died a grocer.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Alleged Scottish gravestone</span><br /><br />What is he?<br /><br />- A man, of course.<br /><br />Yes, but what does he do?<br /><br />- He lives and is a man.<br /><br />Oh quite! but he must work. He must have a job of some<br /><br />- Why?<br /><br />Because obviously he's not one of the leisured classes.<br /><br />- I don't know. He has a lot of leisure. And he makes quite beautiful chairs.<br /><br />There you are then! He's a cabinetmaker. - No, no!<br /><br />Anyhow a carpenter and joiner. - Not at all. But you said so. - What did I say?<br /><br />That he made chairs, and was a joiner and carpenter.<br /><br />- I said he made chairs, but I did not say he was a carpenter.<br /><br />All right then, he's an amateur.<br /><br />- Perhaps! Would you say that a thrush was a professional flautist, or just an amateur?<br /><br />I'd say it was just a bird.<br /><br />- And I say he is just a man.<br /><br />All right! You always did quibble.<br /><br />D.H. Lawrence, '<span style="font-style:italic;">What is he?</span>'<br /><br />No elaborate argument is required to justify the Christian doctrine of vocation. It follows indisputably from two propositions. The first, that God is everywhere active in human affairs and his will operative at all times. The second, that he is a rational God, fully aware that the world needs farmers and miners as well as priests and nuns... The doctrine of Providence stresses the ceaseless and ubiquitous intrusion of God into human affairs. The doctrine of Vocation defines a prime mode of that intrusion.<br /><br />Henry Blamires, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Will and the Way</span><br /><br />For [God] knows with what great restlessness human nature flames, with what fickleness it is borne hither and thither, how its ambition longs to embrace various things at once. Therefore, lest through our stupidity and rashness everything be turned topsy-turvy, he has appointed duties for everyone... and has named these various kinds of living 'callings'... Accordingly, your life will be best ordered to this goal... each... will bear and swallow discomforts, vexations, weariness and anxieties... From this will arise a singular consolation; that no task will be so sordid and base, provided you obey your calling in it, that it will not shine and be reckoned precious in God's sight.<br /><br />John Calvin, <span style="font-style:italic;">Institutes of the Christian Religion</span><br /><br />If we are rightly disposed, like Samuel, to respond to all legitimate calls from the Lord, whether they come directly or indirectly, even if we repeatedly seem to make mistakes or actually do make them in the process of discernment and turn even repeatedly in the wrong directions, an untiring God will keep calling until we find our way. God called Samuel four times! This passage also highlights the importance of the role of the spiritual father. Even such an obtuse and poor man of God as the priest Eli was, in the end, by God's grace given in response to the humble faith of his disciple, able to help Samuel to discern and respond to his call.<br /><br />Basil Pennington, <span style="font-style:italic;">Called</span><br /><br />Who of us knows ourselves... as God knows us and therefore as we really are? Who can say with absolute certainty... that we are this or that, that our nature is thus, that these are the limits which even God must ob serve if he wishes to call us? An authoritative and reliable light is shed... only by the calling in which we are authentically addressed and claimed by our Creator and Lord... And in the light of this calling we will not merely find ourselves summoned to be what we are; we will also find ourselves summoned as the one we are to new existence and action.<br /><br />Saul as the one he is and has been is to become Paul. This means that the previous state of his vocation has to undergo an expansion. He must not become hopelessly enamoured of what he was. He must let himself be wrested from any passion for his previous existence. He is invited to a journey to new harbours in which he will again be himself... in a new form, perhaps becoming a source of astonishment not only to others but even to himself...<br /><br />Karl Barth, <span style="font-style:italic;">Church Dogmatics</span><br /><br />The external limitation of every human vocation has a corresponding internal limit. This consists in the personal aptitude... we must not wish to jump out of our own skin. It is just as we are that we may come, when the command of God calls us to meet the new thing which we are to be in the strength of this call... we must not ask why this is the point of departure. We must not compare it with that of others. We must not envy or despise others because theirs is different. We must not waste time considering how fine it would be if ours were like theirs. If it is good enough for God to begin dealings with us at this point, then it ought to be good enough for us to begin dealings with God at this point.<br /><br />Karl Barth, <span style="font-style:italic;">Church Dogmatics</span><br /><br />Christ appears to have begun with the distinction between the called and the driven. Somehow he separated people out on the basis of their tendency to be driven or their willingness to be called. He dealt with their motives, the basis of their spiritual energy, and the sorts of gratification in which they were interested. He called those who were drawn to him and avoided those who were driven and wanted to use him.<br /><br />Gordon MacDonald, <span style="font-style:italic;">Ordering Your Private World</span><br /><br />Can driven people be spotted? Yes, of course. There are many symptoms that suggest a person is driven...<br /><br />1. A driven person is most often gratified only by accomplishment...<br /><br />2. A driven person is preoccupied with the symbols of accomplishment...<br /><br />3. A driven person is usually caught in the uncontrolled pursuit of expansion...<br /><br />4. Driven people tend to have a limited regard for integrity...<br /><br />5. Driven people often possess limited or undeveloped people skills.<br /><br />6. Driven people tend to be highly competitive...<br /><br />7. A driven person often possesses a volcanic force of anger...<br /><br />8. Driven people are usually abnormally busy...<br /><br />Gordon MacDonald, <span style="font-style:italic;">Ordering Your Private World</span><br /><br />Any of us can look within and suddenly discover that drivenness is our way of life. We can be driven toward a superior Christian reputation, toward a desire for some dramatic spiritual experience, or toward a form of leadership that is really more a quest for domination of people than servanthood. A homemaker can be a driven person; so can a student. A driven person can be any of us...<br /><br />Can the driven person be changed? Most certainly. It begins when such a person faces up to operating according to drives and not calls. That discovery is usually made in the blinding, searching light of an encounter with Christ. As the twelve disciples discovered, an audience with Jesus over a period of time exposes all the roots and expressions of drivenness.<br /><br />To deal with drivenness, one must begin to ruthlessly appraise one's motives and values just as Peter was forced to do in his periodic confrontations with Jesus. The person seeking relief from drivenness will find it wise to listen to mentors and critics who speak Christ's words to us today. We may have some humbling acts of renunciation, some disciplined gestures of surrender of things -- things that are not necessarily bad, but that have been important for all the wrong reasons...<br /><br />Paul the apostle in his pre-Christian days was driven. As a driven man he studied, he joined, he attained, he defended, and he was applauded. The pace at which he was operating shortly before his conversion was almost manic. He was driven toward some illusive goal and, later, when he could look back at that lifestyle with all of its compulsions, he would say, 'It was all worthless.'<br /><br />Paul was driven until Christ called him. One gets the feeling that when Paul fell to his knees before the Lord while on the road to Damascus, there was an explosion of relief within his private world. What a change from the drivenness that had pushed him toward Damascus in an attempt to stamp out Christianity to that dramatic moment when, in complete submission, he asked Jesus Christ, 'What shall I do, Lord?' A driven man was con verted into a called one.<br /><br />Gordon MacDonald, <span style="font-style:italic;">Ordering Your Private World</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU9HdSucpu7BBoURg85w5jKOJ9b4yApZEIWE4ijrRoJBAXG3CTTyGbGugum__HLCZzSepsJ5ARHqWUr5INdawsNTuu5EEck_7Pxy8iKRcSCbWDtVnDWtcwxwJ3y6vKM2z5Nr9U0zr8MtMn/s1600-h/BURNING+BUSH.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU9HdSucpu7BBoURg85w5jKOJ9b4yApZEIWE4ijrRoJBAXG3CTTyGbGugum__HLCZzSepsJ5ARHqWUr5INdawsNTuu5EEck_7Pxy8iKRcSCbWDtVnDWtcwxwJ3y6vKM2z5Nr9U0zr8MtMn/s400/BURNING+BUSH.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5071252343772311842" /></a><br />Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;<br /><br />Naught be all else to me, save that thou art;<br /><br />Thou my best thought, by day or by night,<br /><br />Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.<br /><br />God of the burning bush, grant me a vision of your throne filling this earthly temple, meet me in the midst of my daily routine as you met the disciples mending their nets, encounter me on the Damascus roads running through my life, call me and woo me away from my own desperate drivenness.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Lord, I admit that so often my desires and drives become demands, compulsions that can never be met. And yet I hunger, I crave for Christ, I have a passion that burns in my bones, to be your person, to find myself and my ministry in your purpose, to go out today caught up in your mission to the world. Take my passion up within your passionate concern, my person within your purpose, and my ministry within your mission for the world.<br /><br />God who calls irresistibly in earthquake, wind and fire, and in the still, small voice: sensitise my hearing to the tone of your voice through your word. Give me discernment to hear your call in the midst of a myriad of calls and demands. Telephone calls, pastoral calls, call committees or nominators, job advertisements, my needs and the needs of my family and my church. Never ending needs! And yet I know, Lord, the need isn't necessarily the call. In the midst of all my activity like Martha, help me to take time for the luxury, the necessity to sit at your feet like Mary, and discover the one thing needful.<br /><br />Lord of my history and personality, give me wisdom to discern between my desire for change, my search for stability, my wanting recognition and fulfilment, and my longing to be my best for you, myself, my loved ones, your people, your world. Through these diverse demands and desires, plant in me, Lord, those deeper, enduring desires that delight in you and are promised fulfilment in your kingdom.<br /><br />I was all hot for honours, money, marriage: and you made mock of my hotness. In my pursuit of these, I suffered most bitter disappointment, but in this you were good to me since I was thus prevented from taking delight in anything not yourself.<br /><br />Look now into my heart, Lord, by whose will I remember all this and confess it to you. Let my soul cleave to you now that you have freed it from the tenacious hold of death.</span><br /><br />Augustine of Hippo<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Forth in thy name, O Lord, I go, My daily labour to pursue;<br />Thee, only thee, resolved to know, In all I think, or speak, or do.<br />The task thy wisdom hath assigned, O let me cheerfully fulfil;<br />In all my works thy presence find, And prove thine acceptable will.</span><br /><br />Charles Wesley<br /><br />God has called [name];<br /><br />he will not fail [him/her].<br /><br />God has called [name];<br /><br />he will not fail [him/her].<br /><br />God has called [name];<br /><br />he will not fail [him/her].<br /><br />So trust in God and obey him.<br /><br />God has called you, he will not fail you.<br /><br />So trust in God and obey him.<br /><br />God has called us, we will not fail him.<br /><br />So trust in God and obey him.<br /><br />Diane Davis<br /><br />~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br /><br />A Benediction<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">May the God of Abraham, Moses and Paul,<br />the God who irresistibly calls,<br />give you an assured sense of purpose,<br />a quiet confidence about who you are,<br />sensitive discernment of his will,<br />and decisiveness in following his direction for your life,<br />as you step out faithfully in the footsteps of Christ and with the Spirit at your side. Amen.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Rivers in the Desert</span> ed. By Rowland Croucher pp. 142-151</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU9HdSucpu7BBoURg85w5jKOJ9b4yApZEIWE4ijrRoJBAXG3CTTyGbGugum__HLCZzSepsJ5ARHqWUr5INdawsNTuu5EEck_7Pxy8iKRcSCbWDtVnDWtcwxwJ3y6vKM2z5Nr9U0zr8MtMn/s1600-h/BURNING+BUSH.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU9HdSucpu7BBoURg85w5jKOJ9b4yApZEIWE4ijrRoJBAXG3CTTyGbGugum__HLCZzSepsJ5ARHqWUr5INdawsNTuu5EEck_7Pxy8iKRcSCbWDtVnDWtcwxwJ3y6vKM2z5Nr9U0zr8MtMn/s400/BURNING+BUSH.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5071252343772311842" /></a>Rowland Croucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13473460918145751334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1291782253971895185.post-680530649408256232007-05-31T02:27:00.000-07:002007-05-31T02:44:32.407-07:00THE VOICE OF GOD IS NEVER SILENT<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiakHVv3Aeno_n2DZ3lZ9WLLE5MkW7EPP39rcwvBphLcDgCmTIVcchi-DkLFIZZmA-OQ3-q4lw89Db0zKpHkpBlfS0nT-iU13AVEJdEGYiMakhFZ89OItomk-io4Rcxilz33qW7OkwjDUh/s1600-h/STARS.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiakHVv3Aeno_n2DZ3lZ9WLLE5MkW7EPP39rcwvBphLcDgCmTIVcchi-DkLFIZZmA-OQ3-q4lw89Db0zKpHkpBlfS0nT-iU13AVEJdEGYiMakhFZ89OItomk-io4Rcxilz33qW7OkwjDUh/s400/STARS.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5070656288210972770" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;">The heavens are telling the glory of God;<br />and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.<br />Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge.<br />There is no speech, nor are there words;<br />their voice is not heard;<br />yet their voice goes out through all the earth,<br />and their words to the end of the world.<br /><br />Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him.<br /><br />Do not come near; put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.<br /><br />Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind: 'Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me.'<br /><br />The Spirit immediately drove him into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to him.<br /><br />Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. And he who searches our hearts knows what is in the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.<br /><br />Mary... sat down at the feet of the Lord and listened to his teaching. Martha was upset over all the work she had to do, so she came and said, 'Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to come and help me!'<br /><br />The Lord answered her, 'Martha, Martha! You are worried and troubled over so many things, but just one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the right thing, and it will not be taken away from her.'<br /><br />Listen, then, if you have ears!</span><br /><br />(Psalm 19: 1-4; Psalm 37: 7; Exodus 3: 5; Job 38: 1-3; Mark 1:12-13; Romans 8:26-27 -- all RSV; Luke 10: 39-42; Matthew 11: 15 -- both GNB)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_nkD94l42C918ejFg_xX6MsSePZPmfrMPCkrVABGoI8SHDiunVtiV_VtltL-extlVUgszQFJxMr4lL7bdX7icJnY5rh9jbFzLvzbsHShX7sapf_ppdZ1e9n1aSBnoDheBeilFce_1XZ_v/s1600-h/DESERT.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_nkD94l42C918ejFg_xX6MsSePZPmfrMPCkrVABGoI8SHDiunVtiV_VtltL-extlVUgszQFJxMr4lL7bdX7icJnY5rh9jbFzLvzbsHShX7sapf_ppdZ1e9n1aSBnoDheBeilFce_1XZ_v/s400/DESERT.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5070656382700253298" /></a><br />The voice of God is never silent. In every circumstance and situation God is speaking. But are we able to hear and to receive what he is offering?<br /><br />We have to learn to comprehend the many languages of the Spirit. And this insight, this ability to perceive the speech that pours forth without words is itself a gift of the Spirit. It is given to those who will wait patiently upon the Lord.<br /><br />Without speech, without sounds, yet through all the sound and fury of our stormy beings, and in all the dullness and emptiness, God speaks.<br /><br />God speaks without words and in forms we may not at first recognise as having any meaning at all. But if we wait patiently on him, we can learn to recognise his presence and his meaning in such things as the rhythms of our lives. There he is inviting us to know new dimensions of health, activity and rest. In our relationships, in the great tapestry of the years, God speaks. God speaks, and faith learns to listen.<br /><br />Paul Tillich encouraged us to think of God speaking to us from 'the darker side'. He knew this from his own experience, especially his sense of being enveloped by death while serving as a chaplain in World War I. His theological work grew out of that lifelong struggle with the darker side. Tillich spoke of the sacred void and of an absent God. But this gap is intentional, in the philosophical sense; that is, the gap has a meaning and signifies something rather than nothing.<br /><br />Tillich also spoke of God being present with him at the 'needlepoint' of absolute despair. Later still he gave thanks for God's presence with him through long periods of silent unknowing.<br /><br />We have since learned -- or rediscovered -- the spiritual disciplines of listening to God, speaking to us from the storm and in what someone has called 'the long littleness' of our everyday existence. God is not with us only in our moments of devotion or intense religious feeling. God is always with us. In the storm, or in the humdrum, God is there.<br /><br />But what can we do when we cannot hear? Then faith takes on a different meaning for us, at least for a time. Faith then is a 'holding on' and an enduring.<br /><br />When we cannot hear and cannot read the silence or the turmoil, faith persists. Faith persists, when all is perplexity and we do not even know what questions to ask, or to whom. Faith persists, till it learns the language of his silence, and the language of our silence. Faith persists, till we sense his presence and hear his voice in all the activity and all the stillness, in all the world.<br /><br />Persisting, waiting, listening: these, too, are dimensions of prayer and of theology. In these times, too, we are learning the language of God.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPDzzD-xiFGMQaF6Do8nux7w-EjmLHYK-BcD1CPlI2XHJMQbYjHGj2odT_H_SMX1-0T1WGNQuGLwGlXXyXvKNX0MR3kle670NBwrboj4C-IAh-JcAUVpRws9EChTw8iQurqF6YKNvomNdI/s1600-h/GARDEN.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPDzzD-xiFGMQaF6Do8nux7w-EjmLHYK-BcD1CPlI2XHJMQbYjHGj2odT_H_SMX1-0T1WGNQuGLwGlXXyXvKNX0MR3kle670NBwrboj4C-IAh-JcAUVpRws9EChTw8iQurqF6YKNvomNdI/s400/GARDEN.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5070656975405740162" /></a><br />Our spirituality should not only touch our so-called inner life -- which in any case is significantly shaped by all that we do and experience in our day-to-day affairs -- but emerge through and connect with the complex web of situations, incidents and encounters that make up our lives. It, too, should have an everyday cost to it: we should constantly be meeting God in it, not only apart from it. Through intimations, parables and dreams as well as through what we hear, read and observe, the voice of God, which as the Psalmist reminds us is never silent, should echo in our minds.<br /><br />Robert Banks, <span style="font-style:italic;">All the Business of Life</span><br /><br />The garden of our private worlds is cultivated not only when we draw apart for times of silence and solitude, but also when we begin, in that environment, to deliberately practise the discipline of listening. I have not met many who know how to listen to God. Busy people find it hard to learn how. Most Christians learned at an early age how to talk to God, but they did not learn to listen as well.<br /><br />Gordon MacDonald, <span style="font-style:italic;">Ordering your Private World</span><br /><br />It is the work of the Spirit that removes God from our sight, not only for some of us, but sometimes for many in a particular period. We live in an era in which the God we know is an absent God. But in knowing God as the absent God, we know of him; we feel his absence as the empty space that is left by something or someone that once belonged to us and has now vanished from our view. God is always infinitely near and infinitely far. We are fully aware of him only if we experience both of these aspects. But sometimes, when our awareness of him has become shallow, habitual -- not warm and not cold -when he has become too familiar to be exciting, too near to be felt in his infinite distance, then he becomes the absent God. The Spirit has not ceased to be present. The Spiritual Presence can never end. But the Spirit of God hides God from our sight.<br /><br />Paul Tillich, '<span style="font-style:italic;">Spiritual Presence</span>'<br /><br />Honest doubt is a form of faith; it is faith facing the storm, faith searching for God, even though all we sense are clouds of confusion and threatening questions. If we will not shirk it, but cling to our quest for truth, for integrity, for meaning, that in itself is a sign of faith and of hope. And God honours that. God appears. God embraces the faith of those who in honest doubt accept their plight, who face the issues, who travel right into the heart of the storm.<br /><br />It is the Spirit who leads us into such a wilderness and, though Satan is there to tempt us, and the wild animals may roar about us, so too the angels are there to minister to us.<br /><br />Frank Rees<br /><br />Individuals cry out for God because they remember; that memory serves both to sustain faith and at the same time to throw it into question. A lively recollection of previous mutuality and trust prevents retreat into a view that denies authentic relationship on the vertical dimensions, for humans are reminded that a bond once existed and hence may be restored at some time in the future. Here is the ultimate locus of hope which springs eternal in the human breast that is torn apart by its own agony over an apparent change in God. At the same time, here is also the source of consternation, for something has disturbed a vital relationship and everything seems to point an accusing finger at the deity.<br /><br />James L. Crenshaw, <span style="font-style:italic;">A Whirlpool of Torment</span><br /><br />You keep on asking me, 'How can I find fulfilment?'<br /><br />If only I could lay my hand on your shoulder and go with you along the way. Both of us together, turning towards him who, recognised or not, is your quiet companion, someone who never imposes himself. Will you let him plant a source of refreshment deep within you? Or will you be so filled with shame that you say, 'I am not good enough to have you near me'?<br /><br />What fascinates about God is his humility. He never punishes, domineers or wounds human dignity. Any authoritarian gesture on our part disfigures his face and repels. As for Christ, 'poor and humble of heart' -- he never forces anyone's hand. If he forced himself upon you, I would not be inviting you to follow him.<br /><br />In the silence of the heart, tirelessly he whispers to each of us, 'Don't be afraid; I am here.'<br /><br />Wait for him, even when body and spirit are dry and parched. Wait, too, with many others for an event to occur in our present day. An event which is neither marvel nor myth, nor projection of yourself. The fruit of prayerful waiting, it comes concretely in the wake of a miracle from God.<br /><br />In prayer, prayer that is always poor, like lightning rending the night, you will discover the secret: you can find fulfilment only in the presence of God... and also, you will awaken others to God, first and foremost, by the life you five.<br /><br />With burning patience, don't worry that you can't pray well. Surely you know that any spiritual pretension is death to the soul before you begin. Even when you cannot recognise him, will you stay dose to him in long silences when nothing seems to be happening? There, with him, life's most significant decisions take shape. There the recurring 'what's the use?' and the scepticism of the disillusioned melt away.<br /><br />Tell him everything, and let him sing within you the radiant gift of life. Tell him everything, even what cannot be expressed and what is absurd. When you understand so little of his language, talk to him about it.<br /><br />In your struggles, he brings a few words, an intuition or an image to your mind... And within you grows a desert flower, a flower of delight.<br /><br />Brother Roger, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Wonder of a Love</span><br /><br />Thine is what we are and have. We consecrate it to thee. Receive our thanks when we say grace, consecrating our food and with it all that we receive in our daily life. Prevent us from using empty words and forms when we give thanks to thee. Save us from routine and mere convention when we dare to speak to thee.<br /><br />We thank thee when we look back at our life, be it long or short, for all we have met in it. And we thank thee not only for what we have loved and for what gave us pleasure, but also for what brought us disappointment, pain and suffering, because we now know that it helped us to fulfil that for which we were born. And if new disappointments and new suffering take hold of us and words of thanks die on our tongues, remind us that day may come when we are ready to give thanks for the dark road on which thou hast led us.<br /><br />Our words of thanks are poor and often we cannot find words at all. There are days and months and years in which we were or are still unable to speak to thee. Give us the power, at such time, to keep our hearts open to the abundance of fife and, in silent gratefulness, to experience thine unchanging, eternal presence. Take the silent sacrifice of a heart when words of thanks become rare in us. Accept our silent gratefulness and keep our hearts and minds open to thee always!<br /><br />Paul Tillich, '<span style="font-style:italic;">In Everything Give Thanks</span>'<br /><br />You wait for us<br />until we are open to you.<br />We wait for your word<br />to make us receptive.<br />Attune us to your voice,<br />to your silence,<br />speak and bring your son to us –<br />Jesus, the word of your peace.<br />Your word is near,<br />O Lord our God,<br />your grace is near.<br />Come to us, then,<br />with mildness and power.<br />Do not let us be deaf to you,<br />but make us receptive and open<br />to Jesus Christ your son,<br />who will come to look for us and save us<br />today and every day<br />for ever and ever.<br /><br />Huub Oosterhuis, <span style="font-style:italic;">Your Word is Near</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj97-FB8g5K7-dE5r8SVlg7qY4Qe1QitwK9ygJifm0wNaf4_qI9hS-U-gdPxsurJikbKUcgXGVmujE3EsIwzfuL1YvODGmVGbjSym_2hDBz8B9879wpef_JcO8Bxf79ofVIhLvcZvihkGH5/s1600-h/PRAYING+HANDS.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj97-FB8g5K7-dE5r8SVlg7qY4Qe1QitwK9ygJifm0wNaf4_qI9hS-U-gdPxsurJikbKUcgXGVmujE3EsIwzfuL1YvODGmVGbjSym_2hDBz8B9879wpef_JcO8Bxf79ofVIhLvcZvihkGH5/s400/PRAYING+HANDS.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5070658182291550370" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Lord, make me receptive to your many voices, in all your languages. Teach me to listen, with my whole being and in all the business of my life.<br /><br />Open my dull heart and frightened spirit to the music of your creation.<br /><br />Give me the courage to go with your Spirit into the wilderness. Make me prepared to move and feel and think beyond the fringes of the familiar places, to follow you into dark and uninhabited places, to face the Tempter and dwell among the wildest elements, and there to meet with you.<br /><br />Assure me that no doubt and no despair can separate me from your love. Forgive me that I imagined your presence with me depended on my believing. Help me simply to accept your grace, the gift of your mysterious, healing and transforming presence, wherever I am and whatever I may believe and feel.<br /><br />Help me to wait upon your presence. In waiting help me to be compassionate with all who share the journey. Grant me the grace to be gentle with myself, and in everything to give thanks. Amen</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOf4PFattSiStC4O3bQEIQ_AGZEZgF0ZV-WFS7UUgHmRlcHXHD6ttGeCTO2kroLzp5wme8z5aveCY_NA01k-MxesNV3x9NLD-NmD_Q62nXvIC5yAW5i9G8oLxNftQg8ZD8h5FkJHj_sdK3/s1600-h/PRAYER.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOf4PFattSiStC4O3bQEIQ_AGZEZgF0ZV-WFS7UUgHmRlcHXHD6ttGeCTO2kroLzp5wme8z5aveCY_NA01k-MxesNV3x9NLD-NmD_Q62nXvIC5yAW5i9G8oLxNftQg8ZD8h5FkJHj_sdK3/s400/PRAYER.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5070657490801815698" /></a><br />A Benediction<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">May the mystery of his presence light your way, guide your actions and nourish your innermost being, till you find your rest in him. Amen.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Rivers in the Desert</span> ed. <a href="http://jmm.aaa.net.au">Rowland Croucher</a> pp. 98-105</span>Rowland Croucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13473460918145751334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1291782253971895185.post-37594541300884255672007-05-29T18:27:00.000-07:002007-05-29T18:48:25.666-07:00HE GIVES HIS BELOVED SLEEP<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVsREEZ1ifFlcIU7wVVZE0ZVmgOFDLJDOnHkeh5PGGQdm4Et8e5JJrTCQ5YpPbz_2esliEDDP7CLYA_rwXt8SXVNfoqyuq69CHYH6zLYj-i53L12g79Xwg0c9AE35sFrcZT_2G_wAWaAVr/s1600-h/SLEEP+1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVsREEZ1ifFlcIU7wVVZE0ZVmgOFDLJDOnHkeh5PGGQdm4Et8e5JJrTCQ5YpPbz_2esliEDDP7CLYA_rwXt8SXVNfoqyuq69CHYH6zLYj-i53L12g79Xwg0c9AE35sFrcZT_2G_wAWaAVr/s400/SLEEP+1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5070161658302328658" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"> <br />And there was evening and there was morning -- the first day.<br /><br />So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.<br /><br />I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.<br /><br />At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee be cause of thy righteous judgments.<br /><br />My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises.<br /><br />Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.<br /><br />He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you -- the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm -- he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and for evermore.<br /><br />The day is yours, and yours also the night; you established the sun and moon.<br /><br />When you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.<br /><br />The sleep of a labourer is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep.<br /><br />This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces corn.<br /><br />Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, 'Teacher, don't you care if we drown?' He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, 'Quiet! be still!' Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.<br /><br />They urged him strongly, 'Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.' So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recog nised him, and he disappeared from their sight.<br /><br />Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.<br /><br />(Genesis 1: 5, NIV; Genesis 2: 21-22, NIV; Psalm 63: 6, KJV; Psalm 119: 62, KJV; Psalm 119: 148, RSV; Psalm 127: 1-2, RSV; Psalm 121: 4-8, NIV; Psalm 74: 16, NIV; Proverbs 3: 24, NIV; Ecclesiastes 5: 12, NIV; Mark 4: 26-28, 38-39, NIV; Luke 24: 29-31, NIV; Ephesians 4: 26-27, NIV)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg46CZ_n19RD1qcovvatd9yV1CRjUDR7ygySu2EqN7ffRsxIE8cRg1wubtaraM1ww6cdJAGBXFMRTWTvlPvKT6ZpqA1-pH4vIDF7-zCFlpV15zvtjSjXQLCKLRUyVRvObIyy_qxNMumxj9g/s1600-h/SLEEP+2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg46CZ_n19RD1qcovvatd9yV1CRjUDR7ygySu2EqN7ffRsxIE8cRg1wubtaraM1ww6cdJAGBXFMRTWTvlPvKT6ZpqA1-pH4vIDF7-zCFlpV15zvtjSjXQLCKLRUyVRvObIyy_qxNMumxj9g/s400/SLEEP+2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5070163560972840802" /></a><br />There is no more innocent, peaceful sight than that of a young child blissfully asleep. There is no more refreshing feeling than crisp, cool sheets on a hot summer's night after a hard day's work. There is nothing more tortuous than the inability to sleep. It is a premonition of hell, almost endless duration, endless frustration.<br /><br />The secret of good sleep is to be able to leave all that is undone and unsaid, and all that has been done and said that we wish could be undone, in the Lord's hands. When the storm is raging around us, when pastoral and work problems beset us, when the little boat of the church is buffeted by great waves, we can let our heads hit the pillow and sleep soundly just as Jesus did. For our sleeping can be, like his, not a sign of lack of care and concern for those who are perishing, but of trust in the totally competent care of the Father. It was a truly faithful woman who, during the bombing of London, was heard to excuse herself for having laid quietly in bed, with the words, 'Well, I reflected that God does not sleep, and there seemed no reason why both of us should stay awake.'<br /><br />It is in vain that we allow anxiety to strangle good sleep. Burning the midnight oil has its place occasionally as some Psalms remind us, though not for the purpose of worrying or feverish working. When it becomes a regular practice it can be a sign of lack of faith in the One who keeps watch, and grows the grain of the kingdom while we sleep. It can also represent a refusal to respect the inbuilt rhythms of the Creator, like the beach mission team I once was on, which expected the teenage team to survive on six hours sleep a night and then wondered why everyone was tired and irritable towards the end of the mission, and why the team's witness was slipping.<br /><br />We can kid ourselves that we are somehow infinite and immortal, forgetting that we are mere dust, and we need our sleep. Bonhoeffer once asked, 'Who is there among us who can give himself with an easy conscience to the cultivation of music, friendship, games or happiness? Surely not ethical man, but only the Christian.' One might well add sleep to that list. The person who sleeps too little or doesn't sleep well may be taking life too seriously. It is good to simply let the Lord lavish his love upon us, while we sleep.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN0KieF6ode1ZUEerjbCRUspUp_mHtSyRAR21bY446FBrzKw0tEwWJ-bzBR_qvNuyQKPw8iw2e5j63slfFD1l6AY9RiM5-Me0UPCi1JM5WUj7HJaIkIR2DDXnZCL_F8bYIwBF4_x5XgQqz/s1600-h/SLEEP+3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN0KieF6ode1ZUEerjbCRUspUp_mHtSyRAR21bY446FBrzKw0tEwWJ-bzBR_qvNuyQKPw8iw2e5j63slfFD1l6AY9RiM5-Me0UPCi1JM5WUj7HJaIkIR2DDXnZCL_F8bYIwBF4_x5XgQqz/s400/SLEEP+3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5070163797196042098" /></a><br />My subject is the theology of sleep. It is an unusual subject, but I make no apology for it. I think we hear too few sermons about sleep. After all, we spend a very large share of our lives sleeping. I suppose that on an average I've slept for eight hours out of twenty-four during the whole of my life, and that means that I've slept for well over twenty years. What an old Rip van Winkle I am! But then, what Rip van Winkles you all are, or will one day become! Don't you agree then that the Christian gospel should have something to say about the sleeping third of our lives as well as about the waking two-thirds of it?<br /><br />John Baillie, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Theology of Sleep</span><br /><br />As we re-enter that sequence of days when God spoke energy and matter into existence, we repeatedly come upon the refrain, 'And there was evening and there was morning' one day... a second day... on and on six times.<br /><br />This is the Hebrew way of understanding day, but it is not ours. Our day begins with an alarm clock ripping the predawn darkness and closes, not with evening but several hours past that, when we turn off the electric lights. In our conventional references today, we do not include the night except for the two or three hours we steal from either end to give us more time to work. Because our definition of day is so different, we have to make an imaginative effort to understand the Hebrew phrase evening and morning, one day. More than idiomatic speech is involved here; there is a sense of rhythm.<br /><br />Day is the basic unit of God's creative work; evening is the beginning of that day. It is the onset of God speaking light, stars, earth, vegetation, animals, man, woman into being. But it is also the time when we quit our activity and go to sleep. When it is evening, 'I lay me down to sleep and pray the Lord my soul to keep' and drift off into semiconciousness... a state in which I am absolutely nonproductive and have no cash value.<br /><br />Evening: God begins, without our help, his creative day. Morning: God calls us to enjoy and share and develop the work he initiated.<br /><br />Creation and covenant are sheer grace and there to greet us every morning. George MacDonald once wrote that sleep is God's contrivance for giving us the help he cannot get into us when we are awake.<br /><br />We read and reread the opening pages of Genesis, along with certain sequences of Psalms, and recover these deep, elemental rhythms, internalising the reality in which the strong, initial pulse is God's creating/saving Word, God's providential/sustaining presence, God's grace.<br /><br />As this biblical rhythm works in me, I also discover something else: when I quit my day's work, nothing essential stops. I prepare for sleep not with a feeling of exhausted frustration because there is much yet undone and unfinished, but with expectancy. The day is about to begin! God's genesis words are about to be spoken again. During the hours of my sleep, how will he prepare to use my obedience, service and speech when morning breaks? I go to sleep to get out of the way for a while. I get into the rhythm of salvation.<br /><br />While we sleep, great and marvellous things, far beyond our capacities to invent or engineer, are in process -- the moon marking the seasons, the lion roaring for its prey, the earthworms aerating the earth, the stars turning in their courses, the proteins repairing our muscles, our dreaming brains restoring a deeper sanity beneath the gossip and scheming of our waking hours. Our work settles into the context of God's work. Human effort is honoured and respected not as a thing in itself but by its integration into the rhythms of grace and blessing.<br /><br />Eugene H. Peterson, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Pastor's Sabbath</span><br /><br />It is a decisive rule of every Christian fellowship that every dissension that the day has brought must be healed in the evening. It is perilous for the Christian to lie down to sleep with an unreconciled heart. Therefore, it is well that there be a special place for the prayer of brotherly forgiveness in every evening's devotion, that reconciliation be made and fellowship established anew.<br /><br />In all the ancient evening prayers, we are struck by the frequency with which we encounter the prayer for preservation during the night from the devil, from terror and from an evil, sudden death. The ancients had a persistent sense of their helplessness while sleeping, of the kinship of sleep with death, of the devil's cunning in making them fall when defenceless. So they prayed for the protection of the holy angels and their golden weapons, for the heavenly hosts, at the time when Satan would gain power over them.<br /><br />Most remarkable and profound is the ancient church's prayer that when our eyes are closed in sleep, God may nevertheless keep our hearts awake. It is the prayer that God may dwell with us and in us even when we are unconscious of his presence, that he may keep our hearts pure and holy in spite of all the cares and temptations of the night, to make our hearts ever alert to his call and, like the boy Samuel, answer him even in the night with: 'Speak, Lord; for your servant is listening (1 Samuel 3: 9). Even in sleep God can perform his wonders upon us or evil bring us to destruction. So we pray at evening:<br /><br />When our eyes with sleep are girt, Be our hearts to thee alert; Shield us, Lord, with thy right arm, Save us from sin's dreadful harm. (Luther)<br /><br />Dietrich Bonhoeffer, <span style="font-style:italic;">Life Together</span><br /><br />If a psychologist wants to understand the sort of person I am, he will not listen to the conversation I make, or read what I write on paper; he will rather try to penetrate beneath this official selfhood to my most secret thoughts. He is not hidden in the public show-places of my mind, but in its hidden nooks and crannies. He would like to know what visions I see in the clouds of my tobacco smoke as I lie back in my easy chair. He would like to know what I think of as I lie awake in bed, and he will question me in particular about the dreams that come to me when at last I drop off to sleep. It is the inner life that counts ... What do I remember on my bed, and on what do I meditate in the night watches?...<br /><br />These old worthies went to the centre at once. When they laid their heads upon their rude pillows, they remembered God. When they composed themselves to sleep, they were thinking upon his Word. And if they woke up in the middle of the night it was to meditate on his precepts... I think some of these Psalmists were dwellers in tents [awake and on guard] perhaps in the course of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and others were Levites on night duty at the Temple; and what they are telling here is how they spent these hours of enforced wakefulness. But one of them at least tells us more than that -- he tells us that he gets up a little sooner than he has to, in order to have time to think about God.<br /><br />John Baillie, <span style="font-style:italic;">Night Thoughts</span><br /><br />If we have surrendered our hearts to God in the sunlight, he will be with us no less during the hours of darkness. Nor can the devil get at us by night, if we have not allowed him some entry by day. It is certain that if there were no evil in our waking souls, there would be no evil in our dreams. But, of course, evil is always at our doors, at least in the form of temptation... There is, after all, one way in which we can exercise some control over our dreams, and that is by the proper direction of our thoughts before we retire... Everyone who calls himself a Christian should go to sleep thinking about the love of God as it has visited us in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.<br /><br />John Baillie, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Theology of Sleep</span><br /><br />Those whose spirits are stirred by the breath of the Holy Spirit of God go forwards even in sleep.<br /><br />Brother Laurence, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Practice of the Presence of God</span><br /><br />God is my portion and joy, His counsels are my light; He gives me sweet advice by day And gentle hints by night.<br /><br />Isaac Watts<br /><br />Of all the thoughts of God that are Born inward into souls afar, Along the PsaLmist's music deep, Now tell me if that any is, For gift or grace, surpassing this - 'He giveth his beloved sleep'?<br /><br />Elizabeth Barrett Browning<br /><br />My head and hands and feet Their rest with gladness greet, And know their work is o'er;<br /><br />My heart, thou too shalt be From sinful works set free, Nor pine in weary sorrow more.<br /><br />Paul Gerhardt<br /><br />Nature has ended another day, struck down another life! Someone has music in the evening, others the fruit of strife, Yet in the balance: Love draws the curtains and makes her entrance, embracing the suffering to her side.<br /><br />Kenneth T. Crotty, <span style="font-style:italic;">Nature had Ended Another Day</span><br /><br />All is still and gentle as if all creation shares with tender empathy the last whisper of this dying day. The lights are low now, and everything is suspended as if waiting for some final word.<br /><br />Bruce Prewer, <span style="font-style:italic;">Vespers by the Murray River</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx2xThNJldcGJWhRnVe0x4RV5D5H5tSbCins-lcU94-EMLEsCLcTkfbaa2z83rpK3SGXLLJdb0j2emrDfm4jOmD1SXqZrt8nfOsX4izh4h5Jvu0q-2q0qQtooeo0cZCCA56mV3FCVYmX9w/s1600-h/SLEEP+4.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx2xThNJldcGJWhRnVe0x4RV5D5H5tSbCins-lcU94-EMLEsCLcTkfbaa2z83rpK3SGXLLJdb0j2emrDfm4jOmD1SXqZrt8nfOsX4izh4h5Jvu0q-2q0qQtooeo0cZCCA56mV3FCVYmX9w/s400/SLEEP+4.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5070164140793425794" /></a><br />Now that dusk is near - with parrots in the gum trees lessening their chatter, with the distant roar of cars fading to a mere murmur - may I hear the voice of the One who walks in the garden in the cool of the evening and, in hearing that voice, find a little of the Eden-peace which some day will be perfected. This I pray in the name of him who was once mistaken for a gardener.<br /><br />Bruce Prewer, '<span style="font-style:italic;">God of the Evening</span>'<br /><br />Lighten our darkness, Lord, we pray: and in your great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of your only Son our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.<br /><br />Be present, merciful God, and protect us through the hours of this night: that we, who are wearied by the changes and chances of this fleeting world, may rest on your eternal changelessness; through Jesus Christ our Lord.<br /><br />Evening Prayer collects, <span style="font-style:italic;">An Australian Prayer Book</span><br /><br />Lord, be the guest of this house; keep far from it the deceits of the evil one. May your holy angels watch over us as guardians of our peace. And may your blessing be always upon us, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.<br /><br />Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, who at this evening hour rested in the sepulchre, and sanctified the grave to be a bed of hope to your people: make us so to abound in sorrow for our sins, which were the cause of your passion, that when our bodies lie in the dust we may live with you, through the saving merits of your cross; for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.<br /><br />As watchmen look for the morning, so we wait eagerly for you, O Lord. Come with the dawning of the day and make yourself known to us in the breaking of the bread, for you are our God, for ever and ever. Amen.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpLF5RwKd0AFMuAuyWJt-4CO-x7K5OALnb9Eq6NmAqI86X4SH9EOu06rWvuol-l3vKMauDuIvLK7xYdvkoLFDR_hwEIaTiS-6cwY2o8wiqLw0Dxg-tBiyazcSUzEHIt4NBxXGchzCffoLc/s1600-h/SLEEP+5.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpLF5RwKd0AFMuAuyWJt-4CO-x7K5OALnb9Eq6NmAqI86X4SH9EOu06rWvuol-l3vKMauDuIvLK7xYdvkoLFDR_hwEIaTiS-6cwY2o8wiqLw0Dxg-tBiyazcSUzEHIt4NBxXGchzCffoLc/s400/SLEEP+5.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5070164484390809490" /></a><br />A Benediction<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Let us praise the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; let us praise and magnify him for ever. The almighty and merciful God preserve us and give us his blessing. Amen.</span><br /><br />Prayer at the End of the Day, <span style="font-style:italic;">An Australian Prayer Book</span><br /><br />Rowland Croucher ed., <span style="font-style:italic;">High Mountains Deep Valleys </span>(Albatross/Lion), chapter 30</span>Rowland Croucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13473460918145751334noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1291782253971895185.post-87877314636581742832007-05-26T00:20:00.000-07:002007-05-26T00:23:35.996-07:00GETTING ALONG WITH OTHERS<strong><br />In everything do to others as you would have them do to you. (Matthew 7:12) Forgive, if you have anything against anyone. (Mark 11:25) Love your neighbour as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbour. (Romans 13:9,10) <br />We urge you... to admonish the idlers, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with all. (1 Thessalonians 5:14) <br /><br />If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. (Philippians 1:1-2) Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. (Philippians 4:4-5) <br /><br />Be angry but do not sin: do not let the sun go down on your anger. (Ephesians 4:26) <br /><br />No one should wrong or exploit a brother or sister... For God did not call us to impurity but in holiness. Now concerning love of the brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anyone write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. (1 Thessalonians 4:6,7,9) <br /><br />He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness. (Micah 6:8) <br /><br />And now I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. If you have love for one another, then everyone will know that you are my disciples. (John 13:34,35) <br /><br />Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called - that you might inherit a blessing. (1 Peter 3:8-9) <br /><br />..... <br /><br />Let's summarize our journey together so far: we were created by God to enjoy him, appreciate our own and others' uniqueness, and to grow in community, or fellowship with others. <br /><br />In the brilliant film Kramer vs. Kramer the divorced father has to explain to his five-year-old son that he's just lost the custody battle between himself and the boy's mother. Soon the child will be going to live with her. The little boy sobs out what for him are questions of ultimate concern: 'Where will I sleep? Where will I put my toys? Why can't I stay with you too?' <br /><br />The movie is about three people. Two grown-ups - a man and a woman - have needs that aren't being met by the other. Their little boy, therefore, has to have his life messed up too. Where does such a vicious circle begin? Why is it not possible for humans to live together without conflict? What can we do to stop the chain reaction of grief being handed on to another generation? <br /><br />Oscar Wilde believed that 'other people are quite dreadful; the only possible society is oneself.' Wrong, Oscar, and sad. (There is more wisdom in something else he said: 'In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.') How can we get along with those we live with? <br /><br />You begin by knowing who the real 'me' is. If you don't like yourself you won't enjoy living with others either. When I ask people in counseling 'What do you like about yourself?' I often get a 'nothing' response. Some of us avoid responsibility for our behaviour with the excuse 'Well, nobody's perfect.' True, but you don't have to opt out of growing; nor do you have to live with the negative self-fulfilling prophecies you or others have heaped on yourself. At the deepest level your identity, your perception of who you are, has derived from what others have communicated to you about you. It's on the esteem of others that you base your own self-esteem. With the help of a caring friend, learn to accept yourself. You are an unrepeatable miracle of God's creation. If you want to get along with others, you had better start with the person inside your own skin! <br /><br />Then, affirm the uniqueness of others. They, too, are who they are as a result of the mix of verbal inputs into their lives by significant others, plus the accidents of life they have experienced, plus their own success or otherwise in determining to become a whole person. The Christian approach here is simple, and it works: pray to your and their Creator God for a gift of love: to view the other as one precious to God and made in his image. You can't pray this prayer sincerely for too long without beginning to appreciate the other! <br /><br />Then, let's be lovingly honest with one another. One of the great middle-class sicknesses of our time is affability. We are so nice to each other it's sickening. We play games to cover our true feelings. Rather than 'walking in the light' we leave one another to stumble in the darkness about who we are and they are. But then, if we cannot 'speak the truth in love' without the risk of creating greater hurt rather than healing, we might have to (a) learn 'win-win' conflict resolution skills, and/or (b) follow the advice on my desk calendar the other day: 'Never miss an opportunity to make others happy, even if you have to leave them alone to do it.' (Marcel Proust once said, 'The one thing more difficult than following a regimen is not imposing it on others'). <br /><br />We exist in homes, families, communities, to 'care' for each other, as well as being cared for by others. However, 'care' has ambiguous connotations, as Henri Nouwen has pointed out. For example, when a Mafia boss tells his henchmen to 'go take care of somebody' that somebody had better watch out. He is about to be made an offer he can't refuse! Actually, our English word 'care' goes back to a Gothic root, kara, meaning to 'lament, weep with, grieve'. So caring should mean we become aware of the other in ways that stir deep feelings, and out of these feelings resolve is born to care for them in appropriate ways. This means breaking out of the circle of selfishness and making our lives a resource to others. <br /><br />This is the meaning of the Good Samaritan story. Every 'good Samaritan' says to the other: 'What happens to you makes a difference to me.' Just as God makes an unconditional covenant to commit himself to us no matter what happens, so we forgive 'seventy times seven' and serve the other, even if we are not thanked, or such labours are not returned. This is authentic caring. <br /><br />Again, let us take a journey back to the first few chapters of Genesis. There's a wonderful story about God's desiring communion with the creature man/woman he had made. When Adam sinned, that fellowship was broken. God arrived in the garden for their usual fellowship-time, but Adam was hiding. The 'Fall' was a fall from fellowship, not only between us and God, but between humans themselves. Cain killed his brother Abel, and we've had to work very hard to maintain fellowship, particularly where our fallenness has led us to create barriers between persons and groups. And yet, though God in the Old Testament is characteristically sovereign, and holy, in his 'apartness' from sinners, his statement to Moses - 'I will be with you' (Exodus 3:12) - indicates his desire to commune with his covenant people. The Divine Presence within Israel was symbolized in the ark, the cloud, the guiding angel, and later in the Jerusalem Temple. But, as Psalm 23 tells us, he feeds us, cares for us, protects us, guides us and encourages us. <br /><br />In the New Testament the Greek noun koinonia simply means 'sharing', and is translated variously as 'communion', 'communication', 'community', 'fellowship', 'partaking', 'contribution', etc. An ancient inscription put up by a husband in memory of his wife said: 'I shared all life with you, alone'. Thus 'fellowship' in New Testament usage is the sharing of something with others in a community, not merely the act of associating with them. The outpoured Spirit had created a community that broke through the barriers of language, culture, race, sex - even possessions (see Acts 2:42, 4:32, 35, Galatians 3:28, Colossians 3:11). <br /><br />This new joy, and mutual love, emanated not from a Divine mandate, but from their high conception of being 'in fellowship'. It was nothing short of a miracle! These early Christians experienced a sense of oneness, unity, togetherness, unlike anything they had known before. People didn't just associate with a few 'cronies': Jesus said tax-collectors and other disreputable people did that. The foundation of koinonia is nothing less than the Incarnation: Jesus sharing his life with us. <br /><br />Again, we repeat: the Christian good news is about God's acceptance of us even before we change. He loves us unconditionally. This was essentially the difference between Jesus and the pharisees. Jesus 'accepted', loved people before they had changed, he loved them into change; the pharisees rejected people who were alien, sinners, until they had changed and mended their ways. With Jesus, acceptance preceded repentance, with the pharisees it was the other way around. So we are to accept one another, as God accepts us - as people who are made in his image, who are like him! (Romans 5:6-8, 15:7). This does not mean we ignore or gloss over others' mistakes or sins: it does mean we will recognize their Godlikeness before we barge in to 'fix' things. Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery 'I do not condemn you' before he said 'Go and sin no more' (John 8:11). Jesus understood others. Two proverbs express it well: To understand all is to forgive all; if you can understand the other person you can stand them. <br /><br />We'll all meet difficult people from time to time. Jesus did. He didn't get along with everybody. He condemned injustice and godlessness and if you're going to do that you're going to get crucified by the unjust and the godless. If we are 'change agents', then we'll suffer at the hands of those who benefit by things staying the way they are. (But then, some of us want to change things because we ourselves are not at ease with ourselves.) <br /><br />Many interpersonal conflicts result from our idealised picture of who the other should be. Others' incompleteness reminds us of our own. It's sometimes called 'transference' - transferring emotions to a person or situation which belong somewhere else. He married to escape a dominant mother, so when his wife 'nags' and reminds him of a bitter past, he over-reacts. She's trying to make him like her father, who was so helpful around the house, and he does nothing. <br /><br />Acceptance is helped by empathy. Empathy is 'the imaginative projection of one's personality into that of another person' - putting yourself into the other's shoes, listening deeply with mind, heart and soul. It's not sympathy, which can sometimes be a selfish emotion, where you're hooked because of some unresolved emotional conflict in your own life. And it's the opposite of antipathy, where you judge the other for not measuring up to what you want them to be. <br /><br />And after all, what do we mean by a 'difficult person'? Who of us is not abnormal in some sense? Who decides what is normal, who is difficult? Maybe schizophrenics are sometimes the sane ones! Perhaps we have to work harder at dealing with the log in our own eye, before we take splinters out of others' eyes! <br /><br />The church is meant to be a therapeutic or 'salvific' community, a community of people-helpers. But to be a people-helper, one must be committed to one's own growth - physical, intellectual, social- emotional, and spiritual. It is a community of people who practise faith, hope and love: faith that people are loved already in spite of their crabbiness; hope that with patience and acceptance we and others can grow and change; love which covers a multitude of faults and we desire only the good of others. The challenge is to see Jesus in others, and practise 'being Christ' to others. And that's tough work: overcoming prejudices is the hardest work of all! <br /><br />Mary Claerout, in her book <em>Friday She Gave Him Flowers</em>, tells the story of Willings, a confirmed bachelor. Every Friday his maid would put flowers on his breakfast table. The white roses on the table must have cost her a fortune, so he imagined 'she must simply adore me,' As he sat back and contemplated the flowers, a warm feeling swept through him. He thought, 'The woman is a blessing; if only she weren't so ugly.' <br /><br />He thought about himself. He was a lady's man. He had himself. As a boy he loathed looking at his peer group with pimples and acne and blackheads. He abhorred their wrinkles and warts. His stomach turned over when he saw hair growing out of noses and ears. He could hardly bear to look at others' mouths. All his life he had seen only one flawless mouth, his own. He enjoyed himself, being alone... He decided to thank Emily for the flowers and called her in. <br /><br />She said, 'Oh, it's nothing to speak of really Mr Willings. It's just that I feel so sorry for the flowers. Hardly used they are, when the undertaker puts them out for Friday's rubbish collection. So I always pick a few out when I go by. I wouldn't want them at home, you know, seeing where they come from. That's why I put them in your vase. I mean, it's not your own choosing that you are all alone and don't have any friends. At least you should have a few flowers.' <br /><br />..... <br /><br />From what I have learned in my own marriage, and seen in others, there are not many questions more important than this: 'Am I willing to train myself away from selfishness toward the point where I honestly care how the other person feels?' <br /><br />Charlie W. Shedd, Letters to Philip on how to treat a woman, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell, 1968, p. 19 [43] <br /><br />If you share your bread in fear, mistrustfully, undaringly, in a trice your bread will fail. Try sharing it without looking ahead, not thinking of the cost, unstintingly, like a child of the Lord of all the harvests in the world. <br /><br />Dom Helder Camara, A Thousand Reasons for Living, London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1984, p.98 [41] <br /><br />A famous English preacher named Alexander Whyte was very disturbed one night because his closest friend was at the point of death. Whyte was praying earnestly to God that this man might be spared when suddenly a Voice said to him, 'How serious are you about this one's survival? Would you be willing to divide with him the number of years you have left to live upon this earth?' With that, Whyte reports getting up off his knees in a cold sweat for suddenly intercession had become more than a matter of words. Now it was the precious substance of his own life that was at stake. He pondered this question very deliberately for a while and dropped back to his knees and said, 'Yes! I hereby relinquish half of the time I have left, if this will enable my friend to survive.' He got up with no idea what the ultimate outcome of this agreement would be... Here I am with a given pool of physical and emotional and psychic vitality. How will I spend it? How much of it will I keep for myself and how much of it will I make available to others? <br /><br />John Claypool, from an unpublished sermon, 'How Much of Yourself Will You Give?' [197] <br /><br />Carl Sandburg talks about the 'zoo' inside each of us - there's a pig, and a lion, and a tiger, and a gentle deer. We have all kinds of feelings within us: we are responsible for some of them and not others. But although there is a zoo in me, I am keeper of that zoo! <br /><br />For example, it is not wrong to be angry, but what you do with your anger could be very harmful. Jesus got angry sometimes. And if you want to get mad at me, that's O.K. I should pray for the maturity to handle our conflicts constructively. Just as friction between certain types of rocks produces sparks of light, so it is the friction of our individualities rubbing against each other that illuminates who we really are. There is a sense in which I do not really know you nor you me until we get to a point where we differ... <br /><br />So the words 'ought' or 'should' mustn't generally be used in relation to feelings. Our feelings are like toothache - they're there - and no amount of exhorting will make a toothache or the feelings go away... <br /><br />When you are more in touch with your own feelings, you'll be more compassionate with others. Here's Frederick Buechner's definition of compassion: 'The sometimes fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else's skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too.' <br /><br />True community is born from love that risks the sorrow of rejection for the love of acceptance. Community implies participation; participation implies action. True community means walking in the light, being open, and perhaps vulnerable with one another. Perfect love casts out fear. The root of war, Thomas Merton has taught us, is fear. <br /><br />Rowland Croucher, from an unpublished sermon, 'Getting along with the people you live with.' [309] <br /><br />To Victor, who agrees with me in nothing and is my friend in everything. <br /><br />Carlyle Marney's dedication at the beginning of his book Faith in Conflict. [14] <br /><br />Some families readily express hostility and anger, but fail to express tenderness, love and appreciation. Other families appear to have unwritten rules that allow the expression of kindness, concern and positive feelings, but then suppress irritation and exasperation, shame, self-doubt and expressions of disagreement, dislike and requests for what one wants for oneself. Healthier families [are] able to express a wide range of feelings... <br /><br />'Letting it all hang out' [is not recommended]. It is the range of feelings that can be expressed without attacking other members that seems to create human development and intimacy. It may be because the family members can modulate the intensity of their negative feelings that they are able to express whatever they wish. In fact, the modulation of intense feeling is one of the prerequisites of effective conflict management. <br /><br />Moira Eastman, Family: The Vital Factor, Blackburn: Collins Dove, 1989, pp. 65-67 [132] <br /><br />A generous mind does not consider itself as belonging to itself alone, but to the whole human race (Ulrich Zwingli). A friend adds to your joy, divides your burdens, multiplies your happiness (Anon). If two people doing a job agree all the time, then one is useless. If they disagree all the time, then both are useless (Darryl F. Zanuck). We are invited to be thermostats, not thermometers - affecting our environment, not merely reflecting it (Charles Hembree). We keep passing unseen through little moments of other people's lives (Robert T. Pirsig). I am part of all that I have met (Ulysses). If you wish to please people, you must begin by understanding them (Charles Reade). People must help one another: it is nature's law (Jean de la Fontaine). If you are gracious and courteous to strangers, you are a citizen of the world (Francis Bacon). If your Christianity is not contagious, it may be contaminated (Chester Johnson). I am as close to God as I am from the person from whom I am most divided (Anon.) The nobler your heart is, the more you will be inclined to make allowance for others (F W Robertson). Kindness is one thing you can't give away: it always comes back (Anon). <br /><br />Desk calendar quotes <br /><br />Christianity is a community event. As Christians we have always believed that the life of faith is not a private enterprise but a communal venture. Over the past several decades in the Church we have come to renewed awareness of this fact. One of the most significant efforts within the Church today is the movement of Christians to understand themselves as the people of God and to experience their relations with one another as a life together in community. We rejoice in this vision of Christian life, taking hope in its challenge to the formality and bureaucracy that can find their way into church structures. But, gradually, many of us have come to sense that this goal of life together as Christians is both a gift and a most difficult ambition. <br /><br />The language of ministry today is filled with the vocabulary of mutuality: mutual support, shared decision-making, collegiality, and collaboration. <br /><br />Evelyn Eaton Whitehead and James D. Whitehead, Community of Faith: Models and Strategies for Developing Christian Communities, New York: Seabury Press, 1982, p.xi. [151] <br /><br />Christian community is... a gift of God which we cannot claim. Only God knows the real state of our fellowship, of our sanctification. What may appear weak and trifling to us may be great and glorious to God. Just as [Christians] should not be constantly feeling [their] spiritual pulse, so, too, the Christian community has not been given to us by God for us to be constantly taking its temperature. The more thankfully we daily receive what is given to us, the more surely and steadily will fellowship increase and grow from day to day as God pleases. <br /><br />Christian [community] is not an ideal we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate. <br /><br />Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1954, p. 30. [122] <br /><br />The gospel tells of the triumph of the personal in the silence of a technological world. The Word became flesh. The Word dwells among us. The metaphor of the personal is carried in the stories of Jesus again and again. The shepherd seeks for a lost sheep, a father looks for a lost son. Here is a parent who gives not a stone but a loaf of bread, not a serpent but a fish. Here five thousand sit down together to share a simple meal. Two men travel on a road and are joined by a third. In deep conversation they end their journey with the breaking of bread and what is hidden is revealed, what is a mystery penetrated with the joy and wonder of communion. <br /><br />Denham Grierson, A People on the Way: Congregational Mission & Australian Culture, Melbourne: David Lovell Publishing, 1991, pp. 89-90. [127] <br /><br />An Irish tenant farmer who died last century left a widow and three little children. This was before the days of social security. The man who owned the farm needed the house to get another field hand, and so this poor widow was literally turned out into the road with no resource whatsoever for herself and her family. She went to the nearest town and began to go from door to door explaining her plight and offering to do any work to provide for her children. However, person after person turned her away, saying, 'I have problems of my own. What happens to you is of no concern to me.' After four days of no food and sleeping out of doors in the park, the youngest child's body was weakened and she woke up with a burning fever. By noon all three of the children were sick, and before the sun went down this little neglected family was the centre of an epidemic of diphtheria that spread to the whole town. Only at that point did it become clear that this woman's plight was the concern of the larger community. Their failure to deal with the problem at one point in time meant they had to deal with it later in a worse form. <br /><br />Source unknown <br /><br />'Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad...' <br /><br />One important rule for being happy and successful is - don't let things agitate you. This is vital... People get sick largely because they cannot control and discipline their minds... <br /><br />Imagine that Jesus Christ is actually by your side. When you start worrying, stop and say: 'Lord, you are with me; everything is all right.' At night, before you turn out the light have a word with him and say, 'Lord, I'll not worry, for I know you are watching over me and will give me peace.' <br /><br />Practise taking a detached attitude towards irritating things. Practise lifting your mind above the confusion and irritation around you. One way to do that is to hang pictures [of nature] on the walls of your mind and think about them habitually... <br /><br />Robert Louis Stevenson made a wise statement: 'Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened, but go on in fortune or in misfortune at their own private pace like the ticking of a clock during a thunderstorm.' <br /><br />One of the surest methods for overcoming agitation is to put yourself in contact with the re-creative process of nature. <br /><br />Norman Vincent Peale, 'How to Avoid Getting Upset' in A Guide to Confident Living, Kingswood, Surrey: The World's Work, 1955, pp. 128-142. [193] <br /><br />An apology, <br /><br />Is a friendship preserver, Is often a debt of honour, Is never a sign of weakness, Is an antidote for hatred, Costs nothing but one's pride, Always saves more than it costs, Is a device needed in every home. <br /><br />Forgiveness breaks the chain of causality because the one who forgives you - out of love - takes upon themselves the consequences of what you have done. Forgiveness, therefore, always entails sacrifice. <br /><br />The price you must pay for your own liberation through another's sacrifice, is that you in turn must be willing to liberate in the same way, irrespective of the consequences to yourself. <br /><br />Dag Hammarskjold, Markings, Faber, 1964, in Michael Hollings, Hearts Not Garments, London, Darton, Longman and Todd, 1982, p.82. [103] <br /><br />When you stand praying, forgive. <br /><br />If you are not getting answers to your prayers, check yourself very thoroughly and honestly as to whether you have resentments on your mind. <br /><br />Spiritual power cannot pass through a personality where resentment exists. Hate is a non-conductor of spiritual energy. <br /><br />I suggest that every time you pray you add this phrase, `Lord take from my thought all ill will, grudges, hates, jealousies'. Then practise casting these things from your thoughts. <br /><br />Norman Vincent Peale, Thought Conditioners, New York: Foundation for Christian Living, p.24. [77] <br /><br />Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savour to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back - in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you. <br /><br />Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking, London, Collins, 1973, p.2. [86] <br /><br />According to the Bible, we are to love others as ourselves (Luke 10:27), and as God loves us (John 4:11). In other words, there is an intimate connection between our love for ourselves and our love and esteem for God and others. When we fail to love ourselves, all of our relationships suffer. We fail to love our mates, our children, or our neighbors properly. Think of your own life . Remember the last time you were feeling miserable and were angry with yourself, discouraged, or depressed? How did you relate to your mate, children, and friends at that time? Were you loving, sensitive, and kind? I doubt it. When we are uptight about ourselves, we are usually uptight with others. We take our frustrations out on them. <br /><br />Bruce Narramore, You're Someone Special, Michigan: Zondervan, 1978, p.119. [125] <br /><br />The past is, perhaps, not totally lost, but it is no longer ours; it is in the hands of God and is his business. It will be retrieved in the tota simul possessio of eternity, but should not be stored away on earth. As far as we are concerned, we must realize that we are like children, at the beginning, not the end, of a road. Whatever past achievements might bring us honour, whatever past disgraces might make us blush, all of these have been crucified with Christ; they exist no more except in the deep recesses of God's eternity, where good is enhanced into glory and evil miraculously established as part of the greater good. <br /><br />John Garvey (Ed), Modern Spirituality, an Anthology, London, Darton, Longman and Todd, 1985, p.65. [116] <br /><br />I was amused to read of the adjustments Paul and Nellie Tournier worked through in their first years of marriage. 'I'm an optimist and she's a pessimist,' Paul Tournier reported in Faith at Work magazine (April, 1972). 'She thinks of every difficulty, misfortune, and catastrophe that might happen, and I cannot promise her that such things will not happen. But God is neither optimist nor pessimist. The search for him leads one beyond his own personality and temperament to a path that is neither optimism nor pessimism. <br /><br />'Little by little I have learned that God speaks to everybody - men and women, adults and children, blacks and whites, the rich and the poor. To discover the will of God, you must listen to him in everyone. Of course, I prefer to have God speak directly to me, rather than through my wife, and yet in truly seeking his will I must be persuaded that he speaks as much through her as through me; to her as much as to me.' <br /><br />Quoted in Philip Yancey, 'Marriage: Minefields on the Way to Paradise', Chrisianity Today, February 18, 1977, p. 27. [168] <br /><br />Abba Theodotus said, `Do not judge a fornicator if you are chaste, otherwise you will be transgressing the law too. For he who said, "Do not fornicate", also said, "Do not judge".' <br /><br />We are all, equally, privileged but not unentitled beggars before the door of God's mercy. <br /><br />John Garvey (Ed), Modern Spirituality, an Anthology, London, Darton, Longman and Todd, 1985, p. 67. [47] <br /><br />..... <br /><br />In the Ravensbruck Nazi concentration camp - where an estimated 92,000 men, women and children were murdered - a piece of wrapping paper was found near the body of a dead child. On the paper was written this prayer: <br /><br />O Lord, remember not only the men and women of good will, but also those of ill will. But do not only remember the suffering they have inflicted on us; remember the fruits we bought, thanks to this suffering: our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, the courage, the generosity, the greatness of heart which has grown out of all this. And when they come to judgement, let all the fruits that we have borne be their forgiveness. <br /><br />Richard Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home, Kent: Hodder and Stoughton, 1992. p.238 [113] <br /><br />Why do we look a the speck in someone else's eye but ignore the log in our own? The measure we use for others, God will use for us. <br /><br />If we do not judge others, God will not judge us; if we do not condemn others, God will not condemn us; if we forgive, God forgives us even more; so let us give, and God will give to us a full measure, a generous helping, poured into our hands, more than we can hold. <br /><br />The measure we use for others, God will use for us. <br /><br />Jesus, you are the giver and the gift. <br /><br />A New Zealand Prayer Book, Auckland: Collins, 1989, p.131. [103] <br /><br />Accompany me to-day, O Spirit invisible, in all my goings, but stay with me also when I am in my own home and among my kindred. Forbid that I should fail to show to those nearest to me the sympathy and consideration which thy grace enables me to show to others with whom I have to do. Forbid that I should refuse to my own household the courtesy and politeness which I think proper to show to strangers. Let charity to-day begin at home. <br /><br />John Baillie, A Diary of Private Prayer, London: OUP, 1936, p.89. [86] <br /><br />Jesus, friend of sinners, you call us to love our enemies, to do good to those who hate us, to bless those who curse us, and pray for those who treat us badly. <br /><br />Jesus, reconciler, when someone slaps us on the cheek, you call us to offer the other; when someone takes our coat, you bid us give our shirt as well; when someone takes what is ours, we may not demand it back. <br /><br />Jesus, Son of God, our friend and brother, when we love our enemies and do good we are children of God, who is kind to the wicked and ungrateful. <br /><br />Jesus, teacher without peer, you have turned the world upside down. <br /><br />A New Zealand Prayer Book, Auckland: Collins, 1989, pp.121-122. [114] <br /><br />Lord, we come before you, not alone, but in the company of one another. <br /><br />We share our happiness with each other - and it becomes greater. <br /><br />We share our troubles with each other - and they become smaller. <br /><br />We share one another's griefs and burdens - and their weight becomes possible to heal. <br /><br />May we never be too mean to give, nor too proud to receive. <br /><br />For in giving and receiving we learn to love and be loved; We encounter the meaning of life, the mystery of existence - <br /><br />and discover you. <br /><br />Terry C. Falla, Be Our Freedom Lord, Adelaide: Lutheran Publishing House, 1981, p.158. [88] <br /><br />Lord Jesus, we hold our families before you; we are ashamed because so many of them are broken or are about to break. How foolish we must look in your sight as we express ourselves so harshly to one another! Lord, forgive us, and help us to make the necessary repairs on our families. We know that we cannot do much by ourselves, we need the help of your Holy Spirit. So please bring his power into our hearts. And, O Holy Spirit of Christ, work mightily among those who have heard the gospel again, and bring many of them to faith. <br /><br />God the Father, look with your compassion and pity upon those who are living within families in which there is much tension and suffering. Use the message of your grace to help those who are discouraged, and enable them to see that through your power there is hope that their families can become good places to live. <br /><br />We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. <br /><br />'A Good Place to Live', The Radio Pulpit (publisher and date unknown). [167] <br /><br />O God the Father, good beyond all that is good, fair beyond all that is fair, in whom is calmness, peace and harmony; make up the divisions which keep us apart and bring us back into a unity of love which may bear some likeness to your divine nature. And as you are above all things make us one by the unity of a good mind, that through charity and affection we may be spiritually one, through that peace of yours which makes all things peaceful, and through the grace, mercy and tenderness of your Son, Jesus Christ. <br /><br />Dionysius, cited in Praying with the Saints, Dublin: Veritas Publications, 1989, p.37. [98] <br /><br />Lord, speak to me, that I may speak in living echoes of your tone; as you have sought, so let me seek your erring children... Freely I have received, may I freely give. <br /><br />Help me to remember that a cancerous cell expects the rest of the body to nourish it: may I nourish others, and contribute to their well-being, without being concerned too much about any reciprocity. <br /><br />In relating to others, help me to adjust to them sometimes, to be flexible when I ought to adapt to them; to be courageous when I am called upon to do or say something difficult to help another; to live in hope, that little by little I can have a part in the ongoing process of the divine redemption of the human race. <br /><br />Reveal your gifts to me, and the limits of my abilities. I can't do everything to help everyone, but I can do something to help someone. Give me, please, wisdom to know how to help without getting all messed up; and how to help without messing others up. <br /><br />Thank you Lord. Amen. <br /><br />A Benediction <br /><br />May God grant you the serenity to accept the things you cannot change, courage to change the things you can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Amen. <br /><br />Shalom!<br /><br /><a href="http://jmm.aaa.net.au">Rowland Croucher</a><br /></strong>Rowland Croucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13473460918145751334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1291782253971895185.post-5148157291032865602007-05-26T00:08:00.000-07:002007-06-01T18:16:44.003-07:00TOWARDS CIRCUMSTANCES, BE HOPEFUL !<strong>TEXT: 1 Peter 1:1-19 <br /><br />Victor Frankl was a <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik6T1e2RMfgMajVze2LK1SVOD4F3sC8X2cb3UtP8vFnuSkrabqBF6SOgtCXROK-VFL4ZAGwJ3DpnLqJ_yo5SPsjJ9zFJAnuVHVqw4ASbc-sDEP8kJ03xnig1iXiaynF_QXPshsypP9M-Uj/s1600-h/VICTOR+FRANKL.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik6T1e2RMfgMajVze2LK1SVOD4F3sC8X2cb3UtP8vFnuSkrabqBF6SOgtCXROK-VFL4ZAGwJ3DpnLqJ_yo5SPsjJ9zFJAnuVHVqw4ASbc-sDEP8kJ03xnig1iXiaynF_QXPshsypP9M-Uj/s400/VICTOR+FRANKL.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5071268814971892034" /></a>young psychiatrist who had just begun his practice when the Germans took over his native Vienna and shipped him and all the other Jews off to a concentration camp. Then began the awesome task of survival. With his trained psychiatric eye he noted that many prisoners simply crumpled under the pressure and eventually died. But some didn't, and Frankl made it his mission to get to know these special people and discover their secret. Without exception, those who survived had something to live for. One man had a retarded child back home whom he wanted to care for. Another was deeply in love with a girl he wanted to marry. Frankl himself aspired to be a writer, <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0sdALkv3bUV5g7CdBigM00JGMxKlua-250RjTj-fLMgdtw3eXSMJFhuDa9kyQuc86YfP9FBPCbohoW6l1YEgDCc0qdizZdDnBVxfuKELUohPkDOwp2i2Yqo8r4SgWm0EmGkMQjdg2hToX/s1600-h/FRANKL+HOLOCAUST.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0sdALkv3bUV5g7CdBigM00JGMxKlua-250RjTj-fLMgdtw3eXSMJFhuDa9kyQuc86YfP9FBPCbohoW6l1YEgDCc0qdizZdDnBVxfuKELUohPkDOwp2i2Yqo8r4SgWm0EmGkMQjdg2hToX/s400/FRANKL+HOLOCAUST.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5071268896576270674" /></a>and was in the middle of his first manuscript when he was arrested: the drive to live and finish that book was very great. Frankl did survive, and has contributed greatly to our understanding of the human 'will to meaning'. He developed a process called 'logotherapy', which, expressed as a simple question is: 'If the presence of purpose or meaning gives one the strength to carry on, how do we human beings get in touch with it?' <br /><br />Peter's answer, in a word, is 'HOPE'. Writing to Christians who were living in constant, real danger, he begins this general letter by praising God for 'hope'. And he ends his letter with the same general idea in chapter 5. Despite all the threats of persecution and death, Peter advocates a vibrant 'hopefulness'. <br /><br />And he ought to know. He's writing as one of the church's 'senior statesmen', but he wasn't always that way. He was once a stumbling, faltering, sometimes failing disciple. We might have been tempted to 'write him off' as a hopeless case! When his friend and Lord was crucified Peter's despairing outlook was anything but hopeful. The passage before us provides some clues to this man's dramatic change. <br /><br />I have a friend who is an Anglican priest, and an alcoholic. Once or twice he has phoned me late on Saturday night, in drunken despair over his lack of adequate preparation for the coming day. His favourite book in the Bible? 1 Peter! <br /><br />'Hope' has been called the Cinderella of Christian graces. Perhaps we talk - and preach - more about faith and love than hope. But the Bible is full of hope. The God who called Abraham and his family to leave the land of Ur and go to the unknown land of Canaan is the same God who is ahead of us, too, beckoning us to the land of 'not yet'. The New Testament mentions the idea of hope more than fifty times. Our God is the 'the God of hope' (Rom. 15:13), so we can 'place our hope in the living God' (1 Tim. 4:10). Those who do not know Christ personally are 'without hope' (Eph. 2:12, cf. 1 Th. 4:13). On the other hand hope is so much an essential part of Christianity that Paul says without it the Christian is the most miserable of all persons (1 Cor. 15:19). <br /><br />The Greeks did not have this idea of a God who goes before his people: their God was rather the transcendent Other who is above and beyond the processes of the world. So it is not surprising that their word for hope (elpis) was a very ambiguous term. It had the sense of 'foreboding' - a future of either good or evil. The gospel of Christ emptied elpis of all its bleakness and filled it with only good. <br /><br />In our text, Peter says four things - explicity or implicitly - about hope. <br /><br />(a) First, <em>Christian hope is CERTAIN</em>, simply because God is its author! Note how often 'the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ' is mentioned in the first three verses. Peter begins by affirming the essence of the 'good news'. This is a very different idea from our words 'I hope so...' It's not Mr. Micawber's 'hoping that something will turn up'! Nor is it a kind of 'everything will be all right' wishful thinking - considering something to be so because we desire it to be so. It's not a holiday-maker's 'It should be fine tomorrow' nor the politician's 'the economy should pick up by the middle of next year'! Those sorts of statements may or may not be based on demonstrable grounds for hope, but merely on the desire that things should turn out that way. <br /><br />Perhaps, however, wishful thinking is better than not thinking at all. A lonely refugee child, told that his parents were dead, still believed they were alive and went on searching for them. As it happened, he eventually found them. His 'wishful thinking' wasn't based on anything concrete, but it drove him on. <br /><br />Christian hope is not an 'airy fairy' thing, building castles in the air. It's not merely 'such stuff as dreams are made of'. <br /><br />No, our hope is certain because 'we can trust God to keep his promise' (Heb. 10:23). It is based on the character - the trustworthiness - of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is rooted in our understanding of who God is, and how in history he has proved himself utterly reliable. It is based on fact, not fantasy. <br /><br />F.W. Boreham in one of his essays tells of his boyhood expectation of finding a pot of gold at the foot of the rainbow. 'I never met another boy,' he write, who actually found a pot of gold, but what had that to do with it? Such an irrelevant circumstance could not keep me and my brothers from setting out in quest of that magic spot on which the many-tinted pillars rested... What castles in the air we erected as we made our way to the rainbow's foot.' <br /><br />Many people have searched vainly for El Dorados, or Loch Ness monsters, or what-have-you, and their 'hope' has been baseless. Ours is grounded on the trustworthy promise of a trustworthy God. <br /><br />(b) Second, Peter says <em>our hope is LIVING</em> (1:3). Only dead things have no future. The very word 'living' implies a future, a destiny. Hope, says the author of Hebrews, is 'set before us' (6:18). We are encouraged to 'hope to the end' (Heb. 7:25). Just as a truthful God provides grounds for our hope's certainty, so 'the living God' guarantees that our hope, too, is living. <br /><br />In fact, the notion of hope is woven like a golden thread through the whole fabric of God's creation. An experiment by psychologists at the University of North Carolina found that rats soon drowned if they were put in a large bottle without an apparent escape. But put the rat in a jar with the lid half cut away, and it will swim for about 36 hours before drowning from exhaustion! <br /><br />In South Pacific, Mary Martin sins 'I'm stuck like a dope with a thing called hope, and I can't get it out of my heart.' Nor can any healthy living organism. <br /><br />The essayist Pope put it well: 'Hope springs eternal in the human breast'. It does, and it was put there by God. Hope sustains the farmer when he ploughs and sows, the student when she studies, the athlete when he trains. And, the first person in whose body an artificial heart was placed. He was chosen, the doctors said, because of his 'attitude to life'. The old maxim 'Where there's life there's hope' could easily be turned around: 'Where there's hope, there's life'. Give up hope, and you may die - literally! I once pastored the downtown Baptist church in Sydney, Australia. Around that city-area, many men (and some women) slept in parks, in drains, in railway tunnels, or abandoned buildings. They were called 'no-hopers'.... <br /><br />What oxygen is for the lungs, such is hope for the meaning - and existence - of human life. <br /><br />A visitor to Chartwell, Winston Churchill's old home in Kent, asked the guide (who was on old friend of the family's), 'Did Winston Churchill ever lose hope?' 'No,' she replied, 'hope was built into him. He never expected anything but victory.' <br /><br />Nor can the Christian! <br /><br />The absence of a living hope is the essence of despair. The person who's simply 'given up' believes there's no ray of hope anywhere. All the possibilities have been exhausted. That's a false assumption for a believer in the living God. He's 'the God who is there', who will never leave us or forsake us, in whose vocabulary the word 'hopeless' cannot exist! He's the 'God whose other name is surprise', and he's the God of the Easter-event... <br /><br />(c) Third, Peter says our hope is <em>a RESURRECTION hope </em>(1:3). God raised Jesus from the dead, and this fills us with a living hope. This fact, of course, gives special meaning to the word 'living' for a Christian. Such 'living' is much more than biological - or psychological - survival. Jesus was the 'incarnation of God' - God in a human body - and if on Easter Sunday he broke loose from the tomb, overcoming all that human nature could do in its evil schemes, then our ideas about the nature of reality are drastically altered. <br /><br />The hope Peter talks about (and it's a recurring theme in his epistle) is very specific: it is a vision of eternal realities. His expectation is that of a glorified life, a life with God, an 'eternal life' that conquers death. Such is the Christian's 'Open Door of Hope' - a firm belief in limitless possibilities beyond death. <br /><br />That is why, at funeral services, there is the biblical affirmation of 'a sure and certain hope'. This hope is not immortality, as such, but 'resurrection'. <br /><br />When I was a theological student I was able to spend three weeks in a few hospitals. During that time I saw a couple of Caesarean operat- ions. These experiences were among the most profound of my life. What a privilege to witness, not just the skill of medical science, but the miracle of birth itself: that moment when the baby was born into its new world, breathing, yelling, kicking - and very much alive. The resurrection for Peter was like being born into a new life, a new environment. <br /><br />Peter goes on to speak of hope as related to 'an inheritance'. What does that mean? Simply that one now possesses in reality that to which the person was an heir. Peter paradoxically talks about possessing an inheritance - in the present - but which 'will be revealed in the last time'. Kierkegaard said it's something like a new garment: we have it already, clean and glittering, but the event for which we will wear it in all its magnificence is still to come. <br /><br />So, with this resurrection hope we are always 'leaning forward' in passionate longing for the 'not yet' (Moltmann). We share - with de Chardin - the vision of a 'divine milieu', when God will be all in all. 'How many of us', he asks, 'are genuinely moved in the depths of our hearts by the wild hope that our earth will be recast? The Lord Jesus will only come soon if we ardently expect him. It is the accumulation of desires that should cause the pleroma to burst upon us... Only twenty centuries have passed since the Ascension. What have we made of our expectancy?' <br /><br />So Christian hope, in this sense, is much, much more than mere optimism. The New Testament talks about 'the patience of hope'. Christian hope is deep; mere optimism is shallow. Optimism may be a good natural trait - and have no religious connections at all. 'Hope', says John Macquarrie in his magnificent little book The Humility of God, 'is humble, trustful, vulnerable. Optimism is arrogant, brash, complacent... Our hope is not that in spite of everything we do, all will turn out for the best. Our hope is rather that God is with us and ahead of us, opening a way in which we can responsibly follow.' <br /><br />(d) Finally, Peter says this hope is <em>a very PRACTICAL thing</em>. This message was addressed to suffering people. They could literally become food for the Colisseum lions at any time. This is real 'crisis theology'. Such hope was the spiritual motivation, not only to wait for the end of all things, but to 'live in hope' in the here-and-now. <br /><br />These people couldn't share the rollicking optimism of the musical Oklahoma: I have a wonderful feeling Everything's going my way. <br /><br />No, their hope rested on God, not on humans, or luck, or fate. It is a dynamic, transforming quality, not only 'hoping to see my Pilot face to face, when I have crossed the bar' (Tennyson), but providing deep meaning to life's struggles before that time. Christian hope says 'History is His story'. God's divine purposes for the world and its inhabitants can't be thwarted by the evils humans perpetrate. The hope for our sick, tired world is the Kingdom of God, for which we wait, but which we also experience now. Hope sures us that there is a 'joy seeking us through pain'. It's not based on a kind of utopia-idea, but rather issues in active, productive obedience. <br /><br />The Power that can raise the dead can also conquer evil. <br /><br />This sort of hope is the mainspring of our confidence in God, especially when the traumas and troubles of life come in upon us. <br /><br />Have you ever heard the little poem by Victor Hugo? <br /><br />Let us learn like a bird for a moment to take Sweet rest on a branch that is ready to break; She feels the branch tremble, yet gaily she sings. What is with her? She has wings, she has wings. <br /><br />Hope provides the Christian with wings. <br /><br />You see, life is difficult. Morning to evening, each day is a problem- solving period. No one's life is problem-free. No, life is problem- solving, and problem-solving is life. Our human choice is never between pain and no pain, but rather between the pain of loving and the pain of not loving. To be human is to have problems. But to be Christian is to have problems - and hope. <br /><br />Life, wrote Baudelaire, is a hospital in which each patient believes he or she will recover if they is moved to another bed. <br /><br />That's not the Christian life. Hope, for the Christian, is not just 'the icing on the cake'. It is the cake! It helps him or her 'face forward'. (Have you heard about the poor man in Denver who was stricken with a strange mental illness that forced him to walk backwards all the time?' Predictably, his form of hysteria ended him up in hospital). We aren't going backwards, or living life looking over our shoulders. We can face the future - and the present - with confidence, with hope. <br /><br />Can human beings really live in the reality of this sort of hope when the going's tough? <br /><br />Perhaps this story, from The Reader's Digest, by Kingsley Brown, answers for itself: <br /><br />'Among the works of art which draw visitors to Europe are the great cathedrals. I have stood in awe of many - Notre Dame, Chartres, Reims and Canterbury. But none has stirred me so deeply as the shrine built by Russian prisoners-of-war in Stalag 3A at Luckenwalde, just outside Berlin. <br /><br />In February 1945, I was one of hundreds of British and American POWs thrust into Stalag 3A. Unlike us, who rated some protection under the Geneva Convention, the Russians were helpless. Underfed, denied medical attention and forced to do hard labour, their death rate was staggering. Although we had no communication with their compound, each morning we watched in fascinated horror while a truck collected its daily quota of corpses. <br /><br />The days of tribulation ended on April 22, 1945, when we were all liberated by the Ukrainian army. Within hours, the Russian barracks were emptied; hundreds went off to fight again, while those too sick to volunteer remained behind. We then entered the Russian compound. It was a scene of indescribable horror. But in the heart of a barracks block they had wrought a miracle - they had built a church. <br /><br />We stood breathless. A great golden crucifix flashed from the altar, its radiance reflected in prismed chandeliers hung the length of the nave. The windows were a splendour of stained glass, and along the walls were the Stations of the Cross, fashioned in coloured mosaic. It seemed incongruous. How could starving, dying men have created so magnificent a place of worship? Then we looked closer and all was explained. The golden crucifix was two pieces of slim timber, painstakingly sheathed in gold-foil paper salvaged from the refuse dump. The chandeliers were creations of thousands of tiny slips of cardboard, each covered with silver paper and suspended by almost invisible threads. The stations of the cross were crafted not from Florentine porcelain tile but from bits of coloured paper snipped from magazinewes rescued from rubbish bins. <br /><br />In the constant presence of death, and from scraps gleaned from the dump, they had built a church. God had illumined it with a divine authenticity.' <br /><br />Mother Teresa cares for the dying in a building called 'The House of the Living', a place I have been privileged to visit. On a visit to Australia she said, 'I picked up a man dying in an open drain. He said, 'I have lived like an animal all my life but now I will die like an angel'.<br /><br /><a href="http://jmm.aaa.net.au">Rowland Croucher</a><br /><br />[This is one of four sermons from 1 Peter. The others: <a href="http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/2263.htm">Holiness, </a> <a href="http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/2267.htm">Humility</a>, and Happiness.<br /><br /></strong>Rowland Croucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13473460918145751334noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1291782253971895185.post-71403080566057682292007-05-23T17:24:00.001-07:002007-05-23T17:51:22.838-07:00WHAT EASTER IS ALL ABOUT<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglvDH-4jbN-6cVhm-Crtiq-hRhqKq6tyRZizBwPiQ_OIEKL71fayaGPg_icbh9dKPUE_-8RSf1ymLE7gKe8RBG1JgLSzOv0UreidYTPK97vcNfEEHdNPfpB6RutbNe0_gWFVFMNWes6O_d/s1600-h/EASTER.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglvDH-4jbN-6cVhm-Crtiq-hRhqKq6tyRZizBwPiQ_OIEKL71fayaGPg_icbh9dKPUE_-8RSf1ymLE7gKe8RBG1JgLSzOv0UreidYTPK97vcNfEEHdNPfpB6RutbNe0_gWFVFMNWes6O_d/s400/EASTER.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5067917305961934594" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Let him easter in us, be a dayspring to the dimness of us, be a crimson-cresseted east.</span><br />(G M Hopkins, 'The Wreck of the Deutschland')<br /><br />Most early Christians were Jews who were used to celebrating religious festivals at various times in the year (Passover, Tabernacles, Pentecost etc.). So Christians were encouraged to follow the great events of our Lord's life at various times in the year. We begin the 'Christian Year' with Advent as we prepare for Christ's coming. Advent also completes the cycle by reminding us of Christ's second coming to judge the world. The Christmas festival celebrates the Incarnation of God in Christ, when 'the Word became flesh'. Some churches commemorate the coming of the Wise Men at Epiphany (January 6); others the baptism of Jesus. Lent reminds us of Jesus' temptation and sufferings, preparing the way for the celebration of the triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and the contemplation of his Passion and death on the cross on 'Good Friday'. Easter is the celebration of Christ's resurrection. Then we have Ascension Sunday. Pentecost, seven weeks after Easter, is the anniversary of the coming of the Holy Spirit. (It is sometimes called Whitsunday, the Sunday on which baptismal candidates were dressed in white). Last of all Trinity Sunday recalls the key doctrine of our faith: there is one God, in three Persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. <br /><br />In the forty-day season of Lent (46 if you include Sundays) we take a spiritual inventory. Moses, Elijah and Jesus fasted for forty days, so from the fourth century the Church has observed Lent as a time of inner examination, prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Fasting is more than 'giving up candy for God'. It is the sharpest way we know of making ourselves pray, and pray more intensely. For Jesus and his disciples this was a time of tension, a time of expectancy and excitement. In Lent we prepare ourselves to experience the mighty meaning of the Cross. Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, when in some churches ashes are put on people's foreheads to remind them of their mortality: 'Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return'. Lent comes from the Old English lencten, the 'lengthening' of the days of Spring. Lent anticipates new life. It's when 'the daffodils come before the swallow dares' to quote one of Shakespeare's loveliest lines.<br /><br />Beyond the triumphant entry into Jerusalem, Jesus weeping over that city, his anger at the exploitation of the poor as he overturned the Temple money-changers' tables, his anguish in Gethsemane, the mockery of a trial... Jesus the Son of God is crucified on a cross between two criminals. And they call that Good Friday.<br /><br />Good Friday? Yes, for three reasons: reasons associated with the three greatest needs humans have - to be loved, to be forgiven, and to find meaning in the face of their inevitable death.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglvDH-4jbN-6cVhm-Crtiq-hRhqKq6tyRZizBwPiQ_OIEKL71fayaGPg_icbh9dKPUE_-8RSf1ymLE7gKe8RBG1JgLSzOv0UreidYTPK97vcNfEEHdNPfpB6RutbNe0_gWFVFMNWes6O_d/s1600-h/EASTER.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglvDH-4jbN-6cVhm-Crtiq-hRhqKq6tyRZizBwPiQ_OIEKL71fayaGPg_icbh9dKPUE_-8RSf1ymLE7gKe8RBG1JgLSzOv0UreidYTPK97vcNfEEHdNPfpB6RutbNe0_gWFVFMNWes6O_d/s400/EASTER.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5067917305961934594" /></a><br />(1) When Jesus died he was demonstrating that the God who was his Father entered our life and loved us even to the point of death. The death of Jesus, says Bonhoeffer in Letters and Papers from Prison is the ultimate symbol of the suffering of God in the life of the world. God allows himself to be edged out of the world and on to a cross. Only a powerless and suffering God can really help us... God did not come to save us by an act of terror so that we would be cowed into belief, but by a great act of love. Abelard, a twelfth century philosopher and theologian, believed the cross primarily demonstrates the greatness of the love of God, a love that should move us away from our sin and to love God in return. God so loved, that he gave (John 3:16). The Son of God, says Paul, loved me and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20). Our response? Obedient love - even if we suffer too (1 Peter 2:21).<br /><br />(2) There's a theme running through the Bible which is somewhat foreign to Westerners, that of animal sacrifices for human sins. John the Baptist recognized Jesus as 'the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world' (John 1:29,36). Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers describe how animals can 'bear the sins' of humans. These animal sacrifices (eg. of bulls and goats) were repeatable, but, says Hebrews, Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many (9:28). Jesus thought of himself as the Suffering Servant (see Isaiah 53) offering his life as a sacrifice, as a ransom for others' sins (eg. Mark 10:45). Anselm, an eleventh century Archbishop of Canterbury argued that sin is an insult to the majesty of God, and at the cross God's honour was 'satisfied'. The Protestant Reformers emphasized more our sin breaking God's holy law, we deserved to incur the penalty - death (Romans 6:23) - but Christ died in our place, paying the penalty and setting us free. We are so important to God that what is destroying us is of ultimate concern to him, and he acts to offer a way out of our misery. We are invited to repent, turn from our sins, and be forgiven, because we have been pardoned!<br /><br />(3) Gustav Aulen, a Swedish theologian (Christus Victor) says the cross is mainly about a cosmic drama in which God in Christ does battle with the forces of evil and defeats them. Jesus' death on the cross not only demonstrates God's amazing love for us and saves us from our sins, but it also saves us from death and all the evil powers as well. Through his death he destroyed the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free us from the fear of death (Hebrews 2:14,15; see also Colossians 2:13-15, 2 Timothy 1:10).<br /><br />The three traditional theories of the Atonement, a demonstration of love, the bearing of penalty, and victory over evil may have had more appeal to earlier ages than our own... Australian New Testament scholar Leon Morris has suggested that today we might also see the cross addressing problems of futility and frustration (see Romans 8:20, Hebrews 2:8-9); sickness and death (Isaiah 53:4, Matthew 8:17); ignorance (Jeremiah 17:9, 1 Timothy 2:4); loneliness (Genesis 2:18, Mark 15:34, Romans 8:38-39); and selfishness (Luke 9:23, Galatians 2:10, Romans 6:4).<br /><br />Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, the Russian dissident, was working twelve hours a day at hard labour. He had lost his family and had been told by the doctors in the Gulag that he had terminal cancer. One day he thought, 'There is no use going on. I'm soon going to die anyway.' Ignoring the guards, he dropped his shovel, sat down, and rested his head in his hands.<br /><br />He felt a presence next to him and looked up and saw an old man he had never seen before, and would never see again. The man took a stick and drew a cross in the sand in front of Solzhenitsyn. It reminded him that there is a Power in the world that is greater than any empire or government, a Power that could bring new life to his situation. He picked up his shovel and went back to work. A year later Solzhenitsyn was unexpectedly released from prison and went to live in the United States.<br /><br />Good Friday? Yes. When God's human creatures are bad, God is good. When we are at our worst, God is at his best...!<br /><br />The French thinker, August Comte, once told Thomas Carlyle that he was going to start a new religion to replace Christianity. 'Very good', replied Carlyle, 'all you have to do is to be crucified, rise again, and get the world to believe that you are still alive. Then your new religion will have a chance.'<br /><br />Easter is the annual celebration of the resurrection of Christ, and is the most important date in the Christian year. In the early church the Easter celebration included the lighting of a candle, prayer, readings from Scripture, and the joyful celebration of the Lord's Supper. It was also a common time for baptisms, with resurrection life symbolized by white robes. Over the centuries some pagan spring customs have been added, including Easter eggs and rabbits!<br /><br />The death and resurrection of Christ are the key events and doctrines of the Christian faith. In an early creed (1 Corinthians 15:3 ff.) Paul reports several eyewitness accounts to substantiate his claim that if the resurrection had not occurred, the whole Christian faith is false (verse 14) and inneffective (verse 17), Christian preachers are wasting their time (verse 14), our sins aren't forgiven after all (verse 17), we die without hope (verse 18), we are the most miserable of people (verse 19), and so without resurrection let's 'live it up' for tomorrow we die (verse 32).<br /><br />The dominant note in the celebration of Easter is joy. 'Make people laugh and you open heaven to them', says a rabbinical proverb. 'The risen Christ makes life into a constant celebration' writes the 4th century bishop and theologian Athanasius. Some Greek Orthodox Easter worship services include the Rite of Laughter: 'Now let us laugh. Let us worship God by laughing together...!'<br /><br />Easter turns despair into hope. The American playwright Eugene O'Neill lived tragically, and shortly before his death he wrote poignantly: 'I can partly understand how God can forgive humans, for we are so weak and ignorant. What I can't understand is how he can ever forgive himself?' We have each, in our darkest moments, probably wondered the same thing ourselves. But Easter, if it has any message for us at all, says that human tragedy is never ultimate. He who vacated the tomb is alive, and has not vacated his throne! All powers-that-be will become powers-that-have-been (1 Corinthians 2:6). Easter reminds us that God is is control of the universe. The Easter-event is about a God who loves eternally, individually and sufficiently.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglvDH-4jbN-6cVhm-Crtiq-hRhqKq6tyRZizBwPiQ_OIEKL71fayaGPg_icbh9dKPUE_-8RSf1ymLE7gKe8RBG1JgLSzOv0UreidYTPK97vcNfEEHdNPfpB6RutbNe0_gWFVFMNWes6O_d/s1600-h/EASTER.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglvDH-4jbN-6cVhm-Crtiq-hRhqKq6tyRZizBwPiQ_OIEKL71fayaGPg_icbh9dKPUE_-8RSf1ymLE7gKe8RBG1JgLSzOv0UreidYTPK97vcNfEEHdNPfpB6RutbNe0_gWFVFMNWes6O_d/s400/EASTER.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5067917305961934594" /></a><br /><br /> <span style="font-style:italic;"> My dear Saviour, let me ask Thee<br /> since Thou art nailed to the cross<br /> and since Thou sayest Thyself: It is finished!<br /> Am I now set free from death?<br /> May I, through Thy suffering and death,<br /> inherit heaven?<br /> Has salvation come for all the world?<br /> True, Thou canst not speak for pain,<br /> yet Thy head Thou bowest<br /> And tacitly Thou sayest: Yes!</span><br /><br /> Chorus (Chorale):<br /><br /> <span style="font-style:italic;"> Jesus, Thou Who wert dead,<br /> now livest forever;<br /> in my last agony<br /> nowhere will I turn but to Thee<br /> Who hast redeemed me.<br /> O my beloved Lord!<br /> Give me only that which Thou hast won,<br /> more I do not desire.</span><br /><br /> Aria and chorus from J.S.Bach, <span style="font-style:italic;">St. John Passion</span> <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQMhMohU-Zeb8jlDezFcXZwjigJTr9o9pn_iaV0KTacA77eZsNC58RDH9ug8_W26HFj_fl9G2Qy9QYSz8WqADjIjBq4kM4Rn5AX3sVUhtOUlyF29Y_PjZI6GloL9u_E0AIPUk5ZqG19NLK/s1600-h/ST+JOHN+PASSION.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQMhMohU-Zeb8jlDezFcXZwjigJTr9o9pn_iaV0KTacA77eZsNC58RDH9ug8_W26HFj_fl9G2Qy9QYSz8WqADjIjBq4kM4Rn5AX3sVUhtOUlyF29Y_PjZI6GloL9u_E0AIPUk5ZqG19NLK/s400/ST+JOHN+PASSION.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5067917400451215122" /></a><br /><br />'Yes' and 'no' are little words, Lord, but they are very powerful. The Son of God said 'yes' and submitted himself to the joys and pains of our life. Mary said 'yes' and submitted to the mystery of bearing the incarnate God. Jesus said 'yes' and submitted to Gethsemane and arrest and trial and death on a cross.<br /><br />But Jesus also invites us to say 'No'. If we will come after him we will deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him. This is the only way of saying 'Amen' or 'Yes' to him. To deny ourselves is to love him, and our neighbour. To die to self is to live for you, Lord God, and for others.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Remind me, Lord, that life is only lent to us. So may Lent and the Cross be truly Life to me. I truly and earnestly repent of my sins.</span><br /><br /><a href="http://jmm.aaa.net.au">Rowland Croucher</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglvDH-4jbN-6cVhm-Crtiq-hRhqKq6tyRZizBwPiQ_OIEKL71fayaGPg_icbh9dKPUE_-8RSf1ymLE7gKe8RBG1JgLSzOv0UreidYTPK97vcNfEEHdNPfpB6RutbNe0_gWFVFMNWes6O_d/s1600-h/EASTER.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglvDH-4jbN-6cVhm-Crtiq-hRhqKq6tyRZizBwPiQ_OIEKL71fayaGPg_icbh9dKPUE_-8RSf1ymLE7gKe8RBG1JgLSzOv0UreidYTPK97vcNfEEHdNPfpB6RutbNe0_gWFVFMNWes6O_d/s400/EASTER.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5067917305961934594" /></a><br /></span>Rowland Croucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13473460918145751334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1291782253971895185.post-75409304258615794562007-05-20T18:55:00.000-07:002007-05-20T19:13:49.986-07:00ENTERING THE QUIET<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOGZo3p8ETRjP_2bQNqYDupjekE6rR40RafQ7AKvoYX5xP1auoXxKruZErsQfH1rLvW3LgXZu0JDOptJdVj-yyAm_WaKMq_wQrf46AONgwe5ysVU-4mRfksBgnYYRIUndNDeROdzkr0mxh/s1600-h/pr+1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOGZo3p8ETRjP_2bQNqYDupjekE6rR40RafQ7AKvoYX5xP1auoXxKruZErsQfH1rLvW3LgXZu0JDOptJdVj-yyAm_WaKMq_wQrf46AONgwe5ysVU-4mRfksBgnYYRIUndNDeROdzkr0mxh/s400/pr+1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066829691393568210" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"> <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">The effect of righteousness will be peace,<br />and the result of righteousness,<br />quietness and trust forever.<br />My people will abide in a peaceful habitation,<br />in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.</span> Isaiah 32:17-18;<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">O LORD, my heart is not lifted up,<br />my eyes are not raised too high;<br />I do not occupy myself with things<br />too great and too marvelous for me.<br />But I have calmed and quieted my soul,<br />like a weaned child with its mother;<br />my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.<br />O Israel, hope in the LORD<br />from this time on and evermore.</span> Psalm 131;<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy<br />One of Israel:<br />In returning and rest you shall be saved;<br />in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.<br />blessed are all those who wait for him.</span><br />Isaiah 30:15,18;<br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all they had done and taught. He said to them, 'Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.' For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves.</span> Mark 6:30-32;<br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />But those who wait for the LORD<br />shall renew their strength,<br />they shall mount up with wings like eagles,<br />they shall run and not be weary,<br />they shall walk and not faint.</span> Isaiah 40:31;<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Teach me, and I will be silent;<br />make me understand how I have<br />gone wrong.</span> Job 6:24;<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">He makes me lie down in green pastures;<br />he leads me beside still waters;</span> Psalm 23:2;<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">I waited patiently for the LORD;<br />he inclined to me and heard my cry.</span> Psalm 40:1;<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">But Jesus was silent.</span> Matthew 26:63;<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">I commune with my heart in the night;<br />I meditate and search my spirit:<br />Will the Lord spurn forever,<br />and never again be favorable.<br />I will meditate on all your work,<br />and muse on your mighty deeds.</span> Psalm 77:6,7,12;<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Let the arrogant be put to shame,<br />because they have subverted me with guile;<br />as for me, I will meditate on your precepts.</span> Psalm 119:78;<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">On the glorious spendor of your majesty,<br />and on your wondrous works,<br />I will meditate.</span> Psalm 145:5;<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.</span> Matthew 6:1;<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4mFOpFuefZ0RwOv-3-RAB8bF97244Ben5oWo0zwpuZExXLXHVMi6s5bhrbNwONhS0sZUYBirPa2-Bg1hZ2lk4cshwNJ-f_agxYtrU8j9OseLD72bYlplB_x75XEU-ZfDnapA3NdwDRRf9/s1600-h/pr+7.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4mFOpFuefZ0RwOv-3-RAB8bF97244Ben5oWo0zwpuZExXLXHVMi6s5bhrbNwONhS0sZUYBirPa2-Bg1hZ2lk4cshwNJ-f_agxYtrU8j9OseLD72bYlplB_x75XEU-ZfDnapA3NdwDRRf9/s400/pr+7.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066830211084611122" /></a><br /><br />The bishop of Belley, Jean Pierre Camus, wanted to know if Francis de Sales was really as holy as he seemed to be. So he drilled a hole in the wall of his bedroom in the episcopal residence to spy on him.<br /><br />What did Camus discover? Only that Francis was the same in secret as he was in company. He saw the saint creep out of bed early and quietly in themornings so as not to wake his servant. He saw him pray, write in his journal, read the office, answer some letters, then pray again. The beautiful manners, the unruffled compassion, the courtesy and humility were all on display through the peephole as they had been in the pulpit or at the dinner-table.<br /><br />Francis de Sales lived a life of congruence: he was what he seemed to be. His life with God, his personal serenity, his love for others: they were all in harmony.<br /><br />How does anyone get to be that way? The answer is simple, but the process is life-long: develop a wholesome spirituality!<br /><br />Spirituality is mainly about how I relate to God. 'Spirit' in the Bible = breath, life. The opposite of spirit is not matter, but death. 'Spiritual' worship is the offering of all we are to God (Romans 12:1). As we noted in the last chapter, it's about my 'desire', how I pray (the very best index of who I really am).<br /><br />The spiritual life cannot be nurtured without discipline. In this chapter we'll look at four disciplines - solitude, silence, study and journaling. Next chapter we'll look at four more: fasting, simplicity, confession, and service.<br /><br />1. <span style="font-style:italic;">Solitude</span> is being alone with yourself, and with God. It is not the same as loneliness. Loneliness is inner emptiness. Solitude is inner fulfilment.<br /><br />Our fear of being alone drives us to noise and crowds. But loneliness and clatter are not our only alternatives. We can enjoy solitude in cities; it is possible to be a desert hermit and never experience solitude.<br /><br />In his Life Together Bonhoeffer wrote: 'Let [the one] who cannot be alone beware of community ... [and whoever] is not in community [should] beware of being alone.' So we need both community and solitude: each is necessary for the enrichment of the other.<br /><br />If we take seriously the discipline of solitude we will at some stage pass through what John of the Cross calls 'the dark night of the soul'. It is a time of apparent desolation, but in reality God is at work in divine surgery, bringing us to a profound stillness, so that he may work an inner transformation upon the soul.<br /><br />Thomas Merton observed: 'It is in deep solitude that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers. The more solitary I am the more affection I have for them.'<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR2kNEbZV1tfnPAJOAljgjv1rq2g1OxvujxMaugu218kZY7HRs5EE4KcFTjmdwCQkZ1KPdGdq8C29DN1meF0wYVPyv1qvfr6d9XQo_gfz15XEmqlu8fVHV2uktJCSMw0oqm5NIXmYZEd-1/s1600-h/pr+2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR2kNEbZV1tfnPAJOAljgjv1rq2g1OxvujxMaugu218kZY7HRs5EE4KcFTjmdwCQkZ1KPdGdq8C29DN1meF0wYVPyv1qvfr6d9XQo_gfz15XEmqlu8fVHV2uktJCSMw0oqm5NIXmYZEd-1/s400/pr+2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066829785882848738" /></a><br /><br />Solitary time with God can be in a retreat (say, for two days or eight days etc.) but above all it ought to be daily. Daily solitude is not a luxury; it is a necessity for spiritual survival. If we do not have that within us, from beyond us, we yield too much to that around us.<br /><br />Find time each day to meet with God. Make a chapel or oratory somewhere, perhaps a corner of your bedroom, away from interruptions (put the telephone answering machine on), where you do your prayer and Bible/spiritual reading. sermon preparation).<br /><br />Begin your 'quiet time' with a Bible word, phrase or prayer (Be still....', 'Maranatha', 'Lord, have mercy on me a sinner'). 'Occupy yourself in it without going further. Do like the bees, who never quit a flower so long as they can extract any honey from it' (Francis de Sales).<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Lectio divina</span> is the slow, reflective reading of the Bible. Scripture is God's personal word to me - for my 'formation' not just information. I read it reverently, ready to be 'converted' again and again, willing to be led where I may be reluctant to go, believing that God has yet more light and truth to reveal to me. I try to learn to 'meditate on the Word day and night' (Psalm 1:2).<br /><br />The Daily Office is an excellent structure for daily devotions. Try the daily office in any modern Anglican prayerbook. The Daily Office, says (Baptist) Stephen Winward is absolutely scriptural, God-centred, depends on an ordered use of Scripture (including difficult and challenging passages), is corporate, educative (we're in touch with prayer traditions centuries old) and 'obligatory' (even though the discipline is sometimes hard). Of course, as the Protestant Reformers emphasised, it can be mechanical and formal, but it doesn't have to be.<br /><br />2. <span style="font-style:italic;">Silence</span>. St. John of the Cross, the great teacher about mystical prayer, wrote: 'The Father spoke one Word, which was his Son, and this word he always speaks in silence, and in silence it must be heard by the soul.' Silence is 'the royal road to spiritual formation' (Nouwen). It is not just the absence of noise, but an opportunity to listen to the still small voice of the Spirit.<br /><br />An exercise practised by all the spiritual masters is that of attending to the sounds around you. Why not stop now: what do you hear? Thank God for whatever those sounds represent.<br /><br />3. <span style="font-style:italic;">Study</span>. In meditation we attempt to let a word or phrase of Scripture speak to us. When we do 'Bible study' we bring our minds to bear on the text, to get into its meaning. Meditation is devotional, study is analytical. Bible study is the disciplined reading of Scripture to try to understand it. Meditation will relish a word; study will 'unpack' its meaning.<br /><br />This process demands humility, as we can easily impose our own meanings on the biblical text, or organize doctrines within the narrow structure of our own biases. The central purpose of study is not doctrinal purity (though that is no doubt involved) but inner transformation. Bible study is far more likely to produce a Pharisee than meditation on Scripture. In Bible study we are 'over the word' organizing it, criticising it; in meditation and contemplation we are 'under the word': it becomes a critic of us. The Pharisee is a 'proof-texter' - fitting biblical texts into predetermined doctrinal frameworks.<br /><br />4. <span style="font-style:italic;">Journaling</span> is a useful way to record the promptings of the Spirit in your life. A spiritual journal is a written response to reality: a record of one's inner and outer life (including dreams), a way to inner growth, reflection and healing. In your journal you write down, in your own way, anything of importance to you - your feelings about life, and your relationships with others and God. Through the centuries men and women have 'journaled' in times of loneliness, crisis, ecstasy, transition and conflict. Your journal will help you with one of life's great adventures - the discovery of who you really are. You can then befriend the self you discover, and later re-traverse the journey again with thankfulness.<br /><br />Only you should read your journal, unless you permit extracts to be seen by others, especially your spiritual director.<br /><br />These four disciplines, regularly practised, will help you `Let go, let be, and let God'; you will experience a peace that passes understand- ing, not because you sought that peace directly, but in the process of discovering who you are in the quiet presence of God, you will be better able to negotiate a truce in those areas within where there was war before.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCKeiOFtiGnpT03TJh_cZvkAVv9v4HZl8PO6ZuwekXoqNppSxesZfW-8vDV5bB3xGIolS4nQJoWQ8-tshHXU3w_s8P849Bg_4jyRs1-5jZttBdJMhav2EKL9aNQ3Z9o3WqrZjy4smsY0HA/s1600-h/pr+3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCKeiOFtiGnpT03TJh_cZvkAVv9v4HZl8PO6ZuwekXoqNppSxesZfW-8vDV5bB3xGIolS4nQJoWQ8-tshHXU3w_s8P849Bg_4jyRs1-5jZttBdJMhav2EKL9aNQ3Z9o3WqrZjy4smsY0HA/s400/pr+3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066829854602325490" /></a><br /><br />Where shall the word be found, where will the word<br />Resound? Not here, there is not enough silence...<br /><br />T.S.Eliot, 'Ash Wednesday 1930', in <span style="font-style:italic;">Selected Poems</span>, London: Faber, 1944, p.90.<br /><br />Christian spirituality is a 'spirituality for combat' that goes deep within in order to venture beyond where others dare to go. It is a life of harmony that is caught up in a rhythm between the outer and the inner, between solitude and compassion, between the desert and the city. It is open to those who in the midst of activity are able to see possibilities for ministry in response to the 'still small voice' of God. 'To be a Christian and to pray are one and the same thing,' writes Karl Barth. 'It is a matter that cannot be left to caprice. It is a need, a kind of breathing necessary to life.'<br /><br />James C. Fenhagen, <span style="font-style:italic;">Ministry and Solitude</span>, New York: Seabury Press, 1981, p.70.<br /><br />Do not give up; do not despair; do not be tempted to think it is all a waste of time. Humanly speaking it may be a waste of time, but then how much time have you wasted on waiting for someone you think you love? And there is no one better to waste time on than God. You may think you will have all eternity to love him, and could here and now be better employed doing a good work. But again, the simple message which God speaks is the paradox that if you give him more time, you will have more for other work.<br /><br />Michael Hollings, <span style="font-style:italic;">Hearts Not Garments</span>, London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1982, p.16.<br /><br />St Benedict said Oratio sit brevis et pura: `Let the prayer be brief and pure.' Though the time of meditation may be long, anything we say to God arising out of it will have a quality of simplicity. We prefer to listen to God than to make God listen to us. Throughout the Bible God is reproaching people for not listening to him; he does not complain that they do not speak to him.<br /><br />Margaret Hebblethwaite, <span style="font-style:italic;">Finding God in All Things</span>, London: Fountain Paperbacks, 1987, p.94-95.<br /><br />When we rest we acknowledge that all our striving will, of itself, do nothing. It means letting the world pass us by for a time. Genuine rest requires acknowledgment that God, and our brothers and sisters, can survive without us. It requires a recognition of our own insufficiency and a handing over of responsibility. It is a real surrender to the ways of God. It is a moment of celebration when we acknolwedge that blessing comes only from the hand of God. This is why rest requires faith. It is also why salvation can be pictured as rest. When we rest we accept God's grace: we do not seek to earn, we receive; we do not justify, we are justified.<br /><br />Paul Marshall, 'Work and Rest', <span style="font-style:italic;">Reformed Journal</span>, June 1988, p.13.<br /><br />[The attitude of the desert] is a going out of oneself to encounter the absolute and true reality of things... Authentic Christian contemplation, passing through the desert, transforms contemplatives into prophets and militants into mystics.<br /><br />Segundo Galilea, 'Politics and Contemplation', in Geffre and Gutierrez eds., <span style="font-style:italic;">The Mystical and Political Dimensions of the Christian Faith</span>, New York: Herder and Herder, 1974, p.28.<br /><br />There is considerable value in corporate silence... The quantity of verbal interaction is not the only, or necessarily the best, indicator of fellowship. We know well the experience of words failing us when we try to communicate heights or depths of emotion or thought. There is a peculiar and beautiful eloquence in a person's wordless presence in community... Time and again retreatants told me that the most significant and helpful feature of their retreat was the silence. Often they wish there had been more silence...<br /><br />Ross Kingham, <span style="font-style:italic;">Surprises of the Spirit</span>, Canberra: Barnabas Ministries, 1990, p.32.<br /><br />In one way or another, verbally, imaginatively, physically, intellectually, with whatever faculties are operating at the time, we say to Christ, `I want to be with you. Let me follow you and spend this time with you, and then perhaps I will begin to understand what it is that I really want'<br /><br />The whole purpose of the [Ignatian] Spiritual Exercises can be summed up in terms of id quod volo: the Exercises are a way through which we find out for ourselves what it is that we want most deeply.<br /><br />For everyone, ultimately, the answer is the same. We want God, because that is the way we have been made. `You have made us for yourself, and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you'.<br /><br />Margaret Hebblethwaite, <span style="font-style:italic;">Finding God in All Things</span>, London: Fountain Paperbacks, 1987, p.76-77.<br /><br />A man who had been unable to pray for years began a retreat by imagining himself at Bethlehem but found he could not enter the cave. Feelings of unworthiness, and of simply not being welcome, blocked his fantasy at that point. He and his director interpreted this, not as an inability to `make the contemplation', but as a sign that he was praying; and he continued to imagine himself barred at the entrance to the cave in his repetitions of the contemplation. After two days of this, during which the resentments and hopes of his whole past life welled up within him, he reported that he was invited to go in. The fantasy, with the block and its resolution, was so much the man himself that it became the carrier for a real encounter and meant the turning point of his spiritual life.<br /><br />Robert Ochs, <span style="font-style:italic;">God is more present than you think</span>, New York: Paulist Press, New York, 1970, p.62.<br /><br />In contemporary society our Adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry and crowds. If he can keep us engaged in `muchness' and `manyness', he will rest satisfied. Psychiatrist C.G.Jung once remarked, `Hurry is not of the Devil; it is the Devil'.<br /><br />If we hope to move beyond the superficialities of our culture - including our religious culture - we must be willing to go down into the recreating silences, into the inner world of contemplation. In their writings, all of the masters of meditation strive to awaken us to the fact that the universe is much larger than we know, that there are vast unexplored inner regions that are just as real as the physical world we know so well. They tell us of exciting possibilities for new life and freedom. They call us to the adventure, to be pioneers in this frontier of the Spirit.<br /><br />Richard Foster, <span style="font-style:italic;">Celebration of Discipline</span>, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1980, p.13.<br /><br />Some of my most profitable experiences of study have come through structuring a private retreat for myself. Usually it involves two to three days. No doubt you will object that given your schedule you could not possibly find that kind of time. I want you to know that it is no easier for me to secure that time than for anyone else. I fight and struggle for every retreat, scheduling it into my datebook many weeks in advance. I have suggested this idea to groups and found that professional people with busy schedules, labourers with rigid schedules, housewives with large families, and others can, in fact, find time for a private study retreat. I have discovered that the most difficult problem is not finding time but convincing myself that this is important enough to find the time.<br /><br />Richard Foster, <span style="font-style:italic;">Celebration of Discipline</span>, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1980, p.60-61<br /><br />The main part of the exercise: I make a note of the most important steps in my growing relationship with God (about eight is a good number). These steps, or stepping stones, may be single events, or they may be periods of growth. They may be explicitly religious, or they may be connected to the human process of maturing that I did not think of in terms of God at the time. I make a brief note of each as it occurs to me. Afterwards I can order them chronologically, so I have an idea of the overall shape of my life. There may also be steps backward, or anyway sideways.<br /><br />When I have done this I am in a position to see what in my life I want to thank God for. I take time over this, being grateful for all that now seems positive in my history.<br /><br />Only after I have done that do I look at the ways in which I have fallen short. Remembering the events that I am now grateful for, how could I have given more room in my life for the things that really matter?<br /><br />Margaret Hebblethwaite, <span style="font-style:italic;">Finding God in All Things</span>, London: Fount Paperbacks, 1990, p.165-6.<br /><br />`In the world to come', says the Rabbi Zusya, `I shall not be asked: "Why were you not Moses?" I shall be asked: "Why were you not Zusya?" `Know yourself' has long been a spiritual directive. `Be yourself' is an additional emphasis of today...<br /><br />John Garvey (Ed), Modern Spirituality, an Anthology, London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1985, pp. vii.<br /><br />When I first started practising the spiritual disciplines I read the works of great leaders - St. Augustine, Martin Luther, John Wesley, Francis Asbury, St. Teresa - and I tried to imitate them. It was a miserable failure until I learned that God wants to work with me as an individual. Now I can read these spiritual giants and be helped by them, but I must not try to do everything the way they did.<br /><br />Richard Foster, 'Doing It God's Way' in La Vonne Neff et al (eds), <span style="font-style:italic;">Practical Christianity</span>, Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, 1988, p. 296<br /><br />Five ways to make spiritual disciplines a part of life:<br /><br />1. Dave a daily devotional time.<br /><br />2. Consider having some kind of personal retreat at regular intervals. For the past year I've been taking one day a month... I get away to a retreat place and spend time praying, meditating, reflecting, and making entries in my journal.<br /><br />3. Get involved in some kind of cell group.<br /><br />4. Use family time to develop spiritual disciplines. The way you do this will obviously depend on your situation...<br /><br />5. Join with other church members in regular corporate worship.<br /><br />Howard Snyder, 'Make the Spiritual Disciplines a Part of Life' in La Vonne Neff et al (eds), <span style="font-style:italic;">Practical Christianity</span>, Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, 1988, pp. 296-297.<br /><br />The Christian life is lived out in the tension between self-discipline and the free gift of grace. Yet slavishly giving ourselves over to a discipline of prayer doesn't mean we will automatically experience joyous intimacy with God. A discipline of prayer may easily become a routine of life-killing legalism, all form and no substance. When piety becomes rigidly legalistic, many negative things may happen... One of the mysterious paradoxes of the Christian life is that it is in the practice of spiritual disciplines that we enter into the grace of God in Jesus Christ. Again I repeat, there is nothing mechanistic about prayer. We can't manipulate or control God with it, but it places us before him so that when he wills, he will come to us.<br /><br />Kenneth Swanson, <span style="font-style:italic;">Uncommon Prayer</span>, New York: Ballantine, 1987, p. 54<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAwG91FSfbO-8V7Vdts8yseTQu21g86C37mxNywntg7QxJyPtuu0cEeQgAuDOwbFMiHGgax1rC29LscbRUoNgewCYOP2lk45zXZiwSw4g_hY36IhLq2Gh-qkkZI6E6McFo0mjcAd-bWMuf/s1600-h/pr+4.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAwG91FSfbO-8V7Vdts8yseTQu21g86C37mxNywntg7QxJyPtuu0cEeQgAuDOwbFMiHGgax1rC29LscbRUoNgewCYOP2lk45zXZiwSw4g_hY36IhLq2Gh-qkkZI6E6McFo0mjcAd-bWMuf/s400/pr+4.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066829944796638722" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Lord, while I am searching for you, you have been seeking me. I pray for silence and stillness to apprehend you, for you are not to be found in noise and restlessness. Your beautiful creation - trees, flowers, grass - grow in silence. The stars, the moon, the sun move in silence. As we receive strength in silent prayer so we shall give to others in our active life. Teach me, Lord, that what I say or what I do is less important than what you say to me and what you do in me. Words and deeds which do not share the light and life of Christ increase the darkness and death.<br /><br />O gracious and holy Father, give us<br />wisdom to perceive you,<br />intelligence to understand you,<br />diligence to seek you,<br />patience to wait for you,<br />eyes to behold you,<br />a heart to meditate on you,<br />and a life to proclaim you<br />through the power of the spirit<br />of Jesus Christ our Lord.</span><br /><br />Benedict, cited in <span style="font-style:italic;">Praying with the Saints</span>, Dublin: Veritas Publications, 1989, p.26.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTaBbfNB7cjL50l8d6QsHm8ACV4uFvH_PLbW8wAFNB3HNZwFFLyYHWcpyIvjOAwuYFdBTmZSeBmZ3hg9Jt9_nX90cleGpDwbNnmKzcldNp-bupSgCJtYzNyMuOc-INQSCS4M4osxkuBpSt/s1600-h/pr+5.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTaBbfNB7cjL50l8d6QsHm8ACV4uFvH_PLbW8wAFNB3HNZwFFLyYHWcpyIvjOAwuYFdBTmZSeBmZ3hg9Jt9_nX90cleGpDwbNnmKzcldNp-bupSgCJtYzNyMuOc-INQSCS4M4osxkuBpSt/s400/pr+5.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066830034990951954" /></a><br /><br />A Benediction:<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Go into the desert and there find your God in the silence; go into the depths of your being, and find your real self; in disciplined self-examination allow God and yourself to come together. Make your confession to him and receive his forgiveness. Then go into the world in peace to love and serve the Lord. Amen.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5TSr4PumVl3sykAbku2lBzoCXXJNqraoEKBDfUlry9jISXseFhzZheK5y4p9UiktRaJBtENLNmJIaLKNpRl2kj1s3Dy2nY_fWd_PjOlpddUkki47apuabtRIjBiJ8Yk8O1ihDX0irUFzA/s1600-h/pr+6.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5TSr4PumVl3sykAbku2lBzoCXXJNqraoEKBDfUlry9jISXseFhzZheK5y4p9UiktRaJBtENLNmJIaLKNpRl2kj1s3Dy2nY_fWd_PjOlpddUkki47apuabtRIjBiJ8Yk8O1ihDX0irUFzA/s400/pr+6.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066830116595330594" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Now</span>: Make a serious, personal covenant with the Lord, writing down in your journal a commitment to meet with him regularly, and outlining a way of approaching that 'quiet time' that is suited to you.<br /><br />Buy Kenneth Swanson, Uncommon Prayer, and read it through fairly quickly, then spend several months slowly reading Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline.<br /><br />Contact a local retreat centre, and ask for their program. Book yourself into a retreat or course each year.<br /><br />Some Spiritual Exercises: In your journal, write responses to these:<br /><br />1. Imagine you are the woman healed in Mark 5:21-34 or Peter at the feeding of the five thousand (Mark 6:30-52): how do you feel?<br /><br />2. Make a list of the main events of your life. Why are they important?<br /><br />3. Answer the question: 'What is my desire'?<br /><br />4. 'The second greatest tragedy is to have never been loved. But the greatest tragedy is to be loved and never know it.' Write a love-letter to the Lord.<br /><br />5. What would you do on the last day of your life?<br /><br />6. Write - honestly - your own funeral oration. What will the pastor say about you, do you think?<br /><br />Further Reading: Some of the spiritual classics include The Confessions of Saint Augustine (there are several good modern translations), The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis, Introduction to the Devout Life by Francis de Sales and William Law's A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life.<br /><br />General introductions include Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, San Francisco: Harper & Row, or London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1978; Margaret Hebblethwaite, Finding God in All Things, London: Fount Paperbacks, 1990; Peter Toon, What is Spirituality? And is it for me? London: Daybreak, 1989; Rowland Croucher, Recent Trends Among Evangelicals, Part 3: 'Creative Spirituality' (John Mark Ministries, 1991). Read anything by Henri Nouwen, Thomas Merton, Carlo Carretto, Anthony de Mello. Daily or weekly devotions: Rowland Croucher (ed.) Still Waters ... Deep Waters: Meditations and Prayers for Busy People, High Mountains, Deep Valleys: Meditations and Prayers for the Down Times, Rivers in the Desert: Meditations and Prayers for Refreshment, Gentle Darkness (Albatross/ Lion, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1992).<br /><br />For more serious students there are Dictionaries of Spirituality (eg. by G. Wakefield, C.Cary-Elwes) and compendiums of articles about spirituality in John Garvey (ed), Modern Spirituality, an Anthology, London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1985, and The Study of Spirituality (ed. C.Jones, G. Wainwright and E. Yarnold). </span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4mFOpFuefZ0RwOv-3-RAB8bF97244Ben5oWo0zwpuZExXLXHVMi6s5bhrbNwONhS0sZUYBirPa2-Bg1hZ2lk4cshwNJ-f_agxYtrU8j9OseLD72bYlplB_x75XEU-ZfDnapA3NdwDRRf9/s1600-h/pr+7.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4mFOpFuefZ0RwOv-3-RAB8bF97244Ben5oWo0zwpuZExXLXHVMi6s5bhrbNwONhS0sZUYBirPa2-Bg1hZ2lk4cshwNJ-f_agxYtrU8j9OseLD72bYlplB_x75XEU-ZfDnapA3NdwDRRf9/s400/pr+7.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066830211084611122" /></a>Rowland Croucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13473460918145751334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1291782253971895185.post-35019767215513486312007-05-20T15:08:00.000-07:002007-05-20T15:19:29.702-07:00THIS HOLY WHISPER<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8bpuEd1TV45bxKGImEga9Fg5Hc_Ua4qeCI-PO0ViGWumIWZE_Lo33bYEzeCTHcu3aN_2Mu0R4iJvqX6JCNEmOrvhYwhICAgUoieX1j1mTWb1mPVCiQFBH99Tk3nSTR-DUiExQ88ywCeGG/s1600-h/WHISPER.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8bpuEd1TV45bxKGImEga9Fg5Hc_Ua4qeCI-PO0ViGWumIWZE_Lo33bYEzeCTHcu3aN_2Mu0R4iJvqX6JCNEmOrvhYwhICAgUoieX1j1mTWb1mPVCiQFBH99Tk3nSTR-DUiExQ88ywCeGG/s400/WHISPER.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066769561851424178" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"> <br />This Holy Whisper (Thomas Kelly)<br /><br />H<span style="font-style:italic;">ear, O heavens! Listen, O earth! For the Lord has spoken.<br /><br />The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a person speaks with a friend.<br /><br />Eli realised that it was the Lord who was calling the boy, so he said to him, 'Go back to bed; and if he calls you again, say, 'Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.' So Samuel went back to bed.<br /><br />The Lord came and stood there, and called as he had before, 'Samuel! Samuel!'<br /><br />Samuel answered, 'Speak; your servant is listening.' The Lord said, 'Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.' Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper... Then a voice said to him, 'What are you doing here, Elijah?'<br /><br />Ears that hear and eyes that see -- the Lord has made them both.<br /><br />The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught. The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious; I have not drawn back.<br /><br />The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.'<br /><br />Abraham said, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'<br /><br />But blessed are your eyes because they see and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets... longed to see what you see but did not see it and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. If you have ears, then hear.<br /><br />I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned.<br /><br />Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.<br /><br />That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched -- this we proclaim concerning the Word of life... We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard.<br /></span><br />(Isaiah 1: 2; Exodus 33:11 -- both NIV; 1 Samuel 3: 8-10, GNB; 1 Kings 19: 11-13; Proverbs 20: 12; Isaiah 50: 4-5; Jeremiah 1:4 -5; Luke 16: 31; Matthew 13: 16-17, 43; John 5: 24; Romans 10: 17; 1 John 1: 1, 3 -- all NIV)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8bpuEd1TV45bxKGImEga9Fg5Hc_Ua4qeCI-PO0ViGWumIWZE_Lo33bYEzeCTHcu3aN_2Mu0R4iJvqX6JCNEmOrvhYwhICAgUoieX1j1mTWb1mPVCiQFBH99Tk3nSTR-DUiExQ88ywCeGG/s1600-h/WHISPER.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8bpuEd1TV45bxKGImEga9Fg5Hc_Ua4qeCI-PO0ViGWumIWZE_Lo33bYEzeCTHcu3aN_2Mu0R4iJvqX6JCNEmOrvhYwhICAgUoieX1j1mTWb1mPVCiQFBH99Tk3nSTR-DUiExQ88ywCeGG/s400/WHISPER.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066769561851424178" /></a><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">When I play<br />my records<br />(at full volume,<br />in stereo)<br />I have to<br />close all<br />the windows.<br />I can't stand<br />the noise<br />of the birds<br />outside<br />in the trees.</span><br /><br />Steve Turner<br /><br />This satirical comment on our noisy society suggests why so many of us have difficulty praying. We become uneasy when the noise stops and fear something must be wrong. This sad reality means we are losing our ability to listen. Without the art of listening we not only lack meaningful relationships, but forget something basic about prayer. True prayer always includes a careful listening for God.<br /><br />The Bible is filled with stories of God speaking to people. Prophets heard and then declared 'the word of the Lord'. That hearing came in many ways, sometimes through dramatic experiences, but often through the events of everyday life. The story of Elijah on Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19) offers a striking example of the need to strain in order to hear the quiet whisper of God. In our sin we are very deaf.<br /><br />Without listening there can be no true love or even companionship. Marriages fail because one or both forget to listen. It is a peculiar and superficial friendship if one constantly chatters and never listens to the other. A great test of friendship is when we can keep silence with our friends with complete enjoyment and without embarrassment of any kind. Prayer is being with God. It is commonly a higher form of fellowship simply to be quiet and to enjoy God's presence rather than that 'shopping-list' kind of speaking we often call prayer.<br /><br />Learning to listen and to love God is the best preparation for listening to and loving others. Conversely, true listening to others is essential if we are to discover God speaking to us.<br /><br />Our existence is meant to be dialogue. Prayer is dialogue. Life with others is designed to be dialogue, not monologue. As we hear the whisper of God coming to us from silence, we know we are loved. That whisper prompts us to 'lend our ears' to others struggling with confusion, loneliness, pain and failure. In that listening we again hear the whisper of God.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8bpuEd1TV45bxKGImEga9Fg5Hc_Ua4qeCI-PO0ViGWumIWZE_Lo33bYEzeCTHcu3aN_2Mu0R4iJvqX6JCNEmOrvhYwhICAgUoieX1j1mTWb1mPVCiQFBH99Tk3nSTR-DUiExQ88ywCeGG/s1600-h/WHISPER.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8bpuEd1TV45bxKGImEga9Fg5Hc_Ua4qeCI-PO0ViGWumIWZE_Lo33bYEzeCTHcu3aN_2Mu0R4iJvqX6JCNEmOrvhYwhICAgUoieX1j1mTWb1mPVCiQFBH99Tk3nSTR-DUiExQ88ywCeGG/s400/WHISPER.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066769561851424178" /></a><br />When we speak of 'listening' to God we are talking about a listening of the spirit, a tuning of our inmost being to 'hear' the word of God. By 'the word of God' I mean not only the actual written words of the scriptures, but God's message in all its manifestations. God 'speaks' to us through the scriptures, through the events in our lives, through the people we meet, through history, through nature -- through everything. But, as in ordinary physical listening, we must keep silence if we are to hear what God is saying to us.<br /><br />Sheila Cassidy, <span style="font-style:italic;">Prayer for Pilgrims</span><br /><br />Who is a prophet? Someone who is searching -- someone who is being sought. Someone who listens -- and who is listened to. Someone who sees people as they are, and as they ought to be. Someone who reflects his or her time, yet lives outside time.<br /><br />A prophet is forever awake, forever alert -- never indifferent, least of all to injustice, be it human or divine, whenever or wherever it may be found. God's messenger to us, the prophet, somehow becomes our messenger to God.<br /><br />Restless, disquieting, prophets are forever waiting for a signal, a summons. Asleep they hear voices and follow visions; their dreams do not belong to them.<br /><br />Elie Wiesel, <span style="font-style:italic;">Five Biblical Portraits</span><br /><br />The awful and inspiring thing about the Bible is that it enables us to hear the word which God addresses to us, and it gives us the high position of those whom God treats as responsible persons, as friends to whom he makes known his counsels. We take our place by the side of the people of the Bible with whom the living God held converse; we stand alert, responsible, listening to the word which he commits to our keeping: 'Son/daughter, stand upon your feet and I will speak with you' (Ezekiel 2: 1). Alan Richardson, Preface to Bible Study<br /><br />When God speaks, he likes no other voice to break the stillness but his own... When God speaks, he speaks so loud that all the voices of the world seem dumb. And yet when God speaks, he speaks so softly that no-one hears the whisper but yourself.<br /><br />Henry Drummond, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Ideal Life</span><br /><br />Samuel's prayer was, 'Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth', but it has been said that our prayer is often, 'Hear, Lord, for thy servant speaketh.'<br /><br />Denis Lant, <span style="font-style:italic;">First Steps in Prayer</span><br /><br />There is a divine abyss within us all, a holy infinite centre, a heart, a Life who speaks in us and through us to the world. We have all heard this holy whisper at times. At times we have followed the whisper... But too many of us have heeded the Voice only at times. Only at times have we submitted to his holy guidance. We have not counted this holy thing within us to be the most precious thing in the world. We have not surrendered all else, to attend to it alone. Let me repeat. Most of us, I fear, have not surrendered all else, in order to attend to the Holy Within.<br /><br />Thomas Kelly, <span style="font-style:italic;">A Testament of Devotion</span><br /><br />I don't know who -- or what -- put the question, I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone -- or Something -- and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life in self-surrender had a goal. From that moment I have known what it means 'not to look back', and 'to take no thought for the morrow'.<br /><br />Dag Hammarskjold, <span style="font-style:italic;">Markings</span><br /><br />Most importantly, through my interviewing, I came to realise there was a great value in listening to people, a value for them, for me -- and for the audience. I knew somehow it was important for us as a community to hear of the lives and ideas of others, and I developed my gift for listening... Often I had a sense of being a listening instrument, through which people might hear something of value for them, but I did not interpret this in any religious way. Now I think the gift of listening is one of several keys to the awakening in me of conscious awareness of a religious dimension to life -- an awareness that would first plunge me into blackness and then bring me safely into the light...<br /><br />There followed a number of conversations over many months with two priests separately who seemed able to discern the yearning child within the public figure. I knew that the wisdom, acceptance, gentleness and generous accessibility, the listening of these men were signs of God, were human portrayals of a loving Creator who is waiting for his children to come home to him...<br /><br />I try to be mindful in my work, monitoring to see if it is building community, tapping insight, revealing inspiration. This is an act of my will and a determination to use my talents but I also listen, like a witness, to hear if it rings true to my understanding of divine will, revealed through scripture and my conscience.<br /><br />Caroline Jones, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Search for Meaning</span><br /><br />There is a real act of self-denial in every authentic experience of hearing. I am called to turn down the record that is forever playing in my head so there is silence enough for me to hear a word from beyond. It is so easy for me to project upon another a shadow out of my own past experience rather than letting that person be what he or she is in this moment, and receive in that moment a new and fresh experience,<br /><br />John Claypool, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Preaching Event</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">If you wish to enter the world of those<br />who are broken or dosed in upon themselves,<br />it is important to learn their language.<br />Learning a language<br />is not just learning French or Spanish or German.<br /><br />It is learning to understand what people are really saying,<br />the non-verbal as well as the verbal language.<br /><br />The verbal, exterior language is the beginning<br />and is absolutely necessary,<br />but you must go deeper<br />and discern what it means to listen:<br />to listen deeply to another,<br />to the cry flowing from the heart,<br />in order to understand people,<br />both in their pain and in their gift;<br />to understand what they are truly asking<br />so that you can hold their wound, their pain<br />and all that flows from it:<br />violence, anger or depression,<br />self-centredness and limitless demands;<br />the suffocating urge to possess,<br />the refusal to let go;<br />to accept these with compassion,<br />without judging, without condemning...<br />If you come in this way,<br />open, listening humbly, without judging,<br />then gradually you will discover that you are trusted.<br /><br />Your heart will be touched.<br />You will begin to discover the secret of communion.<br /></span><br />Jean Vanier, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Broken Body</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Lord let me hear, hear more and more,<br />Hear the sounds of great rejoicing, hear a person barely sigh,<br />Hear the ring of truth and hollowness of those who live a lie,<br />Hear the wail of starving people who will die,<br />Hear the voice of our Lord in the cry,<br /><br />Lord let me hear.</span><br /><br />Ross Langmead, <span style="font-style:italic;">On the Road</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8bpuEd1TV45bxKGImEga9Fg5Hc_Ua4qeCI-PO0ViGWumIWZE_Lo33bYEzeCTHcu3aN_2Mu0R4iJvqX6JCNEmOrvhYwhICAgUoieX1j1mTWb1mPVCiQFBH99Tk3nSTR-DUiExQ88ywCeGG/s1600-h/WHISPER.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8bpuEd1TV45bxKGImEga9Fg5Hc_Ua4qeCI-PO0ViGWumIWZE_Lo33bYEzeCTHcu3aN_2Mu0R4iJvqX6JCNEmOrvhYwhICAgUoieX1j1mTWb1mPVCiQFBH99Tk3nSTR-DUiExQ88ywCeGG/s400/WHISPER.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066769561851424178" /></a><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Lord, in this noisy world, I sometimes feel as though I am deaf. Help me to turn down that record playing in my head and again to discover silence. I remember that lovely hymn which tells me that Jesus knelt to share with you 'the silence of eternity, interpreted by love'. Help me, when earthquake, wind and fire threaten to overwhelm my senses, to hear your 'still, small voice of calm'...<br /><br />Today as I pray, I want not so much to speak, but to listen... listen to you in scripture, in my loved ones, in this world, in my experiences.<br /><br />And yet I know I must go out to people deafened by unceasing clamour. Help me to find space for others. Give me ears to hear what others really are crying out to me. I want to listen, not so that I can inject an answer when there is a lull in conversation, but to offer understanding and acceptance. Help me not to feel I must always speak, to know there are times when nothing has to be said but my presence is itself a needed gift.<br /><br />Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.<br /></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8bpuEd1TV45bxKGImEga9Fg5Hc_Ua4qeCI-PO0ViGWumIWZE_Lo33bYEzeCTHcu3aN_2Mu0R4iJvqX6JCNEmOrvhYwhICAgUoieX1j1mTWb1mPVCiQFBH99Tk3nSTR-DUiExQ88ywCeGG/s1600-h/WHISPER.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8bpuEd1TV45bxKGImEga9Fg5Hc_Ua4qeCI-PO0ViGWumIWZE_Lo33bYEzeCTHcu3aN_2Mu0R4iJvqX6JCNEmOrvhYwhICAgUoieX1j1mTWb1mPVCiQFBH99Tk3nSTR-DUiExQ88ywCeGG/s400/WHISPER.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066769561851424178" /></a><br />A Benediction<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">May you have ears to hear what the Lord is saying and eyes to see what the Lord is doing. May you have a mind to learn what the Lord is teaching and a heart to love the Lord and your neighbour as yourself. Amen.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Rivers in the Desert</span> ed. By Rowland Croucher pp. 127-134</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8bpuEd1TV45bxKGImEga9Fg5Hc_Ua4qeCI-PO0ViGWumIWZE_Lo33bYEzeCTHcu3aN_2Mu0R4iJvqX6JCNEmOrvhYwhICAgUoieX1j1mTWb1mPVCiQFBH99Tk3nSTR-DUiExQ88ywCeGG/s1600-h/WHISPER.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8bpuEd1TV45bxKGImEga9Fg5Hc_Ua4qeCI-PO0ViGWumIWZE_Lo33bYEzeCTHcu3aN_2Mu0R4iJvqX6JCNEmOrvhYwhICAgUoieX1j1mTWb1mPVCiQFBH99Tk3nSTR-DUiExQ88ywCeGG/s400/WHISPER.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066769561851424178" /></a>Rowland Croucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13473460918145751334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1291782253971895185.post-66985731154761779542007-05-20T04:08:00.000-07:002007-05-20T04:19:40.612-07:00LILIES IN HARD GROUND<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIirTIggcqb2StSpuMjzaTOEbrhHO5vxaQ76n4JLo99a3scqY0qRdKCm5wW97q2aXUeKjbOyBlByLLNPKsEQ7L8I2LEz9oM9bDgGtr-R0v1g0n8gjk7oX5mJVnhQRiTcAmhAO0Z5jlCWjp/s1600-h/LIL+1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIirTIggcqb2StSpuMjzaTOEbrhHO5vxaQ76n4JLo99a3scqY0qRdKCm5wW97q2aXUeKjbOyBlByLLNPKsEQ7L8I2LEz9oM9bDgGtr-R0v1g0n8gjk7oX5mJVnhQRiTcAmhAO0Z5jlCWjp/s400/LIL+1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066599584225717570" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"> <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">But Hezekiah was too proud to show gratitude for what the Lord had done for him, and Judah and Jerusalem suffered for it.<br /><br />Give thanks to him, bless his name! For the Lord is good.<br /><br />Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.<br /><br />The evil you planned to do me has by God's design been turned to good, that he might bring about, as indeed he has, the deliverance of a numerous people.<br /><br />Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your re quests be made known to God.<br /><br />My brothers, consider yourselves fortunate when all kinds of trials come your way, for you know that when your faith succeeds in facing such trials, the result is the ability to endure.<br /><br />Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.<br /><br />Do not be worried and upset; do not be afraid.<br /><br />I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.<br /><br />And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.<br /><br />But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.<br /><br />For you had compassion on the prisoners, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.</span><br /><br />(2 Chronicles 32: 25, GNB; Psalm 100: 4-5, RSV; Colossians 3: 16- 17, RSV; Genesis 50: 20, JB; Philippians 4: 6, RSV; James 1: 2, GNB; 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18, RSV; John 14: 27, GNB; John 15: 11, GNB; Luke 24: 52-53, RSV; Acts 16: 25, RSV; Hebrews 10: RSV)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUu7hJ7fDvThrP5Nfhl7earpuG90IjA-mXP9cNmtGFoQtS6ElpK7aeagklCKbPRJJ9wc4TPBYJrW2Bs_ySwEzfJcVOjUs7pZBmaG5A7GpY_pKafXIGd3r6XtVg2Bm5lythQRL6uW-R74H0/s1600-h/LIL+6.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUu7hJ7fDvThrP5Nfhl7earpuG90IjA-mXP9cNmtGFoQtS6ElpK7aeagklCKbPRJJ9wc4TPBYJrW2Bs_ySwEzfJcVOjUs7pZBmaG5A7GpY_pKafXIGd3r6XtVg2Bm5lythQRL6uW-R74H0/s400/LIL+6.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066599983657676178" /></a><br />I was amazed to see how many references there are in the Bible to the word 'praise'. Together with accompanying words like 'bless', 'exalt', 'thank', 'glorify', 'honour', 'magnify' and 'extol', there are over five hundred verses, the majority of which are encouraging us to praise our God. The sheer magnitude of the messages should be overpowering, but I knew my own gratitude to God fell sadly short. The high peaks of my life, yes, they were Spirit-drenched, I knew, but the valleys and the plains? These 'Godless' cloud-heavy plains weren't anything to be grateful about, were they? My mind traced down from the peaks of my life to the specific valleys joining them. I peered through the fog with the eye of faith. They were a unified whole of opposites and contrasts, all revealing the mighty touch of God to the eye of faith, no matter what my senses felt about it.<br /><br />So where was my gratitude? My life held fulfilment, growth and much joy. Even my senses told me I was mostly very happy with it. But my gratitude to God for it, even the peaks, seemed to have become mislaid, diverted, related in some way to my satisfaction with myself and my life. A suspicion lurked just below the edge of my consciousness, but gradually I drew it out. I had been siphoning off, for myself, the gratitude that should have been given to God.<br /><br />Failing to acknowledge the source of those strengths within me -- the abilities, the care, the thoughts that came, was indeed folly beyond folly. By failing to point out to others the source of my strength, inspiration and love, I had been, maybe, en couraging them to admire the flowerpot instead of the flower within. And they suffered because of it, unable to see that the strength within me was just as available to them also. The fragrance of humble, unselfish trust hadn't been getting to me, through me, to those God wanted to bless. So, praise on the plains and in the valleys, as well as on the peaks, is the outward expression of inner trust that keeps our eyes on the Father.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBSJ-EUUNv4XyrBv_9gG-RNeGgzC5C4mC0kfjkVgXDMsKuesD3CFhRJbT6XFm965IQRKgG1p9XWCCaWos3EVPVFFZPvCPyu6U5INqlbfgPT_qTooBcwLNEvrVIqAUYN0cZsUDo8Gtdnn7m/s1600-h/LIL+5.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBSJ-EUUNv4XyrBv_9gG-RNeGgzC5C4mC0kfjkVgXDMsKuesD3CFhRJbT6XFm965IQRKgG1p9XWCCaWos3EVPVFFZPvCPyu6U5INqlbfgPT_qTooBcwLNEvrVIqAUYN0cZsUDo8Gtdnn7m/s400/LIL+5.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066599902053297538" /></a><br />Oh wind! Blow upon my garden, let its fragrance be wafted abroad. You are a tree 'neath the breath of God, well-watered, and firm beneath the sod. Strong and healthy your spirit grows, each one different, in highs and lows: each one different, but in the plan I've planted you in my garden of man.<br /><br />The breath of my Spirit blows around you each day, strongly or still, but come what may you've only to bend, and joyfully sway. Bend your proud back and happily nod, as my Spirit brings over you rain, sun or cloud. The way to survive is to bend, not to break, to go with my wind and allow it to shake you loose from your pride, and your other endeavours by which you had thought to weather all weathers, right all wrongs, and bring people to me; mend broken hearts, save the drowning at sea.<br /><br />A truly proud streak, and I love your straight back, your stretching ambitions, but see where you lack? I alone can do my work, but through vessels sound. The way to help me, is only found in flexible trust of all that I bring, with praise in your heart that helps you to sing.<br /><br />As you bend and sway 'neath my Spirit this day, I am making you into a wonderful way by which others may shelter, gather food and find peace.<br /><br />You're my inspiration of fragrant increase. I love your deep yearnings to do things for me, but all I want is for you to be a thing of beauty right where you belong, breathing my air and growing strong.<br /><br />Trust me to make of you all you could dream, because you and I are a part of a team. I do the work as you thankfully see that the rain, cold and clouds are as useful to thee as the summer and sunshine, the heat and the bees; all help you to grow to be one of my trees.<br /><br />Don't take any credit for your beauty of leaf, but give it to me, your climate and chief. Be thankful and grateful, and glorify me. Let others be glad to encounter a tree.<br /><br />Bronwyn Pryor<br /><br />It was that night in the quiet of my [cell] that I made the total surrender, completing what had begun... eighteen long months before: 'Lord, if this is what it is all about,' I said, 'then I thank you. I praise you for leaving me in prison, for letting them take away my licence to practise law, yes -- even for my son being arrested. I praise you for giving me your love through these four men, for being God, for just letting me walk with Jesus!<br /><br />With those words came the greatest joy of all -- the final release, turning it all over to God as my brother Harold had told me to do. And in the hours that fol lowed I discovered more strength than I'd ever known before. This was the real mountaintop experience. Above and around me the world was filled with joy and love and beauty. For the first time, I felt truly free, even as the fortunes of my life seemed at their lowest ebb. [Fortyeight hours later... an order was being prepared to release Charles Colson from prison immediately...] Jack said, 'I kind of knew [the Lord] would set you free today.' 'Thank you, brother,' I said, but he did it two nights ago.'<br /><br />Charles Colson, <span style="font-style:italic;">Born Again</span><br /><br />That is why we must not be surprised if we are in for a rough time. When a man turns to Christ and seems to be getting on pretty well (in the sense that some of his bad habits are now corrected), he often feels that it would now be natural if things went fairly smoothly. When troubles come along -- illnesses, money troubles, new kinds of temptations -- he is disappointed. These things, he feels, might have been necessary to rouse him and make him repent in his bad old days; but why now? Because God is forcing him on, or up, to a higher level: putting him into situations where he will have to be very much braver, or more patient, or more loving, than he ever dreamed of being before. It seems to us all unnecessary: but that is because we have not yet had the slightest notion of the tremendous thing he means to make of us.<br /><br />C.S. Lewis, <span style="font-style:italic;">Mere Christianity</span><br /><br />Many of the 'praise' perspectives of the more successful churches seem to mask an inability to develop a theology of suffering and an unwillingness to embrace the cross of Christ and its consequences. Western culture-Christianity views success, good feelings, comfort, material excellence, health and overall joyous prosperity as the mark of God's approval, and therefore the mark of God's friendship and presence. If things go well, we feel close to the Lord. If successive failure or disaster accompanies our efforts, we wonder what rebuking word God has for us. He seems so far away... It is a far cry from biblical reality.<br /><br />John Smith, <span style="font-style:italic;">Praise or Pain?</span><br /><br />Roll the burden of cares of thy life's way upon the Lord. Cause it to go, the Hebrew says; a push will do it. Cast thy care, hurl it -- so the word is there. Hurl it with a forceful act of will: it is not enough to think of doing it. Do it... The burden has not come of itself. It is a gift, a trust. If we deal with it as we are told we may, we shall find rest unto our souls...<br /><br />These words touch more than illness of the body. If only we allow them to sink deep into our being, if only we refuse forbidding feelings and believe that even to us this grace is given, we shall indeed find rest. In that rest we shall climb. The unrestful cannot climb. They are too busy adjusting and readjusting their burdens to have breath or strength to spare for such ascents... The joy of the Lord is your strength. The saints are full of it, even when cast down and oppressed by circumstances. Love and joy breathed from them, and everybody felt they had a blessed secret to impart... 'Joy is not gush: joy is not jolliness. Joy is simply perfect acquiescence in God's will, because the soul delights itself in God himself... rejoice in the will of God, and in nothing else. Bow down your heads and your hearts before God, and let the will, the blessed will of God, be done.'<br /><br />Amy Carmichael, <span style="font-style:italic;">Gold by Moonlight</span><br /><br />Paul said: 'But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort'... Paul saw the ultimate secret of Being -- the truth that because of who we are in Christ we can be totally content, irrespective of outer circumstances... All the things of the world, whether we call them good or bad, merely serve as vehicles of God's grace and truth. These vehicles are wearing out, as God has promised they would, so we should not be too concerned about their good and evil appearances. What is important is that they get us to God's Life, not in the hereafter, but in each moment of our daily lives.<br /><br />Bill Volkman, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Wink of Faith</span><br /><br />When Christmas came, both of us felt sadness about being locked up, separated from our families.<br /><br />Late Christmas Eve, Willie shared the doubts he had gathered in his heart. . . 'I don't understand how God could allow this to happen.' 'Big Willie, I know your thoughts, I'm depressed too. But... Paul was in a dungeon with his ankles in stocks. He couldn't walk around as you and I can in this cell... We have much for which to be thankful... We don't have anything materially, but we have the greatest possession on the face of the earth -- Jesus Christ. And one day we're going to be joint heirs with him!'... 'We are lucky, aren't we?' he said. Like the Apostle Paul we prayed and praised God with our voices while tears washed our faces. It was a very special time as the depression gave way to joy.<br /><br />Harold Morris, <span style="font-style:italic;">Twice Pardoned</span><br /><br />During the time of prayers for healing I encourage people to 'dial down', that is, to relax and resist becoming emotionally worked up. Stirred up emotions rarely aid the healing process, and usually impede learning about how to pray for the sick. So I try to create an atmosphere that is clinical and rational while at the same time it is powerful and spiritually sensitive...<br /><br />When we are out in the marketplace we cannot worship aloud; nevertheless, God hears praise and thanksgiving in our hearts and sends his Spirit. Back in 1982 a friend... wrote me a note in which he described his experience of the relationship between worship and effective healing prayer... 'It's happening, John! Six out of the seven things I've prayed for in the past five days for my family in the way of healing have occurred within two minutes!... I now realise what my mistake was: by just jumping in and praying for healing without worshipping God first, I was actually taking him for granted.'<br /><br />John Wimber, <span style="font-style:italic;">Power Healing</span><br /><br />'I am learning never to be disappointed, but to praise,' Arnot of Central Africa wrote in his journal long ago... I think it must hurt the tender love of our Father when we press for reasons for his dealings with us, as though he were not Love, as though not he but another chose our inheritance for us, and as though what he chose to allow could be less than the very best and dearest that Love Eternal had to give... But I do not find that this position, that of unbroken peacefulness and inward song, is one which we can hope to hold unassailed. It is no soft arrangement of pillows, no easy-chair. It is a fort in an enemy's country, and the foe is wise in assault and espe cially in surprise. And yet there can be nothing to fear, for it is not a place that we must keep, but a stronghold in which we are kept, if only, in the moment we are conscious of attack, we look... unto... Jesus.<br /><br />Amy Carmichael, <span style="font-style:italic;">Rose from Brier</span><br /><br />Suffering is all too real at the level of our senses. Our emotional responses to all human suffering -- be it our pain, loss, separation or limitation -- are valid, and need not be suppressed. These responses are God's way to remind us that we are earthen vessels with his treasure in our inner being. At that inner level we can rejoice in faith, even though we are hurting and crying on the outside. But as we operate at this faith level, we recognise the outer appearances as illusion, for they have no effect on our true inner selves in union with Christ...<br /><br />God turned the adversity and evil of the next five years into adventure and good for our entire family. The nightmare of rebellion which manifested itself in [our son] Scott's life in riotous living, drugs, run-ins with the police and verbal abuse of the family seemed like it would never end. But we ultimately saw that the low road Scott had chosen was a major part of God's redemptive plan for opening the eyes of the whole family to true reality... his rebellion was no more of a tragedy than Christ's crucifixion -- both were wonderful blessings in disguise . . . the resulting revelations of truth were well worth the temporary pain.<br /><br />Bill Bolkman, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Wink of Faith</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiboxvFKSqO9ZEUaMBe3Hn_-oquiblw_At_AzrCEczUGafsD7vLSN-IQDELC7O2c-G837GLv0pvNUEk9WpmHQ_5knBxXZNczq-NHDVjgayzmvENglqAzo-lSMr9IOgNS16xZOvtuTfAc7bu/s1600-h/LIL+4.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiboxvFKSqO9ZEUaMBe3Hn_-oquiblw_At_AzrCEczUGafsD7vLSN-IQDELC7O2c-G837GLv0pvNUEk9WpmHQ_5knBxXZNczq-NHDVjgayzmvENglqAzo-lSMr9IOgNS16xZOvtuTfAc7bu/s400/LIL+4.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066599833333820786" /></a><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Father, sometimes I know you're so close and it is easy to praise you for the evidence that you are working within me and through me. Thank you. I know I'm in your will. And often I am amazed at the evidence of your work in the lives of those around me, for whom I pray. I bask in the sunshine of your blessings. My growth is easy and natural, centred in you. I praise you and thank you for doing this within me.<br /><br />But now life is a struggle again, and there seem so many burdens to weigh me down. My heart is sore. I am tired. I don't know which way to turn first. Yet I praise you, my Lord, for the experiences of these past days. I trust that they are all part of your plan to use me to bless others. I trust you, Lord, that they are necessary - - in fact, vital -- for your purpose to be accomplished within me and through me. I give you the problems, the temptations, the festering hurts. I lift them up and throw them down at your feet. My hands are free, free to bless you. In my imagination, I lift them high in joy and wonder and praise, for I would become a praise- filled person,trusting you to use even these overcast days for your glory. All is well. I am yours. The sunshine of your love still lies behind the clouds. And your care for me is beyond my wildest imaginations. I bless you, my God.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj1sboTOmhXpO-FzGBOoBw3ATLXOn5-_F4YXc2jHMLt-iKZhmDrbAv1omWr_pGCmLObJmXaBkRVnNfT4AJydTsdc0FGaKfE95_l7NFKBuWAreCHedOmVXd6N6ANnU91Kqzyf2zu4-aoQGL/s1600-h/LIL+2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj1sboTOmhXpO-FzGBOoBw3ATLXOn5-_F4YXc2jHMLt-iKZhmDrbAv1omWr_pGCmLObJmXaBkRVnNfT4AJydTsdc0FGaKfE95_l7NFKBuWAreCHedOmVXd6N6ANnU91Kqzyf2zu4-aoQGL/s400/LIL+2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066599687304932690" /></a><br />A Benediction<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Enter the day ahead with joy, determined to be available for Jesus to live his life through you. Relax to its hardships working on you, trusting God to mould you and carry you through them. The climb can be tough, but take each event as from the hand of God and praise him, leaving the results in his hands. Then watch for the signs of the lilies in the hard ground.<br /><br />Amen.<br /></span><br />Rowland Croucher ed., <span style="font-style:italic;">High Mountains Deep Valleys</span>, (Albatross/Lion) chapter 28.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3gj0mHgr96M3zhWP8j7JCtpkFpx918R4Vo02T7BwAoT7n1POnSH7o8SNAX1hL9LKNSPCUZTfQQDf6yCSR7RdaCXqeJIkRdo4GTRKD4ZbrbqoIYV0H1b8KtOnC81_BTrBkZyx3_RkXBtAH/s1600-h/LIL+3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3gj0mHgr96M3zhWP8j7JCtpkFpx918R4Vo02T7BwAoT7n1POnSH7o8SNAX1hL9LKNSPCUZTfQQDf6yCSR7RdaCXqeJIkRdo4GTRKD4ZbrbqoIYV0H1b8KtOnC81_BTrBkZyx3_RkXBtAH/s400/LIL+3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066599756024409442" /></a>Rowland Croucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13473460918145751334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1291782253971895185.post-82282563378066228412007-05-20T03:50:00.000-07:002007-05-20T04:05:06.268-07:00IN THE BEGINNING, GOD...</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisTmQApTxj8BBiT3-AebGlpwB9lrKFRjgobRZGKJfEQqvFdMW_RBLtjrQdQRJmAVd4KHgRr3NWfBxmlyNPgnW5yHmNVy1puu48AX4C8QQwhqTBHr6q4mZNj8oMYY52dM6XojY86XjYBAEg/s1600-h/GOD.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisTmQApTxj8BBiT3-AebGlpwB9lrKFRjgobRZGKJfEQqvFdMW_RBLtjrQdQRJmAVd4KHgRr3NWfBxmlyNPgnW5yHmNVy1puu48AX4C8QQwhqTBHr6q4mZNj8oMYY52dM6XojY86XjYBAEg/s400/GOD.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066595237718814002" /></a><span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br /><span style="font-style:italic;"> O sing to the Lord a new song because he has performed wondrous things! His right hand and his holy arm have gained him victory. The Lord has made known his salvation; He has unveiled his righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his loving-kindness and his faithfulness to Israel's descendants. All the ends of the earth have witnessed the salvation of our God...<br /><br />Let the sea in its vastness roar in praise, the world and its inhabitants! Let the rivers clap their hands and the mountains sing praises together before the Lord, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with justice, the peoples with unfaltering fairness..</span><br /><br />Psalm 98:1-3 and 7-9, Berkeley<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">There is a God in heaven... God is with you. God conceals himself... God reveals mysteries.<br /><br />The Lord is King; the people tremble... He has pity on the weak and poor.<br /><br />The high and lofty One who inhabits eternity... inhabits the praises of Israel.<br /><br />The world and all that is in it belong to the Lord... the cattle on a thousand hills... Rich as he was, he made himself poor for your sake.<br /><br />God is ready to judge the living and the dead. Our God is a consuming fire... He will save his people from their sins.<br /><br />I am your God -- let nothing terrify you! God remembers those who suffer. God is wise and powerful! Praise him for ever and ever. He reveals things that are deep and secret; he knows what is hidden in darkness, and he himself is surrounded by light. How deep is God's wisdom and knowledge! Who can explain his decisions? Who can understand his ways?... All things exist through him and for him.<br /><br />The Lord's unfailing love and mercy still continue, fresh as the morning, as sure as the sunrise. The Lord is all I have, and so I put my hope in him.<br /><br />In view of all this, what can we say? If God is for us, who can be against us? Nothing can separate us from God's love. God, the source of my happiness.</span><br /><br />(Daniel 2: 28; Isaiah 45: 14-15; Daniel 2: 29; Psalm 99:1 and 72: 13 -- all GNB; Isaiah 57: 15, RSV; Psalm 22: 3, KJV; Psalm 24: 1 and 50: 10; 2 Corinthians 8: 9; 1 Peter 4:5 -- all GNB; Hebrews 12: 29, RSV; Psalm 130: 8; Isaiah 41: 10; Psalm 9: 12; Daniel 2:20 and 22; Romans 11:33 and 36; Lamentations 3: 22-24; Romans 8: 31 and 38; Psalm 43:4 -- all GNB)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisTmQApTxj8BBiT3-AebGlpwB9lrKFRjgobRZGKJfEQqvFdMW_RBLtjrQdQRJmAVd4KHgRr3NWfBxmlyNPgnW5yHmNVy1puu48AX4C8QQwhqTBHr6q4mZNj8oMYY52dM6XojY86XjYBAEg/s1600-h/GOD.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisTmQApTxj8BBiT3-AebGlpwB9lrKFRjgobRZGKJfEQqvFdMW_RBLtjrQdQRJmAVd4KHgRr3NWfBxmlyNPgnW5yHmNVy1puu48AX4C8QQwhqTBHr6q4mZNj8oMYY52dM6XojY86XjYBAEg/s400/GOD.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066595237718814002" /></a><span <br />The novelist Katherine Mansfield, an atheist, woke up one lovely morning at her villa in the south of France, looked out her window at the beauty of it all, and said: 'How I wish there were someone to thank!'<br /><br />There is, Katherine. And God heard you... Who is God? Where is God? What is God like? When you come into contact with the God depicted in the Bible, you'd better be ready for some surprises. We define reality in terms of our limited experience and, if that experience was flawed by bad relationships, 'bad luck' or bad life-management, we may create expectations about God that are also flawed. We know only in part and see through a glass darkly. So our 'God-talk' suffers from severe limitations.<br /><br />Who is God? The German mystic Gerhard Tersteegan wrote: 'A god understood, a god comprehended, is no god.' After all the words and theories, preachings and theologies, God is still incognito and beyond our comprehension. 'We cannot see light,' wrote C.S. Lewis in The Four Loves, 'though by light we can see things. Statements about God are extrapolations from the knowledge of other things which the divine illumination enables us to know.'<br /><br />The Eastern Orthodox tradition has always held that God in his essence is unknown; he is discerned through his works and words.<br /><br />'God' is not a static noun but a dynamic verb. It's like trying to understand a train trip by studying the timetables: you have to take the journey to experience it. Nicolas Berdyaev, the Russian philosopher, reminds us that theological doctrine is not necessary for faith, but that faith is necessary for theological doctrine. Believing is seeing.<br /><br />According to Paul the apostle, the God of the Bible is one who can make the things that are out of things that are not: he can make the dead come to lffe again. God is the sum of all possibilities.<br /><br />God is love and God is just. God's justice, says C.S. Lewis, is his love labouring to make us lovable. When our sin is abhorrent to us as it is so manifestly to God, we may understand a little of his holy anger against that which is destroying us. He has given us ten commandments (not ten suggestions) to preserve a moral environment in which humans can survive. God's kindness and severity (Romans 11: 22) are joined together in the Bible, and what God has joined together let not the Pharisees or the sentimentalists separate (even if there is great mystery here). The judge of all the earth will act justly, he can do it without our help, and that's comforting.<br /><br />Where is God? In heaven, in sacred places and religious celebrations, yes, but also within us, as the ground of our being (Tillich), in ordinariness and in crisis, in the variegated beauty of creation, in others and uniquely in Jesus of Nazareth -- 'God was in Christ'. We think about God in terms of transcendence -- ('out-thereness') -- and immanence ('down-hereness'). God is not merely far away, beyond the bright blue sky; he is closer than breathing, nearer than hands and feet. God is the life in every living thing -- Justin Martyr says he is 'present in all his works though still unseen' -- but as Creator he is greater than the sum of all his creation.<br /><br />But the more urgent questions are: 'Where is God when it hurts?' and 'Is God deaf?' From biblical times, God's apparent absence or silence have puzzled and pained his people. In Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, 'God', we assume, does not come. Since Auschwitz we wonder if we can still praise him. And today, in many parts of the world, his servants are ridiculed, tortured and killed. And the cries of the martyrs are still louder than those protesting the injustices done to those martyrs.<br /><br />God is not deaf; he is listening. He suffers with his people and hears their cries. 'Where was your God when my son was killed in a car accident?' asked the distraught mother. The pastor quietly replied, 'The same place he was when his son was killed.'<br /><br />What is God like? Our hunger for God was articulated by Philip: 'Lord, show us the Father, that is all we need' (John 14: 8). Jesus' answer was breathtaking: 'Whoever has seen me has seen the Father' (John 14: 9). What is God like? He is like Jesus. Jesus is God for you, near you. Your faith depends on him from start to finish (Hebrews 12: 2). He cannot stop loving you. He thinks you're beautiful, he delights in you, so in the joy and comfort of this total acceptance, make room for surprise and hope and wonder and the unexpected and, above all, the warm certainty that you are loved for ever.<br /><br />And never forget, as an old mystic said, if you have God and everything else you have no more than having God only; and if you have everything else and not God you have nothing.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisTmQApTxj8BBiT3-AebGlpwB9lrKFRjgobRZGKJfEQqvFdMW_RBLtjrQdQRJmAVd4KHgRr3NWfBxmlyNPgnW5yHmNVy1puu48AX4C8QQwhqTBHr6q4mZNj8oMYY52dM6XojY86XjYBAEg/s1600-h/GOD.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisTmQApTxj8BBiT3-AebGlpwB9lrKFRjgobRZGKJfEQqvFdMW_RBLtjrQdQRJmAVd4KHgRr3NWfBxmlyNPgnW5yHmNVy1puu48AX4C8QQwhqTBHr6q4mZNj8oMYY52dM6XojY86XjYBAEg/s400/GOD.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066595237718814002" /></a><span <br /><br />No philosophical theory which I have yet come across is a radical improvement on the words of Genesis, that 'In the beginning God made heaven and earth.'<br /><br />C.S. Lewis, <span style="font-style:italic;">Miracles</span><br /><br />Some people want to love God in the same way as they love a cow. You love it for the milk and the cheese and for your own profit. So do all people who love God for the sake of outward riches or inward consolation. But they do not love God correctly, for they merely love their own advantage.<br /><br />You are looking for something along with God, and you are behaving exactly as if you were making of God a candle so that you could look for something. When we find the things we are looking for, we throw the candle away. Whatever you are seeking along with God is nothing. It does not matter what it is -- be it an advantage or a reward or a kind of spirituality or whatever else -you are seeking a nothingness and for this reason you find a nothingness.<br /><br />Meister Eckhart<br /><br />God is a lover different from human lovers, who give a gift which is exterior to them. God is working in all his gifts, giving of himself as a sign of his love. Creation is an ongoing process and God is patiently working from inside each creature in the potentiality he has poured into that finite creature. He is the ground of being directing all creatures to their full actuality...<br /><br />George A. Maloney, <span style="font-style:italic;">Alone with the Alone</span><br /><br />The God of the gospel is the God... who again and again discloses himself anew and must be discovered anew... In this he is, without doubt, a God wholly different from other gods. Other gods do not seem to prohibit their theologies from boasting that each one is the most correct or even the only correct theology...<br /><br />The God of the gospel is no lonely God, self-sufficient and self-contained... He is our God. He exists neither next to us nor merely above us, but rather with us, by us and, most important of all, for us... The content of God's Word is his free, undeserved Yes to the whole human race, in spite of all human unreasonableness and corruption.<br /><br />Karl Barth, <span style="font-style:italic;">Evangelical Theology</span><br /><br />People become like their gods. It is not that we, since the creation of the world, have created gods in our image. Rather we have imagined the sort of gods who might be useful for us. If we want to conquer our enemies, our god will be warlike; if we need to feel okay when we've done wrong, then our god will be appeased through sacrifices.<br /><br />The gods of the American Zuni Indians are kindly and beneficent; so these people have no sorcery, they dance a lot and life is a constant celebration. The Ojibwa gods, on the other hand, have to be bargained with and bribed; their religion is fear motivated; life is selfish and there is an abundance of black magic...<br /><br />The god of the Pharisees is stern and legalistic, so life for them is governed by 'decency', authority and duty, and their preaching aims to induce guilt. The God of Jesus loves sinners, so Jesus enjoys partying, life is zestful and spontaneous, the kingdom is one of feasting, of joyful celebration. For the Pharisees 'repentance precedes acceptance'; with Jesus it was the other way around.<br /><br />William Temple once wrote: 'If your conception of God is radically false, then the more devout you are the worse it will be for you... You had better be an atheist.' A legalistic religion is a heavy burden to carry. Jesus' religion carries us...<br /><br />Rowland Croucher<br /><br />The appropriate stance in relation to the Holy One is utter openness and flexibility and high sensitivity. We humans must prepare for God's coming with silence, emptiness and receptivity.<br /><br />To me, God is the Holy One whose other name is Surprise. The willingness to let the Ultimate assume whatever form he will and come in whatever manner he chooses is absolutely crucial, and it must be coupled with our trust that God wants to become known to us and is able to communicate with us, if we will allow it on those terms...<br /><br />The bumper sticker 'Let God be God' states the most important imperative of life. What could be more important, really, than letting one's god be the true God -letting the one who is God by nature function as one's God in fact? Every day of our lives the God who made us does battle with the gods we have made... Only the Creator can fully satisfy and genuinely fulfil a creature. As St Augustine said so long ago, 'You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.'<br /><br />John Claypool<br /><br />The self we love is not the self God loves; the neighbours we do not prize are his treasures, the truth we ignore is the truth he maintains, the justice we seek because it is our own is not the justice that his love desires. The righteousness he demands and gives is not our righteousness, but greater and different.<br /><br />He requires of us the sacrifice of all we would conserve and grants us gifts we had not dreamed of... repentance and sorrow for our transgressions rather than forgetfulness; faith in him rather than confidence in ourselves; trust in his mercy rather than sight of his presence; instead of rest, an ever-recurrent torment that will not let us be content; instead of the peace and joy of the world, the hope of the world to come. He forces us to take our sorrows as a gift from him and to suspect our joys lest they be purchased by the anguish of his Son incarnate again in every neighbour. He ministers indeed to all our good, but all our good is other than we thought.<br /><br />H. Richard Niebuhr, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Meaning of Revelation</span><br /><br />There is only one good definition of God: the freedom that allows other freedoms to exist.<br /><br />John Fowles, <span style="font-style:italic;">The French Lieutenant's Woman</span><br /><br />...God is still the God who evokes reverence and awe. It is a distorted Christianity which in the midst of the joy of the heavenly journey forgets the awe and the dread... 'Our God is a consuming fire' (Hebrews 13: 16).<br /><br />Michael Ramsay, <span style="font-style:italic;">Be Still and Know</span><br /><br />[When young I used to say to myself] 'If God does not punish me for my sin, he ought to do so.' I felt that God was just, and that he knew that I did not wish him to be anything else but just; for even my imperfect knowledge of God included my recognition that he was a just and holy God. If I could have been certain of salvation by any method by which God could have ceased to be just, I could not have accepted even salvation on those terms; I should have felt that it was derogatory to the dignity of the Most High and that it was contrary to the universal laws of right.<br /><br />Charles Haddon Spurgeon, <span style="font-style:italic;">Great Texts of the Bible</span><br /><br />'I love you,' said a tiny voice. I looked around. No-one was there. Just a chain link fence with a sign that said 'Humpty Dumpty Nursery.'<br /><br />Then I saw a little girl, almost hidden, perched in a bush. Her friendly, chocolate-covered smile peeped out among the leaves. I felt warm inside... like a squeezed teddy bear. She loves me, eh? But she doesn't know me.<br /><br />But wait. She wasn't evaluating me; she was expressing herself.<br /><br />God says, 'I love you.' But we don't believe it. How could he love us? He knows us. We forget God's declaration isn't a judgment about us, but a revelation about him.<br /><br />Wes Seeliger<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisTmQApTxj8BBiT3-AebGlpwB9lrKFRjgobRZGKJfEQqvFdMW_RBLtjrQdQRJmAVd4KHgRr3NWfBxmlyNPgnW5yHmNVy1puu48AX4C8QQwhqTBHr6q4mZNj8oMYY52dM6XojY86XjYBAEg/s1600-h/GOD.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisTmQApTxj8BBiT3-AebGlpwB9lrKFRjgobRZGKJfEQqvFdMW_RBLtjrQdQRJmAVd4KHgRr3NWfBxmlyNPgnW5yHmNVy1puu48AX4C8QQwhqTBHr6q4mZNj8oMYY52dM6XojY86XjYBAEg/s400/GOD.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066595237718814002" /></a><span <br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Late have I loved you, O beauty so ancient and so new; late have I loved you. For behold you were within me, and I outside; and I sought you outside and in my ugliness fell upon those lovely things that you have made. You were with me and I was not with you. I was kept from you by those things, yet had they not been in you, they would not have been at all. You called and cried to me and broke upon my deafness; and you sent forth your light and shone upon me, and chased away my blindness. You breathed fragrance upon me, and I drew in my breath and do now pant for you: I tasted you and I now hunger and thirst for you; you touched me, and I have burned for your peace.</span><br /><br />St Augustine of Hippo<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Lord God, Creator, Saviour and friend, I see glimpses of your creative beauty in the stars, in the mountains, in trees and birds and flowers. The sun sings your praises, the moon gives you glory, the oceans, storms and thunder join the mighty chorus to extol your majesty.<br /><br />You are the One in whom I live and move and have my being: you are not a remote unfeeling deity but, amazingly, are deeply concerned about all my ways. I even 1, can experience your healing presence in my valleys, my lonely nights and my grievings.<br /><br />In my waywardness when I am inclined to self-destruct, your grace covers a multitude of sins. Your will is my peace. To obey you is perfect freedom. Your energising power gives my life purpose and meaning, and the promise of your nearness offers renewing hope. Thankyou for your gifts of fresh new mornings, work and play, laughter and cheerfulness, rest and sleep. Above all, thankyou for your word to guide me, strength to love, the fellowship of your people and the sure promise of eternal life.<br /><br />Lord, may I give you the same place in my heart that you have in the universe.<br /><br />Eternal God, the light of the minds that know you, the joy of the hearts that love you and the strength of the wills that serve you; grant us so to know you, that we may truly love you, and so to love you that we may fully serve you, whom to serve is perfect freedom, in Jesus Christ our Lord.<br /></span><br />St Augustine of Hippo<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisTmQApTxj8BBiT3-AebGlpwB9lrKFRjgobRZGKJfEQqvFdMW_RBLtjrQdQRJmAVd4KHgRr3NWfBxmlyNPgnW5yHmNVy1puu48AX4C8QQwhqTBHr6q4mZNj8oMYY52dM6XojY86XjYBAEg/s1600-h/GOD.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisTmQApTxj8BBiT3-AebGlpwB9lrKFRjgobRZGKJfEQqvFdMW_RBLtjrQdQRJmAVd4KHgRr3NWfBxmlyNPgnW5yHmNVy1puu48AX4C8QQwhqTBHr6q4mZNj8oMYY52dM6XojY86XjYBAEg/s400/GOD.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066595237718814002" /></a><span <br /><br />A Benediction<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">May the 'Lord of all being, throned afar' be enthroned within you. May he whose 'glory flames from sun and star' be glorified in your life.<br /><br />May the 'centre and soul of every sphere' be centre of all your thinking and speaking and acting. May the One who is near each loving heart stay close by you, for ever. Amen.</span><br /><br />Rowland Croucher<br /><br />Chapter one in <span style="font-style:italic;">High Mountains Deep Valleys</span>, ed., Rowland Croucher (Albatross/Lion).</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisTmQApTxj8BBiT3-AebGlpwB9lrKFRjgobRZGKJfEQqvFdMW_RBLtjrQdQRJmAVd4KHgRr3NWfBxmlyNPgnW5yHmNVy1puu48AX4C8QQwhqTBHr6q4mZNj8oMYY52dM6XojY86XjYBAEg/s1600-h/GOD.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisTmQApTxj8BBiT3-AebGlpwB9lrKFRjgobRZGKJfEQqvFdMW_RBLtjrQdQRJmAVd4KHgRr3NWfBxmlyNPgnW5yHmNVy1puu48AX4C8QQwhqTBHr6q4mZNj8oMYY52dM6XojY86XjYBAEg/s400/GOD.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066595237718814002" /></a></span>Rowland Croucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13473460918145751334noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1291782253971895185.post-16691483075211601312007-05-20T03:16:00.000-07:002007-05-20T03:30:11.570-07:00LIVING WITH AMBIGUITY<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6JBj6CoU5Hyr4os-C9WCKDQef9ATzocu8UBC40AkEHg1Ry90ahPUsA4GCI3qP7NUC200Z9DRW_1sCJgInr0CHhxv8mD6E2wCF6cmEjYDpnJkfdZ1V4EVrPfGzrLWz61dq0dfXk6FZpbFf/s1600-h/PARADOX.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6JBj6CoU5Hyr4os-C9WCKDQef9ATzocu8UBC40AkEHg1Ry90ahPUsA4GCI3qP7NUC200Z9DRW_1sCJgInr0CHhxv8mD6E2wCF6cmEjYDpnJkfdZ1V4EVrPfGzrLWz61dq0dfXk6FZpbFf/s400/PARADOX.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066587253374610722" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;">My thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not my ways, declares Yahweh. For the heavens are as high above earth as my ways are above your ways, my thoughts above your thoughts.<br /><br />We know only imperfectly... When I was a child, I used to talk like a child, and see things as a child does, and think like a child; but now that I have become an adult, I have finished with childish ways. Now we see only reflections in a mirror, mere riddles... Now I can know only imperfectly.<br /><br />The marriage relationship is doubtless a great mystery, but I am speaking of something deeper still - the marriage of Christ and his Church.<br /><br />So, then, where does that leave the wise? or the scholars? or the skilful debaters of this world? God has shown that this world's wisdom is foolishness!<br /><br />How great are God's riches! How deep are his wisdom and knowledge! Who can explain his decisions? Who can understand his ways? As the scripture says, 'Who knows the mind of the Lord? Who is able to give him advice? Who has ever given him anything, so that he had to pay it back?' For all things were created by him, and all things exist through him and for him. To God be the glory for ever! Amen. </span><br /><br />(Isaiah 55:8,9, JB; 1 Corinthians 13:11, JB; Ephesians 5:32, JBP; 1 Corinthians 1:20, GNB, Romans 11:33-36, GNB)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6JBj6CoU5Hyr4os-C9WCKDQef9ATzocu8UBC40AkEHg1Ry90ahPUsA4GCI3qP7NUC200Z9DRW_1sCJgInr0CHhxv8mD6E2wCF6cmEjYDpnJkfdZ1V4EVrPfGzrLWz61dq0dfXk6FZpbFf/s1600-h/PARADOX.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6JBj6CoU5Hyr4os-C9WCKDQef9ATzocu8UBC40AkEHg1Ry90ahPUsA4GCI3qP7NUC200Z9DRW_1sCJgInr0CHhxv8mD6E2wCF6cmEjYDpnJkfdZ1V4EVrPfGzrLWz61dq0dfXk6FZpbFf/s400/PARADOX.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066587253374610722" /></a><br />God is mystery. We can never encompass him in thoughts or words. When we talk about God we are trying to describe the divine from the point of view of the human, the eternal from the standpoint of the temporal, the infinite in finite terms, the absolute from the severely limited perspective of the relative.<br /><br />Rudolf Otto describes the sacred as 'mysterium tremendum et fascinans', the awe-inspiring mystery which fascinates us. We are tempted to hide from the fearful majesty of God, but also to gaze in wonder at his loveliness.<br /><br />We encounter mystery in the descriptions of the ways of God in the Bible, in the sacraments, liturgies and rites of the church, in nature, and in the events of history. Mystery pervades the whole of reality. Indeed true knowledge and freedom are not possible without an experience of mystery. In the languages of literature, art, music, we touch the hem of God's garment and feel a little tingle of power, but God will always remain incomprehensible.<br /><br />Mystery also surrounds the human creatures who are both made in the image of a mysterious God and who have, by their sinning, marred that image. Pascal says this doctrine of the fall offends us, but yet, without this mystery, the most incomprehensible of all, we are incomprehensible to ourselves.<br /><br />So Christianity, says Kierkegaard, is 'precisely the paradoxical'.<br /><br />(Paradox - from the Greek <span style="font-style:italic;">para</span> and <span style="font-style:italic;">doxa</span>, 'against opinion').<br /><br />The idea of mystery invites us to think more deeply, not to abandon thinking; to reject the superficial, and the simplistic.<br /><br />Prejudice is, in essence, idolatry: the worship of my - or my group's - ideas, even ideas of God. If I know all the answers I would be God, and 'playing God' is the essence of idolatry. One of my greatest dangers is to relax my vigilance against the possibility of prejudice in my own life, or to suffer from the delusion that I can ever be really free from it.<br /><br />We human beings are more rationalizing than rational. Thomas Merton said somewhere 'No one is so wrong as the one who knows all the answers'. Alfred North Whitehead says 'Religions commit suicide when they find their inspiration in their dogmas.' 'If you understand everything, you must be misinformed', runs a Japanese proverb. People who are always right are always wrong.<br /><br />The dilemma is summed up by W B Yeats - 'While the best lack conviction, the worst are full of certainty and passionate intensity.'<br /><br />The key lies in distinguishing between faithless doubt and creative doubt.<br /><br />Faithless doubt, as Kahlil Gibran put it, 'is a pain too lonely to realize that faith is his twin brother'. Or it is a cop-out to save us being committed to anything. Its accomplice, 'neutrality' is also evil: the apathy of 'good' persons results in the triumph of evil. The worst evils in the world are not committed by evil people, but by good people who do not know they are not doing good.<br /><br />The authentic Christian is willing to listen, as well as to save. Creative doubt, on the other hand, is 'believing with all your heart that your belief is true, so that it will work for you; but then facing the possibility that it is really false, so that you can accept the consequences of the belief.' (John Reseck).<br /><br />So faith is not about certainty (certainty makes faith invalid and unnecessary). Its core is the mystery - and the reality - of the Eternal coming into time: 'Our God contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man' (Wesley).<br /><br />The essence of Christianity is not dogmatic systems of belief, but being apprehended by Christ. True faith holds on to Christ, and for all else is uncommitted. It is about a relationship with Christ (and all meaningful relationships involve risk).<br /><br />The true God does not give us an immutable belief-system, but himself. He became one of us to 'make his light shine in our hearts, to bring us the knowledge of God's glory shining in the face of Christ' (2 Corinthians 4:6).<br /><br />Alleluia! <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6JBj6CoU5Hyr4os-C9WCKDQef9ATzocu8UBC40AkEHg1Ry90ahPUsA4GCI3qP7NUC200Z9DRW_1sCJgInr0CHhxv8mD6E2wCF6cmEjYDpnJkfdZ1V4EVrPfGzrLWz61dq0dfXk6FZpbFf/s1600-h/PARADOX.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6JBj6CoU5Hyr4os-C9WCKDQef9ATzocu8UBC40AkEHg1Ry90ahPUsA4GCI3qP7NUC200Z9DRW_1sCJgInr0CHhxv8mD6E2wCF6cmEjYDpnJkfdZ1V4EVrPfGzrLWz61dq0dfXk6FZpbFf/s400/PARADOX.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066587253374610722" /></a><br />The essential difference between orthodox Christianity and the various heretical systems is that orthodoxy is rooted in paradox. Heretics, as Irenaeus saw, reject paradox in favour of a false clarity and precision. But true faith can only grow and mature if it includes the elements of paradox and creative doubt. Hence the insistence of orthodoxy that God cannot be known by the mind, but is known in the obscurity of faith, in the way of ignorance, in the darkness. Such doubt is not the enemy of faith but an essential element within it. For faith in God does not bring the false peace of answered questions and resolved paradoxes. Rather, it can be seen as a process of 'unceasing interrogation'.<br /><br />Kenneth Leach, <span style="font-style:italic;">True God</span><br /><br />'Stage 5' faith involves going beyond explicit ideological systems and clear boundaries of identity; accepting that truth is multidimensional and organically independent than most theories or accounts of truth can grasp; symbols, stories, doctrines and liturgies are inevitably partial, limited to a particular experience of God and incomplete. This position [ie. that an appreciation of mystery and ambiguity is the essence of maturity] implies no lack of commitment to one's own truth tradition. Nor does it mean a wishy-washy neutrality or mere fascination with the exotic features of alien cultures... Rather, each genuine perspective will augment and correct aspects of the other, in a mutual movement toward the real and the true.<br /><br />James Fowler, <span style="font-style:italic;">Stages of Faith</span><br /><br />I believe, because it is absurd;... it is certain, because it is impossible.<br /><br />Tertullian Nicolas of Cusa expressed what the human heart had always<br /><br />surmised: all opposites coincide in God. This insight has weighty implications for any attempt to speak about divine realities. The closer we come to saying something worthwhile, the more likely that paradox will be the only way to express it. 'When I am weak, then I am strong' (2 Corinthians 12:10). 'In losing one's life one will find it' (Matthew 10:39).<br /><br />'In spite of that, we call this Friday good' (T.S.Eliot, Four Quartets).<br /><br />David Steindl-Rast, <span style="font-style:italic;">Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer</span><br /><br />Most of us find it very easy to hurl an epithet or fashion a label. We like to smooth out wrinkles, sand down rough edges, simplify the mysteries that are threatening precisely because they defy categorization. There is certainly enough confusion in our lives, we reason. Shouldn't it facilitate our day to day living if we are clear on what is good or bad, who is left or right, what is profound or drivel? The fact is that those who have attempted to nail down or write off mystery end up 'undone' by the very pride which led them to play God in the first place... the Pharisees did not rest until they had nailed an upstart dissenter to a tree.<br /><br />Donald J. Foran, <span style="font-style:italic;">Living with Ambiguity</span><br /><br />If you want to attempt to travel through life without trouble, believe everything (be gullible) or believe nothing (be cynical), and don't be committed to anything (be 'neutral').<br /><br />Source Unknown<br /><br />Whilst we might deplore [any] lack of openness to any new thing God is doing, nevertheless this is the psychology of the human creatures God has made. Those whose thinking is rooted in 'simplicity this side of complexity' must not be too harsh with others who enjoy 'complexity the other side of simplicity'. Ideally, we are all moving towards 'simplicity the other side of complexity', but we must be patient with one another on the way there.<br /><br />Rowland Croucher, <span style="font-style:italic;">Recent Trends Among Evangelicals</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">There's a wideness in God's mercy,<br />Like the wideness of the sea:<br />There's a kindness in his justice,<br />Which is more than liberty.<br /><br />For the love of God is broader<br />Than the measures of man's mind:<br />And the heart of the Eternal<br />Is most wonderfully kind.<br /><br />But we make his love too narrow<br />By false limits of our own;<br />And we magnify his strictness<br />With a zeal he will not own.</span><br /><br />F. W. Faber<br /><br />The ultimate gift of conscious life is a sense of the mystery that encompasses it.<br /><br />Lewis Mumford<br /><br />The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.<br /><br />Albert Einstein<br /><br />If they [the ministers of the church] had no doubts, they would hardly be very good Christians, because the intellectual life is as ambiguous as the moral life... The element of doubt is an element of faith itself... What the church should do is to accept someone who says that the faith for which the church stands is a matter of one's ultimate concern... Dogma should not be abolished but interpreted in such a way that it is no longer a suppressive power which produces dishonesty or flight.<br /><br />Paul Tillich, <span style="font-style:italic;">A History of Christian Thought</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">At ebb tide I wrote<br />A line upon the sand<br />And gave it all my heart<br />And all my soul.<br /><br />At flood tide I returned<br />To read what I had inscribed<br />And found my ignorance upon the shore</span><br /><br />Kahlil Gibran <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6JBj6CoU5Hyr4os-C9WCKDQef9ATzocu8UBC40AkEHg1Ry90ahPUsA4GCI3qP7NUC200Z9DRW_1sCJgInr0CHhxv8mD6E2wCF6cmEjYDpnJkfdZ1V4EVrPfGzrLWz61dq0dfXk6FZpbFf/s1600-h/PARADOX.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6JBj6CoU5Hyr4os-C9WCKDQef9ATzocu8UBC40AkEHg1Ry90ahPUsA4GCI3qP7NUC200Z9DRW_1sCJgInr0CHhxv8mD6E2wCF6cmEjYDpnJkfdZ1V4EVrPfGzrLWz61dq0dfXk6FZpbFf/s400/PARADOX.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066587253374610722" /></a><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Lord God, the God of security and the enemy of security too; I come to you, confused, needing the reassurance of your gracious acceptance; broken, needing your healing - or else the promise of your presence; thirsting for reality, to the Fountain of life; desolate, yearning for a loving touch as from a Parent. Help me to love you above everything else; to trust your goodness when I do not understand your ways; to affirm your constancy in spite of my fickleness; my times are in your hands. Eternal God, the light of the minds that know you, the joy of the hearts that love you, and the strength of the wills that serve you; grant that I may know you, that I may truly love you, and so to love you that I may fully serve you, whom to serve is perfect freedom, in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.</span><br /><br />(St. Augustine of Hippo)<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">In this day, may my thoughts, words and deeds betray a little more of your image in me, less of the influence of the world, the flesh and the devil, so that all I meet I shall treat as Christ and be as Christ to them. Amen.</span> <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6JBj6CoU5Hyr4os-C9WCKDQef9ATzocu8UBC40AkEHg1Ry90ahPUsA4GCI3qP7NUC200Z9DRW_1sCJgInr0CHhxv8mD6E2wCF6cmEjYDpnJkfdZ1V4EVrPfGzrLWz61dq0dfXk6FZpbFf/s1600-h/PARADOX.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6JBj6CoU5Hyr4os-C9WCKDQef9ATzocu8UBC40AkEHg1Ry90ahPUsA4GCI3qP7NUC200Z9DRW_1sCJgInr0CHhxv8mD6E2wCF6cmEjYDpnJkfdZ1V4EVrPfGzrLWz61dq0dfXk6FZpbFf/s400/PARADOX.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066587253374610722" /></a><br /><br />A Benediction<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond knowledge, [may] you be filled with the utter fullness of God.</span> (Ephesians 3:19, JB) <br /><br />-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <br /><br />(St. Augustine of Hippo, adapted from a prayer in Tony Castle (comp.), The<br />Hodder Book of Christian Prayers, Hodder and Stoughton, 1986, p.18 Rowland<br />Croucher, Recent Trends Among Evangelicals, Albatross, 1986, p.40 Albert<br />Einstein, 'The World As I See It', quoted in Melvin Konner, The Tangled<br />Wing: Biological Constraints on the Human Spirit, Heinemann, 1982, p.431<br />F.W.Faber, 'There's a wideness in God's mercy', The Baptist Hymn Book,<br />London: Psalms and Hymns Trust, 1964, no. 419 Donald J. Foran, Living With<br />Ambiguity: Discerning God in a Complex Society, Alba House, 1971, p. xvi<br />James Fowler, Stages of Faith, Dove, 1981, pp. 186-7 Kahlil Gibran, quoted<br />in James L. Christian, Philosophy: An Introduction to the Art of Wondering,<br />Hold Rinehart, 1981, p.203 Kenneth Leech, True God: An exploration in<br />spiritual theology, Sheldon Publishers, 1987, p. 25 Lewis Mumford,<br />'Orientation to Life', The Conduct of Life, 1951, quoted in The<br />International Thesaurus of Quotations, comp. R.T.Tripp, Harper & Row, 1970,<br />p.105 Blaise Pascal, Pensees, Brunschwig ed., # 434. John Reseck, quoted in<br />James L. Christian, Philosophy: An Introduction to the Art of Wondering,<br />Hold Rinehart, 1981, p. 195 David Steindl-Rast, Gratefulness, the Heart of<br />Prayer, Paulist, 1984, p.210 Tertullian, quoted in Stanley Romaine Hopper,<br />'Paradox' in Arthur Cohen and Marvin Halverson, (eds.), A Handbook of<br />Christian Theology, Abingdon, 1958, p.261. Paul Tillich, A History of<br />Christian Thought, SCM, 1968, p.xvi.)<br /><br />Rowland Croucher<br /><br />Chapter 51 of <span style="font-style:italic;">High Mountains Deep Valleys: Meditations and Prayers for the<br />Down Times</span>, Albatross/Lion Publishing, 1991, 1992, 1994</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6JBj6CoU5Hyr4os-C9WCKDQef9ATzocu8UBC40AkEHg1Ry90ahPUsA4GCI3qP7NUC200Z9DRW_1sCJgInr0CHhxv8mD6E2wCF6cmEjYDpnJkfdZ1V4EVrPfGzrLWz61dq0dfXk6FZpbFf/s1600-h/PARADOX.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6JBj6CoU5Hyr4os-C9WCKDQef9ATzocu8UBC40AkEHg1Ry90ahPUsA4GCI3qP7NUC200Z9DRW_1sCJgInr0CHhxv8mD6E2wCF6cmEjYDpnJkfdZ1V4EVrPfGzrLWz61dq0dfXk6FZpbFf/s400/PARADOX.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066587253374610722" /></a>Rowland Croucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13473460918145751334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1291782253971895185.post-33676345737490097342007-05-20T03:09:00.000-07:002007-07-17T06:14:12.157-07:00GRATEFULNESS, THE HEART OF PRAYER<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-zQ_-OnXvQAtodhR9TfJPC1tLHtDlNsipq-Sj74X51qQ0qdqHFGCFY_TG045reMnCsIMZpF2emlI-6usvPbzleq2qtYrOHtvb2zYpYmnlrPwvXmhpsdjjmyQH5sTEAhwJbTXOUgDIwgZf/s1600-h/PRAYING+HANDS.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-zQ_-OnXvQAtodhR9TfJPC1tLHtDlNsipq-Sj74X51qQ0qdqHFGCFY_TG045reMnCsIMZpF2emlI-6usvPbzleq2qtYrOHtvb2zYpYmnlrPwvXmhpsdjjmyQH5sTEAhwJbTXOUgDIwgZf/s400/PRAYING+HANDS.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066583783041035538" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him -- and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, 'Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no-one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?'<br /><br />Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases; he redeems my life from the pit and crowns me with love and compassion. He satisfies my desires with good things, so that my youth is renewed like the eagle's.<br /><br />I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever.<br /><br />It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morn ing and your faithfulness at night...<br /><br />Always giving thanks to God the Father for every thing, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.<br /><br />Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and praise!</span><br /><br />(Luke 17: 15-18; Psalm 103: 1-5; Psalm 86: 12; Psalm 92: 1-2; Ephesians 5: 20; Revelation 5:12 -- all NIV)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-zQ_-OnXvQAtodhR9TfJPC1tLHtDlNsipq-Sj74X51qQ0qdqHFGCFY_TG045reMnCsIMZpF2emlI-6usvPbzleq2qtYrOHtvb2zYpYmnlrPwvXmhpsdjjmyQH5sTEAhwJbTXOUgDIwgZf/s1600-h/PRAYING+HANDS.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-zQ_-OnXvQAtodhR9TfJPC1tLHtDlNsipq-Sj74X51qQ0qdqHFGCFY_TG045reMnCsIMZpF2emlI-6usvPbzleq2qtYrOHtvb2zYpYmnlrPwvXmhpsdjjmyQH5sTEAhwJbTXOUgDIwgZf/s400/PRAYING+HANDS.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066583783041035538" /></a><br /><br />It is not enough to merely speak about the spiritual life -- we must also live it. Gratefulness is the theme of such a life. Quiet joy and solid peace reward those who truly search with grateful hearts after God.<br /><br />It's usually easy to be thankful for what others do or say, but deep gratefulness recognises the many gifts that most people take for granted... the surprising colour and profusion of flowers in a suburban garden, with per haps a white-throated honey-eater dining on nectar... the wonder and splendour of a blue sky slashed through with brilliant white clouds... the work of a master painter. Music, poetry and handmade craftwork all evoke admiration and praise. God keeps on showering us with new gifts, giving us endless new occasions to say thanks and offer praise.<br /><br />When so much of our lives is affected by strife, hatred, violence and war we can still gratefully look beyond all that and see that joy and peace are much closer at hand than we realise. Gratefulness allows us to do that.<br /><br />Gratefulness sets us free to love wholeheartedly, give thanks and praise, be surprised by the unexpected and to discover fullness of life. Fullness follows gratefulness. And there's no reversing the order.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-zQ_-OnXvQAtodhR9TfJPC1tLHtDlNsipq-Sj74X51qQ0qdqHFGCFY_TG045reMnCsIMZpF2emlI-6usvPbzleq2qtYrOHtvb2zYpYmnlrPwvXmhpsdjjmyQH5sTEAhwJbTXOUgDIwgZf/s1600-h/PRAYING+HANDS.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-zQ_-OnXvQAtodhR9TfJPC1tLHtDlNsipq-Sj74X51qQ0qdqHFGCFY_TG045reMnCsIMZpF2emlI-6usvPbzleq2qtYrOHtvb2zYpYmnlrPwvXmhpsdjjmyQH5sTEAhwJbTXOUgDIwgZf/s400/PRAYING+HANDS.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066583783041035538" /></a><br /><br />There was a time when I screamed, 'Good Lord, where are you?' Then you touched my despairing soul with healing, and delivered me from my private little hell. Thus I shout God's praises, and exhort all who know him to do the same.<br /><br />And my nights of despair resolve into the dawn of new joy.<br /><br />And you turned my griping into gratitude, my screams of despair into proclamations of joy.<br /><br />Leslie E Brandt, <span style="font-style:italic;">Psalms Now</span><br /><br />In our innermost heart we know that wholeness is more basic, more primordial than alienation, and so we never quite lose an inborn trust that in the end we shall be whole and together.<br /><br />The German poet Rainer Maria Rilke celebrates both our longing for healing and wholeness and our primordial conviction that God's healing power wells up in our own innermost heart. He finds God in 'the spot that is healing', while we, like children picking on a scar, keep ripping it open with the sharp edges of our thoughts. If only we could quiet all that agitation within and around us, the din that distracts us.<br /><br />Rilke's answer is thanksgiving.<br /><br />Oh, if for once all were completely still! If all mere happenstance and chance were silenced, and the laughter next door, too; if all that droning of my senses did not prevent my being wide awake Then, with one thousandfold thought, I would reach your horizon and, for the span of a smile, hold you to give you away to all life as thanksgiving.<br /><br />David Steindl-Rast, <span style="font-style:italic;">Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer</span><br /><br />On your birthday you get something special in the mail, a gift from a friend. You want to sit right down and write a thankyou note. Or someone brings you flowers. Your eyes light up; you reach out and embrace your friend. The embrace is as much a gift as the flowers. The note or the embrace continue the spiral of joy.<br /><br />The gesture of thanks moves both the giver and receiver to another level. It expresses a unity; it solidifies a relationship. We start out with a giver, a gift and a receiver, and we arrive at the embrace of thanks. Thanks is expressed and then accepted by the giver. And in the final kiss of gratitude it's impossible to distinguish the giver from the receiver.<br /><br />Don Postema, <span style="font-style:italic;">Space for God</span><br /><br />The heart is the pulsating core of our aliveness in more than merely the physical sense. To say 'I will give you my heart' is to say, 'I will give you my life.' Gratefulness is full aliveness, and that very aliveness is summed up in the symbol of the heart. All of my past history, all of my future possibilities, this heartbeat in the present moment holds all of it together.<br /><br />David Steindl-Rast, <span style="font-style:italic;">Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer</span><br /><br />It will perhaps be clear by now that the heart, in the ancient sense of the word, is not the discursive intelligence with which we reason, nor the 'feelings' with which we respond to another person, nor yet the superficial emotion we call sentimentality. The heart is something that lies much deeper within us, the innermost core of our being, the root of our existence or, conversely, our summit, what the French mystics call 'the very peak of the soul'.<br /><br />Andre Louf, <span style="font-style:italic;">Teach Us to Pray</span><br /><br />Everything I see, every noise I hear, every dawn that returns, every encounter I achieve, are signs of something or someone who has gone before me and questions me: God.<br /><br />Carlo Carretto, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Desert in the City</span><br /><br />God makes space for ns in the covenant family. We are embraced as children. We belong.<br /><br />We respond by making space for God, by being open to God in our lives, by living thankfully. Gratitude is an attitude of receptivity. We are there with open hands ready to receive. Gratitude is an expression of appreciation. We are eager to show our gratitude.<br /><br />Our heart is the personal 'place' of such receptivity and response... The heart is a person, the whole person, the spiritual centre where we are always available to God.<br /><br />Don Postema, <span style="font-style:italic;">Space for God</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-zQ_-OnXvQAtodhR9TfJPC1tLHtDlNsipq-Sj74X51qQ0qdqHFGCFY_TG045reMnCsIMZpF2emlI-6usvPbzleq2qtYrOHtvb2zYpYmnlrPwvXmhpsdjjmyQH5sTEAhwJbTXOUgDIwgZf/s1600-h/PRAYING+HANDS.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-zQ_-OnXvQAtodhR9TfJPC1tLHtDlNsipq-Sj74X51qQ0qdqHFGCFY_TG045reMnCsIMZpF2emlI-6usvPbzleq2qtYrOHtvb2zYpYmnlrPwvXmhpsdjjmyQH5sTEAhwJbTXOUgDIwgZf/s400/PRAYING+HANDS.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066583783041035538" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">I thank you, Lord, with all my heart, you have heard the words of my mouth. Before the angels I will bless you.<br /><br />I will adore you before your holy temple.<br /><br />I thank you for your faithfulness and love which excel all we ever knew of you. On the day I called, you answered; you increased the strength of my soul. Though I walk in the midst of affliction you give me life and frustrate my foes. You stretch out your hand and save me, your hand will do all things for me. Your love, O Lord, is eternal...<br /></span><br />Psalm 138: 1-3, 7-8 A New Translation<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Thank you, Lord, for this moment.<br /><br />Thank you, Lord, that I am together here with you in the place where my intellect and will and feelings, my mind and body, my past and future come together.<br /><br />Thank you that you are here in that spot where my life holds together, deep within my heart.<br /><br />With a grateful and thankful heart, I dare to believe that you are making me whole within myself so that I am able to live intimately with myself, with others, and with God. In the depth of my heart I find that 'God is closer to me than I am to myself.'<br /><br />Accept I pray this humble offering from my deeply grateful heart.</span><br /><br />~~~<br /><br />A Benediction<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Go into each moment of this day, remembering you are God's servant. Let gratefulness surprise you often. Allow God's gifts galore to urge you into a fully alive, frequently grateful response so that in the final kiss of gratitude, it's impossible to distinguish the giver from the receiver. Go in his name. Amen.</span><br /><br />Rowland Croucher ed., <span style="font-style:italic;">High Mountains Deep Valleys</span>, (Albatross/Lion) chapter 27</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-zQ_-OnXvQAtodhR9TfJPC1tLHtDlNsipq-Sj74X51qQ0qdqHFGCFY_TG045reMnCsIMZpF2emlI-6usvPbzleq2qtYrOHtvb2zYpYmnlrPwvXmhpsdjjmyQH5sTEAhwJbTXOUgDIwgZf/s1600-h/PRAYING+HANDS.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-zQ_-OnXvQAtodhR9TfJPC1tLHtDlNsipq-Sj74X51qQ0qdqHFGCFY_TG045reMnCsIMZpF2emlI-6usvPbzleq2qtYrOHtvb2zYpYmnlrPwvXmhpsdjjmyQH5sTEAhwJbTXOUgDIwgZf/s400/PRAYING+HANDS.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066583783041035538" /></a>Rowland Croucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13473460918145751334noreply@blogger.com0