Sunday, November 08, 2009

Today is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. Use these prayer points from Open Doors USA

Today is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. These prayer points from Open Doors USA, a ministry that’s committed to encouraging persecuted Christians, can help guide us as we pray:

• Pray for the safety and faith of the secret believers in countries where it is illegal to share about Christ.

• Pray for the health, perseverance, and encouragement of believers who are imprisoned for the gospel.

• Pray that those whose loved ones have died due to martyrdom will rely on God for their strength.

Together, let’s bring our fellow believers before the Lord in prayer.  — Anne Cetas

The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. —Tertullian

http://www.idop.org/


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Friday, November 06, 2009

He Listens (Read Hetty's story and pass it on--Jesus is Real, He's Alive, He Is the Giver of All Good GIfts)


World Prayer
 


He Listens
Posted: 06 Nov 2009 02:00 AM PST
 

Truly amazes me when we are born... how we are all raised... how we all decide to listen... who it is we seek in tough times--when we are out of the house, "grown-up" and moving on. When things are going great-- who do we thank... and who do we run and tell? It still, no matter what, depends on BIG TIME, how you are raised to find out the tiniest bit less confusing way-- of the fact that it is Jesus Christ, who died on the Cross for us-- to wipe away our sins... make us right in God's eyes... that we turn to HIM.. talk to HIM... pray to HIM... and yes.. HE MORE THAN LISTENS...

 

 

I had to take a long route. Not raised anything. Never knowing a thing about Jesus... other than one time... glancing at a portion of the movie-- that made my mother cry somehow-- and it was "Jesus of Nazareth." Now.. was I ever explained to what that was all about, for the portion I saw... or why the heck my mom, of all mom's would cry?? No. So, I shrugged that right off. But I still... somehow grew up with a pretty darn sensitive, loving heart... even growing up in a family that went thru some rocky times. The times where you begin to chose which parent.. because one decided to be with another for some time. Granted... thru perfect tough times that hit.. they are still together.. and I still think Jesus is working on my parents hearts-- to give their lives over to Him. Til then, I just keep praying.

 


But as a young married person... who just got married to get out of where I was.. and to perhaps start the family I always wanted to have... it sure isn't brilliant to say those vows-- mind you even at the courthouse.. if you lived in a family that had a tough marriage-- and then for some odd reason you couldn't announce YOU were getting married. That was a bad start. But I can look back today and see how Jesus worked thru it all-- thru my own free will choosing.. in such amazing ways.

 


Does He listen? He does. Does He do whatever we ask? No. Lord, if that were to happen, this world would have been destroyed so much long ago... and heck I might not even be here typing. He has His plans mastered... it is up to us to reach for Him... for Him to keep unfolding them... and when we make mistakes... we will more than learn whether it is after we find Him.. and look back just amazed at how HE IS THERE---ALL THE TIME.... we just didn't let our hearts open up and let Him in to recognize it... to be able to listen to HIM. He listens to us ALL THE TIME. He throws us hints, and kind signs... we have to be willing to receive them... and my whole life growing up-- I never knew OF Him.. but when I heard some about Him--in my early twenties... I easily rejected that-- once I was hurt. But it isn't Jesus who hurts us. We are all sinners-- we all fall short of His Glory.. I just didn't know that then... and didn't know that for almost a decade after my ex first cheated on me... but I can turn back today, and see all God still was working on with me... even when I was shutting Him out.

 


It came down to my first brain surgery--- I still didn't know Him... didn't accept Him... but my meds had me flying prior-- as for this one we found out always makes me basically drunk when I take it. So.. while I was drunk on it.. somewhere I shouldn't have been... I bought I gold cross. It was a week before my 1st brain surgery. Almost like God just told me something. Something bigger was coming. And that was true.

 


I had never taken it off... I felt almost like the cross got me thru. Not like Jesus did yet... something sure was connecting with it though. I kept touching it. Thru all I was going thru-- having to raise my kid on my own, while having seizures, alone. Then my ex was able to come stay with us from where he was stationed-- to help me heal-- for 2 weeks.

 

Fast forward.... as you all know... when I got to Texas, 4 days after, he beat me. That cross grew more important to me than ever. The gentleman I saw that dealt with my case on the Army base was also a Christian... the first one to introduce me to Veggie Tales for my daughter. He had such a heart about the case-- and I could see it was because he was living for Jesus...

 


When I finally got back to Phoenix... it was in those rough times... but also good times... that I realized I needed more than a person to talk to. More than human advice. I could sit and listen to my family slam my ex if that is what people feel are healing-- but that isn't it. I began to really learn that talking to God was the route I had to try to find. Even during the tough days of when I was popping pills... HE would understand what I was saying. HE listened to my every cry... even if it was one without tears. He scooped me up as His baby-- thru it all... listening to my unhappy points... and listening to my gleeful points. That is what is awesome about Jesus... He loves to hear it all. Most of us have friends or family that can only deal with the gleeful part... but don't get into the tough stuff... cause then we have a lot of walk-aways. I found so much ease and comfort thru the fact that He never walks away... He only has amazing plans... as we keep trusting Him... and talking with Him...AS HE ALWAYS LISTENS...

 


That must be why He blessed me with a husband that is so Christ-like. Who listens to everything. Asks about it all.... just is amazing. How Christ-Like are you today? I just know I just keep trying to be more and more like Him... never will be... but always trying to be closer. He has seen me thru so much... and still is... I love to try to help others know that HE IS ALWAYS THERE FOR THEM... ALL THE TIME... LISTENING... AND DOES ANSWER PRAYERS....

 

 


May not be in our timing... and perfect liking at the time prayed for... but we will be able to look back and thank Him so much.... for doing it HIS WAY... or honestly... it is just a highway to hell if we don't accept Him... and it is living hell if we don't accept it His Way... as tough as it may seem at times.

 


I Love you all... you all bring so much joy into my life... I am off to my prayer answered in HIS TIMING... on the 17th... to have my MEG test done... so my 3rd brain surgery can move forward!! AMEN!! HE WORKS WONDERS!!!!

 


In His Love,

 


Heather/Hetty

 

@AliveinMe @EpilepsyCures @fillmyvoid

http://manyepilepsycures.blogspot.com http://twitter4christ.blogspot.com http://trialstotriumphs.blogspot.com http://www.facebook.com/AliveinMe http://www.causes.com/epilepsycures http://epilepsycures.ning.com

http://www.tokbox.com/AliveinMe hcbenz777@googlewave.com

 

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The regenerate has more difficult time than the unregenerate, for s/he is not 1 ppl but 2, old & new. Tozer Daily Devotional

This one is good for everyone, I think. You can sign up if you choose.


The regenerate man often has a more difficult time of it than the
unregenerate, for he is not one man but two.

 
November: Spiritual Warfare and Sin
 
To be entirely safe from the devil's snares the man of God must be completely obedient to the Word of the Lord. The driver on the highway is safe, not when he reads the signs but when he obeys them. -A.W. Tozer, That Incredible Christian, 51.
 
November 6
Spiritual Warfare and Sin: A Saint In Embryo
 
For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
--Romans 7:22-23
 
The regenerate man often has a more difficult time of it than the unregenerate, for he is not one man but two. He feels within him a power that tends toward holiness and God, while at the same time he is still a child of Adam's flesh and a son of the red clay.

This moral dualism is to him a source of distress and struggle wholly unknown to the once-born man. Of course the classic critique upon this is Paul's testimony in the seventh chapter of
his Roman epistle.
 
The true Christian is a saint in embryo. The heavenly genes are in him and the Holy Spirit is working to bring him on into a spiritual development that accords with the nature of the
Heavenly Father from whom he received the deposit of divine life.

Yet he is here in this mortal body subject to weakness and temptation, and his warfare with the flesh sometimes leads him to do extreme things. "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit,
and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would" (Gal. 5:17).  That Incredible Christian, 53-54.
 
For more information about LMI: http://www.litmin.org/

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Thursday, November 05, 2009

Martin Luther: "THAT A CHRISTIAN SHOULD BEAR HIS CROSS WITH PATIENCE"

Luther gave this message on Easter Eve, 1530 to the theologians and nobles whowere to be the evangelical party at the Diet of Augsburg:
 
THAT A CHRISTIAN SHOULD BEAR HIS CROSS WITH PATIENCE

 

The ancient and saintly fathers and theologians have contrasted the living wood with dead and have allegorized that contrast this way: From the living wood [the tree in the garden of Eden, Gen. 2:17] came sin and death; from the dead wood [the tree of the cross on Golgotha], righteousness and life. They conclude: do not eat from that living tree, or you will die, but eat of this dead tree; otherwise, you will remain in death.

 

You do indeed desire to eat and enjoy [the fruit] of some tree. I will direct you to a tree so full that you can never eat it bare. But just as it was difficult to stay away from that living tree, so it is difficult to enjoy eating from the dead tree. The first was the image of life, delight, and goodness, while the other is the image of death, suffering, and sorrow because one tree is living, the other dead. There is in man’s heart the deeply rooted desire to seek life where there is certain death and to flee from death where one has the sure source of life.

 

Taking up the cross is by nature something that causes pain. It must not be self-imposed [as with fanatics or those who would be righteous through works]; it is something that is imposed upon a person.

 

The Need for It

 

We must be conformed to the image of the Son of God, Romans 8 :29.

 

“All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,” II Tim 3:12

 

“In the world you have tribulation” John 16:33. Likewise, “You will be sorrowful; you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice,” John 16:20.

 

“If we share in [Christ’s] sufferings we shall also be glorified with him,” Rom 8 :17.

 

“If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons,” Hebrews 12:8.

 

 Otherwise, what is the purpose of so many comforting passages of Scripture?

 

The Source of It

 

Because the devil, a mighty, evil, deceitful spirit, hates the children of God. For them the holy cross serves for learning the faith, for [learning] the power of the word, and for subduing whatever sin and pride remain. Indeed, a Christian can no more do without the cross than without food or drink. 

 

The Entreaty

 

The touch of Christ sanctifies all the sufferings and sorrows of those who believe in him. Whoever does not suffer shows that he does not believe that Christ has given him the gift of sharing in his own passion. But if anyone does not wish to bear the cross which God places upon him, he will not be compelled to do so by anyone—he is always free to deny Christ. But in so doing he must know that he cannot have fellowship with Christ or share in any of his gifts.

 

For example, a merchant, a hunter, a soldier risk so much pain for the sake of an uncertain gain and victory, while here, where it is certain that glory and blessedness will be the result, it is a disagreeable thing to suffer even for a bit, as Isaiah 54 [:7], Christ in John 16 [:20–22], Peter in I Peter 1 [:6], and Paul in II Corinthians 4 [:17] usually put it, “for a little while,” and momentarily.

 

Notice how our adversaries, those torturers from the devil, are torn and divided in their teachings in so many ways that they fail to realize their hopes, since they must be concerned with so much peril and misfortune that they can never act for a moment with certainty or confidence. And these penalties and punishments are only temporal! How can I comprehend their guilt, namely, that without God and through the devil’s craftiness they, beset by an evil conscience, are eternally lost? Even though they are uncertain as to the outcome of their endeavor, they keep on rejoicing in a hope that is completely and absolutely lost, while we, on the other hand, have God’s unfailing promises for our comfort.

 

In short, since God is the same and the cause is the same, in which he has upheld the faith of all the saints so that he might be vindicated, God will not now, just for our own sake, be found a liar; nor are we to make a liar of him. God grant, whether we do or do not believe, that he will yet defend his word and surely help [us]. This demands great effort and care so that, in the first place, we turn our eyes from the might [of this world] and second, hold fast to the word. Eye disregarded the word and relied on what was visible, but a Christian, in contrast, disregards what he can see and holds to the word. The godless do not do so but rely upon the emperor to uphold them in this world, but because they neglect the word, they will be mined and lost to eternity. In the year 1530.

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You have to read the response from a member of the ELCA Church Council to "The Incoherence of our Decisions" at Lutherans Persisting blog

Now that the proposals for policy revision following from the Assembly have been released, we can get a clearer picture of what has happened and where we now are. This is my sense, based on an examination of the texts, not on any insider knowledge.

The Task Force documents had within them a basic incoherence. On the one hand, the argument from bound conscience could not justify any particular national policy on same-sex blessings or the ordination of partnered gay or lesbian clergy. At most, it could justify allowing all – synods, bishops, candidacy committees, seminary faculties, congregations – to act as conscience dictated. And the Task Force proposed just such a policy in their Step Four, which related to ‘structured flexibility’. On the other hand, their Step Two on ordained ministry sounded more like the adoption of a national policy that would accept the ordination of partnered gay and lesbian persons. Because the Task Force had decided that the substantive question about homosexuality was insoluble in this church at this time, it made no comprehensive theological and biblical argument for such a national policy. I would guess that the Task Force itself was not clear on how all that it was arguing and proposing hung together

The proposals of the Task Force for widespread freedom to follow conscience may have been unworkable. In April, the Church Council removed the incoherence and altered the proposals. Because the changes were labeled merely editorial, their importance was not noticed. The listing of who got to follow conscience was removed from the structured flexibility resolutions. The proposal was now clearly oriented to the adoption of a uniform national policy on the ordination of partnered gay and lesbian persons, with the bound conscience argument becoming a limited provision for individuals who disagreed. The difficulty was that the Task Force had not made any argument that would justify such a uniform national policy. The ministry proposals had now floated free from the Task Force Report. One reason the debate at the Assembly was so unfocused is that the Task Force Report and its argument from bound conscience were mostly beside the point to what was actually on the floor. When the time came for decision, the Task Force Report was a misleading distraction.

Our situation now is that we have a set of policy decisions on a churchwide set of ordination standards that have no foundation in the Sexuality Social Statement, which declared the church at an impasse on the question of homosexuality. If anything, the Social Statement would justify a much broader set of provisions for bound conscience.

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Member of ELCA Church Council comments (sadly, amazingly):

Pastor Keith A. Hunsinger Says:

October 28, 2009

Dr Root is spot on in his analysis of what happened in the Church Council. The simple politics in the room quickly decided what some of the staff had publically wanted all along; full, unfettered acceptance of gay marriage and gay clergy.

Were the proposals unworkable in a real world sense? Probably so. But the staff, who felt strongly pro-change did not want to do the work necessary to even try. What occured was a blend of bad writing and proactive people in positions of authority and influence.

The folks in the council room were told we were only voting to “transmit” the proposals. I had argued that the new language made the proposals more radical and troublesome then first proposed but my voice was unheard.

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Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Lutheran Coalition from Reform November Newsletter now available

CORE Connection - News from Lutheran CORE - November 2009 

is now available at http://www.lutherancore.org/newsletters.shtml 


Here is what you can read in this month's newsletter: 

+ Lutheran CORE leaders announce timeline for work toward reconfiguration of Lutheranism 
Major announcement set for Nov. 18; Proposal coming in February 

+ Working groups shaping future of Lutheran CORE 

+ Reform groups and congregations are joining Lutheran CORE 

+ Seven Marks Society to serve evangelical catholic Lutherans 

+ 'Bound to Confess and Resist' is WordAlone Network theological conference theme 

+ Call to Faithfulness to host 'Faithful Voices' conference 

+ Foundation provided $250,000 for efforts to change ELCA teaching and policy on marriage and homosexual behavior 

+ ELCA releases draft of revised standards for pastors 

+ ELCA will not allow synods to maintain traditional standards 

+ ELCA proposes expedited process to reinstate gay pastors 

+ Redirecting benevolences can be time for growth in mission 

+ Everything I learned about the redirection of financial support, I learned from the ELCA 

+ Confessional crisis created by the decisions of 2009 Assembly 

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Sayings in which Luther took comfort

I long ago lost the source for this but still want to share it:

 

It was Luther’s custom to write down Bible verses and other words where he could have them before his eyes in rooms where he studied. Where he waited during the council at Augsburg in 1530 was Ps. 118:17, “I shall not die, but I shall live and recount the deeds of the Lord.” To the verse Luther had added musical notes for singing. Other psalm verses were also marked on the wall.

 

Matthaeus Flaccius (1520–1575), who became professor of Hebrew at Wittenberg in 1544, compiled a collection of short sayings and thoughts from the time of Luther’s stay in the Coburg from sources available to him, including correspondence and published these in a six-page pamphlet which still speaks words of life for those who know oppression of one kind or another. It begins:

 

There are times when, for the sake of God’s word, we must endure the hardship, anguish, and persecution of the cross of Christ. In such times we can rightfully bestir and strengthen ourselves with God’s help in such a way that we can be bold, alert, and cheerful, committing our cause to God’s gracious and fatherly will. Thus St. Paul says, II Timothy 3:12, “All who desire to live a godly life in Jesus Christ will be persecuted,” and Acts 14:22, “Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God,” and Philippians 2:12, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”

 

Our cause rests in the hand of him who distinctly tells us, “No one can snatch them out of my hand,” John 10:28. Furthermore, the gates of hell shall not prevail against my church,” Matthew 16:18. And Isaiah 46:4, “Even to your old age and to gray hairs I will bear you. I will do it, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.”

 

It would neither be good nor prudent to take matters into our own hands because we could and would easily be defeated. “God is our refuge and strength, a great help in the trouble which besets us.” Sirach 2:10, that wise man, said, “What man who has put his trust in God has ever perished?” And I Maccabees 2:61, None who puts his trust in him will lack strength. Again, Psalm 9:10, “Lord, thou hast not forsaken those who seek thee.”

 

In any case, it is true that God gave up his own Son for us all, Romans 8:32. If that be true, why do we falter, or worry, or hang our heads? If God gave up his own Son for us all, how could he ever intend to forsake us in less important things?

 

Truly God is very much stronger and more powerful than the devil, as I John 4:4 says, “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”

 

If we perish then Christ the Almighty Ruler of the world himself must suffer with us. Even if this cause were to collapse, I would much rather be ruined with Christ than rule with Caesar.

 

Furthermore, this cause does not depend just on us, but there are many devout Christian people in other lands who make common cause with us and uphold us with heartfelt sighs and Christian prayer.

 

We possess God’s many encouraging promises and rich assurances. In fact the entire Psalter … such as Psalm 55:22, “Cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.” And Psalm 22 27:14, “Wait for the Lord; be of good cheer; do not despair and wait for the Lord!” Furthermore Christ himself says, John 16:33, “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

 

This cannot be wrong—I am sure of it—that Christ, the Son of God, has overcome the world. Why do we tremble before the world as before a triumphant conqueror… if it be a righteous cause—and as true as God lives and will remain in eternity, it is such—why do we make lies out of God’s many comforting, unchanging, and eternal promises? He bids us be of good cheer and joyful, Psalm 32 :11, “Be glad in the Lord,” and Psalm 145 :18–19, “The Lord is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth. He fulfils the desire of all who fear him. He hears their cry, and saves them.” And Psalm 91 :14–16, “Because he cleaves to me, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. I will be with him in trouble, I will rescue him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

 

Thus we are ever firmly assured by God’s word that after this wretched and fleeting existence, in which we are never safe for even one moment, there shall be an eternal and blessed life and kingdom.

 

If God were to announce all this through an angel we would not cast it lightly to the winds and ignore it, as, unfortunately, we do when it is brought to us by the spoken word. But though we fail to believe it when it is preached, we dare not despise the prophets, Christ himself, or the apostles who preach to us in such rich measure and gently admonish us with words of consolation and encouragement and shower us with such words as, “Be glad in the Lord”; “Be strong and of good courage; do not fear”; “Put your hope in the Lord; pour out your heart before him”; “Give thanks to the Lord”; “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world”; “The Lord is at hand. Have no anxiety about anything,” etc.

 

If we distrust such abundant and divine consolation, we would not believe it even if it were announced by not just one but many angels.

 

Let us be calmly confident in this cause which has to do with God’s word. Christ, whose cause it is, will staunchly defend and uphold it against the cunning of that vile devil and the tyranny of this wicked and deceitful world …There is no other way—if we desire to possess Christ, to live and to rule with him in eternity, then suffering must first be endured.

Therefore the only thing necessary for us to do is to believe and to pray most confidently in Christ’s name that God will give us strength, since he has erected his kingdom and this is his doing. It is he who without our help, counsel, thought, or effort has brought his kingdom forth and has advanced and preserved it to this day. I have no doubt that he will consummate it without our advice or assistance. Because “I know in whom I believe,” as St. Paul says II Tim. 1:12, I am certain that he will grant me more, do far more abundantly, and help and counsel us beyond all that we ask or think Eph. 3:20. He is called the Lord who can and will help in a wonderful, glorious, and mighty way, particularly when the need is the greatest. We are meant to be human beings, not divine. So let us take comfort in his word and, trusting his promise, call upon him confidently for deliverance in time of distress and he will help.

 

That is all there is to it; we have no alternative; otherwise, eternal unrest would be our reward. May God save us from that for the sake of his dear Son, our Savior and eternal Priest, Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

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Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Tend your Garden: Hubris or Humus?

Have you ever noticed the similarity of the words humility and humus? Non-gardening, city dweller types might not be so familiar with humus, either the word or having to get the dirt out from underneath their fingernails after the weed-pulling impulse or some such thing as one daily tends the garden. Humus means soil. Humility is the word that everyone thinks they know the meaning but our lack of it as a species shows we either misunderstand it or don’t value it. Actually, if we don’t value humility that points to a probable misunderstanding because if we knew how needful it is  to have ears to hear the good news, we would cultivate humility. We are children of Adam, a word that means earth. When our bodies are lowered into the grave the minister might say, “Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust”. Children of Adam, children of a fallen world, are connected to the world indelibly (we can’t get the stain out) therefore we need humility.
 
One recurring biblical theme no one can escape but is brought home in Bible reading and prayer is the need for humility. Seems it is hard to know our proper place. We are always wanting to play King of the Hill, or to wrest our way onto the throne. Or we can't see the log in our own eye while tsk-tsking the spliner in our neighbors. How can we confess our sin when we don't even know what sin is anymore or who we are sinning against? In order to pray well, that is, to profit by it, to grow and to be someone God can use for Kingdom, one really needs humility, to realize our proper size.

 

Recalling the opening line of a recent hymn that begins, ”Let my heart be good soil," we pause to think of the Word being planted in the soil of our hearts. Our hearts are the starting place of each new beginning, the place from where the plant is going to stretch forth. I'm reminded of another hymn, "The Word of God is Source and Seed.” Fall is time of year gardeners get catalogs from nurseries. Gardening is all about preparation. The soil must be prepared. The seasons must be part of the calculation. Early, mid and late bloomers are part of the enduring beauty.

 

I love running across the old-fashioned seed catalogues like Ferry-Morse. Someone can thumb through the pages and see a picture of a tomato plant drooping with a hundred big red balls, and think to themselves "Oh, look at those look so good, I can taste them. Let me order some- I'll have so many I can give them away!" Turn the pages and there are so many appealing pictures, one starts to mentally order this and that and then remembers how much work gardening is.
 
 The Bible is a source of seeds too. We can open the Bible and start imagining how much we want the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. We need dto be aware that one can not order a devoted spirit or love for ones neighbor simoly by wishing or writing a check anymore than one can have a garden withour rolling up their sleeves. It happens by grace and we are hardly the progenitor, but it takes work. Work.
 

Plant nurseries (there’s a term one could meditate on for a while) have beautiful pictures of gorgeous roses, majestic trees, gardens packed with blooms. When one orders either a rose or a small tree, once the UPS truck pulls out and the packaging is removed, all that is left is a stem and roots. Many beautiful perennials one orders is often a small, gnarly ball of roots. They too have to be planted in specially prepared soil, watered and nourished. When the sun and rain are added to the good soil, the gardener is rewarded with plants that resemble the pictures seen the year before and the gnarled root and cut stem are forgotten.

 

God’s Word often comes us like this. If we could see ourselves as God sees us, we would realize that by nature we are not beautiful to look at. By nature we are hardly magnificent trees straining toward heaven sheltering life below our branches, rather we are more a gnarly thing bent down and turned in on itself. There is much too much pride in ourselves and in our congregations and institutions, our choirs and musicians and our telegenic pastors. How can these people lead the people of God in humility when they look like they are positioning themselves for a spot on "The Next Big Thing"?

 

The only good we have or do is what comes from God. Good thing God likes gardening. Our pride is just the stuff that mixes in good with food scraps and leaves for good compost. Reject all this entrepreneurship, I-am-the-best-thing-since-sliced-bread, beauty pageant, Christianity and go back to the discipleship of old that knows that the Christian faith is something that is known, formulated, reflected on, explained, and critiqued was well as worshiped, lived, practiced, mentored and tithed. One had to get their hands dirty in the old days and it is hard to see how it is going to exist another generation if we don’t stop thinking of Christianity as something they can be watched on TV and ordered from catalogues. Pity the poor human pastor who is being compared to the telegenic superstars of religion by members of the congregation. May they all, pastor and congregation fall in love with the concepts of humility and hard work and turn their backs on being the next big thing.

 

          Let our hearts be good soil. May our hubris make good humus. The People of God being tenders of a plot of land has an old history.

 

Isaiah says,

"Let me sing for my beloved
my love-song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
 He dug it, cleared it of stones,
and planted it with red grapes.
In the middle he built a tower,
he hewed a press there too.
He expected it to yield fine grapes:
wild grapes were all it yielded.

(5:1-2)

 

   And Jesus told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, "See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?'
 He replied, "Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.' " (Luke 13:6-9)

 

What is to happen to your plot of land? Are you a member of a local congregation?  Do you do your faith with the digits of the hand or do you think the digital age has ushered in something utterly new? It is both. If the new isn’t planted in the old it will wither and f the old doesn’t reach for the new it will fail to reach a generation. At least I think the Kingdom is still like a garden, which like a marriage, needs work, if not every day, one can not take too many days off before it starts to show.

 

There are actually so many connecting points between our faith and a garden, one has to reign in impulses for yet another. I’ll close with “Go therefore and be a George” (or Georgina). “Geo” equals “earth” and George is a good name for one who practices husbandry. Go and tend your plot of earth, wherever the LORD has planted you!

 

May the Word which does not go forth without bearing fruit, well with you richly.

 

Jeremiah wrote:

"Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,

whose hope is the Lord.

They shall be like a tree planted by water,
sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes,
and its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious,
and it does not cease to bear fruit.

(17:7-8)

 

Eric Swensson

Copyright 2009.

 

 

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Monday, November 02, 2009

Readings and a Meditation for All Souls Day

"But the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace. For if before men, indeed, they be punished, yet is their hope full of immortality;

Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace, he proved them, and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself.

In the time of their visitation they shall shine, and shall dart about as sparks through stubble;

They shall judge nations and rule over peoples, and the LORD shall be their King forever. Those who trust in him shall understand truth, and the faithful shall abide with him in love: Because grace and mercy are with his holy ones, and his care is with the elect." -Wisdom 3,1-9.

 

A Psalm Of David:

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom do I fear? The LORD is

my life's refuge; of whom am I afraid?

One thing I ask of the LORD; this I seek: To dwell in the LORD'S house all

the days of my life, To gaze on the LORD'S beauty, to visit his temple.

I Hear my voice, LORD, when I call; have mercy on me and answer me.

"Come," says my heart, "seek God's face"; your face, LORD, do I seek!

Do not hide your face from me; do not repel your servant in anger. You are

my help; do not cast me off; do not forsake me, God my savior!

But I believe I shall enjoy the LORD'S goodness in the land of the living.

Wait for the LORD, take courage; be stouthearted, wait for the LORD!

-Ps 27,1.4.7.8.9.13-14.

 

 

From the Apostle Paul:
"Or are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too mightlive in newness of life. For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection. We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body might be done away with, that we might no longer be in slavery to sin. For a dead person has been absolved from sin.

If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him. - Rom 6:3-9.

 

Commentary of the day by Saint Cyprian (c.200-258), Bishop of Carthage and martyr, Treatise on death, PL4, 596f.

 

"Whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live" (Jn 11,25)

 

“We should not weep for those brothers of ours whom the Lord’s call has drawn away from this world since we know that they are not lost but have set out before us: they have left us, like travelers or navigators, so that they might go ahead of us. We should envy them, then, rather than weep for them and should not clothe ourselves in black when they are clothed above in robes of white. Do not let us give the pagans an opportunity for very rightly reproaching us for lamenting over those whom we assert to be alive before God, as though they were wiped out or lost. We betray our hope and our faith if what we say appears to be deception and lies. There is no use in protesting one’s courage in words and destroying its veracity in deeds.        

 

When we die, we pass through death to immortality and eternal life cannot be bestowed unless we depart from this world. This is not an ending but a passing. At the completion of our temporal journey comes our passing into eternity. Who would not hurry towards so great a good? Who would not long to be changed and transformed into the image of Christ?   
Heaven is our homeland… A great number of our dear ones are waiting for us there, a huge crowd of parents, brothers, sons are longing for us…
Let us hurry to come to them, let us ardently desire to be with them speedily and to be speedily with Christ.

 

Go to: www.dailygospel.org

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Photo of beautiful chapel at Mar Saba monastery near Bethlehem, home of St John Damascene

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One of the greatest problems facing believers is lack of assurance. We have been mugged by modernity. What's our basis for assurance?

One of the greatest problems facing believers these days is a lack of assurance. We have been mugged by modernity. Scratch a believer and you will likely find someone unsure of their salvation. The reason for this lack of assurance is often related to our attempts to confirm salvation by how good we feel or by how good we are. People work at understanding a person’s standing with God on the basis of our goodness, but a simple look around us and in us says that every day we fail miserably. 

Neither can our standing with God be determined by judging whether we have a cheived a satisfactory level of knowledge. Our knowledge is imperfect. Efforts at either peering into Heaven or the Godhead lead to silliness, and efforts at achieving perfection of doctrine lead to denominational infighting. The Apostle John's point was that God's love is beyond calculation, for not only does he call us his children, he makes us his children. The day is coming when we, the children of God, will not only know Him, but we will be like Him. This should not lead to sloppiness in doctrine or our way of leaving, rather it gives us the hope that more will be revealed. More what? More everything. But in God's good time. He has called us and so he will equip us. The fact that we desire to know God more shows that the Holy Spirit is working in us and if we have that we know we are under God's care and provision.   


      This truth produces great confidence, it produces great assurance, and this assurance is supported by an amazing biblical fact: a believer is orientated toward righteousness. This doesn't mean that a believer won't sin. Sin is an infection that never goes away, but can be dealt with. But being oriented toward righteousness means that we we are being pointed toward Christ-likeness. No one achieves perfection in this life, but we will all reach this goal one day. So we need to take it easy on ourselves and go easy on others. We all struggle with great burdens. However, a person who has truly experienced the mercy of God will tend to be merciful - not perfectly merciful, but oriented toward mercy. A forgiven person forgives, strives to forgive. A person bathed in the purity of Jesus tries to express that purity in their lives.


      So, our standing as God's children rests on his grace alone. As for our personal piety, it but demonstrates orientation, an orientation toward Christ, or an orientation toward lawlessness. As for sin, the truth is there is no sinless Christian; we all fall down. Oriented toward righteousness with knowledge that it is possible only by grace helps us to live in God’s forgiveness. Forgiving ourselves when we fall, forgiving those who fall against us, we rise and move toward our goal of being more like Christ. This is the way to understand the progressive sanctification of those whom He has called to be Saints in light. Our assurance rests not in feelings, or self-judgments, but in Scriptures like this. Ponder it, take it in deeply, and rest in the fact that more shall be revealed:


  See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.  Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 

                                                                                                                                             -1 John 3:1-7 

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Sunday, November 01, 2009

"The only way to Heaven is prayer; a prayer of the heart, which every one is capable of... Madame Guyon

The only way to Heaven is prayer; a prayer of the heart, which every one is capable of, and not of reasonings which are the fruits of study, or exercise of the imagination, which, in filling the mind with wandering objects, rarely settle it; instead of warming the heart with love to God, they leave it cold and languishing. -Jeanne Guyon

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“It is in the field of prayer that life's critical battles are lost or won..."

“It is in the field of prayer that life's critical battles are lost or won. We must conquer all our circumstances there. We must first of all bring them there. We must survey them there. We must master them there. In prayer we bring our spiritual enemies into the Presence of God and we fight them there. Have you tried that? Or have you been satisfied to meet and fight your foes in the open spaces of the world?" -J. H. Jowett

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Wm Barclay: REMEMBER THE PRIVILEGES OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE--sermon notes from a past All Saints Sunday

1Jn.3:1-2 REMEMBER THE PRIVILEGES OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

 

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God--and such we indeed are. The reason why the world does not recognize us is that it did not recognize him. Beloved, even as things are we are children of God, and it has not yet been made clear what we shall be. We know that, if it shall be made clear, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. It may well be that the best illumination of this passage is the Scottish Paraphrase of it:

 


Behold the amazing gift of love

the Father hath bestow'd

On us, the sinful sons of men,

to call us sons of God!

 

Concealed as yet this honour lies,

by this dark world unknown,

A world that knew not when he came,

even God's eternal Son.

 

High is the rank we now possess,

but higher we shall rise;

Though what we shall hereafter be

is hid from mortal eyes.

 

Our souls, we know, when he appears,

shall bear his image bright;

For all his glory, full disclosed,

shall open to our sight.

 

A hope so great, and so divine,

may trials well endure;

And purge the soul from sense and sin,

as Christ himself is pure.


 

  John begins by demanding that his people should remember their privileges. It is their privilege that they are called the children of God. There is something even in a name. Chrysostom, in a sermon on how to bring up children, advises parents to give their boy some great scriptural name, to teach him repeatedly the story of the original bearer of the name, and so to give him a standard to live up to when he grows to manhood. So the Christian has the privilege of being called the child of God. Just as to belong to a great school, a great regiment, a great church, a great household is an inspiration to fine living, so, even more, to bear the name of the family of God is something to keep a man's feet on the right way and to set him climbing.

 

  But, as John points out, we are not merely called the children of God; we are the children of God.

 

  There is something here which we may well note. It is by the gift of God that a man becomes a child of God. By nature a man is the creature of God, but it is by grace that he becomes the child of God. There are two English words which are closely connected but whose meanings are widely different, paternity and fatherhood. Paternity describes a relationship in which a man is responsible for the physical existence of a child; fatherhood describes an intimate, loving, relationship. In the sense of paternity all men are children of God; but in the sense of fatherhood men are children of God only when he makes his gracious approach to them and they respond.

 

  There are two pictures, one from the Old Testament and one from the New, which aptly and vividly set out this relationship. In the Old Testament there is the covenant idea. Israel is the covenant people of God. That is to say, God on his own initiative had made a special approach to Israel; he was to be uniquely their God, and they were to be uniquely his people. As an integral part of the covenant God gave to Israel his law, and it was on the keeping of that law that the covenant relationship depended.

 

  In the New Testament there is the idea of adoption (Rom.8:14-17; 1Cor.1:9; Gal.3:26-27; Gal.4:6-7). Here is the idea that by a deliberate act of adoption on the part of God the Christian enters into his family.

 

  While all men are children of God in the sense that they owe their lives to him, they become his children in the intimate and loving sense of the term only by an act of God's initiating grace and the response of their own hearts.

 

  Immediately the question arises: if men have that great honour when they become Christians, why are they so despised by the world? The answer is that they are experiencing only what Jesus Christ has already experienced. When he came into the world, he was not recognized as the Son of God; the world preferred its own ideas and rejected his. The same is bound to happen to any man who chooses to embark on the way of Jesus Christ.

 

  John, then, begins by reminding his people of the privileges of the Christian life. He goes on to set before them what is in many ways a still more tremendous truth, the great fact that this life is only a beginning. Here John observes the only true agnosticism. So great is the future and its glory that he will not even guess at it or try to put it into inevitably inadequate words. But there are certain things he does say about it.

 

  (i) When Christ appears in his glory, we shall be like him. Surely in John's mind there was the saying of the old creation story that man was made in the image and in the likeness of God (Gen.1:26). That was God's intention; and that was man's destiny. We have only to look into any mirror to see how far man has fallen short of that destiny. But John believes that in Christ a man will finally attain it, and at last bear the image and the likeness of God. It is John's belief that only through the work of Christ in his soul can a man reach the true manhood God meant him to reach.

 

  (ii) When Christ appears, we shall see him and be like him. The goal of all the great souls has been the vision of God. The end of all devotion is to see God. But that vision of God is not for the sake of intellectual satisfaction; it is in order that we may become like him. There is a paradox here. We cannot become like God unless we see him; and we cannot see him unless we are pure in heart, for only the pure in heart shall see God (Matt.5:8). In order to see God, we need the purity which only he can give. We are not to think of this vision of God as something which only the great mystics can enjoy. There is somewhere the story of a poor and simple man who would often go into a cathedral to pray; and he would always pray kneeling before the crucifix. Someone noticed that, though he knelt in the attitude of prayer, his lips never moved and he never seemed to say anything. He asked what he was doing kneeling like that and the man answered: "I look at him; and he looks at me." That is the vision of God in Christ that the simplest soul can have; and he who looks long enough at Jesus Christ must become like him.

 

  One other thing we must note. John is here thinking in terms of the Second Coming of Christ. It may be that we can think in the same terms; or it may be that we cannot think so literally of a coming of Christ in glory. Be that as it may, there will come for every one of us the day when we shall see Christ and behold his glory. Here there is always the veil of sense and time, but the day will come when that veil, too, will be torn in two.

 

When death these mortal eyes shall seal, And still this throbbing heart,

The rending veil shall thee reveal All glorious as thou art.

 

  Therein is the Christian hope and the vast possibility of the Christian life.

 

 

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