Archive for October, 2010

Self Image and God’s Image

Saturday, October 23rd, 2010

 

Self image is how you see yourself. It affects your self esteem and confidence. It includes what you think you look like, how you see your personality, what kind of person you think you are, what you believe others think of you, how much you like yourself or think others like you. Poor self image may be the result of accumulated criticisms that you collected as a child which have led to damaging your own view of yourself. A destructive self image can lead to depression, addiction, violent behavior and suicide. This is not how God made us. 

 

“God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’” (Genesis 1:27,28)

           

God created us with a divine image, likeness and vocation. If we can appropriate that understanding of ourselves by faith we can become what a truly healthy and flourishing human being is born to be. As we age we are prone to dwell on our limitations, our shortcomings, our regrets. We need to be reminded of our divine identity.

 

If we believe that all people are created in the image and likeness of God we will relate to everyone we meet as God’s representative, a member of the divine royal blood. Mother Teresa said that she saw in each dying or destitute soul on the streets of Calcutta the image of Jesus. When we encounter those who are depressed, who feel valueless, whose self-image is poor to non-existent, we need to share with them the good news that they are created in the image and likeness of God, and they can put on a new self in Christ, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of their Creator. No one should be controlled by a mental picture of themselves that they have received from others. The only picture that counts is that which God supplies us in Christ. That is life and peace. That is good news.

 

 

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John Guest Renewal Weekend

Saturday, October 16th, 2010

 

The John Guest Renewal Weekend is scheduled for November 5-7. I have been devoting a considerable amount of time planning for it. I have made sure that we have good advertising in the newspapers, and on our website. Susan Boyd designed a logo. Jane Manley got some handsome bookmarks printed up and distributed. Mary Beth Eakin has organized the Ladies Luncheon. Don Davis has done the same for the Men’s Breakfast, and is in charge of transportation. Gayle Gower has been responsible for publicity. Carolyn Hopkins is in charge of the Day of Prayer. Others on the committee who have assisted are Harriet Nolan, Norm Purdue, Joe Marasco, Sandy Shaw and Imogene Coleman.

 

What is the purpose for all this activity? Why are we having a Renewal Weekend?

There are two reasons for it.

 

First of all, to renew our own faith.

There are times when our circumstances are tested and tried, and we need our spiritual strength to be renewed. The economy, the nation, the world, and our personal lives may be going through troubled times. We need all the spiritual resources we can find to sustain us. I am directed to the words of St. Paul in Romans 1:11,12 –

“I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong – that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.”

We all need the strengthening of the gifts of the Spirit, and the encouragement of faith. None of us has it all together, or are self-sufficient. We need these times of refreshment, when we come together for fellowship, to be reminded of the truths of the Gospel and to experience the comforting presence of Christ. This weekend may be one of those times when God especially speaks to us according to our need, and empowers us for the next stage in our lives. We may receive guidance that we have been seeking – a word from the Lord – a word of forgiveness, cleansing, healing, correction, conviction, assurance or illumination.

 

Second, we pray that this weekend will give us an opportunity to share our faith with others.

Renewal comes from the work of the Holy Spirit. The early church grew because the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. The Spirit came down upon them as tongues of fire and enabled them to share the Gospel with others. The hymn asks God to:

“Revive us again – fill each heart with Thy love;

May each soul be rekindled with fire from above.”

I hope that you have been praying for friends you would like to invite to hear John Guest. Come to the meetings, not on your own but with a friend. We are surrounded by friends and neighbors who do not participate in any church. This weekend gives us an opportunity to show some hospitality and to welcome them to our community. Invite them to join you for the Ladies Luncheon or the Men’s Breakfast, host a table, pick them up and bring them to the Friday evening meeting or to Sunday worship. Don’t be shy or timid – be bold in your outreach. We are engaged in a divine mission – to bring the kingdom of God – the influence of Christ – to our community.

 

I can remember the enormous impact that such renewal weekends had in my home church when I was young. Our pastor brought in outside speakers who were able to speak from different perspectives. When I was fourteen years of age such a weekend had a life-changing effect on my life. It is unlikely that I would be here today if that weekend had not happened. There may be some people whom this weekend will touch in a similar profound way. You may be the means of being a blessing to that person through your invitation to them to join us.

 

John Guest has been a colleague of mine for forty years. He is a gifted speaker with the ability to speak to the needs of a community such as ours. People respond positively to his approach. You and your friends will find him easy to listen to and will appreciate his content.

 

John was 18 when he came to faith at Billy Graham’s first London crusade. He moved to the United States as part of a Christian rock duo during the “British Invasion” of the sixties and met his wife Kathie when they were both youth workers. They are the parents of four daughters, one of whom has reversed John’s footsteps by moving to the UK and marrying an Englishman. 

John receives his news via radio and TV, and the occasional newspaper. His hobbies of collecting stamps and classic car models, and playing golf may seem well-suited to his position, but he has retained his love of cricket and English football (soccer). He still follows the advice of his English mother who told him “Handsome is as handsome does” and that he should strive to have good manners, be honest and work hard.

John is the author of ten books, and he has conducted evangelistic campaigns in 14 nations reaching over 1,500,000 people. 


John and Kathie read the Bible and pray every morning over a cup of tea, and the verses John lives by are:Ecclesiastics 9:10 – Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.

Joshua 1:9 – Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.

 

 

Kathie will be accompanying John to Amelia Island. Please plan to be present at all events you can manage. You and your friends will not regret it.

 

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Seeing Jesus in the Sick

Saturday, October 9th, 2010

 

Dearest Lord, may I see you today and every day in the person of your sick, and whilst nursing minister to you.

Though you hide yourself behind the unattractive disguise of the irritable, the exacting, the unreasonable, may I still recognize you and say: ‘Jesus, my patient, how sweet to serve you.’

Lord, give me this seeing faith, then my work will never be monotonous. I will ever find joy in humoring the fancies and gratifying the wishes of all poor sufferers.

O Beloved sick, how doubly dear you are to me, when you personify Christ; and what a privilege is mine to be allowed to tend you.

Sweetest Lord, make me appreciative of the dignity of my high vocation, and its many responsibilities. Never permit me to disgrace it by giving way to coldness, unkindness, or impatience.

And, O God, while you are Jesus, my patient, deign also to be to me a patient Jesus, bearing with my faults, looking only to my intention, which is to love and serve you in the person of each of your sick.

Lord, increase my faith, bless my efforts and work, now and for evermore.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta (her daily prayer)

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Borrowing God’s Eyes

Saturday, October 2nd, 2010

 

When my 13 year old grandson and I were working on a jigsaw puzzle recently I discovered that he was more adept than I in finding the pieces we were looking for to complete a section. I was wishing that the pieces were larger. I could see the big picture but found it hard to see which pieces fitted into that picture. So many of us have difficulties in life because we do not see the big picture. We think that the little piece of life we see is all there is when it is only one part of the whole. Genesis 1 gives us the big picture of creation through building one layer upon another from the perspective of this earth.

            Ann Finkbeiner’s A Grand and Bold Thing, is an account of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which has mapped nearly a million galaxies and identified 76,000 quasars – the black-hole-powered cauldrons that sit at the centers of galaxies, shining so brightly that they can be seen all the way across the universe. The observable universe contains a hundred billion galaxies harboring more stars than there are grains of sand on all our planet’s beaches.

So when we read Genesis, we need to take into account the grand and bold thing that God created when he spoke the universe into being. There is a wonder to creation. We read that God brought order out of chaos: “The earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep.” (Gen.1:2) Out of this nothingness, this emptiness, this non-existence, God said, “Let there be light.” Light springs forth from darkness, and “God saw that the light was good.”

            Michael Quoist in his Prayers of Life, 1963, captured this perspective:

 

I would like to rise very high, Lord,

Above my city

Above the world

Above time.

I would like to purify my glance and borrow your eyes.

I would then see the universe, humanity, history, as the Father sees them.

I would see in the prodigious transformation of matter,

In the perpetual seething of life,

Your great body that is born of the breath of the Spirit.

I would see the beautiful, the eternal thought of your Father’s love taking form step by step.

Everything summed up in you, things on earth and things in heaven.

And I would see that today, like yesterday, the most minute details are part of it.

Every man in his place.

Every group

and every object.

I would see the tiniest particle of matter and the smallest throbbing of life,

Love and hate,

Sin and grace.

Startled, I would understand that the great adventure of love, which started at the beginning of the world, is unfolding before me.

The divine story which, according to your promise, will be

completed only in glory after the resurrection of the flesh.

When you will come before the Father, saying: All is accomplished,

I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End.

I would understand that everything is linked together,

That all is but a single movement of the whole of humanity

and of the whole universe towards the Trinity, in you, by you, Lord.

I would understand that nothing is secular, neither things, nor people, nor events.

But that, on the contrary, everything has been made sacred in its origin by God

And that everything must be consecrated by man made divine.

 

I would understand that my life, an imperceptible breath in this great whole,

is an indispensable treasure in the Father’s plan.

Then, falling on my knees, I would admire, Lord, the mystery of this world.

Which, in spite of the innumerable and hateful snags of sin,

Is a long throb of love, towards love eternal.

 

I would like to rise very high, Lord,

Above my city

Above the world

Above time.

I would like to purify my glance and borrow your eyes.

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