Archive for the ‘Inspiration’ Category

« Older Entries

The Gospel Coalition

Saturday, April 13th, 2013

Last week I attended the Gospel Coalition Conference in Orlando. The GC was co-founded by Don Carson, research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, and Tim Keller, Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. Plenary speakers included John Piper, Colin Smith, Crawford Loritts, Kevin DeYoung, Stephen Um, Gary Millar. In addition there were 58 workshops and focus groups covering all aspects of Christian. Worship music was led by Keith and Kristen Getty and their band. The theology represented was generously Reformed. There were 4,500 registrants, most of them younger than I. There were many young couples with babies! They came from forty-three countries. Sessions were being simulcast and translated into six different languages. I attended workshops led by Tullian Tchividijian on How Suffering Sets you Free, John Yates on Growing into the Leader You Wish You Were, and Tim Keller on A Biblical Theology of Revival.

Eight plenary sessions were devoted to the biblical exposition of the Gospel of Luke. They were inspiring and filled with content and application. I was impressed by the substance of the messages as well as their personal authenticity. They were models of preaching as biblical truth through personality.

In their introduction to the conference Tim Keller and Don Carson wrote that they prayed and hoped that the series on Luke will encourage pastors to preach from the Gospels as well as the Epistles.

The bookstore was a wonder to behold. I have never seen so many publications by speakers and theologians. I exercised great restraint but came away with some treasures to read and digest over the next few months. You can learn further about The Gospel Coalition from their website: www.thegospelcoalition.org.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Bible, Church, Discipleship, Inspiration, Jesus, Ministry, Salvation, Suffering, The World, Witnessing | No Comments »

A Maundy Thursday Meditation

Saturday, March 16th, 2013

“Jesus knew that the time has come for him to leave this world and go to the Father.” (John 13:1)

What a way to describe your last night? When we die we leave this world and go to the Father. It is a journey from here to the presence of the Father. It is to leave the troubles and trials of this world and to enter into the loving embrace of our heavenly Father. As a father, I would welcome my children with open arms and rejoice in their coming to me. Jesus said, “Enter into the joy or happiness of your Master.” There is nothing to fear, for we are going to someone we know and love and trust, the one who has taken care of us in our infancy and childhood, and is always there when we need him. When my children were little and I returned home each day from work, they would see me and rush out into the front driveway to jump into my arms. We are still God’s children when we are old and tired. We still long to go to the Father.

On this last night before he goes to the Father Jesus leaves us his legacy.

First of all, he leaves us a legacy of humble service. He loved his own who were in the world and showed them the full extent of his love. He began to wash his disciples’ feet. He showed them an example of how they should behave to one another. How do we wash each others’ feet today? By noticing their needs and doing something about them. By taking an interest in those around us and being willing to humbly serve them. By listening to their troubles. By being a friend in need. I am aware that each  congregation, and every church member can follow Christ’s example by seeking to serve our neighbors.

Secondly, he leaves us a legacy of true worship by breaking bread in his memory, by giving thanks for our redemption, by instituting a continual remembrance that binds us together as a church community and with him. “Do this in remembrance of me.” We are one body and one spirit. He is our host, our source of salvation and sustenance, the bread of life and the wine of
rejoicing. We eat and drink around his Table. He keeps us together, centered on his death and resurrection until he comes and takes us to the Father. We enjoy a foretaste of the heavenly banquet, the wedding supper of the Lamb that was slain and with his blood purchased us for God from ever tribe and language and people and nation, who has made us a kingdom of priests to serve God. We join the angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven who sing glory around the throne of God.

Thirdly, he leaves us a legacy of the promised Holy Spirit, who will be his continuing presence and empowerment in our lives.  The Holy Spirit will teach us  all things necessary for salvation and will remind us of everything Jesus has said to us through the written word of the apostles. The New Testament is the legacy of the Holy Spirit to us – the divinely inspired words of Jesus. It is the last will and testament of Jesus written to equip us for every good work.

Fourthly, he leaves us a legacy of prayer. He prays for his people, for those he will leave behind, and for those who will come after them, that they may be one, that they may be sanctified, that they may grow in grace and numbers. He prays for himself, that he will do God’s will. The legacy of prayer ensures that our communication with Jesus continues. Our communion with him is not broken by his departure from us. He is still listening to us and interceding for us.

Fifthly, leaves us a legacy of how to die. He surrenders himself to the events of his departure from this world without losing his dignity and destiny. He is taken by the powers of this world but is not intimidated by them. He submits to embarrassment and suffering. He dies in pain and discomfort. Leaving this world is not always easy or smooth. But he knows where he is going – to the Father.

He leaves us this legacy. Let us learn from it. To humbly serve one another. To worship together around his Table and the throne
of God.  To receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and his written Word. To practice prayer for ourselves and for others, for those who come after us. To learn how to die well.

This a legacy that we can treasure, and that will continue to pay dividends over the course of our lifetime.

 

 

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Aging, Bible, Change, Church, Community, Death, Discipleship, Hope, Inspiration, Jesus, Prayer, Salvation, Suffering, Witnessing | No Comments »

Why Am I?

Tuesday, January 1st, 2013

The Introduction of my new book, WHY AM I? Reflections on Meaning and Purpose in Life from Genesis 1-11, begins with these words:

When I first held my newest grand-daughter, Erika, in my arms and looked at her, I asked, “Who are you? Where have you come from? What will your life be like?” Her perfectly formed face, eyes, nose, ears, fingers and toes fascinated me, as did my two daughters’ when they were born. I was also aware of Erika returning my gaze. What was she thinking? “Who is this person? Where did he come from? Why am I here?”

Why am I? Who am I? How do I make sense of my life? Am I just an accident? Am I just a higher animal? Am I just a collection of chemicals and genes? Who is the baby I hold in my arms? What does her life mean? Why is she so precious to me her grandfather and all who love her?

What is the value of your life? Why are you who you are? These are questions I have asked all my life. Where do you look for answers to these questions? That is what this book is about. Will you journey with me as I explore these questions and their answers as prompted by the first eleven chapters of the book of Genesis?

GENESIS 1-11 AND SCIENCE

There are many who discount the Bible in favor of a rationalistic approach to the meaning of your life and mine. Here is one such approach.

“Scientism, according to one standard definition, is ‘an exaggerated confidence in the methods of science as the most (or the only) reliable tools of inquiry’.… The main tenets of this philosophy are bracingly summed up in a series of questions and answers. Is there a God? No. What is the nature of reality? What physics says it is. What is the purpose of the universe? There is none. What is the meaning of life? Ditto. Why am I here? Just dumb luck. Does prayer work? Of course not. Is there a soul? Is it immortal? You must be kidding. Is there free will? Not a chance! What is the difference between right and wrong, good and bad? There is no moral difference between them.”[1]

What is your response to such a catechism? Mine is: How does he know? What is the basis of his dogmatic claims? How does he live? How does he make moral decisions? How can he be so dismissive of the prophets, the apostles, and Jesus? I am amazed when I read in the popular press derogatory comments about the Bible, such as, “Modern science has disproven the Biblical view of origins in Genesis.” Anybody who makes such a statement is ignorant of both the limitations of science and the interpretation of Scripture.

MY APPROACH IN THIS BOOK

In the following chapters I will be looking at Genesis 1-11 from many different angles. But the most important question I will be asking of the passages will be: what is God saying to us today through his Word about his purpose for your life and mine. The fundamental questions of the secular world are: Who is God? Who am I? Why am I here? What am I for? How can I give my life meaning? How do I get faith? What is this life all about? Why is the universe here? Why is there something rather than nothing?

 

A CHRISTIAN INTERPRETATION

I will be looking at Genesis from a New Testament perspective. I am writing as a follower of Jesus Christ. I am looking at Genesis 1-11 through the spectacles of Christian belief. I will consider what is meant by the beginning of all things. How does God reveal himself to us? What is the process of creation today? What is the nature of our human condition, our uniqueness, our purpose, our temptation and fall? I will consider the problem of evil, the breakdown of relationships between Cain and Abel, the judgment of the Flood, and the confusion of languages at the tower of Babel. What is the relevance for all these to our lives today?

I believe in the truth and authenticity of the Holy Scriptures. I believe that God speaks to us through these words according to our need. Without this divinely revealed truth we cannot know the answers to life’s great questions. Without the truth of the Bible we are condemned to the doubt and agnosticism of the otherwise brilliant literary critic, George Steiner.[2]
He wrote in his memoir,

“All of us are guests of life. No human being knows the meaning of its creation, except in the most primitive, biological regard. No man or woman knows the purpose, if any, the possible significance of its ‘thrownness’ into the mystery of existence. Why is there not nothing? Why am I?”

To the contrary, God has revealed to us the answers to those questions if we will but receive them. Genesis 1-11, and the rest of the Bible, is given to us to answer these questions, to know the meaning of our creation and the purpose of our existence.

 

It is available through Amazon and Amelia Plantation Chapel.

[1]
Anthony Kenny’s review of The Atheist’s
Guide to Reality, Alex Rosenberg, Times
Literary Supplement, June 22, 2012, p.24

[2]
George Steiner, Errata: an examined life,
Yale, 1998, p.60

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Hope, Inspiration, Jesus, Morality, Salvation, Science, The World | No Comments »

My Annual Reading List

Tuesday, January 1st, 2013

(Highly Recommended in bold)

 

DON’T SING SONGS TO A HEAVY HEART: How to relate to those who are suffering, Kenneth C. Haugk, 2004

WHAT SHALL WE SAY? Evil, Suffering and the Crisis of Faith, Thomas G. Long, 2011

KIERKEGAARD: An Introduction, C. Stephen Evans, 2009

APING MANKIND: Neuromania, Darwinitis and the
Misrepresentation of Humanity, Raymond Tallis, 2011

A WINDOW TO HEAVEN: When Children See Life in Death, Diane
M. Komp, M.D. 1992

A HOLY TRADITION OF WORKING: Passages from the Writings of
Eric Gill, 1983

GODLY AMBITION: John Stott and the Evangelical Movement,
Alister Chapman, 2012

DIARY OF A SOUL, Pennar Davies, 2011

WHY JESUS? Rediscovering His Truth in an Age of Mass
Marketed Spirituality, Ravi Zacharias, 2012

THE RESURRECTION OF MINISTRY, Andrew Purves, 2004

MOVE: What 1,000 Churches Reveal About Spiritual Growth,
Greg Hawkins & Cally Parkinson, 2011

WHAT THEY DIDN’T TEACH YOU IN SEMINARY: Lessons for a
Successful Ministry in Your Church, James Emery White, 2011

THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED: A New Psychology of Love,
TraditIonal Values and Spiritual Growth, M. Scott Peck, 1978

EXCELLENCE IN PREACHING: Studying the Craft of Leading
Preachers, Simon Vibert, 2011

CHRIST AMONG THE DRAGONS: Finding our Way Through Cultural
Challenges, James Emery White, 2010

A MIND FOR GOD, James Emery White, 2006

RETHINKING THE CHURCH: A Challenge to creative Redesign in
an Age of Transition, James Emery White, 2003

A SEARCH FOR THE SPIRITUAL: Exploring Real Christianity,
James Emery White, 1998, 2008

LIT! A CHRISTIAN GUIDE TO READING BOOKS, Tony Reinke, 2011

THE SEARCH FOR COMPASSION: Spirituality and Ministry, Andrew
Purves, 1989

THE LAST ENEMY: Preparing to Win the Fight of Your Life,
Michael E. Wittmer, 2012

WRITTEN IN TEARS: A Grieving Father’s Journey Through Psalm
103, Luke Veldt, 2010

THE WIZARD’S TALE, Frederick Buechner, 1990

THE FORGOTTEN TRINITY: Recovering the Heart of Christian
Belief, James R. White, 1998

HANNAH COULTER: A Novel, Wendell Berry, 2004 (A masterpiece)

ERRATA: An Examined life, George Steiner, 1997

AM I CALLED: The Summons to Pastoral Ministry, Dave Harvey,
2012

FATAL PARTNERS: War and Disease, Ralph H. Majors, 1941

THAT DISTANT LAND: The Collected Stories, Wendell Berry, 2004 (Superb)

THE BLOOD OF HEROES: The Alamo, James Donovan, 2012

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY: with an inquiry into the causes of its inefficiency, Charles Bridges, 1830. (A Classic)

THE FACE OF GOD: The Gifford Lectures, Roger Scruton, 2012

HOLINESS: its nature, hindrances, difficulties and roots, J.C.Ryle. (Superb)

THE INTOLERANCE OF TOLERANCE, D.A. Carson, 2012

MIRACLES, The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts, 2 volumes, Craig S. Keener, 2011

ANIMAL FARM, George Orwell, 1944

HEALING: The Three Great Classics on divine Healing, ed. Jonathan L. Graf, DIVINE HEALING: Andrew
Murray, THE MINISTRY OF HEALING: A.J. Gordon, THE GOSPEL OF HEALING: A.B.
Simpson. Gordon’s is the best, balanced and biblical.

EXPOSING MYTHS ABOUT CHRISTIANITY: A Guide to Answering 145 Viral Lies and Legends, Jeffrey Burton Russell, 2012. (Excellent)

A FREE PEOPLE’S SUICIDE: Sustainable Freedom and the
American Future, Os Guinness, 2012

UNBROKEN: A World War II story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption, Laura Hillenbrand, 2010

LIFE OF THE BELOVED, Henri Nouwen, 1992

KNOTS UNTIED, J.C. Ryle

POLITICS FOR CHRISTIANS: Statecraft as Soulcraft, Francis J.
Beckwith, 2010

OUR FIRST REVOLUTION: The Remarkable British Upheaval The Inspired America’s Founding Fathers,
Michael Barone, 2007. (Terrific)

DEMONIC: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America, Ann
Coulter, 2011

THEIR BLOOD CRIES OUT: The Worldwide Tragedy of Modern
Christians Who Are Dying for their Faith. Why It is Being Ignored. Why the
Silence. What we Can do, Paul Marshall with Lela Gilbert, 1997

WATER FROM A DEEP WELL: Christian Spirituality from Early Martyrs to Modern Missionaries, Gerald L. Sittser, 2007. (Rich inspiration)

THE NEARLY PERFECT CRIME: How the Church Almost Killed the Ministry of Healing, Francis MacNutt,
2005. (Excellent)

POWER THROUGH PRAYER, E. M. Bounds. (A Classic)

THE DISENCHANTMENT OF SECULAR DISCOURSE, Steven D. Smith, 2010 (Important)

BAD RELIGION: How We Became a Nation of Heretics, Ross Douthat, 2012 (Essential Reading)

THE EXPLICIT GOSPEL, Matt Chandler, 2012

THE HOBBIT, J. R. R. Tolkien, 1937

DEEP AND WIDE: Creating Churches Unchurched People Love to Attend, Andy Stanley, 2012 (Andy’s story of starting Northpoint Ministries)

KILLING THE BLACK DOG: A Memoir of Depression, Les Murray,
2009

GLORIOUS RUIN: How Suffering Sets You Free, Tullian Tchividjian, 2012. (Excellent)

ATHEIST DELUSIONS: The Christian Revolution and Its
Fashionable Enemies, David Bentley Hart, 2009 (Rips the façade off the
arguments of the new atheists)

THE SERVILE MIND: How Democracy Erodes the Moral Life,
Kenneth Minogue, 2010 (Important critique of the welfare state)

THE SECOND COMING: A Novel, Walker Percy, 1988

C.H. SPURGEON: AUTOBIOGRAPHY, Vol.1 The Early Years, Vol.2 The Full Harvest, 1897 and 1973. (Inspiring,
informative, Challenging.)

MEDITATIONS FROM A MOVABLE CHAIR, Andre Dubus, 1999. (Profound)

LIBERTY AND CIVILIZATION: The Western Heritage, ed. Roger
Scruton, 2010 (Culturally and Politically Informative)

THE DEAN’S WATCH: A Novel, Elizabeth Goudge, 1960 (My third reading of a favorite book that warms my heart)

NO MAN IS AN ISLAND, Thomas Merton, 1955

 

Tags: , ,
Posted in Discipleship, Inspiration, Ministry, Morality, Politics, Prayer, Salvation, Suffering, The World, Witnessing | No Comments »

Our Time in Newtown

Thursday, December 20th, 2012

Christopher Leighton is an old friend who is Rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Darien, CT. He posted the following on his blog: www.frchristopherblog.wordpress.com

Our Time in Newtown

By Fr.Christopher Leighton and Pastor Gabrielle Beam

A Reflection on These Five Days

December 19, 2012

We’ve spent five straight days going to Sandy Hook, a small village that is part of Newtown, Connecticut. Last Friday, as we heard the breaking news, we set out in the early afternoon. I, Christopher, had contacted the priest in charge of St. John’s in Sandy Hook – a friend, Fr. Mark Moore. Fr. Mark was not able to go, but he said he could open the church for us, and we could lead prayer for the town – and for any and all who wanted to come in. We did lead prayer, into the evening, with a small number of folks stopping in. We had brought along with us a large sandwich board sign that was placed in front of the church, offering “healing prayer today”. The sign stayed up for 24 hours, and was a source of comfort to many.

Actually, St.Paul’s’ connection goes back decades. We would send a van full of lay ministers weekly to be with the residents in the extraordinarily large mental hospital called Fairfield Hills in Newtown. Ordained ministers from our church led worship for years at St. John’s, Sandy Hook, and we actively supported a Cursillo community centered at St. John’s. Most recently, since June, a handful of us from St. Paul’s have been traveling to Newtown in order to meet there in the home of a member, and to pray for the town. We found ourselves concentrating each week for the citizens to know their need for God.

St. John’s is only hundreds of yards away from the Sandy Hook Elementary School. Memorial shrines have been set up all along the area. Thousands of people have come and gone since the massacre, grieving. Myriads of members of the press, from all over the world, have been telling the story.

Fr. Mark led a Eucharist on Saturday December 15, and we were invited to help lead. Dozens of reporters were there, and joined members of the church and community in being profoundly moved. Nobody knows what to make entirely of all of this, and
certainly, questions we’ve received from reporters convey despair at the overwhelming evil. Each day we’ve gone, simply to be present, to offer a listening ear, an open heart, and prayer for those who wish it.

Yesterday we found St. John’s Church door open, and those who work at the basement food pantry were present. About a dozen of retirement-age people were gathering. We entered in, and asked how everybody was doing. These elders have never experienced anything so devastating, and they welcomed us to minister to them. We formed a prayer circle, led a time of prayer for healing, and concluded by all holding hands, and saying the Lord’s Prayer. We squeezed our hands at the final sentence, “For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.” Hugs and tears abounded, and they resumed their work with joy in the midst of sorrow.

Reporters feel like they’re being intrusive; we’ve attempted to include them as part of the community. The story must be told so that we will never forget – and that in remembering, lasting fruit might be borne. What we hear over and over is that no one has ever covered a story this disturbing. Wars, calamitous storms, 9/11/01 – all seem more manageable. It’s the slaughter of the innocents, the raw evil that assaulted the children, adults, and their families.

We were instantly drawn to the Collect for December 28, Holy Innocents: “We remember today, O God, the slaughter of the holy innocents of Bethlehem by King Herod. Receive, we pray, into the arms of your mercy all innocent victims, and by your great might, frustrate the designs of evil tyrants, and establish your rule of justice, love, and peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” We have prayed this prayer over and over, substituting “the holy innocents of Newtown…”

There’s no question that some folks are rather testy. How could God allow such a thing to happen? When we ponder a response, we usually begin by saying, “Don’t accept any easy answers to that question.” I, Christopher, remember my grandparents’ skeptical charge against God, when my parents’ friends lost a son in a car accident. The father was an ordained minister, and the accusation came: “Where was his God when this happened?”

We’ve experienced untimely deaths, disasters, and unbearable suffering in this life. Frankly, it is harder to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in good times, because it seems like no one really needs God. Apathy in the face of God’s offer of grace can be very discouraging to His ministers. Funerals, and tragedies, bring some in their pain to God. We like to say that God is very present in times of trouble (Psalm 46:1) – that Jesus Christ wept at the death of His friend Lazarus (John 11) – and that God the Father knows what it is like to lose His precious child.

Since Friday, we’ve prayed for God to throw a blanket of His comforting love around Newtown – and really, on each person so profoundly affected by what has happened. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son. God is a God of love. His
kindness and love are meant to lead us into truth, especially truth about Him, and truth about ourselves.

There is something terribly wrong with the human heart. All of us are capable of spurning God, and of harming our neighbors. In the sacred Shema in Deuteronomy 6, Moses tells us: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” To this, Jesus added, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Love is a choice, and in Deuteronomy 30, we are told to choose life and good, as opposed to death and evil, to love God and to walk in his ways … so that we may live. We are also warned that if we turn away, and are drawn to other gods, then we will perish. We are to choose life.

Our nation, and indeed the entire world, must ask deep searching questions about our relationship to God. Have we pushed Him away, so that now we accuse Him of being absent? Have we refused to believe in Him, and then blamed Him? What a loving God He is, who allows us to ask such questions, and then who receives us, even when we come to Him as a last resort!

It is time for Americans to once again put our money where our mouth is. On some of our money it says, “In God we trust.” We’ve trusted in many things ahead of God. It is time to repent and return to Him. A culture of death has brought forth incidents such as the Newtown shootings. With all of our heart, we must trust God, and build together a culture of life.

This doesn’t lessen the pain of what’s happened. But it begins a new way to live, in the One who gives resurrection and life.

We approach Christmas this year perhaps differently then ever before. The pain of death is great and seems incongruous in celebrating birth – even if it is the birth of a Savior. Yet Christmas is the celebration of Jesus Christ’s birth. He wasn’t born in a palace but in a small town named Bethlehem at the edge of an Empire. The humble circumstances of his parents led to there being no room for them. That’s why he was born in a stable.

Is there room in the heart of the world today for Jesus? Will Americans bend low before Him who came to serve us? Is there room in your heart for Jesus?

We offer this prayer for you to consider addressing to the One who came to be your Lord:

Lord, I ask you into my heart. I have not allowed you in – please forgive me. I surrender before you. Come take your rightful place as my Lord. Let me choose and receive your life today. I will live for you. Amen.

Link from www.frchristopherblog.wordpress.com

 

 

Tags: ,
Posted in Church, Community, Death, Inspiration, Ministry, Prayer, Suffering, The World | No Comments »

Domestic Violence

Saturday, November 24th, 2012

Many women in our congregation have been active in establishing the work of Micah’s Place, the domestic violence shelter for our county. They have raised our awareness of the need for help for wives and mothers in abusive relationships. All too often patterns of violence have been repeated in generation after generation. I commend to you the support of organizations in your area that provide help for abused women. Often the abuse is hidden as women are embarrassed by it and often are made to feel that they have contributed to it in some sick way. There is no excuse for domestic violence. Husbands who claim that the Bible says that their wives should submit to them are misinterpreting Scripture. Christ sacrificed himself for his bride, the Church, and so should husbands. The pattern of Scripture is that a husband loves his wife as Christ does the Church. I found the following prayer from a battered wife which is to the point.

My God, I can no longer recognize the face that I see in the mirror. Where was the radiant bride that stood here merely five years ago? Where was the young woman full of hope, full of love and full of the promises of a brand new life ahead of her? For the woman who stands here now seems no longer a woman at all. Gone was the light in her eyes that used to be the envy of all. Gone was the blush on her cheeks that used to be caressed with tenderness and love. Those eyes are now swollen from endless tears. Those cheeks are now shadowed by bruises and scars.

I have been transgressed and defiled, and I have allowed it all! I have allowed it for the most cliché reason of all. O how I thought I loved him, but the truth is that I don’t even know how to love my own self. How conceited indeed can a woman be? To think that she could change the man who doesn’t even want to change himself? Am I a God who can look into the hearts of men and seek the goodness that can be drawn from each one? Even God doesn’t force us to change if we wish to be stubborn and go our own sinful ways. Indeed, I am no God, and neither is the man I have worshipped so wrongfully all these years.

My God, help me to see things as they really are, not as I would have it. Help me to forgive myself as you have forgiven me, to love myself as you have loved me. Help me to know what love really is that it may take root in my heart and that it may bear fruit for others to also find their way. I used to think that love is being able to give everything even if it hurts. God it hurt so much! But now I know that love, even if it may hurt sometimes should never be at the expense of self-respect and dignity; love, even if it may entail sacrifice should never be at the expense of being shattered and broken.

For true love, if it is true indeed always brings wholeness and peace, and bears the fruit of goodness upon all who give and receive it. Love is not a matter of control or manipulation. Love is an invitation and a gift that can only be received with openness and a grateful heart. Help me find my way O God, not only for myself but more so for my beloved children. Help me to provide for them not only their material needs, but their emotional and spiritual longings as well.

Truly I have a long way to go and a great many more battles to face, but I dare to begin now God. I begin with your forgiveness and your love. I begin with your providence and healing. Help me through it all O Lord and one day soon, I know I will be able to see that radiant and beautiful bride once again.

This prayer of a battered wife was written by HIYAS at itakeoffthemask.com

Read more http://itakeoffthemask.com/prayers/battered-wife-prayer/

Tags: ,
Posted in Community, Hope, Inspiration, Ministry, Morality, Prayer, Suffering, The World | No Comments »

A Prayer for Thanksgiving

Wednesday, November 21st, 2012
A Prayer for Thanksgiving
Mel Lawrenz
In America this week we celebrate Thanksgiving Day. I have always treasured this holiday because its intention is so clear and so right. It is not so cluttered with commercialism and busyness. It recalls the harvest of fields, and invites us to look for a harvest of God’s goodness in our own lives.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Philippians 4:6).
Dear God, You have invited us to give you thanks, and this is what we wish to do. We are living in a time of great anxiety, but you have offered us a way out of anxiety. We long to know your loving care.
We pray to you because there is no one so good, so high, so holy, and so merciful as you. Thank you that you have invited us to bring our petitions and our requests to you. Who else can we go to for wisdom, or for hope, or for guidance?
We pray for the victims of violence wherever they may be found. We pray for those in authority, that they would seek and find the wisdom that comes from above. We pray for peace in the world. We pray that you would help us live in obedience, with integrity, based on the dignity you have given. And we pray for peace in our own hearts, a peace that proceeds from your forgiveness, the wholeness that comes from your restorative touch.
We thank you for creating a world you called “good.” We thank you that despite the evil that has entered the world and still wages war in our own
souls, your own goodness is undiminished. We thank you that we have seen
honor that is bolder than shame…
mercy that is wider than cruelty…
truth that is straighter than deception…
faith that is stronger than treachery…
hope that is deeper than desperation.
We thank you for the ordinary things: the bread we receive today, the breath by which we live today. And we thank you for the extraordinary things: the
strength we didn’t know was possible, and the discovery of truths we didn’t know we didn’t know. We thank you for the immeasurable grace shown to us in the coming of Jesus Christ, the hope of the world.
In His Name, Amen.
* * * * * * * * * *

Tags: , ,
Posted in Inspiration, Prayer | No Comments »

E. M. Bounds

Saturday, October 27th, 2012
I have recently been re-reading E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer. I read it when I was young and it had a great effect upon me. It is a small book of great power. Reading it again has blessed me to such a degree that I ordered his Complete Works on Prayer and am hungrily devouring it chapter by chapter each morning in my devotional time. I recommend it highly. Since I did not know much about Bounds I found the Wikipedia article on him illuminating. He married a lady from Washington, Georgia and spent his last years there writing his books. Here is the article. Read his books. They will electrify you and nourish your prayer life.
Edward McKendree Bounds
E.M. Bounds

Edward McKendree Bounds (circa 1864)
Born (1835-08-15)August 15, 1835
Died August 24, 1913(1913-08-24) (aged 78)
Occupation Methodist minister; evangelist; revivalist; author; army
chaplain; lawyer
Religion Methodist Episcopal Church, South
Spouse(s) Emma Elizabeth Barnett (m. 1876-1886); Harriet Elizabeth Barnett
(m. 1887-1913)
Edward McKendree Bounds ((1835-08-15)August 15, 1835 – August 24, 1913(1913-08-24) was a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church South and author of eleven books, nine of which focused on the subject of prayer.
Shortly after his father’s death in 1849, Edward, his eldest brother (Charles), and several other relatives joined a wagon train and traveled to Mesquite Canyon in California in hopes of making a fortune in gold mining. After four unsuccessful years, they returned to Missouri and Edward studied law in Hannibal, Missouri. He became the state’s youngest practicing lawyer at age nineteen.[4] Although apprenticed as an attorney, Bounds felt called to Christian ministry in his early twenties during the Third Great Awakening. Following a brush arbor revival meeting led by Evangelist Smith Thomas, he closed his law office and moved to Palmyra, Missouri to enroll in the Centenary Seminary. Two years later, in 1859 at the age of 24, he was ordained by his denomination and was named pastor of the nearby Monticello, Missouri Methodist Church.[5][6]
Civil War Chaplain
E.M. Bounds did not support slavery. But, because he was a pastor at a congregation in the recently formed Methodist Episcopal Church South, his name was included in a list of 250 names who were to take an oath of allegiance and post a $500 bond. Edward saw no reason for a U.S. Citizen to take such an oath, he was morally opposed to the Union raising funds in this way, and he didn’t have the $500.[7] Bounds and the others on the list were arrested in 1861 by Union troops, and Bounds was charged as a  Confederate sympathizer. He was held with other non-combatants in a Federal prison in St.Louis for a year and a half. He was then transferred to Memphis and released in a prisoner exchanged between the Union and the Confederacy.[8]
He became a chaplain in the Confederate States Army (3rd Missouri Infantry CSA).[9] During the Second Battle of Franklin, Bounds suffered a severe forehead injury from a Union saber, and he was taken prisoner. On June 28, 1865, Bounds was among Confederate prisoners who were released upon the taking of an oath of loyalty to the United States.[10]
Pastor and Author
Upon his release as a prisoner of the Union Army, he felt compelled to return to war-torn Franklin and help rebuild it spiritually, and he became the pastor of the Franklin Methodist Episcopal Church, South. His primary method was to establish weekly prayer sessions that sometimes lasted several hours. Bounds was regionally celebrated for leading spiritual revival in Franklin and eventually began an itinerant preaching ministry throughout the country.
After serving several important churches in St. Louis and other places, south, he became Editor of the St. Louis Christian Advocate for eight years and, later, Associate Editor of The Nashville Christian Advocate for four years. The trial of his faith came to him while in Nashville, and he quietly retired to his home without asking even a pension. His principal work in Washington, Georgia (his home) was rising at 4 am and praying until 7 am. He filled a few engagements as an evangelist during the eighteen years of his lifework. While on speaking engagements, he would not neglect his early morning time in prayer, and cared nothing for the protests of the other occupants of his room at being awakened so early. No man could have made more melting appeals for lost souls and backslidden ministers than did Bounds. Tears ran down his face as he pleaded for us all in that room.[11]
According to people who were constantly with him, in prayer and preaching, for eight years “Not a foolish word did we ever hear him utter. He was one of the most intense eagles of God that ever penetrated the spiritual ether. He could not brook delay in rising, or being late for dinner. He would go with me to street meetings often in Brooklyn and listen to the preaching and sing with us those beautiful songs of Wesley and Watts. He often reprimanded me for asking the unconverted to sing of Heaven. Said he: ‘They have no heart to sing, they do not know God, and God does not hear them. Quit asking sinners to sing the songs of Zion and the Lamb.’”
E.M. Bounds died on August 24, 1913 in Washington, Georgia.
Further reading
King, Darrel D. “E.M. Bounds  (Men of Faith)”, Bethany House, 1998.
Dorsett, Lyle W. “E. M. Bounds: Man of Prayer”, Zondervan (September 1991) (ISBN-10: 0310539315)
Bounds, E.M. “The Complete  Works of E. M. Bounds on Prayer:

Tags: ,
Posted in Discipleship, Inspiration, Ministry, Prayer, Results, Salvation, Witnessing | No Comments »

God in our life

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012

 

Reading Charles Spurgeon’s Autobiography I came across this memorable vignette that is as true today as when it was penned 150 years ago.

“The life of Jonah cannot be written without God; take God out of the prophet’s history, and there is no history to write. This is equally true of each one of us. Apart from God, there is no life, nor thought, nor act, nor career of any man, however lowly or however high. Leave out God, and you cannot write the story of anyone’s career. If you attempt it, it will be so ill-written that it shall be clearly perceived that you have tried to make bricks without straw, and that you have sought to fashion a potter’s vessel without clay. I believe that, in a man’s life, the great secret of strength, and holiness, and righteousness, is the acknowledgment of God. When a man has no fear of God before his eyes, there is no wonder that he shall run to an excess of meanness, and even to an excess of riot. In proportion as the thought of God dominates the mind, we may expect to find a life that shall be true, and really worth living; but in proportion as we forget God, we shall play the fool. It is the fool that says in his heart, ‘No God,’ and it is the fool who lives and acts as if there were no God. In every godly life there is a set time for each event; and there is no need to ask, ‘Why is the white here and the black there; why this gleam of sunlight and that roar of tempest; why here a marriage and there a funeral; why sometimes a harp and at other times a sackbut?’ God knows, and it is a great blessing for us when we leave it all in His hands.”

Tags:
Posted in Discipleship, Inspiration | No Comments »

Revival and Evangelism

Saturday, August 4th, 2012

At a time when there is much political talk during the election season, we must remember that lasting reform will only come when hearts and lives are touched and transformed by the Gospel. Let us pray for evangelism and revival. Our nation and culture need the Gospel of Jesus.

PRAYER FOR THE NATION

 We come to you Almighty God, the Judge of the nations, the Alpha and the Omega, Lord of the past, the present and the future, who is, and who was, and who is to come, to pray for the salvation of our nation.

We recognize great spiritual needs around us: there is much to distress and discourage us. There is unbelief, religious hyprocrisy, sexual immorality, unethical behavior, personal irresponsibility and failure of leadership.

We pray for a spiritual revival, for the raising up of authentic, faithful witnesses to your goodness and truth, for a turning of hearts to your Word, for the silencing of blasphemers, and those in our media and the arts who are responsible for leading impressionable minds into lives of violence, selfishness and promiscuity.

We pray that your Holy Spirit will so inspire and encourage the proclamation of the Gospel throughout the land that many lives may be touched and transformed, and your kingdom will advance in every community.

May marriage and family be honored. May the fruit of the Spirit flourish in all our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Arouse the careless and the indifferent, convict the sinful, humble the self-righteous, restore the fallen, stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the leaders of the earth. Amen.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Change, Community, Discipleship, Hope, Inspiration, Jesus, Ministry, Morality, Politics, Prayer, Salvation, The World | No Comments »

« Older Entries