Psalm 142, of David
I cry out to the Lord;
I plead for the Lord's mercy.
I pour out my complaints before him
and tell him all my troubles.
When I am overwhelmed,
you alone know the way I should turn.
Wherever I go,
my enemies have set traps for me.
I look for someone to come and help me,
but no one gives me a passing thought!
No one will help me;
no one cares a bit what happens to me.
The I pray to you, O Lord.
I say, "You are my place of refuge.
You are all I really want in life.
Hear my cry,
for I am very low.
Rescue me from my persecutors,
for they are too strong for me.
Bring me out of prison
so I can thank you.
The godly will crowd around me,
for you are good to me."
Monday, August 04, 2008
Things Heard... Monday morning...
Sooner or later I do trust that your best loved ones will understand and be in sympathy. It must have seemed strange to the angels when our Lord Jesus emptied Himself and came to earth, to live a poor man's life and die a felon's death. It must have hurt them too. I know this must have been a holy pain, but even so I think it could not have been easy for our Lord to let them suffer at all. And what of the Father's suffering? The only beloved Son could not lightly see His Father suffer as He gave Him up for us all. So He, Jesus your Lord, can enter into even this with you, and He does. And if He calls you into a new fellowship with Him in His suffering I know that you will not draw back.
'Across the will of nature
Leads on the path of God;
Not where the flesh delighteth
The feet of Jesus trod.'
'Oh Jesus, Thy care is not to make
The desert a waste no more,
But to keep our feet lest we miss the track
Where Thy feet went before.'
(Candles in the Dark, Amy Carmichael)
One morning I woke with these words on my lips: "We follow a stripped and crucified Saviour." Those words go very deep. They touch everything, one's outer life as well as one's inner; motives, purposes, decisions, everything. Let them be with you as you prepare for the new life. It is sure to have tests, unexpected tests as well as many an unexpected joy. But if you follow a stripped and crucified Saviour, and by the power of His resurrection seek to enter into the fellowship of His sufferings, you will go on in peace and be one of those blessed ones who spread peace all round.
Deep in me, Lord, mark Thou Thy holy cross,
On motives, choices, private dear desires;
Let all that self in any form inspires
Be unto me as dross.
And when Thy touch of death is here and there
Laid on a thing most precious in my eyes,
Let me not wonder, let me recognize
The answer to my prayer.
(Candles in the Dark, Amy Carmichael)
Isaiah 17:6-8a, 9b-11
"Only a few of it's people will be left,
like stray olives left on a tree after the harvest.
Only two or three remain in the highest branches,
four or five scattered here and there on the limbs,"
declares the Lord, the God of Israel.
Then at last the people will look to their Creator
and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel
They will no longer look to their idols for help
or worship what their own hands have made.
It will be utterly desolate.
Why? Because you have turned from the God who can save you.
You have forgotten the Rock who can hide you.
So you may plant the finest grapevines
and import the most expensive seedlings.
They may sprout on the day you set them out;
yes, they may blossom on the very morning you plant them,
but you will never pick any grapes from them.
Your only harvest will be a load of grief and unrelieved pain.
I find myself spending large chunks of this long weekend sitting, reading, praying, thinking. Slowly wading through things that have circled around inside of me for months. I hope to write a post containing my own words later today, or perhaps tomorrow, but in the meantime, I pray that these words that are speaking (though not always clearly) to my heart will rouse things in yours as well. (And I'd love to hear those things if you'd care to share them.)
'Across the will of nature
Leads on the path of God;
Not where the flesh delighteth
The feet of Jesus trod.'
'Oh Jesus, Thy care is not to make
The desert a waste no more,
But to keep our feet lest we miss the track
Where Thy feet went before.'
(Candles in the Dark, Amy Carmichael)
One morning I woke with these words on my lips: "We follow a stripped and crucified Saviour." Those words go very deep. They touch everything, one's outer life as well as one's inner; motives, purposes, decisions, everything. Let them be with you as you prepare for the new life. It is sure to have tests, unexpected tests as well as many an unexpected joy. But if you follow a stripped and crucified Saviour, and by the power of His resurrection seek to enter into the fellowship of His sufferings, you will go on in peace and be one of those blessed ones who spread peace all round.
Deep in me, Lord, mark Thou Thy holy cross,
On motives, choices, private dear desires;
Let all that self in any form inspires
Be unto me as dross.
And when Thy touch of death is here and there
Laid on a thing most precious in my eyes,
Let me not wonder, let me recognize
The answer to my prayer.
(Candles in the Dark, Amy Carmichael)
Isaiah 17:6-8a, 9b-11
"Only a few of it's people will be left,
like stray olives left on a tree after the harvest.
Only two or three remain in the highest branches,
four or five scattered here and there on the limbs,"
declares the Lord, the God of Israel.
Then at last the people will look to their Creator
and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel
They will no longer look to their idols for help
or worship what their own hands have made.
It will be utterly desolate.
Why? Because you have turned from the God who can save you.
You have forgotten the Rock who can hide you.
So you may plant the finest grapevines
and import the most expensive seedlings.
They may sprout on the day you set them out;
yes, they may blossom on the very morning you plant them,
but you will never pick any grapes from them.
Your only harvest will be a load of grief and unrelieved pain.
I find myself spending large chunks of this long weekend sitting, reading, praying, thinking. Slowly wading through things that have circled around inside of me for months. I hope to write a post containing my own words later today, or perhaps tomorrow, but in the meantime, I pray that these words that are speaking (though not always clearly) to my heart will rouse things in yours as well. (And I'd love to hear those things if you'd care to share them.)
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Things Heard...
I'm thinking much about baptism, about ritual, about the cross, about prayer, about life and death, about hope and hopelessness and redemption and resurrection...
Here are some bits and pieces from what I've been reading these last several days...
"Relying too heavily on our imagined ideas of God may weaken or distort our relationship with him." (The Sign of the Cross, Bert Ghezzi)
"When we invoke the Trinity, we fix our attention on the God who made us, not on the idea of God we have made." (The Sign of the Cross, Bert Ghezzi)
Screwtape speaking to Wormwood, advising the junior demon to encourage his "patient" to pray to the mental picture of God that he has constructed for himself:
"But whatever the nature of the composite object, you must keep him praying to it - to the thing that he has made, not to the Person who has made him. ...For if he ever comes to make the distinction, if ever he consciously directs his prayers "Not to what I think thou art but to what thou knowest thyself to be," our situation is, for the moment, desperate." (C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, in The Sign of the Cross, Bert Ghezzi)
"Every year on a Sunday in Lent millions of Catholics witness a striking reenactment of an ancient Christian ceremony. During Mass on that day, women and men who will be baptized at Easter are presented to the congregation. Their sponsors stand before them and claim them for Christ with the sign of the cross. The rite does not end once the sponsor has traced the little mark on his candidate's forehead. The sponsor then multiplies the sacred gesture, signing the candidate's eyes, ears, mouth, shoulders, hands and feet. Finally, in a magnificent climax, he makes the sign of the cross over the person's entire body." (The Sign of the Cross, Bert Ghezzi)
St. Cyril of Jerusalem on baptism:
"For by this immersion and rising you were both dying and being born. That water of salvation was at once your grave and your mother." (in The Sign of the Cross, Bert Ghezzi)
"Each time we trace the cross over our body, we ask the Lord to refresh the life in the Holy Spirit that we received in baptism." (The Sign of the Cross, Bert Ghezzi)
"As soon as the Redeemer had restored to us our liberty he marked us with his sign, the sign of the cross. So we bear on our forehead the same sign that is engraved on the doors of palaces. The Conqueror places it there so that all may know that he has reentered into possession of us, and that we are his palaces, his living temples." (St. Caesarius of Arles, in, The Sign of the Cross, Bert Ghezzi)
"This is the true meaning of self-denial: Jesus expects us to deny that we belong to ourselves and to declare that we belong to him." (The Sign of the Cross, Bert Ghezzi)
"It matters a good deal that your book-food should be strong meat. We are what we think about. Think about trivial things or weak things and somehow one loses fibre and becomes flabby in spirit." (Candles in the Dark, Amy Carmichael)
"Many of you are preparing for service. This is my word for you: Don't say 'It doesn't matter' about anything (except your own feelings), for everything matters. Everything is important, even the tiniest thing. If you do everything, whether great or small, for the sake of your Saviour and Lord, then you will be ready for whatever work He has chosen for you to do later." (Candles in the Dark, Amy Carmichael)
Isaiah 5: 18
What sorrow for those who drag their sins behind them
with ropes made of lies,
who drag wickedness behind them like a cart!
Isaiah 6:5
Then I said, "It's all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven's Armies."
Isaiah 8: 11-17 - A Call to Trust the Lord
The Lord has given me a strong warning not to think like everyone else does. He said,
"Don't call everything a conspiracy, like they do,
and don't live in dread of what frightens them.
Make the Lord of Heaven's Armies holy in your life.
He is the one you should fear,
He is the one who should make you tremble.
But to Israel and Judah
he will be a stone that makes people stumble,
a rock that makes them fall.
And for the people of Jerusalem
he will be a trap and a snare.
Many will stumble and fall,
never to rise again.
They will be snare and captured."
Preserve the teaching of God;
Entrust his instructions to those who follow me.
I will wit for the Lord,
who has turned away from the descendants of Jacob.
I will put my hope in him.
Isaiah 12:2-3
See, God has come to save me.
I will trust in him and not be afraid.
The Lord God is my strength and my song;
he has given me victory.
With joy you will drink deeply
from the fountain of salvation!
Here are some bits and pieces from what I've been reading these last several days...
"Relying too heavily on our imagined ideas of God may weaken or distort our relationship with him." (The Sign of the Cross, Bert Ghezzi)
"When we invoke the Trinity, we fix our attention on the God who made us, not on the idea of God we have made." (The Sign of the Cross, Bert Ghezzi)
Screwtape speaking to Wormwood, advising the junior demon to encourage his "patient" to pray to the mental picture of God that he has constructed for himself:
"But whatever the nature of the composite object, you must keep him praying to it - to the thing that he has made, not to the Person who has made him. ...For if he ever comes to make the distinction, if ever he consciously directs his prayers "Not to what I think thou art but to what thou knowest thyself to be," our situation is, for the moment, desperate." (C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, in The Sign of the Cross, Bert Ghezzi)
"Every year on a Sunday in Lent millions of Catholics witness a striking reenactment of an ancient Christian ceremony. During Mass on that day, women and men who will be baptized at Easter are presented to the congregation. Their sponsors stand before them and claim them for Christ with the sign of the cross. The rite does not end once the sponsor has traced the little mark on his candidate's forehead. The sponsor then multiplies the sacred gesture, signing the candidate's eyes, ears, mouth, shoulders, hands and feet. Finally, in a magnificent climax, he makes the sign of the cross over the person's entire body." (The Sign of the Cross, Bert Ghezzi)
St. Cyril of Jerusalem on baptism:
"For by this immersion and rising you were both dying and being born. That water of salvation was at once your grave and your mother." (in The Sign of the Cross, Bert Ghezzi)
"Each time we trace the cross over our body, we ask the Lord to refresh the life in the Holy Spirit that we received in baptism." (The Sign of the Cross, Bert Ghezzi)
"As soon as the Redeemer had restored to us our liberty he marked us with his sign, the sign of the cross. So we bear on our forehead the same sign that is engraved on the doors of palaces. The Conqueror places it there so that all may know that he has reentered into possession of us, and that we are his palaces, his living temples." (St. Caesarius of Arles, in, The Sign of the Cross, Bert Ghezzi)
"This is the true meaning of self-denial: Jesus expects us to deny that we belong to ourselves and to declare that we belong to him." (The Sign of the Cross, Bert Ghezzi)
"It matters a good deal that your book-food should be strong meat. We are what we think about. Think about trivial things or weak things and somehow one loses fibre and becomes flabby in spirit." (Candles in the Dark, Amy Carmichael)
"Many of you are preparing for service. This is my word for you: Don't say 'It doesn't matter' about anything (except your own feelings), for everything matters. Everything is important, even the tiniest thing. If you do everything, whether great or small, for the sake of your Saviour and Lord, then you will be ready for whatever work He has chosen for you to do later." (Candles in the Dark, Amy Carmichael)
Isaiah 5: 18
What sorrow for those who drag their sins behind them
with ropes made of lies,
who drag wickedness behind them like a cart!
Isaiah 6:5
Then I said, "It's all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven's Armies."
Isaiah 8: 11-17 - A Call to Trust the Lord
The Lord has given me a strong warning not to think like everyone else does. He said,
"Don't call everything a conspiracy, like they do,
and don't live in dread of what frightens them.
Make the Lord of Heaven's Armies holy in your life.
He is the one you should fear,
He is the one who should make you tremble.
But to Israel and Judah
he will be a stone that makes people stumble,
a rock that makes them fall.
And for the people of Jerusalem
he will be a trap and a snare.
Many will stumble and fall,
never to rise again.
They will be snare and captured."
Preserve the teaching of God;
Entrust his instructions to those who follow me.
I will wit for the Lord,
who has turned away from the descendants of Jacob.
I will put my hope in him.
Isaiah 12:2-3
See, God has come to save me.
I will trust in him and not be afraid.
The Lord God is my strength and my song;
he has given me victory.
With joy you will drink deeply
from the fountain of salvation!
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Cue the odd looks...
Okay, are you ready? You're ready to look at me with that "she's slightly odd" look on your face?
I spent the morning in a cemetery. Voluntarily. And it was fantastic.
There wasn't a funeral to attend. No one I know is buried in that particular cemetery.
There was just a strong pull to be there. So I spent an hour wandering, walking, praying, taking photos, reading gravestone inscriptions.
And then another hour sitting quietly and writing.
I'm not going to give you details, but it was a very good morning. Much needed. And I'm glad I followed the prompting I woke up with to go and explore a cemetery I've been wanting to visit for a couple of years.
I spent the morning in a cemetery. Voluntarily. And it was fantastic.
There wasn't a funeral to attend. No one I know is buried in that particular cemetery.
There was just a strong pull to be there. So I spent an hour wandering, walking, praying, taking photos, reading gravestone inscriptions.
And then another hour sitting quietly and writing.
I'm not going to give you details, but it was a very good morning. Much needed. And I'm glad I followed the prompting I woke up with to go and explore a cemetery I've been wanting to visit for a couple of years.
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