‘You sent help more than once.’

(Php 4:16-17) Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again. 17 Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. ESV

     Charles Swindoll tells the story of the giving tree: ‘When the boy was young he swung from the tree’s branches, ate her apples, and slept in her shade…But as he grew up he spent less and less time with the tree. “Come on, let’s play,” said the tree. But the young man was only interested in money. “Then take all my apples and sell them,” said the tree. The man did, and the tree was happy. He didn’t return for a long time, but the tree smiled when he passed by one day. “Come on, let’s play!” But the man, older and tired of the world, wanted to get away from it all. “Cut me down. Take my trunk, make a boat, then you can sail away,” said the tree. The man did, and the tree was happy. Many seasons passed – and the tree waited. Finally the man returned, too old to play, or pursue riches, or sail the seas. “I have a pretty good stump left. Sit down here and rest,” said the tree. The man did, and the tree was happy.’ Swindoll continues: ‘I stared into the fire, reviewing my life as I grew older with the tree and the boy. I identified with both – and it hurt. How many giving trees have there been? How many people have given themselves so I might grow, accomplish my goals, and find wholeness and satisfaction? Thank you, Lord, for each one. That night I crawled into bed. I had wept, now I was smiling. “Good night, Lord.” I was a humble man. Thankful I’d taken time to reflect.’ Paul remembered those who helped him – and so should you.

Leviticus 17-18
Matthew 27:27-50

UCB The Word For Today

     George Washington was born this day, February 22, 1732. In his Inaugural Address, he said: “It would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe.” Washington continued: “ ‘No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of Providential agency.”

American Minute

     "See how these Christians love one another" might well have been a spontaneous exclamation in the days of the apostles. The Holy Fellowship, the Blessed Community has always astonished those who stood without it. The sharing of physical goods in the primitive church is only an outcropping of a profoundly deeper sharing of a Life, the base and center of which is obscured, to those who are still oriented about self, rather than about God. To others, tragic to say, the very existence of such a Fellowship within a common Life and Love is unknown and unguessed. In its place, psychological and humanistic views of the essential sociality and gregariousness of man seek to provide ,a social theory of church memo bership. From these views spring church programs of mere sociability and social contacts. The precious word Fellowship becomes identified with a purely horizontal relation of man to man, not with that horizontal-vertical relationship of man to man in God.

     But every period of profound re-discovery of God's joyous immediacy is a period of emergence of this amazing group inter-knittedness of God-enthralled men and women who know one another in Him. It appeared in vivid form among the early Friends. The early days of the Evangelical movement showed the same bondedness in love. The disclosure of God normally brings the disclosure of the Fellowship. We don't create it deliberately; we find it and we find ourselves increasingly within it as we find ourselves increasingly within Him. It is the holy matrix of "the communion of the saints," the body of Christ which is His church. William C. Braithwaite says in the Rowntree Series, that it was a tragic day when the Quakers ceased to be a Fellowship and became a Society of Friends. Yet ever within that Society, and ever within the Christian church, has existed the Holy Fellowship, the Blessed Community, an ekklesiola in ekklesia, a little church within the church.

     Yet still more astonishing is the Holy Fellowship, the Blessed Community, to those who are within it. Yet can one be surprised at being at home? In wonder and awe we find ourselves already interknit within unofficial groups of kindred souls. A "chance" conversation comes, and in a few moments we know that we have found and have been found by another member of the Blessed Community. Sometimes we are thus suddenly knit together in the bonds of a love far faster than those of many years' acquaintance. In unbounded eagerness we seek for more such fellowship, and wonder at the apparent lethargy of mere "members."

     In the Fellowship cultural and educational and national and racial differences are leveled. Unlettered men are at ease with the truly humble scholar who lives in the Life, and the scholar listens with joy and openness to the precious experiences of God's dealing with the workingman. We find men with chilly theologies but with glowing hearts. We overleap the boundaries of church membership and find Lutherans and Roman Catholics, Jews and Christians, within the Fellowship. We re-read the poets and the saints, and the Fellowship is enlarged. With urgent hunger we read the Scriptures, with no thought of pious exercise, but in order to find more friends for the soul. We brush past our historical learning in the Scriptures, to seize upon those writers who lived in the Center, in the Life and in the Power. Particularly does devotional literature become illuminated, for the Imitation of Christ, and Augustine's Confessions, and Brother Lawrence's Practice of the Presence of God speak the language of the souls who live at the Center. Time telescopes and vanishes, centuries and creeds are overleaped. The incident of death puts no boundaries to the Blessed Community, wherein men live and love and work and pray in that Life and Power which gave forth the Scriptures. And we wonder and grieve at the overwhelmingly heady preoccupation of religious people with problems, problems, unless they have first come into the Fellowship of the Light.

A Testament of Devotion

Are we detached enough from our own spiritual hysterics
to wait on God?
To wait is not to sit with folded hands,
but to learn to do what we are told.
--- Oswald Chambers

     Chapter IV.

     1757, 1758. Visit to the Families of Friends at Burlington -- Journey to Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina -- Considerations on the State of Friends there, and the Exercise he was under in Travelling among those so generally concerned in keeping Slaves, with some Observations on this Subject -- Epistle to Friends at New Garden and Crane Creek -- Thoughts on the Neglect of a Religious Care in the Education of the Negroes.

     THIRTEENTH fifth month, 1757. -- Being in good health, and abroad with Friends visiting families, I lodged at a Friend's house in Burlington. Going to bed about the time usual with me, I awoke in the night, and my meditations, as I lay, were on the goodness and mercy of the Lord, in a sense whereof my heart was contrited. After this I went to sleep again; in a short time I awoke; it was yet dark, and no appearance of day or moonshine, and as I opened mine eyes I saw a light in my chamber, at the apparent distance of five feet, about nine inches in diameter, of a clear, easy brightness, and near its centre the most radiant. As I lay still looking upon it without any surprise, words were spoken to my inward ear, which filled my whole inward man. They were not the effect of thought, nor any conclusion in relation to the appearance, but as the language of the Holy One spoken in my mind. The words were, CERTAIN EVIDENCE OF DIVINE TRUTH. They were again repeated exactly in the same manner, and then the light disappeared.

     Feeling the exercise in relation to a visit to the Southern Provinces to increase upon me, I acquainted our Monthly Meeting therewith, and obtained their certificate. Expecting to go alone, one of my brothers who lived in Philadelphia, having some business in North Carolina, proposed going with me part of the way; but as he had a view of some outward affairs, to accept of him as a companion was some difficulty with me, whereupon I had conversation with him at sundry times. At length feeling easy in my mind, I had conversation with several elderly Friends of Philadelphia on the subject, and he obtaining a certificate suitable to the occasion, we set off in the fifth month, 1757. Coming to Nottingham week-day meeting, we lodged at John Churchman's, where I met with our friend, Benjamin Buffington, from New England, who was returning from a visit to the Southern Provinces. Thence we crossed the river Susquehanna, and lodged at William Cox's in Maryland.

     Soon after I entered this province a deep and painful exercise came upon me, which I often had some feeling of, since my mind was drawn toward these parts, and with which I had acquainted my brother before we agreed to join as companions. As the people in this and the Southern Provinces live much on the labor of slaves, many of whom are used hardly, my concern was that I might attend with singleness of heart to the voice of the true Shepherd and be so supported as to remain unmoved at the faces of men.

     As it is common for Friends on such a visit to have entertainment free of cost, a difficulty arose in my mind with respect to saving my money by kindness received from what appeared to me to be the gain of oppression. Receiving a gift, considered as a gift, brings the receiver under obligations to the benefactor, and has a natural tendency to draw the obliged into a party with the giver. To prevent difficulties of this kind, and to preserve the minds of judges from any bias, was that Divine prohibition: "Thou shalt not receive any gift; for a gift bindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous." (Exod. xxiii. 8.) As the disciples were sent forth without any provision for their journey, and our Lord said the workman is worthy of his meat, their labor in the gospel was considered as a reward for their entertainment, and therefore not received as a gift; yet, in regard to my present journey, I could not see my way clear in that respect. The difference appeared thus: the entertainment the disciples met with was from them whose hearts God had opened to receive them, from a love to them and the truth they published; but we, considered as members of the same religious society, look upon it as a piece of civility to receive each other in such visits; and such receptions, at times, is partly in regard to reputation, and not from an inward unity of heart and spirit. Conduct is more convincing than language, and where people, by their actions, manifest that the slave-trade is not so disagreeable to their principles but that it may be encouraged, there is not a sound uniting with some Friends who visit them.

     The prospect of so weighty a work, and of being so distinguished from many whom I esteemed before myself, brought me very low, and such were the conflicts of my soul that I had a near sympathy with the Prophet, in the time of his weakness, when he said: "If thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, if I have found favor in thy sight." (Num. xi. 15.) But I soon saw that this proceeded from the want of a full resignation to the Divine will. Many were the afflictions which attended me, and in great abasement, with many tears, my cries were to the Almighty for his gracious and fatherly assistance, and after a time of deep trial I was favored to understand the state mentioned by the Psalmist more clearly than ever I had done before; to wit: "My soul is even as a weaned child." (Psalm cxxxi. 2.) Being thus helped to sink down into resignation, I felt a deliverance from that tempest in which I had been sorely exercised, and in calmness of mind went forward, trusting that the Lord Jesus Christ, as I faithfully attended to him, would be a counselor to me in all difficulties, and that by His strength I should be enabled even to leave money with the members of society where I had entertainment, when I found that omitting it would obstruct that work to which I believed He had called me. As I copy this after my return, I may here add, that oftentimes I did so under a sense of duty. The way in which I did it was thus: when I expected soon to leave a Friend's house where I had entertainment, if I believed that I should not keep clear from the gain of oppression without leaving money, I spoke to one of the heads of the family privately, and desired them to accept of those pieces of silver, and give them to such of their negroes as they believed would make the best use of them; and at other times I gave them to the negroes myself, as the way looked clearest to me. Before I came out, I had provided a large number of small pieces for this purpose and thus offering them to some who appeared to be wealthy people was a trial both to me and them. But the fear of the Lord so covered me at times that my way was made easier than I expected; and few, if any, manifested any resentment at the offer, and most of them, after some conversation, accepted of them.

John Woolman's Journal

                The discipline of spiritual tenacity

     Be still, and know that I am God. --- Psalm 46:10.

     Tenacity is more than endurance, it is endurance combined with the absolute certainty that what we are looking for is going to transpire. Tenacity is more than hanging on, which may be but the weakness of being too afraid to fall off. Tenacity is the supreme effort of a man refusing to believe that his hero is going to be conquered. The greatest fear a disciple has is not that he will be damned, but that Jesus Christ will be worsted, that the things He stood for—love and justice and forgiveness and kindness among men—will not win out in the end; the things He stands for look like will-o’-the-wisps. Then comes the call to spiritual tenacity, not to hang on and do nothing, but to work deliberately on the certainty that God is not going to be worsted.

     If our hopes are being disappointed just now, it means that they are being purified. There is nothing noble the human mind has ever hoped for or dreamed of that will not be fulfilled. One of the greatest strains in life is the strain of waiting for God. “Because thou hast kept the word of My patience.”

     Remain spiritually tenacious.

My Utmost for His Highest

                Prayer

Baudelaire's grave
not too far
from the tree of science.
Mine, too,
since I sought and failed
to steal from it,
somewhere within sight
of the tree of poetry
that is eternity wearing
the green leaves of time.

Selected poems, 1946-1968

     There was the eager disciple (v. 57) who volunteered to follow Jesus anywhere—till Jesus warned that discipleship might be uncomfortable. There was the reluctant disciple (v. 59) who, when commanded to follow, wanted to wait until his father had died and been buried! Jesus rejected the excuse. “Go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” There is no evidence that this reluctant disciple obeyed.

     There was also the someday disciple (v. 61), who wanted only a little time. Just to say good-bye to the home folks. Then, someday soon, he would follow. This too was unsatisfactory.

     You see, what Jesus seeks is the now disciple (v. 62). Jesus wants the person who will put his or her hand to the plow and, without looking back, move straight out to do God’s will.

     The figure of the plowman is succinct. As a teen, I plowed with an old one-horse hand plow, settling the reins around my shoulders, grasping the handles firmly, struggling to hold the blade level and steady, to make an even furrow. As the first furrow was cut into the virgin ground, I picked out a pair of marks at the far end of the field to line up carefully. If I looked back, the plow wandered, and the furrow snaked off across the field. Only by looking ahead, with eyes fixed on my guiding marks, could I do my job.

     This is what Jesus asks of us. To fix our eyes ahead, on Him, and not to look back. We are to take the plow, now, and commit ourselves to His task.

     The Talmud was originally an “oral law:” it was for a long rime memorized and passed on, without being written down. This necessitated a terse, sparse style that could be committed to memory and easily recalled. Thus, more was left unsaid in a discussion than was actually expressed. The Rabbis who taught and transmitted these statements knew their own intent; they could elucidate their brief teachings with precise explanations and extensive commentaries. However, once the Oral Torah was written down and the original teachers passed from the scene, there could never be total certainty as to what the text actually meant. In some ways, studying Talmud is like playing a 2,000-year-old game of “Telephone,” where one person whispers a message to a second, who whispers it to a third: We try to make sense of a communication that sometimes seems incomprehensible.

     A common difficulty is found in an extended debate or conversation. Two Rabbis argue back and forth, sometimes in multiple exchanges. But instead of identifying the speaker at each stage, the Gemara simply notes “He said …” and “he said …”. It requires the concentration of a chess-master to follow each move, and to keep track of who is saying what.

     Western civilization is much beholden to Greek values, philosophy, and thought. The Greek approach to logic, exemplified by the “outline form”—is the one we have been inculcated with in all of our educational endeavors. We move from the general to the specific, from the simple to the complex, starting at the “beginning,” moving to the “middle,” and finishing up at the “end.” At any given point we know where we are, where we’ve been, and where we are headed.

     Rabbinic logic is of a totally different nature. It does not function on the same horizontal (beginning to end) or vertical (bottom to top) planes. A circle is a more appropriate model: Without beginning or end, going on eternally. (Consider the Jewish custom of finishing the yearly reading of the Torah and then immediately beginning the cycle all over again.) You can start learning Talmud with any text. You break into the circle at any point and then move on from there.

     While western logic assumes you know only what you have been taught previously, rabbinic logic works under the assumption that you are already familiar with everything the Rabbis are discussing. This requires the learner to stop frequently along the way, to pause, and “catch up” by looking up and learning another source or concept before being able to continue. In some sense, it is like learning to swim by being thrown into the deep end of the pool. At first it’s a struggle to even stay afloat. But after a while, you find yourself navigating quite freely and capably in even the most difficult conditions. This means, however, that you can’t go very quickly. The Talmud cannot be “read”; it is learned, slowly, methodically, and thoroughly, step by step.

     The Rabbis operated on the “logic of association.” One idea brings to mind a second, and that leads us to a third. For example, early in Masekhet Shabbat, there is a discussion about candle lighting at the onset of the Sabbath. That leads the Rabbis to consider candle lighting for the festival of Hanukkah. Once involved in the laws of lighting the candles, the Rabbis move on to discuss the origin and meaning of Hanukkah. When the topic of Hanukkah is completed, the Gemara returns to its original subject, Shabbat, as if saying, “Oh yes, where were we?” Going off on tangents is typical of the Talmud. We are thus taught: No topic is off-limits. Everything in the Talmud—and in life—is interrelated and interdependent. Every text is “relevant” and personal because any text can and does lead us into any and every subject.

     "In expressing his view regarding a whole series of religious practices that were then entirely optional, Rabbi Jose, a second-century Talmudic sage, said, “Let my lot (meaning in this life and in the afterlife) be with those who complete Hallel every day” (Shabbat 118b). The Talmud then proceeds to explain that Rabbi Jose was not referring to the group of psalms that we designate today as Hallel and recite only on holidays, but to the groups of psalms that we say every day, and call Pesukei d’ Zimra. This is known as “the daily hallel.”

     This remained an entirely optional part of the service for a long time, as a sort of voluntary offering. Saadia Gaon explained it this way: “Our nation willingly offered to read songs and praises to the Holy One, blessed be He … “ Maimonides put it this way: “The sages regarded as praise worthy those who every day read the psalms from Tehilah l’David (Psalm 145) until the end of the book (Psalm 150) … (Hil. Tefilah 7:12). It was said mainly by pious individuals who were meticulous about putting themselves into the proper spirit for the obligatory prayers (Berakhot 5:1).”

To Pray As A Jew: A Guide To The Prayer Book And The Synagogue Service

Great Is the LORD
145  A SONG OF PRAISE. OF DAVID.

1  I will extol you, my God and King,
     and bless your name forever and ever.
2  Every day I will bless you
     and praise your name forever and ever.
3  Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised,
     and his greatness is unsearchable.

4  One generation shall commend your works to another,
     and shall declare your mighty acts.
5  On the glorious splendor of your majesty,
     and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
6  They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds,
     and I will declare your greatness.
7  They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness
     and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

8  The LORD is gracious and merciful,
     slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9  The LORD is good to all,
     and his mercy is over all that he has made.

10  All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD,
     and all your saints shall bless you!
11  They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom
     and tell of your power,
12  to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds,
     and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
13  Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
     and your dominion endures throughout all generations.

[The LORD is faithful in all his words
     and kind in all his works.]
14  The LORD upholds all who are falling
     and raises up all who are bowed down.
15  The eyes of all look to you,
     and you give them their food in due season.
16  You open your hand;
     you satisfy the desire of every living thing.
17  The LORD is righteous in all his ways
     and kind in all his works.
18  The LORD is near to all who call on him,
     to all who call on him in truth.
19  He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;
     he also hears their cry and saves them.
20  The LORD preserves all who love him,
     but all the wicked he will destroy.

21  My mouth will speak the praise of the LORD,
     and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.

Put Not Your Trust in Princes
146 Praise the LORD!

Praise the LORD, O my soul!
2  I will praise the LORD as long as I live;
     I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

3  Put not your trust in princes,
     in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
4  When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;
     on that very day his plans perish.

5  Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
     whose hope is in the LORD his God,
6  who made heaven and earth,
     the sea, and all that is in them,
     who keeps faith forever;
7  who executes justice for the oppressed,
     who gives food to the hungry.

     The LORD sets the prisoners free;
8  the LORD opens the eyes of the blind.
     The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;
     the LORD loves the righteous.
9  The LORD watches over the sojourners;
     he upholds the widow and the fatherless,
     but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

10  The LORD will reign forever,
     your God, O Zion, to all generations.
     Praise the LORD!

He Heals the Brokenhearted
147 Praise the LORD!

For it is good to sing praises to our God;
for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.
2  The LORD builds up Jerusalem;
he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
3  He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
4  He determines the number of the stars;
he gives to all of them their names.
5  Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
his understanding is beyond measure.
6  The LORD lifts up the humble;
he casts the wicked to the ground.

7  Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving;
make melody to our God on the lyre!
8  He covers the heavens with clouds;
he prepares rain for the earth;
he makes grass grow on the hills.
9  He gives to the beasts their food,
and to the young ravens that cry.
10  His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,
11  but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him,
in those who hope in his steadfast love.

12  Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem!
Praise your God, O Zion!
13  For he strengthens the bars of your gates;
he blesses your children within you.
14  He makes peace in your borders;
he fills you with the finest of the wheat.
15  He sends out his command to the earth;
his word runs swiftly.
16  He gives snow like wool;
he scatters frost like ashes.
17  He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs;
who can stand before his cold?
18  He sends out his word, and melts them;
he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.
19  He declares his word to Jacob,
his statutes and rules to Israel.
20  He has not dealt thus with any other nation;
they do not know his rules.
Praise the LORD!

Praise the Name of the LORD
148 Praise the LORD!

Praise the LORD from the heavens;
praise him in the heights!
2  Praise him, all his angels;
praise him, all his hosts!

3  Praise him, sun and moon,
praise him, all you shining stars!
4  Praise him, you highest heavens,
and you waters above the heavens!

5  Let them praise the name of the LORD!
For he commanded and they were created.
6  And he established them forever and ever;
he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away.

7  Praise the LORD from the earth,
you great sea creatures and all deeps,
8  fire and hail, snow and mist,
stormy wind fulfilling his word!

9  Mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars!
10  Beasts and all livestock,
creeping things and flying birds!

11  Kings of the earth and all peoples,
princes and all rulers of the earth!
12  Young men and maidens together,
old men and children!

13  Let them praise the name of the LORD,
for his name alone is exalted;
his majesty is above earth and heaven.
14  He has raised up a horn for his people,
praise for all his saints,
for the people of Israel who are near to him.
Praise the LORD!

Sing to the LORD a New Song
149 Praise the LORD!

Sing to the LORD a new song,
his praise in the assembly of the godly!
2  Let Israel be glad in his Maker;
let the children of Zion rejoice in their King!
3  Let them praise his name with dancing,
making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!
4  For the LORD takes pleasure in his people;
he adorns the humble with salvation.
5  Let the godly exult in glory;
let them sing for joy on their beds.
6  Let the high praises of God be in their throats
and two-edged swords in their hands,
7  to execute vengeance on the nations
and punishments on the peoples,
8  to bind their kings with chains
and their nobles with fetters of iron,
9  to execute on them the judgment written!
This is honor for all his godly ones.
Praise the LORD!

Let Everything Praise the LORD
150 Praise the LORD!

Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens!
2  Praise him for his mighty deeds;
praise him according to his excellent greatness!

3  Praise him with trumpet sound;
praise him with lute and harp!
4  Praise him with tambourine and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe!
5  Praise him with sounding cymbals;
praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
6  Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!
Praise the LORD!

     Book One / Thoughts Helpful In The Life Of The Soul

     The Twenty-Second Chapter / Thoughts On The Misery Of Man

     WHEREVER you are, wherever you go, you are miserable unless you turn to God. So why be dismayed when things do not happen as you wish and desire? Is there anyone who has everything as he wishes? No—neither I, nor you, nor any man on earth. There is no one in the world, be he Pope or king, who does not suffer trial and anguish.

     Who is the better off then? Surely, it is the man who will suffer something for God. Many unstable and weak-minded people say: “See how well that man lives, how rich, how great he is, how powerful and mighty.” But you must lift up your eyes to the riches of heaven and realize that the material goods of which they speak are nothing. These things are uncertain and very burdensome because they are never possessed without anxiety and fear. Man’s happiness does not consist in the possession of abundant goods; a very little is enough.

     Living on earth is truly a misery. The more a man desires spiritual life, the more bitter the present becomes to him, because he understands better and sees more clearly the defects, the corruption of human nature. To eat and drink, to watch and sleep, to rest, to labor, and to be bound by other human necessities is certainly a great misery and affliction to the devout man, who would gladly be released from them and be free from all sin. Truly, the inner man is greatly burdened in this world by the necessities of the body, and for this reason the Prophet prayed that he might be as free from them as possible, when he said: “From my necessities, O Lord, deliver me.” (Psalm 25:17)

     But woe to those who know not their own misery, and greater woe to those who love this miserable and corruptible life. Some, indeed, can scarcely procure its necessities either by work or by begging; yet they love it so much that, if they could live here always, they would care nothing for the kingdom of God.

     How foolish and faithless of heart are those who are so engrossed in earthly things as to relish nothing but what is carnal! Miserable men indeed, for in the end they will see to their sorrow how cheap and worthless was the thing they loved.

     The saints of God and all devout friends of Christ did not look to what pleases the body nor to the things that are popular from time to time. Their whole hope and aim centered on the everlasting good. Their whole desire pointed upward to the lasting and invisible realm, lest the love of what is visible drag them down to lower things.

     Do not lose heart, then, my brother, in pursuing your spiritual life. There is yet time, and your hour is not past. Why delay your purpose? Arise! Begin at once and say: “Now is the time to act, now is the time to fight, now is the proper time to amend.”

     When you are troubled and afflicted, that is the time to gain merit. You must pass through water and fire before coming to rest. Unless you do violence to yourself you will not overcome vice.

     So long as we live in this fragile body, we can neither be free from sin nor live without weariness and sorrow. Gladly would we rest from all misery, but in losing innocence through sin we also lost true blessedness. Therefore, we must have patience and await the mercy of God until this iniquity passes, until mortality is swallowed up in life.

     How great is the frailty of human nature which is ever prone to evil! Today you confess your sins and tomorrow you again commit the sins which you confessed. One moment you resolve to be careful, and yet after an hour you act as though you had made no resolution.

     We have cause, therefore, because of our frailty and feebleness, to humble ourselves and never think anything great of ourselves. Through neglect we may quickly lose that which by God’s grace we have acquired only through long, hard labor. What, eventually, will become of us who so quickly grow lukewarm? Woe to us if we presume to rest in peace and security when actually there is no true holiness in our lives. It would be beneficial for us, like good novices, to be instructed once more in the principles of a good life, to see if there be hope of amendment and greater spiritual progress in the future.

The Imitation Of Christ

     You yourselves are God’s temple and God’s Spirit lives in you. 1 Corinthians 3:16.

     Doubtless the church is the kingdom, the home, the temple of the Spirit; but how? ( Sermons, preached before the University of Oxford ) The Spirit governing the church is not like a human monarch, controlling his or her subjects, so to speak, as a force above and outside them. The Spirit is not only an atmosphere in which the church’s members move and breathe. He is not any merely external power or influence. The presence of the Spirit in the church is realized by his presence in the separate souls of her children. He is given without measure to the whole because he is given in a measure to each. Although he lives in souls because he lives in the church, yet the collective church is the temple of deity because the souls of regenerated Christians are already so many tenements in which the Heavenly Guest deigns to tarry and to bless.

     The presence on which he insists is ultimately a presence in the individual. Such was to be the law of the messianic kingdom: each of its subjects was to be gifted with an inward presence of the Holy One.

     The [Spirit’s] presence carries with it the gift of a new nature, the nature of God’s sinless Son. Along with this Spirit comes the gift of a new moral being, a new capacity and direction to the affections and the will, a clear perception of the truth by the renewed intelligence. And it becomes us today to remember that this gift dates from the morning of the first Christian Pentecost.

     That intimate, absorbing, transforming gift of himself by God presupposes a recipient unlike all creatures that merely grow and feel, while they are incapable of reflective thought and self-determination. The human being, as an immortal spirit, is the temple of God. But how the divine Spirit enters into the human, who will say? But just so far as we bear constantly in mind the immateriality of our real selves can we understand the high privilege to which we are called in Christ. The presence of the Spirit, having its seat in the immortal human spirit, is inseparable from the presence of the incarnate Christ. This sanctification of the Christian’s whole being radiates from the sanctification of the inmost self-consciousness, involving the self-dedication to God of that imperishable center of life, that “I,” which is at the root of all feeling and all thought, which is each person’s true, indivisible, inmost self.
--- H. P. Liddon

Take Heart: Daily Devotions with the Church's Great Preachers

     In Europe at the turn of the thirteenth century hundreds of great Gothic cathedrals were erected, among them the famous Notre Dame in Paris. A young man, studying at the University of Paris, watched with interest. He listened to reports of crusader armies and discussed theology with his fellow students. They didn’t dream he was destined to become the most powerful man in the world.

     He was Giovanni Lotario de’ Conti, and his interests were law and theology. Then he entered the service of the church. On February 22, 1198, at the young age of 37, he was consecrated pope, and immediately chose the name Innocent III.

     The new pope wanted the papacy to reflect the mysterious majesty and Gothic splendor of the new cathedrals like Notre Dame, and he set out at once to become absolute ruler over both church and state. He wrote to kings, princes, scholars, and universities, seeking to influence events in Europe. He organized new crusades to capture the Holy Land. He identified heresy and worked hard to root it out. He massacred dissenters. He expanded papal control of central Italy. He involved himself in the selection of kings and emperors. He forced King Philip II to return to his wife. He brought England’s King John to his knees. In one way or another, he dominated the leaders of Europe, insisting that he was their spiritual leader.

     Pope Innocent also made his mark on church dogma. In 1215 he convened the Fourth Lateran Council in Rome. The council issued 70 pronouncements, the most significant involving the Lord’s Supper. The council decreed that the elements of the Eucharist actually possess the substance of the body and blood of Christ, a doctrine known as transubstantiation.

     Pope Innocent died in 1216 at age 56. “No other mortal,” wrote one historian, “has before or since wielded such power.”

     He had gained the whole world.

     What will you gain, if you own the whole world but destroy yourself? What would you give to get back your soul?
--- Matthew 16:26.

On This Day 365 Amazing And Inspiring Stories About Saints, Martyrs And Heroes

          Morning - February 22

     “His bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.” --- Genesis 49:24.

     That strength which God gives to his Josephs is real strength; it is not a boasted valour, a fiction, a thing of which men talk, but which ends in smoke; it is true—divine strength. Why does Joseph stand against temptation? Because God gives him aid. There is nought that we can do without the power of God. All true strength comes from “the mighty God of Jacob.” Notice in what a blessedly familiar way God gives this strength to Joseph—“The arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.” Thus God is represented as putting his hands on Joseph’s hands, placing his arms on Joseph’s arms. Like as a father teaches his children, so the Lord teaches them that fear him. He puts his arms upon them. Marvellous condescension! God Almighty, Eternal, Omnipotent, stoops from his throne and lays his hand upon the child’s hand, stretching his arm upon the arm of Joseph, that he may be made strong! This strength was also covenant strength, for it is ascribed to “the mighty God of Jacob.” Now, wherever you read of the God of Jacob in the Bible, you should remember the covenant with Jacob. Christians love to think of God’s covenant. All the power, all the grace, all the blessings, all the mercies, all the comforts, all the things we have, flow to us from the well-head, through the covenant. If there were no covenant, then we should fail indeed; for all grace proceeds from it, as light and heat from the sun. No angels ascend or descend, save upon that ladder which Jacob saw, at the top of which stood a covenant God. Christian, it may be that the archers have sorely grieved you, and shot at you, and wounded you, but still your bow abides in strength; be sure, then, to ascribe all the glory to Jacob’s God.


          Evening - February 22

     “The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power.” --- Nahum 1:3.

     Jehovah “is slow to anger.” When mercy cometh into the world she driveth winged steeds; the axles of her chariot-wheels are red hot with speed; but when wrath goeth forth, it toileth on with tardy footsteps, for God taketh no pleasure in the sinner’s death. God’s rod of mercy is ever in his hands outstretched; his sword of justice is in its scabbard, held down by that pierced hand of love which bled for the sins of men. “The Lord is slow to anger,” because he is GREAT IN POWER. He is truly great in power who hath power over himself. When God’s power doth restrain himself, then it is power indeed: the power that binds omnipotence is omnipotence surpassed. A man who has a strong mind can bear to be insulted long, and only resents the wrong when a sense of right demands his action. The weak mind is irritated at a little: the strong mind bears it like a rock which moveth not, though a thousand breakers dash upon it, and cast their pitiful malice in spray upon its summit. God marketh his enemies, and yet he bestirs not himself, but holdeth in his anger. If he were less divine than he is, he would long ere this have sent forth the whole of his thunders, and emptied the magazines of heaven; he would long ere this have blasted the earth with the wondrous fires of its lower regions, and man would have been utterly destroyed; but the greatness of his power brings us mercy. Dear reader, what is your state this evening? Can you by humble faith look to Jesus, and say, “My substitute, thou art my rock, my trust”? Then, beloved, be not afraid of God’s power; for by faith you have fled to Christ for refuge, the power of God need no more terrify you, than the shield and sword of the warrior need terrify those whom he loves. Rather rejoice that he who is “great in power” is your Father and Friend.

Morning and Evening

          THEY’LL KNOW WE ARE CHRISTIANS BY OUR LOVE

     Words and Music by Peter Scholtes, 1938–

     A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. All men will know that you are My disciples if you love one another.
(John 13:34, 35)

     It’s easy to talk sentimentally about love. It’s much more difficult to apply it to needy people and situations. The Scriptures clearly teach, however, that the proof of God’s presence within our lives is our willingness to share His love with humanity. The earthly badge of our heavenly citizenship is our love relationship with others.

     A life of love is a deliberate choice on our part. We must choose this lifestyle against our natural bent for self-centeredness. Soon, with the Holy Spirit’s enablement, our new life of love becomes a natural behavior. Then the emotional feelings of inner fulfillment follow. Responding to the needs of others will never be a duty; rather it should be a privilege of normal Christian living. Our love in action will bring joy to a brother or sister in Christ and even show nonbelievers that we are Christians not only in name but in deed as well.

     We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord, we are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord, and we pray that all unity may one day be restored: And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love; Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.
     We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand, we will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand, and together we’ll spread the news that God is in our land: And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love; Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.
     We will work with each other, we will work side by side, we will work with each other, we will work side by side, and we’ll guard each man’s dignity and save each man’s pride: And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love; Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.
     All praise to the Father, from whom all things come, and all praise to Christ Jesus, His only Son, and all praise to the Spirit, who makes us one: And they’ll know we are Christians by our love; Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

     For Today: Matthew 22:39; John 17:22; 1 Corinthians 16:14; 1 Peter 1:22; 1 John 3:23.

     Look around in your local church. Is there someone needing a helping hand? Does a new mother need a meal taken in or the washing done? Can you help an elderly person with some home repairs? Consider this ---

Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions

Bible Q and A Part 54 1/20/2008

Bible Q and A Part 55

Numbers 26-27
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Numbers 27-28
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Numbers 26-30
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04-11-12

Numbers 27:12-17
Talking Cross Or Cross Talking
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04-15-12

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Numbers 26-27
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Numbers 25-27
A Threat From Within
03-29-2017 | Paul LeBoutillier

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Don't Lose Your Marbles Numbers 26
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Numbers 26-30
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