Seraphim's Struggles on the Way

Maverick is our special boy. He has changed since we lost Winter. Both of our Huskies have. They stay around us alot more. Play together more.

Here is Maverick just 'suffering' in the tub. I've never met a dog that likes to lay in the tub! Maverick does. Maybe it's cause he's the grandson of a movie star? See the Huskies in the picture below his from Eight Below? The 3rd from the Left, Mojo is Maverick's grand da and played Truman in the movie.

Rescues. Are we rescuing them or are they rescuing us? I think it's them that rescued us.

It's ironic. The last dog we rescued forced a move on us. And now, that beautiful boy is gone.

He was a beautiful dog, very gentle, the sweetest boy. Broke his lead and ran across the road and got hit by a land rover. I was driving home, and saw him next to the road, he was still with us, but he soon breathed his last. I jumped out the truck, yelling 'winter!' I laid my hand on him, and he rolled his eye to look at me. And then he was still.

We buried him last nite. I really miss him.

What did he teach me?

Live life daily. With Joy.

In his death? This life is serious. Christianity is not an 'up grade' or an 'add on' or something I do.

It is a transformed life lived large. Lived with the recognition that death can come when we least expect it and to a large extent we are completely powerless against it. But we belong to one who is not powerless over death. And I believe, that Winter is running around heaven at my Master's feet.

And I believe. I believe. I will see him again.

That phrase has stuck with me since I first read the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever by Stephen Donaldson in 1979. I was 12.

This morning, sometime between 2:00 am and 2:30 am my wife's mother Ruthie May Brunner passed over into eternity. She died.

This morning, sometime between 2:00 am and 2:30 am my black shepherd, Shadow woke Janice up by licking her face (this was a first she usually wakes me up for her midnight treks) and didn't want to go outside. She just drank and drank and drank water, then laid back down near Janice.

Coincidence? I dunno.

Around 1130am this morning, Janice finds out from our oldest daughter, Jaquinell that her mom died...

Now I sit here, hurting for my wife -- but knowing how she feels (both my parents are gone). But not really knowing how she feels, cause her mother died a 'faithful' Jehovah's Witness.

Ruthie had been a Jehovah's Witness ever since I knew her, from day one when I asked for her blessing to marry her daughter. She wasn't always a witness though. She used to be a staunch Christian. With a deep faith in Jesus and taking her kids to Sunday School and reading the bible.

But somewhere along the way, someone said or did something (she'd never really say) and she left 'Christiandom' (as she would call it) and joined the Kingdom Hall.

Her faith was not a superficial one, even though I'm convinced it was the wrong one. She suffered from bad hips. But because she refused blood transfusions her 5 hip operations (yes 5!) never really went the way they were supposed to. Later, when she was diagnosed with Cancer she had to have a single mastectomy. I can't imagine that surgery went well either. Not without being able to take blood. It got to the point where she would not eat and refused a feeding tube.

She was on oxygen. If it wasn't for COPD it was for something close...

A week or so ago, we found out she was in hospice. And now today, she's gone.

Gone where? I do not believe everyone goes to Heaven, though I dare sometimes to hope they do. I do not know if her faith when she was younger was salvific in that it didn't last.

I do know that I will know one day. I know I've prayed and asked that Jesus would welcome her into his kingdom where the light never dims, and where we behold his countenance forever, walk with the angels, and know peace forever.

Please pray for my wife and her family, and that those in her family that don't know Jesus would come to know Him.

Rey greeted me last night on my facebook page with well wishes for my birthday today (42 woo hoo) and did so in a rather morbid way "You're not dead. These people are.. you outlived such and so by a week!"

got me to thinking about birth and life and death. I was born 420 am on April 21st, 1967 in greater South East Washington DC. I was born to a 16 year old girl named Sandra Hutchison. She turned 16 March 2nd, 1967. Either right before my birth or right after her mother Shirley died. Frank, her father put her out of the house.

she was a wild woman. drank, ran around. etc. birth dad was married already & not to mom, and he was in his mid to late 20s. Named Angelo Collins (he according to my half brother Angelo Jr. was a 'bill collector' for a dc crime family) I spoke to him twice, and to his brothers and sisters after he died, who put me in touch with Angelo Jr....

Sandra's Aunt Frances and Uncle George took mom in. And told her of wanting a son they had an 11 year old daughter, Susan already but Aunt Frances has miscarried more than once and wasn't allowed to be pregnant anymore... and fostering didn't work for them.

So they took us in, helped Sandra finish high school, and waited until I was 3 and she was 19 to see about adopting me. So she took off, and they adopted me, making Uncle George and Aunt Frances Mom & Dad.

Grew up in District Heights Maryland, in Prince George's County till I was 12 and then Dad retired and we moved to Orange Virginia. (Talk about culture shock from DC to Orange Virginia -- I didn't even know what a redneck was! I was painfully going to find out...)

Let me fast forward some.

Came to Christ thru Romans Road at an Independent Methodist Church. Wow I loved Jesus. Wow. I was a New Creature. Wow. I get home and 'you'll never change...' sigh.

which is where I think my quest began. I read read read everything I could. at age 12 when we moved to Orange and starting attending a Baptist Church.. remember changing from North Paumunkey Baptist Church to Mount Zion Baptist Church cause some friends from school went to Zion, and then having to have surgery on my throat from a cyst (thyroiglustal duct cyct) and being in the Hospital for 4 days by myself and the pastor from NP Baptist not wanting to visit cause I didn't go to 'his church anymore'

dad began to think I was a sissy cause I didn't like sports, didn't like hunting just wanted to read, dream, (discovered sci fi & fantasy) and hang out in the woods pretending to be a Forestal or a Ent....

So he had me enroll in Karate. didn't want his son to be a wuss. and I enjoyed it, but met some rather interesting people -- began my journey into new age, cults, etc. Cause when I'd go visit the Rainbow Connection on weekends, stuff would happen. I'd report back to the Baptists, well that stuff isn't real..

met an indian guru, (sad guru sant kishavadas) had multiple life readings, stuff would happen predictions would come true, history's revealed. scary stuff. Baptists answer -- not real. So I being wise and 16 thought, well if it's real and works and they know stuff about me it must be okay.

fast forward to it not being okay my no longer being comfortable and wanting structure wanting capital T truth and rededicating my life to Jesus at age 18 and becoming Roman Catholic and actively practicing for at least 5 or 6 years...

then the vineyard. then assembly's of God. etc. etc.

age 30 entered the Eastern Orthodox Church.

oh - married the 1st time at age 19. she left when I was 23. nuff said about her. took a year to make a list, then dated again. Met my Magdalena, Janice. Got married to her at age 25. Been with her ever since. (17 years this June)

Strange the things that stand out. So today.

I'm 42 years old. 2009.

1995 saw my dad George pass away kool thing, 1993 he asked me how to be saved, and I got to lead him to Jesus.

2001 saw the death of my birth dad, Angelo.
2002 saw the death of my birth mom Sandra.
2007 saw the death of my mom Frances

I've outlived them all. not older, just that I'm still here and they are gone...

Here are some pictures:





12, 13 and 18 years old graduating from High School

Now, I'm 42 (the answer to the question right? lol) and my profile picture is current.

How much longer DO I have? 50 more years? 30?

What should I be doing? What should I stop doing?

these are the things I think about, on the 42nd anniversary of my birth.

Thank God for Jesus.

He's dead. I can't believe it.

Dead.

man. now what will I do. He's dead. The only one who ever gave me a chance. Dead. The only one who ever told me I was good enough. That I could be like him. He's gone.

I remember, being a child, studying studying the torah. I loved the feel of the parchment, as I so carefully unrolled the scroll a little at a time. I love reading the word. I remember tracing the characters with my fingers and my lips moving as I committed each line to memory.

Then I remember, the midrash, the conversations between Rabbi and his senior students. How they'd discuss and laugh and debate which interpretation was good, was better. And how each one was striving to hear Rabbi say, 'yes! that is right! you have kept the Torah!'

ah. Good memories! then the first time that Rabbi pulled me aside. The glow inside. but only for a moment.

"Ravi, I know you love Torah. I know you try and try. I see how hard you study! yes. yes. but Ravi. You do not have what it takes to be a Rabbi like me. It's not your fault! it's not for lack of trying.

You're just not cut out to be a Rabbi! Go back to your family. There is not shame. You father is a good man and loves Torah too!"

no shame.

right.

Rabbi didn't know. It was because Father didn't make it that I had too! Now the shame was doubled. At first I thought, maybe it was just his style. Maybe I'd do better with another Rabbi! Father who at first was disappointed, liked this idea! You could see the fire rekindle in his eyes, the doubt washing away. The hope restored. "Yes Ravi! Good Good son! Try again. Maybe with a different Rabbi...."

ah Father. He died before I found a Rabbi. How I miss papa. I wish he could have seen me as a disciple! But it wasn't to be. I know papa loved me. Just like I know I disappointed him. sigh.

Well, I am a disciple. I found a Rabbi. Well I didn't find him, not really. He found me.

But now Rabbi is dead. Rome killed him. Just yesterday. I remember when he saw me, in the market place. Working for my father, who was home, too ill to work.

I'd heard him in the temple. His words were amazing, he spoke with such authority. But with compassion! He seemed to care about us! His words, they encourage!

And then. He was infront of my stall. "Ravi." he said (He KNEW MY NAME). "Ravi" "Yes Master?" I replied. "Come Ravi. Will you come? Will you follow me?"

I don't remember if I even locked the door! I just left it all and followed Him! I knew papa would be proud!

I didn't know papa had died that morning.

It felt so strange. This unspeakable joy. This burning loss. now it's just loss.

Rabbi is dead. They buried him just yesterday. I watched from a distance.

My hope. My one hope of being a disciple. Of being a Rabbi.

Gone.

Buried with Jesus.

Saved. Delivered.

What are we being saved from?

What are we being saved unto

a friend somewhere told me maybe it's being saved from the Kingdom of the Self unto the Kingdom of God.

I like that. Kingdom of self. Yes.

old school would say

I've saved from the penalty of sin
I'm being saved from the power of sin
and one day I'll be saved from the presence of sin

but ultimately, salvation is Deliverance from the world, the flesh (which from here out I'll always think of as the kingdom of the self) and the devil.

also saved unto good works...

I have a special dog. She is the 2nd dog I've owned as an adult (we still have the first one) but this dog is mine.





We rescued her from the local SPCA (like almost all of our dogs)and we can only speculate that she was wild and feral -- but not aggressive. We had her for a good month before we ever heard her 'voice'.

She has two barks. A high yippy one when she wants to go after the local cats, squirrels & rabbits, and a protective one, like when another dog ran up on me and the wife, she went all cugo -- pretty scary. But she has never shown any aggression to me.

Her only real faults are that she is an escape artist able to slip almost any harness, we've tried 4 kinds, even the tuff ones like this:



Her latest escape (successful - sigh) was this morning... but I was able to find her and get her in the house safely...

When I left today for work, Shadow and Orre were in the house already and Janice was walking Chaka and Sara.

I've been working with her and she responds so well to 'home' and 'in' that I got rid of the choke collar, and got her a regular pretty colar and a nice harness. What I didn't know is that everytime my wife has to bring Chaka in the house she basically has to drag her across the threshold...

so she slipped the harness. I also think it's my fault for driving away while she was outside, I think she was trying to find me.

I was watching animal planet last night and two shows featured Chaka's mix. She's an Australian Cattle Dog mixed with German Shepherd. On one of the shows the outcome was good. The were able to capture her and get her spayed and she lived happily on the horse farm.

The other one, from a back yard in Philly, she was like my Chaka but fearful and aggressive. So they had to have her Humanely Euthanized...

those words are with me this morning. They were with me as I watched my Chaka run across a 4 lane highway to my car (thank you Father, Son & Holy Ghost she did NOT get hit).. as I wondered why this dog, who I adored and who adored me and my family kept trying to run away.

When we adopt a dog, we make a commitment to ourselves, the dog and God to make this a forever home for the dog. This means that even when we get frustrated with their not eating, not listening..

..running away. We don't give up. And I think, if not for me, Chaka would probably have been put to sleep. humanely euthanized...

and I think if not for God...

where would I be? would I be 'adoptable?' would I have been able to find a 'forever home?'

and what is hell? is it God's way of 'humanely euthanizing' those who won't accept him but he doesn't destroy them because he doesn't want to give up on even the least of these?

I dunno. But this morning, I'm glad I have my Dog.

And I'm glad God has me.

It's weird. My Mom died a year ago this past May (May 7th of 2007).

Unlike my father, who had a viewing and a burial, my mom was cremated and then buried.

So I know she's been gone, but it really hit me over this weekend. Why? well, the house she bought in 1995 (the year dad died) was sold in August and closed on this past Friday.

So with the house gone, it's like done. Even though I've gotten furniture out of the house, even though I've been there and seen it empty--

Even though most of my thoughts have been about my 'payday' (even though I was left out of the will, I was not left out of mom's thoughts. she directed my sister to give me part of the sale of the house. somewhere between 10 thousand and 20 thousand, probably closed to 10...)

But this morning, I even found myself unable to say 'mom's dead' without wanting to tear up. Why? It's been well over a year. And it's not been a happy time dealing with the fallout of her death and the will. feeling abandoned and orphaned...

But today, it's not about the money (though it's really going to help) it's about the fact that I can't call her. Can't go see her.

and even if she wasn't the mother I wanted, she was the mother I had and did the best she could.

So, mom, may your memory be eternal. may you be in peace. and may my memories of you be of love.

Robbie.

...is grace.

I mean, how ofter do you have stuff figured out and know what you should do, what would be the most beneficial? and don't do it?

How many times does knowing the right thing to do motivate us to do the wrong thing?

I used to want God to write in letters 4 feet high in glowing neon his plan for my life.

But now I'm grateful he doesn't. I can barely do what I know the Scriptures tell me to do.

How about you?

I'shalom

Seraphim

i saw you today

when I was walking with my wife and kid, our two dogs.

i saw you in your suit and tie and suv, bible on the dash

i saw you look at us

i saw you judge us

i saw you feel better about yourself that you were on your way to a building

we were on our way to the park

i saw you

hell

i was you

carrying the bible everywhere, proudly displayed.

but not living it

judging your righteousness by how much you agreed with me

not by how much you looked like jesus

i saw you today

and i remembered

church is not a building

worship is not confined to sunday morning

fellowship is more than stand and greet your neighbor

i saw you today

and i prayed for you and for me

and took my dogs

and walked and prayed and worshipped God

i saw you

u saw me

God saw us both.

-Seraphim

Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann
Forgiveness Sunday

In the Orthodox Church, the last Sunday before Great Lent – the day on which, at Vespers, Lent is liturgically announced and inaugurated – is called Forgiveness Sunday. On the morning of that Sunday, at the Divine Liturgy, we hear the words of Christ:

"If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses..." (Mark 6:14-15)

Then after Vespers – after hearing the announcement of Lent in the Great Prokeimenon: "Turn not away Thy face from Thy child for I am afflicted! Hear me speedily! Draw near unto my soul and deliver it!", after making our entrance into Lenten worship, with its special memories, with the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian, with its prostrations – we ask forgiveness from each other, we perform the rite of forgiveness and reconciliation. And as we approach each other with words of reconciliation, the choir intones the Paschal hymns, filling the church with the anticipation of Paschal joy.

What is the meaning of this rite? Why is it that the Church wants us to begin Lenten season with forgiveness and reconciliation? These questions are in order because for too many people Lent means primarily, and almost exclusively, a change of diet, the compliance with ecclesiastical regulations concerning fasting. They understand fasting as an end in itself, as a "good deed" required by God and carrying in itself its merit and its reward. But, the Church spares no effort in revealing to us that fasting is but a means, one among many, towards a higher goal: the spiritual renewal of man, his return to God, true repentance and, therefore, true reconciliation. The Church spares no effort in warning us against a hypocritical and pharisaic fasting, against the reduction of religion to mere external obligations. As a Lenten hymn says:

In vain do you rejoice in no eating, O soul!

For you abstain from food,

But from passions you are not purified.

If you persevere in sin, you will perform a useless fast.

Now, forgiveness stands at the very center of Christian faith and of Christian life because Christianity itself is, above all, the religion of forgiveness. God forgives us, and His forgiveness is in Christ, His Son, Whom He sends to us, so that by sharing in His humanity we may share in His love and be truly reconciled with God. Indeed, Christianity has no other content but love. And it is primarily the renewal of that love, a return to it, a growth in it, that we seek in Great Lent, in fasting and prayer, in the entire spirit and the entire effort of that season. Thus, truly forgiveness is both the beginning of, and the proper condition for the Lenten season.

One may ask, however: Why should I perform this rite when I have no "enemies"? Why should I ask forgiveness from people who have done nothing to me, and whom I hardly know? To ask these questions, is to misunderstand the Orthodox teaching concerning forgiveness. It is true, that open enmity, personal hatred, real animosity may be absent from our life, though if we experience them, it may be easier for us to repent, for these feelings openly contradict Divine commandments. But, the Church reveals to us that there are much subtler ways of offending Divine Love. These are indifference, selfishness, lack of interest in other people, of any real concern for them -- in short, that wall which we usually erect around ourselves, thinking that by being "polite" and "friendly" we fulfill God’s commandments. The rite of forgiveness is so important precisely because it makes us realize – be it only for one minute – that our entire relationship to other men is wrong, makes us experience that encounter of one child of God with another, of one person created by God with another, makes us feel that mutual "recognition" which is so terribly lacking in our cold and dehumanized world.

On that unique evening, listening to the joyful Paschal hymns we are called to make a spiritual discovery: to taste of another mode of life and relationship with people, of life whose essence is love. We can discover that always and everywhere Christ, the Divine Love Himself, stands in the midst of us, transforming our mutual alienation into brotherhood. As l advance towards the other, as the other comes to me – we begin to realize that it is Christ Who brings us together by His love for both of us.

And because we make this discovery – and because this discovery is that of the Kingdom of God itself: the Kingdom of Peace and Love, of reconciliation with God and, in Him, with all that exists – we hear the hymns of that Feast, which once a year, "opens to us the doors of Paradise." We know why we shall fast and pray, what we shall seek during the long Lenten pilgrimage. Forgiveness Sunday: the day on which we acquire the power to make our fasting – true fasting; our effort – true effort; our reconciliation with God – true reconciliation.



Father Alexander Schmemann



Introduction to the DRE/OCA 1975-1982 Forgiveness Sunday Vespers.

No words are needed. I think this is wicked Kool.

"One day I was dreaming, or I had a vision, it really doesn’t matter which, for I know it was of the Lord. And in the dream, I was alone in a dark place, and I was afraid. Yet I didn’t want to go out into the Light.

So the Light came to me.

I saw Jesus walking through the darkness. He stood before me, and I turned away. “How can you love me, Lord?” I asked. “Simple.” He said. “Watch and learn.” He reached out His gentle, nail-scarred hand; He reached it out and into my chest. He pulled out my heart, and showed it to me. It was black, as black as death, as black as sin. And sick, cancerous with worms and maggots and words cannot describe the ugliness of my own heart.

Again He said, “Watch.” He reached; He reached His other hand into His chest, and removed His own heart. It was perfect, golden, starlight and sunlight, snug there in the palm of His hand. He took it and placed it into the empty place inside of me, where my heart had been.

Then He did something even more wondrous. He took my heart, as black as sin and as black as murder, and placed it into His own chest. I could still see my heart in His chest. A look of infinite sadness and pain flashed over my Saviors face, and then His face, His body, shown brighter than the sun, the heart He had placed inside of Himself, my heart, started to shine, to glow, it was cleansed, washed clean, whiter than new-born snow.

“I love you.” Jesus said, “Because I have felt and lived your pain. I love you, because when I enter your life, I transform your heart, your very soul, until it is perfect and as pure as mine. I love you because I made you and I died for you. I love you, because now that I am in your heart, and you are forever in mine, you will begin to live for me, just as I died for you.”

He took my hand, and together we left the dark place."

Seraphim 1985

the scripture says this:

Rom 14:5 One indeed esteems a day above another day; and another esteems every day alike. Let each one be fully assured in his own mind.

Rom 14:6 He who regards the day regards it to the Lord; and he not regarding the day, does not regard it to the Lord. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, does not eat to the Lord, and gives God thanks.

And interestingly enough, it's sandwiches in between these 2 verses:

Rom 14:4 Who are you that judges another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. But he will stand, for God is able to make him stand.

AND

Rom 14:7 For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself.

I guess for me, it comes down to this. You've found your 'version' of Christianity you like. Enjoy it. Other folk have found 'their version' allow them to enjoy it.

Let me tell you a story.

I came to Christ in an Alter call when I was 8 years old at a Independent United Methodist Church. Was mocked by my parents (who were the ones who took me to the church. bizarre yes?) The one thing I hear (remember hearing them say) still sometimes was

'you're never going to change.'

then we moved from South East Wash DC to Orange County Virgina. Total culture shock. I didn't even know what a redneck was! Now I was ducking them when I could fighting them when I had to...

at age 12 ended up in a couple of baptist churches until around age 15/16 then cause dad thought I was a wuss ( he would say Pussy) he enrolled me in Okinawan Kempo. (which didn't change his opinion, but now he was scared of me. sigh).

it was from friendships there I ended up going to a commune called the Rainbow connection in Richmond, Virginia.. and spending weekends. Was there I met Sadguru Sant Kishavadas... and all that other 'stuff'.

Then when I got out of that mess, ended up at age 18 joining the Roman Catholic Church... Then the Vineyard, then the Church of God etc... then many years later in 2000 was received into the Ukrainian Version of the Eastern Orthodox Church at age 33. (this after being a catecumin for a number of years. I think I met Fr. Michael in 1996..)

Anyway, I think I got into my head that if I could find the right Church, I'd stop being so screwed up and life would stop being so frellin hard.

Now -- go back to 1988 just before I got out of the US Navy. A British Exchange Chaplain came over one day for lunch, and I shared all my 'stuff' 'baggage' if you will with him, and he the next time I went to work had me before the commander as needed to go into some sort of counseling program.. sheesh. (I think here my dislike of Chaplains began -- the Commander already didn't like me, because he was an American Baptist and I challenged his theology as crap when he tried to preach this Universal message)...

Anyway I ended up having to go on this retreat, and it was there I learned a few things. One is I always try to fix other folk rather than just listening and trying to fix myself. I think I've gotten much better at this.

One of the things we had to do was become a buddy or friend to someone there over the weekend... and you didn't know who or what they did.

The guy that befriended me listened to all my grief and bitterness towards Chaplains and religion and how I couldn't find 'the Church'...

I really really liked that guy. Don't even remember his name now. Of Course you know he turned out to be a Chaplain, right?

sigh. One day we went for a walk and he showed me this grove of trees. They were all lined up and they were basically all trees, but they were different kinds of trees.

He said Christianity was like that. It was a tree. And while there were different types of trees, at the end of the day the different denominations, different streams of Christianity (EO/RC & Prot -- he made it clear he wasn't talking about cults, JW's/ LDS, 7thday etc) where all trees. They were different but at the end of the day were a Tree.

HE also said I could look at them like Restaurants. Basically I at some point just needed to pick a franchise.

Cause no matter what Church you picked they all had alot of things right (There is a God, who is a Trinity. Mankind can only be reconciled to Him thru the life passion & death/resurrection of Jesus) and some things wrong...

but that if I never picked one, I'd never grow and never be happy.

I'm still trying to realize this truth I learned almost 20 years ago now. And sometimes I still long to be part of a specific local church.

But in the final analysis. If you never go to a building, but meet in homes, and you love Jesus and seek to have your walk match you love for him to become love for others...

or if you are devoutly RC and go to daily mass and folk know you as being like Jesus...

or if you are Eastern Orthodox -- Protestant Baptist or Methodist, Anglican or Episcopal... If you are loving Jesus and counting on him for your Life now and Forever..

What's the big deal?

Christmas 2007

Another year upon us.

Another season of, well awkwardness. Family that doesn't see you or call you during the year wants you to come over.

Folk you work with get all weird if you give them a present. Or worse, if you don't.
Some will run right out and get you something, just so they are not 'in debt'.

Crazy stuff.

then for me it get's worse cause it's like, what church service will we as a family go to..

which translates into which Church.

Sigh.

I love Jesus, but sometimes I hate Christmas.

I love the story of where we Christians get the Christmas Tree:

In 722 A.D., Saint Boniface, an English missionary and Benedictine monk who was known as the "Apostle of Germany," came upon some men about to cut down a huge oak tree to be used as a stake for a human sacrifice to Thor, one of the Norse Gods.

With a mighty blow from an axe, Saint Boniface felled the massive oak and, as the tree split apart, a beautiful young fir tree sprang from its center. Saint Boniface informed the people that this beautiful evergreen, whose branches pointed toward heaven, was a holy tree...the tree of the Christ Child, symbolizing the purity of the New Faith and the promise of eternal life.

Saint Boniface then instructed them to henceforth carry the evergreen from the wilderness, place it into their homes and surround it with gifts symbolic of love and kindness.

Saint Boniface, whose feast day is celebrated on June 5th, received the name Winfrid at his baptism but adopted Boniface before he was ordained to the priesthood.


He was martyred in Holland at the age of 75, along with 52 members of his flock, when they were set upon by a troop of pagans. Saint Boniface is the Patron Saint of Germany, as well as being the Patron Saint of Tailors and Brewers.

Visit the Official I Am Legend Website

Hey Jesus.

It's me again. Late at nite, or early in the morning on a Tuesday. Do you keep up with stuff like that?

I wanted to thank you for blessing me. I mean, you've done pulled some real miracles for me lately.

Looks like a 2nd interview went well for our Magdalena... and you've come thru with money to get some immediate debt off of our backs.

I really appreciate it.

But Jesus. I'm here typing instead of sleeping. I'm still struggling with that thing we talked about yesterday nite.

and the nite before.

and the nite before.

Why can't I get victory over this thing Jesus? You know I believe in you. You know I know you are real. I mean, you're blessing me!

Church is going pretty good. The marriage is doing well. Work's okay. (Could you give some spiritual haladal to the guys at work though... talka about type A).

So. I know we've prayed about this.

I know I've given it to you, and you've forgiven me.

I know that if I'm here again tomorrow you'll do the same. I'm sorry I disappoint you. I know that you love me.

Can you forgive me again? Can you help me?

Won't you show me yourself? Please? I just want to see you.

I miss my mom. I miss my dad. I don't know how to be a dad to my boys. Especially Bobby. I mean, how do you endure it Lord?

You know I don't believe in pre trib. But Lord, Please come soon.

I love you Jesus.

Seraphim Robbie Walters your broken child

Today I went to Liturgy with my good friend Doug Perkins. Who I knew as Doug Perkins, and then Father Deacon Anthony, and now as Father Anthony.

(Father Deacon Raphael if you are reading this I anticipate one day you to will be Father Raphael!!)

Fr. Anthony found St Nicholas Orthodox Church through the first website I built for the church. He came to us and became a dear friend.

It was an honor to help him at the alter this morning and participate in the Liturgy. He will be going to Rhode Island to serve as a Parish Priest with his family for the UOC of USA

Please join me in praying for our Priest hood and the Clergy of our brothers and sisters in the Lord (adapt as appropriate):

A Prayer for the Priesthood

O Lord Jesus Christ, enkindle
the hearts of all thy Priests
with the fire
of Zealous love for thee,
that they may ever seek thy glory;
Give them strength
that they may labor unceasingly
in thine earthly vineyard
for the salvation of souls
and the glory of thine
all-honorable and majestic Name:
of the Father,
and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit:
now and ever,
and unto ages of ages.

Amen.

FROM ANOTHER DAUGHTER:

Mom will be missed.

The realization hit me when a call to the funeral home revealed that she had been cremated.

To me, it was like she had been lowered into the ground.

No holding back the tears and the pain.
No more chances to see her face again.
No more kisses on each others cheeks,
Her quick laugh,
and pat on my backside.
That was our way of showing affection,
even though through the years,
I sometimes felt rejection.

On our first meeting, she was in a hospital bed,
and as the recent weeks passed,
I prayed that wouldn’t also be,
the last place I’d see her laying her head.

Yet, lastly, an unexpected visit to her house,
found her “sparky” but weak,
I came away feeling, she was her old self,
so to speak.

Could it be possible, would it be God’s will,
that we’d have her with us,
for a long, long while still?

Well, He knows our hearts and He hears our prayers,
but His ways are above our ways,
and He’s numbered our years.

Though Mom, as we knew her is gone from our sight,
we should be careful what we do,
and treat each other right,
as we wait to go,
into our own,
eternal goodnight.

Love you Ma,

Janice Walters…May-2007

"Christ our eternal King and God, You have destroyed death and the devil by Your Cross and have restored man to life by Your Resurrection; give rest, Lord, to the soul of Your servant Frances who has fallen asleep, in Your Kingdom, where there is no pain, sorrow or suffering. In Your goodness and love for all men, pardon all the sins she has committed in thought word or deed, for there is no man or woman who lives and sins not, You only are without sin."

Please pray for me, a sinner

Seraphim

So it's Wednesday before Holy Thursday.. and I start to think, what am I going to do 'family wise' about Holy Weekend.

I'm taking Friday afternoon off -- around 2pm.

At 3pm at St. Thomas Aquanis Catholic Church they are having the Chaplet of Divine Mercy.

Friday evening at St. Nicholas they are having Good Friday vespers with the Procession of the Winding Shroud and then they lay it out in the 'tomb'.

(I don't care what flavour of Christian you are, you should experience Easter I.E. Pascha from Good Friday to Resurrection Sunday at least once.. especially the Good Friday stuff)

and this year, St. Nich's is doing Pascha at Midnight (which is traditional, but they'd never done before).

So I talk to the wife. Say, hey Holy Week.

Let's go to St Thomas and then Good Friday at St. Nick's and then to the Midnight thing and then we'll go where ever you want to go Sunday morning.

Reasonable right? Should be a no brainer.

No, NO & no.

I tell her. (and you have to understand. I adore my wife. Absolutely ADORE her!!)

I'm not trying to convert you. It's okay if you're not Catholic.

It's okay if you're not Orthodox. I just want to do these things to celebrate Easter.

"Well, I understand. I have no interest in going. Feel free to go yourself."

arrrrrghh

I did not go.

So Friday phzzzt.

Saturday phzzt.

Sunday morning we wake up. Where are we going to go to church?

We decide on Episcopal.

We get to the opening prayer.

And the Priest starts talking about 'million dollar baby' after the gospel reading.

"Dad" says the Jade. "What does that have to do with the Gospel? Why is he telling that story?"

ah my child. said her father dotingly

Then he tells us to pull the ICON OUT OF THE BULLETING and begins to explain to us what it means and tells us about his visit to Greece and an Orthodox monastery.

Janice leans over to ask me something about the icon.

I short circuit. Everything I wanted to do didn't happen. (Mea Culpa). But now we're in an Episcopal church and she is asking me about the ICON of the RESURRECTION!!!!!!

arrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!


no I did not cause a scene. I waited until the standing prayer, and I tapped Jade on the shoulder.

"Jade, tell Mom to meet me out front, we are leaving".

So we left.

I explain to her.

Church has 3 things.

1. Reputation

2. Format

3. Theology

The episcopal church, imnsho, has a piss poor liberal reputation.. an okay format (earlier I'd expressed to the Magdalena that everything she enjoys about the Episcopal Liturgy ultimately comes from the Orthodox....) and some okay theology, but nothing deep... and not always on track.

And I just told her, it gave me a knot on my brain. I couldn't sit there and do Church where she could ask me about Icons but won't join me even for a service at the place that makes Icons well, IKONS!

so we went to some charasmatic church and had a half way desent Easter service, for protestants.... (No offense guys)

I could have done all the things I wanted to do. After all I had permission (if you will).

But I didn't. Mea Culpa. I'm working with this crazy notion that we're supposed to do Church together.

Certainly this is not a new dilema. I'm just tired of it. Pavel even gave me excellent advise about it.

DO my own thing and treat her the same she'll deal.

Or get over myself and just be protestant that likes Orthodox stuff.

Sigh. My Pascha.

Christ is Risen!

Seraphim

Thought about more creative titles for this post, 'if i die' my meeting with the Angel of Death... etc.

But Death is good enough, as a post title.

Death is inconvenient.. it comes unexpectedly... Most folk arn't planning on it happening when it does happen.

Car accidents, 'acts of God'. etc.

Very rarely do you have the time to set your affairs in order, gather family around you and give them your blessing before you pass away on your death bed.

So. I wanted to write this letter, article, blog 'thing'. Now. So that if you find out I'm dead, or when I die, it's already here.

If you are reading this. And I am dead.

and our last words were an argument

our last visit ended badly

we haven't spoken in years

we fought last time we were together. No matter what the occasion or situation.

If you are now reading this.. or if at any time you have read this and find out I have left the mortal coil, that I am dead.

It means this.

My being dead means..

...you are forgiven.

...Please forgive me.

...I love you.

...I know you didn't mean it.

...It is okay.

...and we will meet again.

I'shalom

Seraphim

I agree with Fr. Robert Capon's Assessment. Short answer? No.

Long answer? I bow to the wisdom of the good Fr. Capon below:

“In spite of the fact that the Good News of Jesus Christ (to give Christianity one of its own titles of preference) has been seen as a religion by outsiders and been sold as one by its adherents, it is not a religion at all. Rather, it is the announcement of the end of religion. On its plan, New Testament face, it proclaims that all the things that religion promised but couldn’t deliver have been delivered once and for all by Jesus in his death and resurrection. This is not to say that there isn’t plenty of old-time religion in the Bible; there are in fact enough creedal, cultic, and behavioral stipulations to gladden the heart of an Aztec priest. And those requirements can be found not only in the Old Testament (where they are obviously meant to be taken seriously) but also in the New (where they cannot be taken with anything like the seriousness they are often accorded). Nevertheless, on any final, Gospel-regarding balance, only one conclusion is possible: religion as I have defined it – that is, religion as something that human beings must get right in order to have a correct relationship with god – is a subject that shouldn’t be given Christian houseroom.

It has been argued, of course, that this “no-religion” aspect of the Gospel – this insistence on salvation by grace alone, not works (not even religious works) – is the invention of Paul rather than Jesus. You yourself may even have bought that bill of goods. For me, though, it just won’t wash.

In the first place, its fundamental proposition – namely, that the “simple Jesus of the Gospels” was surreptitiously replaced by the “complex Christ of Paul” – runs clear contrary to the evidence of history. The records simply do not support the nineteenth-century fantasy that a cosmic savior who reconciles all by grace through faith was somehow slipped over on a primitive church that previously had heard only of a wonder working rabbi with a few religious improvements up his sleeve.

The early church was reading Paul’s letters before he died in A.D. 64; it did not, however, get its hands on the Gospels as we now have them until sometime after that (65, say, to 110). The Gospels, accordingly, were written for the sake of the Epistles, not the other way around. At the very least, the two were accepted by the church in a process of mutual interaction: there was never even a hint that the first Christians thought one of them was seditiously infiltrating the other.

Paradoxically, moreover, the four Gospels the church finally settled on as “canonical” (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – their predominance is clearly evident by 150 to 200) were the four so-called “simpler” ones as contrasted with the other, more high-flown examples of the genre now generally referred to as the Apocryphal Gospels. It would seem, therefore, that however much the 19th (and 20th) centuries may have found this “simple-complex” combination indigestible, the early church, if it noticed at all, took it in as nothing more than two courses in the same delicious meal.

In the second place, the New Testament has a perfectly good answer to the charge that Christianity as we now have it is radically Pauline. And the answer is that God hired Paul (then called Saul) on the road to Damascus for the precise purpose of making Christianity Pauline – that is, of rescuing it from the overly “religious” orientation of the exclusively Jewish-Christian Jerusalem church. The main item in Paul’s job description was precisely that he knock religion in the head. Because whatever it was that Jesus may have thought or taught (and at the very least, the authorities who finally nailed him didn’t think he was teaching their brand of religion), it soon became evident that if the original Jerusalem church crown could have had their way, Christianity would have been swamped in a flood of religious requirements like circumcision, dietary laws, and other gentile-excluding practices. Indeed, in an odd moment, I once suggested that what Jesus actually said to Saul on the Damascus road was not, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” but, “Saul! Help! I’m a prisoner in a commandment factory.”

In other words, far from supplanting the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Paul actually rescued the Good News of Jesus from the danger of being converted into the bad news of religion. He was the one who saw clearly that if Jesus had indeed done whatever it was that religion had been trying to do, there was simply no more need for religion. Its job (which it couldn’t really accomplish anyway) had been done for it. The whole business was over. All that we or anyone had to do now was believe (have faith) in Jesus and we would be home free because the right relationship, so long and so vainly sought, was already a fact in him. There were no works of any kind we had to get right to achieve the relationship; we had only to trust him and be pleasantly surprised at the light burden he had substituted for the iron yoke of religion.

Admittedly – and legitimately – Christianity has long made use of the forms of religion in presenting its radically nonreligious message. It has employed the trappings of creed, cult, and conduct freely and without apology. But it has never used them seriously: at its Gospel-regarding best, it has always said that those trappings had no religious function. Christians used them not to do the job of establishing a right relationship with God but simply to remind themselves of what the job was that needed doing – and of the rib-tickling fact that Jesus had done the whole thing free for nothing. When we get right down to it, therefore, there is not a single properly religious act in the Christian “religion.” Our confessions do not earn us forgiveness by their sincerity or their exhaustiveness: we had it all along by Jesus’ gift.

Our prayers do not con God into being gracious: he conned himself on the cross. Our Eucharists do not cause Jesus to show up in a place from which he was absent: he is already everywhere – in all the fullness of his reconciling work – before the service starts. And our baptisms (to come finally to the root sacrament of the Good News) do not divide the world into the saved (us, inside) and the lost (them, outside). Baptism – and the church it constitutes – is simply the authentic, effective sign of the mystery of the Christ who has already saved all, whether in or out. Accordingly, none of these “religious” acts leaves room for a single, saving thing that is up to us. We erect the sacramental signs, yes; but the mystery beneath the signs is none of our doing. We have only to believe that we have all been drawn in for good by Jesus (“I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all to myself,” John 12:32) and laugh out loud.

That is why the Gospel alone is Good News and all the religions of the world – whether they’re about God or some lesser thing – are bad news. You would think, therefore, wouldn’t you, that the world would take one look at the “Gone Out Of The Religion Business” sign on the door of the church and come pouring in to celebrate the free gift. Well, if you did, you would think wrong. Because not only doesn’t the world knock down the church’s door; it actually prefers to sit outside in the cold wind of religion and make believe it’s earning its way home by shivering. Worse yet, the church – at most times and in all ages – has either not bothered to put the sign up, or has been feverishly busy taking it down.”

- Health Money, and Love & why we don’t enjoy them pp. 31-34

O come, let us rejoice in the Lord as we declare this present mystery: The partition wall of disunion has been destroyed, the flaming sword is turned back, the cherubim withdraw from the Tree of Life, and I partake of the food of Paradise, whence I had been expelled because of disobedience. For the immutable Image of the Father, the Image of His eternity, takes the form of a servant, having come forth of a Mother unwedded, yet having suffered no change. For that which He was, He remains, being very God; and that which He was not, He has assumed, becoming true man because of His love for humankind. Unto Him let us cry aloud: O God, who was born of a Virgin, have mercy upon us!

(Vespers Sticharion,Tone 2)

He is the priest on the right. Funny. When I met him he was the Priest of Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church in Charlottesville Virginia.

Now he is the Priest of Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church in Ogden Utah. I miss him very much.

You never know the heart of a priest until you confess to him.

I miss confessions with Fr. Jon.

After liturgies he'd invite me behind the Royal Doors, and have me read pray the Prayers after Communion. I'd always attend when he was doing week day liturgies. During that time of my life I worked noon to 8:30pm so my mornings were free.

I wish Fr. Jon was still in Charlottesville, for very selfish reasons. I know he is blessed and being a blessing where he is in Utah.

Fr. Jon is a True Christian.

I love the story of where we Christians get the Christmas Tree:

In 722 A.D., Saint Boniface, an English missionary and Benedictine monk who was known as the "Apostle of Germany," came upon some men about to cut down a huge oak tree to be used as a stake for a human sacrifice to Thor, one of the Norse Gods.

With a mighty blow from an axe, Saint Boniface felled the massive oak and, as the tree split apart, a beautiful young fir tree sprang from its center. Saint Boniface informed the people that this beautiful evergreen, whose branches pointed toward heaven, was a holy tree...the tree of the Christ Child, symbolizing the purty of the New Faith and the promise of eternal life.

Saint Boniface then instructed them to henceforth carry the evergreen from the wilderness, place it into their homes and surround it with gifts symbolic of love and kindess.

Saint Boniface, whose feast day is celebrated on June 5th, received the name Winfrid at his baptism but adopted Boniface before he was ordained to the priesthood.


He was martyred in Holland at the age of 75, along with 52 members of his flock, when they were set upon by a troop of pagans. Saint Boniface is the Patron Saint of Germany, as well as being the Patron Saint of Tailors and Brewers.

Fr. Deacon Raphael gave me the sad news from November 21st today.

"The Archpriest George (Calciu), confessor of Christ Jesus, reposed a few moments ago in Fairfax Hospital. Fr George was Pastor of Holy Cross Romanian Orthodox Church in Alexandria and father confessor to many. He had been imprisoned twice in communist Romania (in Pitesti, the most notorious of prison-camps) for preaching the Word of Salvation. (The dictator Nicolae Ceausescu had declared Fr George his “personal enemy”.) He preached at Holy Cross in Linthicum a couple of years ago as we celebrated our Patronal Feast together and we will always remember his deep commitment to the Holy Church, devotion to the Fathers, and sheer joy in the life in Jesus Christ. As you pray for the repose of the soul of Fr George, please also remember his wife, Adriana, their son and grandson, and as well as all of Fr George’s spiritual children."

(from Neepeople)

Fr. George was very, very special to me. I met him on more than one occasion and he personally counseled me in my journey. He encouraged me to become Orthodox.

"Christ is calling you Seraphim. He loves you"

Here is the photo from the last time I saw him, in his parish in Fairfax:



"O Master, Lord our God, Who in Thy wisdom hast created man, and didst honor him with Thy Divine image, and place in him the spirit of life, and lead him into this world, bestowing on him the hope of resurrection and life everlasting; and after he had violated Thy commandments, Thou O Gracious lover of mankind, didst descend to the earth that Thou mightest renew again the creation of Thy hands. Therefore we pray Thee, O All-Holy Master give rest to the souls of Thy servants Fr. George, in a place of brightness, a place of green pasture, a place of repose, and, in that they have sinned in word, or deed or thought forgive them: For Thou art a good God and lovest mankind and unto Thee do we ascribe Glory, together with Thy Father, Who is from everlasting and Thine All-Holy and good, and ever giving Spirit, now, and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen."

We have lost a living saint.

Memory Eternal. Fr. George, pray for us!

Recently I've come across alot of books that are about 'apologetics'.

Why you shouldn't be Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic or Protestant etc.

By the usual suspects. The most recent one was 'West of Jesus' by Regina Orthodox Press and it was about where the Protestants went wrong.

But it was poorly done. I mean, the author argued as if every protestant was a reformed calvinist that believed in once saved always saved.

But I'm really tired of it. Do you know what I often find? Mischaracterizations.

Those that only believe in 'believer's baptism' saying that those who baptise infants don't understand the gospel that baptising infants doesn't 'save' (Even though not a single group that practicies infant baptism believes it is salvific alone..)

But the point is, besides the mischaracterizations, it's not really about helping anyone have a relationship with the Master. With God. With Jesus, or the Holy Spirit.

Can you be Eastern Orthodox and be a Christian? Yes

Are only Easter Orthodox Christians? No

Can you be Roman Catholic and be a Christian? Yes

Are only Roman Catholics Christians? No

Can you be Protestant and be a Christian? Yes

Are only Protestants Christians? No

Sigh. No wonder the gospel asks the question, when the Son of Man returns, will he find faith on the earth?

We need to be about what unites us and not what divides us. The truth of all three streams of our Great Christian faith is this.

We need a relationship with God we are built for it.

We can only have such a relationship with God thru Jesus Christ

We can only live the Christian life filled with the Holy Spirit

We need to be part of a faith community.

Is this stuff really so hard?

Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on us.

Seraphim

come to the earth? Why the Incarnation?

"Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a King then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a King. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth." (John 18:37)

"For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might Destroy the works of the devil." (I John 3:8b).

Huh. So testifying or bearing witness to Truth destroys the works of the devil.

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:32)

"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6)

Truth is very important to God. What is Truth?

I think Rob Bell rocks. I love his nooma video series 'rain'

My church is doing the 'Dust of the Rabbi' series for Sunday School and we're doing the The Truth Project in the evenings.

Anyway, in the evening discussion some things were said, about do we believe that what we believe (Christ, the Gospel etc.) is really real?

Some folk (good folk mind you) said some pious sounding stuff like "Well, I can't say I really believe it, or I'd live different". Yikes! What is the gospel?

Well, Rob Bell talks about it in the DVD of his "Rain" See the Bolded part of text from the series below:

"It's interesting. 'cause if you look up the word "cry," look in the scriptures, you find this word comes up over and over and over again--like even in the book of Psalms, just the book of Psalms. If you start reading through, it speaks over and over and over again of crying....

...of crying out to God. And God says these amazing things like

"When you cry out to me, I listen."

He even says, "I cannot ignore the cries of someone who is afflicted."

It's like if I'm hurting, lost, soaking wet, scared, confused, God says:

"You cry out and I hear." God even says that when you cry, He's close to the broken hearted, he's close to those who cry out and admit they're scared, lost, soaking wet, and confused.

See, there is this false, twisted idead out there among religious people that somehow you gotta have it all together to have a relationship with God. That like somehow God's only looking for people who have no problems, and have it all nailed down, and can put on like the happy face all the time.

And yet the Scriptures speak directly against this kind of thinking.

I mean Jesus is even just straight ahead when He says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and heavey laden."

I mean, the essence of Salvation is crying out to God and admitting I don't have it all together. It's admiting I am lost, I am hurting and this sinful nature that I carry around with me has really screwed things up for me and God if you don't show me the way home, if you don't fix things, if you don't step in, I am dying here. This kind of thing is all throughout the Scriptures.

It's over and over again God says to us -- When you come to me you come to me with all your problems, you come to me all screwed up, all messed. Let me take care of it.

Jesus even sets out looking for peole and he even says this, he says:

"I'm not looking ofr the healthy. I came for the sick."

Check out Rob Bell. Either his book Velvet Elvis or His site - Nooma

I'shalom

Has anyone else even noticed? Jesus is missing. From Christianity. From the Church.

Has he left us? no. We evicted him. We'd rather have a Christ-less Christianity, a Church that's about us and not HIM.

What do I mean?

Well. When was the last time you heard something True about Jesus? Have you ever heard this preached:

"Jesus loves you and has a difficult plan for your life. You'll never be able to get your act together, and if you look to your left and your right and see folk who have their act together, don't worry. They don't. They just look that way.

You see, Jesus didn't come to let us know that Salvation with him would be easy. He didn't come to let us know that Salvation without him would be difficult. His message is that Salvation without Him is Impossible.

Remember, Acts 14:22 tells us that we MUST thru many trials and tribulations inherit the Kingdom of Heaven."

When was the last time you heard that sermon? You probably haven't.

How else is Jesus missing? Look at 'mainstream Christianity'. How do they reconcile a Jesus how told them "Love not the world" "Go and sell all you have" and "if you see your brother in need, help him" with most of Christianity's cozy relationship with wealth and unjust economic systems? How do we Tell the world to "Come out from among them" when we are The Among them?

When we look just like the world? When we know more about current events, what's at the movies and who's on first base than what is between the pages of the Book?

And where is Jesus when most folk who know alot of bible are bigger asses than those who don't? Where is Jesus when we have on average 5 to 9 bibles in a home and don't read them and worse don't LIVE THEM?

It's no wonder Luke asks the question:

"..Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8b)

The most difficult time I have ever had in my life was when I had to have my oldest son arrested for molesting my only daughter.

It was also the one time I felt something close to understanding the heart of God.

When I was 23? 24? My first marriage ended in a nasty seperation/divorce. I stayed single for over a year. One day I'd come home and the wife and my three boys, Robert (Bobby) - Zachary & Nicholai were gone. (they were age 3 years, 2 years and Nic was a few months) at the time...

My folks and I looked for them for 9 days before we found them. Turns out she'd been planning it for awhile...

Anyway that aside... fast forward to when I'm 28, 29. I'd been married to Janice - my bridge - the Magdalena for, oh, 3 to 4 years by this time and the Jade is born. Fast forward to 2001 about July / August of that year.

Out of the blue I get a call "I want Bobby (who's 15 years old now) to come and live with you. I can't handle him." I ask "what's wrong with him?"

She doesn't tell me what the issue really is, just "oh, stealing getting in fights, boy stuff." I am estatic. I can picture re-bonding with my oldest son, taking him to Church with me, and helping him....

Well, I won't go into details here. Sufice it to say that within 72 hours he'd showed some extremely un-appropriate behaviors towards his sister. The first time we weren't sure if what we 'saw' was really what we saw

So he got the big brother -- you're an example of what acceptable male behaviour is to your sister etc...speech and after that what we did see, again, was enough for us to drop him with his aunt in the middle of the night.

We talked with Jade, but didn't realize the full impact of what happened when Janice and I were both at work and Jade's older sister Jatonia (who was 18 or 19 years old at the time) was in the shower....

We were taking the Jade to the public health center for her shots (they are free there) and in the one section they have a waiting room with posters of STD's and we see them and move Jade away, but not before Jade looks at one (desplaying a male member) and she points and says "Oh, look -- Bobby".

The good news is (here in the present) the Jade is fine, healthy & well. Social Workers the Police Detective and her counselors were great. Her dad I think (which of course is me) still has issues...

But as the story unfolded to me, then to her mom and then to the social worker and then the detective and then the counselors -- Jade realized that she'd done nothing wrong, that Bobby had done something wrong, she'd fought and prevented penetration and didn't feel any shame, but was mad at Bobby.

My daughter is an incredible child. in speaking with Bobby it was revealed that the reason his mother wanted him to come live with me was because he had a younger sister at home (from where his mother remarried) and had been messing with her, and a baby sitter had messed with him. I asked him if they were going to get him any help? He said why would this time be any different?

Thus I had him arrested, so he'd have court appointed help. He's currently in Juve Jail. And I really don't know anything else.

The Magdalena had been so careful. We weren't even going to have any more children, and then we were blessed with the Jade.

She'd never been in day care, never been with a baby sitter... but because I allowed the predator into my home (my son!!) our years of vigilence counted for naught.

Abuse happens alot more than people think -- and more than people are comfortable to know about.

This Book - Mending the Soul is an excellent resource.

From the website:

"It's time for the church to recognize the epidemic scale of abuse. Abuse kills. In its different forms—physical, sexual, verbal, spiritual, or neglectful—abuse deadens the emotions, slays self-worth, cripples the mind, even destroys the body. Its victims are legion.

They live in your neighborhood, play with your children, and attend your church. In the United States

* one in three women will be physically assaulted by an intimate partner.

* around 1.5 million children are abused or neglected annually.

* at least twenty-five percent of girls experience contact sexual abuse.

But there is hope. God delights in mending shattered souls. However, healing doesn't come by ignoring the problem of abuse, minimizing its complexities, or downplaying its devastating impact. Healing comes by fully understanding the nature and ramifications of abuse, and by following a biblical path of restoration that allows God's grace to touch the heart's deep wounds. Mending the Soul sounds the call and leads the charge. Thorough and accessible, here at last is a unique and powerful resource for understanding and healing victims of abuse."


Seraphim

**********************

The Above was written September 25, 2005. The abuse to the Jade actually happened 2001/2002ish.

Today is August 23, 2006. My mom called me to let me know that a few weeks ago on a Sunday she saw the boys. Bobby now has a girlfriend (and long hair, tattoo's and piercings) Zachary according to my mom and nephew Avery looks just like me.. and Nicholai was there too.

Which is interesting. Because in my reckoning I figured we'd be hearing from or seeing the boys any day now. I confess I've been a poor father to them. When the thing happened with Bobby and Jade -- I didn't cope well and I allowed them to just drop off of the radar. I called and left a message with Zach to call me. Hopefully he will and that call will go well enough for me to get the information on the rest of the kids.

I've got Janice telling the Jade that Bobby is no longer in jail. I'm not sure how she will take it.

Also. The thing is. Back when I was getting Bobby to come for a visit. Zach really wanted to come too. I told him he'd get his turn. You have to know that I have agonized so many times and am today, that if I'd have let Zach come he would have stopped Bobby. Or prevented this mess. But I didn't.

Lord Jesus Christ, son of God have mercy on me a sinner. Please pray for me, I'm a mess.

Seraphim

If I were asked what is the Primary Mission of the Church. This would be my answer:

The Great Commission. To preach the gospel:

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."(NIV)Matthew 28:16-20

I might add loving God, loving people but that's part of what they are to teach, eh?

However, who am I?

Now if you ask the presiding bishop elect of the episcopal church usa you'd get this answer:

On the mission of the church:

TIME Question: What will be your focus as head of the U.S. (Episcopal) church?

Jefferts Schori: Our focus needs to be on feeding people who go to bed hungry, on providing primary education to girls and boys, on healing people with AIDS, on addressing tuberculosis and malaria, on sustainable development. That ought to be the primary focus. (from the interview with Jeff Chu of TIME Magazine, published 7/10/06)

Sigh.

It's not surprize that someone that cannot identify the primary mission of the Church would also get the answer to this question wrong:

TIME Question: Is belief in Jesus the only way to get to heaven?

Jefferts Schori: We who practice the Christian tradition understand him as our vehicle to the divine. But for us to assume that God could not act in other ways is, I think, to put God in an awfully small box. (from the interview with Jeff Chu of TIME Magazine, published 7/10/06)

yikes. the problem with that small box is it contains a bible. The 'Truth of our Faith' is found in the Revealed Truth handed down to the Church in the Scriptures which say:

"There is no other name, under heaven - given among men, whereby we must be saved" Acts 4:12

I believe 2 Timothy 4:3 is upon us.

I first met Fr. George in 1996, at the St. Herman of Alaska Orthodox Mission in Charlottesville, Virginia. He was giving a talk and giving away copies of his book:

"Christ is calling you: A Course in Catacomb Pastorship"



Later, Fr. Michael took a group of us to visit him at his Church in Northern Virginia. Fr. George remembered me and encouarged me to join the Orthodox Faith.

Fast forward a couple of years, and I'm about to become Orthodox. But there is some question of the cannonicity of the group I'm with (they were formerly the Holy Order of Mans' part of the group Fr. Herman and Fr. Seraphim Rose started) but Bishop Philaret may not actually be a Bishop.

So I called Fr. George, and asked him 'What should I do'.

'We should talk face to face. Come see me this Saturday, around 2pm'.

So I do. And after visiting with this living saint, a few months later at Pascha I enter the Orthodox Church via Chrismation at St. Nicholas Orthodox Mission in Charlottesville, VA.

So. That's a little bit about one of my Spiritual Fathers.

“Lord, take me where You want me to go;
Let me meet who You want me to meet;
Tell me what You want me to say; and
Keep me out of your way.”

St. Mykal Judge

"When God created the world He also created sorrow, suffering and trouble;

and He laid them on a big stone and the stone broke;

He laid them on a big tree and the tree withered;

and finally He laid them on man and man carried them.

And so will you, my brother, carry your sufferings.”

- Romanian Folktale

This is a poem I wrote when I was 18. It is and is not fiction...

---

One day I was dreaming, or I had a vision, it really doesn't matter which, for I know it was of the Lord. And in the dream, I was alone in a dark place, and I was afraid. Yet I didn't want to go out into the Light.

So the Light came to me.

I saw Jesus walking through the darkness. He stood before me, and I turned away. “How can you love me, Lord?” I asked. “Simple.” He said. “Watch and learn.” He reached out His gentle, nail-scarred hand; He reached it out and into my chest. He pulled out my heart, and showed it to me. It was black, as black as death, as black as sin. And sick, cancerous with worms and maggots and words cannot describe the ugliness of my own heart.

Again He said, “Watch.” He reached; He reached His other hand into His chest, and removed His own heart. It was perfect, golden, starlight and sunlight, snug there in the palm of His hand. He took it and placed it into the empty place inside of me, where my heart had been.

Then He did something even more wondrous. He took my heart, as black as sin and as black as murder, and placed it into His own chest. I could still see my heart in His chest. A look of infinite sadness and pain flashed over my Saviors face, and then His face, His body, shown brighter than the sun, the heart He had placed inside of Himself, my heart, started to shine, to glow, it was cleansed, washed clean, whiter than new-born snow.

“I love you.” Jesus said, “Because I have felt and lived your pain. I love you, because when I enter your life, I transform your heart, your very soul, until it is perfect and as pure as mine. I love you because I made you and I died for you. I love you, because now that I am in your heart, and you are forever in mine, you will begin to live for me, just as I died for you.”

He took my hand, and together we left the dark place.

by Seraphim

“Repent!” the Baptizer Thundered!

“The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand!”

Now, the Hebrews would be very familiar with baptism, they knew it as mikveh, the Ritual Bath for Ritual cleansing.

So here was this Prophetic figure, telling them they had to change.

REPENT!

Metanoia. A complete change. a 180. Letting go of our past. Our ego's our sin.

The Old Man.

So. Here comes another prophet like man. Heading right for John.

“Jesus!” John says. “What are you doing? Don't you know I SHOULD BE BAPTIZED by You?”

“Let it be John”

And so, The baptizer baptizes one who is ego-less.

Without sin, without the need to change or be transformed.

So then why is Jesus taking this step of repentance? What does Jesus have to Repent of?

Nothing.

The Orthodox would say that Jesus is sanctifying the Waters so that when we go into them they are salvific.

I disagree. (meaning I think it was that but also...)

Before we can walk the Path we must know the Path, we must see the Path. We must be told the Path. Until we reach Transformation, Salvation - Satori, Enlightenmnet…

We can do nothing on our own. At least nothing right.

So Jesus Repents. For us. He does it for us!

So that when we lay our burdens down, when we let go of the ego, of our sin, and are willing to allow the transformation to begin..

We can do that which he has already done on our behalf.

God's Peace

Seraphim

I've been thinking about this alot.

The Orthodox say that those Protestants that believe in 'legal fiction'.

That Salvation is more than a transaction that occurs because of a 'sinner's prayer'.

But in thinking about being a Christian, and deciding which flavour of a Christian to be, I don't see anyone that doesn't believe in what I'm calling

Transactional Christianity.

Transaction Result

Say a prayer - you're saved

participate in the sacraments - You're saved

Say a prayer and live holy, - you're saved
obey the commandments etc.

Join the Church
& don't commit mortal sins

You get the picture. How did we end up with this transactional view of Christianity? I admit I've perhaps over simplified… and if so, how does one become/be a Christian without a Transaction?

Seraphim

I feel like most of my life is stumbling thru a Fog. The Fog is always there, even though we don't often notice it.

The Fog keeps us just going thru the motions. Working paying bills, eating sleeping.

But not really living. Most of what we do isn't life. It isn't community. It's pseudo Life half life almost life.

Need your 'spiritual fix'? Well, God forbid you should help at a shelter visit old folks in their nursing homes or feed the homeless. Forget about volunteering with Habitat for Humanity or getting to know the folk in your neighborhood.

Just go to a 'church'. There your money will go to some over paid peacock - some professional christian who will use your funds to build his Empire. I know of some of these places where the pastors makes at least 150,000... and the facility is 2 million dollars. Hell, it's 5 K a week just to keep the utilities burning.

You can guarantee your 'tithe' goes to the upkeep of this Empire. Surely it's not going to the poor and needy.

I have brief moments of Lucidity. I wake from the Fog. I find myself on the couch watching some TV show feeling emotions about characters played on a flat screen.. while the wife is either watching with me or falling asleep in the chair next to me. And the Jade is either in another room watching another TV or on one of our two computers..

(do you ever notice, no one on the TV is watching TV -- or not for long. Notice how we watch those who seemingly have a life - while ours passes by)

And I think... Why? What are we doing?

Why arn't we

Reading together, taking a walk, making a puzzle, interacting. Why are the hours and days and months just passing by.. how did this Fog this pseudo life get so damn strong?!

I want to have real community. I want to BE the Church. I want to talk to people face to face, in a pub over darts (double in double out)...

I want to make a difference with my life.

I want to feel that I LIVED! And during these moments of Lucidity.. I want to sell the TV's

Sell the computers

Turn off the cable

And Do something besides stumble thru the Fog and wake up not even knowing I've lived let alone died.

"The goal of the Christian's life on earth is salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ and, at the same time, communion with God. The means for this communion is prayer, and through his prayer the Christian is joined in one spirit with the Lord (I Cor. 6:17). Prayer is the focal point and foundation of spiritual life and the source of salvation. Without prayer, as St. John Chrysostom says, there is no life in the spirit. Without prayer man is deprived of communion with God and can be compared to a dry and barren tree, which is cut down and thrown into the fire (Matt. 7:19).

In prayer, the Christian concentrates together all his spiritual acts. Prayer draws down to him the grace of God and is an invaluable instrument of spiritual defense in the Christian's struggles against the sinful passions and vices. By prayer our thoughts, desires and deeds are sanctified, for he who prays receives the blessing of the Lord on his deeds, for, as Holy Scripture tells us, unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain (Ps. 127:1). Nothing so helps us to grow in virtue as our pure and pious prayers to God. Thus it was the shared opinion of all the Holy Fathers that prayer is the mother of virtues. By repeated and fervent prayer, man is made more worthy of God's mercy and more capable of receiving the gifts of grace which God, by reason of His infinite goodness, is ready to bestow on us out of His immeasurable bounties.

In prayer, the Christian prays not only for himself, but for all men, for we all are the children of God. We must pray for the salvation of our neighbor just as we pray for our own salvation, and the best means of correcting our neighbor is to pray for him, because prayer for our neighbor has far greater effect than denunciation of his sins. In addition, we pray not only for the living, but also for the departed, that God may forgive them their sins and grant them repose in the heavenly mansions of the righteous.

As with any spiritual endeavor, however, the Christian must learn how to pray properly. As St. Tikhon of Zadonsk cautions us: Of no value is that prayer in which the tongue prays but the mind is empty; the tongue speaks, but the mind lies silent; the tongue calls God, but the mind wanders amongst created things. We must, therefore, pray in fear and trembling and try in every way to ensure that our minds are with our words, or, as St. John of the Ladder tells us, to enclose our mind in the words of our prayer, [so that] the heart may respond to the words of the prayers.

The reading of prayers and prostrations are essential, of course, but these only express the state of prayer, while the prayer itself should come from the heart. And it is only such prayer, from the bottom of the heart and of the soul, that is the life of the spirit. True prayer, however, is a gift of God, and this gift is not granted to us without diligence and struggle. Therefore it is necessary for us to pray that the Lord should deem us worthy of this gift and grant us the grace to offer up to Him our sincere, pure and heartfelt prayer, for we are only able to pray when strengthened by the Holy Spirit. Therefore we must be mindful that the Holy Spirit is drawn to a soul cleansed of the stain of sin and worldly passions, and only in such a soul will He abide.

Our prayers will gradually grow more perfect as we improve the manner of our lives and cleanse our hearts of sinful passion. This banishment of sinful ways from our lives brings as its reward our success in prayer. At the same time, we must say that prayer cannot achieve perfection in isolation, but must be accompanied by all the virtues, for as we grow in virtue, so does our prayer grow ever more perfect.

Therefore we say that a Christian does not achieve true prayer at once, but only gradually, through various exertions and labor. All of life's deeds require toil and patience, but nowhere more than in the striving after the supreme virtue prayer.
Conditions for Prayer.

The first condition for the attainment of true prayer is a fervent desire to be saved and be pleasing to God a readiness to sacrifice all for the sake of God and the salvation of one's soul. As Bishop Theophan the Recluse states: Consider prayer to be the first and foremost duty in your life and as such keep it in your heart. Go about your prayers as to the fulfillment of your primary duty, and not as to something to be done between tasks.

A habit of absentminded, inattentive and careless prayer breeds a coldness towards God, dejection, a weakening of the faith and a darkening of the mind, and these in their turn lead to spiritual numbness. For prayer to be fruitful it must be fervent, offered up with an awareness of the need for what we are asking (Col. 4:2) and it must be untiring and relentless, pursuing its purpose with the firm resolve of the widow in Our Lord's parable who seeks protection from her adversary (Luke 18:2-8). At the same time, however, we must ensure that our supplications be worthy of God and of His glory and not opposed to His divine will. Surely we must pray: Lord, let Thy, and not my, will be done in all things!

There are different degrees of prayer and for the beginner the effort of prayer consists mainly in attentively reading or listening to prayer, in standing, bowing and making the Sign of the Cross. Here a great deal of self-exertion and patience is called for, because our attention becomes distracted in this process and our heart may not feel the words of the Prayer. Through this verbal prayer through the diligent exercise of it the Christian, with the help of God, gradually trains his mind to collect itself, to understand and penetrate into the words of the prayer and to pronounce them without becoming distracted by outside thoughts.

The Christian must remain constantly mindful of God and must walk in fear of God. He is always before the eyes of God as God is invisibly with him always and everywhere. One's Guardian Angel is also always by his side. One must also be mindful of the fact that earthly life is not eternal. Death, which passes no one by and carries us off in many ways, must always be brought to remembrance as well as the fearsome Day of Judgment, where we all shall have to answer for our every sinful word, deed and thought. We must always call to mind Hell and the eternal torment which awaits all sinners, as well as the Kingdom of Heaven prepared for the faithful who lived in righteousness. In this way we may lead our lives in the fear of the Lord.

When we pray we must remember that if our prayers will rise speedily to God, they must be said with charity, for prayer said without love is not heard. According to St. John Chrysostom, charity is the wing of prayer. As the Holy Fathers also teach us, we should begin our prayers with glorification of the Creator of all, with a sincere thanksgiving to God for all His mercies, for all the trials and sorrows sent down for our benefit and the benefit of our neighbors. Then we must make a confession of sins in repentance of heart after which we will be deemed worthy to entreat the King of Heaven in prayer.
Mechanics of Prayer.

The Church of Christ teaches us prayers composed by righteous and holy men. The Holy Fathers and Ascetics of the Church, enlightened by the grace of God, have composed many beautiful prayers, filled with holy thoughts and deep feeling for the guidance and admonition of Christians. We hear these prayers in Church during the Divine Services, but for private prayer at home, each Christian must recite the prayers contained in the Prayerbook.

When we begin to pray, we do not immediately break off from our daily tasks and just start praying, but we must prepare ourselves. As the Prayerbook says: Stand in silence for a few moments until all your senses are calmed. Furthermore, as Holy Scripture tells us: Before offering a prayer, prepare yourself; and do not be like a man who tempts the Lord (Sirach 18:23). In addition to this, before entering into prayer, one must prepare himself not only inwardly, but also outwardly.

During prayer one should stand straight with ones eyes fixed on the icon or lowered to the ground, while, at the same time, the eyes of the soul, together with one's soulful aspirations, should be lifted up to God. This outward attitude of piety in prayer is both necessary and beneficial, for the disposition of the soul is in conformity with the disposition of the body.

One must also prepare himself for prayer in the soul, the essence of which consists of purging all vengeful thoughts from one's heart (Mark 11:25-26), in an awareness of one's own sinfulness and with the contrition and humility of soul that such awareness brings. For the only sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise (Ps. 50:17). As the Holy Fathers teach us, whosoever does not avow himself a sinner, his prayer shall not be pleasing to the Lord.

In his daily devotions, the Christian must adhere to a strict home rule of prayer. All the great ascetics had such a rule and kept to it diligently. The extent of our home rule of prayer is determined for each of us in accordance with our manner of life and the state of our spiritual and physical strength. It is better that we offer up a few prayers, made, however, in proper devotion, than that we say many prayers in haste, a danger difficult to avoid if we take upon ourselves too heavy a burden.

In the Prayerbook the Church provides all Christians with a rule of morning and evening prayers. This is a moderate rule and is of special help to those who are just learning to pray. As one fulfills his devotional obligations, one must not be thinking only of reciting all of the prescribed prayers, but must strive to arouse and strengthen in the soul the proper prayerful feelings and devotional attitude. One must strengthen himself against the temptations of sloth and must seek not to excuse himself from prayers on the grounds of lack of time. One must not let off reading the prayers even when fatigued after a day of hard work, since such prayer, done with such great effort, is especially pleasing to God. One must be prepared to sacrifice some moments of bodily repose for the Lord, for by rushing through one's prayers in the anxiety for bodily rest, one will only deprive himself of both physical and spiritual repose.

An unhurried and devout recitation of the words will greatly help in keeping attention on the prayers. If one only has a little time for prayer, it would be far better to say fewer prayers, but with careful thought and attention, than to rush through many prayers without proper attention. But, one must also not allow the omitted prayers to go unheeded; these can be completed later when there is time. While saying a prayer, especially if reading it from a book, one must not hasten from one word to the next, lest there be a failure to grasp the truth of the text and to receive it into the heart.

The Holy Fathers recommend for greater spirituality of mind and heart the rule of executing bows, prostrations, and making the Sign of the Cross, during prayer, as an expression of heartfelt feelings of penitence, humility, deep piety, fear of God and devotion to Him, for when one's body is prostrate, the soul ascends heavenwards to God!

St. John Chrysostom on Prayers

In his earthly ministry, St. John Chrysostom was well known as a superb homilist and for his efforts received the well-deserved title Golden-mouth. In his sermons, St. John was especially concerned for the spiritual and moral development of his flock and, as a result, he was especially interested in teaching them how to pray. As trees cannot live without water, so man's soul cannot live without prayerful contact with God, he taught. If you deprive yourself of prayer, you will do as though you had taken a fish out of water: as life is water for a fish, so is prayer for you.

To live in God means that one must always and everywhere be with God, and without prayer, such a union is impossible. Therefore the Holy Father, St. John, did not limit conversation with God in prayer to one set time of day or to one definite place. As he taught, one can say prolonged prayers while walking to the square, while walking about the streets. While sitting and working in a workshop, one can dedicate his spirit to God. One can say prolonged and fervent prayers, I say, both coming in and going out. While in public, St. John did not recommend that prayer be said with the lips, for the power of prayer lies not in words uttered by the lips, but by the heart. One can be heard without uttering any words. While walking about a square, one can pray in thought with great zeal, and while sitting with friends and doing any sort of thing, one can call upon God with a great cry (I mean an internal cry) without making it known to any of those present.

While not diminishing the role and importance of prayer set for definite hours, St. John, nonetheless, sees the time of prayer in much broader terms. We can obtain benefit from praying during our entire lives by devoting to it the greater part of our time. He even asked Christians to pray during the night, for he knew from experience what benefit such prayers bring. Prayers at night are often purer because the mind is more at ease and there are fewer worries. These prayers can be short and few, but, as St. John says, let us rise during the night. If you do not say many prayers, then say one with attentive concern and this is enough. I demand no more. If not in the middle of the night, at least towards morning.

Fasting also proves to be an invaluable aid to man in the achievement of perfect prayer. While fasting, as the Saint notes, a man does not doze off, does not talk a lot, neither does he yawn or grow weak in prayer as often happens to many when not fasting.

Speaking of the content of prayer, St. John advises first of all to thank God for everything. Receiving all gifts from God, a Christian not only must thank God for them, but must also ask them of Him. But, not all that is asked of God can bring benefit to man or can be good for him. Many are not heard because they ask for useless things, because they insist on the fulfillment of their own will and not God's, show indulgence towards their own weaknesses, and do not gather spiritual treasure. A man must also be taught by reason of his limitations and sinfulness that he cannot always correctly determine what will bring him what he asks for in prayer.

Whether we are heard or not when we pray, depends upon the following: 1) Are we worthy to receive? 2) Do we pray according to Divine Law? 3) Do we pray incessantly? 4) Do we avoid asking for worldly things? 5) Do we fulfill everything that is required on our part? and, finally, 6) Do we ask for beneficial things?

When these conditions are fulfilled, prayer acquires a truly ineffable power. It spiritualizes a man, renews him, inspires him, and carries him away to heavenly pastures. As St. John affirms, in truth prayer is the light of the soul, the true knowledge of God and men, the healer of vices, the physician of diseases, the peace of the soul, the heavenly guide which does not revolve around the earth, but which leads up to Heaven! Therefore, the beneficial devotion of prayer is the breath of life.

Church Prayer

Apart from private or home prayer, which is said in private, according to the words of the Savior, When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father Who is in secret; and your Father Who sees in secret will reward you (Matt. 6:6), as a Christian one must also participate in church prayer, conducted during Divine Service, before the gathering of the faithful. The importance and significance of this type of prayer at the Divine Services is stressed in the Gospels. The Lord Himself, during His earthly life, used to visit the Temple of Jerusalem, as well as the synagogue, and pray therein. He often prayed, not only in solitude, but also before the people, and the first Christians were day by day, attending the temple together (Acts 2:46). Therefore our Holy Orthodox Church our Mother strictly commands her children to attend Divine Services, which is particularly essential to our salvation.

By its very significance church prayer is incomparably higher than prayer said at home, for as St. John Chrysostom tells us, a single Lord, have mercy uttered in church together with the congregation of believers, is worth a hundred prostrations during lonely home prayer. Why is this so? Because our Lord said: For where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of them (Matt. 18:20).

Some say that it is not essential to go to church to pray, that one can pray just as well at home. Beware, for you deceive only yourselves, warns St. John Chrysostom. You can, of course, pray at home, but you cannot there pray as you can in church, amidst so many people, speaking to God as with one voice. When you pray to the Lord alone you will not be heard as soon as when you pray together with your brethren, for together with them your prayer is great: you pray in unanimity, concord, a union of love and of prayer with the officiating priests. That is why the priests stand before us, that the prayers of the people, who are weak in spirit, may be united with their stronger prayers and thus be uplifted to Heaven. Such prayer has much greater power, is far more bold and effective than private prayer recited at home. During church prayer it is not only people who lift up their voices, but Angels, too, come to the Lord with prayer, and the Archangels also make their devotions to Him.
The Lord's Prayer.

When the Disciples asked Our Lord to teach them how to pray, he gave to them the words of the Lord's Prayer, which, in St. Matthew's Gospel is worded thus:

Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread;

And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us;

And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from the Evil One.

The words Our Father Who art in heaven bear witness to the truth that God is the Father of all that exists. He not only created the universe, the entire world material and spiritual, visible and invisible but, being the Father, He loves His creation, cares for it, and guides it to the goals of goodness and perfection as He has planned. The Father is He Who calls us to life, Who loves His creation and cares for it. According to Bishop Nicholas of Ochrid, when I open my mouth and cry: 'Father!' love expels fear, and the earth seems to draw closer to Heaven....Egoism cries to Thee: 'My Father,' but love says: 'Our Father!'

The universe created by God is diverse, for, on the one hand, it is our world the world of nature and man and, on the other hand, it is spiritual the world of the Angelic Host and the Church Triumphant-known biblically as Heaven. Therefore God is called the Father of our natural-human world and the Heavenly Father Who art in Heaven, that is, the Father of the spiritual world. Heaven also implies that purity and sanctity of divine life to which man is called, and which does not exist in him if he is entirely captivated by Sin. As Bishop Nicholas says: Heaven is very, very far for a man whose heart and soul have turned away from Thee...but Heaven is very, very close for a man whose soul is open and awaits Thy coming.

The Lord's Prayer consists of seven petitions, and these are things that we should ask of our Heavenly Father.

(1) Our Father Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name.

In the first petition, we should beseech our Heavenly Father that His name, which is always holy in itself, be hallowed, with His blessing, both in us and through us (Matt. 5:16). The Lord is the fullness and perfection of sanctity but, by glorifying Him, we sanctify ourselves and the surrounding world.

(2) Thy kingdom come.

In the second petition, we ask the Lord to help us and make us worthy, through His grace, of the Kingdom of Heaven which begins, as Christ Himself said, here on earth, within us. But it will only come to us in the fullness of its power when Sin ceases to hold undivided sway in us and righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17) abide in us.

(3) Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven.

In the third petition, we beseech God the Father that He not allow us to live out our earthly lives according to our sinful ways, but according to His will, which is always good, and acceptable, and perfect (Rom. 12:2). By obeying the will of God, we begin to establish the Kingdom of God within ourselves.

(4) Give us this day our daily bread;

In the fourth petition we beseech God to give us our daily bread everything we need in life, spiritual as well as physical. Our spiritual bread is the grace-bestowing Sacraments of the Church, instituted for our salvation. First and foremost, our daily bread means Holy Communion, of which the Lord said: I am the bread of life...and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh (John 6:48, 51). Material bread means all that is necessary for human existence, directly associated with the surrounding world. The words this day warn us against too many cares, and teaches us to ask only for what is most essential, because the Lord says: But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day (Matt. 6:33-34).

(5) And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

In the fifth petition the Lord teaches us how to ask forgiveness for our sins from the Heavenly Father, and how they may be forgiven. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against any one; so that your Father also Who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father Who is in heaven forgive your trespasses (Mark 11:25-26). Man's sins are called trespasses against God in this petition and here we beg for God's mercy. This is our confession, asking for His forgiveness. Whoever seeks forgiveness should resort to the healing power of repentance and forgive his neighbor, the trespasser. When we forgive our trespassers, then God will also forgive us our sins (Mark 4:24).

(6) And lead us not into temptation,

In the sixth petition we ask of the Lord that He not allow us to fall into sin. We ask Him to preserve us from all that confuses our spirit and from temptations that are beyond our strength to reject. If we encounter on our earthly path trials and temptations sent for our purification from sin and spiritual fortification, then we ask God to send us His timely help. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it (I Cor. 10:13). For because He Himself has suffered and been tempted, He is able to help those who are tempted (Heb. 2:18), St. Paul says, indicating the Helper and Accomplisher of our salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ.

(7) But deliver us from the Evil One.

In the seventh and final petition, we ask that we be protected against and saved from Evil and the Devil, who is a murderer from the beginning and works for our destruction. As St. Peter says, the Devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour (1 Pet. 5:8). Remembering the Enemy of our salvation, the Lord urges us to be vigilant and sober of spirit, to have courage to accomplish a feat, teaches us to pray for one another, and by prayer to the Heavenly Father, to fortify ourselves spiritually and free ourselves from misfortune and disaster.

Thus the Lord's Prayer is the unfailing model and rule for all prayers. The Church uses it in all the sacramental orders, and in all the Divine Services. As St. John Chrysostom says, it is the crown of all prayers.

Excerpt taken from "These Truths We Hold - The Holy Orthodox Church: Her Life and Teachings". Compiled and Edited by A Monk of St. Tikhon's Monastery. Copyright 1986 by the St. Tikhon's Seminary Press, South Canaan, Pennsylvania 18459.

Even think you were dying? Couple of weeks ago I felt like I was.

Got the flu bug, was pretty sick -- took some medicine right away (which I'm discovering more and more is a mistake) and the flu bug - cold, what have you got 'stuck' felt like everything between my throat, mouth and nose was stuck. Couldn't breathe right, couldn't sneeze blow my nose cough any of that and started to hack cough and heave. (probably too much of a visual there sorry)

Anyway, went into the bathroom couldn't really cough anything up so got some vapor stuff put into a very hot tub and tried to will myself to relax to calm down, to just breathe..

and begun to think about Death. Crossing Over. The Other Side. Starting talking to Yeshua very seriously. Mostly about how unprepared I was to face Death and Him.

I begun to understand St. Isaac the Syrian a little more when he said "This life has been given you for repentance." I've done so many things (and continue to do so many things) wrong. I don't love enough. I don't give enough of myself to my bride to my children. I don't show the love of God enough to my neighbors -- at work.

I've not even begun to repent.

I'm so incredibly selfish and well, stuck in my life. Stuck trapped ineffective scared to live as much as scared to die. I laid there closing my eyes counting breaths -- calming down.

Now not just asking God to let me not die. But to let me live, and to teach me what it really means to be

Alive.

I'shalom

Seraphim

"There have always been magical households. A house was a shrine to the deity of life itself. Its roof and walls served as a shield from the effects of the elements (both physical and magical) and held in the home's luck, spirit, or energy, while its door guarded against unwanted intrusions. The house sustained life; it was sacred and powerful."

From The Magical Household

I like this. Is there a 'Christian' version of this? Is this maybe why some of us like the old liturgically churches, more formal 'sacred space?'

Just goes to show, Truth can transend 'religion'.

I took the time to re read Romans last night.

This is what I see in the scriptures, specficially Romans 10.

Salvation happens when two things occur

1) God's initiative

2) Our response

How does God initiate our Salvation? 3 ways that I see.

- Scripture says no man can call Jesus Lord except by the Holy Spirit so the Holy Spirit does a work in our heart.

- Scripture says that no man can come to God unless the Father draws Him. Now 1 and 2 could be the same. It could be that the Father via the Holy Spirit draws a man, but I like the thought of both working to draw someone to themselves.

- the third way I see God initiating our Salvation is thru the foolishness of preaching. God for His purposes has decided that preaching of the Gospel is what leads men to repentance and salvation.

These verse show (to me) what one must believe to be saved:

(Rom 10:10) For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation.

(Rom 10:11) For the Scripture says, "Everyone believing on Him shall not be put to shame."


Repentance, Metanoia means a turn around, to go in a different direction.

What must be believed in the heart and confessed with the mouth?

(Rom 10:9) Because if you confess the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.

How do we know this? Where do I get the 'third way' that God initiates our Salvation?

Well here:

(Rom 10:14) How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without preaching?

(Rom 10:15) And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things!"

(Rom 10:16) But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our report?"

(Rom 10:17) Then faith is of hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.

So preaching is the third way I see that God initiates our Salvation. I know that not all scripture is clear. I know that there are non-essentials over which we will disagree and struggle.

But this is pretty clear.

God initiates we respond. Our response totally dependent on God's working on us first....

Then what happens?

(Rom 10:11) For the Scripture says, "Everyone believing on Him shall not be put to shame."

So. I see this as the God ordained method of salvation. Does it require an altar call? no. Can someone be saved this way at baptism, certainly.

Ephesians 1:13 really fits here as well.

"In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,"

God's peace.

C.S. Lewis is one of my all time favorite Christian Authors.

I think that we need his boldness today to be able to speak out against some of the rubish that is calling itself 'Christian Scholarship'. (I have the Jesus Seminar in mind)

"In the book Mere Christianity, Lewis famously proposed that Jesus' status as a great moral teacher cannot be divorced from his claims to divinity:

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him: I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon and you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."

According to the argument, most people are willing to accept Jesus Christ as a great moral teacher, but the Gospels record that Jesus made many claims to divinity, either explicitly ("I and the father are one." John 10:30) or implicitly, by assuming authority only God could have ("the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" Matthew 9:6). Assuming that the Gospels are accurate, Lewis said there are three options:

1. Jesus was telling falsehoods and knew it, and so he was a liar.
2. Jesus was telling falsehoods but believed he was telling the truth, and so he was insane.
3. Jesus was telling the truth, and so he was divine.

Lewis held that for Jesus to be a liar or insane would contradict his position as a "great moral teacher", and the remaining option would make Jesus both a great moral teacher and divine. This was aimed against a specific line of reasoning which accepts the Jesus portrayed in the gospels as a great moral teacher, but not as a divine being. Lewis maintained that they are failing to deal with the logical consequences of their position."

Taken from Wikipedia.org

God's Peace

First, an update.

Back on insulin, 3 shots a day, and also taking oral meds. Good news though, my sugars coming down. I've had readings as good as 119 & 142. Also, the readings are down in the 200's now, when last week they were in the 400s and high 300s.

Thanks for your prayers. Also, the Doctor wants me to stop taking the insulin soon. So all looks well.

Alright to the blog at hand:

Went to a service with my bride this past Sunday. Large gathering, at least 400 some people. Huge auditorium, chairs facing the 'stage' (for want of a better term) from front, left & the right.

Opens the same everytime, which is a little of a bummer. Cause it's not a liturgical sameness, but a frustrating 'we know busy-ness during the week prevents us from thinking about God - we come together to calm our minds and think about him' blah blah blah. I worry about a church that forgets so easily in their 'busy-ness' about the reason we breath, the God in whom we 'Live Move & have our being'

I think about God frequently. I have reminders constantly telling me to seek him in the inner sanctuary of my Heart. The Holy Spirit whispers to me in a not audible voice, 'don't act like that' 'forgive them' 'Pray for her'

The disconnect, if you will, comes when I sit there in this pseudo fellowship longing for real fellowship! I especially hate the few minutes devoted to the whole 'turn and greet' thing.

How did we come to this? From the house churches to large auditoriums with professional Christians (who all have to be degreed by the way - how'd it switch like that? From fishermen to the well heeled modern day education equivalient of the pharasees?)

How'd we get here? I miss small church. I miss liturgy. I miss coffee hour. Real fellowship. I don't know any of these people! And the few I do are so busy being friends with other people we don't fit.

Sigh. I long for folk that want to Be the Church.

Pray for me a sinner.

Seraphim

Hey family. Requesting prayer for someone.

Me.

You may or may not know, but I've been a diabetic for going on 7 years now. For the first 2 years I was insulin dependent.

However, got tired of the insulin and weight gain and consulted an endocrinologist who with God's help and answered prayer got me off of needles and on a pill.

So for the past 5 years I'd been on 1 pill a day and my blood sugar was perfect. Readings of 90-140, averaging around 115.

Couple of months ago, however, discovered I had degenerative disc disease and a herniated disc. Received a steroidal treatment for the pain which worked wonderful, except it threw my sugar out of wack.

For example. My post lunch reading was 400. And as of yesterday, until this beast is under control, I'm back on insulin. 2 to 3 shots a day.

So I greatly desire your prayers.

God's Peace

I'm not post modern. I don't believe that our individual interpretations of what words mean can keep us from knowing Truth.

I believe that because of abuses in the church Mr. McLaren et all come to the wrong conclusions.

What do I mean? Well. Dogma and Doctrine have never been my issues. Seeing it lived out in my life and the lives of others, yes.

Same thing from what I read of McLaren. But rather than recognize that I believe he comes to the wrong conclusion.

Rather than owning the fact that it's not the Truth that needs to be changed by people but that people need to be changed by Truth, he decides that we need:

A New Kind of Christian, and then that's not enough we need to re-discover the:

A Secret Message from Jesus (afterall the Gospel - Good News - is not about Salvation, nevermind scriptures that say "Whosoever belieth on me shall not perish).

A message that the Church has and continues to miss (Wake Up Holy Ghost!)

Which to me is ridiculous.

Some would label Jesus a heretic, and say that we need to be heretic's to get to the meat of what God is saying to us today.

But I firmly believe Jesus wasn't a heretic even though SOME of the Hebrew's didn't recognize Him He was / is the Fulfillment of the Hebrew Religion.)

I read a book called "If Grace is True: Why God will save every person" and one of the things in it I see as very intersting is this:

The author comes to the conclusion he can no longer call himself a Christian. Because if God saves everyone, we don't need Jesus.
We don't need to be a Christian.

It's like instead of Jesus we have Richard Bach as tour guide. Richard Bach? Anyone old enough to remember him? He wrote "Illusions: The Adventures of A Reluctant Messiah"

The story goes like this. Imagine Jesus in the Garden, but this day and age and Jesus' name is Donald.

He prays to the Father to take the Cup away, and God says:

Sure, no worries.

Well, that is the fictional account. In the Garden there was not a way to take the cup away from Christ, that would result in our Salvation & Reconciliation with the Father.

So Jesus goes to the Cross. Which results in the Salvation of those who believe.

Even Fr. Robert Capon's belief that the results of Jesus life death & resurrection have been cosmologically applied to Everyone... (ALL) to me is reading what you like back into the text, rather than allowing the doctrine to arise from the text.

oy vey. We don't need a New Message. We don't need a New Kind of Christian. We don't need post-modernism to correct our interpretations so we can see Truth.

We just need to somehow, accept the message of the Gospel. And rather than people changing the truth we need to be people changed by the truth.

God's Peace

adopt your own virtual pet!

The test is Here

Here is how I did:

Buddhism 71%
Judaism 58%
Christianity 58%
Hinduism 50%
Paganism 46%
agnosticism 42%
Islam 42%
Satanism 33%
atheism 21%

huh. How'd you do?

Gay ... But Not Funny
[The following article appeared in The Word magazine, May 2004 (Vol.48;No.5).]

Students of the art of comedy know that for humour to work it must bear some semblance to the truth. One truth about humour: it’s usually at someone’s expense. Something you find funny, someone else finds offensive, and vice versa. The subject of sex is like that. Though not entirely humourous, it’s possible for any discussion of sex to be offensive. Ours is an overly-sexed, overly sensitive, age. And all of us – every man, woman, and child – struggle with our sexuality, our fallen body and its relationship to God and others.

I once heard of a priest who delivered a talk on sex in his church. He began by asking, “How many of you are not married?” After a showing of hands he asked, “How many of you are married?” He then pointed from the latter group to the former stating, “Alright, you can. You can’t.” This is true. God-pleasing sexual relations are between a man and a woman within the sacrament of holy matrimony. Period. Everything else is merely a footnote to that axiom.

It’s the belief of various Gnostic heresies that the soul alone is pure and the body is evil. We do not believe this. Sex is not a sin. Sexual desires and feelings are not, in and of themselves, sinful. Our bodies are not evil. Christ is the Saviour Who saves the whole of mankind – including the body. It is misuse of sex, the abuse of our bodies, that is sinful. Contrary to bumper stickers claiming otherwise, our bodies are not our own. Having been redeemed by Christ, our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. That which defiles the body also damages the soul.

Americans have hastened happily down a perilously slippery slope over the past fifty years. The Kinsey Report of the 1950s, the introduction of the birth control pill in the 1960s, the sexual revolution and the drug/disco era of the 1970s, the spread of AIDS in the 1980s, the homosexual propaganda of the 1990s, and, in general, the wholesale discarding of self-control and moral standards over the past 20 years – has landed us within a cesspool of tangled bodies and confused minds. This perverse insanity has even infected many people claiming to be “Christians.”

I once had a conversation with a friend who’d converted to Orthodoxy. At the time I was an Episcopalian on my way to seminary. I asked, “How does Orthodoxy handle your homosexuality?” “A lot better than the Episcopal Church,” he replied. He said that when he’d confessed his struggles in the Episcopal church, the priest frowned on his “orientation.” Whereas others, heterosexual college-aged men struggling with continence, had their sins winked at by the priest. [My how times have changed!] He went on to state that within Orthodoxy, sex outside of heterosexual marriage is a sin. Period. Sin is sin. And he was right. Carnal relations outside the God-pleasing confines of monogamous heterosexual marriage is contrary to God’s will. It separates us from God and others.

You’ve probably heard the advertisements for a dating service called “E-Harmony.Com” on the radio. One day, while riding in the car with my two oldest (ages 9 & 5), we heard the ad but it was dragging. For those of you who remember, it sounded like a 45 record played at 33 1/3. The voices that were originally female now sounded deep and masculine: “ I met my husband through e-harmony.com”. My kids started laughing before I did. We all laughed. It was hilarious to hear a deep voiced man boasting of finding his “husband” through a dating service. In the natural order of things, my kids found such an idea preposterously funny. We still talk about that funny moment. Unfortunately, due to the courts and media, I will soon have to talk to them about why “natural order humour” is no longer funny.

Holy Matrimony means “Holy Mother-Making.” In other words, the Church blesses the union of husband and wife toward the procreation of children. Though a homosexual may pretend to be a “mother” and a lesbian a “father,” it is just that: pretend. There is no truth in it. Objections about barren couples, adoption, heterosexual divorce rates, and secular rights fall on deaf ears where truth and salvation are the goal. It is one thing to show compassion for another’s struggles. It is another to [pretend to] change the God-given natural order of life itself to accommodate a false pretense. This is bearing false witness.

In 1991 I participated in the Episcopal Church’s General Convention in Phoenix, Arizona. I worked for two conservative groups, The Prayer Book Society and the Episcopal Synod of America. With a background in broadcasting, it was my job to conduct “man on the street” interviews and deliver newscasts each day at our media booth. What an eye opener! It was shocking and heartbreaking to hear teens – TEENS – saying that God only cared about love and was not concerned with what two consenting adults did in the privacy of their own home! Most shocking was the voting that happened between grown adults, delegates and bishops of that denomination, regarding the sacrament of marriage. When a bishop proposed a resolution stating that sex outside of marriage should be forbidden for priests and deacons, the homosexual lobby was prepared to support the measure. Why? Because they were proposing the blessing of same-sex unions. The conservative lobby refashioned the resolution to read “sex outside of monogamous heterosexual marriage” is forbidden for members of the clergy. Due to pressure from the homosexual lobby, the measure failed. The measure failed! That was the day my pilgrimage out of the Episcopal church began.

We, as Christians, members of the Body of Christ, do not get to vote on morality. The will of God on all matters pertaining to our relationship with our bodies and each other has been revealed. We must struggle, daily, to practice the precepts of our Faith. We fall, we get up. Fall down, back up. Fall again, up again. If we sin, through confession and repentance, we are reconciled through Christ to His Holy Church.

A priest once told about a man who came to see him about becoming Orthodox. The priest said, “Okay, we’ll need to discuss who Christ is, the Church, the Sacraments ....” The man interrupted him saying, “I’m gay.” The priest said, “Okay. But if you want to become Orthodox, we’ll need to discuss who Christ is, the Church, the Sacraments ....” “Dang it! Didn’t you hear me? I said, I’m gay!” “I heard you,” said the priest, “but if you want to become Orthodox, we’ll need to talk about who Christ is, the Church, the Sacraments ....” Crying, the man told the priest that other pastors had either told him it didn’t matter, or to get out! It took the man a couple years to become Orthodox, but another 10 years to become celibate. He claims he could never have made it without the benefit of Christ, the Church, and the Sacraments.

The Church – our Spiritual Hospital – must be open to all. We’re all sick with the disease of sin. We cannot be healed, really healed, without receiving the Body and Blood of Christ. We must never turn our backs on someone just because they’re a sinner or their sin’s not ours. God forbid! This is the mission of the Church, to save sinners! But, by the same token, it is not within our power to state that a sin is no longer a sin. God alone forgives. God alone is the judge. He has revealed Himself and His will to us in the Scriptures, within the Church.

Returning to the art of comedy, few spectacles are more unbearable to watch than a comedian failing. We’ve all seen it: Someone is trying to be funny and we’re just not able to laugh. It may be the performer’s delivery, his material, appearance, or the given context. Essentially, remembering the first axiom of comedy, there’s no truth in the presentation. To laugh at such an act would be a pretense. That, my brethren, is an image of sex outside of the God-pleasing marriage of man and woman. There is no truth in it. It is fake. It is a failure. It leads to death. This analogy also speaks clearly to recent events gaining national attention – the elevation of a practicing homosexual to the episcopacy in the Episcopal church and the blessing of so-called “same sex unions.” Viewed with the lense of the Church, it is no laughing matter.

As Orthodox Christians we bear a weighty burden in these troubled times. We must not only struggle to preserve our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit, we must bear witness to the Life-giving precepts of the Body of Christ to those outside Her holy confines – even and especially to those calling themselves “Christians.” The Church has a host of Saints who’ve gone on before us, acquiring salvation through the mortification of the flesh and the passions (St Mary of Egypt comes immediately to mind.) And the same Revelation that teaches us to beware fornicators, false teachers, and wolves in sheep’s clothing also states:

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
1 John 1:8

And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
1 John 2:1b

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.
John 3:16-21

This Good News is offensive only to those living in darkness. Funny thing is, it is the same Good News that liberates the offended and leads to salvation in Christ. Let us place this light, the light of Truth, on a candle stand for all to see.

Rob Bell

Review by Dale Van DykeGrand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005

Rob Bell, the founding pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville Michigan, is a very “hip” guy. As Andy Crouch remarked “You could say he puts the ‘hip’ in discipleship”.[1] But Bell is hip with an agenda. Inspired by Brian McLaren’s “A New Kind of Christian,” Bell and other emergent pastors are “looking for a faith colorful enough for their culturally savvy friends, deep enough for mystery, big enough for their own doubts.”[2] Consequently, the stated goal of Bell’s new book, “Velvet Elvis,” is to help us “re-paint” the Christian faith. Bell sees himself as a reformer, painting the faith in a way that helps people connect with Jesus today. On the back cover, Bell invites the reader to “test everything.” This review is an attempt to do just that, to examine Bell’s rendering of the Christian faith and life in light of the Word of God.

I believe that Rob Bell is well intentioned. He is passionate about helping Christians break out of the drudgery of a traditional religion into a vibrant relationship with Christ and a culture transforming lifestyle. He is very eager to help people actually experience living out the commands of Christ. This is commendable and explains in large part his appeal to the largely churched Grand Rapids, Christian community. We can learn from him here. It would be easy simply to take pot shots at Mars Hill and “Velvet Elvis” without acknowledging that “Christianity as usual” in this country and even in our own community truly is far less than what it ought to be!

However, “Velvet Elvis” is not a healthy book and the emergent church movement it belongs to is not a healthy movement. Rob Bell, Brian McLaren and other leaders of the emergent church desperately want to “redefine” Christianity. However, these men seem to have confused the fundamentalist and/or mega-church circles they have come out of with historic Christianity. Consequently, instead of a careful, biblical, critique of the evangelical model and a pursuit of a biblically sound, full-orbed Christianity, they have uncritically attached their wagons to an intentionally postmodern model of Christianity which, being married to the spirit of the age, is doomed for quick widowhood. [3]

Interestingly, although emergent church leaders disagree with the seeker-sensitive, church-growth model of the church they share the same underlying principle of pragmatism. The reason we need to “re-paint” and “rediscover” Christianity is because the old model doesn’t work anymore. Author’s like Leonard Sweet argue that we need new kind of Christianity, a post-modern Christianity if we have any hope of reaching a post-modern world. [4] Beyond the subtle arrogance of such a proposition there is a beating principle of pragmatism. This movement seems to be fundamentally driven by the question, “what will work?” instead of the Biblical question, “what has God said?”.[5] In the pursuit of “relevance” and “authenticity” - the holy grail of the seeker-sensitive movement 20 years ago and the liberal church before that - this movement is also in danger of leaving historic, biblical Christianity behind. Consequently, it is destined to be one more “ism” in church history which ends up in the garbage heap of failed philosophies.

As I read the emergent leaders and Rob Bell in Velvet Elvis, I feel like I’m living in J.Gresham Machen’s classic “Christianity and Liberalism.” It seems the emergent church is going down precisely the same road the liberal movement took 100 or so years ago. The liberal’s were saying that the key to understanding real Christianity and the “real” and “relevant” Jesus was through a higher-critical, “scientific” analysis of the Bible. This pursuit was seen as essential for reaching out to a scientific age. The emergent movement seems to have replaced higher criticism with Jewish studies and post-modern epistemology. Now the key to understanding real Christianity and the “real” and “relevant” Jesus is through an analysis of first century Jewish practices and a “Hebrew” mind-set which embraces mystery and doubt and prefers questions to answers. But both movements end up undermining the Bible as the authoritative Word of God; both undermine the gospel as the central issue of Scripture and calling of the church; and both, in the name of “enlightenment,” devastate the church.

Specific Concerns

1. His View of the Bible as metaphor

Bell sees the Bible not primarily as God’s revealed word but as the “expression of the spiritual experience of God’s people through the ages.”

“We have to embrace the Bible as the wild, uncensored, passionate account it is of people experiencing the living God. Doubting the one true God.” [6]

The Bible is a “human product....rather than the product of divine fiat.” [7] Consequently, the Bible is helpful not primarily as the factual revelation of God’s real acts in history, but as a metaphor to help us understand our own experiences.

“Is the greatest truth about Adam and Eve that it happened or that it happens? This story...is true for us because it is our story. We have all taken the fruit. We have all crossed boundaries....This is why the Bible loses its power for so many communities. They fall into the trap of thinking that the Bible is just about things that happened a long time ago.”[8]

Now this seems attractive in that it seems to make the Bible “alive” and dynamic. But it does not square with how the Bible represents itself. The biblical writers do not use the Bible primarily or even secondarily as a metaphor to interpret ones own personal experience. The Bible is the account of God’s acts of redemption and these things matter, first and foremost, because they are historically true - they really happened! Luke and Paul, for example, emphasized the historical detail and accuracy of the gospel events.

Luke 1:1-4 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

1 Cor 15:3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

The biblical writers obviously believed that the purpose of Scripture is to tell us what God has actually done for us, not to provide stories to be used as metaphors of our own experience. Contrary to Bell, the primary importance of the fall is not that it “happens” but that it “happened” - it is the historical and theological reality behind all the rest of the Bible, including Christ’s coming. We are not asked to experience these stories metaphorically but to believe in the redemption to which they point us to. The experiential link between the reader and the text is not metaphor but faith!

But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.[9]

In other words, the “key” to experiencing and engaging the Scripture is not trying to discover a comparable experience in one's own life, but in believing, and trusting in and learning from the experiences of Jesus life. It is, after all, a book about HIM.

2. His Understanding of the Christian Faith

Bell, as a postmodern believer, emphasizes mystery and doubt as the keys to genuine Christian experience. Objective truth and concrete propositions concerning the nature of God, the Bible, and even Jesus Christ are seen as secondary at best, and at worst “bricks” which hinder a lively faith. Speaking with Andy Crouch, Bell’s wife Kristen confesses, “I grew up thinking that we’ve figured out the Bible, that we knew what it means. Now I have no idea what it means. And yet I feel like life is big again - like life used to be black and white and now it’s in color.” [10] The core elements of post-modern Christian faith do not seem to be “knowledge, assent and trust,” but mystery, doubt and doing. This, of course, shifts the focus of faith from its objective content, Christ Jesus and him crucified, towards the individuals experience of faith.

Faith, according to Bell, is a trampoline with doctrine functioning as the springs - they are helpful but not the point. The problem with many Christians is that they are so wrapped up in the nature of the springs they can’t enjoy the real “point” of Christianity, the experience of jumping. Bell compares these doctrinally minded people to masons who build their faith as a wall of bricks, each brick/doctrine carefully laid on top of the other. The problem with this view of faith is that if you pull out one of the bricks, the whole wall collapses.

“What if tomorrow someone digs up definitive proof that Jesus had a real, earthly, biological father named Larry, and archeologist find Larry’s tomb and do DNA samples and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the virgin birth was really just a bit of mythologizing the Gospel writers threw in to appeal to the followers of the Mithra and Dionysian religious cults that were hugely popular at the time of Jesus, whose gods had virgin births? But what if, as you study the origin of the word “virgin” you discover that the word “virgin” in the gospel of Matthew actually comes from the book of Isaiah, and then you find out that in the Hebrew language at that time, the word “virgin” could mean several things. And what if you discover that in the first century being “born of a virgin” also referred to a child whose mother became pregnant the first time she had intercourse? What if that spring were seriously questioned? Could a person keep on jumping? Could a person still love God? Could you still be a Christian? Is the way of Jesus still the best possible way to live? Or does the whole thing fall apart?”[11]

Bell’s answer? “If the whole faith falls apart when we reexamine and rethink one spring then it wasn’t that strong in the first place was it?”[12] In other words, Bell advocates a faith that is impervious to a mythologized virgin birth. This faith can “go on jumping” even if it were shown that Jesus was born of Larry and the Gospel writers knowingly “threw in” myth.

There are two points I would like to make in response to this. First, it is important to realize that Bell, himself, believes in a literal incarnation.

“I affirm the historic Christian faith, which includes the virgin birth and the Trinity and the inspiration of the Bible and much more.” [13]

But the issue of orthodoxy is not simply what one personally chooses to believe concerning Christ, but what is necessary to believe concerning Christ. The church has historically understood the creeds to be a summary of what-is-necessary-to-believe in order to be an orthodox Christian. The Apostle’s and Nicene Creed both clearly profess that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit as a necessary component of true faith. A literal, virgin birth as a necessary doctrine, is not simply a hang-up of modernistic evangelicalism. It has been a part of the church’s profession through all its ages and in all its branches from the beginning. By failing to insist on a literal virgin birth as part of what-is-necessary-to-believe, Bell has taken the sadly, well-traveled road of liberalism. Many of the 1,293 Presbyterian ministers who signed the Auburn Affirmation of 1923 personally affirmed the literal truth of the 5 fundamentals. [14] But they did not believe a literal interpretation should be deemed as necessary in order to be a minister in good standing in the Presbyterian Church! As they wrote:

“Some of us regard the particular (literal[15]) theories contained in the deliverances of the General Assembly of 1923 as satisfactory explanations of these facts and doctrines. But we are united in believing that these are not the only theories allowed by the Scriptures and our standards as explanations of these facts and doctrines of our religion, and that all who hold to these facts and doctrines, whatever theories they may employ to explain them, are worthy of all confidence and fellowship.[16]

The line that divides heresy from orthodoxy is not fixed on what one personally believes concerning Christ, but what understands as necessary to believe. Bell, here, is simply on the wrong side of orthodoxy.

Secondly, Bell seems to be not only adopting the liberals method but is doing so for the very same reasons. Bell wants to strengthen faith by resting it on the experience of Christ rather than certain historical facts. A faith which needs a literal virgin birth was “not that strong to begin with”[17]. In the onslaught of the Scientific Revolution, well-intentioned but mis-guided theologians tried to protect faith from the attacks of nosey archeologist and persistent scientist in the same way. Thus the “experience” of the spirit of the Christ was the “resurrection” that mattered. Bell agrees.

“We live in metaphors......The tomb is empty because we have met the risen Christ - we have experienced Jesus in a way that transcends space and time. And this gives us hope.”[18]

But what does the Bible really say about all this? Does the resurrection matter as a metaphor or as an historical reality? In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul responds to those who wanted to take out just that one pesky “spring” concerning a literal resurrection from the dead. With no appeal to metaphor, he said, “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith....you are still in your sins.”[19]

Is a literal virgin birth any less essential to a true Biblical faith? Would not Paul say the same thing to Rob Bell? A faith which does not need a literal virgin birth is not a faith that saves because, in the end, it doesn’t need an historical Jesus at all. It’s all about jumping.[20]

3. His View the Nature of Sin

Bell speaks of a time in his life when he was betting burned out trying to be “super-pastor”. He reveals the advice of his counselor which helped him come to grips with the essence of his sin.

“He said, in what has become a pivotal moment in my journey, ‘Your job is the relentless pursuit of who God has made you to be. Anything else you do is sin and you need to repent of it.”[21]

Once again, this sounds appealing and there are parts of this which are helpful. In this portion of the book Bell is trying to help people to stop living under the burden of an idealized version of what they are supposed to be and accept who they are. This is an important part of accepting God’s grace.

And yet......the Bible speaks of sin and grace in so much more profound and accurate terms. Where does the Bible ever suggest that our primary calling is “the relentless pursuit of who God has made us to be?” Bell makes it sound as if the essence of godliness is self-realization. His “sin” was that he was trying to be “super-pastor,” something which went contrary to his personal make-up. He’s too creative and spontaneous to fit that mold. His “repentance” was a matter of deciding to “kill super-pastor” and be true to himself.

How is this not simply a baptized version of our cultural morality where the greatest “sin” is precisely the failure to be true to yourself? I just don’t see this emphasis in Scripture. When did Paul ever suggest that his primary calling was to discover himself or be true to his own personality traits? He refused to be a “super-apostle” not because it wasn’t true to his personality, but because it was untrue to the gospel! They relied on their speaking gifts, Paul relied on the power of the Holy Spirit. In fact, Paul boasted of his weaknesses, not his unique abilities, so that the power of Christ would be evident in and through him. [22] And when Paul tells the church to live according to what they are, “children of the light,” [23] he’s calling them to imitate God and His Son, Jesus! [24] The critical issue isn’t being true to their personality traits or interests, but being true to think and act and live like Christ! What separates and distinguishes Christian morality from all other morality is precisely the person of Christ. (The devil is profoundly “true to himself” and “authentic.”)

Why doesn’t Bell talk about sin like the Bible does? The Bible speaks of sin and godliness with an intentionally, consistently God-ward reference. Sin is anything and everything which falls short of the glory of God. Holiness is speaking and thinking and being motivated in all my actions by a pure love for and fear of God. Isn’t this the message a self-saturated culture like ours needs to hear?

4. His View of God’s Faith in Man

The self-ward bent of Bell’s teaching continues when he speaks of God’s faith in man. Bell adopts his self-professed rabbi Ray VanderLaan’s teaching that Jesus chose his disciples just like every other rabbi of his day - because he believed in their innate abilities. In one of the most painful parts of the book, Bell reminds us of the story found in Matthew 14:22ff. where Peter rushed out of the boat to meet Jesus walking on the water. Peter began to sink and Jesus rebuked him for his lack of faith.

“Who does Peter lose faith in? Not Jesus; he is doing fine. Peter loses faith in himself. Peter loses faith that he can do what his rabbi is doing. If the rabbi calls you to be his disciple, then he believes that you can actually be like him. As we read the stories of Jesus’ life with his talmidim, his disciples, what do we find frustrates him to no end? When his disciples lose faith in themselves.....Notice how many places in the accounts of Jesus life he gets frustrated with his disciples. Because they are incapable? No, because of how capable they are. He see what they could be and could do, and when they fall short if provokes him to know end. It isn’t their failure that’s the problem, it’s their greatness. They don’t realize what they are capable of....God has an amazingly high view of people. God believes that people are capable of amazing things. I’ve been told I need to believe in Jesus. Which is a good thing. But what I’m learning is that Jesus believes in me....God has faith in me.”[25]

In fact, according to Bell, God has such great faith in the abilities of men that Jesus “left the future of the movement (the church) in their hands. And he doesn’t stick around to make sure they don’t screw it up. He’s gone. He trusts that they can actually do it.”[26]

This is a shocking reinterpretation of the Christian faith. When the gospel becomes the message of God coming to earth and dying on a cross to help men believe how great they really are--something is horribly amiss. This has the stench of blasphemy.

Even a cursory review of what the Bible actually says shows the utter fallacy of this teaching. When Peter heard Jesus’ words and was rescued by him he didn’t apologize for failing to realize his full potential. He worshiped Christ with the other men saying, “Truly you are the Son of God!”[27] . When Jesus ascended into heaven he clearly instructed them to remain in Jerusalem and “wait for the gift my Father promised”[28] and reminded them, “Surely I AM with you always, to the very end of the age.”[29] This is the same Jesus who told his disciples, “Apart from me you can do nothing!”[30] This “new teaching” simply fails the Berean Scripture test.[31]

Whenever the Bible speaks of why God chooses people to follow him, it NEVER suggests that it’s because God believes in us. Just listen to a familiar verse re-interpreted according to Bell’s teaching.

“And God said to Joshua, be strong and very courageous because I know you can do this. You’ve had great military training, you have a keen mind, and you are a great commander. Go in and take the land. Do not be afraid. I chose you because I believe you are capable of amazing things.”

Does that sound right? What does the text actually say?

Josh 1:9 “Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

And Joshua got the point. As the people came to the Jordan, we read:

Josh 3:5 Joshua told the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you."

The whole story of the Exodus from Egypt to the conquest of Canaan is intended to highlight GOD’S amazing abilities, not man’s. In fact, whenever the Bible speaks of why God chooses people it always highlights the inabilities of man so that GOD receives all the glory!

Deut 7:7 The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.

Deut 9:5 It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the LORD your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff_necked people.

John 15:5 If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

1 Cor 1:26 Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things_and the things that are not _to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God_that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."

Bell has erred in taking a practice of the rabbi’s and ascribing it to God who says, “My ways are not your ways.” Bell’s view is not only misleading, it is directly contrary to what God Himself actually says. This teaching robs God of the glory of his condescending grace in salvation and actually ascribes glory to the sinner. It is a tragic and serious misstep for the Living God takes his glory very seriously. [32]

5. Bells view of the Nature of the Atonement

Bell teaches that Jesus died for everyone and has actually reconciled everyone to God. Everyone is already loved by God the Father as a reconciled, forgiven sinner in Christ. They simply need to choose to live in that reality or not.

“So this reality, this forgiveness, this reconciliation, is true for everybody. Paul insisted that when Jesus died on the cross he was reconciling ‘all things, in heaven and on earth, to God. This reality then isn’t something we make true about ourselves by doing something (like repenting and believing - my comment). It is already true. Our choice is to live in this new reality or cling to a reality of our own making.[33]

According to Bell, Jesus’ death actually and really accomplished the forgiving of everyone’s sins and the reconciliation of everybody to the Father. In other words, God’s wrath has been propitiated for everyone. He now loves everybody in the same way and seeing everyone as robed in the righteousness of Christ. All that is left is for people to “live in this new reality”.

But, again, how does that match up with what the Bible actually says? Jesus says

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."[34]

Paul seemed to share Jesus belief that, apart from gospel faith and repentance, people are not yet forgiven by God or reconciled to God. When the crowd at Pentecost asked Paul “What must we do to be saved?”, he did not assure them that they were already forgiven and reconciled. Rather, he called them to “repent and be baptized” in order to receive the forgiveness of their sins. He pleaded with sinners “to be reconciled to God.” [35] Paul clearly believed that God’s wrath was a remaining reality and present danger for all those who had not yet confessed Christ. In fact he told the Jews that “because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.”[36] Hardly the words of a man who believed “everybody” was already reconciled. Rather, Paul called people to “save themselves from the wrath that is to come” by repenting and believing.

How can you square Bell’s reading of Paul’s ministry with Paul’s own description offered in Acts 26:19-20? Paul, defending his ministry before King Agrippa says:

First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds.

Once again, Rob Bell seems to be teaching something directly contrary to the Word of God.

This doctrine is not only erroneous, it has disastrous results. Bell’s error here is precisely what has lead to the abysmal decline of missions in the mainline churches. After all, if the nations are already reconciled to God because of Christ, why bother them with pesky, fundamentalist missionaries who demean them by telling them they still need to be saved from the wrath that is to come? If Bell’s teaching is true, think of all martyrs (beginning with Stephen) who needlessly died because they insisted that people needed to repent in order to be saved? How many missionaries could have escaped martyrdom by telling people they simply “need to live in a new reality”? Where is the offense in Bell’s gospel? And if it isn’t there, how can it possibly be the gospel of Christ?

Conclusion
If nothing else, Velvet Elvis serves as a terrific wake-up call to the Reformed community. The enthusiastic support Bell receives in the “Reformed bastion” of Grand Rapids needs to stir us to action. Well meaning people are being influenced by Bell’s ministry simply because they are looking for a vibrant faith. The spiritual lethargy and too-common spiritual dryness of confessional Christianity has left great numbers of believers open to the enthusiasm of Bell’s ministry. While we need to stand against the errors of Bell’s theology, we also need, with equal vigor, to pursue vibrant, Spirit-filled, Biblically sound ministries of our own. The best argument we can make for the truth that the gospel is good news about Christ Jesus, and that Christ sovereignly saves sinners and builds his church is to be vibrant examples of that fact. As is so often the case, false teaching is the heritage of lethargic orthodoxy. May God find us faithful.

[1]Christianity Today, November 2004, page 38.

[2] Ibid. page 38

[3] Oz Guinness has a terrific discussion of this in his book “Dining with the Devil” (Baker Book House). While emergent church leaders would almost certainly agree with Guinness as he challenges the Megachurch’s unwitting adoption of Modernism, it seems they have committed the same errors in relation to Post-Modernism. The core problem of cultural compromise remains.

[4] The subtitle of his recent book, “Soul Tsunami”, is telling ... “Sink or Swim in the New Millenium Culture”. (Zondervan, 1999) In Sweet’s view the church has two choices - either become emergent or disappear into cultural irrelevance. As Sweet explains, “The Dick-and Jane world of my ‘50's childhood is over, washed away by a tsunami of change....While the world is rethinking its entire cultural formation, it is time to find new ways of being the church that are true to our postmodern context. It is time for a Postmodern Reformation.” (pg 17)

[5] Read D.A. Carson’s splendid critique of the Emergent Movement in his recent book Becoming Conversant with the Emergent Church (Zondervan, 2005)

[6] Velvet Elvis, 062-063

[7] Christianity Today, November 2004, 38

[8] Velvet Elvis, 058-059

[9] John 20:21

[10] Christianity Today, November 2004, page 38

[11] Velvet Elvis, 026

[12] Ibid, 027

[13] Velvet Elvis, 027

[14] The Auburn Affirmation was a protest against the perceived “Fundamentalism” in the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. The document claims that while a “literal” understanding of the virgin birth, miracles, inspiration of Scripture, substitutionary atonement and Jesus’ resurrection is acceptable, it is should not be the only accepted “theory” of interpretation allowed in the church. A literal interpretation of these things was not necessary for true faith.

[15] Edit mine

[16] Quoted from an article by Gordon Clark entitled “The Auburn Heresy”. Available online at http://opc.org/cce/clark.html.

[17]Velvet Elvis (027)

[18] Ibid. (061)

[19] 1 Corinthians 15:13-14

[20] It is astonishing that Bell, a product of evangelical bastions such as Wheaton College and Fuller Seminary, cannot discern the rank liberalism flowing off the tip of his own pen. His evangelical fathers fought those who had adopted Bell’s position. The liberals insisted that emphasizing a literal virgin birth, real miracles, an inspired inerrant Scripture, substitutionary atonement and the physical resurrection of Jesus would leave the faith vulnerable to the attacks of science. But in their attempts to “strengthen” the faith, they gutted it. Now, as the evidence of that failed experiment in heterodoxy are more prevalent than ever, why would Bell want to head down this same path?

[21] Velvet Elvis, 114

[22] 2 Cor 11-12

[23] Eph 4:17 and following.

[24] Eph 5:1-2

[25] Velvet Elvis, 133-134

[26] Ibid, 134

[27] Matthew 14:33

[28] Acts 1:4

[29] Matthew 28:20

[30] John 15:5

[31]Acts 17:11

[32]For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another. (Isaiah 48:11)

[33] Velvet Elvis 146

[34] John 3:36

[35] 2 Cor 5:20

[36] Romans 2:5

Note: Private Judgement is not private interpretation....

---

"Prove all things: hold fast that which is good."

--1 Thessalonians 5:21

Prove All Things

by

J. C. Ryle (1816-1900)

First published by Drummond's Tract Depot, Stirling, Scotland

You live in days when the text before your eyes is one of the first importance. The truths it contains are especially truths for the times. Give me your attention for a few minutes, and I will try to show you what I mean.

There were three great doctrines or principles which won the battle of the Protestant Reformation. These were first, the sufficiency and supremacy of Holy Scripture:—secondly, the right of private judgment and thirdly, justification by faith only, without the deeds of the law.

These three principles were the keys of the whole controversy between the Reformers and the Church of Rome. Keep firm hold of them when you argue with a Roman Catholic, and your position is unassailable: no weapon that the Church of Rome can forge against you shall prosper. Give up any one of them, and your cause is lost. Like Samson, with his hair shorn, your strength is gone. Like the Spartans, betrayed at Thermopylae, you are outflanked and surrounded. You cannot maintain your ground. Resistance is useless. Sooner or later you will have to lay down your arms, and surrender at discretion.

Remember this. The Roman Catholic controversy is upon you once more. You must put on the old armour if you would not have your faith overthrown. The sufficiency of Holy Scripture,—the right of private judgment,—justification by faith only,—these are the three great principles to which you must always cling. Grasp them firmly, and never let them go.

Reader, one of the three great principles to which I have referred appears to me to stand forth in the verse of Scripture which heads this tract,—I mean the right of private judgment. I wish to say something to you about that principle.

The Holy Ghost, by the mouth of St Paul, says to us, "Prove all things. Hold fast that which is good." In these words you have two great truths:

I.—The right, duty, and necessity of private judgment. "Prove all things."

II.—The duty and necessity of keeping firm hold upon truth. "Hold fast that which is good."

I propose to dwell a little on both these heads.

I.—Let me speak first, of the right, duty, and necessity of private judgment.

When I say the right of private judgment, I mean that every individual Christian has a right to judge for himself by the Word of God, whether that which is put before him as religious truth, is God's truth, or is not.

When I say the duty of private judgment, I mean that God requires every Christian man to use the right of which I have just spoken;—to compare man 5 words and man's writings with God's revelation, and to make sure that he is not deluded and taken in by false teaching.

And when I say the necessity of private judgment, I mean this,—that it is absolutely needful for every Christian who loves his soul and would not be deceived, to exercise that right, and discharge that duty to which I have referred; seeing that experience shows that the neglect of private judgment has always been the cause of immense evils in the Church of Christ.

Now the Apostle Paul urges all these three points upon your notice when he uses those remarkable words, "Prove all things." I ask your particular attention to that expression. In every point of view it is most weighty and instructive.

Here, you will remember, the Apostle Paul is writing to the Thessalonians,—to a Church which he himself had founded. Here is an inspired Apostle writing to young inexperienced Christians,—writing to the whole professing Church in a certain city, containing laity as well as clergy,—writing too with especial reference to matters of doctrine and preaching, as we know by the verse preceding the text: "Despise not prophesyings." And yet mark what he says: "Prove all things."

He does not say, "Whatsoever apostles,—whatsoever evangelists, pastors and teachers,—whatsoever your bishops,—whatsoever your ministers tell you is truth: that you are to believe." No: he says, "Prove all things." He does not say, "Whatsoever the universal Church pronounces true, that you are to hold." No: he says, "Prove all things."

The principle laid down is this, "Prove all things by the Word of God.—All ministers, all teaching, all preaching, all doctrines, all sermons, all writings, all opinions, all practices,— prove all by the Word of God. Measure all by the measure of the Bible.—Compare all with the standard of the Bible. Weigh all in the balances of the Bible.—Examine all by the light of the Bible.—Test all in the crucible of the Bible. That which can abide the fire of the Bible, receive, hold, believe and obey. That which cannot abide the fire of the Bible, reject, refuse, repudiate, and cast away."

Reader, this is private judgment. This is the right you are to exercise if you love your soul. You are not to believe things in religion merely because they are said by Popes or Cardinals,—by Bishops or Priests,—by Presbyters or Deacons,—by Churches, Councils, or Synods,—by Fathers, Puritans, or Reformers. You are not to argue, "Such and such things must be true, because these men say so." You are not to do so. You are to prove all things by the Word of God

I know such doctrine sounds shocking in some men's ears. But I write it down advisedly, and believe it cannot be disproved. I want to encourage no man in ignorant presumption or ignorant contempt. I praise not the man who seldom reads his Bible, and yet sets himself up to pick holes in his minister's sermons. I praise not the man who knows nothing but a few texts in the New Testament, and yet undertakes to settle questions in divinity which have puzzled God's wisest children. But still I hold with Bishop Bilson (A.D. 1575), that "all hearers have both liberty to discern and a charge to beware seducers; and woe to them that do it not." And I say with Bishop Davenant (A. D. 1627), "We are not to believe all who undertake to teach in the Church, but must take care and weigh with serious examination, whether their doctrine be sound or not." *(see footnote at end of page.)

Reader, men may dislike the doctrine of private judgment, but there is no doubt that it is continually taught in the Word of God.

This is the principle laid down in the eighth chapter of Isaiah, 19th verse. These words were written, remember, at a time when God was more immediately King over His Church, and had more direct communication with it than He has now. They were written at a time when there were men upon earth who had direct revelations from God. Yet what does Isaiah say? "When they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." If this be not private judgment what is?

This again is the principle laid down by our Lord Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount. Remember what He says:— "Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruit." (Matt. vii. 15.) How is it possible that men shall know these false prophets, except they exercise their private judgment as to what their fruits are?

This is the practice you find commended in the Bereans, in the Acts of the Apostles. They did not take the Apostle Paul's word for granted, when he came to preach to them. You are told, that they searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so," and "therefore," it is said, "many of them believed." (Acts 27:11, 12.) What was this again but private judgment?

This is the spirit of the advice given in 1 Cor. 10:15, "I speak as unto wise men; judge ye what I say;" and in Colossian 2:18,— "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit:" and in 1 John 5: 1,—"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God:" and in 2 John 10,—"If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house."

If these passages do not recommend the use of private judgment, I do not know what words mean. To my mind they seem to say to every individual Christian, "Prove all things."

Reader, whatever men may say against private judgment, you may depend it cannot be neglected without immense danger to your soul. You may not like it, but you never know what you may come to if you refuse to use it No man can say into what depths of false doctrine you may be drawn if you will not do what God requires of you, and "Prove all things."

Suppose that, in fear of private judgment, you resolve to believe whatever the Church believes. Where is your security against error? The Church is not infallible. There was a time when almost the whole of Christendom embraced the Arian heresy, and did not acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ to be equal with the Father in all things. There was a time, before the reformation, when the darkness over the face of Europe was a darkness that might be felt. The General Councils of the Church are not infallible. When the whole Church is gathered together in a General Council, what says our Twenty-first Article? "They may err, and sometimes have erred, even in things pertaining unto God. Wherefore things ordained by them as necessary to salvation, have neither strength nor authority, unless it may be declared that they he taken out of Holy Scripture." The particular branches of the Church are not infallible. Any one of them may err. Many of them have fallen foully, or have been swept away. Where is the Church of Ephesus at this day? Where the Church of Sardis at the present time? Where the Church of Hippo in Africa? Where the Church of Carthage? They are all gone! Not a vestige of any of them is left! Will you then be content to err merely because the Church errs? Will your company be any excuse for your error? Will your erring in company with the Church remove your responsibility for your own soul? Oh, reader, it were surely a thousand times better for a man to stand alone and be saved, than to err in company with the Church, and be lost! It were better to prove all things, and go to heaven, than to say, "I dare not think for myself," and go to hell.

But suppose that, to cut matters short, you resolve to believe whatever your minister believes. Once more I ask, Where is your safety?—Where is your security? Ministers are not infallible, any more than Churches. All of them have not the Spirit of God. The very best of them are only men. Call us Bishops, Priests, Deacons, or whatever names you please, we are all earthen vessels. I speak not merely of Popes, who have promulgated awful superstitions and led abominable lives. I would rather point to the very best of Protestants and say, "Beware of looking upon them as infallible,—beware of thinking of any man (whoever that man may be) that he cannot err." Luther held consubstantiation;—that was a mighty error.

Zuinglius, the Swiss Reformer, went on to battle, and died in the fight;—that was a mighty error. Calvin, the Geneva Reformer, advised the burning of Servetus;—that was a mighty error. Cranmer and Ridley urged the putting of Hooper into prison because of some trifling dispute about vestments;—that was a mighty error. Whitgift persecuted the Puritans;—that was a mighty error. Wesley and Toplady in the last century quarrelled fiercely about Calvinism;—that was a mighty error. All these things are warnings, if you will only take them. All say, "Cease ye from man." All show us that if a man's religion hangs on ministers, whoever they may be, and not on the Word of God, it hangs on a broken reed. Never make ministers Popes. Follow us so far as we follow Christ, but not a hair's breadth further. Believe whatever we can show you out of the Bible, but do not believe a single word more.

Neglect the duty of private judgment, and you may find, to your cost, the truth of what Whitby says: The best of overseers do sometimes make oversights. You may live to experience the truth of what the Lord said to the Pharisees: When the blind lead the blind, both fall into the ditch. Reader, be very sure no man is safe against error, unless he acts on St. Paul's injunction,—unless he "proves all things" by the Word of God.

Reader, I have said that it is impossible to overrate the evils that may arise from neglecting to exercise your private judgment. I will go further, and say that it is impossible to overrate the blessings which private judgment has conferred both on the world and on the Church.

I ask you to remember that the greatest discoveries in science and in philosophy, beyond all controversy, have arisen from the use of private judgment. To this we owe the discovery of Galileo, that the earth went round the sun, and not the sun round the earth. To this we owe Columbus's discovery of the new continent of America. To this we owe Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood. To this we owe Jenner's discovery of vaccination. To this we owe the printing press, the steam engine, the power-loom, the electric telegraph, railways, and gas. For all these discoveries we are indebted to men who dared to think for themselves. They were not content with the beaten path of those who had gone before. They were not satisfied with taking for granted that what their fathers believed must be true. They made experiments for themselves. They brought old established theories to the proof; and found that they were worthless. They proclaimed new systems, and invited men to examine them, and test their truth. They bore storms of obloquy and ridicule unmoved. They heard the clamour of prejudiced lovers of old traditions without flinching. And they prospered and succeeded in what they did. We see it now. And we who live in the nineteenth century are reaping the fruit of their use of private judgment.

And, reader, as it has been in science, so also it has been in the history of the Christian religion. The martyrs who stood alone in their day, and shed that blood which has been the seed of Christ's Gospel throughout the world,—the Reformers, who, one after another, rose up in their might to enter the lists with the Church of Rome,—all did what they did, suffered what they suffered, proclaimed what they proclaimed, simply because they exercised their private judgment about what was Christ's truth. Private judgment made the Waldenses, the Albigenses, and the Lollards, count not their lives dear to them, rather than believe the doctrines of the Church of Rome. Private judgment made Wyckliffe search the Bible in our land, denounce the Romish Friars, and all their impostures,—translate the Scriptures into the vulgar tongue, and become "the morning star" of the Reformation. Private judgment made Luther examine Tetzel's abominable system of indulgences by the light of the Word. Private judgment led him on, step by step, from one thing to another, guided by the same light, till at length the gulf between him and Rome was a gulf that could not be passed, and the Pope's power in Germany was completely broken.

Private judgment made our own English Reformers examine for themselves, and inquire for themselves, as to the true nature of that corrupt system under which they had been born and brought up. Private judgment made them cast off the abominations of Popery, and circulate the Bible among the laity. Private judgment made them draw from the Bible our Articles, compile our Prayer-book, and constitute the Church of England as it is. They broke the fetters of tradition, and dared to think for themselves. They refused to take for granted Rome's pretensions and assertions. They examined them all by the Bible, and because they would not abide the examination, they broke with Rome altogether. All the blessing of Protestantism in England, all that we are enjoying at this very day, we owe to the right exercise of private judgment. Surely if we do not honour private judgment, we are thankless and ungrateful indeed!

Reader, I warn you not to be moved by the common argument, that the right of private judgment is liable to be abused,—that private judgment has done great harm, and should be avoided as a dangerous thing. Never was there a more miserable argument! Never was there one which when thrashed proves so full of chaff!

Private judgment has been abused! I would like the objector to tell me what good gift of God has not been abused! What high principle can be named that has not been employed for the very worst of purposes? Strength may become tyranny when it is employed by the stronger to coerce the weaker, yet strength is a blessing when properly employed. Liberty may become licentiousness when every man does that which is right in his own eyes, without regarding the rights and feelings of others; yet liberty, rightly used, is a mighty blessing. Because many things may be used improperly, are we, therefore, to give them up altogether? Because opium is used improperly by some, is it not to be used as a medicine on any occasion at all? Because money may be used improperly, is all money to be cast into the sea? You cannot have good in this world without evil. You cannot have private judgment without some abusing it, and turning it to bad account.

But private judgment, people say, has done more than good! What harm has private judgment done, I would like to know, in matters of religion, compared to the harm that has been done by the neglect of it? Grant, for a moment, that among Protestants who allow private judgment, there are divisions. Grant that in the Church of Rome, where private judgment is forbidden, there are no divisions. I might easily show that Romish unity is far more seeming than real. Bishop Hall, in his book called The Peace of Rome, numbers up no less than three hundred differences of opinion maintained in the Romish Church. I might easily show that the divisions of Protestants are exceedingly exaggerated, and that most of them are upon points of minor importance. I might show that, with all the varieties of Protestantism, as men call them, there is still a vast amount of fundamental unity and substantial agreement among Protestants. No man can read the "Harmony of Protestant Confessions" without seeing that.

But grant for a moment that private judgment has led to divisions, and brought about varieties. I say that these divisions and varieties are but a drop of water when compared with the torrent of abominations that have arisen from the Church of Rome's practice of disallowing private judgment altogether. Place the evils in two scales,—the evils that have arisen from private judgment, and those that have arisen from no man being allowed to think for himself. Weigh the evils one against another, and I have no doubt as to which will be the greatest. Give me Protestant divisions, certainly, rather than Popish unity, with the fruit that it brings forth. Give me Protestant variations, whatever a man like Bossuet may say about them, rather than Romish ignorance,—Romish superstition,—Romish darkness,—and Romish idolatry. Give me the Protestant diversities of England and Scotland, with all their disadvantages, rather than the dead level, both intellectual and spiritual, of the Italian peninsula. Let the two systems be tried by their fruits,—the system that says, "Prove all things," and the system that says, "Dare to have no opinion of your own,"—let them be tried by their fruits in the hearts, in the intellects, in the lives, in all the ways of men, and I have no doubt as to the result.

Reader, I warn you above all things not to be moved by the specious argument, that it is humility to disallow private judgment, that it is humility to have no opinion of your own, that it is the part of a true Christian not to think for himself!

I tell you that such humility is a false humility, a humility that does not deserve that blessed name. Call it rather laziness. Call it rather idleness. Call it rather sloth. It makes a man strip himself of all his responsibility, and throw the whole burden of his soul into the hands of the minister and the Church. It gives a man a mere vicarious religion, a religion by which he places his conscience and all his spiritual concerns under the care of others. He need not trouble himself! He need no longer think for himself! He has embarked in a safe ship, and placed his soul under a safe pilot, and will get to heaven! Oh, beware of supposing that this deserves the name of humility. It is refusing to exercise the gift that God has given you. It is refusing to employ the sword of the Spirit which God has forged for the use of your hand. Blessed be God, our forefathers did not act upon such principles! Had they done so, we should never have had the Reformation. Had they done so, we might have been bowing down to the image of the virgin Mary at this moment, or praying to the spirits of departed saints, or having a service performed in Latin. From such humility may the good Lord ever deliver you!

Reader, as long as you live resolve that you will read for yourself; think for yourself, judge of the Bible for yourself; in the great matters of your soul. Have an opinion of your own. Never be ashamed of saying, "I think that this is right, because I find it in the Bible," and "I think that this is wrong, because I do not find it in the Bible." "Prove all things," and prove them by the Word of God.

As long as you live, beware of the blindfold system, which many commend in the present day,—the system of following a leader, and having no opinion of their own—the system which practically says, "Only keep your Church, only receive the sacraments, only believe what the ordained ministers who are set over you tell you, and then all shall be well" I warn you that this will not do. I warn you that if you are content with this kind of religion, you are periling your immortal soul. Let the Bible, and not any Church upon earth, or any minister upon earth, be your rule of faith. "Prove all things" by the Word of God.

And, above all, as long as you live, look forward to the great day of judgment. Think of the solemn account which every one of us shall have to give in that day before the judgment seat of Christ. We shall not be judged by Churches. We shall not be judged by whole congregations. We shall be judged individually, each by himself. What shall it profit you or me in that day to say, "Lord, Lord, I believed everything the Church told me. I received and believed everything ordained ministers set before me. I thought that whatever the Church and the ministers said must be right"? What shall it profit us to say this, if we have held some deadly error? Surely, the voice of Him that sits upon the throne will reply, "You had the Scriptures. You had a book plain and easy to him that will read it and search it in a childlike spirit. Why did you not use the Word of God when it was given to you? You had a reasonable soul given you to understand that Bible. Why did you not 'Prove all things,' and thus keep clear of error?" Oh, reader, if you refuse to exercise your private judgment, think of that awful day, and beware!

II And now let me speak of the duty and necessity of keeping firm hold upon truth.

The words of the Apostle on this subject are pithy and forcible. "Hold fast," he says, "that which is good." It is as if he said to us, "When you have found the truth for yourself; and when you are satisfied that it is Christ's truth,—that truth which the Scriptures set forth,—then get a firm hold upon it, grasp it, keep it in your heart, never let it go."

He speaks as one who knew what the hearts of all Christians are. He knew that our grasp of the Gospel, at our best, is very cold,—that our love soon waxes feeble,—that our faith soon wavers,—that our zeal soon flags,—that familiarity with Christ's truth often brings with it a species of contempt,—that, like Israel, we are apt to be discouraged by the length of our journey,—and, like Peter, ready to sleep one moment and fight the next,—but, like Peter, not ready to watch and pray. All this St. Paul remembered, and, like a faithful watchman, he cries, by the Holy Ghost, "Hold fast that which is good."

He speaks as if he foresaw by the Spirit that the good tidings of the Gospel would soon be corrupted, spoiled, and plucked away from the Church at Thessalonica. He speaks as one who foresaw that Satan and all his agents would labour hard to cast down Christ's truth. He writes as though he would forewarn men of this danger, and he cries, "Hold fast that which is good."

Reader, the advice is always needed as long as the world stands. There is a tendency to decay in the very best of human institutions. The best visible Church of Christ is not free from this liability to degenerate. It is made up of fallible men. There is always in it a tendency to decay. We see the leaven of evil creeping into many a Church, even in the Apostle's time. There were evils in the Corinthian Church, evils in the Ephesian Church, evils in the Galatian Church. All these things are meant to be our warnings and beacons in these latter times. All show the great necessity laid upon the Church to remember the Apostle's words: "Hold fast that which is good."

Many a Church of Christ since then has fallen away for the want of remembering this principle. Their ministers and members forgot that Satan is always labouring to bring in false doctrine. They forgot that he can transform himself into an angel of light,—that he can make darkness appear light, and light darkness; truth appear falsehood, and falsehood truth. If he cannot destroy Christianity, he ever tries to spoil it. If he cannot prevent the form of godliness, he endeavours to rob Churches of the power. No Church is ever safe that forgets these things, and does not bear in mind the Apostle's injunction: "Hold fast that which is good."

Reader, if ever there was a time in the world when Churches were put upon their trial, whether they would hold fast the truth or not, that time is the present time, and those Churches are the Protestant Churches of our own land. Popery, that old enemy of our nation, is coming in upon us in this day like a flood. We are assaulted by open enemies without, and betrayed continually by false friends within. The numbers of Roman Catholic churches, and chapels, and schools, and conventual and monastic establishments, are continually increasing around us. Month after month brings tidings of some new defection from the ranks of the Church of England to the ranks of the Church of Rome. Already the clergy of the Church of Rome are using great swelling words about things to come, and boasting that, sooner or later, England shall once more be brought back to the orbit from whence she fell, and take her place in the Catholic system. Already the Pope is parcelling our country into bishoprics, and speaks like one who fancies that by-and-by he shall divide the spoil. Already he seems to foresee a time when England shall be as the patrimony of St. Peter's, when London shall be as Rome, when St Paul's shall be as St. Peter's, and Lambeth Palace shall be as the Vatican itself. Surely, now or never, we ought all of us to awake, and "Hold fast that which is good."

We supposed, some of us, in our blindness, that the power of the Church of Rome was ended. We dreamed, some of us, in our folly, that the Reformation had ended the Popish controversy, and that if Romanism did survive, Romanism was altogether changed. If we did think so, we have lived to learn that we made a most grievous mistake. Rome never changes. It is her boast that she is always the same. The snake is not killed. He was scotched at the time of the Reformation, but was not destroyed. The Romish Antichrist is not dead. He was cast down for a little season, like the fabled giant buried under Etna, but his deadly wound is healed, the grave is opening once more, and Antichrist is coming forth. The unclean spirit of Popery is not laid in his own place. Rather he seems to say, "My house in England is now swept and garnished for me; let me return to the place from whence I came forth."

And, reader, the question is now, whether we are going to abide quietly, sit still, and fold our hands, and do nothing to resist the assault. Are we really men of understanding of the times? Do we know the day of our visitation? Surely, this is a crisis in the history of our Churches and of our land. It is a time which will soon prove whether we know the value of our privileges, or whether, like Amalek, "the first of the nations," our "latter end shall be that we perish for ever." It is a time which will soon prove whether we intend to allow our candlestick to be quietly removed, or repent, and do our first works, lest any man should take our crown. If we love the open Bible,— if we love the preaching of the Gospel,—if we love the freedom of reading that Bible, no man letting or hindering us, and the opportunity of hearing that Gospel, no man forbidding us —if we love civil liberty—if we love religious liberty—if these are precious to our souls, we must all make up our minds to hold fast, lest by and by we lose all.

Reader, if we mean to hold fast, every parish, every congregation, every Christian man, and every Christian woman, must do their part in contending for the truth. Each should work, and each should pray, and each should labour as if the preservation of the pure Gospel depended upon himself or herself, and upon no one else at all. The bishops must not leave the matter to the priests, nor the priests leave the matter to the bishops. The clergy must not leave the matter to the laity, nor the laity to the clergy. The Parliament must not leave the matter to the country, nor the country to the Parliament. The rich must not leave the matter to the poor, nor the poor to the rich. We must all Work. Every living soul has a sphere of influence. Let him see to it that he fills it. Every living soul can throw some weight into the scale of the Gospel. Let him see to it that he casts it in. Let every one know his own individual responsibility in this matter; and all, by God's help, will be well.

If we would hold fast that which is good, we must never tolerate or countenance any doctrine which is not the pure doctrine of Christ's Gospel. There is a hatred which is downright charity—that is the hatred of erroneous doctrine. There is an intolerance which is downright praiseworthy—that is the intolerance of false teaching in the pulpit. Who would ever think of tolerating a little poison given to him day by day? If men come among you who do not preach "all the counsel of God," who do not preach of Christ, and sin, and holiness, of ruin, and redemption, and regeneration; and do not preach of these things in a Scriptural way, you ought to cease to hear them. You ought to act upon the injunction given by the Holy Ghost in the Old Testament: "Cease, my son, to hear the instruction which causes to err from the words of knowledge." (Prov. xix. 27.) You ought to carry out the spirit shown by the Apostle Paul, in Gal. i. 8: "Though we, or an angel from heaven preach any other doctrine unto you than that which we have preached, let him be accursed." If we can bear to hear Christ's truth mangled or adulterated,—and can see no harm in listening to that which is another Gospel,—and can sit at ease while sham Christianity is poured into our ears,—and can go home comfortably afterwards, and not burn with holy indignation,—if this be the case, there is little chance of our ever doing much to resist Rome. If we are content to hear Jesus Christ not put in His rightful place, we are not men and women who are likely to do Christ much service, or fight a good fight on His side. He that is not zealous against error, is not likely to he zealous for truth.

If we would hold fast the truth, we must be ready to unite with all who hold the truth, and love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. We must he ready to lay aside all minor questions as things of subordinate importance. Establishment or no establishment, liturgy or no liturgy,—surplice or no surplice,—bishops or presbyters,—all these points of difference however important they may be in their place and in their proportion,—all ought to be regarded as subordinate questions. I ask no man to give up his private opinions about them. I wish no man to do violence to his conscience. All I say is, that these questions are wood, hay, and stubble, when the very foundations of the faith are in danger. The Philistines are upon us. Can we make common cause against them, or can we not? This is the one point for our consideration. Surely it is not right to say that we expect to spend eternity with men in heaven, and yet cannot work for a few years with them in this world. It is nonsense to talk of alliance and union, if in a day like this there is to be no co-operation, The presence of a common foe ought to sink minor differences. We must hold together. Depend upon it, all Protestants must hold together, if they mean to "hold fast that which is good."

Some men may say, "This is very troublesome." Some may say, "Why not sit still and be quiet?" Some may say, "Oh, that horrid controversy! What need is there for all this trouble? Why should we care so much about these points of difference?" I ask, what good thing was ever got or ever kept without trouble? Gold does not lie in English cornfields, but at the bottom of Californian rivers. Pearls do not grow in English hedges, but deep down in Indian seas. Difficulties are never overcome without struggles. Mountains are seldom climbed without fatigue. Oceans are not crossed without tossings on the waves. Peace is seldom obtained without war. And Christ's truth is seldom made a nation's property, and kept a nation's property, without pains, without struggles, and without trouble.

Let the man who talks of "trouble" tell me where we should be at this day if our forefathers had not taken some trouble? Where would be the Gospel of England if martyrs had not given their bodies to be burned? Who shall estimate our debt to Cranmer, Latimer, Hooper, Ridley and Taylor, and their brethren? They held fast that which is good. They would not give up one jot. They counted not their lives dear for the Gospel's sake. They laboured, and they travailed, and we have entered into their labours. Shame upon us if we will not take a little trouble to keep with us what they so nobly won! Trouble or no trouble,—pains or no pains,—controversy, or no controversy,—one thing is very sure: that nothing but Christ's Gospel will ever do good to our own souls. Nothing else will maintain our Churches. Nothing else will ever bring down God's blessing upon our land. If, therefore, we love our own souls, or if we love our country's prosperity, or if we love to keep our Churches standing, we must remember the Apostles words, and "hold fast" firmly the Gospel, and refuse to let it go.

And now, reader, I have set before you two things. One is the right, the duty, and necessity of private judgment. The other is the duty and necessity of keeping firm hold upon truth.—It only remains for me to apply these things to your own individual conscience by a few concluding words.

For one thing, if it be your duty to "prove all things," let me beseech and exhort you to arm yourself with a thorough knowledge of the written Word of God. Read your Bible regularly. Become familiar with your Bible. Prove all religious truth when it is brought before you by the Bible. A little knowledge of the Bible will not suffice. Depend upon it, a man must know his Bible well if he is to prove religious teachings by it; and he must read it regularly if he would know it well. There is no royal road to a knowledge of the Bible. There must be reading daily, regular reading of the Book, or the Book will not be known. As one said quaintly, but most truly, "Justification may be by faith, but a knowledge of the Bible comes only by works." The devil can quote Scripture. He could go to our Lord and quote Scripture when he wished to tempt Him. A man must be able to say, from his knowledge of Scripture, when he hears Scripture falsely quoted, "Thus it is written again," lest he be deceived. Neglect your Bible, and nothing that I know of can prevent your becoming a Roman Catholic, an Arminian, a Socinian, a Jew, or a Turk, if a plausible advocate of any of these false systems shall happen to meet you.

For another thing, if it be right to "prove all things," take care to try every Roman Catholic doctrine, by whomsoever put forward, by the written Word of God. Believe nothing, however speciously advanced—believe nothing, with whatever weight of authority brought forward,—believe nothing, though supported by all the Fathers,—believe nothing, except it can be proved to you out of Scripture. That alone is infallible. That alone is light. That alone is God's measure of truth and falsehood. "Let God be true, and every man a liar." The New Zealanders' answer to the Romish priests who went among them is an answer never to be forgotten. They heard these priests urge upon them the worship of the Virgin Mary. They heard them recommend them to pray to saints. They heard them advocate the use of images. They heard them speak of the authority of the Church of Rome, the supremacy of the Pope, the antiquity of the Romish communion. They knew the Bible, and they heard all this calmly, and gave one simple but memorable answer: "It cannot be true, because it is not in the Book." All the learning in the world could never have supplied a better answer than that. Latimer, or Knox, or Owen, could never have made a more crushing reply. Let this be our rule when we are attacked by Romanists; let us hold fast the sword of the Spirit, and say in reply to all their arguments, "It cannot be true, because it is not in the Book."

Last of all, if it be right to "hold fast that which is good," let us make sure that we have each laid hold personally upon Christ's truth for ourselves. Reader, it will not save you and me to know all controversies, and to be able to detect everything which is false. Head knowledge will never bring you and me to heaven. It will not save us to be able to argue and reason with Roman Catholics, or to detect the errors of Popes' Bulls, or Pastoral Letters. Let us see that we each lay hold upon Jesus Christ for ourselves, by our own personal faith.

Let us see to it that we each flee for refuge, and lay hold upon the hope set before us in His glorious Gospel. Let us do this, and all shall be well with us, whatever else may go ill. Let us do this, and then all things are ours. The Church may fall. The State may go to ruin. The foundations of all establishments may be shaken. The enemies of truth may for a season prevail. But as for us, all shall be well. We shall have in this world peace, and, in the world which is to come life everlasting, for we shall have Christ, and having Him, we have all. This is real good, lasting good,—good in sickness, good in health, good in life, good in death, good in time, and good in eternity.

All other things are but uncertain. They all wear out. They fade. They droop. They wither. They decay. The longer we have them the more worthless we find them, and the more satisfied we become that everything here below is "vanity and vexation of spirit." But as for hope in Christ, that is always good. The longer we use it the better it seems. The more we wear it in our hearts the brighter it will look. It is good when we first have it. It is better far when we grow older. It is better still in the day of trial, and the hour of death. And best of all, depend upon it, will it prove in the day of judgment.

Reader, if you have not yet laid hold on this hope in Christ, seek it at once. Call on the Lord Jesus to give it to you. Give Him no rest till you know and feel that you are His.

If you have laid hold on this hope, hold it fast. Prize it highly, for it will stand by you when everything else fails.

* "The people of God are called to try the truth, to judge between good and ill, between light and darkness. God hath made them the promise of His Spirit, and hath left unto them His Word. They of Berea, when they heard the preaching of Paul, searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so as he taught them, and many of them believed. So do you: give heed to instruction and yet receive not all things without proof and trial that they are not contrary to the wholesome doctrine of the Word of God."—Bishop Jewell, author of the Apology of the Church of England. 1553.

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The Bible and Modern Criticism

by

F. Bettex, D.D.,
Professor Emeritus, Stuttgart, Germany
Translated from the original German by David Heagle, D.D.

It is undeniable that the universe, including ourselves, exists. Whence comes it all? For any clear-thinking mind there are only three possibilities. Either the universe has existed always, it produced itself, or it was created by a Divine, a Supreme Being.

THE UNIVERSE NOT ETERNAL

The eternity of the universe is most clearly disproved by its evolution. From a scientific point of view that hypothesis is now discredited and virtually abandoned. Astronomers, physicists, biologists, philosophers, are beginning to recognize more and more, and men like Secchi, Dubois-Reymond, Lord Kelvin, Dr. Klein and others, unanimously affirm that creation has had a beginning. It always tends towards an entropy, that is, toward a perfect equilibrium of its forces, a complete standstill; and the fact that it has not yet reached such a condition is proof that it has not always existed. Should creation, however, ever come to a standstill, it could never again put itself in motion. It has had a beginning, and it will have an end. That is demonstrated most clearly by its still unfinished evolution. Should anyone say to us, of a growing tree or of a young child, that either of these forms of life has existed forever, we would at once reply, Why has it not then long ago, in the past eternity, grown up so as to reach the heaven of heavens? In like manner, reasons that great astronomer, William Herschel, with regard to the Milky-Way, that just as its breaking up into different parts shows that it cannot always endure, so we have, in this same fact, proof that it has not eternally existed.

GOD THE AUTHOR OF ALL THINGS

There remains, therefore, only this alternative: either the world produced itself, or it was created. That all things came into existence spontaneously, and therefore that we must suppose an origination of immeasurably great effects without any cause, or believe that at some time a nothing, without either willing or knowing it, and without the use of means, became a something-this is the most unreasonable assumption that could possibly be attributed to a human being. How could anything act before it existed? or a thing not yet created produce something? There is nothing more unreasonable than the creed of the. unbeliever, notwithstanding all his prating about the excellence of reason.

But if this world did not produce itself, then it must have been created by some Higher Power, some Cause of all causes, such as was that First Principle upon which the dying Cicero called. Or, to use the words of Dr. Klein, that originating cause must have been a "Supreme Intelligence that has at its command unlimited creative power" (Kosmologische Briefe, p. 27). Hence what that Intelligence does is both illimitable ante anfathomable, and it can at any time either change this world or make a new one. It is therefore prima facie silly for us, with our prodigiously narrow experience, to set any kind of bounds to the Supreme Being; and a God who works no miracles and is the slave of his own laws implanted in nature; such a God as the New Theology preaches, is as much lacking in being a true Divinity as is the unconscious, but all-wise "cosmic ether" of Spiller, or the "eternal stuff" of other materialists. We conclude, then, that the universe was created, or that God is the author of all things.

REVELATION IN NATURE

But now the question arises whether God, who is both the Creator of all things and the Father of spirits, has revealed Himself to his creatures, or to His own children, the work of His hands. Such a question might surely provoke one's laughter. For what is the ent_re universe? what is this created nature of which we form a part? what is air? and water? and fire? what are all organized beings, my body with its many parts put together in such a highly artistic and inscrutable fashion; my soul with its infinite capabilities so little understood by myself? What are all these matters but a progressive revelation of God, given to us, as it were, in a series of concentric circles rising one above another toward their Source? For this purpose it was that God created the visible, so that through it we might perceive the invisible, and for this purpose the whole creation was made, so that through it might be manifested the invisible things of God, even his eternal power and godhead (Rom. 1:20). Creation-is only the language of "the Word that was in the beginning, and was with God, and was God, and by Whom all things were made" (John 1:1-3). What does this Word declare? What else but the great infinite name of God the Father, the primal source of all things, the name that must be hallowed? There was a time, however, even before the world was, when there existed nothing but God and his name. All the different works of creation are only letters in this great name.

REVELATION IN THE BIBLE

But there is another revelation which God has given of Himself to men-a more definite and personal one. Thus, e. g., he declared Himself to Adam, and through Enoch and Noah to the antediluvians, and again after the flood to other generations through Noah and his sons. But because at the building of the tower of Babel men turned stubbornly away from God, He gave them up to the thoughts of their own heart, and selected one man, Abraham, to go out from his friends and kindred, so that in his seed all the nations of the world might be blessed. Then, first, out of Abraham came the people of Israel, to whom were committed the oracles of God; and from this period began the history of the written Word. Moses narrates the beginning of things, also records the law, and holy men of God speak and write as they are moved by the Holy Spirit. That is inspiration-a divine in-breathing.

But here a distinction must be made. The Bible reports matters of history, and in doing so includes many genealogies which were composed, first of all, not for us, but for those most immediately concerned, and for the angels (1 Cor. 4:9). Also it reports many sins and shameful deeds; for just as the sun first illuminates himself and then sheds his radiance upon the ocean and the puddle, the eagle and the worm, so the Bible undertakes to represent to us not only God, but also man just as he is. In giving us these narratives it may be said, moreover, that God, who numbers the very hairs of our head, exercised a providential control, so that what was reported by His chosen men should be the real facts, and nothing else. To what extent He inspired those men with the very words used by them, it is not for us to know, but probably more fully than we suspect.

But when God, after having communicated the law to Moses on Mount Sinai and in the Tabernacle, communes with him as a friend with friend, and Moses writes "all the words of this law in a book" (Dent. 28:58; 31 :24), then Moses really becomes the pen of God. When God speaks to the prophets, "Behold, I put my words in thy mouth," and "a?1 the words that thou hearest thou shalt say to this people," then these prophets become the very mouth of God. When Christ appears to John on Patmos, and says, "To the angel of the church write these things," this is an instance of verbal dictation.

But just here we are amused at those weak-minded critics who, with hackneyed phrases, talk so glibly about "mechanical instruments" and "mere verbal dictation." Does then a self-revelation of the Almighty and a making known of His counsels, a gracious act which exalts the human agent to be a co-worker with Jehovah, annihilate personal freedom? Or does it not rather enlarge that freedom, and lift it up to a higher and more joyous activity? Am I then a "mechanical instrument" when with deep devotion and with enthusiasm I repeat after Christ, word for word, the prayer which He taught his disciples? The Bible is, consequently, a book which originated according to the will and with the co-operation of God; and as such it is our guide to eternity, conducting man, seemingly without a plan and yet with absolute certainty, all the way from the first creation and from Paradise on to the second or higher creation and to the New Jerusalem (Comp. Gen. 2:8-10 with Rev. 21 :1, 2).

PROOF OF THE BIBLE'S INSPIRATION

How does the Bible prove itself to be a divinely inspired, heaven-given book, a communication from a Father to His children, and thus a revelation?

First, by the fact that, as does no other sacred book in the world, it condemns man and all his works. It does not praise either his wisdom, his reason, his art, or any progress that he has made; but it represents him as being in the sight of God, a miserable sinner, incapable of doing anything good, and deserving only death and endless perdition. Truly, a book which is able thus to speak, and in consequence causes millions of men, troubled in conscience, to prostrate themselves in the dust, crying, "God be merciful to me a sinner," must contain more than mere ordinary truth.

Secondly, the Bible exalts itself far above all merely human books by its announcement of the great incomprehensible mystery that,"God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son; that whosover believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). Where is there a god among all the heathen nations, be he Osiris, Brahma, Baal, Jupiter or Odin, that would have promised those people that, by taking upon himself the sin of the world and suffering its punishment, he would thus become a savior and redeemer to them?

Thirdly, the Bible sets the seal of its divine origin upon itself by means of the prophecies. Very appropriately does God inquire, through the prophet Isaiah, "Who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for Me since I established the ancient people? and the things that are coming and shall come to pass, let them declare" (Isa Ch. 44:7). Or says again, "I am God, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times, things not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure; calling a ravenous bird from the east, and the man of My counsel from afar country. Yea, I have spoken, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed, I will also do it" ( Isa Ch. 46 :10, 11) . Or, addressing Pharaoh, "Where are thy wise men, and let them tell thee, and let them know what the Lord of Hosts hath purposed upon Egypt" (Isa Ch. 19:12). Again we say, where is there a god, or gods, a founder of religion, such as Confucius, Buddha, or Mohammed, who could, with such cer, tainty, have predicted the future of even his own people? Or where is there a statesman who in these times can foretell what will be the condition of things in Europe one hundred or even ten years from now? Nevertheless the prophecies of Moses and his threatened judgments upon the Israelites have been literally fulfilled. Literally also have been fulfilled, (although who at the time would have believed it?) the prophecies respecting the destruction of those great ancient cities, Babylon, Nineveh and Memphis. Who in these times would believe a like prophecy respecting London, Paris, or New York? Moreover, in a literal way has been fulfilled what the prophets David and Isaiah foresaw concerning the last sufferings of Christ-His death on the cross, His drinking of vinegar, and the casting of lots for His garments. And there are other prophecies which will still be most literally fulfilled, such as the promises made to Israel, the final judgment, and the end of the world. "For," as Habakkuk says, "the vision is yet for an appointed time, and will not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it; it will surely come" (Isa Ch. 2:3).

Furthermore, the Bible has demonstrated its peculiar power by its influence with the martyrs. Think of the hundreds of thousands who, at different times and among different peoples, have sacrificed their all, their wives, their children, all their possessions, and finally life itself, on account of this book. Think of how they have, on the rack and at the stake, confessed the truth of the Bible, and borne testimony to its power. However, O ye critics and despisers of God's Word, if you will only write such a book and then die for it, we will believe you.

Lastly, the Bible shows itself every day to be a divinely given book by its beneficent influence among all kinds of people. It converts to a better life the ignorant and the learned, the beggar on the street and the king upon his throne, yonder poor woman dwelling in an attic, the greatest poet and the profoundest thinker, civilized Europeans and uncultured savages. Despite all the scoffing and derision of its enemies, it has been translated into hundreds of languages, and has been preached by thousands of missionaries to millions of people. It makes the proud humble and the dissolute virtuous; it consoles the unfortunate, and teaches man how to live patiently and die triumphantly. No other book or collection of books accomplishes for man the exceeding great benefits accomplished by this book of truth.

MODERN CRITICISM AND ITS RATIONALISTIC METHOD

In these times there has appeared a criticism which, constantly growing bolder in its attacks upon this sacred book, now decrees, with all self-assurance and confidence, that it is simply a human production. Besides other faults found with it, it is declared to be full of errors, many of its books to be spurious, written by unknown men at later dates than those assigned, etc., etc. But we ask, upon what fundamental principle, what axiom, is this verdict of the critics based? It is upon the idea that, as Renan expressed it, reason is capable of judging all things, but is itself judged by nothing. That is surely a proud dictum, but an empty one if its character is really noticed. To be sure, God has given reason to man, so that, in his customary way of planting and building, buying and selling, he may make a practical use of created nature by which he is surrounded. But is reason, even as respects matters of this life, in accord with itself ? By no means. For, if that were so, whence comes all the strife and contention of men at home and abroad, in their places of business and their public assemblies, in art and science, in legislation, religion and philosophy? Does it not all proceed from the conflicts of reason? The entire history of our race is the history of millions of men gifted with reason who have been in perpetual conflict one with another. Is it with such reason, then, that sentence is to be pronounced upon a divinely given book? A purely rational revelation would certainly be a contradiction of terms; besides, it would be wholly superfluous. But when reason undertakes to speak of things entirely supernatural, invisible and eternal, it talks as a blind man .does about colors, discoursing of matters concerning which it neither knows nor can know anything; and thus it makes itself ridiculous. It has not ascended up to heaven, neither has it descended into the deep; and therefore a purely rational religion is no religion at all.

INCOMPETENCY OF REASON FOR SPIRITUAL TRUTH

Reason alone has never inspired men with great sublime conceptions of spiritual truth, whether in the way of discovery or invention; but usually it has at first rejected and ridiculed such matters. And just so it is with these rationalistic critics, they have no appreciation or understanding of the high and sublime in God's Word. They understand neither the majesty of Isaiah, the pathos of David's repentance, the audacity of Moses' prayers, the philosophic depth of Ecclesiastes , nor the wisdom of Solomon which "uttereth her voice in the streets."

According to them ambitious priests, at a later date than is commonly assigned, compiled all those books to which we have alluded; also they wrote the Sinaitic law, and invented the whole story of Moses' life. ("A magnificent fiction"-so one of the critics calls that story.) {Redactionists.. - love4theword} But if all this is so, then we must believe that cunning falsifiers, who were, however, so the critics say, devout men, genuine products of their day (although it calls for notice that the age in which those devout men lived, should, as was done to Christ, have persecuted and killed them, when usually an age loves its own children) ; that is to say, we must believe not only that shallow-minded men have uncovered for us eternal truths and the most distant future, but also that vulgar, interested liars, have declared to us the inexorable righteousness of a holy God! Of course, all that is nonsense; no one can believe it.

But if these critics discourse, as sometimes they do, with great self-assurance upon topics such as the history of Israel, the peculiar work of the prophets, revelation, inspiration, the essence of Christianity, the difference between the teachings of Christ and those of Paul, anyone who intelligently reads what they say is impressed with the idea that, although they display much ingenuity in their efforts, after all they do not really understand the matters concerning which they speak. In like manner they talk with much ingenuity and show of learning about men with whom they have only a far-off acquaintance; and they discuss events in the realm of the Spirit where they have had no personal experience. Thus they both illustrate and prove the truth of the Scripture teaching that "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God." These critics say that God, not being a man, cannot speak; consequently there is no word of God! Also, God cannot manifest Himself in visible form; therefore all the accounts of such epiphanies are mythical tales! Inspiration, they tell us, is unthinkable; hence all representations of such acts are diseased imagination! Of prophecy there is none; what purports to be such was written after the events! Miracles are impossible; therefore all the reports of them, as given in the Bible, are mere fictions! Men always seek, thus it is explained, their own advantage and personal glory, and just so it was with those "prophets of Israel." Such is what they call "impartial science," "unprejudiced research," "objective demonstration."

NOTHING NEW IN THESE "NEW" VIEWS

Moreover, these critics claim for their peculiar views that they are "new theology," and the "latest investigation." But that also is untrue. Even in the times of Christ the famous rabbi Hillel and his disciple Gamaliel substituted for the Mosaic law all manner of "traditions" (Matt. 15:2-9; 23:16-22). Since then other learned rabbis, such as Ben Akiba, Maimonides and others, have engaged in Bible criticism; not only casting doubts upon the genuineness of various books of the Old Testament, but also denying the miracles and talking learnedly about "myths." Even eighteen hundred years ago Celsus brought forward the same objections as those now raised by modern criticism; and in his weak and bungling production, the "Life of Jesus," David Strauss has in part repeated them. Also there have been other noted heretics, such as Arius (317 A. D.), who denied the divinity of Christ, and Pelagius in the fifth century, who rejected the doctrine of original sin. Indeed this exceedingly new theology adopts even the unbelief of those old Sadducees who said "there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit" (Acts 23:8), and whom Christ reproved with the words, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God" (Matt. 22:29). It certainly does not argue for the spiritual progress of our race, that such a threadbare and outworn unbelieving kind of science should again, in these days, deceive and even stultify thousands of people.

NO AGREEMENT AMONG THE CRITICS

Do these critics then, to ask the least of them, agree with one another? Far from it. To be sure, they unanimously deny the inspiration of the Bible, the divinity of Christ and of the Holy Spirit, the fall of man and the forgiveness of sins through Christ; also prophecy and miracles, the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment, heaven and hell. But when it comes to their pretendedly sure results, not any two of them affirm the same things; and their numerous publications create a flood of disputable, self-contradictory and mutually destructive hypotheses. For example, the Jehovah of the Old Testament is made to be some heathen god, either a nomadic or steppe god, the weather-god Jahu, or the god of West-Semitism. It was David who first introduced this divinity; and according to some authors the peculiar worship of this god was, with its human sacrifices ( !), only a continuation of the Baal-Moloch worship! Of Abraham it is sometimes affirmed that he never existed, but at other times that he was a Canaanite chief, dwelling at Hebron. No! he is the myth of the Aurora; and Sarah, or Scharratu, is the wife of the moon-god Sin, and so on. The twelve sons of Jacob are very probably the twelve months of the year. As to Moses, some teach there never was such a man, also that the ten commandments were composed in the time of Manasseh. No! the more moderate writers say that Moses is a historical character. It was in Midian that he learned about Jah, the tribal god of the Kenites; and he determined with this divinity to liberate his people. Elijah is simply a myth; or he was some unfortunate prophet who had perhaps been struck by lightning. And so, too, this modern criticism knows for sure that it was not Solomon, but a wholly unknown king, living after the time of Ezra, who wrote Ecclesiastes; also that there never was a Daniel, but that again some unknown author wrote the book bearing that name. Moreover, Kautsch tells us that this book first made its appearance in January, 164 B. C., while other critics are positive that it was in 165. Query: Why could not that unknown author have been named Daniel?

So also Wellhausen knows of twenty-two different authors-all of them, to be sure, unknown-for the books of Moses, while Kuenen is satisfied with sixteen. The noted English critic, Canon Cheyne, is said to have taken great pains to tear the book of Isaiah's prophecies into one hundred and sixty pieces, all by unknown writers; which pieces were scattered through ten different epochs including four and a half centuries ("Modern Puritan," 1907, p. 400). Likewise this critic knows that the first chapter of 1 Samuel originated with an unknown writer living some five hundred years after the time of that prophet; also that Hannah's glory-song, as found in 2 Kings, was written by some other "unknown." That Eli ruled over Israel for forty years is, "in all likelihood," the unauthentic statement of a later day (Hastings' Bible Dictionary). Why so? we may ask.-The book of Deuteronomy was written, we are told, in 561 B. C., and Ecclesiastes in 264 B.C.; and a German critic, Budde, is certain that the book of job has somehow lost its last chapter, and that fifty-nine verses of this book should be wholly expunged. Such are a few illustrations of the way in which Holy Scripture is treated by the criticism we are considering. But, surely, it would not require much sagacity and intelligence for one, by applying such peculiar methods, say, to Goethe's works, to demonstrate critically that a good share of those productions, such as Erlkonig, Iphigenia, Gotz von Berlichingen, the Wahlverwandschaften, Faust (Parts I. and IL), belong, if judged of by their style of composition and their historical and philosophical views, to wholly different epochs, and that they originated with many different authors. Moreover, it could easily be shown that none of those authors lived in the times when Napoleon Bonaparte revolutionized Europe, since his name is not mentioned in any of the productions specified.

CRITICISM AS APPLIED TO THE NEW TESTAMENT

Of course this modern criticism does not stop short of the New Testament. This part of the Bible, Harnack says, narrates for us incredible stories respecting the birth and childhood of Christ. "Nevermore," he goes on to assert, "shall we believe that he walked upon the sea and commanded the storm." It stands to reason that He did not rise from the dead. The Fourth Gospel is spurious, and so also is (according to late critical authority) the Epistle to the Romans. The Book of Revelation is only the occasion for derisive laughter on the part of these skeptical critics; and because it is so, the curse mentioned in its last chapter is made applicable to them (vs. 18, 19). Nevertheless, these men sin most seriously against Christ. In their view the very Son of God, the Word that was in the beginning with God, and that was God, and without Whom nothing exists, is only a fanatical young rabbi; entangled in the peculiar views and superstitions of his people; and he died upon the cross only because he misconceived of the character of his own mission and the nature of his times. Jesus "is not indispensable to the Gospel," so writes Harnack.

Now all this is what is denominated Biblical criticism. It is a jumble of mere hypotheses, imaginings and assertions, brought forward often without even the shadow of proof, and with no real certainty. Still, in these times it represents itself to thousands of nominal Christians and to hundreds of miserably deceived theological students who are to become preachers of God's word, as being the "assured results of the latest scientific research." May God have mercy, if such is the case!

WHAT ARE THE FRUITS OF THIS CRITICISM?

Now, if these people were of the truth, and if they would only believe Him who says, "I am the way, the truth and the life," they would not be under the necessity of tediously working their way through the numerous publications (statistics show that there appear in Europe and America annually some eight hundred of these works) ; but they would find in His teaching a simple and sure means for testing the character of these critical doctrines. "Ye shall know them by their fruits," is what Christ says of the false teachers who came in His name. "Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" (Matt. 7:16). Are the fruits of modern criticism good? Where are the grapes or figs that grow on this thornbush? Has not this criticism already robbed, and perhaps forever, thousands of people of their first love, their undoubting faith, and their joyous hope? Has it not sowed dissension, fostered pride and self-conceit, and injured before all the world the authority of both the church and its ministers? Has it not offended Christ's "little ones?" (Matt. 18:6, 7). And does it not every day furnish the enemies of God with opportunities for deriding and scorning the truth? Where are the souls that it has led to God-comforting, strengthening, purifying and sanctifying them? Where are the individuals who even in the hour of death have continued to rejoice in the benefits of this criticism?

In the study-room it ensnares, in lecture-halls it makes great pretenses, for mere popular lectures it is still serviceable; but when the thunders of God's power break in upon the soul, when despair at the loss of all one has loved takes possession of the mind, when remembrance of a miserable lost life or of past misdeeds is felt and realized, when one is on a sick-bed and death approaches, and the soul, appreciating that it is now on the brink of eternity, calls for a Savior just at this time when its help is most needed, this modern religion utterly fails. In the year 1864, in Geneva, one of those modern theologians was summoned to prepare for execution a young man who had committed murder and robbery. But he candidly exclaimed, "Call some one else, I have nothing to say to him." This incompetent criticism did not know of any consolation for the sin-burdened soul; therefore an orthodox clergyman was obtained. and the wretched man, murderer though he was, died reconciled to God through the blood of Christ.

But suppose that all the teachings of this criticism were true, what would it avail us? It would put us in a sad condition indeed. For then, sitting beside ruined temples and broken-down altars, with no joy as respects the hereafter, no hope of everlasting life, no God to help us, no forgiveness of sins, feeling miserable, all desolate in our hearts and chaotic in our minds, we should be utterly unable either to know or believe anything more. Can such a view of the world, such a religion, which, as was said of Professor Harnack's lectures in America, only destroys, removes and tears down, be true? No! If this modern criticism is true, then away with all so-called Christianity, which only deceives us with idle tales! Away with a religion which has nothing to offer us but the commonplace teachings of morality! Away with faith! Away with hope! Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!

THESE TEACHINGS IN THE LIGHT OF SCRIPTURE

But let us hear what God's word has to say regarding this topic:

2 Pet. 1 :21- "For no prophecy ever came by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."

2 Tim. 3:16, 17- "All Scripture given by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works."

Gal. 1 :11, 12- "I certify you, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached by me is not after man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ."

Rom. 1 :16.- "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth."

Acts 20:30- But "of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them."

2 Pet. 2:1- "There were false prophets also among the people, * * * who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them."

1 Cor. 1 :20, 21- "Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."

Col. 2:4-8.- "This I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words," or "spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."

1 Cor. 3:19.- "For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God."

1 Cor. 2:5, "That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God."

1 Cor. 2:4.- "And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power."

1 Cor. 2:12, 13- "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual."

Col. 1:21 and 2 Cor. 10:5- Therefore "you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works," now "bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."

Gal. 1-:9- "As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed."

1 Cor. 15:17- "Whosoever says that Christ is not risen, his faith is vain, he is yet in his sins."

2 John, vs. 7, 9, 10, 11- "For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. * * * Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed; for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds."

Luke 11 :52- "Woe unto you lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge; ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered."

CONCLUSION

Let us then, by repudiating this modern criticism, show our condemnation of it. What does it offer us? Nothing. What does it take away? Everything. Do we have any use for it? No! It neither helps us in life nor comforts us in death; it will not judge us in the world to come. For our Biblical faith we do not need either the encomiums of men, nor the approbation of a few poor sinners. We will not attempt to improve the Scriptures and adapt them to our liking, but we will believe them. We will not criticize them, but we will ourselves be directed by them. We will not exercise authority over them, but we will obey them. We will trust Him who is the way, the truth, and the life. His word shall make us free.

Respice finem, "consider the end"--that is what even the old Romans said. True rationalism adjudges all---things from the standpoint of eternity; and it asks of every religion, What can you do for me with regard to the great beyond? What does this Biblical criticism offer us here? Only fog and mist, or, at best, an endless state of indecision, something impersonal and inactive, just like its god, whose very nature is inconceivable. "Eternal life," writes one of these modernists, "is only the infinitely weak vestige of the present life." ( i) Here also the maxim proves itself true, "By their fruits ye shall know them." Just as for our present life this criticism offers us no consolation, no forgiveness of sins, no deliverance from "the fear of death, through which we are all our lifetime subject to bondage," so also it knows nothing respecting the great beyond-nothing with regard to that new heaven and new earth wherein righteousness shall dwell, nothing with regard to that golden city which shines with eternal light, nothing with regard to a God who wipes away all tears from our eyes. It is utterly ignorant of the glory of God, and on that account it stands condemned.

"Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God" (John 6:68, 69). And He answered, "Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast ; that no man take thy crown" ( Rev. 3 :11)

You are Morpheus, from "The Matrix." You
have strong faith in yourself and those around
you. A true leader, you are relentless in your
persuit.


What Matrix Persona Are You?
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By Dr. S.M. Lockridge

My King was born King. The Bible says He’s a Seven Way King. He’s the King of the Jews – that’s a racial King. He’s the King of Israel – that’s a National King. He’s the King of righteousness. He’s the King of the ages. He’s the King of Heaven. He’s the King of glory. He’s the King of kings and He is the Lord of lords.

Now that’s my King. Well I wonder if you know Him. Do you know Him? Don’t try to mislead me. Do you know my King? David said the Heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament show His handiwork. My King is the only one whom there are no means of measure can define His limitless love. No far seeing telescope can bring into visibility the coastline of His shore of supplies. No barriers can hinder Him from pouring out His blessing. Well, well, He’s enduringly strong. He’s entirely sincere. He’s eternally steadfast. He’s immortally graceful. He’s imperially powerful. He’s impartially merciful. That’s my King.

He’s God’s Son. He’s the sinner’s saviour. He’s the centrepiece of civilization. He stands alone in Himself. He’s honest. He’s unique. He’s unparalleled. He’s unprecedented. He’s supreme. He’s pre-eminent. Well, He’s the grandest idea in literature. He’s the highest personality in philosophy. He’s the supreme problem in high criticism. He’s the fundamental doctrine of proved theology. He’s the carnal necessity of spiritual religion. That’s my King. He’s the miracle of the age.

He’s the superlative of everything good that you choose to call Him. Well, He’s the only one able to supply all of our needs simultaneously. He supplies strength for the weak. He’s available for the tempted and the tried. He sympathizes and He saves. He’s strong God and He guides. He heals the sick. He cleanses the lepers. He forgives sinners. He discharged debtors. He delivers the captives. He defends the feeble. He blesses the young. He serves the unfortunate. He regards the aged. He rewards the diligent and He beautifies the meek. Do you know Him? Well, my King is a King of knowledge. He’s the wellspring of wisdom. He’s the doorway of deliverance. He’s the pathway of peace. He’s the roadway of righteousness. He’s the highway of holiness. He’s the gateway of glory.

He’s the master of the mighty. He’s the captain of the conquerors. He’s the head of the heroes. He’s the leader of the legislatures. He’s the overseer of the overcomers. He’s the governor of governors. He’s the prince of princes. He’s the King of kings and He’s the Lord of lords. That’s my King. Yeah. Yeah. That’s my King. My King, yeah. His office is manifold. His promise is sure. His light is matchless. His goodness is limitless. His mercy is everlasting. His love never changes. His Word is enough. His grace is sufficient. His reign is righteous. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Well. I wish I could describe Him to you, but He’s indescribable. He’s indescribable. Yes.

He’s incomprehensible. He’s invincible. He’s irresistible. I’m coming to tell you, the heavens of heavens cannot contain Him, let alone a man explaining Him. You can’t get Him out of your mind. You can’t get Him off of your hands. You can’t outlive Him and you can’t live without Him.

Well, Pharisees couldn’t stand Him, but they found out they couldn’t stop Him. Pilot couldn’t find any fault in Him. The witnesses couldn’t get their testimonies to agree. Herod couldn’t kill Him. Death couldn’t handle Him and the grave couldn’t hold Him. That’s my King. Yeah.

He always has been and He always will be. I’m talking about He had no predecessor and He’ll have no successor. There’s nobody before Him and there’ll be nobody after Him. You can’t impeach Him and He’s not going to resign. That’s my King! That’s my King! Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory.

Well, all the power belongs to my King. We’re around here talking about black power and white power and green power, but it’s God’s power. Thine is the power. Yeah. And the glory. We try to get prestige and honour and glory for ourselves, but the glory is all His. Yes. Thine is the Kingdom and the power and glory, forever and ever and ever and ever. How long is that? And ever and ever and ever and ever. And when you get through with all of the evers, then, Amen.

—Dr. S. M. Lockridge

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So we went to the SPCA... and then it went from being a turtle to being a dog.

And now, a year later, we are the happy 'parents' of the newest member of our family.

(I want to call her SARA - Jade; no, I want to call her LADY - Janice; No her name is PROZAC! - Me)

Therefore of course her dogtags read Lady Sara Prozac.....

The scripture is 2 Corinthians 4:4:

"In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." (KJV)

Is satan the god of this world or is God?

Gary DeMar has an interesting article Here saying No, satan is not the god of this world.

but he believes that satan is the 'god' referred to in 2 Corinthians 4:4.

But is he?

I wonder....

Deus Absconditus latin term means:

"hidden God : God unknowable by the human mind"

Luther came upon the notion of deus absconditus - God hidden - straight from the Bible.

In Job, the Psalms and especially Isaiah God regularly "hides his face [or] hides himself."

And it is not good news.

It is God's "strange deed," his "alien work." (Is. 28:21) Isaiah says it pointblank: "Truly, thou art a God who hidest thyself." (45:15) Luther speaks of God's hiddenness with several different nuances.

In all of them, however, God's hiddenness does not mean that there is no evidence of God at all. Deus absconditus IS a revealer. God's strange deeds and alien works are everywhere at hand. Theistic evidence abounds. But in that abundant evidence a fundamental aspect of God remains un-revealed -- specifically the God-data needed "for us and for our salvation." Until Jesus the (only) Christ.

And I contend, that this Hidden God who:

"...at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by [his] Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;" (Hebrews 1:1,2)

So can we still say God is hidden?

When Jesus Mission Statement if you will,

--To Destroy the works of the Devil --
--To make God known:

"And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." (John 17:3)

I think that we have lost this thing, this sense of astonishment, this thing of having an Astonished Heart.

First scriptural example I can think of would be the woman caught in the act of adultery. (btw if she was caught in the act, where was the man? Was he one of the men yelling 'stone her?' talk about an undercover assignment ah well)...

Anyway, back then there was no advocate for women. Not really. They were considered 'property' or at best '2nd class citizens'.

And yet Jesus touches her, raises her up and says "Where are your accusers?" "They are gone Lord." "Then neither do I condemn you. GO and sin no more"

She must have been astonished. She must have had an Astonished Heart. Such Grace and compassion for her?

I imagine another woman with an Astonished Heart would be the lady Jesus healed on the sabbath.

Does not this Daughter of Abraham. What?!? Daughter of Abraham? I'm willing to bet that no one had ever used that term before.

Grace. Recognition. Astonishment.

What would it be like, to follow a Rabbi so closely that His dust covered you?

What would it be like, to know that such a Rabbi is closer to you than the sound of your voice?

That He will never leave you nor forsake you?

I need to be covered in His dust. The explanation of this answer is longer than the answer.

Turn with me to the book of Matthew chapter 4. We're going to get there in a little while. To understand what takes place in this text, it is helpful to understand the Hebrew education system.

Josephus, the great Jewish historian writes, "Above all, we pride ourselves on the education of our children."

One rabbi said, "Under the age of six we do not receive a child. But from six upwards, accept him and stuff him with Torah like an ox."

According to tradition, a drop of honey is placed on the first page the child is to learn to read; he kisses it, thus beginning an association of pleasantness which is expected to last throughout life as his education continues.

Hebrew education was divided into stages. The first stage is called Beth-Safar. This was for kids aged 5 or 6 to age 10.

During this time, the children would memorize the Torah. You remember, the Torah consists of the first five books of the Scriptures; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. We make our kids learn the books of the Bible. They learned the five books by heart.

To them, the Scriptures were the most important thing. It is not a matter of ability, it is a matter of what we think is important.

The next stage of Jewish education is called Beth-Talmud. This is for those aged 10-14, here, they would memorize the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Daniel, all the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures. So the by the end of age fourteen they had the whole Old Testament memorized.

Jesus was at this stage when His parents lost Him in the temple. And, there He is found talking with the rabbis in a series of questions and questions and answers and questions. He is questioning them on Scriptures; back and forth. They are amazed at how he can process information and questions them.

The next stage of Hebrew education was only for the best of the best. These were for those who applied to Harvard or Yale. This happened at age fourteen. If you didn't do well in Beth-Talmud, forget getting into Harvard or Beth-Midrash. Beth-Midrash was for those aged fourteen and above, and they were to start to study the oral and the written laws, all the things the rabbi had written and said, they were beginning to memorize and process and they would have passionate discussions about it. This is where they studied the oral and written law.

This is where you would discuss what different rabbis said about the law and how they interpreted it. Somebody might say, "Well, rabbi so-and-so said that to honor the Sabbath you could only walk as far as the local synagogue on Sabbath." And somebody else would say, "Well, but rather rabbi So-and So says that you can walk twice that far so you are able to get back home." But then somebody else would say, "Rabbi So-And-So says you can't walk to the edge of your village unless you're going to a synagogue in another village."

They would get passionate about which rabbi interpreted the law the best. They got passionate about it because these were the things of God. In fact, that is how their worship services went. They didn't just come and listen to a preacher get up here and spout off, they listened to him read the scripture and then they would passionately ask questions back and forth, and get heated about it, because these were the things they loved to talk about. They believed the highest form of worship was study.

You can see that each rabbi said something different. Each rabbi had their own way of interpreting or living out the Torah. Each one had their own added commandments and regulations. In fact, a rabbi's own particular interpretation of the Torah was called that rabbi's "Yolk." When you studied with a rabbi, you would take their yolk or their interpretation of the Torah upon you. But Jesus said, "My yolk is easy. I'm not about endless rules and regulations!" So when Jesus came among us as a rabbi, He didn't just pull these phrases out of thin air. This was how rabbis spoke. "Hey, my yoke is easy. Take it upon you. My burden is light."

So Rabbis would have discussions with their students, they would take a particular command, like the Sabbath, and might ask, "What does it mean to honor the Sabbath?" And a student might answer, "I think it means to sit around and do nothing and have a boring day." This student is, of course, wrong. So the rabbi would say to the student very passionately, "No! That's not what it means. You have abolished Torah!"

But if a student answered, "It means that we spend a day that we are reminded that we are no longer slaves, that we were brought up from the kingdom of darkness, that we are redeemed by the blood of the lamb. And we take one day a week to remind ourselves that our worth does not come from making bricks but from the one who made us."

At this point the rabbi would say "Yes, my student! You have fulfilled Torah!" Jesus came and said, "I did not come to abolish the Law, I came to fulfill it, to show you what it really means to keep the law, to show you what it looks like lived out in flesh and blood."

This is what took place at Beth-Midrash. This is the position that every good Jewish boy wanted to be in. To become a rabbi, or a teacher, was the highest honor to be had. If it were that way today, our teachers would be paid a whole lot more. So, at age 14, you would go to a local rabbi, one you highly respected, one whose yolk you wanted to take upon you.

So you would say to the Rabbi, "I want to become your disciple." Then the rabbi would begin to quiz you and find out how well you knew Torah. He might say, "Give me in the book of Habakkuk the four references to Deuteronomy, in order." And you'd better have them just like that. Or he might engage you in what are called "Remezes."

He would quote to you a verse on the subject he was talking on, and you would not have the Scriptures in front of you. You would have to realize, "Is he actually referring to the verses following the one he quoted, or the verses before?" And you would have to figure it out based on the context. "Does he really mean this verse instead of that verse?"

And then you would answer him with another remez and the rabbi would have to figure it out. "Did you mean the verse before or after that?" You're supposed to know the Scriptures so well that you could figure it out. Does it sound complicated? It was! If they had done this in Seminary, I would still be there.

Have you noticed that sometimes, when Jesus preached, the leaders wanted to kill Him?

What was so offensive? Sometimes, Jesus spoke to the rabbis in Remezes. If you look back at what He said, like in Matthew 15, He quotes Isaiah 29, but if the leaders listened to the quote and thought about what the next few verses said, they would know that they had been nailed.

They would hope that the common bystanders would not be educated enough to know what Jesus was really accusing them of. That is why it is helpful to read the context of the Scripture that Jesus quotes.

Now, if the rabbi, of whom you wanted to be the disciple of, believed that you had what it takes, he would say, "Come, take my yoke upon you." This was the highest honor in the days of Jesus. So, somewhere around the age of 14, you would leave everything; Parents, Synagogue, Community, the family business, and devote your life to following this rabbi everywhere.

The goal of a disciple was to be exactly like his rabbi. You would spend your whole day following the rabbi everywhere. Every detail of the rabbi's life was copied, even down to how he chewed his food. You were interested. "I want to look like him. I want to be like him, every step f the way." That is the detail to which a disciple wished to be like his rabbi.

There is a phrase in the Mishna that says, "May you be covered in the dust of your rabbi." The idea was that if you followed behind your rabbi on the dusty roads, you would get covered in his dust. Meaning, you were following his so closely to be so much like him that you are glorified to be covered with the dust he left behind. That is how close a disciple wanted to be to his rabbi.

Now, if you're going along the road with your rabbi, the rabbi's job is to teach you, and to test you. He might quiz you along the way and he might decide that you know the Torah really well, but there's something about you. Maybe your character, habits of something, where he says, "You're never going to be just like me." And you knew the bad news was coming. You are about to be expelled.

To be expelled was horrible. He'd try to be nice about it. "It's obvious you know the Scriptures very well, but go and have some children. Maybe they will become rabbis. Go and ply your trade." In other words, "Go back to the family business. Your father is a fisherman, go learn to fish. Go ply your trade."

Now, with all this in mind, look at Matthew 4:18. As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.

Why are they fishermen? They didn't make the cut! They were not good enough. They were learning to ply their trade. A rabbi had not taken them on. Jesus goes to the losers, the rejects, the misfits, and He calls them! That's rather humbling. Now I know why I'm here. He goes to the losers. He says, "I want you to do it."

Now, let's continue. Matthew 4:19-20. "Come, follow Me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed Him.

Have you ever wondered about this text? These guys just drop everything and followed Him at a few words from this Rabbi. Jesus is a rabbi and He's calling disciples. They are not good enough and yet a rabbi wants them! He thinks that they can actually be like Him! He thinks that they can do it! And so of course they drop what they are doing and they follow the Rabbi. I think itis interesting.

They're fisherman.

Jesus take their talent that they already have and changes their use. "I'm going to make you fishers of men."

How many times did Jesus use their seamanship? Let's go get in your boats. These guys knew how to operate boats. Jesus takes the talents He has given us and maybe uses them for something else.

He says, "Use them this way. Follow Me." This also adds some insight as to why, after the crucifixion, some of the disciples went fishing. They weren't just going out to relax. Their Rabbi was dead. They had not protected him. They were not good enough to make the cut. They had let Him down. They went back to ply their trade. "We're not good enough to be disciples."

Our text gets more exciting. Matthew 4:21-22. Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed Him.

If they are in the boat with their father, they are probably learning the trade. They are plying their trade. And they leave their father, their trade, their lives, and follow Jesus! Have you ever wondered why the Bible says nothing about Zebedee filing for Chapter 11? He's lost his employees.
Have you ever wondered why he is not saying, "Hey, you boys, get back here. Your work's not done. Where do you think your going?" No! He leaves his nets too.

He runs home! Can you imagine Zebedee coming home? "Dear, the boys are gone!" "Really? Did they get their chores done? Where did they go?" "Dear, a rabbi thought they were good enough!"

Can you imagine Zebedee walking through town the next day? "Yea, my boys are not here because a rabbi came calling and they left. My boys have taken on the yoke of the rabbi Yeshua from Nazareth so that they might be covered in His dust!"

In all of rabbinic history, only two rabbis ever went calling disciples. Disciples were the ones looking for rabbis. Jesus was only one of two that we know of who ever went out looking for students.

We don't know the other one. Guess what, He's still doing it. He is still calling us, the misfits of this world. He has called us to be fishers of men! Wow! Does He actually think you can do it? He wouldn't have called you unless He thought you could be like Him!

We know from customs and history that at least several of these disciples would have been in their mid to late teens, some as early as fourteen. Jesus calls teenage rejects to be his disciples. With all this in mind, turn to Matthew 16. Here, Jesus has escaped the Jewish multitudes for a while. He wants to spend time teaching His disciples to be like Him. So He takes them on a journey.

Matthew 16:13. When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philipi, He asked His disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"

It is so easy to loose much of the significance of this text. All you have to do is breeze over the name of the place that they went, "Caesarea Philippi." Jewish boys never, never, ever went to Caesarea Philippi! Parents would say, "We don't go there!" Caesarea Philippi was known as the center of pagan worship. Jesus led these young men on this twenty-six mile hike to a place they were not allowed to go.

Remember, it is a Rabbi's goal to help his disciples to become just like Him. They want to become like Jesus. And Jesus brings them here for a reason. This is a place where they would witness some of the most disgusting "acts of worship" ever propitiated to a pagan god. Worse than anything you've seen on TV, and I don't care what you've watched.

Worse things happened in Caesarea Phillipi. Temples to pagan gods lined the streets. There are merely ruins there now. You see a couple niches carved in the side of the mountain to hold idols. Actually, the mountain was the central attraction. It had a rather interesting name.

It was called, "THE ROCK." The central feature of The Rock is a huge cave opening. Inside, can be found one of the main sources of the Jordan River. Greek legend has this cave as the birth place of the God, "Pan."

This great hole in the rock was thought to be the place where evil spirits would come into the land of the living or go back to Hell. So people would perform grotesque worship rituals before this opening to appease the evil spirits. Baal was placed before the entrance to help guard crops against the evil spirits. This cave also had an interesting name as well: "THE GATES OF HELL."

With this imagery as the backdrop of what Jesus said, look again at Matthew 16.

Matthew 16:13-16 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Phillipi, Can you picture Him waving His arms out at all these things? He asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" "In the midst of all these dead gods, Who do they say I am?"

They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah; or one of the prophets."

"But what about you?" He asked. "Who do you say I am?"

Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." "You're not like all these dead idols. You're the Son of the living God."

Yes! Peter got it right! As they looked at all the dead, stone, images, Peter saw the Son of the Living God!

Look at Matthew 16:17-18. Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by My Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it."

Wow! "Peter, your name means "pebble." You don't need to worry about the church being built on you. You can't handle that stress. You don't have to bear the burden of My new church. Over there, we have what men call "The Rock." But it is not the True Rock. My church isn't going to be built on that. I am the Rock.

As long as you rely upon my strength, the Gates of Hell will not prevail against you! These debased people worshiping these false Gods in this disgusting manner can be reached by the likes of you as long as you rely on the likes of Me. The Gates of Hell cannot stop them from following me. You can go and make disciples of such people just like I made disciples out of you."

Jesus says in Matthew 28:19, "Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations. Remember, Jesus is trying to teach them to be like Him. He's going everywhere. He's not just going to one group of people. He's going to every kind of group of people you can thing of.

"Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

This is Jesus calling you, just as he called the teenagers long ago, to be His disciple. He is calling you to leave your old life behind, all the things you think are great and wonderful, leave them behind because Jesus' way is better.

So much more.

He'll take the talents that you have and use them to be fishers of men. How do you become a person of great faith like Josh described in the opening story? By learning how to be just like your rabbi, Jesus Christ. By standing for Him, using His solid rock strength. By doing as He says, knowing that the Gates of Hell have no power against Him, and He is between you and them. By following Jesus so closely that you are covered in His dust!

"The greatest want of the world is the want of men--men who will not be bought or sold, men who in their inmost souls are true and honest, men who do not fear to call sin by its right name, men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle is to the pole, men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall."

Ellen G. White

Sources:
Sermon by Rob Bell, Youth Specialties Convention, Tampa 2001
The Works of Josephus
What the Jews Believe, by Rabbi Philip Bernstein

Someone over on the Ooze made the statment:

I just don't think that Sin is the big deal that the church makes it out to be. Such talk about Sin makes me nervous

To which I replied such talk about Sin not being a big deal is what makes Me nervous!

And my friend Monty has helped me work out what I really believe.

I've concluded that my idenity as a Saint of God
only exists as I acknowledge my sin.

If I don't acknowledge and surrender the truth of my sinfulness to God there is no 'Saint' there is no 'forgiveness'.

"If we say openly that we have done wrong, he is upright and true to his word, giving us forgiveness of sins and making us clean from all evil."

If we say that we have no sin, we make him false and his word is not in us."

And I am haunted by scripture like Hebrews 12:4:

"Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin."

I know you think that by my saying I'm a sinner, and saying that sin can damage my relationship with God I'm somehow not participating in our Great Redemption from Sin. But I believe the opposite. (Something that this conversation has greatly helped me to see.)

I'm redeemed from Sin. Free forever from the (eternal) Penalty of Sin. But I 'work out my salvation/sanctification in fear and trembling' seeking to overcome the Power of Sin thru the Holy Spirit.

I must say:

nope. absolutely not.

"...Modern Rabbinic authorities, however, deny that Greek philosophy influenced the Rabbis. They were not philospophers, nor students of philosophy, having onlylimited or casual interest in the subject *, as the Reformed (liberal) C.G. Montefiore asserts:

"Another point to remember in regard to Rabbinic literature is that it comes from men whose outlook was extraordinarily limited. They had no interests outside Religion and the Law. They has lost all historic sense. They had no interest in art, in drama, in belles lettres, in poetry, or science (except, perhpas in medicine). They had no training in philosophy. How enormously they might have benefited if, under competent teachers, they had been put through a course of Greek philosophy and literature...The Old Testament was practically the only book they possessed...Yet this Bible, with all that it implied, is their world, their one overmastering interest. They picked up, it is true, many current ideas, opinions, superstitions, in a fluid, unsystematic form. But all that was by the way and incidental....The Rabbis, for good or for evil, knew no philosophy" **

From the other side of the theological asile, Orthodox H. Loewe concurs: "The dialectics which Halakah involved made up, to no small extent, for the lack of philosophy. The Rabbis were no philosophers... and, as Mr. montefiore says, their outlook was limited....They had but a casual acquantance with Greek thought"***

This casual acquantance, of course, had no discernable influence on the Rabbis. Abraham Cohen speculates that although some Rabbis may have been aware of Greek philosophy, "The interest in metaphysical speculation which characterized the thinkers of Greece and Rome was not shared by the teachers of Israel to any great extent"*+

G.F. Moore cannot find Greek philosophy in Rabbinic thought: "The idea of God in Judaism is developed from the Scriptures. The influence of contemporary philosophy which is seen in some Hellenistic Jewish writings--the Widom of Solomon, 4 Maccabbes, and above all in Philo--is not recognizable in normative Judaism, nor is the influence of other religions...." *++

* Max Kadushin, The Rabbinic Mind, 2nd ed.
** C.G. Montefiore, n C.G. Montefiore and H. Loewe, A Rabbinic Anthology
*** H. Loewe, in ibid., xcv
*+ Abraham Cohen, Everyman's Talmud
*++ George Foot Moore, Judaism, Vol 1

Alot of people see the Bible as a difficult and confusing book.

Full of shades of gray. I disagree.

I believe that for the most part, the Bible is black and white, but people who live in a gray world don't want to see it that way, so rather than change, and allow themselves to submit to the Living Word, as disciples trying to follow the Written Word, they would rather just say...

It's just Gray. We really can't understand so we should just do our best.

In a discussion about Sin.. often Romans 7 & 8 will come up.

"Hey, we are free. As long as we are in the flesh, we can't help BUT to sin." I agree to some extent, however, I really like what Matthew Henry has to say about this:

"It is the unspeakable privilege and comfort of all those that are in Christ Jesus that there is therefore now no condemnation to them. He does not say, “There is no accusation against them,” for this there is; but the accusation is thrown out, and the indictment quashed.

He does not say, “There is nothing in them that deserves condemnation,” for this there is, and they see it, and own it, and mourn over it, and condemn themselves for it; but it shall not be their ruin.

He does not say, “There is no cross, no affliction to them or no displeasure in the affliction,” for this there may be; but no condemnation.

They may be chastened of the Lord, but not condemned with the world."

I love St. Nicholas Day!

we never did the 'santa claus' thing with the Jade. i just couldn't see the benefit of lying to my child.

tell them there is a santa - lie
tell them there is a tooth fairy - lie
tell them there is an easter bunny - lie

tell them God became a man and died on a cross - lie, oh wait a minute!

So we've always told her the truth. I remember one year the Jade was 5 or 6 and someone asked her about Santa Claus.

Jade said, "Oh, you mean St. Nicholas. He's in Heaven"

you don't believe in Santa?

"no mom and dad buy my presents, but St. Nicholas is in Heaven praying to God that I make it there to be with him and God. Don't you think that is better than presents?"

Times like that I don't think i've messed up too bad.

"A person in the habit of contradicting others becomes a two-edged sword to himself. Unwittingly he destroys his own soul and alienates it from eternal life."
-- St Symeon the New Theologian

"Reading is at the threshold of the spiritual life; it can introduce us to it. It does not constitute it... There are certain cases of spiritual depression in which reading can become a sort of curative discipline... reintroducing a lazy mind into the life of the spirit."
-- Marcel Proust 'On Reading'

"If God is slow in answering your request, or if you ask but do not promptly receive anything, do not be upset, for you are not wiser than God."
-- St. Isaac of Syria

"God is a fire that warms and kindles the heart and inward parts. Hence, if we feel in our hearts the cold which comes from the devil - for the devil is cold - let us call on the Lord. He will come to warm our hearts with perfect love, not only for Him but also for our neighbour, and the cold of him who hates the good will flee before the heat of His countenance."
-- St Seraphim of Sarov

"Preparation of heart is the unlearning the prejudices of evil converse. It is smoothing the waxen tablet before attempting to write on it."
-- St. Basil the Great

"An Old Man said, 'Whenever a man reads the Divine Books the devils are afraid.'"
-- from The Paradise of the Holy Fathers

Been thinking, reading about Tolerance and Controversy. How like it's almost 'intolerant' to discuss or take any stands that might lead to controversy. Like that is 'bad'.

Tolerance of course has changed. It used to be:

"I believe that God has a better life in mind than your current Gay Lifestyle" says man #1.

"well, I have never been happier than when I'm with my gay lover, and I know where you are coming from but God made him for me" says man #2.

"Well, we are certainly at an impasse" says man #1. We will agree to disagree.

Now that my brudders an Sistah's was Real Tolerance.

Today Tolerance is this:

"You are a bigot and a homophobe and should not be allowed to say such things. It's a sign of hatred. As a matter of fact, that is defamation of character and hate speech you should be locked up" says man #2

Now tolerance means everything is okay except the man (or woman) who dares to hold to any absolute Truth (or any Truth Absolutely). Part of this is due to a misunderstanding of what an 'open mind' is.

I like what Chesterson has to say about the Open Mind --

He says this:

"The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid".

I find the words of John R.W. Stott a wonderful compass:

"We need to distinguish between the tolerant mind and the tolerant spirit. Tolerant in spirit a Christian should always be, loving, understanding, forgiving and forbearing others, making allowances for them, and giving them the benefit of the doubt, for true love "Bears all things, believes all things, hope all things, endures all things" (I Cor. 13:7). But how can we be tolerant in mind of what God has plainly revealed to be either evil or erroneous?"

Wisdom to live by, I say. Somewhere else someone asked the question?

"What is more important? Love or Doctrine?" As if you should ever have one or the other....

I turn again to the wisdom of Mr. Stott:

"We seem in our generation to have moved a long way from this vehement zeal for the truth which Christ and his apostles displayed. But if we loved the glory of God more, and if we cared more for the eternal good of the souls of men, we would not refuse to engage in necessary controversy, when the truth of the gospel is at stake. The apostolic command is clear.

We are to "maintain the truth in love," being neither truthless in our love, nor loveless in our truth, but holding the two in balance".

in the balance. hmm. Sounds hard yet necessary. Reminds me of another quote:

"If Jesus isn't Lord of ALL, is He Lord AT all?"

I'shalom

Oy vey! I am very much wanting "Downward Mobility". To "live simply".

I fear very much that somehow we have our eyes on the prize of living simply, that we believe Less is More.. but it is as if we are doing everything in our power to run the opposite way, believing that by running from what we want we are somehow achieving it!

yikes.

A desert Father once said that the devil majored in three things: noise, hurry, and crowds. If nothing else, the noise has grown louder, the pace of life faster, and the crowds larger. Life is filled with stress and demands and worry.

I recently read an article in the journal First Things, written by R.R. Reno, entitled "Fighting the Noonday Devil." The spiritual state of acedia means to be "without care." This sound pretty good, but what it means is that we don't care about anything. We don't have the energy or drive to pray, we don't care to fast, we don't care to read Scriptures; we don't care to attend the services of the Church.

How many of us have experienced this state?

Reflecting on the sin of acedia, the writer makes the following insightful observation of how a sorrowful state of the spirit has become a cultural value:

"Most of us want to be left alone so that we can get on with our lives. Most of us want to be safe. We want to find a cocoon, a spiritually, psychologically, economically, and physically gated community in which to live without danger or disturbance.

The carefree life, a life a-cedia (without care) is our cultural idea. Pride may be at the root of all evil, but in our day, the trunk, branches, and leaves of evil are characterized by a belief that moral responsibility, spiritual effort,and religious disciple are empty burdens,ineffective and archaic demands that cannot lead us forward, inaccessible ideals that, even if we believe in them, are beyond our capacity."

Is this true? Is living a carefree life our highest priority? Our birthright as Americans is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and we will not be denied.

"The problem is that happiness forever eludes us no matter how much money we have or how many gadgets we hold in our hand. But we continue to strive because we will not give up the idea that happiness means getting ahead, and that means a bigger house, (or a HOUSE) a promotion, a nicer car - maybe two cars, more gadgets, nicer clothes, a secure retirement package, and so on.

To gain a carefree life, we enter a world of care. We enter the ranks of the sifted, the overworked, the tired, the anxious, the indebted, and the stressed."

Almost daily I'm asking my wife to not work. Yes the money is nice. But I have books and books that I've not read, I have enough theology to read and sci fi and fantasy to read that I could go a few years without more books! (GASP!)

My wife gets mad at me when I suggest she quit. I said to her tonite:

"why are you upset that I want to spend time with you? I didn't marry you to not see you for 5 out of 7 nights, nor to see you sleep an hour or two after I get home..."

"Don't you realize I could be asking you to work more? I could be catting around, enjoying this freedom, living an evil life on the downlow? be happy I'm always asking you to quit."

Sigh. I want it now. I want a simpler life. I want downward mobility. I want to live near work and work near my Church.

The Father my Hope, the Son my Refuge, the Holy Spirit my Protection. All Holy Trinity Glory to you!

Well, what in the world does that mean?

Let's look at the scripture:

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17 - King James Version)

Well, not sure that helps much. Seems like I spend most of my time making sure the old man doesn't pull a resurrection...

I like it in basic english a little better:

"So if any man is in Christ, he is in a new world: the old things have come to an end; they have truly become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17 Bible in Basic English)

hmm. What kind of New World? Is this just dealing with Final Destination? Or a New World of Opportunities? Am I really that different this side of Christ? Do that many of us have such dramatic 'turnings' as from a Saul of Tarsis to a Paul the Apostle of Jesus and Him Crucified?

Vines says this:

A new creature (καινὴ κτίσις)Or creation. Compare Gal_6:15. The word κτίσις is used in three senses in the New Testament. The act of creating, as Rom_1:20. The sum of created things, as Rev_3:14; Mar_13:19. A created thing or creature, as Rom_8:39. The Rabbins used the word of a man converted from idolatry. “He who brings a foreigner and makes him a proselyte is as if he created him.”

Perhaps the key word is 'In' Christ. Let's look at that. Is it like I'm IN Virginia, but can leave Virginia to drive into Maryland?

en: A primary preposition denoting (fixed) position (in place, time or state), and (by implication) instrumentality (medially or constructively), that is, a relation of rest (intermediate between G1519 and G1537); “in”, at, (up-) on, by, etc.: - about, after, against, + almost, X altogether, among, X as, at, before, between, (here-) by (+ all means), for (. . . sake of), + give self wholly to, (here-) in (-to, -wardly), X mightily, (because) of, (up-) on, [open-] ly, X outwardly, one, X quickly, X shortly, [speedi-] ly, X that, X there (-in, -on), through (-out), (un-) to(-ward), under, when, where (-with), while, with (-in). Often used in compounds, with substantially the same import; rarely with verbs of motion, and then not to indicate direction, except (elliptically) by a separate (and different) prep.

Hmm. clear as mud.. but I like the idea of being In Christ means being in a 'fixed position denoting a relation (time? place? attitude?) of rest.'

Maybe the problem is that we try to turn BEING in Christ into a DOING in Christ....

Sigh. Maybe we're getting somewhere when we just 'enter in'.

First, a word about the SPCA. It will be a year this Jaunary that we 'rescued' our beloved Lady Sara Prozac pictured below:



Janice wanted to name her Lady, the Jade wanted to call her Sara and I wanted to name her Prozac. Thus 'Lady Sara Prozac'. We all just call her Sara however. She was found wandering around various apartment complexes in Charlottesville, and the SPCA picked her up and we adopted her. It was obvious that she'd been abused... but she has become a part of our family and has thrived under our care. (Or perhaps we are the ones who have thrived...)

Anyway. Now you have the SPCA connection with us.

We live in an apartment complex where we get a rent break, by picking up the trash on weekends. So Janice likes to do this early in the morning, thus Saturday the day I sleep in she is up and out with Sara around 0630 or 0700. She see's an aquarium and thinks someones hamster died and they are just throwing away the aquarium, the wheel etc. She thinks nothing of this.

Sunday morning, when she goes out to do the trash duty, she see's a white pet mouse IN THE CAGE! She thought was abandoned! She comes upstairs and tells me about it, I roll over.. She calls the SPCA, we can bring them the mouse. The 3rd time she wakes me I say, okay... bring the aquarium upstairs and lets have a look...

Sure enough, there is one mouse alive in the aquarium. 1 mouse dead in a plastic play tube and a tail sticking up thru the a frozen section of bedding...

We find out that the tail belongs to the mouse that is still alive (it froze off) which prompts the Magdalena to call the 'live' mouse stubby.

We put her in a box with newspaper and an old rag... then to petsmart to 'buy her' some company. We get two more mice, and put them in the new clean aquarium with the old mouse. Jade surrenders one of her hamatoro houses:



and we watch. Soon enough the first mouse turns out to be unsocial, and downright pyscotic. We fear that if we take her to the SPCA now, if they find out she's unadoptable they will destroy her. So I take the first mouse and release her into the woods... and believe it or not, back to pet smart to get two more mice so the first two have company..

Now I have 4 mice thanks to a botched rescue mission, and the first one will live wild in the woods, and it goes to show how one crazy decision can have far reaching repercussions...

End the mouse story (not fiction I'm afraid).

I am alarmed at how frequently some folk say they 'hear from God'. I've been a Christian on again off again for some 32 years (hopefully more on than off -- if you're wondering, right now 'on'.)

I've prayed for a manifestation, but only felt a presence.

I've prayed for guidance, but again just a presence.

And at the most a nudge. And I'm 'feeling' that a nudge is good enough.

I feel like in my spirit God is saying or rather 'impressing' that it is His Grace towards us that keeps Him silent. I mean if we can ignore and not bother to read His written word, what would He do if He spoke to us and we ignored His spoken Word as well?

So I think His silence is His grace to us. One less opportunity to screw it up.

I took this weekend off from the Ooze, in the spirit of that silence.. and saw some pretty wild things this weekend about how one arbitrary choice can have crazy reprecussions. (Look for the mouse story)....

God I thank you for your grace, and thank you for your presence (nod to Wanderer) help me to appreciate your silence.

Interesting that after the last post, this post would be a prayer request.

I'm frustrated to the point of dispair.

Church isn't bringing my family together, it seems to be that which divides.

The things the world says will make us happy, aren't (no real surprize there)

The wife working is earning us cash, but we never see each other. 5 nights out the week she works 3rd shift, and when she is home she is doing her 'chores' or sleeping.

Sigh. Madness. It's driving me crazy.

I prayed. I sensed the presence but not an answer... except

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results....

I'shalom

Seraphim

I found this concept of God talking to us wonderful:

My role in your life

"You pray to me to help you catch the bus on time. To smile on you so you draw the right card on the river. To make a certain plan or a certain day work out right. You pray to me for a lot of things, and most commonly it is with a request. Infrequent lately are the days when you simply say hello. Just a little thought to say that you remember me. Not that it makes that much of a difference. Not in regards to what you ask.

What makes you think that I am concerned about your poker game? What makes you think I am concerned about your picnic? Does it ever occur to you that virtually everything that you would have me give you includes me taking from someone else? And what makes you think you deserve it more?

This world of mine has rules. Rules and laws that every thing in that wold interacts by. Everyone has to follow. You have known what many of these rules were for centuries. Your sciences teach you more of these rules every day. As you learn more of these rules and how everything effects everything else, you should realize how unlikely I am to grant a simple whim of yours. No matter how much you love me or I love you.

This entire world is a complex organism. Everything playing its part to keep everything else in motion, like one great body. My primary concern is obviously for the body, for the body is mine. Within this body is where you operate. As a society I have given you the means to thrive or the means to destroy each other. I have given you the laws that govern how and when you can do either. Now I hear cries that the innocent suffer and I should intervene. Why? Your people suffer at the hands of your people. Why should I interfere? This is your choice. But some of the innocent pay the price. So? Can your toe complain when your whole body succumbs to cancer because it didn't take any part in smoking? No. Neither does it get preferential treatment simply because the other parts of the body didn't care about it. I told you that what you do not find without you will not find within, how else but as I have just explained would I have meant it?

Why do you cry out that I don't do something spectacular for you? If I help you catch that bus, that means I interfered with my own well designed world just for you. Is that not spectacular? Do you claim to deserve more? I wouldn't if I were you.

I don't tell you not to ask me for miracles. I just tell you that you know the rules and can't expect that I will simply toss them out at your request. What should you ask for then? Guidance. This I give all of the time. Ask me to guide you to help yourself within the rules that have been set. If you listen, here I will help you. Here is where the miracles can take place, when you make something of yourself without bending the rules. And when you ask for this guidance, ask with sincerity. Worry about what you are asking for, not what names you use when you ask for it. If you ask for guidance I will give it, whether you aim your request at Jesus, Buddha or a giant Furby. If you ask for miracles, the same result can be expected whether you ask Allah, Amaterasu or Papa Smurf. Know your intentions, be sincere in your request, and no that while I love every one of you, I rank few of you above or below any of the others. In daily life, you are oh so important to me. In a combative stance against my other children, you become the minority.

Behave well. Live well. Say hello more than you say please, and be Blessed in me in all of your endeavors."

From Wanderer's Blog

This is from another blog -- not mine. It is so freaky wonderful, I just had to share this. Fact is, I'm associates with a gentleman from work who is a Priest for Wicca and one of the organizer's for the Wiccan community in Charlottesville, Orange, Madison & Louisa. I'm going to see if he'll let me do this Confession Booth during Beltane.

The link for this Christ like person's blog is Here

Confessions Like Reed During Ren Fayre

"Oh my gosh," he said as his hand covered his mouth.

"We want to confess on behalf of the church," I said, as Kellie and I sat looking onward in our monk-like dress. "We apologize to you for the violence of the crusades and the many people who were killed upon this pilgrimage in the name of Jesus. Also for the Inquisition and those who were burned alive for their beliefs. We apologize for those who've sat and yelled at you from the street corner for your beliefs, and we confess for the persecution you've endured from those who seek to impose a Christian standard of living upon you, when you've never made such a decision to follow Jesus."

And the man sitting before us in his black attire, decorated in pagan emblems suddenly began to cry. The witch sitting to his left holding her hands to her eyes was doing the same. "Oh my gosh," he said again, "We have waited so long for this. I can't believe I am hearing it. Thank you! I just can't thank you enough!"

We continued and in roughly 15 minutes time we all stood up together and embraced one another - male, female, witch, Christian - the sins of the Church had been confessed. And the healing began.

Another 15 minutes must have passed when some of the practicing witches returned. This time they were dragging another witch who was also part of their religion into our confessional booth. And a similar confessional episode transpired. Soon after, another was led in. And soon another. And another. Witch after witch arrived in our confessional booth, and confession after confession was given. And soon enough the absolutely unthinkable came to pass.

As I switched from the booth in order to change places with another volunteering confessor, I stepped out onto the walkway to call attention to our confessional tent. I stood for no longer than 4 minutes when a witch I recognized returned with a very emotionally broken woman in her arms. I recognized the witch, as Kellie and I had confessed to her only 20 minutes before, and she said to me, "This woman needs to hear what you have to say." Nodding, I directed her to one of the chairs sitting before the two monkish figures and backed out of the tent, returning to the street.

Only minutes before, this emotionally broken woman had decided to pay for a tarot card reading. The woman reading her cards was one of the witches in our confessional booth only minutes before. As the witch turned over the first tarot card, she looked at it, and then slowly back at the woman. "You've lost your faith," she said to her. Nodding the woman agreed and proceeded to tell of her recent falling out with the Christian church. The witch said to her, "I know who can help you," and immediately escorted her out of the reading hall and into our confession booth. Thankfully, Jeff Menasco and Kellie were able to talk with this woman about what had happened back in her church. And they provided a listening ear and sound counsel.

This is all so dream-like, so crazy, so INSANE! I mean . . . a witch we confessed to did an acurate tarot reading for a disenfranchised churchgoer, recognized she wasn't the one who could best assist her and led her back over to us? Unfreaking real!

I can't begin to describe on this blog how wonderful this day was. And I can't begin to put into words how much God was at work in the city of Salem today. Thanks to Don Miller and the fellow Christians on the campus at Reed College who had the guts to put this "Confessional Booth" idea to work. And we are thankful also that the idea hasn't yet been too popularized that it has become spoiled. We look onward to the forthcoming weekend.

---

I hope to be able to do this. Please if you read my blog, pray about it.

I'shalom

I have a friend whom I respect greatly, Whitewave and another Gaston Garcia, who have recommended that I give Wilber a 2nd chance.

Gaston said this:

"I don't think he's sounding to me as new-agish. I've read
on, and I wasn't wrong in my guessing... the guy really likes
buddhism. In fact what he calls Spirit, or lets say God, he
also calls Emptiness "based on the buddhist concept." So
yeah, he likes their idea of Emptiness.

He doesn't think the fundamentalist religious approach to
creation is correct. In that sense Christians, Hindi, Jews
and Muslims are all wrong according to him in stating that
"our vision of how God created the Universe is the
only right one and if you reject it you are
against God.

But you know. I've really liked his book. He's a man trying
to make a vision of the Universe for himself and has gone in
a different path than many thinkers or "philosophers" take
nowdays. He thinks spirituality is very important.

But I think I understand why he stands out as "religious" to
you and probably many other people. It's because he believes
in God and the importance of spirituality. How many other
philosophers have you read that take that path? I had not
encountered many.

Now as far as him being Christian or Christian-related I
have no clue why people have made that assumption."

Often when my gift of Teacher (curse?) want to see everything in either black or white. When reality often presents everything in shades of gray. So I got into a headspace where I needed to make some decisions, so often when there I make 'pronouncements' to try to grant structure to my life.

This was apparently one of those times. Therefore I'm going to give Ken another chance.

I'shalom

How often have we blamed the devil for our own sin nature?

How often have we missed the point that the best form of Spiritual Warfare is just good Christian Living?

Sigh.

A friend tells me, I have issues with lust (well what man doesn't? at least if he's honest with himself..) and my wife is a big support.

Sometimes when I'm walking down the mall, I see a woman in a mini skirt and I turn away and say to my wife:

"The devil is trying to Tempt me with that woman".

Sigh.

James tells us this:

"But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed." (James 1:14 KJV).

So, is the devil out there tempting folk? Is our primary warfare against the Evil One? No. When Paul lists the three Great Enemies of our Souls, they are these:

The World - (World system, lust of the flesh, eye and pride of life)
The Flesh - (Our fallen nature)
and the devil. Notice the devil comes in 3rd, not first.

So. If that woman in revealing clothes or man in tight pants walks by and I'm tempted. Is it the devil tempting me? (the devil is not omni present, he is not God's opposite, but Michaels) Or is it my own sin nature?

I'shalom

After having acquired and read alot of Ken Wilbur's stuff, I've returned them to the bookstore.

And have come to the conclusion, that Ken Wilbur's work has no place on a Christian's Bookshelf.

Here's my reasoning (and rather than recreating the wheel, I'm quoting from a review which I found after I'd already come to the conclusions presented.)

- Seraphim

"...Wilber insists that the final reality is nondual — an all-encompassing and absolute oneness (see 226-32). Yet this nonduality supposedly integrates and transcends all the lower realms of being — including the idea that God is an independent personal being. Tapping into this ever-present state of nonduality, "You are not in the Kosmos, the Kosmos is in you, and you are purest Emptiness. The entire universe is a transparent shimmering of the Divine" (229). However, Wilber claims that this absolute, nondual Emptiness is one with all the manifested forms of the physical universe (the many). Nonduality is the absolute reality, and the manifestations of everyday life, which involve subject-object relationships, are relative realities (231-32).

But Wilber cannot have it both ways. If nonduality/oneness is the absolute, ultimate, and comprehensive reality, this logically excludes any of the dualisms we find in our everyday experience. There cannot be many people, rocks, trees, or birds if the supreme reality is one without duality; they would have to be dismissed as illusions. If nonduality is the comprehensive reality, as Wilber claims, this destroys all duality; formlessness is incompatible with form. Nevertheless, Wilber illogically asserts that both dual and nondual states are somehow real.

The Christian has no such problem with the relationship of the one to the many. God is a unity in diversity — one God in three persons.3 God’s creation is one uni-verse, but it consists of a great diversity of objects, events, and relationships. Neither God nor His creation will dissolve into a faceless oneness.

Wilber’s god is not a being who creates, knows, plans, loves, judges, and feels. These activities require the distinction of subject and object and a personal agent who engages in them. Wilber’s Spirit is beyond personality. Nevertheless, Wilber, undaunted by contradiction, often smuggles in personal language concerning the impersonal Spirit. He speaks of seeing our original "face" and hearing the "whispers" of Spirit (120, 339). These references are blatant anthropomorphisms, since Spirit is impersonal all the way down. The impersonal has no face and can utter nothing. One cannot have a personal relationship with Emptiness. If all is one, there can be no relationships, for a relationship involves at least two entities. Wilber says that "the twoness of experience is the fundamental lie, the primordial untruthfulness" (233). If so, Spirit cannot be "compassionate" as Wilber claims (338), since his god is not a separate moral agent who acts in love. Wilber’s use of personal language for the impersonal absolute is a classic case of what Francis Schaeffer called "semantic mysticism" — terms that have no philosophical application within a world view are invoked for a deceptive emotional effect.4

Wilber asserts, "The radical secret of the supreme identity is that there is only God" (305). When the Spirit recognizes itself "there is no one anywhere to watch it, or even sing its praises" (247). Christians, quite to the contrary, worship and enjoy their Creator and Redeemer; Wilber embraces only Emptiness.

The problem of good and evil also plagues Wilber. Since Spirit is nondual, it is beyond ethical categories. Meaningful moral distinctions require an objective difference between the dualities of good and evil. Wilber is in two minds about this (which is not good for a nondualist). He is happy that evolution has taken us beyond human sacrifice, slavery, and the subjection of women, all of which he rejects as wrong. He also views the KKK and Nazism as evil and admits there are "pathological states [of consciousness] of what can only be Kosmic terror, Kosmic evil, Kosmic horror" (211). However, he speaks positively of the mystical practices of Tantric yoga that "don’t abandon defiled states" but rather "enter them with enthusiasm, and play with them" because "there is only God" (239). He quickly adds that these practices occur within ethical frameworks! Yet the possibility of an ethical framework demands an ethical reality that allows for differentiation between good and evil. Nonduality is not up to the job. Wilber asserts morality without any theological foundation for it. There is an irresolvable tension between his God-given conscience and his defective world view.

Elton Trueblood observed that evil is a philosophical problem for Christian theism; yet evil is a philosophical disaster for pantheism.5 The pantheist must either say that evil is illusory because nondualism dissolves moral distinctions or claim that God is both good and evil, in which case God would not be a being of supreme and perfect value. Wilber is trapped within this theological prison.

He is also incarcerated in the silence of unknowing. Wilber affirms that the ultimate reality is "unqualifiable" (137, 225). If so, then no one can logically affirm anything about it. What cannot be described cannot serve as an explanation for anything. Nevertheless, Wilber does qualify the Emptiness by saying it is the ground and goal of evolution, the source of all historical manifestations, the highest state of consciousness, and so forth. This is contradictory; he should remain silent (along with Emptiness). The Christian, on the other hand, is not abandoned to a speechless prison. God has spoken; we must listen. Emptiness, however, is mute.

Lastly, Wilber cannot escape the problem of salvation. Although everybody is already one with the nondual divine, most people are somehow ignorant of their identity and so become narcissistic and selfish (333). Therefore, we must meditate to attain ever higher levels of consciousness (217-18) until we reach the nondual, which is, paradoxically, already our state of being. Christians avoid these hopeless paradoxes by admitting their moral failings before a holy God and by calling out to God for forgiveness and new life through the atoning death of Jesus Christ and the cosmic victory of His resurrection from the dead.

In his "brief history of everything" Wilber mentions Christ only a few times in passing (101, 132, 197-98). When he does refer to Jesus, he subverts the biblical teachings about Him. Thus Wilber’s attempt to explain everything ends up ultimately explaining nothing, because he has excluded the one who has supremacy over all things (Col. 1:18) and who is "the way and the truth and the life" (John 14:6). The premier modern apologist for pantheistic monism has sadly built his house on the sand."

—Reviewed by Douglas Groothuis

1 Unlike Wilber, Hegel might better be classified as a panentheist (all is in God) than as a strict pantheist (all is God.

2 For a good critique of evolutionary theories, see Philip Johnson, Darwin on Trial, 2d ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993). On this, see J. P. Moreland, ed., The Creation Hypothesis (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994).

3 This is not a logical contradiction, since Christianity does not claim that three equals one.

4 See Francis A. Schaeffer, The God Who Is There (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1968), 55-62.

5 See D. Elton Trueblood, A Place to Stand (New York: Harper & Row, 1969), 67-68; see also David Clark and Norman Geisler, Apologetics in the New Age (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1990), 203-22.

I have this extra-ordinary piece of art in my living room.

Click Here (and close browser to come back to this page)

What do you think this says about Jesus? Scripture reference is Revelation 19:11 - 21:

(Revelation 19:11) And I saw Heaven opened. And behold, a white horse! And He sitting on him was called Faithful and True. And in righteousness He judges and makes war.

(Revelation 19:12) And His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head many crowns. And He had a name written, one that no one knew except Himself.

(Revelation 19:13) And He had been clothed in a garment dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.

(Revelation 19:14) And the armies in Heaven followed Him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

(Revelation 19:15) And out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, so that with it He should strike the nations. And He will shepherd them with a rod of iron. And He treads the winepress of the wine of the anger and of the wrath of Almighty God.

(Revelation 19:16) And He has on His garment, and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

(Revelation 19:17) And I saw one angel standing in the sun. And he cried with a great voice, saying to all the birds that fly in mid-heaven, Come and gather together to the supper of the great God,

(Revelation 19:18) so that you may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of commanders, and the flesh of strong ones, and the flesh of horses, and those sitting on them, and the flesh of all, both free and slave, both small and great.

(Revelation 19:19) And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth and their armies, being gathered to make war against Him who sat on the horse, and against His army.

(Revelation 19:20) And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet doing signs before it, (by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast), and those who had worshiped his image. The two were thrown alive into the Lake of Fire burning with brimstone.

(Revelation 19:21) And the rest were slain by the sword of Him who sat on the horse, it proceeding out of His mouth. And all the birds were filled from their flesh.

This Bear story is for Nathan Waddell

---

The Old prophet sighed. As he was walking thru the woods he came upon the corpse of a young bear. Not killed for food, or in self-defense, but for sport. Killing just for the meanness of killing something smaller than you, because you could.

The prophet took a cloth and wiped his head, with a cloth for just such a purpose, he’d carried it since he lost his hair. The sun was shining down on him. He paused and said a brief prayer, asking God for mercy.

God didn’t always answer when he prayed. But this time he did.

“Elisha. Elisha” spoke a still small voice.

“I am here Lord, your servant hears you.” Said Elisha.

“Go off the beaten path, you will find two bears..”

“Bears, Lord” “Bears Elisha”

“Bears. Okay”

“When you find them,” said the Lord. "Tell them I have heard their cry.”

“The cry of the bears?”

“Yes. There is a gang of youth that is responsible for the death of their cub, and also for the cub they had last year.”

“I saw the one Lord, and knew it was killed for no good reason”

“Is there ever a good reason to kill? Don’t answer Elisha, it’s a rhetorical question”.

So Elisha went where he felt God was leading him and saw two bears, obviously in grief, weeping.

At least it’s not an ass, Elisha thought to himself. He walked to within a few feet of the bears and waited for them to notice him. (Always a good idea with wild animals, even if you were a prophet of the living God).

It wasn’t long before they noticed him. “Don’t be afraid” said Elisha. “We’re not,” said the papa bear, “The Great Spirit told us you were coming”

“Yes,” said the Prophet, wiping his head again, “He told me to tell you that he has heard your cry”.

“ah,” said the mama bear, “Then you’ll be taking care of it”

“Taking care of it?” said Elisha… “Well, God just told me to tell you he heard your cry.”

“That’s good enough for us,” said the papa bear. “That means He’s going to take care of that wild gang of evil children” “That’s right” said the mama bear, “before long they won’t stop at our children”

“Yes,” said papa bear, “Before long it will be your children too”.

“Well,” said the prophet, “What did you ask or rather what are you expecting God to do?” “Well, sir. We asked God to make us instruments of his vengeance, to allow us to be His hands to stop that evil gang before they kill again.”

“Really” asked the prophet? “you don’t mind if I just, um, ask do you? I’ll be right back”

The prophet walked off a little ways from the two bears.

“God? Excuse me, Lord?”

“Um, Lord?” “I know you’re there, do you have a minute?”

The prophet went on like this for awhile, and then said this.

“Lord, I know you hear me. You always hear me. You’re not really going to let these two bears get killed, because of their misguided sense of what they think ‘tell them I heard their cry’ means are you?”

silence. “I mean,” the prophet continues, “if those bears kill that evil gang, well you know the village will turn out and destroy the bears! That won’t be right Lord!”

sigh. ‘well,’ the prophet muttered, ‘Abraham prayed for a few righteous men in Sodom & Gomorrah, I can try to intercede for these two bears’

“Lord, I know you hear me, but you are not answering me, so maybe this is some kinda test?”

“You want me to figure this one out don’t you?”

At that moment the sun broke thru the clouds and shinned full strength on Elisha…..

“Sigh. I’ll take that as a yes.” The prophet muttered as he started back to where the bears were.

The Bears looked up expectantly (or was that hunger the prophet wondered?) as Elisha returned.

“Okay, I’m going to have to wing it this time, cause the Great Spirit must be having a talking fast. He doesn’t that from time to time”.

“I can’t just let you kill those kids, evil though they are, so in turn you get wiped out by the villagers… Then Bears would want revenge, etc. etc. It’s be like a big problem, as I foresee the whole Isaac and Ishmael thing down the road.”

“We wouldn’t want to start a was between us bears and the sons and daughters of Eve!” said the mama bear… “What should we do?” asked the papa bear.

“Well, for the next week, stay in woods near the hut just outside of the village where I’m staying.” “we can do that”

“Okay, then lurk when I walk the path near the woods. If I curse the kids, I’ll have you guys attack them. This way it will be me doing the killing, and you will only be the instruments… and the village will leave you alone, and no more innocents be they of the earth or of the sky, will be hurt.. at least not by those kids.”

The bears agreed.

…and it didn’t take long. The next morning as Elisha was walking and praying 41 of the ruffians showed up. Rather than ignoring them as usual, Elisha stopped and stared at them. His scrutiny made more than a few of them uncomfortable.

Unbeknown to the Prophet (but not to God) the animals were praying.

“Oh Great Spirit, if the Prophet curses those kids to die by our paws. Please receive them into your kingdom. Allow their deaths to be an atoning sacrifice, we forgive them.”

The Great Spirit smiled. He took a moment to speak into the spirits of the two bears.

“Don’t worry.” He said, “I understand Atonement. Even when it is violent, even when it is bloody – See?”

For just a moment the bears got a glimpse of a nail scarred hand.

The end. A short story from the imagination of Seraphim Bonavarius de’Angelo

"Another time, Elisha was on his way to Bethel and some little kids came out from the town and taunted him,

"What's up, old baldhead! Out of our way, skinhead!"

Elisha turned, took one look at them, and cursed them in the name of GOD.

Two bears charged out of the underbrush and knocked them about, ripping them limb from limb--forty-two children in all!

Elisha went on to Mount Carmel, and then returned to Samaria."
(2 Kings 2:23 – 25)

But you only had 41 in your story! Well yes, the 42nd one looked like the Son of God....

we do need to embrace / learn from our current here & now story.

However, something we in the west seem to forget or rather neglect to remember is that we did not just get dropped in America without a past without a history.

I am an Orthodox Christian. But it wasn't until my birth dad died and i read his obit that i was able to find out about that side of the family. Strangely enough I have roots in Serbia - Montenegro to be specific, & what type of Christian do you find in Montenegro? 98 % Orthodox. the other side of my Paternity is from Sicily & Milan - Italian. Deep Roman Catholic roots.

And my materity side? (birth mom's side?) Pennsylvania Dutch from Dutch German stock - you guessed Protantism with reformational roots...ye gods no wonder I'm a mess.

But my past story, my ethnic roots exist and are part of me and the more I know about them the more they help me 'flesh out' as it were my-story.

1) lack of faith is One possible reason.

Here are 10 others:

2) Redemptive Suffering - Physical healing is not in itself the highest value in the world. At times God uses sickness for a high purpose. To bring someone spiritually closer to God, to allow them the time to reflect on their life, etc. See Phillippians 3:10

3) A false value attached to suffering - Having said that some suffering is redemptive and is for a higher purpuse we have to balance that statement by saying that most sickness does not appear to be redemptive. Sometimes someone doesn't really want to be free of their suffering, maybe they even have conditioned themselves to believe it is the will of God that they suffer, so they feel guilty to ask God to take that suffering away.

4) Sin - If there is some sin connected with the physical ailment especially resentment, no healing is likely to take place unless the sin is dealt with first. Say you have a chronic pain, but it is just the symptom of a root of bitterness. You go to get prayed for, and the pain goes away...but it comes back. Cause the pain is just a symptom, not the problem. Go to the altar, repent of the bitterness, of find someone with discernment to pray what the cause is...and if repentance and forgiveness can be joined, then the healing may last.

5) Not Praying Specifically - similar to #4....the root incident needs to be taken care of first. Maybe there is a greater need for inner healing...and until the inner work is complete, the outer work cannot begin.

6) Faulty Diagnosis - Just as in medicine doctors often fail to diagnose a disease and consequently fail to prescribe the right medicine and trement so a minister of healing. Some examples:

a) praying for physical healing, when inner healing was the basic need.

b) praying for deliverance from Evil Spirits, when inner healing was needed.

c) praying for inner healing when deliverance was the real need.

7) Refusal to see medicine as a way God heals

8 ) Not using the natural means of preserving health - Sometimes, we just need to look at our eating, rest & overall health. If we are neglecting these things, do not be surprized when you are not healed. Maybe God is using this to tell you to restore balance to your life. Or to make a change..

9) Now is not the Time

there seem to be 4 basic time sequences to praying for healing:

a) some healings are instantaneous

b) In some healings there is a delay (see Mark 16 they will recover)

c) Some healings occur in process, gradually

d) Other do not seem to occur, at least on the physical level.

10) A Different Person is to be the Instrument of Healing

& finally

11) The social environment prevents healing from taking place

Since we are meant to live in a community of love, some of the healing we need will not take place until our relationships with our faith community are healed.

(these 11 reasons taken from Francis McNutt's book "Healing")

It may be that the Questions and the Seeking are as important (if not more important) than the answers:

St. Moses (of the first five books of the bible) and St. Gregory of Nyssa place a high value on questions too.. They must be Emergent! I like what Rob Bell says in Velvet Elvis:

"Being a Christian then is more about celebrating mystery than conquering it."

"The Eastern Church Father St. Gregory of Nyssa talked about Moses' journey up Mount Sinai in Exodus 19. When Moses enters the darkness toward the top of the mountain, he has moved beyond knowledge to awe and to love and to the mystery of God. Gregory insists that Moses has not arrived when he enters the darkness of the mountaintop. His journey and exploration have only really begun"

I've also been reading up on a Hebrew word. Ayeh. Ayeh -where are you - the ultimate uncertainty - is then the highest level of religious authenticity.!

" R’ Nachman, I would suggest did not originate this understanding of Ayeh- rather it emerges out of a hidden genre of Biblical ‘Ayeh’ stories

In the book of Judges, a messenger of God comes to Gideon at a time in which Israel has suffered greatly at the hand of the Midianite nation. The messenger of God offers certainty to Gideon: “God is with you, hero of valor,” and Gideon rejects this pat offer of security: “You tell me that God is with us? Then why is all this...” He cannot even give it a name. The silent questions ring out in the spaces between the words: ‘Why has all this suffering, why has all this pain defined our lives for so many years? Why are men killed? Why are children orphaned?’ And the text goes on: “‘Ayeh’- where are all of his great wonders which our fathers told us, saying God took us out of the land of Egypt. And now, God has abandoned us.”

Gideon the judge, in the tradition of Abraham, turns to God and says, “Does the Judge of the entire world not do justice?” Gideon the Judge challenges God, challenges the messenger and challenges the message. The divine response seems unclear, enigmatic and troubling; but also powerful, inspiring and deeply directive. God answers Gideon: “Go with this strength of yours and save Israel ... behold, I have sent you.” (Judges 6: 12-14)

What “strength” is God referring to? I believe and at least one Midrash implicitly supports my reading, that God meant: ‘Go forth with the power of your uncertainty.’ God is confirming that if Gideon has the ability to doubt that this is the best of all possible worlds, this means he shares a common moral language with God. The wrestling with God in itself implies messengership on behalf of the divine: “Behold, I have sent you.” God confirms the great truth of Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev: to grapple with God is indeed to touch God, and to enter into the wrestling ring is to be a representative of all Israel, to plead redemption for all the world.

Gideon says to God’s messenger: “Where, ayeh, are all of His great wonders?” – and in these words cries out a prayer of holy uncertainty about God’s ways in our world...."{- TAKEN FROM AN ARTICLE ON RABBI MARC GAFNI'S SITE}

The Jade and I (The Jade is my 9 year old daughter) were watching what I consider a really good movie about life and death and the afterlife "The Five People you meet in Heaven".

We were watching and talking about the movie and when the main character "Eddie Maintenance" (played by Jon Voight) figures out he has died and this is the after life he meets his first person (the blue man) he runs away. Well everywhere he runs, the 'blue man' is there.

Jade looks at me and says, "what's he doing?" I say "He's running away" Jade says, "Why? Doesn't he know you can't run from Heaven?"

Which I thought was really really KOOL!

I'd like to discuss the movie here. I believe that it has universal themes even though it doesn't necessarily have a 'Christian Message'.

Initially I thought it was about universal salvation, but elements in the end made me realize that Charlie spent his life redeeming the mistakes of his past. His story is a Redemptive story.

Thoughts?

Seraphim

Someone on a friends blog said:

"The only problem with this argument is agreeing on what the "the trajectory of belief,which Christians in all places at all times have always believed." Isn't this more of a myth than actual reality?"

Rather than take up a whole lot of that illuminaries blog, I'll respond on my own.

The Myth is that this is a myth not a reality. The reality is What Christians in all places and at all times have always believed is a Truth and I believe Knowable.

Do not all Christians (or most of them, a vast Majority) believe:

God is a Trinity?

That Jesus is God and the Son of God?

That Jesus is the way we reconcile with God?

That Jesus will come again?

That there is a Heaven to be won and a Hell to Shun? that the Evil One is alive and well on planet earth? That we will have to give an account for our lives? That sin destroys? That the Bible, the Scriptures were written/inspired by God?

I said (admittedly a little flippantly) that this is true only if you are not Orthodox. But don't even the Protestants accept the Ecumenical Councils? (Even if they reject Chalcedon they accept to a great extent the ones before it don't they?)

Can not all Christians agree on the Creed? (Even if you say "No Creed but Christ" you have a Creed..)

Do I not then see that we can say what All Christians in always and at all times and in all places have believed? Even if your flavour is not Eastern Orthodox?

Therefore, where the myth?

...Judaism borrowed... I would say instead that God planted such things in those religions, rather than Judasim borrowed, like some rabbi's got together and made Judaism and Christianity up...

Take comfort from the words of C.S. Lewis form (Mere Christianity):

"That is the key to history. Terrific energy is expended—civilisations are built up—excellent institutions devised; but each time something goes wrong. Some fatal flaw always brings the selfish and cruel people to the top and it all slides back into misery and ruin. In fact, the machine conks. It seems to start up all right and runs a few yards, and then it breaks down. They are trying to run it on the wrong juice. That is what Satan has done to us humans.


And what did God do? First of all He left us conscience, the sense of right and wrong: and all through history there have been people trying (some of them very hard) to obey it. None of them ever quite succeeded. Secondly, He sent the human race what I call good dreams: I mean those queer stories scattered all through the heathen religions about a god who dies and comes to life again and, by his death, has somehow given new life to men. Thirdly, He selected one particular people and spent several centuries hammering into their heads the sort of God He was —that there was only one of Him and that He cared about right conduct. Those people were the Jews, and the Old Testament gives an account of the hammering process.

Then comes the real shock. Among these Jews there suddenly turns up a man who goes about talking as if He was God. He claims to forgive sins. He says He has always existed. He says He is coming to judge the world at the end of time. Now let us get this clear. Among Pantheists, like the Indians, anyone might say that he was a part of God, or one with God: there would be nothing very odd about it. But this man, since He was a Jew, could not mean that kind of God. God, in their language, meant the Being outside the world Who had made it and was infinitely different from anything else. And when you have grasped that, you will see that what this man said was, quite simply, the most shocking thing that has ever been uttered by human lips.

One part of the claim tends to slip past us unnoticed because we have heard it so often that we no longer see what it amounts to. I mean the claim to forgive sins: any sins. Now unless the speaker is God, this is really so preposterous as to be comic. We can all understand how a man forgives offences against himself. You tread on my toe and I forgive you, you steal my money and I forgive you. But what should we make of a man, himself unrobbed and untrodden on, who announced that he forgave you for treading on other men's toes and stealing other men's money? Asinine fatuity is the kindest description we should give of his conduct. Yet this is what Jesus did.

He told people that their sins were forgiven, and never waited to consult all the other people whom their sins had undoubtedly injured. He unhesitatingly behaved as if He was the party chiefly concerned, the person chiefly offended in all offences. This makes sense only if He really was the God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin. In the mouth of any speaker who is not God, these words would imply what I can only regard as a silliness and conceit unrivalled by any other character in history.

Yet (and this is the strange, significant thing) even His enemies, when they read the Gospels, do not usually get the impression of silliness and conceit. Still less do unprejudiced readers. Christ says that He is "humble and meek" and we believe Him; not noticing that, if He were merely a man, humility and meekness are the very last characteristics we could attribute to some of His sayings."

I'shalom

Seraphim

I have a pet peeve. It's a heresy that drives me absolutely nuts. It's called

Modalism

"In Christianity, Sabellianism (also known as modalism) is the second century belief that the three persons of the Trinity are merely different modes or aspects of God, rather than three distinct persons. It is attributed to Sabellius, who taught a form of this doctrine in Rome in the second century. Hippolytus knew Sabellius personally and mentions him in the Philosophumena. He knows Sabellius disliked Trinitarian theology, but he calls Modal Monarchism the heresy of Noetos, not that of Sabellius. Hippolytus thought he had very nearly recounciled Sabellius to the mainstream church. However, during the controversy surrounding Paul of Samosata, the Patriarch of Antioch who was deposed in 268 for his Christology, Sabellius' name was mentioned. No one in Antioch had heard of him, but his name was associated with Rome. So they wrote to Rome about him. Pope Dionysius replied in a letter of which only a small fragment has been preserved, but this letter was enough to make Sabellius famous among the Greek theologians.

Sabellianism was also embraced by Christians in Cyrenaica, to whom Demetrius, Patriarch of Alexandria, wrote letters arguing against this belief.

Another name for this doctrine is Patripassianism from the Latin words patris for "father", and passus for "to suffer". This name was given because the doctrine implies that God the Father came to earth and suffered in the form of God the Son.

Today, Sabellianism is rejected by most types of Christianity. It is accepted primarily by some Pentecostal groups, sometimes referred to as Oneness Pentecostals or "Jesus Only" Pentecostals.

Historic Sabellianism taught that God the Father was the only person of the Godhead, but the Oneness doctrine of today says that this one member of the Godhead is Jesus. Oneness doctrine claims that when Scripture describes the Father or the Holy_Spirit, it is actually Jesus, who is only revealing Himself as one of the other modes of God. Some Oneness followers call this the "Jesus Only doctrine".

taken from:

http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/Modalism"

---

Well, the reason it's a big deal to me (and a few others) is that it is a distortion of the Truth. Not just my truth, but Truth as revealed to us thru the Scriptures and as interpreted by those I'd consider Orthodox (not necessarily eastern in this sense of the word)

but Orthodox as in holding to Truth as believed by all Christians everywhere at all times. And the Trinity is really a beautiful concept. Cause we show that the Father is the Eternal Father. If God has eternally been the Father then it just naturally follows that the Son has eternally been the Son... And the Holy Spirit has been there as the Spirit that brings it all together (sigh words are so inadequate)...

Cause you can't be a Father without a Child. So in the Trinity we glimpse a picture of a trio of beings who are in love withone another, perfect love from before Time began.

The other reason it's such a big deal is because in those distortions of truth, what we commonly call heresy, cults are born. Cults are breeding grounds for legalism and Toxic Religion which looks like it's there to help you, but just hurts you even more and more.

Love4theWord
to Gaston
(i'd asked Dion if we could continue our conversation off line via email, and I'd also asked his permission to use this conversation on my blog) I've shaded my responses Red
Sep 27 (2 days ago)
On 9/26/05, Gaston Garcia wrote:

thanks, yes, I understand you.

Kool. Glad you took the time to write to me!

:) it's very wise what you're doing. There are times when I've also felt that "the right thing" is leaving a thread. You're a good example to me with what you're doing. I've actually felt sometimes I've disobeyed the Spirit by not leaving certain threads.

I must confess it is the most difficult thing about the Ooze. Someone says something and you know that you're being baited... and you type like a hundred angry bees clack clack on the keyboard... and it's not good for you.. but I'm not sure I'm that great an example, I've posted like twice or thrice after I said I was done!!!

I'm not totally sure what I believe of evolution/creation. My family background is a pretty funky one. My mom is a preschool teacher and she's also got psicology studies. My dad's an intelectual architect/ex-hippie. AND my stepdad (whith whom I lived since I was like 11 to when I was like 24) is an engeneer and an egyptologist. lol

I am a firm believer in Creation and a Creator. Just as I cannot imagine a watch without a watch maker, I cannot imagine a world without a world maker. Now one of the best books to read on this whole subject is "Genesis Creation & Early Man" by Fr. Seraphim Rose

Link here: http://www.holycross-hermitage.com/mall/BookStore/genesis.asp

He posits (and I agree) that Post Fall man cannot know anything with any intelligence, accuracy about the Pre Fallen World. Because the very nature of the Fall sundered not only man but Nature.

From my mom's side of the family I learned traditional Catholic values. I learned from my grandmother about communion and about confession, and about God. My mom always let her kids "believe whatever they wanted." In this sense, growing up in my house was really great. There were no "obligations" whatsoever.

From my dad I learned more of a holistic universe view. He taught me to appretiate different kinds of people, religions and beliefs. (This from my mom too.) Sorta hippyish LOVE RULES. Which I think is great btw.

And then from my stepdad I learned to value scientific knowledge. From him I learned that it's beautiful when mankind discovers stuff. Tests it, and finds it true. Also from him a respect to science and scientists, who have the discipline to many times say "I was wrong, new data has come up...I'm moving forward."

Based on my views vis a vi Fr. Rose, It is possible that the best we can come up with our limited views about data Pre-Fall would look to us like Evolution. But it is not the scientific underpinnings of Evolution that I find offensive, but the philosophy or paradigm (world-view).

Anyways, so the thing is that being 100% honest with you. What I currently believe is a pretty mixed up version of a lot of things. I'm certainly NOT sure about anything.

I believe that no matter what theory, God created the universe. ID, evolution, whatever, God created everything. His wisdom is in everything. As for the specifics, I know I'm not sure.


Western Christianity spawned something called Scholasticism (see here = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholasticism ), which is why so many Western Christians feel it is vitally important that you have all your beliefs Correct.. I don't think God cares so much about where we stand with Creation / Evolution as much as he cares about us Baring One another's Burdens and loving the World like Christ.

Regarding death before the fall. That's a very interesting right there. I have never devoted my time to even thinking about that point.

It does make you think man. It certainly does. Btw, would you mind if I used this email conversation in my blog?

Thanks for writing brother. sorry if I wrote too much.


Nonsense. Love ya bro. Seraphim

-Dion

Dion added this:

Gaston Garcia
to me
More options Sep 27 (2 days ago)

I don't think God cares so much about where we stand with Creation / Evolution as much as he cares about us Baring One another's Burdens and loving the World like Christ.

Thanks seraphim. Eventually, that's all that matters. Last night I was listening to an mp3 of Rob Bell (velvet elvis), and he said "look, we can know lots of scripture, and lots of greek words... etc.. But at the end, the only thing that matters is if we practice the teachings of Jesus.

Thanks for writing bro

-Dion

And he also says this:

But then I think that knowing in our hearts that following God is what matters, and agreeing that there is a creation and a Creator, I find that I will still pursue having an open mind to the various possibilities there might be regarding HOW creation came to be.

You see, even if I believe evolution or whatever weird story I want, I will still believe that God was the creator of everything. I like yourself strongly believe that God is the creator. In fact, I find no sense in the universe when I try to think that there is no God.

So maybe it all comes down to simply arguments about a "how" creation came to be. At least for me, that's all there is to it. It's just a quest for knowledge and intelectual satisfaction, coming to a point where I feel secure about my thoughts regarding the HOW stuff happened.

And since I do believe God made everything, and I do believe like you said that the most important thing is wether or not I follow God, I don't think it's wrong to pursue knowledge or at least a theory with which I'm happy with.

-Dion.

# posted by Seraphim : 1:33 PM

Anger. Ever have to deal with Anger?

'sigh'. It seems like when you first start to acknowledge that anger is real, you actually find yourself more angry.

I'm not sure why. maybe cause I'd been in denial about being angry, and it's sorta refreshing to actually 'own it'. To 'vent alittle'.

But then the clean up. Find the trigger, what causes the anger?

Is it something I can control? if yes, do something about it prayerfully.

Find the source.

the Serenity Prayer helps in times like this:

"God Grant me the Serenity

To accept the things I cannot Change

The courage to change the things I can

and the Wisdom to know the difference."

St. Seraphim once said:

"Acquire the Peace of God and thousands around you will be Saved."

I feel like I've been having a wierd ruff few days.

The other morning, it was like 7:30 am my time (so that means 4ish am in California) I had my cell phone in my pocket.

I heard 'talking' and realized I'd pressed up against something and when I looked I saw that I had speed-dialed Fr. Stan. (he's on number 3. Fr. Stan reminds me of the Trinity)....

I hung up quickly hoping that I didn't wake him. Almost immediately I receive a phone call back:

"Seraphim, you okay? what do you need?" or something like that. I explained that I speed dialed him by mistake, etc.

But I was blessed because this priest cares about me. No, not cares loves me.

He's been doing the long distance pastoral thing with me on the phone, counseling me and being a priest to me. And It was wonderful that morning, to realize if I needed Fr. Stan at 4 am he was there.

Glory to God.

I'm listening to a single from Casting Crowns new album "Life Song" the single is "Set me Free". Ah Lord Jesus Have Mercy!

Love Cost. And it hurts. Love in truth has Torment.

A few years ago, my mother would tell me "I want you to come and visit, but leave your wife and daughter at home". (My mom is an 83 year old white woman, with all the 'baggage' that implies... and my wife is a beautiful black native american, thus our daughter is a pleasant shade of beige)

Anyway, my answer to my mom was profound. I didn't see her or speak to her for 2 years (after telling her if you don't accept mine you don't accept ME).

Well, after the 2 years, mom came around (this was about 3 years ago).

Now, in the present, my wife's oldest daughter want's nothing to do with me. She even goes so far as to tell her children not to call me papa, but just 'Robert'. When her mom confronts her about it, she says she doesn't want to be fake. I've asked for forgiveness for any harm I'd done real or imagined... to no avail.

(Please pray for Jaq, she is the oldest daughter and she is in a Oneness Pentacostal Cult)

Now Jaq lives 10 minutes from the house. And comes over all the time when I am not here. And has a full relation ship with the Jade and my Janice.

Now I resent it. I resent the way I'm being 'shunned' and treated by someone that says they are a 'Christian' and goes to church 3 + times a week.

I resent that my wife allows it. I stood up to my mom, why can't she stand up to her child? Sigh.

But then the reality is I love my wife. And I'm supposed to be an adult. The Dad. Do I stop loving and being Priest of my family cause they are boneheads? no.

Christ laid his life down for the Church and tells me to do the same for my wife.

So I strive to forgive. I strive to let the anger and the hurt go.

for Love. That my wife may have a good relationship with her daughter and that the Jade may know her sister.

Damn Love sure does cost.

I'shalom

Seraphim

On Desert Pastor's Blog I left this comment:

Chris,

You've really got me thinking. I posted more about this on my own blog Love4theword. I won't take up alot more of your space, but I think that this quote from C.S. Lewis concisely explains where I stand:

"Christians have often disputed as to what leads the Christian home is good actions or Faith in Christ...It does seem to me like asking which blade in a pair of sissors is most necessary. A serous moral effort is the only thing that will bring you to the point where you throw in the towel.

Faith in Christ is the only thing to save you from dispair at that point: and out of the Faith in Him good actions must inevitably come"

I think alot of people are working with a pair of sissors with really big handles, but only one blade. I think that they are looking to external things to show if someone is a Christian. I think we need to answer those who are ready to throw in the towel with something more than try harder. Perhaps words like:

Surrender
You're not alone
It's not all on you

Now, in part Two I'll try to address what we should answer those with:

And I'm sorta cheating, because I'm copying and pasting from an earlier blog entry. But I believe that this hit's the mark:

---

"Let's be honest with ourselves. None of us consistently experiences himself or herself as perfectly holy and blameless in Christ. Therefore, none of us lives out this truth consistently. Our lives are too often characterized by a real, ongoing, and sometimes losing battle with sin. Though we may make valiant attempts at the "try harder" solution, to some degree we still experience ourselves and live as though what the New Testament says about us is false.

What are we to make of this? How are we to reconcile the reality of our sinfulness with what Scripture says is true about us? One common way this is dealt with is by claiming that all the incredible things the New Testament says about the believer's identity in Christ is true positionally but not actually. According to this view, when Scripture says that we are in Christ, that we are holy and blameless before the Father, it is speaking only about how the Father sees us, not about how we actually are. It is sometimes said that God looks at us "through Jesus filters." He refuses to see our sin, though we are, in fact, still sinners.

Though there is certainly some truth to this view—believers are placed in a new position before the Father—there is also some serious error. The central error is in failing to realize that the position believers are placed in before God determines who they really are. God's Word determines reality as much in the believer's life as it did in the creation of the world (Gen. 1:3—26; 2 Cor. 4:6). When God speaks, reality is created] So, if God says we are holy in Christ, we are holy in Christ! Hence, there is simply no basis for making a distinction between what God says is positionally true about us and what is actually true about us.

Nor is there anything in the New Testament to suggest such a distinction. When Paul said we are "in Christ," he never qualified it He wrote as though what he said about the believer was unequivocally true. He never made any distinction between what God sees as real and what is real. He never spoke about the perfect righteousness that God gives to the believer as being in any sense fictional.

Thus, however we explain the fact that our behavior doesn't conform to what God says about us, we can't qualify what God's Word says about us. What God says is absolutely true. This is why Paul could motivate believers to live a certain way by appealing to their identity in Christ. He called us to live consistently with who we truly are.

Our True Identity and Our Experienced Self-Identity

If we truly are righteous in Christ Jesus, why should Paul need to remind us to live righteous lives? If we are new creations and have a new nature (2 Cor. 5:17), why do we still struggle with sin? If I am filled with God's Spirit, the Spirit of love, joy, and peace, why do I yet struggle with a lack of love, joy, and peace?

The puzzle is not to be resolved by distinguishing between the way God sees us and the way we actually are but by distinguishing between the way we actually are and the way we experience ourselves. Though our true identity is established by God -when we trust in Christ, our experienced self-identity—the way we habitually see and experience ourselves—remains largely intact. In terms of how we see and experience ourselves, we are yet largely controlled by the pattern of the world.

You see, God doesn't destroy who we are with all of our memories, our habits, or our past associations when he re-creates us in Christ Jesus. He rather seeks to transform all of our memories, habits, and past associations on the basis of our re-created identities. As we all know from experience, this takes time. We do not automatically see and experience ourselves as we truly are in Christ. Therefore, to some extent we continue to think and act as though what is true about us in Christ were not true.

It is important to see that our ongoing problem with sin, despite our new identity in Christ, is not really with our behavior. This is but a symptom of the problem, not the problem itself. Thus, the "try harder" solution that addresses only behavior completely misses the point. The problem is with the experienced self-identity that brings forth the behavior. "As he thinks in his heart, so is he" (Prov. 23:7 NKJV).

More specifically, the problem lies in how we view ourselves, how we define ourselves, how we experience ourselves, and thus how we live out our identity in Christ. Our perception is always to some degree colored by the pattern of the world—that system of life that is under the deceptive influence of Satan. The problem is that we have internalized messages from our upbringing, culture, past experiences, and our own rebellious ruminations that are not true but that continue to influence us, even after we've received our new identity in Christ. When we fail to view ourselves as though what God says about us in Christ is true, we often think and act according to what Paul called our "old self" (Eph. 4:22), our self "in Adam" (1 Cor. 15:22), or simply "the flesh" (Rom. 8:6-7; Gal. 5:16-17).

The result is that our true identity as defined by God conflicts with our experienced self-identity, inherited from the pattern of the world. When God said, "Let there be light" (Gen. 1:3), there was light automatically, because in the beginning there was nothing to oppose God's voice. Yet when God says, "I declare you to be holy, spotless, infinitely worthwhile, and lovable in my sight," there is a false identity in place that resists this divine word and that has to be confronted. Because we habitually thought and lived as our old selves before receiving our new identity, God's proclamation of who we truly are in Christ must overcome our old self-identity that we continue to experience.

This is why the true identity we have in Christ is not automatically experienced in our hearts and expressed in our behavior. It is why there is a discrepancy between what God says is true and what we habitually experience as truth. This is also why there is a discrepancy between what we ought to do, given our true identity, and what we in fact do because of our experienced self-identity. It is why there is an ongoing battle between the Spirit and the flesh (Gal. 5:17).

It Is Predestined!

Thankfully, God promises us that the battle will come to an end. Because God's Word is true and creates the reality it communicates, it is certain that believers ultimately will be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:29). The light certainly will overcome the darkness, and the truth will eventually swallow up the lie (John 1:5). Until that time, however, we are in process. God calls us his children, for that is who we truly are (1 John 3:1).Yet this is not perfectly manifested at this time because of the ongoing influence of the pattern of the world in our minds. Therefore, John added, "What we will be has not yet been revealed . . .. When he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is" (1 John 3:2).

Our true self-identity in Christ will someday be perfectly manifested."


(Taken from "Seeing Is Believing by Gregory Boyd html tags my own)

Desert Pastor aka Chris Monroe blogged about the Survivability of Faith on his site. These few paragraphs caught my eye:

"Have you ever grieved over friends, who had pledged their lives to Christ and appeared to have been living for him, but who then gave it all up? Have you ever been dumbfounded over faith that was a mile wide but only an inch deep? Have you ever wondered why a person's faith in Christ was not able to withstand a crushing adversity or crisis they had encountered?

For as long as I've tried to follow Jesus, I've been taken back by the numbers of friends and acquaintences whose faith has been shipwrecked. I suppose the causes are many, but it all leaves me haunted by the words of Jesus:

And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?
(Luke 18:8, NRS)

As a student of John Wesley, I can't help but think that holiness may well be the key. Without holiness, Wesley believed we end up with something less than true Christianity. Wesley considered repentance "the porch of religion," faith "the door," and holiness "religion itself" (The Works of John Wesley, Jackson edition, Vol. 8, pp. 472f). Holiness is meant to characterize our Christian faith. Yet many of us are the product of an age where the evangelical Church emphasized decision over discipleship. "Fire insurance" was more important than the fire-which-purifies. Becoming a Christian was more of an "event" than a life-long commitment and journey. Perhaps the reason why many people's faith is a mile wide but only an inch deep is because that is exactly what we've passed on to them, even if unknowingly.

So what's your take on all this? Why does people's faith often seem so fragile, and why is it so easily shipwrecked? And what should we do in response?"

HERE is my response. People get pushed to the brink. To the place where in reality they have to admit they cannot do it. They cannot live the Christian life. They cannot any longer pretend that they can. But what has happened in North America in the 20th & 21st Century, IMHO is that when those of us who are honest show up at the altar of the IC we are told we arn't trying hard enough we must:

Pray harder
Try harder
Join an accountability group
Change churches
Read more of the Bible
Read more of the Church Fathers
Go to confession, etc.

But what doesn't happen, is that when you are ready to throw in the towel, no one knows how to help you.

We need to recognize that this action, this confession (mea culpa) is the start of the Sacrament. Michael Frost & Alan Hirsh refer to it as the need to see "Sacrament as Action".

Clear as mud? Maybe this quote from C.S. Lewis will help. It's in chapter 8 of their book "The Shaping of Things to Come".

"Christians have often disputed as to what leads the Christian home is good actions or Faith in Christ...It does seem to me like asking which blade in a pair of sissors is most necessary. A serous moral effort is the only thing that will bring you to the point where you throw in the towel.

Faith in Christ is the only thing to save you from dispair at that point: and out of the Faith in Him good actions must inevitably come"

This was like lightening in my veins when I read this. This in a concise manner explains what I've tried to explain.

The law was (and is) a school master to lead us to Christ. To get us to the point where we recognize we cannot do it on our own. To bring us to the place of surrender where we throw in the Towel.

and then we are in that Surrender to day by day lean on Jesus. Follow Him. Rely on him to re-write the very warp and woof of our Souls. This is the Gospel of Grace. It's not some religious recipe to get my act together. It is allowing God, Father Son and Holy Ghost, to dwell in our Spirit and re-write our very character, Resurrect us from the Dead, from the inside out.

One of my favorite authors is Jim Butcher. He's written these great books!

The Dresden Files

He has written the Harry Dresden - Wizard series. They are wonderful! Some of the best good vs. evil fiction that I've read in the 26 plus years I've been reading the genre.

Click 'HERE' to take the quiz to see which Dresden character you are!

I'm this one:

I am Michael Carpenter. I am one of those honored by God to serve His Will as a Knight of the Cross. My faith is strong, unshakeable -- and deadly to the truly evil. It's my job to seek them out, to get them to change if I can, and to stop them if I must. And I am not alone in this. Never alone. God watches over me and sees that I am sent where I am most needed. I carry the holy sword Amoracchius at my side -- that nail you see in the hilt came from the Cross. The other Knights stand by me. My wife and children are just as fierce as I am -- God help you should you try to find out if it's otherwise. And there are others. Together we all stand, shoulder to shoulder, against the darkness. Our faith has been tried, tested, and proven resolute. No matter the cost, no matter how bloodied you might make us, we will not bow, and we cannot fail. God's Will be done -- on Earth, by our hands.

Peace!

Seraphim

Psalms 51:17 Says: "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."

& earlier Psalms 34:18 says: "The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit."

What is it about being broken, being in (physical, spiritual, mental and Even Soul Pain) that is a worthy sacrifice to God?

Today is day 4 of excruciating pain in my left foot, ankle, toe, etc. If I step on it (which I can barely do) it causes me to wimper. It hurts God help me it hurts!

Why do we God's servants have to be helpless? Where the benefit?

Well, believe it or not I may have an answer. Found it in one of my favorite fantasy triologys. (believe it or not.)

It's called the Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon.

In the coming scene she is talking to a Healer, who explains how she is now more able to serve Gird (one of the saints of the High Lord).

"Hmm. I used to wonder how the paladins of Gird could be considered protectors of the helpless when they had never been helpless? Rather like asking the hawk to feel empathy for the grouse, or the wolf for the sheep. Even if a tamed wolk makes a good sheepdog, he will never understand how the sheep feel. You, Paksennarion: you are the most fortunate. For having been, as you thought a coward, and helpless to fight--you know what that is like. You know what bitterness that feeling breeds--you know in your own heart what kind of evil it brings. And so you are more fit to fight it where it occurs. Or so I believe"

Jesus, Fr. George Calciu says, did not come to remove our sufferings. He came to join us in them.

I post alot on a post modern message board. There I am challenged occasionally to show how my personal dogma/doctrine is supported by the 'church fathers'.

This always bothers me. It's like folk think that the church was 'perfect' during the first 7 ecumenical councils, and anything someone said back then is Ex Catedra... It's not like Jesus hermetically sealed those churches or fathers and said:

"This is the model for the remainder of Christiandom"

I happen to think that the church fathers mostly are alright, but feel strongly that we shouldn't be confining them to 'back then'.

Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church. We are the Body. The same Holy Ghost that indwelt Athanathius indwells you and me. But if we are not looking for anything to happen 'today' then we shouldn't be surprized when nothing does.

I believe that we have quite a few Church Father's in the past 100 years to present. Look at Fr. Han's Ur Von Balthasar, C.S. Lewis, Chesterton, MacDonald, Fr. Jean Danielou, Fr. Alexander Schmemann, Timothy Ware (Kalistos) etc.

I would also offer up minds like Leonard Sweet, Stanley Hauerwas, & Fr. Robert Capon. And I came up with these without even trying to hard.

Apostle means those who are Sent out. It's shouldn't only mean those who Had Been Sent.

I'shalom

The Scripture reads:

"There is one body and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all.

But to every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ."

Ephesians 4:4 thru 7

One baptism. I used to think, "Christian Baptism, right?" but which Baptism?

When I was 12 and became Baptist? How about the one when I was 18 and entered the Roman Catholic Church? no? Then what about the one when I was 23 and was attending a Vineyard Christian Fellowship? hmm. Then when I was 25 and married my Magdalena, Janice and we were all baptized in a swimming pool at a little Bible Faith Church in Arkansas? Not to mention when we were uncertain about our baptism, was it a saving one, when we were messed up with the "Jesus only" folk... (also known as Oneness)and were baptised by them too...

Which one 'took'? Which one was Salvific? (Yes I know, those who know me know that I joined the Eastern Orthodox Church in 2000 but that was thru the concept of oikonomia (economy) so I wasn't baptised Orthodox, they recognized my baptism sigh.. the Roman Catholic one, and therefore I was just Chrismated into the Faith via the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA...)

They even joke about it. "You know only One Baptism" So the first Baptism, grace given... The 2nd Grace Removed, the 3rd Grace Restored...etc.

And the we have Paul saying such seemingly contradictory things as:

"For as many as were baptized into Christ, you put on Christ." (Galations 3:27)

and then this!!:

"For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel; not in wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect." (I Corinthians 1:17)

course that may just mean we misunderstand the word "Gospel".

Sigh.

anyway, imagine my surprize when I read that the One Baptism didn't have anything to do with me getting baptized AT ALL!!

Check it out:

"....The Father tries to break in. “But what about the Pentecost party we’ve planned to get the church going? Won’t that…?”

“I’m sorry,” the Spirit insists, “but I’m afraid Pentecost will be just one more thing for them to misread. Don’t get me wrong: I’m totally on board with both of you. But suppose I do give you the rushing mighty wind and the party hats made out of fire. Even suppose I throw in the mystery of speaking in different languages in order to get the universality of the Son’s work into the picture. They’re still going to think the church is in the world to sell clam chowder to customers who never had it before.

“I mean, think of the possibilities for ecclesiastical arrogance. Jesus takes away the sins of the world, right? In him, everyone who ever lived gets free forgiveness for whatever went wrong in full, in advance, and all in one cosmic shot, no strings attached. I’m even going to get the church to include “one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins” in the Nicene Creed so they’ll see that the Baptism of Jesus himself does the whole job, even if no one else ever gets baptized. But do you know what they’re going to do with that? They’re going to paint themselves into a corner and say that the unbaptized go to hell or even that sins after Baptism make forgiveness flake off like a bad paint job, and that unless Christians go to confession for a second coat before they die, they’ll go to hell too."

(Taken from Fr. Robert Capon's "The Fingerprints of God: Tracking the Divine Suspect through a History of Images pp. 1-4)

Wow. One Baptism. Could it be that simple? Jesus' Baptism? Not mine? I first read this passage on the Ooze (thanks Drew) but it wasn't until it leaped off the page of my own copy of the book that I began to wonder.

Could it really be that Simple? I then picked up Fr. Balthasar's "Credo" and it says something very similiar.. that the One Baptism of course starts with Jesus' Baptism.

(side note. Does any one else think it's strange we refer to the Son of God by the name Jesus when he probably never heard himself called that when He was incarnate? Should we start calling him Yeshua? or Y'shua?)

I'm beginning to think it is that simple.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have mercy on us!

I'shalom

Simple answer:

"I am"

I read this on another blog and it just blew me away. I share it here with the link, hoping to pass on the Glorious Gospel of Grace.

ragarambler.blogspot.com/2005/02/just-how-shocking-is-gospel.html

Jesus Talks With A Gay Man - (John 4:1-33, 39-42 - more or less...)

1 In late July, the Metro Chicago Synod heard that Jesus was attracting more first-time visitors and baptizing more adults than any other ELCA pastor in the city, 2 although in fact it was not really Jesus who had baptized them, but his irregularly-commisioned staff of unordained lay ministers. 3 Now when Jesus learned of this, he left the seminary community in Hyde Park and went back once more toward the ELCA headquarters on Higgins Road.

4 Now to get there, he had to go through an area just north of downtown called Boystown. 5 So he came to a part of Boystown called Northhalsted, not far from the plot of ground where Emperor Mayor Daley had ordained that the Chicago Cubs should play baseball. 6 Cub's Stadium was near there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey on the Red Line, sat down at a sidewalk café table outside the bar called Hydrate. It was just about lunch-time, and though the rainbow flags were fluttering in the breeze and the music inside the bar was pumping, there weren't many people around (because it's often hot and miserable outside, at mid-day in late July, in Chicago).

7 A waiter came to the table, wearing a bright pink "His+His" t-shirt and a "Silence=Death" armband, and raised one eyebrow at the man seated at the table in front of him in the "Come Follow Me" t-shirt. Jesus said to him, "Will you give me a drink?" 8 (All the lay ministers had gone down the street to pick up Subway sandwiches for the rest of the journey.)

9 The gay man said to him, "Hey...you tell me. After all, you appear to be a straight Christian, and I'm a gay man. Let's face it - we don't get many religious folks in Boystown, let alone places like this. And I'm not only a gay man, but I'm a Muslim gay man. So where does a guy like you get off asking someone like me for a drink?" (For Christians do not associate with gays, nor with Muslims if they can help it.)

10 Jesus answered him, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

11 "Hey, mister," the gay man said, "I'm the waiter here. I don't see you with an order pad or a serving tray, and it's tough for customers to even get close to our fountain-drink station, let alone our bar. So how are you going to get anything for me to drink, let alone 'living water'? Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you somehow greater than the folks who own this place, who let us drink have free water and soda (and snitch the occasional mixed drink) whenever we want?"

13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks your water, or your soda, or your beer will get thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

15 The gay man said to him, "Yeah? Mister...you know what, I have no idea who you really are, or even what the heck you're talking about. But you're the first Christian man in 20 years that hasn't spit on me, or called me 'an abomination' to my face. Somehow, I think I want some of what you're offering. Give me some of this water you keep talking about, so I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to get something to drink."

16 Jesus told the man, "OK - just call your wife and come back here, and we'll talk."

17 "Who are you kidding?" the gay man said. "Don't you know where you are? You're in Boystown, for cryin' out loud. I don't have a wife, or a girlfriend. Heck, right now I don't even have a boyfriend," he replied.

Jesus said to him, "You're right when you say you have no boyfriend. The fact is, you've had five boyfriends, and the guy you're living with now isn't even your boyfriend. He's just a guy you picked up in the club - some guy who doesn't even know your real last name."

19 Whoah, buddy," the gay man said, "that's pretty intense! How'd you know that about me?" Jesus was silent. "OK...I get it. Maybe you're one of those folks who can see right through people - maybe one of those guys with 'second sight.' Maybe you're one of those folks who 'have the Spirit,' like those televangelists say. 20 I don't know anything about that. My family - my people (the ones who are observant, anyway) - think that you have to pray five times a day to Allah to get that kind of power. The rest of the people I know don't even bother with that spiritual mumbo-jumbo...they just think you have to work out a lot, look good, live fast, die hard and leave a good-looking corpse. And all the Christians I've met think that I have to pray their way, and start living life their way, or I'm 'going to hell.' Either way, my day-to-day life is so empty, I'm not convinced that I'm not already in hell. What's a guy supposed to believe?"

21 Jesus said, "Believe me, my friend, a time is coming when you won't worship God in Mecca, or in the gym, or in the club, or in a church sanctuary. 22 You and your friends worship what you think you know, but do not know. Christians worship what they do know, for salvation is promised in Scripture. 23 Yet a time is coming - and has now come - when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

25 The gay man said, "I know that the church folks say that their Savior is coming. Maybe when he finally gets here, he will explain everything to us."

26 Then Jesus declared, "Then wait no longer. I'm the one they're waiting for."

The Irregularly-Commissioned Lay Ministers Rejoin Jesus

27 Just then the lay ministers returned and were more than a little surprised to find Jesus apparently talking with a gay man - one who appeared to be Middle-Eastern in origin, to boot. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with him?"

28 Then, leaving his tray and his order pad behind at the table, the gay man went back to the bar, and even next door to the gym and to the other clubs, and said to the people, 29 "You gotta come and see this... come see a guy who told me everything I ever did, and didn't run away or act disgusted. Could this possibly be 'the Christ' all those religious folks keep talking about?" 30 People came out of the gym, and out of the bars and clubs, and made their way toward him.

31 Meanwhile the lay ministers (the ones who considered themselves Jesus' disciples) kept saying, "Hey, padré, you may walk on water, but come on - even Michael Jordan's gotta eat something." 32 But Jesus said to them, "I have a source of energy that you know nothing about."

33 Then his disciples said to each other, "Did someone slip him some Mrs. Field's cookies while we weren't looking?"
....
Many Gays and Lesbians Believe

39 Many of the gays and lesbians who gathered from all around Boystown believed in Jesus because of what the waiter said: "You gotta come and see this... come see a guy who told me everything I ever did, and didn't run away or act disgusted." 40 So when the people of that area - gay men, lesbians, bisexuals (even people in civil unions from Vermont and Episcopalians visiting from New Hampshire) came to him, they urged Jesus to stay with them. So rather than continuing the ride out to Higgins Road, the irregularly consecrated lay ministers found some rooms at a nearby bed-&-breakfast, and he stayed in Boystown - amidst the people with whom most Christians would not associate - for two days. 41 And because of what Jesus spoke to the men and women there, many more became believers.

42 The people who heard Jesus said to the gay man who first encountered him, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."
+ + +
Yes, Virginia - yes indeed...the Gospel really IS that shocking.

I've been protestant, rc and eo and am probably protestant again.

I'd like to offer the perspective of a scholar I've recently (the past 2 to 4 months?) discovered. (Thanks Nate!) on the subject, and he very well (with grace) states what I currently believe on the subject.

From For All the Saints? Remembering the Christian Departed

---

"This, we note, contains the emphasis of the Eastern Orthodox Church (that the saints of old do not reach fulfilment without us) -- even though, of course, Hebrews is talking about the Old Testament saints. And we also note that, however important the saints may be, however much they are surrounding us, it is still on Jesus himself that one fixes one's eyes.

What I do not find in the New Testament is any suggestion that those at present in heaven/paradise are actively engaged in praying for those of us in the present life. Nor is there any suggestion that we should ask them to do so. I touch here on a sensitive nerve within the devotional habits of a large section of the church, but this point of view deserves a fair hearing.

It is true that, if the saints are conscious, and if they are 'with Christ in a sense which, as Paul implies, is closer than we ourselves are at the moment, there is every reason to suppose that they are at least, like the souls under the altar in Revelation, urging the Father to complete the work of justice and salvation in the world. If that is so, there is no reason in principle why they should not urge the Father similarly on our behalf. I just don't see any signs in the early Christian writings to suggest that they actually do that, or that we should, so to speak, encouarge them to do so by invoking them specifically. Likewise, there is certainly no reason in principle why we should not pray for them -- not that they will get out of purgatory, of course, but that they will be refreshed, and filled with God's joy and peace. Love passes into prayer; we still love them; why not hold them, in that love, before God?

I put it like that, as a cautious question rather than as a firm statement. But there is one particular aspect of the invocation of the saints which troubles me much more deeply. The practice seems to me to undermine, or actually to deny by implication, something which is promised again and again in the New Testament: immedicacy of access to God through Jesus Christ and in the Spirit. When we read some of the greatest passages in the New Testament -- the Farewell Discourses in John 13 --- 17, for instance, or the great central section (chapters 5 --- 8) of Paul's letter to the Romans -- we find over and over the clear message that, because of Christ and the Spirit, every single Christian is welcome at any time to come before the Father. If, then, a royal welcome awaits you in the throne room itself, for whatever may be on your heart and mind, great or small, why bother hanging around the outer lobby trying to persuade someone there, however distinguished, to go in and ask on your behalf? 'Through Christ we have access to the Father in One Spirit' (Ephesians 2.18). If Paul could say that to newley converted Gentiles, he can certainly say it to us today. To deny this, even by implication, is to call in question one of the central blessings and privileges of the Gospel. The whole point of the letter to the Hebrews is that Jesus Christ himself is 'our man at court', 'our man in heaven.' He, says Paul in Romans 8, is interceding for us; why should we need anyone else?

When we step off such firm biblical ground, no matter what traditions may suggest, we are always at risk. Explicit invocation of saints may in fact be -- I do not always say is, but may be -- a step towards the semi-paganism of which the Reformers were rightly afraid. The world of late Roman antiquity found it difficult to rid its collective imagination of the many-layered panoply of gods and lords, of demi-gods and heroes, that had been collecting in the culture for well over a thousand years. The second century church began, quite understandably, to venerate the martyrs as special witnesses to the victory of Christ over death. These martyrs had already been seen as special, as early as the book of Revelation. Once Christianity had become established and persecution ceased, it is not a large transition for the church to nominate for 'veneration' others who, though not martyred, had nevertheless been notable Christians in other ways. But the whole process of developing not only hierarchies among such people but also elaborate systems for designating them (cannonization and the like) seems to me a hugh exercise in missing the point."

I'shalom

Albemarle County Schools
Attention: Susan B. Sheffield
401 McIntire Road
Charlottesville, VA 22902

Re: Jade MaRee

This letter is to notify the school board that we are operating our home school in accordance with the religious exemption statute 22.1-254(B) (1).

Our reasons for home schooling our children are based on God's commands to us in His Word, the Bible. He expressly states in Ephesians 6:4 (and Deuteronomy 6 and 11) that believing parents are to diligently train their children in the Word of God. We are to teach it from the time we rise in the morning, until we go to sleep at night. In the Bible, Eli is an example of a parent who failed to do this. Because of the wickedness of his sons, they lost their lives in judgment (1 Samuel 3:11-14 and 4:11).

God requires us to acknowledge Him as Creator (Romans 1:18-22, Hosea 6:6). The so called "separation of church and state" prohibits public schools from doing this; too often the public school sector defines Freedom of Religion as “Freedom From Religion”. It is a sin to teach children to think in a secular manner. We are not accidents of natural selection, but are created in the image of God and loved by Him. Failing to hold on to this truth causes a child's heart to "be darkened" and eventually "given over to a reprobate mind" (Romans 1:21 & 28).

We must teach them the TRUTH. "The wrath of God is revealed against all who suppress the truth in unrighteousness" (Romans 1:18). God also commands that His Son, Jesus Christ be acknowledged. 1 John 4:23 says, "By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and now is already in the world."

Matthew 10:32-33 says, "Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven." Acts 10:36 says, "You know the message God sent to the people..., telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all." And Matthew 28:18, "Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me..." In 1 Corinthians 15:27, God the Father "has put everything under his feet." Acts 2:26 says, "...God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." Jesus is not honored as Lord of all in the public schools. Rejecting Jesus as Lord is the cause of much evil (Hosea 4:1, Psalm 97:6).

Jesus is to be acknowledged in all education since "all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:16,17). Therefore, science, history, literature, etc. must be taught from a Scriptural perspective and give proper honor to Jesus. Those that forget God or fail to love the truth will perish. (See Psalm 9:17 and 2 Thessalonians 2:10)

The Lord has also given warnings about the influence of others. Proverbs 13:30 says, "He who walks with the wise will be wise, but a companion of fools will suffer harm." Who is a fool? "The fool has said in his heart, there is no God." Psalms 14:1 and 53:1.

The school's curriculum does not acknowledge the one true God and many students and teachers don't believe God's Word. (Hebrews 11:6, John 14:6, John 17:3). Luke 6:40, "A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher." We cannot allow our children to have associations which could cause them to stumble spiritually. Matthew 18:6-7 "But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin!"

Parents are responsible for the training of their children. Ephesians 6:4 says, "Fathers do not exasperate your children, instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord." Children must not be given an ungodly education. "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,...But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night." Psalm 1:1,2, "Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you." (2 Corinthians 6:17).

It is the parents job to bring the children up in the training and instruction of the Lord. In obedience to God, we are training our children to serve God and love Him with their whole hearts and minds (Matthew 22:37). The goal is to train our children to be prepared to serve God (Hebrews 9:14) and man (1 Peter 4:10); and to gain the knowledge and wisdom needed (Proverbs 4:7 and 23:12) to be effective in whatever calling the Lord has for them. God has given special gifts to each person. We need to discover these gifts and help our children develop them (1 Peter 4:10). This includes learning the academics from the right perspective and learning God's Word. "Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or swerve from them" (Proverbs 4:5).

By studying God's law they can learn to govern themselves, be wiser than their enemies, have more insight than their teachers, and understand more than those much older than they (Psalm 119:97-101). As believers in Jesus, we belong to Him. 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, "You are not your own, you were bought at a price" (the blood of Jesus). So, "...as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD" (Joshua 24:15).

Thanking you in this matter, we are;

Sincerely:

Been watching a number of 'Jesus movies' this weekend.

The Passion, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Revolutionary, The Jesus Movie, etc. The one thing that seems to be consistent is Judas betrayal of Jesus.

The thing that has me puzzling this evening is how Judas betrayed Jesus.

With a Kiss. A sign of friendship, affection, intimacy. In the old world, a sign of Peace.

Was this significant? Why a Kiss? Is there an application to my life today, about how Judas betrayed Jesus?

Do I, myself, this day, Betray Jesus with a Kiss?

Are my words near Jesus but my heart is far from him? Do I embrace the appearance of Godliness, while denying the power thereof? By living an un-transformed life, by not fighting against sin?

Is that what it means to betray with a Kiss? Most betrayels are 'Right handed' Betrayels. A blow is struck, angry words are exhanged. Perhaps even shots ring out in violence.

But a Kiss? Why a Kiss? Did Judas want to 'front' to the other disciples, pretend like everything was on the downlow? Was he trying to posture, being double minded, trying to look righteous when he was acting evil?

I don't know. But I think about these things.

Lord Jesus forgive me for the times I'm fake, phony grasping the appearance of being a 'Christian' your disciple.

When really all I do is betray you with a kiss.

I'shalom

I'm reminded by a friend that God has always spoken thru Creation.

He told me how Christianity ultimately was the fulfilment of the Wiccan religion for him.. At first I objected, but then in thinking about it, my objection was to Wicca as a New Religion, but it's not it's an Old one. And that being the case, I had to concede that my friend was right.

C.S. Lewis said in Mere Christianity:

"That is the key to history. Terrific energy is expended—civilisations are built up—excellent institutions devised; but each time something goes wrong. Some fatal flaw always brings the selfish and cruel people to the top and it all slides back into misery and ruin. In fact, the machine conks. It seems to start up all right and runs a few yards, and then it breaks down. They are trying to run it on the wrong juice. That is what Satan has done to us humans.


And what did God do? First of all He left us conscience, the sense of right and wrong: and all through history there have been people trying (some of them very hard) to obey it. None of them ever quite succeeded. Secondly, He sent the human race what I call good dreams: I mean those queer stories scattered all through the heathen religions about a god who dies and comes to life again and, by his death, has somehow given new life to men. Thirdly, He selected one particular people and spent several centuries hammering into their heads the sort of God He was —that there was only one of Him and that He cared about right conduct. Those people were the Jews, and the Old Testament gives an account of the hammering process.

Then comes the real shock. Among these Jews there suddenly turns up a man who goes about talking as if He was God. He claims to forgive sins. He says He has always existed. He says He is coming to judge the world at the end of time. Now let us get this clear. Among Pantheists, like the Indians, anyone might say that he was a part of God, or one with God: there would be nothing very odd about it. But this man, since He was a Jew, could not mean that kind of God. God, in their language, meant the Being outside the world Who had made it and was infinitely different from anything else. And when you have grasped that, you will see that what this man said was, quite simply, the most shocking thing that has ever been uttered by human lips.

One part of the claim tends to slip past us unnoticed because we have heard it so often that we no longer see what it amounts to. I mean the claim to forgive sins: any sins. Now unless the speaker is God, this is really so preposterous as to be comic. We can all understand how a man forgives offences against himself. You tread on my toe and I forgive you, you steal my money and I forgive you. But what should we make of a man, himself unrobbed and untrodden on, who announced that he forgave you for treading on other men's toes and stealing other men's money? Asinine fatuity is the kindest description we should give of his conduct. Yet this is what Jesus did.

He told people that their sins were forgiven, and never waited to consult all the other people whom their sins had undoubtedly injured. He unhesitatingly behaved as if He was the party chiefly concerned, the person chiefly offended in all offences. This makes sense only if He really was the God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin. In the mouth of any speaker who is not God, these words would imply what I can only regard as a silliness and conceit unrivalled by any other character in history.

Yet (and this is the strange, significant thing) even His enemies, when they read the Gospels, do not usually get the impression of silliness and conceit. Still less do unprejudiced readers. Christ says that He is "humble and meek" and we believe Him; not noticing that, if He were merely a man, humility and meekness are the very last characteristics we could attribute to some of His sayings."

See? I was hasty in saying that wicca is not fulfilled in Christianity, if you look at wicca as one of the Old Pre-Christian religions, they were all fulfilled in Christianity. (A book I'm reading that speaks of this very thing is Love Alone is Credible.)

Peace

I was thinking about my quirks today. Those little idiosyncrasies that make me, well me. Here are the ones I'm 'dealing with/thinking about' today.

When people refer to the building where the Church meets, as the Church.

When people who are now thru the grace of God the House of God, refer to the building they are meeting in, as the House of God.

When people refer to the Holy Spirit as an it, instead of properly as He or Him. The Holy Spirit is the third PERSON of the Trinity.

When folk say "We don't know what Paul's thorn in the flesh was.." When the word says:

"there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me.."

Or when folk say:

"Eye has not seen nor ear heard nor mind can know the great stuff God has in store for us. Wow. Who knows?" (I Corinthians 2:9)

Sigh. Wish folk would read the rest of the story:

"But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." (I Corinthians 2:10)

Alot of talk goes on periodically about Eternal Questions.

(or is it more about questioning eternally?)

Anywho, in the conversation several folk have stated that they believe Eternity or Heaven is an Opt Out program.

In other words, everyone is already saved, they just don't know it.

The life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ has already been applied to ALL cosmologically.

Wheather they know it or not.

But when they show up in "Heaven" or in "God's Presence" then they will have the Option (thus the OPT) to not be there, if they would really rather not. Thus everyone is in, unless they OPT OUT.

Well, 'witness' does come from the Greek word "Martyr" so here I go.

I'm opting out of OPT OUT theology, and am taking this moment to state that while it sounds good, and comes across as comforting, it is anything but biblical.

(unless you count that it quite possibly is a fulfillment of 2 Timothy 4:3 & 4:

"You're going to find that there will be times when people will have no stomach for solid teaching, but will fill up on spiritual junk food--catchy opinions that tickle their fancy. They'll turn their backs on truth and chase mirages. " - the Message )

To us has been given the Ministry of Reconciliation. John 3:18 seems to make it clear that all are condemned, unless they accept / believe on HIM: Jesus the Christ.

"He who believes on Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. "

Well, how do we believe? How are we saved?

"But what does it say? "The Word is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart"; that is, the Word of Faith which we proclaim;

Because if you confess the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.

For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation.

For the Scripture says, "Everyone believing on Him shall not be put to shame."

For there is no difference both of Jew and of Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call on Him.

For everyone, "whoever shall call on the name of the Lord will be saved."

How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without preaching?

And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things!"

But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our report?"

Then faith is of hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. (Romans 10:8 - 17)"

Now, while I dare to hope that All May Be Saved, it is not what has been taught from Scripture. Acts 4:12 says that their is no other name, under Heaven whereby we must be saved."

If God has an opt out plan, he's not telling.

So I'm opting out of Opt Out theology, and sticking to biblical truth.

Be encouarged:

"....preach the Word, be instant in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine."

I was not wanted at birth. My mother was 15 years old when an older married man she was with got her pregnant. I was the result of that union. I was given up for adoption at age 3 and taken in by my mother's Aunt & Uncle.

Later, after my (adopted) dad passed away, it ws made known to me that I was adopted so that the 'problem' (me) would be kept in the family. I believe that knowing that I wasn't wanted (and I believe I knew this in the womb) has led me to fear my being 'accepted' in Heaven.

Luke 12:32 is a great comfort to me:

"Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom"

Something else that was very healing, is this 'excerpt' that I want to post this, it is from a book by Henri Nouwen. Inner Voice of Love is the book.

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Know That You are Welcome

"Not being welcome is your greatest fear. It connects with your birth fear, your fear of not being welcome in this life, and your death fear, your fear of not being welcome in the life after this. It is the deep-seated fear that it would have been better if you had not lived.

Here you are facing the core of the spiritual battle. Are you going to give into the forces of darkness that say you are not welcome in this life, or can you trust the voice of the One who came not to condemn you but to set you free from fear? You have to choose for life. At every moment you have to decide to trust the voice that says, "I love you. I knit you together in your mother's womb" (Psalm 139:13).

Everything Jesus is saying to you can be summarized in the words "Know that you are welcome." Jesus offers you his own most intimate life with the Father. He wants you to know all he knows and to do all he does. He wants his home to be yours. Yes, he wants to prepare a place for you in His Father's House."

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Peace!

"Let's be honest with ourselves. None of us consistently experiences himself or herself as perfectly holy and blameless in Christ. Therefore, none of us lives out this truth consistently. Our lives are too often characterized by a real, ongoing, and sometimes losing battle with sin. Though we may make