Hebrews 3:1 (NIV) ~ Fix your thoughts on Jesus.

Five times in Scriptures the word “fix” is used by God to give us direction. God gives us a clear direction to keep our focus fixed upon His will; for us to permanently maintain our focus, our centre of attention, firmly on God.  

1. Deuteronomy 11:18 (NIV),”Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds.”   

Here, we are admonishes to keep our hearts and minds, our intellect and the very fibre of our being, always feasting on the word of God, constantly meditating on His word and doing His will.    

2.  Proverbs 4:24-31 (NIV), “Fix your gaze directly before you. Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm. Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.”

This verse cautions us to keep our direction on the right path, to follow only His ways, to not be side-tracked by distractions, but to stay on the firm path of the King’s highway.  

3.   2 Corinthians 4:18 (NIV), “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

This is a reminder to keep looking through the eyes of faith to God, and the things of heaven. For the things of this world will pass, but the eternal things of God will never fade or pass away. Keep you focus in the centre of His will.  

4.  Hebrews 3:1 (NIV), “Fix your thoughts on Jesus.”

Your thoughts can be the hardest battleground to fight for. Nevertheless, when you keep your thoughts fixed on Jesus, He will guard your heart and mind and keep you pure. When we fix our thoughts on Jesus, we do not dwell on the negative things of this world, but rather the positive attributes of the Kingdom of God.  

5. Hebrews 12:2 (NIV), “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus.”

There is no one more beautiful than Jesus to fix your eyes upon. Let us fix our eyes on His ultimate sacrifice on the cross of Calvary for our sins. Fix our eyes upon His glorious resurrection; fix our eyes upon Jesus, the Lover of our souls. Fix our eyes upon Jesus to be saved, healed, delivered and set free. Let us fix our eyes upon Jesus in our time of need. Fix your eyes on Jesus at all times. 

My friend, as the Bible says in five different occasions, each with a practical and life-changing meaning, “Let us fix” our hearts, our minds, our gaze, our thoughts and our eyes constantly upon God’s word, the things of His kingdom, His direction, things that are eternal in heaven, but most of all, let us fix our eyes on Jesus and never take them off Him. 

Michael Frye once wrote these wonderful words all about Jesus being the centre, with our eyes, thoughts, hearts and minds fixed upon Jesus. 

Jesus, be the centre, be my source, be my light, Jesus,
Jesus, be the centre, be my hope, be my song, Jesus,
Be the fire in my heart, be the wind in these sails
Be the reason that I live, Jesus, Jesus.

God bless you my friend, Matthew

“Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me.”  Psalm 138:7

Usually I like to write about victories, the after-storm report of how God did a miracle and brought me through.  Those reports are a lot prettier and easier to write and read.  But today, I write in the midst of a personal storm, before the rain has stopped, before the rainbow shows through that I know is there, before the victory is complete.  It’s not easy being here.  There is so much internal noise from multiple fronts being attacked at once.  Have you been there?  Hit by various problems at the same time, worried about friends and family who are struggling, and worst of all, unable to do anything about it.

There has been a peace in this realization, though.  After trying desperately to prevent catastrophe, then fix what I could, I realize that nothing I can do will help this time.  So I have decided to sit back and wait it out.  I feel helpless, like I’m trying to stop a flooding river with one sandbag.  I know I’ve done what I could, but where are the other sandbags?

I feel anxiety creep toward me, threatening me to the core of my being.  Instead I reach towards my God who has peace and trust and hope in His hands.  I feel that anxiety will win out, that it’s stronger than these other things, but I know that to be false.  My friend texts me a Scripture.  I look it up and begin to see rays of sunlight peeking through around the clouds.  This is truth!  God is stronger.  I read Psalm 9:9, 10 and begin to memorize them right there.  I want God’s Word to supersede anything else on my mind right now.  Soon my mouth turns up in a smile and my heart pours forth with praise.  My God knows I feel oppressed.  He knows I’m in trouble.  He knows that I am His and that I trust Him.  He will protect me!  He will provide me a strong place of safety as I ride out the storm where Satan cannot get to me.  David testifies that God has not forsaken anyone who trusts in Him.  I believe Him and am rescued from anxiety.

All day long I recall these verses.  They give me hope and courage as I wait.  Nothing around me has changed, only in me.  My daily routine continues and I wait for a breakthrough.  This one may be long in coming.  I am uncertain about what to expect next, but I am safe.  I can function from a solid foundation and am better prepared to face whatever may come.

Thank You, God!  So many times I sink in self-pity and anxiety, but this time I have the Word firmly planted under my feet.  You keep Your Word!  Thank You, my God for never forsaking me!

Our family’s Thanksgiving blessing always begins with the Doxology—that brief piece of music so familiar to churchgoers as to be unnoticed. This year I reflected on how much is crammed into those four overlooked lines.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. All four lines invite (and command) us to praise, beginning with a statement of who. Whom should we praise? Praise a god known by all blessings. We are  not told to praise God the judge or God the creator, but God from whom all good things come. Blessings flow from him as water from a spring, as light from the sun. Such he is; such he is known by. This God of blessing is our fundamental orientation.

Praise Him all creatures here below. Who praises him? We are not alone. Rather we join the chorus with all creatures on earth. Whether we hear it or not, the others are praising God already—the bears in the forest, the salmon in the sea, the turkey vultures soaring over our heads, even the tiny microbes in the soil. All sing praise to God with all their being, as we join in.

Praise Him above you heavenly host. Above us, in the heavens, is an army also singing praise. Angels make their glorious noise, joined by those who have left us already. My mother and father sing in that army, which has for its weapons no violence and no death but only such as God makes use of—love, joy, faithfulness, peace.

Praise Father Son and Holy Ghost. We end as we began—who? Whom do we praise? The God from whom all blessings flow is not a simple God, but unthinkably complex, elegant and incomprehensible in all his parts, Three in One. Such beauty calls for our best song: the chord of notes that blend into one single sound, resounding from earth and heaven, from all creatures seen and unseen.

Amen.

451

“So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.” – Bertrand Russell

Here are some pictures of us waiting in Charlotte to fly back to Costa Rica!!  We did great with the weight of our luggage!  Everything was between 49 and 50 lbs!  I had to wear 3 shirts to get my clothes all back, but it is worth it!!

Esther 8:14 (NIV) ~ the couriers, riding the royal horses, raced out, spurred on by the king’s command. 

Oh, how this verse captures my imagination. It stirs me up with a fire within my bones to make haste with the message of the gospel. These horses were no ordinary horses, but royal ones bred as champions, the finest, and the best you would ever find. These riders were trusted with a message of deliverance, a promise from the King, which brought great rejoicing for whom it was intended. The Darby Translation of the Bible brings this verse alive with these words: “The couriers mounted on coursers and horses of blood went out, being hastened and pressed on by the king’s commandment.”

Horses of a royal bloodline bred for the King’s purposes. Those who rode on them were chosen for their integrity, chosen for their loyalty to the King. They were those who, at a moment’s notice would, with great haste, obey the King’s command.  Here we have those chosen by the King to be couriers of his message, fired on by the King’s command to bring the good news. 

Time is pressing within our land, people need the good news. Quick! Let us mount the King’s horses and be couriers of His message to His people who are longing to have hope and longing to be given good news so they may rejoice, for their King is mighty to save! 

Listen, can you hear? Look! Can you see how with haste come the King’s trusted couriers into every hamlet, every village, every town and every city to declare the good news from the King? Full of zeal and with a smile, so delighted to share with one and all this message, “Today is the day of Salvation, trust in the words of the King and be saved! Believe in His promise and live!” When the people received the good news and believed in the promise from the King, they celebrated with great joy. 

My friend, God speed our calling as we, with great haste, climb upon the King’s horses and ride with a purpose, driven with love, fired up by the King’s commands to bring His message of good news to the people. Let us therefore ride the lengthen and breadth of our land with the urgent message from our King to one and all, declaring in His authority, “Today is the day of Salvation, trust in the words of the King and be saved! Believe in His promise and live!” When you received the good news from the King and believe in his promise, you will celebrate with great joy, for your King is strong to deliver and mighty to save. 

God bless you my friend, Matthew.

“beauty for ashes!” can he, can he give
when life’s best years have gone – have passed away?
when cherished hopes, long held, no longer live.
and seems now drear monotony?

“beauty for ashes!” ashes! yes indeed!
ambitions, dreams and hope all shattered now:
dearest ones gone. and none to care or heed.
beauty for ashes? can it be? and how?

“beauty for ashes!” can we thus exchange
these now cold embers of life’s
burned-out past for beauty?
beauty heavenly, wonderous, strange?
a beauty which throughout
life’s way can last?

yes, for our ashes,
he would have us take
beauty – his own -
each passing day to wear.
till, in his likeness, satisfied, we wake,
and find new beauties,
everlasting, there!

Danson Smith

believing in a thousand

fragile and unprovable things

—Mary Oliver

It’s not even distance that matters:

how many miles, how many years,

how many inches on the map. I believe

in the leap, the untying of strings,

the improbable learning to fly.

I believe in the wings that beat in the chest,

the sky concert where song unfolds in the breath.

I believe in praising the ache as it blossoms

in heartbreak’s bountiful soils. In scouring.

How a whispered yes unleashes ninety-nine butterflies.

A kiss becomes wave. A blue flames ignites the universe.

Blink. Unblink. Reach. Receive. I believe

in unbuilding the walls that we’ve made.

I believe in opening. Unproving. Praise.

believing in a thousand

fragile and unprovable things

—Mary Oliver

It’s not even distance that matters:

how many miles, how many years,

how many inches on the map. I believe

in the leap, the untying of strings,

the improbable learning to fly.

I believe in the wings that beat in the chest,

the sky concert where song unfolds in the breath.

I believe in praising the ache as it blossoms

in heartbreak’s bountiful soils. In scouring.

How a whispered yes unleashes ninety-nine butterflies.

A kiss becomes wave. A blue flames ignites the universe.

Blink. Unblink. Reach. Receive. I believe

in unbuilding the walls that we’ve made.

I believe in opening. Unproving. Praise.

You’ve heard the phrase “self-praise is no praise”. You’ve also heard that Chinese cannot be praised, or they will screw up.

Therefore, once you have done a really good job, you should quickly praise yourself before anyone else does, since nobody will (want to) praise you after you do so, preventing any negative effects of praise from occuring. And since self-praise is no praise, you won’t be inflicting the negative effects on yourself anyway.

So if you’ve ever wondered why successful Chinese are such self-praising snobs, now you know.

Let me know if this works for other races too.

Find sample blogs on a gazillion topics at Alpha Inventions

Book of Hours of Catherine of Cleves, c. 1440

‘Pray Without Ceasing’

From ancient times the Church has had the custom of celebrating each day the liturgy of the hours. In this way the Church fulfills the Lord’s precept to pray without ceasing, at once offering its praise to God the Father and interceding for the salvation of the world. —Office of the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship

I, Fanny McElroy

When I, Fanny McElroy, first discovered The Brother Cadfael Mysteries, by Ellis Peters, I ripped through them like a scairt rabbit about to be et by a hawk, as Sister Alma Rose says her Daddy Pete says, or maybe it’s “a hawk after a scairt rabbit.” Anyway, I read them fast. And then there weren’t any more, because Ellis Peters died, so for the longest time I put off reading the final book, the twentieth, because I didn’t want to say goodbye to Brother Cadfael, a Welsh Benedictine monk living at Shrewsbury Abbey during the 12th century, but I found other books to read because I had become fascinated by all things medieval and all things Roman Catholic.

Compline — Coronation of the Virgin

I loved Brother Cadfael’s irreverent way of being genuinely and truly religious, his painstaking cultivation of herbs for healing, his humor and his kindness. And the way he told the time not by the clock but by the Canonical Hours for Prayer — Matins, Lauds, Vespers, Compline, and so forth. Sister Alma Rose has specific times for prayer during the day, and if I am at her house when one of those times comes, we go into her chapel and pray together, and sometimes we pray out loud, sometimes we don’t, and she reads a psalm and we sing a hymn — harmonizing rather nicely, if I do say so — but the thing is, she always seems to know what she’s doing, I mean there aren’t any awkward “what should we do now?” moments. And now I know why.

The Liturgy of the Hours

Book of Hours, Paris, c. 1410

One lazy summer afternoon I was sitting on the steps of Sister Alma Rose’s great green wraparound porch half-listening to Sister Alma Rose talking with Father Dooley and his sister Bernadette, who lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and who is a willowy, fair-haired, freckled young woman who has, as she says, “quite enough money,” and her occupation is Doer of Good Deeds, and she would have become a nun, she told us, but she wanted to get married and have children, which she hasn’t, yet, but she’s only something like twenty-two, so she spends her time visiting the sick and does what she calls “healing prayer work,” and sometimes she takes in the homeless, temporarily, like mothers with children running from an abusive man, that sort of thing, not scary people or drug addicts.

Versicle: Poem on a Stick?

So I’m sitting there, drowsy with the sun and the hum of a summer afternoon, and I perk up when I hear Bernadette say “Compline,” so I get up from the step and go over to the green wicker table and sit in the one vacant green wicker chair and listen to Bernadette talking about the Liturgy of the Hours, which is also called the Divine Office, I have no idea why, but Catholics have funny names for everything, like antiphon and breviary and versicle, which is not “a poem on a stick,” as I suggested, and everyone laughed, which was very gratifying because when one thinks that one is being very clever, it’s good to know that others think so too.

The Hours of Jeanne d'Evreaux

I think that everyone was surprised by my fascination with such a dry subject as the Divine Office, which I had thought was something from long ago… well, which it is, but it is still practiced, or “celebrated,” as Father Dooley says, and he as a priest is obligated to “celebrate” the Liturgy of the Hours, but it is a joy to him, he says, and Bernadette also “celebrates” the Liturgy of the Hours, and Sister Alma Rose says that her daily prayer times are “based on” the Liturgy of the Hours. “Fanny McElroy,” she says, “y’all have been celebrating it with me for years,” and then she laughs and pours me a glass of Mr. Truman LaFollette’s incomparable lemonade.

Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, c. 1410

Sister Alma Rose is not Catholic (she has referred to herself as “a Christian Jewish Buddhist,” probably offending adherents of all three religions, but she doesn’t mind — like J. Krishnamurti, she doesn’t mind much of anything, she says, and she is certainly the most serene person I have ever known, though in a crisis she becomes very exercised and shouts prayers to Heaven).

I am not a Catholic either, but there are many things I like about Catholicism, and here is one of them: For two thousand years or so, in spite of corruption and scandal and competition from other religions, and popes who had mistresses and children, and bishops who plotted royal assassinations, and so forth, the Catholic Church has inspired, comforted, counseled, educated, and healed. Irish monks preserved the knowledge from Roman and Greek antiquity by copying a huge lot of documents by hand (read How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe, by Thomas Cahill).

Sister Alma Rose has told me about the vile perverted priests who prey on young boys, but I don’t think that those sick men’s transgressions erase all the good that the church has done. And I love the idea of Confession, and the Rosary, and having one’s own personal saint, and Mary the Mother of Jesus, with her woman’s wisdom and her tender heart, and, of course, the Liturgy of the Hours. And, basically, that Catholic worship has gone on uninterrupted for hundreds and hundreds of years.

Some facts about the Liturgy of the Hours

So I ask a thousand questions, and here is some of what I find out about the Divine Office:

It sprang from Jewish prayer practices (“Seven times a day I praise you,” it says in the Psalms)

It began rather simply, with reading or chanting psalms; reading from the Old Testament, the  Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, and epistles; and canticles, which are basically hymns from the Bible but not usually from the psalms.

By the end of the fifth century, the Canonical Hours were — and this is a lot of praying and involves getting up in the middle of the night —

• Matins (during the night), sometimes referred to as Vigils or Nocturns, or in monastic usage the Night Office; it is now called the Office of Readings
• Lauds or Dawn Prayer (at Dawn)
• Prime or Early Morning Prayer (First Hour = 6 a.m.)
• Terce (rhymes with “purse”) or Mid-Morning Prayer (Third Hour = 9 a.m.)
• Sext (rhymes with “next”) or Midday Prayer (Sixth Hour = 12 noon)
• None (rhymes with “John”?) or Mid-Afternoon Prayer (Ninth Hour = 3 p.m.)
• Vespers or Evening Prayer (“at the lighting of the lamps”)
• Compline (KOM-plin) or Night Prayer (before retiring)

Wow! Don’t you love it that the time for Vespers is “at the lighting of the lamps”?

The complete Liturgy of the Hours is contained in the Roman Breviary. Most of the pictures on this page are from personal breviaries made for wealthy people in the Middle Ages.

Très Riches Heures calendar page

All hours begin with Ps. 69-70 v.2, “God come to my assistance, Lord make haste to help me,” and then the doxology:  ”Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.”

The Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer may consist of

• opening versicle (a short verse said or sung by a priest or minister in public worship and followed by a response from the congregation) or (for morning prayer) the invitatory (Psalm 94)
• a hymn, composed by the Church
• two psalms, or parts of psalms with a scriptural canticle. At Morning Prayer, this consists of a psalm of praise, a canticle from the Old Testament, followed by another psalm. At Evening Prayer this consists of two psalms, or one psalm divided into two parts, and a scriptural canticle taken from the New Testament.
• a short passage from scripture
• a responsory (chant or anthem recited after a reading in a church service) typically a verse of scripture, but sometimes liturgical poetry
• a canticle taken from the Gospel of Luke: the Canticle of Zechariah (Benedictus [Blessed be]) for morning prayer, and the Canticle of Mary (Magnificat: The “Song of Mary” from the Gospel of Luke, Magnificat anima mea Dominum = My soul doth magnify the Lord) for evening prayer
  

  Zechariah, Russian Orthodox icon

Nativity from an Antiphon

It looks complicated, doesn’t it? But I have to tell you, it is refreshing and renewing to drop everything at 3 p.m. or whatever because that is the time you have set aside for prayer. And if you’re not Catholic, you can develop your own structure for prayer and praise, as Sister Alma Rose has done, she created a sort of hybrid of the Divine Office, and Father Dooley says that’s fine with him, he encourages everyone to pray in the way that suits them best, as long as there’s no mutilation of poultry and stuff like that.

Well, you can buy the complete Liturgy of the Hours in four volumes for more money than I have in my piggy bank, which last time I counted was $97.13, I am saving for a school trip to walk the Appalachian Trail, but there are less expensive books, such as those that have only the Morning Prayer and the Evening Prayer.

There is much, much more to be told about the subject, but Bernadette had to leave to go back to Grand Rapids and her Good Works, which she does out of love and not to earn points toward Heaven or anything like that. So I will just tell you that I, Fanny, “celebrate” the Hours four times a day using the website DivineOffice.org, which has an audio version with beautiful music, and there are other websites with text versions. Sometimes I pray with Mama, and sometimes with Sister Alma Rose, and sometimes it’s just I, Fanny.

Even if you are not a Christian, you might enjoy this prayer discipline, which is principally made up of psalms anyway, though the references to Jesus Christ Our Savior might make you cringe, I don’t know. What I do know is that I need and enjoy discipline and structure in my prayer life, and for me, Fanny McElroy, the Divine Office is the beginning of that discipline and structure.

Chant; Troparion; hook-and-banner notation

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has felt exhausting but OH SO GOOD!!!!!  This update has been some time in coming for two reasons:  one, if I haven’t been busy scrubbing and cleaning, I’ve been unpacking or doing volunteer work at Greater Beckley and two, the tenants that got evicted left this place so “trashed” that I hesitated to show any before pictures like I had originally hoped to plan on.

Some have asked me why the landlord hadn’t cleaned the place before giving me the keys.  Simply, because I practically begged him to please let me move in just as soon as possible so I could just get out of the old neighborhood.  A few of my previous neighbors were great but the majority of them were a lil too interesting (to put it as nice as possible) and one in particular was having the cops called out on him about once a month every month over domestic violence and fears for the baby living there.  It gets tiring spending your time hiding in your apartment and hesitant to answer the door or else trying to just be anywhere but.

I promised the landlord that if he’d just let me have the keys as soon the the previous tenants were out of here that I wouldn’t mind in the least to clean the place myself.  I received the keys two weeks ago today and I have spent every day but yesterday doing more cleaning than unpacking.  When I said the previous tenants “trashed” it I don’t mean it in the sense that I guess that’s really meant to be used for.  I meant you couldn’t have walked a straight line across a single room in this place; every foot or so another item was in your way.  I’ve carried out (and sometimes dragged out) about eight industrial-sized garbage bags of trash.  Papers, broken items, dishes with so much fungus growing on them that gloves were the only way I was willing to touch them, clothing left behind, broken mattresses and other pieces of broken furniture, half eaten food just dumped here and there on the floors; the kitchen floor was so covered in sticky goo that your shoes tried to adhere to it with every step (almost as if you were trying to walk on still wet glue).  Drink splatter and crayon markings on almost every wall (literally) in the place but,

as bad as all that sounds,

life really and truly is OH SO MUCH BETTER than it was two weeks ago and as exhausted as I’ve felt over the last two weeks, I still wouldn’t have chosen any differently.

After dusting spider webs and clumps of dust off the ceilings and scrubbing the walls clean from the ceiling to the floors, the paint job (while I’d prefer a new coat) isn’t bad at all.  While there are stains almost everywhere on the carpets, I’m no longer afraid to walk on it without my shoes on, and I was blessed with a free carpet shampooer off of Free Cycle a few days ago.  A bottle of carpet cleaner solution and hopefully the carpeting will be looking dramatically improved.  The neighbors in the other three apartments are fairly quiet and seem pretty normal   Nobody has yet to call the cops on each other and no drug busts have taken place like the two that happened just feet from my living room window in the old place.  I am not missing the drama one ounce from living near downtown Beckley.

Depending on how you count the rooms, there’s 8 or 9.  The one room that was being counted as a second bedroom, I’m choosing to turn into a library/study room (at least for now), then there’s a kind of front entrance room, living room, laundry room, bathroom, kitchen, food pantry/storage room, bedroom, and a mud room at the back end.  I keep slipping up and calling the place a “house” instead of an apartment when I’m talking to people.  It doesn’t help that any with the outside looking like a house and the inside feeling more like a house than an apartment; I have almost the entire first floor to myself!

And the greatest blessing of all, and the one that’s crucial for me emotionally, is that I feel SAFE for the first time in about 19 months!  Not just safe locked within my apartment, but safe within the community and free to move around without feeling a need to always stay in after dark or to be looking back over my shoulder.  This place isn’t being judged by just a drive or two up the street and the neighbors at just that moment or two but on seven years of being familiar with Prosperity with my church just .2 miles away (not even a quarter of a mile) and the Bible College just a few miles more (didn’t actually measure that one).  In seven years time, I have yet to have witnessed for myself or to have heard one single negative comment about the area and I trust it and it’s feeling extremely good to be able to do that about where I live once again!

I still don’t have the insides done enough for me to feel comfortable showing it yet but here’s one from my living room window showing a little of the community and our first snow of the season that has actually stuck around some

Mark 11:28-33
“By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you authority to do this?” Jesus replied, “I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or from men? Tell me!” They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men’…” (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.) So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.” Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

For a man who was going to be betrayed, the kind of things Jesus did at the end seemed insane. Entering on a donkey and getting praise from the lips of common folk certainly did not sit well with those in authority there. Adding insult to injury was when Jesus entered the temple courts and threw all the sellers out and overturned the tables of the money changers. These were people who managed to work their way into the temple courts through befriending the Pharisees and they charged exorbitant rates for sacrifices and money changing because they had exclusive dominion in that place and worshippers had no choice but to buy from them. Worse than all of this was that Jesus sat and taught the people who came into the temple courts about what God wanted for their lives and this shook the very foundation of the faith at that time.

It is clear from the passage above that Jesus was not going to be ‘Shooed’ away and if these temple priests wanted him out, they would have to come up with something more than accusations. The only option they had then was to make falsified charges and take his life which was certainly what Jesus came for. He came to die for sinners and to give us hope of eternity with him through his resurrection. Are you willing to put your trust in Jesus who fought the world to clarify the truth to save us? Are you willing to stand up against the powers of this world and evil to proclaim his name above every other name? Lets not be caught sleeping when he come again. Lets rise us and share the gospel with the lost sheep and help them find their shepherd, Jesus Christ.

In His Loving Service,
Vineet

Fields of Harvest

I had a conflict with my husband.

My husband is a good man: loving, caring, loves the Lord above all else, loves my children fiercely, and is the best friend I have ever had.  But, sometimes in marriage, conflict arises, and that is that.

Now, I need to tell you that this conflict was minor.  Just a small annoying thing he had done, and I wanted it resolved.  I found myself overly upset about it, and finally just apologized for approaching it at all.  I should have let it go, and after being an idiot about it, I did.

But, I went upstairs to our bedroom to be alone for a bit, and was overwhelmed with bad memories.  Our marriage is strong now, but we did go through a season where we nearly divorced-it was an ugly season that lasted over 3 years, but by God’s grace and God’s grace alone, we made it through.  Somehow, this conflict last night brought to mind some of the hurts my husband caused me, and I was flooded with things I had forgiven him for.  I know sometimes forgiving someone means forgiving them for the same thing again and again, but there was something last night that just washed over me.  It was agony.

I laid on the bed and cried for a while, utterly confused by this sudden hurt-I knew it was not hormones (!), but genuine hurt.  I sought the Lord about it, and realized that I was just facing emotion as it needs to be faced sometimes.  Most of my life if I have been in pain, I have just turned to food.  Here was this temptation, at the end of a good day, to run downstairs and eat whatever I wanted (and there was a lot of “whatever I wanted” leftover from Thanksgiving!).  I stayed in my room, and cried some more, and sought the Lord.  I cannot say I had total peace at the end of my day, but I did seek God to help me through it, and not the food.

And, that, was a victory.  I say this to God’s glory, because only through Him can I have any freedom in my life.  I am thankful for the principles of OA that have led me to truly desire to submit this to the Lord, and look forward to more freedom.

Song of Solomon 2:8 (NIV) ~ Listen! My lover! Look! Here he comes, leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills. 

Here he comes to my aid, no mountain, no hill, no valley, no obstacle, will stand between God coming to me when I call upon His name. Here he comes bounding over the hills coming to my rescue. Whenever I call His name, He is right there by my side. Look my soul, look, my Jesus is coming to me, and the Lover of my soul comes to me. 

Nicolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson wrote the words to this beautiful song, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” It contained these lyrics:

If you need me, call me, no matter where you are, no matter how far,

Just call my name, I’ll be there in a hurry, you don’t have to worry,

Ain’t no mountain high enough, ain’t no valley low enough, ain’t no river wide enough,

To keep me from getting to you.  

Swift like a gazelle, bounding so gracefully, does my Jesus come to me. The Lover of my soul spoke to me saying, “My darling, my beautiful one” (Song of Solomon 2:13). For someone to call you His beautiful one, His darling, the one whom he loves and laid His life upon the altar of sacrifice to save you, shows His pure and amazing love for you.

My friend, when you pray, the Lover of your soul, Jesus Christ, comes to you with the answer to your prayers. 

Christ is the answer to my every need, Christ is the answer, He is my friend indeed;

Problems of life, my spirit, may assail, with Christ My Saviour I shall never fail,

For Christ is the answer to my need.  

Oh, what a beautiful verse to encourage your heart with today, from our text in Song of Solomon 2:8 (NIV), “Listen! My lover! Look! Here he comes, leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills.” No sooner are the words of prayer off your lips, then look! Here he comes, my Saviour, My Messiah, the Lover of your soul, Jesus Christ, with the answer to your prayer! 

God bless you my friend, Matthew.

God delivers us right on time.  We can be in the thick of some real mess, but God does it right on time.  Our best efforts can’t do it.  It is up to God.  He delivers us when He wants to.  He delivers us exactly how He wants to.  We don’t have to worry about whether god is on our side.  He delivers just in time, just the way He wants to, and with just enough to keep us holding on.

The Lord is called strength, a strong tower, a fortess, a stronghold, and even a very present help.  What have you called Him lately? Has He been your best defense? Identify who and what He is to you.  Is He your Redeemer and the Rock of your Salvation? Is He still closer than a brother? Call Him by how you have known Him.

Look throughout the Bible.  Find a passage where someone has an encounter with Jesus.  That person experiences a newfound joy.  Whether it’s Andrew bringing Simon his brother to Jesus or the Samritan woman at the well, leaving her bucket to tell the entire town, it expresses and accentuates what happens upon the discovery of Jesus beyond a mere man.  Imagine that such newfound joy is available to us.  It is available to those whom we lead to Christ.  It awaits those who seek Him earnestly with a broken heart and a contritie spirit.  Such joy is available and accessible.  It can be had by anyone who will confess the name of Jesus for forgiveness of their sins, accepting Him as their personal Savior.

Recently I was reading one of the wonderful psalms of praise and thanksgiving, and all of a sudden there was a shift in mood and tone. From thankful and joyful it suddenly became an ominous warning. It sounded an alarm about a spiritual health condition that God warns us about throughout the Bible: the hardening of the heart.

The Psalm I was reading is actually quoted in the New Testament in Hebrews 3:7-8. There the author of Hebrews is showing parallels between Moses and Jesus Christ, and of course making the point that the Son of God is more glorious than His servant Moses. But also notice the parallel between the Israelites heading for the Promised Land and Christians today headed for God’s Kingdom:

“Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness.’”

The ancient Israelites, as typical of all of us human beings, grumbled. They worried, they feared, they didn’t remember what God had done—they disbelieved that God could take care of their real needs for food and water or that He could give them the Promised Land—the land of rest He had promised. They rebelled when they heard about the giants in the land. They disbelieved and disobeyed.

So they didn’t get to enter that rest, as it says in verse 11. They looked downward, at their own needs and the harsh desert, when they should have looked up to see and remember what God had done.

Do we look down and just see our problems, maybe just one set of footprints in the sand?

What about us? Do we look down and just see our problems, our challenges, maybe just one set of footprints in the sand and feel all alone? If we allow Satan to get the better of us and our focus turns inward and downward, we are also in danger of hardening of the heart. Like hardening of the arteries, it can happen over time and we might not even notice it. But when a trial comes, it can cause an unexpected spiritual heart attack.

What’s a solution to this? Let’s look back at the Psalm that Hebrews 3 quotes from. Psalm 95 has two distinct sections with two distinct moods. Verses 7-11 have the somber warning that is quoted in Hebrews. But verse 1 through the first part of verse 7 is joyful and uplifting! And I think we can find clues about how to avoid the hardening of the heart it warns of.

“Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms” (Psalm 95:1-2).

Recognizing that He is the Rock of salvation includes remembering what He has done in the past, strengthening our Christian faith and hope.

Coming before His presence means looking up! It means focusing on God and what He has done, rather than on myself, my problems and what He hasn’t done for me yet. As an elderly gentleman in our congregation says, the hardest thing to do is to be a Christian, and the second hardest thing is to wait on God. God is teaching us patience and tenacity and endurance.

Verse 2 also mentions “thanksgiving”—the reasonable result of remembering the incredible mercy, blessings and promises of God. All these make the joy in our singing and praise real and growing.

So I think Psalm 95 is constructed this way, with encouragement to praise and thank God first, then the warning to avoid disbelief and hardening of our hearts, so that we can see the connection. If we “come before His presence with thanksgiving” and “shout joyfully to Him with psalms,” we will be focusing on Him, remembering His blessings, believing what He has promised. We’ll be exercising our hearts, and they won’t become hardened.

So let’s use this season of Thanksgiving to remind ourselves what God has done, to look up to Him with praise and thanksgiving and to believe and obey. Then we can avoid the hardness of heart, and enter His rest—the wonderful promised Kingdom of God!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

BLACK FRIDAY HERE I COME!!!!