What do you do when it happens and you do not really know why?
If you knew it was you and what it was, you could, possibly, fix it.
If you knew it was someone else and what it was, you could ask them to fix it.
But some things are not fixable.
So, you step back and learn from them. You also seek greater principles through them and apply them.
You also write about them as you reflect upon them for the benefit of those who derive benefits from the things you write and they read.
I am not sure what happened to “Music of the Heart. and some other pages I created. The whole batch disappeared.
Now, I can moan about it or make accusations, or I can adapt and figure something else out.
Yes, it was a lot of work building these pages and gaining some following and will be more work, but I am going to find a place to curate the music I love, and you love.
I spent a few days stewing, conniving and trying to fix things. It is now time to move on,
Neither I nor you have been targeted in most cases. Someone pushed the right series of wrong buttons.
It could have been me,
Lessons:
1. Always sow bountifully — lots of seeds, lots of places, much redundancy, multiple possibilities, many baskets of eggs.
2. Be ready for anything. Resilience is our friend. Sometimes, it seems, our only friend. Surround yourself and clothe yourself with bounceable material and be ready to bounce at all times.
3. Have backup plans.
4, Budget time for redoing what you have already done, for repairs, for rebuilding, and for strategizing.
5. Accept that technology, the world, organizations, and organizing itself are imperfect. The only answer to these imperfections is to keep at what we do, make repairs where we can, and keep moving forward.
There it is, my first attempt to make sense of my problem and develop an article about it.
You are seeing it here first.
Stuff breaks
Sometimes with a crumble, Sometimes with a mumble. Sometimes makes me stumble Always keeps us humble
It breaks In tiny pieces. It breaks. Can I says Feces?
People break. Systems break. Nations break.
They say, “Fake it till you make it.” I say, “OK.” And stake it till you break it.
And then? Fix it or nix it. Repurpose, repair or unpair.
Sometimes, you have to pout and Throw it out And move on.
And make the best of what you’ve learned,
After I wrote this, I found this post from Judy Fiske — Powerful.
And another joyful message of hope from Josh Groban:
The disciples on an early Kingdom mission had not only survived hostility but had thrived in the process. To their delight and surprise, God had come along with them and had wrought miracles of healing and deliverance. Even demons had been subjected to them, and they were excited. It was at that moment that Jesus had to remind them of an important lesson. It is in our moments of intense religious exhilaration and enthusiasm that we must learn the same lesson.
If you are not a Medium Member ($5 a month), here is a free friend link.
“And I will walk at liberty: for I seek Thy precepts.” - Psalm 119:45
We pledge allegiance to the symbol of a nation, “under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
Liberty is a gift, but it must be a walk if it is to be preserved. The psalmist knew that the path to freedom was to exercise the truths of God as revealed in His written Word. He called these precepts. Precepts are the appointments, orders, statutes, and mandates of God. In them, God tells us how we should act toward Him and toward others with integrity and love.
We need structure to be free. Without it, we are enslaved to our whims and to chance. Structure allows us room to explore, grow, and exercise our freedom. It gives us a vast menu of opportunities and preferences, but it keeps us from falling off cliffs and into fires.
Yet, the essence of the principle is that we seek God as free people, freely, or we do not seek Him at all.
God wants us to seek His precepts freely, to explore and to consider His ways. That is why the greatest freedom in our country, is the freedom to exercise one’s religious and free speech options. It is intrinsic to the way we have been designed by God.
We have no state religion because state religions usurp the power of God and the dignity of human conscience before God.
Instead, we have liberty to seek and to choose.
On this day, we pause in gratitude to those statesmen who conceived of a Declaration of Independence which declared:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Listen, Follow, and Be Blessed
“Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.” – Deuteronomy 28:5
Here is one of a litany of promised blessings to God’s people if they will do two things. The first was to “hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD,” and the second was to, “observe and to do all his commandments.”
Listen and follow.
These are days of leisurely picnics and walks in parks. City dwellers go to the mountains or the shore. What better season could there be to schedule some time alone away from the noise and telephones just to listen to God and receive instructions from His Word and His Spirit?
When we pack our picnic baskets, we include all sorts of treats. If someone else packs it for us, we are often delighted with the little surprise items we did not expect.
Harvesters of old would take their baskets to the fields to gather the fruits of agriculture. Then they would bring them back to the storehouse where the grains would be kneaded into bread
God invites His people into His field to gather His wisdom, guidance, direction, and instruction. He promises that those who come to listen will receive a harvest of plenteous blessing.
If we diligently listen we will be always open to and aware of promptings of the Spirit and lessons from the scripture. Our hearts will be earnestly seeking God’s will with a eager thirst and a willing spirit.
If we observe and do all His commands, we will not be selective or resistant. We will simply obey them as we receive them.
That is the path to great blessing.
Fireworks
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” – Psalm 19:1
Millions of people will take their lawn chairs outside tonight to gaze into the sky and watch fireworks that celebrate America’s birthday and the triumph of liberty articulated in the Declaration of Independence.
There will be music and cheers and masses of people exercising their freedom.
One of the songs to be sung may be the Battle Hymn of the Republic which resounds with these words in its chorus:
“Glory, Glory, Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.”
Truth!
Truth marching!
Nature is God’s troubadour announcing God glory, truth, and freedom to humanity. The activity of God in creation is true to His character and there is much to be known of Him through observation, meditation, and contemplation prompted by an appreciation of all that He has made.
Many summer nights, I have laid on my back, under the stars, beholding God’s magnificent fireworks.
The ancient adage that we must stop and smell the roses is an appropriate reminder to look for examples of the glory of God in the work of His hands. Open your eyes and heart today to His voice in all that is around you.
God is never silent. He is displaying His wonders every night and day and He has set us free to enjoy His creation, experience His presence, and worship Him.
We are thankful for a land and a system of government that allows us to express and practice our faith. Yet, with or without the protections we are given, we are, indeed free by His power and declaration.
His glory fills the universe, and his power is stronger than any power of mankind.
Enjoy the fireworks tonight, but look beyond, to the heavens, that are declaring the glory of God.
The Colors of Our Flags
“Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children … and he made him a coat of many colours” – Genesis 37:3
Flags are seldom dull. They are full of color and we fly them proudly high. They inspire us and unite us.
They also make us targets for enemies as Joseph came to be perceived as the enemy of his ambitious and jealous brothers.
Like our nation’s flag, the colors accumulate various meanings whether originally intended or not. Joseph’s colors symbolized the favor and blessing of his father.
The colors of our flag symbolize the beauty and dignity of our nation, the sacrifices our founders and defenders, and the favor and blessings of God.
On July 4, 1776, some men gathered and signed “their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor” on a document that raised a flag of independence and liberty. Many paid a high price, but they did so proudly with a sense of God’s favor and blessing.
The announced their liberation from bondage.
As God blessed and prospered Joseph in a foreign land, He has blessed the immigrants who have formed this nation in this place. He has prospered wanderers who longed for freedom and clothed us with coats of many colors.
He has, furthermore, blessed us with a unique place of religious freedom and tolerance where we can exercise our faith and discover His grace. It is in this land, where many of us have seen the bright and colorful banner of salvation raised and have been drawn to faith in Jesus Christ.
Here, we have made our declaration of independence from sin and have pledged our allegiance to our Liberator, Jesus!
Have you flown your flag of liberation from the bondage of sin and death?
As you fly the great American colors today, do not forget to wave the flag of salvation and rejoice in the freedom to do so.
Peace that Keeps
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. - Philippians 4:6-7
On July 4, 1776, a company of farmers, merchants, scholars, and business men gathered to ratify and sign a document to which they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
Most of these men paid a heavy cost for that signature. They were not crippled by undo caution or timid in the petition that they brought before the King of England.
In the realm of the Spirit, we have also been called to affix or signatures upon an invisible document of faith with visible repercussions. In it, we declare our absolute loyalty to Jesus Christ. We lay everything on the line without the constraints of care or caution, without reservation or regret, without whining or complaint.
We come in complete trust rejoicing, thanking, and bringing our petitions before God. And we find in God, not an insecure despot lashing out at us, but a loving Father whose greatest desire is that we come to Him.
As we come, He gives us His peace and that peace becomes the security of our lives standing guard over our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
In 1776, there was great conflict in store for the signers of the Declaration of Independence. In our day of declaration, we may also find conflict ahead, but in the midst, we are surrounded by the peace of God that is completely beyond our comprehension.
Let us boldly declare our liberty and surrender our hearts to the One who sets us free indeed.
The Law of Liberty
"So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty." -James 2:12
There is a high law, a higher law, the highest law of all.
It is the law of liberty. It is elsewhere described as the royal law of love.
It is the law that sets us free.
It is the law written on our hearts by the Holy Spirit in conversion. It is the law that does not require God to hold a hammer over our heads or nag us into submission.
We follow it because God loves us, because we love God, and because God has endowed us with love for our neighbors.
We are free to stray, but why would we ever want to do so? To whom would we go? What other life would satisfy?
This law is the essential obligation of our lives that informs our citizenship and people of the kingdom and as participants in nations and societies. It is the ethic at the heart of a nation that, from its roots said and then began to flesh out the sentiments of these words:
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness—That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. – Excerpted from the Declaration of Independence
On this day, we celebrate that document and its philosophy, built upon eternal principles that govern us eternally. We honor is as the basis for our democratic republic and all of the institutions that are designed to work out its ideals.
As we celebrate, we recommit ourselves to those ideals and to speaking and living as people who will be judged by the law of liberty.
Proclaim Liberty
And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. - Leviticus 25:10
It was a summer day in Philadelphia. The gathered congress was unofficial because they represented a nation yet to be born. They had debated long and hard, finally adopting the radical resolution that outlined the implications of self-evident truths.
The time came to sign below the words that we all cherish.
Once the signatures were in place, some requiring great personal sacrifice, there was another step: The message and document of liberty had to be made known. The announcement had to get to as many people as possible and years of revolution were in store to actualize it.
It was the time to proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof.
In Israel, the Year of Jubilee was a rare and festive occasion marked by a resetting boundary lines, renewal of land ownership, and release from debts. It was a time of liberation and it only happened every 50 years as a sabbath year after a series of seven sabbath years.
It was a national holiday that lasted for an entire year. Today, when we use the word, "jubilee," we spell it differently and have broadened its definition. Often it refers to anniversary, commemoration, festival, gala, carnival, jamboree, feast day, holiday, festivities, and even revelry.
It has the idea of joy and celebration built in.
Such is the spirit of liberty.
As you enjoy this holiday weekend with your family, take time to remember the principles and values that make it celebratory. Stop and give thanks for the dual freedoms you enjoy, that of a citizen of a free country and the greater freedom that we have in Christ who has liberated us from the bondage of sin and death.
Remember it and proclaim it throughout the land with a renewed commitment to use it wisely, boldly, and with deep appreciation for all who have forged it.
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” – Galatians 5:1
On this July fourth, as I often do, I am thanking God for the freedom of religion that is guaranteed by our Bill of Rights. I am grateful for the Baptists of Virginia and Connecticut who lobbied for it and for the statement who championed its cause. But mostly, I am grateful to God for having the idea in the first place.
God created us in His own image with the freedom to choose Him or reject Him. Otherwise, we could not have come by faith, in love, and through conversion. God’s design presupposes freedom. Salvation requires the work of the Holy Spirit regenerating the human heart that receives Him willingly. Coercive conversions are no conversions at all. State sponsored religion creates an unregenerate church membership.
God has given men and women a deep desire for freedom. True freedom is only realized fully in Christ. If the gospel is to be proclaimed freely, it must not be supervised by human agencies. Nor can man dictate the way that God will work with a human heart.
Jesus said, “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” – John 3:8
That is the essence of soul freedom and the best guarantee that government can give for such freedom is to stay out of the way. And that is what our Constitution does for us and for that I am grateful.
Let us honor those foresighted fathers of our country who respected the inherent dignity of each person before God and fashioned our national liberties on that basis. As we ring the bells of patriotism this Independence Day, let us sing with renewed zeal,
America, America,
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.
(Katharine Lee Bates, 1893)
In Congress, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Georgia Button Gwinnett Lyman Hall George Walton
North Carolina William Hooper Joseph Hewes John Penn
South Carolina Edward Rutledge Thomas Heyward, Jr. Thomas Lynch, Jr. Arthur Middleton
Massachusetts John Hancock
Maryland Samuel Chase William Paca Thomas Stone Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia George Wythe Richard Henry Lee Thomas Jefferson Benjamin Harrison Thomas Nelson, Jr. Francis Lightfoot Lee Carter Braxton
Pennsylvania Robert Morris Benjamin Rush Benjamin Franklin John Morton George Clymer James Smith George Taylor James Wilson George Ross
Delaware Caesar Rodney George Read Thomas McKean
New York William Floyd Philip Livingston Francis Lewis Lewis Morris
New Jersey Richard Stockton John Witherspoon Francis Hopkinson John Hart Abraham Clark
New Hampshire Josiah Bartlett William Whipple
Massachusetts Samuel Adams John Adams Robert Treat Paine Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island Stephen Hopkins William Ellery
Connecticut Roger Sherman Samuel Huntington William Williams Oliver Wolcott
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A Reach the Exceeds Our Grasp A Work in Progress
IDEA America is a big idea!
I - Independence and interdependence.
Separating is biological reality. We began to become independent upon birth, followed by the severing of our umbilical chords. It is not about freedom, but touches freedom. It is more about becoming all we can become by moving more into independence and then, willingly functioning in community as interdependent unities - even communities of nations. It is also an indigenous principle.
D - Democracy, democratic republicanism, determinism.
It is more than a form of government or a political philosophy. It can work in multiple systems, though our system is essentially designed to facilitate it. It is not a method, but a philosophy of everyone having a voice and a choice. We accomplish that through direct participation on some levels and representative government on others, but the essential idea is democratic opportunity.
E - Equality
All are equal. That is the ideal, whether they fully understood it or not. Jefferson wrote it, whether he meant it for all or not. He is now stuck with it.
Aspirational
Like many prophetic statements, they are bigger and more comprehensive than those speaking, hearing, or accepting them can truly know, but they for the ideal. - That takes us back to the first letter - The IDEA of Independence is an ideal.
Once you get this idea, you can add an L and get a new word:
This image shows an 1876 engraving titled "Declaration of Independence, July 4th, 1776" made available by the Library of Congress. On that day, the Continental Congress formally endorsed the Declaration of Independence. J. Trumbull, W.L. Ormsby/AP
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Georgia
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton
North Carolina
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton
Massachusetts
John Hancock
Maryland
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
Pennsylvania
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean
New York
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark
New Hampshire
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire
Matthew Thornton
I Will Walk at Liberty
“And I will walk at liberty: for I seek Thy precepts.” - Psalm 119:45
We pledge allegiance to the symbol of a nation, “under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
Liberty is a gift, but it must be a walk if it is to be preserved. The psalmist knew that the path to freedom was to exercise the truths of God as revealed in His written Word. He called these precepts. Precepts are the appointments, orders, statutes, and mandates of God. In them, God tells us how we should act toward Him and toward others with integrity and love.
We need structure to be free. Without it, we are enslaved to our whims and to chance. Structure allows us room to explore, grow, and exercise our freedom. It gives us a vast menu of opportunities and preferences, but it keeps us from falling off cliffs and into fires.
Yet, the essence of the principle is that we seek God as free people, freely, or we do not seek Him at all.
God wants us to seek His precepts freely, to explore and to consider His ways. That is why the greatest freedom in our country, is the freedom to exercise one’s religious and free speech options. It is intrinsic to the way we have been designed by God.
We have no state religion because state religions usurp the power of God and the dignity of human conscience before God.
Instead, we have liberty to seek and to choose.
On this day, we pause in gratitude to those statesmen who conceived of a Declaration of Independence which declared:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Listen, Follow, and Be Blessed
“Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.” – Deuteronomy 28:5
Here is one of a litany of promised blessings to God’s people if they will do two things. The first was to “hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD,” and the second was to, “observe and to do all his commandments.”
Listen and follow.
These are days of leisurely picnics and walks in parks. City dwellers go to the mountains or the shore. What better season could there be to schedule some time alone away from the noise and telephones just to listen to God and receive instructions from His Word and His Spirit?
When we pack our picnic baskets, we include all sorts of treats. If someone else packs it for us, we are often delighted with the little surprise items we did not expect.
Harvesters of old would take their baskets to the fields to gather the fruits of agriculture. Then they would bring them back to the storehouse where the grains would be kneaded into bread
God invites His people into His field to gather His wisdom, guidance, direction, and instruction. He promises that those who come to listen will receive a harvest of plenteous blessing.
If we diligently listen we will be always open to and aware of promptings of the Spirit and lessons from the scripture. Our hearts will be earnestly seeking God’s will with a eager thirst and a willing spirit.
If we observe and do all His commands, we will not be selective or resistant. We will simply obey them as we receive them.
That is the path to great blessing.
Fireworks
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” – Psalm 19:1
Millions of people will take their lawn chairs outside tonight to gaze into the sky and watch fireworks that celebrate America’s birthday and the triumph of liberty articulated in the Declaration of Independence.
There will be music and cheers and masses of people exercising their freedom.
One of the songs to be sung may be the Battle Hymn of the Republic which resounds with these words in its chorus:
“Glory, Glory, Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.”
Truth!
Truth marching!
Nature is God’s troubadour announcing God glory, truth, and freedom to humanity. The activity of God in creation is true to His character and there is much to be known of Him through observation, meditation, and contemplation prompted by an appreciation of all that He has made.
Many summer nights, I have laid on my back, under the stars, beholding God’s magnificent fireworks.
The ancient adage that we must stop and smell the roses is an appropriate reminder to look for examples of the glory of God in the work of His hands. Open your eyes and heart today to His voice in all that is around you.
God is never silent. He is displaying His wonders every night and day and He has set us free to enjoy His creation, experience His presence, and worship Him.
We are thankful for a land and a system of government that allows us to express and practice our faith. Yet, with or without the protections we are given, we are, indeed free by His power and declaration.
His glory fills the universe, and his power is stronger than any power of mankind.
Enjoy the fireworks tonight, but look beyond, to the heavens, that are declaring the glory of God.
The Colors of Our Flags
“Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children … and he made him a coat of many colours” – Genesis 37:3
Flags are seldom dull. They are full of color and we fly them proudly high. They inspire us and unite us.
They also make us targets for enemies as Joseph came to be perceived as the enemy of his ambitious and jealous brothers.
Like our nation’s flag, the colors accumulate various meanings whether originally intended or not. Joseph’s colors symbolized the favor and blessing of his father.
The colors of our flag symbolize the beauty and dignity of our nation, the sacrifices our founders and defenders, and the favor and blessings of God.
On July 4, 1776, some men gathered and signed “their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor” on a document that raised a flag of independence and liberty. Many paid a high price, but they did so proudly with a sense of God’s favor and blessing.
The announced their liberation from bondage.
As God blessed and prospered Joseph in a foreign land, He has blessed the immigrants who have formed this nation in this place. He has prospered wanderers who longed for freedom and clothed us with coats of many colors.
He has, furthermore, blessed us with a unique place of religious freedom and tolerance where we can exercise our faith and discover His grace. It is in this land, where many of us have seen the bright and colorful banner of salvation raised and have been drawn to faith in Jesus Christ.
Here, we have made our declaration of independence from sin and have pledged our allegiance to our Liberator, Jesus!
Have you flown your flag of liberation from the bondage of sin and death?
As you fly the great American colors today, do not forget to wave the flag of salvation and rejoice in the freedom to do so.
Peace that Keeps
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. - Philippians 4:6-7
On July 4, 1776, a company of farmers, merchants, scholars, and business men gathered to ratify and sign a document to which they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
Most of these men paid a heavy cost for that signature. They were not crippled by undo caution or timid in the petition that they brought before the King of England.
In the realm of the Spirit, we have also been called to affix or signatures upon an invisible document of faith with visible repercussions. In it, we declare our absolute loyalty to Jesus Christ. We lay everything on the line without the constraints of care or caution, without reservation or regret, without whining or complaint.
We come in complete trust rejoicing, thanking, and bringing our petitions before God. And we find in God, not an insecure despot lashing out at us, but a loving Father whose greatest desire is that we come to Him.
As we come, He gives us His peace and that peace becomes the security of our lives standing guard over our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
In 1776, there was great conflict in store for the signers of the Declaration of Independence. In our day of declaration, we may also find conflict ahead, but in the midst, we are surrounded by the peace of God that is completely beyond our comprehension.
Let us boldly declare our liberty and surrender our hearts to the One who sets us free indeed.
The Law of Liberty
"So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty." -James 2:12
There is a high law, a higher law, the highest law of all.
It is the law of liberty. It is elsewhere described as the royal law of love.
It is the law that sets us free.
It is the law written on our hearts by the Holy Spirit in conversion. It is the law that does not require God to hold a hammer over our heads or nag us into submission.
We follow it because God loves us, because we love God, and because God has endowed us with love for our neighbors.
We are free to stray, but why would we ever want to do so? To whom would we go? What other life would satisfy?
This law is the essential obligation of our lives that informs our citizenship and people of the kingdom and as participants in nations and societies. It is the ethic at the heart of a nation that, from its roots said and then began to flesh out the sentiments of these words:
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness—That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. – Excerpted from the Declaration of Independence
On this day, we celebrate that document and its philosophy, built upon eternal principles that govern us eternally. We honor is as the basis for our democratic republic and all of the institutions that are designed to work out its ideals.
As we celebrate, we recommit ourselves to those ideals and to speaking and living as people who will be judged by the law of liberty.
Proclaim Liberty
And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. - Leviticus 25:10
It was a summer day in Philadelphia. The gathered congress was unofficial because they represented a nation yet to be born. They had debated long and hard, finally adopting the radical resolution that outlined the implications of self-evident truths.
The time came to sign below the words that we all cherish.
Once the signatures were in place, some requiring great personal sacrifice, there was another step: The message and document of liberty had to be made known. The announcement had to get to as many people as possible and years of revolution were in store to actualize it.
It was the time to proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof.
In Israel, the Year of Jubilee was a rare and festive occasion marked by a resetting boundary lines, renewal of land ownership, and release from debts. It was a time of liberation and it only happened every 50 years as a sabbath year after a series of seven sabbath years.
It was a national holiday that lasted for an entire year. Today, when we use the word, "jubilee," we spell it differently and have broadened its definition. Often it refers to anniversary, commemoration, festival, gala, carnival, jamboree, feast day, holiday, festivities, and even revelry.
It has the idea of joy and celebration built in.
Such is the spirit of liberty.
As you enjoy this holiday weekend with your family, take time to remember the principles and values that make it celebratory. Stop and give thanks for the dual freedoms you enjoy, that of a citizen of a free country and the greater freedom that we have in Christ who has liberated us from the bondage of sin and death.
Remember it and proclaim it throughout the land with a renewed commitment to use it wisely, boldly, and with deep appreciation for all who have forged it.
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” – Galatians 5:1
On this July fourth, as I often do, I am thanking God for the freedom of religion that is guaranteed by our Bill of Rights. I am grateful for the Baptists of Virginia and Connecticut who lobbied for it and for the statement who championed its cause. But mostly, I am grateful to God for having the idea in the first place.
God created us in His own image with the freedom to choose Him or reject Him. Otherwise, we could not have come by faith, in love, and through conversion. God’s design presupposes freedom. Salvation requires the work of the Holy Spirit regenerating the human heart that receives Him willingly. Coercive conversions are no conversions at all. State sponsored religion creates an unregenerate church membership.
God has given men and women a deep desire for freedom. True freedom is only realized fully in Christ. If the gospel is to be proclaimed freely, it must not be supervised by human agencies. Nor can man dictate the way that God will work with a human heart.
Jesus said, “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” – John 3:8
That is the essence of soul freedom and the best guarantee that government can give for such freedom is to stay out of the way. And that is what our Constitution does for us and for that I am grateful.
Let us honor those foresighted fathers of our country who respected the inherent dignity of each person before God and fashioned our national liberties on that basis. As we ring the bells of patriotism this Independence Day, let us sing with renewed zeal,
Can we sing together some songs of the heart that point us toward Ultimate longings and reality?
Rudolf Otto coined the phrase, "Wholly Other" as he explored religious experience. He saw the intellectual world as having gone too far in leaning toward only rational thinking and emphasized the experience of the Other as something beyond that.
"Interfaith" is a tricky word in a world where many say, "I am not religious, but I am spiritual."
From my faith perspective, we are all spiritual in the sense that there is a spiritual essence to who we are.
There could never be an absolutely inclusive interfaith hymnal. We have different belief about important things.
Uniqueness always excludes, through self-exclusion at the intersection of beliefs.
However, inclusiveness of appreciation can be a wide embrace, and music is a common denominator expressing our common longings,
A criterion for a common hymnal might be a piece that points us inward, upward, or outward.
If I were to attempt such a hymnal, I might start with Harry Chapin's classic, "Circle", and the various covers that are covered by it.
Circle points in all three directions. Perhaps, 360 of them and infinitely more.
Could we sometimes sing from a common hymnal without abandoning our unique beliefs?
“Many people lose the small joys in the hope for the big happiness.”― Pearl S. Buck
“You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings.”― Pearl S. Buck
“The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive. To him... a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create -- so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating.” ― Pearl S. Buck
“To eat bread without hope is still slowly to starve to death.” ― Pearl S. Buck,
“Love cannot be forced, love cannot be coaxed and teased. It comes out of heaven, unasked and unsought.”― Pearl S. Buck
“The person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being. His heart withers if it does not answer another heart. His mind shrinks away if he hears only the echoes of his own thoughts and finds no other inspiration. ”― Pearl S. Buck
“There are many ways of breaking a heart. Stories were full of hearts broken by love, but what really broke a heart was taking away its dream -- whatever that dream might be.”― Pearl Buck
“To serve is beautiful, but only if it is done with joy and a whole heart and a free mind.”― Pearl S. Buck
“I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in the kindness of human beings. I am so absorbed in the wonder of earth and the life upon it that I cannot think of heaven and angels.”― Pearl S. Buck
“A good marriage is one which allows for change and growth in the individuals and in the way they express their love. ”― Pearl Buck
“Inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that's where you renew your springs that never dry up. ”― Pearl S. Buck
“Now, five years is nothing in a man's life except when he is very young and very old... - Wang Lung”― Pearl S. Buck,
“I don't wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.”― Pearl S. Buck
“The test of a civilization is in the way that it cares for its helpless members”― Pearl S. Buck,
-The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible -- and achieve it, generation after generation.”― PEARL S. BUCK
“Let woman out of the home, let man into it, should be the aim of education. The home needs man, and the world outside needs woman.”― pearl s. buck
“All things are possible until they are proven impossible.”― Pearl S. Buck
“The rich are always afraid.”― Pearl S. Buck
“One faces the future with one's past.”― Pearl S. Buck
“But what happens when her beauty is torn from her like a cover from a book? Will he care to read her then, although her pages speak of nothing but love for him?”― Pearl S. Buck
“When good people in any country cease their vigilance and struggle, then evil men prevail.”― Pearl S. Buck
“Perhaps one has to be very old before one learns to be amused rather than shocked.”― Pearl S. Buck
“Sorrow fully accepted brings its own gifts. For there is alchemy in sorrow. It can be transmitted into wisdom, which, if it does not bring joy, can yet bring happiness.”― Pearl S. Buck,
“The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive. To him... a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death.” ― Pearl S. Buck
“The truth is always exciting. Speak it, then. Life is dull without it.”― Pearl S Buck
“If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.”― Pearl Buck
“I am always glad when any of my books can be put into an inexpensive edition, because I like to think that any people who might wish to read them can do so. Surely books ought to be within reach of everybody.”― Pearl S. Buck,
“All things are possible until they are proved impossible and even the impossible may only be so, as of now.”― Pearl S. Buck
“The secret of joy in work is contained in one word-excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.”― Pearl S. Buck
“An intelligent, energetic, educated woman cannot be kept in four walls — even satin-lined, diamond-studded walls — without discovering sooner or later that they are still a prison cell." (America's Medieval Women, Harper's Magazine, August 1938)”― Pearl S. Buck
That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom … — Luke 22:30
Every earthly symbol of grace is a precursor of glory to come.
David exclaimed, “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.”
When Jesus gathered with His disciples around the Passover table, it was as a family. When we gather with Him in the Kingdom, it will likewise be as a family.
He will be our host there as he is here.
We see him now as present in the elements of the Lord’s Supper, whereby we remember him. We also see him as present in the scriptures, whereby he speaks to us.
“Lo, I am with you always,” He promised, “even unto the end of the world.”
It is now and shall be forever, His table, the table of grace.
In this specific passage, Jesus is teaching His disciples, at the Lord’s Supper table, to serve as He served them. He is explaining that the path to true greatness is to wait on one another.
He told them that he was among them as a servant and that if they wanted to fully participate at his table, they would become servants as well. They would serve each other and, in so doing, serve him.
At Jesus’ table, there are no big shots or seats of arbitrary honor. There are neither titles nor degrees. There are no positions of importance and no lowly places. Each person gathers as one who waits on all the rest. The privilege of simply being there with Him is all that any need desire … and the knowledge that he is among us.
That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom … — Luke 22:30
Every earthly symbol of grace is a precursor of glory to come.
David exclaimed, “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.”
When Jesus gathered with His disciples around the Passover table, it was as a family. When we gather with Him in the Kingdom, it will likewise be as a family.
He will be our host there as he is here.
We see him now as present in the elements of the Lord’s Supper, whereby we remember him. We also see him as present in the scriptures, whereby he speaks to us.
“Lo, I am with you always,” He promised, “even unto the end of the world.”
It is now and shall be forever, His table, the table of grace.
In this specific passage, Jesus is teaching His disciples, at the Lord’s Supper table, to serve as He served them. He is explaining that the path to true greatness is to wait on one another.
He told them that he was among them as a servant and that if they wanted to fully participate at his table, they would become servants as well. They would serve each other and, in so doing, serve him.
At Jesus’ table, there are no big shots or seats of arbitrary honor. There are neither titles nor degrees. There are no positions of importance and no lowly places. Each person gathers as one who waits on all the rest. The privilege of simply being there with Him is all that any need desire … and the knowledge that he is among us.
What Counts? What you count is an alert to what counts in your life and work. If you are in nonprofit work or ministry and you value people, you will count people. If you are in business, you will count contacts, activities, and profits even if quality comes first. If you value time, you will measure it. If you value effort, you will keep track of it.
Whatever counts, you count.
That does not make it "all about numbers," but numbers are among other factors, a useful tool for measuring how much time, effort, and resource expenditure it takes to be effective in moving toward the things that really count.
They can also be helpful in alerting us to where we can shave off efforts and save time and money.
If you want to be successful, don't neglect your digits.
And the fame of him went abroad into all that land.” – Matthew 9:26
For what would you like to be famous?
If not famous, for what would you be known or remembered?
A famous man came to Jesus one day. He is so famous that we do not know his name. However, we are told that he was a ruler.
One might assume that a ruler would have been a person of importance who was well known, at least in his region.
With all his fame and all of his wealth, he was a beggar on that day. The one thing that mattered to him was something that neither his wealth nor his power could give him – the life and health of his precious daughter.
On that day, Jesus was teaching, but, he was willing to be interrupted by a man with a broken heart and a desperate plea. This man also had faith in the face of impossible odds. He told Jesus that his daughter was so sick, that she had died.
But you can heal him, was the man’s plea.
This anonymous, famous, wealthy, powerful man, fell at the feet of Jesus in worship. He begged for the life of his daughter. Jesus did not hesitate. He did not favor the rich. He favored the broken and the wounded. In this moment, the poorest man was the wealthy man.
Yet, along the way, there was another, whose name we do not know. She was hemorrhaging. She had been bleeding for years. She was so anonymous, that she did not even ask for Jesus’ attention She just touched the hem of his garment.
But he knew and he stopped, and he inquired, “Who touched me?”
He felt the release of power. No one is anonymous to Jesus. No one escapes his attention,
Both stories end well. The woman was healed. The girls was brought back to life even though the crowds were laughing at Jesus. He got the last laugh.
He also got the fame.
Miracles of that sort do not happen every day – or at least are not noticed every day.
Jesus’ fame spread. His fame is what counts because, when his name is known, people listen to him and their lives are transformed.
If you were to become famous, for what might it be. Perhaps the only thing that matters is to be known for what Jesus has done in your life.
“Then the LORD called, "Samuel! Samuel!" and he said, "Here I am!" – I Samuel 3:4
“… The word of the LORD was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.” – I Samuel 3:1b
In the days of Samuel, when God’s word did not regularly rest upon the ears of people, the lamp of God still burned near the Ark of the Covenant.
“… the lamp of God had not yet gone out…” I Samuel 3:3
God knew how to get in touch with people. He still called and people still answered. The story is longer than this statement, but the statement says it all.
“Then the LORD called, "Samuel! Samuel!" and he said, "Here I am!"
In every generation, God calls prophets and preachers, workers and intercessors, servants, and leaders. God knows the hears of people and God calls them for his work.
“O LORD, you have searched me and known me.” – Psalm 139:1
The psalmist understood that the calling of God was one based upon God’s knowledge of his heart. It was a personal and intimate call.
“The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me.’" – John 1:43
Jesus came. He began to call people. First, Philip was called, and Philip sought out a brother and then, Jesus found Nathaniel. Jesus peered into Nathaniel’s heart and saw something that Nathaniel did not even see.
Over and over, the call rings out: I see you. Follow me. Come and see. When he calls, may we be ready with the response, “Here I am.”
If you are just realizing that some of my views are antithetical to yours, that is on me for not being clearer. I apologize. I have always respected your views and tried t stay on point with the message and to find areas of agreement. That may have caused me to be silent on matters that matter.
If I have been silent on some things in the past because of a position held in the community in the past, it may have been out of respect to the opinions of others or out of a sensitivity to not misrepresenting my organization by suggesting that my views were the views of all. Now that I do not represent anyone, my opinions are entirely my own.
My views have been pretty consistent through the years and have developed through much thought and prayer. That does not mean that other thinking and praying people, like you, have not come to other conclusions.
I am not claiming infallible divine inspiration for my opinions.
At any rate, our friendship is not based on total agreement. That's the way it should be. We all need to work together.
“Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof: let the fields rejoice, and all that is therein. “-1 Chronicles 16:32
Seas roar and its more than a metaphor
Fields rejoice and somehow find their voice.
All therein becomes our kin in the symphony of praise.
Nature sings. Each creature brings the offerings of worship. Mountains and hills shout. Volcanoes erupt. Every living thing and every inanimate object joins the mighty chorus that announces the glory of God.
Fields rejoice.
Imagine that. When the first indicators of spring erupt from the earth, they join in a dance of joy. The colors and the shapes all imitate and reflect the essential nature given to them as a tiny piece of God’s revelation of Himself through creation.
“All nature sings and round me rings the music of the spheres. This is my Father’s world.” — Maltbie D. Babcock
Sound, color, even thought can be described in the language of frequency, cycles per unit in a period of time. That is physics and when life enters in, it is biology. But when the spirit enters in, it is life and worship.
I am no expert in the sciences and no one is an expert in the things of the spirit.
“The wind bloweth where it listeth …” — John 3:8
Jesus said it is that way with those born of the Spirit. We are not experts, but we are participants and observers. We are participants in rejoicing with the fields that are coming to life right now.
We are invited into the chorus and symphony of color, sound, and spirit.
Babcock continues:
“This is my Father’s world, the birds their carols raise, The morning light, the lily white, declare their Maker’s praise. This is my Father’s world: He shines in all that’s fair; In the rustling grass I hear Him pass; He speaks to me everywhere.”
There were many things that Jesus could have said, wanted to say, and needed to say to the disciples, but it was not the right time. It was not the right time because they were not ready. They could not hear those things. They could not bear those things. They were not ready.
They would be ready later. They would be eager later. It would be the right time later. Their hearts would be prepared. Their lives would have been transformed later.
We must be ready to receive. We need a guide.
Jesus used more than one term to describe the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of Truth. He is the Counselor, the Comforter, the Paraclete who walks beside us. He is the Spirit of the Living God. He is the wind that blows wherever it will.
Now, in this setting, he is a guide. His role is to guide Jesus’ disciples into truth. Not only is it truth where he guides, but Jesus says that it is all truth.
He transforms the hearts and minds of the disciples and prepares them to receive truth. Then he imparts truth to them. He guides. He directs. He counsels. He coaches. He illuminates. He helps them to apply that truth to their lives.
He answers questions we have never asked before.
Jesus says that he will not speak of himself. He has not come to exalt himself. He hears and he speaks. Furthermore, he shows us what is ahead of us.
The bottom line, Jesus tells the disciples, is that he glorifies God in the Son of God. He glorifies the Christ.
He does this, according to Jesus, by taking what is Jesus’, namely his words and thoughts, and revealing them to us. He shows us the things of God. He discloses God’s wonders. He unveils the riches of God’s Word. He frames God’s wisdom in a way that we can understand it and live it.
There is a partnership between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is a partnership of fellowship. It is a partnership of truth. All that belongs to one is shared with the other.
When the Spirit comes, Jesus teaches, we will be ready. That is because the Holy Spirit invites us into the fellowship where we experience the Holy Trinity. In that fellowship, we are prepared, and we are ready to receive the things the Jesus wanted to teach his disciples, but they were not ready to hear.
That is the beauty and the wonder of Pentecost and Trinity Day, and it is why we celebrate.
Every day, for Jesus, was Father’s Day. It was his Father’s Day. He was Son of God and Son of Man, twenty-four hours of every day and every day of the year.
Twice, here, he refers to himself as the Son of Man, a messianic designation in its historic use. The Son of Man is one who has been anointed by the Father in Heaven for a message and a mission on earth.
Because he identifies with humanity, he is not only the Son of God, but the Son of Man. There are two declarations he makes about this role:
First, the Son of Man does not come to destroy lives. He comes to save lives. The disciples think that fire from Heaven might be appropriate for those who reject the message, but Jesus thinks and acts like his Father from whom he has received his mission and message.
He comes to save, and he is on his way to Jerusalem to do just that.
The second is that the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.
This, he iterated when a man professed that he would follow him anywhere and everywhere.
I am lower than a fox or a bird, he implies, because I have nowhere to sleep. All hope, salvation, and grace rested upon the life, testimony, death, and resurrection of a homeless prophet.
In these statements of intent, Jesus was observing the commandment to honor his Father to whom he taught us to pray as our Father, Dad, Abba, the perfect model for a perfect Father.
Another approaches and uses his father as an excuse to tarry, “And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.”
Again, Jesus affirms his Father’s will and call and “said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.”
“And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
How then, did the Son of God and Son of Man honor his Father? By putting his hand to the plow and setting his face toward his destiny to do his Father’s will and proclaim his Kingdom.
Isaiah 22:22 — And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.
Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, was about to get a key and that key would unlock the door to a function that would bring men and women into the very presence of God.
The scriptures will often tell us the name of a father when identifying his son. Here, the most important of the fathers was David. The prophetic word is a blessing one who will inherit a priestly responsibility and blessing that has been passed on since the time of David.
Cults have often misappropriated this concept, but they cannot rob it of its biblical significance.
In Revelation 3:7, Jesus holds the key. It returns, through a succession of natural and spiritual fathers to its source, the One to who it belongs with all authority and power.
It is the key of the covenant of God with His people.
God appointed Abram, changed his name to Abraham, and made him the father of many nations including a priestly nation. With that inheritance, the people of God have privileges and responsibilities to share the truth and love of God with all people.
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the many sons of Jacob, and their descendants received a tradition and a stewardship. God’s call upon David was a preview of a Messianic Kingdom.
Papa Hilkiah, whose name means “my portion is Yah” (for Yahweh — God’s personal name) was a priest at during the days of King Josiah During his priesthood, he found a lost copy of the Book of the Law at the Temple in Jerusalem.
It can be supposed that his preaching influenced Josiah and a time of revival and renewal. It is a great heritage for a father to pass on to a son. What a profoundly significant key!
What sort of keys are you, fathers, placing in the hands of your sons and daughters that God can use to bring men and women face to face with Himself?
It is an awesome responsibility.
It is an awesome privilege and joy.
It is awesome to think of those who have preceded us and done this so well.
“May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.” — Psalm 20:4
Did you receive a blessing from your father as a child or a young adult? Have you used your role as a father figure to bless a younger person? Have you ever wondered what sort of blessing you might like to receive or that you could give? Psalm 20:4 lays out a strong suggestion.
As astounding as it may sound, God, our Heavenly Father, desires to give us our desires, but only after He has transformed those desires and brought them into sync with His own. He wants our plans to succeed, especially when His Spirit has planted those plans in our hearts. The progression of the blessing is the prerequisite experience of the blanket prayer.
First there is distress, then divine deliverance and protection, followed by help, support, sacrifice, and offering. The transforming power of these events paves the way for success.
Psalm 20:5 says, “We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the LORD grant all your requests.”
There have been many along the way that have cheered you on to spiritual success and growth. The have applauded God at your salvation, baptism, and first steps in discipleship.
They have encouraged you and embraced you along your pilgrimage. It is your turn to do this for another. You are called to be an encourager or a mentor or even a cheerleader.
You have the capacity to invest your life and prayers in someone other than yourself and to take great joy in his or her progress. Don’t let the opportunity slip away.
Psalm 20:6 says, “Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed; he answers him from his holy heaven with the saving power of his right hand.”
It is a serendipitous moment when we realize within ourselves that God does indeed save those upon whom His purposes rest. Jesus Christ is God’s anointed and all who are found in Him are heirs of God’s purposes, promises, and privileges. We suddenly discover that we can reinterpret every event in our lives in the newly discerned light of God’s eternal program in which we are included.
Live each day in the light of His promises and in the confidence of your secure position in His eternal family and take each opportunity God gives you to bless a young man or a young woman who is discovering his or her path in life.
(He) set his face to go to Jerusalem,” — Luke 9:51
Every day, for Jesus, was Father’s Day. It was his Father’s Day. He was Son of God and Son of Man, twenty-four hours of every day and every day of the year.
Twice, here, he refers to himself as the Son of Man, a messianic designation in its historic use. The Son of Man is one who has been anointed by the Father in Heaven for a message and a mission on earth.
Because he identifies with humanity, he is not only the Son of God, but the Son of Man. There are two declarations he makes about this role:
First, the Son of Man does not come to destroy lives. He comes to save lives. The disciples think that fire from Heaven might be appropriate for those who reject the message, but Jesus thinks and acts like his Father from whom he has received his mission and message.
He comes to save, and he is on his way to Jerusalem to do just that.
The second is that the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.
This, he iterated when a man professed that he would follow him anywhere and everywhere.
I am lower than a fox or a bird, he implies, because I have nowhere to sleep. All hope, salvation, and grace rested upon the life, testimony, death, and resurrection of a homeless prophet.
In these statements of intent, Jesus was observing the commandment to honor his Father to whom he taught us to pray as our Father, Dad, Abba, the perfect model for a perfect Father.
Another approaches and uses his father as an excuse to tarry, “And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.”
Again, Jesus affirms his Father’s will and call and “said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.”
“And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
How then, did the Son of God and Son of Man honor his Father? By putting his hand to the plow and setting his face toward his destiny to do his Father’s will and proclaim his Kingdom.
“Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.“ -Luke 12:32
After warning the listeners about losing everything by seeking to gain riches at all costs, Jesus speaks these words, Fear not.”
Fear not because your Father loves to give and wants to give you his entire Kingdom.
He gives this advice: Divest.
“Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
As we view a retrospective of the early church, we find that there were many who took this quite literally and threw off the shackles of possessions to follow Jesus.
Others took it more symbolically and dedicated all their possessions to God and lived as if God were the owner of all they had once considered their own.
In both cases, there was a conversion of their thinking about how they viewed wealth and ownership.
He taught his disciples to travel light when he said,
“Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.”
Be ready to respond and ready to move quickly, not overloaded with stuff that ties you down.
“Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching…”
Things can happen quickly when we live, move, and breathe in the realm of the Spirit.
We need to be ready. To be ready, we must be unencumbered.
We lose nothing by giving it all to God and to others. It is a lesson I learned early in life from a godly grandmother. She told me two things:
You cannot outgive God and you only save, in this life, what you give away.
God’s desire is to give you far more than you could ever wish for, hope for, or accumulate on your own. It is God’s good pleasure to give you the entire Kingdom. Nothing can compete with that. Fear not, little flock!
“Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.”
Reflections on Psalm 69 A prayer of a man sinking in the mud.
"You, God, know my folly; my guilt is not hidden from you." - Psalm 69:5, NIV
I do not know your folly. I am not absolutely certain that I know my own.
God knows.
Some may consider this bad news.
I consider it liberating and the ground upon which grace can build a house of witness in my life and an altar of honest exchange between me and my Maker.
Only secrets can feed a dysfunctional system. None exist between God and me - none of mine and He is revealing Himself to me daily and as much as I can bear. No secrets, no pretense, no enabling of my wrongs.
God knows me and God loves me.
It passes through the filter of a knowledge of God's mercy:
"Your love is kind." From Psalm 69
This has always been one of my favorite bible prayers. It has always provided me words to express my own heart in times when I could not find the right words myself.
It says what so many of us, so often, feel.
Even as it empowers us to reach into the darkness within our hearts, it encourages us to find hope and resolve.
Pray it. Don't just read it.
Pray it slowly, pausing over the phrases that will become your prayers for this day.
It is a thoroughly, reusable psalm that will give you new meaning and new expression each time you pray it.
At times, you will only need the first few words, "Save me, O God." And you may stop there.
Sometimes, it has been for me, "O God, you know my foolishness."
There have been moments when I have only mustered the strength to pray, "I have grown weary with my crying."
Often, I have prayed, “In your great mercy, O God, answer me with your unfailing help."
I never enjoy admitting that "shame has covered my face," but God knows, hears, and welcomes me though "my faults are not hidden from God."
The writer-singer-psalmist-petitioner has sought help and comfort from others, but only finds acceptance, assistance, and compassion in God.
God is swift to help in our distress.
One of my favorite prayers within this prayer has always been, "let not those who seek you be disgraced because of me."
It has been a prayer of mine in times of pain, suffering, discouragement, temptation, and trial. It has taken my mind away from an inward focus on my problems to the implication of my life and witness and its effect on others'. It has given purpose and meaning to my own struggles.
"I will proclaim his greatness with thanksgiving," is the cry of praise and the promise of hope for "the Lord listens to the needy...and his prisoners he does not despise."
Enjoy your prayer time. ---------------------------------
Psalm 69 (NRSV) Salvum me fac
Save me, O God,
for the waters have risen up to my neck. I am sinking in deep mire,
and there is no firm ground for my feet. I have come into deep waters,
and the torrent washes over me. I have grown weary with my crying; my throat is inflamed;
my eyes have failed from looking for my God. Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; my lying foes who would destroy me are mighty.
Must I then give back what I never stole? O God, you know my foolishness,
and my faults are not hidden from you. Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me, Lord GOD of hosts;
let not those who seek you be disgraced because of me, O God of Israel. Surely, for your sake have I suffered reproach,
and shame has covered my face. I have become a stranger to my own kindred,
an alien to my mother’s children. Zeal for your house has eaten me up;
the scorn of those who scorn you has fallen upon me. I humbled myself with fasting,
but that was turned to my reproach. I put on sack-cloth also,
and became a byword among them. Those who sit at the gate murmur against me,
and the drunkards make songs about me. But as for me, this is my prayer to you,
at the time you have set, O LORD: “In your great mercy, O God,
answer me with your unfailing help. Save me from the mire; do not let me sink;
let me be rescued from those who hate me and out of the deep waters. Let not the torrent of waters wash over me, neither let the deep swallow me up;
do not let the Pit shut its mouth upon me. Answer me, O LORD, for your love is kind;
in your great compassion, turn to me.” “Hide not your face from your servant;
be swift and answer me, for I am in distress. Draw near to me and redeem me;
because of my enemies deliver me. You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor;
my adversaries are all in your sight.” Reproach has broken my heart, and it cannot be healed;
I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I could find no one. They gave me gall to eat,
and when I was thirsty, they gave me vinegar to drink. [Let the table before them be a trap
and their sacred feasts a snare. Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see,
and give them continual trembling in their loins. Pour out your indignation upon them,
and let the fierceness of your anger overtake them. Let their camp be desolate,
and let there be none to dwell in their tents. For they persecute him whom you have stricken
and add to the pain of those whom you have pierced. Lay to their charge guilt upon guilt,
and let them not receive your vindication. Let them be wiped out of the book of the living
and not be written among the righteous.] As for me, I am afflicted and in pain;
your help, O God, will lift me up on high. I will praise the Name of God in song;
I will proclaim his greatness with thanksgiving. This will please the LORD more than an offering of oxen,
more than bullocks with horns and hoofs. The afflicted shall see and be glad;
you who seek God, your heart shall live. For the LORD listens to the needy,
and his prisoners he does not despise. Let the heavens and the earth praise him,
the seas and all that moves in them; For God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah;
they shall live there and have it in possession. The children of his servants will inherit it,
and those who love his Name will dwell therein.
It culminates in praise:
Even the Seas Praise Him "Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and everything that moveth therein." - Psalm 69:34
To borrow from a different season, my heart sings,
Joy to the world! The Lord has come! Let earth receive her king. Let every heart prepare Him room, And Heaven and nature sing! (Isaac Watts)
Heaven and nature sing the glories and praise of God.
Look at the sky. It is praising God. The multitude and magnitude of the heavens form a symphony of adoration for the One who thought it all out, spoke it into existence, and maintains its order through the strength of His own resolve.
Earth praises God. Down to the atom, every mineral, every mountain, every blade of grass or leaf that falls from a tree sings the honor of His intricate design. Plant, animal, and human life testify to His genius and meticulous design.
The seas praise Him.
From surface to depth, the oceans are mysterious and possess overwhelming power. They have not been nor, can they be conquered, harnessed, nor tamed. We have yet to explore a fraction of what they possess. They form more of the surface area of this planet than all the land masses combined.
No human can survive at their deepest places. In their secret places, there is darkness and even that darkness praises God.
When the sea is quiet, He is praised.
When the storms rock the surface and the mighty ships are in peril, He is praised.
When we rest upon the shore and look out over the waves crashing on the beach, God is praised.
God of the seas! Thy thundering voice Makes all the roaring waves rejoice, And one soft word of Thy command Can sink them silent in the sand. (Isaac Watts)
If the heavens, earth, and sea praise God, let us also join them in praise.
There are many possible provocations for anger. some are legitimate; some emerge from our narcissism All seem rooted in our essential fear of losing something we value.
We know people whom we would describe as angry by nature or angry all the time. We can agree that such anger is not healthy.
There are times when we wish we could simply shake off our anger, but we are unable to do so. That is a subject for another article, but it may involve self-therapy or therapy with a counselor.
Another time for that.
What I want to say today is something general. Watch this video for context:
In these days, if I said to you, “don’t be angry,” it would be stupid of me. I’d be angry at myself for saying that. You’d be angry at me. Rightfully so. Anger is natural. It is either a force for evil or a force for good. It can be both. It is your choice.
It is not your choice whether or not to be angry. You have permission. Ephesians. 4:26 says to be angry. Go ahead, be angry. Let your anger be what it is. Acknowledge it. Be honest about it and consider it a form of energy. Now, what are you going to do with your energy?
Well, Paul tells us in that verse what not to do with our end energy, don’t sin.
You say, “I’m not a follower of the Bible. What do you mean by sin? “
Sin is a reality, Karl Menninger wrote a book called, “Whatever Became of Sin.”
Do you believe that there’s evil? Do you believe that there are bad choices? Do you believe that people can shoot for one thing and hit something else? Then you do believe in sin. Have you ever made a bad choice? Join us in that assumption.
That’s what we mean by sin.
Don’t do the wrong thing. Don’t make the wrong choice. Don’t have the wrong attitude. Don’t do wrong. Don’t do evil, don’t harm people.
OK, go ahead and be angry.
How do I handle that?
Don’t let the sun go down on your anger. Don’t let. anger predominate your life. Don’t let it go on and on and on. Do not let it become the driving force of your life. Handle it and don’t let it run your life. Let it be part of your life. Let it be positive in your life, but don’t let it run your life.
That’s what Paul means.
There are three words that cross my mind. They all start with “E.”
Bad E: Excuse
Do not let your anger become an excuse for doing what is wrong. Don’t let it motivate you to make big mistakes or hurt people. Do not live in anger or act badly in anger. No excuses. Anger is never an excuse for being a jerk.
E for All: Expression
Everyone must find a healthy outlet for their anger. It could be exercise. It is often the process of talking it out. It might be work. It might be play. It might be time. It may be therapy.
Good E: Energy
This is what I recommend. Find ways to be energized by your anger to make a positive impact on the world.
I recently saw the movie, “Harriet.” Mrs. Tubman came out of slavery and turned her freedom and anger at the evil institution into positive energy.
She committed her life to confronting evil by defying the institution and freeing slaves. She focused. She kept at it and vowed not to quit as long as one slave remained in captivity.
That is what you do with anger.
Find a cause and be energized to turn evil into good.
In crisis, leaders must lead, including thought leaders and influencers. So must I. At least, I must try.
What Do You Do When You Must Address the Crisis? What If You Are a Steward of Influence?
It is seldom in your best interest to climb out on a limb when the ground is shaking and someone is sawing on the tree.
To leave one's place of safety in a crisis is frightening. At the least, it may be bad for business.
But, what if you have a following, no matter how strong or large? What if your following considers you, to some extent, an influencer? Isn't that what a leader is?
Isn't a leader a steward of influence?
A steward is entrusted with something and responsible to use it. Popularity and safety can never be the main concern for a leader. A leader must lead.
A thought leader must put thoughts out there and think out loud.
This article has a duel purpose.
The first is to trigger some thinking about how to think about some bad thinking from a leader who is thinking out loud and, in my view, thinking and acting wrongly.
The second is to encourage you, as leaders, to be courageous and to lead in thinking - even if you disagree with me.
If your are a leader, you must lead. You cannot take a poll ahead of time to find out if you will be supported. You must do what is right.
If your are a thinker, you must, not only think, but think out loud and speak out. The people listening to you are a gift and so is your platform. Use it wisely, boldly, and fearlessly.
If you are a thought leader, lead the thinking. Get out of the box.
If you are an influencer, then influence. You probably know what is right. Do it.
So, here is my argument and it is risky.:
There is a SEQUENCE and I am angry about it and want you to be angry too.
•Our President incited a real insurrection after losing an election over four years ago. There was violence and death. There was an attempt to overthrow the government. He encouraged it and, when it got out of hand and was violent, he refused to lift a finger to stop it. He would not engage the National Guard. He would not tell them to stop. He would not call it an insurrection.
He was elected again and we must accept that.
That is democracy. But he was not elected to be a king.
•He beat the rap on the insurrection - by running for President and winning. He pardoned all the insurrectionists. He fired anyone who might threaten him or hold him accountable. He intimidated the rest. If you have a similar view or a different view, be a steward of your influence.
Be a thought leader. Lead!
•He incited riots in L.A. by staging an event in such a way as to trigger anger and resistance. The response has been mostly peaceful protests. Yes, there has been some rioting. But the commando tactics to enforce immigration violations were calculated to escalate violence
This was intentional as I see it. It was designed to give the POTUS an excuse and a legal basis for overreacting, for invoking emergency power, for squashing dissent, and challenging the sovereign governor of a sovereign state.
He is testing the Constitution for weak places to penetrate.
It is dangerous.
Real thought leaders, if they see this and perceive it this way, must risk their influence, popularity, and livelihoods to call it out!
•He called what is happening in L.A.. an insurrection. That is what the President essentially did. He did not do so when his followers stormed the U.S. Capital, destroyed property, threatened lives, and even killed a police officer. In those days he was declaring he had no power or authority to coop the National Guard.
•He bypassed the Governor in accessing the California National Guard while threatening to jail the Governor. He has gone to war with the State of California and with every other state in the process. Where are the states rights conservatives? Why are they not screaming?
Where are all the other Governors of both parties?
Where are the Republicans who are true to their roots, convictions, and heritage? Where? Where are the voices of truth?
Why are conservatives not angry that they have no real voice because Trump has taken over the Grand Old Party?
Why are Democrats not screaming louder?
This is crisis!
There are so many other manifestations of power-grabbing, attempts to silence dissent and the press, moves to control social media, the arts, and every area of American life and it has been less than six months.
So, for that dubious success, I congratulate you, Mr. Trump.
I have no intention of turning this newsletter into a political diatribe. I honor the full spectrum of political and economic views and philosophies.
However, leaders must lead, thinkers must think, and influencers must influence.
I know I am a very small fish in a big pond, but I must do my part and so must you.
We need conservatives, liberals, and moderates in this country.
A plane cannot fly with one wing.
But President Trump is neither conservative, liberal, nor moderate. His category is different and it is time he is reigned in.
I gave you a sequence with bullets. Here it is again:
SEQUENCE
•Incite a real insurrection after losing an election.
•Beat the rap - by running for President and winning.
•Incite riots, mostly peaceful protests with some rioting by using commando tactics to enforce immigration violations.
•Call it an insurrection.
•Bypass the Governor in accessing the California National Guard while threatening to jail the Governor.
Did I get that order correct?
Our Constitution is in crisis!
Our democracy and freedom are in peril.
Peacefully protest.
Legally resist.
Persistently speak, write, and share.
Engage with good hearted people across ideological fences. Negotiate in good faith, but stand your ground.
Stand in the way of evil.
Refute lies, misrepresentations of truth and false narratives. Shine the light of truth n both truth and falsehood. Let no untruth go unchallenged.
Call out every attempt to deceive.
Pray for your leaders, even the wicked ones. Love your country. Use every peaceful and honorable means to fight tooth and nail for America.
Psalm 22:5 - They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed.
What was it that our fathers did that brought them into the experience of God’s deliverance?
It was very little and very much. It was very little of human effort or initiative.
However, it was a great expression of faith in two parts. First, their attitude was one of trust – that resolute act of resting on God’s grace.
Second, the volitional action was crying out for mercy, help, and salvation in desperate resignation.
We who scatter ourselves about in frantic frenzies of futile flailing exclaim, “Is that all? It can’t be!”
It is.
Unless it becomes that alone, nothing we DO matters.
Only God saves.
"Grace Came Down..."
"For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them."-Ephesians 2:8-10
Manhattan skyscraper, the W. R. Grace building, 1114 6th Ave, Manhattan, NY 10018 (at Bryant Park), designed by Gordon Bunshaft.
How do you know that an invisible God who rarely manifests His presence directly and obviously in your life is really hearing and answering? Sometimes it is in the subtleties; often it is in the coincidences; frequently it is in the irrational peace or the unexplained strength and faith that arises in our hearts as we trust and follow.
So often, it is in joy and in the joyful reality of community that becomes the presence of God to us.
Who is my mother, my sister, my brother? Who is my neighbor, my friend, my another? This is the crux, the crisis, the cross. This is what matters. All else is loss.
We all know the story. It was prompted by a question and occasioned by a teaching in response to a greater question. What we have here is the application: Go and do likewise. One question led to another, then to a story, and then to the lesson Jesus desired to imprint upon every heart: that everyone is our neighbor and that loving our neighbor is about making a practical and active decision to do so and following through regardless of our feelings.
A legal expert who sought to trap Jesus in His own words asked Him what was necessary to inherit eternal life. He turned the question back to him and to his knowledge and interpretation of the law.
“Love God and love your neighbor” was both the answer he gave and the one that Jesus Himself gave on another occasion when asked what the greatest commandment was. Jesus commended him and told him to go and do likewise.
In Acts 16, Paul has come to a very unique city, a Roman colony, Philippi. It is located in present day Greece. There are very few Jews there, but there are some God-fearing women.
One of them, Lydia of Thyatira, becomes the first believer in Europe.
A little later, Paul is having a successful preaching ministry but is followed around by a very annoying young woman who is being exploited by her masters. Paul speaks a word of liberation to her, and she is set free to believe.
Something inevitable happens when the good news liberates people from their bondage
The profits of their masters dry up and the masters cry out.
If God’s people are bringing liberation to the lives of people, powers that be and industries of oppressive commerce will declare, “These men … are disturbing our city.”
They will hurl insults and ethnic slurs.
They will call the prophetic word and its demonstration unlawful.
And they will be correct …. hopefully.
They may even cast the messengers of good news into prison.
“But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, “These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city.” Acts 16:19–20 ESV
God help us to disturb the city.
Paul and Silas, along with their friends are beaten and thrown into jail
Around midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening. . — Acts 16:25
Prior to the coming of the message, the women were believing, but unaware of the full scope of God’s love and grace. The girl believed, but it was not liberated from her spiritual and outer bonds.
An earthquake comes and the chains fall off the prisoners
Now there is a jailer who is about to fall on his sword.
Acts 16:31 — And they said, “Believe on the Lord, Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”
Here is an acronym for what it means to have saving faith:
B- Be convinced that God loves you and that Jesus died for your sins, rising again to give you eternal life. This is the gospel
E– Examine your life honestly in the light of God’s Word and admit your need of a Savior as a result of sin. The Holy Spirit will guide you through this process of conviction if you are open.
L– Let go of your sinful resistance and self-centered control of your life. Another word for this might be repentance , a turning from sin to God.
I– Invest your life completely in God. This is basic, gut-level trust and is necessary for the new life in Christ. Express this change of heart to God in prayer.
E– Eternalize your values. Stop adding up your assets the old way. Understand that eternal reality is true reality and that only what lasts forever is worth our lives.
V– Visualize a new life of freedom, forgiveness, and fullness based upon God’s grace, mercy, and power. This is the beginning of the exercise of faith in your life.
E– Embody the life of Christ within you by receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, His indwelling presence. This is a new birth.
Listen to the whole message:
Recap and Precap
Paul’s Imprisonment and Roman Punishment System The discussion begins with Paul’s imprisonment, highlighting that Roman incarceration was temporary, often leading to execution or release. Romans preferred fines, exile, or death over long-term imprisonment. The concept of penitentiaries for rehabilitation emerged later. Paul, likely jailed in a rented house, exemplifies Roman practices. The narrative transitions to Paul and Silas singing hymns in prison, showcasing their faith and resilience.
Faith and Belief in Adversity Paul and Silas, despite being imprisoned, prayed and sang hymns, demonstrating their unwavering faith. Their actions influenced other prisoners and the jailer, who, after an earthquake, sought salvation. Paul emphasized belief in Jesus for salvation, leading to the jailer’s conversion and baptism of his household. This narrative illustrates the power of faith in dire circumstances and its ability to inspire and transform others.
The Concept of Belief and Salvation The speaker explores the nature of belief and salvation, using an acronym for ‘believe’ to guide understanding. Key points include being convinced of God’s love, examining one’s life, letting go of resistance, investing in faith, and embodying Christ’s life. The narrative emphasizes that belief is not about perfection but starting a new path, with the jailer’s story serving as a practical example of transformation through faith.
The Role of Faith in Community and Personal Transformation The narrative highlights the communal aspect of faith, as seen in the jailer’s household conversion and the support from Lydia’s community. The speaker underscores the transformative power of faith, which leads to personal and communal liberation. The story of the jailer and his family illustrates how faith can bring about profound change, fostering a sense of belonging and purpose within a community.
The Message of Jesus and Eternal Life The speaker concludes with a message about Jesus’ promise of eternal life, emphasizing the importance of belief in Jesus for salvation. The narrative includes a call to embody the life of Christ and to live with the hope of eternal life. The speaker encourages listeners to embrace this message, highlighting the transformative power of faith and the promise of eternal life as central to Christian belief.
“The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.’” – Luke 1:30
Mary had reason to be startled.
She was seeing an angel. She had probably never seen one before. But even if the angel looked like an ordinary man, she might have been taken off-guard.
She needed to be reassured.
Someone big was about to happen, something new, and something dramatic. And yet, it was the fulfillment of a very old promise:
“'I will establish your descendants forever and build your throne for all generations.'" – Psalm 89:4
Mary had grown up with that hymn and that hope. She had sung it all her life.
"I have set the crown on one who is mighty, I have exalted one chosen from the people.” – Psalm 89:19
Mary knew that God chooses people from among the people to do his work in the world. Even his only begotten son would come from among the people and would have an earthly mother. But how could Mary have imagined it would be her?
We all believe that God will use people, but we do not expect to be those people.
One day, when Mary was minding her own business, an angel appeared and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you."
Verse 29 says, “But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.”
That is when he told her not to be afraid.
She had found favor with God.
The angel told her:
“You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."
Mary had questions about her role, her life, her reputation, the possibility of this miracle, and everything associated with this calling, but the answer was simple: “For nothing will be impossible with God."
People say that Christmas is a time when anything is possible. God proved that to Mary.
Leaping Babies
"And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost ... For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy." - Luke 1:41, 44
THE BABE LEAPED
I have never been an expectant mother and never will be. I have been around many, but none as significant as the mother of John the Baptist, aged and thrilled and the Mother of Jesus, young and virginal.
Both in the same room is an event!
I am told that the movements of a baby in the womb can be quite dramatic and are often very exciting for the mom-to-be.
This was the first time that John was ever in the presence of his cousin and his Lord. His entire life would be about announcing the coming of this Messiah, preparing His way, and making His path smooth.
Two boys, yet to be born were brought together by their mothers and there was a celebration.
Before he could really know anything, John experienced the joy of Advent and Christmas. Within his mother's womb, he leaped for joy.
Can you imagine?
He was dancing already.
He celebrated Christmas before Christmas.
He was anticipating his life mission and embracing it with enthusiasm. His life button had been pushed. He could not understand it, articulate it, or fully experience it, but something inside him sensed it.
He was in the presence of his purpose for living.
And so are we. That is the meaning of Advent and Christmas. Our purpose has arrived in human form and He is calling us to join in the great celebration of real life.
Will you?
“Blessed Fruit”
“… Blessed is the fruit of thy womb.” – Luke 1:42
Mary’s body was bringing forth precious fruit.
Her very life had become a vine from which God was about to produce something amazing.
The fruit of her womb was the result of her willingness to become the handmaid of theLord. She was placing her life on the line. She was making her very body and soul available to God.
Remarkable fruit can come from such yielding to the will of God.
Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth understood what was happening in, to, and through Mary.
“And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.” – Luke 1:41-42
She knew that Mary herself was special because she had been chosen by God to bear this precious fruit of His love for humankind.
“And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? - Luke 1:43”
Why did Elizabeth so honor her younger cousin Mary? Why was she so impressed and humbled by this visit from a young lady?
They had a common bond. They were both miraculously pregnant, Elizabeth in her old age and Mary without having known a man.
They were both instruments of God for greater things.
Beyond that, Elizabeth understood Mary’s sacrifice and submission to God’s will. She understood what it cost and had a notion of what it would mean for the world. There is no greater honor or privilege than to put your life and body totally at the disposal of God.
The fruit that is growing in your life will be in proportion to your submission to the One who made you and has called you to a higher purpose than your own ambitions.
Submit to Him today and watch the blessed fruit grow.
Magnify
“And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord … ” – Luke 1:46
One of my favorite childhood toys was a magnifying glass. What a wonderful invention! What a useful tool.
You could blow up an image.
You could show up its most intricate details.
You could heat up anything by deflecting the rays of the sun onto some surface.
Mary might have said it if she were here with our clever devices. We can say it with understanding:
“My soul is like a magnifying glass. I can blow up the image of God for all to see. I can show up the intricate details of the word He is laying on my heart and has written in His book. I can heat up my world with the light and warmth of His presence in my own life.” - Paraphrase
Ours it is to blow up the image of God so that the world can have a picture of what it means for Him to live through and within a human heart. We share His love and shine forth His grace. When we blow up His image, we make it obvious for all. Let us take heed how we represent Him.
Ours is to show up the details. With our words and deeds, we can clarify His truth for seekers. We enflesh the spiritual, actualize the conceptual, and simply the complex.
Ours is to heat up our cold corners of civilization. God creates heat and we are His conduits to the frozen chosen among us.
Residing within Mary, as she sang, was the very presence of God. Residing within us, is that same presence. Oh soul, magnify the Lord!
The Cradle and the Gift
"And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour." - Luke 1:46b-47
My soul magnifies the Lord. Suddenly, in the darkest hour of the night, a candle was lit. Darkness retreated. Light appeared. At least one soul paid attention and magnified the Lord.
She was joined by another, her cousin, Elizabeth, and they sang together.
One spirit rejoiced in the God of salvation. One low estate was replaced by a high estate. One future legacy was secured. The whole earth was blessed with an unspeakable gift.
“Mary, did you know?” is the theme of a folk hymn and a very good question. What did Mary know?
Here is what she knew enough to sing.
God is the savior and so she named her son just that, Jesus, Yahweh Saves!
She knew that,
“from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.” (Luke 1:48b)
She knew that
“he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name.” (Luke 1:49)
She knew about God’s mercy that is
“on them that fear him from generation to generation.” (Luke 50)
She knew the strength of God and how God confounds the proud.
“He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.” (Luke 1:51)
She knew that God turns the tides on might and power.
“He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.” (Luke 1:52)
She knew that this God who was doing this remarkable thing in her was the kind helper of her people.
“He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away. He hath helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy …” (Luke 1:53-54)
What Mary knew is a point of interesting discussion and meditation. What we know matters more. We know, through her experience, all that she knew and the rest of the story.
What is known is all just interesting religious trivia unless we choose to act on faith upon what we know. Let us, then, act in faith and allow our souls to magnify the Lord.
The Magnificat remains one of the most glorious expressions of praise in all of musical literature. Perhaps, someday, in Heaven, God will allow us to hear a replay of the day Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth or the day the angel visited Mary and announced God’s intentions to her.
We would hear that conversation that altered history and sweet sound of her acceptance of God’s great gift of His Son to and through her. The music of absolute surrender would call us to worship and we would join her in exclaiming.
“My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior!”
No less significant was the day your heart responded to God’s grace and declared, “be it unto me according to thy word.”
That God would regard the low estate of His handmaiden and plant the seed of redemption within her womb is a magnificent thing indeed. That God would regard our low estates that Christ might be conceived and born in our hearts by faith is astounding!
We cannot help but sing His praise. We cannot resist the call the worship. We cannot feign to exalt His Name and rejoice in the miracle of His coming. As Mary conceived without human agency, so, that which is born in us of God is without human effort.
Welcome Him to your life anew today and join in chorus:
Prophets foretold Him, Infant of wonder; Angels behold Him On the throne; Worthy our Savior Of all our praises; Happy forever are His own. -Mary Macdonald
Rejoice!
My Spirit Rejoices
“… my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…” – Luke 1:47
Mary rejoiced and echoed Isaiah:
The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to provide for those who mourn in Zion-- to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. – Isiah 61:1-3a
Now, we see Mary rejoicing as she prepares for the birth of this son who will bring the day of God’s glory and redemption. Her spirit rejoices because she has been chosen to be an instrument of God’s peace. It rejoiced because she will join those who are called:
“oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, to display his glory.” – Isaiah 61:3b
To be an instrument of God, like Mary, is to be among those who:
“shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.” – Isaiah 61:4
Mary rejoiced and all of those who embrace the wonder of being chosen by God have reason to rejoice in their spirits.
“I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” – Isaiah 61:10
The LORD has done great things for us, and we rejoiced. – Psalm 126:3
"My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed.for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.” – Luke 1:46b-49
"O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!" - Isaiah 40:9
I have always been inspired by mountains.
Whether I am gazing from afar or in them, they elevate me. They call out something within me. They take my breath away. Mountains remind me of my smallness and God’s greatness. They evoke awe and invoke the presence of the One who crafted them.
In the mountains, the air is cleaner, and the view is clearer.
It is no wonder that God chose a mountain, Mount Zion, for His temple among the Jews. He chose a mountain to meet Moses. He chose a mountain from which to give His law. Jesus chose mountains to pray. Even His final hours before His arrest were spent on the Mount of Olives. It was on a mountain that He was transfigured and from a mountain that He ascended into Heaven.
Mt. Ararat, in Genesis 8, is where the ark came to rest. It was from there that the first rainbow appeared. At Mount Moriah, Abraham encountered God as a provider and faithful Father when called to sacrifice Isaac. Mount Sinai, Mount, Pisgah, Mount Carmel, and Mount Herman all have stories attached.
Our response to mountains is the same call for any place on earth. It is to meet God there as our spiritual ancestors did. Even if you live in the vast plains, you can do that. You can come to the Mountain of God.
"And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." - Isaiah 2:3
We calculate net worth when we evaluate our finances, apply for loans, or make other financial decisions.
Real net worth is more holistic and spiritual. Consider these verses.
Rich Toward God
“So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. “-Luke 12: 21
This is not so much about how to be rich toward God as it is about how not to be.
The more insular your circle of concern, the narrower your possibilities and the more fragile is your security.
The man or woman whose focus is accumulation of wealth, power, and personal gain is on unstable ground. Anything can happen. Life changes. Circumstances change. The breath of life can be taken away in an instant.
A man wanted Jesus to arbitrate a dispute with his brother. It was all about land and money. Jesus tells him that he has no role or voice in that dispute. To engage himself in that would be mission drift. He came to help us focus on higher things.
“Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.”
What is life about?
That is the question into which Jesus would have us submerge our consciousness.
“And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man …”
There was a man who was not wrong because he was rich. He was wrong because he placed all of his confidence in his wealth and defined his life by it. When he lost his life, he had nothing to show for it but storehouses of stuff that now belonged to someone else.
Until the moment of his death, he was deluded by this philosophy:
“And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.”
But God has the last word:
“ Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?”
Then Jesus spells out the application:
“So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
What is life all about? The answer begins with asking the right questions and setting the right priorities.
Your Father’s Good Pleasure
“Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.“ -Luke 12:32
After warning the listeners about losing everything by seeking to gain riches at all costs, Jesus speaks these words, Fear not.”
Fear not because your Father loves to give and wants to give you his entire Kingdom.
He gives this advice: Divest.
“Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
As we view a retrospective of the early church, we find that there were many who took this quite literally and threw off the shackles of possessions to follow Jesus.
Others took it more symbolically and dedicated all their possessions to God and lived as if God were the owner of all they had once considered their own.
In both cases, there was a conversion of their thinking about how they viewed wealth and ownership.
He taught his disciples to travel light when he said,:
“Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.”
Be ready to respond and ready to move quickly, not overloaded with stuff that ties you down.
“Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching…”
Things can happen quickly when we live, move, and breathe in the realm of the Spirit.
We need to be ready. To be ready, we must be unencumbered.
We lose nothing by giving it all to God and to others. It is a lesson I learned early in life from a godly grandmother. She told me two things:
You cannot outgive God and you only save, in this life, what you give away.
God’s desire is to give you far more than you could ever wish for, hope for, or accumulate on your own. It is God’s good pleasure to give you the entire Kingdom. Nothing can compete with that. Fear not, little flock!
“Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.”
Will It Burn? The Big Test of Real Wealth
“I am come to send fire on the earth… “ -Luke 12:49b
Our minds go straight to hell when we read the word, “fire.” But we are wrong.
I mean that our focus is on hell and our assumption is that hell is the subject of Jesus’ discourse.
In this case, it is not. He means trouble, raging burning, consuming trouble and division.
He is predicting persecution of those who dare to follow him.
Consider the mood of the moment. Jesus is about to stare down death. He is proceeding with intention toward his date with destiny. His disciples will be terrified. Darkness will come to the earth. People will choose sides.
In the coming years, saints will be martyred, and households will be disrupted.
“I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?”
That is the fire, and it starts with his own sacrifice.
“ But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished! Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: or from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.”
Not everyone will support you in your discipleship. Some will. Some will be indifferent. Some will be amused. Some will be passively tolerant. Some will be openly hostile. You cannot depend upon the support of everyone in your life. You must choose what matters no matter how hot the fire of opposition.
Jesus lets the disciples know that there are dangerous times ahead.
He never sugarcoated the call to follow him. He never watered it down. Rather, he heated it up and disclosed the cost.
His evangelism was compelling, but it was also brutally honest.
Most people never intentionally lie. They (we) just come across snippets of information that support what we believe. We fully embrace them, skim the surface, avoid nuances, simplify, and pass them on as gospel truth to be received by others and passed on with our endorsement.
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Often, the most disturbing lies are the ones we tell ourselves until we believe them.
Just because we have been wearing our excrement long enough to stop smelling it, does not mean its not still there.
We really sometimes need a complete wardrobe makeover ...
It is not about the rain. Rain falls everywhere. It falls on everyone.
It is not about the wind. Wind blows everywhere. It blows on everyone.
It is not always about design of the house. It is not always about the materials you use. It is not about how hard you work to build it. Not always though those things matter.
But they matter not at all if you build the house in the wrong place. Sand is a poor place for the best foundation.
The truth upon which you build your life matters when the storms come.
Even a child can know that !
Matthew 7:22-27
"On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?' Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.'"
"Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock."
"And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell-- and great was its fall!"
And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed. -Esther 9:28
We walk gingerly among the gravestones that dot the pathways of our memories. Like those characters in the Spoon River Anthology, shadows arise from the markers and tell their stories. They are stories of love and laughter, of providence and accidence. They touch mystery and mischief. They are stories of deep devotion and unspeakable sacrifice.
These are the sometimes vivid, sometimes shadowy memories of ordinary men and women swept up into the wave of national conflict, ready to answer the call of duty, desiring to live, willing to die, and gradually being forgotten except for this: We choose to remember them.
We strain to remember them.
In the dash that is their moment between the date of birth and that of death, every choice, every embrace, each and every thought, dream, or word was accomplished and enshrined. Dedicated beneath the stones is a place of memory. Consecrated within the hearts of loved ones are their smiles and presence.
But they too will die and with them, memories.
So, we commit and strain to remember. We tell their stories. We exalt their blood offering. We look upon their suffering with gratitude and horror. We hug their children. We remember.
Long after each of us is gone and our names have been erased from the consciousness of all who knew us or of us, we can still be giving and these who died for country will still be loved and appreciated for their selfless gifts. What they gave will keep on giving.
So let us be reminded, by their memories, to so live, that every day, we shall create a ripple in the river of life that will freshen the stream for all time.
On this day in 1830 – The Indian Removal Act is passed by the U.S. Congress; it is signed into law by President Andrew Jackson two days later.
Framed as compassionate, it facilitated mass genocide.
Jackson justified this ignoble law and policy in his state of the Union address as follows:
Andrew Jackson's Annual Message
It gives me pleasure to announce to Congress that the benevolent policy of the Government, steadily pursued for nearly thirty years, in relation to the removal of the Indians beyond the white settlements is approaching to a happy consummation. Two important tribes have accepted the provision made for their removal at the last session of Congress, and it is believed that their example will induce the remaining tribes also to seek the same obvious advantages.
The consequences of a speedy removal will be important to the United States, to individual States, and to the Indians themselves. The pecuniary advantages which it promises to the Government are the least of its recommendations. It puts an end to all possible danger of collision between the authorities of the General and State Governments on account of the Indians. It will place a dense and civilized population in large tracts of country now occupied by a few savage hunters. By opening the whole territory between Tennessee on the north and Louisiana on the south to the settlement of the whites it will incalculably strengthen the southwestern frontier and render the adjacent States strong enough to repel future invasions without remote aid. It will relieve the whole State of Mississippi and the western part of Alabama of Indian occupancy, and enable those States to advance rapidly in population, wealth, and power. It will separate the Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites; free them from the power of the States; enable them to pursue happiness in their own way and under their own rude institutions; will retard the progress of decay, which is lessening their numbers, and perhaps cause them gradually, under the protection of the Government and through the influence of good counsels, to cast off their savage habits and become an interesting, civilized, and Christian community.
What good man would prefer a country covered with forests and ranged by a few thousand savages to our extensive Republic, studded with cities, towns, and prosperous farms embellished with all the improvements which art can devise or industry execute, occupied by more than 12,000,000 happy people, and filled with all the blessings of liberty, civilization and religion?
The present policy of the Government is but a continuation of the same progressive change by a milder process. The tribes which occupied the countries now constituting the Eastern States were annihilated or have melted away to make room for the whites. The waves of population and civilization are rolling to the westward, and we now propose to acquire the countries occupied by the red men of the South and West by a fair exchange, and, at the expense of the United States, to send them to land where their existence may be prolonged and perhaps made perpetual. Doubtless it will be painful to leave the graves of their fathers; but what do they more than our ancestors did or than our children are now doing? To better their condition in an unknown land our forefathers left all that was dear in earthly objects. Our children by thousands yearly leave the land of their birth to seek new homes in distant regions. Does Humanity weep at these painful separations from everything, animate and inanimate, with which the young heart has become entwined? Far from it. It is rather a source of joy that our country affords scope where our young population may range unconstrained in body or in mind, developing the power and facilities of man in their highest perfection. These remove hundreds and almost thousands of miles at their own expense, purchase the lands they occupy, and support themselves at their new homes from the moment of their arrival. Can it be cruel in this Government when, by events which it can not control, the Indian is made discontented in his ancient home to purchase his lands, to give him a new and extensive territory, to pay the expense of his removal, and support him a year in his new abode? How many thousands of our own people would gladly embrace the opportunity of removing to the West on such conditions! If the offers made to the Indians were extended to them, they would be hailed with gratitude and joy.
And is it supposed that the wandering savage has a stronger attachment to his home than the settled, civilized Christian? Is it more afflicting to him to leave the graves of his fathers than it is to our brothers and children? Rightly considered, the policy of the General Government toward the red man is not only liberal, but generous. He is unwilling to submit to the laws of the States and mingle with their population. To save him from this alternative, or perhaps utter annihilation, the General Government kindly offers him a new home, and proposes to pay the whole expense of his removal and settlement.
Model of a city, detail from church altarpiece Notes: Parallels between actual towns and the Heavenly Jerusalem were frequent during this time period. From The Yorck Project.Date:1482Artist:Crivelli, Carlo, 15th cent
“The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.”
A God that We Might Know
There is a God who desires to be known and there are people who desire, whether they know it or not, to know God.
Acts 16:9–15 — Getting to Know God in a Not-So-Chance Meeting on the Sabbath
During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them. We therefore set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days.
On the Sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.” And she prevailed upon us.
Psalm 67 — A Prayer that All Might Know
May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us,
Selah
that your way may be known upon earth,
your saving power among all nations.
Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth.
Selah
Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.
The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, has blessed us.
May God continue to bless us; let all the ends of the earth revere him.
Revelation 21:10, 22–22:5 — In the City of God, Where All Know God
And in the spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.
Its gates will never be shut by day — and there will be no night there.
People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.
But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Nothing accursed will be found there any more.
But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
John 14:23–29 — Knowing God in a Day by Day, Moment by Moment, Loving Relationship
Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words, and the word that you hear is not mine but is from the Father who sent me.
“I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.
“You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I.
And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur you may believe.
John 5:1–9 — Meeting God and Being Made Well on the Sabbath
After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many ill, blind, lame, and paralyzed people. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”
The ill man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am making my way someone else steps down ahead of me.”
Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.”
At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.
The speaker emphasizes the importance of knowing God, which transcends intellectual understanding, and highlights the Sabbath as a time for reflection and connection with God. The Sabbath is described as a meeting place between God and man, a time to step away from daily life and focus on the eternal. The speaker references Acts 16, where Paul has a vision of a man from Macedonia, illustrating the theme of divine encounters and the importance of being open to them. The speaker discusses how the Sabbath is a recurring theme in the passages and how it serves as a time to step aside from the busy work of life to focus on something eternal, allowing for a deeper relational and loving knowing of God.
Prayer and Psalm 67
The speaker discusses Psalm 67 as a prayer for God’s grace and blessings, emphasizing the desire for God’s ways to be known on Earth. The psalm is a call for all nations to praise God and for His justice and truth to prevail. The speaker highlights the importance of praying for others to know God and for His blessings to be evident in the world, reflecting a communal desire for divine connection and understanding. The speaker emphasizes that the prayer is for all people to know God and be glad, and for God’s equity, justice, and truth to prevail.
Revelation and Eternal Knowing
The speaker reflects on Revelation 21 and 22, describing a vision of the Holy City, Jerusalem, as a place where God’s presence is eternal and accessible. The imagery of the city with no need for sun or moon, and the River of Life, symbolizes eternal access to God. The speaker emphasizes that knowing God is an eternal pursuit, and the vision serves as a reminder of the ultimate fulfillment of longing for divine connection. The speaker describes how the vision of the Holy City represents the eternal purposes of heaven on Earth, where God’s presence is the light and the nations walk by it.
Jesus’ Teachings on Love and the Holy Spirit
The speaker discusses Jesus’ teachings in John 14, emphasizing the importance of love and obedience in knowing God. Jesus promises the Holy Spirit as an advocate to teach and remind believers of His teachings. The speaker highlights the peace that comes from knowing God, contrasting it with the troubled and fearful heart of those who do not know Him. This peace is described as a deeper understanding and connection with God, beyond intellectual belief. The speaker explains that Jesus describes the relationship with God as one of love, where the Holy Spirit enables believers to understand and remember His teachings, bringing peace that surpasses understanding.
Healing and Faith at the Pool of Bethesda
The speaker recounts the story from John 5 of a man healed by Jesus at the Pool of Bethesda. The man had been ill for 38 years and believed in a legend that an angel would stir the waters for healing. Jesus asks if he wants to be made well, emphasizing the importance of faith and desire for healing. The story illustrates the theme of divine intervention and the transformative power of faith in knowing God. The speaker highlights that the man’s healing was not about winning a race to the water but about hearing Jesus’ voice and standing up in faith, illustrating the deeper knowing and trust in God’s grace.
SUMMARY from Notetaker
The meeting, led by Tom Sims, focused on the theme of knowing God, exploring this through various biblical passages. The discussion began with reflections on the presence of God and the desire for a deeper understanding beyond intellectual knowledge, as illustrated by Carl Jung’s statement of knowing God. The meeting then delved into Acts 16, highlighting Paul’s vision and encounter with Lydia, emphasizing the Sabbath as a time for spiritual connection. Psalm 67 was discussed as a prayer for universal knowledge of God, followed by a vision from Revelation 21 of eternal access to God. The conversation also included Jesus’ teachings in John 14 about a loving relationship with God and the role of the Holy Spirit. Finally, the story of a healing at the pool of Bethesda in John 5 was used to illustrate faith and the desire for wellness. The meeting concluded with an encouragement to embrace the Sabbath as a moment of connection with God and to act on the faith that leads to knowing God.
More Reflections — How I Reflected on These Texts in the Past
Le Breton, Jacques ; Gaudin, Jean 1500s
To Begin Again
John 5:8 — “Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.”
A lame man only knew how to do one thing well: Be lame. He actually knew two things. He knew how to beg for alms. His life was about to change. Through the power of God and the love of Jesus, he was about to be able to do three things:
Rise.
Take up his bed.
Walk.
Louise Fletcher Tarkington was the wife of playwright Boot Tarkington. They married in 1902 and had a daughter, Laurel in 1906. Boot was an alcoholic and Louise divorced him in 1911. Laurel developed schizophrenia and died of pneumonia at the age of 16. Louise died in 1923 a year after Laurel’s death.
You might say that Louise was somewhat crippled by her circumstances. Her life was sad and hard. We do not really know very much about her life except for what was in her obituary and the fact that she left us a magnificent poem.
The first verse reads:
I wish that there were some wonderful place
Called the Land of Beginning Again
Where all our mistakes and all our heartaches
And all of our selfish grief
Could be dropped like a shabby old coat by the door
And never be put on again.
The next to the last verse says:
For what had been hardest we’d know had been best
And what had seemed loss would be gain
For there isn’t a sting that will not take a wing
When we’ve faced it and laughed it away,
And I think that the laughter is most what we’re after
In the Land of Beginning Again.
Mrs. Tarkington, out of her own encounter with the God of grace, had learned to rise, take up her bed, and walk.
Jesus asked the right question, “Do you want to be healed?” The man heard it through his own filters and thought his answer was contingent on his preconceptions of getting in the water. That was not the case. Right question, wrong answer, but Jesus did not give up and the man was healed.
“ Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids — blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.”
“Now that day was the Sabbath.”
(John 5:2–9 ESV)
The last statement brings up a whole different subject and yet, the main subject of the story — how we get locked in by our limited thinking and the boxes in which we try to fit God.
… on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. — Revelation 22:2
In June, there is a National Doughnut Day. Doughnut shops around the country are giving them away. The Salvation Army started the celebration in 1938. It seems that during World War I, some of their members went to the battlegrounds to serve baked goods to soldiers. The day honors those volunteers.
Every special day has some sort of history, meaning, significance, or ulterior motive behind it.
Did you know that May 3 was Lumpy Rug Day?
That’s OK, because the next is National Candied Orange Peel Day and next Sunday is Clean Up Your Room Day. There are about 20 special days in May and in every month of the year. They are proliferating.
They are as predictable as the flow of a mighty river. Solomon was right when he said that for everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven.
It is OK too! There are “God-Made” Holy Days and “man-made” special days and God made every day for celebration of life and commemoration of His presence.
John saw a vision of a day when our experience of God’s blessings would be consistent, day after day, month after month. May, June, and January are all the same in God’s city. The river of life supplies refreshment to the tree of life, and life grows from her.
What John saw in Heaven is a future promise and a present spiritual reality. That which flows from God is ever new and always refreshing. The river that nourishes the tree of life nourishes us and produces healing fruit in our lives.
Remember, every time you see a flower, that it is seasonal and dependent upon the right weather, food, and water.
Remember every time you see spiritual fruit that it is also dependent on the right spiritual conditions, but especially, an eternal and consistent source who does not depend on special days, months, or seasons to bring life.
Remember when you see a doughnut, that it is probably not as good for you as the fruit that grows by living water … but you have permission to eat one … maybe … today .
“In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” — Revelation 22:2
Lately there has been a growing interest in the therapeutic value of fruits. The chemical properties of certain fruits seem to promote general health and even healing is some instances. Most of these have grown naturally in the wild for millennia. God planted them, watered them, and nourished them.
Someday, believers will taste different fruits and experience a different sort of healing. Along the river of God, the tree of life will produce a complete crop of fruit that will heal all the ills of mankind. This is God’s doing, and He does it well.
Just as man never planted the trees in the rainforest that produce antioxidants and healthy reactions in the human body, no man or woman plants or cultivates the tree of life. God provides it and it will be prominent in the Holy City, New Jerusalem.
The scripture says that there will be no more death, sorrow, or crying there. There will be no pain. All the former things will be passed. Only what is new will remain.
So this fruit does so much more than bolster our immune systems or supply our bodies with nutrients. It makes us immune to the power of death and nourishes our eternal souls. This fruit refreshes and renews and is pleasant to the taste and to the eye.
Here at the close of history and the beginning of a new age, there is a great reversal. It was another tree, with the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil that was also pleasant to the eye and the taste. It sent mankind into a spiraling tailspin of destruction at the start of human history and closed off all access to the tree of life. Now, in the New Jerusalem, the tree of life is available to all and provides the real thing to all who hunger.
It is certainly and absolutely, one of my favorite poems since youth, my musical knowledge was deficit in not knowing that one of my favorite choral composers, Randall Thompson, had created a musical setting for it.
Frost and his critics would ascertain that it has been misunderstood and misapplied, but I would ask this: Can that ever be true of poetry?
The poet presents the words as a whole and expects them to have a life of their own. She or he never attempts to offer commentary, only the offering itself.
Where and how it lands is out of the hands of the poet.
After all, there are two choices built into the poem itself.
But now, it seems, choices have proliferated. Did Frost have it easy with only two? Or was it a constraint to be so limited? What do you prefer?
"TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;"
"Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same,"
"And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back."
"I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference." - Robert Frost
There comes a time when you must resist what is wrong.
R — Reaffirm core commitments. E- Examine everything carefully. S - Search beneath, beyond, within. I - Insist on having a voice & use it. S - Speak your truth fearlessly T -Take your stand & stand tall.
In the video, I failed to elaborate on the word, “Insist,” but read it and heed it.
When the world is upside down, what is our part in turning things around?
Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.”Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them,but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work.They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus,but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord.He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.
I love the way that Luke records the practical details of the missional movement in a matter-of-fact manner, telling the story of the apostles.
In Acts 15: 36- 41 we see that Paul, in conversation with Barnabas, says “Let's go back and visit the believers in the towns where we preach the word of the Lord and see how they're doing.” Isn't that something that's just going on all the time in the ministry? You want to see how people are doing. These are people that we've invested our lives in, people that we've nurtured, people that we've tried to help them grow.
Barnabas wanted to take John, who's also called mark with them. But Paul didn't think it was wise to take him because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and not continued with them in work.
There was something that was lacking in Mark's maturity. This is the Mark who would grow up to write the Gospel of Mark and eventually be very useful to Paul. But at this point, Paul doesn't have the patience for an immature disciple or doesn't feel that it's wise to take him along.
Barnabas has that level of patience. It is the same patience he exercised with Saul, who now we're calling Paul because they're in the Greek context.
So, they had a sharp disagreement, and they parted company.
We do not always agree with each other. That does not necessarily make anyone 100% right or wrong. It is a matter of how we see things. It may be a matter of preference. It may be a way of working out our unique callings.
Barnabas took Mark and set out for Cypress. We lose track of him. Not everyone makes it to the news feed. Not everyone has all of their activities in Wikipedia. Sometimes, those who are most effective and productive work behind the scenes even after they disappear from view.
Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord.
Now, there are two teams of church planters on the field. The effort has been multiplied by two.
Paul went to Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.
What has happened here is that Paul and Barnabas have parted ways, but they've doubled their effectiveness. Nowhere does it say that because of their sharp disagreement that they were angry with each other or broke fellowship. They just could not agree which partner was going with them on the journey.
They had a difference in strategy and style.
It was all in the will of the Lord.
God works with our personalities, with our relationships, with our circumstances. Barnabas, the very patient, nurturing apostle and mentor, takes the young man. Paul takes the more seasoned leader. Luke, ends up with Paul. So, we start reading the book of Acts from Luke's perspective. We know more about Paul
We don't follow. Barnabas anymore. But both were no doubt very effective. God is at work in every detail of our lives.
This is the missional movement.
Why do we have so many ministries, denominations, styles of church, and kinds of leaders? I think it is part of the Spirit’s strategy from multiplying influence and effectiveness.
It is part of being laborers together with God.
God embodies all of the personality variances, strengths, and style in his person, but each of us can only have a part of that banquet at our table. We contain elements of the expression of God’s presence in the world, but none of us has every quality perfected in us.
What we have is what we need to be what we must be and do what we must do.
We will inevitably have disagreements. We may have heated debates. But, in the end, we remain siblings of Jesus and one another. For that to remain true and vibrant, we must handle our conflicts with maturity and grace.
Fear and Trembling in Toastmasters and LifeTom Sims , Ongoing Conversation Between FriendsFollow4 min read·Just now--Share
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Toastmasters International is a centenarian organization (the club, not the members) that teaches leadership and communication skills in an atmosphere of fun, acceptance, dignity, and a spirit of collegiality and support.
"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." - II Corinthians 4:7
The late Leonard Cohen is known for a number of popular secular compositions, but one of them hints at a scriptural truth from First Corinthians 4 as illustrated by the candle holders with cracks and patterns.
“There’s a crack in everything; that’s how the light gets in.”
It is also how the light gets out.
What is with all the candles in our religious celebrations?
Nothing.
It is never about the candles, and it is always about the light.
"This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." - I John 1:5
"Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." - John 8:12
" Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid." - Matthew 5:14
That is what it is all about. That is what the season is all about. The world is stuck and stumbling in darkness and light has come.
Without light, we are all in trouble. Life comes to a screeching halt. The universe becomes one vast expanse of dark matter.
There is a container with a candle glowing in your home.
There is a container with a candle glowing in your life.
Yes, it is beautiful, but more than that, it is necessary, lifegiving, and God-revealing!
And we are the broken, cracked, and crafted vessels through which it shines … through which He shines!
The divine interruption is the message of good news.
Psalm 57:8 Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early.
The Kingdom of God awakens us to new possibilities like a brand-new morning:
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye and believe the gospel.” — Mark 1:15
Hear the voice of Jesus calling across the ages, bursting onto the scene of our darkest despair. See Him walking, calling, crying out with hope and interrupting our descent into defeat. Hear Him! See Him. Follow Him.
The time is now. The time is now! Now! Now! It is fulfilled.
The Kingdom is near. The Kingdom is here.
Look! Here is the King. He comes to awaken the morning.
He is dressed like a prophet. He moves like a servant.
He speaks as a teacher. He touches as a healer.
He delivers as a Savior. He walks as a man.
The Kingdom has arrived.
Stop believing bad news. Turn. Repent.
Start believing good news. It is a fresh new day!
The Kingdom has arrived. The Kingdom is at hand.
Come and follow. Come and see.
Come and fish for people.
Come along and walk with me.
Come! Repent. Turn.
Turn away from the bondage that clings to you.
Turn from stinking thinking that’s got you sinking.
Hear the voice of One who sets you free.
Hear the voice of the good news that silences the demons.
Authoritative words: You can turn. Here is the grace.
Here is the permission. Here is the invitation. Here is the power.
Here is the King. It is a new day, a new government,
A new deal. Here is your King!
The message of repentance is good news, not so much, “you must,” as “you can.” Yes, we must, but we never knew we could.
The bad news is all around us. The divine interruption is the message of good news. You are not stuck. You are not hopeless. A new King is here. It is a new morning.
Awaken the Dawn and Welcome the Kingdom!
The divine interruption is the message of good news.
Psalm 57:8 Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early.
The Kingdom of God awakens us to new possibilities like a brand-new morning:
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye and believe the gospel.” — Mark 1:15
Hear the voice of Jesus calling across the ages, bursting onto the scene of our darkest despair. See Him walking, calling, crying out with hope and interrupting our descent into defeat. Hear Him! See Him. Follow Him.
The time is now. The time is now! Now! Now! It is fulfilled.
The Kingdom is near. The Kingdom is here.
Look! Here is the King. He comes to awaken the morning.
He is dressed like a prophet. He moves like a servant.
He speaks as a teacher. He touches as a healer.
He delivers as a Savior. He walks as a man.
The Kingdom has arrived.
Stop believing bad news. Turn. Repent.
Start believing good news. It is a fresh new day!
The Kingdom has arrived. The Kingdom is at hand.
Come and follow. Come and see.
Come and fish for people.
Come along and walk with me.
Come! Repent. Turn.
Turn away from the bondage that clings to you.
Turn from stinking thinking that’s got you sinking.
Hear the voice of One who sets you free.
Hear the voice of the good news that silences the demons.
Authoritative words: You can turn. Here is the grace.
Here is the permission. Here is the invitation. Here is the power.
Here is the King. It is a new day, a new government,
A new deal. Here is your King!
The message of repentance is good news, not so much, “you must,” as “you can.” Yes, we must, but we never knew we could.
The bad news is all around us. The divine interruption is the message of good news. You are not stuck. You are not hopeless. A new King is here. It is a new morning.
Awaken the Dawn and Welcome the Kingdom!
The divine interruption is the message of good news.
Psalm 57:8 Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early.
The Kingdom of God awakens us to new possibilities like a brand-new morning:
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye and believe the gospel.” — Mark 1:15
Hear the voice of Jesus calling across the ages, bursting onto the scene of our darkest despair. See Him walking, calling, crying out with hope and interrupting our descent into defeat. Hear Him! See Him. Follow Him.
The time is now. The time is now! Now! Now! It is fulfilled.
The Kingdom is near. The Kingdom is here.
Look! Here is the King. He comes to awaken the morning.
He is dressed like a prophet. He moves like a servant.
He speaks as a teacher. He touches as a healer.
He delivers as a Savior. He walks as a man.
The Kingdom has arrived.
Stop believing bad news. Turn. Repent.
Start believing good news. It is a fresh new day!
The Kingdom has arrived. The Kingdom is at hand.
Come and follow. Come and see.
Come and fish for people.
Come along and walk with me.
Come! Repent. Turn.
Turn away from the bondage that clings to you.
Turn from stinking thinking that’s got you sinking.
Hear the voice of One who sets you free.
Hear the voice of the good news that silences the demons.
Authoritative words: You can turn. Here is the grace.
Here is the permission. Here is the invitation. Here is the power.
Here is the King. It is a new day, a new government,
A new deal. Here is your King!
The message of repentance is good news, not so much, “you must,” as “you can.” Yes, we must, but we never knew we could.
The bad news is all around us. The divine interruption is the message of good news. You are not stuck. You are not hopeless. A new King is here. It is a new morning.
Ai wrote the summary, but .... from my sermon which was written down.
It is interesting how they interpreted it.
Check it out and let me know how they did.
SUMMARY
The meeting, led by Tom Sims, focused on the concept of gaining a 'bird's eye view' or 'God's eye view' of reality and eternity through scripture and prayer. Sims emphasized the importance of understanding the broader perspective of life, which helps make sense of smaller details and fosters a deeper comprehension of God's creation. He discussed the biblical vision of a new Heaven and a new Earth, where divisions between God and mortals are removed, and all things are made new. This vision is linked to the idea of God's presence among people, as illustrated by the New Jerusalem coming down from Heaven. Sims highlighted the significance of love and community, urging participants to live out God's love and reflect His glory in the world. He concluded by encouraging attendees to embrace this higher reality and let it transform their lives, while acknowledging the ongoing process of God making all things new.
DISCUSSION
The Bird's Eye View and God's Perspective The speaker discusses the concept of a bird's eye view as a metaphor for understanding God's perspective. This view allows one to see the broader picture, understanding the unity and master plan of creation. The speaker emphasizes the importance of prayerful reading of scripture to gain this perspective, which helps comprehend the incomprehensible aspects of God's creation and plan. The bird's eye view is a good metaphor because the bird can soar into the clouds and yet swoop down to the Earth to harvest a worm. It sees big and it sees small at the same time. God does that over time and space and over history. The more time we spend immersing ourselves in the Eternal Word, the broader our view becomes. If you're perplexed about how things come together, ask God to stir up a fascination with his word and to do so in your soul to climb to a higher height. In prayerful reading of scripture will be a lifelong adventure for you.
Space-Time and Reality The speaker touches on the concept of space-time, introduced by Einstein, to explain the relativity of space and time in understanding reality. This concept is used to illustrate how God's perspective transcends human understanding of time and space, offering a stable reality. The speaker encourages seeking a God's eye view of reality through scripture and prayer. The bird's eye view helps us make sense of the smaller details, and it creates within us a desire to zero in on some of the finer points from a new perspective. We begin to comprehend the incomprehensibility of God's capacity to gaze upon the fine points of his Creation with the larger perspective in view.
The New Heaven and New Earth The speaker describes a vision of a new heaven and new earth from the Book of Revelation, where the first heaven and earth have passed away. This vision symbolizes the removal of divisions between God and mortals, and the establishment of a new reality where God dwells among people. The speaker emphasizes the ongoing process of God making all things new, offering hope and transformation. The new Heaven and the new Earth signify that everything is reformed. All of time, eternity, and infinity are redefined. There's a new Heaven and a new Earth, a new place where we plant our feet, and everything else has passed away, and there's no more gap.
Inclusion of Gentiles in God's Plan The speaker references the Book of Acts, where Peter defends preaching to Gentiles, highlighting the inclusion of all people in God's plan. This inclusion is part of the unfolding vision of God's kingdom, where love and unity are central. The speaker underscores the importance of loving one another as a preview of the relationships in the new heaven and earth. The kingdom is coming, and love one another is a new commandment. Let the love of God, which is eternal, be a part of this unfolding vision, which is a part of what God is doing through the old Earth and in the old Heavens to bring about a new Heaven and a new Earth.
God's Presence Among Mortals The speaker discusses the concept of God's presence among mortals, as described in Revelation. This presence signifies the removal of barriers and the establishment of a direct relationship between God and people. The speaker highlights the transformation from mortality to eternity, where God wipes away tears and removes pain, offering a new reality of hope and peace. The home of God is among mortals, and he will dwell with them as their God. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. In this new heaven, this new Earth, and this New Jerusalem, mortals and God are together.
The Role of the Church and Community The speaker shares an experience of a church choosing to stay in its community despite challenges, emphasizing the importance of being present and serving the community. This decision reflects the church's commitment to being part of God's work of making all things new. The speaker stresses the need for the church to reflect God's love and presence in the world, embodying the bird's eye view. The church made a decision to stay in its community, knowing it would be hard and require major improvements and a change of strategy. But only from the bird's eye view can real success be measured.
Living the Bird's Eye View The speaker concludes by encouraging individuals to live with a bird's eye view, understanding God's ongoing work of making all things new. This perspective involves seeing beyond immediate challenges and recognizing the broader reality of God's plan. The speaker calls for transformation through this understanding, urging people to live in love and unity, reflecting God's presence in their lives and communities. The bird's eye view gives us the Earth-bound view. It is the love of God among the people. It is the presence of God in Christ in his people, his church. The presence of God among his people and in the world today until this vision becomes a reality for us.
“Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens: praise him in the heights.” — Psalm 148:1
When I was a boy, I had a mild fear of heights.
To be truthful, it was more a fear of falling from the heights. I was fascinated by the view.
It can be disorienting, frightening, and overwhelming.
Most often, fascination won out over fear. The eyes longed to see what others were not seeing. The heart longed to soar. My whole body longed for a view that would take my breath away.
The higher we go, the broader our view.
We see less detail, but we exchange that limitation for a greater understanding of how things come together.
The longer view shows us more of the world as one whole. It unveils a panorama of beauty. It paints a landscape that proclaims a grand unity. It gives us a glimpse into a master plan.
It is part of the Master’s plan and we see, partially through the Master’s eye.
The big picture helps us make sense of the smaller details and creates a desire within us to zero in on some of the finer points. We begin to comprehend the incomprehensibility of God’s capacity to gaze upon the fine points of His creation with the larger perspective in view.
The bird’s eye view is a good metaphor because the bird can soar into the clouds and yet, swoop down to earth to harvest a worm. It sees big and small at the same time.
God does that over time and space and over history.
How do we gain more of a birds-eye view, or more important, a God’s eye view of reality?
When we read the holy scriptures with hearts enlivened by the Holy Spirit through prayer, they take us to a pinnacle we could not climb alone.
The more time we spend immersing ourselves in the Word of God, the broader our view becomes.
If you are perplexed about how things come together, ask God to stir up a fascination with His Word in your soul. Then climb to higher heights in prayerful reading of scripture. It will be a life-long adventure.
I want to scale the utmost height
And catch a gleam of glory bright;
But still I’ll pray till heav’n I’ve found,
“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”
(Johnson Oatman Jr.)
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. — Revelation 21:3
God does not identify with people lightly.
For Him, it is a costly and deliberate matter to say, “my people.”
And He willingly pays any price to bring those who are far off into fellowship with Him.
Paul also identified with the people of his nation and called them his brothers, mourning over their lost condition and expressing a willingness to be cursed for them if it would bring them to life.
Ruth adopted the people of her mother-in-law and said, “Your people shall be my people and your God, my God.”
Over and over again, the Bible shows us examples of identification with a people culminating with the greatest identification of all — the incarnation of Jesus Christ who came and pitched His tent with us according to John 1.
Nothing can be more authentic to the Kingdom of God than to declare that the people among whom God has placed us in time and space to minister are our people.
Incarnation means that Christ comes among people yet today, fleshed out in His church and in His disciples to demonstrate His love, compassion, and hope.
Some years ago, our church made a decision to stay in this community, though many were moving out of the city.
We knew it would be hard, and we knew that it would require major remedial improvements to our existing facilities and a change of strategy.
The road has not been easy.
We have had to pay a high price in some areas, but we are convinced of God’s hand in all of this.
It has meant that our congregation has been changing and will continue to change. Most of all, it has brought a new meaning to the way we say, “our people.”
For us to say, “our people” the definition has had to be broadened rather than narrowed.
We mean all the people who have been a part of this fellowship including their families and neighbors.
But we also mean the people who live, work, play, and study around us and it is these folks whose faces come increasingly to our minds as we say those words.
Our people are rich and poor; they have many different complexions and many different issues.
Among them are the broken who struggle with addiction, family break-ups, poverty, incarceration, abuse, violence, welfare, unemployment, absentee landlords, the feeling of being marginalized, and utter hopelessness.
Our people are also folks who have found hope and are trying to make a difference in their communities.
Our people are individuals who have lived here in their own homes for many years and want to see their community improve for their families.
And they are believers on mission, called of God, who commute to this church to worship, fellowship, and serve. And our people are those who are touched by any aspect of our ministry — like this magazine you are reading now … which makes you … our people.
John 13:34 — “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”
When we hear these words from Jesus and he calls them a new commandment, we might ask, “What is so new about it?”
Isn’t it in the Torah?
Hasn’t he already said this?
Yet, there is something new about it. It is embedded in these words, “as I have loved you.”
That is different, unique, and bar-raising in its profound expectation. It stimulates the question, “How has Jesus loved us?”
He has loved us with everything he is and all that he has. That is how he has loved us. And he has put our needs ahead of his own. He has laid down his life. That is major!
His love is practical and self-giving rather than selfish. It is a high standard. Maybe we have to start small.
I will offer you an entry point for practice. Let’s start with one day, one verse, and one question. How can I make someone else’s day today?
Proverbs 18:1 says,
“An unfriendly man pursues selfish ends; he defies all sound judgment.”
Let’s try the opposite. Let’s be the friendly man or woman. Work on that for one day. Identify making someone’s day as an intention in your life. That kind of intentionality is a real key to accomplishment of loving.
To be friendly and to desire the good for someone else today will move you far down the road of being a blessing. Look for opportunities to lay down a bit of your life for someone else. Look for the chance to make a sacrifice that will add to someone else’s well-being and joy.
Make it almost a game where you can only win by losing.
When you wish someone well, it is communicated in your attitude, your words, and your deeds. you cannot help but be an encouragement to all who are receptive and in need. It is a start to loving one another.
Glorified
“Now is the Son of man glorified and God is glorified in Him.” — from John 13:31
You have to take it all as a package or there is no glory.
Jesus understood that these final days were one great redemptive event — from mingling with the crowds and teaching them, to provoking the Sanhedrin with His very presence, to the upper room, the washing of feet, the prayers in the garden, betrayal, denial, and on to the cross. It was the process of God glorifying Himself in His Son.
It was all part of the package: His life, death, and resurrection were one magnificent demonstration of the power of God.
Jesus had spoken similar words when some gentiles had come looking for Him. He responded that the coming of these men was an indication that He was soon to be lifted up from the earth and to draw all men unto Him. Lifting up could mean exaltation or crucifixion. In this case, it meant both. He moves from tragedy to triumph in a split second intersection of time and eternity.
This time he speaks of being glorified as he confronts the one who will betray him. This is strange to our warped thinking. But this is Jesus who donned the apron and wiped his disciple’s feet. This is the one who taught that the path to greatness is servanthood. This is the Master of great reversals.
Our Lord never lost sight of the big picture.
In John’s portrait of Jesus, contrasting in emphasis from those in the Synoptic Gospels, the Passion is about glory, being lifted up.
Jesus didn’t stop with cross in his panoramic view of his mission. He didn’t even end the story with rising from the dead. He taught his friends that he was going to the Father through this path of glory and that he would come to them in a new way to indwell them, that they might do even greater works.
He promised further that He would come again visibly to introduce a grand new eternal day.
It was about glory.
It is still about glory.
Look ahead to Sunday without missing today, its reality, darkness, and profound sadness.
Look ahead for perspective.
Take a walk in the garden this morning where there is an empty hole in a rock, a barren place where death once dwelt.
What do you notice but emptiness?
He is not there. He is risen!
The work of redemption is done. It was worth it all. The pain and the suffering have accomplished their ends. He is alive and we can live also. What name do you give to your pain of the moment, your struggle of this hour?
Call it suffering or call it glory. It all depends upon whether you view it from the present or from the resurrection.
Now is the Son of man glorified
It is is a path he has walked and a way he has built for us to follow. The degrees of difficulty vary from person to person and from season to season.
But this end of the game is glory.
On Acts 11
When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, “Then God has given even to the gentiles the repentance that leads to life.” from Acts 11
Now, the underlying theme.
It is the increasing awareness of the inclusiveness of God in drawing all people into His presence.
It is His utter disregard for human boundaries or exclusiveness in religion, culture, language, and ethnicity. In Christ, all are invited into His shelter. In Christ, He does not just call us to come, He comes to us. In Christ, the waters and Spirit of baptism are available to all.
Every wall has come down.
Every system of caste has been nullified.
Every obstacle has been removed.
Every vestige of racial, social, or economic superiority has been declared illegitimate.
Every human category for arranging people in groups has been confused and rearranged.
Every nationalistic border designed to separate people and make some more valuable than others has been prophetically obliterated.
Everyone matters and all are invited to the House of God.
We cannot close out the world. Geo-politically, it is impossible. Economically, it is disastrous. Technologically, it is absurd. More important, for the Kingdom-focused follower of Jesus, it is antithetical to the Missio Dei.
At any and every crisis, a crossroads emerges: perpetual isolation in fear or growing cooperation in hope.
The early church struggled with shaking the bonds and extending the boundaries created by nationalism, cultural-ism, racism, and religious chauvinism.
They built bridges and tore down walls.
In extending its own reach and embrace, there needed to be an accumulation of defining moments, lived-out stories, and expanding relationships infused by manifestations of the Holy Spirit at work among people groups that were outside the original disciples’ comfort zones.
The patience and systematic workings of God exceed ours by far, but this is how the church became an international movement, indigenous in every culture where it was planted.
We are still working on this, but there was a time and have been times when it really worked.
This is the missional movement and moment.
It was preceded by crisis and it created a crisis of its own.
Acts 10:46b-47:
“ Then Peter said, ‘Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’”
Peter sensed that racial, national, and cultural exclusivity, privilege, and chauvinism was not only an offence to humanity, but a hindrance to God and God’s purposes and mission.
“How could I?”
That was the awakened response of a man whose eyes were being opened to a mission that was much larger than his own context.
“ And he established them forever and ever;
he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away.
Praise the LORD from the earth,
you great sea creatures and all deeps,
fire and hail, snow and mist,
stormy wind fulfilling his word!” — Psalm 148:6–8, ESV
I shall meditate on this phrase from time to time today, “fulfilling his word.”
Nature and nature’s creatures fulfilling God’s word: What might this mean?
What Word?
Does the singer mean that he sees and hears God speak about _______ (Fill in the blank) in how these things behave?
Have I given enough thought and time to observing and reflecting on the movements of creation?
Case Closed
Love One Another — Just Scripture
Love One Another — Case Closed:
John 13:34 -“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
John 13:35 — By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Romans 12:10 -Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.
Romans 13:8 -[ Love Fulfills the Law ] Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.
2 Corinthians 13:11 -[ Final Greetings ] Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.
Galatians 5:13 -[ Life by the Spirit ] You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.
Ephesians 4:2 -Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
1 Thessalonians 4:9 -Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.
2 Thessalonians 1:3-[ Thanksgiving and Prayer ] We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing.
Hebrews 10:24-And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,
1 Peter 1:22 -Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.
1 Peter 3:8 -[ Suffering for Doing Good ] Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.
1 Peter 5:14 -Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ.
1 John 3:11 -[ More on Love and Hatred ] For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
1 John 3:23
And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.
1 John 4:7 — [ God’s Love and Ours ] Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
1 John 4:11 -Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4:12 -No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
2 John 1:5 -And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another.
Matthew 22:36–40 -“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 7:12 -“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
