First of all any porcelain with the Dutch Blue colour I’m a sucker for…
I like it’s oversized aspect, and the curious loop of a handle, like the old brown jug…
The saying on it is also interesting. Olde English…
See all, hear all, say now’t … Eat all, sup all, pay now’t … And if ever tha does owt for now’t, allus do it for thisen.
Translation:
See everything and hear everything but say nothing, Eat everything and drink everything but pay nothing. And if ever you do anything for nothing, always do it for yourself.
Finally, when it was time for Gan to move into the home, and her things weee being decided upon, I without any pretence went to my Uncle Stephen and Auntie Barbara, we were at Gan’s apartment, and I showed them this and said that whomever it went to must value it, treasure it, and most also consent for me to come see it when I want to now and then…. They looked at each other and then Uncle Steve said to me, I think we know just the person, and gave it to me… I really wasn’t asking for THAT to happen though it might seem obvious otherwise…
Today is my 61st Birthday! I am meditating on these two scriptures with that same number!
Hear my cry, O God; Attend to my prayer. From the end of the earth I will cry to You, When my heart is overwhelmed; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For You have been a shelter for me, A strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in Your tabernacle forever; I will trust in the shelter of Your wings. Selah
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”
I wonder why pictures of feet, at rest, interest me.
I looked for a photo to inspire me, and this is the second time pictures of feet stopped me. Its not a guilty feeling, though it could be. I don’t like to be at rest, I like to be “doing”.
What cannot be known, unless I tell you, is that these feet are Ashton’s, my wife’s and my own. We are on holidays. Which is rare… we don’t usually go places. The place we went was Madrona Beach Resort, and our accommodation was up the hill. It was a long walk down with our beach gear, I took our wagon with us. They should have called it a fitness spa. . .
The image looks so restful, peaceful, and I really should have a third thing to say about it.
It’s the same place where Cheryl and I spent our honeymoon some 20+ years previous. The large fellow, Ashton, wasn’t there the first time.
There’s a scene in The Maltese Falcon where Bogart is dealing with one of the Villains… he says a famous line, for me anyways, Go see the video HERE.
A very telling scene. Its similar to another one, I often quote it, but I have no idea who said it, “I’ll do what I want when I want for however long I want”
The moment in the movie there the little weasel, Joel Cairo, getting slapped is played by Peter Lorre. Its a mystery noir film. The lady, Ruth, in the hotel room there with them is acting sketchy also. Boggy’s in love with her already at this point, so he doesn’t take kindly to Cairo getting rough with her. There are many times in the movie where Bogart is underestimated. They don’t know who he is. His partner that he started the private eye shoppe with, by this time in the movie, has been murdered. He’s not happy about that. He’s got a stake in the outcome that goes beyond making a buck. It’s a murder that’s personal.
Have you ever been bullied? Someone is intimidating you, and eventually you have deal with them, one way or another. The Apostle Paul, I think, was warning a bully… let me go look it up, you can come along LOL
1 Corinthians 4:14 I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15 For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 16 I urge you, then, be imitators of me. 17 That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. 18 Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. 19 But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. 20 For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. 21 What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?
Wow, this is what I’m learning here! Paul is asserting who he is. There are those who are speaking against him. There is division in the church. He’s about to come to them in person, and will there be slapping or will there be a spirit of loving kindness… regardless, Paul knows the Power of the Holy Spirit. He, himself, found out big time on the road to Damascus, when he was slapped! Check out Acts 9!
Do you know the story of the King that was eaten by worms for not giving Glory to God? Acts 12 is the story. We read, ” 2 He [Herod] killed James the brother of John with the sword, 3 and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also.” What gets me is he wasn’t all that different from Saul, whom we read about in Acts 9, uttering murderous threats. Aslan is not a tame lion.
I’m leading up to a scripture, LOL
Now take a look at couple or few scriptures with me/for me:
I sent my adult son a text the other day, “I would like to apply for the position of FATHER, resume available upon request.” He sent me back, “LOL what are you talking about.” Because as I pray for him, in the trial he’s now going through, I find myself weeping, like Christ Jesus himself, over Jerusalem.
He’s famous in my heart for saying things, being impetuous perhaps. And, you know what? I love him so much, because each of these things are the heading of the book he’ll one day write about his Daddy. Cuz they’re words that God will use to teach him, train him up…
I don’t wanna be like you when I grow up
I’ll treat you like my Dad when you start acting like one
I’ll never give [lend] you money
I love you, Dad.
You know what? Each of those things is as much true, as not. The man I was when he spoke that first word… God was saying that to me. Hebrews 12!
I AM his Father… that’s my identity. But what does it matter, if he doesn’t see me as that. Where does one find the means to such a position. In one respect he’s quite right… I blew it. I am a fallen creature, not deserving to lead anyone… I am, and certainly I have been a rotten Father. I hold out the truth to him, beckoning him to come in from the cold, come to the full reliance upon our Father God. In the meantime God has placed others in his life, to testify about the goodness, and faithfulness of God, and there is most importantly the ministry of the Holy Spirit, who will get the job done! Amen Ephesians 1:11.
There’s a fascinating scripture, I finally found it, thank you Lord. Thank you Holy Spirit for reminding me where it is. John 14:26
Joshua 3:7 is where God tells him, then in Joshua 4:14 we see that God soon after begins to fulfill that promise to him.
““This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.” Joshua 3:7
God has done this in my second marriage. He has exalted me. He has placed me at the helm, Psalm 127, and I have been put in authority, one that my wife and son honour and respect. But its a work done through him. Oh, fathers! Husbands! Do you long for the respect and most importantly, the submission of those under your care? Take this humble man’s word and ask God to teach it to you. Turn to God, repent, and ask God to raise you up.
Tangent or two… there’s a picture of this sort of thing I want to flesh out and you’ll find it here: CLICK HERE. <this is another scene from a movie, The Hunt For Red October
And also, a bit more a look at how God works within my marriage: CLICK HERE
Do you have a hard copy of the Bible, that’s even better, go get it, I’ll wait here… I would that you take this idea up… get to know your own copy of the word. A W Tozer talks about this, he didn’t even fathom our modern day helps, but he knew the value of getting alone with God, and his word. And meditating upon it. The word of God is the Sword the Spirit wields, check out the Amplified rendering of that verse. Ephesians 6. I’m so thrilled to find that as I am obedient to this word I’ve received, that I am extending to you now, what wonderful benefits there are! Ryan is a man I’ve recently met. By his say so, he is a new Christian. What does that expression even mean? He is, yes, a new creation, as we all are. But I welcome him most gladly into my life, if for anything he is that pure soul who has found the living presence of God in his heart! And he has a bible in his hands. Whenever you see him at our home group, he’s got it open, and he’s paging through it, and being guided by the Holy Spirit. I don’t know if I’ve told him yet, but I’ll tell him again, he reminds me of myself. I see it and I like it. My strength is renewed. The warrior of former days is being raised up again. Up from the ashes. Oh that none of us would ever become “been there done that” Christians. Oh that we would ever be naively following the Spirit’s lead, hopelessly dependent upon his Holy Spirit, and glued to his revealed word! In their book, “How To Read the Bible For All Its Worth,” Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart point out that we are to daily read in the one translation of our choosing, and they help you figure out what is best there for YOU, and to study it by comparing other translations.
Picture the Bible, that copy of the bible in your right hand, as your proven weapon! Physically in your right hand. You’ve got it with you, and there is a soul sent by God, for you to deliver the good news to, and they see you draw it from the scabbard, and slice and dice the enemies lies! And bring healing balm to their wounds. And they peak at the sword in your hand and resolve to have a copy of their own. To imitate what they see in you.
Back to Jesus, in Philippians 2:
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
So, I want to draw your attention to this part in verse 7, “…but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men” That’s what I see in John 7 there. His reaction, and actions are all governed by God the Father. When we are told to be like Jesus, this is what it means. Listening obedience, that’s a action! And when you walk in the Spirit, another way to describing it found in Galatians 5:25.
(you know, its a link, yeah? Look it up… take some time to see for yourself, I know Ryan would, he’s got his bible open right now, looking it up)
As I looked over another example of Christ Jesus our Lord dealing with unbelievers…
Matthew 21:12–17, Mark 11:15–19, Luke 19:45–48 and finally, John 2:13–19
These are where all four gospels give an account of Jesus clearing the temple. Part of my calling of late, a window on what God has coming, for his word to us is to BE READY. Is that he is clearing out the Temple! And I’m not talking about the tares and the wheat. I’m talking about what we see in John 6, where Jesus spoke the word plainly, and many of his disciples walked away. He then turned to the Twelve, “how ’bout you? Do you want to leave?”
What I notice is that its John’s gospel where the Jewish Leaders ask him, “Who do you think you are?!?” That’s our modern vernacular…
<The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” John 2:18 niv>
Jesus answer has always intrigued me, “19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” His own disciples don’t completely understand this until after he’s crucified and is raised again. see verse 22.
So here I am… do you know who I am? I’m the one he’s sent… he’s seen me under my fig tree… I believe in Him! I am listening to his voice. Oh, God, that I be obedient to that voice… I don’t need YOU to believe in me. But if you are my brother, if you also are called to obedience to his lead…
What’s today’s message for you? I’ll be meditating on it now… send me a message: walkingdownvimy@gmail.com
If you got all the way to the bottom of the page here, we could be friends, or better yet, brothers… ❤
This guy is reading a book, mounted backwards on a horse going somewhere randomly forward, or maybe the horse knows the way? You can see it if you look west when driving south on Howe Street off ramp onto the Granville Street bridge in Vancouver, BC.
Carl’s (his names not Carl LOL) confession gave me the missing piece I needed. He’ll have to clarify for himself, but what I believe he said was this, he’d made up his mind about the Impeccability of Christ… (see reference below) and his mind was not the same as others, and so… he judged and condemned us, he didn’t leave us, but did he feel separated from us? He repented of it.
Like I said, I need to hear where his heart is and where it is now. But Matthew 7:1-6 I have my own log to talk about. There are disputable matters. Where does one draw the line between disputable and absolutes?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I have personal experience of the error of the Word of Faith crowd. My first father in law clung to it… he died broke riddled with cancer, and broken hearted. He was ever tempted by the desire to be wealthy, and to live forever. My daughter was there with him in his final days. In palliative care. I knew this man. He loved God. We shared tears and knew God together. We loved each other.
There are aspects of their teaching that ring true.
Paul talked about being content. In plenty and in want.
Philippians 4:11-13
Right now I can’t handle pastors who drive high end vehicles while preaching and grabbing tithes from folks struggling to be housed, and even put food on their table. The ones that give God knows their hearts, and will surely Bless them, and care for their needs.
My own parents tithed and gave above and beyond that, and when their end of life came.. the church phoned their kids and told us to come look after them.
My parents “fortune” went into their church coffers, and I struggled to stay above water. My father taught me to be in debt… God delivered me from that. My lack was because of me buying into this world’s system.
The 1% verses the 99% living on, depending on unsecured debt. Modern day slavery. The American Dream… materialism?
Word of faith preachers… if each of their 1 Million followers gives $10.oo they get $10,000,000.oo The message they preach is that you too can be rich like me, seed faith… not a whole lot different from Casinos.
Excuses for why you’re not healed and Rich… its blamed on your lack of faith, on the sin in your life. God it hurts. Henry phoning me asking forgiveness for how they treated me. God’s grace that had warned me weeks before. I was ready. “Hello, Dad” India’s when I heard his voice on the phone, called out of the blue.
Many years ago, when I first moved to BC from Winnipeg, where I grew up, I worked for my very brilliant brother, Glenn. He was a computer programmer at the time. He had such a talent for this that its difficult to comprehend. My talent has always been teaching/counselling. He was approached by our Uncle, who had a friend he played squash with. That friend was the president of the Optometrist Association of BC. The BC Government, back in the late 8o’s, made the move from medical billing being traditional paper and ink, to online billing. So all doctors including Optometrists needed to convert their offices to computer technology. So, picture the vast majority of medical offices being run by ladies in their 50’s, who did the book keeping. My brother was hired, and given some software from Quebec, to convert to the BC system outlined by the government. This meant also being, eventually, part of equipping all the offices with the hardware (computers, screens, keyboards, mouses LOL) and software. But also the training in how to use the computers and the software. Remember that this was over 37 years ago, and the 50 year old ladies for the most part that ran these offices, had been out of school for over 30 years, so we’re talking a backtrack of 67 years… computer illiteracy puts it mildly. For my part, being 1986 – 1962 = 24 years old, had learned to use mainframe computer’s… the mirco computer was in its infancy compared to nowadays… today’s youth have no idea what kind of mental shift it would be for these ladies. In order to help my brother, I was to go with the hardware, all over the province of BC, install their computer, and teach the lady of the office how to use it, and the software. Glenn’s trouble was literally that he was so gifted that he could not even fathom the ignorance of these ladies. Computers, then and now, use binary code, a series of 0’s and 1’s in groups of 8. Glenn programmed computers using assembly, which is one step up from binary. In order to prepare for my teaching, I read a book called “Inside The IBM PC” by Peter Norton. The only way that I could navigate that book was to pick out the big words, and understand the concept on a vague level… I ended up being in the middle, not at all as brilliant as my brother, but not as novice as the receptionists I’d be teaching.
The best teachers, I’ve heard said, are those who worked for what they know. Cuz they sympathize with the student, are patient, and have learned strategies to overcome obstacles of learning. Part of my value to my brother was also helping to troubleshoot glitches in the software, and help with customer support. What we nowadays know as the IT department, with the now famous standard line, “Have you tried turning your computer on/off?” or “Is your computer plugged in?”
This is where I find myself in the church. I’m not a Bible College graduate, but I know my bible. I know Koine Greek just well enough to know the significance of translations of the Bible being works of theologians. I am nonetheless a layman.
My whole life – I have grown up in church – I was a baby in the nursery at church… never mind that, I was in my mother’s tummy going to church!
There have always been the full range of folks… those who admire and promote the extremely educated, and those that seem to admire and promote the uneducated. The divinely taught theologians who skipped bible college, like my absolute hero, A W Tozer, scoffed at the Bible College graduates. And I believe that Tozer was a prophet, and that his call was to rebuke those in charge of the church no different than when Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and Experts in the law.
Jesus was very thoroughly equipped in knowing God’s word, an expert in the Law himself, refuting arguments ably…
But then there is the experts in the Law and the Pharisees who also knew the Law… yet they were NOT our examples, they used God’s word to outsmart God himself?
John 1:5 the darkness has not understood it…
John 1:5
5 And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended [a] it not.
35 Jesus therefore said unto them, Yet a little while is the light among you. Walk while ye have the light, that darkness overtake you not: and he that walketh in the darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.
To comprehend something is to be able to overcome it… to understand your adversary is to then know how to outwit him!
YET – to state the obvious – I am not THE LIGHT… I need to hear Jesus’ warning here… I see it there… Jesus was with them, he was ever there to guard them from straying from the path…. from darkness overtaking them! Each of us is susceptible to temptation according to our weaknesses.
What’s my LUST here? Significance ? Meaning? Fame? To be looked up to. To supplant Christ? Do I want to be the saviour?
My Pastor just preached a message out of Exodus 17, where Moses was upheld, literally, by Aaron and Hur. I’m not in charge. God’s given me a taste of being in charge at my Coop…
Dr Michael Barrett brings up a point… that Satan May very well have thought that he could successfully tempt Christ! But we don’t get our theology from the devil.
The poetry of God’s word to us, interpreting Dreams, visions and prophecy… it’s not plain meaning – is it ever?
Jesus told his disciples why he spoke in parables, so that some would NOT understand… and yet there were and are those to whom God chooses to reveal it.
Jesus full of the Joy of the Holy Spirit:
“At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.”
“Keep reminding God’s people of these things. Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”
There’s two sides of the trend… one is to self depreciate, the other is to mock others… but Galatians 6 says
“Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load.”
I have myself been witness to an “expert in the law” who uses his knowledge of God’s word to excuse themselves from the world… they live in theory land… not sober, but rather constantly dissecting theology… they themselves described the rabbit hole…
To know God is to do Gods word… but also doers of the word James 1:22-26
You can hear the word, study it, be an expert and still miss the point…
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathedand is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
I want to warn the church that neither ignorance of God’s word, nor education is the enemy. You can get lost in trying to come up with ways to overcome the questions and challenges lobbed against the truth of God’s word… refuting doubters?
Was the council asking questions to enlighten themselves?
The questions that I, as a believer, have come to mind as I read his word, do not shake my faith, because I know Christ. (Ephesians 1:13) the Holy Spirit is my assurance, my confirmation.
But Matthew 7:1-6 always stands. This is a warning for me also, and the more so.
I often wonder, “has my brother wandered into error?”
If that’s the case my prayer is for his return to the simplicity of the gospel.
On the other side of things I grew up in the PAOC… I’ve experienced charismatic churches of many kinds. I’ve also had a lifetime battle with (is it a battle?) with where one places psychiatry and psychology in all of the clutter. When and how do we decide if my brother Andrew’s being haunted with being damned… is it a Spirit or is it mental illness?
I’ve stayed away from independent charismatic churches because of the frequent error of the leaders who run freely in the Spirit and suffer with the consequences…
They have a revelation that rings true, and may even agree with what God is speaking to our own hearts about… but then there is a branching off into error… how do we know when they go off what God is revealing and I what they are being sucked into? When I am in the presence of the man… I know what Spirit they are of… distance… when you know a minister personally then you see their whole life, it’s a witness… but even then, God still uses them… the good ones and the corrupt ones.
Katie, my cousin, was delivered from error, by God’s grace. “The Twelve Tribes” story is for another time.
The enemy wants to get us off track from the purpose of proclaiming the Good News!
I continue to wrestle with my place in the church… I rest in his getting me to give up trying to know things in advance that he’s chosen to be the TBA kind.
In John’s gospel, Jesus is seen as having one destiny, the cross. He shunned all the ones that wanted to take him by force to make them their king (see John 6) but in John chapter 2, John states a truth that is then demonstrated through the stories he relates in the coming chapters.
Think about this for a moment, J B Phillips renders 1 Thessalonians 4:9-10 as “make it your ambition to have no ambition”
God has done the work of convincing me of this truth. There is rest and peace flowing from that place of trust. I am in Christ, led by the Holy Spirit to carry out his purpose and plan for me.
9-10 Next, as regards brotherly love, you don’t need any written instructions. God himself is teaching you to love each other, and you are already extending your love to all the Macedonians. Yet we urge you to have more and more of this love, and to make it your ambition to have no ambition!
I told a pastor I know one day of this that was on my heart… to have no ambition, at the time I put it this way, that my name is “nobody in particular”
…his response still saddens me, he said, “you can hold the ladder for the rest of us, Laurence.” Was he mocking me? Did he consider me to be delusional? I certainly confronted his own idea of what this Christian life is all about.
He certainly never did figure me out. I remember he would often offer me the ministry of setting up chairs for Sunday service. Strange eh?
It would usually occur right in the midst of a mutually encouraging conversation. I had felt called to encourage him. So I would make a point of going to fellowship with him now and then. In one or two of his sermons he spoke figuratively of being at the side of the road with his hood up. It seems to me as I have often considered this tangent thrust into the midst of our conversation that he thought I wanted to become a teacher or preacher in his church. But what he didn’t realize is that I was already fulfilling my calling by encouraging HIM.
Which brings me to the next point. Living a quiet life is one of simply being obedient, in each and every moment of time. Living to know and to please the Father.
5-6 It was because of his faith that Enoch was promoted to the eternal world without experiencing death. He disappeared from this world because God promoted him, and before that happened his reputation was that “he pleased God”. And without faith it is impossible to please him. The man who approaches God must have faith in two things, first that God exists and secondly that it is worth a man’s while to try to find God.
Books that are out of copyright… all the folks who had the rights are passed away or disinterested.
They are very old books, you see.
Can I call it a generational difference? For it was there in a book that I first had the word ambitious used as a criticism. The idea seemed to go beyond merely not trying to rise above one’s social station.
India has the caste system. England has the classes.
But in the book “The Count of Monte Cristo” Alexander Dumas fathoms the depths of the sin of ambition. It’s the forsaking all for the ambition to rise to wealth and power, destroying everything and everyone in between ME and getting to where I am “meant to be”
This world we live in nowadays sees ambition as absolutely THE THING. Dog eat dog, survival of the fittest.
My brother, when we were young ones, would mock me? Was it? What did he mean when he use to say that I would one day be a garbage truck drive or a plumber… because the thing is, he was close, I became a bus driver.
I remember it was in obedience to some pastoral counsel from a pastor in Abbotsford. I’d gone into see him because I was frustrated trying to bring my life and calling into agreement with one another.
He’s still in the ministry now… but he pointed out that I had a wife and two kids, and that my ambition was already mapped out for me, that I ought to be out to get a job to support them. I figured out my need, got a figure of $18.oo per hr, then went looking for a job that paid it. That led me to apply for the job of bus driver. Up to then I’d been so frustrated like I said, but as it so often happens with God, the job was there for me. The head usher for this same church was a manager for one of the BC Transit depots, and he told me how to apply, and to call him when I’d done so. He would call HR and tell them to put my application on the top of the pile, the rest was up to me.
I had such anxiety throughout the training process! My eye twitched! I had to pray in the Spirit continuously.
We’ll, I drove for 32 years, and retired and now I’m a school bus driver LOL. I remember telling the interviewers whatever they wanted to hear, “selling” myself! And pledging to never let them regret it! Years later one of my operations supervisor showed genuine boredom handing me my latest commendation letter.
But… when I was a young lad at Bible Camp, God called me into the ministry. I tried for many years – even as a bus driver – to bring that goal into fruition. One day in my journal I found written there, “God is my only obstacle”
An aside: if you’ve ever journaled, you may have experienced this. You write all the time, and stop paying attention to what you’re writing, and just express yourself instead. You get lost in thought… then you go back and read what you wrote… I’ve written about this before…
So eventually I gave up trying. And focused more and more on just living a quiet life. That quote by Augustine comes to mind.
My first post of this blog is my coming face to face with the world’s bombardment against leading a quiet life… God rescued me in real time…. I began to write about my death, falling into a pit of despair… and he rescued me…
More to come… on the topic of “who am I”
As I write out the book of Luke for one of my grandchildren, there’s this aspect of folks facing who Jesus is… like when the disciples see that he commands the wind and the waves… and forgives sins!
They didn’t “get him” either LOL
But his Father did
Ambition’s fault is that it is yet another “anything” that can become more important than knowing God.
“Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you. But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a rod of discipline, or shall I come in love and with a gentle spirit?”
We need the power of God in this world like never before.
Oh, God, you are the source of all that we say and do.
“My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.”
I was still in High School. I’d been reading the Bible, and praying for quite a while, and God asked me to be his witness one day.
Part of my weekly routine was to go to Piano lessons at our church, Calvary Temple, in Down Town Winnipeg. It was a 15 km bus ride from our home on the outskirts of town.
Sometimes on my way home I’d buy a bag of Doritos and a V8 juice at the Macs store near-by the church.
…711’s competition 😝
God had been asking me to speak to others about my faith for a while before this one day, but as I left the Mac’s store, God asked me if today was the day.
Would I be his witness today.
I said, “Yes!”
Then there was this silence… as I walked along, munching on my chips. Forgive me, but I said, “What?!?” a little impatiently.
“Are you going to ask me?”
“Ask you what?”
“Ask me to send someone for you to speak to?”
“No, I will if someone comes along, but I’m not going to ASK you to send me someone… that’d be like asking to get punched in the face…”
I continued walking.
More silence.
Finally, I prayed,
“Oh, God, send me someone to speak about you with, give me the words to say, in Jesus name, Amen”
When I got to the corner of Portage and Carlton, I eagerly awaited for my opportunity.
Then some random sort of guy, sketchy, fidgety really, was all upset about some sort of commotion further up the road… I remember thinking…
“OK Lord! This is it! Lead me, guide me…” and I looked up the road and commented on it… and then noticed silence from my new friend, who had been standing behind me at that point… I turned around and he was a couple blocks away, walking in the other direction.
I thanked the Lord for the opportunity and get at peace.
“Phew! That was easy!”
Then I began to wonder what was going on over there… and I asked a person who was there beside me… which started a conversation that continued, and wow, they were catching the same bus as me… and when God came up in the conversation, I included him… and when it veered away, I let it… but then God came up again… and I saw that person on subsequent bus rides… I probably realized right then and there that this was the person he’d brought to me, but that was my baptism into witnessing for Christ in every conversation I have.
And at that time I had no inkling that one day the bus would be my domain for 32 years. It would eventually come to be Nick named “the Jesus Bus…” but that’s another story for another time.
“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,”
Disciples attached to earthly/temporal perspective
When are you going to take over?
Jesus answered that only the Father knows that
Straining to see Jesus as his physical body gets further and further away they are interrupted by the angels suddenly there, standing among them.
Its one thing to cling to life, to want to live to a ripe old age.
Zechariah 8… once again old people will lean on their canes while children play in the streets. It’s a scene of safety, and peace… where men and women die of old age, natural causes, rather than war and pestilence
But there is obedience to God’s call… to forsake this need for long life, if he calls upon us to do so… but its about loving your life
Whomsoever loses his life for my sake will gain it
There seems to be a bridge for them… Jesus ascends out of view, and then he is a memory, and they’re left alone
The sound of the wind was a bridge between spiritual and physical realm
Tongues of fire could be seen… but it was the manifestation of the Spiritual presence of God.
Perhaps in this present world, God is jarring us out of our attachment to this realm, by shaking it up… shaking our grip from it, to grab a hold of the eternal… our upset human natures are no different than Jesus’ suffering in the garden, but we must follow him, by being obedient to where God the Father is leading.
BACK GROUND RAMBLING of the above titration
As I began, for the first time, writing out the Book of Acts, I am once again astounded by what comes to my mind’s eye that I’ve missed for all these years.
The Book of the Acts of the Apostles, I’m told, is the journey of Christianity from the Jewish people, to the Gentiles. But I also see here in the first chapter that there was this journey from the earthly point of view, to the spiritual realm. From temporal to eternal. The same battle that I saw in John 6.
Jesus himself struggled with this, in that when his hour approached he was troubled. He sweat blood praying that “this cup” would be taken from him
So, I guess what I see here is that Jesus, was just as attached to LIVING as all of us are. It makes what he did all the more significant. Each of us is, as Macbeth put it, “a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more:
Jesus’ hour upon the stage was cut short. He didn’t have a wife, and children, nor a ripe old age. He gave those things up, he did not pursue them. In Zechariah we read,
They still didn’t get it! I know that its important for me to remember that I must put myself in the disciples position, try to see things the way they saw them. And this verse helps me to do that. Jesus’ answer for them was that it wasn’t for them to know. Then he commands them concerning what will happen next, and what they are to do in the meantime.
When he ascends, they keep their eyes on the physical Jesus, and so much so it says…
As I ponder this, I had just written out chapter One, and one aspect of the disciples behavior gave me pause for reflection.
They were dependent on the physically present Jesus… and he had to be taken away. It says there, “he was taken up,” Jesus was taken. This is mentioned again by Peter when he is discussing the need to replace Judas. Peter says of Jesus, “…from the time he was baptized by John until the day he was taken from us…” He didn’t use the term “…until the day he left us”
Take for instance I’ve always known that the Holy Spirit’s coming was like a rushing mighty wind, but today as I read those words, they meant something more to me than ever before.
Running Down Vimy 