A famous Contrarian still speaks!

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the 

majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

Mark Twain 

Wise words from John Sullivan about recovering in times of loss

John Sullivan
From: Former Salvation Army Officers' Fellowship

This message is about what we do when things do not go well. What we do reveals the kind of person we are. Do we panic? Do we fold up in a state of paralysis? Do we withdraw from the situation in fear or hurt? Do we protest and ask, "Why did this happen?

The first thing to do is to sit down for a half-hour and do nothing. We need to breathe deeply, until one's body quiets down, then we need to say to our inner self these four things:

1.There is nothing that has happened to me that hasn't happened to others.
2. I knew ahead of time that as a human being I ran the risk of something like this.
3. There are people who do their greatest work under these conditions.
4. I don't know how I'm going to handle this, but I know that I can.

Then it is time to pray. Instead of praying for something, pray about it. In one sense we've already been doing it. We have been thinking about our situation in God's presence before we ask for anything. We have been draining off some of the bitterness in our self.

If we can be quiet long enough, we will begin to see the situation in which we find our self not only from our point of view, but we'll see it from another point of view, and it will look different. Then it is time to ask God for what we want. If we want help, ask for it. If we want to win some battle, fought behind the closed doors of our life, ask for a victory. If we want to get out of a difficult situation, ask God to help us get out of it.

And after we ask, then we need to go to work on our self. If we want to be well, we need to work with the forces of nature that will help to make us well. If we want a friend we need to be a friend to someone. If we want to find the meaning of life, we need to begin by making some corner of our life to mean something. We will not get what we want just for the asking. We may get something greater than what we asked for. We may get what we wish all of us could get, and that is a deeper root-age in things.

One of the reasons why we're so likely to snap in heavy storms, the way trees do, is that our roots don't go deep enough. The deeper our root-age is, the greater the lifting power will be; that is the deeper we go into the very nature of existence, the more realistic we are about life and suffering, the greater lifting power we will have when time comes for us to raise some great burden that we would never choose, but which has been laid upon us.

I wonder if this is what Isaiah meant by waiting upon the Lord: "They shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run, and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint." When things do not go well, we will wait upon the Lord: we will sit down, we will stop fussing, we will let the engine idle, and say the four things to our self, and then pray about it. When we have waited. we are more likely to find that we will not only have the strength to walk, step by step, day by day, and not faint.

Jerrod Cooper stirs my soul every day...that's saying smething.

JERROD  COOPER is a British radio evangelist who is fun to listen to yet he's deep with fresh insights that stir my soul every time I hear him. It's not the sameo sameo repetitive blather we hear so often.

His website doesn't have radio links that I can see. I hear him in the morning at 8 on UCB Gospel radio via internet on Tunein Radio. 

He's worth searching for. He stirs my often-dry-soul with wit, humor and great Biblical insight. I worshipped with him this morning and it felt good. 

Blessings.

www.daysofwonder.org.uk

Matthew Henry was a smart man!

The following is taken from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Bible. This man lived long ago when not everyone had easy access to scripture, and even less of the education required to gain the deepest insights from the written word. I find his insights and imagery into the familiar story of Moses and the burning bush helpful, even refreshing. I hope you find a few minutes to chew on this man's manna for today.

I especially like his vision of the burning bush being a symbol of the ongoing bondage of Israel (he considers Israel the early expression of the church). Ongoing heat without consumption or  resolution. What a tortuous life! Some still live that way today, unaware of the freedom that comes with truth. That's another blog!

I also love his statements about the nature of fire. I write often about the limitless subject of truth and I use fire as the best metaphor to understand it's many expressions and functions :light, heat, destruction, cleansing, healing, protecting and teaching.

My next book struggles to lasso the issues surrounding truth and apply them to our choices of how we can live with integrity, character and honesty. Hopefully coming soon to a bookshelf near you!

Enjoy this today and see what the Spirit shares with you through both Logos and Rhema revelation.

Blessings!

The first appearance of God to Moses, found him tending sheep. This seems a poor employment for a man of his parts and education, yet he rests satisfied with it; and thus learns meekness and contentment, for which he is more noted in sacred writ, than for all his learning. Satan loves to find us idle; God is pleased when he finds us employed. Being alone, is a good friend to our communion with God. To his great surprise, Moses saw a bush burning without fire to kindle it. The bush burned, and yet did not burn away; an emblem of the church in bondage in Egypt. And it fitly reminds us of the church in every age, under its severest persecutions kept by the presence of God from being destroyed. Fire is an emblem, in Scripture, of the Divine holiness and justice, also of the afflictions and trials with which God proves and purifies his people, and even of that baptism of the Holy Ghost, by which sinful affections are consumed, and the soul changed into the Divine nature and image. Matthew Henry

Blog Perspectives...

Are you tired of all the things about Christianity that only seem to work for super saints or hyper saints? I am too. This blog makes statements and adds outside thoughts in any format because they  make sense to me.

If we could be perfectly honest (we can't) the TRUTH will make enough sense to people who hurt but find little comfort in the cliches usually associated with loss or defeat. Truth also speaks to those who question reality, only to get slapped down by those annoying types who have bags full of easy, scripted  answers, ready, and eager to distribute indiscriminately on anyone unfortunate enough to listen.

We may eventually find the light, our light, but we also understand we may never know the answers or the reasons behind our most challenging issues.  This is anything but a one-size-fits-all blog. It's supposed to make people think HONESTLY about the things that bug and baffle us about the  journey, and also to motivate us to share what's deep down inside, not just join the hoards who spew what they have been told to spew.

Ken Gire says that God is not indiscriminately intimate, and C.S. Lewis says the best things God does for us He does in us. That's what I'm talkin' about!

Join in. Enlighten me.

Blessings of Grace and Peace.

Read this poem if you have kids...:=}

I Learned to Swear by Pam Vap I learned to swear twenty minutes before my first child was born. Since then, it's been a handy habit to have around, and I expect God to turn his head. After all, he owes me one. It's a trick to make babies look so good. The truth is they leak. And of all horrors, they grow. They only speak whine; they cry and complain and wipe snot on their sleeves. They spill dinner. They stir pasta into their milk cups and squish spinach between their teeth. They eat crayons and toothpaste. They call constantly. They call constantly. Mom. Mom. Mom. Mo-om. They inhale money, bang down stairs, and store dirty socks and sandwich crusts like hidden treasures in their closets. They lipstick walls; they swallow marbles. They break things. Yet, God (no doubt in his wisdom) has ordained that these crude creatures should sleep incognito: gentle quiet warm. I am fooled easily. Each night as I tuck covers around them and bend to kiss their sweet, sleepy faces, I don't care that they used all the silverware in the garden. Let's fill the house with angels, I whisper to my husband as I slip between the sheets