"Awake o sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." Eph. 5:14                                       

  "There comes a time to all of us when the sense of responsibility starts up within us and rebukes our pursuit of ease; it tells us that we are living, and life is fast and once for all, and life ends in eternity, and is embosomed everywhere in God; and it bids us to spring up from our collapse of selfishness and sleep, and take up the full dimensions of our strength, and go forth to do much, if it be possible, and at least to do it worthily and well."   James Martineau. 

  "Religion is a subject open to all minds. Its great truths have their foundation in the soul itself, and their proofs surround us on all sides. God has not shut up the evidence of His being in a few books and locked up in the libraries of colleges and professors, but has written His name on the heavens and on the earth. His word, taught by Jesus Christ, was not given to scribes and lawyers, but taught to the poor, to the mass of men, on mountains, in streets and on the sea-shore. 

  It is sometimes said that the multitude may think on the common business of life, but not on higher subjects, and especially on religion. This, it is said, must be received on authority; on this, men in general can form no judgment of their own. But this is the last subject on which the individual should be willing to surrender  himself to other's diction. In nothing has he so strong an interest. In nothing is it so important that his mind and heart should be alive and engaged. In nothing has he readier means of judging for himself. In nothing, as history shows, is he more likely to be led astray by such as assume the office of thinking for him." William Ellery Channing  1Jn. 2:27 

 

 When Jesus saves our soul, He begins the process of leading us out of our sinful behaviors, and in so doing, we begin to see in ourselves a nobleness begin to arise. And in proportion as he helps us gain victory over our animal grossness, our selfish meanness, and our pitiable ignorance or sordid neglect, and other sinful behaviors: we begin to see our doubts disperse, and our true affections grow and aspire: the veil is lifted from the future, the darkness breaks away, and the spirit begins to walk with dignity within the kingdom of God. "He restores my soul" as Kind David said. 

 

  I never realized how true this statement is until I hit my seventies. As I review the years I see life is similar to a pinball game where we traverse a path until a major change comes and then unexpectedly, we find our trajectory altered from our familiar course. It may be for good or ill: a death, sickness, romance, loss of a romance or a spiritual awakening. There are people that enter our world, for a lifetime or for a season, that leave indelible marks for good or ill. Life is a difficult affair, and try as we may to control it, along come these experiences that literally change who you are.

 

   I read this prayer of humility by James Martineau today, this is the spirit that Jesus loves to bless. 

  "What are we, O Lord, that thou shouldst make us sharers in they everlasting work, and give us entrance into thy everlasting rest? It is shameful to think how we have defaced thine image, grieved thy Spirit, quitted thy presence, and strayed by ourselves. When we lose thy hand, we are without strength or stay, and sink into the fretful cares and miserable pride of an unloving mind." 

 I just love this quote, not that I consider myself so; but all through life my true friends have been people like this. I'm drawn to this type of person. They inspire me, amaze me, and yes, entertain me; and I like to think a little of it has rubbed off, which I value immensely.     I must confess they are usually less stable, less predictable, more emotional and less disciplined, but oh! They are mind broadening and soul enriching. And when possessed by the Spirit of Christ, mercy, they are far reaching!                                                           Like my grandmother would say, "Lawdy! that boy's a caution!

When I saw this little sprouts picture he just charmed me! What a cute little snip! It's been years since my sons were this age, and these wonder filled years rush by so quickly; if you have a little one, be sure to spend as much time with them as you possibly can; you will never regret a minute!   

 

Paul states in Philippians 1:8

"How greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ." 

I wondered, 'what is the affection of Jesus Christ?'

In the following verse he prays that, "our love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment."                              I wondered again, 'how does love abound in knowledge and discernment?' He continues and says, "that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense." 

So this occurred to me - The affection of Jesus Christ is not unlike our natural love: we long for those we love and hope our love will abound more and more for them. But when we have that love for a stranger, which I believe is "the affection of Jesus Christ," we need knowledge so we can guide and direct them towards God, away from trouble, but not enable them or ensnare ourselves. And we need discernment so we don't mistake the "affection of Jesus Christ" for a carnal feeling that can betray our good intentions and end up causing an offense instead of being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which glorify God. 

Christian ministry is an emotional, personal, and often deeply moving involvement, that needs real knowledge and discernment. 

 

  "You will here see that to me labor has great dignity. It is not merely the grand instrument by which the earth is overspread with fruitfulness and beauty, and the ocean subdued, and matter wrought into innumerable forms for comfort and ornament. It has a far higher function, which is to give force to the will, efficiency, courage, the capacity of endurance and of persevering devotion to far-reaching plans. Alas, for the man who has not learned to work! He is a poor creature. He does not know himself. He depends on others, with no capacity of making returns for the support they give; and let him not imagine that he has a monopoly of enjoyment. Ease, rest, owes its deliciousness to toil; and no toil is so burdensome as the rest of him who has nothing to task and quicken his powers." 

Another quote from William Ellery Channing given to mechanics and laborers in a sermon. 

 

  "Man owes his growth, his energy, chiefly to that striving of the will, that conflict with difficulty, which we call Effort. 

Easy pleasant work does not make robust minds, nor does it give men a consciousness of their powers, it does not train them to endurance, to perseverance, to steady force of will, that force without which all other acquisitions avail nothing. Manual labor is a school in which men are placed to get energy of purpose and character - a vastly more important endowment than all the learning of other schools." 

This quote comes from a sermon by William Ellery Channing to a group of mechanics and laborers in the 18th century; much still applies today. 

 

    "Our chief source of truth for us in regard to God is Revelation; and this, accordingly, should claim our most serious and devoted study. But when I thus speak of Revelation, I mean the Christian Religion. In the Jewish Scriptures, though many sublime passages are found in relation to the Supreme Divinity, yet in many others the image given of God is adapted to a rude state of society only and to a very immature stage of the human mind. And not a few Christians have depressed their idea of the Infinite Being, by conceiving of Him as He was represented in half-barbarous ages, instead of learning to know Him from Jesus, who came to scatter the shades of Judaism as well as of heathenism, and who alone reveals the Father -- or the Paternal Character of the Creator -- in full glory." William Ellery Channing.   

No doubt many will find great controversy in this statement, but I find myself more and more in agreement. 

  "It was the peculiarity of the greatness of Jesus that it stooped --- I will not say, but -- penetrated without stooping, to the humblest wants; not simply stepped casually aside to look at the most ignominious sorrows, but went directly to them, and lived wholly in them; scattered glorious miracles and sacred truths along the hidden by-paths and in the mean recesses of existence; serving the mendicant and the widow, blessing the child, healing leprosy of the body and soul, and kneeling to wash even the traitors feet. In Himself was the serene and unapproachable dignity of a higher nature, a mind at one with the universe and its Author; in His acts, a frugal respect for the most neglected elements of human life, declaring He came not to be ministered unto but to minister."  James Martineau. 

   "It may be said that Christianity has done much to awaken benevolence, and that it has taught men to call one another brethren. Yes, to call one another so; but has it as yet given the true feeling of brotherhood? We undoubtedly feel ourselves to be all of one race, and this is well. We trace ourselves up to one pair, and feel the same blood flowing in our veins. But do we understand our spiritual brotherhood? Do we feel ourselves to be derived from one Heavenly Parent, in whose image we are all made, and whose perfection we may constantly approach? Do we feel that there is one divine life in our own souls? This seems to me the only true bond of man to man. Here is a tie more sacred, more enduring, than all the ties of this earth. Is it felt, and do we in consequence truly honor one another? 

  Tell me not of the universal corruption of the race. Humanity has already, in not a few instances, borne conspicuously the likeness of Christ and God. The sun grows dim, the grandeur of outward nature shrinks, when compared with the spiritual energy of men who, in the cause of truth, of God, of charity, have spurned all bribes of ease, pleasure, renown, and have withstood shame, want, persecution, torture, and the most dreaded forms of death. In such men I learn the soul was made in God's image, and made to conform itself to the loveliness and greatness of his Son." William Ellery Channing. 

  I enjoy Channing's more liberal view of the soul, he rejects the Calvinist view that the soul of man is desperately wicked and completely dead spiritually. But rather, being made in the image of God and given a conscience, there are glimmers of that image in all humanity. My experience in life has inclined me to believe that. 

 

"One thing I ask from the Lord,

this only do I seek ........

To gaze on the beauty of the Lord." Ps. 27:4

The following photos represent God's beauty displayed in innocence, love, heroism and honor, to name a few.

 

What is Faith?

   "When a man says, I believe in Christ, he really says, and means to say, I believe in the beauty of goodness, in the desirableness of purity, in the right of righteousness to be ultimately triumphant. He declares that Christ is his ideal of perfection, that to that ideal he is, in thought at least, loyal and true, and that he longs for the time to come when the actions of his life will be conformable to the thought of his soul.

It is the sight of an ideal whose outward manifestation is not yet seen, the conviction of a truth whose proof lies beyond the eye and ear, the assurance of a result whose accomplishment seems belied by the actual facts of life." George Matheson. 

I think the last paragraph defines Hebrews 11:1. 
 

Aging

 

 

 

 I love good photography, and I love to see people giving it all they've got, I remember where Paul told Timothy to, "Make every effort" 2 Tim. 4:21  and on a spiritual level it is so easy to fall into complacency, so when I see photos like these it inspires me to stay in the race with all I've got, ours will be no perishable crown.