Fallen from the ledge

  The almost visible Veil of tears one enters when walking the downtown streets of 3rd and Burnside.  

One senses the subtle change, into an other-worldly habitation, 

an entrance into the surreal, where the shrieks and cries of human souls echo off the inner-city walls.

The sidewalk surges with sorrow and loss, and human misery is evident in every face. 

Tragedy doesn’t discriminate, 

the young share space with the middle aged and the hoary head.

Each step I take draws me closer to the Savior’s heart, and I sense His presence there like no other place I tread.

The sights and peals of distress penetrate my soul like no sermon ever has.

In this sea of suffering what can one man do? But Jesus bids me go to this “voice of woe” and trust Him to guide my way. 

Each time, 

  every time, 

when my contribution is but “two mites,” 

He descends and wraps me in the warmth of kingdom love, and rewards me with His mystical rapture.

 

I read this today and agreed with so much of it I thought I'd post it. 

 "l like people who begin by blurting out something overly personal. 

I like people who aren’t afraid to walk around with a stain on their shirt. 

I like people who give compliments to strangers in the grocery store and make friends when they’re washing their hands in the bathroom. 

I like people who get passionate about ideas and excited about others’ success stories. 

I like people who live a little outside of the box, who march to the beat of their own drum, and who make it a mission to help those around them.

 I like people who own their failures, and apologize easily. 

I like people who know who they are deep down inside, 

and let that person shine like crazy. 

I like people who tell the truth. 

I like people who can joke often and don’t take themselves too seriously. 

I like people who love life so much they don’t make room for drama or petty behavior, only more love. 

I like people who like people. 

I like people who like books, and stupid tv shows, 

and who throw simple parties with pizza and paper plates.

 I like people who stop by just to say hello, and bring your favorite Sonic drink with them. 

I like people who have their own opinions, 

but aren’t threatened by you having your own opinion as well.

 I like people who ask for help. 

I like people who show up. 

I like people who don’t feel the need to show off. 

I like people who don’t pick up before you come over, and people who don’t pick fights where fights don’t belong.

 I like people who say “bring whoever you want.” 

I like people who build bigger tables, and greet every single person with a warm hello, as if they have been best friends for years.

 I like people whose eyes get bright when they talk about their passions, 

and people whose voice gets louder when they sing their favorite song. 

I like people who build businesses and who build up everyone around them. 

I like people who aren’t perfect.

I like people who aren’t cool. 

I like people who aren’t trying to keep up with everyone else. 

I like people who aren’t trying to be someone they were never made to be. 

I like people who are so real it hurts and it makes other people uncomfortable. 

I love all people, but man, there’s a special place in my heart for the messy ones." 

Love, 

Amy Weatherly

  “Don’t talk to me about it being harder or less fun to read. We are not here to toy with trivialities but to wrestle with the weightiness of the oversight of souls.”

-Ray Van Neste, PhD, University of Aberdeen, dean and professor of biblical studies in the School of Theology and Missions at Union University

 Loving God with all our minds is good and important work in the life of faith and witness. A studious and generous love for knowledge in order to be better equipped in scripture and reason is critical in an age of trivialities, distractions, deceptions, and disinformation. We have to be diligent and discerning in a highly curated and algorithmic based world of information and education on the internet.

The internet is primarily an individual based learning system devoid of an important component of Jesus-based, biblical discipleship: learning in community and connection to meaningful relationships of different ages, experiences and cultural or racial differences.

Extreme isolation and overly-independent learning is one of the primary challenges and dangers of the intellectual life today. We need to be exposed to healthy and wide conversations, encounter broad and different views and perspectives and be having conversations that expand beyond a self-built echo chamber. If we do not have much of this we can develop malformations of the life of the mind and build prideful conclusions that are rarely challenged or defended.

The Church, the believing community is a God ordained, safe but challenging place to do this good but difficult work together.

An alcoholic friend of Philip Yancey once said to him:

 

“When I'm late to church, people turn around and stare at me with frowns of disapproval. 

I get the clear message that I'm not as responsible as they are. 

When I'm late to AA, 

the meeting comes to a halt and everyone jumps up to hug and welcome me. 

They realize that my lateness may be a sign that I almost didn't make it. 

When I show up, it proves that my desperate need for them 

won out over my desperate need for alcohol."

Lets make sure that people know how welcome they always are, 

that our table is really big 

and that there is always a place with their name on it at our table.

 Have you heard of Rose Livingston? The woman pictured on the far right. 

I hadn't until today when my son shared how this little Christian woman, who wanted to go to the mission field, decided to stay in the U.S. and rescue females trapped in the sex trafficking. I've written some thing about her because she is beyond inspirational. Mercy, I wept, I was convicted and feel like a pagan after reading of her heroics. Much like Paul in her devotion, and, in her suffering for righteousness. 

Rose Livingston focused on girls that were nine to seventeen years of age, Livingston made it her life's work to free thousands of girls and women from sexual slavery beginning on March 4, 1903  Her modus operandi was to follow men that were sexual slavers, figure out what females were held captive, make friends with them, and encourage them to escape.                                                                                               She looked for enslaved girls in opium dens, dance halls, and bars, particularly in New York City's Chinatown and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. In 1907, there were 300 girls younger than 18 in Chinatown that were sex workers, out of a total of 800 white slaves. Six years later, she could not find any girls under age 18 there.  

In 1914, a contract was taken out on her life for $500 (equivalent to $14,610 in 2022). Once, a few years before 1934, she was hurt so badly trying to save a girl from Boston that she was in the hospital for five months and on crutches for two years. She was pushed from a roof of the red-light district in Brooklyn. By 1933, she had 22 beatings, one of which caused severe injury of her eyes. After a number of operations, her eyesight continued to fail her in the 1930s. She carried a gun with her, but was never known to have shot at anyone.

As she rescued women, she put herself in danger. About five feet tall and weighing about 90 pounds, she faced male procurers, or cadets, as she tried to rescue girls and women. She was severely beaten, shot, wounded, and thrown out windows. In 1912, she was severely beaten, resulting in permanent damage. She had severe neuritis and persistent neuralgic pain due to a fracture of the alveolar process of the upper jaw bone. On one side of her face, she lost all of the teeth of the upper jaw.

 My oldest son wrote this romantic poem to his wife of 34 years.

Think not for a minute God does not honor faithful love and service.

"I’d Never Known Sacred Fire"

"At our very first kiss…

I hesitated because I’d never known sacred fire.

I was delighted and slightly touched by an unknown dread, like I was on a path I’d never tread before.

I knew you were requiring more of me than I’d ever given.

I felt a demand to be a good man more than I’d ever been for another woman.

I felt a foretaste of what it will probably feel like coming into Zion for the first time where all one’s deepest inner associations with story, faith and meaning find a place, a moment, a people. It's like you’ve found your heart’s home, but you feel like you’ve been invited by mistake.

Now when I kiss you…

I feel lips warmed and worn by a life of love that took more than we ever knew it would cost and more than we ever believed could be experienced.

Each year I’ve kissed a slightly different woman, but the flame has never burned out, even as it has changed us both.

As the light of that sacred fire has burned, you’ve become more of a truer woman than I’ve ever known.

You welcome and honor a life lived well.

Grey has become your visible testament and glory, like the coastal seas that take the breath away and rumble and roar in a manner that leaves one uneasy, but utterly captivated.

You continue to give love to others when they do not always deserve it.

You are willing to work unseen and faithfully, and long for little other…than gratitude.

Each year crowns you with another diadem of grace and wisdom and the depth of your vision brings greater light to all who are blessed to be close enough to hear you.

You hold others up and truly reflect the Lord who is our helper in all the ways that being a helpmate reflects.

Your children call you blessed for the many gifts you’ve given them as mother.

You’ve freely given the pearls of the music of Heaven to so many and only in eternity will you hear the final masterpiece of every note you’ve sung.

When you now give a kiss…

It’s given with far greater knowledge of all it means to give and for that I am forever grateful.

I’m so grateful for the day you were born."

Eric Blauer 2024.

 

The Christian walk is one of ever expanding revelation. Or it should be... 

One of the biggest changes the Lord has taken me through has been working and volunteering in Jails, Missions and Christian drug and alcohol recovery programs. 

The impact this made on me is incalculable, the lessons immeasurable, the bonds of Christian love created, countless. In the 'halls of mercy' within these programs Christ shed His grace so powerfully that words can't begin to describe. 

The jails, missions and recovery programs are where men and women look their demons in the eyes, and with the help and guidance of caring staff, they confront those demons and learn faith, repentance and begin the journey to joy and wholeness. 

I'm not sure how to state what I feel about it, so I'll clumsily try and explain. 

Before these experiences, much of my Christian life centered around Church, Family, Bible study, Fellowship, and dabbling in Christian charities and service. All of these things are so important, they were before, and they are now, but after experiencing the involvements with those in true crisis, well, I think it can be summed up with the lyrics to Ray LaMontagne's song "Empty."  

 "Well, I looked my demons in the eyes

Lay bare my chest, said, "Do your best to destroy me"

See, I've been to hell and back so many times

I must admit you kinda bore me." 

To paraphrase that I'd say, I've watched people look their demons in the eye, lay themselves open to God's miraculous workings, and even though hell bound them for a season, I've witnessed Christ crush the jaws of evil and let the captives free, and after all I've seen, to go back to the level of Christianity I knew before.......

I must admit, it kind of bores me. 

 

A good friend was lamenting the loss of someone they knew, but never got to know well, she explains ----

"A time ago, I was standing at the casket
of someone who never loved me, and
had indeed been a thorn in my side.
And while I’ve done the wrong thing
plenty,
this time, I did it right.

I had forgiven. I had loved.
I had tried to restore and had to let it be.
This gave me a deep peace.

I’m sorry they missed me, but I have no regret. As arrogant as I may sound,
I hope you understand.
I was a glorious gift sent from God
to bless them.
And they missed me.

And because they didn’t choose to love me…
I also missed them,
and what God wanted to teach me through them.
While it was their loss, God graciously made up my gain."

I had to respond to her because it hit close to home, I said ---

Mmmm, what a thoughtful, healing post.
The complexities in human relations are deep and wide,
thrilling, and, sadly, killing.

"They missed me.
And because they didn’t choose to love me…I also missed them, and what God wanted to teach me through them."
That stuck out to me:

I'm old enough to know that everyone has gold inside,
and if we can dig deep enough their is great reward.
But some are so scarred that it takes more digging than I'm mature enough to do at this point in life.

So, like you said, "they missed me, and I missed them," what a pity.

   I was just talking with my middle son and he was recounting what happened when he left the mission on Thursday; he had a good time mentoring a couple guys there and left the mission doors in the afterglow of the Holy Spirit.

 As he was walking to his car he noticed a young man laying, face down, in an alcove. He was, as he explained to me, the most pitiful and pathetic sight he's seen since he's been going down there. He was laying flat on his face, and so much disgusting snot was coming out of his nose it almost appeared to be like some horrid creature was coming up from the sidewalk into the man;  he could hardly stand to look at him. 

If that were not bad enough, he was in kind of a kneeling position where his butt was sticking up, and his pants were completely down. His butt was covered in awful sores, and all in all, he was so repugnant, but so helpless, as he laid there continually moaning with intermittent burst of shouting. 

As Marc walked by him, he felt such a powerful pull from the Spirit that he knew he just couldn't go by without doing something, but he had no idea whatsoever what he could do. He simply couldn't touch him because he was so appalling, so he kneeled down and tried to talk to him. He had the sense that he could hear him because his moaning would stop for a second before continuing. 

Marc's heart was breaking, but he felt completely impotent, and as bystanders saw him, they all, one by one, moved on. 

So there he sat, completely overwhelmed by this pathetic individual and not a clue what he could do. 

There is an organization to call called "Clean and Safe" and they will evaluate and have resources, 

but at that moment the Holy Spirit began to gush up within him and like a mighty rushing wind, moved Marc to pray. So he said yes, although not knowing what to say, but he began praying and the Spirit fell so forcefully on him his words just gushed with love, hope and supplication. 

The man stilled, stopped his moaning and lay there quiet.            Marc finished his prayer and stood up, the man lay still as Marc left and got in his car. The presence of God was so strong he just sobbed and rejoiced all the way home.   

He was in tears recounting the story, I was in tears rejoicing, and we both were left in amazement with what God will do if we but stop and try.

I'd like to give a report that all was well with that young man, and he was restored and all turned out great, and we pray it is so, but we know that at that moment in time, prayer was needed, and prayer was given. 

 

Are you a Christian Mystic? 

Does your faith in Christ include moments and revelations that are beyond human description? Does the Holy Spirit move in you? Christian mysticism is rarely spoken of and less understood. Christ's teachings and actions urge us to enter into a union with the Father and the son, guided by His Spirit, and that union takes on many dimensions as all of Christianity testifies of. 

I've gathered a handful of soul penetrating quotes to ponder. 

"He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” Jn. 14:21

Ghent asks: "Will future conceptions of God take on a more mystical cast?" 

Armstrong answers - "I don't think, in our kind of society, we'll be able to develop a full-blown mystical religion or concept of God because we seek, instant gratification, fast food, endless talk and noise. The silence in mysticism is alien. People want to do a few courses in mysticism, rather like the way you do French before going on holiday, and expect to emerge a mystic. Mysticism isn't like that." 

"The soul of the great mystic does not stop at ecstasy, as at the end of a journey. The ecstasy is indeed rest, if you like, but as though at a station, where the engine is still under steam, the ground movement becoming a vibration on one spot, until it is time to race forward again." 

 "We pass into mystical states from out of ordinary consciousness as from a less into a more, as from a smallness into a vastness, and at the same time as from an unrest to a rest. We feel them as reconciling, unifying states. They appeal to the yes-function more than to the no-function in us, In them the unlimited absorbs the limits and peacefully closes the account." 

  "Mystical experience... is the awareness of a Presence, the consciousness of a Beyond. The most striking effect of such experience is not new fact-knowledge, not new items of empirical information, but new moral energy, a heightened conviction, increased caloric quality, enlarged spiritual vision, an unusual radiant power of life. In short, the whole personality, in the case of the constructive mystics, appears to be raised to a new level of life."

 "Mysticism means nothing, absolutely nothing, to the one who has no experience of it."   

 The quotes, and the authors below, are those who inspire John McArthur, R.C.Sproul and John Piper, among millions of others who are familiar with the great Puritans.

If you’re a Christian make it your goal to read each of these authors,
You will grow and mature in Christ if you do.
Fuel for the soul, love to spread the kingdom.


While I live, I'll love; and while I breathe, I'll bless.
—Charles Spurgeon

The very nature of God is love. If it should be enquired what God is, it might be answered that He is an infinite and incomprehensible fountain of love.
—Jonathan Edwards

The single desire that dominated my search for delight was simply to love and to be loved.
—Augustine

To love, and be beloved, this is heaven.
—Archibald Alexander

There is no father like God for love. You cannot love your own soul so entirely as he loves you.
—Thomas Watson

The love of Christ is astonishing. It is unparalleled. It surpasses knowledge.
—James Smith

Man’s heart cannot comprehend the unfathomable depth and burning zeal of God’s love toward us.
—Martin Luther

God is love itself, and the infinite fountain and ocean of it.
—Jonathan Edwards

We must not think to bring love to God, but we must fetch love from God.
We must light our candle at his fire.
Think of his love to us, and beg the Spirit of love from him;
love is a fruit of the Spirit.
—Richard Sibbes

My God, spiritualize my affection! Give me to know what it is to have the intense and passionate love of Christ.
—Thomas Chalmers

Nothing can provoke love more than to know that one is loved.
—Thomas Aquinas

Precious Lord! continue to surprise my soul with the tokens of thy love.
—Robert Hawker

Resolved, to examine carefully, and constantly, what that one thing in me is,
which causes me in the least to doubt of the love of God;
and to direct all my forces against it.
—Jonathan Edwards (age 19)

All our doubting’s are nothing but so many questionings of his love.
—John Owen

Nay, I will read thy book, and never move
Till I have found therein thy love.
—George Herbert

Let us labor to grow more in the assurance of God's love, and all the evidences of it.
Let us dwell long in the meditation of these things.
—Richard Sibbes