"Words can't accurately convey the anguish that a traumatized person experiences. It has an intensity that defies description. Many traumatized people feel that they live in a personal hell to which no other human could possibly share. 

Here is a condensation of what severely traumatized individuals struggle with: 

I don't know of one thing I don't fear. I fear getting out of bed in the morning. I fear walking out of my house. I have great fears of death...not that I will die someday, but that I am going to die within the next few minutes. I fear anger.. my own and everyone else's, even when anger is not present. I fear rejection and/or abandonment. I fear success and failure. I get pain in my chest, and tingling and numbness in my arms and legs everyday. I almost daily experience cramps ranging from menstrual-type cramps to intense pain. I have headaches, I feel nervous all the time. I have shortness of breath, racing heart, disorientation and panic. I'm always cold, and I have dry-mouth, and trouble swallowing. I have no energy or motivation, and when I do accomplish something, I feel no sense of satisfaction. I feel overwhelmed, confused, lost, helpless and hopeless daily. I have uncontrollable outbursts of rage and depression." 

Waking the Tiger, healing trauma. Peter A. Levine.

In my estimation as a Christian, complex trauma with such extreme symptoms cannot be healed without qualified therapy. Christ will walk through it with us, enlighten, encourage, inspire and soothe the soul in desperation as He promised -Isaiah 41:10

 ‘Do not fear, for I am with you;

Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you, surely I will help you,

Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

 

 Jesus used a woman in the "Parable of the Lost Coin" as a metaphor for God.

A female image of God would incite anger from the Pharisees.  

Here's the parable - Luke 15:10 - "Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?" 

God was never depicted as female in Jewish tradition. There is no known precedent in the Hebrew Scriptures or contemporary Jewish literature for portraying God as a woman.  

To compare the Most High to a poor Galilean housewife searching for a coin would have struck many as irreverent at best, blasphemous at worst. Portraying God as a woman sweeping her house subverted both their theological imagery and their social hierarchy. 

Far from being a casual detail, it was a deliberate rhetorical move by Jesus to confront religious pride and reveal that God’s joy over repentant sinners transcends human categories of gender, status, and honor. 

  

 Here is a vivid poem about the struggle of divorce.

"They mourn, but smile at length; and, smiling, mourn:
The tree will wither long before it fall;
The hull drives on, though mast and sail be torn;
The roof-tree sinks, but moulder on the hall In massy hoariness;
the ruined wall stands when its wind-worn battlements are gone;
The bars survive the captive they enthrall;
The day drags through though storms keep out the sun;
And thus the heart will break, yet brokenly live on.
Even as a broken mirror,
which the glass in every fragment multiplies;
and makes a thousand images of one that was,
The same, and still the more, the more it breaks;
And thus the heart will do which not forsakes,
Living in shattered guise,
and still, and cold, and bloodless, with its sleepless sorrow aches,
Yet withers on till all without is old,
showing no visible sign,
for such things are untold."
Lord Byron.

In the context of divorce, it's a testament to how the institution may dissolve on paper, but the emotional architecture "stands when its wind-worn battlements are gone," enthralling the captive long after the bars are meant to fall."

"I’m not advocating for divorce, but I am not advocating for prolonging something that needs to be dealt with honestly and bravely.
 
There are many seasons of life that I wish I would have been braver and most of those matters revolved around endings, more so than beginnings.
 
We know how to start, way better than how to end, but both are a part of life.  
 
Just remember to give your children the best YOU they can have, and if that isn’t possible, then do whatever it takes to get there, no matter how dark it may be to let go of the dock.”
Pastor Eric.  

 Deal gently with us, ye who read!

Our largest hope is unfulfilled --

The promise still outruns the deed

The tower, but not the spire, we build.

Our whitest pearl we never find;

Our ripest fruit we never reach;

The flowering moments of the mind

Drop half their petals in our speech.

O. W. Holmes.

The meaning of the poem ---

The poem's core message is the tragedy of human imperfection: we build, seek, and think with great promise, yet never fully realize our potential. Life is a series of near-misses—towers without spires, fruits unpicked, thoughts half-articulated. This reflects a universal melancholy about mortality, the limits of effort, and the chasm between conception and execution. It pleads for gentle judgment, implying that such unfulfillment is not failure but the human condition itself.

 

"The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together;            our virtues would be proud if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would despair if they were not cherished by our virtues."

Shakespeare.  

 Remote from towns, he ran his godly race,

nor e'er had changed, nor wished to change, his place;

Unskilled he to fawn, or seek for power,
by doctrines fashioned to the varying hour;

far other aims his heart had learned to prize,

More bent to raise the wretched than to rise. 

His home was known to all the vagrant train; 

He chid their wanderings, but relieved their pain." 

Oliver Goldsmith. 

 

O thou that dry'st the mourners's tear!

How dark this world would be

If, when deceived and wounded here,

We could not fly to Thee! 

But thou wilt heal the broken heart, 

Which, like the plants that throw

Their fragrance from the wounded part,

Breathes sweetness out of woe. 

Thomas Moore. 

  

I was preaching on Psalm 103 and in verse 2-3 we are exhorted to forget "None of His benefits." Then King David begins to list the benefits of God and it begins with - "He pardons ALL our iniquities."

When preaching at the jail and the mission, it is a rough crowd and I always search for words that help visualize God's word. I ran across this quote and I plan to include it when describing our iniquities.   

"The band of outcasts were wandering from town to town in search of war or pleasure." Ruskin.

I was sent this message by a young woman who was horridly abused as a child; her innocence was violated and her childhood was robbed, and what can be almost worse, no one admitted it, nor did they repent, and everyone knew about it and left her alone without any support. This, of course, left her filled with anger, bitterness and anguish. But she’s always had a mustard seed faith, and as God has lovingly led her through this horror, He now has brought her to the next step, here’s her testimony --    

 "I have been thinking about forgiveness. I saw this post yesterday and it got me thinking some more. There is no reason at all to keep anger in me with people who hurt me. I forgive my mom, I forgive my brothers, my dad, my ex step dad, my grandpa. But most importantly, I forgive myself. I hurt myself in so many ways, I did not deserve that. I have no enemies, no anger is in me anymore. I choose peace and that peace is Jesus! He gives me a peace beyond anything. He gives me an everlasting love that no one can beat. I have a peace that I cannot understand in the moments where I feel lost. But I do know it’s my lord and savior. Jesus is so good. And my sin is so bad, yet, He still loves me as I am, and He meets me where I am always!

"The greatest of all the mysteries of life, and the most terrible, is the corruption of even the sincerest religion, which is not daily founded on rational, effective, humble, and helpful action. Helpful action, observe! For there is just one law, (Mk. 12:30-31) which obeyed, keeps all religions pure, but forgotten, makes them all false. Whenever in any religious faith, dark or bright, we allow our minds to dwell upon the points in which we differ from other people, we are wrong, and in the devils power. 

That is the essence of the Pharisee's prayer - "Lord, I thank you that I am not as other men are."

At every moment of our lives we should be trying to find out, not in what we differ from other people, but in what we agree with them; and the moment we find we can agree as to anything that should be done, kind or good, then do it." John Ruskin.   

 

The following quote was written during the Victorian era to young women of wealth and privilege. That being said, it has many useful applications for today's girls, and boys. Here is the abridged quote followed by the original. 

"You may see continually girls who have never been taught to do a single useful thing thoroughly; who cannot sew, who cannot cook, who cannot keep household accounts, nor prepare a medicine, whose whole life has been passed either in play or in pride: you will find girls like these, when they are earnest-hearted, cast all their innate passion of religious spirit, which was meant by God to support them through there daily toil, into grievous and vain meditation over the meaning of the Bible, of which no syllable was ever yet to be understood but through a deed; all the instinctive wisdom and mercy of their womanhood made vain, and the glory of their pure consciences warped into fruitless agony concerning questions which the laws of common serviceable life would have either solved for them in an instant, or kept out of their way. Give such a girl any true work that will make her active in the dawn, and weary at night, with the consciousness that her fellow-creatures have indeed been the better for her day, and the powerless sorrow of her enthusiasm will transform itself into a majesty of radiant and benevolent peace."

Original - 

"You may see continually girls who have never been taught to do a single useful thing thoroughly; who cannot sew, who cannot cook, who cannot keep household accounts, nor prepare a medicine, whose whole life has been passed either in play or in pride: you will find girls like these, when they are earnest-hearted, cast all their innate passion of religious spirit, which was meant by God to support them through there daily toil, into grievous and vain meditation over the meaning of the Bible, of which no syllable was ever yet to be understood but through a deed; all the instinctive wisdom and mercy of their womanhood made vain, and the glory of their pure consciences warped into fruitless agony concerning questions which the laws of common serviceable life would have either solved for them in an instant, or kept out of their way. 

Give such a girl any true work that will make her active in the dawn, and weary at night, with the consciousness that her fellow-creatures have indeed been the better for her day, and the powerless sorrow of her enthusiasm will transform itself into a majesty of radiant and beneficent peace."  

 

"Of all essential things in a gentleman's bodily and moral training, this is really the beginning - that he should have close companionship with the horse, the dog, and the eagle. Of all birthrights and bookrights - this is his first. 

To all good and sane men and beasts, be true brother; and as it is best, perhaps, to begin with all things in the lowest place, begin with true brotherhood to the beast: in pure simplicity of practical help." Ruskin.

Here is a poetic way of saying it - 

Let the gentleman’s dawn begin

astride the horse, beside the hound,

beneath the eagle’s sovereign wing—

his birthright, sealed in earth and sky.  First, brother to the beast:

in humble hand and heart,

lift, feed, and follow.

 Halloween and the good news of the Gospel 

“No curse can touch Jacob; no magic has any power against Israel.-Numbers 23:23

“I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning! -Jesus (Lk 10:18)

“Laugh at the Enemy” - Martin Luther

"Every October I am reminded to laugh, throw a party, eat too many goodies all in the light of the goodness of the gospel of Jesus that triumphed over devils, dourness and dobetterism.

It’s the time of year that I come to the realization that too many Christians still live under the law. I see it clearly in the way people start getting the jitters, begin judging or feel compelled to justify themselves during Halloween. Christians hiding their love of spooky things, the constant rebranding of everything that has a hint of frivolity and Frankenstein. The constant plungering of churchianity as it frantically seeks to unclog our culture of anything it perceives to be too worldly or wicked.

There’s an underpinning of anxiety and overtheshoulderism that haunts people who are living lives under the all seeing Eye of Sauron instead of the glorious grace of Christ. They are frightened by people without and people within the church having been whackamoled into submission to false ideas of sanctification and God honoring. They are less witnesses of the good news of Jesus and more testimonies of the terrors of hyper-fundi religiosity.

It’s a fascinating time to observe the conflicted and the condemning nature of so much of evangelicalism. This amazes me, in light of the fact that the reformation produced evangelicalism and that reform struck a pretty hefty blow to boogieman of superstition, man-pleasing and suffocating legalism. How could the sons and daughters of reformers like Martin Luther become so thin-skinned, pensively paranoid and hyper-guilty? When did bold and courageous freedom get exchanged for knee-jerk judgmentalism, persnickety piousness and cranky christianity?

One thing that Luther surely helped restore was the gift of satire and laughter to an institution that had grown so pompous and exalted in it’s own eyes, that it took a jolly, jesting, farting Monk to poke holes in its inflated ego. Luther’s antics, extremes and scathing hilarity helped dethrone saintly sourpussness and helped spring saints from their prisons of dead religious tradition and the heat lamp of breathless self-examination and self-loathing.

Martin Luther said: “A poor man, entangled in sin, death and hell, cannot hear anything more comforting than this precious, dear message of Christ. His heart must laugh deeply and become joyful about it...Sadness is hereditary to us, and the devil is the spirit of sadness, but God is the spirit of joy, who saves us.”

One of the main things that should be celebrated by those who have discovered the gospel is the joy of the defeat of Satan. Believers can be bold in their laughter, because Christ has set us free from the fear of death and evil!

“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” -Hebrews 2:14-15

We have nothing to fear! Not the devil, Hell, Judgment for our sins or the tribunal of other people’s religious troubles, trifles and tantrums. Christ triumphed over all of them and set us free to live lives full of righteous liberty, festival and frivolity as only people set free from sin and death can.

“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them through the cross.” -Colossians 2:13-15

Evangelicals always seem to have to find a reason to justify having fun, as if God is not the author of laughter, giggles and the creator of all our toe-tingling endorphin pleasures. At the root of the problem is we don’t truly believe the gospel. We believe we are saved by what we do or don’t do or ‘how well’ we do it. We claim Jesus is Lord of heaven and earth and that according to Jesus “the prince of this world was cast out” (Jn 12:31) but then live in superstitious fear and missional anxiety about days, foods and a host of other things.

Colossians 2: 16,20-21 “So don’t let anyone stand in judgment over you and dictate what you should eat or drink, what festivals you should celebrate, or how you should observe a new moon or Sabbath days...You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”?

To sum it up, Christ has set us free from the hamster wheel of trying to gain acceptance with God by being good enough or not bad enough. We have died to that way of life and have been born again into an abundant life of pardon, piety and pleasure!

“...if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” -Galatians 2:21

Such a path leads not to ungodliness but to Godwardness that produces people consumed with the wonders of Christ not swamp of self-introspection of brother bashing.

But unfortunately not everyone really understands the ‘good news’ of the gospel and many are still living in the shadows of a great deliverance, thinking they are still slaves to religious systems, the hammer of a distorted sin consciousness and fear of devils, destinies and diets!

1 Corinthians 8:4-7 “So, what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God. There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many lords.

But for us:

There is one God, the Father,

by whom all things were created,

and for whom we live.

And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ,

through whom all things were created,

and through whom we live.

7 However, not all believers know this.

Martin Luther said: “Laugh at the enemy and find someone to whom you can talk... or drink more, or make a joke, some merriment or any other joyful thing. Sometimes one must drink more, play, make merriment and even risk a sin during all this, in order to show abhorrence and disdain to the devil, so that he is not given any opportunity to make a thing of conscience out of small matters...If only I had something like an obvious sin, just in order to annoy the devil, so that he realizes that I do not recognize, and am not conscious of, any sin!”

I know that reading that paragraph almost seemed sacrilegious to some still in the grip of the law and under the heel of a religious spirit that has them pinned to the ground in fear of fragile faith. They still think they are their own saviors and that their right standing with God is based on their own works instead of the grace of God. They think freedom is a license to sin, which in reality just exposes the false front of righteousness that hides their own lurking lusts inside. The law exposes and punishes sin, it doesn’t liberate or loose you from it. Often those who wail the loudest against sin or the dangers of it are the one’s in it’s grip the most. They see evil all around because their religious mindset is rooted in justification by performance and pacification of other people’s courts of conscience instead of the mercy and love of God.

“Don’t let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels, saying they have had visions about these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud, and they are not connected to Christ, the head of the body. For he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it.” -Colossians 2:18-19

Paul goes on to discuss how to navigate people and their issues, their lack of knowledge about the full freedom of the gospel and how to know what to ‘keep to yourself and God” and what to refuse to ever submit to for the gospel’s sake. (Romans 14:9-10,14,22-23, 1 Corinthians 8:9-12 and Galatians 2:5).

We are called to love other people because love is higher than law, but true love, does it’s best to help others understand the beauty and benefit of the Gospel of Jesus. That means love might look outrageously obnoxious at times for the sake of the truth. It means freedom may call on you to laugh at the very things that pretend to exert such terror among us. Love may trespass where others cringe in perpetual deference to everyone else’s neurotic religiosity.

So this Halloween, let’s dare to laugh at the devil and all his lies. Let the celebration of Christ and His glorious gospel drown out all the barking, clucking and snorting of those who seem to be heralds of humorless holiness and the joyless Jesus of dogooderism.

“If you are moody, you shall remember that the Father now smiles at you.” -Martin Luther

Now go throw the best Halloween or Holywhatchamacallit party your pagan or pious friends have ever experienced and do it all for the glory of God!

 

Can you understand this quote?  

“Box your own lad’s ears the first time you see him shy a stone at a sparrow; and heartily, too; but put up, you and mother—(thank God for the blessed persecution),—with every conceivable form of vermin the boy likes to bring into the house,—and go hungry yourselves rather than not feed his rat or rabbit." 

This is a quote by George Elliot (1861) urging parents to discipline their children severely every time you see any form of cruelty to animals. 

"Shy a stone" means targeting a small, harmless bird. In rural 19th-century England, killing songbirds was seen as wasteful and morally wrong (sparrows were protected by custom and later by law).

But, recognize that having pets, of any kind, is a crucial part of childhood because it teaches them to love, to care and to nurture. So allow the child to explore nature, even if it means dirt, smells, and pests in your home including all kinds of creepy-crawly or dirty creatures (rats, mice, snakes, beetles, toads, etc.) And go hungry yourselves rather than not feed his rat or rabbit." 

 

"O Lord, take my heart

for I cannot give it;

and when Thou hast it, oh, keep it,

for I cannot keep it for Thee;

and save me in spite of myself

for Jesus Christ's sake." 

Fenelon. 

 

"He erred, no doubt, perhaps he sinned; 

Shall I then dare to cast a stone? 

Perhaps his blotch on a garment white,

Counts less than the dingy robes I own." 

George Houghton. 

 

"Not all who seem to fail have failed indeed; 

Not all who fail have therefore worded in vain;
For all our acts to many issues lead; 
and of of earnest purpose, pure and plain, 
Enforced by honest toil of hand or brain,
The Lord will fashion, in His own good time,
Such ends, as to his wisdom, fittest chime
With His vast love's eternal harmonies. 

There is no failure for the good and wise;
What though they seed should fall by the wayside
And the birds snatch it! - yet the birds are fed;
or they may bear it far across the tide,
To give rich harvests after thou are dead."
Charles Kingsley. 

The poem offers a hopeful and spiritual perspective on failure, suggesting that no sincere effort is truly wasted. Even if immediate goals aren't achieved, honest work contributes to a greater purpose, whether by benefiting others, aligning with divine will, or producing results beyond one’s lifetime. It encourages perseverance, faith, and trust in a larger plan, particularly from a perspective rooted in religious or moral conviction.

 

"Jesus didn’t heal everyone.

I’ve wrestled with that truth in the quiet places no one sees, in the hospital hallways where prayers echoed unanswered,

in the graveside silences where I begged Him to come late like He did for Lazarus…

and still believed He could.

He didn’t always stop.

He didn’t always speak.

Sometimes… He just walked by.

And that truth used to ache in me like a wound I couldn’t name.

I had this idea that if He could, He should.

That if He was near, He would fix what was broken. That if He loved me, He’d rescue me, quickly, publicly, visibly.

But He didn’t.

And yet… He loved me still.

I used to think miracles were the evidence of favor. Now I see, sometimes, the silence is.

Sometimes the “no” is just as holy as the “now.”

Sometimes the waiting is more sacred than the wonder.

Because the truth is, Jesus didn’t heal everyone.

Not every lame man walked.

Not every blind eye opened.

Not every storm was stilled.

Not every grave was emptied.

But He saw every ache.

He felt every cry.

He wept at every tomb.

Even the ones He didn’t raise.

I’m learning that His love is not proven by how quickly He answers,

but by how faithfully He stays when He doesn’t.

He didn’t always heal the body.

But He always touched the soul.

He always restored what mattered most.

And He always walked in love, even when His hands didn’t move the way I hoped.

So here I am, years into a prayer I’m still waiting on. Holding the tension between faith and fatigue.

Still believing He can.

Still trusting Him even if He doesn’t.

Still finding Him in the places I didn’t expect,

the long nights, the dry spells, the closed doors, the empty hands.

And maybe, just maybe, that’s the deeper healing.

Maybe He walked past them so He could walk with me.

Maybe He withheld the miracle to give me more of Him.

Maybe the greatest healing isn’t in the answer,

but in the nearness of the One who holds me while I wait.

He didn’t heal everyone. But He never passed by the brokenhearted.

And I know now, He has not passed by me."

Gwen Brewster. 

 

I went to the downtown Mission today, which is located in the worst part of Portland, the very heart of human desperation. I walk two blocks from my car to the mission doors midst the most distressing sights of human degradation. The sun was shining and the weather was crisp on this beautiful fall day; such a contrast, skies clear radiating hope, a day for a daydream, but the streets lined with the wages of sin.   

I meet weekly with a man in the program and we had a productive visit, the Lord had me help him dodge a bullet with a woman of evil intentions. 

As I left he walked me to my car and as we rounded the corner, there was a woman sitting on her haunches, skin of dark ebony, clothes worn for many days with a shawl covering her head and face. It was just a moment, a few seconds passing her by, but something struck my soul so deeply, my heart said stop and do, but my steps continued past as our conversation distracted me. We said our good-byes and as I pulled out I looked for that woman where I saw her, but she was gone. 

My emotions were so strong for this faceless stranger. She looked so helpless, so lost, and I was so full of the Holy Spirit, but.....

I learned a lesson today, be prepared. The very least I could have done, even with just a moment, is to have given her a pamphlet on the Mission's brand new women's shelter where she could get free help, loving counsel, spiritual encouragement and support, three nutritious meals a day, a warm room and a soft bed with ongoing care to help her meet all the challenges of easing back into life clean and sober.   But I was not prepared.....

Photo of random person on the Internet. 

 Listen to this woman and her team that go into Strip-clubs and spread the Gospel, it'll set your heart on fire!!! 

https://www.facebook.com/reel/415130431358505

 My son shared this about the birth of one of his grandchildren --

"The morning that my granddaughter was born (5am)

I was awakened by some of the most strong and deep prophetic dreams, ministry and words of the Spirit between 4-6am.

One after another the words swelled like waves upon me.                   I was awake and then fell into dream-sleep over and over again.

I felt like I was on the shores of a Scottish Isle being battered by stormy seas of prophetic words.

After I got a phone call from my wife to see my granddaughter for the first time via FaceTime, I wrote this prayer/prophecy:

“Blessed be the Lord!

May she howl like a wild voice of the wind of the Holy Spirit.

May the Lord be magnified by the halo of His glory on her soul.

May she be unleashed on the earth like a stampede of sacred Stallions unleashing a mighty move of God.

Daughter of destiny,

handmaiden of holiness

and helper of man.

Bearing the crest of her fathers,

the breath of her ancestors

prayers and songs,

the hands of heroes,

heart of fire

and the feet of island stone.”

Isa. 59:21

“As for Me,” says the Lord, “this is My covenant with them:

My Spirit who is upon you,

and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth,

nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants,” says the Lord, “from this time and forevermore”.

My wife told me that when she came out of the womb she was screaming and howling like a wild one."

The photo is a random pic from the internet.

 I like music, almost all music. I grew up with a love for the Blues and Rock n Roll, then when I became a Christian I was introduced to Gospel and "Spirit in the Sky." 

I ran across an old Blues singer today named Memphis Minnie. She was born in '35 and on one of her songs the lyrics caught me. 

"These strings ain't made for lullabies

They sharp, they cut, they bite. 

Cut so true you can hear 'em moan, hear 'em cry; 

Every note I pick is thunder from the sky." 

I love a good 'turn of phrase,' and these lyrics cry out to be preached from the pulpit today. As God has seen fit, He's opened the pulpits at the jail and at the mission, where I preach to those in crisis. Hardened souls, hurting souls, angry souls, and souls in anguish. The stories of the men and women remind me of the lyrics from another song --

"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 reach a heart like that the Lord assists me by giving me words with barbs as well as balm. Lectures and lullabies won't reach a hardened heart, it takes the soul piercing power of the Holy Spirit: which is where the lyrics to Memphis Minnie come in - These sermons ain't made for lullabies, they sharp, they cut, they bits. They cut so true you can hear 'em moan, hear 'em cry. Every word I pick is thunder from the sky. 

Once the wound is lanced, then the precious balm of Gilead is applied in lavish measures and the goodness of God and the Blood's cleansing flow leads even the hardest heart to repentance. 

 

"Walter Landor, speaking of the difference between Shakespeare and Francis Bacon, says:

"There is as great a difference between Shakespeare and Bacon as between an American forest and a London timber-yard. In the timber-yard the materials are sawed and squared and set across; whereas in the forest we have the natural form of the tree, all its growth, all its branches, all its leaves, all the mosses that grow about it, all the birds and insects that inhabit it, now deep shadows absorbing the whole wilderness, now bright bursting glades, with exuberant grass and flowers and fruitage; now untroubled skies, now terrific thunderstorms; everywhere multiformity, everywhere immensity."

I couldn't help but think of the different kinds of Christians; some are like the London timber-yards, great attention to details, a faith squared and sawn, and set across in tight and tidy doctrines set in systematic rows. 

While others, with hearts of love, compassions that fail not, deeds that reach others with flower and fruitage, bursting glades of grace, entering in deep shadows with sufferers, everywhere an immensity of compassion and grace.  

 

"That is Nature's way; she will allow a gentleman of splendid features and poetic aspirations to sing woefully out of tune and not give him the slightest hint of it; 

While she takes care that some narrow-browed fellow, trolling a ballad in the corner of his pothouse, shall be as true to his intervals a a bird." 

 

"There are those who consider, and I agree with them, that the education of boys under the age of twelve years ought to be entrusted as much as possible to women. Let me ask, of what period of youth and of manhood, does not the same hold true? 

I pity the ignorance and conceit of the man who fancies he has nothing left to learn from godly women, I should have thought that the very mission of women was to be, in the highest sense, the educator of man from infancy to old age: that that was the work toward which all the God-given capacities of women pointed - for which they were to be educated to the highest pitch. 

I should have thought that it was the glory of woman that she was sent into the world to live for others, rather than for herself; and therefore I should say, let her smallest rights be respected, her smallest wrong redressed; but let her never be persuaded to forget that she is sent into the world to teach man what, I believe, she has been teaching him all along, even in the savage state, namely, that there is something more necessary than claiming rights, and that is, the performing of duties; to teach him specially, in these so-called intellectual days, that there is something more than intellect, and that is, purity and virtue just as she sees in her Redeemer and her Lord." Charles Kingsley.  

 

"Heart, be not the grape that underneath the leaves

Hides, that it may not be the prey of garden thieves,

No thief has found that grape; but ah! no sunbeams power

Has reached its dark retreat, and so that grape is sour."

 

Have you read the great Reformation authors?

Every Christian should read the great Christian literature authored by the Reformers and Puritans. Without some familiarity with the great Christian authors of the past we have but a husk of truth. Here are some quotes about being caught up in the world and politics by some of the most notable authors from the past.

"The duty of the true Christian is clear and plain. Whatever others do, he must give all diligence to make his own calling and election sure. 

While others are occupied in national conflicts and political speculations, he must steadily seek first the kingdom of God."

J.C. Ryle

"An unsound heart, a rotten heart, 

is most taken up about the outside, —

informing that, and reforming that, and watching of that—

but as for the inside, 

there is no eye cast to see how all stands there."

Thomas Brooks

 "If we would talk less and pray more about them, 

things would be better than they are in the world: 

at least, we should be better enabled to bear them."

John Owen

"I see men for the most part spending their strength and time 

more to oppose things they disagree with 

than to practice the things they agree are most necessary."

John Owen

"The man that is most busy in censuring others is always least employed in examining himself."

Thomas Lye

"Study the Word more, and the concerns and interests of the world less."

John Flavel

"It is a just matter of lamentation that all the tokens of God's anger 

produce with many of us 

no better fruit but bold censures and loud clamors, 

instead of humiliation for our own sins, and the due preparation to take up own cross, and follow Christ in a suffering path."

John Flavel

 

"The loving service of the weak and needy is an essential part of the discipline of the Christian life. Regular association with the poor, the dependent, the sorrowful, is an indispensable source of the highest elements of character. If we are faithful to the obligations which such contact with infirmity will bring; if we gently take the trembling hand that seeks our guidance, and spend the willing care, and exercise the needful patience; - why, it makes us descend into healthful depths of sorrowful affection which otherwise we should never reach." 

James Martineau.  

 "You have turned Justice into poison

and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood." Amos 6:12

This verse caught my eye as I was reading in the book of Amos. I live on the outskirts of Portland, a city of protests, upheaval, social unrest and Antifa infiltration. 

When I moved here in the seventies it was a beautiful, peaceful city, but now, this once flourishing downtown shopping hub, is filled with graffiti, boarded up shops and the police are forced to stand-down and let chaos have its run. To say this town is liberal can't be exaggerated. 

Truly justice has been turned into poison, and what appears as righteousness is wormwood, meaning, bitterness and hard to take. 

We hope our leaders will bring justice, fairness and peace but here they have allowed corruption and chaos and harmed society like venom.  

 Infatuation

 Infatuation is the state of being completely lost in the emotion of unreasoning desire.

Urgency, intensity, sexual desire, anxiety, high-risk choices, reckless abandonment of what was once valued. (Virginity)

Reckless commitment to satisfy one's all-consuming lust.

All-consuming euphoria similar to recreational drug use (addictive chemical reactions in the brain), stupidity (cupidity). Can risk everything for the next hit of adrenalin.

Being controlled by brain chemistry, not the heart, loss of ability to make rational evaluations of what is true, valuable and worthy.

This is temporary in life and ends after some period. 

Here is a quote from an 18 year old girl that has met her first love --

"This guy. This romance.  These feelings...... Oh my word.  They can be good,  sad at times,  overwhelming,  challenging,  time consuming,  miserable, can make one insecure, make me feel older than I am at times,  make me feel stupid,  happy,  exciting, exhilarating,  peaceful,  paining,  questioning and sooooooo  much more.  This is my first ever real relationship and it at times can be so much and other times feeling so aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah- small."

When I saw this picture I had to include it in a post because it captures the overwhelming emotions of infatuation. 

It leaves us nearly helpless, and many a fool has been made because of it. Every relationship we have is important, a chance to learn, about the person, but more importantly, about ourselves. 

 

 

In these shrewd days, in which it has become the cleverest thing to suspect the Devil everywhere, and God nowhere, it is thought romantic to believe in the innocence of childhood. And possibly it is, if applied to the actual children, once born in the image of God, but long ago twisted into our miserable likeness by the sight of our luxuries, the contagion of our selfishness, the hearing of our lies: possibly it is, if applied to those whom the church teaches to blaspheme their own nature, to confess a false guilt, and prate of an unreal rescue from an unfelt danger. The child cannot understand the penitential strains that float from the older world around him; what have these people been about, that they have so much evil to bewail? They appear to him very worthy, and it is very strange they should speak so grievously to God, and stand before Him with a culprit air and streaming tears. 

 But if the World and Church will only learn what the child's simple presence may teach, instead of teaching what he cannot innocently learn, the truth may dawn upon them, that the child seldom requires to be led, -- only not to be misled. For childhood has a ready faith, that may be most blessedly used or most wickedly abused; a faith so open to the sense of God, that almost unspoken, and as by look of holy sympathy, it may be given; so eager, that it will seize on all the nourishment of thought within its reach; so trustful, that it feels no difficulty, and will cause you none." 

James Martineau.  

 

 

"In the Feejee islands, it appears, cannibalism is now familiar. They eat their own wives and children. We only devour widow's houses, and great merchants outwit and absorb the substance of small ones and every man feeds on his neighbors labor if he can. It is a milder form of cannibalism." 

Ralph Waldo Emerson. 1841.

 

"Almost all of our relationships begin and most of them continue as forms of mutual exploitation, a mental or physical barter, to be terminated when one or both parties run out of goods." W.H.Auden

 

I was talking to a friend who spoke of her Mother's influence on her piano playing. I made some remarks about how it struck me. 

I said - "One of the things that I really liked was when you talked about what your mother said when you were playing the piano -- 

"What I remember, was that every time I sat to play piano, even today, I hear her voice behind me. She once told me to play an old hymn called 'Showers of Blessing' which I did. 

As I finished, she said “Hummmm, I didn't hear any rain?!" As I played it again, she whispered all through the song: 

“Make it rain. Make it rain"

So…I made it rain. 

When she told me to play “How Great Thou Art” she asked me to make the twinkling stars different than the roaring thunder. I did. 

To this day, that is the voice I hear and the way I play piano..." 

What struck me about that is when I hear someone preach about rain, or thunder I want to hear it and feel it! 

I must confess, I go into a coma quickly listening to lectures or monotone teaching. I suppose being raised up listening to Elvis, Ray and Janis may have tuned my ear to dramatic presentations, who knows, but if it's about rain, let me HEAR IT!

If you can't preach with genuine passion, whether you whisper or raise the rafters, please, sit down. 

 

 

 

 Jesus with Soapy hands

 I ate lunch with man I mentor in the rehab program, we sat down by an old woman who sat alone at the back of the cafeteria, and I recognized her as the woman known there as the "Foot Doctor. Her name is Susan and she's my age or older, just a whisp of a woman, with an unassuming appearance, short and slight of build. I greeted her and asked if she was the "Foot Doctor?" She smiled and quickly corrected me saying she's just a nurse that cares for feet.  

Susan works the streets washing and caring for the feet of the homeless where she uses her skills as a nurse. She also comes weekly to the mission to give foot care to the men in the program. She drives an old car and in the trunk she has, carefully organized by size, shoes for men and women as well as socks. 

As we talked the Lord descended on me and I was made aware that Susan was heavenly royalty. I asked her about her work and in one conversation, she told me smiling that last week she cared for a woman's feet and gave her a pair of athletic shoes and socks. The woman thanked her profusely and then turned and immediately blew her nose in the new socks! Street life, one can never predict what will happen next. 

What can I say about Susan? One thing I can boldly say, she is not "JUST A NURSE!" I was in the presence of a godly woman devoted to Christ and caring for those He died for. I was humbled, filled with admiration and simply couldn't keep her Christian love and work a secret. 

Well done! Good and faithful servant.