Christ's mercies

  "A mother that has a sick child that is difficult to deal with will not therefore cast it away. And shall there be more mercy in ourselves than in God, who planted the affection of mercy in us? But for further demonstration of Christ's mercy too all broken people, consider the names of love and family Christ has taken upon himself such as husband, nursing mother, shepherd, brother etc. which he will discharge to the utmost as assigned by his Father and his own voluntary undertaking. Consider the names used to describe him of the mildest creatures, like the lamb and hen to show his tender care; consider his very name Jesus, a Savior, given him by God himself; consider his mission, which is that he should 'heal the broken-hearted,' Isa 61:1

 At his baptism the Holy Ghost sat on him in the shape of a dove, to show what he should be a dove-like, gentle mediator. See the gracious manner of executing his mission. As a prophet, he came with blessing in his mouth, 'Blessed be the poor in spirit' etc. and he invited those to come to him whose hearts felt the most guilt, 'Come unto me, all you that are weary and heavy laden.' Matt. 11:28 How did his heart yearn when 'he saw the people as a sheep without a shepherd!' Matt. 9:36. He never turned any back again that came to him, though some went away of themselves. He came to die as a priest for his enemies. In the days of his flesh he dictated a form of  prayer to his disciples, and put petitions to God into their mouths, and his Spirit to intercede in their hearts; and he now makes intercession in heaven for weak Christians; and shed tears for those that shed his blood.

  So, he is a meek King; he will admit mourners into his presence, a king of poor and afflicted persons; as he has beams of majesty, so he has a heart of mercies and compassion; 'a prince of peace,' Isa. 9:6. Why was he tempted, but that he might aid those that are tempted,' Heb. 2:18. What mercy may we not expect from so gracious a mediator, that took our nature upon him that he might be gracious. He is a physician good at all diseases, especially at the binding up of a broken heart; he died that he might heal our souls with a plaster of his own blood, and by that death save us.  Richard Sibbs, 1645.

 

 

 

  This little quote by John Ruskin is in defense of his writing. He's frustrated that so many don't know the rules of grammar and so they misunderstand what he says, or they haven't the patience to study it out. 

Downright Facts Plainly Told.

  "I have been much impressed lately by one of the results of the quantity of our books; namely, the stern impossibility of getting anything understood, that requires patience to understand. 

I observe always, in the case of my own writings, that if ever I state anything which has cost me any trouble to ascertain, and which, therefore, will probably require a minute of two of reflection from the reader before it can be accepted, --that the statement will not only be misunderstood, but in all probability will be taken to mean something very nearly the reverse of what it does mean.

  Now, whatever faults there may be in my modes of expression, I know that the words I use will always be found, by Johnson;'s dictionary, to bear, first of all, the sense I use them in; and that the sentences, whether awkwardly turned or not, will, by the ordinary rules of grammar, bear no other interpretation than what I mean them to bear; so that the misunderstanding of them just result, ultimately, from the mere fact that their matter sometimes requires a little patience." John Ruskin

Lycurgus of Sparta

   

  "A young man in a fit of anger struck and put out one of Lycurgus eyes with a stick. The offender was captured and given to Lycurgus for punishment. Lycurgus took him into his house, but showed him no ill treatment either by word or action. His only punishment was to have the youth wait upon him instead of his usual servants and attendants. The youth, who was innocent and unsuspecting, did what was commanded without murmuring. Living in this manner with Lycurgus, and having an opportunity to observe the mildness and goodness of his heart, his strict self control and indefatigable industry, he told his friends that Lycurgus was not the proud and severe man he had taken him for, but above all others, he was gentle and engaging in his behavior. This then, was the chastisement, and this punishment he suffered, that changed a wild and headstrong young man to become a very modest and prudent citizen." Plutarch. 

   A friend recommended I watch the movie "The Tender Bar." I had no idea what it was about and I began with my typical barriers up. "Why didn't they choose a charming child star? Who is this unknown that has no appeal? Why so much cussing? I don't think I'm going to like this......" and on I went with my critical spirit. 

But not long into the film I realized exactly why they chose this cast, and I was completely captivated by the wonderful, charming little boy star and as each person wove their way into my heart I was so taken by this film and so moved by how they portrayed family love and nurture, the support of friends and the life changing impact it makes. 

It struck chords so deep within me I found tears kept welling up and my heart was so deeply affected. Not until the movie was over did I realize I was mourning for what was portrayed on screen. Ben Affleck represented to me the father I wish I had, and I developed such a fondness for him by the time the film was over I found myself choking back emotions, and still, as I write this. The impact of loving family members and an adult environment that takes you under their wing and has your back, well, how can one measure how much better of a man, Father and husband one would be having this kind of support? If you grew up having these things, forever be grateful. Surely it is one of life's greatest gifts.

The blood of Jesus

 

 "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" 1 Jn. 1:7 

The blood of Christ needs to be considered three ways: as shed, as pleaded, as sprinkled. 1. As shed. This was necessary by way of satisfaction and merit, to obtain for us God's pardon of our sins, for "without the shedding of blood is no remission of sins." Heb. 9:22

   

2. It is pleaded by Christ in heaven. This is the very basis of His intercession. "By His own blood He entered in once into the Holy place" Heb. 9:12 and its merits He continually presents to the Father. It is also to be pleaded by us when we beg any blessing, especially the pardon of our sins: "Having therefore brethren, boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus" Heb. 10:19 

But it is not enough that His blood be shed and pleaded, it must be actually sprinkled or applied to our conscience; "The blood of sprinkling which speaketh better things than that of Abel." Heb. 12:24           Arthur Pink, The Atonement.

   I was reading in Proverbs 26:17 where it says, "Like one who takes a dog by the ears is he who passes by and meddles with strife not belonging to him." 

There was a marginal note by the word "meddle" and the literal word is, "infuriates himself". I thought, 'that is exactly why I don't busy myself with things I can do nothing about.'

 It seems to me much of Christendom today is fixated with politics, spiritual speculations that can never be resolved and the flaws in differing faiths. I get a flood of posts that I dismiss because they just "infuriate" me! I know my gifts and talents, and that's where I focus knowing I can, at the very least, make some small change. 

  

  "God is pleased to represent Himself as a person very 'suspicious' both in respect of persons and things. Regarding our persons, we give Him cause enough, for we are sinners from our mother's womb; we make solemn vows and break them instantly; we cry for pardon, and still renew the sin; we desire God to try us once more, and we provoke Him ten times further; we use the means of grace to cure us, and we turn them into vices and opportunities of sin; we curse our sins, and yet long for them extremely; we renounce them in public, yet in private show them kindness; we leave little offenses, but our faith and our charity is not strong enough to master great ones; and sometimes we are shamed out of great ones, but entertain little ones; or if we disclaim both, yet we love to be betrayed into them." Jeremy Taylor.  

 

This is long but so informative written by a young woman who spent a year with the Peace Corp. Her experience in Senegal is.... amazing and appalling. 

What I Learned in the Peace Corps in Africa.

By Karin McQuillan

Three weeks after college, I flew to Senegal, West Africa, to run a community center in a rural town. Life was placid, with no danger, except to your health. That danger was considerable, because it was, in the words of the Peace Corps doctor, “a fecalized environment.” In plain English: s— is everywhere. People defecate on the open ground, and the feces is blown with the dust – onto you, your clothes, your food, the water. He warned us the first day of training: do not even touch water. Human feces carries parasites that bore through your skin and cause organ failure.

 Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that a few decades later, liberals would be pushing the lie that Western civilization is no better than a third-world country. Or would teach two generations of our kids that loving your own culture and wanting to preserve it are racism. Last time I was in Paris, I saw a beautiful African woman in a grand boubou have her child defecate on the sidewalk next to Notre Dame Cathedral. The French police officer, ten steps from her, turned his head not to see. I have seen. I am not turning my head and pretending unpleasant things are not true. Senegal was not a hellhole. Very poor people can lead happy, meaningful lives in their own cultures’ terms. But they are not our terms. The excrement is the least of it. Our basic ideas of human relations, right and wrong, are incompatible. As a twenty-one-year-old starting out in the Peace Corps, I loved Senegal. In fact, I was euphoric. I quickly made friends and had an adopted family. I relished the feeling of the brotherhood of man. People were open, willing to share their lives and, after they knew you, their innermost thoughts. The longer I lived there, the more I understood: it became blindingly obvious that the Senegalese are not the same as us. The truths we hold to be self-evident are not evident to the Senegalese. How could they be? Their reality is totally different. You can’t understand anything in Senegal using American terms. Take something as basic as family. Family was a few hundred people, extending out to second and third cousins. All the men in one generation were called “father.” Senegalese are Muslim, with up to four wives. Girls had their clitorises cut off at puberty. (I witnessed this, at what I thought was going to be a nice coming-of-age ceremony, like a bat mitzvah or confirmation.)Sex, I was told, did not include kissing. Love and friendship in marriage were Western ideas. Fidelity was not a thing. Married women would have sex for a few cents to have cash for the market. What I did witness every day was that women were worked half to death. Wives raised the food and fed their own children, did the heavy labor of walking miles to gather wood for the fire, drew water from the well or public faucet, pounded grain with heavy hand-held pestles, lived in their own huts, and had conjugal visits from their husbands on a rotating basis with their co-wives. Their husbands lazed in the shade of the trees. Yet family was crucial to people there in a way Americans cannot comprehend. The Ten Commandments were not disobeyed – they were unknown. The value system was the exact opposite. You were supposed to steal everything you can to give to your own relatives. There are some Westernized Africans who try to rebel against the system. They fail. We hear a lot about the kleptocratic elites of Africa. The kleptocracy extends through the whole society. My town had a medical clinic donated by international agencies. The medicine was stolen by the medical workers and sold to the local store. If you were sick and didn’t have money, drop dead. That was normal. So here in the States, when we discovered that my 98-year-old father’s Muslim health aide from Nigeria had stolen his clothes and wasn’t bathing him, I wasn’t surprised. It was familiar. In Senegal, corruption ruled, from top to bottom. Go to the post office, and the clerk would name an outrageous price for a stamp. After paying the bribe, you still didn’t know it if it would be mailed or thrown out. That was normal. One of my most vivid memories was from the clinic. One day, as the wait grew hotter in the 110-degree heat, an old woman two feet from the medical aides – who were chatting in the shade of a mango tree instead of working – collapsed to the ground. They turned their heads so as not to see her and kept talking. She lay there in the dirt. Callousness to the sick was normal. Americans think it is a universal human instinct to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It’s not. It seems natural to us because we live in a Bible-based Judeo-Christian culture. We think the Protestant work ethic is universal. It’s not. My town was full of young men doing nothing. They were waiting for a government job. There was no private enterprise. Private business was not illegal, just impossible, given the nightmare of a third-world bureaucratic kleptocracy. It is also incompatible with Senegalese insistence on taking care of relatives. All the little stores in Senegal were owned by Mauritanians. If a Senegalese wanted to run a little store, he’d go to another country. The reason? Your friends and relatives would ask you for stuff for free, and you would have to say yes. End of your business. You are not allowed to be a selfish individual and say no to relatives. The result: Everyone has nothing. The more I worked there and visited government officials doing absolutely nothing, the more I realized that no one in Senegal had the idea that a job means work. A job is something given to you by a relative. It provides the place where you steal everything to give back to your family. I couldn’t wait to get home. So why would I want to bring Africa here? Non-Westerners do not magically become American by arriving on our shores with a visa. For the rest of my life, I enjoyed the greatest gift of the Peace Corps: I love and treasure America more than ever. I take seriously my responsibility to defend our culture and our country and pass on the American heritage to the next generation. African problems are made worse by our aid efforts. Senegal is full of smart, capable people. They will eventually solve their own country’s problems. They will do it on their terms, not ours. The solution is not to bring Africans here. We are lectured by Democrats that we must privilege third-world immigration by the hundred million with chain migration. They tell us we must end America as a white, Western, Judeo-Christian, capitalist nation – to prove we are not racist. I don’t need to prove a thing. Leftists want open borders because they resent whites, resent Western achievements, and hate America. They want to destroy America as we know it. As President Trump asked, why would we do that? We have the right to choose what kind of country to live in. I was happy to donate a year of my life as a young woman to help the poor Senegalese. I am not willing to donate my country.

I was reading a commentary on Apostle Paul today, and ran across this in the footnotes --- The author mentioned a quote about "Seed pickers" which he explained to mean -- "a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles. An intellectual charlatan who’s learning was second-hand and undigested." When I meditated on that I realized much of my knowledge falls under that category, but there is much that is truly considered and digested from actual experience, and that is where most of the deep and meaningful lessons are learned.

Some Christians dig and peck around the Bible and doctrinal thought, not really applying much of it, so they get distracted by trivial issues, their learning is second hand, not by personal experience from actually being involved in ministry, so they may have lots of knowledge, but it is "undigested", meaning, not tried and proven with personal experience. 

"You will easily judge then, what we consider the surest and only decisive signs of true devotion and piety. We lay no stress or emphasis on strong excitements. We esteem him, and him only, a devoted Christian, who practically conforms to God's moral perfections and government; who shows his delight in God's benevolence by loving and serving his neighbor; his delight in God's justice by being resolutely upright; his sense of God's purity by regulating his thoughts, imagination, and desires; and whose conversation, business, and domestic life are swayed by a regard to God's presence and authority. In all things else men my deceive themselves. Disordered nerves may give them strange sights, and sounds and impressions. Texts of Scripture may come to them as from Heaven. Their whole souls may be moved, and their confidence in God's favor be undoubting. But in all this there is no true religion. The question is, do they love God's commands, in which His character is fully expressed, and give up to these their habits and passions? Without this, ecstasy is a mockery. One surrender of desire to God's will is worth a thousand transports. We do not judge of the bent of men's minds by their raptures, any more than we judge the natural direction of a tree in a storm. We rather suspect loud profession, for we have observed that deep feeling is generally noiseless, and least seeks display." Coming from a strong Charismatic background, this quote really struck me, convicted me and hit home. My conversion and subsequent experiences, were very dramatic and at times mystical, but I believe this quote adds needed balance.

"When a man’s ways please the LORD, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.' Pr. 16:7

This proverb is vividly illustrated by Jesus ---

"The woman at the well left Jesus to share all that Jesus said to her Samaritan neighbors, who hated the Jews; but the woman's vivid testimony brought many out to see the Jewish prophet. These Samaritans preferred to beat until they drew blood or to murder outright the Jews traveling through their territories, and who later even refused hospitality to Jesus' own disciples. But this time, these Samaritans were gracious, for they had undoubtedly been tamed by the personality of the prophet. Jesus accepted the invitation and "He stayed there two days.” and far more believed because of His word. "The Life of Christ", by Giuseppe Ricciotti.

We must be sure that people "hate" us for true Gospel reasons, and not because we are obnoxious, rude and argumentative.

 

  "To be more against the devil than for God is exceedingly dangerous."

"Those who crusade not for God in themselves, but against the devil in others, never succeed in making the world better, but leave it either as it was, or sometimes even perceptibly worse that it was before the crusade began." 

Aldous Huxley.  

  I'm reading Gary Thomas's book "When to walk away" finding freedom from toxic people. The first chapter covered some important points. Here is a condensed list. 

1. Jesus walked away from others (or let others walk away from him) more than two dozen times in the four gospels. 

2. At times Jesus remained verbally silent when others tried to goad him into a conversation or a foolish controversy. 

3. When people asked Jesus to leave, He usually complied. 

4. Not only does Jesus let others walk away; at the great judgment He will send people away. You won't be able to reach or influence everyone you meet. 

5. Sometimes Jesus walked away for personal refreshment, prayer, or the need to reach others. 

6. Though Jesus came to die the death of a martyr, He repeatedly walked away from persecution, attacks, and violence throughout His adult ministry. In the same way, it can be prudent for us to walk away from verbal, emotional or physical abuse. 

 

  "These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him..... one who sows discord among the brethren." 

  "The next consideration regarding vain, and trifling speech is contention; by that I mean, wrangling and perpetual talk proceeding from the spirit of contradiction; a person who is peevish, angry, and has a quarreling disposition, they examine every issue to dispute and busy themselves, and others, with questions and impertinent oppositions.  They are troublesome and they complicate, tangle and twist all wise discourse and throw a cloud upon the face of truth; there is noise but no harmony, fighting but no victory, talking but no learning. They will put every man to flight defending their own position, disturbing the 'rest of truth' and all the dwellings of unity and consent. We can be sure that no person that is clamorous can be wise. They are, in short, "the accuser of the brethren" like the devil; and it is a vile thing for a person to be a tale bearer and sow discord among the brethren: one of the seven things God loudly proclaims He hates." 

Jeremy Taylor. 1600s. 

 

   The most difficult things in life are relational; marriage and child rearing are our biggest challenges, and they demand our very best. To enter marriage or to decide to rear children without educating ourselves is the most foolish thing we can do. "There is safety in a multitude of counselors", and nothing we do impacts the present and the future like marriage and children. It can be the most rewarding thing we ever do, or the most tragic. So we simply must do our due diligence in educating ourselves with books, sermons, wise friends and people we know that have happy and successful families. To neglect this eclipses everything else. 

  

 

  "When David had sinned but in one instance with Bathsheba, interrupting the course of a holy life by one, sad calamity, it pleased God to pardon him, but see upon what hard terms; he prayed long and violently, he wept sore, he was humbled in sackcloth and ashes, he ate the bread of affliction and drank his bottle of tears; he lost his princely sprit, and had an amazed conscience; he suffered the wrath of God, and the sword never did depart from his house. His son rebelled, and his kingdom revolted; he fled on foot, and maintained spies against his own child; he was forced to send an army against him that was dearer than his own eyes, and to fight against him whom he would not hurt for all the riches of Syria and Egypt; his concubines were defied by an incestuous mixture, in the face of the sun, before all Israel; and his child was the fruit of sin, after a seven day's fever, he died, and left him nothing of his sin to show, but sorrow and scourges of the divine vengeance; and after all this God pardoned him finally, because he was for ever sorrowful, and never did the sin again. 

  Now he that has sinned a thousand times for David's once, is too confident if he thinks that all his shall be pardoned at a less rate than  was used to expiate the one mischief of the religious King David."   Jeremy Taylor. 

 Why read poetry? 

  "The great tendency and purpose of poetry is to carry the mind beyond and above the beaten, dusty, weary walks of ordinary life; to lift it into a purer element; and to breathe into it more profound and generous emotion. It reveals to us the loveliness of nature, brings back the freshness of early feeling, revives the relish of simple pleasures, keeps unquenched the enthusiasm which warmed the spring-time of our being, refines youthful love, strengthens our interest in human nature by vivid delineations of its tenderest and loftiest feelings, spreads our sympathies over all classes of society, knits us by new ties with universal being, and through the brightness of its prophetic visions, helps faith to lay hold on a future life." 

William Ellery Channing.   

  Let the church ask itself, which would please its Master best,  

Teaching some ignorant child the way of life, or going to hear a great sermon – visiting and consoling some poor mourner, or going to a prayer meeting – stirring up some weak soul to duty, or seeking for an hour of emotional excitement – going to meeting always, or laboring occasionally for the reclamation of some sad wanderer from the path of virtue?

Timothy Titcomb

 

What is a home? 

"Is it merely a place where fellow-morals meet to eat, drink, and sleep securely beneath a roof? A house is reared to be a HOME: the center where a Family may gather into one; to be a serene retreat, where the tenderest affections may find rest; and within its walls love may have a dwelling place, and the charities of life gain ample scope and happiness; that parents and children may there press one another heart to heart; that sorrows and joys may be freely shared in confidence; that troubled spirits may unburden themselves, and be blessed with pardon and peace; and, in a word, that the great work of training human beings for the duties of the present life and the perfection of another may be begun and carried on." Channing. 

 

"The only power to oppose evil is love. Miserable indeed will your position be if this spirit does not possess you.  

Nothing but Christ's spirit, that which carried Him to His cross, can carry you through your work. This spirit will touch the heart which has hardened itself against all other influences. It will pierce the conscience. It will say to the reckless transgressor, in the only language he can understand, that he is not an outcast from his race; and it will reveal to the desponding sufferer a love higher than your own, and bring back his lost faith in God." William Ellery Channing.

   I hear countless stories about loving Grandparents that reared a Grandchild when the parents were absent because of some tragedy or crisis. They stepped in and took over as mothers, providers, confidants, spiritual leaders, or just to be a shoulder to cry on.   

I see in this photo a devoted Granddaughter whose Grandmother was unable to attend her wedding because of her feeble condition; but this Grandchild broke away at some point on her wedding day to share with her beloved Grandmother.   

 

"And in secret You will make wisdom known to me." Ps. 51:8

  When we quiet our self and set aside a time devoted to God alone, we will most often find He speaks there, and most often through His word. No doubt He will speak through Pastors and the brethren, but like Emerson so eloquently says, they are like --

  "Like a bird which alights nowhere, but hops perpetually from bough to bough, is the Power and Voice of God, which abides in no man and in no woman, but for a moment speaks from this one, and for another moment, from that one."   

 

 

 

  

"They came for condiments, not for corn." Ralph Waldo Emerson.

  I was reading some of Emerson's essays today and this line struck me:  "They came for condiments, not for corn." People, in general, look to the shallows, few want to discover what lies beneath the surface: few care to search the souls of others, but rather, like this quote implies, they prefer to pick through the condiments and disregard the corn; or, to put it another way, they relish the gravy but not the meat. This has so many applications; certainly it's true in the romantic arena; and equally, in the spiritual: where they will listen to you if they hear some clever or novel thought, but as soon as they determine you no longer entertain them, or affirm, or concern them, they leave. 

  "Therefore, this is what the Lord says: “If you return, then I will restore you— You will stand before Me; And if you extract the precious from the worthless, You will become My spokesman."

In this life we will face many great sorrows, some caused by others, and some we cause ourselves. There is no way to avoid all failings and sorrows. And each of us will do things that are "worthless" or have things happen to us. But the promise gives us our answer, "return to Him, and restoration will come", we are to extract the precious from the worthless and make the best use of what remains."

 

All through the Bible we are taught to "flee",  From Potiphar's wife, Sodom, idolatry, sexual sin and on it warns. When we yield and stick our nose where it doesn't belong....... well, the photo needs little interpretation.

 "Seeing the people, Jesus felt compassion for them..." Mt. 9:36

 I like that Jesus "felt" compassion. He "felt love" for the rich young ruler, and He felt compassion and love as he "wept" over Jerusalem. Many times we are told about the emotions of Jesus as we read about His words and actions. Jesus wasn't dispensing truth and healing out of duty being the Savior. He showed us that we are to be personally involved with the needy of the world. We are to pray with them, console their sorrows, share in their griefs, we are to "feel" for them. 

"And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them." Mark 10:16

Any Gospel that lacks emotion is but a husk of Christian truth. 

 

 "One of the most common vindications of God's love is found in the fact that, as much as humans suffer, they enjoy more. We are told that there is a great balance of pleasure over pain, and that it is by what prevails in a system that we must judge of its author. This view is by no mens to be overlooked. 

It is substantially true. There is a great excess of enjoyment, of present good, in life. The pains of sickness may indeed be intenser than the pleasures of health, but health is the rule and sickness the exception. A few are blind, or deaf, or speechless; but almost all of us maintain through the open eye and ear, a perpetual communication with nature and with one another. Some may be broken down with excessive toil; but to the great mass of humanity, labor is healthful, and invigorating and gives a zest to repose, and to the common blessings of life. We all suffer more or less from our connection with imperfect people; but how much more good comes to us from our social nature, from the sympathies and kind offices of family, friends, neighbors, than of pain caused by those who want to do us wrong. The world is not a hospital or an alms house, nor a dungeon. A beautiful sun shines on it. Flowers and fruits deck its fields. A reviving atmosphere encompasses it." Channing. 

Rev. Dr. Tuckerman

   

     Discourse on the life and character of the Rev. Dr. Tuckerman

  "Having laid a good foundation by study, an unerring instinct taught him that study was not his vocation. His heart yearned for active life. He became more and more penetrated with the miseries and crimes of the world. As he sat in his lonely study, the thought of what men endured on the land and the sea withdrew him from his books. He was irresistibly attracted towards his fellow-man, by their sufferings, and still more, by a consciousness that there was something great beneath their sufferings, by a sympathy with their spiritual needs.

In a favored hour the thought of devoting himself to the service of the poor of this city entered his mind, and met a response within which gave it the character of a Divine monition. So deep was the sympathy, so intense the interest, which the poor excited in him, that it seemed as if a new fountain of love had been opened within him. This was no blinding enthusiasm. He saw distinctly the vices which are often found among the poor, their craft, and sloth, and ingratitude. His ministry was carried on in the midst of their frequent filth and recklessness. The coarsest realities pressed him on every side. These were not the scenes to make an enthusiast. But amidst these he saw, now the fainter signs, now the triumphs, of a divine virtue. it was his delight to relate examples of patience, disinterestedness, piety, amidst the severest sufferings. These taught him that in the poorest hovels he was walking among immortals, and his faith in the divinity within the soul turned his ministry into joy. 

  Much of this success was undoubtedly due to his singleness of heart; but much, also, to his clear insight into the principles of human nature which rendered the poor open to good influences, and into the means by which human beings in their condition maybe most effectually approached. And this shows his insight into the temptations, perils, and hearts, of the depressed and indigent; and, whilst exposing their errors and sins, he breathed a never-failing sympathy. 

It is easy to see in these that the great principle which animated his ministry was an immovable faith in God's merciful purposes towards the poor. Their condition, never for a moment, seemed to him to separate them from their Creator. On the contrary, he felt God's presence in the narrow comfortless dwelling of the poor as he felt it nowhere else.  

  His perpetual recognition of the spiritual, immortal nature of the poor, gave to all his intercourse a character of tenderness and respect. He spoke to them plainly, boldly, but still as to the children of the same infinite Father. He trusted in man's moral nature, however bruised and crushed; he was sure that no heart could resist him, if he could but convince it of his sincere brotherly concern. He always spoke encouragingly. He felt that the weight under which the poor man's spirit was already sinking needed no addition from the harshness of his spiritual guide. He went forth in the power of brotherly love, and found it a divine armor. 

He taught us that men in the most unpromising conditions, are to be treated as men; that under coarse jackets, and even rags, may be found tender and noble hearts; and that the heart, even when hardened, still responds to the voice of a true friend and brother. He was indeed too wise a man to give them an abstract form, or speak in technical language. His words were steeped in his heart before they found their way to his lips; and flowing warm and fresh from this fountain, they were drunk in as living waters by the thirsty souls of the poor. 

  A great secret of Dr. Tuckerman's success lay in his strong interest in individuals. It was not in his nature to act on masses by general methods; he threw his soul into individual cases. Every sufferer whom he visited seemed to awaken in him a special affection and concern. He made the worst feel that they had a friend, and by his personal interest linked them anew with their race. 

  Let me add another explanation of his success. He sought for something to love in all; he seized on anything good which might remain in the fallen spirit; on any domestic affection, any generous feeling, which might have escaped the wreck of character. If he could but touch one chord of love, one tender recollection of home, one feeling of shame or sorrow for the past, no matter how faintly, he rejoiced and took courage, like the good physician who, in watching over the drowned man, detects a flutter of the pulse, or the feeblest sign of life. His hope in such cases tended to fulfill itself. His tones awakened a like hope in the fallen. "He did not break the bruised reed, or quench the smoking flax."  

William Ellery Channing; photo by Cedric Hayes, on the streets of Portland Or. 

 

  "If I were asked what strikes me as the greatest evil inflicted by slavery I should say, it is the outrage offered by slavery to human nature. Slavery does all that lies in human power to unmake men, to rob them of their humanity, to degrade men into brutes; and this it does by declaring them to be Property. Here is the master evil. Declare a man a chattel, something which you may own and may turn to your use, as a horse or a tool; strip him of all right over himself, of all right to use his own powers, except what you concede to him as a favor and deem consistent with your own profit; and you cease to look on him as a man. You may call him such; but he is not to you a brother, a fellow-being, a partaker of your nature and your equal in the sight of God. You view him, you treat him, you speak to him, as infinitely beneath you, as belonging to another race. You have a tone and a look towards him which you never use towards a Man. Your relation to him demands that you treat him as an inferior creature. You cannot, if you would, treat him as a Man. That he may answer your end, that he may consent to be a slave, his spirit must be broken, his courage crushed; he must fear you. A feeling of his deep inferiority must be burnt into his soul. The idea of his rights must be quenched in him by the blood of his lashed and lacerated body. Here is the damming evil of slavery; it destroys the spirit, the consciousness of a man. 

I care little, in comparison, for his hard outward lot, his poverty, his unfurnished house, his coarse fare; the terrible thing in slavery is the spirit of a slave, the extinction of the spirit of a man. He feels himself owned, a chattel, a thing bought and sold, and held to sweat for another's pleasure at another's will, under another's lash, just as an ox or horse. Treated thus as a brute, can he take a place among men? A slave! Is there a name so degraded on earth, a name which so separates a man from his kind? And to this condition millions of our race are condemned in the land of liberty."  William Ellery Channing.

  "When one becomes a mother, guilt almost always rears its ugly head. And to be truthful, our lives as humans are filled with mistakes ranging from trivial to catastrophic. But here is the secret about guilt; it is actually pride. Guilt says I could have done better. I should have done better. I am going to be better next time. But that is still self-reliance masquerading as humility. And it paralyzes every one of us if we let it."

Alice Mills , Poema Chronicles. 

Acceptance

Oh to know acceptance

In a feeling sort of way;

To be known for what I am --

Not what I do or say.

It's nice to be loved and wanted

For the person I seem to be,

But my heart cries out to be loved

For the person who is really me!

To be able to drop all the fronts

and share with another my fears,

Would bring such relief to my soul,

Though accompanied by many tears.

When I find this can be done

Without the pain of rejection,

Then will my joy be complete

and feelings towards self know correction.

The past to feeling acceptance of God.

Is paved with acceptance on earth;

Being valued by others I love

Enhances my own feeling of worth.

Oh, the release and freedom He gives

As I behold His wonderful face --

As Jesus makes real my acceptance in Him,

And I learn the true meaning of grace.

A pity it is that so late we find

his love need not be earned;

As we yield to Him all manner of strife

A precious truth has been learned.

Then, as we share with others who search

For love, acceptance, and rest;

They'll find in us the Savior's love.

And experience the end of their quest.

C.R. Solomon

 

Forgive me while I reminisce: the sixties, for all it's rebellion and evil, sowing the wind, and now reaping the whirlwind, there was a freedom and a seeking the unknown, testing the bounds of reality, that indelibly left a mind-set that I would hate to see fade completely or never have experienced.

  If you have never read Francois Fenelon, you are missing a great man of God's insights and wisdom. He lived from 1651 to 1715, a Bishop and wise scholar and teacher. Here is an introduction to what he believed, well worth the read. 

 

  "What then are Fenelon's characteristic views?  We begin with his views of God, which very much determine and color a religious system, and these are simple and affecting. He seems to regard God but in one light, to think of Him but in one character. God always comes to him as the father, as the pitying and purifying friend of the soul. This  spiritual relation of the Supreme Being is his all comprehending, all absorbing attribute. He constantly sets before us God as dwelling in the human mind, and dwelling to reprove is guilt, to speak to it with a still voice, to kindle a celestial ray in its darkness, to distill upon it His grace, to call forth its love towards Himself, and to bow it, by a gentle, rational sway, to chosen, cheerful, entire subjection to His pure and righteous will. Fenelon  has fully received the Christian doctrine of God. He believed in Him as the Universal Father, as loving every soul, loving the guiltiest  soul, and striving with it to reclaim it to Himself. This interest of the Creator in the lost and darkened mind, is the thought which predominates in the writings of the excellent man." 

Black and White

https://www.facebook.com/neededencouragement/videos/588175645713264 

The link above should take you to a short,  insightful, animated video about racial struggles.

Dying to self

 

  In many churches I've attended, there is such an emphasis on our sinful nature that I feel it can lead to self-loathing and self-hatred. Personally I find it repellent and I don't think it's what Jesus meant when He spoke of dying to self. The following is a piece that describes the good within us that God implanted when creating us in His own image. I think it has a balance that rings true. 

  "It is not true that self-love is the worst thing about us or our only driving force or principle, or that it constitutes ourselves any more than other principles, and the wrong done to our nature by such modes of speech, and thinking, needs to be resisted. Our nature has other elements or constituents, and vastly higher ones, to which self-love was meant to minister, and which are at war with its excesses. 

For example, we have reason, or intellectual energy, given to us by God for the pursuit and acquisition of truth; and this is essentially a disinterested principle; for truth, which is its object, and is of a universal, impartial nature. The great province of the intellectual faculty is to acquaint the individual with the laws and order of the divine system, a system which spreads infinitely beyond himself, of which he forms a very small part, which embraces innumerable beings equally favored by God, and which proposes as it sublime and beneficent end, the ever-growing good of the whole. 

Again, human nature has a variety of affections, corresponding to our domestic and most common relations; affections which in multitudes overpower self-love, which make others the chief objects of our care, which nerve the arm for ever-recurring toil by day, and strengthen the wearied frame to forego the slumbers of night. 

Then there belongs to every man the general sentiment of humanity, which responds to all human sufferings, to a stranger's tears and groans, and often prompts to great sacrifices for his relief. 

  Above all, there is the moral principle, that which should especially be called a man's self, for it is clothed with a kingly authority over his whole nature, and was plainly given to bear sway over every desire. This is eminently a disinterested principle. Its very essence is impartiality. It has no respect of persons. It is the principle of justice, taking the rights of all under its protection, and frowning on the least wrong, however largely it may serve ourselves. This moral nature especially delights in, and enjoins, a universal charity, and makes the heart thrill with exulting joy at the sight of hearing of magnanimous deeds, of perils fronted, and death endured, in the cause of humanity." W. E. Channing. 

Christian symptoms of abuse

  It's not uncommon for Christians that are survivors of Complex Trauma from child abuse or domestic violence to display certain symptoms and behaviors before and even after they have been saved. A child, who lives in an abusive home, lives in constant distress, they are victims of profound relational betrayal and profound deception, which is usually repeated and chronic. It's the result of exposure to an inescapably stressful event that overwhelms a persons coping mechanism. Intense fear, helplessness, loss of control, and threat of annihilation. Frequent, lasting trauma. Differing from one traumatic event, but rather repeated danger, that continues. 

  So as a result of chronic and interpersonal trauma, this individual will be extremely vigilant, very watchful for danger all the time, constantly expecting it. This is caused because Brain Development is "use-dependent". What we use gets stronger, and the areas of the brain focused on survival act first and faster than our thinking brain. So our stress response, which is involuntary and automatic, can be based on a learned emotional association, referred to as "fear conditioning." So this fight, flight or freeze response in trauma survivors is hyper-vigilant, scanning for danger, sensing threat, real or imagined, and reacting to threat or danger. So in the Christian survivor they will often have a heightened concern for the dark side, for the satanic, the demonic and all principalities and powers. They have a pessimistic outlook on life because they were victims of profound relational betrayal and profound deception, so if you can't trust your caregivers, who should be devoted to your well-being and should love and nurture you, how then will you ever trust anyone? So every person, party, denomination, political movement different from them is seen as a threat and a danger, they are the enemy. Like the saying, "There's a devil behind every door."  

 So, if this is so, is there no up side? Is there nothing positive? Oh yes! Survivors of abuse have great advantage! A person that had all the benefits of a loving family will see the love of Jesus as an extension of their parents love. It's kind of like watching movies in regular color and then getting H.D., it is a vast improvement and wonderful. But to the trauma survivor, finding the love of Jesus is like going from black-and-white to Blue Ray!!!!!!  The contrast is so great that the hunger and thirst for more of Christ is bursting out of them! They have never felt this love and it changes everything! They have more zeal, more ambition, more willingness to sacrifice, more love and more hope, in Christ. God will not be a debtor, and if His child has suffered greatly, He will bless even more greatly! Of course I'm speaking in generalizations now, for some, they find it a long and slow process to put their trust in God, whom they can't see, when those that they could see betrayed them, but for others, it is literally a death to life experience.  

Sharing

 

I'm struggling to read the Bible! 

This is a universal problem, there are times when the Word is on fire and jumps from the page, and other times it lays there as though it's frozen. I think the two most common causes are, sin we refuse to repent of, and hiding your talent in the ground. 

Repentance of a known sin we are struggling with can cause the Holy Spirit to withdraw leaving the Word cold, and secondly,  if we are not using our "talent" by which I mean our 'ability and capacity to love,' we will also find the Word cold. The two together cause a synergy; when we are involved in a ministry where we can express the love God gives us it will create a hunger for the word, and as we read the Holy Spirit will "highlight" the verses applicable to your work of love. And when we are actively, personally involved in loving people our prayer closet will be charged with God's presence and we will have many to pray for. Isaiah 58:6-12 explains that in detail. 

Now, the third thing we should do is to always have a Christian book that inspires us by our side. We should always try and have a book that will get us out of bed an hour early because we are hungry to get back to it. 

The classic Christian literature is packed with scriptures and if you look up all their scripture references, you will find so many hidden and tucked away verses you never knew existed. 

Iron sharpens iron, so let your choice of iron be from the Christian men and women who have helped change the world for Christ. Few voices today come close to matching Newton, Fenelon, Jeremy Taylor, William Law, Hannah Hurnard, Elizabeth Elliot, Hannah Whital Smith, C.S. Lewis and countless other classic Christian works, without which I'm sure I would have died on the vine long ago LOL

  

  "It is one of our chief privileges as Christians, that we have in Jesus Christ a revelation of perfect love. This great idea comes forth to us from His life and teachings, as a distinct and bright reality. To understand this is to understand Christianity. To call forth in us a corresponding energy of unselfish, disinterested affection, is the mission which Christianity has to accomplish on the earth. 

  There is one characteristic of the love of Christ: He loved individual man. 

Christ loved man, not masses of men; He loved each and all, and not a particular country and class. The human being was dear to Him for His own sake. Nothing outward in human condition engrossed the notice or narrowed the sympathies of Jesus. He looked to the human soul. That He loved. That divine spark He desired to cherish, no matter where it dwelt, no matter how it was dimmed. He loved man for his own sake, and all men without exclusion or exception." 

William Ellery Channing. 

“Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.”

The Scythian's were the most Savage of the Barbarians, here's a description:

“In what concerns war, their customs are the following. The Scythian soldier drinks the blood of the first man he overthrows in battle. Whatever number he slays, he cuts off all their heads, and carries them to the king; since he is thus entitled to a share of the booty, whereto he forfeits all claim if he does not produce a head. In order to strip the skull of its covering, he makes a cut round the head above the ears, and, laying hold of the scalp, shakes the skull out; then with the rib of an ox he scrapes the scalp clean of flesh, and softening it by rubbing between the hands, uses it thenceforth as a napkin. The Scyth is proud of these scalps, and hangs them from his bridle-rein; the greater the number of such napkins that a man can show, the more highly is he esteemed among them. Many make themselves cloaks, like the hooded cloaks of our peasants, by sewing a quantity of these scalps together. Others flay the right arms of their dead enemies, and make of the skin, which stripped off with the nails hanging to it, a covering for their quivers. Now the skin of a man is thick and glossy, and would in whiteness surpass almost all other hides. Some even flay the entire body of their enemy, and stretching it upon a frame carry it about with them wherever they ride. Such are the Scythian customs with respect to scalps and skins. 

When I read of such barbaric behavior it makes me wonder if one of the reasons the Old Testament was so filled with Divine threatening’s of destruction was because of the times and what methods would reach a people such as these? 

 What an inspiring photo! In a time when marriages fail and fewer are choosing it, as well as having faith in it. Well, some still thrive.