The Day Martin Luther King Spoke to Me as a Failed Man
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
Rarely are larger-than-life historical figures relatable as human beings. For me, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a character of history books and film strips. A man to be admired for his empowering speeches and his inspirational marches. Although I knew he was a towering preacher, a man of God, I never thought of him as a person wrestling with his own weaknesses, grappling with his own frailties and contradictions.
That is, until I heard this part of his “Unfulfilled Dreams” sermon (audio above) given in the final months of his life:
“The question I want to raise this morning with you: Is your heart right? If your heart isn’t right, fix it up today. Get God to fix it up. Get somebody to be able to say about you, “He may not have reached the highest height, he may not have realized all of his dreams, but he tried.” Isn’t that a wonderful thing for somebody to say about you? “He tried to be a good man. He tried to be a just man. He tried to be an honest man. His heart was in the right place.” And I can hear a voice saying, crying out through the eternities, “I accept you. You are the recipient of my grace because it was in your heart! And it is so well that it was within thine heart.”
I don’t know this morning about you, but I can make a testimony. You don’t need to go out this morning saying that Martin Luther King is a saint. Oh, no. I want you to know this morning that I’m a sinner like all of God’s children! But I want to be a good man! And I want to hear a voice saying to me one day, “I take you in and I bless you, because you try. It is well that it was within thine heart.” What’s in your heart this morning? If you get your heart right.”
For a man without religious convictions or a spiritual mooring, I heard a sermon in that moment that spoke to my own vulnerabilities as a husband and a father, as a son and a friend. And he does it in the most honest way: by asking, at least in my hearing, for understanding and forgiveness from his congregation at Ebenezer Baptist Church — the church his father founded — in Atlanta, Georgia.
You see, I’ve never been all that comfortable with the language of sin. It’s often wielded as weapon in one’s quest for a supernatural resting place. So often this language strips a man of his dignity, makes him feel small, inconsequential, a cog in a nasty machine.
But Dr. King in this sermon elevates the human spirit by making himself vulnerable. The language of sin is human frailty united with goodness and desire. We long to be more than we are, and stumble many times along the way. Dr. King expresses that goodness and frailty inside all of us. He points the finger at himself. He holds my hand and says come walk beside me and take stock of your life. He tells me not to shrink but to acknowledge, repent, and stride forward. He lets me know that being one of the fallen is to be a divine creature. He lets me know that striving to be a good man, a good father, a good husband, is part of the journey — that one’s quest to be more than his basest self is redeeming, and flawed.
Dr. King’s context was the 60s and civil rights. You hear a gentle leader at his most prescient; he would be killed a month later in Memphis, Tennessee. The tension and anxiety in this sermon are palpable, thick with a foreboding awareness that his life’s work would be coming to an end.
His legacy today endures in so many ways. But, for me, it’s the preacher in the pulpit who called me back to my own humanity, rescuing me from abject despair. In that moment one spring night several years ago, he reminded me, “It’s alright. Keep on trying.” I want to be a good man.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Reputition vs Character
Character
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John Wooden said “Your reputation is who people think you are, your character is who you really are.”
So, what would it look like for us to have great character in 2012 and stop working on our reputation? Who really cares what people think?
I learned this lesson several years ago. I ran into a person who worked endlessly on their reputation but had terrible character. When their character was revealed (which happens in intimacy) they were a complete let down. The truth is, they wouldn’t have been a let down at all if they would have been themselves.
People don’t judge who we are, they judge who we’ve led them to believe we are.The more time and effort we put into making ourselves look great, the longer and harder the fall when the truth comes out. And eventually the truth comes out.
What I took from that relationship was difficult, but it’s something we have to face in our early twenties, usually, and that’s there’s a difference between our reputation and our character. Since then, I’ve decided not to work very hard on my reputation. Or at least I hope that’s true. I air most of my dirty laundry, so nobody will judge me. People only judge those who claim to be better than others, more holy, more righteous more moral. When I’m ethical, I just look good. When somebody who works on their reputation isn’t ethical, they find themselves in social court. Working on our reputation is just a dumb move.
Here are some other reasons to have good character and not worry about our reputations:
1. God rewards character, not reputation. To care about your reputation means you care more about public opinion than the opinion of God. I notice that some of my friends who work endlessly on their reputations never really advance in life, love or their careers. People who work on their reputation “have their reward in full” meaning that God has no interest in rewarding them, but they will get people to be impressed by them and that’s about all they are going to get. This is the essence of “worldliness” even though it is wearing religious clothes. The worldly person gets their pleasure and redemption and religion from the world, a person who knows God doesn’t work for an human audience. Who cares what they think, honestly. Just do the right thing because it’s the right thing and let God reward you.
2. If you present yourself as better than you are, you can’t have intimacy. People who lie about who they really are are socially bankrupt, lonely, and have a string of bad relationships. Why? Because they can’t let people know them. They are too busy trying to win in some kind of “game.” Screw the game. Make friends. Settle for being medium great. You’re heart will thank you.
3. Tell the truth. There’s nothing more healing than living in the truth and presenting yourself as who you really are. It’s easier to sleep at night.
4. When you work on your character, you’re working on the stuff that happens when nobody is looking. This is infinitely more difficult than misleading and deceiving people. But it’s the stuff that really sets you apart. It’s the stuff God rewards.
What would your life look like if you stopped working on your reputation and started working on your character?
Share
528
John Wooden said “Your reputation is who people think you are, your character is who you really are.”
So, what would it look like for us to have great character in 2012 and stop working on our reputation? Who really cares what people think?
I learned this lesson several years ago. I ran into a person who worked endlessly on their reputation but had terrible character. When their character was revealed (which happens in intimacy) they were a complete let down. The truth is, they wouldn’t have been a let down at all if they would have been themselves.
People don’t judge who we are, they judge who we’ve led them to believe we are.The more time and effort we put into making ourselves look great, the longer and harder the fall when the truth comes out. And eventually the truth comes out.
What I took from that relationship was difficult, but it’s something we have to face in our early twenties, usually, and that’s there’s a difference between our reputation and our character. Since then, I’ve decided not to work very hard on my reputation. Or at least I hope that’s true. I air most of my dirty laundry, so nobody will judge me. People only judge those who claim to be better than others, more holy, more righteous more moral. When I’m ethical, I just look good. When somebody who works on their reputation isn’t ethical, they find themselves in social court. Working on our reputation is just a dumb move.
Here are some other reasons to have good character and not worry about our reputations:
1. God rewards character, not reputation. To care about your reputation means you care more about public opinion than the opinion of God. I notice that some of my friends who work endlessly on their reputations never really advance in life, love or their careers. People who work on their reputation “have their reward in full” meaning that God has no interest in rewarding them, but they will get people to be impressed by them and that’s about all they are going to get. This is the essence of “worldliness” even though it is wearing religious clothes. The worldly person gets their pleasure and redemption and religion from the world, a person who knows God doesn’t work for an human audience. Who cares what they think, honestly. Just do the right thing because it’s the right thing and let God reward you.
2. If you present yourself as better than you are, you can’t have intimacy. People who lie about who they really are are socially bankrupt, lonely, and have a string of bad relationships. Why? Because they can’t let people know them. They are too busy trying to win in some kind of “game.” Screw the game. Make friends. Settle for being medium great. You’re heart will thank you.
3. Tell the truth. There’s nothing more healing than living in the truth and presenting yourself as who you really are. It’s easier to sleep at night.
4. When you work on your character, you’re working on the stuff that happens when nobody is looking. This is infinitely more difficult than misleading and deceiving people. But it’s the stuff that really sets you apart. It’s the stuff God rewards.
What would your life look like if you stopped working on your reputation and started working on your character?
Monday, January 16, 2012
Prayer for Julie
Dear God,
We talk …not on frequent basis but we try to. I am the faulty party in here, no doubt. I want to watch a TED talk, or listen to something rather than bear my heart to you. I am sorry. Here I am today.
God, I am not here for me today. Well, at-least I don’t think I am. Not now. I want to talk to you about Julie today Lord! Can we please make her “happy”.
Her state today is not what brings peace to my heart. She is such a good person, cares for others, cared for me enough to bring me to you, she is just gorgeous God. She is one of the reasons, no doubt, you are proud of creating humanity. Most of us are jerks and selfish and self-serving and all that jazz. It takes a special person to be so beautiful on the inside and out, to be so vulnerable to bear her heart …..to be able to demonstrate so much grace and beauty within the brokenness of life.
God, she is having a rough time deciding between these guys. I don’t know who is best for her. Which one can provide her with the love and support and kindness and …the ability to get close to you…one who is really really going to make her happy. Please God, I know you do things for a purpose, we kids need to learn what you are teaching, but can we please make this easier for her. Can it hurt her a bit less, whatever happens.
We have discussed stuff, gone over it, I know her heart and mind are telling her different things. What I also know is that you know best what is good for her. God, she deserves it. She really does. Can you please do it for it. Just make her happy. Help her solve this puzzle. Give resolution to her, some resolve in heart, wisdom in the mind. Just let her decide, and be happy with the decision, and MAKE THAT THE RIGHT DECISION. If it is neither of the guys, that is fine. If it is Stephen, please make her more “real”, more “loving and attentive” to her. If it is David, make the age issue not matter. Whatever it might be, please be her shelter, her guide, her strength. Pretty please.
Thank you
We talk …not on frequent basis but we try to. I am the faulty party in here, no doubt. I want to watch a TED talk, or listen to something rather than bear my heart to you. I am sorry. Here I am today.
God, I am not here for me today. Well, at-least I don’t think I am. Not now. I want to talk to you about Julie today Lord! Can we please make her “happy”.
Her state today is not what brings peace to my heart. She is such a good person, cares for others, cared for me enough to bring me to you, she is just gorgeous God. She is one of the reasons, no doubt, you are proud of creating humanity. Most of us are jerks and selfish and self-serving and all that jazz. It takes a special person to be so beautiful on the inside and out, to be so vulnerable to bear her heart …..to be able to demonstrate so much grace and beauty within the brokenness of life.
God, she is having a rough time deciding between these guys. I don’t know who is best for her. Which one can provide her with the love and support and kindness and …the ability to get close to you…one who is really really going to make her happy. Please God, I know you do things for a purpose, we kids need to learn what you are teaching, but can we please make this easier for her. Can it hurt her a bit less, whatever happens.
We have discussed stuff, gone over it, I know her heart and mind are telling her different things. What I also know is that you know best what is good for her. God, she deserves it. She really does. Can you please do it for it. Just make her happy. Help her solve this puzzle. Give resolution to her, some resolve in heart, wisdom in the mind. Just let her decide, and be happy with the decision, and MAKE THAT THE RIGHT DECISION. If it is neither of the guys, that is fine. If it is Stephen, please make her more “real”, more “loving and attentive” to her. If it is David, make the age issue not matter. Whatever it might be, please be her shelter, her guide, her strength. Pretty please.
Thank you
Saturday, January 14, 2012
I dont wanna be
There is this famous Gavin Degraw song which goes "I dont wanna be anything other than what i have been trying to be lately". Who have i been trying to be lately? My actions prove something very different from what my heart desires. My actions state that i have been (trying? or been) evil. I gave someone a disgusted glance yesterday. Judged a few folks. Acted in a way not totally becoming of me. Then why these subliminal messages of
"who we are is good enough"? How can it be? I want to be sin less, and guilt less and free. I want to be purified. I dont think that is accomplished without help, redemption, hope!
"who we are is good enough"? How can it be? I want to be sin less, and guilt less and free. I want to be purified. I dont think that is accomplished without help, redemption, hope!
What is HOPE- John Piper
What is so important about Christian hope?
If our future is not secured and satisfied by God then we are going to be excessively anxious. This results either in paralyzing fear or in self-managed, greedy control. We end up thinking about ourselves, our future, our problems and our potential, and that keeps us from loving.
In other words, hope is the birthplace of Christian self-sacrificing love. That's because we just let God take care of us and aren't preoccupied with having to work to take care of ourselves. We say, "Lord, I just want to be there for other people tomorrow, because you're going to be there for me."
If we don't have the hope that Christ is for us then we will be engaged in self-preservation and self-enhancement. But if we let ourselves be taken care of by God for the future—whether five minutes or five centuries from now—then we can be free to love others. Then God's glory will shine more clearly, because that's how he becomes visible.
When God satisfies us so deeply that we're free to love other people then he becomes more manifest. And that's what we want above all.
What's the difference between a Christian definition of hope and the way it is usually used?
The word "hope" in ordinary English vocabulary is generally distinguished from certainty. We would say, "I don't know what's going to happen, but I hope it happens."
When you read the word "hope" in the Bible (like in 1 Peter 1:13—"set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ"), hope is not wishful thinking. It's not "I don't know if it's going to happen, but I hope it happens." That's absolutely not what is meant by Christian hope.
Christian hope is when God has promised that something is going to happen and you put your trust in that promise. Christian hope is a confidence that something will come to pass because God has promised it will come to pass.
How do we build our hope in God?
Hope is a portion or part of faith. Faith and hope, in my mind, are overlapping realities: hope is faith in the future tense. So most of faith is hope.
The Bible says, "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17). This implies that hope, like faith, is also strengthened by the word of God. Hope comes from reading his precious and very great promises and looking to Christ who purchased them.
I would sum it up like this: The most important verse in the Bible for me, probably, is Romans 8:32:
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
Now that last part is hope producing! But it's grounded in the rock-solid statement that "God didn't spare his own son."
So the essence of what we look to in the Bible to build our hope is, What has Christ done for me in my sinful condition that enables me to know that I will not come in to judgment and condemnation and that all things are working together for my good? And the answer is that Christ died for me, rose again for me, and therefore all the promises of God are yes in him.
So let's look away from the circumstances that confront us, look to Christ, look to the promises, and hold fast to them. Hope comes from the promises of God rooted in the work of Christ.
If our future is not secured and satisfied by God then we are going to be excessively anxious. This results either in paralyzing fear or in self-managed, greedy control. We end up thinking about ourselves, our future, our problems and our potential, and that keeps us from loving.
In other words, hope is the birthplace of Christian self-sacrificing love. That's because we just let God take care of us and aren't preoccupied with having to work to take care of ourselves. We say, "Lord, I just want to be there for other people tomorrow, because you're going to be there for me."
If we don't have the hope that Christ is for us then we will be engaged in self-preservation and self-enhancement. But if we let ourselves be taken care of by God for the future—whether five minutes or five centuries from now—then we can be free to love others. Then God's glory will shine more clearly, because that's how he becomes visible.
When God satisfies us so deeply that we're free to love other people then he becomes more manifest. And that's what we want above all.
What's the difference between a Christian definition of hope and the way it is usually used?
The word "hope" in ordinary English vocabulary is generally distinguished from certainty. We would say, "I don't know what's going to happen, but I hope it happens."
When you read the word "hope" in the Bible (like in 1 Peter 1:13—"set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ"), hope is not wishful thinking. It's not "I don't know if it's going to happen, but I hope it happens." That's absolutely not what is meant by Christian hope.
Christian hope is when God has promised that something is going to happen and you put your trust in that promise. Christian hope is a confidence that something will come to pass because God has promised it will come to pass.
How do we build our hope in God?
Hope is a portion or part of faith. Faith and hope, in my mind, are overlapping realities: hope is faith in the future tense. So most of faith is hope.
The Bible says, "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17). This implies that hope, like faith, is also strengthened by the word of God. Hope comes from reading his precious and very great promises and looking to Christ who purchased them.
I would sum it up like this: The most important verse in the Bible for me, probably, is Romans 8:32:
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
Now that last part is hope producing! But it's grounded in the rock-solid statement that "God didn't spare his own son."
So the essence of what we look to in the Bible to build our hope is, What has Christ done for me in my sinful condition that enables me to know that I will not come in to judgment and condemnation and that all things are working together for my good? And the answer is that Christ died for me, rose again for me, and therefore all the promises of God are yes in him.
So let's look away from the circumstances that confront us, look to Christ, look to the promises, and hold fast to them. Hope comes from the promises of God rooted in the work of Christ.
What does hope mean?
Introduction
There are many key terms and concepts in Scripture like faith, hope, love, joy, grace, peace, pleasing the Lord, etc. that we come across as we read our Bibles, but often these are just vague concepts for many people. The following study is designed to provide a condensed biblical explanation of hope as it is found in the Word of God. As time allows we will provide other such condensed studies on key terms, especially of the New Testament.
A Definition of Hope
What is hope? Is it a wishy washy maybe or a kind of unsure optimism? The modern idea of hope is “to wish for, to expect, but without certainty of the fulfillment; to desire very much, but with no real assurance of getting your desire.”
In Scripture, according to the Hebrew and Greek words translated by the word “hope” and according to the biblical usage, hope is an indication of certainty. “Hope” in Scripture means “a strong and confident expectation.” Though archaic today in modern terms, hope is akin to trust and a confident expectation.
Hope may refer to the activity of hoping, or to the object hoped for—the content of one’s hope. By its very nature, hope stresses two things: (a) futurity, and (b) invisibility. It deals with things we can’t see or haven’t received or both .
Romans 8:24-25 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one also hope for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
Biblically, from the standpoint of the object hoped for, hope is synonymous with salvation and its many blessings, past, present, and future, as promised in Scripture. This is true even with what we have already received as believers because these blessings come under the category of what we cannot see. We may see some of the results, but it still requires faith and hope. For example, we do not see the justifying work of God, the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to our account, nor do we see the indwelling of the Holy Spirit when we are saved, nor our co-union with Christ. We believe this to be a reality, but this is a matter of our hope. We believe in the testimony of God in the Word and hope for the results in our lives.
In summary, hope is the confident expectation, the sure certainty that what God has promised in the Word is true, has occurred, and or will in accordance with God’s sure Word.
A Description of Hope
It is Dynamic or Active
In the Bible, hope is never a static or passive thing. It is dynamic, active, directive and life sustaining. This is everywhere obvious as we read the Word. Take a concordance, look up the word “hope” and you will find reference after reference pointing out the active results of hope in the lives of those who truly have a biblical hope and live accordingly.
In other words, a biblical hope is not an escape from reality or from problems. It doesn’t leave us idle, drifting or just rocking on the front porch. If our hope is biblical and based on God's promises, it will put us in gear.
It has Results
(1) It changes how we see ourselves. It changes us into pilgrim persons, people who see this life as temporary sojourn.
2 Peter 1:13 And I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder,
1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul.
(2) It changes what we value. Hope, if biblical, makes us heavenly minded rather than earthly minded. Our Lord’s words here blast our deception away.
Matthew 6:19-21 Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 "But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21 for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
(3) It affects what we do with our lives—our talents, time, treasures.
Titus 2:1-13 But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. 2 Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance. 3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, 4 that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be dishonored. 6 Likewise urge the young men to be sensible; 7 in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, 8 sound in speech which is beyond reproach, in order that the opponent may be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us. 9 Urge bondslaves to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, 10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect. 11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus;
1 John 3:1-3 See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
The Christian life, if it is grasped according to God's truth, is a magnificent obsession with an eternal hope, a hope that does not lead to an escapist attitude, but to the pursuit of life on a whole new dimension. It makes you bullish, as we might say today, on the potentials of this life as stewards of God. It gives us power to live courageously, to be all God has called us to be in Christ.
So then, why are we so quick to opt for earthly treasure and so slow to be obsessed with the heavenly? Perhaps it is because we do not believe in heavenly realities. They represent a celestial cliche in our minds, but no more.1 You see, it is the person who believes in this heavenly hope and who is so fixed on it, in the words of Peter, that he or she is able to have such a light grip on the things of this world that he or she is able to put first things first.
In other words, a biblical hope is never an escape from reality or from problems. It doesn’t leave us idle, drifting or just rocking on the front porch. If our hope is biblical and not just a heavenly cliche or like the sign, “in case of emergency, break glass,” it will put us in gear.
But, being dynamic, hope also has something else:
It has Rewards and Blessings
(1) It gives us joy and peace.
Romans 15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 5:2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.
(2) It gives us protection.
Psalm 33:18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, On those who hope for His lovingkindness,
(3) It gives us strength, courage, boldness.
Psalm 31:24 Be strong, and let your heart take courage, All you who hope in the LORD.
(4) It gives us endurance, comfort, confidence in the face of death.
1 Thessalonians 4:13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve, as do the rest who have no hope.
(5) It gives us confidence in ministry.
1 Timothy 4:10 For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.
The Derivation (Origin) of Hope
Where and How Do We Get Hope?
Negative--warnings regarding false hope
There are a number of warnings in Scripture against putting our hope in anything other than the Lord because these things will leave us ashamed, frustrated, disappointed, and in ruin.
Job 8:11-15 11 Can the papyrus grow up without marsh? Can the rushes grow without water? 12 While it is still green and not cut down, Yet it withers before any other plant. 13 So are the paths of all who forget God, And the hope of the godless will perish, 14 Whose confidence is fragile, And whose trust a spider's web. 15 He trusts in his house, but it does not stand; He holds fast to it, but it does not endure.
Psalm 33:17 A horse is a false hope for victory; Nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength. Point: deliverance must come from the Lord.
Psalm 146:5 How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, Whose hope is in the LORD his God; i.e., rather than man.
Proverbs 10:28 The hope of the righteous is gladness, But the expectation of the wicked perishes.
Proverbs 11:7 When a wicked man dies, his expectation will perish, And the hope of strong men perishes. The strong man hopes in his physical strength, his money, or power or position, but ultimately, it must perish.
Proverbs 24:14 Know that wisdom is thus for your soul; If you find it then there will be a future, And your hope will not be cut off. Without God’s wisdom which gives god’s hope, your hope will be in the wrong thing and it will be cut off.
Positive--the means and basis of the only true hope
God is called “the God of Hope.” This means He is the source of all real hope. If we are going to have hope (confident expectation), it must come from Him for He alone has the power to give it.
Psalm 62:5 My soul, wait in silence for God only, For my hope is from Him.
Romans 15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Psalm 62:5 My soul, wait in silence for God only, For my hope is from Him.
If you are without Christ, you are without God and without hope.
Ephesians 2:12 …remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
1 Timothy 1:1-2 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment of God our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope; 2 to Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
(1) Hope depends on knowing the Word of God.
Romans 15:4 For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Colossians 1:5-6 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth;
(2) Hope depends on knowing and resting in God’s Grace.
2 Thessalonians 2:16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace,
(3) Hope depends on the Spirit Filled life.
Romans 15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
1 Peter 1:13 Therefore, gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Friends, on what have you fixed your hope? Does your life prove it? Has it changed who you are, what you value, and what you are doing with your life?
There are many key terms and concepts in Scripture like faith, hope, love, joy, grace, peace, pleasing the Lord, etc. that we come across as we read our Bibles, but often these are just vague concepts for many people. The following study is designed to provide a condensed biblical explanation of hope as it is found in the Word of God. As time allows we will provide other such condensed studies on key terms, especially of the New Testament.
A Definition of Hope
What is hope? Is it a wishy washy maybe or a kind of unsure optimism? The modern idea of hope is “to wish for, to expect, but without certainty of the fulfillment; to desire very much, but with no real assurance of getting your desire.”
In Scripture, according to the Hebrew and Greek words translated by the word “hope” and according to the biblical usage, hope is an indication of certainty. “Hope” in Scripture means “a strong and confident expectation.” Though archaic today in modern terms, hope is akin to trust and a confident expectation.
Hope may refer to the activity of hoping, or to the object hoped for—the content of one’s hope. By its very nature, hope stresses two things: (a) futurity, and (b) invisibility. It deals with things we can’t see or haven’t received or both .
Romans 8:24-25 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one also hope for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
Biblically, from the standpoint of the object hoped for, hope is synonymous with salvation and its many blessings, past, present, and future, as promised in Scripture. This is true even with what we have already received as believers because these blessings come under the category of what we cannot see. We may see some of the results, but it still requires faith and hope. For example, we do not see the justifying work of God, the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to our account, nor do we see the indwelling of the Holy Spirit when we are saved, nor our co-union with Christ. We believe this to be a reality, but this is a matter of our hope. We believe in the testimony of God in the Word and hope for the results in our lives.
In summary, hope is the confident expectation, the sure certainty that what God has promised in the Word is true, has occurred, and or will in accordance with God’s sure Word.
A Description of Hope
It is Dynamic or Active
In the Bible, hope is never a static or passive thing. It is dynamic, active, directive and life sustaining. This is everywhere obvious as we read the Word. Take a concordance, look up the word “hope” and you will find reference after reference pointing out the active results of hope in the lives of those who truly have a biblical hope and live accordingly.
In other words, a biblical hope is not an escape from reality or from problems. It doesn’t leave us idle, drifting or just rocking on the front porch. If our hope is biblical and based on God's promises, it will put us in gear.
It has Results
(1) It changes how we see ourselves. It changes us into pilgrim persons, people who see this life as temporary sojourn.
2 Peter 1:13 And I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder,
1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul.
(2) It changes what we value. Hope, if biblical, makes us heavenly minded rather than earthly minded. Our Lord’s words here blast our deception away.
Matthew 6:19-21 Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 "But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21 for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
(3) It affects what we do with our lives—our talents, time, treasures.
Titus 2:1-13 But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. 2 Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance. 3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, 4 that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be dishonored. 6 Likewise urge the young men to be sensible; 7 in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, 8 sound in speech which is beyond reproach, in order that the opponent may be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us. 9 Urge bondslaves to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, 10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect. 11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus;
1 John 3:1-3 See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
The Christian life, if it is grasped according to God's truth, is a magnificent obsession with an eternal hope, a hope that does not lead to an escapist attitude, but to the pursuit of life on a whole new dimension. It makes you bullish, as we might say today, on the potentials of this life as stewards of God. It gives us power to live courageously, to be all God has called us to be in Christ.
So then, why are we so quick to opt for earthly treasure and so slow to be obsessed with the heavenly? Perhaps it is because we do not believe in heavenly realities. They represent a celestial cliche in our minds, but no more.1 You see, it is the person who believes in this heavenly hope and who is so fixed on it, in the words of Peter, that he or she is able to have such a light grip on the things of this world that he or she is able to put first things first.
In other words, a biblical hope is never an escape from reality or from problems. It doesn’t leave us idle, drifting or just rocking on the front porch. If our hope is biblical and not just a heavenly cliche or like the sign, “in case of emergency, break glass,” it will put us in gear.
But, being dynamic, hope also has something else:
It has Rewards and Blessings
(1) It gives us joy and peace.
Romans 15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 5:2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.
(2) It gives us protection.
Psalm 33:18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, On those who hope for His lovingkindness,
(3) It gives us strength, courage, boldness.
Psalm 31:24 Be strong, and let your heart take courage, All you who hope in the LORD.
(4) It gives us endurance, comfort, confidence in the face of death.
1 Thessalonians 4:13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve, as do the rest who have no hope.
(5) It gives us confidence in ministry.
1 Timothy 4:10 For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.
The Derivation (Origin) of Hope
Where and How Do We Get Hope?
Negative--warnings regarding false hope
There are a number of warnings in Scripture against putting our hope in anything other than the Lord because these things will leave us ashamed, frustrated, disappointed, and in ruin.
Job 8:11-15 11 Can the papyrus grow up without marsh? Can the rushes grow without water? 12 While it is still green and not cut down, Yet it withers before any other plant. 13 So are the paths of all who forget God, And the hope of the godless will perish, 14 Whose confidence is fragile, And whose trust a spider's web. 15 He trusts in his house, but it does not stand; He holds fast to it, but it does not endure.
Psalm 33:17 A horse is a false hope for victory; Nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength. Point: deliverance must come from the Lord.
Psalm 146:5 How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, Whose hope is in the LORD his God; i.e., rather than man.
Proverbs 10:28 The hope of the righteous is gladness, But the expectation of the wicked perishes.
Proverbs 11:7 When a wicked man dies, his expectation will perish, And the hope of strong men perishes. The strong man hopes in his physical strength, his money, or power or position, but ultimately, it must perish.
Proverbs 24:14 Know that wisdom is thus for your soul; If you find it then there will be a future, And your hope will not be cut off. Without God’s wisdom which gives god’s hope, your hope will be in the wrong thing and it will be cut off.
Positive--the means and basis of the only true hope
God is called “the God of Hope.” This means He is the source of all real hope. If we are going to have hope (confident expectation), it must come from Him for He alone has the power to give it.
Psalm 62:5 My soul, wait in silence for God only, For my hope is from Him.
Romans 15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Psalm 62:5 My soul, wait in silence for God only, For my hope is from Him.
If you are without Christ, you are without God and without hope.
Ephesians 2:12 …remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
1 Timothy 1:1-2 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment of God our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope; 2 to Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
(1) Hope depends on knowing the Word of God.
Romans 15:4 For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Colossians 1:5-6 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth;
(2) Hope depends on knowing and resting in God’s Grace.
2 Thessalonians 2:16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace,
(3) Hope depends on the Spirit Filled life.
Romans 15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
1 Peter 1:13 Therefore, gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Friends, on what have you fixed your hope? Does your life prove it? Has it changed who you are, what you value, and what you are doing with your life?
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Release of hope
Forgivenss is the release of all hope
Of a better past
To let the burden off from my heard
To care and love for you...fully, completely
To set free myself....and you.
I think about the pain every night
As i smush my face in the pillow
Drowning in the desire to torture myself
To be saved from this pain
When you wrong a man
You do not wrong him just once
With instant replays of his memories stuck on a continouos loop
You have condemned him to tortune
Unless he gains the strength
And forgives you of your sin
It is then that he is actually liberated
Of the deed, and on his way to growth
Of a better past
To let the burden off from my heard
To care and love for you...fully, completely
To set free myself....and you.
I think about the pain every night
As i smush my face in the pillow
Drowning in the desire to torture myself
To be saved from this pain
When you wrong a man
You do not wrong him just once
With instant replays of his memories stuck on a continouos loop
You have condemned him to tortune
Unless he gains the strength
And forgives you of your sin
It is then that he is actually liberated
Of the deed, and on his way to growth
Hurling Crow bars at Mockingbirds
If we were created in God’s image
then when God was a child
he smushed fire ants with his fingertips
and avoided tough questions.
There are ways around being the go-to person
even for ourselves
even when the answer is clear
clear like the holy water Gentiles would drink
before they realized
forgiveness is the release of all hope for a better past.
I thought those were chime shells in your pocket
so I chucked a quarter at it
hoping to hear some part of you respond on a high note.
You acted like I was hurling crowbirds at mockingbars
and abandoned me for not making sense.
Evidently, I don’t experience things as rationally as you do.
For example, I know mercy
when I have enough money for the jukebox.
You know mercy whenever someone shoves a stick of morphine
straight up into your heart.
It felt amazing
the days you were happy to see me
so I smashed a beehive against the ocean
to try and make our splash last longer.
Remember all the honey
had me lookin’ like a jellyfish ape
but you walked off the water in a porcupine of light
strands of gold
drizzled out to the tips of your wasps.
This is an apology letter to the both of us
for how long it took me to let things go.
It was not my intention to make such a
production of the emptiness between us
playing tuba on the tombstone of a soprano
to try and keep some dead singer’s perspective alive.
It’s just that I coulda swore you had sung me a love song back there
and that you meant it
but I guess sometimes people just chew with their mouth open
so I ate ear plugs alive with my throat
hoping they’d get lodged deep enough inside the empty spots
that I wouldn’t have to hear you leaving
so I wouldn’t have to listen to my heart keep saying
all my eggs were in a basket of red flags
all my eyes to a bucket of blindfolds
in the cupboard with the muzzles and the gauze
ya know I didn’t mean to speed so far out and off
trying to drive your nickels to the well
when you were happy to let them wishes drop
but I still show up for gentleman practice
in the company of lead dancers
hoping their grace will get stuck in my shoes.
Is that a handsome shadow on my breath, sweet woman
or is it a cattle call in a school of fish?
Still dance with me
less like a waltz for panic
more for the way we’d hoped to swing
the night we took off everything
and we were swingin for the fences
don’t hold it against
my love
you know I wanna breath deeper than this
I didn’t mean to look so serious
didn’t mean to act like a filthy floor
didn’t mean to turn us both into a cutting board
but there were knives sstuck
in the words where I came from
too much time in the back of my words.
I pulled knives from my back and my words.
I cut trombones from the moment you slipped away
and I know it left me lookin’ like a knife fight, lady
boy I know it left me feelin’ like a shotgun shell
you know I know I mighta gone and lost my breath
but I wanna show ya how I found my breath
to death
it was buried under all the wind instruments
hidden in your castanets
goddamn –
if you ever wanna know how it felt when ya left –
if ya ever wanna come inside –
just knock on the spot
where I finally pressed STOP
playing musical chairs with your exit signs.
I’m gonna cause you a miracle
when you see the way I kept God’s image alive.
Forgiveness
is for anyone who needs safe passage through my mind.
If I really was created in God’s image
then when God was a boy
he wanted to grow up to be a man
a good man
and when God was a man
a good man
He started telling the truth in order to get honest responses.
He’d say,
“I know.
I really shoulda wore my cross
again
but I don’t wanna scare the gentiles off.”
then when God was a child
he smushed fire ants with his fingertips
and avoided tough questions.
There are ways around being the go-to person
even for ourselves
even when the answer is clear
clear like the holy water Gentiles would drink
before they realized
forgiveness is the release of all hope for a better past.
I thought those were chime shells in your pocket
so I chucked a quarter at it
hoping to hear some part of you respond on a high note.
You acted like I was hurling crowbirds at mockingbars
and abandoned me for not making sense.
Evidently, I don’t experience things as rationally as you do.
For example, I know mercy
when I have enough money for the jukebox.
You know mercy whenever someone shoves a stick of morphine
straight up into your heart.
It felt amazing
the days you were happy to see me
so I smashed a beehive against the ocean
to try and make our splash last longer.
Remember all the honey
had me lookin’ like a jellyfish ape
but you walked off the water in a porcupine of light
strands of gold
drizzled out to the tips of your wasps.
This is an apology letter to the both of us
for how long it took me to let things go.
It was not my intention to make such a
production of the emptiness between us
playing tuba on the tombstone of a soprano
to try and keep some dead singer’s perspective alive.
It’s just that I coulda swore you had sung me a love song back there
and that you meant it
but I guess sometimes people just chew with their mouth open
so I ate ear plugs alive with my throat
hoping they’d get lodged deep enough inside the empty spots
that I wouldn’t have to hear you leaving
so I wouldn’t have to listen to my heart keep saying
all my eggs were in a basket of red flags
all my eyes to a bucket of blindfolds
in the cupboard with the muzzles and the gauze
ya know I didn’t mean to speed so far out and off
trying to drive your nickels to the well
when you were happy to let them wishes drop
but I still show up for gentleman practice
in the company of lead dancers
hoping their grace will get stuck in my shoes.
Is that a handsome shadow on my breath, sweet woman
or is it a cattle call in a school of fish?
Still dance with me
less like a waltz for panic
more for the way we’d hoped to swing
the night we took off everything
and we were swingin for the fences
don’t hold it against
my love
you know I wanna breath deeper than this
I didn’t mean to look so serious
didn’t mean to act like a filthy floor
didn’t mean to turn us both into a cutting board
but there were knives sstuck
in the words where I came from
too much time in the back of my words.
I pulled knives from my back and my words.
I cut trombones from the moment you slipped away
and I know it left me lookin’ like a knife fight, lady
boy I know it left me feelin’ like a shotgun shell
you know I know I mighta gone and lost my breath
but I wanna show ya how I found my breath
to death
it was buried under all the wind instruments
hidden in your castanets
goddamn –
if you ever wanna know how it felt when ya left –
if ya ever wanna come inside –
just knock on the spot
where I finally pressed STOP
playing musical chairs with your exit signs.
I’m gonna cause you a miracle
when you see the way I kept God’s image alive.
Forgiveness
is for anyone who needs safe passage through my mind.
If I really was created in God’s image
then when God was a boy
he wanted to grow up to be a man
a good man
and when God was a man
a good man
He started telling the truth in order to get honest responses.
He’d say,
“I know.
I really shoulda wore my cross
again
but I don’t wanna scare the gentiles off.”
Really?
I am so done with talking
About religion and religious folks
People so indebted to self righteousness
They dont even laugh at good jokes
When overcome with ideas of self pride
And overwhelmed with the effort of looking all perfect
They dont realize that the very people Jesus loved
Are the ones these fools continuously reject
I remember the time when i was there
Knocking everyone who was so not like me
Who actually had the strength to demonstrate his weakness
From the chains of negative image was actually free
Do we see that all around us
Are people grovelling in hurt
When we just stand by our own crowd
And to the awkward ones, we are curt
I am guilty of this myself all the time
Covering my brokenness with my so called good acts
Not realizing that everything i do
Is exactly according to what God made a pact
So then we plunge in to our depths of debates
Covering deep concepts like election and grace
Are we actually ready when the time comes
To look at Him in the face
Tell Him that we did all we could
Prove that we loved Him by loving his creation
Not demarcate due to color or race or gender
Not love no one but our own nation
Can we not only pretend to have the fruits of the spirit
Love, kindness, generosity, patience and gentleness we show
In our hearts of hearts to the al mighty God
Do we honestly with our knees bow?
I aint no one to tell you how to live your life
I am the worst sinners of you all
All i can state is that i pray for us all
That we were the ones elected, after the fall
About religion and religious folks
People so indebted to self righteousness
They dont even laugh at good jokes
When overcome with ideas of self pride
And overwhelmed with the effort of looking all perfect
They dont realize that the very people Jesus loved
Are the ones these fools continuously reject
I remember the time when i was there
Knocking everyone who was so not like me
Who actually had the strength to demonstrate his weakness
From the chains of negative image was actually free
Do we see that all around us
Are people grovelling in hurt
When we just stand by our own crowd
And to the awkward ones, we are curt
I am guilty of this myself all the time
Covering my brokenness with my so called good acts
Not realizing that everything i do
Is exactly according to what God made a pact
So then we plunge in to our depths of debates
Covering deep concepts like election and grace
Are we actually ready when the time comes
To look at Him in the face
Tell Him that we did all we could
Prove that we loved Him by loving his creation
Not demarcate due to color or race or gender
Not love no one but our own nation
Can we not only pretend to have the fruits of the spirit
Love, kindness, generosity, patience and gentleness we show
In our hearts of hearts to the al mighty God
Do we honestly with our knees bow?
I aint no one to tell you how to live your life
I am the worst sinners of you all
All i can state is that i pray for us all
That we were the ones elected, after the fall
Hope for the needy
For the needy shall not always be forgotten,
and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.
(Psalm 9:18 ESV)
and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.
(Psalm 9:18 ESV)
Lost Bracelet
I found my bracelet
It makes me smile
I hadn’t felt so guilty
About losing something for a while
You see Jules to me
It was more than a chain around my wrist
It was a symbol of something
Which to my life has brought the greatest twist
Its got the fish symbol on the front
In Greek it comes from ichthys the word
On the back it has the date
When the real message from my heart I really heard
And of course the fact that it was a present
From the one and only Twinkle Toes
The value of the gift for me
Then exponentially grows
I looked up the meaning of the “fish”
Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior is the literal translation
Maybe understanding this fact
Is the way which leads to ultimate transformation
So I am super happy for finding the gift
And the grace u demonstrated when I told u that it was lost
I plan to be more careful with it and guard it well
And try to follow this new “path”, at whatever cost
It makes me smile
I hadn’t felt so guilty
About losing something for a while
You see Jules to me
It was more than a chain around my wrist
It was a symbol of something
Which to my life has brought the greatest twist
Its got the fish symbol on the front
In Greek it comes from ichthys the word
On the back it has the date
When the real message from my heart I really heard
And of course the fact that it was a present
From the one and only Twinkle Toes
The value of the gift for me
Then exponentially grows
I looked up the meaning of the “fish”
Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior is the literal translation
Maybe understanding this fact
Is the way which leads to ultimate transformation
So I am super happy for finding the gift
And the grace u demonstrated when I told u that it was lost
I plan to be more careful with it and guard it well
And try to follow this new “path”, at whatever cost
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Psalm 7- When someone slandered David
In You Do I Take Refuge
A lShiggaion1 of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning the words of Cush, a Benjaminite.
O LORD my God, in you do I take refuge;
save me from all my pursuers and deliver me,
lest like a lion they tear my soul apart,
rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.
O LORD my God, if I have done this,
if there is wrong in my hands,
if I have repaid my friend with evil
or plundered my enemy without cause,
let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it,
and let him trample my life to the ground
and lay my glory in the dust. Selah
Arise, O LORD, in your anger;
lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies;
awake for me; you have appointed a judgment.
Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you;
over it return on high.
The LORD judges the peoples;
judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness
and according to the integrity that is in me.
Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
and may you establish the righteous—
you who test the minds and hearts,
O righteous God!
My shield is with God,
who saves the upright in heart.
God is a righteous judge,
and a God who feels indignation every day.
If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword;
he has bent and readied his bow;
he has prepared for him his deadly weapons,
making his arrows fiery shafts.
Behold, the wicked man conceives evil
and is pregnant with mischief
and gives birth to lies.
He makes a pit, digging it out,
and falls into the hole that he has made.
His mischief returns upon his own head,
and on his own skull his violence descends.
I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness,
and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.
(Psalm 7 ESV)
Friday, January 6, 2012
C.S Lewis Quotes from Mere Christianity
What it means to be labeled a Christian
C.S. Lewis 'Mere Christianity' page 10-11
Now if once we allow people to start spiritualising and refining, or as they might say "deepening," the sense of the word Christian, it too will speedily become a useless word [as gentlemen did]. In the first place, Christians themselves will never be able to apply it to anyone. It is not for us to say who, in the deepest sense, is or is not close to the spirit of Christ. We do not see into men's hearts. We cannot judge, and indeed are forbidden to judge. It would be wicked arrogance for us to say any man is, or is not, a Christian in this refined sense. And obviously a word that we can never apply is not going to be a very useful word. As for the unbelievers, they will no doubt cheerfully use the word in the refined sense. It will become in their mouth's simply a term of praise. In calling anyone a Christian they will mean that they think him a good man. But that way of using the word will be no enrichment of the language, for we already have the word good. Meanwhile, the word Christian will have been spoiled for any really useful purpose it might have served.
We must therefore stick to the original, obvious meaning. The name Christian was first given at Antioch (Acts 11:26) to "the disciples," to those who accepted the teaching of the apostles. There is no question of its being restricted to those who profited by that teaching as much as they should have. There is no question of its being extended to those who in some refined, spiritual, inward fashion were "far closer to the spirit of Christ" than the less satisfactory of the disciples. The point is not a theological, or moral one. It is only a questions of words so that we can all understand what is being said. When a man who accepts the Christian doctrine lives unworthily of it, it is much clearer to say he is a bad Christian than to say he is not a Christian.
A meaningless universe?
C.S.Lewis 'Mere Christianity' page 46
If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.
Not what God willed, but what His will made possible.
C.S. Lewis 'Mere Christianity' page 52
Christians, then, believe that an evil power has made himself for the present the Prince of this World. And, of course, that raises problems. Is this state of affairs in accordance with God's will or not? If it is, He is a strange God, you will say: and if it is not, how can anything happen contrary to the will of a being with absolute power?
But anyone who has been in authority knows how a thing can be in accordance with your will in one way and not in another. It may be quite sensible for a mother to say to the children, "I'm not going to go and make you tidy the schoolroom every night. You've got to learn to keep it tidy on your own." Then she goes up one night and finds the Teddy bear and the ink and the French Grammar all lying in the grate. That is against her will. She would prefer the children to be tidy. But on the other hand, it is her will which has left the children free to be untidy. The same thing arises in any regiment, or trade union, or school. You make a thing voluntary and then half the people do not do it. That is not what you willed, but your will made it possible.
Can we be right and God wrong?
C.S. Lewis 'Mere Christianity' page 53
Of course God knew what would happen if they used their freedom the wrong way: apparently He thought it worth the risk. Perhaps we feel inclined to disagree with Him. But there is a difficulty about disagreeing with God. He is the source from which all your reasoning power comes: you could not be right and He wrong any more than a stream can rise higher than its own source. When you are arguing against Him you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all: it is like cutting off the branch you are sitting on. If God thinks this state of war in the universe is a price worth paying for free will--that is, for making a live world in which creatures can do real good or harm and something of real importance can happen, instead of a toy world which only moves when He pulls the strings--then we make take it it is worth paying.
Jesus Christ--a good moral teacher?
C.S. Lewis 'Mere Christianity' page 56
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a good moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic-on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg-or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great moral teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
Jesus' death and suffering lose their value if He is God.
C.S. Lewis 'Mere Christianity' page 61
I have heard some people complain that if Jesus was God as well as man, then His sufferings and death lose all value in their eyes, "because it must have been so easy for him." Others may (very rightly) rebuke the ingratitude and ungraciousness of this objection; what staggers me is the misunderstanding it betrays. In one sense, of course, those who make it are right. They have even understated their own case. The perfect submission, the perfect suffering, the perfect death were not only easier to Jesus because He was God, but were possible only because He was God. But surely that is a very odd reason for not accepting them? The teacher is able to for the letters for the child because the teacher is grown-up and knows how to write. That, of course, makes it easier for the teacher; and only because it is easier for him can he help the child. If it rejected him because "it's easy for grown-ups" and waited to learn writing from another child who could not write itself (and so had no "unfair" advantage), it would not get on very quickly. If I am drowning in a rapid river, a man who still has one foot on the bank may give me a hand which saves my life. Ought I to shout back (between my gasps) "No, its not fair!" You have an advantage! You're keeping one foot on the bank"? That advantage--call it "unfair" if you like--is the only reason why he can be of any use to me. To what will you look for help if you will not look to that which is stronger than yourself?
Those who have never heard.
C.S. Lewis 'Mere Christianity' page 65
Here is another thing that used to puzzle me. Is it not frightfully unfair that this new life should be confined to people who have heard of Christ and been able to believe in Him? But the truth is God has not told us what His arrangements about the other people are. We do know that no man can be saved except through Christ; we do not know that only those who know Him can be saved through Him. But in the meantime, if you are worried about the people outside, the most unreasonable thing you can do is remain outside yourself. Christians are Christ's body, the organism through which he works. Every addition to that body enables Him to do more. If you want to help those outside you must add your own little cell to the body of Christ who alone can help them. Cutting off a man's fingers would be an odd way of getting him to do more work.
One reason Christians should not judge.
C.S. Lewis 'Mere Christianity' page 86-87
Human beings judge one another by their external actions. God judges them by their moral choices. When a neurotic who has a pathological horror of cats forces himself to pick up a cat for some good reason, it is quite possible that in God's eyes he has shown more courage than a healthy man may have shown in winning the V.C. When a man who has been perverted from his youth and taught that cruelty is the right thing, does some tiny little kindness, or refrains from some cruelty he might have committed, and thereby, perhaps, risks being sneered at by his companions, he may, in God's eyes, be doing more than you and I would do if we gave up life itself for a friend.
It is as well to put this the other way round. Some of us who seem quite nice people may, in fact, have made so little use of a good heredity and a good upbringing that we are really worse than those whom we regard as friends. Can we be quite certain how we should have behaved if we had been saddled with the psychological outfit, and then with the bad upbringing, and then with the power, say, of Himmler? That is why Christians are told not to judge. We see only the results which a man's choices make out of his raw material. But god does not judge him on the raw material at all, but on what he has done with it. Most of the man's psychological make-up is probably due to his body: when his body dies all that will fall off him, and the real central man, the thing that chose, that made the best or worst of this material, will stand naked. All sorts of nice things which we thought our own, but which were really due to good digestion, will fall off some of us: all sorts of nasty things which were due to complexes or bad health will fall off others. We shall then, for the first time, see every one as he really was. There will be surprises.
Admitting your a bad person.
C.S. Lewis 'Mere Christianity' page 88
When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right. This is common sense, really. You understand sleep when you are awake, not while you are sleeping. You can see mistakes in arithmetic when your mind is working properly: while you are making them you cannot see them. YOu can understand the nature of drunkenness when you are sober, not when you are drunk. Good people know about both bad and evil: bad people do not know about either.
War, jail, and "thou shalt not kill.".
C.S. Lewis 'Mere Christianity' page 106-107
Does loving your enemy mean not punishing him? No, for loving myself does not mean that I ought not to subject myself to punishment--even to death. If one committed a murder, the right Christian thing to do would be to give yourself up to the police and be hanged. It is, therefore, in my opinion, perfectly right for a Christian judge to sentance a man to death or a Christian soldier to kill an enemy. I always have thought so, ever since I became a Christian, and long before the war, and I still think so now that we are at peace. It is no good quoting "Thou shalt not kill." there are two Greek words: the ordinary word to kill and the word to murder. And when Christ quotes that commandment He uses the murder one in all three accounts, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. and I am told there is the same distinction in Hebrew. All killing is not murder any more than all sexual intercourse is adultery. When soldiers came to St. John the Baptist asking what to do, he never remotely suggested that they ought to leave the army: nor did Christ when he met a Roman sergeant-major--what they call a centurion. The idea of the knight--the Christian in arms for defence of a good cause--is one of the great Christian ideas. War is a dreadful thing, and I can respect an honest pacifist, though I think he is entirely mistaken.
Heaven and Hell.
C.S. Lewis 'Mere Christianity' page 121-122
There is no need to be worried by facetious people who try to make the Christian hope of "Heaven" ridiculous by saying that they do not want "to spend eternity playing harps." The answer to such people is that if they cannot understand books written fro grown-ups, they should not talk about them. All the scriptural imagery (harps, crowns, gold, etc.) is, of course, a merely symbolic attempt to express the inexpressible. Musical instruments are mentioned because for many people (not all) music is the thing known in the present life which most strongly suggests ecstasy and infinity. Crowns are mentioned to suggest the fact that those who are united with God in eternity share his splendour and power and joy. Gold is mentioned to suggest the timelessness of Heaven (gold does not rust) and the preciousness of it. People who take these symbols literally might as well think that when Christ told us to be like doves, He meant that we were to lay eggs.
Christianity--a religion or a relationship?
C.S. Lewis 'Mere Christianity' page 132
I think all Christians would agree with me if I said that though Christianity seems at first to be all about morality, all about duties and rules and guilt and virtue, yet it leads you on, out of all that, into something beyond.
Theology, creeds, and church doctrine.
C.S. Lewis 'Mere Christianity' page 135-136
In a way I quite understand why some people are put off by Theology. I remember once when I had been giving a talk to the R.A.F. an old, hard-bitten officer got up and said, "I've no use for all that stuff. But, mind you, I'm a religious too. I know there's a God. I've felt him: out alone in the desert at night: the tremendous mystery. And that's just why I don't believe all your neat little dogmas and formulas about Him. To anyone who's met the real thing they all seem so petty and pedantic and unreal!"
Now in a sense I quite agreed with that man. I think he had probably had a real experience of God in the desert. And when he turned from that experience to the Christian creeds, I think he really was turning from something real to something less real. In the same way, if a man has once looked at the Atlantic from the beach, and then goes and looks at a map of the Atlantic, he also will be turning from something real to something less real: turning from real waves to a bit of coloured paper. But here comes the point. The map is only admittedly coloured paper, but there are two things you have to remember about it. In the first place, it is based on what hundreds and thousands of people have found out by sailing the real Atlantic. In that way it has behind it masses of experience just as real as the one you could have from the beach; only, while yours would be a single isolated glimpse, the map fits all those different experiences together. In the second place, if you want to go anywhere, the map is absolutely necessary. As long as you are content with walks on the beach, your own glimpses are far more fun than looking at a map. But the map is going to be more use than walks on the beach if you want to get to America.
C.S. Lewis 'Mere Christianity' page 10-11
Now if once we allow people to start spiritualising and refining, or as they might say "deepening," the sense of the word Christian, it too will speedily become a useless word [as gentlemen did]. In the first place, Christians themselves will never be able to apply it to anyone. It is not for us to say who, in the deepest sense, is or is not close to the spirit of Christ. We do not see into men's hearts. We cannot judge, and indeed are forbidden to judge. It would be wicked arrogance for us to say any man is, or is not, a Christian in this refined sense. And obviously a word that we can never apply is not going to be a very useful word. As for the unbelievers, they will no doubt cheerfully use the word in the refined sense. It will become in their mouth's simply a term of praise. In calling anyone a Christian they will mean that they think him a good man. But that way of using the word will be no enrichment of the language, for we already have the word good. Meanwhile, the word Christian will have been spoiled for any really useful purpose it might have served.
We must therefore stick to the original, obvious meaning. The name Christian was first given at Antioch (Acts 11:26) to "the disciples," to those who accepted the teaching of the apostles. There is no question of its being restricted to those who profited by that teaching as much as they should have. There is no question of its being extended to those who in some refined, spiritual, inward fashion were "far closer to the spirit of Christ" than the less satisfactory of the disciples. The point is not a theological, or moral one. It is only a questions of words so that we can all understand what is being said. When a man who accepts the Christian doctrine lives unworthily of it, it is much clearer to say he is a bad Christian than to say he is not a Christian.
A meaningless universe?
C.S.Lewis 'Mere Christianity' page 46
If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.
Not what God willed, but what His will made possible.
C.S. Lewis 'Mere Christianity' page 52
Christians, then, believe that an evil power has made himself for the present the Prince of this World. And, of course, that raises problems. Is this state of affairs in accordance with God's will or not? If it is, He is a strange God, you will say: and if it is not, how can anything happen contrary to the will of a being with absolute power?
But anyone who has been in authority knows how a thing can be in accordance with your will in one way and not in another. It may be quite sensible for a mother to say to the children, "I'm not going to go and make you tidy the schoolroom every night. You've got to learn to keep it tidy on your own." Then she goes up one night and finds the Teddy bear and the ink and the French Grammar all lying in the grate. That is against her will. She would prefer the children to be tidy. But on the other hand, it is her will which has left the children free to be untidy. The same thing arises in any regiment, or trade union, or school. You make a thing voluntary and then half the people do not do it. That is not what you willed, but your will made it possible.
Can we be right and God wrong?
C.S. Lewis 'Mere Christianity' page 53
Of course God knew what would happen if they used their freedom the wrong way: apparently He thought it worth the risk. Perhaps we feel inclined to disagree with Him. But there is a difficulty about disagreeing with God. He is the source from which all your reasoning power comes: you could not be right and He wrong any more than a stream can rise higher than its own source. When you are arguing against Him you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all: it is like cutting off the branch you are sitting on. If God thinks this state of war in the universe is a price worth paying for free will--that is, for making a live world in which creatures can do real good or harm and something of real importance can happen, instead of a toy world which only moves when He pulls the strings--then we make take it it is worth paying.
Jesus Christ--a good moral teacher?
C.S. Lewis 'Mere Christianity' page 56
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a good moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic-on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg-or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great moral teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
Jesus' death and suffering lose their value if He is God.
C.S. Lewis 'Mere Christianity' page 61
I have heard some people complain that if Jesus was God as well as man, then His sufferings and death lose all value in their eyes, "because it must have been so easy for him." Others may (very rightly) rebuke the ingratitude and ungraciousness of this objection; what staggers me is the misunderstanding it betrays. In one sense, of course, those who make it are right. They have even understated their own case. The perfect submission, the perfect suffering, the perfect death were not only easier to Jesus because He was God, but were possible only because He was God. But surely that is a very odd reason for not accepting them? The teacher is able to for the letters for the child because the teacher is grown-up and knows how to write. That, of course, makes it easier for the teacher; and only because it is easier for him can he help the child. If it rejected him because "it's easy for grown-ups" and waited to learn writing from another child who could not write itself (and so had no "unfair" advantage), it would not get on very quickly. If I am drowning in a rapid river, a man who still has one foot on the bank may give me a hand which saves my life. Ought I to shout back (between my gasps) "No, its not fair!" You have an advantage! You're keeping one foot on the bank"? That advantage--call it "unfair" if you like--is the only reason why he can be of any use to me. To what will you look for help if you will not look to that which is stronger than yourself?
Those who have never heard.
C.S. Lewis 'Mere Christianity' page 65
Here is another thing that used to puzzle me. Is it not frightfully unfair that this new life should be confined to people who have heard of Christ and been able to believe in Him? But the truth is God has not told us what His arrangements about the other people are. We do know that no man can be saved except through Christ; we do not know that only those who know Him can be saved through Him. But in the meantime, if you are worried about the people outside, the most unreasonable thing you can do is remain outside yourself. Christians are Christ's body, the organism through which he works. Every addition to that body enables Him to do more. If you want to help those outside you must add your own little cell to the body of Christ who alone can help them. Cutting off a man's fingers would be an odd way of getting him to do more work.
One reason Christians should not judge.
C.S. Lewis 'Mere Christianity' page 86-87
Human beings judge one another by their external actions. God judges them by their moral choices. When a neurotic who has a pathological horror of cats forces himself to pick up a cat for some good reason, it is quite possible that in God's eyes he has shown more courage than a healthy man may have shown in winning the V.C. When a man who has been perverted from his youth and taught that cruelty is the right thing, does some tiny little kindness, or refrains from some cruelty he might have committed, and thereby, perhaps, risks being sneered at by his companions, he may, in God's eyes, be doing more than you and I would do if we gave up life itself for a friend.
It is as well to put this the other way round. Some of us who seem quite nice people may, in fact, have made so little use of a good heredity and a good upbringing that we are really worse than those whom we regard as friends. Can we be quite certain how we should have behaved if we had been saddled with the psychological outfit, and then with the bad upbringing, and then with the power, say, of Himmler? That is why Christians are told not to judge. We see only the results which a man's choices make out of his raw material. But god does not judge him on the raw material at all, but on what he has done with it. Most of the man's psychological make-up is probably due to his body: when his body dies all that will fall off him, and the real central man, the thing that chose, that made the best or worst of this material, will stand naked. All sorts of nice things which we thought our own, but which were really due to good digestion, will fall off some of us: all sorts of nasty things which were due to complexes or bad health will fall off others. We shall then, for the first time, see every one as he really was. There will be surprises.
Admitting your a bad person.
C.S. Lewis 'Mere Christianity' page 88
When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right. This is common sense, really. You understand sleep when you are awake, not while you are sleeping. You can see mistakes in arithmetic when your mind is working properly: while you are making them you cannot see them. YOu can understand the nature of drunkenness when you are sober, not when you are drunk. Good people know about both bad and evil: bad people do not know about either.
War, jail, and "thou shalt not kill.".
C.S. Lewis 'Mere Christianity' page 106-107
Does loving your enemy mean not punishing him? No, for loving myself does not mean that I ought not to subject myself to punishment--even to death. If one committed a murder, the right Christian thing to do would be to give yourself up to the police and be hanged. It is, therefore, in my opinion, perfectly right for a Christian judge to sentance a man to death or a Christian soldier to kill an enemy. I always have thought so, ever since I became a Christian, and long before the war, and I still think so now that we are at peace. It is no good quoting "Thou shalt not kill." there are two Greek words: the ordinary word to kill and the word to murder. And when Christ quotes that commandment He uses the murder one in all three accounts, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. and I am told there is the same distinction in Hebrew. All killing is not murder any more than all sexual intercourse is adultery. When soldiers came to St. John the Baptist asking what to do, he never remotely suggested that they ought to leave the army: nor did Christ when he met a Roman sergeant-major--what they call a centurion. The idea of the knight--the Christian in arms for defence of a good cause--is one of the great Christian ideas. War is a dreadful thing, and I can respect an honest pacifist, though I think he is entirely mistaken.
Heaven and Hell.
C.S. Lewis 'Mere Christianity' page 121-122
There is no need to be worried by facetious people who try to make the Christian hope of "Heaven" ridiculous by saying that they do not want "to spend eternity playing harps." The answer to such people is that if they cannot understand books written fro grown-ups, they should not talk about them. All the scriptural imagery (harps, crowns, gold, etc.) is, of course, a merely symbolic attempt to express the inexpressible. Musical instruments are mentioned because for many people (not all) music is the thing known in the present life which most strongly suggests ecstasy and infinity. Crowns are mentioned to suggest the fact that those who are united with God in eternity share his splendour and power and joy. Gold is mentioned to suggest the timelessness of Heaven (gold does not rust) and the preciousness of it. People who take these symbols literally might as well think that when Christ told us to be like doves, He meant that we were to lay eggs.
Christianity--a religion or a relationship?
C.S. Lewis 'Mere Christianity' page 132
I think all Christians would agree with me if I said that though Christianity seems at first to be all about morality, all about duties and rules and guilt and virtue, yet it leads you on, out of all that, into something beyond.
Theology, creeds, and church doctrine.
C.S. Lewis 'Mere Christianity' page 135-136
In a way I quite understand why some people are put off by Theology. I remember once when I had been giving a talk to the R.A.F. an old, hard-bitten officer got up and said, "I've no use for all that stuff. But, mind you, I'm a religious too. I know there's a God. I've felt him: out alone in the desert at night: the tremendous mystery. And that's just why I don't believe all your neat little dogmas and formulas about Him. To anyone who's met the real thing they all seem so petty and pedantic and unreal!"
Now in a sense I quite agreed with that man. I think he had probably had a real experience of God in the desert. And when he turned from that experience to the Christian creeds, I think he really was turning from something real to something less real. In the same way, if a man has once looked at the Atlantic from the beach, and then goes and looks at a map of the Atlantic, he also will be turning from something real to something less real: turning from real waves to a bit of coloured paper. But here comes the point. The map is only admittedly coloured paper, but there are two things you have to remember about it. In the first place, it is based on what hundreds and thousands of people have found out by sailing the real Atlantic. In that way it has behind it masses of experience just as real as the one you could have from the beach; only, while yours would be a single isolated glimpse, the map fits all those different experiences together. In the second place, if you want to go anywhere, the map is absolutely necessary. As long as you are content with walks on the beach, your own glimpses are far more fun than looking at a map. But the map is going to be more use than walks on the beach if you want to get to America.
Sins = bugs..not broaches
When Paul says that “God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth,” that is virtually what happens in the new birth. And here is the key to liberating people from the captivity of the devil. God grants repentance—that is, he awakens the life that sees the ugliness and danger of sin and the beauty and worth of Christ, and that truth sets the prisoner free. It’s what happens when a person in the dark fondles an ebony broach hanging around his neck, and then the spiritual lights go on and he sees it’s not a broach but a cockroach and flings it away. That’s how people are set free from the devil. And until God does that miracle of new birth, we stay in bondage to the father of lies because we love to be able to tell ourselves whatever we please.
Prayer
Dear God,
You know i am having a hard time believing in you tonight. My soul is not able to seek your presence and i feel as if i am not going through the narrow gate. I am so tiered of saying sorry,and pushing forth for the right thing all day.
God, I am bad. I know that already. There are some ideas i am having a hard time swallowing.....but i have to ask u for this
Not as the genei who i come to whenever i have problems....but right now i do. A girl i care for more than i care for myself might be worried a bit. Might be having some restless night.
God, Julie is a good girl. She deserves the best. You know that! Please give her a good boss. Help her job be satisfying to her . Let her get pleasure and comfort and gain knowledge out of it. Please let her boss be nicer to her.
And then, in the matters of the heart. She might have kind of broken or atleast hurt david tonight....she is just not sure. Please make this time easier for both of them.
And now to me
God, i know i get all these really uncomfortable feelings when Julie talks about guys. It is "change" but it is more than that. I have this weird possesiveness.....or jealousy for those guys. God, you are the only one who can fix these terrible issues in my heart. Replace it with something good and solid...and one which does not hurt so bad. I really really do want julie to be happy...and for her if happiness means being with one of these guys ...or with someone else...please let her be happy. I know you have abundance of happiness to share, but if it means anything at all, please take my happiness and give it to her.
Sorry i havent written to you in so long
God, can you please give me a real heart .....one to love and care for you with. I read about it, but dont know if i have it. I dont know if i have crossed the narrow door.
Thank you
You know i am having a hard time believing in you tonight. My soul is not able to seek your presence and i feel as if i am not going through the narrow gate. I am so tiered of saying sorry,and pushing forth for the right thing all day.
God, I am bad. I know that already. There are some ideas i am having a hard time swallowing.....but i have to ask u for this
Not as the genei who i come to whenever i have problems....but right now i do. A girl i care for more than i care for myself might be worried a bit. Might be having some restless night.
God, Julie is a good girl. She deserves the best. You know that! Please give her a good boss. Help her job be satisfying to her . Let her get pleasure and comfort and gain knowledge out of it. Please let her boss be nicer to her.
And then, in the matters of the heart. She might have kind of broken or atleast hurt david tonight....she is just not sure. Please make this time easier for both of them.
And now to me
God, i know i get all these really uncomfortable feelings when Julie talks about guys. It is "change" but it is more than that. I have this weird possesiveness.....or jealousy for those guys. God, you are the only one who can fix these terrible issues in my heart. Replace it with something good and solid...and one which does not hurt so bad. I really really do want julie to be happy...and for her if happiness means being with one of these guys ...or with someone else...please let her be happy. I know you have abundance of happiness to share, but if it means anything at all, please take my happiness and give it to her.
Sorry i havent written to you in so long
God, can you please give me a real heart .....one to love and care for you with. I read about it, but dont know if i have it. I dont know if i have crossed the narrow door.
Thank you
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Miss
I miss it, even though i dont know what it really means.
I just feel the ache of not having it
An emptyness inside
A void which refuses to be filled
And i dont know what to do with it
I dont really know what i miss
I think it is the companionship
Just someone to call my own
To love dearly
I read about love
and want to be part of the process
but feel broken
like no one can love me
like no one ever will
I just feel the ache of not having it
An emptyness inside
A void which refuses to be filled
And i dont know what to do with it
I dont really know what i miss
I think it is the companionship
Just someone to call my own
To love dearly
I read about love
and want to be part of the process
but feel broken
like no one can love me
like no one ever will
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Ps. 10:16-18
"The LORD is king forever and ever...you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed..." Ps. 10:16-18
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Psalm 1
BOOK ONE
The Way of the Righteous and the Wicked
1 Blessed is the man1
who awalks not in bthe counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in cthe way of sinners,
nor dsits in ethe seat of fscoffers;
2 but his gdelight is in the law2 of the Lord,
and on his hlaw he meditates day and night.
3 He is like ia tree
planted by jstreams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its kleaf does not wither.
lIn all that he does, he prospers.
4 The wicked are not so,
but are like mchaff that the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the wicked nwill not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in othe congregation of the righteous;
6 for the Lord pknows qthe way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
The Way of the Righteous and the Wicked
1 Blessed is the man1
who awalks not in bthe counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in cthe way of sinners,
nor dsits in ethe seat of fscoffers;
2 but his gdelight is in the law2 of the Lord,
and on his hlaw he meditates day and night.
3 He is like ia tree
planted by jstreams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its kleaf does not wither.
lIn all that he does, he prospers.
4 The wicked are not so,
but are like mchaff that the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the wicked nwill not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in othe congregation of the righteous;
6 for the Lord pknows qthe way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
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