Amazing Quote!

Had to share this with you. Our pastor used it on the hand out for his sermon last weekend:

"What is, therefore, our task today? Shall I answer: 'Faith, hope, and love?' That sounds beautiful. But I would say - courage. No, even that is not challenging enough to be the whole truth. Our task today is - recklessness. For what we Christians lacks is not psychology or literature ... we lack a holy rage - the recklessness which comes from the knowledge of God and humanity. The ability to rage when justice lies prostrate in the streets, and when the lie rages across the face of the earth ... a holy anger about the things that are wrong in the world. To rage against the ravaging of God's earth, and the destruction of God's world. To rage when little children must die of hunger, when the tables of the rich are sagging with food. To rage at the senseless killing of so many, and against the madness of militaries. To rage at the lie that calls the threat of death and the strategy of destruction peace. To rage against complacency. To restlessly seek that recklessness that will challenge and seek to change human history until it conforms to the norms of the Kingdom of God. And remember the signs of the Christian Church have been the lion, the lamb, the dove, and the fish ... but never the chameleon."
by Kaj Munk, a Danish pastor and outspoken priest, uttered these prophetic words before he was killed, with his Bible next to him, by the Gestapo in January 1944.

It seems the world has come back to where we were. And, it is time for the Christians to rouse themselves from their slumber and complacency. We pray, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done," it is time for us to mean what we pray and to be willing to respond in action as God leads us.

Love,
Ev


One thing have I desired and that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in His tablernacle. Psalm 27:4

Just for Tonight!

A little girl, long hair curling and twirling in the soft breeze, she stands in the very center of a large (seemingly endless) open field. No fences. No sign posts. No agendas.

Freedom! Utter freedom, to explore, to run, to rest, to muse, to wonder. Endless possibilities. No "should's". No plans. No purpose. Just the absolute abandonment to being!

At first glance, she seems to stand alone, but no, there is One with her. One who is there to share her joy and His! One who longs to show her things she has overlooked for so long. One who aches to share Himself with her and to know the joy of her opening all of her heart and her life to Him. One to run with. One to whisper secrets
to or to yell out exuberant joys to! One to share the wonder and the freedom with.

Lord, may I please be this little girl, and will You be the marvellous One to share my life, my freedom, and my joy?

"Come, let us run together!"

My heart or some voice calls out that there are things to do, serious things, life changing things. How can I contemplate playing in this field when there is such necessary stuff to do?

But, then again ...

Here I stand in the middle of this field! No direction, no sign posts. Maybe it is time. Maybe there is time. Time to be a little girl. Time to explore. Time for freedom. Time for just being, and for just being with One! with the One!

Oh!

Maybe there is time for the "One Thing"! Perhaps this field is His temple. All I have to do is behold and explore/inquire.

I think for tonight, I will just lay down beneath the stars and whisper and giggle! Just for tonight!

---

One thing have I desired and that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in His tablernacle. Psalm 27:4

God of the Second Chance

Some time ago, I did a study on the arrival of the nation of Israel in the Promised Land and their initial stop at Gilgal (which derives from a root word meaning: to roll, roll away, roll down, or roll together). This was just after they had crossed the Jordan River, entering the Promised Land after 40 years in the desert.

The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years until all the men who were old enough to bear arms when they left Egypt had died. For they had disobeyed the LORD, and the LORD vowed he would not let them enter the land he had sworn to give us--a land flowing with milk and honey. Jos. 5:6

The adults who had walked out of Egypt all had died (except for Joshua and Caleb). Those that entered the Promised Land were a new generation, a generation who had not been circumcised.

And their children, [whom] he raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised: for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way. Jos. 5:7

Now, notice the next two verses:

And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were whole. And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day. Jos. 5:8-9

The Lord said to Joshua, "This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you." As I read this in the study I was doing, I just wanted to shout AMEN. I think at one time we may all experience a time when we have felt as though we were wondering in a desert, even going through a time of doubting the Word, fearing and refusing to obey God in something.

The amazing thing is that God doesn't just drop us where we are and walk away. I thank and praise Him that He hasn't in my life. He still leads us, He still brings us, coaxes, and draws us along. And as we follow, as we begin to obey and to go where He leads, and as we seek Him, He does bring us into the place He promised. Then, when we put off the sin of our fleshly natures (our natural pursuit of our own desires) in repentance (our spiritual circumcision), in recognition of His great love and mercy, and in thankfulness for His grace, He rolls off the reproach of our Egypt, our past. He renews and restores us.

[It is of] the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. [They are] new every morning: great [is] thy faithfulness. Lam. 3:22-23

He is the God of the second chance, and when you have returned to Him in repentance, receive His forgiveness. Let go of the reproach. It is His will and His way to roll it off of you. Don't pick it back up and carry on with it. He has freed you to lay claim to the promises He has given you. Let it go, let the past go, in faith, thanking and praising Him for His forgiveness and compassion. Then, go on with Him into the land of victory, peace, and provision that He has given you.

 

One thing have I desired and that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in His tablernacle. Psalm 27:4