“While imprisoned in a tiny prison cell for his attempts to reform the Church, sixteenth-century Spanish mystic John of the Cross composed many of his now classic poems of the soul’s longing for God. This poem is, “Dark Night of the Soul.” On a dark night, Kindled in love with yearnings—oh, happy chance! — I went forth without being observed, My house being now at rest. In darkness and secure, By the secret ladder, disguised—oh, happy chance! — In darkness and in concealment, My house being now at rest. In the happy night, In secret, when none saw me, Nor I beheld aught, Without light or guide, save that which burned in my heart. This light guided me More surely than the light of noonday To the place where He (well I knew who!) was awaiting me— A place where none appeared. Oh, night that guided me, Oh, night more…
Category: <span>Suffering</span>
Paul McCartney wrote of a blackbird singing in the dead of night; Paul, the apostle sang with Silas in jail at night and David played the harp for troubled Saul. “…I sing because I’m free, His eye is on this sparrow, and I know He watches me.” Have you ever sung a song in a dark time? “The whip-poor-will is a nocturnal bird. This means it wakes at night and sleeps during the day. It sings loudly at dusk.” “Thrushes are famous for their singing ability, but many people who appreciate bird song consider the hermit thrush to have the best song of all birds. It often sings in the late evening or at night.” “In cities, birds sometimes sing at night during the breeding season. …This was possibly because the birds confused the high levels of artificial light with sunrise. Other research in the UK on European robins showed a…
“The world? “The world is not interested in us. Today everything is possible, even the crematoria…” His voice broke. Father, I said, “If that is true I don’t want to wait. I’ll run into the electrified barbed wire. That would be easier than a slow death in the flames.” “…everyone around us was weeping. Someone began to recite Kaddish, the prayer for the dead. I don’t know whether, during the history of the Jewish people, men have ever before recited Kaddish for themselves.” “…May His name be celebrated and sanctified…whispered my father.” “For the first time I felt anger rising within me. Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible master of the universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank Him for?” One who suffered deeply was Elie Wiesel, so written in his book, “Night.” Men facing the harshest of the harsh bend…
“But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.” 1 Thessalonians 5:2 “But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.”Matthew 24:43 “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.” 2 Peter 3:10 The “chronos,” or times and seasons hardly involve the believer in Christ, because its high time for us. We watch and wait every day. For the thief? No, thieves…
“Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” “I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” Philippians 4:11-12 I’m good at abounding but not so much with abasement. Why does God allow abasement? It means “to humble,” which conjures up thoughts of pain, so this is why most folks don’t get content with it. Yes, pain we cringe at, but humility itself brings something special. Paul became content since humility brings self-satisfying; it brings us closer to God . “The perfect meekness that comes from self-humbling brings with it an all-embracing concentration on the goodness and love of God.” “None of the acts of God, whether in…
And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. John 1:16 “Grace is more than love, it is love set absolutely free and made to be a triumphant victor over the righteous judgment of God against the sinner.” “The grace of God belongs to the realm of the infinite. His measureless love and goodness are released from every restraint. They are unshackled and free.” “The supreme divine objective is then, that infinite love may manifest itself in superabounding grace.” Chafer –Grace The Glorious Theme “Grace is God acting freely, according to; His own nature as Love; with no promises or obligations to fulfill…” William Newell “Grace means the overflowing nature of God…we have no words to describe the lavishness of God.” Oswald Chambers ” The religion of legality is as though a man should decide to have an apple orchard and should try to make one by…
And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. John 1:16 “Grace is more than love, it is love set absolutely free and made to be a triumphant victor over the righteous judgment of God against the sinner.” “The grace of God belongs to the realm of the infinite. His measureless love and goodness are released from every restraint. They are unshackled and free.” “The supreme divine objective is then, that infinite love may manifest itself in superabounding grace.” Chafer –Grace The Glorious Theme “Grace is God acting freely, according to; His own nature as Love; with no promises or obligations to fulfill…” William Newell “Grace means the overflowing nature of God…we have no words to describe the lavishness of God.” Oswald Chambers ” The religion of legality is as though a man should decide to have an apple orchard and should try to make one by…
Then he sent her (Hagar) away with their son, and she wandered aimlessly in the wilderness of Beersheba. When the water was gone, she put the boy in the shade of a bush. Then she went and sat down by herself about a hundred yards away. “I don’t want to watch the boy die,” she said, as she burst into tears. But God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, “Hagar, what’s wrong? Do not be afraid! God has heard the boy crying as he lies there…. Then God opened Hagar’s eyes, and she saw a well full of water. She quickly filled her water container and gave the boy a drink. And God was with the boy as he grew up in the wilderness. Whose concubine despairs? Whose woman of incidental association bursts into tears? Nobody knows her, but God knows…
G.E. Pember lists several trends of the end times seen in the days of Noah. Some are these: A tendency to worship God as Elohim, that is, merely as the Creator and the Benefactor, and not as Jehovah, the covenant God of mercy… …disregard for the primal law of marriage. …consequent invention of many devises whereby the hardships of the curse were mitigated… An alliance between the nominal church and the World.. The rejection of the preaching of Enoch and Noah. The appearance on the earth of beings from the principality of the air. Ahem! Has Jesus Christ subtly lost popularity today ? Have folks decided to rightly honor our Great God and Creator, but at the expense of Christ? Have we chosen a wide and safe approach rather than the offensive bloody cross of Christ? If so, we forfeit the heart of God, grieved and angered at sin, now demonstrating…
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. Genesis 6:5-8 With: Licentiousness raging. Violence prevailing. Corruption deepening; But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Mattthew 24:37-39 People will be: self-loving, money-loving, proud, arrogant, insulting, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, uncontrolled, brutal, hateful of good, traitorous, headstrong,…