We walk together with a person, Jesus. We get to, actually. He moves from place to place and from glory to glory. We go too, both ways. Together we go from strength to strength, faith to faith. Strength does not move to greater strength, but new strength. Faith also becomes new faith, not increased faith. We do not progress by resisting the resistance but by following on to know the Lord. We are not associates with Him, we are One. We go from Tom to Jesus, from diminishing glory to the new inward Hope of Glory We go together to the Father, by Him. The lighted path brightens more light, new illuminations all. First pales and dies, second resurrects renewed. First withholds, next gives; First decays, next sprouts. Originally we fail, new makes it work; First ends, next starts again. In the beginning it breaks, following reveals treasure; First wounds, then healing comes.…
Healing at the Cross Posts
Good coaching goes this way: “back to fundamentals boys, back to the basics.” The hidden word here is “foundation,” and any team going anywhere has to build from the bottom. When that group forgets what got them to their present successes; they need to go back and do a revisit now, (I mean Right Now!). Hey, if the Bettenhausen Lady-birds’ softball team drift too far, they lose sight of the nest, and the chickadees ain’t gettin no food! Its time to get back to business! This is a comic picture but true. “We need more unity, we gotta get together, we ain’t sticken together as a unit.” What happened? Well, it happened in the hearts of the individuals first, manifesting itself second in the “lean mean fighting machine.” The synchronized power-generator started disintegrating because of the parts breaking down. For the Mannheim Sheep Dogs, maybe, the wolf in sheep’s clothing…
I wanna talk about forgiveness for our sins. I am driven to understand again remission of sins. I must apply again the removal of sin, and be clean once more. O blood, O blood of God, be here, my conscience purge; my mind and heart. Free me, blood of Christ, scour the depths, clear me O exempt my soul. Just as if I had never sinned, O justify me anew. Just as if I had never left, O draw me closer than before. I must be intimate, next to, in and around You; surround Ye me, O precious Savior. Advocate for me, O Jesus Christ the Righteous. I need to lawyer-up now, for despicable is my potential, and my will; an ugly enemy. The carnal mind hates God, I shame when mine appears. Deliver me from bloodguiltyness, if, only a minute peeve, it buds. It struggles for identity, it’s desperation…
“The man who refuses to judge, who neither agrees nor disagrees, who declares that there are no absolutes and believes that he escapes responsibility, is the man responsible for all the blood that is now spilled in the world. Reality is an absolute, existence is an absolute, a speck of dust is an absolute and so is a human life. Whether you live or die is an absolute. Whether you have a piece of bread or not , is an absolute. Whether you eat your bread or see it vanish into a looter’s stomach, is an absolute. There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other side is wrong, but the middle is always evil. The man who is wrong still retains some respect for truth, if only by accepting the responsibility of choice. But the man in the middle is the knave who blanks…
Our church included a collection each Mass. Mom furnished us a dime, and we quickly put it in our envelope. We mindfully marked ‘ten cents’ on the line below our name. In the church bulletin each week was listed what everybody contributed the week before. Mr. Leonard offered the most each week. He owned Leonard’s motors and sold Mercury’s. Mr. George was often close behind, however; he owned George’s book store in Charleroi. Mr. George shook hands with people at church; we heard he converted from Protestantism. No one in our church shook hands but Mr. George. Collection was brilliantly handled with the long-baskets. These were wicker pannier types featuring a broom like pole attached. They stood probably 6-7 feet or more, top to bottom. The usher managed to skillfully navigate the basket down each pew, hand over hand, extending basket and then arm to reach the end group, as…
Melancholic people wander everywhere. Have you ever noticed? They’re bummed out, depressed, annoyed, and negatively paralyzed. Heartsick, heart-sore, low-spirited little people, emanate with sorrow, sadness, gloom and dole. Why and how is it this way? Well, the economy generally reeks these days, the physical body shows signs of freshly-created pain impositions, and the barometer can’t get above “extreme crap-ful,” to start. Daily life itself can discourage but also the culture runs ahead of us, hell bent with deceitful hopes aimed directly at these lost souls. Some “mysterious” force seems to want to perpetuate the misery into eternity. Man, how can folks continue to eat this diet, and have a smile still? Cosmos Diabolicus, you are an ugly, hateful, false god-system. The spreading of your filthy host-born emanations manifests itself plainly. The fooling days are over, now we have blatant hate-mongering, truth-twisting, God-abhorring in all phases of society. Frankly, we live…
Lamentations 3:12-15 12 He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.13 He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins. 14 I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.15 He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood. Ezekiel 24:16-18 16 Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke: yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down. 17 Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire of thine head upon thee, and put on thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover not thy lips, and eat not the bread of men. 18 So I spake unto the people in the morning: and at even my wife died; and I did in the…
We don’t often think of participating in our own existence, because a life easily perpetuates itself. Yes, this concept called “being,” started and continues while we remain passive; we learned this in Biology 101. Later we were told, IQ-wise, how deeply or sharply we could think, but not how to get better at it. Thinking aptitude presupposes a done deal, a gift, a genetic bent, so we were taught. Yea, DNA, genetics, and the will of our parents really get the full brunt of responsibility here. Would you agree? With the risk of being labeled “existential,” we must then consider why a human becomes anxious. A quote goes this way: “anxiety comes from not being able to know the world you are in, not being able to orient yourself in your existence —the reaction to the threat to values one identifies with his existence as a self.” Wow, can this…
In thoughtful reflection, I set aside some time, and contemplated how a friend may have been feeling. I suddenly wondered, does God ever do what I am now doing? Do our thoughts and feelings matter to God? Growing up as a child and then a young man, I don’t remember many times anybody asking me, “Tom, what do you think about this?” “What are your feelings? I remember only a few occasions of someone sincerely saying to me, “how are you doing?” In the Bible, when Jesus met a rich young ruler, it says that He loved him. Yes, though the man did not grasp Jesus’ message, Jesus loved him. When Peter didn’t understand Jesus’ feet washing ministry, Jesus, nevertheless, took time to identify with Peter’s bafflement. Then The Lord explained things. Jesus took the side of and defended an adulterer one day, causing quite a stir. I mused about…
“The love of God does not find that which is worthy of His love, but rather creates it for Himself; but the love of man comes into being through the lovableness which it finds.” Luther Paul found a hard reality when he reported “the more I abundantly love you, the less I am loved,” in 2 Corinthians 12:15. Why no reward for his love? At deeper thought, why the opposite kind of reward did he receive than what was expected? “Natural human love expects something in return. But Paul is saying, “It doesn’t really matter to me whether you love me or not. I am willing to be completely destitute anyway; willing to be poverty-stricken, not just for your sakes, but also that I may be able to get you to God.”” This is a quote from Oswald Chambers. Jesus, one day girded Himself with a towel and began to…