On one occasion when Samuel Brengle was introduced as “the great Dr. Brengle,” he noted in his diary: “If I appear great in there eyes, the Lord is most graciously helping me to see how absolutely nothing I am without Him, and helping me to keep little in my own eyes. He does use me. But I am so concerned that He uses me and that it is not of me the work is done. The axe cannot boast of the trees it has cut down. It could do nothing but for the woodsman. He made it, he sharpened it, and he used it. The moment he throws it aside, it becomes only old iron. O that I may never lose sight of this.”. Quote is from J. Oswald Sanders in his book, “Spiritual Leadership.” The name “Paul” meant “small” and “Peter” was the “rock.” Both Men were given new…
Tag: <span>change</span>
Change of mind, change of heart — the possibility of such must never forsake us. The eternal aspect of our nature allows it; there we fear not dying, for death is a thing past. The freshness of new possibilities invigorates our new and resurrected day. Can we discern the progression of being set-apart unto God, closer and closer we go, the depths of life shake us, but outcomes never disappoint us. James Whitcomb Riley writes “The Shower.” The landscape, like the awed face of a Child, Grew curiously blurred, a hush of death. Fell on the fields, and in the darkened wild, The zephyr held it’s breath. No wavering glamour-work of light and shade, Dappled the shimmering surface of the Brook: The frightened ripples in their ambuscade of willows thrilled and shook. The sullen day grew darker, and anon dim flashes of pent anger lit the sky: with rumbling wheels…
Can we become someone else? Yes and no. We can change names, thoughts, even chemical identities, yet;Can we discard old DNA, and then find new? The writer of a Psalm says, “My substance (DNA?) was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.” Psalm 139:15-16. Perhaps a key lies with the words, “Thine eyes.” When God sees, it is in omniscience. His “seeing us” is what makes us somebody. If I exist in the mind of God, I truly exist. I’m in a book written. If I do not exist in His mind, can I still exist? No, or–only in hell-likeness. Would we agree? Maybe an…