We're in Uganda right now, helping some new Bible translators learn how to translate into their languages. Last weekend, each team visited some other speakers of their language with their draft of the Good Samaritan story.
One man read the passage aloud, as someone in our group recorded him. He asked to have a copy of the recording for his computer. He said it was the first time he's ever read Scripture aloud in his own language, and he wants to be able to share that moment with his children.
Fenelon on God's grace
God performs everything in us, but does it with and through us. It is his grace when I do what I should and do not what I should not; when I endure difficulties, resist temptation, believe and hope in God’s presence even when I don’t feel it. He invites my cooperation, he does not regularly transform me or my circumstances until I ask for it, until I lay my heart open before him and admit my present weakness and awkwardness.
A paraphrase from Francois Fénélon.
http://www.iinet.com/~passtheword/DIALOGS-FROM-THE-PAST/innerlife.htm (to find the passage I'm paraphrasing, do a search for "grace" on that page.
A paraphrase from Francois Fénélon.
http://www.iinet.com/~passtheword/DIALOGS-FROM-THE-PAST/innerlife.htm (to find the passage I'm paraphrasing, do a search for "grace" on that page.
A prayer of thanks
Oh Lord, remembering you makes such a difference.
It hurt when my friend mocked my secret weakness.
Did he know, how dare he?
When I remembered to give you this care,
You took it, and soothed the pain,
Now I can offer peace to others,
Not demand that I be soothed.
It hurt when my friend mocked my secret weakness.
Did he know, how dare he?
When I remembered to give you this care,
You took it, and soothed the pain,
Now I can offer peace to others,
Not demand that I be soothed.
A good poem
Tim is a colleague that I've friended on Facebook, but may never have actually met. He wrote a poem which struck me this morning:
Read Tim's whole poem.
The second line grabs me. How I long for attention and distraction. Surely the love of God should fill up my need to be noticed. But it doesn't. I want attention now.
And when God loves me so, why am I so eager for distraction, to escape and kill time?. Why do I not appreciate the gift of this life God has given me?
Lord, open my eyes again to see the length and height and breadth of your love for me.
Be still, my soul.
Let my self with its need for attention, distraction and connectedness
Melt into the background
Like hard wax becoming molten in the presence of your flame.
Be still, my soul,
Relax the hand that grasps
Into an open hand
From which my empty trinkets can be taken
And into which blessings dropped easily.
Read Tim's whole poem.
The second line grabs me. How I long for attention and distraction. Surely the love of God should fill up my need to be noticed. But it doesn't. I want attention now.
And when God loves me so, why am I so eager for distraction, to escape and kill time?. Why do I not appreciate the gift of this life God has given me?
Lord, open my eyes again to see the length and height and breadth of your love for me.
Job's faith
I've marveled at Job's faith in Chapter 19, when in the midst of his pain he suddenly confesses hope: "I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God." (Job 19:25-26)
I've just noticed he had a similar moment of hope in chapter 16:
"Even now my witness is in heaven;
my advocate is on high.
My intercessor is my friend
as my eyes pour out tears to God;
on behalf of a man he pleads with God
as one pleads for a friend." Job 16:19-21.
Job sees even in his suffering that God is more than the righteous judge, but also the one who takes our side, who seeks to be merciful. We can have faith in life's perplexing moments that God, our advocate and intercessor pleads for us.
I've just noticed he had a similar moment of hope in chapter 16:
"Even now my witness is in heaven;
my advocate is on high.
My intercessor is my friend
as my eyes pour out tears to God;
on behalf of a man he pleads with God
as one pleads for a friend." Job 16:19-21.
Job sees even in his suffering that God is more than the righteous judge, but also the one who takes our side, who seeks to be merciful. We can have faith in life's perplexing moments that God, our advocate and intercessor pleads for us.
Emmanuel road
The heart of God's promises: He is with us.
His promises are as real as our circumstances.
It should not be scandalous or awkward to admit we aren't who we should be. He has qualified the unqualified before. It's actually one of his specialties.
So let us walk the road of trusting his promises more than we trust our own capabilities.
Is not this the lesson that our Father Abraham would teach us? He was called to leave the place he knew to travel to a place God would show him. God promised to bless him, and to bless all nations through him. Do we remember Abraham today because of what he did, or because of God's promise?
God is with us, let us be with Him.
A song for the Emmanuel road: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RmZFaruXhs
"As surely as the sun will rise, you'll come to us, certain as the dawn appears."
His promises are as real as our circumstances.
It should not be scandalous or awkward to admit we aren't who we should be. He has qualified the unqualified before. It's actually one of his specialties.
So let us walk the road of trusting his promises more than we trust our own capabilities.
Is not this the lesson that our Father Abraham would teach us? He was called to leave the place he knew to travel to a place God would show him. God promised to bless him, and to bless all nations through him. Do we remember Abraham today because of what he did, or because of God's promise?
God is with us, let us be with Him.
A song for the Emmanuel road: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RmZFaruXhs
"As surely as the sun will rise, you'll come to us, certain as the dawn appears."
Esther, a tragedy?
I'm reading through Esther these days, and I'm reminded of what I'd thought a few years back, that there is quite likely sadness inside her story, or rather the rest of her story. We romanticize the story, the beauty pageant winner who comes away with the grand prize of queenship. And then the drama of Haman's plot and her counterplot to save the Jews from death.
But what was the rest of her life like? How satisfying was her marriage? The social system enabled her husband to indulge any whim he ever had for all the other attractive women surrounding him. Any time she failed to fascinate, he could restage another pageant and enthrone a new charming faced winner. What kind of marriage was it really when she still faced death any time she wanted to come to him and he didn't want to talk? Twenty, thirty years later, did she view her marriage as a Cinderella romance, or as being trapped in a gilded cage?
Did she have children? None are recorded. If she had, the system surely forbade her to have much of a role raising them. They certainly weren't given a Jewish upbringing. A daughter, raised to be another harem beauty? A son, raised to enjoy harem beauties?
What was her life like when she was sixty? Queen Mother, ritually honored but effectively ignored? Could she still manage to believe she was born for such a time as that? By God's grace she could have, she could well have been sustained by the astonishing goodness of peace and joy despite circumstances. But it would not have been easy.
But perhaps in outward loneliness, she learned and experienced the great truth that God is with us, and comforts us in any affliction. Maybe in heaven she was rewarded for more than saving the people from Haman.
But what was the rest of her life like? How satisfying was her marriage? The social system enabled her husband to indulge any whim he ever had for all the other attractive women surrounding him. Any time she failed to fascinate, he could restage another pageant and enthrone a new charming faced winner. What kind of marriage was it really when she still faced death any time she wanted to come to him and he didn't want to talk? Twenty, thirty years later, did she view her marriage as a Cinderella romance, or as being trapped in a gilded cage?
Did she have children? None are recorded. If she had, the system surely forbade her to have much of a role raising them. They certainly weren't given a Jewish upbringing. A daughter, raised to be another harem beauty? A son, raised to enjoy harem beauties?
What was her life like when she was sixty? Queen Mother, ritually honored but effectively ignored? Could she still manage to believe she was born for such a time as that? By God's grace she could have, she could well have been sustained by the astonishing goodness of peace and joy despite circumstances. But it would not have been easy.
But perhaps in outward loneliness, she learned and experienced the great truth that God is with us, and comforts us in any affliction. Maybe in heaven she was rewarded for more than saving the people from Haman.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)