The Jesus Map

And a little child shall lead them...

A father wanted to read a magazine but was being bothered by his little girl. She wanted to know what the United States looked like. Finally, he tore a sheet out of his new magazine on which was printed the map of the country. Tearing it into small pieces, he gave it to her and said, 'Go into the other room and see if you can put this together. This will show you our whole country today..'

After a few minutes, she returned and handed him the map, correctly fitted and taped together. The father was surprised and asked how she had finished so quickly. 'Oh,' she said, 'on the other side of the paper is a picture of Jesus. When I got all of Jesus back where He belonged, then our country just came together.'

Selah.

Come, and by Thy love's revealing

Light of those whose dreary dwelling

Words: Charles Wesley (1707-1788)
Tune: Pleading Savior

Light of those whose dreary dwelling
Borders on the shades of death,
Come, and by Thy love's revealing
Dissipate the clouds beneath;
The new heaven and earth's Creator,
In our deepest darkness rise,
Scattering all the night of nature,
Pouring eyesight on our eyes.

Still we wait for Thine appearing;
Life and joy Thy beams impart,
Chasing all our fears, and cheering
Every poor benighted heart:
Come, and manifest the favor
God hath for our ransomed race;
Come, Thou universal Savior,
Come, and bring the gospel grace.

Save us in Thy great compassion,
O Thou kind, pacific Prince;
Give the knowledge of salvation,
Give the pardon of our sins:
By Thy all-restoring merit
Every burdened soul release;
Every weary, wandering spirit
Guide into Thy perfect peace.

Selah.

But with my God I leave my cause

Though trouble springs not from the dust

Words: Scottish Paraphrases (1781)

Though trouble springs not from the dust,
nor sorrow from the ground;
Yet ills on ills, by Heav'n's decree,
in man's estate are found.
As sparks in close succession rise,
so man, the child of woe,
Is doom'd to endless cares and toils
through all his life below.

But with my God I leave my cause;
from Him I seek relief;
To Him, in confidence of pray'r,
unbosom all my grief.
Unnumber'd are His wondrous works,
unseachable His ways;
'Tis His the mourning soul to cheer,
the bowed down to raise.

Selah.

Write thy new name upon my heart

O for a heart to praise my God

Words: Charles Wesley (1707-1788)
Tune: Abridge, Arlington

O for a heart to praise my God,
A heart from sin set free,
A heart that always feels thy blood
So freely spilt for me;

A heart resigned, submissive, meek,
My great redeemer's throne,
Where only Christ is heard to speak,
Where Jesus reigns alone;

A humble, lowly, contrite heart,
Believing, true, and clean;
Which neither life nor death can part
From him that dwells within;

A heart in every thought renewed,
And full of love divine;
Perfect, and right, and pure, and good,
A copy, Lord, of thine!

My heart, thou know'st, can never rest
Till thou create my peace:
Till of mine Eden repossest,
From self, and sin, I cease.

Thy nature, gracious Lord, impart;
Come quickly from above,
Write thy new name upon my heart,
Thy new, best name of love.

Selah.

Yes to solitude is no to stuff

The Necessity of Solitude

Thomas Merton

Solitude is to be preserved, not as a luxury but as a necessity: not for "perfection" so much as for simple "survival" in the life God has given you. Hence, you must know when, how, and to whom you must say "no." This involves considerable difficulty at times. You must not hurt people, or want to hurt them, yet you must not placate them at the price of infidelity to higher and more essential values.

Selah.

When mountains quiver

May His wounds both wound and heal me

May His wounds both wound and heal me,
He enkindle, cleanse, and heal me,
be His cross my hope and stay.
May He, when the mountains quiver,
from that flame which burns for ever
shield me on the judgment day.

Jesus, may thy cross defend me,
and thy saving death befriend me,
cherished by thy deathless grace:
when to dust my dust returneth,
grant a soul that to thee yearneth
in thy paradise a place.

Selah.

From "At the cross her station keeping." Words: Latin, thirteenth century; trans. The English Hymnal, 1906. Tune: Stabat mater.

A teacher's question

After being interviewed by the school administration, the prospective teacher said:

'Let me see if I've got this right.

'You want me to go into that room with all those kids, correct their disruptive behavior, observe them for signs of abuse, monitor their dress habits, censor their T-shirt messages, and instill in them a love for learning.

'You want me to check their backpacks for weapons, wage war on drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, and raise their sense of self esteem and personal pride.

'You want me to teach them patriotism and good citizenship, sportsmanship and fair play, and how to register to vote, balance a checkbook, and apply for a job.

'You want me to check their heads for lice, recognize signs of antisocial behavior, and make sure that they all pass the final exams.

'You also want me to provide them with an equal education regardless of their handicaps, and communicate regularly with their parents in English, Spanish or any other language, by letter, telephone, newsletter, and report card.

'You want me to do all this with a piece of chalk, a blackboard, a bulletin board, a few books, a big smile, and a starting salary that qualifies me for food stamps.

'You want me to do all this and then you tell me... I CAN'T PRAY?

Think about it! I received this on email and had to blog it.

Maker of man, who from thy throne

Maker of man, who from thy throne

Words: attributed to Gregory the Great (545-604), translated John D Chambers (1805-1893)
Tune: Deus tuorum militum

Maker of man, who from thy throne
Dost order all things, God alone;
By whose decree the teeming earth
To reptile and to beast gave birth:

The mighty forms that fill the land,
Instinct with life at thy command,
Are given subdued to humankind
For service in their rank assigned.

From all thy servants drive away
Whate'er of thought impure today
Hath been with open action blent,
Or mingled with the heart's intent,

In heaven thine endless joys bestow,
And grant thy gifts of grace below;
From chains of strife our souls release,
Bind fast the gentle bands of peace.

O Father, that we ask be done,
Through Jesus Christ, thine only Son;
Who, with the Holy Ghost and thee,
Doth live and reign eternally.

Selah.

An evening prayer of peace and healing

Keep courage alive

When he comes who is the Spirit of truth, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own authority; he will speak only what he hears. He will make known to you the things that are to come. John 16:13

Dear Father in heaven, grant your Spirit to us, your children. May something from you be revealed on earth so that divine strength and divine truth, not what is only human, are with us in all we do. Keep courage alive in our hearts even when things look dark. May powers of peace and healing be revealed through us because you are near and your kingdom is all around us. You can do all things, also things beyond our understanding. With your help we do what we are able, but we cannot do what you do.

We trust in you, and we believe that through your power and your Spirit you will take possession of our whole lives and the lives of the many who sigh in their hearts for absolute truth.

Amen.

Christoph Blumhardt, Lift Up Thine Eyes: Evening Prayers for Every Day of the Year. Reprinted from www.bruderhof.com. Copyright 2002 by The Bruderhof Foundation, Inc. Used with permission.

The unity of true prayer

Praying selflessly

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The psalms teach us to pray as a fellowship. The Body of Christ is praying, and as an individual one acknowledges that his prayer is only a minute fragment of the whole prayer of the Church. He learns to pray the prayer of the Body of Christ. And that lifts him above his personal concerns and allows him to pray selflessly.

Selah.

O lead my blindness by the hand

O lead my blindness by the hand

Words: William Gladstone (1809-1898)
Tune: Leicester

O lead my blindness by the hand,
lead me to Thy familiar feast,
not here or now to understand
yet even here and now to taste,
how the eternal Word of heaven
on earth in broken bread is given.

We, who with one blest food are fed,
into one body may we grow,
and one pure life from Thee, the head,
informing all the members flow:
one pulse be felt in every vein,
one law of pleasure and of pain.

Selah.

Holding to the rope that God has thrown us

Prayer is holding on

When we pray it is as though we cling to a rope God has thrown to us. If we hold fast to this rope—no matter how numb the arms of our heart—he can pull us to safety and freedom. As Jesus says, “Come to me, all who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” And for those who feel too unworthy to pray, Romans 8 offers this comfort: “The Spirit helps us in our weakness... and intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.”

Selah.

Johann Christoph Arnold, Be Not Afraid

Carrying the cross – which cross?

Whether we like it or not, we will encounter suffering and danger in our lives. If we do not bear the cross of the Master, we will have to bear the cross of the world – with all it’s earthly goods. Those who bear the Master’s cross know from experience that this cross bears them and takes them safely to their destiny. But the cross of this world actually drags us down and leads to destruction. Which cross have you taken up? Pause and consider.

Sundar Singh, Wisdom of the Sadhu

Selah.

Those who acknowledge that they view suffering and tribulation in their own lives only as something hostile and evil can see from this very fact that they have not at all found peace with God. They have basically merely sought peace with the world, believing possibly that by means of the cross of Jesus Christ they might best come to terms with themselves and with all their questions, and thus find inner peace of the soul. They have used the cross, but not loved it. They have sought peace for their own sake. But when tribulation comes, that peace quickly flees them. It was not peace with God, for they hated the tribulation God sends.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Bread & Wine

Selah.

I must become new

The word that crowns all others is this: “I make all things new!” This is of special support and comfort when we realize how quickly everything passes away and becomes dust and ashes. All things new! God cannot tolerate what is corrupt and destructive but wants to change it. Of course we enter into new life only through repentance (Acts 2:37–38). Sadly, many people think of all sorts of things around them that need to change and not at all of themselves. Or they would like to have only certain things change so as to be able to carry on more comfortably. We should be deeply humiliated to realize that there actually is nothing that must not also become new, especially ourselves. If I were to take a close look at each one of you – all of you must become new!

Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt, Action in Waiting

Selah.

Cries from the heart

I believe God holds them

What happens to all my prayers — those that are not answered, and those that seem to make things worse...? Surely they are still sustaining me. Perhaps there will be unexpected answers to them, answers I may not even be aware of for years. I cannot believe they are wasted or lost. I do not know where they have gone, but I believe God holds them, hand outstretched to receive them like precious pearls.

Selah.

Madeleine L’Engle in Cries from the Heart

The soul of prayer

True prayer struggles with God

P.T. Forsyth

The popularity of much acquiescence [in prayer] is not because it is holier, but because it is easier. And an easy gospel is the consumption that attacks Christianity. It is the phthisis to faith [phthisis = wasting disease].

If we come to think that we best say "Thy will be done" when we acquiesce, when we resign, and not also when we struggle and wrestle, and in time all effort will seem less pious than submission. And so we fall into the ecclesiastical type of religion, drawn from an age whose first virtue was submission to outward superiors. We shall come to canonize decorum and subduedness in life and worship [as the Episcopal Church with its monarchical ideas of religion has done]. We shall think more of order than of effort, more of law than of life, more of fashion than of faith, of good form than of great power. But was subduedness the mark of the New Testament men? Our religion may gain some beauty in this way, but it loses vigor. It may gain style, but it loses power. It is good form, but mere aesthetic piety. It may consecrate manners, but it impoverishes the mind. It may regulate prayer by the precepts of intelligence instead of the needs and faith of the soul. It may feed certain pensive emotions, but it may emasculate will, secularize energy, and empty character. And so we decline to a state of things in which we have no shocking sins -- yes, and no splendid souls; when all souls are dully correct, as like as shillings, but as thin, and as cheap.

All our forms and views of religion have their test in prayer. Lose the importunity of prayer, reduce it to soliloquy, or even to colloquy, with God, lose the real conflict of will and will, lose the habit of wrestling and the hope of prevailing with God, make it mere walking with God in friendly talk; and, precious as that is, yet you tend to lose the reality of prayer at last. In principle you make it mere conversation instead of the soul's great action. You lose the food of character, the renewal of will. You may have beautiful prayers--but as ineffectual as beauty so often is, and as fleeting. And so in the end you lose the reality of religion. Redemption turns down into mere revelation, faith to assent, and devotion to a phase of culture. For you lose the power of the Cross and so of the soul.

Resist God, in the sense of rejecting God, and you will not be able to resist any evil. But resist God in the sense of closing with God, cling to Him with your strength, not your weakness only, with your active and not only your passive faith, and He will give you strength. Cast yourself into His arms not to be caressed but to wrestle with Him. He loves that holy war. He may be too many for you, and lift you from your feet. But it will be to lift you from earth, and set you in the heavenly places which are theirs who fight the good fight and lay hold of God as their eternal life.

Selah.

A word for the day: As the deer, so my soul

As the deer longs for the water-brooks...

Psalm 42

As the deer longs for the water-brooks,

so longs my soul for you, O God.

My soul is athirst for God, athirst for the living God;

when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?

My tears have been my food day and night,

while all day long they say to me,

'Where now is your God?'

I pour out my soul when I think on these things:

how I went with the multitude

and led them into the house of God,

With the voice of praise and thanksgiving,

among those who keep holy-day.

Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul?

and why are you so disquieted within me?

Put your trust in God;

for I will yet give thanks to him,

who is the help of my countenance, and my God.

My soul is heavy within me;

therefore I will remember you from the land of Jordan,

and from the peak of Mizar among the heights of Hermon.

One deep calls to another in the noise of your cataracts;

all your rapids and floods have gone over me.

The Lord grants his loving-kindness in the daytime;

in the night season his song is with me,

a prayer to the God of my life.

I will say to the God of my strength,

'Why have you forgotten me?

and why do I go so heavily

while the enemy oppresses me?'

While my bones are being broken,

my enemies mock me to my face;

All day long they mock me

say to me, 'Where now is your God?'

Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul?

and why are you so disquieted within me?

Put your trust in God;

for I will yet give thanks to him,

who is the help of my countenance, and my God.

Selah.

We have not known thee as we ought

We have not known thee as we ought

Words: Thomas Benson Pollock, 1875
Music: St. Chrysostom

We have not known thee as we ought,
nor learned thy wisdom, grace and power;
the things of earth have filled our thought,
and trifles of the passing hour.
Lord, give us light thy truth to see,
and make us wise in knowing thee.

We have not feared thee as we ought,
nor bowed beneath thine awful eye,
nor guarded deed and word and thought,
remembering that God was nigh.
Lord, give us faith to know thee near,
and grant the grace of holy fear.

We have not loved thee as we ought,
nor cared that we are loved by thee;
thy presence we have coldly sought,
and feebly longed thy face to see.
Lord, give a pure and loving heart
to feel and know the love thou art.

We have not served thee as we ought,
alas, the duties left undone,
the work with little fervor wrought,
the battles lost or scarcely won!
Lord, give the zeal, and give the might,
for thee to toil, for thee to fight.

When shall we know thee as we ought,
and fear and love and serve aright?
when shall we, out of trial brought,
be perfect in the land of light?
Lord, may we day by day prepare
to see thy face and serve thee there.

Selah.

A word for the day: Keep me as the apple of your eye

Let my vindication come from your Presence

Psalm 17

Hear my plea of innocence, O Lord;
give heed to my cry;
listen to my prayer,
which does not come from lying lips.
Let my vindication come forth from your presence;
let your eyes be fixed on justice.
Weigh my heart, summon me by night,
melt me down; you will find no impurity in me.
I give no offence with my mouth as others do;
I have heeded the words of your lips.
My footsteps hold fast to the ways of your law;
in your paths my feet shall not stumble.
I call upon you, O God, for you will answer me;
incline your ear to me and hear my words.
Show me your marvelous loving-kindness,
O Savior of those who take refuge at your right hand
from those who rise up against them.
Keep me as the apple of your eye;
hide me under the shadow of your wings,
From the wicked who assault me,
from my deadly enemies who surround me.
They have closed their heart to pity,
and their mouth speaks proud things.
They press me hard,
now they surround me,
watching how they may cast me to the ground,
Like a lion, greedy for its prey,
and like a young lion lurking in secret places.
Arise, O Lord; confront them and bring them down;
deliver me from the wicked by your sword.
Deliver me, O Lord, by your hand
from those whose portion in life is this world;
Whose bellies you fill with your treasure,
who are well supplied with children
and leave their wealth to their little ones.
But at my vindication I shall see your face;
when I awake, I shall be satisfied,
beholding your likeness.

Selah.

A word for the day: The Lord does wonders for the faithful

Answer me when I call, O God

Psalm 4

Answer me when I call, O God, defender of my cause,
you set me free when I am hard-pressed;
have mercy on me and hear my prayer.
'You mortals, how long will you dishonour my glory;
how long will you worship dumb idols
and run after false gods?'
Know that the Lord does wonders for the faithful;
when I call upon the Lord, He will hear me.
Tremble, then, and do not sin;
speak to your heart in silence upon your bed.
Offer the appointed sacrifices
and put your trust in the Lord.
Many are saying,
'O that we might see better times!'
Lift up the light of your countenance upon us, O Lord.
You have put gladness in my heart,
more than when grain and wine and oil increase.
I lie down in peace; at once I fall asleep;
for only you, Lord, make me dwell in safety.

Selah.

A living prayer

Here is my prayer for today! I'll share it with you... God bless you! :-)

Heal our wounds, our strength renew

Come, thou Holy Spirit, come

Words: Latin, thirteenth century; trans. Edward Caswall, 1849
Tune: Veni Sancte Spiritus

Come, thou Holy Spirit, come,
and from thy celestial home
shed a ray of light divine!
Come, thou Father of the poor!
Come, thou Source of all our store!
Come, within our bosoms shine!

Thou, of comforters the best;
thou, the soul's most welcome guest;
sweet refreshment here below;
in our labor, rest most sweet;
grateful coolness in the heat;
solace in the midst of woe.

O most blessed Light divine,
shine within these hearts of thine,
and our inmost being fill!
Where thou art not, man hath naught,
nothing good in deed or thought,
nothing free from taint of ill.

Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
on our dryness pour thy dew;
wash the stains of guilt away;
bend the stubborn heart and will;
melt the frozen, warm the chill;
guide the steps that go astray.

On the faithful, who adore
and confess thee, evermore
in thy sevenfold gift descend;
give them virtue's sure reward
give them thy salvation, Lord;
give them joys that never end.

Selah.