Hey, Y'all,
Today's RST is related to a passage in James (the book we're discussing in men's group).
Ran across this...
Do what the Lord bids you,
where He bids you,
as He bids you,
as long as He bids you,
and do it at once.
--Charles Spurgeon
Which reminded me of this...
"Do not merely listen to the word,
and so deceive yourselves.
Do what it says."
--James 1:22
Walk the walk.
You've been prayed for today...
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
"Is anything too hard for me?"
Hey, Y'all,
Greetings from "The Pearl Of The Desert" NAF El Centro, part-time home of the Blue Angels (who happen to be in town and practicing)--you know, sometimes I really, really love this job :-).
I actually ran across today's RST several weeks ago and saved it 'cause it literally jumped out of the page at me--for some reason it's been rattling around my brain since last night:
"I am the LORD, the God of all mankind.
Is anything too hard for me?"
Jeremiah 32:27
The context was kind of difficult for Israel--you'll recall Jeremiah wasn't exactly a "happy-happy-joy-joy" prophet--maybe that's part of why this text leapt out at me. As we've often discussed in men's group (and at church in general): God is God--I am (very much) not. I don't have all the facts; I am incapable of seeing the big picture (not to mention the really big picture)--so why do I worry when I have apparently suffered a setback?
Did not Christ Himself promise to meet all my needs and never leave me nor forsake me (in innumerable Old and New Testament passages)? Am I not promised His comfort and care (and ultimate triumph) as I am passing through the deep waters and fires of this life? (see Isaiah 43:2 among other places in, again, the New and Old Testaments). Repeatedly Jeremiah himself records God's reassurance--29:11 ring a bell? "I have plans for you...to give you hope and a future." Paul and James remind us that ALL things work to our benefit when He is allowed to show us how.
A couple of quotes of Ellen White's spring to mind where she joins the chorus of (also-innumerable) more-contemporary Christian writers who reiterate the promise: Our heavenly Father has a thousand ways to provide for us of which we know nothing; We will someday look over our lives and see that moments we experienced as great disappointments were in fact, unbeknownst to us, moments of great blessing. No wonder David couldn't help but exclaim: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits..."
You've been prayed for today...
Greetings from "The Pearl Of The Desert" NAF El Centro, part-time home of the Blue Angels (who happen to be in town and practicing)--you know, sometimes I really, really love this job :-).
I actually ran across today's RST several weeks ago and saved it 'cause it literally jumped out of the page at me--for some reason it's been rattling around my brain since last night:
"I am the LORD, the God of all mankind.
Is anything too hard for me?"
Jeremiah 32:27
The context was kind of difficult for Israel--you'll recall Jeremiah wasn't exactly a "happy-happy-joy-joy" prophet--maybe that's part of why this text leapt out at me. As we've often discussed in men's group (and at church in general): God is God--I am (very much) not. I don't have all the facts; I am incapable of seeing the big picture (not to mention the really big picture)--so why do I worry when I have apparently suffered a setback?
Did not Christ Himself promise to meet all my needs and never leave me nor forsake me (in innumerable Old and New Testament passages)? Am I not promised His comfort and care (and ultimate triumph) as I am passing through the deep waters and fires of this life? (see Isaiah 43:2 among other places in, again, the New and Old Testaments). Repeatedly Jeremiah himself records God's reassurance--29:11 ring a bell? "I have plans for you...to give you hope and a future." Paul and James remind us that ALL things work to our benefit when He is allowed to show us how.
A couple of quotes of Ellen White's spring to mind where she joins the chorus of (also-innumerable) more-contemporary Christian writers who reiterate the promise: Our heavenly Father has a thousand ways to provide for us of which we know nothing; We will someday look over our lives and see that moments we experienced as great disappointments were in fact, unbeknownst to us, moments of great blessing. No wonder David couldn't help but exclaim: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits..."
"I am the LORD, the God of all mankind.
Is anything too hard for me?"
You've been prayed for today...
Monday, January 21, 2008
God Is Love: Therefore We...
Hey, Y'all,
Ran across this passage a few days ago, been rattling around in my head ever since. We just started discussing the book of James in our men's group and in chapter 1 (verses 22-27) it says:
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.
If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
What jumped out at me was the similarity of that message with that of Isaiah 1:11-18--basically this: "Stop merely doing stuff 'cause you think it appeases me as if I was some heathen God that needed appeasing. I AM Love; my Way is Love; my followers ought to manifest this trait above all others--including 'being right' and 'doing the right things'" (for more on that see all of 1 Corinthians 13 but especially verses 1-3 as well as 1 John 4 especially verses 7-8 and 19-21). Here's the Isaiah passage:
"The multitude of your sacrifices—
what are they to me?" says the LORD.
"I have more than enough of burnt offerings,
of rams and the fat of fattened animals;
I have no pleasure
in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
"When you come to appear before me,
who has asked this of you,
this trampling of my courts?
"Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
I cannot bear your evil assemblies.
Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts
my soul hates.
They have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.
"When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even if you offer many prayers,
I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood;
wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds
out of my sight!
"Stop doing wrong,
learn to do right!
Seek justice,
encourage the oppressed.
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.
"Come now, let us reason together,"
says the LORD.
"Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool."
God IS Love, therefore we, His professed followers...what?
You've been prayed for today...
Ran across this passage a few days ago, been rattling around in my head ever since. We just started discussing the book of James in our men's group and in chapter 1 (verses 22-27) it says:
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.
If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
What jumped out at me was the similarity of that message with that of Isaiah 1:11-18--basically this: "Stop merely doing stuff 'cause you think it appeases me as if I was some heathen God that needed appeasing. I AM Love; my Way is Love; my followers ought to manifest this trait above all others--including 'being right' and 'doing the right things'" (for more on that see all of 1 Corinthians 13 but especially verses 1-3 as well as 1 John 4 especially verses 7-8 and 19-21). Here's the Isaiah passage:
"The multitude of your sacrifices—
what are they to me?" says the LORD.
"I have more than enough of burnt offerings,
of rams and the fat of fattened animals;
I have no pleasure
in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
"When you come to appear before me,
who has asked this of you,
this trampling of my courts?
"Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
I cannot bear your evil assemblies.
Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts
my soul hates.
They have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.
"When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even if you offer many prayers,
I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood;
wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds
out of my sight!
"Stop doing wrong,
learn to do right!
Seek justice,
encourage the oppressed.
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.
"Come now, let us reason together,"
says the LORD.
"Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool."
God IS Love, therefore we, His professed followers...what?
You've been prayed for today...
Monday, January 14, 2008
Pascal On Our "Miseries"
Hey, Y'all,
First, a small piece of housekeeping: it was pointed out to me (gracias, Mai!) that I did indeed forget one of the Angelas--my sweet cousin Chuchia (sorry, primita :-)
OK, now, on to the RST: it's a thought from the 17th century French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher, Blaise Pascal--see if this doesn't strike you as true of the human condition, of our search for Truth and Good...
It is in vain, O men, that you seek within yourselves the cure for your miseries. All your insight only leads you to the knowledge that it is not in yourselves that you will discover The True and The Good. The philosophers promised them to you and have not been able to keep their promises...Your principal maladies are pride, which cuts you off from God, and sensuality, which binds you to the earth, and they [philosophers] have done nothing but foster at least one of these maladies. If they have given you God for your object, it has only been to pander to your pride; they have made you think that you were like Him and resembled Him by your nature. And those who have grasped the vanity of such a pretension have cast you down into the other abyss by making you believe that your nature was like that of the beasts of the field, and have led you to seek your good in lust, which is the lot of animals.
Hmmm..."It is in vain, O men, that you seek within yourselves the cure for your miseries. All your insight only leads you to the knowledge that it is not in yourselves that you will discover The True and The Good...Your principal maladies are pride, which cuts you off from God, and sensuality, which binds you to the earth..." Kind of gets you thinking, huh?
You've been prayed for today...
First, a small piece of housekeeping: it was pointed out to me (gracias, Mai!) that I did indeed forget one of the Angelas--my sweet cousin Chuchia (sorry, primita :-)
OK, now, on to the RST: it's a thought from the 17th century French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher, Blaise Pascal--see if this doesn't strike you as true of the human condition, of our search for Truth and Good...
It is in vain, O men, that you seek within yourselves the cure for your miseries. All your insight only leads you to the knowledge that it is not in yourselves that you will discover The True and The Good. The philosophers promised them to you and have not been able to keep their promises...Your principal maladies are pride, which cuts you off from God, and sensuality, which binds you to the earth, and they [philosophers] have done nothing but foster at least one of these maladies. If they have given you God for your object, it has only been to pander to your pride; they have made you think that you were like Him and resembled Him by your nature. And those who have grasped the vanity of such a pretension have cast you down into the other abyss by making you believe that your nature was like that of the beasts of the field, and have led you to seek your good in lust, which is the lot of animals.
Hmmm..."It is in vain, O men, that you seek within yourselves the cure for your miseries. All your insight only leads you to the knowledge that it is not in yourselves that you will discover The True and The Good...Your principal maladies are pride, which cuts you off from God, and sensuality, which binds you to the earth..." Kind of gets you thinking, huh?
You've been prayed for today...
Saturday, January 5, 2008
The Greatest
Hey, Y'all,
First of all, happy new year (albeit a bit belatedly :-) and hello from Palo Alto; I'm here (along with an actual herd of loved ones) for my prima Anya's wedding. In doing the myriad introductions one does at these things I came to the realization that there are at least 4 Angelas (of which the bride is one) among my cousins, hence the genesis of the differentiating nicknames Anya, Guidis, Papia, Joha (man, hope I'm not forgetting anyone, these Ortiz women are no joke--for sure they'll get me if I did :-) 'Course then there are all of us non-Angelas who (as I suspect is the case in many families) also have nicknames, engendered and used in affection. Doing a quick head count there were at least 50 of us from my cousin's side of the family at the rehearsal dinner last night (which BTW I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Alex'--the VERY fortunate :-) groom's--parents very generously invited everyone to--awesome :-)
Got me thinking: we just got done spending a few days with great friends several hours away before heading up here for the wedding. Why did we do that? What motive would bring us all here, across the many miles, taking planes, trains, and automobiles, and of course time away from home and work? And it hit me: love. Not that mushy stuff that can be a bit flighty; I mean that deep, inexorable affection that binds us together, indifferent to the years and miles--and which gets new life (literally) breathed into it at milestone events like this. I mean of course my Tios and Primos are here, but I also met a couple of new Primos--there are 4 new kids among the cousins--and incredibly, as we all know but would do well to ponder, the love is not diluted, it's multiplied! What a riot of laughter and paparazzi-shaming flashes and, well, love. Made me think of Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 13 in a whole new light: "Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love." I think I understand it differently today than I did yesterday; the whole passage is worth re-examining:
If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn't love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn't love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing.
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.
When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
It's easy to forget, as we scramble about doing the things we "have" to do, that there are really only a few important things in life, and a very few truly eternal ones--but the greatest of these is love.
You've been prayed for today...
First of all, happy new year (albeit a bit belatedly :-) and hello from Palo Alto; I'm here (along with an actual herd of loved ones) for my prima Anya's wedding. In doing the myriad introductions one does at these things I came to the realization that there are at least 4 Angelas (of which the bride is one) among my cousins, hence the genesis of the differentiating nicknames Anya, Guidis, Papia, Joha (man, hope I'm not forgetting anyone, these Ortiz women are no joke--for sure they'll get me if I did :-) 'Course then there are all of us non-Angelas who (as I suspect is the case in many families) also have nicknames, engendered and used in affection. Doing a quick head count there were at least 50 of us from my cousin's side of the family at the rehearsal dinner last night (which BTW I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Alex'--the VERY fortunate :-) groom's--parents very generously invited everyone to--awesome :-)
Got me thinking: we just got done spending a few days with great friends several hours away before heading up here for the wedding. Why did we do that? What motive would bring us all here, across the many miles, taking planes, trains, and automobiles, and of course time away from home and work? And it hit me: love. Not that mushy stuff that can be a bit flighty; I mean that deep, inexorable affection that binds us together, indifferent to the years and miles--and which gets new life (literally) breathed into it at milestone events like this. I mean of course my Tios and Primos are here, but I also met a couple of new Primos--there are 4 new kids among the cousins--and incredibly, as we all know but would do well to ponder, the love is not diluted, it's multiplied! What a riot of laughter and paparazzi-shaming flashes and, well, love. Made me think of Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 13 in a whole new light: "Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love." I think I understand it differently today than I did yesterday; the whole passage is worth re-examining:
If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn't love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn't love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing.
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.
When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
It's easy to forget, as we scramble about doing the things we "have" to do, that there are really only a few important things in life, and a very few truly eternal ones--but the greatest of these is love.
You've been prayed for today...
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