The Lord shall be my rock and my salvation. Never again shall I turn my head from Him nor harden my heart against Him. He shall serve as my Guide and my Protector. He will grant me His Peace.
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. James 1:5
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Monday, January 17, 2005
ah... after a long respite, i'm visiting these pages again. that is good.
actually, these words have been simmering in me for a long time, but it is only now that i've been able to write them.
i feel envy towards someone. it is not an envy borne of material things, none of that. but let us not harp on it and consider this situation...
a man, blind since birth (i'd say, though there are no explicit indications of this), grows up and with full consciousness, receives his sight.
nothing much to it? well consider it in this light...
that same man, already possessed of conscious thought and memory when he receives his sight, and the first thing that he sees, is the beautiful, smiling face of Jesus.
(Mark 10:46-52)
Bartimaeus was a lucky man. But take heart, we are no less blessed that we had not such a simple (or complicated, depending on how you look at it) situation upon us. The moment that we cried out for help, as Bartimaeus did when he called out the name of Jesus; the moment that we dropped our preconceived notions, our attachments, our ways of life, in order to come to Him when He called; the moment that we accepted Him as Master and Teacher, as Bartimaeus did when he said, "Rabboni... ." at that moment we were cured of our blindness. it is a pity, were we not to recognize in ourselves the nature of Bartimaeus when we walked down to aisle to receive Jesus in our lives.
Out of the ashes of bennet at 02:42 am
What burns in you...
Monday, August 02, 2004
again, the book of Daniel...
Chapter 1
5 And the king (of the Chaldeans) appointed for them a daily provision of the king's delicacies and of the wine which he drank and three years of training for them so that at the end of that time they might serve before the king.
8 But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies nor with the wine which he drank; therfore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.
15 And at the end of ten days their features appeared better and fatter in flesh than all the young men who ate the portion of the king's delicacies. 16 Thus the steward took away their portion of delicacies and the wine that they were to drink, and gave them vegetables. 17 As for these four young men (Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, or Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego), God gave them knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom; and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.
20 And in all matters of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in his realm.
Out of the ashes of bennet at 08:56 pm
What burns in you...
Thursday, July 22, 2004
it is good to meditate on how God, in his ultimate love for us, gave us Jesus, in order that we may become closer to Him, that we may be saved...
to emulate His unconditional Love, that is our goal, the easiest since it's the only one, and the hardest thing to do as well. let us ask Him for guidance in this.
Out of the ashes of bennet at 08:37 am
What burns in you...
I John 4:11-21
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, god abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. 17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love Him because He first loved us. 20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
Out of the ashes of bennet at 04:47 am
What burns in you...
Monday, July 19, 2004
remember, the Lord hears us in our anguish. when we cried out, the Lord "gave ear" to our pleas. take to heart the significance of this verse... "i cried out... with my voice," a thing that we usually do when we are in great pain and suffering. when it is a minor irritation we do not do much but mutter and keep it to ourselves, but when the pain is so great, our souls cry out to be heard, and what do we do? we tell a friend, take her aside for a few minutes and pour out our heart to her. well tell you what, God does not need to be taken aside. when you 'cry' out, God automatically hears your voice. He listens to the ramblings of your mind and heart and expecially, your soul. He is the quintessential friend of ours, and mind, He does more than listen. I'll leave you with this last verse from the psalm:
20 You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
Out of the ashes of bennet at 02:57 am
What burns in you...
Psalm 77:1
I cried out to God with my voice - to God with my voice; and He gave ear to me.
Out of the ashes of bennet at 02:37 am
What burns in you...
Monday, July 12, 2004
it's actually the whole chapter but these are the passages that struck me most, how He can be most gracious to His chosen children, and how tricky he can be at times. i use the word in its most jovial sense. a better word escapes me for the moment.
towards the end of the chapter, he spoke in parables of how he was to be sacrificed in order to gather the fruits of the harvest, and warns us as well, against the duplicituous (is that even a word?) nature of self-righteous men, against them, and against us becoming them.
"... your King is coming to you lowly, and sitting on a donkey... the foal of a donkey." witness how the Lord deigns to enter the city of Jerusalem, and he did so having to bear the discomfort of travel on a donkey at that. there is a mild symbolism here, the donkey being a beast of burden entering the city, and Jesus Christ coming down in the form of a carpenter's son, ".. the foal of a donkey." He did so out of Great love for us. How many of us, let's say if we were a king in some right, would take the life of a peasant to save the lives of those that we love? and that's not to mention the hardships that Christ had to go through during his passion. Think about it.
the middle section of the chapter i identified as beginning with the parable of the fig tree. the fig bearing no fruit, as it was supposed to bear fruit before the leaves appear, symbolised the self-righteous person, wherein she thought to show her character by her righteous acts, yet bears not the fruit of the Spirit. righteous acts will appear of their own and would be pleasing to God, were they the result of you accepting Jesus and bearing within you the fruits of the Spirit. were they acts but only of your own volition, they would be hollow, and the curse of withering would be upon, not you yourself, looking at it one way, but upon your soul. only Jesus can truly save, and to have that salvation you must accept Him into your life.
with that in mind, i'd leave you with another passage from that chapter, were you one of these self-righteous people, verse 43:
"Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation BEARING the fruits of it."
Out of the ashes of bennet at 07:33 am
What burns in you...
Matthew 21:5; 21:18-19
"Tell the daughter of Zion, 'behold, your King is coming to you lowly, and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.'"
... Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry. 19 And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, "Let no fruit grow on you ever again." Immediately the fig tree withered away.
Out of the ashes of bennet at 05:28 am
What burns in you...
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
we must not cease vigilance upon the people around us. we must be ready to discern our friends from our persecutors. though we may be able to identify and bind the workings of the enemy around us, we must never be complacent for a Christian is always open to attack. God will protect us, and serve as both our shield and our sword, but only if we accept him fully into our lives.
take note. heed and be saved.
Out of the ashes of bennet at 07:12 am
What burns in you...
Joshua 18:18-19
And it was told Joshua, saying, "The five kings have been found hidden in the cave at Makkedah." 18 So Joshua said, "Roll large stones against the mouth of the cave, and set men by it to guard them. 19 "And do not stay there yourselves, but pursue your enemies, and attack their rear guard. Do not allow them to enter their cities, for the Lord your God has delivered them into your hand."
Out of the ashes of bennet at 06:14 am
What burns in you...
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