Char's Blog
June 2004 Archives
Even the most devout among us become atheistic in this regard— we do not believe Him (Jesus). We put our common sense on the throne and then attach God’s name to it. We do lean to our own understanding, instead of trusting God with all our hearts. Oswald Chambers
The quote below from Henri Nouwen is a wonderful mediation. I love how he not only defines courage but goes on to argue that the virtue of courage must be spoken in order for our lives to be strengthened together in community.
A Courageous Life "Have courage," we often say to one another. Courage is a spiritual virtue. The word courage comes from the Latin word cor, which means "heart". A courageous act is an act coming from the heart. A courageous word is a word arising from the heart. The heart, however, is not just the place where our emotions are located. The heart is the centre of our being, the centre of all thoughts, feelings, passions, and decisions. When the flesh - the lived human experience - becomes word, community can develop. When we say, "Let me tell you what we saw. Come and listen to what we did. Sit down and let me explain to you what happened to us. Wait until you hear whom we met," we call people together and make our lives into lives for others. The word brings us together and calls us into community. When the flesh becomes word, our bodies become part of a body of people.
Courage is the part of my heart that speaks to those around me when hope is silent.
I have withdrawn for some time now from my blogging adventures both in posting and in following the blogs of others. I have to follow up my previous post to ask the following question.
What kind of god allows his creation to curse him and then nurses their pathetic, broken soul to greater strength and life than it has before known?
My heart has grown to accept, without explanation or evidence, the work of God in the life of my family. I cannot yet see, but in my heart God has strengthened my faltering faith, so that I can now hear and affirm these words of Spurgeon:
As in the building of Solomon's temple, "there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron, heard in the house," because all was brought perfectly ready for the exact spot it was to occupy--so is it with the temple which Jesus builds; the making ready is all done on earth. When we reach heaven, there will be no sanctifying us there, no squaring us with affliction, no planing us with suffering. No, we must be made meet here--all that Christ will do beforehand; and when He has done it, we shall be ferried by a loving hand across the stream of death, and brought to the heavenly Jerusalem, to abide as eternal pillars in the temple of our Lord.
It does not come easily, this acceptance of making ready. I can not speak of unexpected pain and suffering without revealling the brokenness of my heart - the scar of a wound which has no words to do it justice. Even so, my broken 'Amen' resounds with His glory.
what kind of god? His name is I AM.
I really messed up today. Found great comfort in Jun 02 2004 AM reading from
The battle of "Christian" with "Apollyon" lasted three hours, but the battle of Christian with himself lasted all the way from the Wicket Gate in the river Jordan. The enemy is so securely entrenched within us that he can never be driven out while we are in this body: but although we are closely beset, and often in sore conflict, we have an Almighty helper, even Jesus...