September 2006

“Rest That Remains”

September 7, 2006

As I was writing “helping your soul to rest in peace,” I remembered the words of a hymn by Charles Wesley, based on Hebrews 3 and 4; I know it from a recording by worship leader Craig Smith. The lyrics are beautiful and worth meditating on:

Lord I believe in a rest that remains
To all Thy people known
A rest where pure enjoyment reigns
And Thou art loved alone
A rest where all our souls’ desire
Is fixed on the things above
Where doubt and pain and fear expire
Cast out by perfect love…

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helping your soul to rest in peace

September 7, 2006

One of the aspects of The Little Book of Hours that I like best is that the morning and evening prayers end with this:

May the souls of the faithful by the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.

This repetition of “rest in peace” was one of the first things that caught my attention when I started using the prayer book several years ago. Growing up, the only time I heard “rest in peace” was in regard to gravestones, so I wondered why this prayer was a a regular feature. I concluded that while the original intent of the prayer may have been for the “dearly departed,” I was going to speak it as a prayer for myself and my family…

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encouragement for the journey

September 6, 2006
This entry is part 7 of 10 in the series humility

This is #7 in a series on humility.

I’ve got a sinus infection, so I’m going to keep this short.

I thought about writing a post today titled “help me, I’m dying”–not because I’m sick (though my head does feel as if it’s about to explode) but rather because practicing humility is killing my flesh, and it’s hard. It’s easy to get discouraged. Murray offers some much needed encouragement:

Let us be content with nothing less than taking each example of Jesus’ humility as the promise of what God will work in us, as the revelation of what the Spirit of Jesus will put within us. Allow each failure and shortcoming to only the more quickly turn us to the meek and lowly Lamb of God in the assurance that where He is enthroned in the heart, His humility and gentleness will be the streams of living water that flow from within us.

This is a timely reminder to me that I’m not doing this on my own–can’t do it on my own, in fact. Only by the power of the Spirit can true humility be worked in me. Praise God that it is His desire to do that work!

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HIV">Rick and Kay Warren: taking on HIV

September 5, 2006

Last week’s Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly profiled Rick and Kay Warren and their efforts to combat HIV and minister to people impacted by it. A number of things the Warrens said in the interview caught my attention–

On the usefulness of churches in this type of effort, he says:

Nothing comes close to the size of churches–the broadest distribution network, the most volunteers, local credibility–all these different things that make the church poised to deal with these issues of spiritual emptiness and corrupt leadership and poverty and disease and illiteracy, which are problems that affect billions of people, not just millions.

About the size of the goal:

I think we often set our goals too small and try to accomplish them too quickly. This is not something we intend to do in five years or 10 years.

Regarding churches and World AIDS Day, she says,

Do you know how completely out of the ordinary it is for a church to be full on World AIDS Day saying, “We care about people who are HIV positive”? It’s amazing. Amazing.

And on how God spoke to his heart:

So, I wasn’t wasting my life, but God just said, “Rick, you don’t care about the people I care about the most. I care about the poor and the sick, and the needy, and the oppressed.” And I said, “God I’m sorry, and I will use whatever affluence or influence you give me to speak up for those who have neither.”

When I read this interview, my first thought was “Yes! This is exactly what God’s people and churches should be about: using their resources to minister to those most in need.”

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humility: measured by everyday relationships

September 5, 2006
This entry is part 6 of 10 in the series humility

Yesterday’s post on Jesus, humility, and relationships anticipated the next step in Andrew Murray’s teaching. Murray moves from his foundation of humility in the life of Jesus to consider how it will be borne out in the life of the believer. He begins with 1 John 4:20: “for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” Murray contends that humility will be seen in relationships with people and not just with God…

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Jesus: humility in relationships

September 4, 2006
This entry is part 5 of 10 in the series humility

I’m seeing that a large part of growing in humility is learning to love people. I started to write “deal with people,” but deal sounds so…unloving. I don’t want to be one who sees others as something to deal with, as if people were obstacles; I want to love people as if they are the most important thing around. And that requires humility, total dependence on and trust in God. As my family will tell you, humility does not come naturally to me, and I know that only with God’s help can I walk consistently in humility and love in my relationships.

Reading Luke 4 today made this all the clearer. Jesus returns to Nazareth, his hometown, and goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath. It suddenly occurred to me: Jesus had history with these people–decades of history…

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the beauty of the Lord

September 3, 2006

Psalm 27 has long been a favorite of mine. About 7 years ago, I regularly prayed the first verse over Zachary and helped him memorize it to combat frequent nightmares:

The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?

Taken by itself, this verse is encouraging, but it could be read as if David is simply asserting a theory: “God is on my side, I shouldn’t be afraid.” The next two verses make clear that he’s not talking theory; he’s talking certainty…

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