personal devotion

Called by Another Name

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on May 21, 2020
Posted in: Bearing Burdens, personal devotion, the image of Christ, The Wise and Foolish Virgins, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

 

Schadow,FW-Die_klugen_und_törichten_Jungfrauen-1

 

 

When I cannot fully understand a parable or a concept in Scripture, I have learned to do a simple thing, and it makes all the difference to me as I read and try to walk out this life in Christ.

 

To this day, as I mentioned yesterday, I have not heard the parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins explained to my complete satisfaction.  It perplexes me, “These ten, are they believers, and is Jesus saying some will be left outside?”  That does not ride up front with “Once saved, always saved,” and to make matters worse, they did all have lamps and they all had oil in them.  If the oil represents the Holy Spirit, as is most often suggested, did they run out of the Spirit?  Did they burn up all they had of Him?

 

You see.  Something just does not seem quite right.

 

And in the next words, the next story Jesus told: all the servants were given talents to use, to invest.  Now, here we are given a bit more clarification.  This servant did not squander what he had been given, he just did not bring any increase to his Master.  He kept safe what he had been given, but no fruit was born, and fruit-bearing matters to God.  Worse yet, of course, the servant bore no fruit because he was afraid of his Master, afraid to take a risk, afraid to try.

 

The Virgins fell asleep, the good servants worked and invested what they had been given.  The Wise Virgins were not commended for their increase, but that they still had enough, and they did not dare to share what they had, lest they run out.

 

Thoroughly confused?  These parables are told as if they relate to one another.  In both, there is an awful shutting out of some, even into darkness.

 

And then … and then … Jesus follows these two tales with the account of the sheep and the goats, and He gets specific: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne.  All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats …”

 

These are the things that I can see, when nothing else is fully understood:

 

  • Those who will be taken in with the Bridegroom when he comes are those whose lamps are burning.
  • To this end, Jesus said specifically, “Keep watch; you do not know the day or the hour.”
  • I know that He told us to take stock of our faith, to make sure we are “in the faith”… Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! (1 Corinthians 13:5)
  • I know that I can keep watch over my own soul to see if in all things and at all times that I am living in and living out the faith I have been given; of that I do not wish to run dry!
  • Although I do not know if the “talents” are talents or something else, but I do know that with all I’ve been given, I am meant to live to the increase of God’s kingdom.  Talents and abilities, yes.  Spiritual gifts, yes.  Human strength, yes.  His strength, yes!  Hope, yes!  Faith, yes!
  • All of it, all that I have and all that I am, is the Master’s, and to live in fear of making a mistake, or refusing to live as a human because He is divine, because He harvests where he has not sown and gathers where he has not scattered seed, is to risk all I have been given.
  • I see that, if it is known of Him that He is so powerful that He harvests where He hasn’t sown and gathers where He hasn’t scattered seed, then I ought to trust that He has might and resource beyond my ability and that He expects to find a harvest, as indeed He actually did expect to find a fig on a fig tree when He wanted one!
  • He can do this!  I ought to be comforted!  He can expect to find figs out of season!  That means, I can bear fruit for Him at all times. I ought to be comforted!
  • Now He tells us, that those on His right, the sheep, will have not have run dry, will not have grown weary in well doing. They will be addressed as “The Blessed of My Father,” and that is the name by which they will be called.
  • What will they have been busy doing? Showing kindness.
  • What kindness?They will have given food to the hungry, bread and the bread of life in the Gospel of Christ; they will have given drink to the thirsty, waters of refreshing, even water from the Rock which is Christ; they will invite strangers in rather than judging them as outsiders and leaving them in the cold.
  • Those who enter in will have clothed the naked rather than exposing them, had compassion on the sick and the sick at heart, and those that were imprisoned in jails and dark, horrid chambers of doubt and fear and guilt, will be visited in their need and in our prayers.
  • To do all of this, will we not have to persists because of the love of God shed abroad in our hearts?  Honestly, will we not have to seek Him that we do all that we do effectually, whether with much or little?
  • When we have stayed awake to these needs of others, when we have given what we have and who we are to this increase, it will be said of us that we did all these things as unto our Master, and that is a great caravan of riches to return to Him for what we have been given to use, oil, lamps, talents, faith, hope, and love.

 

Can more be seen?  I think so.  Perhaps you will share some of what you know.

 

But if we see these things, have we not seen enough to put one foot in front of the other, and will we not be found lighted, glowing, and watchful?  Will we not have to keep our hearts encouraged and our hands clean and be ever mindful that we are in the faith?  When our faith and love would slip and decrease, so will our hope wither on the vine, and vice versa!

 

One more thing, and we must ask it.  What of those who do good, who do all those things, clothing the naked and feeding the hungry and visiting prisons, and love for God never motivates any of it?

 

First.  What difference does that make to me?  I will feed His sheep.

 

Second.  One cannot buy the oil that lights the lamps that burn with the knowledge of God in Christ at the grocers!  We will always wake from the stupor of all our human effort, burnt out.  Those who do what they do for the love of Jesus Christ will always have enough.  Just trim your wick, dear friend, checking to see if you are in the faith, and shine, for you are not under a bushel basket.  You are a lamp upon a stand.  That you cannot share with anyone, even if you would.

 

You will always awaken to more of the same, to life in Christ.   We are told, admonished, even commanded to be filled with the Spirit, so let us consider that if we have but one talent, that’s it!, and let us invest it with all our hearts, as long as we live, and singing in our hearts for the knowledge that what we do to do the least of those among us, we do to Jesus our Lord.

 

It is probably very, very important that we do not go off anywhere to try to buy what can only be had in Christ.  That’s a story for another day, isn’t it?

 

 

The Wise and Foolish Virgins

Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow, between 1838 and 1842, by permission, Wikipedia

Public domain, death of the artist

Name Calling

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on May 20, 2020
Posted in: personal devotion, the image of Christ, The Wise and Foolish Virgins, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

 

The_Parable_of_the_Ten_Virgins_(section)_by_Phoebe_Traquair,_Mansfield_Traquair_Church,_Edinburgh

 

 

Are there certain passages of Scripture that attract your attention and curiosity more than others?  As much as we esteem the whole Word of God, when Jesus starts talking about the Wise and the Foolish Virgins, we edge a little closer in our seats.

 

The Whom?  Why?  What?

 

This is not great bedtime reading, either, not if we are at all unsure under which heading we would fall, Wise or Foolish.

 

While we are still gasping for breath (the Bridegroom said what???), Jesus tells us the story of the Master who went away and left his servants with five, two, and one talents and expected them to give good return for his trust in them.

 

The Master said what???

 

            Every time I read this chapter (Matthew 25,) I say the same thing to the Lord: I do not think I fully understand this!

 

Who are the Virgins?  I have heard the sermons, but who are they, really?

 

What does the oil represent?  I think I know, but do I have it right?

 

Why couldn’t the Wise share at least a little with the Foolish?

 

Why did they all fall asleep in the first place? Shouldn’t the parable be about staying awake?

 

And relative to the talents the servants received, why did some get more than others?

 

What were they supposed to do with their talents, that the one servant feared to do?

 

Why was no grace extended to the one poor fellow who didn’t invest well?

 

Over the years, when I read passages like this one that make a very strong point, having to do with life or death, and in these cases with eternal life or death, I have had to become simple enough to pull from Scripture what I am able to see, the things that can be known without deep theological referendum, and I have come to believe that it is probably what I should have been doing all along.

Someone counted sixty-six occurrences in Scripture that tell us in one way or another, to watch and pray, and I would not be surprised if we could find many more.  I have never counted, but I have read through the Gospels marking them all, and they are everywhere.

 

Not only that, but there are the “see to it” verses, which Mr. Sixty-Six did not count!  We surely do not want to overlook those!  Taken together, here is one of those rare places where the Lord repeats Himself, and continually.

 

Here is one sample from the Old Testament, one you may know, a beautiful reminder:

 

 

But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the Lord;
I will wait for the God of my salvation.
My God will hear me.

Micah 7:7, NASB

 

 

Oh, my dear friends, all of this stirs up something in my heart, something that sounds like this, I believe . . .

 

We don’t want to be Foolish, and we are already Wise, wise enough to have called upon the Lord Jesus Christ for His saving grace, for the covering of His blood, for the redemption of our souls and our lives.  We aren’t foolish, then, are we, and yet are not the “Virgins,” believers?  These have gone out, with lamps and oil, to meet the Bridegroom!  Whom else could they be, and what have they to do with us? Why did Jesus tell this story?

 

We don’t want to be afraid, either!  Look!   The servant in the next parable, the one who was given only one talent to invest, was fearful, seemingly terrified of his Master, and where did that get him?  We do not want to be afraid because we never want to see the Father like that.  We are numbered among those who believe that Jesus lived and died that we might not fear, that we might know the love of God.

 

We do fear God, but not like that, not cringing and withholding.

 

Uh-oh.

 

Tune in tomorrow, and let’s look together at these two splendid archways into the lives we have been given to live in Christ Jesus.

 

 

 

The Parable of the Ten Virgins

Phoebe Anna Traquair, by permission, Wikipedia

 

 

Is This Not Powerful? Be Exalted, O Lord! – Psalm 21:8-13

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on January 29, 2020
Posted in: personal devotion, Prayer for families, Praying Through the Psalms, spiritual warfare, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

 

Albion_SaintMaurice_XIII_horizontal

 

 

Your hand will lay hold on all your enemies;
    your right hand will seize your foes.
When you appear for battle,
    you will burn them up as in a blazing furnace.
The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath,
    and his fire will consume them.
You will destroy their descendants from the earth,
    their posterity from mankind.

Though they plot evil against you
    and devise wicked schemes, they cannot succeed.
You will make them turn their backs
    when you aim at them with drawn bow.

Be exalted in your strength, Lord;
    we will sing and praise your might.

Psalm 21:8-13

 

            Wow!  There is weaponry and ammunition in abundance here!  (See what we have in our salvation, and stay to see what we may do with it!)

 

The weapon I propose is that of discernment.  We have enemies!  From without and within, there are those who would trap us, whose aim is to steal, kill, and destroy.

 

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. (John 10:10, NASB)

 

And from within, from the flesh,

 

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?  (James 4:1, NIV)

 

            As we pray for those we love, we must fight with that two-edged sword, for the battle must be waged against both the temptor and the tempt-able part of us.  We push back darkness, enemy schemes, lies, slanders, presumptions, and more, and we put to death our own cowardice, sloth, and all idolatry.

 

All by the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of the Lord.

 

Let’s try this together.  “Father, this day I am before You on behalf of _________, asking You, petitioning You, that Your hand will lay hold of his/her enemies, that Your right hand will seize all foes!

 

“Appear in battle, Lord God, burn them up, swallow them, consume them.  Those that come against my loved one, destroy, and wherever they are themselves deceived, destroy arguments and speculations that keep them confused and doubting.  (2 Corinthians 10:5)

 

“Let anything that lifts itself up against the knowledge of God in them or against them be destroyed for all generations by Your great lovingkindness and Your truth.

 

“Enemies have plotted against You and devised wicked schemes, but they cannot succeed.  Make them turn their backs, aim at them with drawn bow and even with the Word of the Lord that I speak and pray.

 

“Be exalted, O Lord, in Your strength, and I will sing and praise Your might!  In Jesus’ name, amen.”

 

 

 

Soren Niedziella, by permission, Wikipedia

Sword of St. Maurice of Turin 

Enemies? WHAT enemies? – Psalm 6, vs. 10

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on May 7, 2019
Posted in: personal devotion, Prayer for families, Praying Through the Psalms, spiritual warfare, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

 

 

Pankratiasten_in_fight_copy_of_greek_statue_3_century_bC

 

All my enemies will be overwhelmed with shame and anguish;
    they will turn back and suddenly be put to shame. (Psalm 6:10, NIV)

 

 

            We are beginning our prayerful search through the sixth Psalm, a Psalm of David, and like very many of them, the emotion, the pathos of his writing could have the effect of a little too much DRA-MA on our post-modern understanding.

 

Could, but should not.  Remembering that we are spending our days learning to care a little more deeply, discovering as we pray that we have not yet brought even tears before the Lord at times, much less intense and prolonged intercession with fasting and weeping and crying out on behalf of those who really are endangered in their souls. Today, we remind ourselves that we must always put the oxygen mask on ourselves before we try to help others!

 

We don’t have to weep and “carry on,” no, not at all, but we do have to care to the depth of the Lord’s compassion in us.  Have we tapped it?  Are we too cool for the school of prayer into which we have been admitted? David was not, clearly.

 

We went to the last verse first of Psalm 6, and we will start at the beginning next time, but to help us along the way, look at his words.

 

All my enemies will be overwhelmed with shame and anguish;
    they will turn back and suddenly be put to shame.

 

 

            “Oh, Lord God!  What enemies? David was a fugitive, pursued by a wicked king and his minions.  Us?  We want to go to the movies this weekend! We want to get together with friends this evening!  We think You’re glad when we relax, enjoy this life, when we fellowship and laugh and drink in the beauties of friendship and fun, too!  But Father, help us to remember how hated we are … that is NOT what we want to think about!  HATED?? Enemies??  WHAT enemies?  Oh, Lord, help us to see how desperately wicked are those that oppose our souls, and how real their animosity.  Help us to take up arms against them!

 

            “Help us!  Help us to realize how unendingly our own flesh strives against Your Spirit, and how deep is that enmity!  Remind us, let us see for now and for always that we have enemies because we are vulnerable to doubts about You and Your love when we lay aside the armor You have provided.  We have weaknesses that have been exploited before and would be again if we let down our guard.

 

            “We don’t hate You!  We love You! … but our flesh never will, and it is the worst, most deadly enemy of all, right within us.  We care! We do, and we will.  We care for others, and we care that our own souls thrive in compassion and hope.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.”

 

 

 

Greek Pankratiasten Wrestlers, by permission, Wikipedia, Matthias Kabel

We Are Worshiping …

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on February 16, 2018
Posted in: Lent, 2018, Lenten Fast, 2018, personal devotion, Prayer for families, Prayer for the Nation, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

 

Playground_at_Fuji-Hakone-Izu_National_Park.jpg

 

 

“Ephraim will be like a mighty man,
And their heart will be glad as if from wine;
Indeed, their children will see it and be glad,
Their heart will rejoice in the Lord.
“I will whistle for them to gather them together,
For I have redeemed them;
And they will be as numerous as they were before.
“When I scatter them among the peoples,
They will remember Me in far countries,
And they with their children will live and come back.

Zechariah 10:7-9

 

 

 

Your children and mine … and the children of this nation, brought up with metal detectors and armed officers ushering them into their schools, ever looking across the aisle and seeing the classmate whom they know … could be the one.

 

Your children and mine … and those brought up in foster care, most of them loved and cared for, but so often wounded in their souls, as their foster parents know only too well.

 

Your children and mine … and those whose lives look splendid on the outside, but whose hearts have darkened, sometimes nobody knows how.

 

We are worshiping, worshiping the God who fashioned their souls, and for Himself. Call them back, whistle them up, oh Lord, cause Your glorious Voice to be heard!

 

I say with praise and thanksgiving, You know how to save, whether by many or by few. I say with a shout, their wounds are not deeper than your love, and they cannot flee faster than You can overtake them!

 

We are worshiping You, Lord …

 

 

 

A sheltered playground in Japan

Stephen Oung, Wikipedia, by permission

SaveSave

If Not Now, When?

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on February 15, 2018
Posted in: Lent, 2018, Lenten Fast, 2018, personal devotion, Prayer for families, Prayer for the Nation, spiritual warfare, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

 

 

Feuerbach_Mirjam_2

 

 

 

 

If we will not worship the Lord our God now, when will we?

 

It would be as if we had been brought up out of Egypt, out of slavery, delivered with all the power and might of the Almighty God, set free that we might worship Him in the desert, and found the desert not to our liking.

 

As long as turmoil and wickedness and injustice remain in the earth, we will worship. The One we serve is our only hope.

 

We will worship on behalf of those who cannot, and if for a brief moment, I cannot, or you cannot, others will worship for us, praising our God, our Great High Priest, Who has had to see and experience all the ills, all the pain, all hardness, all the evil that could have been so good, and ever turning every stream toward a faithful, glorious end, if only we would lend our consent to His so good will.

 

It is the will of the Son of God that we should worship and serve the Father, the Father who gave and sent Him. That much we know, and that we can accomplish.

 

His banner over us is love.

 

 

 

Anselm Feuerbach, Mirjam

public domain, artist’s life plus 100 years,

Wikipedia, by permission

A Message, from the (Former) President

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on February 14, 2018
Posted in: devotional life, Lenten Fast, 2018, personal devotion, Prayer for families, Prayer for the Nation, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

 

 

Reagan_and_Gorbachev_signing

 

We are, you know. We are the salt of the earth. It isn’t a colloquialism with us. We are poor in spirit, hearts going out to others more than moaning over our own ills or dissatisfactions, always hungering and panting for righteousness, mourning over things others celebrate, and celebrating every opportunity to suffer – with grace and good heart, taking no coin of glory under the table – for Jesus’ sake.

 

We are peacemakers, not finger pointers, and when the genuine meekness of Christ illumines our souls, that strong, rich, even aromatic meekness that routs enemies of darkness and covers the sins of others with mercy and the hope of the Gospel, we are blessed beyond expression. Rich or straightened in circumstances, we are all alike, poor in spirit, and that blessedness suits us and salts us. We are the very flavor of life, and millions have come to know it over the centuries. Light and flavor, both, are we.

 

Not weak, meek. Such a vast difference. Not impoverished, but poor as to hubris and carnal successes and the crippling venom of self-reference. Because, not in spite of these, we shine where we have been established, and we have been established, a city on a hill. A lamp upon a stand.

 

We don’t live in Hobbiton, much as we may have fashioned our homes after theirs. We aren’t the cabana on the beach. We’ve been placed on high, for good reason, and our lamp does not go out. Our lives are peppered with opportunities to salt the earth with kindness, showing courage, rejoicing in hope, strong in battle, fervent in love. It is not for nothing that we dwell on high. It may be that seldom a day goes by when we are without opportunity to show patience, perseverance, joy, and good neighborliness. We don’t say, “Why, oh why??” …   We say, “Oh Lord our God, we love the place where your glory dwells.”

 

Do you think I have forgotten that today is the first day of Lent? Oh no! Not at all! We step with all this blessedness into the fasting and fighting and the favor of this season. More impoverished, through our fasting, and the Word dwelling more richly in us. Making ourselves more weak, and thus renewing strength. Purifying our hearts all the more, and seeing God at break of day.

 

Something special for you today. Excerpts from President Ronald Reagan’s Inaugural and Farewell speeches. Let us covenant to remember and carry on as he challenged us to be and to remain …

 

from President Ronald Reagan’s Inaugural Address:

 

“Standing on the tiny deck of the Arabella in 1630 off the Massachusetts coast, John Winthrop said, ‘We will be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword throughout the world.’ Well, we have not dealt falsely with our God, even if He is temporarily suspended from the classroom.”

 

“Somehow America has bred a kindliness into our people unmatched anywhere, as has been pointed out in that best-selling record by a Canadian journalist. We are not a sick society. A sick society could not produce the men that set foot on the moon, or who are now circling the earth above us in the Skylab. A sick society bereft of morality and courage did not produce the men who went through those year[s] of torture and captivity in Vietnam. Where did we find such men? They are typical of this land as the Founding Fathers were typical. We found them in our streets, in the offices, the shops and the working places of our country and on the farms. 

 

“We cannot escape our destiny, nor should we try to do so. The leadership of the free world was thrust upon us two centuries ago in that little hall of Philadelphia. In the days following World War II, when the economic strength and power of America was all that stood between the world and the return to the dark ages, Pope Pius XII said, ‘The American people have a great genius for splendid and unselfish actions. Into the hands of America God has placed the destinies of an afflicted mankind.’

“We are indeed, and we are today, the last best hope of man on earth.”

Ronald Reagan 

Inaugural Address

January 25, 1974

 

 from the Farewell Address:

 

“And that’s about all I have to say tonight. Except for one thing. The past few days when I’ve been at that window upstairs, I’ve thought a bit of the ‘shining city upon a hill.’ The phrase comes from John Winthrop, who wrote it to describe the America he imagined. What he imagined was important because he was an early Pilgrim, an early freedom man. He journeyed here on what today we’d call a little wooden boat; and like the other Pilgrims, he was looking for a home that would be free.

 

“I’ve spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace, a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That’s how I saw it and see it still.

  

“And how stands the city on this winter night? More prosperous, more secure, and happier than it was eight years ago. But more than that; after 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm. And she’s still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home.”

  

President Ronald Reagan 

Farewell Address

January 11, 1989

 

 photo, National Archives and Records Administration

Public domain, Wikipedia

It Starts Tonight!

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on February 13, 2018
Posted in: devotional life, Lenten Fast, 2018, personal devotion, Prayer for families, Prayer for the Nation, spiritual warfare, Spiritual Warfare 101, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

 

 

PILLAR-OF-FIRE-2.png

 

 

 

“Even the captives of the mighty man will be taken away, And the prey of the tyrant will be rescued; For I will contend with the one who contends with you, And I will save your sons. (Isaiah 49:25, NASB)

 

Have you ever pondered how awful it might be in heaven to see, not what you have done, and you know what those things are, but to see what you could have done?

 

We have forgiveness for the things we have done wrong, things of which we have repented, things cast into the Sea of the Lord’s Forgetfulness (Micah 7:19, Isaiah 43:25), but I do not want to see the replay of all I might have done, if I hadn’t been … watching television. Reading. Talking on the phone. Shopping for fun …

 

And furthermore … we won’t be judged or held accountable for anything we could not do, even if everyone we know does more than we. Only those things we might have done, those things we knew we ought to endeavor and could manage, through faith, even if by the smallest increments of faithfulness.

 

It’s those TINY steps of forward motion are the most difficult to keep up, certainly. Are you like me? I could plant fifty or even a hundred seedlings in the space of a day or two, but if I only had time to plant them a two or three at once, day by day, would they EVER get done before I gave it up? Even when hard work is not in short supply, persistence often is.

 

As I see it, for this season, the battle will be to worship as unceasingly as grace will provide, to win skirmishes and conflicts with praise and gratitude and truth, shouted beyond the sun and moon, beyond the stars, back to the throne room where they came from. We will sing our praises, and if we do not sing, we will lift our voices and shout and proclaim, and if that is still a little more than we are prepared to do, we will speak the truth, we will voice the truth: Our God will contend with those that contend with us, and He will save our sons!” … and He will save the sons of those who cannot sing or shout or speak, those whose faith has failed or never yet ignited, those for whom we pray as we worship.

 

I used to tell my sons, when they were sitting in front of a video game, as intense as if it were a life and death battle, always remember there is a life and death battle to be fought and won, and someday you’re going to need to apply that passion to real life. We need to apply our passions to real life!

 

This is true of the shout of praise, of the songs of Zion … of the lifting of our hands, even in the privacy of our homes.   When first we try, we realize, something has been able actually to hold us back, to weigh down our arms, to stifle the roar of love that resounds in our souls, but silenced in our voices.

 

That very rousing, pulsating number from The Greatest Showman is ringing in my heart –

 

“From now on, what’s waited ‘till tomorrow starts tonight! It starts tonight!”

 

 

 

The Ark of the Covenant

Benjamin West, Wikipedia, public domain, life of the artist

 

The Mystery Weapon

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on February 12, 2018
Posted in: devotional life, personal devotion, spiritual warfare, Uncategorized. 1 Comment

Milton_preface

 

“Would to God that all the Lord’s people were Prophets!”  (Numbers 11:29)

 

Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying:

 

“Give thanks to the Lord,
    for his love endures forever.”

 

As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.   When the men of Judah came to the place that overlooks the desert and looked toward the vast army, they saw only dead bodies lying on the ground; no one had escaped.

 

 

I might be inclined to say, for the sake of today’s entry, that this was a battle won by singing! That is not quite the case, for it was a battle won by the Lord while those appointed by the king sang of the holiness of their God, but, what a way to fight!

 

Let me say right away, for those conscientious about their singing, truly, truly, it isn’t tone and pitch that the Lord is looking for, and if your singing voice leaves something to be desired for the Top 40, when you break through it will be all the more powerful! If you can’t quite, then do let someone else do the singing … cd, MP3, Sirius … but sing along. Just for forty days. Afterward, we’ll see! One of the voices I most love to hear is in the throat of a woman who knows she does not sing as well as others, but she sings anyway, always. Oh, the sound of her voice!

 

Besides, we are singing home, usually alone, to the rafters and to God. Other than He, only angels and demons will hear us. The ones will rejoice, and the others tremble, particularly because Lucifer with his terrific musical ability is fallen from his high place, and WE SING!

 

There is no mistaking, here and in other places in Scripture, there were in Israel ministering warriors, those who sang and made music before the Lord, whose praise was vibrant, resounding to the skies, sometimes going out before the armies of Israel and sometimes worshiping while the Lord fought for them, majestic in holiness, stalwart, brave, their mouths filled with praise.

 

Let us set our Lenten fasts as the Lord leads, and as He has already instructed, even commanded, let us fast with JOY and with the voice of PRAISE, singing our intercessions, our prayers, our love, our confidence in this God, this Majesty, Who triumphs in gladness and exaltation, even our own!

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16)

 

 

From Blake’s Milton

Text for “Jerusalem”, a British anthem

Wikipedia, by permission, public domain

First You Know – Then You Go

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on January 19, 2018
Posted in: 40 days of Prayer, devotional life, personal devotion, Prayer for families, Prayer for the Nation, spiritual warfare, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

 

 Espadon-Morges

 

 

“The Man On Top of the Mountain Didn’t Fall There”

unknown

  

       For me, I don’t think it is possible to have real, effectual faith unless one knows what God has said on any given subject.

 

I believe that must be the import of the Scripture, “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17, KJV)   We capitalize the word, Word, concluding that it means “the word God has spoken,” but we also consider it, without consistently training our souls, to be advice and instruction closed up in a book, reference material, available for correction and reproof. It is that.

 

Again, however, without consistently training our souls, we grow lax. Here is just one of so many indications that we have, in this case, we share with the Lord Himself, a task, a purpose, an assignment:

 

 

“Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke? (Isaiah 58:6)

 

 

The words read by Jesus in the synagogue (“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon Me …), taking upon Himself the fulfillment of them (Luke 4:18) were given to us, delivered to us, given for us to hear the Father’s Voice, speaking His own heart in this passage, but echoing the words in Isaiah, defining our fast and our fasted lifestyles. That is the hearing that helps me. It personalizes things and makes them serviceable.

 

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

 

There is no Word (no Biblical, Scriptural word,) but what God has spoken. If He speaks and I hear it, even off the printed page, then I can have fullness of faith in what He has said.

 

And so, we fight …

 

This is important to warriors. If we don’t know of a certainty that men and women – children, too – are meant to be set at liberty, released from all spiritual and emotional captivity, which is our part, then we will leave them where they are. In the most difficult cases, we won’t go the distance.

 

We have police officers, soldiers, good politicians, public defenders, even economists, who serve and strive to set at liberty those that are bound. Some of them can do with authority, with the stroke of a pen or with the back-up of a ready weapon, amazing feats of liberation.

 

We, those of us who minister to God and on behalf of others at the Throne of Grace, have only the Word of the Lord. And our faith and compassion. It is enough.

 

 

Swiss Longsword

Rama, by permission, Wikipedia

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