7.11.10 MAY YOU LIVE FOREVER!

reading...

bonhoeffer: pastor, martyr, prophet, spy by eric metaxas

germany in a spiritual vacuum. bonhoeffer in 1933, at age 26, understood these holes in souls and gave a radio talk on the problem only 2 days after germans elected hitler to be their chancellor. he said, 'whereas earlier leadership was expressed in the form of the teacher, the statesman, the father...now the Leader has become an independent figure. the Leader is completely divorced from any office; he is essentially and only 'the Leader'.

bonhoffer continued his critique of the fuhrer principle: 'if he does not continually tell his followers quite clearly of the limited nature of his task and of their own responsibility...then the image of the Leader will pass over into the image of the mis-leader, and he will be acting in a criminal way not only towards those he leads, but also towards himself. the true Leader...has to lead the individual into his own maturity...He must let himself be controlled, ordered, restricted'.

and that, of course, is what hitler refused to do: he demanded worship...manipulated weak churchmen for his own purposes and had his prime propagandist, alfred rosenberg, create a plan for a 'national reich church'. rosenberg said, 'the national church demands immediate cessation of the publishing and dissemination of the bible in germany...the national church declares that to it, and therefore to the german nation it has been decided that the fuhrer's mein kampf is the greatest of all documents...on the altars there must be nothing but mein kampt'.

bonhoeffer believed that 'it was the role of the church to speak for those who could not speak'. he fought nazi attacks on jews and called for 'costly grace' by which christians would give up comfortable lives to follow Christs call..'costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life'.

the puritan gift by kenneth and william hopper..massachusetts bay company, a joint-stock company founded in london by well-connected puritans...the new england settlement would cost the bay company the equivalent of $40 million in today's dollars, but by 1640 the company sent 200 ships and 14,000 settlers to massachusetts.

led by john winthrop, the expedition established business and management principles that persisted in early american commerce
CAREFUL PLANNING
A DISREGARD FOR SOCIAL CLASS IN SELECTING MANAGEMENT
AN ETHIC OF WORK COMBINED WITH A HABIT OF THRIFT
PLACING THE GOOD OF THE COMMUNITY ABOVE THE INDIVIDUAL
A DESIRE TO CREATE A KINGDOM OF HEAVEN ON EARTH
'consider that wee shall be as a citty upon a hill, the eies of all people are uppon us; soe that if wee shall deale falsely with our god in this worke...wee shall be made a story and a byword through the world', winthrop told his company.

cotton mather would one day comment that puritan 'religion begot prosperity and the daughter had destroyed the mother' but just because men were not of the grace to pour it away from themselves ALMOST as fast as God poured it on them through the following of these business principles doesn't mean the principles lack...only grace-filled hillarious givers...

...a 1917 plaque at the newport news shipyard is an example of modeling this heritage. 'we shall build good ships here, at a profit if we can - at a loss if we must - but always good ships'. civilian leaders in occupied japan used the slogan to train post-war workers; one went so far as to help clean the offices of a dirty but promising firm working then with less than $600 in capital and in old army huts where staff members held umbrellas over their desks in a rainstorm. the puritanical lesson paid off; the company went on to become sony.

what has changed? ..american business lost sight of the principles underwriting its success, beginning most noticeably in the 1950s...specifically, management turned from bottom-up practices to top -down and the 'cult of the (so-called)expert' took over not only the nation's boardrooms but its business schools (note: ...it's government, churches etc. everywhere it exists there is a total loss of fecundity and abundance). management experts replaced execs with experience on the factory floor. numbers mattered more than product and quality...and mid - century gurus like novelist ayn rand - whose hero in atlas shrugged declared, 'i will never live for the sake of another man' - replaced altruistic business leaders...

intercessors for america prayer letter july/august 2010

of the 102 passengers aboard the pilgrims' ship, the mayflower, the majority were 'saints', believers who had come to know the life-transforming grace found in and thru Jesus..called 'separatists' because they had drawn apart fro the corruption gripping the church of england and the decadent cultures of their day, they set sail for the new world. 'owning the covenant' they had formulated in scrooby, england in 1606, they hoped to construct a new testament congregational way of life and to worship the Lord in the way they believed the scriptures tautght.

but also aboard the mayflower were 'strangers', individuals still strange to the redeeming grace of God thru Christ, who had not yet found the grace to say yes to His claims, who had refused to do so or who were backsidden from former positions of faith. before landing, this company of saints and strangers deliberated about how they would live together, how they would maintain law and order among themselves. they entered into a covenant agreement, the mayflower compact and thereby constituted the first civil body politic in america.

at the heart of this historic compact lay an undisputed conviction that the God of the bible must be at the center of all law and order. the separatist christians felt no need for external written laws to control their behavior. they saw the dictates of their conscience formed by holy scripture, by Christ ruling from within, by His writing upon their hearts and directing them by the Holy Spirit. hebrews 8.10

yet, they recognized and respected their fellow passengers' need for law and written ordinances to govern behavior and to maintain morality, civility and enterprise. and, they insisted, all law would rest not upon a monarchy or dictatorship, but upon the representation and consent of the governed. the mayflower compact, along with the plymouth constitution of 1636, made plymouth plantation a self-governing colony and helped lay foundations for the entire united states republic.

quick review of vices.... and virtues that restore
PRIDE - HUMILITY
ENVY - PATIENCE
ANGER - KINDNESS
SLOTH - DILIGENCE
GREED - CHARITY
GLUTTONY -TEMPERANCE
LUST -CHASTITY
the intentional cultivation and practice of virtue has long been seen as the way to displace and overcome vice.

signs of porn use in a relationship in harvest news spring/summer 2010

UNUSUAL DECREASED SEXUAL ACTIVITY
INCREASING RELATIONSHIP DISTANCE
MENTAL DISTANCE - he's there, but 'not there' when you seek to engage him in conversation
LATE NIGHT COMPUTER ACTIVITY
SECRECY REGARDING FINANCES - like not letting you see credit card statements
ANY GAPS IN ACCOUNTABILITY FOR TIME AND FINANCES
NO HISTORY ON THE WEB BROWSER AFTER HE SPENDS TIME ON THE COMPUTER

what to do-
know that the Lord has comfort for you and will not abandon you...
see this as a real threat. don't deny it or hope that it will just go away...
talk openly about your concerns. acknowledge the commonness of this rather than take oppositional role, watch for defensiveness, anger, deflection and check your own heart for self-righteousness...
pray for and seek helpers who can encourage you and pray with you. make sure they are safe (a track record of godly living, compassionate, trustworthy with confidences...
don't police his porn, encourage him to meet with other men involved in this and seeking help..
do not think or accept that this is your fault...
consider counselling...
run to the Lord as your refuge! you cannot control his heart or response but you can bring your own needs, pain and confusion to God...and you must.

i continue to wander in an increasingly bizarre inner world. one of many thoughts about this is, quite frankly, that i am experiencing serious difficulty with not being where i should be...jail. i have pretty much decided to cast a lot on this. whatever the cast, that is what, by God's grace, i will do and not look back. i am currently of the thinking that if it comes 'no' i am of the mind to put my intensity about this genocide in a steel vault, lock the door and throw away the key, as it were. if it comes 'yes' to take the symbolic action beginning noncooperation i am thinking to go down to warminster early the next friday after and slump in front of the door...as crazy as it seems that is the groove, i would think, that perfectly fits me.

i am also aware, however, of satan's cleverness and how he can induce (is the best word i can think of) things because there are parts of the inducement that are deeply worn grooves in the fleshly or self-life. they appear so right...they can be so horribly wrong. does it appeal to my flesh to be the first american martyr? i could well see that that might be totally fleshly and an ungodly thing. i could also see that it could be exactly what God wants for me and that He has uniquely made me the way i am to be 'just the tool' for such. a prayer to the God of my life!...

ezekiel 3.14 has been coming to my spirit from time to time and so i spent a bit of time at calvary baptist library reading some commentaries on the verse.

reading from the new revised version the context of verses 7-15 says, 'but the house of israel will not listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to Me, because all the house of israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart. see i have made your face hard against their faces and your forehead hard against their foreheads. like the hardest stone, harder than flint, i have made your forehead; do not fear them or be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. He said to me: mortal, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart and hear with your ears. then go to the exiles, to your people and speak to them. say to them, 'thus says the Lord God', whether they hear or refuse to hear. then the Spirit lifted me up and as the glory of the Lord rose from its place, i heard behind me the sound of the wings of the living creatures brushing against one another and the sound of the wheels beside them, that sounded like a loud rumbling.the spirit lifted me up and bore me away. i went in bitterness in the heat of my spirit, the hand of the Lord being strong upon me. i came to the exiles at tel-abib, who lived by the river chebar. and i sat there among them, stunned, for seven days'.

that is another theory i have about what i am experiencing...that i'm stunned, that there is some burning fire within full of rage and fury..but since i can't act on that but must push it down into the subconscious in order that i may 'function' on a daily basis..the affect is somewhat similar to being stunned. just a theory. maybe the reality is that i'm ready for an alzheimer unit! if only something tangible were possible to take out my fury on..

anyway, it was interesting to look closer at ezekiel. i had always thot that he was the only one of jehovah's prophets who had this kind of rage thing but jeremiah had the same. who knows how long this lasted. possibly just for a short time and maybe for the entire time of their prophetic ministry.

the word 'rage' is the hebrew chemah 'heat, rage' and is translated in the ot wrath (88), fury (8), venom (5), rage (3). it comes from yacam 'to be hot, conceive (mating).

one take is that he ought to obey God but his own bitterness drew him in the other direction. this person thot that prophets have self-control and are of a sedate, composed mind. he denied his human rage for God's hand was strong upon him. another, the hard work of the prophetical office - fears, difficulties, dangers, carnal reason, unbelief, self-love - one or all could turn him back but God's hand was strong..another, he was bitter, had a sense of holy irritation called forth by hardness and rebelliousness of the people who he was commissioned to speak to for God.

this third writer refers to 21.8f where the Lord says to ezekiel, 'a sword, a sword is sharpened, it is also polished. it is sharpened for slaughter, honed to flash like lightning! how can we make merry? you have despised the rod and all discipline. the sword is given to be polished, to be grasped in the hand. it is sharpened, the sword is polished, to placed in the slayer's hand. cry and wail, o mortal for it is against My people...they are thrown to the sword..' he also references jeremiah. 'but i am full of the wrath of the Lord. i am weary of holding it in. pour it out on the children in the street and on the gatherings of young men as well. both husband and wife shall be taken, the old folk and the very aged. their houses shall be turned over to others, their fields and wives together. for I will stretch out My hand against the inhabitants of the land, says the Lord'. (6.11f) and again, 'i did not sit in the company of merrymakers, nor i rejoice under the weight of your hand i sat alone, for you had filled me with indignation'. (15.17)

this third is the rage i feel and i think closest of the three to being true of ezekiel. rage, whether expressed by 'fight or flight' is an extremely hostile malevolence. it would happily destroy with its own hands. in light of this, if true, it is interesting that the Spirit moves ezekiel to sit in the midst of 'the culprits' for 7 days. who can fathom the inseparable juxtaposition of justice and mercy in God! the bible even says they kiss!! does all this have anything to say to me in my rage/sublimated rage? i'm not sure yet.

hope you have a good week. love, dad