7.31.2012 LORD MAKE ME A PLODDER FOR YOU

the story of a plodder, David Thrower

you'd never have guessed david thrower would be a career missionary. he had always been rather NONDESCRIPT.
he was a BELIEVER
but DIDN'T HAVE AN EXCITING CONVERSION STORY.
in fact, HE WASN'T SURE EXACTLY WHEN HE CAME TO FAITH.
he was born into a beleiving household in england in 1900. he attended church with his family each week an
GRADUALLY REALIZED THAT HE LOVED GOD AND TRUSTED CHRIST.
he was baptized and joined the baptist church when he was 16.

david went to war at 18. well, actually, he was drafted in WWI and served in an army office in england until it was over. on returning home he FOUND WORK in an office and
LEARNED TO TAKE SHORTHAND.
AS SOON AS HE PERFECTED THAT SKILL, he
LOOKED FOR
and FOUND A JOB  in an office THAT HAD A TYPEWRITER-
a rare new office machine HE WAS EAGER TO MASTER.
HE STUDIED BOOKKEEPING and
TAUGHT SHORTHAND in his spare time.
he WAS A CLERK, and A GOOD ONE.
his life seemed to be on a
STEADY, DEPENDABLE course.

but when thro read AN APPEAL in a baptist newspaper,
EVERYTHING CHANGED.

a missionary named booth was on leave from india and was looking for an assistant to return with him to the field. david WANTED to fill this position. in fact,
HIS DESIRE to do so GREW UNTIL IT WAS OVERWHELMING.
he PRESENTED HIMSELF TO THE MISSION BOARD AS A CANDIDATE, and
THEY TURNED HIM DOWN.
he spent a year STUDYING EVERY BOOK ON MISSIONS HE COULD FIND
and PREACHED A FEW TIMES (but NOT VERY WELL).
HIS DESIRE to go to india DID NOT EBB.
when he returned to the mission board, he explained to them that, although it would be easier for him to go under their blessing, HE WOULD GO TO INDIA NO MATTER WHAT their decision.

thro left england in 1922 backed by the strict baptist mission board and spent the next 60 years of his life serving the people of india.

perhaps because he VIEWED HIMSELF AS UNREMARKABLE,
david APPROACHED MISSIONARY WORK WITH more HUMILITY than many of his contemporaries. while they set up churches and ran them autocratically, david MENTORED LEADERS and EXPECTED THE CHURCHES HE PLANTED TO BECOME SELF-GOVERNING,
under biblical guidelines. he KNEW HE WAS NOT A GIFTED PREACHER
so he TRAINED NATIVE PASTORS to do the preaching in their churches.
when david was transferred from region to region, the works went on unhindered because they did not depend solely on him for leadership.

along with TEACHING THE BIBLE,
david was able to TEACH OFFICE SKILLS
to the PEOPLE HE SERVED
to HELP THEM GET JOBS to support their families and the church.
david TAUGHT his people HOW TO MANAGE this new INCOME WISELY,
SLOWLY MENTORING ONE FAMILY AT A TIME and
ESTABLISHING THEM AS LEADERS TO MENTOR OTHERS in the church.
IN THE SAME WAY HIS WIFE HELPED the women to become more proficient in sewing and housekeeping.

david's LIFE WORD WAS A CONCORDANCE FOR THE TAMIL BIBLE.
he began the work in 1923 and
ploddingly,
verse by verse
year after year
page after page
he compiled the work. it was finally published in 1960.
david wrote other simple booklets..in tamil for use by churches and missionaries.

david..was not..great..brilliant..but..the sum of his life's work..staggering...he demonstrated a life of faith in Christ and obedience to God.

like many of us, David Thrower plodded along unremarkably. but God used his life..

taken from a bulletin insert which used 'no looking back: the story of a missionary to india' by david thrower.

7.31.2012 MORE MANNA-JAMES 1.2

james 1.2 'CONSIDER it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials...

speaking of the vaudois, muston says of a certain situation in which they made a grievous error spiritually that led to much more grief and suffering than they would have endured by just following the Word in the face of threat..
'when peril is over, selfishness resumes its power, selfishness is blind and peril returns'.

psalm 119.105..'Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

Oh Lord, KEEP US IN STEADY TROUBLE, trouble us on every side if necessary to keep
 our nose perpetually on the bible page and
our wicked hearts perpetually, miraculously-by Your grace-on INCLINED TO Yours.

7.31.2012 THIS MORNING...PSALM 51.15..

says, 'O Lord, OPEN Thou my lips and my mouth shall SHOW FORTH (nasv, DECLARE) Thy praise.'
i had come to the Lord beaten down by many a thought. as i began to apply scripture to the different sins, accusations etc. the Lord began to lift me from under the heavy burden, out of the haze and chaos of spirit into Him and His blessed peace. as i sit before Him He will often bring verses to mind that are just tuned, as it were, to the deep needs.

one of my myriad of deep needs is the great desire to constantly talk of Him and His goodness. it's there, it's certainly down deep there, but i want to have what the early disciples had when they were filled with the Holy Spirit..confidence, boldness, freedom of speech like as a child in the presence of a beloved parent. the above verse came and i was curious to understand a little clearer what 'declare' means. 'open' is simple to understand, but i'm not doing it! so as i'm saying this verse, praying it..that God would indeed open my lips to declare His praise everywhere i am..i'm curious about declare.

the hebrew word for declare is nagad which the concordance says means 'conspicuous'..from latin con+ specio- to see and means
open to the view
obvious to the (mental) eye
easy to be seen
manifest
clearly or extensively known
perceived or understood
eminent
famous
distinguished

soooo... when the Lord opens my mouth (not me..) to declare His praise
Jesus will become open to the sight of those who hear (and those who hear their report of it, and so on)
Jesus will become obvious...for who He is
Jesus will be easier for them to 'see'..to understand..to believe..to trust in..to surrender all to..
Jesus will become manifest (obvious)...someone who was a dim and distant historical figure or religious leader will be transformed into who He audaciously presented Himself to be in palestine..none other than God come in the flesh
Jesus will become clearly or extensively known...in the hearts of many people as their personal Lord and savior
Jesus' words, His commands will be perceived or understood in the sense that they are to form the warp and woof of everyday life..i will start 'looking like His commands' so clearly will He be seen for who He is.
JESUS
AND HIS NAME
AND THOSE WHO GIVE UP ALL TO FOLLOW HIM TO THE DEATH
 (at the very least, of self)
will become
EMINENT
FAMOUS and
DISTINGUISHED
in heaven, even though they be hunted down as vermin not fit to live on earth.

Oh Lord,
seeing the great and wonderful consequences that would follow this, would You
OPEN MY LIPS to praise You wherever i am!

7.30.2012 VAUDOIS (WALDENSES) I - EARLY HISTORY

taken from 'history of the waldenses', vol. 1,by alexis muston, 1875..a brief chronological history of the vaudois from the times of the apostles until the beginning, in earnest, of the inquisition launched against them by the roman church in the twelth century..seeking to give a sense, generally, of their beliefs and of their pastors whom they call barbas.
(note: although wycliffe, in england did not know of them, they had the word of God in their own tongue without interruption)
p4...in the first centuries of the christian era, each church founded by the disciples of Christ had a unity and an independence of its own. they were united by the same faith, but that faith was not imposed by authority upon any one. each of these churches thus had its independent organization, as each individual may have his particular constitution and mode of life, whilst the general characters of human life are common to all men. that desire for a visible unity, which characterizes all human governments, impelled the emperor constantine to seek the union of all the christian churches of the empire under a uniform legislation. the spirit of domination soon extended from the civil government to the ecclesiastical;
the institution of the patriarchs (council of constantinople, in 381, gave title of 'patriarch' to the bishops of rome, constantinople, alexandria and antioch)
preceded that of the papacy; (boniface III, in 1607, received for the first time the title of ecumenical bishop or universal pontiff)
the latter was slowly matured (the principal institutions of catholicism, the celibacy of the priests, ecclesiastical investiture, etc. are to be referred to the days of gregory VII who was elected pope in 1073)
and the exclusive character which its organization finally assumed, caused the separation which then took place between the eastern and western churches. (this schism, long foreseen upon account of a number of increasing differences which the autonomy of the christian churches at that period still permitted to subsist, may be regarded as completed in 1054, by the excommunication which leo IX pronounced against the patriarch of constantinople.)

scarcely had this rupture taken place when popery stirred up the crusades (the first was preached by urban II to the councils of plancentia and of clermont, in 1095 and 1096),
and soon afterwards those internal persecutions by which it effected the destruction of the albigenses. but down to this time the bible had been read in the vulgar tongue in france (the council of toulouse, 1129, prohibited the reading of the bible in the vulgar tongue)
and in piedmont the diocese of milan maintained its independence,
the ambrosian ritual preserved there the recollections of the 4th century and the vaudois could still find shelter and peace behind this venerated shield. (this diocese comprehended, among other areas the cottian alps in the border area between france and italy, where the vaudois valleys are)

ST. AMBROSE did not acknowledge any authority on earth as superior to that of the bible;
ans he wished that for the study of it, men would recur to the original text.
if any passage appeared obscure, he did not admit that the word of man should interfere with the word of God in order to determine its sense,
but HE RECOMMENDED THE CHRISTIAN TO ENDEAVOUR TO DECIDE FOR HIMSELF THE DOCTRINAL IMPORT OF OBSCURE PASSAGES, BY COMPARING THEM WITH OTHER PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE RELATING TO THE SAME SUBJECT.
the bible was to be elucidated only by its own light.
moreover, he declared that nobody could pretend to call himself the successor of st peter, unless he had the faith of st. peter;
and he said with regard to a certain pope (liberius), that he was a decided arian.
the sinner, according to him, is justified only by the merits of Christ;
we can derive no merit from our own works,
the sacraments confer no grace of themselves, they are only the visible sign of that which we receive from the saior.
st augustine, who was the disciple of st. ambrose, admitted only 2 sacraments, baptism and the Lord's supper..
nor was ..ambrose..any more a believer in the bodily presence of Christ in the eucharist,
or in the renewal of His sacrifice at each celebration of the sacrament of the supper...
as to the worship of images, he called it paganism.

ambrose ..died in 397..he did not stand alone in the maintenance of these doctrines.
one of his contemporaries, philastrius, bishop of brescia, condemned also..
the worship of images,
maintained the authority of the bible,
rejected that of rome,
rejected also all pretension to meritorious works..
his successor, gaudentius and rufinus of aquileia, maintained the same doctrines. the latter, a simple priest, having been condemned by pope anastasius, as a partisan of the followers of origen; the bishop of aquileia, to whose authority he was immediately subject, maintained him notwithstanding in the post which he occupied, thus affording us a proof of the ecclesiastical independence which the north of italy enjoyed at that period...

the end of this century was disturbed by the invasions of the barbarians. aquileia and milan were ravaged by attila; the huns, the heruli, and the goths successively burst into upper italy; ..rome, with difficulty ..to defend herself, could not then extend over these countries an authority to which they had not been subjected before, and from which we afterwards find them free.

in the commencement of the following century, st. saurence..to..milan, about the year 507, declares, contrary to the opinions at present received among papists, that repentance is the only means by which we can obtain the pardon of our offences, and that pardon cannot come to us by the intercession of any creature whatever, nor by any human absolution, but only by grace and the love of Christ. finally, says he, we must trust in God rather than in men....

about the middle of the 6th century, a par of the bishops of upper italy (ie. venetia, istria and liguria) refused to adhere to the decisions of the council of chalcedon, held in 553; and in 590, nine of them separated themselves from the roman church, or rather they solemnly renewed the protestation of their independence of it. the bishops being then elected by the people of their diocese, we may presume..that the latter were imbued with the same doctrines and with the same spirit.

the permanence of this state of things in upper italy, is attested in the 7th century by a new bishop of milan, mansuetus, 677. to combat the opinion that the pope is the head of the church, he directs attention to the fact that the councils of nice, constantinople, chalcedon, and many others, had been convoked by the emperors and not by the pope. this bishop himself was not afraid to condemn pope honorius as a monothelite; and thus give us a new proof of the independence then enjoyed by the diocese of milan, across which the vau would have been obliged to pass, in order to reach rome.

...and the 8th century still presents us with examples of resistance to the pretensions of the papal see in upper italy. as these pretensions are more strongly urged, we find the resistance also becoming more vigorous in the following centuries, and we can follow its traces quite on to the 12th century, when the existence of the vau is no longer doubted by anybody.

the council of narbonne, at which a number of bishops of upper italy were present, recommended to the faithful no other prayers than the pater and the credo. the council of frankfort, at which also italian prelates were present, formally condemned the worship of images. st. paulinus, bishop of aquileia, maintained, like his predecessors,
the symbolical character of the eucharist,
the nullity of satisfactory works,
the sovereign authority of the bible in matters of faith, and
the efficacious mediation of one only mediator between God and man, even Jesus Christ.

but the grasping ambition of the church of rome, overcoming by degrees the resistance made in quarters nearest to its centre of action, forced back towards the chain of the alps, the limits, still becoming narrower, of that independence inherited from past ages, which had at first opposed it over the whole of upper italy. this independence was defended, in the 9th century, by claude of turin; in whom, at the same time, we behold the most distinguished advocate of evangelical doctrines whom that age produced. whilst the bishop of milan contented himself with deploring the corruption of the roman church, by which he had been reduced to subjection, but in whose iniquities he did not take part, the bishop of turin boldly declare against the innovations which she had so long sought to introduce into the sphere of his influence and power. the numerous wors of this prelate on different books of the bible, had prepared him for defending it against the attacks of popery; and strong in the might of truth, claude of turin owned Jesus Christ as the sole head of the church, attached no value to pretended meritorious works, rejected human traditions, acknowledged faith alone as securing salvation, ascribed no power to prayers made for the dead, maintained the symbolical character of the eucharist, and, above all, opposed with great energy the worship of images, which he, like his predecessors, regarded as absolute idolatry.

thus the doctrines which characterized the primitive church, and which still characterize the vaudois church at the present day, have never remained without a witness in the countries inhabited by the vaudois..in the 10th century, atto, bishop of verceil, still appears as their defender; he maintains the authority of the word of God, and does not admit that of the fathers of the church, except in so far as they agree with it; insisting that the church is founded only upon the christian faith, and not upon the pre-eminence of any..pontif-that the pope has no administrative authority beyond the see of rome and that all the faithful ought to partake of the eucharist...

in the 11th century, although there were already numerous monasteries in lombardy, the vows of those who entered them were not yet rendered irrevocable by any other authority than that of their own consciences; and in the 12th century all the priests of upper italy were still free from the yoke of the celibate. this independence, so long disputed by rome and maintained by the lombard clergy, was a protecting shield for the vaudois valleys.

thus we see that the apostolic church of italy, disowned and proscribed by papal pride, gradually retired from rome, withdrew into upper italy, and sought a retreat in the wilderness to preserve her purity. we see her first sheltered in the diocese of milan, where popery still pursues her. she then retires into the diocese of verceil, and thither also the hostile pretensions of popery are extended. she takes refuge in the diocese of turin, but popery still gains upon her and at last she seeks an asylum in the mountains. we find her in the vaudois valleys!

the inhabitants of these valleys, previously unregarded, became an object of attention from the 12th century, not because they were new opponents of rome's domination, but because they remained alone in their opposition.
 (note: the Inquisition began at this time, an attempt by the roman church to take the offensive and seek out and either convert or destroy until only the roman church was left. this was aimed at the cathari in france, a group which did not follow orthodox christian belief, witches, etc. and...the vaudois which they pursued incessantly for about one half of a millenium (ie. into the 17th century) without being able to destroy or convert though murdering many and creating a host of christian martyrs who would not turn from following the bible.)
rendered distinct by her isolation, their church found her own pale a separate one for this reason only, that she herself had never changed. but as they did not form a new church, they could not receive a new name; and because they inhabited the valleys, they were called vaudois (their french name).

let us now see how these events are reflected in their own writings.

st. peter and st. james, in addressing their epistles to THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, show us that it was something very different from CATHOLICISM. they meant by the Catholic Church the whole body of christians of that time-christians who were apostolic. now the vaudois, in their most ancient works, written in the romance tongue, at a date when there existed schismatical sects which have now disappeared, speak of themselves always as being in union with the Catholic Church, and condemn THOSE WHO SEPARATE FROM I, but at the same time, the doctrines which they set forth in their works are only those of the primitive Catholic Church, and not at all those of later Catholicism. the successive corruptions which gradually constituted it, were everywhere introduced BY SMALL DEGREES, and did not for a long time reach the threshold of their secluded valleys.

when they did become known there, the vaudois boldly stood up against that variety of INVENTED THINGS, which they called a horrible heresy, and unhesitatingly pointed them out as the cause of why the church of rome had departed from the primitive faith. they no longer give to popery the name of the Catholic Church, but speak of it as the Roman Church; and then also they openly separated from it, because it was no longer the primitive church such as theirs had been left to them by their fathers, but a corrupt church., delighting in vain superstitions...

thus the name vaudois, in its original use, did not designate a particular sect, but merely the christians of the valleys. when this name had become a term of reproach among the papists, the ignorance of the middle ages made it synonymous with magician or infidel; but the vaudois themselves called themselves only by the name of christians, and above all, endeavoured to merit it...
we find, accordingly, that the writers nearest to the time of valdo (peter waldo) do not speak of the vaudois as if they were the disciples of that reformer, but present them to our notice as if they derived their origin from their valleys. moreover, it was in these valleys that, according to writers of the same country, opponents of the vaudois, peter de bruys, the precursor of valdo, was born; from which it would follow that the doctrines common to these two reformers must have been known in these valleys before the appearance of valdo. these doctrines, in fact, are already alluded to before that period and even in official documents.

the edict of otho IV, of ..1209, ascribes to the vaudois of piedmont a notoriety and an influence so great, that it may be presumed they were already of long standing in the country...

the vaudois of the alps are, in my opinion, primitive christians, or descendants and representatives of the primitive church, preserved in these valleys from the corruptions successively introduced by the church of rome into the religion of the gospel. it is not they who have separated from catholicism, but catholicism which has separated from them by changing the primitive religion.(note-the encyclopedia britannica takes the view that they date from the time of peter waldo and were his disciples...but i think i am won over by the evidence and reasoning of this author)

hence arises the impossibility of assigning any precise date for the commencement of their history. the church of rome, which at first also was a part of the primitive church, did not change all at once; but as it became powerful, it adopted, along with the sceptre, the pomp, the pride and the spirit of domination which usually accompany the possession of power; whilst, in the retirement of the vaudois valleys, that primitive church was reduced to an obscure existence, retaining its freedom in its isolation, and thenceforth little tempted to abandon the pure simplicity of its first days. the independence of the diocese of milan, to which the christians of the alps then belonged and that of which the episcopal see of turin gave evidence, by opposing the worship of images in the 9th century, must have contributed to their security in that situation...

the vaudois valleys could not always preserve that unnoticed independence in which their security consisted. catholicism having gradually attired itself in new forms of worship unknown to the apostles, made the contrast daily more striking between its pompous innovations, and the ancient simplicity of the vaudois. in order, therefore, to reduce them to the despotic unity of rome, there were sent against them the agents of a ministry equally unknown to apostolic times. these were the inquisitors. in consequence of the resistance which they encountered in these retired mountainous regions, the valley of lucerna was placed under ban. but this measure served only to make more manifest the line of demarcation betwixt the 2 churches; for whilst the vau had not schismatically separated themselves from the catholic church, whose external forms they still retained, they had their own clergy, their own religious service and their own parishes.

THE BARBAS...their pastors were designated barbas. (a title of respect; in the vau idiom literally signifying and uncle.) it was in the almost inaccessible solitude of a deep mountain pass that they had their school, where the whole influences of external nature were opposed to anything soft and yielding to the soul. they wer required to commit ti memory the gospels of matthew and john, the general epistles and a part of those of paul. they were instructed..during 2 or 3 successive winters and trained to speak in latin, in the romance language, and in italian. after this they spent some years in retirement, and then were set apart to the holy ministry by the administration of the Lord's supper and by imposition of hands. they were supported by the voluntary contributions of the people. these were divided annually in a general synod: one part was given to the ministers, one to the poor and the third was reserved for the missionaries of the church.

these missionaries always went forth 2 and 2, to wit, a young man and an old one. the latter was called the regidor and his companion the coadjutor. they traversed italy, where they had stations organized in many places and secret adherents in almost all the towns. at venice they reckoned 6000; at genoa they were not less numerous. vignaux speaks of a pastor of the valley of lucerna, who was away from it for a period of 7 years. the barba jacob was returning from a missionary tour in 1492, when he was arrested by the troops of cattanee on the col de coste-plane, as he passed from the valley of pragela to that of freyssinieres; and the records of judicial investigations directed against the vaudois from 1350-1500 and so often quoted by bossuet, make mention also of the characteristic circumstance of these habitual journeys.

what a delightful and truly festival time it must have been to these scattered christians, when the missionary pastor came amongst them, expected all the year with the certainty of the regularly returning seasons!-a time soon past, but fraught with blessings, and in which the fruits of the soul and the harvest of the Lord made progress towards maturity.

each pastor was required to become missionary in his turn. the younger ones were thus initiated into the delicate duties of evangelization-each of them being under the experienced guidance of a man of years, who, according to the discipline of his church, was his superior, and whom he was bound to obey in everything, as matter of duty, and not merely out of deference. the old man, on his part, thus made his preparation for repose, by training for the church successors worthy of it and of himself. his task being accomplished, he could die in peace, with the consolatory assurance of having transmitted the sacred trust of the gospel into prudent and zealous hands.

besides this, the barbas received instructions in some trade or profession, by which they might be enabled to provide for their won wants. some were hawkers, others artisans, the greater part physicians or surgeons, and all were acquainted with the cultivation of the soil and the keeping of flocks, to the care of which they had been accustomed in their early years. very few of them were married; and their perpetual missions, their poverty, their missionary tours, their life always spent amidst warfare and dangers, make it easy to understand the reason of their celibacy. (footnote: the barbas fo not appear to have had a particular dress. an eyewitness describes them clothed in a long white woollen robe ..others have seen some of them wearing a gray dress..)

in the annual synod, which was held in the valleys, inquiry was made concerning the conduct of the pastors and changes of residence were made amongst them. the barbas actually employed in the ministry, were changed from place to place every 3 years-two of them always exchanging places with one another, except the aged men, who were no longer removed. a general director of the church was named at each synod, with the title of president or moderator. the latter title became more prevalent, and continues to this day.

the vau barbas were bound to visit the sick, whether sent for or not. they nominated arbiters in disputes; they admonished those who behaved ill, and if remonstrances produced no effect, they went the length of excommunication; but it was very rare. their preaching, catechizing and other exercises of instruction and devotion, were generally similar to those of the reformed churches, except that the worshippers pronounced, with a low voice, the prayer which preceded and that which followed the sermon. the vau had likewise hymns, which they only sung in private; which, moreover, agrees with what we know of the customs of the primitive church.

..the vau had also their own houses of ritirement from the world. in the number of the 32 propositions which were ascribd to them and which were affixed upon the gates of the cathedral of embrun, in 1489, the following occurs, 'they deny that a christian should ever take an oath;. i cannot say, however, that they have anywhere made so absolute a declaration on this subject; but it is certain that they considered it as a fruit of perfection, that the truth should never need from the lips of man the guarantee of any kind of oath. the perfect man, said they, ought not to swear; and these words imply, on th other hand, the lawfulness of oaths, from the very absence of perfection, for no one is perfect here below.

their opposition to the church of rome was always founded upon the bible; (in no polemical writing of the time will we find wo large a number of quotations from the bible as in those of the vaudois...nowhere was the authority of the bible ever more respected.) the character of a christian, according to them, was to be found in the christian life and the christian life was a gift of the grace of God.

the barbas went once a year to each of the scattered hamlets of their parishes, (we many suppose that the district examinations prevailing at the present day in the vaudois church are a relic of this custom. each pastor is bound to go annually to each of the principal hamlets or quarters of his parish, to conduct there a separate religious service, to receive communications, and to give the most confidential advices, according to circumstances.) in order to listen to each person apart in a private confession. but this confession had no other object than to obtain the salutary counsels of christian experience, and not a delusive absolution.

such was, in its pricipal features, the state of the vaudois church of the middle ages. in a poem in the romance language, entitled la nobla leyczon, and which is of the date of the end of the 11th century, or the commencement of the 12th, the va are said to have been already persecuted upon account of their customs and their doctrines. we may form a ready notion of that war of a corrupt world against a people, the severe puity of whose manners condemned at once its disorders and its superstitions. 'if there be any one of whom it is said, that
he will not slander
nor swear,
nor lie,
nor be guilty of dishonesty,
or theft
nor give himself up to dissoluteness,
nor revenge himself upon his eneies
they call him a VAUDOIS, and exclaim,
DEATH TO HIM!
but these were, unquestionably, nothing more than the rsults in particular and isolated instances of that hostility which the spirit of evil always excites in the hearts of worldly persons and impenitent sinners, against the visible fruits of evangelical sanctification.

7.30.2012 IT IS A FACT

that
GOD LOVES YOU...'for God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.' john 3.16

YOU ARE A SINNER...'for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God'. romans 3.23

YOU ARE NOW DEAD  IN SIN...'for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord'

CHRIST DIED FOR YOU...'for while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. for one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. but God demonstrates His own love  toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. romans 5.6-8

YOU CAN BE SAVED BY FAITH IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST...(and after their jailer brought them out),'he said, "sirs, what must i do to be saved?" and they said, "believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved and your household'.

YOU CAN BE SAVED AND KNOW IT...
-the one who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the witness that God has borne concerning His Son.
-and the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son.
-He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. -the things i have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life. I john 5.10-13

YOU ARE NOW A CHILD OF GOD and
YOU ARE TO OBEY HIM. acts 5.29 we must obey God rather than men.

7.28.2012 PRAY BIBLE...

OR DON'T PRAY AT ALL!

GOD ANSWERS EVERY SINGLE PRAYER...

jeremiah 33.3
CALL TO ME
and I WILL ANSWER you
and will tell you great and mighty things,
which you do not know.

HE EITHER SAYS 'YES', 'NO' or 'NOT NOW'

the last answer does not include information on how long. some times He wants us to persist in prayer.

matthew 6.7
ASK and it shall be given you
SEEK and you shall find
KNOCK and it shall be opened to you
for everyone who asks receives
and he who seeks finds and to him who knocks it shall be opened.'

luke 18.1
now He was telling them a parable to show that AT ALL TIMES they ought to
PRAY
AND NOT LOSE HEART

in approaching God in prayer there must be an ABSOLUTE ACCEPTANCE OF WHATEVER HE WANTS

Jesus said, 'pray, then, in this way,
our Father who art in heaven
hallowed be Thy name
Thy kingdom come
THY WILL BE DONE
ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN'. matthew 6.10

'and this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, IF WE ASK ANYTHING ACCORDING TO HIS WILL, HE HEARS US.
and if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask,
WE KNOW THAT WE HAVE THE REQUESTS WHICH WE HAVE ASKED FROM HIM. I john 5:14-5

the only place where we can clearly find out WHAT GOD WILLS IS IN HIS WORD. time for self-examination and reflection is essential.

example: i know the bible says, HUSBANDS LOVE YOUR WIVES... i'm good! no prayer needed here!! wait, in first corinthians 13 we learn that love is patient (not wrathful) so one way i can know that i am loving my wife is that i am not angry at her. but right now i know that i am angry at her and hiding it (or not) and i'm not able to stop being angry. i come to God and say something along the line of
Lord, You say for me to love my wife
right now i am realizing that i am angry with her
help me to see what a deadly sin anger is (matthew 5.21f)
help me not to be angry with her...oh i'm thinking i may even hate her..
oh God have mercy upon me and change my heart...give me a new heart...
i can't forgive her for x, help me to forgive her Lord..
help me to love her (an you sit before the Lord and wrestle in prayer you may experience a release and a change of heart, of inflowing feelings of repentance, regret, willingness to let go of the anger..
you could come away with a hard, cold heart..
you could come away somewhat softened.

often it is a process. often it takes time. but the old saying is a living reality whether experience immediately or not...PRAYER CHANGES THINGS. if its not immediate God may give grace enough to enable you to be honest with where you are at with your wife...it may even lead to prayer together over it...more power...

this is totally manufactured and only represents one of a myriad of ways in which the Spirit of God may work in any situation. the big thing is total transparency and openness with Him (secret: He knows all you know and more...all the junk that's below the line of your conscious recognition..the vast subconscious! where all the vilest of our sins and their wicked, slimy roots reside, thrive and flourish)

GOD IS NOT A COSMIC VENDING MACHINE THAT WE 'OPERATE' TO GET WHATEVER WE WANT, but that is how we often treat Him by the way we approach Him in prayer...or worse, with demands.

someone's in some kind of fix.
we dash off, 'GIVE peace, comfort, safety'. many times if God 'gave' those things it would be the worst possible thing! His purposes would remain thwarted and His will denied. say there is fear and anxiety involved, rather than dash off a spiritual drug prescription, isn't if much better to grapple with the sin involved say in fear and anxiety. make no mistake
FEAR (except if it is of disobeying God) AND ANXIETY ARE ALWAYS SIN no matter what the circumstance may be.

look up the different places where people are commanded by God not to fear/be anxious philippians 4.6-7
pick one out that kind of matches the situation at hand.
admit to God that you are fearful.
ask for His help to trust Him through the situation rather than doubt Him. (jeremiah 17. 5, 7-8)
etc.

prayer is not getting what we want but rather
discovering what God wants in any circumstance by 
letting God search your heart through bringing bible verses and passages to mind, by
crying out to Him to align us
to what He wants in that situation..
to act, to be in accordance with the His word, and, if need be,
to change our hearts of stone into hearts that will be who He wants, to do what He wants...ezekiel 36. 25-7 (this last area is the one i cry to Him most about for i am increasingly aware of how little aligned my heart is to His.

oh God take from us the spirit of anger, bitterness, questioning You and demandingness toward You. forgive us for sitting in judgment on You and thinking we know better. oh give us absolute brokenness before You, willing to do whatever..illuminate my mind and soften and change my wicked heart before You oh Lord! help me totally submit myself to You even to the walking through the inky blackness inhabited by accusing, blaspheming demons..or satan Himself appearing as an angel of light to deceive and draw me away from Your revealed will in the bible (isaiah 8.20)

also...instead of forging ahead..wait upon the Lord. discern where your heart is. be still and know that He is God and let Him examine your heart. in every area, for every command in the bible WHEN YOU SENSE A GAP between where you are in your heart and where you are on the outside (putting on a mask, playing a part) wrestle with God asking Him to change your heart.

for example, don't keep saying 'thank you Lord' on the outside with a pasted on smile, when inside you are rip roaring mad, full of ingratitude and anger...but cry out, Lord help me BE grateful to You in this and in whatsoever You bring. God is more interested in making me completely new, absolutely transformed (romans 12.1) from what i WAS to what i AM right now.

7.28.2012 DO YOU SPEND SECRET TIME WITH GOD EVERY DAY?

ARE YOU SPENDING SET ASIDE TIME BEFORE HIM TO TALK AND COMMUNE WITH HIM? ARE YOU FEEDING YOUR SPIRIT HIS WORD?

psalm 27.4 'one thing have i desired of the Lord
that will i seek after
that i may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life
to behold the beauty of the Lord and
to inquire in His temple.'

exodus 16.21 says 'and they gathered it (manna) morning by morning, every man as much as he should eat; but when the sun grew hot, it would melt. manna (hebrew 'what is it') was  sent from God like the dew to feed the more than 2 million israelites in the desert. for 40 years this was about the only food they had.

this was an old testament symbol of the life giving power of Jesus. in john 6, after He had broken some bread and fed 5000 people, He said to them,
'truly , I say to you, you seek Me, not because by saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the son of man shall give to you, for on Him the Father, even God, has set His seal', v26-7...

truly, truly, I say to you, it is not moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. for the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.' v32-2

I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE; HE WHO COMES TO ME SHALL NOT HUNGER, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. v35

I am the bread of life. your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. this is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread also which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh'. v48-51

and Jesus answered and said to him, 'man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God'. luke 4.4

7.27.2012 TOLERANCE

tolerance-'the capacity to recognize and respect the beliefs of practices of others'- is esteemed very highly these days. and any idea or program that is tied in to tolerance is also highly regarded, it seems. to many americans, tolerance is politically correct. intolerance, on the other hand, is perceived as the most un-american thing one can do. most of this is good. however, it does have its evil side.

in one sense, it is out of place for those of anabaptist descent to sound an alarm about the extremes of the tolerance doctrine. not so long ago, during the reformation, the anabaptists were the victims of bloody persecution by intolerant state churches. the anabaptists appreciated A SOCIETY WHERE INDIVIDUALS COULD OBEY THE BIBLE OPENLY AND FREELY PROMOTE THEIR BELIEFS BY LIFE, TESTIMONY AND PUBLIC PROCLAMATION.  so, while we warn about the extremes of the tolerance doctrine, we are well aware that intolerance has had its deadly extremes in many places.

at the root of the extremes  of tolerance lies the failure to reckon with the truth about the DEPRAVITY OF HUMAN NATURE.

in other words, WHEN MAN IS LEFT TO FOLLOW THE INCLINATIONS OF HIS UNRESTRAINED NATURE, HE WILL DESTROY HIMSELF. TO ALLOW ANOTHER HUMAN BEING TO SELF-DESTRUCT, WHEN YOU COULD HELP HIM OR AT LEAST WARN HIM,
IS CERTAINLY NOT KIND.

a few generations ago,
the un-american thing was
to not teach
morality
self-control
industry, and
accountability
but it has reversed.
today it seems to be an un-american thing to promote these noble principles.

let's take HOMOSEXUALITY, for example. the cry today is to be tolerant of such lifestyles and to equate them with the difference in races.
not so!
anybody with an open mind can clearly see the havoc homosexuality brings upon society and upon the individual. it is no less intolerant to sound the alarm against homosexuality than it is to warn against smoking tobacco or marijuana. both have devastating effects upon people physically and, according to the bible, spiritually also.

ONE IS NOT UNKIND OR INTOLERANT TO TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT ANY SUBJECT. of course, GOD HAS ORDAINED THAT EACH PERSON HAS THE RIGHT TO MAKE HIS OWN CHOICES AND THAT HE IS ACCOUNTABLE TO GOD FOR THEM.

'so then every one of us shall give account of himself to God'. romans 14.12.

FURTHER, THOSE OF US WHO KNOW THE TRUTH WILL ALSO GIVE ACCOUNT TO A HOLY AND RIGHTEOUS GOD IF WE DO NOT WARN THE SINNER ABOUT THE ERROR OF HIS WAY.

'son of man, I have appointed you a WATCHMAN to the house of israel;
whenever you hear a word from My mouth,
WARN them from Me.
when I say to the wicked,
'you shall surely die';
and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live,
that wicked man shall die in his iniquity,
but HIS BLOOD I WILL REQUIRE AT YOUR HAND.
yet if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way,
he shall die in his iniquity,
but YOU HAVE DELIVERED YOURSELF. ezekiel 3. 17-9

these principles, of course, apply to all sins and excesses.

probably one of the greatest abuses and hypocrisies of the tolerance extremists is that they TOLERATE EVERYTHING AND EVERYBODY EXCEPT THOSE WHOM THEY LABEL INTOLERANT. (note: hence they also are intolerant) there are intolerant people and regimes yet today, true, but LET'S NOT DEFINE LICENTIOUSNESS (unrestrained by law or general morality) AS TOLERANCE, OR ACCOUNTABILITY (note: to God) AS INTOLERANCE.

for the most part, our government has been aware of the extremes of both tolerance and intolerance. 'we, as the apostle paul said, have naught to accuse our nation of'. but sometimes we hear of isolated cases where officials have forcibly removed children from the homes of those who fear God and who discipline their children in godly ways. we assume that in so doing the officials thought they were in step with the political ideology of the day, but the totally misread the situation.

nonetheless, let it be clear in our minds that CHILDREN ARE NOT WARDS OF THE STATE. people often ask, 'whose are the children: and what does it take to raise a child-a village or a parent?' well, the answer to that question is clear. whom did cain and abel, the first children, belong to? and what did God provide to raise them-a village or some parents? children need parental love and restraint.

God provided parents for the very first child and for every child since. the child belongs to the parents, and every parent will give account to God for the faithful discharge of that responsibility. God has also directed in His word how parents are to raise their children and how they are to conduct themselves. God has even given principles in His word relating to orphans or truly abused children.

consider another example. IF A SCIENCE TEACHER PRESENTED CLEAR, SYSTEMATIC AND CONVINCING EVIDENCE TO THE EFFECT THAT THERE WAS A UNIVERSAL FLOOD MORE THAN 4000 YEARS AGO, such teacher (in most cases) would be in danger of losing his job. in the academic world there can be discussions about THE HISTORY OF THE EARTH, BUT USUALLY ONLY VARIATIONS OF UNIFORMITARIANISM ARE PERMITTED. (uniform. maintains that developments on earth have been gradual over great periods of time.)

UNIFORMITARIANISM HAS ALSO BEEN APPLIED TO EVOLUTION.  IF THE HUMAN RACE GRADUALLY DEVELOPED FROM APES, THEN THE INDIVIDUAL HUMAN BEING IS NOT MORALLY ACCOUNTABLE. unifor. opposes any teaching about right and wrong. 'TOLERANCE, by this standard, CONTRIBUTES TO MORAL IRRESPONSIBILITY.

MAN ATTEMPTS TO RESTRICT HONEST INVESTIGATION INTO THE CRITERIA BY WHICH SOME THINGS ARE SAID TO RIGHT AND OTHERS WRONG. most people admit a freedom of choice, but MANY  DO NOT WANT THAT CHOICE TO BE POSITIVELY IN FAVOR OF THE BIBLE, NOR DO THEY WANT THE PRECEPTS OF RIGHT AND WRONG TO INCLUDE EVERYBODY. supposedly, human choice will excuse some people from the responsibility to give account to God if they themselves choose not to do so. to make them feel uneasy is 'intolerant'.

in reality, no human being can remove the power of choice from another. by threatening the loss of earthly things, one person may urge another in the direction of wrong choices, but the power of choice is still there. good teaching and environment encourage right choices, but again, the choice is still there. one characteristic of those who are created  in the image of God is that they can choose rationally. they can choose to accept His word and to worship and serve Him or they can choose the opposite.

a developing totalitarian system will seek to eliminate choice or make the wrong choices very easy. this system may be more subtle than that projected by karl marx. it may become more thorough and more cruel than that practiced by hitler and his henchmen. but it can never take away choice. 'the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits' daniel 11.32.  this is true whether the world is tolerant or intolerant of them or whether they even know how to define their own terms.

rod and staff publishers, inc, crockett, ky 41413, 606.522.4348

7.25.2012 LORD, FILL ME TO OVERFLOWING WITH YOUR SPIRIT.

luke 11.1 and Jesus said to His disciples' in response to their request that He teach them to pray..
'when you pray, say:
Father,
hallowed be Thy name
Thy kingdom come
GIVE us each day our daily bread. and
FORGIVE us our sins
for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. and
LEAD us NOT INTO TEMPTATION.'

and He said to them,
'suppose one of you shall have a friend and shall go to him at midnight and say to him, 'friend, LEND me 3 loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and i have nothing to set before him'

and from inside he shall answer and say,
'DO NOT BOTHER ME;
the door has already been shut and
my children and i are in bed;
i cannot get up and give you anything'.

I tell you,
even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend,
yet because of his PERSISTENCE  he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

and I say to you,
ASK, and it shall be given you
SEEK, and you shall find
KNOCK, and it shall be opened to you.
for every one who asks, receives, and
he who seeks, finds, and
to him who knocks, it shall be opened.

now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish
he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he?
or if he is asked for an egg,
he will not give him a scorpion, will he?

if YOU then, BEING EVIL, know how to give good gifts to your children,
HOW MUCH MORE SHALL YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER GIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT TO THOSE WHO ASK HIM?'

oh, give me Your Spirit, Father.
baptize me in
plunge me under and
dye me completely the color of Your holy love and
don't let me up until You are all that can be seen in me.
thank You, Father,
in Jesus' name i pray, amen.

7.25.2012 JESUS MAY COME FOR ME TODAY!

during my quiet time this morning was led to look once again at psalm 90.12 to make another attempt to really understand WHAT 'NUMBER OUR DAYS' REALLY MEANS in everyday words. this time i looked closer at what moses prays the result may be.

the new american standard version  reads,'so teach us to number our days, THAT WE MAY PRESENT TO THEE A HEART OF WISDOM'.

the king james version reads, 'THAT WE MAY APPLY OUR HEARTS UNTO WISDOM'.

i tried and failed to get any help by means of word studies, but then got help from keil's commentary. the hebrew word rendered 'present' and 'apply' is hAbE. it derives it's meaning from agriculture. it signifies 'to carry off, obtain, gain', properly 'to bring in' (ie. 'to the barn'; haggai 1.6). the produce of the field and , in a general way, gain or profit is hence called hebUa, a cognate of the above. keil comments, 'A WISE HEART IS the fruit which one reaps or garners in from such numbering of the days, THE GAIN WHICH ONE CARRIES OFF FROM SO CONSTANTLY REMINDING ONESELF OF the end. (note: or, put in the context of the christian hope (ie. expectation), CONSTANTLY REMINDING ONESELF OF THE  IMMINENT (likely to occur at any moment, impending) RETURN OF JESUS CHRIST FOR ME and the rest of His Church.)

Lord, help me to BELIEVE AND SAY 'JESUS MAY COME TODAY!' often and out loud wherever and whenever..

7.25.2012 SPIRITUAL BRAINSTORM

my mom used to speak of brain storms when i was little. she had them. i have them too. the best way i can describe them is that they are when one good and fruitful thought occurs after another. sometimes they come with such rapidity..but never so quickly as to become disordered and unuseful. they may not all be about one thing. but they are helpful, useful...a blessing, a strength, an encouragement. when in progress the 'storm tumbles them out like so many lovable puppies, a delightful cascade. sometimes they flash and crash for hours on end but, usually, do so in a way that does not hinder what is happening. occasionally though they are so intense that it is hard to continue, with focus, doing what you are at. at times i am moved to record shorthand what the key thoughts/ideas are. i also experience larger, less intense phenomena which can go for an extended time, usually increasing productivity. but i'm becoming a slug and the second kind may be a thing of the past.

most of mine happen in things spiritual. i had one this morning in my time with the Lord. this is happening more often these days..that my time with the Lord just goes on and on. i remember back to all those years when i read the bible through many times, made my prayer lists, did my dead works...i used to pray, still being dead in my trespasses and sins, 'Lord, would You so work in my life that whereas now i count the minutes until the prescribed hour is done (i somehow dimly understood that my time with Him was somewhat akin to a hated and loathed chore and, so, was concerned), would You make the time come when it is hard to pull away, when i just want to stay in Your presence.' that request, from a dead man, is now becoming more and more a reoccurring reality.

it happened this morning...went on several hours...and combined with a spiritual brainstorm. flooding thoughts of You Lord, what to do in and for You, Your praise flowing, the realization of Your goodness, faithfulness, lovingkindness flowing over, basking in the glow coming from the light of Your countenance.

overflood me with Your love. help me believe You. (john 7.37-8) how can one believe in Jesus without believing Him (ie. obeying Him implicitly, completely)

7.25.2012 CONSECRATION II

yesterday i shared a bit of my experience recently with 'consecration'..you know 'everything for God and nothing for me'. i had to laugh. i was not long into my tale and he began interjecting his reaction. he said, almost exactly, all the things satan had said as he stood on my shoulder and whispered sweet nothings about it in my ear. it probably won't last long. my good .50 invested in gary larsen's 'far side' humor now lies in the recycling center at waste management though. amazing! i haven't been to the periodical reading room at the library where i used to voraciously devour sports info! God did it, not me..that's all i can say. but you wait. next week, satan willing i will have gone through at least 2 gallons of ice cream by then and drunk..and sucked again on the few bitter dregs of this world offers. he also waves in front of me the picture of soon laughing with my pastor friend about the 'over the top' insanity of thinking God would lead anyone to be so stupid and weird as to give up everything else but Him.

i'll look back on this little speed bump on the way to hell as a near encounter with the psychiatric hospital...but i just though ..but i just thought that the old nagging emptiness that insanely thinks to be 'filled' with anything but Him will have become a broken down shack of a refuge in an empty, meaningless world in which i have relegated God back to  a part time, whenever-i-can-fit-Him-in basis rather than the source and end of all i am and do.

i know one thing, as crazy as it seems, that i'm thinking i'll never really be satisfied when He does not completely fill all...but it's insane really! ask anyone..ask a hundred, a thousand, a million, 'how would you like to live a life in which you never do what you want but only what God wants?' the more you ask, the more you will know you are crazy to even consider such an asinine thing!

i can't 'do' consecration. help me Lord. i'm soon...any moment...going to crash and burn. i can't hold on to You this way..doing everything You want and nothing else. i'm too weak. it's either 100% You and the deepest, most complete contentment i've ever known (along with being considered weird, insane, over the edge by all the human beings around me...as they start to realize what's going on )...or it is settling for deep poverty, palpable meaninglessness, wretchedly gumming the 'sweet dregs' of everyone and everything other than You...and settling, in the bargain, for the soul numbing/destroying pain of doing the stupid (characterized by, indicative of, or proceeding from mental (in this case, spiritual) dullness; foolish, senseless)-from an eternal perspective-things i wanna do.

the choice looms before me:
be dismissed as insane or
read and obey the 'how to be your own selfish pig' manual.
i'm so afraid i will choose the easy...
how incredibly much i fear and hate being laughed at and scorned by earthlings.
help me
have mercy on my poor, wretched soul, Lord Jesus

jeremiah 2.13-
'My people have committed two evils
they have forsaken Me,
the fountain of living waters,
to hew for themselves cisterns
broken cisterns
that can hold no water.

7.26.2012 THE PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION

i meet occasionally with a friend for prayer, but pat seems to be into them. she has given me other materials and there is no inner witness. she gave me this along with a testimony of a change that had occurred in connection with this. i usually look over what she gives and read this a few days later. the first statement spoke to me for recently it seems that the Lord is revealing to me a deep inner anger. i have been asking the Lord to reveal my sin and take this as one of many indications that He is doing so in an ongoing way. i have been puzzling over this and sort of stumbling around and groping in the darkness to try and understand this. the first statement i read i sensed that God may use this in my desire to get to the root of this, understand it and with His help come to hate and repent and forsake it. i share this with the prayer that if there is someone else who can possibly be helped by this that the Lord might direct their attention to it. may God use it to set me free from anger and any other hidden sins i do not yet recognize.

as i said above, i have problems with parts but without editing here is the prayer as written..

heavenly Father search my heart and discover the origin of this thought or feeling of ------------

go to the very root of my being and resolve this origin in order to bring every aspect of my spirit, soul and body into harmony with Your truth and my true identity in Christ.

search through every generation, every cellular (?) memory, every action and every expression of this thought/feeling of -------------------

heal me completely according to the finished work of Jesus until Your life, light, love, truth, righteousness, peace and joy empower me to completely forgive myself for every
inappropriate expression,
distorted perception, and
destructive behavior,
and forgive every person, place or circumstance that has contributed to this thought or feeling of ---------

i choose to express my love for myself and my right as a child of God by allowing every mental, emotional, spiritual and physical disease and inappropriate behavior based on this root problem recorded in my DNA to be transformed.

i choose being------
i choose feeling---------
i am-----------

it is done! it is finished; it is mine by the resurrection of Jesus!

thank You, Holy Spirit for the grace to live in the fullness of my identity as a child of God and a new creation in Christ.

i give You thanks, Jehovah my Healer, who is good and only good. you are my God, my strength, my hope and my salvation!

express your personal love and appreciation to Him!

7.25.2012 PSALM 109: TO BE SUNG BY THE PERSECUTED CHURCH

the heading 'for the choir director' means that this is to be sung at the temple of God...and when there is no temple...when the temple is destroyed or non-existent in any place on earth... IT IS TO BE SUNG OR CHANTED, by any disciple of christ individually or as a church (2 or more disciples gathered), TO THE LIVING GOD who in the person of Jesus Christ lives within by His Spirit.

it is to be sung by disciples, wherever they may be on earth, when they are under active attack....as Jesus says, 'on account of Me'. it is one of what people who study the bible call an imprecatory (to invoke or call down evil or curse, as upon a person) psalm. several others i have found recently are psalms 74 and 79. i believe there are others. they are for the time until the end of what is called the church age when Jesus comes back for all His then living and previously living disciples and takes them out of this world in the same manner He left His disciples after His resurrection in jerusalem. this is called the rapture and is told of  in I thessalonians 4.13-8. then after a short period of great tribulation for the whole earth. Christ Jesus and all His disciples will come and He will reign on earth for 1000 years and the disciples with him. one thing that the disciples will do during this time..before all time will end.. is mentioned is in psalm 149.5f..

'let the saints be joyful in glory
let them sing aloud upon their beds
to EXECUTE VENGEANCE UPON the heathen and
PUNISHMENTS upon the people
to bind their kings with chains and
their nobles with fetters of iron
to EXECUTE UPON THEM THE JUDGMENT WRITTEN
this honor have all the saints.

the disciples' use of the imprecatory psalms, during this time before Jesus comes back..IT MAY BE TODAY!.. is to partake of the same spirit that will animate what is written above in psalm 149 in that next period of time to come. now it is a mournful beseeching...suffering through until..if necessary..released by death into the presence of Jesus...but always assured that judgment is coming. then it will take the form of actively bringing upon those who deserve it, the judgment of God. now is the time for patient suffering. some day, possibly soon, will be the time to carry out God's judgment on those who are the cause of the christian disciples' suffering and many times martyrdom. we take heart and hopefully no matter what happens before Jesus returns for us, we pray for God to give us the grace to

BELIEVE WHAT HE SAYS
blessed are you when men
cast insults at you and
persecute you and
say all kinds of evil against you..falsely
on account of Me (keep loving your enemies..no matter what they do!)  (matthew 5.11)

BE GIVEN THE GRACE TO BE WHO HE WANTS US TO BE
REJOICE and
BE GLAD
FOR YOUR REWARD IN HEAVEN IS GREAT
for so they persecuted the PROPHETS (keep speaking His words..no matter what!) who were before you.
(matthew 5.12)

PSALM 109

HOLD NOT THY PEACE, o God of my praise. for
the mouth of the wicked and
the mouth of the deceitful
are opened against me
they have spoken against me
with a lying tongue

they compassed me about also with words of hatred, and
fought against me WITHOUT A CAUSE
FOR MY LOVE they are my adversaries, but
i give myself unto prayer.
and they have rewarded me evil for good
and hatred FOR MY LOVE

(imprecation)
set Thou a wicked man over him, and
let satan stand at his right hand
when he shall be judged, let him be condemned, and
let his prayer become sin
let his days be few, and
let another take his office
let his children be fatherless,
and his wife a widow
let his children be continually vagabonds and beg
let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places
let the extortioner catch all that he hath, and
let strangers spoil his labour
let there be none to extend mercy unto him
neither let there be any to favor his fatherless children
let his posterity be cut off, and
in the generation following let their name be blotted out
let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord, and
let not the sin of his mother be blotted out
let them be before the Lord continually
that He may cut off the memory of them from the earth
....because that

he remembered not to show mercy, but
persecuted the poor and needy man,
that he might even slay the broken in heart....

as he loved cursing, so let it come unto him
as he delighted not in blessing, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones
let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually
LET THIS BE THE REWARD OF MINE ADVERSARIES FROM THE LORD,
and of them that speak evil against my soul

but DO Thou for me, O God the Lord, for Thy Name's sake (EXPRESS YOUR TRUST IN HIM!)
because Thy mercy is good
DELIVER Thou me, for

(NOW POUR OUT YOUR HEART AND TELL YOUR LOVER all about it!)
i am poor and needy and
my heart is wounded within me
i am gone like the shadow when it declineth
i am tossed up and down as the locust
my knees are weak through fasting, and
my flesh faileth of fatness
i became also a reproach unto them
when they looked upon me they shaked their heads.

HELP me, O Lord my God
O SAVE me according to Thy mercy
that they may know that this is Thy hand (OH HOW I WANT YOUR GLORY my dear savior!)
THAT THOU, LORD, HAST DONE IT
LET THEM CURSE, but
BLESS THOU
when they arise, LET THEM BE ASHAMED, but
LET THY SERVANT REJOICE
LET mine adversaries BE CLOTHED WITH SHAME, and
LET THEM COVER THEMSELVES WITH THEIR OWN CONFUSION, as with a mantle

I WILL GREATLY PRAISE THE LORD with my mouth
YEA, I WILL PRAISE HIM AMONG THE MULTITUDE
for He shall stand at the right hand of the poor
to save him from those that condemn his soul. (BEGIN AND END IN FAITH!

7.24.2012 MODESTY WHY?

today more and more women are discovering the principle of modesty as they read God's word. they are appalled by modern society's lack of it, or their own conscience is troubled as God convicts them.

modesty was defined in noah webster's original 1828 dictionary as
'not forward or bod;
not boastful
not loose or lewd
not excessive or extreme
moderate
decent
in females it is used synonymously with chastity or purity of manners'.
webster reflected biblical principles that early american homes, churches and schools were established on.

the world book dictionary defines it as
'freedom from vanity
the quality of being shy or bashful
the quality of being decent or chaste
not calling attention to one's body'.

why do we need modesty?
1. God said so.
'in like manner also, that WOMEN ADORN THEMSELVES in modest apparel,
with shamefacedness and sobriety
not with broided hair, or gold or pearls or costly array
but (which becometh women professing godliness)
WTIH GOOD WORDS.' (I timothy 2.9-10)
'likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation (behavior, manner of living)  of the wives; while they behold your CHASTE CONVERSATION COUPLED WITH FEAR. (I peter 3.1,2)

..3. we are not to cause others to stumble.
'but i say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.' (matthew 5.28)
if looking has such an effect on a man, then women do men a great disservice by dressing immodestly.

'he that loveth his bother abideth in the light and THERE IS NONE OCCASION OF STUMBLING in him.' (I john 2.10)
'let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a STUMBLING BLOCK or an OCCASION TO FALL in his brother's way.' (romans 14.13)

4. weights and sins impede our progress in God's kingdom. (note: deliberately causing another person to covet may be a thrill but this very thing makes it harder to be the person God intended them to be for His glory.)
'wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every WEIGHT and the SIN which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us'. (hebrews 12.1)

modesty involves clothing, but is also an attitude, as the definitions showed. WE NEED MODESTY IN BOTH CLOTHING AND ATTITUDE. women who desire God's modesty will reflect it in their dress and actions. how serious it is to impede our progress in holiness or cause someone else to sin because we take our way instead of God's.)

5. God will judge immodesty.
'moreover the Lord saith, because the daughters of zion are
haughty and
walk with stretched forth necks and
wanton eyes,
walking and mincing as they go, and
making a tinkling with their feet:
therefore the Lord will
smite with as scab, the crown of the heads of the daughters of zion, and the Lord will
discover their secret parts...

and it shall come to pass, that
instead of sweet smell...there shall be stink
instead of a girdle...a rent
instead of well set hair ...baldness
instead of a stomacher...a girding of sackcloth
and
burning instead of beauty.' (isaiah 3.16,17,24)

how about you? are you forward, bold, flirtatious, or boastful?
do you dress in a lewd or tempting, form-fitting manner, or with costly array?
or as you dressing...and acting...to please God?

'who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies'. (proverbs 31.10)

rod and staff publishers, inc.  crockett, ky 41413    telephone 606.522.4348

7.23.2012 READY TO HIT THE FINANCIAL BRICK WALL?

world, 5.19.12, p12...when the u.s. senate on a procedural vote, killed the so-called buffet rule last month, even some liberal lawmakers and pundits said it was more about politics than economics. the rule would have imposed a 30% tax on all income for people making more than 2 million a year and would have generated about 5 billion a year in additional tax revenue, or about 0.2% of total tax revenue.

the bottom line: a tax increase, even a dramatic one, will not solve the debt problem, and a tax increase brings with it the probability of sending much needed capital to other countries. the following chart looks at the federal budget and then eliminates 8 zeros, bringing the problem into sharper focus.

u.s. federal budget in numbers we can all understand:

u.s annual tax revenue                                                                      $2,340,000,000,000
federal annual spending budget                                                         $3,590,000,000,000
new annual debt from overspending this year                                    $1,250,000,000,000
national debt                                                                                  $15,400,000,000,000
last year's budget                                                                                  $38,500,000,000

now remove 8 zeros and pretend it's a household budget:

annual family income                                                                                           $23,400
$ the family spends annually                                                                                $35,900
new debt added to credit cards                                                                           $12,500
outstanding balance on credit cards                                                                   $154,000
total cuts to the family budget                                                                                   $385

our country is so concerned about the upcoming presidential election. the predominance of attention to the so called 'power position' tells me one thing. the people that currently live here feel that they are not able to take care of themselves. most all are already bonifide slaves with the titles of 'free' and 'brave' stenciled on their foreheads like an advertisement promising what it has no power to produce.

if we were all responsible...or at least enough of us to form the majority necessary, we would have long ago begun to systematically impeach government officials at every level who budgeted a nickel more than what a reasonable tax rate would support. the trouble is there are not enough of us.

oh that i would be responsible enough to be content with just enough (food and simple covering from the weather) to live...and that you would be too..

7.22.2012 IS TOTAL CONSECRATION POSSIBLE?!

1.CONSECRATE-set apart or dedicate to the service of a deity (note: in the case of Jesus i would amend webster's definition to, either, set oneself apart..or be set apart by God to be His continual slave)

2.DEDICATE-devote wholly or earnestly

3A.DEVOTE-
to GIVE UP TO or
APPROPRIATE TO or
CONCENTRATE ON A particular pursuit, occupation, PURPOSE, cause, etc.

3B.EARNESTly-
SERIOUS in intention, purpose or effort;
sincerely ZEALOUS;
showing DEPTH AND SINCERITY OF FEELING;
seriously IMPORTANT;
FULL seriousness

4A. APPROPRIATE-set apart for some specific purpose or use

4B. CONCENTRATE-
-bring to a common CENTER or point of union
-direct toward one POINT
-FOCUS;
-put into a SINGLE place
-INTENSIFY
-make/become denser, stronger or PUREr
-BRING ALL efforts, faculties, activities TO BEAR ON ONE THING
-come to a COMMON center

4C. PURPOSE
-the REASON FOR which something (in this case someone) exists ( EXISTENCE)
-INTENDED or DESIRED RESULT, END, AIM, GOAL
-DETERMINATION, RESOLUTION

4D. SERIOUS- characterized by DEEP THOUGHT

4E. ZEALous-FERVOR for a person, cause or object;
-EAGER DESIRE OR ENDEAVOR
-ENTHUSIASTIC DILIGENCE
-ARDOR

4F. DEPTH- INTENSITY

4G. SINCERity- 
-FREE OF DECEIT, HYPOCRISY OR FALSENESS;
-GENUINE, REAL
-UNMIXED, UNADULTERATED

4H. FEELing-
-BE(COME) CONSCIOUS OF
-BE EMOTIONALLY AFFECTED BY
-EXPERIENCE THE EFFECTS OF
-HAVE A PARTICULAR SENSATION/ IMPRESSION OF
-HAVE A GENUINE/THOROUGH CONVICTION OF
-THINK,
-BELIEVE
-HAVE A SENSATION OF BEING

4I. IMPORTant-
-BE OF CONSEQUENCE, MATTER

4J. FULL
-COMPLETE
-ENTIRE
-MAXIMUM

SERIOUS-
showing DEEP THOUGHT;
of GRAVE or SOMBER manner
NOT TRIFLING
requiring.. APPLICATION

after going through this little exercise i come up with something like: everything for God and nothing for me.

this all arose because in 2011 i felt that God was calling me to something along this line...and i consciously pulled back. in fact i  went on an unparalleled binge of ice cream eating, tv sports watching, reading and , in general, avoiding things i felt i ought to do...even to the point of barely taking care of absolutely basic life responsibilities. so i guess that was my answer. no.

but i keep praying..am in deep misery and concern over how God has been bringing into my consciousness a growing awareness of my sin and its horrendous nature..and this has nothing to do what i just mentioned above..and have recently been sensing that some of the strangleholds mentioned above are relaxing a bit. then in the last week i let go watching any of the summer olympics..and this was really a bit painful, the reading of the sports page and sports illustrated. i have stopped listening to sports radio, even kyw. on saturday i got gallery 3 by gary larsen at a book sale for .50 and started whiffing through it with great pleasure and gusto..but...it's kind of hard to put into words...but i sensed that this enjoyment..along with so many others..was crowding God out. putting Him in a ramshackle old, broken down room with no light and heat..that by tiny increments i was being taken over. or to put it another way i was giving myself over to things-ALL GOOD AND FINE AND ALL THAT STUFF- that were choking , literally choking the Life of God out of me. honestly.

normal people would say this is all nuts..and i kind of agree. as far as mySELF goes, i totally and firmly am in agreement that this is all nut. i will probably experience a spiritual tsunami of a negative reaction any minute now..much greater than what i experienced last year. i'm just waiting for the inevitable to happen. this giving all, meaning ALL, meaning everything E-V-E-R-Y   S-I-N-G-L-E  F-R-E-A-K-I-N'  T-H-I-N-G!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! to God..it's just beyond possibility.

i've never known anyone that i perceived was living like that, did you?! i once read a book by amy carmichal (sp?) i think called 'god's missionary'. in it she told of her struggle as a young missionary. all the other older missionaries on the field made time in their lives for parties, amusements etc. but amy didn't feel comfortable doing these things. she even came to the point where she didn't feel comfortable reading books that did not specifically bring her closer to God. i've never forgotten that little book. i don't think God wants me to.

7.21.2012 SEXUAL ABUSE (DAN ALLENDER)

world, 6.30.12, p59..

..at a 21 hour Abuse Helpers conference at largo community church in mitchellville, md...'this jewish-background psychologist, narrating wild tales with his hands, challenges victims to explore their own stories. he explains how human beings, designed to enjoy sex, often experience pleasure in the midst of abuse. for many in the room, he is the first to address this ambivalence and shame and to insist that in the shame and in the particulars of individual stories, victims can find the face of .

the audience is full of churchgoers. he lays out numbers: if you have 10 people in your bible study, 5 women and 5 men, at least 3 women and 2 men have been sexually abused and feel the lingering effects of shame.

in The wounded heart: Hope for adult victims of childhood sexual abuse, al writes that MANY PEOPLE WOULD ONLY CONSIDER THEIR PAST EXPERIENCE ABUSIVE IF IT HAD BEEN MORE SEVERE OR HAPPENED TO SOMEONE ELSE. he lays out an expansive def of SEXUAL ABUSE: ANY CONTACT OR INTERACTION (VISUAL, VERBAL, OR PSYCHOLOGICAL) BETWEEN A CHILD/ADOLESCENT IS BEING USED FOR THE SEXUAL STIMULATION OF THE PERPETRATOR OR ANY OTHER PERSON'.

al has critics. some think he refers too infrequently to Christ as the route to redemption and the way to glimpse the face of God. some object to al's emphasis on personal story and recovered memories. others suspect that he sticks too closely to psychological categories rather than rooting his counsel directly in the bible.

al responds to the sharpest criticism-that he is a wolf in sheep's clothing, leading people away from the gospel with gospel language: 'if that's true...then may i be anathema'.

after stepping down as president of mars hill graduate school in seattle (now the seattle school of theology and psychology), al wrote the book Leading with a limp. now he meets clients in his office in seattle, where he  sits in a tawny chair in front of a brick wall, hears stories of abuse, and INVITES PEOPLE not to methods but TO A WRESTLING MATCH WITH GOD.

attendees at al events do not ask normal questions in the restrooms between sessions. they do not smile and inquire, 'what brings you here?' they ask questions like, 'when you read The wounded heart, did you throw it against the wall?' they respond, 'yes' or 'i wanted to throw it at my therapist' or 'are you kidding? that book threw me against the wall'.

sexual abuse victims see themselves in the book, first published in 1990. they underline:  black lines march through almost the entire second-hand copy of one owned by a tenacious blue eyed woman who flew to the maryland conference from bemidji, minn. names scrawled into the margins, identifying other victim, came from the guy who had the book before her. everyone knows that if you have a copy of The wounded heart, you will always give it away to someone else who needs it.

al himself was sexually molested by a scoutmaster when he was 11 and abused by a camp counselor 4 months later. al grew up with a father , deeply kind but avoidant, who would go days without saying a full sentence. when with his mother, al never knew if he would be dancing on tables or fleeing people she'd offended. left in a bizarre role as an only child, stronger than his father and acting as his mother's confidante, al had a deep sense of the world's disorder.

the family of his best friend, tremper longman, took him in at the age of 13, providing a sense of stability and an idea of what family could be. both families helped make him a therapist, public speaker, and storyteller.

in al's pre-conversion career-he describes it a 'pharmaceutical sales'-he carried a 9 mm. his addictions 'spanned many chemical means'. he smoked the last of his weed on the steps of his seminary before going in to register for classes.

he has devoted his life following his christian conversion to the task of learning-and telling-his own story. HE BELIEVES therapists can take clients no further into their stories than they have gone themselves, and THAT SEXUAL ABUSE IN GENERAL, NOT IN PARTICULAR, SHOULD BE TALKED ABOUT MORE OPENLY, AS SHOULD ANYTHING THAT VIOLATES HUMAN DIGNITY. (note: amen)

his wife, becky, gives him the most joy, followed closely by his 3 children and three grandchildren. flyfishing helps knit the family together. for al, as an only child, COMING TOGETHER AS FAMILY IS AS SWEET AS IT GETS.'  

6.8.2012 LINCOLN: CHARITY TO ALL

...his worst fear, which he repeatedly expressed, was that once the confederate armies were defeated southern soldiers 'would not return to their homes to accept citizenship under a hated rule; and with nothing but desolation and want through the south, the disbanded confederate soldiers would be tempted to lawlessness and anarchy'. consequently his objective was to secure not merely peace but reconciliation. bringing grant, sherman, and admiral david d. porter together for a conference aboard the river queen on march 28, l discussed the approaching end of the war and talked of offering the most generous terms in order to 'get the deluded men of the rebel men of the rebel armies disarmed and back to their homes'. 'let them once surrender and reach their homes, he said, (and) they won't take up arms again. let them all go, officers and all, i want submission, and no more bloodshed...i want no one punished; treat them liberally all round. we want those people to return to their allegiance to the union and submit to the laws'.

...he contemplated giving a limited recognition to interim governments for the specific purpose of withdrawing troops from the confederate armies. he had returned from city point with a new sense of urgency about reconstruction. he now had firsthand knowledge of the devastation wrought by the war and a fuller understanding of the suffering it had cause soldiers and civilians in the south. more strongly than ever he felt that immediate action must be taken to restore stability in the conquered region. 'civil government must be established...as soon as possible, he told welles; there must be courts and law and order or society would be broken up, the disbanded armies would turn into robber bands and guerrillas, which we must strive to prevent'.

7.8.2012 INAUGURATION DAY, MARCH 4, 1865

...began wet and windy. it had been raining for several days in washington and the streets were a sea of mud at least 10 inches deep. during the previous week delegations from all parts of the country had been arriving in the capital, and all the hotels were full, with willard's accommodating overflow guests on cots in the hallways and parlors. despite the abominable weather, a crowd began to gather at the east front of the capitol before ten o'clock, and by the time the ceremonies began at noon, the spectators were sodden. women, wearing their long, cumbersome dresses, were in a 'most wretched, wretched plight', noah brooks observed; crinoline was smashed, skirts bedaubed, and moire antique, velvet, laces, and such dry goods were streaked with mud from end to end'.
first came the swearing in of the vice president, which took place in the senate chamber. andrew johnson had hoped to remain in tennessee to witness the installation of a new, loyal state government under a constitution with 'the foul blot of slavery erased from her escutcheon' (a shield or shieldlike surface upon which a coat of arms is portrayed), but l and his advisers felt that it was unsafe for him not to be in washington on march 4. exhausted from the long trip, unsteady from a recent bout of typhoid fever, johnson asked for some whiskey to calm his v=nerves. he was especially sensitive to alcohol, and the drink went to his head. in a long, maudlin (tearfully or weakly emotional) speech he boasted of his plebeian origins and reminded the embarrassed members of the supreme court, the cabinet, and even the diplomatic corps-'with all your fine feathers and gewgaws'-that they were but creatures of the people. l had to sit silently through johnson's ramblings and on observer noted that he 'closed his eyes and seemed to retire into himself as though beset by melancholy reflections'. when johnson finally finished and took the oath, the president leaned over to the parade marshal and whispered, 'do not let johnson speak outside'.

then the presidential party moved onto the platform at the east front of the capitol as l's tall figure appeared, 'cheer upon cheer arose, bands blatted (bleat) upon the air, and flags waved all over the scene'. after the sergeant-at-arms of the senate quieted the crowd, the president stepped forward holding a half sheet of foolscap on which his inaugural address was printed in 2 columns. at just that moment the sun burst through the clouds and flooded the scene with light; chief justice chase saw it as 'an auspicious omen of the dispersion of the clouds of war and the restoration of the clear sunlight of prosperous peace'.

in his clear, high-pitched voice that reached even the outer edges of the huge crowd. l read one of the shortest inaugural address in american history (703 words) and also the most memorable. he began by reminding his listeners that at this time there was 'less occasion for an extended address' outlining policy than there had been at his firs inauguration. during the past 4 years of war, he noted in a tone of weariness, 'public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest'. consequently he could devote the larger part of his address to an explanation of the origins of the conflict and an examination of its significance.

it was a remarkably impersonal address. after the opening paragraph, l did not use the first-person-singular pronoun, nor did he refer to anything he had said or done during the previous 4 years. notably lacking from his brief account of how the war began was any attribution of blame. 'all dreaded it-all sought to avert it'. but one of the parties to the conflict -throughout, he carefully avoided referring to the south or the confederacy-would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish'. interrupted by a burst of applause at this point, l continued, 'and the war came'. slavery was 'somehow, the cause of the war'.  it was the one institution that divide the nation. the people of both sections had shared values; they 'read the same bible, and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other'. in his one deviation from impartiality between the sections, l felt obliged to remark that ' it may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but he promptly added, let us judge not that we be not judged'.

l then sought, bot for himself and for the american people, an explanation of why the war was so protracted. his answer showed no trace of any late-at-night anguish over his own responsibility for the conflict. if there was guilt, the burden had been shifted from his shoulders to those of a Higher Power. the war continued because 'the Almighty has His own purposes', which are different from men's purposes. this, l said later was 'a truth which i though needed to be told', because to deny it was 'to deny that there is a God governing the world'.

he might have put his argument in terms of the doctrine of necessity, in which he had long believed; but that was not a dogma accepted by most americans. in an earlier private meditation he had concluded that it was 'probably true-that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end', thinking it 'quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party' to the conflict. but that was to gnostic (understood by or meant for only a select few who have special knowledge) a doctrine to gain general credence. addressing a devout, bible-reading public, l knew he would be understood when he invoked the familiar doctrine of exact retribution, the belief that the punishment for a violation of God's law would equal the offense itself. quoting from matthew, he announced, 'woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!' that warning might seem to apply only to slaveholders, but l had consistently held northerners as well as southerners responsible for introducing slavery and for protecting it under the constitution. consequently, as God now willed to remove the offense of slavery, He gave to both north and south, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came'.

how long, then, would the war last, and when would retribution cease? in the summer of 1864, l had said that the war might go on for 3 more years. more recently he had spoken of another year, or at least another 100 days, of fighting. now he offered no promises. early in the address he said flatly, 'with high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured'. returning to the subject, he made no firmer pledge: 'fondly do we hope-fervently do we pray-that this might scourge of war may speedily pass away'. then he went on to add one of the most terrible statements ever made by an american public official:'
'ye, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, "the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether" .'

this was a harsh doctrine, but it was one that absolved both the south and the north of guilt for the never ending bloodshed. and, by leaving the execution of this sanguinary judgment to the Almighty, l could turn in his final paragraph to the more limited responsibilities of mortals. here he had a chance to voice his deeply held sense of the nations's debt to those who had fought, suffered, and died in the army and navy. recently he had expressed that feeling..to mrs. lydia bixby, a boston widow who, he was told, was 'the mother of 5 sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle'. 'i pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, he wrote her, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom'. now he returned to that theme, promising '[to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan'.

with soaring eloquence l concluded his address: 'with malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; ...to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations'.

after immense applause, l turned to chief justice chase, and, laying his right hand on an open page of the bible, repeated after him the oath of office, ending with an emphatic 'so help me God!' he then kissed the bible and, as a salvo of artillery boomed and the crowd cheered, he began his second term.

except for copperhead journals like the chicago times, which denounced the speech as 'so slop shod, so loose-joined, so puerile' that 'by the side of it, mediocrity is superb', most newspapers gave l's second inaugural address a respectful if somewhat puzzled reception. in general english editors praise it more highly than did the americans. but the washington national intelligencer felt the president's final words, 'equally distinguished for patriotism, statesmanship and benevolence', deserved ' be printed in gold'.

l was not troubled that his address was not immediately popular. he recognized that ' men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them;. but he was pleased when it received praise. he positively beamed when frederick douglass, who was in the throng at the white house reception after the inauguration pronounced it 'a sacred effort'. as l told thurlow weed, he expected it 'to wear as well as-perhaps better than-anything i have produced'. 'lots of wisdom in that document, i suspect,' as he filed away his manuscript.