since september i have come thru one of the most interesting and RELENTLESSLY challenging periods of my entire life...at least the one i still remember. for instance, coming home from a wedding in connecticut last night i had the interesting experience of being stoned by a tractor trailer driver who was crawling slowly along beside me in a two hour traffic jam on the section of Interstate 95 leading up to the George Washington bridge. my reaction to this is that is part of a mosaic of weird and wacky things that are occurring within, spiritually, and without in the sensate world.
during this period, in times of reflection the tale, for some reason, of Gulliver's Travels, has come to mind. once in a blue moon i feel especially 'called' to a book...like i'm supposed to read it. read...some dots are connected. if this is the same i am very curious what message the dots will have.
introduction (i am fascinated to learn about the author in this excellent piece by Louis A. Landa)
7 'let us begin his (JONATHAN SWIFT's) story, not as custom decrees, with his birth, but, perversely, with his epitaph. he penned his own EPITAPH (a pleasant practice now sadly fallen into desuetude), intent on embodying in a few pungent phrases the essential aspect of his character, that special vision he had of himself and wished posterity to respect. although dr. Johnson once remarked that 'in lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath', one feels the incontestable rightness of the commemorative words which Swift wrote into his will, with the request that they be inscribed in black marble, 'in large letters, deeply cut and strongly gilded'.
you remember how it goes, William Butler Yeats wrote. 'it is almost finer in english than in latin:
'HE HAS GONE WHERE FIERCE INDIGNATION CAN LACERATE HIS HEART NO MORE'.
..(of this...) Prof. maurice johnson has remarked in an excellent comment...Swift had in mind a larger liberation, not merely political (though that would be included), but a freeing of the human mind from error and the human spirit from baseness...
8 .. (of Swift)..he was perhaps more apt to exercise than suffer the proud man's contumely. (def. insulting display of contempt or actions) nevertheless, his vision of himself, as suggested by the epitaph, is no misrepresentation. many of his works and much of his career testify to an ABIDING CONCERN FOR THE PLIGHT OF MAN. fierce indignation did lacerate his heart as he observed the shackled human spirit/. the saeva indignatio hints at the wrathful moralist, one utterly incapable of looking at the world with detachment....
11...the book became an ethical or psychological case history, or both, of its author, in which the presumed intolerable misanthropy of Part IV, its debasement of humankind, showed - as S's first biographer maintained - the S himself was the degenerate Yahoo he had so infamously depicted as representative of man. other commentators of the later 18th century took a similar high (note ?im)moral line. a man who could thus libel human nature (note romans 3.10 - there is none good; there is not even one. there is none who understand. there is none who seek God. they are all turned aside. together they have become useless...) must be reflecting, it seemed, his own moral deformity and defiled imagination. inevitably and unconsciously the degraded nature of the author had a subtle influence on literary judgment. the ethical culpability of the writer lent strength to the view that the Fourth Voyage is an artistic failure, as though a Buddist should deny the literary worth of Dante's Divine Comedy or milton's paradise Lost because they are doctrinally unsound. yet it ought to be said to thee honor of the 18th century commentators that they paid the author...the compliment of believing him a sane man. it remained for the 19th century critics to take a new tack and elaborate a less defensible charge. though they readily accepted the view that Part IV could be explained in terms of a depraved author, they added that it might well be explained in terms of mad one...
13 ...born in ireland in 1667, a posthumous child in an Anglo-Irish family of little means, he nevertheless was fortunate enough to receive a good education through the aid of a relative...aged 14, entered trinity college, dublin...remained (there) until early in 1689, when the disruptions of the Revolution of 1688 succeeded the disruptions of post-Cromwellian ireland. reflecting on this period much later, in his AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FRAGMENT (C.1727), he recalled the ill treatment of his relatives, the neglect of his studies, and his sunken spirits: yet his university days certainly did not sour his nature and in the decade that followed 1689 the years were brighter. he passed a considerable portion of his time in england, in the household of sir william Temple as the secretary of that distinguished WHIG
(def. political party in england (1679-1832) that held liberal principles and favored reforms; later called the Liberal party)
statesman and diplomat...
in an interval in his residence with temple, S took an important step. in 1694 he went onto holy orders. there had been a rift with his patron, in what was at best a makeshift relationship, and his decision to enter orders resulted from a deep conviction that the Church was his mission in life than from the necessity of settling himself, an attitude that the 18th century did not find strange. he had been promised a good appointment. instead he found himself, in what must have seemed banishment, relegated to the bleak northeastern coast of ireland as a country vicar of 3 small rundown parishes...
in Kilroot...here, in a diocese recently shaken by scandal, in which the bishop had been deprived and a number of
14 clergymen excommunicated or suspended for such varied offenses as fornication, adultery, drunkenness, neglect of cures and simony, S began his long clerical career of half a century, fully exposed to the spiritual and physical dry rot of the Anglican Establishment in ireland. his parish churches were in decay; the temporalities of he Church had been alienated to laymen and he had only a handful of parishioners to serve. in striking contrast to his own moribund benefices was the flourishing presbyterian Kirk. the circumstances were highly appropriate for developing his detestation of nonconformity and his fear of its power; and we must recollect that his brilliant Tale of a Tub, with its satiric attack on religious dissent, dates from this period of S's career, when the experience of ulster Presbyterianism was fresh enough to give a dark and bitter tinge to that work.
it was an inauspicious and barren beginning for the youthful clergyman, bound to leave lasting impressions. he was soon to suffer another disappointment. leaving his desolate parishes behind, he returned to the household of Temple in 1696 with expectations of a good appointment in england, though not necessarily in the Church. but T's death in 1699 ended his hopes and once again he returned to ireland, this time as domestic chaplain to the earl of berkeley, one of the Irish Lord Justices. even now S thought that he had excellent prospects, preferment to a lucrative deanery, only to find that he was put off with three insignificant country parishes, united under the name of Laracor, and soon afterwards, perhaps as a conciliatory gesture, the prebend of dunlavin in st. patrick's cathedral and came to be looked upon as a rising clergyman in the church of ireland. at the same time he was maintaining his english connections. he published in 1701. in london, where he was then visiting, the first of his political pamphlets, A Discourse of the Contests and Dissensions beween the Nobles and the Commons in Athens and Rome. although this tract has some interest for S's political theory, it is more significant for personal reasons. by means of it he achieved influence and reputation with powerful leaders of the Whigs. several of the Whig statesmen, among them Lord Somers, to whom the Tale of a Tub was later dedicated, had been impeached by the House of Commons. taking advantage of the situation, S came to their defense, thus strengthening his friendly relations with the Whigs which had begun during his residence with Sir William Temple.
15 and with the Whigs in power in 1707, he became a logical emissary to represent the bishops of the irish Church in a matter of moment - a plea to Queen Anne for remission of certain clerical taxes paid to the English Crown, the First Fruits and Twentieth pars, imposts that fell heavily on the already impoverished irish clergymen. the importance of this mission in S's life cannot be over-estimated.in a significant sense this was the beginning of his public career. he appeared in england to make his plea to the Whig leaders and received encouragement from such powerful statesmen as Halifax, Somers, Pembroke and Sunderland. but the most powerful of all, the Earl of Godolphin, the Lord Treasurer, he did not win over -for political reasons. G, and in fact thee Whig government, wished the clergy of the irish Establishment to support legislation in ireland removing the Test Act, an act designed to preserve the exclusive political position of the Anglican Church in that country by excluding all except anglican communicants from holding public offices. if the clergymen of ireland lent their endeavors to this political manoeuvre, which was intended to ease the lot of the dissenters, Queen Anne's first minister indicated to S that he would influence the Queen to remit the First Fruits and Twentieth Parts. S's deepest convictions never received a more severe test. throughout his life he believed that the anglican Church as established by law should be THE church of england and ireland, firmly protected against political encroachments from the dissenters, though he granted the nonconformists the right of conscience and the practice of their beliefs. he never forgot what had happened to the Anglican Establishment under the rule of Cromwell and the Puritans; and the removal of the Test Act he conceived to be a significant step towards returning dissenters to power. much of the intensity of feeling against nonconformity in A Tale of a Tub and the Argument Against Abolishing Christianity derives from his fear that this might occur again. in this respect he was possibly more a man of the 17th than of the 18th century. in any case, at this critical moment in his career, his loyalty to the Church he served remained firm, at the expense of his personal fortune. he expected preferment from the Whigs and had a right to expect it. but he never wavered in his rejection of the terms proposed by the Lord Treasurer. and in what unquestionably were acts of sef-abnegation, he wrote several pamphlets opposing the policy of the Whig ministry and defining the tue principles of a Chruch-of -England man as he conceived them. but the incident left him biter and disappointed. at the same time it helps to explain why his enemies, who occasionally jibed without justice at his religious faith, never mocked at his devotion to the Church - a man, one of them declared, 'whose affection to the Church was never doubted, tho' his Christianity
16 was ever question'd'. in this period, from 1707-10, S grew familiar with the scheming methods of courts and statesmen and with the pointless delays and manoeuvers that could envelop an honorable project. unquestionably some of the cynicism about the political tribe so pervasive in his writing stems from these years. but there were other experiences in these busy months, more satisfying ones, as the widening of his friendships, which included Addison and Steele, the publication of the Bickerstaff Papers and the contributions to The Tatler
the late fall of 1710 proved a decisive point in S's career. it brought his shift in political allegiance from Whig to TORY, (def -member of Conservative party from the late 17th century to about 1832 that favored royal authority over Parliament and the preservation of the existing social and political order..) something his enemies never permitted him to forget though it was logical in all of its aspects. he watched with more pleasure than concern the all of he Whig statesmen who had rebuffed him and the accession to power of moderate Tories under the leadership of robert harley, later the Earl of Oxford, destined to figure so prominently in S's life. early in october he was received by harley , to whom he now made his plea in behalf of the irish clergy. H listened sympathetically, promised his support and, with a keen eye for the practical uses of literary genius, turned S to political journalism...
19...his greatness as a churchman, universally acknowledged, does not derive from defence of theological doctrine. this was not his metier. he was, all the evidence shows, a man of deep and untroubled faith, who thought it folly to enter into controversies about the infallible doctrines of christianity...the threats as he conceived them were social, economic, religious and political and both from within and without the church. he combatted them where he could, often with notable success. but in this sphere, as elsewhere, he had many moments of despair and pessimism. as he approached his 70th year he wrote gloomily, 'i have long given up all hopes of church or christianity'...
20 Swift's clerical profession, his position as dean and dignitary, not only gave him the opportunity, it imposed upon him the obligation to take cognizance of public and private distress. this duty he never scanted, either as a private citizen willingly using his own money or as a public figure with the prestige of his office. it was thus that he became an embodiment of the voice and conscience of ireland and was popularly hailed as the Hibernian Patriot. Yeats would have it that S's heart 'dragged him down into mankind', by which he means (i suppose) that S had a compulsion to express his humanity by sharing man's agonies. this suggests what one cannot miss in
21reading the irish tracts, their remarkable kinship to gulliver's travels. although these lesser works are lamentations over one hapless country, directed at specific evils in the social and economic order, we are always left with a strong sense that basically the troubles derive from the irrational nature of man - his ill use, in the language of gulliver's travels, of that 'small pittance' of reason which has fallen to him 'to aggravate (his) natural corruptions, and to acquire new ones which Nature had not given (him)'.
below are some excerpts from Part IV of Gulliver's Travels entitled 'A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms (note - 'human'?; those so designated are what we would call horses...who, in turn called people they had met, Yahoos.)
186 ( the author, who had just been robbed of his boat and forced onto this island, upon contact with the first living being there, writes...)' the master horse ordered a sorrel nag, one of his servants, to untie the largest of these animals, to take him into the yard. the beast and i were brought close togetheer and our countenances diligently compared, both by the master and servant, who thereupon repeated several times the word yahoo...
the great difficulty that seemed to stick with the two horses, was to see the rest of my body so very different from that of a yahoo, for which i was obliged to my clothes..
190 ..the word Houyhnhnm, in their tongue, signifies a horse, and in its etymology, the perfection of nature.
(note - the rest of this account is much taken up with dialogue between the master horse, who is spoken to and of as, 'your' (and 'his') honour) and the abandoned human traveler who is under his care.)
198 ..my only concern is, that i shall hardly be able to do justice to my master's arguments and expressions, which must needs suffer by my want of capacity, as well as by a translation into our barbarous english.
in obedience therefore to his Honour's commands, i related to him the Revolution under the Prince of Orange; the long war with france entered into by the said price and renewed by his successor the present queen, wherein the greatest powers of Christendom were engaged, and which still continued: i computed, at his request, that about a million of yahoos might have been killed in the whole progress of it and perhaps a hundred or more cities taken, and five times as many ships burnt or sunk.
he asked me what were the usual causes or motives that made one country go to war with another. i answered they were innumerable, but i should only mention a few of the chief. sometimes the ambition of princes, who never think they have land or people enough to govern: sometimes the corruption of ministers, who engage their master in a war in order to stifle or divert the clamour of the subjects against their evil administration. difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether the juice of a certain berry be blood or wine; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post or throw it into the fire; what is the best colour for a coat, whether black, whit, red, or grey; and whether it should be long or short, narrow or wide, dirty or clean, with many more. neither are any wars so furious and bloody or of so long continuance, as those occasioned by difference in opinion, especially if it be in things indifferent.
sometimes the quarrel between two princes is to decide which of them shall dispossess a third of his dominions, were neither of them pretend to any right. sometimes one prince quarrelleth with another, for fear the other should quarrel with him. sometimes a war is entered upon because the enemy is too strong and sometimes because he is too weak. sometimes our neighbours want the things which we have or have the things which we want; and we both fight, till they take ours or give us theirs. it is a very justifiable cause of war to invade a country after the people have been wasted by famine, destroyed by pestilence or embroiled by factions amongst themselves. it is justifiable to
199 enter into a war against our nearest ally, when one of his towns lies convenient for us, or a territory of land, that would render our dominions round and compact. if a prince send forces into a nation where the people are poor and ignorant, he may lawfully put half of them to death and make slaves of the rest in order to civilize and reduce them from their barbarous way of living. it is a very kingly, honourable and frequent practice, when one price desires the assistance of another to secure him against an invasion, that the assistant, when he hath driven out the invader, should seize on the dominions himself and kill, imprison or banish the prince he came to relieve. alliance by blood or marriage is a sufficient cause of war between princes and the nearer the kindred is, the greater is their disposition to quarrel: poor nations are hungry and rich nations are proud and pride and hunger will ever bee at variance. for these reasons, the trade of a soldier is a yahoo hired to kill in cold blood as many of his own species, who have never offended him, as possibly he can.
there is likewise a kind of beggarly princes in europe, not able to make war by themselves, who hire out their troops to richer nations, for so much a day to each man; of which they keep therr fourths to themselves and it is the best part of their maintenance; such are those in germany and many northern parts of europe.
what you have told me (said my master) upon the subject of war, does indeed discover most admirably the effects of that reason you pretend to: however, it is happy that the shame is greater than the danger; and that nature hath left you utterly uncapable of doing much mischief. for your mouths lying flat with your faces, you can hardly bite each other to any purpose, unless by consent. then as to the claws upon your feet before and behind, they are so short and tender, that one of our yahoos would drive a dozen of yours before him. and therefore in recounting the numbers of those who have been killed in battle i cannot but think that you have SAID THE THING WHICH IS NOT.
i could not forbear shaking my head and smiling a little at his ignorance. and being no stranger to the art of war, i gave him a description of cannons, culverins, muskets, carabines, pistols, bullets, powder, swords, bayonets, battles, sieges, retreats, attacks, undermines, countermines, bombardments, sea-fights; ships sunk with a 1000 men, 20,000 killed on each side; dying groans, limbs flying in the air, smoke, noise, confusion, trampling to death under horses' feet; flight, pursuit, victory; fields strewed with carcases left for food to dogs and wolves,
200 and birds of prey; plundering, stripping, ravishing, burning and destroying. and to set forth the valour of my own dear countrymen, i assured him, that i had seen them blow up 100 enemies at once in a siege and as many in a ship and beheld the dead bodies drop down in pieces from the clouds, to the great diversion of all the spectators.
i was going on to more particulars, when my master commanded me silence. he said, whoever understood the nature of yahoos might easily believe it possible for so vile an animal to be capable of every action i had named, if their strength and cunning equalled their malice. but as my discourse had increased his abhorrence of the whole species, so he found it gave him a disturbance in his mind, to which he was wholly a stranger before. he though his ears being used to such abominable words, might by degrees admit them with less detestation. that although he hated the yahoos of this country, yet he no more blamed them for their odious qualities, than he did a gnnayh (a bird of prey) for its cruelty, or a sharp stone for cutting his hoof. but when a creature pretending to reason could be capable of such enormities, he dreaded lest the corruption of that faculty might be worse than brutality itself. he seemed therefore confident, that instead of reason, we were only possessed of some quality fitted to increase our natural vices; as the reflection from a troubled stream returns the image of an ill shapen body, not only larger, but more distorted.
he added, that he had heard too much upon the subject of war, both in this and some former discourses. there was another point which a little perplexed him at present. i had said, that some of our crew left their country on account of being ruined by LAW; that i had already explained the meaning of the word; but he was at a loss how it should come to pass, that the law which was intended for every man's preservation, should be any man's ruin. therefore he desired to be farther satisfied what i meant by law and the dispensers thereof
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Saturday, December 26, 2015
BENEDICT OF NURSIA (ca. 480-547)
benedict's birth around ad 480 coincided with an unstable, violent period in italy. wave after wave of pagans invaded while the Roman Empire collapsed. Ben responded to the anarchy of his time by founding monastic communities built on the ideal of
CULTIVATING FAMILY SPIRIT
DISCIPLINED DAILY WORSHIP
A BALANCED AND NONCOMPETITIVE APPROACH TOWARDS FASTING and other ascetic practices
THE DIGNITY OF MANUAL WORK FOR RICH AND POOR ALIKE
monastery after monastery based on Benedict's rule brought light into italy's darkest medieval days.
...he studied in rome's classical schools and at age 17 he gave up his boyhood tunic for a roman toga and enrolled in a school of rhetoric. Ben soon discovered that he had little in common with his classmates, who indulged in cycles of studying and drunken partying.
as a new century dawned, Ben relaized that he could no longer tolerate the compromised lives of his so called well educated companions. he quit school and left rome, abandoning everything for God. his 'only desire..was to please the Lord'.
...he hiked..to Subiaco to live in a cave ...(near the ruins of Nero's resort and its nearby aqueducts...
he loved the isolation of the wilderness and the comfort of god's uninterrupted company, but word quickly spread that the kind man of God was there. shepherds and others made their way to Ben'ssimple cave, hungry for his words.
realizing that he must house these followers, Ben left the cave and built 12 monasteries, all neighboring one another. each accommodated 12 monks and a superior chosen by Ben. he established a 13th monastery (called Monte Cassino) for those monks who would most benefit from living with and being mentored by him and he became the abbot of all 13.
(the fifth century Pope Gregory wrote the story of St. Benedict. in fact, P)ope Gregory's Dialogues include the only ancient account we possess of benedict's life.)
..some pastoral approaches work better than others. he took notes for many years before writing down his articulate, humane, and balanced Rule of Monte Cassino around 529.
..Ben knew that praising God is the best medicine for a flawed, povery-stricken world. it requires rejecting arrogance, nurturing community and understanding that even the oldest seeker of God is always a beginner. this is the best lesson taught by Ben's life:
THERE IS ALWAYS MORE TO LEARN.
WE ARE ALWAYS BEGINERS.
KINDNESS IS NEVER COMPLETE.
CULTIVATING FAMILY SPIRIT
DISCIPLINED DAILY WORSHIP
A BALANCED AND NONCOMPETITIVE APPROACH TOWARDS FASTING and other ascetic practices
THE DIGNITY OF MANUAL WORK FOR RICH AND POOR ALIKE
monastery after monastery based on Benedict's rule brought light into italy's darkest medieval days.
...he studied in rome's classical schools and at age 17 he gave up his boyhood tunic for a roman toga and enrolled in a school of rhetoric. Ben soon discovered that he had little in common with his classmates, who indulged in cycles of studying and drunken partying.
as a new century dawned, Ben relaized that he could no longer tolerate the compromised lives of his so called well educated companions. he quit school and left rome, abandoning everything for God. his 'only desire..was to please the Lord'.
...he hiked..to Subiaco to live in a cave ...(near the ruins of Nero's resort and its nearby aqueducts...
he loved the isolation of the wilderness and the comfort of god's uninterrupted company, but word quickly spread that the kind man of God was there. shepherds and others made their way to Ben'ssimple cave, hungry for his words.
realizing that he must house these followers, Ben left the cave and built 12 monasteries, all neighboring one another. each accommodated 12 monks and a superior chosen by Ben. he established a 13th monastery (called Monte Cassino) for those monks who would most benefit from living with and being mentored by him and he became the abbot of all 13.
(the fifth century Pope Gregory wrote the story of St. Benedict. in fact, P)ope Gregory's Dialogues include the only ancient account we possess of benedict's life.)
..some pastoral approaches work better than others. he took notes for many years before writing down his articulate, humane, and balanced Rule of Monte Cassino around 529.
..Ben knew that praising God is the best medicine for a flawed, povery-stricken world. it requires rejecting arrogance, nurturing community and understanding that even the oldest seeker of God is always a beginner. this is the best lesson taught by Ben's life:
THERE IS ALWAYS MORE TO LEARN.
WE ARE ALWAYS BEGINERS.
KINDNESS IS NEVER COMPLETE.
12.26.2015 LORD CHANGE THIS PHARISEE INTO A PUBLICAN
A. PHARISEE (a person into being accepted..maybe even sought after) either in or out of the Church.
B. PUBLICAN (an outcast of the church/of society) either in or out of the Church.
1A. go to God's house to be seen as 'good' or
stay away because , in your judgment , they are all hypocrites...
in either case, hand only with people you like or who think like you do.
as always, ME is the focus not God.
1B. 'go to God's house primarily to worship Him publicly...
and as an opportunity to bless and help and encourage other people...just like Jesus did
until they killed Him.
2A. judge and condemn people different from you
or who you don't like...people who are not up to your standards.
think of yourself as very good...a person to be praised, liked and emulated.
2B. find yourself increasingly focusing on your own shortcomings before God and man alike
until 'WHO I AM BEFORE GOD' causes continual hear misery and weeping
and finally coming to see yourself as a holy God sees you. matt. 5.3; psalm 51.17
3A. do things with the goal that you and other people will think well of you,
desire to be like you or have what you have or
at the very least not totally reject you.
3B. come to desire only to deny yourself of everything and anything
that stands between you and doing/being exactly what God would do or how He would be
no matter how much pain, difficulty or rejection by others this may cause. matt. 16.24
4A. never publicly identify yourself with, speak well of or obey the Lord Jesus Christ. mark 8.38
4B. openly and unashamedly identify yourself as Jesus' slave
at all times, in all situations and proclaim Him and His word.
5A. avoid all difficulties her and now.
suddenly die and on the Day of Judgment
be found guilty of your sin against and unbelief and disobedience to a holy God, and
be cast into the lake of fire
to suffer never ending torment away from the presence and goodness of God. rom. 3.23;6.23; rev. 20
5B. repeatedly, continually and openly identify and align yourself with Jesus as His slave
NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS TO YOU.
whenever you suffer the anger of man ...even to where he puts you to death...REJOICE!
AND DANCE AROUND.
for GREAT IS YOUR REWARD IN HEAVEN. matthew 5.10-12
B. PUBLICAN (an outcast of the church/of society) either in or out of the Church.
1A. go to God's house to be seen as 'good' or
stay away because , in your judgment , they are all hypocrites...
in either case, hand only with people you like or who think like you do.
as always, ME is the focus not God.
1B. 'go to God's house primarily to worship Him publicly...
and as an opportunity to bless and help and encourage other people...just like Jesus did
until they killed Him.
2A. judge and condemn people different from you
or who you don't like...people who are not up to your standards.
think of yourself as very good...a person to be praised, liked and emulated.
2B. find yourself increasingly focusing on your own shortcomings before God and man alike
until 'WHO I AM BEFORE GOD' causes continual hear misery and weeping
and finally coming to see yourself as a holy God sees you. matt. 5.3; psalm 51.17
3A. do things with the goal that you and other people will think well of you,
desire to be like you or have what you have or
at the very least not totally reject you.
3B. come to desire only to deny yourself of everything and anything
that stands between you and doing/being exactly what God would do or how He would be
no matter how much pain, difficulty or rejection by others this may cause. matt. 16.24
4A. never publicly identify yourself with, speak well of or obey the Lord Jesus Christ. mark 8.38
4B. openly and unashamedly identify yourself as Jesus' slave
at all times, in all situations and proclaim Him and His word.
5A. avoid all difficulties her and now.
suddenly die and on the Day of Judgment
be found guilty of your sin against and unbelief and disobedience to a holy God, and
be cast into the lake of fire
to suffer never ending torment away from the presence and goodness of God. rom. 3.23;6.23; rev. 20
5B. repeatedly, continually and openly identify and align yourself with Jesus as His slave
NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS TO YOU.
whenever you suffer the anger of man ...even to where he puts you to death...REJOICE!
AND DANCE AROUND.
for GREAT IS YOUR REWARD IN HEAVEN. matthew 5.10-12
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
12.23.2015 DISCIPLINED CHURCH
taken from 'glimpses of christian history #312
when the Methodist movement began to grow, John Wesley faced the problem of dealing with converts who returned to their old ways. their backsliding discouraged those who were trying to follow Christ and gave Methodism's detractors ammunition.
the solution to this problem came in a way no one expected. the meth had contracted a debt to build a preaching house. in an effort to pay off the debt the leaders volunteered to visit each Meth each week and collect a penny.
when they found that it was easier if the people came to the leader, the Meth CLASS-MEETING was born. the people still paid the penny, but the meetings quickly became more pastoral than financial. leaders used the meetings to instruct members and check up on their spiritual progress.
seeing how effective this practice was convinced Wesley that the work of God could not prosper without church discipline. with church discipline, however, methodism did prosper, reaching almost a million people before Wesley's death.
Wesley frequently preached a sermon on matthew 18, the passage in which Jesus describes the steps to take upon discovering a brother's sin. Wesley said that the admonition to begin the process of church discipline is not just a suggestion, but 'a plain command of god'. he said, 'no alternative is allowed, no choice of anything else: this is the way; walk thou in it'.
the church as a whole needed discipline too, for without discipline there could be no true Christianity. 'is it any wonder that we find so few christians, W asked, for where is Christian discipline? in what part of england (to go no farther) is Christian discipline added to Christian doctrine? now, wherever doctrine is preached, where there is no discipline, it cannot have its full effect upon the hearers'.
W lived a disciplined life and was not afraid to hold other Methodists to a similar standard. during one early visit to bristol, he purged almost 20% of the society for sins including drunkenness, dishonest business practices, gossip, theft, arguing in public and cheating on taxes.
the key to success in a case of church discipline, W said, is the spirit of the one who points out the sin. because so much depends on a right spirit, the one who goes to reprove should first earnestly ask that the Lord 'guard (his ) heart, enlighten (his ) mind, and direct (his ) tongue'. the Lord's servant must 'avoid everything in look, gesture, word, and tone of voice that savors of pride or self-sufficiency'. above all, love must be the motive for discipline.
sometimes this gentle approach succeeds, but other times, W noted, the 'mildest and tenderest reproof will have no effect'. in such cases one or two others must go with the one who has already gone, first expressing their love for the errant brother, then establishing the facts of his sin, and finally exhorting him to repent.
if this second attempt fails, the concerned Christians
(note - this is not exactly correct, in all three steps the individual that first goes to the sinner is the one who acts, in step two he is commanded to 'TAKE with thee one or two more and if step three is need the same person is commanded to TELL it to the church...i have never heard or seen these commands carried out in any like church situation i have heard of...but this is what the Lord said.)
should take the matter to the church. it becomes the minister's responsibility to rebuke the sinner and if necessary, put him out of the church.
W tells his hearers that the matter is then out of their hands: 'when, therefore, you have done this, you have done all which the Word of God, or the law of love, requireth of you: you are not now partaker of his sin, but if he perish, his blood is on his own head'.
Wesley was able to practice what he preached about church discipline because he organized his followers into small groups. a Methodist society included all the Methodists in an area. it was divided into groups or classes, of 12. the people met each week to study the bible, pray and report on the state of their souls. each class had a leader who reported to the preacher in charge of the society.
W published a list of questions for the class leaders to help the MEMBERS EXAMINE THEMSELVES;
1. WHAT KNOWN SINS HAVE YOU COMMITTED SINCE OUR LAST MEETING?
2. WHAT TEMPTATIONS HAVE YOU OVERCOME?
HOW DID GOD DELIVER YOU?
WHAT HAVE YOU THOUGHT, SAID OR DONE THAT MIGHT BE SINFUL?
when the questions revealed sin, the offenders were given another chance.
'if they forsook their sins, W said, we received them gladly;
if they persisted therein, it was openly declared that they were not of us.
the rest mourned and prayed for them
and yet rejoiced, that, as far as in us lay, the scandal was rolled away from the society'.
because the leaders knew each class member intimately, they could tailor their words to each individual need. the frequent meetings meant that wrong attitudes could be stopped before they developed into sinful actions. in this context of frequent, personal and loving contact, church discipline became a powerful redemptive force.
although church discipline yielded so many positive results, Methodist leaders were not always eager to exercise it. throughout his career W had to admonish his deputies to examine the societies and expel all who disobeyed the rules.
W wrote to adam clarke, 'be exact in every point of discipline'. to francis asbury he advocated 'a strict attention to discipline'.
W knew that church discipline can cause churches to split. he nevertheless ordered one of his assistants to remove an errant leader: 'i require you to put him out of our Society. if 20 of his class will leave the society, too, they must. the first loss is the best. better 40 members should be lost than our discipline be lost. they are no Methodists that will bear no restraints'.
to the end of his ministry, W's concern with church discipline remained strong. he was convinced that without follow up, all he had worked for would be lost.
prayer journal
i am no longer my own, but Yours.
put me to what you will,
rank me with whom You will:
put me to doing,
put me to suffering:
let me be employed for You
or be laid aside for You,
exalted for YOu,
or brought low for you.
charles wesley
...a hymn by him (he wrote 8,989)
O FOR A HEART TO PRAISE MY GOD
O for a heart to praise my God
a heart from sin set free
a heart that always feels Thy blood
so freely shed for me!
a humble, lowly, contrite heart
believing, tru and clean
which neither life nor death can part
from Him that dwells within
a heart in every thought renewed
and full of love divine.
perfect and right and pure and good.
a copy, Lord, of Thine!
Thy nature, gracious Lord,impart:
Come quickly from above.
write Thy new name upon my heart.
Thy new best name of Love.
when the Methodist movement began to grow, John Wesley faced the problem of dealing with converts who returned to their old ways. their backsliding discouraged those who were trying to follow Christ and gave Methodism's detractors ammunition.
the solution to this problem came in a way no one expected. the meth had contracted a debt to build a preaching house. in an effort to pay off the debt the leaders volunteered to visit each Meth each week and collect a penny.
when they found that it was easier if the people came to the leader, the Meth CLASS-MEETING was born. the people still paid the penny, but the meetings quickly became more pastoral than financial. leaders used the meetings to instruct members and check up on their spiritual progress.
seeing how effective this practice was convinced Wesley that the work of God could not prosper without church discipline. with church discipline, however, methodism did prosper, reaching almost a million people before Wesley's death.
Wesley frequently preached a sermon on matthew 18, the passage in which Jesus describes the steps to take upon discovering a brother's sin. Wesley said that the admonition to begin the process of church discipline is not just a suggestion, but 'a plain command of god'. he said, 'no alternative is allowed, no choice of anything else: this is the way; walk thou in it'.
the church as a whole needed discipline too, for without discipline there could be no true Christianity. 'is it any wonder that we find so few christians, W asked, for where is Christian discipline? in what part of england (to go no farther) is Christian discipline added to Christian doctrine? now, wherever doctrine is preached, where there is no discipline, it cannot have its full effect upon the hearers'.
W lived a disciplined life and was not afraid to hold other Methodists to a similar standard. during one early visit to bristol, he purged almost 20% of the society for sins including drunkenness, dishonest business practices, gossip, theft, arguing in public and cheating on taxes.
the key to success in a case of church discipline, W said, is the spirit of the one who points out the sin. because so much depends on a right spirit, the one who goes to reprove should first earnestly ask that the Lord 'guard (his ) heart, enlighten (his ) mind, and direct (his ) tongue'. the Lord's servant must 'avoid everything in look, gesture, word, and tone of voice that savors of pride or self-sufficiency'. above all, love must be the motive for discipline.
sometimes this gentle approach succeeds, but other times, W noted, the 'mildest and tenderest reproof will have no effect'. in such cases one or two others must go with the one who has already gone, first expressing their love for the errant brother, then establishing the facts of his sin, and finally exhorting him to repent.
if this second attempt fails, the concerned Christians
(note - this is not exactly correct, in all three steps the individual that first goes to the sinner is the one who acts, in step two he is commanded to 'TAKE with thee one or two more and if step three is need the same person is commanded to TELL it to the church...i have never heard or seen these commands carried out in any like church situation i have heard of...but this is what the Lord said.)
should take the matter to the church. it becomes the minister's responsibility to rebuke the sinner and if necessary, put him out of the church.
W tells his hearers that the matter is then out of their hands: 'when, therefore, you have done this, you have done all which the Word of God, or the law of love, requireth of you: you are not now partaker of his sin, but if he perish, his blood is on his own head'.
Wesley was able to practice what he preached about church discipline because he organized his followers into small groups. a Methodist society included all the Methodists in an area. it was divided into groups or classes, of 12. the people met each week to study the bible, pray and report on the state of their souls. each class had a leader who reported to the preacher in charge of the society.
W published a list of questions for the class leaders to help the MEMBERS EXAMINE THEMSELVES;
1. WHAT KNOWN SINS HAVE YOU COMMITTED SINCE OUR LAST MEETING?
2. WHAT TEMPTATIONS HAVE YOU OVERCOME?
HOW DID GOD DELIVER YOU?
WHAT HAVE YOU THOUGHT, SAID OR DONE THAT MIGHT BE SINFUL?
when the questions revealed sin, the offenders were given another chance.
'if they forsook their sins, W said, we received them gladly;
if they persisted therein, it was openly declared that they were not of us.
the rest mourned and prayed for them
and yet rejoiced, that, as far as in us lay, the scandal was rolled away from the society'.
because the leaders knew each class member intimately, they could tailor their words to each individual need. the frequent meetings meant that wrong attitudes could be stopped before they developed into sinful actions. in this context of frequent, personal and loving contact, church discipline became a powerful redemptive force.
although church discipline yielded so many positive results, Methodist leaders were not always eager to exercise it. throughout his career W had to admonish his deputies to examine the societies and expel all who disobeyed the rules.
W wrote to adam clarke, 'be exact in every point of discipline'. to francis asbury he advocated 'a strict attention to discipline'.
W knew that church discipline can cause churches to split. he nevertheless ordered one of his assistants to remove an errant leader: 'i require you to put him out of our Society. if 20 of his class will leave the society, too, they must. the first loss is the best. better 40 members should be lost than our discipline be lost. they are no Methodists that will bear no restraints'.
to the end of his ministry, W's concern with church discipline remained strong. he was convinced that without follow up, all he had worked for would be lost.
prayer journal
i am no longer my own, but Yours.
put me to what you will,
rank me with whom You will:
put me to doing,
put me to suffering:
let me be employed for You
or be laid aside for You,
exalted for YOu,
or brought low for you.
charles wesley
...a hymn by him (he wrote 8,989)
O FOR A HEART TO PRAISE MY GOD
O for a heart to praise my God
a heart from sin set free
a heart that always feels Thy blood
so freely shed for me!
a humble, lowly, contrite heart
believing, tru and clean
which neither life nor death can part
from Him that dwells within
a heart in every thought renewed
and full of love divine.
perfect and right and pure and good.
a copy, Lord, of Thine!
Thy nature, gracious Lord,impart:
Come quickly from above.
write Thy new name upon my heart.
Thy new best name of Love.
Monday, December 21, 2015
12.21.2015 DO! CREED
what are some basic IMPORTANTS...or even CRUCIALS of the daily Christ-life?
lately there is a clear, inner tugging (with the whisper, I want all of you, not little pieces here and there.
in andrew murry's 'LivingTo Please God' he speaks of DEVOTION. he caught my attention with words about devotion of spirit followed by...'the classic passage of the law of devotion in leviticus 27.28 - 'no devoted thing, that a man shall devote to the Lord...shall be sold or redeemed. every devoted thing is most holy unto the Lord'. devotion is the WHOLEHEARTED AND IRREVOCABLE GIVING UP TO GOD OF SOMETHING WHICH MAY NEVER BE TAKEN BACK AGAIN. the person or thing most holy to the Lord'. (this full expression has been whispering to me from the life of amy carmichael of late. all the denizens of the same realm i have met before her are no longer here...i have met no living person (especially myself) whose spirit evokes the same impressions.
(note- webster on devote, de(something derived from) + volvEre(to vow)...a vow is a solemn promise)
TODAY DID I
1. OBEY THE BIBLE (fear - ecclessiastes 12.13/ love - matthew 22.37-9/ obey God - john 14.15)
2. PRAY WITHOUT CEASING (I thessalonians 5.17; II cor. 10.5)
3. REJOICE ALWAYS (welfare, success, good fortune!) I thess. 5.16
4. GIVE THANKS FOR E V E R Y T H I N G I thess. 5.18
5. BE STRONG (I corinthians 16.13) TO FIGHT everything that opposes God and His word (ephesians 6.10-18) WITHIN AND WITHOUT.. denying myself, taking up my cross again this morning and following You throughout the day (matt. 16.24)
(note - the cross destroys all opposing POWERS here,
THE WORLD (galatians 6.14)
THE FLESH (gal. 2.20) and
THE DEVIL (genesis 3.15; james 4.7)
6. DO (GOD'S) GOOD TO EVERY PERSON (matt. 22.39
7. LAY DOWN MY LIFE for brother..ANYONE! who was in real and present need. (I john 3.16)
8. PROCLAIM JESUS to anyone who appeared along my path. (matt. 10.7)
9. by what i did, say or think contribute to MAKE a DISCIPLE (matt. 28.18-20)
10. READ, STUDY, MEDITATE ON THE BIBLE (ps. 1.2f; II tim. 2.15)
oh Lord, more and more may we turn Your word into a prayer...this list, as we are reading the Bible, labeling our incoming thoughts with Your word and sending them back as prayers.
-
lately there is a clear, inner tugging (with the whisper, I want all of you, not little pieces here and there.
in andrew murry's 'LivingTo Please God' he speaks of DEVOTION. he caught my attention with words about devotion of spirit followed by...'the classic passage of the law of devotion in leviticus 27.28 - 'no devoted thing, that a man shall devote to the Lord...shall be sold or redeemed. every devoted thing is most holy unto the Lord'. devotion is the WHOLEHEARTED AND IRREVOCABLE GIVING UP TO GOD OF SOMETHING WHICH MAY NEVER BE TAKEN BACK AGAIN. the person or thing most holy to the Lord'. (this full expression has been whispering to me from the life of amy carmichael of late. all the denizens of the same realm i have met before her are no longer here...i have met no living person (especially myself) whose spirit evokes the same impressions.
(note- webster on devote, de(something derived from) + volvEre(to vow)...a vow is a solemn promise)
TODAY DID I
1. OBEY THE BIBLE (fear - ecclessiastes 12.13/ love - matthew 22.37-9/ obey God - john 14.15)
2. PRAY WITHOUT CEASING (I thessalonians 5.17; II cor. 10.5)
3. REJOICE ALWAYS (welfare, success, good fortune!) I thess. 5.16
4. GIVE THANKS FOR E V E R Y T H I N G I thess. 5.18
5. BE STRONG (I corinthians 16.13) TO FIGHT everything that opposes God and His word (ephesians 6.10-18) WITHIN AND WITHOUT.. denying myself, taking up my cross again this morning and following You throughout the day (matt. 16.24)
(note - the cross destroys all opposing POWERS here,
THE WORLD (galatians 6.14)
THE FLESH (gal. 2.20) and
THE DEVIL (genesis 3.15; james 4.7)
6. DO (GOD'S) GOOD TO EVERY PERSON (matt. 22.39
7. LAY DOWN MY LIFE for brother..ANYONE! who was in real and present need. (I john 3.16)
8. PROCLAIM JESUS to anyone who appeared along my path. (matt. 10.7)
9. by what i did, say or think contribute to MAKE a DISCIPLE (matt. 28.18-20)
10. READ, STUDY, MEDITATE ON THE BIBLE (ps. 1.2f; II tim. 2.15)
oh Lord, more and more may we turn Your word into a prayer...this list, as we are reading the Bible, labeling our incoming thoughts with Your word and sending them back as prayers.
-
12.21.2015 FELLOWSHIP CATECHISM
what is fellowship? ie. acts 2.47f.. not what i am finding either inside sunday-go-to-meeting big boxes or outside.
i am basically alone. HOWEVER yesterday the Lord DEEPLY encouraged (don't seek for a a true christian brother-friend. You have Me!....BE a friend and spread My blessing.) me with a verse in proverbs 18.24 - a man that hath friends must show himself friendly and THERE IS A FRIEND THAT STICKETH CLOSER THAN A BROTHER. (note- i love the 'eth' on the end of 'stick'...the King James Version signal that the verb is in the present tense...meaning ongoing, continuous and repeated action with no end viewed in the action mentioned. this evidently describes Jesus whose open invitation in matthew 11.28-30, to me and every man He created, spells out the truth of hebrews 13.5...'I will never leave nor forsake you'. blessed be His name.
this i pray so that God may, hopefully, ever be, in answer to these prayers, making me more and more fit for psalm 133 UNITY as well as GROWTH IN HOLINESS between other brothers and myself. may God so ordain.
O Lord prepare..bring HOLY UNITY IN FELLOWSHIP between those, brothers with brothers and sisters with sisters...and within family groups, who name and are making You the Lord of their daily life. John 17.6-26
1. Lord, AM I NEEDY BEFORE YOU? matthew 5.3
and AM I BROKEN..CRUSHED, even, over my many sins? psalm 51.17
2. AM I CONFESSING MY SINS before (and being confessed to by) my brothers in the Lord? james 5.16
3. AM I EXHORTING (encouraging and prodding into action!) and receiving the same treatment? hebrews 3.13
4. AM I REBUKING ('putting honor upon' by inquiring about sin with the goal of bringing repentance) and receiving it, in love...and in private?
5. AM I REPROVING (shining the light of the Word on)...all these last three...BY THE WORD?
6. AM I SPEAKING THE TRUTH IN LOVE and receiving the same? ephesians 4.15
7. AM I LAYING DOWN MY LIFE for this/these brother/brethren in dire straits? I john 3.16
i am basically alone. HOWEVER yesterday the Lord DEEPLY encouraged (don't seek for a a true christian brother-friend. You have Me!....BE a friend and spread My blessing.) me with a verse in proverbs 18.24 - a man that hath friends must show himself friendly and THERE IS A FRIEND THAT STICKETH CLOSER THAN A BROTHER. (note- i love the 'eth' on the end of 'stick'...the King James Version signal that the verb is in the present tense...meaning ongoing, continuous and repeated action with no end viewed in the action mentioned. this evidently describes Jesus whose open invitation in matthew 11.28-30, to me and every man He created, spells out the truth of hebrews 13.5...'I will never leave nor forsake you'. blessed be His name.
this i pray so that God may, hopefully, ever be, in answer to these prayers, making me more and more fit for psalm 133 UNITY as well as GROWTH IN HOLINESS between other brothers and myself. may God so ordain.
O Lord prepare..bring HOLY UNITY IN FELLOWSHIP between those, brothers with brothers and sisters with sisters...and within family groups, who name and are making You the Lord of their daily life. John 17.6-26
1. Lord, AM I NEEDY BEFORE YOU? matthew 5.3
and AM I BROKEN..CRUSHED, even, over my many sins? psalm 51.17
2. AM I CONFESSING MY SINS before (and being confessed to by) my brothers in the Lord? james 5.16
3. AM I EXHORTING (encouraging and prodding into action!) and receiving the same treatment? hebrews 3.13
4. AM I REBUKING ('putting honor upon' by inquiring about sin with the goal of bringing repentance) and receiving it, in love...and in private?
5. AM I REPROVING (shining the light of the Word on)...all these last three...BY THE WORD?
6. AM I SPEAKING THE TRUTH IN LOVE and receiving the same? ephesians 4.15
7. AM I LAYING DOWN MY LIFE for this/these brother/brethren in dire straits? I john 3.16
12.21.2015 DAILY PRAYER CATECHISM
1. PARDON! Lord for each known SIN...each sin make known
for i am UNDONE! romans 3.10-18; 7.18; jeremiah 17.9; john 15.5; ephesians 2.12; ezekiel 18.4
(but i have hope in You. ezekiel 18.21-3)
* MAKE ME NEEDY (i have no help but You!) BEFORE YOU CONTINUALLY! matthew 5.3
* MAY EVERY SIN BREAK AND CRUSH me! psalm 51.17
2. i worship You for YOU ARE HOLY-LOVE ITSELF! habbakuk 1.13; ps. 136; nahum 1.7; matt. 10.28-30
3. will You, through me, Lord (galatians 2.20)...
LOVE! every person? luke 6.26-7;36-8 (i myself cannot, Lord...especially enemies....)
4. is there SIN Lord?
IN ANOTHER? HELP ME FORGIVE (send away, jer. 31.34) IMMEDIATELY! mark 11.25-6 ((and as many times as necessary to utterly obliterate it in me and before You.)
IN MYSELF? HELP ME I M M E D I A T E L Y TO
*REPENT - mark 24.47
*CONFESS - I john 1.9
*FORSAKE - proverbs 28.13
HELP ME LORD!
5. continually SEEK TO better IMITATE YOU! (and so increase Your eternal honor and fame among those You created in Your image) matt. 6.33
6. relentlessly...from the heart EXPEND ENERGY! (lk. 16.16), that is, so as to touch Your heart
AGONIZE! to obey Your word! (lk. 13.24; matt. 7.21) to the highest degree possible. ( i probably actually talk to You less than an hour a day and the law says, 'pray without ceasing! o HELP Lord!!)
7. be ever ready to PRAISE YOU! wherever i may be at the time. ps. 51.15; mk. 8.38
8. steadfastly BELIEVE YOU! and all that You say in Your word. hebrews 11.6; john 7.38
9. SUFFER anything GLADLY for You dear, precious Lord and Savior. Jesus You suffered..mt.5.10f
for i am UNDONE! romans 3.10-18; 7.18; jeremiah 17.9; john 15.5; ephesians 2.12; ezekiel 18.4
(but i have hope in You. ezekiel 18.21-3)
* MAKE ME NEEDY (i have no help but You!) BEFORE YOU CONTINUALLY! matthew 5.3
* MAY EVERY SIN BREAK AND CRUSH me! psalm 51.17
2. i worship You for YOU ARE HOLY-LOVE ITSELF! habbakuk 1.13; ps. 136; nahum 1.7; matt. 10.28-30
3. will You, through me, Lord (galatians 2.20)...
LOVE! every person? luke 6.26-7;36-8 (i myself cannot, Lord...especially enemies....)
4. is there SIN Lord?
IN ANOTHER? HELP ME FORGIVE (send away, jer. 31.34) IMMEDIATELY! mark 11.25-6 ((and as many times as necessary to utterly obliterate it in me and before You.)
IN MYSELF? HELP ME I M M E D I A T E L Y TO
*REPENT - mark 24.47
*CONFESS - I john 1.9
*FORSAKE - proverbs 28.13
HELP ME LORD!
5. continually SEEK TO better IMITATE YOU! (and so increase Your eternal honor and fame among those You created in Your image) matt. 6.33
6. relentlessly...from the heart EXPEND ENERGY! (lk. 16.16), that is, so as to touch Your heart
AGONIZE! to obey Your word! (lk. 13.24; matt. 7.21) to the highest degree possible. ( i probably actually talk to You less than an hour a day and the law says, 'pray without ceasing! o HELP Lord!!)
7. be ever ready to PRAISE YOU! wherever i may be at the time. ps. 51.15; mk. 8.38
8. steadfastly BELIEVE YOU! and all that You say in Your word. hebrews 11.6; john 7.38
9. SUFFER anything GLADLY for You dear, precious Lord and Savior. Jesus You suffered..mt.5.10f
Thursday, December 17, 2015
12.17.2015 COME WHAT MAY (1941) by arnold lunn
autobiography of a new author who has 'said' many good things to me this year.
chap. 1 - background
4 ...my father looked wistful, for he had spent much time and $ campaigning for the League of Nations. he had lived indeed, to see many, perhaps most, of the causes in which he believed go down to defeat and yet to the end he retained his gallant belief in the greatest of all Victorian myths, the belief in inevitable progress. it was impossible to convince him that there is no predestined bias towards improvement, that progress is varied by regress and that civilisations are born and grow to maturity only to decay and die. . he would have none of this. 'no, what we are seeing today is just a temporary setback...
chap. 2 - harrow (life forming experiences in boarding school
chap 3 - the evolution of a radical
34 ...liberalism is founded on the repudiation of the feudal conception of personal honour and on the determination to substitute dialectics for violence in the struggle for power...
as a young man, i should have been flattered to have been described as an intellectual, a label which i accept today with resignation. the word does not imply the possession of a great intellect, but merely an interest in the things of the mind. an intellectual might indeed be defined as a man who is more interested in universals than in particulars...
35 ...skiers will turn to my History of Ski-ing as a work of reference; but the only book of mine which will, perhaps, be read for its own sake 50 years hence is The Mountains of Youth. among mountaineers pietas is as common as it is rare in this irreverent age, in which almost the one thing which has not been debunked is the tradition of the Alpine Club. . my own favourite escapist literature in these distracted times is the works of the Alpine pioneers. there is something solidly reassuring in the climate of Victorian security which dominates these records of an escape into a world of artificial danger. i am vain enough to hope that, in the next war to destroy Prussianism, an occasional mountain-lover may turn to The Mountains of Youth for consolation...
40 ...among the books that have influence me, few have had more effect than Life and Habit, by Samuel Butler...he was something of an iconoclast and because he detested the calvinistic christianity in which he was reared he is often quoted by progressives...
41 ..Butler was conservative because he believed that the unconscious knowledge which we inherit from our ancestors is much more reliable than the conscious knowledge which we painfully acquire during the course of our own lives. his conviction that instinct is nothing more than unconscious memory is the basic doctrine of his philosophy...
42 ..our intellectuals, who know that they know and whose conscious knowledge finds expression in schemes of world improvement, may be compared to the child picking out the scales on the piano with its eyes firmly fixed on the score. but it is 'those who do not know that they know so much, who have the firmest grip of their knowledge; the best class, for example, of our english youth, who live much in the open air, and, as Lord Beaconsfield finely said, never read. these are the people who know best those things which are best worth knowing - that is to say, they are the most truly scientific. unfortunately the apparatus necessary for this kind of science is so costly as to be within the reach of few, involving as it does, an experience in the use of it for some preceding generations...
until i read Butler i had assumed that men migh be divided into those who desired and those who opposed reform, but B suggested the possibility that reformers might be divided into Conservatives who based their programmes on the foundation of human nature and human experience and Radicals who ignored the immense power of inherited instincts and traditions. in a passage which i quote from memory B describes 2 methods of getting a hen to cross a road. the first is to throw small pieces of bread, not at the hen but just in front of her and thus lure her gradually across the road.
43the second method is to throw a loaf of bread AT the hen. and this says B, is the method of our advanced Liberals'. some of whom mistake stones for bread'.
...it is interesting to note Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France...Rousseau, who dumped his children on a foundling school, is described by B as 'a lover of his kind but a hater of his kindred', an epigram which applies with even greater force to modern revolutionaries. B awakened in me a faint distrust of professional humanitarians. 'benevolence to the whole species and a want of feeling for every individual with whom the professors come into contact, form the character of the new philosophy'.
before reading Burke i had been artless enough to believe that the French Revolution was, in essence, a rising of the oppressed poor against a selfish aristocracy; but B provoked an uneasy doubt of this popular simplification of a complex problem, a doubt which was subsequently reinforced by reading De Tocqueville's classic study of the Revolution. B contended that the Rev was provoked by a struggle for power between different groups, of whom the Revolutionists were perhaps the least concerned to redress the just grievances of the poor. the Jacobins were resolved to TRANSFER THE
44 GOVERNMENT FROM THE LANDED GENTRY TO THE CITIES, 'among tradesmen, bankers, advocates...and those cabals of literary men, called academies'...
the Jacobins, said B, were supported by the dissenters of the three leading denominations...
*DISSENTers in character, temper and disposition..
-Whigs and even
-Tories; all the
-Atheists
-Deists and
-Socinians
*all those who HATE the clergy..and
*ENVY the nobility
-a good many among the monied people
-the East Indians almost to a man,
who cannot bear to find that their present importance does not bear a proportion to their wealth
-the monied men
-merchants
-principal tradesmen
men of letters...
are the chief actors in the French Revolution...
45...as the years passed, i ceased to make my personal tastes the criterion for my views of the social order. i discovered that the politically minded may be divided into those who accept the facts of human nature and those who plan their programmes on the naive assumption that man is what they wish man to be..the only result of abolishing an aristocracy of birth is to substitute an aristocracy of money, or, as in russia, of quai-hereditary bureaucrats.
chap. 4 - why men climb
54 (immediately after an avalanche 2000 feet above them nearly 'missed')
...very shakily we stood up. nobody spoke. the leader mechanically uncoiled the rope off the axe head, with drew the axe and, with the deliberate movements of a man who is making a big effort to rediscipline shaken nerves, slowly began to curt steps to the edge of the gully. we scrambled on to the rocks and sat down heavily. the mountain still seemed to be quivering with a dying convulsion. the snow slopes fanned out below the gully. i looked down on the glacier and thought of what might be lying there, quiet, motionless shapes, ...
then came the reaction. a hill breeze rippled over the snows and sent the blood coursing through our veins. i found myself making strange, grateful movements with my hands, as if to bathe them in the overflowing sun. life and colour and joy had returned and the mountains had recovered their grace of outline. the morning headache had vanished, the scales were lifted from my eyes. the dullness of vision disappeared, i remember a miniature cornice, a delicate volute of iridescent colour,
55 glinting in the sun. the wings of death had passed and in their passing ..had quickened our response to the beauty of the visible world whose citizenship we still retained.
'He shall dwell on high; His place of defence shall be the munitions of the rocks'. the mountaineer can translate this verse from isaiah into the memory of moments when the artillery of heaven and the munitions of the rocks bear witness to the majesty of One who dwells on high. no dawns are more terrible in their beauty than those in which the red and angry snows herald a day that breaks in splendour only to set in storm. no mountain memories are more enduring than those of moments when the black wings of the wind-tormented mist lift to disclose the embattlements of frost-riven rock....
chap. 5 - 1909
60 ..easter vacation..i first met the lady who is now my wife. Mabel Northcote had never met anybody in the least like me, and she explained to her aunt that she hoped the experience would remain unique. in those days i had not begun to mellow...i was asked to lecture on mountains...in the course of the lecture ..i noticed to my surprise that the most interested member of the audience was a girl whose disapproval i had amused myself by provoking...we carried on a long conversation about mountains through the keyhole. towards midnight i slipped a copy of a mountaineering journal under the door. 'it's getting late....it was 12 o'clock ...i had just come of age.
61 a few days later i startled Miss Northcote with the first of a long series of proposals which broke down her resistance many years later...after my 4th proposal had been rejected..
62 ..a few weeks later the lady undergraduates' magazine published a brilliant review of my articles in the Isis. i was flattered and intrigued and invited the unknown reviewer to meet me...she was beautiful and witty, a dangerous combination. we exchanged the scintillating epigrams which wer the period pieces of the Edwardian age and mortified by a sudden lull in the conversation, i proposed to her, to see what she would say. she accepted me to see what i would day. she was never in the least in love with me, but she thought that it would be fun to be engaged....
chap. 7 - portrait of a liberal
81...the Liberalism of the convinced christian must always be qualified by the conclusions which he draws from the great premiss that man is made in the image of god and therefore has right which no dictator and no democratic majority can override. Secular Liberalism, on thee other hand, with its
82 deification of the 'General Will', inevitably leads to the servile state. if man is nothing more than first cousin to the chimpanzee there is no reason why a dictator or a dictatorial majority should not put him behind bars. it is only man's supernatural estate which guarantees his person dignity and his inalienable rights.
the Renaissance, like Liberalism, had two aspects, Christian and secular, for the church wich saved the classic learning during the Dark Ages was the patron of the great revival of classic learning. Secular Liberalism had its root not in the christian but in the pagan renaissance, which denied, if only by implication, the supernatural values and accepted as its only criterion the truncated and impoverished humanism which ignores all values save those of this world. pagan humanism promised emancipation from divine authority, but condemned its dupes to inevitable tyranny, for man is free only within the framework of an authority which guarantees his rights because it respects his nature. the byzantine church of tsarist russia had its origin in the greek schism which revolted against the authority of rome. german lutheranism represented a yet further stage in the deification of private judgment.
(note: i must confess that i am puzzled as to the meaning of the last sentence and since i have not, as yet, to come across in Lunn's writing a more expanded understanding...i can only say that i am puzzled...i'm not sure if this applies...but, unfortunately my friend, converted to the roman catholic church, has not included the horror, and implications of the Inquisition, during which many people were tortured and killed for believing and steadfastly following the bible rather than the Church's authority. tyranny, in this instance and countless others through history, evidently can come from both secular and religious sources.)
the flight from authority has led neither russia nor germany to the land of liberty. no tyranny of the dark ages was more ruthless and more satanic than those which are today crushing out the last remnants of liberty from the countries in which hitler and stalin rule....
freedom survives in england because we are still a christian country with an instinctive, rather than a conscious, conviction that authority is derived from above, and that man has rights of which no democratic majority may deprive him....
83 secular liberalism was born on the shores of lake geneva in the salons of madame necker and madame de stael. its basic doctrine was defined in the proposition: 'it is contrary to the natural, innate and inalienable right and liberty and dignity of man to subject himself to an authority the root, rule and measure and sanction of which is not in himself''.
the word 'liberalism' has been the greatest asset to the Liberal Party, for the word implies that a love of liberty is the distinguishing characteristic of Liberals. (note: alas many self-named liberals have been very interested in their own liberty but not so much the same blessing for others who saw things differently.)....
liberalism, however, would never have captured the allegiance of good men had it been nothing more than selfishness disguised by a thin veneer of hypocrisy. english liberals have always included among their leaders men who believed not only in liberating themselves but also in liberating those with whose religious or political views they disagreed....
84 ...british liberalism, at its best, reflected the characteristic english virtues - tolerance, a sense of fair play and the conviction that differences should be settled by free discussion rather than by force...
86 my father's liberalism was, in the main, ideological, but his christianity had its roots in experience. his internationalism was 'progressive', but his views on wealth, and its dangers were reactionary (?), for they were derived through john wesley from the mediaeval scholastics. most christians abandon as insoluble the problem of applying the christian teaching on wealth. (?) wesley's difficulty was not to discover the solution to this problem, but to believe that a problem existed. 'where is the difficulty? he said. 'provide yourself and your dependents with simple food and plain raiment (note: see I tim. 6.6f) and give away the rest'. as a young man he discovered that he could live on 28 pounds a year. when his income rose th 400 pounds (thanks to the sale of his books) he still lived on 28 pounds and gave away the rest. 'he who has enough to satisfy his wants', wrote a mediaeval theologian, and nevertheless labours to acquire riches, either in order to obtain a higher social position, or that subsequently he may have enough to live without labour, of that his sons may become men of wealth and importance - all such are puffed up by a damnable avarice, sensuality and pride'....
87 prof. r.h. tawney, in his brilliant book Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, describes the gradual transformation of the mediaeval doctrine that the acquisition of wealth was a drudgery or temptation into the dogma that the acquisition of wealth was a moral duty...
my father...involved himself in an unfortunate controversy with methodism because he maintained the methodist missionaries would be more effective if their standard of living were more in accordance with that of those among whom they worked.
88 ...it was impossible to control my father when there was money to give away. 'money never stays with me, wrote john wesley; 'it would burn if it did. i throw it out of my hands as soon as possible lest it should find its way to my heart'. those words might have been inscribed on my father's tomb...my mother shared his bizarre views. had she taken the vow of poverty which is binding on members of religious orders, her life would have been no different. she worked in an East EWnd parish, and as an old lady of 70 she would take buses brom her work to the station before facing the long journey down to the south coast, to save the taxi fare for her charities...
89 ..wesley's famous will: 'i leave no money to anyone because i have none'.
chap. 8 - germany in defeat: a memory
92 it was at lindau that a deplorable lapse on my part defined, at the outset of our journey, the relationship between Young and myself, for it was in consequence of this lapse that he assumed the role of the helper and assigned me the role of the helpee. George Young is the most superb helper that i have ever met. he has done all the sort of things that helpers do and if only i had accepted from the first the role of helpee all might have been well. but my vanity incited me to vain and futile competition. anyone who has climbed without guides has at least acquired the art of traveling among mountains without being killed and does not readily resign himself to the role of the personally conducted passenger, which i should have done from the first. but my reaction to his super-efficiency was as ungenerous as monsignor knox's to my pseudo-efficience and though i was not shamed into helpfulness, such little talent as i have was ruined and i disgraced myself by leaving at lindau
93 a precious trunk which Young had entrusted to my care. this trunk contained food, which Young, with superb adroitness, in defiance of all wartime regulations on the subject of importing and exporting food, had smuggled through three frontiers. and it was i who left the trunk at lindau.
Young said nothing. he looked serenely contemptuous and went in search of a Red Guard. (foot. this was during the short lived communist revolution of 1919 in bavaria.) in a quiet undertone which was infinitely effective, he murmured that we were englishmen of enormous consequence and that any tampering with our possessions would lead to very serious results. a banknote changed hands. the trunk arrived a few hours later at munich, unopened and undisturbed.
my self respect might have recovered from the loss of this trunk had not George Young combined ruthless efficiency with strong silence. he talked very little, which was sad, for i have seldom met anybody who was better worth listening to when he did talk. he would have been an easier companion if he had sometimes said things which were not worth listening to. i am naturally garrulous and as such i am always at a disadvantage with the silent.
the train from lindau to munich was comfortable and well sprung - one of the few good trains left in germany. it was kept running between...as propaganda. the old railway officials still functioned, but the Red Guards were in command and the railway staff treated them with profound respect. at one station, tweny or thirty stray soldiers tried to board the train, but they were vigorously repulsed by the red guards, profoundly abused and reminded that their passes did not admit them to fast trains.
'things are getting better, remarked an austrian in my carriage. 'i was in austria just after the armistice, traveling near vienna. the soldiers boarded the train and kicked the civilians into the corridors. an officer came up and remonstratedf
94 and was promptly killed. another officer expostulated. he reminded the men that the officer they had just murdered had been through the whole campaign and had always been noted for his great consideration for the troops under his command. they killed him, too...it was a terrible time - terrible. some of the troops just commandeered any motor lorry that was handy and rode through the villages shooting off their spare ammunition'.
we slept at munich. breakfast next morning inspired me with profound respect for the tenacity of the german race, but perhaps those who in germany decided the issues of war and peace did not begin the day with black bread flavoured with aniseed, acorn coffee and turnip jam. everything in germany was erwsatz (substitute). we drank ersatz coffee, we ate ersatz bread and ersatz jam and washed ourselves with ersatz soap. at least, we should have done had not the soap brought from switzerland lasted out our visit.
aster breakfast i wandered disconsolately through munich, trying to evoke the old pre-war munich which i loved, but i could establish no link between pre-war munich and this sorrowful city, or between the cheerful bavarian crowds of the days that were dead and the long processions of despairing men in dirty, was-stained field-grey uniforms. perhaps erstz beer had helped to produce this ersatz munchen.
munich was under the control of the Soldiers and Workmen's Council. soldiers arriving there were informed by posters at the station that they should apply to this council for food and lodging; but red guards were pink rather than red, and had little use for the genuine Spartacists (foot: the german communists took the spartacists, from spartacus, who led a slave revolt in ancient rome.) who were still making trouble in berlin. the spartacists who came to munich from bedlin on propaganda bent were usually thrust into prison and sent back to berlin a few days later.
95 we left in the evening for berlin. the train was terribly overcrowded; Young inquired whether there was a carriage reserved for diplomatists on an official mission and, on receiving an affirmative reply, induced a red guard to unlock a carriage reserved for three members of the American Legation in berlin. when the americans put in an appearance, Young remarked imperturbably that he hoped they would extend the courtesy of their reserved carriage to an english diplomat and his companion. Young traveled with a complete set of alibis. he was equally impressive as the traditional diplomat and as a Left Wing intellectual with advanced views. he had provided himself with introductions to representatives of every shade of opinion from the extreme Right to the extreme left.
we fed well, Young having filled a thermos with boiling water from the railway engine and produced his camp cooker, which laid a sound foundation for breakfast. as we ate, hungry germans peered through the carriage window. we collected some food and distributed it. a depressed looking soldier with a husky voice who had just left hospital nearly cried when i handed him a sandwich.
we had registered our precious food trunk to berlin and had some difficulty in collecting it. a red guard, wearing the red brassard of the Government Sichedrheit troops, challenged us. trunks filled with food, he said, were liable to confiscation. in moments of great emergency Young always gives the impression of muttering under his breath and drops his voice to a full-blooded whisper. he had, he remarked, been treated with profound deference from the moment that he entered germany. he hoped, for the sake of the red guard, that berlin would not prove an exception to the general rule. the red guard would
96 probably have confiscated the trunk had Young shouted, but he was overawed by the self-possession (and therefore the importance) of an englishman who did not bluster or shout even when threatened with the confiscation of food.
the fish takes the water for granted and only begins to gasp when removed from its natural environment. well-to-do folk who have led sheltered lives and who have never come into contact with war or with revolution accept as inevitable and preordained a framework of civilized life. the routine appearance of eggs and bacon and crisp rolls at breakfast surprises them as little as the punctuality of the sun. it must be almost impossible for such people to realise, emotionally no less than intellectually, what it feels like to begin the day with coffee made from acorns and with black bread made largely from potatoes...
97 ...the effectiveness of our blockade and the poor quality of ersatz clothing were all too evident in the dingy clothes and the drab uniforms. the prevailing effect was one of unrelieved squalor. one does not often see a radiantly happy face even in peacetime cities, but a London tube or a Fifth Avenue bus usually reveals a cross-section of human emotions ranging from self-confidence to anxiety or even despair. the corresponding cross-section in berlin had begun with anxiety and ended with despair. it would be difficult to convey by photograph and it is impossible to suggest in words, the impression produced upon an observer from outside by this atmosphere of unrelieved gloom...
98 ..hard things have been said and with justice, of the Junkers. they lacked culture and were deficient in 'sweetness and light', but they did not lack the basic virtue - courage. the Junker had not the charm and the breeding of the Austrian aristocrat, and he lacked the mature self-assurance of our English nobility. his arrogance was apt to be raw and blustery, but he stood -none better - the iron test of war. for over four and a half years the junkers were in the forefront of the battle. when the home front collapsed they still held on grimly. some died at their machine gun outposts, some in rearguard infantry action and one and all continued to the last to hold their men together and to resit, until the High Command demanded an Armistice. when the reds seized control those who still loved the old germany called for volunteers to save her from Communism. the Junker, though he had had his bellyful of fighting, still rolled up in his thousands to volunteer...
99 ...amusing poster..represented a german a russian in conversation. (tell me, Rusky, what is this Bolshevism?), to which the Russian replied: 'Bolshevism is perfect equality. nobody has anything to eat'...
102 the memory of that long straggle of broken men, meandering through the City of Despair, haunted me after i returned to england. i wrote some articles for the Nation and other papers with no hope of influencing the movement of events. in search of sanity i called on Mr. Massingham, Editor of the Nation, for M had still kept alive the flame of all that was best in Victorian Liberalism. a Swiss statesman who read the Nation regularly throughout the war described it as the most convincing of all arguments for england. 'england, he said to me, may lose the war, but it has not lost its balance and its broad humanity. that M should be allowed to write what he pleases in the 4th year of a disastrous war is a wonderful tribute to the liberalism of your country'.
i found M in a mood of deep dejection. 'the worst thing about war, he said, is the spate of emotional stupidity that it unlooses. the English are not really vindictive. all this 'hang the Kaiser' business is alien to their real character. they'll be the first to make friends with the germans, but meanwhile we'll be saddled with a peace which will produce war in twenty years'...
104 ...i draw attention to the virtues of the aristocratic outlook, not because i have any illusions about aristocracy, but because i have even fewer about pure democracy. social reformers may be divided into two groups: those who wish to make the poor richer and whose ideal is to level up and transform Demos into an aristocrat and those who wish to make the rich poorer and who are anxious to level down the aristocracy to the level of Demos. i have every sympathy with the former and none with the latter. i believe that any system of government will work if the rulers are sincerely determined to translate christianity into action, and that no system can work if it is corrupted either by the selfishness of the rich or by the envy of the poor. i find it difficult to understand how any man of adult intelligence can accept with uncritical enthusiasm any of the existing varieties if either authoritarian or democratic government or regard any system as more than a makeshift, for our effective choice is not between the good and the bad, but between the bad and the worse. it is, i think, the duty of the political critic to draw attention to the defects of the existing order and the virtues of the order which it has replaced, for it is only by comparing the good in what has gone with the evil in what has come that we are saved from self-complacency. representative government, which at least allows us the pleasure of getting rid of those who misrepresent us, is certainly better than any other rival system, but that is no particular reason why we should be uncritical in our adulation of King Demos or assume that modern democracy is the best form of representative government..
107 ...Mr. Belloc's epigram on 'The Pacifist' crystallises our post war search for universal peace:
pal Ebenezer thought it wrong to fight,
but Roaring Bill, who killed him, thought it right.
our British Ebenezers have made things delightfully easy for the Roaring Bills.
chap. 11 -adventures in psychical research
chap. 12 - the conflict between science and atheism
128 ...the true scientist should be above the snobbery which refuses to investigate phenomena merely because they are accompanied by undignified trimmings, such as silly spirit chatter, floating tambourines, and such. to the true scientist no fact is common or unclean.
chap. 13 - the return to reason
138 my deepening distrust of Huxleyism and of much that paraded itself as modern thought, was reinforced by reading, during 1929, Science and the Modern World, by Prof. A. N. Whitehead, a distinquished non-catholic philosopher and mathematician and a Fellow of the Royal Society. 'the Reformation and the scientific movement were two aspects of the historical revolt which was the dominating intellectual movement of the later Renaissance...it is a great mistake to conceive this historical revolt as an appeal to reason. on the contrary it was through and through an anti-intellectualist movement...based on a recoil from the inflexible rationality of mediaeval thought. the Middle Ages formed one long training of the intellect of western europe in the sense of order...the habit of definite exact thought was implanted in the european mind by the long dominance of scholastic logic and scholastic divinity. the habit remained long after the philosophy had been repudiated, the priceless habit of looking for an exact point and sticking to it when found...i do not
139 think that i have even yet brought out the greatest contribution of mediaevalism to the formation of the scientific movement. i mean the inexpugnable belief that every detailed occurrence can be correlated to its antecedents in a perfectly definite manner, exemplifying general principles. without this belief the incredible labour of scientists would be without hope...to this day science has remained an anti-intellectualist movement based on a naive faith'.
..the Catholic Church, i discovered, does not appeal to faith or expect the potential convert to accept her claims until he has satisfied himself that they are rational. she approaches the bible in the same spirit in which she approaches any other historical book, and applying the method of history proves that Jesus Christ established His claim to be God by rising from the dead. it is not until she has proved the credentials of the Church
104 by reason that she asks us to accept on the authority of the Church doctrines which we have no independent means of verifying.
(note: Lunn did become a Roman Catholic convert. i have tremendous respect for him in many areas but would have to part a bit here...from the authority of the Church to the authority of God's word..i hope to see him in heaven though!)
153 ...it is difficult for those who have once subscribed to the creed of humanism, the belief that man is the measure of all things, to overcome their prejudice against the alleged intolerance of a Church which refuses to compromise on the doctrines which she proclaims as true. the modern world confuses two very different things - intolerance of error and intolerance of men in error. the former is usually right, the latter usually wrong.
i am, for instance, an uncompromising bigot on the question of the multiplication table, whereas Prof. haldane is willing to admit the posiblility of exceptions to the statement that 2 x3 = 6. i am intolerant of his heretical distrust of certain truth, but, even if i were a dictator, i should not intern Prof. Haldane, or deny him the freedom to proclaim his views. moreover, i do not assume that those who are orthodox on the multiplication table are necessarily, in other respects, more intelligent or better citizens than those who trifle with mathematical heresies. 'Love men, slay errors, said St. Augustine and where ecclesiastics have followed this golden rule they have remained true to the spirit of Christ, who was
154 uncompromising in his condemnation of fashionable sins and infinitely tolerant of unfashionable sinners.
a man is not necessarily a bigot because he believes in the Resurrection or comes to the conclusion the Christ founded a visible Church and that the Church is question is the Roman
Catholic church. many bigots have rejected as inconclusive the evidence on which the church bases her claims and many men of wide tolerance have accepted those claims. the real criterion of bigotry is less the nature of our beliefs than our attitude to those who do not share our beliefs. there are bigots in every church. bigots....
the ever-growing peril of militant atheism is achieving at least one good result. it is forcing christians to realise that the beliefs which unite them are more important than those which divide them. there are, i suppose, catholics who believe that all protestants go to hell, but i have never met them. nor have i met a catholic who would dissent from the following pronouncement by dr. Karl Adam, catholic priest and professor of theology: 'not merely a christian life, but a complete and lofty christian life, a life according to the 'full age of Christ', a saintly life, is possible - so catholics believe - even in definitely non-catholic communions'.
during the spanish war my father appealed in the columns of The Times for a united Christian Front. Cardinal Hinsley in the course of his reply wrote as follows: 'Pius XI explicitly appeals in his letter Divini Redemptoris to all who believe in God. between those who believe in Christ as true God and true man and worship Him there should be charity - an effort to draw nearer to Him and so nearer to one another. this means not only friendly relationship but mutual help in defending the civilisation which is founded on the truths enunciated in the Nicaean Creed. Sir Henry rightly insists on this bond between us. let us be frank. there have been in the past misunderstandings and faults of manner on both sides and of temper or a
155 lack of charity in controversy. these, our failings and differences, the enemies of religion have exploited. but the realisation of a common peril is drawing christians together in practical sympathy'.....
chap. 14 - king albert of the belgians
156 a strange moral transformation , wrote theat great american philosopher william james, has within the last century swept over our western world. we no longer thing that we are called upon to face physical pain with equanimity. the way in which our ancestors looked upon pain wa an eternal ingredient of the world's order and both caused and suffered it as a matter of course, fills us with amazement. we wonder that human beings could have been so callous'.
these lines were written before the Great War proved that modern man was (still) ...capable
25 years have ps
chap. 1 - background
4 ...my father looked wistful, for he had spent much time and $ campaigning for the League of Nations. he had lived indeed, to see many, perhaps most, of the causes in which he believed go down to defeat and yet to the end he retained his gallant belief in the greatest of all Victorian myths, the belief in inevitable progress. it was impossible to convince him that there is no predestined bias towards improvement, that progress is varied by regress and that civilisations are born and grow to maturity only to decay and die. . he would have none of this. 'no, what we are seeing today is just a temporary setback...
chap. 2 - harrow (life forming experiences in boarding school
chap 3 - the evolution of a radical
34 ...liberalism is founded on the repudiation of the feudal conception of personal honour and on the determination to substitute dialectics for violence in the struggle for power...
as a young man, i should have been flattered to have been described as an intellectual, a label which i accept today with resignation. the word does not imply the possession of a great intellect, but merely an interest in the things of the mind. an intellectual might indeed be defined as a man who is more interested in universals than in particulars...
35 ...skiers will turn to my History of Ski-ing as a work of reference; but the only book of mine which will, perhaps, be read for its own sake 50 years hence is The Mountains of Youth. among mountaineers pietas is as common as it is rare in this irreverent age, in which almost the one thing which has not been debunked is the tradition of the Alpine Club. . my own favourite escapist literature in these distracted times is the works of the Alpine pioneers. there is something solidly reassuring in the climate of Victorian security which dominates these records of an escape into a world of artificial danger. i am vain enough to hope that, in the next war to destroy Prussianism, an occasional mountain-lover may turn to The Mountains of Youth for consolation...
40 ...among the books that have influence me, few have had more effect than Life and Habit, by Samuel Butler...he was something of an iconoclast and because he detested the calvinistic christianity in which he was reared he is often quoted by progressives...
41 ..Butler was conservative because he believed that the unconscious knowledge which we inherit from our ancestors is much more reliable than the conscious knowledge which we painfully acquire during the course of our own lives. his conviction that instinct is nothing more than unconscious memory is the basic doctrine of his philosophy...
42 ..our intellectuals, who know that they know and whose conscious knowledge finds expression in schemes of world improvement, may be compared to the child picking out the scales on the piano with its eyes firmly fixed on the score. but it is 'those who do not know that they know so much, who have the firmest grip of their knowledge; the best class, for example, of our english youth, who live much in the open air, and, as Lord Beaconsfield finely said, never read. these are the people who know best those things which are best worth knowing - that is to say, they are the most truly scientific. unfortunately the apparatus necessary for this kind of science is so costly as to be within the reach of few, involving as it does, an experience in the use of it for some preceding generations...
until i read Butler i had assumed that men migh be divided into those who desired and those who opposed reform, but B suggested the possibility that reformers might be divided into Conservatives who based their programmes on the foundation of human nature and human experience and Radicals who ignored the immense power of inherited instincts and traditions. in a passage which i quote from memory B describes 2 methods of getting a hen to cross a road. the first is to throw small pieces of bread, not at the hen but just in front of her and thus lure her gradually across the road.
43the second method is to throw a loaf of bread AT the hen. and this says B, is the method of our advanced Liberals'. some of whom mistake stones for bread'.
...it is interesting to note Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France...Rousseau, who dumped his children on a foundling school, is described by B as 'a lover of his kind but a hater of his kindred', an epigram which applies with even greater force to modern revolutionaries. B awakened in me a faint distrust of professional humanitarians. 'benevolence to the whole species and a want of feeling for every individual with whom the professors come into contact, form the character of the new philosophy'.
before reading Burke i had been artless enough to believe that the French Revolution was, in essence, a rising of the oppressed poor against a selfish aristocracy; but B provoked an uneasy doubt of this popular simplification of a complex problem, a doubt which was subsequently reinforced by reading De Tocqueville's classic study of the Revolution. B contended that the Rev was provoked by a struggle for power between different groups, of whom the Revolutionists were perhaps the least concerned to redress the just grievances of the poor. the Jacobins were resolved to TRANSFER THE
44 GOVERNMENT FROM THE LANDED GENTRY TO THE CITIES, 'among tradesmen, bankers, advocates...and those cabals of literary men, called academies'...
the Jacobins, said B, were supported by the dissenters of the three leading denominations...
*DISSENTers in character, temper and disposition..
-Whigs and even
-Tories; all the
-Atheists
-Deists and
-Socinians
*all those who HATE the clergy..and
*ENVY the nobility
-a good many among the monied people
-the East Indians almost to a man,
who cannot bear to find that their present importance does not bear a proportion to their wealth
-the monied men
-merchants
-principal tradesmen
men of letters...
are the chief actors in the French Revolution...
45...as the years passed, i ceased to make my personal tastes the criterion for my views of the social order. i discovered that the politically minded may be divided into those who accept the facts of human nature and those who plan their programmes on the naive assumption that man is what they wish man to be..the only result of abolishing an aristocracy of birth is to substitute an aristocracy of money, or, as in russia, of quai-hereditary bureaucrats.
chap. 4 - why men climb
54 (immediately after an avalanche 2000 feet above them nearly 'missed')
...very shakily we stood up. nobody spoke. the leader mechanically uncoiled the rope off the axe head, with drew the axe and, with the deliberate movements of a man who is making a big effort to rediscipline shaken nerves, slowly began to curt steps to the edge of the gully. we scrambled on to the rocks and sat down heavily. the mountain still seemed to be quivering with a dying convulsion. the snow slopes fanned out below the gully. i looked down on the glacier and thought of what might be lying there, quiet, motionless shapes, ...
then came the reaction. a hill breeze rippled over the snows and sent the blood coursing through our veins. i found myself making strange, grateful movements with my hands, as if to bathe them in the overflowing sun. life and colour and joy had returned and the mountains had recovered their grace of outline. the morning headache had vanished, the scales were lifted from my eyes. the dullness of vision disappeared, i remember a miniature cornice, a delicate volute of iridescent colour,
55 glinting in the sun. the wings of death had passed and in their passing ..had quickened our response to the beauty of the visible world whose citizenship we still retained.
'He shall dwell on high; His place of defence shall be the munitions of the rocks'. the mountaineer can translate this verse from isaiah into the memory of moments when the artillery of heaven and the munitions of the rocks bear witness to the majesty of One who dwells on high. no dawns are more terrible in their beauty than those in which the red and angry snows herald a day that breaks in splendour only to set in storm. no mountain memories are more enduring than those of moments when the black wings of the wind-tormented mist lift to disclose the embattlements of frost-riven rock....
chap. 5 - 1909
60 ..easter vacation..i first met the lady who is now my wife. Mabel Northcote had never met anybody in the least like me, and she explained to her aunt that she hoped the experience would remain unique. in those days i had not begun to mellow...i was asked to lecture on mountains...in the course of the lecture ..i noticed to my surprise that the most interested member of the audience was a girl whose disapproval i had amused myself by provoking...we carried on a long conversation about mountains through the keyhole. towards midnight i slipped a copy of a mountaineering journal under the door. 'it's getting late....it was 12 o'clock ...i had just come of age.
61 a few days later i startled Miss Northcote with the first of a long series of proposals which broke down her resistance many years later...after my 4th proposal had been rejected..
62 ..a few weeks later the lady undergraduates' magazine published a brilliant review of my articles in the Isis. i was flattered and intrigued and invited the unknown reviewer to meet me...she was beautiful and witty, a dangerous combination. we exchanged the scintillating epigrams which wer the period pieces of the Edwardian age and mortified by a sudden lull in the conversation, i proposed to her, to see what she would say. she accepted me to see what i would day. she was never in the least in love with me, but she thought that it would be fun to be engaged....
chap. 7 - portrait of a liberal
81...the Liberalism of the convinced christian must always be qualified by the conclusions which he draws from the great premiss that man is made in the image of god and therefore has right which no dictator and no democratic majority can override. Secular Liberalism, on thee other hand, with its
82 deification of the 'General Will', inevitably leads to the servile state. if man is nothing more than first cousin to the chimpanzee there is no reason why a dictator or a dictatorial majority should not put him behind bars. it is only man's supernatural estate which guarantees his person dignity and his inalienable rights.
the Renaissance, like Liberalism, had two aspects, Christian and secular, for the church wich saved the classic learning during the Dark Ages was the patron of the great revival of classic learning. Secular Liberalism had its root not in the christian but in the pagan renaissance, which denied, if only by implication, the supernatural values and accepted as its only criterion the truncated and impoverished humanism which ignores all values save those of this world. pagan humanism promised emancipation from divine authority, but condemned its dupes to inevitable tyranny, for man is free only within the framework of an authority which guarantees his rights because it respects his nature. the byzantine church of tsarist russia had its origin in the greek schism which revolted against the authority of rome. german lutheranism represented a yet further stage in the deification of private judgment.
(note: i must confess that i am puzzled as to the meaning of the last sentence and since i have not, as yet, to come across in Lunn's writing a more expanded understanding...i can only say that i am puzzled...i'm not sure if this applies...but, unfortunately my friend, converted to the roman catholic church, has not included the horror, and implications of the Inquisition, during which many people were tortured and killed for believing and steadfastly following the bible rather than the Church's authority. tyranny, in this instance and countless others through history, evidently can come from both secular and religious sources.)
the flight from authority has led neither russia nor germany to the land of liberty. no tyranny of the dark ages was more ruthless and more satanic than those which are today crushing out the last remnants of liberty from the countries in which hitler and stalin rule....
freedom survives in england because we are still a christian country with an instinctive, rather than a conscious, conviction that authority is derived from above, and that man has rights of which no democratic majority may deprive him....
83 secular liberalism was born on the shores of lake geneva in the salons of madame necker and madame de stael. its basic doctrine was defined in the proposition: 'it is contrary to the natural, innate and inalienable right and liberty and dignity of man to subject himself to an authority the root, rule and measure and sanction of which is not in himself''.
the word 'liberalism' has been the greatest asset to the Liberal Party, for the word implies that a love of liberty is the distinguishing characteristic of Liberals. (note: alas many self-named liberals have been very interested in their own liberty but not so much the same blessing for others who saw things differently.)....
liberalism, however, would never have captured the allegiance of good men had it been nothing more than selfishness disguised by a thin veneer of hypocrisy. english liberals have always included among their leaders men who believed not only in liberating themselves but also in liberating those with whose religious or political views they disagreed....
84 ...british liberalism, at its best, reflected the characteristic english virtues - tolerance, a sense of fair play and the conviction that differences should be settled by free discussion rather than by force...
86 my father's liberalism was, in the main, ideological, but his christianity had its roots in experience. his internationalism was 'progressive', but his views on wealth, and its dangers were reactionary (?), for they were derived through john wesley from the mediaeval scholastics. most christians abandon as insoluble the problem of applying the christian teaching on wealth. (?) wesley's difficulty was not to discover the solution to this problem, but to believe that a problem existed. 'where is the difficulty? he said. 'provide yourself and your dependents with simple food and plain raiment (note: see I tim. 6.6f) and give away the rest'. as a young man he discovered that he could live on 28 pounds a year. when his income rose th 400 pounds (thanks to the sale of his books) he still lived on 28 pounds and gave away the rest. 'he who has enough to satisfy his wants', wrote a mediaeval theologian, and nevertheless labours to acquire riches, either in order to obtain a higher social position, or that subsequently he may have enough to live without labour, of that his sons may become men of wealth and importance - all such are puffed up by a damnable avarice, sensuality and pride'....
87 prof. r.h. tawney, in his brilliant book Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, describes the gradual transformation of the mediaeval doctrine that the acquisition of wealth was a drudgery or temptation into the dogma that the acquisition of wealth was a moral duty...
my father...involved himself in an unfortunate controversy with methodism because he maintained the methodist missionaries would be more effective if their standard of living were more in accordance with that of those among whom they worked.
88 ...it was impossible to control my father when there was money to give away. 'money never stays with me, wrote john wesley; 'it would burn if it did. i throw it out of my hands as soon as possible lest it should find its way to my heart'. those words might have been inscribed on my father's tomb...my mother shared his bizarre views. had she taken the vow of poverty which is binding on members of religious orders, her life would have been no different. she worked in an East EWnd parish, and as an old lady of 70 she would take buses brom her work to the station before facing the long journey down to the south coast, to save the taxi fare for her charities...
89 ..wesley's famous will: 'i leave no money to anyone because i have none'.
chap. 8 - germany in defeat: a memory
92 it was at lindau that a deplorable lapse on my part defined, at the outset of our journey, the relationship between Young and myself, for it was in consequence of this lapse that he assumed the role of the helper and assigned me the role of the helpee. George Young is the most superb helper that i have ever met. he has done all the sort of things that helpers do and if only i had accepted from the first the role of helpee all might have been well. but my vanity incited me to vain and futile competition. anyone who has climbed without guides has at least acquired the art of traveling among mountains without being killed and does not readily resign himself to the role of the personally conducted passenger, which i should have done from the first. but my reaction to his super-efficiency was as ungenerous as monsignor knox's to my pseudo-efficience and though i was not shamed into helpfulness, such little talent as i have was ruined and i disgraced myself by leaving at lindau
93 a precious trunk which Young had entrusted to my care. this trunk contained food, which Young, with superb adroitness, in defiance of all wartime regulations on the subject of importing and exporting food, had smuggled through three frontiers. and it was i who left the trunk at lindau.
Young said nothing. he looked serenely contemptuous and went in search of a Red Guard. (foot. this was during the short lived communist revolution of 1919 in bavaria.) in a quiet undertone which was infinitely effective, he murmured that we were englishmen of enormous consequence and that any tampering with our possessions would lead to very serious results. a banknote changed hands. the trunk arrived a few hours later at munich, unopened and undisturbed.
my self respect might have recovered from the loss of this trunk had not George Young combined ruthless efficiency with strong silence. he talked very little, which was sad, for i have seldom met anybody who was better worth listening to when he did talk. he would have been an easier companion if he had sometimes said things which were not worth listening to. i am naturally garrulous and as such i am always at a disadvantage with the silent.
the train from lindau to munich was comfortable and well sprung - one of the few good trains left in germany. it was kept running between...as propaganda. the old railway officials still functioned, but the Red Guards were in command and the railway staff treated them with profound respect. at one station, tweny or thirty stray soldiers tried to board the train, but they were vigorously repulsed by the red guards, profoundly abused and reminded that their passes did not admit them to fast trains.
'things are getting better, remarked an austrian in my carriage. 'i was in austria just after the armistice, traveling near vienna. the soldiers boarded the train and kicked the civilians into the corridors. an officer came up and remonstratedf
94 and was promptly killed. another officer expostulated. he reminded the men that the officer they had just murdered had been through the whole campaign and had always been noted for his great consideration for the troops under his command. they killed him, too...it was a terrible time - terrible. some of the troops just commandeered any motor lorry that was handy and rode through the villages shooting off their spare ammunition'.
we slept at munich. breakfast next morning inspired me with profound respect for the tenacity of the german race, but perhaps those who in germany decided the issues of war and peace did not begin the day with black bread flavoured with aniseed, acorn coffee and turnip jam. everything in germany was erwsatz (substitute). we drank ersatz coffee, we ate ersatz bread and ersatz jam and washed ourselves with ersatz soap. at least, we should have done had not the soap brought from switzerland lasted out our visit.
aster breakfast i wandered disconsolately through munich, trying to evoke the old pre-war munich which i loved, but i could establish no link between pre-war munich and this sorrowful city, or between the cheerful bavarian crowds of the days that were dead and the long processions of despairing men in dirty, was-stained field-grey uniforms. perhaps erstz beer had helped to produce this ersatz munchen.
munich was under the control of the Soldiers and Workmen's Council. soldiers arriving there were informed by posters at the station that they should apply to this council for food and lodging; but red guards were pink rather than red, and had little use for the genuine Spartacists (foot: the german communists took the spartacists, from spartacus, who led a slave revolt in ancient rome.) who were still making trouble in berlin. the spartacists who came to munich from bedlin on propaganda bent were usually thrust into prison and sent back to berlin a few days later.
95 we left in the evening for berlin. the train was terribly overcrowded; Young inquired whether there was a carriage reserved for diplomatists on an official mission and, on receiving an affirmative reply, induced a red guard to unlock a carriage reserved for three members of the American Legation in berlin. when the americans put in an appearance, Young remarked imperturbably that he hoped they would extend the courtesy of their reserved carriage to an english diplomat and his companion. Young traveled with a complete set of alibis. he was equally impressive as the traditional diplomat and as a Left Wing intellectual with advanced views. he had provided himself with introductions to representatives of every shade of opinion from the extreme Right to the extreme left.
we fed well, Young having filled a thermos with boiling water from the railway engine and produced his camp cooker, which laid a sound foundation for breakfast. as we ate, hungry germans peered through the carriage window. we collected some food and distributed it. a depressed looking soldier with a husky voice who had just left hospital nearly cried when i handed him a sandwich.
we had registered our precious food trunk to berlin and had some difficulty in collecting it. a red guard, wearing the red brassard of the Government Sichedrheit troops, challenged us. trunks filled with food, he said, were liable to confiscation. in moments of great emergency Young always gives the impression of muttering under his breath and drops his voice to a full-blooded whisper. he had, he remarked, been treated with profound deference from the moment that he entered germany. he hoped, for the sake of the red guard, that berlin would not prove an exception to the general rule. the red guard would
96 probably have confiscated the trunk had Young shouted, but he was overawed by the self-possession (and therefore the importance) of an englishman who did not bluster or shout even when threatened with the confiscation of food.
the fish takes the water for granted and only begins to gasp when removed from its natural environment. well-to-do folk who have led sheltered lives and who have never come into contact with war or with revolution accept as inevitable and preordained a framework of civilized life. the routine appearance of eggs and bacon and crisp rolls at breakfast surprises them as little as the punctuality of the sun. it must be almost impossible for such people to realise, emotionally no less than intellectually, what it feels like to begin the day with coffee made from acorns and with black bread made largely from potatoes...
97 ...the effectiveness of our blockade and the poor quality of ersatz clothing were all too evident in the dingy clothes and the drab uniforms. the prevailing effect was one of unrelieved squalor. one does not often see a radiantly happy face even in peacetime cities, but a London tube or a Fifth Avenue bus usually reveals a cross-section of human emotions ranging from self-confidence to anxiety or even despair. the corresponding cross-section in berlin had begun with anxiety and ended with despair. it would be difficult to convey by photograph and it is impossible to suggest in words, the impression produced upon an observer from outside by this atmosphere of unrelieved gloom...
98 ..hard things have been said and with justice, of the Junkers. they lacked culture and were deficient in 'sweetness and light', but they did not lack the basic virtue - courage. the Junker had not the charm and the breeding of the Austrian aristocrat, and he lacked the mature self-assurance of our English nobility. his arrogance was apt to be raw and blustery, but he stood -none better - the iron test of war. for over four and a half years the junkers were in the forefront of the battle. when the home front collapsed they still held on grimly. some died at their machine gun outposts, some in rearguard infantry action and one and all continued to the last to hold their men together and to resit, until the High Command demanded an Armistice. when the reds seized control those who still loved the old germany called for volunteers to save her from Communism. the Junker, though he had had his bellyful of fighting, still rolled up in his thousands to volunteer...
99 ...amusing poster..represented a german a russian in conversation. (tell me, Rusky, what is this Bolshevism?), to which the Russian replied: 'Bolshevism is perfect equality. nobody has anything to eat'...
102 the memory of that long straggle of broken men, meandering through the City of Despair, haunted me after i returned to england. i wrote some articles for the Nation and other papers with no hope of influencing the movement of events. in search of sanity i called on Mr. Massingham, Editor of the Nation, for M had still kept alive the flame of all that was best in Victorian Liberalism. a Swiss statesman who read the Nation regularly throughout the war described it as the most convincing of all arguments for england. 'england, he said to me, may lose the war, but it has not lost its balance and its broad humanity. that M should be allowed to write what he pleases in the 4th year of a disastrous war is a wonderful tribute to the liberalism of your country'.
i found M in a mood of deep dejection. 'the worst thing about war, he said, is the spate of emotional stupidity that it unlooses. the English are not really vindictive. all this 'hang the Kaiser' business is alien to their real character. they'll be the first to make friends with the germans, but meanwhile we'll be saddled with a peace which will produce war in twenty years'...
104 ...i draw attention to the virtues of the aristocratic outlook, not because i have any illusions about aristocracy, but because i have even fewer about pure democracy. social reformers may be divided into two groups: those who wish to make the poor richer and whose ideal is to level up and transform Demos into an aristocrat and those who wish to make the rich poorer and who are anxious to level down the aristocracy to the level of Demos. i have every sympathy with the former and none with the latter. i believe that any system of government will work if the rulers are sincerely determined to translate christianity into action, and that no system can work if it is corrupted either by the selfishness of the rich or by the envy of the poor. i find it difficult to understand how any man of adult intelligence can accept with uncritical enthusiasm any of the existing varieties if either authoritarian or democratic government or regard any system as more than a makeshift, for our effective choice is not between the good and the bad, but between the bad and the worse. it is, i think, the duty of the political critic to draw attention to the defects of the existing order and the virtues of the order which it has replaced, for it is only by comparing the good in what has gone with the evil in what has come that we are saved from self-complacency. representative government, which at least allows us the pleasure of getting rid of those who misrepresent us, is certainly better than any other rival system, but that is no particular reason why we should be uncritical in our adulation of King Demos or assume that modern democracy is the best form of representative government..
107 ...Mr. Belloc's epigram on 'The Pacifist' crystallises our post war search for universal peace:
pal Ebenezer thought it wrong to fight,
but Roaring Bill, who killed him, thought it right.
our British Ebenezers have made things delightfully easy for the Roaring Bills.
chap. 11 -adventures in psychical research
chap. 12 - the conflict between science and atheism
128 ...the true scientist should be above the snobbery which refuses to investigate phenomena merely because they are accompanied by undignified trimmings, such as silly spirit chatter, floating tambourines, and such. to the true scientist no fact is common or unclean.
chap. 13 - the return to reason
138 my deepening distrust of Huxleyism and of much that paraded itself as modern thought, was reinforced by reading, during 1929, Science and the Modern World, by Prof. A. N. Whitehead, a distinquished non-catholic philosopher and mathematician and a Fellow of the Royal Society. 'the Reformation and the scientific movement were two aspects of the historical revolt which was the dominating intellectual movement of the later Renaissance...it is a great mistake to conceive this historical revolt as an appeal to reason. on the contrary it was through and through an anti-intellectualist movement...based on a recoil from the inflexible rationality of mediaeval thought. the Middle Ages formed one long training of the intellect of western europe in the sense of order...the habit of definite exact thought was implanted in the european mind by the long dominance of scholastic logic and scholastic divinity. the habit remained long after the philosophy had been repudiated, the priceless habit of looking for an exact point and sticking to it when found...i do not
139 think that i have even yet brought out the greatest contribution of mediaevalism to the formation of the scientific movement. i mean the inexpugnable belief that every detailed occurrence can be correlated to its antecedents in a perfectly definite manner, exemplifying general principles. without this belief the incredible labour of scientists would be without hope...to this day science has remained an anti-intellectualist movement based on a naive faith'.
..the Catholic Church, i discovered, does not appeal to faith or expect the potential convert to accept her claims until he has satisfied himself that they are rational. she approaches the bible in the same spirit in which she approaches any other historical book, and applying the method of history proves that Jesus Christ established His claim to be God by rising from the dead. it is not until she has proved the credentials of the Church
104 by reason that she asks us to accept on the authority of the Church doctrines which we have no independent means of verifying.
(note: Lunn did become a Roman Catholic convert. i have tremendous respect for him in many areas but would have to part a bit here...from the authority of the Church to the authority of God's word..i hope to see him in heaven though!)
153 ...it is difficult for those who have once subscribed to the creed of humanism, the belief that man is the measure of all things, to overcome their prejudice against the alleged intolerance of a Church which refuses to compromise on the doctrines which she proclaims as true. the modern world confuses two very different things - intolerance of error and intolerance of men in error. the former is usually right, the latter usually wrong.
i am, for instance, an uncompromising bigot on the question of the multiplication table, whereas Prof. haldane is willing to admit the posiblility of exceptions to the statement that 2 x3 = 6. i am intolerant of his heretical distrust of certain truth, but, even if i were a dictator, i should not intern Prof. Haldane, or deny him the freedom to proclaim his views. moreover, i do not assume that those who are orthodox on the multiplication table are necessarily, in other respects, more intelligent or better citizens than those who trifle with mathematical heresies. 'Love men, slay errors, said St. Augustine and where ecclesiastics have followed this golden rule they have remained true to the spirit of Christ, who was
154 uncompromising in his condemnation of fashionable sins and infinitely tolerant of unfashionable sinners.
a man is not necessarily a bigot because he believes in the Resurrection or comes to the conclusion the Christ founded a visible Church and that the Church is question is the Roman
Catholic church. many bigots have rejected as inconclusive the evidence on which the church bases her claims and many men of wide tolerance have accepted those claims. the real criterion of bigotry is less the nature of our beliefs than our attitude to those who do not share our beliefs. there are bigots in every church. bigots....
the ever-growing peril of militant atheism is achieving at least one good result. it is forcing christians to realise that the beliefs which unite them are more important than those which divide them. there are, i suppose, catholics who believe that all protestants go to hell, but i have never met them. nor have i met a catholic who would dissent from the following pronouncement by dr. Karl Adam, catholic priest and professor of theology: 'not merely a christian life, but a complete and lofty christian life, a life according to the 'full age of Christ', a saintly life, is possible - so catholics believe - even in definitely non-catholic communions'.
during the spanish war my father appealed in the columns of The Times for a united Christian Front. Cardinal Hinsley in the course of his reply wrote as follows: 'Pius XI explicitly appeals in his letter Divini Redemptoris to all who believe in God. between those who believe in Christ as true God and true man and worship Him there should be charity - an effort to draw nearer to Him and so nearer to one another. this means not only friendly relationship but mutual help in defending the civilisation which is founded on the truths enunciated in the Nicaean Creed. Sir Henry rightly insists on this bond between us. let us be frank. there have been in the past misunderstandings and faults of manner on both sides and of temper or a
155 lack of charity in controversy. these, our failings and differences, the enemies of religion have exploited. but the realisation of a common peril is drawing christians together in practical sympathy'.....
chap. 14 - king albert of the belgians
156 a strange moral transformation , wrote theat great american philosopher william james, has within the last century swept over our western world. we no longer thing that we are called upon to face physical pain with equanimity. the way in which our ancestors looked upon pain wa an eternal ingredient of the world's order and both caused and suffered it as a matter of course, fills us with amazement. we wonder that human beings could have been so callous'.
these lines were written before the Great War proved that modern man was (still) ...capable
25 years have ps
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
12.16.2015 SEX TRAFFICING
taken from world magazine, 12.26.15, p44, 'abused and exploited' by sophia lee
sarah had always found it suspicious that her neighbor was making $400 after an hour of 'cleaning house'. there was something about her neighbor - the things she said, the way she behaved - that set off icky deja vu. that neighbor reminded sarah of her 'girlfriend' at age 11, someone who had forced her to preform sexual acts with other boys while she watched. 'watch that lady, she told herself, shes bad.
but then sarah (WORLD agreed not to use her real name to protect her privacy) ran into financial troubles. she was a 20 year old with NOBODY TO TURN TO FOR HELP (caps mine)
her father had disappeared
her mother had kicked her out the moment sarah turned 18.
it was just her and her older sister living hand-to-mouth in a rented apartment, watching the unpaid bills stack up.
that's when her neighbor sniffed desperation. she beckoned sarah with a wink and a smile, 'i know how you can make good money quick', and revealed: sex with strangers for quick bucks.she then offered to hook S up with some clients. S agreed. why not? she'd been molested and abused multiple times since she was 5. her body had done such things for free - so earning several hundreddollars for what she'd already done? sounded like a decent deal for her.
but S never got much pay for her services. her neighbor kept coming up with reasons why she deserved S's earnings. she's the one who booked S that job, she'd say, and she'd remind her 'you would have been in the streets if not for me. S's bills remained unpaid.
when she finally had enough and told her neighbor that she wanted out, the woman THREATENED TO EXPOSE Sarah to the christian ministry that employed her. nobody at work knew that she WAS BEING PIMPED on the side. that was one of S's talents: growing up in a LEGALISTIC CHRISTIAN HOME, she knew how to PUT ON a prim and proper FRONT. but INSIDE SHE FELT LIKE TRASH. if she could only scrabble $15 for her body, how much more was she really worth? a john once told her, 'this is the only thing you're good at', and she believed it.
what happened to S is a form of domestic sex trafficking. victims can be male or female, 40 or 9 years old, living in wealthy suburbia or a gang-ridden inner city. the exact number of trafficking victims in the US is unclear, but there are rough estimates. in 2014, the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline received reports of 5,042 potential human trafficking cases, and about 31% involved minors. FOSTER, HOMELESS, RUNAWAY and PREGNANT youngsters are at highest risk. the National Center for missing and Exploited Children estimates more than one third of the 1.7 million runaway children each year are LURED INTO PROSTITUTION or pornography WITHIN 48 HOURS of hitting the streets. the Department of Justice believes about 300,000 children in the US are trafficking victims.
human trafficking is primarily a crime of psychology. PREDATORS have an uncanny SENSE of their victims' DESIREs for LOVE, ATTENTION AND IDENTITY. a 'Romeo pimp' whispers compliments into the ears of a girl hungry for love. a runaway child longing for security might meet a charmer who promises, 'i'll take care of you, so long as you stick with me and do what i ask'. many pimps even make their victims call them 'Daddy' while they call the victims 'Wifey'. some young women might believe they found a business partner while receiving none of the profits. that's 'grooming' - a process of TRAINING, MANIPULATING and ABUSING an individual into total submission.
many pimps belong to local gangs that see enormous profits in human trafficking for very little risk. sometimes these pimps straight-out abduct a girl on the streets. oftentimes, they send a woman who has proven her loyalty enough to become the pimp's hench-woman. she may blend into schools, malls, even churches to scout out vulnerable, easy-trusting females who think they've found a cool new friend.
particularly for young people, their smartphones, tablets and COMPUTERS become virtual workshops for grooming and recruiting. typically, a teenager thinks she's chatting with a cute boy online through popular social media apps such as Kik, Facebook, or Omegle (tagline: 'talk to strangers!'), or for boys, on online games such as Grand Theft Auto or World of Warcraft. he or she does what most NAIVE teenagers do: SHARE PERSONAL INFORMATION about interests and location and upload pictures and videos of themselves and their friends. a predator couldn't ask for a better marketplace.
"we're really at a unique time in history, said Opal Singleton, who, as training and outreach coordinator for Riverside County Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force, has sat with distraught and devastated parents who could not believe their child had become a trafficking victim. 'never before has there been this much competition of influences on our kids' morals, spirituality, self-image, and sexuality. we have perfectly normal parents handing their child devices that provide access to hundreds of thousands of strangers around the globe.
one mother, after attending Sing's presentation on online predators, confronted her daughter-a high school senior with a 4.0 GPA-just days before she had planned secretly to fly to ireland to join an apparently 28 year old guy she had met online through an Xbox game. he later disappeared when mother and daughter demanded more concrete information. the perp doesn't even have to tell the girl much, S said: 'he gives her just enough information that she wants to hear and she fills in the blanks to fit her own fantasy.
the challenges in combating domestic trafficking are many: the sex market is shifting from street alleys and strip bars to online, where perpetrators are harder to track and prosecute. most pimps transport their 'stable' of girls from county to county, which makes it hard for authorities to organize long term sting operations. even if they bust a truckload of underage girls, the victims are usually too terrified, distrustful, or brainwashed to admit they are trafficking victims, so the police cannot detain them.
this has led many law enforcers to change their focus to catching crooks by helping the victims first. Lt. dan pratt, as par of the Long Beach (Calif.) Police Dept...Vic Investigations team, oversees a team of officers who click through websites that advertise sex for money and then go undercover to meet and arrest the prostituted person. but instead of shutting her in a metallic cold interrogation room, they sit her on a comfortable couch, buy her snacks, and chat about movies, music, current trends-whatever piques her interest and trust.
at first the girls looked at us like we're crazy, because we've never talked to them using that approach before, P recalled. previously, interactions between law enforcers and prostitutes were sterile and brief, and the police thought of the women or girls as 'prostitutes', 'child prostitutes', 'juvenile delinquents', or 'runaways' - but never victims.
that's changing. law enforcers are realizing that most of these girls or young women are trafficking victims, which is why P's team isn't out to prosecute but rescue them. in 2014, the LBPD vice squad handled 24 cases of human trafficking, rescuing 29 minors and arresting 26 individuals. the typical age range of these victims was 18 to 22, but the team has been rescuing more minors recently. the youngest victim they found was 11.
almost all the girls tell the officers that they never wanted to be in the sex trade but they can't get out, nor do they know where to go. one girl said, 'i was gone for several days and nobody came to look for me. when i came back, they looked at me like they didn't care....
that's what Shannon Forsythe, founder of Run 2 Rescue (R2R) , a california-based nonprofit that aids domestic sex trafficking victim, realized: 'we used to just go out into the streets, but then we realized we can't pull them out without having a place for them to go. but F also saw that almost 90% of trafficked girls in safe houses-both secular and faith-based-leave and drop right back into their previous life.
discouraged, she prayed, 'Lord, if You're calling us into this mission, if this is where Your heartbeat is, why are these girls turning back to that life? F then decided what these girls needed was a family home, not a group institution where every girl competed for attention and sometimes even recruited other for her pimp.
in 2014, F launched Anchors of Hope (AOH) a R2R project that trains churches and faith-based communities to 'adopt' a victim for an entire year. instead of housing a group of traumatized girls together, AOH separates them into individual christian families who have been vetted and trained by R2R staff. each girl also regularly meets with 4 team members for mentorship and interdisciplinary skills, while other local christians provide them various networks of social, legal, medical and educational support.
it's a messy, grueling program, because a lot of these girls also struggle with SUBSTANCE ABUSE, EMOTIONAL TRAUMA, and STUNTED MATURITY. 'you're stepping into a really dark area, F said. 'the oppression, the nightmares my girls have, it's just demonic. this is warfare.
one girl was beaten so badly by her pimp that he thought she was dead, so he tossed her into the dumpster. she awoke, climbed out of the dumpster and limped back...because she knew no other options. many girls tell, 'FAKE LOVE IS BETTER THAN NO LOVE'.
that's why a focus on God has to be 'first and center in everything', F said, 'without Christ, we are not seeing the growth and restoration in them as quickly. their transformation makes leaps and bounds when there is Christ, when the girls see that God has forgiven them, that He loves them, that the old has passed away. that's what they want - THEY WANT A BRAND-NEW, FRESH START.
the evening S met F at a bible study and learned about R2R, she made the crazy decision to talk to her. her cell phone kept vibrating with service calls and text messages from her pimp that night, but she ignored it.
at firs, S tried to present her situation as a hypothetical case, but F saw ..through her. she gave S a 30 second choice: 'you can either come with me or you tell somebody right now about what's happened to you, because if you don't, i fear i'll never hear from you again'. so S confessed to her bible study leader and thought that was that.
but F somehow got S's contact number and called her the next day. they dined at a mexican restaurant, and that night, S voiced things she'd never admitted out loud before.
throughout the meal, she could hardly eat: she worried about how her pimp would react, about whether her co-workers would find out and about whether F was judging her. then she wondered why she should even care what F thought: 'this person, she thought, is just one more person who'll go, 'Whatever'! and leave.
so S decided so long as she kept showing up,m she could blame F if she stopped showing - 'but she didn't. she always showed up'. S kept waiting to feel the strings tug - didn't everything in life come with strings? - but F and her team never asked for payment, never asked for anything except to tell her to receive and enjoy: 'this is how the Lord wants to bless you'.
6 months later, S joined the AOH program. after 15 years of living in a haze of prescription pill abuse, being sober meant she finally had the mental clarity to feel all the emotions she'd suppressed for so long. overwhelmed, she started cutting herself again, but her 'anchor family' caught it at once. they walked with her through all her shame, guilt and anger and helped her to deal with her emotions in a healthier way. now 22, S is still sober, almost debt free and a volunteer at R2R.
all her life, even at the moments when she'd considered suicide, a little voice kept telling S, 'it's going to get better'. she'd cry back, 'Oh yeah? when? then 4 months into her program, a turning point began: Sarah, the woman who never felt loved in her entire life, finally recognized God's unchanging, unconditional love in Christ. soon after, she heard that little voice cheer: 'IT'S GETTING BETTER'.
sarah had always found it suspicious that her neighbor was making $400 after an hour of 'cleaning house'. there was something about her neighbor - the things she said, the way she behaved - that set off icky deja vu. that neighbor reminded sarah of her 'girlfriend' at age 11, someone who had forced her to preform sexual acts with other boys while she watched. 'watch that lady, she told herself, shes bad.
but then sarah (WORLD agreed not to use her real name to protect her privacy) ran into financial troubles. she was a 20 year old with NOBODY TO TURN TO FOR HELP (caps mine)
her father had disappeared
her mother had kicked her out the moment sarah turned 18.
it was just her and her older sister living hand-to-mouth in a rented apartment, watching the unpaid bills stack up.
that's when her neighbor sniffed desperation. she beckoned sarah with a wink and a smile, 'i know how you can make good money quick', and revealed: sex with strangers for quick bucks.she then offered to hook S up with some clients. S agreed. why not? she'd been molested and abused multiple times since she was 5. her body had done such things for free - so earning several hundreddollars for what she'd already done? sounded like a decent deal for her.
but S never got much pay for her services. her neighbor kept coming up with reasons why she deserved S's earnings. she's the one who booked S that job, she'd say, and she'd remind her 'you would have been in the streets if not for me. S's bills remained unpaid.
when she finally had enough and told her neighbor that she wanted out, the woman THREATENED TO EXPOSE Sarah to the christian ministry that employed her. nobody at work knew that she WAS BEING PIMPED on the side. that was one of S's talents: growing up in a LEGALISTIC CHRISTIAN HOME, she knew how to PUT ON a prim and proper FRONT. but INSIDE SHE FELT LIKE TRASH. if she could only scrabble $15 for her body, how much more was she really worth? a john once told her, 'this is the only thing you're good at', and she believed it.
what happened to S is a form of domestic sex trafficking. victims can be male or female, 40 or 9 years old, living in wealthy suburbia or a gang-ridden inner city. the exact number of trafficking victims in the US is unclear, but there are rough estimates. in 2014, the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline received reports of 5,042 potential human trafficking cases, and about 31% involved minors. FOSTER, HOMELESS, RUNAWAY and PREGNANT youngsters are at highest risk. the National Center for missing and Exploited Children estimates more than one third of the 1.7 million runaway children each year are LURED INTO PROSTITUTION or pornography WITHIN 48 HOURS of hitting the streets. the Department of Justice believes about 300,000 children in the US are trafficking victims.
human trafficking is primarily a crime of psychology. PREDATORS have an uncanny SENSE of their victims' DESIREs for LOVE, ATTENTION AND IDENTITY. a 'Romeo pimp' whispers compliments into the ears of a girl hungry for love. a runaway child longing for security might meet a charmer who promises, 'i'll take care of you, so long as you stick with me and do what i ask'. many pimps even make their victims call them 'Daddy' while they call the victims 'Wifey'. some young women might believe they found a business partner while receiving none of the profits. that's 'grooming' - a process of TRAINING, MANIPULATING and ABUSING an individual into total submission.
many pimps belong to local gangs that see enormous profits in human trafficking for very little risk. sometimes these pimps straight-out abduct a girl on the streets. oftentimes, they send a woman who has proven her loyalty enough to become the pimp's hench-woman. she may blend into schools, malls, even churches to scout out vulnerable, easy-trusting females who think they've found a cool new friend.
particularly for young people, their smartphones, tablets and COMPUTERS become virtual workshops for grooming and recruiting. typically, a teenager thinks she's chatting with a cute boy online through popular social media apps such as Kik, Facebook, or Omegle (tagline: 'talk to strangers!'), or for boys, on online games such as Grand Theft Auto or World of Warcraft. he or she does what most NAIVE teenagers do: SHARE PERSONAL INFORMATION about interests and location and upload pictures and videos of themselves and their friends. a predator couldn't ask for a better marketplace.
"we're really at a unique time in history, said Opal Singleton, who, as training and outreach coordinator for Riverside County Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force, has sat with distraught and devastated parents who could not believe their child had become a trafficking victim. 'never before has there been this much competition of influences on our kids' morals, spirituality, self-image, and sexuality. we have perfectly normal parents handing their child devices that provide access to hundreds of thousands of strangers around the globe.
one mother, after attending Sing's presentation on online predators, confronted her daughter-a high school senior with a 4.0 GPA-just days before she had planned secretly to fly to ireland to join an apparently 28 year old guy she had met online through an Xbox game. he later disappeared when mother and daughter demanded more concrete information. the perp doesn't even have to tell the girl much, S said: 'he gives her just enough information that she wants to hear and she fills in the blanks to fit her own fantasy.
the challenges in combating domestic trafficking are many: the sex market is shifting from street alleys and strip bars to online, where perpetrators are harder to track and prosecute. most pimps transport their 'stable' of girls from county to county, which makes it hard for authorities to organize long term sting operations. even if they bust a truckload of underage girls, the victims are usually too terrified, distrustful, or brainwashed to admit they are trafficking victims, so the police cannot detain them.
this has led many law enforcers to change their focus to catching crooks by helping the victims first. Lt. dan pratt, as par of the Long Beach (Calif.) Police Dept...Vic Investigations team, oversees a team of officers who click through websites that advertise sex for money and then go undercover to meet and arrest the prostituted person. but instead of shutting her in a metallic cold interrogation room, they sit her on a comfortable couch, buy her snacks, and chat about movies, music, current trends-whatever piques her interest and trust.
at first the girls looked at us like we're crazy, because we've never talked to them using that approach before, P recalled. previously, interactions between law enforcers and prostitutes were sterile and brief, and the police thought of the women or girls as 'prostitutes', 'child prostitutes', 'juvenile delinquents', or 'runaways' - but never victims.
that's changing. law enforcers are realizing that most of these girls or young women are trafficking victims, which is why P's team isn't out to prosecute but rescue them. in 2014, the LBPD vice squad handled 24 cases of human trafficking, rescuing 29 minors and arresting 26 individuals. the typical age range of these victims was 18 to 22, but the team has been rescuing more minors recently. the youngest victim they found was 11.
almost all the girls tell the officers that they never wanted to be in the sex trade but they can't get out, nor do they know where to go. one girl said, 'i was gone for several days and nobody came to look for me. when i came back, they looked at me like they didn't care....
that's what Shannon Forsythe, founder of Run 2 Rescue (R2R) , a california-based nonprofit that aids domestic sex trafficking victim, realized: 'we used to just go out into the streets, but then we realized we can't pull them out without having a place for them to go. but F also saw that almost 90% of trafficked girls in safe houses-both secular and faith-based-leave and drop right back into their previous life.
discouraged, she prayed, 'Lord, if You're calling us into this mission, if this is where Your heartbeat is, why are these girls turning back to that life? F then decided what these girls needed was a family home, not a group institution where every girl competed for attention and sometimes even recruited other for her pimp.
in 2014, F launched Anchors of Hope (AOH) a R2R project that trains churches and faith-based communities to 'adopt' a victim for an entire year. instead of housing a group of traumatized girls together, AOH separates them into individual christian families who have been vetted and trained by R2R staff. each girl also regularly meets with 4 team members for mentorship and interdisciplinary skills, while other local christians provide them various networks of social, legal, medical and educational support.
it's a messy, grueling program, because a lot of these girls also struggle with SUBSTANCE ABUSE, EMOTIONAL TRAUMA, and STUNTED MATURITY. 'you're stepping into a really dark area, F said. 'the oppression, the nightmares my girls have, it's just demonic. this is warfare.
one girl was beaten so badly by her pimp that he thought she was dead, so he tossed her into the dumpster. she awoke, climbed out of the dumpster and limped back...because she knew no other options. many girls tell, 'FAKE LOVE IS BETTER THAN NO LOVE'.
that's why a focus on God has to be 'first and center in everything', F said, 'without Christ, we are not seeing the growth and restoration in them as quickly. their transformation makes leaps and bounds when there is Christ, when the girls see that God has forgiven them, that He loves them, that the old has passed away. that's what they want - THEY WANT A BRAND-NEW, FRESH START.
the evening S met F at a bible study and learned about R2R, she made the crazy decision to talk to her. her cell phone kept vibrating with service calls and text messages from her pimp that night, but she ignored it.
at firs, S tried to present her situation as a hypothetical case, but F saw ..through her. she gave S a 30 second choice: 'you can either come with me or you tell somebody right now about what's happened to you, because if you don't, i fear i'll never hear from you again'. so S confessed to her bible study leader and thought that was that.
but F somehow got S's contact number and called her the next day. they dined at a mexican restaurant, and that night, S voiced things she'd never admitted out loud before.
throughout the meal, she could hardly eat: she worried about how her pimp would react, about whether her co-workers would find out and about whether F was judging her. then she wondered why she should even care what F thought: 'this person, she thought, is just one more person who'll go, 'Whatever'! and leave.
so S decided so long as she kept showing up,m she could blame F if she stopped showing - 'but she didn't. she always showed up'. S kept waiting to feel the strings tug - didn't everything in life come with strings? - but F and her team never asked for payment, never asked for anything except to tell her to receive and enjoy: 'this is how the Lord wants to bless you'.
6 months later, S joined the AOH program. after 15 years of living in a haze of prescription pill abuse, being sober meant she finally had the mental clarity to feel all the emotions she'd suppressed for so long. overwhelmed, she started cutting herself again, but her 'anchor family' caught it at once. they walked with her through all her shame, guilt and anger and helped her to deal with her emotions in a healthier way. now 22, S is still sober, almost debt free and a volunteer at R2R.
all her life, even at the moments when she'd considered suicide, a little voice kept telling S, 'it's going to get better'. she'd cry back, 'Oh yeah? when? then 4 months into her program, a turning point began: Sarah, the woman who never felt loved in her entire life, finally recognized God's unchanging, unconditional love in Christ. soon after, she heard that little voice cheer: 'IT'S GETTING BETTER'.
12.16.2015 WORLD MAGAZINE items for prayer, etc.
5 62,000 displace by flooding in chennai, india
6 american women now involved in military combar roles 'with no exceptions'
syed rizwan farook and his wife, tashfeen malik attack training session for county emplyees in san bernardino, calif., killing 14 and wounding 21
7 refugees' status in europe uncertain
russia set to avenge the destruction of their jet by turkey
8 education in america out of local control
10 individual care in the use of the natural resources that God has blessed us with
11 ukraine vs. russia
14 refusal to act in revenge against those who hate us (luke 6.27-8; 36-8)
refusal to look to government for help of ANY kind (psalm 37.1-8)
need for peacemakers in every situation
15 14b
election of governmental officials
government officials of God's choice who follow God's dictates
removal of government officials who violate God's commands
24 may Raymond Carver's statement cause me to repent so that it would never be true of me and how i live. 'two things are certain: 1. people no longer car what happens to other people and 2.nothing makes any real difference anymore.'
28 that i may 'see' and treat every person as infinitely valuable and as God's special creation.
that i may speak the truth in love to every person.
that i may always be liberal in every way when relating to other people...without sinning myself
a BIGOT is one obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his own church, party, belief, opinion (ie. don't confuse me with the facts!); LIBERAL (from 'befitting the free'); synonyms: broadminded, tolerant
32 refugees in a foreign land ie. america
34 the refusal of every citizen to accept one thin dime from any governmental entity, but live free,
and not in debt (romans 13.8) to anyone for anything. better to die free than to live a slave
35 the sexual slavery of america, which has been widely adopted worldwide (think contraceptives, abortion, fornication, sex outside of marriage, pornography virtual or real life, the end of marriage, the sex trade, orphans without a family, etc.), be repented of
48 that cuban house churches may not wax lukewarm when american $ comes
53 'climate' and all other forms of governmental 'control' be renounced in favor of living local, lean, trusting in the Lord for wisdom and help
58 that man would understand that: 1. there is no such thing as a 'free' lunch, 2. the power to tax is the power to destroy and act accordingly.
63 trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding...prov. 3.5-6
6 american women now involved in military combar roles 'with no exceptions'
syed rizwan farook and his wife, tashfeen malik attack training session for county emplyees in san bernardino, calif., killing 14 and wounding 21
7 refugees' status in europe uncertain
russia set to avenge the destruction of their jet by turkey
8 education in america out of local control
10 individual care in the use of the natural resources that God has blessed us with
11 ukraine vs. russia
14 refusal to act in revenge against those who hate us (luke 6.27-8; 36-8)
refusal to look to government for help of ANY kind (psalm 37.1-8)
need for peacemakers in every situation
15 14b
election of governmental officials
government officials of God's choice who follow God's dictates
removal of government officials who violate God's commands
24 may Raymond Carver's statement cause me to repent so that it would never be true of me and how i live. 'two things are certain: 1. people no longer car what happens to other people and 2.nothing makes any real difference anymore.'
28 that i may 'see' and treat every person as infinitely valuable and as God's special creation.
that i may speak the truth in love to every person.
that i may always be liberal in every way when relating to other people...without sinning myself
a BIGOT is one obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his own church, party, belief, opinion (ie. don't confuse me with the facts!); LIBERAL (from 'befitting the free'); synonyms: broadminded, tolerant
32 refugees in a foreign land ie. america
34 the refusal of every citizen to accept one thin dime from any governmental entity, but live free,
and not in debt (romans 13.8) to anyone for anything. better to die free than to live a slave
35 the sexual slavery of america, which has been widely adopted worldwide (think contraceptives, abortion, fornication, sex outside of marriage, pornography virtual or real life, the end of marriage, the sex trade, orphans without a family, etc.), be repented of
48 that cuban house churches may not wax lukewarm when american $ comes
53 'climate' and all other forms of governmental 'control' be renounced in favor of living local, lean, trusting in the Lord for wisdom and help
58 that man would understand that: 1. there is no such thing as a 'free' lunch, 2. the power to tax is the power to destroy and act accordingly.
63 trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding...prov. 3.5-6
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
12.8.2015 HOW TO WIN SOULS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE by ray comfort...battle for the lost
woe to those who are at ease in zion...
1 i was feeling quite pleased with myself. for the first time in months i didn't feel 'wrung out'.
often i would return from weekend meetings absolutely exhausted. sue, my wife, would meet me at the airport, drive me home and put me into bed. but this weekend had been quite different. i was the speaker at a camp. the organizers had not been to the Squeeze the Preacher school and had let me off with an amazing three meetings in the whole weekend. now the camp was over and i was being shown my lodging for sunday night.
after seeing my room, i made my way to an upstairs living room. the view was magnificent. through the large window i gazed at the harbor below and watched as the sun seemed to dance on the still water. i sat down in a soft armchair and took a look around. a footstool, the view, a large television, a stereo - and now the hostess entered
2 the room with a cup of hot chocolate and a plate full of fresh home baking. THIS PLACE WAS MADE FOR COMFORT. ease consumed me. i reached out to take one of the offered goodies when suddenly, much to my shock and the surprise of the woman, i jumped out of my seat like a terrified cat on a blistering hot tin roof. i then turned around to see a yellow and black bee crawling around the seat of the armchair. i had been squarely stung on the hindmost part!
i was in too much pain to be embarrassed. as i jumped about the room, my only consolation was the thought, 'there's got to be a sermon in this...' some years before, i had prayed a most dangerous prayer. i asked God to cause things to happen in my life which i could use as sermon illustrations. at this point in time i regretted having made that request.
it wasn't long until i saw the application. i am convinced that God wants the complacent Laodicean Church to rise up on its feet. for too long we have sat in ease and comfort. we have sat back in affluence and said, 'i am rich and have need of nothing', and if it takes the sting of god's chastening hand to cause the Church to stand upright, may it come quickly. charles spurgeon said, 'God save us from living in comfort while sinners are sinking into hell! Whitefield said, 'the christian world is in a deep sleep; nothing but a loud shout can awaken them out of it!' catherine booth, the gentle co-founder of the Salvation Army, regarding church buildings, said, 'a barracks is meant to be a -place where real soldiers were to be fed and equipped for war, not a place to settle down in or as a comfortable snuggery in which to enjoy ourselves.
3 i hope that if ever they, our soldiers, do settle down god will burn their barracks over their heads!
in luke 6,the religious leaders were seeking an accusation against Jesus. we pick up the story in verse 6:
on another sabbath He went into the synagogue and was teaching and a man was there whose right hand was withered. the pharisees and the teachers of the Law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched Him closely to see if He would heal on the sabbath. but Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the withered hand, 'Get up and stand in front of everyone'. so he got up and stood there. then Jesus said to them, 'I ask you, which is lawful on the sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?'
He looked around at them all and then said to the man, 'stretch out your hand'. he did so and his hand was completely restored. but they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.
some year ago, the dallas morning news reported that 68% of professing christians outside of the 'Bible Belt' didn't see reaching out to the lost as being the number one priority of the Church. this was in line with what the barna research group found. in a survey, they discovered that among american adults who said they were 'born again', 75% couldn't even define the Great Commission. (note: matt. 28.18f)...around that time
4 Christianity Today..found that only 1% of their readership said that they had witnessed to someone 'recently'. that meant that 99% of their readership couldn't say that they were 'hot' or 'cold' when it came to concern for the fate of the ungodly. they were just 'lukewarm'. in one year, over 3,000 churches from a mainline denomination didn't report even one soul saved in that whole year. oswald j. smith said, 'Oh, my friends, we are loaded with countless church activities, while the real work of the Church, that of evangelizing and winning the lost, is almost entirely neglected'.
the 'right hand ' of the Body of Christ is withered. the hand, which is supposed to be moved with and by compassion, is not pulling sinners from the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh. (see jude 22-3) we have lost sight of our commission. the agenda, the plan of attack, the reason for the battle has been lost under a dark cloud of apathy. the right hand of the Body of Christ hangs limp at its side. we need to hear the voice of Jesus: 'arise, stand forth in the midst and stretch forth your hand'. when we stand forth in the midst and stretch forth our hand, we will begin to see that glorious, spotless victorious Church for which Jesus is coming back. this is the fiery Church we see in the book of Acts - a far cry from what we see in thee Church of today..
5..when paul wrote to timothy, he used military terms - 'FIGHT the good fight of faith...endure hardness as a GOOD SOLDIER' etc. he wanted to remind timothy that he was involved in a BATTLE and A GREAT CONFLICT. we shouldn't be surprised if the world fires hostilities at us. we are a friend of god and therefore an ENEMY OF THE WORLD...
6 ..over the years, i have asked churches, 'how many of you can say before God that you have witnessed verbally to more than 12 people over the past 12 months? that is at least every 30 days or so somebody who is sitting in the shadow of death has heard the Gospel of everlasting life from your lips?' i have found that only 8-12 percent will raise their hands. where is the zeal? Jesus said, 'but you shall receive power when the Holy spirit comes on you; and you shall be My witnesses in jerusalem and in all judea and samaria and to the ends of the earth' (acts 1.8).. the Holy Spirit wasn't given without purpose in mind. He was given so that we might have power for the purpose of being witnesses of Christ. so many profess to possess the power, but where is the lifestyle that confirms what they profess to possess?
it would seem that the fear of battle has left many a soldier hiding in the barracks. they are afraid to let their light shine before men because they know that men hate thee light. yet, it is a natural principle that when light shines darkness flees. darkness cannot overcome light. try it. switch on some darkness and see if the light leaves, then try it the other way around.
'Gross darkness' only covers this earth because the Church has not obeyed the admonition to 'arise and shine'. we often speak up when it comes to moral issues. we do scatter a little salt. but salt doesn't shine. among other things, it merely preserves.
7 i was somewhere in the midwest sitting with a friend at a respectable restaurant, waiting to be served. i went to the restroom and when i came back, i remarked to my friend, 'that's bad. they've got a pornographic poster outside the men's restrooms.
i suddenly felt like a hypocrite. i then walked over to a waiter and asked why the poster was on the wall. he stepped back defensively and said, 'that wasn't my idea. it was the manager's. he's over there. i told him that i wanted to speak with the manager.
when the man approached me i said, 'is it thee normal policy of this restaurant chain to have pornographic pictures on the wall?
he lookd at me inquiringly and said, 'is there a nude picture somewhere?
i said, 'no. i man that one on the wall. i pointed to the poster of a beautiful woman wearing an excuse for a bikini, and said,. 'that's designed to stir up lust. that is just what it's going to do with some young guy and before you know it some lady is raped in YOUR parking lot. he went wide-eyed. i thanked him for listening to me and made my way back to my table.
when my steak was served up a few minutes later, i called the waiter over and joked that it was still alive. he smiled and said that it would be back in a few minutes, but this time cooked properly.
it was back a few minutes later. my plate was delivered to me by the manager himself. he was very humble and even took a tract from me.
the incident was a lesson for me NOT TO COMPLAIN TO CHRISTIANS ABOUT THE SINS OF THE WORLD, BUT TO CONFRONT
8 THE WORLD. we forget that salt must be shaken out of the shaker.
the bible says that we are salt AND light. salt preserves, but it's the 'light of the glorious gospel of Christ' that will banish the darkness.
some years ago a traditional church dropped 'Onward Christian Soldiers' from their song index because it made reference to war. that's understandable for people who have never been born again...
9...are we hot for God? ....do we have the testimony 'to live means opportunities for Christ'? is theere a zeal to witness burning in our bones? it doesn't matter how much we pray, tithe, fellowship - Jesus said to 'God'. obedience is better than sacrifice.
CHAPTER 2 - pre battle: standard inventory
for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. II corinthians 10.4
12 ..one great key to success in an army is a unity of purpose, a merging into one mind. this is unusually
13 achieved by de-personalizing the recruits -'you sloppy bunch! in the next 6 weeks we are going to make you boys into men; you'll wish you'd never been born! i'm going to tell you HOW to think, WHEN to thing and WHAT to think! etc. curly locks of hair are callously clipped from cringing craniums. the reason for this is that when an army is on the front lines, the commander doesn't want his troops spending time on the vanities of life. he doesn't want his men wasting time in front of the mirror. he wants one body of men to do what he wants when he wants. his life and the life of his men may depend on it.
God has made His own ways of getting new recruits into line. (i think i prefer the army's way.) as a new christian, i went into what is commonly called a 'wilderness experience'. it was a most dreadful, miserable, depressing experience, but in retrospect it was a necessary part of my primary training. God wants to shake the 'world ' out of new converts. they have enlisted in the Army of God for active service. the quicker they respond the quicker they will be trained, and the quicker they will find themselves promoted in rank and relocated to where the action is.
when the U.S. navy trains rescue pilots, they place so much psychological pressure on recruits, that 50% drop out. they want the best, so those who enlist are pushed to the limits by being dropped out of helicopters into freezing water. in the water, a man simulates a drowning, and when his rescuer reaches him, he deliberately panics, grabbing the would-be rescuer and pulling him under. the trainee must take charge of the situation or be disqualified
14 from the course. he must take control, not only of the circumstances, but also of his own fears.
christianity isn't for wimps. God put the heat of tribulation on Jesus in the desert (see luke 4.1) - 'thou He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things that He suffered...(hebrews 5.8). how much moe will you and i be tried if we want to walk in the footsteps of the Savior? if we want to rescue humanity from the fires of Hell, we must take control, both of our own fears and of the demonic restraints placed in front of us.
the time has come when every able soldier is needed in the front line of battle. he who will not overcome will be overcome. as a great man once said, 'we must keep our fears to ourselves and share our courage with others'.
we need to know what our weapons are...
1. the Belt of Truth
2. the Breastplate of Righteousness
3. feet (note: Prepared to share) the Gospel of Peace
4. the Shield of Faith
5. the Helmet of Salvation
6. the Sword of the Spirit
7. ..Prevailing Prayer
15....first, we are told to have our LOINS 'GIRT ABOUT WITH TRUTH'. this is a reference to the belt worn by soldiers around the time this scripture was written. their clothing wasn't like ours. it was often loose. to be free from being hindered by this loose clothing, a soldier would 'gird up his waist' or fasten the clothing to his belt.
..so our firs preparation for battle is to determine to (note: FIRST...LIVE, then) speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth - from the heart, without compromise. ...in other words, give your all for the truth and don't make concessions at any price.
if you want to see how we deceive ourselves with lies, try this way of sharing your faith. ask an unsaved person if he has kept the Ten Commandments. most will say, 'yeah, pretty much'. then say, 'let's go through them and see how you do. have you ever told a lie/' the usual answer is, 'one or two[. then ask, 'what does that make you?' and watch human nature do verbal contortions rather than face the truth. they will say, 'i'm not a liar. everyone tells white lies. i'[m only human. i bet you've told lies! they're just 'white' lies'.
16 the Ten Commandments are like a mirror and the picture we see reflected in the Law is not a pretty one. however, when we become christians, we FACE the truth. ( note..I AM A SINNER. ) our hearts are desperately wicked. we are easily deceived by our own conceit. we know that we can look in the mirror of the law, walk away and 'forget what manner of persons we are'. (..james 1.24) we can lie to ourselves; therefore, we must continually search our hearts under the spotlight of the fear of God and the light of the Word of Truth.
if this is to be our attitude to the truth of the gospel, where the eternal welfare of men's souls is at stake. we are to be 'valiant for the truth', following the One who has the 'law of truth in His mouth', who is 'full of grace and truth', who is 'the way, the truth and the life'.
it's interesting to note the relationship john the baptist had to elijah. Jesus said that john came in the spirit and power of elijah. (..luke 1.1) there are also similarities between john and the Church. as with john, the true christian:
1. preaches in the 'wilderness' of this world.
2. rebukes even the sin of kings.
3. has a diet of locusts (plague of the Law) and honey (the sweetness of the gospel).
4. is a burning and shining light.
5. prepares the way of the Lord.
6. is uncompromising in regard to sin.
7. preaches future punishment.
8. is filled with the Spirit.
9. is bold.
10. is humble of heart.
17 ...Jesus warned peter that he would pay the ultimate price for his faith. He said that when he was young he girded himself and because of this he was able to walk wherever he wanted. then He said that when peter was old, another would gird him and carry him where he didn't wish to go. (see john 21.18) ...when we are girt about with truth, the world will hate us. if we would just say that Jesus isn't the only way to
18 God, or that you can sin and love God, or that the Bible is only one revelation of god to man, then we would have the world's smile. the unyielding truth may cause us to have to pay the ultimate price for our faith. like peter, when we were young and lacked the understanding as to what produced true salvation, we had a choice. however, because we know the truth, we have no choice. we cannot but speak that which we have seen and heard.
those who have been born of the spirit of truth, ...'cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth' - '...having your loins girt about with truth'.
the second item which we are commanded to put on as soldiers of the Lord, is the 'BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS' i thessalonians 5.8, paul says, let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love..' here we are reminded that we are enlisted in the Army of the God of love. righteousness by itself is no defense against the enemy. the pharisees had a form of righteousness, yet were still sons of the devil. )..john 8.44) without love we are nothing. (..I corinthians 13.13) charles spurgeon said, 'love should give wings to the feet of service and strength to the arms of labor'.
righteousness must be linked with faith and love. (..hebrews 11.6) it is this righteousness that shows whose side we are on:
in this the children of god are manifest and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. (I john 3.10)
19 if we have been born of the God of righteousness we will live in righteousness.
'righteousness', according to vine's expository dictionary of new testament words, is the 'character or quality of being right or just'. it was formerly spelled 'rightwiseness', which clearly expresses the meaning.
it is said of Jesus in isaiah chapter 59, 'for He put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation upon His head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal as a cloak'.
Jesus Christ, thee Lord of Righteousness, love righteousness. He has vehement fervor for justice. the soldier who has been taught and trained by the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead will not only HAVE righteousness, but DO righteousness. he should love what is right and hate what is wrong. the child of god longs for a new earth 'wherein dwells righteousness'. he 'hungers and thirsts for righteousness'. if we haven't that testimony, then we haven't seen an answer to the cry, 'create in me a clean heart, O god, renew a RIGHT spirit in me', or perhaps that has never been our plea.
the breastplate keeps the heart clean, for out of the heart come the issues of life. how could we approach the King with soiled garments? (note: man looks on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart!)...
20 ... how loudly does the sergeant major of our conscience need to shout to bring us to attention? if we move out of order, do we hear his voice? a good soldier won't even wait for the voice of a sergeant major to call him into line. if by chance he gets out of step with what he knows he should be, he does immediate correction.
have we debts unpaid? ..
do we honor our parents?..
have we unforgiveness in our hearts? then forgive or you will not be forgiven.
do we lack love? then we must get on our knees and ask god to pour His love through us or we have no biblical grounds to think we are saved.
are we easily irritated?
do we obey traffic laws
do we love and pray with our spouse..
do we read God's word daily...
do we pay all our taxes...
is our thought-life pure
do we daily confess our sins and ask for cleansing when necessary
are we zealous for God ?
these questions are merely soul-searchers to see if we have the things hat accompany salvation.
this is the profile of the NORMAL christian.
if we lack these things, better we realize it now, rather than on Judgment Day.
IS GOD SPEAKING TO YOU ABOUT SOMETHING RIGHT NOW?
don't let my words distract you.
stop reading this book and RESOLVE TO DO what you have failed to do and UNDO what you should not have done.
if we confess our sins,
21 He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleans us from all unrighteousness.
if you leave that thing undone, you will give a foothold to the enemy.
it will leave a gaping hole in your armor.
REPENT NOW, WHILE THERE IS TIME. (note...NOW is the acceptable time, today is the day of salvation!)
there is no such thing as a small sin. to steal one cent is to be a thief in the sight of god. there is no mention that the theft of judas was even noticed by the other disciples. perhaps he just took a little here and thee, but it only takes a small hole in the hull to sink an ocean liner. then all that is needed is time.
our Creator is righteousness itself. righteousness can no more be separated from His nature, than the ink can be from his book. we must strive to always have a conscience which is void of offence to both God and man, not only for our own sakes but for the sake of the unsaved.
1 i was feeling quite pleased with myself. for the first time in months i didn't feel 'wrung out'.
often i would return from weekend meetings absolutely exhausted. sue, my wife, would meet me at the airport, drive me home and put me into bed. but this weekend had been quite different. i was the speaker at a camp. the organizers had not been to the Squeeze the Preacher school and had let me off with an amazing three meetings in the whole weekend. now the camp was over and i was being shown my lodging for sunday night.
after seeing my room, i made my way to an upstairs living room. the view was magnificent. through the large window i gazed at the harbor below and watched as the sun seemed to dance on the still water. i sat down in a soft armchair and took a look around. a footstool, the view, a large television, a stereo - and now the hostess entered
2 the room with a cup of hot chocolate and a plate full of fresh home baking. THIS PLACE WAS MADE FOR COMFORT. ease consumed me. i reached out to take one of the offered goodies when suddenly, much to my shock and the surprise of the woman, i jumped out of my seat like a terrified cat on a blistering hot tin roof. i then turned around to see a yellow and black bee crawling around the seat of the armchair. i had been squarely stung on the hindmost part!
i was in too much pain to be embarrassed. as i jumped about the room, my only consolation was the thought, 'there's got to be a sermon in this...' some years before, i had prayed a most dangerous prayer. i asked God to cause things to happen in my life which i could use as sermon illustrations. at this point in time i regretted having made that request.
it wasn't long until i saw the application. i am convinced that God wants the complacent Laodicean Church to rise up on its feet. for too long we have sat in ease and comfort. we have sat back in affluence and said, 'i am rich and have need of nothing', and if it takes the sting of god's chastening hand to cause the Church to stand upright, may it come quickly. charles spurgeon said, 'God save us from living in comfort while sinners are sinking into hell! Whitefield said, 'the christian world is in a deep sleep; nothing but a loud shout can awaken them out of it!' catherine booth, the gentle co-founder of the Salvation Army, regarding church buildings, said, 'a barracks is meant to be a -place where real soldiers were to be fed and equipped for war, not a place to settle down in or as a comfortable snuggery in which to enjoy ourselves.
3 i hope that if ever they, our soldiers, do settle down god will burn their barracks over their heads!
in luke 6,the religious leaders were seeking an accusation against Jesus. we pick up the story in verse 6:
on another sabbath He went into the synagogue and was teaching and a man was there whose right hand was withered. the pharisees and the teachers of the Law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched Him closely to see if He would heal on the sabbath. but Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the withered hand, 'Get up and stand in front of everyone'. so he got up and stood there. then Jesus said to them, 'I ask you, which is lawful on the sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?'
He looked around at them all and then said to the man, 'stretch out your hand'. he did so and his hand was completely restored. but they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.
some year ago, the dallas morning news reported that 68% of professing christians outside of the 'Bible Belt' didn't see reaching out to the lost as being the number one priority of the Church. this was in line with what the barna research group found. in a survey, they discovered that among american adults who said they were 'born again', 75% couldn't even define the Great Commission. (note: matt. 28.18f)...around that time
4 Christianity Today..found that only 1% of their readership said that they had witnessed to someone 'recently'. that meant that 99% of their readership couldn't say that they were 'hot' or 'cold' when it came to concern for the fate of the ungodly. they were just 'lukewarm'. in one year, over 3,000 churches from a mainline denomination didn't report even one soul saved in that whole year. oswald j. smith said, 'Oh, my friends, we are loaded with countless church activities, while the real work of the Church, that of evangelizing and winning the lost, is almost entirely neglected'.
the 'right hand ' of the Body of Christ is withered. the hand, which is supposed to be moved with and by compassion, is not pulling sinners from the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh. (see jude 22-3) we have lost sight of our commission. the agenda, the plan of attack, the reason for the battle has been lost under a dark cloud of apathy. the right hand of the Body of Christ hangs limp at its side. we need to hear the voice of Jesus: 'arise, stand forth in the midst and stretch forth your hand'. when we stand forth in the midst and stretch forth our hand, we will begin to see that glorious, spotless victorious Church for which Jesus is coming back. this is the fiery Church we see in the book of Acts - a far cry from what we see in thee Church of today..
5..when paul wrote to timothy, he used military terms - 'FIGHT the good fight of faith...endure hardness as a GOOD SOLDIER' etc. he wanted to remind timothy that he was involved in a BATTLE and A GREAT CONFLICT. we shouldn't be surprised if the world fires hostilities at us. we are a friend of god and therefore an ENEMY OF THE WORLD...
6 ..over the years, i have asked churches, 'how many of you can say before God that you have witnessed verbally to more than 12 people over the past 12 months? that is at least every 30 days or so somebody who is sitting in the shadow of death has heard the Gospel of everlasting life from your lips?' i have found that only 8-12 percent will raise their hands. where is the zeal? Jesus said, 'but you shall receive power when the Holy spirit comes on you; and you shall be My witnesses in jerusalem and in all judea and samaria and to the ends of the earth' (acts 1.8).. the Holy Spirit wasn't given without purpose in mind. He was given so that we might have power for the purpose of being witnesses of Christ. so many profess to possess the power, but where is the lifestyle that confirms what they profess to possess?
it would seem that the fear of battle has left many a soldier hiding in the barracks. they are afraid to let their light shine before men because they know that men hate thee light. yet, it is a natural principle that when light shines darkness flees. darkness cannot overcome light. try it. switch on some darkness and see if the light leaves, then try it the other way around.
'Gross darkness' only covers this earth because the Church has not obeyed the admonition to 'arise and shine'. we often speak up when it comes to moral issues. we do scatter a little salt. but salt doesn't shine. among other things, it merely preserves.
7 i was somewhere in the midwest sitting with a friend at a respectable restaurant, waiting to be served. i went to the restroom and when i came back, i remarked to my friend, 'that's bad. they've got a pornographic poster outside the men's restrooms.
i suddenly felt like a hypocrite. i then walked over to a waiter and asked why the poster was on the wall. he stepped back defensively and said, 'that wasn't my idea. it was the manager's. he's over there. i told him that i wanted to speak with the manager.
when the man approached me i said, 'is it thee normal policy of this restaurant chain to have pornographic pictures on the wall?
he lookd at me inquiringly and said, 'is there a nude picture somewhere?
i said, 'no. i man that one on the wall. i pointed to the poster of a beautiful woman wearing an excuse for a bikini, and said,. 'that's designed to stir up lust. that is just what it's going to do with some young guy and before you know it some lady is raped in YOUR parking lot. he went wide-eyed. i thanked him for listening to me and made my way back to my table.
when my steak was served up a few minutes later, i called the waiter over and joked that it was still alive. he smiled and said that it would be back in a few minutes, but this time cooked properly.
it was back a few minutes later. my plate was delivered to me by the manager himself. he was very humble and even took a tract from me.
the incident was a lesson for me NOT TO COMPLAIN TO CHRISTIANS ABOUT THE SINS OF THE WORLD, BUT TO CONFRONT
8 THE WORLD. we forget that salt must be shaken out of the shaker.
the bible says that we are salt AND light. salt preserves, but it's the 'light of the glorious gospel of Christ' that will banish the darkness.
some years ago a traditional church dropped 'Onward Christian Soldiers' from their song index because it made reference to war. that's understandable for people who have never been born again...
9...are we hot for God? ....do we have the testimony 'to live means opportunities for Christ'? is theere a zeal to witness burning in our bones? it doesn't matter how much we pray, tithe, fellowship - Jesus said to 'God'. obedience is better than sacrifice.
CHAPTER 2 - pre battle: standard inventory
for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. II corinthians 10.4
12 ..one great key to success in an army is a unity of purpose, a merging into one mind. this is unusually
13 achieved by de-personalizing the recruits -'you sloppy bunch! in the next 6 weeks we are going to make you boys into men; you'll wish you'd never been born! i'm going to tell you HOW to think, WHEN to thing and WHAT to think! etc. curly locks of hair are callously clipped from cringing craniums. the reason for this is that when an army is on the front lines, the commander doesn't want his troops spending time on the vanities of life. he doesn't want his men wasting time in front of the mirror. he wants one body of men to do what he wants when he wants. his life and the life of his men may depend on it.
God has made His own ways of getting new recruits into line. (i think i prefer the army's way.) as a new christian, i went into what is commonly called a 'wilderness experience'. it was a most dreadful, miserable, depressing experience, but in retrospect it was a necessary part of my primary training. God wants to shake the 'world ' out of new converts. they have enlisted in the Army of God for active service. the quicker they respond the quicker they will be trained, and the quicker they will find themselves promoted in rank and relocated to where the action is.
when the U.S. navy trains rescue pilots, they place so much psychological pressure on recruits, that 50% drop out. they want the best, so those who enlist are pushed to the limits by being dropped out of helicopters into freezing water. in the water, a man simulates a drowning, and when his rescuer reaches him, he deliberately panics, grabbing the would-be rescuer and pulling him under. the trainee must take charge of the situation or be disqualified
14 from the course. he must take control, not only of the circumstances, but also of his own fears.
christianity isn't for wimps. God put the heat of tribulation on Jesus in the desert (see luke 4.1) - 'thou He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things that He suffered...(hebrews 5.8). how much moe will you and i be tried if we want to walk in the footsteps of the Savior? if we want to rescue humanity from the fires of Hell, we must take control, both of our own fears and of the demonic restraints placed in front of us.
the time has come when every able soldier is needed in the front line of battle. he who will not overcome will be overcome. as a great man once said, 'we must keep our fears to ourselves and share our courage with others'.
we need to know what our weapons are...
1. the Belt of Truth
2. the Breastplate of Righteousness
3. feet (note: Prepared to share) the Gospel of Peace
4. the Shield of Faith
5. the Helmet of Salvation
6. the Sword of the Spirit
7. ..Prevailing Prayer
15....first, we are told to have our LOINS 'GIRT ABOUT WITH TRUTH'. this is a reference to the belt worn by soldiers around the time this scripture was written. their clothing wasn't like ours. it was often loose. to be free from being hindered by this loose clothing, a soldier would 'gird up his waist' or fasten the clothing to his belt.
..so our firs preparation for battle is to determine to (note: FIRST...LIVE, then) speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth - from the heart, without compromise. ...in other words, give your all for the truth and don't make concessions at any price.
if you want to see how we deceive ourselves with lies, try this way of sharing your faith. ask an unsaved person if he has kept the Ten Commandments. most will say, 'yeah, pretty much'. then say, 'let's go through them and see how you do. have you ever told a lie/' the usual answer is, 'one or two[. then ask, 'what does that make you?' and watch human nature do verbal contortions rather than face the truth. they will say, 'i'm not a liar. everyone tells white lies. i'[m only human. i bet you've told lies! they're just 'white' lies'.
16 the Ten Commandments are like a mirror and the picture we see reflected in the Law is not a pretty one. however, when we become christians, we FACE the truth. ( note..I AM A SINNER. ) our hearts are desperately wicked. we are easily deceived by our own conceit. we know that we can look in the mirror of the law, walk away and 'forget what manner of persons we are'. (..james 1.24) we can lie to ourselves; therefore, we must continually search our hearts under the spotlight of the fear of God and the light of the Word of Truth.
if this is to be our attitude to the truth of the gospel, where the eternal welfare of men's souls is at stake. we are to be 'valiant for the truth', following the One who has the 'law of truth in His mouth', who is 'full of grace and truth', who is 'the way, the truth and the life'.
it's interesting to note the relationship john the baptist had to elijah. Jesus said that john came in the spirit and power of elijah. (..luke 1.1) there are also similarities between john and the Church. as with john, the true christian:
1. preaches in the 'wilderness' of this world.
2. rebukes even the sin of kings.
3. has a diet of locusts (plague of the Law) and honey (the sweetness of the gospel).
4. is a burning and shining light.
5. prepares the way of the Lord.
6. is uncompromising in regard to sin.
7. preaches future punishment.
8. is filled with the Spirit.
9. is bold.
10. is humble of heart.
17 ...Jesus warned peter that he would pay the ultimate price for his faith. He said that when he was young he girded himself and because of this he was able to walk wherever he wanted. then He said that when peter was old, another would gird him and carry him where he didn't wish to go. (see john 21.18) ...when we are girt about with truth, the world will hate us. if we would just say that Jesus isn't the only way to
18 God, or that you can sin and love God, or that the Bible is only one revelation of god to man, then we would have the world's smile. the unyielding truth may cause us to have to pay the ultimate price for our faith. like peter, when we were young and lacked the understanding as to what produced true salvation, we had a choice. however, because we know the truth, we have no choice. we cannot but speak that which we have seen and heard.
those who have been born of the spirit of truth, ...'cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth' - '...having your loins girt about with truth'.
the second item which we are commanded to put on as soldiers of the Lord, is the 'BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS' i thessalonians 5.8, paul says, let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love..' here we are reminded that we are enlisted in the Army of the God of love. righteousness by itself is no defense against the enemy. the pharisees had a form of righteousness, yet were still sons of the devil. )..john 8.44) without love we are nothing. (..I corinthians 13.13) charles spurgeon said, 'love should give wings to the feet of service and strength to the arms of labor'.
righteousness must be linked with faith and love. (..hebrews 11.6) it is this righteousness that shows whose side we are on:
in this the children of god are manifest and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. (I john 3.10)
19 if we have been born of the God of righteousness we will live in righteousness.
'righteousness', according to vine's expository dictionary of new testament words, is the 'character or quality of being right or just'. it was formerly spelled 'rightwiseness', which clearly expresses the meaning.
it is said of Jesus in isaiah chapter 59, 'for He put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation upon His head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal as a cloak'.
Jesus Christ, thee Lord of Righteousness, love righteousness. He has vehement fervor for justice. the soldier who has been taught and trained by the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead will not only HAVE righteousness, but DO righteousness. he should love what is right and hate what is wrong. the child of god longs for a new earth 'wherein dwells righteousness'. he 'hungers and thirsts for righteousness'. if we haven't that testimony, then we haven't seen an answer to the cry, 'create in me a clean heart, O god, renew a RIGHT spirit in me', or perhaps that has never been our plea.
the breastplate keeps the heart clean, for out of the heart come the issues of life. how could we approach the King with soiled garments? (note: man looks on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart!)...
20 ... how loudly does the sergeant major of our conscience need to shout to bring us to attention? if we move out of order, do we hear his voice? a good soldier won't even wait for the voice of a sergeant major to call him into line. if by chance he gets out of step with what he knows he should be, he does immediate correction.
have we debts unpaid? ..
do we honor our parents?..
have we unforgiveness in our hearts? then forgive or you will not be forgiven.
do we lack love? then we must get on our knees and ask god to pour His love through us or we have no biblical grounds to think we are saved.
are we easily irritated?
do we obey traffic laws
do we love and pray with our spouse..
do we read God's word daily...
do we pay all our taxes...
is our thought-life pure
do we daily confess our sins and ask for cleansing when necessary
are we zealous for God ?
these questions are merely soul-searchers to see if we have the things hat accompany salvation.
this is the profile of the NORMAL christian.
if we lack these things, better we realize it now, rather than on Judgment Day.
IS GOD SPEAKING TO YOU ABOUT SOMETHING RIGHT NOW?
don't let my words distract you.
stop reading this book and RESOLVE TO DO what you have failed to do and UNDO what you should not have done.
if we confess our sins,
21 He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleans us from all unrighteousness.
if you leave that thing undone, you will give a foothold to the enemy.
it will leave a gaping hole in your armor.
REPENT NOW, WHILE THERE IS TIME. (note...NOW is the acceptable time, today is the day of salvation!)
there is no such thing as a small sin. to steal one cent is to be a thief in the sight of god. there is no mention that the theft of judas was even noticed by the other disciples. perhaps he just took a little here and thee, but it only takes a small hole in the hull to sink an ocean liner. then all that is needed is time.
our Creator is righteousness itself. righteousness can no more be separated from His nature, than the ink can be from his book. we must strive to always have a conscience which is void of offence to both God and man, not only for our own sakes but for the sake of the unsaved.
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