So I was up with Charles (aka, the beloved husband) and we were talking Bible verses. (Don't look at me like that, it is common in theological households)...and my inner drama-theologian came out. (Don't be scared, it was fine, I assure you.)

Me: You know how the Bible teaches that as we judge we shall be judged?

Charles: "Yes...."

Me: "And as we forgive, we shall be forgiven...."

Charles: "Yes...."

Me: "And as we show mercy, we shall be shown mercy...."

Charles: :" Yeah...."

Me: "Well, as far as I'm concerned, as I am talking with God and with man, this is my policy: You are ALL forgiven....because I sure as heck need forgiveness. And..while we're at it, you ALL can have mercy...because I surely, surely, SURELY need mercy. And since love covers a MULTITUDE of sins, you can ALL have love as far as I'm concerned. Lots and lots of love, mercy, forgiveness and let's kick in some compassion too, because I need a great big helping of that on top of everything. That's MY theological standing.....you can now develop your own..."

Charles: "Your's doesn't sound too bad to me."

You cannot delve too deeply into the unfathomable abundance of God's love and mercy; His compassion and great kindnesses are beyond our words to describe. He has prepared a table for us and invited us, as His children, to dwell in His light and joy, surrounded by a love so deep we cannot even fully conceive of it. In our frail forms, we can only bear the lightest taste and glimpse of what He has bestowed upon us, yet even that mere hint leaves us awestruck, overwhelmed and immersed in adoration.

It makes me wonder why more of the people who claim His name do not feast on that which is given to us, but instead would rather would grapple for the crumbs which the world offers; greed, anger, hatred and condemnation. Why some would turn from the dazzling radiance to grasp instead tawdry pleasures, to exchange joy for bitter dregs, and wisdom for gossip is beyond what I can comprehend. There is so much more to be had, so much more that is freely given unto us...

Why settle for crumbs when a feast awaits?

Choose to be known for what you love, celebrate and champion; rather than by what you hate, belittle and decry.

-Beth Haynes Butler

I was reading a response to a post on Christ's commandment to love God, love our neighbors and our enemies, and I saw a response that made me shake my head.

It was the "But...." excuse. The reasons why not to live in love, why not to forgive, why not to pray for and bless one's enemy. And I sighed in a bit of sadness, because these are very common objections.

Did Christ tell us to love God and love our neighbors? And did He tell us who those neighbors are?

"The Parable of the Good Samaritan

25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ ; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” Luke 10:25-37

Did Jesus tell us to love our enemies as ourselves?

""You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.' "But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." Matthew 5:43-45

So, we see in just these passages (and there are more that reiterate these teachings) that Jesus DID tell us to love our God, love our neighbors, and love our enemies.....in pretty clear language.

Most of us, if we claim to believe in God, also claim to love Him. How much we actually do love Him though is shown through our time spent with Him, and by our obedience to His commands. And loving our neighbors (even if we disagree with them on everything under the sun) and loving our enemies ARE commands from Christ Jesus, very God of very God, part of the eternal Triune Godhead.

Some people don't even want to love other Christians, forgetting that Jesus said, "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”John 13:35

So if we love God, we strive to love members of the faith, our neighbors (even the annoying ones) and our enemies.

Period.

No "But...." or "If...." or..."Maybe God really means...."

That doesn't mean we have to always agree with them. That doesn't mean we have to endorse harmful behaviors. It doesn't mean we have to like their choices in politics, causes, food or music, who they care about or what their hobbies are. It doesn't mean we have to stay in abusive situations (we can remove ourselves, and then pray for God to bless them and touch their hearts, praying for them to change and be drawn near to God). It doesn't mean that if we see our enemies hurting or oppressing someone else that we don't step in.

Indeed, on the subject of (a just) war against those who are the aggressors or oppressors, C.S. Lewis wrote: "We may kill if necessary, but we must not hate and enjoy hating. We may punish if necessary, but we must not enjoy it… Even while we kill and punish we must try to feel about the enemy as we feel about ourselves – to wish that he were not so bad, to hope that he may, in this world or another, be cured: in fact, to wish his good. This is what is meant in the Bible by loving him: wishing his good, not feeling fond of him nor saying he is nice when he is not."

The fallen human nature is to hate our enemies, and only bless or help those we like or feel some modicum of compassion for. But God calls us to something higher, He wants us to be more than what we are now.

He wants sons and daughters who will be transformed into showing Christ-like love to those we meet, and if we are truly God's, He will keep working at us, as a potter to the clay, until we are just so. He will not settle for less.

But if we resist, rebel, refuse to submit to His shaping grace upon us, then we show we have not surrendered our hearts unto Christ. We are holding something back, we are choosing to deviate from the straight and narrow path Christ has set for us.

We can all find endless excuses to deliberately not do as God wants us to do, but they all boil down to the same root; we prefer our will over His, and to some extent or another, we think we know better in a given circumstance than God does.

I have had a few occasions in my life where I've encountered people, on a daily to semi-regular basis, who were mean or cruel. And my initial nature, as many who are close to me can tell you, is to want to strike back, but most of the time I pray and struggle and submit to the Biblical teaching of (basically) "kill them with kindness."

"Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." Romans 12:20-21

And you know what? Each time I've dealt with a cruel person the way my all too human and faulty nature tells me to, it has ended badly. Words exchanged that can't be taken back, bridges burned, the whole works. But when I have done as God instructs, and repaid mean comments with kind, and snubs with smiles, over time it has worked wonders. Enemies became friends, breaches were healed, peace was planted.

God's way, as shown to me each of those instances, was, and is, better than mine. So while my lesser self doesn't want to love or pray for my enemies, my higher self, the part God is crafting and renewing, seeks to do His will. While my faulty side may want to walk past a neighbor in need (sometimes just in need of a smile and a friendly word), God prompts me to do more. And when I obey His will, I draw ever closer to Him, and become a better person.

We can tell ourselves all manners of excuses and reasons why not to do what God commands....but if we're looking for ways out of His will, then dare we call ourselves His? And if we are not His....we are lost.

"If you love Me, you will keep My commandments," spoken by Jesus in John 14:15.

So are you seeking to remain within the will of God? To love those He has called us, and commanded us, to love? Or are you just doing your own thing and hoping it all works out?

-Beth Haynes Butler

In the end, it is really going to come down to just two things....did you truly love God and your neighbor.

So.....are you striving to live a life of love?

If we're, as Christians, supposed to (by Biblical standards) be known by our love, by our gentleness, by our meekness of spirit and unattachment to the world, I can see why so many dedicated and devout believers around the world think there are so few Christians in America.

Those values are very underrated and often attacked (by fellow church goers) in the US. When love, respect, kindness, mercy and gentleness are attacked....what is left to embrace?

I refuse to cleave to an angry Christianity, to indulge in name-calling, bitterness of spirit and a faith which renounces the love Christ commanded us to bear for one another.  I'll stick with what Jesus taught.....the other camp can have that tainted nonsense.

Where do people get the energy to be constantly angry? Even watching their perpetual anger/angst/drama is exhausting.

Gotta tell you friends....living in peace, contentment and quiet is much easier on the soul.

"We are all going to die, and I suppose whether it is sooner or later makes little difference in eternity, for eternity is total is-ness, immediacy, now-ness. Living in eternity is, in fact, the way we are supposed to live all the time, right now, in the immediate moment, not hanging on to the past, not projecting into the future."

-Madeleine L’Engle

"I will have nothing to do with a God who cares only occasionally. I need a God who is with us always, everywhere, in the deepest depths as well as the highest heights. It is when things go wrong, when good things do not happen, when our prayers seem to have been lost, that God is most present. We do not need the sheltering wings when things go smoothly. We are closest to God in the darkness, stumbling along blindly." — Madeleine L'Engle

On prayer....and what God means for us to be.

I was on a faith board a bit ago, and saw someone bemoaning that either their faith wasn't good enough, or God didn't love them enough, because "I didn't get the ____________ I wanted."

Ahh....the state of Western Christianity. That we think that when things don't go our way it must be because of one of two things, that either we don't have enough faith or that God doesn't love us enough. We measure God by how we think He should deliver upon the circumstances of our lives.

TV and big tent preachers have long promised that "If you have enough faith you can have whatever you want,"....healings, money, power...name your prize. There are big name, honey tongued "pastors" selling out venues and book stores with such glitzy assurances. Always with the caveat of "If you have enough faith"...and often including "if you give enough to me to show your faith,".....wolves preying on desperate sheep. They know there are so many out there listening or watching, who are scared, depressed, trying to figure out where to turn....and they prey upon that need, and those fears, in order to become rich. They have turned God's people into merchandise to exploit and line their coffers with.

"But there also arose false prophets among the people, as among you also there will be false teachers, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction. Many will follow their immoral ways, and as a result, the way of the truth will be maligned. In covetousness they will exploit you [KJV- make merchandise of you] with deceptive words: whose sentence now from of old doesn't linger, and their destruction will not slumber". 2 Peter 2:1-3"

God is not a commodity whose love can be bought, or whose power can be summoned because a prosperity preacher claims it. God is neither a Santa Claus, nor genie, nor happy butler, but a holy and powerful God. He gives to us in His wisdom and out of His love, but not because we can command, bribe or bully Him to get our way.

There's another big camp in Western Christianity that teaches that when you don't get what you want, it is because God doesn't love you, and you're too sinful. That you don't deserve God's favor and blessings, for you are tainted and foul. Such camps say that you must prove to the pastor, the elders, that you are living up to God's standards, and unless you please them, you'll never please God. That you will remain unloved until you have that particular church's approval. They have forgotten nothing can separate us from the love of God through Christ.

" No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:37-39

The God who loves you enough to have come down and died for you will not withhold His love from you because a toxic church says you aren't worthy. He found you worth dying for, and their faulty, controlling opinions simply do not matter.

So if neither the prosperity teachers, nor the toxic controlling churches are correct...then why don't we get what we request, you say? What is the purpose of prayer? To make us grovel, to make us beg?

John Wesley said in part, "That is, prayer makes us more aware of what we need. And prayer helps us to know what is worthy of our desires: “nothing being fit to have a place in our desires which is not fit to have a place in our prayers.” That is, if you feel uncomfortable praying for something, then perhaps the desire itself is something to look into."

God already knows our needs. Indeed, Jesus tells us, " ...your Father knows what you need before you ask.” (Matthew 6:8) So prayer must be for something other than just our needs. And God will provide what He knows is best for us

"If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?" (Matthew 7:11)

But God gives us what is necessary for our good, not only in this short span, but in the eternal spectrum. One of my favorite verses is Romans 8:28..."And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose." But what is necessary in order to understand the full scope of that verse and promise is the next verse...which continues, "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters." God promises to use everything to the good for those who love Him, so that they may be made into, conformed to, the image of His perfect Son, Jesus. And as Christ suffered, so we might suffer. And as Christ died for God's will, so might we. For that is in our eternal good, even if it means short term suffering and pain.

Prayer is, in part, to connect us to God. (It is also to lift up to God those in need of prayer, putting them before ourselves, in love and offering.) Prayer helps to help keep our focus upon God, to help align our wills with *His*...not His with ours. Prayer helps us to realize that this life is but the first step in our long relationship with God; and that whatever He gives us, whatever He allows us, is for our good now...and for the long term.

Sometimes, no matter how hard we pray for something we think we need or desperately want, God says no. Because it isn't what we need in the process of making us more like Christ; more like God's child.

That doesn't mean God doesn't love us; He does this precisely because He DOES love us. With a deep, wild, unfathomable love. He loves us so much that He goes to whatever length is necessary (be it the death of His Son, the turning upside down of our lives, the harrowing and scraping and purifying) to secure us, to mold us, to perfect us. He wants us, but He wants us not only as we are, but for what we will be when He is done with us; glorious children who reflect His light and love.

And He will not stop until He has done it.

"Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:" Philippians 1:6

Sometimes the answer to prayer is "no." Even if the "no" means suffering will come, or want, or need, or death. Because God isn't as worried about our short term happiness as He is with our eternal destiny; if the "no" is necessary to bring us closer to Him, then "no" it will be.

We sell God too cheaply in this culture. We've made Him into either a genie or angry tyrant, when He is neither. What He is is holy and all knowing, powerful and just, merciful and loving. He demands the all of us, every last bit, stripping us down to nothing, so that He can give us back something even more wonderful; our true and glorious selves. He takes our feeble pleasures away from us so He can give us true wonders and delights. He calls us to lay aside our willfulness and selfishness so that we may take a hold of all He has to give us.

He calls us to prayer not so we can be a spoiled child telling a servant all of what we want, but so that we may be a beloved child sitting with an adored parent, forging an eternal relationship. So that we might confide and grow in wisdom, and become all the more who He has fashioned us to be. We are meant to be more than what we are right now; we are meant to be sons and daughters of a holy King, and about His business, doing Kingdom work. Our prayers and aspirations should reflect that.

-Beth Haynes Butler

Even the mundane and sundry details of a regular day can be sacred and sacramental; it all depends if we live our lives for ourselves, or for God and others. If when we prepare a meal, or file a report, dust a house or fill orders at a warehouse, we do so for God... then even that work becomes an offering, and thus sacred.

Nothing we do need be monotonous or needless, everything can be made into a gift. Even the times where it feels like we are just slogging through the day, going through the motions, can be made into more, if we know that all we do is for the Lord, and for those we love. Then the ordinary can become glorified and beautiful; the simple vessel becomes cherished and the simple gift becomes a joyful oblation. We can turn our daily murmurs to repeated hallelujahs by how we live and who we bestow our lives unto.

" And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ." Colossians 3:23-24

A blessed and happy Epiphany

I love Epiphany; the last, rich triumphant note to the Christmas season. A day when we celebrate the Magi's visit to the Christ child, where we celebrate the manifestation and light of Christ going into all the world, for all mankind.

I love this day because it reminds me of a few things:

1. Life is a journey...we don't get to anything worthwhile in an instant. The Magi traveled a few years to seek out Christ, they didn't just pop over from the next town.  We get so impatient in our "I want it now" society...where instant gratification is the word. We have, in our culture, forgotten the dignity of a struggle, the nobility of a quest, the triumph of a success hard won.  And we're the lesser for it.

2. That Christ is worth seeking.  As I just noted, the journey took a few years (the Bible doesn't give us an exact time frame, but the Magi didn't arrive at the manger along with the shepherds, no matter how cute the Nativity scenes are...and I do love my Nativity scenes)....the Magi traveled from far kingdoms, using astronomy, maps and wisdom to diligently seek out the blessed child of prophecy.   Do we spend time diligently seeking Christ out now? Do we seek Him in prayer, in the study of Scripture, in the celebration of Him and the worship due Him?

3. That Christ can come to us in ways we never expect.  The Magi knew a King was being born...but they found Him in humble settings, born to a young couple, far from their home.  No palaces, no royal guards, no heralding of trumpets.  Yet they saw Christ for who He is, and worshiped.  Do we seek to find Christ in the unlikely around us? And are we ready to worship Him when we find Him?

4. That God is open to all who truly want Him.  The Magi were not Jews, but gentiles that studied and sought after the King.  Christ is the Light of the World, and from the beginning His message and light were available to all who would come and worship Him.  Our lives are a pilgrimage to the King's country, where He bids us "Come and abide,"....and we can travel to that blessed place of peace in the love and joy of Christ; whose yoke is easy and burden is light.

A blessed and happy Epiphany to you all my friends. May this year bring us ever closer to the King, and may we ever seek to love, adore and abide in Him,

-Beth Haynes Butler

I saw a post by someone yesterday that I enjoyed and have pondered: If you knew Christ were coming tomorrow, would that show in how you are living today?

We do not know when Christ shall come again, nor do we know how long our lives shall last. But He could come tomorrow, or any of us could die tomorrow, life is not guaranteed. And at the end of this life, we all will stand before Christ, to whom judgement as been given (2 Corinthians, 5:10-11) and we will have to account for our lives. If we know Christ as our Savior, we will be admitted into eternal life as an adopted child of God; if we know not Christ, we will be cast from Him and eternity will be spent in Hell. (Luke 16:22-28)

There is only one way to the Father God, and that is through Christ the Son. (John 14:16) We cannot earn our way to Heaven, for our deeds are never enough. (Ephesians 2:8-9) Nor can we have a faith in name only life, where we claim to belong to Christ, perhaps attend Church and "speak the language" but decline to live our faith actively. (Read the Goats and Sheep parable in Matthew Chapter 25) If we do not have a living relationship with Christ, that shows itself through the actions in our lives, we will not be saved in the life hereafter.

Friends, we can make no greater decision in this life than what we believe in regards to God, Christ and eternity.

If you died tomorrow, what would happen to you?

If Christ came tomorrow, would He know you or turn you away?

Does your life show that you belong to Jesus? Do your words echo His? Do your actions show His love? Are you marked as His own?

If you do not know Jesus, or you are not sure of where you faith is, please message me and we'll talk. This is too important to "leave until later" or chance that "God will think I'm good enough." No one is good enough on their own (Romans 3:10), we must all be clothed with Christ's righteousness.

Are you sure of where you stand?


-Beth H. Butler

"Oh, the wonders [the gospel] will accomplish! It wipes guilt from the conscience, rolls the world out of the heart, and darkness from the mind...It will put honey into the bitterest cup, and health into the most diseased soul. It will give hope to the heart, health to the face, oil to the head, light to the eye, strength to the hand, and swiftness to the foot. It will make life pleasant, labour sweet, and death triumphant. It gives faith to the fearful, courage to the timid, and strength to the weak. It robs the grave of its terrors and death of its sting. It subdues sin, severs from self, makes faith strong, love active, hope lively, and zeal invincible. It gives sonship for slavery, robes for rags, makes the Cross light and reproach pleasant; it will transform a dungeon into a palace, and make the fires of martyrdom as refreshing as the cool breeze of summer. It snaps legal bonds, loosens the soul, clarifies the mind, purifies the affections, and often lifts the saint to the very gates Heaven. No man can deserve it; money cannot buy it, or good deeds procure it; grace reigns here!" - W. Poole Balfern, 1858

Ideas for Next Christmas and making it more meaningful

If you are a Christian, Christmas is a pretty important holiday. It is the day we have set aside to honor His birth. Granted, no one knows exactly when He was born (probably in spring actually, as the shepherds were in the fields with their flocks)...what is important is that He came- He came to us in our vulnerability, in a vulnerable form, so that form might later be nailed to a cross so our sins might be atoned for. So the date honoring His birth is well worth celebrating. How can we add meaning to the celebration, when the world wants to make it a celebration of spending money instead?

It's too late to celebrate St. Nicholas Day, on Dec 6. (Next year, try it. Look up the St. Nicholas Center for some great ideas) But do sit down with your children and tell them about the man, who lived in 325 AD in the region now known as Turkey, who gave gifts to poor children, helped found hospitals and orphanages and was known for his devout faith. Tell them how this historical figure became known later as the caricature of Santa Claus (albeit with a little blending of European winter mythology thrown in.)

Use the Advent calendar- use the Advent wreath. Read the daily readings (check churchyear.net/advent for some ideas and suggestions) ...build up daily the story of the Nativity so your family keeps their mind focused on what is really being celebrated.

Make sure you have a Nativity set put up in your house. Make sure it gets a greater seat of honor than all the cute Christmas-y knick knacks. What your family sees you honor will have greater importance.

Go to Church.

When you set up the Nativity set, don't put all the figures in at once. Put the Wise men in one area of the house, the shepherds in another, and Mary and Joseph together somewhere else. As you read the nightly advent Bible readings, of the Nativty, allow your children to move the various pieces a little closer to the Stable (which represents Bethlehem.) On Christmas Eve, have Mary and Joseph arrive. Christmas Morning, have the children look for the Christ child, so that He may be placed in the Manger. Have the children move the shepherds into place then. If you don't celebrate Epiphany, put the Wise Men there on Christmas Day too....

BUT...if you want to prolong the festivities...celebrate the 12 days of Christmas. On Christmas morning, give your family members some of their gifts, but withhold 12 smaller gifts (maybe stocking stuffer types)...and each night following Christmas Day for 12 days, meet as a family and open a gift each. On the 12 Day, Jan 6, we celebrate Epiphany, which is the day set to honor the arrival of the Wise Men. (If you celebrate this, this is the time to move the figurines to the Nativity.) On this day, have a big meal, celebrate, and give three last gifts.

We need to remember that this day and season in the Christian calender is set apart to celebrate Jesus- so let's make sure He's honored yet another way. Have each family member write a pledge to Jesus as a "gift"...maybe that Mom is going to bake cookies for the lonely widows at the Nursing Home, or Dad is going to do the lawn care for the crippled Veteran down the street, or the child is going to help so and so....You get the idea. Wrap the Pledges (individually) in small boxes or pretty envelopes and tie them to the tree. On Christmas morning have everyone read what gift they are giving to others for Jesus on His birthday. If we give Jesus a gift, children especially will tie His birth more closely to what is so rapidly becoming a secular celebration.

Teach your children to honor the holidays of other faiths by being respectful to the adherents thereof, but to also expect the same respect given to their faith's holy days. We do not need to tear down any other faith (that's not what Jesus would want...remember...love thy neighbor) but we are expected to honor our own faith and we should expect others to do so. They won't always, but we can try.

-Beth Butler

He is Altogether Lovely!" - by Matthew Simpson

"What a glorious fact it is that there is one life that can be held up before the eyes of humanity as a perfect pattern! There were lips that never spoke unkindness, that never uttered an untruth; there were eyes that never looked aught but love and purity and bliss; there were arms that never closed against wretchedness or penitence; there was a bosom which never throbbed with sin, nor ever was excited by unholy impulse; there was a man free from all undue selfishness, and whose life was spent in going about doing good.

There was One who loved all mankind, and who loved them more than Himself, and who gave Himself to die that they might live; there was One who went into the gates of death, that the gates of death might never hold us in; there was One who lay in the grave, with its dampness, its coldness, its chill, and its horror, and taught humanity how it might ascend above the grave; there was One who, though He walked on earth, had His conversation in heaven, who took away the curtain that hid immortality from view, and presented to us the Father God in all His glory and in all His love.

Such a One is the standard held up in the Church of Christ. The Church rallies round the Cross and gathers around Jesus; and it is because He is so attractive, and lovely, and glorious, that they are coming from the ends of the earth to see the salvation of God"

A prayer for Holy Saturday of Holy Week

A way of spending at least a part of Holy Saturday in prayer would be to recall some favorite title of Jesus and let it focus our gaze on the cross or on the tomb. Addressing Jesus, we can say:

You are the Word of God spoken to us, but You finished in the silence of death.

You are the Lamb of God, and You have taken away the sins of the whole world.

You are the Bread of Life, broken for us, and broken to give us eternal life.

You are the Light of the world, but You went into the darkness of death.

You are the Good Shepherd, and You died for your sheep.

You are the Way, and walked a way that led you to Calvary.

You are the Truth, denied and ignored by many but enlightening our world.

You are the Life that came to death but overcame death.

You are the image of the unseen God, and You became a crucified image, our Crucified God.

If the love and saving truth of Christ is within you, then people will see it by the love, grace and mercy you show other people.

If you are only pretending to be a follower of Christ, then people will see that as well in your actions.

If you value money more than people, hold aloft the things of the world while dismissing the tenets of the faith you claim, feel it is permissible to be rude or cruel rather than kind, or you feel you have the right to look down on others....then, my friend, you need to evaluate your faith. For such behaviors do not spring forth from the everlasting well that is Christ, but from somewhere else.

 Make sure your life, your words, your views are truly in alignment with Christ; that you are the wheat instead of the tares. For unrepentant Pharisees, whether ancient or modern, will have a very hard time making it into the Kingdom of God.

=Beth Haynes Butler

NEW YEAR BLESSING

May the blessing of light be on you...light without and light within.
May the blessed sunlight shine on you like a great peat fire,
so that stranger and friend may come and warm themselves at it.
And may light shine out of the two eyes of you,
like a candle set in the window of a house,
bidding the wanderer come in out of the storm.
And may the blessing of the rain be on you,
may it beat upon your Spirit and wash it fair and clean,
and leave there a shining pool where the blue of Heaven shines,
and sometimes a star.
And may the blessing of the earth be upon you,
soft under your feet as you pass along the roads,
soft under you as you lie out on it, tired at the end of day;
and may it rest easy over you when, at last, you lie out under it.
May it rest so lightly over you that your soul may be out from under it quickly; up and off and on its way to God.
And now may the Lord bless you, and bless you kindly. Amen.

~~SCOTTISH BLESSING~~

Happy New Year!!

Charles and I wish you all the best of blessings in the coming year, and hope the memories of the past year bring wisdom, smiles and tenderness of spirit as you recall the many paths and lessons you took part in.

We spent a lovely evening at home last night, watching mysteries and dramas, eating fun foods, laughing and sharing recollections. A call to my parents was made to wish them the best of the New Year, and laughter and smiles were shared there too. Near midnight we entered into prayer, with the Great Litany, the Watch Night prayers and Compline, and it truly was the best way to usher in the New Year.

Then to begin today with listening to holy music blessing the name of the Lord....tis good indeed, for the mind, heart and soul.

We're having a lazy day around here. It's cold and brisk outside, so with the fire going, we're listening to music, conversing and enjoying the peace of the day. I pray that the coming year is filled with many such peaceful days. A turkey tenderloin is soon to be cooking for dinner, and I think I'll shall make my first cup of tea of the near year soon>

My friends, this year will bring joy and sadness to us all, in some form or another. We will all be challenged, and all be uplifted...though to what measure will be different for us all. But no one gets through a year without trials, and even in a rough year (and we've all had them, haven't we?) there are moments of joy and peace to be found. Let us all try and be gracious, kind and loving to one another....remembering we're all partaking of this journey together, and we all need help at one or more points in time.

I think it is good to start the year by contemplating one's blessings; gratitude always puts the year in proper perspective. We are all very blessed, especially when one considers the plights of refugees around the world; or when one ponders the sad fact that someone dies every 3 seconds from a poverty related condition. How blessed we are, even with our struggles. And how much good we can do if we extend our blessings and goodwill unto others.

In my contemplation of my personal blessings, of God, of family, riches of home, hearth and heart, I cannot help but be grateful for the blessings that are you, my friends. You bring me new insights, laughter, challenging thoughts, and endless comfort. You make my journey of this life all the better, and you make my life the brighter.

So thank you, and Happy New Year again, my friends.