Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Your testimony - a gift to you, AND others . . .

We are called to have an answer for our faith, a testimony. That story is a gift to us from God, but can and will also be a gift to others as tell it, whether verbally or in writing.

Here is a link to a further description from a dear Brother in Christ, as well as two links to my own testimony and a subsequent "chapter":

http://restlife.blogspot.com/2011_03_01_archive.html Day 14 of 40 Day Focus titled Time to Write Your Own Story.

http://www.myspace.com/anonemoose/blog/148490750 Our testimony

http://www.myspace.com/anonemoose/blog/434033773 An example of a further "chapter"

Of course, the story continued to be written on the "pages of our lives", with more chapters in this blog. I may never write this "book" (for publication that is), but it is here for my kids and anyone else.

only by Grace, Pat (aka Anon E. Moose, etc., etc.)

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Territorial

Territorial: a word that describes many species in the animal kingdom, including and unfortunately, man! Our “need” to “protect” and defend our “space”, our territory, leads to division and worse yet, WAR. Sadly, this nature is seen within the “Body of Christ”, the church, as well. Leaders, churches, denominations all take on the territorial nature, harboring distrust and enmity between each other, even those who profess the same belief in Jesus Christ. And, the dweeb sits back with a smirk on his evil face as he watches us do his work!

When we create our own power structures, our own little kingdoms, they eventually crumble from within. Our “territorialness” never truly protects our “territory”. God alone is our “strong tower”, our rock, our refuge and strength. Once we “get” this, we can let go of our territorial nature and learn to live in His Peace with one another.

NOTE: This “opening” is prompted by a realization that as my wife and I left our former church to obey God’s call to “go” and serve Him in another church, it became evident that some at our old church (and still our “family”) now harbor a distrust for us, even a “disowning” of sorts. While we see a “sending out” from the place of our years of discipleship, others see an “abandonment” or “treason”. So sad, and yet, so human. However, many remain beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ, encouraging and affirming our obedience in His command to “go”.

Encouraging and fostering unity and cooperation among churches within the same community is a difficult mission! Lord have mercy!

“Territorial”: not a gift of the Spirit, not fruit of the Spirit.

Matthew 25:31-46 indicates that Christ’s ultimate judgment will be based on the love we have shown (or not) to one another, especially Brother and Sisters in the Lord, the Body.

God has done far more through me than I could ever have done myself. To Him be all Glory, Honor and Praise. 2 Cor. 4:7

Only by Grace (always a fitting “signature”),

Oh yea, we still do "ministry" at our former church, probably unbeknown to some of those who harbor distrust or ????

Friday, March 25, 2011

Healing Prayer

" . . . lowly and meek, yet all powerful." The key to healing prayer "In The Name Of Jesus." Not a contrived, "noisy" human authority over evil, but a quiet confidence in the strength of the Lord. For example, Agnes Sanford, William Vaswig and others who imitate Christ in this manner. Prepared under the "covering" of Ephesians 6 and St. Patrick's Breastplate prayer, they go forward in confidence and the authority of Jesus Christ.

Christ as a light
Illumine and guide me
Christ as a shield
Overshadow me;
Christ under me;
Christ over me;
Christ before me;
Christ behind me;
Christ beside me
On my left and my right.
This day be within and without me,
Lowly and meek, yet all-powerful,
Be in the heart of each to whom I speak; (be in my heart as well)
In the mouth of each who speaks to me, (in my mouth as well)
This day be within and without me,
Lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Sin, Mercy & Grace

Sin keeps us from God. Sadly, we, and too often our churches, ignore or worse yet condone sin in our midst. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners. Anon E. Moose

To confess your sins to God is not to tell him anything He does not already know. Until you confess them, however, they are the abyss between you. When you confess them, they become the bridge.
A Christian is one who points at Christ and says, 'I can't prove a thing, but there's something about His eyes and His voice. There's something about the way He carries His head, His hands, the way He carries His cross - the way He carries me.'
Who knows how the awareness of God's love first hits people. Every person has his own tale to tell, including the person who would not believe in God if you paid him. Some moment happens in your life that you say Yes right up to the roots of your hair, which makes it worth having been born just to have happen. Laughing with somebody till the tears run down your cheeks. Waking up to the first snow. Being in bed with somebody you love.
Whether you thank God for such a moment or thank your lucky stars, it is a moment that is trying to open up your whole life. If you turn your back on such a moment and hurry along to Business as Usual, it may lose you the ball game. If you throw your arms around such a moment and hug it like crazy, it may save your soul.
How about the person you know who as far as you can possibly tell has never had such a moment - the soreheads and slobs of the world, the ones the world has hopelessly crippled? Maybe for that person the moment that has to happen is you. Salvation is a process, not an event.
It is as hard to absolve yourself of your own guilt as it is to sit in your own lap. Wrongdoing sparks guilt sparks wrongdoing ad nauseam, and we all try to disguise the grim process from both ourselves and everybody else. In order to break the circuit we need somebody before whom we can put aside the disguise, trusting that when He sees us for what we fully are, He will not run away screaming with, if nothing worse, laughter. Our trust in Him leads us to trust His trust in us. In His presence the fact of our guilt no longer makes us feel and act out our guiltiness. For a moment at least the vicious circle stops circling and we can step down onto the firm ground of His acceptance, where maybe we’ll be able to walk straight line again.

Frederick Buechner



http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+62&version=NIV

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm%2063:1-8&version=NIV

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Some thoughts during this season of Lent

It’s probably not an epiphany or new revelation for others, but I have come to “see” that inner healing, discipleship, spiritual formation, forgiveness, repentance and more are all comingled, interrelated, interdependent . . . in union, just as the Holy Trinity are in union. As we grasp this, as we claim this Truth and thank God for it all, this Kingdom life becomes real for us, and we truly begin to live our Eternal lives here and now.

The renewal of the church [of Christian community] will come from a new type of monasticism, which has only in common with the old an uncompromising allegiance to the Sermon on the Mount. It is high time men and women banded together to do this. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together & The Cost of Discipleship

Blessed are . . . meek, poor in spirit, peacemakers, those who hunger and thirst . .


Dynamic and erratic, spontaneous and radical, audacious and immature, committed if not altogether coherent, ecumenically open and often experimental, visible here and there, now and then, but unsettled institutionally. Almost monastic in nature but most of all... enacting a fearful hope for human life in society. William Stringfellow

See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:19

Looking down I saw (the entire western world). The treetops upon the hills and the clustered clouds hid the people. Suddenly small, flickering lights appeared. They were scattered all over the isles. I came closer to the land. The light was firelight. There were fires burning from the top of (the continents) to land's end. Lightning streaked downward from the sky above me. I saw it touch down with lashing swiftness, exploding each of the fires into streams of light. Like lava, they burned their fiery path downward from the top to land's end. The waters did not stop them, but the fire spread across the seas to (the rest of the world.). Then the Lord said: I will penetrate the darkness with a visitation of My power. With lightning swiftness I will release the power of my Spirit through a renewed people who have learned how to be led by the Spirit. They will explode with a witness that will touch every part of society. I'm strategically placing them to touch the farms, villages, towns and cities. No one will be without a witness whether they be children in the schools, farmers in the fields, workers in the factories and docks, students in the universities and colleges, the media, the press, the arts or government. I seemed to see an army of all types of people moving into the continent with a compassionate ministry - participating, caring communities involved with each other at a grass-roots level, sharing the love of God everywhere. I saw the empty cradles of (western civilization), her churches, holding a new generation of Christian leaders. Jean Darnall, Heaven, Here I Come (adapted from)

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Revelation 21:5

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 2 Corinthians 5:17

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

Behold, I have seen the Light and will never again walk in darkness, for even the darkness is as light to Him. Da Moose

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Gifts and giving . . .

It's a shame when we take God's Gifts and make a business of them, becoming rich on the pain and suffering of others.

Friday, March 4, 2011

some entries from Anon E. Moose's journal

From the Journal of Anon E. Moose (Da Moose):

Why don’t people seek God??? I ask this question now “from the other side”, having received the answer for myself. If people only knew, if only they could grasp the unspeakable JOY and contentment in all circumstances that God brings, I believe they would truly “hunger and thirst” for more of Him.

“Christianity has to be ‘disappointing’, [my emphasis] precisely because it is not a mechanism for accomplishing all our human ambitions and aspirations; it is a mechanism for subjecting all things to the Will of God.” Simon Tugwell
[disappointing in the sense of worldliness and fleshly desires, but ultimately fulfilling beyond our wildest dreams or expectations]


Entole – Greek for commandment:
1) an order, command, charge, precept, injunction
a) that which is prescribed to one by reason of his office
2) a commandment
a) a prescribed rule in accordance with which a thing is done
3) a precept relating to lineage, of the Mosaic precept concerning the priesthood
4) ethically used of the commandments in the Mosaic law or Jewish tradition
What is the derivative in Greek of “commandment” in the way/sense Jesus used it in Matthew 22 and John 13? The “love” He spoke of was not just “philleo”, but agapao (agape) love, a deep, interpersonal, knowing love. So, does the “commandment” mean something more than “marching orders”, clearly it is not just a request. There is a sense in my heart that it is like the Father disciplining the child . . . it has importance and clear significance for our own good. And, He desires (commands/expects) us to obey willingly and joyfully from our hearts.
34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. John 13:34 (New Living Translation)


16 A simple life in the Love-of-GOD
is better than a rich life with a ton of headaches. Proverbs 15:16 (The Moose Message)