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New video: About my depression and addiction
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New video on my channel: Who are the children of God?
I hope you find this to be a blessing and encouragement to your soul.
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Hearing God
Hearing God
I’ll begin with a quote from Dallas Willard:
“I fear that many people seek to hear God solely as a device for securing their own safety, comfort and righteousness. For those who busy themselves to know the will of God, however, it is still true that “those who want to save their life will lose it” (Mt 16:25).
My extreme preoccupation with knowing God’s will for me may only indicate, contrary to what is often thought, that I am overconcerned with myself, not a Christlike interest in the well-being of others or in the glory of God.
Frederick B. Meyer writes, “So long as there is some thought of personal advantage, some idea of acquiring the praise and commendation of men, some aim of self-aggrandizement, it will be simply impossible to find out God’s purpose concerning us”
Nothing will go right in our effort to hear God if this false motivation is its foundation. God will not cooperate. We must discover a different motivation for knowing God’s will and listening to his voice.”
— Dallas Willard, in Hearing God, p. 28 (Kindle ed.)Now, some of my own thoughts as I reflect on the words above.
The life setting for hearing God is communion with him in a relationship centered in love for Him as supreme and for our neighbor as we would for ourselves.
Close union and communion of the soul with God comes from trust in him as a child with his father, not from a mere collection of biblical facts about him. We may have an exhaustive theological knowlege, the most inquisitive minds, eloquent tongues, great persuasive powers, energetic service, or the most rigid obedience to his laws, yet fail to abide in a living communion with God.
The true experiential knowledge of God in a growing, loving relationship, can be ours through a daily submission of the whole heart and mind and body to him. This is a relationship identified by our loving oneness with each other just as the oneness of Jesus with his Father identified him as the true Messiah.
This is the promise He has secured for us by His grace in giving Himself as a sacrifice for our sins. Our sincere prayers bring us into communion with him, not in their sincerity alone, but because we have an advocate, and intercessor, a helper and a friend at the throne of heaven (Hebrews 4.14-16; 10.19-22).
Our prayers which are the medium of communion with God, do not ascend to him in spotless purity because they passed through the corrupt channels of humanity. Yet they find acceptance and gracious answers are returned because Jesus Christ stands with outstretched arms to plead his blood, to plead the merits of his perfect righteousness as if it were ours, because it is ours by faith in him.
Mingling his merits with our personal conversations with God, our sinful selves are united in friendship with the Holy One, the eternal One. This is a union of purpose and of character with our heavenly Father. We are given the mind of Christ and just as God acts out of his being, we do what we do with others because of who we are in Him.
So we fulfill the law of Christ, bearing one another’s burdens in love, as we truly hear God sharing Himself with us, making us partakers of His divine nature. -
I Know This
I know the least about what matters most.
But I have known enough to want more, to want it always, to live and move and have my being in the presence of God.
Immanuel, “God with us”, this is the thing. Nothing matters more and nothing is missed more than the presence of God in our life.
Remarkably so, in a way that words alone will never comprehend, our God, our Triune God, has promised to make his home with us, not only in some heaven hereafter, but right now. And we need him right now, our light and our warmth in a chaotic world of darkness, where the love of so many has frozen so hard.
It has never been in his heart for us to live as orphans; that suffering has been our choice, not His.
Should you doubt my theology and my longing, that being intimately connected with Him is the thing that matters most, I invite you to read the words of his Son, who Himself is the express image of God and all that he means to be to us.
One of the best places to do that is John 14.
Let’s go home.
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40 Things That Frighten Children (And Adults)…with a word or two about healing.
I found this list on a website, The London Economic, while check up on an idea as I was writing today (see the previous post). For the reader’s convenience, for you, I am posting this list separately. Below the list are some other thoughts on fear (and shame).
TOP 40 FEARS AMONG CHILDREN: source The London Economic
- Spiders
- The Dark
- Monsters under the bed/in the cupboard
- Thunder and lightning
- Wasps
- Being alone
- Loud noises
- People wearing masks
- Dogs
- Strangers
- Dentists
- Clowns
- Ghosts
- Needles
- Snakes
- Moths
- Death
- Costume Characters (eg Football mascots, characters at theme parks)
- Heights
- Zombies
- Doctors
- Toilets & Bathrooms
- Blood
- Sharks
- Loneliness
- Bears
- Cats
- Loss
- Ants
- Santa Claus
- Flying
- Worms
- Dolls
- Water
- Birds
- Cars and other vehicles
- Butterflies
- Fish
- Forests
- Tooth Fairy
I had some of these fears as a child. I was afraid of not being loved, the dark, my parents divorce, alcoholic family, storms, shadows at night, strange sounds while lying in bed, loneliness, other peoples dogs, getting hurt, fighting, and so on. The dentist was not my friend. But like some, I was not afraid of not having enough to eat, of homelessness, or unremitting disease. I did, most all the time as a child, feel dis-ease.
It is common for some fears to follow us into adulthood, renaming them as ‘phobias’ as they persist, ever-present, dominating us and our relations. We are not always conscious of them, but they can control us from deep within, unseen, which is a fear’s common thing, to retreat to the shadows. This is perhaps most common (and hurtful to us and others) when we hide the reality of our true selves within our pleasures, those places that we escape to in fun and frivolity, when life is too painful and hard.
Paradise, that thing we lost in the beginning, is a strange place to hide.“And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Gen. 3.8-13
We hide the shame of our moral nakedness, if not physical, with blame and denial, running from the truth of who we have become in our sin and rebellion, our fear of the love that would heal us. How cruel our fears can make us, how irresponsible, defensive, and angry. Unhealed fear will kill us. Sometimes is leads us to kill others, even those who only wandered into the path of our darkness.
Nor does it work, the hiding in pleasure. Very temporary and self-deceiving, like thinking a fig leaf will hide the shame of my nakedness. I need a big cut of cloth. God gave new cloths to Adam and Eve. It required an animals death. More to be ashamed of, you’re very existence being the cause of death. So, the unremitting shame of being.
The God who made me knows how to heal my wounds, setting me right to him, to myself, and to others. He makes it all “right”.
God gives me that in Christ, a clean robe of His righteousness.
Zechariah 3.1-5“Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. 2 And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” 3 Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. 4 And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” 5 And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by.”
This comes to mind too, this encouraging word of God about my fears and shame, my fear of not being loved, of being treated as a mere object of other’s desires or fears. I’ll close with this Word about that.
Romans 8.31-39“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 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.”
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From Today’s Personal Journal
I write my daily journal in Obsidian. Here is the beginning of today’s entry. (I highly recommend Obsidian as a second brain.)
12:10 Thinking about sermon and children’s story for tomorrow. Thinking means I am working through what I might say.
The pastor sent me a text aasking for a title for a children story, after asking if I was going to do one. I thought for a few minutes and didn’t really have a story. Rummaging through my childhood rather than thinking of Bible stories. I began to think of fears and that led me to the places we hide, of needing a hiding place. So I gave him my title, “A Hiding Place” without having any “story” to tell. [Note to reader: It’s all a story, a narrative of life, isn’t it?] Brain cells still firing, I Googled a search on children’s fears. Starting around two years old, children may be afraid of a variety of things. A web site, The London Economic, gave a researched list of [[TOP 40 FEARS AMONG CHILDREN]] Beards are one of the things that frighten some children, which reminds me of what I told Cecil Perry, the BUC president when I said he noticed I wear a beard (in my job interview as a Senior Newbold student). I replied, “I try not to scare the children.” Cheeky answer that got a laugh, though not from Perry. But I never took the thought seriously. Who knew? Apparently the children and those adults who think about such things.
Maybe something I can begin with for my children’s story or sermon.
The sermon title is “Just for today”. Nicely enough, I came across another good thought that relates, something on the same site that listed the top 40 fears of children, [The London Economic](https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/lifestyle/40-common-childhood-fears-revealed-39714/). I’ll quote it:
“The research of 1,582 parents with children age 16 and under was commissioned to celebrate the DVD release of ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’, which is released on Monday 6 February.
Michael Rosen, author of ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ and former British Children’s Laureate said: “When children join in the Bear Hunt, they discover that the thing about today and tomorrow is that you can’t go over it, you can’t go under it, you do have to go through it!”
That last bit, that “you can’t go over it, you can’t go under it, you do have to go through it!” relates to my sermon, “Just For Today.” Sometimes we escape the day’s reality by retreating, in thought and feeling, to the past. Other times, perhaps in moments from each other, we project into the future, again, trying to escape the present thoughts and feelings. The reality is that no matter where we find ourselves in time and space, we have to “go through it” if we are going to live a life of reality in the present. Being “present” in ourselves to the world around us means being alive and conscious to all that we are thinking and feeling in the moments, that is, alive and present to who we are in the moment, but also present to those people in our presence. Part of being present to our inner world is also an awareness of the people we are talking to in our mind’s eye. Our relationships continue in our thoughts and feelings as well as when people are physically present with us. Some times it can all be a little confusing.
To the degree that we are present or absent from ourselves, others, and the wider world, to that degree we are or are not connecting in meaningful ways to the reality of our present existence. Strange stuff, I know. It can evoke many feelings, not the least of which is fear, even abject fear, or perhaps the duller but persistent sense of that thing we call anxiety. Other feelings, strong or mild, pop in and out too. Joy and relief, or something less wanted like bitterness. Or the big scary one, SHAME. Depending on the winds of change, their direction and strength, we can be gently nudged or violent hurled through feelings and thoughts. And it often happens without any conscious control, as if we are the objects of our acting self, a part of us too powerful for our conscious self to control. We so often live as the slaves or our own passions and desires. Wasn’t this something Laing thought of when saying we have a “divided Self” A fragment, maybe. I know God has revealed such a dual self in Scripture (see Romans 7.14-21).
I need to reread this now and starting connecting some more dots on the graph of today’s consciousness. Work, work, work. Think, think, think. But how do I feel? I’ll keep that question for a moment.
UPDATE: More from the journal today
13:25 Hiding Places. If we can’t hide from the scary thing we can put on a mask to hide our identity. We do that all the time…don’t we? I am a different me with strangers than with friends or family, a different me in different times and different places with different people, in the world where nouns, pronouns, and verbs take on the bodily form that are the real objects of our semantics.
[Note to blog readers: Reading a good book lately on IDENTITY. Seven factors that shape our identity over time in relation to God and others. I hope you consider it. Who God Says You Are: A Christian Understanding of IdentityMaybe the scary thing (person, people) will either not see us, as we are, for who we are, for who we imagine we are, but will talk or confront one of our other selves, one of those selves that is more confident, has more control, is brave and strong and swift in battle. At least it feels like interrogation…it really is…(perception = reality) when it feels like a demanding question, more demanding or ‘read’ as demanding even if an innocent inquiry. (How are you feeling? What are you thinking?) How can I tell you what I don’t know? Or how can I express what is so powerful, so beyond words?
Masking…see autism, how masking (camouflage) helps the autistic soul to “fit in”, to relieve the pressure of being “normal” in the company of others. Those with [ASD](https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/8855-autism) are often interrogated by NT’s. **NOTE**: Neuro Typical’s, those classed as “normal”, which in the ASD world means those who struggle far less to communicate their feelings / thoughts and are more accurate in the way they recognize and respond to the feelings of others. Normal, at best, is a very relative category of behavior, am average of what society or a select social group finds most acceptable, less threatening, less confrontive, less confusing behavior. Thinking of normal reminds to read a book a bought on Kindle, but haven’t read yet…The Myth of Normal, by Gabor Mate. He is evolutionary in his assumptions, not Christian, a Zen guy I think, but has some light to consider on trauma, addiction, childhood development, etc.
[Note to Reader: If I have ASD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, it is probably borderline, or so my internet self-assessment testing said. I have friends with ASD. I spent days in the past two weeks with one who was having meltdowns after going off his medicine, Invega, a common antipsychotic given to those with ASD to help modulate (sooth?) their moods, to stabilize the swing between the poles.]
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“Christian” Nationalism’s Whoredom
Thoughts from my reading today…Regarding “even” Barnabas’ defection from gospel practice, along with Peter at Antioch, G. Walter Hansen says this in his commentary on Galatians 2.11-14:
“We should never underestimate the emotional power of national pride and racial ties. We should not be surprised that the Jewish Christians in Antioch put their own Jewish interests above the welfare of the church. Throughout the history of the church, conflicts and divisions have occurred because Christians have been more deeply influenced by their national interests or racial identity than their Christian convictions. Whenever we identify ourselves as American Christians, or British Christians, or Chinese Christians, or German Christians, we must be aware that being American, British, Chinese or German may easily become more important to us than being Christian.”
G. Walter Hansen, Galatians, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994), Ga 2:13.
The text he comments on says this:
“But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all, “If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?” Gal. 2.11-14
In Hansen’s quote we see the obvious application for us today in the heart-wrenching, rapid rise of Christian Nationalism throughout the world. Populist groups, churches in name only, especially in the whiter shade of pale, smear the name of Christ with their racist, bigoted religious adultery, going to bed with partisan political lovers. Denying the grace that bought them…
“It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “A dog returns to its own vomit,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.” 2 Peter 2.22
How can those professing redemption of the ungodly, their redemption by the blood of Christ, deny the same grace to those who are often so less guilty of pride and arrogance themselves?
Where does this fear and loathing of the “alien” come from, fear of the immigrant, the “other ones”, the mass of “them” who at great risk to themselves and their families, are seeking to escape poverty, sickness, and death in the land where they were born?
It comes from the coveting spirit who, indulging itsgreed, would have all things for itself, refusing to share, refusing the very law of Christ that says, “count others better than yourselves”.
Is it any wonder that if “even Barnabas” and the apostle Peter could defame the grace of Christ in bigotry, Christians of greater ignorance and less experience are betrayed by their peers into dishonoring the blood that bought them out of slavery?
Thankfully,we have the assurance that Barnabas and Peter, when confronted by the apostle Paul, repented of their duplicitous sin.
Grace, what great grace, that sins of the most notable among us may be forgiven when conviction takes hold of the stained heart and repentance is granted, yet again, to the hurting and hurtful soul.
The gospel is under constant attack in a multitude of deceptions and seductions by the devil, who has gone out to make war with those who bear the banner of Christ, who uphold the law and the gospel as they are in Jesus. Every day brings this threat to the pure church of faith, that she would betray her Lord, changing her name to Babylon, the mother of whores.
A last call to Babylon marks the end of this age in the soon coming of Christ.
“I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Pay her back even as she has paid, and give back to her double according to her deeds; in the cup which she has mixed, mix twice as much for her. To the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as a queen and I am not a widow, and will never see mourning.’ For this reason in one day her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for the Lord God who judges her is strong.”
Rev. 18.4-8
Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
2 Peter 3.11-18
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Being A Theologian of the Cross
A Reply…
In replying to a question on one of my Facebook posts, where I referred to the experience of darkness in the Christian’s life, my life, I posted the following. I thought I would offer it here, being the preacher, disciple, and theologian of the cross that I am.
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“The theology of the cross is both an attack on sin and salvation from it. It is paradoxical in nature in that respect. It is a call to peaceful life in Christ that comes through union with Him, the Man of Sorrows who lives in conflict with evil. It is a journey through the old Jerusalem of condemnation to the New Jerusalem of perfect joy. It is understanding law and grace working in and on our body of death. It is understanding how we are blessed by Christ being cursed “for us”. It is having faith in the Light and Life, our only Savior, during our darkest hours of suffering, temptation, sin, pain, humiliation, repentance, confession, and death. It is union with the crucified yet risen One. It is believing the sun stills shines somewhere in the world at the apex of midnight in our day.
The theology of the cross is a theology of revelation, of how we know God in Christ, and a theology of suffering, how God in Christ is only known through suffering. It is a theology wherein God hides Himself in suffering to reveal Himself. It means being broken on the Rock lest the Rock grind us to pieces.
The Christian sees, by faith alone, Jesus in a burning bush that is not consumed.
The theology of the cross is the “foolishness of God” and “the weakness of God”, a theology that destroys every possibility of human beings boasting in anything other than Christ and Him crucified. (1 Cor. 1.17-31)
And even in preaching the cross the soul of listener and preaching feels this paradox, this interplay of law and gospel, of condemnation of the flesh but life in the Spirit, as Paul says of his on preaching:
“And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, 4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” 1 Cor. 2.1-5
What did Paul mean by these words to the Galatian church?
“We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles; 16 nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified. 17 But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be! 18 For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19 For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.” Gal. 2.15-21
He spends the rest of his letter unpacking what the cross means to a church that was forsaking the only true gospel of Christ and coming under the curse of God.
I highly recommend Galatians for the answer of what it means for Christ to be made a curse for us so that we could now war in His Spirit against the flesh and it’s dark works.
Walking with Christ is a whole experience of Christ. He is the Light of the World in a world filled with darkness. He is our joy as the Man of Sorrows. He is our joy in the most profound experience of pain, our life in the throes of death, our happiness in the agonies of loss.
Heaven must wait. But oh, how we demand perfect happiness now, a life free of pain and suffering and darkness! Yes, it is heaven to be in His presence. But what is it when He is hidden from us through temptation, failure, loss, doubt, worry, pride, fear, anger, or bitterness. Or does justification by faith mean we have no battle and losses with the our body of death? That we never fail or fall? That we we never sin again? That within our very being there is not longer the “law of sin and death”? How foolish all the admonitions of Scripture to moral life and holiness if these things were not real in the Christian life.
All will suffer pain and loss, whether Christian or wicked unbeliever. All suffer, but the wicked suffers without hope in Christ. The Christian actually suffers great pain and loss than the unbeliever, because the Christian, if they are true theologians of the cross, “see things as they are” (Luther). They know that a knowledge of God through Christ only comes through suffering, for pride must daily be abased, daily crucified. Self, what the world glories and boast in, must be put to death daily with Christ so that Christ may rule in us as our Lord of life and light.
The wicked have no such battle with the flesh since they already, by their unbelief, live as slaves to the devil, children of darkness, condemned justly under the wrath of God for their wicked hearts and actions.
They do not believe in the one Way, in Him who was made a curse for us, that we might have the blessing of union with the Man of Sorrows, the who is yet daily acquainted with grief.
For further study, study Jesus. Ask two questions of the Bible in all our study: 1. Who is this Jesus, the Son of God and Son of man? 2. What is He doing among us, for us, with us, to us, and in us.
Know God in Christ at the cross.
“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4 I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” John 17.3,4
His glory is the glory of the cross! We know Him there.
[ Questions and comments are welcome. Faith seeks understanding through the whole journey of life and death. And I believe the seeking is for all, whether coming to faith or having come to faith. We see now in a mirror darkly, but when He comes, then face to face. Until then seeking is done in the “life together”. ]
Jan McKenzie
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As We Walk The Dark Hills
As we age, the battle with evil, within and without, does not lessen but increases, for we fight on fields we never knew existed when we were younger and spiritually immature. We see things, see through shadows that once hid the enemy, that is, if we have continued to grow as children of light. Though our eyes my dim, the light of God’s truth burns through the darkness that daily threatens to engulf us. Our call is to walk in the light as He is in the light, to walk with Him who is the Light of Life.
The devil is without mercy in his deceptions and seductions. He takes advantage of every weakness, every inherited and cultivated tendency toward evil that exists in our body of death. He works to blind us, that we would have eyes that cannot see. He works to deafen our ears to the voice of God, to the Word of God that would expose and defeat him in his war against us.
But we have the wonder of redeeming grace, that our strength is in our weakness. The weaker we know ourselves to be the stronger we may become in God’s strength, that is, if we see things as they really are so that we live by daily surrender to the Lordship of Christ, our Warrior King who not only leads us, but fights by our side.
Therefore, if we boast, it will be of our weakness in ourselves which becomes our strength in the cross of Christ.
“For indeed He was crucified because of weakness, yet He lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we will live with Him because of the power of God directed toward you.” 2 Cor. 13.4
And again,
And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Cor. 12.9-11I’ll close with the lyrics of an Iris Dement song, “God walks the dark hills”
“God walks the dark hills
The ways, the by ways
He walks through the billows
Of life’s troubled sea
He walks through the cold dark night
The shadows of midnight
God walks the dark hills
Just to guide you and me
(CHORUS)
God walks the dark hills
To guide my footsteps
He walks everywhere
By night and by day
He walks in the silence
On down the highway
God walks the dark hills
To show me the wayGod walks in the storm
The rain and the sunshine
He walks on the billows
On through glimmering light
Helps us walk up the mountain so high
Cross our rivers through valleys
God walks the dark hills
‘Cause He loves you and me.” -
Addiction and Recovery: A Christian User’s Confession (My Newest Vlog)
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A Christian, thinking, vlogging, and writing online. I live elsewhere as well. I follow the theology of the cross in the faith and practice of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Formerly a pastor in Europe and America, now living semi-retired in Kentucky (U.S.), driving for the Amish and in-home carer.
Crucified Hearts 