Morning Walk by Brian Brennan

Out early one morning–this itself a surprise, normally I sleep past noon, spending the most difficult part of the day in bed–I pass a woman on the sidewalk. “Please help me,” she cries, “I have lost my feet.” I look at her. She wears a blue suit, clutches a tan leather briefcase, and it is true, where I expect to see black pumps, or sneakers for walking to work, I see nothing. No feet. Only then do I notice her unwashed face and unkempt hair. She has been out all night, perhaps the whole weekend; it is Monday.

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Psalm 35 – Let their way be dark and slippery

Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me; Fight against those who fight against me. Take hold of buckler and shield And rise up for my help. Draw also the spear and the battle-axe to meet those who pursue me; Say to my soul, “I am your salvation.” Let those be ashamed and dishonored who seek my life; Let those be turned back and humiliated who devise evil against me. Let them be like chaff before the wind, With the angel of the LORD driving them on. Let their way be dark and slippery, With the angel of the LORD pursuing them. For without cause they hid their net for me; Without cause they dug a pit for my soul. Let destruction come upon him unawares, And let the net which he hid catch himself; Into that very destruction let him fall.

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Psalm 34 – Many are the afflictions of the righteous

Keep your tongue from evil And your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous And His ears are open to their cry. The face of the LORD is against evildoers, To cut off the memory of them from the earth. The righteous cry, and the LORD hears And delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted And saves those who are crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all.

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A Prayer

Almighty God, you have built your Church upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone: Grant us so to be joined together
in unity of spirit by their teaching, that we may be made a
holy temple acceptable to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,
for ever and ever. Amen.

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Weekly Meanderings

It’s been a crazy week and I have not posted much. I probably will not be posting much next week either; it depends how life turns out. I’m preaching every weekend for the next month or so and I’m trying to finish up a couple writing projects. Regular posts should be back after the 4th.

Before I get started I want to give a quick shout-out to the Huffington Post which has done an amazing job of updating the world on Iran.

Anyway…here’s some stuff I came across this week…

Pray for Iran!

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Psalm 33 – Worship with all you’ve got

Sing for joy in the LORD, O you righteous ones; Praise is becoming to the upright. Give thanks to the LORD with the lyre; Sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings. Sing to Him a new song; Play skillfully with a shout of joy.

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The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins

To Christ our Lord

I caught this morning morning’s minion, king-
dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of; the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!

No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.

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Psalm 32 – Horses don’t have free-will

Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found; Surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him. You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you. Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, Whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check, Otherwise they will not come near to you. Many are the sorrows of the wicked, But he who trusts in the LORD, lovingkindness shall surround him. Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones; And shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.

We are not to behave as a horse or donkey who requires a bit and bridle to be held in place; rather, we are to be responsive to the voice of God calling on our hearts. God does not have to force us to move, rather we willingly listen to God’s voice and follow God’s will. We have free-will to follow God.

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Psalm 31 – Be strong and let your heart take courage

Blessed be the LORD, For He has made marvelous His lovingkindness to me in a besieged city. As for me, I said in my alarm, “I am cut off from before Your eyes”; Nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications When I cried to You. O love the LORD, all you His godly ones! The LORD preserves the faithful And fully recompenses the proud doer. Be strong and let your heart take courage, All you who hope in the LORD.

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The Eagle and the Arrow by Aesop

An Eagle was soaring through the air when suddenly it heard the whizz of an Arrow, and felt itself wounded to death. Slowly it fluttered down to the earth, with its life-blood pouring out of it. Looking down upon the Arrow with which it had been pierced, it found that the shaft of the Arrow had been feathered with one of its own plumes. “Alas!” it cried, as it died, “We often give our enemies the means for our own destruction.”

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Psalm 30 – Making God angry

Sing praise to the LORD, you His godly ones, And give thanks to His holy name. For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime; Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning.

Have you ever made God angry? I would guess that we all have at some point. David made God angry on multiple occasions, but he described God’s anger as lasting for only a moment. Even when we mess up it is important that we return to God because his favor is lasting.

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Psalm 29 – The Power of the Voice of the Lord

Ascribe to the LORD, O sons of the mighty,

Ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.

Ascribe to the LORD the glory due to His name;

Worship the LORD in holy array.

The voice of the LORD is upon the waters;

The God of glory thunders,

The LORD is over many waters.

The voice of the LORD is powerful,

The voice of the LORD is majestic.

The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars;

Yes, the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.

He makes Lebanon skip like a calf,

And Sirion like a young wild ox.

The voice of the LORD hews out flames of fire.

The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness;

The LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

The voice of the LORD makes the deer to calve

And strips the forests bare;

And in His temple everything says, “Glory!”

The LORD sat as King at the flood;

Yes, the LORD sits as King forever.

The LORD will give strength to His people;

The LORD will bless His people with peace.

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A Prayer

O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your
holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom
you have set upon the sure foundation of your loving-kindness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Meanderings

It’s been a quiet week, but here’s some stuff I came across…

Have a great weekend!

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Psalm 28 – My rock do not be deaf to me

You, O LORD, I call; My rock, do not be deaf to me, For if You are silent to me, I will become like those who go down to the pit. Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to You for help, When I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary. Do not drag me away with the wicked And with those who work iniquity, Who speak peace with their neighbors, While evil is in their hearts. Requite them according to their work and according to the evil of their practices; Requite them according to the deeds of their hands; Repay them their recompense. Because they do not regard the works of the LORD Nor the deeds of His hands, He will tear them down and not build them up. Blessed be the LORD, Because He has heard the voice of my supplication. The LORD is my strength and my shield; My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart exults, And with my song I shall thank Him. The LORD is their strength, And He is a saving defense to His anointed. Save Your people and bless Your inheritance; Be their shepherd also, and carry them forever.

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Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest;
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

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Psalm 27 – Wait…

One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple…

Wait for the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the LORD.

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Psalm 26 – Perfectly in balance

Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity, And I have trusted in the LORD without wavering. Examine me, O LORD, and try me; Test my mind and my heart. For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes, And I have walked in Your truth. I do not sit with deceitful men, Nor will I go with pretenders. I hate the assembly of evildoers, And I will not sit with the wicked. I shall wash my hands in innocence, And I will go about Your altar, O LORD, That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving And declare all Your wonders.

The purpose of being pure is to be a trustworthy witness for God. If we are living lives filled with wrong actions, thoughts, or words then we are not capable of being a witness to the glory of God. We are called to walk in truth, lovingkindness, innocence, and far from evil doers so that when we sing praises to God we can be seen as reliable witnesses.

There is a careful balance that must be maintained in our lives: we are to live with the goal of being perfect while recognizing that we will never achieve our goal and not being discouraged by our failure. When we get out of balance we get in trouble.

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An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce (part 3 of 3)

III

As Peyton Farquhar fell straight downward through the bridge he lost consciousness and was as one already dead. From this state he was awakened–ages later, it seemed to him–by the pain of a sharp pressure upon his throat, followed by a sense of suffocation. Keen, poignant agonies seemed to shoot from his neck downward through every fiber of his body and limbs. These pains appeared to flash along well-defined lines of ramification and to beat with an inconceivably rapid periodicity. They seemed like streams of pulsating fire heating him to an intolerable temperature. As to his head, he was conscious of nothing but a feeling of fullness–of congestion. These sensations were unaccompanied by thought. The intellectual part of his nature was already effaced; he had power only to feel, and feeling was torment. He was conscious of motion. Encompassed in a luminous cloud, of which he was now merely the fiery heart, without material substance, he swung through unthinkable arcs of oscillation, like a vast pendulum. Then all at once, with terrible suddenness, the light about him shot upward with the noise of a loud splash; a frightful roaring was in his ears, and all was cold and dark. The power of thought was restored; he knew that the rope had broken and he had fallen into the stream. There was no additional strangulation; the noose about his neck was already suffocating him and kept the water from his lungs. To die of hanging at the bottom of a river!–the idea seemed to him ludicrous. He opened his eyes in the darkness and saw above him a gleam of light, but how distant, how inaccessible! He was still sinking, for the light became fainter and fainter until it was a mere glimmer. Then it began to grow and brighten, and he knew that he was rising toward the surface–knew it with reluctance, for he was now very comfortable. “To be hanged and drowned,” he thought? “that is not so bad; but I do not wish to be shot. No; I will not be shot; that is not fair.”

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Psalm 25 – Relating to the Lord

For Your name’s sake, O LORD, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great. Who is the man who fears the LORD? He will instruct him in the way he should choose. His soul will abide in prosperity, And his descendants will inherit the land. The secret of the LORD is for those who fear Him, And He will make them know His covenant. My eyes are continually toward the LORD, For He will pluck my feet out of the net. Turn to me and be gracious to me, For I am lonely and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged; Bring me out of my distresses. Look upon my affliction and my trouble, And forgive all my sins.

Pardon my iniquity, pluck me out of that which entangles me, and forgive me sins. Can the Christian life be summed up more succinctly?

I am an immoral person and I beg for my immorality to be pardoned. I allow myself to become entangled in that which I should be avoiding. I need to seek Christ’s forgiveness both once for all and every day.

May the Lord lead us into a closer relationship with himself everyday.

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