tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41868990531135093212024-03-13T14:22:08.571-05:00The UprisingFr. Richard L. Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14558778028229245584noreply@blogger.comBlogger95125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4186899053113509321.post-37352071474486856342018-08-25T02:28:00.003-05:002018-08-25T02:30:56.212-05:00Loosing "Self"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4IxWryykdXw/W4EFnNVkTrI/AAAAAAAAHk4/UzBKB1v-qlEZHH020eOjQOof-Y-0OxKwwCLcBGAs/s1600/Praying%2Bin%2Bchurch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4IxWryykdXw/W4EFnNVkTrI/AAAAAAAAHk4/UzBKB1v-qlEZHH020eOjQOof-Y-0OxKwwCLcBGAs/s400/Praying%2Bin%2Bchurch.jpg" width="400" height="400" data-original-width="677" data-original-height="677" /></a></div>In order to be a partaker of the Divine nature, a man must first be freed from himself. That which binds him to himself, to the tyranny and slavery which "self" exacts and demands, must be broken. A man must first be willing to lose himself and all his self-sufficiency before he can ever find his Divine self. He must realize that selfishness is not worth clinging to, for it is a master not worthy of his service. It is the Divine alone that is worthy to be enthroned in his heart as supreme Master of his life. He must believe in the supremacy of righteousness, the desirability of purity, and the power of integrity. He must humbly hold before himself the Holy One, the Christ, and seek to be just like Him through the power of the Holy Spirit, and pursue Him with great zeal. It is only then that many will look upon such a man and desire what he possesses. For he possesses within himself a contentment that can only be found in the unfailing and eternal riches of Christ!<br />
~ Fr. Richard+<br />
____________________<br />
2 Peter 1:3-8<br />
According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.Fr. Richard L. Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14558778028229245584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4186899053113509321.post-54279854441605399172017-07-24T15:45:00.000-05:002017-07-24T15:48:52.767-05:00An Imperishable Principle<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vENe8t5KA74/WXZb6PtSaoI/AAAAAAAAGMw/wZFTm5KmM18m7CQR01O1RGBxa0bOGJ8HACLcBGAs/s1600/path3a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vENe8t5KA74/WXZb6PtSaoI/AAAAAAAAGMw/wZFTm5KmM18m7CQR01O1RGBxa0bOGJ8HACLcBGAs/s400/path3a.jpg" width="400" height="400" data-original-width="677" data-original-height="677" /></a></div>As a man enters into the deeper pools of the Christ-life he enters into the process of self-conquest, it is there that he finds a conquest which is far different than any other conquest he has pursued up to that point. Previously, such a man has endeavored to overcome, transform, and simplify his outward appetites. But now he begins to focus on his interior life. It is one thing to command his emotions, but it becomes another thing entirely to command his inner most thoughts and bring them into submission to Christ. Only then will Christ become the fullness of his thought life, at which point he perceives what is the true substance of an imperishable Principle. He sees that the righteousness for which he has been searching is never-changing and fixed, that it cannot respond with any capitulation or accommodation to men, but that a man must submit to it and obey it. It calls for an unwavering line of conduct apart from all consideration of loss or gain, of reward or punishment. In reality it consists of full and complete self-abandonment to all sins of self-interest, desire, and opinion, upon which he once placed the whole of his identity. Only then can such a man begin to live a blameless life of perfect love towards all. Such a life is spiritually fixed and mature; it is without turning, compromise, or preconceived qualifications, and it exacts a blameless conduct out of the man as he stands among fellow men. It brings forth, without question, a life of peace that is the direct antithesis of a worldly life. In fact, it is then that such a man has overcome the world.<br />
~ Fr. Richard+<br />
____________________<br />
Philippians 4:8-9<br />
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.Fr. Richard L. Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14558778028229245584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4186899053113509321.post-79530556330584129132017-02-09T16:19:00.000-06:002017-02-09T16:22:05.311-06:00At The Crossroad<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HTVbBZmvbDU/WJzqtdDZDdI/AAAAAAAAFl0/jQ0oHYaZUO8gejfYCZOUuG-eZXOcsb9xgCLcB/s1600/beggar5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HTVbBZmvbDU/WJzqtdDZDdI/AAAAAAAAFl0/jQ0oHYaZUO8gejfYCZOUuG-eZXOcsb9xgCLcB/s400/beggar5.jpg" width="400" height="275" /></a></div>There comes a time and place along the path of our Christian journey when we arrive at a crossroad and are being forced to make a choice. The choice becomes whether we are willing to lay down our own lives so that we might pick up the burden of another, or to let another suffer while we go about living our daily life pretending that we are not responsible for helping them in the midst of their suffering; that they are somehow the one responsible for their own miserable condition. This is the greatest test of our faith! It is easy to walk past those who suffer, and to turn a blind eye to their suffering. But to look at the suffering of others through the loving and compassionate eyes of Christ means we are being called to die on the cross with Him in order that those who are suffering might live. And if we see Christ Himself in the suffering soul, then we are fulfilling the call of Christ by truly ministering unto Him.<br />
~ Fr. Richard+<br />
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James 2:15-16<br />
If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?Fr. Richard L. Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14558778028229245584noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4186899053113509321.post-33775102731576282017-01-11T21:34:00.001-06:002017-01-11T21:35:42.731-06:00You Were Created for His Love<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-__4ktCBbPVw/WHb5f09-c1I/AAAAAAAAFis/K1WmNkE5Xl4N7yhjqwCeUqt3dd4I7-ZQgCLcB/s1600/Jesus%2Bfeast2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-__4ktCBbPVw/WHb5f09-c1I/AAAAAAAAFis/K1WmNkE5Xl4N7yhjqwCeUqt3dd4I7-ZQgCLcB/s400/Jesus%2Bfeast2.jpg" width="400" height="301" /></a></div>When we begin to understand how it is that God knew each of us before we were created in our mother's womb, and how He infused our soul from out of the unseen realm into a living body that has form and substance in this realm, we can begin to see each other as having equal value and worth to Him who created us and who loves us. Christ, who was both the Eternal and the Incarnate Word, He who was both fully God and fully man, came into the world to walk through our human experience, not so He could understand our human toil and struggles (although He was acquainted with our griefs and our sorrows), but for us to come in contact with His Divine nature, which is Love, and to be made partakers of that Divine nature. He spoke in human parables about God's kingdom so that we would understand in some small way that there is an eternal existence beyond our corporeal (fleshly) existence. He demonstrated the eternal kingdom of God before our very eyes for our benefit, all so that those with eyes to see and ears to hear might have hope of the life to come and understand that Christ was showing us the way back home to the Father who loves us and created us for His Love. However, because of sin, none of us deserve to be in His presence, nor deserve His grace. Yet, so valuable to God is each life and soul which He created, that the Holy One from heaven came down and walked the earth with sinners. He sat with sinners, He dined with sinners, He healed sinners... He saved sinners. Each one of us, no matter what lot in life we've been dealt, can reach out to be touched by the Divine, and be united with the Divine, the Holy One who is not from this world, the One who sets us completely free from the things of this temporal life which bind us to the world. And once set free from the world and all the things in it, there is no thing that can keep us from fulfilling our Divine and eternal purpose for which we were created.<br />
~ Fr. Richard+<br />
____________________<br />
2 Peter 1:2-4<br />
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as his Divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the Divine nature (love), having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.Fr. Richard L. Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14558778028229245584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4186899053113509321.post-52703711759960395642015-05-07T15:16:00.002-05:002015-05-07T15:16:44.451-05:00True and False Prophets<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Cc5YI4c5Seg/VUvHOMbuI-I/AAAAAAAACuk/zTv_IoQifHU/s1600/prophet3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Cc5YI4c5Seg/VUvHOMbuI-I/AAAAAAAACuk/zTv_IoQifHU/s400/prophet3.jpg" /></a></div>We read in Daniel 11:32, that those who are influenced by the spirit of the antichrist will use smooth words (flattery) to draw people to themselves. The one unmistakable characteristic of every false prophet in history has been flattery. And the one unmistakable characteristic of every true prophet has been rebuke. <br />
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False prophets flatter people in order to win them to their group, or to build their own kingdoms, or to get honor, or to get money, etc. Many of these false prophets correspond faithfully with people, in order to retain their personal hold over them. Their letters will not however contain words of rebuke and/or correction (as in the letters of the Lord and of the apostles - as we read in Revelation 2 and 3 and in the epistles). Instead, they will only contain words of flattering commendation. <br />
<br />
Smooth words will only defile your heart with pride and self-satisfaction. Words of rebuke on the other hand will cleanse your heart and make it pure. Jesus said "Those whom I love, I reprove and I discipline" (Rev.3:19). Rebuke is one mark of Divine love. <br />
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When God sends a prophet into our midst to rebuke us, that is a proof of the fact that God loves us. When God forsakes a church, it will "no longer have a prophet in its midst" (Psa.74:1,9) to rebuke it. Instead, it will have preachers who preach smooth words (2 Tim. 4:3,4). That is a sad condition for any of God's people to be in. <br />
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In Revelation 2 and 3, we see that even though five of the seven churches there were in a bad shape, yet the Lord had not forsaken them as yet. The proof of this is seen in the fact that He sent a prophet (John the apostle) to rebuke and correct them through his letters. <br />
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John had strong words even for the elders - words such as, "You have left your first love.... You are spiritually dead.... You are wretched and poor and blind and naked". If those elders and those churches did not respond to those words of rebuke, and repent, they would be forsaken. <br />
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Once the Lord "takes away the lampstand" (Rev.2:5), He will not send His prophets to rebuke that church any more. The false prophets will then take over, and smooth words will be heard regularly at the meetings, Sunday after Sunday!! This has happened in church after church, in generation after generation, throughout these twenty centuries. And it is happening all around us today. <br />
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It is at such a time, that there is a great need for those "who know God, who are strong, and who will do great exploits for Him" (v.32). Because they know God, they will fear no man.<br />
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by Zac PoonenFr. Richard L. Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14558778028229245584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4186899053113509321.post-63307085978193058462015-04-20T00:30:00.001-05:002015-04-20T02:22:17.107-05:00The Monday Martyrs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HtVsDOfZukE/VTSU7kOr-sI/AAAAAAAACpQ/_3H_onazG_Q/s1600/Ethiopians3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HtVsDOfZukE/VTSU7kOr-sI/AAAAAAAACpQ/_3H_onazG_Q/s400/Ethiopians3.jpg" /></a></div>The Monday Martyrs:<br />
<br />
Each Monday we post something special about a particular Christian martyr or group of martyrs, past or present. It might be a known quote, a powerful prayer that was offered up to God by a martyr, something written by a martyr, a short biographical piece about an historic Christian martyr, etc. The purpose of The Monday Martyrs is to keep in remembrance the price that has been paid by those who have sacrificially given their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ and His Gospel. We are currently living in a time when Christian martyrdom is increasing around the world. Our prayer is that each person who reads this series, comes to a profound and powerful understanding that the faith we as Christians proclaim today, was brought to us through the blood and sacrifice of faithful saints who came before us.<br />
<br />
Today we look at the approximately 30 Ethiopian Christians who were just martyred yesterday, Sunday, April 19th, 2015<br />
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In a gruesome replay of beheadings of captive Egyptian Coptic Christians, an Islamic State video disseminated on social media Sunday purportedly shows the point-blank shootings and decapitations of two groups of Ethiopian Christians in Libya. There was approximately 30 men who were martyred, all told.<br />
<br />
The video switches between footage of the captives in the south being shot dead and the captives in the east being beheaded on a beach. The same English-speaking fighter who presided over similar killings in a video released in February declares, “We are back again.”<br />
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In the new video, released one week after Eastern Rite Christians celebrated Easter, the black-clad apparent ringleader informs “the nation of the cross” that Christians falling under Islamic State’s control face death if they do not accept Islam, according to a transcript provided by the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant activity. The killings were carried out to “take revenge for Muslim blood,” the chief executioner said.<br />
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“We swear to Allah … you will not have safety, even in your dreams, until you embrace Islam,” he said. “Our battle is a battle between faith and blasphemy.”<br />
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In the video, black-clad captives kneel before a line of masked fighters dressed in military-style camouflage uniforms and armed with automatic weapons, with a few scrubby tree branches in the background. Most of the kneeling men bow their heads, but in a still photo, one directs an abjectly terrified gaze at the camera.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jkf3zZS7u5Y/VTSO93v29VI/AAAAAAAACog/SXYY2W4yMxk/s1600/Ethiopians2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jkf3zZS7u5Y/VTSO93v29VI/AAAAAAAACog/SXYY2W4yMxk/s400/Ethiopians2.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Elsewhere, more African-appearing men are forced to kneel on the beach, their orange jumpsuits — like those seen in previous videos — contrasting with the bright blue water behind them. Like the February video, this one lingers on the aftermath of their beheadings, with the waves stained red with blood and the executed men’s severed heads placed atop their corpses with faces plainly visible.<br />
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The exact number of victims could not be determined from the videos, which panned along the lines of men, but the two groups together appeared at least as large as that of the slain Coptic Christians, if not larger. They were identified in a caption as adherents of “the hostile Ethiopian church.”<br />
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The video’s date and locations could not be independently verified, but depictions of previous killings have been authenticated by Western intelligence services.<br />
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Libya has fallen into chaos, with an array of heavily armed militias battling for political power and energy wealth. They are organized loosely into two factions loyal to either the Islamist-leaning former parliament or an internationally recognized government based in the country’s east.<br />
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Neither has gained the upper hand in months of fighting that has caused tens of thousands of Libyans to flee their homes, and international mediation efforts have failed. Christians have been at particular peril.<br />
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Islamic militant groups across North Africa have declared allegiance to the Sunni Muslim militants of Islamic State, whose home base lies in a swath of Iraq and Syria. In Libya, militants identifying themselves as Islamic State loyalists have carried out strikes, including the deadly bombing of a luxury hotel in Tripoli in January.<br />
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The violence against Christians by Islamic State and other groups has drawn expressions of horror from Christian leaders, including Pope Francis. On Sunday, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby was visiting Egypt to express condolences over the Copts’ executions.<br />
(Compiled from various news sources)<br />
Fr. Richard L. Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14558778028229245584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4186899053113509321.post-16388633120211298922015-04-06T03:17:00.001-05:002015-04-06T03:19:18.424-05:00The Monday Martyrs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1KMqur6qJgg/VSI-nul4drI/AAAAAAAACmw/NgVtMuEbwEQ/s1600/Kenya%2C%2BGarissa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1KMqur6qJgg/VSI-nul4drI/AAAAAAAACmw/NgVtMuEbwEQ/s400/Kenya%2C%2BGarissa.jpg" /></a></div>The Monday Martyrs:<br />
<br />
Each Monday we post something special about a particular Christian martyr or group of martyrs, past or present. It might be a known quote, a powerful prayer that was offered up to God by a martyr, something written by a martyr, a short biographical piece about an historic Christian martyr, etc. The purpose of The Monday Martyrs is to keep in remembrance the price that has been paid by those who have sacrificially given their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ and His Gospel. We are currently living in a time when Christian martyrdom is increasing around the world. Our prayer is that each person who reads this series, comes to a profound and powerful understanding that the faith we as Christians proclaim today, was brought to us through the blood and sacrifice of faithful saints who came before us.<br />
<br />
Today, we look again at The Kenyan martyrs. <br />
Garissa, Kenya, April 3, 2015<br />
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With grim predictability, the Easter weekend of 2015 brings annual Islamic attacks against Christians in the Middle East and Africa. This year it started in Kenya.<br />
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Kenyan authorities have imposed a curfew in the northeast part of that country a day after radical Muslims slaughtered at least 148 Christian university students. <br />
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The Muslim terror group Al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the horrific attack. <br />
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Early Thursday five shooters from the Somali-based al-Shabaab terrorist organization swept through Garissa University which is located near the Kenyan town of Garissa, shooting Christian students. They knew who to kill because they ordered students to recite an Islamic prayer. Those who could were spared. Those who could not were martyred.<br />
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"It was around 5 a.m. We wake up early in the morning for the morning prayers. We tried to turn on the lights, but they were not working," one survivor recalled.<br />
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Eye witnesses say the terrorists went from room to room asking students whether they were Christian or Muslim. Those who identified themselves as Christian were murdered on the spot without mercy. <br />
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Survivors of the Garissa attack spoke of merciless executions by the attackers, who stalked classrooms and dormitories hunting for non-Muslim students.<br />
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Reuben Mwavita, 21, a student, said he saw three female students kneeling in front of the gunmen, begging for mercy.<br />
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"The mistake they made was to say 'Jesus, please save us', because that is when they were immediately shot," Mwavita said.<br />
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It appears the gunmen had extensive knowledge of the campus layout, even targeting an area often used by Christians for prayer.<br />
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Many of those killed were reportedly beheaded after being asked to recite verses from the Koran. The siege lasted 13 hours before police finally stormed the university. The gunmen died when they detonated their suicide vests.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SYXcXbiBrkc/VSJACXZpPWI/AAAAAAAACnE/0t1iTy2uozo/s1600/Kenyan%2BMartyrs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SYXcXbiBrkc/VSJACXZpPWI/AAAAAAAACnE/0t1iTy2uozo/s200/Kenyan%2BMartyrs.jpg" /></a></div>"On my own behalf and on behalf of my government, I extend condolences to the families of those who have perished in this attack," Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta said.<br />
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Garissa is close to the Somali border. The town is mainly Muslim but many Christians attend the university.<br />
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The military has stepped up security as a dusk-to-dawn curfew has been ordered in Garissa and three nearby counties. <br />
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There is now a $215,000 reward for the man identified by Kenyan authorities as the mastermind behind the slaughter.<br />
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Since 2008, Kenya has been at war with Al-Shabab. The group has launched several attacks on Kenyan soil, but Thursday's was by far the deadliest.<br />
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The killings of these Christian students reveals, once again, the harshest reality of the chaos spreading throughout these regions. The reality is that multiple jihadist armies, invoking Islam, are engaged in a planned strategy, not merely of territorial aggrandizement, but of extermination.<br />
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(Compiled from various news sources)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k7LedSuzizA/VSJAfdosA9I/AAAAAAAACnM/MoIT36W45hI/s1600/Kenyan%2BMartyrs2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k7LedSuzizA/VSJAfdosA9I/AAAAAAAACnM/MoIT36W45hI/s400/Kenyan%2BMartyrs2.jpg" /></a></div>____________________________<br />
Please pray as the nation of Kenya mourns this horrible atrocity. Pray for the Holy Spirit to comfort all who mourn. Pray that God gives Kenya the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Pray especially for the futures of all the surviving students. Most of all, pray that the blood of the 148 Christian martyrs was not poured-out in vain, but that it is the precious seed that springs up to a great African revival like nothing the world has ever seen! Pray all this in the name of our risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen.<br />
Fr. Richard L. Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14558778028229245584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4186899053113509321.post-35428946248115319782015-03-27T02:27:00.000-05:002015-03-27T02:27:09.863-05:00The Coming Great Awakening<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_r6wcRgtSkE/VRTHtu21FbI/AAAAAAAACik/MsxoVjGqyAc/s1600/Awakening3.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_r6wcRgtSkE/VRTHtu21FbI/AAAAAAAACik/MsxoVjGqyAc/s400/Awakening3.png" /></a></div>SECRET OF THE GREAT AWAKENING<br />
by J. Edwin Orr <br />
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Dr. A. T. Pierson once said, 'There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin in united prayer.' Let me recount what God has done through concerted, united, sustained prayer. <br />
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Not many people realize that in the wake of the American Revolution (following 1776-1781) there was a moral slump. Drunkenness became epidemic. Out of a population of five million, 300,000 were confirmed drunkards; they were burying fifteen thousand of them each year. Profanity was of the most shocking kind. For the first time in the history of the American settlement, women were afraid to go out at night for fear of assault. Bank robberies were a daily occurrence. <br />
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The Chief Justice of the United States, John Marshall, wrote to the Bishop of Virginia, James Madison, that the Church 'was too far gone ever to be redeemed.' Voltaire averred and Tom Paine echoed, “Christianity will be forgotten in thirty years.” <br />
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Take the liberal arts colleges at that time. A poll taken at Harvard had discovered not one believer in the whole student body. They took a poll at Princeton, a much more evangelical place, where they discovered only two believers in the student body, and only five that did not belong to the filthy speech movement of that day. Students rioted. They held a mock communion at Williams College, and they put on anti-Christian plays at Dartmouth. They burned down the Nassau Hall at Princeton. They forced the resignation of the president of Harvard. They took a Bible out of a local Presbyterian church in New Jersey, and they burnt it in a public bonfire. Christians were so few on campus in the 1790's that they met in secret, like a communist cell, and kept their minutes in code so that no one would know. <br />
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How did the situation change? It came through a concert of prayer. <br />
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There was a Scottish Presbyterian minister in Edinburgh named John Erskine, who published a Memorial (as he called it) pleading with the people of Scotland and elsewhere to unite in prayer for the revival of religion. He sent one copy of this little book to Jonathan Edwards in New England. The great theologian was so moved he wrote a response which grew longer than a letter, so that finally he published it is a book entitled “A Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of all God's People in Extraordinary Prayer for the Revival of Religion and the Advancement of Christ's Kingdom on Earth, pursuant to Scripture Promises and Prophecies...”<br />
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Is this not what is missing so much from all our evangelistic efforts: explicit agreement, visible unity, unusual prayer? <br />
<br />
1792-1800 <br />
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This movement had started in Britain through William Carey, Andrew Fuller and John Sutcliffe and other leaders who began what the British called the Union of Prayer. Hence, the year after John Wesley died (he died in 1791), the second great awakening began and swept Great Britain. <br />
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In New England, there was a man of prayer named Isaac Backus, a Baptist pastor, who in 1794, when conditions were at their worst, addressed an urgent plea for prayer for revival to pastors of every Christian denomination in the United States. <br />
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Churches knew that their backs were to the wall. All the churches adopted the plan until America, like Britain was interlaced with a network of prayer meetings, which set aside the first Monday of each month to pray. It was not long before revival came. <br />
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When the revival reached the frontier in Kentucky, it encountered a people really wild and irreligious. Congress had discovered that in Kentucky there had not been more than one court of justice held in five years. Peter Cartwright, Methodist evangelist, wrote that when his father had settled in Logan County, it was known as Rogue's Harbour. The decent people in Kentucky formed regiments of vigilantes to fight for law and order, then fought a pitched battle with outlaws and lost. <br />
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There was a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian minister named James McGready whose chief claim to fame was that he was so ugly that he attracted attention. McGready settled in Logan County, pastor of three little churches. He wrote in his diary that the winter of 1799 for the most part was 'weeping and mourning with the people of God.' Lawlessness prevailed everywhere. <br />
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McGready was such a man of prayer that not only did he promote the concert of prayer every first Monday of the month, but he got his people to pray for him at sunset on Saturday evening and sunrise Sunday morning. Then in the summer of 1800 come the great Kentucky revival. Eleven thousand people came to a communion service. McGready hollered for help, regardless of denomination. <br />
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Out of that second great awakening, came the whole modern missionary movement...<br />
Fr. Richard L. Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14558778028229245584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4186899053113509321.post-66526283170663700722013-10-25T19:53:00.000-05:002013-10-25T19:53:42.540-05:00Outflow - Today is All We Have<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rcZV15yOaOM/UmsSILIVbwI/AAAAAAAAA18/e72D4DSHCMI/s1600/Church-PrayerBurnedChurch.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rcZV15yOaOM/UmsSILIVbwI/AAAAAAAAA18/e72D4DSHCMI/s400/Church-PrayerBurnedChurch.jpeg" /></a></div>We cannot act in the unborn future, nor in the dead past, but only in the living present. For today outflows life and death, character and destiny, from its hands. We must learn to live each day by the faith of Christ, challenging and discerning every opportunity for its eternal purpose and meaning. Most miracles in the Bible took place in a brief moment in time, changing the natural course of events, and thus forever altering the destiny of those who were there in that moment. Our lives have the potential to change in the blink of an eye, for good, or for bad. But the past cannot be changed, and the future will yet be determined. Often we will say, "Perhaps some other time", only to find that there is no other time. However, NOW must be the place where we take our stand; today may be all we have. So, therefore, let us bring great glory to our Lord and King while it is still yet today! †††<br />
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©2013 Fr. Richard L. Jones Fr. Richard L. Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14558778028229245584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4186899053113509321.post-26897612866527498792013-07-19T20:59:00.000-05:002013-07-19T20:59:13.968-05:00Closer Than a Friend<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BXoOFlLGQv8/UenuTXv3N7I/AAAAAAAAA0E/blOEZd7fAes/s1600/eucharist-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BXoOFlLGQv8/UenuTXv3N7I/AAAAAAAAA0E/blOEZd7fAes/s320/eucharist-1.jpg" /></a></div>Meditation:<br />
If a close friend is one who encourages us to do our best, then is Jesus not our best friend? Should we not look at the Lord's Supper as one of His primary requests for us to be our best? The Eucharist does not look back into our past with a critical eye, but Christ looks to our future with hope and Divine calling. The Master draws us from what we have been into what we might be. He bids us come, not because He sees as somehow better than we once were, but because He wants us to be. To stay distant from Him because our heart has grown cold, is to refuse to go to the fire so we can be warmed; and the fire is always there, its flames fanned by those who came before us to receive its warmth.<br />
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©2013 Richard Lewis JonesFr. Richard L. Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14558778028229245584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4186899053113509321.post-90198342805074504242013-07-18T01:08:00.002-05:002013-07-18T01:08:48.191-05:00Cultivating a Habit of Pleasing God<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-x5852HeK78g/UeeC2lJb0uI/AAAAAAAAAzw/B4AXR2uHMAo/s1600/pleasing+to+god.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-x5852HeK78g/UeeC2lJb0uI/AAAAAAAAAzw/B4AXR2uHMAo/s400/pleasing+to+god.jpg" /></a></div>Meditation:<br />
There is a quality about all we do, when we do it to please the Father, that redeems the lowliest and most mundane task from insignificance, it puts hope in the most monotonous of duties, and it dignifies the smallest of efforts. If we think of life as our opportunity in which to form the habit of doing all things to please God and bring Him glory, then nothing is trivial. Whether we give or receive a cold cup of water on a hot summer day, visit a sick neighbor, smile at a passerby, or pray for a complete stranger, whatever we do, we can cultivate a habit of pleasing God. This habit is well worth establishing, for it will surely outlive our very life in this world, and keep pace with eternity in heaven to come.<br />
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©2013 Richard Lewis Jones Fr. Richard L. Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14558778028229245584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4186899053113509321.post-85542081743202010262013-04-25T21:12:00.000-05:002013-04-25T21:12:48.950-05:00Picture of a Prophet<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-K6Acrj2CHUk/UXnh8YykhUI/AAAAAAAAAxg/rODDSIrp64U/s1600/Leonard-Ravenhill.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-K6Acrj2CHUk/UXnh8YykhUI/AAAAAAAAAxg/rODDSIrp64U/s320/Leonard-Ravenhill.jpg" /></a><br />
The prophet in his day is fully accepted of God and totally rejected by men.<br />
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Years back, Dr. Gregory Mantle was right when he said, "No man can be fully accepted until he is totally rejected." The prophet of the Lord is aware of both these experiences. They are his "brand name." <br />
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The group, challenged by the prophet because they are smug and comfortably insulated from a perishing world in their warm but untested theology, is not likely to vote him "Man of the Year" when he refers to them as habituates of the synagogue of Satan! <br />
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The prophet comes to set up that which is upset. His work is to call into line those who are out of line! He is unpopular because he opposes the popular in morality and spirituality.<br />
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In a day of faceless politicians and voiceless preachers, there is not a more urgent national need than that we cry to God for a prophet! The function of the prophet, as Austin-Sparks once said, "has almost always been that of recovery." <br />
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The prophet is God's detective seeking for a lost treasure. The degree of his effectiveness is determined by his measure of unpopularity. Compromise is not known to him. <br />
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He has no price tags. <br />
He is totally "otherworldly." <br />
He is unquestionably controversial and unpardonably hostile. <br />
He marches to another drummer! <br />
He breathes the rarefied air of inspiration. <br />
He is a "seer" who comes to lead the blind. <br />
He lives in the heights of God and comes into the valley with a "thus saith the Lord." <br />
He shares some of the foreknowledge of God and so is aware of impending judgment. <br />
He lives in "splendid isolation." <br />
He is forthright and outright, but he claims no birthright. <br />
His message is "repent, be reconciled to God or else...!" <br />
His prophecies are parried. <br />
His truth brings torment, but his voice is never void. <br />
He is the villain of today and the hero of tomorrow. <br />
He is excommunicated while alive and exalted when dead! <br />
He is dishonored with epithets when breathing and honored with epitaphs when dead. <br />
He is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, but few "make the grade" in his class. <br />
He is friendless while living and famous when dead. <br />
He is against the establishment in ministry; then he is established as a saint by posterity. <br />
He eats daily the bread of affliction while he ministers, but he feeds the Bread of Life to those who listen. <br />
He walks before men for days but has walked before God for years. <br />
He is a scourge to the nation before he is scourged by the nation. <br />
He announces, pronounces, and denounces! <br />
He has a heart like a volcano and his words are as fire. <br />
He talks to men about God. <br />
He carries the lamp of truth amongst heretics while he is lampooned by men. <br />
He faces God before he faces men, but he is self-effacing. <br />
He hides with God in the secret place, but he has nothing to hide in the marketplace. <br />
He is naturally sensitive but supernaturally spiritual. <br />
He has passion, purpose and pugnacity. <br />
He is ordained of God but disdained by men.<br />
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Our national need at this hour is not that the dollar recover its strength, or that we save face over the Watergate affair, or that we find the answer to the ecology problem. We need a God-sent prophet! <br />
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I am bombarded with talk or letters about the coming shortages in our national life: bread, fuel, energy. I read between the lines from people not practiced in scaring folk. They feel that the "seven years of plenty" are over for us. The "seven years of famine" are ahead. But the greatest famine of all in this nation at this given moment is a FAMINE OF THE HEARING OF THE WORDS OF GOD (Amos 8:11). <br />
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Millions have been spent on evangelism in the last twenty-five years. Hundreds of gospel messages streak through the air over the nation every day. Crusades have been held; healing meetings have made a vital contribution. "Come-outers" have "come out" and settled, too, without a nation-shaking revival.<br />
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Organizers we have. Skilled preachers abound. Multi-million dollar Christian organizations straddle the nation. BUT where, oh where, is the prophet? Where are the incandescent men fresh from the holy place? Where is the Moses to plead in fasting before the holiness of the Lord for our moldy morality, our political perfidy, and sour and sick spirituality? <br />
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GOD'S MEN ARE IN HIDING UNTIL THE DAY OF THEIR SHOWING FORTH. They will come. The prophet is violated during his ministry, but he is vindicated by history. <br />
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There is a terrible vacuum in evangelical Christianity today. The missing person in our ranks is the prophet. The man with a terrible earnestness. The man totally otherworldly. The man rejected by other men, even other good men, because they consider him too austere, too severely committed, too negative and unsociable. <br />
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Let him be as plain as John the Baptist. <br />
Let him for a season be a voice crying in the wilderness of modern theology and stagnant "churchianity." <br />
Let him be as selfless as Paul the apostle. <br />
Let him, too, say and live, "This ONE thing I do." <br />
Let him reject ecclesiastical favors. <br />
Let him be self-abasing, nonself-seeking, nonself-projecting, nonself-righteous,nonself-glorying, nonself-promoting. <br />
Let him say nothing that will draw men to himself but only that which will move men to God. <br />
Let him come daily from the throne room of a holy God, the place where he has received the order of the day. <br />
Let him, under God, unstop the ears of the millions who are deaf through the clatter of shekels milked from this hour of material mesmerism. <br />
Let him cry with a voice this century has not heard because he has seen a vision no man in this century has seen.<br />
God send us this Moses to lead us from the wilderness of crass materialism, where the rattlesnakes of lust bite us and where enlightened men, totally blind spiritually, lead us to an ever-nearing Armageddon.<br />
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God have mercy! Send us PROPHETS!<br />
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Leonard Ravenhill (1907-1994) <br />
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About the author: Leonard Ravenhill was a well-known British evangelist who brought many people to Christ through his straightforward preaching of the Word. In 1959, he and his family moved to the United States, where Ravenhill continued to travel, ministering in tent revivals and evangelistic meetings. He placed great emphasis on the subjects of prayer and revival, and though he wrote many books, he is probably best known for Why Revival Tarries. ("Picture of a Prophet" was taken from Ravenhill.org and used by permission of the author's son, David Ravenhill. Copyright (C) 1994 by Leonard Ravenhill.)<br />
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Fr. Richard L. Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14558778028229245584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4186899053113509321.post-58496483239388682262013-01-13T00:03:00.001-06:002013-01-13T00:04:46.200-06:00Caryl Matrisciana on Spiritual WarfareEye-opening video of Caryl Matrisciana talking about Spiritual Warfare<br />
<iframe width="415" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/0PmhNN1G1SY?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Fr. Richard L. Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14558778028229245584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4186899053113509321.post-35184222611325947872012-12-15T23:21:00.000-06:002012-12-15T23:40:33.240-06:00Outflow - The Eucharist: Holy and Personal<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kYyaqJTOI3A/UM1XmgkmWXI/AAAAAAAAAwc/sToL54EYeZI/s1600/eucharist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="271" width="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kYyaqJTOI3A/UM1XmgkmWXI/AAAAAAAAAwc/sToL54EYeZI/s400/eucharist.jpg" /></a></div>As we come to the Lord's Table and participate in the Eucharist (communion), we are engaging Christ in a very personal and holy way. Jesus instituted the Sacrament of the Eucharist as a time and place for his Church to set all things aside and receive the outflow of His supernatural presence at the table, as we take into ourselves His very essence through the bread and the wine. These elements represent His Divine nature coming to dwell in us, His Church, as we come into the remembrance of all He has done. It is the Divine mystery of Christ in us, and us in Him. He is our Hope of glory! Through His blood, Christ has given us a better Covenant based on better promises; a new and better way! This all comes together and is consummated in the Eucharist. It is why the Lord's Table becomes so deeply personal.<br />
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©2012 Richard Lewis Jones <br />
Fr. Richard L. Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14558778028229245584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4186899053113509321.post-6549324775512804672012-12-15T22:03:00.001-06:002012-12-15T22:52:54.793-06:00God's Eternal and Loving Bosom<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Fe_WwRuZzD8/UM1GlwbsedI/AAAAAAAAAvs/ssEvhVthoJw/s1600/AngelStatue1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="200" width="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Fe_WwRuZzD8/UM1GlwbsedI/AAAAAAAAAvs/ssEvhVthoJw/s200/AngelStatue1.jpg" /></a></div>As each of the precious children of Sandy Hook were taken from this life by a senseless act of pure evil, I believe Jesus wept. And yet as each child was taken by an unimaginable act of evil, I also believe that God, in His unimaginable grace, reached down out of heaven and pulled each one of them into His eternal and loving bosom.Fr. Richard L. Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14558778028229245584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4186899053113509321.post-52342947694608240902012-09-22T16:43:00.000-05:002013-04-26T03:11:57.844-05:00Outflow - A Kingdom Mission<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iTgrXs1iDag/UGOWXN-X2TI/AAAAAAAAAjw/WjoA-nGEDO0/s1600/kingdom-of-god1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="107" width="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iTgrXs1iDag/UGOWXN-X2TI/AAAAAAAAAjw/WjoA-nGEDO0/s200/kingdom-of-god1.jpg" /></a></div>During times of great political upheaval on a global and national scale, it is comforting to know that we who are in Christ are not tied to the political systems of this world. We are citizens of another Kingdom that has no beginning and no end. Our Kingdom has its own form of government that is at odds with the political and governmental systems of this world. We are appointed by the gospel to be ambassadors of our Kingdom; we are anointed to be in this world as representatives of our King and His government! And as His ambassadors, He outflows all the power and authority of His government to back us up! But we are not here in this world to draw people to one earthly political party or another; we are here on a mission from God. It is a mission to invite others to join us in our Kingdom, at the foot of the cross, and to gloriously serve our King! As we do, the kingdoms and politics of this world will grow strangely dim.<br />
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©2012 Richard Lewis Jones Fr. Richard L. Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14558778028229245584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4186899053113509321.post-51910620373439597742012-09-21T00:47:00.003-05:002012-09-21T02:28:38.612-05:00The Cry of the Martyr's Blood<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fup9KxmrsPA/UFv-HgwfjqI/AAAAAAAAAhU/uqs98__CYYA/s1600/martyred.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="294" width="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fup9KxmrsPA/UFv-HgwfjqI/AAAAAAAAAhU/uqs98__CYYA/s320/martyred.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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Be still, and listen to the rise;<br />
The sound of all the martyr's cries<br />
rising up from the blood stained ground<br />
into which their lives are cast,<br />
the seed that falls and dies.<br />
<br />
It's the price that must be paid;<br />
a foundation that must be laid<br />
for all who walk the road of hope<br />
the path of healing, of love, of faith;<br />
to the everlasting life they bade.<br />
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And though their blood be trampled under foot<br />
by the many who disdain, dishonor, up-root,<br />
all for their own vainglory and selfish right<br />
to gather many for their feasts and lusts;<br />
but never the martyr's blood be moot.<br />
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©2012 Richard Lewis JonesFr. Richard L. Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14558778028229245584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4186899053113509321.post-72940404055334604182012-09-08T11:57:00.003-05:002012-09-08T12:01:10.108-05:00Cardinal Dolan's Amazing and Righteous Prayer at the Democratic National Convention<object height="340" width="400" data="http://l3cdn.iqmediacorp.com.c.footprint.net/scontent/player/iqmedia_player_resize_cdn.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" name="HYETA" id="HUY"><param value="http://l3cdn.iqmediacorp.com.c.footprint.net/scontent/player/iqmedia_player_resize_cdn.swf" name="movie"><param value="true" name="allowfullscreen"><param value="always" name="allowscriptaccess"><param value="high" name="quality"><param value="transparent" name="wmode"><param value="embedId=4c45729d-3077-40a0-a231-ee635184992c" name="flashvars"></object>Fr. Richard L. Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14558778028229245584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4186899053113509321.post-22161059686054913282012-08-27T18:44:00.000-05:002012-08-27T18:45:52.527-05:00Outflow - Submission, Consecration, and the Narrow Road<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MAGQZgRlIos/UDh8Wfi6jsI/AAAAAAAAAgY/AJb6HMg-BFA/s1600/narrow%2Broad_roadsign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="106" width="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MAGQZgRlIos/UDh8Wfi6jsI/AAAAAAAAAgY/AJb6HMg-BFA/s200/narrow%2Broad_roadsign.jpg" /></a></div>As we look at the 1st and 2nd century Church, it bears very little resemblance to much of the Church we see today in Western culture. The Lord was outflowing great power by His Holy Spirit to His Church so that she would bear witness of Him in Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world. He equipped His people with mighty signs and wonders, while those who were called to bear His name lived their lives in total submission to Him and stayed consecrated unto the cause of Christ, no matter if it required great suffering... or possibly even death. They knew that living for Christ meant a life of sacrifice as they journeyed along the narrow road. Today we see an increasing portion of the Church walking down the broad path of dis-empowerment and destruction as it seeks to please the world more than its Master.<br />
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©2012 Richard Lewis Jones Fr. Richard L. Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14558778028229245584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4186899053113509321.post-36034887524558397392012-08-25T23:42:00.002-05:002012-08-25T23:42:33.240-05:00350th Anniversary of The Book of Common Prayer ~ The Anglican Way<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HTx_w8Msy7c/UDmhODpx4bI/AAAAAAAAAgw/SNBOUbyaNDA/s1600/book%2Bof%2Bcommon%2Bprayer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="201" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HTx_w8Msy7c/UDmhODpx4bI/AAAAAAAAAgw/SNBOUbyaNDA/s320/book%2Bof%2Bcommon%2Bprayer.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<a href="http://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/anglican-way/">The Anglican Way<br />
by Gerald Bray</a><br />
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The English Reformation produced the Book of Common Prayer and the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion as its foundational documents. Both represent the more Reformed (as opposed to Lutheran) phase of the English reformation, though they are closer to patristic and medieval traditions than most Reformed documents are.<br />
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Archbishop Cranmer believed that he had to reform the worship, doctrine, and discipline of the church. The Prayer Book represents reformed worship, and the Articles contain reformed doctrine. Yet Cranmer’s reformed discipline failed to gain parliamentary approval, and that failure was a factor that led to the rise of puritanism.<br />
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The first Book of Common Prayer appeared in 1549. It contained services for daily worship, both morning and evening, and forms for the administration of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, along with other ceremonies that were used less often. The services were full of biblical phrases and imagery, and English people absorbed a considerable knowledge of Scripture from the Prayer Book, which was often repeated and easily memorized. The most important service was the one for the Lord’s Supper. Cranmer used traditional medieval English liturgies like the Sarum rite (“Sarum” is Latin for the town of Salisbury, in southern England), a liturgy drawn from Norman, Anglo-Saxon, and Roman traditions in the eleventh century. Cranmer restructured the old liturgies, however, in order to bring out the centrality of justification by faith alone. The communicant’s attention was directed away from the consecration of the bread and wine, which recalled the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, and refocused on his spiritual state, in line with Reformed teaching.<br />
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In order to reach the widest audience with the least resistance, Cranmer was careful not to break too obviously with tradition, and although the doctrines of the Reformers were clearly stated in the Prayer Book, traditionalist Catholics could still use the new rites. Cranmer had to move on, and in 1552, with some help from Martin Bucer and John Knox, he brought out a much more radically Protestant Prayer Book. What this meant can be seen in the revision of the words used in the administration of Holy Communion. In 1549, the minister said: “The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life.” This did not make it clear whether the bread being given to the recipient was transubstantiated or not. But in 1552 the words were changed to: “Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart by faith, with thanksgiving.” Here what the communicant received was bread, and he was told to reflect on the presence of Christ in his heart.<br />
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In 1559, the 1552 Prayer Book was brought back after Queen Mary banned it, with some modifications. In the example given above, both sentences were included, making the words of administration very long. This was a concession to traditionalist sentiment, but it was Protestantism that predominated, and when the Prayer Book was revised again in 1662 this was reinforced. American readers need to realize that, although the 1662 Prayer Book is the classic Anglican form that is still used in England, it was replaced in the United States (in 1786) by a form that was closer to the 1549 book. As a result, the American Episcopalian liturgical tradition is more “catholic” and “high church” than its English counterpart.<br />
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Until the liturgical reforms of the mid-twentieth century, most Anglicans used the 1662 Prayer Book as a matter of course. Its language and its doctrines penetrated deep into the psyches of the English-speaking peoples, and its power to win souls for Christ is widely attested. Charles Simeon, the great evangelical leader of the early nineteenth century, was converted by reading it in preparing himself to receive communion. The warnings against unworthy reception that the Prayer Book contains went straight to his heart. Simeon repented as the Prayer Book urged him to do, and he gave his life to Christ. In Africa and Asia today, the strength of the Anglican churches there is partly due to the translations of the 1662 Prayer Book, which do not sound archaic in the way that the original English version now does. Tragically, it seems that the current spiritual lethargy of Anglicanism in the English-speaking world is connected to the demise of the Prayer Book since the 1960s. However, there is still a faithful remnant that keeps its witness alive, both in the traditional 1662 form and in modern-language adaptations, and there are signs that a spiritual renewal may be developing that will influence the Anglican Communion in the next generation.<br />
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The Thirty-nine Articles are usually printed with the 1662 Prayer Book, but they have a different history. There were forty-two of them in 1552, when Archbishop Cranmer gave them to the church. A revision was made in 1559–63 by some of Cranmer’s disciples, and the number was reduced to thirty-nine, though this was not achieved simply by leaving three of the older articles out. They were rearranged, expanded in some places, and abridged in others, though it must be said that Cranmer’s articles on the millennium, originally designed to counter the Anabaptists, were omitted in the 1563 version. The Articles were given official status by King Charles I in 1628; since then they have been the accepted doctrinal standards of the Church of England. Other Anglican churches have received them to a greater or lesser degree, sometimes with revisions, as happened in the United States (1801). But not all Anglican churches recognize them, and it has to be said that most Anglicans today are scarcely aware of their existence. Even the clergy have seldom studied them, and only evangelicals now take them seriously as doctrine.<br />
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The Articles are not a comprehensive systematic theology in the way that the Westminster Confession is, but they do address questions of theological controversy in a systematic way. In that sense, they are more advanced than earlier Protestant doctrinal statements. They start with the doctrine of God, go on to list the canon of Scripture, and then get into more controversial subjects. Justification by faith alone is clearly stated, and there is also a clear defense of predestination. The sacraments are numbered as two only, and they are defined as witnesses to the Gospel. Towards the end there are articles defining the powers of the civil magistrate, along with one that sanctions the two books of Homilies, collections of sermons in which the doctrines of the Articles and Prayer Book are more fully expounded. The Homilies are almost unknown today, but they have recently been reprinted, and this may lead to a renewal of interest in them.<br />
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The Westminster divines realized that the Articles were products of their time and needed supplementing even in the mid-seventeenth century, and few voices would dissent from that judgment today. What the Articles say is fair enough, but they need to be developed further if their doctrine is going to be appreciated and used in the modern church. Whether this can be done in the current state of the Anglican Communion is doubtful, but the Articles remain a touchstone of Reformed Anglicans, and perhaps their brief and judicious statements will one day gain them greater acceptance within the wider Reformed community.<br />
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From Ligonier Ministries and R.C. Sproul. © Tabletalk magazine.Fr. Richard L. Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14558778028229245584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4186899053113509321.post-28029950258525300722012-08-22T12:00:00.001-05:002012-08-25T02:26:31.995-05:00The Making Of A True Leader - by T. Austin Sparks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DTYrYMV1n7M/UDUGa-yP7YI/AAAAAAAAAfc/k8Q-l80UAO4/s1600/t_austin_sparks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="235" width="148" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DTYrYMV1n7M/UDUGa-yP7YI/AAAAAAAAAfc/k8Q-l80UAO4/s400/t_austin_sparks.jpg" /></a></div><br />
This is a lengthy but excellent teaching by T. Austin Sparks on the true cost of leadership. This writing comes from chapter 7 of his book titled, "Recovery in a Day of Failure".... Enjoy!<br />
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We gather from this book of Judges that those who are going to be instrumental in the Lord´s hands in helping others out of their bad condition must themselves have shared that bad condition... It is necessary for a spiritual leader to have suffered in the same trials as those being led; to have known the same depths of misery, to have been in the same complicated circumstances, to have passed through those very problems, and to know what it is to emerge from a dark, dismal and wretched state. All that makes a leader, but that also represents the cost to begin with.<br />
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The cost of leadership is...<br />
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a) By what course, by what road, is this transition made? Always through the grave. Before we ever come to spiritual understanding we shall have all our own understanding pulverized, ground to powder, so that we do not understand anything, and we know it. If we are asked to explain we can give no explanation. It is not in us to explain. All understanding has gone. God breaks down the natural to make way for the spiritual. That transition is through death, through the grave. Then presently we emerge, and we are seeing things now from God´s side, we are understanding with a faculty and capacity that we never before possessed. Somehow or other a resurrection work has been done; that is, something has been quickened which we never had before. We are made alive to that of which we had no knowledge before. We have a new standard of judgement now, a new standard of values, a new sense of differences. It is just something done, not something which we have created or made. It comes, as it were, to birth, and we know it, and as we move accordingly, in obedience to it, it grows.<br />
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There is all the difference between natural understanding and spiritual understanding, and the difference is between death and life, and a grave is between. Oh, those dark days, when we lost all natural understanding and there was no light. It is a terrible cost.<br />
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We are not speaking about just understanding certain events. It may have to do with trials of a certain nature through which we pass, but it is the general faculty to which we are referring. There is all the difference between a natural faculty for understanding things and a spiritual faculty for understanding the things of the Lord, which cannot be defined, but can be declared as a fact. That cost is the cost bound up with spiritual leadership.<br />
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b) The Assurance of Understanding<br />
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There was a time when some of us were most sure. Oh yes, we knew, no one could tell us. We were the most sure people. We could lay down the law to anybody as to what they ought to do. The Lord has taken in hand and has ground to powder, made pulp of all that assurance. We have lost all self-assurance. We have come to the place where we feel that we could question everything in ourselves, doubt everything about ourselves. We have come to the place where, when we tell the Lord that we mean to be all for Him there is something inside which says we meant it, but come up against the test and we find that we are not that. Peter was a most self-confident man; "Lord, I will follow thee even unto death." I am certain that if we had met Peter later on, after the cross, we should have found him a man who would never for a moment say a word about his own certainty or self-assurance. Yet you find the man marked by boldness; there is nothing more sure than his statement on the day of Pentecost; but he is a different man. He has gone through the grave, and self-assurance has been broken in him and replaced with the assurance of God. There is the full assurance of understanding of the Lord. It is costly, but it is the way of spiritual leadership, the way to spiritual values. <br />
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c) Active Faith<br />
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We spoke of active faith. It comes the same way. The time through which we pass is a time when we lose all. There are times when we feel that the bottom has fallen out of everything. What have we to rest upon? Faith. Where is our faith? If God is not merciful to us it is a poor lookout for us. If this whole thing depends upon our faith today, the Lord help us!<br />
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Yes, these are dark, strange experiences, things you may not say to the unconverted. They are not bound up with our salvation, our acceptance before God. It is another side, the side of our usefulness to the Lord, the measure of our spiritual value to the Lord for the sake of others. The cost of spiritual leadership and a faith of this true, pure kind is borne out of a grave. It grows like a new child; it is quiet, steady faith in God. You have been through the depths, and you have found the Lord faithful, and you have had to say, "It was not because of my wonderful faith in God, not because of my saying I am able to hold on, to persist! God was faithful to me when I had nothing of faith as far as I was concerned." That comes back from the grave. It is the cost of leadership.<br />
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d) Initiative<br />
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This is quite true also in the matter of initiative. Naturally there was a time when initiative was not difficult to some of us. The bigger the proposition the more we gloried in tackling it, and lacked no initiative in these things. Then the Lord took us in hand and broke all that natural force, or began to break it, and we came steadily to the place where, so far as we were concerned, the initiative left us: that is, the natural initiative, the taking of big responsibility, and we became deeply conscious that we were needing a divine energy to move in relation to the Lord´s interests. And now to some extent we do know that energizing of God in relation to His interests. When we have no natural energy, when it does not spring from ourselves, and if it were left with us, we should not do it, we would not move, but just lie there, refuse, decline, and yet we know that for the Lord´s interests there is an energy which we have not got. We lay hold of that divine energy, and the initiative of God is appropriated by faith, and there are accomplishments.<br />
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There is all the difference between that natural go-ahead attitude in the work of God, and that energizing of the Holy Spirit; that initiative which is of the flesh, and that initiative which is of the Holy Spirit. You have to pass from the one to the other in a deep experience, when all that is of nature is broken down, and you come on to the ground where it is all and only of God. It is a new creation in Christ Jesus, where all things are out from God, as manifested in the Lord Jesus Himself.<br />
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e) Humility and Dependence<br />
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The same law holds good. We may have been very independent or self-dependent, or dependent upon others. The Lord has dealt with all that, or will deal with it in us, and bring us to a place where every other kind of support is removed, where all our independence is dealt with, where our self-dependence is destroyed, where our dependence upon others is cut away. And we come out to a place, through trying and painful experiences, where our dependence is upon God.<br />
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Paul is an outstanding illustration of this. There is no character more self-confident than Saul of Tarsus. In the long-run there is no one more dependent upon God, and confessedly so. He said: "We despaired of life." The sentence of death was upon him, so that he should not trust in himself, but in God who raises the dead. The way through is a deep, dark, and painful way, but this is all the way to spiritual leadership. It is all that is involved in the transition from the natural to the spiritual, and it all leads to values for others.<br />
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Your value to others in the Lord entirely depends upon your own measure of knowing the Lord for yourself as your very life, your wisdom, your strength.<br />
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There may be a little weakness in what we have been saying, that we have dealt with positives rather than negatives. Some are not in much danger of strong, natural, go-ahead-ness. Perhaps some are lacking altogether in any kind of strength like that, and may be saying, "Well, I do not have to be broken down very much, therefore I cannot come through to very much for the Lord." Do not say that, because your painful experience will probably be from a negative to a positive, not from one positive to another positive. We mean this, that some timid people will go through an agony when God brings them out to take initiative. It is an agony for reticent people to be made to stand on their feet and take responsibility. They would sooner shrink into a corner, but the Lord will not let them get away with that. In effect He says, "You have got to be of value, you have got to count; it is no use your hiding in a corner, I want values in you for My people." Then comes the agony of perhaps having to talk to someone, having to take initiative for the spiritual help of somebody, when you would rather be somewhere else, doing something else. It is the transition from the natural, whatever the natural is - whether positive or negative - to what is spiritual. It is costly, but it is the price of leadership, and after all, it is that the Lord should have His full measure in us, "...each several part in due measure" (Eph. 4:16). There is a "due measure" from each several part.<br />
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f) Loneliness<br />
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The cost of leadership is always loneliness. When you are going through a thing in the hands of God, your one sense is that no one has ever been through this before. The Lord sees to it that you do not escape by having someone come along who has just been through it so that you may throw yourself on them and they carry you. The Lord allows isolation. But, however it is, it is always loneliness. That is bound up with leadership. It is as though you were pioneering and no one has ever gone this way before; you are alone. It is part of the price, but it must be. No doubt you have longed for somebody who has been that way to be alongside of you while you are going through, but the Lord has not allowed it. We say in effect, "If only we had their experience in this thing to appeal to!" But somehow or other the Lord cuts it all off from us, and takes us through with Himself alone. If we refuse to go through with Him alone, we are going to miss the Lord´s object.<br />
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g) Misunderstanding<br />
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So often accompanying the loneliness is misunderstanding, and that is the more bitter side. It is the more positive or active side. Think of Nehemiah. He had to take the lead, the initiative. But it was not long before not only in his loneliness, but in misunderstanding and misrepresentation he discovered the cost of that leadership. All around things were being said: "He is building this thing to make himself a name! He is going to appoint prophets to preach about him! He is starting a new movement!" All the things which were said were lies, false; it was misrepresentation, misunderstanding. That is simply because a man or woman has come to know the will of God as it applies to them, and they are going on in that way of God.<br />
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It is strange how people will very rarely give another credit for walking with God. Others always seem to interpret their movements as though they had been captured and led astray. They never give them credit for really walking with God themselves. They blame someone else, and then blame them for getting into the hands of someone else. It is a part of the price.<br />
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h) Selflessness<br />
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It is necessary when counting the cost of leadership to be selfless and disinterested in the matter. Leaders may labour for perhaps another generation, for others to enter into their labours, and they may never see the fruit of their own labours.<br />
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Look back over the history of all who have really been used of God in the lives of His people. Very rarely has their life borne fruit until they have gone. They have laboured, and other men have entered into their labours. It means that there is to be no present glory, nothing for self, no present reward. It is a Moses leading through the wilderness, up against the real hard, tough side of things, and then passing out without seeing the fruit. That is the price of leadership so often; selfless disinterestedness, being willing to labour, to give one´s life, to suffer, to come to a place of value for others and never see the full result of it.<br />
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That is all we shall say for the time being. It has all come out of that expression of Deborah: "For that the leaders took the lead in Israel". That is the explanation of such deliverance, of a mighty emancipation, of glorious victory, the changing of the whole face of things from servile slavery, depression and oppression, to ascendancy, liberty and progress...<br />
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Thanks to Andrew Strom for re-publishing this work.Fr. Richard L. Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14558778028229245584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4186899053113509321.post-33970281621665212392012-08-18T15:45:00.003-05:002012-08-28T03:10:24.833-05:00Outflow - Christian Suffering?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-t4rYe1DPPUs/UDABCqZ1LrI/AAAAAAAAAfE/0Ld04OskJHo/s1600/Stoning-of-Stephen.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="331" width="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-t4rYe1DPPUs/UDABCqZ1LrI/AAAAAAAAAfE/0Ld04OskJHo/s400/Stoning-of-Stephen.gif" /></a></div>We live in an age when those who call themselves followers of Jesus always seem to look for the easy road. They expect a constant outflow of blessings in their life, and continually pray for safety and comfort. But truly following Christ is wrought with risk, danger, and sufferings. It is not a comfortable life. On the contrary, it is often times just the opposite! If Jesus didn't even have a place to lay His head; how dare we expect any better than He! Christian suffering is not a popular topic in churches today; preaching it today most certainly assures small offerings and much criticism. But we must come to understand what the saints who came before us understood, which is, for us to earn a great reward in heaven, we must also learn to endure great sufferings in this life for the sake of Christ.<br />
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©2012 Richard Lewis Jones <br />
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Fr. Richard L. Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14558778028229245584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4186899053113509321.post-89245785421003762892012-07-29T00:28:00.000-05:002012-07-29T00:28:58.160-05:00Outfow - Taking Pleasure In Our Infirmities<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AsPxfXeKTaU/UBTIKoAId6I/AAAAAAAAAdE/RYNirl_G9lU/s1600/infirmities.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="183" width="276" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AsPxfXeKTaU/UBTIKoAId6I/AAAAAAAAAdE/RYNirl_G9lU/s400/infirmities.jpg" /></a></div>In 2 Corinthians 12, when the apostle Paul was buffeted by the messenger of satan, he asked God three times for it to depart from him. God's response was to let Paul know that the outflow of His grace was sufficient; that His strength was made perfect through Paul's weakness. Paul knew right then that the grace of God contained the power of God. He gave glory to his weakness knowing that the power of God would rest upon him. Paul exclaimed, "Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong!" (v.10) How many Christians today are willing to say they take pleasure in those things? Not many. Yet we will receive God's grace and power if we do just that.<br />
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©2012 Richard Lewis Jones <br />
<br />Fr. Richard L. Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14558778028229245584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4186899053113509321.post-77366691160744744342012-07-17T00:30:00.000-05:002012-07-17T00:30:51.821-05:00Outflow - Just As He Was, So Are We To Be<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5vc-weZmIwI/UAT3xsahDaI/AAAAAAAAAc0/aaZACUyG8Mw/s1600/washing_of_feet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="392" width="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5vc-weZmIwI/UAT3xsahDaI/AAAAAAAAAc0/aaZACUyG8Mw/s400/washing_of_feet.jpg" /></a></div>Christ gave His Church a command to go into all the world demonstrating His Kingdom through the outflow of His love by all who call Him Lord and who are submitted to Him. When we are submitted to Christ, He fills us to overflowing with rivers of living water that flow out of our bellies into a hurting and dying world in need of life, healing and hope. His love is like a river, full of compassion and grace that demonstrates itself through righteous acts. This means we must be doers and not hearers only, vessels through which His Kingdom can be demonstrated in Spirit and in power! Christ went about preaching, teaching, and healing all who are oppressed of the devil. He gave us the authority to do the same. And just as Christ was, so are we to be in this world; full of truth and grace.<br />
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©2012 Richard Lewis JonesFr. Richard L. Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14558778028229245584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4186899053113509321.post-55036511200368456102012-05-11T00:14:00.005-05:002012-05-11T00:14:58.156-05:00Francis Chan Speaks at Verge 2012 on Suffering<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/15503905?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="400" height="300" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe>Fr. Richard L. Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14558778028229245584noreply@blogger.com0