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Christianity Community
Previous 10
THE FLOWING STREAM
* Oct. 11th, 2023 at 1:06 PM
christianitysusannah
"If people are thirsty, let them come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in me,
as the scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within them."
The Love of God is like a flowing stream. God longs for us to open our hearts,
more and more, to the Holy Spirit and to open to love.
God offers us that flow, that love, because of God's givenness to us. We see
that givenness in Jesus Christ: a givenness to the point of no turning back.
And God invites us to share in that givenness: to give ourselves to God, and to
give ourselves to others in love and compassion and service.
The flowing stream can't just be kept for yourself. It flows as we open to
others as well. That's love in action. The Spirit in action. A stream in flow.
"You have sent Your Spirit," the psalmist writes, "to renew the face of the
earth..."
The dry and barren places of people's hearts, the loneliness, the lives hardened
by hurt, the desolate and forsaken.
As Isaiah wrote: "Water will burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the
desert."
If only we would open our hearts today, and let the Love of God flow through us
to others. For as we do, the prophet also promises: you will also drink from the
wells of salvation.
When we open to the flow, the power, the compassion of love. When we open to
God.
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OVERINTERPRETATION
* Aug. 17th, 2023 at 1:31 PM
christianitygtrnvox
> It is approximately the year 2790. The most powerful nation on earth occupies
> a large territory in Central Africa, and its citizens speak Swahili. The
> United States and other English-speaking countries have long ceased to exist,
> and much of the literature prior to 2012 (the year of the Great Conflagration)
> is not extant. Some archaeologists digging in the western regions of North
> America discover a short but well-preserved text that can confidently be dated
> to the last quarter of the twentieth century. It reads thus:
>
> Marilyn, tired of her glamorous image, embarked on a new project. She would
> now cultivate her mind, sharpen her verbal skills, pay attention to standards
> of etiquette. Most important of all, she would devote herself to charitable
> causes. Accordingly, she offered her services at the local hospital, which
> needed volunteers to cheer up terminal patients, many of whom had been in
> considerable pain for a long time. The weeks flew by. One day she was sitting
> at the cafeteria when her supervisor approached her and said, “I didn’t see
> you yesterday. What were you doing?” “I painted my apartment; it was my day
> off,” she responded.
>
> The archaeologists know just enough English to realise that this fragment is a
> major literary find that deserves closer inspection, so they rush the piece to
> one of the finest philologists in their home country. This scholar dedicates
> his next sabbatical to a thorough study of the text and decides to publish an
> exegetical commentary on it, as follows:
>
> We are unable to determine whether this text is an excerpt from a novel or
> from a historical biography. Almost surely, however, it was produced in a
> religious context, as is evident from the use of such words as devoted,
> offered, charitable. In any case, this passage illustrates the literary power
> of twentieth-century English, a language full of metaphors. The verb embarked
> calls to mind an ocean liner leaving for an adventuresome cruise, while
> cultivate possibly alerts the reader to Marilyn’s botanical interests. In
> those days North Americans compared time to a bird—probably the eagle—that
> flies.
>
> The author of this piece, moreover, makes clever use of word associations. For
> example, the term glamorous is etymologically related to grammar, a concept no
> doubt reflected in the comment about Marilyn’s “verbal skills.” Consider also
> the subtleties implied by the statement that “her supervisor approached her.”
> The verb approach has a rich usage. It may indicate similar appearance or
> condition (this painting approaches the quality of a Picasso); it may have a
> sexual innuendo (the rapist approached his victim); it may reflect
> subservience (he approached his boss for a raise). The cognate noun can be
> used in contexts of engineering (e.g. access to a bridge), sports (of a golf
> stroke following the drive from the tee), and even war (a trench that protects
> troops besieging a fortress).
>
> Society in the twentieth century is greatly illuminated by this text. The word
> patient (from patience, meaning “endurance”) indicates that sick people then
> underwent a great deal of suffering: they endured not only the affliction of
> their physical illness, but also the mediocre skills of their medical doctors,
> and even (to judge from other contemporary documents) the burden of increasing
> financial costs.
>
> A few syntactical notes may be of interest to language students. The
> preposition of had different uses: causal (tired of), superlative (most
> important of all), and partitive (many of whom). The simple past tense had
> several aoristic functions: embarked clearly implies determination, while
> offered suggests Marilyn’s once-for-all, definitive intention. Quite
> noticeable is the tense variation at the end of the text. The supervisor in
> his question uses the imperfect tense, “were doing,” perhaps suggesting
> monotony, slowness, or even laziness. Offended, Marilyn retorts with a
> punctiliar and emphatic aorist, “I painted.”
Moises Silva, God Language and Scripture
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GOD NEVER TURNS BACK ON US
* Jan. 29th, 2023 at 2:33 PM
christianitysusannah
God chose to disclose divine love, in Jesus Christ. Christ was the visible image
of the invisible God. His life and ministry and death and resurrection was a way
God showed us the extent of holy love.
Love is a key nature of God. The bible says it: God is love. And in Jesus we can
learn about the nature of that love, in the way Jesus gives himself: in ministry
to others, and even in giving himself as sacrifice and covenant with us. Death
on a cross.
That's the nature of God's love. That's how far God will take that love for us:
to the point of no turning back.
Jesus doesn't just love us a little bit. Jesus cares about us so much, that he
gives himself to the point of no turning back. He goes all the way.
When we try to open our own hearts to the love of God, that it may flow in and
through us to others, we can learn a lot from Jesus - the visible image of who
God is and what God's like.
We can learn that devotion (to God and to others) is about opening up to the
flow and the power of love... and giving ourselves... really giving ourselves to
others and to our God.
It's a wonderful thing that wherever we go, through the good times and the very
hard times, God does not give up on us. God does not turn back. God wants to be
there for us, waits for us, cares about us even when we mess up. God goes all
the way.
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FORESHADOWING OF CHRIST'S ETERNAL SACRIFICE IN EXODUS 17:1-7
* Aug. 4th, 2022 at 3:26 PM
christianitysasberry18
Today I happened to read Exodus 17 and I believe I found a perfect foreshadowing
of the eternal sacrifice of Christ.
EXODUS 17:1-7 ESV
All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin
by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but
there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Therefore the people quarreled
with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do
you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” 3 But the people thirsted there
for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us
up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” 4
So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost
ready to stone me.” 5 And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people,
taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff
with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there
on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of
it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of
Israel. 7 And he called the name of the place Massah[a] and Meribah,[b] because
of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by
saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
SUMMARY OF THE VERSE
( Read more...Collapse )
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PERSECUTION AND PRAYER
* May. 21st, 2022 at 2:09 PM
christianitysusannah
I think many of us witness the attacks on Christians in other countries with
horror and dismay, when they defend and stand up for what they believe in. We
share their beliefs, and of course, we deplore bullies.
I do think one way God sometimes intervenes is to come to us about a particular
prisoner and give us a sort of compulsion to pray. I have known that on a number
of occasions, where I suddenly knew I had to engage in intercession and
spiritual warfare, accompanied by tongues, for a prisoner. Now I can have no
idea exactly what God was doing in that, but I think prisoners sometimes have
particular times of crisis in captivity (speaking as a former prison governor
myself, which may be part of why I get prompted about prisoners – I don’t know).
Anyway, while we should be open to taking practical action as well, the least we
may do is pray (and that is no small thing to be dismissed).
While some persecution is driven by religious fundamentalism (for example in the
north of Nigeria) it’s important to recognise that a lot of persecution is
because of a leader’s political agenda, and desire to eliminate opposition. They
censor the media, they oppose true Christian values of decency and kindness,
they are scared that true Christians may call them out. Therefore I think it’s
also important for Christians to stand up for democratic principles, including
the right to express opinions freely, and to oppose censorship.
There are helpful organisations who can keep us informed of persecution, murder,
oppression, so we can pray for the individuals concerned.
Let us pray for ALL people being persecuted at this time. God have mercy.
TAGS:
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* prayer
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THE COMMUNITY AND HOUSEHOLD OF GOD
* Jan. 19th, 2022 at 9:20 AM
christianitysusannah
Continuing from my previous post about the precarious Christian Life, it's worth
adding that following Jesus is not just about individual spirituality, or even
individual service of others.
The nature of the givenness of God – it seems to me – involves growth into
shared experience, shared compassion, and essentially: community. After all, the
Holy Trinity itself is community... eternal community.
I have mentioned before that, in contemplative waiting for God, God does indeed
‘seem’ to do a no show... and it feels like gazing into a cloud of unknowing. In
trust, one may believe God is there, beyond, but the cloud blocks from view.
However, sometimes, just sometimes and infrequently... God suddenly IS there...
God opens it all up, and suddenly there is this vast plain or sea of
consciousness, shared consciousness, which is not ‘me here, God there’, but an
experience that seems like God is sharing even God’s own consciousness and
awareness with the person.
The lesson of that kind of encounter, it seems to me, is that God longs to share
love, consciousness, compassion, awareness. God longs to open people to the
nature of household and community... and for us to open up to others like that
as well.
And that being the case, very often I think grace is opened up, not only through
individual spirituality, but through community and shared communal journey,
service, compassion. It seems to me that a big part of following Jesus is about
communities trying together to follow God... vulnerably and diligently... to the
margins, to the hurting places, to where the flow of compassionate love is
urgently needed.
When we talk about the ‘precarious’, we are not just talking about some kind of
individualised ‘spiritual warrior’ experience... we are invited to grow, not as
atomised individual spiritual beings, but as imperfect, precarious
communities... with all the stripping bare and deflation of vanity that
involves... because deepening community usually involves denting of individual
pride.
It's right that I add, that there are many different ways that people journey
with God. For example, some gifted and neurologically diverse people may
struggle with social contact, may struggle with issues of community. Others may
just hurt too much. Nevertheless, I do believe that God longs, one way or
another, to draw people into God's household and inheritance.
We are called to the eternal household of God. The scriptures extend that to
being called as ‘children of God’. I believe that myself. But part of what God
reveals about covenant love and ‘givenness’ is how – in opening to the flow and
power of love – we open, as well, to the sharing and community aspect of what
God is like... a community both inside and outside the Church.
So what has moved me very much in my poor little Christian life are communities
working together – Christian and/or secular. Opening up, if you like, to the
shared consciousness and compassion of God... to the ‘givenness’ to others...
and the precarious, vulnerable journey that may entail.
I have learned more than I was capable of learning as an individual: from
convents and religious communities and their shared givenness and devotion; and
certain parish communities where the marginal, the deprived, the rejected have
been essential and precious to what being a precarious community is really
about. Or, if you like, a church community’s acceptance of its own marginality.
I am sure many priests and ministers reading here will know better than me what
that ‘stripping bare’ can be like, when trying to grow in community, and open to
community. And yet, I can’t help believing that we are called to let go of pride
(profoundly uncomfortable) and open ourselves to the precarious experience of
vulnerability and givenness to others and to God.
In a sense, in a vast mostly inanimate universe of time and space, those moments
of exposure in love and giving and sharing, as we live for an eye-blink of time
on the teetering edge of oblivion... as compassionate love flickers or flares in
this encounter or that, today... that, it seems to me, is when we ‘come alive’
in the most meaningful sense... 'come alive' in God and 'come alive' to each
other... when we share with the consciousness of God, and with one another, and
with the strangers we encounter.
All the grandeur and pomp of religious ceremony – and I don’t disdain awe and
worship – is arguably less precious than clasping the hand of a lonely,
rain-soaked beggar on the street, and listening to them, and trying to consider
what you or your collective community can practically do, to grow deeper into
God’s precarious invitation to open to shared consciousness and compassionate
solidarity.
Underpinning this for many Christians is a tentative and uncertain trust in the
givenness of God. I believe, over time, that trust may become a resilience, a
defiance, and effectively all that is left when our own lives fall apart, or get
de-railed, or we’re justifiably stripped of vanity. A trust that, in the face of
so much to the contrary, God loves us with a givenness and covenant and
devotion... and wants us to love back, to give ourselves, and to open up and
accept that we are loved, and others need urgently loving as well.
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THE PRECARIOUS CHRISTIAN LIFE
* Jan. 19th, 2022 at 9:05 AM
christianitysusannah
I was recently reminded, by a Christian in Oxford, that though Christian life
can be precarious, that can be a gift and not just a negative thing.
The truth of God has a habit of stripping a person painfully bare. It can lead
the individual person to dark and lonely places. To places where what is left is
only trembling, tender trust in the face of the dark.
In some senses, that precarious edge is where givenness and devotion always
begins. Where trust and covenant are the residue, after the vanities have been
stripped aside.
As we gaze toward what is sometimes experienced as a ‘Cloud of Unknowing', and
we wait and wait on God, and so often God does not show… are we not being
trained and disciplined by God, so in the end what’s left is trust, in the face
of precarious mortality and fearful darkness, in the love and faithfulness of
God?
“You will be baptised with my baptism,” Jesus said to those who would follow and
be disciplined by God.
The ordeal is a journey into precarious existence in trust in who God is. Trust
in the power and givenness of God’s love.
We are often trembling and marginal, living along the borders of non-existence
in the vastness of time and space.
Yet love matters, love is the golden seam in that vast darkness, love is where
God confronts us with truth. Love in precarious existence is where we find
ourselves and, stripped of our self-deception, we’re left falling back on God's
love and givenness.
That precarious encounter with God in trust… is it trembling there on the street
in a ragged beggar, sitting there in the dirt, looking up at us? Is it the
stranger who we meet, the colleague who is hurt, the neighbour diagnosed with
cancer? Is it the person we don’t get on with?
Is it the argument we have with God, when we see the pitiful pain and suffering
of others?
It’s maybe worth asking ourselves: if our faith and given lives are not
precarious, are we avoiding the stripping bare, the marginality, where God gets
real and draws us into what remains... trembling, flickering, tentative trust?
Trust in God’s own deep love and givenness to us (that givenness epitomised in
Jesus)... and the surrender to that love in covenant, against all the odds of
mortality and marginality.
Some people experience a dark night of the soul. That too is precarious. That
too is discipline. And in the face of that, of that stripping, that naked
confrontation with horror or darkness... still, we may recall the love of God,
and who God is... the urgency and decency of love, where in poverty of body or
spirit we encounter or are encountered.
Precarious existence is frankly an indivisible part of Christian calling. In
trust, albeit sometimes painfully, we grow.
In certainty, the danger is we create our own terms and conditions and
contexts... our safe and more comfortable parameters... and the risk is they can
get built around our systems, and empires. We try to build ‘us’ in part to avoid
marginality. That at least is a risk of doing, doing, doing, and insisting too
strongly on certainties.
For God, perhaps ‘us’ is out there, along the precarious margins, where the poor
stranger is in pitiful need, where love is a trembling plea and a helplessness.
‘Us’ is also what exists between God and oneself, along our own precarious
margins, our own poverty and rags, and that invitation to look into the dark,
and the cloud, and still find a trembling trust, a givenness to each other, a
sharing of love – our own so feeble, but God’s so faithful and given.
I can’t in any way imagine what many people go through in their lives. It
distresses me to imagine. But I do feel sure, that truth is not social standing
and importance, but more likely the stripping of pride and vanity. Truth tends
not to certainties but to trembling trust. Truth so often, as we see in
scripture, begins in the margins and in marginality. Truth invites and
challenges us to precarious relationship with God and service of those in
precarious need.
In the courage it takes, maybe God expands our awareness of the nature of love,
its exposure, its surrender, its givenness. I think trust is the key, not
certainty. But if we decide to follow the way of Jesus, that may well lead to
the most trembling paths along the margins, where almost all we have to hold on
is residual trust in God’s loveliness and God’s own devotion.
I struggle to put any of this in words. Mostly I’m trying to express a
recognition that there is something important and precious about ‘precarious’
faith and a ‘precarious’ Church. Being a disciple of Jesus involves being
disciplined, involves being led places we’d rather not go, involves stripping of
pride and exposure of rags.
Christian growth is not all about success or scale. Christian growth often
(always?) stems from weakness and precarious marginality. Sometimes we need to
grow into the marginality of others. Sometimes we need to accept obscurity. But
all along the way, I believe God waits for us, is patient with us, and longs to
draw us into two-way covenant and devotion... longs to share and exchange
love... longs for us to let go of vanities, and open our hearts to the flow of
compassionate love for others... the love God feels in person.
Living along the fringes of eternity, may we seek the paths that are built on
trust – even if they are narrow, fearful paths at times... precarious like those
who sadly lead precarious lives around us. May we somehow dare to trust. May
God, the grace of God, help expand who we can be and what we (in our poverty)
can give. May the love and power of God be released even (or especially) in our
weakness.
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THOUGHTS ON PRAYER
* Jan. 18th, 2021 at 12:06 PM
christianitysusannah
I'm interested in other people's experiences and thoughts about prayer, but I
don't know if many other people still visit here.
As I have journeyed with God, prayer has seemed more and more central to
everything else. I struggle for words to describe what goes on. At its heart I
see prayer as relationship with God. A relationship where I am given to God
(however fallibly) and God is given to us (which we know in Jesus Christ). So
the heart of prayer seems to me about givenness. And trust. I think over time,
we may come to trust, whatever the troubles in our lives, that God remains
faithful to us, given, and deeply caring.
In addition, I think the surrender that happens in giving yourself to God,
involves accepting one's own weakness, frailty, and dependence. None of us can
raise ourselves from the dead and we are all mortal. Before God, we come (and
give ourselves) in that weakness and dependence. Because, if you are like me,
you mess up many times, frankly we come before God in rags. But what matters is
we come to God ("Come unto Me") and open our hearts to the love of God, and open
ourselves to love God back. That's not always easy at all, because of hurt and
regrets and maybe guilt.
But I think, over time, trust can build between God and us. Over time, we may
come to experience the grace of God, and know times together where we find quiet
spirit to be still, to be quiet, to gaze, to trust, to love.
To me, that kind of givenness in love is at the heart of prayer (essentially and
primarily God's love for us, and givenness to us). But it doesn't end there.
What I find is that once there is trust and openness, we also open ourselves to
the flow of God's love, and the power of God's love, to pray for other people
and to live out that love and compassion towards other people.
In other words, God's givenness to us, is not simply for us. It is so we can
open up to everything it means to be given to God, open up to that flow of love
and God's Spirit... and so our prayer life can maybe infect all the rest of our
lives with more love and more grace (albeit we will always be frail, weak and
fallible).
So to me (and don't get me wrong, my prayer life is quite often poor) God longs
for us to come in prayer, both to share love with us, but also to open us to
intercession for others.
I'm interested in other aspects of prayer any of you feel you would like to
share.
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FAILURE AS A PATHWAY TO GROWTH
* Nov. 5th, 2020 at 11:40 AM
christianitysusannah
We live in culture that often emphasises success and excellence. But very few of
us are always successful, and many of us fall short of excellence most of the
time.
In fact, failure can be a valuable spiritual pathway, because at times of
failure, we are sometimes stripped bare of our proud pretences before God, and
recognise the eternal reality of our dependence and need for God.
At the end of all our assertions, and distractions about ourselves, we come
before God in need. We come before a God who loves us dearly, sees us, still
values us, and this God is faithful and devoted to us.
We see that devotion in Jesus Christ, who gave his life in love, and offering.
When we come before God in the rags of our own failures, God can help us to 'get
real'. To simplify our spirituality. To stop striving for perfection, and
instead, opening our hearts to God's love and tenderness.
At that point of repentance and opening to God, it begins: the flow of the love
of God can begin once more. The Holy Spirit, like a flowing stream of love, can
heal and renew not only ourselves, but those who we, in turn, dare to open up to
and serve.
How often, spiritual renewal begins at the point of repentance, and the
recognition of our weakness and our dependence on God.
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NOAH OR LOT WWW.PASTORLUPESANCHEZ.ORG
* Jul. 26th, 2020 at 2:26 PM
christianityLupe PastorSanchez
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COMMENTS
* cioa89
21 May 2022, 13:43
Opening out hearts to the Love of God
Amen! His Grace is all we need and that is a gift from God!
* themadentity
30 Oct 2021, 13:00
The Book of Ruth
What's his Name?
* kindmemory
16 Jun 2021, 04:25
Thoughts on prayer
Hi Susannah, thank you for your post.
(Edit, sorry this is so long)
Currently my prayer life is ramped up, and I hope it continues that way.
It's also full of difficulty.
You talk about the flow of…
* susannah
14 Dec 2020, 16:29
Failure as a pathway to growth
Thank you. I think your balance is absolutely right. We should strive for the
holiness of God in our lives, while recognising that perfection will not be
complete in our lifetimes. In ourselves, we…
* gtrnvox
14 Dec 2020, 15:46
Failure as a pathway to growth
I like the general idea here, as spiritual failure serves as a constant
reminder to repent and approach God in prayer and submission. It is perhaps
better to say don't dwell on your failures rather…
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