.........Thank You for Visiting With Us.......

Yesterday Road to Emmaus had its first public showing of David Watson's and R2E's work. We were at London Gospel Temple, David Watson's, and R2E's, home church. It was great to get to speak with so many people and share with others what David's art means to him and to us and what it could come to mean to the church in London and beyond.

To all you who visited with us at out exhibit, received our card and are now checking us out in the 'blogosphere' thanks for coming and supporting the call on David's life.

'We all are created for a purpose. God has a plan for every life.'

David's life and mission are calling out to us to help him prove that our simple statements about our simple faith are much more than mere words.

Get Thee Behind Me Satan?

I have often wondered about this famous line delivered by Jesus to Peter when he thoroughly misunderstood the role of suffering in the mystery of salivation.

Why would anyone, even the Son of God, want the devil at his back?

If Satan was behind me how could I keep my eyes on the rascal? Surely it would be better to keep 'slewfoot' in plain sight because you can never tell what that old liar will get up to. I always thought that if you can't see him you were sure to get blindsided.

Yesterday I got a little insight into this conundrum. I drove an excellent Christian whose name means 'the little lame one', but who has turned that appellation on its head and has decided that she is to be known as 'overcomer', to help a sick friend. The 'overcomer's' own physical disability is in no way stopping her from living a vibrant, loving,and joyful (how do those happy warriors do it?) Christian Life. She is committed to doing all she can to help people in need. When we arrived I heard a little about the terribly difficult situation the 'overcomer's' friend and husband are facing. The distress is causing them to pull apart and to be unsupportive and unloving to each other. The 'overcomer' (formerly known as 'Little Lame One) was going over to clean her friend's house which had fallen into a shambles and to do some laundry for this lady. It seemed to me that the couple was being torn apart in their suffering because they had allowed the devil of pain, sickness, poverty and despair to get in between them. While I thought about his situation I realized that the worse place for the devil to be is between us and God and between us and our loved ones, perhaps between us and our church. It is there that belezebub can accuse and separate and turn understanding and love into recrimination and hatred. It is far better when Satan is at our backs and those we love (including God) are before us, because the Devil's pressing and pushing will only serve to bring us closer to one another and to God. If the pressure of sickness and pain in these lives continues in the direction of forcing them apart, then the outcome will be a sad one. I hope and pray that this couple will get Satan behind them so his wicked pressure will cause this couple to come closer to each other and to God. And I pray that this family's church will get a little more real about helping this couple get through their trial because 'the little lame one' shouldn't have to do it all by herself.


If the ol'Devil is in your face try telling him this.

"Get Thee Behind Me Satan and push if you must. I am determined to hang on even if only by the skin of my teeth. You will accomplish nothing that you intend because I am confident in the fact that all things will work together for good, even your evil schemes, because 'The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked (one) for the day of evil." prov. 16:4

Optimist/Pessimist/Other

The optimist says the cup is half full.
The pessimist says the cup is half empty.
The child of God says, "My cup runneth over."
-Unknown

I am trying to become one of the 'others'.
My natural tendency is to see the glass half empty,
with rest of the glass being filled with sludge.

I once read something by that crumudgeonly, sharp tongued Malcolm Muggeridge that can shed some light on the appropriate level of giddiness that we should feel.
After Malcolm became a believer in Christ he thought that a Christian should be a supreme pessimist about the ability of the world and humanity to solve its problems on its own but that we had a perfect right to be an optimist in the big picture because God is involved and He will make all things work together for good......even the things that can make us feel so defeated and hurt in the here and now.

I am trying to become more of an 'other worldly optimist' while bringing my 'this worldly pessimism' under the control of my faith without neglecting my responsibility to do what little I can to to make the here and now a little better place.
Pray for me.....this job is hard.




(Tap on picture to enlarge.)














P.S. Join me in wishing my brother Bob a belated but very Happy Birthday.

Love's the only house big enough for all the pain in the world

I think Martina McBride has just about said it* as well as anyone ever has in her song 'Love's The Only House' and Salvador Dali has painted it* as well as it* can be expressed in this picture titled 'St. John of the Cross' .

*It being the answer to post #14's question
"What's it all about Alfie?"

Marriage Counseling from an Impossibleape (Caution rated PG 13)

tap on picture to enlarge





How to Treat Each Other


How to treat your wife.

Wine her. Dine her. Call her. Hold her. Surprise her. Compliment her. Smile at her. Listen to her. Cry with her. Romance her. Encourage her. Believe in her. Pray with her. Pray for her. Cuddle her. Shop with her. Give her jewelry. Buy her flowers. Hold her hand. Write love letters to her. Go to the ends of the earth and back again for her.


How to treat your husband.

Show up naked. Bring chicken wings. Don't block the T.V.

That just about covers it.

In Sept. the beauty and the ape will have had 25 years of loving and living together as ape and wife . If your psychiatrist and or marriage counselor can't say the same perhaps you are getting your advice from the wrong sources.

Now go take on the rest of your day!

And Now For Something Completely Different

Toady I need to take a diversion around the hard things of life and faith in this post. Forgive me if anything in this offering offends delicate sensibilities but since a merry heart (and a good joke) worketh good like a medicine I'll chance it.
(I don't know about you but I need a little medication everyday.)


If you read my post about Mahatma Gandhi you may have thought I treated him with kid gloves while I have taken some hard cracks at North American Christianity. Well to prove that I am an equal opportunity 'cracker'. Let's discuss Gandhi's eccentricities.

Did you know that Gandhi was convinced that works were the way to heaven. I hope and trust that this misunderstanding was remedied to both party's satisfaction when Gandhi finally met the One he so much admired in life.
Gandhi was an ascetic. He denied himself almost everything except what was minimally needed to keep himself alive. He even gave up marital relations with his wife and to prove and improve his will power he would sleep with beautiful, naked, young women. As far as I know he did not succumb to the lust of the flesh in these tests but I do think his level of self denial and his ways of proving it were a little extreme.

Gandhi fasted often. When he did eat it was very little and would consist mostly of herbs and curry. He also had the habit of walking for miles in barefeet or sometimes rough sandals. This simple ascetic life caused him to have some gastric and foot problems.
In fact Mary Poppins was once heard to exclaim, 'that Gandhi fellow certainly is............ a super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis'.


BROTHERLY LOVE
Here is a Sunday school lesson that Gandhi would endorse and if we could have lived this lesson a lttle more fully he might have been a Christian saint. Gandhi is reported to have said he would have been a Chrisitian if it were not for the lives and attitudes of Christians that he encountered.

A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her 5 and 6 year olds. After explaining the commandment to "honor thy father and thy mother," she asked "Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?" Without missing a beat one little boy answered, "Thou shall not kill."

Why do absolutely awful things happen to beautiful people?

I DON'T KNOW.


Do You?
`

Job and his False Comforters1452-60IlluminationMueum Condé, Chantilly FOUQUET, Jean

What I do know is that the church must be there for those who suffer. Helping people build something worthwhile out of the ashes of their sorrows is indeed a high calling .

But as we stand in the presence of the mystery of suffering we can't allow ourselves to fall into the temptation to play the role of Job's Comforters because there truly are times when suffering has no earthly reason.

In those times God may be wagering the fate of the world on our faith as it is tested in the crucible of our suffering (remember Job). Perhaps He is depending on us to do what He can not do for Himself, namely be faithful when all seems lost and hopeless. If God is calling individuals to bear this responsibility, the church will be doing a great work if we uphold these people in the trials they are assigned. If we turn our backs on them in unjustified and self righteous condemnation or in a weakness of heart and stomach, it is we who deserve the rebuke.

To see the world's suffering is not easy or pleasant. To not see it is ignorance, and to see it, and do nothing about it..............THAT IS A SIN.

Dear little Swallow,' said the Prince, `you tell me marvelous things, but more marvelous than anything is the suffering of men and of women. There is no Mystery so great as Misery.'

The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde

Indeed there is no Mystery so great as Misery because for some unknown reason suffering is at the heart of meaning. Isn't that at least partly why we worship a humiliated, naked, beaten and bleeding man hung upon a cross.

Jesus' life and death is all that can give meaning to the world as we encounter it with our eyes and hearts wide open. That is why I am a Christian, an uneasy one but nonetheless a follower of Christ.

A Beautiful Person Leaves Us All An Excellent Example of Love and Courage

Dana Reeve, an actress who became an advocate for the disabled after her husband Christopher Reeve became paralyzed, died on Monday night of lung cancer at the age of 44, said Kathy Lewis, the president and chief executive officer of the Christopher Reeve Foundation.


Dana Reeve, who fought for better treatments and possible cures for paralysis through the Christopher Reeve Foundation, has died of lung cancer.
Ms. Reeve, who did not smoke, announced last August that she had lung cancer. She lived in Pound Ridge, N.Y.
An actress and singer who had appeared in shows like "Law and Order" and "All My Children," Ms. Reeve took on an increasingly prominent role after her husband's paralysis in a horse riding accident in 1996. Together, they created the Christopher Reeve Foundation, which drew on his fame as the actor in the "Superman" movies and the inspiration many drew from his struggle to raise and distribute over $55 million in research grants, much of it aimed at speeding the development of stem-cell treatments.
Ms. Reeve became the foundation's chairwoman after her husband's death in 2004. She was responsible for developing the foundation's Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Resource Center, and for a program that has distributed more than $8 million for projects that improve the daily lives of people with paralysis, Ms. Lewis said in a statement.
When Ms. Reeve announced her cancer, she said that "now, more than ever, I feel Chris with me as I face this challenge. I look to him as the ultimate example of defying the odds with strength, courage and hope in the face of life's adversities."
She is survived by a 13-year-old son, Will, two step-children, Matthew and Alexandra, her father, Dr. Charles Morosini and two sisters, Deborah Morosini and Adrienne Morosini Heilman.

David Watson (beautiful people cont'd)

DAVID WATSON

pay him a visit at

Dave's Designs








David is confined to a wheelchair.

He has such severe Cerebral Palsy that he cannot swallow food or drink.

He is lifted into bed at night and out of bed in the morning by a hoist.

His days are long hours alone thinking and wondering and hoping for someone to ask 'How are you in there?

His speech is so affected by his condition that it is almost impossible to make out what he is saying but if you try, and are very patient, you can hear the voice of one who loves God and is inspired to help those who are less fortunate.

He uses his long lonely hours to painstakingly create beautiful graphic designs in his computer.

He wants to use these to give handicapped people dignity and a place at the heart of the church and of the human family.

Take a look at his blog (davesdesigns.blogspot.com) once in a while to see new and inspiring sights and then ask your self; 'Self, am I serving God by serving and loving the less fortunate?'

If not ............................ Take a moment to consider some of the truly beautiful people this blog has introduced you to and ask God to help you live a more authentically beautiful life.

How should we live differently? (beautiful people continued)

Dietrich Bonhoffer was born Breslau, Germany, on 4th February, 1906. He studied theology in Tubingen and in New York.
Bonhoffer returned to Germany and began lecturing on theology in Berlin and wrote several books including Sanctorum Communio (1927) and Act and Being (1931). As he was a strong opponent of fascism he decided to leave Germany when Adolf Hitler gained power in 1933 and found work as a pastor in London.
When he heard that Martin Niemöller and Karl Barth had formed the anti-Nazi Confessional Church Bonhoffer decided to return and join the struggle.
On the outbreak of the Second World War the Gestapo closed down Bonhoffer's seminary and banned him from preaching. Over the next few years worked closely with other opponents of Adolf Hitler including Ludwig Beck, Josef Muller and Hans Oster.
In April 1943 Bonhoffer was arrested with his brother, Klaus Bonhoffer, and brother-in-law, Hans Dohnanyi and accused of plotting against Adolf Hitler. He was held in Buchenwald Concentration Camp until being moved to Flossenburg where he was executed in April, 1945. Ethics (1949) and Letters from Prison (1953) were published posthumously.

What is Faith?

What does it mean to have faith, to follow God today? Bonhoeffer would probably answer that question as he did near the end of his life, in writing to his close friend Eberhard Bethge: “It is only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith. By this worldliness, I mean living unreservedly in life’s duties, problems, successes and failures. In so doing, we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously not our own sufferings, but those of God and the world. That, I think is faith.”

(He died for living his faith in a difficult world.)

TuTu True!

Bishop Desmond Tutu crystallizes the power of Bonhoeffer's inheritance in the film, challenging us to look on him as a model, not an idol. Countering the notion that some, like Bonhoeffer, are destined for greatness while the rest of us can sit back and watch history go by, Tutu observes that we are all called by God to participate in creating a just world. Giving your life to freedom fighting, to God, is not easy, he says. "There is no shaft of light that comes from heaven and says to you, ‘Okay, you are right.’ No, you have to hold on to [the call] by the skin of your teeth and hope that there is going to be vindication on the other side.”

(Amen.)


The Challenge of Bonhoeffer A documentary details the life and times of the theologian, ethicist and German double agent.
By Macky Alston Feb. 3, 2006 Beliefnet

follow this link to read full story of a modern hero and martyr
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/128/story_12849_1.html

An important contribution from a Valued Reader

Dave C. made this important comment in response to the Word of Faith a Modern Heresy post of Feb. 22, 2006.


Hi Len
I have a couple of comments.First, I sometimes think that we modern-day Christians claim Biblical promises that were intended for the hearer, not necessarily ALL Christians.Second, I suspect that Christians aren't as self-congratulatory as you fear they are. It seems to me that most Christians beat up on themselves more than anything. We are not like the folks in the Alpha posters. That's one of MY pet peeves. We Christians present a false face to the World. We would call it deception if another religion did the same.



Hi Dave C.
Thanks for your input.
Firstly, the term Word of Faith is specific to a school of teaching that is sometimes found in Pentecostal circles. Your understanding that it doesn't apply to most people of faith (Pentecostal or otherwise) is exactly right. But it does often apply to those who are most brazen in trying to get everyone to conform to their opinions. Word of Faith is a good fit with outgoing, assertive and dominant personalities. If you ever met a Choleric and Sanguine Christian you would be most likely to hear a Word of Faith sermon shortly after you hear the words, 'Glad to meet you.'

You are so right that an incorrect interpretation leading to inadequate, even dangerous teachings are at the heart of the issue I am trying to address.
Not every Biblical reference is for every one's personal circumstance. To teach that Ps. 91 is a guarantee that 'none of these unpleasant things will come nigh thy dwelling', only serves to rub salt in the wounds of those whose loved ones do fall at our right hand and our left. If a disease or a condition comes into one's life or into a loved one's life we are left to think it was punishment for not believing strongly enough in the magic powers of the 91st Psalm.
And just as bad, the ones lucky (?) enough to be healthy, comfortable, and untouched (yet) by tragedy may be deluded into believing it is their superior life and faith that has caused a hedge of protection and blessing to surround their lives. If that is their conclusion they will have little understanding of those whose lives are not similarly charmed.
My concern is with Word of Faith preachers. Most of the people who promote Word Faith are well meaning individuals who want to believe that every human ill, disfigurement and heartache is resolved in a miracle. I don't want to offend the well meaning followers. My contention is with the leaders of these movements. They have much to answer for.
Many of them live lavishly upon the offerings they extort by word of faith teachings while their followers are left with a few exciting services and some momentary hope that if they believe hard enough, long enough and correctly enough they will get to the riches, health and power that the leaders entice them with.

So I don't want anyone to think that Christianity is synonymous with Word of Faith. It is not. That is why I labeled Word of Faith teaching a Heresy.

Thanks again Dave C. for your excellent contribution to this blog.

Blessings from
The Impossibleape.