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.

Some more of the 'beautiful people'!

You know the old saying,'you can't judge a book by it's cover', I think its true.
............................ We all should be so beautiful.........................

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.
Mother Teresa

I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much.
Mother Teresa

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.
Mother Teresa

Let us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace. Money will come if we seek first the Kingdom of God - the rest will be given.
Mother Teresa

It is a kingly act to assist the fallen.
Mother Teresa

I am not sure exactly what heaven will be like, but I don't know that when we die and it comes time for God to judge us, he will NOT ask, How many good things have you done in your life?, rather he will ask, How much LOVE did you put into what you did?
Mother Teresa

I try to give to the poor people for love what the rich could get for money. No, I wouldn't touch a leper for a thousand pounds; yet I willingly cure him for the love of God.
Mother Teresa

One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.
Mother Teresa

It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.
Mother Teresa

Our life of poverty is as necessary as the work itself. Only in heaven will we see how much we owe to the poor for helping us to love God better because of them.
Mother Teresa

We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.
Mother Teresa

Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. A joyful heart is the inevitable result of a heart burning with love.
Mother Teresa

There should be less talk; a preaching point is not a meeting point. What do you do then? Take a broom and clean someone's house. That says enough.
Mother Teresa

Gandhi /How then shall we live? WWJD?

"Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gain anything by it? Will it restore him [her] to a control over his [her] own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to freedom for the hungry and spiritually starving millions?Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away. " Mahatma Gandhi 1948

Translation:
WWJD?
What would Jesus do?




In the 20th Century few people lived the gospel as well as a weak and foolish little Hindu man who came to be known as Mahatma, the Great Soul. Gandhi was deeply impressed by the life and teachings of Jesus and would have become a Christian if it were not for all those he met who proclaimed themselves to be Christ's followers.
Mahatma Gandhi lived a simple life of poverty and prayer. He espoused the essential dignity of every human person and lived to serve his fellow man. By his example and his teachings he was victorious by using moral suasion and non-violent protest.
In an ironic twist of history Gandhi won by livin and appealing to the very tenets of Christ's teaching that were supposed to be at the foundation of the greatest Imperial power of all time, the British Empire. He won the moral victory by convincing his followers to turn the other cheek, over and over again but never giving in to injustice and oppression. His life and self sacrifice shamed the 'Christian' nation of England who then gave the Hindu's and Muslims of the subcontinent their independence.


There are a few excellent examples of Christian leaders in our culture and time that can take their place beside this Great Soul, but I do wish there were more.
Perhaps we could find more examples of great souls among those who do not get recognized as leaders but who are faithful in living loving lives in very difficult situations.
Christ is probably more evident and active among those we call little or insignificant. Perhaps that is why some self-appointed, self-annointed leaders in the Christian world may seem lacking in comparison to people like Mahatma Gandhi.

In Honour of My First Real Response

Today is a Red Letter Day for this Red Letter Christian.

I have just recieved my first real (non-direct family member) comment in response to this blog.

What a feeling, what a day!

Thank You Mr or Mrs. or Ms. or Miss Anon.

In honour of this auspicious occasion I am celebrating by sharing the Next Installment
of everyone's favourite........................................


PIG and RAT!

so hang to your hats here they come..........................



(Tap on image to enlarge picture.)

Word Of Faith (a Modern Heresy) Anti-Selection and the Disabled

original artwork by David Watson (talent on loan from God). Commentary by The IMPOSSIBLEAPE (mouth engaged, brain in neutral)

There is an anti-selection process established in many ‘faith (word) churches’ that is as red in tooth and claw as any Darwinian mechanism ever imagined. The process I am speaking about, weeds out the weak, challenged and sick through disregard and sometimes even humiliation. When the 'halt and the lame' come to such a church and are prayed for, the word of faith congregation is exhorted to believe for a miracle. They have been taught that God honours faith and obedience and that the physical manifestation is an outward sign of inward worthiness. God blesses those who are righteous and faithful. This congregation knows if the suffering individual is right with God and the prayer of Faith is offered up with requisite inner assurance then the healing is guaranteed by God’s powerful, unchangeable word.

But if, God Forbid, that miracle doesn’t come, what then? Who is to blame for the failure of the word to be manifest?

Sometimes the strategy will be one of ‘circle the wagons boys, we might have a fight on our hands. Let's pray harder, believe more and bind the strong man of unbelief who must be hindering God from healing.'
The word church can’t think for a moment that its theology might be wrong. ‘Doubt is the greatest sin of all. What could be clearer, God is love, God is All Powerful therefore HE WILL HEAL ALL who ask. How could His will be anything other than our health, happiness and prosperity?'
Of course the suffering individual must have the faith to receive and keep the healing. The faithful are encouraged to believe that the healing is merely delayed. If after a long period of trusting the miracle has not been delivered, a sense of frustration and internal dissonance can grow.
'Could this be God’s responsibility? Surely He would never have a purpose for an imperfect life. God would never call someone to a ministry of redemptive suffering. Such an idea is almost blasphemous in a word of faith church. 'Jesus did it all on the cross, so name it and claim it and you can be just as healthy, happy and wealthy as we are.'

The afflicted's faith must be weak or perhaps he has unnamed sin in his life or perhaps a family curse has been delivered upon the head of this individual. 'If only the prayer of Faith could be met by the receptive will of faith on the part of the suffering individual, surely they would be delivered.'
Quietly, blame begins to be assigned. If the sick person continues in his ‘rebellious, unhealed state’ the faithful will declare that healing came but it hasn’t been claimed in faith or worse still, the healing was given up because the weak brother loved his sickness more than he loved Jesus 'If only they had been obedient. If only they had been strong and faithful enough. If only they had wanted the healing badly enough, it surely would have been their right to possess it.'

Some well meaning people may begin to exhort the victim to greater faith. 'Surely our hero Benny Hinn can do the deed?' So they pilgrim to some cavernous coliseum.
‘Get out of that chair.’ Screams the miracle worker. Sometimes adrenaline gets the victim out of the chair and everyone is ecstatic as he dances for the gathering’s edification and entertainment. Joyfully the ‘healed’ and the exhorters make their way back home. Next day the condition is no better. Then a new stage begins. If the victim will persist in believing the word doctrines, he may be tolerated, if he is lucky, he will be pitied but eventually one of the parties to this sick relationship will break. The victim may drift away, attending less and less. He may becomes disillusioned and either leave voluntarily or the faithful will tire of the obvious lack of character shown by the victim and begin to ignore the unfaithful person’s presence. The stone cold committee awkwardly, guiltily, unofficially and often sheepishly shuns the unbeliever. They manage to convey a sense that, ‘If the victim can’t become one of us why would he want to stay here and upset our work?’
The victim leaves. The anti-selection process has worked its magic and the herd is able to continue its good work of bringing God’s Power to the world. They can rest assured that their health and comfort is a testimony to their worthiness, their faith and their righteous character. They have excised a danger to the body and all is well until the next victim arrives to create doubts about the validity of the theology.

My mission is to challenge and change that theology. To free the disabled to see themselves as worthy of God’s love as you or I, perhaps more so. I want to tell them that they have a mission and a purpose ordained by God.
If healing comes, and we continue to pray that it does, the healed must never forget that their blessing is no justification for pride and self-congratulations.

When Jesus comes to judge the quick and the dead He will ask how did you treat Him while He was in the body. If you do not recognize Him in the suffering ones around you, then how can you say you love Him whom you do not see?

Please, for all our sakes, recognize the body and respond to it in love, not anti-selection.

And that's about all I have to say about that...........................................

Now you know why, in some circles, I am known as the IMPOSSIBLEAPE....aka Leonard W. Hindle

Good Night and God Bless Us Everyone

LH

The Azusa Street Revival

This Far by Faith PBS Series
(picture of early leaders of the Azusa Street Revivals)

http://www.pbs.org/thisfarbyfaith/journey_3/p_9.html
1866-1945: From Emancipation to Jim Crow
A Glimpse of the Kingdom of Heaven: The Azusa Street Revival

“Azusa Mission stands for the unity of God's people everywhere. God is uniting His people, baptizing them by one Spirit in one body.” —Apostolic Faith, the newspaper of the Azusa Mission
By 1900, southern churches were completely separated by race; Christianity had divided along the color line. But in Los Angeles, white bishops and black workers, men and women, Asians and Mexicans, white professors and black laundry women gathered at a former AME church building on Azusa Street in downtown Los Angeles. This interracial congregation worshipped under the leadership of a black pastor, William J. Seymour.
For over three years, what historians call the Azusa Street Revival conducted three services a day, seven days a week. Word of the revival was spread abroad through The Apostolic Faith, a paper that Seymour sent for free to some 50,000 subscribers. So many missionaries spread the word from Azusa that within two years the movement had spread to over fifty nations.
Apart from its interracial congregation, Azusa's most striking characteristic was the practice of speaking in tongues, which was seen as a sign that an individual was baptized by the Holy Spirit. Previously, few Pentecostals had spoken in tongues, and the languages they used were foreign but known. Seymour and his followers spoke in unknown tongues, understood only by God, a practice widely adopted by Christians who believed it was a sign that God was breaking down barriers to spread the Gospel around the world.
When Charles Fox Parham, a white Pentecostal pioneer and teacher of Seymour's (he had allowed Seymour to attend his Bible School on the condition that he sit outside a door left partially ajar), visited Azusa Street in October of 1906, he denounced the Revival as a "darky camp meeting." "What good can come from a self-appointed Negro prophet?" scoffed the mainstream newspapers.
Azusa Street dissolved amidst the racial politics of unrequited love. In May 1908, Seymour married Jennie Evans Moore. Clara Lum, Mission Secretary and administrative helper for the newspaper, disapproved of their marriage so much that she left for Portland, taking with her the paper's mailing lists containing the names of 50,000 subscribers. Without them, Seymour couldn't continue publishing.
Meanwhile, splits within Azusa Street developed along theological and racial lines. All of the white Pentacostal leaders separated themselves from Seymour and Azusa. Ms. Lum took his newspaper; his former teacher, Charles Parham, discredited his fellowship; and finally William Durham, a white parishoner, led a faction out of the church. That faction eventually became the Assemblies of God, the largest Pentecostal denomination in the world. The remaining black worshippers eventually became the Church of God in Christ, the largest black denomination in America.

Seymour came to believe that blacks and whites worshipping together was a surer sign of God's blessing and the Spirit's healing presence than speaking in tongues. The fact that the church had nationally split along racial lines meant that the charismatic ideal of cooperation with the Spirit had been foiled by the forces of racism.

Once the whites defected, the Azusa Street Mission became almost entirely black. Still, its message echoes through history. It made a distinctive contribution to the historical evolution of religion in America by involving blacks, women, and the poor at all levels of ministry, and it was the birthplace of two major Pentecostal denominations.

It's Not About Charity It's About Justice

http://www.wrcanada.org/page.asp?id=4755f8d41e

bono and george
curious, mysterious, hilarious and marvelous






It's Not About Charity It's About Justice

And What does God require,
but to do justice, and to love kindness
and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8 (English Standard Version)

http://www.makepovertyhistory.ca/e/home.php

The Next Thing

I want to tell you something that may seem so outlandish that it is either from God or it is just my foolishness. Perhaps you can help me decide which it is.

The disabled may be God's chosen means to bring grace to our community. In the past great revivals showed the value of people who had been marginalized, exploited and degraded and those revivals helped put an end to those blasphemies. Since Jesus came in the flesh and we are made in the image of God, it behoves us who say we believe in the gospel, to honour and include every person within our community and to stand up when we see any person or class of persons being pronounced as less than human. That is why we should stand against abortion, and euthanasia and racism and discrimination of every sort.

The incarnation told the people of the Great Awakening that they were made in God's image and they were to bow to no one but God. 'We have no king butJesus’. Faith and The War of Independence brought modern democracy to the world. (please see Steven Waldham's article Jefferson, Madison & Their Evangelical Pals. How Religious Freedom Resulted From an Unlikely Alliance: Evangelicals and Skeptics at http://www.beliefnet.com/story/186/story_18668_1.html for more insights into the relationship between revivals and the progress of political and religious freedom.)

In Europe the French Revolution was sweeping the continent because of the exploitation of the poor by Royalty and by a bloated Church. The people were turning away from God and government. England was about to be the next country to experience the bloodbath. In many ways it deserved to experience a bloody judgement. Poor children had been put into the mines, and exploited in dangerous polluted factories. Blacks were held in slavery. The slave trade was a great source of wealth to the English Empire. Poor debtors were thrown into prison.. Thankfully, mercifully a righteous outrage swept these abominations out of England on the tide of the great Wesleyan revivals. The children were taken from the mines and sent to schools. Slavery was abolished. Poor houses closed and the poor laws rewritten. England was saved and was never the same afterwards. For more information on the role of revival in the politcal, social and economic refprmation inEngland see J.W. Bready's, Wesley and Deomocracy.)

In the meantime, newfound freedom in America was only for some. The Great awakenings of
Pre-Independence America did not fully rouse the Christian heart of the nation. Slavery continued for many years after England had been brought to it senses. But eventually new religious revivals did bring a renewed sense that it was an abomination to own and mistreat fellow human beings who were made in the likeness of God. 'If God died to make men holy, we can die to make men free’ (Battle Hymn of the Republic)

Revivals that mean something actually change things. They don't just sweep in and empty the jails and pubs and fill the churches for 2 or 3 years only to see the trend completely reversed for the next 100. If God visits, the nation can never be the same again.

Despite the Emancipation Proclamation of Abraham Lincoln, blacks continued to be persecuted and discriminated against in horrendous ways. Even in churches of the last half of the 19th century blacks and white seldom worshipped together and when they did blacks were forced to sit in the balconies away from good Christian white folks. The church does not have a stellar testimony in history but it does get better and revivals are one way God leads the church into a fuller understanding and practice of the gospel.

The next revivals, the ones that gave rise to my church, were the Pentecostal revivals of Topeka Kansas and Azusa Street Los Angeles. Most of us 'holy rollers' make a great deal about the religious enthusiasms and miss the main point of the exercise. In the ecstatic worship of these revivals blacks were welcomed down from the balconies and the races forgot their differences and learned how to worship God and love one another without thought to colour. At least for the few years that the revival continued. Today you will find that Charismatic Churches usually have a good representation from all ehinic and racial backgrounds. This has been an immensely important step forward in the church's witness to the dignity of all mankind.
In this anniversary year of Azusa we would do well to see what really was accomplished there and to reflect on what God may want to accomplish now.


Perhaps it is the time for the people (made in God's image) whom we have no time for, no interest in, no comfort in being around to be included in the story of God's incarnation. Can we find the truth of the Gospel within the disabled and their lives or are they outside God's kingdom. Are they to be forever forgotten, rejected and of no concern or consequence?
We evangelicals need to show the world that faith is not just having a bible study to prepare us for the next bible conference to prepare for the next revival meeting to prepare us to hunker down in our siege mentality of us against the wicked, wicked world. Love needs to be out there and active. If the faith doesn't get us out there and active, it is a failed faith.

If revival is to come it will be through all of us knowing that His grace is sufficient. We don't need another Benny Hinn superstar. We need Jesus in the flesh and a church recognizing and responding to Him in a real and loving way.

The disabled are the very representation of Jesus as spoken of in Matthew 25. Perhaps we should read that chapter and decide how we are going to live it because Judgment day will be an ‘equal opportunity’ revelator. (If you know what I mean.)

LH

we always hope for better but we usually get what we deserve

Thanks to my sister-in-law Micki for the trenchant political commentary.

The voters said no moe' of the 'same old same old' and now look what we got.


Moe' MOE'!

Some Interesting Thoughts on Community

http://searchingforfaith.blogs.com/my_weblog/

Enduring the Church (Flannery O'Connor) The Church is the only thing that can make the terrible world we are coming to endurable; the only thing that makes the Church endurable is that it is somehow the body of Christ and on this we are fed. It seems to be a fact that you have to suffer as much from the Church as for it, but if you believe in the divinity of Christ, you have to cherish the Church while at the same time you struggle to endure it. (Flannery O'Connor)

“But in another way, community is a terrible place. It is the place where our limitations and our egoism are revealed to us. When we begin to live full-time with others, we discover our poverty and our weakness, our inability to get on with people, our mental and emotional blocks . . . our seemingly insatiable desires, our frustrations and jealousies, our hatred and our wish to destroy.” Jean Vanier quotes

The Gospel in Three Part Harmony

....... Ask........................Give ...............................Live in Love and in

.....Forgiveness .......... Forgiveness .....................Forgiveness (even in pain)

What's it all about Alfie?

The God Mission and the Church Mission

Are they the same thing?

They don't always line up but when they do it can be a wonderful thing.




The God Mission and the Church Mission Are they the same thing? More about this later.

A Tribute to the people serving the special needs population in Jesus name.

L'ARCHE communities

Everyday people

doing extraordinary things
to help extraordinary people
do everyday things.




God Bless them all.



"When you do it unto the least of these my brothers you do it unto me".

An Ambassador of the Kingdom of Heaven to Canada and the World

Jean Vanier
visits London Feb 3-5, 2006
including
Leaders' Breakfast
Public Talk
Youth Event
MESSENGERS OF HOPE


When: Saturday, Feb 4, 2006 - 7 p.m.(doors open at 6 p.m.)
Where: London Convention Centre see mapCost: $16 per person
Tickets available at Centennial Hall550 Wellington Street, LondonTel (519)672-1967 or 672-1968
and online at:http://www.centennialhall.london.ca/



Jean Vanier was voted by the Canadian population as the 12th Greatest Canadian of all time. Four politicians and Don Cherry ranked higher than he in their estimation. In fact Stomping Tom Connor was breathing down his neck in the 13th spot.

It says something about the voting public of this Confederation, don't you think?

Please take some time to find out more about my favourite Jean. Get any of his books (my favourite is Becoming Human) or listen to him on Vision T.V. and I think you will come to realize what an amazing treasure and gift Canada and God has presented to the world.

CHRIST IN OUR MIDST

MATTHEW 25

41Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
42For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
43I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
44Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
45Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
46And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.





CHRIST WITH US
The mystery is why do so few of His disciples recognized Him even today?

Thinking Differently About Communion

1 Corinthians 11 (King James Version)

23For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
24And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
25After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
26For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.
27Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
28But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
29For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

When we start to recognize the presence of Jesus in the least of these His brethren, perhaps we will experience communion in a new, more imminent way.

Let us begin to truly fellowship around the the mystery of Immanuel, God with us.

Open Your Eyes and See

Luke 24

13Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16but they were kept from recognizing him. 17He asked them, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?" They stood still, their faces downcast. 18One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, "Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?" 19"What things?" he asked. "About Jesus of Nazareth," they replied. "He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 22In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see." 25He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" 27And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. 28As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. 29But they urged him strongly, "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over." So he went in to stay with them. 30When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" 33They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34and saying, "It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon." 35Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

Road to Emmaus

Do you remember my 'What's Your Problem' post?
In it I introduced you to my friend David Watson.
Here is a picture of David with the first piece of his art that our group, Road to Emmaus (R2E), has turned into a banner.
We have finished some other pieces and someday we hope to take these banners, shields and flags into churches all over London and beyond.



If God allows this, we will use that opportunity to declare the essential dignity and value of every human being.
David is an excellent advocate for the disabled. In many places (churches included) these people are treated like the 'new lepers'. If we are to follow Jesus we must walk with the 'lepers', accept and love them and seek to help them to become all they were meant to be, namely people made in the true image of God.

If anyone can not recognize that image, then they can not see God.

What do you see when you encounter the disabled among us?
Do you see Jesus Christ the Lord or the offscouring of the world?

What you see will determine what you will become.


1 John 3:2
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.



This is essentially the Road to Emmaus.


If you would like to break bread with us, come to London Gospel Temple every 2nd and 4th Monday at 7 pm to learn more about this and to contribute to building the Road to Emmaus.

HEY!!!!!!!! ITS PIG N' RAT TIME AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(double click the image to see a more readable frame.)


In case you can't read the black board in the final panel, it says............
WELCOME TO
Guys who routinely mass E-mail all their friends and family with anything even remotely interesting that they happen to find on the internet even though their friends and family don't care and wish they'd stop but don't have the heart to tell them that-Anonymous


All I have to say is
ouch that smarts
guilty as charged

my bad


Sorry about that chief.

News FLASH!!!!!!!!!!!(revised Jan. 25, 2007)

This just in(better late than never)..................The universe is old.


According to to some 'uniformed sources' the universe and everything in it is less than 10,000 years old.

Yet overwhelmingly the evidence points to a Big Bang explosion some 15 Billion years ago (give or take a fractional billion) as the true 'In the beginning' of Genesis 1.

When the good book of nature and the Good Book of Faith disagree then we must conclude that one or both books have been misinterpreted.

To believe Genesis does not require dismissing good Science (I can not in good conscience, define Young Earth Creation Science as good science or proper theology).
And good science does not necessarily negate Genesis (despite what atheistic evangelists such as Richard Dawkins would lead you to believe.)

NEWS FLASH!!!!!!!!!!
This just in(better late than never)..................The Universe is Pro-Life!

The Universe is 15 Billion years ago (give or take a fractional billion) and this old world (and I do mean old) is 4.5 Billion years old (give or take a fractional billion) .

Things have been exciting but tough from the beginning. Just like the dispatches sent back from the Russian Front in the Second World War.
"The situation appears
TOUGH........................
But....................................
hopeless!........................................"

No doubt life has always seemed to be tough but hopeless (except perhaps during that interesting experiment in Eden of course).

In one sense it looks like death has always reigned supreme but if we step back a pace or two we may get a different perspective.
The Universe is actually amazingly 'Pro-Life'. If many thousands of small calibrations were not fine tuned to create conditions to allow any life at all (let alone the explosion of the most amazing variety, fertility and fecundity that we see all around us) then we wouldn't be here to see an endless expanse of lifeless dust, rocks and empty space. But, since we are here to enjoy this blue jewel of a planet we can infer that something or someone wants us and slugs, and platypii, and eels and...............etc. etc. to be here.

Think for a moment about the smallest pinch of earth. If you looked at a smidgen of soil through a microscope you would see an entire other world teeming with life.
But look at a million hectacres of Mars or the Moon and you won't find the tiniest evidence of life in any form.

Why is this planet crawling with life and the vast stretches of the unimaginably big universe devoid of it? Perhaps this beautiful blue ball hung upon nothing is not as insignificant as some want us to believe. Perhaps you are not as insignificant as some would have you believe.

The agency or agent that lit the fuse of the Big Bang was obviously Pro-Life, perhaps we should be too.


Loving and serving the 'least of these my brethren' is how we live pro-life lives.

I invite everyone, 'pro-life' or 'pro-choice', to join together to love the born among us and I will join with the pro-life to respectfully try to convince the unconvinced to value and love the unborn as well.

But remember that you heard it here first,

The Universe is Pro-Life, (ergo the agent or agency behind the creation of the universe is Pro-Life.)

perhaps we should be too.


Regards
The Impossibleape


If anyone is interested in discovering how a full blooded evangelical Christian faith can not only co-exist with but be reinforced by Science and vice versa, then check out this web site
http://www.reasons.org/

Heaven's to Murgatroid! It's a gas (a gas cloud, even. )

Exit stage right.............




LH

A saviour to Haiti's disabled

Sister Joan Margaret, a saviour to Haiti's disabled
By Gloria Negri, Globe Staff January 4, 2006
In 1954 when Hurricane Hazel hit Haiti with a fury, an infant named Gertie Gay was floating on a table down a flooded street. Sister Joan Margaret spied the baby and jumped out of her jeep, hiked up her nun's habit and waded through the turbulent waters to pluck her from the table. When the Anglican nun learned the girl's parents had been lost in the storm, Sister Joan became her surrogate mother.
About the same time in Haiti today, a man known as ''JoJo" was a boy without arms or legs when Sister Joan arranged for him to come to the states and be fitted with artificial limbs. Today he is an artist and sells his paintings to tourists.
''Sister Joan's dream was that handicapped people can lead a normal life and she made it happen for them," said Sister Marjorie Raphael, a retired member of the order, from Haiti yesterday. ''In Haiti, she is a tremendous figure and a great hero, and her life will be celebrated here as such."
Sister Joan died Dec. 16 at Sherrill House in Brookline of pulmonary hypertension. She was 99.

For 49 years, Sister Joan, who grew up Elizabeth Simpson Burke in Newburyport, was a savior of Haiti's disabled children. Sixty years ago, she founded St. Vincent's School for Handicapped Children in Port-au-Prince, then the country's only hope for the handicapped.
''Sister Joan arrived in Haiti in 1944 and soon realized there was no help for handicapped people of any sort in Haiti," Sister Marjorie said. ''She started out caring for and teaching three children in a crèche under a tree, one deaf, the other blind, and the third handicapped."
From there, Sister Joan, who was trained as a physical therapist, moved her clinic behind Holy Trinity Cathedral in Port-au-Prince. Eventually, the Anglican bishop gave her quarters nearby, the current site of the school.
Sister Joan also spent a lot of time fund-raising for the school, which gave free care and education to needy disabled children.
Sister Joan counselled all: ''Be all you can be, and don't feel sorry for yourself."
''Indomitable" is the word most used to describe Sister Joan.
''She was short and square and walked very quickly," Sister Marjorie said. ''At the convent, she would get up at 4 in the morning for her private prayer time until 6. Then, she would be off to the school and work there and at the clinics until night. She would drive to clinics all over the country to find people she felt could be helped at St. Vincent's."
Sister Joan's work won her international recognition, said Sister Adele Marie.
Sister Joan was born in Merrimac, Mass. When her mother died shortly after birth, she was adopted by Robert and Mabel (Simpson) Burke of Newburyport, according to Sister Adele. She took her vows in the order in 1937. Before being assigned to its Haitian missions, Sister Joan worked in Bracebridge, Ontario, a frontier mission at the time, and did parish work in Utica, N.Y.
For her dedication to Haiti's handicapped, Sister Joan has won 15 prestigious international awards. She left Haiti in 2003. ''Sister Joan was irreplaceable," said Sister Adele.

Merry Second Sunday After Christmas to one and all.

(graphic art supplied by David Watson of DavesDesigns)

The Second Sunday After Christmas 2004 (Epiphany)

Here I sit in a chair placed against the back wall of an unfamiliar church. It is the second Sunday after Christmas. The pews are almost filled.

I am alone, in this unfamiliar setting, looking for a solace that I haven’t found elsewhere.
Perhaps I will hear or see something new this morning.

From time to time I wonder about the question of God’s place in a world of suffering. Who hasn’t? Again this morning the question forces its way into my mind. No doubt there have always been, and probably always will be, sufficient pain in this world to cause us to pause and wonder about this unpleasant reality. But today, more than most days, I have a personal need of reassurance regarding this matter.

How can God oversee a world so broken and full of torments, sicknesses, deformities and indignities? Does anyone have a reason why we should accept the claim that God is all loving and all powerful? If not, then it seems to me that we all should just hold our peace, because hollow words spoken in the presence of real suffering are about as appropriate as the comfort offered to Job by his supposed friends.

This morning’s homily is pleasant and faithful to the season but it is not what I am looking for. As I look around the church from my safe position in the back, my gaze comes to rest upon an arresting figure off to my right.

Row upon row of half hearted worshippers kneels on cue. Each one assumes a posture of easy contrition. But one young man struggles awkwardly to maneuver his rebellious body into an attitude of excruciating humility. His parents lovingly guide him to the edge of his seat.

His small distorted frame will not bend sufficiently for its knees to touch the rest. As he struggles, his contortions describe a large ‘W’ suspended in the space between the pews. It reminds me of another image that haunts all mankind. It is the image of a bent, disfigured and bloodied body hung in humiliation between a gray earth and a black sky.

What exactly am I witnessing in this place?

Could this possibly be what I have come to this particular church on this specific day to see?
Genetics, environment, accident, injury or some other tragic occurrence or occurrences must have caused this young man’s unfortunate condition.
And while these causes conspired against this boy did God sit by and watch as he was formed and deformed by chance and circumstance?
As hard as I try, I can see no other answer except; either He did exactly that or He is not.
“His frame was not hidden from you when he was made in the secret place. When he was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw his unformed body.”
Psalm 113:15, 16
But at this moment I am seeing and experiencing much more than my customary sadness and disappointment in the face of this all too common situation.

I can plainly see that this young man’s body is physically challenged and constrained but spiritually his love and devotion is more worthy of their object than all the combined praises of this entire congregation.

His enslaved limbs taunt his piety like a row of callow youths in the back of an unmonitored school room. His disabilities seem to say, “You have little reason to offer Thanks and we can make sure you will never physically kneel to make that prayer!” But, this man’s face shines even as I imagine Moses’ did as the prophet came down from Mount Sinai. His frame may never prescribe the form of worship that is evidently being expressed within his soul yet I know he, if anyone, is in the company of God. And as I witness this miracle I believe I am also in the presence of something holy.

With a gentle tug of his father’s hand this young man slips back into his seat as the sad eyes and loving smiles of his mother tell him to rest.

The priest invites us to join in singing Carole #26. This time the parents rise alone. Perhaps they think that he has expended too much energy and so they leave him upon the pew. But he is worshipping and he will not be discouraged. After a moment of looking pleadingly up to his family, his shaking hands reach out to the seat in front. With a great effort he pulls himself up but falls back onto the bench. Again he reaches and forces his weakened and confused muscles to obey.
Like Peter’s denials on ‘that horribly, wonderful night’, this man’s body betrays him again and again.
But, Thanks Be To God, on the third try

...................................GLORIA INEXCELSIOUS DEO............................

……………………………………….JEFF STANDS!………………………………………

We all enjoy the beauty of the hymn but Jeff exalts in this triumph. In this moment, in this experience he has won over the rebellion of his body. He has joined the ‘angel choir’ in worshipping the ‘New Born King’. He has defeated the forces of exclusion that constantly come against him and today I have been privileged to witness this triumph of love and holiness.



Someday our bodies will betray us all, but Jeff’s example seems to say ‘be of good courage’, for we have seen how love, faith and will can overcome the bondage of this ‘body of decay.’ Instead of turning away from this truth perhaps we need to look fully onto it to take great comfort in it.

Jeff’s joyful struggle reminds me of how the first Christians suffered all sorts of indignities and deprivations in order to worship the One they loved. Indeed theirs was and is ‘a faith that overcomes the world.’

I think I have seen what I have been looking for. I have witnessed the ever present power of suffering here but Jeff have testified to me today of the greater power which is love. And I feel compelled to confess that in some way his suffering and love are part of God’s good plan and perhaps even makes a contribution to my very salvation.

Something beautiful has been accomplished in this young man’s faithful struggle with disability and I thank God that today I have been given ‘ears to hear and eyes to see’ and a heart to feel it’.

Merry Second Sunday After Christmas Jeff, and indeed Merry Second Sunday After Christmas to one and all.

LH

Aspirin Reduction Strategy

(visit Pig and Rat here)


These go out to a few well meaning folks whom I have butted heads with this past year.
You probably know who you are.



What do you say we try to live more 'Gandhi' moments this year?
That should reduce the number of headaches we'll have in 2006.