I heard this statement recently. "The Christian life is a received life". (By Ed Piorek I think) I have been pondering on this for some days. I guess another way of saying it is 'Everything we are we have received from him.' Somehow we know this is true - and yet we find it hard to stay as 'a receiver'.
We have these scripts in our head that having once 'believed and received' our salvation for free we now have to 'do it all right' in order to deserve more. Or maybe we have asked and not received as we had hoped, so now we have stopped asking or expecting anything will come our way. We are 'going through the motions.' Hmmm. Or we think we must always 'position' ourselves right to receive. If I fast and pray and worship and wait on him....
I have been in all those places. But I keep being drawn to books or accounts where God is pouring out all manner of blessings (see the latest blog on http://www.ffald-y-brenin.org/) and my heart just aches for more 'receiving'. Ever since I received a huge outpouring of the Spirit with such freedom and love at the age of 30, I cannot settle for the doddle that most of our Christian life is. Is this wrong? Or am I meant to be a perpetual 'seeker'?
Actually, there is a mid-way point between these two extremes - doddle and desire. And it is drinking daily. We can receive daily fresh bread, fresh water, another 'hug' of joy from our Abba. I think it is about a theology (belief grid) of 'presence'. Are we not 'in him' and therefore beloved of the Father? Is he not 'in us' and therefore his joy and peace and wisdom resides in us....? The secret is to access all these manifold blessings by a life of resting in them. Aha....
I am about to speak about this to a group of ministers. My husband said it sounded like 'spiritual speed dating'. Hmmmm. Not quite. Rather 'Heart hydration'. More when I have completed my prep!
Meantime - keep receiving. Think 'waterfall' and stand under it.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
The flame of love
More excerpts from the story of the Marechele - who brought revival wherever she went.
In 1881 Catherine Booth went to Paris with three companions to begin the work.
What were the ideas with which Catherine began her work in Paris? What was her plan of campaign? How did she hope to conquer?
“I saw,” she says, “that the bridge to France was – making the French people believe in me. That is what the Protestants do not understand. They preach the Bible, they write books, they offer tracts. But that does not do the work. ‘Curse your Bibles, your books, your tracts!’ cry the French. I have seen thousands of Testaments given away to very little purpose. I have seen them torn up to light cigars. And the conviction that took shape in my mind was that unless I could inspire faith in me, there was no hope. Only if Jesus is lifted up in flesh and blood, will He today draw all men to Him. If I cannot give Him, I shall fail. France has not waited till now for religion, for preaching, for eloquence. Something more is needed. ‘I that speak unto thee am He’ – there is a sense in which the world is waiting for that today. Christ’s primary idea, His means of saving the world is, after all, personality. The face, the character, the life of Jesus is to be seen in men and women.
“This is the bridge to the seething masses who believe in nothing, who hate religion, who cry, ‘Down with Jesus Christ!’ What sympathy I felt with them as I listened to their angry cries against something which they had never really seen or known. They shout ‘Jesuits,’ but they have never seen Jesus. Could they but see Him, they would still ‘receive Him gladly.’ France is more sensitive to disinterested love than any nation I have ever known. France will never accept a religion without sacrifice.
“These were the convictions with which I began the work in Paris, and if I had to begin it over again today I would go on the same lines. When I knew what I had to do, my mind was at rest. I said, ‘We will lay ourselves out for them; they shall know where we live, they can watch us day and night, they shall see what we do and judge us.’ And the wonderful thing in those first years of our work in France and Switzerland was the flame. We lighted it all along the line. Wherever we went we brought the fire with us, we fanned it, we communicated it. We could not help doing so, because it was in us, and that was what made us sufferers. The fire had to be burning in us day and night. That is our symbol – the fire, the fire!
Lord what my heart wants – it is the fire
The only secret of victory – it is the fire.
We all know what the fire is; it warms and it burns; it scorches the Pharisees and makes the cowards fly. The poor, tempted, unhappy world knows by whom it is kindled and says, ‘I know Thee who Thou art – the Holy One of God!’
That was what filled the halls at Havre and Rouen, Nimes and Bordeaux, Brussels and Liege. We personified Some One, and that was the attraction. I have not the insufferable conceit to suppose that it was anything in me that drew them. What am I? Dust and ashes. But if you have the fire, it draws, it melts; it consumes all selfishness; it makes you love as He loves; it give you a heart of steel to yourself, and the tenderest of hearts to others; it gives you eyes to see what no one else sees, to hear what others have never given themselves the trouble to listen to. And men rush to you because you are what you are; you are as He was in the world; you have His sympathy, His Divine love, His Divine patience. Therefore He gives you victory over the world: and what is money, what are houses, lands, anything, compared with that?
“This was the one attraction. When I went to France I said to Christ: ‘I in you and You in me!’ and many a time in confronting a laughing, scoffing crowd, single-handed, I have said ‘You and I are enough for them. I won’t fail You, and You won’t fail me.’ That is something of which we have only touched the fringe. That is a truth almost hermetically sealed. It would be sacrilege, it would be desecration, it would be wrong, unfair, unjust, if Divine power were given on any other terms than absolute self-abandonment. When I went to France I said to Jesus, ‘I will suffer anything if you will give me the keys.’ And if I am asked what was the secret of our power in France? - I answer: First, love; second, love; third, love. And if you ask how to get it, I answer: First by sacrifice; second, by sacrifice; third, by sacrifice. Christ loved us passionately, and loves to be loved passionately. He gives Himself to those who love Him passionately. And the world has yet to see what can be done on these lines.”
In 1881 Catherine Booth went to Paris with three companions to begin the work.
What were the ideas with which Catherine began her work in Paris? What was her plan of campaign? How did she hope to conquer?
“I saw,” she says, “that the bridge to France was – making the French people believe in me. That is what the Protestants do not understand. They preach the Bible, they write books, they offer tracts. But that does not do the work. ‘Curse your Bibles, your books, your tracts!’ cry the French. I have seen thousands of Testaments given away to very little purpose. I have seen them torn up to light cigars. And the conviction that took shape in my mind was that unless I could inspire faith in me, there was no hope. Only if Jesus is lifted up in flesh and blood, will He today draw all men to Him. If I cannot give Him, I shall fail. France has not waited till now for religion, for preaching, for eloquence. Something more is needed. ‘I that speak unto thee am He’ – there is a sense in which the world is waiting for that today. Christ’s primary idea, His means of saving the world is, after all, personality. The face, the character, the life of Jesus is to be seen in men and women.
“This is the bridge to the seething masses who believe in nothing, who hate religion, who cry, ‘Down with Jesus Christ!’ What sympathy I felt with them as I listened to their angry cries against something which they had never really seen or known. They shout ‘Jesuits,’ but they have never seen Jesus. Could they but see Him, they would still ‘receive Him gladly.’ France is more sensitive to disinterested love than any nation I have ever known. France will never accept a religion without sacrifice.
“These were the convictions with which I began the work in Paris, and if I had to begin it over again today I would go on the same lines. When I knew what I had to do, my mind was at rest. I said, ‘We will lay ourselves out for them; they shall know where we live, they can watch us day and night, they shall see what we do and judge us.’ And the wonderful thing in those first years of our work in France and Switzerland was the flame. We lighted it all along the line. Wherever we went we brought the fire with us, we fanned it, we communicated it. We could not help doing so, because it was in us, and that was what made us sufferers. The fire had to be burning in us day and night. That is our symbol – the fire, the fire!
Lord what my heart wants – it is the fire
The only secret of victory – it is the fire.
We all know what the fire is; it warms and it burns; it scorches the Pharisees and makes the cowards fly. The poor, tempted, unhappy world knows by whom it is kindled and says, ‘I know Thee who Thou art – the Holy One of God!’
That was what filled the halls at Havre and Rouen, Nimes and Bordeaux, Brussels and Liege. We personified Some One, and that was the attraction. I have not the insufferable conceit to suppose that it was anything in me that drew them. What am I? Dust and ashes. But if you have the fire, it draws, it melts; it consumes all selfishness; it makes you love as He loves; it give you a heart of steel to yourself, and the tenderest of hearts to others; it gives you eyes to see what no one else sees, to hear what others have never given themselves the trouble to listen to. And men rush to you because you are what you are; you are as He was in the world; you have His sympathy, His Divine love, His Divine patience. Therefore He gives you victory over the world: and what is money, what are houses, lands, anything, compared with that?
“This was the one attraction. When I went to France I said to Christ: ‘I in you and You in me!’ and many a time in confronting a laughing, scoffing crowd, single-handed, I have said ‘You and I are enough for them. I won’t fail You, and You won’t fail me.’ That is something of which we have only touched the fringe. That is a truth almost hermetically sealed. It would be sacrilege, it would be desecration, it would be wrong, unfair, unjust, if Divine power were given on any other terms than absolute self-abandonment. When I went to France I said to Jesus, ‘I will suffer anything if you will give me the keys.’ And if I am asked what was the secret of our power in France? - I answer: First, love; second, love; third, love. And if you ask how to get it, I answer: First by sacrifice; second, by sacrifice; third, by sacrifice. Christ loved us passionately, and loves to be loved passionately. He gives Himself to those who love Him passionately. And the world has yet to see what can be done on these lines.”
Monday, October 24, 2011
Duty and love
The sense of duty may become morbid if it is not transmuted by love. Many servants of God never learn the secret which makes Christ’s yoke easy and His burden light. They have to confess to themselves that they cannot say, “To do Thy will, O Lord, I take delight.”
It would be strange if any of the Booth children had not learned the secret. Catherine discovered it early, learned it thoroughly, and it became in after years one of the hidden sources of her power. As a child she lived in union with Christ; she practised and felt the Real Presence; she understood that Christianity is a Divine Service transfigured by a Divine Friendship. In Victoria Park there was a shady alley where she was in the habit of walking, because Some One walked beside her! In Clifton, where she lived for a time, she had a tiny upper room in which she felt that she was never alone. That was her childhood’s religion, which she never needed to change. She found it to be utterly independent of time and place, form and ceremony. In the glare of public life, in the storm of persecution, in the hour of temptation and danger, she always had a cathedral into which she could retire that she might find peace. She was spiritually akin with the Hebrew mystics who lived in the secret place of the Most High, who had at all times a pavilion from the strife of tongues. In her Neuchatel prison she wrote some simple words that sent a thrill through the heart of Christian Europe:
Best Beloved of my soul, I am here alone with Thee;
And my prison is a heaven, Since Thou sharest it with me.
Whatever gifts were the dower of the young evangelist, she never regarded herself as different in God’s sight from the poorest and meanest of sinners. If God loved her, He loved all with an equal love. That conviction was the motive-power of all her evangelism. A limited atonement was to her unthinkable. How often she made vast audiences sing her father’s great hymn, “O boundless salvation, so full and so free!”
When she was conducting a remarkable campaign in Portsmouth (around the age of 17), she found herself one day among a number of the ministers of the town, one of whom in his admiration of her and her work persisted in calling her one of the elect. This led to an animated discussion on election. Katie listened for a while, but lost patience at last, and rising, delivered herself thus: “I am not one of the elect, and I don’t want to be. I would rather be with the poor devils outside than with you inside.” Having discharged this bombshell she flew upstairs to her mother. “Oh!” she cried, “what have I done?” When she repeated what she had said, her mother, whose laugh was always hearty, screamed with delight. Election as commonly taught was rank poison to the Mother of the Army. The doctrine that God had out of His mere good pleasure elected some to eternal life made her wild with indignation.
It would be strange if any of the Booth children had not learned the secret. Catherine discovered it early, learned it thoroughly, and it became in after years one of the hidden sources of her power. As a child she lived in union with Christ; she practised and felt the Real Presence; she understood that Christianity is a Divine Service transfigured by a Divine Friendship. In Victoria Park there was a shady alley where she was in the habit of walking, because Some One walked beside her! In Clifton, where she lived for a time, she had a tiny upper room in which she felt that she was never alone. That was her childhood’s religion, which she never needed to change. She found it to be utterly independent of time and place, form and ceremony. In the glare of public life, in the storm of persecution, in the hour of temptation and danger, she always had a cathedral into which she could retire that she might find peace. She was spiritually akin with the Hebrew mystics who lived in the secret place of the Most High, who had at all times a pavilion from the strife of tongues. In her Neuchatel prison she wrote some simple words that sent a thrill through the heart of Christian Europe:
Best Beloved of my soul, I am here alone with Thee;
And my prison is a heaven, Since Thou sharest it with me.
Whatever gifts were the dower of the young evangelist, she never regarded herself as different in God’s sight from the poorest and meanest of sinners. If God loved her, He loved all with an equal love. That conviction was the motive-power of all her evangelism. A limited atonement was to her unthinkable. How often she made vast audiences sing her father’s great hymn, “O boundless salvation, so full and so free!”
When she was conducting a remarkable campaign in Portsmouth (around the age of 17), she found herself one day among a number of the ministers of the town, one of whom in his admiration of her and her work persisted in calling her one of the elect. This led to an animated discussion on election. Katie listened for a while, but lost patience at last, and rising, delivered herself thus: “I am not one of the elect, and I don’t want to be. I would rather be with the poor devils outside than with you inside.” Having discharged this bombshell she flew upstairs to her mother. “Oh!” she cried, “what have I done?” When she repeated what she had said, her mother, whose laugh was always hearty, screamed with delight. Election as commonly taught was rank poison to the Mother of the Army. The doctrine that God had out of His mere good pleasure elected some to eternal life made her wild with indignation.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
The world is waiting for you.
I have been reading two accounts of the life of William and Catherine Booth's eldest daughter Katie. She became an astounding evangelist and leader, starting the work of the Salvation Army in France and Switzerland. Here is a snippet of her story, more to come.
The Booth children were left in no mist of doubt as to their future. There was an end, a point, a purpose, in their life. They grew up in an atmosphere of decision. Many children are made timid, diffident, and ineffective by their training. They are constantly told how naughty they are till they begin to believe that they are good for nothing. The Booth parents acted on a different principle. They had faith in their children and for their children. When Katie was still a little girl in socks, her mother would say to her, “Now Katie, you are not here in this world for yourself. You have been sent or others. The world is waiting for you.” What an idea that was to send a little girl to bed with! There she turned the words over and over in her own mind, “Mother says the world is waiting for me. Oh, I must be good … How selfish I was in taking that orange!” The lesson was worth 1,000 pounds to a child. In the development of Katie’s mind and character her mother’s influence was naturally very strong. The fellowship between them soon became peculiarly intimate, and it was the mother’s joy to find her alter ego in the daughter who bore her name.
The Booth children were left in no mist of doubt as to their future. There was an end, a point, a purpose, in their life. They grew up in an atmosphere of decision. Many children are made timid, diffident, and ineffective by their training. They are constantly told how naughty they are till they begin to believe that they are good for nothing. The Booth parents acted on a different principle. They had faith in their children and for their children. When Katie was still a little girl in socks, her mother would say to her, “Now Katie, you are not here in this world for yourself. You have been sent or others. The world is waiting for you.” What an idea that was to send a little girl to bed with! There she turned the words over and over in her own mind, “Mother says the world is waiting for me. Oh, I must be good … How selfish I was in taking that orange!” The lesson was worth 1,000 pounds to a child. In the development of Katie’s mind and character her mother’s influence was naturally very strong. The fellowship between them soon became peculiarly intimate, and it was the mother’s joy to find her alter ego in the daughter who bore her name.
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