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St. John of the Cross Novena Compendium
“What profit is there in anything that is not the love of God, and what value has it in God’s sight?”
St. John of the Cross
Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book III, Chapter 30Seven Years With Saint John of the Cross (2018–2024)
This compendium brings together seven novenas to Saint John of the Cross, prayed over the years with varying themes, voices, and approaches, yet all rooted in the same desire to draw closer to God through the wisdom of the Mystical Doctor. Some novenas follow John’s classic texts in steady sequence; others explore particular dimensions of his teaching—humility, the dark night, the spousal love of the Bridegroom, or the daily work of conversion. Whether presented with simple questions, pastoral reflections, or the insights of guest authors, each novena offers a different doorway into John’s vision of the soul’s ascent to God. Taken together, they form a rich and varied path of prayer, inviting readers to encounter St. John anew and to walk with him toward the transforming union for which every heart is made.
2018 Novena: From Detachment to Peace
This 2018 novena brings together nine short texts from Saint John of the Cross—taken from the Ascent, the Sayings of Light and Love, his letters, the Spiritual Canticle, and the Living Flame. Presented with brief Scripture passages and a traditional novena prayer, these selections trace a simple but steady movement through John’s major themes: the call to walk the path of Christ, to live in peace, to embrace virtue and detachment, to receive instruction in the dark night, and to be drawn toward union with God.
2019 Novena: Humility and Inner Conversion
This 2019 novena on Humility and Inner Conversion invites the soul to stand in truth before God, following Saint John of the Cross along the path of self-emptying, contrition, and trust. Drawing especially from the Sayings of Light and Love, each day confronts the illusions of self-reliance and pride, calling the heart to descend into the “wholly loving trust” that alone opens us to God’s mercy. Through Scripture, John’s terse and luminous counsels, and the daily novena prayer, readers are led into a deeper formation of conscience and a more earnest desire for the transforming grace that restores humility and shapes a life of authentic discipleship.
2020 Novena: Journey to Union
This 2020 novena revisits the same readings from Saint John of the Cross that appeared in the 2018 series. Instead of introducing new material, it re-presents those earlier selections—drawn from the Ascent, the Sayings of Light and Love, his letters, the Spiritual Canticle, and the Living Flame of Love—with revised titles and a fresh presentation. This repetition was intentional: the same words of John can speak differently from year to year, offering another opportunity to pray more deeply with his teaching.
2021 Novena: Examining the Heart
The 2021 novena also draws on the familiar nine readings from Saint John of the Cross but approaches them in a new way. This time the familiar texts are framed by simple, searching questions—What do you want? What must I do? How can I understand?—inviting a more personal examen in light of John’s teaching. With the daily Scripture passage, John’s brief selection, and the novena prayer from Carmel in Nigeria, the focus is less on introducing new material and more on letting the saint’s words probe the heart again, offering fresh grace through repeated prayer and reflection.
2022 Novena: The Night That Gives Sight (with Fr. Quang D. Tran, S.J.)
In this 2022 novena, Father Quang D. Tran, S.J., reflects on Saint John of the Cross’s teaching on the “dark night,” the purifying work by which God strips away the artificial lights in our lives so that we may see the true Light more clearly. Drawing on John’s own suffering and the wisdom of other spiritual masters, he shows how faith—stripped of lesser consolations—guides us more surely toward God. In the spirit of Advent, with its call to watchfulness and discernment, this novena helps us distinguish between the lights that blind and the Light that strengthens faith, hope, and love even in our darkest moments.
2023 Novena: Our Bridegroom and Friend
In this 2023 novena, guest author Laura Ercolino reflects on Saint John of the Cross’s teaching on the soul’s spousal relationship with Christ, drawing deeply from the Song of Songs and John’s own Spiritual Canticle. She reminds us that John understood the Canticle as the scriptural key to the soul’s journey toward transforming union—the divine marriage for which every heart is made. As the novena pairs John’s writings with verses from the Song of Songs, Laura invites readers to notice how the Divine Bridegroom is already wooing and drawing them into intimacy, offering foretastes of union even as we continue our ascent toward the eternal wedding feast.
2024 Novena: Walking the Path of Love
The 2024 novena, Walking the Path of Love, presented the nine classic readings from Saint John of the Cross with added depth through daily “Thoughts to Ponder” and a podcast introduction. Each day unfolded one of John’s central themes—rejoicing in God alone, responding to divine love, cultivating peace, embracing suffering with Christ, detachment, guidance in the dark night, spiritual marriage, and union—while inviting readers to reflect personally on how these teachings speak to their own journey. With the traditional novena prayer from the Carmelite nuns of Little Rock, this year’s novena offered a more catechetical and reflective approach, encouraging a sincere engagement with John’s wisdom and a renewed openness to the transforming work of divine love.
How to Use This Collection
Each novena follows the same structure: a brief introduction followed by nine days of prayer and reflection. You can pray them:
- Around St. John of the Cross’s solemnity (14 December)
- During times of personal need for his intercession
- As part of your spiritual reading throughout the year
- With family or prayer groups seeking his guidance
If you’re new to Saint John of the Cross, the 2019 novena is an excellent place to begin. Drawing from the Sayings of Light and Love, it introduces John’s spirituality in short, accessible steps and provides a helpful foundation for the deeper themes explored in the other novenas.
Novena Prayer
O seraphic St. John of the Cross,
the ardent love which burned always in your heart
led you to see all things only in God
and to seek only His glory.
It was to increase this love
and thus unite yourself more closely to God
that you led such a penitential life.Mention your request
I beg you, inflame my heart with a love like yours,
so that I may have the courage to mortify myself
and give myself generously to the practice of virtue.
Thus may I truly love God
with all the fervor of which I am capable.
Amen.Our Father…
Hail Mary…
Glory be…
Saint John of the Cross, pray for us!
John of the Cross, St 1991, The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, rev. edn, Kavanaugh, K & Rodriguez, O (trans.), ICS Publications, Washington DC.
All scripture references in this novena are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America as accessed from the Bible Gateway website.
Don’t become discouraged and give up prayer, says St. John of the Cross. We offer varying novenas to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as novenas to St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, and St. Joseph.
Featured image: The bronze figure of Saint John of the Cross is part of the public artwork Homenaje al primer encuentro de Santa Teresa de Jesús y San Juan de la Cruz en Medina del Campo en 1567. Photograph by Ángel Cantero, October 2015. Image source: Iglesia en Valladolid on Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0). Collage for the Novena Compendium created by Carmelite Quotes in Adobe Express.
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Quote of the day, 13 January: St. Edith Stein
“By this I know that you love me, if you keep my commandments” [cf. Jn 14:15].
If we are children of God we shall be led by His hand, doing His will, not our own. We shall place every care and hope in Him and be no longer troubled about ourselves and our future. This is the reason why God’s children are free and happy.
But how few even of the truly pious, even of those ready for heroic sacrifices, possess this freedom. They all walk as if they were bent down by the heavy burden of their cares and duties. They all know the parable of the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. But if they meet someone without capital or pension or insurance, and who yet lives without worrying about future, they shake their heads as if that were something extraordinary.
Indeed, if we expect from the Father in heaven that He will always provide for the income and station in life which we ourselves consider desirable, we may be very much mistaken. Only then can our trust in God remain unshaken, if it includes being prepared to accept absolutely everything from the hand of the Father, for He alone knows what is good for us.
And if one day want and the lack of even the necessities of life should be better for us than a comfortably secure income, or if we should need failure and humiliation rather than honour and reputation, we must be prepared also for this. If we do this, we can live for the present without being burdened by the future.
The words “Thy will be done” must be the rule of the Christian’s life in all their fullness. They must be the principle that regulates his day from morning to night, the course of the year, and his whole life. It then becomes the Christian’s only concern. For all other cares, the Lord will make Himself responsible; this alone will remain with us as long as we live.
From the objective point of view, it is not absolutely certain that we shall always remain in the ways of God. Just as the first man and woman became estranged from God though they had been His children, so every one of us is always balancing, as it were, on the edge of the knife between nothingness and the fullness of the divine life. Sooner or later we shall be feeling this also subjectively.
In the infancy of the spiritual life, when we have just begun to surrender ourselves to the guidance of God, we feel His guiding hand very strongly; it is clear as daylight what we have to do and what to avoid.
But it will not remain like this. If we belong to Christ, we have to live the whole Christ-life. We must mature into His Manhood, we must one day begin the Way of the Cross to Gethsemani and to Golgotha. And all sufferings that come from without are as nothing compared with the dark night of the soul, when the divine light no longer shines, and the voice of the Lord no longer speaks.
God is there, but He is hidden and silent. Why is this so?
We are speaking of the mysteries of God, and these cannot be completely penetrated. But we may well look a little into them. God became Man in order once more to give us a share in His life. This is the beginning, and this is the last end.
But between these, there is something else. Christ is God and Man, and if we would share His life, we must share both in the divine and the human life. The human nature which He took enabled Him to suffer and to die. The divine nature which He possessed from eternity gave His suffering and death infinite value and redemptive power.
Christ’s suffering and death are continued in His mystical Body and in each of His members. Every man must suffer and die. But if he is a living member of the Body of Christ, his suffering and death will receive redemptive power from the divinity of the Head.
This is the objective reason why all the saints have desired to suffer. This is not a pathological pleasure in suffering. It is true, to natural reason it appears as a perversion. But in the light of the mystery of salvation, it shows itself to be highly reasonable.
And thus, the man who is united to Christ will remain unmoved even in the dark night of feeling estranged from and abandoned by God. Perhaps divine providence is using his agony to deliver another, who is truly a prisoner cut off from God. Therefore we will say: “Thy will be done” even, and particularly so, in the darkest night.
Saint Edith Stein
The Mystery of Christmas, V. (“Thy Will Be Done”)
13 January 1931, Ludwigshafen, GermanyStein, E 1931, The mystery of Christmas: incarnation and humanity, translated from the German by Rucker, J, Darlington Carmel, Darlington UK.
Featured image: Photographer Ian Chen captures this image of a person gazing at the Milky Way on a clear night amid the tufa spires of the Trona Pinnacles National Natural Landmark in the California Desert Conservation Area near Searles Lake, California. Image credit: ianchen0 / Unsplash (Stock photo)
#freedom #happiness #HeavenlyFather #Jesus #mystery #StEdithStein #suffering #trust #unionWithGod #willOfGod
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A bird caught in birdlime has a twofold task: It must free itself and cleanse itself. And by satisfying their appetites, people suffer in a twofold way: They must detach themselves and, after being detached, clean themselves of what has clung to them.
Those who do not allow their appetites to carry them away will soar in their spirit as swiftly as the bird that lacks no feathers.
Sayings of Light and Love, nos. 22–23
Here we have the reason for stating that two wills become one. And this one will is God’s will, which also becomes the soul’s. If a person were to desire an imperfection unwanted by God, this one will of God would be undone because of the desire for what God does not will.
Clearly, for a soul to reach union with God through its will and love, it must first be freed from every appetite, however slight. That is, one must not give consent of the will advertently and knowingly to an imperfection, and one must have the power and freedom to be able, upon advertence, to refuse this consent.
Some examples of these habitual imperfections are: the common habit of being very talkative; a small attachment one never really desires to conquer, for example, to a person, to clothing, to a book or a cell, or to the way food is prepared, and to other trifling conversations and little satisfactions in tasting, knowing, and hearing things, and so on.
Any of these habitual imperfections to which there is attachment is as harmful to progress in virtue as the daily commission of many other imperfections and sporadic venial sins that do not result from a bad habit. These latter will not hinder a person as much as will the attachment to something. As long as this attachment remains, it is impossible to make progress in perfection, even though the imperfection may be very small.
It makes little difference whether a bird is tied by a thin thread or by a cord. Even if it is tied by thread, the bird will be held bound just as surely as if it were tied by cord; that is, it will be impeded from flying as long as it does not break the thread. Admittedly the thread is easier to break, but no matter how easily this may be done, the bird will not fly away without first doing so.
This is the lot of those who are attached to something: No matter how much virtue they have they will not reach the freedom of the divine union.
An individual’s appetite and attachment resemble the remora, which, if successful in clinging to a ship, will hold it back and prevent it from reaching port, or even from sailing, even though this fish is exceptionally small.
It is regrettable, then, to behold some souls, laden as rich vessels with wealth, deeds, spiritual exercises, virtues, and favors from God, who never advance because they lack the courage to make a complete break with some little satisfaction, attachment, or affection (which are all about the same) and thereby never reach the port of perfection.
This requires no more than a sudden flap of one’s wings in order to tear the thread of attachment, or to get rid of the clinging remora.
Saint John of the Cross
The Ascent of Mount Carmel, I, chap. 11, nos. 3–4
John of the Cross, St. 1991, The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, Revised Edition, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K and Rodriguez, O with revisions and introductions by Kavanaugh, K, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Featured image: Photographer Djalma Paiva Armelin captured this image of a glittering-throated emerald hummingbird (Chionomesa fimbriata) feeding in Brazil in 2017. Image credit: Djalma Paiva Armelin / pexels.com (Stock photo)
https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/08/22/juan-birdlime/
#attachment #bird #freedom #love #perfection #power #sin #StJohnOfTheCross #unionWithGod #willOfGod
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A bird caught in birdlime has a twofold task: It must free itself and cleanse itself. And by satisfying their appetites, people suffer in a twofold way: They must detach themselves and, after being detached, clean themselves of what has clung to them.
Those who do not allow their appetites to carry them away will soar in their spirit as swiftly as the bird that lacks no feathers.
Sayings of Light and Love, nos. 22–23
Here we have the reason for stating that two wills become one. And this one will is God’s will, which also becomes the soul’s. If a person were to desire an imperfection unwanted by God, this one will of God would be undone because of the desire for what God does not will.
Clearly, for a soul to reach union with God through its will and love, it must first be freed from every appetite, however slight. That is, one must not give consent of the will advertently and knowingly to an imperfection, and one must have the power and freedom to be able, upon advertence, to refuse this consent.
Some examples of these habitual imperfections are: the common habit of being very talkative; a small attachment one never really desires to conquer, for example, to a person, to clothing, to a book or a cell, or to the way food is prepared, and to other trifling conversations and little satisfactions in tasting, knowing, and hearing things, and so on.
Any of these habitual imperfections to which there is attachment is as harmful to progress in virtue as the daily commission of many other imperfections and sporadic venial sins that do not result from a bad habit. These latter will not hinder a person as much as will the attachment to something. As long as this attachment remains, it is impossible to make progress in perfection, even though the imperfection may be very small.
It makes little difference whether a bird is tied by a thin thread or by a cord. Even if it is tied by thread, the bird will be held bound just as surely as if it were tied by cord; that is, it will be impeded from flying as long as it does not break the thread. Admittedly the thread is easier to break, but no matter how easily this may be done, the bird will not fly away without first doing so.
This is the lot of those who are attached to something: No matter how much virtue they have they will not reach the freedom of the divine union.
An individual’s appetite and attachment resemble the remora, which, if successful in clinging to a ship, will hold it back and prevent it from reaching port, or even from sailing, even though this fish is exceptionally small.
It is regrettable, then, to behold some souls, laden as rich vessels with wealth, deeds, spiritual exercises, virtues, and favors from God, who never advance because they lack the courage to make a complete break with some little satisfaction, attachment, or affection (which are all about the same) and thereby never reach the port of perfection.
This requires no more than a sudden flap of one’s wings in order to tear the thread of attachment, or to get rid of the clinging remora.
Saint John of the Cross
The Ascent of Mount Carmel, I, chap. 11, nos. 3–4
John of the Cross, St. 1991, The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, Revised Edition, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K and Rodriguez, O with revisions and introductions by Kavanaugh, K, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Featured image: Photographer Djalma Paiva Armelin captured this image of a glittering-throated emerald hummingbird (Chionomesa fimbriata) feeding in Brazil in 2017. Image credit: Djalma Paiva Armelin / pexels.com (Stock photo)
https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/08/22/juan-birdlime/
#attachment #bird #freedom #love #perfection #power #sin #StJohnOfTheCross #unionWithGod #willOfGod
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Psalm 23:1-3 Abba God is my shepherd; I shall not be in want. Abba God makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters. God revives my soul and guides me along right pathways for God’s Name’s sake.
Introduction
At the end of last’s week sermon, we ended talking about remembrance, hope, and prayer. For Christians, when we gather to speak of, read of, hear of, and consume together with Christ in our weekly fellowship and worship, we are remembering Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are not just remembering Christ but participating the work of God made tangible in Christ: the divine revolution and mission of love, life, and liberation in the world for the beloved. This is truly εὐαγγέλιον. And if this is truly εὐαγγέλιον, then it is also the source and foundation of our hope that exists to sustain us today.
In remembering and having hope we are led to pray, to bring ourselves deeply into God, to bend our knee (literal or figurative), to be creatures fully dependent on God. We remember, we have hope, and we pray, and it is this that is the beginning of all our activity within the walls of the church and without. As mentioned last week, “Prayer does not resign the believer to non-activity as if it is the final act in the face of trouble; it is the starting point. Prayer is how the believer unites with God and God’s passion for life, love, and liberation.[1] It is the bold request for God to enter in, to act; in prayer God is spoken to and from, in prayer God is remembered, so, too, the neighbor.”[2]
But the author of Ephesians isn’t done with us yet as if it’s just about remembering and hoping and praying. But that this remembering, hoping, and praying participates in making believers one with God and with each other in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit and bringing them into the true peace that surpasses all understanding.
Ephesians 2:11-22
For [Christ] is our peace, the one who made both [the Israelites and the Gentiles] one and [the one who] destroyed in his flesh the division-wall of the fence, [and] the enmity [between the two], and [the one who] rendered inoperative the law of the commands and public decrees, so that the two might build in him one new peace-making humanity… (Eph. 2:14-15)
So, the author of Ephesians verbally exhorts us (using an imperative!) to remember. To remember what? Not only Christ but who we were prior to being encountered by Christ in the event of faith. …remember that in the past you [were] Gentiles in the flesh, the ones who were called “The Uncircumcised” by the ones who were called “The Circumcised” in the flesh done by [human] hands (v. 11). But that isn’t enough; Paul asks his audience to remember, further, that they were for a time without Christ, having been alienated from the citizenship of Israel and a stranger of the covenant of the promise, not possessing hope and [were] without God in the cosmos (v 12). Paul is eager to recreate the situation for the Ephesians to cause more than just recall but real, heart-felt remembering,[3] pressing into the reality that apart from Christ they were dead in their false-steps and missing the mark (sin) (v 1), they were strangers to the promises of God, to Christ, and to the hope of God which is the hope of the reign of God in Christ.[4],[5] According to Ephesians, the Gentiles were overcome by their own desires, turned in on themselves, stuck in place by division, and consumed by hostility. This isn’t something that someone can work themselves out of, no matter how hard they try. For Paul, it is only through the encounter with Christ where one finds God, finds their neighbor, and finds themself; it is only in Christ where one finds true life, love, and liberation.[6] But at this time you who were once far off you became near by the blood of Christ (v 13). In other words, this is not done by human hands (χειροποιήτου in v 11), but by the love of God in Christ done by the power of the Spirit[7] as the down-payment in lives of the believers in Ephesus.
This is why Christ is the peace of everyone—for [Christ] is our peace (v 14a)—Children of Israel and Gentiles combined. Because, as Paul writes, the one who made both [the Israelites and the Gentiles] one and [the one who] destroyed in his flesh the division-wall of the fence, [and] the enmity [between the two], and [the one who] rendered inoperative the law of the commands and public decrees, so that the two might build in him one new peace-making humanity (vv 14b-15). There is now no longer us v. them, insiders v. outsiders, elected v. not-elected, Israel v. Gentiles, the circumcised v. the not circumcised.[8] There are not two groups, but one group. Thus, this peace Jesus brings in his own flesh, by the blood of the cross event and the glory of his resurrection is not just for privatized souls but for deprivatized humanity; it’s a socio-political event.[9] There is now no wall that keeps some in and some out, some included and some excluded; there is now (absolutely) no line—whether 2-D or 3-D—that can render some humans “good” and others “bad” based on which side of that line they fall because that line has been destroyed[10] and is now anathema for the believers and followers of Christ who benefit from the destruction of the division-wall of the fence by being included in to the heredity and mission of God by the work of Christ on the cross and the power of the Holy Spirits dwelling in their hearts.
And if the wall has been destroyed, so, too, division according to enmity,[11] which is the hostility and intolerance fomented between the two groups that was the fruit of the division wall; it is the anger of the kingdoms of humanity turned inward to tear humanity apart.[12] This includes the laws and public commandments used to make some clean and some unclean, some righteous and others unrighteous; these, too, like the wall and the enmity, have become inoperative in solidifying groups of people against each other. For Paul then writes, and so he might completely reconcile both in one body for God through the cross he killed the hostility in himself (v 16).By Christ’s work[13]—the mission of God’s revolution of love, life, and liberation for the world—there is now no wall, thus no enmity, thus no law[14] that can keep anyone out and in this radical establishment of divine equity, there is peace[15]—true peace that is not contingent on one group suffering under the weight of another.
Then the letter continues, [Christ] came and brought peace to you (all) who were far-off and peace to you (all) who were near because through him we—both in one spirit—possess access to God therefore now you are no longer a stranger and sojourner but you are a fellow citizens with the saints and of the family of God (vv 17-19). In Christ, these two have become one[16] and together they will dwell in and with God and they will have real peace—the type of peace that threatens the principalities and powers of the kingdom of humanity. [17] But this peace brought by Christ is more than reconciliation with each other, it is also reconciliation with God, thus, these two who are now one become the dwelling place of God. [18] As Paul continues, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets—Jesus Christ himself being the cornerstone—in whom all building is being fitted together and grows itself into a holy temple in the lord in whom you, you also were built together into the dwelling place of God in Spirit (vv 20-22). Boldly Ephesians declares, where there is a lack of enmity and hostility, division walls and lines, laws and commands geared to keep some in and some out, there God is and there the saints of God are; no one is excluded and left out and the church is caught up in this radical inclusion and equity, snatched into this divine peace that knows absolutely positively no walls or dividing lines.[19],[20]
Conclusion
The church is without excuse here, according to Ephesians. Peace—the very peace Christ brings through his birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension—is peace that is not contingent on the kingdom of humanity but dependent on the reign of God. It is peace that arises in the communion of humanity with humanity, humanity with God, and humanity with creation; it is peace that manifests within and among humanity in its unity to the glory of God, which is in opposition to the “peace” (i.e. “security” (“control”)) of the kingdom of humanity that thrives on the humanity’s disunity. None of us who claim to follow Christ can afford to support systems dead set on dividing and conquering, oppressing and marginalizing, and fostering anger and fear; these systems are antithetical to the gospel of Christ and to the faith and praxis of the believer in the world before God and neighbor. None of us who claim to follow Christ can find peace (and hope) anywhere else apart from God: not in federal positions and presidents, not in parties and platforms, not in promises and progress made with human hands. We can only find true peace in our reconciliation with God, which is reconciliation with our neighbor, and, thus, these two combined give us reconciliation with ourselves because we have been made one with our neighbor and thus have become the dwelling place of God.
We cannot find peace by building the world we long for with human hands because as soon as we build it it has expired and must be torn down to allow something new to be born. We cannot find peace by turning the gospel into a law as if it can found a nation that would only gift life, love, and liberation to those who qualify. We cannot find peace by letting enmity and hostility be the mortar holding the bricks of the division-wall together. We cannot find peace by legislating Christianity because the doctrines born of the second word of God that form the tissue of the Christian Church inherently resist such socio-political ossification. We can and will only find peace by pressing further into God, clinging to God’s Word in Christ, and leaning into the guidance and leading of the Spirit of God, the guarantor of the new covenant, the down payment of our adoption into God, and the fertile soil making us one with God, with our neighbor, thus, with ourselves. It is only here, in God and with God, do we find true and lasting peace that surpasses all understanding.
[1] See Sölle, Choosing Life, pp. 92-93
[2] This portion is taken from, Lauren R.E. Larkin, “Leaving Heaven Behind: Paradoxical Identity as the Anchor of Dorothee Sölle’s Theology of Political Resistance,” PhD Dissertation (University of Aberdeen, 2024), 202.
[3] Barth, Markus, Ephesians: Introduction, Translation, and Commentary on Chapters 1-3, The Anchor Bible Series (Garden City: Doubleday, 1971), 254. “Repentance, decision, and gratitude are called for, not a mental recollection only.”
[4] Barth, Ephesians, 257. “In Eph 2:12 a status of strangership is described, not an event leading to estrangement.”
[5] Barth, Ephesians, 259. \“Unless Paul flippantly denied or dispossessed the Gentiles of any hope he must have meant a specific hope. This ‘hope,’ then, could be understood as fostered in the minds of the Jews, because it was founded and guaranteed in the heart of God or ‘laid up in heaven’……It is the hope for the promised messiah from the root of David…”
[6] Barth, Ephesians, 254. “Paul’s thought moves from men in the grip of ‘flesh’ (2:11), over the work performed in ‘Christ’s flesh’ (2:14, to the operation of the ‘Spirit’ (2:18). Nothing can prevent the ‘Spirit’ from operating ‘in the realm of flesh.’”
[7] Barth, Ephesians, 255. “As the building of the temple by God is contrasted to the construction of temples by men, so circumcision of the heart…highly excels handmade circumcision.”
[8] Allen Verhey and Joseph S. Harvard, Ephesians, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, eds. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville: WJK, 2011), 93. “If it was especially the Jewish Christian who needed to be reminded earlier that all are ‘sinners,’ not just the ‘uncircumcised,’ not just the Gentiles, and that all are brought from death to life by the gift of God’s grace, not by ‘works’ of the law, the Gentiles are now reminded of the promises to Israel and that it is in the Jewish Messiah that they are given a share in them.”
[9] Barth, Ephesians, 262. “Christ is praised here not primarily for the peace he bring to individual souls; rather the peace he brings is a social and political event…”
[10] Barth, Ephesians, 263-264. “The combination of the two Greek nouns yields a composite sense: it is a wall that prevents certain person from entering a house or a city (cf. 2:19), and is as much a mark of hostility (2:14, 16) as, e.g. a ghetto wall, the Iron Curtain the Berlin Wall, a racial barrier, or a railroad track that separates the right from the wrong side of the city, not to speak of the wall between state and church.”
[11] Barth, Ephesians, 264. “In this case, the ‘enmity’ is as much the object of destruction as the wall.”
[12] Barth, Ephesians, 264. “The word ‘enmity’ defines the separation between Jews and Gentiles more specifically: this segregation implies intolerance, and is a passionate, totalitarian, bellicose affair. While the ‘enmity’ mentioned at the end of vs. 16 is the one-sided enmity of man against God, the ‘enmity’ of vs. 14 is mutual among men.”
[13] Barth, Ephesians, 265. “…the context of Eph 2:15 reveals that for the author (as much as for Paul himself) the death of Christ rather than the promulgation of new decrees stood behind the abolition of the divisive statutes.”
[14] Barth, Ephesians, 264. Wall, enmity, and law “Each of these terms throws light on the others; the author wants them to be considered as synonyms.”
[15] Verhey and Harvard, Ephesians, 96. “…God seals a ‘new covenant’ in ‘the blood of Christ.” And in that ‘new covenant’ there is a new community, a community of both Jew and Gentile, a community that shares the memory of Christ and the hope of God’s promises with a common meal.”
[16] Barth, Ephesians, 272. “After showing that the church exists only as a unity, that is, as one new man created out of Jews and Gentiles, the apostle does not proceed to split t into halves.”
[17] Verhey and Harvard, Ephesians, 97. “But this was not merely an idea, as the reality of baptism makes clear. This was not merely an ideal that exists outside history and toward which we must strive. This was and is a reality wrought in Christ on the cross and displayed in the churches when God initiates diverse people into Christ and into the church. Ideals are powerless against the forces in this world that divide and abuse, against the principalities and power that nurture cultures of enmity. But those forces are and will be finally powerless against the promise and reality of God’s future.”
[18] Barth, Ephesians, 274. “The church herself is not reconciliation but she lives form it and manifests it. She serves the glory of God inasmuch as her members mutually assist, support, and strengthen one another. Neither jews nor Gentiles nor any individual can independently claim after Christ’s coming to offer an appropriate residence For God but Jews and Gentiles together are now ordained by God to become his temple.”
[19] Barth, Ephesians, 324-325. “Now the church is the sign of his mercy, his peace, and his nearness the whole world. If God can and will use people are who are as tempted and weak as the Christian are, then he is certainly able and willing to exclude no one from his realm. The church lives by this hope and bears witness to it publicly.”
[20] Verhey and Harvard, Ephesians, 98. “They are called to break down the walls and to perform this new social reality by forming friendships with the people on the other side of the aisle, or on the other side of town.”
https://laurenrelarkin.com/2024/07/21/6623/
#Beloved #ChoosingLife #ChristianNationalism #DividingWall #DivineLove #DivinePeace #Division #DorotheeSölle #Ephesians #Hope #Jesus #LawAndGospel #Love #LoveOfNeighbor #MarkusBarth #Peace #UnionWithGod #UnionWithSelf #UnionWithTheNeighbor
-
In giving thanks to God—together with all of you, beginning with the Most Eminent and Venerable Brother Archbishop Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe—for the great gift to the Church of Naples, the new Blessed Maria Giuseppina of Jesus Crucified, Thomas Merton’s reflection comes to mind. He stated: “There is no member of the Church who does not owe something to Carmel,” which finds further confirmation in this Solemn Rite [Merton, 1951].
Indeed, today the Church of Naples owes to Carmel, as a place and school of holiness, not only the precious gift of one of its daughters elevated to the honor of the altars, but also the most authoritative reminder of the universal vocation to holiness, its irreplaceable value, and its perennial relevance.
As the Representative of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI in presiding over today’s beatification, I feel honored and delighted to witness the marvelous works of God, and even more so to admire His masterpieces, which are always the saints and the blessed. This venerable archdiocese, with its considerable and growing number of Blesseds and Saints, offers them to the admiration of the entire Church.
The great, biblical words of the Servant of God Pope Paul VI, addressed precisely to the Discalced Carmelite friars [during a general audience on July 11, 1973], fit like a glove: “You are ‘sons of saints,’ look carefully at the immense spiritual inheritance that is handed down to you…” [Original text: Vos estis «filii sanctorum» (Tob 2:18): immensam intuemini hereditatem spiritualem] Words that I like to apply to the men and women brought forth in the faith in this Neapolitan Church.
Yes, dear people of Naples, you too are children of saints: from them we learn to elevate the horizons of hope to heavenly realities, without setting aside our commitment to building up the earthly city, despite all its urgent and disturbing problems. The more we contemplate the Lord among His Saints, entering into living communion with Him, the stronger the hope within us grows for an active and effective commitment to improving and changing the world around us.
Looking particularly at the story and message of Blessed Giuseppina, we better understand the inescapable need for the contemplative dimension in the life of every Christian. Her example also shows us the concrete way to cultivate it. Her existence was a true school of charity, both toward her fellow sisters and toward the vast field of the apostolate, which she, though a cloistered nun, cultivated solely to make people love the Lord more. She, too, like St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, did not want “to be a saint by halves” [cf. LT 247 to Abbé Bellière], albeit with her peculiarities and mystical gifts, and various extraordinary spiritual experiences.
Everything is summed up in a phrase that constituted the unifying program of the Blessed’s entire life: “I want to live by feeding on God’s will… I want my will to be united with God’s will as one.” And again in her Diary: “I ardently desire to live in the will of God; I know that saints are made in this way, and I want to make myself saintly to give glory to God.”
Such a program must be the great aspiration of every Christian, in full conformity with the word of Christ, the One, Supreme Model: “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work” (Jn 4:34), because “The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever” (1 Jn 2:17).
I end with the great honor of sharing with you the special apostolic blessing and greeting of Benedict XVI, who, as he has shown, carries Naples, this Church, its Venerable Pastor, and all the members of the People of God in his heart. I entrust you to the powerful intercession of the new Blessed, that she may protect you all and lead you on the path of holiness.
José Cardinal Saraiva Martins
Prefect, Congregation of the Causes of the Saints
Homily, Mass of Beatification of Blessed Maria Giuseppina
1 June 2008, Cathedral of St. Januarius, NaplesNote: Cardinal Saraiva Martins opens his homily with a quote from Thomas Merton. This quote is from the Author’s Note before the Prologue of Merton’s book, The Ascent to Truth. In context, Merton wrote: “There is no member of the Church who does not owe something to Carmel. But there are few who owe more to the saints of Carmel and to its Queen than does the author. Above all, this book was written, so to speak, under her direction and tutelage.”
Blessed Maria Giuseppina of Jesus Crucified with one of her nuns kneeling before her. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites
Later in the homily, Cardinal Saraiva Martins quotes Blessed Maria Giuseppina, who said: “I want my will to be united with God’s will as one.” The Blessed uses the Italian word impasto, which literally translates to “dough” or “paste.” In the context of Blessed Giuseppina’s writings, impasto metaphorically conveys a deep, active blending and molding of one’s will with God’s will, much like the process of kneading dough until it becomes a cohesive, unified substance. This vivid imagery emphasizes the dynamic and transformative nature of aligning oneself completely with the divine will.Translation from the Italian text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.
Featured image: This is a detail from an artist’s rendering of a well-known photo of Blessed Maria Giuseppina, who was captured seated outdoors, smiling broadly. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites
https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/05/31/giuseppina-1jun08homily/
#beatification #BlessedMariaGiuseppinaOfJesusCrucified #CardinalJoséSaraivaMartins #DiscalcedCarmelites #GiuseppinaCatanea #homily #Naples #sanctity #StThérèseOfLisieux #ThomasMerton #unionWithGod #willOfGod
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The Big conversation Why it matters
Looking at our small community we must remember that it is God Who calls and for what we can offer in our community He takes what we have and makes it go further!
- Church is the place to bring empty lives for God to fill.
- Church is about meeting not just meetings!
In our previous postings we also pointed out that some people may have a wrong opinion about unity and expect all people in a community to say the same and to act the same. But “being one” doesn’t mean “being a clone”. God blesses unity! And we should have and should share our unity in Christ and unity with Christ. All being one in following the teachings of Christ, believing what he says and following up what he asked his followers to do. Not just following a church because it pleases us but because it follows the teachings of the son of God, Jesus Christ, and stays truthful to the Words of God, following God’s Will and willing to share His Gospel. Our union should be in the love for God which should be noticeable for outsiders, being a union of loving people, loving Jehovah God and His son Christ Jesus, Jeshua the Messiah, as lovers of the truth, sharing this love and Good News and spreading unselfish, mutual, unconditional Agape brotherly love and love for all creation under the Covenant of love as beloved disciples and as Bible lovers making a circle of love under the Royal Law of love.
Having different people coming together there should be allowance for every one to have their say. All gathered should have respect for all present and give them the opportunity to share their ideas. Being together it also must be an occasion where public confession, based on a word from God, can take place. This may demand courage to stand up and declare truth, but in a real church of God this should not be a problem because that has to be a place of sharing the love of Christ and working at getting the love of God.
Spending time together to study the Word of God, must do something to those present. Change is inevitable…
except from a vending machine
said Arne Roberts, on October the tenth, at the Big Conversation. For him it is clear what is going to happen to other Bible Students which all came form the same source.
Here’s what will happen to Jehovah’s Witnesses: They will become increasingly like the religious group that influenced Charles Russell: The Christadelphians…
The Christadelphians were once an outspoken, vibrant, edgy “Christian” group who spread their urgent end-times message far and wide. They grew exponentially in the latter half of the nineteenth century, but their heyday is long past. For several decades now they resemble a heavy rusty old steam locomotive that is running out of speed as it lumbers along ill-kept tracks, but still tries to muster the motion needed to take on steep mountain slopes.
The Christadelphians ooze sad irrelevance and faded glory of times well passed. They are an old people’s religion – old people who don’t have the self- and other-awareness to see that they are clinging to a dead dream. The Christadelphians have long since passed their used-by date and the only ones who still ‘practice’ this religion are older individuals who cannot muster the strength to look out their windows at the real world passing them by.
This is the future of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who will not go out with a bang, but who will slowly whimper to an ever slower crawl as the decades pass and the world, in its infinite fascination with religious novelty, will fix its distractable attention on to other more modern belief systems.
For Arne Roberts that is not the end. He asks us to keep in mind that we are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.
We as followers of Christ should make sure that the Clarion of the Torah may sound. We hearing the sound loudly should make sure that there might be a stimulant for others in our community to become co-workers, helping each other, not working against each other, or not considering each other rivals. As individual beings, planets or stars, we may be totally different, but together we are one part of the universe, just some small elements in the creation of God.
Our very tiny community at a Breaking of Bread gathering at our regular meeting place, the service centre in Heverlee, Leuven.When people just not come to join others because they are part of a small community than that community shall never have any chance of growing. When people keep waiting before willing to join a small community because it does not attract them for it is so small that they shall be noticed, we do have to convince them that they should not hide themselves behind the numbers. It is true that when there is a small church people will be noticed. In a mega church nobody shall notice it when you come in later, slip out earlier, shall fall asleep or shall not be attentional. When we encounter such doubting people who are afraid to join a small church we can ask them
How long to wait before bringing religiousness and spirituality in practice
It is up to us that God is in our life and that we want to share it with them. They should not be afraid to feel having a naked identity it such a small group, because as followers of Christ Jesus we have abandoned our sinful ‘I’ and actually have taken an other identity, no identity of our own apart from our union with Christ. Not that we have no unique personality or value or purpose, but that Christ defines our new life. It is that inseparable connection within Christ as a believer, which unites us and in the love of Christ we found the love for each other and have to show the world that we want to share that love. When we fail to see our true existence in Christ and fail to find our life and, thus, seek it outside of Christ we shall become victim of our own vain pursuit that only leads to frustration and angst in our God-thirsty soul.
We must understand that whatever happens the majority of people will not want to take the divine Creator as their God and lots of people shall prefer to be part of the contemporary world, belonging to it, being in it, and enjoying a worldly philosophy, inventions of men designed to rob you of your inheritance (Col.2:8-10) and as such shall not be so much attracted to the Christadelphian world, which demands a change in their attitude. The friendship with the world is for most people much more important than the friendship with God loving people. Most shall prefer to stay in the Godless world having not to wonder about their own responsibilities.
It is up to the lovers of God to show the others the light of the world and that no one should worry to much about living in this world. When people could come to know that New world better they might think twice and be prepared easier to leave the Old world for what it is, looking forward to a better and perfect world. We understand it is not easy for man to get away with the worldly traditions, so this shall always be some of the obstacles to join or to stay in our community. But people should not be afraid that they cannot take part in worldly events in a Godless world. Christadelphians for sure also can enjoy worldly life, having enough time fore worldly pleasures, and not to become frustrated under the yoke of the world.
+
Preceding articles:
The Big conversation follow up
Reasons why you may not miss the opportunity to go to a Small Church
++
Additional reading
- A call easy to understand
- Jehovah steep rock and fortress, source of insight
- How long to wait before bringing religiousness and spirituality in practice
- Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love
- He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
- Many forgot how Christ should be our anchor and our focus
- The business of this life
- Church sent into the world
- Work with joy and pray with love
- Love for each other attracting others
- How do you keep people from stealing your joy?
- Love is like playing the piano
- Creator and Blogger God 9 A Blog of a Book 3 Blog about Prophecy
- Not all christians are followers of a Greco-Roman culture
- Misunderstandings concerning C.T. Russell
- Looking at older articles series over Russell on the previous Bible-scholar Association
- Was Russell and Rutherford “Illuminati”?
- Charles Taze Russell and what he started
- Jesse Hemery and the The Goshen Fellowship
- To remove the whitewash of the Jehovah Witnesses as being the only true Bible Students and Bible Researchers
- Using the name Jehovah but not a witness of that name
- Different approach in organisation of services #1
- Different approach in organisation of services #2
- Different approach in organisation of services #3
- A man from the North wanting to have control in Belgium
- Priority to form a loving brotherhood
- Commitment to Christian unity
- Parts of the body of Christ
- Dissolution of Bijbelvorsers (Bible scholars), Association for Bible study
- Two new encyclopaedic articles
- Who are the Christadelphians
- What are Brothers in Christ
- Discipleship way of life on the narrow way to everlasting life
- Christadelphian people
- Christadelphians or Messianic Christians or Messianic Jews
- About the Belgian Free Christadelphians
- What Christadelphians teach
- Small churches of the few Christadelphians
- Priority to form a loving brotherhood
- 19° Century London Christadelphians
- Breathing and growing with no heir
- Preaching to an unbelieving world
- Commitment to Christian unity
- Parts of the body of Christ
- What part of the Body am I?
- The Church, Body of Christ and remnant Israel synonymous
- United people under Christ
- Fellowship
- The Ecclesia
- The Ecclesia in the churchsystem
- The ecclesia or Christadelphian church
- Our relationship with God, Jesus and each other
- Our ecclesia or Christadelphian-church
- Intentions of an Ecclesia
- An ecclesia in your neighbourhood
- Communion and day of worship
- Christadelphians today
- Small churches of the few Christadelphians
- Harvest in Belgium
+++
Further readings:
- I Once Was Blind but Now I See
- Day 28: Where Are They?
- Day 28: Where Are They?
- Cornerstones
- Narcissist Case Studies – How We Know The Pharisees Were Narcissists, Part 2
- Jesus The Cornerstone Of The Church
- Hey You, Cornterstone! (Who???….me?) Yeah, You!
- God Is Not Human
- Where to Draw the Line: Culture vs Religion
- The Cornerstone: The Response of the Church in Violent Times
- Gospel Doctrine 2015 – Lesson 39 – “For the Perfecting of the Saints”
- Finding Joy in the Little Things
- Word Wednesday: Jesus Our Cornerstone
- The Cornerstone of Your Life
- Cornerstone
- Walking With Intentionality
- What is God’s Will For Your Life?
+++
Related articles
- Jesus Christ is not REAL to most Christians (finalcall07.wordpress.com)
- Loving the Sinner (heartfixxer.wordpress.com)
- We stand together proudly (chronicle.augusta.com)
- A Perfect Inheritance (birdchirp.wordpress.com)
- Spiritual Growth (faithandfootsteps.wordpress.com)
- “By the Power Invested in Me” (breakawaybylintrollins.wordpress.com)
- Victory (myspiritualbreakfast.com)
- Torah for Today: What does the Torah say about the migrant crisis? (jewishnews.co.uk)
- Slavery (thought.dcwillis.com)
- The differing origins of humankind (iol.co.za)
Rate this:
#19Century #Agape #ArneRoberts #BeingOfTheWorld #BibleStudents #BrotherlyLove #CharlesRussell #ChristadelphianCommunity #ChristadelphianWorld #Confession #Cornerstone #Courage #FellowCitizens #FollowersOfChrist #FollowingAChurch #FollowingChrist #FollowingJesusChrist #FollowingTheSon #FollowingWordOfGod #FriendOfTheWorld #Frustration #Gathering #GodCalling #GodlessWorld #HouseholdOfGod #JehovahWitnesses #JehovahSWitnesses #LightOfTheWorld #LivingInThisWorld #LoveForChrist #LoveForCreation #LoveOfChrist #MegaChurch #ModernBeliefSystems #Respect #RespectForEachother #Share #SmallChurch #SmallCommunity #Stimulant #toGather #TorahSClarionCall #Union #UnionWithChristJesus #UnionWithGod #Unity #UnityInChrist #UnityWithChrist #WordOfGod #WorldlyLife #WorldlyTraditions
-
The Big conversation Why it matters
Looking at our small community we must remember that it is God Who calls and for what we can offer in our community He takes what we have and makes it go further!
- Church is the place to bring empty lives for God to fill.
- Church is about meeting not just meetings!
In our previous postings we also pointed out that some people may have a wrong opinion about unity and expect all people in a community to say the same and to act the same. But “being one” doesn’t mean “being a clone”. God blesses unity! And we should have and should share our unity in Christ and unity with Christ. All being one in following the teachings of Christ, believing what he says and following up what he asked his followers to do. Not just following a church because it pleases us but because it follows the teachings of the son of God, Jesus Christ, and stays truthful to the Words of God, following God’s Will and willing to share His Gospel. Our union should be in the love for God which should be noticeable for outsiders, being a union of loving people, loving Jehovah God and His son Christ Jesus, Jeshua the Messiah, as lovers of the truth, sharing this love and Good News and spreading unselfish, mutual, unconditional Agape brotherly love and love for all creation under the Covenant of love as beloved disciples and as Bible lovers making a circle of love under the Royal Law of love.
Having different people coming together there should be allowance for every one to have their say. All gathered should have respect for all present and give them the opportunity to share their ideas. Being together it also must be an occasion where public confession, based on a word from God, can take place. This may demand courage to stand up and declare truth, but in a real church of God this should not be a problem because that has to be a place of sharing the love of Christ and working at getting the love of God.
Spending time together to study the Word of God, must do something to those present. Change is inevitable…
except from a vending machine
said Arne Roberts, on October the tenth, at the Big Conversation. For him it is clear what is going to happen to other Bible Students which all came form the same source.
Here’s what will happen to Jehovah’s Witnesses: They will become increasingly like the religious group that influenced Charles Russell: The Christadelphians…
The Christadelphians were once an outspoken, vibrant, edgy “Christian” group who spread their urgent end-times message far and wide. They grew exponentially in the latter half of the nineteenth century, but their heyday is long past. For several decades now they resemble a heavy rusty old steam locomotive that is running out of speed as it lumbers along ill-kept tracks, but still tries to muster the motion needed to take on steep mountain slopes.
The Christadelphians ooze sad irrelevance and faded glory of times well passed. They are an old people’s religion – old people who don’t have the self- and other-awareness to see that they are clinging to a dead dream. The Christadelphians have long since passed their used-by date and the only ones who still ‘practice’ this religion are older individuals who cannot muster the strength to look out their windows at the real world passing them by.
This is the future of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who will not go out with a bang, but who will slowly whimper to an ever slower crawl as the decades pass and the world, in its infinite fascination with religious novelty, will fix its distractable attention on to other more modern belief systems.
For Arne Roberts that is not the end. He asks us to keep in mind that we are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.
We as followers of Christ should make sure that the Clarion of the Torah may sound. We hearing the sound loudly should make sure that there might be a stimulant for others in our community to become co-workers, helping each other, not working against each other, or not considering each other rivals. As individual beings, planets or stars, we may be totally different, but together we are one part of the universe, just some small elements in the creation of God.
Our very tiny community at a Breaking of Bread gathering at our regular meeting place, the service centre in Heverlee, Leuven.When people just not come to join others because they are part of a small community than that community shall never have any chance of growing. When people keep waiting before willing to join a small community because it does not attract them for it is so small that they shall be noticed, we do have to convince them that they should not hide themselves behind the numbers. It is true that when there is a small church people will be noticed. In a mega church nobody shall notice it when you come in later, slip out earlier, shall fall asleep or shall not be attentional. When we encounter such doubting people who are afraid to join a small church we can ask them
How long to wait before bringing religiousness and spirituality in practice
It is up to us that God is in our life and that we want to share it with them. They should not be afraid to feel having a naked identity it such a small group, because as followers of Christ Jesus we have abandoned our sinful ‘I’ and actually have taken an other identity, no identity of our own apart from our union with Christ. Not that we have no unique personality or value or purpose, but that Christ defines our new life. It is that inseparable connection within Christ as a believer, which unites us and in the love of Christ we found the love for each other and have to show the world that we want to share that love. When we fail to see our true existence in Christ and fail to find our life and, thus, seek it outside of Christ we shall become victim of our own vain pursuit that only leads to frustration and angst in our God-thirsty soul.
We must understand that whatever happens the majority of people will not want to take the divine Creator as their God and lots of people shall prefer to be part of the contemporary world, belonging to it, being in it, and enjoying a worldly philosophy, inventions of men designed to rob you of your inheritance (Col.2:8-10) and as such shall not be so much attracted to the Christadelphian world, which demands a change in their attitude. The friendship with the world is for most people much more important than the friendship with God loving people. Most shall prefer to stay in the Godless world having not to wonder about their own responsibilities.
It is up to the lovers of God to show the others the light of the world and that no one should worry to much about living in this world. When people could come to know that New world better they might think twice and be prepared easier to leave the Old world for what it is, looking forward to a better and perfect world. We understand it is not easy for man to get away with the worldly traditions, so this shall always be some of the obstacles to join or to stay in our community. But people should not be afraid that they cannot take part in worldly events in a Godless world. Christadelphians for sure also can enjoy worldly life, having enough time fore worldly pleasures, and not to become frustrated under the yoke of the world.
+
Preceding articles:
The Big conversation follow up
Reasons why you may not miss the opportunity to go to a Small Church
++
Additional reading
- A call easy to understand
- Jehovah steep rock and fortress, source of insight
- How long to wait before bringing religiousness and spirituality in practice
- Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love
- He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
- Many forgot how Christ should be our anchor and our focus
- The business of this life
- Church sent into the world
- Work with joy and pray with love
- Love for each other attracting others
- How do you keep people from stealing your joy?
- Love is like playing the piano
- Creator and Blogger God 9 A Blog of a Book 3 Blog about Prophecy
- Not all christians are followers of a Greco-Roman culture
- Misunderstandings concerning C.T. Russell
- Looking at older articles series over Russell on the previous Bible-scholar Association
- Was Russell and Rutherford “Illuminati”?
- Charles Taze Russell and what he started
- Jesse Hemery and the The Goshen Fellowship
- To remove the whitewash of the Jehovah Witnesses as being the only true Bible Students and Bible Researchers
- Using the name Jehovah but not a witness of that name
- Different approach in organisation of services #1
- Different approach in organisation of services #2
- Different approach in organisation of services #3
- A man from the North wanting to have control in Belgium
- Priority to form a loving brotherhood
- Commitment to Christian unity
- Parts of the body of Christ
- Dissolution of Bijbelvorsers (Bible scholars), Association for Bible study
- Two new encyclopaedic articles
- Who are the Christadelphians
- What are Brothers in Christ
- Discipleship way of life on the narrow way to everlasting life
- Christadelphian people
- Christadelphians or Messianic Christians or Messianic Jews
- About the Belgian Free Christadelphians
- What Christadelphians teach
- Small churches of the few Christadelphians
- Priority to form a loving brotherhood
- 19° Century London Christadelphians
- Breathing and growing with no heir
- Preaching to an unbelieving world
- Commitment to Christian unity
- Parts of the body of Christ
- What part of the Body am I?
- The Church, Body of Christ and remnant Israel synonymous
- United people under Christ
- Fellowship
- The Ecclesia
- The Ecclesia in the churchsystem
- The ecclesia or Christadelphian church
- Our relationship with God, Jesus and each other
- Our ecclesia or Christadelphian-church
- Intentions of an Ecclesia
- An ecclesia in your neighbourhood
- Communion and day of worship
- Christadelphians today
- Small churches of the few Christadelphians
- Harvest in Belgium
+++
Further readings:
- I Once Was Blind but Now I See
- Day 28: Where Are They?
- Day 28: Where Are They?
- Cornerstones
- Narcissist Case Studies – How We Know The Pharisees Were Narcissists, Part 2
- Jesus The Cornerstone Of The Church
- Hey You, Cornterstone! (Who???….me?) Yeah, You!
- God Is Not Human
- Where to Draw the Line: Culture vs Religion
- The Cornerstone: The Response of the Church in Violent Times
- Gospel Doctrine 2015 – Lesson 39 – “For the Perfecting of the Saints”
- Finding Joy in the Little Things
- Word Wednesday: Jesus Our Cornerstone
- The Cornerstone of Your Life
- Cornerstone
- Walking With Intentionality
- What is God’s Will For Your Life?
+++
Related articles
- Jesus Christ is not REAL to most Christians (finalcall07.wordpress.com)
- Loving the Sinner (heartfixxer.wordpress.com)
- We stand together proudly (chronicle.augusta.com)
- A Perfect Inheritance (birdchirp.wordpress.com)
- Spiritual Growth (faithandfootsteps.wordpress.com)
- “By the Power Invested in Me” (breakawaybylintrollins.wordpress.com)
- Victory (myspiritualbreakfast.com)
- Torah for Today: What does the Torah say about the migrant crisis? (jewishnews.co.uk)
- Slavery (thought.dcwillis.com)
- The differing origins of humankind (iol.co.za)
Rate this:
#19Century #Agape #ArneRoberts #BeingOfTheWorld #BibleStudents #BrotherlyLove #CharlesRussell #ChristadelphianCommunity #ChristadelphianWorld #Confession #Cornerstone #Courage #FellowCitizens #FollowersOfChrist #FollowingAChurch #FollowingChrist #FollowingJesusChrist #FollowingTheSon #FollowingWordOfGod #FriendOfTheWorld #Frustration #Gathering #GodCalling #GodlessWorld #HouseholdOfGod #JehovahWitnesses #JehovahSWitnesses #LightOfTheWorld #LivingInThisWorld #LoveForChrist #LoveForCreation #LoveOfChrist #MegaChurch #ModernBeliefSystems #Respect #RespectForEachother #Share #SmallChurch #SmallCommunity #Stimulant #toGather #TorahSClarionCall #Union #UnionWithChristJesus #UnionWithGod #Unity #UnityInChrist #UnityWithChrist #WordOfGod #WorldlyLife #WorldlyTraditions
-
The Big conversation Why it matters
Looking at our small community we must remember that it is God Who calls and for what we can offer in our community He takes what we have and makes it go further!
- Church is the place to bring empty lives for God to fill.
- Church is about meeting not just meetings!
In our previous postings we also pointed out that some people may have a wrong opinion about unity and expect all people in a community to say the same and to act the same. But “being one” doesn’t mean “being a clone”. God blesses unity! And we should have and should share our unity in Christ and unity with Christ. All being one in following the teachings of Christ, believing what he says and following up what he asked his followers to do. Not just following a church because it pleases us but because it follows the teachings of the son of God, Jesus Christ, and stays truthful to the Words of God, following God’s Will and willing to share His Gospel. Our union should be in the love for God which should be noticeable for outsiders, being a union of loving people, loving Jehovah God and His son Christ Jesus, Jeshua the Messiah, as lovers of the truth, sharing this love and Good News and spreading unselfish, mutual, unconditional Agape brotherly love and love for all creation under the Covenant of love as beloved disciples and as Bible lovers making a circle of love under the Royal Law of love.
Having different people coming together there should be allowance for every one to have their say. All gathered should have respect for all present and give them the opportunity to share their ideas. Being together it also must be an occasion where public confession, based on a word from God, can take place. This may demand courage to stand up and declare truth, but in a real church of God this should not be a problem because that has to be a place of sharing the love of Christ and working at getting the love of God.
Spending time together to study the Word of God, must do something to those present. Change is inevitable…
except from a vending machine
said Arne Roberts, on October the tenth, at the Big Conversation. For him it is clear what is going to happen to other Bible Students which all came form the same source.
Here’s what will happen to Jehovah’s Witnesses: They will become increasingly like the religious group that influenced Charles Russell: The Christadelphians…
The Christadelphians were once an outspoken, vibrant, edgy “Christian” group who spread their urgent end-times message far and wide. They grew exponentially in the latter half of the nineteenth century, but their heyday is long past. For several decades now they resemble a heavy rusty old steam locomotive that is running out of speed as it lumbers along ill-kept tracks, but still tries to muster the motion needed to take on steep mountain slopes.
The Christadelphians ooze sad irrelevance and faded glory of times well passed. They are an old people’s religion – old people who don’t have the self- and other-awareness to see that they are clinging to a dead dream. The Christadelphians have long since passed their used-by date and the only ones who still ‘practice’ this religion are older individuals who cannot muster the strength to look out their windows at the real world passing them by.
This is the future of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who will not go out with a bang, but who will slowly whimper to an ever slower crawl as the decades pass and the world, in its infinite fascination with religious novelty, will fix its distractable attention on to other more modern belief systems.
For Arne Roberts that is not the end. He asks us to keep in mind that we are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.
We as followers of Christ should make sure that the Clarion of the Torah may sound. We hearing the sound loudly should make sure that there might be a stimulant for others in our community to become co-workers, helping each other, not working against each other, or not considering each other rivals. As individual beings, planets or stars, we may be totally different, but together we are one part of the universe, just some small elements in the creation of God.
Our very tiny community at a Breaking of Bread gathering at our regular meeting place, the service centre in Heverlee, Leuven.When people just not come to join others because they are part of a small community than that community shall never have any chance of growing. When people keep waiting before willing to join a small community because it does not attract them for it is so small that they shall be noticed, we do have to convince them that they should not hide themselves behind the numbers. It is true that when there is a small church people will be noticed. In a mega church nobody shall notice it when you come in later, slip out earlier, shall fall asleep or shall not be attentional. When we encounter such doubting people who are afraid to join a small church we can ask them
How long to wait before bringing religiousness and spirituality in practice
It is up to us that God is in our life and that we want to share it with them. They should not be afraid to feel having a naked identity it such a small group, because as followers of Christ Jesus we have abandoned our sinful ‘I’ and actually have taken an other identity, no identity of our own apart from our union with Christ. Not that we have no unique personality or value or purpose, but that Christ defines our new life. It is that inseparable connection within Christ as a believer, which unites us and in the love of Christ we found the love for each other and have to show the world that we want to share that love. When we fail to see our true existence in Christ and fail to find our life and, thus, seek it outside of Christ we shall become victim of our own vain pursuit that only leads to frustration and angst in our God-thirsty soul.
We must understand that whatever happens the majority of people will not want to take the divine Creator as their God and lots of people shall prefer to be part of the contemporary world, belonging to it, being in it, and enjoying a worldly philosophy, inventions of men designed to rob you of your inheritance (Col.2:8-10) and as such shall not be so much attracted to the Christadelphian world, which demands a change in their attitude. The friendship with the world is for most people much more important than the friendship with God loving people. Most shall prefer to stay in the Godless world having not to wonder about their own responsibilities.
It is up to the lovers of God to show the others the light of the world and that no one should worry to much about living in this world. When people could come to know that New world better they might think twice and be prepared easier to leave the Old world for what it is, looking forward to a better and perfect world. We understand it is not easy for man to get away with the worldly traditions, so this shall always be some of the obstacles to join or to stay in our community. But people should not be afraid that they cannot take part in worldly events in a Godless world. Christadelphians for sure also can enjoy worldly life, having enough time fore worldly pleasures, and not to become frustrated under the yoke of the world.
+
Preceding articles:
The Big conversation follow up
Reasons why you may not miss the opportunity to go to a Small Church
++
Additional reading
- A call easy to understand
- Jehovah steep rock and fortress, source of insight
- How long to wait before bringing religiousness and spirituality in practice
- Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love
- He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
- Many forgot how Christ should be our anchor and our focus
- The business of this life
- Church sent into the world
- Work with joy and pray with love
- Love for each other attracting others
- How do you keep people from stealing your joy?
- Love is like playing the piano
- Creator and Blogger God 9 A Blog of a Book 3 Blog about Prophecy
- Not all christians are followers of a Greco-Roman culture
- Misunderstandings concerning C.T. Russell
- Looking at older articles series over Russell on the previous Bible-scholar Association
- Was Russell and Rutherford “Illuminati”?
- Charles Taze Russell and what he started
- Jesse Hemery and the The Goshen Fellowship
- To remove the whitewash of the Jehovah Witnesses as being the only true Bible Students and Bible Researchers
- Using the name Jehovah but not a witness of that name
- Different approach in organisation of services #1
- Different approach in organisation of services #2
- Different approach in organisation of services #3
- A man from the North wanting to have control in Belgium
- Priority to form a loving brotherhood
- Commitment to Christian unity
- Parts of the body of Christ
- Dissolution of Bijbelvorsers (Bible scholars), Association for Bible study
- Two new encyclopaedic articles
- Who are the Christadelphians
- What are Brothers in Christ
- Discipleship way of life on the narrow way to everlasting life
- Christadelphian people
- Christadelphians or Messianic Christians or Messianic Jews
- About the Belgian Free Christadelphians
- What Christadelphians teach
- Small churches of the few Christadelphians
- Priority to form a loving brotherhood
- 19° Century London Christadelphians
- Breathing and growing with no heir
- Preaching to an unbelieving world
- Commitment to Christian unity
- Parts of the body of Christ
- What part of the Body am I?
- The Church, Body of Christ and remnant Israel synonymous
- United people under Christ
- Fellowship
- The Ecclesia
- The Ecclesia in the churchsystem
- The ecclesia or Christadelphian church
- Our relationship with God, Jesus and each other
- Our ecclesia or Christadelphian-church
- Intentions of an Ecclesia
- An ecclesia in your neighbourhood
- Communion and day of worship
- Christadelphians today
- Small churches of the few Christadelphians
- Harvest in Belgium
+++
Further readings:
- I Once Was Blind but Now I See
- Day 28: Where Are They?
- Day 28: Where Are They?
- Cornerstones
- Narcissist Case Studies – How We Know The Pharisees Were Narcissists, Part 2
- Jesus The Cornerstone Of The Church
- Hey You, Cornterstone! (Who???….me?) Yeah, You!
- God Is Not Human
- Where to Draw the Line: Culture vs Religion
- The Cornerstone: The Response of the Church in Violent Times
- Gospel Doctrine 2015 – Lesson 39 – “For the Perfecting of the Saints”
- Finding Joy in the Little Things
- Word Wednesday: Jesus Our Cornerstone
- The Cornerstone of Your Life
- Cornerstone
- Walking With Intentionality
- What is God’s Will For Your Life?
+++
Related articles
- Jesus Christ is not REAL to most Christians (finalcall07.wordpress.com)
- Loving the Sinner (heartfixxer.wordpress.com)
- We stand together proudly (chronicle.augusta.com)
- A Perfect Inheritance (birdchirp.wordpress.com)
- Spiritual Growth (faithandfootsteps.wordpress.com)
- “By the Power Invested in Me” (breakawaybylintrollins.wordpress.com)
- Victory (myspiritualbreakfast.com)
- Torah for Today: What does the Torah say about the migrant crisis? (jewishnews.co.uk)
- Slavery (thought.dcwillis.com)
- The differing origins of humankind (iol.co.za)
Rate this:
#19Century #Agape #ArneRoberts #BeingOfTheWorld #BibleStudents #BrotherlyLove #CharlesRussell #ChristadelphianCommunity #ChristadelphianWorld #Confession #Cornerstone #Courage #FellowCitizens #FollowersOfChrist #FollowingAChurch #FollowingChrist #FollowingJesusChrist #FollowingTheSon #FollowingWordOfGod #FriendOfTheWorld #Frustration #Gathering #GodCalling #GodlessWorld #HouseholdOfGod #JehovahWitnesses #JehovahSWitnesses #LightOfTheWorld #LivingInThisWorld #LoveForChrist #LoveForCreation #LoveOfChrist #MegaChurch #ModernBeliefSystems #Respect #RespectForEachother #Share #SmallChurch #SmallCommunity #Stimulant #toGather #TorahSClarionCall #Union #UnionWithChristJesus #UnionWithGod #Unity #UnityInChrist #UnityWithChrist #WordOfGod #WorldlyLife #WorldlyTraditions
-
The Big conversation Why it matters
Looking at our small community we must remember that it is God Who calls and for what we can offer in our community He takes what we have and makes it go further!
- Church is the place to bring empty lives for God to fill.
- Church is about meeting not just meetings!
In our previous postings we also pointed out that some people may have a wrong opinion about unity and expect all people in a community to say the same and to act the same. But “being one” doesn’t mean “being a clone”. God blesses unity! And we should have and should share our unity in Christ and unity with Christ. All being one in following the teachings of Christ, believing what he says and following up what he asked his followers to do. Not just following a church because it pleases us but because it follows the teachings of the son of God, Jesus Christ, and stays truthful to the Words of God, following God’s Will and willing to share His Gospel. Our union should be in the love for God which should be noticeable for outsiders, being a union of loving people, loving Jehovah God and His son Christ Jesus, Jeshua the Messiah, as lovers of the truth, sharing this love and Good News and spreading unselfish, mutual, unconditional Agape brotherly love and love for all creation under the Covenant of love as beloved disciples and as Bible lovers making a circle of love under the Royal Law of love.
Having different people coming together there should be allowance for every one to have their say. All gathered should have respect for all present and give them the opportunity to share their ideas. Being together it also must be an occasion where public confession, based on a word from God, can take place. This may demand courage to stand up and declare truth, but in a real church of God this should not be a problem because that has to be a place of sharing the love of Christ and working at getting the love of God.
Spending time together to study the Word of God, must do something to those present. Change is inevitable…
except from a vending machine
said Arne Roberts, on October the tenth, at the Big Conversation. For him it is clear what is going to happen to other Bible Students which all came form the same source.
Here’s what will happen to Jehovah’s Witnesses: They will become increasingly like the religious group that influenced Charles Russell: The Christadelphians…
The Christadelphians were once an outspoken, vibrant, edgy “Christian” group who spread their urgent end-times message far and wide. They grew exponentially in the latter half of the nineteenth century, but their heyday is long past. For several decades now they resemble a heavy rusty old steam locomotive that is running out of speed as it lumbers along ill-kept tracks, but still tries to muster the motion needed to take on steep mountain slopes.
The Christadelphians ooze sad irrelevance and faded glory of times well passed. They are an old people’s religion – old people who don’t have the self- and other-awareness to see that they are clinging to a dead dream. The Christadelphians have long since passed their used-by date and the only ones who still ‘practice’ this religion are older individuals who cannot muster the strength to look out their windows at the real world passing them by.
This is the future of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who will not go out with a bang, but who will slowly whimper to an ever slower crawl as the decades pass and the world, in its infinite fascination with religious novelty, will fix its distractable attention on to other more modern belief systems.
For Arne Roberts that is not the end. He asks us to keep in mind that we are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.
We as followers of Christ should make sure that the Clarion of the Torah may sound. We hearing the sound loudly should make sure that there might be a stimulant for others in our community to become co-workers, helping each other, not working against each other, or not considering each other rivals. As individual beings, planets or stars, we may be totally different, but together we are one part of the universe, just some small elements in the creation of God.
Our very tiny community at a Breaking of Bread gathering at our regular meeting place, the service centre in Heverlee, Leuven.When people just not come to join others because they are part of a small community than that community shall never have any chance of growing. When people keep waiting before willing to join a small community because it does not attract them for it is so small that they shall be noticed, we do have to convince them that they should not hide themselves behind the numbers. It is true that when there is a small church people will be noticed. In a mega church nobody shall notice it when you come in later, slip out earlier, shall fall asleep or shall not be attentional. When we encounter such doubting people who are afraid to join a small church we can ask them
How long to wait before bringing religiousness and spirituality in practice
It is up to us that God is in our life and that we want to share it with them. They should not be afraid to feel having a naked identity it such a small group, because as followers of Christ Jesus we have abandoned our sinful ‘I’ and actually have taken an other identity, no identity of our own apart from our union with Christ. Not that we have no unique personality or value or purpose, but that Christ defines our new life. It is that inseparable connection within Christ as a believer, which unites us and in the love of Christ we found the love for each other and have to show the world that we want to share that love. When we fail to see our true existence in Christ and fail to find our life and, thus, seek it outside of Christ we shall become victim of our own vain pursuit that only leads to frustration and angst in our God-thirsty soul.
We must understand that whatever happens the majority of people will not want to take the divine Creator as their God and lots of people shall prefer to be part of the contemporary world, belonging to it, being in it, and enjoying a worldly philosophy, inventions of men designed to rob you of your inheritance (Col.2:8-10) and as such shall not be so much attracted to the Christadelphian world, which demands a change in their attitude. The friendship with the world is for most people much more important than the friendship with God loving people. Most shall prefer to stay in the Godless world having not to wonder about their own responsibilities.
It is up to the lovers of God to show the others the light of the world and that no one should worry to much about living in this world. When people could come to know that New world better they might think twice and be prepared easier to leave the Old world for what it is, looking forward to a better and perfect world. We understand it is not easy for man to get away with the worldly traditions, so this shall always be some of the obstacles to join or to stay in our community. But people should not be afraid that they cannot take part in worldly events in a Godless world. Christadelphians for sure also can enjoy worldly life, having enough time fore worldly pleasures, and not to become frustrated under the yoke of the world.
+
Preceding articles:
The Big conversation follow up
Reasons why you may not miss the opportunity to go to a Small Church
++
Additional reading
- A call easy to understand
- Jehovah steep rock and fortress, source of insight
- How long to wait before bringing religiousness and spirituality in practice
- Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love
- He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
- Many forgot how Christ should be our anchor and our focus
- The business of this life
- Church sent into the world
- Work with joy and pray with love
- Love for each other attracting others
- How do you keep people from stealing your joy?
- Love is like playing the piano
- Creator and Blogger God 9 A Blog of a Book 3 Blog about Prophecy
- Not all christians are followers of a Greco-Roman culture
- Misunderstandings concerning C.T. Russell
- Looking at older articles series over Russell on the previous Bible-scholar Association
- Was Russell and Rutherford “Illuminati”?
- Charles Taze Russell and what he started
- Jesse Hemery and the The Goshen Fellowship
- To remove the whitewash of the Jehovah Witnesses as being the only true Bible Students and Bible Researchers
- Using the name Jehovah but not a witness of that name
- Different approach in organisation of services #1
- Different approach in organisation of services #2
- Different approach in organisation of services #3
- A man from the North wanting to have control in Belgium
- Priority to form a loving brotherhood
- Commitment to Christian unity
- Parts of the body of Christ
- Dissolution of Bijbelvorsers (Bible scholars), Association for Bible study
- Two new encyclopaedic articles
- Who are the Christadelphians
- What are Brothers in Christ
- Discipleship way of life on the narrow way to everlasting life
- Christadelphian people
- Christadelphians or Messianic Christians or Messianic Jews
- About the Belgian Free Christadelphians
- What Christadelphians teach
- Small churches of the few Christadelphians
- Priority to form a loving brotherhood
- 19° Century London Christadelphians
- Breathing and growing with no heir
- Preaching to an unbelieving world
- Commitment to Christian unity
- Parts of the body of Christ
- What part of the Body am I?
- The Church, Body of Christ and remnant Israel synonymous
- United people under Christ
- Fellowship
- The Ecclesia
- The Ecclesia in the churchsystem
- The ecclesia or Christadelphian church
- Our relationship with God, Jesus and each other
- Our ecclesia or Christadelphian-church
- Intentions of an Ecclesia
- An ecclesia in your neighbourhood
- Communion and day of worship
- Christadelphians today
- Small churches of the few Christadelphians
- Harvest in Belgium
+++
Further readings:
- I Once Was Blind but Now I See
- Day 28: Where Are They?
- Day 28: Where Are They?
- Cornerstones
- Narcissist Case Studies – How We Know The Pharisees Were Narcissists, Part 2
- Jesus The Cornerstone Of The Church
- Hey You, Cornterstone! (Who???….me?) Yeah, You!
- God Is Not Human
- Where to Draw the Line: Culture vs Religion
- The Cornerstone: The Response of the Church in Violent Times
- Gospel Doctrine 2015 – Lesson 39 – “For the Perfecting of the Saints”
- Finding Joy in the Little Things
- Word Wednesday: Jesus Our Cornerstone
- The Cornerstone of Your Life
- Cornerstone
- Walking With Intentionality
- What is God’s Will For Your Life?
+++
Related articles
- Jesus Christ is not REAL to most Christians (finalcall07.wordpress.com)
- Loving the Sinner (heartfixxer.wordpress.com)
- We stand together proudly (chronicle.augusta.com)
- A Perfect Inheritance (birdchirp.wordpress.com)
- Spiritual Growth (faithandfootsteps.wordpress.com)
- “By the Power Invested in Me” (breakawaybylintrollins.wordpress.com)
- Victory (myspiritualbreakfast.com)
- Torah for Today: What does the Torah say about the migrant crisis? (jewishnews.co.uk)
- Slavery (thought.dcwillis.com)
- The differing origins of humankind (iol.co.za)
Rate this:
#19Century #Agape #ArneRoberts #BeingOfTheWorld #BibleStudents #BrotherlyLove #CharlesRussell #ChristadelphianCommunity #ChristadelphianWorld #Confession #Cornerstone #Courage #FellowCitizens #FollowersOfChrist #FollowingAChurch #FollowingChrist #FollowingJesusChrist #FollowingTheSon #FollowingWordOfGod #FriendOfTheWorld #Frustration #Gathering #GodCalling #GodlessWorld #HouseholdOfGod #JehovahWitnesses #JehovahSWitnesses #LightOfTheWorld #LivingInThisWorld #LoveForChrist #LoveForCreation #LoveOfChrist #MegaChurch #ModernBeliefSystems #Respect #RespectForEachother #Share #SmallChurch #SmallCommunity #Stimulant #toGather #TorahSClarionCall #Union #UnionWithChristJesus #UnionWithGod #Unity #UnityInChrist #UnityWithChrist #WordOfGod #WorldlyLife #WorldlyTraditions
-
Members of the ecclesia uniting and seeking God’s help in tribulation
Tuesday-night at the meeting of the Ecclesia Brussel–Leuven we read Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 1+3, looking at the difficulties we have encountered the last few months and how we had to cope with it but also how we should continue our way.
Sometimes we do get to recognise we could not re-conciliate but have to turn over the page and leave those who did not want to be amicably connected with us on their own. Sometimes a community has the priority to protect its own flock and has to take measures which do not seem so pleasant for all people involved. When certain people prefer to stand on their own and are not willing to co-operate the community than has to decide to let them go their own way, but when they themselves did everything to blacken that community, they should not have to keep contact any more. As such we decided to leave the man from the North and his organisation far what they are, and shall concentrate ourselves on bringing people to Christ ourselves, without their help.
Jesus Christ is the man who opened the way to his Father. He is the One Mediator between God and man and is the cornerstone of the Church of God.
We do trust the Most High, Elohim Hashem Jehovah, Who shall call people and Who shall guide us and give us that what we need according to His time.
In Him we trust and give all our hope to build up His Church in Belgium and other parts in the world.
+++
Related articles
- New on the ASOR Blog- Ecclesia Diaboli (I Thought It Was Going to be about the Methodists…) (zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com)
Alexander Michalak writes: My preliminary examination of several Second Temple texts, 1 Enoch, the Book of Jubilees, Joseph and Aseneth, Testament of Job, the First Epistle to the Corinthians, and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs indicates that there is already at this time a connection between demons and the cult of foreign gods, although they are not always explicitly identified with one another. Sometimes the demonic spirits are said only to lead people astray, that is, to lead people toward Gentile worship and toward idolatry, whereas in other cases it is the demonic spirits who are the objects of worship, or the pagan gods themselves. - The House of Worship (causeitfeelsright.wordpress.com)
The Greek word that should have been translated to church was only used twice in the New Testament. It means “the Lord’s” and was used for the Lord’s day and the Lord’s supper. But this instance is ecclesia. It means “to call forth from out of”. Matthew says if you and the other person can’t work out your problems go get help. Go find a few more people to help because maybe they’ll understand a different perspective. If that doesn’t work go find the ones who have been called out of darkness (1 Peter). When you are in darkness you can’t see clearly and when you are “in the dark” you are ignorant which simply means you don’t know. So someone who has been called out can see clearly, or they are knowledgeable or “in the know” which is having “inside” information. - Mary, Martha & Lazarus – the family in Bethany (hadvarim.wordpress.com)
The gospel narrative then is largely concerned with Christ exposing the apostate Jewish leaders, and building up his apostles as “other husbandmen” to replace them. The parables recorded of the Kingdom of heaven throughout Matthew describe the kingdom of Israel in existence (Mat 11:12), under the governance of the prince of this world – the apostate Jewish leaders (John 12:31, 16:11, Eph 2:2, Luke 10:18, Mat 24:27), and then later to be replaced with the new heavens founded upon Christ as the Abrahamic seed stars are raised to the political heavens (Gen 15:5, Dan 12:2-3, Psa 19:4, 1 Cor 15:40-49, Apoc 4:1).
+
A people for his Name
Christ is described as the second Adam as compared to the first Adam (1 Cor 15:45-47). Both of them the “son of God” (Luke 3:38), and both typically created the same way. The body of Christ is the Ecclesia εκκλησια (Eph 5:23, 30, Col 1:18,24), and it is being formed from the Abrahamic dust, the seed of Abraham according to the promises of old; compare Gen 2:7 with Gen 13:16, 28:14.
+The mortal children of Israel are described as Elohim, mighty ones, or as we have in the AV “gods”. Elohim describes the the mental state of the person, not their physical nature. Ambassadors of the father, regardless of whether they are mortal people or immortal angels. If they are empowered by the will of the spirit, they are indeed mighty ones.When mortal Elohim, mighty ones, do not keep the commandments of Yahweh then they are not immune – by any means – to the consequences of their actions. They will “die like men”.
Therefore we ought to take earnest heed to the things which we have heard. We have all the scriptures… even the testimony of the Son, which brings with it great responsibility (Heb 2:1-3). We comfort in that if we turn from wickedness we will be forgiven. Yet vigilant in the warning that turning to wickedness means rejection (Ezk 33:11-19).
- Ecclesia Plantanda (vicaranne.wordpress.com)
Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (1711-1787) … Englishman William Carey … Both men understood that sharing good news need not and must not wait for people to learn the evangelist’s tongue. - church oh church1 (ozyikhiedwardblog.wordpress.com)
why substitute “ecclesia” for “kyriakon”?to support the regular congregating of early Christians,who didn’t understand what Paul and Silas were doing!
What did the New Covenant writers mean when they used the word “Ecclesia” to describe a Christian body of people?? We can safely denote that they intended to convey the original Greek meaning of the word:”A body of Christian called out of Roman and Judean systems of Government,to live under a seperate civil mentality,”a politically autonomous body of Christians,under no other King but Yeshua,under no other civil laws,than that of Yeshua.But some misguided folks misunderstood the missions of Paul, that was why these Christians ran into trouble with kings and rulers,were arrested,crucified,and martyred. They dropped Caesar as their King,and took up Christ. The writers of the New covenant didn’t substitute “kyriakon” with “Ecclesia” to mean entertainment every Sundays,and Tuesdays,and so on! - Apostasy in the Highest Places (mysteryoftheiniquity.com)
The church, the Ecclesia, is a body of people who are redeemed called out to represent GOD and HIS Authority which means they are called to carry our HIS Laws. We are granted the responsibility of not only this but we are accountable for these actions.
The fact that the church is failing man is an undeniable truth but it’s also devastating to the people. How do I mean they are failing the people? - Priority to form a loving brotherhood (christadelphianworld.blogspot.com)
There might be people who do not like that others share the love of Christ with each other and do not mind being under Christ instead of being under one or the other organisation. - Disciple of Christ counting lives and friends dear to them (christadelphianworld.blogspot.com)
Coming together in each-others houses, forming housechurches as a church of disciples they also were an assembly of learners. We too so many years later should be like them a church of Christian disciples and an assembly of persons who believe the things of the Kingdom of God, and of the Name of the lord Jesus, and, thus believing, have been immersed into Christ and patiently continue in the faith and well doing of their vocation, reading, marking, learning and inwardly digesting all things revealed in the scriptures of truth.
In the readings of today we look at the brothers and sisters in Corinth some 2000 years ago.
In Belgium the community has been troubled by persons perhaps wanting to claim to have the right to make foundations and to direct the groups of people wanting to come together under the name of Christ.
Paul the Apostle, Russian icon from first quarter of 18th cen. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We remember how the apostle Paul makes the argument that he has borne witness to the people of Corinth, he has shared the gospel, he has brought them to Christ and showed them the way but that he has to be sad because he only could see division between those who should be united as brethren and sisters in Christ.
The apostle Paul in his 5th letter to the Romans and his first three letters to the Corinths, also talks…
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