Four Hundred Years of Silence

Christmas Eve, 2008

I was thinking recently of the four hundred years of silence that lies between the book of Malachi in the Old Testament and the first advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. In keeping with that, I would like to post a portion of a letter I received in 1990. I was cleaning out some old files and came across this. It was written in a letter to me from George Moreshead who spoke at a home fellowship meeting we went to in the Altanta area. Although this is 18 years old, the message is vitally relevant to our current times.
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"Given the spiritual level of the Body of Christ, with the consequent immaturity prevailng among older as well as younger believers, can we hold out for..... and does the Lord look for.... anything more than the Malachi condition, which pertained, apparently, all during the last 400 years--at the very least--before the Lord's first coming.

'Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other,
and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance
was written in His presence concerning those who feared
the Lord and honored His Name.' .....Mal. 3:10.

May it not have been to the members of just such an unformed fellowship of His lovers and expectant ones in Jerusalem with whom Simeon and Anna were related and to whom Anna 'spoke about the Child'.... as to those 'who were looking forward to the redemption of Jeruslaem'. Lk. 2:38 ?

If we allow our minds unwittingly to form a preconceived pattern or image of what we expect to see dwelling in and with our groups....and then, thereafter even unconsciously, continually measure our groups over against that preformed concept of what we believe the Lord is working for among us, may we not run the risk of ending up somewhere out in left field and also missing the Lord's goal.... and of straining in the flesh to achieve what can be attained only in and by the Spirit .... as with the Galatians. (3:3)?

Could it be that the Lord is asking and expecting at the moment no more than our simple gathering together.... as those who love Him supremely and want nothing more than Himself.... just to talk of Him and share what he has given us of Himself either from the Word, or from our other reading, or through some personal, practical experience on the job or in the home (and even perhaps at times just being there as a channel for His Life to flow through.... and out into the room and into the spirits of the others present for their uplifting and quickening)-- a Malachi scenario in this time preceding the Lord's second coming? Would He have us to reduce down to something of a zero condition together-- a coming down to ground floor, as it were-- and from there, without care or preconception as to what and when and how He will take us higher up corporately, let His Life draw us and beget among us just that form and expression of Himself that will issue organically from the growth of His Life in and among us ("Behold the lilies of the field: they toil not, neither do they spin......)"
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Inspiration in Prayer

Yesterday I took some time out and went to this special place near my home. I have not stopped thinking about this place since then. It became a place of refuge for me as an inward reality. I have received strength in the Lord from being there. Click on the photos for a larger view.

What of the Night?.....Isaiah 21

In Isaiah chapter 21, we have the question--- Watchman, what of the night? This is preceded by the statement, The Burden of Dumah. Dumah in Hebrew means 'silence'. So... in a sense you could say that this is the burden for silence. I was reminded of a quote from Malcolm Muggeridge that goes something like this......
"The media has tried to become the Logos". ( And he said this many years ago!)
For some time now, I have had a sense of foreboding about the internet. I know the Lord is using it in spite of the corruption, and I have made many close connections through the internet, even things that have led to fulfilling what I believe is God's will for my life, but at the same time, I am also seeing that at some point, believers will have to reject the media. The commercialization of media is tied in with the merchandising of mystery Babylon. I have already rejected television, several years ago being literally unable to watch commercials, putting them on mute for a long time, finally giving up television altogether, sensing that the commercialization was the true evil of it.
My only source of news and current events is the internet and some radio. Yesterday while looking at a news story on an online news source, as I was trying to read an article, a figure of a man walked out of an advertising box and walked across the screen on top of the story and walked back into the ad box, seeking to draw my attention to the ad. Something in that struck me as really evil. Not only evil, but as if the gall of the media has come to a fulness. If it were possible, I think the advertisers would send hologram figures into our living rooms. And indeed, something like that may exist eventually, if this thing goes far enough.
....end part one, (I hope to write more on this subject)......

The Early Church in Ireland and our Feathered Friends

"On the approach of the hour of evening prayer, all the birds, in unison, clapping their wings, began to sing a hymn, `O Lord, becometh Thee in Sion, and a vow shall be paid to Thee in Jerusalem' (Ps. lxiv.); and they alternately chanted the same psalm for an hour; and the melody of their warbling and the accompanying clapping of their wings, sounded like unto a delightful harmony of great sweetness.

Then St Brendan said to the brethren: `Take bodily refreshment now, for the Lord has sated your souls with the joys of His divine resurrection. ' When supper was ended, and the divine office discharged, the man of God and his companions retired to rest until the third watch of the night, when he aroused them all from sleep, chanting the verse: `Thou, O Lord, wilt open my lips;' whereupon all the birds, with voice and wing, warbled in response: `Praise the Lord, all His angels, praise Him all His virtues.' Thus they sang for an hour every night; and when morning dawned, they chanted: `May the splendour of the Lord God be upon us,' in the same melody and measures their matin praises of God. Again, at tierce, they sang the verse: `Sing to our God, sing; sing to our King, sing wisely;' at sext: The Lord hath caused the light of His countenance to shine upon us, and may He have mercy on us;' and at none they sang: `Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in unity.' Thus day and night those birds gave praise to God. St Brendan, seeing all this, made thanksgiving to the Lord for all His wonderful works; and the brethren were thus regaled with such spiritual viands until the octave of the Easter festival.".....quote from the ancient church in Ireland.  photo from FreeFoto.com

A Message from One of His Creatures ??

On a recent drive through the Cloudland area of NW GA, I actually saw one just like this crossing the highway and heading into the woods. A sighting like that is quite rare. I did a little research on Mtn. Lions and found that they are solitary in nature. I keep pondering on this.................

Come Apart a While

A place that is a part of my everyday. It is my own backyard.

Surrender

I recently began re-reading a very old copy I have of a biography of Francois Fenelon and came across something that really spoke to me. The quote is in the introduction of the book.

"Consider your life as a perpetual perishing and lift up your mind to God above all whenever the clock strikes, saying, 'God, I adore your eternal being. I am happy that my being should perish every moment so that every moment it may render homage to your eternity.'"
.........Jean-Jacques Olier.




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