Do you not know who you are?

This word was given to me in August 2004. It is the companion word to the spirit of the age:

Do you not know who you are?

With one prayer, you can change the world.
My beloved, before all creation
Bought with a price
Glittering and Holy
Called by name

Do you think I do not know you?
Heart and soul I do
Eternal and forever
Exquisite crystal
Perfect in purity

Do you not know who you are?

My love for you passes beyond bearing
Beyond meaning
Never encompassed
Never changing
Earnestly I sought you
Found you
And I bear you home

Do not gaze down on lowly trinkets
Things of no worth
See, behold your Treasure.
See, I call you home, my beloved

Do you not know who you are?

Before you came to be, I knew you and loved you
Sent my Son to die in your place
To pick up your pieces
To make the broken new

Do not be troubled, or downcast
All these things I knew from the beginning
Who is there to debate with Me?

Posted in Christian, Prophecy | 15 Comments

Blinkin’ CaNN….

This morning, I hit a coffee-spewing moment.  CaNN owe me a new computer monitor.  🙂

OK, this is definitely an in-joke. If you’re not North American Anglican, just grin and bear it and I’ll post something that makes more sense soon….

Posted in Anglican | 7 Comments

The price of conceit

This is the day when the vote is made as to whether to revisit same-sex marriage in Canada.  It is widely predicted to be a non-event.  That may well be the case, unfortunately.  The question then will be, what cost?  What will be the cost of our overweening pride and arrogance, our hubris, our overbearing conceit as we willfully abandon this ‘outdated concept’? In the words of one commenter:

Now, the traditional definition of marriage — man and woman to the exclusion of all others — has been relegated to the bins of history filled with outdated concepts like suffrage, the death penalty, residential schools and the Chinese head tax.

That we would so willingly break societal foundations is only an indication of how morally bankrupt we are, adrift on a sea of inclusive relativity, bereft of any sort of direction or compass.  There is a phrase about sowing to the wind.  How long can it be before we reap the whirlwind? 

Except by the mercy of God, we will drink the cup of judgment to the full, and go to our own personal hells, all the while declaring our undying inclusiveness.  May the Lord in His mercy forgive us and redeem us!

I have a word given a while ago to those who had the monumental hubris to spit in the face of God.  I’ll update this post later with those words.

Today should be a day of mourning.

UPDATE Here is that word I promised:

A testimony to the Canadian leaders
26th January 2005

You will be held accountable.
Mark My words.
You will be held accountable.
I will not be mocked.

Do you think that you can tear up my laws?
Turn the world asunder?
Proclaim black is white?
Tear the nation apart as a feast for devils?

Your arrogance be on your own head!
Mark My words.
You, I will hold accountable.
I the Lord have spoken.

Posted in Christian, Prophecy | 4 Comments

The faithful?

Recently there has been (well, OK, I’ve particularly noticed) a trend towards the self-description of certain groups of Anglicans as ‘faithful’.  I’ve been ruminating about this for a while, but this post and resulting comments have got me thinking further.

What exactly are people meaning by ‘being faithful’ (or ‘loyal’)?  From my point of view faithfulness to Christ should be of a higher order than faithfulness to a particular Christian church. If ‘faithful’ is defined in terms of our loyalty to the current interpretations of the canons of TEC (or in my case, ACC) then I, and many ‘conservatives’ would have no problem in being unfaithful if/when it becomes necessary.

If ‘faithfulness’ was widely understood in this context to be about describing loyalty to particular church canons, that would be fine.  However,  in reality it is often applied much more liberally – indeed you could be forgiven for thinking that failure to offer unconditional obedience to the canons is the unforgivable sin.  The terms ‘faithful’ or ‘loyal’ appear to be used as a label to smear and demonise the other side, who by extension are unfaithful and disloyal, obviously…..

Really though, are any of us faithful?  I don’t think so.  There is only One who is faithful, and Him we must follow.  Any faithfulness that we possess is a gift from the Lord and not our innate property.  Rather, we are faithless rebels who have been redeemed through the sacrifice of our Lord.  A touch of humility might be appropriate under the circumstance.

Calling ourselves faithful as a weapon to be used against our enemies, or as a cover for absorbed self-affirmation, is more than dishonest.  It is is an affront and insult to the only One who was ever truly faithful.

Posted in Anglican | 2 Comments

A reflection on time

Our whole culture, here in the west, seems to be about cramming ever more and more into the limited time we have.  We possess more and more ‘things’, but one thing we do not seem to be able to increase is the time we have available to us.  24 hours in the west in the same as 24 hours anywhere else. 

The labour-saving devices indeed lived up to their name – they saved us labour.  But, in the process, they cost us time. When we had to take the time to do the labour, we also had more time for family, friends, relationships, God – the fundamentals of life! 

Now, we have all that time saved up – but it’s not put into the former things, rather it seems to be taken up with the myrad other demands that have appeared to fill in the vacuum (pun not really intended, :-).

Funny thing is, when I read the gospels, it seems as if Jesus was very well aquainted with our dilemma.  He was very much in demand, with countless good causes presenting themselves to Him.  He also only had 24 hours in the day. 

What I find instructive is His response.  He didn’t run around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to meet all the needs (and wants) of other people.  He didn’t perform His duty with stoic heroism, sacrificing every moment for the sake of others.

No, he often withdrew to a lonely place, there to commune with God.  What a scandalous waste of time!  Surely, being God and all, this was superfluous?  Only no, I don’t think it was.  Rather, it was essential to Him.  I think Jesus, while knowing He was fully God, was also aware that He was fully man, and hence at that moment limited by both space and time.  Hence it became essential to constantly stay connected to God.  How else was He going to walk in step with His Father?

If that was the case for Jesus, then how can it be any other way for us?  Taking that time, finding that lonely place, where we can commune with God should not be an option for us in our time-pressured age.  It must also be essential.  Not essential because God demands His pound of flesh from us whatever our circumstance, but precisely because of those circumstances, we must spend time alone with Him, for our souls health. 

Otherwise, we will find ourselves walking our own path, rather than walking with our Father God.  And our own path only leads to pain and death. 

So, let me encourage you (and me) to  intentionally take time with God, over and above all the other ‘essential’ things.  I think it will prove to be one of the best choices we can ever make.

Posted in Christian | 7 Comments

Weary

Sometimes I do get so heartsick of all the current Anglican manoeuvrings, schemings, intrigue, backstabbing, thinly disguised hate, malice, endless words, followed by endless interpretations full of infinite nuances leading to ever more intractable positions held ever more tightly.  And true Christlike love, and Christian discipleship, and prophetic vision, and evangelism, and holiness, and all the important aspects of our Christian walk seem to be so far, far away.

Don’t get me wrong.  I am firmly in the orthodox camp in my beliefs, and will not compromise on the essentials of the Christian faith I have received.  And I will stand for that faith, so help me God, for however long it takes.

It’s just sometimes, perhaps I feel something of what God feels about all this, or perhaps it’s just me.  But that feeling is one of a deep, deep heartsick sadness.

How, Lord, did it come to this?

I shall, God willing, post something entirely different tomorrow for you….

Posted in Anglican | 2 Comments

Limited blogging

Family with us and all.  More hopefully towards the weekend……

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Reflections on the Spirit of the Age, Part 3

Well, as I promised, something different.

This is the concluding part of a reflection on the Spirit of the Age prophecy that was given here

I think it is important that, when such a word is received and verified, we should respond.  To do otherwise is, frankly, an act of disobedience. 

So hence, the time and thought that has gone into, and still goes into, developing that response.  ‘We’ right now are our local Church community, but I do believe that such a word is also meant for a wider audience.

Part 1 and Part 2 can also be found here and here.

All that has been proposed so far in relation to this prophetic word would be wonderful if it came to fruition.  But, perhaps it is idealistic?  Naïve even?  Absolutely – in our own human endeavour it would be a hopeless pipe-dream, doomed to failure, wrecked on the rocks of our sinfulness.

We are painfully aware that without the Holy Spirit of God, none of this is possible.  For we all fall short, and only His Spirit can sustain. There’s no point attempting anything in our own strength or because we think it is a good idea; we need to know it is of God!

To that end, we think there is a deep need for those who wish to respond to the Spirit of the Age prophecy to be called into a season of prayer and fasting.  It is only by seeking the power and grace of God that changes can begin to take place.  Only the Holy Spirit working within us can make these things come to pass.

It does not need to stop with just us either.  Do we need to join with other Churches?  Do we need to pray further – deeper – wider?  Do we need to pray for our community, our city, our country?  Do we dare to believe it could make a difference?  Should we be contending in spiritual warfare against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms?

What is the end result?  We do not know.  The journey is perhaps more important than the destination.  Perhaps a community, a church, that however failing, however fragile, yet bears in itself the presence of the risen Lord.  The Bride redeemed, ready to inherit the land.  A fertile garden, in which the Lord could begin planting…….

Certainly a deeper sense of community and belonging…………and another way perhaps of reaching out to those in the local neighbourhood ?

What would He plant?  We don’t know that either.  Perhaps a renewal of His gifts?  Perhaps those in the wider community who are known only by Him, just awaiting a place to be planted, a place to bring the harvest home. Perhaps most importantly, Himself.

Perhaps also this may light a fire that would ignite others?  For this is the word I was given sometime ago about this:

If you build it, they will come.

Posted in Christian, Prophecy | 2 Comments

If Jesus was Anglican

Then the Bible which we read might have passages like this:

Come unto me all you who are heavily laden and I will give you a process developing a focus group leading to provisional recommendations as to the best way of approaching a methodology of living into the new reality in which we find ourselves.

Much as I love the Anglican way, there are some things that are so deeply frustrating about the way we do, or rather don’t do, things……

OK, OK, enough about Anglicans and processes.  Something different next time round, promise!

Posted in Anglican | 9 Comments

Winter, again

After a very warm, Chinooky interlude, winter has come our way again.  The cold air pool up by the Yukon broke out and headed south.  Currently we are at -13c (9F)  with 2″ of snow on the ground, with the possibility of hitting -30c (-22F) over the weekend.  Here for webcams.

Being a winter-mad type, I think it’s just excellent 🙂

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