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Meditation for April 28th
Posted on 2006--0-5- 6: 0:1:

Psalm 22:1-8 Isaiah 53:6-7
Matthew 5:11-12

The Lord did not complete His suffering.  It has been given to the church to complete the sufferings of Christ.  Suffering not yet filled up waits out there for you.  You see, the body is also Christ.  The body, which is the church, is part of that Christ.  There is suffering out there yet to be endured, yet to be known, yet to be embraced by that part of Christ which is called the body.  We all thank god that no one member of that body will ever have to know and endure all the sufferings that Jesus Christ experienced while living on the earth.  But each one of us – because we are in some mysterious way one with Him – will taste some part of His experience of suffering.

One within your fellowship may know ridicule.  Another will partake of physical pain, another will know rejection, perhaps someone else may taste what it means to be vilified and verbally, socially crucified.  And perhaps, just perhaps, there will be one within your fellowship who will touch that awful thing which Christ touched in that last moment on the cross: the dark night of the soul.

There is one aspect of the cross that none of us will ever know – praise God!  We will never know what it means to be the sin bearer.  That is one thing which I will never experience, nor will you.  He and He alone has experienced that.  He experienced the one thing that none of us should have escaped, and the one thing which He need never have known.  He became the sin-bearer and thereby took suffering that was truly mine.

 

 

 

April 26th, 2006
Posted on 2006--0-4- 27: 1:7:

Father,

You have brought us here to Fort Thomas, all of us.  You have brought us together in order that we might display the unity of the Trinity, the unity you have had since before the world was made.

We pray that your presence would be powerfully among us tonight.  Thank you so much for guiding us here, Lord.  Thank you for all of your patience, your grace, and your kindness, which leads us to the repentance of our own ways.  God, you said that our thoughts are not your thoughts, and neither are our ways your ways; but we pray that tonight, you would show us the way, the perfect and pure road, which will lead our small community to be a light on the mountain, shining your goodness and love into the dark valleys where men have turned to their own ways.

Father, we acknowledge that we have tried to follow you on our own terms.  At times, we’ve wanted to go back to the way life was.  At other times, we’ve been scared of what following you will require.  We constantly battle the best you have, with what we think is best.  Father, help us to return our hearts and place them at your feet.

Father, we pray in Jesus’ name that you would bind us together under one banner, one king and one vision.  Lord, have your way with us and lead us on the ancient path, the everlasting path along the river of life, which flows from your holy mountain, and through our hearts.

Your Church in Fort Thomas

readiness
Posted on 2006--0-4- 19: 1:0:

God called to him . . . . And he said, ’Here I am’

—Exodus 3:4 

Walking in God's Power
Posted on 2006--0-4- 10: 2:1:

“I can only trust you with My supernatural knowledge to the degree that you know My heart. The gifts of the Spirit that I have released to My church are but small tokens of the powers of the age to come. I have called you to be messengers of that age, and you must , therefore, know its powers. ...When you know My heart, then the eyes of your heart will be opened. Then you will see as I see, and you will do what I do.”

Rick Joyner, The Final Quest

Meet the Eye
Posted on 2006--0-3- 29: 1:1:

I was driving and I saw the clouds were dark and coming into the area.  I heard a voice saying, “A storm is brewing”.  I was doing some research and ran across this description of Christ:

What has this Jesus to do with the mild Galilean peasant of
   Renan's fancy? Here is a man of more than Napoleonic stature,
   who spreads around him astonishment and dismay; whose words
   are perplexing in the extreme; who goes on puzzling his disciples
   to the very end; who flaunts the conventional piety of his day; and
   yet who all through remains human, without a single trait
   characteristic of the Greek hero, the theios aner. Here are problems
   galore, if at anytime we would venture to write a life of Jesus and
   we may be certain that what we write will be wholly unacceptable
   to those who like their Jesus tamed and conventionalized and are
   not willing to be led away to the bleak uplands on which he moves
   in the Gospel according to St. Mark.

I then saw this poem which was referenced in an article about the portrayal of Christ in the Gospel of Mark.

   Do not retreat into your private world,
   That place of safety, sheltered from the storm,
   Where you may tend your garden, seek your soul,
   And rest with loved ones where the fire burns warm.

   To tend a garden is a precious thing,
   But dearer still the one where all may roam,
   The weeds of poison, poverty and war,
   Demand your care, who call the earth your home.

   To seek your soul it is a precious thing,
   But you will never find it on your own,
   Only among the clamor, threat and pain,
   Of other people's need will love be known.

   To rest with loved ones is a precious thing,
   But peace of mind exacts a higher cost,
   Your children will not rest and play in quiet,
   While they hear the crying of the lost.

   Do not retreat into your private world,
   There are more ways than firesides to keep warm,
   There is no shelter from the rage of life,
   So meet its eye, and dance within the storm.


In the power and peace of Christ, may we meet the eye and dance within the storm.
::stephen