Long Time, No Assisi?

Ok, that's my bad attempt a punny joke. It has been almost a year since I posted here...life gets in the way, and I wanted to make sure I was redeeming the time God has given me. If few people are reading what I write, it seems counterproductive to publish it unless it is really important.

Suffice it to say, then, that I thought this post was important enough, and a good redemption of the time God has given me. You may agree or disagree when you have read it, and that's ok.

A friend posted what is best known as "The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi" as a Facebook status today. Having learned that almost nothing that sounds spiritual can be taken at face value unless it is straight from scripture, I began to ponder on the following well-known and oft quoted lines:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy.

I decided to look more closely at these lines to discover if they meet the standard of a scriptural prayer.

First of all, the rules of hermeneutics demand that all text be examined in context, so I went looking for the context of this prayer. Curiously, though it is attributed to St. Francis because it was once inscribed upon the back of a statue of this man, it is not probable at all that he himself prayed it, said it, or wrote it. See this website for more information: http://www.franciscan-archive.org/franciscana/peace.html.

Then the first question to be answered was what sort of peace was meant in the prayer, and whether that matched up with a biblical definition of the word for peace.

English translations use one word where original manuscripts use several that have different meanings. For the purposes of this post, the one that seemed most likely to fit the use of the word in the prayer is one that means

 "harmonious relationships between men" or perhaps "harmonious relationships between God and man as a result of the gospel"

It is not likely that the author of the prayer would have intended the other meaning of "peace" used in scripture: that meaning being "hold one's peace". (I would admit, however, that keeping my mouth shut would indeed, in most instances, cause me to be an instrument of peace rather than otherwise!)


Once this definition had been established, it was important to discover whether one can be an instrument of God's peace according to scripture. Matthew 5:9 states "blessed are the peacemakers". Being an "instrument" of harmonious relationships between men and between God and men as a result of the gospel is certainly, then, a scriptural directive, and therefore a proper scriptural prayer. We are commanded to preach the gospel, and also to live peaceably with all (Romans 12:18).

The next phrase says "where there is hatred let me sow love". We are commanded in scripture to love our enemies, to love as God loves. Therefore if we have hatred in our own hearts we should certainly be doing what we can to change that, and asking God to will and to do His good pleasure in us to cause us to love more like He loves is a valid prayer. Can we "sow love" on/to others who are hating? We have a mandate from scripture to do good to our enemies, so we can sow love to our enemies by doing good to them. What about to others who are hating each other? We perhaps can, if we begin with the peacemaking that is encouraging "harmonious relationships between God and man as a result of the gospel"..in other words, preaching the gospel.


Continuing on, the next phrase says "where there is injury pardon". We are instructed in scripture to forgive those who hurt us, so personally, we can pray this prayer and also carry it out. Can we, should we bestow pardon on those who have injured others? There is no responsibility in scripture given to us to forgive the sins of others against others. We have responsibilities toward them, but these responsibilities do not encompass forgiveness or pardon.


The next phrase suggests "where there is doubt, faith". Again...we are given direction in scripture concerning how to handle doubt within ourselves. Faith is a gift, however, and we cannot bestow it on others. The gift of faith comes from the hearing of the Word of God, though, so if we are preaching the gospel, God can make use of that, which would be an answer to the prayer of "making me an instrument of your peace."


"Where there is despair, hope". Not only where there is despair, but in season and out of season we are to be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is within us. Now, that doesn't bestow hope automatically, but it certainly has the potential to do so...it offers the same reason for our hope to the other person.


"Where there is darkness, light". Jesus said that we, the regenerate, ARE the light of the world. So, where we are, there is light. We can "sow" light by just being there for people, and asking God to guide us to act like Him.


"Where there is sadness, joy". We as Christians are supposed to be very joyful! We cannot always change someone else's sadness to joy, but again, we can preach the gospel, which God can use to give the gift of faith, which in turn responds in repentance, and the result of that will be joy.

Is the prayer known as The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi a legitimate, scriptural prayer? In accordance with the Word of God, it is. As we pray it, we should be ready to preach the gospel, because that is the way to be an instrument of God's peace.

Status Whoa! 3.9.11

This week's offerings were somewhat sparse, both for Go and Woe posts. I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or not: are we, as Christians, as aware as we ought to be of the potential of the platform available to us on FB? I didn't have a lot to choose from on my newsfeed, and no one submitted anything from their own newsfeed...so that makes me wonder if good, conscious use is being made of FB statuses that belong to Christians.

Or perhaps it is that all my friends found out that their status could very well end up on a Woe post, and decided not to post at all for fear of that? But why not? No one is going to make fun. We just want to think carefully about our posts and see if we can increase the quality as well as the quantity of Christ-exalting, gospel-preaching posts.

Just a reminder: you can't submit your own status, but you can submit a friend's. Just email statuswhoa.holdfast@gmail.com. If you think the status is a GO!, then submit the name along with the text of the post. If you think it's a Woe, then don't submit the friend's name, just the text.

This week's Status GO! Post showed up on my newsfeed on 3.6.11, and was posted by my friend Michelle Lee:

"The danger of self-esteem is that it tries to persuade us that we are good enough, capable, and worthy. We need the gospel precisely because we are not good enough, capable, or worthy. Salvation does not give us a righteousness of our own that we can esteem. Salvation gives us Christ’s righteousness that we might worship Him with reverent, grateful awe." Brad Hambrick

Congratulations, Michelle, and keep up the good work!

Status WOE for this week was a quote from a sermon by a person named Allen Hood:

 "Jesus hates religion because it keeps people at a distance in their pretend righteousness."

I checked scripture, making as thorough a search as I know how (since I don't know Greek or Aramaic, it's possible I missed something). Jesus never said anything about religion, one way or the other. So isn't it a bit presumptuous in the first place to say He hates it when He didn't state that? I don't know, maybe it's just me.

I did notice, however, that scripture defines pure religion which is undefiled before God. Would Jesus hate something that is undefiled before God? It also defines worthless religion. If, perhaps, "religion" was defined as that which is worthless in the above quote, we might be able to make a case for Jesus hating it.

What about the reason given that Jesus supposedly hates religion? Does religion (all religion, mind you) keep people at a distance? At a distance from what? From each other? From Him?

About the only part of this statement I can appreciate is the "pretend righteousness". Now, Jesus DID hate that, and spoke about it often. But that isn't religion...or at least it isn't ALL religion.

Seems there's "religion", and then there's "religion", dontcha know.

I don't know Allen Hood from beans, but I sure would like to offer him a better idea about what Jesus hates, and what religion is, and whether there's good religion, and what's so awful about pretend righteousness. Can I get some help here?

find the good...and HOLD FAST!

Changes

Disclaimer-- no Obama jokes are quoted or referenced, nor were any harmed in the making of this post!

It's just that I was thinking about change this week. Things were rocking along quite calmly in my world--just normal stuff. Get up. Go to work. Come home. Do some housework. Enjoy the family. Go to bed. Get up…

But under closer inspection a few changes are noticeable. Nothing big. Just here and there a metamorphosis of some existing habit or repeated event or attitude that makes a small ripple, which in turn creates other small ripples, which in turn eventually end up changing the shape of the waterline on the shore.

I've noticed this before. Years ago when I was much younger and home schooling all four of the children, it was often necessary to change our schooling schedule. Sometimes it was a change just for a day. But sometimes a larger and more permanent adjustment would become necessary: maybe one child was struggling more with math and needed more of my attention just then, or perhaps the baby's nap schedule changed which caused the school schedule to need adjustment.

At first this bothered me. I had set the school schedule, and thought that proper discipline required that it remain the schedule for at least the whole year!  But of course, this ability for the schedule to serve the family, rather than the family serving the schedule, is one of the primary beauties of home school. I soon learned to use this to our advantage, and indeed, when school or house work became more drudgery than challenge, would shake up the schedule just to infuse some excitement into it!

My mother loves adages, maxims, truisms and proverbs, and has several of her own of which she frequently reminds us. One of them (I think it's her current favorite!) is:

"You can't be sure of anything in life except change!"

Because I'm a musician, when I pondered this, it seemed to me that change in our lives can be similar to pieces of music. For instance, a great and happy change in our lives might sound like Beethoven's 9th symphony, final movement, also known as Ode To Joy:

Or perhaps a something like this:

And then, of course, a change which seems to us to be a tragedy might sound like:

Or this:

Or perhaps:

(the bad guys get all the good music. Just sayin').

But mostly the changes in our lives are more like this piece from  Steve Reich:

Small changes. Over time. Hardly perceptible, but eventually the entire composition is completely different from what it started out to be. It's still your life. It still feels "normal". But it not the same. Nothing really bad happens...and nothing really good. But altogether it's a nice sound.

"Ok", perhaps you say; "That's very nice philosophical thinking, Esther. So what?"

I suppose there does have to be a "so what?" doesn't there? But isn't it obvious? If what my mother says is true, and we can be certain something will change--if not today, tomorrow, and if not then, then next week--we have an advantage or two!

1. We don't have to be surprised or stressed when change occurs.

2. We can remain prepared for change, and flexible and adaptable enough to take advantage of opportunities as they occur

3. We can look for ways to change proactively (like making changes in a schedule just because it brings a spark of newness to the situation)

As Christians, we have wisdom from God on dealing with change. In fact, scripture counsels us to be prepared for change! (Hey...maybe my mother knows what she's talking about, eh?).

‎Do not boast about tomorrow,

‎for you do not know what a day may bring. Proverbs 27:1

‎For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

     ‎2     a time to be born, and a time to die;

          ‎a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

     ‎3     a time to kill, and a time to heal;

          ‎a time to break down, and a time to build up;

     ‎4     a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

          ‎a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

     ‎5     a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

          ‎a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

     ‎6     a time to seek, and a time to lose;

          ‎a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

     ‎7     a time to tear, and a time to sew;

          ‎a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

     ‎8     a time to love, and a time to hate;

          ‎a time for war, and a time for peace. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

‎8 So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. Ecclesiastes 11:8

     ‎13     Consider the work of God:

‎who can make straight what he has made crooked?

‎14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.

‎15 In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing. 16 Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? 17 Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time? 18 It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them.  Ecclesiastes 7:13-18

          ‎“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,

‎to whom belong wisdom and might.

     ‎21     He changes times and seasons;

‎he removes kings and sets up kings;

          ‎he gives wisdom to the wise

‎and knowledge to those who have understanding;  Daniel 2:20-21

And providentially, scripture also tells us how (and gives examples of how best) to react to change (huh. Who knew?):

‎17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. James 1:17

14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other… Ecclesiastes 7:14

     ‎10     Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?”

‎For it is not from wisdom that you ask this. Ecclesiastes 7:10

‎20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” ...10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips. Job 1:20, 2:10

‎Blessed is the man

‎who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

          ‎nor stands in the way of sinners,

‎nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

     ‎2     but his delight is in the law of the Lord,

‎and on his law he meditates day and night.

     ‎3     He is like a tree

‎planted by streams of water

          ‎that yields its fruit in its season,

‎and its leaf does not wither.

          ‎In all that he does, he prospers. Psalm 1:1-3

‎Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. James 4:13-16

Thinky Things

What I learn from all this is that yes, change is inevitable, but it is also a gift. And it is not a gift to be taken lightly. A Christian cannot be prepared for change without daily preparation: when the change occurs, it is too late to prepare for it then!

The question is: am I preparing? How do I prepare? Psalm 1 seems a good place to start--'delight in the law of the Lord'--because when the seasons change, the roots will be deep and undisturbed. The music may change...but the Composer and Conductor are still the same.

As changes come in your life, be a tree and...HOLD FAST!

Status Whoa! 3.2.11

And we have a W-I-N-N-A-H! It was a great joy to keep tabs on the statuses that came across my newsfeed this week, looking for Status Go! Posts--there were more than I imagined there would be!

Status GO! Winner for this week is Timothy Stone, whose quote by Randy Alcorn crossed my newsfeed on 2.25.11. Actually, Timothy had several goodies, but I tried to choose the one that would be the clearest to an unbeliever. The status read:

From Randy Alcorn on FB.

There is an all-inclusiveness in the “all things” of Romans 8:28. “But surely not that horrible event… Not the cancer. Not the car accident. Does Romans 8:28 include suffering?” Actually, that’s exactly what it’s talking about—suffering. “All things” means “all things.” If God could not use something to contri...bute to the ultimate good of his child, then he will not permit it to happen

Congratulations to you Timothy! You get the "Status Whoa! Status GO! Award", for not hiding your light under one. I've posted your award on your FB wall!

Status Woe winner for this week:

God loves you and me!

Well, really? It's funny, because it was a question about who God loves that really put my understanding of the Doctrines of Grace (i.e. Calvinism) into high gear. A rather crusty sort of Calvinist fellow heard me say something similar to the above (it was "I know Jesus loves everybody"), and challenged me on it.

So...how can this be made better? Turn this into a Status Go!

God bless this week to...Hold Fast

My Cottage

Several weeks ago my two younger daughters and I sat at breakfast one morning, and commented on the fact that this particular breakfast was a "cottage" sort of breakfast; hearty and simple, but not without a touch of elegance. Having said that, we took off on an imaginary flight of fancy and "built" our little cottage in the country. Mine had dark wood floors, a sweet (and neatly made-up!) iron bedstead, and a half door which often stood open to catch the airs wafting from the countryside carrying the fragrances of the herb and flower garden just outside.

Now don't get me wrong. We love our house here--in fact, we've often laughed over the fact that having painted it in the way we did when it was built, we love it so much that we cannot imagine it any other colors. I really am blessed to have my dream house! So it's not discontent that caused us to take our moments together at breakfast to fancifully build our cottage.

Probably it was more the idea of the thing--sort of like having your own fairytale, where you are the good and wise prince or princess of your own domain, independently wealthy and able to do many of the things you are really unable to do in reality.

But that little bit of imagination has become a tool in my sanctification toolbox!

Be it known that I am not a good housekeeper. In my mind there are at least forty things that would be better and more enjoyable uses of my time than housekeeping. However, I do like a clean house. Certainly it is good for my family, but it also benefits me: my mind is clearer and less burdened, my attitude happier and more content, and I am freer to do those other things which I would rather do. So I am always looking for ways to "trick" myself into doing a better job of housekeeping.

Even though I love my house, I have been living here for several years now. My human nature has turned what used to be exciting and new into that which I do not appreciate as much simply from familiarity. I don't see the clutter as well, or the dirt (unless someone shows up at the door unexpectedly--isn't it amazing how that will make all the smudges, smears, clutter and dustbunnies jump to attention?). I've learned to live with some of the less efficient and therefore messier ways of doing things that need just a little change.

If you've ever been blessed to have a new house, either by moving or building, you may recognize that for awhile you see it differently than your old living quarters. It is clean and new. Everything seems to sparkle a bit.  You notice when a little dust or clutter accumulates, and you are motivated to dust it or pick it up to keep the "new" feeling. But after a time: maybe a few weeks, or months, or even years, the sparkly new feeling kind of wears off. Someone in the family may get the flu or a busy season will hit at work, and a little dust doesn't get dusted and few items don't get picked up. You promise yourself you'll deal with it soon--but "soon" is corrupted by the tyranny of the urgent, and the problem snowballs. Maybe you are a great housekeeper and this never happens to you, but still, you notice that you don't perceive your house or apartment the same way you did when it was new.

That morning at breakfast, the idea of the cottage really took root in my mind. For a few days I enjoyed mentally furnishing it and imagining a different, more earthy and carefree life in it. And then one day shortly afterwards as I was driving home from work, I realized that imagining my house AS that cottage gave me a new perspective on the housekeeping. Again I felt the motivation of keeping it "new " and neat as a pin. And when I arrived home I channeled that energy into just a few moments of extra housekeeping before collapsing from my workday. The next day I did it again. Having my little cottage in order was an idea that gave me a delicious sense of delight and peace.

I haven't kept this up everyday, but the results can be seen in my house and yard. Slowly things are looking better. I don’t promise that it will continue to improve, and I'm fairly certain that my personality will not change completely and turn me into a neatfreak, more's the pity.

Thinky Things

I don't want to over-spiritualize this little mental game I play, but I think it parallels our sanctification close enough that we can learn something from it about ourselves and about God.

So here are some thoughts:

1. Imagination is often denigrated by Christians, but has such potential for good purpose by God. He created us with imagination, after all!

2. Cooperating with God in our sanctification means using every tool He offers us. If it is the imagination of a sweet little cottage in the country to encourage us to redeem the time and bless our families with better housekeeping, we should use it, and thank Him for providing it.

3. The happiest news about sanctification is that it is not all up to us! God says HE will be faithful to complete the work He began in us. So we cannot fail! Who wouldn't be willing to cooperate in a venture if they knew for a fact that they could not fail to have success?!?!

4. What does YOUR cottage look like? Is it a cottage, or a grand manor? Perhaps it is something entirely different? I'd love to hear your flight of fancy!

5. Have you some tools in your sanctification toolbox that could benefit others by sharing them here? We'd love to hear them. 

To those tools and the good use of imagination...HOLD FAST 

Facebook--Status Whoa!

Recently several Facebook (FB) status quotes have come across my newsfeed over there on which I felt compelled to comment. It wasn't that they were bad, really. These people are my friends, and I know that they meant well by their status quote. But the quotes failed to communicate the full thought, and as a result actually ended up communicating another thought entirely, especially considering that non-Christians also read these quotes we make in such a public forum.

Some of my friends on FB have requested friendship multiple times. Why? Because they join FB, then they cancel their membership. Then they join again, only to cancel again a few days or weeks later. Sometimes they give an explanation, seeming to be confused about whether FB is a godly use of time.

It seems that as Christians, we need to do some careful thinking about Facebook and other social networking options. Many articles and blogs have been written about this subject: at the bottom of this post you can find two links with thoughtful articles to help you understand the pitfalls as well as the potential of social media like FB.

The Big Announcement


There are several aspects to FB, but I want to focus on status posts--and I want to do something to encourage the use of FB status posts as a tool for witnessing and edification. To that end, I've come up with Status Whoa!

Status Whoa! Will be a series of blog posts (hopefully weekly, but we all know how that has worked out for me in the past) highlighting some of the best (Status go!) and worst (Status Woe) Christian status posts to come across the newsfeeds.

Rules and policies for Status Whoa!

All posting and recognition decisions will be made by me--no appeal. It's my blog, we do it my way--but I think it will be fun anyway! My own statuses are, of course, disqualified.

Quotes have to be from statuses of real people--not videos or links, not from ministries or businesses. They can, however, be quotes of quotes--in other words, someone could post a great status quote and acknowledge that it actually originated with Spurgeon, for instance.

Types of status quotes I'm looking for:

Status Woe: Quotes that demonstrate unsound or unclear theology…they'll be posted on the blog along with my commentary and the comment section left open for suggestions of how to improve the status so that it becomes a Status Go!

Status Go!: Quotes that demonstrate sound, clear theology that pointedly communicates truth in a winsome, clever, or humorous way.

Since encouraging Status Go type quotes is the main part of my goal, I'm asking my readers--yes you!--to submit your friends/family statuses to be considered for a Status Go blog post--you cannot submit your own status. Simply message me on FB or email statuswhoa.holdfast@gmail.com. Be sure to include the quote, and the name of the person who posted it  so that proper recognition can be made! If chosen, I will post a notice on the blog, and on my facebook profile as well as notifying the person who submitted the status--all in an effort to recognize in public a person who is benefiting the Kingdom of God by their use of social media. If the person is on my friends' list, I'll post a notice on their facebook wall.

Status Woe type quotes may be submitted, but with no names attached. As noted, we'll work here on the blog to turn Status Woe posts into Status Go! Posts.

More people are watching your newsfeed than you think. Are they getting the gospel?

Thinky Things

Here are the links to the articles mentioned above:
http://www.challies.com/christian-living/how-and-how-not-to-use-facebook-for-ministry
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/social-networking.php

Ready? Set? Go! (and don't forget to...

Hold Fast...

Art And All That

No Part No. because we're done, remember? Because, as you can see below, it's being discussed in the blogosphere. A quote from the article, with the link following:

So let's have pastors who love the arts and do not need a title to tell the world that they do. And let's have pastors who study hard, pray hard and love artists. Let's pray for opportunities to reach those in the arts community.

And let's take in plays like Albee's to remind us of what we were. Let us not do so in a Pharisaical way. Rather, let us weep that plays like this are written simply because they so viscerally capture what lurks in all of us. But let us rise from the theatre and sing for joy because Christ has set us free. Your local pastor, who probably is not a pastor for the arts, can tell you all about it. Pay him a visit.

On Being Afraid of Virginia Woolf