by force to make

Discuss amongst yourselves: forced prayers

Tried to get the little one to focus and bend the knee. Finally made him do it via threat. From standpoint one, important to enforce the practice. Important when you don't want to -- even more important when you don't want to -- to do it. Like forcing a smile to change a mood, bending the knee has some spiritual effect. Might not want to read the Word either, but do it, and the Spirit acts on the step of faith.

From standpoint two, it was wasted time before the throne. He never asks for obedience by the letter but rather obedience by the heart. Wants you to want to. And if you don't, patience isn't always from the devil, but from waiting upon the Lord. Psalms are full of the waiting upon the Lord. What's the lesson here? A harsh God demands prostration?

Chicken egg chicken. Or egg.

that he had been blind

lateness in all these is much due to time occupiers but probably even more to do with the fogginess this fogginess causing the weeks of little rest and too much noise feeling that in the nondesire to bow the knee and the lack of seeing hearing anything from all of these forced chapters trying to break out of it snap out of it I imagine this has much to do with the messages and the progress toward the message but who really knows not me especially in all this fogginess

and the house was filled

Had a discussion about the subject raised in this article with a brother a few months ago. Don't know where I stand on the issue of house churches. Actually, I do. I think they're ridiculous.

Historically, if you want to point to the early church, remember that in that context, that was how they started and grew -- households believing and getting baptized. Nowhere does it say in the NT that that is how those churches stayed. At least I don't recall any. Why else is Paul writing letters to whole churches and not small homes? My assumption is because once they reached a certain size, they became the large edifices we are familiar with today.

Modern movement toward the smaller is rooted in dissatisfaction with big churches, and my guess is that those root dissatisfactions are more sin on the part of the believer than the church. All part of the larger sin of people trying to fashion religion into an image they want rather than the image the Lord wants.

Religion isn't a car that you can customize with whatever options make you smile. Churches aren't there to meet your selfish needs. Churches are there to worship, and provide you a place to serve, brother. You have it all backward.

will He find faith on the earth

Now that I've got them loaded onto the iPod, going back and listening to his songs again. Been awhile. Going to be commenting on a batch of them in the near future, so look out for that. For today, the song "Calling Out Your Name" has been running through the mindwaves.

Lyrics I want to focus on go:

I can feel the earth tremble
Beneath the rumbling of the buffalo hooves
And the fury in the pheasant's wings
And there's fury in a pheasant's wings
It tells me the Lord is in His temple
And there is still a faith that can make the mountains move
And a love that can make the heavens ring
And I've seen love make heaven ring

And I know this thirst will not last long
That it will soon drown in the song not sung in vain
I feel thunder in the sky
I see the sky about to rain
And with the prairies I am calling out Your name

Always wrestling with the issue of faith. It is what this is all about after all. You should never choose a religion unless you believe in it completely. Completely. I mean believe the wall is not there so walk straight ahead believe it completely. I believe there is a faith that can make mountains move. And there is certainly faith that can make the heavens sing. No praise is sung in vain. He calls you to do and you do and you don’t look left or right or after looking for the after no you look ahead straight ahead at the wall not there and He calls you to do and you do. That faith makes heaven ring.

I have made Your name known to them

Excellent discussion that every believer should take to heart. I feel like I've discussed the topic before, but no particular comes to mind. It raises two points where we do wrong.

We do wrong when we forget the many-sided nature of the Lord. No doubt that He is your friend. He says so in His word. But if you see that aspect of His character to the exclusion of all else that He is, you do wrong. He breathed the universe into existence, and you think of Him only as the one you play tag with?

We do wrong when we analogize Him to pop culture, or pop culture to Him. Can you find God in all things? Surely. But don't think you aren't breaking commandments when your every allusion to Him resembles an Entertainment Weekly issue. Seeker or no seeker, I don't care. Keep your tongue from evil.

but afterward he regretted it and went

What a great phrase Paul coins in 2Cor7:11 -- Godly sorrow. The phrase and theme lend themselves to an easy sermon. 2Cor7 spells it out pretty clearly: sorrow that leads to repentance, which leads to salvation; it's having a heart that breaks for the things that break the heart of God. So a sermon on this phrase can easily be confined to just this chapter.

Extensions abound. Why not pull in the Lord weeping for Jerusalem. There's a Godly sorrow there over those that aren't leaning towards salvation. Why not pull in Ps51, the atoner's lament. There's the perfect dialogue of a broken heart over sin. Why not pull in even Judas's sorrow -- a sorrow not leading to repentance.

This thing's writing itself. Completion for another day. Patent pending.

they themselves were filled with rage

"Jesus On Anger" {Matt5:21-26}
* "Of the 7 deadly sins, anger is perhaps the most fun."
* All deal w/ anger (in thought, word, & deed)
* In SotM, anger is first of six topics after Lord makes key point:
- All about heart; about spirit of law rather than letter
* Unresolved anger is sin (v21-22)
- All anger not sin (i.e. righteous)
- Murder not equal to anger
- Anger is temptation to sin -- unresolved, festering anger is escalation
- "Kept the rule, but overlooked the intention."
- {2Cor12:20, Eph4:26-27, Jam1:19-20}
* Reconciliation more important than worship! (v23-24)
* Reconciliation a matter of urgency (v25-26)
- So that our relationship w/ Lord can be made right ASAP
- To avoid Lord's corrective actions
* Practical Advice
- Anger an alarm
- Don't let anger escalate; self-control a Spirit fruit
- Put it away; automatic forgiveness for some issues
- If still bothering, seek reconciliation
- Take initiative; not about winning, but loving
* Forgiveness is for you

they send forth their little ones like

This story reflects the disconnect between the practical and the theoretical in very clear terms. People may be surprised, but I am certainly not, that little ones are slaughtered for the most ridiculous of reasons. When you trivialize life as a mere choice, what did you expect? When you create the loophole that life is worth nothing a good reason can't overcome, why would you be offended that a minor deformity is a good reason for some?

You gleefully turned your back on the Lord at the top of this slippery slope, and how dare you think that your unexpected sliding is surprising. You can't stand on any moral high ground after giving it up for death.

all the day long I have stretched out

Probably not coincidental that this week, searching for a v for the upcoming, found v5 and v 11 from Ps30: “weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning . . . You have turned for me my mourning into dancing.”

The heart is always in flux, in a continual expand and contract tug-of-war. That Seussian reference of three sizes is not far from the truth. Lord is kneading that stone and making it into something far more capable of containing the light of love.

The key to fighting shadows is not letting them contract that softer stone of yours. And even when they do crush it into something less than recognizable, it is letting Him work the miracle of stone-to-flesh, and letting Him expand it out by filling it with pure, unsullied light.

but God who causes the growth

"Many daughters have done nobly, but you excel them all." {Prov31:29}