Devotions

A devotion by David Timothy Holdsworth. One of my favourite superhero quotes is "I hear everything. You wrote that the world doesn't need a savior, but every day I hear people crying for one." - Superman in Superman Returns (2006)

Some people say that if bad things happen there is no God. But, bad things happening is exactly the reason there needs to be a God. Someone to redress the balance. There needs to be hope, light and good amidst defeat, darkness and evil.

For Christians this global crisis is as good a time as any to re-acknowledge both our need of, as broken and fallen people who sin, and our hope in, the child born in a manger. Such a humble beginning for the King of Kings. Years after the stable birth His death would be brutal yet redemptive, His resurrection triumphant and hope giving. Soon His return will prove both inevitable and welcome. He is our hope. Blessed be His name!

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By Henry David THOREAU (1817 - 1862). Civil Disobedience is an essay by Henry David Thoreau. Published in 1849 under the title Resistance to Civil Government, it expressed Thoreau’s belief that people should not allow governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that people have a duty both to avoid doing injustice directly and to avoid allowing their acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. Thoreau was motivated in part by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican-American War. (Summary from Wikipedia).

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By Henry David THOREAU (1817 - 1862).

Civil Disobedience is an essay by Henry David Thoreau. Published in 1849 under the title Resistance to Civil Government, it expressed Thoreau’s belief that people should not allow governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that people have a duty both to avoid doing injustice directly and to avoid allowing their acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. Thoreau was motivated in part by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican-American War. (Summary from Wikipedia).

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By Brother LAWRENCE (1614 - 1691) The Practice of the Presence of God is a collection of letters and transcriptions of conversations, compiled by a disciple of Brother Lawrence. Brother Lawrence was a Carmelite monk and head cook in his monastery's kitchens. He quickly gained an international reputation as a mystic and spiritual counselor. The Practice of the Presence records his last words of advice to his friends and disciples, as he suffered from an unnamed illness which would eventually take his life. (Description written by Kirsten Ferreri.)

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By Brother LAWRENCE (1614 - 1691) The Practice of the Presence of God is a collection of letters and transcriptions of conversations, compiled by a disciple of Brother Lawrence. Brother Lawrence was a Carmelite monk and head cook in his monastery's kitchens. He quickly gained an international reputation as a mystic and spiritual counselor. The Practice of the Presence records his last words of advice to his friends and disciples, as he suffered from an unnamed illness which would eventually take his life. (Description written by Kirsten Ferreri.)

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Poem by William Butler YEATS (1865 - 1939) Read by Alan Davis Drake (1945-2010). Thanks to Librivox for releasing this recording into the public domain.

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Thanks to musopen.org for sharing this public domain piece of beautiful classical music.

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Thanks to Librivox for releasing this recording into the public domain.

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By David Timothy Holdsworth - Time

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"So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom." (Psalm 90:12 ESV)

Time goes marching on.

Many an empire has come and gone.

Yet we remain.

Watching the ticking clock and the sifting sands of time.

Time goes marching on.

Many a friend has been and gone.

Yet we remain.

Watching the ticking clock and the sifting sands of time.

Time goes marching on.

Many a soul has been lost and won.

Yet we remain.

Watching the ticking clock and the sifting sands of time.

Time goes marching on.

When our time comes, if we are remembered or not, will the love sown remain as time goes marching on?

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True Evangelical Faith

17 injunctions for embodied faith by Menno Simons:

“True evangelical faith is of such a nature it cannot lie dormant, but spreads itself out in all kinds of righteousness and fruits of love;

it dies to flesh and blood (1);

it destroys all lusts and forbidden desires (2);

it seeks, serves and fears God in its inmost soul (3);

it clothes the naked (4);

it feeds the hungry (5);

it comforts the sorrowful (6);

it shelters the destitute (7);

it aids and consoles the sad (8);

it does good to those who do it harm (9);

it serves those that harm it (10);

it prays for those who persecute it (11);

it teaches, admonishes and judges us with the Word of the Lord (12);

it seeks those who are lost (13);

it binds up what is wounded (14);

it heals the sick (15);

it saves what is strong (sound) (16);

it becomes all things to all people (17).

The persecution, suffering and anguish that come to it for the sake of the Lord’s truth have become a glorious joy and comfort to it.”

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