With Christ in the school of prayer, by Andrew Murray, excerpt 124

This post continues a series of excerpts from With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this public domain work available. To see their post of the book, go here.  His book is based on Mark 11:22-24. The previous post in this series is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are normally in this color. In this excerpt, Murray continues a discussion about prayer and the Trinity. His book is based on Mark 11:22-24.

Lord! what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him? for Thou has made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the work of Thy hands: Thou hast put all things under his feet. O Lord our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth!
Lord God! how low has sin made man to sink. And how terribly has it darkened his mind, that he does not even know his Divine destiny, to be Thy servant and representative. Alas! that even Thy people, when their eyes are opened, are so little ready to accept their  calling and to seek to have power with God, that they may have power with men too to bless them.
Lord Jesus! it is in Thee the Father hath again crowned man with glory and honour, and opened the way for us to be what He would have us. O Lord, have mercy on Thy people, and visit Thine heritage! Work mightily in Thy Church, and teach Thy believing disciples to go forth in their royal priesthood, and in the power of prayer, to which Thou hast given such wonderful promises, to serve Thy kingdom, to have rule over the nations, and make the name of God glorious in the earth. Amen.

Excerpts from Orthodoxy, by G. K. Chesterton, 69

Note: This post doesn't have anything to do with Mother's Day, at least not on purpose. Sorry.

If a shade arose from the under world, and stared at Piccadilly, that shade would not quite understand the idea of an ordinary closed carriage. He would suppose that the coachman on the box was a triumphant conqueror, dragging behind him a kicking and imprisoned captive. So, if we see spiritual facts for the first time, we may mistake who is uppermost.

I have now said enough to show (to any one to whom such an explanation is essential) that I have in the ordinary arena of apologetics, a ground of belief. In pure records of experiment (if these be taken democratically without contempt or favour) there is evidence first, that miracles happen, and second that the nobler miracles belong to our tradition. But I will not pretend that this curt discussion is my real reason for accepting Christianity instead of taking the moral good of Christianity as I should take it out of Confucianism. I have another far more solid and central ground for submitting to it as a faith, instead of merely picking up hints from it as a scheme. And that is this: that the Christian Church in its practical relation to my soul is a living teacher, not a dead one. It not only certainly taught me yesterday, but will almost certainly teach me tomorrow. Once I saw suddenly the meaning of the shape of the mitre. One fine morning I saw why windows were pointed; some fine morning I may see why priests were shaven. Plato has told you a truth; but Plato is dead. Shakespeare has startled you with an image; but Shakespeare will not startle you with any more. But imagine what it would be to live with such men still living, to know that Plato might break out with an original lecture tomorrow, or that at any moment Shakespeare might shatter everything with a single song. The man who lives in contact with what he believes to be a living Church is a man always expecting to meet Plato and Shakespeare tomorrow at breakfast. He is always expecting to see some truth that he has never seen before. There is one only other parallel to this position; and that is the parallel of the life in which we all began. When your father told you, walking about the garden, that bees stung or that roses smelt sweet, you did not talk of taking the best of out of his philosophy. When the bees stung you, you did not call it an entertaining coincidence. When the rose smelt sweet you did not say “My father is a rude, barbaric symbol, enshrining (perhaps unconsciously) the deep delicate truths that flowers smell.” No: you believed your father, because you had found him to be a living fountain of facts, a thing that really knew more than you; a thing that would tell you truth tomorrow, as well as today.

Orthodoxy, by G. K. Chesterton, is in the public domain, and available from Project Gutenberg. The previous post in this series is here. Thanks for reading! Read Chesterton.

Sunspots 564

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Christianity: Christianity Today has an article on how the author learned to love her menstrual period.

Relevant tells us a number of things that the Church is not, such as a political institution, a stronghold against the world, or a building.

Computing: Gizmo's Freeware provides an annotated list of the best free games for Windows computers. (Many of these games are also available for iOs and Android information appliances.)

Gizmo's also tells us about a site which offers 600 different free music streams.

The Environment: Climate change denial is alive and well, according to this report on beliefs about global climate change in the states that voted on March 1, Super Tuesday.

Health: National Public Radio reports on why we are more likely to snack if we haven't had enough sleep.

Humor: (and politics) There is a web site, encouraging US citizens to move to Cape Breton Island if Donald Trump wins the US Presidency. There are details on how to go about this. That's in Nova Scotia, by the way.

(or something) FiveThirtyEight reports that many parents don't want their children to be born on February 29th.

Politics: NPR analyzes why Republicans have won so many Congressional seats, but have had trouble winning the Presidency. (And the reverse.)

First Things looks at the Super Tuesday exit polls, and finds that Donald Trump really didn't do well among evangelical voters. The article also points out that not all evangelicals are Republican. Indeed.

Science: (and music) Christianity Today (!) discusses perfect pitch.

Listverse suggests that we need 10 major advances in technology before we send anyone to Mars.

Listverse also comments on 10 ways that playing video games affects the brain.


Image source (public domain)

The Church as the Bride of Christ -- References in the Bible

The Church as the Bride of Christ - references in the Bible.

Much of the Song of Solomon may be about the love of Christ and the Church. There were dramatic comparisons of Israel’s unfaithfulness to God to adultery, in the Old Testament, especially in Ezekiel 23 and in the story of Hosea and his wife.

Here are the only direct references about the Church being the Bride of Christ, in the Bible. The first two are about God's people being the Bride of Christ -- there was no Church during Isaiah's time:

Isaiah 61:10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord!

My soul will be joyful in my God;

for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation.

He has covered me with the robe of righteousness,

as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland,

and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

Isaiah 62:5 For as a young man marries a virgin,

so your sons will marry you.

As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,

so your God will rejoice over you.

Revelation 19:7 "... Let’s rejoice and be exceedingly glad, and let’s give the glory to him. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready.” 8 It was given to her that she would array herself in bright, pure, fine linen: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

Revelation 21:2 I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.

21:9 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls, who were loaded with the seven last plagues came, and he spoke with me, saying, “Come here. I will show you the wife, the Lamb’s bride.” 10 He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God … (all scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, public domain.)