“……and are you SURE we have enough strength to stay together?”

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Lenten Journey – Day 28
Biblical Scripture: 1 Corinthians 10:6-13
Open Invitation to Join Terri from

Cloaked Monk

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20-Mar-12: 1 Corinthians 10:6-13

6 Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do not become idolaters as some of them did; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.” 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents. 10 And do not complain as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. 11 These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come. 12 So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. 13 No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.

 

 

 

 

“……and are you SURE we have enough strength to stay together?”

 

 

“We tromp along, we stomp along, we flap along, we slap along”

sang the friends as they set off under the shadows of Old Crow and Ugly Bird.

“Weesie, beesie, keep up steady, be ever ready,”whistled Bluesey Fly in song.

So did the ever-more bonded and binded critterfolk creep ever up with Babe’s word.

 

“Ohsie,oopsie, we getsies weaksies! We starts to pull away from each other!”

So cried the friends up to Old Crow in query of worry, in wrinkely crinkles of doubt.

“Stop! Halt! Breathe! Hold out one hand!  Look up, look higher than thy brother!”

So did friends find a glow warming them back together, in bonds of such great klout!

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“………..and you say we are strong enough build on?”

 

 

 

 

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Lenten Journey – Day 16
Biblical Scripture: 1 Peter 2:4-10
Open Invitation to Join Terri from

Cloaked Monk

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8-Mar-12: 1 Peter 2:4-10

4 Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and

5 like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

10 Once you were not a people,but now you are God’s people;once you had not received mercy,but now you have received mercy.

 

 

 

 

 

“………..and you say we are strong enough build on?”

 

 

“Hurry now, scurry now, oh ye pokey, proddy critterly ones!”

“March down through the rocks and blocks and tick-tocks here now”

So did Old Crow and Crookeye and Ugly Bird did call them in tones

To scramble and tumble and speed on their way without call to bow.

 
“Much use will ye be cross yon deep canyoned raging stream!

“So good will ye be to hold up the road to cross that wilding blue!”

“What mean ye, we not be strong, we not be long, we just light beam!”

“Why, know ye not, ye are made strong as these rocks by His grace to true!”
 

 

 

 

“…..and I used to be so angry with you guys!”

 

 

Lenten Journey – Day 6
Biblical Scripture: Ephesians 2:1-10
Open Invitation to Join Terri from
Cloaked Monk

27-Feb-12: Ephesians 2:1-10

You were dead through the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. 3 All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

 

 

“…..and I used to be so angry with you guys!”

 

Now hung back in the back of the back of Old Shepherd

The one Littly Lamb in membrance of such kickings and bitesings

He did once give his fellows in bellows so mean in skippered

Trips to trough and lough he now did quakely quiver in heart so sadsings

 

“Step up, leap up, oh Littly Lamb, ” did Old Shepherd poke and prod

“See ye not warm light, sweet light, heart-light bounced off my Crookeye

“Feel ye not warm angel-winging wind of All Forgivingness Grace of Lovingness Nod

“Fall right across your used-to-bees and your wished-it-wasn’ts to lift you up on high?”

 

 

 

EIGHT WEEK THURSDAY: PEACE LINKS TO GRACE

This is the promised Part Three of my QUIET-PEACE-GRACE set of essays.

So I just listened to a cloud and held my breath and smiled at a stranger.  Then he smiled at someone during their rudeness to him, and the rude one flew to a far country and smiled and someone about to pick up a rocket launcher listened to a cloud.  So now we have peace, just like that?  Well, yes and no.  Yes,  I and the stranger driving by my roses and the rude clerk and the farway fighter do now have a connection in peace.  No, not all the other neighbors nor all the other customers treated rudely nor all the other soldiers in that far way camp instantly experience peace.  BUT……..

All the other neighbors and all the other customers and all the other soldiers now stand right beside a presence of QUIET and PEACE.  QUIET and PEACE radiating outward from just one single person in each time and place form an aura, an almost-halo, a CLOUD, if you will, of prescient GRACE.  Yes, GRACE: that which makes spiritual growth possible.  And is not spiritual growth totally essential to build an environment for PEACE?

Why is GRACE necessary for spiritual growth?  It is necessary just as a seed is necessary to a plant, just as water and air and light and proper soil are necessary to a plant.  But can the plant survive, much less grow, if it is stepped upon in haste?  No, the plant must be allowed to be still, be “quiet” within its space in order to experience the peace necessary for fruitful growth.  WE must allow ourselves quiet and peace before we can receive enough water and light and air and nutrients to soak into ourselves to grow, to thrive.  And is this not one of the forms of GRACE?  And if carrying GRACE inside us, would we not then be fostering PEACE just by our very presence?  Would we not then be links in a chain of peace?

Now, are we simply dropped into little spaces of quiet and peace?  No, we surely are not.  Therefore, we must just stop, hold a breath, slow our seeking hearts, empty our searching minds, and become like Gandhi and Solzhynitsn and Jesus of Nazareth before Pilate.  Like them, we must just be quiet both with our mouths and within our very souls.

May GRACE abound!