Category: church

Guest Poem from Jody Lee Collins


Blessed are the chosen!
Blessed the guest
at home in your place!
We expect our fill of good things
in your house, your heavenly manse.
(Psalm 65:4 The Message)
 
 
Jody has made me feel at home in the blog world and as a Christian sister and friend. Welcome her here today and visit her blog, Three Way Light.

Jody also writes poetry.  Come get your fill of good things! She has two spots to read her poems:
 
 
 
As have we travelled from Sunday to Monday, why not sabbath a little bit longer with her latest poem: 
 
 
The still pavement
holds layers of light movement,
life aloft,
like comforting down
on this different, slow day.
 
(Read the rest of the poem here.)
 
2013 Copyright. All Rights Reserved. Sunday Streets by Jody Lee Collins.
 
 
 
If you are looking for a place where poets gather to share their voices, Jody recommends DVerse-Poets Pub.
 
 

Posted on by kelrohlf 1

A Noble Wife Who Can Find?

 
She does him good, and not harm,
all the days of her life.
(Proverbs 31:12 ESV)
 
 
 
 
 
As I have embarked on this Lenten “hobo honeymoon,” I’ve wondered what kind of bride am I for Jesus?
 
Please keep in mind that the metaphor for the Bride of Christ is not just about me as an individual, but for the whole church. (See Ephesians 5:22-33).
 
However, as I am a member of this family called the Bride, I desire to live out the qualities that would be considered praiseworthy in His eyes.
 
Often the poem about the excellent wife in Proverbs has been used as a litmus test for the ideal godly woman. But lately I have noticed  a different perspective. The Proverbs woman in some ways can be compared to the church, and her activities give insight into ways to honor Her Bridegroom.
 
In the middle of the poem the poet records the central outcome of the woman’s active life:
 
 
Her husband is known in the gates
when he sits among the elders of the land.
(Proverbs 31:23 ESV)
 
 
Am I making Jesus known where I live? Am I offering good to Him? Am I harming His reputation with my words or the way I treat others?
 
 
 
Posted on by kelrohlf 2

Forgive:To Give Up Resentment

  Oh, what joy for those
whose disobedience is forgiven,
whose sin is put out of sight!
 Yes, what joy for those
whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt,
    whose lives are lived in complete honesty!
(Psalm 32:1-2 NLT)
 
 
One of my favorite and most challenging spiritual writers would have to be Henri Nouwen.
 
A compilation of his teaching on Solitude, Community and Ministry can be found in the book, A Spirituality of Living.
 
In the book he defines, forgiveness this way:
 
“Forgiveness is to allow
the other person not to be God.”
 
 
Nouwen’s devotion below speaks of forgiving the Church, which really would mean forgiving each other as well, since we make up the Church.
 
Forgiving the Church

When we have been wounded by the Church, our temptation is to reject it. But when we reject the Church it becomes very hard for us to keep in touch with the living Christ. When we say, “I love Jesus, but I hate the Church,” we end up losing not only the Church but Jesus too. The challenge is to forgive the Church. This challenge is especially great because the Church seldom asks us for forgiveness, at least not officially. But the Church as an often fallible human organization needs our forgiveness, while the Church as the living Christ among us continues to offer us forgiveness.

It is important to think about the Church not as “over there” but as a community of struggling, weak people of whom we are part and in whom we meet our Lord and Redeemer.

 
- Henri J. M. Nouwen

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Posted on by kelrohlf 2