A View From Heartsong Hermitage
"Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise, God help me, Amen." ~ Martin Luther
Nikolai Berdyaev
We have forgotten Gospel values and what it means to live those values. We have forgotten the message of the Beatitudes, we have corrupted the true meaning of the Word. We read the Bible as if it were a nice story. We, people of the world forget our Lord God is a true living, breathing, ever present Saviour. No matter what we accomplish in this life their is One God that holds our lives in His hands. Live Gospel values and the universal church will thrive, that includes the churches of Europe where attendance has been falling for decades.
We were made to love and are called to love and serve Him, not our big, fat egos.
Hard to do if we don't know Him.
Why is there hopelessness in the hearts of America's youth? Why in these days has HIV become epidemic in the Senior Citizen community ? Why have we become more like Sodom and Gomorrah than Paradise ? The answer is, we have forgotten God. In our pursuit of freedom, we have lost sight of the Creator who gave us clear parameters to live by. For many, that pursuit of freedom has led to a life of bondage and despair, to being held hostage by our greed, lust, sloth, disobedience etc..
In all fairness, what did we expect ? After all, this is a generation that has been raised to believe we are products of the evolutionary process. We are told there is no God, there is no plan or purpose for our lives, and we are the masters of our own destinies. We are taught we are good inside and are simply products of our environment.
In the Bible's assessment of the problems of man, it doesn't say we are all victims, as some would assert. It doesn't say we all have diseases, as others would lead us to believe. It doesn't say we are merely dysfunctional.
It says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked . . . " (Jeremiah 17:9 NKJV). That is why we do the things we do.
We need to understand that no politician will save us. No act of Congress will turn America around. The President cannot solve our problems, even if he wanted to solve the ills of our nation.
America's problem is not political; it is spiritual. We have forgotten God. We need to turn back to God, and we need to do it soon.
We need to get back to the God our founding fathers believed in when they established this nation. We need to get back to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We need to get back to the God who sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sin. We need to get back to the true and living God who can save us.
I believe that America has two choices before her today. One is judgment. The other is spiritual awakening.
The heart of the matter, is a matter of the heart. We need a deep and abiding change of heart.
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My veil is off to the non-canonical hermits who stood in prayer through the ages , unafraid to walk to the beat of a different drummer in Christ.
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Our world is in chaos !
As we look at the horrors, human malice and the ignorance that continue to visit the world, as well as the toll of
natural disasters, we may ask, where is God ?
It is in this landscape of darkness, a valley of death, enemies and persecutions that God comes to us as a
shepherd and assures us: I am with you. It is in this landscape we find hope .
God is with us, we may not see him because we are blinded by the sorrows and tradgedies of life. Those who are
rooted in God will never be put to shame and those who cling to Christ will know hope. The sun will come out and
God will draw us into the light of wholeness. It is in this deeply rooted
radical trust that relationships are changed.
We know that reality shapes every human being as we are confronted with choices that are not clear. I do know
that the way I respond to others does matter.
I may think them selfish, mean spirited and bigoted. I may be right, I may be wrong. I can only make a choice
not to to put the same into the world. In doing so i may not see the poor surrounding me. I may use the poor and
others to attain my own ends.
When I bring radical hope and trust into these relationships, I say yes to life, over and over again and I challenge
others to believe that God is present.
In the face of the horrors that mankind and nature visit upon us, we ask the question, God where are you ?
The answer is found by those with eyes focused on Christ.
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No matter what we have suffered or lost we have all been given far more than we can ever give in return. When we
understand that we are poor and needy, that we have nothing of our own, not even our bodies, then we will be
prepared to be truly rich. True riches are not riches of the world, but riches of the spirit, the riches of God's love.
The Lord has done all the hard work for us.
T. Christopher+,HH
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