"Natural science, in its widest sense, aims at setting forth a coherent system of knowledge of how Nature works. The scientist is concerned not with the 'how we know' but with the 'what we know' of the objective world. He assumes from the outset that it is 'real', that it exists apart from the individual knower, is con...sistently measurable, and is a realm of law" (The Wings Of Faith p44-45).

Susanna

A story about John and Charles Wesley’s mother caught my eye while I was reading “Streams Of Living Water” by Richard Foster as part of an assignment for school. I want to know what you all think about what she did and why you think what you do.

“When Samuel was away in London on church matters for an extended period one time, his assistant did a poor job of nurturing the congregation. Consequently, Susanna decided to have Sunday evening services at home for the family, in order to bring some added spiritual influence. They gathered in the kitchen to sing psalms, pray, and read a short sermon selected from Mr. Wesley’s library shelves. Soon friends and neighbors asked to join in, and before anyone knew it, two hundred souls were crowded into Susanna’s home.

Mr. Inman, the church assistant, was insulted and scandalized, mainly because the Sunday night gatherings were outdrawing Sunday mornings. He contacted Samuel Wesley in London and protested these irregular worship services. Mr. Wesley, in turn, wrote his wife, asking her to desist. Her response was a masterful balance of deference and defiance.

Susanna began by responding to his three major objections to the meetings: these were ‘first, that it will look particular; secondly, my sex; and lastly, your being at present in a public station and character.’ She took up each objection with the most deference providing an extended and definitive answer. She then concluded, ‘If you do after all think it fit to dissolve this assembly, do not tell me any more that you desire me to do it, for that will not satisfy my conscience; but send me your positive command in such full and express terms as may absolve me from all guilt and punishment for neglecting this opportunity of doing good to souls, when you and I shall appear before the great and awful tribunal of our Lord Jesus Christ’” (244).

The meetings continued unabated.



Life Together

"The serious Christian, set down for the first time in Christian community, is likely to bring with him a very definite idea of what Christian life together should be and to try to realize it. But God's grace speedily shatters such dreams. Just as surely as God desires to lead us to a knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely must we be overwhelmed by a great disillusionment with others, with Christians in general, and, if we are fortunate, with ourselves.

By sheer grace, God will not permit us to live even for a brief period is a dream world. He does not abandon us to those rapturous experiences and lofty moods that come over us like a dream. God is not a God of the emotions but the God of truth. Only that fellowship which faces such disillusionment, with all its unhappy and ugly aspects, begins to be what it should be in God's sight, begins to grasp in faith the promise that is given to it. The sooner this shock of disillusionment comes to an individual and to a community the better for both. A community which cannot bear and cannot survive such a crisis, which insists upon keeping its illusion when it should be shattered, permanently loses in that moment the promise of Christian community. Sooner or later it will collapse. Every human wish dream that is injected into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community and must be banished if genuine community is to survive. He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.

God hates visionary dreaming; it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God, by others, and by himself. He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own law, and judges the brethren and God Himself accordingly. He stands adamant, a living reproach to all others in the circle of brethren. He acts as if he is the creator of the Christian community, as if his dreams binds men together. When things do not go his way, he calls the effort a failure. When his ideal picture is destroyed, he sees the community going to smash. So he becomes, first an accuser of his brethren, then an accuser of God, and finally the despairing accuser of himself."

--Dietrich Bonhoeffer Life Together p26-28

Our Problem of Evil

"At the outset, let us remember that every world-view--not just Christianity's--must give an explanation for an answer for evil and suffering. Either evil categorically proves that God does not exist, as the atheist avows, or evil is 'not ultimately real evil,' as the pantheist claims, or evil is most coherently explained by the Christian view of God and His purpose for creation. In short, this is not a problem distinctive to Christianity. It will not do for the challenger just to raise the question. This problem of evil is one to which we all must offer an answer, regardless of the belief system to which we subscribe."
--Ravi Zacharias Jesus Among Other Gods p108

Metamorphosis

"Alas, she was unable to break the silence of my melancholy. That I loved her--nothing is more certain--and thus my melancholy got plenty to feed upon, and it got, in addition, a dreadful perquisite. The fact that I became an author is due essentially to her, my melancholy and my money. Now by God's help I shall become myself, I believe now that Christ will help me to triumph over my melancholy, and then I will become a priest."
--Kierkegaard's Metamorphosis

Love Bears the Impress of Eternity

"...In spite of the fact that this love is essentially based upon the sensuous, it is ennobled by reason of the consciousness of eternity which it embodies; for what distinguishes all love from lust is the fact that it bears an impress of eternity." ---Kierkegaard in Either/Or

Blessing

Celebrant: All our problems

People: We send to the cross of Christ.

Celebrant: All our difficulties

People: We send to the cross of Christ.

Celebrant: All the devil’s works

People: We send to the cross of Christ.

Celebrant: All our hopes

People: We set on the risen Christ.

Celebrant: Christ the Son of Righteousness shine upon you and scatter the darkness from before your path; and the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be among you, and remain with you always.