Ragamuffin: Hallel

He lifts the poor from the dust
and the needy from the garbage dump.
He sets them among princes,
even the princes of his own people!
Psalm 113:7-8 (NLT)

“H

allel” basically means “praise”. The Psalms are full of praise. Psalm 113 was probably sung prior to the Passover meal. It is a psalm that rings out with joy. It is a song of praise by the people of God for their God. We used to sing a song: “Hallelu Hallelu Hallelu Hallelujah, Praise ye the Lord”. Maybe you remember it? With alternate singing and standing with the various words. A nice fun song for children (and some of us adults too).

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Thinkaloud | invisible support

… God … a sort of celestial assistant

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e live in an emergency-oriented world, which - as Henri Nouwen writes in Clowning in Rome - pushes people to give up their long-range goals and focus only on the most pressing problems. “When a sense of emergency begins to pervade a culture”, he says, “short-term solutions, provisional care, and temporary aid easily obscure the need for carefully studied long-term projects.”

One of the problems of being driven by  “crisis planning” is that movements such as The Salvation Army often fail to realize that frightened people are reassured to know there are groups willing and able to minister God’s healing grace to front-line workers, as well as to society’s losers. Such a visible organization can be an anchor in difficult times to those who are not necessarily helped by the Army, but who trust the organization.

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Double~take | OWSOMS

… caught in the same trap 

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idn’t you know?” says my sister, “The universe revolves around me.”  Since ancient times we have all been at the centre of our universe. Galileo’s evidence to the contrary in the 1600’s had him thoroughly condemned by the church of the day and we’ve barely changed since.

Recently I was madly trying to get some paintings finished for another corps’ prayer room. I was doing up stained glass windows on cardboard, depicting three different focuses – personal, church/fellowship, and mission. The image for the mission window was the world. Easy, I said, and threw together a sun, Earth and some dark space beneath. After coming up with designs for the other two windows, I turned back to paint the mission window; with its nice view of Australia – India to the side; part of Indonesia up the top…

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Vox populi | Sunday Bloody Sunday

… a whole different meaning

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just heard a sermon about the Blood of Jesus.  It’s been awhile, and I have to admit I’m in a bit of a quandary.  The message was bang on theologically, and it was absolutely the truth.  So why am I still wondering what to make of it?

I remember my mom telling a cadet they need to preach the blood of Jesus, and its power, and I recall the cadet preaching up a storm… “There’s Power in the BLOOD!”  It was the blood of Jesus in my mom’s experience that wrought such a dramatic change in her life.

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It’s the culture, stupid!

Areopagus #34

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oday we present one of the driving forces behind this year’s hit movie Amazing Grace, Dr. John Seel. He’s a writer and consultant to Walden Media, producers of Amazing Grace and other great movies such as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Bridge to Terabithia and Charlotte’s Web.

John works as a cultural change agent and a moral entrepreneur, connecting great ideas with great business.

In John’s presentation he suggests that the ways Christians have gone about trying to change this culture haven’t been all that effective — and are becoming increasingly futile. Instead, John proposes a better way of asserting Christian influence through strong networks, intellectual power and access to the institutions that shape culture.

Don’t miss this fascinating talk (runs: 31:46) - click on the arrow below, visit the Areopagus podcast widget in the right sidebar or download the talk from the Areopagus podcast on iTunes.

This recording originally appeared in the think CD series by the Work Research Foundation.
Used with permission.

Deeper shade of grey | broken bread

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nd he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me. “In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying,”This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. Luke 22:19

To enter this scripture through Lectio Divina was interesting for me last week on Maundy Thursday; to fast from the proof texts of a polarised and perhaps tired debate in TSA and to meditate on what shone for me revealed something of an obvious surprise.

“For you….”

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Resurrected writers: Catherine Booth

The dead still speak
An occasional series by Maxwell Ryan

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early 118 years ago, in the English coastal town of Clacton-on-Sea, heaven became richer as one of the best minds of the Victorian era - Catherine Booth, mother of The Salvation Army - slipped loose her hold on earthly life.  At 61 years of age the woman who was among the most compelling speakers of her era (one of her many biographers wrote that she was “one of the most remarkable woman who has ever lived”) succumbed to the ravages of cancer, her husband William and her children by her bedside.

Catherine was born in 1829 and from an early age, despite ill health as a child, revealed the qualities that would mark her as an extraordinary person.  She was ardent, yet her passion was joined to a formidable intellect and command of language. By age 12 she had read the Bible through eight times, the knowledge thus gained playing a large part in her later trenchant public sermons and lectures.

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Tags: Catherine Booth, writing

Ragamuffin : the Bible & social justice

… maybe we should combine forces

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he idea of social justice has been around a long time. The Salvation Army’s stance has been good for the most part but wobbly at times. Notice Isaiah 58 :6, 10 (NLT):

6 “…this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people.
10 Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.”

The Bible says much about poverty and hunger. We don’t go very far in the “holy writ” to discover that God has a heart for the poor, the oppressed and those that are the outcasts from society. It comes to fruition in the life of Christ in the Gospels. Throughout the letters of the New Testament we find the writers encouraging us to help those in need.

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Thinkaloud | Source of serious joy

… the cornerstone of history

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aster is not only a time of the light-hearted happiness of the carefree child, but it is also an occasion for that serious joy which is experienced by those who have fought and won mighty spiritual battles and who retain a blitheness of spirit that is compelling in its winsomeness.

Easter is about living, dying and living again. It is concerned with the historical life of the God-Man who breathed the air of Palestine at a particular time, who washed His face, who ate plain food, who cracked jokes and enjoyed celebrations, and who had a keen nose for hypocrisy. He was Jesus, the carpenter’s Son, who was born of Mary through the miraculous intervention of God. He was God, who entered human history so that humans would have the opportunity to enter eternity and live with Him forever.

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Double~take | coincidence

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verheard Easter quote of the week:

“I can’t just give out eggs to the people I like. I’ve got some good eggs here, and I’ve gotta get some crap eggs too, to give out to the people I hate… see if they’ve got some cheap big bags of little eggs…” (Feel the love.)

I am reading through Psalms (again) with a group of people – a chapter a day, and the chapter for Good Friday was Psalm 22.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
…All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads…
…they have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing…

It’s like, the ultimate Good Friday prophecy chapter.
Here’s to freakish random coincidences and relevant bible readings.

Double~take appears every Saturday on theRubicon. Find past Double~take posts and a bio of Stephanie Hung here.