Christian. · Ireland · March · March 17 · St. Patrick · St. Patrick's Confession · St. Patty's Day

Questioning God.

March 12, 2013 purposeunderheavenLeave a comment

Do people ever ask you questions about God? Why does God allow things to happen? Here those on the boat started questioning Patrick.

.  And after three days we reached land, and for twenty-eight days journeyed through uninhabited country, and the food ran out and hunger overtook them; and one day the steersman began saying: “Why is it, Christian? You say your God is great and all-powerful; then why can you not pray for us? For we may perish of hunger; it is unlikely indeed that we shall ever see another human being.”

Matthew 17:

²⁰And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

And thus, Patrick told them they should trust Jesus and have faith.

In fact, I said to them, confidently: “Be converted by faith with all your heart to my Lord God, because nothing is impossible for him, so that today he will send food for you on your road, until you be sated, because everywhere he abounds.”

And with God’s help this came to pass; and behold, a herd of swine appeared on the road before our eyes, and they slew many of them, and remained there for two nights, and they were full of their meat and well restored, for many of them had fainted and would otherwise have been left half dead by the wayside.

And after this they gave the utmost thanks to God, and I was esteemed in their eyes, and from that day they had food abundantly. They discovered wild honey, besides, and they offered a share to me, and one of them said: “It is a sacrifice.” Thanks be to God, I tasted none of it.

Christian. · Ireland · March · March 17 · St. Patrick · St. Patrick's Confession · St. Patty's Day

Pray, Pray Pray

March 11, 2013 purposeunderheavenLeave a comment

So as we left Patrick, he ran away from his master and traveled a great distance to find a boat. He believes God called him to follow this path. The boat owners turn him down and tell him no way can he sail on their ship. Patrick turns and walks away praying.

Hearing this I left them to go to the hut where I was staying, and on the way I began to pray, and before the prayer was finished I heard one of them shouting loudly after me: “Come quickly because the men are calling you.” And immediately I went back to them and they started to say to me: “Come, because we are admitting you out of good faith; make friendship with us in any way you wish.” (And so, on that day, I refused to suck the breasts of these men from fear of God, but nevertheless I had hopes that they would come to faith in Jesus Christ, because they were barbarians.) And for this I continued with them, and forthwith we put to sea.

The fact God calls us does not mean there will not be obstacles but we should preserve as Patrick did. He prayed asking God to show him the way. God answered Patrick immediately, sometimes we have to wait and pray longer than Patrick did. But if God calls a person, and the person holds to faith and trusts God, the Lord will open the path.

Look at Moses. God called the Israelite out of Egypt. Before them was Red Sea and behind them the armies of Egypt.

Exodus 14:¹³And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.

¹⁴The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.

¹⁵And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward:

¹⁶But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.

¹⁷And I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them: and I will get me honour upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen.

¹⁸And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten me honour upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen.

¹⁹And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them:

²⁰And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night.

²¹And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.

²²And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.

²³And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.

²⁴And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians,

²⁵And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the Lordfighteth for them against the Egyptians.

²⁶And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.

Christian. · Ireland · March · March 17 · St. Patrick · St. Patrick's Confession · St. Patty's Day

God Called; Patrick Ran

March 10, 2013 purposeunderheavenLeave a comment

And it was there of course that one night in my sleep I heard a voice saying to me: “You do well to fast: soon you will depart for your home country.”

Do you ever fast? The one thing you don’t see in Patrick’s list of things he was doing was fasting. He doesn’t make a big deal about it. He mentions over and over how he is praying to God.
But when God speaks to Patrick, His first words commend Patrick for fasting because he is about to face something new.

A few years back someone introduced me to the idea that you can fast in many ways. Limiting food and concentrating on God is one way. Some times it makes sense to fast those things in your life that take your focus off of God–TV, internet, social media. Our Lord fasted for 40 days (Luke 4:1-4). During this time, he prayed alone and prepared his spirit for the temptation which he would face.

Back to Patrick.

And again, a very short time later, there was a voice prophesying: “Behold, your ship is ready.” And it was not close by, but, as it happened, two hundred miles away, where I had never been nor knew any person.

And shortly thereafter I turned about and fled from the man with whom I had been for six years, and I came, by the power of God who directed my route to advantage (and I was afraid of nothing), until I reached that ship.

And on the same day that I arrived, the ship was setting out from the place, and I said that I had not the wherewithal to sail with them; and the steersman was displeased and replied in anger, sharply: “By no means attempt to go with us.”

God called Patrick and he obeyed. He ran and followed a path he did not know, towards a destination just as unknown. He trusted God and there it was the ship that would take him away from the land of his slavery. Do you think he doubted or trusted his calling when the man said Patrick could not sail with them? Do you think Patrick question if he really heard God’s call now that the plan was not working out?

How often we think because we hit an obstacle that we must have miss understood God’s calling for our life.

Christian. · Ireland · March · March 17 · St. Patrick · St. Patrick's Confession · St. Patty's Day

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night

March 9, 2013 purposeunderheavenLeave a comment

And I was not worthy, nor was I such that the Lord should grant his humble servant this, that after hardships and such great trials, after captivity, after many years, he should give me so much favour with these people, a thing which in the time of my youth I neither hoped for nor imagined.

But after I reached Hibernia I used to pasture the flock each day and I used to pray many times a day. More and more did the love of God, and my fear of him and faith increase, and my spirit was moved so that in a day [I said] from one up to a hundred prayers, and in the night a like number; besides I used to stay out in the forests and on the mountain and I would wake up before daylight to pray in the snow, in icy coldness, in rain, and I used to feel neither ill nor any slothfulness, because, as I now see, the Spirit was burning in me at that time.

Can’t you see our Patrick. They have captured him and dragged him to land he did not know. A slave, he is made to watch the sheep. Away from family, away from the easy life, Patrick prays. Day and night he talks to God about his issues. He prays. The spirit grows inside him. Patrick prays.

When I look at the lives of the men and women who have served God in mighty ways and have done hard things for God, I find one common denominator. They pray.

Jesus prayed. God, in human form while on earth, prayed.
Luke 5:16 tells us that Jesus frequently withdrew to an isolated place and prayed.

I have been think a lot about prayer. I think we need to spend quite time talking and listening with God. But I also think we should be discussing the day to day things with God. The times I have felt closest to God have been when I ask Him through the day about decision I have to make. When I discuss my concerns as they arise. Our prayers like Patricks should be through out our day as we proceed through our lives.

Christian. · Ireland · March · March 17 · St. Patrick · St. Patrick's Confession · St. Patty's Day

What’s Your Excuse?

March 8, 2013 purposeunderheavenLeave a comment

Over 1500 years after he lived, Patrick’s name is famous for bringing Christianity to Ireland. But if you listen to him, he doesn’t believe he has any skills. He wishes he were better educated. The others have skills he never obtained.

A young man, almost a beardless boy, I was taken captive before I knew what I should desire and what I should shun. So, consequently, today I feel ashamed and I am mightily afraid to expose my ignorance, because, [I am not] eloquent, with a small vocabulary, I am unable to explain as the spirit is eager to do and as the soul and the mind indicate.   But had it been given to me as to others, in gratitude I should not have kept silent, and if it should appear that I put myself before others, with my ignorance and my slower speech, in truth, it is written: “The tongue of the stammerers shall speak rapidly and distinctly [Isaiah 32:4].”

How much harder must we try to attain it, we of whom it is said: “You are an epistle of Christ in greeting to the ends of the earth… written on your hearts, not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God [2 Corinthians 3:3].”

And again, the Spirit witnessed that the rustic life was created by the Most High.   I am, then, first of all, countrified, an exile, evidently unlearned, one who is not able to see into the future, but I know for certain, that before I was humbled I was like a stone lying in deep mire, and he that is mighty came and in his mercy raised me up and, indeed, lifted me high up and placed me on top of the wall. And from there I ought to shout out in gratitude to the Lord for his great favours in this world and for ever, that the mind of man cannot measure.

Therefore be amazed, you great and small who fear God, and you men of God, eloquent speakers, listen and contemplate. Who was it summoned me, a fool, from the midst of those who appear wise and learned in the law and powerful in rhetoric and in all things? Me, truly wretched in this world, he inspired before others that I could be– if I would– such a one who, with fear and reverence, and faithfully, without complaint, would come to the people to whom the love of Christ brought me and gave me in my lifetime, if I should be worthy, to serve them truly and with humility.

According, therefore, to the measure of one’s faith in the Trinity, one should proceed without holding back from danger to make known the gift of God and everlasting consolation, to spread God’s name everywhere with confidence and without fear, in order to leave behind, after my death, foundations for my brethren and sons whom I baptized in the Lord in so many thousands.

God calls us. He uses our weaknesses and our past pains to touch others. We think we have to be great orators in order to preach, great writers to document our experiences or the ultimate charmer to share the gospel with others. It only takes someone willing to do what God asks them to do. We may never know how he uses what we do. The impact maybe years later. Maybe only one person accepts Christ and learns to follow the teaching.

What is your excuse for not spreading Christ’s message and love to others?

Christian. · Ireland · March · March 17 · St. Patrick · St. Patrick's Confession · St. Patty's Day

Patrick’s Words on Why He Wrote The Confession

March 7, 2013 purposeunderheavenLeave a comment

I am imperfect in many things, nevertheless I want my brethren and kinsfolk to know my nature so that they may be able to perceive my soul’s desire.   I am not ignorant of what is said of my Lord in the Psalm: “You destroy those who speak a lie [Psalm 5:6].” And again: “A lying mouth deals death to the soul.” And likewise the Lord says in the Gospel: “On the day of judgment men shall render account for every idle word they utter [Matthew 12:36].”  So it is that I should mightily fear, with terror and trembling, this judgment on the day when no one shall be able to steal away or hide, but each and all shall render account for even our smallest sins before the judgment seat of Christ the Lord.

And therefore for some time I have thought of writing, but I have hesitated until now, for truly, I feared to expose myself to the criticism of men, because I have not studied like others, who have assimilated both Law and the Holy Scriptures equally and have never changed their idiom since their infancy, but instead were always learning it increasingly, to perfection, while my idiom and language have been translated into a foreign tongue. So it is easy to prove from a sample of my writing, my ability in rhetoric and the extent of my preparation and knowledge, for as it is said, “wisdom shall be recognized in speech, and in understanding, and in knowledge and in the learning of truth.”

But why make excuses close to the truth, especially when now I am presuming to try to grasp in my old age what I did not gain in my youth because my sins prevented me from making what I had read my own? But who will believe me, even though I should say it again?

Christian. · Ireland · March · March 17 · St. Patrick · St. Patrick's Confession · St. Patty's Day

Christianity Is Not in Our Genetic Code

March 3, 2013 purposeunderheavenLeave a comment

I, Patrick, a sinner, a most simple countryman, the least of all the faithful and most contemptible to many, had for father the deacon Calpurnius, son of the late Potitus, a presbyter, of the settlement of Bannaven Taburniae; he had a small villa nearby where I was taken captive. I was at that time about sixteen years of age. I did not, indeed, know the true God; and I was taken into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of people, according to our deserts, for quite drawn away from God, we did not keep his precepts, nor were we obedient to our presbyters who used to remind us of our salvation. And the Lord brought down on us the fury of his being and scattered us among many nations, even to the ends of the earth, where I, in my smallness, am now to be found among foreigners.

Patrick’s story opens with a teen of sixteen. He lived in a land where Christianity existed. Look at his family and you would assume Patrick lived a nice Christian life. His father was a deacon; and his grandfather appears to have been a priest.

But reading his words, I believe Patrick lived in a society where Christianity had slid from faith to just words and acts. Patrick admits he knew of the true God, but he did not personally know this God. I gather, in the area where he lived, this was true of the majority of people.

Patrick gets swept up in some type of raid. Thousands of his country men and women are also captured. The people of the land had abandoned faith in Christ, not for a new god or some new wave faith, they left God out of neglect.

Patrick believes the disaster which fell upon his people and their being taken as slaves is a result of their turning their back on God. He sees a comparison between his people being scattered and their not living for Christ.

Made me think of the prophecies associated with Israel.

^{Amos 9:8}Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord.

⁹For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.

Today, I think Christians of America often sound like the Christians of Patrick’s villages.

“for quite drawn away from God, we did not keep his precepts, nor were we obedient to our presbyters who used to remind us of our salvation.”

I know from my own experience of slipping away that you do not have to make active decisions. Sometimes it results from wanting something you know is outside God’s will. In a past decade, I

I look forward to studying what Patrick discovered. I think the first thing is that we are not Christian because our ancestors believed. Christianity is not genetic.

28 Day Love Challenge · Christian. · February · Love

Day 23:Putting Christ First

February 27, 2013 purposeunderheavenLeave a comment

Thought long and hard about walking with the Spirit; about being one with Chist.

^{⁵“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much}^{fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. ⁶If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. ⁷If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will^[ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. ⁸By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.}

From my birth as a Christian, the Holy Spirit has stayed with me. But across my life there are times I am close to the Lord and there are times when He feels very far away.

The times when He felt far away, the Spirit had gone no where, but I typically had. Those were the times when my prayer life grew less and less. I stopped reading the bible. I did not do any of this dileberately. I just slid away.

At other times there would be something I wanted that I knew was wrong. I convinced my self that God would understand. Sure he wrote in the bible it was a sin, but it would make me happy and didn’t God want me happy. I would ease into a life style I knew violated God’s will. Justifying everything.

It’s not hard to find the times when I walked with the Spirit. They almost always follow a time of straying. My world starts falling apart. Those God would want me happy activities start blowing up in my face and I am broken. I don’t normally run back to Jesus as fast as I should, but I always run back. A broken person, I fall on my knees and beg God to heal me spiritually. I want back next to Him more than anything.

Those times when I can say I have walked with God. Those days when I have heard the Spirit and know I am walking with Christ are the best periods of my life. What they have in common are time of bible study, times of listening to sermons on the radio, but mostly, I spend time through the day asking God what I should do on the little things. I listen for His voice. I am in tune to His desire for my life and I try to follow his guidance.

These times of joy and closeness have actually occurred in times of quite in my life and in times of great stress. The closeness comes from my putting Christ first. My talking to Him through the day about all the issues, about all the problems and about all my choices.

If I am to love with Agape love, then I must be walking with the Spirit so that the Spirit can love through me. I must not just have a quite time that I spend with Jesus (which I need big time), but I must be talking with God about everything through the day. I must discuss the people who come into my life and ask for His guidance. Or when my temper wants to flare, to ask him to calm me and direct me.

28 Day Love Challenge · Christian. · February · Love

Day 22:Without Me ye Can Do Nothing.

February 26, 2013 purposeunderheavenLeave a comment

As soon as I set my mind to do even one aspect of the many traits of Agape love, I fail. I can’t do it. I fail even with my family who I hold the dearest of all. Imagine how short my determination gets with people who don’t share DNA with me.

When I should be patient; I lose it.

My kindness leads to my resentment

Envy, pride and selfishness sneak into my day to day. I only see them after I act. But they are for sure a major part of my life

My temper flares and I promise you I am keeping a list of everything that others have done against me.

I try to “always” protect, trust, hope and persevere, but I fall short of always.

Can you imagine what a testimony we could be if we lived Agape love, but how?

I believe Jesus explained to us how this is to be done in John 14-16.

We can only love with Agape love if we are one with Jesus. Not if we are believers. Not if we go to church on Sunday or even say a prayer every evening before we go to bed. We must be one with Jesus through the spirit.

John 15 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

²Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

³Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

⁴Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

⁵I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

⁶If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

⁷If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

⁸Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

⁹As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.

¹⁰If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.

¹¹These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

¹²This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

¹³Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

¹⁴Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

¹⁵Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

Paul also tells us that Agape is one of the fruit of the spirit.

Galatians 5:²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

²³Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

So the question is how to walk in the Spirit.

28 Day Love Challenge · Christian. · February · Love

Day 21:Stick To It

February 25, 2013 purposeunderheavenLeave a comment

It is not enough to be patient and kind for a moment in time. Or to have hope and confidence in others for a day. You protection does not end when the enemy continues to attack and you grow so weary. You must trust God and keep your faith in Him that those you love will find the truth and seek what is right.

We grow tired. We try, but enough is enough right? Its hard to love the person who constantly finds the wrong path, who seems to always want something from you and who treats you bad. When can you let go and just walk away?

Agape preservers. Agape endures. Agape hangs in there when others think you have given it a good try.

Aren’t you glad God preservers? He does not give up on us.

When we fail him, he picks us up.

When we come asking for Him for help, He is there for us.

When we ask for forgiveness, he forgives.

It is not hard to do all the things in the agape list once. Or for those who appreciate our love. But we are to follow God’s example and not give up on those who are sometimes hard to love.