Spiritual rebirth on Annunciation Day

As of yesterday, the 25th March 2007, I, Nicodemus, commit to living life as a better Christian. Like many of us, I have been guilty of a fair amount of backsliding in the last few years. I have been too easily led into temptation - sometimes making no effort to avoid it.

Psalm 51

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.

For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.

Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

Yesterday was good day to pick for starting anew. In the Christian calendar it is Annunciation Day. A day to celebrate the conception of our Lord Jesus Christ. And how better to this than with a renewed vow of faithfulness to Him.

God Bless you all - N

Blessed is the lion which becomes man

I have just been reading about the gospel of Thomas. This is a gospel that did not make it into the New Testament but is believed to have been written in the first century. The gospel of Thomas is not a narrative gospel (like Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) but a 'sayings' gospel. It is thought to contain the sayings of Jesus as collected by the apostle Thomas. There are 114 verses (sayings) in all. Some of these have obvious parallels in the NT but others are more esoteric. One that paticularly interest me is verse 7.

Jesus said, "Blessed is the lion which becomes man when consumed by man; and cursed is the man whom the lion consumes, and the lion becomes man

The meaning of this is open to interpretation but I believe the Lion represents 'The World'. So the meaning is something like:- A man can make the ungodly world holy by being holy, but if the ungodly world seduces the man, the man becomes ungodly. Something worth considering as the seductions of the world seem to increase.

God Bless - N

Tyndale's John - Chapter 3 verses 1 to 16

The William Tyndale Bible is an early translation of the Holy Bible into English. It predates the King James Authorised Version, but it is noticeable that the Tyndale text was influential in the phrasing of the KJV. Here is a small sample - John 3:1 to 3:16. If you would like to see the four gospels in full they are here Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,

1 Ther was a man of the pharises named Nicodemus a ruler amonge ye Iewes.

2 The same cam to Iesus by nyght and sayde vnto him: Rabbi we knowe that thou arte a teacher whiche arte come from God. For no man coulde do suche miracles as thou doest except God were with him.

3 Iesus answered and sayde vnto him: Verely verely I saye vnto the: except a man be boren a newe he cannot se the kyngdom of God.

4 Nicodemus sayde vnto him: how can a man be boren when he is olde? can he enter into his moders wombe and be boren agayne?

5 Iesus answered: verely verely I saye vnto the: except that a man be boren of water and of ye sprete he cannot enter into the kyngdome of god.

6 That which is boren of the flesshe is flesshe: and that which is boren of the sprete is sprete.

7 Marvayle not that I sayd to the ye must be boren a newe.

8 The wynde bloweth where he listeth and thou hearest his sounde: but canst not tell whence he cometh and whether he goeth. So is every man that is boren of the sprete.

9 And Nicodemus answered and sayde vnto him: how can these thinges be?

10 Iesus answered and sayde vnto him: arte thou a master in Israel and knowest not these thinges?

11 Verely verely I saye vnto the we speake that we knowe and testify that we have sene: and ye receave not oure witnes.

12 Yf when I tell you erthely thinges ye beleve not: how shuld ye beleve yf I shall tell you of hevenly thinges?

13 And no man ascendeth vp to heaven but he that came doune from heaven that is to saye the sonne of man which is in heaven.

14 And as Moses lifte vp the serpent in the wyldernes even so must the sonne of man be lifte vp

15 that none that beleveth in him perisshe: but have eternall lyfe.

16 For God so loveth the worlde yt he hath geven his only sonne that none that beleve in him shuld perisshe: but shuld have everlastinge lyfe.

God Bless - N

The establishment of Christian behaviour

It occurs to me that the one of the best ways to develop a really Christian life is to hold your faith in your mind as much as possible. I have recently read Way of a Pilgrim by Walter J. Ciszek (Foreword), Helen Bacovcin (Translator) This is an old Russian book that tells the story of an honest poor pilgrim who travels about the countryside looking for a way of including the Jesus Payer into his life. The Jesus Prayer ..

Lord Jesus Christ,
Son of God,
have mercy on me,
a sinner.

The pilgrim seeks to make the Jesus Prayer part of his daily life by repeating it over and over again, as often as he could. At first he mumbled it and then only said it in his head, like a Hindu mantra. I have decided that I shall try this approach and see what happens. I shall Post again in a month or so and let you know what happens - N

God's Yellow Pages

I found this on www.christianforums.com - Thanks "His4Life" for posting it.

Where to look when:

• Afraid
  • Psalm 34:4
  • Matthew 10:28
  • 2 Timothy 1:7
  • Hebrews 13:5,6
• Anxious
  • Psalm 46
  • Matthew 6:19-34
  • Philippians 4:6
  • 1 Peter 5:6,7
• Backsliding
  • Psalm 51
  • 1 John 1:4-9
• Bereaved
  • Matthew 5:4
  • 2 Corinthians 1:3,4
• Bitter - Critical
  • 1 Corinthians 13
• Conscious of sin
  • Proverbs 28:13
• Defeated
  • Romans 8:31-39
• Depressed
  • Psalm 34
• Disaster threatens
  • Psalm 91
  • Psalm 118:5,6
  • Luke 8:22-25
• Discouraged
  • Psalm 23
  • Psalm 42:6-11
  • Psalm 55:22
  • Matthew 5:11,12
  • 2 Corinthians 4:8-18
  • Philippians 4:4-7
• Doubting
  • Matthew 8:26
  • Hebrews 11
• Facing crisis
  • Psalm 121
  • Matthew 6:25-34
  • Hebrews 11
• Faith fails
  • Psalm 42:5
  • Hebrews 11
• Friends fail
  • Psalm 41:9-13
  • Luke 17:3,4
  • Romans 12:14,17,19,21
  • 2 Timothy 4:16-18
• Leaving home
  • Psalm 121
  • Matthew 10:16-20
• Lonely
  • Psalm 23
  • Hebrews 13:5,6
• Needing God's protection
  • Psalm 27:1-3
  • Psalm 91
  • Philippians 4:19
• Needing guidance
  • Psalm 32:8
  • Proverbs 3:5,6
• Needing peace
  • John 14:1-4
  • John 16:33
  • Romans 5:1-5
  • Philippians 4:6,7
• Needing rules for life
  • Romans 12
• Overcome
  • Psalm 6
  • Romans 8:31-39
  • 1 John 1:4-9
• Prayerful
  • Psalm 4
  • Psalm 42
  • Luke 11:1-13
  • John 17
  • 1 John 5:14,15
• Protected
  • Psalm 18:1-3
  • Psalm 34:7
• Sick - In pain
  • Psalm 38
  • Matthew 26:39
  • Romans 5:3-5
  • 2 Corinthians 12:9,10
  • 1 Peter 4:12,13,19
• Sorrowful
  • Psalm 51
  • Matthew 5:4
  • John 14
  • 2 Corinthians 1:3,4
  • 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
• Tempted
  • Psalm 1
  • Psalm 139:23,24
  • Matthew 26:41
  • 1 Corinthians 10:12-14
  • Philippians 4:8
  • James 4:7
  • 2 Peter 2:9,3:17
• Thankful
  • Psalm 100
  • 1 Thessalonians 5:18
  • Hebrews 13:15
• Traveling
  • Psalm 121
• Trouble, in
  • Psalm 16+31
  • John 14:1-4
  • Hebrews 7:25
• Weary
  • Psalm 90
  • Matthew 11:28-30
  • 1 Corinthians 15:58
  • Galatians 6:9,10
• Worried
  • Matthew 6:19-34
  • 1 Peter 5:6,7

A note on avoiding temptation

It has occurred to me that we (or at least I) complain about temptation towards sin. We are told in scripture that God never allows us to be tempted beyond our means to resist it. But the simple fact is.....we are very poor at resisting temptation.

Therefore, it seems plain to me that we should take every precaution to avoid temptation. And a real key to this is NOT THINKING ABOUT IT. I have found that the more I concentrate on resisting my temptations the more importance I give them and the more hold they have on me. Because of this it is vital that we do not dwell on temptation, but deliberately direct our minds to loftier thoughts. I shall elaborate further upon this in a future post.

God Bless - N

New Link

I have just made a change to the template for this blog. I have added a new link to the side of this page. It is a link to the e-sword website. This site offers the most superb Bible study software free of charge. I recommend it wholeheartedly. It is beautiful thing that so much work can go into a product without profit as the motive. Thank you to all the developers that are involved in this project.

May God bless you - N

New Books

I have just ordered a couple of books for my holiday: The Philokalia by St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain & St. Markarios of Corinth. And Way of a Pilgrim by Walter J. Ciszek (Foreword), Helen Bacovcin (Translator).

I am hoping that through these books I can gain a greater understanding of the orthodox church. This is my prayer for the purchasing of the books.

Oh Lord! Please give me the patience and humility to approach theses books,
Please give me the wisdom to understand them more fully,
And Lord - thank you for all that you reveal to every one of us every day - Amen

God bless you all - N

God is good!

You know, the Lord really is good. When I pray and ask Him for help he never lets me down. Recently I have been going through a troubled time. I have stresses at work that sometimes make me resentful of my employers - especially my manager. Recently, as I have been walking to work, I have felt hate and anger welling up inside me. This makes me feel bad and I get angrier and angrier as I walk. I begin to visualise myself confronting my manager and verbally abusing him or humiliating him in front of others.

Before long I realised that these feelings are caused by the devil finding a new way to tempt me to sin. Straight away I prayed (as I walked along the road) ...

Oh Lord please help me to avoid this temptation to the sin of Anger,
Give me the strength to ignore the devil's tempting,
Fill my heart with love for the brothers that I have deemed enemies,
I ask this in the name of Your Son Jesus Christ.
Amen

And although it took a moment my anger started to recede! It eventually did and I walked along with a lighter heart - Praise the Lord!!

N

A wonderful book

I have just dicovered a wonderful little book called The Earnest Communicant - A Course of preparation for the Lord's Supper. The book was written by the Right Reverend Aston Oxenden, once Bishop of Montreal. My small leather-bound copy was published in 1896 but the book was originally published in 1866 ( i.e. 140 years ago) The Right Rev gives advice on how to spiritually prepare for Holy Communion. He gives daily examples of prayers and meditations. Here is the an example.

O MY GOD I desire now to approach thee: do Thou grant me Thy presence and blessing. Strengthen my faith. Thou knowest how miserably weak it is. Oh, take away the evil heart of disbelief, and give me a believing, loving heart.

There is a lot more but I can't type it all. Needless to say, I am very pleased to have found this book. It is small so I can carry it with me and read it at odd moments. Bye for now.

God Bless - N