I, too, am going back home today... - The little Prince

He made no answer to my question, but he added: "I, too, am going back home today..." Then, sadly−−

"It is much farther... it is much more difficult..." I realised clearly that something extraordinary was happening. I was holding him close in my arms as if he were a little child; and yet it seemed to me that he was rushing headlong toward an abyss from which I could do nothing to restrain him... His look was very serious, like some one lost far away. "I have your sheep. And I have the sheep's box. And I have the muzzle..." And he gave me a sad smile. I waited a long time. I could see that he was reviving little by little. "Dear little man," I said to him, "you are afraid..." He was afraid, there was no doubt about that. But he laughed lightly. "I shall be much more afraid this evening..." Once again I felt myself frozen by the sense of something irreparable. And I knew that I could not bear the thought of never hearing that laughter any more. For me, it was like a spring of fresh water in the desert. "Little man," I said, "I want to hear you laugh again." But he said to me: "Tonight, it will be a year... my star, the

And he laughed again. Then he quickly became serious: "Tonight−− you know... do not come," said the little prince. "I shall not leave you," I said. "I shall look as if I were suffering. I shall look a little as if I were dying. It is like that. Do not come to see that. It is not worth the trouble..." "I shall not leave you." But he was worried. "I tell you−− it is also because of the snake. He must not bite you. Snakes−− they are malicious creatures. This one might bite you just for fun..." "I shall not leave you." But a thought came to reassure him: "It is true that they have no more poison for a second bite."

That night I did not see him set out on his way. He got away from me without making a sound. When I succeeded in catching up with him he was walking along with a quick and resolute step. He said to me merely: "Ah! You are there..." And he took me by the hand. But he was still worrying. "It was wrong of you to come. You will suffer. I shall look as if I were dead; and that will not be true..." I said nothing. "You understand... it is too far. I cannot carry this body with me. It is too heavy." I said nothing. "But it will be like an old abandoned shell. There is nothing sad about old shells..." I said nothing. 

He was a little discouraged. But he made one more effort: "You know, it will be very nice. I, too, shall look at the stars. All the stars will be wells with a rusty pulley. All the stars will pour out fresh water for me to drink..." I said nothing. "That will be so amusing! You will have five hundred million little bells, and I shall have five hundred million springs of fresh water..." And he too said nothing more, because he was crying... "Here it is. Let me go on by myself."  

And he sat down, because he was afraid. Then he said, again: "You know−− my flower... I am responsible for her. And she is so weak! She is so naïve! She has four thorns, of no use at all, to protect herself against all the world..." I too sat down, because I was not able to stand up any longer. "There now−− that is all..." He still hesitated a little; then he got up. He took one step. I could not move. There was nothing but a flash of yellow close to his ankle. He remained motionless for an instant. He did not cry out. He fell as gently as a tree falls. There was not even any sound, because of the sand.

The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint−Exupery

Dedication to The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint−Exupery

 

To Leon Werth

I ask the indulgence of the children who may read this book for dedicating

it to a grown−up. I have a serious reason: he is the best friend I have in

the world. I have another reason: this grown−up understands everything,

even books about children. I have a third reason: he lives in France where

he is hungry and cold. He needs cheering up. If all these reasons are not

enough, I will dedicate the book to the child from whom this grown−up

grew. All grown−ups were once children−− although few of them

remember it. And so I correct my dedication:

To Leon Werth

when he was a little boy

The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint−Exupery

Ritual and Rites - The little Prince

The next day the little prince returned.

"It would have been better to return at the same time the," fox said. "For instance, if you come at four in the afternoon, I'll begin to be happy by three. The closer it gets to four, the happier I'll feel. By four I'll be all excited and worried: I'll discover what it costs to be happy! But if you come at any old time, I'll never know when I should prepare my heart . . . There must be rites."

What's a rite?" asked the little prince.

"That's another thing that's been to often neglected," said the fox. "It's the fact that one day is different from the other days, one hour from the other hours. My hunters, for example, have a rite. They dance with the village girls on thursdays. SO Thursday's a wonderful day: I can take a stroll all the way to the vineyards. If the hunters danced whenever they chose, the days would be all just alike, and I'd have no holiday at all.

The Little Prince  Antoine de Saint-Exupery translated Richard Howard

Moses in the desert School of Education - Steve Farrar

 

"Moses was wounded, Churchill was wounded, and perhaps you are wounded." "The God who oversees and controls the events of history is overseeing your life as well. And He knows exactly what He is doing. You may have lost control of your circumstances, but He has not. He has enrolled you in a course you didn't sign up for. And if you remain teachable, He'll make sure you finish strong."

"God was far from finished with Moses. Although Moses felt God had removed His hand from him, nothing was further from the truth. God's hand was as firmly on Moses in the desert as it had been when he was a babe in the bulrushes. God was signing Moses up for a master's degree with a major in character development. While he was in the desert over the next forty years, Moses took four core courses: unemployment 101, advanced obscurity, remedial waiting, and intermediate loneliness." (162-3)

FINISHING STRONG Finding the Power to Go the Distance Steve Farrar, Multnomah Books, 1995, ISBN 1576730239

The Brain - Robert Frost

THE BRAIN IS A WONDERFUL ORGAN,

IT STARTS THE MINUTE YOU GET UP IN THE MORNING,

AND DOES NOT STOP UNTIL YOU GET TO THE OFFICE.

"ROBERT FROST"

Those Crazy Gringos - Bernie May

 

“I remember the Day Mr. Townsend came into my office in 1945. He presented the most ridiculous plan I had ever heard.

He wanted to go into the jungle with a group of linguists. They were going to learn the languages of the people, form alphabets teach the people how to read and translate the Bible into those languages. He wanted my blessing on this impossible project. Our conversation went like this:

Mr.Townsend, who is going to do all this work?

José Jiménez Borja

It will be done by trained linguist— young men and women with college degrees who are willing to spend their lives among the indigenous peoples.

This is a difficult task. How many are willing to go?

None yet. But when I go back to the U.S . and challenge them, many will volunteer.

The jungle is impossible. How will you get those people out to the villages?

I plan to use airplanes to land on the rivers and airstrips that can be cleared in the jungle.

How many planes do you have?

None, But when I share the need, God will give us enough planes.

Who will fly these planes?

Hundreds of young people, seasoned pilots and mechanics will volunteer.

How many pilots and mechanics do you now have?

None, but god will send them along.

There is much disease in the jungle how will you stay healthy?

We’ll have clinics staffed by doctor’s and nurses.

How many doctors and nurses do you have?

None, but God will supply them.

Who will finance all this? The U.S. government? A wealthy foundation?

No. I’ll go home and tell the people of the United States about this plan. God will supply. All the workers will raise their own support.

At this I stared at the strange man and told him, When all that comes to pass, come back to me and I will bless you.

He got up, gave me a big hug, and said I’ll be back soon.

“when Mr. Townsend walked out of the door, I turned to my secretary and said, “allá va el gringo más loco que jamás he vito’ ( there goes the craziest gringo I’ve ever seen in my life.)

Reporting on interview between Jiménez Borja an assistant to the Peruvian Minister of Education at the 25 Wycliffe Anniversary and Cameron Townsend

Do not be surprised - Blaise Pascal

Do not be surprised at the sight of simple people who believe without argument. God makes them love him and date themselves. He inclines their hearts to believe with a vigorous and unquestioning faith unless God touches our hearts; and we shall believe as soon as he does so.

Blaise Pascal 1623-62
the Lion Handbook of The History Of Christianity

The Legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer ‑ Costly Grace By Charles W. Colson

 BreakPoint Commentary ‑ March 4, 1999

The Legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer ‑ Costly Grace

By Charles W. Colson

Half a century ago a young Lutheran pastor named Dietrich Bonhoeffer was involved in a failed plot to assassinate Adolph Hitler‑‑and he was executed by the Nazis for treason.

Astonishingly, not long ago Bonhoeffer's reputation was resurrected when he was officially exonerated by a court in Berlin. Just what did Bonhoeffer do to provoke the ire of the Nazi regime?

In his book The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer paints a vivid picture of what it was like to be true to the Christian faith under a hostile regime. Under persecution, Bonhoeffer discovered that, even though God's grace is freely given, it also extracts a high cost.

It was costly grace that led Bonhoeffer to return to Germany and suffer with his fellow Germans when he could have stayed safely in America.

It was costly grace that led Bonhoeffer to continue teaching and preaching the Word of God even though the Nazis tried to suppress his work. Costly grace led Bonhoeffer to stand against a turncoat church that mixed Nazi doctrine with Christian truth. Along with other faithful believers, Bonhoeffer signed the Barmen Declaration, which boldly declared their independence from both the state and a co‑opted church.

Costly grace led Bonhoeffer to attempt to smuggle Jews out of Germany, even though it led to his arrest. Costly grace led the young pastor to set aside his commitment to pacifism and join in the assassination plot against Hitler‑‑which was what finally led to his execution by the Nazis.

But even in prison, Bonhoeffer's life shone with divine grace. He comforted other prisoners, who looked upon him as their chaplain. He wrote many moving letters that were later collected into a volume called Letters and Papers from Prison‑‑a book I read during my own stay behind bars, in which I found great strength and encouragement.

On the morning of April 9, 1945‑less than a month before Hitler was defeated‑‑Bonhoeffer knelt and prayed, and then followed his captors to the gallows, where he was hanged as a traitor. Now Bonhoeffer is finally receiving the official recognition to match the spiritual veneration he has inspired in so many believers.

The late British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge wrote a tribute to Bonhoeffer in his book The Third Testament. Muggeridge, writing about World War II said: "Looking back now across the years . . . what lives on is the memory of a man who died, not on behalf of freedom or democracy or a steadily rising gross national product, nor for any of the twentieth century's counterfeit hopes or desires, but on behalf of a cross on which another man died 2,000 years before.

"As on that previous occasion on Golgotha," Muggeridge goes on, "so amidst the rubble of 'liberated' Europe, the only victor is the man who died. As the only hope for the future lies in his triumph over death.  There can never be any other victory or any other hope."

The lesson of Bonhoeffer's life and death is that God's grace is never cheap. It demands from us everything‑‑even our lives. But in return it gives us a new life that transcends even the most oppressive political conditions.

Copyright (c) 1999 Prison Fellowship Ministries

"BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" ("BreakPoint") is a daily commentary on news and trends from a Christian perspective.  Heard on more than 425 radio stations nationwide, BreakPoint transcripts are also available on the Internet.  If you know of others who would enjoy receiving BreakPoint in their E‑mail box each day, tell them they can sign up on our Web site at

Copyright (c) 1999 Prison Fellowship

Ministries.  Reprinted with permission.

A Modernist interpretation of Psalm 1

 Psalm 1

Blessed are the man and the woman, 

who have grown beyond themselves

and have seen through their separations.

They delight in the way things are and keep their hearts open,

day and night

They are like trees planted near flowing rivers,

Which bear fruit when they are ready.

Their leaves will not fall or wither

Everything they do will succeed

Hass, Robert

Into the garden: a wedding anthology: Poetry and prose on love and marriage

edited by Robert Hass and Stephen Mitchell 1994

How happy is the man who does not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path of sinners, or join a group of mockers! Instead, his delight is in the LORD's instruction, and he meditates on it day and night. He is like a tree planted beside streams of water that bears its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. The wicked are not like this; instead, they are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not survive the judgment, and sinners will not be in the community of the righteous. For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.

(Psa 1:1-6 HCSB)

Christian Essentials and non - Grace Community Church EFCA

Christian Essentials

• The divine inspiration and infallibility of Holy Scripture, as originally given, and its supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct.

• The unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the Godhead.

• The universal sinfulness and guilt of human nature since the (all, rendering man subject to God's wrath and condemnation.

• The conception of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit and his birth of the virgin Mary.

• Redemption from the guilt, penalty and power of sin only through the sacrificial death (as our Representative and Substitute) of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God.

• The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

• The necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit to make the death of Christ effective to the individual sinner, granting him repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ.

• The indwelling and work of the Holy Spirit in the believer.

• The expectation of the personal return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christian Non-Essentials

At Grace Community Church we recognize that great Christian men and women throughout the Church Age have had differing positions on No-Essential issues of doctrine. Issues not included in the Christian Essentials are still important, but should not be a source of division in Christ's Church. These non-essential issues are rather an opportunity (or God's people to humbly search God's Word for understanding. The Elders of Grace Community Church seek to establish Grace Community as a "safe place" to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and in his Word. Non-Essential Doctrines (i.e. Spiritual gifts, Millennial Views, Worship Styles, etc... ) provide Christ's Church with opportunities to humbly seek to better understand God's Word, while accepting one another (Romans 14:1-7) from a foundation grounded in the unity of the Christian Essentials - the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our pastors and elders welcome questions and discussion on any point of doctrine at anytime, whether part of Christian Essentials or Non-Essentials.

' Grace Community Church is committed to its relationship with the Evangelical Free Church of America. Please visit their website at www.efca.org or call (800) 745-2202 for details or questions.

Finishing Strong - Steve Farr

 If you're not teachable, you don't have a chance in the world of finishing strong. Not a chance."

FINISHING STRONG:  Finding the Power to Go the Distance Steve Farrar Multnomah Books, 1995, ISBN 1‑57673‑023‑9 FarFini

Modern Marriage Ceremony

 

A Non‑Theistic Jueo‑Christian Ceremony

A Zen‑Unitarian‑Catholic‑American‑transcendentalist ceremony

The Tao of Marriage

The deepest intimacy with the beloved becomes possible when we have experienced intimacy with the self. Intimacy the the self means awakening to our true nature. Y The willingness to go deeper than love is itself a kind of love, a desire to meet the beloved beyond desire, in the darkness where there is not self, no other. For this meeting, a man and a woman must be whole enough in themselves to step out of themselves, into a place of mutual transformation. They are able to surrender everything they know, everything they love, with the abandon that a Master has at the hour of death. Transformation is a death. It is also a birth, and can be as painful as any physical birth. Painful or ecstatic, it requires a fundamental trust. "into your hand I commit my spirit."

A man and a woman who enter this depth of intimacy find themselves standing in the garden where Adam and Eve stood. All things are possible for them. The ancient Chinese sage Tzu‑ssu said, "for the mature person, infinite vastness of the universe." they have traced their love for each other back to the root of love, the radiant non‑self, the bodhisattva's serene compassion. Like the wedding ring, it has no beginning, no end.

Hass, Robert

Into the garden: a wedding anthology: Poetry and prose on love and marriage

edited by Robert Hass and Stephen Mitchell 1994

Imagination - Beverly Cleary

 Romona had dipped her brush into blue paint and had painted a blue stripe across the top of her paper. "that's the sky," she said happily. 

"But that the way the sky is." Beezus was trying to be helpful. She felt better, because Ramona had not plunged in and painted a picture full of imagination. "skies should come farther down on the paper."

Beesus and Romona  Beverly Cleary