We are still going. They just ordered dinner. This is not easy.
South Carolina Standing Committee Meeting Update
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We are still going. They just ordered dinner. This is not easy.
Kendall – how can we pray for you all? For clarity? Resolve? Unity? What is the sense you have of where God may be able to gird you all up?
Darin+
Praying for your corporate discernment of God’s will and leadership. May God give you clear vision and strong hearts.
Y’all are in my prayers…have been all day and as late into the night as needed.
Y’all are still in my prayers. I’ve been praying that you all can stay focused on discerning God’s will. I’ll pray for clarity now and that any spirit of confusion is cast away.
He calls you by name; Mark, Jeff, John, JOhn, Ed, Peet, Craige, Chuck, John, and Kendall – In His Name, Amen
It shouldn’t be easy! God is testing you, and it’s a tough test. That’s good. Better to adjourn and reconvene another day than to put out something too rapidly. Haste is a sign of the devil at work.
I am certain that the Holy Spirit is present among you, just I am sure that the other kind of spirit is also there.
May God give you eyes that see, ears that hear, and the Wisdom to use them in discerning His Word. Amen.
These “Red Sea Rules” were invaluable to our vestry in our discernment before we left TEC.
Ten God Given Strategies for Difficult Times :
Rule 1- Realize that God means for you to be where you are.
Rule 2- Be more concerned for God’s glory than for your relief.
Rule 3- Acknowledge your enemy, but keep your eyes on the Lord.
Rule 4- Pray!
Rule 5- Stay calm and confident and give God time to work.
Rule 6-When unsure, just take the next logical step by faith.
Rule 7- Envision God’s enveloping presence.
Rule 8- Trust God to deliver in His own unique way.
Rule 9- View your current crisis as a faith builder for the future.
Rule10- Don’t forget to praise Him. Exodus 14: 1- 15: 2
Praying Kendall.
Suepie, what a great list. May I post that at Lent & Beyond? I’m trying to get back to more frequent posting of devotional entries and quotes, etc. for the next few weeks.
Kendall, there is a devotional quote I saw today on a blog I read quite regularly that comes to mind tonight too as I am praying for you all.
“Once more heed the exhortation- stand close to the cross of Jesus!
It is the most accessible and precious spot this side of heaven- the most solemn and awesome one this side of eternity.
It is the focus of divine love, sympathy, and power.
Stand by it in suffering, in persecution, in temptation.
Stand by it in the brightness of prosperity and in the gloom of adversity.
Shrink not from its offence, humiliation, and woe.
Defend it when scorned, despised, and denied.
Stand up for Jesus and the gospel of Jesus.
Oh, whatever you do, or whatever you endure, be loyal to Christ’s cross.
Go to it in trouble, repair to it in weakness, cling to it in danger, hide beneath it when the wintry storm rushes fiercely over you.
Near to the cross, you are near a Father’s heart, a Savior’s side.â€
– Octavius Winslow, The Foot of the Cross
from here:
http://cruciformlife.wordpress.com/2009/07/28/stand-by-the-cross/
Karen B.,
Yes, it is from “The Red Sea Rules” by Robert J. Morgan and I am sorry I didn’t have the author’s name earlier. Of course we know the original author.
I probably missed something, Kendall, but precisely what is being decided that is so momentous? Clearly, this is no ordinary meeting.
Larry
Larry,
My guess is that it will have a lot to do with the Jerusalem Statement when GAFCON was in full swing…but no one really knows.
#11 and #12, Steve Wood wrote on his blog that the general topic is South Carolina’s response to GC.
Kendall wrote this morning in his earlier blog entry: “There is no way we as a diocese can function in the way we have before. How to move forward–together–in a truthful, loving and godly way is the issue.”
+Mark Lawrence wrote this after GC:
“God has prepared us as a diocese to address this hour in the life of our Church—of that I am confident. It is not a time for alarm. It is a time for thoughtful and steady resolve. We face significant challenges. They are no longer the challenges of tomorrow they are the challenges of today. This cannot be brushed aside as if it is of little consequence.
There is an increasingly aggressive displacement within this Church of the gospel of Jesus Christ’s transforming power by the “new†gospel of indiscriminate inclusivity which seeks to subsume all in its wake. It is marked by an increased evangelistic zeal and mission that hints at imperialistic plans to spread throughout the Communion. This calls for a bold response. It is of the utmost importance that we find more than just a place to stand. Indeed, it is imperative that we find a place to thrive; a place that is faithful, relational and structural—and so we shall! “
Kendall, et al, prayers for the Holy Spirit to freshly infill and indwell everyone gathered for this God-convened meeting. May He find your hearts united in prayer and praise and glorifying His holy name, and shake the earth and move mountains for you and open wide a door for effective service. Run with perseverance and run well, brother!
Kendall, in continuing to pray, I was reminded of +Mark’s opening statement to the diocese during the walk about process prior to his election. I recall it well because it moved me profoundly at the time and I posted it at Lent & Beyond (the old dead version, alas). It makes striking re-reading with the message of keeping one’s joy and being able to sing, even in the dark, even in the trials
[blockquote]It would be the gravest mistake if we who profess and call ourselves Christians allow our difficulties, struggles, and spiritual battles to cause us to lose our joy. G. K. Chesterton called joy, “the gigantic secret of the Christian.†Well why not. The Gospel begins with joy and ends with joy.
I was hiking one day on Mt. Desert Isand in Maine when I came across a Ladyslipper on the side of the trail. I knelt down to study it. I thought, “What a beautifully formed wildflower.†It brought me joy. And when I got up to hike there was a new lilt in my step. But it was a serendipitous, happenstance joy. Too many Christians seem to think that this is how our joy should be, just something we come across as we go through life. But Christian joy is a cultivated flower, planted, nurtured and water in cooperation with God’s grace. So I remind you of the joy of Christmas, even on this morning in September. “Behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior who is Christ the Lord.†Read next the resurrection appearances and you’ll see this same joy everywhere between the lines of the narrative. The Road to Emmaus disciples run back to Jerusalem and discover Peter too has seen the Lord. They all share their stories and Luke writes, “While they disbelieved for joy….â€
One of the staggering things, though, about John’s Gospel is that the closer Jesus gets to the cross the more he talks to his disciples about his joy. “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.†He prays to his Father, “But I am coming to thee; and these things I spoke in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.†Then to his disciples again, “I will see you again and your hearts shall rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you…ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full.†The French spiritual writer, Louis Evely has written, “Our sadness measures exactly our attachment to ourselves. The place we give to joy is the place we give to God. We believe no more in him than in joy.â€
Is our religion only a religion of the cross? Of sacrifice? Of denial? Of spiritual battles? Is there no place for the empty tomb, the lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore, a charcoal fire, and the risen Christ with fish on the shoreline in the morning mist as the sun rises above the Galilean hills—and a voice calls out, “Children have you caught any fish?†“No.†“Cast the net on the right side of the boat….†(He wasn’t talking politics when he said “right side.†Nothing here about theology). No maybe I’d better put it… “starboard side of the boat and you’ll get a catch.†Joy you see runs right through the gospels from beginning to end.
The late bishop, Festo Kivengere, Anglican bishop in Uganda and well-known evangelist related how one day he was coming from the cathedral feeling very good that he had preached a fine sermon. (You can often tell how a preacher feels about the morning sermon by his gait as he goes to his car after the service when nobody is watching). Then a dear lady, 70 years old, illiterate, but a real saint, took his hand and thanked him for the message. Then, very quietly she said, “Bishop, what’s wrong? You seemed rather dry.†There was no despising or criticism, he said, just redeeming love. Before he could answer, she said, “Just take it to the Lord.†So bishop Kivengere when home and got down on his face. “I took it to Him—and it was the beginning of blessing. I’m learning we need to be in a blessable posture in our hearts in order not to hinder the stream of the Spirit.†So each of us needs to be in a blessable posture this morning so the Holy Spirit can move among and upon us.
Sure there are many concerns in the larger church. Struggles aplenty. This is serious business. So serious we dare not do it without joy of the Gospel. There’s no reason to let our concerns, ours struggles, our worries—our battles steal our joy. My grandmother used to have songbirds in her kitchen. She kept them in a cage. And they would sing to her throughout the day. Sometimes they’d make too much noise during one or her soap operas and she’d put a veil over it and they’d grow quiet. “Grandma†I asked, “why do you put that towel over their cage?†She said, “Mark, birds can’t sing in a darkened cage.†Yet you will remember Paul and Silas. Arrested in Philippi. Beaten with rods and put into stocks in the Philippian jail. Still there in the darkened prison that night they sang songs of praise to God. The jailer and prisons must have thought to themselves, “Who are these birds that can sing in a darkened cage?†May they say of this Diocese of South Carolina, in these stressful, troubling and sometimes-dark days, “Who are these birds—that can sing in a darkened cage? Surely the joy of the Lord must be their strength!â€[/blockquote]
full text here:
http://www.dioceseofsc.org/mt/archives/000211.html
Praying for you in Fort Worth.
Karen B., that was an excellent message. I am forwarding it to others. South Carolina is so very blessed to have Bp Lawrence.