Bulletin 11.2.25
“He will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord GOD will wipe tears away from all faces, and He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; For the LORD has spoken.” Isaiah 25:8
A Reflection Before The Service
A Reflection Before The Service
How can you find any image of this in the ‘serious’ activities either of our natural or of our (present) spiritual life? Either in our precarious and heart -broken affections or in the Way which is always, in some degree, a via crucis (way of the cross)?
No, Malcolm. It is only in our ‘hours-off,’ only in our moments of permitted festivity, that we find an analogy. Dance and game are frivolous, unimportant down here; for ‘down here’ is not their natural place. Here, they are a moment’s rest from the life we were place here to live.
But in this world everything is upside down. That which, if it could be prolonged here, would be a truancy, is likest that which in a better country is the End of ends. Joy is the serious business of Heaven.
– C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer (Harvest edition, 1964), 92 -93.
The soul that is satisfied with God immediately renews its quest…The two things come together, longing and fruition, as I have said. Fruition begets longing, and there is swift and blessed alternation , or rather co -existence of the two. Joyful consciousness of possession and eager anticipation of larger bestowments are blended still more closely.
He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase.' You have to increase the dose of the narcotic, and as you increase the dose, it loses its power, and the less you can do without it the less it does for you. But to drink into the one God slakes all thirsts, and because He is infinite, and our capacity for receiving Him may be indefinitely expanded…the more we have of God, the more we long for Him, and the more we long for Him the more we possess Him.
– Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1900), “Thirst and Satisfaction ” (Psalm 63. 1, 5, 8)
The Call To Worship
The Call To Worship
The Prophet Isaiah 25.6 -8
The LORD of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain; a banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, and refined, aged wine. And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples, even the veil which is stretched over all nations. He will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord GOD will wipe tears away from all faces, and He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth;
For the LORD has spoken.
(Prayer)
A Reflection Before The Service
How can you find any image of this in the ‘serious’ activities either of our natural or of our (present) spiritual life? Either in our precarious and heart -broken affections or in the Way which is always, in some degree, a via crucis (way of the cross)?
No, Malcolm. It is only in our ‘hours-off,’ only in our moments of permitted festivity, that we find an analogy. Dance and game are frivolous, unimportant down here; for ‘down here’ is not their natural place. Here, they are a moment’s rest from the life we were place here to live.
But in this world everything is upside down. That which, if it could be prolonged here, would be a truancy, is likest that which in a better country is the End of ends. Joy is the serious business of Heaven.
– C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer (Harvest edition, 1964), 92 -93.
The soul that is satisfied with God immediately renews its quest…The two things come together, longing and fruition, as I have said. Fruition begets longing, and there is swift and blessed alternation , or rather co -existence of the two. Joyful consciousness of possession and eager anticipation of larger bestowments are blended still more closely.
He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase.' You have to increase the dose of the narcotic, and as you increase the dose, it loses its power, and the less you can do without it the less it does for you. But to drink into the one God slakes all thirsts, and because He is infinite, and our capacity for receiving Him may be indefinitely expanded…the more we have of God, the more we long for Him, and the more we long for Him the more we possess Him.
– Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1900), “Thirst and Satisfaction ” (Psalm 63. 1, 5, 8)
The Call To Worship
The Prophet Isaiah 25.6 -8
The LORD of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain; a banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, and refined, aged wine. And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples, even the veil which is stretched over all nations. He will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord GOD will wipe tears away from all faces, and He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth;
For the LORD has spoken.
(Prayer)
02/11/25