Easy Believism

"Just now some professedly Christian teachers are misleading many by saying that ‘repentance is only a change of mind.' It is true that the original word does convey the idea of a change of mind; but the whole teaching of Scripture concerning the repentance which is not to be repented of is that it is a much more radical and complete change than is implied by our common phrase about changing one's mind. The repentance that does not include sincere sorrow for sin is not the saving grace that is wrought by the Holy Spirit."
- Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Royal Saviour

"Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God.
It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness,
nourishment of mind by His truth,
purifying of imagination by His beauty,
opening of the heart to His love,
and submission of will to His purpose.
And all this gathered up in adoration is the greatest
of human expressions of which we are capable."

-William Temple

No other person has so accurately defined and diagnosed the evil of mankind and the sinfulness within as Jesus.

"For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander." Matt 15:19

"For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly." Mark 7:21-22

Why is this so important to define?
We are afraid to define any sense of right and wrong for fear of becoming unpopular or "judgmental'. There is so much evil in the world that we often try to ignore it because we don't know how to handle it, we don't know what to do with it and we don't know how to solve it. The result of ignoring the evil of mankind is a failure to see the need for a savior.

In No Strange Land

Francis Thompson
The kingdom of God is within you

O world invisible, we view thee,
O world intangible, we touch thee,
O world unknowable, we know thee,
Inapprehensible, we clutch thee!

Does the fish soar to find the ocean,
The eagle plunge to find the air--
That we ask of the stars in motion
If they have rumor of thee there?

Not where the wheeling systems darken,
And our benumbed conceiving soars!--
The drift of pinions, would we hearken,
Beats at our own clay-shuttered doors.

The angels keep their ancient places--
Turn but a stone and start a wing!
'Tis ye, 'tis your estrangèd faces,
That miss the many-splendored thing.

But (when so sad thou canst not sadder)
Cry--and upon thy so sore loss
Shall shine the traffic of Jacob's ladder
Pitched betwixt Heaven and Charing Cross.

Yea, in the night, my Soul, my daughter,
Cry--clinging to Heaven by the hems;
And lo, Christ walking on the water,
Not of Genesareth, but Thames!

Healing

Are there wounds that never heal?
Are there pains that groan ever still?

Though time may pass and seasons change
Floating by like cloudy days

One touch and a tingling, jolting surge
The nerves react, through the spine

Quiet nights to much surprise
Bewitch the ever silent cries
The worst has passed, do remember
Tho memory may often linger

Tis my dangerous light now a candle in the dark
Lead down a path of dense forests by a spark

Thick and heavy underneath I lie
Face towards that hidden sky
Heaven often far away
From this distant fleshly stay

And on the night watch at a pace of snails
A pin drops, a slithering stench and fangs
That grip this deathly vicious night

Stuck...

Neither fallen, nor risen
Neither asleep, nor awakened

O arise the glorious one
O come forth to my soul!
Breathe into my lungs thy holy fire
Consume my thoughts and angst desires!

Prepare my heart with praise
Instill in me a humble plea
As a crying child begs for milk
The instant it has left the womb
So for thy food my soul doth loom

Bring forth thy hand of gentle grasp
Firmly place in thy love forever to last