Anselm

Bites & Bits...

 

“I do believe, help my unbelief”.

Mark 9:24

 

Anselm became The Archbishop of Canterbury in 1093.  He was born in 1033 or 34, in Italy.  He died April 21, 1109.  Among some of his works, was a piece, “Faith Seeking Understanding”.  Here is a prayer of his from “The One Year Book of Personal Prayer”.  What he prayed is what this man, who had such urgent and personal need, prayed in today’s reference.  His, both of them, might be a prayer that we would also offer.

 

Here is Anselm’s prayer: 

“I confess, Lord, with thanksgiving, that you have made me in Your image, so that I can remember You, think of You, and love You.  But that image is so worn and blotted out by faults, and darkened by the smoke of sin, that it cannot do that for which it was made, unless you renew and refashion it.  Lord, I am not trying to make my way to Your height, for my understanding is in no way equal to that, but I do desire to understand a little of Your truth which my heart already believes and loves.  I do not seek to understand so that I can believe, but I believe so that I may understand; and what is more, I believe that unless I do believe, I shall not understand”.

 

The man Mark tells about could not understand how Jesus could heal the trauma his son—and himself—were experiencing.  He did believe that Jesus could do it.  And, Jesus did what he believed he could do…despite that he could not understand just how. 

 

The answer is “Believe”.  Some we will never fully understand.  What it is possible for us to understand we will gain as we insist upon believing.  Until then, we will believe.

Earth

Bites & Bits...

 

“The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant”.

Isaiah 24:5

 

According to Genesis 1:31; “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”; God was greatly satisfied with the condition He had left earth in.  The Earth He created has not remained “very good”.  When Eve and Adam succumbed to the deceit of temptation, the Earth fell from being “very good”.  Note God’s word (The Creator) in Genesis 3:18, “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you…”.  Today’s reference traces the blame for the condition of the place where we live to us…the inhabitants of this Earth.  Here is a good word from Dr. G.A. Smith, “When we read of its desolation, it is as the effect of man's crime”.

 

January 28, 2024; two protestors attempted to corrupt “The Mona Lisa” by throwing pumpkin soup on the painting.  They would have succeeded had it not been for the glass encasement that protected the painting.  We, citizens of this Earth, are the vandals who are corrupting the Earth…that was—as God had created it—“very good”.

 

The cause of this pollution is what God addressed to Eve and Adam.  The disregard for God’s word (note the reference, “transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant”) is multiplied in our day.

 

When, in 1970, Senator Gaylord Nelson succeeded in establishing “Earth Day”; citizens began to be more aware of things like “recyclables”, “pollution”, and such.  This is all good…but it doesn’t address the primary cause—citizen’s relationship to God, and our determination to observe His statutes.  How far are we from the condition that precipitated The Flood?  Note Genesis 6:12, “God looked on the earth, and behold it was corrupt; for all flesh (that is citizens) had corrupted their way upon the earth”.

 

A day (period of time) is scheduled when our Earth will be purged.  Note this assurance in Romans 8:21, “The creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God”.

 

How can we help clean up this Earth where we temporarily live?

Spring

Bites & Bits...

 

“Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation.  Therefore you will joyously draw water from the springs of salvation”.

Isaiah 12:2-3

 

In a secular sense, the best wells are those that are spring-fed.  What is pictured here is just such a well…spring-fed.  There is no danger of such a well being without water because it contains—makes accessible—what the spring provides.  Draw out of it as you will—or need—and the spring continuously replenishes the well.

 

Is it safe to say that in every human heart—being that we are created in the image of God—is a potential for such a spring?  Don’t these words from Miss Crosby’s “Rescue the Perishing” picture the act of grace that taps into the spring that is described in today’s reference: “Down in the human heart, Crushed by the tempter, Feelings lie buried that grace can restore; Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness, Chords that were broken will vibrate once more”?

 

Jesus, noted in John 4, explained to the woman He met at Jacob’s Well that she had—as each of us have—the capability to access The Spring of Salvation.  Note His words in verse 14, “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life”.  She had come to the well to draw from it.  Today’s reference says that we have the joyous privilege of drawing from the “springs of salvation”!  No matter how often we draw from the springs of salvation, they will never be depleted.  Here is Psalms 36:9; “With You is the fountain of life”.

 

What an assurance is John 7:38, where Jesus says, “He who believes in Me (God is my salvation), as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water”.

 

Could it be that we are drawing from that source that John saw in his visit to Heaven?  Here is Revelation 22:1, “Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb”?

 

From “There is a River”; “There is a river that never shall run dry”.  Joyously draw from it.