Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Is your dog really capable of love? http://bit.ly/yVkotr (or is it because of all the treats you give it?)
Monday, January 30, 2012
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Friday, January 27, 2012
A quarter of us regret our tweets... http://bit.ly/wEk5dS or say something they would never say to a person's face
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Girl, 17, who has eaten mostly fries & chicken nuggets since she was 2 collapses http://bit.ly/wzeITA
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Google announces privacy changes that users can’t opt out of http://wapo.st/zaFQ8B Didn't we fight this battle before?
Dog survives after owner gets into lift holding lead... and accidentally leaves animal outside http://bit.ly/AfFo9A
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Could shops charge you MORE for products you've 'Liked' online? http://bit.ly/wa25aK Now you know why FB has no dislike button
Monday, January 23, 2012
Where does Google make it’s money from? http://bit.ly/A2qHlE (A Breakdown of it's $27.9 billion revenue for 2011)
Megaupload effect: FileSonic drops file sharing, Uploaded.to drops US downloads http://bit.ly/yYsEKs
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Giraffe hunters pay £10,000 to shoot the gentle giants with guns and bows http://bit.ly/y97tbA (Unbelievable!)
Saturday, January 21, 2012
So who captured the best Double Rainbow photo yesterday? http://bit.ly/ArFalB & http://bit.ly/zGUlUh
Friday, January 20, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
What NOT To Post On Facebook http://huff.to/yxU8Jm (13 Things You Shouldn't Tell Your Facebook Friends)
Two-thirds of parents puzzled by children's science questions http://bit.ly/zjDakB (and one in five make up answers)
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Why Facebook 'makes you sad' http://bit.ly/zfxThX Pictures can make people jealous of each others' lives
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Solved! the mystery of why teenagers are so moody: http://bit.ly/wUuAZW (Their brains go into overdrive when they enjoy something)
He Giveth More Grace
He giveth more grace,
When the burdens grow greater.
He sendeth more strength,
When the labors increase.
To added affliction,
He addeth His mercy.
To multiplied trials,
He multiplies peace.
His love has no limits,
His grace has no measure.
His power has no boundary,
No, none to mend.
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth and giveth, and giveth again.
When we have exhausted our store of abundance.
When our strength has failed everyday is half done.
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.
His love has no limits,
His grace has no measure.
His power has no boundary,
No, none to mend.
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.
He Giveth More Grace
By Annie Johnson Flint (24 December 1866 - 8 September 1932)
Biography Of Annie Johnson Flint
What is the secret behind the popularity of the poems of Annie Johnson Flint? The answer lay in the fact that here is one who wrote from her heart; one who endured, heroically and triumphantly, throughout a long life of suffering and pain. She demonstrated to the world how God could be glorified in the midst of physical trials and tribulations few of us are called upon to bear.
It is of the simple things of life that Annie writes. And yet, it is the simple things that are often the most profound. These she expresses by words that enchant the ear, delight the heart, and minister comfort to the soul. Buffeted by the perplexities and the sorrows of life few others are called upon to bear, Miss Flint wrote out of the depths of her own experience. She lived the realities she proclaimed through verse.
Annie Johnson Flint was born on Christmas Eve, in the year 1866, in the little town of Vineland, New Jersey. Eldon and Jean Johnson, the father and mother, welcomed that Christmas present as the greatest earthly gift. The father was from Vermont, and her mother, Scotland.
The only remembrance of her mother dates back to the time just before her mother’s death in 1869 (at the age of twenty-three) following the birth of a baby sister for Annie. She must have looked with wonder from that baby face into the mother’s face that day, for it was the only imprint of that mother’s likeness that lived in her memory.
The baby was left for life-long companionship. The father took the children to board with the widow of an old army comrade who had been killed in the Civil War. It was not a happy arrangement. The woman had two children of her own and her means were very limited. During the two years the Johnson girls added to the cares of that family, they were evidently unwelcome and unwanted.
But it was at this time when the outlook seemed so dark for their young lives, that a neighbor interposed in a kindly way. She loomed in the memory as Aunt Susie, although she could claim no blood relation to this friend. Aunt Susie was a school teacher, and boarded near the school in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Flint.
She became so strongly attached to the Johnson girls that was continually speaking of them to the Flints, and at last so aroused their sympathy on behalf of the motherless children, that a little over two years after their mother’s death they were adopted by the Flints, whose name thereafter they bore. While their name might sound hard and stony, their hearts were very tender.
Two things made Mr. Johnson willing to part with the children: first, he was suffering at the time with an incurable disease from which he shortly afterwards died; second, the Flints offered a home after his own desire. They were Baptists, and Mr. Johnson was very anxious that the children should be brought up in the Baptist faith.
Later Annie was converted in a Methodist revival meeting and many of her most intimate friends were connected with those churches. Then as the years rolled by she was helped by men and woman in many branches of the evangelical church, and in return she herself became God’s channel of blessing to that wider fellowship. She looked upon that "household of faith" as really one great family, with one faith, one Lord, one baptism, working under one Divine Spirit, having one master over all.
Mr. and Mrs. Flint were true Christians, and love reigned in their home. The two girls were taken right to their hearts, and loved as though they were their own flesh and blood. The daily training was thorough, both in Christian and domestic spheres. When Annie was eight years old the family left the farm and moved into Vineland, New Jersey, but the touch of the country life never left her in all her years.
When they reached their new home in town, revival meetings were in progress, and she attended. It was during one of those meetings that the Spirit of God operated upon that young heart and brought her to saving faith in Christ. She always believed that at that time she was truly converted, and while she did not join the church until ten years later, she never doubted that the eternal work was then wrought.
She strongly opposed the idea that young children cannot apprehend spiritual truths. She felt that divine mysteries were often plainer to the simple faith of a child than to many adults, blinded by their own prejudices and intellectual doubts. It was not difficult for her to endorse the words of the Master, "You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them unto babes."
School Days
It was about the time that she passed through this spiritual experience that the poetic interest began to awaken within her. She tells of the thrill of her life when she realized that she could express herself in verse. Then came another move. When she was fourteen the family went to Camden, New Jersey, and there the two girls continued their schooling.
Here, as a young girl, she enjoyed two years in the public schools, followed by one year in the school at Trenton, and three years of teaching. But it was at this time that arthritis first laid its cruel touch upon her, strengthening its grip so rapidly that in less than five years she was unable to walk.
Hearing cures were possible at the Sanitarium at Clifton Springs, New York, she went there, but the disease proved to be far too advanced for help, however. Because of the large numbers of ministers, missionaries, and teachers that visited the resort, she found the spiritual atmosphere of the place extremely satisfying and stimulating. So she decided to make Clifton Springs her home, and remained living there till the time of her death.
There was nothing special to mark the years that flew by in that time. She was very fond of reading, and made good use of her adopted father’s library, which contained a good number of the works of standard authors, such as Dickens, Kingsley and Bulwer-Lytton, in addition to a majority of the poets.
It was at this period that she formed one friendship that continued through the years. this friend told of her early recollections of Annie as she then appeared, "a pretty, dark-eyed girl, with a clear olive complexion, and long black curls. She was kindhearted, merry and vivacious - a general favorite with the boys and girls at school." This friend wrote: "Every Saturday afternoon we met, as a select literary society of two to read our favorite poets, and then we attempted verse ourselves."
When this friend moved from Annie’s home to another town, we know little of their later companionships though they kept in touch to the close of life. These years were the formative years. At only nine years of age it was discovered that she could put words together in rhythm and rhyme.
Her first poem was descriptive of frost pictures on the windowpane. Realizing that she possessed the power of painting the beauty of nature in words gave her such a thrill of awe and delight. From that time forward, everything around her went into rhyme - lessons, school incidents; all sorts of happenings, both real and imaginary. From the beginning. “verse-making was so easy and so pleasant to do that it had never seemed a work or a duty. It appeared so small a thing that I held it of no importance. I was like the Syrian General who would not have shrunk from doing some great or difficult task, but despised the seven dippings in the Jordan.”
Before she was twelve years old she was setting poems to music. Her talent seemed to be musical, and she had hopes of becoming a composer and concert pianist. But this dream was abandoned when she became unable to play.
According to His mercy, she was shut in to just one mode of expression: that of poetry. Not willing to accept this to be a restriction, as the years passed, it became more and more, an absorbing occupation, as well as a solace and a delight. Many a year had gone by before she ceased to regard her poems merely as a compensation for the loss of her music, and came to see them as the work and the ministry to which God was calling her.
It was then she became more conscious of herself as an individual and of her surroundings. She realized, too, her good fortune in having such a home and such foster parents. The Flints were people of high principle. They taught the girls to be self-reliant, independent and economical. They gave her a healthy horror of debt. "Owe no man anything," was a command tacitly obeyed.
Mr. and Mrs. Flint provided a good home with plenty to eat and enough to wear, but there was no waste. "Gather up the fragments that nothing be lost" was a rule strictly observed. By this time she made all her own clothes as well as her mother’s, except their best dresses, for which a dressmaker came into the house twice a year. She was also capable of taking charge of the housekeeping if necessary.
It was in her girlhood years that she stored up in the child mind the wealth of these things that burst forth in the later years. In those long, long years in which she was "shut in" those nature psalms would never have had the touch that was given to them but for the memories of girlhood when she ran untrammeled under Heaven’s canopy and out into open fields and woods. Not that she lost her observation of nature! We remember standing beside her sick-couch one day when she suddenly observed " We are going to have rain today. My robin has just changed his note. He never sings in that tone unless the rain is coming" Sure enough, the rain came.
Characteristics
Whether by nature or through her early Christian experience, Annie was generally disposed to be cheerful and optimistic. She looked on the bright side of life, and was quite fond of jokes and able to get as much enjoyment out of life. Aunt Susie had often told her that when she was just learning to walk she marched across the room with head up regardless of any obstacle in the way, and a forward looking lifted up head was a characteristic attitude. It was typical of the courage which she was to manifest in later life when she was hemmed in by so many trials. She certainly learned to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
Then she had a generous nature, and was ever ready to share what she had with others, and was ever more willing to grant favors than to accept them.
But we are sure that it is a mistake to touch on the commendable characteristic in her life records without lifting the veil on the other side, Annie was very human, and she herself had left a record of the glaring faults as she saw them. While still a child she had a very quick temper which flared up on slight provocation, but as quickly died down. She never claimed entire freedom from this tendency, but she had learned the secret of grace in overcoming.
Another characteristic was her acute sensitiveness, which made her keenly alive to the needs and the wrongs of other, and as is usual with one of this nature, her likes and dislikes were intense. She admits further that if she was accused of something she had not done and for which she was unjustly reproved, she indulged in sulky spells which lasted far longer than the storm of temper. She would not speak to anyone while in these moods nor condescend to explain any mistake which might have been made. This was an unfortunate trait in her childhood.
But she records her greatest fault as lack of patience, with herself as well as others. She did not like to wait for a thing. She wanted to see results at once. With this there was coupled a dogged persistence and she refused to give up anything once begun, until it was finished. This helped her to accomplish many a hard and distasteful task, but all through her life the hardest lesson she had to learn was patience.
Again and again she had to be reminded to wait patiently for the Lord. It was so much easier to wait eagerly and impatiently, or to spend the time making plans and devising schemes for doing something when the waiting time was over. One text that seemed especially written for her was, "Through faith and patience (we) inherit the promises."
Mixing The Bitter With The Sweet
Finishing her high school she spent one year at normal school and had a position offered to her. It was a great temptation to begin earning money and as her mother was failing in health, and already had had one slight stroke. She felt that she was really needed at home, so she started teaching the primary class in the same school that she had attended as a girl.
According to her contract with the normal school she taught for three years, though early in the second year arthritis began to show itself. She tried several doctors in turn, but it steadily grew worse until it became difficult for her to walk at all, and she had a hard time finishing out the third year. After that she was obliged to give up her work, and there followed three years of increasing helplessness.
The death of both her adopted parents within a few months of each other left the two girls alone again. There was little money in the bank and the twice-orphaned children had come to a real "Red Sea Place" in their lives.
It was just then that the faithful Aunt Susie again came to the rescue. She had been in the Sanitarium at Clifton Springs NJ and was convinced that Annie could find help and healing there. Accordingly arrangements were made for Annie to go and she was to have the rent of the house she was leaving for her income.
Picture if you can the hopelessness of Annie’s position when she finally received the verdict of the doctors of the Clifton Springs Sanitarium, that henceforth she would be a helpless invalid. Her own parents had been taken from her in childhood, and her foster parents both passed away. Her one sister was very frail and struggling to meet her own situation bravely.
Annie was in a condition where she was compelled to be dependent upon the care of others who could not afford to minister to her except as compensated by her. In after years she always stated that her poems were born of the need of others and not from her own need; but one knows full well that she never could have written as she did for the comfort and help of thousands of others if she had not had the background of facing those very crises in her own life.
Pressed Into Poetry And Print
With a pen pushed through bent fingers and held by swollen joints she wrote first without any thought that it might be an avenue of ministry, or that it would bring her returns that might help in her support. Her verses provided a solace for her in the long hours of suffering. Then she began making hand-lettered cards and gift books, and decorated some of her own verses.
Her "Christmas Carols" became popular. Two card publishers printed these greetings and this helped to get her foot on the first rung of the ladder of support. It gave her the larger vision of possibly securing openings through some of the magazines, by which her poems could be a wider blessing, and at the same time bring some little return that would minister to her own pressing need.
She succeeded in placing a number of her poems in the old CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOUR WORLD, and the SUNDAY SCHOOL TIMES had accepted several. From the first her writings appealed to Bingham’s and they made them a special feature in the columns of THE EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN. Testimonies came in from many directions of blessing received, so in 1919 Bingham’s put forth the first little brochure of her poems, under the title "By the Way, Travelogues of Cheer." Seven of these brochures, ever increasingly attractive, and ever more widely circulated, were issued.
The publication of her booklets and the action of the SUNDAY SCHOOL TIMES linked her up with a world wide fellowship. For a long time she sought to deal with this ministry herself, and to carry the burden of correspondence. One wonders how she could ever get a pen through those poor twisted fingers; but she was a beautiful writer, and a wonderful correspondent.
Her letters were unique, bright and breezy, though written from her bed of affliction. They were as rich as her poems, and whatever the stage of her affliction, or however great the pain through which she might be passing, she always had a touch of humor that was refreshing. One of her great regrets in the after years was that the progress of her affliction made it necessary to dictate the messages to her friends and of course this added to her expense. When she could afford it, she liked to go into the Sanitarium for a month or two around the Christmas season. It gave her a little more care and helpful medical treatment and at the same time she came into contact in that institution with a large number of guests who purchased her booklets and cards.
One of the lessons which she learned in connection with the life of faith was that she could not dictate to the Lord as to how He was to supply the need. She had been brought up with a sturdy independence. She still struggled to make ends meet. She still sought to cut down expenses in order that she might be able to pay as she went.
The thought of charity was obnoxious to her. She loved to give to others and help those who were in need, but to receive from others - that was quite another matter. The breaking down of her prejudice in this sphere came about in a very simple way. One of the boarders staying at the house where she lived, when saying good-bye, tactfully slipped into her hand a gift of money. This was the first time such a thing had ever happened, and Annie’s pride was up in arms at once. The woman evidently noticed a difference in her manner and explained that she wished to leave some remembrance with her, but not knowing what her special need might be, thought it better to let her choose. Then she added something which went home. Annie never forgot it. She said, "You know Jesus Christ said ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive,’ but how can there be any givers to whom the blessing can come unless there are those who are willing to receive? It takes two halves to make a whole" Then she appealed to Annie and asked if their positions were reversed and she had the means, would she not be glad to give?
This turned things around so completely that she had to admit that she had no right to withhold from others the blessing of giving. She took the gift so kindly meant, and tried to be a willing receiver if that would help some giver to obtain a blessing. Her life was lived, as someone has said, from hand to mouth, but as she liked to have it expressed, the mouth was hers, and the hand was God’s and His hand was never empty.
But there came times of real trial and testing. Sales sometimes fell off, and extra needs pressed in. Sometimes for considerable periods she had to have a trained nurse. There were doctor’s bills running up, and then too she was under pressure of many other trials; but again it was in these very conditions that some of the heart experiences wrought by them, brought her where she could be a blessing and help to others.
One of her sweetest sonnets which she says was born of experience of another would never have found expression if it had not been for her own trials. The special incident that drew it forth was the visit of a little, tired, discouraged deaconess to Clifton Springs. She used to a call and tell her troubles to Annie, and when she left and went back to the west, she wrote saying how blue she felt, and how down hearted, and she didn’t see why God allowed such hard things to come into her life.
Annie put her answer in a poem. Nothing sweeter ever came from her pen. She titled it : "WHAT GOD HATH PROMISED". In another sphere her friends criticized and challenged her faith. As her story became known far and wide it was natural that she should receive many visitors. Many of these were sincerely interested in her welfare.
Among them were some who strongly believed that healing of the body was for every child of God in this life. Their claim was that healing was in the Atonement and purchased for us by Christ, and that everyone who was walking obediently could claim deliverance from physical infirmities and bodily sicknesses. She listened to what they had to say. More than that, she went earnestly and prayerfully to search the Scriptures as to God’s will. It was only after a most painstaking study and prayer, and reading of the best writers on this subject that she reached the conclusion that, while God can and does heal in this way in some cases, in others He does not; that He has seen fit to leave some of the most triumphant saints deeply afflicted.
She saw too that many of those who pressed their theory were themselves afflicted with infirmity, and while telling others that they ought to claim healing, bore in their own lives the failure of their theory. Annie became thoroughly convinced that God intended to glorify Himself through her, in her weak, earthen vessel, and like Paul she had three times and more prayed that this might be taken from her, there came to her with real assurance the promise which said, "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness." She reached the place where she could also say with Paul, "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me" [2 Corinthians 12:9].
Sunset And Eventide
Annie determined that there was to be "no moaning of the bar when (she) put out to sea." The last years of her life brought her no ease from her affliction, no lessening of pain and suffering. Yet, we think that those closing years she really exemplified more than ever some of the sweetness of her earlier verses.
In Annie’s own notes from which this sketch of her life is written, her affliction receives little notice. She would have it so. Although crippled, she did not consider herself helpless and that she could do nothing but bemoan her lot. She believed that God had laid her aside for a purpose, even though that purpose was obscure to her at times, but she also believed that He had work for her to do and she put her very best into the writing of her poems, rendering this ministry unto Him.
The results has been that her verses have an unusually deep appeal to human hearts. The simple reason is that she felt what she wrote, and out of the crucible of suffering she was able to administer that comfort to others wherewith she herself had been comforted of God.
No one but God and she knew what suffering she endured as the disease became worse with the passing of the years, and new complications developed. But through it all her faith in the goodness and mercy of God never wavered. There were many times, no doubt, when her soul would be burdened with the mystery of it all and the why and wherefore of the thing that she was called to endure. In that respect she was most human like the rest of us, but the marvelous thing is that her faith never faltered, and that she was at all times able to say "Thy will be done."
For more than forty years there was scarcely a day when she did not suffer pain. For thirty-seven years she became increasingly helpless. Her joints had become rigid, although she was able to turn her head, and in great pain write a few lines on paper. But long before these years of helplessness she had received her one great affirmation from God which settled all her doubts. Perhaps the shortest stanza which she wrote was upon the words, " For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen." From this verse she wrote:
Is God-?’ ‘Does God-?’
Man’s ‘Why?’ and ‘How?’
In ceaseless iteration storm the sky.
‘I am’; I will’; ‘I do’ - sure Word of God,
Yea and Amen, Christ answers each cry;
To all our anguished questionings and doubts
Eternal affirmation and reply.
There is an old legend that the nightingale sings best with its breast against the thorn; and it was so with Miss Flint. The crucible of her suffering became the vehicle through which her verse was brought into full bloom. And once it had, it became as a carriage, imparting very fragrance of heaven to others through poem.
A great number of Miss Flint’s poems were written about God’s great outdoors, from which she was shut off almost entirely all her life. But her radiant faith lent wings to her imagination. She sang many a song of praise, not only for the things bright and beautiful, but for all that had come from the hand of the Lord she loved.
The seven volumes of her poems issued by Evangelical Publishers are bubbling over with the joy of life; with praise and thanksgiving for all created things, and the love of God that was made manifest to this world through His Son. Something of Miss Flint’s trials and suffering are told in Dr. Bingham’s story of her life, “The Making of the Beautiful.” And though it was for more than forty years that she quite literally “endured as seeing Him who is invisible,” there is not a trace of self-pity or despondency, no moaning over the fate that was hers to bear, no railing against the Will of God, nor any questioning of Him Whom she was convinced does all things well.
It may be that Miss Flint’s poems will never qualify for a place in the niche of fame or be found among the ranks of the immortals. But, then, she did not strive for that. Instead, she wrote for the common people of the world; men and women who face life with its burdens and its difficulties. Those who search through the rain and dark shadows, to perceive that promised rainbow, just beyond the clouds: The one encircling the throne.
God hath not promised skies always blue,
Flower strewn pathways all our lives through;
God hath not promised sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.
God hath not promised we shall not know
Toil and temptation, trouble and woe;
He hath not told us we shall not bear
Many a burden, many a care.
God hath not promised smooth roads and wide,
Swift, easy travel, needing no guide;
Never a mountain rocky and steep,
Never a river turbid and deep.
Refrain: But God hath promised strength for the day,
Rest for the labor, light for the way,
Grace for the trials, help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, undying love.
Less than a week before her passing, Mrs. Bingham and Mr. Stock. with whom Annie had had most of the correspondence about the publication of her poems, called to see her, in early morning. The nurse gave her "no" to the request for an interview, but when the name was passed in, she said it mattered not whether it was morning, noon or night, nothing should keep them out of her chamber. And for an hour they had delightful fellowship. There was no thought then of the immediate passing.
But on Thursday morning, the following week, September 8th, 1932, she felt very tired and wondered if she could live the day out. When the doctor was called he stated that it was just weakness. But all that day she did not improve and the doctor was called again in the evening. He saw at once that she was in great distress and her heart was behaving badly. Before giving her a hypodermic he asked if there was anything she wished to say or have her friend do as she might not rally. Her last words were: " I have nothing to say. It’s all right." A few minutes later she had gone to be with Christ, sorrow, pain, suffering and death were ended forever, for the former had passed away.
In considering the life of Annie Johnson Flint one is perplexed with questions as old as humanity itself, such as the mystery of pain and suffering. That the wicked should suffer as the reward for their wrong doing seems just and right, but that the righteous should pass through the furnace, sometimes heated seven times, is a great stumbling block to many people.
That is because we only see half the circle of life. One thing we are sure of, and that is that the Divine Potter makes no mistakes as He molds the clay in His hands. When it comes forth from His hand, He has fashioned it indeed, a goodly vessel prepared and fit for the Master’s use.
When the burdens grow greater.
He sendeth more strength,
When the labors increase.
To added affliction,
He addeth His mercy.
To multiplied trials,
He multiplies peace.
His love has no limits,
His grace has no measure.
His power has no boundary,
No, none to mend.
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth and giveth, and giveth again.
When we have exhausted our store of abundance.
When our strength has failed everyday is half done.
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.
His love has no limits,
His grace has no measure.
His power has no boundary,
No, none to mend.
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.
He Giveth More Grace
By Annie Johnson Flint (24 December 1866 - 8 September 1932)
Biography Of Annie Johnson Flint
What is the secret behind the popularity of the poems of Annie Johnson Flint? The answer lay in the fact that here is one who wrote from her heart; one who endured, heroically and triumphantly, throughout a long life of suffering and pain. She demonstrated to the world how God could be glorified in the midst of physical trials and tribulations few of us are called upon to bear.
It is of the simple things of life that Annie writes. And yet, it is the simple things that are often the most profound. These she expresses by words that enchant the ear, delight the heart, and minister comfort to the soul. Buffeted by the perplexities and the sorrows of life few others are called upon to bear, Miss Flint wrote out of the depths of her own experience. She lived the realities she proclaimed through verse.
Annie Johnson Flint was born on Christmas Eve, in the year 1866, in the little town of Vineland, New Jersey. Eldon and Jean Johnson, the father and mother, welcomed that Christmas present as the greatest earthly gift. The father was from Vermont, and her mother, Scotland.
The only remembrance of her mother dates back to the time just before her mother’s death in 1869 (at the age of twenty-three) following the birth of a baby sister for Annie. She must have looked with wonder from that baby face into the mother’s face that day, for it was the only imprint of that mother’s likeness that lived in her memory.
The baby was left for life-long companionship. The father took the children to board with the widow of an old army comrade who had been killed in the Civil War. It was not a happy arrangement. The woman had two children of her own and her means were very limited. During the two years the Johnson girls added to the cares of that family, they were evidently unwelcome and unwanted.
But it was at this time when the outlook seemed so dark for their young lives, that a neighbor interposed in a kindly way. She loomed in the memory as Aunt Susie, although she could claim no blood relation to this friend. Aunt Susie was a school teacher, and boarded near the school in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Flint.
She became so strongly attached to the Johnson girls that was continually speaking of them to the Flints, and at last so aroused their sympathy on behalf of the motherless children, that a little over two years after their mother’s death they were adopted by the Flints, whose name thereafter they bore. While their name might sound hard and stony, their hearts were very tender.
Two things made Mr. Johnson willing to part with the children: first, he was suffering at the time with an incurable disease from which he shortly afterwards died; second, the Flints offered a home after his own desire. They were Baptists, and Mr. Johnson was very anxious that the children should be brought up in the Baptist faith.
Later Annie was converted in a Methodist revival meeting and many of her most intimate friends were connected with those churches. Then as the years rolled by she was helped by men and woman in many branches of the evangelical church, and in return she herself became God’s channel of blessing to that wider fellowship. She looked upon that "household of faith" as really one great family, with one faith, one Lord, one baptism, working under one Divine Spirit, having one master over all.
Mr. and Mrs. Flint were true Christians, and love reigned in their home. The two girls were taken right to their hearts, and loved as though they were their own flesh and blood. The daily training was thorough, both in Christian and domestic spheres. When Annie was eight years old the family left the farm and moved into Vineland, New Jersey, but the touch of the country life never left her in all her years.
When they reached their new home in town, revival meetings were in progress, and she attended. It was during one of those meetings that the Spirit of God operated upon that young heart and brought her to saving faith in Christ. She always believed that at that time she was truly converted, and while she did not join the church until ten years later, she never doubted that the eternal work was then wrought.
She strongly opposed the idea that young children cannot apprehend spiritual truths. She felt that divine mysteries were often plainer to the simple faith of a child than to many adults, blinded by their own prejudices and intellectual doubts. It was not difficult for her to endorse the words of the Master, "You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them unto babes."
School Days
It was about the time that she passed through this spiritual experience that the poetic interest began to awaken within her. She tells of the thrill of her life when she realized that she could express herself in verse. Then came another move. When she was fourteen the family went to Camden, New Jersey, and there the two girls continued their schooling.
Here, as a young girl, she enjoyed two years in the public schools, followed by one year in the school at Trenton, and three years of teaching. But it was at this time that arthritis first laid its cruel touch upon her, strengthening its grip so rapidly that in less than five years she was unable to walk.
Hearing cures were possible at the Sanitarium at Clifton Springs, New York, she went there, but the disease proved to be far too advanced for help, however. Because of the large numbers of ministers, missionaries, and teachers that visited the resort, she found the spiritual atmosphere of the place extremely satisfying and stimulating. So she decided to make Clifton Springs her home, and remained living there till the time of her death.
There was nothing special to mark the years that flew by in that time. She was very fond of reading, and made good use of her adopted father’s library, which contained a good number of the works of standard authors, such as Dickens, Kingsley and Bulwer-Lytton, in addition to a majority of the poets.
It was at this period that she formed one friendship that continued through the years. this friend told of her early recollections of Annie as she then appeared, "a pretty, dark-eyed girl, with a clear olive complexion, and long black curls. She was kindhearted, merry and vivacious - a general favorite with the boys and girls at school." This friend wrote: "Every Saturday afternoon we met, as a select literary society of two to read our favorite poets, and then we attempted verse ourselves."
When this friend moved from Annie’s home to another town, we know little of their later companionships though they kept in touch to the close of life. These years were the formative years. At only nine years of age it was discovered that she could put words together in rhythm and rhyme.
Her first poem was descriptive of frost pictures on the windowpane. Realizing that she possessed the power of painting the beauty of nature in words gave her such a thrill of awe and delight. From that time forward, everything around her went into rhyme - lessons, school incidents; all sorts of happenings, both real and imaginary. From the beginning. “verse-making was so easy and so pleasant to do that it had never seemed a work or a duty. It appeared so small a thing that I held it of no importance. I was like the Syrian General who would not have shrunk from doing some great or difficult task, but despised the seven dippings in the Jordan.”
Before she was twelve years old she was setting poems to music. Her talent seemed to be musical, and she had hopes of becoming a composer and concert pianist. But this dream was abandoned when she became unable to play.
According to His mercy, she was shut in to just one mode of expression: that of poetry. Not willing to accept this to be a restriction, as the years passed, it became more and more, an absorbing occupation, as well as a solace and a delight. Many a year had gone by before she ceased to regard her poems merely as a compensation for the loss of her music, and came to see them as the work and the ministry to which God was calling her.
It was then she became more conscious of herself as an individual and of her surroundings. She realized, too, her good fortune in having such a home and such foster parents. The Flints were people of high principle. They taught the girls to be self-reliant, independent and economical. They gave her a healthy horror of debt. "Owe no man anything," was a command tacitly obeyed.
Mr. and Mrs. Flint provided a good home with plenty to eat and enough to wear, but there was no waste. "Gather up the fragments that nothing be lost" was a rule strictly observed. By this time she made all her own clothes as well as her mother’s, except their best dresses, for which a dressmaker came into the house twice a year. She was also capable of taking charge of the housekeeping if necessary.
It was in her girlhood years that she stored up in the child mind the wealth of these things that burst forth in the later years. In those long, long years in which she was "shut in" those nature psalms would never have had the touch that was given to them but for the memories of girlhood when she ran untrammeled under Heaven’s canopy and out into open fields and woods. Not that she lost her observation of nature! We remember standing beside her sick-couch one day when she suddenly observed " We are going to have rain today. My robin has just changed his note. He never sings in that tone unless the rain is coming" Sure enough, the rain came.
Characteristics
Whether by nature or through her early Christian experience, Annie was generally disposed to be cheerful and optimistic. She looked on the bright side of life, and was quite fond of jokes and able to get as much enjoyment out of life. Aunt Susie had often told her that when she was just learning to walk she marched across the room with head up regardless of any obstacle in the way, and a forward looking lifted up head was a characteristic attitude. It was typical of the courage which she was to manifest in later life when she was hemmed in by so many trials. She certainly learned to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
Then she had a generous nature, and was ever ready to share what she had with others, and was ever more willing to grant favors than to accept them.
But we are sure that it is a mistake to touch on the commendable characteristic in her life records without lifting the veil on the other side, Annie was very human, and she herself had left a record of the glaring faults as she saw them. While still a child she had a very quick temper which flared up on slight provocation, but as quickly died down. She never claimed entire freedom from this tendency, but she had learned the secret of grace in overcoming.
Another characteristic was her acute sensitiveness, which made her keenly alive to the needs and the wrongs of other, and as is usual with one of this nature, her likes and dislikes were intense. She admits further that if she was accused of something she had not done and for which she was unjustly reproved, she indulged in sulky spells which lasted far longer than the storm of temper. She would not speak to anyone while in these moods nor condescend to explain any mistake which might have been made. This was an unfortunate trait in her childhood.
But she records her greatest fault as lack of patience, with herself as well as others. She did not like to wait for a thing. She wanted to see results at once. With this there was coupled a dogged persistence and she refused to give up anything once begun, until it was finished. This helped her to accomplish many a hard and distasteful task, but all through her life the hardest lesson she had to learn was patience.
Again and again she had to be reminded to wait patiently for the Lord. It was so much easier to wait eagerly and impatiently, or to spend the time making plans and devising schemes for doing something when the waiting time was over. One text that seemed especially written for her was, "Through faith and patience (we) inherit the promises."
Mixing The Bitter With The Sweet
Finishing her high school she spent one year at normal school and had a position offered to her. It was a great temptation to begin earning money and as her mother was failing in health, and already had had one slight stroke. She felt that she was really needed at home, so she started teaching the primary class in the same school that she had attended as a girl.
According to her contract with the normal school she taught for three years, though early in the second year arthritis began to show itself. She tried several doctors in turn, but it steadily grew worse until it became difficult for her to walk at all, and she had a hard time finishing out the third year. After that she was obliged to give up her work, and there followed three years of increasing helplessness.
The death of both her adopted parents within a few months of each other left the two girls alone again. There was little money in the bank and the twice-orphaned children had come to a real "Red Sea Place" in their lives.
It was just then that the faithful Aunt Susie again came to the rescue. She had been in the Sanitarium at Clifton Springs NJ and was convinced that Annie could find help and healing there. Accordingly arrangements were made for Annie to go and she was to have the rent of the house she was leaving for her income.
Picture if you can the hopelessness of Annie’s position when she finally received the verdict of the doctors of the Clifton Springs Sanitarium, that henceforth she would be a helpless invalid. Her own parents had been taken from her in childhood, and her foster parents both passed away. Her one sister was very frail and struggling to meet her own situation bravely.
Annie was in a condition where she was compelled to be dependent upon the care of others who could not afford to minister to her except as compensated by her. In after years she always stated that her poems were born of the need of others and not from her own need; but one knows full well that she never could have written as she did for the comfort and help of thousands of others if she had not had the background of facing those very crises in her own life.
Pressed Into Poetry And Print
With a pen pushed through bent fingers and held by swollen joints she wrote first without any thought that it might be an avenue of ministry, or that it would bring her returns that might help in her support. Her verses provided a solace for her in the long hours of suffering. Then she began making hand-lettered cards and gift books, and decorated some of her own verses.
Her "Christmas Carols" became popular. Two card publishers printed these greetings and this helped to get her foot on the first rung of the ladder of support. It gave her the larger vision of possibly securing openings through some of the magazines, by which her poems could be a wider blessing, and at the same time bring some little return that would minister to her own pressing need.
She succeeded in placing a number of her poems in the old CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOUR WORLD, and the SUNDAY SCHOOL TIMES had accepted several. From the first her writings appealed to Bingham’s and they made them a special feature in the columns of THE EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN. Testimonies came in from many directions of blessing received, so in 1919 Bingham’s put forth the first little brochure of her poems, under the title "By the Way, Travelogues of Cheer." Seven of these brochures, ever increasingly attractive, and ever more widely circulated, were issued.
The publication of her booklets and the action of the SUNDAY SCHOOL TIMES linked her up with a world wide fellowship. For a long time she sought to deal with this ministry herself, and to carry the burden of correspondence. One wonders how she could ever get a pen through those poor twisted fingers; but she was a beautiful writer, and a wonderful correspondent.
Her letters were unique, bright and breezy, though written from her bed of affliction. They were as rich as her poems, and whatever the stage of her affliction, or however great the pain through which she might be passing, she always had a touch of humor that was refreshing. One of her great regrets in the after years was that the progress of her affliction made it necessary to dictate the messages to her friends and of course this added to her expense. When she could afford it, she liked to go into the Sanitarium for a month or two around the Christmas season. It gave her a little more care and helpful medical treatment and at the same time she came into contact in that institution with a large number of guests who purchased her booklets and cards.
One of the lessons which she learned in connection with the life of faith was that she could not dictate to the Lord as to how He was to supply the need. She had been brought up with a sturdy independence. She still struggled to make ends meet. She still sought to cut down expenses in order that she might be able to pay as she went.
The thought of charity was obnoxious to her. She loved to give to others and help those who were in need, but to receive from others - that was quite another matter. The breaking down of her prejudice in this sphere came about in a very simple way. One of the boarders staying at the house where she lived, when saying good-bye, tactfully slipped into her hand a gift of money. This was the first time such a thing had ever happened, and Annie’s pride was up in arms at once. The woman evidently noticed a difference in her manner and explained that she wished to leave some remembrance with her, but not knowing what her special need might be, thought it better to let her choose. Then she added something which went home. Annie never forgot it. She said, "You know Jesus Christ said ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive,’ but how can there be any givers to whom the blessing can come unless there are those who are willing to receive? It takes two halves to make a whole" Then she appealed to Annie and asked if their positions were reversed and she had the means, would she not be glad to give?
This turned things around so completely that she had to admit that she had no right to withhold from others the blessing of giving. She took the gift so kindly meant, and tried to be a willing receiver if that would help some giver to obtain a blessing. Her life was lived, as someone has said, from hand to mouth, but as she liked to have it expressed, the mouth was hers, and the hand was God’s and His hand was never empty.
But there came times of real trial and testing. Sales sometimes fell off, and extra needs pressed in. Sometimes for considerable periods she had to have a trained nurse. There were doctor’s bills running up, and then too she was under pressure of many other trials; but again it was in these very conditions that some of the heart experiences wrought by them, brought her where she could be a blessing and help to others.
One of her sweetest sonnets which she says was born of experience of another would never have found expression if it had not been for her own trials. The special incident that drew it forth was the visit of a little, tired, discouraged deaconess to Clifton Springs. She used to a call and tell her troubles to Annie, and when she left and went back to the west, she wrote saying how blue she felt, and how down hearted, and she didn’t see why God allowed such hard things to come into her life.
Annie put her answer in a poem. Nothing sweeter ever came from her pen. She titled it : "WHAT GOD HATH PROMISED". In another sphere her friends criticized and challenged her faith. As her story became known far and wide it was natural that she should receive many visitors. Many of these were sincerely interested in her welfare.
Among them were some who strongly believed that healing of the body was for every child of God in this life. Their claim was that healing was in the Atonement and purchased for us by Christ, and that everyone who was walking obediently could claim deliverance from physical infirmities and bodily sicknesses. She listened to what they had to say. More than that, she went earnestly and prayerfully to search the Scriptures as to God’s will. It was only after a most painstaking study and prayer, and reading of the best writers on this subject that she reached the conclusion that, while God can and does heal in this way in some cases, in others He does not; that He has seen fit to leave some of the most triumphant saints deeply afflicted.
She saw too that many of those who pressed their theory were themselves afflicted with infirmity, and while telling others that they ought to claim healing, bore in their own lives the failure of their theory. Annie became thoroughly convinced that God intended to glorify Himself through her, in her weak, earthen vessel, and like Paul she had three times and more prayed that this might be taken from her, there came to her with real assurance the promise which said, "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness." She reached the place where she could also say with Paul, "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me" [2 Corinthians 12:9].
Sunset And Eventide
Annie determined that there was to be "no moaning of the bar when (she) put out to sea." The last years of her life brought her no ease from her affliction, no lessening of pain and suffering. Yet, we think that those closing years she really exemplified more than ever some of the sweetness of her earlier verses.
In Annie’s own notes from which this sketch of her life is written, her affliction receives little notice. She would have it so. Although crippled, she did not consider herself helpless and that she could do nothing but bemoan her lot. She believed that God had laid her aside for a purpose, even though that purpose was obscure to her at times, but she also believed that He had work for her to do and she put her very best into the writing of her poems, rendering this ministry unto Him.
The results has been that her verses have an unusually deep appeal to human hearts. The simple reason is that she felt what she wrote, and out of the crucible of suffering she was able to administer that comfort to others wherewith she herself had been comforted of God.
No one but God and she knew what suffering she endured as the disease became worse with the passing of the years, and new complications developed. But through it all her faith in the goodness and mercy of God never wavered. There were many times, no doubt, when her soul would be burdened with the mystery of it all and the why and wherefore of the thing that she was called to endure. In that respect she was most human like the rest of us, but the marvelous thing is that her faith never faltered, and that she was at all times able to say "Thy will be done."
For more than forty years there was scarcely a day when she did not suffer pain. For thirty-seven years she became increasingly helpless. Her joints had become rigid, although she was able to turn her head, and in great pain write a few lines on paper. But long before these years of helplessness she had received her one great affirmation from God which settled all her doubts. Perhaps the shortest stanza which she wrote was upon the words, " For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen." From this verse she wrote:
Is God-?’ ‘Does God-?’
Man’s ‘Why?’ and ‘How?’
In ceaseless iteration storm the sky.
‘I am’; I will’; ‘I do’ - sure Word of God,
Yea and Amen, Christ answers each cry;
To all our anguished questionings and doubts
Eternal affirmation and reply.
There is an old legend that the nightingale sings best with its breast against the thorn; and it was so with Miss Flint. The crucible of her suffering became the vehicle through which her verse was brought into full bloom. And once it had, it became as a carriage, imparting very fragrance of heaven to others through poem.
A great number of Miss Flint’s poems were written about God’s great outdoors, from which she was shut off almost entirely all her life. But her radiant faith lent wings to her imagination. She sang many a song of praise, not only for the things bright and beautiful, but for all that had come from the hand of the Lord she loved.
The seven volumes of her poems issued by Evangelical Publishers are bubbling over with the joy of life; with praise and thanksgiving for all created things, and the love of God that was made manifest to this world through His Son. Something of Miss Flint’s trials and suffering are told in Dr. Bingham’s story of her life, “The Making of the Beautiful.” And though it was for more than forty years that she quite literally “endured as seeing Him who is invisible,” there is not a trace of self-pity or despondency, no moaning over the fate that was hers to bear, no railing against the Will of God, nor any questioning of Him Whom she was convinced does all things well.
It may be that Miss Flint’s poems will never qualify for a place in the niche of fame or be found among the ranks of the immortals. But, then, she did not strive for that. Instead, she wrote for the common people of the world; men and women who face life with its burdens and its difficulties. Those who search through the rain and dark shadows, to perceive that promised rainbow, just beyond the clouds: The one encircling the throne.
God hath not promised skies always blue,
Flower strewn pathways all our lives through;
God hath not promised sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.
God hath not promised we shall not know
Toil and temptation, trouble and woe;
He hath not told us we shall not bear
Many a burden, many a care.
God hath not promised smooth roads and wide,
Swift, easy travel, needing no guide;
Never a mountain rocky and steep,
Never a river turbid and deep.
Refrain: But God hath promised strength for the day,
Rest for the labor, light for the way,
Grace for the trials, help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, undying love.
Less than a week before her passing, Mrs. Bingham and Mr. Stock. with whom Annie had had most of the correspondence about the publication of her poems, called to see her, in early morning. The nurse gave her "no" to the request for an interview, but when the name was passed in, she said it mattered not whether it was morning, noon or night, nothing should keep them out of her chamber. And for an hour they had delightful fellowship. There was no thought then of the immediate passing.
But on Thursday morning, the following week, September 8th, 1932, she felt very tired and wondered if she could live the day out. When the doctor was called he stated that it was just weakness. But all that day she did not improve and the doctor was called again in the evening. He saw at once that she was in great distress and her heart was behaving badly. Before giving her a hypodermic he asked if there was anything she wished to say or have her friend do as she might not rally. Her last words were: " I have nothing to say. It’s all right." A few minutes later she had gone to be with Christ, sorrow, pain, suffering and death were ended forever, for the former had passed away.
In considering the life of Annie Johnson Flint one is perplexed with questions as old as humanity itself, such as the mystery of pain and suffering. That the wicked should suffer as the reward for their wrong doing seems just and right, but that the righteous should pass through the furnace, sometimes heated seven times, is a great stumbling block to many people.
That is because we only see half the circle of life. One thing we are sure of, and that is that the Divine Potter makes no mistakes as He molds the clay in His hands. When it comes forth from His hand, He has fashioned it indeed, a goodly vessel prepared and fit for the Master’s use.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Parent relief for income tax needs to be limited to one child http://bit.ly/xcodmA says Minister of State for Finance Josephine Teo
If you're going to have an operation, make sure it's in March http://bit.ly/AFjCIc (How the passing months affect your health)
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Singapore Airlines is having airfares promotion to Japan! http://bit.ly/xFyIBE Time to travel to Japan!
Singapore Airlines is having airfares promotion to Japan! http://bit.ly/xFyIBE Time to travel to Japan
Friday, January 13, 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Travels in Japan: Would there be a problem if we don't speak the language in Japan? http://bit.ly/wNi6ke
Japan Travels: The beginning of the love affair http://bit.ly/z5J1s2 I love Japan, especially Tokyo, Japan and Kyoto, Japan.
Unforgiveness is like taking poison hoping your enemy will die... http://bit.ly/vZLzCd (Mark Gungor on Forgiveness)
What do MPs spend their allowances on? http://bit.ly/xg5330 (Weird that they only talk about charitable donations...)
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Job’s Sacrifice Of Praise
Amid the ashes God’s servant sat,
Dejected and alone;
His family dead, his body suffering,
And all his riches gone.
“Curse God,” the devil said to him,
smiting Job with boils,
“Curse God and die,” came from his wife,
“be done with earthly toils.”
“What more could a servant suffer?”
asked his three best friends,
“Even God has turned His back,
and left you in the end.”
But Job gave no thought for his self pity,
As he stirred there in the dust,
But praise came from within his heart,
Where God, the King, reigned, just.
“Curse God,” you say, you foolish ones,
“and just lie down and die?”
Deny my God His right as King;
Believe the devil’s lie?
And who am I to defy my God,
who owns this lump of clay?
But praise comes forth, my thanks to Him
That I have seen this day.
For He is God and I am not…
To chose how I shall live;
I gladly offer up to Him
All He would have me give.
No, I’ll not curse His name,
But praise His name instead;
Acknowledge Him who has the right
To be my Lord, my head.
For life has no other meaning
Than that I should shun my every whim;
Lay down my life, offer up my praise,
Submit myself to Him.
For He plans only good for me.
Throughout my whole life through;
If I but bow and praise His name
For all He resolves to do.
Job’s Sacrifice Of Praise
Dejected and alone;
His family dead, his body suffering,
And all his riches gone.
“Curse God,” the devil said to him,
smiting Job with boils,
“Curse God and die,” came from his wife,
“be done with earthly toils.”
“What more could a servant suffer?”
asked his three best friends,
“Even God has turned His back,
and left you in the end.”
But Job gave no thought for his self pity,
As he stirred there in the dust,
But praise came from within his heart,
Where God, the King, reigned, just.
“Curse God,” you say, you foolish ones,
“and just lie down and die?”
Deny my God His right as King;
Believe the devil’s lie?
And who am I to defy my God,
who owns this lump of clay?
But praise comes forth, my thanks to Him
That I have seen this day.
For He is God and I am not…
To chose how I shall live;
I gladly offer up to Him
All He would have me give.
No, I’ll not curse His name,
But praise His name instead;
Acknowledge Him who has the right
To be my Lord, my head.
For life has no other meaning
Than that I should shun my every whim;
Lay down my life, offer up my praise,
Submit myself to Him.
For He plans only good for me.
Throughout my whole life through;
If I but bow and praise His name
For all He resolves to do.
Job’s Sacrifice Of Praise
Monday, January 9, 2012
Earn up to $100 when you travel on the MRT. Sign up for this project by NUS & Stanford University at http://bit.ly/yGkDeh
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Red Friday sale at Apple for iPads, iPods, MacBooks and iMacs http://bit.ly/xJDsAI (Singapore & Malaysia)
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Indian farmers are committing suicide after switching to genetically modified crops http://bit.ly/yXfSXl
Good news and bad news http://ping.fm/ngdfb Higher-protein diets lead to more weight and muscle gain
Monday, January 2, 2012
The View From A Hearse
The following excerpt was written by Joseph Bayly in his book, "View From A Hearse ", after he laid three of his sons to rest. It may give you some insight on how to comfort loved ones as they grieve.
"I was sitting, torn by grief. Someone came and talked to me of God’s dealings, of why it happened, of hope beyond the grave. He talked constantly; he said things I knew were true. I was unmoved except to wish he’d go away. He finally did.
Another came and sat beside me. He just sat beside me for an hour and more, listened when I said something, answered briefly, prayed simply, left. I was moved. I was comforted. I hated to see him go."
From The View From A Hearse / The Last Thing We Talk About/ A Christian View of Death
By Joseph Bayly
By Joseph Bayly
When Someone Grieves
We either have been, or will be, put in the position of comforting someone who is grieving. That is an important role played by good friends. The most common question I hear on such occasions is, "What should I say?" We want to help, but we feel helpless to make a difference in the face of such tragedy.
We either have been, or will be, put in the position of comforting someone who is grieving. That is an important role played by good friends. The most common question I hear on such occasions is, "What should I say?" We want to help, but we feel helpless to make a difference in the face of such tragedy.
I often remember a story told by Joseph Bayly when I struggle to say the "right thing" to someone who is hurting. Mr. Bayly lost three children to death over the course of several years. He wrote a book called View From A Hearse, (Life-Journey Books, 1992) in which he talks about his grief. He says this about comforting those who grieve:
"I was sitting, torn by grief. Someone came and talked to me of God’s dealings, of why it happened, of hope beyond the grave. He said things I knew were true. I was unmoved, except to wish he would go away. He finally did. Someone else came and sat beside me. He didn’t talk. He didn’t ask leading questions. He just sat with me for an hour or more, listened when I said something, answered briefly, prayed simply, left. I was moved. I was comforted. I hated to see him go."
I have found Joseph Bayly’s experience to be excruciatingly typical. Both men wanted to help. Both men cared. But only one truly comforted. The difference was that one tried to make him feel better, while the other just let him feel. One tried to say the right things. The other listened. One told him it would be all right. The other shared his pain.
When put in the difficult position of comforting someone in emotional pain, sometimes what needs to be said can be said best with a soft touch or a listening ear. It may not seem like much, but it can be more effective than you may ever know.
By Steve Goodier
Sunday, January 1, 2012
2012 is a Year of Change and Breakthroughs
More details and practical application is in the two part prophetic message for 2012 in audio-video format. Below is the summarized version.
The Vision
Vision of an eagle, a bear, a dragon and a beast. The eagle was flying in the sky, high and mighty, but it was shot in the neck from within its own borders. The bear rage and was angry at the beast and it turned against it before it was friendly again. Meanwhile, a dragon flew in the skies and dominated the skies.
The eagle could still walk even when it was injured in the neck but with great struggle. The bear strike at the beast and inflicted three large gashes. The beast was like a mixture of all animals, it had spots like a lepoard, feathers and claws like a bird and thick mane like a lion. It had two wings but they look small and seem to be growing. The beast was pushed southwards but retain its dominion.The dragon was watching the fight between the bear and the beast, and the tail of the beast knocked down the dragon to the ground. The dragon had to land on the ground for some time to recover its strength but it, too, retain its dominion.
Vision changes to people
Towards the west, saw people with guns gathering like a protest and on one of the banners was the word ‘freedom.’ Voice heard saying, ‘there will be freedom but much unrest.’
Towards the east, a lot of confusion and dust like people were in a panic. Voice heard saying, ‘there will be prosperity but much malaise.’
Toward the south, saw large people movements, lining up to travel, some like refuges, some like tourists, some like business people. Voice heard saying, ‘there will be changes but the ride is rough.’
Towards the north, a people gripped by great fear and seemed struck paralyzed by something. Voice heard saying, ‘there will be threats of war but peace will be pursued for its worth.’
The earth shakes and trembles
A sign in the western heavens, an upturn in the southern seas
An eruption in the northern lands, shall all point
To the year of change and breakthrough
Much will change but will herald a new beginning
Of mankind living in harmony with each other and the earth
Of nations being humbled and being exalted
Of the powerful and rich dying and of the poor rising and living
Many new find fresh faith in the midst of great fear
Scriptures given:
Of nations…
In the Middle East – Isaiah chapters 17 to 19
In America – Isaiah 21
In Europe – Ezekiel chapters 37 to 38
In Asia – Judges 9:7-15 (the parable of Jotham); Isaiah 20
Of personal…
Joshua 1:8; Psalms 1; 2 Samuel 5:17-25
Interpretation:
The eagle represents USA, the bear Russia, the dragon China and the beast Europe. In 2012, something angered Russia and there could be some level of hostility to Europe resulting in the blow with three gashes. The three gashes could represent three areas or three things which Russia did in one blow that affected Europe. The vision of people being paralyzed by shock could be the immediate reaction to the three gashes, as it stirs fear before peace prevails.
The eagle being grounded speaks of something which caused injury to the nation of USA from within (hitting not the head but the neck – it could have been meant for the head but hit the neck instead). There is violence as in the vision of the protest and they could literally involved more guns.
The dragon is also grounded this year thus speaking of China coming to some sort of a halt or grounding but still being strong after recovery. However, the grounding is caused by the tail of the beast, thus it would be from events that occur in Europe. Also the events in USA (of the eagle shot) could also be the cause for the vision of panic that took place.
On the natural side, a sign in the Western heavens could point to some sort of natural astronomical phenomena that is just extra prominent that is viewable from USA. Eruptions, I deduce, can point to more volcanic reactions in Europe that affects it. Upturn in the southern seas would point to more turmoils in the southern hemisphere thus affecting New Zealand from the point of earthquakes.
Of Scriptures given, all that is happening in the Middle East is to fulfill Isaiah 19 when the nations of Assyria, Israel and Egypt are in friendly terms and possibly even trading (highway through the three nations). Assyria includes the nations of Iraq and present Syria.
Isaiah 21 speaks of the Fall of Babylon (final fulfilment in the future but a type of fulfilment in the grounding of the eagle – Example like Daniel 12 speaking of the future anti-Christ but in historical perspective fulfilled in Antiochus Epiphanes) which affects the world. In our modern world anything that affects USA is going to affect the world. It also speaks of the reduction in power of Arabia.
The Scriptures of Ezekiel chapters 37 to 38, although it will be only eschatologically fulfilled during the time of the anti-Christ, will in type be a reminder of the role of Russia in the endtimes and its present power (to affect and gash Europe) now. The bear has definitely not lost its power.
The Scriptures for Asia in typology are interesting in that it speaks of a parable of Jotham applied to Abimelech who sought to kill him after killing all his other brothers. Literally, the bramble bush speaks of godless and lawless ways (nations that are built around Mammon and greed). The fig tree speaks of nations which are close to Israel, the olive tree speaks of nations that are anointed (olive oil represents anointing) to have an end time destiny. The vine speaks of nations where the church has critical mass (vine represents our Lord – John 15). The nations in Asia and Africa that will be affected by the events in Europe and USA are those who are bramble bush. Nations with their destinies tied to Israel and the gospel will have some level of protection during the turmoil.
The final message is a call to meditation on the Word (Joshua 1:8 and Psalms 1) which is an important key to the breakthrough promised during this year. There is a two level breakthrough as per 2 Samuel 5:17-25. The first is the establishment of being a Master of Breakthroughs (Baal Perazim) and second is the ability to hear the marching of the angels above the mulberry trees (balsam in some modern translations). This year is an important time to breakthrough and be established. If you have not been bearing fruit for years, this year is fruit bearing season. If you have not been reaping but only sowing, this year is the time for reaping.
For more practical applications this year, listen to the second prophetic message. The first is a message outlining the various parts of the prophecy and the second is the response and application.
God bless and may this year be a great year of breakthrough to each one of you
Ps Peter Tan
The Vision
Vision of an eagle, a bear, a dragon and a beast. The eagle was flying in the sky, high and mighty, but it was shot in the neck from within its own borders. The bear rage and was angry at the beast and it turned against it before it was friendly again. Meanwhile, a dragon flew in the skies and dominated the skies.
The eagle could still walk even when it was injured in the neck but with great struggle. The bear strike at the beast and inflicted three large gashes. The beast was like a mixture of all animals, it had spots like a lepoard, feathers and claws like a bird and thick mane like a lion. It had two wings but they look small and seem to be growing. The beast was pushed southwards but retain its dominion.The dragon was watching the fight between the bear and the beast, and the tail of the beast knocked down the dragon to the ground. The dragon had to land on the ground for some time to recover its strength but it, too, retain its dominion.
Vision changes to people
Towards the west, saw people with guns gathering like a protest and on one of the banners was the word ‘freedom.’ Voice heard saying, ‘there will be freedom but much unrest.’
Towards the east, a lot of confusion and dust like people were in a panic. Voice heard saying, ‘there will be prosperity but much malaise.’
Toward the south, saw large people movements, lining up to travel, some like refuges, some like tourists, some like business people. Voice heard saying, ‘there will be changes but the ride is rough.’
Towards the north, a people gripped by great fear and seemed struck paralyzed by something. Voice heard saying, ‘there will be threats of war but peace will be pursued for its worth.’
The earth shakes and trembles
A sign in the western heavens, an upturn in the southern seas
An eruption in the northern lands, shall all point
To the year of change and breakthrough
Much will change but will herald a new beginning
Of mankind living in harmony with each other and the earth
Of nations being humbled and being exalted
Of the powerful and rich dying and of the poor rising and living
Many new find fresh faith in the midst of great fear
Scriptures given:
Of nations…
In the Middle East – Isaiah chapters 17 to 19
In America – Isaiah 21
In Europe – Ezekiel chapters 37 to 38
In Asia – Judges 9:7-15 (the parable of Jotham); Isaiah 20
Of personal…
Joshua 1:8; Psalms 1; 2 Samuel 5:17-25
Interpretation:
The eagle represents USA, the bear Russia, the dragon China and the beast Europe. In 2012, something angered Russia and there could be some level of hostility to Europe resulting in the blow with three gashes. The three gashes could represent three areas or three things which Russia did in one blow that affected Europe. The vision of people being paralyzed by shock could be the immediate reaction to the three gashes, as it stirs fear before peace prevails.
The eagle being grounded speaks of something which caused injury to the nation of USA from within (hitting not the head but the neck – it could have been meant for the head but hit the neck instead). There is violence as in the vision of the protest and they could literally involved more guns.
The dragon is also grounded this year thus speaking of China coming to some sort of a halt or grounding but still being strong after recovery. However, the grounding is caused by the tail of the beast, thus it would be from events that occur in Europe. Also the events in USA (of the eagle shot) could also be the cause for the vision of panic that took place.
On the natural side, a sign in the Western heavens could point to some sort of natural astronomical phenomena that is just extra prominent that is viewable from USA. Eruptions, I deduce, can point to more volcanic reactions in Europe that affects it. Upturn in the southern seas would point to more turmoils in the southern hemisphere thus affecting New Zealand from the point of earthquakes.
Of Scriptures given, all that is happening in the Middle East is to fulfill Isaiah 19 when the nations of Assyria, Israel and Egypt are in friendly terms and possibly even trading (highway through the three nations). Assyria includes the nations of Iraq and present Syria.
Isaiah 21 speaks of the Fall of Babylon (final fulfilment in the future but a type of fulfilment in the grounding of the eagle – Example like Daniel 12 speaking of the future anti-Christ but in historical perspective fulfilled in Antiochus Epiphanes) which affects the world. In our modern world anything that affects USA is going to affect the world. It also speaks of the reduction in power of Arabia.
The Scriptures of Ezekiel chapters 37 to 38, although it will be only eschatologically fulfilled during the time of the anti-Christ, will in type be a reminder of the role of Russia in the endtimes and its present power (to affect and gash Europe) now. The bear has definitely not lost its power.
The Scriptures for Asia in typology are interesting in that it speaks of a parable of Jotham applied to Abimelech who sought to kill him after killing all his other brothers. Literally, the bramble bush speaks of godless and lawless ways (nations that are built around Mammon and greed). The fig tree speaks of nations which are close to Israel, the olive tree speaks of nations that are anointed (olive oil represents anointing) to have an end time destiny. The vine speaks of nations where the church has critical mass (vine represents our Lord – John 15). The nations in Asia and Africa that will be affected by the events in Europe and USA are those who are bramble bush. Nations with their destinies tied to Israel and the gospel will have some level of protection during the turmoil.
The final message is a call to meditation on the Word (Joshua 1:8 and Psalms 1) which is an important key to the breakthrough promised during this year. There is a two level breakthrough as per 2 Samuel 5:17-25. The first is the establishment of being a Master of Breakthroughs (Baal Perazim) and second is the ability to hear the marching of the angels above the mulberry trees (balsam in some modern translations). This year is an important time to breakthrough and be established. If you have not been bearing fruit for years, this year is fruit bearing season. If you have not been reaping but only sowing, this year is the time for reaping.
For more practical applications this year, listen to the second prophetic message. The first is a message outlining the various parts of the prophecy and the second is the response and application.
God bless and may this year be a great year of breakthrough to each one of you
Ps Peter Tan
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