Such was the life of the woman at the well, who seemingly managed to escape the obvious outward consequences of her neediness.  In John 4, she replenished her household of water in the heat of the noonday. Until she met Jesus, she was needy, naturally thirsty as any human being would be in an arid geography such as where she lived. Her natural physical body needed water so she kept coming to the well, daily.  In a non-judgmental way, Jesus  showed her even greater needs in her life. Needs that a stranger in a chance meeting at Jacob’s well would not otherwise know. We read this text and misinterpret this woman with “low-living” and sin. Her multiple husbands could have been because she was a victim of the Leverite marriage customs of her day, having at the death of her husband to marry each of his brothers – to birth a male child for him.  Maybe she was subject to the arbitrary and unloving  divorce tradition.

Jesus offered this woman a chance of a lifetime – to be cured of her neediness.  Having no further use for it, she left her water-pot right then and there. From ow on she is relying upon this “living water” to thirst no more.  We can give our neediness and addictions to God as she did.  It changed her life as it will yours.

Pilgrimage to Egypt unites the old to the new

Saturday, April 11, 2009, Austin American Statesman

This Holy Week is topped off by my recent spiritual pilgrimage to Easter positioning me for Jesus’ great getting up morning at Easter. I could languish in Egypt forever, being dazzled by the ingenuity and charm of my “cousins” as the natives call me as a dark-skinned Americans!

Resurrection is the code word. Jesus revolutionized the world significantly? And it was, for me, life-altering just to live to witness Israel and be awarded the precious commodity of time to reflect.

Touching the soil of Israel seemed like coming near to God; to taste, to see and to be at home with Jesus, even though I know God is mysteriously omnipresent, having repeatedly tracked me down with visitations wherever I am, especially the encounter of the divine call to become a minister.

My reflective trek took place in historically spiritual locations in the forefront of the biblical narrative, starting at the Church of the Immaculate Conception of Mary and at Joseph’s church in Nazareth. I embraced life in Israel: beholding Galilee from the breathtaking heights of Mount Arbell and Mount Carmel, seeing the “city on a hill” by night and by day, communing on pita bread, St. Peter fish of Galilee (known here as tilapia) and the local wines — Golan, Yarden, Gamla and Cana.

Then, eating the St. Peter fish of Galilee by day, beholding the breathtaking sights from the heights of Mount Arbell and Mount Carmel, peering from below the lights of the “city on a hill” by night and communing with the local Yarden, Gamla and the wines reminiscent of the wedding at Cana — I trudged through all of this in search of a word from the Lord all over again.

In the holy city of Jerusalem, my emotion was uncontainable in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre within the Old City’s Christian Quarter and the well-debated alternate burial spot, the Garden Tomb farther east.

The 22 fellow pastors’ voices resonated in the Upper Room and in the dungeon, or sacred pit, beneath Saint-Peter-in-Gallicantu (Cock Crow) Church — where Jesus was condemned by the high priest Caiaphas, lowered and held in custody until crucifixion.

Journaling, preaching, praying, giving alms to Jerusalem residents and celebrating Baptism renewal in the Jordan created spiritually fertile ground to discern and clarify the often obscure will of God for my next steps as a pastor. I stuffed the prayers of my parishioners and my own, written on little papers, into the crevices of the women’s prayer section of the Western Wall (the Wailing Wall) that once enclosed Herod’s Second Temple. That wall became for me uniquely sacrosanct for inquiring prayer.

Years ago I responded to God’s call as “one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked,” (Luke 12:48). The Israel pilgrimage magnified the reality of the diminished impact I could ever have in comparison to the profound walk and purpose of Jesus.

Fortunately, it is too early to settle the score or measure success. Maybe my story has a happy ending. Maybe it does not. I’ve discovered that’s beside the point. The relevant point is that, based on faith, the “substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen,” today my renewal in Israel has me believing so much in those promises of a prophet’s reward that I continue a feeble effort of recommitment.

Yes, I have the audacity to expect a reward, even in view of my miniscule impact. If nothing else, my spiritual walk in Israel has magnified the kindness, the generous mercy, the grace and the abounding love of Jesus.

So I am trusting God, who owns both the happy endings and the undefined outcomes, to place my tomorrow in his hands.

A traditional Nile river cruise the Ramses II start and Luxor and ending in either Aswan as embarkation points cover a distance of  roughly 200 kilometers 220 kilometers of the total length of the Nile normally given as 6611. The irst stop in luxor Temple bult by two kins, amenophis III and Ramesses II

The fist stop in luxo is the temple of amun, o amenhotep III, ramesses II and Alexande the geat.

Across the Nile from the temples Luxor and Karnak are the mortuary temples of the New KingdomThe west bank of the nile is historically the land of the dead, tombs, funerary temples and cemetaries while on the east bank is the city of the living. The west bank temples include those of Hatshepsut and Amun by Tuthmosis III. The Valley of the Kings Dynasties 18 to 20 include the tomb of Tutankhamen.

One of the first stops is to view the gi-normous columns inscribed with monumental reliefs in the hypostyle hall of Edfu – just south of Lexor and north of Aswan in southern Upper Egypt. Temple is conventionally oriented towards the Nile.

There is a sense of pride among the people in the leadership of African kings of power and genius.

Jacquelyn Donald-Mims is the pastor of the Imani Community Church, African Methodist Episcopal in Austin.

Ingredients

Cooking Directions

In a bowl, soak the bread cubes in the milk.

In a saute pan, cook the bacon over medium-high heat until crisp and fat has rendered. (Again, I rendered a smoked turkey leg after cooking in down in pressure cooker). Add the onion, celery, and garlic and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring, until they have released their liquid and are soft, 4 to 6 minutes. Add the Marsala and cook until nearly evaporated. Remove from the heat and set aside until completely cooled.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and butter a 9-inch square baking dish.

Squeeze any excess milk from the bread and place the bread in a large mixing bowl. Add the egg, mushroom mixture, chopped thyme and oregano, and enough broth to moisten the stuffing. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Transfer mixture to the prepared baking dish and then sprinkle with the breadcrumbs. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes, then uncover and continue to cook until lightly browned on top and heated throughout, 15 to 30 minutes longer.

Serve hot.

Let me remember to thank God for the blessing of YOU, for being such a wonderful and valuable Imani member, for 15 years as the church of our Christ, for a special clergy friend, a close or distant friend or relative – -  these great blessings not to mention the blessed memories of pilgrimage to the Holy Lands, holy Greek places, Egypt in Africa and the opportunity to do mission work in Guyana, and Jamaica – not to mention my gorgeous husband and son! God is good, all the time! Forward this thank you card, invitation and prayer for God’s best to your all of friends and relatives. We pray you will accept Christ in your life; and see you every Sunday for a very special Word from our Lord!.

This one-verse text in the King James Version I stumbled across a few days ago just completely blew my mind and gripped my heart. As it is, it is life transforming!  The message in Psalm 68, one among King David’s 150 Psalms, seems to lose its punch when read in more modern translations – so we find the highest inspiration focusing on the KJV, the version authorized by King James I to be translated  for the Church of England.

“Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation”—Psalm 68:19Charles Spurgeon recounts one of the ablest commentators who calls Psalm 68:19 a titanic Psalm, that’s a truly gigantic Psalm. It is not difficult to understand it in our practical duties as a vital doctrine.

This can transform your entire life. Change your future and your level of receiving God’s best blessings. Just earnestly, deeply and wholeheartedly give thanks to God in special prayer. Give thanks to God all of the time and always.  You must pray special prayers of thanksgiving.  Transform bitterness, selfishness, self-pity, negativism, and pride from blocking you from entering the next higher level of blessing –  ultimate blessings by learning to be thankful and to “give thanks always for all things to God” you will have an attitude of gratitude. It  will change those ill feelings and literally transform your life.

There are at least four levels of living driven by attitude. People in the lowest level constantly complain. These People always gripe and complain. Never received enough- God is always too late and shows up with too little. What God gives is difficient because it misses your expectations.The second level is just slightly higher. These people do not constantly complain; they just never give thanks for anything. They take things God gives for granted.The third level are those who thank God for the obvious blessings, when things are going good and everything is fine.But the fourth level, the highest level, are those who give thanks always for all things. This is the attitude that will change your life.There are ways to grow spiritually into this gratitude attitude: five principles that will help you  achieve this highest level.Our Gratitude is

Proper – Anything good that you have has come from God. You didn’t get it by luck, ingenuity, hard work, wit, or wisdom. It is proper to thank God for it.Our

Gratitude is to Be Perpetual – You’re not just simply to be thankful one day a year. One day is not long enough to thank God for all that God’s given you. God’s blessings come daily. Psalm 68:19 says, “Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loadeth us with benefits…” The psalmist also says “God’s mercies are new every morning”.  “…Joy comes in the morning.” Every day God has brand-new blessings for you, and every day ought to find you thanking God. Every prayer that you pray ought to be salted with thanks.

Our Gratitude is to Be PervasiveIn everything give thanks. Not in some things, but in all things. Everything, every area of life is to be a subject of thanksgiving. There’s so much to be thankful for.

• Spiritual blessings – If you didn’t have anything else but Jesus, you would have enough to praise God for all eternity.

• Simple things – You should be thankful for your families, health, food, and even a glass of water. Thank God for the simple things.

• Sorrowful things – You can even be thankful for the heartaches, the pains, and the sufferings. Romans 8:28 says, “…All things work together for good…” That is, the thing itself is not good, but it is God Who is working all things together for good.

Live on the highest level of life? Cultivate the attitude of gratitude always and in all things. I don’t care how bad, difficult, dark, or mysterious things get; take the ultimate step of faith and say, “God, You’re greater than this, and I thank You.” You may say, “Well, I don’t feel like thanking Him.” Don’t thank Him by feeling; thank Him by faith. You’re not told to feel thankful but to be thankful. Nothing shows your faith in the absolute sovereignty of God more than just simply thanking God in every situation.

Why do we experience trials and hardship? I thought God saved us to be powerful, as a benefit and byproduct of my redemption. So God, why should we go through “the going through”? Jesus responded that, “In this world you will have tribulation …” I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33 NLT)

1 Peter 1:7 These trials are only to test your faith, to show that it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold — and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold. So if your faith remains strong after being tried by fiery trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. NLT

What is the meaning of biblical faith? We ask because faith is what we all need. If it is to regain health after a serious diagnosis that we need, a relationship remake, the ability to excel, to compete or to just “stay alive”, we need faith. So how does God say we can get more of what we need??

Especially as faith is defined by Hebrews 11 putting a huge concept into a few words: Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” NRSV

A.W. Tozer’s explanation for Hebrews 11:1 is “Faith is seeing the invisible, but not the nonexistent.” Faith is not believing in something that is not actually there.

Or Jim Wallis says, ” Faith is believing in spite of the evidence and then watching the evidence change.”

Biblical faith believes God when God tells us there is a reality, which we cannot see.
Faith is just to keep your eyes on God who controls circumstances — not to gaze on the impossible circumstances themselves.

Faith is not in our prayers. Faith is not in the thing we want or need. Faith is in God…so keep your eyes and thoughts and hopes in God.

II Corinthians 5:7 says: We live by faith, not by sight. We walk by faith not by sight. That sounds simple enough. But for some reason, it is hard to do. Our misconceptions about Faith are so strong and overpowering.

Faith is NOT a blind leap in the dark. You don’t need to totally ignore logic and reason in order to believe in God. The fact is, believing there is NO God requires an unreasonable kind of faith.

Biblical faith does not believe that God will do what WE say. Biblical Faith knows that God will do what HE says. By faith, we rest on the promises of God — no matter what happens.

I love 1 John 5:14: This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” So have confidence approaching God, ask according to God’s will, God hears us and answers us.

Morning everyone. I’m Austin mayor Lee Leffingwell and we will begin today with our invocation by Pastor Jacquelyn Donald-Mims and Imani Community Church. Please rise.

Good morning, let us pray. Eternal God our Lord, we give you honor, praise and thanks for the wonder of this day and for your sustaining love. Oh, God, today we ask that you oversee these proceedings. Anoint once again these representative and leaders, this brilliant council and mayor and their genius. We thank you for their commitment and ask your blessing upon them to love your people, walk among your people, feel their pain and share their joys. Commission them to a noble discontent of things as they are and that they will tear down every barrier that prevents your people from the highest god-given best.

God, even in the midst of the tragedy of last Thursday, a senseless, cowardice crime, we still give you praise for those who are in the bis of saving lives, for the hard job of first responders, offsetting destruction and minimizing loss, executing their craft with excellence. We give you praise, and, oh, god, we ask now for your presence. We know are sympathetic ear and heart and healing is on the family of the one who was lost, Vernon Hunter, a veteran, hero, child of god, man of god, husband and father. We pray your comfort in their moments of distress. Usher them through the long night of despair. We pray your continued healing on those who experience bodily harm and those who emotionally are in distress for witnessing such a horrific tragedy. Now, we even ask your blessing on the family of the one who committed the crime and the pain.

Oh, God, now we just know that there are those in this city and we just ask you for your blessings on us all, both those who live in security and those who feel insecure, employed and unemployed, those who feel the stress and weight of despair, we pray, Lord, that they know that all is not lost. You know our needs better than we do, Lord. Touch, heal, make whole, deliver, redeem and give us your peace and power. This we pray in the strong name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, AMEN.

Thank you, pastor. I especially like that part about the genius of the mayor and council. [Laughter] please be seated.

The Austin American-Statesman’s religion writer, Eileen Flynn, talked to African-American pastors in Central Texas about the continuing controversy over comments made by Sen. Barack Obama’s longtime pastor.

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, as everyone has heard and seen over and over by now, made racially charged statements that lashed out at the United States and suggested this country brought on the 9-11 terror attacks.

Obama rejected Wright’s harsh comments, but he didn’t reject Wright.

(Here is a take on the controversy by Time this week)

Pastors interviewed by Flynn said Wright’s comments need to be understood in a broader context including the totality of his preaching and the idea of speaking truth to power.

Here’s what the Rev. Jacquelyn Donald-Mims told Flynn:

“The only way (America) can become more livable is if we confront what we want to fix… There’s going to be ecstatic, excited speech that moves people to action.”

The story added:

Jesus, too, used harsh language at times, Donald-Mims said, but “prophetic speech is not hate speech.”

A translation of the Hebrew word ruach and the Greek work pneuma is “wind,” “breath,” or “spirit” depending upon the context.  Both the Hebrew-based and the Greek-based texts (both Testaments) deploy the spirit of both God and of human beings.  In His conversation  Nicodemus sought[i] Jesus said that the Spirit is like the wind in that one cannot see it but one can see its effects. This is true of both the Spirit of God and the spirit of a human being. Christ like or to “put on Christ”[ii] is Christians like everything else need to make a fresh start, refresh, renew, revival, reshaping.  We look at our bodies and believe we need to trim weight, hair, or ____.  Review relationships and decide upon updating old valued friendships that were long forgotten, trading them for damaging friendships.  , Losing, casting away, and saying “no” to someone with whom we believe we are in love is akin to the woeful experience of the “dark night of the soul” in spiritual mysticism. The dark night of the soul in spiritual mysticism is John of the Cross’ thesis of that stage in which the spiritual person suffers great trials, by reason not so much of the aridness that they suffer, as the fear they have of being lost on the road. Dark nights are times in which we do not feel the presence and the goodness of God. This feeling of lostness tricks the mind into believing that all happiness, good fortune, and blessings are gone for them because there is no more pleasure in the remaining pleasures of life as God gives. With the dark night of the soul one experiences an inability to even pray as normally or to pray at all. Separation from that which is damaging provides time to heal and to rebound.

This spirituality is grounded in personal prayer. Personal prayer, not just when things are not going our way, but when they are going our way, has to be a lifestyle if we ever hope to find out the purpose and the meaning of our lives in relationship to God. Without personal prayer, you cannot be an integrated Christian and without personal prayer, you cannot have an integrated family.

What these pilgrims go there for is to ask God, through their prayers, to help them change their attitude about the problems they have. They ask God to give them acceptance of the problem; they ask God to help better their personal situations and their family situations at home.

We, as Christians, have grown up hearing the expression more things are brought about through prayer than this world dreams of. That is true. St. Paul constantly reminded us, as did Christ, the value of praying constantly so that we would receive the insights, through

For the person who forces themselves from a damaging relationship full of futile illicit sex, they feel that there is no good substitute for the mate that they have lost, yet, that very mate was brutal, damaging, exploitative, abusive, and obsessive. Losing you’re a cherished possession upon which you depend can be your dark night of the soul. Even when that possession is money, power, sex, an unhealthy relationship or even a good relationship, when the dependency upon it is ethically unbalanced, The dry spells without this abusive person is good for you, but you still want it, because it is better than the barrenness of loneliness and isolation. You know that you are better without a mate who is damaging to the soul and spirit, but you talk yourself into believing that the injury you experience is not as unpleasant as the terror you fear.

One great approach to abandonment that is helpful is the twelve-step-like approach. The Twelve Step program[[1]] has developed into a method, if followed, of teaching people how to become fully human.   The steps are very spiritual. Each step must be followed. The first step is the toughest of any. You can not move forward without accepting and doing step number one.

The Twelve Steps[[1]]:

1. Admit to being powerless over the addiction to the bad relationship, and that your life has become unmanageable;
2. Come to a belief in a power, God, greater than yourself to restore you to sanity;
3. Make a decision to turn your will and way of life to God;
   1. Search yourself and fearlessly take a moral inventory of yourself and your life as it is today;
   2. Admit to God and yourself those wrongs;
      1. Become at a state of readiness to ask and depend upon God to remove the shortcomings of your life;
      2. Now ask God to remove the shortcomings of your life;
      3. Make a list of all persons that you have harmed, and make reparations to those persons;
      4. Make direct amends to the people who you have hurt and injured;
      5. Continue to take a personal inventory and repair the wrongs, promptly;
         1. Seek through prayer and meditation to improve your conscious contact with God, and pray for God’s will in your life—not your own will;
         2. Have a spiritual awakening!

When we are preoccupied with God, darkness becomes light and bitterness sweet. Your faith in God can show you the beauty of life away from even the most bittersweet, gruesome experience. Your faith in God will be your comfort and rescue from that abandonment you experience when you cut your losses. Don’t throw away a good investment to redeem a bad investment. You can only lose more by plunging deeper into the wasteland of the seemingly intoxicating pleasures of an addictive, hot, illicit sexual relationship that is outside of the promised gift of God. This is not in concert with God’s will for your life. It is faith that will lead us out of darkness into the marvelous light with great rewards.

Galatians 5:16 Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law.

Galatians 5:22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.

[ii][ii] 1 Corinthians  , New Living Translation (NLT)

[[iii]]The twelve-step program was first published in 1939 by psychologists, Dr. William James, Dr. Carl Yung, and religious leaders, Dr. Frank Buchman and Samuel Shoemaker. The twelve-step program was first used by Gamblers Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and many others.

[[iv]]Alcoholics Anonymous, First Edition, 59-60.

By Pastor Jacquelyn Donald-Mims, D. Min., Pastor of Imani Community Church

Chaplain, Austin Police Department

written January 24, 2005

Violent behavior is too often one tragic and unnecessary social factor in youthful dating couples.  Most frequently the violence is against young women victims between the ages of twelve and eighteen at the hand of male offenders who are acquaintances, friends, or intimate partners. Dating violence is the perpetration or threat of an act of violence including an intentional sexual, physical or psychological attack, by one member of a couple on another within the context of dating or courtship (D. B. Sugarman, and G. T. Hotaling, Violence in Dating Relationships, New York: Praeger; 1989:3-32.). It includes all forms of sexual assault, physical violence, and verbal or emotional abuse. The prevalence of violence is most pronounced,with 48 to 65 percent of youths, especially females having experienced such aggression.  One’s faith should never be interpreted to imply tolerance, yet Christian and some other religious women are often misinformed, feeling mandated by Scripture to remain in abusive relationships, to “submit” to their man as “head of the relationship” or to “turn the other cheek,” or other inspired texts.

Abusers don’t just automatically and magically stop. Once violent abuse begins in a relationship, it usually gets worse unless the abuser submits to some form of psychological counseling intervention, anger management, and battery control to break their violence pattern. Abusers are not helpless, but highly selective in choosing a weaker, more vulnerable mate as their target. This continuing pattern of abuse from previous relationships spills over into each successive relationship, and usually gets progressively worse. Rather than ending the relationship, young women victims, thinking the relationship will improve, often rationalize that having a bad boyfriend is better than no boyfriend at all. Female victims mistakenly and naively hope the abuse will stop and the boyfriend will change. She tends to blame herself, striving to be a better girlfriend.  Young women are lured by the sweetness of making-up, apologies and boyfriend’s gifts. She often confuses possessiveness and jealousy with attraction.  Parents must act assertively and promptly to remove youth from potentially abusive relationship as a preventative measure at the moment of any evident sign, large or small. The community through relevant forums, the church through sermon teachings, seminars and public prayers against violence, and parents in heart-to-heart talks with their youth can foster prevention of tragedies to sensitize potential victims to heightened awareness of their vulnerability, and to hold perpetrators of abuse accountable.  As a component of school systems’ sex education and other stand-alone programs, socialization skill building should include strong elemental teaching about dating violence avoidance and other prevention of criminal behavior.

Physical abuse includes any hurtful or intimidating contact like pushing, slapping, choking, punching, kicking, biting, burning, hair pulling, and threats with and actual use of a weapon, or forcibly confinement.  Emotional abuse is sexual abuse, jealousy, intimidation, controlling demands, stalking, threats, insults, demeaning profanity, terrorizing, property destruction, date rape drug use, isolation from friends, parents, and supportive people.  Perpetrators of abuse undermine the victim to control or create exclusivity in the relationship, ostracize, condemn, and deplete the victim’s self-esteem.  The aggressor’s environment is often alcohol, drug use; the male’s assumption of a power role, requiring inequality in the dating scheme, or modeling unacceptable behavior of fathers or males observed elsewhere (P. A. Gwartney-Gibbs, J. Stockard, and S. Bohmer, Learning Courtship Aggression, Family Relations1987; 36:276-282.).  Violence occurs across national, cultural, racial, and religious boundaries.

The best and most influential teacher of responsible and healthy dating is by parents to their youth in the home.  Parents enunciating clear expectations about dating to include resistance from subjection or perpetration of abuse is a critical prerequisite to permitting their youth to date. Knowing well the parents of your child’s date, their tolerance for abuse, familiarity with the criminal history of your youth’s suitor, and the suitor’s attitude of acceptance or defense of violence, are non-negotiable prior to permitting dating. Teach youths to take all threats seriously, to avoid confusing love with a partner who is obsessed with dominating and controlling.  Modeling healthy relationship behavior that shows respect between dating and married adult partners at home, reinforces correct teaching, and is the most influential.

Our active listening to youth can detect cries for help. At every chance give youth opportunities to freely talk about dating issues and be approachable for questions. Help for victims can come from any observer aware of abuse to obtain flight to safety, effective referrals to the police or legal advocacy, the violence and rape hotline, support groups, and others appropriate service.  Everyone in the process must speak out, seek help, never tolerate the slightest abuse, protect the victim and never protect perpetrators of abuse because it’s a crime.