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Start Your Day Off Right with this 1600 year old Prayer! (You can do it, and you’ll be better off for it!)
It’s old……but it is STILL good!
I often find nourishment for my faith when I read and pray through old prayers. Sure, the church has changed over the years. What it means to follow Christ in a fallen world hasn’t. Those who have faithfully walked the walk before us down through the ages, though gone, can still minister to us. One of the ways this can happen is when we read and prayer the prayers they left behind.
Today, I share with you a 1600 year old prayer from Basil The Great. I have updated it for the modern reader. The Thee’s and Thou’s have been changed.
O God and Lord of the Powers, and Maker of all creation,
Who, because of Your clemency and incomparable mercy,
did send Your Only-Begotten Son and our Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of mankind,
and with His venerable Cross did tear asunder the record of our sins,
and thereby did conquer the rulers and powers of darkness;receive from us sinful people, O merciful Master, these prayers of gratitude and supplication,
and deliver us from every destructive and gloomy transgression,
and from all visible and invisible enemies who seek to injure us.Nail down our flesh with fear of You,
and let not our hearts be inclined to words or thoughts of evil,
but pierce our souls with Your love, that ever contemplating You, being enlightened by You, and discerning You, the unapproachable and everlasting Light,
we may unceasingly render confession and gratitude to You:The eternal Father,
with Your Only-Begotten Son,
and with Your All-Holy, Gracious, and Life-Giving Spirit,now and ever, and unto ages of ages.
Amen
An Ancient Theologian explains Tradition
“The heretics did not just offer a different worldview. They were using Scriptures to uphold their ideas…”
Interesting!
We don’t often re-blog other posts, but this was such a thought provoking and stimulating article that we just had to! Mike discusses the framework we should use to interpret opposing views of what Scripture says and how we should use the early church Fathers to aid us in that. Be challenged!
We also wanted to introduce you to Mikes blog, so take a few minutes to check it out. You will probably hit the “Follow” button like we did.
Irenaeus, a 2nd century theologian, defended Christianity from the Gnostic philosophies that were popular at the time. His 5 volume work, Against Heresies, dedicates the first two volumes to describing the Gnostic views and then precedes to dismantle them in the remaining volumes.
Throughout the work we are invited to explore the fundamental beliefs of the early church as they are contrasted with the opposing system.
Underlying Irenaeus’ defense lies the questions: how do we know what the truth is? and how do we decide between different interpretations of Scripture?
The heretics did not just offer a different worldview. They were using Scriptures to uphold their ideas – which centered on two gods – a good one and an evil one. It was the evil god who created the physical world that we must rid ourselves of.
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Poll: Are You Attending Church More or Less These Days?
In a recent post, we discussed a study that concluded Christians and non-Christians are both attending church services much less today. If you missed that compelling post, you can read it here: Barna Study: Even Christians Are Leaving Our Churches.
Today we want to give you a chance to chime in on the topic, and we have two polls that allow you to do that. The first one asks if you are attending church more or less these days. There are several answers. Please don’t answer the way you would like to be able to answer or how you think you should answer. Just the way it really is in your life at this moment.
The second poll asks why you are attending church less. You have several option here as well, even an “other” where you can write in your answer. There is also an answer for “I am attending church MORE” and “I am attending about the same”
Thank you for voting and please feel free to share these polls with your readers or re-blog this post. If you look at the results so far, it seems to coincide with the study. The more answers the better, so share away!
State of the Gospel: Why Christians Are Leaving Church Too
I think you are going to want to read this upcoming post, based on a recent study. It is now up! Brace yourselves though, because this stuff is going to be hard for you to handle. After you read through it, make sure you answer the poll questions at the end.
A Prayer to Jesus from the 1400’s: Be Everything to Me, Lord!
Soul of Christ, sanctify me.
Body of Christ, save me.
Blood of Christ, inebriate me.
Water from the side of Christ, wash me.
Passion of Christ, strengthen me.
O Good Jesus, hear me.
Within your wounds hide me.
Permit me not to be separated from you.
From the wicked foe, defend me.
At the hour of my death, call me and bid me come to you
That with your saints I may praise you For ever and ever.
Amen.
Are We REALLY Totally Depraved?
Grab the kindling wood and bring your lighters! If you continue reading this post, you may feel the urge to use them!
At least that is what I anticipate with this post on Total Depravity.
Before you light the fire, you should know up front that this post is simply me letting you in on the discussions that take place inside my head! I’m asking you to consider some of the questions I ask myself while I think out loud about what Total Depravity means.
To start off, let’s define terms:
The Western Protestant church views T.D. this way: Total depravity is the fallen state of human beings as a result of Adam original sin. The doctrine of total depravity asserts that people are, as a result of the fall, not inclined or even able to love God wholly with heart, mind, and strength, but rather are inclined by nature to serve their own will and desires and to reject the rule of God.
“The immediate concomitant of the first sin was the total depravity of human nature. The contagion of his sin at once spread through the entire man, leaving no part of his nature untouched, but vitiating every power and faculty of body and soul.” Louis Berkhof
This means that the fundamental nature of mankind was changed on that day. Whatever Adam’s human nature was before his sin, it became something different after the fall. As a result, Read the rest of this entry
The Total Inability of Calvin To Explain Man’s Ability to Respond to God?
Total: Completely, Absolutely
Inability: lack of sufficient power, resources, or capacity
It’s true that humanity can’ come to Christ unaided. The Scriptures and the early church agree on this. Both sides of the Monergism vs Synergism civil war agree on it. Without God’s grace, no one is able to come to Christ. Period!
But how does it work? Nobody knows and those who say they do don’t understand what they’re saying. How God works this out in humanity lies within the mystery of God himself.
Calvin, and the the followers he inspired, believe this means humanity can not even respond to God unaided. People must first be born again and then after that, exercise faith in Christ. One can’t say “yes” to God until after the new birth takes place. Which leads them to teach things like this:
“This doctrine of total inability which declares that men are dead in sin does not mean that all men are equally bad, nor that any man is as bad as he could be, nor that anyone is entirely destitute of virtue, nor that human nature is equal in itself, nor that man’s spirit in inactive, and much less does it mean that the body is dead… The inability under which he labors is not an inability to exercise volition, but an inability to be willing to exercise holy volitions.” (The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination)
“The inability under which he labors is not an inability to exercise volition, but an inability to be willing to exercise holy volitions.”
Essentially, reformed theology teaches that human beings do not have the capacity to desire God, to obey Him or answer when He calls. I have wrestled with this pretty much all of my Christian life for several reasons. Three of which I now share here.
Read the rest of this entryThe Least Most: Our Top 5 Posts That Nobody Read!
Yes, it is that time again. The “Best of” posts are all coming out. (Find ours here) Today, as an act of humility, we present our Bottom 5. They are our least read posts of all time.
Now, we humbly suggest that they occupy the bottom NOT because they were poorly written or were uninteresting. No! We believe you (yes you) were too busy doing other important stuff on the days these came out.
So, go ahead and read one. Or two. Heck read them all!
It is a little bit late but Happy New Year! Read the rest of this entry
A Very Old Prayer for Your New Year!
The following New Years prayer was first offered back in the 1700’s. It is from the largely forgotten deposit of the Puritan Movement of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These people knew God and they certainly knew how to pray. We can learn a lot from them. They are written in old english. I have updated a few outdated words and changed the Thee’s and Thou’s to make it more 2015. However, they still have the feel of that era. This prayer, along with many others, can be found in a book titled “The Valley of Vision”, by Arthur Bennet… Read the rest of this entry
Great Resource Alert: The Writings of the Early Church All In One Place and FREE!
Introducing a GREAT resource: Early Christian Writings
Early Christian Writings is the most complete collection of Christian texts before the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. The site provides translations and commentary for these sources, including the New Testament, Apocrypha, Gnostics, Church Fathers, and some non-Christian references.
If you want to read ANY work from the first 325 years of church history, you will find it at this site. Free.
The Top 10 Posts of 2014
That’s right, my friends. The following post contains our own version of the Top 10 list: The top 10 posts written at Not For Itching Ears this year. We want to thank all of you for taking time to visit our site, read the articles, like them and comment on them. It means a lot to us and it makes blogging fun!
We work hard on all our posts and are glad when they get attention. Starting it off, we have Questioning Our Protestant Tradition of Sola Scriptura. We wrote it in December and it is this year’s winner in two categories. The most read and the most commented on. In fact, it received more comments than any post ever. All time! Surprisingly, the debate was friendly.
We didn’t expect the About Jim page to get a lot of activity and boy were we wrong! Who knew? It is the 10th entry this year. There are some thought provoking articles in between those two. You may or may not agree with our conclusions, and that is perfectly fine. We want Not For Itching Ears to be a place to discuss the issues without the name calling that is sadly typical in the blogosphere. We might not agree on anything, but it is enriching to discuss the issues, get clarity on other peoples positions and agree to disagree if need be.
So without further commentary, here are our Top 10 Posts of 2014!
Our Top 10 Post of 2014
Questioning Our Protestant Tradition of Sola Scriptura
Worship: Why Your Church Is Failing And What You Can Do About It
Is the Casual Approach to Church Producing Casual Christians?
Why God Might Not Be Concerned About Our Doctrinal Differences
Idol Worship: How Your Church May Be Doing It and How To Fix It
It’s Official: People Don’t Want to Sing So Much on Sundays
God Doesn’t Need Our Worship….We Need It!
How To Get More Men into Your Church Service…the Easy Way
An Open Letter to the Worship Leaders in the Evangelical Church
The Early Church Teaches Us…How To Pray! Instructions on the Lord’s Prayer from the 300’s
It’s old….But it is still GOOD!
Quite good as a matter of fact.
Recently I read through perhaps the earliest Catechism of the church, St Cyril of Jerusalem’s Catechism c. 350ad. The only possible earlier one still in existence today is the Didache, though some people dispute that being a Catechism.
Reading through that was simply amazing. I will be sharing a lot on this in upcoming posts. Today, I wanted to give you a taste. Enjoy Cyril’s instruction on what the Lord’s Prayer means. You might be a little surprised! Read the rest of this entry
Are the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Views on How One is Saved Actually That Different?
Not Really!
I am beginning to think that there is less disagreement between the Protestant view and the Catholic / Orthodox view on salvation than we realize.
The misunderstanding is a result of how each part of the church defines “salvation.”
When a Protestant talks about “being saved”, “getting saved”, “accepting Christ” or any other number of terms we use for this, we are primarily referring to the idea of forgiveness of sins. Our sins are forgiven when we “come to Christ”. We have been ‘saved” from sins eternal penalty. We can not earn this forgiveness of sins, it is a merciful free gift from God and we resist anything that makes it look like it must be earned.
In this sense Salvation IS an event, we have been forgiven of our sins! However, Read the rest of this entry
Questioning Our Protestant Tradition of Sola Scriptura
Nothing but Scripture?
It is becoming apparent to me that no church, no theologian, no follower of Christ actually lives out their faith based on the idea of Sola Scriptura.
Sola scriptura as a principle states that Scripture alone is authoritative for the faith and practice of the Christian. The Protestants among us recognize this and embrace it wholeheartedly. It sounds good on paper. It really does. Why do we need anything but the Scriptures to help us form the doctrinal positions that shape our faith? “WE DON’T” shout the reformers among us!
The problem with their answer is it is demonstrably not true. I’ve never met anyone who actually practices this idea and neither have you. The New Testament church certainly did not. Read the rest of this entry
Inspiring Lives From Church History: Perpetua, Felicitas and Their Companions a MUST Read account!
People have been living and dying for Christ for over 2000 years and history is full of wonderful examples of men and women who followed Christ faithfully. We can learn a lot from studying their lives. Yet, there is something truly compelling about those who suffer for Him and pay the ultimate price for their faith.
When I read the historical record of what some of these ancient brothers and sisters went through, it challenges me deeply. I often wonder how I would respond in such situations. I guess we won’t ever know unless and until we find ourselves in the same place. The one thing I can say with certainty is Read the rest of this entry
Worship Leaders: It IS all about YOU!
Like it or not, if you are the worship leader at your church, it IS all..about…you! Just not in the way you would expect.
You are in charge of planning, preparing and executing one third to one half of the entire service. How well you do that is essential to the people you are charged with leading week after week.
I know there is a lot more to being a good song leader than what the congregations hears on Sunday morning. It takes a lot of work away from the stage to create a service that effectively inspires God’s people to worship rather than being entertained. The responsibility for that lies squarely on your shoulders. In that sense, it IS all about you. It is about how you view the gathering and how you prepare for it.
Choosing Better Songs
If you want the majority of the men and women in the congregation to sing with the team, you Read the rest of this entry
Not For Itching Ears 
Bible Study Resource Alert: Verse by Verse Commentary on the Gospels by The Early Church!
Jan 3
Posted by Jim
For each of the four Gospel writers, the Catena Aurea starts by indicating the verses to be analyzed, then phrase-by-phrase, provides the early Fathers’ insights into the passage. It includes the work of over eighty Church Fathers.
The four volume set will cost you about $150, but thanks to Catechetics online, you can read these works for FREE!
Here is a sample of their commentary on John 3:16-19
Posted in Christianity, Early Church History
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Tags: Bible Commentary, Bible study resources, catena aurea, early church fathers, early church history, Eastern Orthodox, El cristianismo, faith, God, Gospel of John, Gospel of Luke, Gospel of Mark, Gospel of Matthew, inspiration, John 3:16, John 3:16-19, Not For itching Ears, Passion of the Christ, spirituality