CurtisRyanMiller.com

curtisryan — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 00:30:10 +0000

Breathe from the gentle south, O Lord,
and cheer me from the north;
Blow on the treasures of thy word,
and call the spices forth!

I wish, thou know-est, to be resigned,
and wait for patient hope;
But hope delay’d fatigues the mind,
and drinks the spirit up.

Help me to reach the distant goal;
confirm my feeble knee:
Pity the sickness of my soul
that faints for love of thee.

Cold as I feel this heart of mine,
Yet, since I felt it so,
It yields some hope of life divine
within however low.

I seem forsaken and alone,
I hear the lion roar;
And every door is shut but one,
and that is mercy’s door.

-Wm. Cowper

The Matter is Quite Simple…

curtisryan — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 18:00:25 +0000

“… The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.” -Kierkegaard

Heschel & King Jr

curtisryan — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 22:38:02 +0000

Prayer…

curtisryan — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 06:33:45 +0000

Give me word and give me light.
Give me hope and give me life.
Give me Jesus and let me die.
Give me Truth and not a lie.

We all have blind spots–

curtisryan — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 00:45:11 +0000

…areas of our lives that need to be uncovered so that we can see correctly and adjust our lives accordingly. But they can be hard to identify. Others can often see them in us, and we rely on friends to point them out. But the reality is, even then we have a hard time recognizing them. We don’t want to admit they exist… often until it’s too late. We discover them in hindsight, but we struggle to see them in the present.

Hindsight can be a difficult and shameful place. We easily and comfortably live blindly in areas of disobedience, areas that we pretend do not exist. But God has a way of shining light in darkness, exposing the areas we choose to ignore. He always brings us to a place of confession before Him.

Reality exposes that our need for Grace is deeper than we ever imagined.

alas, my unbelieving heart!

curtisryan — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 22:03:37 +0000

When I speak of walking with Jesus, my idea is helped by considering how it was with His first disciples–they lived in His presence! While He stayed in a place–they stayed; and when He moved–they went with Him. Having Him thus always near, always in view–the sight of Him undoubtedly gave a composure to their whole behavior; and was a check upon their eyes, their tongues, and their actions!

When they had hard questions upon their minds–they did not puzzle themselves with vain reasonings. When they were in need–they looked to Him for a supply. When they had difficulties and dangers–they little doubted of deliverance, knowing that He was with them.

Just so, I need a faith that shall have such an abiding, experimental conviction of His nearness and presence–as if I actually saw Him! “Lord, increase my faith!”

Surely, if He were now upon earth, and I expected a visit from Him this afternoon–my heart would bound at the thought! With what a mixture of joy and fear would I open the door to receive Him! How cautious would I be–not to do or say anything that might grieve Him, and shorten His stay with me! And how gladly, if He gave me permission to speak, would I catch the opportunity of telling Him all my concerns! Surely I would be unwilling to let Him go–until He had healed the wounds in my soul, and renewed my spiritual strength; until He had taught me better how to serve Him, and promised to support me in His service. And if I heard Him say, with an audible voice, “Though they fight against you–they shall not prevail, for I am always with you to deliver you!” I would bid adieu to fear!

But, alas, my unbelieving heart! Are not these things true, even at present? Is He not as near and as kind? Have I not the same reasons and the same encouragement to set Him always before me–and to tell Him . . .
all my needs,
all my fears, and
all my troubles–
as if I saw Him with my bodily eyes!

“Be sure of this: I am with you always–even to the end of the age!” Matthew 28:20

(Letters of John Newton)

…the beginning of wisdom.

curtisryan — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 17:27:41 +0000

The fear ["Awe"] of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding.
Psalm 111:10

“Awe is itself an act of insight into a meaning greater than ourselves… Awe is an intuition for the creaturely dignity of all things and their preciousness to God; a realization that things not only are what they are but also stand, however remotely, for something absolute. Awe is a sense for the transcendence, for the reference everywhere to Him who is beyond all things. It is an insight better conveyed in attitudes than in words. The more eager we are to express it, the less remains of it… …the meaning of awe is to realize that life takes place under wide horizons, horizons that range beyond a span of an individual life or even the life of a nation, a generation, or an era. Awe enables us to perceive in the world intimations of the divine, to sense in small things the beginning of infinite significance, to sense the ultimate in the common and simple; to feel in the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel
God in Search of Man

Invoke a Missionary Imagination [Pt:1]

curtisryan — Mon, 24 May 2010 23:47:02 +0000

According to the Joshua Project there are 6.65 billion people in the world. The most liberal estimate would put the world’s population at about one-third that identify themselves (whether relationally, socially, or politically) as Christian. If we make the assumption that all one-third of those people are true followers of Christ, it would leave roughly 4.5 billion people who live, at this very moment, without Christ. The Joshua Project also reports that about half of those people (2.7 billion) have little or no access to the Gospel. An estimated 6, 693 people groups in the world who have never heard the Gospel.

We have an overwhelming task entrusted to us in our day!

If we are called to go into all of the world and make disciples of Jesus, then we do not have any time to waste with our lives, and we do not have any time to play games in church encouraging followers to live a nice, comfortable, Christian spin on the “American Dream.”

We have a Master who demands radical sacrifice, and a mission that warrants radical urgency! If we truly believe the Gospel, we will be compelled to give our lives, even sacrifice our lives, and moved to spend our church communities for the sake of carrying the Gospel to the ends of the earth. And if the Gospel that we believe is not passionately moving us towards this type of surrender, then we must question whether we believe the right Gospel. True Jesus – Gospel – Theology necessitates urgent Missiology.

Perhaps a greater question is: do we, ourselves see our own desperate need for the Gospel? If we do not recognize our own need for Jesus, how will we ever truly recognize the world’s need for Jesus? And if we, and the world are in grave need of Jesus, then we must accomplish missions urgently!

Canton Peace Day

curtisryan — Wed, 19 May 2010 17:08:30 +0000

Sunday May 30, 2010 – 1-7pm - Nimisilla Park

“The purpose of the Peace Day is to draw attention to the problem of violence in Canton and to inspire Christian peacemakers to pray and love both sides of the problem (both the victims of violence and the ones who are caught up and trapped in the cycles of violence). We hope to sound the alarm and draw together local churches and local people. Though the party will only last one day, we hope that through the party we can ignite a movement that reaches the entire city, pours into every alley, and transforms hearts.”

To Rediscover the Questions

curtisryan — Sat, 08 May 2010 14:16:35 +0000

“…Faith declined not because it was refuted, but because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid. When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendor of the past; when faith becomes a heirloom rather than a living fountain; when the religious speak only in the name of authority rather than with a voice of compassion— it’s message becomes meaningless… The moment we become oblivious to ultimate [and difficult-- real life] questions, faith becomes irrelevant, and it’s crisis sets in… [We must] rediscover the questions to which faith is an answer. This inquiry must be proceeded both by delving into the teachings and attitudes of the religious tradition… There are dead thoughts and there are living thoughts. A dead thought has been compared to a stone which one may plant in the soil. Nothing will come out. Yet, a living thought is like a seed planted in the soil…”

Abraham Joshua Heschel
“God in Search of Man”