Wednesday, August 5, 2009

I, Myself Will Look After Them....

While doing the research for this series, I came upon an eclectic web site via google.  Excerpts from the writings of the three mystics recommended by Greg Boyd can be found at the site.  The site is called  Dialectical Interchange.  The three mystics (who are the subjects of this somewhat haphazard series) are Brother Lawrence, Jean Pierre de Caussade and Frank Laubach.  There is another guy on this site...about whom surprisingly little can be found on the Internet.  Not even on Wikipedia!  His name was Rufus Moseley. He authored 2 books....Manifest Victory and Perfect Everything.  Both books are out of print...and neither readily available via the used booksellers on Amazon.  The collection of quotes from Manifest Victory on the Dialectical Interchange web site is pretty much all there is to be found online. 

I think it is interesting to note that the mystics throughout the ages have pretty much said the same thing.  The language is a bit different but the ideas are very similar in many ways.  I was never much interested in reading anything mystical.  I was too busy trying to figure out the facts...the truth about total sovereignty...about the existence of evil....about freewill.  Lately, my attention as turned more toward the "who" than the what.  And the writings of the mystics pique my interest. 

Caussade (yesterday's mystic du jour) talked about learning directly from the who....

We can only be well instructed by the words which God utters expressly for us.


And Rufus Moseley also talked about knowing the who...more so than the what.

"I was never meant to be disciple of any disciple; I can only be a disciple at first hand of the Teacher of Teachers. . . . I cannot be anything other than an immediate disciple of Jesus and the Spirit of truth, getting my orders direct from the Source, not through imperfect and too often blind guides."

A few years ago, I read through Ezekiel.  Somewhere I came upon the interesting snippet where God ordered Ezekiel to cook his food over a fire fueled by human dung. Curiosity got the better of me and I read through the book...actually studied the book....of Ezekiel. 
I remember finding UR there...in Chapter 34...and the promise that God would tend to his sheep....us....

"For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them.  As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.

When we listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd, the clouds clear and the darkness turns to light. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can find about 5 talks by Moseley here:

http://www.cfonatapes.org/k_to_o.php

Cindi said...

Wow...thanks so much for the link!!

Cindi...