Oil on Troubled Waters-The ‘Oil of Gladness’ (1 CD)

OIL ON TROUBLED WATERS–THE ‘OIL OF GLADNESS’ The deftly inventive Benjamin Franklin described in one of his letters how he calmed a large wind-swept pond with a mere teaspoon of oil. He thus confirmed the validity of Plutarch’s ancient epigram, ‘oil on troubled waters,’ which referred, analogously, to anything that calms a worrisome situation. No one would contest the fact that we humans are presently living in exceptionally worrisome and tumultuous times in a kind of global storm. Just as Jesus miraculously calmed the storm-tossed waters of the Sea of Galilee and, at the same time, the panicked hearts of his disciples, so also today, in our current economic and societal hurricane, he won’t leave us abandoned to its fury. Through his Spirit he pours forth–for those open to it–an ‘oil’ to calm our troubled hearts; ‘Let not your heart be troubled. Trust in God’ (John 14:1). This mystic ‘oil’ is the scripturally twice-cited ‘oil of gladness’–a soothing current of Spirit-spawned joy (see Galatians 5:22), it is strangely able to tranquilize the pandemic of panic pervading our society; Spirit-filled souls, whose trust in the Lord is boundless, find a depth of serenity in Paul’s words: ‘Rejoice in the Lord always…Do not be anxious about anything…the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts in Christ Jesus’ (Phil. 4:4-7). Those heroically towering souls who always smile through their tears have much to teach us about the marvels of the Lord’s oil of gladness poured out in abundance on suffering persons who are privy to his tender love. This talk taps into the noble insights of these ‘mighty storm-swept oaks.’

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Weight 0.6 lbs