Here are some personal prayers :

 

  

 

A song of praise for my God

Who called me by name, freed me from the distress of wrong ways.

Oh - my dear papa, heavenly one - 

On hot sand I was cast, like a mute fish.

But You revived me in Your waters.

Now I swim merrily and breathe Your breath.

Oh - who are like a mama, blissfully birthing - into

a deep chasm I was thrown - frozen lonely.

But Thy warm, fat milk could thaw me.

Now I can stretch and my soul awakens to new life.



Who threw me on hot sand, who pushed me into the depths?

The sight of you has destroyed his evil! I lived gladly, and died gladly too.

On thy promise it was but a short walk through the dark valley.

Only your love saved me!

And called home again - I may, yes I will thank you - and now rejoice eternally

before the throne of Your glory. Hallelujah!



Thine is the victory from the beginning. So it is ...

Yes, to this one, eternal God I sing my psalter.

He sent us His own beloved Son.

Jesus became man for our redemption from death and darkness.

Return and reconciliation you have given us with him,

in pure grace and love.

So it is - Amen

M.Th. - 03.2016 

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Jonah in Nineveh

 

 

The word of the Lord came to Jonah for the second time: "Set out on your journey and go to Nineveh.

and go to Nineveh, that great city, and charge it with all that I shall say unto thee.

Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, as the Lord had commanded him.                

Nineveh was a great city in the sight of God; it took three days to cross it. to pass through it. Jonah began to enter the city; he walked for a day and cried out: 

Forty more days and Nineveh will be destroyed!

And the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast, and all, both great and small and small, put on robes of repentance. When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe,

clothed himself in a robe of penance and sat down in the ashes.

He sent out a proclamation in Nineveh: Command of the king and his great ones: All men and beasts, cattle, "All men and beasts, cattle, sheep and goats, shall neither eat nor feed nor drink water. They shall cover themselves in in robes of repentance, both man and beast. They shall cry aloud to God, and each one shall repent and turn from his evil deeds and from the wrong that is on his hands.

Who knows, perhaps God will repent again and desist from his fierce anger, so that we will not perish.

 

And God saw their behaviour; he saw that they repented and turned away from their evil deeds. Then God repented of the evil that he had threatened them with and he did not carry out the threat.

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Whether God gives us 40 weeks, 40 days or 40 ours as a time limit today and what you have to repent of, each "Nineveh inhabitant" must decide. Each "inhabitant of Nineveh" must find out for himself in his heart. 

In my repentance I was allowed to become free from the intense stupidity of many youthful follies. Jesus also suffered for you!

 

 M.Th. - Vienna, 2 March 2018

 

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He speaks justice in the strife of nations,

He rebukes many nations.

Then they forge ploughshares from their swords

And pruning knives from their lances. 

The sword is no longer drawn, 

nation against nation, 

and no longer practise for war.

 

Isa. 2,4

 

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It is true: there is much good in the world among us people.

And yet, unfortunately, ... the hard truths are also true:

 

We have ridiculed the truth of Your Word and called it pluralism.

We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculture.

We have approved of perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.

We have exploited the poor and called that their lot.

We have rewarded laziness and called it prosperity. 

We have killed our unborn and called that self-determination. 

We have excused people who performed abortions and called that justice.

We have neglected to teach our children discipline and called that self-respect.

We have abused power and called it politics.

We have envied our neighbour's possessions and called that striving.

We have polluted the airwaves with pornography and secular 

and worldly things and called it freedom of the press.

We have ridiculed the values of our forefathers and called it

and called it enlightenment.

Joe Wrigth 

Here I want - here we should - confess and repent. 

God can forgive all - let us live with Him!!!

HE is never further away - than our prayer.

 

M.Th. Vienna, Feb.2020

 

 

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 As I live, says the Lord, the Eternal:

I have no pleasure in the death of the lawless one, but

but that the lawless one turn from his way and live!

Turn back, turn back from your wicked ways!

For why will you die...?

 

Ezekiel 33:11  

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Love is longsuffering and kind, love is not jealous, love is not wanton, love is not puffed up, 

it does not behave unseemly, it does not seek its own, 

It does not allow itself to be embittered. It does not reckon with evil, 

It does not rejoice in injustice,

but rejoices in the truth.

 

1 Corinthians 13:4-6

 

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Response to our mortality

 

No one wants to suffocate, die of thirst, fall into the bottomless pit - 

no one wants to drown, freeze to death, starve, burn.

And yet it happens here and there. 

Who wants to be afraid, lonely and misunderstood, in hate and guilt, to walk blind and deaf in pain?

And yet we are not immune to it.

However: Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit do not want this - pull us away from it.

Gently and unobtrusively, in patience and love.

Let us simply let this happen!

 

  Vienna, 10.06.2021, Michael Thalhammer

 

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CHRISTMAS

 

Every child who still believes in the Christ child knows more

 

than an enlightened sceptic, who is not above the common 

 

common doubts about this.

 

Because knowing more than just about Jesus,

 

is not considered higher knowledge.

 

Happy the parents who bring God close to their children

 

and do not withhold HIM from their tender souls.

 

2021

_____________________ 

 

Two men will work in the field; one will be accepted and the other will stay behind.

 

Two women will grind grain; one will be accepted and the other left behind.

 

Matthew 24:40-41

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Then they will forge their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning knives.

Mi 4.3 

 

They will no longer lift up the sword, nation against nation, and they will no longer learn war.

 

Isa 2.4

 

Jesus has convinced me personally: He wants me to take up my cross, and He Himself precedes us in it. Thus, looking to Him, He helps us to overcome even the sting of death in our own bodies. His self-giving shows us that the beyond is part of life after death. Even if heaven, hell and purgatory are neither places nor temporal concepts, they still represent an inner reality. Simple trust and daily attempts at discipleship have also made my yoke light. When the fear-inducing, cold breath of death has taken my life-
days one by one - like the pages of a book - I do not have to account for the sum of sins all

alone and lonely. Jesus' love has already paid it and calls "come"... his eternity embraces

and transcends everything temporal and its spatial barriers.