Let.

Let every Heart prepare Him room,
Let every Hand find fuel for his Fire to consume,
Let every Mouth speak seeds for His Kingdom to bloom,
Let every Aching Soul know the fullness that lies in an empty tomb.

Francis Thompson: The Kingdom of God

O WORLD invisible, we view thee,
O world intangible, we touch thee,
O world unknowable, we know thee,
Inapprehensible, we clutch thee!
Does the fish soar to find the ocean,	5
The eagle plunge to find the air—
That we ask of the stars in motion
If they have rumour of thee there?
Not where the wheeling systems darken,
And our benumbed conceiving soars!—	10
The drift of pinions, would we hearken,
Beats at our own clay-shuttered doors.
The angels keep their ancient places;—
Turn but a stone, and start a wing!
‘Tis ye, ‘tis your estrangèd faces,	15
That miss the many-splendoured thing.
But (when so sad thou canst not sadder)
Cry;—and upon thy so sore loss
Shall shine the traffic of Jacob’s ladder
Pitched betwixt Heaven and Charing Cross.	20
Yea, in the night, my Soul, my daughter,
Cry,—clinging Heaven by the hems;
And lo, Christ walking on the water
Not of Gennesareth, but Thames!

Summer Dress.

The summer dress, 
Once verdant,
Now lies about the ankles 
And across the forest floor.
Glory has been shed, laid down, 
But not the majesty. 
The form now revealed in the absence 
Of it's outer garments,
 Is a breathtaking and bare structure.  
The whimsy of the green, then red, then gold now gone, 
We can see in full view, the bones that endure.  
Now, another ring about it's trunk, 
Leaves not just dying, but sacrificing, 
Pouring their remaining life back into the bark,
The capillary course having executed a full reverse 
So that another four seasons may be survived.  
In every season, no matter what it be, 
I know I shall never write the beauty of a tree.

G. M. Hopkins: Morning, Midday and Evening Sacrifice

THE DAPPLED die-away
Cheek and wimpled lip,
The gold-wisp, the airy-grey
Eye, all in fellowship—
This, all this beauty blooming,	5
This, all this freshness fuming,
Give God while worth consuming.
Both thought and thew now bolder
And told by Nature: Tower;
Head, heart, hand, heel, and shoulder	10
That beat and breathe in power—
This pride of prime’s enjoyment
Take as for tool, not toy meant
And hold at Christ’s employment.
The vault and scope and schooling	15
And mastery in the mind,
In silk-ash kept from cooling,
And ripest under rind—
What life half lifts the latch of,
What hell stalks towards the snatch of,	20
Your offering, with despatch, of!

Compelling.

Beauty compels. To stand in front of art and marvel at the craft, eventually you are compelled to consider the artist. To listen to a composition and be moved by a melody, eventually you are intrigued by the composer. We think about these creators, these human replicators of beauty (and sorrow) and we wonder what they are like, how they were shaped to be able to make us feel by their work. We give praise where it is due. But we do not praise the canvas, as marvelous as it is. We do not praise the percussion of sound waves, as miraculous as they are. We rightly praise the author, and wonder at who they are because of what they have done. It should be the same for the universe and for the miracle of life. Science is the canvas, impartial and in no need of assigning praise. That doesn't make science an enemy, it makes it exactly what it has always been: a tool. The coldness or sterility of a museum or concert hall does not diminish the emotions of the observer. And that is our place, one we cannot escape, no matter how we try to either put ourselves at the center of everything or remove ourselves completely, we are made as witnesses to the universe. And when we look, with pure observation or science, we should be compelled to ask, not what is color or what is sound, but instead and eventually ask "Who is the author? "

Pine.

A Scotch Pine grows,
It's backside haunted by phantom, forgotten limbs.
Malnourished, it is
Stunted, but well over two stories.
The broken bits of the backside, the Northside
Look like the spindle of a music box drum,
Abrupt and severe stumps
Sticking out from the cylinder.

A White Pine, A cousin
Straight, tall and symmetrical,
Dominates the space
In which both trees stand.
This pine is well ordered and green,
It's branches grow at proper fractal-ed intervals,
To maximize
The sun and soil and space.

A Sycamore branch
Imposes itself from afar.
The bully intercepts a shaft of light.
The Sycamore stands proud, arms open
The pine sulks and searches for the sun.
Eclipsed, options are removed,
The path to sunlight
Repeatedly obstructed.

The dwarfed Scotch
Grows in this territory,
In the constant state of seeking permission,
Suffering from some spine disorder,
It's trunk and limbs reacting
To circumstances that have shaped it's life.
Still a short life,
Still less than half a century.

My Scotch Pine,
Still a young man,
But withered and sparse
Like the aged,
He is contorted.
He leans his brittle shoulder
Against the firmness of the White Pine,
Reaching under and out,
Scooping his arms
Out and around the shade of the Sycamore,
Shedding needles and limbs
He could no longer sustain.
The offering of branches seems impossible.
Yet, they find pasture,
An open field of light.
The bristled back of the Northside
Strains to support the ambitions of the under-branches
That bend down
And then surge up into the sunlight.

Deep rooted,
Flexible but immovable,
The trees have no choice but to obey.
They surrender to the direction of the light.
And to the rain,
And to the persistence of the seasons.
The White Pine,
Given good position,
Grows strong and straight.
The Sycamore,
Here longer than all the others,
Has reached out,
Above the canopy,
Having survived the uncertainty of it's youth.
Towering above all:
It's great advantage.

The Scotch Pine,
Not beautiful,
Not true to it's form,
But still here.
Like the others,
It remains obedient to the light.
Free will is not an option,
For to choose anything other
Than the sun is to die.
The Northside
Provides a constant, present reminder,
Of death.
The Southside branches,
Those that persevere,
Provide a glimpse of hope.

My will,
At times immovable,
At times bent, near broke,
At times unyielding to anything,
Rebelling against the very Grace
That falls like rain,
That comes like sunshine.
My will is an unruly and unpredictable branch,
Seeking warmth in fire
Instead of the sun.

But the sun and the cycles remain,
Waiting to bless me,
Should I find the wisdom to yield,
Or to yearn,
Or to make my way
Out of the bed of dead needles
And into the light.
A tree has no will
But to seek the sun.
I have no will
But my own,
Unless I give it away,
To seek that which made me.
He who made me.
To seek the Light,
To find the Son.

The Branch.

I've borrowed an analogy from Tim Keller, who I believe borrowed it from someone else.  The thought is of a Branch that is perched on the edge of a cliff.  The situation is our fall from that cliff.  The concept is of Faith.  Our fall from that cliff, whatever metaphorical fall it may be, produces a desperation.  The desperate have an amazing capacity for Faith, especially when all other options are taken away.  God's pursuit of his people is a mysterious gift.  The pursuit, however, can feel like a chase by the Hound of Heaven, and indeed chase us right off the cliff into despair, into desperation.  If we are unable to stop and receive the pursuer, he will present another option.  It is the branch.  Falling from the cliff to our death, the branch need not be sturdy for us to trust it.  In the fall we have not the capacity or luxury of evaluating the branch before us.  There is mercy in it being our only option.  The only thing the branch needs to be is near, for us to reach out for it.  No matter the process of arriving at faith, whether it be strength or weakness, no matter what size or conviction of our faith, it does not matter.  Indeed, we only need a mustard seed of desperate faith to save, because it is not the faith that really saves, it is the object of faith that saves.  It may take wild circumstances for me to reach out for that branch, hoping in faith to be saved, but ultimately it is the goodness of the branch itself that saves.  This root in Abraham, this branch of Jesse, the one true vine in Christ Jesus.

In the story of the Bleeding Woman in Luke 8.42 we learn about the woman who tried for years to be healed.  "43 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years,[a]but no one could heal her."
She had reached desperation.  And truly for this "unclean" woman to reach out and touch a rabbi is evidence of her desperation. But she also had faith.  It was only when she put that faith in action to the one that deserved that faith that she was healed.  She trusted fully in Jesus, without really being aware.  And her faith was rewarded.  What is more amazing is not the healing, but that Jesus then identified her.  She was hoping to remain unnoticed.  But Jesus made sure that she knew that he knew and now she not only had healing, but she had a savior.

We may reach out in desperate faith for the branch, hoping to be saved from our immediate circumstances.  What we get is so much more, Faith and Salvation on his glorious and eternal terms instead of our own.  All the power of the universe coming to bare on our individual hearts.

Deserved Love.

Pure Love is an unyielding Light, at times hard to take.  Our hearts cry out all of our lives, "I deserve to be loved!"  However, once we begin to be loved well, our hearts despair, "I don't deserve this love!"  In that is the beginning of our true identity, a noble and good fear and a realization of the power and nature of a Pure Love.  We begin to realize that the reasons we feel like we don't deserve the goodness are unfounded and the reasons we feel like we do deserve it are not what we once thought.  It's not about us.  God is Love and we get access to his love because of who he is, not because of who we are.  And better yet, the who we are doesn't count against us.

Pure Love is an unyielding Light and will not tolerate darkness.  If we have things we wish to remain hidden, Love can become an interrogation.  But once we accept our identity of a Child of God, the light no longer burns, but instead gives life.  This is the beginning of True Love, his Love that fuels all other good love.

Garden.

The dust doesn't stop attacking your senses.
Dry, irritating to the skin and it is metallic on your tongue.
The soil  has become a fine powder and sterile
Set down the hoe and reach for a clump of dirt.
Touch sets it off and it explodes in to more fine powder.
Eyes burn,
But there are no more tears left.
Look to the open field and wonder if anything will grow again.

Eyes closed, I imagine green.
I hear her giggle.
I hear our secret language as we play in the green.
It's a Garden Green in my mind, that Garden.
It's a richness in the soil.
It's activity in the moisture, 
You can hear the growing.
You can smell the fertility.
It seemed that anything we planted would grow.
We planted ABC's and she read.
We planted music and she sang.
We planted love and she loved.
Tending to her then was easy.

But you can't tend garden forever.
Eventually, it must learn how to sustain itself.
The weeds come in quickly.
Purpose is pushed aside quickly.
Good fruit is forgotten in favor of 
Pretty things,
Smelly things, 
Woozy things,
Potent things.
Bad fruit becomes the only crop that grows.

Many gardeners come in to help:
Hoeing,
Weeding,
Coaxing,
Watering.
Frustration.  The weeds are fierce and deep rooted.
The garden has been re-purposed.
The gardeners mill about, keeping busy
Vacillating between denial, surrender and shear efforts of will.

Before long, even bad fruit won't grow.
The soil begins to waste away.
You are the last gardener.
You remain, because when you close your eyes,
You can still hear and feel and smell 
That garden.  
Is it delusion, denial or hope?

Only one Gardener now that can do anything.
Will she call for him?
Will it be too late when she does?
He is ready, waiting, patient.
He is a tender gardener.
He has good seed.
But he will not allow anything to grow,
That does not belong in this garden.  
I wait for him.
I wait for her.
I close my eyes again to see that Eden Green.
I feel his hand move mine.
I feel his heart move mine.
I feel his hope move mine.
This garden will grow again.
It is his garden.
It always has been.


Hosea 2: “In that day I will respond,”
    declares the Lord—
“I will respond to the skies,
    and they will respond to the earth;
22 and the earth will respond to the grain,
    the new wine and the olive oil,
    and they will respond to Jezreel.[h]
23 I will plant her for myself in the land;
    I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.[i]’
I will say to those called ‘Not my people,[j]’ ‘You are my people’;
    and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”

Everybody's working for the weekend.

"I've worked so hard and given up so much...I deserve this!"

Our family was watching a popular drama on Netflix recently.  In the episode we watched a young girl, experiencing her first year of college, was defending her string of casual sexual encounters aided by heavy drinking.  She described her time in high school and how hard she studied and how she gave up so much by being good.  It is interesting how we frame reward and what we consider a burden.  I am far past my college years and my oldest daughter is nearing hers.  I can't remember what I thought I "deserved" when I was in college, but I'm certain that my views of work and sacrifice and goodness needed some redirecting.  And what my daughters view as a reward will dramatically affect how they work and what they work for and what they hold as good.  

The way the girl in the episode explained things it made it seem as if there was no question that drunkenness and promiscuity was a just reward for years of hard work.  I can't quite put my finger on why in my 20's this would have made so much sense and now it seems so empty.  And let me be clear, I'm not going Puritan and railing against the evils of sex and spirit.  That is not what this is about.  What I'm trying to express is how sad it is that we hope in so little and turn work into burden.  

I have a friend who has devoted much of her young life to inspiring others and motivating those around her to take action and be active for the joy of the act itself, with the reward of fitness and good health being a by-product of the pursuit of an inspired life.  She posted the following in response to quick-fix weight loss ads, "Weight loss services that market "no exercise required" are actually a great example of a true disservice."  I think the sentiment she expresses touches on the same fallacy that struck me.  It seems like we are missing the point.  We are missing the goodness.
   
It's no revelation that our society praises the shallow and the individual above all else.  Our identity in our own image seems to drive all of our efforts.  I'll spare you the examples in popular culture.  We are willing to work, we are willing to sacrifice, but the things we end up working for seem to fall so short of any kind of worthiness.  The young girl from the TV show works and sacrifices and is "good" but that goodness isn't tied to anything she truly values. In the end, she and the rest of us give up on our own efforts and indulge in that which we have built up as a just reward.  The Party is fun in the short term, but never lasts and is never enough.  The emptiness that ensues is in fact our just reward.  It is the price paid for missing the point in a cosmic way.  Our image, our worth is supposed to be tied to He who made us.  If we understand where we derive our value, that changes our view of what is worthy of our work and what we should hope for as a reward.  We are not saved by our "works", but if we are saved we will work.

Galatians 5 tells us what seeking our own desires of the flesh yields us

19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

And as I think of the quote that began this post, I think of the Parable of the Lost Son.  In that parable, there are two sons.  One goes off and seeks pleasure, rejecting his father in doing so.  The older son stays with the father and remains loyal to his father.  But both sons fail to behold what is the proper and worthy reward.  The younger son takes his inheritance and squanders it.  The older son remains, but still seeks that inheritance.  Both miss the point.  The older says, "I've worked so hard!"  The younger says, "I deserve this!"  Better than the riches of the inheritance is simply to be with their father, in his home and in his care.  

You are worth much more than you know dear friend.  Don't be so short sighted as to focus on the immediate needs of your flesh or what the world tells you you deserve.  For the creator of all made you in his image and gave himself that you might live.  What we deserve is death, but what we get is life.  What we get is Jesus.  He says we are worth something and was willing to lay down his life to retrieve us.  God is good.  Work is good.  But there is no amount of work that can earn his goodness.  Instead he gives it freely.  And in accepting that goodness, it inspires us to work.  We find our worth in what he has declared, not in what we declare for ourselves.  Once in his will, once seeking his kingdom, we find peace and real fruit from our efforts.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Invitation to Doubt

A friend is struggling with Doubt. Doubt that God exists or if he does exist, wondering is he really good? These doubts are coming after a sustained period of growth and healing in Christ. Part of the pain of Doubt is the pile of why's that it generates. But that's part of the Beauty of Doubt as well. Doubt is an invitation to explore your Faith.

As we grow in our Faith, Christ provides for us exactly what we need for the time we need it. There is only so much we can take in our first stages of spiritual maturity. Paul hints at this here.

Corinthians 3:2
Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.

When someone is learning and healing and growing in Christ it is because they are getting what they need from the people around them, being gently led by the spirit and being fed by the simple milk that is good for an infant. However, as we grow, that milk once enough to provide everything is not enough. The world is a complex place and as we try to apply the truth we have learned as a child to more difficult situations we find that it is not satisfying as it once was. The pain and broken-ness of the world drains the hope that once fueled our growth. All of the sudden the simple answers of Jesus fall short. We begin to question, even blame him for being deceived. What's harder to see is that we have stopped growing. We got a little bit of Jesus and decided we knew everything about him and now we are mad because the version of Jesus that we knew is now not working. It's not because he is not enough, it's because our understanding. 1 + 1 will always be 2. And when we are doing addition and subtraction, this is enough. However, when multiplication is thrust upon us the simplicity of addition is useless and worse yet, it can feel like a lie. It's also like this: We are in the dark, we get a flashlight. This flashlight is our first glimpse of who Jesus is. As a new/growing Christian we are really excited because we can see. We see everything differently! After a while that flashlight proves inadequate for living. And instead of trying to increase our light we get mad at the flashlight. We get mad that God made us so that we can't see in the dark! We feel betrayed, angry and foolish. From there we begin to doubt.

Skepticism, at it's core, is a desire for light brought on by a distrust of the dark. Someone who is very skeptical has had experience with false or poor lighting. At that point it can be hard to trust the validity of any light. This skepticism, this transition into doubt can be good and glorious thing. In a very real way, our journey into doubt is God's invitation to receive more light. The hard part is that we have to lay our little flashlight down. That can be scary, because even though this flashlight, this comfortable belief system is now proving to be not enough, we still love it and are nostalgic for it. It's done a lot for us. This is real loss and that can make us angry. That can fuel our doubt even more. We love the comforts of our innocence. Our blanket that we used as a child no longer covers us now, but we still hold that tiny blanket, breath it in and remember when things were simpler, when we were safer and when we first believed.

Real growth in Christ has no safety net. We must come to the realization that we don't know everything about Jesus. If we can come to terms with that, it can urge us forward. We must say, "I don't know Jesus like I thought I did," which is a loss and a conviction "but oh my God, it's possible to learn more!". Indeed, it's possible to go on learning about our infinite Jesus every day of our lives. That is exhilarating. It's also exhausting. The only way we have a shot at doing this is in God's power. And, well, that's hard too. We want it to be our work, our flashlight, we want him to help us, but we seldom want him to rule us.

So our doubt bids us to give up on our flashlight. Maybe we try some night vision goggles or learn how to feel our way around using sonar. We become proud of ourselves and our ingenuity. Maybe we don't need Jesus. Maybe that flashlight we had was an illusion and didn't really help us at all. The world is just dark and the sooner I get used to that the happier I will be. But there is a place in our Doubt when clever answers aren't enough either. We begin to crave the light and ache for day break. In this tender and special time, Jesus allows us the time to push and question that we might wrestle and shrug off the scales that were blinding our eyes or hindering our vision. Still in the dark, craving the light, we yield again to him in repentance. In that moment, brighter than the sun, Christ reveals the glory of his love. While Jesus is always Jesus, we are always limited in our ability to receive him. But coming through the other side of this doubt we will have found our systems upgraded, our flashlight a bit brighter and a bit more useful and perhaps even our ability to see in the dark is a bit better. More and more we will realize that when we truly look for him, we will always see the light. If we are looking for answers apart from him, our vision will always be inadequate.

Corinthians 13
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

The Lord's Prayer.

Matthew 6:  5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Like most things in my spiritual life, what I once thought was simple I now find a depth that seems endless.  Concepts like “Do unto others…” or “Judge not, lest you be judged…” seem practical and workable on the surface.  We think them, we acknowledge their wisdom, but we dare not put them into practice.  But as we mature, we do make sincere efforts to do these things and in those efforts we find a patient, but firm savior who will show us the depth of his character and teaching and love, through surrender and dependency and grace.  The Lord’s Prayer is something that seems simple and practical on the surface, but like the Bible itself, this prayer meets you where you are, yet bids you to keep calling and to explore all that is there.  

I revisit the prayer often and have found myself pausing at every point to really consider what is there.  These pauses often yield prayers of their own, giving moments of conviction, gratitude, forgiveness and worship.  I thought I would explore some more these pauses.

9 “This, then, is how you should pray:

Our Father.  It’s a simple question my pastor posed years ago, “Who/what do you picture when you picture God?”  What you picture may give some insight on how you think about God.  Is he a Lion?  Is he a Lamb?  Is he a killjoy who wants you to feel guilty?  Is he a hippie?  This is a great place to start.  Most often, when I pray “Our Father” I don’t have a clear image, just a sense of someone there.  Like when your eyes are closed, but you can feel someone else enter the room.  Then I explored my more conscious thoughts of who God/Jesus is.  I tried to think of the most inviting Father figure I could.  I flipped in my mind through 70’s movies about Jesus and the Bible, old fake beards: white guy, big blue Paul Newman eyes.  Paul Newman, that’s pretty good, except I don’t think of him as a Father.  I then flipped to The Lion, Aslan from Narnia: loving, yet powerful and frightening.  Then I thought of my own Dad.  My Dad certainly would be a good choice, except my love and admiration for my Dad has so much to do with surrender to Jesus.  My Dad is like a work of art produced by Jesus himself (actually, that is exactly what he is).  Christ’s power made perfect in my father’s weakness.  Feeling bad about the blue-eyed white Jesus thing, I also thought of my sister’s ex Father in Law, Earl.  I think because he is terrific, but he is also Jewish, seemed more authentic.  Then I thought of my nephew Brandon.  He is a giant beast of a man.  His wrist bones are massive, the radial and ulna made of two lead pipes.  He is well over ten feet tall with multi colored hair and a ridiculous beard.  He came to mind because of the way children run to him and climb him as if he were a jungle gym.  He hurls them effortlessly as they cackle, the power and the ease are compelling. Conceptually I also think of the ocean, it’s power and invitation.  The ocean is terrifying and endless.  I then asked my brother in law what he thought of and among the things he said was “Light.”  Of course I thought, but then wondered why I didn’t think of Light.  I know the answer and it just points out again the depths of things we have yet to discover about ourselves and our King.    Somewhere in all of this is my image of Our Father.

Who art in Heaven.  Biding, watching, waiting, at peace, dwelling in perfection because that is who he is.  He is at work, reconciling.  Not detached, just patient.  He is Heaven because we cannot be with him yet.  And not just because we are still alive, but because the stain of sin.  It has been paid for, but not yet removed.  Someday...

Hallowed be thy name.  Hallowed.  What is hallowed?  I tried to think of something that all would recognize as hallowed.  Historical places like the remnants of the Temple in Jerusalem are certainly hallowed, but also contested and incomplete.  National monuments came to mind, yet they all became tainted in my mind.  The White House is too political.  The Washington Monument, too borrowed from the ancient.  Veteran’s Memorials have more of the reverence needed for Hallowed. Hallowed Ground like Gettysburg.  The tomb of the Unknown Soldier gets close to Hallowed:  Honored, revered, mysterious, breath-taking, emotional. These memorials also hint at a great price paid in life and blood. Hallowed.  

Thy Kingdom Come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.  This time of year especially, I equate Heaven on Earth as Spring.  The coming of spring, is the renewing of all things.  It is a promise, it is redemption.  It sparks the recognition of the miraculous.  Unbelievable beauty and unexplainable diversity of life.  Resurrection.  On Earth (in these fleeting moments) as it is in Heaven (and shall one day be here again).  The beauty we have on earth are true glimpses of how it will be when Heaven and Earth are one, which is his will.

Give us this day, our daily bread.  So explicit and intentionally so, we should only expect to receive only enough for today.  Manna, for today.  And there will be enough, so don’t try to accumulate more than the day has given.  When I pack my lunch, I only pack today’s lunch, because if I try to look too far ahead, it may be spoiled.  Or it may not be what I need at the time.

Forgive us, as we forgive.  A garden hose.  Grace is the water and the supply is endless.  When we stop the flow, maybe because we can’t bare to think of the cost or because we want it all for ourselves, we stop it for ourselves.  When we give freely, opening the stream wide to all the undeserving people around us, more Grace comes.    

Annie J. Flint

• He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,
• He sendeth more strength as our labors increase;
• To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,
• To multiplied trials He multiplies peace.
• When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
• When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
• When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
• Our Father’s full giving is only begun.
• Fear not that thy need shall exceed His provision,
• Our God ever yearns His resources to share;
• Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing;
• The Father both thee and thy load will upbear.
• His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,
• His power no boundary known unto men;
• For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
• He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.

Lead us not, into temptation.  Don’t lead us to temptation.  Lead us away from temptation.  This can be confusing and I can’t say that I have my head wrapped around this section.  If he is in Heaven, then he is not yet here and that means that temptation is a reality.  It is a reality of the fall, yet if we seek him, seek the kingdom first, then by very nature we will be led away from temptation.  

But deliver us from Evil.  I think this is an interesting distinction between temptation and Evil.  Lead us not, into temptation hints at the use of our will.  We can be lead either into temptation or not.  Once we have given our will to temptation, Evil has rights to us.  Evil, or the Evil one, hunts us and prowls at our door, waiting for us to give him permission.  Temptation is the water we swim in, Satan is the predator waiting to consume us.  The Grace of King Jesus is that he is waiting to rescue us and no matter the depths of the temptation or evil we have given in to, he will always deliver us if we call on him.  No depth is too deep.

For thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory Forever.  Words fall short.

Revelation 21.Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”[a] for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’[b] or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.

This prayer has everything.  Similar to Genesis, the prayer begins with the beginning himself.  In the beginning, GOD, Our Father.  Quickly, the prayer establishes His place in Heaven.  It tells us that things will be made right, that we will be provided for, what we are to do in forgiveness, that we will face temptation, but will also be delivered, and ends with the END, which brings us Hope.

 

Cannonball.

My heart, a cannonball,
Strong, hard, unyielding.
It disguises itself as a form of protection,
Yet is meant for one thing: Destruction.

My heart, a broken vessel,
The same sphere, yet cracked in half, clean in two.
Hollow and the two pieces fall at rest, open towards the sky.
Helpless and waiting to receive,
Yet meant for one thing: Service.

My heart, not my own,
In my possession yet better understood by Satan
Than by myself.
Though in my grasp,
Though influenced by this world, 
It was created by King Jesus. 
No matter how hard or broken, 
It belongs to him.  
No matter the condition, 
He will never fail to receive it.
My heart is meant for one thing: Surrender.
Surrender is meant for Salvation...and Salvation belongs to the Lord. 

Jeremiah 17

This is what the Lord says:

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
    who draws strength from mere flesh
    and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
6 That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;
    they will not see prosperity when it comes.
They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
    in a salt land where no one lives.

7 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
    whose confidence is in him.
8 They will be like a tree planted by the water
    that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
    its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
    and never fails to bear fruit.”

9 The heart is deceitful above all things
    and beyond cure.
    Who can understand it?

10 “I the Lord search the heart
    and examine the mind,
to reward each person according to their conduct,
    according to what their deeds deserve.”

11 Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay
    are those who gain riches by unjust means.
When their lives are half gone, their riches will desert them,
    and in the end they will prove to be fools.

12 A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning,
    is the place of our sanctuary.
13 Lord, you are the hope of Israel;
    all who forsake you will be put to shame.
Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust
    because they have forsaken the Lord,
    the spring of living water.

14 Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed;
    save me and I will be saved,
    for you are the one I praise.