"God has spoken once, twice I have heard: That power belongs to God. Also to You, O Lord, belongs mercy; for You render to each one according to his work." Psalm 62:11
Though I didn't state it specifically in the last post nor in the old journal, the roots of this verse grew down into the soil of me after that first day of reflecting on it. The context of what gets heard twice: things of power, and mercy or as some translations put it, lovingkindness--these burrowed down inside me.
July 14 + 15
Oswald Chambers quote from June 19th entry (I know, I'm behind): "Our Lord's first obedience was to the will of His father, not to the needs of men. The saving of men was the natural outcome of His obedience to the Father." This is a big point for me. As God continues to grow me in prophetic things, I realize any growth I make depends on who I choose to serve with it all. I must speak because God wants something said, not because people 'need' to hear something. They need to hear it, absolutely; but that can't be what motivates me. Otherwise, my service to God with it becomes a divided thing.
Now I'm looking back at Mark 8 and 9. Overview of the disciples' walk into power and authority and their motivations. After they were given intimate knowledge of His power, He shared it with them, along with authority in His kind. Then He sent them out. They had to go out in faith and take virtually nothing with them, and so they went forth in the same manner He did. Not long after, Peter confesses Jesus the Christ, thus by leaving His Lord's feet, His shadow and walking out to operate in that authority did not "slow down" his growth or knowledge of his Lord. The assignment made them participants and thus companions rather than just an audience to His authority.
Because they were ready for greater spiritual revelation, He began to speak of His upcoming suffering and death, but they for their part began to quibble over who among them was the greatest. First danger in believing you have a little power and authority: comparing yourself to others who walk with a little power and authority, too. Self-absorption and attention to personal rank squelched their authority over demons. This time when Jesus was not present (He was off experiencing the Transfiguration with a core group of the disciples) they did not have the power to cast the demon out. Again, putting the focus on personal power,rank and knowledge in their group hierarchy made them too much like the devil to afford any authority over the devil. (Did being left behind while Jesus took a select few off on a special mission leave them feeling weak and insignificant and thus without authority?)
The same attitude showed up when they assumed they should stop the work of someone who was not chosen to be in the 12-disciple entourage but who was nevertheless successfully casting out demons using the power of Christ's name.
You can hear their thoughts: "He can't be doing it right; he's not been here to learn the right way, like we have."
But Jesus said, "Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in
my name, that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is on our part." (9:39-40)
Then, there is more about this exercise of power: when it was time to go to Jerusalem, a group went to prepare a 'waystop' in a Samaritan village, but the village didn't want to be a way stop. Two that were at the Transfiguration asked if Jesus wanted them to call down fire to burn up the village, like Elijah did in days of old. Power-drunk themselves now, they perceived how great was the power He'd bestowed upon them, which was good; but they wanted to use it against His purposes, which was bad.
They should have realized that this rejection He was experiencing was itself a thing prophetic given to prepare Him and to offer Him a first-response opportunity. This rejection was as a doorway into a larger rejection that was coming on its heels, one that would encompass more than just the inhabitants of a single village. He saw the larger meaning, and knew it needed a gracious finish--especially seeing what it foreshadowed. No fire was called down that day.
Bottom line: Jesus warns us not to get too hyper-active about our authority here, about our power over demons. Don't fix your rejoicing on these, He says; rather, rejoice that your names are in the book of life.
As I read back over this, I realize how much my relationship with Him really has grown in its childlike stature over the years.
I don't fear the things I used to fear.
I don't strain over the things that used to seem a strain.
"Whoever does not enter the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it," says Jesus in Mark 10:15, and I think about how a child enters a place he really wants to go:
He doesn't do a quick self-check in the hallway mirror first.
He doesn't look to see who else is entering before, after or with him.
He doesn't put all his attention on herding others along, nor does he wait to be herded.
He simply doesn't take time for the likes of these.
What he does do?
He bounds.
He squeals if no one stops him.
He looks everywhere at once.
He owns the place in his eyes and in his voice and in his racing pulse.
That's how he enters.
That's how I want to enter, too.
Monday, June 25, 2012
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Twice Heard
Over the rest of that summer, I continued musing on this "wheel" idea as I called it, this looping, this sphere that grew from wheel within wheel, I began to see where scripture told the same "story" again and again. I searched and found places where not only a Great Truth cycled through story after story, but where this wheel concept's form took shape itself through scripture. Dribbles of these ideas continued to melt across the pages for a long time.
July 7, 2005
Thank God, Jesus didn't choose to close the loop He was on at the Transfiguration, but endured to the Ascension!
Psalm 62:11 says "God has spoken once, twice I have heard: That power belongs to God. Also to You, O Lord, belongs mercy; for You render to each one according to his work." Here again is the idea of repetition, of echo, in another metaphor besides the turning of a wheel. Proverbs 16:5 says, "Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established." But the word commit most literally translates as roll. Roll your works onto the Lord. Here is that wheel of the spirit again.
Interestingly, Psalm 62 was in my Bible reading this very morning, so I can observe most literally how my reflections 7 years ago compare to those today. Today, my thoughts were more on other parts of that Psalm. I did not need that laser focus on the one idea, for I've long since internalized that God speaks first, and we hear it echo again and again through the halls of humanity. I've long since learned the value of recognizing what "wheel well" we're spinning along inside at any particular time--both as individuals and as societies. Because of this more seasoned knowing, I'm more attuned to the beautiful reassurances that precede that talk of twice hearing. Knowing that there are those forces out there--both hovering in the invisible realm and spurring on the hearts of men--who would set each divinely ordained wheel off its course, send it out of sync with its finish line, these other verses are strong comfort. This is especially true when the sense of rolling our works onto God leaves us feeling utterly alone, and the enigma becomes to those around us as a hat on our very heads. For these times, Psalm 62 thrums along until it reaches the talk of hearing God's Words and then hearing those same words again.
"For God alone my soul in silence waits...How long will you assail me, to crush me, all of you together, as if you were a leaning fence, a toppling wall? They seek only to bring me down from my place of honor, lies are their chief delight. They bless with their lips, but in their hearts they curse. For God alone my soul in silence waits; truly my hope is in Him."
As I muse on this idea of the same words rolling around for a second hearing, I think I understand a little better why talk of them is placed right after this diatribe on those who would knock down one God has chosen to honor. I think of how His words often come at first as an enigma, and so we are vulnerable to attack from those who would make "lies their chief delight." When Christ first told us to eat his flesh and drink his blood, many of the disciples responded, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" Indeed, His words often are an enigma because they are words of spirit, and we are creatures who most easily hear them with our flesh, making the physical reality our first point of interpretation.
His answer to this? "It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you that do not believe." (John 6:60~65.)
The wheel of the spirit begins to roll a new direction, and its course seems unreliable and out of character to what we've already learned and seen on the map. We are left with one choice: do we first and foremost trust the voice that said the words?
"Jesus said to the twelve, 'Do you also wish to go away?' Simon Peter answered him, ' Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.' " (vs. 76-69.)
The wheel rolls on its axis and meets the ground again and suddenly when we realize we are experiencing a day of echo, we discove rour confusion subsides, somewhere our believing became knowing; and that which at first seemed so illogical turns-seemingly in an instant-to become the surest course, the best option and how did we not see it before?
So the wheel continues to roll...
July 7, 2005
Thank God, Jesus didn't choose to close the loop He was on at the Transfiguration, but endured to the Ascension!
Psalm 62:11 says "God has spoken once, twice I have heard: That power belongs to God. Also to You, O Lord, belongs mercy; for You render to each one according to his work." Here again is the idea of repetition, of echo, in another metaphor besides the turning of a wheel. Proverbs 16:5 says, "Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established." But the word commit most literally translates as roll. Roll your works onto the Lord. Here is that wheel of the spirit again.
Interestingly, Psalm 62 was in my Bible reading this very morning, so I can observe most literally how my reflections 7 years ago compare to those today. Today, my thoughts were more on other parts of that Psalm. I did not need that laser focus on the one idea, for I've long since internalized that God speaks first, and we hear it echo again and again through the halls of humanity. I've long since learned the value of recognizing what "wheel well" we're spinning along inside at any particular time--both as individuals and as societies. Because of this more seasoned knowing, I'm more attuned to the beautiful reassurances that precede that talk of twice hearing. Knowing that there are those forces out there--both hovering in the invisible realm and spurring on the hearts of men--who would set each divinely ordained wheel off its course, send it out of sync with its finish line, these other verses are strong comfort. This is especially true when the sense of rolling our works onto God leaves us feeling utterly alone, and the enigma becomes to those around us as a hat on our very heads. For these times, Psalm 62 thrums along until it reaches the talk of hearing God's Words and then hearing those same words again.
"For God alone my soul in silence waits...How long will you assail me, to crush me, all of you together, as if you were a leaning fence, a toppling wall? They seek only to bring me down from my place of honor, lies are their chief delight. They bless with their lips, but in their hearts they curse. For God alone my soul in silence waits; truly my hope is in Him."
As I muse on this idea of the same words rolling around for a second hearing, I think I understand a little better why talk of them is placed right after this diatribe on those who would knock down one God has chosen to honor. I think of how His words often come at first as an enigma, and so we are vulnerable to attack from those who would make "lies their chief delight." When Christ first told us to eat his flesh and drink his blood, many of the disciples responded, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" Indeed, His words often are an enigma because they are words of spirit, and we are creatures who most easily hear them with our flesh, making the physical reality our first point of interpretation.
His answer to this? "It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you that do not believe." (John 6:60~65.)
The wheel of the spirit begins to roll a new direction, and its course seems unreliable and out of character to what we've already learned and seen on the map. We are left with one choice: do we first and foremost trust the voice that said the words?
"Jesus said to the twelve, 'Do you also wish to go away?' Simon Peter answered him, ' Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.' " (vs. 76-69.)
The wheel rolls on its axis and meets the ground again and suddenly when we realize we are experiencing a day of echo, we discove rour confusion subsides, somewhere our believing became knowing; and that which at first seemed so illogical turns-seemingly in an instant-to become the surest course, the best option and how did we not see it before?
So the wheel continues to roll...
Friday, June 15, 2012
Glory Be!
Every time you feel in God's creatures something pleasing
and attractive, do not let your attention be arrested by them alone,
but, passing them by, transfer your thought to God and say:
"O my God, if Thy creations are so full of beauty,
delight and joy, how infinitely more full of beauty,
delight and joy are Thou Thyself, Creator of all!
--Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain
Indeed, if we consider the
--C.S. Lewis in The Weight of Glory
Temptation is not static. You do not reach a point at which you have "faced them all and are done with that." On some deep level, I think I believed just that, though; I believed it before the days of dreams and visions and transcendent seeing.
It took a bit of pain and suffering for me to learn that temptation climbs the mountain of God right along with you. Whereas, the temptations of the valley went by common enough names, the ones shouted by the preacher as he pounded the pulpit and then paused to let you reflect while he wiped his brow with his back-pocket hanky; later temptations--mountain climbing temptations--were more subtle and less frequently addressed in the average day.
The more you see the thrum of life, of God in all things, the more tempting it is to worship too broadly. The more tempting it is to abort what is meant to be timeless with your desire to clutch it to your now. Temptation to disrespect the seasoning time of Covenant. It is a thing rarely addressed in our prophet-less society, and so a prophet learns it from God, much as did Abraham and Sarah...slowly, with a stumble here and there...but a prophet learns it nonetheless. I began reading The Weight of Glory at just the right time in all that.
Instead of giving a look at the old journal in today's post, I'll give you the text of the sermon that started (about that time) to have a profound influence on my understanding-albeit stuttering at first--of this prophetic view of life I felt invited to walk. May it bless you as much as it continues to bless me.
and attractive, do not let your attention be arrested by them alone,
but, passing them by, transfer your thought to God and say:
"O my God, if Thy creations are so full of beauty,
delight and joy, how infinitely more full of beauty,
delight and joy are Thou Thyself, Creator of all!
--Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain
Indeed, if we consider the
unblushing promises of reward and the
staggering nature of the rewards promised
in the Gospels, it would seem that Our
Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but
too weak. We are half-hearted creatures,
fooling about with drink and sex and
ambition when infinite joy is offered us,
like an ignorant child who wants to go on
making mud pies in a slum because he
cannot imagine what is meant by the offer
of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily
pleased.--C.S. Lewis in The Weight of Glory
Temptation is not static. You do not reach a point at which you have "faced them all and are done with that." On some deep level, I think I believed just that, though; I believed it before the days of dreams and visions and transcendent seeing.
It took a bit of pain and suffering for me to learn that temptation climbs the mountain of God right along with you. Whereas, the temptations of the valley went by common enough names, the ones shouted by the preacher as he pounded the pulpit and then paused to let you reflect while he wiped his brow with his back-pocket hanky; later temptations--mountain climbing temptations--were more subtle and less frequently addressed in the average day.
The more you see the thrum of life, of God in all things, the more tempting it is to worship too broadly. The more tempting it is to abort what is meant to be timeless with your desire to clutch it to your now. Temptation to disrespect the seasoning time of Covenant. It is a thing rarely addressed in our prophet-less society, and so a prophet learns it from God, much as did Abraham and Sarah...slowly, with a stumble here and there...but a prophet learns it nonetheless. I began reading The Weight of Glory at just the right time in all that.
Instead of giving a look at the old journal in today's post, I'll give you the text of the sermon that started (about that time) to have a profound influence on my understanding-albeit stuttering at first--of this prophetic view of life I felt invited to walk. May it bless you as much as it continues to bless me.
Saturday, June 9, 2012
What's Showing?
In these days, I was only beginning to see where God worked anonymously--planting deep subconscious spinning spheres in the most unlikely places. I began to see where all things had their way of pointing back to their Creator and the Originator of their Essence. It was a thing that would wax and wane at various times, but that would always fascinate me!
July 4, 2005
More and more the idea of the "wheel" of life, of life loops, of prophetic repetition seems to rise to the forefront. Yesterday, I was reading about the Transfiguration being the start of a "loop" that was completed at the Ascension. I thought on these looping systems some yesterday--seeing Abraham and Isaac being a loop that closed with God the Father and Jesus Christ; Judas and Peter starting the loops of the Apostate and True Church that will someday also close; the Hebrews starting in tents, going to Egypt where they were enslaved and then being rescued by God as He takes the "fight for freedom" onto Himself, this being a big loop rolling and shuddering through the span of the Age of Man.
Eden, too, started the rotation of a wheel. It will come around to "meet the ground" in its same spot again when the new heaven and new earth are in place. I'm thinking it's not so much about God kicking us out from there that we should think on, but of God kicking us forward to a place of which Eden only whispered. It was a starting of a wheel turning more than a screeching, braking stop of one. Eden--not a thing of permanence, but a foretaste implanted into the eternal DNA of man to spark a longing that would keep us on the wheel no matter what.
then I find Ezekiel 1 talks of these wheels and how they serve God.
15 Now as I looked at the living creatures, behold, a wheel was on the earth beside each living creature with its four faces. 16 The appearance of the wheels and their workings was like the color of beryl, and all four had the same likeness. The appearance of their workings was, as it were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel. 17 When they moved, they went toward any one of four directions; they did not turn aside when they went. 18 As for their rims, they were so high they were awesome; and their rims were full of eyes, all around the four of them. 19 When the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. 20 Wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went, because there the spirit went; and the wheels were lifted together with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. 21 When those went, these went; when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up together with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.
I think about modern sci-fi movies and the pseudo-science behind their imagery: in Contact, the "wheel within a wheel" that is the device that takes a person across the universe, in Paycheck, the idea of a lens powerful enough to see around the wheel of the universe to see the future...how much are such things based on real science? Are we finally beginning to understand Ezekiel's wheels intellectually? Although in Ezekiel's world, they did not represent impersonal time and space but Spirit. And if this "wheel within a wheel" concept relates to the transport of God, what does it mean, the fact that man is beginning to adress it again?
Since the time I wrote this entry, another movie came out: 2012 which was even more specific in its reference to Ezekiel 1, with its imagery partrayed as a thing that could visit reality. While such movies are fantastic and wild, entertaining even, they do serve a mysterious purpose. They serve in the place of the modern parables--as much as many will ever see. I hope Man watches well...
July 4, 2005
More and more the idea of the "wheel" of life, of life loops, of prophetic repetition seems to rise to the forefront. Yesterday, I was reading about the Transfiguration being the start of a "loop" that was completed at the Ascension. I thought on these looping systems some yesterday--seeing Abraham and Isaac being a loop that closed with God the Father and Jesus Christ; Judas and Peter starting the loops of the Apostate and True Church that will someday also close; the Hebrews starting in tents, going to Egypt where they were enslaved and then being rescued by God as He takes the "fight for freedom" onto Himself, this being a big loop rolling and shuddering through the span of the Age of Man.
Eden, too, started the rotation of a wheel. It will come around to "meet the ground" in its same spot again when the new heaven and new earth are in place. I'm thinking it's not so much about God kicking us out from there that we should think on, but of God kicking us forward to a place of which Eden only whispered. It was a starting of a wheel turning more than a screeching, braking stop of one. Eden--not a thing of permanence, but a foretaste implanted into the eternal DNA of man to spark a longing that would keep us on the wheel no matter what.
then I find Ezekiel 1 talks of these wheels and how they serve God.
15 Now as I looked at the living creatures, behold, a wheel was on the earth beside each living creature with its four faces. 16 The appearance of the wheels and their workings was like the color of beryl, and all four had the same likeness. The appearance of their workings was, as it were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel. 17 When they moved, they went toward any one of four directions; they did not turn aside when they went. 18 As for their rims, they were so high they were awesome; and their rims were full of eyes, all around the four of them. 19 When the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. 20 Wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went, because there the spirit went; and the wheels were lifted together with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. 21 When those went, these went; when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up together with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.
I think about modern sci-fi movies and the pseudo-science behind their imagery: in Contact, the "wheel within a wheel" that is the device that takes a person across the universe, in Paycheck, the idea of a lens powerful enough to see around the wheel of the universe to see the future...how much are such things based on real science? Are we finally beginning to understand Ezekiel's wheels intellectually? Although in Ezekiel's world, they did not represent impersonal time and space but Spirit. And if this "wheel within a wheel" concept relates to the transport of God, what does it mean, the fact that man is beginning to adress it again?
Since the time I wrote this entry, another movie came out: 2012 which was even more specific in its reference to Ezekiel 1, with its imagery partrayed as a thing that could visit reality. While such movies are fantastic and wild, entertaining even, they do serve a mysterious purpose. They serve in the place of the modern parables--as much as many will ever see. I hope Man watches well...
Thursday, June 7, 2012
On Walking in Independence
Whether I realized it at the time or not, my musings around Independence Day 2005 were very much related to the subject of independence. And...they are very pertinent to me now. Then I realized them theoretically, but now as I look back I realize these are the very things that are being measured in my life literally. May I continue to keep the faith!
I feel like I got a Word last night for a church where I'm attending. I find the wellspring for it in the Bible passage (got to find it again) that has God explaining to the Israelites that He will give them the Promised Land a little at a time, not all at once. If He'd given them the land all at once, the wild animals would have been too numerous, destroying the people. So they received it as they were able to receive it.
We to this day receive our portion of the Kingdom in this way, both as individuals and as churches. It is all ours, but we possess it and inhabit it a little at a time. This is not a bad thing. It is God's grace and His sovereignty.
When churches or individuals seek intimacy with God, that intimacy finds its reality in this place of "possessing land" much as these Hebrews knew it. God opens a gate and says, "I'd have you take this portion next." But, often it is tempting to want to settle. It would be easy to say, "But, God, that land out there is wild and uncertain and dangerous. This country You've already given into our hands is beautiful and certainly large enough to meet our needs. We're not greedy for more! Plus, we're safe here, why put us to such risk and send us to such a dangerous place?"
But that's the lie speaking. The irony. For the dangerous place is the one that seems safest--where you stand in the place most familiar. You know that place like you know what coin is in your own hand. (Remember the Case for Faith analogy referenced earlier?) Therefore, this place does not exercise your faith. Familiarity breeds complacency, and complacency breeds contempt, pride and weak faith in the very area where beforehand God gave you strength. So tempting to rest on the past.
On the other hand, going forward to subdue a land that still has you facing great enemies, ferocious lurking animals, and only then to turn your hand to break up a wild land for cultivation--what of this? Here is the greatest security, for when you come into this country, you come into a place that you do not know, so your walk hangs necessarily again on faith. You don't know your adequacy, nor that of your neighbor. You must find all your assurance in God alone. Humility is not an effort, it is natural existence. So...being in that place, going when He calls "It's time!" is recognizing His purposes to make your protection against the real dangers as natural as possible.
Many churches...many people...will not go, and so they begin to die. But if you go, you will receive the hope of a new revelation of the beauty of the kingdom. For once you possess that portion, it will be as beautiful a place as the one you possess now, which you willingly leave behind as God opens that gate to reveal New Country.
And do not scout that land based on the perceptions of your current strengths and powers. Let us rather be like Joshua and Caleb, who would take what God presented as long as it was God presenting it!
There may be new country to possess ahead of my little family. Very real new country! I am ever astounded at the timing of the prompts to come to this blog and this journal review.
Little miracles prove big miracles in their intimacy! Thank You for the guiding hand, O Lord!
I feel like I got a Word last night for a church where I'm attending. I find the wellspring for it in the Bible passage (got to find it again) that has God explaining to the Israelites that He will give them the Promised Land a little at a time, not all at once. If He'd given them the land all at once, the wild animals would have been too numerous, destroying the people. So they received it as they were able to receive it.
We to this day receive our portion of the Kingdom in this way, both as individuals and as churches. It is all ours, but we possess it and inhabit it a little at a time. This is not a bad thing. It is God's grace and His sovereignty.
When churches or individuals seek intimacy with God, that intimacy finds its reality in this place of "possessing land" much as these Hebrews knew it. God opens a gate and says, "I'd have you take this portion next." But, often it is tempting to want to settle. It would be easy to say, "But, God, that land out there is wild and uncertain and dangerous. This country You've already given into our hands is beautiful and certainly large enough to meet our needs. We're not greedy for more! Plus, we're safe here, why put us to such risk and send us to such a dangerous place?"
But that's the lie speaking. The irony. For the dangerous place is the one that seems safest--where you stand in the place most familiar. You know that place like you know what coin is in your own hand. (Remember the Case for Faith analogy referenced earlier?) Therefore, this place does not exercise your faith. Familiarity breeds complacency, and complacency breeds contempt, pride and weak faith in the very area where beforehand God gave you strength. So tempting to rest on the past.
On the other hand, going forward to subdue a land that still has you facing great enemies, ferocious lurking animals, and only then to turn your hand to break up a wild land for cultivation--what of this? Here is the greatest security, for when you come into this country, you come into a place that you do not know, so your walk hangs necessarily again on faith. You don't know your adequacy, nor that of your neighbor. You must find all your assurance in God alone. Humility is not an effort, it is natural existence. So...being in that place, going when He calls "It's time!" is recognizing His purposes to make your protection against the real dangers as natural as possible.
Many churches...many people...will not go, and so they begin to die. But if you go, you will receive the hope of a new revelation of the beauty of the kingdom. For once you possess that portion, it will be as beautiful a place as the one you possess now, which you willingly leave behind as God opens that gate to reveal New Country.
And do not scout that land based on the perceptions of your current strengths and powers. Let us rather be like Joshua and Caleb, who would take what God presented as long as it was God presenting it!
There may be new country to possess ahead of my little family. Very real new country! I am ever astounded at the timing of the prompts to come to this blog and this journal review.
Little miracles prove big miracles in their intimacy! Thank You for the guiding hand, O Lord!
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Unless You Change...
Life changes--like picking up a new job and having my husband away from home for many days--made my time rather harried for a week or two. I didn't post here, knowing I don't want to ever make a rush job of this blog. But now, things are setting down enough that I will try to resume. Ten Years in One may actually prove to be Ten Years in Two, but ah, well...
In the book, Heaven Is for Real, Todd Burpo scribes the story of his son's 3-minute visit to heaven while in surgery for a life-threatening burst appendix. As he, the father, wonders in awe of the things his son is telling him about that heaven trip, he thinks of Christ's words: "I tell you the truth. Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
June 29, 2005
True worship does not require a man-made church. In fact, sometimes it is at odds with church-as-property. Such talk receives a lot of shushing these days, but read the word of the Lord in Isaiah 66:
This is what the LORD says:
Who has ever seen anything as strange as this?
No; true worship does not need the man-made church, especially not one with puffed up leaders who will examine you fully but never themselves--as they should do first. And the rituals and sacrifices and traditions and heritage--these are not holy in and of themselves, in fact they can become as things most impure to the one they profess to honor if they are seen as stand-alone activity outside relationship with their Designer. True worship will be the shield between--between the loyal and the scoffers.
The commotion, the terrible noise says it begins.
Thy purifying hand.
[and on a note stuck loose in the journal] Nothing tells us of a turn in the action like the clatter of a dropped shield. [I do not know if it was an original thought or one I found somewhere.]
Not long after these words, I began to hear Him whisper of holy birth inside myself. Isaiah saw it in the personification of Jerusalem, but I saw it in my very womb. Deeply did I drink the words: Before the pains even begin...birth." And, "Who has ever seen anything as strange as this? Who ever heard such a thing?" Ahd so I did not tell. I had plenty or reasons not to tell. But if there is no telling, what identifies the scoffers? And if it is their time to be made plain, who will be bold enough to go? Only the one who bows to His timing. It is a difficult knowing.
And, I knew none of this back then, so, I kept the words and the visions treasured in my heart, and rarely spoke them even as the words of Isaiah fertilized a soul-garden patch secret even from me. Only to a few, only to those whose condemnation seemed least likely, would I speak. The child that was me hid in Lady Wisdom's skirts. But I sense a calling forth, a time to walk in a new level of maturity. I started this blog because of it.
Ironically, as I accept the challenge to greater maturity, I see the Child.
I wonder sometimes, what if I were that child pulled to stand before Christ to serve as example for those seeking wisdom? Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven...Could I stand there as example without saying, "O, no, Lord! Not me. There are others more worthy (meaning I expect one day to be worthy in and of myself.) There are others more pious (Although I expect my day will come here, too, if you're patient with me, Lord.) There are others better tempered for this (meaning I know myself better than You do.) There are others more humble (well, at least I hit that one purely on the mark.)
May I learn to stand graciously as example wherever my Lord should chose to draw me.
If my Lord finds me fitting, He'll get no arguments from me.
In the book, Heaven Is for Real, Todd Burpo scribes the story of his son's 3-minute visit to heaven while in surgery for a life-threatening burst appendix. As he, the father, wonders in awe of the things his son is telling him about that heaven trip, he thinks of Christ's words: "I tell you the truth. Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
"What is childlike humility? It's not the lack of intelligence, but the lack of guile. The lack of an agenda. It's that precious, fleeting time before we have accumulated enough pride or position to care what other people might think. The same unselfconscious honesty that enables a three-year-old to splash joyfully in a rain puddle, or tumble laughing in the grass with a puppy, or point out loudly that you have a booger hanging out of your nose, is what is required to enter heaven. It's the opposite of ignorance--it is intellectual honesty: to be willing to accept reality and to call things what they are even when it is hard." (p. 74-75.)
June 29, 2005
True worship does not require a man-made church. In fact, sometimes it is at odds with church-as-property. Such talk receives a lot of shushing these days, but read the word of the Lord in Isaiah 66:
This is what the LORD says:
“Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
Could you build me a temple as good as that?
Could you build me such a resting place?
My hands have made both heaven and earth;
they and everything in them are mine.
I, the LORD, have
spoken!
“I will bless those who have humble and contrite
hearts,
who tremble at my word.
But those who choose their own ways—
delighting in their detestable sins—
will not have their offerings accepted.
When such people sacrifice a bull,
it is no more acceptable than a human sacrifice.
When they sacrifice a lamb,
it’s as though they had sacrificed a dog!
When they bring an offering of grain,
they might as well offer the blood of a pig.
When they burn frankincense,
it’s as if they had blessed an idol.
I will send them great trouble—
all the things they feared.
For when I called, they did not answer.
When I spoke, they did not listen.
They deliberately sinned before my very eyes
and chose to do what they know I despise.”
Hear this message from the LORD,
all you who tremble at his words:
“Your own people hate you
and throw you out for being loyal to my name.
‘Let the LORD be honored!’ they
scoff.
‘Be joyful in him!’
But they will be put to shame.
What is all the commotion in the city?
What is that terrible noise from the Temple?
It is the voice of the LORD
taking vengeance against his enemies.
“Before the birth pains even begin,
Jerusalem gives birth to a son.
Who ever heard of such a thing?"
No; true worship does not need the man-made church, especially not one with puffed up leaders who will examine you fully but never themselves--as they should do first. And the rituals and sacrifices and traditions and heritage--these are not holy in and of themselves, in fact they can become as things most impure to the one they profess to honor if they are seen as stand-alone activity outside relationship with their Designer. True worship will be the shield between--between the loyal and the scoffers.
The commotion, the terrible noise says it begins.
Thy purifying hand.
[and on a note stuck loose in the journal] Nothing tells us of a turn in the action like the clatter of a dropped shield. [I do not know if it was an original thought or one I found somewhere.]
Not long after these words, I began to hear Him whisper of holy birth inside myself. Isaiah saw it in the personification of Jerusalem, but I saw it in my very womb. Deeply did I drink the words: Before the pains even begin...birth." And, "Who has ever seen anything as strange as this? Who ever heard such a thing?" Ahd so I did not tell. I had plenty or reasons not to tell. But if there is no telling, what identifies the scoffers? And if it is their time to be made plain, who will be bold enough to go? Only the one who bows to His timing. It is a difficult knowing.
And, I knew none of this back then, so, I kept the words and the visions treasured in my heart, and rarely spoke them even as the words of Isaiah fertilized a soul-garden patch secret even from me. Only to a few, only to those whose condemnation seemed least likely, would I speak. The child that was me hid in Lady Wisdom's skirts. But I sense a calling forth, a time to walk in a new level of maturity. I started this blog because of it.
Ironically, as I accept the challenge to greater maturity, I see the Child.
I wonder sometimes, what if I were that child pulled to stand before Christ to serve as example for those seeking wisdom? Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven...Could I stand there as example without saying, "O, no, Lord! Not me. There are others more worthy (meaning I expect one day to be worthy in and of myself.) There are others more pious (Although I expect my day will come here, too, if you're patient with me, Lord.) There are others better tempered for this (meaning I know myself better than You do.) There are others more humble (well, at least I hit that one purely on the mark.)
May I learn to stand graciously as example wherever my Lord should chose to draw me.
If my Lord finds me fitting, He'll get no arguments from me.
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