Let there be LIFE!!

He's Alive!

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbRPWUHM80M )

The End?

Isaiah 53

The depth of their dillusionment rivaled the darkness of that night

Baffled and bewildered, dispirited by despair

Hopelessness held sway over their hearts

As the Life and Love of a thousand days all too abruptly fell silent

Their would-be King called a criminal

This Man they called Messiah now mistaken for a fraud

The One on whom hung all their hopes now Himself hanging on a cross...

But what seemed like separation

Was Communion's highest call

This sublime suffering a sacred trust...

Heavy hearts make it hard to hear

The Father's call to faith

That He will have the final Word

That the Gift will not remain buried in grief...

"...That I may know Him...and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead."

-Phillipians 3:10-11

Convivial Contrast

Jesus wants intimates, not inmates. 

We see this truth proved out and personified in the lives of Jesus' loved ones, Mary and Martha.  Our first peek into their home reveals a jarring juxtapostion: 

         Martha, scrambling around, sweating over "Sunday dinner", setting the table, seeing to the guests...

         ...and Mary, seeing to Jesus.

Martha had allowed her focus to become diffused and diluted until Jesus was nothing more than another party guest in the periphery (how often do we allow this in our lives, or worse yet, in our churches?), while Mary was mesmerized by her Master, thoroughly enraptured, seeming to sense the sacred intimation of the moment, hanging on every word...

...For her, there was nothing but Jesus.

Jesus met Martha's aggravation at her sister's seemingly sedentary behaviour with affirmation of Mary's choice and an implied invitation for Martha to opt for the same singlemindedness her sibling had found.

Fast forward to another feast, also at the home of the two sisters, six days before the Passover, six days before Jesus' execution:

Martha is still serving, and again, Mary's uncanny sense of the sacred steals the show.  She knows somehow that time is short; devotion displaces decorum and protocol is pushed aside by passionate love for her Lord.  She produces a pound of pure nard, worth a year's wages, and pours out this, her most precious possesion, to Jesus.

Once again, Jesus chastises those present for chiding Mary, not wanting this moment between them diminished in any way by the pettiness of paltry objections.

In both scenarios, Martha offered service to Jesus, Mary offered herself.

Jesus didn't love Martha any less, He just wanted her to know the freedom Mary knew of loving Him more.

"One thing is needed"

-Luke 10:42

-Luke 10:38-42

-John 12:1-8

Storm

"Then the sea arose because a great wind was blowing.  When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near the boat; and they were afraid.  But He said to them, 'It is I; do not be afraid.'"

-John 6:18-20

Treading on the tempest

Eschewing the safety of shore

Surefooted strides

 Summoning the sea's submission...

Before she cries,

He comes

Embattled and beaten

she wages a fool's war

combatting the convulsions of the deep

wielding weakness against the wind and the waves

she pleads for Him to come...

Her entreaty sails over the surface of the squall

And falls on Heaven's ears

He traverses this terrain as terra firma

Supplanting the storm

Demanding deference,

"Peace!  Be Still!"

His arrival arrests the violence about her

His voice silences the vehement gale

The breakers bow at His behest

and all is rest

all is rest

"Peace, be still..."

With the sea her heart surrenders.

bending to His will

The storm inside finally subsides

and all is rest

all is rest.

-E.A.A. "Hindsfeet" 3/22/10

"It shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear."

-Isaiah 65:24 

Spring's Song......

“Death is swallowed up in victory!  O Death, where is your sting?  O Hades, where is your victory?”

-I Corinthians 15:54-55

Life comes back; Life always comes back. 

It is tenaciously persistent, perennially present, perpetuating itself against all odds.

In the book of Ruth, we read about Naomi, Ruth's mother-in-law, whose name means Pleasant, but who demures at the address, asking instead to be called Mara - meaning Bitter - because of the leveling loss she has endured - the death of her husband, the passing of her two sons, the deprivation of the place she has called home for over a decade, and worst of all, the seeming abandonment of the Almighty.

In a dramatic denouement, Ruth providentially meets Boaz, who is a wealthy relative of Naomi's.  He marries her, and they have a son whom Naomi nurses, Obed: Would-be grandfather of David, the King of Israel.

What reeked of ruin,

what smacked of bitter despair,

what connoted catastrophic failure on God's part,

what looked like the end,

was actually the beginning in disguise. 

"Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning." 

-Psalm 30:5

Emmanuel's Embrace......

God is a Romantic.

Such an unexpected aspect of Christ's character -- unexpected in our Western culture -- though it was very commonplace in the understanding of the Celtic Christian.  Romance was very much more a part of their frame of reference...music, poetry, romance, an important expression of their faith, and a big part of their interaction with the Almighty.

To make such a declaration in our culture almost seems irreverent, ill-fitting when speaking of Immanuel, but as I write, I can almost hear Yahweh's "Yes!", because it's a big part of His interaction with us too...

The bible is not a book full of bullet points and boardroom tactics...there is an entire section smack dab in the center where He serenades us with song after song, one hundred and fifty ballads to be exact, revealing Himself, inviting intimacy, a cleft carved out in the middle of it all where two can touch, where He plumbs the depths of His beloved's heart with prose and poetry, wooing us into deeper communion, a mutuality of mind, a union of Spirit, a sacred meeting of saint and Sovereign.......

God's great desire is oneness with His creation...with you and with me.  Yes, He's our Father, absolutely, He's our Saviour, without question, He's our Provider, our Redeemer, our Judge, our Lord......

...but He is also the Lover of our soul...

To push this attribute aside to the periphery of our understanding of God, to demure at this dimension of Deity, to blush and bypass this beautiful bent of His heart toward us, is to deny Him His deepest desire.  To dismiss His fervent ardor for us is to miss out on an amazing encounter with the Most High......

Love Song....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TrailBlazer....

The Lord is my Shepherd...

-Psalm 23

Our path may seem uncertain, challenging and even impassable, yet there is no where our way can take us that our Shepherd has not gone before, no eventuality He has not provided for, no difficulty that is not paved with His grace. 

This is no virgin soil we tread upon; Christ, our forerunner, has traversed this sod. 

He fashioned all our days, laid all the track, when as yet not one step had been taken, not a single moment had been lived...

He knows our path like the back of His nail-scarred hand; He's walked every inch, negotiated every turn, navigated every difficulty, climbed every high and trekked every low.

Ours is not some ambivalent Autocrat, standing aloof above the stuggle...

He who could've chosen the safe distance of detached Deity, chose instead intimate involvement in all our ways; He, who could've stood idly by, watching us manage this maze, instead inserted Himself into the milieu of man, and became a participant in our pilgrimage.

He is not only the Author of our journey, but its Finisher as well.

Our Creator offers Himself, not only as a compass, but as a confidant and a companion.  We are not in this alone.  He is our Way through this wilderness, His very footsteps are ours to follow.

He will make His footsteps our pathway

-Psalm 85:13

Hebrews 6:20

Psalm 139:16

Psalm 139:3

Hebrews 12:1-2

Viewfinder...

"He must increase, but I must decrease."

-John 3:30

We are here to be a window into Who God is, a lens that people can look through and see Jesus. 

I find myself having to continually refocus the 'camera' on Christ, fighting that tenacious tendency toward self promotion, that plebeian posture that says, Look at ME!

We are here to personify Jesus, to be living portraits of our Lord.  How often do I detract from Deity, demanding the foreground, distracting the viewer, valuing ephemeral ego gratification over engendering a meaningful encounter with Christ? 

The ego-chafing correction comes: 

People do not need me; People need the Lord.

"It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.  The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life...He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him."

- John 6:63, 7:18

"When it's all been said and done..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fuzzy Math...

"Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!"

-Romans 11:33

When we come to see God as a God of paradox, it opens for us a door of understanding into His "higher ways" and His "higher thoughts".*

In God's economy weakness is strength, servitude is freedom, the poor are rich and so on...

Jesus' disciples were at first scandalized by this seemingly upside down philosophy: They wanted to become a new Nation, Jesus wanted "Nobodys"; they wanted to be lords, Jesus called them to be the least; they wanted a King, Jesus gave them a crucifixion.

I can understand their perplexed, crestfallen state in the upper-room, in that seemingly anti-climactic moment following the execution of their Lord, which was, in actuality, the most triumphant moment in all of history.  It really does require revelation from the Holy Spirit to grasp God's perspective, to see the sense in Christ's counter-intuitive ways.

But I think it's a matter of waiting...waiting prayerfully in the upper-rooms of our own discontent, our disillusionment, sometimes even our despair...until the Holy Spirit comes with the wind of wisdom and helps us to zoom out from our limited lens on life and our resultant compartmentalized conclusions to view things from the vantage point of Heaven.

From this lofty lookout, this God's-eye-view, what seems like very fuzzy math indeed, adds up afterall.

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."

-Proverbs 3:5-6

*Isaiah 55:9

Sacred Space

The season of Lent brings to the forefront the issue of fasting.  Those who honor this observation choose to abstain from some form of indulgence.  Perhaps chocolate, perhaps TV, perhaps some form of leisure or preferred pasttime...

...And most of us do this with nothing more than a vague idea of why we're doing it...

                           Is it to procure bonus points in heaven?

                           Is it merely tradition?

                           Is it twisting God's arm toward some desired end?

                           Is it some form of self-flagellation?

Matthew 5:6 comes to mind,

"Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled."

The spirit of this season is to make Space.

At any given moment, we are so stuffed and saturated with food, with drink, our senses soaked with entertainment, and our souls over-stimulated with sundry diversions, that there is barely even a corner left in our lives - or tragically, at times, our churches - for God to fill, to make His presence felt.  No room in the Inn, so to speak...

Fasting allows us to feel the hunger of our soul, of our spirit, then to offer that space to God to fill...

Jesus told the woman at the well,

"Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."*

God isn't some sadist who enjoys watching you suffer; Fasting isn't a punishment, it's a gift.  God wants you to hunger and thirst so He has space to fill; He longs to pour Himself into you and me and then to overflow out of our lives into the lives of those around us.  We stop short if we remain empty; the point is to be FILLED with the Bread of Life and the Living Water!

The words of Isaiah 55:2 ring out from the Father's heart still...

"Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy?  Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance."

In your fasting, may you find yourself filled as never before.

this is the air I breathe...

*John 14:4

Just as I am..........

not a lot of commentary from me tonight guys.....Just wanted to pass this on (click on link below)....Hope it buoys your souls as it did mine tonight and points you to the One who's arms are outstretched, waiting for you to fall into them and find release..........Peace....

Just as I am...


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lenten Labor.....

Luke 4:1-14

Jesus spent forty days in the womb of the wilderness before being rebirthed into the world; it was the most confinement He would experience until His ultimate confinement on the cross.  He wrestled with the trials He would face during His brief ministry here on earth, and soundly victored over each stumbling block in the spirit...He had little time to win the heart of mankind and needed to clear the path to the cross before setting out...

He trailblazed His trajectory, taking on one obstacle at a time; He triumphed over temptation after temptation till not a stone was left to trip Him up: There was no time to be hindered by hedonism, no space for adulation of any God save One, no place for vainglory or the distraction of self indulgence. 

In this desert battlefield He fought each foe that would flesh out over the next three years, incapacitating every strategem of Satan's.  He had a single eye on the redemption of His people and nothing must be left to prevent His progress toward that end.

This Lenten labor continued till every impediment was rendered impotent, and our Lord was delivered to effect man's deliverance. 

What a privilege this season affords us as we partake of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if by any means we may follow in His footsteps and attain to the ressurection from the dead.*

"...Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected, but one thing I do: forgetting those things that are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

-Philippians 3:12-14

*Phillipians 3:10-11

Take Two...

"One thing I do: forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead..." 

-Philippians 3:13

A friend told me this morning, "Life is how you handle Plan 'B' "

Wow.....Wow............

Such a good perspective for when life hits ya outta left field, which, if anyone's noticed, it so often does......

I thought about all the "Plan 'B's" in my life.....All the times the thought occurred to me, "Guess I shoulda taken that left turn at Albuquerque..."...

I have wasted countless hours mulling over the mistakes and missteps of yesteryear, ruminating over regrets and wrong moves, mourning missed opportunities and the mess I've made of some things.......

But God gave us an example to follow into the future, saving us from stagnation and the petrification of the past......

He too, the God of the Universe, had to grieve the loss of His Eden and grapple with "Plan 'B' "....

"ok, then, die on cross, rescue my Beloved."

REDEMPTION,

the original Plan "B"

I find myself staring in disbelief at this self-imposed sentence, reduced to tears at this revelation of my Redeemer, leveled by this lesson of letting go what cannot be...

But He does not leave me empty handed...He places within my grasp hope for the future and His palpable promises...

"For I know the thoughts I think toward you," says the Lord, "thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope"  -Jeremiah 29:11

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."  -Romans 8:28

"Come, and let us return to the LORD; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up.  After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, THAT WE MAY LIVE in His sight.  Let us know, Let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD.  His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, Like the latter and former rain to the earth."  -Hosea 6:1-3

" 'The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,' says the LORD of hosts, 'and in this place I will give peace,' says the LORD of hosts."  -Haggai 2:9

"FOR I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVES"

-Job 19:25

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In Him we move......

"...a wheel within a wheel..."

-Ezekiel 1:16

Christ is the First cause, the Primum movens, the Source who set everything in motion: from hailing the first heartbeat to triggering the first tick of time.

And it is He who authors and animates our lives.  He moves, we move.  A divine domino effect.  We are either vitally connected to our Creator or we are void of Life entirely. 

Thankfully, the God Who holds our breath in His hand and owns all our ways is not some distant Dictator, doling out commands and leaving us to our own devices.  Jesus said, "Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you.".  He longs to live and move and have His being in us so that His Person is worked out through us, incarnated into this earth, perpetuated through His posterity. 

"For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure".  We were fitted and formed, not to work independently of Him, but to function interdependently with Him...

this sublime symphony,

this intricate intimacy,

this beautiful oneness,

our life an extension of His quickening life within.

"In Him we live and move and have our being."

-Acts 17:28

(Acts 17:28, Daniel 5:23, Phillipians 2:13, Romans 8:11, John 14:19)

Be Mine....

"They shall be Mine," says the LORD of hosts, "on the day that I make them My jewels."

-Malachi 3:17

I ran across this verse this morning, then stopped, and ran back to it......

Those two little words caught my eye,

...Be Mine...

There it was, a little Valentine, tucked in this Book, from Him, to me...exactly where He knew I'd find it this morning...this morning of all mornings,

Valentines Day...

I couldn't have been more touched if I'd gotten a box of Godiva and a dozen red roses....

I took out my pen and drew a little heart around the two words,

then breathed softly,

"I love you too, Lord..."

A Valentine from Almighty God...

He didn't forget.

<3

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let there be Light....

"ARISE, shine; for your light has come!  And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you.  For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the LORD will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you.  The Gentiles will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising." -Isaiah 60:1-3

As the darkness stretches over this great land of ours, as the light which shone so brightly fades, there are those whom God has placed strategically in various places as lighthouses out of whom He intends to shine...

We are to cleanse ourselves from all "filthiness of flesh and spirit" (2 Corinthians 7:1) so that nothing obstructs His glory...We are to be ready, our lamps full of oil and our wicks trimmed and waiting...(Matt 25:1-13)

Now is not the time to cower in corners hoping to go unnoticed by evil...Now is not the time for averted eyes and downcast spirits....We are His lanterns on this dark night, beacons meant to shine brightly and with great boldness.

Now is the time to "Arise", Now is the time to "Shine"

We have been drenched in the oil of the Spirit, flooded with the Word of God...Now is the time for this fuel to be touched with God's match and set alight for the world to see...

For too long we've been huddled up in upper rooms, hidden from view, our faith sequestered and silent as though our Saviour were still entombed...

The time for our emergence is upon us.  We are His lamps, not meant to be hidden, but to be set on hills, on high places, to shine out in the darkness, displacing, dispelling, and defeating it.

"You are the light of the world.  A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.  Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house."
-Matthew 5:14-15

Too long have we been holed up, too long have we horded the Light of God for ourselves...

It is time to Arise, It is time to Shine, It is time for the match to be struck, and the world to be set ablaze...

Let There Be LIGHT!

"For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
-2 Corinthians 4:6

Timeless Trademark.......

"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork.  Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge.  There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.  Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world."

-Psalm 19:1-4

 
As time, technology, and industry marches on, it can be harder and harder to discern the calling card of God all around us.

We are insulated from the once clear indications of God's presence, power, and omnipotence.

The forests filled with the fingerprints of God have been razed and replaced by things manufactured in the minds of men; emblems in the ether have been explained away; rivers that once served as God's script running through the earth have been substituted by static roads and railways; stars and suns once the only signs in the heavens now share space with satellites and space stations...

Deity diluted and man's senses dimmed

But Providence will not be silenced by our paltry "progress".  His immutable, insistent call will continue to ring out. 

The LORD of Heaven is still LORD of Earth.

His power is still perceived in the severity of a storm, His majesty still seen in mountains too magnanimous to obscure.  His tenderness is felt in the breath of a breeze, His voice heard in the whisper of wind and in the tumult of the sea...

...and as if this weren't enough, there's you, and me.

Jesus said, "If you've seen me, you've seen the Father.".  As His posterity, and as children reborn to the same Patriarch, we're also meant to be a picture of our Papa to the world.  More than all of His creation, we're meant to bear a striking resemblance to the One we serve. 

The world endeavors to drown out Heaven, but our Sovreign will not be supplanted.

As we allow His Spirit to hold sway in our hearts, as we live and move and have our being in Him and allow Him to live and move and have His being in us, the image will emerge, and a world whose senses have been starved of Heaven, will once again, see the Face of the Father.

"For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren."

-Romans 8:29

Deadly Duality.....

In John Adams' quest to make this country "The Land of the Free", he was quoted as saying,

"The Middle Way is no way at all!...If we finally fail in this great and glorious contest, it will be by bewildering oursevles in groping for the Middle Way."

Apparently The God of Creation concurs: In Revelations 3:16 we read an equally harsh judgement of "The Middle Way"...

"So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth."

Our modern day sensibilities make us squirm at the severity of this dictum.  These days, it seems, the idea of absolutes, of "black and white", of right and wrong, has become a faux pas, passe, and politically incorrect. 

Even in the church we've cozied up to compromise, favoring grey areas over God's "extremes", pandering for people's praise instead of preaching for God's.  Acclimating to our culture's climate instead of holding the course of God's commands.

The world needs meat and we're handing them milktoast.  We treat the seeker with kidgloves, tip-toeing around Truth, clearing a path around the "stone of stumbling and the rock of offense"*.  We want everyone to be "comfortable".

But Christ didn't come to make us comfortable...

He came to make us Free. 

*1 Peter 2:8

Uncanny Communion

Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.”  He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food.  The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans.  She said to Jesus, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?” -John 4:7-9

Why indeed....

Jesus was mirroring worth back to this woman who was void of any sense of value...He didn't just bombard her with what He had to give, He allowed her the dignity of feeling that she too had something to offer...

We see here the King of kings seeking a point of connection with this Samaritan, creating a common ground:

Both Jesus and the woman were thirsty.

...Such a simple starting point.  The Living Water Himself could've lorded it over her but chose instead a path of humility into her heart, a door through which could flow the refreshing she so desperately needed.

Time and time again, Jesus exhibited this example of deference to the displaced and downtrodden.  He easily fraternized with frailty and fragility.  He related to the ruffians and ragamuffins of this world with respect and easy comraderie, reflecting to them their treasured status in Heaven.

Not just once, but over and over, He made Himself of "no reputation", taking the form of a servant.  His existence here was spent seeking out sinners; not to judge them, not to berate them, not to beat them further down, but to lift them up, to look them in the eyes so they could see the grace in His.

Here I sit in stunned silence, centuries later, at the same well; My ego is dealt a leveling yet liberating blow as I lean in, incredulous, and once again hear Heaven's request, as another Samaritan heard so long ago,

Please give me a drink. 

I look around to see which of the "least of these" He could be addressing, only to find His gaze resting on me. 

Laying aside pretense and pious pose, I drink long at this cup of communion with Christ.  Together we quench our thirst at this well;

mine for Him, and His for me.    

  

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men."

-Phillipians 2:5-7

Scandalous Salvation

You, The-God-Who-Sees

I brace myself for judgement

But find only Grace

-E.A.A. "Hindsfeet" 01/30/10

Genesis 16:13

Majestic minutiae...

"Do not despise the day of small beginnings..." -Zechariah 4:10

Jesus spent a lot of time making much of the mundane, seeing significance in the smallest offering, deriving great meaning from diminutive details...

He overlooked fortunes, instead focusing on the widow's mite; He considered a few loaves and fishes a viable option for the feeding of five thousand; He was impressed not by mighty trees, but by the mustard seeds they sprouted from.

When His disciples needed their idea of Heaven challenged, He placed before them a child.  At the height of His popularity, He dined with the lowest of the low, Zaccheus, a man as short on scruples as he was in stature. 

And when mankind needed a savior, He came as a servant.

So often I want to do grandiose things for God.  Occasionally I want grandiose things for myself.  But in Jesus' economy, the base things are the big things: the poor are rich; the weak are strong; we serve a God whose greatest achievement is marked not by some plaque hanging on a wall, but by His Son, hanging on a cross...

...This precious paradigm, this titanic truth, seeps into my sense of balance and turns it on it's ear.  I find myself scandalized and at the same time set free; or at least a bit more free; like a dimmer switch, being slowly turned up, letting in more light,

little by little...

Pilgrim's Progress.........

"For this is God, Our God Forever and Ever; He will be our Guide, Even to death."

-Psalm 48:14

The appeal of the past, callously clear,
Inducing dependence on what I know

Illusory insurance against pain, fear, loss...

A stagnant security

A tangible trajectory

Leading to a land no longer living

But in the periphery His pull persists

The still small sway

Quietly, consistently

Courting my attention

Vying for my vision

Compelling me to follow onto foreign ground

Faith peers into the foreboding fog
And instead perceives a Pillar of Cloud

Carving safe passage through walls of water

A Beneficence beckoning into the beyond

Leaving my yesterdays in memoriam

Abandoning their sinking sand
Freed from specious stability and the slavery of sentiment

I gather the little that's left of me

And step forward....

His Shepherding my only surety

Bolstered by His unseen Hand

Regenerate promise sustains me

The way unfolds,

I travel on.....

-E.A.A. "Hindsfeet" 01/25/10

"For this is God,
Our God Forever and Ever;
He will be our Guide,
Even to death."

-Psalm 48:14

Layman's Lessons.....

Throughout the New Testament, Jesus often taught in parables.  There were so many lessons surrounding his disciples in the every day stuff of life, there for the teaching.  There were lessons about generosity and jealousy, forgiveness and freedom, hypocrisy and Heaven, the list went on and on, and could've gone further. 

Jesus' followers called Him Rabbi.  This was no trite title or term of endearment.  To be called Rabbi was to be labeled a master teacher, one qualified to expound on Jewish law.  As the Rabbi of rabbis, Jesus could've used lofty linguistics, pretentious prose, and esoteric embellishment to make his point, but he didn't.  The King of kings and the Lord of lords, this Rabbi of rabbis chose the humble elements of our existence to expound on Heavenly truths, the impoverished portent of base things that bore His image.

He used bread and beggars, flowers and fields, birds of the air and fruit on the trees.  He chose these things, not only because they were within his demographic's grasp, but because they would prove to be perennial and pertinent examples throughout the centuries, through to twenty ten and beyond.  The lessons were far-reaching, they had to be, because He didn't just come to reach the twelve, He came to reach you and me. 

 

And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.  And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

-1 Corinthians 2:1-5

Fast Forward....

Tightly clutched ticket

Bygones bygone and behind

The train rounds the bend...

-E.A.A. "Hindsfeet" 1/15/10

On the move.....

My friend, Dan Denardo of D2 Photography, mentioned something in passing to me the other day...

...The importance of

"Positive Forward Momentum"...

His words gave me pause...I found myself reading and re-reading them, and then following Ann Lamott's rule of thumb -

"Pay attention when your soul leans forward to listen."

Sometimes we are waiting for God to do something BIG in our lives.  We all have a Red Sea that we want God to address.  We cry out to him as the psalmist did in time past,

"How long, Oh Lord?"...

It occurs to me that God might ask us the same question regarding our stagnation...

"How long will you refuse to humble yourselves before me" (Exodus 10:3)..."How long will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions?" (Exodus 16:28)..."How long will you treat me with contempt? How long will you refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among you?" (Numbers 14:11)..."How long will you wait before you begin to take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you?" (Joshua 18:13)..."How long will you mourn?" (1 Samuel 16:1)...

"How long will you waver?" (1 Kings 18:21)

Still we question Him, and still His longsuffering kindness condescends to answer...

...the same answer God gave to Moses as he stood before his Red Sea...

"Why do you cry to Me? 
Tell the children of Israel to GO FORWARD."*

Moses' deference to God's directive precipitated a great rescue, an unprecidented redemption, a deliverance of miraculous magnitude.

Without a doubt there are seasons of stillness...but there are also times, as Paul prescribed in Philippians 3:13, to reach forward to the things which are ahead...

In times of indecision and inertia in my life, my mom use to tell me, "When you don't know what to do, do the next thing, even if the next thing is just walking the dog or doing the dishes."

Positive Forward Momentum

The smallest effort does not escape heaven's attention.

As we take little steps, God gives ground to step on.

As we move forward in faith, God's faithfulness becomes our footing.

"So the children of Israel went forward into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left."
-Exodus 14:22

* Exodus 14:15

Road Map.....

Seek the wisdom

That will untie your knot

Seek the path

That demands your whole being

Leave that which is not, but appears to be

Seek that which is, but is not apparent

 

-Rumi

Overturned Tables.....

                            

"Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. "It is written," he said to them, " 'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a 'den of robbers."

-Matthew 21:12-13

I read this passage and my inner pharisee nods in holier-than-thou approval at the unfolding events; perhaps I'm not alone in my affirmation of Christ's actions?

Let's fast forward two thousand years...If this scenario recurred in modernity, replaying in our "temples" of today, be it First Baptist, First Presbyterian, First Church of the Blessed Mother, what have you, would we be as nonchalant with our endorsement of such extreme measures?  Perhaps our heads are still bobbing even as we bring this passage a little closer to home. 

But what if, at the heart of the matter and much more to the point, such a purging took place in us?  My eyes that previously looked on in self-righteous satisfaction, in ambivalent assent, are suddenly averted as this possibility is brought very close to home indeed. 

I find myself squirming a bit as the reminder of 1 Corinthians 6:19 surfaces on the scene:

"Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own."

What tables in this temple would be upended if the High Priest, Jesus Himself, were so inclined?  Where am I selling out and misrepresenting the heart of Holy God?  How do I rob people of His presence?  What in me sullies his Spirit?

Suddenly the speck in the money changers' eye becomes small as the log in my own looms...

And I see with new eyes - my log not withstanding - the profundity of David's prayer, "Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me."*  I realize that it is an invitation for Jesus to do just that...to drive out the dross that divides my attention and displaces His deity, to dismantle all that distracts others from the message of Messiah, to pinpoint and purge hypocrisy that hampers His healing in my own and others' lives.  To cleanse me from all that clouds our place of precious communion.

My previously pompous posture is deflated to one of deference toward God, who mercifully makes His home in me, and with a humble heart I pray,

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

*Psalm 51:10

So far So good...

Nine days into the New Year and gotta say the water feels fine! 

I have a tendency toward "holding my breath" though, waiting for the "other shoe to drop" (even though the first shoe has yet to take the plunge).  I've whittled away hours waiting for the bottom to fall out of things, probably due to the fact that I've lost a few "bottoms" along the way...

So I've decided in Twenty Ten to Breathe. 

To deeply inhale the beauty that bathes my life,

To exhale in expectation of God's ongoing grace and mercy.

So far so good...

someone out there is CPR certified though, right?

; )

Rising...

Can the past be recaptured

The ancestral Heart long passed reclaimed?

Can the ocean be sailed 

to long ago?

Does the earth which held me

Still hold my place,

Dust though I was

Before long long ago?

Does my soul hold a piece

Of patriarchs gone before,

Of warrior spirits now sleeping?

A fire fed by

Ancient Tenacity

Eternal, Tireless
Persisting

On I sail

toward sunrise,
True Beginning Journey's end
Blessed Benediction
I too

will rise again.

-E.A.A. "Hindsfeet"

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Invitation to Epiphany

I "de-Christmased" my house this weekend...The task was monumental, but it's done now, not a shred of red or green in sight, quite the catharsis!  It was lovely to have and lovely to let go of. 

It is January, the quintessentially quiet month; this halcyon hush, so welcome after the hub-bub of the holidays, has settled over my home like a big cozy comforter.  The backdrop of Vivaldi has replaced the various Christmas carols that played circuitously on my CD player, the new year has registered temperatures far below freezing for at least part of every day, lending to the lull of the season, and, for the first time in a longggg time, my event calendar is completely empty. 

Ah, sweet serenity.

Such a perfect way to spend the nighttime of the year....at rest.  The stillness afforded us during this nocturn is such a gift, it being conducive to such calm, such centeredness, creating space to seek God, as the Magi did so long ago.

The esoteric feast day of Epiphany celebrated every January sixth by some, bookmarks this event.  It is, in a word, the Divine "olly olly in free", God humbly choosing a form in which He could be found by those searching for Him.  The Great Reveal.   God made man in the Person of Jesus Christ. 

In Isaiah 55:6, we are encouraged to seek God while He may be found. The invitation to the incarnation of Immanuel - to us and through us - does not end with the close of Christmas, but is extended to seekers everywhere still.

As we follow the worn path of Wise Men

May Searching and being Searched for,

become Finding and being Found.

'In the bleak midwinter' -by James Taylor

Picture This...

Two Thousand Ten - or "Twenty Ten" as I'm told we're to call it - is steadied on the easel of January 1st, pristine and poised in it's infancy, waiting to be painted upon.

There it sits, the New Year, the quintessential clean slate, the fresco of our future unfolding before us, a white washed would-be work of art...

And here am I, sitting at my computer, my "canvas", such as it is, hoping to make a meaningful contribution to this microcosmic masterpiece...So far a few scribbles, some rough ideas is all I have to offer, a few loaves and fishes, as it were...But fishes in His hands feed multitudes; loaves broken and blessed become Bread of Life.

So I quietly breathe a prayer, asking God, the fountainhead of our future, to further the completion of this work He's begun, to add His perspective to my paltry beginnings, sparse starts being His specialty.

He makes much of the meager alms we offer, and blesses these tiny brushstrokes, till one day, maybe a year from now, we'll look back and see a canvas full of color, and we'll be three hundred and sixty five days closer to a clearer picture of Christ.

I look forward to collaborating with you all as we join Him in His ongoing Creation. 

Happy New Year, Friends,
"Hindsfeet"

Segues, Seeds, and Seasons

I ran across this post of mine from a few months back and thought my readers wouldn't mind a little re-run, as I thought it so appropos for New Years Day and the transition this time marks.  I truly hope it's meaningful to you again, or maybe for the first time.   Happy New Year, Everyone...

Seasons do eventually change no matter how endless things may feel, whether we desperately want things to stay the same or whether we're waiting with bated breath for something new...It is the nature of things, the way of life, ever evolving...

Sometimes we defy the transition so stubbornly, like a toddler throwing a tantrum when her parents insist on throwing out some favored but now ill-fitting garment, with no understanding that something newer, better, and much more comfortable is in the making and forthcoming. With that same futility and short-sightedness we hold on to bygone seasons with a mental vicegrip even after the season has grown old or stale or has ended all together, but, as my Mom use to say, "it doesn't matter if you wear your galoshes in the Summer, Honey, it isn't gonna make the Spring stay." We need to trust that as much as we loved the garment of the time gone by, however familiar and comfortable it was, there is something better in the making. Something that will fit our evolving life and that will foster further growth.

Of necessity the prior seasons that coddled us and were conducive to our growth must fall away to make possible the new life. But leaving these confines is not always easy, the space that felt so manageable, so secure, like a butterfly's cocoon. The transition, while natural, can be traumatic. It's so easy to feel disillusioned during these segues. We are uprooted from the old, but not quite yet rooted in the new. We are waiting to find our footing and even when we finally do, the new land can feel so foreign and we go through nothing less than culture-shock as we venture forward. New beginnings are rarely wrapped up pretty with a bow on top, but rather tend to be trademarked by screaming babies, shattered seeds, civil wars and the like.

During a devastating time of agonizing uncertainty in author Elisabeth Elliot's life, she recorded an instance where, completely distraught and disoriented, not knowing which way was up, she ran out to her back yard, sunk onto her knees and cried out to God for answers...The answer came...in the form of an acorn.

Her eyes fell on the little seed beneath her and the words that flooded her mind were these...

"When the acorn falls and is buried, all it knows is the falling and the darkness and the dying; it has no idea of the oak tree that's going to come out of it's life. If it did, the death would seem insignificant, and instead of fear there would be joyful abandonment into My plan. Look at the acorn and trust Me."

Perhaps it's time to let go of the crumbling scaffolding of past seasons...allow what has died to be buried, so that new life can come, so that we can see when it comes...

...it will surely come.


Look at the acorn and trust Me.