Conversation: Prepare
1 Corinthians 2: 9-11
9.But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
10.But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 11. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
Yes By All Means Get Ready
I made you to be like me. But stubbornness, lust, men's opinions, self-hurt and self-love got in the way.
Time has moved on for you and for your place of occupancy. There is less of it remaining, but I do not want you to get that 'sand left in the hourglass' impression.
You are eternal just as I am eternal, and you are jolted as you try to realize it. Because time measurement has been a crutch and comfort of sorts. Children's birthday parties. School terms. Summer sunsets. Wedding anniversaries. Retirement from the Plant. Remembrance Day. A grandchild's High School Graduation...and so on.
“Prepare to meet your God”. Amos a farmer and one of my messengers had said this. You probably hear it as a kind of threat and quickly turn your imaginings elsewhere. No need to dwell on death.
The timing is in my hands, notwithstanding the seeming turmoil all around. So get to know me wontchya?
Love can also be just. Dreaming and actualizing the best. Working it out for the Beloved. You need to develop that kind of confidence. A study of my Son's earth walk is essential. Shows my heart, my desire and patience. Shows the foolishness of systems of men. Shows the courage, constancy and compassion of Love. One day you awaken realizing that you love me because I first loved you.
With that transformation, days remaining become adventure, and the future Heavenward most desirable. Scripture, you see, begets life and hope.
Jesus at the Last Supper told His friends that He was going to prepare a place for them, and that He would eventually come to take them there. He used the word “mansions”, as befitting His Father's House.
Apostle Paul later wrote that death was an enlargement, a desirable development. Certainly not an end or a waste.
In these comments I have twigged your remembrance and conscience to the words of Amos and the Gospel Evangelists. I would add also the Revelation where Christ attests to the rewards prepared for those who hold on and overcome.
Please dear one, you do just that. I reveal myself to the eager and the hungry.
Loving the Monologue
Again you have
Shut down other signals
This is good
As I have a word or two:
I delight in you
No this is not impossible
I delight in you
Not because of do-gooder stuff
Many others go that route
And are duplicitous.
You are my child
Plain and simple
A Father looks
At the ups and downs
And smiles.
And you have sensed the smile
And you need it.
Seeking me
Through my Son's story
You are rewarded.
Your Elder Brother
Inspires confidence
Family likeness grows
Through time, tending
And absorption.
The signal grows strong
As you step into
Singleness of purpose.
That's the mustard-seed message
Remember?
My Son told it
Have faith, Church
Like that mustard-seed
Small but undivided
Uncompromised
Unmixed
Hearing again and again
One of my words of promise
And stepping forward on it.
Where you are
Where you can speak
Or where you can uplift.
To me that's just
Like a home run
Child.
It moves mountains
And I get the glory.
Trusting the Monologue
I like what I'm hearing
The love-response
Is true birth-place
Of all holiness and power.
And yes child, I am holy
And just
Requiring from you sometimes
The tough pill:
Apology
Restitution
Confession
Longsuffering
Service and sweat.
As much as lieth in you
Live peaceably with all men.
And doubtless you will chafe
And wonder if off-track.
Go again to my Word
Let it be the arbiter.
Receive your breakthrough
Remember Isaiah's tremendous word
“Repairer of the breach
Restorer of paths to dwell in.”
And yes there is much
In this fallen world
Needing repair.
You partner in this
As you repent and pray
I desire you to speak it out.
“Be careful for nothing.
But in everything
By prayer and supplication
With thanksgiving
Let your requests
Be made known unto God
And the peace of God
Which passes all understanding
Will keep your heart and mind
Through Christ Jesus.
Friends With the Holiest
In His Upper Room meal with His disciples on the night of His arrest Jesus said, “Henceforth I call you friends”. (John 15)
A Friend who listens big time; who offers gentle suggestions toward relief; who cuts you lots of slack; who will stand in the gap; who seems to give you all of His attention when needed; who understands a great deal of your pain and perplexity; who will share your greatest joys in ways never to be forgotten.
And this is the eternal Son of God. Participant in Creation. Tale-spinner of the glorious Kingdom of Heaven. Eager healer of the afflicted. Chastiser of the hypocritical and insensitive. Blood-letter in the great and final Atonement. Intercessor of your needs before the Heavenly Father. Preparer of those fascinating Heavenly mansions still to be enjoyed.
When the Apostle Paul said in Philippians “Rejoice in the Lord” he meant it with every fibre of his being. He proved that he could rejoice and triumph in any set of circumstances because he was friends with the Holiest.
And now listen to Big Daddy Weave:
You may think that there is much to do before encountering God uprightly. much of internal spring cleaning. Forget about that Buster, You will forever fall short, come up bankrupt, mourn at such futility. Many religious teachers who will go on about imitating Christ. Hah! You must give up, fall down, lay flat and crushed and destitute of resource. Then God moves, quickens, brings New Life.
Inevitable Follow-Up
I see them
Coming through the grief
And the fear
And the reproach.
Students of a once-promising
Teller of hopeful tales
Host with miracle bread
Mender of broken hearts
But somehow too soft
For this place of push
Leverage and convenient lies.
But as promised
My Love is now inside
Father's Love the same
And winds of change
Haunt them with
Possibilities.
New creations I promised
And they lean forward
In expectation.
Not at all like
Their cowering after the Cross.
They will travel far
Speak to great and small
Find themselves possessed
Of words of Heavenly origin.
Radiating...yes radiating
My care and compassion
My calm and conviction
My Father's Kingdom at hand.
Quite over with customary
Fear of death or dearth.
Waiting happily
Upon Spirit's whisperings
As rescued Family develops
Around their remarkable huddle.
And the promised mansions
In my care...are waiting
All a-shimmer.
Visit our Christmas blog at http://twelfthmonth.wordpress.com/
Helps one become so thankful and heavenly minded.
Rutherford to a Young Reader
XXVIII. To PATRICK CARSEN (From Samuel Rutherford - Covenantors' Pastor)DEAR AND LOVING FRIEND, -- I cannot but, upon the opportunity of a bearer, exhort you to resign the love of your youth to Christ; and in this day, while your sun is high and your youth serveth you, to seek the Lord and His face. For there is nothing out of heaven so necessary for you as Christ. And ye cannot be ignorant but your days will end, and the night of death shall call you from the pleasures of this life: and a doom given out in death standeth for ever -- as long as God liveth! Youth, ordinarily, is a post and ready servant for Satan, to run errands; for it is a nest for lust, cursing, drunkenness, blaspheming of God, lying, pride, and vanity. Oh, that there were such an heart in you as to fear the Lord, and to dedicate your soul and body to His service! When the time cometh that your poor soul look out at your prison house of clay, to be set at liberty; then a good conscience, and your Lord's favor, shall be worth all the world's glory. Seek it as your garland and crown. Grace be with you.
ABERDEEN, March 14, 1637
(Picture of Rutherford Memorial at Anwoth, Scotland)
A Look at Holiness
https://issuu.com/dewane/docs/a_sure_place
I Will Not Smell, I Will Not Hear...
Amos was a farmer, a shepherd and a tender of sycamore fruit in the Southern Kingdom of Judah. His very name meant "Burden" or "Burden-bearer". He was destined by the will of God to deliver a message of warning and rebuke to the idolatrous Northern Kingdom. There was no prophet or priest in his family line; no formal training. But his words were articulate and his message as sharp as a surgeon's scalpel.
Many of the warnings ring true in our age:
1. You have assimilated the idolatry and false hopes of your neighbours.
2. You see no coming rod of correction.
3. You delight in the excess of ill-gotten gain snatched from the poor and the vulnerable.
4. You see nothing but clear skies ahead.
5. You can hardly tolerate the pause of the sabbath.
6. Your sacrifices are insincere. I will not smell them.
7. Your praise is irreverent. I will not listen.
8. Your idea of the Day of the Lord is simply more pandering of yourselves.
9. If you were to serve me in truth, there would be much more charity and social justice.
10. You are experiencing a famine for the hearing of the Word of God in progressive measure.
11. I have laid a plumb-line to that which you have built; found it grievously wanting; intend serious judgment.
12. Many a difficulty, many a disaster have I set before you to cause you to return to me.
13. A remnant shall be saved and brought again to blessing and security.
If one looks at the last recorded messages of Jesus in the Letters to the Seven Churches in Revelation one sees much of the same "burden". (See Robert Murray M'Cheyne's excellent book on this. Banner of Truth Trust) Today's churches miss this. They emphasize that Jesus is love; Jesus is inclusive; Jesus' mercy rejoices against judgment. Pastors will not issue the necessary rebukes. Sometimes even when they try, the message falls upon deaf ears. (Ezekiel 33: 30-33) Is it too late?
Be warned! The "famine" is coming; has already come.
Amos and Conscience
I knew it was wrong
Out there in desert winds
I sensed your honour
I knew of your love
And also of your terror.
The ewe would tend each tiny lamb
Much like you
The lion would roar and descend
The sweetness would come
Unto the sycamore.
The scorching heat
Would crackle.
And water with the delicious sound
Of its flowing
Proved the greater of riches.
Trips to market showed me
The callous cheating
The heartlessness
And the haunted eyes of the starving
And the lonely.
The perverted holy days
Of the North
Full of pomp and form
Missing anything of mercy
Or of honour
Deserving of your wrath
Then and now.
We have seen the locust
Drought and dearth.
Lord will you stay your hand?
Must you lay out that plummet
Measuring Israel for the crash?
Its crafted idols for the flames?
How little you desire sacrifice
Looking rather for sweetness of the heart
And true reverence.
Finding it so rarely.
And they call me deluded, un-schooled
An outsider
Scarce worth the notice.
Contented
Your very life is in this flock
You cannot come and go
No turning for another path
You need this Shepherd so.
And green may seem some other field
You wonder if to break
Would open grazing glorious
Hold fast, for goodness sake.
The wolf is there and waiting
The hot sun burns the ground
And wretchedness you never knew
Repent and turn around!
And run into His fond embrace
And walk beneath His staff
And treasure, Sheep, His every word
And thrive and grow and laugh.
John 6: 66-69