preoccupied...

"He brings everything to pass precisely at its time. He also preoccupies man with the attempt to discover the times of future events, but without ever guessing, from first to last, all the things that God brings to pass." -tanakh.

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men, yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end." -NIV

-ecclesiastes 3:11.

-----

(big. giant. exasperated. sigh).

LORD. teach me how to wait well.

You've got this. You've got this. You've got this.

...

"BUT TAKE HEART..."

-Messiah Jesus, john 16.

it was then, it is now.

"it was then (when i least expected it) and it was there (where i felt most flawed and unworthy and lacking before God) that God proved to be true and real."

lisa velthouse, craving grace.

you shall.

"For as the rain or snow drops from heaven and returns not there, but soaks the earth and makes it bring forth vegetation, yielding seed for sowing and bread for eating, so is the word that issues from My mouth: it does not come back to Me unfulfilled, but performs what I purpose, achieves what I sent it to do. Yea, you shall leave in joy and be led home secure..."

-HaShem, isaiah 55.

the sound that it makes...

"Not anything that we ever did or were, but something that was done for us by another. Not our own lives, but the life of one who died in our behalf and yet still is alive. This is our glory and our only hope. And the sound that it makes is the sound of excitement and gladness and laughter that floats through the night air from a great banquet."

-frederick buechner, the road to emmaus.

partnership.

"We must remember that God is involved in our doings, that meaning is given not only in the timeless but primarily in the timely, in that task given here and now. Great are man's possibilities."

-abraham joshua heschel.

the freedom of God.

"To assume that the world for all its immense grandeur is a little cymbal in the hand of God, on which at certain times only one soul vibrates though all are struck; in other words: to assume that the entire complex of natural laws is transcended by the freedom of God, would presuppose the metaphysical understanding that the laws of nature are derived not from a blind necessity but from freedom, that the ultimate is not fate but God. Revelation is not an act of interfering with the normal course of natural processes but the act of instilling a new creative moment into the course of history."

-abraham joshua heschel.

the unworded.

"Vain would be any attempt to reconstruct the hidden circumstances under which a word of God alarmed a prophet's soul. Who could uncover the divine data or piece together the strange perceptions of a Moses? The prophet did not leave information behind. All we have is the prophet's certainty, endless awe and appreciation. All we have is a Book, and all we can do is to try to sense the unworded across its words.

Revelation is a mystery for which reason has no concepts..."

-abraham joshua heschel.

company.

"It is common and appropriate to think that 'alone' means lonely or in need of assistance, that is, that aloneness is a badge of weakness. Weakness cries out for help, whether as companion, partner, or coworker; and God in fact offers to make a 'help' for the human being. But 'alone' could also mean self-sufficient or independent; it could be a mark of strength - real or imagined. Aloneness as strength and apparent self-sufficiency might be bad or dangerous in a variety of ways. For example, a solitary being, lacking a suitable mirror, might be incapable of self-knowledge.

For aloneness as strength, the proper remedy is weakening, caused by division, opposition, conflict.

Fittingly, God proposes an ambiguous helper. Man's helper is to be neged, that is, 'opposite' to him, 'over against' him, 'boldly in front' of him, 'in his face': the helper is to be a contra, an opponent. Putting together 'partner' and 'opposition,' God proposes to make man a counterpart. What is called for, whatever the reason, is not just another, but an other other - fitting and suitable, to be sure, but also opposed. Company here comes with difference; and as we shall see in the next chapter, la difference will turn out to make a very big difference, both for good and ill."

-leon kass, the beginning of wisdom.

maturity.

the ability to wait for things.

the fortitude to delay pleasure for a time.

the courage to hope that good fruit grows and builds out of suffering.

the active remembering of mountaintops while low in the valleys.

the rejoicing in dry and painful deserts, knowing deep down in the GUTS that God is moving.

trusting that He is seeing to it; His plan and all its details.

here.
now.

choosing, believing, declaring, and clinging to the hope that God is always working.

even when we can't see.

---

clothed with our heavenly dwelling.

"Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come."

-paul's second letter to the corinthians, chapter 5.

-----

May all that is worldly within us be SWALLOWED UP by that great life which flows abundantly from our Rabbi and Messiah, Jesus.

amen.

already.

"the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining..."

-1 john 2.

the first days.

"For, pray, ask of the first days that were before you, from the day God created a human on the earth and from one end of the heavens to the other end of the heavens, has there been the like of this great thing or has its like been heard? Has a people heard God's voice speaking from the midst of the fire, as you yourself have heard, and still lived? Or has God tried to come to take Him a nation from within a nation in trials and signs and portents and in battle and with a strong hand and an outstretched arm and with great terrors, like all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? You yourself were shown to know that the LORD is God, there is none besides Him. From the heavens He made you hear His voice to reprove you, and on the earth He showed you His great fire, and His words you heard, from the midst of the fire. And since He did love your fathers He chose their seed after them and brought you out from Egypt through His presence with His great power..."

-torah, deuteronomy 4.

on my account.

"God, you know my folly;
my guilty deeds are not hidden from You.
Let those who look to You, O Lord, God of hosts,
not be disappointed on my account..."

dear soul,

"Why are you downcast, o my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.

Why are you downcast, o my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.

Why are you downcast, o my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God."

-psalms 42, 43.

and it is so.

the word amen means and it is so.

I forget that sometimes.

normally I pose the word amen to God as a plea or a question, rather than a sanction and a claim that His Word and His promises are true.

in fact, there is a verse in the psalms that says God's promises are right now standing in heaven, already realized.

to root this idea in me, i've recently been trying to shift my heart's definition of amen, hopefully opening up within myself a new and fuller perspective, a bigger trust.

I want my entire being to WHOLEHEARTEDLY believe in the truth of God's words, making me able to act on them in bold faith.

"the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie. though it tarry, wait for it, for it will surely come, it will not delay."

the time is coming.
the promises are true.
our God is trustworthy.

amen.
amen.
amen.

-----

habakkuk 2.

a man of truth.

"He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth."

-rabbi Jesus.

heights.

"Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the
vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the
pen
and no cattle in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to go on the heights."

-habakkuk 3.

never too late.

"For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again."

-f. scott fitzgerald.

the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

"Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. (...) But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. Then, one of the elders said to me, 'Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.'

Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne. (...). He came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. (...) And they sang a new song:

'You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you
purchased men for God
from every tribe and language
and people and nation.
You have made them to be a
kingdom and priests to
serve our God,
and they will reign on the earth.'

Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they sang:

'Worthy is the Lamb, who was
slain,
to receive power and wealth
and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and
praise!'

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing:

'To him who sits on the the throne
and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and
power,
for ever and ever!'

The four living creatures said, 'Amen,' and the elders fell down and worshipped."

-revelation 5.

the great commandment.

"If we elevate the great commission over the great commandment, then we construct a servant paradigm over a bridal one. And at the end of the day, that damages our hearts and our ability to receive from the Lord.

Lovers first, laborers second."

-dalton lifesy.