words.

"my heart is astir with gracious words; i speak my poem to my King..."

the Word wraps itself and manifests itself amid human bone and sinew.

we are born into LIVING HOPE.

we shout. we sing. we dance and leap for joy.

the time has come.
the kingdom is near.
the whole earth is filled with the brightness of His glory.

Blessed are You, Oh Lord our God, who causes salvation to flourish.

kotel. jerusalem.

discoveries.

"Beloved, you can bear me witness that, when you have had sad discoveries of your own heinous guilt, you have been deeply humbled. Sometimes, your good works have been a great evil to you, because you have prided yourself upon them, and so brought yourself to the edge of the precipice of presumption. But manifestations of your guilt, brought home to your conscience by God’s Spirit, have been of essential service to you, by teaching you not to be high-minded, but rather to fear, and to remember that your standing in grace is not of yourself, and: therefore you must not boast. That is another good reason, if there were no other, why we may bless God for showing us our own iniquity."

-c.h. spurgeon.

a legend.

"Clothed in the mantle of the prophets, young Elisha assembled the villagers and told them a strange and disturbing tale: he had just seen his master flying off -- alive in a fiery chariot, straight up to heaven, never to return.
Except for the children, the village did not believe him. So he began again. For the children."

-elie wiesel.

let me.

"I no longer ask You for either happiness or paradise; all I ask of You is to listen and let me be aware of Your listening."

-elie wiesel.

earnest. reverent. devoted.

"Revelation begins with God, the fountain of all truth. We must remember that the reception comes in two ways. It comes from earnest seeking. God gave men minds and it is often through our minds that he speaks to us. Certainly he does not grant his truth to the man who is too lazy to think. It comes from reverent waiting. God sends his truth to the man who not only thinks strenuously, but waits quietly in prayer and in devotion. But it must be remembered that prayer and devotion are not simply passive things. They are dedicated listening for the voice of God."

-william barclay.

holy, holy, holy.

א בִּשְׁנַת-מוֹת הַמֶּלֶךְ עֻזִּיָּהוּ, וָאֶרְאֶה אֶת-אֲדֹנָי יֹשֵׁב עַל-כִּסֵּא רָם וְנִשָּׂא; וְשׁוּלָיו, מְלֵאִים אֶת-הַהֵיכָל.

In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated upon a high and lofty throne, the skirts of His robe filled the temple.

ב שְׂרָפִים עֹמְדִים מִמַּעַל לוֹ, שֵׁשׁ כְּנָפַיִם שֵׁשׁ כְּנָפַיִם לְאֶחָד: בִּשְׁתַּיִם יְכַסֶּה פָנָיו, וּבִשְׁתַּיִם יְכַסֶּה רַגְלָיו--וּבִשְׁתַּיִם יְעוֹפֵף.

Seraphs stood in attendance on Him. Each of them had six wings: with two he covered his face and with two he covered his legs, and with two he would fly.

ג וְקָרָא זֶה אֶל-זֶה וְאָמַר, קָדוֹשׁ קָדוֹשׁ קָדוֹשׁ יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת; מְלֹא כָל-הָאָרֶץ, כְּבוֹדוֹ.

And one would call to the other, 'Holy, holy, holy! the LORD of hosts! His presence fills all the earth!'

ד וַיָּנֻעוּ אַמּוֹת הַסִּפִּים, מִקּוֹל הַקּוֹרֵא; וְהַבַּיִת, יִמָּלֵא עָשָׁן.

The doorposts would shake at the sound of the one who called, and the House kept filling with smoke.

ה וָאֹמַר אוֹי-לִי כִי-נִדְמֵיתִי, כִּי אִישׁ טְמֵא-שְׂפָתַיִם אָנֹכִי, וּבְתוֹךְ עַם-טְמֵא שְׂפָתַיִם, אָנֹכִי יוֹשֵׁב: כִּי, אֶת-הַמֶּלֶךְ יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת--רָאוּ עֵינָ.

I cried, 'Woe is me; I am undone! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; Yet my own eyes have beheld the King LORD of hosts.

-isaiah 6.

the divine name.

"people treat it as if that incomprehensible and most high Being, who is even beyond the reach of thought, were only their equal. Otherwise they would not say, 'the Lord God, the dear God, the good God.' This expression becomes to them, who have it daily in their mouths, a mere phrase, a barren name, to which no thought whatever is attached. If they were impressed by His greatness they would be dumb, and through veneration unwilling to name Him."

-goethe.

favored creatures.

"With the goodness of God to desire our highest welfare, the wisdom of God to plan it, and the power of God to achieve it, what do we lack? Surely we are the most favored of all creatures."

-aw tozer.

infinitude.

"We poor human creatures are constantly being frustrated by limitations imposed upon us from without and within. The days of the years of our lives are few, and swifter than a weaver's shuttle. Life is a short and fevered rehearsal for a concert we cannot stay to give. Just when we appear to have attained some proficiency we are forced to lay our instruments down. There is simply not enough time to think, to become, to perform what the constitution of our natures indicates we are capable of.

How completely satisfying to turn from our limitations to a God who has none. For Him time does not pass, it remains; and those who are in Christ share with Him all the riches of limitless time and endless years. God never hurries. Only to know this is to quiet our spirits and relax our nerves. For those out of Christ, time is a devouring beast; before the sons of the new creation time crouches and purrs."

-aw tozer.

flee.

"Up now, slight man! Flee for a little while your occupations; hide yourself for a time from your disturbing thoughts. Cast aside now your burdensome cares, and put away your toilsome business. Yield room for some little time to God, and rest for a little time in Him. Enter the inner chamber of your mind; shut out all thoughts save that of God and such as can aid you in seeking Him. Speak now, my whole heart! Speak now to God, saying, I seek Your face; Your face, Lord, will I seek."

-anselm.

God-sufficient.

To God alone nothing is necessary. He did not bring His worlds into being to meet some unfulfilled need in Himself. The word necessary is wholly foreign to God.

Since He is the Being supreme over all, it follows that God cannot be elevated. Nothing is above Him, nothing beyond Him. Any motion in His direction is elevation for the creature; away from Him, descent. As no one can promote Him, so no one can degrade Him. To believe in Him adds nothing to His perfections; to doubt Him takes nothing away.

The picture of a nervous, ingratiating God fawning over men to win their favor is not a pleasant one; yet if we look at the popular conception of God that is precisely what we see. Twentieth-century Christianity has put God on charity. So lofty is our opinion of ourselves that we find it quite easy, not to say enjoyable, to believe that we are necessary to God.

We commonly represent Him as a busy, eager, somewhat frustrated Father hurrying about seeking help to carry out His benevolent plan to bring peace and salvation to the world, but, as said the Lady Julian, 'I saw truly that God does all things, be they ever so little.'

I fear that thousands of younger persons enter Christian service from no higher motive than to help deliver God from the embarrassing situation His love has gotten Him into and His limited abilities seem unable to get Him out of.

Again, God needs no defenders. He is the eternal undefended.

To be right, we must think worthily of God.

That God exists for Himself and man for the glory of God is the emphatic teaching of the Bible. The high honor of God is first in heaven as it must yet be in earth.

Unbelief is actually perverted faith, for it puts its trust not in the living God but in dying men. The unbeliever denies the self-sufficiency of God and usurps attributes that are not his. This dual sin dishonors God and ultimately destroys the soul of the man.

In His love and pity God came to us as Christ. In recent times, this has come to mean something different from, and less than, what it meant to the early church. The Man Jesus as He appeared in the flesh has been equated with the Godhead and all His human weaknesses and limitations attributed to the Deity. The truth is that the Man who walked among us was a demonstration, not of unveiled deity but of perfect humanity. The awful majesty of God was mercifully sheathed in the soft envelope of human nature to protect mankind.

Christians today appear to know Christ only after the flesh. They try to achieve communion with Him by divesting Him of His burning holiness and unapproachable majesty, the very attributes He veiled while on earth but assumed in fullness of glory upon His ascension to the Father's right hand.

This truth, while a needed rebuke to human self-confidence, will when viewed in its Biblical perspective lift from our minds the exhausting load of mortality and encourage us to take the easy yoke of Christ and spend ourselves in Spirit-inspired toil for the honor of God and the good of mankind.

For the blessed news is that the God who needs no one has in sovereign condescension stooped to work by and in and through His obedient children."

-aw tozer excerpts, the knowledge of the holy.

bold and avid souls.

"We may plead for mercy for a lifetime in unbelief, and at the end of our days be still no more than sadly hopeful that we shall somewhere, sometime, receive it. This is to starve to death just outside the banquet hall in which we have been warmly invited. Or we may, if we will, lay hold on the mercy of God by faith, enter the hall, and sit down with the bold and avid souls who will not allow diffidence and unbelief to keep them from the feast of fat things prepared for them."

a.w. tozer.

reckless days.

"if time is money, then i'll spend it all for You.
i'll buy You flowers with my minutes.
i'll turn hours into gardens.

i'll be reckless with my days, building castles in Your Name."

-sleeping at last.

dear church,

"I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing."

-brother paul, 1 timothy.

something else entirely.

"A strange thing happened then. The Speaker agreed with her that she had made a mistake, and she knew when he said the words that it was true, that his judgement was correct. And yet she felt strangely healed, as if simply speaking her mistake were enough to purge some of the pain of it. For the first time, then, she caught a glimpse of what the power of speaking might be. It wasn't a matter of confession, penance, and absolution, like the priests offered. It was something else entirely. Telling the story of who she was, and then realizing that she was no longer the same person. That she had made a mistake, and the mistake changed her, and now she would not make the mistake again because she had become someone else, someone less afraid, someone more compassionate.

If I'm not that frightened girl who heard and dared not go, who am I? But the water flowing through the grillwork had no answers. Maybe she couldn't know who she was today. Maybe it was enough to know that she was no longer who she was before."

-orson scott card, speaker for the dead.

"eyes to see."

"As I recall, Paul stood by and held the coats of the men who were stoning Stephen. Apparently Paul wasn't a believer at the time. In fact, I think he was regarded as the most terrible enemy of the church. And yet, he later repented, didn't he? So I suggest you think of me not as the enemy of God, but as an apostle who has not yet been stopped on the road to Damascus."

-ender wiggin, speaker for the dead.

a dim reflection.

we little know what a great man walked this earth and took up our burden.

someday we will know fully.

how my heart yearns.

-----

2 corinthians 13. Job 19.

a prayer for peace.

In the midst of our current times, with all the tensions and fractures intensifying in Israel, the words of this prayer seem very fitting, and daily move my heart.

may we all pray for israel. may we all pray for God's people. may we all pray for peace.

section 19 of the amidah prayer, a prayer for peace:

"Grant peace, welfare, blessing, grace, loving kindness and mercy to us and to all Israel your people. Bless us, Oh our Father, one and all, with the light of your countenance; for by the light of your countenance you have given us, Oh L-rd our G-d, a Torah of life, loving kindness and salvation, blessing, mercy, life and peace. May it please you to bless your people Israel at all times and in every hour with your peace. Blessed are you, Oh L-rd, who blesses his people Israel with peace."

amen.

here is the summons...

"here is the summons to steadfastness and to loyalty from the dedicated people of God." -revelation 13:10.

"the word for steadfastness is that great word hupomone, which does not simply mean passively bearing things; it means courageously accepting the worst that life can do, and turning it into glory.

The Christian must accept what being a Christian involves. The Christian must win his battle with the world by presenting to all men the steadfastness and the loyalty which will not be moved by the fear or the favor of men."

-william barclay.

אַיֶּכָּה - "where are thou?"

"The first question in the Bible was not asked by man. Logically it should be man asking of God, 'who am I? What am I doing here? Why did you bring me here? Why did you create me?' Not at all. The first question is when Adam flees from God and God asks, "Ayecha?" - "Where are thou?"

There is a marvelous story of a very great Hasidic master, a philosopher, a mystic, who was in jail, and the warden of the jail was a biblical scholar. So the warden came to see the master and said, 'Rabbi, I heard you were here. I know you're a great scholar, and you must answer me something. In Genesis I read that God asked, 'Ayecha?' Is is conceivable that God didn't know where Adam was?' And the Rabbi answered, 'God knew, Adam didn't.'

That is why you ask questions.

That is why we ask questions."

-elie wiesel.