I am running as fast as I can on the road that goes nowhere.
The Cheshire Cat lied as he smiled at me and said
If I ran long enough I’d get somewhere.
In this land where things are not what they seem to be,
I have forgotten who I am and where I am going.
If I don’t know who I am, then where do I go with all my running.
Who am I? A product of chance and the sod?
A dispensable taxi for disdainful DNA?
Does my life have meaning and purpose?
Or do I live to just pass DNA on?
Dust to dust, sending forth seed and then I am done?
If that’s all I am, then why do I run?
Why do I dream the impossible dream
Or try to reach the unreachable star?
But, what if the other story were true,
That I am the child of the Most High God,
Named and treasured, loved and cherished,
Nothing random about me at all?
Is it that the impossible dream, the unreachable star
Is found in the place of rest within My Creator’s heart?
Watchman what of the night?
Dawn gilds the skies.
On those who sit in the valley of death
The Sun of Righteousness shines.
Healing pours down
The outcast are gathered in
The broken-hearted comforted
The faint receive new strength
Hope breaks forth in seeking hearts
Shackles break
Awake O my soul and sing
Shake off the dust of guilt and shame
Throw off the ball and chain
The Daystar dawns grace
Mercy and truth are met together;
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
My cup runs over with
Unstoppable songs of joy
As my spirit finds its Rest.
Peace be unto you!
Behind locked doors
Fears shake and rattle hearts.
What does the future hold
Persecution? Death? Trials?
Peace be unto you!
I, the Lord
Who holds the keys
Of death and hell,
Stand among you and say –
Peace be unto you!
Within locked hearts
Questions seethe and rage
Who am I? Where do I fit in?
What is my calling now?
Peace be unto you!
I called you by name
Before the world was made
To be my witness faithful and true;
As my Father sent me
So send I you.
Within locked minds
The pendulum swings
To trust or not to trust
Where can my mind find rest?
Peace be unto you!
Touch My wounded side and hands
Be at rest in the Truth
Abide in My love
Come alive in My Spirit
Peace be unto you!
Our God is merciful and tender.
He will cause the bright dawn of salvation to rise on us
to shine from heaven on all those who live in the dark shadow of death,
to guide our steps into the path of peace.
Luke 1:78-79
I give you peace,
the kind of peace that only I can give.
It isn’t like the peace that this world can give.
So don’t be worried or afraid.
John 14:27
May the Lord himself,
who is our source of peace,
give you peace at all times and in every way.
The Lord be with you all.
2 Thess 3:16
Secret Gardens
Why do I feel like I want to walk in a garden
Draw in the elusive fragrance of dew soaked earth
Haunting perfumes of fresh open buds
Wisping and weaving intangible rainbows
Blown in on teasing zephyrs
Caressing and lifiting the locks for a careless moment
Light as a butterfly
Then drifting on to invigorate another weary heart.
Today my heart rebels against being in a concrete jungle. True, as I look out of my windows I see more greenery and flowers than most urbanites are privileged to see. True, in my life I have been privileged than many people to visit beautiful gardens. I am trying hard to be satisfied. I am trying hard to be grateful. I am trying hard to be contented.
Whispers of past gardens
Steal out of dusty memory boxes
Stored sunshine and smiles
Teasingly tweak the toes of discontent
And ruffle longings awake.
Gardens…
Eden – perfect, complete, perfect shalom
Flaming swords blocking the path
Lonely longing.
Nebuchadnezzar’s famed hanging gardens
Pride, pleasure-seeking, luxury
Cloaking bitter oppression and tyranny.
Gethsemane – sleeping friends,
Gnarled olive trees bear mute witness
Drops of blood, a gut-wrenching act of worship
Father, Your will…
The garden of tombs, a stone rolled away
An empty tomb, a weeping woman
A Saviour who pauses and turns
To comfort, for in the heart of a worshipper
He found a garden
To delight and refresh His heart.
One thing I love about Munich is its hidden gardens. When one walks down the streets, it often seems one is walking past continuous blocks of buildings, without even a gap to separate them. Quite dull, regular and boring. Till the summer showers arrive. Then suddenly the air is full of elusive perfumes of flowers and herbs. In the beginning I was really puzzled how that could be since there was not a single flower in sight. Then I discovered that those sternly beautiful facades hid courtyards which housed lawns and gardens. Private. Hidden. For the secret pleasure and delight of the residents. Others are shut out. Till the rain and breezes reveal the hidden gardens beguiling and delighting the passerby.
Sanctified. Set apart. Consecrated. For the Master alone. Yet perfume spills forth to bless others.
My bride, my very own, you are a garden, a fountain closed off to all others.
Let the north wind blow, the south wind too!
Let them spread the aroma of my garden, so the one I love may enter and taste its delicious fruits.
Song of Solomon 4:12, 16
Broken alabaster jar
Perfume wisps and wraps
Blessing One who is to be
Broken and poured forth.
Abandoned water pitcher
Feet run to proclaim
Living Waters that drench
The parched and weary soul
Lifegiving Fount who would soon cry
‘I thirst’.
Embalming spices
Lie forgotten
The Promise Keeper
The Mystery of God revealed
Stands before me
Why indeed should I seek
The Living among the dead?
The Saviour calls my name
Rabboni, Master, King
My heart makes reply
My spirit hears the homeward wooing
And whispers back
‘Lord, I am Yours’
not my will
Yours be done’
Deep calling to deep
A voiceless longing rises
Deep calling to deep
In emptiness and brokenness
My heart stretches out to you
My Creator, Healer, Restorer
Face down I call Your Name
Sweet Balm of Gilead
Humble at heart
You stoop to lift me up
Your gentleness makes me ‘great’
Sun of Righteousness
You wrap me in Your healing warmth
Your very Name is as ointment
Poured forth
Fragrant and soothing
Cascades of love
My parched heart rejoices
Panting stilled
Rising tides
Spill forth joy
Bursting with rainbows of grace
My dancing soul in sweet rest
Bows down and cries
‘Father Your will
Not mine be done’
What is worship? Declaring the worth of God? Bowing our knees to honour Him? Rejoicing with singing, dancing and clapping?
What is worship? Mystic union – the moment when gazing into His face, touched afresh by the knowledge of His grace, all flesh is stilled, the soul acknowledges His goodness and His worth by saying – ‘Father, I am yours to command, send me’?
While each of us may have our own understanding of what worship is, one thing we cannot dispute that God our Creator and Saviour is worthy of worship.
Mind the gap.
We look at it
Measure it
Assess it
Don’t want to be swallowed by it
And yet, looking at the gap
Sucks us into it.
Mind the gap.
The distance between
What is
And what should be.
Baal-Peor
Lord of the Gap
Demands our worship
In tithes of discontentment
Resentment
And rage
But the gaps remain
Unfilled
Till One came
Laid down His life
Filled the greatest Gap of all
Gave us hope
That every valley will be exalted
Every mountain brought down
Every crooked place made straight
Every rough place made smooth
That we will see
True
Fraternity, Equality and Liberty
Established
May His kingdom come
His will be done
On earth as it is in heaven
Your love comes
Dripping like honey
Gold and soft and sweet
Flowing over my jagged edges
Covering and hiding
My stony places
Dripping into the
Deep dark wells of my heart
Soft Balm of Gilead
Pouring into me
Holding nothing back
Emptying Your fullness
Into my emptiness
Changing my bitterness
By Your sweetness
Writing and dreaming
Weaving and screening
Hope
Despair
Inward searches
Word bricks
Tower of Babel
Is it enough that I speak that which I can understand myself
Does it make sense to speak when no one else can?
Caught in a bubble that will not burst
Why do words mean what they mean?
Would thoughts matter if words don’t?
In the beginning was the Word
And the Word was with God
And the Word was God.
Slicing through the static and chaos of colliding waves
Came the pure, true words
‘Let there be…’
Light shone out of darkness,
Life came forth out of nothing,
A breath-filled fistful of clay
Took shape, moved, thought his first thought
Uttered his first word.
I wonder what his first word was…
My daughter’s first meaningful word was ‘Dada’
An imperious command
For her dad to stop in his tracks
And turn to her.
Did Adam cry out ‘Dada?’
Did God stop and smile and whisper,
‘Yes, that’s good!’
By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. Ps 33:6
A dusty scroll unfurls words that pierce a king’s heart
Suddenly all his righteous deeds seem as nothing.
With torn robes and trembling heart
He asks the question:
What will befall my people?
We have forsaken the Lord,
Forgotten His Word,
Abandoned His paths,
Gone our own way.
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So Josiah collected all the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the Levites, and all the people, great and small: and he read out to them all the words of the Torah which had been lately discovered in the House of the Lord. Commandments, promises, instructions, the story of their deliverance from Egypt, testimonies of the Lord’s provision and protection, blessings and warnings… all rolled over the people.
Centuries later Paul wryly observed, “Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts.” ( 2Co 3:15 ESV)
In Josiah’s day too, the assembled people received the reading matter-of-factly. They heard the reading, and in their hearts shrugged and said, ‘K bro, whatever.’
Interesting, that when Jonah went and grudgingly delivered God’s message to the Ninevites, they immediately called for a fast and repented of their evil ways. Decades later, when Ezra read out the Torah to the exiles who had participated in the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls – they wept. They wept because they knew just how much they had forfeited when their forefathers had not kept their side of the Covenant.
But at this point in time, the birds of the air came to gather the seed of the Word. It did not enter their hearts.
Josiah made a covenant before the LORD,
to walk after the LORD and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes,
with all his heart and all his soul,
to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book. (2Ch 34:31 ESV)
And notice this – the people didn’t come up rushing to follow suit.
Then he made all who were present in Jerusalem and in Benjamin join in it. 2Ch 34:32
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This Josiah dude is way too intense, man!
He needs to chill.
Yahweh, Ashteroth, Baal, Moloch…
What difference does it make?
They’re all the same.
All the same, man,
I tell you, you’d be wise to take the oath.
Kings have power.
If you want to keep company with your head
I’d say, nod and say ‘Amen!’
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Soul Searcher: Why do I do what I do? What am I motivated by – fear of God, or fear of man?
(Read 2 Chronicles 34-35 for the full story)
speak peace always 