Manifesting destiny

"I have manifested Your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world..." John 17:6. "...but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." Acts 1:8 (New American Standard Bible). Our destiny is the manifesting of the name of Jesus Christ across the street and around the world, wherever we find ourselves and in every situaton of life. Even as Jesus' mission was to make the Father known (this is the salvation found in His seeking and saving the lost) i.e. this is eternal life - to know the Father and His Son Jesus Christ (through the Holy Spirit's activity). It's not the Pharisees kind of knowing, that is, knowing the principles by memory, but never really identifying with them through total embracement of them in every aspect of daily life; but, the knowing by becoming one with the one who is known. People will see Jesus in us because we have been drawn to Him and where He is we are or are becoming. We manifest His name when we act in His Spirit, true to His Word, motivated by His motivation - Love of the Father, the neighbor, and the Way Followers. (We are to love one another as He loved us - laying down our lives for one another, becoming one in Him so the world may know He is the sent one from the Father, one together with the Father and the Son.). Manifesting the name of Jesus so that others will be drawn to Him, be with Him, be one with Him, know Him.

faith

"Faith is more than just an attitude of the mind; faith is the complete, passionate, earnest trust of our whole nature in the Gospel of God's grace as it is presented in the Life and Death and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ." -Oswald Chambers, "Our Brilliant Heritage".
Speaking of faith in Christ, it is more than just a trust in the fact that what Christ said is true, it is trust in Him to the core of our being, trust in who He is, what He did, and its' outcome in our own life and the life of the whole world. It is a trust that covers all circumstances that unfold in our life and times that His Gospel is true and His grace is sufficient both in the healing of past hurts or reconciling past failings, and, in present power to be His witnesses through the Spirit He has sent to dwell in us.
That is good to know since times are changing. Changing toward what end? That remains to be seen in the short run, but, in the long run, changing toward that which God has promised, for which even all creation groans - the appearance of the Man of God and the establishment of His rule of love and holiness throughout the earth within and without.

emptiness

Emptiness, emptiness, void and hollow -
Sometimes life's too much to swallow -
Sometimes you just want to wallow
in self-pity or vague wonderings of
how unending this present pain,
this pain that remains a stain
on the journey's joy not a coy
but a bold affront, will be.
Being and being, yet, not seeing
the freeing desired, but the weeing
of its' largeness, smallness spreeing
in here and there, wherever, so
easily, yet hurtifully a hard blow
removing hope, insteads bestows
dry rot 'twill soon besot the
whole, fore, aft, aport, alee.
Surrounded, hounded by loss,
the dross of life, cause of cross
people's strife, and Christ's Cross
offered, proffered reversal there
love's reheresal more than fair -
a newness sure it does forswear -
emptiness filling, rot replacing,
freed and facing life with glee -
at least with Joy He gives to me!

Here's looking at you...

I read this today in Oswald Chamber's "Moral Foundations of Life" p. 90 - "Never look for other people to be holy; it is a cruel thing to do, it distorts your view of yourself and of others. Could anyone have had a sterner view of sin than Jesus had, and yet had anyone a more loving, tender patience with the worst of men than He had? The difference in the attitude is that Jesus Christ never expected men to be holy: He knew they could not be: He came to make men holy. All He asks of men is that they acknowledge they are not right, then He will do the rest --- "Blessed are the poor in spirit". How you view people does color how you act toward them and react to them. It affects the hope you have for yourself and for others as to a fullness of life, and possibly to change for the better. It is encouraging to me that He is hopeful for the best in me. It's because He is able to cause what He hopes for in me, and you.

When?

When will life end for me and for you?
Will it be at seventy-six, or, at sixty-two?
Maybe by strength and blessing fine -
Maybe it will even be eighty-nine.
But, I really don't know -
Have no way to show -
How far, or, how long I will go,
And so, today I'll walk and
Talk as You've shown me, in love.

In love for you, in love for others;
with love for enemies, and for brothers.
Two things you said were bottom line -
To love You and neighbor, as You have mine.
But, I really don't know
How to love like You, so,
Put Your's in me, make it flow
Today as I wak and talk
As You cause me, by grace.

Because whether at the journey's start -
or, in the long, long middle part -
or, when the load is coming heavy
As strength recedes by such years' levy -
When it's hard to see the sky's rainbow -
or, travel where fresh waters flow -
or, even enjoy the bright sun's glow -
with weak knees and bent back
I walk and talk, as pain does wrack...

I'll need Your love and grace to keep on track -
to find my way at last to the place
You've prepared for me...

I'm ready at 58, or, 62, or, 76, or, 89 -
whenever You decide will be just fine:
I'll trust, as I have, You, with all of mine...

Cover My Children

Cover my children, Lord, cover them now -
Before ere comes the wind that blows
Or the breaking of the bough.
Keep the weed seed the enemy sows
away from their house -
O, cover my children, Lord, cover them now!

Cleave to the Lord, my child, yes, to Him cleave -
Call on the Lord and pray He'll never leave -
with Him your stength is enough
ever to stand, whether the times are tough
or mundanely bland!
Cleave to the Lord, my child, hold to His hand!

The Election

Will the election be by natural selection,
or, contrived spin to usher in
not one who is superior, whose
interior motives or spiritual votives
rise above, guided by His love; but, inferior,
choosing what is less than best, lest the
worst wrest coveted power away.
Power for the hour is sought, thought
to be bought, so, for buyer wrought
dreams and schemes to be fulfilled -
not killed for four years more, now
keeping score - revenge galore is
planned - of a kind that will
bind a better chain on us, of course.
Coarse bound chains not freeing, but
found enslaving us, caving in
hopes begun to grow, now we
know in this age, the devil's
latest rage is always a better
cage - one especially designed
for our times, we resign, give up.
Give it up - live it up - express your
liberty by license, use common
sense cause its a hoot to think
absolutes given then, are binding,
when we all know what's thought
now is how to move, to groove,
to blindly feel your way along.
Break out the bong, and give strong
aid, through hazy laid inducement
to bring about a reduced bent toward
reason; for it's the season of
feeling, realling through emotion
to commotion mistaken for
awakened comprehension, feel the tension.
Reason's not the ration this nation must
lean on either; revelation's the means-
by God's Spirit to weather this
moments foment of dark delusion -
we need a genuine fusion of
person to Person, human to divine,
to find the line we all must walk.
So, when you talk of politic, don't be
so quick to stick with the schtick
that's laid on you by people paid
to make you think they'll lead us to
the brink of Eden, cuz' politic's Eden
will be needin' weedin' - listen to the
Host's representative to help you see
what to belive. Then, follow the Revelation!

Times within times

today there are at least 4 generations of culture in the U.S. You probably know them: builders, boomers, busters, and millenials. Of course, there are variations on each of these themes here and around the world there are more variations than we can probably imagine. Like a kalidescope of humanity we are swirling around in space occupying place each having face, grace, pace at which we are moving in our earthly dance. Often we believe only in our generation finding the gap between us like a canyon of immense distance, feeling unable and unwilling to span the difference by recognizing the likeness of our encounter with the is we face, reacting so differently to the absolutes and the relatives of what is around us and within us. There is a true center that embraces all the generations and makes way for the oneness that is ours, that is real. He is the true center. He is Jesus.

What's in a name?

Kairos - time - not the passing of the clock time, but, the times of note - real time as given significance by events that unfold in our lives and in the world;
Ichabod- the glory departed - a name that describes the undoing of a dream, a kingdom, a nation, a people, even of an individual - that which once was great now diminished by the choices, actions, direction taken by those from whom this said glory is departed
Times - now!
We live in a time when the glory of the people created is being diminished by the same said people through their denial of their origins, source of being and meaning, of purpose of existence, of direction of journey - by their denial of their Creator in exchange for an arrogant promotion of selfism that leads to nothingness in everything.