Poetry & More
A Most Sacred Trust
“…As we come to desperately rely on His assistance, we will intentionally set our attention and our affections upon Him, and there will be no moment outside of His presence that does not feel to us, strangely uncomfortable...”
I’ve often wondered how Jesus ministered healings and miracles; if He used a loud dramatic voice to express himself; if His manner was sensational and theatrical, or more matter-of-fact and down-to- earth.
When He healed the paralytic man, lowered down through the roof, Jesus, with those standing ‘round, seemed to be calm and conversational. The biblical record doesn’t indicate that He used force of speech to summon the power to heal. And yet, at Christ’s calm command, the man was healed.
Without emotional music, theatrics, or melodrama, Jesus commanded a confidence of faith, such that those sick and diseased, felt compelled to thrust themselves, by extravagant measures of courage, towards Him.
How is it then that we so often feel we need a singer, and a platform of musicians to summon into our altars the person and power of the Holy Spirit, to heal? And how often was Jesus actually in the Synagogue when performing miracles, healings and deliverance? Our Lord carried out His ministry daily, and in the course of His living and goings on. He wasn’t on a tour of pre-scheduled seminars and services.
He was in the ministry of teaching, healing, performing miracles as He encountered needs throughout the day, not in the formal structure of a weekly church service. Being led by the Holy Spirit was His DAILY practice, and therefore He was always ready to minister healing as the moments presented themselves.
If the members of the body of Christ today were completely responsive to the Holy Spirit, as a matter of daily practice, more of us would be doing what Christ did throughout the ongoings of our day. So many of us are convinced that the Holy Spirit is more near us when we feel emotionally stirred, either during prayer time, or in a church worship service. If this is what you believe, you must forsake the thought.
I will illustrate this point. When you are home with your most dearly beloved, how often do you spend time with them in a highly emotional state, either tearful, or highly excited? Most likely, not very often, especially if your relationship has been lasting and long.
Our relationship with Holy Spirit is similar in this regard. Because He is our Teacher and Comforter, we may not always feel highly emotional in His presence. We may instead feel prompted to do something, like reach out to encourage or pray for someone, confess a sin, or witness the gospel of Christ. Or we may simply feel the comforting calm presence of His peace. Like being in the company of a close friend, with whom we feel aware of and comfortable, is how it feels to be near the person of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit wants to be trusted.
... to trust a friend, we need to know them personally and intimately. We trust someone more completely because, over time, they have proven themselves trustworthy. Trust is sewn into the woven fabric of every lasting and true relationship.
And this is the case with the Holy Spirit. If we expect to trust Him to accomplish the will of the Father through us, we must be familiar with how He communicates. We must be intimately aware of what His presence feels like and what His voice within us sounds like. As with anyone we trust, knowing someone so intimately starts with familiarity.
…so how do we become familiar with the person, the voice and the presence of the Holy Spirit? My answer may fall upon you like a catch phrase, a worn out slogan bereft of power or originality. But I tell you with the greatest of confidence and conviction, there is no other way.
We learn to know Him through two very intentional acts of faith. The first is to take study of scripture, and the second is prayer.
The scriptures reveal to us the characteristics, the purpose, and the nature of the Holy Spirit. These scriptures are Romans 8: 23-26, John 14: 15-17 and verse 26, and Galatians 5:22-23. We must also study the stories in both Testaments, as they reveal the work of God through people by the divine person and power of the Holy Spirit.
As told in the book of Judges, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and Jephthah, leading Israel to victory over their enemies; The Spirit of the Lord came upon David to be anointed as king; the Spirit of the Lord enabled Ezekiel to prophesy; the Spirit of the Lord conceived Jesus in Mary's womb, descended upon Him at His baptism, and led Him into the wilderness in preparation for ministry; the Apostles were filled with the Spirit of the Lord to speak in other languages; the Spirit of the Lord participated in creation; the Spirit of the Lord gives life to humanity and other creatures, as found in Psalm 104:29 and 30; the Spirit of the Lord strives with sinners, as described in Genesis 6:3. There are these and numerous other accounts in God’s word that describe Him to us.Our mouth is the physical instrument through which we express our faith in, not only God the Father & Son, but God the Holy Spirit. Prayer is how we come to know God, but prayer feels difficult to us because we so often fail to summon the help of the Holy Spirit in prayer. Romans 8:26 tells us that, the Spirit helps us in our weakness because we do not know what to pray for. According to the Scripture, we can expect to feel weak and inadequate in prayer unless the Holy Spirit helps us pray. Effectual prayer only comes about with His assistance. Just as the sinner is saved through faith in Christ by admission of guilt, so is the one who knoweth not how to pray, aided by the Holy Spirit, when he or she admits this weakness. Prayer is much easier to do when, at the start, one makes to Him this confession:
“Holy Spirit, I want to pray for _______________, but I don’t know what to pray. You understand that this is my inadequacy and my weakness. It is for this and other reasons, that the Father sent You. Help me in my weakness. Pray the Father’s will through me now”.
Once you verbally acknowledge this weakness, you will begin to realize the direction and purpose of your prayer as it wells up in your heart and out your tongue. It may be a language you don’t recognize; it may be groanings too deep for words, or it may be the clearest of words drawn from the surest place in your heart. In those sweet moments, however, you will find yourself praying with strength and divine confidence, and blessed assurance. Be it long or short, you will know that you have experienced the Holy Spirit, and that He through you, has prayed God’s will. In all your ways, having acknowledged Him, He will have surely directed your path.
In our innermost, we will, through the continuity of daily prayer and scripture, ascend the heights and depth of understanding and begin to recognize, not only the gentle presence and whisper of the Holy Spirit, but our oneness with God’s will. As we come to desperately rely on His assistance, we will intentionally set our attention and our affections upon Him, and there will be no moment outside of His presence that does not feel to us, strangely uncomfortable. If, in fact for one moment, we are separated of that blessed union, our hearts will, like a small child does the moment he recognizes he is lost, urgently cry out to be rescued and reunited to Him.
If we love God, then a trust so sacred is the trust we must set upon this Person, the Holy Spirit. His divine assignment towards us is established in heaven. Just as He hovered over the waters, before God ordered Him into creative action, He is hovering over and dwelling in our hearts, ready to carry forth God’s purposes and will through you and me. All things we desire, the hope for which we patiently await is accomplished through Him. There is nothing about God’s work or God’s blessings towards us, no spiritual prize we can hope to attain, without His assistance.
If ever we trust in the arms of the Father, and rest our fears and longings upon the love of Christ Jesus, let us walk with the Holy Spirit, ever mindful of His good intentions toward those of us, to whom the Father has sent Him. After all, what’s left but the dung pile ready to be burned, if we pursue the desires of our own will? There is no other good will upon which we can assuredly rely, from which spring forth in us the fountains of life, fulfillment and peace, except that will which is God’s.
If our goal is life everlasting, blessed and eternal fulfillment, and the trusted hope of salvation; if we aim to know the mind of the Father and do the works of Christ, then God the Holy Spirit, must be our Teacher, our Advocate, and Guide.
Gray
Oh glorious sun, so shamelessly bright
Where do you hide on mornings so stark,
so dreary and gray?
I would be off to find you,
but for all I have to do
You must be up to something
where'er it is you are…
Resting, or playing amongst other stars?
It's summertime, I guess you know
Or did you forget your finest hour of splendor?
Perhaps you're weary of hearing us curse the blistery hot afternoons,
the May’s, July’s, and June’s
Labor
A poem by Dawn Thomas
It’s hot; it’s noisy;
It’s summer.
the buzzing of a saw, the popping of a nail,
the sweating of the brow.
And the workers carry on.
Not Ellie, my yellow tabby, who wanders by
with only a wish for a scratch or two under the chin
She bears no worry or burden,
her belly is full, and her sleep is dreamy
Things
Things I need, they are but few,
But I must needs them when I do.
It's not so much to wish for food
Until I want with hunger
Or a coat, until it’s cold
For every need demands a moment,
and every moment hath a need
What is called for, and when,
is what matters, it seems
Things, otherwise, are simply a burden to me.
A Splash of Red
There,
Amid the patchy gray, the steely hue
And the brown bark of a branch,
against the ashen twigs, and the smokey white sky,
A splash of cardinal red.
distinct,
unmistakable,
striking the clearest note
Every Ordinary Moment
Every ordinary thing about us,
You fill with Your Holy Spirit to be useful for You.
Even our pedestrian tasks serve Your purpose.
So Father, help me
to feel the glory of meaning in every ordinary moment,
that my joy may be truly full.
God Promotion
Promote our Lord Jesus Christ with boldness!
Don’t forget, you have NOT been called to touch the lives of everyone, only those to whom God means for you to touch…SO DON’T HIDE YOUR GIFTS UNDER A BUSH, even though they may not appeal to everyone!
Self promotion, when God works His gift thru you, is GOD promotion. Do it all with bold love and intention.
He gives the gifts, you are responsible for the diligent work. Keep promoting Jesus!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Prayer is proof
Prayer is the proof of our faith
Prayer is the proof that we believe in God’s existence;
that He’s a personal God who is willing to listen, and act on our behalf.
Faith is not something physical we possess, but it’s a sense of knowing, born of the Spirit,
that we are connected to an invisible God.
Faith is the working of the Holy Spirit in us, who convinces our hearts that:
Jesus Christ is our Savior,
God is our Father and creator,
and that we are becoming sanctified through the Person of the Holy Spirit
That Blessed Assurance
It is not for scarcity of doubt that I believe,
Or absence of fear that I hope.
Yet in spite of fumbling faith, I leap into the arms of God,
and wander through that foggy abyss,
until, at last, I feel that blessed assurance
and the hush of His presence.
Tiny Seeds
Oh little ones.
You are tiny, so tiny, embryonic and small,
and the ground from which you grow is like a blanket,
Making a bed for you to lie beneath.
There your journey begins.
What has been destined for you? Who charmed your making,
and gave you powers to rise from the earth so resplendent and bold?
Do you, like me, toil with growing pains
And ever wish to remain hidden ‘neath the dirt, unchanged?
or, to the rain, soil, and sun, do you gracefully surrender,
and take delight in your becoming?
The Marks of Time
As we age, we bear the marks of time and choice.
Time has no conceptual matter that we know of, and yet its effects press down on us like gravity does the earth. Choice is that power born to every human, whereby all men stand as equals. In every situation, we can make a choice. Viktor Frankl, holocaust survivor who wrote the book, The Meaning Of Life, said this about choice:
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances.”
No one of us escapes the markings of time and choice. And so I’ve chosen to reflect on this thought for a bit.
Time has scientific definitions that are mathematical and elaborate. And while they are relevant and useful, it is not necessary, for the purpose of this discussion, to focus on these definitions. From a spiritual perspective however, time is a gift we cherish or a burden we bear. It is where the story of our lives take place. Time is the places we’ve been. For seldom in our memories do we recollect a time without the place. Time is consistently and predictably impersonal, and yet we each bear its marks in a most personal way.
At some point in the years of our lives, the landscape changes. What was once a life ahead of us and the hope of things we mean to achieve becomes a lifetime of things accomplished and pictures of memories made. Time acquaints us all with the same types of feelings; heartache and hopes; disappointments and dreams, love and sorrow and those moments forgotten. And yet somehow the story for one is never the same as the story for another is it. And as uniquely individual to us are our fingerprints, so are the times and stories of our lives.
One thing worth pondering is that somehow the ending, for each person, never seems to be as glorious as does the beginning. Youth is packaged in promise and vigor while the old is wrapped in wrinkles and rest.
But is there something that we are missing perhaps? A glorious beauty, reserved only for those marked by time that rivals the beauty of those too young to bear any marks at all? Surprisingly, the answer is, conditionally, yes, depending on the marked one and his or her relationship to those marks they bear. For not all persons have chosen to make peace with time or the circumstances that have shaped the story of their lives.
And the distinction between those who have made peace and those who have not, is clear. But do we know why? Why one is very clearly at peace with their own story and another is clearly bitter, resentful, and angry. I believe one simple word can describe the difference.
TRUST.
Where we put our trust makes all the difference in who we become, and how we are shaped by time. We generally decide that someone is trustworthy by how reliably we can count on their intentions towards us, and to what degree our ultimate good matters to them.
For some, God is not at all trustworthy, for they have experience much suffering and pain. God has made clear in His word that we can expect suffering to be a part of the human experience, both for the just and the unjust. Despite His God-ness, which enables Him to do all things, He often times does not make for us a way around it, knowing, as He says to us in Romans 5, “…that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope…”
I admit, It is not natural to understand this about God. It requires our trust. It wasn’t easy for the apostle Paul, for he said, “I have learned what it is to be in need, and what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.” Learning requires the experience of conscious action and the practice of something.
So what makes God trustworthy?
Well, what we know about God through the scriptures, is that although He uses suffering to produce in us endurance, character, and hope… He doesn’t expect any less of Himself. And Jesus, God made flesh, too, knowing it was His Father’s will that He face the painful crucifixion, struggled to trust his Father, sweating great drops of blood and wrestling with how it could be possible to trust in His goodness in light of what He was being asked to endure. …”even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things He suffered.” Hebrews 5:8
It is not clear why suffering is sometimes God’s way and will, but I can feel more confident to trust in a Creator who is willing to subject Himself to the same horrors of evil and pain as are presented to us.
Job, being a godly, upright man, benevolent to the poor, fair in business, and highly respected, believed that God rewarded and preserved from suffering those whose way was blameless. And Job, confused that the righteous were permitted to suffer, as he was, questioned God’s righteous responsibility towards those He loves and made.
But through suffering and Divine visitation, Job came to understand God’s unique qualifications to determine what is right to do towards us. He put it to Job like this: “Have you ever in your days commanded the morning light?” (38:12). “Do you know, where does light live, or where does darkness reside?” (38:19). “Can you lead out a constellation in its season?”
(38:4) “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you possess the understanding of these things!
(38:5) Who set its measurements—if you know— or who stretched a measuring line across it? (38:8) “Who shut up the sea with doors when it burst forth, coming out of the womb.”
We can’t trust God if we don’t recognize His superior qualifications. A standard has merit, only if by its superior qualifications, all other things can be judged. If I believe I’m qualified to judge God’s actions towards me, then I have determined that my own wisdom is the superior standard by which God’s actions should be judged. I clearly don’t recognize that His wisdom is superior, or accept the truth about myself or God.
God never tells Job why he permitted the hardship, but He does help Job realize how little he could possibly understand about how to judge what is right or wrong of God to do toward us. And finally Job admits to God, “I had heard about you with my own ears, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.” Job 42:5
Aside from his wealth, cattle, family, and health, what did Job gain from this horrifying experience? Job recognized that God’s superior wisdom set Him apart from all other standard bearers. And that God, as Creator, was uniquely qualified to determine what suffering was right for him. Job through suffering recognized the superior wisdom and nature of God to make this determination.
The thing about life is we don’t get to decide what God wills for us, but we do get to decide what our relationship to His will is going to be. The only way to trust that His actions towards us are righteous is to recognize that there is no other standard, superior to His wisdom, capable of measuring righteousness. If we believe Him to be any less God or less qualified to be God, we will always be suspect of His good honor, righteous judgements and good intentions towards us.
It is not ours to decide to exist, or not to exist. It is however ours to decide what sort of relationship with our Maker best serves our own ultimate end. And so that our “being” does not feel like a burdensome imposition, God designed and wired us to feel alive and fulfilled in the ongoing fellowship of His presence.
God is Maker. God is maker of heaven and earth and all that is. Trust Him or not, He is our Maker. Now the good thing is, He promised that all things in our suffering work out in the end for our good. He promised us that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. That suffering endures but for a season and joy eventually comes in the morning. In the end, despite the markings of time and circumstances that seem to stretch us to our limits and test us until we would seemingly collapse beneath the weight of life, God is ultimately working for us and in us and making something beautiful.
Just ask Jesus, who, for the joy of the promise set before Him, endured the cross, the suffering, and the shame. Because He trusted that His Father had His ultimate good in mind. He chose to trust the heart and the will of his father. And now??? He sits at God’s right hand in power and glory. The suffering is over, and the reward is now and forever His.
I submit to you that God is trustworthy.
What sort of relationship do you have with time and those days of suffering God has permitted you to face? When you look back over it all and recall the difficult moments? Perhaps you lost a husband or a son or daughter, and you’ve decided that God can’t be trusted. Perhaps you faced disappointment, sickness, divorce, betrayal, or some other kind of painful circumstance, and you no longer trust God because you don’t trust that He has your ultimate good in mind.
God made the earth a plentiful resource of provision for His creation. Our planet is positioned in space just the perfect nearness to the sun to keep temperatures sustainably warm, but no so far away that we freeze. He designed ecological systems to symbiotically work together. Our cellular structure is made up of complex functions that carry nutrients to various organs, breaking down glucose molecules to create the energy we need to move, breathe and live. He also sends the rain, the storms, the darkness and the seeming “bad” things. Our bodies can break down, are capable of becoming injured and bruised. We can experience great discomfort and pain, of such things, even Christ was not immune.
God has made life, and all of creation lovely and whole. In the garden of Eden, our Father withheld nothing from us, not even the power to choose our way over His. As love demands choice, God gave us the right and power to be free of His input altogether. But just as plants, uprooted and left unplanted die, we too die when do not plant our trust in Him.
Mankind mismanaged this great power of choice. And by ultimately deciding that God’s instructions were not trustworthy, we ingested the seed of disobedience and made ourselves subject to death, and decay as a result. We became, as it were, cut off from the vine. We invited suffering into our world.
Adam and Eve quickly learned that humankind does not possess SELF sustaining capabilities. Just as the plant needs the sun to generate energy necessary for its life, our soul is a dependent vessel, reliant on its Creator.
There is only one self sustaining Power and Person that exists. He is God. He is qualified to be God in every way. He is qualified and entitled to determine what is right for His creation; In other words, He knows why He made you, how to provide for you, what suffering ULTIMATELY benefits you, what promises he means for you to inherit, how to make you useful and grow, and how to fulfill the deepest part of you.
Without choice, we would be nothing more than God’s robots, but as free agents of choice, WE are provided the way to fill our own cup. As long as WE keep the cord connected, we are promised nourishment and the fulfilling joy and peace of God’s presence in times of sorrow and hardship or other times of comfort and rest.
As soon as WE choose to disconnect the cord, we are like withering vines, void of the life giving spiritual nutrients that feed our joy. Discontentment and unfulfillment always accompanies an untethered soul. Out of anger, we often times disconnect the chord of relationship with God. Refusing to be shaped by suffering into a more beautiful person, we only inflict ourselves with a more painful bitterness.
The Maker IS the Knower, IS the loving Father, who cares about His own creation. Because this IS true, then He deserves to be trusted. If you can believe His promises, then you can surely trust that your suffering is not lost on Him.
I urge you to make peace with God today, and give Him the trust He deserves. Make peace with your suffering and sorrow, and recognize the reward He means for you to obtain by it. Thank Him for the scars, for they are your testimony, and what makes you resilient and uniquely useful and special, and beautifully like Christ.
Tell Him that you, like Job, trust His qualifications to judge what is right to do where you’re concerned, even the suffering; that you respect His wisdom and His position, and that you trust Him to lead you into His promised goodness. Acknowledge that because He is uniquely God and Maker, His will concerning you is always right and always ultimately good.
And finally, thank Him for being with you through it all, for giving you the strength, the peace, and the power to trust His purpose and His love.
The Prayer
The prayer
Our Father:
I acknowledge WHO You are in relation to me
Who art in heaven:
I acknowledge where You are
Hallowed be Thy Name:
I acknowledge the unique sacredness of Your name
Thy kingdom come:
I acknowledge that you have a future plan
Thy will be done:
I acknowledge that YOUR will is of utmost importance and can be trusted
On earth:
I acknowledge that matters that concern your will have to do with our earth
As it is in heaven:
I acknowledge that your will is established in heaven already
Give us this day our daily bread:
I acknowledge that You are not only mindful of my daily needs, but will supply them as they arise
And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors:
I acknowledge that my actions and mercy towards others affect your actions and mercy towards me, and that I am shown your forgiveness to the same degree that I forgive others
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
I acknowledge that your purpose is to lead me on paths of righteousness that will guarantee the security of my spiritual future
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory forever:
I acknowledge that all kingdoms in heaven and earth are exclusively Yours, and the gifts we receive are not by entitlement, but by Your grace and goodness.
Amen: And so it is.
Bubble
If I were a bubble,
I would alight softly on a tree
And wait for a breeze to carry me off again
I would float carefully and gently thru the clouds,
and soar on the wings of a robin
I would drift between raindrops in the middle of a storm
And count on the current to keep me dry and warm
I would give reflection to the moon each night
And spin in space like the earth
Round and round the sun I’d go, bouncing on a star
Then in the flutter and whirling of the wind
I'd waft back down again
So feathery light and delicate, of medium size and girth,
I'd pose on a prickly pine cone
‘t'il the air in my belly burst
That Tranquil Hour
All the busy moments relent as another day ends.
and the scorching heat subsides in that tranquil hour…
dusk,
when the perfect mix of coolness kisses the warm air;
and the sun, sinking softly into the faded sky,
quiets my mind, and stills my heart.
There are Days
There are days so novel and new;
When the playful sounds of a busy morning
awaken my heart, And I feel designed for some meaningful event plotted for no one but me
I am poised, like a cheetah, quick and sure footed,
And my mind is running with flawless perfection.
There are days when I hear the quiet
whisper of rain and the silence of a gray fog
Like the bowing of a single cello
I lay there, like a kitten on a rug, and my room is still;
The curtains lay open, but I shut the world out,
Pondering life and moments gone from me
There are days when the air feels like a feathery cloud, dreamy and distant
Like I don't belong to myself or the world
And places familiar to me seem strangely different,
Like I’m wandering through a play,
As a character; The one I chose to be,
But don't recognize.
There are days, like today,
when colors are pale
and the senses are blank, like a canvas waiting to be painted.
