My One Melchizidek

"I thank Thee, O Father, that Thou hast ever planted Thy first rose 'ere the Canaanite has been expelled. I thank Thee that Thou hast sown the wheat before Thou hast plucked up the tares. I thank Thee that Thou has sent the primrose into my early year. There are Melchizideks in the heart while the heart is only a "land of the Canaanites." My aspirations come sooner than my deeds. Long before I am good I have longings after goodness. Thou acceptest me for these longings, O my God; Thou waitest not for the full corn, Thou tarriest not for the autumn ripeness. Thou comest to the one opening bud in my heart - the one Melchizidek in my Canaan. Thou comest to my first rose - my primrose. Thou callest my life a garden, while it is yet a wilderness. I am justified by faith, by mere aspiration, before I have done a single good work. The Canaanites are all within me still; the old habits are there, the old temptations are there. But there is a single Melchizidek among them - the wish of my heart for better things. Thou has accepted that solitary flower and called it righteousness. Thou hast beheld my one star and called it Bethlehem. Thou hast seen my one thread of gold and called it Christ. Thou hast heard the faint beating of my heart and called it Calvary. Thou has received Melchizidek in spite of his environment - in the dark and in the cold Thou has received him, in the midst of the Canaanites Thou hast received him."

~George Matheson

Our Christmas

We're spending the holidays at home. I'm taking 2 weeks vacation, so we're enjoying sleeping late, reading, playing games, and taking in a couple of movies (go see "Phantom of The Opera"). I go to the gym and go ice skating; after all the food I've eaten, I need that.

Instead of exchanging presents, on Christmas day Pat and I hosted some of our latino friends whose families are in their home countries; we also had some latino families over. We enjoy our latino church and the way they have accepted us. We're both growing in our Spanish language abilities, and I occasionally get a chance to preach and teach, and I play guitar with the worship team there.

Our older son and his family gave us lots of little travel items to take on the plane on our upcoming missions trip to Paraguay.

Our daughter Mary and her family came by the day after Christmas to exchange presents; we ate dinner together at Olive Garden (more food, more repentance).

I popped into the office today to help relieve any year-end problems that might have cropped up; there were none, but better safe than sorry.

We peek out the windows at the new neighbors, trying to figure them out.

Next year will be here soon enough. For now I'm enjoying long, lazy days filled with books and plenty of quality/quantity time with the love of my life, Pat.

He Is Worthy

"Thou art worthy, O lord, to receive glory and honour and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." (Rev. 4:11)

The Lord Jesus is worthy of our praise and adoration (the Spanish word for worship is "adoracion;" that says a lot). He is worthy in and of Himself for who He is. Our worship should not be motivated solely by what He has done for us - that is a self-centered viewpoint. (Of course, the big problem is that we are self-centered, but God is trying to break us of that.)

His attributes are so wonderful and His character is so magnificent that these alone should engender praise from His people. When we get to the point where we can see beyond our own mess and catch a glimpse of Jesus in all His glory, then we will begin to know something of His worthiness.

How wonderful to be released from self and from the cares and worries that beset the whole world, to be released into the realms of the Kingdom of God, to join the cherubim and seraphim and the angels and the beasts and the elders as they fall down before His throne and cry "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord." If we had six wings we would cover our face with two that we not see into the natural realm; we would cover our feet with two that we not walk our own walk; and with two we would fly into the glorious regions of the liberty of the sons of God.

Contemporary emphases in Christendom have focused on self and strayed from former paths devoted solely to the glory of God. Let us with a glad heart lift high the Name of Jesus and recapture the former glory and press on into higher and higher realms of revelation. We know not the way, but we have a way-maker, a great King who waits to lead us there.

They Were Looking For A King

They were all looking for a king
To slay their foes, and lift them high;
Thou cam’st, a little baby thing
That made a woman cry.

... George MacDonald (1824-1905)

When God Walked

In Eden fair and lovely, long ago,
God came in even coolness there to walk
And seek in Adam fellowship divine.
And they heard the voice of God as He walked.
They heard no sound of footsteps, but a voice -
A wistful, hungry call, "O where art thou?"
O, hungry heart of God, Thy voice was heard
In Eden's even coolness long ago.
God came again to walk and talk with man.
No dim echo of a voice was there heard -
The voice becomes incarnate and we hear
And see again the mighty God in flesh.
And still His heart is hungry as of old
When Eden heard Him call so long ago.
My Bethlehem is open, Lord to Thee,
O, come and walk my dusty streets with me;
Find what Thy heart has ever sought in man.
My heart is hungry - 'twas made for Thee.
Come, my Bethlehem is open wide to Thee
And let me hear Thy footsteps move again
As in the ancient Eden long ago.

~John Wright Follette

O Night Divine!

There's something about Christmas Eve, something that doesn't have anything to do with the presents or the decorations or the food. That night is special. You can feel it in the air when you step outside and stand under God's heaven. There's an expectancy, a promise, a palpable Presence to that night.

The night feels alive with hope, with wholeness. You get the feeling that everything's going to be allright after all. And it is, because Jesus has come. Jesus rights every wrong and up-ends every situation.

All over the world, wars stop. Soldiers stop the killing, sing carols, and remember. All over the world, commerce ceases. The spending frenzy is over - that was in someone else's name. Now Jesus comes on the scene and the shopkeepers lock their doors and head home to their families. All over the world, families come together again at last.

Unlike other nights, when the black night sky and the far-away stars can make you feel so small and insignificant, on this night you feel like you're included in God's great plan for the world. And you are, because God had you in mind when He sent His Son.

This night is for each of us. Nobody's left out or forgotten - poor shepherds on the hillside were invited by angels to come and see. Little children as well as their grandparents get a twinkle in their eyes on this night because it holds such wonder and promise.

O, what a wonderful night. O Night Divine.

Beans, Blogs, and Breadbowls

"It's a great day for soup," Sean said, as he headed the car out of my company's parking lot, where he had picked me up, and toward our favorite restaurant, where we would, as we do every Thursday, each order a breadbowl, a round loaf of bread with the middle scooped out and filled with thick, hearty soup. After you finish the soup, you eat the bowl.

Over our breadbowls we share our mutual passion for the manifest Presence of the Lord Jesus. The conversation is as hearty as the soup as we lift Him up in all His glorious aspects. Lives which have been impacted by the burning of His glory ignite when near the burning bush. We share the impact He has had on our lives, our desires for the church, our excitement in the growing world-wide night and day intercessory prayer movement, the Scriptures which He opens to our hearts as He walks beside us in The Way.

Although we both work in IT for large financial services companies, we rarely discuss work and business issues. That takes a back seat to Jesus. And although I'm usually aware of my surroundings - people, places, and points of the compass - that all becomes just a backdrop, like the wallpaper on my computer desktop, as the King of Glory takes center stage. When He is lifted up, all else becomes secondary.

After we eat our bowls, we walk across the parking lot to St. Arbucks to drink our beans (brewed into pricey designer coffee drinks) and continue sharing His life. As the time stretches past the short interval allotted us by our respective employers, we realize that we have been in real fellowship as we warm our hearts at His fire.

Church can too often put us shoulder to shoulder with people we don't know at all, even after many years, and we end up alone together. But Jesus connects us in a way that no program or exercise can.

And we blog. This keeps us connected. While our modern lifestyle separates us by concrete highways, the information highway allows us to hang together. While no substitute for fellowship in the flesh, blogging is becoming a way of ministering to each other, encouraging each other, proclaiming the wonder of our glorious King of Glory. There's a growing band of bloggers who are fulfilling their calling of "hath not each of you a psalm, a hymn, a tongue, a doctrine?"

So keep blogging, you band of bloggers. And have some soup and eat some bread. And drink your beans.

The First Christmas Night

I like to think that maybe the sun did try to set a little sooner, that the birds hurried their singing and found their nests as soon as they could, that all nature was attuned to what would happen on that night.

I WONDER if the sun made haste to set
So that the shades of night might sooner fall
And quickly bring the longed-for holy night -
That first glad Christmas night so loved by all?
I think perhaps the little birds made haste
To sing their even song and go to rest;
The patient beasts were glad to find their stalls.
All nature wrapped in twilight dusk was blest.
The stars hung low and shone so bright and clear,
While soft winds lingered in an ancient tree
Whose arms reached out against the dark'ning sky -
The silent token of a mystery.

This was the night by prophets long foretold
When God Himself in human form concealed
Should come to us in Mary's Holy Babe.
While hidden thus our God was thus revealed.
No human eye could penetrate the veil
E'en though He walked and talked with men each day.
His diety by revelation came
To those who loved and followed all the way.
Concealed, revealed, He dwells in us today,
A mystery our hearts alone can share.
The winds still whisper in the ancient tree.
A feast is spread where once the heart was bare.

~John Wright Follette

'Tho A Stranger

I was impressed that those who came to see the babe in the manger were strangers to the family; they were shepherds from the fields. Yet Mary and Joseph let them come in to the stable and see the child. We don't do that with our newborns - we wouldn't tolerate that. But then, this was a different kind of child. And that thought inspired this poem.

If you were a shepherd you'd come too,
Leaving the sheep on the hill where they lay;
His parents would let you, 'tho a stranger, come in
And worship the child, and kneel on the hay.

If you were a wise man, you'd come too,
And follow the star by night and by day;
His parents would let you, 'tho a stranger, come in
And worship the child, and kneel on the hay.

But you're just who you are - you come too,
And make your way to the manger today;
His Father will let you, 'tho a stranger, come in
And worship His Son and kneel on the hay.

~Nick Bowen

Heaven On Earth - Part 2

And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal: And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates, twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. (Revelation 21: 9 - 12).

Here we see again the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. There were twelve gates with twelve angels with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.

Paul tells us in Hebrews 12:22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels. This is not something we have to strive for or wait until death to enter; we're there now. (You may have to read that a couple of times to get past what others have said about it - but that's OK. I'll wait.)

The number twelve is a governmental number - there were 12 Old Testament patriarchs and 12 New Testament apostles. The government is upon His (Jesus') shoulders (Isaiah 9:6), and that government is the Kingdom of God. Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of God is within us, and that it is righteousness, peace, and joy.

So we see that this heavenly kingdom is being established in our hearts. This is a present day reality. To understand this we have to fight past the view given to us by the dispensationalists that everything good God has done is either in the past or in the future, which leaves us with nothing for the present. God is eternal, and you and I are as much a part of His plans as Moses, Elijah, David, Matthew, John, Paul, and so forth.

This is so wonderful to contemplate and even more wonderful to be a part of! We have contemplated heaven as a place for us to dwell. The new Jerusalem is for Jesus - that place in our spirits where He can gain entrance through those gates, and where He can have a habitation. God Himself is taking up residence in our hearts! What could be more wonderful than that?

King Jesus, enter in to our hearts and be at home there! We offer up our lives to you, to be your dwelling place, your habitation in the earth.

The Little King of Christmas

I have revised this to make it less severe and more in keeping with the joy I feel at Christmas. At this time of year I prefer to focus on life rather than on death, although He was born to die; yet he died to live and rise again, so life is our hallmark, our desire, our destiny. Jesus came to give us life, and that more abundantly.

The little King of Christmas
Lies on a bed of hay,
Robed in swaddling clothes,
With vessels made of clay.

His palace is of wood,
The floor is earthen sod;
He is as small as me
And yet as big as God.

Poor shepherds are His court,
And oxen on Him wait,
For light He has a star,
A barn for an estate.

The wind blows through the slats;
He shivers in the cold.
Rest now, my little King,
You're safe here in the fold.

Oh, little King of Christmas,
Make my heart Your home;
I offer it a manger
For You and You alone.

This is my King for 'aye,
With Him my lot I cast -
The little King of Christmas,
Until my life be past.

~Nick Bowen

My Son The Blogger

My number 2 son has started blogging. Every time he expresses himself it blows me away.

Here's his site: http://www.thejazzguy.blogspot.com/

Incarnation

HAIL Christmas morn, most welcome is thy feast!
The world with well-filled barns is sore in need.
O, hungry world, how slow, how slow to learn
The truth that man is not to live by bread alone.
For he was made for something more than such.
So God has spread a feast of Love divine,
And at this holy season bids thee eat.
This ample portion rests in lowly crib.

Hark! hark! my soul, for God eternal speaks
One Word sublime, a miracle indeed.
For lo! the Word is clothed with human flesh,
This mystery He freely offers thee -
A Loaf of Bread all drenched in ruddy wine.
The only source of life my God provides.
Within I hear Him speak the Living Word.
My hungry heart thus feeds and lo! I live.

~John Wright Follette

Heaven On Earth - Part 1

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. (Rev. 21:1)

For a long time I wondered how there could be a new heaven, if heaven were that place where everything was perfect; there would be no need for a new heaven. A new earth, sure - earth has it's problems. But there are no problems in heaven, so why a new one?

I'm not going to answer that right now; the answer might get in the way of what I want to say next.

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (verse 2)

Everybody wants to go to heaven. Heaven is that place where everything is perfect, where there are no more tears, no more parting, no more sickness, where there is perfect peace and perfect joy, where we will see Jesus face to face. Oh, there's so much to look forward to. And the only way to get there is to die. Sorry.

But John saw something different. He saw the new Jerusalem coming down to earth out of heaven. Go ahead, read it again; I'll wait. That's really what it says.

God is doing everything in His power to get heaven into us now. He was incarnate in Bethlehem, died on a cross, was buried in an earthly grave, rose from the dead and walked the earth for 50 days, ascended to heaven and sent the Holy Spirit for whosever will to be all that He is in us.

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. (verse 3)
God spoke and said that His dwelling place was with men. (He didn't say "the tabernacle of men is with God," but "the tabernacle of God is with men.") He said that He would dwell with us.

God has pitched His tent in our wilderness. He desires for us to be His dwelling place, His habitation in the earth. Did not God command Moses to build Him a tent where He came to dwell in visible glory? That was just the precursor to this overwhelming truth for our day, that He desires to inhabit His people as His abode.

Some people get upset with this and say "Oh, you are taking heaven away from us." No, God wants to bring heaven closer - He wants to bring Heaven to earth. (to be continued...)

A Tale Of Two Trees

Two trees stood in a forest wood
Growing together side by side;
From one came the manger where Jesus was born,
From the other the cross where He died.

So close together, yet so far apart,
But really, they looked quite the same.
But on one would He be adored by the world,
On the other would men curse His name.

One brought Him life and one brought Him death.
One held His little, sweet head;
One held the nails in His hands and His feet
And was stained with the blood that He shed.

Lord Jesus, I would bring Thee life;
Let me be a manger tree
And cradle Thee within my arms,
Beholding Thy nativity.

~Nick Bowen

Rock Around The Clock

"Rock Around The Clock" was the first big rock 'n' roll hit, and it created a firestorm (you get points if you can tell me who recorded it). Relatively innocent compared to today's fare, it was apparently a big break from my parents' faves -"Flat Feet Floogie," "Cement Mixer," and "Marzie Doats." They enjoyed singing those for my brother and me and we all laughed together at the silliness.

My senior class in high school wanted to have the big New York disk jockey Alan Freed to MC our prom, but the parents got together and said no. It was all too much.

Who wouldn't opt for the thought of dancing all night to (come on now, who recorded that song?)instead of today's offerings about violence, suicide and the like? Now, every generation needs it's own thing, and there are those who say that music is innocent, but some of today's problems have got to be linked to what passes for music, Kevin Bacon films notwithstanding.

Anyway, popular music has taken a real slide downward.

Remember when "Playboy" came out? With it's slick pages and pseudo-intellectual content, it opened the door to today's porn supermarket. Add in the internet, and we've got disaster.

Rock and porn started with an almost acceptable product and went downward from there. (Oh yeah, we've got freedom of speech, etc., but along with those rights come responsibilities. Doesn't anybody care about the effect the exercise of their "freedom" is having on anybody else?)

Which all points out the descending nature of man - left to him/her self, the lowest common denominator keeps getting lower and lower. That's why we need a savior - we're a mess.

Jesus is our Rock. We need Him around the clock.

Monday, Monday

Today is Monday, it's raining, and it's cold. That invokes memories of the Mama's and the Papa's "Monday, Monday, can't trust that day" and Fats Domino's "Blue Monday." (I know, I know - I'm dating myself. You probably never heard those songs unless your Dad played oldies radio while you were in the car.)

But I'll be bet you've made some comments now and then about Mondays. Of course, a little bit of griping is just normal office banter (or wherever you happen to do your bantering). But we all have a different attitude on Monday morning than we did on Sunday night when the glory was falling and the goose bumps were bumping. Isn't that when we said "Lord, I'll go with you anywhere?"

Well, Monday is anywhere. Monday is just as much a part of God's plan for us as Sunday. Sunday's the classroom, Monday's the lab - you know, the place where you put into practice what you learned in the classroom.

Welcome to lab. Hope you pass.

Christmas Night

John Wright Follette was spiritual father to Wade
Taylor. His Christmas poems stir me every year, and
I'd like to share some during this Christmas season.


CHRISTMAS NIGHT

I LOVE the deep blue sky on Christmas night.
I love the silence and the holy awe,
For here my heart can rest and spirit feed.
How deep the blue, my heart, how deep?
As deep as God - eternity can tell.
My soul is thrilled to see again His star
Upon the bosom of the holy night,
Gleaming in its solitary grandeur.

Upon a rugged hill a lonely tree,
An omen bleak against the deep blue sky,
Lifts high its naked, tortured, hungry arms.
And lo! I see the star impaled thereon.
From sky I look to earth, and see again
The stable rude and in the manger laid
The little Christ Child on the hay asleep,
A new born babe - and yet as old as God.

~John Wright Follette

This is God!

I was talking with a friend yesterday and we got absolutely excited discussing who this is living inside us! This is God, the God who made the heavens and earth, the God who knows the end from the beginning, the God who loves us so much that He sent His Son Jesus to be our sin bearer. He has come to dwell, not just to visit.

Psalm 132 says "This is my rest forever, here will I dwell; for the Lord has chosen Zion, he has desired it for a dwelling place." Zion isn't up in the sky - it's on the earth!!! We are that Zion. We are His dwelling place.

The next time I start thinking there's nothing exciting going on I'm going to remember who this is living in my soul. This is God!!!!!

Come Christmas

This is my favorite of the Christmas poems I've written. Hope you enjoy it. More to follow.

Come Christmas my thoughts are held captive
By the thought of our God come to earth,
The mighty and wondrous Creator
Reduced to a child at his birth.

My heart burns anew like a candle
At the thought of the Bethlehem Babe,
So tiny, so touching, so tender,
A child in the world that he made.

Come Christmas the world seems much brighter
For the wonder still shines through the years;
Once again there's more hope and more laughter,
Lighter hearts, kinder words, fewer tears.

My heart waits with joy for this season,
This season that shines like a star,
When the world that we long for seems closer
And where peace doesn't seem quite so far.

Come Christmas our thoughts all turn homeward
To where love and where joy once began;
Let us turn homeward to Eden,
The place where once God dwelt with man.

"Jesus," that name means "Salvation,"
"Emmanuel" means "God With Us;"
God, let my heart be your Eden,
Every day, every year, come Christmas.

Wait On The Lord

When I shave in the morning I have to wait for the hot water to come through; the water runs cold for about 15 seconds (but it seems like an eternity!) and then gradually gets hot. For someone with as little patience as I have, that means I'm tapping my foot, rolling my eyes, and ho-humming as the water heats up.

That's the way it is with prayer and worship, too. We have to wait as we press through the earth realm into the Presence of God. We can't be discouraged by the feeling that we're not getting anywhere with the Lord. Every desire and aspiration of our heart toward God is to good effect, and we will prevail if we but wait a little.

Sometimes we can't flow into God's Presence; instead we have to press in and press through the coldness of our hearts and minds into the warmth of His love. Smith Wigglesworth, when asked how he was able to move in the Spirit when others couldn't, said "If the Spirit doesn't move me, I move the Spirit."

Wait on the Lord.