Our favorite movie is "The Apostle," with Robert Duvall. He portrays an all-too-human preacher who gets on the wrong side of the law and goes on the run. He makes landfall in a little town in Louisiana where he raises up a little country church that is the epitome of the humble little temple where everyone is welcome and accepted in Jesus. That's what I had in mind when I wrote this poem.
But the poem isn't really about buildings; it speaks instead of the things we take into our beings - our pride, our possessions, our desires, and all the issues of the heart. If we will reduce ourselves, if we will decrease, then He might increase.
The great church stood in the center of town,
A place of honor and renown;
The spires reached up to the sky,
The steeple rose up twice as high.
Stained glass windows brought the light
Within, in colors pure and bright.
Rich ornaments stood all around
And decked the place from top to ground.
Candles burned in sticks of gold,
And tapestries of colors bold
Bedecked the halls and walls so fair;
There was a richness in the air.
But two miles out, just past the woods,
A humble little temple stood;
The white-washed walls had seen their day,
The parking lot was hard-packed clay.
Within, the walls were plain and bare,
The floor boards creaked, scraped smooth with wear.
One picture graced the humble hall -
The face of Jesus gazed on all.
A light, from where? from up above?
A Presence - 'twas the King of Love.
The High and Lofty One doth dwell
Where humble hearts receive him well.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Seek Him Where He Lives
At a conference over Labor Day we heard a word that greatly impacted us, bringing us a deeper sense of awareness of the Presence of the Lord. It was not part of the teacher's message, more of a casual remark as he was winding up after his message. What he said was "Don't focus on externals - focus on the internal."
I thought of how I get all caught up in circumstances and situations, news and reports, television and movies, and everything else that is external to me - bills, books, videos, etc. I let those things determine how I feel.
The speaker didn't say we have to give these things up, so it's not about asceticism. It's about replacing one thing with another. If I put my effort into ignoring external things, I'd really be focusing on them, but if I instead put my attention somewhere else then I displace the negative influence with the positive one.
Jesus, being sovereign, rules and reigns over all the earth, and He isn't worried about these situations. God never has a bad day so why should we? We, being the temple of the Holy Spirit, ought to be more mindful of His activity within us.
What has worry ever accomplished? Personally, it's only made me feel worse than I did when I woke up, and I'm quite sure it never changed the situation I worried about. (Of course, I did get to experience the relief that comes when I found out that the situation was never as bad as I thought it would be!)
I've been thinking on the fact that all the symbols of the Holy Spirit are things that move - wind, fire, rain, and so forth. He is constantly moving - we're just not aware of it. If we will focus more on Him where He lives - in our inner beings - we'll not only experience more of His Presence but also be more aligned with His purposes in the earth. Besides, we'll wake up feeling a lot better.
I think this is what it means to be in the world but not of it. We can't avoid contact with the world, we're in it face first from morning to night. But we don't have to make it the be-all and the end-all of existence. Jesus is the One we love and adore; we can become more aware of Him and His beauty by focusing on Him instead of everything else under the sun.
Very often we live under misconceptions. We pray "Holy Spirit, come." Now, that's a good prayer, but we need to be vitally aware that He's already here. He's not going to come through the roof - He's going to rise up from within us, because He has made us His habitation in the earth.
I'm still processing the significance of this and learning to walk in it. It's a wonderful adventure and a liberating thing to become disconnected from external things - even while in the midst of them - and become more focused and attached to the Source of true life. It doesn't cost anything and I can do it anytime and all the time. That's just like something God would come up with.
I thought of how I get all caught up in circumstances and situations, news and reports, television and movies, and everything else that is external to me - bills, books, videos, etc. I let those things determine how I feel.
The speaker didn't say we have to give these things up, so it's not about asceticism. It's about replacing one thing with another. If I put my effort into ignoring external things, I'd really be focusing on them, but if I instead put my attention somewhere else then I displace the negative influence with the positive one.
Jesus, being sovereign, rules and reigns over all the earth, and He isn't worried about these situations. God never has a bad day so why should we? We, being the temple of the Holy Spirit, ought to be more mindful of His activity within us.
What has worry ever accomplished? Personally, it's only made me feel worse than I did when I woke up, and I'm quite sure it never changed the situation I worried about. (Of course, I did get to experience the relief that comes when I found out that the situation was never as bad as I thought it would be!)
I've been thinking on the fact that all the symbols of the Holy Spirit are things that move - wind, fire, rain, and so forth. He is constantly moving - we're just not aware of it. If we will focus more on Him where He lives - in our inner beings - we'll not only experience more of His Presence but also be more aligned with His purposes in the earth. Besides, we'll wake up feeling a lot better.
I think this is what it means to be in the world but not of it. We can't avoid contact with the world, we're in it face first from morning to night. But we don't have to make it the be-all and the end-all of existence. Jesus is the One we love and adore; we can become more aware of Him and His beauty by focusing on Him instead of everything else under the sun.
Very often we live under misconceptions. We pray "Holy Spirit, come." Now, that's a good prayer, but we need to be vitally aware that He's already here. He's not going to come through the roof - He's going to rise up from within us, because He has made us His habitation in the earth.
I'm still processing the significance of this and learning to walk in it. It's a wonderful adventure and a liberating thing to become disconnected from external things - even while in the midst of them - and become more focused and attached to the Source of true life. It doesn't cost anything and I can do it anytime and all the time. That's just like something God would come up with.
Monday, October 09, 2006
In The Beginning ...
I was raised in a wonderful home, with parents who loved me and provided the best for me and my older brother. I have only fond memories of my childhood.
When I met my future wife, it was love at first sight. She brought two wonderful sons to the marriage, and we had a little girl.
Our daughter was in trouble from the beginning, with a near fatal condition that required emergency surgery when she was only six days old. My whole world was up in the air and I thought it would crash all around me into millions of little pieces. Nothing I had ever wanted in life mattered any more, only one thing - that she could live and not die.
I prayed for the first time in my life the night before the surgery. There wasn't anything we wanted more than the life of that little girl. Actually, I didn't know how to pray - I just sat before God with the desperation of my heart lifted up to Him. Pat knew the Lord's prayer, and said that.
Our daughter was miraculously healed; when the doctor opened her up the next day, he found that the situation had dramatically changed overnight and radical surgery was not required. He called it a miracle and wrote it up in medical journals. She was born November 11 and we finally brought her home on New Year's Day.
We knew then that God answered desperate prayer and intervened in human affairs. We began to follow Him as best we knew how, which wasn't very good, but God knew our hearts. We didn't equate Jesus with God; we had heard a Gospel invitation at a concert, but rejected it as being too - I don't know, it was too much of something and not enough of something else. I guess it wasn't intellectual enough, it seemed more like an emotional appeal. The music at the concert was very much to my liking, and the preaching by the host pastor was about how God had healed his child. I'm sure a seed was planted that night, even against my best efforts to reject it. God's Word did not return to Him void.
A year and a half later, after getting in bed for the night, I heard the name of Jesus spoken in my ear three times. When I woke up, I was living in the midst of a seeming cloud of light, love and peace. I didn't know what it was, although I felt sure that if Jesus were real, this is what He'd be like.
Sitting at my desk at work later that morning, I heard Him speak again saying "I am Jesus." The Lord had sovereignly invaded my life. I wasn' looking for that, I didn't ask for that, but I'm so glad that God knew what I really needed and wanted.
That night I told my wife "Let me tell you what happened to me today." She answered "No honey, let me tell you what happened to me. Jesus came into my heart today."
We were both touched by the Good Sheperd's hand that night as we slept. We were both born again the same night, in the same way.
Ever since that day we have been vitally aware that Christianity is more than ceremonies and forms but that God is a person with whom we can have a relationship. The driving force in our lives has been our firm belief that God wants to bring that relationship to full fruition this side of heaven and not leave us in the initial stages or any other stage in between. This is a life of going on, going on, and going on. We have often been tempted to lay the quest aside and settle down on this side of Jordan, but the stirrings in our hearts for better things bade us keep moving.
Always ahead of us was the vision of the fullness of Christ in our hearts by the Spirit. We knew disappointments and failures but kept going on, because the promise of the prize outweighed the pain and frustrations of the journey.
How many have settled by the wayside instead of pressing on to be the Lord's Zion, His habitation in the earth? (Psalm 132:15). Material success eluded us, but no matter, for that's not where our hearts were. They were seeking that Zion, that city not made with hands.
More to come ...
When I met my future wife, it was love at first sight. She brought two wonderful sons to the marriage, and we had a little girl.
Our daughter was in trouble from the beginning, with a near fatal condition that required emergency surgery when she was only six days old. My whole world was up in the air and I thought it would crash all around me into millions of little pieces. Nothing I had ever wanted in life mattered any more, only one thing - that she could live and not die.
I prayed for the first time in my life the night before the surgery. There wasn't anything we wanted more than the life of that little girl. Actually, I didn't know how to pray - I just sat before God with the desperation of my heart lifted up to Him. Pat knew the Lord's prayer, and said that.
Our daughter was miraculously healed; when the doctor opened her up the next day, he found that the situation had dramatically changed overnight and radical surgery was not required. He called it a miracle and wrote it up in medical journals. She was born November 11 and we finally brought her home on New Year's Day.
We knew then that God answered desperate prayer and intervened in human affairs. We began to follow Him as best we knew how, which wasn't very good, but God knew our hearts. We didn't equate Jesus with God; we had heard a Gospel invitation at a concert, but rejected it as being too - I don't know, it was too much of something and not enough of something else. I guess it wasn't intellectual enough, it seemed more like an emotional appeal. The music at the concert was very much to my liking, and the preaching by the host pastor was about how God had healed his child. I'm sure a seed was planted that night, even against my best efforts to reject it. God's Word did not return to Him void.
A year and a half later, after getting in bed for the night, I heard the name of Jesus spoken in my ear three times. When I woke up, I was living in the midst of a seeming cloud of light, love and peace. I didn't know what it was, although I felt sure that if Jesus were real, this is what He'd be like.
Sitting at my desk at work later that morning, I heard Him speak again saying "I am Jesus." The Lord had sovereignly invaded my life. I wasn' looking for that, I didn't ask for that, but I'm so glad that God knew what I really needed and wanted.
That night I told my wife "Let me tell you what happened to me today." She answered "No honey, let me tell you what happened to me. Jesus came into my heart today."
We were both touched by the Good Sheperd's hand that night as we slept. We were both born again the same night, in the same way.
Ever since that day we have been vitally aware that Christianity is more than ceremonies and forms but that God is a person with whom we can have a relationship. The driving force in our lives has been our firm belief that God wants to bring that relationship to full fruition this side of heaven and not leave us in the initial stages or any other stage in between. This is a life of going on, going on, and going on. We have often been tempted to lay the quest aside and settle down on this side of Jordan, but the stirrings in our hearts for better things bade us keep moving.
Always ahead of us was the vision of the fullness of Christ in our hearts by the Spirit. We knew disappointments and failures but kept going on, because the promise of the prize outweighed the pain and frustrations of the journey.
How many have settled by the wayside instead of pressing on to be the Lord's Zion, His habitation in the earth? (Psalm 132:15). Material success eluded us, but no matter, for that's not where our hearts were. They were seeking that Zion, that city not made with hands.
More to come ...
Friday, October 06, 2006
Incredible Journey
Every so often we hear a tale of a beloved family pet left behind in a move to another part of the country who makes its way across prairies, through cities, and over mountains to finally be rejoined to the family it loves. It shows up at the door matted and bloodied but with tail wagging (if it's a dog, not a cat) and falls into the open arms of its loved ones. How they do it, no one knows.
We are on such a journey, from where the Lord found us to where He wants to take us. It's a journey over mountains and dark valleys, through storms and trials. It's the Holy Spirit that guides us and keeps us on course as we falteringly make our way to our true home, the mountain of the house of the Lord.
I want to share some about that journey - how the Lord found us and how He has led us and where He has brought us to, and by His grace I'll post on this every so often.
If you still check this blog after so many weeks of inactivity - thank you.
Next post: In the beginning ....
We are on such a journey, from where the Lord found us to where He wants to take us. It's a journey over mountains and dark valleys, through storms and trials. It's the Holy Spirit that guides us and keeps us on course as we falteringly make our way to our true home, the mountain of the house of the Lord.
I want to share some about that journey - how the Lord found us and how He has led us and where He has brought us to, and by His grace I'll post on this every so often.
If you still check this blog after so many weeks of inactivity - thank you.
Next post: In the beginning ....
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