In the quietness of peace and in the beauty of Holiness we should make our way through this noisy world. Like an elegant sailing ship making its way through calm waters with a beautiful fresh wind in its sails, we should walk through this world as peacemakers, drawing men and women to Jesus. We must not simply be a believer in doctrines but rather we must be a manifestation of such doctrines. Living epistles read of men. If men could read aloud the story of our hearts would it draw them to the Father? The narrative of our spirits should be like manna in the desert and water that bursts forth from rocks. In short, we should be life among death and light that pierces through the gross darkness of this world. A lighthouse that stands tall upon the Rock.
Your presence fills me with great joy And turns every shadow into light Great consolation is mine Which feeds the deepest part of me, and sustains me though the night.
Oh blessed joy is mine divine The eternal longing of my aching heart For the day when the morning star rises And then, forever, we shall never be apart
To look into the depths of who You are Even for a moment, gives life unto my weary soul The one who took the many broken pieces Before the throne and the Father made me whole
I will awaken the dawn with the praises of my King You will hear, from the ends of the earth, heavenly choirs sing Look through the door of your heart that He has knocked upon And hear the angels singing their golden heavenly song
Then shall heaven and earth be one together And we shall abide before His throne forever I in him and He in we Cast upon an eternal holy sea.
Sometimes life can be just too much and it threatens to overwhelm us and drown us beneath the waves of afflictions and trials. Many times in my own Christian walk I have fallen to my knees and cried out to my Father in heaven. And He heard me and He “knows.” And just knowing that He hears and knows begins to lift our heads above the waters. Sometimes we are called to walk upon the waters, other times He takes us in the palm of His hand and lifts us above the fray, lest we lose our very minds.
He will not let us go under. He lifts us up to higher ground. The Lord intercedes for us before the throne. The Holy Spirit strengthens us and enables us to run and not grow weary, to walk and not faint. To rise up on wings like eagles! Glorifying God and praising Him and testifying of Him gives us strength and promotes in us joy and that joy is our very strength. We have joy where there should be no joy. We have peace when all around us is in turmoil. We love even when we are hated. We stand immovable upon the Rock that is higher than us. When life makes our head hang low, then He calls us to look up. Look up into the heavens from where our help comes from.
In all of these things we have choices. We choose to worship Him, not because we somehow are trying to manipulate the Lord, but rather from a deep wellspring of love. From out of the depths of this love we cry unto God with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a mark of the saint. A heart that is full of thanksgiving is a heart that has encountered the presence of God and in that encounter peered into the depths of Calvary. And the vision that we see infuses itself into our spiritual DNA. The “knowledge,’ of Calvary informs every part of who we are. Without this “knowledge,” we can only be, at best, two dimensional. The head knowledge of Calvary can only promote the soulish elements of religion. Yet to encounter Calvary is to “know.” And it is from this “knowing,” that our hearts are primed.
There is a process of sanctification and it takes the wisdom of God and the power of the Holy Spirit to discern and navigate our way when we are dealing with others. Are they babes in Christ? Are they immature? Are they our weaker brothers?
Forgiveness should always be readily available from us, given what great forgiveness we ourselves have received. Yet oftentimes, as the flesh is being killed daily, by the cross we take up daily, we exhibit its characteristics until, slowly but surely, little by little, precept by precept, death upon death, we become more Christlike.
The process never ends, we never arrive, but the genuine saint is always making forward progress, even when he stumbles, the very stumbling becomes one more lesson to him. He hates the stumble, he agonizes over the failure. And in the agonizing, in the fire, we are being shaped and molded. The great impetus for it all is the burning love of God that blazes at the center of who we are. Our love for Jesus, our love for the Father is so great, because He first loved us, that our singular desire is to never let Him down, never disappoint Him.
When we inevitably do, the work of the cross and the love of the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit comes to bear upon us and we are changed. This is the genius of His love for us, we who are mere wretched creatures outside of Jesus. This is the astonishment of principalities and powers when the gaze upon us mortals and declare “What is man that you are mindful of us, and the son of man that you visit him?” ( Psalm 8:4)
They are astonished that our Father in heaven pays us any mind at all and visits us and loves us, even while we were yet in our sin. Astonished that He would sacrifice His very own son for us. We deserved nothing but hell and yet through His love and through His grace we received forgiveness and an eternal place in the heavenlies.
How indeed can we not forgive others in the blazing light of such forgiveness? Today is the day to forgive anyone, it’s such a thing of beauty and a reflection of the very God who forgave us!
Trouble came knocking at my door And a voice inside said don't let it in I opened it And it knocked me to the floor I got backup on my feet And it knocked me down once more
Chorus Jesus pick me up so I can stand again Jesus pick me up, I so dearly need you friend You are my Lord of Lords and King of Kings The man of many sorrows If you do not pick me up today Then there will be no tomorrows
I came to a bridge over troubled waters But the bridge was swept away I went down into the waters And in the darkness I heard Him say I will be with you as you pass on through And suddenly the waters withdrew
Then I came upon a mountain high To scale it I would surely die I asked the Lord to remove this thing So that I could rejoice and praise my King No My son, ask of me to give you power To climb every mountain and to scale every tower
Bridge
I'll be with you as you pass on through I'll be with you in all that you do.
Trouble came knocking at my door And a voice inside said don't let it in I opened it And it knocked me to the floor I got backup on my feet And it knocked me down once more
Chorus Jesus pick me up so I can stand again Jesus pick me up, I so dearly need you friend You are my Lord of Lords and King of Kings The man of many sorrows If you do not pick me up today Then there will be no tomorrows
I came to a bridge over troubled waters But the bridge was swept away I went down into the waters And in the darkness I heard Him say I will be with you as you pass on through And suddenly the waters withdrew
Then I came upon a mountain high To scale it I would surely die I asked the Lord to remove this thing So that I could rejoice and praise my King No My son, ask of me to give you power To climb every mountain and to scale every tower
Bridge
I'll be with you as you pass on through I'll be with you in all that you do.
When the stroke goes down to the soul And the billows they begin to roll When the lightening fractures the sky above Shall we be found to be anchored in His glorious love?
When the ship is swamped and going under And the rain so loud and the clashing thunder Cause you to cry out and look up towards heaven Shall we stand upon God and not be so driven?
Surely goodness and mercy despite our afflictions Will follow us forever without contradiction And a table before us, a feast for a King Will cause our troubled hearts to sing
Of His majesty and glory and joy without measure As we gaze upon His righteousness, His heavenly treasure He maketh me lie down in pastures so green And beside the still waters eternally serene.
A Call To The Remnant 