Brother and sisters, can you say that your chains are in Christ and because of your chains others are emboldened? This is one of the cries of God’s Remnant children. Its one of the marks of the royal priesthood. When Paul was in chains for Christ his attitude in the midst of it, his joy, his peace, his awareness of the presence of God was encouraging to those saints who were not yet in chains. As they saw the example of Paul ( in Philippians 1) they were deeply encouraged and emboldened to see that despite any set of trials, they served an overcoming God. This dear saints, is the perseverance of the saints. You might not suffer actual chains ( although that could change soon) but you may lose your job, you may get a devastating diagnosis from the doctor, any number of bad reports you may receive, how will the world see you when you are in ” your chains?” Will they see the glory of God? God is raising up, for such a time as this, just such a paradoxical people. A people who will rejoice when the world weeps. A people who will serve when the world demands service. A people whose joy cannot be robbed by poverty or affliction. A people unmoved by the ” American dream,” and the prosperity of this world. A people who know that their Lord is magnified in their weaknesses. A people who have learned to be content whether with much or with little, whether people are singing their praises or wringing their hands. Can you glorify the Lord in the midst of refining fires? By the power of the Spirit of God and a broken and a contrite heart you can and you will.
To be chained in Christ
Is to be free indeed
Free to die and free to bleed
Free to walk the pilgrim way
Free to die to self each day
Oh the glory saints, the glory of God’s love vast as the ocean. I came across this version today in Welsh
I cant speak Welsh, but my spirit witnesses with this and soars to think of this and makes me think of the glory of God and why they could not get them to leave prayer meetings in the Welsh revival. Its the presence of God, it’s the majesty and the glory and the holiness. Its the beauty of Holiness. Oh for the days saints when we come to dwell forever in this majesty. This is why Paul can count all things as rubbish. To be found in Him, to know Him, to rest in the excellency of the knowledge of our Jesus. Oh that that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, that my spirit would soar in glorious majesty and be oblivious to my circumstance but only be found in Him. I would love to be so lost in Him that when they come and look for me I cannot be found, only Jesus, only Jesus, all for Jesus…………..bro Frank
I want to be so lost in you
And have my heart be pure and true
That when they come and look for me
It’s Christ alone that they shall see
Look into the depths of me
Is it Christ my Lord you see?
Walk with me along the way
Have you walked with Christ today?
Listen to me share my heart
Do you wanna be a part?
Of Christ the Lord my risen King
And to His throne your treasures bring
When I’m caught up in the waves
Can you see the Christ that saves?
When all the world has turned on me
Is it Christ that they shall see?
When it’s time for me to die
Will I raise my hands on high?
And sing aloud with all my might
Of Christ my King, a glorious sight
Despite the vastness of the universe, we know that the Lord holds it all in the hollow of His hand. Our minds simply cannot conceive of the vastness of our God. How can it be possible for mere humans to know God? And what is this ” knowing?” The Scriptures in Ephesians three are not saying that we can know about Him, it is saying that we can know Him and the fullness of Him. As I read Ephesian’s three I penned the song/poem below. To know God is the most intimate of terms. The Scriptures tell us that Joseph did not ” know” Mary until after Jesus was born. Of course this was a reference to physical intimacy, which of course makes the husband and the wife ” one flesh.” This coming together is of course a sacred thing and this one flesh is a mysterious thing. Now consider the even deeper aspect of this ” knowing.” The spiritual knowing is something very mysterious.
To know and be filled with the ” fullness of God,” is a supernatural thing. There is nothing physical about it, it is above and beyond that. So one may ask this very legitimate question of all who profess to be Christians ” Do you ” know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Eph 3:19) One must ” know,” the love of Christ, not know about it ( because the scriptures say it passes knowledge) if one is to be filled with the ” fullness of God.” This is the Christian man or woman. The man or the woman who can say ” For we do not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of His majesty( 2 Pet 1:16)
To know the unknowable you
Is all I want to do
To plunge the depths of your love
Is to soar in the heavens above
Oh to know what cannot be known
It to kneel before your throne
I looked in to the dark abyss
And it looked right back at me
Full of swirling chaos
And darker than the darkest sea
There were mountainous waves and lightening too
That raced across the skies
There was great explosions of thunder
That drowned out all mens cries
The mountainous waves rose to their height
And men would scream and cry with fright
Arms waving wildly and distorted features
These men were the most miserable of creatures
Lord have you seen my tears?
Can’t you see I’m drowning in my fears?
I try to run but there’s no where left to hide
I fall to my knees because I’m dying here inside
I lift my eyes and there’s darkness all around
I try to get up but I fall back to the ground
I try to scream but I cannot make a sound
I’m lost and alone and I never shall be found
Reach down and touch me Lord wont you please?
For if you don’t I’ll die here on my knees
My heart is broken and has spilled out all my love
My only hope is a touch from up above
Can the rain fall from cloudless skies
Can your tears fall from hardened eyes
I cried out to the Lord , in my time of need
I prayed for the rain, my soul to feed
And my God, who is never far away
Opened up His heart as He listened to me pray
And from heaven on high He sent down the rain
There’s a river of grace that’s gonna wash away the pain
And out of my heart flows a river so deep
My once dry eyes they now continually weep
And everywhere the river flows there’s grace from above
And everyone it touches they are filled with His love
This rain that falls , it falls from endless blue skies
It fills my empty heart and falls down from my eyes
The Lord Himself sent down the rain from above
And now the cloudless skies are filled with clouds of His love
So if it’s rain your looking for, this moment, today
Wont you fall down on your knees and cry out and pray
The Lord of every rain drop that falls down from above
Will sweep you down the river to an ocean of love
This ocean is boundless, its forever and a day
And in this sea of beauty you will hear the Lord say
I am the Father’s tears that was shed from above
And I will carry you home across this ocean of love
Hi saints, if you have been coming to this site for any length of time you will know that I have two passions. One is the presence and the glory of God, and the other is poetry which I write when I feel moved of the Lord. I have just published a book called ” A poem for every Psalm” which combines these passions. The first part of the book is every Psalm followed by a poem the Lord gave me and asked me to write. The second part of the book speaks to the presence of the Lord . You can find this book here…………. https://www.createspace.com/3900708
The flesh is a brutal thing and it certainly wars against the Spirit. In many situations I have been shocked to discover the depth of my own flesh. It makes me realize and know for a certainty that without Him I would plunge into the abyss. Thank you today Jesus for your unwarranted favor upon my life, I know what I deserve, I know for a certainly what i deserve even now and yet you have redeemed me and even when I am not faithful, you are.
O Lord your church goes through the motions
It travels many lands and crosses vast oceans
Yet what is a people with no King on the throne?
What is a man if he is all alone?
What is a song without any words?
What’s the point of the sky if there are no birds?
Can the fish in the sea swim without water?
Will the church ever listen to what you have taught her?
And yet you have promised to dwell in your people
You did not promise to dwell beneath a steeple
For the Zion you promised is this place in my heart
This was always your plan, right from the start
With my whole heart I cry out unto thee
I come before you on bended knee
Take this place, take my heart, take all that I am
Fill me with love like the mightiest dam
And with the power of this dam to generate love
Rend the heavens my Lord, flow down from above
And your Kingdom and glory shall ever be
Engulfed in this wonder, eternally
My little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. (Galatians 4:19 ESV)
T.A.Sparks writes………………..
The profaning of the Lord’s Name, and the taking away of His glory, is the inveterate habit and course of the old creation nature. Should you see any of the old creation getting into the realm of the things of God, what is the result sooner or later? That man takes the glory, and dishonors God. Is not that the tragic, dark story of “the Church”; man in his old creation powers and life pressing into the things of God, and making a name for himself? The Church has been the happy hunting ground of men for reputation, position, influence and all such things. The flesh always does that. It takes God’s glory away, it profanes God’s Name. In order that that might not be so there must be a new creation, where all things are of God…. I see the appalling state of things today amongst the Lord’s people everywhere; death, weakness, limitation, defeat, failure, inability to stand up, to go on; and, without being critical, censorious or judging, you have to come to the conclusion as you speak with so many, that the measure of Christ is pathetically small. Sometimes when you speak about the Lord to people, who have borne the name of Christian for many years, they gape at you as though you were talking a strange language.
Let us ask the Lord that, so far as we are concerned, there may be an increase of Christ in every way. Let us seek grace for any fiery furnace in the light of the explanation, that it is neither what is of Christ that is being tested in us, nor any good within ourselves, but that what is not Christ should disappear, that it should be Christ, only Christ. At last this universe will know nothing but Christ. He will fill all things, and that will be a great day! May He be fully formed in us.
There are so many things that would cause us to walk in the darkness, in the shadows. Events and people from our past often have such a hold of us. Do you walk in the shadows? Does the shadow go before you? In order for a shadow to go before you then the sun must be at your back. If the Son is at your back then you must be walking away from the Lord, for when the Son is ever before us then the shadows lie behind us. To turn away from the Son, to even turn around and look is to see the shadow of what went before. In Christ, walking towards Him, ever closer as we walk this life, we leave the darkness behind us. Walk in and into the light, wrap yourself in the light of Christ and be free from the haunting shadows of the past. For it is God who said, “Out of darkness Light shall shine;” who shone in our hearts to give the brightness of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2Co 4:6)
Luk 13:34 Jerusalem! Jerusalem! the one killing the prophets, and stoning those having been sent to her; how often I desired to gather your children in the way a hen gathers her brood under the wings, and you did not desire it.
How I long to look with optimistic eyes at the landscape of our Christianity here in the West. And yet the sands of time gather around our feet. For so long now we have desired to walk in unbroken sunshine not knowing that unbroken sunshine creates deserts. And now we look out upon the landscape and everything beautiful has dried up in the sun that we have demanded. Century by century the desert has encroached upon the green fields and mountains and valleys, slowly consuming everything. If it were not for rivers in the desert then we would have died of thirst already. If it were not for desert blooms then the all the color of life would be gone. There are precious few saints left who embrace the storm, who stand in the flood, who walk through the fire, who walk upon the water. Jesus weeps as He surveys the desert sands and the leanness of our souls. We have rejected the deep good soil of His sufferings and embraced the desires of our own hearts leaving behind something shallow, something easily dried up by the sun which we demand. And then this shallow thing turns to dust and is blown away by the wind, nothing grows and the desert comes.
Unbroken sunshine leads to deserts
And endless dunes across the soul
Yet the storms that blow from God above
Help make us whole, and that with love
For man will always take the path
Of least resistance to his flesh
He runs to pride and from the meek
To God confess, the humble seek
To walk with God is to walk through fire
And beds of coal beneath our feet
Through every mountain pass and valleys
And desert heat and darkened alleys
Unless the seed falls to the ground
And rain and storms have tilled the land
Then nothing grows and all is dead
No wheat shall stand, no one is fed
So embrace the storms and raging seas
And hail and snow and fallen trees
And fire and flood and rising tide
Will set you free, no more to hide
For if God is for me, I’ll walk in peace
And His grace on me shall never cease
To mold and shape and create in me
The landscape that you now can see
A sister in Christ asked me to write a poem about a mothers loss when losing her child. This was an adult child and one can imagine the pain, perhaps you may have experienced it yourself? I have buried a son so I know something of the pain of losing a child………bro Frank
I decided that I should put all of my poems in one place so here goes http://www.poemhunter.com/frank-mceleny/ I still have about another 100 to put on there. The Lord commissioned me to write a poem for every Psalm, so at the above link you will find them there as well, well, at least 1-45. I have written them all but I am still working to type up the rest, so it will be updated frequently until my three fingered typing gets it done 🙂 May they bless you, and may the Psalm poems bless you too. They were written in one of the toughest periods of my walk with the Lord. No surprise at the Lord’s timing in asking me to do this…………. bro Frank
Weariness is a dreadful thing. The definition of weariness is……..
“physically or mentally fatigued, having one’s interest, forbearance, or indulgence worn out.”
Oftentimes Christians do not want to admit to weariness. It may seem like a lack of faith to acknowledge one’s weariness. Of course this is not the case. Every Christian will walk through all the seasons of life and will experience every facet of life, he will be immune from none. Yet, as in all things, we are not defined by one season of our lives, nor are we defined by individual incidents in our lives, aren’t you glad about that? We shall be known by the thrust of our lives. It’s not about falling down, you will fall down, it’s about getting back up. Who amongst you believe that you will not fall down in this life? Idealists and younger Christians are particularly vulnerable when they fall. It’s a very humbling thing to fall down. Gal 6:9-10………..
Have you ever been broken down? Have you ever been totally defeated in this life? It could have been before coming to Christ, it could have happened to you after coming to Christ, but whenever it happened it left you for dead, it left you weeping. It robbed you of your song in the night, it silenced your praise, it left you hopeless for a time. It left you feeling that there was no way ahead, that everything that you ever had was lost? Inside you seemed to feel nothing.
Hi Saints, as some may know, the Lord asked me to write a poem for every Psalm. As I contemplated what the Lord had asked me to do, it was a little daunting, but by HIs grace I am approaching the end, I am at Psalm 145. As I went along the Lord opened up to me what He was wanting from me. What I was bringing to the poem was the experience of a New Covenant Christian. So much of the psalms, more that I thought when I got down to it, was about justice, crying out for justice, crying out for vengeance against enemies and so on.
Just a couple of years after coming to Jesus I was diagnosed with a disease that was supposed to kill me. It was the best thing that could have happened to me. Right there, as a young Christian, I discovered that the steps of a righteous man are ordered of God. It became one of my life Scriptures, the depths of it were emblazoned on my heart. The truth is that we leave this planet when the Lord deems it. There is no power in heaven or earth that can override our God. If He wants to take us home He will take us home, if He does not then here we stay until He calls us away. There is great rest in this.
A Call To The Remnant 