“Finding the Melodies of Life” (a metaphor of holiness) – Chapter 2 “Finding your voice”

Need to catch up? Here are the previous chapter(s):
https://pastorsponderings.org/2014/02/06/finding-the-melodies-of-life-a-metaphor-of-holiness-introduction/
https://pastorsponderings.org/2014/02/07/finding-the-melodies-of-life-a-metaphor-of-holiness-chapter-1/

Chapter 2

Finding your voice

“I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me-like food or water.” –Ray Charles

In brass instruments and in even woodwinds the requirement for practiced embouchure is one of the most pivotal lessons a new beginner can learn. Embouchure is the application of one’s lips or mouth onto a mouth piece or reed in order to create the desired sound or vibration that leads to music. The facial muscles are applied in such a way that to a beginner it can cause discomfort jaw ache. The momentary ache felt by the new beginner pales in comparison to the music that is created out of such discomfort. When the lips are properly applied to the instrument there is a connection that is made, there is hope and a glimmer of what can become of this instrument. You see, playing music isn’t only about looking the part, holding the instrument in the correct manner, but it requires the musician to sacrifice something of themselves for the purpose of performance.

I remember holding that instrument up close to my face, then being taught to pucker my lips into the formation of a strange grimace while making a small hole within my lips so that the air could exhale from my body. I was giving something of myself into that lifeless instrument for a greater purpose.

^“The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” Genesis 2:7 (NIV)

Picture it for a moment, creator God, the artist and conductor of life, breathing the essence of life into the lifeless; He was giving something of Himself into his creation for a holy purpose. God looked at the world He had created, the animals, the trees and oceans, and finally our first parents, and He said “it was good”. God breathed life into the very fiber of human kind and in that moment this symphony of life began for us all. Notice that before God poured the breath of life into man, he wasn’t a living being, man was dormant and still. Just think about that for a second, ponder it…soak it in…is your mind blown yet? Without the very life breath of God, the entirety of our existence would remain and always continue to remain just dust. The Hebrew word for breathing life into us is; nishmath chaiyim, meaning “the breath of LIVES” which implies not only life but intellect as well. While this breath of God expanded the lungs and set them in play, his inspiration gave both spirit and understanding to mankind.

When we apply ourselves to the everyday tasks of life, what we are doing is exercising the very breath of God in our human existence. Our intellect – God breathed, our temperament – God Breathed, our sense of identity – God breathed. When we come to the understanding that we were created to be intricately connected to our Creator God, our worldview and sense of purpose begins to change as well. With this higher understanding, it then becomes all too clear how pivotal and vital God views our part in this life. We were created with Divine intent not some cosmic accident, when we understand that this very breath of God exists within us, the appropriate response to this knowledge is to exhale into our world love, exhale into our world hope, exhale into our world purpose. When we play the music God has called us to play, the end result is transformation from fallen creation to restored creation – reconciled to God.

But there is still something missing in our relationship to the Great Conductor of life. What is still required of us in order to exhale or to breathe the breath of God in our lives? When we pick up the instrument God has handed us to play and place it to our lips we must apply muscles, we must strain, learning new principles…spiritual embouchure. Another word for it is spiritual discipline.

Richard Foster in his book Celebration of Disciple: The Path of Spiritual growth, writes;

“A farmer is helpless to grow grain; all he can do is provide the right conditions for the growing of grain. He cultivates the ground, he plants the seed, he waters the plants, and then the natural forces of the earth take over and up comes the grain…This is the way it is with the Spiritual Disciplines – they are a way of sowing to the Spirit… By themselves the Spiritual Disciplines can do nothing; they can only get us to the place where something can be done.”

In our giving, in our application of spiritual embouchure, there is pain and sacrifice. What drives us to sacrifice? What motivates us to keep going when we face and encounter discouragement and frustration? Faith. Faith must be our motivator, the oil in the valves of who we are in God’s symphony. We prepare ourselves; we pick up the instrument or gifts of God, placing them to our lips with the knowledge that we will most likely fail before we succeed. Spiritual embouchure is risky. We are essentially putting ourselves out there for God and for the music that He desires us to play. Finding our voice is not easy; we have to give something of ourselves in order for us to reach that discovery. Just as God breathed life and inspiration into our bones so too we must give something of ourselves in this life that we live.

Notice the words of the Apostle Peter, he understood what it meant to give something of himself for the purpose of God’s symphony:
^“Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.” 1 Peter 4:12-13 (NIV)

Because that breath of life exists in us, which urges us to play the music God has placed in us, we then must enact our spiritual embouchure which will be painful, difficult and it might cause our hearts to ache…but when we do so, we are participating and we begin to catch a glimpse of the performance of Christ in us so that others might be saved. Give it a try, exhale deeply, let His presence permeate our lives so fully that the pain we encounter along the way only strengthens our resolve to play His music in our lives.

February 10, 2014 2

“Finding the Melodies of Life” (a metaphor of holiness) – Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Orientation

(Music 101)

“I’m starting with the man in the mirror, I’m asking him to change his ways.” -Michael Jackson

I remember at the age of around seven years old, my father forced to me learn an instrument. Now I say forced, but in his loving way, he convinced me to pick it up for the first time…but I would have to say he forced me to practice that instrument. Before I could become a musician I had to become familiar with the instrument I was to play. I can still recall picking up that cold metallic brass cornet for the first time. It felt foreign in my hands. This instrument, similar to those that I had heard great musicians play was now placed in my hands, and I had no idea how to play it. The first thing I had to do in order to play it was to become familiar with how it felt in my hands. I had to learn how to place my fingers over the valves in the proper manner, while sitting with correct posture, which I had a great deal of trouble learning. These were things I had never considered to be important much less required of me in order play a musical instrument properly. The orientation of the instrument is of the utmost importance for proper implementation for performing music.

“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.” Romans 12:3 (NIV)

If we are to become oriented with the music that God has placed in our very souls, we have to become oriented with the very God who created that music in the first place. But it doesn’t stop with knowing this creator God; it then becomes all important to know how God has made us. Our personalities, our temperament, our peculiarities are all vital to the orientation process. If our desire is to fool ourselves or convince ourselves of something that is not true then we will never learn the true music of our souls. In Romans 12:3, Paul reminds us of how important it is to have a sober judgment of ourselves. In other words, look carefully in the mirror, be honest with yourself. If we ever want to grow up in our faith, then true maturity begins with becoming familiar with who we are – faults and all. Only when we begin to take a long hard look at who we are now, will we then begin to see who God wants us to be. God has a whole different melody for us to play; it’s a new environment to explore and to learn, and if we never learn to understand who we are and who God has intended us to be, then we will never learn to play the music of our souls.

Turning over that cold brass instrument in my hands so many years ago…I have a confession to make, I never thought I would ever be able to learn to play it. The task seemed too daunting, my perception of myself – too limited, and if I had refused to become familiar I would have never learned to play the music.

Many of us are like this; too limited. Perhaps we never had someone to cheer us on or encourage us. Maybe, our self-confidence is so small that even imagining God wanting us to play the music for Him seems too good to be true. Some of us even think our abilities and our gifts will never amount to much, or are so insignificant that God won’t even notice if we don’t play. But the fact of the matter is, God will notice, He DOES want you to play the music and He has been there from the beginning encouraging you to pick up your instrument of gifts and get oriented. This experience requires faith, faith in our performance, faith in the music we’ve been created to play, and faith in the conductor (God) that He knows what He’s doing. This, above all else, either propels us into the ultimate performance of our lives with faith in hand; or causes us, through doubt and fear to create sounds and noises that in no way reflects true music at all.

God’s purpose for all of us is to be joined together, fitting perfectly into his symphonic masterpiece and once we are oriented and understand His will for our lives, we can begin to play, but first we have to know what we’re playing.

Orientation begins with the instrument…and it begins with you. If music is to be played at all, an instrument has to be selected. God has given us so much by way of gifts, abilities and talents, but if we don’t explore them we will never be able to master them. Exploration into the instrument is vital. If I had, on that instrument orientation day, picked up my brand new cornet and tried to play it from the wrong end it would have looked rather foolish or even downright embarrassing. I had to first explore, touch, feel, hold and finally position the instrument properly in my hands. When I understood how the instrument was to be held, how each valve coincided with the fingertips on my right hand and finally how my left hand was to hold the instrument firmly for balance and posture, then I was ready to move on to actually putting the cornet to my lips.

^“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made…” Psalm 139:14 (NIV)

Our orientation with God and what He has done for us is the most pivotal moment in our lives. It can become the turning point, or the moment of clarity in which we decide that God, the great conductor, has a composition of complex melodies and harmonies waiting for us to play, if only we become oriented with what He has given us. King David knew and was familiar with the ways of God. He also recognized and acknowledged the way that God had made him: “Fearfully and wonderfully”. When we become familiar or know them “full well”, as David states, we too then have begun our orientation of the part we are to play in this symphonic life.

So don’t hold back, take a long hard look at yourself in the mirror. Recognize who you are, and who God desires you to become. It can sometimes be painful when we see our glaring failures along the way, but these pains are necessary even vital to our growth. It’s orientation time…take a look, I dare you.

February 7, 2014 3

Finding the melodies of life (a metaphor of holiness) – Introduction

Introduction

“Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.” -Ronald Reagan

The band begins to play. Moments before, the sounds of their tuning and dissonant chords filled the theatre with broken parts, and sour notes as tuning slides, timpani, and valves are oiled and adjusted. But as the music begins to be played by each musician, the notes that were once discombobulated and disjointed become unified, harmonious and beautiful. The auditorium is alive. Music is ignited! The bandmaster, with baton waving erratically in the air, guides the musicians through the movement reminding them all of accidentals, dynamics, and key changes. His role is no less important than that of the musicians he stands before. Slowly and melodically the masterpiece, made up of notes on a page, reaches its climactic ending; and as the last notes are played, held out and released, there is brief moment of silence. Within that brief moment, resides all of the work, all of the practices, all of the blood sweat and tears, and just as the last notes are released so too is the passion and love that the musicians have contained for so long for this musical composition. It reaches out from the finale on stage, ever so slightly touching the listener, caressing their hearts and in turn drives them from their seats to their feet in accolades of fervor and joy. This…is music!

Music is like breathing air, one needs to keep breathing in order to survive. That is what I know about music! Music is a part of me; it is sewn into the very fabric of who I am. If one were to take out the stitching of melodies, harmonies, key changes, and accidentals; one would in some way begin to take away a very intrinsic part of who God has made this person to be. Perhaps music doesn’t resound in all of us in the same way, but let me offer you an experiment in music for just a moment. Have you ever experienced an epic moment in your life where you heard a composition of music, in any genre, that automatically pulled you back in time to another moment within your history? One solitary second you are driving down the road listening to the radio, then this very specific song comes on and Bam, you are transported back in time to a point in your life where this very song is tied ever so tightly to an emotional or physical response. Have you been there? So have I, and this is how intrinsic music is to our very heart and souls. It speaks to us beyond our hurts, beyond our joys, and calls us to take notice, to remember and to always embrace the melodies that God has placed inside of us all. These melodies are so much more than mere songs heard on the radio or in music videos on Television. They are the melodies we were created to perform in our lives, conjured up in our souls and in the very fabric of our being. God has called us to sing or play the music of our souls on the stage of this life, not only for our own amusement or enjoyment alone, but because He revels in our creativity, He celebrates with our inquisitive hearts, and He wants us to play the music that we were created to play. But the question that begs to be answered and hangs in the air like the last resounding notes on a page is this: do we know how to play the music?

Some say that we can learn as easy as riding a bike, but what if no one ever taught us to ride that bike? What if that parent wasn’t behind us pushing and cheering us on? If you have ever wondered what melody God has called you to play, then this book, these prayer thoughts are for you. If you have not wondered what tune has been placed in your heart, perhaps this is THE moment to begin exploring and plumbing the depths of your heart. Believe it or not, God has planted that seed in your life to perform the tune of your lifetime for the world to see and hear. We are called to play the music. But how do we find our tune? Do we even know how to play?

This is where it all begins…Music Orientation 101 for the soul:

“Dear God,
I am so afraid to open my clenched fists!
Who will I be when I have nothing left to hold on to?
Who will I be when I stand before you with empty hands?
Please help me to gradually open my hands
and to discover that I am not what I own,
but what you want to give me.” -Heni Nouwen

February 6, 2014 3

“Arise my soul”…words to ponder!

Arise my soul, arise,
Shake off thy guilty fears;
The bleeding sacrifice
in my behalf appears;
Before the throne my surety stands,
my name is written on his hands.
(Charles Wesley)

I’ve been humming the tune to this hymn, yet the poetic words are running through my brain like a train that won’t stop churning and chugging along…I think I can, I think I can, I think I can… Call it the obsessive mind running in a circular motion very much like a NASCAR track…but yet it’s something more…something deeper, more disturbing.

The words have struck a chord in me. Plucked the wrong string that kind of stings yet affirms to me that there is something more to give. Something more to sacrifice. Something more to surrender and kill that is of the old self still attempting to crawl off of the altar…stubborn as ever! The words are visceral, bone on bone, marrow sucked out and pain depicted in His suffering. Am I willing to allow Him in…like this? Am I really ready to commit to a deeper, more personal relationship that throws open the curtains to my deepest, darkest sins and embarrassments. As the curtains are pulled back and His light burns and shines upon me, revealing how dirty and filthy this place truly is… Yet, If I were to reconsider this deeper calling, I will come to the obvious conclusion that I am already naked before the One who shed His blood for me. That He already sees me for who I am, who I have been, and who I could be. He already perceives and knows my guilt and shame. Perhaps I am like the child who is covering his eyes and saying “you can’t see me”, when all along it has been me that hasn’t seen all along.

“Arise my soul, arise
Shake off thy guilty fears…”

What is it that I am afraid of? That when He finally sees me, the real me, that I he will shake his head a walk away? Or will he laugh? Am I afraid to let go? To lose control? Do I fear for my identity? Why have I waited this long to get to this point when all along He has patiently waited for me? These words aren’t so much about my Salvation as it is about my holiness, or lack there of. Am I afraid to admit that I am a scared little child in the face of His holiness? Perhaps.

I am humming the tune…and letting these words slip in quietly and solemnly. I am pondering His still small voice, and that of His eternal patience with me. Savior, hold my hand and lead me.

January 7, 2014 0

I Surrender All?

“You never go away from us, yet we have difficulty in returning to You. Come, Lord, stir us up and call us back. Kindle and seize us. Be our fire and our sweetness. Let us love. Let us run.” ― Augustine of Hippo, Confessions

Why does it still happen to us, who call ourselves Christ-followers? Why do we shy away from this disciplined, more refined lifestyle? God is calling us to something deeper, something far better than what we experiencing in the here and now. Why do we fight it? Could it be that we have something more to surrender? Could it be that we have held back a part of us from Him?

God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. He did what? It’s true. God told Abraham to take Isaac up into the mountains, build an altar and shed his only son’s blood as an offering and as a sign of allegiance to the Almighty. Scripture doesn’t say that Abraham refused, yet I struggle with this passage. How could a father follow through with a request like this? Abraham doesn’t refuse and he does what God asks of him, he goes up into the mountains and takes his son with him. Everything is premeditated, including the murder weapon. Yet I know that Abraham must have dreaded what was to come. He must have mourned and waged within himself over this request from God. Isaac’s name means “He laughs” and that is certainly what Abraham and Sarah did when they received the news that they would have a son. After all, Abraham was nearly a hundred years old when they received this divine news. But Isaac’s name meant much more then their initial response. He would bring joy into their lives. They would laugh until tears ran from their eyes! He was their answer to so many years of barrenness and familial emptiness. Isaac was Abraham and Sarah’s pride and joy…even to the point of replacing God.

We do this sometimes. People and even things have a tendency of replacing God as top priority in our lives. We don’t intentionally run from God, but little by little we find ourselves unwilling to surrender everything before Him. This is a very real danger in our ministries and in our spiritual journey and Christ-followers! We utter the chorus “I surrender all” with our lips and yet in our hearts we’re holding onto something that needs to sacrificed at the altar of self!

Abraham didn’t hold back. He was obedient to God. Perhaps he understood the message that God was trying to send to him way before he held the sharp blade over his bound son on that stone altar. He certainly displayed his obedience in his response to Isaac’s questions about where the lamb was going come from when Abraham replied, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” (Genesis 22:8) Though Isaac had become his pride and joy, and perhaps, for a time replaced God on his priority list, Abraham had faith! His faith was indeed rewarded when an Angel appeared and stopped him from completing costly sacrifice. The angel said, ““Do not lay a hand on the boy,…Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” (Genesis 22:12)

If, today, we find ourselves far away from God because we have run may we return to Him! If, today, we find that we have placed others of things before God may we be willing to lay them all at His feet in total surrender. God is faithful and longs for us to return to Him! He also longs to make us holy people, the very image of Christ for all the world to see. But that image cannot remain on us if we are unwilling to surrender everything and return to Him!

Prayer:

Lord in my returning, make me holy.

Lord in my renewal, send the fire!

May my life and heart be ever for you

restore me from sin-sick muck and mire!

November 18, 2013 1

Complete Surrender (A Poem)

When the sails have been lofted

And the gusts of winds,

Not in our favor, have shifted

All of our hopes and dreams

Sometimes finding jagged rocks

Upon distant shores.

As foam and tide clasp

And then collide

We ride on…broken

yet still alive.

Other times we cling to

These water logged

life boats,

bailing out bucket-fulls

praying in earnest

that we find safe harbor…

we yearn, we labor

savoring these remaining

ounces of courage

all the while

depleted reserves

left in our spiritual storage

of reservoirs are the only things

that have run dry.

The tides continue to

Beat their tribal drums

thumping against our feeble plans.

Could it be, perhaps

The Divine waiting

In earnest yet lovingly

on our complete and

utter capitulations?

October 31, 2013 0

Holiness (Poem)

Lord, I long to devote my all to You

to surrender my heart and will

and I complete in Your holiness live

yet I confess a fragment lingers still.

My heart yearns to be one with You

to stand complete before the King

and sin no longer a binding force

my all before you I must bring.

Holy Spirit, descend upon my life

I yearn for entirety of grace

with nothing restraining my heart

I long to see Your face.

October 18, 2013 2

Rotten from the Inside or Transformed?

I held it in my hands, not knowing what was underneath it. It looked like any ordinary branch from the top, wooden and covered in a flaky ashen grey bark. The grain and color of this branch looked healthy and strong. But when I turned it over I discovered the reason this branch had broken off and had fallen to the ground. On the underside the wood was infected and terminal. On the underside termites had other insects were milling about slowly devouring this branch from the inside out. Glancing up at the tree, from which this branch had fallen, I quickly realized that this tree was doomed. It looked sturdy from the outside, it towered over me as its branches reached the sky and stopped at about twenty or thirty feet above me. The tree wasn’t that old, perhaps ten or twenty years, and it would have continued growing had it not been for the parasite now eating it alive from the inside.

Slowly over the next couple of months, as I would walk past this tree which was situated in a park near my home, I watched in silent sadness as it lost all of its once beautiful leaves. Now with bare branches it stood ready to be chopped down by the park’s caretakers. It had gone from a vibrant young tree with so growth to achieve to a dead, hollowed out shell worthy of becoming wood chips or kindling for a fire.

Watching this foliage of tragedy unfold reminded me of how we are sometimes like this young tree in our spiritual lives. We attain a certain height in our spiritual maturation process, we look vibrant, hopeful and secure in our faith…but then it happens. We allow a small portion of our old lives to still exist within us. Sometimes on purpose while other times unknowingly.

As children of God who are called to be set apart for His purposes, we secretly set apart some of the old self and cling to it even though it could kills us spiritually. We store it up in our hearts, compartmentalize our “church life” from our “other life” and yet we know somewhere deep down inside of us that we are called to surrender it all. We are called to one life, not two separate lives. Either we’re with God as His child or we’re back in the world and in our old sinful, self indulgent lifestyles. When we cling to these bits and pieces of ourselves, which existed before the moment of our salvation, we are essentially saying to God, “you can have most of me, but I’m keeping this one small thing!”

When we do this, why are we then surprised when we begin to rot from the inside out? Why are we shocked when we lose our fruit and our branches become bare? Why do we suddenly realize that our passion for Christ is now gone and yet can’t fathom why it is that way?

If we were to get serious about this faith and about our spiritual survival, we would quickly realize how vital it is for us to face our infections. These infections are the spiritual parasites or the leftover remnants of the old life. We cannot ignore them, because they will never go away unless when expose them and submit them to the light of Christ. To simply ignore their presence only seals our fate of being slowly hollowed out and eaten alive.

From the outside that branch looked healthy, yet when I turned it over and saw what had become of it, I knew that the tree from which it had come was doomed. It was so brittle and full of holes from which the termites poured out. The outside looked fine, but the tree had lost that internal battle.

I think there is something to be said about our internal battles as well. We, as Christ followers, can not afford to lose this internal battle that wages within us. There is still work to be done by the Holy Spirit in the hearts of us all! There may be small pockets of the old life still resistant and evident in us. No one else knows it. By all appearances we look fine and healthy on the outside, yet on the inside we’re struggling to stay alive.

Two things must take place within our hearts to prevent this parasite of sin to continue to exist within us;

One, we must expose it for what it is. Don’t hold back or ignore it. Do not shy away from confronting it, and do not keep it hidden. The Lord knows its there, yet we keep trying to convince ourselves that it is not. Expose it to the Light of Christ! Share it with Him. Open up the doors of those hidden dark passages of your heart and allow His light to flood them completely! Without first exposing it to the Light of Christ, we can pretend and ignore it. But once we’ve opened up the doors completely, and honestly looked in, we can’t help but feel shame and regret. Let it happen. Spiritual maturity, also known as Holiness, cannot take place completely without first facing our deepest darkest sins. Then we get serious. Then we let it all out and place it in the forgiving nail scarred hands of Christ.

Secondly, once His light has gained access to the abscesses of our hearts, we must be willing to let go of it. We must relinquish our grip on it. We must surrender it all to Christ. Nothing else can grow there, nothing else can change in our spirit if we don’t first surrender those remnants of the old sinful ways.

When we have exposed this parasitical sin to His light and surrendered it into His hands, then we find ourselves surprisingly free of this burden of guilt and shame. We find that we can finally grow again and allow His very image to be our sole desire.

The tree doesn’t have to die, our spiritual walk doesn’t have to stagnate! We must be willing to reveal and surrender, then the healing can begin which will give way to this tremendous growth.

-Just a thought for today.

September 30, 2013 0

General Cox: A call to a deeper spiritual life!

Yesterday at the New Zealand Congress, Salvation Army General Andre’ Cox said “He dreams of a Salvation Army that is ‘vibrant, committed and on its knees before God” He went on to say that “Deepening the spiritual life of Salvationists is essential to moving forward as an Army, he said. “If we want to see our world change, we ourselves must be changed by God.”

Let me first just say “Amen!” General Cox is spot on in regards to this continued need for personal and corporate holiness in our Army! We cannot expect to grow or change the world without first deepening these spiritual waters in our lives. Without the Holy Spirit’s guidance and direction for His people and His Army, we can find ourselves scattered by the winds of discouragement and discord.

It is encouraging to me that General Cox is picking up where General Bond left off. We are, as an International Salvation Army, One Army and to build on this One Army we first must make sure our walk with the Lord and our maturation of faith continues. Without it we cannot and will not remain united.

As reported by IHQ’s web page, the New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga Territory celebrated some fantastic growth of Soldiery and expansion in Corps. Isn’t that awesome? It really doesn’t matter which territory you belong you, as an Army we too can celebrate their growth within this Army! Congratulations!

I believe our Army has much to accomplish in the years to come, but without first checking our hearts, motives and righteous intentions these accomplishments could be for naught…yet I too whole heartedly agree with his call for all Soldiers to deeper their faith.

How is your heart? How is your walk with the Lord today? May you continue in your walk with Him! May you also continue to be a light to all who encounter your love and passion for them through Jesus Christ our Lord!

News Source: http://www.salvationarmy.org/ihq/news/inr260913

September 27, 2013 0

A Humble Prayer

A Humble Prayer:
Can we but find our hope today?
Oh Lord we need but stop and pray.
Our lives ,so full of cares and woe
Speak to us now, Your love to show.

Give ears to hear your Heart
to shed Your love to all empart
grant us peace amidst these storms
denying self our hearts conformed.

Please lead us when we are blind
our hand in yours and we will find
this Holiness, your grace, your light
Your strength, your peace will give us sight.

-Amen

September 27, 2013 1

Tag: Holiness