A prayer for passion and re-ignition

If speech and arts are not accompanied by love and passion

they will fall horribly short and mean nothing but empty sound.

If actions are done out of obligation without compassion and care

they will reach numbed hands and cold hearts in a winter world.

If our actions are compelled only by our pay checks and selfish desires

we will start fires in our pocketbooks but not in the hearts of men.

It will all be for naught and this world would have inherited another cold soul.

Passion, fire and love begin and end with a heart knowledge of God.

Without such an intimate experience we can live, but it will be temporal

it will be less, it will be empty and vacant where He could reside and stoke

the fires of our souls and passions.

Dear Lord, Ignite our flames once more.

Ignite in us Your burning passion for Holiness and compassion

for this world in which we live.

May our worship not be out of obligation or command

but out of love and this deep desire to know more of You,

and through this engulfing flame, may our eyes

see others the way You see them and be spurned to act

without our interests in mind, but to capture the hearts

of others for You and Your kingdom come.

-Amen.

November 14, 2013 1

I’ll Fight!

In the years that I have lived, loved and groaned

I have never known the hunger pangs of children

I have never witnessed a child dying from the curable

because resources and money was lacking.

I have never found pleasure in a single morsel of rice

because this was all I would eat in a week.

I have never been witness to the slaughter of my parents

because they believed in Jesus.

I have never had to watch as my brothers and sisters

were sold into slavery on the human trafficking market,

loaded up in boxed trucks by the dozens like animals

heading to market…

Yet I know it exists.

I know that many still today find grace in one ray of sunshine

in the midst of hell and fury of hate.

I know children go hungry as militant leaders steal

their wealth and resources and make child soldiers out of them.

I know Aids has killed and will kill entire generations in Africa

leaving orphans in its wake.

I know human slavery hasn’t been eradicated

but is extricating the innocent still to a shortened life of horror.

I know.

But how can we end this?

How can we bring food to the hungry,

safety to the threatened

and cures to the dying?

My heart yearns to help.

My heart groans to give aid.

I want to fight this.

I want to stand in the gap for those who cannon for themselves.

I want to bring the light of Christ into darkened places.

To be a place of safe harbor to the lives clinging to death.

Lord how?

How can we fight this?

How can we go?

How can we soldier on?

How do we shine when all we want to do cry and weep over

the evils of man?

This fight must begin and end with You!

Your strength.

Your peace.

Your discernment.

Your empowering arms of love.

Father, we cry out to You in a world

sin sick and broken.

Be our salve.

Be our shield.

Our fortress.

Our deliverance.

Our Victory.

I’ll fight!

I’ll fight on!

I’ll fight on into your victory!

November 8, 2013 0

In need of a Savior

In just a few days another installment of Marvel’s Thor will hit theaters (Thor 2 The Dark World) . It will undoubtedly be #1 at the box office over the weekend. This time Thor returns to Earth to help save mankind from an evil force not of this earth. It will be an action packed movie with lots of special effects, some romance and the underlined theme that the World is in need of a savior. I find it interesting that Thor is the son of a god (Odin). Thor comes to Earth to save mankind from evil and death. To me there is a deep underlining parallel here to Christ.

Last year the Avengers was a world wide success and financial money maker. The entire Marvel franchise is well over a Billion dollar industry. Why has their movies received such international success and acclaim? Naturally people of all ages enjoy a good action film, but beyond that I believe there is this underlining innate longing to be saved and to have find a savior from life’s worries, fears and heartaches. Every person on earth can most likely relate to such a longing. There is something remarkably missing in our hearts that cannot be rectified from the inside alone. We need an external force to save us.

Jesus came to this earth seeking to save the lost (Luke 19:10). Why did He come? Because we could not, in our own power and strength, save ourselves from the trappings of sin and death. We needed an external force to grasp us by the hand and pull us to safety. Since the fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve, we have lived with sin in our world. We have all fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), and we are in dire need of one who can save us from certain death. This is why, I believe, we respond so passionately to superhero movies like Thor(2) and others before it. We crave saving. We long for deliverance. We look around us in our world and we see evil and hatred, sickness and death, and we pray for those life ending threats to end. We turn on the news and witness another violent shooting in a mall or another systematic genocide taking place on this planet and we wish such stories would end. We long for a savior to come and save us!

This life isn’t easy, sin is still very present and real, hatred and sickness at times still prevails; and yet there is hope. The hope of the world entered earth some two thousand years ago and with Him, brought deliverance, salvation and the promise of new life for all who sought after Him. God’s one and only Son, Jesus Christ still says to us today “I am the way the truth and the LIFE, no one comes to the Father except through me .” (John 14:6)

We are all in need of a Savior. Though we enjoy a good flick about Superheroes now and then, we can recognize that we have already been saved and that new life can start today with our love and devotion towards God and His image reflected towards those around us.

-Just a thought for today.

November 5, 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

The World A Flame (Poem)

I watched the world die today

from my three seasons porch

my comfortable perch, a safe haven

of hope drawn in by

its soft, inviting light of the day.

It spilled onto my lap, warming my feet

as I sat cross legged on the couch.

The earth was in flames today

and I watched it all burn and smolder

and finally it came crashing

down

to the ground.

I watched with horrified

interest

on the edge of my seat

fascinated and transifixed

as hatred ruled the heart

I drank another

cup of steaming coffee

rich and black

smooth as silk

down to the last bitter

earthen drop.

Bitterness tainted

more than this empty cup

as I watched

it ignited the hapless soul

as it careened out of control

diving headfirst into the souls

of others who were also hell bent

on the pathways of selfishness.

As eyes took in the flames

the heat, the spite, the maliced tongue

I wept…for this was

a vision of me

hell bent on my own

accomplishments…

hell bent on my own agendas

on my own devices and self-ladden heart

the man aflame was me…and I could do nothing

but watch it all go crumbling down

how powerless these hands and feet.

How empty all these yearnings and strivings.

How bitter the self-indulgent worries

and the blankets of careless apathy.

I saw the world burn today

as I sat and watched it all crumble to the ground.

September 23, 2013 0

Miley…please stop!

I don’t mean to be rude or hurtful today, that’s not my intention. What I mean by that is this: Miley Cyrus…please stop! I think it’s safe to say that there are so many fathers out there shaking their heads in disgust. Is this what we want our daughters to become? You started out as a Disney star…kids looked up to you. I taught Sunday school and there were little girls who wore your Hannah Montana t-shirts. They wanted to not only meet you, they wanted to be you.

Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not healthy to want to be someone else, but when you’re on a public stage in this world, people will listen to you. People, specifically kids, will want to look up to you as a role model…and right now the life you’re modeling on stage makes me sick. It not only comes across as a desperate ploy to maintain a certain status and lifestyle, but it also comes across as extremely derogatory to the entire female gender. I don’t mean to sound hurtful, but your actions will have consequences and those consequences, like a ripple effect on a pond will impact the lives of many young impressionable girls in our world.

I know some could argue; “it’s her life let her live it the way she wants to“…rightly so, but at the same time how you conduct yourself and act on a stage like you did recently at the VMA’s is deplorable, and simply lacks musical substance and craves for any kind of public attention.

In this over-sexualized world in which we live, we need less Miley sex-shock rock and more female role models who have more respective for themselves and for their bodies. We need women who will show young impressionable girls how to conduct themselves in public and have respect for themselves. How to make decisions based on not what guys view them as physically but what will nurture and help them grow. As a father who has a daughter in my house, I want more female role models who will display at least some measure of modesty. As a father who has a daughter in my house, you certainly don’t meet those requirements of the type of female role model I ever want my daughter to look up to.

Here’s some advice, stop trying to be someone you’re not. Stop shocking the world with your antics…it’s the same tired old routine tried by many, many starlets and artists and it never ends well. Look around you, it may be your life but there are people watching and looking up to you. Find some self-respect.

-Just a thought.

Now I like this woman…she totally makes a valid point:

September 10, 2013 1

Poem of Death and Life, Darkness and Light.

July 19, 2013 0

The Blood of Christ (Poem)

Gentle, like silk between the fingers

fragile like egg shells underfoot

broken and splayed out before us

this is the blood of Christ.

Crimson, the deep reds of fabric

clothing our nakedness,

warming us beneath a violent flood

this is the blood of Christ.

Flowing freely from His side

His hands and feet as well

beneath a cross of wicked death

the source of life for all.

This is the blood of Christ.

July 9, 2013 0

Breaking The Stone Altar

It started out as a random conversation about our favorite books. Each person told us what was their all time favorite novel and why. Some were books we all knew and loved, while others were books somewhat foreign to us. As the conversation wound back around to the originator, someone hit upon a truth. We all were in agreement that we really loved the C.S. Lewis books, “The Chronicles of Narnia”. Someone indicated that they really fell in love with the Narnia world. Another lauded the characters of Peter, Susan, Edmond and Lucy, giving particular moments in the books that really struck them as ‘wonderful’ or ‘brilliant’ through these characters. Again we all went around the room and shared specifics of the books that we thought we memorable and epic.

Then, someone said it. I’m not sure who it was, but once the words were loosed it hung in the air like a lingering fog in the early morning hours. The lights went on in all of us as we all nodded in agreement.

The Epiphany: Aslan giving up his life resembled that of what Christ had done for us. Aslan was sacrificed by the White Witch on a stone altar.

For a moment no one spoke. Each person recalled the scene.

Then, it hit me. Aslan died for all of Narnia (which represented our world). He willingly laid down his life before the evil White Witch. Then, Aslan died. As a kid I remember hearing this story, my father reading it to me, and I wept. Still a lump forms in my throat even now as I remember it. Though, the story didn’t end in the death of the mightiest lion. As a matter of fact while Lucy and Susan wept bitterly over Aslan, something miraculous and completely unthinkable takes place. As the sun begins to rise from the darkness of night the stone altar that Aslan’s body is still resting on breaks in half and the great lion is resurrected.

How awesome is that?

Like Christ, Aslan dies for all the world. “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) Aslan is killed in the darkness surrounded by every evil thing in the world. But as soon as the sun crested the horizon that morning, resurrection takes place.

Jesus, God’s one and only Son arose. Aslan arose.

When Jesus died an earthquake shook the ground. The curtain in the temple, which separated the holy of holies, was completely torn from top to bottom.

Significance: God’s presence was said to dwell in the temple within this sacred space called the ‘Holy of Holies’. Only High Priests who were clean could enter this place. It was not accessible to common people. But when the curtain was torn it signified that God’s presence was accessible to everyone, and that He was not bound by four walls. He was omnipresent and and omniscient.

The Stone Altar Broke:

At sun rise, Aslan is resurrected. He comes back to life and at the same time the stone altar on which he was slain breaks in two. What could be significant about this? Could it be that the power and ‘creature made’ order was broken? Could it be that Aslan couldn’t be bound by evil? Could it be that Aslan couldn’t be bound by any creature? Could it be that the old ways were now destroyed while original intent was now restored?

YES TO ALL OF IT!

Do you see the significance of the breaking altar?

Man’s order of things, man’s fall, man’s rituals are broken. They are not paramount to the redemption that Christ offers! Christ came, He died, the curtain was torn, He was dead no longer and God’s original intent for the world was now restored!

The only thing that stands in our way from restoration then is OUR CHOICE.

We can choose to be restored and be made clean through His blood, or we can choose to reject Him. Either way it boils down to a choice we all have been given and we have to make. But the really amazing thing is that God has made Himself available to us…everywhere! Man’s order doesn’t bind God. Man’s rituals don’t impress Him.

The Stone Altar has been broken for all of us. Each of us are free to receive His presence…but we have to choose to received Him! We have been set free, what we do with this freedom and redemption is now up to us…I hope you choose Him!

“None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says something which you don’t understand but in the dream it feels as if it had some enormous meaning–either a terrifying one which turns the whole dream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning too lovely to put into words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you remember it all your life and are always wishing you could get into that dream again. It was like that now. At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in it’s inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of Summer.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

“If there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most, or else just silly.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

July 4, 2013 3

Attention: People Pleasers…it’s pointless.

When it is all said and done, our feeble meanderings and our efforts of people pleasing will be meaningless…in the grand scheme of things and in God’s glory if we have not lived as servants first and spent our time sharing the grace of God with others we will have little or nothing to show of our earthly efforts and endeavors. -Just a thought.

June 25, 2013 0

Tag: Life