Shake the World Again

To eat, to breathe
to begat,
Is this all there is?
Chance configuration of atom against atom,
of god against god?
I cannot believe it!
Come, Christian Triune God who lives,
Here am I,
Shake the world again!

- Francis Schaeffer

The Noise & The Voice

The Noise & The Voice

(1 Kings 17:1, 19:11-12)

Noise is all around me,

sounds and lights, digital and real,

distracting mind and heart

with the banality of life.

Where is the Voice?

Does He still speak

even in the midst of chaos?

Speak, holy still small voice!

Enable me to hear.

Turn me from the cacophony

to the silence of your desert.

The Voice still speaks!

For you are the God

before whom I stand

Happily Wounded

O Lord Jesus Christ,
draw our hearts to You;
join them together in inseparable love,
that we may abide in You and You in us,
and that the everlasting covenant between us
may stand sure for ever.

Let the fiery darts of Your love pierce through
all our slothful members and inward powers,
that we, being happily wounded,
may so become whole and sound.

Let us have no lover but Yourself alone;
let us seek no joy nor comfort except in You.

- Miles Coverdale, 1488-1569 (HT – Trevin Wax,  Marc Cortez)

What Need I Fear

"Alone with none but thee, my God,
I journey on my way;
What need I fear, when thou art near,
O king of night and day"

- St. Columba (521-597)

HT @lensweet

Freedom From Self Seeking

"Free Me From My Need to Exalt Myself"– from Prayers for Today

Lord, free me from my need to exalt myself.

Where I am prone to seek things for myself,
help me to seek the best things for You and others…

Where I am prone to make enemies,
help me to make friends…

Where I am prone to mistrust,
help me to trust…

Where I am prone to hate,
help me to love…

Where I am prone to despise,
help me to respect…

Where I am prone to seek being served,
help me to serve…

Where I am prone to speak evil,
help me to speak words of life…

Where I am prone to be idle,
help me to choose action…

Where I am prone to discouragement,
help me to be encouraged and to give encouragement…

Where I am prone to a lust for power,
help me to yield power…

Where I am prone to feel entitled,
help me to relinquish my rights…

Where I am prone to speak boastfully,
help me to choose meekness…

Where I am prone to impatience,
help me to  choose patience…

Where I am prone to be demanding,
help me to choose love…

All for Your glory. Amen.

HT: Trevin Wax

Abounding In Mercy

You, O Lord, Are the God of Those Who Repent 

O Lord and Ruler of the hosts of heaven,
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
and of all their righteous offspring:
You made the heavens and the earth,
with all their vast array.
All things quake with fear at your presence;
they tremble because of your power.
But your merciful promise is beyond all measure;
it surpasses all that our minds can fathom.
O Lord, you are full of compassion,
long-suffering, and abounding in mercy.
You hold back your hand;
you do not punish as we deserve.
In your great goodness, Lord,
you have promised forgiveness to sinners,
that they may repent of their sin and be saved.
And now, O Lord, I bend the knee of my heart,
and make my appeal, sure of your gracious goodness.
I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned,
and I know my wickedness only too well.
Therefore I make this prayer to you:
Forgive me, Lord, forgive me.
Do not let me perish in my sin,
nor condemn me to the depths of the earth.
For you, O Lord, are the God of those who repent,
and in me you will show forth your goodness.
Unworthy as I am, you will save me,
in accordance with your great mercy,
and I will praise you without ceasing all the days of my life.
For all the powers of heaven sing your praises,
and yours is the glory to ages of ages. Amen.

- A Song of Penitence

HT: Trevin Wax

Doorways Cut In Sod

I once scorned ev’ry fearful thought of death,

When it was but the end of pulse and breath,
But now my eyes have seen that past the pain
There is a world that’s waiting to be claimed.

Earthmaker, Holy, let me now depart,
For living’s such a temporary art.

And dying is but getting dressed for God,
Our graves are merely doorways cut in sod.

– Calvin Miller, The Divine Symphony (Minneapolis: Bethany, 2000), 139.

HT: Trevin Wax

Full Devotion

Make Me Full of Devotion To You

Let no riches make me ever forget myself,
no poverty make me to forget You:
Let no hope or fear,no pleasure or pain,
no accident without,no weakness within,
hinder or discompose my duty,

or turn me from the ways of Your commandments.
O let Your Spirit dwell with me forever,
and make my soul just and charitable,
full of honesty,
full of devotion to You.

- Jeremy Taylor, 1613-67

HT Trevin Wax

Life That Kills Death

Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life:
Such a Way, as gives us breath:
Such a Truth, as ends all strife:
And such a Life, as killeth death.

Come, my Light,  my Feast, my Strength:
Such a Light, as shows a feast:
Such a Feast, as mends in length:
Such a Strength, as makes his guest.

Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart:
Such a Joy, as none can move:
Such a Love, as none can part:
Such a Heart, as joys in love.

- George Herbert

HT: Trevin Wax

(BTW - I love the poetry of George Herbert, and have since I read him in college)

Fuel For The Flame

Make Me Thy Fuel, Flame of God —Amy Wilson Carmichael

From prayer that asks that I may be
Sheltered from winds that beat on Thee,
From fearing when I should aspire,
From faltering when I should climb higher
From silken self, O Captain, free
Thy soldier who would follow Thee.

From subtle love of softening things,
From easy choices, weakenings,
(Not thus are spirits fortified,
Not this way went the Crucified)
From all that dims Thy Calvary
O Lamb of God, deliver me.

Give me the love that leads the way,
The faith that nothing can dismay
The hope no disappointments tire,
The passion that will burn like fire;
Let me not sink to be a clod;
Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God.

HT: Trevin Wax

The Noise and The Voice

The Noise & The Voice
(1 Kings 17:1, 19:11-12)

Noise is all around me,
sounds and lights, digital and real,
distracting mind and heart
with the banality of life.

Where is the Voice?
Does He still speak
even in the midst of chaos?

Speak, holy still small voice!
Enable me to hear.
Turn me from the cacophony
to the silence of your desert.

The Voice still speaks!
For you are the God
before whom I stand.
    
   

Batter My Heart

Batter my heart, three-person'd God ; for you
As yet but knock ; breathe, shine, and seek to mend ;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp'd town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy ;
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

           -John Donne, Holy Sonnet XIV

Love Me Through My Journey

Oh Father, Who Keeps My Journey

Father of all humankind,
who keeps my journey
and marks the horizon of my destiny,
love me through my journey toward tomorrow.

Son of God,
leader and keeper of the maps,
show me not the whole road at once,
but give me the distance to be gained in single steps.

Spirit of God,
who holds my inner compass,
may your presence on the journey
awaken trust within me
when I don’t know what lies around the bend.

- Calvin Miller, The Path of Celtic Prayer: An Ancient Way to Everyday Joy

Hat Tip: Trevin Wax

Ambition to Be Windows

A poem by 17th Century English Puritan preacher and poet George Herbert.

Hat Tip: The Gospel Coalition

If There Were No Minor Key

Would we know that the major chords were sweet, 

If there were no minor key? 

Would the painter’s work be fair to our eyes, 

Without shade on land or sea?

Would we know the meaning of happiness, 

Would we feel that the day was bright, 

If we’d never known what it was to grieve, 

Nor gazed on the dark of night?

“Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties.” –Charles Spurgeon


Excerpt from the devotional Streams in the Desert 


Hat Tip: Mars Hill

Among the Animals in the Stable

The Nativity
by C.S. Lewis

Among the oxen (like an ox I’m slow)
I see a glory in the stable grow
Which, with the ox’s dullness might at length
Give me an ox’s strength.

Among the asses (stubborn I as they)
I see my Saviour where I looked for hay;
So may my beastlike folly learn at least
The patience of a beast.

Among the sheep (I like a sheep have strayed),
I watch the manger where my Lord is laid;
Oh that my baa-ing nature would win thence
Some woolly innocence!

Hat Tip:  Gospel Driven Church

The Person I See in the Mirror

Love this poem!

The Looking
In the mirror one day,
I saw a self.
Body.
Mind.
Emotion.
I took a closer look and peered into my soul.
The things I saw?
Brokenness.
Fear.
Envy.
Lust.
Insecurity.
One more time I looked into the mirror.
This time I saw a redeemed self
This time I saw a beautiful self.
This time I saw, in the background, Jesus.
By his grace he redeemed me.
Now he is making me into
the self I want to be,
the self that I really am.

Poem by Jim Martin at A Place For The God-Hungry

"Batter My Heart Three-Person’d God"

I like the poetry of John Donne. This one is particularly good.

Batter My Heart Three-Person’d God

Batter my heart, three-person’d God ; for you
As yet but knock ; breathe, shine, and seek to mend ;
That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp’d town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betroth’d unto your enemy ;
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

Hat Tip: Pastoralia – Tales from the future of Christendom

Purposed

As is canvas to the artist, and to potter is the clay

I was made to please Another, and to learn to walk His way.

For in dying there is winning: I will lose my life this day

to be found in Him forever, faithful come what may.

For you are worthy, Lord of Glory to be worshipped and adored!

For your pleasure I am purposed, for your glory Sovereign Lord!

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This is part of a song I wrote 20 years ago. I can't remember the rest of it, and I probably got some of the words wrong, or at least not as originally written. If anyone who knew me back in Maryland in the 80's has the words to this song, please let me know!