After Isaiah 43:1-7
The One who created you speaks,
The One who formed you opens his mouth with good tidings:
Do not fear your God,
Your sins do not crush you in my judgement;
For I have redeemed you,
I have called you by name, and you are mine;
You may feel overwhelmed,
Your problems may seem insurmountable;
But though the waters press down upon you, you shall not be drowned,
Though the fire burn all around you, you shall not be burned;
For I am your God,
The Holy One, your Savior;
I overturn kingdoms and empires for your sake,
I make the darkness light to comfort and deliver you;
Because you are precious in my sight,
I love you, and you stand in honor among my servants;
Do not fear, for I am with you,
I will rescue your children from distant lands,
And the prisons of men shall not hold them from you;
I will ransom every one who is called by my name,
Whom I created in glory,
Whom I formed and made.
May Love, Peace and Grace Reign About You
-LE
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
For I Am Your God
Thursday, September 27, 2007
We Are Alike
We are alike
We love
We care
We love beauty
We care for others
We are alike
Our hearts beat
Our blood flows
We can be hurt
We can cry
We are alike
We make friends
We like to share
We like to talk
We like to take food together
We are alike
We can walk
We can walk together
We can help each other
We can help others
We get joy from helping
We are alike
We can give
We can give to the needy
We can share knowledge
We can see justice done
We can comfort the sorrowful
We are alike
Our love can flow
Can flow out from us
Together it can be
It can be a river
A cataract
A torrent
A flood
An ocean
Covering all the earth
Filling every hollow
Rushing into every closed room and cell
Washing out every dark hole and sewer
Flooding the caverns and canyons of the earth with liquid light
We are alike
And together we can do wonderous things
Let us begin
Friday, September 21, 2007
After Isaiah 2:
(Subverted lightly from the NRSV)
It will come to pass that the Lord will establish his house among the nations, it shall be raised above the hills and all the world shall see it's light. Many peoples will say; ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths,’ So all nations shall stream to the house of the Lord, and out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. The Lord shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they study war any more.
My brothers and sisters, let us walk again in the light of the Lord! For we have forsaken God's ways and wander in foolishness.
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Labels: Calling, Discipleship, Foolishness, God, Guidance, Isaiah, light, Ministry, Prophecy, Renewal, Repentance, Salvation, Signs, Theology, Truth, Wisdom, Wonder
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Seeing Truth in the Wasteland
In the waste-land near the train-station the wild grapes are gone past. Now the wild grasses display their fruit, and rose-hips shine bright red between the leaves of the sweetbriar.
Nearby there is a circuit box that handles power for the station and its night-time illumination. Looking at it, I see an electric eye, aimed at the heavens, rigged to tell the circuit box if it is day or night, if the lights at the station need to be turned on, or not.
The electric eye is covered with shiny glass, and beneath the glass its electronics are a reddish blue. -Which has attracted a beetle with bright red and black markings, who is doing its best to cover the eye with its body. So far, the electric eye is not fooled.
While I contemplate this, an adventursome chipmunk scampers over my foot and stops underneath me to give me a sniff. As I don't seem to be food, it scoots away, quick as thought, in search of larder for the winter. 'Try the grass seed', I think.
We on the earth are good at sensing the hours and seasons of the planet, and figuring out what is good food, and what is not.
But with the food of the spirit, we are often not so good. We lay up poison in our wine-cellars, we store away pebbles instead of wheat. We look at the sky, and we see the bug that is in the way, and remember little of the actuality in front of us, good or bad.
Test the spirit of the times. Taste what is in front of you, and if it is poison, spit it out. Test what you see, and clear your vision of that which blocks the truth. Test what you hear, and clear your ears of falsehood. Judge with right judgment, and keep your wits about you.
If you walk about with your eyes blocked, will you not stumble and hurt yourself? And if what you believe is lies, or your thinking is based on anger, will not your decisions lead to disaster and ruin?
If the bug, and the chipmunk are signs, perhaps they are hopeful ones. Perhaps they show that we can and will see the truth, and choose the true food, and see true light.
May it be so for us all.
LE
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Labels: Arisen World, Chipmunks, Darkness, Guidance, Hibernation, Life, light, Prophecy, Signs, Truth, Wasteland, Wisdom
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Discerning the Spirits
I can often see what website my visitors came from, and if they came through a search engine, what they searched for.
And many people come to my site looking to see if their dreams come from a holy, or evil source.
Not wanting anyone to go away empty handed who came seeking, let me share my thinking on this topic:
1) God is everywhere and in everything and everyone, and loves you, no matter who you are or what you have done. What does this have to do with dreams? Well, it is a fundamental premise, the foundation upon which the theology that energizes me rests, and it informs my understanding of dreams.
2) We are complex beings with many different, conflicting feelings and ways of thinking. Some of these we supress, ignore, set aside, or deny.
3) Our minds choose from our many life experiences and conditions to help us 'process' things which concern us both in our dreams, and in what we notice while awake.
4) Spiritual forces, internal or external, can and do influence us.
So....
5) As God loves us, a message from God will never count us, or by extension, anyone as hopelessly corrupt. Messages that state or imply worthlessness and hopelessness are not from holy sources.
6) God is unlikely to order you to break the ten commandments, or harm others. (Turn to the Bible for guidance.)
7) More generally, messages from holy sources should eventually make sense in the light of faith, community and love.
8) Share your dreams, visions, signs and insights with your ministers and friends in the faith, and listen to their advice.
9) Write your experience down, and return to it later for fresh insight.
10) Watch for coincidences that seem to confirm or contradict your thoughts.
11) Your dreams, however dark, may reflect repressed anger and other emotions about past harms or slights, and even chemical imbalances or reactions. You should seek psychological or psychiatric help with your visions, signs, and dreams if they interfere with your life in a negative way.
12) Holy messages will be confirmed by prayer.
Peace to you, and may God's blessings surround you!
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
And the Greatest of These is Love.
Special for Valentine's Day, 1 Corinthians 13:
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
May God Bless you today and every day.
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