Beams of Heaven

Staying true to the theme of 'Other People's Music', here is an offering for you... hope it is good to you. It's been good to me. 

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Beams of heaven as I go | Through the wilderness below | Guide my feet in peaceful ways | Turn my midnights into days...

When in the darkness I would grope | Faith always sees a star of hope | And soon from all life's grief and danger | I shall be free someday... 

I shall be free someday.

Oftentimes my sky is clear | Joy abounds without a tear | Though a day so bright begun | Clouds may hide tomorrow's sun...

There'll be a day that's always bright | A day that never yields to night | And in its light the streets of glory | I shall behold someday...

I shall behold someday.

Harder yet may be the fight | Right may often yield to might | Wickedness a while may reign | Satan's cause may seem to gain...

There is a God that rules above | With hand of power and heart of love | And if I'm right, He'll fight my battle | I shall have peace someday...

Someday.

Burdens now may crush me down | Disappointments all around | Troubles speak in mournful sigh | Sorrow through a tear-stained eye...

There is a world where pleasure reigns | No mourning soul shall roam its plains | And to that land of peace and glory | I shall want to go someday...

Someday. 

Endurance & Vintage Blogs

"Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory." -- 2 Timothy 2:10

Matt Chandler (pastor of the Village Church in TX), recently preached a sermon entitled, "Ask" in which he said this... roughly: "Your trials are not only meant to reveal God's glory to you. They are meant to reveal God's glory to others."

It's amazing how utterly selfish we can be, even in our suffering. Somehow, we think even our darkest nights are about us; our pain, our sorrow, our lack of comfort. What of God's glory? What of His will? What of His fame? What of the lessons that other people may learn while observing our conduct in the midst of the fire?

Suffering is always near -- it must be near to us, it must become our 'friend' (shout out to pre-heretical Hannah Hurnard). Suffering is Jesus' instrument of choice -- one of many instruments He uses -- to do surgery on our character. Its blade is sharp and precise -- nothing goes that must stay and nothing stays that must go -- and it is for our good and HIS GLORY (which must include the various expressions and responses that result in other's hearts and minds while being a by-stander).

All that to say... I don't want to be selfish in my suffering. I want to "endure for the sake of the elect", not just my sake, that those who know Him would no Him more fully and those who don't would come to know Him.

This isn't necessarily an astounding revelation... but it renews my mind as I see the sun setting in my life and in the lives of others.

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Side note... the second part of this blog title has to do with the fact that I posted a bunch of old blogs that I wrote but never set free (or removed, but am now re-posting). Take a look, if you've got the time. True, use of the word 'vintage' may be atrocious, but it got you to keep reading, didn't it? : )

Why I Blog

I've discovered why I blog (...or don't blog).

It's not for lack of wanting, nor is it for lack of anything to say... come on, in the spectrum of windedness, I'm definitely privy to the long end of things. It's definitely something else. 

It's something that Wallace Stegner (author) addresses in many of his writings and calls 'a sense of place'. This phenomenon pertains to a person's ability to connect with his or her environment or the extent to which he or she is able to connect to his or her environment. Bottom line -- all humans need it and all humans seek to get it (if they don't have it). Stegner argues that it is only achieved through physical means -- laying claim to land, spending time in nature, etc. However... I've had a bit of a different experience and I would broaden his definition to include more. 

To me, 'a sense of place' has a lot to do with words, with communication. If I can somehow say what I mean to say, put something into the world that expresses truth, or revelation, or experience, or passion, or humor, or joy... and direct it 'homeward'... I am somehow comforted.

The most blogging I've ever done was at a time when I was not in a place I considered my physical home. I directed my words 'homeward' to forge some type of connection. And as I found my heart catching up with my body, the blogging began to diminish... my home was becoming where I stood. My roots were growing deep and my sense of displacement gave way to contentment. Rather than writing homeward, I began reaching outward, and I began to express myself to those around me.

So... why blog now, if I am content and have a sense of place? 

This time, it is not that I have left 'home' or moved away from my concept of a physical 'home'... it is because a part of this home has departed to another place. Again... I find the need to direct my words (not all of them, but a generous helping) somewhere else, to commit to this connection and... hopefully... to help someone feel very much at home where he is. Ultimately... I hope all that is written will find its way, even if its circumnavigated, to the only real Home we will ever know -- and we will find rest there. 

And so... that's why I blog. 

 

Looking For Water

Sometimes getting what you prayed for does not always happen immediately... and sometimes it does. 

Today, I prayed for water and I received it from quite an unexpected place. 

"...'Why have you made us come up from Egypt, to bring us in to this wretched place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, nor is there water to drink ... So Moses took the rod from before the LORD, just as He had commanded him; and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, 'Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?' Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank. But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, 'Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.' Those were the waters of Meribah, because the sons of Israel contended with the LORD, and He proved Himself holy among them."  - Numbers 20:5, 9-13

Before I read these words, I prayed for water. I prayed that I would draw out my thirst with Water that is Alive, and not with broken cisterns of idolatry and false contentment. Reading this passage shed so much more light on that prayer than I thought possible...

At first I was afraid. I thought, "Is God trying to tell me something? Is He displeased with my prayer, was it somehow unrighteous?" I resolved to send these thoughts to bed without supper, but a discipline was on the rise. These words weren't meant to condemn me, but rather to warn me -- sternly. I wasn't praying for water from a spirit of complaint, but the line between dependence and contention is sometimes very blurry. 

Numbers tells us that the sons of Israel contended with the Lord... what does this mean? It means that there was an attempt at power, a grappling for achievement. It means that Israel was seeking favor, not based on the Lord and His merit, but on their own deserving. There is also a spirit of malcontent seen here -- there is a heart that says, 'Lord, what do you know? Why aren't you doing anything about this?' I see small fibers of this heart weaving subtly throughout mine. I feel droplets of this blood coursing through my veins. It's not all of me anymore -- the Lord has done the major surgery of redemption -- but it's still part of me. 

The conclusion is this: wait patiently for the water He provides. He will not give you stagnant water -- which you would happily settle for in a time of drought -- He will give you Living Water in due time, even within pages of your impatience. Flip to Numbers 21... He gives them water in verse 16. And what does Israel do? Praise the water. No comment on that particular sickness... it's overwhelmingly frustrating. 

Bottom line: thank him, praise him and trust him. I hope I remember this when I am thirsty.