Poetry Sunday ~ Peace

Ecc. 9:5 “For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.”

Peace

Peace like shadows on the water

listening to the gentle whisper 

of God’s Spirit leaving ripples

on your soul.

Peace like the sunrise rising

without sound but the warmth

washing over your being bringing 

you to a new day.

Peace like the night sky alight

with embers of your soul

fragmenting you to who matters

to Him.

Peace like the veil of death

the breath of everlasting

life’s first kiss that stirs

your soul awake.

Good Friday ~ Passion for Christ

Isa. 53:5-6 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

It comes as no surprise that as I wake and rejoice in the day, the day that the Lord and Savior died for me, the world goes on in its ignorant, hate-filled manner.

I remember when I was eight years old and my grandmother passed away. I thought the world stopped when someone died. “How can the cars be going down the street? How can people not know my grandmother died? Why does everyone ignore her death?”

It was pretty easy to figure out. They didn’t know her. They knew of her but didn’t know her or the sacrifices she made to her grand-kids even as she suffered with cancer. I see now why people act the same way they normally act even though they know this is the day that Jesus died for us. They know OF Him but don’t allow their lives to stop or change BECAUSE OF Him.

This is seen in the morning’s traffic, the morning twitterfeed, the daily facebook posts; nothing has changed and everyone is still the same person they were when they went to sleep the night before. The only thing that changed was the day. It’s a new day, it’s a Friday, same old same old.

Just as I had a passionate love for my grandmother, I also have a passion for Christ. Sometimes this scares people, intimidates them or has them so filled with guilt they steer clear of this ‘crazy lady who is TOO passionate for Christ’. Too passionate? Imagine that.

I am not different than you; I love, I hurt, I cry, I laugh but to me there is so much more to living and breathing that I can’t and won’t allow any ounce of hate to exude from my body. What kind of Christian would I be if I looked at today just as any other day; a person who knows OF Him but doesn’t allow a portion OF Him to seep from my veins?

I won’t apologize for my passion for Christ, just as you shouldn’t be concerned with NOT being passionate for Christ. We’re all allowed free will and what we do is different in all ways shapes and forms.

I’m not popular because of my love for Christ, as a matter of fact I think I’m UNpopular because of my love for Christ. Again, I won’t apologize for my ways because my ways are not your ways.

I look at today as a small sacrifice of not doing what I’d normally do and throw off all mundane chores or actions and focus, focus on Christ who did more than ‘just’ sacrifice His very life for me. Yes me!

He suffered, He bled, He cried in pain, He writhed and squirmed as he was beaten and finally He was hammered with long nails to a cross, for me! If I’m passionate about Christ it is because I understand that while the world goes on after someone dies, the world goes on after His death also, but I feel as if I’m there crying at His feet awaiting for Him to rise up in three days. My grandmother never had the chance to rise up and forgive my sinful nature, only Christ could do that and He DID! What’s not to be passionate about?

I think of a time when Jesus was making his way to the hillside to be hung. I think of all the people cheering and screaming out, “Crucify him!” I would be the woman who makes her way through the crowd and approaches this Messiah and offer Him a towel to dry his brow and wipe his face offering him water to drink.

While Jesus had believers standing in the crowd, some never claimed to know him. Some stood in the background and looked on, while others were weeping. I never was and never will be one who walks with the crowd, I will always be the one who goes against the grain and does something unexpected. This is who I am.

While the earth shakes and trembles at His words, ‘It is finished’, I am unmoving and waiting at His feet. I’m not surprised that others are not as passionate about Him, it has been going on for centuries and nothing has changed. The world still goes on and we live for the next highlight of a posting day, all because they know OF Him but won’t be changed BY Him.

Matt. 26:40-41 And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour?

Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Lent ~ Day Eleven ~ Quotation Saturday

Job 8: 6 If thou wert pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.

~ LENT ~

"Lent comes providentially to reawaken us, to shake us from our lethargy."

~ Pope Francis

"Prayer is reaching out after the unseen; fasting is letting go of all that is seen and temporal. Fasting helps express, deepen, confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, even ourselves to attain what we seek for the kingdom of God."
~ Andrew Murray

"Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayers."

~ Sidlow Baxter

"Everything in life has its own time. There is time to celebrate and there is time to mourn. This is the time for reflection and transformation. Let us look within and change into what we ought to be." 

~ Aaron Saul

~ COMMUNION ~

“Christians should put survival of the planet ahead of national security...Here is the mystery of our global responsibility: that we are in communion with Christ- and we are in communion with all people...The fact that the people of Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Russia, Afghanistan, and Ethiopia are our brothers and sisters is not obvious. People kill each other by the thousands and do not see themselves as brothers and sisters. If we want to be real peace-makers, national security cannot be our primary concern. Our primary concern should be survival of humanity, the survival of the planet, and the health of all people. Whether we are Russians, Iraqis, Ethiopians, or North Americans, we belong to the same human family that God loves. And we have to start taking some risks- not just individually, but risks of a more global quality, risks to let other people develop their own independence, risks to share our wealth with others and invite refugees to our country, risks to offer sanctuary- because we are people of God”
~ Henri J.M. Nouwen

“Faith is not knowledge of an object but communion with it.”
~ Nicolás Gómez Dávila

“We who have turned our lives over to Christ need to know how very much he longs to eat with us, to commune with us. He desires a perpetual Eucharistic feast in the inner sanctuary of the heart.”
~ Richard J. Foster

“At the heart of Galatians 2 is not an abstract individualized salvation, but a common meal. Paul does not want the Galatians to wait until they have agreed on all doctrinal arguments before they can sit down and eat together. Not to eat together is already to get the answer wrong. The whole point of his argument is that all those who belong to Christ belong at the same table with one another.
The relevance of this today should be obvious. The differences between us, as twentieth-century Christians, all too often reflect cultural, philosophical and tribal divides, rather than anything that should keep us apart from full and glad eucharistic fellowship. I believe the church should recognize, as a matter of biblical and Christian obedience, that it is time to put the horse back before the cart, and that we are far, far more likely to reach doctrinal agreement between our different churches if we do so within the context of that common meal which belongs equally to us all because it is the meal of the Lord whom we all worship. Intercommunion, in other words, is not something we should regard as the prize to be gained at the end of the ecumenical road; it is the very paving of the road itself. If we wonder why we haven't been travelling very fast down the road of late, maybe it's because, without the proper paving, we've got stuck in the mud.”
~ N.T. Wright

~ AWAKEN ~

“When we awaken to our truth, we realize we are free.”
~ Kristi Bowman

“The degree to which your Consciousness expands, is the degree to which you understand yourself and the universe.”
~ Gina Charles

“To love those who love us and are good to us is easy. To love those who are indifferent to us is workable, but to love those who have harmed us, intentionally or not, is true growth and realization.”
~ Patsie Smith

“Life and death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost. Each of us should strive to awaken. Awaken! Take heed, do not squander your life.”
~ Dōgen

 Rom. 13: 11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.