12 - 31 - 11
*** Reading/posting this now three days after the fact, it's helping me so much as today I woke up in seemingly a very different reality.. what I write below I know still holds true. Read on.. ***
You keep moving me lord. Like the wind.
The tree lot, like a swift yet quiet gust it arrived, came through, and was gone with providence guiding... in the same way I imagine the winds on the horizon - which are now only a scent - will as well.
Lord, what are you meant to teach me these next weeks floating round this lump of lava. I’ve already met so many great people who call it home...
It’s one thing to wonder at the future with the question ‘what’s in store..’.. while it’s a completely different thing to demand clarity and vision into its occasions. I’m not sure we’re meant to know what lies ahead... but enjoy the journey. I guess it would make sense if the things which we’ve allowed to become the authors of our existence cause empty pain, and fearful anticipation of it’s angry words which in a scribble tell a story not pleasing to the reader... of course, in the midst of this pain, knowledge of the future is longed for.
Asking God - Him, the higher power, yahweh, Lord, Father, the great ‘I AM’ - to take control of the pen, and write the story of our existence, it’s words of peace, joy, and sacrifice we read of... with the ink of Love these words are written with the most beautiful - yet unique - cadences ever heard, in a form of cursive not yet discovered, but which draws the eye into a stare with it’s fluidity and beauty.
This is a story not promised to be free from pain, loneliness, sufferings the like... the best poems draw the heart through a journey of relative agony, balancing painful circumstances with enduring goodness. In fact, these things are promised... but it’s in the joy of knowing our author that allows us to exist in peace, among the question marks...
Who wouldn’t wish to submit to this author?? the metaphor I paint is one painted all throughout scripture. In fact it’s an especially vivid image in my spirit as I’m being led through Exodus & Colossians.. In Colossians 2 where I’m at, Paul paints this beautiful image of things to come, a realm of existence outside this teeny tiny microscopic little earth where those who reside are ones who bring the traits of that higher existence, to this rock floating among the cosmos.
Jesus - having come down as a prior resident of that existence - is our example... “the image of the invisible God”
The spirit - the gift of God given to us upon Jesus’ death sent to give us strength and hope through the destructive ways of the earth - is now our guide... “giving life to your mortal bodies through His spirit, which lives in you.”
I’m searching for a verse to quote from this section of scripture, but too many pop out as ‘the best’. Read it (chapters 2-3) and see the journey paul takes us through in sharing his hope for ALL people to know the ‘treasures of wisdom and knowledge’ that come with knowing christ. He continues and warns of those who try and ‘take you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy’.. i was warned. ‘For in christ all the fulness of the Diety lives in bodily form’... the search ends with Him :) He then reminds us of how in Christ we were made alive in our sins, and that now having a different residence in a much larger existence with Christ, ‘do not let anyone judge you...’ but ... ‘set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God...’ and ‘as god’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on LOVE, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the PEACE of christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be THANKFUL (for his penmanship and all that is incluede). Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.’
Whew...
Of all stories written throughout history, those written with such beauty will endure and one day float in and out of time... the place where in our deepest moments we feel connected to, and long for... it’s our joy to struggle in connecting the two realities, flickering light in this dark world...
A world with more light... imagine.
A world with blinding light... our promise..!..
Imagine!
Be well friends
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Drawn out of water
12 . 19 . 11
Exodus 1-4
Because what I wrote about yesterday - sunsets & purity - is still today sticking to the sides of my spirit, I decided to begin reading the book of moses. Glad I did...
I read the first four chapters this morning. I read of his birth, his mother faithfully following the order of the Pharaoh to “throw every infant boy into the nile” so the growth of the hebrew nation would subside. It didn’t (surprised?). She - a young hebrew mother - followed this order and the Lord brought her son out of it... Glory. He was born into and out of obedience, and the lord used him...
I read of Moses’ upbringing by Pharaoh’s daughter, his defense of a fellow hebrew in killing a fellow egyptian, his shame in what he had done, and his fleeing to a foreign land.
Wandering in this foreign land, he was taken into the house of the priest of the land of Midian, and would eventually marry one of his seven daughters, Zipporah.
Stay with me...
A shepherd now, Moses was in the fields tending the flock of his father in law, and saw the burning bush. Imagine... the “bush was on fire, but did not burn up.” crazy.. hmm..
“this bush will be the sign to you (moses) that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
The lord promises to deliver him to a “land flowing with milk and honey, the home of the canaanites, hittites, amorites, perizzites, hivites and jebusites.”
Wait a sec... who are these which already reside in this great land? The israelites are God’s people, but is he wanting to bring them to a new land already occupied? A metaphor? Could god have more people, people who might already be experiencing this ‘land of milk and honey’ who are different from us? I digress.. but think about it.
God then builds Moses’ confidence by commanding him to do miraculous things on this mountain... things that if you saw them, you would believe the deliverer.. things like turning his staff into a snake, or making his hand leprous and healing it again instantly, then there was the final act of pouring out water which upon meeting the soil immediately turned into blood.
A foreshadow of the first three plagues maybe? What was to eventually come before Pharoah... locusts? plagues? the nile’s water turned to blood?
He builds his confidence, but he continued to doubt... for Moses himself - even after doing these things - said “I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” I can’t lead these people!!?!?!!
This is the man God chose to use to free his people. A soft spoken stuttering orphan with another mans blood on his hands.
Of course he doubts... right?
The lord promises him and assures his place in saying, “who gave man his mouth? who makes him deaf or mute? who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak, and will teach you what to say.”
Love this.
Remember, we can call on this same power.!!. by the power of the spirit. The gift of Christ’s death...
But Moses still doubts (!!), and pleads for the Lord to send someone else... so the lord gives him a companion, his well spoken brother, Aaron... “he will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him.” Beautiful. The way this relationship evolves is beautiful...
So moses, having now spent a significant amount of time in this ‘foreign land, would soon leave with his “wife and his sons”, going now to meet his well-spoken little bro and turn over the rule of Pharaoh and with the power of the Lord, free his people.
That is where I stopped...
But I can’t wait to read on...
I love it... early in the text it says Pharaoh’s daughter “named him Moses, saying, ‘I drew him out of the water.’”
What a beautiful name.
Moses. Drawn out of water.
I chose to dive into this story yesterday after pondering the timely process with which the earth filters it’s water, and how the same can go for our lives and things of the spirit... requiring time. Time, whisping away that which hinders as the intensity and focus of our gaze towards our maker increases.
I like the story of moses. Already he has been brought through a series of experiences which have and will, with time, bring him to realizing the Lord’s purpose for his life.
Excited to read on. But for now, be well friends :)
Exodus 1-4
Because what I wrote about yesterday - sunsets & purity - is still today sticking to the sides of my spirit, I decided to begin reading the book of moses. Glad I did...
I read the first four chapters this morning. I read of his birth, his mother faithfully following the order of the Pharaoh to “throw every infant boy into the nile” so the growth of the hebrew nation would subside. It didn’t (surprised?). She - a young hebrew mother - followed this order and the Lord brought her son out of it... Glory. He was born into and out of obedience, and the lord used him...
I read of Moses’ upbringing by Pharaoh’s daughter, his defense of a fellow hebrew in killing a fellow egyptian, his shame in what he had done, and his fleeing to a foreign land.
Wandering in this foreign land, he was taken into the house of the priest of the land of Midian, and would eventually marry one of his seven daughters, Zipporah.
Stay with me...
A shepherd now, Moses was in the fields tending the flock of his father in law, and saw the burning bush. Imagine... the “bush was on fire, but did not burn up.” crazy.. hmm..
“this bush will be the sign to you (moses) that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
The lord promises to deliver him to a “land flowing with milk and honey, the home of the canaanites, hittites, amorites, perizzites, hivites and jebusites.”
Wait a sec... who are these which already reside in this great land? The israelites are God’s people, but is he wanting to bring them to a new land already occupied? A metaphor? Could god have more people, people who might already be experiencing this ‘land of milk and honey’ who are different from us? I digress.. but think about it.
God then builds Moses’ confidence by commanding him to do miraculous things on this mountain... things that if you saw them, you would believe the deliverer.. things like turning his staff into a snake, or making his hand leprous and healing it again instantly, then there was the final act of pouring out water which upon meeting the soil immediately turned into blood.
A foreshadow of the first three plagues maybe? What was to eventually come before Pharoah... locusts? plagues? the nile’s water turned to blood?
He builds his confidence, but he continued to doubt... for Moses himself - even after doing these things - said “I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” I can’t lead these people!!?!?!!
This is the man God chose to use to free his people. A soft spoken stuttering orphan with another mans blood on his hands.
Of course he doubts... right?
The lord promises him and assures his place in saying, “who gave man his mouth? who makes him deaf or mute? who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak, and will teach you what to say.”
Love this.
Remember, we can call on this same power.!!. by the power of the spirit. The gift of Christ’s death...
But Moses still doubts (!!), and pleads for the Lord to send someone else... so the lord gives him a companion, his well spoken brother, Aaron... “he will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him.” Beautiful. The way this relationship evolves is beautiful...
So moses, having now spent a significant amount of time in this ‘foreign land, would soon leave with his “wife and his sons”, going now to meet his well-spoken little bro and turn over the rule of Pharaoh and with the power of the Lord, free his people.
That is where I stopped...
But I can’t wait to read on...
I love it... early in the text it says Pharaoh’s daughter “named him Moses, saying, ‘I drew him out of the water.’”
What a beautiful name.
Moses. Drawn out of water.
I chose to dive into this story yesterday after pondering the timely process with which the earth filters it’s water, and how the same can go for our lives and things of the spirit... requiring time. Time, whisping away that which hinders as the intensity and focus of our gaze towards our maker increases.
I like the story of moses. Already he has been brought through a series of experiences which have and will, with time, bring him to realizing the Lord’s purpose for his life.
Excited to read on. But for now, be well friends :)
Monday, December 19, 2011
Sunsets & Purity
12 . 18 . 11
I found myself this evening on the beach, the crisp air that arrives just after the sun has set growing dense as I strolled the shore. It was just after sunset, and I was a bit disappointed I’d arrived tardy to what I was sure had been a warm departing of the sun, dripping with the colors of the spirit. I found consolation in knowing the sun was setting for someone else, as well as rising, bringing light to other beautiful places in the world...
My mind wandered to the idea of purity, and my impressions of how it is begot. Purity, healing, growth, strength in overcoming, etc really...
The classic image I get is the one of being purified through fire, like gold... remember the song ‘refiner’s fire’? maybe the verse in Malachi..“he will sit as a refiner [of gold] and purifier of silver...”
Purified, refined in the fire...
This is good, this is true, the purification of the spirit comes upon inviting it within to do it’s work. I just can’t help but think of the other ways in which things on earth are purified... first one that comes to mind is water.
Countries have used bio-san filtration as a form of bio-mimicry for centuries, imitating the layers of our earth with different layers and types of soil, sending the unclean water through a series of filters, eventually making it pure. The first layers extract any particulates in the water, moving down through the different stages of soil getting filtered to the point of eventually dripping out safe.
This is how our Maker has chosen to purify water...
... and sometimes it feels like this is how he has chosen to purify me...
The bio san we’ve created can filter water in a matter of hours... water filtered by the earth, making it’s way through the changing layers eventually dripping pristine into underground water storage, this can take years... lots of them.
Moving through life, certain things seem to just stick around, right? Am I alone in this? I wouldn’t jump to call these things sin, but maybe just things that inhibit, bind, drag down... things maybe that bring about emotions of fear, loneliness, anxiety.. so many things. But things none-the-less which no matter how many times it may seem we ask to be ‘freed’ of their burden, they remain...
This is where I like imagining my life's journey through the varying stages of God’s plan, each new layer stripping me from remaining contaminants, each new layer being deeper and denser than the last, each with the ability to strip that which was maybe able to slip through the last...
Time. This process requires it.
The willingness to dive deeper. Also required.
With little introspection, and at an age where reflection has become more significant as the timeline has stretched, I can see areas of my life where journeying deeper has with time brought purification...
This is a struggle for me... this is why this was on my heart, because there are things in my life which I am realizing maybe aren’t to be purified as the song describes... but filtered with time, experience, and a deepening understanding of what it is that requires ‘filtering’, and then being filtered...
Worries. Filtered with time.
Hopes. Filtered with time.
Loves. Filtered with time.
At each new layer, a new environment, maybe a new culture, a new appreciation and a new joy... a new thanksgiving, a new hope, a new love.. freedom.
~ with time ~
I’m reminded by what I wrote about at the beginning, that while we can’t always be experiencing the beauty of the sun’s rising or setting, we have hope in it’s faithful existence and joy in imagining where in this world the glory of that display is being shown... knowing full well it will be here to greet us again soon. It’s moments like this where in my spirit I feel the beauty of a new truth, a new understanding of what grows this heart of mine. And while in the morning it may seem less inspired, it remains and will be faithful in returning...
I found myself this evening on the beach, the crisp air that arrives just after the sun has set growing dense as I strolled the shore. It was just after sunset, and I was a bit disappointed I’d arrived tardy to what I was sure had been a warm departing of the sun, dripping with the colors of the spirit. I found consolation in knowing the sun was setting for someone else, as well as rising, bringing light to other beautiful places in the world...
My mind wandered to the idea of purity, and my impressions of how it is begot. Purity, healing, growth, strength in overcoming, etc really...
The classic image I get is the one of being purified through fire, like gold... remember the song ‘refiner’s fire’? maybe the verse in Malachi..“he will sit as a refiner [of gold] and purifier of silver...”
Purified, refined in the fire...
This is good, this is true, the purification of the spirit comes upon inviting it within to do it’s work. I just can’t help but think of the other ways in which things on earth are purified... first one that comes to mind is water.
Countries have used bio-san filtration as a form of bio-mimicry for centuries, imitating the layers of our earth with different layers and types of soil, sending the unclean water through a series of filters, eventually making it pure. The first layers extract any particulates in the water, moving down through the different stages of soil getting filtered to the point of eventually dripping out safe.
This is how our Maker has chosen to purify water...
... and sometimes it feels like this is how he has chosen to purify me...
The bio san we’ve created can filter water in a matter of hours... water filtered by the earth, making it’s way through the changing layers eventually dripping pristine into underground water storage, this can take years... lots of them.
Moving through life, certain things seem to just stick around, right? Am I alone in this? I wouldn’t jump to call these things sin, but maybe just things that inhibit, bind, drag down... things maybe that bring about emotions of fear, loneliness, anxiety.. so many things. But things none-the-less which no matter how many times it may seem we ask to be ‘freed’ of their burden, they remain...
This is where I like imagining my life's journey through the varying stages of God’s plan, each new layer stripping me from remaining contaminants, each new layer being deeper and denser than the last, each with the ability to strip that which was maybe able to slip through the last...
Time. This process requires it.
The willingness to dive deeper. Also required.
With little introspection, and at an age where reflection has become more significant as the timeline has stretched, I can see areas of my life where journeying deeper has with time brought purification...
This is a struggle for me... this is why this was on my heart, because there are things in my life which I am realizing maybe aren’t to be purified as the song describes... but filtered with time, experience, and a deepening understanding of what it is that requires ‘filtering’, and then being filtered...
Worries. Filtered with time.
Hopes. Filtered with time.
Loves. Filtered with time.
At each new layer, a new environment, maybe a new culture, a new appreciation and a new joy... a new thanksgiving, a new hope, a new love.. freedom.
~ with time ~
I’m reminded by what I wrote about at the beginning, that while we can’t always be experiencing the beauty of the sun’s rising or setting, we have hope in it’s faithful existence and joy in imagining where in this world the glory of that display is being shown... knowing full well it will be here to greet us again soon. It’s moments like this where in my spirit I feel the beauty of a new truth, a new understanding of what grows this heart of mine. And while in the morning it may seem less inspired, it remains and will be faithful in returning...
Monday, December 12, 2011
Kissed by Grace.
12 . 12 . 11
My drive to work is majestic... winding through dense woods, never exceeding fourth gear, soaked in the moist glory of the northwest. Forty minutes there, forty minutes back, gives a guy some time to think ya know?
Grace.
I confronted my idea of the concept recently when on this drive, I was asking the lord to forgive me in some area of my life, maybe for some thing I had done, who know... it’s not really important except for that I felt trapped. I felt trapped by my idea of grace, by the thought that for every action, there has to be an equal or opposite re-action in seeking forgiveness to be saved.
This is not the God I’ve come to know, this way of seeking grace doesn’t bring healing. I felt the shallowness, the hopelessness in the construction of my elementary understanding of this beautiful gift...
With this thought came another...a glimpse of the grace offered... a grace we live into, that soaks us, heals us, makes us strong, gives us freedom. I felt God awaiting an invitation from me... an invitation for him to come and live in my struggles, to be there in the failures.
God living in us.. sure, that is nothing new. If you read my blog often you know my thoughts on the Spirit living within. I rely on it...
When it concerns grace however, this is a new perspective for me... I guess I realized on my drive home the other night how I sometimes worried about my salvation because i maybe hadn’t asked for forgiveness for this that or the other thing.. ways I had turned my heart from God. What a silly system if this were the case...
It’s not that asking forgiveness is any less important, but realizing the gift of God’s grace is I believe of far greater importance. Accepting this gift, He will - if we invite Him to - live among the pain, the failures, and bring healing, salvation, freedom through His spirit... the great messenger of our maker.
Sin does not determine a persons salvation. The condition and content of their heart, by this they will either be accused or excused on the day the creator of all things good returns (rom2)...
Forgiveness is important. ‘ask the lord to forgive, and you will be forgiven... ask those you have wronged for forgiveness, and you will be healed.’ james 5:16?
so much good comes from forgiveness.... but first, learn grace.
A heart living to love God and love others will experience life, and seek forgiveness where the spirit makes plain it’s need. Sin has no power...
“therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through christ the law of the spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the spirit.”
Whew...
A crazy verse from paul in romans 8, immediately after just ranting on about his inability to conquer the desires of the flesh... his conclusion about himself? “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death...”
Enter grace..!.. “therefore, there is now no condemnation...”
Sin will exist. He wants to live among it, bring us through it, and make us stronger in acknowledging the struggle and confronting it with the power of the Spirit... accept this grace, freedom, healing, strength.
Be well friends.
My drive to work is majestic... winding through dense woods, never exceeding fourth gear, soaked in the moist glory of the northwest. Forty minutes there, forty minutes back, gives a guy some time to think ya know?
Grace.
I confronted my idea of the concept recently when on this drive, I was asking the lord to forgive me in some area of my life, maybe for some thing I had done, who know... it’s not really important except for that I felt trapped. I felt trapped by my idea of grace, by the thought that for every action, there has to be an equal or opposite re-action in seeking forgiveness to be saved.
This is not the God I’ve come to know, this way of seeking grace doesn’t bring healing. I felt the shallowness, the hopelessness in the construction of my elementary understanding of this beautiful gift...
With this thought came another...a glimpse of the grace offered... a grace we live into, that soaks us, heals us, makes us strong, gives us freedom. I felt God awaiting an invitation from me... an invitation for him to come and live in my struggles, to be there in the failures.
God living in us.. sure, that is nothing new. If you read my blog often you know my thoughts on the Spirit living within. I rely on it...
When it concerns grace however, this is a new perspective for me... I guess I realized on my drive home the other night how I sometimes worried about my salvation because i maybe hadn’t asked for forgiveness for this that or the other thing.. ways I had turned my heart from God. What a silly system if this were the case...
It’s not that asking forgiveness is any less important, but realizing the gift of God’s grace is I believe of far greater importance. Accepting this gift, He will - if we invite Him to - live among the pain, the failures, and bring healing, salvation, freedom through His spirit... the great messenger of our maker.
Sin does not determine a persons salvation. The condition and content of their heart, by this they will either be accused or excused on the day the creator of all things good returns (rom2)...
Forgiveness is important. ‘ask the lord to forgive, and you will be forgiven... ask those you have wronged for forgiveness, and you will be healed.’ james 5:16?
so much good comes from forgiveness.... but first, learn grace.
A heart living to love God and love others will experience life, and seek forgiveness where the spirit makes plain it’s need. Sin has no power...
“therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through christ the law of the spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the spirit.”
Whew...
A crazy verse from paul in romans 8, immediately after just ranting on about his inability to conquer the desires of the flesh... his conclusion about himself? “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death...”
Enter grace..!.. “therefore, there is now no condemnation...”
Sin will exist. He wants to live among it, bring us through it, and make us stronger in acknowledging the struggle and confronting it with the power of the Spirit... accept this grace, freedom, healing, strength.
Be well friends.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Colossians 2:6-3:17
12 . 5 . 11
Colossians 2:6-3:17
What a perfect section of scripture, one that makes sense of a passage i’ve memorized in the past. So typical to pick a verse to memorize because it’s maybe a powerful one-liner, without first having a deep understanding of the surrounding verses. Blah..
Paul encourages followers of Christ to continue lives “rooted and built up in him (jesus)”, and to be wary of “hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world”. Be strong, know him, sink roots...
“In him you were circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature... having been buried with him in baptism, and raised with him through your faith in the power of God”
Whenever circumcision is mentioned in the Word, I kindof hurry past it, it just makes me a bit squeemish.. this time however, I saw the beauty in it and what it represents... the cutting off of the foreskin in our lives, the sinful nature, the unclean, the suffocating, the starting fresh... what a blessing -- both the actual circumcision as well as the spiritual. And then being baptized, sunk in water representing our being buried, then being raised up and out representing our faith in the power of God to raise us from the powers of this world which bring death... a faith in our place in eternity... a faith ‘which is being renewed in the knowledge in the image of it’s creator’. A descending of the Spirit in the form of a dove to guide our lives...
Baptism. Funny how little i understood of it and it’s significance when I was first dunked... how old was I even, 12 maybe? I’ve no clue...
Jesus brings life to ALL, thats what we read... by dying on the cross he ‘disarmed the powers and authorities of the world’
“therefore, do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to religious festival, a new moon celebration or a sabbath day.”
aka -- there is no judgement... through his death, the filthy foreskin has been cut, death is no more, we are raised out of the water by faith and given the gift of the Spirit.
Learn this. Accept this. Daily. Hourly.
Next, we’re warned again about those ‘who delight in false humility... such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.”
Amen.
Crazy verse. I am reminded again and again in scripture that it’s not the appearance of goodness that brings one to glory (duh), but the condition of one’s heart.
I’ve met many people in and out of the church who could be described with the above verse... and putting words to their description is always difficult... gosh, there are periods of my life where I could have been described by it as well, losing connection, losing faith in the ligaments and sinews which hold my spiritual life together... thus falling apart.
We then are told that for those of us who in our lives are given a taste of the Spirit (comes in maany forms), our hope is in Christ. When dipped in death, and raised in faith, the growth of the spirit spreading throughout our being will guide us ‘to put to death whatever belongs to our earthly nature’ ... ‘riding ourselves of all such things... anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language’
... they cannot fully exist, one with the other...
... one must dwell in us with authority; spirit, or world...
The next section (3:12-17) is one i’ve worked to memorize in the past.. i suck at memorizing.. i hate that i suck at this.
I had typed it out, the verse, but now I kindof wanna put it in my own words.. the verse is beautiful, please read it.. i’ll just share here what I read weaving between and through the lines of this passage..
“You are God’s, holy and dearly loved... always. Your eyes now are freed, the foreskin cut, you are a new creation. Your fresh, naked spirit... clothe it with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Forgive others... free yourself, free them, as He has freed you. You will find joy in doing these things... Over all these virtues, coat yourself with Love, God’s love and promises which can bring warmth to even the coldest, darkest, hopeless soul. Love binds all.. love is the deliverer of this fruit.. what good is the fruit if it is not delivered with love? I’ve tasted this fruit before.. with & w/out love. I’ve delivered this fruit before.. with & without love. In all things, let the gifts of the spirit reign, bringing peace. And be thankful. Always. In all things. Through all things. Be thankful. For you know what awaits you... you learn of it in god’s word... let it dwell in you richly, sinking to the deepest levels where it will grow life. With it, let the spirit guide you in teaching and admonishing one another in wisdom, discernment, humility. Worship! Look around you, pause, and look around you... worship the creator of the heavens, the earth and all that calls it home. Worship. You’ve been given this gift, now go and do... let the spirit be your guide, the dove of peace leading the way. Give credit where credit is due, the one who cut the foreskin and pulled the blinders off our eyes that we might see the gift, as well as the promise. Share this fruit... in love.”
If you want to read another translation... like, an actual translation of this verse... click here :)
I’m going to go now. It’s my day off, and I have big plans. Rest.
Be well friends.
Colossians 2:6-3:17
What a perfect section of scripture, one that makes sense of a passage i’ve memorized in the past. So typical to pick a verse to memorize because it’s maybe a powerful one-liner, without first having a deep understanding of the surrounding verses. Blah..
Paul encourages followers of Christ to continue lives “rooted and built up in him (jesus)”, and to be wary of “hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world”. Be strong, know him, sink roots...
“In him you were circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature... having been buried with him in baptism, and raised with him through your faith in the power of God”
Whenever circumcision is mentioned in the Word, I kindof hurry past it, it just makes me a bit squeemish.. this time however, I saw the beauty in it and what it represents... the cutting off of the foreskin in our lives, the sinful nature, the unclean, the suffocating, the starting fresh... what a blessing -- both the actual circumcision as well as the spiritual. And then being baptized, sunk in water representing our being buried, then being raised up and out representing our faith in the power of God to raise us from the powers of this world which bring death... a faith in our place in eternity... a faith ‘which is being renewed in the knowledge in the image of it’s creator’. A descending of the Spirit in the form of a dove to guide our lives...
Baptism. Funny how little i understood of it and it’s significance when I was first dunked... how old was I even, 12 maybe? I’ve no clue...
Jesus brings life to ALL, thats what we read... by dying on the cross he ‘disarmed the powers and authorities of the world’
“therefore, do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to religious festival, a new moon celebration or a sabbath day.”
aka -- there is no judgement... through his death, the filthy foreskin has been cut, death is no more, we are raised out of the water by faith and given the gift of the Spirit.
Learn this. Accept this. Daily. Hourly.
Next, we’re warned again about those ‘who delight in false humility... such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.”
Amen.
Crazy verse. I am reminded again and again in scripture that it’s not the appearance of goodness that brings one to glory (duh), but the condition of one’s heart.
I’ve met many people in and out of the church who could be described with the above verse... and putting words to their description is always difficult... gosh, there are periods of my life where I could have been described by it as well, losing connection, losing faith in the ligaments and sinews which hold my spiritual life together... thus falling apart.
We then are told that for those of us who in our lives are given a taste of the Spirit (comes in maany forms), our hope is in Christ. When dipped in death, and raised in faith, the growth of the spirit spreading throughout our being will guide us ‘to put to death whatever belongs to our earthly nature’ ... ‘riding ourselves of all such things... anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language’
... they cannot fully exist, one with the other...
... one must dwell in us with authority; spirit, or world...
The next section (3:12-17) is one i’ve worked to memorize in the past.. i suck at memorizing.. i hate that i suck at this.
I had typed it out, the verse, but now I kindof wanna put it in my own words.. the verse is beautiful, please read it.. i’ll just share here what I read weaving between and through the lines of this passage..
“You are God’s, holy and dearly loved... always. Your eyes now are freed, the foreskin cut, you are a new creation. Your fresh, naked spirit... clothe it with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Forgive others... free yourself, free them, as He has freed you. You will find joy in doing these things... Over all these virtues, coat yourself with Love, God’s love and promises which can bring warmth to even the coldest, darkest, hopeless soul. Love binds all.. love is the deliverer of this fruit.. what good is the fruit if it is not delivered with love? I’ve tasted this fruit before.. with & w/out love. I’ve delivered this fruit before.. with & without love. In all things, let the gifts of the spirit reign, bringing peace. And be thankful. Always. In all things. Through all things. Be thankful. For you know what awaits you... you learn of it in god’s word... let it dwell in you richly, sinking to the deepest levels where it will grow life. With it, let the spirit guide you in teaching and admonishing one another in wisdom, discernment, humility. Worship! Look around you, pause, and look around you... worship the creator of the heavens, the earth and all that calls it home. Worship. You’ve been given this gift, now go and do... let the spirit be your guide, the dove of peace leading the way. Give credit where credit is due, the one who cut the foreskin and pulled the blinders off our eyes that we might see the gift, as well as the promise. Share this fruit... in love.”
If you want to read another translation... like, an actual translation of this verse... click here :)
I’m going to go now. It’s my day off, and I have big plans. Rest.
Be well friends.
Friday, December 2, 2011
The Tree Lot
12 . 2 . 11
I’m back now, enjoying a nice fire under a starlit sky... and after a nice meal I am free to relax and reflect on the days... the weeks blessings.
I am now going on my fourth day in a row working at a tree farm... literally, imagine a corn field, but instead of corn, trees... Thousands upon thousands of christmas trees. It’s nuts.
So me and about ten other craaaazy dudes strap up each day for ten hours plus of the most tiresome work I’ve ever done... right up there with shoveling bark all day. We drag, bail, throw, swamp, sort and load trees all day... nobles, firs, douglas, grand, all sorts and sizes.. It’s amazing. I think I probably threw somewhere around 500 trees myself today... thats just throwing. This company ships trees all over.. they even sent a container to Alaska!!?? Nuts. Working 10+ hr days I leave in the dark, come home in the dark, but work all day outside in the fresh northwest air which soaks the lungs like only it can. I drive home forty minutes on windy, wood laden roads for twenty miles journeying through the forest. Today as I bobbed up and down some roads I caught peeking glimpses of mt rainier adorned in purple, whisped with pink... beautiful. I can work as many hours as I want, and am making good money.. what a blessing.
See, for weeks I had been tirelessly looking for a job on a tree lot where trees are sold... one lot in particular had led me on and let me down time and time again until I just didn’t have a job with them.. and at the last minute - as a recommendation of my grandfather who was a frat boy with the owner of this farm and worked on a lot himself for 10+ yrs - I got this job. Faaaaar more difficult than what I had imagined doing, but with a handful of people who I know I am meant to spend time with. I’m not sure what will come of these relationships, but it is clear to me the providence of this work and I can each day look forward to getting my ass whooped and back wrenched if it means spending time with some grungy dudes who are good, broken people... and need good, broken people in their lives. I am blessed...
I can’t believe some of the characters I’m meeting here, true lumberjacks who seem to have been raised as orphans among the groves. Afflictions have soaked the soil of their lives, and the pain in their roots bears witness... mostly unspoken. some of the crazy things I’ve seen and heard have been hard at times, things I don’t really feel comfortable sharing, but things which have shown me a new fragment of the sorts of people we’re called to be near.. I felt it on the river, I felt it in Haiti, I felt it in Vail, and I feel it here... People who have very different stories from my own, but who share harmonious ingredients which blend to make for a tasty interaction, rising into a fruitful relationship.
Why spend so much time with people who are just like us?! And sure, within different social groups there are different breeds, but at the core with most groups i’ve felt a part of there are many basic similarities which make a person feel comfortable... right? I guess I’m realizing that even in the glaring light of these previously mentioned - out of box - life experiences, I don’t very often reach out to groups where I would be uncomfortable... and I guess I’m realizing how that’s exactly what Jesus came to preach... and the promise is that the Holy Spirit is there to comfort, to warm, to give strength, to lift up, and to pour out. What a beautiful promise.
I will say, my time in the word has been seriously cut because of this job, so if you find yourself with some unspent prayer energy, send it my way, my spirit could use it... I do take moments throughout the day to breathe deep and gather my spirit, because sometimes it can tend to slip away as I allow. Little moments like this I’m learning are very important...
Thank you all... and be blessed!
I’m back now, enjoying a nice fire under a starlit sky... and after a nice meal I am free to relax and reflect on the days... the weeks blessings.
I am now going on my fourth day in a row working at a tree farm... literally, imagine a corn field, but instead of corn, trees... Thousands upon thousands of christmas trees. It’s nuts.
So me and about ten other craaaazy dudes strap up each day for ten hours plus of the most tiresome work I’ve ever done... right up there with shoveling bark all day. We drag, bail, throw, swamp, sort and load trees all day... nobles, firs, douglas, grand, all sorts and sizes.. It’s amazing. I think I probably threw somewhere around 500 trees myself today... thats just throwing. This company ships trees all over.. they even sent a container to Alaska!!?? Nuts. Working 10+ hr days I leave in the dark, come home in the dark, but work all day outside in the fresh northwest air which soaks the lungs like only it can. I drive home forty minutes on windy, wood laden roads for twenty miles journeying through the forest. Today as I bobbed up and down some roads I caught peeking glimpses of mt rainier adorned in purple, whisped with pink... beautiful. I can work as many hours as I want, and am making good money.. what a blessing.
See, for weeks I had been tirelessly looking for a job on a tree lot where trees are sold... one lot in particular had led me on and let me down time and time again until I just didn’t have a job with them.. and at the last minute - as a recommendation of my grandfather who was a frat boy with the owner of this farm and worked on a lot himself for 10+ yrs - I got this job. Faaaaar more difficult than what I had imagined doing, but with a handful of people who I know I am meant to spend time with. I’m not sure what will come of these relationships, but it is clear to me the providence of this work and I can each day look forward to getting my ass whooped and back wrenched if it means spending time with some grungy dudes who are good, broken people... and need good, broken people in their lives. I am blessed...
I can’t believe some of the characters I’m meeting here, true lumberjacks who seem to have been raised as orphans among the groves. Afflictions have soaked the soil of their lives, and the pain in their roots bears witness... mostly unspoken. some of the crazy things I’ve seen and heard have been hard at times, things I don’t really feel comfortable sharing, but things which have shown me a new fragment of the sorts of people we’re called to be near.. I felt it on the river, I felt it in Haiti, I felt it in Vail, and I feel it here... People who have very different stories from my own, but who share harmonious ingredients which blend to make for a tasty interaction, rising into a fruitful relationship.
Why spend so much time with people who are just like us?! And sure, within different social groups there are different breeds, but at the core with most groups i’ve felt a part of there are many basic similarities which make a person feel comfortable... right? I guess I’m realizing that even in the glaring light of these previously mentioned - out of box - life experiences, I don’t very often reach out to groups where I would be uncomfortable... and I guess I’m realizing how that’s exactly what Jesus came to preach... and the promise is that the Holy Spirit is there to comfort, to warm, to give strength, to lift up, and to pour out. What a beautiful promise.
I will say, my time in the word has been seriously cut because of this job, so if you find yourself with some unspent prayer energy, send it my way, my spirit could use it... I do take moments throughout the day to breathe deep and gather my spirit, because sometimes it can tend to slip away as I allow. Little moments like this I’m learning are very important...
Thank you all... and be blessed!
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