Diagram of basic procedure to determine whether two sounds are allophones (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My God, I thank You.  You have given us words to communicate with our brothers.  And among men we speak and are understood.  But there is a language You have used for eternity.  And it is these words You purpose to teach us to use.  When You speak, You do not use sounds.  You speak in living words.  All Your words are true, thus alive.  And I thank You that this can be understood by a people who are used to only speaking sounds.  These sounds are heard, remembered for a time, then fade away.  But Your words last forever.

There are times, my God, when I think of what You are giving Your servant and marvel.  There are times when this seems but a dream. For we are taught to doubt from the moment we are born.  Yet You continually prove Your love to my soul.  This is true of all who know You.  And we rise in one accord to give You praise for Your loving hand among us.  We say, “There is a faith which becomes a ‘knowing’.  There is a God, invisible to man, who makes Himself known.  He is the Living God.  He speaks to us with Living Words.  And we will believe because You have touched us.  We believe because You have Spoken to us by granting us Life.  Those who went out from among us did not belong to us.  For if they had belonged to us they would have remained.  For to know Your touch and instruction is to gain life itself!  And no living creature desires to die.  Rather we move nearer that we might learn to truly live.”

There are words a man might speak which require no sounds from his lips.  These “words” are deeds of love to one another; a service rendered back to He who gives freely.  They speak louder than a man can scream.  And they last through time eternal.  This is the language of my God.  It is Your purpose to create a people for Yourself who understand these things.  And You willingly teach all who will submit to You about these things.

Holy are Your ways!  Marvelously Holy, pure, powerful, and complete are Your ways!  Glory adorns You forever.  And what astounds me is this:  Though nothing impure will ever enter Your Holy presence, You dress Your servants with Your own Righteous Light.  You have provided a manner, way, power, and path, by which we have hope to enter Your Holy presence.  Your Holy Son is this means.  And it is Your own Hand which has done this.

Praise to the Father through the Son!  For He has created a people for Himself from that which was not, and now is.  Glory is the Father in Heaven!  Eternal Glory!  Great is He who purposed to collect a people for His Son from this “Place of testing”.  Glory, Glory, and Glory to He who IS!  Amen.

By Your Grace.