Safety Is


Written on the ocean on March 2, 2017. But ever so eternally poignant.

The waves beat against the hull of the ship.  

With a silent and determined anger;

With gluttony for autonomy,


They desire “unimpeded”.  


See how the steel says, “No”.  

See how they are forced to go,


Dissipated.  


How the strength of their ruin is utterly devastated.  


How, with present Will

pressed against them, 

they turn to white frothing.

At the majesty they encounter;  

They turn to –

Mere nothing.  


Like they do as the wind whips them up, 

in small measure 

The sea is dotted with purity.  

Yet:

With impassable Will

All is turned back.  


“You will not pass.  

I cannot relent.  

I move through your midst,

My strength never spent.”


Be still!

Cease your work!

Bow to Me!

My people will pass


Speaks The Maker He.  


Move Holy Spirit.  

Move through my soul.  

Be the ship that carries 

The desire of Your own will. 

As it has been from old.  


Be in me the strength of your love.  

Keep me on the

“Inward side.”

Seven Spanish Angels?????


You got to this post across a certain trail. Stop a minute. Pick a rock. Have a seat. Let’s do a little traveling that doesn’t require legs.  

I’ll tell you about the trail that brought me here. I was practicing guitar this morning using YouTube; A little Skip Ewing, a smidgen of Vince Gill, a sliver of Keith urban, and just a dab of Carrie underwood. I just finished “mama’s song”, and looked down at the next few songs. There was Willie Nelson singing “Seven Spanish Angels”.  


In a flash, I was no longer playing guitar. I was transported to this place where you meet me.  


15 minutes of thought can be rolled up in one question. Does Man have a right to play games with the concept of heaven, angels, salvation, death, vengeance, and what is Holy?


It’s kind of sentimental and cute to think that seven Spanish Angels even exist, let alone that they immortalize people just because they die. But is there any possibility that it’s true? Is everyone taken to heaven simply because they lived here on earth? Take a look at what happened to Isaiah. Then tell me what will become of the godless and the sinners of this life.  


1. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3. And they were calling to one another:


“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;

the whole earth is full of his glory.”


4. At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.


5. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”


6. Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” (chapter 6)


God is HOLY. Everything of heaven is Holy. Angels do not come from Mexico. They are of heaven, where everything is holy.  


Those who live by the gun will die by the gun. And in the end they will be assigned the place of those who murder and are of vengeance.  


I am caused to consider this, how much of my own life is a room of lies filled with stupid and ignorant tapestries that will most assuredly destroyed me? What are you thinking?


Thanks for having a seat. Thanks for listening. May God bless the path you take from here.  

The Orientation of “Valuable”


365 days in a year. 365 years. I haven’t even quite made it to 65 yet. But Enoch, the seventh from Adam, lived 365 years before he walked with God and was seen no more for God took him.  

Can you close your eyes and imagine living 365 years in this place?  


Without God, I know for a fact I would despise my life in short order. But with the Lord to comfort me, guide me, teach me, and make me useful, it doesn’t matter how long I live where.  


Let us rethink “valuable”.

Being a Christian


This morning I see this:Darkness on the earth is witness to a hushed murmur of violence. The night is a cloak for the thieves.  


They steal what they will; property, life and peace.  


But this I perceived:

The world spins around causing the Sun to rise. And the noise of wickedness is no longer a murmur.  


Now it is a deafening roar of greedy desire and wicked intent.  


Their eyes open shooting fiery knives of blame. Dreams and nightmares give way to the reality of judgmental hearts.  


The peace of the wee hours of the morning.  


The time of prayer, time of reflection. The time to receive life from He who is Life. Clarity comes from Him. And in the clarity I can perceive as if indeed from some vast distance. The place where the splatter of blood cannot reach.  


The night will come again. The thieves will sleep, the thieves will tiptoe about. But He who lives forever is Peace.  


By the command of the Living God, His name is Jesus! Quiet your soul and trust Him. Listen intently for what cannot be heard. Search for what IS. His desire is for you. Doesn’t the blood beneath the cross prove His intent?


He is not a thief, unlike we who pray. He comes to grant life, wisdom, forgiveness, peace, joy, faithfulness, and doesn’t the list become endless? Those who learn to receive become like He. The spinning of the earth becomes far less fearsome.  


This, is to be a Christian.  

Astounding Warfare


Man goes to war with tools of death, that he may bring a “ceasing” to his enemy.  

God goes to war against the “deceased”, that he may bring them to life.  


Man’s enemy says to him, “We will not die today. It will be you who’s eyes will close!”


God says to his enemy (the dead), “Ask of me and I will open your eyes”.  


Curiously, how many say “NO!”, choosing instead to remain in death.  


What in odd battlefield the Holy One inhabits.  

The Definition of Beauty


It is not my clothing that makes me beautiful. It is not the most exquisite possession that makes me important. It is not the agility of my flesh or mind, nor formidable power of my heroic will. 

It is that the will of God works in me to accomplish the will of God. This makes me eternally valuable and pristinely beautiful. Such beauty is not open for debate.  


It is so with everyone of his people whom he himself has called.  


Jesus is first. Jesus IS. Jesus forever will be: the beauty of God, the majesty of God, the preeminence of God, and Life.  


Value what you will, nothing on earth or in the imagination of man, can compare to the Glory of the Living God’s Holy Son; The Lord of HIS glory – both in this place and forever sealed in HIS temple.   


THIS IS BEAUTY DEFINED!