Into the next season

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven"
The wait is over and the new season is finally here. Although I knew that my God would get me here to this point, knowing and living it are two very different things. There were struggles in that season. Doubt and uncertainty are an illnesses that tries to grip hold of your soul and drag you back to the darkness to which we once belonged. But now we do not live in the darkness, and there is no shade of the In-between. We live in the light, a light not from any sun or moon, but light from the pure holiness and glory of our king. So doubt and uncertainty, to you I say there is no room for iLife's this new life, you are garments that no longer fit this body. And even if you did I have new clothes that belong to royalty. 

"This is my beloved and this is my friend..."
With that season over, I enter a new one.  However this time there is another who steps along the road with me. My best friend and companion. My love. She follows my lead and covers the areas of my soul that are weak. She and I were always designed and invented to be together, this I know now with certainty as it has happened. My king has decreed it and here we are. And yet he takes it further and displays to the world, something, a shadow, a cloudy reflection of his love for for his people. 

Now I have to wonder, if the intensity of this love is so powerful, and it's only a poor picture of his love for us, then how far beyond all comprehension and understanding will the sheer power, purity, depth and velocity of the joy we will have when fully understanding the love that he gives us on that day. I would not be surprised if that is one of the reasons we need to have new bodies, made of eternally stronger stuff, So that it can withstand the power of that joy of his love for us. Him who died for us and rose again to give us new life, that love partially seen and understood now. Fully then. But even that partiality now is awesome. 

So, In some ways we are no longer  in that season of waiting, but we will always be waiting for is his return. But as we wait, my wife and I will hold fast to our kings love, and let him guide us to the end of the road he has set us on. To be with him, forever. 

The road not taken

The Road not taken

by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

This poem has been slowly simmering in my head for years now. It’s the way that Frost beautifully paints a small butterfly moment, a choice that cannot be revisited but only lived. But the ending is the part that keeps kneading thoughts in my mind. The road less travelled is the one that made all the difference. 

This echoes in my head what Jesus said all those yeas ago...

And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’

Luke 13:23-25

It’s a choice and it is one that we all have to make. That point when you look at those two roads, the time to make that decision and decide which road to take, just remember that way leads on to way and that you are unlikely to find your way back.

But for me I can honestly say as Frost says:

the road less travelled by has made all the difference...

 

...and I regret nothing.

Bless the LORD, O my soul

The first time that I came across this thought processes was a year ago, in a very pink hostel room in the middle of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. But recent events have brought these things back to the forefront of my mind.

Psalm 103:1-5   

Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

It is mind boggling to me that our souls and bless God. I mean just ponder that thought for a second. What is a blessing? I've always been able to understand what it is by viewing it as the opposite of a curse. When God pours down his blessings on us, great things happen in our lives and in our hearts. Does not Ephesians say that we have received every spiritual blessing? Now take that barrel of thoughts and add it to what David wrote above. This is mind boggling. The great I AM, the only truly perfect and holy one in and outside of this universe, the only one who is truly complete and lacking in nothing and is worthy of every ounce of creations praise. Our souls can bless that God! There is part of my mind that cannot seem to fully comprehend this, but I can fully accept it.

I understand why David would want to tell his soul sing to and bless God. When you have received that forgiveness, that grace and mercy you can only revive through Christ, how can you not want your soul to Bless the Lord? So whatever it looks like, I want my soul to bless the Lord. As Matt Redman puts it in his new song...

Selah...

Deception of the Heart

I have felt a weight on my heart of late. That pressure that ever so gently, but ever so firmly presses on the parts of my life that are in need of transforming. It is to be expected I guess, when the Spirit of the King resides within you. It is evidence of my King shaping and changing me to something closer to his likeness, and that is why I have joy. But as His fire burns and the dross of my life is consumed, I groan because these changes are never without struggle and sacrifice. But why does my heart react this way and resist these changes that He intends for my ultimate Joy?

Why is my heart determined to set me on the path that leads to death? My very being desires to follow temptation and repeat the same mistake that my first parents made. But now here enters the struggle. Things are not as they where when I was little. Now the truth, the mystery of the ages has been revealed to me. I have been bought and paid for at the highest price. Now I can see the path that leads to death. I have a choice; to follow or to rebel and see my self in His place. His Spirit encourages me, desires for me to stay on the Kings road, the true path. But my heart is not always so in sync with His.

But I do understand. My heart wants me to believe that it is for my benefit, that it would be better to disregard my king and follow my own path. It seems like selfishness, but how can it be? For it is my gain and never my loss, to follow in the ways that my King desires. So I can only surmise that it is because my heart desires nothing more than to commit treason against Him. 

Madness and foolishness! 

I know the truth. 

I see the price at which I have been bought.

His love for me so clearly displayed. 

The ferociousness of his commitment to me. 

And yet my heart still wishes to rebel!

But he has revealed to me the only way to change is through this struggle. So I welcome the fire to consume the parts of my heart that still desire to be God. I need to understand that the instant I start to believe that I can change those parts of me, I have failed. But as I continue on His road, and meet these trials and struggles with Him. I have to remind myself and believe that He knows better than my own heart does. And I embrace the freedom that this truth brings.

Winds of Change

A season of change has crept up on me and those close to me. It has infected almost every area of life. And as we scatter to different counties and the distance between us increases, I find my self looking down the path that I have been given to walk. For now I can only see vague shapes of things that maybe and could be mixed with my hopes and dreams for the future. At times I wonder if this path is called foolishness, but that only leads me to be reminded of the one who set me on this walk, and He is the opposite of folly.

Sometimes I can see hopelessness trying to join me here. At times he is close and times he is far, but for as long as my hope rests in the finished work of the King, he shall never be apart of my journey.

There is only one way that can make progress on this road, by lifting my sights to the end of the path, the only part that is clear and unclouded. For it is at that point that I will be free from darkness and rebellion and meet my king face to face.

This hope of Glory is what keeps my feet moving, and no matter what the path looks like in the months ahead, I know that He shall not lead me towards anything but the goal. So I will press on, and embrace the change that unwelcomely seeped into every facet of my life, knowing that I am never alone, and will soon be joined by my closest and most trusted friend, to walk this path together.