Thankful for the Hope of Heaven

It’s been a really tough year, as you can guess from many of the posts here. But this Thanksgiving I am reminded that I have so many things for which to be thankful. God has blessed me with a wonderful family, and some good friends. But mostly I am thankful that this world is not all we have to look forward to. I am thankful that Jesus has taken my sin and given me his righteousness. I am thankful that God has given us a love that knows no bounds!

I was just listening to this song by Rich Mullins today, and it made me feel very thankful for God’s unfailing love.

A Love that Knows No Bounds
by Rich Mullins

Deep calls to deep
And all that we need
Has been lost in what we’ve found
And all we shall be
Is growing by leaps
In a love that knows no bounds

And we will rise on spirit wings
When we wake from earthen dreams

Time ticks away
Night after day
‘Til the clock comes unwound
With all we shall be
Still growing by leaps
In a love that knows no bounds

And we will wake from earthen dreams
To rise on spirit wings

Being Understood

I don’t think I have ever felt so understood in my whole life! Of course, there are plenty of things I don’t understand. Nevertheless, right now, I feel like there are some very special people who have given me the wonderful gift of believing enough in me to listen and patience to understand me. First of all my wife, my sister and two good friends.  I can’t express my appreciation enough!

Telling Myself Good News

In our reading through Galatians, we were asked to say to ourselves the “gospel” that Paul is reminding the Galatians of. Here is what I told myself from Galatians 1:3,4:

“Grace and Peace! Grace which is a blessing to your spirit and Peace . . . soul peace. Grace that comes through Jesus, who gave himself willingly for you. Grace! Jesus gave himself willingly for you . . . to buy you! To buy you back! To rescue you from darkness, to save you from being condemned, from being condemned before the Father, from being condemned before those whom you hurt, from being guilty before the one who would devour your soul.

This grace that brings you peace with God. Peace within yourself, peace with those around you! Peace! In your soul.”

Surrounded by Grace

This morning the clouds are lifted. There is hope and a hint of joy for what the future could hold. I am thankful for a new day.

It is a powerful force this thing called grace. It reaches deep into the soul to heal. And I am thankful! So thankful!

Yet, I am filled with regret knowing it comes with a price. For those who are extending grace to me, it costs something to forgive me. And there is the cost of consequence which asks for more grace. I know that the price is paid willingly, and I am thankful, eternally thankful!

What once was hurt
What once was friction
What left a mark
No longer stings
Because Grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things

Grace makes beauty out of ugly things

from U2, Grace

Satisfying Story

Permanent Things had one of my favorite quotes from Tolkien today.

I remember the first time I read The Lord of the Rings. In The Return of the King, after the battle of Pelinor fields, Faramir and Eowyn meet during their convalescence. It struck me as a pleasing thought that they should meet, but even more pleasant was the moment, when they are walking in the garden and Faramir says:

“I love you. I used to pity your sorrow. But now, were you sorrowless, without fear or any lack, still I would love you.”

It’s such a satisfying thought, that they should find one another. Each has fallen victim to darkness that had overtaken their lands and each had suffered such great loss. Perhaps, I am a bit of a romantic, but it is such an encouraging thought that they should be there to comfort one another, but even more, that such comfort would grow to true and deep love.

Believing in Yourself

From Permanent Things:

 

“Believe, amid whatever madness or moral failure, that your life and temperament have some object on earth. Believe that you have something to give the world which cannot otherwise be given.”

G. K. Chesterton, (“Philosophy of Browning,” Robert Browning)

Heart to God

Some say he’s the best guitarist in the world. I love to watch him play. I was able to see him play in a small church in Dublin. It’s great fun, and I love this song.

Phil Keaggy (Salvation Army Band). This video can’t be played from this site. Click here to watch it on YouTube.

Salvation Army Band - Phil Keaggy

Grace – gracious love
Reaching out to take me as I am,
Accepting – expecting I will do the best I can
Caring – you cover me, clothed in Your own righteousness I am
Exactly – What You’ve made me, by grace I have found favor in the Lamb

Cover me – cover me – cover me.

Mercy – made free to me
Eternal life, a gift that has no end.
Receiving – believing in the mercy You extend.
Cover me – you cover me, clothed in Your own righteousness I stand
Your mercy – has made me a part of Your salvation army band.

Heart to God, Hand to Man
Saved to Serve, Salvation Army Band

Peaceful sleep
Enjoyed by those whose eyes find rest in you.
Adoring – the glory of Your presence is in view.
Cover me – you cover me, clothed in Your own righteousness I stand
Eternally – You made me a part of Your salvation army band.

Cover me – cover me – cover me.

Heart to God, Hand to Man
Saved to Serve, Salvation Army Band

Go the Other Way

I wonder what Robert Frosts poem would have been like if there had been a sign like this?

Robert Frost (1874–1963). Mountain Interval. 1920.

The Road Not Taken

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; 5

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, 10

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back. 15

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. 20

Make this soul sing

Thanks to my friend, Casey at “Faraway, So Close” for posting this video. The song seems particularly meaningful to me at this moment in my life. I feel the weight of my inability to be all that I need to be. I need to “fit”, I need to be made “clean”, and I need to feel my “soul sing”

“Take this soul
Stranded in some skin and bones
Take this soul
And make it sing”

I hopy you will enjoy the video as I did. It’s U2 performing the song Yahweh in Chicago.

Yahweh lyrics

Take these shoes
Click clacking down some dead end street
Take these shoes
And make them fit
Take this shirt
Polyester white trash made in nowhere
Take this shirt
And make it clean, clean
Take this soul
Stranded in some skin and bones
Take this soul
And make it sing

Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, Yahweh
Still I’m waiting for the dawn

Take these hands
Teach them what to carry
Take these hands
Don’t make a fist
Take this mouth
So quick to criticise
Take this mouth
Give it a kiss

Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, Yahweh
Still I’m waiting for the dawn

Still waiting for the dawn, the sun is coming up
The sun is coming up on the ocean
This love is like a drop in the ocean
This love is like a drop in the ocean

Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, tell me now
Why the dark before the dawn?

Take this city
A city should be shining on a hill
Take this city
If it be your will
What no man can own, no man can take
Take this heart
Take this heart
Take this heart
And make it break

. . . it’s love writing this story

I come back to this song often. I was listening to it this evening in the car. It’s a nice word picture of the sovreign hand of God, through hurts and challenges. I believe what the song says, but I can’t always see it. O, why can’t I see the hand of love mixing the mortar and stacking the stones? I guess the mixing and stacking isn’t a pleasant process.

Show The Way
from the album Live Songs and Stories

You say you see no hope, you say you see no reason
We should dream that the world would ever change
You’re saying love is foolish to believe
‘Cause there’ll always be some crazy with an Army or a Knife
To wake you from your day dream, put the fear back in your life…

Look, if someone wrote a play just to glorify
What’s stronger than hate, would they not arrange the stage
To look as if the hero came too late he’s almost in defeat
It’s looking like the Evil side will win, so on the Edge
Of every seat, from the moment that the whole thing begins

It is…

Love who mixed the mortar
And it’s love who stacked these stones
And it’s love who made the stage here
Although it looks like we’re alone
In this scene set in shadows
Like the night is here to stay
There is evil cast around us
But it’s love that wrote the play…
For in this darkness love can show the way

So now the stage is set. Feel you own heart beating
In your chest. This life’s not over yet.
so we get up on our feet and do our best. We play against the
Fear. We play against the reasons not to try
We’re playing for the tears burning in the happy angel’s eyes

For it’s…

© David Wilcox, all rights reserved