Beat, beat

Beat, beat

The sound of Christ’s feat

As he walked this earth sent down from heaven

Good news

Messiah’s here

Beat, beat

He walks and talks

Sharing life, bringing healing and joy

To give love

To show love

Beat, beat

The sound of Christ’s feat

As Golgotha he climbed, a cross upon his back

To save

To die

Beat, beat

Banging fists and shouts

The mob rising to a hateful blood-lust frenzy

The world rejects

its only hope

Beat, beat

The drum roll of the hammer

Sinking long ugly nails in our Lord

Through His flesh

Into the wood

Beat, beat

The rhythm of His heart

As it grows ever fainter, faint, gone

To save

To die

Beat, beat

The sound of Christ’s feat

As he steps forth from His tomb

He arose

He lives again

Beat, beat

Step into the world

Preach the gospel, share the good news

A call to serve

Christ died for life

Beat, beat

The sound of our feat

As we run around fulfilling life’s endless tasks

No time

So busy

Beat, beat

We run to and fro

Our days filled with pointless scrambling

No time

So busy

Beat, beat

The sounds in our ear

As we drown the world out with our music

Too loud

Can’t hear

Beat, beat

Turn the music up

As we ignore the cries around us

Too soft

Can’t hear

Stop. We have a purpose!

Gravity Defying Joy

I was listening to a speaker a while back during the Thanksgiving service at my church (janevillewestside.com) and although it had nothing to do with the topic of his lesson I could not get a certain passage out of my head. Problem was I could NOT find it. After paging through all four gospels trying to find it I gave up and made a futile effort to pay attention to the message at hand. However, as I have often found when God is laying something on your heart, there’s not really room for anything else. So after the service I decided to find the missing passage. The passage was this

Acts 3
1 Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. 2 And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple; 3 who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. 4 And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, “Look at us.” 5 So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. 6 Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” 7 And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. 8 So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them—walking, leaping, and praising God. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God.

Now the reason I could not find it was because I thought it was a miracle that Jesus performed (hence my frenzied searching of the gospels). Well…. It wasn’t Jesus; it was Peter and John. Now what captivated my mind on Thanksgiving from the passage? It was the phrase from verse 8 “So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them—walking, leaping, and praising God.” That phrase, “walking and leaping and praising God,” reverberated through my whole being. This man being healed from his sickness could NOT CONTAIN HIMSELF! His joy defied gravity as he leapt up towards the sky pumping his arms and legs praising with an unrestrained joy! Over and over again he leapt with jubilee. Imagine the crowd witnessing this. A man bound to the ground for his entire life now flying through the town praising the name of Jesus. The testimony of this would be two-fold – not just the miracle but the residual radiating joy and thankful praise.

Stop. What’s happened to our joy? Although it’s true that the vast majority of us have not been miraculously healed from a life of lameness, we have experienced a much more altering, much more mind-blowing miracle still. We have been saved from the crippling shackles of sin; from an eternal all-consuming death. Often we’re told to fear the spiritual over the physical. “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Why? Despite appearances, being spiritually crippled is far worse than being physically crippled. Curing one who is physically lame requires restructuring the bones and sinews of the body. However, to be cured from the crippling effect of sin requires a fundamental altering of our nature – it demands life where only death exists. It demands clothing of righteousness where we only have filthy rags. Furthermore, physical illness is temporary while spiritual death is eternal. When we are saved we experience the deepest most powerful miracle ever. We are given LIFE! The miracle of Calvary far exceeds the wonder of the lame man’s miracle! We have not only been cured of the eternal consequence of sin, we have been freed from the crippling constraints – the problem – of sin (to borrow a phrase from Eric Ludy). Where is our joy though? Why are we glued to the ground, our pews, our static lives, our spiritually monotonous singing? Why aren’t we leaping up and praising God? Where is our unceasing thanksgiving, adoration and praise? Remember what Christ did for you. Restore to us the joy of our salvation Father. Defy gravity people. Remember Calvary.

My Master's Grace

My Masters Grace

I looked deep within my soul.

I did not like what I saw.

Who have I become to be?

What part of me doesn’t have a flaw?

What am I to do, said I.

Whom shall save me

From this death that I created

From this hell I cannot flee.

My chains are thick and tight

My shackles unbreakable

These sinful things that I have done,

Have created prisons unshakable

Desperate for air

Walls closing in

Is this my final breath?

Did death finally win?

Then I heard a still small voice,

It said come, follow me

My chains then fell off

My prison doors swung free

Oh the sweetness of that voice

Ringing clearly through the night

It gave me the will to rise

And lent me supernatural sight

A light led me forward

To a strange wooden cross

Where my sinful soul died

And my burden rolled off

Mercy met with me there

It fulfilled Justice’s demands

My soul found new ownership

It enlisted in Another’s command.

I now serve a King

Who gave me eyes to see

Who left the ninety and nine

To come and rescue me

New life have I

Far to glorious to explain

For my death has died

At the shake of the Lions mane

And now when I look within,

In an introspective way

I see His light and life

On glorious display.

Now fear is gone

Joy has taken its place

Where once was sin and death

Now is my Masters grace.

So I'm back!

It has come to my attention that I have a paper to write. This primarily means that I'm about to start blogging again. For those of you who've been through college, you'll know that you're most inspirational moments, your most poetic thoughts, your deepest passions (that must be written) happen (almost exclusively) when you really have something else you need to accomplish. I am of the opinion (based solely on personal experience) that you cannot postpone these thoughts and ideas till a later time. They just won't ever get written. I have an idea for a poem that I somehow held myself from writing while I was going through finals, and it's still not written. So here I am, blogging....... when I have SO much else I need to do.

I have decided to discontinue my counting of snowfalls for two reasons. 1.) In the midst of final exams and my chaotic life, I've completely lost count. 2.) Regardless of whether or not this wives tale is true, Wisconsin gets a BOAT LOAD of snow! This is not necessarily a bad thing in my opinion, although it definitely has it's down sides.

My life, well as always, it's complicated and way overloaded with everything! I have been working on my churches website lately (http://janesvillewestsidebaptist.org) and things seem to be coming together. You can watch sermons by my pastor now (finally!). In about two weeks I hope to have it completely finished.

Anyways, to great ideas, poetic thoughts, ancient times and distant music....... cheers!

P.S. just thought I'd add that the Gypsy Kings are AMAZING!

Snow....... AGAIN!

Snowfall number three just came upon us with a fury! Driving home from school in the wee hours of this morning (a drive that usually takes 10 minutes) took me almost a half hour. The roads were really bad (and I was super tired). But such is Wisconsin! Anyway.... snowfall number three: down for the count. Looking out the window I'd estimate about 4-5 inches. we'll see how long it lasts.......

snowfall 2!

For those interested. Our second snowfall followed on the heals of the first. December 1st was the first time snow actually resided on the ground without immediately being melted away. Not sure if that's significant or not????? But there it was. Snowfall two, down! December 1st 2010.