Posted on 11/09/2006 6:49:58 PM PST by Knitting A Conundrum
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From Jericho to Jerusalem
Jesus!
How did you take that long road,
step by step,
mile by mile,
all the way from Jericho
to Jerusalem,
listening to your followers bicker,
seeing the crowd grow up
as you neared the city
and the festival time grew close,
knowing exactly what was awaiting you
that dark night
in the garden,
and at the hill the next day?
How did you not scream
in anger and angst
against the fate that awaited you,
a fate you gave your assent to,
a fate you knew would be so horrible
to carry out.
Ultimate Martyr,
witness to the Father’s mercy
bought with your suffering,
ultimate sacrifice,
paying the price by your blood,
drop by drop.
how the Father glorified you,
and lifted you high,
all for love.
O burning flame of love,
that could motivate you forward
on that dusty road
from Jericho
to Jerusalem.
forgive me Lord,
when I forget
the depths of your love
and take it for granted,
when it was given freely
with such pain,
and care
and grief.
BTTT
Act 4:31 And they having prayed, the place in which they were gathered was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Word of God with boldness.
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/h/o/holstdiv.htm
Holy Spirit, Truth divine,
Dawn upon this soul of mine;
Word of God and inward light
Wake my spirit, clear my sight.
Holy Spirit, Love divine,
Glow within this heart of mine;
Kindle every high desire;
Perish self in Thy pure fire.
Holy Spirit, Power divine
Fill and nerve this will of mine;
Grant that I may strongly live,
Bravely bear, and nobly strive.
Holy Spirit, Right divine,
King within my conscience reign;
Be my Lord, and I shall be
Firmly bound, forever free.
Holy Spirit, Peace divine,
Still this restless heart of mine;
Speak to calm this tossing sea,
Stayed in Thy tranquility.
Holy Spirit, Joy divine,
Gladden Thou this heart of mine;
In the desert ways I sing,
“Spring, O Well, forever spring.”
Now incline me to repent,
Let me now my sins lament,
Now my foul revolt deplore,
Weep, believe, and sin no more.
'A Debtor to Mercy Alone' {Lyrics: Augustus Toplady, 1771. Composer: Joseph Parry, 1870.}
A debtor to mercy alone,
Of covenant mercy I sing;
Nor fear, with Thy righteousness on,
My person and off’ring to bring.
The terrors of law and of God
With me can have nothing to do;
My Savior’s obedience and blood
Hide all my transgressions from view.
The work which His goodness began,
The arm of His strength will complete;
His promise is Yea and Amen,
And never was forfeited yet.
Things future, nor things that are now,
Nor all things below or above,
Can make Him His purpose forgo,
Or sever my soul from His love.
My name from the palms of His hands
Eternity will not erase;
Impressed on His heart it remains,
In marks of indelible grace.
Yes, I to the end shall endure,
As sure as the earnest is giv’n;
More happy, but not more secure,
The glorified spirits in Heav’n.
Oh, Your Grace, Your Majesty; You are the Joy of our Hearts! We Love You, and Want to Spend Eternity Adoring Your Lovely Name. We Pray for Multitudes to be Saved, that the Heavens will be Filled with Your Wonderous Praise. Rescue our Unsaved Loved Ones, Revealing to them the Glory of our King. Help us to Speak a Word for Thee; Open Wide the Gospel Proclamation Doors. Enable us to Always be Ready to Share the Hope of our Hearts.
In the Name of King Jesus, Please Bless All Your Dear Children, amen.
Magnificat anima mea Dominum
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD,
my soul shall exult in my God;
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation,
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
Isaiah 61:10
Magnificat anima mea Dominum!
Magnify,
Yes, magnify the Lord, O my soul,
Yes my soul magnifies you, O my Lord,
for the glory of being touched by divine Fire,
undeserved,
unearned,
touched only because of your love,
an amazing thing.
Magnificat anima mea Dominum!
O let my soul magnify you, O Lord,
For you dress me in dazzling white.
How precious the garment,
the robe of Your salvation,
of infinite value,
purchased by a price
no mere man could ever pay,
the threads spun in the pain,
and grief,
and blood,
woven in your death,
fulled in the fire
of Your glorious resurection,
O Son of Man,
O Son of God,
O Lord who emptied himself
To call us home
just for love.
Magnificat anima mea Dominum!
Thanks so much to everyone for your prayers. I felt much recovered late yesterday and today.
Mat 27:50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
Mat 27:51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.
Mat 27:52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised,
Mat 27:53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
Mat 27:54 When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/b/t/btcjesus.htm
Beneath the cross of Jesus I fain would take my stand,
The shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land;
A home within the wilderness, a rest upon the way,
From the burning of the noontide heat, and the burden of the day.
O safe and happy shelter, O refuge tried and sweet,
O trysting place where Heaven’s love and Heaven’s justice meet!
As to the holy patriarch that wondrous dream was given,
So seems my Savior’s cross to me, a ladder up to heaven.
There lies beneath its shadow but on the further side
The darkness of an awful grave that gapes both deep and wide
And there between us stands the cross two arms outstretched to save
A watchman set to guard the way from that eternal grave.
Upon that cross of Jesus mine eye at times can see
The very dying form of One Who suffered there for me;
And from my stricken heart with tears two wonders I confess;
The wonders of redeeming love and my unworthiness.
I take, O cross, thy shadow for my abiding place;
I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of His face;
Content to let the world go by to know no gain or loss,
My sinful self my only shame, my glory all the cross.
BTTT
Thank you, bp. Hard to imagine the English language getting prettier than that.
A debtor to mercy alone,
Of covenant mercy I sing;
Nor fear, with Thy righteousness on,
My person and off’ring to bring.
The terrors of law and of God
With me can have nothing to do;
My Savior’s obedience and blood
Hide all my transgressions from view.
Thank you for this hymn and prayer, darling FRiend Kitty Mittens. Glory bump!
Greetings in Jesus to you, Lady.
Thoughts on Jesus in the Garden
I
In one garden,
the lie was chosen
over the will of God,
and nature
groaned under the curse
and the grief
and the countless tears
of mankind
that followed.
In one garden,
quietly,
one full moon night
the will of God was chosen
over the lie
and nature knew
the promise of healing
that would free a woeful mankind
of its tears
had begun
in the unfathomable grief of
the one who said yes.
II
Night in the Garden
O Lord,
how the garden was filled
with moonlight peaking through the shadows
that last night.
How you suffered -
your desire to escape,
your grief,
your sure knowledge was in store,
the weight of sin,
all shadows trying to wrap themselves around you,
and yet you stayed,
obeyed the Father’s will,
and saved us all.
O Lord,
how today my life is filled
with dark shadow trying to cloak the light
you give me,
my garden experience.
O Lord,
I offer you up my sorrow,
my pain,
my grief at sin, and failure, and weakness,
my groaning under loads I don’t know how to bear,
my forgetfulness of your kindness,
my longing for escape.
O my Lord,
I am such a weak person.
Hold my hand each step of the way
as I walk through this valley of the shadow of death,
and though I sorrow,
I will fear no evil
for in the end, I know the light,
your light,
will lead me home to you at last.
III
Each beam of moonlight
peaking through the leaves
in the garden of olives
highlighted your growing struggle.
O sinless one,
how heavy the weight
of uncountable sin
must have dragged upon you,
how the silent night
must have shrieked within you heart
with all the evil
man can do.
Thank you, Lord,
for telling the Father yes
when your human body
longed to run,
and you could feel the separation
that sin builds
between man and God
in a way no mere mortal
could ever bear.
Amen.
IV
Each beam of moonlight
peaking through the leaves
in the garden of olives
highlighted your growing struggle.
O sinless one,
how heavy the weight
of uncountable sin
must have dragged upon you,
how the silent night
must have shrieked within you heart
with all the evil
man can do.
Thank you, Lord,
for telling the Father yes
when your human body
longed to run,
and you could feel the separation
that sin builds
between man and God
in a way no mere mortal
could ever bear.
Amen.
V
Standing in the garden,
beneath the olive tree,
Look at him praying,
alone as he could be
He asked them to watch with him,
He asked them to pray
But the sleep stole over them
As he drew away,
Standing in the garden,
He fell down to his knees,
“Abba, Father, Abba,”
He cried beneath the trees.
He asked them to watch with him,
He asked them to pray
But the sleep stole over them
As he drew away,
“Take this cup away from me,
I do not want its wine,”
He prayed in the midnight,
“Not my will, but thine.”
He asked them to watch with him,
He asked them to pray
But the sleep stole over them
As he drew away,
Then standing in the garden,
He knew just what to do,
and woke the sleeping men up
So they would know it too.
No time left to watch with him,
no time left to pray.
The soldiers take him to the priest,
now time to run away,
Forgive us Lord for standing there
when we should be with thee,
forgive us Lord for failing to
come with you and see.
Help us to follow you,
help us to pray
And keep us always close to you
lest we should draw away.
VI
“Love is not easy,” You once told me,
“Watch me in the garden, and you will see
How Love is a struggle, hard and heavy,
When Love and our wants do not agree,
And the prayer on our lips is, ‘Father, hear me!’
And we, hearing Him in Love, do not flee.
This is a sacrifice most pleasing.”
Love is not easy - I understand, but know
When I am touched by the hand of loss and sorrow,
The road of hard choices where Love has me go,
You have walked that hard road, too and the shadows only show
There is light up ahead, where you vanquished the foe.
Help me to love, Lord.
VII
Gethsemane moments -
moments when I confront
the realities that I must do,
when sitting in the shadows
I wrestle with a heart
that longs to run away,
that longs to cry
“Why me, Lord?”
that longs to scream into the darkness
“No no no no no!”
yet to do so would be to betray
my Hope, my Love, my Truth, my God,
and under the moonlit shadows,
I join Jesus praying in the darkness,
confronting the conflict between what the will wants to do
and what the will ought to do,
and with him, I pray
“Not my will but Yours.”
There are moments of heavy burden,
when I walk the Via Dolorosa,
the way of Sorrow, bearing my cross,
and the burden seems so heavy,
and my arms so exhausted,
and my knees so bruised from tripping,
and my back so scraped by the wood,
and my mouth so dry with the taste of the road’s dust
and the sweat of the labor,
and the blood from where I battered my face falling.
And then I see you Lord
walking ahead of me,
so wounded for love of me,
so beaten for sin of me
so valiant,
so loving,
so burdened,
that the tears roll down my face
for what I have done,
and somehow, this cross seems so much smaller,
and I stand up and carry on.
There are moments You plunge me into the reality
of Calvary,
Golgotha,
of the Place of the Skull,
the place of your death,
the place of our renewing.
Here I kneel in the bloodstained earth
and look up into your eyes
and see how far Love will go for love,
and see how far Light will travel into darkness,
and learn how very far the Shepherd will go
to call his sheep home.
Blood sacrifice,
drop by slow drop,
each drop a lover’s kiss,
each drop a promise of hope,
and in the miasma of pain,
shock,
confusion,
where you abandon each thing left to you,
your dignity,
your mother,
your life,
your awareness of the Father
until it is only you
and pain
and struggle
and at last,
even that is released
into the maw of death.
And I kneel there amazed
at such a self emptying
at such a sacrifice,
the Maker giving all for the made,
that I am breathless.
And my tears fall,
in remorse for the need,
in sorrow for the pain
in wondrous gratitude at the love.
Holy kisses in His Lovely Spirit, Beloved.
BTTT
I've been Ill for Several Days with a Bad Cold or Flu, and Last Night as I Tossed and Turned with Alternating Chills and Sweats, I Remembered a Song I Used to Love, and Playing it in my Mind Brought me Great Comfort. It Encapsulates So Well my Own Feelings for my Papa-Father, and how my Own Daddy Left Home when my Parents Divorced. I'm Going to Type it from Memory, So it May Bless Someone Else.
Lord, I Need You to Hold me,
Like my Daddy Never could.
Lord, I Need You to Talk to me;
Resting in Your Arms can be So Good.
Hold me, Hold me, Father;
Never Let me Go!
Hold me Tight,
Hold me Closer still.
You've Been Only Kind to me,
And in Your Arms
Is where I Want to Be.
Father, I Need You to Walk with me;
Hand in Hand, we'll Run and Play.
I Need You to Talk with me;
Tell me Again, You'll Stay.
Hold me, Hold me, Father,
Never Let me Go;
Hold me Tight;
Hold me Closer still.
You've been Only Kind to me,
And in Your Arms
Is where I Need to be.
Oh, Hold me, Hold me, Father,
Never Let me Go;
Hold me Tight;
Hold me Closer still.
You've been Only Kind to me,
And in Your Arms
Is where I Need to be.
I Need You to Hold me.
With Tears my Heart Loves and Praises You, my King! Thank You for Caring for me, my Lord of Limitless Grace! Thank You for 'Strengthening me upon the Bed of Languishing: for Making my Bed in my Sickness.' (Ps.41:3) Please Grant Continuous Good Health to my Brothers and Sisters, my Loving King. Please Grant Speedy Healing to Any who are Sick.
I Love You, Papa-Father, Praying Thankfully in Jesus' Name, amen.
This is too long to post on this thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/1813125/posts
It is my Good Friday meditation
Oh LORD, eternal and Merciful Father, please grant to Kitty Mittens recovered health and strength. Let her body be in health even as her soul prospers in your grace and Love by your Spirit.
Give her rest and wisdom. Provide what she needs in the beautiful Name of Jesus.
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