I was Uplifted this Morning to Read One of my Favorite Portions of Scripture which I Memorized Years Ago because of its Beauty and Grandeur.
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
That we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself,
According to the good pleasure of his will,
To the praise of the glory of his grace,
Wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,
According to the riches of his grace;
Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
Having made known unto us the mystery of his will,
According to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
That in the dispensation of the fulness of times
He might gather together in one all things in Christ,
Both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
In whom also we have obtained an inheritance,
Being predestinated according to the purpose of him
Who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
That we should be to the praise of his glory,
Who first trusted in Christ.
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth,
The gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed,
Ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession,
Unto the praise of his glory."
Amen, Your Majesty, Your Excellency, Holy is Your Lovely Name!
Your Magnificence is Awesome in Your Every Work, O King!
Thank You for Choosing us to Belong to You Before Time Even Began.
We Love You, Your Grace;
All Hail the Mighty King of Eternity, Jesus Christ!
We Worship You, our God of Merciful Love, amen.
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 wonderous gratitude at the love.