A Meditation

When vision fadeth
And the sense of things
and powers dissolve 
like colors in the wind
And no more can I bring any offering 
Nor an ordered prayer....


Then like a great wind from paradise...


Falleth a healing word upon mine ear.


Let the lifting up of my hands be as the evening offering


THE LORD DOES HEAR


Amy Carmichael

Fragrance and fruit

I'm writing this post so late at night..well it's 1:45 in the morning, so I hope it is coherent. 


Song of Solomon 

¹³ Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates 
   with choice fruits, 
   with henna and nard, 
 ¹⁴ nard and saffron, 
   calamus and cinnamon, 
   with every kind of incense tree, 
   with myrrh and aloes 
   and all the finest spices. 




These are the words of the Lover to the Beloved. The scent of the beloved attracts the Lover. 

Christ created in each of us a garden. A place in which we can walk with him in the cool of the day. 


A tabernacle of the Most High. 


In this place, fragrant aromas are wafted out. They bring many into the place of worship. Is your life fragrance Love? The aroma that comes  from a drying, crushing, and a burning in most cases of your very being. 


 Through those trying times in which Christ seems to have turned his back, you feel pressure from all sides closing in, and those times you feel absolutely spent. Out of those times, the greatest fragrance can come. Those times give us something to draw out of both while in the circumstance and the fragrant offering afterwards. 




The fruit we bear by taking in the light of the Son, is transformed into the nourishment of ourselves and others.This is a perspective of a good friend of mine who does that subject justice. (From-sunlight-to-food-or-aspiring-to-be-more-of-a-vegetable)




To  deny the process of converting Christ into a living example causes us to shrivel up.  Our life is connected to His. When we called on Him to enter our lives to be like Him..He makes us Him on earth.


Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 


Meaning now. We must now be Him on earth. Feeding His sheep and bringing the world back to Him.







OK.
  
That makes you cringe a little.


 Good. 


I myself feel my flesh rise up against it many a time. This body in it's self is about preserving the self. But I am owned by Christ. He is inside the garden and is illumining the darkness of my soul and causing a lot of shaking.






But also don't forget that God's mercies are new every morning. That you are His delight and He created you for a great purpose.(Not always grand in our eyes, for we are made of dirt!) Also most of all He lived and died so that you would have a path to walk out. 




I hope that you are encouraged more to be a fragrant tree that brings delight to the nostrils of the Lover.

Be Salty

 "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. Matthew 5:13




 What is food without salt? Some of it is very tasteless. 


Let me throw an aspect which I'm sure is not new to most of you. 


First , a common fact. Salt makes you thirst. It makes you crave liquid. Simple. 


We as disciples should, in our lives, cause people to thirst after the everlasting water of Christ. Our lives should not need to answer. Because the answer is Christ. We are a means to show others (together) what He looks like.

 Like a mirror.




 The "greatest" men and women in history have pointed to Christ as their strength.

If we as disciples lose our ability to point to Christ as our refuge and salvation..we become useless.

A great poem from Union And Communion or Thoughts on the Song of Solomon by Hudson Taylor

The living Vine, Christ chose it for Himself
— God gave to man for use and sustenance
Corn, wine, and oil, and each of these is good:
And Christ is Bread of life and Light of life.
But yet, He did not choose the summer corn,
 That shoots up straight and free in one quick growth.
 And has its day, is done, and springs no more;
 Nor yet the olive, all whose boughs are spread In the soft air,
and never lose a leaf,
 Flowering and fruitful in perpetual peace;

But only this, for Him and His is one,—
 That everlasting, ever-quickening Vine,
 That gives the heat and passion of the world,
 Through its own life-blood, still renewed and shed.
 * * * * * *
 The Vine from every living limb bleeds wine;
Is it the poorer for that spirit shed?
The drunkard and the wanton drink thereof;
 Are they the richer for that gift's excess?
Measure thy life by loss instead of gain;
 Not by the wine drunk,
 but the wine poured forth;
 For love's strength standeth in love's sacrifice
; And whoso suffers most, hath most to give.

Taylor, James Hudson (2006). Union And Communion or Thoughts on the Song of Solomon (p. 65). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.

Finding God: Part 2 God's Kingdom! Trust Him

 I just got done listening to a fellow housemate read the scriptures to their young ones. In the end, the parable of the mustard seed was mentioned.

 He set another parable before them, saying, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field; which indeed is smaller than all seeds. But when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in its branches." -Matthew 13:31–32

Wild mustard is a weed. This "weed" is not cared for by man but grows into a gigantic plant..from a small seed. 


Often we forget that it is HIS kingdom to come. Not our own. We (especially me) get discouraged when things seemingly go bad. We feel like the kingdom is under attack and all is lost unless we fight (standing in Christ is one thing, but believing God needs you to defend him is another) 


One thing, whether controversial or not is that we need to face that God does not need us to have his kingdom.  He states that even if the apostles didn't speak of him, the rocks would cry out. God is in control. 


So often I forget this. He shows me how little faith I really have....the faith of a child in the arms of their father. Like a child trusts its parents to care for it, even more God cares for us. 


He wants us to be beside him. We the adopted children are his delight along with Christ. We get to be a part of his kingdom, not in control of it. 
  

A man of Faith

 I just wanted tom take a moment to honor someone who is a major hero in my life. A man who through all the hardships in his life has ran the race to win. A man who when the enemy came..stood firm with a boldness that is very admirable. This man takes no glory to himself and glorifies the Father with his very life.

That person is my Dad.



 His name is David Eric Wilson. Though he goes by Eric, he has definitely represented  "a man after God's own heart." Like David of the scriptures, he has stumbled and fell many times, has been attacked...but stood firm in Christ. Like David, he has made Christ his strength. He knows a peace and a relationship with God that not many have.


He is also pretty quirky. That part makes me smile. It is what has made him Christ's own.

My dad loves to help people. He is a mechanic, inventor, and a visionary. He has been a good person for me to watch.

Finding God: Part 1

  "All things in His hands"

This past week I took a trip down with my family to Destin, Florida to spend some time on the beach. But got more than I bargained for...well sorta.

I learned this week that God really is everywhere. Not only is he in the faces of fellow brothers and sisters (and all created things) but he is in all that goes on.

 "Good" and "bad."

I don't mean that he is evil, but only that we could possibly be mistaken on what is "bad."

God promised in scriptures that he would care for us.


Almost every Christian can quote  (or at least knows) the following:

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11


Have you ever meditated on this verse?  Many know this verse is true. Others just quote it. 

How about this one?

"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Luke 11:11


This past week..or more likely this past month. I've been thinking about this thought. 


We ask God to make us like his son, to cleanse us from sin, and  to enter our lives. Do we really know the cost though?  


To me it has meant leaving the things I see as "right" or "wrong" behind. I don't mean those things I know God called me  out of..like sins.  Only that  I start realizing that he placed me in the place He saw as the best to change who I am. 


Many non-believers ask when things like 9-11, Katrina, and Columbine happen: If God is so loving, why does he allow these things to happen? 


God knows what to do. He does not have to explain himself to anyone.


It is for HIS glory that the whole earth shakes. I believe the verse that He does have plans for us. 


I believe maybe one day we may get to see it. When we do we can marvel at the glory of the Creator who holds the whole world in His Mighty hands.