He Calls Me

Busy, busy like a bee.  That’s how it is for me.

There’s a little rhyme to get you in the poem mood.  But then, I just noticed that this poem doesn’t rhyme. Ha, oh well!  I wrote this back in January.  It’s a bit of a girl’s poem but yet, its not, being that the church is the bride.  That's a beautiful thing, isn’t it?

He calls me clay,

I am always being formed.

He calls me His sheep,

I know my Shepherd’s voice.

He calls me His servant,

and I delight to please Him.

He calls me His child,

I am heir to the riches,

and blessings of my Father.

He calls me His beloved,

He loves me and I will always return the love.

He calls me His bride,

what more can I give then leave me parents,

and follow Him?

I’m a bride, awaiting the wedding day,

He will return for me.

For then I will dwell forever in His house.

All Consuming Fire

I realized the difference between being hot for God, and being completely consumed by Him.

Correct me if I’m wrong but you can feel pretty hot, maybe even feel like your on fire, by just being near a roaring fire. But that’s not as close as actually being consumed and on fire.

Do you know the difference? Okay, here’s the obvious-

It burns.

It doesn’t always feel good; it hurts to come in contact with fire.  But do you know what it burns?  Fire is a cleanser, it recognizes all the impurities.  And not only does fire shine its light on them, it burns them out.

See, some of us are good with just being kinda hot because the light of the fire shows all the surface stuff that we can just brush off.  But then people are comfortable with just that; they don’t realize you still have to get in the fire.  Or some do realize but deep down inside, they’re too scared.

They’re scared because fire does not relent. It burns out the stuff that’s buried and hidden. It burns. It will clean out every single, small impurity.

I think I’m repeating myself there, but how ‘bout this one; it will cause destruction to a life. It can cause something to become unrecognizable. Let’s face it, for a fire to consume a physical body means death.

The Bible says God is a consuming fire. So for us to be in God, and Him in us that means we’ll be burned.

But it also means we must die.

To ourselves.

So What’s Your Purpose?

I read something online not too long ago where someone straight out asked a person, “What is your true purpose?”  The reply was one of the simplest, but profound things I’ve ever heard.  He just answered, “One; worship God. Two; lead others to Him and help them grow.”

To worship God. We were created to worship God! That thrills me! It crawls under my skin, puts butterflies in my stomach, and makes me bubble with excitement. We were created with the purpose of worshiping the Creator.

This really hit me the other night again. I was sitting during a church choir practice.  They were singing I Do Worship by CeCe Winans. I started to sing and it hit me so hard I had to laugh. All I wanted say was, “I do, I do, I do.” Like the church, the bride, saying “I do” to Christ, her husband.

I do worship. Because that’s what I was made to do. Because I can. Because He is holy, worthy, and worthy to be praised. I can’t help it. Neither can you. You, whether you’re following Christ or not, are a worshiper. It’s what we do. Its inescapable. You have an idol and you worship it.

I’m not saying you play music related to your idol and then bow down to it. One of the definitions of worship is “a feeling of profound love and admiration.” I’ll admit, I’m quite inspired to worship my God when I hear music. That's fine, God created music. But He also created our love and admiration to be directed towards Him.

I don’t know about you, but I want to worship God in everything I do. I want to my whole life to be so saturated that everything I do displays love and worship for my God. That is my goal, I’m far from it, but that is my goal. We’re human, we trip and stumble, but He picks us up and points us towards our goal again.

That reminds me of something I wanted to share with you. I was reading something the other day that quoted, “You may stumble, but you will find yourself falling forward, propelled toward the God-inspired adventure He intends you to live.”  Did ya catch falling forward? I never realize that when you trip, you usually fall forward. It might slow your pace, but it also pitches you forward. Have you ever gone through something that’s really tough, but you get out and realize, “Wow, I learned a lot.” I guess that’s because even though it was a stumble,  and it was hard, it still propelled you forward along the path. But you have to pick yourself up after you trip, otherwise you don’t get that nice view of rising after a failure. So that was a little side note, back to the whole worship thing…

My bottom line is we were created with the purpose of worshiping and glorifying God. It says it in Isaiah 43:7. I’m not really sure why I wanted to share that, I guess mostly because it really excites me. I mean come on, who are we to worship Him? But even though we’re just ‘sinners saved by grace’, as some people say, you have to see how amazing it is to be created to worship Him. I thank God I was created to worship Him…

The Problem, the Solution, and the Battle Cry

This poem was a tad… convicting for me, in a way. You’ll understand as you read it but let me explain a bit.

I began writing it in a very aggravated mood. I was tired of watching ‘Christians’ act just like the world. Something had finally reached deep and hit a point of aggravation in me that I had to say something. But I decided it would be too rude to say something directly to the person. Besides, I don’t really know where they stand, only God does.

So instead I decided to write this, to get my feelings out some how. Still, my mood was not too kind to that person. As I was writing the first paragraph, God kinda tapped me and said, “Hey, they’re just deceived.” Ouch.

This caused me to change course. I was reminded of their blindness. I was reminded of God’s overwhelming love for them, and His longing for them to just come to His embrace. My heart broke for them, so I wrote the second paragraph.

Then my aggravation returned, but in a different way. In fact, it was more like a burning anger.  At the Devil. I’m quite frankly sick of him. Sick of the lies he feeds my generation, sick of the scales he blinds them with. Very, very sick of the Devil. So I just wanted to yell at him a bit, and remind him he’s got no hold. Remind him that 1 Peter 2:9 says we’re a chosen people, a holy nation, and God’s very own possession.

Now you may read it :)

 

I stand and watch in dismay,

as our whole word fades to gray.

You call yourselves Christians,

but really what’s the difference?

You’re all the same, you and they.

How can you let convictions decay?

You’re nothing different,

you’re a fake represent.

You wonder why you can’t get them saved.

Its because you don’t have what they crave.

A longing for love and more,

that’s what this generation implores.

I’m torn to shame when I look around,

my fellow peers are nothing to renown.

But I’m shred to tears

as I look, just once more.

Because even you, a fake and disgrace,

are just deceived, looking for embrace.

 

One foot in, one foot out;

you speak our language,

but still you’re in doubt.

You’re a chosen one,

that can not be undone.

His voice is calling you,

“Come, come pursue.”

Deeper, deeper, go now.

There you’ll find a vow,

that His love is real,

strong as steel.

 

Rise above this mediocrity,

run to what He’s made you to be.

Talent so raw, I can’t stand the waste.

Devil I demand, you must release your embrace.

No longer will they be blind,

to their own shallow minds.

A generation is about to rise,

without shame we’ll love all lives.

Darkness has no hold,

for you, Satan, we are too bold.

We’ll conquer your lies,

no longer can you undermine.

We’re strong in will,

and we’re sick of your rule.

You have no choice but to turn tail.

Through us, God’s kingdom will prevail.

A Prayer For More

So I wrote a non-rhyming poem.  I guess you could call it that?

This is my prayer,

That I will always be mystified by Your voice,

May it never become common.

I want to always seek Your face,

May I not be satisfied with Your hand.

I want to always stand in wonder before Your creation,

May I never overlook your greatness.

I want to constantly be broken by Your love,

May I never water it down.

I want to follow Your heart, go where You go,

May I never follow my own path.

I want to be Your witness, carrier of the Good News,

May fear never control me and boldness be my spirit.

I want to love You.

I want to follow You.

I want to be Yours.

May I never grow so familiar with You that I stop chasing.

May I always never be satisfied.

May I always go deeper.

A Place For My Scribbles

I have been pondering for a place to be home to my scribbles.  A place that would get my writings out somewhere, and maybe, just maybe, make a difference.

Then came project Learning to Embrace.  Why Learning to Embrace?  Because it seems to be quite the theme of my life at the moment.  But then, is it not the theme of everything?  We have to embrace our King. Embrace His ways; learn Jesus' character and put it into practice.  Embrace His plans; following my own is quite useless.  His plans for you and I far surpass our own.  For one thing there's Jeremiah 29:11,

“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.”

There is also Isaiah 55:8,

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

Sweet, right?  His ways are so much higher then ours, so His plans for us gotta be off the wall.  Now when I’m reading that in the Bible, I’m being all ‘holy’ so I’m thinking, “Woo!  God has got me a good plan and I’m going to follow it.”

Haha, I wish it were that easy.  But I’m flesh, and sometimes its just plain hard.  That's where the embrace comes in.  I’m always learning, and re-learning, to just embrace His plans.  To make them my own.

Following this, is learning to embrace His love.  Man o’ man.  I think I pretty much pray that I’ll never be able to embrace all His love.  It's so deep, so high, so wide.  I pray I’ll never fully embrace it because I always want to be grasping for it.  Like a little girl in a field of flowers, chasing that beautiful butterfly that's always just out of reach.  Let me put it this way, I want to always be falling into His love, never to be caught.  I'll just keep falling deeper, 'till I'm completely lost.

Basically, I’m just a girl, learning to embrace my Father, my King, and along the way, writing little bits about the journey.  So I thought I’d share the journey here, maybe it will help someone in their own adventure.