M5:6

Blessed satisfaction, how I long for thee
Left to mine own righteous, unable to fill
This lowly hunger for thine will

Jesus, satisfy my heart, my soul
Your righteous holiness only restores me
To the infinite solidarity of your beauty


Sitting on one’s own righteousness results in an endless hunger that only Christ can satisfy.

old kingdom v. The Kingdom

Hezekiah’s downfall at the end of his life warns me of traps that are all too easy to fall into. Also, I’m struck by how much it has to say about our system of modern church. Yes – we began with every good intention, but somewhere along the Way, we got off. We began to trust ourselves over God. We started to emphasize the establishment rather than the Establisher. We routed traffic patterns instead of routing out the sin of pride that creeps in and makes its home all too close to our heart. Look out modern church: if you don’t take the words of the prophetic voice in all this, at the very least - you will most certainly die with storehouses full (a building with no patrons). You may end up receiving a king’s burial (and a nice tombstone of course), but “success” is ultimately judged by one’s successors. Listen to the prophets because at the worst, your sons and daughters will be neutered by your own carelessness and rendered useless in the fight for tomorrow’s generation.

The modern church seems to take company with Hezekiah’s regime. She began small and well-intentioned. But with the growth of the capitalist boomers, the church became an Inc. and the people became stockholders – he who tithes the most reserves the loudest voice. How is this anything like what Jesus described as the Kingdom of God?

Instead of this Old Testament kingdoms ruled by men, what if we look to the fulfillment of those kingdoms in Christ? What if we follow the Way of the sermon of the mount for a new paradigm by which to live? What if we unleash the storehouses of wealth on the world’s poor and suffering? What if we yield all of ourselves to God’s will today? What if we actually learn more of what it means to take up the cross daily? What if we lay hold of the real power Jesus bestows upon us when we speak in his name? What if we love God and love people like Jesus did – not by words, but by actions? What if we tore down the temple only to have it rebuilt stronger within each of us? What if we did this together as the body? What if we ask Jesus for these things to rule in every one of our hearts? What are the possibilities?

the end

Hez began with zeal
humble, dependent
awaiting the Lord's seal

Hez began with zeal
Assyrian massacre
only the Lord's deal

Hez began with zeal
walls strong
the Lord's kingdom, surreal

Hez began with zeal
somewhere departs
loses the Lord's feel

Hez began with zeal
pride fulfills
Lord's name, no kneel

Hez began with zeal
death prolonged
only the Lord's heal-ing

Hez began with zeal
sons - impotent
Lord's favor did steal

Hez began with zeal
storehouses filled
Lord's far, from Israel

Hez began with zeal
Jesus come
complete the Lord's Kingdom

As a people, we cry out for a home: “a place where a person or animal can find refuge and safety or live in security; a place of belonging; a place where something is

most common or indigenous or where something had its origins…”

Lord, home

cedar pillars
bejeweled foundation
olivewood cherubim
hemmed in gold
white, yet separated

the house for the Lord
not a home

cedar tree
He cornerstone
angels come down
scarlet lined
white, yet connected

the house of the Lord
torn,
to be rebuilt again

take away walls
get ridda’ doors
flowing out, in
the Spirit revolves
white, yet waiting

the house, the Lord’s
in heart, a family

grace shouts
wrong, righted
throne reclaimed
city of God
white, eternal

at home in the Lord
on earth as it is in heav’n


inspired by 1 Kings 6-9

on the tsunami

the question is not who's fault is this or why it happened( john piper). The question is what are we going to do about this?

maybe if we were more concerned with acting lovingly than thinking about what may or may not be "correct" theologically, the world would be a better place.

tsunami

the world has been brough together under the umbrella of tragedy; many lives already gone and displaced and even more to come. the news brings me to tears and conviction.

this give me hope: should the end result be a world that learns to better love one another, all is not lost.

my heart, thoughts and prayers to all the afflicted...