Photo by Lum3n.com
A yellow garden cart
Blooms of love and rhyme
Crosby, Stills and Nash
harmony so sublime
Upon a garden cart
grows a creeping thyme
abiding with country roses
And a hint of sweetest times
A Yellow Garden Cart
Blog
My Beating Heart
Photo by Designecologist on Pexels.com
At times my heart is like a quivering bird in this cage of Flesh and bone
I know it will not withstand such a relentless seige
At times my heart is like a big bass drum
I know it will strike strong with the rhythm and the beat!
It feels as if I am dying and I cannot stay the course
Then it feels as if I am a warrior crying out “all is victorious!”
Some say this is a fickle heart but I know this is not true
For I know this heart in me comes from the heart in you!
The Cross of Jesus is the most inglorious event in all of mankind’s history yet is the only event that makes our Glory legitimate…
Photo by HARSH KUSHWAHA
God spoke, “I looked, but there was no one to help; I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold; so my own arm brought me salvation, and my righteous wrath upheld me.” Isaiah 63:5
The theology (meaning study of…) of the Cross vs. The theology of Glory jumped out at me while reading again the book called The Gospel According to Job by Mike Mason which I have been reading for over five years along with The Discipline of Disturbance by Hud McWilliams, who has been my spiritual mentor for over twenty-nine years.
All of that to say it absolutely astounded me when I realized that there is no glory in the Cross. The monumental indescribable event that took place on that cross was one of absolutely NO glory yet it is exactly that event on that cross that makes Glory for you and I a legitimate option through the obedience of Jesus to die on that cross. and be given by God the Father the Sovereign rule forever. It stirred me so that I could not eat or sleep.
The spirituality of the Cross and those of us who trust in The One who died up on it is that it seeks God and ONLY God and here is the kicker, the work on the cross of Jesus would accept NO GLORY! There is no glory in sin. God himself is the significant value of the Cross!!! Jesus humbled himself only seeking God’s will and then doing it.
Glory to God is useless if humans conjure it up in themselves. We see it all around us in the Church. A mega church boasting about their numbers of attendance. The church member who judges others who cannot seem to overcome their sin issues but never repenting of their own or the supposed Christian celebrities that millions follow on social media and accept their teachings because they are popular.
The Glory belongs to Jesus and Jesus alone, who’ s very essence is God, yet on that cross he was a son, a man who had not sought ANY glory for himself only his Father’s.
“Never build your case for forgiveness on the idea that God is our Father and He will forgive us because he loves us. God forgives sin ONLY because of the death of Christ…anything that LESSENS the holiness of God through a false view of His love, contradicts the truth of God as REVEALED by Jesus Christ…” Oswald Chambers
The lesson is that the Cross is for those who will walk by simple faith seeking no glory of our own. Oh that I might grasp this Truth today and everyday for one day my Faith will be made sight and the glory will be more than eternity can hold. Not mine but His.
“The Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to those who are being saved it is the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:18
The Devil Came to Cuba
Photo by Pixabay
Blue crystal deepest ocean
Hot sun high in the sky
The devil came to Cuba
Had to run or die
You came seeking refuge
The way so unclear
Fighting hard for freedom
You let me see the years
We are old and wise now
We cannot count the “ifs”
I still hear your Latin song
And taste Cuba on my lips
She had forgotten the taste of new wine and sweet olive oil…
Photo by Alena Koval
I saw her standing in the Valley of Decision and I reached for her hand gently.
I said, “I don’t know where you are coming from but I do know what you are running from.”
She said she had forgotten her loveliness and her might. She has forgotten the taste of new wine and sweet olive oil. Her trees would bear no more fruit. All of her gifts and talents had drained away. The “invented” normal had left her heart and soul gravely bruised…
I have seen it many times in sixty-three years. The exigencies the “inventor of lies” has put upon us. The accuser, the impostor of beauty and wisdom says, “We girls have to be skinny, smart, beautiful, witty, sexy, as well as Mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend, healer, cook, house keeper, and oh yes, we can never age, wrinkle, or grow soft muscles or gray hair…
Oh what a relief is found when we know these falsehoods cannot raze our joy! The Spring rain will wash you clean of shame and doubt and you will regain all you have lost! Young woman, daughter, widow, single Mother, or any Mother, any woman…Come to the Valley of Decision and lay down all the plates you are spinning. Hold with palms open upward any control you deem you have and you will realize that you are so far beyond what you believed. Choose Wisdom instead of control. Choose Wisdom which says, “You are the Pearl of Great Price!”
Stay in this Valley and decide to seek Wisdom… be healed, be whole, and dance before the Lord God without fear and then reach out your hand for the next woman you see and give her the Wisdom you have gained…it is a decision, it is truth or it is lies and you must choose…thousands upon thousands of women are waiting for your hand…
A bruised reed he will not break, and a fading candle he won’t snuff out. He’ll bring forth justice for the truth. Isaiah 42:3
Also, inspiration from Joel 3:14
The Collage
Photo by rawpixel.com
Sea
No people
There is a secret
No footprints in the sand
Artistry
Sounds like the waves
As a matter of fact
Unforgettable
Sunday
So natural like a heartbeat
The look of love
In a happy house
Cracked Mirrors
- Photo by the happiest face =)
We were exalted in Eden
above all creation ruled
Even in our fractures of sin
we bear His image like rare jewels
The lilies of the field
nor Solomon and all his gold
Can please the Holy One more
than the image that we hold
We are all cracked mirrors yet
reflecting still God’s face
We are exalted by His blood
in His high and heavenly Grace
“Grace is the most dangerous, expectation-wrecking, smile-creating counter-intuitive reality there is.”
You know it really shouldn’t astound me but it still does. After all of these years I am given new glimpses and I am glad to say a more accurate view of God’s grace everyday…
It is so easy to use the word Grace in the Christian world. I realize now that if the true meaning of Grace was unleashed in the church or more to the point in MY life…well there is just no words…
So here is the thing…This writer, Preston Sprinkle writes this, “Grace is the most dangerous, expectation-wrecking, smile-creating counter-intuitive reality there is.” That sentence grabbed at my gut. He went on to say the Grace of God ” has no leash.”
God’s grace is untamed. It is wild and free!
“Divine Grace is God’s relentless loving pursuit of His enemies, who are unthankful, unworthy, and unlovable.”
Grace is a gift for the person in the gutter, the outcast, the unattractive, and yes even a church full of self-righteous misguided believers (praise God he love self-righteous people too!!!) “
“Jesus gutted the religious leaders of his day by showing Grace to whores, lepers, and the dregs of society yet he extended that same Grace to the Pharisees who sought him out!” Isn’t this rich? I can’t make God love me. I do not have to perform because “God loves me because of WHO he is and because of WHAT Christ has DONE!!!
Oh how the Truth can set you free from all of your pious judging of others, at least it does for me. I am glad his mercies are new every morning. Jesus loves sinners…even the very tidy looking ones.
She Offers Perfect Praise… “unless you come as a child you will not know the kingdom of heaven…”
A child is not aware of her dependence on another. She simply trust that it will be done and gives her praise to God in unsolicited ways. Like the sunflower she moves through her day always facing the sun.
She praises God with belly laughs and silly songs never doubting that he will not be delighted with her. She praises by folding her little hands to pray. She praises by dancing for all the world to see. She praises by clapping for herself when she accomplishes a task. She praises with her tears when she is hurt and loving arms reach for her. She praises when she jumps into her daddy’s arms trusting that he will always catch her. She praises when she hangs on to her Mommy’s hand when she is unsure of what is occurring.
She is unencumbered of what things cost or ashamed of anything because she Trusts The Holy One who has shown himself to her in the rainbow and in the leaves and in the pretty rocks she picks up all along her walks with her Mama.
And all of the heavenly host rejoice with her!
Due to Bad Weather…
So I am sitting in the Detroit airport waiting for a late flight, due to bad weather and a plane pulls up…everyone gradually looks around, they get up and walk to the observation window…low and behold a military escort marches out into the rainy, ice cold apron and then off the plane comes a casket and a family…all of us in the window stand reverently and then a young man in uniform salutes…some people put their hand over their heart as it dawns on each of us what we are witnessing..some begin to shed tears…this person who has served their country is coming home…there are no news cameras, no horns blowing…we don’t know their name or their family but all of us mourn…all of us are relieved it isn’t our son or daughter, brother, sister, mom, or dad…all of us wish the story would be different…a somber blanket lay over this small band of witnesses to something so private yet so universal…I bow my head and pray for the family…pray for my family who lives in freedom…pray for my country that she might be healed…as the casket is loaded into the hearse the crowd begins to spread out and I hear a little three year old girl say, “Daddy, can we get some candy now?”…the Dad picks her up and hugs her close…he cannot speak…I walk away and ask God to forgive me for complaining earlier about the weather…
Jill Autrey Dorman 