Sunday, November 24, 2013

Jesus doesn't want your tweets

I sit in the auditorium with a hundred others. The person at the front is talking about this person called Jesus. I hear something that strikes me. I think to myself, "I must tweet this!"

I pull out my phone and tweet this juicy twitbit of spiritual goodness. "Other people will read this and can benefit too!" I think to myself. Feeling pleased for my little bit of Jesus twittering, I listen for the next morsel I can fire into the twittersphere.

It doesn't take long. That song I know really well come up with that line which I love. Out comes the phone mid-song and I'm tweeting spiritual goodness to the world. This time so take the chorus to think of some good hash tags to make my tweet easier to find. "There!" I think to myself as I tap the send button. "Some really encouraging stuff is out there now."

But, does Jesus really want my tweets? Does he want my catchy, bite-size nuggets of wisdom I've carefully gleaned from this morning's meeting? Does he want my fingers flying over my touch keyboard as I sing or listen?

Or instead, does my loving father just want to me to be still and listen? To say what's really on my heart? To hear what's really on his heart?  When he looks at me, does he have a heavenly tally chart for my tweets and blog posts with score cards for spirituality?

"Woah! That tweet's a definite 9! What do you think, Spirit?"
"Pfft, what's that all about?! Maximum 4, archangel Michael."

That's not my father. My father longs for me to not put up a religious show of quotes, snapshots and acts of goodness but to enjoy a relationship with Him. To be honest with him about my shortcomings. To remind myself who he is (my father) and who I am because of Jesus (his child, loved simply because I am his). 

So, does Jesus want my tweets? More than a million tweets, retweets, favourites and quotes Jesus wants a relationship with me. He wants my heart in its dirty, scarred and broken state. Why? Because he loves me. Because I am his. Because his plans for me are good, to give me a hope and a future.

And that is far, far better than a million retweets, likes favourites and quotes. This is life. This is hope. This is love.

Jesus wants me. Just the way I am. To hear my voice, for me to hear his voice and be changed from the inside out. In singing, in hearing someone talk about who he is in the bible, he wants me to engage with who he is and enjoy a relationship with him.

Tweets are helpful. Most are good. But if tweeting memorable phrases comes above our personal day-to-day relationship with God then we need to consider what is my priority here and now? How can I know him better right no?

He loves me and wants me to know him. Wow! Maybe responding to that now comes first. There's always time for tweeting later on. I don't want to waste now.

Everlasting

Everlasting, you don't grow tired
Though my body aches and tires.
Everlasting, you stay my strength
Power that had no depth or length.
Everlasting, your love is great
Greater than my sin-caused fate.
Everlasting, you stand by me
Walk me through each trial I see.
Everlasting, you stand as mine
A shield against the devil's lies.
Everlasting, you wait for me to call
Then gather me up whenever I fall.
Everlasting, you hear my every prayer
And answer me with love care.

Everlasting, I don't understand your ways
But help me to trust you all my days.
Everlasting, sometimes I don't understand
But I know each day you hold my hand.
Everlasting, my life seem harder each day
And yet you give me strength enough today.
Everlasting, I forget who I am in you
That you gave your son to make me yours
You promise today to see me through
And arrive one day upon your shore
To be welcomed in my father's arms
Free of every thing which held me back.
Everlasting, you stand today and tomorrow
Help me to trust you in the joy and the sorrow.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Freedom forever

Oh what a saviour!
Freedom forever!
Freedom from guilt of the things that I do
Freedom to trust you in all that you've done
Freedom from fear of the life yet to come
Freedom to trust you through all you have done
Freedom to wake with a joy in y heart
Freedom to live life with a bright new start
Freedom to stand when all around falls down
Freedom to stand upon your solid ground
Freedom from worry of today's uncertainties
Freedom to cling to you in your certainties
Freedom from apathy, life just part lived
Freedom to love you in all that you give
Freedom in trials and freedom in pain
Freedom to ask your Spirit to make me whole again
Freedom in sonship and freedom in grace
Freedom to stand in my now rightful place
Freedom to know I shall always remain yours
Freedom to know Jesus' love holds me sure
Freedom to face the new in every
Freedom to choose every day to say,
"Freedom is mine through my saviour's blood.
All glory to Him, my sweet Jesus, God.
You hold me in freedom through your most precious life,
Your freedom draws me to call you my own.
Freedom!" I cry with renewed voice.
Now, in his freedom, my Jesus my choice,
"Freedom in Him!" is the cry of my broken heart,
And in Jesus He frees me to enjoy His bright and shining, joyful and invigorating, tear-flowing and peace filled
New start.

Sunday, November 03, 2013

A poppy pinned

A poppy pinned

Poppies in a grassy field are seen,
In Flanders' wide and tortured fields.
Splotches of red upon a sea of green,
Remind us of those who did not yield,
But chose to stand against the flood
Of forces poised to steal our peace
And even scared, stood firm so we
Could live lives free of tyranny.

But that was years ago, say you.
Tell me it straight, what did they do?

They stood beneath the field of war
In trenches dug with sweat covered hands
They stood for neither rich or poor
But for every child, woman, man
They are the cries of friends and foes
Thrown down upon that muddy waste
Barbed wire stood where grass had once
Yet all of this they chose to taste.
Upon the bugle's rally cry
They mounted ladders slick with rain
And charged, those brave men, their's to try
To buy our freedom through their crimson stain.
Now near one hundred years ago
On Flanders' fields they took their stand.
Many gave their lives to show
That evil could not take our land.
So stand with them upon this day
Free to live your lives in peace
A poppy pinned to stake our thanks
For men and women and died for you and me.