"The soul learns to pray by praying; for prayer is a communion with a transcendent and immanent God who on the ground of his nature and attributes calls forth all the powers of the redeemed soul in acts of total adoration and dedication." - Arthur Bennett
Learning this week, in homeschooling, about Puritans. Arthur Bennett, in the 1970's, gathered Puritan prayers from the past into a compilation called The Valley of Vision.
I never want to stop learning about talking to PAPA. Here is one prayer from this Puritan collection.
The Broken Heart
O Lord,
No day of my life has passed
that has not proved me guilty in thy sight.
Prayers have been uttered from a prayerless heart;
Praise has been often praiseless sound;
My best services are filthy rags.
Blessed Jesus, let me find a covert in thy appeasing wounds.
Though my sins rise to heaven thy merits soar above them;
Though unrighteousness weighs me down to hell,
Thy righteousness exalts me to thy throne.
All things in me call for my rejection,
All things in thee plead my acceptance.
I appeal from the throne of perfect justice
to thy throne of boundless grace,
Grant me to hear thy voice assuring me:
that by thy stripes I am healed,
that thou wast bruised for my iniquities,
that thou hast been made sin for me
that I might be righteous in thee,
that my grievous sins, my manifold sins,
are ALL forgiven,
buried in the ocean of thy concealing blood.
I am guilty, but pardoned,
lost, but saved,
wandering, but found,
sinning, but cleansed.
Give me perpetual broken-heartedness,
keep me always clinging to thy cross,
Flood me every moment with descending grace,
Open to me the springs of divine knowledge,
sparkling like crystal,
flowing clear and unsullied
through my wilderness of life.
wow. yes.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
mountains.
"Savior, He CAN move the mountains."
He calls Himself an immovable ROCK.
He is able.
"He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
He set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand."
Psalm 40:2
Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done."
Mountain movers who are standing on the ROCK.
These are the types of wild invitations I notice the Old Testament and New Testament give to me.
"Jesus' teaching is full of wild exaggerations, for Jesus is a wild man." - Brennan Manning
What are the slimy pits He is lifting me out of today?
How does standing on the firmness of the ROCK of His finished work change me today?
Where are the mountains in my story, in my heart that must be moved and thrown into the sea?
Am I willing to follow in the steps of a wild man, who said wild and hard and freeing things?
How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
"Your God reigns!"
Isaiah 52:7
I want the Reign of God to affect me.
I want to proclaim peace - bring good tidings - proclaim salvation and have beautiful "mountain climbing good news" kind of feet.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Safe
I am allowing my mind and heart to spend time on this word, Safe.
What makes me safe?
This angel clutching a shield with a crown of thorns calls me to wonder.
If I am already safe what would I have to fear?
If Jesus wore a crown that marked the weight of all my sin, all my shame, all my failure, all of what I deserve...then can I wear forgiveness like a crown?
If I live like I am not safe what am I saying?
Is it worth the battle, daily, to fight for the truth that the most important things about me ARE SAFE because of the finished work of Jesus and His Resurrection Power - now transferred to me by the indwelling Spirit?
What does Satan gain if I believe the lie that I am not safe?
Not safe to be who I am irrevocably called to be.
What if Jonah or David or Daniel or Rahab or Peter or Paul or Deborah or Esther had believed the lie that who they are for eternity was not safe?
In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye....Deuteronomy 32:10
About Benjamin he said: "Let the beloved of the LORD rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the LORD loves rests between his shoulders." ...Deuteronomy 33:12
Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD ? He is your shield and helper and your glorious sword. Your enemies will cower before you, and you will trample down their high places....Deuteronomy 33:29
When I find myself, often, groaning out for safety.....will I turn to my God who IS my SHIELD? He is my helper and my GLORIOUS SWORD!
He finds me in a wasteland.
He shields me.
He cares for me.
He guards me vigilantly.
He invites me to REST securely in Him.
He doesn't get tired all day long of shielding me.
He carries me on his shoulders like a baby lamb.
He blesses me.
He saves me - hosanna!
He is my helper.
He is my glorious sword.
He causes my enemies to cower before me.
He allows me to trample down the high places of my enemies.
Safe. Safety. Trust.
Blessed is the woman who makes the Lord her trust. psalm 40
What would today, my life, look like if I was confident about being SAFE?
What makes me safe?
This angel clutching a shield with a crown of thorns calls me to wonder.
If I am already safe what would I have to fear?
If Jesus wore a crown that marked the weight of all my sin, all my shame, all my failure, all of what I deserve...then can I wear forgiveness like a crown?
If I live like I am not safe what am I saying?
Is it worth the battle, daily, to fight for the truth that the most important things about me ARE SAFE because of the finished work of Jesus and His Resurrection Power - now transferred to me by the indwelling Spirit?
What does Satan gain if I believe the lie that I am not safe?
Not safe to be who I am irrevocably called to be.
What if Jonah or David or Daniel or Rahab or Peter or Paul or Deborah or Esther had believed the lie that who they are for eternity was not safe?
In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye....Deuteronomy 32:10
About Benjamin he said: "Let the beloved of the LORD rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the LORD loves rests between his shoulders." ...Deuteronomy 33:12
Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD ? He is your shield and helper and your glorious sword. Your enemies will cower before you, and you will trample down their high places....Deuteronomy 33:29
When I find myself, often, groaning out for safety.....will I turn to my God who IS my SHIELD? He is my helper and my GLORIOUS SWORD!
He finds me in a wasteland.
He shields me.
He cares for me.
He guards me vigilantly.
He invites me to REST securely in Him.
He doesn't get tired all day long of shielding me.
He carries me on his shoulders like a baby lamb.
He blesses me.
He saves me - hosanna!
He is my helper.
He is my glorious sword.
He causes my enemies to cower before me.
He allows me to trample down the high places of my enemies.
Safe. Safety. Trust.
Blessed is the woman who makes the Lord her trust. psalm 40
What would today, my life, look like if I was confident about being SAFE?
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
HOSANNA.
I have been chewing on the Spirit's whisper to start this blog for over one year now.
I am starting with this photo I took on Palm Sunday. I am starting with the word, HOSANNA.
In the Hebrew it means "Save Us, Now!" It is a cry. It is a prayer. It is a groan. I lift my little palm branch up to the SON and I thank Him for drawing me up from the Pit of Destruction. I wave it and SHOUT because I need him to save me today by riding into my life and reminding me that He alone is the Servant King on the throne of my life; my heart.
The words from this song by Andrew Peterson are so important as I ponder the word HOSANNA.
I am tangled up in contradiction.
I am strangled by my own two hands.
I am hunted by the hounds of addiction.
Hosanna!
I have lied to everyone who trusts me.
I have tried to fall when I could stand.
I have only loved the ones who loves me.
Hosanna! O Hosanna!
See the long awaited king come to set his people free.
We cry O Hosanna!
Come and tear the temple down.
Raise it up on holy ground.
Hosanna!
I have struggled to remove this raiment, tried to hide every shimmering strand.
I contend with these ghosts and these hosts of bright angels.
Hosanna!
I have cursed the man that you have made me,
as I have nursed the beast that bays for my blood.
Oh, I have run from the one who would save me.
Save me, Hosanna! O Hosanna!
See the long awaited king, come to set his people free.
We cry O Hosanna!
Come and tear the temple down. Raise it up on holy ground.
Hosanna!
You have crushed beneath your heel the vile serpent.
You have carried to the grave the black stain.
You have torn apart the temple's holy curtain.
You have beaten Death at Death's own game.
Hosanna! O Hosanna!
Hail the long awaited king, come to set his people free.
We cry O Hosanna!
Won't you tear this temple down, raise it up on holy ground.
O Hosanna!
I will lift my voice and sing: you have come and washed me clean.
HOSANNA.
https://store.rabbitroom.com/index.aspx#/details/46806e48-ad91-4c58-9064-3320d23d315b
I am starting with this photo I took on Palm Sunday. I am starting with the word, HOSANNA.In the Hebrew it means "Save Us, Now!" It is a cry. It is a prayer. It is a groan. I lift my little palm branch up to the SON and I thank Him for drawing me up from the Pit of Destruction. I wave it and SHOUT because I need him to save me today by riding into my life and reminding me that He alone is the Servant King on the throne of my life; my heart.
The words from this song by Andrew Peterson are so important as I ponder the word HOSANNA.
I am tangled up in contradiction.
I am strangled by my own two hands.
I am hunted by the hounds of addiction.
Hosanna!
I have lied to everyone who trusts me.
I have tried to fall when I could stand.
I have only loved the ones who loves me.
Hosanna! O Hosanna!
See the long awaited king come to set his people free.
We cry O Hosanna!
Come and tear the temple down.
Raise it up on holy ground.
Hosanna!
I have struggled to remove this raiment, tried to hide every shimmering strand.
I contend with these ghosts and these hosts of bright angels.
Hosanna!
I have cursed the man that you have made me,
as I have nursed the beast that bays for my blood.
Oh, I have run from the one who would save me.
Save me, Hosanna! O Hosanna!
See the long awaited king, come to set his people free.
We cry O Hosanna!
Come and tear the temple down. Raise it up on holy ground.
Hosanna!
You have crushed beneath your heel the vile serpent.
You have carried to the grave the black stain.
You have torn apart the temple's holy curtain.
You have beaten Death at Death's own game.
Hosanna! O Hosanna!
Hail the long awaited king, come to set his people free.
We cry O Hosanna!
Won't you tear this temple down, raise it up on holy ground.
O Hosanna!
I will lift my voice and sing: you have come and washed me clean.
HOSANNA.
https://store.rabbitroom.com/index.aspx#/details/46806e48-ad91-4c58-9064-3320d23d315b
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