Filled with wonder, awestruck wonder
at the mention of your name
Jesus your name is power,
breath, and living water
Such a marvelous mystery
Holy, Holy, Holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
who was, and is, and is to come,
With all creation I sing
Praise to the King of Kings
You are my everything
and I will adore You
-Jennie Lee Riddle
Sunrise over the Steeples Range this morning
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty,
God in three persons, blessed Trinity!
But when I tell myself, I’ll never mention Your name
or speak for You again, it’s no use.
The word of God burns in my heart; it is like fire in my bones.
I try to hold it all in, but I cannot.
(Jeremiah 20:9 The Voice)
“You know, I can’t think of a prophet worth a damn that didn’t suffer. And I also can’t think of a prophet… that God didn’t love.”
–Character Stanford Wedeck in TV series Flash Forward
Sometimes the bride of Christ looks more bedraggled than glorious. Sometimes she looks like she got all dressed up only to be caught in a rainstorm on her way to the church.
We have a covered deck on the back of our house that allows me to sit outside when it rains. As I sat there this weekend, surrounded by a sudden downpour, and contemplated how getting glimpses of the glory of God makes the reality that we all fall short of that glory all the more disappointing, I wondered if God tires of us. Then this song began to play in my head:
Listen to the pouring rain, listen to it pour,
And with every drop of rain you know I love you more.
Call my name right out loud
I can hear above the clouds
And I’m here among the puddles,
You and I together huddle.
Listen to the pouring rain, listen to the rain.
God spoke these encouraging words to his people through the prophet Jeremiah, ““I have loved you with an everlasting love— out of faithfulness I have drawn you close.”
Listen to the pouring rain and know that even in our bedraggled state he loves us.
Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
I call your Name right out loud, “Abba! Thank you for Your love! Help us keep our eyes on You! Heal your people, oh Lord, that we may bear fruit that would be pleasing to You! Make us a glorious bride!”
Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. (James 3: 13-18)
For I will pour water on him who is thirsty,
And floods on the dry ground;
I will pour My Spirit on your descendants,
And My blessing on your offspring
(Isaiah 44:3)
Our son and his wife and their two children moved into temporary housing this week. They now have a place of their own after being homeless all summer when their house (along with thousands of others) was flooded in Alberta. It’s a cramped two room trailer in a new neighbourhood of identical cramped trailers and a far cry from what they had, but they are thankful.
The children are back to school. Our granddaughter’s school yard is full of portable classrooms as it is also accommodating students who no longer have their own school buildings. One of those buildings was the beautiful new Catholic school, Holy Spirit Academy.
“We have to make room for Holy Spirit now,” she told me.
Indeed we do, sweetheart.
Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”
Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:10-14)
I wait for the Lord,
my whole being waits,
and in his word
I put my hope.
(Psalm 130:5)
Charis: Subject to Change 