I have abandoned all particular forms of devotion, all prayer techniques. My only prayer practice is attention. I carry on a habitual, silent, and secret conversation with God that fills me with overwhelming joy.
-Brother Lawrence
Tag: praise
The Hope
You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds,
God our Saviour,
the hope of all the ends of the earth
and of the farthest seas,
who formed the mountains by your power,
having armed yourself with strength,
who stilled the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
and the turmoil of the nations.
(Psalm 65:5-7)
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This Now Place
This Now Place
The fog wraps itself around me
like soft flannel encircling a child who twists to see.
Mystic air muffles the crying crow,
the howling wolf.
Damp cloud strokes my cheek
and covers my brow.
I catch a glimpse of mountainside
floating like a memory of the future in the sky.
Then silence.
Beside secret stream,
as in a dream,
I walk on wood chips,
sainted cedars,
lives laid down
to cradle my steps.
The shoulders of giants hush my footfall.
Between fervent moss clinging to rock
the fountain flows, in unexpected joy
between somewhere and somewhere,
beauty colouring only this place,
this now place,
this here place.
I settle my soul upon Your breast and breathe Your love.
The mountains stand
shoulder to shoulder
like guardian angels around the valley.
Whether I sleep or wake,
whether You hide Yourself
or gently wake me to see Your glory.
I trust You.
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Undivided, I’ll Worship
Train me, God, to walk straight;
then I’ll follow your true path.
Put me together, one heart and mind;
then, undivided, I’ll worship in joyful fear.
From the bottom of my heart I thank you, dear Lord;
I’ve never kept secret what you’re up to.
You’ve always been great toward me—what love!
You snatched me from the brink of disaster!
God, these bullies have reared their heads!
A gang of thugs is after me—
and they don’t care a thing about you.
But you, O God, are both tender and kind,
not easily angered, immense in love,
and you never, never quit.
(Psalm 86:11-15 The Message)
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Receiving and Giving
I love my God, but with no love of mine,
for none I have to give;
I love Thee, Lord; but all the love is Thine,
for by Thy life I live.
I am as nothing, and rejoice to be
Emptied and lost, and swallowed up in Thee.
-Jeanne Marie de la Motte-Guyon
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Marvelous Things
I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart;
I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done.
I will be filled with joy because of you.
I will sing praises to your name, O Most High.
(Psalm 9:1,2 NLT)
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Nevertheless
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20 KJV)
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4)
I don’t quote from the King James version very often, although it is the translation I grew up with. I find I end up having to explain it to people not familiar with archaic English anyway, so I might as well use a later version provided by scholars who have dedicated themselves to the task. But there is a dramatic poetry in the old language I sometimes miss.
Nevertheless…
Nevertheless I live.
Words that rock the world no matter the century or the dialect.
Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.
How deeply profound.
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The Eyes of Eternity
Wonder blasts the soul – that is, the spiritual – and the skeleton, the body – the material. Wonder interprets life through the eyes of eternity while enjoying the moment, but never lets the moment’s revision exhaust the eternal.
– Ravi Zacharias
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Tune My Heart
For there’s nothing we can do to oppose the truth; all we can do is align ourselves with it. (2 Corinthians 13:8)
Lately I’ve run into a number of articles on sympathetic vibration in music. The other word that keeps grabbing my attention is alignment.
Sympathetic vibration can be demonstrated when a pitch fork is held near a string tuned to the same pitch. Without being touched the strings seem to come alive and respond with vibrations that play the same note.
I’ve heard it said that true worship begins in heaven and the heart that is still will pick it up. One of my favourite passages of scripture is found in the second chapter of Hosea. The Lord uses the metaphor of alluring his formerly wayward love to a desert place where there is no voice but His. He says that in that place, she will respond to Him. The New American Standard version uses the word sing.
“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
Bring her into the wilderness
And speak kindly to her.
“Then I will give her her vineyards from there,
And the valley of Achor [trouble] as a door of hope.
And she will sing there as in the days of her youth…”
I’m beginning to see this as sympathetic vibration. When she hears The Voice singing the same pitch which she was designed to sing, the beloved comes alive. Her heart vibrates in sync with the sound that is at the heart of creation. Her heart resonates with Truth.
When we are in tune with the Father’s heart we are in alignment with His truth. When we are all in tune with Him we are also all in tune with each other.
A.W. Tozer wrote: “Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”
Instruments in a symphony do not all sound the same. A violin is not a bassoon. Seldom does the composer ask an orchestra to play in unison. He asks them to play in harmony, but all the notes are based on one pure pitch and all play the same song. Worship begins in the Father’s heart. It is a gift He gives us so that we have something to give back to Him.
At the moment the divine orchestra – the Church – most often sounds a bit like everyone is concentrating on individual warm-up exercises and are all practising their own songs at the same time. Some have recently come in from the cold and their instruments are not yet in tune, but I have hope for the day when all look to the Conductor, tune to His perfect pitch, and unite to play the greatest song ever.
Soon.
Their sound will go out into all lands, even to the ends of the earth, when all creation joins to sing God’s praise.
In the meantime this is my prayer: Come play the strings of my heart, Lord. Tune my heart to sing Your praise.
Edited to add:
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For the Eternal Alone
I am pleading with the Eternal for this one thing,
my soul’s desire:
To live with Him all of my days—
in the shadow of His temple,
To behold His beauty and ponder His ways
in the company of His people.
His house is my shelter and secret retreat.
It is there I find peace in the midst of storm and turmoil.
Safety sits with me in the hiding place of God.
He will set me on a rock, high above the fray.
God lifts me high above those with thoughts
of death and deceit that call for my life.
I will enter His presence, offering sacrifices and praise.
In His house, I am overcome with joy
As I sing, yes, and play music for the Eternal alone.
(from Psalm 27 The Voice)
Charis: Subject to Change 