Category Archives: Power to change

Unveiling

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Abby| 6 Comments

By Teri Wetzel

God in His amazing kindness continues to inch the curtain back that seems to separate me from understanding. I’m often caught off guard by this unveiling. I might be marveling at the wonder of the clouds, or talking with a friend, or lost in worship.

This time, I am reading my Bible.

And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” Mark 10:35

Prayer has been a subject that has nagged me for nearly two decades. I know, prayer is such a simple thing. We talk, He listens. We ask, He gives.

But that is just it! I want you to do for me whatever I ask of you!  From an oft quoted movie in our household, “Give me, give me, give me! I need, I need, I need!” (“What About Bob”)

I continue in Mark ….Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”   Mark 10:46-47

I’m struck, like never before, by the differences in these two requests. In the first, the subject is self; I want, I need, I think this is important.

But in the second, the blind man, perhaps keenly aware of his deficit, calls out with an understanding of the One he is calling to, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Bartimaeus is not dictating how Jesus should respond to him, he is calling out for whatever mercy the Lord chooses to give.

And Jesus stopped … and said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way. Mark 10:49-52

At Bartimaeus’ cry, Jesus stops what He is doing. Amazing enough. But then what does He do? Jesus asks Bartimaeus what he wants Him to do for him. It’s the same thing James and John (and all of us) want from Jesus, isn’t it (what they/we want), yet so very different, too.

 

“Before you pray, bow quietly before God, just to remember and realize who He is, how near He is, how certainly He can and will help. Just be still before Him and allow His Holy Spirit to waken and stir up in your soul the childlike disposition of absolute dependence and confident expectation. Wait on God as a living Being, as the living God who notices you and is just longing to fill you with His salvation. Wait on God until you know you have met Him. Prayer will then become so different.” (Andrew Murray, Waiting On God, Day 4)

“So different.”

Be still my heart, focusing on who Jesus is, knowing He notices me, and longs to fill me with His salvation. Then, may I call out to Him, like Bartimaeus, “Jesus, have mercy on me!”

And He will.

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Posted in Power to change, Prayer, Teri Wetzel

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Love honours difference and does not compare; love is secure

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Abby| 4 Comments

By Faith Rawley

‘Love does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonour others; it is not self-seeking’ 1 Corinthians 13:4-5

I think unknowingly whenever I have read this verse I have usually considered the traits of envy, jealousy and pride to be the worst of the ones described in this passage and I’d not easily admit to being envious or jealous, prideful or boasting…..is that proud to say?! But I do fall into the trap of comparing myself with other people a lot of the time and I’m starting to realise that actually comparison can be the root of these other traits.

I do look at other people and their situations often secretly wishing that I was more like them.  If only my body looked more like hers, if only I had the job that they do, had more money, a bigger house, newer clothes then I’d be happier.  Or even worse I look at people and say to myself, ‘well at least I’m not like them…’ (I’ll let you fill in the blanks of what might finish that sentence!)  Comparing ourselves starts us on the track of feeling envious of what another person has or it makes us boast in what we have compared to another person.

One area I started to notice that I was comparing myself to others was in the area of gifts in the church.  I would often look at other people’s gifts – the pastoral gift, the gift of song writing and the prophetic gift – and I wished that these came more naturally to me.  I felt second best because I didn’t have these more important seeming abilities.  I overlooked what God has gifted me with and didn’t value the unique gifts He had given to me.  Also because I saw certain gifts as more important than others, I devalued gifts that to me seemed to be less significant, like hospitality and serving and prayer, and I sometimes overlooked the people with these gifts.

By allowing God’s love to fill my heart and address the insecurities and wrong mind-sets I was able to find security in knowing that I am exactly the way He has made me to be.  In learning how to appreciate myself I started to appreciate the differences in other people as well.  I began to see that we each walk a different path through life…one way is not better or worse than another just different.

God’s love filling our hearts helps us to honour who we are and to honour who God has made others to be without feeling the need to compare ourselves.  If I could rewrite this verse I’d write it like this: ‘Love honours difference and does not compare; Love is secure.’  

 

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Posted in Faith Rawley, Focus Fridays, Love, Love, Power to change

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Wrinkle Free?

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Abby| 9 Comments

By Carole Rawley

The other day I happened to be walking through my local department store when I heard the words, ‘This actually transformed my life!’ I turned round to see who had made such a powerful statement only to find that it was a cosmetic consultant showing a customer the latest face cream!

As I walked on, I thought about how easily we attribute things with transforming our lives – the latest ipad, smart phone, Facebook, a new pair of shoes. They may help us to organise ourselves better or to keep in contact with friends or to make our feet look pretty, but they don’t transform us as God intended.

In order to do that, he sent Jesus!

In John 9 we read of an encounter between Jesus and a blind man. Jesus declared that this man wasn’t blind because he had sinned but ‘so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.’ He then declared that he was ‘the light of the world‘ and proceeded to make a mud pie from his own saliva and smear it onto the man’s eyes. Jesus didn’t even pray but simply told the man to wash it off. When he did, he could SEE.

Now that is transformation!

A number of years ago I was at a conference as part of the prayer ministry team and the speaker called people forward who needed healing.  Many people responded and I went to pray with a young seventeen-year-old woman. I asked her what she needed prayer for and she said she was deaf in her right ear. She wanted God to make her hear. She explained that she had pushed a knitting needle down her ear canal when she was three years old and had destroyed the ear. She hadn’t heard anything in that ear since!

As I placed my hand on her ear, I simply whispered, ‘Show your power, Lord.’ Immediately she started screaming! It looked as though she was in pain and I tried to comfort her, having no idea what the matter was. Then, in amongst the sobs, I heard the words ‘It’s so loud, the music’s so loud.’ Jesus had healed her and she could HEAR.

That is also transformation!

When the man who had been blind was summoned before the Pharisees to explain himself he had no theological arguments or explanations. He couldn’t tell them how or why he was healed but he could say:

‘One thing I do know, I was blind but now I see.’ (John 9:25)

What are the ways in which Jesus has transformed our lives? We may not be able to explain exactly how or why he has changed us, but we know we are different. Maybe we can now love where we once hated, maybe we have joy where we once had deep sorrow, maybe we know peace where we lived in constant anxiety. The ‘light of the world’ has touched our hearts.

So let’s make sure that the work of God is seen in our lives, even if we do happen to indulge in wrinkle free face cream from time to time!

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Posted in Carole Rawley, Healing, Power to change

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Beautiful Things

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Abby| 18 Comments

By Abby King

…but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Mark 4:19

Sometimes I feel it so strongly, the worries of this life crowding in. It’s not just my own concerns, but those of the people around me and the world in general. The disappointments, anxieties and injustices of life can weigh in heavy, choking the hope right out of a soul.

You make beautiful things, you make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things, you make beautiful things out of us

A flicker of hope appears around the edges of my mind, starts to seep into my soul.

You make me new, you are making me new

Maybe it’s ok if all is dust and ashes right now, because we know the One who makes beauty from ashes, and creates new life out of chaos. Maybe if I’m still for long enough, I will begin to hear His song again. Maybe the silence will begin to heal and retune my heart so I can join in with it, and sing it out to the world, to myself.

You make beautiful things, you make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things, you make beautiful things out of us

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Posted in Abby King, Hope, Journey, Patience, Power to change, Trusting God

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New Year’s Resolution: Duty or Desire?

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Abby| 3 Comments

By Beth Hamstra

Every year for Christmas my mom gets me a cute new journal.  It has been a tradition over the last several years.  I love new journals!  So every year I do my best to fill it up…sometimes making up for lost time and extra pages in the month of December, eagerly anticipating a fresh new book to come December 25th.  I also try hard to wait out the final week of the year before letting the ink from my carefully chosen pen inaugurate the first page on January 1st.

I can’t tell you how many journals have begun with three to four pages of aggressive goals for the new year to put me back on my path toward perfection.  Wake up earlier, spend more time in the word and prayer, exercise every day, eat healthier, be a better ____________ (insert current season of life: student, employee, friend, sister, daughter, wife, mom, etc).

Talk about biting off more that I can chew!  I think you can figure out where this is going: Each year the goals are the same and each year I find that I am still far from the perfection I was seeking.

I haven’t forsaken my A-type tendencies all together, but in recent years by the grace of God, the beginning journal entries look a little different.  I’m starting to realize that change is not dependent upon my self-effort.  Don’t get me wrong, it definitely requires effort, but my faith is not in “pulling myself up by my bootstraps.”  I might be able to have a short-term fix of my situation that way, but long-term heart change happens by the grace of God.

We have just finished a series in Galatians at our church.  The entire series was very provoking but I want to convey some of the points from my pastor, John Leitzel’s sermon on November 13th.

Galatians 5:16 reads, “So I say, live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”  Some translations refer to the “sinful nature” as the “flesh.”   Paul’s exhortation here is to live by the Spirit.  The Spirit and the flesh are in constant opposition.  These are two different ROOTS; both producing fruit.

The root of the flesh: Duty

It’s not about making a long list of New Year’s resolutions and checking everything off.  Its not about having quality A, B, and C to make me a good Christian.  The Pharisees had all the “right” qualifications in that regard but Jesus was constantly rebuking them.  Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps to become a better Christian because “that is what I’m supposed to do” is living by the flesh.

The root of the Spirit: Desire

Instead of making my “perfect Christian” goals, I now start my journal off by penning a prayer to the Lord.  It looks a little something like this: “Lord, lead me by your Spirit this year.  I want my desires to line up with what your Spirit is saying and doing.  Help me to have a sensitivity to your voice and to be obedient when you speak.”  And then, instead of listing all of the areas I think I can improve on, I ask the Holy Spirit to highlight areas of sin or ways I should change.  And I rely on the grace of God to help me.

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Posted in Beth Hamstra, Grace, Holidays, Hope, Power to change

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This Path That I Am Standing On: Where I’ve Been – Where I am Going – and the Inbetween

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Abby| 1 Comment

By Sarah Field

Life seems to be moving along just fine now. This straight and narrow path that I ride:

GooduniversityGoodfriendsGoodchurchGoodfamilyGoodfianceGoodhouseGoodjob
GoodgradesGoodhealthGoodtimesGooddaysGoodsleepsGoodlaughsGoodthoughtsGoodpictures.

Good.

^Underneath the Good^…

are sediments laid in my foundation:

              RAGE                                lies                           bitterness

fear                                   bruises                    running                                                                       naivety

                             hiding                                                 drugs                                  revenge                   failing

cheating                                                   criesforhelp                          holesinwalls               running

                                                                                                        screaming                           smoke

 cold                         tears                                            apathy                                                           violence

                                                                                                        pain                                             insults

I look down

and see the rounded toes of my brown leather walking boots, and underneath the souls of them I feel the sturdiness of the solid and shiny beautiful marble floor beneath me.  The color variation mixed in from these sediments are no longer painful to look at or embarrassing for others to see. They look much different now, after they have been polished and placed within this new environment that I have never seen before. They bring a variation to this environment that enhances its beauty-not take away from it. My past pains being the sediment have mixed well with the cementing words that have brought me life in the places where I once felt dead.

I look onward>>> on this marble floor and see that it goes on past my current step. It is out of focus and grows dimmer as the space stretches on.  I can’t quite tell how long the path goes on for. My sight goes as far forward as it can focus but I give up from the strain of squinting and accept that if I really want to know, I have to go and see. My squinting releases as my sight slowly focuses clear again and follows the look of the marble path and pulls back at the spotlight that circles my feet in brown boots. Where did this light come from?! In my shock I start to sway back and feel a force of gravity pulling

                                                                           my heart p

          l

           u

             m

                m

                 e

                    t

                                                         s into my stomach!

*HUH!*

But….I catch myself just in time from falling over. Much to my surprise, the muddy sand I had been trudging through up to this point had disappeared and I almost fell over the edge into the black hole that was the only thing remaining. It is impossible for me to turn back now. I have nowhere to go but forward, but I am terrified of the unknown marble path that is before me.  I do not know where it goes, what will jump out at me, and I know I have to leave so much behind.

This is MY journey. No one else’s.

I feel lost, alone, and I am not sure where I will end up.

I stop. I Breathe. I concentrate.

Then I hear a voice within my spirit that assures me with three simple, yet extraordinarily profound words… “I am with you.”

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

Isaiah 41:10

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Posted in Hope, Journey, Power to change, Sarah Field

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Choose Life: The Great Divorce, Chapters 13 & 14

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Abby| 4 Comments

By Abby King

Chapter 13 continues the conversation between the Dwarf Ghost and the Lady, in which the Lady tries to persuade the Dwarf to let go of the Tragedian he is chained to and stay and experience true joy with her, but he refuses. His perspective is summarised later on as:

The demand of the loveless and the self-imprisoned that they should be allowed to blackmail the universe: that til they consent to be happy (on their own terms) no one else shall taste joy: that theirs should be the final power; that Hell should be able to veto Heaven.

Have you ever felt like that? “Until this, or that happens, until things go my way, I refuse to be happy, and will resent anyone else who is. ..” 

We must let go of this self-pitying attitude before it diminishes so much of us that there is nothing left.

However, the opposite is also true. If we choose joy, it enlarges us to the point where nothing can outweigh it:

All Hell is smaller than one pebble of your earthly world: but it is smaller than one atom of this world, the Real World…

It seems big enough when you are in it, Sir.

And yet all loneliness, angers, hatreds, envies and itchings that is contains, if rolled into one single experience and put into the scale against the least moment of the joy that is felt by the least in Heaven, would have no weight that could be registered at all. Bad cannot succeed even in being bad as truly as good is good.

The Great Divorce closes with the  wise warning of the Teacher: ‘do not ask of a vision in a dream more than a vision in a dream can give,’ and the Dickensian-style awakening of ‘Jack’ back in his own room, realising that he has been dreaming.

While we are cautioned not to draw too literal a meaning from the book about Heaven and Hell, a theme which clearly comes through the whole text  is that how we behave and the attitudes we have are the things which end up defining us.  When we consistently choose to focus on negative things, who we are is diminished – we become smaller and smaller until there is nothing left of the real us to make choices any more. But when we choose to live in the light, when we choose love, joy, forgiveness, when we choose to focus on Jesus and not ourselves, we are enlarged – we grow and grow until we become the Real us – the person we were truly created to be. And in our Real state Hell is not big enough to contain us, and all our sorrows are swallowed up in joy.

This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. Deut. 30:19-20

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Posted in Abby King, Book of the Month, Joy, Power to change

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Quick to Listen

Posted on September 13, 2011 by Abby| 7 Comments

By Wendy Hitchen

My dear brothers and sisters, be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to get  angry. James 1 v 19.

Do you ever find yourself going to church on a ‘mission,’ with an agenda to accomplish? Recently I’ve realised that one of my agendas is nothing to be proud of. Lets call it my ‘Sunday hit list.’

On a Sunday morning I often compile a mental list of people that I ‘need’ to speak to. It sounds legitimate, but I have recently been convicted of how selfish it might be. My focus is working down the list and checking each person off. Too often that means that I am quick to speak, slow to listen.

Frighteningly, it gives little space for those who may actually need me to listen to them. Listening might involve very little talking on my part and may mean that the list cannot be checked off. In fact, some weeks it might mean spending all my time listening to one person that isn’t even on my list! 

Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself. Don’t think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing. Phil. 2:3-4.

The godly women that I look up to are all great listeners. That’s one of the things that marks them out. They always have time for me and don’t make me feel stupid when I start pouring out my heart. They make me feel special and give time to our conversations. Quality time. They certainly don’t have an agenda. These women know what it is to listen, and in doing so they impact my liife.

My desire is to be a really good ‘listener’. Now I know that it won’t happen overnight, but I do have a great teacher- my Father is the ultimate listener. He listens to me endlessly. He puts up with my moans and groans, my rants and raves and my half constructed sentences. And He never says a word out of turn. Focusing on Him is the best way to take the focus off myself and my agenda, learning from His example as I relate to those He puts into my path.

So I’m going to begin this Sunday. With His help I want to to forget ‘hit lists’ and instead to focus on listening. Then, and only then, do I want to open my mouth and speak the words that He helps me to speak.

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The Temple of God

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Abby| 6 Comments

By Mary Bea Miller

Do you not know that your body is the temple, the very sanctuary, of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received as a Gift from God? You are not your own, you were bought with a price purchased with a preciousness and paid for, made His own. So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your body.   

1 Corinthians 6:19-20  The Amplified Bible

I was expecting a very different topic when I volunteered for the post with this Scripture verse. But after I got into it a bit, I realized it wasn’t at all saying what I thought I was going to write about.  So, I had to start with a completely blank slate.  Not a bad thing when you’re studying the Bible.  Here’s what I learned:

SIX ARGUMENTS: Verse 19 begins the sixth of 6 arguments in this chapter which all start with the words, “Do you not know”.  This one goes right to the core of the defense of moral purity.

OWNERSHIP:  The stated reason that we are required by God to abstain from sex outside of marriage has to do with ownership.  “You are not your own.”

Americans don’t swallow this one very easily.  Anyone with a sin nature would have trouble with it, I guess.  But this verse is worded so plainly and put so simply, it leaves precious little room to wiggle out of it.  I really love the comprehensive lists used to illustrate Whose we are, whose we are NOT and how we got there, found in Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible:

“the saints, who are neither their own, nor other men’s, nor satan’s, but God’s; not only by creation, but by choice and covenant; and Christ’s by gift, by purchase, and powerful grace.”

PURPOSE BUILT:  When we were traveling in Ireland once, we met the owners of the very nice B&B where we were staying.  They explained to us that they built it themselves, and designed it specifically to be used as a B&B.  Now if you have stayed in a few B&B’s you might have noticed that some are easier to stay in than others.  That is because most of them started out as homes, not enterprises.  They were built for families, not paying guests.  But this place in Lisdoonvarna was “purpose built”.  And it was noticeably easier to stay in than most of the others.  This verse in 1 Corinthians says the same thing about us.  We were ‘purpose built’ by God, for Him to live in.  He built it with His occupancy in mind, just the way He likes it.  Then paid for it AGAIN, with His own Son, because we had let in an enemy who had acquired squatters’ rights, and had to be forcibly evicted.

Clarkes’ Commentary on the Bible has this to say:

Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost – What an astonishing saying is this! As truly as the living God dwelt in the Mosaic tabernacle, and in the temple of Solomon, so truly does the Holy Ghost dwell in the souls of genuine Christians; and as the temple and all its utensils were holy, separated from all common and profane uses, and dedicated alone to the service of God, so the bodies of genuine Christians are holy….And ye are not your own? – Ye have no right over yourselves, to dispose either of your body, or any of its members, as you may think proper or lawful; you are bound to God, and to Him you are accountable.

GLORIFYING GOD:  As much as we love using the verses saying things like “God sees my heart” as a defense for a behavior of which someone might disapprove, this verse makes a strong case for the point that our outward actions have a real capacity to bring God glory…..or not (implied). And just in case we try to spiritualize it, Paul adds the prepositional phrase “in your body”.  Sound of another door slamming shut.  But it’s not just Paul.  Matthew and Peter seem to agree.

Matt 5:16: Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. …

1 Pet 2:12:  Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. …

So here I am at the end of a pretty hard-nosed chapter of Scripture.  Exits have been blocked, every way of escape is closed.  Unlike many churches over the centuries, I refuse to draw conclusions as to what this means to your life, besides what it says explicitly regarding fornication, but each of us is left to ask the Holy Spirit ourselves.  It truly is the only honest response to 1 Corinthians chapter 6.  What do I do that might be inappropriate for a house of His?  In what ways do I act as if I have retained ownership?

Because I long for my temple to be a place that glorifies Him everyday, all the time, I will be asking these hard questions, and listening hard for His loving response.

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Posted in Body, Body, Soul, Spirit, Mary Bea Miller, Mercy, Power to change

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The Weight of the Words

Posted on August 19, 2011 by Abby| 7 Comments

By Niki Deutsch

I once had a pair of cheap shoes that I wore a lot longer than I should have.  At one point, there was a rip in the canvas top, the support was long gone, and – they were really stinky.

I’m not sure why I kept this particular pair of shoes when I had several other newer, more comfortable, supportive shoes that didn’t stink.  One reason might be that my new shoes required a little bit more effort to get them on – I couldn’t just slip my foot in the new shoes.  My old pair had been so easy to slide into when I wanted to quickly run out to get the mail, or check on my kids outside.  Sometimes, I’d forget I was wearing them, and get trapped in the car with my stinky shoes.  It was especially bad when anyone else was trapped in my car with me.  At those moments I’d wonder why I don’t toss those old, unsupportive, stinky shoes out.

There is an aspect of life that can be like wearing those stinky shoes – something that’s easy to slip into and difficult to toss out of my life:

Legalism.

I catch legalism sneaking into my subconscious – prompting me to respond to my inability to perfectly follow the law with more striving!  Work harder!  Have I done enough to earn His favor?  Are the scales tipping in my favor yet?  I can have a freeing encounter with Jesus just a few days prior, and still can find myself there again – striving, measuring, and stressing out.

I slip on the easy, stinky shoe of legalism quite by accident.  I’d like to say, “Hey, I can’t help it!  I’m a “first-born”!  It’s my natural instinct to demand justice – payment for sin or points earned for good deeds.  But, unfortunately, it’s probably only my prideful, sinful side refusing (again) to receive His free gift of Grace, that none should boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).  Living in legalism is a hard way to live – this pattern of using a scale to measure my “goodness” or my holiness – a constant striving.

When I find myself in this place, I wonder why don’t I toss out this foolish way of thinking?

Sometimes, it seems easier to put on the old, rather than the new.

How often do I measure and strive, strive and measure forgetting His Yoke is easy and His burden is light?  

This life of learning to live in freedom and rest is a little like putting on my new and better shoes.  In doing that lighter work of submitting my life to the LORD, I am completely supported by The One who really can bridge the gap between where I am and where I should be.  I need to do the light, easy work, so I can rest.

Come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest.  Come to me and rest from all the striving to save yourself.  Put on the new shoes so your feet are fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.  The gospel of peace…the work has been done.

And yet…Jesus does call us to “be perfect, perfect as I am” (Matthew 5:48).   So what do we do?  Our acts of righteousness are like filthy rags in the sight of God.   We cannot measure up to His perfection, no matter how hard we try.  We need His Mercy and Grace!

Aah…His beautiful Grace! 

I love Out Of The Gray’s song: “The Weight of the Words”.   If you have a chance to listen to the actual song, I recommend it.  The beautiful lyrics reveal how we can still rest – not struggle so hard, while obeying His commands – even if imperfectly.

“The Weight of the Words” by Out Of The Gray

Sitting at the table in a kitchen conversation
You spilled the words you read just yesterday
He said, “Be perfect, perfect as I am”
“How can this be done,” you ask, “when every time I try to be
Someone with such a mastery, I see how weak I am?”
I said, “See the sweet dichotomy
Mercy mirrored in the face of impossibility”

The weight of the words
Can crush you, they can break you
Or they can heal and they can take you to the throne of grace
The weight of the words
Will lead you like a beacon
When your strength is finally beaten by the weight of the words

And so the constant struggle to remind each other of the fact
That the rest is easy on the shoulders of the One who came
To pay for what we lack
Now our welcome burden is to strive with humble gratitude
We cannot take lightly what He carried on His back
Can you feel the gravity
Compelling mystery
Life for those who will believe

The weight of the words
Can crush you they can break you
Or they can heal and they can take you
To the throne of grace
The weight of the words
Will lead you like a beacon
When your strength is finally beaten by the weight of the words

The rest is easy
His rest is easy
Are you weary?

Can you hear the words that lift the burden?
Do you feel the gravity?
Compelling mystery -
Life for those who will believe

The weight of the words
Can crush you they can break you
Or they can heal and they can take you to the throne of grace
The weight of the words
Will lead you like a beacon
When your strength is finally beaten by the weight of the words

 

 

Image credit:

http://streetsci.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/sneakers.jpg?w=170&h=122

Each month our Friday posts centre around a particular issue. This month of August we are focussing on the topic of rest.

 

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Posted in Focus Fridays, Niki Deutsch, Power to change, Rest

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