Saturday, April 30, 2011

Grace, graced, gracious


Grace invites me to be honest,

For grace is applied to all of me.

Not just the parts that I admit,

Not just the public that hides the private,

or the light that ignores the dark

Grace shows me,

In the stark light of eternity

Who I am,

No excuses,

No denials,

No justifications.

Grace invites me,

For grace would never demand.

Grace enlightens me

For grace would never turn away

From a mission

That takes silence captive,

And loves me abundantly

Until I reveal who I am,

And what I have done.

I am graced

Because

I am and I am not

When I refuse to see

Or admit.

Grace takes my hand

Leading me to the truth,

Who I am,

What I have done,

Whom I have hurt all that I have said.

Grace moulds me into the beginnings

Of a resurrection,

For this hope is borne

On the wings of honesty.

And so,

Hopelessness

Is transformed into hope.

Not just for me,

But for all

Who have walked with me,

and all,

who must share me,

as my dark is revealed in grace's glory,

the healing wonder

the splendid light
a transformation.

my captivity

over and ended,

I am released

into the pure light

of all I am.

for

I am

in grace,

graced.

Gracious.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Resurrection


Grace leads us from the death of hope to a resurrection of all that we are created to be. In the midst of our sadnesses and our failures Jesus shows us a life that was lived for failures. Jesus loved those whom the world would say are beyond hope, beyond mercy, beyond love. Jesus followers were from the seedy end of town. Jesus did not have a public relations expert, he did not seek the approval of those who were in high regard, he did not court the approval of the religious elite, he stubbornly loved the destitute, the damned and the desperate. In essence Jesus became a failure for us, and, when he took his last breath on the cross, all who were looking on would have pronounced him a dreadful and tragic disappointment. After three years of the most extraordinary times, his message of love, his embracing of the most awful fallen humanity there wasn't even a small protest at the foot of the cross. Even most of his disciples ran away. I wonder what Mary thought as she looked up into the brutalised face of her son. I wonder if she thought again of the angel Michael's annunciation and wondered what had happened to her dreams and expectations.

However, the resurrection crowns the worst that mankind could ever do with the glory and majesty of all that God is. The resurrection is God's eternal answer to us, who in our pride and arrogance, waged war against the truth of Jesus' message. Mankind refused then as it refuses today to embrace a love, a grace, forgiveness, acceptance and mercy that is unmerited, unconditional and free.

Jesus did not need to show himself to his disciples. All he needed was to have three meetings on that resurrection morning. If Jesus met with Caiaphas, the High Priest, Herod, the King and Pilate the Roman Governor there would have been an entirely different message than the one we have today. Three meetings that would have changed Jerusalem, Israel and the known world. However Jesus simply returns to his grieving, shamed and broken friends. Jesus continues where he left off and embraces failed and fallen lives. This resurrection reaches forward from that first Easter Sunday and it finds me, it finds you, challenging all as it embraces all to live lives that are loving, gracious, forgiving and merciful. There may not be many crowds as that message is challenged time and time again for it seems to me that there will always be a cross for the message of Jesus, however, there is a resurrection that, even in the shadow of death, will live through all who are touched by those extraordinary three years that revealed God in the flesh, his living autobiography, his living self-portrait..... Jesus

Thursday, April 28, 2011

A thoughtful prayer





The more you search for grace
the more you realise your need of it.
when you embrace grace as your soul security
your offerings become gifts of thanksgiving,
and you start the journey from achieving
to receiving.





Let me cease the struggling that lies
at the centre of spiritual achievement.
Help me to cease spiritual measurement,
striving and work. Let me rest in receiving,
unmerited and unearned,
unconditional and free.
Let me search for that Love
that is searching for me.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

The mission of compassion

It occurs to me that Christianity is having a crisis of compassion. Until we search for the heart of Jesus, his spirit, his desperate mission of love we will retreat to arguing about opinions regarding book, chapter and verse.

Jesus came to our angry planet on a mission of reconciliation. Every encounter that you will find in the Gospels shows us a love that is beyond us, a love that challenges us to lay aside our petty differences and to embark on the journey of becoming loving, a love that comes to rejoin us to each other and to enjoin us to God almighty. I have read so many comments that show an abandonment to the message of Christ and an embracing of a heartless message that can in no way be called a Gospel. Unless we are know by our love then what are we known for? Please, stop your anger and call each one you judge a son or a daughter for this is what Jesus has called you.

I am not wishing to argue, I am not in a mood for a fight, I am simply calling you to a higher place where you and I will find the peace of reconciliation that is born on the wings of a love that humbles us and ennobles us.

Monday, April 25, 2011

My heart is breaking


my heart is breaking
my mind it spins,
as all that is holy
is fading to grey.
where are the grievers
the seekers who heal,
whose footsteps are found
in their deserts pain.

my heart is breaking
for the lost and the blind
as they practice their praying
whilst turning away,
yes turning away,
we are turning away
our heart's have forgotten
and we are turning
away.

I hear the quiet sobbing
the ones wounded by stones
that so easily are thrown
in the darkness of hearts.
so easily thrown,
oh so easily thrown
heartless and hopeless
they are easily thrown.

my heart is breaking
and my mind spins sorrowful,
as all that is gracious
is subject to rules.
where are the lovers
who embrace and who heal,
whose footsteps are found
in mercy and justice,
acceptance and peace
whose footsteps are found
with the rejected and lost.

Until we see the cross

Until we see the cross

Before we sing again,
before we dance again,
Let our souls be still and silent.
Let’s just stop a while,
to pause and pray awhile,
To look and hear again,
Let our songs be still till then.

Let our dreams be more
than building towers that fall.
All our works his cross has silenced.
And as our hearts are healed,
let our songs reveal
His grace so undeserved,
These songs can now be heard.

Until we see the cross,
until we feel the pain
Until we see the scars
that pierced grace to our shame.
Until we see again,
let our songs be still
‘till then.

When we see his face,
through our broken faith:
Mercy triumphs over judgement.
Wounded hands reveal,
only love can heal
The brokeness we share,
Only wounded hearts can care.

Until we see the cross,
until we feel the pain
Until we see the scars
that pierced grace to our shame.
Until we see again,
let our songs be still
‘till then.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Unfailing Love


The love of God, Heaven’s hope.
This perfect peace,
This rest for my soul.
This love divine, portrayed in pain,
The cross stands alone.
Unfailing love.

The love of God, Creation’s cry.
Perfection portrayed, broken for me.
The author of life has suffered our pain,
The cross stands alone.
Unfailing love.

Chorus:
The love of God
Was found in the nails.
The love of God,
Was seen in the scars.
The light and the life
Was darkened by death,
My hope and salvation
Carried to life
Unfailing love.



The love of God,
Written in blood.
This empty grave,
The stone, rolled away!
The mercy of God has triumphed
in Christ.
The cross stands alone,
Unfailing love.


Tuesday, April 19, 2011

The last few steps


I am facing the cross.
behind me is the shuffling
of a brutally tortured man,
he is making his way,
step by agonising step
towards his agonising death.
this is more than any man can take.
This is the sentence that mankind demands
of love that refuses to take sides.

where are his friends,
his followers,
the rag tag army of those
who expected anything other
than this gruesome scene.

There are only minutes left
before a Roman will seize the limbs
of this abandoned and rejected soul
and the terror of cracking bones
will announce to all
that grace has come
to pronounce forgiveness
where there simply should be none.

Not long now.
Eternity waits.
Could this love
and this grace
extend this far?

How could heaven possibly hold It's hand?



The slow march


forgiveness,
love,
grace,
mercy,
acceptance,
peace,
heaven is silent
and the Son,
walks towards rejection.
soon,
they will turn their backs,
as we have
century after century
after century.
Jerusalem is full of hatred
as Jesus readies himself
to love in a way
that could never be grasped
or understood.
How could such pain,
such agony,
how could the horror
of mankind's deeds
be the only way
for us to see
the love of all power and majesty,
poured out without exception.


Monday, April 18, 2011

Step by tragic step


Palm fronds
and
a donkey.
hardly the heralds to
mankind's most dire moment
and God's greatest act.

The chapter has been opened
the sentences accelerate.
Evert word,
every line
builds towards the horror.

how could we turn our backs?
How could we join the crowd,
baying for blood,
screaming:
Barabbus,
Barabbus,
Barabbus.

Yet we chose
to enthrone the God of our desires,
denying every word,
every act, every embrace and every miracle.
We drained Jesus of his divine love, his unmerited grace,
and called him a failure.
as we crowned our faith
with the rewards reserved
for the self righteous.

If these palm fronds
could speak
would they be crying,
a donkey,
weeping
as this "journey of journeys",
slowly becomes a death march.

And, as I search my soul,
I am horrified to find
a name on my lips,
a name that reserves my deeds
for the rewards
of my self righteousness.




Sunday, April 17, 2011

I have

Have you seen the tears?
I have.
The pleadings,
The yearnings,
Desperate prayers,
Heartache,
They have gathered at my feet,
I played the sweet music,
Spiritual notes
Calling them forward,
Their broken hearts
Hoping,
Beyond heart,
A touch,
A moment,
Divine bliss
And blessing..
I have felt the hopeful urge
To come,
To make the way,
Down,
Forward,
Still standing at the front
For all to see,
They make their plea.
Their eyes
Reddened with the tears of pain,
I'm in D major, hoping that
The little that I do
Is enough.
We are frail aren't we?
You, my dear saviour,
Are a whisper,
A gentleness,
You move ,
Row to row,
Soul to soul,
Tragedy and heartache,
Faithless to woe.
You, oh God,
You....
You don't need my D Major,
You don't need our relentless shuffling forward,
You have come,
You are always far beyond our disappointments,
For we are the treasures of your grace.
Somehow,
In the midst of eternity,
We are the proof of your grace.
How wondrous is that....Oh God...
We are You in us in You.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Running and Dancing


Sometimes,
I am carelessly honest,
dangerous with my words
as if I am my own prosecutor.
other times,
I shy away,
stuck in the past,
memories relived
the accusations
reapplied.
Where do you go,
when the sentence
has no ending,
and captivity
has no justice.
Spare me the cliches,
for the truth
lies underneath
the shallowness.
There is an ocean
of grace,
sometimes I step back,
afraid of the cold,
warming myself with my own
stillness
before
again,
I dive into it's
healing.
And,
So,
as one
we gather our love,
we drape it over
each other's shoulders,
we stand,
upright,
and celebrate.
We are still running that race,
we are still dancing that dance,
and we are still here.


Tuesday, April 12, 2011

words

It's more than a matter of words.
one phrase, reconstructed,
refocused, redefined to become another.
Sometimes changing words within a phrase causes an enormous change in meaning.
Take the phrase: "The body of Christ".
By simply changing the words around we can write "Body of Christ" as "Christ's body"
It should mean exactly the same thing.....but it doesn't...does it?
It makes me ask; "Just who is who?"




I have seen your face,
your hollowed eyes,
desperate pleas,
as all around you
the show goes on.
You lift your hands,
listlessly
as we have told you,
time and time again:
"God is here!"
"God is in the house tonight"
I have watched
as you have waited for the miracles
the words,
the prayers
the preaching.
And the tears,
tears of disappointment
as God yet again has failed to know
your address.
He has missed you,
you are sure,
for all,
all who are around you
are lost in him.
I wished I could sing
your song,
for I know your lyric,
I know your melody.
but now,
you are making your way,
with your fears,
your doubts,
faithless,
your needs
hanging like an anchor
around your soul.
You come again
to the front, for prayer,
You have come
again, again, again,
pointlessly, ashamedly,
disappointed, confused
alone....
again.
Your pockets have been emptied
into the offering of conditionality,
your days have been poured into
someone else's promise.
again...
again..
I have stood behind my piano,
in the spotlight,
I can only play one melody,
this melody is yours
and mine.
whilst,
all around us
is power and glory
and promise
and all those words,
those eloquent words
that separate preacher
from you,
and me.
All of my instincts has wanted
to hold you with disappointments that are
streaming as tears.
We sing the same song.
we know the same words,
we know the tune.
I have seen you.
I see my eyes in your fears.
In my darkest moment I see you,
My heart beats to yours,
we know the sad and lonely stretch,
that leads back from the prayers
the power,
then promises.
We walk back,
as poor,
failed,
flawed,
we walk back
"Into the Kingdom"

"Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven"

Heaven sings our songs.




Monday, April 11, 2011

Journey




Life will always be a journey from somewhere to somewhere.
We are not always sure where we've been and we have no idea where we are going.
Sometimes we'd like to stop, other times we wish we could accelerate into tomorrow.
Faith is believing, with all our frailty, our fears and our failures,
that there is a plan and there is a guide.
At this point I find myself at my weakest.
However once the journey is surrendered to,
walking on through the dark without a map or a guide is too great a challenge.
So, here I am, leaving yesterday,
heading towards tomorrow,
living in today,
following a guide I cannot see,
assured that all my tomorrows are in his hands.


Sunday, April 10, 2011

Silence



Silence is not golden.
silence is a horror
I wait, I hope,
in vain,
in silence.
Silence.

So many years,
my friends,
so many years.
In silence.

One,
just one
and in his silence
my heart rests
and my soul finds peace.
He knows the silence,
the silence of the mob,
reason upon reason
to back away,
ears deafened,
eyes closed,
mouth mute.

Silence.
It is at the core of the universe.
A surrender
beyond my pain,
his silence bought my tomorrow.



Thursday, April 07, 2011

Hopelessly hopeful



The cloud has cleared.
the day is clear.
whilst still struggling with my "humaness"
I sense assurance
and the struggles abate.
I am.
This will never change.
I have a lifetime of consequences
that three years of splendour
washes with love,
and wondrous words,
filled full of light,
lived, alive,
I am quite overcome by the thought of it,
these wondrous words
have captivated me,
my muse,
my obsession,
my lyric,
my song.
Yes,
I am alive,
extraordinary,
hopelessly hopeful.