Passover Snow

Visions of Paradise

The next breath you take
Is your first
And your last
Feel it
The flow of eternity
Filling your lungs
Embrace the renewal
Send it back to Him

Drink it in
Spirit to overflowing,
Overwhelming all else
Give it away
It’s not yours to keep
No, it’s your gift
To give
To His own

With watchful eyes you see
What is behind
Things yet to be
Know it
Love’s yearning
Drawing you
Holding you fast
Visions of Paradise

Born Again

“I was lost when you found me here and I was broken beyond repair. Then you came along and you sang your song over me. It feels like I’m born again. It feels like I’m living, for the very first time, for the very first time in my life.”-Third Day

“It may be a fire, but you gotta get it into your heart”-Moody Blues

Passover is in a week. Here I am, once again wondering about and reflecting on the past year. This last year has brought some difficult times for me and my family. It has also given us times of great joy. It has given us the opportunity to understand what friendship looks like. We’ve learned to appreciate old friends and are joyful at the prospect of getting to know some new friends in a more significant way.

Looking at my life and examining my heart I realize how short I’ve fallen once again. The life of a child of Yahweh is one of continual striving, reaching, grasping for the perfection He requires of us.

It is also a life of thankfulness and overwhelming gratitude for the mercy and love our Abba shows to us when we fall short of the goal, when we let sin be the victor, knowing He has made a way for us even when we fail Him.

We truly are broken beyond repair when He finds us. We have nothing to offer Yahweh, and yet He extends a hand to us, to pick us up, to lift us to a place unimaginable. A place where we are born again. A place where there is true life beyond anything conceived on this earth.

And in our gratitude for His love and mercy we should have a passionate fire burning in our hearts- a fire that compels us to do anything to serve His eternal Kingdom. I’m looking forward to a year of renewal, revival, and restoration. A year free from the bondage of sin that hangs heavily on this creation. A year filled with joy, shalom, and satisfaction as we find contentment and rest in our Father’s loving arms.

Be Careful What You Type

I recently came across a book on an internet site that, much to my surprise, contained a quote from me. It was a reproduction of an entire e-mail I had sent to somebody about eight or nine years ago. Now I had absolutely no idea the e-mail was going to appear in this book, nor do I any longer have a record of that e-mail. Now the quote portrayed me in a positive light and I do remember corresponding with the author at some point. Nevertheless I couldn’t vouch for the exact words that were quoted. In addition I probably have modified my position on what I was being quoted on in these intervening years. I also recently came across an article I had written several years ago, posted in its entirety on a blog owned by a person I don’t know nor have ever had any correspondence with. Anyway, there it was. I have mostly been careful at what I have transmitted over the internet in the last decade, but I realize I have also said things, that taken in a context different than what was intended, may not be how I would state things if I knew everything I was writing would be made public. A few months ago I deactivated my Facebook account. Besides being something that consumed a lot of time, it seemed very intrusive to me. But in doing some research since then I’ve found that Facebook is actually one of the more benign social networks out there when it comes to information you have sent out over the internet over the course of time. Once you deactivate your FB account it is nearly impossible for someone to find information about that account. On the other hand, networks like Yahoo, MSN, and similar ones tend to leave a trail of information, oftentimes even after you have deactivated your account. If you’ve posted on one of their forums, or on a friend’s (or former friends) account, there is information that sometimes hangs around for years. I've noticed young people especially are not often careful about what they have left hanging out there. So take the time to go through your on-line activities. See what might be out there that you’ve forgotten about, that might not be so flattering if the people who are important in your life now came across the information. I also read an article the other day that says more and more employers and college administrators are making judgments about prospective employees or students based on what they find on line. So be careful what you type. It can affect the rest of your life.

Consumers

We’re born to consume so the story goes
Eat it, buy it, take it, it’s yours

No holding back from your grandest desires
It yours, its mine, whatever we want

Whatever's in reach of your clutching grasp
You deserve it, you’ve earned it, don’t be shy now

Is this the way the plot was really written?
The story line seems to have gone astray

In the end we’re all editors, rewriting the book
Consumers consumed by the things that we took