Time for turning

Most people want a God who requires nothing of them, who is easy to figure out and who allows himself to be under their control. They do not want a King who is inflexible toward rebellion, unmoved by the arguments and whims of people, and incapable of compromise. Thus the earth is not ready to be ruled by Jesus. It must be prepared. (38)..."Now therefore," says the Lord through his prophetic messenger, "turn to me with all of your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with morning." (42) 

-End Times Simplified, by David Slicker.

(Notice the faint rainbow in the center of the picture... Covenant reminder above St. Paul! He has mercy. But the gate of mercy is narrow and the path of destruction wide.)

Closer

Did growing older bring me closer to Jesus?
-Henri Nouwen

Father's heart/father's ghosts

Words.

Those living breathing knotty things

Welling up in throats

Tangling the ankles

Beseeching the dead

Griefs that plague with unasked for thoughts.

Words of the intention,

Taken as grace from an impure heart salvaged from a bondage

So great, limbs were torn and flesh ripped,

And a flock gripped and ransomed

And becoming.

I taste the salt leftover on my father’s head,

From sweating and a silly ritual of giving him a “sloppy”

Kiss.

I see the lines as he worries for me and happiness,

Worries to an unseen and unknown god,

Worries to a decaying body

Worries to a numbed mind

Worries to a deceived heart

Worries becoming pathways engrained, frames unchanged

Lines un-receeding,
like the tide. 

I take up the words, now,

Take them up like a plow,

Not looking back,

Forward yet and coming 

Again and again 

To the Eternal breast of rest. 

Inspired by “Have you Prayed?, from Behind My Eyes by Li-Young Lee.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/182921

Simple conversation

 “Conversation with God leads to an encounter with God.” Tim Keller

Jon Thurlow, simple conversation: http://youtu.be/SYyqGY4AtUo

Slack and work

C.S. Lewis reminds us, “It is much easier to pray for a bore than to go visit him.” So prayer is slacktivism. But then Oswald Chambers asserts, “Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work.”

It's better than perfect, it's done.

It's better than perfect, it's done.
—Peggy Knapp

Living witness

The multitudes cannot know the Gospel unless they have a living witness. Merely giving them an explanation will not suffice. The wandering masses of the world must have a demonstration of what to believe they must have a mentor that will stand among them and say ‘follow me I know the way.’

-Robert Coleman.