The hymn for today is a psalm of praise.
Play it on MuseScore for a limited time.
Sunday, July 31, 2016
Intimacy (August 2016 Issue of the St. Louis Amigan)
There
once was an old man, crying out to God, “Remove this pest from me!”
And he cried it again, and again—because it was not his pathos that
he saw as pathetic, but himself, his weakness, his frailty, and he
did not want the constant reminder haunting and accusing him.
Many
have argued over the ages about what it was that he found so
embarrassing about himself. There has been no resolution because no
answer is given; the sources do not say. They
do not fret over irrelevancies, but instead, they point us to the
more important things.
The
cry of the human heart is often concerned with the irrelevant while
missing the important. Indeed, it seems our lot in life to be forever
distracted from what should be our most important goal. It matters
not so much who you are, as who you are with. It
matters not so much what is yours as whose you are.
We
are much like the silly house cat that is more concerned with keeping
an annoying fly away from its food bowl than
it is with what’s in the bowl—its
food.
Leave
off the fly and eat your food.
If
you do not, another cat will come along and enjoy the sup without
you.
It
took many years for that old man to finally hear what God was saying,
to finally understand what it was that was to be his goal. But
when he did, oh the change in him! What a marvelous thing to see!
Even the fly stopped buzzing
for the amazement
of it all. Glory in his
frailty?!?!? What new thing was this??? What
was it that God said to him to bring about such bliss? “My
grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in your
frailty!” 1
There
are things I have been discovering these past few weeks when my knees
have seemed so weak. People
have begun to no longer be seeing me as an appendage on a camera.
They have begun to hear my heart and see my song, no longer blind to
what has been there all along.
From
the moment I elected to accept the pain things have begun to change.
For one thing, I have begun
to dream, again. Some time ago an image entered my dreaming mind, and
a voice with it, saying, “Africa: It’s now or never!”
I
began to pray, and to get
others to pray, and later that very same day God answered those
prayers with the words you can find in the hymn, THE
SILENT VOICE,
which is a message of assurance and hope and promise. It
is also a message of instruction on how to hear the voice of the
Lord, and not be distracted by fools and foolishness.
Indeed,
cast your mind upon the opening line: “Have
you ever heard the silent voice to bellow its command?”
The very fact of the question being asked of the hearer assumes that
they have a trove of experience from which to draw in answering the
question being put. In other words, the very fact of the question
assumes that the hearer is able to answer it—indeed, that the
hearer has,
in fact, heard that voice often enough and knows its behavior well
enough that the question can be stated rhetorically.
There
is an intimacy there, an intimacy that will be missed by those
unfamiliar with it. Those
unfamiliar with the intimacy found in that relationship will react
with confusion and pridefulness, perhaps even dismissing it as a
nonsense question. I
have even been asked—by a brother—“How can you hear a silent
voice?”
But
they asked. There was no pride or dismissiveness in their asking;
they simply wanted to know. And as they wanted to know, and are a
child of the King, the King opened their mind to the answer. Opening
their mind to this answer also opened their mind to something that
the voice was trying to tell them, and that changed their message for
the men that evening.
Intimacy.
It
is of such a state that when one small stumbling block is removed,
like a dam burst, it releases a flood of information that is already
organized into a message ready to share.
This
intimacy is a treasure. It is the type of treasure for which the Lord
tells us that a man, on finding it, would hide it back then go and
sell all he has to gain the money to buy the field where he found
it.2
What
would you pay? This old man would suffer pain and anguish and agony
and every sort of trial should it bring this intimacy to him.
And
I—when I decided to accept the pain in my knees, rather than rail
and fight and battle against it, part of me thought I must be mad.
But, also, part of me knew that depending solely on God would draw me
closer to God, and that that closeness, that intimacy, would come
to
be a treasure beyond worth.3
A
long time friend saw this before I did, and yet rejected the feast
they could have also had—and another has come in to take their
place. He came
unto His own and His own received Him not.4
It also says that a native branch has been cut off and a wild branch
grafted in in its place.5
Beware
the intimacy that you reject, for it may never come again,6
and
you may end up bereft without it, for you cannot return to that
place, for another will
have
taken your place. You
will
have become defiled while it is holy.6
One
must repent while repenting is available, and not after it is too
late.
There
is another line to THE SILENT VOICE:
“For Godly are His divine ways, and you don’t understand.” This
is not a rebuke, but a reminder.7
God
is love8
and grace and forgiveness and mercy and light. In
some way His intimacy is available so long as you do not continue to
reject it in this life.9
I
have
chosen intimacy, but intimacy with God is what I choose. There
are many who will reject me, and have rejected me already—some
thinking they already know God—because of this. I understand this
perfectly well, but
understand this: The intimacy I seek is not one they can find; it
must be shown to them by God.
If
He has not shown it to them then they do not know God.
Pray
for me that I would not fall back into the mire of sin. Pray that I
would come to seek and know the grace within; that God would be to me
the seed that flourishes within, and ask that I would come to see the
gift He has for me, that from the sea of sin and doubt I’d be
forever free, that I would come to know Him well in His intimacy.
Be
well, my friends, and seek
God in His intimacy.
1II
Corinthians 12:9
2Matthew
13:44
3See
my hymn, THY SWEAT HEART
for more on this; although consciously, I was seeing a long and dear
friend as the “treasure beyond worth”, and they are, there is a
deeper meaning that begins to show itself.
4John
1:11
5Romans
11
6Deuteronomy
24:1-4
7Isaiah
55:8-9
8I
John 4:8,16
9John
3:19
Saturday, July 30, 2016
Friday, July 29, 2016
Thursday, July 28, 2016
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
New Hymn, "The Silent Voice"
The hymn for today comes in answer to prayer regarding the northwestern coast of the Indian Ocean.
Play it on MuseScore for a limited time—and pray!
Play it on MuseScore for a limited time—and pray!
Monday, July 25, 2016
Sunday, July 24, 2016
Saturday, July 23, 2016
Friday, July 22, 2016
Thursday, July 21, 2016
New Hymn, "Sing Praises!"
The hymn for today is an expository expansion of Psalm 150:6.
Play it on MuseScore for a limited time.
Play it on MuseScore for a limited time.
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
Monday, July 18, 2016
Sunday, July 17, 2016
Saturday, July 16, 2016
Friday, July 15, 2016
New Hymn, "The Savior's Song!"
The hymn for today is about not knowing your effect upon the Kingdom until it is shown to you in Heaven.
Play it on MuseScore for a limited time.
Play it on MuseScore for a limited time.
Thursday, July 14, 2016
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Monday, July 11, 2016
Sunday, July 10, 2016
New Hymn, "I am Alive in Thee!"
The hymn for today shows a prime realization that should come to everyone who is alive in Christ.
Play it on MuseScore for a limited time.
Play it on MuseScore for a limited time.
Saturday, July 9, 2016
Friday, July 8, 2016
Thursday, July 7, 2016
Wednesday, July 6, 2016
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Monday, July 4, 2016
Sunday, July 3, 2016
Saturday, July 2, 2016
A True Tenderness of Heart
There are two that I know. I quite like them both. Both have the Hebrew word for God initialed within their names. One is younger, the other older. One visits the ministry freely, the other refusing to come near.1
There
are two that I know, both claiming the name. One, seeing an oracle
fulfilled, rejected it and threw him out.2
The other, being offered, reached out and took hold of a heart.3
There
are two that I know, both reading the Word. One writes well and talks
a good story. The other, finding the work of the Word, brought their
family in—and lives it.1
There
are two that I know, one cultivated in a good tree. The other, being
wild, was grafted in.
Which
feeds from the Root, and which needs to repent?4
There
are two that I know. One, refusing to leave home, shall lose it. The
other, having left their home, found it.5
Which
are you, and which is the one that pleases God?
In
general, people do not like it when someone records the words of God
and speaks them into their life. This is because they want to think
well of themselves rather than accurately. Surely you will have
noticed how rarely people will honestly compare themselves to God.
They just don’t do it, and if you seek to do so they will shout you
down, marginalize you so that no one will listen to you, or level
accusations, and insults and epithets at you in their effort to
utterly discredit you. But they will not
compare themselves to God—and
won’t be letting you do so, either. When you insist
on
speaking
what they do
not want
to hear, they will refuse to hear.
Such
times can be the midnight of society’s soul. When someone—who
sees themselves as in the Church (yes, capitol C)—witnesses—and
is even themselves the very instrument of—the fulfillment of
prophecy—and rejects it and throws out of their life the person
bringing that prophecy, and, of those around them claiming Christ,
not one person makes protest against those
actions—it can be,
indeed, the midnight of that ἐκκλησία’s6
soul.
The
heart of Christ shines brightly against the blackness of the evil of
society, but those who should be trumpeting His coming instead choose
the comforts of the night.
How
do you think that effects the heart of God? Do you even care?
Which
are you, and which is the one that pleases God?
Are
you the one that pleases God?
Are
you really?
When
is the last time you heard His voice? When is the last time He spoke
into your soul? When is the last time you actually quieted yourself
and sat down to simply listen? When is the last time you were Elijah
upon the mountain
of God?7
Has
He, in fact, ever spoken to you at all? Have you ever heard the voice
of God within your soul? Have you ever felt His arms across your
shoulders? Have you ever felt His embrace surround your soul? When
the time that He took you
from the depths of darkness and despair instantaneously into the
stratosphere of spiritual ecstasy—in
a moment? When the time He prophesied into your
soul?
And
if He did, how do you know that it was Him?
God
is not a man that He should lie! 8
Which
are you, and which is the one that pleases God?
The
heart of God shines brightly
through
the midnight of despair
and
man’s pretensions mist away
as
if they were not there
God
is not deceived by your pretending to spiritual things. When you go
through the motions of a life that is not yours to have or hold you
speak deceit, however bold. You live deceit and do not hold the light
or things you claim to hold. There is no Heaven laid aside for those
with sin they seek to hide.
My
eyes battle tears as I write this, for one of whom I write has been
so very close to my heart and I would not see their eternity shorn
apart, cast asunder, and thrown upon the winds of deceitfulness,
wickedness, sin, and darkness and despair. As
I have said to them, we have a date in Heaven, and I would see them
there. What other reason can there be for showing such deep care?
Those
who would rage against this do not know my heart and will not see me
there. Though I rest in the lap of God, they will not see me there.
If they would, they must repent and display Heaven’s cares. Oh,
beloved, how tender is my heart to see that Heaven shares my love of
those so precious their deaths would my soul tear!
As
I wrote in an earlier hymn, “I have ever been so targeted by
demon-spawn of earth”. Most of that demon-spawn claims Christ. He,
though, does not claim them, for God is not a man that He should
lie8,
and those who attack me are deceitful, seeking to hide their own sin
behind their attacks against me.9
Oh!
How many times I have sought to warn them against the wickedness of
their hearts and they respond, not with repentance, but with
finger-pointing at me, accusing me of making excuses for my own sin!
Sin
has no excuse10,
and none can be made, for God is not mocked11,
and is not deceived by pretenses to Christianity by those who, truly,
know nothing of Him, but seek after the desires of their own flesh.12
When
the light is shined upon them they rebel, seeking the darkness in
their effort to extinguish that which exposes their wickedness and
filth and depravity and sin.13
Those who live in darkness hate the light.
Do
not let them deceive you: They are children of darkness and the spawn
of Hell, though they claim to be of the light.14
These,
however, hold no exclusive dominion over the hearts of men. As it is
written, “I have yet
7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Ba’al!” 15
The
tenderness of heart that persists and insists upon tenderness and
mercy will eventually be met with its kind.16
One might say that you meet with an angel, perhaps, unawares.
Therefore, entertain rightly, that you may live.17
This
very day, in fact, I was out and about, having prayed for someone to
accompany me along the way. I
was thinking about the one I had invited along, but who
was too ill to make the journey, and pondering whether to bring
something back for them, or avoid risking further difficulties for
them. Yes, I wrestled with the idea.
Having
thought better, I began returning along my way. Very shortly, someone
approached. I greeted her, striking up a conversation. We found
a shared love of music. I even sang
for her a little bit, even though I had already confessed that I
quickly run out of breath. This small, frail-looking lady, though, is
a player of the bag-pipes. Oh! The irony! And,
Oh! How I love the pipes,
rightly played!
Sadly,
I do not even remember her name, though I can hope that she remembers
mine. Her name, though, is
not really the point. The point is this:
Do
you see how God answers the open heart? Had my friend—who was
willing—been healthy enough to attend, I probably would never have
met the music lover, who plays in churches all around, apparently.
She, on the other hand would not have met a positive witness for
those who are in need. Do you see how God answers the open heart?
The
one who refuses to come near to the poor will not be come near to by
God,18
but the one who gives mercy shall find it.16
I
have been a poor, decrepit, wicked and evil man, but when God called
I answered. I have not closed my heart to those to whom God is open,
and now, God is open to me.19
Do
you see how God answers the open heart?
When
I am tired and nothing want but sleeping,
When
I am worn and evil beckons me,
And
my heart cries to God in His sweet mercy,
I
feel His arms enfold and circle me!
When
I am sad and my eyes fill with weeping,
When
darkness comes and doubts encumber me,
And
I seek peace and solace from the Savior,
Beneath
His wings He gathers and shields me!
But
for His love I am nothing but evil!
But
for His love I am a demon seed!
But
for His love I am a thrall of Satan!
But
Jesus bled and died to make me clean!
When
I’m alone and nothing see but silence,
When
all is dark and nothing covers me,
The
rains come down and death would see me freezing,
I
cry to God and angels cover me!
For
by His love I am the seed of Jesus,
And
by His love the darkness flees from me
And
by His love a chariot waits for me,
For
Jesus died and rose to set me free!
Yes,
Jesus died and rose to set me free!
©2016
William F. Maddock; all rights reserved; used by permission
Oh,
beloved, know this; hear this and know it well: that God will respond
to a true tenderness of heart.
1James
2:17
2John
1:11
3Luke
18:13
4Romans
10:16-11:24
5Matthew
16:25
6A
Greek word meaning “a calling out” or “a gathering”, in
particular, a religious gathering, such as a synagogue or a
Christian congregation.
71
Kings 19
8Titus
1:2
9Psalm
141:9-10
10Romans
1:20
11Galatians
6:7
12Romans
1:21-32
13John
3:19
142
Corinthians 11:13-15
151
Kings 19:18
16Matthew
5:7
17Hebrews
13:1-2
18Proverbs
21:13; James 2:13
192
Chronicles 15:2; Zechariah 1:3; Malachi 3:7; James 4:8
PDF Version
New Hymn, "Elegy to Heaven's Heart"
The hymn for today is an intercessory prayer for the salvation of one you love!
Play it on MuseScore for a limited time.
Play it on MuseScore for a limited time.
Friday, July 1, 2016
New Hymn, "Rise Into the Light!"
The hymn for today is an exhortation to rise, in the joy of the Lord, into the light!
Play it on MuseScore for a limited time.
Play it on MuseScore for a limited time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)