Above all temples
You chiefly prefer
Oh Spirit
The heart upright
and pure.
Instruct me
You who know
For You were present
from the first.
You sat
dove like
With might
and outspread wings
Brooding over
the vast abyss
And made
it pregnant.
Oh Spirit
what in me
is dark
Illumine.
The prayer of John Milton as he took up his pen to write Paradise Lost
I lost my shadow to find myself
I lost my house to find my home
I lost my money to find my value
I lost my motherhood to find my children
I lost my belongings to find my treasure
I lost my song to find my words
I lost my words to find my silence
I lost my illusions to find my voice
I lost my ego to find my truth
I lost my knowing to understand
I lost my anger to find my peace
I lost all my people to find my friends
I lost my insecurity to find my joy
I lost my surety to find my mystery
I lost my perfect to find my human
I lost my dogma to find my divine
I lost my seeing to find my sight
I lost my pride to find my beauty
I lost my fear to find my faith
I lost my religion to find my love
I lost the world to find eternity
I lost my failure to find my victory
I lost my light to find my dark
I lost my dark to find my fire
I lost my will to find my life
I lost my life to be reborn
Sometimes you have to lose everything you think is most important,
to find what really is.
AL 8/22/14
we free fall into love
from the edges of a heartbeat
only if we are willing to let go
and fly into far flung galaxies
love creates explorers
grace births daredevils
danger for love’s sake becomes us
makes us beautiful,
willing to fall off the solid
into the unknown
trusting that what we need at this very moment
is being born in the breath we share
our tears becoming elegant harmonies
in the music being written
which never ends
and is always being reborn
the higher and freer it falls
AL 8/22/14
And love is ultimately not a trite good feeling, but a steady current of quiet actions that could carry the loved person toward ultimate good.
Love is stubbornly praying for your ‘enemies’ till you see ‘enemies’ are illusions & God makes everyone grace in your life: a friend.
Maybe the world and every thing we see, maybe none of it is only black and white —
but more beautifully complicated, diverse shades of a transforming grace.
– Ann Voskamp
http://www.aholyexperience.com
oh yeah, it’s a brand spankin’ new day!!’
You wake with
no aches
in the arms
of your beloved
to the smell of fresh coffee
you eat a giant breakfast
with no thought
of carbs
there is time to read
with a purring cat on your lap
later you walk by the ocean
with your dog
on this cut crystal day
your favorite music and the sun
fill the house
a short delicious nap
under a fleece throw
comes later
and the phone doesn’t ring
at dusk you roast a chicken,
bake bread, make an exquisite
chocolate cake
for some friends
you’ve been missing
someone brings you an
unexpected present
and the wine is just right with the food
after a wonderful party
you sink into sleep
in a clean nightgown
in fresh sheets
your sweetheart doesn’t snore
and in your dreams
an old piece of sadness
lifts away
“The Perfect Day” by Alice N. Persons
You do not have to choose the bruised peach
or misshapen pepper others pass over.
You don’t have to bury
your grandmother’s keys underneath
her camellia bush as the will states.
You don’t need to write a poem about
your grandfather coughing up his lung
into that plastic tube—the machine’s wheezing
almost masking the kvetching sisters
in their Brooklyn kitchen.
You can let the crows amaze your son
without your translation of their cries.
You can lie so long under this
summer shower your imprint
will be left when you rise.
You can be stupid and simple as a heifer.
Cook plum and apple turnovers in the nude.
Revel in the flight of birds without
dreaming of flight. Remember the taste of
raw dough in your mouth as you edged a pie.
Feel the skin on things vibrate. Attune
yourself. Close your eyes. Hum.
Each beat of the world’s pulse demands
only that you feel it. No thoughts.
Just the single syllable: Yes …
See the homeless woman following
the tunings of a dead composer?
She closes her eyes and sways
with the subways. Follow her down,
inside, where the singing resides.
“Permission Granted” by David Allen Sullivan
“Faith is not trusting God to get something; faith is trusting God when there seems to be nothing left. When everything is gone, with no hope of restoration; when there is nothing on which to base one’s faith; then, can you still trust God?” If the answer is ‘yes’, then you have the victory! because faith IS the victory!!
– Buell Kazee
Faith is the Victory
Silence
Into the deepest darkness
Into the belly of hell
Within the circle of silence
Far inside my soul
Places I’ve never seen before
Didn’t know existed
The mystery of the spirit
Where death resides
Fearful places
Cracking open
So secret I want to flee
Afraid of this place
Am I here alone?
Am I still breathing?
Now I cry with Christ,
‘My God, My God,
Why have You forsaken me?’
What if I can’t escape?
What if death wins?
I know how weak I am without You
Weeks later I begin to see
The victory is already Yours
You were there
You were always there
The stone is slowly rolling
Hope rises
As darkness trembles
I kneel at the tomb door
My own borrowed tomb
Wisdom I was sure of
I leave
bound tightly,
discarded on the pile
to be burned
those old grave clothes I shed
gladly
creating space
for this unnamable, devastating grace
Trembling as I rise
I notice my limp
I am forever changed
AL 12/23/12
And the bottom line is: We will be known by our fruits — not by what name we call ourselves or by what fame we want to be known for. We will be known for our actual fruits, not the intentions of our imaginations.
The greatest of these is love. And love’s actual fruit is service: Love bears service. Love says: Let me serve.
And the actual fruit of serving is peace: Service grows peace. Service says: Let me help bring peace. Which means — all of us are simply just one hand reach away from working for world peace.
– Ann Voskamp
Life is never about being correct, but only and always about being connected. Just stay connected. At all costs stay connected. Our only holiness is by participation and surrender to the Body of Love, and not by any private performance. Because Love is One, and this Love is either shared and passed on or it is not the Great Love at all. The One Love is always eager.
– Richard Rohr
both the receiving of love, and the letting go of it for others, are always. very real dying to our present state. Whenever we choose to love, we will – and must – die to who ever we were before we loved. Our former self is taken from us by the object of our love. We only realize this is what has happened after the letting go.
– Richard Rohr
A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT TO COMFORT AND STRENGTHEN YOU AS YOU WALK WITH THE LORD
BE FAITHFUL WHERE YOU ARE
I know where you are. I am the One who placed you in this chosen position. I have not left you powerless. I have given you the anointing and the abilities needed to be victorious in your position right now. Therefore, be faithful where you are and be faithful in what I have given you to do. It does not matter what others may think you should be doing; you are doing what I have called you to do.
I have My grace to do things, which no one else can do. Do not waste the precious grace I have given to you glorifying the desires of others. Just be faithful where you are, stand strong, and never despise a small beginning. If you continue in the way that I am directing you; you will see your mustard seed faith come into full bloom. Walk in obedience to My will, and watch the frustration you feel fade away. And as you walk according to My will, I will show you how everything you are going through will work out for your good.
Now, until I lead you out, stand strong, and be My faithful vessel where you are.
Job 8:7 Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.
Luke 16:10 He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.
1 Cor 7:20 Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them.
2Co. 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
– Shearon Hurst
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Chosen One Outreach MInistries · Stockton · Winter Park, FL 32771
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