life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “power”

only grace

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Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

T’was Grace that taught my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
‘Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
and Grace will lead me home.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’ve first begun.
– John Newton

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And I have no idea why all of us keep holding each other to a standard of perfection instead of letting us all be held by the arms of grace.

We are not here to be perfect. We are here to be real – to let Christ be real in us.
– Ann Voskamp
http://www.aholyexperience.com

safety vs. joy

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That our God would only be safe if He were dead.

But He is the Living Word and His Word is a flashing, double-edged sword and He doesn’t write Himself into neat five-point outlines but He is like the wind — and He speaks in parables that subvert and poetry that ignites and metaphors that jolt and there is nothing safe or small or stiff about Him.

That’s what I am thinking as I scrub smudge marks off cupboards, try to wash away all these marks. Thinking what the Beaver said of Aslan:“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver.“Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

There is nothing safe about the Christ who rent the veins and the veil to save us — He is Divine and He is Dangerous and He is Detonating. He is no tame lion.

What did Randy Alcorn say and in the most Scriptural sense? “It’s dangerous faith in our untamed Savior that leads us to the joy we crave.“

And what the world desperately needs is more dangerous disciples of an unsafe God.

He is wholly unsafe and He’s the untame lion whose claws tear into the scales of my thick sins and the ripping away of everything filthy dragon can feel like a burning right through to the heart. I need His perfectly dangerous ways.

Real love is never safe.

Because grace is a dangerous thing and too often those who speak the most about grace are the most graceless of all.

I am just beginning to learn it and see it painfully in me: The modern-day Pharisees focus on avoiding sin and not on ardently loving our Savior.

What all us Pharisees need to experience is this: Ardent love for your Savior is the most direct path of sin avoidance.

What all us Pharisees need to experience is the mystery of the whole of holy Scripture and real crazy love.

“The holy wild is always pervaded with mystery,” writes Mark Buchanan.

Maybe faith isn’t as much formula as the mystery of being drawn to, surrendering to, the overwhelming love and will of the most dangerous Reality in all the universe?
– Ann Voskamp
read full blog at http://www.aholy experience.com

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On this day of your life I believe God wants you to know…

…that safety is not the thing you should look for in the
future. Joy is what you should look for.

Security and joy may not come in the same package.
They can…but they also cannot.
There is no guarantee.

If your primary concern is a guarantee of security,
you may never experience the truest joys of life.
This is not a suggestion that you become reckless,
but it is an invitation to at least become daring.

Neale Donald Walsh
http://www.nealedonaldwalsch.com

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i am a little church

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i am a little church (no great cathedral)
far from the splendor and squalor
of hurrying cities—i do not worry if briefer days grow briefest,
i am not sorry when sun and rain make april

my life is the life of the reaper and the sower;
my prayers are the prayers of earth’s own clumsily striving
(finding and losing and laughing and crying) children
whose any sadness or joy is my grief or my gladness

around me surges a miracle of unceasing
birth and glory and death and resurrection:
over my sleeping self float flaming symbols
of hope, and i wake to a perfect patience of mountains

I am a little church (far from the frantic
world with its rapture and anguish) at peace with nature
—i do not worry if longer nights grow longest;
i am not sorry when silence becomes singing

winter by spring, I life my diminutive spire to
merciful Him Whose only now is forever:
standing erect in the deathless truth of His presence
(welcoming humbly His light and proudly His darkness)

“i am a little church” by e. e. cummings, from E. E. Cummings: Complete Poems 1904-1962, edited by George James Firmage

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what will we do with our one wild and precious life?

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a photograph
a memory
a poem
a song
a kiss
a touch
a slap
a smile
a frown
a gift
a word –
of love or hate or truth or lie
all are vivid pictures
memorials in a lifetime
of moments never to be forgotten
snapshots of a single frame in time
just a shutter length
never to be here again
yet never to be gone
always within us
where they live forever
we live forward
becoming all those moments
as we grow
with each opportunity
we become
more or less
we gain courage and live with integrity
or we remain hidden
we make these choices every instant we live –
every moment ours to decide:
to be,
or not to be?
yes, Mr. Shakespeare,
that, is still, the question.

AL 2/27/14

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rememberance…build an alter of remembrance as you inhabit your dreamed of life… as destiny unfolds…

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healing power

The ocean spilled
into my coffee cup
which overflowed into my day
waves swallowing me whole,
leaving me gasping for air,
choking and coughing.
Catching co-workers in it’s salty mass.
All I could do was repeat the phase,
Just breathe…just breathe…
follow directions…
In out…in out.
and then the violent storm came
and finally subsides.
I am left empty and at peace.
I intake lots of fresh,
what poured in such quantities,
through the windows of my soul
over my day.

I grant myself rest and time.
and say to my pastor, Jana,
as another Southern Belle once said,
Tomorrow is another day.
and life begins to begin
again.

AL 1/22/14

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Psalm 91

You live inside the Holy One.
You are her shadow of light.
Go ahead and tell her you love her:
“My home, my shelter, my skin.”

The Beloved will guide you safely around life’s traps,
shield you from what rots you,
cover you with her wings,
wrap you in muscled, gentle arms,
where you are safe and loved.

Those things you worry about at night:
let them go.
Those days you feel shot like an arrow,
stop. You are enough.
God defends you from what sickens you,
keeps you safe from what destroys.

People around you may get anxious—
the whole world may get frantic—
but don’t buy into their fear.
Look and see: evil eats people
from the inside out.

God’s love is your house.
Your safe shelter is Mercy.
It will save you from all evil:
no disaster can get in where you live.

God’s mercy, hidden in this world,
will guard you and guide you.
Unseen hands will bear you along,
catch you when you fall.

You will face powers and dominions unafraid.
You will confront corporations and armies
and be victorious.

“In our love,” God says,
“you are already safely home.
Because we know each other
I will never lose you.

“Call to me, and I answer.
In your troubles I am with you.
Your heart will survive
and I will honor you.
I give you the gift of life as deep as mine,
and love that keeps you whole forever.”

______________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net

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how to find your life

What you cling to is not household goods,
that’s not likely what you need to let go of.

What you carry is not the silver cross, stylish,
matching your outfit, fitting well with your life already.

Not the wooden one, stained with blood and drama,
not the annoyance, the “cross to bear.”

No: enter the suffering of the world;5.jpg
bear it one person at a time.

Accept the weight of powerlessness, and its power;
surrender your own way that you want to get.

Let the potter reshape you
into a form not of your choosing,

a life that’s not yours,
a struggle not for you to win.

What you let go of may seem as life itself.
Let the new life be given to you.

The little cry of grief
is the weight of the hand on the clay.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

New Newsletter Issue at Songs From the Valley
Vol-529-homepage-231x300

http://songsfromthevalley.com/

Be strong and of good courage.

Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:8, 9 NIV

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oh yes…

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