My Friend: A Meditation

Song Lyrics: "Hold on, hold on....my friend. I will find you....."

_________________________________________

  

When I feel myself falling in the dark and cannot see past the fog of despair, God whispers to my heart these simple words...."Hold on, hold on, my friend. I will find you." I close my eyes and feel myself being lifted up onto his chest where I rest my cares and worries as he reminds me he will never leave me or forsake me. Oh My Father, My Father! How wonderful you are to me, that your spirit stirs my mind and I recall what you have promised and how you have done it. I have gone from your enemy to your friend not by fear, or by your anger and wrath, but by your limitless love. I will always and forever love you with all my heart, all my soul and all my mind.

_________________________________________

God Said,

"Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the LORD." (1)

God fulfilled his promise,

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth (2)...who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. (3)

Jesus Said,

You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.(4) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.(5)

I believe this because Jesus prayed,

"Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world."(6)

And he also said,

"All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”(7)

Since the beginning, it has always been you, for Job saw you before we knew you and said,

Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high.(8)

Now that your work is finished, you said,

"No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. (9)

So Lord, help me remember...

...that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (10)

and walk in your ways, because you said...

He who loves purity of heart, and whose speech is gracious, will have the king as his friend. (11)

You said to me, 

 Only hold fast what you have until I come. (12)

So I will hold on....

A Life Worth Living

I read this today on a friend's Facebook status update:

"Life isn't worth living, unless it is lived for someone else."
- Albert Einstein

Though I agree with the spirit of the quote, the difficulty I have is that there is no indication of how living for someone else is accomplished; Life is worth living because life has intrinsic value in itself. Though a brilliant man, the quote itself doesn't satisfy. Going to God with my spirit of disquiet and meditating on it through the day, his word spoke this in response:


"Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.(1) And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.(2) Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.(3)"

What I get from the theme that unfolds through these scriptures is that dying to ourselves and our needs is the only way to successfully live for someone else; outside of that it will be impossible to execute effectively. This is the antithesis of the modern ethos and anathema to the commercial realities of the modern economy; which is why a product of modernity (myself) finds the Einstein quote difficult to grasp. God's logic is foolishness and backwards.(4) God's logic says that we gain life and value by first losing it:

"Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it."(5)

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.1

Father's Love Letter

I stumbled on this video today and thought it was wonderful. I really like how they thread scripture together to make a coherent message; a message that most people miss when reading the bible. It's lovely, and hope that everyone who hears it is able to respond in kind.