Before the Jordan.

This morning when I woke I could hear the River Jordan
Raging white, it was tearing up its bed.
Swollen from the death of a wicked winter.
Pray come walk with me down to the waters edge
The sound is washing me away.
But can it wash away my fear?
A quiet whisper compels my soul
And by your side will I draw near

Lo the Sun, He rides again!
His daughter shines forth even in the day
I am broken by their beauty
As His light is pouring into every empty space.
The ground is soaking up His warmth
It is alive as in days long past
It can feel once more the gentle wind
Caress the pasture green with new born grass
Where trees clap their leaves like hands
With arms lifted up they praise in colorful bloom.
The flowers of the field joyful eyes open wide.
Toss and sway along with the jovial tune.

This land which He has grown up from dust and dune
The offspring of his heart fit within the frame of a fallen world
The land He promised is lifting up love and worship true
Under the train of his robe spread out blue as the sky unfurled
The land inhales excited as a lover drawn close
Long suffering the silence for the taste of ripened fruit.
Shadows run long and clouds begin to burn
As he passes out of view
Yet his presence lingers in the evening breeze
And his laughter lights up the horizon as the earth begins to cool

The mountain dressed in snow
With heavens voice heard in crashing surf
Play a song beneath the vast expanse of singing host.
The lady of the night steps over darkened peaks
Limed in light pale and blue
Crowned with bright ring of lunar halo
Gracefully she walks among glittering lilies in the sky
Passing through her diamond garden over Zions hill
Over fields of Canaan spreading out forever in sliver gray
Far into the west beyond the coast line
She is chasing after her fathers embrace
Turning at the edge with a smile in her eyes
expressing a call to follow with haste
Soon she is received by the Great Sea and night
Descending in her reflected glory and grace.

...Selah...

Forty years have I wandered the wasteland
With just enough to survive each day.
Now as we sit before the land our fathers rejected
When great was their fear and their lack of faith
I remember their words aloud with my own
"Are there not still fierce giants in this place?"
A dreadful constriction lays hold of my soul
till your hand stirs in mine tightening your embrace
Roused from your distant thoughtful stare
into this new world now cool by the thundering banks
searching in your heart for a word of hope to share
I look down in to your eyes to the glow of your lovely face

"I recall long ago such a sound as this" you reply
"when I was yet to young to speak.
I remember little else of those mysterious times
than high walls of water and the roar of the parted red sea.
I have heard the many stories of old
about the fall of the great Egyptian empire.
and too have wandered beneath his guiding hands
one of mighty cloud and one of raging fire.
but when he spoke to us from the mountain I knew
that none can ever stand before his terrible voice
all the holy words of His mouth are ever true
so do not lose heart now my love
yes hard times are surely ahead
but has not our God spoken to us
that all our enemies will soon lie dead?"

...Selah...

In the stillness I can hear the river Jordan
raging white still tearing up its bed.
I feel your words untangle the knots around my worried mind
for I remember too the truth of all you’ve said.
They fall like a child’s hands on my heart
to peal back the grip of fear
gently one finger at a time
till the choking hands have disappeared
slipping loose for the tears of joy
swallowed up in faiths ocean of peace forever more
for naught may stand before the word of our Lord
not even this flooding torrent over Jordans shore.

For my Love

Good morning my darling precious love! For each new day a praise will i sing for the joy of his grace and the loveliness of your beaming face. Oh how deep the mysteries of our God how high are his ways that such mercies should fall on the likes of me. In the dimness of twilight beneath the stars on moonless eve i can see the light of heaven in your eyes i know the freshness of Eden’s breeze in your touch. There sits a tense stillness between lovers drawn close like a star inhaling before its leap and plunge then to blaze a trail across the sky. Yet our love much longer lives. For we give thanks to the God who made all things good and somethings very good. may it be His love in us of which our children tell down through the ages left in this spinning top this unwinding clock till the maker stops every watch and sets the glory of heaven to shine unveiled forever; the substance of what i see now in you yet as a flicker yet as looking through clouded mirror. Even so it banishes the shadows in my mind in a moment and oh my heart leaps for Him yes it leaps for hope and it leaps by faith yes it leaps for you my love.

A parable to read in the dark... What do you think it means?

A while back I heard this story about a young women named Kerry. She was visiting California from back east on business and had finally landed a deal with some new clients. On the last night of her visit she and a few of her associates had thrown a small dinner party to celebrate at a little restaurant away off the beaten path. At last the dinner was over and every one had left, save for Kerry and a friend who consequently lived about a mile away. Her friend had offered to lead her to the freeway but she declined thinking it couldn’t be too hard to find the way back.
But it was late and Kerry was not familiar with the area. She had had to follow her friends out there just to find the place. So it was no surprise that by 11:30 she was completely turned around and lost. She was deep in the boonies on some forgotten country road under a moonless winter sky when her rental car started to sputter suffering from a sticky gas gauge (an empty tank). Even as she pulled over to the side of the road the car gave out completely and would not start up again, try as she may.
She was tired, frustrated, a little scared and very alone. She jumped out of the car to see if she could maybe catch a signal on her cell. but all to no avail. The icy cold wind sent a chill down her spine. She could see her breath in the dim green glow of her phone light as she read the time: 11:55.
Then she felt another chill, but not from the cold. In the dark, in the quiet, Kerry suddenly felt that she was not alone. She felt like she was being watched. She heard a rustle in the bushes. Turning around, to her great horror, she saw the tall figure of a man rise up from the bush across the street.
As the man moved towards her she could see that he was obviously homeless and was hobbling along. His clothes were torn and dirty and his hood was pulled up over his head. She was overcome with fear and screamed as she ran back to the car.
The man suddenly lunged toward her, stumbling as he ran. Kerry quickly got into the car, locked the door and crawled into the passenger seat. The man started banging on the window and the hood of the car yelling and carrying on. Kerry was terrified but there was nothing she could do. Finally it seemed that he had given up, but through the glass he stared her right in the eye with the oddest look. She watched him as he hobbled off down the road, his back lit by the headlights.
But panic gripped her heart once again when she saw him stoop down to pick up a large rock with both hands. "Just go away! Leave me alone!" she screamed.
Quickly stumbling back, he smashed through the driver’s side door window with the rock. Then opening the door he grabbed Kerry by the legs and started pulling her out, meeting with no small amount of resistance. She was kicking and screaming and crying and grabbing for anything she could: the seats, the steering wheel, anything. But she couldn’t hold on. Finally she grabbed the frame of the window the man had smashed out.
But as she kicked against him her grip was loosened and her fingers slipped free of the car and she fell to the ground. The man quickly dragged her away from the car towards some bushes across the road. Suddenly the two of them were illuminated by a bright blinding light, their ears ringing with the blaring of a horn.
At last the man let go of her legs and fell to his knees as Kerry watched the midnight train plow through the rental which had died on the train tracks. She shot a scared and confused look at the man whom she thought was her attacker.
Panting, he said "That’s what I was tryin ta tell ya lady, the train was comin!"
Exhausted and relieved he sprawled out on his back while Kerry’s mind was left to make sense of what had just happened…

The Hood Samaritan.

One night Bill was on his way to an important business meeting. But he was car jacked by some local hoodlums at a stop light. So he went to go find a pay phone to call the police and his wife Jill so she could come get him. But he had to walk through the ghetto to get there. On his way some other rather nasty looking people came and beat the living daylights out of him and stole his wallet and his Rolex watch and his new shoes and pants. Poor Mr. bill lay a bloody pulp in the dirt and grease of a gutter.
As he lay there in pain he saw a nice new jet black BMW pass by. The car slowed down briefly and a priest named Phil stuck his head out the window to see Bill. poor Bill wheezed
"please help me" but Phil the priest said
"I would son but see I have to preach at a church and I'm already late." then Phil the priest rolled up his window and quickly sped off.
A few minuets later 2 nicely dressed clean cut well shaven young men strolled by on their bicycles. ones name was Elder Will the other was Elder Gill. bill cried out
"help me! will some one help me?" but Will and Gill went to the other side of the street to avoid him and sped off into the night towards their meeting.
Finally the man was about to give up and die when a tall shadow eclipsed the lonely flickering streetlight that stood above him. it was quiet for a moment. A breeze picked up a lonely sports section of a news paper and blew it down the street into a puddle… Poor Bill looked up to see a large muscular black man with tattoos all over his arms, a bandanna wrapped around his head and Piercing on his ears, eyebrow, nose, and lip. the man towered over him in his black leather biker pants and dark T-shirt. Bill, lying in the gutter, became very afraid and tried to crawl away but the big black man chuckled as he picked Bill up and sat him on his Harley Davidson, which was parked right next to where bill lay.
The black biker dude pulled out his first aid kit and bandaged up his wounds. Then he drove him to a hospital. Not one of those cheap "doc in a box nickel and dime cracker jack" dealies where they make you wait like 2 hours to x ray your broken ankle, put you in a flimsy splint and then tell you to come back on Monday cause they are closing. No he took bill to a nice tall hospital with a good healthy heritage and strong well skilled caring physicians who had as much heart as they did medical ingenuity. Once there Bill was put in a room and a lovely young nurse named Katie tended his wounds. The biker guy paid Bills doctor bill and gave Joseph, the doctor, some extra cash to give to Bill in case he lost his wallet. He also gave the doc two little booklets to give to Bill (tracks). As the biker guy was leaving, Bill saw the back of his black T-shirt. It said "Jesus Saves."
Bill was finally able to call his wife Jill and tell her all that had happened. She asked Bill (among many other questions) what the big black bikers guy with all the piercings and tattoos and a Harley Davidson and a neat shirt that said "Jesus Saves" on the back’s name was. Bill didn’t know. So he asked Katie the nurse who was taking his blood pressure
"The man that brought me in here, what was his name?" she replied sweetly with a finger to her chin like a bimbo
"he didn’t say. All he said was that you were his neighbor." she reached down to grab something and said "Now here, fill this" and she handed Bill a very large bucket.

This One's For Gera.

A while back I was driving with several friends in a very small cramped car on an early spring evening. My dear friend who was driving had cranked the heater up as high as it could go because she was, along with a couple of other girls in the car, "uncomfortably cool." and this was fine, at first. but after about ten or fifteen minuets I was MISERABLE! so at the first quiet moment between conversations I took a deep breath and said.

"You know when your star cruiser gets caught in the suns gravitational pull and your life support system is fried because you’ve foolishly exhausted all you power on reverse thrusters and the dampening field has evaporated because it just cant handle the close range radiation, your hull is glowing white, your control panels are melting, your AI computer program is screaming like a scared little sissy girl, you high temp space suite is sticking to everything you touch, your every draw of breath is so hot it burns your lips, throat and lungs and all that stands between you and an ocean of burning liquid fire is a quickly dissolving piece of glass???!!! you know how that is? that’s kinda how I feel right now...

After an awkward second or so of silence and blank stares one of the girls asked
"what’s an AI?" And we all laughed- cause it was funny!

"slumber broken"

An excerpt from my imagination playing in the wasteland of boredom and insomnia.

....turning his thoughts away from this, Azaniah leaned back in his chair and stretched. Yawning, he scratched his belly and stared thoughtfully into the warm firelight; reflecting on days long past filled with old friends whose faces he now yearned to see and touch again. The small room about him was cozy; cluttered with piles of books and papers scattered across every surface. All was now concealed however beneath shadow for the study had grown dark with the fall of night. All that could be seen was illuminated by the dim waning glow of the flickering embers in the tray of the fire place. Aza’s eyes grew heavy as memory and imagination stole his attention away into the depths of sleep and dream, "God's gift to many a sorrowing heart with no more tears to weep..." And soon, just as the stars sing to the moon at her rise and fall, so he snored into his chest.

An hour passed. The dim red color of the room had given way to the pale blue moon light now pouring through the tiny window a little behind where the man was sleeping. Carefully the latch of the door was lifted by someone outside. The thick oak door creaked lightly as it was pushed open. Then across the wooden floor boards tiptoed a pair of precious soft feet to the arm of the chair. For a moment the creature stared at Aza as he snored through his beard. She reached out, gaze unbroken, and poked him hoping to stir him but to no avail. So she knelt at his knee and taking his large rough hand with both of hers she brought his palm and its warmth to her chilled face. It filled her up like hot tea being poured into a cold mug.

"Papa..." said she in a whisper. Consciousness jolted through Aza at the sound of her voice. His hand came to life on her cheek. His eyes half opened and through the blur he saw his daughter's countenance wrapped in lunar light.
"Ah, Sola-deo. I must have dozed off in my chair again. What time is it?"
"I don’t know Papa." the child responded.
"My goodness," he said looking to the clock above and beyond her

"it's nearly half past one. What has roused my dear at such an hour?" Pulling her into his lap he guessed "a bad dream?" To this she nodded sleepily while resting beneath her father's chin. "And what of this dream disturbed you?"
"There were bears roaring." she said.
"Oh that is frightening. What happened next?"
"You were there..." she continued now drifting back to sleep.
"Was I now? And what became of me amid the roaring bears?" Now waking a little she said:
"You scared them away."
"However did I manage that?" he pondered. She grinned lazily as she answered
"Your roar was louder than their’s"
"Oh, I see" he chuckled. "Im sorry." but she did not hear she was already fast asleep again at peace in her father's arms...