Showing posts with label broken. Show all posts
Showing posts with label broken. Show all posts

Monday, June 20, 2016

Recognition – Baby Step 13

READ: Psalm 88


My Song is Love Unknown Samuel Crossman (1664)
1 My song is love unknown, 
my Savior’s love to me. 
Love to the loveless shown, 
that they might lovely be. 
Oh, who am I that for my sake, 
oh, who am I that for my sake 
my Lord should take frail flesh and die?
2 He came from heaven’s throne 
salvation to bestow; 
but they refused, and none 
the longed-for Christ would know. 
This is my friend, my friend indeed, 
this is my friend, my friend indeed, 
who at my need, his life did spend.
3 Sometimes they crowd his way 
and his sweet praises sing, 
resounding all the day 
hosannas to their King. 
Then, “Crucify!” is all their breath, 
then, “Crucify!” is all their breath, 
and for his death they thirst and cry.
4 Why, what has my Lord done 
to cause this rage and spite? 
He made the lame to run 
and gave the blind their sight. 
What injuries, yet these are why, 
what injuries, yet these are why 
the Lord Most High so cruelly dies.
5 With angry shouts they have 
my dear Lord done away;
a murderer they save, 
the Prince of Life they slay.
Yet willingly, he bears the shame,
yet willingly, he bears the shame,
that through his name all might be free.
6 Here might I stay and sing 
of him my soul adores:
never was love, dear King, 
never was grief like yours.
This is my friend in whose sweet praise,
this is my friend in whose sweet praise
I all my days would gladly spend.


PRAYER:

Oh, Lord, please break my heart as my body is broken, that I might see the gift of your Salvation. May I recognize my frailty as an opportunity to show ways I might run though lame, might see though blind, might be free though bound. Let me see the willingness of the Prince of Life to set aside his throne, take on the frailty of human life, and willingly allow Himself to be broken so I might be free. Let me find the freedom beyond my pain in praise. I would gladly spend all my days lost in wonder and praise. Amen.


Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Psalm 70, Isaiah 50:4-9, Hebrews 12:1-3, John 13:21-32




Psalm 70

Uploaded on Aug 13, 2009
This is Psalm 70 (lit. from NIV) put to music by the Solomon's Porch worship band, off of their album "Invite Us".
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    Lord, as your servant, I beg you to release me that I may serve you. You have given me the tongue of a teacher. Let me sustain the weary with your word. Let me listen so I may not be rebellious, but stand with your Son as he faces good-byes, as he is crucified. Let me listen beneath the cross as those who are taught.

    As I stand, surrounded by by those who have stood in faith before me, let me run with perseverance the race that is set before me. Give me courage to embrace hardship, pain, and to face strong opposition for the sake of securing your promises. Help me to endure on account that my obedience will make me malleable so you can shape me to your will.

    Let me not betray you or in any way trouble you in spirit, Jesus. Rather let me be the servant of servants. The washer of the feet of those need your grace and my love. As we face the night that is to come, prepare us by your love to love one another.


    The daily readings are adapted from The Book of Common PrayerDaily Readings for Year One.   http://www.crivoice.org/lent1.html

    *My personal study bible for this Liturgical Year is The Wesley Study Bible, New Revised Standard Version, Abingdon Press, 2009

Friday, January 25, 2013

Kintsugi, Kintsukuroi


Daily Readings, Friday, January 25, 2013
Psalms 31, 35 
Isaiah 45:18-25
Ephesians 6:1-9
Mark 4: 35-41


I heard a story of a master Japanese potter who asked his apprentices to bring to his studio the most perfect completed piece of pottery that came from their final kiln firing.

When the perfect piece was presented to the master, he asked the apprentice to break the piece by dropping it on the floor before the master. The master then with infinite care picked up the pieces, and using ceramic and gold dust, repaired the vessel. 

The pottery was no longer just a perfectly useable piece of pottery, but was now a useable perfect piece of art. 

Tami Travis-Groves says "The piece of pottery became more beautiful for having been broken. The true life of the bowl began the moment it was dropped. The proof of its fragility and its resilience is what makes it beautiful."*

Mended, Mended with Gold

Listen
He has called you by name
His perfect vessel formed
Before time began
Shattered
Not to be swept up and cast out
But to be carefully gathered
Shard by shard
To be reconstructed, reformed, restored to usefulness
Made more precious and of greater value
When healed and tightly secured
By molten veins of gold

Stand
Forbear and see the brokenness
As an offering of the Master Potter
Be still
So even the smallest sliver
Is not obscured or hidden
Perhaps especially the one you wish
Were not to be found
Suffer the fire that refines
That melts, that seals, that restores
Fear not the sanctification, the purification
The change of form
Made perfect in its remaking

Grow
Know the conscious need called humility
Encouraging you to be rather than to do
Gather the meekness and the hunger
This marks the birth of a renewed spirit
Clothe yourself in the mercy of the Spirit

That swaddles you with light and love
Hold tight the newly clarified heart and mind
That submits to the ingress of God’s dreams
Search for the Christ indwelling and inspiration
That calms the storms that shatter
See yourself as a holy, living sacrifice
Strengthened to reflect, to rejoice
To reach out to touch
His outstretched hand

Become
Learn that stillness contains not only the hand and voice of God
But the fallow seeds of creativity
Suppressed by doing rather than being
Embrace the journey
Fear not the desert
For it is there that winds can burnish and prepare
It is there that time stretches and bends
To reveal the shimmering mirage
That excites and reveals the Father’s great love
The Son’s great gift
The Spirit’s great power
The tomorrows that stand before you
To love, to live, to weep for joy
To be the perfect vessel He has created, broken and mended
For the new work that is within you
Begging to be born

Move
No drifting on fear’s vast ocean
No plummeting into pain’s limitless abyss
No disappearing into despair’s fierce vortex
No turning to see what is left behind
Instead
Reach out for the rope
Held by those who love you
Anchored in Him who formed you
Pull your way into lucidity and light
Praise, love, learn, create
Sparkle and shine in the light of the Son
So others might see
That brokenness is only perfection
Waiting for the Master Potter’s hand

© 2006 Jorja Davis


Psalms 31, 35 
Isaiah 45:18-25
Ephesians 6:1-9
Mark 4: 35-41
Daily Readings based on the Revised Book of Common Prayer, Year A. January 16, 2013. http://www.crivoice.org/epiphany1.html

Commentary and scripture verses based on:
The Wesley Study Bible, New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Abingdon, 2009.
Peterson, Eugene H. The Message//Remix: The Bible in Contemporary Language Colorado Springs: Navpress, 2003
Thompson, Frank Charles. The Thompson Chain-Reference® Bible, New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: 1983



http://www.camiimac.com/1/post/2013/01/kintsukuroi-more-beautiful-for-having-been-broken.html

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired




Wed
Jan 2
Psalms
am: 34
pm: 33
Gen 12:1-7
Heb 11:1-12
John 6:35-42, 48-51


Lord, this morning I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. I know, I know – the Trouble is when I get this way I tend to over-do and then over-pay.  So today, may I just say I am sick and tired of being sick and tired - and praise you for deliverance from the Trouble – trusting I can just be sick and tired of being sick and tired?


I am sick and tired of being sick and tired

Always a day late and a dollar short
Making do with what I do not have

Some days all I can do is ask others to magnify the Lord for me
I do not have the strength to do it myself
Can I, like David, find You near when I am broken-hearted and crushed in spirit?
Keep my bones, Lord, and rescue me from my afflictions

Allow me to give you
New songs, new melodies, new understanding because

I know Your character
Demands an internal disposition of praise because You are Worthy

Tell me again how You fashion a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness
I wait to be passed over and to
Reach out to touch Your robe as you pass by
Ever thankful that I
Do not have to be whole to be whole-hearted and whole-ly Yours

Only
Faithful

Believing and trusting, faithfully moving
Existing and looking more deeply
Inward beyond my pain
Noting it as I pass it by reaching for
God-emancipation, God-expansion, God-exculpation, God-exoneration

Step by step
Instead of by leaps and bounds
Crawling forward
Knowing the disillusionment of moving back

Assuage my thirst for wellness, Lord
Nearer
Draw me to Living Water

Trusting the unseen to be more real
I need to know that unlike other life-giving gifts
Resting in the great I AM refreshes
Eternal life is not only future but now
Dying You give me the hope and grace, faith and joy, strength and illumination

And that IS the disposition and magnification which creates joy and new songs
The Soli Deo Gloria which has nothing to do with being SICK AND TIRED OF BEING SICK AND TIRED

So be it. Amen
Soli Deo Gloria





Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Make Me Teachable



Tuesday, November 27, 2012 
Daily Readings, Year 2 Revised Common Lectionary

Psalms of ASCENT: 120, 121, 122, 123, 124 125, 126
Zechariah (THE PROPHET OF THE LONG VISION) 11:4-17
1 Corinthians 3:10-23
Luke 18: 15-30

Dear God, it is cold outside. Even if, I managed to put on enough clothes, it will not change the temperature. Let me cocoon myself in the stillness of a childlike spirit.

Remind me to sing as my feet trudge, but my heart runs up the mountain toward the quietness of your presence and protection. Help me twirl with outstretched arms as you raise me out of the broken snare that is my body, into your high and holy city of absolute freedom.

 Turn my supply of useless emptiness into tears of overflowing joy, according to your promises. Jesus, touch me with your cleansing, quieting, illuminating, reassuring and liberating hands. Help me find that place of humility and understanding necessary to seeing, hearing and feeling your arms of mercy.

Make me responsive and teachable, so that in being weighed and measured, I may be found understanding, forgiving, peaceable, considerate, submissive, and merciful. For those are the ways I want to be; even when it is hardest to be among others.

 I know that I am not only expected to learn, but to educate as your collaborator, even if I never say a word. Let others see only you. May my spirit be only a window through which others see beyond me to you. Amen.