Anointing

This is a very  very very rough draft...

Savior, Savior
What did you save me for?

You saved me from the black tar–
my human nature;
from a justified death–
my debt.

You have delivered me from captivity!
You have made a way out of Egypt;
I am running full force toward Your Promise Land;
Your kingdom come to Earth!

You have saved me for joy, peace, love;
for Your glory, Oh Great King above.

Oh Jesus let my lips declare your love and good news to the poor,
let my feet take me to the places where You have ordained me to proclaim freedom,
let my hands be used for the recovery of sight for the blind and release of the oppressed,
and let every ounce of my being be used to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor!

~inspired by Luke 4:18-19 [Isaiah 61:1-2]

Jehovah Rapha

Jehovah Rapha!

How encouraging.

How how how?

How how how can my professor expect me to write this essay?
Doesn't he know that my mind is focused on much more important things than how six sociological concepts fit into both my life and Barak's?
Doesn't he know that every time I write Barak I think of my precious little Alice Baraka in Kenya?
He is not helping my issues with a lack of focus on school!
Silly silly silly man, don't you know I would rather be in Africa?

Fundamental Truths

What would it look like if Christians actually lived like we believed the basic truths?

Truth One:
God loves you!

That has been blowing my mind lately!  Why has it become so mundane to say "God loves you"?  It has lost its power.  I stop and think about what that actually means though; the implications that one tiny phrase has on our lives... God Loves Us! HE LOVES US!!!! BAHHHHHHH!  We have a God, the Most High King, the Creator, I AM, who loves us perfectly.  Perfect love casts out all fear.  We are not called to living in fear, but in freedom in the love of Christ!  Too often we are too afraid to live in that freedom because we don't truly believe at our core that
God
Loves
Us!

GAHHHHH I feel giddy just thinking about that!
I am striving to live from the perspective that God truly loves me.

Themes

Themes I have seen two or more of brothers and sisters go through this year (I have also experienced many of these this year):

-Believing destructive lies
-Experiencing a new kind of joy
-Being trapped in prisons
-Breaking out into freedom
-Living out of a spirit of fear
-Not being content where God has us
-Waiting patiently on the LORD [sometimes impatiently]
-Discovering our identities in Christ
-Jehovah Jireh!

Through all of these I have seen God be faithful.

God is so good.  My soul is rejoicing in that today.

Prison

Prison:
noun. ˈpri-z^ən
1. a state of confinement or captivity
2.  a place of confinement especially for lawbreakers;specifically : an institution (as one under state jurisdiction) for confinement of persons convicted of serious crimes — compare jail
Comes from:
Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin prehension-, prehensio act of seizing, from prehendere to seize 


Or at least that is what Mirriam-Webster has to say about it.
Prison


Each of us is trapped in our own prison
As my friend Harry would say.


A state of confinement or captivity we are each trapped in
alone.
(or so we too often choose to believe)


We struggle to get out,
but in our way stands the immovable bars.
Yet we continue our futile attempts
banging on the bars,
clawing at the bars,
attempting to dig holes into the cold, stone ground to go under the bars,
chiseling away at the metal walls to get around the bars,
strategically trying to compromise the structure of the bars,
but it is to no avail.
We end up just staring at the bars.


We continue to stare at those bars, 
refusing to shift the focus of our tired eyes to 
the One standing next to us who holds the key.


I know that One that holds the key
but too too often I choose to believe
that He cannot completely
set
me
free.


Completely, meaning I will never go back?
This scares me.
Those bars are familiar.
They have become my home.
Too often I choose fear over freedom
It seizes me


So I go on banging my head against those same cold bars
that will continue to barricade me in
until I am able to lift my stubborn head
and look into the eyes of the One who wants to release me
and
set
me 
free.


Completely.


Can I trust You?
I don't know my way out here.
What about the others I left behind?
Can we go and set them free, like me?


Completely.

Wisdom

"God, grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and the Wisdom to know the difference."