I have been searching and now i am found. This is what I ask of you creator God: That I might be part of your house all the days of my life. To see the beauty of god as i search the holy places to know you more.
Where can i find life? You are the words that breathe life, life that lasts forever. You are the holy one.
All respect to you, jesus - king of forever. Through you I can stand before my God, through the torn curtain.
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Easter Season
Blessed are you, Lord God of our salvation,
to you be praise and glory for ever.
As once you ransomed your people from Egypt
and led them to freedom in the promised land,
so now you have delivered us from the dominion of darkness
and brought us into the kingdom of your risen Son.
May we, the first fruits of your new creation,
rejoice in this new day you have made,
and praise you for your mighty acts.
Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. |
Posted 5 Apr 2013 03:29 by Ben Martin
Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are. Set the world right; Do what's best— as above, so below. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You're in charge! You can do anything you want! You're ablaze in beauty! Amen |
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Ephesians 4.1 - 16
1-3 In light of all this, here’s what I want you to do. While I’m locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences. 4-6 You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly. You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness. 7-13 But that doesn’t mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift. The text for this is, He climbed the high mountain,
He captured the enemy and seized the booty,
He handed it all out in gifts to the people. Is it not true that the One who climbed up also climbed down, down to the valley of earth? And the One who climbed down is the One who climbed back up, up to highest heaven. He handed out gifts above and below, filled heaven with his gifts, filled earth with his gifts. He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christ’s followers in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church, until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ. 14-16 No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love. |
Posted 22 Apr 2013 03:05 by Ben Martin
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Psalm 103
1-2 O my soul, bless God.
From head to toe, I’ll bless his holy name!
O my soul, bless God,
don’t forget a single blessing! 3-5 He forgives your sins—every one.
He heals your diseases—every one.
He redeems you from hell—saves your life!
He crowns you with love and mercy—a paradise crown.
He wraps you in goodness—beauty eternal.
He renews your youth—you’re always young in his presence. 6-18 God makes everything come out right;
he puts victims back on their feet.
He showed Moses how he went about his work,
opened up his plans to all Israel.
God is sheer mercy and grace;
not easily angered, he’s rich in love.
He doesn’t endlessly nag and scold,
nor hold grudges forever.
He doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve,
nor pay us back in full for our wrongs.
As high as heaven is over the earth,
so strong is his love to those who fear him.
And as far as sunrise is from sunset,
he has separated us from our sins.
As parents feel for their children,
God feels for those who fear him.
He knows us inside and out,
keeps in mind that we’re made of mud.
Men and women don’t live very long;
like wildflowers they spring up and blossom,
But a storm snuffs them out just as quickly,
leaving nothing to show they were here.
God’s love, though, is ever and always,
eternally present to all who fear him,
Making everything right for them and their children
as they follow his Covenant ways
and remember to do whatever he said. 19-22 God has set his throne in heaven;
he rules over us all. He’s the King!
So bless God, you angels,
ready and able to fly at his bidding,
quick to hear and do what he says.
Bless God, all you armies of angels,
alert to respond to whatever he wills.
Bless God, all creatures, wherever you are—
everything and everyone made by God. And you, O my soul, bless God! |
Posted 22 Apr 2013 02:50 by Ben Martin
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Deuteronomy 9.1 - 21
1-2 Attention, Israel! This very day you are crossing the Jordan to enter the land and dispossess nations that are much bigger and stronger than you are. You’re going to find huge cities with sky-high fortress-walls and gigantic people, descendants of the Anakites—you’ve heard all about them; you’ve heard the saying, “No one can stand up to an Anakite.” 3 Today know this: God, your God, is crossing the river ahead of you—he’s a consuming fire. He will destroy the nations, he will put them under your power. You will dispossess them and very quickly wipe them out, just as God promised you would. 4-5 But when God pushes them out ahead of you, don’t start thinking to yourselves, “It’s because of all the good I’ve done that God has brought me in here to dispossess these nations.” Actually it’s because of all the evil these nations have done. No, it’s nothing good that you’ve done, no record for decency that you’ve built up, that got you here; it’s because of the vile wickedness of these nations that God, your God, is dispossessing them before you so that he can keep his promised word to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6-10 Know this and don’t ever forget it: It’s not because of any good that you’ve done that God is giving you this good land to own. Anything but! You’re stubborn as mules. Keep in mind and don’t ever forget how angry you made God, your God, in the wilderness. You’ve kicked and screamed against God from the day you left Egypt until you got to this place, rebels all the way. You made God angry at Horeb, made him so angry that he wanted to destroy you. When I climbed the mountain to receive the slabs of stone, the tablets of the covenant that God made with you, I stayed there on the mountain forty days and nights: I ate no food; I drank no water. Then God gave me the two slabs of stone, engraved with the finger of God. They contained word for word everything that God spoke to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly. 11-12 It was at the end of the forty days and nights that God gave me the two slabs of stone, the tablets of the covenant.God said to me, “Get going, and quickly. Get down there, because your people whom you led out of Egypt have ruined everything. In almost no time at all they have left the road that I laid out for them and gone off and made for themselves a cast god.” 13-14 God said, “I look at this people and all I see are hardheaded, hardhearted rebels. Get out of my way now so I can destroy them. I’m going to wipe them off the face of the map. Then I’ll start over with you to make a nation far better and bigger than they could ever be.” 15-17 I turned around and started down the mountain—by now the mountain was blazing with fire—carrying the two tablets of the covenant in my two arms. That’s when I saw it: There you were, sinning against God, your God—you had made yourselves a cast god in the shape of a calf! So soon you had left the road that God had commanded you to walk on. I held the two stone slabs high and threw them down, smashing them to bits as you watched. 18-20 Then I prostrated myself before God, just as I had at the beginning of the forty days and nights. I ate no food; I drank no water. I did this because of you, all your sins, sinning against God, doing what is evil in God’s eyes and making him angry. I was terrified of God’s furious anger, his blazing anger. I was sure he would destroy you. But once again Godlistened to me. And Aaron! How furious he was with Aaron—ready to destroy him. But I prayed also for Aaron at that same time. 21 But that sin-thing that you made, that calf-god, I took and burned in the fire, pounded and ground it until it was crushed into a fine powder, then threw it into the stream that comes down the mountain. |
Posted 22 Apr 2013 03:04 by Ben Martin
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I chain to myself today
The strong name of the Trinity,
By invoking the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.
Today I chain to myself forever:
By power of faith, the bodily Christ;
His baptism in the river of Jordan;
His death on the cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the covered tomb;
His ascension into the heavenly realm;
His coming at the final day;
I bind unto myself today.
I chain to myself today:
The power of the great love of the Cherubim;
The comforting 'Well done' in the time of judgement;
The service of the Seraphim,
The faith of the Confessors,
The word of the Apostles,
The prayers of the Patriarchs,
The scrolls of the Prophets,
All of the good works done for the Lord,
And the purity of Christ.
I chain to myself today:
The virtues of the skies,
The life giving rays of the sun,
The purity of the moon at night,
The free flashing of the lightning,
The whirling wind's tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea,
Around the ancient rocks of the earth.
I chain to myself today:
The power of God to hold and lead me,
His eye to watch over me, His might to uphold me,
His ear to hear my cries of need.
The wisdom of my God to teach me,
His hand to guide me and His shield to protect me,
The word of God to give me Godly speech,
His angels to be my guard.
Against the demons trapping me in sin,
The vice that gives power to temptation,
The natural lusts that war inside my soul,
The people who oppose me at every stage;
Few or many, near or far,
In every place and at all times of the day.
Against their fierce opposition,
I chain to myself these holy powers.
Against all of Satan's greatest efforts,
Against heresies and all false teaching,
Against the knowledge that destroys the mind,
Against the things the heart places on pedestals,
Against the evil crafted by the enemy,
Against mortal wounds and all physical harm,
The ones who threaten to hurt and destroy me,
Protect me, Christ, till you return in glory.
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
I chain to myself the name,
The strong name of the Trinity;
By invoking the same.
The Three in One, and One in Three,
From whom all nature has creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Son:
All praise goes to the Lord of my salvation,
Which is of Christ the Lord. |
