Master's Hold

What weapon against me will dare bare its blade

  If heavens are bowed by the Master who made

 

The stars pull apart from their seedy abyss

  and the voice that compelled lips of Heaven to kiss

the earth which now quakes under quivering feet

  laying grip to my soul pressing certain defeat

Hold firm, O my Master!  Hold firm to the wheel

  For my take is unclear on this worn rugged trail

Dragon Down

The fearsome fire of taunting terror

roaming the face of the earth

seeking someone to devour

to and fro heart to hearth

Roar and fluff of pride and stuff 

of bluster full with wind

a toothless scowl and harmless growl

that wields a Cheshire grin

You've been undone from tip to tail

full desecration nail to scale 

no more to harm or fool to charm

by hollow sore or grim travail

The narrow stake has power take 

all glory from your light

withered gone plunged fire headlong

into the Lake stoked white

Marriage: The Two-Gendered Icon of the Image of God

God created male and female as his image in creation. Humanity, not merely individuals, is created in the image of God. Both male and female, together, making up the humanity that bears the mark of its Creator. From this beginning, marriage is intended by God to be a reflection of this image, an icon of the wholeness of both genders making one image of God. A single-gender definition of marriage is a single-gender representation of humanity, theologically, and therefore sexist by nature not merely at the cultural level, but at the universal foundation of what it means to be human. Even greater than this it is a misrepresentation of the image which God declared at the beginning to be his own.

This misrepresentation of God goes obviously far deeper than merely the issue surrounding marriage to all forms of idolatry and self-worship which every one of us has fallen and is currently wrestling with in all its different forms, but the issue of marriage is prevalent today, thus I write.

It is because I love my friends that I hate what destroys us, and because I love my God that I hate what dishonors and misrepresents him, just like I do when someone misrepresents those whom I love. I hate sin within me, with all its desires which lead me to misrepresent my God, and I long for the day when it is eradicated upon seeing the gloriously burning light of Christ Jesus which melts this inner dross away. For now, I glory in his washing of my sin and in his gracious imputing of his perfect righteousness in place of my wandering heart's sinfulness and rest in his ability to hold me close and bring me all the way home to the God who has authority over all.

For my Christian brothers and sisters, consider the story which God began and God will close. Consider for yourselves and for your neighbor the glory and the sin, the fall and the redemption in Christ Jesus, the despair and the hope of restoration in Him. For in Him all the glory of God dwells and all the promises of God find their 'yes'. Our daily experiences from birth are Fridays full of struggle and death and the bitter tang of carrying crosses within and without, but Sunday is on the way and the sun of righteousness is dawning and his name is Jesus.

When We See Jesus

Only when I see that He took my judgment upon Himself, for me, that I will be able to forget My Self and deny my Self and take up that cross by which my attitudes are brought under the mastery of Him who rescued me by breaking His own heart. 

He who, while my sins bore upon His soul, and the hammer separated his bones by sharpened iron point, cried out, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t understand what they’re doing!”  The One who longed to bring the fires of judgment and endured their terrible searing for me rather than call them down from heaven upon me. 

When we see Him, really see Him as He is, we forget ourselves, our perceived need for attention, and our clamor for significance fades to silence in the glow of His great and glorious grace until all that we see is Him and our joy is made complete, our hope made stalwart in our ever-changing reputations, and our dependence swells to the fullness of the knowledge of the Son of God by which we are transformed to truly be who we were meant to be. 

In your mercy, Lord Jesus, may it be.