From Chapter One, Jesus follows you closely, quietly, As you walk your path. Turn the pages of your journal, He walks with you. If you run, He runs. If you fall, He waits. Lie down, and He lies down nearby. If you weep, He quietly cries. If you try to outrun Him, Or get away, He effortlessly stays right behind. Veer right or left,
Into the hollow, the empty, He is faithful in the turning. Stop, and He stops. Continue in your barren, winding way, He continues with you. But turn around and look back, He does not turn His back. Not ever. He engages your pleading eyes. Always. You turning to Him is all He wants. Asking Him to come alongside, To take the lead, Is all you need. To begin a better path. To write your new page. To fill the complete Book of Your Life.
I just posted a series of CHRISTmas music videos.
Please scroll down to view all the advent season content I have left
for your pleasure and for His glory.
May your Christmas/Christbirth celebration be the
warmest, most meaningful, most blessed,
and most joyful yet!
***Your Gloryteller***
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“The Perfect Christmas Gift”, written and performed by Sandy Howell. Uploaded by Bob Marshall. Many thanks to you both.
My friend, I give you the gift of a song; music with a video. It speaks for itself.
He came down so that we could live – really live – with Him and our loved-ones in Heaven. Forever together. We need that hope more with each passing day . . .
Thank you, Kari Jobe and Bob Marshall for the upload.
A Brilliant Modern Day Parable This whole broadcast is good, but if you want to skip ahead to the story, it begins at about 5:10. May you and yours have a joyous Christmas!
He came down. Mary said YES, Then He came down. Born like us. Born with us. Born for us. Born to us. Born unto us. Born into us. He came down from His Glory, Leaving Holy Home and Father, to become a creation, in a real sense, just like us . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
To be born most humbly into the broken, reeking mess that we, mankind, had made of the world.
To be born into the shameful, smelly mess that I had made of my own wretched heart . . . . . . . . . . .
The defenseless egg of God, having scarcely a shell. A tender shoot, a tiny lamb,
in perfect humility, he came down naked, to be born covered with another’s blood, mother’s blood. Born to be pierced, and poured out, and to coverall others with His pure, holy blood. He came down with only Love as a defense. Double-sided love. He came down to the dung heap, the lowest, the basest of places, a place of no honor;
of ignobility, because that’s where I was, I and my neighbors, hiding under the layers of dirt. He could have said “No, not again”. He could have said “To hell with this” . . . He didn’t have to rise from His manger to knock on my heart’s door. To clean it all up, just like new, from ceiling to floor, window, to wall, and spend His life, His all, for me, to bear away my sin. Yet, He would be the first to admit, (if He weren’t so humble), that He did have to. Someone had to do something. But no-one could except Himself. I didn’t deserve His coming down, this Wonderful Counselor, this Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. This Immanuel. Savior Lord. JESUS CHRIST! But, He came down, out of love, bearing light, carrying forgiveness, sowing grace like seeds, ready with a cool drink, gentle hands to wash our feet, with tears of compassion, where sin and mercy meet, and I’m so glad, so happy, so joyously thankful that He did, that my glory goes up. I send it up. I glorify His name, Who was born into many names, and into ONE name, and that name is The-Name-Above-All-Names. He came down, and now He reigns
King of My Heart. Glory to God in the Highest Heaven!
That He. Came. Down! * * * * * * * * * * *
The Happiest Christbirth Celebration to you, today! LS< Your Gloryteller * * * * * * * *
*
*********** ******* ***** *** ** * * ** *** ***** ******* *********** Today is the anniversary of my second-birth day. My rebirth day. My original birth was kind of like Christmas; Without it, there could have been no Resurrection Day. Without my first birth, I could not have been re-born. My life could not have been repaired, resurrected, and redeemed. First came my birth day, then an Advent of sorts – a long time of waiting and preparation. (even if I didn’t realize some of that stuff, that garbage was preparation) then the great gift of joy in a second-birth day! Needless to say, for my birth and rebirth I am extremely thankful! ♫Happy birthdays to me, Happy birthdays to me, For both, I am thankful! Happy birthdays to me!♫
On this day a few years ago, I caught Him! He had been chasing me harder and harder, faster and faster, for about two months. He chased me until I caught Him! The lost was found! The blind saw! Fear fled! The enemy ran!
That moment was the perfect meeting of the physical and the spiritual. The perfect arc between the seen and the unseen. Grace touching flesh. Faith bathing a heart. Salvation invading a body of being.
It was instant, yet time seemed to stretch into the infinite – into veritable eternity. One moment, I was slowly dying in a hopeless world, the next, I was delivered into Heaven!
I was like sea glass –
all the rough, broken edges smoothed –
I was remade from refuse into a beautiful gem!
I was a new creation and I felt it! It was transformation – metamorphosis! My cocoon dropped off! I was free!
A newly adopted child with a newly granted citizenship including new customs, traditions, benefits, privileges, responsibilities, and a new language! I wept! I overflowed! Needless to say it was a moment of pure JOY! Joy so intense that it remains to this day.
Thank You, Jesus!
In a sense, I was born with You in that stable.
O, how can I ever thank You enough for making that possible?! For me, and for all people! Thank You, our Highest Lord!
YOU ARE Wonderful!
Counselor!
Mighty God!
Everlasting Father!
Prince of Our Peace!
Happy Birthday to You, dear Jesus,
and because of You, to me too!
Hardly a day goes by that I don’t think,
in one way or another,
about Christ’s crucifixion, His resurrection, and His ascension. Today is no different. But wait,
it is different, for today is His Church’s official celebration of that
creation-changing,
world-changing,
life-changing Day. Today, let there be loud singing and joyous dancing. Let there be massive celebration over all the Earth,
for our Jesus is alive! Let there be all of that but, most importantly,
let Him be the Lord of your life.
Rejoice, My Soul, All People, Rejoice!
I celebrate this holiest Of all the days of holiness, For as the sun appears to rise in the East, The Son of God did arise on Easter – Resurrection Day, The greatest Day the Lord Has Made. I rejoice and I am exceedingly glad in it, For my Savior lives! Oh, Lord, He lives! Now and forever, He lives! And because He lives, So can I! For my heart, too, was sealed With hardened stone, And in that darkened tomb Dwelt death. With tender touch He moved The hardened part away To let in light and life So death was put to death. The Holy Spirit Jesus sent Was sent to live in me. As Christ began to breathe for me I felt my spirit leap. It leapeth still in Heaven’s realm, So graciously removed from hell That I can only raise my hands and say, “Rejoice, all people, rejoice! Hallelujah, praise God, rejoice!” For our Savior lives and breathes in us! He arose! He conquered bitter death and saved! He does that still, today!
~ ~ ~
With love, Your Gloryteller
Resurrection Sunday, 4-5-2015 and 3-27-2016 (re-posted, with edits, from 3-31-2013) * * * * * * *
*
*
I read inOur Daily Bread today that “our Savior hung between Heaven and earth to bear every sin of every generation on His shoulders.” He hung between Heaven and me . . . What pain it gives me to revisit that scene . . . But the above statement led me to think deeply about what He had told his disciples and us, only the night before He hung there – what we must do to remember Him; to remember who He was, to remember what He did, how He did it, and why.
As I pondered, and contemplated, and thought, “The Lord’s Supper is absolute genius” is what I concluded. (not that I think I’m the first, nor the only one, to proclaim that)
(and I know that I foolishly reiterate the obvious,
because of course it’s genius, it’s Jesus! ) He broke the bread and compared it to His body which would imminently be broken for us. He poured the wine out and compared it to His blood which would soon be poured out for us.
“He hung between Heaven and earth.” He was, and is now, intermediary between us and The Father. Not as a wall, but as a bridge. He made a way to raise us to His shoulders, thus standing between us and the evil one “in the earth”.
As for myself, there is far more here than “meets the eye”. Have you ever thought about how grains like corn, barley, rye, and wheat are all separated from the earth by a woody stem? The seed head of the wheat plant is the “fruit”, in a sense, that we use to make our bread.
The same applies to “the fruit of the vine”; tomatoes, cucumbers, kiwi, guava, and, get this – passion fruit – and predominantly, grapes. All grow above the ground on woody or semi-woody vines. They all contain juice, but grape juice makes “traditional” wine. (side note: there is great debate whether Jesus’ “fruit of the vine” was unfermented juice, or wine) I’m in the wine camp because wine stores better, not to mention that the Bible states “wine”. I won’t even dwell on apple, orange, peach, plum trees, or berry bushes,
each of which produce juicy fruit on woody stems; but I’m getting off track.
The point is that grapevines, like wheat plants, produce their fruit “between Heaven and earth” on woody stems, and the final product of both were used at the Lord’s Supper. The Last Supper of our Lord!
By now you may be making the connection I’m getting at. Lord Jesus compared His body to a broken loaf of bread, and His covenantal blood to the poured-out juice of the grape, in order that: “as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you will do so in remembrance of Me.” Connecting His spiritual Self to the physical act of
eating and drinking something specific,
is brilliant in my estimation. It makes the act sacred, and simultaneously
makes our remembrance of Him sacred.
But for me, it doesn’t end there.
Jesus was always using agricultural metaphors because,
I assume, most everyone in His day knew something of the subject.
Is it a great leap to make that He also connected Himself
with the fruit of the earth? With harvest?
With life-giving, life sustaining, food and drink?
With saving us from spiritual starvation?
If that connection is only for me to make in order to strengthen my faith in Him, to take me deeper into our relationship, to tell me more of the story I long to know more about, or to give me insight into something so sacred that I scarcely can digest it, Then so be it. You, dear reader, can make of it what you will. If it doesn’t do anything for you; if it sounds wrong, leave it.
But here’s the thing: I maintain that Jesus not only connected Himself to The Bread and The Cup, But also to the wheat and the grape. Rich and ripe, He stood like a sturdy stalk of wheat before a terrible threshing, and He hung like a beautiful cluster of grapes before a horrible crushing. He stood and He hung there between Heaven and earth, between us and oblivion, between us and eternity,
to intentionally endure the torture of threshing, and the horrible crushing pain – for us, dear reader. . . The first and best fruit of the earth, until the harvest was finished. He made Himself our everything, even our spiritual food and drink. Essential, lifesaving, sacred, and beautiful.
The Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Harvest. Absolute Genius! Absolute Jesus!
Oh, Heart, is it happiness you seek? Happiness highly desirable? Yet dependent? Elusive happiness? Happy chasings of things outside yourself? Oh, frivolous pursuit! Oh, Fleeting Fates! Oh, Fickle Muses! Oh, changing time and seasons! Oh, whims and peculiarities of others. Oh, Heart!
The perhaps; the unhaps. Ah, to erase, to replace the un. Happy-chance relies on happenstance. The right things need to HAPPEN, Oh, Heart, for happiness to come. Aye, to come, yet it so quickly goes . . . So often it flees and will not stay in permanence because something else happened unforeseen, or didn’t, or someone loved, and changed, or did not, or lied, or stole, or went away, or stayed the same, or quit, or gave up, or did not last, or laughed, or betrayed, or let chances pass. * But, Oh, Heart! Have you considered Joy? Joy is different. It’s beyond definition, although the world tries to define it, confine it, call it an emotion. The world calls it synonymous with happiness, But it is far from the same. Joy is elementally incomprehensible if you don’t have it. Oh, Extreme, Oh, Deep, Oh, Profound, Utterly overwhelming, at times, but not captive of time, nor whims of others, nor Fates and Muses, nor the chase, nor bruises, save the Great Chase of Christ, of His children; His Divine Romancing, of His bride. Oh, Heart, when you slow, and turn, and let Him catch your tattered strings, and you let Him in, and you see, and touch, and savor His Joy, and suddenly it is yours, Oh, Heart! Oh, Abiding gift!
Is it, then, Joy you might seek? Joy so independent of what has happened; is happening; will happen? Joy in knowing, in enjoying a walk with Jesus, joining with Jesus, rejoicing in Jesus? Great delight? Rich fullness? Exceeding gladness, oh, Heart? Inside your own walls! Happiness multiplied X times!
To have happiness and Joy together, oh, Heart, is a precious gift. But, take heart, Joy persists even in sadness. No one can steal your Joy unless you let it be taken.
There is unhappiness, But there is no unjoyness.
Joy wells up from deep inside, Overflows to the outside, is a living, life-giving, sustaining thing; is abundant, noticeable, contagious; is independent of external forces.
As happiness is precarious, Joy is precise.
As happiness happens to you, Joy joins with you. Joy jumps with you!
“Happiness” is mentioned about 30 times in the Bible,
Oh, Heart, while “Joy” is proclaimed about 300 times!
Happiness runs through your fingers the harder you try to hold it. Joy wells up, overflows cupped hands, and is unlimited at its source.
Oh, Heart! Let the Lord remake you to contain even a small vial of the Joy in His glory.
Happiness comes from what happens, Oh, My Heart, Joy comes from Jesus!
*
Listen, Oh, Heart! Happiness flows in and flows away. No one knows if it might stay. But Joy! Joy, Oh Heart, ever bubbles from its Source. Welling up endlessly, any time of day,
Or in any season. Happiness depends. It needs a reason. But because He lives in you, Oh, Heart, Your Joy will never end.
He came down so that we could live – really live – with Him and our loved-ones in Heaven. Forever together. We need that hope more with each passing day . . .
Thank you, Kari Jobe and Bob Marshall for the upload.
He came down. Mary said YES, Then He came down. Born like us. Born with us. Born for us. Born to us. Born unto us. Born into us. He came down from His Glory, Leaving Holy Home and Father, to become a creation, in a real sense, just like us . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
To be born most humbly into the broken, reeking mess that we, mankind, had made of the world.
To be born into the shameful, smelly mess that I had made of my own wretched heart . . . . . . . . . . .
The defenseless egg of God, having scarcely a shell. A tender shoot, a tiny lamb,
in perfect humility, he came down naked, to be born covered with another’s blood, mother’s blood. Born to be pierced, and poured out, and to coverall others with His pure, holy blood. He came down with only Love as a defense. Double-sided love. He came down to the dung heap, the lowest, the basest of places, a place of no honor;
of ignobility, because that’s where I was, I and my neighbors, hiding under the layers of dirt. He could have said “No, not again”. He could have said “To hell with this” . . . He didn’t have to rise from His manger to knock on my heart’s door. To clean it all up, just like new, from ceiling to floor, window, to wall, and spend His life, His all, for me, to bear away my sin. Yet, He would be the first to admit, (if He weren’t so humble), that He did have to. Someone had to do something. But no-one could except Himself. I didn’t deserve His coming down, this Wonderful Counselor, this Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. This Immanuel. Savior Lord. JESUS CHRIST! But, He came down, out of love, bearing light, carrying forgiveness, sowing grace like seeds, ready with a cool drink, gentle hands to wash our feet, with tears of compassion, where sin and mercy meet, and I’m so glad, so happy, so joyously thankful that He did, that my glory goes up. I send it up. I glorify His name, Who was born into many names, and into ONE name, and that name is The-Name-Above-All-Names. He came down, and now He reigns
King of My Heart. Glory to God in the Highest Heaven!
That He. Came. Down! * * * * * * * * * * *
The Happiest Christbirth Celebration to you, today! LS< Your Gloryteller * * * * * * * *
*
A Brilliant Modern Day Parable This whole broadcast is good, but if you want to skip ahead to the story, it begins at about 5:10. May you and yours have a joyous Christmas!
*********** ******* ***** *** ** * * ** *** ***** ******* *********** Today is the anniversary of my second-birth day. My rebirth day. My original birth was kind of like Christmas; Without it, there could have been no Resurrection Day. Without my first birth, I could not have been re-born. My life could not have been repaired, resurrected, and redeemed. First came my birth day, then an Advent of sorts – a long time of waiting and preparation. (even if I didn’t realize some of that stuff, that garbage was preparation) then the great gift of joy in a second-birth day! Needless to say, for my birth and rebirth I am extremely thankful! ♫Happy birthdays to me, Happy birthdays to me, For both, I am thankful! Happy birthdays to me!♫
On this day a few years ago, I caught Him! He had been chasing me harder and harder, faster and faster, for about two months. He chased me until I caught Him! The lost was found! The blind saw! Fear fled! The enemy ran!
That moment was the perfect meeting of the physical and the spiritual. The perfect arc between the seen and the unseen. Grace touching flesh. Faith bathing a heart. Salvation invading a body of being.
It was instant, yet time seemed to stretch into the infinite – into veritable eternity. One moment, I was slowly dying in a hopeless world, the next, I was delivered into Heaven!
I was like sea glass –
all the rough, broken edges smoothed –
I was remade from refuse into a beautiful gem!
I was a new creation and I felt it! It was transformation – metamorphosis! My cocoon dropped off! I was free!
A newly adopted child with a newly granted citizenship including new customs, traditions, benefits, privileges, responsibilities, and a new language! Needless to say it was a moment of pure JOY! Joy so intense that it remains to this day.
Thank You, Jesus!
In a sense, I was born with You in that stable.
O, how can I ever thank You enough for making that possible?! For me, and for all people! Thank You, our Highest Lord!
YOU ARE Wonderful!
Counselor!
Mighty God!
Everlasting Father!
Prince of Our Peace!
Happy Birthday to You, dear Jesus,
and because of You, to me too!
Peace is kind of like love. Everyone needs it. Most civilized people want it. Many seek it in one way or another. So do I.
The quality of peace is not strain’d either. It, too, falls like gentle rain from Heaven upon the needful ones below. (thanks, Shakespeare)
Some folks have real peace and some have a pseudo, temporary, fleeting kind of peace. So do I and so have I.
Some look for it in all the wrong places. Yup, that was me.
Many have no peace whatsoever and have no idea
where it comes from, how to get some,
or even what it is. Again, been there.
When I find myself in need of the comfort and enjoyment of peace, which is most of the time, like many folks I seek and readily find peace in what is commonly called “Nature”. “Nature”, in a broad sense, is universally understood. You are probably forming mental pictures right now about how you perceive and define “Nature”. Now envision some of your favorite peace-inducing “Nature” scenes; places you have been, or even pictures of real places or those imagined by someone. Did that bring you a bit of peacefulness?
But – “Nature” (nature – to bring it down off its pedestal) is only a reflection of the super-natural; of God’s supernatural glory. (He is above nature – He made it!) Isn’t it delightful that even this somewhat hazy reflection of Heaven can still bring us earth-side peace?
I personally enjoy a pastoral scene, one with water in it, and even better, one with a mountainous theme.
A clear, unpolluted, starwatching-sky is also a delight.
Sunshine and sheep, Cattle and a creek, Grass and rolling hills, Green and blue and still.
A clear night sky, Star-filled and wide, Shapes made of light, Faith becoming sight.
A picture will do, but being there in person is best.
Sitting and contemplating;
meditating and cogitating;
or simply ‘taking it all in’ and enjoying the serenity,
the quietness,
and the upwelling joy begotten of His Light and Life.
It’s great!
But if I am walking, I like an upward path through my favorite “Nature”.
Ascent is so metaphoric.
I walk upward into His waiting embrace.
What peace, elation, and joy all at once!
I like to visit nature alone to find great peace, and this occurs to me – even my extrovert friends seek peace alone there sometimes. Many of them enjoy walking an upward path by themselves.
There is something calming about solitude.
Peace is this: Just being still and knowing that He is God.
And this: “. . . the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and mind . . .”
Wonderfully this:
“You will go out with joy and be led out in peace.
The mountains and the hills will break into songs of joy in your presence,
and all the trees will clap their hands.” Especially this: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace.” Yes, that was The Prince of Peace speaking to each of us, in fact He mentions ‘peace’ at least four hundred times in His Word in all its different meanings and nuances.
Personal peace is important. Without it, there is a certain emptiness;
an unmet longing. In today’s turmoil, peace is elusive. Tranquility, and quiet, harmony and calmness, concord and agreement, safety and security, and freedom from anxiety and worries are in short supply. But peace is important to God. As His creations, He made it important to us as well, and He saw how incapable we were
of having any through our own devices. So He sent His Son, The Prince of Peace, while we were still enemies of His, to humble Himself as human in order to make peace between the warring parties, The Father vs. the fallen. Jesus’ sacrificial death was the condition of the cease-fire, the requirement of justice, thepeace treaty,
the just agreement of concord,
the new covenant of peace between mankind and The Father,
between each person and Father God,
and between Him and myself.
I believe that with His final exhalation, He whispered Divine peace into the heart of Creation, and into mine. His peace, like His joy – gifts that cannot be
lost, if guarded, once they are embedded in your heart.
It is said that all Creation rejoiced when this treaty was struck. I believe that “Nature” “broke into song, and the trees clapped their hands” not only for mankind, and myself, but for Its Own sake as well, for that was the beginning of the restoration, the redemption and the repair of not only humanity, but of all Creation –
in peace.
Thank You Lord, for peace. Without it, life earth-side would be much more difficult.
So, what better way to seek and find peace than to walk with The Bringer and Giver of Peace,
The Wonderful Counselor of Peace, The Prince of Peace?
He willingly, eagerly, whole-heartedly Walks and talks with me,
(and wants the same with you) on my upward path through nature,
and not only through idyllic scenes,
but through every season, taking me, leading me, pushing me, supporting me,
carrying me, giving me, showing me, His peace, and wonder, and glory, until we reach the arms of The Father, where I’ll be wrapped in the Ultimate Peace, the final, enduring, everlasting, Peace of His eternal presence.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
There is a special hymn that is commonly associated with peace: “Peace Like A River/All Is Well With My Soul”. If you don’t know the background of this song, you should check out the remarkable story of the author, Horatio Spafford. There is a line in the fourth verse which speaks deeply within me: “Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.” Many versions of this hymn are slow and, well, peaceful. Here is a version that is upbeat and joyous. It really struck a chord in me:
Thank you Spring Harvest for the music and Humpty Fell for the fine video!
To know one’s identity is highly important. Just ask those with amnesia. Just ask anyone who doesn’t know, or is uncertain, or who is “trying to find himself, or herself”. This piece of knowledge is extremely valuable; vital, even.
This writer knows the answer. Who am I? I AM my Father’s child! A simple statement. Make it as complex as you like, for it is indeed huge!
My cousin Ann, of whose attributes I can’t say enough,
quite astutely says that she is: “Born of one father, Born again of another.”
A remarkable statement of identity!
I’m pretty certain she means “Born first on earth
of her father, my uncle, and born again of
Father God through Jesus Christ.”
Ann is not only clever, but she is full of truth!
However, When I thought of myself in light of her statement, I realized that “I” – “my Father’s child”, was first born to Him in Heaven, in a sense, in the high, holy sense, the only sense that matters to “me”. Conceived by Him and born to Him. Then borne by Him to my bodily habitation on earth. Borne to my second father, born unaware of the First.
When finally, finally, I became aware of my First Father,
my initial, original, foremost, paramount, primary, principal Father,
Whose merciful forgiveness of,
and passionate love for me,
transcends my meager understanding,
it was then that I “stepped into the seeming void of faith”
and found the truth of my identity in Him.
It was then that I was born again in Christ Jesus with help from
His Holy spirit.
Reborn!
In Christ, who is in the Father, who are in me!
Here on earth in a body,
but not being a body, or a brain,
but only having one,
while being something – someone – entirely new and different.
My being and my life are in my Father!
Thank You, Father, for my life and my identity (in You).
Indeed,
I AM my Father’s child! * * * * * * * * * *
Alone in the Rockies.
Gloryteller 