Resolved: The Way of Truth

Our lifespan on this earth has grown shorter through time. Methuselah lived to be 969, Adam was just a few years younger than that when he died, and even Noah lived until his death at the age of 950. But very quickly after the flood things began to change... and not just the fear of man instilled into animals. Abraham was but 100 years in his, what Noah would call "youth," yet when God informed him that his wife Sarah would bare a child the both of them laughed at the idea. They understood that at that age they were considered the elderly. Sarah was past her time to birth children , but one thing they both did not realize were the awesome miracles God had already and was about to perform. Sarah was governed by what she herself knew, seemed to understand and see around her, and even what she felt. This is why, to the face of her Lord, she lied by saying she did not laugh at what her Lord told her. How shameful, how humiliating, and mostly after the Lord said, “nay, but though didst laugh!”

How often we run on feelings. How often I myself run on my own comfort zone. How can we place our hope, faith, joy, and comfort in silver, timber or our own carcasses? But all of these run on feelings. If we feel that we don’t have enough silver we begin to fret. If we feel as though we will lose something we are clinging to we panic and do all we can to hold on to it or get it back. This goes on and on in many different ways in each of our lives resulting in abandonment to the Holy Spirit which has been placed in our lives for the sole purpose to guide us to cling to Christ in our ups and downs, not material objects or personal feelings that can change like the surf on the sand.

We each have our own comfort zones, whether it be in the rising of our financial situation, the “right here, right now” love of someone, or simply the next exciting joy and pleasure we can squeeze out of our “doldrum” life. Why do we have to do this? Why do we have to squeeze every fragment of our existence until we get what we want? We are never truly satisfied. Our excitement builds until what we have been waiting for is over. Perhaps that is why the divorce rate is so high. We are never fully satisfied because we have been wired from the beginning to find perfect contentment in Christ. Our true “comfort zone,” if that is what we could call it, should be in our Creator. If our earthly loved one is so much of a comfort and joy to us how much more should our heavenly Father, our true loved one, be of a comfort and joy to us? He knows us more than anyone on this earth knows us, why can He not be our full joy and contentment?

What about those who cling to their house? Their house, which will burn up in the conflagration (or perhaps sooner), is more of a comfort to them than having peace in the knowledge of spending eternity out of this communistic world and abiding in the perfect, heavenly Kingdom of our true Father!

Our frets are over our own desires, not fulfilling God’s desires. Do we ever say, “oh I have so little time on this earth. I must abandon all fleshly, selfish activities and quickly, quickly spread the Word. Quickly live out what Spirit abides within me, minister and show true love to others (mostly God’s people).” But how do we know they are Gods, you ask. That is why we must find out and plead with them for Christ’s glory.

How rapid life is, yet how slow it drags on through our worldly vision. We try to pull at each piece of time, making (or trying hard as we might) time all for ourselves all day, every day. What vain foolishness. We were not born simply because God knew of nothing else to do. But He gave us a purpose, and He graciously gives us His own strength to accomplish each and every purposeful task. We too should not spend life in frivolity, for if God has a plan for us then we have a plan. Will we follow His ordered plan with His ever abiding and upholding hand? Or will we strip ourselves from His law, turn from His perfectly planned ways, and shove our noses in the pigpen only pretending we are feasting on manna? God forgive us for following our own plan and shunning your peace and grace. With love, joy, and glory unto God, we are to commend our lives unto Him.

“Do what you will with me for your glory and my better good and pure joy!”

Song of the Crusades

ii Verse:

It was 1095 all crusaders had donned

Their white shirts with red emblem crosses.

Pope Urban the Second had sent them to war,

To Jerusalem boatloads went sailin’.

The days and the weeks soon the months went on by,

And no land the Crusaders yet sited.

Chorus:

It’s always the pure in heart that stands tall,

When evil like darkness surrounds you.

So pick up the sword, with a calm healers hand,

Making sure that your justice is true!

ii Verse:

But upon the last hopes, and upon the last prayers,

Dusty dunes slowly painted the ocean.

Seven-thousand left ship, marching onward they went,

To their first sighted village, out yonder.

The burning and killing continued for weeks,

Until rewarded the men came upon her.

Chorus…

iii Verse:

The pillaging began, and the killing ensued,

And the children and women were slaughtered.

But one faithful lad who stood strong for the truth

Went and helped the poor peasants who were dying.

His sword became justice, and his lips spoke the truth,

While his hands healed the broken and dying.

Chorus…

iv Verse:

The fires burned down and the killing had ceased,

Still the lad in secret went on healing.

To a monk’s home the lad trudged on deep in the night,

In the shadows he carried his burdens.

In the light of the dawn,the last peasant was brought,

To the monastery up on the hillside.

Chorus:

It’s always the pure in heart that stands tall,

When evil like darkness Surrounds you.

So pick up the sword, With a calm healers hand,

Making sure that your justice is true!

~Written by, Anna Michael~

Chords for Crusades Song are originally played on the guitar to the tune of “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” The Chorus, however, is not taken from the original tune, but is played C, G, D, G, C, G, D, Asus 2 . The chords for the verses can be found at http://www.azchords.com/g/gordonlightfoot-tabs-13985/wreckoftheedmundfitzgerald-tabs-140089.html

It is found easiest to play this song with the capo on the third or fourth fret. Please note, I do not endorse Gordon Lightfoot nor any of his songs.

Water of the Woods, Chapter 20

"The darkness suddenly enveloped her. Penny stayed her position and allowed her eyes to focus as much as they could. Placing her right hand on the side of the brick wall and her left out in front of her she gradually commenced. It seemed as if the steps continued on for ages, but she tried consoling herself that it only seemed so because of her slow pace in the dark. She glanced behind her, awed at the tunnel of yellow moonlight at the bottom of the steps.
Suddenly, her foot went up and then sank down to the floor below with a sickening emptiness. She groped for the next step but found none. Her hand swung out and slammed into the wall in front of her. The sound echoed in her ears and she felt her blood turn cold. At that moment she abandoned all desires to continue on alone, but greatly wished Malcolm was at her side to laugh or comfort her.
Penny tightened her ponytail and stepped forward an inch.
Sliding her hand along the wall in front of her she quickly recognized that this wall was certainly not made of bricks. She tapped her knuckle up against it listening again to the hollow echo. Apparently this wall was some sort of sliding door made into a wall upstairs identical to the one in the nursery leading down to the cellar. Her head felt a little lighter after coming to this conclusion. She only hoped she was right.
Penny allowed her hands to evenly run along the paneled wall. She searched frantically for the crack but found none. Her heart raced, palms slipping off the wall with sweat, until suddenly she felt it, a groove in the left hand side of the paneled wall. Sliding her fingers into the groove she pulled with all her might. The wall shifted and slid a quarter of the way open. Penny plunged her head out into the open and sucked in air. Something about the dark passageway seemed claustrophobic, almost wrenching at her throat.
But she had found it, the passageway was here, it existed. It was time to find out what was out there in the open, behind the sliding door, and out of the winding staircase."


From: Water of the Woods, Ch. 20, Pg. 230 Author: Anna Michael