'this life we live'

Heaven by faith, grace by adoption.

Fathered by forgiveness and loved by my friend.

Given life by patience and forever longed for.

Spoken of light in darkness and promised safety.

In the face of a treacherous storm we are given

a hand by the one who made the wind blow.

Born with a will to strive for our hearts desires.

Reborn by our choice to give our life to Him

in the face of a world determined to live

against the King of the land.

For He knows all things about Himself,

and all things we think we are.

But loves us still by our hearts folly

and loose grip of Him and with

open arms He takes us into His arms 

every time we desire our gain stronger than His.

For Gods' glory and the sacrifice He

made for us is worthy of praise forever, 

and forever I will praise; 

After living this life striving after all

that is pure and pleasing to my Father in Heaven.

Hearing whispers of truth and writing them down can really catch your attention.

a distant whisper

When the young prophet Samuel heard the voice of God calling to him in the night, he had the counsel from his priestly mentor, Eli, to tell him how to respond. Even so, it took them three times to realize it was God calling. Rather than ignoring the voice, or rebuking it, Samuel finally listened.

In our modern, pragmatic world we often have no such mentor, so we do not understand it is God speaking to us in our heart. Having so long been out of touch with our deepest longing, we fail to recognize the voice and the One who is calling to us through it. Frustrated by our heart's continuing sabotage of a dutiful Christian life, some of us silence the voice by locking our heart away in the attic, feeding it only the bread and water of duty and obligation until it is almost dead, the voice now small and weak. But sometimes in the night, when our defenses are down, we still hear it call to us, oh so faintly-a distant whisper. Come morning, the new day's activities scream for our attention, the sound of the cry is gone, and we congratulate ourselves on finally overcoming the flesh.

Others of us agree to give our heart a life on the side if it will only leave us alone and not rock the boat. We try to lose ourselves in our work, or "get a hobby" (either of which soon begins to feel like an addiction); we have an affair, or develop a colorful fantasy life fed by dime-store romances or pornography. We learn to enjoy the juicy intrigues and secrets of gossip. We make sure to maintain enough distance between ourselves and others, and even between ourselves and our own heart, to keep hidden the practical agnosticism we are living now that our inner life has been divorced from our outer life. Having thus appeased our heart, we nonetheless are forced to give up our spiritual journey because our heart will no longer come with us. It is bound up in the little indulgences we feed it to keep it at bay.

(the sacred romance 2,3)

"I'll wait till the last minute..."

It's 2am and I can't sleep!  And I'm so glad!

I woke up this morning like every morning, with a strong desire to learn what the Lord was wanting to teach me today.  I got into bed though tonight at 11:30 not even thinking about whether or not I even gave Him a chance to speak.  I have been racing through my day, thinking that I listened to Him, but I really haven't given Him a second.

So as I laid in bed tossing and turning I said, "Well Lord is it too late?  Is there anything you were wanting to teach me today that I wasn't listening to all day long?"

And as if He were waiting right until I asked, He answered with a burst of anticipation,

"YES!"

Out came the biggest lesson of my day, even more so, probably months.

"Daniel, I love you more than you've been letting yourself see!  Kind of like you and your dad.  Get what I mean??"
"?"-me
So He went on,
"You see when you were young you always needed 'things', stuff really, to fill your joys or make you happy.  Your dad worked hard to give you things, fill those longings with things that would make you happy.  And it showed you he cared about you.  He knew it wouldn't last, but he always did what he knew best by trying his hardest to always make you happy (not only with material stuff too) .  It came out of almost your 'lacking of something'.  You would love it to death at first, then slowly you'd forget about it.  Then he would get something else for you.  Not to spoil you, but to show you he loved you.  First you lived in the downtown city, and he wanted you to live in the open country, so he worked hard to get you freed from the city lights and out into the wild.  Then came a pool, a four-wheeler, guitars, a room to yourself, and a car.  Each were not easy to get you know?  That car he worked hours and hours fixing up and then surprised you with a Jeep!  Your favorite car.  You loved that Jeep, and then out of nowhere you changed your mind.  It broke your dads heart, knowing that it wasn't as important as it was for so long.  Daniel, what would it take?  (my sacrifice?) As your Father I know what you need, and have given you all you have, even a dad and mom that have outdone themselves beyond what I've asked of them."


"Daniel, I will never stop loving you."


"We've had now 4 intense months together, our relationship has grown since you've been unemployed.  Our time together has become real, true friends.  Every morning hearing your heart your questions, your joy, and what you needed.  A job.  But then it changed, you wanted to just know me.  You forgot about wanting a job.  You just listened to me.  You've found true joy in my Son's life.  You're no longer looking for your next fix on a material possession.  Think about how hurt your dad could have been over the years, seeing your apathy grow towards things that once brought you joy.  And just like him, we still love you and will always love you.  My love will not change or stop due to your lack of seeing my love to the full."
----
So now at 2 in the morning I finally get it.  Sometimes I wait till the last minute.  Sometimes I barely think about what I'm doing.  Most of the time I figure "I'll listen eventually".  But the biggest ploy the enemy has against us is "just wait till later".  It was best to stop and listen that very moment, and not wait till tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, it's my first day at my new job.  God is so good and so awesome!  The job I've been talking to God about for a long time, at a social work agency and working with youth.  He knew when would be a good time...(2 in the Afternoon would have been great too if I would have only listening then...)

I pray you listen to what He's wanting to teach you right now, and through the day!
If not, this might happen between you and the Lord at 2 in the morning.

Now back to bed...and finally tired.