you're still the rose

In my hardship, I could not see Jesus. In my heart, I could not see how He was good in the midst of one of the hardest times I've gone through so far. I lost my appetite, my sleep, a lot of hair, my ability to stand up and walk. I lost color from my face, and I could not smile for days, let alone laugh. I lost my voice and could not speak, and in the following two weeks, I felt two growths in my throat. My neck and head hurt too. But these were the least of concerns to me...because it felt like what I had lost was everything that mattered in life.

Though Jesus suffered my misunderstandings of Him, He has been patiently nursing my wounds. He grieved with me and comforted me, and sustained my life. He gave me courage to cut out without mercy things that hurt me, even though that was the only hope I had left. He is healing me so that now I can enjoy food again and praise Him with a voice that He so loves to hear. He has restored His color and radiance to my face, and now I smile and can laugh. In cutting out my own hopes, he is replacing the void in my chest with His hope, just like He did for Abraham. With his love, which is better than life, He recovered my life.

It still hurts, but He has been making me better and will continue to do so till I'm fully well. And He speaks to me every day about how much He loves me. Once, in my sadness and fear, He told me, "My child, you're still the rose". And just today, I realized that a flower which so captivated me three months ago because it resembled the English rose, was also known as the rose of Sharon.

It probably is not the exact kind of flower talked about when Song of Solomon used the term "rose of Sharon". But it is all so clear now...this is the seventh time that Jesus has given me roses and things related to roses. Today, I know that my Lover is asking me this.

Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.

And I say yes. Jesus, my One True Love, yes, I'm coming with You now.

Metamorphosis

Oh I am undone!
For I babble as a child
Yet the Lord will teach me to speak
For I'd asked of Him,
"Put the coal that touched Isaiah,
Put it right inside my heart."

tummy ache and hair perm

So my tummy was bloated and hurt the whole of last night, and in the morning I was jolted awake to do things that are usually associated with food poisoning. Today is a holiday alright, a holiday spent alternating between the bed and the toilet...much more than I had wanted. But I realized Jesus gave me a nice natural perm for my hair from all that tossing and turning last night. And that is not what you would associate with a painful tummy, or a dreadful day.

I laughed when I saw myself in the mirror. Jesus, I love your humor! And how you cheer me up.

more than we can imagine

Jesus has the power to do the impossible; it is whether we have the faith to believe it. We miscount or undervalue its power to the degree that we limit what we would ask of him. 

Ephesians 3:20 (ISV) says:

Now to the one who can do infinitely more than all we can ask or imagine according to the power that is working among us.

Suppose you have a powerful steed or horse, but only use it to provide circus pony rides for children in a small compound, when it has the ability and strength to go much faster and further. You would be grossly under-utilizing the horse. Like the horse, the Word of God can do much more than what we dare ask or imagine. We have a big God but His people only ask for small things. The problem does not lie with the steed, but with the rider who chooses to keep it within a small compound because he think that is all the horse can handle. If we could just break free from this limiting belief, imagine what we can ask and believe God for in this generation!

Presence-Driven Donkeys (2013), Jeff Yuen

father and child

When you realize that you're a child of the most High God, then everything you do for Him becomes a family business (ministry). Hence, your actions and your performance stems from knowing who you are as a child of God and that the Holy Spirit lives in you.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says:

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

If you relate to God as the master, you will have a slave mentality. If you relate to God as a boss, you will have a work relationship. If you relate to God as a friend, then you will have friendship and intimacy. If you relate to God as the Father, not only will you have intimacy in greater measure, but also you will start to see ministry as a family business. Your performance is affected by how you see your identity in relation to God.

Will our heavenly Father not provide if he instructs a son to go to China and preach the gospel? Will He not provide if He directs you to set up a drug rehabilitation centre? Yes. He will most absolutely provide, because when you discover sonship, whatever he asks you to do is family business and He will take care of you.

In the Body of Christ, there are slaves who have to wait for the servant of God to tell them what they don't hear from God themselves. There are servants who only approach the master only when told to. There are friends who spend time with God and know something of his heart. And then, there are children who are living and moving in the fullness of their inheritance. Which one are you? If your ministry is all about servanthood, then let me tell you that sonship is better because sonship means the Father will fend for you even as you serve Him. 

…

John 10:11-13 says:

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 

Presence-Driven Donkeys (2013), Jeff Yuen 

only confidence

Decades may pass, but God never gives up even on individuals, even if they are Manassehs, the 'cruelest' people to Him in history. When it comes to love, Bieber is right. God "never says never".

There is no hope to speak of here, only confidence.

Lord Almighty, God of our ancestors, God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their righteous children, you made heaven and earth with all their beauty. You set limits for the sea by speaking your command. You closed the bottomless pit, and sealed it by your powerful and glorious name. All things fear you and tremble in your presence, because no one can endure the brightness of your glory. No one can resist the fury of your threat against sinners. 

But your promised mercies are beyond measure and imagination, because you are the highest, Lord, kind, patient, and merciful, and you feel sorry over human troubles. 

You, Lord, according to your gentle grace promised forgiveness to those who are sorry for their sins. In your great mercy, you allow sinners to turn from their sins and find salvation. Therefore, Lord, God of those who do what is right, you didn't offer Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, those who didn't sin against you, a chance to change their hearts and lives. But you offer me, the sinner, the chance to change my heart and life, because my sins outnumbered the grains of sand by the sea. My sins are many, Lord; they are many. I am not worthy to look up, to gaze into heaven because of my many sins. 

Now, Lord, I suffer justly. I deserve the troubles I encounter. Already I'm caught in a trap. I'm held down by iron chains so that I can't lift up my head because of my sins. There’s no relief for me, because I made you angry, doing wrong in front of your face, setting up false gods and committing offenses.

Now I bow down before you from deep within my heart, begging for your kindness. I have sinned, Lord, I have sinned, and I know the laws I've broken. I'm praying you, begging you: Forgive me, Lord, forgive me. 

Don't destroy me along with my sins. Don't keep my bad deeds in your memory forever. Don't sentence me to the earth's depths, for you, Lord, are the God of those who turn from their sins. In me you'll show how kind you are. 

Although I'm not worthy, you'll save me according to your great mercy. 

I will praise you continuously all the days of my life, because all of heaven's forces praise you, and the glory is yours, forever and always. Amen.

Prayer of Manasseh in prose 

12  I

Nothing, really.

Today I lost my wallet and was ruffled. But hey, it's just pieces of paper that I can thankfully earn back in greater proportions every month. It's just pieces of plastic that I can prevent from misuse with just a phone call. And the purple wallet that Mom got me - I know she gave me that as a gift of love, and even though it's gone now, she loves me all the same.

So what do I have to lose? Nothing, really.

And when I got home, I was chided for losing my wallet. I seem to lose something almost every year, usually my phone or a contact lens, to a lesser extent, my wallet, and once, my laptop. I was chided for being careless, and I cried. It's the same conversation, the same tears, and my same retort: "You need to be more careful. You keep losing your things, how will you take care of yourself in the future?" "I didn't lose it on purpose. I usually am careful, but I don't know why I wasn't this time. Why do you say it as if I don't care or I meant to lose it? What makes you think that I am usually not careful? Why do you think that I don't try?"

And then I go to my room to cry. Except this time I go to my room to cry, and write this.

After all the angry crying, now I know. The chiding came from a heart that was upset. How dare people take my daughter's things when they're not supposed to! It came from a father who wants to protect her daughter as long as he lives but has to gradually let go because I have to learn to fend for myself. He needs to know I will grow up fine and will be okay when he can't protect me anymore one day, and so he lets go…more and more, so I can learn to be an adult.

Surely these patterns of losing stuff and retorting need to be broken. Surely I have much more control over my things than I think I do. 

And when Dad chides me, what is there to lose? Nothing, really.

Surely my parents love me more than I know and believe. And Dad doesn't think that I don't care or try.

Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 

Jesus

clarity

Be stable. Find out. Be clear. Leave it if it's not to be.

It's not the end of the world. Far from it - "I have overcome it."

"I have done for you everything, my love!"

"The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still."

and wept

"I think you will agree, once in a while God tries to break into our normal lives and tell us something important. He brings a matter to our attention that tears at our hearts, maybe even brings us to our knees. But then, sadly, so often that is all that happens. Although it consumes us for a little while and we can't stop thinking about it, eventually we start to explore something else and forget.

Because we see and hear so much nowadays, soon our hearts stop hurting. We get used to things as they are.

But that is not the way of Jesus.

Christ was the One who saw the multitudes and wept."

K.P. Yohannan

Dearest God

For 12 years I had learned to believe that you were always out to punish me for any wrong I did. Never would I have thought that I would be one of those people whom I thought were believing in such a scary and unbiblical God. 

It's become a habit for me to always try and find out what doesn't please you, because I'm afraid of more punishment. Do you know how hard I have been on myself all these years? Do you know how heavy and crushing this burden has been?

But now I know. Now I know that this is a lie. Renew my eyes...the way I see you. You have never-ending grace that you give to us freely. You have a much bigger heart than I have always believed you to be. Sorry for thinking that you were stingy, had a narrow heart and a bad temper. It sounds funny now! But it wasn't for the past 12 years -

:'( 

Prince of Peace, thank you for setting me free. I feel so much lighter now. Who would have thought that I could be set free from this prison? You are much more supportive of and in love with me than I have always believed.

:')

"Your precious words intoxicate 

A heart that aches; it's ok"

it's okay to vilify Jesus

Many things I don't understand. Well, I can understand why people do certain things, but I don't understand why we don't see that we contradict ourselves.

And I will place my cards on the table: I'm saying all this because I stand on the side of the One people insult.

We say that religions co-exist, 
But then we give nasty names to Jesus.
We say that there is freedom of religion, 
But we ridicule those who carry the name of Christ.

We protect the freedom of speech,
Yet we spend time trolling on YouTube
Leaving no videos about Jesus un-insulted.

We say all is right if nobody's hurt
But those who follow Jesus, we hurt 

We say we (try to) live by the Golden Rule,
When we hate the Rabbi who taught it - and lived it
Even if keeping it meant losing His life

It's okay to vilify Jesus. Great, even.

Because it shows, apparently, that we are:

Rational, Scientific, Intelligent, Open-minded, Objective, Independent

A Critical Thinker Who is Of Sound Reason
Enlightened.

And Jesus wants me to love these people sincerely?! And I'm supposed to overcome evil with good by asking God to bless them...no tit for tat? Surely giving them three-sixteenths a teaspoon of their own medicine is no revenge, no? 

Yet I know that during the times when I disregard the Love of my life, I do just the same. I deny Him and choose my own way to live, my own decisions, my own ideas, which are by nature at war with His goodness and love. During those times, I, too, actually believe that it's okay to vilify Jesus.

And each time I would think that I am:

Rational, Scientific, Intelligent, Open-minded, Objective, Independent

A Critical Thinker Who is Of Sound Reason
Enlightened.

Time and again I come to Jesus ashamed. Surely it's beyond pardon...I contradict the very love I profess for Him. Yet He says that He remembers my betrayals no more, and that I should not avoid Him deceiving myself that I have it all.

It is Jesus' sincere and insistent love that first so powerfully won and still wins me over, so how can I contain this love that was meant to overflow? After all, who am I, really, to not do the same for people - regardless of what they have done? 

grief and Hope

You brace yourself and come face to face with reality, and you grief. Then your eyes open to the Hope that has always been there. And so now you continue to grieve, but you become the hands and feet of Hope. Reality continues to be so dark it's demonic, but the light and love from the Hope in you brings so much violence on this dark abyss that the walls crack. Defenses break, stiff necks broken, pride dashed to the ground, shattering like insect eggs that seep beneath the floor through some invisible sift. 

Till we recognize the grief we have brought onto the world and ourselves. And we rejoice, because in our grief, Hope is real and Hope is nearing. Hope is also here...in us - and we can finally not just do good, but be good, through and through.

This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:

“In repentance and rest is your salvation,
    in quietness and trust is your strength,
    but you would have none of it.
 You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’
    Therefore you will flee!
You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’
    Therefore your pursuers will be swift!
 A thousand will flee
    at the threat of one;
at the threat of five
    you will all flee away,
till you are left
    like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,
    like a banner on a hill.”

 Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
    therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
    Blessed are all who wait for him!

People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teacherswill be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” 

The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the Lord binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.

Isaiah 30:15-22, 26

"my power is made perfect in weakness"

CARNAGE in 9 days: 63 comprehension passages, 28 essays, 4 examiner reports, and 2 red pens. 

Apparently this is the busiest time of each year as teachers rush to finish grading the students'  finals. 

I'm so thankful that I was early in meeting all my deadlines, save the first. As a greenhorn, I asked Jesus many times to help me stand up under the pressure as well as grade fairly. Sometimes I had to review the papers I graded more than 5 times. This took up to 2 hours each time. Usually I hate revisiting work I've done more than twice because I find it so boring and pointless. But Jesus helped me see that it wasn't about me, but the students who warrant a fair assessment and whose grades are at stake. It's so good that even this drab, sedentary process of grading teaches me to be other-centered.

Though there are no demons harassing me, Jesus' revelation to Paul still applies. 

But [Jesus] said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses...in hardships...in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 

2 Corinthians 12: 9-10

Paul's letter to the Corinth church (1st c. AD)

I love that Jesus cherishes our receptivity to his help when we admit that human strength alone ultimately fails. Though the human spirit desires perfection and all that is good, in reality it is weak, limited in knowledge and experience, limited by time and physicality, and is way more prone to bitterness and selfishness than appreciation and love. We are torn between somewhat knowing all that is good and trying our best, yet still failing to get what we want and keep it. It is such a terribly heavy and fearful burden to carry - what if that is all to our lives? That is a cruel, cruel sentence to carry.

I am so thankful that Jesus stands in the gap, having undergone even greater pressures, so much so that apparently he sweated blood because he knew he was going to be caught, tried unjustly, and then executed -- with the method Romans thought was most torturous and thus most deserving for the worst criminals. 

He has broken my chains and removed this heavy weight of only being able to rely on myself for goodness. Instead, he has fitted me with a yoke that is easy and light, a yoke of obedience that yields the peace and joy that the world thirsts for, cannot offer, yet rejects because it is apparently absurd, unscientific, or primitive. 

So I will rejoice in the fact that Jesus vindicates - and he empowers me, even in grading finals. I can rest and play in full trust that he gives me a clear mind and discipline when I get back to creating more carnage.

Thanks to Cedele at Rail Mall for the awesome, healthy food and uncomfortable seats so I could spend 4 alert hours each time to meet my deadlines. It gets a little embarrassing when the same crew sees me thrice a week, but I don't care + they earn money = yay!

“Are you tired? Worn out? ...Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” 

- Jesus

Only 35 more essays to go, yay!

prophecy for women

In thirty years Christians will have baptized their picture of Christ. He won't be a nice, banal, meek, and bearded man with softly permed hair. Instead, he will fill our imaginations more solidly, more invasively, more unexpectedly. Christ will become That Man who changes people, someone who jumps off of bumper stickers and mediocre praise songs and into lives, a presence much more like Gandalf the Grey than Mr. Rogers. 

... 

When this change comes and we see Christ differently, others will notice.

... 

Christian women will no longer be known as the quiet, meek, and somewhat pathetic group who doesn't experience twenty-first-century freedom. Instead, we will be of something of an admired anomaly, sought after as the most informed believers in the value of femininity. We will define womanhood beyond gentle and quiet submission, curves, baby production, and high heels. We will understand and cogently explain how women are both body and soul and valuable for more than sex appeal. We will be known as "those women" who are not afraid of old age and its mark on our bodies. Our self-possession will make us a challenging group for marketers to target. We will be less concerned with proving our equality with men and more intent on building our souls for the Kingdom of God. 

... 

In thirty years our souls will be bigger.  

Jonalyn Fincher 

In David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, unChristian (2007)

International Justice Mission: celebrating justice

‎

...punishment of perpetrators, however lawful, is never meant to be our final action in their lives. We show godly love toward a perpetrator by restraining him or her from harming others, but also by praying for their reconciliation with their Maker. Perpetrators of even the most violent, dark crimes still bear the image of God and are so loved by him that God sent his Son to die for them as well.  

Gary Haugen

I've never seen a video on social justice that shows the legal conviction of people who exact harm and injustice on people's lives - and celebrates that! Perhaps my idea of social justice has been romantic. 

Sure, I grieve for people who suffer unjustly and I'm angry at people who exact such harm on others (and themselves). I dream of the oppressed being free, but I have not really thought about the need to also free the oppressors...from the destruction they are bringing.

rest

You strive, old man
And you strive again
Your heart too proud to rest
You labor on, singing those songs
To cover your weakness


Do you fail to recall
Who you really are
And who caused you to be?
Return, old man
Return and rest
To a burden light and yoke easy

Abide in your Savior

Abide in his love

The labor of God is to trust - in his Son

All you possess -
Do you forget
As if by your own strength?
You earned it all
He gave you all
Everything you have


Your righteousness, your life to breath
Your daily bread and wine
Is blood, is flesh
Is love, is death
Your faith in endless life


Open up your doors
Oh my heart is slow
Open up your doors
Let the King come in


Abide in me, Savior
Abide in me, love
And daily I'll take my cross
Follow after you, Lord


Abide in me, Savior
Abide in me, love
The labor of God is to trust

walking so far below

If I seem a little unedged, it's because I am. 

Because a big price was paid for this grace! and we're walking so far below it... 

'Cause I think about what my Lord did, when I think about him having those nails driven into his hands - completely innocent - my Creator, he didn't deserve to die, but yet he chose to do it so that he could give me his nature. 

And we have reduced his grace! Down to fire insurance and a ticket to heaven it so angers me. Because the devil's having a party and he's going, "We've kept it from them. let them have all the church buildings they want, let them have all the Bibles they want. They're powerless, they're not hurting our kingdom." 

When in reality such a price was paid, that's why I seem a little bit unedged.

 Relentless Curriculum (2011)
John Bevere

In our work together with God, then, we beg you who have received God's grace not to let it be wasted.

2 Corinthians 6:1

Aslan

Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight,
At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,
When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death,
And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring
                                                         again.

 Mr. Beaver reciting an old rhyme
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Yes, Lion of Judah! When this decaying order of our world is replaced, when you wipe the tears from every eye, when there will be no more crying, mourning, or pain again (Revelations 21:4).

real hope - faint not.

When Jesus was hungry en route to Jerusalem, he could not find any fruit on a fig tree he passed by that he could eat to fill his stomach, "because it was not the season for figs". Then he cursed the tree and it shriveled. 


But why did he curse the tree for not having fruit when it was not supposed to do so at that time?


This is what real hope, Christ's idealism looks like to me. 


It says a lot when a person is able to make the fig tree shriveled. He could be a destroyer who brings death upon people, though there is an astounding lack of such evidence in the Bible.  Early Jewish texts, however, apparently taught that Jesus was a sorcerer or someone who practiced magic and went astray. Some people even accused him of working for Satan (Luke 11: 14-23)! 


He could be a madman or someone with spiritual powers, whether for good or bad. But the spiritual nature of his work and Person cannot be ignored or obliterated at all. 


To call Jesus merely a moral teacher is like calling your parents merely your financial supporters - it is one aspect, but does not warrant as much attention as we may have given at the expense of larger undercurrents. 


The Bible on the other hand only has repeated firsthand accounts of him healing those with temporary sicknesses such as fevers as well as those who were terminally ill, such as those with skin diseases - some of which were contagious - and strange bleeding diseases. Or people with permanent conditions such as being born blind and being paralyzed. He cast out demons from people who were greatly compromised and controlled by these fallen angels (Mark 1: 21-27, Matthew 8: 28-24 and others). Where what happened to the person after was described, it was whopping amazing. He even brought some dead people back to life (Lazarus, the widow's son at Nain, Jairus' daughter are the three named in the Bible). 


He was someone who could curse a fig tree to die, and was someone who gave life, both literally and figuratively.


It's not a pretty sight at all I'm sure...looking at people tormented physically or internally, and how people shun them or grieve for them. It is all messy, exasperating, heart-cutting. Jesus "had compassion on the crowds", and those marginalized and shunned by society (Matthew 29: 34). 


But the fact that he has control over death and even the power to give life in bodily ways and spiritual ways...isn't that why the more saddening people and things are, the greater our hope is in Jesus? Because he has control over these things and if he is redeeming all aspects of the lives of those who follow him, surely he can also do the same for people whom we grieve for!


Jesus is sovereign not just over illnesses that can lead to death, but death itself and even the fearsome, destructive power of nature that humans can only avoid, alleviate, evacuate from and mitigate afterwards. And that gives me real hope. He can do what we as humans cannot do, although we like to think much bigger of ourselves than we actually are. 


We have real, rugged strength to work and bring real life, trusting that Jesus persuades and convicts people in their hearts to say yes to the redeeming he wants to do in them. As Jenny & Tyler sings, "not with "simple thoughts like 'come together be good-willed" ". Not with nice little stickers and motivational decals and posters, or a deliberate oblivion to evil in a bid to 'think happy thoughts' and 'think positive'.


No. Real Hope works amidst messed-up people, i.e. all of us. On a daily basis, we miss the standard of perfection God requires for true goodness, instead incurring grief, exasperation and anger from people around us and God due to our innate propensity to do evil (doubt, criticize, gossip, insult...) in the name of self-preservation (see Matthew 5:1-7:14; Romans 7:14-8: 11). All this goes beyond a mere moral teaching of what is good and bad. Morals inform us in detail and in the head what we should do. But we cannot do what we know is good because it is not in our nature to do so.


The Real Hope is Jesus, the one who has changed the nature of all those who let him to be able to be good for the first time in our lives. If he has power over death, surely he has power over the decay that I see happening in the hearts and lives of loved ones. And he is working right now...


My brain is not working, but I needed to write this to stand firm when situations seem bleak.

Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest.

Psalm 126

FAINT NOT.
     

Hope in a mad world

The troubles of life and evil of the human heart can weigh on you so much they threaten to crush you...and hence this set of counter songs.

 Mad World by Gary Jules

Hope by Alli Rogers

Hope

is strength to walk along
With music to my song
I'll be redeemed
Light a fire in the cold
Buy me back where I am sold
I'll be redeemed

All the waves of time are crashing
And our innocence is gone

Hope - I'll be waiting
And I'll be holding onto
I am never knowing
So I'll be holding onto
Hope

Stay when dirt on my face
From my ravaging and waste
I'll be redeemed
Stay close where sand is at my feet
Let me hear the parting sea
I'll be redeemed

If I wait till light is shining
I may never find the day

Hope - I'll be waiting
And I'll be holding onto
I am never knowing
So I'll be holding onto
Hope

So quick to turn from promise
So quick to ask the questions
So softly the moon shines down tonight
And all my soul is silent

Hope - I'll be waiting
And I'll be holding onto
I am never knowing
So I'll be holding onto
Hope

Jesus says, "Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." 

Matthew 11:29-30



"Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.

 
We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God."

Romans 5:1-11

My life would have crushed and shredded itself from inside out if I didn't know Jesus, this real Hope that has been healing and redeeming lives for 2000 years and is waiting to be fully realized at the right time to bring the entire universe back into cosmic and spiritual perfection...so that "what is mortal may be swallowed up by life". I can't be more thankful for such a privilege and salvation.