Processing

God always ask
His people
To remember the past,
He established
Celebrations
And fulfils them,
Remember
What I’ve done-
He says.
My faithfulness
to all
Generations.

But, do not
Dwell on it.
Do not worship
What is gone.
For I know
The plans
I have for you
I’ve written
a new song.

Lord,
We’ve heard
Of what
You’ve done
In years
Gone by.
We’ve heard
Of your fame
Don’t leave us dry.
Renew them
In our day.

God doesn’t
Throw out the old
Unless,
It’s sin.
He fulfils all
As originally intended.
He makes it new,
He restores
He heals
God establishes
Traditions
And gives us
Boundaries
In pleasant places.
He saves the best
For last,
And tells us
The end
Is always better
Than the beginning.

When people
Are not what
We want them to be
How quick we are
To judge,
Their Christianity.
Their ways
And demeanor
Don’t suit ours.
Their traditions,
Are our restrictions.
They don’t see,
How they are trapped,
Content,
With what they have.
Hearing God through,
Their outdated methods.

Yet, they faithfully return
Some watch
And wonder why?
Without the overflow
Of emotion.
And their motives
Are questioned…
Pharisees?!
Traditions?!
Music?
With those instruments?!
You must be here
For something else,
You must be quiet
Because your sprits have
Fallen asleep!
Judgments are made
With little exploration.

Have you asked me how,
I came to be here?
Do you know the faithfulness,
And grace I’ve seen dear?
Come in my home
And have some tea-
Her gifts are reverence
And hospitality.

He says real gruff-
I play in the band,
Were not all perfect,
I’m an average man.
But the scriptures say
God will be trumpeted in
I hope to see
That day with Him.
I don't understand
your questions of me,
I come and bring
My family.

So, week after week
They come
To a Hall
That has seen it all.
And quietly,
Faithfully
Take their places
Listening
Waiting
for God.
Who doesn’t come,
To them,
In the storm,
Nor in the thunder,
Nor in the violent wind.
But speaks to them
Through a hymn.
They sit and wait
For the still small voice
And those who seek…
They still do find,
That God
Will meet them,
Every time.

-cjb


Gustave Flaubert:
Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times.


If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.
C. S. Lewis


Kurt Vonnegut:
History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again.