loveliness abounds to me

because Your face is who I see

       being here alone with You

refreshes me like the morning dew

            and I

I am revived

   because You

are inside 

             and I

I am made new

     oh Lord, because of You

I worship! I praise!

The Ancient of my days!

I love to draw so near

to the One who's love is crystal clear 

No shadow of turning

No eternal burning 

No sending me away

by Your side I will remain 

Oh rose of Sharon!

Oh lily of my heart's valley!

Lover of my soul,

my heart's most trusted ally!

The Alpha of my faith!

The Omega of my filthiness!

Oh Lord I can hardly wait!

Jesus - You are blessed among blessed -

The lifter of my head

      my soul's chief happiness!

- love Chris

Part Three

 

Jesus said he only did what he saw the Father doing and he only spoke what he heard the Father saying - so must we, for our entire walk now is one of Belief. Religion promotes unbelief  - for religion says "Do it yourself", it says "I can honor and obey God through my strength,  my will, my intellect.  I can create a way to please God by impressing him with ME - with my worship, with my understanding,  with my good works; when all along all God wants to do with me is crucify me: all my efforts to be righteous perished on the Cross, thank God, for they are all as filthy rags to him - who is impressed with the works and righteousness  of Jesus alone because Jesus alone sought and fulfilled the Father's will perfectly.  He alone was perfectly obedient to the Father while on earth, in the flesh - therefore we too can do nothing apart from him - nothing that will please our heavenly Father.  We MUST pick up our cross daily and follow HIM - we must die daily to all that comes from us, so we may live daily to all that comes from him. Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies - it cannot bear fruit. If we abide in Christ ( in his will, his words, his ways - for they are the Father's) we will bear our Father much fruit.

Jesus modeled how to receive and walk in the Father's Spirit by crucifying his own will and obeying the Father's will instead, all his days. Long before his body was crucified,  his will had been crucified.  And too, our bodies will not go and do the Father's will until our will is crucified.  Once this happens,  and every day from then on, our bodies will go and do where and whatever the Lord of our souls tells them to. 

Who is Lord of your soul? Who sits on the throne of your heart? Have you found out what pleases the Lord?   

When God says "A broken heart I will not despise", when he says he is drawn to a meek and contrite heart, it is because only the humble will accept and rejoice in His will for them. Only they will obey and do and say what they see and hear him doing and saying - for they alone are the ones he is close to, intimate with. Blessed are the meek!

Chris, apostle of Christ

Part Two

 

We are helpless to DO, for we cannot save ourselves,  on the Cross. On the Cross we can't DO anything in our own strength,  which is why Satan empowers and encourages a religion full of do's and don't's, that is always requiring us to DO something to earn God's approval.  On the Cross, we're like babies in the womb, about to be born - completely helpless,  unable to rely on our own strength or wisdom.  We are weak but in our weakness we cry out "The Lord HE is strong and well able to deliver us from the Hell that seeks to swallow us"! And it is this position of weakness and total reliance on Him that we are to walk in daily for the rest of our lives.

Know - on the Cross our hearts become exposed and as naked as Jesus' body was on his Cross - indeed, his heart was exposed for all the world to see on his Cross too - His heart was seen to be so full of love for all mankind that he'd rather die than live separated from us. The Cross is all about the heart, for our God is and has always been, a God of the heart. Someone asked Jesus "What must i DO to be saved?" Religion teaches people that they can save themselves by doing whatever is demanded of them - in other words, our own strength and will is enough to attain salvation, but Jesus replied "believe" - simply believe on him whom the Father sent.

So when we lay down voluntarily on the Cross with Jesus, when we "pick up our cross daily and follow him" - we are deciding daily we cannot "do" anything to save ourselves,  for the way of the Cross is the only possible way to follow Jesus  - for "self" must be crucified  - our self will, self pleasure,  self glorification  - all put to death daily. Our works must cease, we must to "DO" as a means of pleasing the Father (that is to say, doing in our own strength  - for our flesh cannot please him) and we must start to BELIEVE,  TRULY BELIEVE FROM OUR HEARTS in the One who alone ressurects us into a life that conquers death - we become someone who can and will DO THE FATHER'S WILL- alone, who can and will hear the Father's voice and who can and will speak His words, not their own, just as Jesus did.

Part three soon

The enemy wants to crucify our ability to serve the Lord.  He wants to put to death all that is right and good. He wants to say "let there be darkness", let there be darkness again for I have crucified the Light and snuffed it out".  He wants to prevent us from using our feet to bring the Good News to those who have only heard the Bad news the enemy preaches (there is no God. If there is, he doesn't care about you personally. Go ahead and sin (disobey God) - you shall not surely die, etc.). He wants to keep our hands from healing and doing other good works that glorify Our Father who is in Heaven,  such as caring for widows and orphans and anyone else who has no one to love them.

Jesus, on the other hand, wants to crucify every wicked way in us; every thought, every word, every deed that dishonors Our Father who is in Heaven,  blessed be His name, and causes Him pain. Jesus will put to death our ability to sin - if we'll  let Him, by picking up our Cross daily and following Him. We must remain on the Cross until we can say "It is Finished", until all that is ungodly and anti-Christ is put to death in us.

The enemy, too, has a cross. He too desires us to "pick up your cross and follow me", he too wants us to "go and make disciples of all men", only in his kingdom we model and teach people how to sin - how to live our entire lives apart from our Savior,  our blessed Christ. In his kingdom,  his disciples preach a gospel of hate, of self-exaltation,  not humility. They foster racial division and self-sufficiency, of pride and arrogance. 

Who's cross will you choose to carry? All of us are carrying one or the other. All of us are either dying to self or from self. All of us are dying to all that is righteous and good or all that is unrighteous and unholy in us.

Part two soon

 Did you not see  Me

  in that beggar's face?

The way you ignore  Me

 is such a disgrace. 

You pass Me by day after day

 you see it in My eyes yet you've nothing to say.

Meanwhile,  here I sit      and       wait

Please! Won't you notice me?!

Don't you remember My plea?

As you do it to the least of these,

  you're doing it to Me!?

Yes I'm dirty.   Yes I smell,

  but your comfort is not why I saved you from Hell.

I did it so you could be 

 My hands and My feet,

  so you could impart

   all the love in My heart

     for the downtrodden and the dregs of society  -

NOW OPEN YOUR HEART AND NOTICE ME!