Thursday, April 02, 2009
As I was with Abraham
By Ramone - March 30, 2009
...so I am with you and the ones you love.
This is a picture of Jesus with a friend and his family who have left their native land to find a new home in a new land. He's holding them and He is bringing them to a place of rest. I don't know where, but He knows where He is taking them, and He loves them more than I can imagine.
As I prayed for the family, the message I hear Him saying is: "As I was with Abraham, so I am with you and your family." He took Abraham from his homeland and told him to go somewhere else. Abraham lived there as a stranger, and lived in tents. But God took care of him and blessed him with His love and protection. Abraham walked with God and became "the friend of God". Abraham walked with God, following Him and trusting Him, and God shared His heart with Abraham.
So just like Abraham, God is with you and your family. He loves you and your family and is protecting you, even if you leave a place of security. He's calling you to walk with Him, trust Him and follow His ways, because He loves you and your family. And He wants to share His heart with you, too. He wants you to be His friend, and He wants to be your friend. So just receive His love, trust Him, follow Him and ask Him for more of Him. Ask to know His heart, and He will share.
(Some Bible chapters about this are Hebrews 11 and Psalm 84).
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Undone!
By Ramone - March 30, 2009
Place me like a seal over Your heart,This picture came as my heart was stirred with longing for the Lord after a brother shared something from a book he was reading:
like a seal on Your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
like the very flame of the Lord.
Many waters cannot quench love;
rivers cannot wash it away.
If one were to give
all the wealth of his house for love,
it would be utterly scorned.
- Song of Songs 8:6-7
"Divine Love"And so... my heart cries out for You, Lord. You know how I've been distracted. You know how I've missed You. You know what I need, what I don't need. So take all of me. Help me just throw myself into You now, Lord. Burn in me, Lord.
There is a fire of Divine Love.
It is this love which burns the believer and can even cause the believer to suffer. How? Sometimes the absence of the Beloved greatly affects the believer.
Sometimes the believer hears the inward voice of the Beloved calling. It is as a gentle whisper and proceeds from out of the believer's inmost depths.... where the Lord, the Lover, abides. It is this whisper which possesses the believer almost to the point of undoing. The believer realize how near is his Lord and yet he also realizes how much of the soul has not yet been possessed by Him.
This intoxicates the believer and puts an insatiable longing within him... Therefore, it can be said of love: Divine love is as strong as death, for it kills just as surely as death kills.
Take me to You, imprison me, for I,
Except You enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except You ravish me.
- John Donne, "Batter My Heart"
