Posted in Spoken Word, Uncategorized

Hope-Filled

A few words from the economy of Hope
A soap box not often stood on, but as we put on this New self
We find a wealth of words worth reminding, binding us to our Father
In ways we’ve needed for longer than we’ve confessed.
Because even though we’re blessed, it seems we’ve so long stressed the destination
While leaving behind the relation. The Love that has pursued,
We’ve misconstrued as judgment waiting, anticipating that moment sometime far off
When we’re invited into Heaven’s gates, or worse,
Meanwhile the curse of sin seems something we’re left to bear
And His Love finds us there, people trying so hard not to despair, but to declare, Hope.
And at the end of rope, we’re found, as children now being unbound as His Spirit arrives
We find our lives are not just a passing whim, because we’re actually known by Him


The Fathers eye hold us in His steady gaze, as Jesus prays on our behalf, we hear the heart
Of Love that will never depart. And as we start to believe, we receive a New Name
Only scratching the surface of why He came
But as we struggle to remain we hear already the whispers of doubt
Accusations of the rubble strewn about like so many collapsed walls
These halls that are no longer, we wish we’d been stronger, as we examine the pieces
Each stone a word of what we thought would be, we see with our own eyes
The debris of a temple demolished before it could be filled
And it has instilled in us a sense of foreboding, as if floating just over a sea of chaos
Threatening to swallow, and in these hollow ruins we receive the hallowing grace
As the Spirit lifts our face to meet His own, the Father on the throne
Yet also with us, here. Drying every tear, and releasing us from the fear
That these pieces of what could have been can be, should be, will be renamed
Reclaimed as foundation for tomorrow, borrowing Hope where there’s plenty to be found
A solid ground, soil rich for planting, His Kingdom granting our roots
Access to Life of the age to come
Love revealed in the Son, shining with such Love and glory, that we find our story
Has become a reflection of His own, that we are not alone, as the Narrator places one more
Stone upon another, we discover redemption so full that there is no exemption
No place where shadows may remain, no corner that we can’t explain,
for the Light of Love has flooded the whole, and our Soul, Body and Spirit
Are transformed, re-formed by the pulse of resurrections heart
We start to believe in what our Father speaks
That He is not waiting, but seeks our embrace
Time spent face to face, attuning to His ways, that here is Love that stays in the room
Here is grace we can always presume will be, whether on bended knee
Or meeting us on the run, inviting us to come ever nearer, making clearer
The Newness of the Kingdom that is coming, in which all running can cease
For peace can now abound. We who have found ourselves re-storied with a purpose
Making the darkness nervous, as Light gains new ground, all ground,
With rebuilt walls that surround and loudly resound with His praise
Spending our days now, together, united as we read,

Words rebuilt as walls of how we’ve been freed, and how the seeds of His Love
Bear fruit for the healing of the nations, those whose relationships have shattered,
Those scattered into exilic wandering, still pondering whether their story has been written
Those snake-bitten, invited now to see, Love revealed in His suffering on a tree
And You and me? Transformed together to be, outposts of His reign
Unable to contain what has occurred, but by His Living Word
These healed wounds from which blood once spilled
Now proclamations of a world becoming Hope-filled.

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Posted in Spoken Word

Matthew 24:36-44

Matthew 24:36-44

Lord, when You finally come return
Fully revealing Your redemptive plan
When all of creation, swallowed by Love
Including every woman and man

Up until that day, none will be counting
As if they’re knowing the date
Some will have lost all awareness
Yet You call us to actively wait

There will be a disturbing encounter
Love itself meets those living opposed
All false selves will be dissolved as You come
All Truth is then fully exposed

May we be those who remain in Your coming
Love, the very mode of our being
Not blinded by the glory of Your Lordship
Well practiced in such ways of seeing

Make us so aware of Your coming
That here even as we await
We are not those slumbering or watching clock
But those who actively participate

You’ve begun to arrive by Your Spirit
By the ways You’ve already revealed
May we not remain desperate for healing someday
But come as those now being healed

Posted in Spoken Word, Uncategorized

salt & light

Recently I was invited to write a spoken word for a church, in response to the “Beatitudes” from Matthew chapter 5. These are the words I wrote, spoken…

To mouths untasting and eyes that may seem blind:
Here we pause to find – living Words of Salt and Light to help us do more than understand
Living in a land, bland and shadowed
We hear the call to Kingdom Living
Giving that which we could never create, as fate finds itself defeated
By the One who interceded – Christ speaks still today
Through those standing in the fray, living in the Spirit empowered Way
He has revealed
Both those who have been healed, and those desperate still for healing
We find Kingdom revealing in these – more than simply platitudes
We call them the beatitudes
Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who’ve come near it but never quite arrived
Or thrived the way this world pretends.
Their desire transcends the offers of this realm, yearning for Jesus on the Throne
His Kingdom is their own.
Blessed are those who moan, and mourn,
Suffering – born of living against the norm, and weathering the storms too fierce to be calmed
Theirs is the balm of Gilead, with Jeremiah we seek
As we continue to hear Jesus speak
We hear him whisper – “Blessed are the meek.”
Those who quiet their own voice enough to hear, when Jesus himself is near,
It becomes clear the noises of this world are often simply distracting,
Acting is if they could offer new birth, but theirs is not the earth,
it is passed down from Father to child – to those He reconciled.
Blessed are those with a Divinely wild
hunger and thirst – Those for whom a burst
of spiritual enthusiasm could never pass
They will not only amass what is sought and could never be bought by religion,
but be filled overflowing by His provision.
Blessed are those who show mercy and compassion
Beyond the trends and fashion – to sacrificial loving, extra mile and going aboving
For they will receive the same – in the Name of Jesus
The one who frees us to be Blessed as those pure in heart,
Those who would depart and turn from old ways, offering their days as a sacrifice of praise
To break through this world’s facade – for they will see the face of God.
Blessed are those who not only cause violence to cease, or slow its’ increase,
But actively seek to create new peace
For they will not only hear applause begin – they will be called His kin
Children of the most high, those responding to the cry of oppression
Those who question the injustice of a system so broken
Not just a token representation, but as a citizen of a nation known as New Creation
But know the world will not always embrace, any member of the human race
that presents a case
For repentance.
Still – blessed are those who struggle for what is right, for yours is the light of the Kingdom.
As you bring them all I’ve inspired, you may still find some wired
to view my invitation to reconcile as something vile or offending
Rejoice – for I’ll never stop sending
my love for them, Just as I have for you.
So many have come before, as I continue to restore my grand redemption
There is no exemption.
Only places and moments in need
Oppressed who continue to bleed
Hungry mouths to feed
Systems built on greed
Wheat overgrown with weed

But through You – I intercede.