Living under open heaven

Under the half-frozen soil A seed awakens And starts to push away its shell Putting forth a tiny, shivering shoot Through the dark soil it travels On its upward climb to light Until, one day The crust of springtime’s earth splits before the thrust And the green shoot rejoices As the world of light opens before it And the warm rays of yellow sunshine Welcome it and beckon to it with encouragement. Suddenly, little shoot feels the stinky impact Of a shovel full of aged manure And wonders why it tried so hard to leave its safe seed. Warm rain falls and the stench lessens As the sinking nourishment unites with the ground Feeding the baby plant, that it thrive Its roots established in softened, enriched soil Until the day when the first bloom appears. No hint of foul odor mars its perfume The dark humus a perfect backdrop For the beauty of the garden. Do you ever feel as if someone threw manure on you? After struggling through the darkness Finally, a ray of light And before you can enjoy i...

I remember those days When I needed Your grace And You showed to me How good You are to me I remember those years It was filled with tears But You showed to me How Your presence is with me Thank You Lord I just want to Thank You Lord For You are faithful For You are beautiful Thank You Lord

Can you believe that this is true? Grace abundant I am giving you Cleansing deeper than you know all was paid for long ago You're not guilty anymore You're not filthy anymore I love you Mercy is yours You're not broken anymore You're not captive anymore I love you mercy is yours What made me love Christ wasn’t that all of a sudden I figured out how to do life.  What made me love Christ is that when I was at my worst, when I was at my lowest point, when I absolutely could not clean myself up and there was nothing anybody could do with me, right at that moment, Christ said,  “I’ll take that one. That’s the one I want.”  You know the Bible calls the church Christ’s bride. So it’s like standing before Jesus, completely exposed, all of our flaws and insecurities and—worse than that—our sins are right there in front of his face, and against all reason and rationale, the song of grace becomes startlingly, exhilaratingly true because the Groom looks at us and decla...