Of our carols and our Babylons

The sounds and songs of Christmas are all around us now. They sound a little unbelievable, don't they........

Joy to the World, for one, says "He comes to make His blessings flow FAR AS THE CURSE IS FOUND." (and how far is that? I ask you today.... is there an end to the curse we're under on this planet?)

O Little Town of Bethlehem - "The hopes and fears OF ALL THE YEARS are met in Thee tonight" (think of ALL the hopes you ever had.....and the sum of ALL fears that ever beset you. And then, that's just you. Think of ALL the hopes EVERYONE's ever had, and the dread fear that millions live under. All met in Jesus in ONE NIGHT - the night He was born. Who's excluded here?)

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear:

For lo! the days are hastening on,
By prophet seen of old,
When with the ever-encircling years
Shall come the time foretold
When peace shall over all the earth
Its ancient splendors fling,
And the whole world send back the song
Which now the angels sing.

Think of peace on earth. No Middle-East. No Iraq. No Afghanistan. No Kashmir. No North Korea. An undivided Jerusalem. No Gaza strip, West Bank or Golan Heights. No terrorists!!!!! Think of everyone on earth, as one voice, singing back to the herald angels.

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing:

Light and life to all he brings,
risen with healing in his wings.
Mild he lays his glory by,
born that man no more may die,
born to raise the sons of earth,
born to give us second birth.

Think of a second chance !!!!! To do things right this time for sure !!! Think of wiping out the past - to start again and live as if the past never happened.

Yes, the carols sound too incredible, impossible, unbelievable, out-of-this-world, too-good-to-be-true! They sound like pipe dreams, fairy tales, pie-in-the-sky. Can they come true? Can they ever BE true?

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Defeat.

You know you had the chance......you blew it. Blew it so badly that it's going to take a revolution and a real miracle to roll back this mistake. And you're tired. No one else can be blamed for this but you.

And then........people come up and say, sing me a Christmas song. I've never heard a Christmas song. Sing me a carol !!!!!

That's a bit like what the Israelites were asked in Babylon - sing us the songs of Zion!!!!!! It's framed immortally for us in Psalm 137:

for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
they said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"
How can we sing the songs of the LORD
while in a foreign land?
- Psalm 137:3-4

Don't the unbelievable words of the carols deepen the sense of defeat and failure? In our "foreign land" of failure and bondage, in the grip of the curse, how can we sing of Jesus "coming to make His blessings flow as far as the curse is found? Our sense of shame and defeat mocks us - go on, sing!!! It can never be true, can it? Your portion here is defeat - captivity. See - you lost the war. See your chains! You're never going to get back to Jerusalem. Your body will fall here on Babylonian soil!!!!

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Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in 586 BC. The people of Judah went into captivity, a nation no longer. Just a few hundred years earlier, God had said to Isaiah, about Babylon:

You said, 'I will continue forever
— the eternal queen!'
But you did not consider these things
or reflect on what might happen.
"Now then, listen, you wanton creature,
lounging in your security
and saying to yourself,
'I am, and there is none besides me.
I will never be a widow
or suffer the loss of children.'
Both of these will overtake you
in a moment, on a single day:
loss of children and widowhood.
They will come upon you in full measure,
in spite of your many sorceries
and all your potent spells.
- Isaiah 47:7-9

The LORD, in perfect control of history, had set His salvation in motion even before Jerusalem's fall. The destruction of the enemies of God's people was already foretold.

Let's say this to our oppressive defeat, our captivity, our failure today.......God has allowed you to triumph over me for a while. Remember Judah and Babylon? But how long will you oppress me? Till I take the Name of God's Salvation - Jesus. After that Name is said, no defeat can linger.

A few hundred years after the fall of Jerusalem, Babylon had been wiped off the map of the earth. There was no nation left, and not even a city. Jesus came - and God's salvation came with him.

If you think, well, all that's ancient history now.....see what The LORD says to the apostle John about our Babylons today, in the book of Revelation:

Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said:
"With such violence
the great city of Babylon will be thrown down,
never to be found again.

The music of harpists and musicians, flute players and trumpeters,
will never be heard in you again.
No workman of any trade
will ever be found in you again.
The sound of a millstone
will never be heard in you again.
The light of a lamp will never shine in you again.
The voice of bridegroom and bride
will never be heard in you again.
Your merchants were the world's great men.
By your magic spell all the nations were led astray.
In her was found the blood of prophets and of the saints,
and of all who have been killed on the earth."
- Revelation 18:21-24

What The LORD had said to Isaiah about the Babylon of his day, He says again to the apostle John today, about the Babylons who gain temporary control over us through our defeat today - fear, guilt, failure, evil, even death, Satanic world systems, oppression, persecution, affliction, disease, sickness, pride.

Today, whatever's left of ancient Babylon is somewhere in the country of Iraq, somewhere north of Baghdad. No one really knows where, and no one can be found to actually take you there to see it. A few stone walls, desert sands, mud structures. Just a small ripple on those unending interminable red sands. The haunt of every kind of wild animal and bird of prey. Where are the Babylonians of today? Even the nation itself has long since ceased to exist.

The salvation of the LORD, however, rages on and has conquered the earth. A mighty army of Christians walks the earth. Every day, the LORD "adds to our number"!!! People are testifying of Jesus and His saving power!

So where is our "defeat" or "captivity" today? It can only be in our minds......certainly not out there, because the defeat of our enemies is certain.

So, if someone asks for a Christmas carol, sing it lustily - because this is NOT the day of captivity, but of release and freedom for prisoners !!!!! The Christmas carols are not "unbelievable", they're just REAL............

"Do you want to get well"?

There are days when I want to slide into that chair and not get up. It's so enveloping and snug, I want to just nap.

I don't think of talking to anyone, I just want out. I feel like saying to the rest of me, "just leave me alone!" and to the world, "I'm locking myself in and leaving you out". I know that sometime, I will have to go out there, leave my chair by the fireplace and do what God purposes me to. But that time isn't now - now, I just want my chair and some rest.

And what does my God do? Sometimes He just looks at me, wordless. I sometimes cry out to him and pull on His hand, but He keeps silent. He has nothing to say to me. "Do something!!!" I plead, and He just plain walks away, lets me sit in my chair and rest.

He isn't a God of mere answers. He knows that answers don't save us; He Himself is our Saviour.

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Have you ever given yourself a deathwish?

How long has it been since you woke with the dawn
and felt that the day is worth the living?

or,

How long has it been since your mind felt at ease
How long since your heart knew no burden?
- Hovie Lister

It's like, you go through the motions, you live. The tyranny of the moment squeezes your life out; and your days are, anyways, in the words of Job, "swifter than a weaver's shuttle". Deep down inside, you actually do not want to live anymore. Like, if God Himself asked you, "Here. You're healed now. You're whole. Do you want to live?"...what would you say?

Jesus asked the lame man at the Bethesda pool, "Do you want to get well?" It seemed a rather strange question to me. This guy had been there for THIRTY EIGHT YEARS!!!! He was comfortable with his lameness and quite well adjusted. Why disturb the equation now? Why go after what seems like the rainbow? Let me just get by, lick my wounds and die peacefully somewhere???

We human beings usually like comfort better than we like a chance to start over. If you have doubts, see how the lame chap answered Jesus - "Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me." Are we missing something? Which part of this even begins to answer Jesus' question?

When the core falls out of our lives........we just want to live with the empty shells. Never hope again, never dream again, never try again. When I asked myself, do I want to get well, do I want to live again - it isn't so easy to answer, YES!!!

Because, living again would mean not falling back on excuses for failure, not holding on to my pet weaknesses. Not telling myself that I am damaged beyond recognition. Letting go of old hurts. Living again would mean Christ's new life which knows no bounds. A glorious chance to write the script...again. To give myself a different past than the one I have now. Am I ready? I can never believe or say with full conviction that I am.

And here, The LORD sits by my chair. He interrupts my thoughts to say, "You're ready. It isn't when you FEEL ready that you really are ready. It is when I say you are ready - that's when you are ready."

And I look into His eyes and the tears fill up......I weep inconsolably. Because I find it so hard to believe. I'm so messed up, I JUST CAN'T BELIEVE IT! Can I start again? Is it possible to start with a new sheet of paper? Is there nothing that can remain....from the past? All my mistakes....forever gone? No one can be that merciful or forgiving........and I'm too unclean!!!!

He lets me think about it. And I....can just see a glimmer of hope in His eyes.....something far in the distance, when I am well. And I try desperately to believe that it is NOW.

And then He says, like He said to Matthew....."Come follow me".

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If you're waiting to FEEL ready, I want to ask you this.......... are you prepared to wait forever? Because that's how long it's going to take - and even then, you might never be able to work it all out yourself.

Why not take the Saviour's outstretched hand? Leave to Him your readiness or unreadiness. Leave to Him your past. Your mistakes. Your uncleanness. Your failure. He just says, you're ready right now. This....is the moment.

Look up.....look down that new road. He will carry you.

Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
- John 5: 8, 9

The plough still works the soil

Bare plains of defeat; grey skies above
Rubble-strewn, windswept ground;
Crushed altars; smoke rising from cleansing fire
Gaping wounds; scorched green

A lonely farmer on the high plains;
Working to life the impoverished soil
Braving chilly gales and hovering eagles
Setting up the tree; a stark, bare cross
The first Victory, won with divine blood

A solitary monument, rising into the biting, chilly air
The only sacrifice left to be made;
The only shelter on all the plains
And though all around is defeat;
The plough still works the soil

Yet a loving hand washes the bruises
Tends the open sores
Clears the stony rubble; stokes hidden fires
Nurtures lovingly the age-old stump
Till all is vivid, exuberant green

But still the battle rages on
A ceaseless conflict on those barren plains
The old, old enemy never rests
And I, ravaged, pillaged, but still standing
Turning back the battle at the gates
For lo! the plough still works the soil

- December 1992

How barren is the plain of my soul!

My favourite colour, for reasons that I could not understand till now, is green. Now, after all these years, I do understand why. Green is the colour of life. And green....can only come after the barren plains are ploughed up and the stony ground broken. If you want to grow something, you need good soil.

When I looked within myself, I saw (and still see) a plain, extending flatly for miles and miles. There isn't an undulation in sight - not even a ripple. And there are other things I don't see - good soil for one. There are smoking fires that dot the plain, where embers smoulder. The soil looks, in parts, black, stony or ashen grey. There is no salving brown anywhere. If there is any green, it's all scorched and smeared with blood. Some fresh, some clotted over years and years. Bones - some charred, some intact, mostly human, lie about carelessly.

It's a lunar landscape with murky, grey skies. Gale-force chilly winds blow. Eagles and vultures, the only birds that can perhaps use these conditions, hover. They wait......for something to die.

There can be no life here. If anything lived here at all.....it has surely died long ago. There are a few stumps of trees hacked in some bygone age. Yet, there must have been a time when something or someone lived here. Now, at any rate, nothing lives.

How can anything live? Life hasn't a chance!!! Anything that would sprout here must brave the blood-soaked, hard, nutrition-less ground; and then the swishing swords that cut through the gales without warning. Or the fires. And no animal can find food here.

There is, also, no one here.

There is just God. And He is the "lonely farmer on the high plains". He works, and works, and works. The first thing He did was the "stark, bare cross", the "solitary monument", which commemorates the "first Victory, won with divine blood". It is the "only shelter in all the plains".

He doesn't give up just because the soil is too bad; or because the plain is too wide. Here and there, he plants green; he lovingly coaxes the "age-old stump", which he allowed to remain, to sprout life. His plough never stops. One day all around will be "vivid, exuberant green".

The battle, however, rages on. Though it can never win, it still rages.

Thank God, it can never stop the plough.

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Let me come clean a bit here. When I wrote that verse above, I drew on many sources. Of course I wrote as it came to me, and I do believe I was moved to write it. I had been reading from the book of Isaiah (he of the soaring prophetic verse!!!), and there are many such descriptions there, many likenings of the house of Israel to a barren plain where all has been destroyed and all life murdered. For instance, Chapter 5, where Israel is likened to a barren vineyard; Chapter 10, where "the remnant of Israel" is mentioned (I was fascinated with this concept of "the remnant" - of the stump of a tree long axed, but from which, a fresh green sprout could emerge anytime). It comforted me immensely to think that when you lose something inside you, or it "dies", God can bring it to life again, no matter how long it lies dead or buried, or even burned beyond recognition. You might think you've lost your dreams, or something you cherished; God never loses anything. Someday, as He works on us, all that was ever in us, our dreams, our imaginings, will be brought to fruition. Perfect restoration is not just a mere possibility, but a certainty with The LORD - you better believe it!!! This verse crowns it all:

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit
( - Isaiah 11:1)

This, of course, is a reference to Jesus; and the rest of the chapter is a soaring, glorious ode, describing Jesus who was to come almost 600 years later; and Jesus was and is the fulfillment of the "hopes and fears of all the years"!!! There is very little I have ever read to compare with the divine grandeur of Isaiah 11.

One other source was that wonderful, wonderful hymn we all know and love, "Beneath The Cross of Jesus". I love that verse that talks about The Cross being a shelter from the "noonday heat":

Beneath the Cross of Jesus, I fain would take my stand
the shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land
A home within the wilderness, a rest upon the way
from the burning of the noontide heat
and the burden of the day

There are similar images and references in the other verses as well:

Upon that cross of Jesus, mine eye at times can see
The very dying form of One who suffered there for me
And from my stricken heart, with tears,
Two wonders I confess
The wonders of redeeming love, and my unworthiness

I take, O Cross, Thy shadow,
For my abiding place
I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of Your face
Content to let the world go by, to know no gain nor loss
My sinful self my only shame, and my glory all the cross

( - Elizabeth C. Clephane and Frederick C. Maker)

Yes, indeed, it isn't my unworthiness, or merely my sinful self, that I now see.....I see ALL THE CROSS. It is the only shelter, abiding place in this hostile life.........it is the only thing worth counting, the only glory, the only Victory. But, as far as victories go - this one goes all the way. It is, resoundingly, a case of losing ALL battles but winning the war.

One day, there will be green; life will bubble and thrive, and the me God made, will be whole again. That is God's promise.

It can be yours too........

Take those first steps

When He rolls up His sleeves, He ain't just putting on the ritz,
Our God is an awesome God!
There's thunder in His footsteps And lightning in His fists
Our God is an awesome God!
And the Lord wasn't joking When He kicked 'em out of Eden
It wasn't for no reason That He shed His blood
His return is very close and so you better be believing that our God is an awesome God!

Our God is an awesome God!
He reigns from heaven above with wisdom, power, and love,
Our God is an awesome God!

And when the sky was starless in the void of the night
Our God is an awesome God!
He spoke into the darkness and created the light
Our God is an awesome God!
Judgement and wrath He poured out on Sodom,
Mercy and grace He gave us at the cross,
I hope that we have not too quickly forgotten that our God is an awesome God!

Our God is an awesome God!
He reigns from heaven above with wisdom, power, and love,
Our God is an awesome God!

If it's power that does it for us, is there a greater power in this universe? What an AWESOME, AWESOME God He is!!!

If it's safety, security and protection that it for us, where is a safer place than under His wings?

If it's love that makes our world go round, can we find love more faithful and sacrificing than God's love?

If it's wisdom that lights our way, is there such a dark tunnel where the light of Jesus cannot dispel and scatter the darkness, bringing the clear light of day?

When I heard Rich Mullins sing this yesterday on my iPod, I thought, what a song at a time like this, with me bowed down with fear and cowering in the face of that which oppressed me for many a long, lonely year. Today, there is the clear light of day; my oppressors lie at my feet, dealt fatal blows by the strongest right hand in the universe. They lie dead, never to rise again. And me.....through the haze of tears, disbelieving still, I look at the future - for the first time with a ray of sunshine so bright that I am forever warmed.

Thank you Jesus.

If you feel alone and trapped by your circumstances, if you think it's one endless dark tunnel after another, if you think the light of day is not something you deserve........I want to tell you this. God doesn't think so. He DESPERATELY wants you to come to see the light of day. And He will do all in His power (and where is the limit to that, I ask) to bring you to that door, which, when you open it, will usher in a morning so bright that the night will not even be a memory. Hear this:

Though you search for your enemies, you will not find them.
Those who wage war against you will be as nothing at all.
- Isaiah 41:12

No one, no situation and nothing on earth deters our God. Put your faith in Him, and take your steps. Feeble they may be, as the steps of a child learning to walk. But they speak of many things and promise many things. First, they are deliberate, final steps away from the time when we COULD NOT WALK....when our feet gave way under us. Now, our feet support our weight. The past need not cripple us. Second, our first steps, however feeble, can only lead to surer, stronger and firmer steps in the future. Put your weight on your Heavenly Father, and TAKE THOSE FIRST STEPS!!!!! Afterwards, walk freely in the clear light of day, along the path that is yours, to your destiny.

That chair by the fireplace looks so inviting now - what new wonders will God take me through?

You can be sure I'll be telling......

The Wellspring of Life

In early 1996 my father took ill. As in all the other seasons of my life, I was unprepared. Trouble never asks one's leave to walk through one's door:)

I keenly remember the feeling of inner bankruptcy. There were no inner resources, no reserve, to stave off the ominous feelings of fear, guilt and foreboding. I felt absolutely inadequate and drained to deal with the situation.

How had I let myself come to this debilitating deficit? I wondered.

Gordon McDonald's Ordering Your Private World provided some answers - I had exhausted my inner world. I hadn't known of it's existence; I never stopped to think where all my energy actually came from.

There is an inner world within us - where the heart dwells. Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life (Proverbs 4:23). The heart needs care, just as our physical bodies do. Our hearts can be like the "green pastures" and the "still waters" in Psalm 23 - or they can be a one-room shack with leftovers, hanging precariously on a cliff, about to hurtle into oblivion. They can be places of restoration or irreparable harm.

In one sense, it is up to us how we preserve our hearts. But that's just the beginning. A home always reflects its inhabitants. If we let God live in our hearts and make His home there, God's order, His peace and calm, His restoration, slowly work their way through.

Later, I read Max Lucado's The Great House of God, which cemented the idea of making the heart a dwelling for the Almighty. We've got to let God in; we've got to let the things He's said permeate our beings. In fact, in The Great House of God, each of the sentences in The LORD's Prayer is likened to a part of the house that our hearts can be, to house The LORD and build up and protect our hearts from the forces that assail it all through our lives.

It's comforting to know that I do not have to wear myself out house-cleaning - I can let The LORD sweep my heart clean. I don't have to fix the broken shingles; I don't have to plug the leaks. The LORD has His way for each of these. If I give Him the keeping of my heart, He fills it with Himself, and never will there be a more impregnable fortress inside!!!!!

The Chair by the Fireplace

"They said, "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are you staying?"
"Come", he replied, "and you will see."
So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him."

Where do we live? It isn't a geographical question, I don't know if a point on the map begins to answer it.

What I really wonder is - where our hearts live. Where the real person inside of us lives. After all, we aren't just physical bodies are we? Our physical bodies don't even begin to capture what we're really like most of the time.......

Every heart lives somewhere. Maybe by the side of a gravestone of someone who left us when we weren't ready. Or next to someone who cares little whether we live or not. Inside a cool bank vault. Maybe always on the run - fleeing in the night from our fears. Perhaps some of us don't care. We don't know, so why care.

I've always been impressed by the care we take to house our bodies. There must be a little garden by the house, or at least in the backyard. There must be natural light, and fresh air wherever possible. The house must look just so, and feel just like so. What about turning down for the night? "I long for my own bed". The bed has to be just right, the lights have to be turned down just that much, I need my favourite night-clothes. For most of us, even for those who live from hotel room to hotel room, we do remember what OUR BED felt like; and we long for it.

Physical houses - to house physical bodies. And the care......is planned down to the last detail.

Our hearts....well they are a different story. We don't mind leaving them out there in the rain - in the middle of a snowstorm. Some of us don't mind at all, if we spent our lives seething inside, sickle in hand, waiting to hurt someone else. Some of us seek happiness in the shadows, and we seemingly find it, and hold on to it with a stranglehold on life. I'm nothing short of AMAZED, at the fact that though we instinctively know our hearts, we don't take care to house our hearts.

The more I think about it......the more I am convinced that my heart needs that place - where I (the person inside) can kick off my shoes by the fireplace, sit down and let the cares of life drain away. A place of absolute security where no one can reach, leave alone harm. An impregnable, ancient fortress on a high mountain.

The moment I've thought of that chair by the fireplace, many images fill my mind. Maybe there's a rug there - a hearth. There are soft, easy lights, lovingly etched on ancient, venerable wood. The warmth in there is not merely in just the place itself - it reaches inside of my heart. There's a steaming pot of coffee there, to blow out the chill from inside me. Maybe my eyes fall upon life-giving text on yellowed paper, in an old leather-bound tome. I can hear the strains, somewhere within me:

"Great is Thy Faithfulness, O God, My Father!!
There is no shadow of turning with Thee,
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not,
As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be!"

I feel a loving hand rest on my shoulder and look up into the loving eyes of God.

It's unchangeable! That chair by the fireplace, will be mine for eternity. No one else can really sit there and feel at home like I do. Let the ages roll on, but God still keeps that chair by the fireplace for me.

Very possibly...your mind fills with different images. Each heart.....has its own home. God has a different "chair by the fireplace" for each of us.

Let's think of a place where our hearts are at home. And dwell there........

Where does your heart live? While you're finding out, come see where mine lives.