Twenty-Four -by Switchfoot

Twenty four oceans
Twenty four skies
Twenty four failures
Twenty four tries
Twenty four finds me
In twenty-fourth place
Twenty four drop outs
At the end of the day
Life is not what I thought it was
Twenty four hours ago

Still I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You
And I'm not who I thought I was twenty four hours ago
Still I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You

Twenty four reasons to admit that I'm wrong
With all my excuses still twenty four strong

See I'm not copping out not copping out not copping out
When You're raising the dead in me
Oh, oh I am the second man
Oh, oh I am the second man now
Oh, oh I am the second man now

And You're raising these twenty four voices
With twenty four hearts
With all of my symphonies
In twenty four parts
But I want to be one today
Centered and true
I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You
You're raising the dead in me
Oh, oh I am the second man
Oh, oh I am the second man now
Oh, oh I am the second man now
And You're raising the dead in me

I want to see miracles, see the world change
Wrestled the angel, for more than a name
For more than a feeling
For more than a cause
I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You
And You're raising the dead in meTwenty four voices
With twenty four hearts
With all of my symphonies
In twenty four parts.
I'm not copping out. Not copping out. Not copping out.

Agape

English is so limiting sometimes.
I love how ancient Greek has four words for love, distinguishing between the different types.

Storge- Affection. Natural Love, like that of a parent for a child. The love within a family.

Eros-  A passionate, intimate love. Not a lasting one, usually, but a burning one.

Philia- Love between friends. it is a commitment, demanding loyalty, respect and friendship. It is a love of something good and enjoyable.

Agape- This, this is the hardest and best love. It is unconditional love, love that is sacrificial and deep and lasting. This is beyond Philia or Eros. This is the love that lasts through thick and thin. This is the word Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 13. This is the word used to describe the Love of God to us.

Agape.  It is a hard word to live out.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant  or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  ( 1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

How many times have we heard these words read? At weddings, at church. We know them. But the word is Agape.
Suddenly it is different. These words apply not only to those we make an effort with, but to those we dislike. Those who have hurt us. Those who have not been consistent to us.

What a hard creed.
I say these words,  but can I live them?
Can I have Agape  to those who I dislike?Because the two don't work together.
I am struggling with that. How do you love the unlovable?  It is not easy to do.
I can love God ,who gave His life for me, with my whole heart. That is impossible not to do.  But because I love Him, there is this matter of Agape.
It, though, is the description of His love for us. He loved Me in the depths of my sin, in the blackness of my heart, and that is where he died for me, for us.
Agape.
It's a process.
Not an easy one. One that I fall in, mess up in, want to give up on sometimes. And yet he loves me anyway.

We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

If we, we who were loved in our unlovelyness, do not love the unlovable, who will? Who will Love them, be the physical demonstration of the love of Christ? We are the hands and feet of Jesus.
Agape.

Love:)

R

Beautiful Things- Gungor

All this pain
I wonder if I’ll ever find my way
I wonder if my life could really change at all

All this earth
Could all that is lost ever be found
Could a garden come up from this ground at all

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us

All around
Hope is springing up from this old ground
Out of chaos life is being found in You

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us
You make me new, You are making me new
You make me new, You are making me new
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us


Thank God that He dose indeed make us new.

Love:)

R

For us, a light

“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder. And His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

The Waiting

As we sit here, waiting, we wonder what we're waiting for.
The day draws nearer, and we anticipate, but the question remains.
Advent is the waiting time. What, really,  are we waiting for?
It's the miracle. We sit here in the hopeful expectancy, waiting for the miracle day to become full, the Miracle to be born, to become part of this dusty, grimy, beautiful world of ours.
The Baby, born two thousand years ago of a girl perhaps my own age, a scared teenage girl, and God. The Baby who was, is and always will be the greatest gift.

O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
(from O come, O come, Emmanuel)

O come, o come, indeed. We are waiting. Waiting for the remembrance of the Word becoming flesh and making His dwelling among us.
There is beauty in the the waiting. We don't like to wait. We get impatient. But there is beauty in finding the peace to wait. He waited.
And then He came.
Came to us who were waiting. And showed up in all the grime of our earth. How in the world do we fail to see Him? We look right past the very thing we are waiting for! And yet He knew, and He still came. Still showed up, bloody and new into the stable.  Still took the sorrow of our sins upon him. Still walked our dusty roads, among us the sin-filled  people. Still died, covered in the blood that washed us clean.
 The waiting of this season is almost over. Look hard for Him. You will see Him in the most broken places. The dirty places. The messed up ones.  He will come. he always does. Only look.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.  (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”)  For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
(John 1:14-16)

We have seen His Glory.
Love:)

R

I Celebrate the Day- Reliant K

And with this Christmas wish is missed
The point I could convey
If only I could find the words to say to let You know how much You've touched my life
Because here is where You're finding me, in the exact same place as New Year's eve
And from a lack of my persistency
We're less than half as close as I want to be

And the first time
That You opened Your eyes did You realize that You would be my Savior
And the first breath that left Your lips
Did You know that it would change this world forever

And so this Christmas I'll compare the things I felt in prior years
To what this midnight made so clear
That You have come to meet me here

To look back and think that
This baby would one day save me
In the hope that what You did
That you were born so I might live
To look back and think that
This baby would one day save me

And I, I celebrate the day
That You were born to die
So I could one day pray for You to save my life


Christmas...... God coming to meet with man. Inconceivable. And yet not. Because that's how He does things:)

Love:)

R

A Prayer

The love.
It captures me, surrounds me, fills me.
And it is so good, Lord.
That you would look upon me in my brokenness, my dirtiness,
and bless me like you have.
And love me.
And know me.
Oh, My God, you truly make beautiful things,
And I love you.
Even if you didn't love me,
Still would I love you.
Because you are too good, too beautiful, too worthy,
to have anything but my love, heart, and everything else that is me.
Why me?
I have to ask myself why you could love me, love us, in our sin.
But it doesn't really matter,
All that does is you.

Love Always and  Forever:)

R