(C) Cheryl Howard 2008

Don’t let another rob your worth,

For it is the gift of GOD to you at birth.

Don’t let other’s words frame your future nor trap you in the past,

Let the only words that form your life be GOD’s both first and last.

Don’t be seduced by shallow values, changing and afloat,

From mouths of men deceived by pride, in self-interest do they gloat.

For you are rare and more unique than you would dare to dream,

Yet you are not the centre of the universe – life is not what it seems!

You live encased within a shell, a body – flesh and blood,

And your spirit it awakens when GOD breathes in HIS love.

To Life HIS call it resonates, deep within your soul,

Only when you yield to HIM will you be free and whole.

The limitless CREATOR, of more than we see and grasp,

Has chosen you to lavish love – for your heart does HE ask.

In you HE’s grounded deepest truth, a sense of destined greatness

That only can be realized when you acknowledge tis HIS innateness!

thought for the journey ….

The LORD has a very personal love for each & every one of us who has entrusted our lives to HIM in HIS SON JESUS - it is HE who makes us ‘worthy’, imbuing us with value that comes from HIS heart.

HE chose you!

Don’t shut yourself off from the security & confidence (grounded in HIM - in WHO He is!) that the revelatory knowledge of HIS powerful love for you provides. When we truly accept HIS love & adoration of us, that same love will pour out of us for others - for we will see their value & worth through HIS eyes.

The love of ABBA FATHER, poured out to us in the life, death & resurrection of JESUS our SAVIOR, is the only love that can make us whole! HIS love is constant, true & unchanging - & we are each of us unique, special & irreplacable to HIM.

Malachi 3:6a “For I am The LORD, I do not change;”

Numbers 23:19 “GOD is not a man, that HE should lie, nor a son of man that HE should repent. Has HE said & will HE not do? Or has HE spoken & will HE not make it good?”

GOD loves all humanity - HIS call goes out to each one of us, but it is we who determine what we will do with HIS great love: will we ‘accept’ it, yielding our lives to HIM in faith? Or, will we reject it, cutting ourselves off from HIS provision of rescue, of redemption in CHRIST upon the Cross?

It is how we look that determines what we see! It is past time we started living as if we actually believed what GOD says about our value & worth. That we started truly believing how greatly HE cherishes us. And it is time we stopped listening to our enemy & foe - satan, the father of lies, who whispers insidiously in our all too willing ears that we are worthless  & unlovable! (JOHN 8: 44b “…. he was a murderer from the beginning, & does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar & the father of it.”)

CHRIST showed us the true value of our lives - when HE gave up HIS own in our stead!

1 John 4:9 “In this the love of GOD was manifested toward us, that GOD has sent HIS Only Begotten SON into the world, that we might live through HIM.”

Jude v21 “keep yourselves in the love of GOD, looking for the merecy of our LORD JESUS CHRIST unto eternal life.”

(C) Cheryl Howard 2006

The beauty of YOUR Word it steals my breath from me

It opens wondrous vistas that my soul can see

I stand before YOU wordless, in awe of all YOU say

YOUR Word is full of power, bringing life from day to day

YOU have lifted high YOUR Word, above even YOUR Name

Those who embrace YOUR Word will never be the same

YOU spoke and out of nothingness created all we see

YOU Alone are GOD, who ever was and ever more will be

EMMANUEL, MESSIAH, The WORD in flesh are YOU

YOUR Word goes forth in power, YOUR will O LORD to do

Be it a whisper or a roar how YOUR Voice makes my heart soar

I thrill to hear YOU speak and I yearn to hear YOU more

YOUR Word reveals YOUR heart, the thoughts upon YOUR mind

The wonder of YOUR being, to those who it to their hearts bind

How I cherish every single syllable that YOU my LORD do utter

Falling from YOUR lips and melts me like a hot sun does to butter

thought for the journey ….

John 6:63 “It is The SPIRIT who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The Words that I speak to you are SPIRIT, and they are life.”

The transforming power of The Word of our GOD and SAVIOR - You can find yourself in impossible situations, with no way out and no way through, situations that threaten to swamp and swallow you whole - then HE speaks, and light invades the darkness, a way is made where there was no way, and life replaces death!

HIS word alone has the inherent power to wash us. HIS words can actually change us, and our lives. For the words ALMIGHTY GOD speaks are life - they not only contain life, they are life!   Hebrews 1:3 talks of CHRIST upholding all things by the word of HIS power. When HE speaks power and life erupt - HE is unparallelled and unsurpassed; SON of GOD, SON of Man, REDEEMER, SAVIOR, The WORD, EMMANUEL - GOD in flesh is HE!

Ephesians 5:26-27 “that HE might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that HE might present her to HIMSELF a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”

CHRIST - The WORD made flesh, “HE who lives, and was dead, and behold I AM alive forevermore! Amen.” (Revelation 1:18). Notice that HE is not “HE who was dead and lives” but HE who lives and was dead - for HE is Eternal GOD, WHO laid down HIS life and died for our sins and arose to give us HIS Eternal Life!

Revelation 19:13,16 “HE was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and HIS Name is called The WORD of GOD.” “And HE has on HIS robe and on HIS thigh a Name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”

John 1:1,14a “In the beginning was The WORD and The WORD was with GOD, and The WORD was GOD.” “And The WORD became flesh and dwelt among us….”

(C) Cheryl Howard 2008

I was birthed to know YOU,

I was made for YOU,

It is YOU who does complete me,

Wherever I am whatever I do.

There is no Life without YOU,

No river running sweet,

No joy within my heart,

No wind beneath my feet.

O LORD YOU complete me,

Fill my cup and make me see,

The wondrous gift of Life within YOU,

The bliss of water running free.

I soar within YOUR Presence,

A wingless bird flying high,

Released, restored, unhindered,

For YOU I’d gladly die.

This life I know hold loosely,

This world contains no gain,

It’s treasures are deceptive,

Promise much while yielding pain.

Only in YOUR endless love,

In the strength of YOUR embrace,

Is the pearl of life so sought for,

The wonder of YOUR grace.

For YOU was I created,

For YOU each breath I take,

My broken life YOU rescued,

A thing of beauty did YOU make!

thought for the journey ….

To know ALMIGHTY GOD - what a calling, what a destiny! Reconciled, redeemed, forgiven and restored - through HIS Only Begotten SON and the completed work of HIS Cross as HE bore our sins and their judgment.

To know ALMIGHTY GOD - what treasure, what riches! 2Corinthians 4:6-7 “For it is the GOD who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of GOD in the Face of JESUS CHRIST. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of GOD and not of us.”

To know ALMIGHTY GOD - what will you do with this invitation? GOD in CHRIST has already made HIS heart and desire blatantly clear “HE is willing that NONE should perish”

You are as close to The LORD as you want to be - it is we who limit our closeness to GOD - by indifference, disobedience, cares and carelessness, by sin ….

1 John 2:3-6,15 “Now by this we know that we know HIM, if we keep HIS commandments.He who says, ‘I know HIM’, and does not keep HIS commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps HIS word, truly the love of GOD is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in HIM. He who says he abides in HIM ought also to walk just as HE walked.” “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of The FATHER is not in him.”

Our lives - how we actually live, manifests the truth about us - about ‘who’ we really live for, and ‘who’ we truly belong to; and whether the love of GOD The FATHER does in fact abide in us. For it is this love, HIS love, that marks and identifies those who are HIS!

It is HIS love in us that will compel us to:  live righteously

                                                            keep ourselves pure (and purify ourselves - 1John 3:3)

                                                            be obedient to all HE commands

                                                         & cause us to love each other.

This is the ‘proof’, the ‘evidence’ that we do truly love HIM - and that we belong to HIM in intimate and righteous relationship! That we ‘know’ HIM!

(C) Cheryl Howard 2008

We are called with a sacred calling

Held by Love that keeps us from falling

We will one day bear the likeness

Of our GOD Who resides within us

HE has placed HIS heart inside ours

And HIS Light searches out our darkness

We are destined for HIS Glory

Each partaking of HIS story

So much nearer than we imagine

Is this GOD Who our lives fashions

So astounding is HIS Goodness

So breathtaking in HIS Greatness

Inspiring awe and dread, devotion

YAHWEH Who speaks like the thunder of oceans

Revered, adored by those who know and love HIM

To be feared by those who refuse to forsake their sin

Day and night HE cries out for the heart of man

Intercedes, entreats, offers us HIS nail-pierced hands

HIS Love the Power that drives and holds a universe

All for sinful human souls, on whom HE placed such worth

A Cross hangs over each and every life

A symbol of shame and scorn, and aching Sacrifice

There is but One True GOD, Who has right to claim our hearts

HE Who formed us to bear HIS image before breath did HE impart

What we do with GOD’s Own SON, it is our choice

Do we weep and yield before HIM, or in rebellion raise our voice?

At the foot of a humble Cross we each determine eternity

Separated, cut off and lost, or embrace CHRIST – Incarnate DEITY!

thought for the journey …

LOVE - that is what drove the FATHER to send The SON of GOD to Golgotha, to The Cross, to lay down HIS life . John 10:17-18 “Therefore MY FATHER loves ME, because I lay down MY life that I may take it again. No one takes it from ME, but I lay it down of MYSELF. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from MY FATHER.”

There are those who would question the love of a GOD who would send HIS Own Innocent SON to suffer and die for the sins of others; they see the Cross not as solid evidence of the cost of atoning for sin, but as an example in self-sacrifice and serving. How perverted and distorted our concept of love has become, that we could question the lavishly demonstrated love of GOD, that we could think ‘How could a loving GOD send HIS Sinless SON to The Cross? How could HE pour upon HIM all HIS righteous wrath and judgment? How could HE turn from HIM as HE hung in darkness dying upon those crude wooden beams?’

Matthew 27:45-46 “Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour JESUS cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘ELI, ELI, lama sabachthani,’ that is, ‘MY GOD, MY GOD, why have YOU forsaken ME?’”

If this is how we view the Father heart of GOD then we disclose and reveal our failure to understand two crucial things: The Love of GOD - FATHER, SON and HOLY SPIRIT; and the cost of sin! 

It cost FATHER GOD upon The Cross, it cost The SPIRIT of GOD - it cost Triune GOD, not just The SON of GOD; though IT COST HIM HIS ALL! (”Behold I have come …. to do YOUR will, O GOD.” Hebrews 10:7)

What loving father would not be brokenhearted over their son’s suffering? The FATHER would have spared HIS SON if there was any other way to redeem us! Why do you think JESUS cried out in the Garden of Gethsemane “if it is possible let this cup pass from me - NEVERTHELESS - not as I will but as YOU will!” (Matthew 26:39). This will was the will of Triune GOD, decided before time eternity - by GOD The SON as much as The FATHER and The SPIRIT. But in HIS Incarnation, as the SON of Man, JESUS had to choose to yield HIS will, to seek HIS FATHER’s face, to pray - for HE limited HIMSELF in HIS humanity, left behind HIS overwhelming, overpowering Glory and clothed HIMSELF in frail humanity. HE came to rescue man, to atone for our sin and rebellion, to redeem man as MAN; HE had to live as a man, with all of humanities limitations - and HE asks nothing of us that HE didn’t have to face in HIS humanity! 

He took the punishment of our sin upon HIMSELF, endured the righteous wrath of, and separation from, ALMIGHTY GOD that was our destiny, because “The wages of sin is death!” But death could not hold HIM down and GOD raised HIM up by the power of HIS SPIRIT, and The SON of GOD now reconciles every repentant sinner, that meets HIM at The Cross, to HIS FATHER!

This is LOVE, this is Grace, this is mercy - this is the longing of GOD - FATHER, SON and HOLY SPIRIT for each and every one of us.