(c) Cheryl Howard 2008

 

I know I’m passing through this earth,

A pilgrim on my way.

Each step I take I’m closer,

To that great and longed for day.

When YOU roll back this world’s curtain,

And I rest in YOUR embrace,

At last I’ll finally see YOU, unveiled in that place.

 

Each day I hear YOUR call,

“Give ME your heart, your all,

This place is not your home, its treasures not your own.”

I live for YOU, YOUR kingdom,

YOUR life flows through my veins.

YOU are my LORD and Master and over me YOU reign,

Most Beloved SAVIOR, on me YOU’ve staked YOUR claim.

 

I rejoice within YOUR Presence,

Constrained, compelled, yet free.

A son, a slave, a servant,

A bride has HE made me.

 

I seek a place beyond these shores,

A world beyond my sight.

A wondrous kingdom full of love,

Where Light has banished night.

 

My goal it is to tell to all,

For you HE weeps, HE cries, HE calls.

HE rescued you, HE took your place,

Hear HIS voice, “Come seek MY face.”

 

To snatch from fire, from death, despair,

HE died for you, O see HIS care.

To tell the lost, the blind, the worn,

Receive HIS life and be reborn!

 

 

 

 

thought for the journey…..

GOD’s love in us is never given to be ‘kept’ - it is poured in to be received, embraced and to be ‘given out’, poured through - uncontainable!

GOD’s grace, HIS power - poured in and given out to all and sundry. To every lost, hurting, needy child of GOD - for CHRIST would reconcile us all to HIS FATHER! This is HIS heart, HIS longing - and if we truly love HIM, it should likewise be ours.

GOD will never leave us depleted or emptied of HIS love - HE tells us in Romans 5:5 “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of GOD has been poured out in our hearts by The HOLY SPIRIT Who was given to us!” The secret is to always ‘draw near’; keep close and keep receiving - for HIS supply has no end ….to wait upon The LORD…..

 

We are called to live this life as ‘aliens, pilgrims, sojourners’ - a people whose hearts are set upon The SAVIOR, who are living for a Kingdom that is not of this world, who know this place is not their home, they are passing through. A people whose treasure is above… whose treasure is a Person - The SON of GOD!

 

1 Peter 2:11 “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war aginst the soul,”

Hebrews 11:13-16 “……. confessed that they were strangers & pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland …….. But now they desire a better, that is a heavenly country. Therefore GOD is not ashamed to be called their GOD, for HE has prepared a city for them.”

Matthew 6:19-21,33 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth & rust destroy and where thieves break in & steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven … for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”   “But seek first The Kingdom of GOD & HIS righteousness, & all these things shall be added to you.”

John 18:36 “Jesus answered, ‘MY Kingdom is not of this world …..”

Colossians 3:1-4 “If then you were raised with CHRIST, seek those things which are above …..”

 

(C) Cheryl Howard 2009

I cannot live without YOU, not even for a day

I stagger lost without YOU, YOU are The Only Way

Without YOUR light I’m blind, groping in the dark

I see a future empty, devoid of life and stark

 

 

 

Without YOU I am shrivelled, a shadow without form

If it wasn’t for YOUR Cross LORD, I’d still be dead, unborn

YOU are my breath of life, YOUR heart it beats in mine

Forever am I grateful that YOU stepped down into time

 

 

 

YOU took my sins upon YOU, YOU covered me with grace

YOU are unchanging Truth, in YOUR Atonement rests my faith

And what unsearchable riches, my LORD are found in YOU

YOUR Blood upon The Cross LORD, did for me what I can’t do

 

 

 

It is YOUR heart that is my treasure, YOUR Face that I seek

YOU Alone delight my soul, I yearn each day to hear YOU speak

For YOU are Life Eternal, Merciful, Righteous, Pure

The more O LORD I know YOU, I long to know YOU more, and more!

 

 

 

 

thought for the journey ….  

 

The miracle of CHRISTmas, the yearly celebration, exists because of ALMIGHTY GOD’s great heart of love towards HIS lost, fallen and rebellious creation. If GOD had not incarnated HIMSELF in Baby JESUS 2000 odd years ago, the world would indeed be a grim and ‘hope’less place. But we have JESUS - IMMANUEL, GOD with us; The Hope of the world ….. what a reason to celebrate, what joy, what wonder, what undeserved grace - what hope!

 

The miracle is that a Holy, Righteous, Just and Perfect GOD loves flawed, selfish, sin stained, self obsessed, failure ridden humanity - and not because we are so ‘lovable’ but because HE has imbued us with great worth and HE IS LOVE!

 

When we see our own ‘ugliness’ and unrighteousness, we are right - for all our ‘righteousness’ is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6) - and we must run to our SAVIOR Who fills us with HIS imputed righteousness. We have nothing to redeem ourselves, nothing to commend ourselves - yet HE chose us, loves us, and HE will fill us with HIS love and goodness, for HIS manifest glory - if we yield to HIM, trusting in the work of HIS Cross, the Power of HIS Blood, and receive!

Hold our own lives lightly, secure in the knowledge that YHWH holds them priceless! Oh how imperative it is that we know ‘who we are in CHRIST’ - not that we know “who we are”, but that we know who we are “in CHRIST”

 

The miracle is that not only does our Holy CREATOR love us, but HE yearns for us to be reconciled to HIMSELF - and an even greater miracle is that HE took upon HIMSELF the cost, the task and burden of reconciling us, of washing us clean from the filth of our sin, of redeeming us - of rescuing us through JESUS The CHRIST, SAVIOR of all who would hear HIS voice and heed HIS command to “Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17) 

 

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and The LORD has laid on HIM the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:6

This is the true message of CHRISTmas - the Gospel of the Grace of GOD!