Sunday, October 28, 2018

Holy Love, Isaiah: Light of the Nations - Tim Knipp

All will be blessed
through you.
Through you and
your seed
will all be blessed.
All and each - through you
all earth's
people

will be blessed,
blessed,
blessed.

Such is the heartbeat
of our God.
We hear it again
and again,
through Joseph,
Ruth,
David
and Solomon.

He says,
Look to the future
I have planned:
I will be exalted
above the earth
and all peoples
will be drawn
to Me.
Every tribe
and nation
will live together
in harmony
and justice -
centered around
my pulsing
heart
of holy love.

Holy love
seeks out wickedness,
insists on holiness -
severely roots out
festering angers
and deformed
egos
in order to bless.

On the cross
Christ spread his arms
to reveal
My love for all peoples,
drawing them,
calling to them,
to you,
so that all might
receive the 
promised 
blessing:
My holy love.

Gen. 12:3;22:18;26:4;28:14; Isa. 2:1-5; John 12:20-21

Sunday, October 21, 2018

Return to Me - Isaiah: Light to the Nations - Christian Lindbeck (Isa. 1:2-28)

Fierce grief expressed
resolutely
to an errant child.

Out of true, 
we shudder and shimmy,
struggling to stay afloat
yet denying our duplicity
with hypocritical 
leers.

The Father grieves
and steams -
"my people"
"my children"
"my beloved"
have betrayed Me.
You have embraced
your darker natures
and stubbornly
resisted all 
my love
and discipline.
What more can
I do?

I see destruction
and desolation
awaiting you.
Underneath your shiny veneer
is rotten wood,
riddled with honeycomb -
you will shatter
at the merest breath.
Your phony ceremonies
will not save you -
you go through the motions
while treasuring
obscenities
in your heart.
It's revolting!

How far you have come
from the joyful
and pure hearts
that shone like diamonds
to entice the
nations.

Turn!
Turn from your hell-bent ways!

If you come back to Me,
we will begin anew -
your wickedness
will be obliterated,
though saturated with blood,
your hands will be washed
and sanitized,
completely clean.

But,
if you will not,
it will be to your own destruction.
I raised you to be honest
and you have lied,
to show tenderness
and compassion,
but you have ravaged
and trampled
the vulnerable.

Hear me call to you
again and again
even as you spit
on My name
and find your hope
in things.
When the shallow air
you breathe
chokes you,
when wealth trickles
to dust and fails
to comfort,
come back,
come back.

I will always,
always
love you.