Little People God Uses -- John Koeshall (2 Kings 5)

Never too insignificant
to be of use
to God. 
Never too flawed
or damaged.
Kingdom efficiency.

Willingness 
and faithfulness
the only price of admission.

Choosing trust over anger
when life 
wrings you out
is one choice.
Blessing those  
who spit upon you
and force you
to grovel
is an option.
Struggling against
strangeness
and being an alien
in a foreign land
with persistence
can bring fruit.

Trust your place.

Consecration
can do wonders
beyond
money,
power,
or influence.

Power
perfected
in weak-
ness.

Hope Rises - Prophets & Kings; Tim Knipp

Deepest hopes.
Deepest fears.
Dread drives us
like a strong wind,
blowing our hopes
into crannies
and culverts
and down sewer drains.
The Living God blows life
into the seeds
of hope,
restoring what is lost
and even
reanimating 
dead flesh.
Wonder of wonders!
Billboards spring up:
"It happened HERE! (x2)!!!"
"O Death, Where is your sting?"

Hope rises
and conquers dread
resoundingly.

I can trust Jesus
in the face
of what I most fear. -- T. Knipp

2 Kings 4; Luke 7

Tim Knipp 1 Kings Change in the Desert

God uses the desert as a pivot point,

Abraham, the children of Israel,  Elijah

Jesus, Paul 

Us?

Without comfort without resources

Within a stirring, a ripple for change

Our choice

Plans for profit, fame, distraction

Or His shining dream 

Shimmering in the desert heat

requiring a shedding of the old

His dream for us is calling

Let go and bloom.

 

Tim Knipp - Silence (1 Kings 19:8-13)

Missing the kernel
of peace,
I swirl from
chaos to turbulence
and ricochet
off urgency.
Seeking solitude
is my instinct
yet I am 
sucked into 
the whirlpool of cacophony
and drown.

God is in the whisper,
the background
of silence,
thin and quavering -
strong as steel thread.

Listen for it.

Wait for it.

Breathe with it.

Embrace silence.

Be present
as you await
His presence.

Moses, Elijah,
and Jesus
waited for God
in solitude.

Like fractious infants
we fight
the stillness
we crave.
Imagine
His Father hand
patting us patiently,
nudging us
closer to
the sanctuary
of thinnest silence.

Tim Knipp - Silence- 1 Kings 19:8

In the stillness You are there...

Any Place, Anytime (Eph. 2:17-18)

When the earth cracks
and we are crushed -
it's hard to breathe.
We choke on dust
and hopelessness.

You bring water
to soothe our throats
and balm
to ease 
our wounded hearts
as we hear
our children
laugh again.

Becca Johnson - Nehemiah 1-3 - To Bellingham and Beyond