It's Not Just a Song by Three Dog Night

an original poem by yours truly [rachel] to honor Hope's elders who have called us to deliberate and overt witnesses this Autumn 2010


Me & You and YOU & Me
Can I get a Witness?
Tell them who you are.
Tell them Whose you are.
Be a Witness!
People, get ready.
HE'll be coming for you soon.
People, Get Ready!
You'll know so soon!
Tell them Who HE IS!
Be a Witness.
Tell them what HE has done for you.
What has HE done for me?
Everything!
Everything, HE has done everything for me!
The LORD gave me sight and insight.
HE gave me two ears and one mouth.
HE gave me hearing and voice.
HE gave me Salt and a tongue to taste it.
HE gave me water and a thirst for LIVING WATER.
HE gave me hope and A  WAY, A  PATH to HIM.
HE gave me a rise to my step.
HE gave ARISE to my step.
HE gave me LIFE, abundant life, life anew.
HE gave me joy, joy, joy...oh such sweet and lasting true joy.
HE gave me Hope and LIGHT to lead me there.
The LORD gives me memory, memory of what HE has done;
Memory of what HE has done for me!
HE gives me shelter.
HE gives shelter under HIS Wings.
HE gives me shelter under HIS Eaves.
HE gives me A HOUSE of Holiness and a home;
A home for my heart and rest within it.
HE gives me HIS Outstretched Arms that hold me tight, tight, tight.
HE gives me A FATHER Who Loves Unconditionally.
HE gives me A BROTHER Who keeps me honest.
The LORD gave me lips to confess,
Confess HIS HOLY NAME!
The LORD gives me A FRIEND Who Comforts;
Who Wipes Away my every tear! and Who Hushes all my sobs!
What does GOD give me?
HE gives me everything!
Everything!
I will be a Witness!
Be a Witness too!
I will show what HE gives me! What HE has done for me!
Tell people what HE gives! what HE gives you!
I will tell them what HE gives! What HE gives me!
Show them what HE gives! Show them what HE gives you!
I desire to show Who HE  IS!
Reveal Who HE IS!
I hunger to display Who HE IS!
Can I get a Witness?
Yes!
Can I get a Witness to HIS Goodness, please?
Yes! Yes! Yes!

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

I have had a lot of time to do easy 'tasks' this week as Dr. James told me to get myself to bed and stay there. What have done with my time? Eat. Sleep. Read. Nap. Face time with the Internet. Slumbered. Watched Movies. You get the picture. 
Part of what I read was my journal. Yes, I am known for my habit of writing down funny stories, sermon notes, prayer requests and comments or thoughts I have which I want to ponder a little longer. [People tell me to take notes for them too, and I do. ; ) And some really appreciate me for doing so ; ) ] So my journal also has a place where I have written down passages of the Scriptures for various and a-sundry reasons. This week I looked at several of these passages but the one that really caught me amazed and begged me to think about was this one:
verse 7
Where can I go from YOUR SPIRIT? 
Where can I flee from YOUR PRESENCE?
verse 8
If I go up to the heavens, YOU are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, YOU are there.
from Psalm 139

Here are my riffs on this old, old song:
Ancient people have recorded their thoughts of what their 'heavens' held, what they were like, what they controlled, etc. But I don't think they ever pondered the idea of going up into outer space except as a metaphor of their current situation.
The twentieth century people did ponder the literal idea, the idea to go 'where no man has gone before', the idea that ancient humanity really and truly didn't think of as a literal one.
'To go up to the heavens?' Nope. Never. That's crazy talk. After all didn't the Ancients think the ark was Noah talking crazy?
Speaking as a 'Post-Modern' woman [which I only sorta think of myself as], Modern Individuals [men and women] queried over and over again in our history, Why can't we?
Why can't we inhabit the sky?
Why can't we go into space?
Why can't we go to the moon and back?
Why can't we live out there in the expanse of the heavens?
Why should we?
Why shouldn't we?
And that is just what they did, they answered all of those questions. In the 1900s we went places we had never gone to before; And you're right, I mean that literally and metaphorically.
After reading this Psalm and knowing 'we' had gone to the heavens, I asked myself some questions about those men and women who dared to dream and dared to go.
Have any of those 'space-age travelers' been religious?
Has any one human carried this GOD-Breathed Scripture out there past Earth's atmosphere?
Did s/he hide in her/his heart these words to ponder them while out there or did s/he have to write it down to take along the ride?
Did this person ask her/him-self to answer the questions posed in Psalm 139?
Did s/he look out the hatch window and feel that The PRESENCE Of The LORD there with her/him?
And looking further back into each explorers' personal history, if indeed a religious person was granted the opportunity to go; did that one person choose such arduous schooling, grueling training and the battle to travel because of these few lines of Scripture?
Did any of the people signing the paychecks of those chosen to experience weightlessness not in a plane but above the planet's plain; did those signers consider this simple poetry when they signed those slips of paper?
Was the refrain remembered in the choice made by all those people who helped make the reality of space travel? 
Was the verse remembered in the choice made by any of those people because Bible Scripture influenced their lives?

Was it because they wanted to experience GOD in that far away place out there?

Was their decision the same as or similar to what Ronald Reagan said about the Challenger Crew:
"they prepared for the journey and waved goodbye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch the face of GOD.'"?
Was it the Tower of Babel all over again?
Some of both?
How much of either?
Surely, the words that were written to The LORD in Psalm 139 are included in our Holy Bible because even before The LORD created though JESUS CHRIST with The WORD the world; The CREATOR foreknew that humanity would make its way out of its earthly boundaries and barriers to those self-same heavens the psalmist pondered and about which he cried out to GOD. Surely?

Thoughts on Thoughts

So recently I heard some communion thoughts that troubled me. After pondering them awhile I found I needed to respond to them in an orderly fashion. Here is my response to them...

Stop It!! Stop thinking that the Blood of CHRIST trickled down from HIS Brow while HE was hanging on the Salvation's Cross!! Because you are sadly mistaken if you think JESUS'S Bleeding was minimal!!

First, Scripture notes that JESUS was whipped and beaten by Roman soldiers. Roman [& Jewish] law prohibited no more than 39 lashes to be prescribed as punishment. At the end of this lashing, can you really imagine anything but CHRIST'S Flesh torn to shreds? And that was even before the soldiers taunted and beat HIM!! Ask yourself why it was needful for Simon to be recruited to help carry the cross to the site of CHRIST'S Crucifixion. This type of torture [ruled cruel and unusual punishment by the US Supreme Court] often resulted in internal injuries.

Further ask yourself what occurred at each of JESUS'S Trials. To me at least, it is clear how provocative and upsetting JESUS'S Non-Answers were to both Jewish and Roman officials. Again do you really think that neither of these trials were carried out without any physicality involved? JESUS wasn't slapped? JESUS did not carry bruises from HIS First Trial to HIS Second? Not one mark on HIS Flesh? Nothing?

And none of these ideas of the harm done to The LAMB'S Body include the actual nailing of JESUS'S Hands or HIS Feet onto the cross. Nor does it include the wounds inflicted by the Crown of Thorns stuck to HIS Wounded Head...because let me tell you, it was not intended to be a gentle experiencing with a bare prickling of the skin. No! Those thorns were put on with as much cruelty and viciousness, as damaging and mocking as humanly possible! In all probability, our SAVIOR'S Brow ended up looking like ground meat.

As modern society steps further and further away from the reality of being sentenced to be hanged on a cross until dead, whether that took days to accomplish or the knees are broken to speed up the process; we often think six hours on a cross is a long time, when in fact, JESUS'S Finish on earth was really quite rapid. Scripture remarks on the surprise the Roman soldiers felt when they came to break CHRIST'S knees and thus hurry our KING'S End and found HIM already dead...

So even the soldiers were shocked so significantly that they felt the need to 'make sure' HE was dead by piecing HIS Chest Cavity with a sword...

And let me continue to enlighten you as to the Cross's brutal reality. 'Water' did not pour out of JESUS'S 'S Stabbed-Through Side. Blood gushed out of CHRIST'S Torn Rib Cage; accompanied most probably with bone fragments, and perhaps bits of internal organs.

We must never again allow ourselves the thought that JESUS CHRIST'S Death only brought forth a few drops of blood. Let us always remember the cry JESUS screamed:

GOD, why have YOU forsaken ME?

It was delivered from a deep chasm, a deep reserve of unbearable pain. Only because my ETERNAL FRIEND sacrificed HIMSELF in such agony can I never be forsaken, abandoned or be separated by The LORD or HIS LOVE.