Reflection of the Week
The Race
Lord, you reign triumphant, above it all the Lord reigns triumphant. I prophesied your strength to fill me and Prayed earnestly for a miracle. Not only did you fill me but you answered an abundance of prayers that were envisaged much before the excitement of the race had ever been conceived. I sat in gratitude of previous victories received by your preeminent hand. I remembered the prior mental mountains you decimated. Your presence trained me rapidly so that I could run a race I had never before ran. I cried out and preached that my abilities are yours and my fruit grows at your rate. You sprung up apples in speeds incomprehensible. My branches yielded plenty in beautiful ripeness, sweeter than those of the freshest in Jumla. You trained my legs for arduous miles. You prepared my mind, protecting me from lies and walls that would cause me to faint much sooner than my true limit. I praised you and you enlisted peace on the day of my race. My mind was set on the present, not on the next mile nor the finish line. My body rested in your presence and at the sound of the gun I took stride. We started the race together, a journey that did not begin at the starting line nor did it conclude at the finish line. I ran and you accompanied me. Down hills we made great time and around bends we went. In the early miles I sent prayers for the miles to come. For I knew that the prayers would arrive much faster then I. I prayed rejuvenation to fall on me at the mile 13 midpoint and for destruction of the mile 18 wall. One stride at a time. Mile after mile. In my distress I called out Jireh and You truly provided. In my discomfort you brought my stomach and mind peace. When I became sweaty and hot there was water waiting for me around the corner. I poured it over myself and felt relief and freshness. You Lord are the living water that drenches my head in heats unsustainable. I praised you in gratitude as I felt great vitality in the first leg of the second half. Joy and enthusiasm carried me past the mid point and swung me into miles 16 then onto 17. There in loneliness and tiredness waited a faithful servant who ran beside me. I reached deep within and kept pushing. I centralized my headspace on the current mile but started losing stability as I yearned for the finish line. With great consciousness I arrived at mile 21 to be refreshed by another two of God’s faithful servants and dear friends. They encouraged me to keep pushing on. As I grew more and more weary a deeper revelation of your love entered my mind. I realized the power of friendship and just how strong relationships are. It reminded me of God’s strength in love and our weaknesses. My friends proclaimed truth over my hurting mind and body. After pushing past the wall of “one more” overly exhausting turns, one too many times, I arrived at the stadium gates which would soon be substituted for a spiritual display of heavens gates. I entered the stadium delusional and weak. My mind didn’t know anything other then to keep my legs moving and my head up. Under my breath I mumble the simple words “one more, a hundred more, all the more, for the Lord.” Every moment I’ve pushed a little further, every workout I went one more whether I remembered or not were the last ounces of fuel burning in my tank. Every verse, and great moment, and every motivational word ever heard or seen, ever read or lived, flashing through my mind as I curl around the final stretch of the track. I use everything I have in me to keep going. My legs stumble before me but I get up. I run a couple more feet then stumble again. The thought of not getting to finish the race picks me off the ground to escape the medics rushing the track. I dodge one of them and drunkenly run toward the finish line. I fall again, stand up and strip the hand hold of a fellow racer trying to assist me. One more go at it and with everything I have in a siege tremendous I throw myself toward the line. As I cross the finish line my mind and body knows it is finally complete and gives out. I drive my face into the track in exhausted relief. Undignified I lie blacked out on the ground. I give God the glory with the little consciousness I have left. My body rushes with euphoric dopamine as medics hurry over and friends stand above. When the severity settled in and was made known I was rushed to an ambulance. For you Lord, I touched death because you once triumphed over it. By your strength and every drop of my will power I took my flesh to the lowest of lows. I flirted with death and in the process I felt more alive because it was you who lived so affluently through me. My life story became so clear and my purpose was imparted to my knowledge. For I always had purpose but on this day it was made known. I could see a glimpse of your face and felt the option to see it fully but chose to help others see it before I do. The revelation of the life I have yet to live and lives I have yet to affect was greater then my selfishness to leave the trials and discomfort of this transient world. You saved me and I will forever share of your love. You carried me when my flesh was too weary and you comforted me when my body couldn’t. The joy of the Lord was stronger then the deterioration of my own muscles. I praise you Lord. Forevermore I praise you and will tell of your remarkable deeds. Your faithfulness will not be withheld from my tongue. Victory to Jesus, my soul cries victory to Jesus.
Poetry
Unfair Trade
Lord oh Lord, for if a poem of praise was to be written for you everyday. It would still not be enough to express my gratitude. In the depths of the wilderness you pulled me out. You created a sanctuary in my mind. I rejected you and lied, yet You showed me that I can walk peacefully through unknown lands when I surrender and realize my life is not mine. Where I am lost, you are found. When I am on my knees, you are in my heart. My soul longs to praise the one who is worthy, Lord you are worthy of it all. You are the initiator of extravagant Love, my soul overflows with vitality and my mind rests in the peacefulness of your presence. Surely I could give nothing valid in return to one as mighty and omnipotent as you? Your life was laid at the cross, the trade is not fair. Even so, you are jealous of my attention and want to know me. You love when I arise and you want to spend time with me. You cradle my head while I sleep and you massage my insecurities with your Love. I love you Lord and want to be your friend. Allow my praise to be as beautiful as a Rose. Let the roots of my worship go deep into my soul so that it may be real and genuine, not surface level. For those who worship from the surface will bear flowers of colorless pedals lacking all beauty. Let the thorns of my praise be the authority of protection from the devils wits. When he tries to pluck my praise away, let truth cut deep into his grasp. You Lord water my flowers with your grace and I receive photosynthesis from the light of your presence. Your precepts are my soil and your disciples are the nutrients.
(no title)
I heard the testimony's of David and Shabrach, Meshach and Abednego. I fell on my knees in the sanctified feeling of surrendered righteousness. God I am on my knees. I rocked back and fourth in the feeling of your presence. My hands were grasped by yours. Your light filled them. My face was burning with you I could feel the literal mane of the Lion of the Lord growing on my face. God I can feel a beard and It represents a lions main because when I speak it will be your voice that is heard like the powerful roaring of a lion. I spoke in tongues for the first time from the overflow of you entering my mind, tongue, and throat. My throat was strangled and filled with light, my vocal cords were tuned to your cadence. I wept in praise at the anointing of my heart, mine was removed and yours was placed, filled out with your light. I cried in holy worship, repentance, and surrender. God you will use this testimony to change the lives of others. For my hand did not type it. It was scribed from the ink of previous tears mixed with the everlasting water of you. I sobbed in ineffable praise. Forevermore you are my Lord. I have been anointed by the golden nectar of a sanctified fragrance. Lord let me go out into the nations in courage and strength in you. I praise forevermore, may all be done to the Glory of God. Let me be the everlasting water of you and your sanctification, let it be taken by anyone at anytime like an infinitely filled well. No Matter what happens, if my Limbs are removed or my fingernails ripped off. Even If I feel the equivalent fleshly pain of Christ's death. I will know I am yours and you are mine. I will know that no matter where I go, you go with me.
Mountains and Valleys
On mountain sides I run following David. Running to a village to deliver a Bible for a new heavenly gained soul. My mind flashes between the view of the mountain and valley below and beside, to the mountains and valleys that once laid in my mind a year ago. I see a vision of me marching in the cold Minnesotan weather with a weighted vest preparing to trek and carry Bibles. I hear the audible affirmations of so many prior workouts, at the most fatigue, during the most pain I pushed a little harder proclaiming, “I do not do this for me” “this is for God” “for the lost souls” “for the children who do not know” “for truth” “for the Bible.” One after another each phrase firing in my mind like a beautiful rose surfacing in great speeds from the depths of my subconscious to the surface of my present mind. The seeds planted long ago, now by the grace of God their beauty is revealed and the fertilizer in which they were planted shows sufficient. Lord oh lord what have I done to deserve such an awe inspiring gift. By your grace I have become the ink in which you have written a beautiful story.
(Tap Entry 23: Outreach Stories #2 (Delivering the Gospel) For Poem Context)
Hypothermia
The Lord is the warmth in my body. He lights a fire that never goes out, no water nor weather can cause it to fizzle away. It is righteously unquenchable. Your precepts are the fuel. May your law burn away all things that are not of you. May my heart be filled with overwhelming heat, let it radiate from the deepest parts of me. My flesh is cold and my lips quiver, I sit here restlessly and my legs continuously shiver. But I will rejoice for the Lord is good, he has brought me here and I will be glad. His love is like sunshine on my skin. May the coldness of my flesh accentuate the heat of your presence. May the darkness of my fragility emphasize and amplify the wonders of your light. My body aches, but my soul sings forevermore. Through grace I have been saved and through pain I fall unto you. You are a teacher of many, my life is the classroom and my experiences are the lessons. Through your Love and the tests, trials, and tribulations, the coldness of my soul has been transformed into a burning fire of the Lords presence.
Armor of Christ
Lord just as your timing is magnificent, so has the enemy mastered the timing of his attacks. When I grew weak and foolishly removed a piece of the armor of Christ, I was pierced by the devils arrow. For he sits patiently with his bow anchored, ready to release an attack onto me at any moment of weakness. Once the arrow entered and the pain was inflicted, he poured the salt of lies unto my wound. He used all things in his power to enlist more and more pain. But in that pain I cried out to the Lord, my wound was cleansed by his everlasting water. The armor that I foolishly removed was replaced with a piece stronger than the previous. It was forged by the Lords mighty hand and welded together with Grace and Forgiveness. It was ready at any moment for me to place on my weakness, but it is only through the delight of his precepts, repentance of my mind and surrender of my soul that allowed me to receive it.
Paul’s burning house
When the fire came, and tested my foundation. I escaped through the flames but the quality of my work was brought to light. I choked on my lies, and I stumbled over my pride. Even so, when I was on my knees, God heard my cry.
God The Farmer
Lord just as to David you were a shepherd, to me Lord you are a farmer. A farmer who sees a piece of dry, unhealthy, topographically poor, piece of land, and decides to put his life on the yield of that land. I Lord am that piece of land, instead of flattening out my sharp hills and deep valleys, you accentuate them in your strength and created rolling hills. You turn my valleys into water ways that flow deep with your everlasting water. You prepared the ground before my seeds were even planted. You tilled, disced, and plowed at my surface until I was ready to prosper, you prepare the soil of my soul Lord. Then with your perfect hand placed every seed in perfect accordance to the ground and nutrients. You then provided your great light so when underground and in darkness I knew what direction to go. My seed sprung towards your light. As I grew you provided an abundance of nutrients, minerals, and water for my needs. You walked every row of my field and pulled the weeds, you looked after and nurtured every plant, you did not let even one leaf wither in your sight. My plants grew tall and strong. When they turned from green to yellow at the right time you harvested them and they yielded in abundance because they were grown and taken care of by your perfect hand.
Vitality
Resilience, persistence, tenacity and the list keeps going. These attributes are important and beneficial but not as strong as vitality. Money, Gold, silver, and palladium, all have great value, but the most valuable of currencies is vitality. For vitality is the ability to enthusiastically accept the present moment as a gift. It allows one to exuberantly push through adversity without any questioning. One who sows his actions with the fertilizer of vitality will reap fortune beyond comprehension. Because it was out of the love of the moment and not the result that motivated their conscientious behavior when the seeds were planted. For when one plants with vitality, their intention and interest is not in the harvest or the yield but instead their motivation is intrinsic and their results are prosperous.
The Light In My Cave
Lord I thank you for the reminder of my fragility, for it only reminds me of how much more I need you. The exploration of my mind and heart can be like a walk in a dark cave, but when I call unto the Lord he is my Light. It is my decision how deep and how far I go. God rewards those who will go to the depths of their mind to allow the Lords light to shine even brighter. As I descend deeper and deeper my body becomes weak and my head grows nauseous, but in that weakness I allow God to lead me even more. The Lord is pleased at one who voluntarily journeys into the darkness that is discomfort just for the glory of the Lord to shine. It is in the deepest depths of my cave that I find the nuggets of gold, the gold that is revelations which cause purification through the extraction of my iniquities. Through this extraction it causes me to gaze more extensively on the pure gold that is Jesus Christ.
Kingdom of God (2021)
Lord I have built a kingdom around my heart forged from bricks of false beliefs and my own ego. They have constantly been knocked down leaving my kingdom destroyed and empty, this last destruction showed me the only way to build up a firm never failing, strong foundational kingdom is through the bricks of your precepts, bricks formed from the mud of repentance in my own wrongs and the grass of your grace that hold them together. the bricks are not placed in hundreds or thousands, for if they were they would fall. They are placed daily, one by one to the best of my ability. Slowly but correctly building a kingdom with strong walls that may be shot at in attempt to destroy. But he whose walls are built from the bricks of Christ will never fall.
Three Man Weave
Lord when you are on my team, God the father, the Son and the Holy Spirit run a harmonious three man weave within me. For they are the greatest super team ever conceived. There has never been and will never be a greater big three. You effortlessly pass the ball of righteousness. Opponents fall upon their knees at the sight of your presence because it enlists grace and mercy. The Championship has already been Won through the final words “it is finished”. Now we spray champagne of incense in righteous celebration. The answer is Christ and the truth is scripture. Jesus is Mr 4th quarter when he returns descending from the clouds. There is no greater team than the one who runs a Holy 3 man weave.
Life is a beach
Lord oh Lord, for your Grace runs as far and broad as the depths of the ocean. Through my sinful nature, my spirit and body straddle between righteous surrender and selfish ill-advised “control” on the earthly shoreline of your heavenly ocean of Grace. I write my iniquities in the sand, but because of your Grace, Jesus’s ocean of blood raises its tide and removes my sin from the sands of time. But righteousness is like a palm tree on the beach, for even the strongest of winds cannot uproot it, even after the most tremendous of storms, and the highest most powerful waters, it will not falter. Just as a man who lives in righteousness will endure the trials of this world. He who is planted in the word of truth and righteousness will abide in Christ. He will remain triumphant.
Location📍
Lord if the stars align perfectly at the breath of your words, then why should my desires be any different. If every planet is placed perfectly throughout the endless abyss of the cosmos then why should I question where you have placed me. Allow my soul to not seek a physical location but instead reach a spiritual representation of you. For your presence enlists peace in any destination. What good is a body in Minnesota, if my state of mind is in the past. What good is a body in Windom if my soul is experiencing the anxiety of the unpredictable future. For a soul that can only be quenched by a future destination, will always arrive and remain thirsty.
Cleanse your Wounds
Allow God to clean your weaknesses and cuts. For if one is not filled with the truth and the Holy Spirit when an injury happens, it may be infected by the lies of the enemy. Drown yourself in the living water of Christ. Surrender to the Prince of Peace to gain freedom through the Spirit and Holy Sanctification.