Humm

4/17/08

According to a report from Charles Q. Choi of LiveScience.com the earth is giving off an unremitting hum of numerous notes which the human ear finds imperceptible, ‘like a giant, exceptionally quiet symphony’. This humming occurs even when the ground is not shaking due to an earthquake. It has been posited that it could come from the ocean’s churning or the roiling atmosphere. Early research found the hum to be spheroidal from up and down rock movement; however sounds have now been found that oscillate making the hum that is roughly shaped like rings. Choi relates this to being like ‘dozens of lazy hurricanes’. Though this was not unexpected the ring like waves are nearly as strong as the spherical ones which was surprising. Rudolf Widmer-Schnidrig a University of Stuttgart geoscientist said ‘this is a very small signal that is hard to measure, and the excitation is probably due to multiple interactions in a complex system”. He added that understanding the sound would help us understand how the land, sea and air all interact.

Hmm, movement, excitation, interaction of complex systems, underlying sounds imperceptible to the human hearing but not undetectable sounds, kinda sounds familiar to me. Oh, yeah, sounds like life, especially life lived by the Spirit. Scripture says Yeshua came to give us life, more abundantly Jn 10:10 (abundant is defined as super abundant, superior). Sadly however most of the time we don’t hear the voice of the Spirit, we don’t get excited about His movement and we tend to shy away from a deeper understanding cause face it; it is a very complicated interaction, sort of. Actually children seem not to have so much trouble with the excitation of interaction with complex systems, they just kind of go with it. Having said this in my opinion, it takes a childlike acceptance of what is definitely there and a childlike heart to often hear it at all; then a maturing into the knowledge of its purpose and our part in it needs to occur.

Hawking once asked the question ‘what is it that puts fire into the equation?’ My posit is I know Who puts the fire in the equation, I want to know the equation. A lofty goal I admit and I know I perhaps won’t even understand a lot of the equation but I find if you don’t ask and seek you probably won’t find.

Prov. 2 says if we tune our ears to wisdom and set our hearts to understand that (vs 5) we will find Abba’s knowledge because He gives wisdom and speaks knowledge and understanding.

Is. 6:3 says the entire earth is full of His glory. The God’s Word version of Ps. 66:4 says the whole earth will worship Him and make music to praise Him (my paraphrase) *also check out Ps. 98:4 and Is. 44:23*

Romans ch. 8 discusses the fact that creation is groaning in frustration along with those of us who have the Spirit waiting in hope for freedom to fulfill its purpose. Together we groan for release, for purpose to be manifested for more abundant life which was promised.

Let me share a not so secret insight when you wait with hope the groan becomes a hum, the hum a song, the song a shout, a dance…a time of worship, renewal, a grace space.

2nd Peter 3:5 speaks to why some won’t know, won’t understand, wont’ hear. For those who can’t feel the hope, won’t hear the song, because they have hidden this knowledge from themselves. They don’t hear the song proclaiming that the world is held together by His Word.

Hmm, what’s that I hear, the cosmos joins the song and we answer back, we resonate with the circular sounds of all creation as we hum along to Abba’s heartbeat.


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On The Edge

4/14/08

There is only a small slice of time in which we are allowed to stand on the edge of the uncertain; a vacuous void of not knowing, for in this world of cacophonous noise there is little time for a silent sense of being still and knowing verses knowing for information and input sake. This morning I pondered the grace of being able to stand there at all, the wonder of wonder, the discovery of the inner voice over the outside influences of this world. What to do with a void that threatens to swallow your world as you know it, to change your life without your permission? Looking back over the few times I’ve had this privilege of standing and not being plunged in by some outside force I see a small pattern, one not thought out nor perpetuated, at least not by me consciously, is to first embrace the void. Perhaps it is from the influence of Macrina’s words that God has room to work in emptiness that is owned so I own it, embrace it; for all too soon the world would fill it with reason and it can no longer be a potential for good or ill at that stage but a battle or blessing as it plays out. Embracing the void simply means I accept it is there with all its possibilities thrilling or daunting, it is before me and I will not avoid it. Next as I lay pondering I realized from past glimpses I tend to take the leap of faith. Admittedly I probably hope to leap over it completely and be able to look back and say, ‘past that, whew!’

However most often I find I’ve leapt heart first, right in the middle of it. Why heart first, simple my heart is stronger than my head and leaping feet first into a void is by definition of a void not possible for there is no place visible to stand upon. These voids are not only empty but vacuous sucking all matter into a vortex of… well uncertain possibilities. Nature abhors a vacuum and so do I; so once having leapt, I suppose I begin to fill it with my thoughts (rightly or wrongly my normal heart felt leap takes this action). The wondrous thing about a void is there is no preconception there so my thoughts can take flight. They fly out in all directions not checking out the void for it’s a no brainer that it is empty, void, vacant, thankfully my heart is not. The possibilities of flying thoughts are near endless at least in my thought pattern and it seems somewhere in my fancy there comes a bit of light. Light can be very good or it can shed itself upon the only object in the void which is me and I usually find that quite painful. Hence my next thoughts come from my head and they don’t fly they roil. I see my flaws; I see how I might cause this void to be a curse not only for me but for my loved ones and more importantly as a place where I could fail Abba. Self-flagellation is not new to the flesh but is not very pleasant company in a vacuous void. Dealing with flesh must be done another way and mostly for me can’t be done by me, at least not by my head knowledge. It’s then that I acknowledge that I’ve not been in the void alone at all for Ruach the ever faithful advocate, comforter, my very Best Friend, has come with me. He like Jonathan’s armor bearer says, ‘go for it; leap in faith and we’ll deal with the consequences’. He knows my heart and He opens my mind to the correct way of dealing with flesh, merely submerge it in Spirit. I find myself in a vacuous void immersed in Spirit and uh-oh my feet have found a resting place. It’s the solid Rock, the Foundation Stone, the Great leaper of all time, woo-hoo! However, one cannot stand in a vacuous void for the void is attempting to suck you into the unknowingness of nothingness so my reaction is to dance. Here in the void before I know the prognosis, the outcome, the length, breadth, depth…of it all I dance. The Spirit reminds me to dance with Him is to be healed to dance for Him is to be translated. Ahhh, chaos, the flesh dances for hope, for promise, to fill the void then the spirit and flesh divide, my flesh may remain in the void but my spirit is translated into His presence, I dance for joy, for love, for wonder. I danced in admiration for the One who has ordered my steps and who has taken a leap heart first into my heart. Here we meet heart to heart and my spirit is revived and renewed and changed into being a little more like His image. He ever the Gentleman ( a very gentle man) Who then escorts me back to my place, yeah, the void, the ohh so vacuous, Oy Vey, He’s filled it. It is then that I come to understand the leap I took was into the deep crevasse of His nailed scarred hand (my cleft in the Rock) and if I am for but a brief moment a partaker of His suffering (1 Kefa 4:13) I know it is so His glory can be revealed and I will be glad and have much joy. Here again I dance in declaration of hope come in the flesh, joy comes to kiss my mourning turning the darkness into the brilliant light of a supernova times a billion or so. The void outside is gone because the void inside is filled, the only vacuity that remains is one in my heart which will ever crave more of His presence, more of His love. And I am extremely glad to tell you it is a craving, He intends to fill!

Stirring The Water

4/14/08

John 5:2-9 Now there is a pool at the Sheep Gate at Jerusalem, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda (house of kindness), having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of those who were sick, of blind, lame, withered, waiting (to accept from some source) for the moving (stirring) of the water. For an angel (messenger) went down at a certain time into the pool and troubled the water. Then whoever first stepped in after the troubling(stir or agitate) of the water was made whole of whatever disease he had. And a certain man was there, who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying, and knowing that he had spent much time, He said to him, Do you desire to be made whole? The infirm man answered Him, Sir, when the water is troubled, I have no one to put me into the pool. But while I am coming, another steps down before me. Jesus says to him, Rise, take up your bed and walk.

And immediately the man was made whole and took up his bed and walked. And it was a Sabbath on that day. MKJV (Parenthetical definitions my addition)

Yesterday I found myself spontaneously standing before worship, which I lead at our church, and saying something to the effect of, ‘don’t worry about the songs, getting the words right, if you know them or not, worship is getting our hearts in His presence.” Then I proclaimed, ‘many are waiting for the stirring of the water, for healing or deliverance, I’m telling you, I’m stirring the water, whether you feel it or not get in, In fact you might get in and be there for a bit before you feel the stirring.’

You might ask, was worship glorious after such a proclamation? Actually if you judged it on the ‘performance’ of the songs, the answer would be nope. The monitors for some reason were not up and we couldn’t hear ourselves, causing the drummer grave concerns. We had to restart one song due to a wrong beat; a song which I had aced in practice was totally blocked from my mind in finding the right key. ‘Oy, Abba, we were troubled whether the water was stirred or not.’

Yet out of chaos, the waters of trust, not desperation, (you heard right, trust worked deeply into my heart by years of walking troubled waters) I felt deep calling to deep. The Spirit brooding (Gen. 1:2) over us ready to move. Though I can’t recall everything by any stretch that He said to me I do remember Him specifically saying that there is only a small slice in time where we can stand with Abba, in total trust, ‘knowing’ before seeing His hand move that it is already in fact moving, that He has been preparing, stirring, troubling the waters with creative purpose and has invited us to participate in this action. I felt His hearts cry for a people who would walk the waters of a storm, stirring them by the Spirit thus giving an opportunity for those caught up in the natural or demonically unctioned storm, which ever the case might be, the chance to be made whole; to be a people not waiting for an angelic messenger from heaven but who would become the messenger that would cause the stirring.

Later in the service as our church family surrounded David and myself to pray for us as the ones to lead them in this endeavor we are embarked upon, I saw a vision of all of us walking the waters of the storm, not waiting for them to part, not waiting for them to be calmed but striding out confidently. Then I saw a mountain come crashing down into the water and a way was made just beneath the surface for us to walk on. Again the storm was not abated, the waves dashed over our feet as we walked but we knew that under the storm was a foundation, firm, solid so even the ‘least’ of these would be able to follow. This foundation this way in the midst of the troubled waters was ‘The Way’. He was our foundation enabling us to walk on the waters of the storm with ease, it was His blood that gave us confidence and strength and the multitude of followers increased as we walked. I was reminded of the lepers who were cleansed ‘as they went’ (Luke 17:14). Though the nine did not return to thank Him, they at least walked toward the confirmation of healing in going to show themselves to the Priest. The tenth in my opinion got it all, physically cleansed and in returning to the source, Jesus, He worshipped and was spiritually touched (Luke 17:19) his faith according to Jesus had made him whole (saved, delivered).