Song for Sunday: Unreachable Oasis

Abstract poetry coming your way for this weeks Song for Sunday. 

 

(Note: In case you’re wondering why on earth I do this, it’s actually more for me than anything.  By posting a song on here once a week it challenges me to think more while I sing, especially in church.  Therefore, by having this feature I have ended up being more blessed by the words to songs, especially hymns.)

 

Dry as dust, thirsting to be thirsty

Unreachable oasis found

Chasm stretched, edge is reached

Backward barren, forward fallen

Toe on edge, take the step?

Oasis waiting, bottomless pit

Helpless, Hopeless

 

Lights flashing, sword clashing

Wings outstretched bring to flight

Fear of dropping, thought of falling

Hold lessened, still suspended

Oasis reached, thirst for thirst wetted

Lucious green, spring springing

Helped, Hopeful

 

Lifted, filled, healed, satisfied and perfect

View the beauty and the matchless splendor

Stand in awe, jaw dropped down

 

This is our God, this is our God, this is our God.

 

~DJ Friesen, Fall 2002

For my Future Husband

"Love is patient, love is kind."  I read that today and thought of you.  It put a smile on my face and reminded me that there is a purpose to the waiting.  In some ways the wait has been good.  It will make getting to know you that much sweeter.  For now I am content, not knowing who or where you are but hoping that our paths will cross soon.  In the mean time I think of you from time to time and pray that you are waiting for me.  Not just by keeping yourself sexually pure, although that too, but by praying for me and by learning from the men and women around you how to grow in being a man of God.  I pray that in the waiting you will be learning some of the lessons that I’m learning about what marriage means and what our roles are going to be.  I pray that you are learning how to be a leader as I’m learning how to submit and serve. 

 

But sometimes what’s most on my mind is how unprepared I am to meet you and start a relationship.  As long as it’s not reality I can imagine that our relationship is going to be perfect and pain free.  But I know that is not going to happen.  I know that even with all my knowledge I’m going to make mistakes and have a hard time following your lead.  I know that there is still a lot of pride that is going to balk at the idea of submission.  I know there’s still a lot of selfishness that will flare it’s ugly head.  I don’t want to bring that into our relationship.  As part of this waiting process I want God to chisel away at these rough edges.  

 

Even though it will mean some pain and self denial, I am looking forward to our lives together.  So come soon.

Song for Sunday: It is Well with My Soul

This hymn, probably more than any other hymn and maybe even more than any other song, has stirred my soul to rejoice in the glorious salvation found in Jesus Christ.  The hymn does not say that there is no longer any battle within, because we still fight against sin.  Rather it rejoices in the knowledge that, no matter what the outward circumstances or the amount of sin committed past, present or future, when we, when I, enter God’s presence at the end of my life or the end of this world, it will be well.  I will be accepted and welcomed.

 

When peace like a river attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll

Whatever my lot Thou has taught me to say

"It is well, it is well with my soul."

 

It is well with my soul

It is well, it is well with my soul!

 

My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought,

My sin, not in part but the whole

Is nailed to His cross and I bear it no more!

Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, oh my soul!

 

Though Satan should buffet and trials should come

Let this blessed assurance control

That Christ has regarded my helpless estate

And has shed His own blood for my soul

 

And Lord haste the day when my faith shall be sight

The clouds be rolled back as a scroll!

The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend

Even so, it is well with my soul!

 

~ Horatio G. Spafford & Philip P. Bliss

Why not?

I read yesterday how someone had told a young woman that sex wouldn’t be a big deal.  Taking that at face value, there is truth in that.  I mean, 11 and 12 year olds are sexually active.  Just watching media shows it’s not a big deal.  The line between fooling around and actual sex is so fine.  How much would it take to go further?  What is the big deal anyway?  Why not go have sex?  Sure it would seem awkward, but how much of that is cultural conditioning from growing up in a conservative background?  People around us are doing it all the time.  They seem no worse off.  It’s just a fun activity.  A pleasure.  A natural act.  So what’s the big deal? 

That is, until I shift my focus from appearances and back to reality.  Reality says there should be more.  It should mean something.  Reality says sex is supposed to be beautiful, not dirty; it’s supposed to be love, not lust.  Reality says that if sex becomes no big deal we have stripped it of it’s power.  We have reduced it to nothingness when it was intended to be a climax.

It would be easy to be disillusioned with sex but I refuse to be.  Reminds me of Psalm 73 where the psalmist says "When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me till I entered the sanctuary of God…"  If I look at sex from a human perspective there is no less reason to not become sexually active than to not become a coffee drinker.  But then when I "enter the sanctuary of God" and see a glimpse of God’s perspective, suddenly sex becomes something beautiful to be kept until it can serve it’s true purpose in the purity of marriage.

I have more thoughts on this topic so this may turn into a mini blog series.

Song for Sunday: Beyond

This past week I found this song.  It’s rooted in the story of God descending in His glory on Mount Sinai.  It’s a fascinating account.  (Exodus 19 and on, especially the end of Exodus 33 and part of 34)  But for the purpose of this song: as God’s presence was resting on Mount Sinai there was lightning flashing, and thunder and smoke, but rather than running away, like the rest of Israel, Moses begged to see God’s glory, meaning God Himself.  God replies that no one can see His face and live.  But He tells Moses that Moses can stand in a cleft in a rock and God will cover it with His hand and pass in front of Him and then Moses will see His back.  This is huge.  So huge that I’ve told it terribly.  But I tried to capture a bit of Moses’ hunger and intensity for God in this song.  It’s the kind of desire that inspires desire in me.  (note: the curtain in the bridge refers to the curtain in the tabernacle and later the temple that seperated the Holy of Holies, where God’s visible presence was, from the Holy Place.  This kept people from meeting God on a personal level.  They had to go through a priest.  When Jesus died on the cross that curtain was torn from top to bottom, opening up access to God for everyone.  But I used the curtain as a symbol of going beyond knowing God superficially and knowing Him intimately.)   

 

We come before You Lord

You’re deserving of our praise

Not just for what You’ve done

But because of who You are

 

Show us Your glory, show us Your glory Lord.

Show us Your glory, show us Your face

 

 No one can see Your face and live

But if we don’t still we are dead

Take us up the mountain

Lead us to Your fiery presence

 

 Lead us beyond the curtain

Lead us to You

Lead us to intimacy

Yahweh, with You

~ DJ Friesen