I wish to be a watcher in the night. While many cannot find their course and rocks loom dangerously before them, I wish to be a voice that guides and calls “Fear not!” I shall hold a light that others might land safely. It may seem a small light, but still the wind carries it along. Still its flame cannot be smothered by the cloak of night. It burns too bright!
The waves may break violently against the rocks—but still I’ll stand. It matters little if I am soaked till bones are freezing. All matters little but the burning love of Him for those souls lost. It is the fire that keeps the torch alight: His burning heart. So do your worst frightful sea, I shall not back down from my spot! My feet are rooted to the rock and there I’ll stand to guide the others home to safety.Artwork: Hero Holding the Beacon for Leander by De Morgan
Psychics and their crystal balls - they have always been around: those who believe they are connected to another realm. And so they are - the realm of darkness that masks itself in light. All men are given gifts by God, some more spiritual in nature. Some have been born with sensitivity to what is called the “spirit realm”. But without the Holy Spirit, without connection to the Christ, the only information that their antennas can receive is from the lower demons of the air around us.
The difference between God’s prophets and the psychics of this age is their information source. One hears from Jesus and the other from the fiends of hell. They whisper in her ears and give her bits of knowledge about the ones she’s speaking to. Witchcraft! Sorcery! It is all the same and from the same den its snakey head is raised.
The familiar spirit of a psychic is her personal demon that she calls upon . . . though she will not admit to such a thing. Mankind hungers for the invisible. He will find it; he always does—but from which side will it come?Artwork: Magic Crystal by Sir Frank Dicksee
Jesus was a revolutionary. He was wild and raw and too extreme for the leaders of his day. They were afraid of him, as they are today. There is a reason that controversy surrounds His person. There is a reason that the media today cannot stop themselves from stirring up the controversy. There is something about Jesus that breeds it. There is something about Jesus that instigates it in the hearts of men.
We are stirred to love Him or hate Him; we are stirred to discredit Him or bow to Him; we are stirred to believe in Him or harden our hearts in unbelief and ignore Him. This is what Jesus does! And isn’t it fantastic? That 2 thousand years after His death this man still affects our dialogue as much as He does. Did He not die? Should He not be long forgotten and just a faded page in history as all the other great leaders of the past?
You cannot ignore Him. Either He is the Son of God or He was a madman. Or perhaps He was just a great deceiver. Then why the controversy still?Artwork: Dead Christ by Champaigne
We always try to hide. Instead of running to our place of freedom, we cower in the shadows, lowering our heads, our gaze fixed to the ground. Will we never learn? Will we never understand that He who is love incarnate knows our frail selves better than do we?
He reaches down to give us help, but with eyes fixed down so many times we do not see it. He looks upon us with the deepest love, ready to embrace our broken selves, but we believe that punishment awaits us—so we hide!
And here He is, ever-patient, ever-kind, awaiting our arms to grow weary in their protective stance. When they fall, perhaps then we will be ready to come clean with it. When we have no strength to cower, no place more to hide, perhaps then we’ll realize our place of freedom has always been with Him.
He is not called “Savior” for no reason.Artwork: Deianira by Evelyn De Morgan
Dear and beautiful Savior, I love you, yet do not always show it well. I do not do what I ought and find myself doing the very things I shouldn’t. I know how difficult it is to always love, and feel love, and to always show outwardly what inwardly the heart struggles with.
I wish to love people the way you do. How do I learn such a thing? I need you to wreck me with your love, that love would be the only thing I bleed when I am wounded. I no longer want to be afraid of the most biting tongue or the most bitter of persons, though they rip me apart with their words, their scorn, or their anger. I want to give only love in return.
Change me, Lord, so that I am not afraid of the homeless in the park or the teenager hanging out in the parking lot. Fill me with such love that all fear is driven out of me and I am compelled to reach out and share Christ, though I be wearied, used up, and stretched so thin that I am like butter scraped over bread (as a hobbit once said). I want the worst of sinners to be drawn to such a love, the kind of love you showed the world.Artwork: Christ Consoling the Wanderers by Tissot
Why does God bother with us when He is so lofty and high up in the heavens? For the sake of love—that is all.
We are from the earth, made from its very dirt; yet He wills to make us creatures of heaven and sever our earthliness—sever the chains that keep us weighted down to earthly things. To be His children we must be like Him; and that is not an easy thing. Our natures have fallen so far down in the dregs that He must radically change us from within. I am so very glad He did not choose to leave us where we are: drowning in the muck of our own sins, grasping for a foothold where there is none.
Through His son, Jesus, He reached down to earth to rescue us. It’s surprising how many people refuse the help, refuse to grab the line and be pulled out of the mire of their sin-filled lives. Such persistent love amazes me. I would have given up on us long ago.Artwork: Astraea by Baron Arild Rosenkrantz
There is a generation of youth that walk this earth today, and some are yet unborn, who shall be stubborn for the things of God. Holiness is the banner that they walk beneath and purity is their joyful call. Who are these youth that dare to tread a path their peers know not, who fearlessly remove themselves from the empty hell of drunkenness and casual sex? They are the nameless thousands of the Lord. Can you not see the fire in their eyes? Straight they walk, turning neither left nor right, staying to their task: to bring Christ’s Kingdom to this world of men.
They shall shake the earth and route evil from out of every corner that it hides. Beware the innocent! More powerful are they than the men who think they rule this earth.
When you see them coming--let them pass!Artwork: A Virgin by Thayer
I wish to be a watcher in the night. While many cannot find their course and rocks loom dangerously before them, I wish to be a voice that guides and calls “Fear not!” I shall hold a light that others might land safely. It may seem a small light, but still the wind carries it along. Still its flame cannot be smothered by the cloak of night. It burns too bright!
