At the Altar of Life (Listen ... )
From Him and through Him and to Him are all things.
To Him be the glory forever.
+ Romans 11:36 (NRSV)
Quiet your heart; slow your breathing.
Place two fingers on your wrist
or the vein that throbs below your jaw.
Feel the beating blood,
pumped under your skin like the rivers of life
that once flowed from my own emerald Eden.
"I feel my heart beat."
For your beating life,
the Carpenter of Israel gave His own.
The world stretched Him
across two rough boards
and fixed Him there with nails
that did not spare His flesh
any more than they spared
the wood on the other side.
Those two boards became
an eternal door for those who knock.
Blood was given for blood. Skin for skin.
Not because I was evil in my justice
or a God hungry for pain,
but because for your kind
to listen to the point of life
Jesus had to listen to the point of death.
Now, sacrifice for sacrifice!
You who were bought with innocent blood,
stand before Me.
Sacrifice yourself — not until you die,
but until you come to life,
and breathe and feel your heart beat
and live and obey,
and, in this place of holy blood, find love.
"Lord, in Jesus You sacrificed all
precious things to gain a
Kingdom of sons and daughters.
Help me fully obey You,
as a living sacrifice to Your goodness.
Amen."
+ Paul J. Pastor
The Listening Day: Meditations on the Way
Next post: With Jesus and Our Friend, the Desert
Next post: With Jesus and Our Friend, the Desert
Here are links to other recent City Notes (CN) books:
Seeds of Hope in the Rain & the Dark; Wrestling with God in Doubt; Baptism as the Way of Life; Being with God; Listening Closely & Paying Attention; Living and Loving Curiously with Wonder; Waiting is the Womb; In the Holy Wild with the Lion Who Offers Us the Stream; Yeshua; An Unexpected Story of Discovering Jesus; Only One Thing Is Needed; No Secrets Are Hidden; Be Still Practice; The Gardener of Hidden Moments;
Christ is all,
Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan
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