Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, 'Abba as far as I can I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?' then the old man stood up and stretched his hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, 'If you will, you can become all flame.' -from the Sayings of the Desert FathersI was in the singing part of our worship yesterday morning at Jacob's Well; and during the song "Inside Out" I thought I read the line that says: "Your glory goes before all fame....as "Your glory goes before ALL FLAME". I seriously could of sworn that I saw "ALL FLAME" istead of ALL FAME, so when I got up to speak, I was going to share the above quote...but as I read the lyric back again on the screen...it didnt say ALL FLAME...it said "All FAME"...I stood there feeling a bit dumb.
Then during the evening service while we were singing it again, I was thinking about the above quote and I was looking at my hands and thinking about the fact that we have 10 fingers. I thought about the evenness of two plus two and how it adds up to 10 on our hands when both hands are together but how the fingers are added up to an odd number when each hand is by itself. I know, strange thoughts but thats me. I ruminated on the "Why-ness" of that configuration.
This morning I was reading Eugene Peterson's book "Working the Angles" and I came upon this portion:
"The five book arrangement of the Psalms is, then, strategic: for every word that God speaks TO us there must be an answering word FROM us. No word of God can go unanswered. The word of God is not complete simply by being uttered; it must be answered. For the FIVE books of God's creative/saving word (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) to us there are FIVE books of our believing/obeying (The prophets, Job, Wisdom books, Psalms, Song of songs) word to God. Five is matched by five, like the fingers of two clasped hands."
I put the book down and pondered in a fairly amazed moment of Spirit connected serendipity.
Today, with hands upraised, I pray:
"Consume me from the inside out...and let the light and glory of Jesus, shine and transform me into,
...all flame...for Your fame Oh, God.
4 comments:
This post causes my hair to stand on end and fascinated chills to run up and down my spine. Who could ever possibly believe that there is nothing more to the universe than what can be seen and felt in the physical realm?
"Spirit connected serendipity." I like that. I THINK I may have felt that before, although I'm not quite sure of anything at the moment.
New Hope just learned that song a couple of months ago. I think it was one of the first new songs we learned this year, and about a week after she introduced us to it, I emailed Ang and told her I felt like it was my theme song for this year. But then we learned the songs "Today" and "Desert Song" and they both became theme songs for my life in their own right. :)
I think I had an "aha!" moment the other day relating to the scriptures... There are 66 chapters in Isaiah. There are 66 books in the modern Protestant Bible. There are 39 books in the Old Testament, and 27 books in the New. The first 39 chapters of Isaiah focus more on judgement and consequences for sin, while the last 27 chapters focus more on deliverance, mercy, grace and rescue... Interesting, hmm?
Eric,
Dropped by via a common reading thread on Shelfari. Like what I see/read here. I will be back shortly. In the meantime press on!
Blessings!
John
Mel,
Great thoughts...the math...oh, my, not my thing...as you read...I was counting on my fingers in worship LOL.
I pick up the vibe that you are working through or responding to some stuff and those things are somehow influencing your blogging life.
Hang in there...no one stops eating because they get stomach flu or food poisoning.
John,
Welcome, I hope you find something worthy of your time.
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