Saturday, July 21, 2007

Thou Anointed My Head
With Oil

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

The crowds gathered.
Both the wretched and the rich; the Gentiles and the Jews.
Everyone was waiting for the anointing.
Stories have been told, before I was born, about the God of the land pouring forth His precious oil on His chosen ones. It was to be a grand occasion. The whole universe waited in anticipation of such grandeur.
You could see the distinction of places occupied by the rich to the poor.
The former took the high grounds paved with gold while the latter, of which I belonged to from forever, garbaged the low grounds, soaked in filth as the mud seeped in slowly into our bare feets.

“He approached,” cried someone from the crowd.
I tried to get a closer look but as always, got shoved to the back.
There was silence as footsteps were heard.
Something was definitely wrong.
The rich should be celebrating by now. There should be the usual banters thrown at us from the high grounds but the silence announced something else. Crashing of gold glasses must be cutting across the air as the rich were meant to celeberate but this signal, I tried to pick up with my ears.
The seconds stretched on endlessly as I scratched off ticks from biting off what was left of me.

“Oh no!”
“This cannot be,” declared another rich folk.
“He walks towards the low grounds.”
“Tis betrayal holds no bounds.”
“Our God has forsaken us,” announced the most opulent of them.
“He goes to those whose lips do nothing but curse.”

Again I tried to see what my ears heard but which my heart couldn’t perceive.
Murmurings grew in the low grounds as I heard the footsteps now. It wasn’t loud but yet it was! The grounds didn’t shake but our hearts did! We couldn’t speak, yet our very souls were already reverberating from impounding echoes!
Truly He approached the weak. The low. Defiled. Depraved and the Wretched.
I didn’t know when my head dropped low in fear and did obeisance, for my God approacheth.
My Christ is here! My precious Holy Spirit Divine has come!

The crowds in the low grounds parted as He came into and through us.
The footsteps were getting closer.
I could feel them within myself as I tried to fight from being drowned by my heartbeat.
He’s coming closer.
My eyes closed as tears flowed down my mudded cheeks.
He’s standing in front of me.
I knew from that moment how condemned I was. I knew that there was no other reason for my God to stand in front of me but to judge me and send me to the uppermost darkness for all time.
My knees buckled under and knelt before the King of Kings.
The Lord of Lords.
The Ancient of Days.
Tears were flowing uncontrollably now.
I couldn’t apologize for the sins so many.
I couldn’t stand ‘cos my burdens so heavy.

Then I felt something touch my head. It felt like a drop at first but then I could feel calmness introduced into my blood veins as the liquid ran through my head. I was shaken from having cried a bucket. I had bathed in the rain many times just to be a little clean but this liquid did more than the rain.
The itch on my head was no more.
I watched as it ran down my hands and for the first time, in a long time, I saw the true colors of my skin.
The burdens in my heart felt lifted and when I dared to look up to my King, there was no condemnation in His eyes.

YOU CLEANED MY HEART FROM THE SPOIL
YOU LAID MY SOUL OUT LIKE A FOIL
YOU DIDN’T WELL UP IN A VIOLENT BROIL
YOU ANOINTED MY HEAD WITH OIL

WHEN THE RICH SHOULD BE THE ONE
WHEN, AS A PEASANT, I WAS DONE
WHEN I’D GONE TOO FAR TO RETURN
AND MY HEART ALWAYS DID MOURN

WHEN I THOUGHT YOUR ANGER OVER ME WOULD BOIL
WHEN MY GUTS, AT MY DISGUST, DID RECOIL
WHEN MY BURDENS HELD ME TO THE SOIL
THOU ANOINTEST MY HEAD WITH OIL

….so go on and bear your heart out to the One who chose you out of the low grounds
...you don’t need to labor for grace or toil, for God, hast anointed your head with oil

The prisoner of Christ

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

IN THE PRESENCE OF MY ENEMIES

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!


You have seen their faces.
You know how they look like.
Creatures you would have denied were not formed by the same God that formed you.
There eyes sparkle with hate and evil. Their lips darkened by the smoking cigars of darkness.
You must know those I speak of.
To call them enemies would be too kind of us. You know the many names that cross your mind when you see them. Should I be so bold to speak? Could it be that I’ve found the courage to be true and real with how I feel?
They sometimes approach in horde, coming for the kill. These ugly, vile, wicked, inhuman humans, possessed by principalities to cause harm and pain to your innocent self, have become somewhat of a familiar encounter with you.
You can pinpoint their exact location, and tell when and where next they’ll strike in a heartbeat. How you’ve survived for these years still remains a mystery once you find it in yourself to reminisce. There are seasons of war and seasons of peace where you can find some time, if it will, to relax and listen to the calming silence.
What if, if I may ask, you find, within the silence, characters of Brutus and Cassius, as friends? What if, to your bewilderment, you find enemies amidst those you call loved ones? When will you see that greater harm can come from those close to you than those afar? When will you come to find peace in knowing your enemies by heart and not by face?
In horror and deep-seated anguish, you must have cried. The earth must have been shaken by the grief that escapes your lips to claim the air. The birds must have ceased, if it be for a moment, not to venture into the skies because of the terrible winds of mourning that blows out from your lungs.
“Father, why am I encamped around by such great evil? Why is it that in the world there is so much tribulation? Why does it seem that there be no more seasons of rest and why have my solace being intruded by the world rulers of this present darkness?”

(silence…a still small voice whispers…)

YOUR BLESSINGS AND CHASTISEMENTS ARE SET ON A HILL FOR ALL TO SEE;
YOUR STRENGTH AND SUFFICIENCY COMES FROM NO ONE BUT ME.
BLESSINGS, THAT YOUR ENEMIES MAY SEE THAT I DO NOT LEAVE MY CHILDREN BEHIND;
THAT THEY MAY NOT GO FAR WHEN THEY’RE PUZZLED ABOUT YOUR SOURCE, AND SEEK TO FIND.
CHASTISEMENTS, LEST YOU BE EXALTED ABOVE MEASURE AND STUMBLE;
ENEMIES ARE GIVEN AS THORNS IN YOUR FLESH FOR YOU TO STAY HUMBLE.
SO NOW BE STRONG AND COURAGEOUS AND SEE THE BOUNTIES I HAVE PREPARED FOR YOU;
REMEMBER YOU WILL NEVER BE FOUND WORTHY BY WHAT YOU HAVE OR DO.


“Oh sweet, precious HolySpirit, I shall ever be grateful for what you’ve done for me and I now fall on my knees,

For you have prepared a table before me in the presence of my enemies!!!



The prisoner of Christ

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

THOU PREPAREST A TABLE
BEFORE ME

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!



I don’t know if you ask me.
I really don’t.
It seems to me that I have, most times, been the one to wait on another.
If there be, as I’m sure there is, that someone has attended to me; my mind is clouded by my own servitude and not of any other.
So be it said that I have thus, chosen to incline myself to even welcome and explore the numerous uncountables when I have been served.
I have grown to have food provided by a guardian. This task has seen its way through parents to loved ones.
A dutiful servant regards a simple gesture of attention more so as a luxury; ‘Tis be also regarded likewise as common in the heart of the opulent.
When a rare occasion becomes a recurring event, adoration dwindles in the prescience of familiarity. What should be held in utmost grace and gratitude becomes scorned and devalued by the eyes of the commoner. It is verily so that servitude may be necessary in life’s course, (Nay! for it is indeed mandatory, in some shape or form), the heart longs, if not for a long period of time, for a brief intercourse with the feeling that courses through the one being served.
I proclaim the inevitability of servitude in the climb to greatness! I fantasize with the emotion of the served, in its ethereal royalty and loveliness!

Unfortunately, I may serve another all through the brevity of human life and have it not reciprocated. It is funny how those held in the inextricable jaws of sin, poverty, and death, cannot reason within their finite minds, nor welcome the sheer thought, to serve first in order to climb the ladder, the same kind that Jacob saw in his dreams.
If the poor cannot serve, what can be said of the rich?
The camel can go through the needle’s eye but not so the rich.


“…the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Can you then quantify the inexorable wellsprings of astonishment, and eventual down flow of elation when the Creator of both the rich and the poor decides to stoop low and serve?
Will it ever be found, in the vain lips of Man, the exact words to qualify the depth, and height, and length, and breadth, of the immense riches and quickening of human spirits when God resolved that our place, He was to have?
Bear with me this thought: “for whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? Is not he that sitteth at meat?...”

Jesus went on to finish that above statement by saying: “but I am among you as he that serveth.”

For this reason I put away my expectation to be served.
I renounce, with a resounding declaration, my portion to be halved.
No man needs to serve me; no one needs to feed me.
I have come to know the unknown. Please, let me share with thee:
There’s no greater portion, nor inheritance, and thou must wanteth not -
For the rich serve thee, it may or may not be
Tales can’t fathom; legends cannot compare, eyes have not seen as I see
When God, in Christ Jesus – the blessed One forever! - came to serve me
Join me at the feast of eternity to exclaim:
Thou Preparest A Table Before Me!!!




The Prisoner of Christ