AND I SHALL DWELL

"To dwell in happiness!"

I love this phrase!
Sometimes, there are words we say that are judged by our hearers based on the triviality that beds it or the seriousness that ushers it. It is good to listen to the heart when, in passing, it voices that, "I would love nothing more but to dwell in happiness." Wouldn't it be nice to be at a place in life and love every minute of it. Remember the saying that "when change is avoidable, not to change is inevitable!" Conversely, there is a part of life that is not susceptible to change. A part that cannot be corrupted by the irresistible influences the world enforces. There is a place, remote and real. Therein lays peace. When the strong winds blow, and the tempest visits; when the storms rage and age rises; when time is lost in continuous motion and blissful moments sublime; there is still a place.

Do you hunger for it? I may have said it in passing, like many of us who voice out the truth in casual conversations. Our shoulders shrug as we laugh off what truly matters to us and holds heavy in our hearts. Do you recall the scriptures saying, "Avoid jestings…?"

Why?

The truth is we have missed the truths confined in words of playfulness and hurt another when we never got to know what is truly being said. You might think you know someone when you can quote, word for word, what was said. Unfortunately, we say more without words than we should.

But listen to this again.

…And I shall dwell …

When said in passing, this phrase still is profound. Powerful. Beautiful. Wonderful.

I shall dwell!

When David proclaimed this he declared it for himself. "I," he said.

When David declared this he was sure of it. "I shall," he said.

When David was sure of it he meant to stay for good. "I shall dwell," he said.

When you hear others say a word or two, and you don't know or truly can decipher, amidst many mystifying words, what is being said, listen again to what is not said.

After sin possessed man, from God's side, we fell

After healing, from Christ's sacrifice, made us well

If there is no other thing I know, this I can tell

That always, in the Spirit's bosom, I shall dwell!

The Prisoner of Christ

All the days of My Life

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITON OF GOD' WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS

    To hear the words above said by teenagers would literally mean a time period they would hasten to arrive if they have the chance or should I say choice to make the change. If it were to be said by the aged, it would mean probably mean a whisper that ordinarily lets itself out if not willed, or a vapor, caught by the eye for a moment, only to disappear into the air.

What about if it were to be heard from the lips of the proud who would only bask in the idiocy of personal gain in order to ride over the weak? What if it grazed the mouth of the self-pitied in search for more pity to justify personal failures?

But listen closer.

Feel the power stemming from the simplicity of such everyday words. This time these words were said by the least expected of the mass. If anyone were to utter a word, you wouldn't have thought of this individual. It came from the lips of a man whose heart resembled that of a teen; a man whose beard definitely matched the aged. Here spoke a man whose life's conquest calls for his every word to be edged with pride; a man who could have trodden the path of the self-pitied in search for God's own heart.

Yet, if you read closely, and listen deeper, as deep calls to deep, the first thing that strikes you in this passage is humility.

All the days of my life!

"Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God."

I don't know if you can see that in the phrase. It echoes powerfully a humbled man who knows his days are not in his hands but in the hands of the Giver of Life.

So, here it is! The lips of the least expected have declared it! The humbled have spoken the same words but yet it sounds different!

You may owe your life's work and all that you are to yourself, and I have to tell you, what a load of work you must have put into it, but David knew different. He owed his life to someone else. With his eyes looking up in worship, and his hands outstretched in complete surrender, we have a model to emulate. Remember we were commanded to look unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith! Why not follow the footsteps of a man after God's own heart?!

Therefore, when you seem to have it all, and know it all, and overcame, unlike any other, whatever stress and strife; 

Do take a step back and give honor to the one who gives honor, and gaze at the one who exalts the humbled, by pledging allegiance to Him, 

all the days of your life. 

…Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life…

 

The Prisoner of Christ!

…Shall Follow Me...

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITON OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS

It would have been easy if I were to ignore the true significance of the word "shall" in the phrase above but my heart wouldn't let me. A word that bears no typical meaning in our generation and barely used even by the scholastic of us still strives to exist and proclaim its significance and utmost relevance if, by chance, we leisurely look up its root and uncover the dirt to reveal the gold in its profound rarity.

To express determination that instantly obligates us to what has proceeded from our lips or from another strikes us like a bolt from the blue in the present day world.

Yet, the scripture retains it. It marks not only one, but many pages of the wisdom-filled, unflipped pages of our bible. Do you remember when you found the strength to do what you have declared without a promise said? When did the heart of man need a backup word called "promise" before belief is born within to accept what has been said? Do you know there was a time in history when words spoken are automatically, deeds promised?

Though it might sound ludicrous yet those times did exist.

And they still do!

…Goodness and Mercy shall follow me…

We may need to go further in order to find some form of meaning to these phrase but take a step back from your fast-paced, crazed world and see the abundance of blessings contained and still retained in that phrase.

Tis' is to say that God has spoken!

God's words are obligations!

God's words are sureties!

Tis'to say that no matter the poverty that afflicts our over-resourced world, goodness and mercy will come to me. If it be I alone, and truly this is not to be found illed with folly, goodness and mercy shall follow me!

Why?

Simple!

It was said!

It was done!

So don't let the situations that clamor your ears from hearing what the Spirit has said to the churches, be your lasting convictions and the last hanging ropes of existence. The Spirit is not speaking on the outside with the noises we breathe as needed air into our lungs.

The Spirit is speaking within!

The testimony is sure and true!

Look at the promise which is yours-already due!

Why worry about what is going to be-

When the Word says "Goodness and mercy shall follow me?

The Prisoner of Christ