Retuning

Chapter 4: If I had been around in New Testament times and had to apply for a job, I think I have all the qualification to make an excellent Pharisee. God is interested in "Internal Transformation", but it is so much easier to work on "External manifestation". Work on spiritual disciplines or spiritual formation can so quickly degenerate into legalism and works.

If we were saved by GRACE, and GRACE alone, why would continuation in that work of God require anything but GRACE. Trying hard defeats the purpose. We are to co-operate with God and his Spirit – but it is and must remain God's project. God WILL work in us (Phil. 1:6). "Christ IN ME is the hope of Glory".

Prayer: Loving Father, show me the next few SMALL steps of co-operation in this renovation project.

"Be still – cease from striving – and you will then know that I AM GOD"

NEXT STEPS that God has shown me:

1. I am to rejoice in the gift of this new path before me. This is an amazing invitation to refocus. It's a time to invite God to re-tune my heart strings.
2. I need to "survey" my own talk (to others and self-talk) and praise God for the "better" music produced by a finely tuned heart. Listen for the NEW music within.

Overflow of the Heart

Chapter 3. Actions and words are the overflow of the heart. They indicate what is really going on inside. What overflow have I observed, and have others observed recently (tone, temper, etc.)? "Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks (Luke 6:45).

Change me on the inside! Renovate my heart! Grace me! Give me eyes to see and ears to clearly hear the overflow of my heart, and when I see what I don't like, protect me from "self-flagellation" or "self-justification", and bring me to the place where I cry out to you! Change my heart. I want to be a man through whom "justice can roll down like water, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream" (Amos 5:24 NRSV).

Transfiguration

I came, unwilling:

    an anguished victim of the demon, "Fear".

I feared the loneliness,

    the haunting memories,

    my pain,

    my shame.

Yet found HIM there –

And loneliness transfigured becomes solitude.

And I no longer fear

    the dark night of the soul,

For I will find HIM there.

 

I came, unwilling:

    An anguished victim of the demon, "Fear".

I feared the healing:

    "For far too long I've lived with my infirmity,

    It's easier to limp than be made whole."

Yet found HIM there –

And infirmity transfigured becomes ministry.

For I would be a healer

    in this wounded, broken world.

And HE is there.

 

I came, unwilling:

    An anguished victim of the demon, "Fear".

I feared, there would be no more hiding:

    from God,

    from self,

    from friends.

He found me there,

    And showed me love,

    my self,

    my sin!

His love transfigures and redeems me.

No longer must I hide from those I love

For He is here.

 

I go, unwilling:

    For I would build three booths and tarry there

    On this the mount of my transfiguration.

I hear YOU, Lord,

    and I obey.

To the valley I return,

    for there are others there,

    who know not that their demons are undone,

    and dissipate like shadows

In but one sweet, blest encounter with the Son.

For He is there.

For He is there.

 

 

David McCann, June 2, 1996 at conclusion of ICO experience.