Tag Archives: Humility

Veiled and Clouded

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hedge-roses-heidi-brummer

Artist: Heidi Brummer
South Africa

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”
Romans 5:1 (NKJV)

Empty me Lord,
my mind betrays
filled with thoughts
for intended delays

Empty me Lord,
of the veil of night
that blocks out light
and defers my sight

Empty me Lord,
of this mind so clouded
in skies of gray
seeking is shrouded

Empty me Lord
of barricaded stream
blocking wisdom
cancel this erratic dream

For faith alone shall
bear enough reason
to fill this heart-
mind held with treason

And justly I walk
to see Your eyes
by this faith alone
discard disguise

and peace shall come
evident in certain hour
for by my faith
I rest in Your power.

© 2013 Rick Stassi

i will try, Lord

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“Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.”
Psalm 26:2 (KJV)

look at me Lord
do I return glance?
i will try
so to prosper, advance

in times heavy with fear
do i seek Your face?
i will try
to keep Your pace

prove me Lord
do i feel Your fire?
i will try
refining heart’s desire

pull my reins Lord
do i resist?
i will try
unclench my fist

pour o’er me Your love Lord
do i receive?
i will try
all doubt to leave

willingness in joyful tone
i walk steadfast
to You alone
thoroughly
to meet You here
i will try Lord
I will try O so sincere.

© 2013 Rick Stassi

Fall and the Harvest Moon

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Jesus, Light of the World

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child;

1 Corinthians 13:11

In the Fall of my life, leaves peeled away from my branches and fell to the ground. In my understanding, I was like a tree. Once flourishing  in a glow of parental care, the green leaves of innocence of my very young times. The sureness and comfort of youth. The seriousness of my cares lie in my next meal or when I should see my Father’s face when he arrived home from work. When I was a child I did not fear. I did not have a care for anything outside of a very small sphere of influence. Lies are awaiting, seeking.

Jesus was a name in a book and as my green leaves began to wither and turn to a fiery orange-red, I felt  a change…

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..and the bleating heart beckons

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3 But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say unto them, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron?
4 Now therefore thus saith the Lord, Thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And Elijah departed.
2 Kings 1:3,4 (KJV)

There is no one like our God. Trust He is with us. Amen.

There are moments when a heart is still, a mind racing slows, the desires of our soul are content. I cherish these moments and I wonder about these moments. I petition the Lord to know and see His perfecting process in my life. The ground at my feet is still and unchanging but the horizon is full of hope.

…and I shall not be anxious. I shall not seek something afar that may stir my wonderment in these quiet times. God is clear that in times when all is quiet it is not a time for me to seek in a direction away from Him. In these quiet times, the music is silent, the brook flows its course in a peaceful way. The birds fly high above and I hear no sound. But, I shall not look away for I know God is still here.

..and I shall not be impatient. I shall wait on the Lord. No self-stirring here! I am just that person who would and I know. Through previous talks with God, He has told me and has shown me who I am. He makes me aware. I am better at seeing to the core of my soul because God has led me there on many occasions. He has asked me why I seek the bush that rustles in the breeze, the inner voice of my self surfacing. He asks me: “Am I not here with you,? Why do you seek elsewhere?” I now listen. For the season of my self-reason is over. I will not run to any beckon unless it is of God. It is quiet and yet even now, His voice grows: decibel by decibel.

…and I shall ever-trust in the Lord. Yes I shall trust that He is watching over me. Too many times I sought elsewhere only to be placed in discontent. I have traveled that path. I am here now in this moment to speak finally as one who is growing stronger in the Lord! I hope so for I love God. There is no other like Him. My self is diminished as my humility waxes. I could be asked if I think poorly of myself as one sees me talk of my diminishing self. I am confident in my answer. The world views our self as our self-esteem which without, says the world, renders a lifeless soul. In God the opposite is true. As my self wanes and my humility waxes, the Lord becomes more prevalent as  I focus more and more on His eyes that are my guardian. His protective hand over me is my trust and I shall not want.

…and I shall not want. I am content in this quiet time. He has design it this way. A soft heart and a keen ear. I hear the bleating of a lost lamb and I will search for it. This is that time when He asks me to use His instilled spirit in my heart to love another. He has taught me to walk, then to walk straight, and now to walk with His instruction. I can live in these quiet times because love is silent sometimes. But, love is still there. God is still here with me. He is with you.

..and the bleating heart beckons. There is someone who calls – lost in darkness. A keen ear perfecting under the strict and gentle tutelage of the Spirit  hears and seeks. Let me help those who seek refuge. For in these quiet times, in His silent love, I can do His work in confidence. So I listen. I pray for you, bleating heart. Do you see His light? I will grab your hand as you flail in darkness. But it is God’s hand you eventually take. I just want to give you hope through witness that there is a place of solace outside of your darkness.

Do not worry during these quiet times. It is time to think of someone else. Help a lost lamb, a bleating heart. God has perfected us for this moment. Worry not lost lamb, I hear you as the Lord watches. I pray for you now. I pray for your tears to dry and your heart to swell with hope. Love is silent yet God is here…I know, I was once a bleating heart. I still am, sufficiently enough, to know He watches His flock always.

I praise God for His Son. Jesus is the Love who may seem silent but never is silent. He is omniscient in nature. Feel the warmth of His gentle love little lamb. Then you see God and your bleating stops.

Rick Stassi

June 22, 2012

who are we?

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Artist: Sean Seal

1 O LORD, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth,
Who have set Your glory above the heavens!
2 Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants
You have ordained strength,
Because of Your enemies,
That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
4 What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?
5 For You have made him a little lower than the angels,
And You have crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
7 All sheep and oxen—
Even the beasts of the field,
8 The birds of the air,
And the fish of the sea
That pass through the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth!
Psalm 8

O Lord, our Lord. How we exalt Your name!

We praise Him, glorify Him, and understand our place in His creation. He has given us life and we are aware of who we are and what we are. We are ordained within the will of a loving God. He is the God Whom we seek in supplication. We pour out our hearts to Him. We grow in a personal relationship with Him. We are inferior, but we are superior in this place in creation, in the sense that we are special individually to the most high God. We are special enough to enjoy His personal presence and praise Him as the omnipotent and omniscient God of everything.

Who are we to have this ability set forth by our God? We are thus made in His image for His pleasure, given free will, fail, and given His universal yet personal, grace. His glory is above all He created and we stand in awe of our place within the entirety of all creation. Who are we that should have company the Divine Lord? In this company we are made to use weakness for strength, poverty for richness, death to eternal life. We are but babes, helpless and insecure, made fully useful under His protection and love. We ask in reverence because even as we know Him more, our awe of His focus upon us, His work in us, and His protection over us still brings us to our knees. It is never rhetorical, it is sincere:  Who are we? We never stop feeling the wonder of being engrossed with His imparted love. We need to never lose this awe and continue to ask lest we become complacent. But in asking is only our humility. In our trust is the surety of who we are.

Above all the honor we give Him, the praise for Him , and humility we present Him, He gives us Jesus:

Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29

He places all under His feet, For Jesus our Savior was at the beginning and came in perfected flesh to draw man from the inability to grasp and hold the physical Law, to a state of having His spiritual law written within us on our hearts. He crushes the enemy under His heel and defeats death. We fear no more the grave for we have now eternity through the grace of our Lord in Jesus Christ.

So, we praise Him!

Matthew Henry pens regarding Psalm 8:

“It begins and ends with the same acknowledgment of the transcendent excellency of God’s name. It is proposed for proof  that God’s name is excellent in all the earth, and then it is repeated as proved  in the last verse.”

He who is glorified, is thus glorified always. We stand in awe always, we have redemption always  as we place our life in Jesus.  Who are we? We are the sheep of the Shepard. The beloved of creation held gently in His arms. We are His children.

Rick Stassi

1/22/2012

 

 

…O foolish man

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13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy  Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2:13,14

We accept Jesus Christ into our lives and we are reborn. We accept the Spirit as our Helper, into our hearts where He abides. He Helps in the understanding of God’s will and intentions for us, I pray I write under that condition.

We are humble servants of the Lord – speaking and comparing spiritual things with those spiritual. Man cannot teach us this. His wisdom will not approach the realm of which we are spiritually taught:

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 1 Corinthians 1:25

 Comparing  spiritual things is our discernment of comparing those things God imparts upon us to things of the nature of the abiding Spirit. It is our spirituality:

“…plainly declared the doctrine of Christ, in terms also taught them by the Holy Spirit. He not only gave them the knowledge of these things, but gave them utterance.” Matthew Henry

Henry explains what our spirituality is: hear and speak the things of the Spirit. Man’s teaching will not approach this. As the verse says: The [impossible] foolishness of God, and the [impossible] weakness of God is still wiser and stronger than man. I say “impossible” because God is omnipotent and all-powerful. There is no foolishness or weakness in Him. It is but a sarcastic example from Paul to illustrate the relationship between God and man and who man is in comparison to God. That is why we have fear, or reverence. That is why we are humble. We are in the midst of the Creator who made all things but still knows us personally.

Man will not teach this because man is confounded and is distracted by the depths of the seas, the distance of the stars, atomic structure, and the single-cell beginning of life. Do not compare what the Spirit teaches with what man observes and utters. They are not close in relevance. But compare what the Spirit teaches with the results of the wonders of God in our life. How is God working in our lives? What miracles has He performed? We must not be absorbed into the teaching of man for it is not us that is confounded yet we may become deceived. Thus we seek the teaching of our Helper who leads us in the ways far above the leanings of man. Man will not see this separation until he has asked Jesus  for forgiveness and submitted to His loving-kindness. It is not possible for man to understand but he can see Christ in us. That is a connection between our purpose in God and God’s will.

Reflect His image. Emanate His joy. Shine His love. Divert the fading spirit of man to the Spirit.  It is man’s salvation that he will be led to. Not by us, but by what we are taught, hear, and utter from the Holy Spirit. God as our Helper.

Rick Stassi

December 2, 2011

“..one world, one salvation..” switchfoot

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Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. 

John 14:6

For all of the arrogant exclusivity claims on us by others that we Christians absorb,  we have altogether come to the Father. We are in a moment of blessedness in our pilgrimage on earth that cannot be stolen. It is only mocked and ridiculed and even silently coveted by some. We believe Jesus is our Savior, God is the author of Salvation, and we, ourselves, are responsible for the Fall of which we rise against and rise away from. It is our life. It is Jesus: the truth and the life that affords us this path. It is God’s grace that beckons us lest we flounder.

Fear not the naysayer – pray for them and offer yourself to your enemy as this is humility we must grasp.  For we all live in one physical world…but truly we are not of one spiritual world. Invite others to the life authored by God. Invite others to Jesus through our silent tongue but shouting of the Spirit in us. The rocks will cry out His name. Love today. Live today. It is one world with a God who became tangent with a wondering and wandering mankind through His Son, Jesus Christ.

..for all searchers

Rick

our humble foundation

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Do you wish to be great? Then begin by being. Do you desire to construct a vast and lofty fabric? Think first about the foundations of humility. The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation.

Saint Augustine