Wonderful grace

"The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hid in a field..."

Matthew 13.44

"Put your hand to the plow and don't look back."

Father help me to keep my focus on you and not on the temporary things of this world that only bring satisfaction for a brief time and then are gone. Let my satisfaction be in you and you alone. You alone shall be my treasure of great price. You are my Lord and I desire to follow you.

Life is full. There are hurdles that need to be got over, thoughts that continually need to be taken captive, prayers that need to be prayed. Sometimes it may seem overwhelming and close to impossible, but I want to continue to strive toward the goal of knowing my Lord fully and totally.

Lord, I am yours. Mold me, shape me, refine me, use me. Be the director of my life. Take away those horrid goals I put up for myself that keep me from helping to see what you want me to do. Let your grace surround me.

As we sing on New Year's eve:

Wonderful grace of Jesus, greater than all my sin

How shall my tongue describe it? Where shall His praise begin?

Taking away my burden, setting my spirit free;

For the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.

Wonderful the matchless grace of Jesus, Deeper than the mighty rolling sea!

Higher than the mountains, sparkling like a fountain,

All sufficient grace for even me!

Broader than the scope of my transgression,

Greater far than all my sin and shame!

O magnify the precious name of Jesus! Praise His name!!!

Wonderful grace of Jesus, reaching to all the lost

By it I have been pardoned, saved to the uttermost.

Chains have been born asunder, giving me liberty;

For the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.

Wonderful grace of Jesus, reaching the most defiled

By its transforming power making him God's dear child,

Purchasing peace and heaven for all eternity;

And the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.

O, Wonderful grace!

To BE alive in such an age

A new year.

So what is different between 12 midnight and one second or one minute later? What changed in those moments of life to make everyone celebrate and shout, set off fireworks, get drunk, act foolish, make promises to themselves that most people cannot keep? And now not only a passing of one year but of a decade as well.

I certainly don't have all the answers. But I do have some that I know are ultimate in truth.

Christ came and died so we may have life and have it to the fullest. John 10.10

Life is more than food and clothes. Luke 12.23

Christ lives in me. Galatians 2.20

Our life does not change from the passing of one year to the next. Certainly we celebrate for having made it through the past year by the helping hand of the Lord. Yet, we continue to live, hopefully more fully for the Lord.

While reading a poetry book, I came across a poem by Walt Whitman, hence the title for this post.

To BE alive in such an age!

With every year a lightning page

Turned in the world's great wonder book

Whereon the leaning nations look.

When men speak strong brotherhood,

For peace and universal good,

When miracles are everywhere,

And every wince of common air

Throbs a tremendous prophecy

Of greater marvels yet to be.

O thrilling age,

O willing age!

When steel and stone and rail and rod

Become the avenues of God-

A trump to shout His thunder through

To crown the work that man may do.

To be alive in such an age!

When man, impatient of his cage,

Thrills to the soul's immortal rage

For conquest-reaches goal on goal,

Travels the earth from pole to pole,

Garners the tempests and the tides

And on a Dream Triumphant rides.

When, hid within the lump of clay,

A light more terrible than day

Proclaims the presence of that Force

Which hurls the planets on their course.

O age with wings

O age with flings

A challenge to the very sky,

Where endless realms of conquest lie!

When, earth on tiptoe, strives to hear

The message of a sister sphere,

Yearning to reach the cosmic wires

That flash Infinity's desires.

To be alive in such an age!

That blunders forth its discontent

With futile creed and sacrament,

Yet craves to utter God's intent,

Seeing beneath the world's unrest

Creation's hugs, untiring quest,

And through Tradition's broken crust

The flame of Truth's triumphant thrust;

Below the seething thought of man

The push of a stupendous Plan.

O age of strife!

O age of life!

When Progress rides her chariots high,

And on the borders of the sky

The signals of the century

Proclaims the things that are to be-

The rise of woman to her place,

The coming of a nobler race.

To be alive in such an age-

To live in it,

To give to it!

Rise, soul, from thy despairing knees.

What if thy lips have drunk the lees?

Fling forth thy sorrows to the wind

And link thy hope with humankind-

The pion of a larger claim

Will put thy puny grief to shame.

Breathe the world thought, do the world deed,

Think hugely of thy brother's need.

And what thy woe, and what thy weal?

Look to the work the times reveal!

Give thanks with all thy flaming heart-

Crave but to have in it a part.

Give thanks and clasp thy heritage-

To be alive in such an age!

O, to be alive! Is there greater joy?