The Quiet Haven

If we would keep,
A clear firm course;
Instead of inward shipwreck,
Amid the chaos of life;
Then our soul must often seek
After the quiet haven,
Of prayerful communion
With our heavenly Father.

The Word Is Near

The Word is near you;
He is on your lips,
And in your heart:
The Living Word,
Comes unto you,
Because He has
Come into the world.
Forasmuch as you act
In His name;
Believe in His words;
And confess Him openly:
This Word will again
Become body and flesh,
In your mouth;
In your heart;
And in the work
He calls you to do.

How Do We Deal With the Sermon On The Mount

Humanly speaking, we could understand and
interpret the Sermon on the Mount in a thousand
different ways. Jesus knows only one possibility:
simple surrender and obedience, not interpreting it or
applying it, but doing and obeying it. That is the only
way to hear his word. He does not mean that it is to be
discussed as an ideal; he really means us to get on with
it.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The Innermost Meaning

"And I will bring the blind
By a way that they know not;
I will lead them in paths
That they have not known:
I will make darkness light before them,
And crooked things strait.
These things will I do unto them,
And not forsake them."  Isa. 42:16

The very structure of prophesy
Lies amiss and in corruption,
Unless it be clearly seen,
That all the history of Israel,
Is in itself a montage of prediction:
A grand supernatural system
Of imparted types and shadows;
And that all the incursions
Of His mighty hand,
Are one in principle;
And all behold and foretell,
Of His glorious intervention,
In redeeming love,
Through the person of Messiah;
And in Him do we apprehend,
The innermost meaning
Of the promise given to Abraham.

That Wondrous Flame

That wondrous Flame;
That burns but dimly,
In the heavy air
Of an acrid world,
Flashes.......majestically,
Into a renewed brilliance,
When on our knees;
Seeking His face:
It is here;
The ills of the flesh
Cease to vex,
And weigh upon the spirit;
Here, are we purged,
Of the slag of life's weariness;
And lovingly restored,
As a bruised reed;
Mended and bound-up
By His tender hand.
For here:
His touch will be healing;
And His presence,
Will be peace.

Communion With God

Communion with God,
Gives beauty and ornament
To the spirit of a man;
It refines and perfects
The rudeness of his life;
It brings Light unto his path;
And gives Life to his soul.
Still, it is an effect,
Produced in proportion,
To the depth and continuity
Of his partaking.
"The soul of the sluggard,
Desireth, and hath nothing:
But the soul of the diligent,
Shall be made fat."

Podcast 5: Isaiah 53

The newest podcast in now up at

http://cunneda.podomatic.com/

It is entitled Isaiah 53.

Fire

The fire of God,
Is the fire of love;
As well as
The fire of purity:
It draws and quickens;
With one accord,
As it destroys and consumes.
Intrust to His burning gaze:
Open thyself to the Flame,
As flowers to the sunshine;
Bask in His glowing, stinging love,
And He shall tend to thee;
As a refiner and purifier of silver;
To purge and cleanse the dross,
That you may shine forth;
A vessel, fit for the Master's use.

Provision

The provision of God,
Is care for the day;
Not for the morrow.
Today is that moment,
Which  intersects
With the work to be done;
Today is the hour
To be minded:
For tomorrow is nowhere;
Till God has formed it.

"Take therefore no thought
For the morrow: for the morrow
Shall take thought
For the things of itself.
Sufficient unto the day
Is the evil thereof."

This Veil Of Gloom

A brutish man knoweth not;
Neither does a fool understand:
The world of man,
Lays soundly entangled,
In the barren folds
Of a dark undulating veil,
Thick as the morning fog;
Hovering ....... unregarded,
Below the horizon of Light.
This veil of gloom,
And imparted obscuration;
Is swathed round about,
Holding him in the darkness,
That he may not see;
And entangling his feet,
That he might stumble and fall,
As one without a Lamp,
In the sullen, shifting shadows,
Of his grim and bleeding land.
For the only Light,
Is the will of God;
And he who is of the night;
Will have the Light taken from him;
That he, when the darkness
Is made perfect and complete;
May know only darkness:
Being totally without the Light.

Life In Abundance Podcast

New Podcast is up.

Notes to follow, here later

http://cunneda.podomatic.com/

Cunneda

The Light Of The Living

The light of the living,
That arouses, and burns
Within my feeble body,
Of decline, death, and decay;
Would glow unquenched,
If not for Thee, Oh Lord.
Unto Thee do I live:
Thou has, by Thine own hand,
Guided me in the ways of life;
Through the many trials
Of passion and suffering;
Safely past the raging fires
Of beauty and desire;
 Into the waiting arms,
Of the risen Lamb;
To learn the lessons of love.
I thank Thee, Lord.

Amen.

Life's Highest Calling (a short Haiku)

Life's highest calling;
Is a twining of our soul,
With the heart of God.

When He is come near:
Enters my inmost being;
His Life flows to me

All embracing life!
He has surely become mine;
As I become His.

My soul is swept up,
In the embrace of His arms:
Like running on air!

Bound up completely,
In the raw penetration,
Of His loving gaze.

Transformed from within;
So to live my life without,
Unto His glory.

A Call To Action

This hour of world history is a challenge to inwardness. It represent a
call to be at work in the world; it implies tasks that are literally boundless.
Therefore it is high time that we gather ourselves for serious thought,
going deeper and deeper, in order to
gain clarity about our inner life. We have to know the foundations
and laws of inwardness. Then we will also gain more and more
clarity for the whole shaping of life – in what divine order, under
what rulership of Christ, and under what decrees of the Holy Spirit
we are to set about this shaping of life, and how to carry it out.
Most of all, it is important that we experience the power of God in
our inner being, because only then are we capable of standing firm
and holding out in the storms to come. Only when our inner life is
anchored in God can we gain the strength to take up the enormous
tasks of the future with the courage of faith. When unity and
clarity bring order in our innermost being, then, and only then, can
our life attain the warming and radiating power of the light on the
lampstand. Then, representing the unity and freedom of the city on
the hill, it will become a light for the whole world.


Eberhard Arnold

Mitchell

Mitchell bounced happily into my life;
My first grandson, full of hope and promise.
Though he could never walk, or talk;
A heart of love and a disposition of joy,
Spoke, where words never would:
He could smile; he could hug;
And he could give kisseys;
He spread laughter and gladness,
Like a perfect, playful bubble,
Dancing gayly in the sunlight.
Alas, one stormy August night,
My perfect little bubble burst;
And Mitchell was gone.

For days uncounted;
Only the motions of life
Did I go through:
Sore in body; sore in mind;
Sore in heart; and sore in spirit;
My soul lingered, dismally,
Near the depths of misery.
Prayer was fleeting at best,
And faith staggered under the blows:
The sickening assaults of pain;
The constant reminders of loss;
A place of refuge I found,
Only in deepest sleep.

Sunlight, flashing off Mitchell's picture,
On a crisp and cool fall morning,
Flared brightly across my face;
Waking me suddenly, with a start.
As I gazed longingly at his smile,
A warm trickle of joy passed into my soul;
And I smiled at the memories .......
Even laughed as I recalled his antics:
Soon the trickle turned to a bubbling;
Then an irruption throughout my being,
Driving me to my knees in awe and adoration,
As His miracle of healing blossomed forth,
With His gentle fingertip carress.

Then came a gentle, almost melodic voice;
"The healing and the promise,
Are imbedded in thy faith;
What you need; what you would;
You already have; if you only will."
Joy and abundance of life were renewed,
But fuller, and somehow more sublime:
I had aged; I had grown; I had learned;
Now I knew His peace and abundance
Were secure, not only from the troubles of life;
But from within the troubles of life as well.
A last word, I have hid in my heart,
For the joy it brings; "He can walk now."

Concord Of Love

He bears me up
With singular care;
He caresses my soul:
Stroking, ever so softly,
With the luxuriant, warm,
And inviting desires
Of His countenance:
Holding me gently,
Through the flowing surge
Of His astounding grace.

As I am drawn in,
Enjoying His embrace;
He sets His concord of love,
In order within me:
I am divested of all;
Entering freely; fully;
Into the marvelous designs
Of His divine righteousness;
That, above all else,
He may be glorified.

Serenade Of Hope

He who is of the Lord;
Seeks out the song
Of His Wisdom,
Chiming among the
Coaxial spheres,
Of Divine revelation:
He rejoices in the cry
Of changeless Truth;
He claps his hands.
To God's Aria of Love;
He skips for joy,
To the lyre and flute;
Delighting in the Lamb's
Canto of redemption,
That fills the heavens,
And shakes the earth:
It makes his soul glad,
And pleases his spirit:
For it is his salvation,
His serenade of hope.

The Way Of Life

Thy Word;
Is that which
We live by;
To understand
The Words of
Our Risen Lord,
Is the Business
Of Life.
It is the road
To understanding,
Of the Word ,
Himself:
To receive Him,
Is to receive
The Father;
And so to have
His Life in us;
For His Life,
Is the Way
Of Life.

Wait

When you seek the will of God,
Should the vision and sight tarry;
Wait upon it ....... wait for it:
For the times and seasons;
These be in the Father's care
We do well to wait for God;
When we know responsively,
How faithfully He waits for us.
Whereas, waiting calms the heart;
Detaches it from the fever
Of life in our frenzied world,
And the many frets which kill;
It opens, and focuses our eye,
To mark the meanings and flow,
In the passage of life's history;
It brings us into constant touch,
And communion with Almighty God:
Then how prescious He is;
How infinitely more prescious,
When, at last, He comes.

Podcast 3 On Prayer Is Up

I have just uploaded podcast 3: On Prayer.
I changed the format skightly and have corrected
some of the technical and microphone problems,
so this should be much easier to listen through.

Give it a listen and let me know what you think.

I really do listen to your comments.

Thank you my friends.

Cunneda

Dropping Leaves

When the leaves drop,
From the many trees
Of the woodland;
We behold a deep,
Wondrous blue sky,
That was hidden,
In their abundance.
In the same way;
God never empties,
Without being ready to fill;
Sorrow, pain, and loss,
Groom, and prepare
The battered heart,
For the vision of God:
Purging the inward eye,
That it may more clearly
Come to see Him.

Admonition

Cease, oh weary heart,
Thy mournful quetchings;
Delay is not denial:
A thousand years,
He reckons as a day;
Surely, He is coming,
On the flaired pinions
Of every breaking wind;
Already He is nigh,
Even at the door:
Never a moment too soon;
Yet not an instant late.

New Podcast Is Up

My newest podcast: Hope is now published and up.
Here is the link;

http://cunneda.podomatic.com/

Give it a listen and let me know what you think.

Cunneda

In The Dark

God, in the dark;
Can make the man,
Thirst for Light;
Who never,
While in the light;
Sought, but the dark.
All fear of His Light;
Comes of the darkness,
That remains hidden within,
In the secret corredors
Of the soul;
Not yet surrendered.
Our Lord will call;
Cajole, and deliver;
He will soothe, satisfy,
And freely give all;
He will not, however,
Grant the man leave,
To stay in the dark.