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I watched a secular movie today

Dead Poets Society

Picked apart as humanistic in spirit, but

I don’t care what they call it;

I saw You there in it

“Poetry stirs up passion;

Sucking the marrow of the bone dry”

Was how one dead poet put it.

I know they left You out of the picture

But I didnt

I saw You there in it.

I saw a man today weeding his garden

Playing his music loudly and worshiping You, God

He’s not accepted in church, he said.

He left it feeling sucked dry to the marrow of his bone.

Picked apart due to his sin

But right in his garden, I saw You there in it

What are You saying that I have not heard

Wherever I look, Look!

There You are in Your Word

If I look past what I see;

For Your word lives in me, and

As Living Waters rise they must flood past my eyes

So that all that I see is through the eyes

Of the Perfect One

Who also loves me

Every thing in life,

Everything and everyone in life

Must point to You.

Every place I go

Everywhere and everyplace I go

Must point to You

This is now my goal

This is now my heart and my soul

That I point to You

For You have brought me high

You have brought me low and then again, high

That I would point to You

You have made me as a sign,

A sign and a wonder

A miracle of grace, and a product of thunder

You have made me to shine as though my own life

Was well oiled;

Never having been picked apart and sucked dry

Nor tarnished and soiled

All of this I know yet I’m still learning

I’ve got so far to go yet I’m discerning

Isn’t this Your heart

Isn’t this where You want us all to be?

Looking for Your heart

Seeing with Your eyes

Reaching for Your love

Extending with Your hand

And seeing You at the Center

Of everything we do

Everyplace we go

Everyone we meet

And all we’ll ever know, is

There You are.

This was a spontaneous poem I had written after watching Dead Poet’s Society, a movie about a group of young, elite, college kids from 1959 who are inspired greatly by their English teacher, through the study of poetry.  They formed a Dead Poet’s Society, where they could learn more about the famous poet’s of old.

As I watched, I saw the Lord’s signature woven all the way through.  I didn’t try to see Him, I just did.

Later that day, my neighbor at the time, a gay man, being out in his garden, was singing to the Lord.   I watched him, and I saw the Lord right there with him.  My neighbor called out to me when he looked up, and we talked awhile.  There, he shared with me his struggles with church because he is gay but he felt close to God.  (I am NOT saying God condones his sin, but I learned something that day – that God had not picked him apart and sucked his marrow dry BECAUSE of his sin.  He loved my neighbor and was pleased to dwell with him IN THAT MOMENT).

This morning, June 17, I was praying.  I asked the Lord to stir up my spirit to sense His presence all around me again; like He did years ago.  What got in the way?

I turned to my reading for this morning – Psalm 77.   “Call to remembrance the days of old. ”

I looked at old poems and read Dead Poet’s Society, the spontaneous poem above.

He doesn’t pick me apart and suck all the life out of my bones.
Behavior needs to be repented of, but not struggled with.  We only need to acknowledge our emptiness and then seek His face.  If we struggle with our sin and see our sin always before us, we will feel as if we are picked apart and sucked dry but rivers of living waters fill our bellies and flood our being when our eyes are upon Him.  The eyes being upon Him is what floods our being with His presence and sanctification, and overcoming.

Psalm 37:1 Do not fret because of evildoers,
Be not envious toward wrongdoers.
vs 2 For they will wither quickly like the grass
And fade like the green herb.

I opened the scriptures to my morning reading and the word “fret” gave me pause.   “Fret” is written 3x in Psalm 37, and the meaning of it is the same as what is written in Proverbs 24:19, as per Strong’s Concordance.

But, the word actually appears in the King James Version three more times, yet has different meanings.   It does not mean, to worry, as it means in the Psalms and Proverbs.   In fact, in Leviticus 13:55, the word “pechetheth” means “a hole made by decay”.   In Isaiah 8:21, the word “qatsaph” means “to break forth in anger” and in 1 Samuel 1:6, the word “raam” translates into “making the sound of thunder” or “to rage”.

At no point, does the word “fret” mean “to worry or fear”.    In all three Hebrew words, it means, don’t be angry with rage, whether towards others or yourself.

Since I was reading the psalms, I thought I would look at the meaning of “charah” – “To burn with anger, to glow or grow warm; figuratively (usually) to blaze up, of anger, zeal, jealousy:—be angry, burn, be displeased, × earnestly, fret self, grieve, be (wax) hot, be incensed”  It has the feel of jealousy with revenge.

The word “fret” may be used only 8 times, but its Hebrew word appears over 90 times.  It is used when someone is burning hot with anger.

That’s quite a bit different from our common, current use of the word, which sounds more like “Now don’t you fret your pretty little self.”

The act of fretting is beyond worrying.  Worrying seems to be concerned more about being cared for, whether worrying about someone else or about oneself, but worry also bares holes.

Worrying is the fear of not being cared for, while fretting is anger kindled against someone else is being cared for rather than ourselves.  At least in the Psalms and other places, such as when Cain’s anger was kindled against Abel after God accepted Abel’s offering but not his.

But let’s call it all what it really is – in current plain English – it is anger towards God that we aren’t getting what we think we should get.   Whether we don’t see the plan of God for our lives, whether we see the plan of God in other’s lives but not ours, or whether we don’t even consider it the plan of God, we just don’t believe we are getting our needs met.   This burns a hole within us and can destroy us.

As a Natural Health Practitioner, I perk up when I see what unresolved anger and jealousy and stress can take on the body.  It burns holes.  (Leaky gut is literally the gut like cheesecloth, rather than a coffee filter).

But wait!  If we even know what Leaky gut is at all, we read it comes from eating processed foods, sugars, and comfort eating – but I will tell you that something takes place before that.

Acidity.   Yes, certain foods cause acidity.  But, anger directly affects the liver.  According to Livestrong, anger is an emotion that is associated with resentment, frustration, irritability and rage. …..This anger can affect many biological processes that sap energy and cause headaches, dizziness and high blood pressure.

to be continued……

Gen 28:3-5 “May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples. “May He also give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your descendants with you, that you may possess the land of your sojournings, which God gave to Abraham.”

When God calls us to a place, we aren’t there by chance.  We aren’t there because the economy is better.  We aren’t there because we were born there.  We are not even there because we took a wrong direction.  We are where we are because the Lord called us there.  Sometimes He called us to a place because we were not aware of His presence where we previously were.  Sometimes we are called to a place because He wants to prosper us in the new place.  Sometimes we really did botch it up completely and ended up in a bad marriage,  unsafe neighborhood or wrong job for our skills, but the Lord still called us to that place.  It may not have been His BEST for us, but He led us to a place where He could have our attention.

No matter where we find ourselves, He has called us to be at that place for His purposes.  He has not left us abandoned to our own devices and bad choices.  He is wanting our attention.  Once He has our full attention,  we will begin seeing progress.

Yesterday I wrote about Elijah being moved around by the Lord, told to go into a cave, and told to go out into the wilderness, both times He asked Elijah “What are you doing here?”   Why would He ask that?  He told Elijah to go and He went.  But God was looking for a different answer than what Elijah gave him.  Elijah’s response was that everyone else was slacking on the job and he was the only one doing it right.

He saw himself as a loner.  Consequently his mantle was transferred to another.  His authority was placed on Elisha.

If He calls you to a place, He will be with you in that place.   For what purpose? There is a future purpose and promise outlined in scripture above.

1 – That you would become a company of peoples.

Presently, you are one person.  Like Jacob was one person.  But Jacob’s name was changed to Israel and Israel became a nation.  See yourself as a nation.  When you do, your perspective will change because you will see your actions and how they affect your family, your community, your town and nation.

2 – That you and your descendants with you would have the blessing of Abraham upon you.

The blessing of Abraham is that you would walk in grace, no longer walking under the curse of the Law, but of moving in power and grace.  All the promises of God we inherit are by grace through faith and this promise is ours and all our descendants.  See yourself as a nation with descendants who will receive all these promises.

3) That you would possess the land He called you to.

The Lord calls us to possess lands.   I don’t own the street I live on.  I own one piece of it.  But is the street I live on in my possession?  Is the city?  The state? Whoever owns it in the natural is not the one who truly possesses it.  If I rented my home, I could possess it even if I don’t own it. I could possess the street if I pray for it and love it and the peoples on it.   See yourself as one who possesses the street you live on, or the community you live in or the job you have or position of authority you were given.

See yourself as a nation and walk as a possessor of  lands before you, not as a loner and the only one who “gets it.”

Watch what He does with that.