His word

After Revelation 3:14-22 

His word

is the last

word.

His word

is the true

word.

His word

lasts.

His word

is truth.

His word

is the last

and the

true.

There is

no other.

 

Photograph by Ajay Meganathan via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

Nicholas Hawksmoor’s Churches – Spitalfields Life.

 

Christos Nika – poem by Cody Ilardo at Power & Glory.

 

My Mom, Her Drug Addiction, and God’s Grace – Caleb Orella at The Gospel Coalition.

 

The Sacred Forest – Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule.

Pay attention

After Hebrews 1:5-2:4 

Pay attention;

heed what they

say. The word

is reliable, and

who are we

to ignore it

(and we ignore

it at our peril).

The word offers

us salvation,

a great salvation,

declared, attested,

witnessed with

signs and wonders

and miracles and

gifts. So pay

attention.

 

Photograph by Nick Fewings via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Grave to Cradle: The Birth of It All (Ex. 1:1 – 2:10) – Tristan Sherwin.

 

From “Poem of Jesus” – Tadhg Gaelach Ó Súilleabháin at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin).

 

God Doesn’t Owe Me Kindness – Andy Stearns at Thoughts Worth Thinking.

 

A Sonnet for George Herbert – Malcolm Guite.

 

Memoir Notebook: A Tune Beyond on the River – Jeffrey Streeter at Tweetspeak Poetry.

A simple word

After Hebrews 1:1-4 

He speaks a single word,

and the universe must

listen. He speaks a single

idea, and the universe

must hear it, accept it,

own it. A single word,

and the universe must

obey, pay heed, take

heed, absorb it. He

created the world;

his word upholds

the creation.

 

Photograph by Sixteen Miles Out via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

From the Knight’s Tale – Geoffrey Chaucer at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin). 

 

Glossolalia – poem by Chris Wheeler at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

Observations of eternity – poem by Franco Amati at Garbage Notes.

 

Riffing on the Psalms – Jody Lee Collins at Poetry & Made Things.

 

Pause – poem by Seth Lewis.

So it begins

After John 1:1-5 

It begins with a word,

it begins with the word,

“word” implying speech

and thought, language

and understanding. And

more: this word is

in relationship,

relationship with God,

this word is God,

and all creation flows

through it.

This word is life,

this word is light,

the word shines

in the darkness,

a light to see,

a light to believe,

a light to defend 

against the darkness

it illumines.

 

Photograph by Jp Valery via Unsplash. Used with permission.

A word, a whisper

After Nehemiah 6:1-14 and I John 4:16-19

A word, a whisper,

a low muttering,

a brief gust of wind,

a small shiver,

a chill, a glance

toward the sky

a wondering if

it is momentary

or a harbinger

the understanding that

it may not matter.

Photograph by Circe Denyer via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.

How does the word become flesh

How does the word

become flesh, how

does the word

dwell among us

how does the word

dwell among us, full

of grace, full

of truth

how does the word

walk the streets, walk

the alleys, walk

the boulevards

the word:

handing out debit cards

with no spending limit

debit cards, with names

Photograph by Francisco Farias Jr. via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.

He took a word

He took a word, cutting it

carefully from the dictionary,

making sure the edges were

straight and aligned.

He took the word, holding it

gently in his hand, then buried

it as a seed, and waited until

it took root and sprouted.

The word grew. Empires rose

and fell, disappearing into dust

finer than white sand. A thousand

suns rose, set, and burned

themselves to cinders, as planets

journeyed in preordained orbits

until breaking free from gravity’s

pull, moving into darkness.

Still the word grew.

Still the root endured.

Photograph by Ian L via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.

The Speaking Voice

I loved the Gospel of St. John. It was the first Bible text I was directed to read after becoming a Christian, and I have returned to it over and over again in the intervening years.

It was quite a few years after that first reading when I learned something I found fascinating about the “Word” of the first verse of John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” I knew the “Word” meant Jesus; what I didn’t know was the Greek word for “Word” literally means “spoken word.”

Before the written word was the spoken word. And the written word did not replace the spoken word. The spoken word still is. As A.W. Tozer writes in The Pursuit of God, “His world-filling Voice…antedates the Bible by uncounted centuries, that Voice which has not been silent since the dawn of creation, but is sounding still throughout the far reaches of the universe.”

When I learned that “Word” was literally “spoken word,” I was just starting what became my speechwriting career. The understanding has a profound impact. My small, pale, tiny, faint echoes of the spoken voice of creation was indeed small, pale, tiny and faint, but it was also an echo. What I was doing in my day-to-day work was my human imitation of speaking something from nothing, because every speech begins in chaos, and it begins with a blank page.

Simply learning that literal meaning of “Word” transformed how I considered, developed and judged my work. What I was doing mattered, if for no other reason than it pointed to the original Creator. And I had a compass for looking at the speeches of others. I could transcend political and policy differences and look at what was being said and how it was being said, and learn to write better.

Granted, this career epiphany happened at likely the last possible moment it could have happened. This was before PowerPoint destroyed speech texts, replacing them with bullet points, and before media training had burned “stick to your three key message points, and only your three key message points” into speakers’ brains. This was also before everything in society and culture was viewed through the lens of extreme polarization, at least within the last 100 years.

The Word of God is still “sounding through the far reaches of the universe.” All we have to do is listen.

Led by Jason Stayszsen and Sarah Salter, we’ve been discussing The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. This week and next week we’re covering chapter 6, “The Speaking Voice.” To see other posts on the chapter, please visit Sarah’s site, Living Between the Lines, for her own post and the links to those by others.