Maran atha - Come our Lord!

I just finished classes for the day/week (I don't have classes on Friday or Monday) and I was back here in my apartment and had one of those awesome moments where the Spirit just falls on you in a special way, where you are completely just blown away in the goodness of the Holy Spirit and he just is pouring in and out of you. I wasn't really doing anything special, in fact, I was just fixing dinner and came back to my computer to put up an AIM away message and it just happened, it was completely unexpected, but it was so good. All this to say, that as the Holy Spirit was ministering to me I felt prompted to write something. I guess you could call it a poem or something akin to a poem, or maybe you could call it a short hymn because the substance is very similar to the Christ Hymns in the New Testament. I don't write stuff like this often, in fact the last time I wrote anything like this was 9/24/05 and the last time I wrote something like this in the Spirit was 8/3/05. The quickest place I could go to write it down was in an away message window, so if you happen to read it here and there, I'm sorry for being redundant. So here it is, I post not to share 'my art' or to show you what 'I've done' but to share what the Spirit seemed to be breathing into me. I hope that it ministers to you and helps you exalt Christ.

----------------------------------------------------------------
Maran atha we cry aloud - Come Lord Jesus!!
We truly long for you like a bride waiting for her groom.
You are the preincarnate One, true God of true God,
made flesh to suffer and die, a bloody sacrifice for the redemption of humanity.
You were exalted to the right hand of the Father and intercede for us now, your beloved!
You are truly worthy to be praised! You are the very wisdom of God, the glorious Son,
worthy to be exalted with the Father and the Holy Spirit now and forevermore! Amen.
- BH 4/27/06
--------------------------------------------------------------

LENT!!

Lent starts tomorrow!

Yes that's right tomorrow is Ash wednesday. I never understood the church seasons or the various holidays other than Christmas and Easter, until my junior and senior years at Houghton. I have now come to embrace the Christian Calendar as a means to focus and live the Christian life throughout the year. After reflecting on the Christian Year for a little while now I have come to realize that Lent is by far my favorite season and Easter my favorite holiday.

I love the stark, somber mood that inhabits lent as we "descend to the cross with Christ" as JD Walt said in chapel the other day. We start our descent on Wednesday with the imposition of ashes (tomorrow will be my second time) and maintain our time of reflection through prayMer and fasting until Easter Sunday when we loudly exclaim CHRIST IS RISEN!! HE IS RISEN INDEED!!

Praise the Lord!! Amen!

I hope to post some lenten thoughts throughout the 40 days (not counting sundays), but we'll see how that goes as I have a NT Theology paper due for Dr. Witherington in a month. But for now, I just wanted to share my joy and excitement that Lent is here and Easter is coming.

Isn't it a great reminder of the reality that we live in. Just as before Easter the earth cried out for atonement, so it is after Easter that the earth cries out for the return of the King.

And so my soul yearns within me, and crys out even more during this time of year - MARANATHA - Come Lord Jesus!!!