Regarding the Time (Again)

Based on Colossians 2:1-23, Jeremiah 7:1-8:22, and Proverbs 27:5-6.

Awesome are You, Almighty GOD, for many reasons among which is this: choosing us to attain Your full assurance of Knowledge and understanding of Your mystery. We have received Christ, and so we walk in Him, abounding in Your treasures of wisdom and knowledge, for in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and so we are complete in Him, who is the Head of all principality and power.

You, O GOD, have made us Alive together with Him! You have forgiven all our trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us. You have taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Therefore we hold fast to the Head, from whom all the body is nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, and we grow in the increase that is from You, O Triune God. We renounce false humility and self-imposed religion that are of no value, and we surrender instead to the Holy Spirit who abides in us as we abide in Christ until the day we enter fully into Your Sacred Heart. In the meantime, we will be wary lest anyone cheat us through philosophy or empty deceit according to the tradition of men and not according to Christ. For we are in Him, circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, buried with Him in baptism, and raised with Him from the dead. We are freed from the trespasses and the uncircumcision of our former selves. We have New Life! We are New Creations in Christ! New Wineskins! Therefore, we rejoice as Your New Wine increases in us as much as we will allow. Flow, O River of Life, in and through us! Pour out of us Your radical Love an Light for the sake of beloved others. 

It is agony for us to see our nation turning from Your voice, O GOD, foolishly ignoring Your correction. They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return to You. From the prophet to the priest, everyone deals falsely. Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed, nor are they still, and we weep; we wail to hear the snorting of Your horses and the whole earth trembling at their neighing. We hear You saying that it's like days of Moses, that You will send serpents among us, and they shall bite us, for we have provoked You to anger with our carved images and foreign idols. Bones of men... lesser gods... the queen of heaven! We are without excuse. We, like they, will not obey Your voice or let You, O GOD, be GOD. We ignore Your calling to us that it may be well with us; we scoff at Your counsels and stiffen our necks, doing worse than our fathers.  The people have slidden back in a perpetual backsliding. They hold fast to deceit and they refuse to return. Therefore, Your anger and fury will be poured out upon us. It will not matter that we say, "We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us" ??? Instead, many will moan and cry aloud, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved!"

Thank You, LORD, that open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend! Thank You for being our Friend and Counselor, our Savior and our Comforter, our LORD and our Father. In You, all things are made right, all robes are washed clean and white as snow. ThHank You that, in Christ, we dwell in all Your fullness, walking in Him,, rooted and built up and abounding in the faith with thanksgiving.  Great are You, O GOD Most High, and to You alone be the glory!

This photograph is by Jo Chaney.