Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost: Two prayers and a hymn I wrote

August 24, 2010

God: today, may I live toward
the end of fearing You
and keeping Your commandments.
May my life today be glorifying to
You even as I want my
whole life to glorify You.

And, in glorifying You,
may I find Joy unspeakable,
and even now enjoy You,
as I desire to enjoy You forever.

In Christ's name I pray, "Amen."


August 26, 2010

God, increase my desire for You;
make me to burn with passion for You.

And when I can't feel a thing,
give me the grace to continue
to love You with all of my
heart, all of my soul, all
of my mind, and all of my strenth.

And to love my neighbor as myself.

Through Christ I pray, "Amen."



Hymn: "O God, my sins are great"
Hymnic meter: 12.12.4.12 or 6.6.6.6.4.4.8
Suggested hymn tune: DARWALL (click to listen)

O God, my sins are great; I cannot follow Thee!
Once more have I returned to seeking to be "free."
Fast bind my heart
with Thy strong bands of love unto your loving Law.

Your Law is constant Love; who can Your Presence flee?
It matters not how far we stray--You'll always be
the great "I AM!"
With faithful, covenant love You draw us to Your Self.

The Rock strong 'midst the strife, Thou Banner lifted high;
Our hearts and souls and strengths rejoice to see the sight:
Love conquers all!
Whate'er our circumstance we harken to Your call:

"Take up your cross today, and turn the other cheek.
Love not possessions; share them. Gird your feet with peace--
God's Gospel true--
with Joy proclaim, lift high My NAME and follow Me!"

Twelfth Friday after Pentecost: The Naughty Psalms

I guess as good Christians of the New Covenant we're supposed to blush at all of the Psalmnodic pleas to God to crush our enemies and bash their babies' heads against rocks and so forth. But sometimes I wonder if those who consistantly bash the Psalmists for honestly pouring out their hearts to God have ever been truly hurt themselves. If you've ever been hurt--I mean really stabbed in the back--by someone you loved and cared for deeply, or've been slandered by someone to whom you thought you could turn in time of trouble, or've been devastated by a situation that was out of anyone's hands but God's just when you thought you were striking up major divine brownie points with the big Guy upstairs...then...read one of those naughty Psalms; the tears will start flowing.

Names, and faces--multiple faces--will vividly fill your imagination as you read desperate lines pleading with God to save you from "their" malicious talk, "their" evil ways, and "their" devious plans to ensare you. You will start to sob uncontrollably when David speaks of his eyes giving out from having searched for God so long...to no avail...and of his tear ducts drying up from crying so much it hurts.

And then right in the midst of your angst session..."forgive me, LORD, and I shall be white as snow." Your anger has been allowed to draw back the curtain of your heart to reveal the deep-seated blackness of hatred, envy, and pride. You realize that God is God, no matter who your "enemy" is, whether it is your former best friend or the hatred welling up inside of you. Then comes the repentance, and the rejoicing. Oh, the rejoicing! There's nothing quite like a good, joyful ending to an otherwise depressing Psalm.

Not all of them are like that, mind you, and they shouldn't be. Far from all of our human experiences of depression and angst turn to Joy within the forty seconds it takes to read a Psalm...but one thing is always present in these "naughty Psalms:" God.

The Psalmist never forgets that ultimately, God is, whatever the temporary circumstances might be. God looks on as the poor, broken creatures that we are, spewing poisionous, hateful venom out of deep, painful wounds of hurt, ceaselessly pointing our fingers at others as a reaction against our own sinful state, buck up to The Almighty with shouts of "Where are You?" "Don't you care?"...God is God enough to hear us in our pain...and simply be God.


God, who lets us be angry, be despairing, be hopeless.


God, who then gives us a reason for rejoicing--actually, the only reason for rejoicing--God's Self.




Peace be yours;
we have a solid Rock,
ever-present regardless
of all else. May you
feel the Presence
drawing you towards
the Rock, and find the
Welcome that is always
in the Rock's cleft.

In Welcome's Name,
"Amen."

Twelfth Wednesday after Pentecost: The Art of Blog

A fool does not delight in understanding,
But only in revealing his own mind.
Proverbs 18:2 (NASB)

I'm new to the blogging experience, and so far, I have had quite a few urges to go back and edit the two posts I've put up so far.


On one hand, I think, "No, I'm going to leave what I blog in original form. I'll simply go back and reference the earlier blogs and clarify what I have already written."

Then I think to myself, "No, that's dumb. I don't want someone to read what I have written and misunderstand what I actually think or believe,"


so I feel the need to go back and revise. This problem has arisen because of my decision to blog stream-of-consciousness style in an attempt to be more "real" and "counter-cultural." I simply write what I think at the moment, like I would say what I'm thinking at the moment of having a conversation with someone. But these aren't conversations, now are they? They are blogs.

That's one difference between speaking and writing; when you write, your words are written down...I know, "duh." Stay with me. There isn't any body language, there aren't any tiny facial expressions to clue you in to sarcasm or sincerity, and there's no dialogue. There's no, "What do you mean by that," and "Let me clarify." There is simply the cold, hard black-on-white. And sometimes people aren't very forgiving when they can point to a sentence and say, "this is wrong," or "obviously they don't know what they are talking about."

And I know this. And I probably also have some writer's-pride (not good), which is why I keep having urges to revise in order to better represent what I believe to be true.

So already, my blog is morphing. I have two drafts in my blog-list as of the moment. I'm obviously not just thought-vomiting into the World Wide Web anymore. Which is a good thing. I don't know if I could ever say that "uncensored, unfiltered, unadulterated me" should ever be shared with anyone but God. Perhaps that's another misguided way of thinking that permeates our culture. That we should, at all times, seek self-disclosure. That we should, as a goal, strive to "express ourselves." That's what art is all about right? Wrong. At least I don't think so. Art is about expressing Truth. And if "ourselves" express Truth, then we are glorifying our Creator. And that is the goal. To glorify God and enjoy God (in that order), forever.

Modern Westerners have this idea that the arts are some high, lofty, ethereal, castle in the sky that only the elite weirdos visit. Or that they are optional, like forms of entertainment. Not so. Some Eastern cultures don't even have two separate words for "art" and "work." Art-work is what you do. Period. For that matter, liturgy is also what you do, but that's for another blog. In the early chapters of Genesis (4:19-22), music, agriculture, and technology are the three activities in which humans engage for life. Art is something you put your hand to, something you work on, something towards which you apply creative energy. And good art, as Ezra Pound would say, is truthful art.

But what about freedom of speech? I have a hunch that this issue is more about the freedom to express an individual's ideas about the common good than the freedom to express their self. Would it not be better to screen all expression with the questions: "Will this art-work edify?" "Will this art-work bring glory to God?" "Will this art-work express Truth?" And if the answer is no...well...

So what does this have to do with my blog? Well, maybe blogs are art, too. So, in my opinion, blogs should not be used to express oneself. How contemptuous. LORD knows this world doesn't need to know Matthew Lineberger in order to become a better place. My blog needs to express Truth. Obviously I'm writing it, so it will be Truth-as-I-see-it. So by sharing Truth-as-I-see-it, hopefully you, or someone, will start to seek Truth and find Him.

Should I go back and delete my previous posts? No. A record of process is good. And my purpose in writing hasn't changed; the questioning is still there. If by reading my blog, someone starts to ask important questions, then some good is done.

So there. You've read my first blog that I've actually done some work on. It's art-work, if you will. And, if you should ever return to this post, I might have done some more work on it...who knows?


To whomever reads this:

May the Triune Truth
invade your bubble today,
and if need be, burst it.

In Christ's name I pray, "Amen."