As of this time tomorrow, I'll be on my way north, beginning my adventure. Until further notice, I'll be putting listening after dark on hold and posting on wanderlust.
A poem to leave you with:
The Sky That Covers Me
8-27-05
Twelve days more at home, twelve days before I settle into the road
and take that adventure everyone seems to be wanting. Leave all this:
This attic room, a morning breeze—warm and the end of summer.
These bed sheets I’ve had through all the best years of my life.
The music I will carry with me, but not the warm air,
not the rushing of the creek outside my window, not the friends
except in thought and memory—a phone call
now and again, a letter.
I want to stay here among books and bright walls, fall coming,
things just beginning, things ending.
Wanting to run away, to return to the woods of my birth—
tamarack trees, aspen and pine lining the narrow roads,
protruding roots I knew to avoid on my bike—any bike; I didn’t care—
or while running, when running wasn’t something I loved or hated
but a better way to move: without proper shoes or the glasses
I later learned I needed.
This week I’ve written myself into corners and back out
again into freedom, into singularity.
Perhaps I was handled roughly or too gently as a child.
I’m imagining the light angling off seaside grasses
two thousand miles away. I’m imagining that sunset
when I was twelve—a red ball, hanging on the horizon,
while we drove home. This could have been all the adventure
I ever wanted.
© 2005 April K Szuch
i found your blog through a kind post about you at peter's slow reads. i love the way you capture moments and play with words. i've linked you on my own blog, daintee and will be back again and again.
Posted by: Lisa | 2005.10.26 at 11:52 AM
Exquisite tranquility; the gift of peace which surpasses all understanding, what does a person teach others to attain to if not this?
Dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, and in the Spirit of our Father, and of the Holy Spirit;
As there is no life in these simple markings on a background, if you receive knowledge of a message it is only because of the Word of the Spirit of Truth which dwells within you and you are blessed. I say this of myself - As Christ has stated that He does nothing on His own, I too do nothing on my own, only that which the Father shows me and directs me to do.
This is important to understand. I do nothing in you. If you received knowledge of insight in the words written, then the words were true, and the spirit desired for you to know the truth, that you might be set free to live in the Spirit of them. To God be the glory, in that He works mightily in you.
Every man, woman, and child you encounter is to be uplifted, but not first in the way a man uplifts through physical support of food and shelter and other material objects. First let them know that they are being blessed in being led by the spirit with dwells within them. There are many who do not know the spirit of God dwells within them, but God who dwells within them knows. The task of the teachers is to reveal unto those who were lead to come to the teachers, how it is done, as indicated in the words in the above paragraph. It is then that they are to be given instruction, that in being lead by the spirit to come to the teacher, they were then to understand their INDIVIDUAL accountability to God within. Then clothe and feed them according to their needs.
You and they are to understand, for what ever reason God has chosen to do so, God has withheld His power from within them for a time; and if they reflect on it for a time, God may show them why. Remember, if they come to you, let them know it was not anything you did, but the love of the Father leading them and showing them that He wants them to understand He lives in them. Then send them away in peace. Tell them they, not just you, have a power within them that only wants good and they now must do their part to let the goodness come through. Goodness is not complicated. It is quietness, hugs and kisses, tenderness, patience, respectfulness for all that God has created, even if it is not all fully understood immediately. We are examples in this, reflecting the light of God’s image from within us that others wonder at it, and like moths are led to it.
Wait on the Lord and He will lead and show you one by one, from within them, their true need. Created in God’s image, they need to know the love God has for them within them. They are a people who will not gather unto themselves the wealth of the nations, but they will be a nation of people who have the peace which surpasses all understanding.
Some, God will lead to pass by you. He knows why they do. Be careful so as not to incur the wrath of God by detaining them from their destruction. Their time will come. Show your faithfulness unto God, thanking him in the spirit at all times. Explain this faithfulness to those whom God leads to you.
I thank Him daily that He brings remembrance and knowledge of Him when I wake, through time and eternity, and when I go to sleep – That is my heritage.
From this vantage point, see the four winds of heaven, the sea of humanity is stirred up as casting waves upon the sands of time. Every manner of possibility, every gain of sand is treated like a building block and so men toil building upon unsteady premises. Even constitutions filled with holes fail to hold an ounce of spirit, they are so compromised. You may consider yourself just a man, by are you not something greater as seen by God, that you might be lifted up in the spirit to see these things as God does? Look again into the words of Revelation, what does the spirit reveal unto you there?
Where does the words of men take a man? Only into the limitations of their own understanding. See this:
Strings of pearls of wisdom, seeds of perfection have been cast aside, dormant and unable to take root, the fertility of minds are as wind-blown parched lands haunted by specters of endless possibilities. What if…, why not this…, let’s do this…, all of it fruit, but not fruit from the Tree of Life; all of it compromises cast aside by God as without total satisfaction. What turned man from living in a garden of paradise, wasn’t it fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? Before disobedience, was it not the desire like Satan has, to be like God?
What is this place of gloom I see in the eyes of the half-dead? Upon the shoulders of the sea of humanity, papyrus vessels (doctrine in every form) are passed one to another carrying the wealth of compromised principles gilded by lips spewing fools gold. The creators of the vessels and their rudders direct the wealth be exchanged for the rewards of prosperity, all the comforts and gifts the land can offer. Do fish in the sea of humanity, know that they are fish and dwell in the sea? What must be done in order to have wings of an eagle?
Look about you. What rallies the species, the promise of justice and equality without God by some, with many gods by others, and a false god by still more. Where are the lights, the lamps, the rays? Atop makeshift and self-contrived pedestals waning embers weakly reveal crude and rough terrain with no end in sight. The gathered lost are told to wait for the shepherd, that the time has not yet come for them; and so they wander from flock to flock food for passersby.
At a place in time, in history, yet also in eternity, the total power of the spirit of love and perfection was unleashed through the unselfish act of forgiveness. The firmament, the flesh and spirit of man, the work of the potter’s hands stretches out like a banquet beneath a crystal dome, under constant vigilance by the angelic, and by witnesses, those who accept the gift of transformation. Who do they serve; they serve those who seek the Lord with all their heart and soul. How do they serve, by making the enemies of the seekers be at peace with the seekers, giving the seekers the peace which surpasses all understanding (exquisite tranquility). The enemies are blinded from within the enemies by God or by one whom God has sent in the spirit. Thus they fail to see you as a danger or threat. God can even cause them to serve you.
Consider what you are given to view. Christ said “Lo, I am with you always” and asked this question “Know ye not that you are the temple of the Lord?” In this he indicated that God dwells within every man as man has been created in God’s spiritual image, having powers to gather, retain and process concepts differently than animals. Can Christ be within you or within any believer in the Spirit by himself, without the Spirit of God or the Holy Spirit not being there also? How is it then that the assembly of believers have come to rely on the men who act as their teachers rather than act on the power of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit which dwells within each of you?
If you are a body of believers, where is your connection? Do not the spirits of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit dwell within you all to connect you all?
The combined words of the sea of humanity is spirit also, but one, where like schools of fish, men mindlessly follow where one happens to turn regardless if leads to danger. Could it be that the fish (men) who have been removed from the sea of humanity, who accept the worldly symbol of the fish as their insignia of who they are, have not left the ways of the sea of humanity behind? When exactly did Christ endorse the fish as the official logo of his chosen followers? When you enter into the portals of man’s words accepting and confirming the premises of the words, that is where you dwell in the spirit. Look around you and see what is being agreed upon in the spirit and in whose spirit.
What has become of the army of God, are they not purported to come in the spirit along with the spirit of angels? You were told to become the new creature in Christ, the one where the weaknesses of the flesh were crucified that you might dwell abundantly in the spirit. Why do you not do so?
What ever happened to the Words of Christ “Go and sin no more?” How complicated the Word of God has become, that many should write so many books about it and there be so many sermons. What was it said about adding to or taking away from God’s Word? Teach, yes; but teach what; and what has it been said of those who go far in one apostle’s letter? Why do men who cannot be God behave as if their words are the gospel? It is because that after desiring and eating a piece of fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the desire remained in those who, like Satan, had a need to uplift themselves above others.
Don’t believers (children) rest from their labor so God (the Father) might do His work in the others? Consider the example of Christ in the house of Mary and Martha. One labored, and one listened and rested in worship perhaps just simply laboring in understanding. Which did Christ say was more important? Listen to the Spirit of Christ within you; fear not that some would chastise you in order that they might have an abundance of laborers to work in their vineyard. Did not Christ turn water into wine at a wedding feast and was it not better than the wine in the house? Whose wine is served at the marriage supper in heaven (in the spirit)?
Explain this. Where once there were none, now media gods in abundance are resurrected and raised daily to weave illusions and illustrations that resound, cloak, and line the streets with idols and their worshipers. Every ministry has given itself a name; what is the name of the ministry of our Father? The church belonging to the Lord as stated in His Word, even those in mentioned in Revelation, are NOT named but are stated as of a people or in a location. How have you come to name yours as you have?
Explain the drive and energy of the masses as they subject themselves to questionable decisions that spell mediocrity at every turn except to a privileged few.
Who walks away anointed from the assemblies of the believers? No one is anointed (as discerning and wise) a priest and king by the teachers unto their own right that they feel empowered to uproot mountains. These are mountains of principles and accomplishments that men create that they might have the peak of success they feel they should be accorded; and as indicated in Revelation men hide in their shadows. Others are lead to worship at the mountains of men. Only teachers deem themselves knowledgeable and they spread the oil of discernment, wisdom, praise liberally among themselves. Since the Father, Christ and the Holy Spirit dwells within you, why do the teachers speak AT you as if you don't have the Father, Christ and the Holy Spirit within you? Do they speak with caution and simply ask for the father to personally work in you that they might rest from their labors? They love their position of power too much to ask that they be removed from it. You would be wise to understand that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit would hold back their power from within any person to expose teachers who have a spirit such as they would draw unto themselves a group of sheep. These are those that might be inclined to be supported in the comforts and ways of men.
And if the institutions which ordain teachers are so wonderful, why do shepherds need so much care from a flock and why do members of the assemblies walk away feeling weak and inferior such as to be unable even to raise up their OWN children in the way they should go? As Satan is spirit, did you not think once to consider where the war would be, and where Satan would attack and compromise the populace? A little at a time the children have learned to support a compromised existence, when Christ pronounced an edict for all time “Be ye perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect.” Was not everyone cleansed from their sin? “Be ye…” is the command to be accountable to the gift of perfection at this moment and stay that way every moment; and not be swayed to believe you are something less and end up doing less, wallowing in the sty of the unclean. I say encourage and guide (teach) children not to compromise themselves in what they can be and have.
The earth is polluted; and evil revels that they can hunt and bring you down so easily. God is not mocked. Ask and you shall receive; seek and you shall find. What have you asked for? What have you sought? He has given you what you have desired in your hearts. Behold a land devoid of integrity and uprightness, charioteers consisting of manmade gods running circles felling the aged and the inexperienced youth. Where, not when, does it end? You decide.
Where is the power in the body of believers that you lay floating in the sea of humanity content to be washed wherever the tides take you? The banners the species follows are the standards of morality, integrity, and conduct. How is it they have come to evolve to the levels they have? What you see about you may be the best the likes of men may be able to accomplish, but is it the best children of God can produce? You must take a stand, but not one of the likes of men. Stand in your heart as a true worshiper of God, as one who understands that God created the others; and it is only He who knows their hearts and He only, as the potter, knows what to do to change them.
Who has been lead to exquisite tranquility that they no longer labor waving palm branchs no anyone except to God? Is it not written that God says that we do not choose Him, but that He chooses us? Gather who you will, your army, to your doors and portals, God is gathering to His marriage feast those whom He deems by His standard of faithfulness and integrity.
Which government consulting think-tank can predict what comes next and from where? When were the wheels that cannot be stopped, set in motion? What did Christ mean "It is done?" By what Christ has done, man will only know peace by one way - through sacrifice, lifting one another up as worthy of receiving better than what you have. Until this is satisfied within each of you, you yourselves are the instruments of your destruction. What has it been said of the wheels of progress? Let the leaders of every manner of institution throughout the world stop playing with the lives of men; stop the game of acting as if you can't reach a better accord. Let all that which pollutes or compromises the integrity of world come to an end. Yes, these things will stop.
And so I shall turn from my dialogue and face God, and continue in my exquisite tranquility. What will you now return to? Do not make markings in response, they will not be confirmed; I wait to see what you will do in the spirit only. I will see it in your face, and in the transformation of this world to a suitable place for our Father's Kingdom to rest. Amen. Blessed is He who comes in the name of our Lord and Father. Amen.
To some I may be John, but who I am to God is all that matters.
Ariel of the house of our Father.
Posted by: Ariel | 2005.11.25 at 07:42 AM