First and Last

Do not be afraid! I AM the First and the Last! Revelation 1:8 Of Him, through Him, to Him are all things! to Him be the glory forever, Amen Romans 11:36 I've been afraid of Revelation for 10 years. It used to be one of my favorite books. By studying it, I knew all there was to know about the End of the World. I could pinpoint with unerring accuracy, the precise sequence of events that followed one after another once the ball got to rolling. Then my nice applecart got overturned and I've had no idea at all what the end time would look like. But that's not my point in writing this. I decided to read Revelation again, but this time, not for the purpose of knowing what Revelation was saying about world events, but about Him who is being revealed in its sometimes-strange text. So, I was reading Revelation 1. "don't be afraid! I and the first and the last (Alpha and Omega). How could Jesus being the First and the Last have anything to do with fearlessness? If we were to hear His voice, perhaps he would say something like this: I AM the First: I was there when that one sperm and only that one, was accepted into the ova that is now your other half. It was I who selected the timing, the precise maturation of that ova, the specific sperm which was accepted. I chose the DNA which was in each; the 24 chromosomes of your mother and 24 of your father (I hope I remember my high school biology-correct me on the number if I'm wrong.). I chose your parents' parents and theirs before them and theirs before them. You are the accumulation of my plan; the outworking of a long blue print that was intended from all eternity in My love for you. You are perfect just the way you are-all your quirks and foibles, all your wonderful ways of interacting-these are but expressions of my intention to weave you into my tapestry. As I said about the blind man-"neither his parents nor he have sinned that He is blind-it is so My glorious plan may be revealed in him-" and so are you. Don't be afraid! I am the End. As I was your Beginning, so I am your End. That last breath of yours will be held within my breath. Your last heartbeat will be in synch with Mine. I will hold that which is you in Myself. I know I've not been very clear exactly what happens after that last breath, that last pulse, but I will assure you: I AM your End. In Me, you can rest assured that you will live-for I am alive! I am alive now and forevermore, even though I too drew a last breath and my heart stopped. As I was in My Father, so you will (and are) be in Me. In fact, just as I said through Paul, “Of Me, through Me, to Me are all things. I am not only there at your beginning and end, I am there in everything in between. I AM! Don't be afraid! I truly exist; I am Real. You are in Me and I in you and both of us in the Father all bound up with My Spirit. Nothing, not any thing; not any body; not any germ or physical illness, deformity; not any aberrance of personality or thought can be greater than I. You were created in the image of My plan for you-an exact representation of My desire for you. Your life is and always will be, to the glory of My Father. Lay back in the hammock of your life and think about that. Have a glass of lemonade as you toast in the sun and think about that. Let it in; let it sink deep into that place where you are who you truly are. Let the fear be sweated out of you in the realization of this reality; this reality that is Me. I AM YOUR First and YOUR Last and all YOUR in-betweens. Ah, Lord Jesus, Holy Father and Blessed Spirit-How truly wondrous You are! We lay our fears at Your feet in confidence that You are our First and Last-so may it always be. 5 22 09

Death Journey

Facing our own mortality, we are like a child, traveling alone for the first time, fearful of the unknown even though she is going home to Mother.

We Are All One

The liar and the lied-to; The embezzler and the embezzellee; The hater and the hated; The contemptuous and the contempted; The adulterer, spouse and adulteree; The angered one and his object; The abortionist, the aborter and the aborted; The thief and his victim; The conner and the conned; The abuser and the abused: We all are one.. What I do, what you do, what we all do to one another in anger,hatred, greed, lust and depravity we do from our own brokenness. We are all wounded birds, shot through with our frail genetics and pierced by our circumstances. What we do comes from what we are; what we are is shaped from all that has gone before in and to and out of us. We are molded in the image of our ancestors and chiseled by our life into something or someone we often do not like or love. There is a brokenness in which we all share, a brokenness of genetics and a brokenness of family, of circumstance and of action. We are all perpetrators of horrendous deeds against others fruiting out of this brokenness: an evil fruit of an evil tree. We are selfish, cruel and heartless. Ego rules.Greed runs roughshod through our streets, trampling underfoot all who are in the way. It is only in degree and opportunity that we differ. Is it possible to be healed of that which has broken us, maimed and distorted us? Can I find some power enabling me to walk in your shoes; to look through your eyes; to treat you even better than I treat myself? What magic, what learning, what power would invade me that in you I see myself; joy in your comfort; your pleasure; your gain? Oh Great Healer, Genetic Engineer, Worker in the warp and woof of circumstance, Tinker and mender of hings broken, Carver of distorted objects; You who took on serpent to heal, who took our wounds, absorbed our pain, blotted up all that we are and have done into Yourself: we turn to You in gratitude and praise, knowing we cannot heal ourselves and that the only healing that is, is from and through You. 3/18/12