...thoughts expressed here are not necessarily final.

February 06, 2006 Study:

Web Users more prone to cut back on books than magazines…

We Exult in Your Embrace

Into your glorious presence we would enter in to stay
There to abide forever- do not send us away
Freedom to enter in your blood has bought
The treasure for which men of old have sought
Now is ours for we are yours with in this privileged place.

In your glorious presence we would ‘ere abide
We would feast at your table as in the rock we hide
Now there is No wall of shame
There is no barrier of blame
In your Holy of Holies where we enter as your bride.

Possess your possession, Inhabit our praise
Dwell in this temple as we exult in your embrace
Possess your possession, Inhabit our praise
Dwell in this temple as we exult in your embrace

So this is the picture and this is the proof
The intimate rapturous glorious truth
Here in your presence we may remain
Here where our every loss is a gain
Here where our peace and our rest we attain!

Though we walk in this world let us ever remain
With you we grow in grace through the time and the pain
So you are there with us as we live in You
Inhabiting all of the things that we do.
Here the knowledge and power of your presence is plain

Possess your possession, Inhabit our praise
Dwell in this temple we exult in your embrace
Possess your possession, Inhabit our praise
Dwell in this temple we exult in your embrace

Anthony Foster
February 6, 2006

Oh,Glorious

This name I bear will bear me home
Give me a new name written on a white stone
To be found in the rock is my greatest desire
You have become all that I would require

Oh glorious, oh glorious
Oh glorious is your name!
Angels sing this name I bear
Rocks cry out and hills declare
Your marvelous majesty in all the earth
The heavens proclaim your wondrous worth!

So transform me from clay into stone
Conform me to the noble purpose you make known
All I can be let me pursue
As you form me into the image of you.

Oh glorious, oh glorious
Oh glorious is your name!
Angels sing this name I bear
Rocks cry out and hills declare
Your marvelous majesty in all the earth
The heavens proclaim your wondrous worth!

Anthony Foster
February 5, 2006

The Wise Mystery of the Holy One

My image was broken and marred and decayed
But into your likeness I am being made
Fit me for heaven in life's daily chores
That I may become what you created me for.

He became sin for us who knew no sin
So we’ll become the righteousness of God in Him
Conformed to the likeness of the radiant son
Refined and reformed as His will is done.

As you remake us you must take us
To places where we are undone
To be broken and crushed
Till we learn to trust
In the wise mystery of the Holy One
In the wise mystery of the Holy One

Our flesh cries out, our old man will shout
But we're changed by the time and the pain
Like a valuable vase
We 're made vessels of grace
That bear all that will make loss a gain!
Our brokenness replaced
Till Christ in Us is made plain.
Yes, every loss is made gain.

So take them away, take them away
All the features of failure and falseness I pray
Any treasure or trash that will get in the way
Until your very likeness I may display.

As you remake us you must take us
To places where we are undone
To be broken and crushed
Till we learn to trust
In the wise mystery of the Holy One
In the wise mystery of the Holy One

Anthony Foster
February 5, 2006

God wants You to Win?

I heard it again yesterday. In a culture obsessed with winning, it irks me to hear such a statement from God’s pulpit. I suppose I have to agree that ULTIMATELY, the Christian wins in all the important things- we gain God Himself.

I also suppose my point is that "winning" is a function of playing a game, a competition, or making a wager. From God’s perspective, we must lose our life to gain it. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "The figure of the Crucified invalidates all thought which takes success for its standard."

Yet the desire to be a winner is something that haunts us as Christians- it betrays our worldliness, our radical focus on self. The pursuit of excellence for the glory of God is not the same as winning for the glory of God. While it is likely true that in our culture, Christians are more "successful" than the mean, that "success" should not be presented as an evangelistic tool.

I remember years a go a woman in our Sunday School class that was riddled with angst over what kind of luxury car she should buy to maintain the appearance of success so she could be a good witness to her lost neighbors. Blessing takes on all sorts of unexpected forms, and success is more likely a curse in many of the cases I have observed. I am not a proponent of taking a vow of poverty (at least not necessarily), but living simply is much more conducive to spiritually focused and authentic living than for those who are driven by success. Our worldview has to be radically consistent to be able to live by faith.