Tag: heroes.

Foundations. Still, . . . Be My Vision, O Ruler of All

The alpha, the beginning of an old 8th Century Irish Hymn is,

“Be Thou my vision.”

Foundational.

The omega, or ending of the popular, ceremonial hymn is, “Heart of my own heart,

whatever befall,

still be my vision, O Ruler of all.”

Foundational is faith in God, rich and secure.

Do we know about the foundation of the temple in Jerusalem?
God made sure that we could know the cost of the foundation.
But first, in 1 Kings 5, we learn the intent of heart of Solomon, David’s son who was anointed king after David died: I intend, therefore, to build a temple for the Name of the Lord my God, as the Lord told my father David, when he said, ‘Your son whom I will put on the throne in your place will build the temple for my Name.’
The heart of Solomon, the vision to build a temple for the Name of the Lord.
Do we remember God’s Word to each of us?
“ . . . do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?”(1 Cor. 6:19).
Oh, how easily we forget. Let us speak aloud today, not forget our intent:
“Be Thou my vision, Lord of my heart. Not be all else to me, save that Thou art. Thou my best thought by day and by night. Waking or sleeping Thy presence, my light.”
“Be Thou my wisdom. Thou my true word. I ever with Thee and Thou with me Lord. Thou my great Father, and I Thy true son, Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.”
Are we one with God? What is it we seek each day? Do we build a house for the glory of the Name of our King?
King Solomon was given great wisdom, as he had asked the Lord.
The building  of the temple was planned and carefully executed. Cedar trees and fir trees were carried down through the sea from Lebanon.

“Solomon had seventy thousand carriers and eighty thousand stonecutters in the hills,  as well as thirty-three hundred foremen who supervised the project and directed the workers. 

At the king’s command they removed from the quarry large blocks of high-grade stone to provide a foundation of dressed stone for the temple (1 Kings 5:15-17).

High grade stone, not rough stone, but costly stone was used to lay the foundation.

The foundation of the temple, out of the view of man, but in God’s full sight. Our hearts intent, the foundation of our temple. Our spiritual temple, living stones?

“For you were bought at a price…” (1 Cor. 6:20).

Where is our vision? On whom do we look for stability?

“Forgive me Lord, when I think stability rests on me. You watch me lose my focus in the whirlwind of life.

“Be Thou my battle-shield. sword for my fight.

Be Thou my dignity, Thou my delight.

Thou my soul’s shelter. Thou my high-tower.

Raise Thou me heavenward, O power, of my power.”

Foundations are seen by One, and One only. God sees. His vision is clear.
Believing that God cares about all the parts of me that no one else knows, and know one else sees, that’s foundational.
When everything I can see, everything on the outside, starts falling apart, (our temples, our physical bodies, or when the walls seem to appear to be crumbling, then the foundation is all that’s left.
When this world rates us and scores us at zero, God sees our faith and rates us as heroes.
Are we resting on the foundation of Rock?
Do we have faith in the Chief Cornerstone?
Laying costly stones for the foundation of our temples, are the choices we make to believe God.
Costly stones are—faith.
Everything rests on the Cornerstone.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”(Hebrews 11:1).
Faith is costly. But encouragement in the difficulty of laying a firm foundation is this:
“For by it the elders obtained a good testimony” (Hebrews 11;2 KJV).
In time, when everything passes away, the testimony will be that a careful and costly foundation was laid.
“Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise.
Thou mine inheritance, now and always.
Thou, and Thou only, first in my heart.
High King of heaven, My treasure, Thou art.”
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).
High King of heaven , my victories won. May I reach heaven’s joy, bright heaven’s SON. Heart of my own heart . . .
whatever befall,
still be my vision,
O Ruler of all.”
(Be Thou My Vision, 8th Century Irish Hymn).
The foundation?
Faith.
Costly.
Sacrificial.
Vision on the High King of heaven. That is where my victories are won.
This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith, (1 John 5:4).
“Heart of my own heart, whatever befall, still be my vision, O Ruler of all.”
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End (Revelation 22:13).
For those who need to hear the spoken hymn and a victorious psalm:

July 20, 2013. Another star has been added to my heavens.

July 20, 2013. Another star has been added to my  heavens. You see, I have written before about the stars that are in my sky, they are stars that shine like a ‘cloud of witnesses that surround me’ and they speak. Oh, yes, their voice still speaks!
I have heard it said, “We glorify the Lord when we endure trials in a heroic way.” The stars in my sky did just that. And each of the stars in my sky are heroes. And each had their own individual ‘song of deliverance’ but ultimately the words of their song was, “The joy of the Lord is my strength.” Neh 8:10.
Yes, I can clearly see from their witness that surrounds me that ‘if we sow in hope, we will reap in joy.’
We all know that when it is darkest, the stars shine the brightest. And the stars tell of the glory of God. And ‘day after day they tell their story…and their message goes out through all the world.” Ps. 19:1,3.
And their voice rings out with brilliance and reminds us, “Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” Ps. 37:3-4.
And our heroes endured their trials and have glorified the Lord. Yes, we can see His faithfulness by their voices that tell their story, and we remember their witness when they were with us, “So we do not give up. Our physical body is becoming older and weaker, but our spirit inside us is made new everyday. We have small troubles for a while now,”
(and we know that their troubles were far from small),
“but they are helping us gain an eternal glory. that glory is much greater than the troubles. So we set our eyes not on what we see but on what we cannot see. What we see will last only a short time. but what we cannot see will last forever.” 2 Cor 4:16-18.
And we watched them in their trouble, and we hear their voices; this is the speech of our heroes: “So we always have courage. We know that while we live in this body, we are away from the Lord.
We live by what we believe,
not by what we can see. So I say that we have courage. And we really want to be away from this body and be at home with the Lord.
Our only goal is to please God.
We want to please Him whether we live here or there.” 2 Cor. 5:6-9.
Oh, how their lights shine, how their voices encourage us, as they point to the One who loves,  as they point to the One Who is able, as they point to the One Who overcame. Their speech can be heard now, this is how they speak, our stars that have been added to our heavens beam with encouragement:
“Run the race that is before you and never give up. Remove from your lives anything that would get in the way. And remove the sin that so easily catches you. Look only to Jesus. He is the one who began the faith in you and He will make your faith perfect. (Their words are God’s very words. Hebrews 12:2. Children’s Int. Version.)
The night sky is so dark without the stars. Our stars remind us that Jesus suffered. He suffered for each of us. ‘But he accepted the shame of the cross as if it were nothing. He did this because of the joy that was before Him. And now He is sitting at the right side of God’s throne.’ Hebrews 12:2. And our heroes are right there with Him!

Thank you Paul Loures for always pointing to Jesus.  And you still are. We can hear you saying, “Look to Jesus’ example so that you will not get tired and stop trying.” (Heb. 12:3.) Your star is shining,  and it will forever, and forever… is a long time!