The great empty.
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear —
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.’
Percy Bysshe Shelley
We are God’s children. We miss our parents, the Trinity, and we miss our relationship, our home the way God intended us to live and have our being before the fall of Adam into the confusing world where there are no values higher than the next desire or the next conquest. Our yearning, that silence we seek to hear and not to hear, to fill with things — is our call home to God, to do His will not ours, to live out His kingdom in our lives instead of following a parade of worldly folly.
This is how we were made; this is etched into our very souls:
Genesis 1:27-28
26-28 God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them
reflecting our nature
So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
the birds in the air, the cattle,
And, yes, Earth itself,
and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.”
God created human beings;
he created them godlike,
Reflecting God’s nature.
He created them male and female.
God blessed them:
“Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.”
We are given relationships as a foreshadowing of our unbreakable connection with our Lord, a oneness and freely given servant’s life. We have a misty memory of walking in the evening breeze in a fruited garden, stewards of His paradise. There can be no thing that fills the void where the Holy Spirit lives inside us, with Jesus asking us to come inside and be united, born again, into the family with our Godhead once again.
Drink of the living water so that you will thirst no more, so no idol will capture you, so that the love that IS God Himself will be the joy that guards your life’s door from the waste of a longing and a soul seared pain. That three in one presence, that over-arching grace holds all music, all art, all content that has meaning in creation. We cannot buy it or fashion it on our own, but we can allow the empty ache to be filled by accepting Jesus Christ as God’s only unique son: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, [Jesus Christ], that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
John 6-10 Jesus told this simple story, but they had no idea what he was talking about. So he tried again. “I’ll be explicit, then. I am the Gate for the sheep. All those others are up to no good—sheep stealers, every one of them. But the sheep didn’t listen to them. I am the Gate. Anyone who goes through me will be cared for—will freely go in and out, and find pasture. A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.
1 Corinthians 15:3-9 The first thing I did was place before you what was placed so emphatically before me: that the Messiah died for our sins, exactly as Scripture tells it; that he was buried; that he was raised from death on the third day, again exactly as Scripture says; that he presented himself alive to Peter, then to his closest followers, and later to more than five hundred of his followers all at the same time, most of them still around (although a few have since died)
John 3:3 this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?”
John 3:5
Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
James 1:17
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
1 Peter 1:23
For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.1 John 5:1
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.
1 John 5:4
for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
Matthew 24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
Consider this an altar call to your heart! Come to Jesus, cast your loneliness aside and lay your burdens down. If you accept Him as your savior and have no fellowship near you, or if you would just like to ask some questions and talk, reach out to our Christian family! Call or email Pastor Charlie Willson or Pastor John Hooper athttps://maplestreetchurch.com/.
Do you ever feel lonely? Do you ever feel blue? Old song from years ago but it holds the age old empty pain of our human condition.
Why do we always need more — more money, more status, more things in general (think of a man in Lowes’ or Home Depot or some computer store — or a woman in Kohls, Macy’s or Bed, Bath and Beyond) We have an incessant thirst coupled with a burning desire for more everything — gadgets and adornments — types of food and drink to satisfy the palate, trips to exotic locales or even just to get away from home for a time and find more grass that is green — and perhaps greener — more decorations, more hobbies, more people in our personal circle, and our larger bulwark — our Homey tribe family that stretches out and surrounds us with safety and acceptance – (activism and politics anyone?) We most covet relationships of depth but they are not for the faint of heart and are not so easily bought.
We are collectors of baubles and beads, bling and things — people noise to push the inner silence away, to make the pain of loneliness leave us so filled with constant chatterings that we have no time to hear our hearts crying –‘ I am so alone, so scared and I hurt.’ We push the mirror of ourselves away until we are too numb to see the pain that lines our faces, In the end, we do not even recognize the hurt; all we know is that nothing is worth anything in and of itself, no matter how much of it we get.
Idols are useless things:
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear —
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.’
Percy Bysshe Shelley
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear —
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.’
Percy Bysshe Shelley
We are God’s children. We miss our parents, the Trinity, and we miss our relationship, our home the way God intended us to live and have our being before the fall of Adam into the confusing world where there are no values higher than the next desire or the next conquest. Our yearning, that silence we seek to hear and not to hear, to fill with things — is our call home to God, to do His will not ours, to live out His kingdom in our lives instead of following a parade of worldly folly.
This is how we were made; this is etched into our very souls:
Genesis 1:27-28
26-28 God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them
reflecting our nature
So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
the birds in the air, the cattle,
And, yes, Earth itself,
and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.”
God created human beings;
he created them godlike,
Reflecting God’s nature.
He created them male and female.
God blessed them:
“Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.”
Genesis 1:27-28
26-28 God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them
reflecting our nature
So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
the birds in the air, the cattle,
And, yes, Earth itself,
and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.”
God created human beings;
he created them godlike,
Reflecting God’s nature.
He created them male and female.
God blessed them:
“Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.”
We are given relationships as a foreshadowing of our unbreakable connection with our Lord, a oneness and freely given servant’s life. We have a misty memory of walking in the evening breeze in a fruited garden, stewards of His paradise. There can be no thing that fills the void where the Holy Spirit lives inside us, with Jesus asking us to come inside and be united, born again, into the family with our Godhead once again.
Drink of the living water so that you will thirst no more, so no idol will capture you, so that the love that IS God Himself will be the joy that guards your life’s door from the waste of a longing and a soul seared pain. That three in one presence, that over-arching grace holds all music, all art, all content that has meaning in creation. We cannot buy it or fashion it on our own, but we can allow the empty ache to be filled by accepting Jesus Christ as God’s only unique son: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, [Jesus Christ], that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
John 6-10 Jesus told this simple story, but they had no idea what he was talking about. So he tried again. “I’ll be explicit, then. I am the Gate for the sheep. All those others are up to no good—sheep stealers, every one of them. But the sheep didn’t listen to them. I am the Gate. Anyone who goes through me will be cared for—will freely go in and out, and find pasture. A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.
1 Corinthians 15:3-9 The first thing I did was place before you what was placed so emphatically before me: that the Messiah died for our sins, exactly as Scripture tells it; that he was buried; that he was raised from death on the third day, again exactly as Scripture says; that he presented himself alive to Peter, then to his closest followers, and later to more than five hundred of his followers all at the same time, most of them still around (although a few have since died)
John 3:3 this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?”
John 3:5
Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.
Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
James 1:17
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
1 Peter 1:23
For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.1 John 5:1
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.
For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.1 John 5:1
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.
1 John 5:4
for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
Matthew 24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
Consider this an altar call to your heart! Come to Jesus, cast your loneliness aside and lay your burdens down. If you accept Him as your savior and have no fellowship near you, or if you would just like to ask some questions and talk, reach out to our Christian family! Call or email Pastor Charlie Willson or Pastor John Hooper athttps://maplestreetchurch.com/.
