Scripture

Philippians 2:13 (NRSVUE)

For it is God who is at work in you,

enabling you both to will and to work

for his good pleasure.

Refrain

Let God talk to me about me.

Poem

Brian Zahnd, "About You," from Unseen Existences

Let God talk to you

About you

For if you imagine God talking to you

About her or him, those or them

You're on the fast-track to Pharisee City

And life there is anything but pretty

Some of the worst stuff I ever heard

Began with these arrogant words:

"God told me to tell you"

Let God talk to you

About you

It's a bit of good counsel

I try to let God talk to me

About me

Because my worst enemy

Is not her or him, those or them

But me

So Jesus, save me

From me

It's not the enemy without

But the enemy within

Who will do me in

Lord Jesus, save me

From me

And what about you?

Well, I have some good news

Jesus believes in you

It's true

So cast off that heavy yoke

That miserable constraint

Where you think

You have to

Set everybody straight

You don't

Have to

Let God talk to you

About you

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Scripture

Daniel 7:9-10 (NIV)

Thrones were set in place,

and the Ancient of Days took his seat.

His clothing was as white as snow;

the hair of his head was white like wool.

His throne was flaming with fire,

and its wheels were all ablaze.

A river of fire was flowing,

coming out from before him.

Thousands upon thousands attended him;

ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.

The court was seated,

and the books were opened.

Refrain

I am held in the fire of God's love.

Quote

Alexandre Kalomiros, from The River of Fire

"Love will enrobe everything with its sacred Fire

which will flow like a river from the throne of God

and will irrigate paradise.

But this same river of Love,

for those who have hate in their hearts,

will suffocate and burn."

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Scripture

Genesis 1:26a, 27 (NRSVUE)

Then God said,

"Let us make humans in our image,

according to our likeness."

So God created humans in his image,

in the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.

Refrain

God knows the self I was made to be.

Quote

Thomas Merton, from New Seeds of Contemplation

"Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false self.

This is the man that I want myself to be but who cannot exist,

because God does not know anything about him.

And to be unknown of God is altogether too much privacy.

My false and private self is the one who wants to exist

outside the reach of God's will and God's love,

outside of reality and outside of life.

And such a self cannot help but be an illusion."

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Scripture

Psalm 139:23-24 (NRSVUE)

Search me, O God, and know my heart;

test me and know my thoughts.

See if there is any wicked way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.

Refrain

Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Quote

Fyodor Dostoevsky, from The Brothers Karamazov

(translated by Michael R. Katz)

"The main thing is, stop telling lies to yourself.

The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lies

reaches a point where he cannot recognize any truth

in himself or in anyone surrounding him,

and so he loses all respect for himself and for others.

Once he respects no one, he stops loving;

to occupy and distract himself,

he yields to passions and coarse inclinations

and ultimately sinks to bestiality in all his vices,

and all this comes from incessant lying to himself and to others."

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Scripture

Luke 5:8, 10b-11 (NKJV)

When Simon Peter saw it,

he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying,

"Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!"

And Jesus said to Simon,

"Do not be afraid.

From now on you will catch men."

So when they had brought their boats to land,

they forsook all and followed Him.

Refrain

Do not be afraid. Follow me.

Quote

Brian Zahnd, from Unseen Existences

"Don't be afraid of me; follow me.

If you follow me, I will make you into a new person,

the person you were always meant to be.

This is what the pilgrimage of the soul is all about:

following Jesus through life until we become our true self,

a self that we may initially know nothing about."

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Scripture

Revelation 21:3-4 (NRSVUE)

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

"See, the home of God is among mortals.

He will dwell with them;

they will be his peoples,

and God himself will be with them and be their God;

he will wipe every tear from their eyes.

Death will be no more;

mourning and crying and pain will be no more,

for the first things have passed away."

Refrain

God will wipe every tear from my eyes.

Quote

J.R.R. Tolkien, from The Return of the King

"Well, here at last, dear friends,

on the shores of the Sea comes the end of our fellowship in Middle-earth.

Go in peace! I will not say: do not weep;

for not all tears are an evil."

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Scripture

John 11:25-26 (NRSVUE)

Jesus said to her,

"I am the resurrection and the life.

Those who believe in me,

even though they die, will live,

and everyone who lives and believes in me

will never die.

Do you believe this?"

Refrain

Christ shares my sorrow and holds my future.

Quote

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from Letters and Papers from Prison

"God lets himself be pushed out of the world on to the cross.

He is weak and powerless in the world,

and that is precisely the way, the only way,

in which he is with us and helps us.

Christ helps us, not by virtue of his omnipotence,

but by virtue of his weakness and suffering...

only the suffering God can help."

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Scripture

John 11:33-35 (NIV)

When Jesus saw her weeping,

and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping,

he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.

"Where have you laid him?" he asked.

"Come and see, Lord," they replied.

Jesus wept.

Refrain

In the silence, Jesus weeps with me.

Quote

Brian Zahnd, from Unseen Existences

"Yes, Jesus knew he was about to raise Lazarus,

he knew it even before Lazarus died.

Yet even knowing he would soon raise Lazarus,

Jesus helped shoulder the burden of that bitter half hour

with Mary and Martha by grieving with them.

During heaven's silence when it appears our prayers go unanswered

and our grief unassuaged, Jesus weeps with us."

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