August 9, 2005
-
The Prayer of the Chalice
Father, to Thee I raise my whole being
-a vessel emptied of self. Accept, Lord,
this my emptiness, and so fill me with
Thyself – Thy Light, Thy Love, Thy
Life – that these Thy precious Gifts
may radiate through me and over-
flow the chalice of my heart into
the hearts of all with whom I
come in contact this day
revealing to them
the beauty of
Thy Joy
and
Wholeness
and the
serenity
of Thy Peace
which nothing can destroy.
I am buried in some end-of-summer, preparing-for-fall details, and am getting ready for a short trip …I didn’t think I’d be posting for a while…but saw this on a church bulletin Sunday,and liked the metaphor of our lives as empty chalices,(earthen or otherwise); emptied of self,waiting to be filled with God’s Spirit, and then ready to be poured out for others.
“See” you all in a few days or so!
God’s Peace…Jim
Comments (12)
Jim,
Thanks for your thoughts. I happen to be a pastor in Grand Rapids…I’m assuming we’re talking of the same Grand Rapids, Michigan. Where will your son be attending school?
brad
Wow. That’s kinda cool to look at, and the message is good too. Sweet.
Thanks…(and by the way, yes FFH is one of the groups on the “jukebox”). God Bless…Jim
Excellent!
Wow! I’m sitting in front of a computer connected with DSL and for the first time have been able to really see what your jukebox is all about. My own computer at home has only dial-up, though I’m certainly not complaining: it is free through the college and I am a pauper.
In any case, your meditation reminds me of an anonymous prayer that I have at home and have considered posting on occasion, but have not gotten around to doing yet. Okay… I just found a duplicate copy online at Oremus Hymnal. I gather that this song is both ancient as well as well-known; it is apparently entitled “God be in my Head”:
God be in my head
and in my understanding;
God be in mine eyes
and in my looking;
God be in my mouth
and in my speaking;
God be in my heart
and in my thinking;
God be at mine end
and at my departing.
Have a safe trip! See ya later!
dear brother with the same name
I bet you’re a Rich Mullins fan who read “An Arrow pointing to Heaven” your Be God’s quote on that comment you left me is vintage Rich. am i right?
Jim
How blessed we are that God fills our emptiness. Thank you.
Hey Jim. This is such a beautiful page. As I look and listen I’m so blessed! Thank you! I’m in China and I don’t have a recording of “My Redeemer Lives” yet it is one of my favorites, so it was wonderful to hear. (You know, I can’t exactly go down the street and buy it here.) I invite you to visit my blogger.com blog sometime…or my Xanga page, of course. I’ll see you here at your place again soon.
Peace2u
Jimmish:ryc~ thank you, thank you, thank you, for your encouraging comment, but also for the kindness of your prayers. It’s an amazing thing that God brings us this wonderful means by which we can share His life. It gives me great joy when I read that another believer is showing the love of Christ by praying for my son and us, his family. I can hardly wait until that time in heaven when we will be singing His praises. I heard this morning, at church, about God’s people who were imprisoned in Romania for their faith. The speaker told how pastors were all crammed into a small dark room. This room is thought to have been used for torture, because it has an accoustic quality that transmits sound through out the prison, and that brought the nightmare of the pain to the whole prison. But the speaker told us, the pastors would sing, whenever they could, in that same room, and that too traveled through the whole prison.
Hey Jim,
Thanks for your nice comments on my xanga page. You’ve got me curious about your daughter…is she interested in coming over here to work when she finishes her degree? If you have read my today’s entries at my blogger blog you know I’m considering leaving this post. My contract ends at the end of February 2006 and I want to find someone to take over. It’s not an easy place to live, however. But I’m hopeful.
And yeah, I broke down in tears, too, when I came to your page and heard “My Redeemer Lives” and saw all the beautiful stuff here. It’s amazing that these pages can truly be a vehicle for ministry.
What kind of pruning are you enduring these days? You can email me if you don’t want it published.
Always Peace2u
RYC, Jim thanks for keeping in touch. It’s good to hear from you. Have you read Bruce Wilkerson’s Secrets of the Vine? I thought that was a great book. He prunes us because we ARE fruitful and just wants more fruit from us. It’s encouraging in a way. It means we’re on the right path!
Peace2u