Dream Word – OBEY
Jeremiah 18:15 "Because My people have forgotten Me, They have burned incense to worthless idols. And they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways, From the ancient paths…” NKJV
Today, I was again reading one of the best unintentional 'devotionals' ever written, it was Nicholas Albery’s, ‘Poem for the Day.’ In it, I came again across a piece by British poet, Louis MacNeice, called ‘Bagpipe Music.’ The poem is most certainly a crashing and crusading, inviting and indicting, cacophony of skirling and moving bagpipe music! I loved it, I enjoyed it, I was moved by it and I read it several times whilst wondering what on earth that it meant!?
One of the wonderful aspects of poetry is its evocative nature. The poem itself might present itself to be so complex, and so full of colour that even a third and fourth reading may still leave you with the sense that you ‘didn’t really get the fullness of it,’ or you ‘missed the point,’ never the less, it stirred something in you, it revived 'that something' which was almost a remembrance of something else, and for a few moments, it hooked you, it took you somewhere into your past, into a memory, into a sound, maybe, a smell, or a sight, a circumstance, a dream, and it reminded you, it warned you, it warmed you, it caressed you and maybe even comforted you. Yes, one of the wonderful aspects of poetry, even if you don’t fully understand the totality of the piece itself, is its evocative nature upon the soul.
Sermons too should have an evocative aspect to them. Many times folks have left me in confusion, when coming up to me after a sermon saying, “I really was blessed by that point you made….,” or maybe, “It was so helpful when you said….,” or, “God really spoke to me when you made reference to….” Yes, it has been confusing because often I wasn’t making that point, and often I wasn’t speaking on that matter they referred to, and certainly, I had made no reference to the thing they thought I had made reference too! Yes, though not half as much fun, listening to a sermon is like listening to poetry, in that though the point may be missed, some other new spiritual synaptic pathway is never the less being burrowed into the brain, or more often than not, an old way of remembrance, like an old mine shaft, is being surprisingly opened up again! The new spiritual synaptic pathway will bring all the connectivity of light and life and joy whilst when the latter happens, that is, when old mine shafts are opened up by words, ghosts are released, sometimes weeping, sometimes screaming, sometimes laughing, but always, yes always bringing the haunting to a close. This is good, for when a haunting’s over, then the rubbish can be removed, the wells can be unclogged, and fresh air allowed to circulate once more in the inner recesses of our being.
Sometimes, oftentimes, in both poetry and in sermons, it’s O.K to miss the point, as long as you let the words do their most wonderful of works. No matter how poor the human messenger, let God do His evocative burrowing and His sealed mineshaft-revealing.
BAGPIPE MUSIC OR NO, DO NOT IGNORE THE EVOCATIONS OF GOD'S MUSICAL-MOVING UPON THE SURFACE OF YOUR WATERS, FOR BE SURE, SOMETHING LIES BENEATH, WITH ANGELIC AND HEALING INTENTIONALITY
Listen: - Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; Jeremiah 15:16 NKJV
Pray:- I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts. I did not sit in the assembly of the mockers, nor did I rejoice; No, I sat alone because of Your hand, for You have filled me with indignation. So, why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable, why does it refuse to be healed? Will Yo
