Dear Life ● (Isaiah 55, Hebrews 3:12-15, Isaiah 21) Seek the LORD while He still may be found. Kiss the Prince while He still is uncrowned. Let the wicked give up all of their ways. Make your peace while it’s still called today. Go ask the watchman, “how far gone is the night?”. He sees the morning but then also the night. We are not seeking but asleep once again. Rudely awakened to the season we’re in. I saw shadows of dust and ashes, the lonely gloom of despair, and I was there, I was there. I woke up shaking at pictures painted of words long written beware, and we were there. We were there. We are there. The watchman’s warning and sky-fall forming as we cheer Gomorrah’s repair, but no one cares. No one cares. No one cares. Dear life, am I holding on to dear life? Like a drowning man who clings tight, am I ready? Am I ready to... ● (Proverbs 27:12, Luke 9:23-26, Daniel 5, Matthew 7:13-14) We waited five long years for the sky to fall wondering whether to fear we were fools after all. Did He really speak to me, did I read the signs, or are they just leftover dreams from when I used to get high? If the prudent foresee and hide but fools are blind, then on this side of the fire, which am I? Which am I? If all who seek to save their lives will lose them despite, then on this side of the fire, which am I? Which am I? It’s the dream that haunts my bed. It’s the hand suspended over our heads. It’s the fate that no one sees. It’s the weight that crushes down upon me. It’s the thought that all of it’s just in my mind. It’s just a matter, it’s just a matter of time. Who else can see Your words written on the wall. Is it madness that I still believe I do when there is no one else who does? I keep watching everyday as the signs appear, but life goes on as before it seems for everyone but me. It’s the dream that haunts my bed. It’s the hand suspended over our heads. It’s the fate that no one sees. It’s the weight that crushes down upon me. It’s the cost of the narrow road: to be alone if I do and a fool if I don’t. It’s the thought that all of it’s just in my mind. It’s just a matter of time. It’s just a matter of time. ● (Daniel 12, I Corinthians 15:50-58, I Thessalonians 4:13-18, Revelation, Micah 4:1-5, Matthew 24) Reverse the dust: the change in form but momentary, as we’re gathered up, the bride revealed ‘tween gates so narrow. As He claims His own, whose song surrounds His solitary throne. Woe unto the world, unsealed are famine, plague, and sword. Woe to those unsealed to whom the trumpets sound their peals. Woe unto the world on whom the wrath of God is poured. Woe to those unsealed to whom the Son of God is revealed. In the March of dawn, first the Lamb and last the Lion, in His fullness comes. His eyes ablaze in unveiled glory, and the night departs. Behold Him crowned the bright and Morning Star. We’ll say, lets go up the mountain that He may teach us His holy ways, and we’ll beat our swords into plowshares, and there’ll be peace for a thousand years ● (Revelation 22, Isaiah 60) If you owe me anything, let it be as nothing now. And if I’ve ever caused you pain, may I make it up somehow. May I make it up somehow because we’re almost there. You know I’ve had my share of pain and despair, but now we are almost there. Yeah, we are almost done. It hasn’t been always fun. Now the course is all but run. I say we are almost done. See these things I once held dear. They’re not now worth much to me. And all the things we used to fear: they are now quite out of reach. They are now quite out of reach because we’re almost there. Sometimes we might still get scared, yet the worst can’t touch us now because we are almost there. Yeah, we are almost done. Even if you’re just holding on, keep holding and we will overcome because we are almost done. Don’t it feel like a waste of time to set our hearts on this sick and dying world when everything that I crave subsides, but all I need is already mine, already mine, already mine. We are almost there. The road, it is long but fair, and even if we still have a hundred years, we are almost there. We are almost done, soon to feel the warmth of a different Son and forget all about everything underneath this one. We are almost done. If I’ve ever shown you love, if I’ve served you selflessly, it was never me at all: it was always Jesus Christ in me.

Night ● (Isaiah 26:20-21, Psalm 91, Revelation 1:7, Isaiah 25:8) We see a dark line gathering across the graying sky. A soft breeze is gentle on our cheeks and sings the lullaby. The birds are almost quiet as we look at the sky and feel the air grow colder. We grab our things and go inside. We go in our rooms and hide a while until the rainstorm passes. Wrapped in a blanket safe inside, we watch the lightning flashes and hear the thunder crashing, each filled with distant passions, and glad its only passing. And oh, how my heart is beating. My heart is beating very fast. Oh, how my heart is beating. We watch from behind the glass. From the terrors of the night, under the arrows in the sky, we’re safe inside. We hear the heavens opening between the East wind calling. Tall trees are bending at their knees to keep the sky from falling, and though we fear what follows, we are afraid for nothing. Our house will stand tomorrow and hold us safe beneath His wings. But oh, how my heart is beating. My heart is beating very fast. Oh, how my heart is beating. The storm breaks at last. From the terrors of the night, under the arrows in the sky, though ten thousand fall by our side, we’ll only look on with our eyes. We’re safe inside. Is there any doubt the Son will rise again out of the clouds and dry the tears away from the wind swept ground, from the wind swept ground. And oh, how my heart is beating. My heart is beating very fast. Oh, how my heart is beating. I feel it in my chest. ● (II Thessalonians 2:3-4, Isaiah 44, Revelation 13:15-18, Revelation 14:9-11) Under an artificial son, chasing memories. Each and every one: worth their weight in gold. Entertaining empty dreams. Silver apples and black screens. Do we know how much it all means when in all fades away. It lasts for hours and hours in outer space but always fades away. The craftsmen skilled in mockery erect their oracles and squint their eyes to believe, forgetting they’ve designed, they ask it for a sign. Tell the breathless to arise. Trust the trillion sightless eyes. Will we have no better guide, now; oh, what games we play. We place our hopes on things we know will fade, but place them anyway. Silicone and sorcery, opening forbidden doors, making immortality: the valley where we are nevermore you and me. Will you cross that last divide with your finger toward the sky? Will there be no where left to hide when it all goes up in flames. We build our towers that reach to outer space but don’t know where it leads. ● (Isaiah 24) We hear the sound of the tambourine, the pulsing beat of the revelry, the careless din of a world at ease. I hear “praise the Lord” in the East, and in the West I hear choirs sing, but I say “woe is me”. Woe is me. No one sees. Panic falls suddenly upon them. Terror and pit and snare confront you. The world feels the curse heavy upon it. Terror and pit and snare confront you. The call goes out on the empty streets, “the gate is battered and wall is breached”. Fields of green but a memory. The whole world withers upon the vine. All men must drink from the bitter wine. Joy is banished from the earth with a sigh, and all hope dies. All hope dies. The earth sees the shaking of the heavens. Terror and pit and snare confront you. The world feels the horror of His presence. Terror and pit and snare confront you. Run from the terror, fall in the pit. There is no hope of escaping it. Out of the pit and into the snare. There is no rest that awaits you there. The earth is split violently asunder. Terror and pit and snare confront you. The world reels and totters like a drunkard. Terror and pit and snare confront you. ● (Isaiah 21, I Peter 1:3-9) Every season surrenders to winter. Every hope a regret to remember. Oh my heart, how it shudders within me. Oh, my God, in trouble we implore Thee. Please make us to see the way that you see. Cast within the shadow of the burning flames, hope remains safe for all time, the silence of certainty. Pale before the promise of eternal spring, everything fades in that light, ebb and flow alike. Heaven send us a light that will guide us. Heaven rescue the hope left inside us. Oh, my heart, how it shudders within me. Oh, my God, in trouble we implore Thee. Please give us the strength we need to endure. Cast within the shadow of the burning flames, hope remains safe for all time, the silence of certainty. Pale before the promise of eternal spring, everything fades in that light, like dregs of a passing dream. Cast out of the shadow by the breaking dawn, everyone plain in that light, all sinners in sight of all. Weighed beside the favor of the coming King, everything: sweet to endure, the precious made pure; the first and the last: change place at last.

In Dreams ● (Job 33:12-33) In vision and in dreams, at night to men He speaks: “turn back!” On their beds of pain, He calls them by name, “turn back!” One steps into the breach. In ransom He pleads, “turn back!” ● (Daniel 8:9-13, Psalm 89:38-52, Psalm 13) How long will we be trampled and be overcome and the truth be flung to the ground? Oh Lord, remember what vanity our short lives are. Who can deliver from death their own soul? How long? How long until you come? How long will you hide? How long will it be until your will is done on the earth as it is in heaven? Oh Lord, remember the promise you swore by your name and rescue your people from out of the flames. How long? How long until you come? How long will you hide? How long? How long until you come? How long will you hide forever? ● (Psalm 90, Zephaniah 1, Amos 5:18-20, Zechariah 14, Matthew 24, Isaiah 2, Isaiah 6, Revelation 14, 19) Teach us, Oh Lord, to number our days. Teach us, Oh Lord, to number our days that a heart of wisdom we may gain. Teach us, Oh Lord to number our days. Help us, oh Lord, to wait for the end. Help us, oh Lord, to wait for the end. That our trouble may not be in vain, teach us, oh Lord, to number our days. There is a day that justice will arise, and though we’ve waited, it takes all by surprise. No more delay like lightning across the sky. Touch the earth and mountain divides, the mountain divides. They see the sign and all the people mourn. Watch the Son we’ve all been waiting for, arise. Arise. Arise. Arise. Who can understand the fear that is due your name? Who can stand before you, face to face, under your gaze? How will we survive the God who is a consuming fire? How will we survive when even your whispers still terrify us? May I bow even lower now before that day. May I bow even lower now before that day. There is a day that God knows of alone. A day of darkness when the Kingdom will come, the Kingdom will come. They gather in the valley to decide. The grapes of wrath already ripe, already ripe. Birds of prey assemble for the feast. Just one word and there’s left just one King. Arise! Arise! Arise! Arise! ● (Matthew 16:24-28) Dear life, am I holding on to dear life like a drowning man who clings with all his might to anything before his eyes? Am I ready? Am I ready to die? Am I ready to die? Am I ready to die? ● (Isaiah 65:17-25, Mark 10:13-16, Revelation 21-22) Will we all be children there and lead the lion without a care? Will we all then find the time to hear together the nursery rhyme and finally feel we have become our Father’s daughters, our Father’s sons? Hold me close and Kingdom come. Will we still know how to blush or find again blissful ignorance? Will we all then learn to trust and gain again all that we lost and forget everything wrong and sing again the simple songs? Hold me close and Kingdom come. ● (Proverbs 18:24, John 15, 1 Corinthians 3:22-23, Romans 8:38-39) I feel as though I spend too much of my time always chasing memories instead of opening my eyes. It seems as though I had a friend all along; I just didn’t recognize. He’s saying, “Give all your heart to me, and I will give you mine. All that I have is yours, and you are mine. Give all your heart to me, and I will give you mine. All that I have is yours, and you are mine. Give all your heart to me, beloved, and I will give you mine. All that I have is yours, and you are mine for all time, the ocean wide, unending love, the stars above.” Hold me close and Kingdom come.