Castles in the Sky || 20081229

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2008dec29

Castles in the Sky

There were castles in the sky tonight
The clouds, the sunset, the colors
One of those moments when reality becomes surreal
When all you are touching becomes fake
Because you have found something more
A fantasy legend opens before you
A myth to some, but more real than sunshine
More bright than fields of snow
And more dark than the belly of the earth

What moment could compare?
What satisfaction could sustain me?
What hope is there left when desire drops away
And purpose consumes?

My Savior lives! His Glory abounds!
His countenance stirs the heavens
And His voice calls my name.
Splendor He gives to me,
And touches my face with song.

Did you see the sky tonight?
Did you see its light drain?
Did you watch the castles fade,
then see the sunlight from the other side
of the blanket of night?
Have you seen the stars turn to jewels
as the light fades away?
Have you seen my Savior?
And stirred His heart today?

~JLB
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The Perspective of Light || 2008.12.27

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2008.12.27

The Perspective of Light

The trade of death for life,
    the death of a man already condemned
An exchange of toys and tempest
    for the discipline of Kingdom and the passion of Love
My King knows my name,
    and before His presence He sustains my memory
and He burns to trade - my ashes for His eternal fire
He longs not for the carving of my name He holds in His palm
He yearns for my heart - the beating in my chest
All of my pulse to remember His face and steal my breath away
All of my pulse to race with the lightning that expels the world
and brings my face to the ground so He may raise me
and change my dust, my shame for His Glory, for His face
Oh, how could I clasp to the death that will drown me
and tear me to pieces so many thousands of ways?
When my Light and my Savior:
The God who adores me
Stands at His door then goes searching for me
Enduring all mire, desert and temptation
betrayal of friends, ridicule and degradation
And finds me broken
Then trades Death for Life

~JLB
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2008.12.20

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2008.12.20

What emotion could taunt me so,
to blur the page beneath my eyes?
What centuries hidden life lingers
in these words to grasp my heart?
All emptiness and longing, all death,
and broken despair rocks cold
and melts: ice to this fire.
Is it flame that touches me?
is it truth? These words that stir my soul
and make my heart resound?
Is it song that sings unbroken within me,
sounded from a simple page?
What is this that revives me so,
when even my skin betrays me,
and blood shows through its cracks?

Love, my God! Pure love!
When life is lifeless love lives on;
when death is painless love still cries,
and its embers lie poised for me
in the blackness of the ink on the page
and I burn when i find them.

But when your breath reaches this fire...
even blackness begins to glow.
Heat from everywhere,
and tongues of flame their own contagion.
What love could linger, yet spread like light?
What power could possibly halt, or other solace stand?
Like a ghost I cannot free,
captured inescapably.
Even in memory its power possesses me,
but breath comes only from face.
The face is the presence, the companion of soul.
At some moment these must be the ingredients.
For me this is now.

Lord God of earth and heaven,
May your love haunt me
and your presence never release me.

~JLB
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Eyes || 2008.12.16

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7:30 AM 12/16/2008
Eyes


I am myself damaged
a vessel of death, and broken

And I feel a presence
and raise my head
The eyes are fearsome
yet full of love, stirring all i am

They strengthen my creation
charging all I should be
while melting dullness
through all of my evil

I cannot turn away
I am captured: all I am
Fire I feel coursing through me
terror like the approach of an army

Yet beauty! I am undone.
Golden walls at sunset
Eternity floods upon us
and somehow we are alone

I know not the world
my curse, my damage, my death
As though taken suddenly
with my death left behind

And I know Love
His Eyes are before me
And I know beauty
As long as He sees

And I have lost what I was
for what I now am
My breath and my life
His eyes turn not from me

~JLB

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2008.12.15

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2008 dec 15

Who can stand on a mountaintop
and scream all praise to you, Lord
Who can appreciate the unseen
and worship at your feet
Thank you for the breath
that fills my lungs
and the blood
running in my veins
And though my body lives
as death to itself
thank you
for loving me
Let the stillness of mountain wind
interrupt with your praises
Let us pause from all ponderings
to worship at your feet
let the poisons of this life
press us into you
Let all creation yearn
to know you as we do
yearn-
to meet you the way we do
Let all creation bow
you love us
like no other
and let creation sing
for I am yours

~JLB
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20081209

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20081209

His breath is offers of Life...
Lord let me taste your fragrance again
...in perceiving your beauty
it doesn't so much overwhelm
Like struggling blind
- I hear music, still feel music
but it isn't carry me away.

I feel across realms still
but its less of a song
and more of a ghost
and closing my eyes...
there is missing, the absence of force

So I must seek again

Care of matters fill the mind once focused
and I lay waiting for dawn
But that's not whats important
It shouldn't be anyhow
Not when there was Death then Life
Not when separation can melt
Because Way has been made
Not when Death is made captive
And grace is poured out

Magnificent thing - His breath onto mine
Paint the dawn colors
Birth ice into the fantasy of its crystals
And raise life to winter flowers
All praise be to you God
All glory to your name
All wonders melt in reverence
Flowing down to lesser things.
How in silence do you glory?
How in thunder is great song?
Teach my heart your Holy reverence
Teach my soul your ways.

~JLB

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