birds galore

i might be getting into birds. so far (in one INTENSE afternoon of wiki'ing 'birds'), i'm curious in the 'corvidae' family of birds which include crows, ravens, jays, and magpies, among others. apparently the most self-aware of birds (as suggested by mirror tests), these tweeters are on par with 'great ape' intelligence levels, if that even means anything.

yeah, that was my afternoon, more or less.

top 40

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!

Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore Thee,
Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee,
Who was, and is, and evermore shall be.

Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide Thee,
Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see;
Only Thou art holy; there is none beside Thee,
Perfect in pow’r, in love, and purity.

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All Thy works shall praise Thy Name, in earth, and sky, and sea;
Holy, holy, holy; merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!

Alright, so one 'Reginald Heber' wrote this back in 1826...i'm sure we all knew that.

i don't really have anything else to say...just the hymn.

you in me loves you

from ozzie chambers this aft. it's not the whole entry, but my pen went-a-underlinin' away.

'the conditions of discipleship'

"If any man come to Me, and hate not...he cannot be My disciple." Luke 14:26

"[...] Our Lord never proclaimed a cause; He proclaimed personal devotion to Himself. To be a disciple is to be a devoted love-slave of the Lord Jesus...No man on earth has this passionate love to the Lord Jesus unless the Holy Ghost has imparted it to him."

"The only Lover of the Lord Jesus is the Holy Ghost, and He sheds abroad the very love of God in our hearts. Whenever the Holy Ghosts sees a chance of glorifying Jesus, He will take your heart, your nerves, your whole personality, and simply make you blaze and glow with devotion to Jesus Christ."

"...the Christian must be consistent to the life of the Son of God in him, not consistent to hard and fats creeds."

it's encouraging to know that all of my wanting and desiring for the Lord rightly so exists only because of the Holy Spirit within me; it is only because of His gift of the Spirit to us that we can have any hope at all to live in the light in a dark world. it makes me realize, once again, that God's gifts--which are freely given to be freely received--exemplify His affections towards us. yes, our eternal salvation in heaven with Him and the allowance to enter into a personal relationship with Him once again through His son are paramount, but we forget that here and now, on this earth, the relationship begins--eternity is now. and when we enter into that divine relationship with a good good good Father, He doesn't hold back. to be certain, we actually have to get over ourselves to accept His love, His gifts, His blessings. our natural selves have a hard time grasping this 'free gift' thing (or at least i do), so a lot of the time we act out in a false humility, so to speak. our pride masquerades as humility so as to not live in the victory (for whatever reason) of the Cross. "oh, i'm not good enough". well yes, that's the point...our natural selves aren't. but, Christ in us must be in communion with the Father; therefore, we must accept the Love. we cheat Christ in us and the Spirit when we deny their communion with the Father.

it's agreed, we're all sinners saved by grace, but we are no longer sinners. God doesn't call us sinners; He calls us saints. we need to walk in victory and acknowledge God's grace 24/7. yes, grace is the key.

"Lord, when you are glorified, my heart is satisfied to know all praise and honor are Yours."--Paul Baloche