no ebb, chill or change...

O love that wilt not let me go
I rest my weary soul in Thee
I give Thee back the life I owe
That in Thine ocean depth its flow
May richer, fuller be.
-George Matheson

"Beloved, nothing shall take the love of Christ from you, or separate you from it. It does not ebb with the ebbing of your feelings; it does not chill with the chill of your affections; it does not change with the changing scenes and circumstances of your life." -Octavius Winslow

I'm loving the changing colours of the trees these days... even if it is bringing with it the cold and the darker evenings. But in this time of transition for me, I am reminded of the never-changing love of God.

make a plan

loving this song today... in the midst of future dreams and the ferris wheel that is my life, the reminder to be intentional with my love...

by love

"I believe that the world was created and approved by love, that it subsists, coheres, and endures by love, and that, insofar as it is redeemable, it can be redeemed only by love. I believe that divine love, incarnate and indwelling in the world, summons the world always toward wholeness, which ultimately is reconciliation and atonement with God."
....
"When I said early in this essay that we live in a world that was created and exists and is redeemable by love, I did not mean to sentimentalize it. For this is also a fallen world. It involves error and disease, ignorance and partiality, sin and death. If this world is a place where we may learn of our involvement in immortal love, as I believe it is, still such learning is only possible here because that love involves us so inescapably in the limits, sufferings, and sorrows of mortality."
-Wendell Berry

for the context of these two quotes check out this speech... Health is membership.

love

ok, so not the valentine's day type of love but... some quotes anyway for the craic :)

"Mine is an unchanging love
higher than the heights above
deeper than the depths beneath
free and faithful, strong as death"
-William Cowper
(from Hark my soul... crap tune, great words)

"If the love of a father will not make a child delight in him, what will?" -John Owen


Whoever, therefore, thinks he understands the divine Scriptures or any part of them so that it does not build the double love of God and of our neighbour does not understand it at all.
-Augustine

love has come

This is a song by Sandra McCracken. I remember hearing her during my first year in belfast - she was singing at a wee halls gig with her husband, Derek Webb. But i haven't really listened to any of her music since. Came across this song today and i just like some of the words... especially verse 3...

how long you have travelled in darkness weeping
no rest in language, no words to speak
but there in the wreakage beneath bricks and bindings
love has come, love has come for you

against the night sky of your waiting
your face is like starlight when he walks in
everything worth keeping comes through dying
love has come, love has come for you

so lift up your heart now, to this unfolding
all that has been broken will be restored
here runs deep waters for all who are thirsty
love has come, love has come for you...

Here's a link to her myspace if you want to hear it - it's called ten thousand angels.