Desert, 3.

5. Resolved, to sing to the LORD a new song, for My Help and My Deliverer drew me up from the desert pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a solid rock, making my steps sure; He put a new song in my mouth and He will surely always renew the song of the redeemed.

Desert, 2.

The North American Review, January 1834, remembers William Cowper's bouts of temporary insanity:

"Spent in heavy insensibility, ... he felt for himself a contempt not to be expressed or imagined ... he felt as if he had offended God so deeply that his guilt could never be forgiven... Madness was not far off, or rather madness was already come."

The article ultimately described not the poet's madness, but how God prevented Cowper--from destroying himself (Psalm 124).

***

It would hurt to get disciplined by this desert branch.
It would prob draw blood.
Photo taken in Arizona, February 2010.

***

Among William Cowper's first compositions after his first descent into despair was "There is a fountain,"  which celebrated that, and how, God could remove the stain of even the guiltiest sin.

there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins.

and sinners plunged beneath that flood

lose all their guilty stains!

lose all their guilty stains!

lose all their guilty stains!

and sinners plunged beneath that flood

lose all their guilty stains!

Desert, 1.

My desert valley dried my bones and drove me to a spring.

In foolish desperate hopes that there even was a fountain,
I'd have settled for muddy water, or laudanum.

I'd have settled for water, but He poured out His blood.

There is a fountain.

***
Praise for the Fountain Opened

the dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day.

and there have i, though vile as he,

washed all my sins away!

washed all my sins away!

washed all my sins away!

and there have I, though vile as he,

washed all my sins away!

Click to listen.  Aretha Franklin does it good.

Foundations, 3.

Stand firm and root deeply in the promises of God:

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.

When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.

Because of who You are,
Because You loved me first,
all things (must) work for my good.

Foundations, 2.

How firm a foundation ye saints of the Lord

Lord the ground is shifting beneath me
Rugs, ashes, tile, asphalt
Crawl, tear, and tangle like stormy waves

is laid for your faith in his excellent Word

but Your Word o Lord stands forever
my heart is willing
Your directions feel far

What more can He say than to you He has said?

hide me in all that cannot be sifted or shaken
that I might hear
the deafening still silence of Your Godness

to you who for refuge to Jesus has fled

that I might fear You
sleep soundly in You tonight
love You into tomorrow
every day
until the day
and every day
thereafter

Foundations, 1.

a church cannot be built on a rug.

you know, the one we hide the inconvenient messy truth under.

a rug is not a firm foundation.

to members of the household,
to all who gander at stagnation and stunted potential,

like a band-aid for a gaping wound
was the unbearable filth hastily swept beneath a rug
to those who preferred the silence of the lamb
and that the dog would sleep
who let lies stifle the terrible swift sword--
that immortal, double-edged sword.

a church cannot be built on a rug
the casualties obscure the cost
of Christ Jesus himself

the cornerstone in whom
the whole (non mortar & brick)
structure being joined together

grows

into a ἅγιος temple in the LORD.

anyone who hears these words

and does not do them,

a foolish man.

for the fear of the LORD--

the terrible One,

is the foundation of wisdom.

see.  fear.  return.

*holy, venerating, reverent, sacred,
not to be profaned
from Greek ἄγος:
an awful thing.

Let us not reckon without our Host.

In each of my friends there is something
that only some other friend can fully bring out.
By myself I am not large enough
to call the whole man into activity;

Congrats Norman and Steph!

I want other lights than my own to show all his facets...
Hence true Friendship is the least jealous of loves.
Two friends delight to be joined by a third, and three by a fourth,
if only the newcomer is qualified to become a real friend...

Of course the scarcity of kindred souls--
not to mention practical considerations about the size of rooms...
set limits to the enlargement of the circle;
but within those limits we possess each friend not less but more
as the number of those with whom we share him increases.

In this, Friendship exhibits a glorious "nearness by resemblance"
to Heaven itself where the very multitude of the blessed
(which no man can number) increases the fruition which each has of God.
For every soul, seeing Him in her own way,
doubtless communicates that unique vision to all the rest.
That, says an old author, is why the Seraphim in Isaiah's vision
are crying "Holy, Holy, Holy" to one another (Isaiah VI, 3).
The more we share the Heavenly Bread between us,
the more we shall all have...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY,
robot twin Friend!!

The Friendship is not a reward for our discrimination
and good taste in finding one another out.
It is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of all the others...
Like all beauties, derived from Him, and then, in a good Friendship,
increased by Him through the Friendship itself,
so that it is His instrument for creating as well as for revealing.
At this feast it is He who has spread the board
and it is He who has chosen the guests.

// C.S. Lewis, "Friendship," The Four Loves.