"If I have already been forgiven and therefore connected to a God whose Spirit pours life into me, then you pose no threat to my existence. You can reject me, hurt me, and make my life pretty miserable, but you cannot destroy me. Therefore I don't need to be so afraid of you that my fear controls how I treat you.

I don't need to keep up my guard. I can actually accept you as God for Christ's sake has already accepted me. When you offend me, I can nourish the spirit of forgiveness within me because it's there. I may have to look hard for it, but it's there. I've been forgiven, and I've been given the urge to forgive, the same urge that led to my being forgiven. I can pour into you the life that has been poured into me."

--Connecting by Larry Crabb (pages 46-47)

"When two people connect, when their beings intersect as closely as two bodies during intercourse, something is poured out of one and into the other that has the power to heal the soul of its deepest wounds and restore it to health. The one who receives experiences the joy of being healed. The one who gives knows the even greater joy of being used to heal. Something good is in the heart of each of God's children that is more powerful than everything bad. It's there, waiting to be released, to work its magic. But it rarely happens."

--Connecting by Larry Crabb pxi

My Faith Looks Up To Thee

My faith looks up to Thee,
Thou Lamb of Calvary, Savior divine!
Now hear me while I pray, take all my guilt away,
O let me from this day be wholly Thine!
May Thy rich grace impart
Strength to my fainting heart, my zeal inspire!
As Thou hast died for me, O may my love to Thee,
Pure warm, and changeless be, a living fire!
While life’s dark maze I tread,
And griefs around me spread, be Thou my Guide;
Bid darkness turn to day, wipe sorrow’s tears away,
Nor let me ever stray from Thee aside.
When ends life’s transient dream,
When death’s cold sullen stream over me roll;
Blest Savior, then in love, fear and distrust remove;
O bear me safe above, a ransomed soul!

Don't Look Back

Every morning as I look into the mirror
Yesterday's mistakes are so painfully clear
I could let them take me under, be a source of misery
Or I could understand the power of the blood that's shed for me

Often I'm reminded that there's nothing we can do
That would take away the sacrifice for me and you
So when you feel the guilt of the enemy's attack
Just know you've been forgiven and don't look back

Don't look back - Yesterday is over, today is a brand new day
Don't look back - It's not the answer, no it's not the way

You can't go forward when you keep looking back
How can you think about the future
When you're haunted by the past?
God don't want you to live like that
Put your hand to the plow and don't look back

I know the straight and narrow is the path that I should see
Yet I'm often tempted by the way it used to be
Seems like only good times keep flashing through my brain
But then I stop and I remember the cost, all the pain

Don't look back - Those old temptations were never good for you
Don't look back - There's nothing there that can help you get through

Why do we dig up the old man
When there's so much ahead?
Why can't we do what Jesus said
And let the dead bury the dead?

--?

Holy God, We Praise Thy Name

Ho-ly God, we praise Thy Name;
Lord of all, we bow be-fore Thee!
All on earth Thy scep-ter claim,
All in heav-en a-bove a-dore Thee;
In-fin-ite Thy vast do-main,
Ev-er-last-ing is Thy reign.

Hark! the loud ce-les-tial hymn
An-gel choirs a-bove are rais-ing,
Cher-u-bim and ser-a-phim,
In un-ceas-ing chor-us prais-ing;
Fill the heav-ens with sweet ac-cord:
Ho-ly, ho-ly, ho-ly, Lord.

Lo! the a-pos-tol-ic train
Join the sa-cred Name to hal-low;
Pro-phets swell the loud re-frain,
And the white-robed mar-tyrs fol-low;
And from morn to set of sun,
Through the Church the song goes on.

Ho-ly Fa-ther, Ho-ly Son,
Ho-ly Spir-it, Three we name Thee;
While in es-sence on-ly One,
Un-di-vid-ed God we claim Thee;
And a-dor-ing bend the knee,
While we own the mys-ter-y.

--The Covenant Hymnal: A Worship #19

"That is why he and his kind are employed," Nathan said bitterly. "To protect their overlords from such unpleasant tasks. Now the landlord can wring from us his moneys and care not for the misery he evokes, for indeed it would be difficult for any man to see another starve and his wife and children as well; or to enjoy the profits born of such travail."

--Nectar In A Sieve p72

"He seemed very wide awake. I stretched myself out beside him, close to him in the darkness, and as we touched he turned abruptly towards me. Words died away, the listening air was very still, the black night waited. In the straining darkness I felt his body moving with desire, his hands on me were trembling, and I felt my senses opening like a flower to his urgency. I closed my eyes and waited, waited in the darkness while my being filled with a wild ecstatic fluttering, waited for him to come to me."

--Nector In A Sieve p57