Today in the sanctuary, the Lord let me watch the Spirit dance over us as we worshiped Him. I watched a wind blow about in beautiful swirls, slowly taking on the form of a dancer. He danced with such an incredible fluidity and grace that I was left breathless. He didn’t need a floor to spring from, or another’s strength to lift Him, He simple danced effortlessly over His people with perfect precision and sync with the song, the power of His movements crescendoing and decrescendoing perfectly. I wish I could put into words the beauty of this dance, but there are none that could do it justice. I know only that it was a privilege to share in.
You dance over us
©7-31-11 hannah mclean
music flows to Your praise
in the beauty of worship
You open my eyes to behold You
You surround us in a twisting wind
fluidly You sweep around and through Your people
light and glorious and sweet
and as You move above our heads
You take on the form of a dancer
in and out and with the wind
You dance to the melodious music
brought to You
You dance over us
with a fluidity and grace
such as i have never imagined
weightless in purity
You need no ground beneath You
Your springs and leaps
empowered by a strength from within
as if hands unseen
lift, twirl and throw You about the air
effortlessly majestic
moved by You movement
with stunned tears
i simply take You in
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Picture: Living water from the hands of God
This morning I walked into the sanctuary, and the heaviness I felt as I entered was too great to stand. During the praise and worship time, I made my way up to the altar, where I rested my head on the wooden ledge and allowed the choir’s worship and the Lord to wash over me. And as my head rested on the cool surface of the altar, it soften and I saw myself instead with my head against the Savior’s knee. And as I sat, still at His feet with my hands folded in my lap, water poured down on me. I looked, but there was no pitcher or vessel. Instead, it streamed in a continuous, un-ending flow from His hands. It washed over me, restoring my peace, and pooled on the floor below me.
I tried to create a glimpse of what I saw. Alas, my artistic abilities fall so very short, but perhaps your mind can fill in the details of my simple expression:
I tried to create a glimpse of what I saw. Alas, my artistic abilities fall so very short, but perhaps your mind can fill in the details of my simple expression:
Friday, July 22, 2011
my morning song
awaken me to You
©7-22-11 hannah mclean
only You
can give me life
awaken me, my Lord
let me
let me come alive
Lord, fill me
with Your presence
awaken me to You
and move me
by Your Spirit
till i am wholly new
Lord, what good are these crippled knees
for dancing ‘round Your throne?
and what good are these heavy hands
for lifting praise to You alone?
Lord, fill me
with Your presence
awaken me to You
and move me
by Your Spirit
till i am wholly new
only You
can give me life
awaken me, my Lord
give me ears to hear Your voice
a heart to know Your word
fill my mouth with praises, Lord
to ever lift to You
and lift my soul to worship, Lord
as i bow down to You
Lord, fill me
with Your presence
awaken me to You
and move me
by Your Spirit
till i am wholly new
awaken me, oh Glorious Creator
i long to see the beauty of Your face
ignite the senses of my spirit
to behold You
awaken me, oh Merciful Majesty
i long to feel the touch of holy hands
ignite the senses of my spirit
to receive You
only You
can give me life
awaken me, my Lord
let me
let me come alive
Lord, fill me
with Your presence
awaken me to You
and move me
by Your Spirit
till i am wholly new
awaken me
awaken me to You, Lord
awaken me
awaken me to You, Lord
awaken me
awaken me to You, Lord
awaken me to You
©7-22-11 hannah mclean
only You
can give me life
awaken me, my Lord
let me
let me come alive
Lord, fill me
with Your presence
awaken me to You
and move me
by Your Spirit
till i am wholly new
Lord, what good are these crippled knees
for dancing ‘round Your throne?
and what good are these heavy hands
for lifting praise to You alone?
Lord, fill me
with Your presence
awaken me to You
and move me
by Your Spirit
till i am wholly new
only You
can give me life
awaken me, my Lord
give me ears to hear Your voice
a heart to know Your word
fill my mouth with praises, Lord
to ever lift to You
and lift my soul to worship, Lord
as i bow down to You
Lord, fill me
with Your presence
awaken me to You
and move me
by Your Spirit
till i am wholly new
awaken me, oh Glorious Creator
i long to see the beauty of Your face
ignite the senses of my spirit
to behold You
awaken me, oh Merciful Majesty
i long to feel the touch of holy hands
ignite the senses of my spirit
to receive You
only You
can give me life
awaken me, my Lord
let me
let me come alive
Lord, fill me
with Your presence
awaken me to You
and move me
by Your Spirit
till i am wholly new
awaken me
awaken me to You, Lord
awaken me
awaken me to You, Lord
awaken me
awaken me to You, Lord
awaken me to You
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Psalm 62 took the words right off my tongue.
The pain of Matthew 13:16
“But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.”
©7-3-11 Hannah McLean
Be my strength
sufficient for each day
A grace to feel
to weep
to kneel
to be burdened by sight
while standing in Light
oh, Mercy,
hold me up
hold me up
till You return
oh, Comfort of my broken heart,
You are enough
You are enough
------
Response to Psalm 62
©7-3-11 Hannah McLean
My lament is nothing new
the world has long since turned away from You
The psalmists wept these tears I weep
and Mary at her Savior’s feet
You never change as You impart
both then and now Your loving heart
Savior, in Your presence I kneel
Thankful for words that speak what I feel
------
Psalm 62
For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from him comes my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress;
I shall not be greatly shaken.
How long will all of you attack a man
to batter him,
like a leaning wall, a tottering fence?
They only plan to thrust him down from his high position.
They take pleasure in falsehood.
They bless with their mouths,
but inwardly they curse.
Selah
For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,
for my hope is from him.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
On God rests my salvation and my glory;
my mighty rock, my refuge is God.
Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your heart before him;
God is a refuge for us.
Selah
Those of low estate are but a breath;
those of high estate are a delusion;
in the balances they go up;
they are together lighter than a breath.
Put no trust in extortion;
set no vain hopes on robbery;
if riches increase, set not your heart on them.
Once God has spoken;
twice have I heard this:
that power belongs to God,
and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love.
For you will render to a man
according to his work.
“But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.”
©7-3-11 Hannah McLean
Be my strength
sufficient for each day
A grace to feel
to weep
to kneel
to be burdened by sight
while standing in Light
oh, Mercy,
hold me up
hold me up
till You return
oh, Comfort of my broken heart,
You are enough
You are enough
------
Response to Psalm 62
©7-3-11 Hannah McLean
My lament is nothing new
the world has long since turned away from You
The psalmists wept these tears I weep
and Mary at her Savior’s feet
You never change as You impart
both then and now Your loving heart
Savior, in Your presence I kneel
Thankful for words that speak what I feel
------
Psalm 62
For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from him comes my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress;
I shall not be greatly shaken.
How long will all of you attack a man
to batter him,
like a leaning wall, a tottering fence?
They only plan to thrust him down from his high position.
They take pleasure in falsehood.
They bless with their mouths,
but inwardly they curse.
Selah
For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,
for my hope is from him.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
On God rests my salvation and my glory;
my mighty rock, my refuge is God.
Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your heart before him;
God is a refuge for us.
Selah
Those of low estate are but a breath;
those of high estate are a delusion;
in the balances they go up;
they are together lighter than a breath.
Put no trust in extortion;
set no vain hopes on robbery;
if riches increase, set not your heart on them.
Once God has spoken;
twice have I heard this:
that power belongs to God,
and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love.
For you will render to a man
according to his work.
Promised justice.
Over the last couple of months, my hatred for Satan has grown, he makes me livid. When I stopped to think about when this feeling really launched forward recently, I realized it was after watching this clip by Francis Chan ( http://vimeo.com/24016195 ) a week after we had the discussion in my LIFE group about the book Love Wins and its denial of hell. In this clip, I was super struck by Revelation 20:10; here it is in context:
Revelation 20:7-10 “When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”
I had never intentionally looked at this passage before. I wish I had before this point, honestly. I feel that is holds immense implications, some of which comfort me. In my bible, this paragraph of text is entitled “The judgment of Satan.” The judgment of Satan...consider that thought for a moment as I tell you what my view of hell seems to have been over time.
I don’t think I ever doubted hell existed. Sin was a concept that was a big part of my life growing up, I understood that sinners without a Savior go to hell. I did not, however, understand sin; the reality of what is was had become so muddled in my mind throughout my childhood, that the word itself felt empty of anything but a habitual aching conscience for unknown reasons. A couple of years after I accepted Christ, I actually had sin explained to me the most clearly by a second grader:
Sunday school teacher: What is sin?
Second grader: Sin is what separates us from God.
Me: Oh.
Until this point, I understood hell was a bad place where I deserved, but didn’t want, to go and heaven was a glorious place where I did want to go, but I didn’t necessarily understand why until I understood what sin was. What makes heaven Heaven, is that we are in perfect union with God. What makes hell Hell, is that we are eternally separated from Him. These truths are enough to make me cling to Jesus Christ with a desire to follow Him and His teachings.
As I read this passage in Revelation, I realized some things in the typical depiction of hell that it directly refutes. All of the caricatures, painting, articulations of hell that I have seen around me present hell as Satan’s domain; a place he brings his captured souls to and then draws pleasure by tormenting them for all of eternity; a place where he stands immense over the burning, cowering humans with a huge pitchfork as his scepter; a place where his work of deceiving as many as possible for his “kingdom” of hell has paid off as he stands victorious over his screaming, despairing subjects. Satan is often painted as an equally powerful force on the opposite end of the spectrum from God, the idea is that you choose God or the devil.
But this passage in Revelation refutes these ideas. What this shows is that hell is not the devil’s domain, it is instead the means by which he will suffer for all eternity for his work; a place where justice will play out as he receives judgment for all of the deceitful, festering sin he brought about through his lies and schemes and intentional deceit; a place where he is rendered helpless, completely defeated and brought to nothing alongside those he has beguiled. It also shows that Satan is not an evil opposite of God; he is subject to Him. Christ has declared victory over him for us and will one day subdue him with the eternal torments of hell.
There is the promise in Genesis 3 that Christ will crush Satan. I believe the devil knows he is defeated. If that is the case, it makes me consider his ways and the drive behind them. Imagine if you knew your end (the stripping of all power and then eternal torment) and Who will send you there...would you not desire to do as much damage to spite them? Is the purpose of his wickedness simply to take as much glory away from God as he possibly can and to grieve the heart of God to the greatest of his abilities? To destroy as many of God’s people as possible? This is a terrible, yet clarifying, thought for those living in sin. The devil tempts us with things we desire, convincing us that it is our good and our pleasure that he wants for us...what a profound lie. It reveals new and profound depths to the deception of the compilation of his work. It is certainly not for our gain...it is not even for HIS gain! His goal and target seems to be to destroy God; His joy, His people, His plans, His purposes, His glory. I venture to you that we are not the point at all, not even a little bit. If we do not have Christ, we are simply pawns in Satan’s plans to take from the only One who deserves.
To my surprise, for the first time, I found comfort in the thought of hell. It may just be me, but I find it comforting that hell is not the devil's domain, it is instead where he will suffer with those he has deceived (It says in revelation 20:10 that these numbers are like the sands of the seashore...such widespread deception!). Justice. I have never considered that Satan will receive judgment, and justice will be brought to fruition for all that he has done. I knew he was defeated and powerless before God, but I never realized that he would be punished by the fires of hell for his deeds.
When I look around me at things like the sex trafficking of children, marriages ripped apart by pornography, mass murders in Mexico in the name of drugs, the list goes on...I can know that the one who started it all and is the destroying, driving and deceiving force behind it will not go unpunished. I am grateful that the one who deceived from the beginning and caused the spiral of every sin of humanity and who purposes to destroy and torment and turn God’s creation away from Him will be brought to justice.
God is just.
And as I consider these things, I find that amid the grief I feel for what I see, my hearts leaps with a new found and deeper desire to, all the more, give all that I could ever have to give, to bring all that I could ever bring, to worship with every ounce of me that can worship the ONE God of ALL. Satan may seek to turn me from my Lord and strive to take what I wish to give to my God, but I pray it would only serve to spur me on to glorify my Savior more and more.
Philippians 2:9–11
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and EVERY tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Revelation 20:7-10 “When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”
I had never intentionally looked at this passage before. I wish I had before this point, honestly. I feel that is holds immense implications, some of which comfort me. In my bible, this paragraph of text is entitled “The judgment of Satan.” The judgment of Satan...consider that thought for a moment as I tell you what my view of hell seems to have been over time.
I don’t think I ever doubted hell existed. Sin was a concept that was a big part of my life growing up, I understood that sinners without a Savior go to hell. I did not, however, understand sin; the reality of what is was had become so muddled in my mind throughout my childhood, that the word itself felt empty of anything but a habitual aching conscience for unknown reasons. A couple of years after I accepted Christ, I actually had sin explained to me the most clearly by a second grader:
Sunday school teacher: What is sin?
Second grader: Sin is what separates us from God.
Me: Oh.
Until this point, I understood hell was a bad place where I deserved, but didn’t want, to go and heaven was a glorious place where I did want to go, but I didn’t necessarily understand why until I understood what sin was. What makes heaven Heaven, is that we are in perfect union with God. What makes hell Hell, is that we are eternally separated from Him. These truths are enough to make me cling to Jesus Christ with a desire to follow Him and His teachings.
As I read this passage in Revelation, I realized some things in the typical depiction of hell that it directly refutes. All of the caricatures, painting, articulations of hell that I have seen around me present hell as Satan’s domain; a place he brings his captured souls to and then draws pleasure by tormenting them for all of eternity; a place where he stands immense over the burning, cowering humans with a huge pitchfork as his scepter; a place where his work of deceiving as many as possible for his “kingdom” of hell has paid off as he stands victorious over his screaming, despairing subjects. Satan is often painted as an equally powerful force on the opposite end of the spectrum from God, the idea is that you choose God or the devil.
But this passage in Revelation refutes these ideas. What this shows is that hell is not the devil’s domain, it is instead the means by which he will suffer for all eternity for his work; a place where justice will play out as he receives judgment for all of the deceitful, festering sin he brought about through his lies and schemes and intentional deceit; a place where he is rendered helpless, completely defeated and brought to nothing alongside those he has beguiled. It also shows that Satan is not an evil opposite of God; he is subject to Him. Christ has declared victory over him for us and will one day subdue him with the eternal torments of hell.
There is the promise in Genesis 3 that Christ will crush Satan. I believe the devil knows he is defeated. If that is the case, it makes me consider his ways and the drive behind them. Imagine if you knew your end (the stripping of all power and then eternal torment) and Who will send you there...would you not desire to do as much damage to spite them? Is the purpose of his wickedness simply to take as much glory away from God as he possibly can and to grieve the heart of God to the greatest of his abilities? To destroy as many of God’s people as possible? This is a terrible, yet clarifying, thought for those living in sin. The devil tempts us with things we desire, convincing us that it is our good and our pleasure that he wants for us...what a profound lie. It reveals new and profound depths to the deception of the compilation of his work. It is certainly not for our gain...it is not even for HIS gain! His goal and target seems to be to destroy God; His joy, His people, His plans, His purposes, His glory. I venture to you that we are not the point at all, not even a little bit. If we do not have Christ, we are simply pawns in Satan’s plans to take from the only One who deserves.
To my surprise, for the first time, I found comfort in the thought of hell. It may just be me, but I find it comforting that hell is not the devil's domain, it is instead where he will suffer with those he has deceived (It says in revelation 20:10 that these numbers are like the sands of the seashore...such widespread deception!). Justice. I have never considered that Satan will receive judgment, and justice will be brought to fruition for all that he has done. I knew he was defeated and powerless before God, but I never realized that he would be punished by the fires of hell for his deeds.
When I look around me at things like the sex trafficking of children, marriages ripped apart by pornography, mass murders in Mexico in the name of drugs, the list goes on...I can know that the one who started it all and is the destroying, driving and deceiving force behind it will not go unpunished. I am grateful that the one who deceived from the beginning and caused the spiral of every sin of humanity and who purposes to destroy and torment and turn God’s creation away from Him will be brought to justice.
God is just.
And as I consider these things, I find that amid the grief I feel for what I see, my hearts leaps with a new found and deeper desire to, all the more, give all that I could ever have to give, to bring all that I could ever bring, to worship with every ounce of me that can worship the ONE God of ALL. Satan may seek to turn me from my Lord and strive to take what I wish to give to my God, but I pray it would only serve to spur me on to glorify my Savior more and more.
Philippians 2:9–11
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and EVERY tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Picture: The Crown of Praise
During a time of prayer recently with my friend, the Lord put a song on my heart. And as a line of the song played acknowledging Jesus’ crown of praise, He gave me this picture:
Christ hung upon the cross, His head bowed, His arms outstretched. Upon His head sat a twisted crown of thorns, pressed deep into His skull. The picture was dark and lit only by a vibrant, vivid light that poured down from heaven and filled the crown of thorns until it shown with light, streaming from the point of every thorn as if light was shining into a diamond and refracting. And the Lord said, “THIS is the Crown of Praise.”
And after He had shown me this glorious and humbling thing, my friend began to read Psalm 8, and my heart leapt at verse five, “Yet You have made Him a little lower than the Heavenly being and crowned Him with glory and honor.” That is what the Lord had just shown me. When I have considered the crown of my King, I have always imagined beauty, splendor, jewels and fine metals...but this crown was given when He was in a humbled state. The twisted crown formed amid the mockery of men was made glorious on the head of my Lord as He glorified His Father in Heaven.
Wow.
May the light the shines from the piercing thorns penetrate you.
Jesus alone is worthy of our praise.
Christ hung upon the cross, His head bowed, His arms outstretched. Upon His head sat a twisted crown of thorns, pressed deep into His skull. The picture was dark and lit only by a vibrant, vivid light that poured down from heaven and filled the crown of thorns until it shown with light, streaming from the point of every thorn as if light was shining into a diamond and refracting. And the Lord said, “THIS is the Crown of Praise.”
And after He had shown me this glorious and humbling thing, my friend began to read Psalm 8, and my heart leapt at verse five, “Yet You have made Him a little lower than the Heavenly being and crowned Him with glory and honor.” That is what the Lord had just shown me. When I have considered the crown of my King, I have always imagined beauty, splendor, jewels and fine metals...but this crown was given when He was in a humbled state. The twisted crown formed amid the mockery of men was made glorious on the head of my Lord as He glorified His Father in Heaven.
Wow.
May the light the shines from the piercing thorns penetrate you.
Jesus alone is worthy of our praise.
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."
Truthful lament
©7-1-11 hannah mclean
Heart of my heart
i burn for You
beneath my furrowed brow
tears stream from my eyes
and land upon my
clenched fists
i melt into You
You immovable Rock
i marvel at the softness of You
and the sweet relief of Your permanence
Hope of my hope
i long for You
my fists release
to folded hands of prayer
i implore You
amid denial of
the only Truth that frees
You never fail
pressing
pressing
pressing
yet Your worthy name withstands
keep me firm to the end
upheld and upholding
whether or not i stand alone
-----
Luke 18:8 Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?
©7-1-11 hannah mclean
Heart of my heart
i burn for You
beneath my furrowed brow
tears stream from my eyes
and land upon my
clenched fists
i melt into You
You immovable Rock
i marvel at the softness of You
and the sweet relief of Your permanence
Hope of my hope
i long for You
my fists release
to folded hands of prayer
i implore You
amid denial of
the only Truth that frees
You never fail
pressing
pressing
pressing
yet Your worthy name withstands
keep me firm to the end
upheld and upholding
whether or not i stand alone
-----
Luke 18:8 Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?
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