Words of Life

"Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer." Psalm 19:14 (KJV)

A friend brought his eReader to me just be before church began yesterday and said, "This is my favorite part of your book," and pointed to one of the paragraphs I have here. Which paragraph he showed me, I’m still not sure. I may have remembered wrong, that which I had forgotten, so I include them both. It was one of these. The first is my favorite but the second may have been his.

Regarding a drawing a gifted child had created depicting her experience of God:
"Tears flowed like healing waters as I was bathed again in the same spirit of
holiness that had touched me so many years ago. Against the canvas of Heaven,
like a mighty, holy colossus striding across the firmament, was a completely
formed drawing of a being. With the breath of life flowing from his mouth and
nostrils, the being looked as if his spoken word had just caused the whole world
to leap into creation. His powerful muscles declared his strength and his eyes
revealed his love. His hair blew across the night sky like a field of tall wheat in
late July. There it mingled with the tails of winter clouds as they stretched across
the canopy of our world. The light from his eyes was as glorious as the dawn of a
new day. His gaze was as strong as the towering oaks and as sweet as a field of
wild flowers after a spring rain. It looked like all of creation laughed and loved
within his gaze. There was so much glory emanating from his countenance, it was
nearly impossible to look upon him. Across the bottom, under the drawing, were
the words and letters, ‘Ego sum Dominus sum ego.’" (Length of Days - The Age
of Silence, pg 291

Or, it may have been the following paragraph, from page 51, where the character, Christiana, describes the Holy Spirit.
"I was overwhelmed with all the new information, but maybe I already knew.
Something or someone had been tugging at my heart for months as I read the
old books. It was a force that was strong enough to call to me from the pages of
man’s writing and move within my being, like a fog that overtakes a meadow of
wild flowers and blankets it, while doing no harm, then leaves a light, nourishing
mist on the surface of all that lives there."

Whichever one he showed me, I started reading it and said, "I don’t think . . ."

"Yes, you did," he laughed. "You wrote it."

Then I looked at a paragraph above and found these words, "There," Grand-père’s voice rang out with might and power . . ." Then I knew, "Oh, yes, it is," I remembered. "There’s Grand-père."

In all fairness to my memory, I have written four other books since Length of Days was published nearly two years ago, including the second book in that trilogy. But written words can be like spoken words. Once written or spoken, we move on without much thought about their impact others.

I often wonder, "What words of mine do people remember?" I know, some days, when nothing is going right, my words are . . . less than positive . . . less then pleasing to me, so I know they less than pleasing to God. Then, every once in a while, someone will say, "Dr. Rapp, I remember when you said . . . ," and I cringed when I wonder what on earth I had said that time. Occasionally, someone will lift up words I have said or written that have had a special meaning to them and I know, it wasn’t me, it was Him.

Every song we sang in the church service yesterday had lyrics about living for God, in His favor, for His purposes. My heart swelled with His presence, and I knew, when He gives me words that flow from my fingers onto the keyboard, they are still HIS words. Life is not truly lived unless it is lived for Him. We don’t have to go halfway around the world to serve Him. Service is an attitude of the heart, not a measure of miles we have traveled. That attitude begins with, "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer." If you haven’t done anything today but lifted a friend out of the depths of despair with your words of encouragement, isn’t that enough? Let us pray:

"Holy Father, your words are so powerful, you spoke the world into spinning. Holy are you. I choose to give all to you. Words have the power to create, to uplift, to put down, to give life and to condemn and kill. From this day on, Father, I want the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, to be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. Forgive me when I have used words in hurtful ways. I give my words to you Father, not with my own power to surrender, but with the grace and help of your son, my savior, Jesus, I pray. Amen"

Doris
"God gives us stories that testify to His love. Let me tell you mine."Copyright 2014 Doris Gaines Rapp

Length of Days - The Age of Silence can be ordered from any bookstore, or on line at www.cokesbury.com, www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com. It is available in paperback and eBook.

Length of Days - Beyond the Valley, the second in the Length of Days trilogy, will be out late in the fall, 2014. It will be available in paperback and eBook.