A Place Near Your Altar

Justus: "dad I miss you even when I'm with you...because I know that soon you'll have to leave me"

"I don't want to move...I don't think I could". David Crowder

"a place near your altar Lord" 

Have you ever been there? Near his altar? Enamored by his presence? Unable to move. Not wanting to move...to leave. Words fail me when I feebly attempt to describe the density of his Spirit in those times and the fiery warmth of his love. The mystery when he gives us glimpses of that which "no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has perceived" is well...a mystery.

 Father I don't want to leave here...I don't want you to leave me. I already miss you because I know soon you'll leave me. Give me another scripture, another verse, another prayer, another "secret duty".
You made me your priest...grant me another cup to wash, another garment to fold, another sacrifice to prepare...another verse to sing...anything...I don't want to leave here.

I'm not talking about goose bumps or  "swinging from chandeliers". I'm talking about sitting at the feet of the master, a PERSON, Jesus, and washing his feet with your tears and begging him for one more embrace, one more word, one more powerful breath of intercession, one more peering into the unknown. I love my father! He is my God and I am his son! I love when he shares his thoughts with me! "how great are the sum of them"

Can you imagine it? Jesus looks to his Father and says  something like "dad I miss you already because soon I know you'll have to leave me".

"as the deer pants"

Have you ever ached for him? Missed him so terribly that every breath seemed difficult? Of course we know "he has made his tabernacle to dwell with men" and he has been birthed in us...lives in us. But if we have been following him long, we know there's no escaping those desert seasons. There are times we get to hang out with Dad at the altar only to be followed with the commission to go...and do...

I wrote a song a long time ago about Mary Magdalene, whom I believe truly beheld him in this way. Here are some of the verses....

She comes in the room, she knelt down at his feet and washed him with tears
She comes in the room, she knelt down at his feet and washed him with love

She comes in robes of scarlet, suddenly turned white by the touch of his hands
She comes dancing madly, I can see the place where she used to roam
She comes in a breath of silence, she lost herself in the eyes of love never known

And all of her tears flowed into his hands
And all of her smiles, they wrapped around his heart

I want to know Him!!! And though I'm here for yet a little while longer, walking this dimly lit earth...he has made the light of his countenance to shine upon me...and I know that soon I will see him face to face and I will know him fully as I am known!!!

No matter how treacherous this life can be I know I carry about in my body the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ, the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus Christ, and a sweet, holy, sacred, intimate communion with him that no one can ever take away from me. I hold it close. I guard it with a vengeance.

"God you are my God, earnestly I seek thee"

...I set my face like flint to the cross...

I, like so many others in the Body of Christ, struggle to describe what has and what is taking place in us. And though we horribly misrepresent Him sometimes, we still so desperately want the world to know what we have, who we know, and what has happened inside of us...

If we could only, adequately, describe this treasure!

Suffice it to say...we walk...secretly shaken.