Love Life Word Work

I found this in The Devotions of Bishop Andrewes on Christian Classics Ethereal Library. When I started reading this Confession I wept bitter but cleansing tears. The words touched me at such a deep level, triggering a very much needed spirit of repentance.
Let me invite you to read, confess and repent.

Essence beyond essence,
Nature increate,
Framer of the world,
I set Thee, Lord, before my face,
and I lift up my soul unto Thee.
I worship Thee on my knees,
and humble myself under Thy mighty hand.
I stretch forth my hands unto Thee,
my soul gaspeth unto Thee as a thirsty land.
I smite on my breast
and say with the Publican,
God be merciful to me a sinner,
the chief of sinners;
to the sinner above the Publican,
be merciful as to the Publican.
Father of mercies,
I beseech Thy fatherly affection;
despise me not,
an unclean worm, a dead dog,
a putrid corpse,
despise not Thou the work of Thine own hands,
despise not Thine own image
though branded by sin.
Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean;
Lord, only say the word, and I shall be cleansed.
And Thou, my Saviour Christ,
Christ my Saviour,
Saviour of sinners, of whom I am chief,
despise me not,
despise me not, O Lord,
despise not the cost of Thy blood,
who am called by Thy Name;
but look on me with those eyes
with which Thou didst look upon
Magdalene at the feast,
Peter in the hall,
the thief on the wood;—
that with the thief I may entreat Thee humbly,
Remember me, Lord, in Thy kingdom;
that with Peter I may bitterly weep and say,
O that mine eyes were a fountain of tears
that I might weep day and night;
that with Magdalene, I may hear Thee say,
Thy sins be forgiven thee,
and with her may love much,
for many sins yea manifold
have been forgiven me.
And Thou, All‑holy, Good, and
Life‑giving Spirit,
despise me not, Thy breath,
despise not Thine own holy things;
but turn Thee again, O Lord,
at the last,
and be gracious unto Thy servant.

I got a copy (from a yard sale) of a beautiful book by Harold Bell Wright. Shepherd of the Hills was his second book, and was followed by others I haven’t read yet that sequel it. It’s a story of love, regret, atonement, but mostly, in my view, love. Of course I tend to see love everywhere.
I was amazed by the writing skill of this author whom I did not previously know much about. This book was originally published in 1907 and has become an important part of the story of the Ozarks and Branson area, where the story is set. Not that he was perfect—he had some wordy paragraphs that didn’t need to be so wordy and some flowery phrases that didn’t need to be so flowery, but his story-telling skill made up for these weaknesses. It held me closely attentive until I finished, particularly toward the end.
It had mystery, unexpected twists and turns, sorrow and grief and, of course, a beautiful love story.
Harold Bell Wright grew up poor in New York and Ohio, became a minister, then reached out to the wider world by writing novels.
You can read the story for free online or I would be thankful to earn a few pennies if you buy it (or anything else) through my amazon picture link here.
Here’s a quote I like from the character Dad Howitt:

“Here and there among men, there are those who pause in the hurried rush to listen to the call of a life that is more real. How often have we seen them … jostled and ridiculed by their fellows, pushed aside and forgotten, as incompetent or unworthy. He who sees and hears too much is cursed for a dreamer, a fanatic, or a fool, by the mad mob, who, having eyes, see not, ears and hear not, and refuse to understand.
“We build temples and churches, but will not worship in them; we hire spiritual advisers, but refuse to heed them; we buy bibles, but will not read them; believing in God, we do not fear Him; acknowledging Christ, we neither follow nor obey Him. Only when we can no longer strive in the battle for earthly honors or material wealth, do we turn to the unseen but more enduring things of life; and, with ears deafened by the din of selfish things of life; and, with eyes blinded by the glare of passing pomp and folly, we strive to hear and see the things we have so long refused to consider.”

Good quote, good character, good book, good author. I would like to be more like each one of them myself.

I have jumped into the blogger pool and have made a new weblog called Open Source Love. It’s about the universality of love, the basis of natural law and all law, for that matter. Really love the is the root of all life on earth, the best thing—really the only thing.

I want to develop an interactive site. I already have the name, but first I will ruminate by blogging in the blogging pool and seeing if I get any feedback.

Here it is: Open Source Love

Purity is concerned with touching in love, not refraining from touch.

How do I know I am lovable? A lady brought it up at Wednesday night prayer service this past week. She said, “You are lovable; don’t let anyone tell you that you are not.”

I thanked her for it afterwards. Then out on the front steps I stumbled into a small discussion that included her again and some other loved ones. I brought it up again and she was very willing to repeat the premise. God made us and loves us and so we are lovable.

But I have another proof. Here’s how it flows. I look at other people and see that they are lovable. How do I know they are lovable? Because I see their beauty and value and I love them.
So I see others as lovable and I know I am like them. So I know I am too. I know other people should love me. They should take a look at me, listen to my voice, look in my face and love me. I should do the same for them. If we look at each other with true eyes, then we should see each other truly.

But if we look at each other with lens-caps over our eyes we will not see each other, we will not know of each other’s real existence, we will not know each other needs to love and be loved.

And it is certainly possible for us to have persons right in front of us, and many times for long periods of time, without our seeing them at all. We see an image of what we think that person to be. We see phantoms that reside in the air between our souls and the soul of the other. We even see ourselves as phantoms of the same sort. Because we look at ourselves in the mirrors of others and those mirrors are false because they are of our own making.

God, look at me with true eyes and tell me what you see.