Death and Resurrection

Excerpts from The Stillness-
by Greg Austin

The Stillness is not a comfortable place.
It is not a place of rejoicing or of celebration.
It is a place of humbling, of reducing;
it is a place of death.

We think we do not need these gifts.
We think we require the gifts of power
and of anointing and of fruitfulness.
Yet our true need is to be humbled,
to be reduced; to die.

Suspended by iron spikes, hammered through His flesh
into splintered and rough hewn wood,
the Son of God experienced The Silence from heaven
and cried from the depths of a sinless soul,
“Eloi, Eloi, lama sabach thani” -
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

God’s Son sought the solace of a word of confirmation,
the timbre of the familiar Voice,
a simple reminder of Father’s presence,
and God reserved His Voice to press the Son
to the fullness of the suffering necessary
to produce the fullness of salvation.

When you find yourself in the quietness –
where I now am abiding –
be encouraged, be comforted and remain steadfast.
The morning of the breaking of the silence will come,
and having come, His voice will call, “Come forth!”

HT to Ron at Weary Pilgrim.