Passage from "The Life of the Beloved" - Henri Nouwen

"Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the Sacred Voice that calls us the Beloved. I'm putting this so directly and so simply because though the experience of being the Beloved has never been completely absent from my life, I never claimed it as my core truth.

I kept running around in it in large or small circles always looking for someone or something able to convince me of my belovedness. It was as if i kept refusing to hear the voice that speaks from the very depth of my being, "You are my beloved, on whom my favor rests."

That voice has always been there but it seems that I was much more eager to listen to other, louder voices saying, "Prove that you are worth something, do something relevant, spectacular, powerful...then you will feel the love that you so desire."

New Song

A song that came from my heart this morning to the Lord - as a prayer and as a new song to Him...

Let Your power and love be ~ my anchor, security... for You're good, You're good.

Let Your power and love be ~ my anchor, security... for You're good, You're good.

So all that I am God, I lay at Your feet ~ in surrender, in worship and praise.

So all that I am God, I lay at Your feet ~ in surrender, in worship and praise.

Psalm 40:3 - "He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD."

Altogether Lovely

Here I am to worship ~ Here I am to bow down ~ Here I am to say that You're my God ~ You're altogether lovely ~ altogether worthy ~ altogether wonderful to me... Jesus You are altogether Other!

The Complete Perfection of His Glory by Charles Spurgeon

He is altogether desirable.

Song of Songs 5:16

The superlative beauty of Jesus is all-attracting; it is not so much to be admired as to be loved. He is more than pleasant and fair--He is lovely. Surely the people of God can fully justify the use of this golden word, for He is the object of their warmest love, a love founded on the intrinsic excellence of His person, the complete perfection of His glory. Look, the disciples of Jesus know the sweetness of his voice and are able to say, "Do not His words cause our hearts to burn within us as He talks with us on the road?"

You worshipers of Immanuel, look up to His head of much fine gold, and tell me, are not His thoughts precious unto you? Is not your adoration sweetened with affection as you humbly bow before that face that is as excellent as the cedars of Lebanon? Is there not a beauty in His every feature, and is not His whole person fragrant with such a savor of His goodness that we love Him? Is there one aspect of His being that is not attractive--one facet of His person that is not a blessing to our souls and a strong cord to bind our hearts?

Our love is not as a seal set upon His heart of love alone; it is also fastened upon His arm of power, nor is there a single part of Him upon which it does not fix itself. We worship His whole person with the sweet fragrance of our fervent love. We would imitate His whole life and character. All other beings are incomplete; in Him there is all perfection. Even the best of His favored saints have had blots upon their garments and wrinkles upon their brows; He is nothing but loveliness. All earthly suns have their spots: This fair world has its wilderness; we cannot love the whole of the most lovely thing. But Christ Jesus is gold without alloy, light without darkness, glory without cloud. Yes, "he is altogether desirable."