Thursday, July 17, 2008

[revival-fire] the vision

******* REVIVAL FIRE!!! *******    

I suggest you all read this from Peter's excellent book--great stuff to think on.
Rich Oliver
 

The Vision

 

~~a poem written by Pete Greig from his book, Red Moon Rising

 

The Vision

 

So this guy comes up to me and says,

"What's the vision? What's the big idea?"

 

I open my mouth and words come out like this...

 

The vision?

The vision is Jesus:

obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.

The vision is an army of young people.

You see bones?

I see an army.

 

And they are free from materialism.

They laugh at 9-5 little prisons.

They could eat caviar on Monday

and crusts on Tuesday.

They wouldn't even notice.

They know the meaning of the Matrix;

the way the West was won.

 

They are mobile like the wind;

they belong to the nations.

They need no passport.

People write their addresses in pencil

and wonder at their strange existence.

They are free, yet they are slaves

of the hurting and dirty and dying.

 

What is the vision?

The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes.

It makes children laugh and adults angry.

It gave up the game of minimum integrity

long ago to reach for the stars.

It scorns the good and strains for the best.

It is dangerously pure.

 

Light flickers from every secret motive,

every private conversation.

It loves people away from their suicide leaps,

their Satan games.

 

This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause.

A million times a day

its soldiers choose to lose

that they might one day win

the great "Well done"

of faithful sons and daughters.

 

Such heroes are as radical

on Monday morning

as Sunday night.

 

They don't need fame from names.

Instead they grin quietly upwards

and hear the crowds chanting

again and again:

"COME ON!"

 

And this is the sound of the underground

The whisper of history in the making

Foundations shaking

Revolutionaries dreaming once again

Mystery is scheming in whispers

Conspiracy is breathing...

This is the sound of the underground.

 

And the army is disciplined.

Young people who beat their bodies into submission.

Every soldier would take a bullet for his

comrades at arms.

The tattoo on their backs boasts

"For me to live is Christ and to die is gain."

 

Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their

upward eyes.

Winners. Martyrs.

Who can stop them?

Can hormones hold them back?

Can failure succeed?

Can fear scare them or death kill them?

 

And the generation prays

like a dying man with groans beyond

talking, with warrior cries,

sulphuric tears and with great barrow loads of

laughter!

 

Waiting.

Watching:

24 - 7 - 365.

 

Whatever it takes they will give:

Breaking the rules.

Shaking mediocrity from its cozy little hide.

Laying down their rights and their

precious little wrongs,

laughing at labels,

fasting essentials.

The advertisers cannot mold them.

Hollywood cannot hold them.

Peer-pressure is powerless

to shake their resolve at late night

parties before the cockerel cries.

 

They are incredibly cool, dangerously

attractive (on the inside).

On the outside?

They hardly care!

They wear clothes like costumes:

to communicate and celebrate

but never to hide.

 

Would they surrender their image or their popularity?

They would lay down their very lives,

swap seats with the man on death row;

guilty as hell.

A throne for an electric chair.

 

With blood and sweat and many tears,

with sleepless nights

and fruitless days,

they pray as if it all depends on God

and live as if it all depends on them.

 

Their DNA chooses Jesus.

(He breathes out, they breathe in.)

Their subconscious sings.

They had a blood transfusion with Jesus.

 

Their words make demons scream in shopping malls.

Don't you hear them coming?

 

Herald the weirdos!

Summon the losers and the freaks.

Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes.

They walk tall and trees applaud,

skyscrapers bow,

mountains are dwarfed

by these children of another dimension.

 

Their prayers summon the hounds of

heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.

 

And this vision will be.

It will come to pass;

it will come easily;

it will come soon.

 

How do I know?

Because this is

the longing of creation itself,

the groaning of the Spirit,

the very dream of God.

 

My tomorrow is his today.

My distant hope is his 3D.

And my feeble,

whispered,

faithless prayer

invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great

"Amen!"

from countless angels,

from heroes of the faith,

from Christ himself.

 

And he is the original dreamer,

the ultimate winner.

Guaranteed.

 


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