A blog entry with a title that includes the word “cross-reference,” is a sure fire way to lose an audience, so for the select few that have made it this far, the picture is dedicated to you.

Background: At the Ballard campus this week, Pastor Bubba preached out of John 15, one of my favorite and most sobering passages of Scripture.

On Tuesday night as I reread the passages, my mind kept asking, “I agree with this, but what does it mean for me, in Seattle, daily?” About the third time I was asking myself how to apply it, I realized that I had never stopped to research the small superscript letters peppering the pages, or truly dig into this theme of abiding in Christ. Reluctantly, I climbed out of bed and grabbed another Bible from the bookshelf across the room. With them side by side, I discovered what Bible scholars and seminary students have been geeking out on for the past 2000 years.

I am no Bible scholar by any stretch of the imagination, but I couldn’t help being fascinated as I began to see how often Christ repeats himself and reiterates this metaphor throughout Scripture. With the goal of sharing this discovery of you, I have written out the first section of verses, and found the cross-references through the ESV Bible Online, then learned HTML enough to put them here for you. It really is extraordinary what can be accomplished in a few hours while sitting at the kitchen table in pajamas.

John 15:1-11

“I am the ^rtrue vine, and my Father is ^sthe vinedresser.

^{2 t}Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit ^uhe takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, ^vthat it may bear more fruit.

³Already ^wyou are clean ^xbecause of the word that I have spoken to you.

^{4 y}Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.

⁵I am the vine; ^ayou are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that ^bbears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

⁶If anyone does not abide in me ^che is thrown away like a branch and withers; ^dand the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

⁷If ^eyou abide in me, and my words abide in you, ^fask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

^8gBy this my Father is glorified, that you ^hbear much fruit and so prove to ^ebe my disciples.

⁹ⁱAs the Father has loved me, ^jso have I loved you. Abide in my love.

^10kIf you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as ^lI have kept ^mmy Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

¹¹These things I have spoken to you, ⁿthat my joy may be in you, and that ^oyour joy may be full.”

Now that I have had a study of Scripture/Programming for Beginners session, I think I’ll get dressed and start my day too.

Hebrews 11:6 - And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

In a season when my Bible has not been read in saintly quantity, small verses have been laying heavy on my heart. 

I look at my lack of Bible reading, I look at my neglected relationship with Jesus, I look at my feelings of inadequacy as I am consistently falling short of where I ought to be with my Savior. And it has recently struck me that it is a faith-issue, not a laziness issue.

Hebrews 11:6 really socks me. What is faith? I have always thought I have the gift of faith. I mean, I believe in God. You can’t talk me out of it.

…because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists…

This is easy for me. I know God is there. I know that Jesus is God incarnate. I know that. I believe it, through and through. Of course he exists. He’s huge, he’s powerful, he made everything, he’s strong, he can do anything he wants, he knows all, sees all, is terrible and awesome, and so on. There is no shaking this with me. 

…and that he rewards those that earnestly seek him. 

This other half of faith makes me want to cry. I am so weak here, so full of doubt. How often do I feel totally alone in my day, like God is off doing his big work in the sky and I am in a dark trench just trying to stay alive? How often do I half-heartedly open my Bible thinking, “I wonder if I will get anything at all today?” How often do I wonder “what is the point?” about prayer, thinking “he’ll hear me, because he knows everything, but he probably won’t say anything back.”

Honestly, despite my confident manner, head-full of Bible trivia and life-long relationship with the Lord, I often feel like God hides himself. Perhaps he does sometimes. But accompanying that thought is the idea in my brain that God is too important to show himself to me, and (more…)

I read in a magazine that women are twice as likely to ruminate on problems than men. 

This statement pretty much mirrors my husband and I in marriage.  He sleeps pretty well (at least in part due to his gift of faith), while I, on the other hand, having a gift of discernment, coupled with an ability to see many facets to a situation, can easily slide from helpful prayer warrior into A#1 Ruminator (the more people you love under a Curse = the more problems with facets).    Recognizing my backstroke in what John Bunyan termed The Slough of Despond (Pilgrim’s Progress) this week, a few verses collided in my Bible reading:

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.  I Corinthians 10:13 (KJV)

Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him.  Psalm 33:1 (NIV)

Ruminators tend to keep mental lists of how hard life is, sometimes comparing it with others.  My life is SO MUCH HARDER than yours, and I have (more…)

By Mars Hill member Mindy Lee Irvine. Mindy Lee has been actively involved in ministry to women at Mars Hill over the past few years. This is her first article for Reforming the Feminine, and we hope to see more.

Theodicy: The defense of God’s goodness and omnipotence in view of the existence of evil.
I have found a common tension rearing its head in my life the past four years.  I walk what feels like a tightrope, and wanting to hold two truths in each hand.  One truth being: I have suffered.  The other truth being: God is good.  Although my pains have led me to remorse and discomfort, the many tears do not extinguish the truth in my heart that God is good. 

But it brings tension.  The tension that the tightrope needs in order walk well. And when I lean too far to either side, I fall into sin.  Denying my pain or denying God’s power and goodness.  Faking my faith in Him or wallowing and naval-gazing.

In the not too far past when I would share my sufferings with someone, my soul would well up and I would get that hard to swallow feeling in my throat.  However externally I would be smiling and white knuckling my Bible while trying to convince others and myself that “what the enemy intended for evil, God intended for good.” And my tears would well up in my throat but not get farther then that, because in my mind faith and tears did not mix. 

Then one day I was introduced to the Psalms and I have never been the same.

Psalm 136 met my soul in the exact spot I needed to be met. The Psalmist walks that tightrope of two truths. God’s enduring love and the troubles that they faced were written with truth and God-glorifying love.  I decided to write my own.

Give Thanks to the Lord for He is good.
His love endures forever.
Who by his love made me Mindy Lee.
His love endures forever.
His hand determined my mom and dad.
His love endures forever.
Who brought me into a family of two sisters.
His love endures forever.
To him who knew my parents marriage would not last.
His love endures forever.
And knew my time with my dad would be short.
His love endures forever.
Give thanks that He gave me a sweet summer with my dad.
His love endures forever.
To him who struck down my dream of being a daddy’s girl,
His love endures forever.
And ended my dad’s life too soon.
His love endures forever.
He alone allowed my step-dad to set me up.
His love endures forever.
And there his mighty hand stood still while my step-dad’s hand mightily ruled my body.
His love endures forever.
And men’s hands never stopped.
His love endures forever.
He gave me a gymnastics talent,
His love endures forever.
Which led me to a Christian college.
His love endures forever.
With patient love he wooed my heart.
His love endures forever.
And with a mighty hand stopped my sexual madness,
His love endures forever.
And struck down my desires to escape reality.
His love endures forever.
To him who gave me a husband who knew it all but saw me as pure.
His love endures forever.
To him who led us to the Bible
His love endures forever.
To him who created a baby in my womb,
His love endures forever.
who knew by holding her my life would change.
His love endures forever.
And my soul would set sail on a journey
His love endures forever.
That would end in heaven.
His love endures forever.
Give Thanks to the Lord, to the God in heaven
His love endures forever.

The words of John Piper have often challenged me.  Like a needle bumped, they scritch and scratch across the smooth, party line record of my Christian existence.  

He taught me that longing to be happy is a universal human experience, and it is good, not sinful.  Scratch. 

He taught me that my son’s real problem is not smoking, but rather that he doesn’t see Jesus clearly, and that the sins that distress me will only begin to fade away when he sees Jesus for who He really is.  Scratch.

He taught me how to be a Christian Hedonist.  Scratch.

So it’s no surprise that his words have the power to sustain a resonance from the Resurgence Conference last week.  Namely, that it is good and right and Biblical to ask ”why”, and more astonishing, there should be a “why” to everything we believe.  He bodaciously proclaimed that, “God is not honored by leaps in the dark.”  This is a solid slap on the cheek (face and/or hiney, your choice) of what I call Shekinah Glory theology.

DISCLAIMER:  God’s glory is worthy of study, and I think I understand it about as well as anyone can this side of heaven, so I am not being irreverant or intentionally flip.  God’s glory is magnificent.  As Jonathan Edwards put it:  “The mind ascends to the truth of the gospel by a sight of its glory” (2 Cor. 4:3). 

What I mean by Shekinah Glory theology is that faction of patty-cake Christianity that says, ”I-don’t-understand-and-none-of-us-can-or-ever-will-(or should?)-so-we-just-have-to-chuck-all-of-the-unknown-and-be-content-with-knowing-we’ll-understand-in-the-end”.  This smacks of, “Just drink the Kool Aid, children.”  So whatever reasonable questions our nonChristian friends and family bring, we tell them, “Fuhgeddaboutit!”  Shekinah Glory takes over.

YES there is a whole conversation about God’s mystery and our pea brains fizzing out on trying to understand the magnitude of his thoughts.  But explaining Jesus with a heavy Shekinah Glory bent is whacked in many realms, and as I thought about it, often a copout for putting in the hard labor of Bible study and theology homework.  It’s just easier to roll off, “God knows.” (Disclaimer #2:  Sometimes, that is the answer.)

Piper’s Scriptural arguments were thus:

1 Jn. 4:1  “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirit to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

Acts 17:23  “For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:  TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.  Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.”

1 Jn. 5:13  “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

Acts 1:3  “After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs…” 

His point being that there is an organic connection between KNOWING and writing, KNOWING and hearing, KNOWING and reading.  In essence, we can KNOW, and it’s okay (dare I say it’s good?), to ask “why”.   There should be a why to everything we believe?

Scratch.

You’re not supposed to brag, right? That’s what I was always taught at least. Don’t tell anyone if you get good grades, don’t talk about how much stuff you have, don’t mention it if you won an award, don’t tell your co-workers you got a raise or the nice things your boss said in your last review, etc.  Nobody likes a bragger. And they get mocked and beat up frequently.

I have become really good at appearing ‘humble’ because I know how to keep my mouth shut (more…)

The devil, things and people being what they are, it is necessary for God to use the hammer, the file and the furnace in His holy work of preparing a saint for true sainthood. It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.  The Root of the Righteous, A.W. Tozer, p. 157

 ****

“But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.”  Job 23:10

“For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined.”  Psalm 66:10

“Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.”  Isaiah 48:10

“For He is like a refiner’s fire and like launderers’ soap.  He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver.”  Malachi 3:2, 3

I grew up with a 585 foot smelter stack in my backyard, as it were.  A little different than having a view of the Space Needle.

The Bible teaches nothing is left to chance, and God grew me up in Anaconda, Montana in an environment of miners and smelters and heat.   Thus, it is deeply familial to read about the Refiner’s Fire in the Bible, a metaphor often used to describe spiritual purification.  Immediately I revert to childhood images of the smeltering process, where molten batches of useless ore separate from the precious metals.  This is impossible without intense heat, and it helps me wrap my head around the intense furnaces God allows in seasons of life.  He KNOWS what He’s doing, it’s NOT all for nothing, and IF I submit to the entire process, spiritual silver SHALL emerge.  The One who is Faithful and True PROMISES.

If the generalities of Christmas are secondary to you this season, perhaps the Refiner Jesus has allowed a winter furnace.  Let Him have his way, sisters, and do not want so much for relief until the smallest drops of dross and slag are purged in your purification process.  For certain, the Bible was written in tears, and to tears it will yield its best treasures.  God has nothing to say to the frivolous man or woman. 

Have thine own way, Lord.  May we shine for Your Kingdom’s Sake .

By Kate Webb, who is a Mars Hill member & Jesus seeker. [We also think she is one smart cookie and we are glad she she shared her personal study and insight here with us.]

The law is hard to grasp.  It is weird, boring, hard to read, hard to understand and easy to skip over. But Jesus says that all the Scriptures testify to him (Luke 24:27, John 5:39).  So what can the law reveal to us about Jesus?

Looking at one example, the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, chapter 21:22-23 says,

“And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you shall hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.”

To give some general context to this passage, Deuteronomy is the fifth and final book of the Pentateuch; the five books penned by Moses, which also make up the first five books of our Bible. Deuteronomy means “second law,” and in this book Moses reiterates the law and gives his farewell and final exhortation to obey God as Israel stops on the bank of the Jordan right before crossing into the Promised Land, where Moses will not go with them.

The literal meaning of the verse has to do with the details of capital punishment. The Israelites didn’t hang people by the neck until dead as a means of execution. Rather the Israelites used stoning (throwing rocks at somebody until dead) as their primary means of execution. However, after stoning they might hang the corpse up on display as a public spectacle and warning to others against committing that crime. Common practice in other cultures would be to leave the body up for days, weeks, or even until it rotted away.

In requiring that the body be buried the same day, God sets His people apart. He prevents his people from bearing a grudge and in essence commands them to forgive and be merciful, giving even the worst criminals the honor of burial rather than leaving them up where they are accursed of God. In a very practical way, God is also preventing them from defiling the Promised Land with the stench of a bunch of rotten dead bodies, which were considered unclean under the law (Num 5:2).

Aside from keeping the Promised Land clean and the Israelites merciful, in this verse on the nitty-gritty of the Israelite penal code God actually reveals to us something about Christ and the crucifixion. The Hebrew word for hanged (transliterated Talah) does not just mean “dangle from a cord,” but also to hang up or to hang up for display. The Hebrew word used for tree, (“ets) also has several meanings. The meanings for this word include tree, wood, lumber, stock, plank, and pieces of wood. Ancient Hebrews back in Moses’ day would not have had a word for “giant Roman cross bar” or “crucifix,” since such a thing didn’t exist at the time. As Christ was nailed to the cross, he did more than just hang from a piece of wood until he died. In Galatians 3:13, 14 the Apostle Paul quotes Deuteronomy 21:23 saying “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’ so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law not just by removing it, not even by dying, but by becoming a curse for us. Furthermore, Jesus was not simply killed and then cursed by God, as would have been the case if they had hung him up on display after some other means of execution. Jesus was hung on the tree (cross) while still alive and endured the most horrific death possible in order to become a literal living curse, so that we might receive the Spirit and the gift of Christ’s righteousness. John 18:31 infers that the Jews would have loved to kill Jesus by their own means without waiting for a Roman crucifixion, but the Roman law prohibited them from doing so; Jesus knew he had to die on a cross, because John 18:32 says “This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death he was going to die.”

“A hanged man is cursed by God.” The Hebrew word used for cursed means vilification or execration - hate coupled with disgust. Christ literally disgusted God the Father, and God hated him while he was on the cross. It was our sin that he bore that made God hate Jesus. God should have hated and been disgusted by us. We should have been the cursed upon the tree. How much more powerful is it that the living and innocent Jesus, God’s own son, became a curse in order to save us, rather than his empty body? We know from the empty tomb that the power of Christ does not lie in his body. From this we can also further understand what Paul means when he writes in 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Christ took the hate and disgust that our sin gives God and took it upon himself on the cross, not because he died, which was the penalty for that sin (Gen 2:17, Rom 6:23), but because he actually hung on the cross.

Examining Christ’s death on the cross in light of Deuteronomy 21:22,23 gives a bit of insight into why God may have chosen a cross over all the other painful ways to die, and it also gives a prophetic meaning to the law. In Matthew 5:17 Jesus says, “Do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.” It is easier to understand what it means to fulfill a prophecy than to fulfill a law. Christ’s crucifixion was in accordance with the law and in fact fulfilled it. The law is a command to act in a certain way, but the law is in and of itself a prophecy of Christ’s sacrifice.

My teenagers thought it was hilarious to shake the baby.  Okay, maybe I did warn them a little too often during my pregnancies with Jack & Henry that one is to never, ever, ever shake a baby.  Small wonder during Christmas those years, they delighted in violent handlings of the nativity snowglobe, announcing in a Jim Carrey-like parody, ”Mom!  Look here, I’m shakin’ the baby!”

Shaking baby Jesus.  Just doesn’t seem right.  Of course, none of the peaceful, celestial renderings of the nativity scene are really very accurate, are they?  Strip back all the complacency, ho-hum and heavenly peace <pieced> passivity of our contemporary views of the Christmas nativity, compare it with Luke or Matthew, and suddenly shaking the Baby Jesus is not only bad theology, it’s downright blasphemous.  We don’t shake the Baby; the Baby shakes us.

I’m awestruck as I read the Christmas story and consider all the people whose worlds were forever shook.  All may have been calm, and all may have been bright, but it was short lived.  And what about that sleeping in heavenly peace business?  I’m not thinking Joseph’s getting much.

Consider just a few of the intimate, individual worlds that shook that first Christmas:

• Mary’s World.  Whatever Mary’s world was before the angel’s visit, it was forever shattered after.  How could she know that the mocking unbelief, social stigmas, and shame of her pregnancy with Jesus would be a drop in the bucket compared to what she would now continually suffer for her Baby’s sake.  “Then Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary His Mother, ‘Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against (yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”  Luke 2:34, 35. 
• Joseph’s World.  No way Joseph bargained for ”peculiar heartaches” when drawing up terms for his betrothel agreement.  Eerie dreams, the disrespect of his community, and extra heavy burdens for a young man on the run, anxious and worried about protecting his supernatural family.  “When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt.”  Matthew 2:14
• Herod’s World.  Oblivious to his prophetic role and arguably demonically influenced, even secular historians call him a “bloody and deceitful man”.  These were the last years of the reign of Herod the Great, and the terrifying threat of a newborn king shook his world with jealousy and greed.  The Jewish historian Josephus minutely records his cruelties and murderous reign, including 2 high priests, his own uncle, his wife, and 3 of his very own sons.  As God Almighty entered time and space to be mankind’s sacrifice, little wonder that this news would rock satan and hell itself.  “Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts from two years old and under.”  Matthew 2:16
• Jewish Mothers and Community.  So I think about this one a lot.  The massacre of the innocents has been painted through the centuries by all the greatest masters.  If I could paint, I would.  Instead, I am left to ponder these mothers and all the heinous quaking of their world the day their sons were butchered.  Every male under two.  Although the early Catholic Church inflated the number of innocents from 14,000 to 64,000, Bethlehem was not large, and the more accurate number is somewhere between 6 and 50.  Fifty Jewish mothers whose world was forever shaken by the birth of this Baby.  Fifty Jewish mothers who had to somehow wrestle out their theology with, “Who is God, and just what do I believe about Him now?” A little town whose only crime was providing a dirty stable for the Baby, forever shaken.

At some time or another, all of our world’s get shaken.  Fifteen years ago, I gave my life to Jesus Christ.  Shortly after, my world cracked when my husband left me for another woman.   There was a two year period when 4 close family members and one friend passed away.  Currently I’m shaken by a rebellious teenage son.  Every tremor or quake in my life has caused me to brace, asking, “Who are you, and what do I believe about you now?  Are you good?”  My reactions to these quakes and tremors reveal the answer, and I always find new facets of faith, hope, love and trust to polish into His image. 

The only steady and unchanging reality is Jesus Christ and His Word.  We always have a steady place in Him.  We don’t shake the Baby, sometimes the Baby shakes us, through people, circumstance, sin.  And the crazy thing is, as we look to see Who God is, it braces us and steadies for our own good.

“And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.”  1 Peter 5:10

So what’s shaking your world? 

• Is it like Mary’s trial, an intimate suffering that gets no sympathy save that of Christ and perhaps a closest human brother?  Jesus is able to reach our most intimate world and shake it out for good, even as we trust Him for a time in silence and solitude.

•  Is it like Joseph’s trial, something you didn’t bargain or plan for?  Jesus is able to reach our most unforseen circumstance and shake it out for good in the big picture.

• Is your heart quaking with jealousy or greed?  Jesus sheds light on our wicked hearts and longs to shake it out, one sin at a time.

• Is your world rocked by illness or death?  Even in brokenness, sorrow and confusion, Jesus has new depths in which He will build a firm foundation.  As the Puritan Richard Sibbes puts it, “He is a physician good at all diseases, especially at the binding up of a broken heart.  He died that He might heal our souls with a plaster of his own blood.”

***

“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth.  I did not come to bring peace but a sword.  For I have come to ’set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and a ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’  He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.  And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.  And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.  He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.”  Matthew 10:34-39.

So I went to Mexico with high hopes - chart the course of my next 5 years, quit caffeine, sleep, get in wicked shape and… I wanted to read the whole Bible. I mean, what couldn’t I accomplish in 19 days without a job?!

Yeah, um… my trip was not nearly as aesthetic or ascetic as I’d romantically planned. I didn’t finish reading the Bible or even the Old Testament. I didn’t run every day. I drank … less coffee, but didn’t go cold turkey. I didn’t get 8 hours of sleep every night. I didn’t reverse engineer my life.

But you know what? I did something I’ve never done before.

I read the Bible looking to answer one question: “Who is God in this story?”

See, Pastor Mark preached a sermon called “Studied By Scripture” a long time before I was ever around, and it just so happened that I downloaded it before I left since it seemed topically in-line with my Bible-reading goal. And listened to it in the airport while I was waiting to fly into sunshine.

And he called me on something I have always done. I have previously always approached Scripture as a “how to” manual. I want to know what to do. How to do it. How I can be a better person. How I can love someone. How I can accomplish something. Me, me, me.

Mark said the junk with that. Our first priority in Scripture is to seek to know God, since it’s him revealing himself to us. So before we ask those very good practical “so what?” questions from Scripture, we need to seek knowing him and his character first.

“God, who are you in this story?”

What does he do? How does he interact with the people in the story? What is his character like? Where is Jesus? How does this story tell me about Jesus?

It’s actually much more peaceful reading for me. I am not trying to squeeze application out of every verse. It stays simple, just absorbing who God is.

And even though I am still a long ways away from feeling like I first did when Jesus became “real” to me (oh the long-lost raptures), my heart is reviving as my eyes are opened to little glimmers of my Savior.

And my plans to reverse engineer have not delineated any further than this giant, generalized-yet-heartfelt acknowledgment: I plan to know Jesus better before I die.

I am looking for the Man
He said he’d be close by
But he looks like all the others
Though he’s a King on high

I am looking for his footsteps
His shoes are too worthy for me
He is stern and he is gentle
Eyes ablaze with tears on a tree

I am looking for his heart
I am straining for his voice
I still have never seen him
But he is my only choice