“And he stood between the dead and the living;
and the plague was stayed.” Numbers 16:48
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I stand in the summer of my life,
weighing and balancing
yesterday and tomorrow.
—-
I have made a choice,
I have taken my stand
on the firm foundation of truth.
—-
Yesterday’s worldly decisions haunt and torment me,
calling out from behind the veil of blood,
that separates me from a deadly past.
—-
The Spirit of God allows me to remember,
Burdening my heart for the souls left behind.
My eyes don’t want to see them,
my ears don’t want to hear them,
for what they are,
I once was.
—-
But the Spirit calls me to them,
to pray.
—-
I fill my censer with sweet incense,
lighting the fragrance from the fire
of the altar of sacrifice.
—-
I step into the land of giants,
the essence of God in my hand,
the words of God in my mouth.
—-
My soul trembles, my heart breaks,
as I look into the empty, hollow eyes
of the children.
—-
Who will help them to choose?
—-
There to the right is the goodness of God.
There is mercy and grace,
peace and rest.
—-
This is the life I have chosen to share.
There at the left are the quick and simple pleasures,
received at a price,
packaged so elegantly, temptingly, deceivingly.
—-
Snares so easily fallen into.
My prayers cry out,
praying the lost away from temptation.
—-
My testimony gives them hope,
I am proof that there is a way out.
The fragrance of intercession
strengthens the fire in the censor.
The wings of angels gently move the aroma
through the crowd.
—-
For a moment they turn and look.
For a moment they taste the sweetness of the manna
that is laid before them.
For a moment the lure of sin is stopped.
For some it will only take that one moment
to recognize and follow the truth.
For some it may take two or three glimpses
to birth their testimony.
—-
Yet, for others, it may take moment after moment after moment
to break the generational curses
that have trapped them on the path of destruction.
—-
There, in the fields of the land of the giants,
I lay down my life,
as a living sacrifice,
daily standing in the gap,
between the living and the dead.
—-
There will I stand again tomorrow,
my censer lit,
my prayers rising up,
as a sweet sacrifice to heaven.
There, in intercession, will I stand,
turning as many eyes as the Spirit can touch,
to the right.
—-
Believing that every seed planted will root and grow.
Believing in the resurrecting power,
from death to life,
that rests in the anointing.
Believing that the eternal plague can be stayed,
by the strength of my faith.
—-
I can not stop my sacred vigil,
for the fear rests in my soul,
that in any moment of disconcert,
I might miss one child
that might have looked.
Linda J. Humes 