7/15/18 Through 7/21/18

7/15/18 Through 7/21/18

Sunday

Chosen by Your gift of grace

Chosen for this holy place

Chosen on this quiet night

To sit with You in hallowed light

Each day a chosen task for me

Each task a better way to see

Each time I heed Your quiet voice

I make another better choice.

Your ray of brightness to my soul

Your way to heal and make me whole

Your way to shine the light of day

And lead me on the narrow way.

A gift of grace so few have known

A gift of seed so gently sown

A gift to gaze on You as bread

And find at last, my soul is fed.

Monday

Your sword divides the right and wrong

Your word alone, makes weak the strong

Receive my sacrifice of praise

And let a holy anthem raise.

Reject me not as empty praise

But set a faithful heart ablaze

And turn my feeble love for You

Into a love that's strong and true.

Tuesday

Woe to you complacent one

Who spurn the word of God's own Son

Who see and simply turn away

To follow still your crooked way.

And woe to you who still refuse

To see the light and freely choose

The darkness and the empty waste

Instead of light and love embraced.

Your ways have proven many times

To be the source of wicked crimes

And with the judgment drawing near

Your foolish pride will turn to fear.

Repent while yet He stays His hand

And learn to follow His command

To love, as first, He loves us all,

And dare not miss His final call.

Wednesday

The childlike an instrument

To make His love well known

Without regret they give consent

And make His love their own

So thankful for his every gift

Delight to overflow

A joy to make your spirits lift

And set your face aglow.

Thursday

No burden in this yoke of Mine

A sweetness in my precious Wine

To love the One who loved you first

Will slake your everlasting thirst

Commands are all but simple rules

An easy yoke and useful tools

To live a life in harmony

And shine the light to clearly see

How sin can only swell the load

That you must carry down the road.

While following My word aright

Will prove an easy, burden, light.

Friday

Lord of the Sabbath and Lord over time

Closer each step, but forever we climb

You satisfy hunger, but cause even more,

No one has e're spoken as You speak before.

Saturday

For those who recognize their ills

The soul, abundantly He fills

He cures them all without reserve

In spite of what they might deserve.

But those refusing to repent

To desert land, will soon be sent

When justice on that final day

Cements their chosen evil way.

Then gone the chance to ever live

Among the ones who freely give

Or gaze upon the face of love

In endless light with him above.

7/8/18 Through 7/14/18

7/8/18 Through 7/14/18

Sunday

My strength I'd like to boast about

My pride take root, and ego sprout.

But everyday I lose a bit

And everyday I must admit,

No strength of mine has ever won

A new disciple for the Son.

My back has never borne the load

Of travelling the narrow road.

In every case of progress made

In weakness, come and find He bade,

To see His strength in simple trust,

And once again, my way adjust.

Monday

Oh Lord, Your spouse I wish to be.

A ready bride receiving Thee

Responding to Your every touch,

And never saying that's too much.

I want Your every gift to me

If even now, I cannot see

How they complete your holy plan

To make of me a Godly man.

Tuesday

Sometimes a blessing not to speak

When all is but a foul critique.

But then a curse to be found mute,

If we a falsehood won't refute.

One is wisdom from on high,

The other cowardice drawn nigh.

One a precious gift of love

One disdain for God above.

Oh give me grace and words to say

In every challenge faced today

And let my silence only be

Reflections of Your word to me.

Wednesday

The more productive we have been

The deeper still we fall to sin

So break new fields and plow new ground

Let once again His love be found.

For earthly wealth will disappear

And those who trust it crouch in fear

The day when Justice comes to reap,

And separate the goat from sheep.

Thursday

Protect the vine You planted here.

To every bud or shoot draw near.

Prune the branch that bears no fruit,

Let Your word, in all, take root.

Oh raise this child to Your cheek

And to the little baby speak.

Set Your word so deep within

That he will dread the thought of sin.

Friday

No greater love that man has known

Than one would leave his earthly home

And sacrifice all that is dear

To just, the God of love, draw near.

But that is how He calls each one

To meet the Spirit, and His Son

To sacrifice reflections for

The God of love, who offers more.

And what the spirits humbled learn

Is how to truest love discern

Transforming merely earthly love

To that far greater one above.

Saturday

With glowing ember from the altar

Make my words to never falter.

Cleanse me with the fire of love

Like unto the ones above.

Woe if I but fail to say

What God has given for this day

I must proclaim His word of grace

At every time, in every place.

7/1/18 Through 7/7/18

7/1/18 Through 7/7/18

Sunday

Death has no power anymore

And I have noticed furthermore

That when Christ came to conquer sin

He did so from His power within.

No sword or weapon did He wield

But sick and dying ones He healed

And shared His life with all who came

To see the man of healing fame.

When He, at last, did blood let flow

And up to Calvary did go

There and then the great I AM

Became our sacrificial lamb

That our flow of blood may cease

And evermore our love increase

Abundance found within our need

The sinner saved and captive freed.

Monday

Woe to you who never thinks of God

Who ponders not, nor mighty deeds applaud

All that moves does by His hand

Yet you refuse to honor His command?!

Consider this, oh wretched one

The swift of foot no longer run

The warriors and weapons too

That day will be no use for you.

Crushed as bugs upon the ground

Shamed and naked, sinners found

No escape that dreadful day

How ominous, the debt to pay!

Tuesday

Do not persist in unbelief

For there the soul finds no relief

The unbelieving come to see

Desires but futility

A pleasure found, but never gained

The joyful promise only feigned

The fleeting pleasure gone and then

They try another way again

A masturbation of the soul

That keeps them from becoming whole

Perpetuated lies of sin

That keep the Lord from coming in

Will they never learn to try

The word of God, and then apply

His rule of sacrificial love
To find their place with Him above?

Wednesday

Recognize His blessing here

Cower not in shame and fear

This nation blest by His command

His touch upon our fertile land

No other place on earth to find

So many different roots entwined

That come by land or ocean foam

To call this land of freedom home

To live in peace, as many, one

Enjoying land that freedom won

But lest we lose this precious gift,

Away from God we mustn't drift.

Thursday

Why do we harbor evil thoughts?

Why do we judge, when we ought not?

Rejoice in the healing of paralyzed men

For God showers blessing again and again.

For Bob Gutekunst, paralyzed from the neck down by a fall last November.

Alone and trapped in broken shell

With little hope for getting well

A mind as clear as cloudless morn

Picks up again this heavy thorn

So humbled by this heavy load

Unwanted, yet on him bestowed

Accepted as his cross to bear

His time to be immersed in prayer.

Friday

Send not Your threatened famine Lord

Such punishment we can't afford

Without Your word, the source of light

Our world be cast in darkest night.

Sticky throat, or hunger gnawing

Better than Your word withdrawing.

Plunged in darkness we can't see,

How gravely we've offended Thee.

But if You shine the light of day

And clearly show the better way

Perhaps repentance will ensue

And wayward souls return to You?

Saturday

Rejoice within his company

And fast when far away

For those who do will clearly see,

The black and white of grey.

First recognize the One you seek

Is here before your eyes.

Just listen to the Master speak

And then, Him recognize.

In time you will no longer see 

The groom here every day.

But fast and know He'll always be

Attentive when you pray

6/24/18 Through 6/30/18

6/24/18 Through 6/30/18

Sunday

How wonderfully dear Lord You made

Each soul in all the world arrayed

No hair un-numbered by the King

Who teaches how to laugh and sing.

Within the darkness of the womb

An endless life begins to bloom

A soul eternal You infused

A will with freedom yet unused.

Lord, open eyes to clearly see

This gift is for eternity

And we have not the right of thieves

To end a life Your will conceives.

Monday

As if through microscope we see

Each splinter with such clarity

But satisfied in self-esteem

We fail to recognize the beam.

The measure we have measured out

Becomes the way we're thought about.

For stiff-necked folks it's time to learn

That our own faults we must discern.

Tuesday

Do unto others as you would have do.

The meaning far-reaching, but words are so few.

The rule that is golden, is simple, but true.

If we would but try it, the world would renew.

Wednesday

In nearly every house around

Some word of His could there be found.

A treasure there in every home, 

But tucked away and left alone.

Set on a table looking fine

But somehow never cracked the spine.

Or on the shelf collecting dust

And never there the Word discussed.

To boost a seat or block a door

Not what the Word was given for

To change a heart and open eyes

And lift the evil one's disguise.

Complaicency and laziness,

An atmosphere of craziness,

Are ways "Old Stinky" tries to use

To make us all this Word refuse.

A treasure there beneath your nose.

Just open it and then expose

The Word of Him who made all things,

Who unto us salvation brings.

A choice you make to let it go

And never His great love to know.

Or pick it up and there behold,

The greatest story ever told!

Thursday

To act upon the word we hear

Is how, we to, the Lord draw near.

It's how we stand the storms of time

And how, we heaven's ladder climb.

It's how we build upon the rock, 

And floods of evil, firmly block.

So listen well and recognize

To serve His will, becomes the prize.

For who knows better what we need,

Than Him who made both bloom and seed?

The One who fashioned us from clay,

The Lord of lords, to whom we pray!

Friday

Beaten or flogged, shipwrecked, or stoned,

Nothing could shake the faith these two owned.

Chains could not hold their zeal for the word,

Unless every creature already had heard.

On fire with love as not before seen.

Though bruised and all bloody, their faces would gleam.

Both Peter and Paul given highest renown,

On the day they were fitted with their martyr's crown..

Saturday

What's rotten must be torn away

And utterly destroyed.

Again, we must learn how to pray,

And let God fill our void.

He will not build upon a base

Of sand or rotten wood.

He clears to find the solid rock,

As every builder should.

That rock is pure humility

In how we turn to pray.

A posture of servility

And zeal to Him obey.

6/17/18 Through 6/23/18

6/17/18 Through 6/23/18

Sunday

This tender shoot, this mustard seed

The Lord provides their every need

Sufficient light and gentle rain

His love aright in spite of pain

By parable He shows the way

That speaks to us and molds the clay

Outstanding draft, commanding height

His chosen craft to shine the light

Each story brings a message clear

That otherwise we wouldn't hear

And every time we ponder well

His love sublime, within will dwell.

Monday

Your way, it seems so strange to me

That I should let the evil be

And not resist its clear advance, 

But take a simply passive stance.

I want my justice here and now

I want to make things right somehow

I can't sit back and let them win,

I have to work and conquer sin!

But who then, comes to conquer me

When I, so righteous, pose to be?

Who puts me in my proper place

Of rightful shame and due disgrace?

For only You are righteous Lord

And only You can judge this hoard

Perhaps if I would not defend

There'd be less judgment on my end.

Perhaps allowing anger spent,

In shame the evil would repent.

Perhaps in giving all I own

Much clearer I would make You known.

Tuesday

Elijah loved enough to say

You're following an evil way

Revealing to the wayward one

The wickedness that he had done.

Our love must too, run deep enough

That those in danger we rebuff

And lead in all humility

That they might see with clarity.

Wednesday

Seeing what Elijah had 

Elisha went all in

He wanted not some cloak to clad

A chilly mortal skin.

But a spirit strong and bold

A double portion too

Far greater gift than finest gold

Far better to accrue.

Thursday

Attune you ears to hear His voice

Amidst the gentle breeze

Tune out the loud distracting noise,

And listen if you please.

Then you'll receive your daily bread

Conversing with the Lord,

And find yourself to be well fed

With mercy there outpoured.

Forgiveness found as you forgive

In shame admitting guilt

In love the way we need to live

So harmony is built.

Friday

How foolish one who treasures

This transitory state. 

With rust and mold who measures

The things considered great.

For in this world of entropy

Where all decays in time

You'd think, of course, that we would see

A better path to climb.

But narrow is that better way

And rocky is that road

Much easier to go astray

And kick against the goad.

One thing alone remains at last

When all has passed away

No rust or mold could e're surpass

The gift of love each day

So don't be fooled by glittering 

Of temporary gain.

Love's steady glow a better thing

But comes not without pain.

Saturday

Each day I ask a little more

And He responds in time

Not knowing what He has in store

With each new little rhyme.

A trust to give the daily bread

I need so desperately

Each time I find that I am fed,

But how's a mystery

The One who knows all that I need

Says, worry, cast away.

Just listen well and I will feed

Your spirit every day.