1/8/23 Through 1/14/23

 1/8/23 Through 1/14/23

Sunday

Come ye all from every land

Obey His word and each command

See the King anew has come

For God has sent His only Son.

Dawn has broken from on high

His star has risen in the sky

Let kings on earth be humbled now

And kings of earth before Him bow.

Oh star of Bethlehem rejoice

All listen now to hear His voice

The King of kings we must obey

For all on earth shall see decay.

But those who place their trust in He

Forever fresh will always be.

The moth and worm on earth destroy

But none can fade what we enjoy.

Monday

The way has been prepared quite well

Of this the Bible stories tell

So too, by those who came before

And taught to love forevermore.

But choice in every life is made

To follow how the Savior bade

Or choose a way of selfish sin

Not welcoming the Spirit in.

I pray that I may so prepare

A way that shows how much I care

A way that leads the young to know

The way of love that they should go.

Tuesday

All evil subject to his word

The demons all around have heard

That One  with great authority

Has come to set the captives free.

Wednesday

Not one that suffers more than He

But those rejecting of His plea

To take His yoke and burden light

And find the pathway through the night.

For suffering that comes our way

Can be for us the light of day

To make us more and more like He

Who died for us upon the tree.

Thursday

For all you've seen and yet you turn

When will this people ever learn?

The signs are clear, the Savior's come

Yet still the soul remains as numb.

What work could e're convince the mind

The gift of sight for one born blind,

A corpse arising from the dead,

Or One's true flesh as simple bread?

The poor believe because they see.

In all His works, the way to Thee

The perfect love that soothes the soul

And makes the broken sinner whole.

So wait no longer come and know

The way to peace and love we go.

By giving all we thus receive

The boundless love to which we cleave.

Friday

We enter into rest with Him

By turning from the dark and dim.

By trusting in the way He leads

And taking daily what He feeds

For sure our sins He does forgive

That we might truly learn to live

With mercy always ready found

Where Christ as King alone is crowned.

It's there that rest is truly known

Where love is always ready shown

Where all will place the other fore

And never heard are sounds of war.

Saturday

Two simple words of "Follow Me"

Would set the tax collector free

To each the same two words are said

That hungry souls be richly fed.

How sharp the words that slice between

The joints and marrow cutting clean

With soul and spirit severed there

To show our nakedness so bare

His word when sifted every day

Will prune and trim in that same way

And draw us always further in

To turn us always far from sin.

1/1/23 Through 1/7/23

 1/1/23 Through 1/7/23

Sunday

The glorious title of Mother of God

Belongs to the Virgin the angels applaud

Whose "Yes" brought the world a Savior anew

And the One, from the cross, made her Mother of you.

Monday

Be one that clearly points the way

So all would learn and know to pray

Like John who daily called to turn

That man forever would not burn

So few today that know the way

That daily now have learned to pray

If we neglect Good News to share

Then we as well had best beware

Our labors too must point the way

To those we meet throughout the day

So all can see how we behave

To conquer o'er the waiting grave.

Tuesday

To be like Him, the Lamb of God

These gracious words my heart applaud

For what a gift to be as one

With God's most holy, precious Son.

But this He offers every time

The bells up in the steeple chime

And yet the few alone will find

The gift to which the most are blind

Let those in bondage wake and see

This daily gift of God to thee

Then come and feast upon this bread

The bread on which the angels fed.

Wednesday

What are you looking for, what do you seek?

One who is wealthy, handsome, and sleek?

Come with me and follow, then your eyes will see

All the world is hollow, solid though is Me.

Something that was seen in me

To catch the Master's eye

A something that would come to be

If love would purify

Thursday

To love one another, the duty of man

To treat as a brother the poor when you can

To suffer, enduring the wait and the pain

Is none but ensuring your heavenly gain.

Compassion and love are the roots of the gain

Our strength from above that never shall wane.

The Father will give what our labors deserve

He wants us to live without keeping reserve.

Friday

Eternal life that you may know

He came to earth to clearly show

Revealing how the all we own

Is love of God for man that's shown

The light that's hid so well by sin

Will welcome those repentant in

Then all that share this light of day

To perfect peace will find their way.

God has shown me many things

But all this knowledge ever brings

Is just how far I still must go

To all His love and power know.

Saturday

All grace, oh Mary, flows through you

All beauty here on earth, so too.

For God Himself took flesh in you

To save us from the wrong we do.

The majesty of mountains high

That reach unto the waiting sky

Cannot eclipse the yes you gave

That all in sin, your Son would save.

No beauty here on earth below

Compares to that above you know

For one no sin has touched is clean

A beauty only you have seen

12/25/22 Through 12/31/22

 12/25/22 Through 12/31/22

Sunday

This day is here, A Savior born

His name Emmanuel

In darkness 'fore the chilly morn

The shepherd folk did tell

The Bread of Life, in manger, laid

No room among the inns

To Him have generations bade

Forgiveness of their sins.

Monday

With peaceful and courageous hearts

Our Lord of lords the grace imparts

To speak when trials come our way

By giving us the words to say.

The martyrs many lost their lives 

But when the final time arrives

The words they speak have come from God

And perseverance we applaud.

Tuesday

The faith and love of blessed John

The one who laid his head upon

The breast of Perfect Love that day

When Judas chose another way

Such faith and love can teach us now

To make our will, to His will bow

Dear John surrendered giving all,

But Judas spurned the loving call.

So many times I turn away

And follow not the Savior's way

Forgive, forgive, forgive me Lord

To pay this debt I can't afford

Wednesday

Hostile place becomes a haven

Once rejected, now received

Penalties on Pharoah craven

Hope for those who now believed.

Innocents in bitter dying

Suffer in the Savior's stead

But forever they are crying

Christ came to the House of Bread

In Eternal Light they glory

While in anguish far below

Obstinent repeat their story,

Though the truth they clearly know

Here today the Herods many

Truth they claim to make their own

Two one day be worth a penny

When at last real truth is known.

Thursday

And Joseph humbly there obeyed

In silent waiting, there he prayed

While Babe and mother there were praised

In silence, onward, there he gazed.

Convinced to do His holy will

Not as a hack or shameless shill

But one in trusting humble hope

That always found a way to cope

For many trials came his way

But he would listen every day

To hear the tiny whisper sound

That told him how the way was found

That whisper sound can still be heard

It often comes within the Word

But daily we must seek to find

The piece that offers peace of mind.

Friday

A holy family to be

The ever-present goal for me

Have I been what I ought to be

For such a family to see?

Well, sometimes yes and sometimes no

But that's the way it seems to go

Trouble comes when pride arises

In its many sly disguises

If humility was reigning

Troubles all would soon be waning

Make me one humble, wise, and true

That seeing me, they all see You.

Saturday

The Word is there in every way

At every hour throughout the day

Those who call shall hear His voice

To guide their every daily choice

So call on Him in all you do

Let not the evil capture you

For many come and falsely say

Come follow me, I am the way.

But only One in truth we know

That humbly to the Cross would go

To show His love that knows no bound

So love for all could then be found.

12/18/22 Through 12/24/22

 12/18/22 Through 12/24/22

Sunday

Here for but His holy will,

We tend, our days, with fluff to fill

Ignoring that created for

Yet always grabbing more and more.

As Joseph did, so we should do

Forsaking what we want for You.

For You will give the hungry food

To all the ways of death elude.

Monday

A Nazarite the child shall be

One dedicated unto Thee.

He'll drink no whiskey, wine, or beer

And man or beast he shall not fear.

The way, he'll make as straight and true

From here, a pathway unto You.

Once barren womb, be filled with joy

For great shall be this little boy.

But worldly look at him each day

And mock his poor and humble way

They fail to listen to his call,

"Repent, or evil shall befall."

Tuesday

Ask for a sign as deep as the sea

Know that the Lord, out-done will not be.

Ask for a sign as high as the sky

Know that the Lord astonishes eye.

Wednesday

Joy is to know Him and know that He loves

In Him, surrounded like fingers in gloves.

Rejoicing and dancing for wills that align

Tis then that the joy of the Lord becomes mine.

For hark, my lover speaks to me,

Arise my dove and come to see

The winter's past and rains have gone

The vine has put her flowers on.

No other joy as such is known

When tender stem is fully grown

And wills align for now they see

Twas You, that motivated me.

Thursday

My soul, His greatness, ere proclaims

My humble heart His love inflames

All generations call me blest

That God Himself would be my guest.

His mercy shown in every day

He comes to each a different way

Exalting low and humbling high

A sign for all the Lord is nigh

The proud He scattered in conceit

The mighty fall in grim defeat

The hungry filled with all that's good

The poor now stand where wealthy stood

His promise faithful, always true

He makes this fallen world anew

That all might praise forevermore

And all the One True God adore.

Friday

Fathers turn hearts of children to God

Thus will they learn to His mercies applaud.

Fathers be gentle and humble, and kind

That children the Lord of all lords they may find

Fathers be faithful and loving and true

For children are watching the all that you do.

When little ones grow to be mothers and men

The story repeats again and again.

So do what you can on earth here below

That all of your children, the Savior, would know.

For faith is a legacy fathers pass on

It's their duty to God for the here and beyond.

Saturday

Separation from God from the earliest time

For all who committed their crime after crime.

Pushed away by the evil that man had embraced

The people of God, only darkness now faced.

But loved by their God these children of men

Somehow found hope in His promises when

Their evil was multiplied time after time

And the pit was so deep that no one could climb.

But dawn was soon breaking for morning had come.

The King, to the earth, was sending His Son.

With gift of forgiveness for all of our sin,

The gift that would let us common folk in.