3/10/24 Through 03/16/24

 3/10/24 Through 03/16/24

Sunday

Call upon call that never we heard

Our sight was so dim, our vision so blurred

We scoffed at the warnings, ignoring the signs

Our action, but foolishness, only defines.

'Till one day it came like a thief in the night

The wrong we had done would at last be set right.

The pain and the anguish for seventy years

Would serve to improve the laziest ears.

I pray we don't need such a radical change,

But just to obey, and our thoughts rearrange.

To see in the light what He offers in love

And turn from our slavery to freedom above. 

Monday

With desperation in his eyes

"Lord, come before my child dies."

No games of non-believing Jews

But simply life or death to choose.

He chose in faith to so return

And on his way in joy would learn

His son was healed by just the word

For well, the God of love had heard.

Tuesday

Fruit for food and leaves for healing

In this vision God revealing

That the water from His side

Would be for man a precious tide.

Ever deeper, wider flowing

In the hearts of faithful growing

Spreading life and healing waters

To the faithful sons and daughters.

Come and sample of the river

Let the King of kings deliver

Grace abundant, overflowing

Peace and joy and love all knowing.

Wednesday

A way through the mountains He makes for the flocks

The door to salvation the Savior unlocks

The people from near, and the people from far

Rejoice in salvation, for grateful they are.

Death has no sway, it's impotent you see

When the Son calls to life, to life it shall be.

Forgotten remembered when times are distressed,

Distresses forgotten when finally blest.

He does only that which the Father has willed

He judges by what with our lives we have filled.

Great mercy He offers to those who repent,

But obstinate souls to the Devil are sent.

Thursday

Who will stand and plead for mercy,

Seek to end the controversy?

Justice calls for condemnation

Of this wayward, sinful nation.

Who will plead the Blood of Jesus,

Free, unbounded love that frees us?

None deserving of salvation

None with adequate oblation.

Yet His mercy stands at ready

Always loving, always steady.

Here to hold the hand of justice

To forgive and so adjust us.

Lord, help us turn and honor You

Make our nation strong and true

Bring all sinners to repentance

Pardon those You justly sentence

For Mercy is Your true delight

Not sentencing to darkest night

Help us abandon folly's ways

And live eternally to praise.

Friday

Obnoxious to  the wicked ones

Are found our God's adopted sons

They set themselves against our ways

And seek our lofty heights to raze.

Enduring them we cannot take

For rules of right and wrong, they make

Condemning things we wish to do

And claiming what they say is true.

Let's see if God will so defend

And keep them from a shameful end

With spit and blows, and thorny crown

We'll see who from the cross comes down.

If He be true, then God will save

If not, He'll rot in borrowed grave.

We'll teach His followers to fear

Then their reproach will never hear.

But oh, what fools they're shown to be

When from the grave He rises free

And followers are Spirit-filled

Each doing as the Father willed.

We're called another Christ to be

That all on Earth would come to see

That humble service wins the day

And Jesus Christ has shown the way.

Saturday

None has ever spoken as He

His words with such authority

That penetrate the beating heart

And there unbounded love impart.

His eyes meet every empty gaze

And clear away the cloudy haze

When ere He speaks, my spirit quakes

My soul, to all my sin, awakes.

Yet somehow, there in eyes so kind

I fix on them and mercy find

He knows what no one else has known,

But mercy still His eyes have shown.

3/3/24 Through 3/9/24

 3/3/24 Through 3/9/24

Sunday

A cleansing of the Temple space

Can come from none but holy grace.

Upsetting of the tables there, 

The greed and lust for wealth to pare.

The whip to drive deceit away 

That one might truly learn to pray

He knows quite well the heart of man

Twas He who made it in His plan.

His plan for freedom, peace, and joy

That wickedness and sin destroy

But one repentant there may find

The will of God and man aligned.

Rebuild this temple clean and new

And make my will align with You

Forever humble, tried, and true

A change that's long been overdue.

Monday

Naaman, a pagan sign

Encountering God's love Divine.

One humbled so to do His will

Received his healing and his fill.

Obeying but a little girl

He finds the precious loving pearl

Of knowing that God cares for all

Who answer to His humbling call.

The self-sufficient nay will find

The healing comfort God designed

For lacking what the humble see

They fail to ever bend their knee.

Tuesday

Forgiveness far beyond all knowing

Jesus, every sinner showing

Debtors freed of all they owe

Mercy they must also show.

When I think of all I've done,

The debt amassed by only one,

I'm humbled He should ever care

And so, the Cross for such to bear.

Even now when Love is known

Indifference to the poor is shown

And though I well deserve His wrath

He shows me yet the narrow path.

Wednesday

Let me never forget You, Lord

And all the grace that You afford

For all that I have seen and heard

The gift of faith within me stirred.

So many unexpected ways

You spoke to me in darkest days

Or saved me from the snare of sin

When rash or foolish I had been.

I'm slow to see Your hand at work

Or where the traps of evil lurk

But then You speak or act in ways

Remembered well throughout my days

Yet still, oh Lord, I tend to sin

Forgetful of Your life within

Let not Your mercy cease to flow

But evermore Your love to know

Someday I pray, You'll cleanse within

My every stain or trace of sin,

And make of me a one like You

With love the key to all I do.

Thursday

A sign they want when plain as day

They see the Life, the Truth, the Way.

No sign will ever change the mind

Of those who are the willful blind.

Gone from their vocabulary,

Faithfulness and truth they bury.

Men fabricating lies to be

A "truth" for them, but not for me.

When faithfulness and truth are banished

All that's good and pure has vanished

No sign for such a present age

When war on all that's good they wage.

But those with open, watchful eyes

Can see beyond the wilful lies

To see the truth in glory crowned

Where faithful followers are found.

Friday

How long until you act upon

The word you know is true

Expecting not the morning dawn,

Or what shall come to you.

The word is true, we must obey

For happiness to know

But still from true, we turn away

And to destruction go.

For love is total gift of self,

Not turning one away,

But leaving nothing on the shelf,

Or saved for rainy day

Our God provides the all we need

For those who listen well

And to His every word take heed

To so, the Gospel tell.

Convicting here with my own pen

The writer of the verse

A hypocrite among the men

Or something maybe worse.

Saturday

A Pharisee, or tax collector,

Which am I today?

The Lord the only truth detector

Sees the clearest way.

If true repentance were at hand

I'd act on every word

Obeying quickly each command

Not shunning what is heard.

I wish to leave here justified

Not simply self-assured

For one could lead to suicide

And one to life procured.

In quandary so, I find myself

As both I see in me

Is that perhaps the truth itself,

That both are truly me?

What I hold back, Lord help me give

And turn away from sin

For giving all is how to live

And life with You begin.

2/25/24 Through 3/2/24

 2/25/24 Through 3/2/24

Sunday

The call of Abraham has come

The call to sacrifice his son

In faith he trusts what God has said

Believing He could raise the dead.

His son he burdened with the wood

Though urged to falter, he withstood

And placed him on the altar there.

His only son He did not spare.

On Tabor's height Apostles saw

What lies beyond the deathly pall,

The glory that awaits the just

Who give to God their total trust.

We see His glory every day

If we just look beyond the fray

And see the brightness of the cloud

Within the remnants of the shroud.

We too must shoulder well the wood

Denying self as Jesus would

And so to glory thus obtain

Without a wrinkle, spot, or stain.

Monday

What matters most is how it ends

On this the fate of all depends

The good or bad be washed away

By how we end that final day

The preparation matters too

For this is what will strengthen you

That final hour this life is done

And when eternity's begun

The measure we have measured out

He'll use to bring reward about

How well we listen and obey

Determines what's our final pay

Tuesday

How easy subtle pride takes hold!

That serpent from the Garden old.

His quiet, stealthy, winding way

Entangles those who go astray

How easy tempting pride can be

The most attractive thing for me.

So, like the Pharisee, I fall

And miss the Lord's repentance call.

We criticize with ease today

Their vast and formulaic way

Of laws to make them pure and clean

And so, the humble one demean.

But still this day we do the same

We look for honor, wealth, and fame

And fail to see the filth inside

Created by our evil pride.

Lord, purify and cleanse my heart

Remove the rotten, prideful part

And humble me that I might be

An offering of love to Thee.

Wednesday

My Lord, I fail to get it still. 

I read quite plain Your holy will,

But listen not to what You say

And go about my merry way.

Your prophecies of passiontide

I hear but gently push aside

To seek a pleasure here and now

And raise my status here somehow.

Thought of suffering bereaved me

And my ignorance aggrieved Thee

Hearing that You came for service

Makes a selfish one quite nervous.

When at last I understand Thee

Please don't harshly reprimand me,

Grace me with the will to love Thee

Putting nothing else above Thee.

Thursday

Acursed be the man that strays from the Lord

Whose strength is in flesh, or the pow'r of the sword

A barren bush in a lava waste

A haughty one that's now disgraced.

True wealth is in humility

But often men will fail to see

They grasp for that which fades away

To find, in time, their wealth decay.

They turn away their greedy eyes

From all the poor and wretched cries

To dine in luxury and waste

And never give the poor a taste.

The day of reckoning will come

A day for all, not just for some

A day when wrong shall be set right

And all our deeds are seen in light.

Friday

In ways mysterious and deep

The will of God will always keep

The chosen ones alive and well

And plans of wicked men repel.

But often we don't see the plan

When looking with the eyes of man.

It's only when we turn around

In retrospect, the plan is found.

Our God is faithful, true, and good.

Obey Him always as we should

And then we'll see with clearer eyes

How safe He leads us to the prize.

Saturday

Lord, mercy is Your greatest gift

One offered often, offered swift.

You let us languish, not for long,

But swiftly wash away our wrong.

Though consequences of our sin

Remain a scar that's deep within,

They also serve to help us see

How great Your love for man can be.

From depths of all perversion led

To pasture green, and fully fed.

From slave of swine and one ignored,

To precious son and one restored.

2/18/24 Through 2/24/24

 2/18/24 Through 2/24/24

Sunday

Forty days of humble fasting

Through the worst temptations lasting

Conquering the flesh He gave us

Showing all the path to save us.

Focused on the Father's willing

Key to life and love distilling

In the desert there belying

Every ploy the Devil trying.

Angels there with grace providing

For the way of God deciding

We must too, be ones accepting

So to be with God connecting.

Few have understood the measure

Of this freely offered treasure

With grace to be one in control,

And grace to master well the soul.

What wonders that the will would find

If only Grace's well were mined.

With humble heart, courageous will,

Our every need He would fulfill.

Monday

Who will stand that fateful day

When on the clouds He comes our way

And says, "The least of these was Me,

Now how you fare, just let me see?"

I'll turn in shame, no doubt for me

For many times I've turned from Thee

And looked away from wanting eyes,

My Savior in the poor's disguise.

The prisoner in wanting cell

In lonliness, whose spirits fell

For no one came and rarely wrote

So much as but a little note.

Absorbed in all I want to do

I often fail to notice You

Forgive me Lord, and help me be

A one with eyes that notice Thee.

Tuesday

No word of His is ever void

A wealth in it contained

A consolation well-enjoyed

A blessing now obtained.

Correction when we need it most

Admonishing for good

Rebuke for sin and prideful boast

Bring shame, as well they should.

How well we listen and obey

Determines where we stand

Will we become one cast away,

Or join the banquet planned?

Wednesday

Something greater here than Jonah

Humble One with thorned corona

Preacher, Healer, Lord of Love

From the Father's throne above.

Listen to the Humble Healer,

Nay the word of wheeler-dealer.

Turn from selfish ways of sin

Allow the Light to enter in.

Light a candle, darkness flees

Love, the cure of death's disease.

He that turns will Mercy find

But not who chains of sin still bind.

Shame, remorse, and irritation

Plague a wicked sinful nation

But the hand of wrath be stayed

If just the Holy One obeyed.

Thursday

Upon the rock so frail and weak

The very word of God we seek

The fallen one, restored to be

The leader of the Holy See.

The centuries have proven well

They can't prevail, those gates of Hell.

No matter how inept we be

That office holds a special key.

A key to Holy Spirit pow'r

To meet the challenge of the hour.

As ages of the past have shown\

Full truth is here, and here alone.

Without the shepherd, sheep will stray

And follow on a different way.

A way divergent from the true,

Whatever way the wind that blew.

But on the rock the Church shall stand

Through torrent, flood, and shifting sand.

The tossing sea and mighty gale

O'er One true Church, shall not prevail.

Friday

One away from full damnation

To the dregs of all creation

All our good is wiped away

If freely now we choose to stray.

The ending matters most of all 

For this is when we hear the call

To spend eternity with God

Or answer to the wicked fraud.  

I know I'm weak and pray dear Lord

I'll not reject Your blood outpoured

But persevere until the end

And on Your mercy there depend.

Your angel shield me from such woe

For left alone, astray I'd go.

I need Your constant call to guide

Away from selfish, evil, pride.

I hope and trust that I may be

One totally in love with Thee,

One on the straight and narrow way

Who never ever turns away.

Saturday

He loves the every one He made

And so to do the same He bade.

For bad or good no difference makes

His love for all is what it takes.

We pull aback when ere we hear

An enemy is drawing near

But in His wisdom, we must love

For that's the choice of God above.

He showed us how upon the cross

To count all other gains as loss

To love in spite of all they do

To reach their hearts and make anew.

The heart will change no other way

But seeing love amid the fray

And knowing there the answer lies

For on the Cross, love testifies.

So, pray for those who do you wrong

And all the wicked evil throng

For change could come on any day

And they, like you, could find the Way.