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.