11/19/23 Through 11/25/23

 11/19/23 Through 11/25/23

Sunday

Now use each gift He's given you

To help another and renew

Your trust that He will multiply

As needed in your low supply.

He's made you not to keep and store

But made each one to offer more

To be a channel of His grace

And help the lost to find their place.

So, bury not your talent now

But learn to multiply somehow

By using what you have for good

To show His message, understood.

Monday

Have pity Lord, I want to see.

Quite well just what you ask of me

I want to follow in Your way

And learn to love You more each day.

No bland complacency for me

But ever deeper let me see.

Into Your Love without an end

And so this temporal world transcend.

What earthly eyes can see is base

The fleeting things of life they chase

But grasp at none but puffs of smoke

And find themselves just flatly broke.

But what You garner offers more

Than all ephemeral earthly store

And such is what I want to see

By drawing closer yet to Thee.

So, take this blindness far from me

And give my eyes such clarity

To turn from pleasure, wealth, and fame

And so, to peace and joy obtain.

Tuesday

Noble death and crown of glory

Culminate the ancient story

Faith unwilling to betray Thee

Then becomes the faith to save thee.

Eleazar, man of valor

Facing well the deathly pallor

shows what's lasting in our choices

Well-defying Godless voices.

Give me grace Lord, so to follow

Let me not the unclean swallow

Make me pure and undefiled

Let me be Your docile child.

Let the young be bolstered by me

In the trials that belie me

Faithful to the bitter end

Let me truth and love defend,

Wednesday

Lord, I pray I'll never know

If I would stay or I would go

If I would turn from You to live

Or freely all I have then give.

I like to think my courage strong

But know I often last not long

When trial comes, I look for ease

And not how suffering might please.

I shun what makes me more like You

And choose what puts myself in view

I like to build my self-esteem

While posing on the Victor's team.

In honesty, I see I'm weak

A common sinner, not unique.

With grace alone can I survive

And then at last with You arrive.

It's only when Your graces flow

And courage on the weak bestow

That one like me could long endure

Remaining holy, good, and pure.

Thursday

So much for which to thank our God

His love for sinners sick and flawed

The beauty that surrounds our lives,

The love of husbands and of wives.

The gift of life in little ones

The joy of daughters and of sons

The gift of faith to bolster hope

The love to with our trials cope.

Our every breath of life we breathe

Our every thought our minds conceive

His way that's always good and right

His light that guides us through the night.

For oceans, mountains, rivers, plains

For all our temporal earthly gains

For gifts all manifest and good

For peace within our neighborhood.

For love within the family

For faith along the family tree

But most of all for You my God

The lover of us sick and flawed.

Friday

Lord, make this temple clean and pure

Give grace to every trial endure

Upset the tables of decay

And drive the evil far away.

Inside is where the evil lies

That You alone, to see have eyes

Let not this temple be profaned

But purity of soul be gained.

Baptismal waters cleanse and bless

Let all my sin, my mouth confess

And thus renew what You have made

From all that selfish sin decayed

Once clean and pure I shall rejoice

And praise with cymbal, string, and voice

For then in song and varied ways

Acceptable, you find my praise.

Saturday

When all is for naught at the end of our days

And vanishing clarity turns into haze

The proud of this world will see in a flash

That all they have worked for is nothing but trash

What lies up ahead through the trial and pain

The servants of God in their hope will attain

But those at the end of their pride and their ease

Wish now they had spent much more time on their knees

As long as there's breath there is time to repent

and change the direction our souls will be sent

Admit all your wrong and have sorrow for sin

And trust that His mercy, at last lets you in.

For proud it may be far too great of a task.

How could I admit such a falsehood, they ask?

Assured of "their truth" they have deigned to obey

They walk into Hell, and from Heaven away.