Awake!!!

amchurch

Awake
(For the American Church)

Awake, arise
Oh, Great one of the west
Can’t you see?!
Born in blood’s struggle
Birthed for the sake
Of freedom &
To throw off a yoke
Of tyranny!!

Step out of your darkness
Renew your strength
From the blood of martyrs
Birthed
And a savior’s sacrifice.

Give up your pursuit
Of ease and comfort.
Face the battle once again
As you did of long ago.
Raise up a fist toward heaven!

Proclaim His name
Over a land lost
In self-indulgence and
Satan’s lust for power.

Release your sleeping stupor
And surround yourself
With your lost, but still
Available Heavenly Power!

Shake off the dust on your shoulders
Proclaim His Name,
this His battle cry,
Become a world’s changer
change this game below
from that of Satan’s hate
to a Salvation found only
in Christ’s deep love.

First in Line!!

KODAK Digital Still Camera

I guess everybody wants to be first in line for almost everything, even plants I guess. These are the first of the plants that are just starting to show some of the fall colors of yellow and red. For those of you unable to get out in the beautiful sunshine today, I took some more photos. This time I got a natural bog or wetlands in the city I live in. It is behind a Discovery Center or science center for children. It has a natural spring that comes out of a cave. The water is covered in plant life especially algae so thick in spots the water looks like green pea soup. I can’t believe I was actually able to get a dragonfly sitting still long enough to get its picture along with Mr. Turtle who is always obliging. It’s so nice they have this for the children of the city I live in.

KODAK Digital Still Camera

We live in a smaller town that has done an excellent job of preserving its downtown courthouse square. The building was used during the civil war by soldiers who would climb to the top of it and use it as a lookout post. I hope everyone has a blessed day and Praise God, Praise God, Praise God!!! I’m always so grateful after all the cancer treatments to be able to get out and enjoy His world!

Wow 2!!

pillars-of-creation (2)

Hubble Goes High Def to Revisit the Iconic 'Pillars of Creation'

Here is an updated version of a poem I wrote after seeing pictures of the Pillars of Creation in the Eagle nebula released by NASA. They are trillions of miles in height and are the birthplace of stars. Stars form within their gases. God wrote the last stanza and a half of this poem for me.

On Viewing the Pillars of Creation
(Wow!)

Your fingers reach into a Universe
Created just for You
birthing stars, galaxies
as on the water-washed face
of a beach,
children move grains of
sand.

These pillars of gas and
Dust
We view, only in sly glances,
Across an unfathomable distance,
an unreachable birthplace of glorious stars
Put into place
As gleaming, glistening reflections of
Your Face.
Effortlessly, unendingly you create
In love
Moons, stars, galaxies
and
This small grain of an earth.

We its lessor inhabitants, mere pieces of earth-dust,
this rock,
we spin on and on,
breathing only because
You wish it.

Gently caressing at times, your touch
Brings Cloud dust into existence.
At others, with a single finger snap,
super nova explode
from within the ethers of dark nothingness.

Releasing raw elements,
Light, rock, chemicals,
Your gentle breath moves past your lips,
In its wake
our world spins,
Into a celestial dance,
Yielding our night and day

You have said this
Level of life,
Hearts beating, thumping,
Blood coursing through veins,
Will cease
Only to be made More perfect

If we join with you now,
Merging our two into one,
Willing to sacrifice, suffer
Love for the present
No matter the price.

A glory will be revealed
In the second realm of creation,
A Perfecting, complete Rebirth,
for each living, feeling
Being we see now.

Into endless infinity,
Every star will sing a new song.
Unending Praise will resound
To the Praise of Your Glorious
Face and
Heart.

A Universe reborn!!
What an Overwhelming joy
Will fly, sing past our heads
As we enter into the
Wonder
Of that new World.

gloryofgod#2

Dignity

KODAK Digital Still Camera

Along the river walk they have preserved as much of the nature as they can. They’ve left the trees and undergrowth at the river’s edge. I love the old trees, especially the larger, oldest ones. It’s always amazed me that they were here before me and will probably be here after me remaining after I’m gone. That just seems amazing to me. Here is a poem about my few thoughts on that subject. Hope you enjoy it and Praise God!!

Dignity
(Of Trees)
Ancient, unmoving
Imprisoned into a primordial
Earth, sustaining your
Existence.

Your bones lie locked
Deeply beneath a surface
flowing life to your limbs
dancing above in free-air.

At times, you lean
To dip your fingers into
An icy stream or wave lacy limbs
Of colored leaves into
sometimes gentle, sometimes violent winds.

I move past, wondering,
Wondering a why.
You were here before I
Had become a thought.

Whether naked or clothed
In your royal dress of
Green for a season,
or Gold, or red

You drip with, exude
Your form of wisdom,
Dignity, if you wish,
Reminding of an eternity
Existing before us.

You were here before I,
Will probably be here
After I
Living on to tell and testify

Of a beginning of life
Unknown and an unending
Of life foretold,
Teaching without speaking,
saying without words.

Displaying a Power beyond us,
Unseen but felt, glory beyond
my weak physical Senses
Yet proven in your existence.

The Last Hurrah!!

KODAK Digital Still Camera

Well, it’s the last hurrah of what felt like a very short summer. I can’t believe it’s already September. As I have said before we have the most beautiful greenway system in our city as it runs right at the edge of a river. I like to try and take photographs, and the greenway gives me a chance to catch some of nature. The butterflies are here I guess moving from north to south for the winter, and although it was hard, I did manage to catch a few sitting still for two or three short seconds.

A few wildflowers are still out, but some of the tree leaves are starting to turn yellow for fall. It makes me think of pumpkins and bonfires. We had some friends that every year for Halloween would invite us over for roasting hotdogs and marshmellows over an open fire. Fun, fun, fun!! Only problem is I will miss my pink mandevillas and white blooms on the crepe myrtle bush. Oh well, they’ll be back next summer. Praise God for the beauty of His world that He made for us!! I hope you have a peaceful and blessed day.