A Prayer

Dear God, Creator, of all the Universe and Beyond

I give you all the praise and honor. Thank you for being who you are, for the beauty of your face and the beauty of your great heart. Thank you for the gift of your one and only Son and your Holy Spirit. Praise you God for who you are!

I pray your blessing and protection on all of your churches world-wide, your family, and the people trying to lead them closer to you. I pray we could all be more of what you want us to be so that it is not I that liveth but Christ that liveth in me. I pray especially for the church of my country, America, that we would be less caught up in the culture and more caught up in You, Holy Lord.

I pray for your whole world that every soul on it could come to know you as their Lord and Savior and come to know how much you love them. May we as your church show them your love! I pray this in the name of your most beautiful, gracious Son,

Amen.

Chains

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Sometimes we might not understand the chains of Christ, but that doesn’t mean we can’t trust that He is doing what is best for us. Praise God!!

Chains

In a dark cell
Alone,
Knees bent to the dirt
I speak your name,
Your chains embrace
My body.

Velvet, caressing at the start
Then biting, burning
Stinging
But the joy that comes
With each sting,
The presence of your
Face!

Cold steel against
Soft, warm flesh
Painful yet enveloping
In ecstasy
As they tear, shred into
My heart
Then raise me from the
Dead!!

Death comes as it
Must
You destroy only to
Raise to perfection
In glory,
Newness from the ashes
Of life once gone astray.

Music and in Living Color

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Sometimes I have very vivid dreams. I was dreaming early this morning about my old job when all of a sudden without warning I was in the middle of a large group of black slaves. It was so vivid. It was like watching a movie. I could see everything so clearly. I don’t know why I was dreaming about this. Maybe from the Lord, maybe not.

Anyway, they had been loaded into the back of an open air wagon pulled by a horse. There was the sense they were in the process of being moved from one place to another, and they were singing this song. I could hear their rich, deep voices singing as they were riding down the road. It was this:

Oh, what do you do when you need Jesus? What do you do when you need Jesus? What do you do when you need Jesus?

Lord, take me home soon. Take me home soon.

The music was beautiful and the sound powerful. Everything was in color. The men were wearing white pants and shirts and the women were in colorful dresses, some in yellows, some in oranges with white kerchiefs around their necks. It was very moving. I could sense their pain.

I woke up and could not get the sound of the music, the words and their voices out of my head. In spite of their pain, they were looking to their Lord for their comfort.

Christ is everything. He is the Lord of this life and Lord of the next. In our pain, He wants to be close and intimate with you and be your comfort and to give you his power, strength and His joy. People talk so much about the gifts of the Spirit such as speaking in tongues, prophesying, teaching, giving generously, healing, but oh, the fruits of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. NIV

These are the core essence of the Living God. He is trying to turn us into Himself. Hallelujah, Praise God!! May He bless your day.

After Seven Years. . . Finally!!

After seven years of being run down and sick from two rounds of surgeries and chemotherapies for cancer, I finally, finally got to ride my bike on our beautiful greenway system we have where we live. It meanders along a river and even through an old civil war battlefield. There are a few small waterfalls along the way. A number of spring wildflowers were in bloom and long the riverbanks you could see the remains of large, ancient trees.

Life can be difficult, but with the grace, mercy and strength of God we can persevere. Sometimes you just have to lean into Him really intensely.

Our family has had a very difficult ten years. It started out with moving out of our family home we had lived for twenty-seven years which was stressful in itself. Only a few months after that our daughter went through an unhappy divorce. Not long after that she met someone else and married them which was a happy event. Only a few months after the marriage she came up pregnant with our first grandchild, a beautiful little boy, Baric, another happy event, but within his first year we could tell something was wrong. He was not developing the way he should. Three months after his birth, my daughter became pregnant again.

While she was pregnant with our second grandchild, Baric was diagnosed as being autistic. Only two months after that diagnosis, I was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer and immediately had surgery and a year of chemotherapy. Four months after my cancer diagnosis, my son-in-law’s father was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. Unfortunately, he died within the year.

While I was on chemotherapy, my wonderful granddaughter, Rylan, was born. I got to come off all the drugs. My daughter moved to another town for my son-in-law’s job, and because we love being close to our only child, we also decided to move close to them to help with our grandchildren.

But it happened again. Right after we sold our condominium and during the process of moving my cancer came back for a second time. We moved on one day, and four days later I was back in surgery. Again, I had to have chemotherapy, not quite as much but still more drugs. I, of course, made it through. Whew, that was a lot in ten years!! It makes me tired to think of all of it.

If it had not been for my faith and closeness to the living God, I could not have made it through nor could any of my family. I’m so grateful to still be able to help with the children. May God show you today in this day the same love, mercy and grace that He has just shown us. Praise God, Christ and the Holy Spirit!!!!

Silver Soul or old habits are hard to kill!

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I used to love to write poetry. I have just recently started again. Here are a few old ones from years ago.

Silver Soul

The silver soul
Sits on the wire.
The golden globe lights
With eternal fire
The sky and waiting soul.
Changing in His passing by
More nearly each to burning gold.
Both breathe for this a longing sigh.
Golden mirrors of His warmth
For this lost world to view and know,
Making it more clearly seen
The riches of His Heavenly Glow.

Rebirth

It tears at my flesh,
My soul is reborn
Into a world of light.
No more running out of the night.

I thank you Gracious Lord again
For this glory of new life.
It runs downhill and up
In endless joyful flight!

Priorities

We as Christians in this rich country of America sometimes have our priorities mixed up. There is nothing wrong with having a few nice things in life and some pleasure, but we should never forget the oppressed, the unloved or the weak of this earth.

I came into life as an orphan having nothing. When I look in the faces of oppressed children, I see myself. If you want to be Christ to this world just go out and love it, especially hurting children. There are so many charities for children. You can even give online!

Again, God never meant for this world to be the way it is. There’s nothing wrong with a little pleasure and fun in your life, but we should not place too much importance on who wins what golf tournament or football game, the size of our house or car.

Want to be Christ to the world? Just go out and love it! Have a blessed day and week. Praise God!!!