From Grace Comes Hope – A Quintet of Cinquains

Without
the grace of God
I would be lost, alone
life itself quite impossible
hopeless

Without
the love of God
I would be unloving
my life so self-centered and me
unkind

Without
the light of Christ
I would be in darkness
unable to see my blessings
forlorn

Without
the peace of Christ
I would be most fearful
worrying about little things
timid

With all
God’s grace and love
His incredible light
peace from the heart of a Savior
comes hope

 

I shared this today for Open Link Night at dVerse Poets Pub, where Grace talks about punctuation in poetry.

Amazing Grace – A Cinquain

Great love
Calvary’s tree
blood was shed for you, me
peace, mercy in the midst of pain
Savior

My Faithful Savior – A Triolet

Many things in this life are uncertain, causing even the faithful to struggle and doubt. Even at such times, or maybe even more so then, I am thankful that God has promised that He will never leave me or forsake me.

I am reminded of the words of the Apostle Paul:

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NIV).

For Thankful Thursday today I have written another triolet, this one about the faithfulness of my Savior and my God, Jesus Christ.

My Faithful Savior

My faithful Savior will always be near
In my struggles and pain, when I doubt
that anything will ever change
My faithful Savior will always be near

I know someday He will exchange
the tears I cry for a glorious crown
My faithful Savior will always be near
In my struggles and pain, when I doubt

Anything Worth Saying Is Praise of God

Last week I was listening to Aaron Shust’s Anything Worth Saying CD in my car to and from work as well as to and from my church’s second visit to Shepherd’s Door to cook and serve dinner. I love this CD, but my favorite song by far is My Savior My God. It brings tears of gratitude and joy to my eyes whenever I hear it.

The opening guitar is beautiful and the chorus is awesome to sing along to. It makes a slow commute, like my one on the way to Shepherd’s Door, not only more tolerable but downright enjoyable. I sometimes wonder what people in the other cars think of me singing and praising at the top of my lungs, but I don’t really care. I’m just happy that God is blessed by my praising.

My favorite part of this song is the second verse that says:

Yes, living, dying, let me bring
My strength, my solace from this spring
That He who lives to be my King
Once died to be my Savior

The thought that the King of the universe would die to save me so that I could spend eternity with me just astounds me. Before I knew Him, I was nothing worth dying for. But He knew what I could be with Him in my heart and in my life. Knowing what was possible, though not certain, He took the risk and gave everything He had to be my God now and forever.

He died for you, too, and wants to hear you sing:

My Savior loves, my Savior lives
My Savior’s always there for me
My God He was, my God He is
My God He’s always gonna be

Won’t you sing along with me and Aaron today in praise of our Savior?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt0WluTpFTg&feature=related

[Note: I wanted to embed this video, but the "insert into post" button won't show up on my netbook. Hope you don't mind going to YouTube to watch it. It's well worth it. Beautiful song!]

No Condemnation in Christ

I’ve been reading through the Psalms in a book called The Psalms for Prayer. Each Psalm includes a short descriptive paragraph at the beginning, a suggested Bible passage to read, and suggestions for prayer focus interspersed throughout the Psalm. The other day I read Psalm 24, and the suggested Bible passage was Romans 8:1-11. This is one of my favorite parts of Romans, and I especially like the first three verses:

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. Romans 8:1-3 (NIV).

This passage is a great reminder that the purpose of the law is to help us realize our sinfulness and need for a savior.

The law is necessary for a civilized society. It is good to have an idea of what is right and what is wrong. But the law is powerless to make people always do what is right. Absolutely powerless.

But God’s grace is out strength and power to overcome; Christ is our Savior.

The dictionary definition of condemn is “to pronounce to be guilty; sentence to punishment.” Because of Christ, we are pronounced innocent and are pardoned from the punishment we deserve.

This morning I saw a quote on Facebook that said, “This is the Karma Café. There are no menus. You will get served what you deserve.” My first thought was that I am glad Christianity is not based on karma. When we trust in Christ, we do not get what we deserve.

The law can only give us what we deserve, but the God of grace gives us what we do not deserve. What a blessing that is!

So how about you? Are you still living a condemned life under the law, or have you been set free from the law of sin and death?

Psalm for My Savior – A Pantoum

The other day I wrote a triolet and my dear blogging friend Deb, of Deb’s Blog, commented that it was very Psalm-like. It got me thinking about writing another triolet inspired by my favorite Psalm 116. But when I started writing I realized the triolet wasn’t really long enough to adequately express the subject of the Psalm-like poem I had in mind. Then I thought of the pantoum form, another of my favorites. Like the triolet, the pantoum has a set pattern of repeated lines. Both forms work wonderfully for Christian poetry. I hope you are blessed by this pantoum.

Psalm for My Savior

For you, O Lord, have delivered my soul from death
The anguish of death and darkness entangled me
I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, save me!”
Praise my God, my Savior who came to my rescue

The anguish of death and darkness entangled me
My eyes filled with tears, my feet stumbled under me
Praise my God, my Savior who came to my rescue
Rescued me from my trouble, sorrow, and darkness deep

My eyes filled with tears, my feet stumbled under me
The Lord, my God, heard my cry for love and mercy
Rescued me from my trouble, sorrow, and darkness deep
Now I know His grace and mercy are mine to keep

The Lord, my God, heard my cry for love and mercy
He saw the anguished turmoil of my broken soul
Now I know His grace and mercy are mine to keep
I will forever praise His glorious name, Jesus

He saw the anguished turmoil of my broken soul
I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, save me!”
I will forever praise His glorious name, Jesus
For you, O Lord, have delivered my soul from death

This Psalm was my offering over at dVerse Poets Pub Open Link Night #47. Head over and check out some other great poetry.

Forgiveness – A Poem

Father, must I again
offer forgiveness when I am
right and he is wrong?
Give me a soft heart so
I am able to forgive, to gain
victory over my sinful pride.
Each new day pride says I’m right.
Now I know it is You
Emmanuel, who forgave me. I was
so wrong not to trust my
Savior who forgave his debt and mine.

Psalms 24 – God Our Savior

This coming Tuesday is my 25^th wedding anniversary. In honor of this wonderful day, I was going to post Psalms 25 today, but I have already posted it back in June. So I asked my husband to pick a number between 1 and 150. He picked 24 and so today I have posted the first part of Psalms 24. You can read the entire Psalms 24 here.

Psalm 24

    Of David. A psalm.

 ¹ The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it,
   the world, and all who live in it;
² for he founded it upon the seas
   and established it upon the waters.

 ³ Who may ascend the hill of the LORD?
   Who may stand in his holy place?
⁴ He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
   who does not lift up his soul to an idol
   or swear by what is false.
⁵ He will receive blessing from the LORD
   and vindication from God his Savior.
⁶ Such is the generation of those who seek him,
   who seek your face, O God of Jacob.
                         Selah

Your Name Is Beautiful – A Poem

My Monday post got me thinking about writing a poem about the many names of Jesus, because the blessings and promises each name holds is something I am very thankful for.

I know initially I was thinking my Thankful Thursday poem would always be an acrostic of a synonym of “thankful” but there just aren’t that many synonyms of that word. Plus God has been reminding me of the many things I am thankful for and different ways to lift up thankfulness each week.

Your Name Is Beautiful

Lamb of God
You came to take away the sin of the world
Simply beautiful

Prince of Peace
You came to leave peace in the hearts
Of those who believe
You are beautiful

Immanuel
You came to be God with us
So we will never be alone
Our life made more beautiful

Son of God
You reigned in heaven
Before coming to earth
You reign there still
Your throne so beautiful

Son of Man
You became one of us
So we would always know
That You understand how we feel
Your compassion is beautiful

Messiah
You were an answer to prophecy
Your story foretold
Israel waited for You to come
Still some didn’t believe
But faith in You is beautiful

Wonderful Counselor
Your wisdom You imparted
To the disciples eleven
And Paul, too
Then sent Your Holy Spirit
So we can see You are beautiful

Alpha and Omega
You created in the beginning
Before the world was known
You will be there in the end
Long after all is done
In between it all You are beautiful

Savior
You redeemed the souls of the lost
Were a willing sacrifice for our sins
Your love is so beautiful

 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
      and gave him the name above all other names,
 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
      in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
      to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:9-11 (NLT)

Beautiful Feet

If you watch the news or TV, or spend any amount of time on Facebook or reading blogs, or for that matter just leave your house in the morning, you are bound to encounter any number of controversial issues. There are people spouting their opinions on all sorts of issues, trying to convince others of their position. Many of these controversies involve what some argue is sinful behavior and others say is not.

I have opinions on most, if not all, of the controversial issues facing our society today. I could join the fray and spout my opinion about any one of them, or all of them, and try to convince others of my position. But generally, unless I am in a one-on-one conversation with someone, I choose not to expound on my opinion on some of the more controversial issues. That is primarily because my opinion on most of them is not a simple matter, but a complex set of beliefs based on my experiences and what God has done in my life. It is impossible from a bumper-sticker style quote or opinion to expect someone to really understand how I feel about an issue.

Interestingly, my opinion on and understanding of many of the controversial issues of our day have changed over time. I believe it is God who has changed the way I see things and understand the depth of the controversy surrounding the issues facing us. As C.S. Lewis wrote, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

And so I have decided to take a stand on just one thing: the truth that Jesus, and Jesus alone, is the saving grace of humanity. This is what God has called me to do — to preach the Gospel. He has not called me to preach about, against, or in favor of specific behaviors. He has called me to tell others that Jesus loves them so much that He was willing to die to be with them.

As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him [Jesus] will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” Romans 10:11-15.

I want to have the beautiful feet of one who brings good news. And the love of Christ for sinners is good news, indeed! “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8. He died for you and for me. I’ve never heard better news in all my life.

So what of all those controversial issues and behaviors? That is for the Holy Spirit to deal with in the life of each believer. But first one must believe that they are a sinner in need of a Savior, and how will they ever understand that truth if those of us who believe spend all our time trying to do the work of the Holy Spirit? If we focus on controversial issues and behaviors, we make people feel like they have to agree with everything we do before they can be a Christian. But that is not what Jesus said. He hung out with sinners and then He changed them into His disciples. He didn’t say, “Change who you are and then you can follow me.” He simply called people to follow Him, and then as people are in His presence He does the rest.