Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Day by Day...
It is so easy for me to get distracted...I'm sure you are not that way, but for me, the everyday details of life get in the way of doing and being all that I want to for the Lord.  If I allow myself to listen to old thoughts or revisit old habits, it's for sure that it will not be a good day.  One of the advantages of getting older is that I am beginning to recognize spiritual pitfalls and understand with more clarity the importance of a daily walk with the Lord and a consistent yielding to His spirit.  I am certainly not where I want to be in that regard, not by a long shot.  But at least if I recognize the need, I think I am on the right track.  The Christian life is not a destination but a journey.  And we have no choice but to take it ...

Day by Day

Sometimes in the day to day of life
It seems that we let things slip
Things that are most important
Yet somehow we lose our grip
We sacrifice the eternal prize
On the altar of right now
And lose our focus in the fray
We must find a way somehow
To fix our gaze upon Jesus
When struggles crowd our way
Making our minds to think like His
Forbidding our steps to stray
Because our hearts will tend to deceive us
And our flesh will tell us lies
Some days the battle overwhelms us
No matter how hard we try
Wrestling with our own demons
That haunt us now and then
Past regrets and broken dreams
Potential spoiled by sin
Still we strive to live in the moment
Seeing the future as an open door
Leaning on God’s forgiveness
Knowing what’s best He holds in store
For if there’s one thing that’s unchanging
And for all of time that’s true
Our Father never falters
And He cares for me and you

Heb 2:1
Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip
Jer 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
I Pet 5:7
Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

It has been said that “it is not hard to live the Christian life, it is impossible”.  The only way it becomes possible is to keep our focus on the God of the impossible and allow Him to live the Christian life through us.  It is not a onetime decision but a moment by moment yielding to the Spirit of the living God.




Thursday, April 5, 2012

The Hour ... &, Pondering the Resurrection ...
It is interesting to me how God uses people to stir and encourage other people.  Especially believers with each other.  Once again someone has encouraged me to keep posting to this site and with Good Friday and Easter upon us, it was easy to choose what to post this week.  Today is a 2 for 1 ... the second is actually quite different than what I normally write because it is an abstract poem. However, it is, I believe, the most profound (even if it is the shortest) poem I have ever written.  But before the glory of the resurrection our Savior had to come to.....

The Hour

All of time eternal
        Without beginning and without end
        Hinges on the hour 
        When broken fellowship Christ would mend
        The Creator of the universe
        King and Lord of time and space
        Became a lowly servant
        To rescue Adam’s race
        From His birth in the manger
        To the Garden of Gethsemane
        All in preparation for the hour
        When He would hang upon that tree
        God Himself in human flesh
        All the miracles and love
        If He had stopped short of that hour
        Would not be enough
        But in complete surrender
        To His Father's plan
        He suffered and cried “it’s finished”
        And gave eternal life to man
        In all of time eternal
        That one hour saves the lost
        For the destiny of all man kind
        Hinges on the cross

John 17:1  These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:

This thought never ceases to amaze me.  I am in awe and wonder at the very idea that the God of all creation would come in the form of the created so that He could buy back what He had made in the first place.  And to think that all of His interaction with mankind and all that He accomplished between the manger and the cross was done in preparation for that one moment in time when He could say “IT IS FINISHED” and our debt could be paid in full!


*********************************************************************


Pondering the Resurrection


If not for the resurrection...
The church is no more than a social club…
Believers no different than the atheists…
and Christians no better or worse off than the rest of a dying race...
BUT GOD raised HIM from the dead,
And that changes everything!


Acts 13:28-30
And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain.
And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre.
But God raised him from the dead:

I love the holidays, all the holidays.  The magic of Christmas time, the great family time spent at Thanksgiving, even the patriotism of the 4th of July.  But Easter, at least for me, is on a different level than the rest.  I wake up nearly every Easter morning with a deep sense of appreciation and wonder at what was accomplished that first Easter morning.  The power of the resurrection is the difference between Christianity and every other belief system in the world because the author and finisher of our faith IS ALIVE!