A Time For Everything
In January we usually have time on our mind. January is the month we set goals for the year, make resolutions, think about what happened in the year that has past, and anticipate what might be ahead of us in the year to come. One of the more famous verses in the Bible that talks about time is Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. The passage reminds us that there are certain seasons and important moments that happen in our life on earth. When we are wise we recognize those moments and seasons and take action accordingly. As we go into the new year let these words of God’s wisdom remind us how brief and yet important our earthly existence is. May we also remember that our existence is a precious gift from God–a time of grace in which we live through our ups and downs firmly focused on the Salvation we have in Christ. The last line of the poem draws a parallel between the poor, imperfect peace we might have here on earth and the eternal, perfect peace we will fully experience in heaven as God’s forgiven children. There is a time for everything, A season for every activity under heaven. A time to be born, searing pain, pushing free, Breaking out into air, draw first breath and see. A time to die, feeble, broken with age Or sickly or violently exit life’s stage. A time to plant seeds in the soft, warm soil, Grow them and tend them in seasons of toil. A time to pull up and tear out and uproot A plant that has died or won’t produce fruit. A time to kill what endangers and fights When to kill is allowed by God-given rights. A time to tenderly care for and heal, Nurse life back to health after painful ordeal. A time to tear down something weak or unwise. A time to build strong for a new enterprise. A time to weep when dark sorrow descends. A time to laugh, sharing joy with friends. A time to mourn when the loss hurts deep. A time to dance, celebrate and leap. A time to scatter stones over the ground. A time to gather, till each one is found. A time to embrace, share love with soft touch. A time to refrain when love requires as much. A time to search hard and leave no stone unturned. A time to give up when the hard truth is learned. A time to keep what’s a treasure or need. A time to throw out what exceeds what we need. A time to tear up what was once all united. A time to mend breaks and make all reunited. A time to be silent—let silence speak loud. A time to speak up and step out from the crowd. A time to give love with word, action, and will, As we see God has loved us and loves us still. A time to hate when that hate agrees well, With the hatred God has for all that’s from hell. A time for war—armies crash, people cry As doubt and disaster and death sweep by. A time for peace to build lives and live free To anticipate life as God meant it to...
Read MoreGod–a Child Born for You
Here is a Christmas poem and reminder based on passages from John 1. Wishing you all a merry Christmas as you celebrate the birth of the Savior! In the beginning was the Word The Word was with God, the Word was God He was with God in the beginning. This the Word that spoke forth light That ordered time into day and night That gathered seas and land in place And set each star in outer space. Through Him all that is was made Without Him nothing could ever be made. In Him was life that was our light. In deepest darkness light shines bright But darkness hardens and turns away Refusing to know the light of Day. This the Word now come in flesh, Conceived in virgin lowly and fresh. Angel millions hush each voice, Wide-eyed in silence watch God’s choice— Among the beasts where men won’t sleep In a feeding trough near cows and sheep He comes from womb to sin-full earth No human fanfare greets God’s birth. Blinding glory and might supreme In helpless baby lost in dream. Ancient promise stands fulfilled All is just as God has willed! Look! Peer in with bated breath See infant life that conquers death The babe that drew each breath for you A flawless life-long record true. For poor and wealthy, great and small He came to reach us, save us all… None too broken—wrecked with sin None too lost that he can’t win. He came for stubborn, angry, weak, He came each sinner here to seek And you and me and all our mess Lifetimes of sins, our desperateness He came, He came, He came to save And take our sin, our hell, our grave. This baby’s future? No palace grand, But to feel the bite of nail through hand! He came to that which was his own, Yet his own despised their King, his throne Threw God’s gift back in his face Refused his truth, despised his grace And on a cross this Lamb would die The death we all deserved to die. He felt all punishment complete For a world of sin he bore hell’s heat. With dying words the Word went out “Paid in full!” his mighty shout! And then from grave to glory he Stands risen and rules eternally. This Christmas as we gather round For gifts and fun and joyful sound For worship ritual, carols and bells Festive sights and savory smells May nothing distract us from God’s Son— God’s Greatest Gift and all he’s done Instead, let’s focus on the Word And all year treasure what is heard. May this message fill us new: God—a child born for...
Read MoreEvery Truth He’s Given Me
So many of the truths of the Christian faith defy our natural human logic and sense. It’s all to God’s glory that this is so. I wanted to explore that reality in the following poem. Faith is God-given certainty That holds fast in all sincerity To every truth he’s given me Despite the things I think I know And all the things my eyes can see. Each fallen, sinful human brain Enters life spiritually insane Unable to know or to retain God’s truths that ever shall remain And so…I must just say “Amen!” To illogical truths that God has given… Like that marvelous mystery That we have called the Trinity? That God is both three and also one The Father, the Spirit and the Son One single God forever in perfect unity Is three distinct persons simultaneously! Our Savior, Christ, is both man and God Fully and completely to be honored and awed Born of a virgin—miraculous mystery Jesus, the Christ entered our human history All-present, eternal, unchanging, all-knowing, Even as a child who was constantly growing Yet he gave up full use of his powers divine And lived a life like yours and mine Yet his life was flawless—each and every breath The only human who never deserved death And in his person, on a cross The truth is our God died for us! Experienced full and eternal hell God’s sentence of wrath that we each deserved well He paid the full price for us all on that tree Each soul that is and has been and will ever be. God chose before all time began Each soul who would be in heaven And yet he did not choose one man To face eternity already damned. Yet many choose that wide dead road And refuse to see God carried their load They resist the Spirit at work in God’s Word Just as we all do when first it is heard… Yet end up condemned and lost forever Refusing the gift of the most gracious Giver. But in truth God wants everyone everywhere To be saved and fully aware Of all the love he’s shown to them By living and dying in place of them And if I believe it, God made it so And if I refuse it, I chose it so. And then there’s God’s gracious, marvelous gifts That he gives in the precious sacraments That a little water with God’s Word applied Drowns the old sinful self inside God’s Holy Spirit gives new birth and trust In God’s Son who has fully rescued us And the gift of heaven is given right there To a new baby girl or a man with gray hair. And then when the bread and the wine are blessed And we eat and drink with God’s promise expressed Jesus’ true body and blood are therein Powerful, actual forgiveness of sin Every believer who’s assessed his great need And trusts this true promise—has forgiveness indeed! And on and on and on we could go Marveling at truths that really are so Even when sin-ruined logic cries out And Satan himself spreads his poison of doubt If a creature were made by men Could that creature fully comprehend All the deep complexity of men? We are creatures can we comprehend The God who formed us with his hand? Put God in a box, put him on a table Examine him, if you are able! Tell your God what he should do, Tell him that your truth is true. Can you tell God what to do? Can you tell him what is true? And so my...
Read MoreHymn on Isaiah 53
A Hymn on Isaiah 53 The Lamb of God by Chris Powers A Lenten Hymn, based on Isaiah 53 Isaiah 53 is such a go-to passage during Lenten and Good Friday reflections. What a joy to work with these beautiful and powerful words of Scripture! The following is a poem/hymn based on the words of Isaiah 53:2-9. I wrote it according to the melody of hymn 746 in Christian Worship Supplement, so it could also be sung. Please read and meditate on the Isaiah passage as you go through these verses. I hope to take Isaiah 53:10-12 next month and prepare an Easter-themed poem or hymn using those truths. May God bless you as you reflect on his marvelous love during this Lenten season! Like a tender plant from the soil, Like a common root from the ground, Came the promised suffering servant Nothing in his looks would astound. All his majesty and beauty hid from view This is how your God comes for you! See him so despised and rejected His a life of sorrow and pain Like the kind of person we turn from, Hide our faces from all his shame. This—the son of God—the promised one we sought He’s despised and we esteem him not! Surely he took up our infirmness Carried all our sorrows away Yet we thought that God struck and cursed him Smote him with his justice that day. As he hangs there pierced and crushed against the tree It’s not for his but our iniquity! Punishment on him brings us peace now In his bloody wounds we are healed! Like rebellious sheep we’ve all wandered Choosing ways that lead far afield But on him the Lord laid our iniquity Peace with God he gave humanity. How he was oppressed and afflicted Yet he never made a complaint! Like a lamb he’s led to the slaughter Like a sheep for shearing he went So our Savior’s lips were perfect through his pain Innocent and true he’d remain. Taken by oppression and judgment No one in his day took it in That he was cut off from the living Stricken for his own people’s sin Grouped with criminals; laid in a rich man’s tomb Though a perfect man from the womb. All Isaiah’s words are fulfilled now Come and worship Christ your king Sinners lay your burden before him Your new heart will shout and sing Hear your Savior-God’s great promise ever true— “It is finished! All is paid for you!” originally posted on...
Read MoreVerses For the King of Creation – A Poem
It has long been a thought in the back of my mind to take whole key chapters of the Bible and present the truths of that chapter in verse form. Here is my first attempt. This is a poem based on Genesis 1:1 – 2:3, the creation account. My prayer is that you will use it devotionally to meditate on God’s love in creating this marvelous, diverse world in which we live and that you grow in your appreciation of God’s might and mercy. Please read the Genesis account along with the poem. In the future I plan to go on from here and do more key chapters of the Bible. God’s blessings! When time began from nothingness God was there who always is His grand creative work begun Before the first glow of the sun When earth was formless, empty mess The deep blacked out in deep darkness God the Spirit hovered there The watery depths beneath his care And God spoke his mighty marvelous Word His love burst forth, a miracle occurred… “Let there be light!” and there was light God saw it as good and perfect and right He organized the dark and light He called one “day” he called one “night” And evening and morning, the first day done God’s work of creation had just begun. And God spoke his mighty marvelous Word His love burst forth, a miracle occurred… “Let there be a great wide space Waters below all gathered in place And waters above all hanging high And the place between, I call the ‘sky.’” And evening and morning, the second day through God’s work of creation complete for day two. And God spoke his mighty marvelous Word His love burst forth, a miracle occurred… “Let the waters below be gathered about Let dry ground show where the waters flow out.” And so it was and God named as he pleased The dry ground “land” and the waters “seas.” God saw it was good and perfect and right And continued creating a marvelous sight: “Let the land spring forth with great greenery Every kind of plant and fruit-bearing tree!” And the earth came alive with lush vegetation Bountiful beauty clothed God’s great creation God saw it was good and perfect and right And evening and morning, the third day and night And God spoke his mighty marvelous Word His love burst forth, a miracle occurred… “Let there be lights in the space called sky To signal when day or when night draw nigh And let them be signs to mark season and year And give light to the earth where my Light will appear.” And so God made lights and hung them high To shed light on the earth and dazzle the eye. A great one for day and a lesser for night To separately govern the darkness and light And each little star God set like a gem A glittering sky-full—there’s no counting them! God saw it was good and perfect and right And evening and morning, the fourth day and night. And God spoke his mighty, marvelous Word His love burst forth, a miracle occurred… “Let the waters teem with creatures galore Let the sky fill with birds, over earth may they soar.” So a great many species swarmed out in the seas And all kinds of birds spread their wings on the breeze. God saw it was good and perfect and right And he blessed all that swam and took to flight: “Be fruitful, increase in the seas and on earth.” And ever since...
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