Tomorrow’s Hope #Covid-19 #faith #children

“I was just thinking about a friend of ours.” Bethany looks at her lion friend.

“Who is that Bethany?”

“Her name is Christine. Several of her children have attended our class.”

“Oh yes I remember her. The last time I saw her she was very sad.”

“Many of her tribe didn’t want the baby in the village; they said the baby was cursed.

A tear falls from Judah’s eye. “How can a baby be a curse?”

“It is our fallen world Judah.” Bethany holds his paw. “Broken people have little hope.”

“But there was one who came to give hope to the broken. His light breaks through darkness.The Gospel of John talks about light: “A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light lest the darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going.” John 12:35

“Judah, We need some of that light during Co-Vid pandemic. There are some families who have lost many people to the disease. ”

We can’t be afraid though: “Say to those who are fearful-hearted, Be strong, do not fear! Behold your God will come with a vengeance.” Isaiah 35:4

“No, Judah, you are right we must hold fast to Jesus, because our Tomorrow is filled with eternal hope. ”

 

So many of us are dealing with uncertainty. Are you afraid? Ask God to help you be strong. The Bible says God will come and be with you in your dark and fearful times.

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Cross Roads #sundaydevotion

 

Life’s road  uneven

filled with pain

I’ve know the sting

of sin’s dark reign

*

the fork it beckoned

from afar

succumbed to flesh

I see the scars

*

His light it shines

in darkest place

removes the stain

no one can trace

*

I gladly trudge

this burden bear

to heaven’s cross road

my savior’s there!

 

 

“A highway will be there, a roadway, And it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, But it will be for him who walks that way, And fools will not wander on it.”

Isaiah 35:8

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Matthew 11:28

 “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28:20

Life’s Road is filled with rocks and uneven spots. Some days we have little strength to crawl. Though this life is tough, Jesus promises that He is there to walk over the toughest terrain  (carrying us if need be).

Sharing with God Interest

 

My Cloak for A King #palmsunday #sundaydevotion

 

 my pink petal robe

beneath un-sandaled feet

lovingly caress

unworthy to meet

The King!

 

What would it be like to have Jesus walk on my cloak, look in my eyes and smile? This Jesus came as a servant to the poor, the sick, the broken, the unaccepted. The leaders could not understand a king like this. They despised this “rule-breaker” who would not conform to the law they had defiled.

Jesus is not of this world. He rules with love and reaches his scepter of forgiveness to all. Grasp for that freedom and you will be washed clean from the mud of this world.

“He was despised and rejected be men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised and we esteemed him not.”

                                                                    ~Isaiah 53:3

“The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

                                                                   ~John 1:29

 

Today is Palm Sunday. This is the day when Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey. He was celebrated and loved. Such a difference one week makes in the lives of us all.

 

Thank you to Wall paper gallery for the free image of the cross it merged perfectly with my shot of the cherry blossoms to make a lovely image.

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Drink #sundaydevotion #poetry

Weary of this dusty land

searching for a single drop

refreshment little remains

tho many for you have sought

sojourn in the desert

on weary feet I walk

thirsting for oasis

…and hopelessly I stop

***

rushing free the fountain

my hands eagerly reach out

touching living water

unencumbered by the drought

a wellspring ever deep

daily relieves my doubt

dry robes gone I dive

“drink all you can” – I shout

As the land that I call “home” is being devastated by drought (now thirsty wildfire), I am reminded anew of how satisfying a dip into cool water is on the hottest of days.

*****

 “For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.”

Isaiah 44:3

“And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.”

Isaiah 58:11

“…but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

John 4:14

“And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.”

Revelation 21:6

Sharing with Godinterest

Where Are You? #poetry

Yesterdays all dry

lifting my face to heaven

to God I cry

“Where are you?” I implore

my bones suffer 

I pour out my soul

like the deer 

I pant for refreshment

“God draw me near”

my tears like waves

flow over pain

close the lid to my grave

give me hope anew

soil for joy to grow

on mercies wings I flew

There are desert days and there are rain forest days (and everything in-between.) Suffering is part of life, it is our choice where we go when we are in pain. Put your hope in God, cry out to Him.He not only listens but He carries us through the darkest nights…

 ^“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”…
By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me— a prayer to the God of my life. I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?”  My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?”  Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” ~ Psalm 42 1 -2, 8 – 11

“The LORD make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.“

~ Number 6:25 & 26

The Day Beauty Died #sundaydevotion

 

I had an ominous dream

time had passed before my eyes

a dark cloud swept over our earth

filled with dark corruption and lies

 

a storm charged with hate

no control how it spun

ripping apart all that inspired

where the final gate was  hung

 

inside was  preserved

only one small tiny world

open-faced smiling flowers

and one grey mourning dove

 

a brick path had been laid so long ago

and the arbor overgrown

shielded unique flowers

from the cold biting snow

 

frozen were the tears

that lay upon my cheek

as beauty was discarded

ripped apart so to speak

 

and now what is left

I can tell you what is not

today beauty died

the remaining world now LOST

“Time began in a garden.” and it will end there as well. I sometimes have imagined with my children what the garden of Eden must have been like. We all liked the idea of riding tigers, talking to the monkeys, and being lifted up in the trunk of an elephant. The part of the garden that was different from all gardens was the absence of SIN. That would mean the animals would have gotten along. Many claim that the lion laying down the lamb at the end of the Age. I was struck by a visual that I saw in an article written by a young Pakistan woman. She spoke of how life had been simple in her (impoverished) village but people looked after each other and they celebrated the good fortune of another. In the garden of life, people care for one another. She expressed her consternation at the change of the bigger village in just 50 years since the days when people would split their last loaf of bread with another. In this new society man throws a struggling survivor of a boat (in the sea) because their beliefs are not the same. Children are taught to wield blades bigger than themselves – their prey is man.

Truly our garden is dying.

Isaiah 12:3

“Therefore you will joyously draw water From the springs of salvation.”

Genesis 3:22-24“Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”– therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.”

Revelation 22:1-2

 “Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”

Isaiah 11:6

“And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the young goat, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them. 7Also the cow and the bear will graze, Their young will lie down together, And the lion will eat straw like the ox.…”

 

 

 

 

 

Pick Me #devotion #spring #poetry

 

If you were a star

how would you stand out

among so many lights

If you were a snowflake

how would you reach gloved finger

to be caught in flight

If you were a firefly

how many others

would you have to out blink

if you one daisy in an ocean of fields

how could anyone know

if you were yellow or pink

what humans selecting 1s and 0s

compiling our value

what do they know?

The fragrant rose hopes

to be picked from above

fortunately God is a being of love

He never looks at us as one more thing

each of us more priceless

than the Hope diamond ring

The poem is silly but it conveys the fact that God knows: the name and voice of each star, He clothes each flower in the field, He knows when a bird falls, and He knows your needs (before you do.) Nature is so lovely to watch. Each day the birds come forth looking for food; Even in the winter there is food in our forest though the animals have to look harder for it. It’s there because God provides and He promises to do the same for us.

 

“Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

Luke 12:7

“If then you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about other matters?Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.”

Luke 12:26&27
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Matthew 6:26

 

Sharing this early spring devotion with Godinterest.

Worth Giving #sundaydevotion #poem

“Give your life away”

was all the message

had to say

it seems a cold hard voice

that makes me take

the sacrificial choice

But as you offer up your hand

another life has the

opportunity to stand

Every charitable act is a stepping stone toward Heaven.

Henry Ward Beecher

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Philippians 2:4

I Hold a Key #poetry #devotion

 

 

 

Bright and shiny once

I hang in offering

a door I once opened

I hold the way still

Bright and shiny once

a way to life I bring

eyes I awakened

healing      the          ill

Bright   and    shiny    once

I  free  the  wandering

embrace the shaken

not bitter the pill

Bright and shiny once

he who is pondering

his will I will strengthen

tho they test my metal – I will prevail

“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Matthew 16:19

“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this…”

Revelation 3:7

The key symbolizes a significant wisdom that goes beyond strength. I can only imagine a key that opens the way to peace and green pastures where animals and children play. I hope and pray for anger and evil to be bound so that we can have hope and a clear view of Heaven.

Dawn Greeter #poetry #sundaydevotion #fall

“time to greet the day”

a quiet voice whispers

Dawn has barely broken

life is stirring

before my boots crunch

leaves are rustling

 the trees wave goodbye to summer

silhouetted by warm rays

*

small creatures forage

growing fat and furry

year end’s harvest awaits

for the final gleaning

birds feeling winter’s nudge migrate

moving families south

and I smile

none lugging boxes of storage

*

I never see worry stashed in burrows

or tiny angry fists

nature moves forward

as always it persists

 we least patient in creation

gain an unhealthy weight

yet worry gives us nothing

stress carried in furrows

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30

 

“Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!  Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life ?  Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?” 

Luke 12:24-26

 

I’m sharing this today with Poets United where there is a pantry rich with poetry and GodInterest where words are placed to lighten the load.