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Wind and Fire

Upon reflection, I must disagree with you.
The Spirit still comes with wind and fire
To those who need His mighty touch,
Whether we are babes or long in the faith.
He is the I AM after all is said and done…
Great in power, mighty in deed,
Overwhelmingly here when He is manifestly present.
I will not dispute that He comes,
Quietly whispering peace to the soul’s distress,
But all of us need His unmistakable touch at some point,
To a degree that we cannot contain our reaction
Within some meekly restrained outward appearance of calm.
To rigidly constrain the Spirit as He flows through us
Is to quench the work that He is doing in us.

More times than not these days,
I find myself sitting still beneath His weightiness,
His unmoving, “I-AM-doing-something� presence.
I weep with the outpouring of His healing oil on me.
Even so, on occasion the sense of HIM, here,
Causes me to let go of my physical restraints
Till I am drunk with divine wine, and
He graces my soul with the joy of easy laughter.
Sometimes, the electrical shock of Spirit meeting flesh
Shakes me all over until my flesh submits and
The Spirit has His healing, life-changing way with me.

When He is done, I am more myself than before…
Just a little more light of heart, a little more rich with Him,
A little more deeply rooted in His all-sufficient grace.
There is no more refreshing experience
Than to be overcome by the Holy Spirit’s power,
But it is not the experience itself that is refreshment.
It is His explicit manifest presence and
My submission of self with all its flaws
So that I may know Him in the power of His resurrection,
As well as I am coming to know Him
In the fellowship of His suffering.

River Richly Flowing

Life is a river richly flowing,
Freely teeming with people, nations, and happenings,
All mingled in Your Spirit’s purposes.
Past, present, future…mesh together because
Nothing limits Your hand at work.
You are our life.
You give us our very existence.
You pour through every moment, every molecule
With the power of Your love—
Sparkling with newness,
Brilliant with Your glory
Revealing every shadow of hidden darkness till it flees…
And the river flows on, full of us, brimming with You
Life is ever moving, ever changing, ever new,
Because, O LORD, of unfathomable, beyond-imaginable You!

This Time Around 12/23/2011

The year seems to fly by so fast anymore.
I wish sometimes that I could just yank on the reigns,
Stop the wild horses from dragging me along…
For me, savoring each moment takes extra effort of will.
Before I know it, I’ve missed
More moments than I’ve noticed.
The minutes, hours, and days, sneak by at top speed
Like the roadrunner zipping past the coyote.
Now I look around at my kids, nearly all grown,
My grandchild just born… almost three years ago,
Time is such a thief!
Yet, today is still today.
I cannot count the yesterdays.
This Christmas soon will be tomorrow’s history, but
I’ll not leap ahead in thought or the clock
Will catch up with me even faster.
A moment to treasure, with all its shortcomings,
Is better lived with passion than
Wished away for the next day’s pleasures.
I celebrate today with all the joy I can muster,
Finding contentment in the arms of my family.
We laugh together and anticipate the fun
Of watching each other open presents, devour food,
Or just sit quietly smiling in the midst of the
Wrapping paper storm that fills the living room.
Music saturates the atmosphere with the reminder—
Above all else the day belongs to Christ,
Who in the end gives us eternity to enjoy one another.
He breaks the bondage of time’s iron-sharpened passage.
By His very existence, He split time in two.
Soon time will end; eternity will take precedence again;
And the moments will stretch as long as we want them
Without fear of losing the things as precious
As the childhoods I have somehow missed
This time around.

…Coming Soon!!!

December 21, 2011…Coming Soon!!!

The Healing King… a book of my poetry (and some of my prose) collected between 2000 and 2011. I’m just waiting on the proofreading now, so hopefully it will be available for purchase within the next month or so. I’ll post more details when that happens.

Holy Is The LORD Almighty

Angel feathers falling from the very throne of God
From the holy heavens bringing wonder from above.
There the living creatures worship where no man has stood
Crying, “Holy. Holy. Holy is the LORD…�

Golden glory cloud of dust hangs weighty in the air—
Holy Spirit manifests His love for all to see.
So, the sons and daughters in the kingdom stand in awe
Crying, “Holy. Holy. Holy is the LORD…�

Take our ordinary lives in these days full of dread
Radiate your grace and glory to the world around
Let light and life and love come permeate and bring all near
Crying, “Holy. Holy. Holy is the LORD…�

Jesus, Name above all names, let every tongue confess
Your majesty and resurrection power over all,
And every knee will bow before the very Son of God
Crying, “Holy. Holy. Holy is the LORD…�

For Holy is the LORD Almighty and the Lamb, who for us bled—
Everlasting Splendor, Sovereign Love, and King of kings.
He Who sits upon the throne as brilliant, cleansing Light
Calls us all to come to Him, redeemed by His own Life.

Facets of Fall

How does fall manage to look so pretty
Even when the rain permeates the day?
I just noticed it this morning—
All the brilliant colors in the sunlight
Take on a sort of royal austerity
When gray sky reigns in the atmosphere.
No matter how drab the day feels
The colors remind me that time keeps passing.
The dreariness will give way
To another sunny day.
The leaves will keep falling until
The brown gets trampled underfoot
As bare trees raise their limbs
Looking for the snow to clothe them again.
Knowing fall is just another
Season of transition,
I can settle in for the ride ahead,
Enjoy the scenery alongside,
Revel in the rain even…
Because I appreciate all the facets of fall,
Not just the bright and shiny sides.

Threshing Floor

You sift the wheat from the chaff,
Separate the barley from the hull,
Till all that remains is Your harvest.
You call us all to let go of the stuff, the fluff,
The unnecessary things and habits we cling to
Till all that remains is Your perfect work
Forming us to Your character
So that others can see real substance in us.
You also separate those who turn away
From those who choose to follow…
Those whose hearts are not truly committed
From those who will never look back.
These are difficult times but
The winnowing process is meant to be hard.
The winds of trouble are blowing
Through the threshing floor now…
O Lord Jesus, let me be of the substance that matters,
Not of the stuff that You are blowing away.

Morning Sky

Fingers of the morning sun pierce the clouds,
Like Your hand extended over the landscape,
Hovering above us all as sweet reminder of
Your goodness, Lord…
Your mercy, Lord…
Your continual grace that allows us to
Begin each new day with Your breath of life.
The deeply blue-gray clouds outlined
With golden filaments of light
Starkly contrasts pale blue-white sky
Like the wounded world against the healing heavens…
All held together in Your palm.

Psalm 139:13-18

13 For you created my inmost being;     you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;     your works are wonderful,     I know that full well.  15 My frame was not hidden from you     when I was made in the secret place,     when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.  16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;     all the days ordained for me were written in your book     before one of them came to be.  17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!     How vast is the sum of them!  18 Were I to count them,     they would outnumber the grains of sand—     when I awake, I am still with you.

1 Corinthians 2:1-5

1And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. 2For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.