Let me hear your message, God
Through all the noise around
The din of dark confusion
Contrived – the truth to confound
Many voices shrill – demanding to be heard
But let me have the patience, Lord
To judge them against your word
Padre
“Let me hear what God the LORD will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints; but let them not turn back to folly (Psalm 85:8).”
The news media has a tactic
Their own viewpoint at you they drum
Through repetition it sounds at first familiar
And with that the battle they’ve half won
The familiar message is then unremitting
As into your brain it does creep
And then you think the thought’s your own
That’s how you’re finally beat
Padre
No running of the rat race
No with the Jones attempts to keep
The focus was on fellowship
And on spiritual matters deep
Do we live the same today:
In study and meals together?
Or is it just on Sunday morn
When there’s no game on; or good beach weather?
The challenge I lay before your feet
Is not directed just at you
For I like all must my actions judge
My heart motives review
Padre
“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers (Acts 2:42 ESV).”
This is a reflection on Pastor Vince’s opening words today. I hope to be able to add further reflections on his great sermon later on. Vince noted that we hear a lot today of the mess in the world. He noted that even those within the body sometimes fall. He then called on us to remember from where we we called to grace. We need to pray for not judge those who struggle. It is a powerful reminder, that we need to build the body up.
Pray for those that fall
For we too have been in the depths
Think not that you are superior
Lest you to slip or cower to Satan’s threats
Lift instead each other up in love
Follow the example true
Of the One who came and returned above
Padre
Lowly
So unworthy
Tainted by desires flawed
Cleansed by a gift unmerited
Redeemed
Padre
Romans 5:8; Ephesians 2:8-9
There is a bite
A chilling to the bones
A gnawing damp
That insights distress and moans
January darkness
Rain, sleet, and even snow
Ice on the pavements
Risks were e’er we go
But life too is like that
Filled with things that distress
Sin and corruption
Leaving the world in such a mess
But the summer of salvation
Is before us, near at hand
And grace and redemption
Shall soon fill the land
Padre
Shared on d’Verse
Creative by nature, desiring to improve – expand
Building, embellishing whatever’s at hand
What is this drive that motivates so;
That we change our surrounding where e’er we go?
The Bible suggests we were created to make
Made in the image and essence of the Creator great
Marvel not, when the artist urge comes over you
Just let the spirit creative inspire the things that you do
Padre
A pew, a place of quiet contemplation
Timber purposely fashioned
Oriented – to face heaven’s altar
But this furnishing holy,
Miscoloured – screams at the eye
Stained by the shed blood
Of those wounded, about to die
This is a contemplation true
That I am pulled to face the reality
Of what others went through
Blood-soaked bench mirroring
The sacrifice table
Beneath the equally blood-stained cross
Padre
The church in Angoville-au-Plain was used as a makeshift by aide station during the D-Day operations. American medics, Robert Wright and Ken Moore treated 80 injured American and German soldiers. Blood stains are still visible on the pews.
Policies unfruitful, routines that abhor
Expectations unrealistic, you can’t stand any more
But how do you deal – comply or complain?
The decision and its effect, weigh on your brain
But what is the answer, what should you do?
Is a surrender to expectation
The best thing for you?
If you burn out, does the cause suffer loss?
Then maybe you need
To point this out to you boss
Padre
There is plenty of darkness around
It’s bad news stories that abound
But simple goodness – need not be rare
When the Good News – your life does share
Do not live as if in a valley – sunken and low
But let your hilltop glory show
The light of the world you’re meant to be
So let it beam for all to see
Padre
Written as a rejoinder to Deborah Ann Belka’s Sticky Note To God.
Matthew 5:14
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