Joy! Joy is still a peace that all of us can claim we've found,
In unceasing waves of calm to wrap life around.
Joy highlights hope.
Hope! Hope is still very much alive and well,
Countless occurrences of praises to tell.
Hope gives way to prayer.
Prayer! Prayer is still flowing heavenward from our lips,
It is possible to just touch Your hem with fingertips.
Prayer breaths love.
Love! Love is still within most human hearts,
Even of those determined to keep us apart.
Love provides forgiveness.
Forgiveness! Forgiveness is still what we all seek,
For our deepest wounds and anger make us weak.
Forgiveness flows to grace.
Grace! Grace is still that which we are in great need,
There are unknown harvests from Your gospel seed.
Grace gives birth to joy.
Joy links hope causing prayer where love reveals forgiveness,
Forgiveness gives way to grace and joy returns selfless.
All joined by God.
----dfav
4/9/21
Emerging from the depths of soil
Of what was but days ago
Frozen,
Cold,
Still.
Now life bursts forth in glee
Proof that somehow life
Finds a way,
Continues on,
Has a will.
Beneath us one and all
In a cycle of continuing
Miracles happen,
Time marks passage,
Birth occurs.
From depths of human hearts
Acknowledgement as Spring arrives
Despite COVID,
Shutdowns
Separation.
Resolutions, determinations unfurl
The hibernating hope in us
To reawaken,
Feel the Sonshine,
Unfurl our wings.
Seeds opening in prepared soil
Buds bursting beneath nests
Babies soar,
On newly found wings,
Free souls.
----dfav
4/8/2021
Waking in the wee hours of this morning
There is a thirst in my soul
And I pray and read Your word
Aware
How my innermost core
Longs for a drink from
The everlasting Living Water.
How I long to sink my roots
Deeply into the earth
Beside the rivers mighty flow.
Somehow You see,
Somehow You know,
Grant me what I need.
Breathing in the Sonrise as dew dissolves
Knowledge warms my wounded heart
And I pray and devour Your word
Aware
How my soul aches deeply
For You in my hearts
You shaped missing puzzle piece.
How everything in me responds
To Your urging self-examination
Of me in Your Word.
Somehow You know,
Somehow You have heard
Grant me now Your wisdom.
Warming as the Son warms the earth
Stretching to see what God fulfills
And I pray and feast on Your word
Aware
How perfectly You respond
To my specific needs right here
Right where I am.
How blessed I am O Holy One
That You love me
Completely as Your own.
Somehow now my eyes are opened
Somehow Your knowledge to me is known,
You are the the Great I Am.
----dfav
4/7/2021
When the full light of God's being
Is shone into Your heart
What becomes visible unseen before
What remains when the shadows depart?
When God calls for blinders to fall
Scales to drop from your eyes
What is the truest picture revealed now?
What stretches toward the Son, what dies?
When the truth of who God is, has been
Slams against your false beliefs
What do you recognize now as truth
What shackles fall so you have real relief?
When we believe we believe in Jesus
Never realizing it is a false assumption
What happens when honesty bursts forth
What truth comes with the revelation?
----dfav
4/6/2021
This is it.
Here.
Now.
Where the strong are separated from the weak,
Where the image in God's mirror
Sends you to His side or you driven to your knees.
This is it.
Here.
Now.
Where pretenders fall behind the true,
Where your actions prove your hearts core,
Here, in this moment are you for Him or you?
This is it.
Here.
Now.
Where your soul speaks the most loudly,
Where truth takes center stage,
Does it collapse or stand up proudly?
This is it.
Here.
Now.
Where that voice is Jesus' calling your name,
Where the eternal home of your soul
Is decided in seriousness for this is no game.
This is it.
Here.
Now.
Where you answer Jesus' knock at the door
Where you confess, believe, accept or reject
Will you choose or risk it coming no more?
----dfav
4/5/2021
Here ---
My soul has longed to be here.
Surrounded by reminders
Of Your power
Of Your grace
Of Your awesomeness.
Here ---
Where my heart can beat with each swell
As the waves crash on the shore
Against the sand
Against the rock
Against the cottage.
Here ---
Where burdens flow out with the tide
Return battered and bruised
In broken pieces
Broken chains,
Broken strongholds.
Here ---
In the vast openness of the ocean
Where the wind snatches
Every stench away,
Every forgotten truth,
Every failure.
Here ---
Where my heart and soul know
The wonder of Your might
Is ever present
Is always felt
Is always welcoming.
Here ---
In our Cottage-by-the-Sea
Our prayer closet expanded
Though You remain
Steadfast
Proclaimed.
Here.
----dfav
4/1/2021
What are you thinking?
That situations and circumstances
Are very bad?
Horrible in fact?
So much so it has grown crazy,
As in mad,
Insane in fact?
What are you thinking?
About how we can no longer trust
People at face value,
For fear of what resides inside?
Even those who claim to be of God
And who are only lying
Hard to decipher, decide.
What have we been thinking?
As our young have been hijacked
By ideals incomprehensible
Our love smothered in guilt?
Replacing God's success with societies,
While His is viewed as rotten wood,
Not the stone pillars on which we once built?
Whatever we were thinking?
We were either wrong or weak
Failing to stand up for God
Or the beliefs we should have in Him.
It is time to own our mistakes,
Plea for forgiveness and
Light The Way brightly not on dim.
----dfav
3/29/2021
There is still God.
Regardless of the situation
Or the crisis at hand.
There is still God.
Though the earth shake
Beneath your feet.
There is still God.
Let man attempt to wipe
Him from everything.
There is still God.
Government may actually
Destroy us altogether.
There is still God.
There is always God
Ready to lead us
Out of our own folly.
There is always God.
Though shaken to our
Deepest inner core.
There is always God,
Even if evil takes your life.
There is always God,
More faithful to His children
Than we are to Him,
There is always God.
----dfav
3/29/2021
Our beloved and determined daughter,
Who has turned away
From all that is God,
All that is holy,
All that is truth.
Who willingly offers their soul
As long as it is far from all that is The Way.
Since your birth we have been with you,
Every triumph, every tear
Cheering you on to adulthood,
Everything true,
Everything pleasing to God,
Pointing out pitfalls,
While allowing your to face your fears.
Now you have chosen to go
Down paths we cannot walk with you,
Paths of deliberate sins,
Lakes of deceit,
Canyons of evilness.
We love you always and forever
But, choose evil, we cannot do.
Though you have rejected the core of us,
So you can walk this dangerous road,
The choice is yours to make,
The maps you have drawn,
At least you think you have.
This leg of your journey is yours to travel,
These are your steps, it is your load.
Our beloved, strong-willed daughter
Though physically we cannot follow you,
Still every single day,
Multiple times we will pray
You will make it through,
That the final cost of your choice
Is not the heart and soul of you.
---dfav
3/29/2021
Vowed to follow You anywhere,
Wherever You said, "Go",
But, it was never convenient,
Thought You'd never know.
Promised to glorify and honor You,
Regardless of life's circumstances.
Yet, serving at the wedding wasn't fun.
I hid Your truth as I joined in to dance.
Said I was praying for those around me,
Citing their sins and misdeeds,
But, You said, "Love your neighbor"
Maybe I just misread?
Saw the harvest out the window,
Started eagerly out to gather them in,
But the sun it was so hot,
Later, in the cool, I'd go out then.
Living my life I heard You calling to me,
Ever echoing as I went, "Adam, where are you"?
But, hey, You're God, I figured You knew,
Shutting my ears I kept on doing what I do.
Pledged to feed the hungry on the streets,
Thought of rescuing the drowning woman,
But, God it was never-ending stream of need,
Casually I disappeared, I slipped away and ran.
Thought You and I were solid until
Death, judgment came for me,
I hear faintly an echo of Your call long ago,
What I see in Youe eyes, I am shocked to see.
Every broken promise since I knelt at the Cross.
Every time I put You off to do my thing.
Every broken soul my eyes denied they saw.
Finally I hear the music, the words to the tune I sing.
What have my broken promises cost?
Will You now break a promise to me?
Will I hear depart from me, I never knew you?
Which decision is the one You now see?
The Lamb's Book of Life opens with a whisper,
What is on its pages, is my name still written there?
Weakly I look to see where I am pointed,
Your unbroken promise, my name is here.
----dfav
1/25/2021
