5-12-15 Worth the Weight

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment,

worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory

2 Corinthians 4:17 KJV

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We strain beneath the stress of misery;

Our bodies and our minds begin to fail.

Though as we age we have our memory,

Yet also it plays tricks on us as well.

No matter what may happen to us here,

Disease or loss of limb or far much worse,

And even when we face men’s final fear,

We’ll know that we are not within the hearse.

The glory that awaits the child of God

Is worth all of the anguish of this place.

No matter how severe we’re crushed and clawed,

It can’t outlive the splendor of His Grace.

            If we knew all the joy this next life brings,

            We never would complain about a thing.

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sonnet #358

5-2-15 The Earth is the Lord’s

Although you think the world a wicked place,

So full of hate and pain and anguish, too,

Don’t blame the earth, it’s under God’s good grace,

But blame the lord of darkness and his crew.

The earth and everything that dwells therein

Belongs to Jesus Christ, He made it all,

But Adam disobeyed, and that is sin,

Forgetting it’s all His both great and small.

So Satan runs around without a care,

And tries to make us think it’s not his fault,

Yet as a child of God you must prepare,

To help Christ win the day with full assault.

To save the world, it helps to first save man.

The gospel brings us back to God’s great plan.

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The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof;

the world, and they that dwell therein.

Psalm 24:1 KJV

 

sonnet #348

1-12-15 Dark Nights

A homesick ache will sometimes strike my soul,

A  tired longing from all earthly bonds;

Then there are moments when I doubt the goal,

A skepticism of the great beyond.

When faith grows weak, I turn to God in mind

In hopes that He will hear my weakened prayer,

And groan in spirit, feeling unrefined,

To save me from my anguish and despair.

Then quietly my pleas turn into praise,

A subtle shift from fear to gratitude;

With just a touch from Him my spirits raise,

My heart grows lighter, larger and renewed.

When melancholy brings me to my knees

I put my faith in Christ; He won’t displease

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Why art thou cast down, O my soul?

and why art thou disquieted within me?

hope thou in God:

for I shall yet praise him, 

who is the health of my countenance,

and my God.

Psalm 42:11 KJV

9-4-14 Compassion

The world is filled with sorrow, pain and fears,

With grief, despair, alone in darkest night.

Compassion fills the caring soul to tears

And moved in spirit by the suff’ring sight.

O man! Your anguish weighs upon my heart;

If I could bring you all within the fold!

Such evil seeks to tear you all apart

To bind you in its prison uncontrolled.

Too many of my shepherds fall asleep

While wolves of hopelessness devour the young.

I weep for all you lost and helpless sheep

Who perish in the earth, your names unsung.

            Awake! Awake! The flock is scattered wide;

            The hour is drawing near, come to my side!

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But when he saw the multitudes,

he was moved with compassion on them,

because they fainted, and were scattered abroad,

as sheep having no shepherd.

Matthew 9:36 KJV

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