40, 4-10, SHOW NOTES & COPYRIGHTS, REVISED 1/17/2022(Scheduled 1/21/2022)
Today is Episode 10 of Season 4, our 40th podcast on Living In God’s Rhyme.
Today we are going to read and discuss God’s rhymes from all 3 books.
I’ve said before there is a poem in everything, good or bad. For me there is a rhyme in everything with God.
THE RHYME OF GOD, THE RHYME OF ME ( Living In God’s Rhyme, pg. 34)
There may be no rhymes
As in other times.
But it is not that the Lord
Has struck a lost chord.
(if he did it would be sung
as every church bell was rung)
His rhyme is his word,
The scriptures we read
Through which he plants the seed,
With hope that we have heard.
It is through his grace
That we see his face
In those we meet
And those we greet.
If we believe,
In us lives his rhyme
Forever in time.
He will not deceive.
Then I decided to write
About something right,
But got it wrong
Because it was me,
Me, just me, alone.
I can wander in this world,
Oblivious to all that is good.
I can try by myself
To lift myself up,
Up above the
Hustle without
The bustle,
And fail
Because the bustle
Of this world
Is the hustle
That tells me
All I see
Is all I need.
Then I awake from what I hope was a dream,
Hoping that all is not what it seemed.
I look in the mirror and see
The reflection of what I used to be.
What I used to be before
My Savior redeemed me,
Made me righteous in his eyes,
The eyes of his Father in Heaven above.
Every moment of every day I felt his love.
A love for me and those who surround
My life, who have oft times run aground.
I pray that what I dream
Is never real.
I pray that what may seem
Somewhat surreal
Is nothing more than a bad dream
From a bad movie scene.
As I live I pray that temptation
I turn over to my Savior
Who has conquered my sin
No matter where I’ve been.
When I turn my back
I lose my sight
Of what is wrong
And who is right.
May I focus my eyes,
The eyes of my soul,
So that to my sin I die.
He has mended the hole.
Reflection on The Rhyme of God, the Rhyme of Me
Someone once asked me at a book signing where the name God’s Rhyme came from for the first book. From Him I said, He is the Rhyme. Later I realized that I also had a poem in the book with that title. What a memory!
Discussion:
The next one, from God’s Rhyme, is the first time God and rhyme are both in the title of a poem. (We’ve read this one on an earlier podcast.)
GOD’S RHYME (last stanza) (God’s Rhyme, pg. 86)
I’ve seen God
how odd He seems
in faces I meet
as life races by
I pick up my feet
from the burning street
& see a smile
from a simple child
picking a wild flower
an hour is not measured by minutes
for a while is time
& the simple oddity in life
Is God’s rhyme
Discussion:
HIS BLESSINGS RHYME (God’s Rhyme, pg. 88)
My hopes, my needs, the cure for my ills
All in God’s time
By prayer and faith my needs He fulfills
His blessings rhyme
Day by day and night time too
It seems the hours though many
Are more times than not too few
As I’m earning that penny
How many times can I say
As ev’ry day passes by
If I could only now pray
Do I ever question why
My hopes, my needs, the cure for my ills
All in God’s time
By prayer and faith my needs He fulfills
His blessings rhyme
I must make the time each day
Although I may wonder how
To be more thankful, to pray
But the time, it must be now
He answers when I need Him
My spirit He can raise
When my prayer is like a hymn
Said like a song of praise
My hopes, my needs, the cure for my ills
All in God’s time
By prayer and faith my needs He fulfills
His blessings rhyme
I can pray when life’s gone wrong
If I pray when all is right
How much more blessed will the song
Be I can hear in His light
Through His Son’s death on the cross
He has saved my soul from sin
Thru prayer He saves me the loss
Of joy I will have with him
My hopes, my needs, the cure for my ills
All in God’s time
By prayer and faith my needs He fulfills
His blessings rhyme
These two poems were written in the late 1970’s. They were part of a manuscript I submitted to a publisher titled The Jesus Poems. It was accepted for publishing, but with Vanity Publishing I could not afford the cost with a young and growing family. I firmly believe that God had a better plan. Over the years I learned patience, well mostly over the last four or five years.
All in His timing; an important lesson I have learned.
Discussion:
What I have next is the Introduction to Living In God’s Rhyme. I read this on a previous podcast also, but I think it is a good reminder, especially to myself, of the rhymes God has for all of us.
Poetry, why would one read poetry? Maybe this will help. At a book signing for “God’s Rhyme” I had a discussion with a filmmaker from Canada (yes, Canada is across the river from Port Huron) about the first sentence on the back cover of the book, “Life is a continuous poem.” He did not understand that. I guess for him life was seen through the view of a camera lens. So for him life is a continuous movie. For me there is a poem in a weed, in a child, a storm, joy, sorrow and especially in the goodness of God, in the joy of our salvation, in the sorrow that lead to our salvation. I’m not sure that everything we experience about God can be seen through our eyes. I do know that all that God has for us can be seen through our hearts and it is in our hearts that poetry is born, where it is seen, where it lives and thrives. So why poetry, because it is how I see who I am through the great I AM. Poetry is a series of short chapters that allows the reader to follow the poet’s journey with, let’s face it, fewer words.
Let’s close with this:
WORDS OF LOVE REFLECTED FROM ABOVE
As I write tonight
Under the fading light
I have still in sight
The memories of my day.
It didn’t always go my way
So I stopped often to pray.
Without prayer
What is there
If one cannot share
In one’s daily living
What God is giving
And also forgiving? (seems odd place for a ?, but it is a continuous thought)
I will forever long
Sing a mighty song
So in God I am strong.
It is God I praise
For the life He did raise
As I live out my days
(1/12/2022, tcarter)
Dave asks for another poem.
His choice while flipping through God Still Rhymes.
MORE (pg. 55)
I want more
as I lay on the floor,
when I open the door
and am filled to the core,
more than I can store
in the tattered life I wore.
When I heard your word,
beyond the door I saw
Heaven above ,
your infinite love.
By your death forgiving
the rejection I was living,
by your grace
I will finish the race.
I want more of you
in all I that I do
that I may be lifted up
as I drink from your cup.
A couple more that are not in the books. The first on continues with our theme today of God and Rhyme.
LIVING FOR GOD’S RHYME
How can this laughing man
Be still through all the ill
He faces in the day’s races?
Through prayer he finds God there
To lift him up, the gift
Of love from the One above,
God’s embrace in the day’s race.
Thus he strives to help the lives,
Plant the seeds for another’s needs.
Peace on earth.
It is worth
The time spent
To repent
From the sin
We live in.
Share God’s love.
Look above,
Past the sun
To God’s Son,
This Jesus
Who saves us.
1/13/2022, tcarter
ANOTHER BLESSING
I cannot do this
She threw a kiss
I could not miss
Living in bliss
I was blessed
Now I rest
I’ve confessed
Not repressed
Again she smiles
Walking the miles
And then beguiles
Me for awhile
There is a rhyme
And it is mine
All of the time
Life is just fine
So now I write
She is in sight
My shining light
The one who’s right
I live my life
Because my wife
Believes in me
More than I see
1/13/2022, tcarter
Closing Prayer
If you give
Him the times
As you live
His word rhymes
And don’t forget, “We are the Kings kids and you will never get rid of us for we are His with Jesus.”
The book that Tim and Dave are talking about is called,
"The Whole Story of the Bible in 16 Verses", by Chris Bruno
Dave bought it on Amazon.com
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You can buy Tim's books at the following websites
god rhyme tim carter | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)
Amazon.com : God's Rhyme Tim Carter
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Tim and Dave
"If you give Him the times As you live His word rhymes "
"We are the King’s kids and you’ll never get rid of us because we are His with Jesus."
Living In God’s Rhyme ©2018 by Tim Carter
God Still Rhymes ©2019 by Tim Carter
God’s Rhyme ©2019 by Tim Carter