42, 5-2, SHOW NOTES & COPYRIGHTS, (Scheduled 2/4/2022)
Today’s theme, hmmmmmmm
Healing our faith
Thoughts from being with a baby
A day in my life
The power of God’s word
They are all found in Living In God’s Rhyme except the last one which has not been published.
Discussion:
Have We Seen, Have We Heard, Are We Healed (Living In God’s Rhyme, pg. 47)
“Though seeing, they do not see,
though hearing they do not hear or
understand.
In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah;
You will be ever hearing but never
understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
For this people’s heart has become
calloused;
They hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them,”
Matthew 13: 13-15
The heart keeps the body alive
Pumping blood through our veins
So in living we might thrive,
We might live without bodily pains.
But when calloused our heart becomes,
We seek wealth
Instead of health.
Our days become totals of our sums.
Our hearing, our sight
Do not hear or see the fight
As we run from the light
Into darkness.
This world has forsaken the light.
Living with our adulterous gods of money and sin,
Never knowing what should be right,
Never knowing that tomorrow we may not win.
We believe that the easy road leads to pleasure
As we follow our heart to find the treasure,
The satisfaction of believing we are good,
Not knowing we never really understood.
Have we heard someone speak
That as mere mortals we are weak?
Has someone ever taken our hand
And lifted us up to stand?
Has anyone asked you to listen, to look
At your yesterdays and todays to see what you took,
To see that we have no gain
For what we cause in a world of pain?
Someone please shout,
Shout the world about
About God’s saving grace
As we have we run this race.
Be healed,
Your fate sealed
By believing
And receiving
The Son
Of the one
And only God
Who loves us all.
Please,
Hear His call.
Reflection on Have We Seen, Have We Heard, Are We Healed”
Near the end of God’s Rhyme I noticed that the poetry was changing. There was more of the pain we cause God. I should correct that, more of the pain I cause God. It culminated with the last poem I wrote for the book, Broken Hearted. It was about how throughout Old Testament and New Testament history we have broken God’s heart. I think that God Still Rhymes has that in it also. In writing the third book I am finding that I am being led to continue that theme, that and the need for God in our lives, so that our hearts will not be broken at the end of our days.
Discussion:
Another Day Today (Living In God’s Rhyme, pg. 59)
Not an unusual day,
But I’m glad it’s over.
There’s not a lot to say
Except the day lost its way
About a third into its hours.
Thankfully it didn’t turn sour.
Driving home, seeing the clouds
And thinking, as usual, aloud,
With the threat of rain
There were patches of blue.
There were more than a few.
It made me think of a refrain
From a song
From a time long
Beyond the past,
Time that did not last
But is reborn every day
As to the Lord I pray.
Today when I looked at the sky
I knew there was a reason why,
I finally was glad
For the day I had,
Before I saw the blue,
Before I once more knew
That God is always there,
That he always does care.
When I am otherwise
Occupied with my time,
When I feel the seas rise,
At the end of the day
He always finds a way
To share with me his rhyme.
There is beauty in every day
And at the right time
He shows me the way,
Every day, all of the time.
Discussion: This could have been written about most days.
Inspired By Babies (Living In God’s Rhyme, pg. 137)
There are long times and short lines,
Times of rhymes and times without,
But throughout time we have much to learn
As when they cry, when they laugh our heads turn.
I have seen the birth of five,
Felt their first breath,
I heard their first cry,
Never did I ask why
Until now.
This I know,
They are a miracle.
We may be at the end,
But they continue the circle
Of birth,
Rebirth,
Death and
Resurrection.
Babies are one of God’s rhymes,
Rhymes written in free verse,
No two the same, but still they are one,
A gift from God forever in time.
We go out of our way to talk to them,
To hold and comfort them with a smile.
We will do this forever, not just awhile.
And as they are broken we will help them mend.
A gift from God, these little ones,
All his children, daughters and sons.
In their birth we find our worth
In our Father’s love as we live on this earth.
Each newborn baby is special in God’s sight.
Then we are reborn and made righteous in his sight
If we accept the sacrifice made by his Son
For our life of sin and the wrong we have done.
But, do we ever look at our neighbor
Or the stranger we see on the street?
Do we ever think to stop our feet
Just to ask, “do you know your savior?”
If we can look at a newborn with awe and wonder,
Why do we see others and only see thunder?
Will lightning strike if we talk to a child
Who with added years seems less mild?
When does God’s awe and wonder end?
He breathed life into the first man, Adam,
Of whom we all are offspring.
We are all created by the Breath of Life.
That person on the street with clothes tattered and torn
May be that newborn whose life is now worn,
Tattered and worn out by a world of doubt.
Do we not see the awe and wonder inside the clothes?
God loves us and wants us to be with him.
A God of care and wonder created us all,
From that newborn we all grow in our sin.
Like a newborn that life tattered and torn
Cries in the night, needs a loving embrace,
We are called to comfort God’s lost children,
To give them our hand, to help them stand tall
So with ears opened they hear God’s call
Reflection on Inspired by Babies
I finished typing this to a waking baby’s cry. I typed as I wrote.
Discussion:
His Spoken Word (Living In God’s Rhyme, pg. 16)
In the beginning
How powerful is God’s word?
His word is spoken to us
Through the scriptures,
Through answered prayer,
Through communion with him,
In the quiet and the confusion.
His word is Holy for He is Holy.
How powerful is God’s word?
Through his word the Heavens
And the earth, the universe,
Were spoken into existence.
That being so, his word can shape
And mold these earthen vessels of clay
Into sons and daughters
Who will inherit joy everlasting.
Today
By the Word that created all
He has seen his creation fall,
Yet he sent the Word, his Son,
To speak the words, ”It is done.”
For him, a thousand years is as a day,
As a day is as a thousand years.
Has it been only days in his time
That we have been living in fear?
We have caused the pain,
We have caused the strain
That has left a stain
Even as it does rain.
But as always through his word
He speaks to us in words of love.
But our vision has been blurred
Because we do not look above.
Yes, we have shut the doors,
Doors to our sins, to our souls,
When we should be opening the door
And inviting God and his word into our lives.
If you haven’t, please do it today.
The fragrance of salvation, a gentle breeze
That refreshes us through the open door.
The open door, the only way.
May God heal your pain, your suffering, your fears.
May you let Him heal your soul for eternity.
Reflection on His Spoken Word
On the drive home from work one day I thought of writing about pain, the pain that so many of us have gone through and are going through today. It was going to be written with someone in mind. When I got home, I got out my Study Bible and started looking up verses about pain and then sorrow. None seemed to fit the emotion I wanted to write about. Then there was that gentle hand again guiding me. I found a small piece of notebook paper marking the first page of John’s Gospel. On it was the beginning of a poem I had written a couple of years ago.
Discussion:
Now the unpublished gem. One poem, 2 sections, two titles, one hope.
OUR DAY
Do everything through Jesus.
He is the one who sees us,
The One who knows our heart,
Even before our day does start.
Follow His way
And through our day
We shall see His face
In those we meet
On the city street
Or the wooded trail.
His love will never fail.
LEAD ME
Jesus, lead me
Where I do not see
So that I may be
More than just me,
But become we.
6/14/21, tcarter