Beauty in the Moonlight

The thought of this poem came from the great song Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. I wanted to use this woman who seducts us and then when she has us she ruins us and brings death upon us, just as sin tempts us and then brings death upon us. It’s simple but I like that and I’m sure needs some work so feel free to comment.

She tied you to a kitchen chair

She broke your throne and she cut your hair

Her beauty in the moonlight overthrew ya

She promised you the world and happiness

But she tore you apart and left ya a mess

She was beautiful in the darkness

But in the light she looked like death

For death is what she brought ya

And death is what you’ll get

In the darkness she’ll hide her face

So she can get ya in her cold embrace

Run away from the beauty in the moonlight

Keep yourself safe until the day brings light

Something in the Darkness

What is in this darkness that haunts my soul?

Trapped in these walls I fear my life will be taken

Is this being something good or evil?

 I do not know

But  the haunting creature outside the door will take it

of this I am sure

Darkness lift your blanket so I can face this being

This being in the darkness that haunts my soul

It makes my bones so very cold

I am frozen with fear

Oh, darkness lift your blanket…

 

This one is a poem about this being that is haunting this person trapped inside. He can’t see what it is because he is surrounded by darkness inside the walls and out. He knows it will take his life, but whether it is a good being or bad he doesn’t know. For me I interpret this as love is out there haunting him. It is something good but because he is blinded by darkness he thinks it is something that will kill him while love only wants to take your life and make it better. I think that fear of love is a big one for people today.

Let Go

I wrote this one after I realized how much I look at the time when I got a new watch today. Then I realized how much our lives are affected by time. We are always so busy so we structure our lives and become robots and prisoners to this thing called time instead of just living and enjoying life. I thought about rope swings that you can jump off into water. You see so many times how people jump off the ground but don’t let go of the rope they just swing back and forth paralyzed by fear. Then I thought of the joy people experience when they go flying through the air and land in the water. That inspired this poem, a very imperfect poem that I should have probably spent more time on haha

Bound by time

Bound by rhyme

Bound by structure

Bound by fear

The call of the wild beckons us all

To let go of the rope

And live a life of adventure

To no longer be prisoner to the pressures of life

But to enjoy love, beauty, and life itself

Hear me my fellow captives

Let go of the rope and enjoy the water!

New Stuff

Well, I’m back writing again, but in a little different fashion. My posts now are going to be poetry written by me and hopefully some friends. I’m not very good at writing poetry and haven’t taken a class in it or anything, but I find poetry speaks to the soul and is open to so many different interpretations, and can convey beauty and ideas in a way other forms of writing can’t. Feel free to discuss what the poems mean to you, and especially feel free to critique them in any way. I’m new at this so I welcome it. Enjoy.

Here Is Your King

One of my favorite worship songs is “Here is our King” by David Crowder Band. This song like all his other songs holds lots of meaning, but more recently this particular song has taken on a whole new meaning in my life.

I have been reading the book of John for what seems like the hundredth time. I just finished it up yesterday. I tried to read it this time from the view point of someone who wasn’t a Christian and didn’t really like Christian or the way they acted altogether, because it seems there are so many of those people out there. About halfway through I realized how much I loved this Jesus and how I really don’t like the way a lot of Christians act.

I saw someone who was full of love joy, peace, and beauty and it seemed to be contagious. Jesus was amazing Almost everyone he came around was changed for forever. There lives were turned upside down. Think about the blind man or the woman caught in adultery. I also realized how much I didn’t like the so called “religious” people of his day. I hated there beliefs, the way they judged and treated others, and the way they seemed so anti-love. They were all about the law and what you do and don’t do. No one gravitated towards them. It seemed like everyone was drawn to Jesus. One of my favorite parts in this book was in John 12. In verse 19 it says,” So the Pharisees said to one another, ‘See this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!” Jesus was so amazing that as everyone kept coming to him all the Pharisees plans to stop him failed. Jesus could not be stopped. It seems like today churches can’t get going but that isn’t where I’m going : )

I was reading the last several chapters yesterday. I love how Jesus handled the whole situation with Pilate and the Jews trying to get him killed. Pilate goes to questions Jesus and asks in chapter 18, ” Are you the king of the Jews?” After an answers and another question Jesus then answers, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Pilate responds, “You are a king then!” Jesus answered in verse 37 saying, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this I came into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of he truth listens to me.” I picture Pilate a little shaken up at this statement as he asks what is truth. I think Pilate knew something was different in this man named Jesus. I think he knew He was a king. After the Jews got all crazy again Pilate had Jesus flogged to calm them down.

God flogged. God in the form of a man was flogged. Why? A King flogged. Why? Just picture this scene in your head.

They then put a crown on his head. A crown of thorns. Thorns that cut and pierce the skin.

They then clothed his beaten and bloody body in a purple robe.

They mocked him saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!”

They brought him back out and the Jews yelled for Him to be crucified. The Jews said he has broken a law by claiming to be God. John tells us that Pilate was even more afraid. Not only was Pilate afraid before from talking to Jesus but by hearing this he was even more afraid. So he goes back and talks to Jesus some more. He asks Jesus where he is from. Jesus doesn’t answer. Pilate says, ” Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” “You would have no power over ME if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin,” Jesus responded. John tells us that from then on Pilate tried to set Jesus free.

The Jews wouldn’t give up and finally Pilate gave in.

This is what Pilate says in verse 14 of chapter 19, “Here is your King.”

So, fellow Christians, humans, all the world, and all creation, here is our King.

“Here is our King

Here is our Love

Here is our God who’s come

To bring us back to Him

He is the One, He is Jesus, Jesus”- David Crowder Band

Here is our King standing before us. He has his crown of thorns. The blood drips off his body. His purple robe sticks to his bloody flesh. Here is our King. He loved more than any other man that ever walked this earth. He gave more than anyone. He came, our King came, humbled himself as a servant and died for us. He died. He died because he loves you. He loves you. Here is our King. Here is He is.

I think the proper response would be to bow…

Why?

Why is it so hard to accept grace?

I have asked myself that question more this week than I can ever remember. It blows me away that God can give grace, but on top of that give grace who don’t deserve it. He just gives it. I screw up and I sin and I feel like the scum of the earth. I wrong God. I disobey God. I betray God. God forgives me. How?

God’s grace baffles me. I don’t understand it. I can’t fathom his grace and love. I don’t know if I will eve get it. I’m not trying to write anything profound or life-changing here. I just want an amen. Isn’t it great that we have a God who cares so much about us that he gave us this whole universe to be a part of. Then we screwed up but God still loved us. Then he rescued us from trouble we were in and we screwed up more. But he still loved us. Then he gave us rules to live by and then we disobeyed them. He still loved us. So, after all of our failing God still loved us. He then sent his son. He sent his son. He. Sent. His. Son. I don’t even have a kid yet and I can’t fathom what that would be like. He sent his perfect son for us. Jesus died for us. Just take that one word at a time. Jesus, the son of God, died, even though he didn’t have to, for, yep that’s right he died for something, us. He died for us. Why?

We still screw up though. We are still broken but God is fixing us. 2 Corinthians 12:9 says that his power is made perfect in our weakness. Where we struggle and sin God fixes us. His power is made complete in us. Not only is he fixing us from our broken state, he is transforming us into something better, something we were supposed to be from the beginning. He is transforming us into the sons and daughters, the king and queens God created us to be. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says that we are being transformed into his likeness. We haven’t been transformed thank goodness because I have already screwed that up if I have. We are being transformed. How great is that! God still loves us. He still cares for us.

God’s grace us sufficient for me ( 2 Corinthians 12:9). I just don’t understand it. But praise God for giving us all we need. For satisfying out hunger and giving us the grace we need to make it through life and be the people we need to be. We are lucky to be a part of all that. Let his grace overflow through you so you can help others come swim in this fountain of never ending grace.

Why are you a Christian?

Music 

I was laying in my bed reading a book with Charlie Hall playing though my headset. My brother walked in and asked me, “How can you read while you listen to your iPod?”

I didn’t know how to respond to that because I don’t know how I do. All I know is that music is like the wardrobe in the Chronicles of Narnia. It takes me somewhere else. It puts me in a different world where there is no noise, no distraction, no busyness all around.

I love listening to music. I love playing music. I love trying to sing and praise God with all I have. I play the guitar. The guitar offers me the same escape from the world that my iPod does. It gives me peace. I taught myself how to play. I don’t know how to read music. I don’t know 50 million chords, alternate ways to play them, or the never-ending notes on a fret board. I get annoyed when people try and explain stuff like that to me.

I would be a much better player if I actually tried to listen and learn from them. If someone taught me theories, notes, scales, or chords I have never heard of I would be great. People that try and teach me all that annoy me though.

Beauty

Music and beauty go hand in hand.

I have been thinking a lot lately about what I say if someone asked me why I believe in God. Some answers come to mind. I believe in God because he gives me hope. I believe in God because he sent his son to die for me. They might laugh at those responses. I could try and give some historical answers to how you can trust the Bible, what it teaches, and what all it says about Jesus but I would probably not get it out the way I wanted.

I don’t like those kind of responses because they aren’t me. So, what is my response? Why do I believe in God and follow him?

There are a lot of rational people out there, not there is anything wrong with that. They need formulas and equations to believe something is truth. They have to prove. They have to fathom everything. So, I played the role of that person and asked myself the question again.

Music is so pure, so beautiful. When I pick a “G” chord or listen to my favorite worship song, the word beauty comes to mind. No notation, tablature, or sheet music can tell me that when I play a “G” chord its going to sound beautiful. There is no equation, no formula for beauty.

Captivating

I have this crazy idea for the girl of my dreams. Its one word. She might as well be called that because when I see her that will be the only word I have to describe it. She is my dream girl.

Captivating.

I joke around with people I work with and friends and tell them how I want a girl with dark hair and a great voice to worship God with. I’m a sucker for dark haired girls. I’m a sucker for girls who can sing good and love to worship God. But a combination of the two- wow. I don’t know why I specifically like those two things over anything else but I do.

The rational people who question my faith should ask, “Why do you find a chord on a guitar beautiful or a girl with dark hair and a great voice captivating?”

They want an equation, a formula. There is no formula for a sunset. You can’t look at numbers and from them get that a sunset is beauty. No formula can describe that a chord brings peace. No mathematical equation can tell me that a girl with dark hair and a great voice is beautiful.

No Room for Rational

“Why do I believe in a God I can’t see?”

I believe in God for the same reason I know that a girl is beautiful or a song brings me peace and comfort. Something inside of me calls out, no it cries out, “God is beauty, God is peace, God is love and grace.”

Have you ever been in love? You can’t describe it. You can’t form some sort of equation for the skeptic to prove you love someone.

(Before I go any further, I know there are ways to point people to God that rational people can understand. I know there is evidence of God and those are great things but they aren’t needed for all people. Some people can look at guitar notes and know it sounds beautiful. I’m just not one of those people).

I can’t prove to you that I think playing guitar is peaceful. I can’t prove to you that I think a girl is captivating. Its something you just know. Something inside of you cries out, it yearns for something more. I can’t prove to you my faith (in a way that makes sense half the time) or give a scientific explanation for why I believe in God. I just do. I know God is beautiful more beautiful that any song, chord, or melody. I know God is more captivating than anything I have ever seen. I know God provides me with warmth, love and peace, when I am going through storms of life. I know God is grace and he pours it out on all his children. I just know. Something inside of me cries out, it yearns for more, something bigger. One day I will need to be able to answer people with good rational answers but they aren’t always needed. Deep down, beneath all the science and facts a person has, the person wants a relationship. It wants to feel love. It wants something more. A connection with the most Holy. That’s beauty.

a calling

We have a calling. It has occurred to me that there are two (negative) responses to God’s calling.

I am currently going through the book of Genesis right now. I just got done  with the story of Abraham as he is talking to the three visitors. I picture it as the grown-ups outside talking about very important business while the kids are just around the corner listening. Sarah is just around the corner in the tent listening to what Abraham and his three visitors are talking about. God tells Abraham that Sarah will give him a son in her old age.

Now, apparently, this was funny to Sarah (imagine your grandma being told she will have a child…yeah gross and weird). Sarah starts laughing because she hasn’t had a kid in all the many years she has been alive and now that she is old she over hears someone telling her husband she is going to give him a son.

God being God knew she had laughed at this and asked Abraham why she laughed. God says is anything to hard for me. I think God was kind of smirking at this one. I think he was thinking,” You doubt who you are, who you were created to be. You doubt me, my power. You have no idea the plans I have for you. What is to hard for the God who created the universe that seems to have no end!”

Sarah was afraid and denied it. God knew she laughed though. He heard her.

What plans does God have for your life that you laugh at? What does he reveal to you about his will do you laugh at? What are you missing out on?

I think so many times we think in human terms. ” I’m an old woman there is no way God can give me a son.” ” I’m just one man there is no way I can help turn around a church.” “We are just a small little group there is no way we can turn around a community or the world.” ” I am just one woman or one man, there is no way I can (insert whatever you don’t think you can do). Why do we think we are in control? God laughs at our plans. He knows whats best. God is the God who gives and takes away. He knows whats best for us. He has given us a calling, a destiny. We are all destined for something. We all have a calling. What did God do through Moses? Through Elijah? Through John the Baptist? Through Peter? Through David? Through the son of a carpenter- a man who saved the world and defeated sin? Are you laughing at your calling?

Then there is the other reaction. One we are all familiar with. A lot of times we laugh at our calling but some people are just cowards. I was watching Saving Private Ryan today. One of the soldiers couldn’t do anything. All he could do was speak a few languages. He sat on the stairs, scared to even move, while his friend was being killed by the enemy. He sat behind a cow and hid while all his fellow soldiers ran up a hill against a couple gunners. He was a coward.

I think that if we get over ourselves and analyze who we are as men and Christians and what we are doing for the Kingdom we will find we are very similar to that soldier. We are to scared to move. We don’t want to step out into battle because it isn’t safe. We aren’t promised security. “”If I step away from this job we can help advance the Kingdom, but oh wait, I may not have any money for this and that.” “If we go talk to so and so type of people others may judge us or think badly of us.” “If I take this risk for God I might fail.”

Stop thinking in human terms. Let God overflow in you. Let his Spirit satisfy. Stop listening to the voice in your head that says, ” you can’t do it, your nothing.” Stop listening to the Enemy. He will put those thoughts in your head. Stop being a coward.

If anyone had a reason to be a coward it was Jesus. He was faced with more pressure, persecution, and a lot more people to let down. But he never, not once, thought like a human. He didn’t live. He died to himself- he put away all his ambitions all his plans, all his goals, and let God’s ambitions, his plans, his goals for his life to run its course. He was no coward. He was the strongest man to walk the earth. The book of Exodus describes God as a mighty warrior. He is no coward. We are created in HIS image, in-case you have forgotten- at least some of us act like have have forgotten.

We have a calling. Stop laughing at what God has called you to do because you think it is crazy. Stop being a coward and doubting God and yourself. Let God live in you. Die to yourself so God can live. Get rid of the human thoughts that cross your mind so that God can work through you. We are dangerous people. The devil will do everything he can do to destroy us. He puts the thoughts in our heads. He knows what God can do through us. Stop letting him win. Stop doubting. Accept the calling God has given you and be a light to the world.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It’s not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.- Timo Cruz, Coach Carter

Is this the calling your missing out on?

a song with no title(yet)

How am I holy and blameless

How do you give me forgiveness

How am I pleasing to your sight

When I stumble into the night

Help me die that you may live

Give me strength so I might give

The treasures of your endless grace

To a fallen world to see your face

I don’t have the words to speak

When I fall I feel so weak

I feel ashamed and undeserving

How do you love someone like me

Help me die that you may live

Give me strength so I might give

The treasures of your endless grace

To a fallen world to see your face

I can’t comprehend your forgiveness

I Can’t fathom your indelible grace

How is a love so never ending

Can’t see the end or the beginning

Help me die that you might live

Give me strength so I might give

The treasures of your endless grace

To a fallen world to see your face

Yeah, You saved me, You saved me

You saved me, I am yours

Yeah, You saved us, You saved us

You saved us, We are yours

everyone please watch this incredible video

Here is a video that will choke ya up.

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ee73e63418003b47d7d5

Please watch.