Tag: Peace

Faith’s Aubade

On By dorahakIn Church, Poems8 Comments

Clouds plume, trees spire
Moonshine bathes hills in dewy light
As I drive on singing wheels.

You, Lord, church me finely
Pewed wholesome in Your raiments
Organ glory-beaming oceanic

And thunderous, brothers at hand,
Sisters in arms, love-drawn,
Monergistically Spirit-grown, to thrill,

To peace-dine, to Son-shine,
Eternally heart-scribed, Beloved,
to glorify You who inhabit the praises of Your people.

Meet up on the poetry trail with Grace at dVerse who invites us to use certain word-play techniques to create our poems.

Riddle Me This

On By dorahakIn Poems22 Comments

The tea kettle whistles
A moth flutters and dies
Your mask shatters to pieces
A madman explodes the moon
A butterfly flaunts a human face
You dream of a lion’s rest
Birds in-choir in a priest’s robe
You fire a revolver on the run

The key to the riddle —
Masquerading as fun
To the gibbering wags
Deaf to the last gong’s sound —
Hides like a promise
In your broken heart

For image credit please click here on Carrie’s Sunday Muse #245; Shay’s Word Garden Word List using three of twenty words; and Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt #297 using “key” in prose or poem of 71 words.

Second Sunday in Advent: Light the Candle of Peace

On By dorahakIn Church, Isaiah, Poems12 Comments

The Sign of Peace

King Ahaz was a jackass
And a murderous one at that
The faithless shepherd of Israel
Who roasted children before his gods.

But before his Assyrian enemies he shook and cowered,
and the prophet Isaiah came with a strong word from God:
“If you don’t stand firm in faith, you will not stand at all.”1

The LORD had determined to protect
His people from the Assyrian wolves;
He told wicked Ahaz to ask for a sign
And false-hearted Ahaz refused.

Isaiah 7: 14

Yet the LORD was committed to His purpose of peace
And gave Ahaz a sign foretelling a birth then and hence
A maiden would give birth to a child, Emmanuel, “God with us”2:
“If you don’t stand firm in faith, you will not stand at all.”

Now as we celebrate our Savior God’s birth
We light a second purple candle to remember
A virgin’s journey to Bethlehem to bear Jesus,
Our Emmanuel.

1Isaiah 7:9(b)

2Isaiah 7:14

What God Has Done

On By dorahakIn Ecclesiastes, Poems14 Comments

Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked?
— Ecclesiastes 7:13



what God has done
a crook in your lot
can’t be set right
by human device
bent to a degree
sorely injudicious
by reason’s measure
imperfect yardsticks
we hold up to judge
what God has done

what God has done
humility to bear
a stony field
unleveled path
that curved back
that strained heart
the roof that caved
vanquished plans
deathless grief
if we dare decry
what folly to fight
when we can’t change
what God has done

what God has done
he sent his Son
to bear our sins
to pay the price
to win our peace
to lead the crooked
down a narrow way
to carry the weak
to strengthen the tired
to lead them home
on eagle’s wings
of faith and love
of hope and joy
to open blind eyes
to see, my soul,
what God has done

Job 12: 13-16
[Job speaks] “With God are wisdom and might;
he has counsel and understanding.
If he tears down, none can rebuild;
if he shuts a man in, none can open.
If he withholds the waters, they dry up;
if he sends them out, they overwhelm the land.
With him are strength and sound wisdom;
the deceived and the deceiver are his.”

Jude 24-25
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling
and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,
to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord,
be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority,
before all time and now and forever.
Amen.

Romans 11: 33-36
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be glory forever.
Amen.

 

 

Journey

On By dorahakIn PoemsLeave a comment

I lift up my eyes‬

one day’s dawn closer‬

‪Love’s banners streaming‬

‪nail-scarred grace unrelenting ‬

‪boundless praise flowing‬

shouts bursting

‪tears spilling

‪prayers ascending‬

‪a radiant crescendo‬

‪jeweled vision before me —‬

‪New Jerusalem.‬

Psalm 84: 5-7 NIV

Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.

Selah (2)

On By dorahakIn Poems3 Comments

A feast of rest, a feast of praise
Fills my heart, my mouth, my days;
A Sabbath feast of prayer and love
A shout of “Hallelujah!” to God above.

O let me never from this feast descend
But ever by Your Spirit ascend;
Hold me, Father, with Your right hand
As by faith on holy ground I stand.

Ushered in by Your Son’s call
To the festal celebration hall
Joy abundant and peace unfettered
From Your table I am fed.

Should I stray from Your dear presence
Let me quickly feel Your absence
And in Your grace, rejoicing always,
Before Your table find my place.

Hebrews 12: 22-24
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Fauré’s “Sanctus”

On By dorahakIn Church, MusicLeave a comment

“I never had a mother,” Emily Dickinson wrote. “I suppose a mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled.” But where mothers fail, God never fails. His is a mother’s touch that is always ready to receive, ready to lift and comfort, ready to provide what is needed. “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you” (Is. 49:15).

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… and on Earth, SHALOM!

On By dorahakIn Church, Luke, Theology2 Comments

angels-announcing-the-birth-of-our-savior-1790.jpg!Blog

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” …. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. (Luke 2:13-14, 20)

Shalom!

Well. Here it is: the day after Christmas. I don’t know about you but the day after Christmas is when you get back to “real life” and its mundane details and there’s the news as usual, mostly bad as usual, and the afterglow of celebration fades into the incessant strife and violence borne of hatred between peoples, and sickness and warfare and want continue unimpeded.

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Note to Self: Just for Today

On By dorahakIn 1 Corinthians2 Comments

This_is_the_Day__4f204f1d5e8a4Have you ever wanted to write a letter to your younger self? Not anything complicated. Just a simple note because here you are on the other side of darkness and the sun’s out and there’s so much to look forward to and so much to be grateful for.

I looked back at my younger self today and wished I had lived my life more fully, that is, conscious of God’s presence, as one who is living coram Deo, before the face of God.

I would like to tell her to commit each day to Him, because He’s the author; to give each moment to Him, because His hand is in it; to take each task however trivial and do it as for Him, because He assigned it to me; and to see in the darkness the same glory that I see in the light, because He never leaves or forsakes me.

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