not because of what I've done;

but because of who You are!

We thank you, O Lord, because you are near.

Psalm 75:1

End Once; Begin Forever

I was listening to the Jars of Clay album (disc 2) called "Furthermore" tonight....and God gave me the words to this poem.  It came to my mind accompanied by very clear...very specific images.  These images will have to be drawn or custom photographed as I will never be able to find things suitable, which are already in existence.  I will work on that project as God grants me time and ability.  However, I want to share the words of my poem with you tonight...a project half complete...a sneak preview if you will....


The Art of Life has passed
Leaving dry ahes of dusty Death.

Brushing the chalk lines aside,
I glimpse-beyond the
       Walls that limit me, hinder me---

A View of a Light and Life;
                 Entrancing me
                 Compelling me
                 Bidding me:
                              Hope yet
For an end to this death expanse.

Grasp it.
        Touch it.
                  Taste it

Oh God,
       Please end this  and Carry me.
Let me breathe once the unhindered air;

Dance once with unlumbared legs;
Fly once with unfettered wings; 
Laugh once with unchoked joy.

Grasp me, God, and Twirl me in a Death spiral
                                                   Life embrace
A cartwheel into freedom that now
                                                   Eludes me,
But tantalizes and entices me.
                                                   Yearn yet
For an ending
So that what has not yet started
                                                  May yet---begin.

 

By 

Cynthia Lott Vogel

All Rights Reserved

10-17-2011

Talking to Abba...

Is there a prayer

Too audacious?

          Too courageous?

Have we not bold

And Pressing need?

          Presumptuous Desire?

If God permits these,

Certainly He encourages

Us to bring them to Him

To Handle and provide!

He is our Father—

And it is the task of a father

To provide for the needs of

The children

And his delight

To respond to their desires!

But when the Father

Knows the desire to be

Destructive or

Better met by another path.

We must then yield;

Acquiescing to His more complete

          Comprehension.

Nothing pleases our Father

More than when His children

Come in trust-or

                     Desperation-

                            without delay

Bearing their requests

In the chalice of faith

To lift to their Provider

          To be filled.

The sooner and the more

Persistently we come,

The more He is pleasured.

When we walk away from

A period of panicked prayer

          In calm contentment

Knowing

That the response

          Is already realized;

Ready

          To await its arrival,

We delight our Father

With the artlessness of our Trust.

When we persist through

Long periods of seeming silence

          And apparent deafness

          To our need,

Plowing through doubt;

          Barring our heart to despair;

We honor Him—

          And He strengthens us. 

As we proceed

Through long and arduous days,

                         With our hearts continually

                                     Lifted in expectation

                                 Or our minds occupied in

            Conversation with our Creator,

We grow more familiar

          With His Voice;

More alert to His hand

          As it moves on our behalf.

It is then that we can                                   

Learn—and be moved to—            

A gratitude that

                       Suffuses our spirits

   With the delight of

                               Perceiving His Holy Hand

     As it moves through

                                Our days—

                                                          Never loosening its grip.

There is nothing else

Like the companionship of a father:

The perfect combination

          Of wisdom,

provision 

and Amicable companionship.

by

Cynthia Lott Vogel

all rights reserved

10/21/08

PHATFISH - And Can It Be

From one of my favorite groups...

His love is AMAZING!

Our Present Troubles....

Again, to tie in with my friend Caryn's "Memory Monday:"
( http://4disposablewomen.blogspot.com/ )
she has chosen the following verse for our consideration this week:

2 Corinthians 4:17

New Living Translation (NLT)

For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!

Adonai....

Adonai

Cynthia Lott Vogel

O Adonai of the universe—Where are You?

I see Your hand all around me, the evidence of your gifts;

The footsteps of Your path form craggy ridges, crystal ice lakes;

Your voice calls in the howl and whisper of wind;

Elohim - you leave clues all about me.  Everything encompassing me

Shouts Your Glory!

You are lofty, grand beyond grasping.

You beckon and angels do your bidding.

But Lord, El Elyon—do you know?

Is your heart stirred by broken tears?  

In the stillness, when clamor calms, I hear a whisper…

A voice, familiar and still not enough so.

El Roi, you see the tear treads of my path,

Not only do you see—You weep a duet.

El Shaddai: I have missed your presence…and that is

Lunacy because like moonlight soft

You surround my ways…There are shadows, but they are

Not obscure to you.  They merely enhance

The luminescence of Your Presence.

When we commune; when my soul rises

Above its own height in worship….

Then my heart sings the descant to the

Gloria sung by creation

As rocks cry out and trees clap

Attesting to the Magnitude of Majesty

That goes before and follows after You.

Tears have their place, but next to You,

In sight of Your glory, are only spawned

By uncontainable joy and sorrow at what I’ve wasted

Searching for You Who already

Possess me and encompass me about.

High time to learn to walk in the Splendor of You;

To occupy that which already owns me,

And which is mine not by right but by declaration.

To grasp and to be gripped by this High Calling

And thus to walk, nevermore alone.

His Name in My Moments

This night, a little past three thirty AM, my heart is worshiping. HIS NAME not only saves us altogether, it saves us all together, and it altogether saves! Was thinking about this tonight. The Power of HIS NAME is offered to ALL, equally. And it saves us, not only our souls, in general, but in the MOMENT. In the moment of temptation. In the moment of fear. In the moment of tragedy. In the moment of loneliness...pain...heartache...IN EVERY MOMENT, HIS NAME saves us.

I Praise you Jesus!

Come to Me

Today our sump pump died; Our car needed VERY expensive work; my laptop died; my refrigerator doesn't work right and will die altogether very soon; we need to have 3 trees cut down before they fall on our house; we have no/inadequate heat until we can afford to buy the proper system needed....Need I go on? I could you know; because there is more.

I'm feeling weary after 3 days/nights without sleep due to steroids. Weary after battling difficulty breathing for weeks; Weary after years of pain. Weary.

"Come to me O weary one and I will give you rest...
Come to me you broken one and I will give you peace...
Come find your joy...He is waiting here for you with open arms."

Tears.

• I've sought rest and relief in food. And found only guilt. And self-hatred.

• I've sought relief in the sympathy of others...and found only loneliness.

• I've sought peace in avoidance; and found only pain.

• I've sought joy in....

........................................no actually I've given up on joy.

Time maybe to run into those arms which have been waiting to embrace me all along and to soothe my troubled heart in his smile.

Not waiting for me with condemnation for making him my last choice.

but with patient love. For me.

thank you, Nan, my friend for this:  Morning Glory

Please read about my other adventures with Nan's blog on my blog Treasures from Darkness

MEMORY MONDAY

My friend Caryn at A Disposable Woman  ( www.4disposablewomen.blogspot.com ) is sharing a memory verse every Monday...I would like to support her venture by displaying the week's memory verse here as well.  


This week it is (the NLT is the translation I have chosen to use...feel free to choose a different one...for options see www.BibleGateway.com ) :

Hebrews 10:35-36

New Living Translation (NLT)     

 ³⁵ So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! ³⁶ Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.

My HOPE is in His Hands

 

 

My name is graven on His hands
My name is written on His heart ...         
One with Himself I cannot die
My soul is purchased by His blood
My life is hid with Christ on high                       
With Christ my Savior and my God!

Before the Throne of Christ Above-

lyrics copyright unknown

...so that from the rising of the sun 

to the place of its setting

...

...men may know there is none besides me.

I am the LORD, and there is no other. Isaiah 45:6

Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.

- H. Jackson Brown