Lately I've been in a poetry swing...

It's actually kinda cool. I'm not sure why this is, but poetry is sometimes a really cool and artistic way of getting a point across to the LORD. I'm not the only one--it worked for David! So anyway, last night I was working on this one, with currently no title...

Lord, you are my defender

From each and every foe.

You've defeated every enemy

That sought to wreak me woe.

But now I see a new tempter,

Her like I'vve never known.

The frightening thing is that her face

Looks just like my own.

True, she has poked at me before,

but she'd been easy to shelf.

She now, somehow, has horrid power--

This version of myself.

She makes me think of awful things,

She dirties me inside.

She makes my hands displease me Lord.

It's her I can't abide.

But my God is bigger than even this monster

And He keeps me in His sight.

I will not be held captive here,

He'll save me by His might.

Lord, set a watch over my tongue,

Allow no ill to exit.

Please stop my deeds from hurting those

Who can't and don't deserve it.

But most of all, please guard my heart,

And keep it as pure as the sea.

Suffer no evil to enter it--

Please save me Lord, from me.

So ladies and gentlemen, I am proof--even if you are no good at poetry, the Lord doesn't mind. I think he likes to hear it. Nobody take this one or anything, though it's probably not good enough for anyone to WANT to take... :)

Going to see a movie today with my dear sista and maybe some friends! :D

Dry Bones

In Ezekiel 37, God led Ezekiel to a valley of dry human bones. They'd been there a long time, but God asked Ezekiel, "Son of man, can these bones live?"

He replied, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know."

God then told him to prophecy to the bones and say, "'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD."

Ezekiel did so and it says there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. Tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. They were now bodies instead of bones, but still dead things.

Then God said, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.' " So Ezekiel prophesied, and breath came into the bodies. They came to life and stood up on their feet. And they weren't just random people - they were a vast army!

Now what was the point of this somewhat creepy event? God afterward said to Ezekiel, "These bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.' Therefore prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them... Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live... Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.' "

How often do you feel like a pile of dry bones? Your hope is long gone and you're just lying there, figuring that God's done with you. You're in the grave of your own making. God says he will bring you out from your grave and put his Spirit in you - then you cannot fail. He can bring you to life again and you will be a warrior!

Pretty Psalms

Today I read in Psalms! It was especially beautimous this time, and a lot of the passages got me hooked like when you're reading a scary novel. I found the BETTER IS ONE DAY song...

"How lovely is your dwelling place,

O LORD Almighty!

My soul yearns, even faints,

for the courts of the LORD;

my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God...

Better is one day in your courts

than a thousand elsewhere."

~Psalm 84:1-2,10

Also here are the pretty passage that hooked me (with my notes in red)...

"Blessed are those whose strength is in you,

who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. (This part made me think of the journey in Pilgrim's Progress, which is so much like what Christians do today. I should read that again...)
As they pass through the Valley of Baca,

they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. (Wherever we go the bluebirds sing, and the flowers bloom and the grass gets green... We brought the welcome mat - wherever we go, that's where the party's at:P)

They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion." (Strength to strength - think about what that means. It may seem like we find new weaknesses in ourselves all the time, but God helps us with them and makes us stronger! We go from strength to strength! God's followers do not stay in weakness!)

"I will listen to what God the LORD will say;

he promises peace to his people, his saints—

but let them not return to folly."

No turning back! Don't return to folly!

And since we're on a roll with lovely truth, here's the bridge to the song I'm listening to right now...

Let the light escape from this hole inside my soul

When I start to break then grace begins to flow

Let the light escape from this lonely place inside my soul