STRENGTHEN YOURSELF…
IN THE LORD!
–
My God will supply our needs
Despite my foolish deeds…
Consequence
He allows hence,
While your garden fills with weeds.
–
Believe in His name,
Hold tight to Christ’s claim…
That He is the Way
For you’ll obey,
Working through your mountain of shame!
–
He will hold you up,
Your feet to the fire there, Pup…
When will you learn
Salvation’s not earned,
But faith in Christ–so lift your eyes up!
–
–Jonathan Caswell
BEING OF TWO MINDS
I’ve come to a realization
That poetry, my avocation…
Is full-face
With no place
For hidden characterization!
–
I mean, a nom de plume,
By which I could assume…
A different line
And message refined,
Without facing personal doom.
–
My style, though, gives me away,
Which is always on display…
Any gentleman’s agreement
About my concealment
Becomes a moral sashay.
–
If I would sign my name
To a statement without shame…
THEN I can shout
That subject out,
Facing consequences or flame.
–Jonathan Caswell
(P.S.–That is….I can’t get away with anything…and no longer–most of the time–want to!!!!) 🙂
WHY WOULD A LOVING GOD PERMIT…???
A Christian recently
Asked this question of me…
He had no answer
For shootings or cancer,
That others had asked ceaselessly.
–
I promised I would try,
With God’s help to reply…
We each have a voice
In our lives and a choice,
To live for Him or “I”.
–
If God wanted, He could have got,
Some attention from a programmed robot…
But love is in choosing,
Not coerced accusing
So He gave us the choice from the start.
–
Some things are not chosen, like menses,
But every choice has consequences…
When His wisdom is rejected
A different consequence is selected,
Determined by past/present tenses!
–
God wants His children to run
Toward Him, but He won’t force anyone…
As a Father he waits
Until we appreciate,
All the blessings He will do for those who come.
–
Some folks talk about a loving God,
But their vision of Him is really odd…
They want to be pampered,
Left in diapers to scamper
Around with an adult bod.
–
In life, we have suffering and pain,
No one totally understands what we gain…
But those who have matured
And life’s hardship endured,
Know better how to love, all the same.
–
Now I’m not saying anything new,
Would a bride want a groom acting as though he were two?
Our parents may want to shield
Us from the worst that life deals,
But one grows by living it through.
–
Is God still loving–He surely is,
He’ll use even bad times for His kids…*
To grow up and mature,
In faith greatly endure…
Everyone faces suffering as Christ did.
–
For this is a fallen world,
That into, every one of us is hurled…
Will you suffer angrily
Or submit to Deity,
Facing life as a child of God, as it’s unfurled?
–Jonathan Caswell
*Romans 8:28
By the Mighty Mumford 