Pleeeese Answer, God (Poem)

See the Prayer and Praying Series here

Remember the ‘dayz’ when people openly prayed,

‘Let his days be few, and another take his place!’ ? ¹

Their prayer was answered! We ALL were wowed!!

I wonder what they are praying for NoW.

With the ‘shoe now on the other foot’, let’s all be mindful,

As we ponder and pray for our situation, dismal.

For what we pray, let’s be very careful.

Let’s not waste our prayers in selfish babble!

God may very well answer with a, ‘YES!’,

Especially one that’s cloaked … in a TEST! ²

Our test is a five-letter word that starts with a ‘T’.

No, not who you think, but His invitation, ‘Trust Me!’

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¹ Psalm 109:8, in reference to the former American president

² I, The Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. (Jeremiah 17:10)

Poor, Chosen to be Rich (Poem)

Of all world populations, across all ages, 

It’s true, according to world history’s pages:

‘The poor you have with you always’ …the majority.^*

The wealthy have been and remain …a minority,

Pray tell, should Christ, in selecting His ‘kingdom recruits’,

Turn to those so enraptured by their wealthy pursuits,

Those pridefully rooted in their wealth-making prowess, 

Or to those who, to faith, may have a unique proneness?  

The poor, weak in things material,

Receptive to hope, spiritual.

Poor in spirit, thus very receptive.

To faith-building Word, very retentive. 

The poor, to become rich in faith toward God …selected.

The poor, by the powerful and wealthy …dejected.

If applying faith and patience, no longer poor!

So then, onto the poor, Grace they’re able to pour.

Poor men, made rich, who retain their Godly fervor,

Will, in satan’s kingdom, crack open great fissures!

Consider the Godly wealthy whom God once used,

Then of the notion -- God wants you poor, be disabused! 

     --Abraham to be the Father of all faithful believers
     --Centurion Cornelius, first of Gentile receivers
     --To burry Jesus, rich Joseph of Arimathea
     --A rich eunuch to bring Good News to Ethiopia

     --Joseph to save all Israel in a famine
     --David to gather riches from nations foreign
     --Solomon to use Dad’s riches to build God’s Temple
     --A rich, young ruler to demonstrate lessons tearful

     --Noah stepped up to the task to build an ark of log
     --A Roman centurion had built a synagogue
     --High Priest, Caiaphas, who advised,

          ‘One man should die for all!’
     --He was totally clueless that his advice was God’s call!

Reflect to recall Godly rich men in your lifetime,

People whose wealth did not drag them into devils’ slime.

Of course, blessing men with great wealth can be

quite a risk.

For many, their fall from Godliness has been quite brisk!

Here’re some things on which there is a consensus:

--Rich people who reject God are not blameless. 

--Wealth tempts us all to become more money-conscious than God-conscious. 

But how bad things are when the poor majority

…become Godless!

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* Jesus, in Matthew 26:11

You're Gifted (Poem)

Into broken, leaky, discolored earthen vessels,

God pours His gifts across the spectrum of humanity,

To be treated as valuable, heavenly crystals,¹

Received and appreciated with great humility.

He intends for us to utilize these gifts, first, Him to bless,

With our hearts full of praise, worship and gratitude,

Then answer gift use-opportunities’ with a heart-felt, ‘Yes!’

Thus serving Him, then man with a right attitude.

Like stars in a dark corner of the universe,

So to us all God’s gifts are given.

Their glory is revealed as their ‘light’ is dispersed.

But what if gifts, unused, are hidden?

We hide our gifts when we’ve shifted our focus,

From the gift Giver and those who need them most,

To our ‘earthen faults’, and those who are famous.²

Thus we despise God’s love gifts to the utmost!

While despising our love gifts is pretty bad,

Consider the opposite end of this matter—

Selfish use that makes us happy, but God sad.

So whom are you serving the gifts on your platter?

Between these extremes, lies the intended balance,

Finding ways and means, first to bless God,

then mankind.

That way, we’ll find our ‘melodic gift-use cadence’.

Along the way, abundant blessings ‘self’ will find.

Friend, ask yourself, ‘By my gifts, who is being served?’

Pose this question while doing your ‘love gifts inventory’.

If for The Gift Giver first place is not reserved,

Warning: You may have well slipped into ...‘gift idolatry.’

God has put His heart in His gifts to you,

And expects your heart to Him in their use.

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¹ Have you heard/read? To those who overcome the tempting trials of this life through faith in Him, Jesus will give a special white stone with a new name written! (Rev 2:17)  Guess what: He doesn’t give cheap gifts! Want one?

² Famous in using gifts somewhat like yours.

Give Me a Man (Poem)

‘Give me a man...!’, the battle cry of a giant long ago.¹
‘Find us a man!’, satan orders his imps, ‘Shoot flaming arrows!’
To the first cry, Israel sent ruddy youngster, David.
To the second, two different responses are noted.

Men offering up themselves is one response,
As agents of devils, with no hesitance! ²
Though defeated in Christ’s death and resurrection,
Imps still use men in their ‘proxy insurrections’.

Another response is so very different!
To perceive this one requires lots of discernment.
While men put themselves on platters, imps’ calls to serve,
God always has people who are prep’ed and reserved.

In them, His Word and Spirit stir, as in faith they persist,
Those whose hearts and minds are ready to confront and resist! ³
Commissioned, now dispatched, they run to the fight!
With Word-fire in their bellies, their fears take flight!

Though against them, devils may ramp-up their game,
These folk still withstand, in Jesus’ mighty Name!
Persisting in resistance, their victory is assured.
Trusting in God’s deliverance, these are Christians ...matured.⁴

Defeated, imps return again to their easy prey,
People who are too proud, and for God’s help will not pray.
Imp-possessed, lives distressed, there’s little they can do.
In one group you’ll find me. In which will I find you?

Remember David and Goliath, their story so profound,
Then ask yourself, ‘In this great story,

where would I have been found?’
Friend, there’s a very quick, and easy way to tell:
How do you respond NoW ...when devils ring your bell???

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¹ Battle cry of Goliath (1 Samuel 17:10)

² Sadly, all across our world today.

³ Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)

⁴ Believers share in Christ’s victory:

‘Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.’ (2 Corinthians 2:14)  See also: John 11:25; Romans 6:5; Romans 8:37; 1 Corinthians 15:20, 57; Philippians 4:13; Hebrews 11:33-34; and 1 John 5:4-5

Conscientious Objectors (Poem)

Men of war, in His army, appointed to fight,¹
As His people prepared to flee their Egypt plight.
Through a wilderness they all would have to go,
To reach the place and nations who were God’s foe.

Centuries earlier God told His a friend, Abraham,
For these nations, He had a four hundred year program.²
It included time for them to repent and be spared, 
Though He knew about this, not one of them really cared.

Fast forward ahead, these nations were now

ripe for judgment.
So to them, from Egypt a great, new army would be sent.
But God encountered a curious problem.
His new army refused His, ‘Go fight!’ dictum.

You might say they were ‘conscientious objectors’,
After hearing reports from their ‘spy observers’.
So God delayed His plans to punish those wicked nations.
Then He created a force that had no such objections.³

Fast forward ahead, Israel then due for judgment. 
So to it, Assyria and Babylon were sent.
No conscientious objectors in these invading troops!
Thus they dished out God’s punishment on

Israel’s sinful bloops.⁴

Let’s fast forward ahead to the days in which we now live.
Conscientious objectors in God’s army, now furtive.
His army and battles are now very different,
From those into which His earlier armies were sent.

Today, His ‘Go fight!’ command is to spread

His Word and message,
To make disciples of those gripped in a devilish scrimmage,
Then to live by faith, by which He is pleased,
Not allowing our flesh to be appeased. 

Today, His objectors do not protest vocally.
Nor, as Israel did, do they object woefully.
Rather, they are simply quiet, always sidelined, 
Appearing to Him to not at all be aligned.

If you are His conscientious objector today, 
On the un-aligned sidelines, He’ll allow you to stay. 
In days gone by, for such He had a ‘forty-year plan’. 
Ummm…

How might He respond today to your

‘haughty sphere stand’?? ⁵

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¹ For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people who were men of war, who came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they did not obey the voice of The Lord -- to whom The Lord swore that He would not show them the land which The Lord had sworn to their fathers that He would give us, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’ (Joshua 5:6)

² Then He said to Abram: ‘Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years…But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.’ (Genesis 15:13,16)

³ See: Numbers 14

⁴ See: 2 Kings 15, 2 Chronicles 36, and Ezekiel 23

⁵ Objections perhaps not vocalized, but well hidden within your spirit or ‘spiritual sphere’, yet governing your inaction to His call.