Lord, let us feel toward no man ill,
Prevent us paying wrong with wrong;
Keep words from sounding harsh or shrill,
Toward evildoers let love be long. Continue reading “A thousand motives”
To touch a soul today
Give me the grace to touch a soul today,
A single soul, or if by mercy’s kind embrace,
Might I save two? One to take my place,
Another to extend the Kingdom’s sway.
Put us on our feet
The power, the glory, the quiet peace
The Spirit of God bestows;
Let courage in Christ and faith increase,
The heart in hope repose. Continue reading “Put us on our feet”
With darkened thoughts and lonely sighs
Ah, Lord, the heart is weighed
With darkened thoughts and lonely sighs;
None care to listen, none have paid
The price, none seek the heavenly prize.
Can seven thousand faithful hide
Among a wayward church? Have they
No objecting voice? Have they not cried
Against the obscene who dance and play? Continue reading “With darkened thoughts and lonely sighs”
Let us jettison what divides
Our heavenly Father,
Let us jettison what divides, embrace what unites, rejoice in the Cross which reconciles.
Let us hear what others say, test all things, prove the spirits, seek after truth.
Let us value silence, know the power of words, use the influence of a good example in the imitation of Christ. Continue reading “Let us jettison what divides”
Two new articles on prayer
Today, Chuck Webster asks, Does Prayer Work?, in his devotional thought centered in the book of James.
Days earlier, we failed to share Richard Mansel’s article, Attitudes Necessary for Prayer, on Forthright Magazine.
Let us pray and let us ponder the place and power of prayer in our lives as God’s people.
Prayer for the victims of the Boston marathon, and ourselves
God who controls heaven and earth,
Again, the bombs of terrorism have exploded,
Again, lives have been lost and hundreds injured,
The pleasure of competition turned into a field of war.
Save those who have been injured, O Lord,
Let your people offer hope,
May those who see no sense in this slaughter,
Understand that peace is far from the earth. Continue reading “Prayer for the victims of the Boston marathon, and ourselves”
The heart is slow
The heart is slow, behind the head,
To rest upon the truth it knows;
Until the two are joined and wed,
His patient love to man God shows. Continue reading “The heart is slow”
If man think ill
Teach me your ways, O Lord, that I
Might walk a holy man, and please
In every step, to satisfy
Your will, offering the kingdom’s keys
That men to self might die;
I seek Your face — if man think ill,
So be it — Your Spirit on me spill.
In them You delight
Father, let that which is to you an abomination be also to me an odious thing; may I prize justice, righteousness, wisdom, and goodness, all of which flow from your hand, and in them you delight.