Monthly Archives: April 2011

What Are You Looking For?

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H/T Colleen

Flower of God

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I want to be the Lord’s flower,
Perfect in every way.
God has favored even the lowly weed with beauty.
Look on me, the ragged tare,
To fashion a blossom
According to Your way.
©2011 Joann Nelander All rights reserved

Awakening

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Matt 28:20 I Am With You Always

I woke up with God today.
He was with me,
And I smiled.

I am smiling still,
For in His Presence,
I seem to glow,
On the inside, of course.

I hug Christ to me, all gratitude.
Being flighty like a bird,
Anxious to take to wing,
Precisely, because my spirit soars,
I count the grace of moment, a treasure,
and tuck it ‘neath my pinions.

Once aloft on wings of love,
I may be distracted,
Attracted by His good creation,
Or attacked by jealous gods,
Envying His majesty,
And hating His Intimacy
With so lowly a creature.

My God, thank You,
For this favor in Time,
That I may be refreshed,
And readied for Eternity,
Where I shall never
Lose sight of You.

Steel me, O Immanuel.
Sharpen my vision,
To see You with me always,
In Your hidden Presence
Within my soul.

©2011 Joann Nelander  All rights reserved

Caring for the Unborn

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Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma signed a pro-life measure into law, April 20, making it illegal to abort  unborn children after 20 weeks of gestation because they are capable of feeling pain. The bill goes into effect November 1, 2011.

“States are recognizing that they have an interest in, and obligation to, protecting unborn children from pain,” said Mary Spaulding Balch, the director of state legislation for National Right to Life Committee.

The Oklahoma bill, titled the “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act,” states that “Pain receptors… are present throughout the unborn child’s entire body by no later than sixteen…weeks after fertilization and nerves link these receptors to the brain’s thalamus and subcortical plate by no later than twenty…weeks.”

Once this link is made, the bill argues, the necessary and sufficient conditions for pain have been met. The law states, “After twenty… weeks, the unborn child reacts to stimuli that would be recognized as painful if applied to an adult,” and for this reason the state has a compelling interest in protecting the unborn child.

Sprung From A Tomb

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I have known the healing of God.
Christ is alive!
We are the extension of Christ
Beyond His Death,
Christ to the world, Immanuel.

The days after the Resurrection,
The Church was living
That which they would one day write – Good News!
The nascent Church would tell
The story throughout the centuries.
No myth – reality!
Sinking in, and living again
In the people called by His name.

In some-the truth of the Truth of the Resurrection
Would take hold more slowly-
Like those visited over the course of the 50 days
Between the Resurrection and the commission
To go out to all the world and tell.

In some- the truth of the Truth of the Resurrection
Would seize them, immediately,
Like the Magdalene.
Jesus said no more than, “Mary.”
Has He called your name?

The Spirit was given by Jesus,
Not as an afterthought or a symbol,
But, as a necessity, God with us!

The Church would not be led by whim
Or compromise with the world,
But by God. the Spirit,
Remaining with it throughout Time,
Equipping it for Eternity, one day at a time.

What matter can survive Time and dissolution?
Only that, which is raised from the dead.
“All creation waits on tip toe,
For the revelation of the sons of God.”

We are made for eternity,
Though formed in time.
Only in Christ is matter made Eternal,
Though changed by the Divine,
To take the leap into the holy,
The wholly healed, and resurrected,
Conquering death in one All Holy Name.

This is Easter, the Day God has made,
And Christ is this New Day,
The Dayspring of God,
Sprung forth from the Tomb,
Setting captives free,
A new beginning for Adam and Eve.

©2011 Joann Nelander   All rights reserved

The Grace

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All I can do is remain faithful,
When You are no here to be found.
You made promises,
And I answered, ”I believe.”

Now, I am left with my belief,
Bereft of vision.
Only memory sustains me.

I remember You,
And our days of love.
The world stole in with lies.
I would not listen.
The world would not relent.

It, too, made promises,
Promises it could not keep.
They, though, were sweet,
But always somewhere
Vinegar, an aftertaste.

I learned to discern,
To seek the light.
To fight the war with Faith,
Burnishing the Spirit sword,
And to wait.

I wait now.
I wait still.
I resolve to wait forever, if need be,
When You are nowhere to be found.
You made promises
And I answered, “I believe.”
Your grace – that I still do!

©2011 Joann Nelander All rights reserved