Category Archives: Christ

Of Walls and Hedges

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I am the greatest obstacle
To my salvation,
Yet You leap the walls,
I have raised about me.
You breech them,
You penetrate them.
You shake and crumble them.

Your Holy Spirit
Is that quake
Of Calvary,
The earthquake,
That rattled open prison doors,
Destroyed the chains of those,
Commissioned to speak with Your power,
And in Your Name..

Place a high,
Insurmountable hedge about me.
One I can not leap,
When I hear the voices
Calling on the other side.

I know myself,
And that I shall try to flee.
For, though the boundary,
Be for my own good,
Fool, that I know myself to be,
Fleeing is in me.

All my hope
Is in the Love
You bear for me.
You, my Love,
Scale the walls of my pride,
O, Love, Who sets watch towers
On the heights,
And is enemy
To my enemies,
And the Guardian
Of my soul.

Fear Not

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Fear not to approach

And behold the child.

See, it is you!

 

He holds His treasure

Cradled in the arms

Of His Only Begotten Son.

 

No memory of sins forgiven

No repugnance,

For past crimes vanish,

Banished, by His flaming Love.

 

The Spirit and the Bride

Say “Come!”

 

©2012 Joann Nelander

Stir into Flame

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Fire once flame

Enkindled by the Spirit,

Smolder.

Embers still aglow,

Await a new Wind,

And a prayer,

Sent on the breath

Of the will,

Catalyst and fuel.

 

O Spirit blaze again

To the heavens,

Sending heat and light

To ignite those cold,

World-weary and, now, ready.

 

Then will the sparks fly

And the earth shake.

Lord Jesus, send forth Your Spirit,

We are athirst and longing.

 

©2012 Joann Nelander

Make It So, Lord

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If heaven can be made more glorious,
Make it so, my Lord.

If the honor and respect,  I show,
Sinner, though I am,
Can render
Your saints more glory,
For the light
They shine on men,
Make it so, my Lord.

If the blood of martyrs,
Can again be received
Before Your throne,
Mingled with the Blood of Christ,
That coursed their veins,
And flowed out
As rivers.
To wash the Nations
And praise Your Holy Name,
Make it so, my Lord.

All time is Now
In Your Eternity.
Your battles,
Though waging on earth,
Have all been won,
And presented to You
In Your Son.

"Thy Kingdom come!"
You make it so , O my Lord.

©2012 Joann Nelander

All rights reserved

To Seek Bliss

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Seek grace before bliss.
To seek bliss,
Is to seek the gift
May be to shun the Giver.

Who conjures dreams matters.
My pleasure may  spring
From forbidden springs.

Before I entrust
Myself to gods,
Should I not seek
To discern truth
From Truth.

Come, come,
O, kind Spirit of Truth,
Though You contradict my way,
I promise to obey,
Clad in Your grace,
Day by day.

©2012  Joann Nelander
All rights reserved

Heaven of My Soul

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Indwelling Trinity,
You inhabit heaven,
While all things in nature
Are held in being by Your Will,
There is a Presence
Of the supernatural kind,
That lights the soul
Of the baptized child.

O, God, indwelling,
In the heaven
Of my soul,
Behold me,
Living in constant adoration,
Willing Thy Will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.