Threat

This is not just some childish fear; this is a legitimate threat. But as real as this threat is, the fear itself is what it threatens with. The separation from that which protects. The love we have within us from the God of the universe has the ability to cast out all fear. When we focus on this threat, we are letting go of that love and grasping at fear instead, as though this fear could save us. But it is the love that saves, the power we inherited through that love. The power of the living God within us. The threat they hold over us can only be in the physical realm or in the mental. They can affect our physical world, and we can allow them to infiltrate us with the fear they so desire us to have, letting it grow in our minds. Yet we do not have to do even this. As long as we are under the blood of Jesus Christ and trusting in His love and the power He shows through us, they cannot harm us, and we will not fear them. For as real of a threat as they can be, they have no real power. The only power they have is that which we give them in fear. They can have no affect on us in a spiritual sense. While they can continuously lead us farther from God through deceptions we choose to believe or through the fear that makes it difficult to trust, they cannot take our souls. They have no access to the most important part of our being, the real part of us, as our souls are held by God, and He doesn't ever let go.

Lost

     This is another poem I wrote, also in November of last year, I believe. Not everyone always understands what I wrote this poem to mean, but it is about someone who is lost at last finding a Savior in Jesus Christ, something about which I am passionate, and which is the theme of many of my poems and writings. For Jesus has saved my soul and one of my greatest desire is to bring others to Him, so that they will find what He has given to me.

Lost

This blinding light is killing me,

Take it away so no one can see

All those things that I regret,

Things if You saw, You’d never forget.

Invisible in darkness,

I appreciate this blindness.

But this light lets You see

Everything I’ve hid within me,

That’s invisible to all but me;

My guilt for this, it is my fee.

Why must I face it?

I can’t erase it.

The guilt inside tries to kill me;

Just destroy me.

It’s myself I despise,

For believing all their lies.

My heart is exposed to You,

But I realize now that You already knew

Of all the things I tried to hide,

That destroy me from the inside.

Maybe this light is saving me,

My eyes are opened, I’ve begun to see –

Though You knew all I’ve done, You loved me the same;

This light alone can take it away.

Good Friday

     I wrote some of this over a year ago, but I rewrote a lot of it, and added even more. I thought now would be an appropriate time to say this here, since it is Good Friday and now more than ever I and many others are thinking of Jesus’ death on the cross.

     Several times during His ministry here on earth, people attempted to kill Jesus, but were unable to do so.  Luke 4:28-30 says this: “When they heard these things, [they] were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff.  Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.”  If this had been the only situation where such a thing occurred, it would probably be passed off as unimportant.  So He escaped when people tried to kill Him.  They killed Him in the end, didn’t they?  But it happened other times as well.  John 7:30: “Therefore they sought to take Him; but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.”  John 10:39: “Therefore they sought again to seize Him, but He escaped out of their hand.”  It’s pretty crazy that He escaped death three times, don’t you think?  Even though they wanted to kill Him, they could not until the time had come for His crucifixion.  And even during His arrest in the garden of Gethsemane, before the soldiers took Him, He asked who they were seeking.  When told “Jesus of Nazareth,” He replied, “I am He,” and they fell to the ground.  Even right before His death, Jesus was in control.  And if He was able to stop them from killing Him all of these other times, then He was capable of saving Himself from the death that He died.  He allowed them to kill Him.  He willingly died.  Jesus did not die because they wanted Him dead; they had no power over Him and no control.  John 19:10-11 reads: “Then Pilate said to Him, ‘Are you not speaking to me?  Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?’  Jesus answered, ‘You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above.’”  The only reason they were able to put Him to death was because He let them.  God was in control the whole time; none of what happened to Jesus happened without His consent.  He died not because a lot of people wanted Him dead and hated Him, but because He loved us, despite the hatred many felt toward Him. He gave Himself willingly as a sacrifice for the remission of our sins.

     So many times, people complain about things not being fair – they complain about life not being fair.  I know I do sometimes.  But when I really think about it, I’m glad life isn’t fair.  I’m glad God isn’t fair.  What would have been fair for Him to do would have been to make all of us die, for we have all sinned (Romans 3:23) and death is the punishment for sin (Romans 6:23).  And not just a physical death, but a spiritual death, and eternal separation from God.  But instead of this, He loved us so much, that Jesus died in our place (John 3:16).  It wasn’t in any way fair to Jesus for Him to die for sins He had never committed.  It isn’t fair to any of us that we shouldn’t have to pay the penalty for our sins or that we should receive grace from God for them.  And yet Jesus really did die, willingly.  And God really does offer grace and salvation and eternal life.  It’s not fair and never will be, and it makes me glad that life isn’t fair.

     Jesus paid the ultimate price, dying on the cross.  The least we can do is remember His sacrifice and live for Him.