timeforINRI

 I am an object to be used I am an object to be abused I am an object Forever and today I am an object with a conscious to think I am an object and I think I can blink I am an object Forever and today I am an object who feels their hands I am an object with hope in a sliver or strands I am an object Forever and today I am an object who's told what they are I am an object who is worth less with a scar I am an object Forever and today I am an object with pain in my mind I am an object who can be nothing but kind I am an object Forever and today I am an object who wants a say I am an object who's kept at bay I am an object For forever and for today Amelie Summers PSALM 46

 God is a safe place to hide, we stand fearless on the cliff edge of doom, courageous in sea storms and earthquakes. Before the rush and roar of oceans, the tremors that shift mountains. Jacob wrestling God fights for us, God of angel armies protect us. River fountains splash joy, cooling God's city, the sacred haunt of the Most High. God lives here the streets are safe, God at your service from crack of dawn. Godless nations rant and rave, kings and kingdoms threaten, but earth does anything he says. Jacob-wrestling God fights for us, God of angel armies protect us. Attentoin all! See the marvels of God! He plants flowers and tree's all over the earth. Bans war from pole to pole, breaks all weapons across his knee. "Step out of the traffic! Take a long loving look at me. your  h igh  God. above politics above everything." Jacob-wrestling God fights for us, God of angel armies protect us. Eugene H. Peterson Changed by what we see?

 The first thing that strikes me about 2 Corinthians 3 is the confident air  of freedom in it. Change is possible. We don't have to remain as we are. But change isn't automatic. And it isn't something inherent in us. It has a cause. Change is rooted in a relationship with Jesus Christ. In him, God becomes open, personal, and accessible to us. The person of Jesus shows us who God is. When we're with Christ, we're in touch with all who can apprehend God. In that environment, we're  all changed by what we see, changed into the likeness of Christ.  If we're exposed to the sun, our skin is changed. But if we are exposed to Christ our lives are changed. The change is a result of our relationship with him. By opening ourselves to him, we come under his influence and are changed into his likeness, "our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful", from one level of maturity to another, from one stage of development to another. Eugene H. Peterson I

  Isaiah 53

 Whither, midst falling dew, While glow the heavens with the last steps of day Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue Thy solitary way? Vainly the fowler's eye Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong As, darkly seen against the crimson sky, Thy figure floats along. Seek'st thou the plashy brink Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide, Or where the rocking billows rise and sing On the chafed ocean side? There is a Power whose care Teaches thy way along that pathless coast-- The desert and illimitable air-- Lone wandering, but not lost. All day thy wings have fanned, At that far height, the cold, thin atmosphere, Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land, Though the dark night is near. And soon that toil shall end; Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest, And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend, Soon, o'er thy sheltered nest. Thou'rt gone, the abyss of heaven Hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heart Deeply has sunk the lesson thou hast given

 Who believes what we've heard and seen? Who would have thought God's saving power would look like this? The servant grew up before God- a scrawny seedling  a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause a second look. He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried - our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he bought it on himself, that God was punishing him  for his failures. But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him - our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises, we get healed. We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost. We've all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong, on him, on him. He was