timeforINRI

 Thank you, Lord, for the providential way you have guided my life, though at times it's hard to see the providence for all the plot twists. help me be brave, good, and true, regardless of where the story takes me. Help me be a good listener to other people's stories, being attentive to what you're doing in them and around them. Grant me the pastoral skill to help them connect the providential dots of their stories so they can see not only the guidance in where you're leading them but also your goodness in how you're leading them. Please help me be a better listener to..... Eugene H. Peterson Share My Bread

We all must die Nothing lasts forever All falls in the end. We are born Have children Crumple in old age. Raging against death Knowing we must Someday lie within a coffin. Soul never dies As promised by Jesus Christ Who died so we can enter Heaven. Colin Ian Jeffery Share My Bread  

  Through righteousness that’s not our own Through gifts we now receive Through Fire that melts a heart of stone We’ve faith to Christ believe We hope to see what’s never been What no ones had to share No ear has heard no eye has seen We know through faith it’s there Through faith we’ll see our God above Through faith we live in peace Through faith we’ll share eternal love Where joy will never cease Yet even when we go to sleep Faith plays its wondrous part We trust The Lord each night to breathe Keeping alive our heart Right there it seems to Christians odd Why atheists don’t die Unconsciously, they’ll trust in God Yet consciously deny Thank God for gifts that reigns supreme Thank God for faith divine Thank God for Christ The Living Stream Through whom now life is mine It’s mine because of faith’s embrace Because of love unknown Because I live to see the face Who sits on Heaven’s throne Alone I’d fail to walk the walk I’d fail to claim this boast No flesh and bone could talk the talk

 The world's a bubble; and the life of man less than a span. In his conception wretched; from the womb so to the tomb: Curst from the cradle, and brought up to years, with cares and fears. Who then to frail mortality shall trust, But limns the water, or but writes in dust. Yet, since with sorrow here we live oppress'd, what life is best? Courts are but only superficial schools to dandle fools: The rural parts are turn'd into a den of savage men: And where's a city from all vice so free, But may be term'd the worst of all the three? Domestic cares afflict the husband's bed, or pains his head: Those that live single, take it for a curse, or do things worse: Some would have children; those that have them none; or wish them gone. What is it then to have no wife, but single thralldom or a double strife? Our own affections still at home to please, is a disease: To cross the sea to any foreign soil, perils and toil: Wars with their noise affright us: when they cease, W

 Dear Heavenly Father You know the names of each and every person who has ever existed, who exists now, and who will ever exist. Such knowledge is so difficult for me to comprehend. What is even more difficult to understand is that you love each and every person behind the names. Thank you that I am one of the names that you know, one of the people you love. I feel so privileged to have a part to play in the larger story of salvation. However small a part, Lord help me to realise that it isn't insignificant. How many people are in paradise today because of one line spoken by a thief  on a cross/ Give me the strength to say my lines with grace and dignity so a wonderous play can go on and so paradise might be fuller because I played my part, said my lines, and exited quietly. Thank you for my name. As I say it aloud, whisper to me what you think of the person who bears it... Eugene H. Peterson Share My Bread

"Tomorrow will be brighter than today, " My father often said when I went to him Tearful after hurting myself, needing parental love, Pain kissed away with hugs making me happy. Darkness always gives way finally to the light Storms abate with terrors of night soon forgot. Tomorrow is full of promise with dawn's birth Future bright as heart and resolve make it. With determination seeking God in His everywhere. Climbing life's mountain range to find Heaven Having faith, compassion for united family of Man. Smiling, my father would tell of a Jewish man Who preached love and peace and walked on water Raised the dead, healed the sick and esteemed the poor.  Colin Ian Jeffery Share My Bread

 Eyes are at rest, the stars are setting. Hushed are the stirrings of birds in their nests, Of monsters in the ocean. You are the Just who knows no change, The Balance that can never swerve, The Eternal which never passes away. The doors of Kings are bolted now and guarded by soldiers. Your Door is open to all who call upon You. My Lord, Each love is now alone with his beloved. And I am alone with You. Rabia Al Basri Share My Bread

 God is the dawn Pregnant with promise Casting light into the darkness. God is truth Thought brighter than the sun Wider than eternity Seeded within every soul. Colin Ian Jeffery Share My Bread

 Despite the fact that people get punished, They won’t give up their habits bad for long; They love to see the other much ravished, And will not give up things that appear wrong. ’Tis hard abandoning one’s vices gained! Good habits die an early death in life; Men commit sins until the soul is stained; So, God brings on an era of great strife! ’Tis vanity that steals the hearts of men, And pride afills their heads in umptine ways; While jealousy weakens their little ken; In wasteful thinking, spent are his good days. But men won’t take the road that’s right and fair! So, suff’rings come that they just cannot bear. Dr John Celes Share My Bread

I fled Him down the nights and down the days I fled Him down the arches of the years I fled Him down the labyrinthine ways Of my own mind, and in the midst of tears I hid from him, and under running laughter. Up vistaed hopes I sped and shot precipitated Adown titanic glooms of chasme d hears From those strong feet that followed, followed after But with unhurrying chase and unperturbe d pace, Deliberate speed, majestic instancy, They beat, and a Voice beat, More instant than the feet: All things betray thee who betrayest me. I pleaded, outlaw--wise by many a hearted casement, curtained red, trellised with inter-twining charities, For though I knew His love who followe d, Yet was I sore adread, lest having Him, I should have nought beside. But if one little casement parted wide, The gust of his approach would clash it to. Fear wist not to evade as Love wist to pursue. Across the margent of the world I fled, And troubled the gold gateways of the stars, Smiting for shelter on their clange

  1 He listened at the porch that day, To hear the wheel go on, and on; And then it stopped, ran back away, While through the door he brought the sun: But now my spinning is all done. 2 He sat beside me, with an oath That love ne'er ended, once begun; I smiled--believing for us both, What was the truth for only one: And now my spinning is all done. 3 My mother cursed me that I heard A young man's wooing as I spun: Thanks, cruel mother, for that word-- For I have, since, a harder known! And now my spinning is all done. 4 I thought--O God!--my first-born's cry Both voices to mine ear would drown: I listened in mine agony-- It was the silence made me groan! And now my spinning is all done. 5 Bury me 'twixt my mother's grave, (Who cursed me on her death-bed lone) And my dead baby's (God it save!) Who, not to bless me, would not moan. And now my spinning is all done. 6 A stone upon my heart and head, But no name written on the stone! Sweet neighbours, whisper low ins

  Emily Dickinson