PUBLIC PREACHING

Since I can't preach from the pulpit, or pray a public prayer,
Nor lead songs in front of the church, some people think it's unfair.
God gave men the authority to take the active part,
But every Christian can do things. You just need to know where to start.
You don't want to teach any error. You want to keep on the "Good Fight".
You do more that just read the Bible. You study to handle it right.
Women can teach the children. Women can even teach some men.
Women can invite people to worship, and women can use their pen.
So that's my choice for teaching, my way to spread the Good News –
Writing letters and articles and poems, hoping they'll be of some use.
Sometimes a line will hit me. Sometimes an idea or thought –
Sometimes a question or sermon cause words to come in an onslaught.
God gives everyone some talent, and writing's my blessing, my gift.
I'm glad I don't do public speaking. I'm glad what I write gives a lift.
What I write, I pass on to others, if they're happy or sick or just drear -
"Happy Birthday!" or "get well" or encouragement –
Just a note or some hope or some cheer.
I want others to know I'm a Christian. The songs and poems God gives to me
Are one way I can tell about Jesus, though I can't preach publicly.
I'm thankful for the gifts that God gave me.
I can write – no need to preach it aloud.
I don't fret that I'm not "Worship Leader", or that
I don't stand at the front of the crowd.

"The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary ..." - Isaiah 50:4.

- by Netagene, September 19, 2008 -

WINTER MEMORIES

Bare trees in winter – limbs stretched to the sky –
Leaves falling, falling covering ground where they lie.
Dark pines and cedars – skyscraper spires –
Multi-green colors midst harvest bonfires.
Sparks float like fireflies – aroma of food –
Bundled, encircled with friends – Life is good!
All sing together – “Thank you, God!” we pray.
Dusk fades to darkness, enfolding this day.
Snow-blanketed, dreaming, waiting for morn –
Like a chrysalis opens, to be changed and reborn!
Bare trees in winter point to God’s sky.
Springtime is Heaven where we never will die.

- by Netagene -

Sitting on my front porch about noon, tootling one of my Native American flutes. Weather about 50 degrees. I could see tops of deciduous trees, bare branches like fingers reaching heavenward, the spires of evergreens, the sunny, near-cloudless sky. The first couplet came unbidden, the rest in about 10 minutes, except for the next-to-last couplet, which whirled like snowflakes, just out of reach until this same evening. What we know here as a cedar, is actually a juniper. It usually grows 40-to-50’ tall but can reach 100’. We have a variety of pines, some reaching well over 100’.

THANKSGIVING BURGERS

Mother is 92 and lives 2 miles from me. My nephew got me about 10 a.m. and brought me home about 3. He fixed burgers, but not just any burgers. He ground some beef tips with Vermont sharp cheddar and McCormick hamburger spices, and cooked them in a cast iron skillet with little cocktail sausages, letting all the juices blend. Cornbread with butter and sorghum, and iced tea to drink! Um-um, good! With the cornbread, we did not need any dessert. Because he cooked, Mother and I did the dishes, then Mother and I dug around in an old cabinet, scrounging for the few ornaments she still has, many which she made. She wants a Christmas tree this year. We finished with Mother and me both settling in with something to read. She now reads large print books, which my sister gets from the library. Like me, in addition to the Bible, she prefers the light romance novels and westerns by Christian writers. I am thankful that her mind is still good, and that she still enjoys reading, and I am thankful that I have a nephew who enjoys cooking, and for burgers and cornbread for Thanksgiving!

"I HAVE Everything!"

This morning, Steve preached about being thankful. He read this: "When the late author Erma Bombeck was struggling with breast cancer, she met 8-year-old Christina who had cancer of the nervous system. Erma asked the child who was bald due to chemotherapy what she wanted for her birthday. Christina thought hard for a moment, then said, “I don't know. I have two sticker books and a Cabbage Patch doll. I HAVE everything!”

GLADNESS

Even though I've gotten a lot done today, this has been a day when I've had to make a diligent effort to remember that being "glad" is not really an option. I rarely have a pity party, but sometimes I am more like the people written about in James 4:9. I'll let you look that up. But Psalm 118:24 says: "This is the day the Lord has made. We WILL rejoice and be glad in it".

I am THANKFUL

… for the best parents anyone could have …
… that my parents and grandparents were Christians …
… for friends …
… that I live in the United States of America where I can worship as GOD commands …
… that I have more than enough food …
… for heat in the winter and air-conditioning in the summer …
… that I have a roof that does not leak, over my head …
… for indoor plumbing and hot water …
… for clean, whole (not “holey”) clothes …
... that I have a job ...
… for good health, and …
… for God’s gift of knowledge to doctors when my health isn’t good …
… for the ability to think and to read and to write down thoughts such as these.

- by Netagene, November 20, 2007 -

CROSS or EMPTY TOMB

Isn’t it odd that a cross is the world’s symbol of Christ? You can buy jewelry, key chains, paperweights, T-shirts, and so on in the shape of a cross or imprinted with a cross. Yet thousands of thousands of people were put to death on crosses. What made Jesus THE CHRIST is not the fact that He was crucified, but the fact of the Empty Tomb, that fact that He rose from the dead, never to die again!

- by Netagene, January, 2001 -

SOME DAY

I’ve studied God’s Word. I guess that it’s true. Depending on self usually will do.
I live fairly well. What more can I say? I’ll follow this Jesus – SOME DAY.
There’s all kinds of sins, some big and some small,
like little white lies that don’t matter at all.
I’m sure you’ll agree that the end’s a long way. I’ll follow Jesus – SOME DAY.
Sure, I sometimes curse, and tell dirty jokes.
I am what I am, not like hypocritical folks.
I’m hurting no one. I do what I may. I’ll follow Jesus – SOME DAY.
I cheat on my taxes, sometimes cheat on my wife.
Everybody does it. That’s part of life.
I’m loose when I work, intense when I play.
I’ll follow Jesus – maybe – SOME DAY.
I don’t know if it’s “God”, or just “something” out there.
I don’t worry about that. I haven’t a care.
I’m all that I need, so why should I pray? I’ll follow Jesus – SOME DAY.
I smoke and I drink, get rowdy and yell, but
never robbed a bank, no one have I killed.
I’m living high. My mind you can’t sway. I’ll follow your Jesus – SOME DAY.
I’ve lived a long life, always got by, grabbed all the gusto, reached for the sky -
Had to slow down. My hair has turned gray. Jesus? Well, maybe – SOME DAY.

EPILOGUE:
He lived a low life, but he thought, “I live high!
There’s plenty of time. Maybe I really won’t die.
I’ll change later on from this life where I stray.
Oh … hello, Jesus. I didn’t expect You TODAY”

OBITUARY:
Like the rich man in Luke, the old fellow died –
Tormented in flames, for water he cried.
His “SOME DAY” is gone – too late to obey.
Will you follow Jesus? “SOME DAY” is today.

~ by Netagene, April 17 & 18, 2003 ~

This is one that “wrote itself”. I was driving home from work, listening to a “Southern gospel” music radio show. The DJ said “Jesus is coming back some day”. Something “clicked”. The song came so fast that I had to pull off the road to write it down. I almost could not write fast enough. If I changed any words after I got home, it was very few. I printed it in the church bulletin. One man used it as the “invitation” at church. Another used it where he was preached in Georgia. I heard that it was also printed in some other church bulletins.

THE KING WITHOUT A CROWN

The King without a crown – a foretold virgin birth (1).
He learned from a human father, a carpenter of the earth (2).
The great kings over Israel – He from Judah and Jesse did rise (3).
He’s in the lineage of King David, and King Solomon, the Wise (4).
God spoke to His earthly parents (5). They listened. They did not stray (6).
God knows each person’s heart (7). He spoke, and they obeyed.
The family was not rich. We know from their sacrifice –
A pair of little doves (8) – not a lamb to pay the price.
He grew in earthly stature, and in favor with God and with man (9).
From a royal but humble beginning (10), He is The Great I Am (11).
He ne’er dressed in regal garb, nor ever owned a home (12).
He had no bejeweled crown, nor had He gilded throne.
He often stayed with friends (13). He rejoiced at a wedding feast (14),
In sorrow (15), sometimes wept (16) – He’s our compassionate High Priest. (17)
He often was alone (18). He went to a garden to pray (19) –
Rejected here on earth (20) – Worldly rich turned Him away (21).
By Him the worlds were made (22). Through Him, we are reborn (23) –
The King without a crown – yet Divinity – crowned with thorns (24).

1: Mt. 1:22; 2: Mt. 13:55; Mk. 6:1-4; 3: Is. 11; Rev. 5:5; 4: Mt. 1:6-16; 5. Mt. 1:18ff; 2:12; Lk. 1:26ff; 6: Mt. 1:24; 7. Heb. 4:12; 8: Lev. 5:6-7; 14:21-22; Lk. 2:21-24; 9: Lk. 2:52; 10: Lk. 2:7; II Cor. 8:9; 11: Jn. 6:58; 12: Mt. 8:20; Lk. 9:58; 13: Lk. 10, Jn. 11 and 12; 14: Jn. 4; 15: Mt. 26:38; 16: Jn. 11:35; 17: Heb. 2-4, esp. 4:15; 18: Mt. 14:23; Mk. 6:46-47; Lk. 9; 19: Mt. 26; Mk. 14; 20: Lk. 17:24-25; 21: Lk. 6:24; 18:23-24; I Tim. 6:9-17; 22: Jn. 1:1-3; 23: I Cor. 15:22; II Cor. 5:17; Gal. 3:26; Eph. 2:10; 24: Mt. 27:29; Mk. 15:17; Jn. 19:2-5.

- by Netagene, November 6-7, 2009 – I read the line, “A king without a crown”, in a blurb in the newspaper on Friday, November 6. It was about Matisyahu (Matthew Paul Miller), the only Hassidic Rasta Man. “King without a Crown” is the title of one of his songs. This one gave me a headache, trying to get just the right words and verses. I also think that it's silly or stupid to cry at something I wrote, but I did, at this poem. Reminds me a little of the people in the Bible who made idols from trees and rocks, then bowed down to them.