Water of Life

No matter your gender or race, who you are or where you are, good or bad, rich or poor, the greatest gift ever given is offered to you–free of charge!  It will change your life forever.  The only requirement is thirst (desire).  Confess that you need (thirst for) Jesus–that you have screwed up and that you can’t do life without Him.  Ask for His gift of the Water of Life.  As His Spirit flows into your life thank Him and begin that wonderful discovery of what this free gift means.  Read the Gospel of John as a start.

Water of Life

just as tears that form in sorrow
drops of remorse streak down the face
and just as water ever seeks
runs and fills the lowest place
just as streams that form in mountains
build to a rushing rivers pace
so the Spirit of the Savior
saves and fills
and blesses
with grace

~JD Collier

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.  To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.”  Rev. 21:6

Wake up, O Sleeper!

A word about this poem . . .

when a person  faiths in Christ, salvation is born.  This salvation can be described in three tenses:  1) the past tense describes the moment in which one believes.  He is made a new creature in Christ  (the first stanza).  2) present tense salvation is the living out of that faith in the here and now (the second stanza).  3) and future tense salvation is the surrendering of our earthly body to the resurrection of a new body (the third stanza).   The fourth stanza reviews all three.  Look for these as you read.

The past tense is commonly referred to as salvation, the present tense as sanctification, and the future tense as glorification. . . .just a simple little theology lesson for today (not that you didn’t already know but sometimes I like to write something in addition to a poem). 

“Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”  (Eph 5: 14 NIV)

Once you were darkness
but now you are light,
out from the starkness,
deeds lifeless as night.
You came out weeping
that’s why it is said,
“You woke up from sleeping
and rose from the dead.
Christ Jesus has shined on you!”

Stand firm against darkness,
expose in the Light;
Turning from marredness,
in Him find delight.
Him you are seeking
so let it be said,
“No slumber or sleeping
but raised from the dead;
let Jesus shine brightly in you!”

Once more comes the darkness,
your eyes growing dim;
living through harshness,
yet focused on Him;
then comes grim reaper
and soon will be said,
“Wake up, O sleeper,
and rise from the dead
for Christ is shining on you!”

Christ shines in your bleakness
and gives you new life;
adds grace to your weakness,
delivering through strife,
when death comes creeping
and takes you away,
you’ll wake up leaping
in eternal day;
forever to shine on you!

~JD Collier

Anchored

Heb 6:18-19
“. . . we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”

each day of each year as time keeps on going
a sparseness
a heaping
a trickling
a flowing
a season of reaping follows the sowing
a resting in knowing
the month is not May

like a bleached out wall from days of sunning
when I have become who I was becoming
no longer a youth
nor plagued by the truth
that I have become what I chose on the way
may God in His mercy forgive the excusing
the times I fell short in my lifetime of choosing
that brought me to be who I am on this day

bitter and sweet reads the scroll of my living
and messiness lives in the face of His giving
yet I am resigned to His sovereign design
that He is the Potter and I am the clay

naivety shrinks with the coming of evening
enticement of things
become less deceiving
the battle with pride
though potent
less seething
as focus becomes where security lay

the closer I get to that blessed restoring
as muscles diminish
synapses start shorting
in that move to the finish
that final reporting
God is my rock
my anchor
my stay

nothing can hinder
His righteous summation
my perfect defender
how firm the foundation
He is my hope
His grace my salvation
my fortress
my rock
my anchor
my stay

 ~JD Collier

Happy New Year 2012!

Hold on . . .

hold on to hope
stay on the track
walk in His love
do not shrink back

live in His truth
stay in His Word
spurning your sin
don’t be deterred

strengthen your arms
forsaking ease
make level paths
prop up those knees

be strong in faith
eyes fixed on Him
move forth in praise
firm to the end . . .

for Jesus is coming soon!

~JD Collier

Heb 10:35-37
So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, “He who is coming will come and will not delay.”
NIV

ASavior, the Christ

a marriage vow
an angel dream
a virgin blessed
a promised King
a troublesome word
a “how can this be?”
an “overshadow”
“may it be to me”

a Caesar decree
a census to run
an inn with no room
a feed trough
a Son
a stable to house
a manger to hold
a swaddling cloth
to ward off the cold

a shepherds night watch
an angel therein
a message of joy
a “goodwill toward men”
a heavenly host
a sky all ablaze
a Savior
the Christ
a chorus of praise

the regal robed kings
a star to behold
incense and myrrh
a gift of pure gold
the kings from the east
worship and part
the mother of God
her pondering heart

the words—all familiar
the story—quite old
the tone—amazement
the setting—bold
the subject—a Child
a mystery—the theme
the narrative—holy
the purpose—redeem

          ~JD Collier

Luke 2:11
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.

John 1:10-14
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.  He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.  Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God– children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.   The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
NIV