One of My Poems

I decided it is time to throw a wrench in the stream of tags coming in. So whether you like it or not here is a poem I have written.


The Crystal Bowl
By Caitlin Carstensen

The light of sun diffused
Sends glimmering rays around
The sparkling, dancing drops
Scattering darkness from the ground.
This the same as the joyous Christian
Scatters the light of the Holy Son.

Only water pure and clear
From the earth, the deepest wells
Wash the crystal clear and shining
To catch the beauty no one sells.
This the same as the joyous Christian
Cleansed in the holy water of Life.

May the bowl be filled with fruits
Of the sweetest, crispest kind
From all manner giving, sharing
Heaped to brimming every time.
This the same as the joyous Christian
Filled with the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

Like the Crystal Sea of heaven
Radiant in the glorious light
Stretching out into the distance
Always full and glimmering bright.
This the same as the joyous Christian
A crystal bowl diffusing Christ.


I hope you were blessed.

Caitlin

Stop

Stop. Take a deep breath. Smile. Even giggle. Now don't you feel so much happier?

After a crazy weekend and a 7 mile bike ride this morning, and loads of laundry
to do afterward, this remedy popped into my tired mind, and what do you know...it worked! So I encourage you to try it, even if your life hasn't been hectic lately. Have a nice rest of the day, I know I will! :)

Jillian


"Happiness quite unshared
can scarcely be called happiness;
it has no taste." -
Charlotte Brontë


“I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet,
simple things of life which are the real ones after all.”
- Laura Ingalls Wilder


"If monotony tries me, and I cannot stand drudgery:
if people fret me and the little things of life set me on
edge; if I make much of the trifles of life, then I know
nothing of Calvary's love." ~ Amy Carmichael

Proverbs 17:22
"A Joyful heart is good medicine
But a broken spirit dries up the bones."

I enjoy poetry. My family does not, but I read all sorts of it. Good poetry is a gift of God and can express beautiful things especially those written for the Lord. This coming week is Passion Week and we will be reflecting on the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus. Here is a poem I wish to share as we consider all that has been done for us worthless human beings who can claim a place in heaven, not by our own deeds, the grace of a merciful God and a humble Savior.

Jehovah Tsidkenu

(The Lord Our Righteousness)

I once was a stranger to grace and to God,

I knew not my danger, and felt not my load;

Though friends spoke in rapture of Christ on the tree,

Jehovah Tsidkenu was nothing to me.

I oft read with pleasure, to soothe or engage,

Isaiah's wild measure and John's simple page;

But even when they pictured the blood-sprinkled tree,

Jehovah Tsidkenu seemed nothing to me.

Like tears from the daughters of Zion that roll,

I wept when the waters went over His soul;

Yet thought not that my sins had nailed to the tree,

Jehovah Tsidkenu-twas nothing to me.

When free grace awoke me, by light from on high,

Then legal fears shook me, I trembled to die;

No refuge, no safety in self could I see,

Jehovah Tsidkenu my Saviour must be.

Jehovah Tsidkenu, my treasure and boast!

Jehovah Tsidkenu, I ne'er can be lost!

In Thee I shall conquer by flood and by field,

My cable, my anchor, my breastplate and shield!

E'en treading the valley, the shadow of death,

This watchword shall rally my faltering breath,

For while from life's fever my God sets me free,

Jehovah Tsiedkenu, my death song shall be.

~Robert Murray McCheyne~

Spring: Day 2

"Let us now fear the Lord our God, who gives rain in its season, both the autumn rain and the spring rain." Jeremiah 5:24

"For behold, the winter is past, the [snow] is over and gone. The flowers have appeared in the land; The time has arrived for the pruning of vines...the vines in blossom have given forth their fragrance." Song of Solomon 2:12,13

Since the calendar has announced spring yesterday, those of us who have anxiously awaited it's arrival can now rejoice! It is nearly 60 degrees outside. Birds declare their Maker's praise and the time to sow has arrived. God has safely provided for us through the winter months and now we can take joy in the arrival of the new season. Thanks be to Him who allows us more time here to worship Him.

I have taken a few pictures to show some of the transition between seasons.

February...

...today, March 21st.

I decided it was time to start using the clothesline again.

One of the sayings I have heard about Montana is:

"The only place you can slip on the ice, fall in the mud, then get up and dust yourself off."

This picture should support that notion.

I hope everyone is enjoying the new season and all the other wonderful mercies of God that He demonstrates new each and every day.

Practical Christianity

As I have nothing to report and little to say of interest to anyone, I thought I would put some quotes from books I have read on a subject I think about quite a bit. What you do with what you read is up to you. Just remember we never read anything without being changed by it in some way, little or great. So feel free to discontinue your perusal at any time.

It is important that our religion should be reasonable, consistent, uniform-not a matter of opinion, but of the heart. The well-disciplined man of God will be a man of opportunities, carefully marking and improving them, as they pass before him. Charles Bridges

Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. I must make the main object of my life to press on to that other world and to help others do the same. C. S. Lewis

Man serves God by serving man. This is true ministry. Harold Bell Wright

I could find more and maybe I will later. I hope it will bless someone.