Poems and Bible Verses
Page 18
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To Find Your King
Pro Choice?
30
Quo Vadis?
Dying to be forgiven
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To Find Your King
A Path through 7 Panels
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#1 Before the Cathedral in grandeur rose
At Ingelburg where the Danube goes;
Before its forest of silver spires
Went airily up to the clouds and fires;
Before the oak had ready a beam,
While yet the arch was stone and dream --
There where the altar was later laid,
Conrad the cobbler plied his trade.
* * *
It happened one day at the year's white end --
Two neighbors called on their old-time friend;
And they found his shop, so meager and mean,
Made gay with a hundred boughs of green. 
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#2 Conrad was stitching with face ashine,
But suddenly stopped as he twitched a twine:
"Good news, old friends! At dawn today,
As the cocks were scaring the night away,
The Lord appeared in a dream to me,
And said, 'I am coming, your Guest to be!'
So I've been busy with feet astir,
Strewing the floor with branches of fir.
The wall is washed and the shelf is shined,
And over the rafter the holly twined.
He comes today, and the table is spread
With milk and honey and wheaten bread."
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#3 His friends went home. Conrad's face grew still
As he watched for the shadow across the sill.
He lived all the moments o'er and o'er,
When the Lord should enter his lowly door --
The knock, the call, the latch pulled up,
The lighted face, the offered cup.
He would wash the feet where the spikes had been,
He would kiss the hands where the nails went in,
And then at the last would sit with Him
And break the bread as the day grew dim.
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#4 While the cobbler mused there passed his pane
A beggar drenched by the driving rain.
He called him in from the stony street
And gave him shoes for his hurting feet.
The beggar went and there came a
crone,
Her face with wrinkles of sorrow sown,
A bundle of faggots bowed her back,
And she was spent with the wrench and rack.
He gave her his loaf and steadied her load,
As she went her way on the weary road.
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#5 Then to his door came a little child,
Lost and afraid in the world so wild,
In the big dark world. Catching him up,
He gave him the milk in the waiting cup,
And led him home to his mother's arms,
Out of the reach of the world's alarms.
The day went down in the crimson west
And with it the hope of the blessed Guest,
And Conrad sighed as the world turned gray:
"Why is it Lord that your feet delay?
Did You forget that this was the day?"
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#6 Then soft in the silence a voice he heard:
"Lift up your heart, for I kept my word.
Three times I came to your friendly door!
Three times my shadow was on your floor!
I was the beggar with the hurting feet;
I was the woman you gave to eat;
I was the child on the homeless street!"
"How the Great Guest Came" by Edwin
Markham
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#7Then the King
will say to those on His right hand,
Come, you blessed of My Father,
Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave Me food.
I was thirsty and you gave Me drink.
I was a stranger and you took Me in.
I was naked and you clothed Me.
I was sick and you visited Me.
I was in prison and you came to Me.
Then the righteous will answer Him,
saying,
"Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink?
When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You?
Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?
And the King will answer and say to
them,
Amen Amen, I say to you,
Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren,
You did it to Me.
Mt 25.34-40
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Pro Choice?
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1
The Bible says...
Because the sentence against an evil
work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the people is fully set in them to do evil.
Eccl 8.11
They even sacrificed their sons and
daughters to demons. They shed innocent blood --
the blood of their sons and daughters,
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan.
They have polluted the land with blood!
Psalm 106.37-38
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2
Katz says...
We wring our hands and cluck our tongues about "pro choice females." But folks -- it takes TWO to tango!
What about the low-life males who run out on their
unborn babies?
- Any fool with testicles can become a father.
- It takes a MAN to be a DAD!
In the poem that follows, I'd like you to meet a
real man. He's a Dad!!!
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3 "My son!" What simple, beautiful words!
"My boy!" What a wonderful phrase!
We're counting the months till you come to us --
The months and the weeks and the days!
"The new little stranger,"
some babes are called,
But that's not what you're going to be;
With double my virtues and half of my faults,
You can't be a stranger to me!
Your mother is straight as a sapling
plant,
The cleanest and best of her clan --
You're bone of her bone, and flesh of her flesh,
And, by heaven, we'll make you a man!
Soon I shall take you in two strong
arms --
You that shall howl for joy --
With a simple, passionate, wonderful pride
Because you are just -- my boy!
continued next column =>
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4
And you shall lie in your mother's arms,
And croon at your mother's breast,
And I shall thank God I am there to shield
The two that I love the best.
A wonderful thing is a breaking wave,
And sweet is the scent of spring,
But the silent voice of an unborn babe
Is God's most beautiful thing.
We're listening now to that silent
voice
And waiting, your mother and I --
Waiting to welcome the fruit of our love
When you come to us by and by.
We're hungry to show you a wonderful
world
With wonderful things to be done,
We're aching to give you the best of us both
And we're lonely for you -- my son!
"To My Unborn Son" by Captain Cyril Morton Thorne
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#30#
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Vital spark of heavenly flame!
Quit, O quit this mortal frame:
Trembling, hoping, lingering, flying,
O the pain, the bliss of dying!
Cease fond Nature, cease thy strife,
And let me languish into life.
Hark! they whisper; angels say,
Sister Spirit, come away!
What is this absorbs me quite?
Steals my senses shuts my sight,
Drowns my spirit, draws my breath?
Tell me, my soul, can this be death?
The world recedes; it disappears!
Heav'n opens on my eyes! My ears
With sounds seraphic ring!
Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly!
O Grave! where is thy victory?
O Death! where is thy sting?
"Vital Spark of Heavenly Flame" by Alexander Pope
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Behold, I shew you a mystery!
We shall not all come to the sleep of death,
But we shall all be changed.
In a moment,
In the twinkling of an eye,
At the last trumpet...
For the trumpet shall sound!
Then the dead shall be raised incorruptible,
And we shall be changed.
For this corruptible must put on incorruption,
And this mortal must put on immortality.
So when this corruptible shall have
put on incorruption,
And this mortal shall have put on immortality,
Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,
Death is swallowed up in victory!
O Death, where is thy sting?
O Grave, where is thy victory?
1 Cor 15.51-55
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Quo Vadis?
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To everyone there openeth
A way, and ways, and a way,
And the high soul climbs the high way,
And the low soul gropes the low;
And in between, on the misty flats,
The rest drift to and fro.
But to everyone there openeth
A high way and a low,
And everyone decideth
The way his soul shall go.
"A High Way and a Low" by John Oxenham
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Thus says the Lord:
I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you,
That I have set before you life and death,
Blessing and cursing.
Therefore CHOOSE life;
That both you and your descendants may live;
That you may love the LORD your God,
That you may obey His voice,
And that you may cling to Him,
For God is your life and the length of your days.
Deu 30.19-20a
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Dying to be forgiven
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If I should die tonight,
My friends would look upon my quiet face,
Before they laid me in my resting place,
And deem that death had left it almost fair,
And laying snow-white flowers against my hair,
Would smooth it down with tearful tenderness,
And fold my hands with lingering caress --
Poor hands, so empty and so cold tonight!
If I should die tonight,
My friends would call to mind with loving thought
Some kindly deed the icy hand had wrought;
Some gentle word the frozen lips had said;
Errands on which the willing feet had sped.
The memory of my selfishness and pride,
My hasty words, would all be put aside,
And so I should be loved and mourned tonight.
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If I should die tonight,
Even hearts estranged would turn once more to me,
Recalling other days remorsefully.
The eyes that chill me with averted glance
Would look upon me as of yore, perchance
Would soften in the old familiar way;
For who would war with dumb, unconscious clay?
So I might rest, forgiven of all tonight.
Oh friends, I pray tonight
Keep not your kisses for my dead, cold brow;
The way is lonely, let me feel them now.
Think gently of me; I am travel worn;
My faltering feet are pierced with many a thorn.
Forgive, O hearts estranged, forgive, I plead!
When dreamless rest is mine I shall not need
The tenderness for which I long tonight.
"If I Should Die Tonight" by Arabella Eugenia
Smith
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As the elect of God, holy and beloved,
Put on tender mercies, kindness, humility,
meekness, longsuffering.
Bear with one another.
Forgive one another.
If anyone has a complaint against another;
Even as Christ forgave you,
So you also must do.
Col 3.12-13
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Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God,
By whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor,
And evil speaking be put away from you,
With all malice.
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted.
Forgive one another,
Just as God in Christ forgave you.
Eph 4.30-32
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