After All

Posted on by debraradaker

Those secrets You tell me
Throughout the day
Special impressions
Made on me.

Make me feel seen
Make me feel known
By the most wonderful God
This Prince of Peace.

May Your gentleness
Be mine
As it’s not always.

May I reflect
The kindness
You show me.

Those words You whisper
About things that we know
I count dear, sincere:
A call to praise.

May I open
My mouth
And speak Your name.

May I carry on
With life
As a grateful nod to You.

Those revelations You give
About life
Surprise and delight me:
I am enthralled!

-DRadaker

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Cardinal Knowledge

Posted on by debraradaker

Red birds, red birds
All around me
Gain my attention
Cause me to see.

You go before
And hem me in.
I am not a victim
Of what has been.

I am never alone
I am never without:
Because of Your mercy
I am safe and sound.

Why never have I known
Life so sweet
As when You come
And enlighten me!

O Spirit of the Living God
In You I am released,
Free to flutter about
Like the birds of spring.

-DRadaker

Psalm 139
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+139&version=ESV

“The Undisputed King”

Posted on by debraradaker

You can criticize or politicize
Whatever you wanna do.
It really doesn’t matter:
The truth is the truth.

One day you’ll stand before Jesus
Just as you are,
Whether sealed and protected
Or doomed from the start.

You know in your heart now:
Creation speaks to you.
There is a sovereign Lord.
Is this really a dispute?

He won’t wait forever
For you to change your mind.
Yes, He’s patient, even long-suffering
But will come in due time.

So don’t pretend it’s nothing
Only an intellectual argument.
We are finite creatures
But are offered eternal rest.

The peace that Jesus offers
Is solid, complete.
It stretches on forever,
Throughout eternity.

Deny Him if you’re able,
Continue in such faith.
He, however, is not deterred
From His mission to save.

-DRadaker

*https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/undisputed

Your Ticket to Ride

Posted on by debraradaker

There is nothing to do now
But trust in the Lord.

On the cross Jesus took God’s wrath,
All mankind being restored.

The burdens that plague us,
The trials we would scorn

“Grow strangely dim”
In light of heaven’s door.

For Christ has risen
And taken the throne.

Soon He will return for us –
I pray you’ll come along.

-DRadaker

Posted on by debraradaker
Jesus Christ
How did you bear it all?
The weight of the world
Each and every flaw?

The heavy burdens
We carry around
At once made light
Per a thorny crown.

The distress, anxiety
Depression and guilt
The unbelief, denial
The common ills.

You took it on
Never giving in
Til it was finished
And death met its end.

Oh happy day
Such day is this!
We are above,
Are always His!

Why the echo of Eden
Follows us about
As sin’s destiny
Is played out.

Though sin, this sickness,
Scourges the earth
Those in Christ await
A greater birth.

For the promise given
Of a heavenly home
Is as sure as the Cross,
And is our own.

-DRadaker

(http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/christ-and-those-in-him-will-never-die-again)

So that’s what I want to ask you this morning: What if it’s true that Christ rose from the dead; that he will never die again and death has no dominion over him so that he is the Lord of the universe; that by faith we are united to him in his death and rise with him to live forever? What if it is true—not just like radio facts out there somewhere, but like the truth as heard in the mouth of a screaming child that suddenly, in a moment, changes everything?

Let me just get you started from the Bible:

If it’s true, . . .

. . . the power of death is broken, and the root of bondage, the fear of death is severed, and we can be freed;
. . . you don’t need to get to the top in order to get to be a success;
. . . you don’t need to run away from trouble and live in fear that he who has the most toys wins;
. . . you can rejoice in persecution for righteousness’ sake for great is your reward in heaven;
. . . every loss you endured for the kingdom will be made up to you a thousand-fold;
. . . there is no ultimate risk in the cause of truth and love; nothing can defeat you;
. . . the decay of your body is prelude to glory;
. . . you will be made completely whole with no impurity and no struggle with lust or greed or covetousness or fear or inferiority or cowardice or painful memories or paralyzing shame;
. . . there will be no mourning or crying or tears or pain for the former things will pass away;
. . . swords will be turned into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks and war will be no more;
. . . every injustice will be rectified and every evil will be recompensed and every wrong made right;
. . . and those who are in Christ will rise with him never to die again, and God will be our God and we will be his people, and the glory of the Lord will be our light and our joy forever.
The witness of God in Scripture, the witness of all the martyrs and all the people of God for two thousand years, is that these things are indeed so.2 Let your response be a life of faith and love and joy and praise.

1 C.S. Lewis, Christian Reflections, Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1967, p. 10.

2 For my effort to show the good reasons that you can accept these claims as true see Appendix 2, “Is the Bible a Reliable Guide to Lasting Joy?” in Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist, Portland: Multnomah Press, 1986, pp. 239–250.

John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org

Hold On

Posted on by debraradaker

Hold on it won’t be long now
Til Jesus takes you home;
Though He does wait patiently
While creation churns and groans.

Got to trust His timing
In the grand scheme of things;
He alone knows the moment
Of the providential ushering.

Still it won’t be long now
Why just around the bend
There’ll be no tears, no sorrows
No hair nor hide of sin.

Yes, we grow weary
Wondering what’s going on
With truth denied and God’s name defamed
And right becoming wrong.

Hold on, find your bearings
In the cause of Christ
And spread His love unending
With heaven clear in sight.

-DRadaker

Flagging

Posted on by debraradaker

Fire and fever
Once burning within
Lies doused and tempered
Fraught and spent.

The life of man
Shattered and dim
Seen but not quite.

As the wheel turns,
The course continuing,
Earth bears down
To face the brunt.

Birth yields to rebirth,
Mad to madness:
Chaos must be winning.

Where are we now
To go from here,
From this disastrous storm

That arose on the plane
Of apathy –
From unrepentance born?

For the fire and fever
The hunger for more
Of life, truth and just

Died on the plane
Of our continued disdain
For the sovereign Lord.

– DRadaker

Reflection

Posted on by debraradaker

I hate that it seems
Jesus is my thing
As if others are exempt
From the call.

Would that His spirit
Shine through what I say & do
Til His person hood
Speaks to all.

Til there’s no mistake
That I’m not a fake
But sincerely His
Heart and soul.

Would that I not be seen
As a devotee to a thing
Or a needy one
Who’s found a crutch.

I want to reflect
Who I am beneath
The outer shell
Of perishable dust.

-DRadaker

El Roi (The God Who Sees Me)

Posted on by debraradaker

Now that the storm is over
You’re not hunkered down
An apparent calmness reigns,
Takes the victor’s crown.

‘It’s no slight thing’
That you’re still here
Where others have fallen away.

The same God
Who brings the storms
Is the One who saves.

Now that it’s back to normal
You’ve got a life to live
Surrender comes in the aftermath
Of a raging fit.

It’s no slight thing
That you went through it
When He could’ve left you alone.

The same God
Who pleases with gifts
Is the One who sits enthroned.

Now that your life looks different
The storm having marked you hard
Don’t equivocate just go with,
Commit to His regard.

It’s no slight thing
To go forward
Embracing what comes next.

The same God
Who sees you
Will not His child neglect.

-DRadaker

For all the new mamas: “I love these little people; and it is not a slight thing when they, who are so fresh from God, love us.”
Charles Dickens

El Roi (see Genesis 16)

Rest

Posted on by debraradaker

Let me enter into Your rest Lord
Where thoughts subside at last.
Where peace floods o’er
Like a tide to shore
That doesn’t ebb or wane.

Oh soul wait patiently
It’ll happen yet.
All in God’s own time.
His answer is “yes” to the prayers
In which His will and ours align.

For such longing there’s hope
For His mercy is never late
But appears just on the morn
For our refuge and friend comes rushing in
To calmly silence the storm.

Oh glorious rest may I enter soon
Become lost in the length of His arms
Once there look around
Quite glad to be found
“Safe and secure from all alarms”.
-DRadaker

(Showalter and Hoffman)
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaning_on_the_Everlasting_Arms