Life as a Christian Woman

DAYS OF ELIJAH

Words and Music by Robin Mark

These are the days of Elijah,
Declaring the word of the Lord:
And these are the days of Your servant Moses,
Righteousness being restored.
And though these are days of great trial,
Of famine and darkness and sword,
Still, we are the voice in the desert crying
‘Prepare ye the way of the Lord!’

Behold He comes riding on the clouds,
Shining like the sun at the trumpet call;
Lift your voice, it’s the year of jubilee,
And out of Zion’s hill salvation comes.

These are the days of Ezekiel,
The dry bones becoming as flesh;
And these are the days of Your servant David,
Rebuilding a temple of praise.
These are the days of the harvest,
The fields are as white in Your world,
And we are the labourers in Your vineyard,
Declaring the word of the Lord!

There’s no God like Jehovah.
There’s no God like Jehovah!

Click here to listen to Twila Paris singing Days of Elijah on YouTube.com

What a song! The first time I heard Days of Elijah, I got chills. The verses, all referencing Old Testament prophecy, were so Biblical in nature that it felt like I had just sung my way through a Bible study. The first verse speaks to the times of great trial, challenges all around. And yet, the verse goes on, we are the voice in the midst of all the pain, all the trials, reminding the world that our Lord is coming… Prepare!

The second verse speaks on rebuilding the temple, the coming harvest of souls, and declares that we are the workers, the labourers for God, declaring his word.

How humbling and exhilarating! We are here, working toward our God, serving Him in the fields. The grunt work, some would say.

But then comes the chorus… Behold He comes.

Enough said!

Imagine looking to the skies and seeing our Lord and Saviour, our Christ, emerging through the clouds, trumpets blaring, the heavenly chorus singing. Our salvation arrives.

My favorite songs often reference heaven, Christ’s return. I can’t imagine being in the middle of my day, hearing trumpets, looking up and seeing my Saviour coming for me… ME!

These are trying times. Foreclosures, banks going belly up, employment rises along with gas prices. But what a wonderful future we are guaranteed! How can we be broken when the Great Physician is one prayer away? Earthly worries will fall away, and we will be with our Father for eternity.

There is no God like Jehovah!

Sweet, Sweet Spirit
Words and Music by Doris Akers

There’s a sweet, sweet spirit in this place,
And I know that it’s the Spirit of the Lord.
There are sweet expressions on each face,
And I know that it’s the presence of the Lord.

Sweet Holy Spirit, sweet Heav’nly Dove.
Stay right here with us, filling us with your love.
And for these blessings, we lift our hearts in praise.
Without a doubt we’ll know that we have been revived,
When we shall leave this place.

When I was young, we ended every service at my church with this song. Growing up, it never really meant much to me, other than it was time to go to lunch!

But this past year we sang it at the church I now attend, and the words have stayed with me and given me reason to stop, to pause and reflect on their meaning.

The song is a celebration of the Holy Spirit and it’s role in our lives. The opening verse is a reflection of this emotion of gratefulness and praise that the Spirit is within us and among us. There is a spirit here, the song says, and we know it is the Spirit of the Lord, that He is in our presence. We look around at our friends, our brothers and sisters in Christ. We see in them the presence of our Lord.

How wonderful a sentiment!

As the song moves into the chorus, the words implore the Holy Spirit to stay, to fill us up in love. But the song doesn’t stop there. It goes on in thankfulness and praise, knowing the Holy Spirit will remain, and in response we “lift our hearts in praise.” And finally, the blessed assurance that through God’s gift of the Holy Spirit, when we leave we will know that we have been revived, restored to life through Christ.

Doris Akers (pictured above), the writer of Sweet, Sweet Spirit, as well as Sweet Jesus, I Cannot Fail the Lord, and other songs, was born in 1923, and began praising God in music almost from birth. In 1958, she co-wrote “Lord, Don’t Move the Mountain” with the legendary Mahalia Jackson, her close friend. The song won a Manna Award for more than one million copies sold.

That same year, Akers, who was African-American, began the Sky Pilot Choir. The racially-mixed group featured African-American gospel music, and was known world-wide for their style. It was with this group that the song Sweet, Sweet Spirit was born.

As she told Lindsay Terry in an interview in the late 1980’s:

She related to me that one Sunday morning in 1962, while directing the Sky Pilot Choir, she said to her singers, “You are not ready to go in.” She didn’t believe they had prayed enough! They were accustomed to spending time with her in prayer before the service, asking God to bless their songs. She said, “I feel that prayer is more important than great voices.” They had already prayed, but this particular morning she asked them to pray again, and they did so with renewed fervor.

As they prayed, Doris began to wonder how she could stop this wonderful prayer meeting. She said, “I sent word to the pastor letting him know what was happening. He was waiting in the auditorium, wanting to start the service. Finally, I was compelled to say to the choir, ‘We have to go. I hate to leave this room and I know you hate to leave, but you know we do have to go to the service. But there is such a sweet, sweet Spirit in this place.’”

Doris explained to me, “Songwriters always have their ears open to a song. The song started ‘singing’ to me. I wanted to write it down but couldn’t. I thought the song would be gone after the service. Following the dismissal, I went home. The next morning, to my surprise, I heard the song again, so I went to the piano and began to put it all down.” She had been given the now-famous “Sweet, Sweet Spirit.”

I find it inspirational to know that a song that has filled me and blessed me was born out of inspiration!

Akers’ songs have been recorded by many artists, including Bill Gaither, George Beverly Shea, and even Elvis Presley. Millions of church-goers have sung her songs. In 2001, she was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Akers, who died in 1995, was honored by the Smithsonian Institute, which labeled her songs and records “National Treasures.

But I’m quite sure that the award she now enjoys, that of eternal life singing in the greatest choir of all, is the one award that matters!

To listen & View Sweet Sweet Spirit on YouTube, click here.

What do you do when your Christian spirit goes numb, disappears? I don’t mean a crisis of faith. Your faith is still strong, but something is missing in your soul.

It happens to all of us. It sneaks up on us and catches us unaware. Suddenly we realize that we feel apart from God, despite our constant search for Him.

Mother Teresa, who spent her life in God’s service, felt separated from Him so deeply that she wrote her mentors letters that begged for answers. She felt lonely and alone. It appears from her letters that her period of pain began shortly after her mission in the slums of Calcutta in 1948 (a mission she had begged, pleaded and nagged her superiors for over a period of years). As she dove into the underbelly of the world, a darkness overtook her spirit, a darkness that lasted through most of her ministry

In a book entitled Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light (Doubleday), she expresses through letters to her superiors, confessors and spiritual confidants that she is suffering from God’s perceived silence.

Jesus has a very special love for you. As for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear.
— Mother Teresa to the Rev. Michael Van Der Peet, September 1979

Many non-Christians have called Mother Teresa’s agony proof that there is no god. But note that she says that Jesus has a special love for the reverend. She is not denying in any way God’s existence, but longs to hear His voice.

A feeling a separation from God does not negate His existence. The Catholic Church has long had a term for this period in one’s faith-walk, called the “Dark Night of the Soul.” St. John of the Cross coined the phrase in the 1500’s, and it describes a period of darkness within the faith… not from outside, not from unbelief, but from within the faith.

We all face this at one time or another, on varying scales. In my own period of doubt and hurt, I struggled to see the light that Christ brings us. The light was still there, but my vision was blocked. A friend of mine likes to say that when we feel set apart from God, we need to check our compass and make sure that we are not so enmeshed in the horizontal (this world) that we are missing the vertical (God in His Heaven).

We are human. We will have these “dark nights.” But even in our darkest hour, our Holy Father is there. Even when we feel empty and alone, the Holy Spirit is in us. When we become so mired in the sins of the world that we feel there is no way out, Christ is sitting by the Father, interceding on our behalf.

The final words of the Great Commission, from Matthew 28:16-20, says it all, and are the words where we find our comfort in these times:

And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.
Matthew 28:20b

As I’ve mentioned before, I love Christian music. It seems to take me to a higher plane of worship. One of my favorites is the worship song “Trading My Sorrows (Yes Lord),” written by Darrell Evans.

I’m trading my sorrow
I’m trading my shame
I’m laying it down for the joy of the Lord

I’m trading my sickness
I’m trading my pain
I’m laying it down for the joy of the Lord

Chorus:
And we say yes Lord yes Lord yes yes Lord
Yes Lord yes Lord yes yes Lord
Yes Lord yes Lord yes yes Lord Amen

I’m pressed but not crushed persecuted not abandoned
Struck down but not destroyed
I’m blessed beyond the curse for his promise will endure
And his joy’s gonna be my strength

Though the sorrow may last for the night
His joy comes with the morning

The words are taken directly from 2 Corinthians 4. Many believe 2 Corinthians to be Paul’s most personal letter. It was written to a young, immature church, which was questioning his motives and authority. Throughout the letter, he relates his experiences of pain, suffering, and overwhelming odds. But he reminds the readers that all this is temporary, that we are working for a greater good.

Paul exhorts the Christians in Corinth: “(17) For our present troubles are quite small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us an immeasurably great glory that will last forever! (18) So we don’t look at the troubles we can see right now; rather, we look forward to what we have not yet seen. For the troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever.”

Some originally mistook the worship song as a “prosperity piece.” You know, if you honor God, you won’t suffer anymore. But that is not what the words are telling us; in fact, they are telling us the exact opposite!

We, as Christians, face persecutions both large and small. But we get up. We are struck down for our beliefs, belittled even by those close to us for our faith, but we get up. We are cursed on this side of Heaven, but we get up.

Why?

Because we are promised Christ’s joy. We are promised that at the end of the long night we call life on earth, we will have morning in Heaven, in Christ’s eternal peace and joy. Nothing this world can throw at us can take those truths away from us.

The chorus of “Trading My Sorrows” is so affirming: “Yes Lord, Yes Lord, Yes, Yes, Lord.” If we only say “yes” to our Lord and Saviour, our sorrows will indeed be traded for the joy that only He can bring into our lives.

Listen to this music by clicking on: Trading My Sorrows (Yes Lord), by Darrell Evans

(all scripture is quoted from the New Living Translation)

It Is Well With My Soul
When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Refrain:
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

Horatio Spafford

I admit it. My favorite part of church is singing. I love the old hymns and the new music. Christian music can touch me so deeply, so personally. It can lift me up and enrich my relationship with God.

One hymn in particular has long been a favorite of mine, “It is Well With My Soul” by Horatio Gates Spafford. Spafford was a successful attorney in Chicago in the mid-1800’s, with a strong faith in God. But that faith was soon to be tested.

In 1871, his only son passed away (he also had four daughters). Soon after, a terrible fire struck Chicago, and the city was ravaged by the flames. In all, 300 people died and another 100,000 were homeless. Spafford was ruined financially, as he had invested much of his money in the downtown Chicago real estate market. Yet he spent the next two years trying to help the people of Chicago get back on their feet, assisting the homeless, poor, and grief-stricken.

About two years after the fire, Spafford decided to take his family to England to join evangelist Dwight Moody, who was a close friend. There, the family planned to go on one of Moody and Ira Sankey’s crusades, then travel in Europe. But when the time came to board the ship, Spafford had to stay behind due to business. His wife, Anna, and four daughters (Maggie, Tanetta, Annie, and Bessie) would go ahead and he would join them later.

The ship, the Ville de Havre, collided with an English sailing ship (the Loch Earn) off the coast of Newfoundland, and sank in only 20 minutes. While his wife survived after clinging to a piece of wreckage, all four Spafford daughters were lost.

When she arrived in Cardiff, Wales, Anna sent her husband a telegram containing only two words… “saved alone.”

Spafford immediately left for Europe to be with his wife. While aboard the ship, the site where the Ville de Havre sank was pointed out to him. Upon reaching England and meeting up with Dwight Moody, he told his old friend softly, “It is well the will of God be done.”

Although it is not known exactly when he penned the words to “It is Well with My Soul, ” it was during this time of grief and prayer that the words came to life. The words caught the eye of Phillip Bliss, who was a composer. Shortly thereafter, Bliss wrote the music for the poem and published it in one of the Sankey-Bliss Hymnals, Gospel Hymns No. 2.

When listening to the hymn, what jumps out is the obvious fact that Spafford, while acknowledging the pain and suffering, didn’t dwell on them. The third verse talks of God’s redemption through Christ, and the fourth is a stanza of victory, anticipating Christ’s triumphant return. Imagine… through his own pain and suffering, Spafford takes us through a lifetime in one song, ending with Christ returning for us!

The song has long been a favorite of ministers, from Billy Graham to Martin Luther King. It has been sung for well over 100 years in churches around the world, and is often sung at funerals.

These words, written in pain and suffering, will live forever, as long as Christians have a voice.

On that glorious day of Christ’s rise to the right hand of our Lord,
The Angels in Heaven raised voices of triumph and sang in holy accord
With the prophet’s dreams and stories told of the power of our Lord.

A promise made by the Holiest of those to walk among us
Still, to this day, brings longing to those who strain to hear a chorus
Of angels shouting, heralding the return of God’s Son to us.

Text (c)1999, April Gilford. Image (c)Gospelgif.com

Easter, Easter poem, Christian poetry

The many blessings

God bestows

enrich the spirit

as it grows;

Toward his loving

arms we reach,

with thanksgiving

we beseech;

That God may hear

our hearts sing,

In praise to Him

our voices ring.

christian, Thanksgiving, christian poetry, Thanksgiving poem, praise poem

As you know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Breast cancer is one of the greatest fears for a woman, and it seems everyone knows at least one person who has been affected by it. My paternal grandmother died while my mother was pregnant with me. I never got to meet her, but the stories have left visions of a strong matriarch who held the extended family together and could cook a mean Sunday dinner. Many of you have watched your own mothers bravely fight, and succumb, to the disease. In honor of those victims and the struggling daughters they left behind, I offer this poem:

HEAVEN FOR TWO

Somewhere in Heaven is a garden, just right,
With flowering vines and butterflies in flight.
She goes there sometimes, I like to suppose,
And sits at a table for two, with one rose.
She gazes at God’s beauty, then at the air,
Where she searches to find how I might fare.

But in God’s time, in a perfect garden for two,
We will sit at a table, our love made new.
She will show me the joys of that wondrous place
And, in the telling, His glory will light her face.
There I will see what I’ve missed all the while,
In that Heavenly home: I will see her smile.

To read more about how 451Press is supporting Breast Cancer Awareness Month, visit this post on the site Discussing Breast Cancer.

breast cancer, breast-cancer-awareness-month, christian poetry, grief

On September 11, 2001, Satan attacked the United States. On September 11, 2001, our Lord claimed victory once again.

A child kissed his mother this morning.
“I love you,” she whispered in his ear.
A husband hugged his wife this morning.
“I’ll be home at five,” he promised.
A boss praised his workers this morning.
“Great job,” he said with a nod.
A waitress served breakfast this morning.
“Have a good day,” she smiled.

Flames filled the sky this morning.
An orphan stared, uncomprehending.
Chaos gripped the world this morning.
A widow cried out in anguish.
Towers crumbled to dust this morning.
Livelihoods vanished in the ash.
Fear toppled joy this morning.
Time stood still in its wake.

God reached down His hand this morning.
“I love you,” he whispered to His children.
God opened wide His arms this morning.
“I was, I am, I always will be,” He promised.
God welcomed home His soldiers this morning.
“I am pleased,” He said with a smile.
Jesus hung on the cross this morning.
“You believed, and you are saved,” He comforted.

Amazing video of 9/11 images set to Michael Crawford’s “Not Too Far From Here”

christian, christian poetry, 9/11 poetry, religion

I wrote Journey of a Sinner in 2001, and in 2004 it was chosen as the 1st place winner in the Poetry of Today Christian poetry contest. The length prohibits me from submitting it for publication, so I decided to share it here. I hope you enjoy it.

JOURNEY OF A SINNER

A lone man traveled down a dark and deserted road
In a worn and weathered gown, the remnants of a robe.
His features seemed so slight, his age advancing to death’s door;
He had faced many nights and would not see many more.
His hand rested atop a long and battered sword,
Testament to wars fought with valor for his lord.
And on his brow a scar, pale in the full moon light,
Gave hint to days by far more harsh than this cold night.
Hunger gnawed his body and never left his thoughts,
But he knew that in his life it was paled by a bigger drought.
The many years of death and slaughter had begun to take their toll
And bore a hole straight through his heart to the center of his soul.
All the battles he had waged without fear or hesitance
Never prepared him for this time of facing eternity’s presence.
For days he had been wandering, seeking a peaceful place
On which to rest his heavy burdens and wait for death’s embrace.
But no sight, as yet, had brought that stir he longed for in his heart –
A hint that all would be well and the end worth the start.
With darkness closing in and the moon appearing overhead,
His eyes gazed upward, his steps faltered, and his soul filled with dread.

With the last of his strength, he shouted, “Is there no rest for an old man?
I have served my time, defended my king, brought peace to all the land!
I have been honored at court; the bards sing praises to my name.
The fields of death were not my choosing; I am not to blame!
The spoils of war made me a rich man, built me a castle of stone.
But in my last days a tormented soul brings me here to die alone!”
Too weak to go farther, he laid down his sword, the scabbard a pillow of sorts,
And closed his eyes, fighting back tears, ashamed of his sudden remorse.
Through the dust of the road he stared ahead, searching for the proof
That his time on earth had not been wasted, but still it seemed aloof.
And then, the tiniest flicker, a flame? Could it be?
He saw the faint orange glow but still wondered, should he believe?
The longer he watched, the brighter it grew, and suddenly he dared
To stand slowly, hoping against hope, his loneliness had been spared.
He gathered his sword, straightened his robe, and started toward the light,
His heart leaping, willing his body not to shiver against the cold night. (more…)