The Joy Of Living

The Joy of Living

The south wind is driving
His splendid cloud-horses
Through vast fields of blue.
The bare woods are singing,
The brooks in their courses
Are bubbling and springing
And dancing and leaping,
The violets peeping.
I'm glad to be living;
Aren't you?

~ Gamaliel Bradford

From My Mother's Poetry Notebook

Stir Us

"Stir us, oh stir us, Lord we care not how,
But stir our hearts in passion for the world;
Stir us to give, to go, but most to pray;
Stir till the blood-red banner be unfurled
O'er lands that still in heathen darkness lie,
O'er deserts where no Cross is lifted high."
Amen

Untitled
Unknown Author

Inner Peace

It is the will of God for us that in the world's most crowded street, in the din of life, when the rush and hurry are at their most intense; ...in joy or sorrow, in love or in bereavement, in all that makes up our outer and inner life, we should have a place of retirement, a permanent retreat, ever at hand for renewal and peace.  It is God's will for us that we should possess an Interior Castle, against which the storms of life may beat without being able to disturb the serene quiet within; as a spiritual life so firm and so serene that nothing can overthrow it.
~ F. Underhill

From My Mother's Poetry Notebook

Submission

Submission
By Kenneth Robinson

I wanted to do great deeds of fame,
Something of worth for God;
I scorned the service that often coes
By walking where servants trod.

I craved the place where the highest sit,
I wanted to do and dare;
But the job that needed the grace and grit
Was ignored with the utmost care.

One day I sought the face of the Lord
For the plan He had for me;
And I earnestly searched His precious Word
To know what His will could be.

I opened my heart to hear His voice,
And He searched me through and through
And He showed me that my selfish choice
Was neither wise nor true.

So I yielded all, and I really died
To my selfish heart's desire;
And the carnal man was crucified
In a Pentecostal fire.

Ah, now I cry, "Lord, let me be
But a cog in Life's great wheel;
Only let me work that the world may see
The light of the Spirit's seal."

I do not ask for the highest way,
I'll walk where the servants trod;
I only ask that my path each day
Shall lead me close to God.

From My Mother's Poetry Notebook

The Secret

From My Mother’s Poetry Notebook: The Secret

MARY LOUISE HOOLEY-CARLISLE·FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 2016

The Secret

I met God in the morning,
When my Day was at its best,
And His presence came like sunrise,
Like a glory in my breast.
All day long the Presence lingered,
All day long He stayed with me,
And we sailed in perfect calmness
O’er a very troubled sea.
Other ships were blown and battered.
Other ships were sore distressed;
But the winds that seemed to drive them
Brought to us a peace and rest.
Then I thought other mornings
With a keen remorse of mind,
When I, too, had loosed the moorings
With the Presence left behind.
So I think I know the secret,
Learned from many a troubled way;
You must seek Him in the morning
If you want Him through the day.

~ Dr. Ralph S. Cushman

The Love Chapter

From My Mother’s Poetry Notebook: The Love Chapter -- I Cor. 13

MARY LOUISE HOOLEY-CARLISLE·FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 2016

The Love Chapter -- I Cor. 13

If I could like an angel preach
And with all wisdom others teach;
Yet, if God’s love were not in me,
All this as sounding brass would be.
The love of God, naught takes its place --
No gifts, nor works; not even faith.
The love of God is patient, kind;
It envies not, no fault doth find.
This love divine, seeks not its own,
Will bear all things when self is gone
And love divine behave aright --
No evil thinks, and shows no pride;
Cannot rejoice in what is wrong;
But in the truth -- even though alone.
Yea! love divine will all endure;
Hopes and believes what’s best and pure.
And love divine shall yet increase
When prophecy and tongues shall cease.
We know and speak in part while here --
It will be so till He appear.
Like thro’ a glass we see things here
Then face to face -- there He is near --
And now abides Faith, Hope, and Love --
But greatest of them all is Love.

~ Maurice Boursen --

Birth Night

From My Mother’s Poetry Notebook: Birth Night

MARY LOUISE HOOLEY-CARLISLE·FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 2016

Birth Night

Here is where stars are falling softly,
continually, and the snow is white,
white as the white of doves’ wings; here
where snow crystals sparkle in the
blue moonlight, and here where things are
pure and sweet, there is peace.

--Here is God, and here moreover is
Christ, that beautiful Christ who was
born on this night, and to whom all
choirs are singing, and for whom
all chimes are pealing, and because
of whom there is tonight joy o’er all
the countryside.  

-- forgotten for a time individual
destinies, for we are one, we frail human
beings, this night, as we rejoice and
feel once more this great beauty which
God has given us; and it is far too
much beauty to hold at once.

-- God was so kind, O Christ-Child
to give us Thee, so infinitely kind --
to be our loving Saviour, to teach us
to walk in love and to know that some
day this great peace we feel tonight
may be ours forever and for all time.

~ Author Unknown