I hope....

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
2 Corinthians 12:9

I hope I can go to my death with the same strength that Christ went to his. This is the words he said as I stopped to watch the last bit of Jesus of Nazareth. I said, "Dad, don't talk like that." He just seem to have a far off distant look after he had made the statement. I looked over at the man in the hospital bed that was my father. He had always been a strong man. His strength wasn't his own but something supernatural. His strength was tender and kind. Even the look he had in his eyes and concern you could see in his face for others could be felt. He didn't even want to let the Lord down in how he went to his death.

Little did I know what all he would reveal to us in that last month of his life. The amazing and unexplainable things that happened. Let's say that he spent every labored breath and action glorifying our Lord to the very end. If there is anything as an honorable death, his was a reflection of that. He let go while finding his strength in the unseen.

He was his hiding place in times of distress. So he did more than walk to him, he ran to him. God's loving embrace to protect him and renew his strength. Never to turn his back on his Saviour and Lord.

So, he praised him through the pain. Doing whatever it took in sacrifice, even pain, to bring God glory. Jesus was all the strength he ever needed in this life and at the end.

Pondering on those words and thoughts at church. I questioned my own strength, courage and resolve. My thoughts seemed to float on the air of the warm spring breeze. It felt nice and cool to my face from the open church windows surrounding me. I noticed a faint smell of flowers blooming on the wind. I made sure it was not coming from any perfume, cologne, or any scent around me. There was no flowers planted around the church or inside. I investigated this rare sweet smell of lilies, roses, honeysuckles, and mint. No one was wearing this scent for we are a small church and know everyone. I questioned my wife, and she had caught a hint of it. No one else had caught this besides her and I.

Was this the sweet smell of flowers not of this world but the next? Whose fragrance forever bless the saints with their aroma, flowers that are perfect and never die. This I do not know. All I know is that I question myself with good reason and at times something reaches back to soothe me. This is all I know.

by
Lance Gargus

Key Search Words:Christianity, Bible, Jesus, Angels, Soul Searching, God, Holy Spirit, Doves, Love, Children, Heaven

When people pray...

When people pray they pray to dirty looking downs-
When "He's" up there above, I'm not on the ground-
And when we're mean and angry we shake our fist at the sky-
And swear aloud.
Yet that boogie man's below,
Grinning up at us for he's not in the clouds-(I guess).
What is up?
What is down?
Copy this down!
Write this down!
Pick me up!
Don't put me down!
Take it up with him!
That's a let down!
Bottoms up, glasses down.
Go up town, all down hill.
What's up for heaven's sake?
Down town that's what.
Let me put you down for one.
No, I won't put up with it.
Who is up, who is down?
When is up, when is down?
by
James Gargus

I get out of this that we pray to God with a dirty, angry look on our faces. We should be on the ground on our faces asking for mercy. Instead we shake our fist at him in the sky and curse him. But the boogie man-the devil- is on the ground and is the one we should be shaking our fist at. So we live our lives running to and fro, up and down, side to side, with no general direction in which to head. Unable to make up our minds what to do or what we want out of life.

Key Search Words:Christianity, Bible, Jesus, Angels, Soul Searching, God, Holy Spirit, Doves, Love, Children, Heaven

Big Boy Blue

I listen closely with my mind,
for fulfillment, of a promise you made,
I can't quit now, believing in you.
The price is too high to be paid.

I listen closely with my heart,
for the feeling that our love will prevail.
For I wanta believe, I wanta know,
my plans for us just can't fail.

I can't quit now,
I can't stop believing in you,
I can't turn and go the other way,
I don't want to start life anew.

I feel keenly your closeness to me,
I feel your soft hand on my cheek.
The message of love we shared with our eyes,
without the need for us to speak.

I hear your laughter at something I said,
echoing in my weary heart and soul.
I see the blue of your eyes, the tilt of your head,
your auburn hair shining like gold.

Your memories, always return (come back) dear.
Tell me my (dear) love why can't you?
I won't ask darling why you left,
just come back to your big boy blue.

I love you.
by
James Gargus

Key Search Words:Christianity, Bible, Jesus, Angels, Soul Searching, God, Holy Spirit, Doves, Love, Children, Heaven

Mortify

Mortify therefore, your members which are upon the Earth are:
Fornication-
Uncleanness
Inordinate Affection
Evil Concupiscence/ Lust
Covetousness- which is idolatry-

Colossions 3:5
These are the restraining lines that hinder- and they are not always inordinate- except in the lives of those we need to help.
by
James Gargus

Key Search Words:Christianity, Bible, Jesus, Angels, Soul Searching, God, Holy Spirit, Doves, Love, Children, Heaven

Idols

Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Matthew 6:24

If we aren't very, very careful, we set up idols unwittingly.

Which is exactly what the adversary wishes!

We may pursue goals unworthy of our efforts.

We must have the medium of exchange, money or the equivalency thereof, but it must not be our idol.

by

James Gargus

Key Search Words:Christianity, Bible, Jesus, Angels, Soul Searching, God, Holy Spirit, Doves, Love, Children, Heaven

Re-dedication

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Psalms 51:10

Each, 1st Sunday represents, a new month, or the start or beginning thereof, in the sense, that we view this occasion as the re-dedication, of our lives in the service of The Lord. In other words, our correction or realignment of our priorities toward our fellow man-

Our lives are always or should be at the growing edge. That is our strength, our resolves, always keenly aware of the needs of others. And at the peak of our ambition, sometimes, in fact oft times of sacrificial, so that we minister to the needs of others before we, ourselves are recognized-

So in order to do so- we must mortify above problems if we be so incumbered.

by

James Gargus

Key Search Words:Christianity, Bible, Jesus, Angels, Soul Searching, God, Holy Spirit, Doves, Love, Children, Heaven

Memories

The memory of the just is blessed....
Proverbs 10:7

Some how memories don't leave,
to allow the mind to rest,
they linger, they grow,
not dimmer,
but flourish
with,
present happenings, triggering those, those
thoughts, again, of
what was once,
is now again.

So real, yet so intangible, painfully so,
always on the fringes of life's days, nights are
shadowy, they flit here!

Now they're leaving,
absent, but a fleeting instant,
returning, with companions.

Each one as,
a chain, linking one to
another,
their tensile strength, unbreakable,
linking history.

The wonderful past,
with the now,
causing pain, happiness, remorse, joy, sorrow,
tears, laughter,
memories,
memories,
oh, to shake off the years,
as a burdensome cloak,
to reenter for a moment,
that page of time,
now turned.
by
James Gargus

My dad hung a tire swing for my daughter 2 years before he died. She would play for hours on that swing. Sticking her body through the tire. She would twist the rope around and let it unwind with her in it. Spinning and laughing like it was greater than any carnival ride. The day she played on it for the first time was special to her. "Thank you, papaw, thank you, " was her reply that day. His enjoyment was the smile on his little grandchild's face. A simple moment for a love between generations.

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The Compass

There's so many things of which to write,
of people I know,
of things I've seen,
of errors of wrong,
and the good things of right.

But time speeds by, opportunities flee,
they don't pause,
they don't look back,
they both are constants,
not bound by procrastinations, such as fools like me.

Some sage may have said,"Give me the will, I'll find away"-
to do the impossible,
to think the positive,
to right the wrong,
to stretch my soul,
to work while it's yet day.

Ah! the Imagination of the active mind,
the romance of the heart,
leads to dreams,
excites the fantasies,
creates the adventurer.
What matters whether a role, or "real life" part?

If I feel my burden is too heavy to bear,
I lay it down,
I close my weary eyes,
I really have small worry,
I'll not be bound by the "passing life's" futile care.

by
James Gargus

Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.
Psalm 73:24


The compass of my life is gone,
will I ever find another?

I search for my guidance among the many voices,
in futility, I shout why bother.

For no one cares about me and where I go,
and the dead ends I encounter.

I can do this myself, my rage screams into the dark,
as my soul is becoming numb and downer.

I can no longer cry,
I can no longer feel,
I have spent all my emotions,
I am an empty shell,
No longer able to be joyful and let my spirit fly.

These troubles have overtaken me,
the evil ones have drug me down to their layers,
confusing my mind,
compass, oh, God, where are you?
Show me the way to flee.

Speak to me,
not with signs or wonders,
talk to me like your child you left behind.
The one who skinned his knee,
and you rushed into to console.
Help me see.

You said I could hear what you heard if I wanted too,
but those songs of heaven you heard before you entered his bosom are beyond me.
I only hear the echoes of my own voice coming back to me,
shattering my mind with, "What do you do? What do you do?"

Hate, anger, and rage fill up my thoughts, at people that loathe me and hurt those I love,
this is what consumes my sleep, without my compass,
eating at who I am,
who I was,
the world around changing me,
reshaping me into their mold,
tearing at my sense of self,
never satisfied until I am dammed.

I am to be silenced,
the joy to be saddened,
the happiness to be frowned,
the peace to be chaotic,
the love to be replaced by greed,
not until I have been lanced.

Compass, I wait for the dream of you to come,
to show me what you are seeing, hearing, and feeling.
But only the silence I held to my whole life,
which now threatens to consume me.
You were my guide in this world of pain,
your judgements guided by a higher life,
in a world yet to come.

In my silence I continue to wait,
for the day or night, by dream or vision,
that my compass chooses to reveal this to me.
To find out my fate.
I wait,
searching my heart,
I wait,
searching my mind,
I wait,
searching my spirit,
I wait,
searching my soul,
I wait,
helpless to help those around me,
I wait,
trying to lead a family falling at the seams,
I wait,
longing for a time with you.
God help me,
I wait, oh, compass, I wait.

by
Lance Gargus

Key Search Words:Christianity, Bible, Jesus, Angels, Soul Searching, God, Holy Spirit, Doves, Love, Children, Heaven