|| 2011.03.08

I know love
that knows death from the other side
and gives me strength to rise.
This power conveys me.
Hand that has broken hell's rights,
and wrongs,
and hosts the quiet which Death opposes -
to let me trust.
Though my life may slay me, Lord,
carve from me any death
that gives its way over to decay…

Let silver, let gold; let corrupt-able
be replaced by Jesus blood,
that I may obey Truth:
unfeigned Love,
from a purely earnest heart.
Regenerated, not by what had to die,
but by what must live alive,
always and still-
The word of God - Jesus.

This flesh is as grass and glory as its flower.
Grass dries, and flowers fall out.
Let us live as the living word,
this Gospel remaining forever.

When we plant a seed, we expect it to grow.
But why don't they all?
Are some seeds supposed to grow,
and others destined for feed, for fuel, even for burning?
Some to never live, others to flourish?

Behold God!
Who has directed His breath?
Or taught what He did not understand?
By Him kings rule, in His allowance all things are decreed.
And still He leads like a shepherd,
carrying the youths and leading those with young.
He delivers power to the fainting and weary:
to rise like eagles.
He hands newness to those without strength,
to run, to walk - to not stumble and not collapse.

Let the righteous rise
the earth fears -
let love flow.
Without corruption
let the love of God be known.


~JLB

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q: I have a hard time understanding the first stanza/paragraph. Are the punctuation or separations in the best places or ?

a: Edits are applied. Commentary:

I know love that knows death from the other side and gives me strength to rise.
-- Jesus died, and overcame death. The Father cares for us with the same power, and this same power is in me. No matter how often i fall, in God's righteousness i can rise again.

This power conveys me [.]
-- Not only can I stand up when i am tired, fallen or otherwise need to rise, the Power of God moves me, compels me and goes with me.

Hand that has broken hell's rights, and wrongs, and hosts the quiet [which] Death opposes - to let me trust.
-- In the defeat Jesus championed, hell has been defeated, its claims demolished, and the chaos turmoil and fear that Death's role in the fallen world brings to us has been mitigated. I am free to totally and absolutely trust completely and without reservation in God, Salvation, and the relationship that is now open to me.

Though my life may slay me, Lord, carve from me any death that gives its way over to decay…
--Mortality and its reminders are to frequently a haunt - distracting from what really matters. As a tree needs pruning, so does life. Sometimes this is physical baggage, feelings, a habit, or something else we need to be rid of because it is enough of an idol that it threatens or contains our steps from being decidedly and dedicatedly Godly. These things I need to be rid of, and stay rid of. Like a scratch on the paint of a car, left unchecked it will turn to a decay which eats away value of moments. Redeeming the time is one of the things God told us to do- not wasting any of it.

~JLB