Plastic Faces

Tattered traces, webbing spun
Crying heart to sinners gun
Laughing, talking, drink in hand
Cursing, seething, spoiled plan

Running races, finish line
Crying heart to inner crime
Living, breathing, seize the day
Weekend, heyday, time to play

Plastic faces, tattooed smile
Crying heart to endless mile
Chocking, wheezing, swallow hard
Spitting, puking, body scarred

Quite places, quite shouts
Crying heart to crying out
Sobbing, reaching, tangled web
Tired, mangled on drifting ebb

Pleading cases, looking up
Crying heart to mended cup
Surrender, loosing, giving in
Forgiveness, freedom, life begins

Majesty, Kings and Grace

We search for majesty, kings and grace
Pining for dignity behind necktie and lace
Prim and proper in gardens grown
Fields of dirt from nothing sown

Wounded hearts and paper cuts
Starving children in garbage dumps
We search for answers, seek the truth
Living waters, fountains of youth

God becomes second, world becomes first
One becomes treasured the other gets cursed
Money for pleasure, money for pain
Some for the debt the other for gain

Turn from the ravage we see on the screen
Awake from the nightmare call it a dream
Flee from the battle field, flee from the home
Run from commitment and all they have known

Dance without dignity, sway without shame
Give reason for sin and give sin a name
Bathe in the waste, wash with the dung
Believe that it’s heaven, lie with the tongue

Seek for false majesty, kingdom and grace
Pine for the fake and live for the chase
Plant your own garden, eat of what grows
Live for the moment, reap what you sow

Behind Mirrored Glass

Piercing light from up above
Shining down to pierce the soul
Hearts lay out on the cutting room floor
Behind mirrored glass for all to see

Judging, judging, judging gavel down
Stones thrown at the hand that feeds you
Hold the man under the scope
Evil eyes looking deep within

God’s earthly voice is slapped around
Pointy fingers all up in face
God’s anointed bare, on trial
Numbers, words looked over with fake smile

Accountability screams the mad man!
Bare yourself for all to see
Drooling lips and gnashing teeth
From their chairs with feet in concrete

Judging, judging, judging gavel down
Red circles dawn the page
Man of cloth be broken down
The sheep attack the shepherd

Evil in the hearts of man
Deep within and guarded tight
Let us see what you have done
All of you and none of me

Accountability screams the mad man!
Trust was never their forte
Deeper issues lie among them
There, there is the hypocrisy!

Man of God is beaten down
Vision drowns in lake of vain
Carry on; carry on your beaten brow
They line up one by one to tear you down

(I'll give you a nickel if you can figure it out :o)

Someday Stand

Stand on the roof and shout
Poor and hungry crying out
Walk out a thousand miles
To see one dying child smile

Scream so the world would know
Jesus Christ really loves them so
Turn your selfish face
Away from mirrors to Gods saving grace

Tell all the boys and girls
God can use them all to change the world
Together stand hand in hand
Show God’s love throughout the land

Tell that He freely shed His blood
How He did it in the name of love
Help the ones with blindness see
A better place waits for you and me

Stand upon the roof and sing
Special praises to my Lord and King
Hold my hands up high and be
Closer to the One who died for me

Do theses things and so much more
For the One I so adore
Be His feet and hands
For the needy all across the land

Someday stand on the roof and shout
No more poor and hungry crying out
Walk together for a thousand miles
To see healthy children smile

The Monkey

There once was an island of people who walked around with monkeys on their backs. They would go about their day bent over from the weight of the monkey and the burden they would carry. They would look at one another and judge each other by the size of their monkey. The people with smaller monkeys would feel sorry for the ones with bigger monkeys. The people with bigger monkeys would feel sorry for themselves and walk around moaning, “Look how big my monkey is, look how big my monkey is, oh, the load I carry.”

One day a stranger came to the island to visit. He told the island people that he could remove their monkeys if they would just believe that he could. Many refused to believe that he could. They said, “I’ve lived with this monkey on my back my whole life. Now you come and say you can remove it? I don’t believe you!” Sadly, they refused to believe and they walked away. Many stayed and did believe that he could remove the monkey. They asked, “how can you remove this monkey?” The stranger said, “I will simply stretch my arms out and allow the monkey to walk over to me. I will take your monkey from your back and allow it to rest on mine.” “What?,” the people said. “We could never allow you to do this! The weight from all our monkeys would kill you!” The stranger told them that he loved them and it was his desire to do this for them. He could save them from all of the burdens that this monkey has placed upon them.

The stranger stretched out his arms and the island people believed, and one by one the monkey’s jump from them to him. Pretty soon the weight of the monkeys became unbearable and the stranger began to stumble and fall from the pain of the monkeys. He fell to the ground and the monkey’s continued to jump from their back to his until the people could no longer see him. They cried and wept because the stranger had sacrificed his life to save them from the beast that had once been on their back.

Three days later some of the people returned to the spot where the stranger had laid down his life for the island people. Once there they saw the stranger standing by a tree. “We thought you were dead.” They said. “I was, but now I am alive again,” said the stranger. “I must leave and go to my father, but tell everyone that I’m alive and well and that I love them and never will they have to worry about the monkeys again.” He also said, “Tell the others, the ones who refused to believe, that if they will believe in me and ask to be free of their monkey I will take their monkey also.”

Time passed and the island people lived well. Those who believed and were monkey free lived a life full of joy and promise. Those who did not continued to bare the burden of their monkey. There were some who believed and went in search of their monkey again. The just refused to give up their monkey. Some of the believers would say, “don’t you believe?” “Yes, with all my heart,” they would cry. “Then why do you continue to carry your monkey? The stranger has freed you from that burden.”

Sadly, they would say, “I must continue to carry this burden. I’ve accepted it, I’m living with it, I’ll get along, please don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.” There were some that would tell them the stranger removed their monkey once and for all and there was no need to carry the monkey any longer. They were free, rejoice! “No, I can’t, this monkey is just too big, I must carry it,” they would say. Sadly it seems, there were those who actually enjoyed the burden of carrying a monkey. What had been a burden had now became a pet. They believed he took it from them, but they refused to let it go. It was actually an invisible monkey. Something they envisioned there. Once something that is bad, heavy and hurtful is gone, why would you want it back, or even the memory of it. Why continue remembering what needs to be forgotten. Why bare an invisible burden? Be free of the monkey!

John 8:36

John 8:36, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

The days of being determined by anything beyond my own nature or being are gone. I am fully capable of choosing for myself. I understand that I am made, done, and given voluntarily or spontaneously. I am relieved from everything and especially something unpleasant or burdensome which means I am free from being bound, confined, or detained by any force. I have no trade restrictions, no obligations or commitments. I will never again be restricted by qualification nor will I be obstructed, restricted, or impeded. Being used or occupied is a thing of the past. Not being hampered or restricted in its normal operation is past, not present. I’m not fastened nor confined to a particular position or place. I am capable of moving or turning in any direction to perform without apparatus and done with artificial aids used only for protection against falling and not for support. If I choose not to cost or charge anything that’s ok. I refuse to be united with, attached to, combined with, or mixed with something else. I am chemically uncombined. I am permanently unattached, able to move about, unrestricted by or conforming to conventional forms. Refusing to allow any form of slavery and open to all comers. I am free indeed!

Leader of Land

Staring out at wooded sea
Multicolored harmonies
Waves surrender to the shore
Sand and shell feet explore

Mountains stretch to sun and moon
Flowers dance to morning bloom
Rolling hills bares time command
Tree limbs sway to nature’s band

Wind blows calm across the plain
Carried forth the cool of rain
Clouds of gray let loose of storm
Sky of blue begins to morn

Across the brown and green and blue
Around the globe which turns on cue
Mysterious outstretch of the hands
Conductor of life and leader of land