The Mirror of My Soul

Job 22:28 Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways.

Mirror of my Soul

What do you see as you gaze upon me

The mirror of my soul.

Granted I’m not perfectly shaped

But my God has made me whole.

I ask that you not cast your eyes

To note my physical beauty

Look into the mirror of my soul

Understand my heavenly duty.

I’ll shower you not in distaste

Or vile and damaging hate

The mirror of me will reflect

Words of the Lord I relate.

I’m mindful of my actions

And everything I imbue

The mirror of my soul is lit

By all He’s asked me to do.

I try to be a reflection

Of Christ who dwells in me

The mirror of my soul will shine

For all of the world to see!

Prov. 4:18 But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

Poetry Sunday ~ The Tree of Life

Matt. 12: 33 Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.

The Tree of Life

The tree shivers in the cold

Standing erect it sways.

Branches bend in the wind

Stems reach out in praise.

The bark, it clings firmly

In a solid fashion

Forming a binding grip

of artistic passion.

The stem readies for growth

Gusts make them strong.

The weak will break and fall

The ones that don’t belong.

Not fastened to the root

The dead decide to wander

Much like that of man who

Leaves his life to squander.

Take heart in this message

That I have come to bear.

There is only one tree of life

That you should give great care.

The leaf will bring forth beauty

You will rise to its call

Unleashed is fruit and wisdom

That will rest again come fall.

Rev. 2: 7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

 

 

Quotation Saturday

Isa. 61: 3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

I’ve been in a contemplative mood this week and I seek to let some things go, some things grow and I desire to branch out and seek. I choose quotes that start me thinking.

~ TREE  ~

“I felt that I was not, never had been and never would be a living part of this overpoweringly solid and deeply meaningful world around me.”
~ John Knowles, A Separate Peace

“Deciding whether or not to trust a person is like deciding whether or not to climb a tree because you might get a wonderful view from the highest branch or you might simply get covered in sap and for this reason many people choose to spend their time alone and indoors where it is harder to get a splinter.”
~ Lemony Snicket

“And then, one Thursday, nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change, a girl sitting on her own in a small café in Rickmansworth suddenly realized what it was that had been going wrong all this time, and she finally knew how the world could be made a good and happy place. This time it was right, it would work, and no one would have to get nailed to anything.”
~ Douglas Adams

“Nothing living should ever be treated with contempt. Whatever it is that lives, a man, a tree, or a bird, should be touched gently, because the time is short. Civilization is another word for respect for life...”
~ Elizabeth Goudge

~ LEAF ~

“Listen to the trees as they sway in the wind.
Their leaves are telling secrets. Their bark sings songs of olden days as it grows around the trunks. And their roots give names to all things.
Their language has been lost.
But not the gestures.”
~ Vera Nazarian

“A withered maple leaf has left its branch and is falling to the ground; its movements resemble those of a butterfly in flight. Isn't it strange? The saddest and deadest of things is yet so like the gayest and most vital of creatures?”
~ Ivan Turgenev

“There is another alphabet, whispering from every leaf, singing from every river, shimmering from every sky.”
~ Dejan Stojanovic

“There is an eternal love between the water drop and the leaf. When you look at them, you can see that they both shine out of happiness.”
~ Mehmet Murat ildan

~ BRANCH ~

“There's the tree with the branches that everyone sees, and then there's the upside-down root tree, growing the opposite way. So Earth is the branches, growing in opposing but perfect symmetry. The branches don't think much about the roots, and maybe the roots don't think much about the branches, but all the time, they're connected by the trunk, you know?”
~ Gabrielle Zevin

“Be like a branch of a tree; flex your body to face 'wind of sorrow'; flex little harder to dance in the 'wind of happiness'.”
~ Santosh Kalwar

“The man journeyed far, and he heard and saw many strange things on his travels. He learned that - that the friend and the enemy are but two faces of the same self. That the path one believes chosen long since, constant and unchangeable, straight and wide, can alter in an instant. Can branch, and twist and lead the traveler to places far beyond his wildest imaginings. That there are mysteries beyond the mind of mortal man, and that to deny their existence is to spend a life of half-consciousness.”
~ Juliet Marillier

Weary Among Men

Job 39: 12 Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?

Weary Among Men

My heart is growing weary

My eyes are drawing dim.

I cannot find the laughter

In man who’s wrought with sin.

My legs are turning wobbly

My arms they hurt to raise.

I cannot find the joy

In man who gives false praise.

My mind is set to wander

Away from a faulty place.

I cannot find the happiness

In man who wears false face.

My body’s nearly broken

I’m aching all inside.

I cannot live in sanctity

While man is full of pride.

Dear Lord come and take me home

Where I might find some peace.

I cannot stay where I don’t belong

I cry out for sweet release!

Prov. 7: 19 For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:

The Souls Ascent

Pss. 11: 1 In the LORD put I my trust: How say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?

The Souls Ascent

I peered up at the towering mount
That glistened from the snow
Would I reach that velvet cap
That no one dared to go.

The very tip seems to drift
In a string of pearly lace
No end in sight for it was hid
Upon this rocky face.

Burgeoning trees whispered still
They called within the deep
Nature would carry my weary legs
If for my soul to keep.

Every aching step I took
Impelling me to climb
A voice was beckoning in my head.
Transcending the sublime

I walked on fading fury
As the summit reared its head
The stones were trembling underfoot
My essence being fed.

Every time I stumbled about
My eyes would raise to see
The brilliance of the lemon rays
Shining down on me.

I gasp for air my final steps
What seems to last for miles
My bated breath my moistened brow
Slowly, sweeps the aisles.

I let it out a HOWLING yell
I gaze at the valley below
My echoes resound in empty space
My soul begins to glow.

I reach the powdered summit
My mind now crystal clear

It's never the journey taken
It's relinquishing all you fear!

Pss. 49: 5 Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?

Judgmental Nation

Prov. 14: 9 Fools make a mock at sin: but among the righteous there is favour.

Judgmental Nation

Your false idols do not worship you

As much as you lust for them.

Nudity appeals to men who knew

They’d boldly be condemned.

Our God is jealous of your love

For material and physical things

You claim to adore the man above

Not afraid of what sin brings?

You continue on the erroneous path

You’re filled with misguided hate.

Laugh and scoff at God’s wrath

As you continue to berate?

You mock the people not like you

Judging those not the same

Laugh and scoff as you do.

There’s no one but you to blame!

A hypocrite will praise the Lord

Then turn and face the crowd

With mocking stance, you’re adored

Alone, obnoxious and proud.

When you can serve two masters

An image comes to mind.

Your life will fill with disasters

Your heart will be left blind.

Wake up you judgmental nation

You cannot serve the two.

While sin is your fixation

God alone knows what to do.

Prov. 17:5 Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker: and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished.

My Life has Changed

Prov. 24: 21 My son, fear thou the LORD and the king: and meddle not with them that are given to change:

My Life has Changed

My life was spent in the city

For many of my years

Blackened streets surrounded

A community of tears.

The dirt road dream forbidden

My survival full of doubt.

I longed to be in the country

Where rolling fields stretched out.

I longed to wake and taste the soil

A midsummer rain would cause.

My life was spent in the city

But my passion gave great pause.

In later years I found myself

At the end of a dirt road.

My prayers have all been answered

I was placed in a humble abode.

Before me sits fields and fields

Of cow, farms and more.

My God has heard my cries

And gave me a life I adore.

My life was spent in the city

I guess it was a test.

For now I dwell in beauty

Where country life is the best!

2 Cor. 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Poetry Sunday ~ I Pray

2 Sam. 7: 27 For thou, O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, hast revealed to thy servant, saying, I will build thee an house: therefore hath thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee.

I Pray

Now I’ll kneel me down to pray

Lord I know not what to say

The world is filled with so much hate

I pray to you, it’s not too late.

Just because they read the news

They feel the need to share the blues

My prayer is for them to open their eyes

And see some beauty within the lies.

I’ll pray they have an open heart

To give out love as their new start.

To not be overcome with guile

That they instead would give a smile.

As I kneel me down to pray

Please have mercy as they stray

Grant us peace here on earth

Allow in men to see their worth.

Now my knees begin to hurt

For man who sleeps in earthly dirt

Will you love them once again.

Show them grace, I pray, AMEN!

Ephesians 4:32-33 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

Quotation Saturday

GIFT

“What you are is God's gift to you, what you become is your gift to God.”
~ Hans Urs von Balthasar, Prayer

“Hydrogenated and androgynous milky white love is all I have to offer you. Would you like me to pour it in your coffee, or directly into your soul?
”
~ Jarod Kintz

“A wonderful gift may not be wrapped as you expect.”
~ Jonathan Lockwood Huie

“There are souls in this world who have the gift of finding joy everywhere, and leaving it behind them when they go.”
~ Frederick William Faber

WISDOM

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
~ Mark Twain

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
~ Aristotle

“There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must of felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of life.
" Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget, that until the day God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words, 'Wait and Hope.”
~ Alexandre Dumas

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
~ Aristotle, Metaphysics

LOVE

“To love others you must first love yourself.”
~ Leo Buscaglia, Love

“When we learn to read the story of Jesus and see it as the story of the love of God, doing for us what we could not do for ourselves--that insight produces, again and again, a sense of astonished gratitude which is very near the heart of authentic Christian experience.”
~ N.T. Wright

“…There is the heat of Love, the pulsing rush of Longing, the lover’s whisper, irresistible—magic to make the sanest man go mad.”
~ Homer, The Iliad

“I always think of each night as a song. Or each moment as a song. But now I'm seeing we don't live in a single song. We move from song to song, from lyric to lyric, from chord to chord. There is no ending here. It's an infinite playlist.”
~ David Levithan

A Snowcapped Morn

Rom. 2: 19 And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness

Snowcapped Morn

The snow is hugging the trees this morn

In a blanket of purity’s glow.

My soul is comforted in Christ the Lord

By a Light of wondrous show.

Each branch is cradled in soft cotton

Frozen is the arm and stem.

The Lord asks me to raise my eyes

And no man am I to condemn.

My snowblind eyes squint to see

The white that clings to the tree

God Himself has locked his arms

Around the mortal part of me.

Each morning I rise to a glorious sight

I bow my head and pray.

The Lord has wrapped me in His love

The sunrise a sweet bouquet.

Beautiful Pictures!

 Sunrise and prayer

Cows not where they're suppose to be!

Cows fertilizing my neighbors lawn!

Snow clinging to the trees today

I'm No Angel

Pss. 103: 20 Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.

I’m no Angel

I know that I’m no angel

Least not in the biblical sense

My Light doesn’t come from this world

I suffer no pretense.

The people will see my actions

And all that I convey

I try to be obedient

And serve Him throughout the day.

I know that I’m no angel

I’m a sinner just as you.

I walk amid salvation

My Lord will pull me through.

I know my God is watching

All things I do and say.

He sends to me a lost soul

That I might show the way.

I know that I’m no angel

I don’t profess to be

I only bring a message

Of Light that shines from me.

Heb 13: 2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

I Have to Wonder

Deut. 28: 46 And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever.

I Have to Wonder

I have to wonder what path we’re on

For seasons we’ve not seen

The Lord is coming to wipe us out

On satan you cannot lean.

For every incident that happens

We’re all about who is to blame.

I have to wonder why all point fingers

But never at their own shame.

I stand upon a Rock of faith

It never allows me to fall.

I have to wonder why men deceive

Not embracing the beauty of it all.

I have to wonder why idols are built

For demons who cannot save?

I’ll keep my trust in a LIVING God

For promises kept and gave.

My life as a Christian will shine

I want all of the world to see.

My testament of a faithful God

They’ll wonder why I’m so free.

Pss. 40: 5 Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.

Pss. 71: 7 I am as a wonder unto many; but thou art my strong refuge.

Poetry Sunday ~ Tally of Rays

Mark 12: 3 And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty.

A Tally of Rays

Earthbound glory I feel its touch

Radiance beholden me

Worthwhile fury I know too much

Credence to freely be

Knocking on my fastened door

Besieged my inner plan

Darkened naught forever more

Bequeathed me with its stand

Every facet of the brilliant Light

Beckoned my internal pleas

Constant in its goal to find

I reckon to appease

I shine amid mere mortal beings

Sanctity at its best

A vacancy there no longer exist

Iniquity is laid to rest.

Matt. 4: 16 The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.

Quotation Saturday

2 Cor. 8: 7 Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also.

GRACE

“By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.”
~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Grace doesn't depend on suffering to exist, but where there is suffering you will find grace in many facets and colors.”
~ Wm. Paul Young

“...I want first of all - in fact, as an end to these other desires - to be at peace with myself. I want a singleness of eye, a purity of intention, a central cor to my life that will enable me to carry out these obligations and activities as well as I can. I want, in fact - to borrow from the language of the saints -to live 'in grace' as much of the time as possible. I am not using this term in a strictly theological sense. By grace I mean an inner harmony, essentially spiritual, which can be translated into outward harmony...”
~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh

“Only those who are truly aware of their sin can truly cherish grace.”
~ C.J. Mahaney

BLESSED

“If you find yourself about to complain, think of your many blessings and rejoice! Don't give the devil a ride today, because then he'll want to drive full-time. So, kick his attitude of complaining spirit out of your blessed zone. Don't give the devil NOTHING!!”
~ Anita R. Sneed-Carter

“I feel so blessed to discover that each new day, I have the opportunity to watch the sunrise and fall in love with you again.”
~ Steve Maraboli

“I just always want to be different - THE EXCEPTION - and this weekend knocked me right back to reality.And the reality is - I AM TRULY BLESSED ..”
~ Jon-Robert Holden

“Remind yourself daily that someone somewhere is happy with less than you possess.”
~ Maddy Malhotra

FAITH

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
~ C.S. Lewis

“Faith is not the belief that God will do what you want. It is the belief that God will do what is right.”
~ Max Lucado

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”
~ Corrie ten Boom

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi

PRAYER

“The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.”
~ Søren Kierkegaard

“Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one's weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi

“Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one”
~ Bruce Lee

“Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.”
~ Mother Teresa

Happy New Year to You & ME!

Pic taken from the web

Rom. 8: 29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Happy New Year

So starts a New Year for the poet within me. Since my shift in my goals last year from Write Right to Joni’s Muse, I have felt physically better, emotionally better and most importantly spiritually better.

I no longer have any desire to write fiction and my tales of non-fiction are all on display right here for the world to see. I don’t know what came over me but the change has been for the better and I actually FEEL better. That’s what is important to me.

Not that I’m being selfish or anything, I just feel the need in these darkened days to touch people in a different way. Life is not all about writing, the craft and learning new writing skills, at least not for me any more.

There was a time I craved learning the writing craft. I had friends that were all on the same path and we were all walking the same road to knowledge in the field of writing. Something happened and we all journeyed down different roads. I went this way, they went that way and we’re all embarking on different legs in the journey.

Now mind you some are still on the same path together, and they’re happy with that part of never changing just staying on the same path. Me, I’m a rebel, I had to leap off the path and leave some behind because we weren’t headed in the same direction.

As you can read from all of my final posts before the New Year began, I’ve gone the way of a shepherd instead of a sheep. I never did feel right just following along, I always liked the position of being a leader and not a leader among writers either.

And with that change came new friends with the same passion that I have, a love of God. You knew I’d mention Him sooner or later didn’t you? It is amazing to see God work and bring people to me. I definitely feel a pull toward the wholesome path and not a run down rock filled path where the sheep just kick the rocks to the curb and live happily in a rose-colored fog-laden world.

Rom. 12: 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

I cannot and will not conform to this world and as many people try to lead me back to the lonely path to nowhere, I will continue down the path I began towards the end of last year, one full of Light and love! I have to, to save possibly others and myself who are tired of idle idols.

I will have opinionated pieces too mixed with all the poetry but like I say, it is MY opinion and not that of others. You can agree, disagree, love it or hate it, but it is just an ‘opinion’ and like eyeballs, everybody has them!

Enjoy the New Year, enjoy the journey you are on at this moment as I am enjoying mine. We don’t all need to be on the same path to be friends but it sure is nice having company.

Also I’d like to add, as my blog came to an almost complete halt; I feared a total crash and burn meaning I was headed in a ‘delete the whole thing’ mood. I came out of the quagmire with a new lease on the blog and I finished the year with 162 total posts in 2013! Already 4 posts in 2014!! Kudos to me for not listening to the inner demons!

Praise be to you know who… GOD!

p.s. Just as an added footnote: I won’t be sharing EVERY post on facebook so please have my page bookmarked for an easy return visit.

Love and blessings, Joni

2 Cor. 6: 14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

Grain of Sand

Gen. 32: 12 And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.

Grain of Sand

While some line up

On the bandwagon of sand

Rolling toward

the hearth to stand.

Warming hands

Beside the fire

All are mounting

The hearts desire.

Grain upon grain

I see the wad

Mounting up

Away from God.

Satan’s here

Always lurking

Finding ways

For evil working.

You jump in

Feet always first

You choose to see

In them their worst.

I praise the Lord

For the choice

To him be the Glory

Of my small voice.

While everyone looks

To the misguided flock.

I’ll stand upon

The Word, my Rock!

Matt. 7: 26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:

Your Sin is Not My Sin

Job 2: 10 But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.

Your Sin is Not My Sin

Your sin is not my sin

I cannot weather the load.

If I pry my way into heaven

My sins are the one that’s showed.

The vice is worn around your neck

Do you think each one’s forgiven?

While you go through life committing

And try to keep sins hidden?

God sees a lingering crutch in man

Those things you think not bad

He sees the things you seek forgiveness

And the ones that scorched skin had.

We often try to be our own god,

Thinking we have some power

To carry the load of iniquity within

Never giving the bundle a scour.

Your sin is not my sin

I have my own to bear.

I’ll strive to carry Light

When sin is what you wear.

Job 20:11 His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.

A New Year ~ 2014

Pss. 65: 11 Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness.

A New Year ~ 2014

My eyes shall see tomorrow

For today has gone away

A year that I put in the past

A new one’s come my way.

While others all celebrate

In partying lights galore

I’ll be home in quietness

Your peace for me I adore.

My eyes shall see tomorrow

I’ll face a brand new day.

With sunshine and happiness

That can never go away.

I’ll see the Light forthcoming

And it will shine from me.

Through works and salvation

I taste true purity.

Jer. 29:11-13 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

Poetry Sunday ~ The Voice of a Child

Rev. 3: 5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

The Voice of a Child

Written many years ago~Joni

A little seed, gently placed, into the hands of time.
Her soul was left amid the blooms in the garden of life sublime.
No one understood her quest and often nor did she.
There she dwelt in a cryptic world where eyes could never see.

Reaching out she uttered words, in hopes someone would hear.
But all alone the resounding truth whispered only to her ear.
She followed the path of righteousness the stones of suffering were lain.
Scattered among the rubble she bravely took the pain.

A force of light it beckoned her; the eden in her mind.
Surrounded by tranquility’s base, with souls so warm and kind.
Firmly standing in the pool of faith while others scoffed and scorned.
No one could see this young girl’s light or the wings that she adorned.

Cutting through, slashing her strength; all thought that she would fall.
Instead she rose above the realm to the place of duties call.
Sheltered within securities cage; no cry was she to mumble.
Awaiting the grace of a healing shield while always remaining humble.

The blessed healing swiftly came; her thirst did not subside.
Spreading her wings, surely to soar; one light her only guide.
Quenching her faithful desire, her pining never to cease.
Freedom stands at her doorstep...she now has gained release!!!

Luke 20: 36 Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.

* one definition of an angel: a person having qualities generally attributed to an angel, as beauty, purity, or kindliness.