“…just as a shepherd knows his sheep by name, so God knows us by name and knows all about us.” From the sermon: The Good Shepherd
Photo by Alexander Garside—Garside imaging
Tag Archives: Christian
Prayer / Poem of the Week # 20
Prayer / Poem of the Week # 20
Come back each Monday night for a free prayer or poem from one of the books we have published.
Sixty-seven
God, you ask me to be a servant
to do something special for you
something no-one else can do
and even though – a lot of the time –
I seem to have no idea what I’m about
no doubt I’ll understand in the end
I’m like a link in a chain
one strand in this ancient cord of humanity
you haven’t created me for nothing
everything you make is good
and I’ll be good too
I’ll do what you want me to do
like one of your angels, I’ll weave peace
I’ll talk about you here and there
I can’t seem to help it
I trust in your love, Lord
you’ll never give up on me
though I’m sick or confused
my weakness and questions belong to you
you’re with me in my aloneness
even if my friends leave me
and my future plans come to nothing
you know what you’re doing
you know where I am
my life will not be wasted.
From Redemption Songs by Mark Laurent (2016)
Click here to Order Print books and here for eBooks
Prayer / Poem of the Week # 14
Prayer / Poem of the Week # 14
Come back each Monday night for a free prayer or poem from one of the books we have published.
Seventy-one
Create a quiet place in me, Lord
hush the babble of my mind
the racing of my pulse
then my heart will begin to hear
your ‘gentle, murmuring voice’
Slow me down, Jesus
I need to take time
to see the beauty of creation
the exquisite intensity of your care
that way I’ll come to appreciate
and be thankful
Teach me to listen, Abba
to the cries of those in need
the questions of the confused
so I can learn compassion
In this unquiet world
help me to find a quiet place
and a quiet time
Lord, I need to hear
the counsel of your spirit
the poetry of your love
then I’ll have something to share
with those who cannot hear you.
From Redemption Songs by Mark Laurent (2016)
Click here to Order Print books and here for eBooks
Prayer / Poem of the Week # 9
Prayer / Poem of the Week # 9
Come back each Monday night for a free prayer or poem from one of the books we have published.
Pentecost
Waiting
wondering – how long Lord?
their hearts yearning
for the sound of his voice
the touch of his hand
the sight of his face
and those eyes,
searching, compelling, loving –
above all loving.
It had seemed that love was dead
life empty, pointless,
worse for them who had lived
with the Lord of Life
living now with stifling grief
hardly to be borne.
Then, of a sudden – GLORY!
their Lord alive
breathing
moving
loving
unutterable joy
bursting in Easter light –
glorious excitement
of never knowing when
but knowing that he would come –
a warmth, a light, a joy, and a peace
and Jesus in their midst.
Then, finally,
their tear-filled eyes straining
for one last glimpse in the sky –
and he was gone.
Again Lord
the agony again?
from heights of happiness
to be bereft, empty, lonely again?
“But you shall have power,”
he had promised.
When Lord? When?
So they gathered
to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost –
and suddenly –
rushing
swirling
buffeting
the mighty wind of God’s breath,
leaping tongues of living flame
darting
flickering
alighting
empowering each, loosening tongues
hearts aflame
souls outpoured in love and praise,
the gathered world could hear
and comprehend
the mighty words of God –
a Presence, a Power, overflowing
the Holy Spirit of God.
And I Lord,
weak, fearful, doubting
even I Lord
would be filled –
but to be full of you
is to be empty of me?
So be it.
I wait, with outstretched hands
in awed certainty
as the promised power floods in
filling
warming
irradiating
equipping me
to be the face of Jesus
the hands of Jesus
the voice of Jesus
the love of Jesus –
for a hungry world.
From A Celebration of Life by Meg Hartfield (2016)
Click here to Order Print books and here for eBooks
Prayer / Poem of the Week # 4
Prayer / Poem of the Week # 4
Come back each Monday night for a free prayer or poem from one of the books we have published.
33. A Farmer’s Prayer for Daily Work
O God, in the burst of spring growth,
let me rejoice.
In the first plantings of crops,
bring me hope.
In the summer heat,
shade me.
In the dried up hills
water me.
In the harvest work
sustain me.
In the big decisions
guide me.
In the autumn chill
warm me.
In the driving rain
shelter me.
From the howling winds
protect me.
In the slush and mud
encourage me.
In the lonely hours
stand by me.
In the beauty of each dawn,
let me wonder at your creation,
and the peace of the earth.
From The Shepherd’s Call – Te Karanga o te Hēpara:
Prayers and liturgies for rural Aotearoa New Zealand
By Bill Bennett (2018)
Click here to Order Print books and here for eBooks
Prayer / Poem of the Week # 3
Prayer / Poem of the Week # 3
Come back each Monday night for a free prayer or poem from one of the books we have published.
Costly Love
Martha
the busy one
whose natural way of showing love
was to cook, clean, serve
and she delighted to serve her Lord.
Mary
the quiet one
whose natural way of showing love
was to listen, absorb
and she delighted to love her Lord.
Jesus’ friend Lazarus dies
beloved of his sisters – and their Lord away,
returning
meets Martha, first as always, breathless
“Lord, had you been here
our brother would not have died!”
and Jesus consoles, teaches, explains.
Then Mary –
“Lord, had you been here
our brother would not have died!”
…and Jesus weeps… and acts
the overwhelming love of Almighty God
leaping forth in resurrection power.
Lord –
take my love
I pour it at your feet
take my tears
take my busyness
take my stillness
may I serve you Lord.
(John chapter 11)
From A Celebration of Life by Meg Hartfield (2016)
Click here to Order Print books and here for eBooks
Prayer / Poem of the Week # 2
Prayer / Poem of the Week # 2
Come back each Monday night for a free prayer or poem from one of the books we have published.
One
I love your story Jesus
I think about you often
drinking deeply from the flow
your life unlocked in me
Hungry for the promised fruit
longing to sprout and grow tall
hoping to be the kind of plant
you’d enjoy to look at
I’m tired of windblown days
one more storm-stripped leaf
fluttering away to nothing
on un-consecrated ground
Please don’t judge me harshly
for the bad advice I’ve taken
the times I’ve stood for nothing
those I’ve criticised or mocked
I know you’re watching over me
one day you’ll make me prosper
because my roots are in your garden
and my branches are your cross.
From Redemption Songs by Mark Laurent (2016)
Click here to Order Print books and here for eBooks
Free Sample poems from A Celebration of Life by Meg Hartfield
Here are two sample poems from Meg Hartfield’s A Celebration of Life
The book is available in print and in 3 eBook formats – see below for ordering links.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Emmaus
We had heard Mary
rapturous, glowing
afire with excitement
“We have seen him – he spoke to me!”
Well, we know women –
the harrowing, terrible last few days
prostrated with grief
obviously her mind unhinged –
women are unreliable witnesses
that is well known.
So, wearily, returning home
seven miles, from Jerusalem to Emmaus –
but seeming longer,
discussing, despairingly
the seeming futility
the end of our dreams.
The stranger was not noticed
was obviously ignorant of events
so momentous to us –
so we told him.
Strange the way he responded –
explaining
courteously we invited him in.
And as we ate, amazingly,
the stranger became host
broke the bread, passed it –
a stunned moment of recognition –
only one man broke bread thus!
Jesus! alive! here!
gone!
Seven miles was as nothing
with winged feet returning
bursting
with incredulous joy.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Swords Into Ploughshares
Ploughshares –
implements for cutting furrows
Swords –
implements for cutting people.
Ploughshares –
fixed in a frame
drawn by a horse
guided by a man
Swords –
fixed in a hand
wielded by a man.
Ploughshares –
used before sowing
Swords –
used for cutting down
Ploughshares –
used for rooting out weeds
Swords –
used for rooting out lives
God help us
to prepare our life-soil
to receive your seeds
of fruitful love.
Isaiah 2: 4
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Click here to order Print or here for eBooks
Redemption Songs — Reviewed in Touchstone April 2017
Review
Redemption Songs: Prayers for People Like Us
by Mark Laurent
Reviewed by John Thornley in Touchstone April 2017
“This book contains 71 prayers as poems by Auckland-based singer/songwriter Mark Laurent.
Mark is a Christian musician, poet, writer and communicator, and over more than 30 years, he has recorded many albums and published three poetry books and a children’s storybook. With his wife, Brenda Liddiard, he has done many tours of house- and church-based music concerts, in New Zealand and overseas.
Mark and Brenda live in a high-rise apartment in central Auckland, close enough for Mark to do busking on Queen Street. As he writes: “It’s good to keep in touch with life where it happens – with people where they are.”
This collection contains seventy-one poems inspired by the Hebrew Psalms, which provide ‘good jump-off points’ for the poems that express Mark’s ‘love, hopes and fears to God’.
As the poet writes in his introduction, “The songs are numbered instead of having titles, in the hope that this leaves a degree of open-endedness, so that God can say to you what you need to hear. Dip into them at random. May there be a few holy surprises here for you.”
The language is everyday and unpolished, with imagery drawn from the poet’s life experiences:
God holds us, just as I hold this stone
sees our hardness and our beauty
feels our weight and rough edges
knows our history and potential
we’re all miracles, waiting to happen
we should feel loved.
There is a strong confessional and salvation note in the poems, reflecting similar emphases found in the Psalms and the parables of Jesus:
I’m like a child coming home from school
tasting my mum’s home made baking
life seems a bit like Heaven –
now and then.
As reflecting the lows and highs on life’s journey, the feelings embrace both anger and frustration, compassion and hope:
When I look around me
it’s dog eat dog out there
and if you’re vulnerable or broken
they stare like you’re some kind of freak.
There will never be too many God songs
let’s keep on singing about the good stuff
get out the guitar – warm up your voices
it’s time to compose another one
the best and loudest anthem yet!
There are prayers for the individual and prayers for community, and we need both. Redemption Songs complements well Mark Gibson’s The In-Between Land: Psalms Poems and Haiku (2015). While Gibson’s prayers/reflections find a place for collective worship in civic and church venues, Laurent’s poems offer resources for those working in pastoral and counselling roles with individuals and small groups in such places as hospitals and rest homes, prisons and shelter homes. They are also good for personal devotions.
These two collections of poetry are published by Philip Garside Publishing, which is to be commended for making it possible for Christian poets in Aotearoa to be widely read.
Those wanting more information, including how to arrange a local concert from Mark and Brenda, can email him at mark@marklaurent.co.nz ”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Click here to order Print or here for eBooks
Free Sample – Forty – from Redemption Songs by Mark Laurent
Here’s another sample poem from Mark Laurent’s Redemption Songs.
The book is available in print and in 3 eBook formats – see below for ordering links.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Forty
I’m not good at being patient
but God always hears me when I call
Lifts me up when the time is right
steadies my stumbling feet – I’m still walking
I was pretty depressed there for a while
but now I’ve got a fresh song in my heart
People have been noticing – they seem impressed
some have even started asking about Jesus
There’s not much joy in the idols of culture
but great reward in simply having faith
If I think about my life, it’s full of miracles
things that can’t be explained any other way
God isn’t demanding payment for this blessing
that matter’s already been taken care of
Jesus came, just as predicted in the stories
did everything God said was necessary
Jesus delighted to do what God wanted
heal us – forgive the sad things we’ve done
This is so important we should tell everyone about it
it’s heartless to keep such good news to ourselves
God’s love and constancy anchors our hope
we’d be adrift and lost without mercy like this
When I look at the world – so many problems –
my confidence shrinks and life feels hopeless
Without Heaven’s grace I’m certainly a wreck
my many faults keep catching up with me
But God gets me through – no, more than that
I’m overcoming things that used to bring me down
Let’s pray everyone finds this joy, this help
the poor and weak who need to know they’re loved
Come quick Lord – please don’t wait too long.