Faith Builders

And can it be
The canopy of God's blessings
Extends out to me,
Even me.

And just so likewise
The keen of His eyes
Sees through my disguise,
Keen eyes.

The kernel of faith
Delivered, displaces
A wandering waif,
Faith seed.

Now mornings are full
As this sauntering fool
Finds The Way is a Ray
That bleeds.

And what is man
That you are mindful of him?
A fleeting breath
A whispered prayer
There...and then gone.
His days are numbered,
Joys can be few,
Perhaps you are mindful of him
So that, in kind,
His mind can be full of You.

Discovery avails to every child,
Like a patient pedagogue, a ready repast,
A feast to fulfill the deepest foray
Of an appetite honed unseen, unlatched.

Air-filled lungs, a spank or two,
Peepers pop ope to a world awash
In color and sound and sights, all new,
Puzzles aplenty, questions unquashed.

Some journeys are brief, a day or less,
Some are quite long, some rough, some smooth,
Some are cut short on battlefields,
Some seem unfair, some lucky, some cruel.

Whatever your journey, whatever your path,
Whatever your travels as history builds,
Remember each day, when you open your eyes,
Discovery awaits, you're a child, be fulfilled.

"THE CIRCUS WAGON"

One of my first memories was eating from a tin Barnum Animals Crackers box, painted to resemble a cheerfully colored circus wagon. But that wagon was also a cage. The animals pictured on the outside of the box were majestic, wild, and untamed beasts. They were also behind bars. The cookies inside the box were shaped into believable copies of jungle animals. These were not comic Disney animals with smiling faces and human characteristics. These beasts were the real things. I remember a rhino, a lion, an elephant and a hippo, and they all looked the way wild animals should look. They were just like the animals I had seen at the Bronx Zoo.

Delight yourself in the Lord;
and He will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him,
and He will do it. Psalm 37:4-5

This verse is embedded in a chapter which differs from the over all scope we find in the Book of Psalms, for it mentions nothing of prayer or praise. But it is all instruction; it's " Mesihil – a teaching Psalm."

It's back drop is the prosperity of the wicked and the disgrace of the righteous, a type of situation where relationships are truly tested, "Shall I do as the Romans do or shall I stand alone and trust God?" (Read -- Ps. 73)

We must always remember it's only on the field of adversity that the degree of one's faith or love is proven.

"A man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet Him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones!" Mark 5:2-5

"For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened,
and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Genesis 3:5

Many of us understand that the serpent came to Eve in the Garden and tempted her to question God's Word: "Has God indeed said...?" (Genesis 3:1). However, that was only half of his line of attack. In addition to casting doubt on God's Word, the serpent called into question God's character. In essence, he said, "If you do what God forbids you to do -- eating the forbidden fruit -- you'll become equal to God. Why do you think He has forbidden you to do it? Because He doesn't want what's best for you. He wants to keep the best for Himself."

I think that one of the most difficult words in the Bible is wait. And there are other words that are related to wait, like faith and patience. When I was growing up, one of the sayings that was bantered around was “Lord, give me patience while I stand on one foot.” For me, that wouldn’t be very long because I have absolutely no balance. But patience is a far weightier thing than we think. The English definition of patient is “bearing pains or trials calmly or without complaint” and “steadfast despite opposition, difficulty, or adversity.” So when the translators looked at the Greek words and used the word patience, these are the concepts they were thinking about.

Hebrews 6:10-12 NKJV

Do you question why a good God would allow suffering?

Learn why you doubt and how to overcome these doubts.