Category Archives: Poetry

Smith to Schaeffer, It’s Only Paper

April 22, 2014Books, Church Culture, PoetryL.L. Shelton

Give me one good reason,
One good reason to justify
The method God would choose,
His only son to testify,

His only precious son to use,
He, himself, to glorify,
Before all others humiliate,
Salvation to solidify.

With all power at his fingertips,
He could have spared his blameless son.
One word given from his lips,
New plan, and still the world be won!

Why make that wicked angel?
He knew without debate!
He must not have been thinking.
Maybe his mind wasn’t straight?

Not to mention all the babies,
Throughout the ages mutilated,
The criminals who do no time
While good mens’ lives are confiscated…

I find myself uncomfortable
With who God claims to be.
I think I’ll re-invent him,
Fashion him to best suit me.

There, now! Let me look at you.
You are riveting to see,
Yet, as I am observing you,
I’m seeing only me.

Though I do like you better,
You have become quite small
And truth be told, if you be God
There is no God at all.

Come Away

March 2, 2014Living the Word, PoetryL.L. Shelton

He calls

Each star by name

Yet all the while,

Reaches forth His hand

And claims, “My child!”

In him

To whom all space

And time belong,

Author of Eternity

Has sown

A hunger

Satisfied

In Him alone.

Seek me! Find me!

In You will I dwell!

Stir your passion;

Your Will fashion

There until,

No trace of rebel found,

In me fulfill

Promise granted

In the garden,

Now made real.

Crush his head!

He’ll merely strike your heel.

Faith and Reason

Be but brothers,

I propose,

As you study Master,

He’ll disclose

To you His mind,

Tis likely though

You’ll differ none

From one

Who long ago

Would witness

But His back and even so,

Did come away

Skin burned,

Hair white as snow.

Come away

To take your place

Among the stones,

Sweet memorial to Him

And Him alone.

Knowing

February 7, 2014PoetryL.L. Shelton

What will come of the child born old,
Shaking his fist at his own existence,
Wrapped in precious blanket of prescience
With a wish to have been left cold?

Preserving ideal and sanity
Poet, dreamer he must be,
His own thoughts redistributing
As pearls he casts upon the sea.

Catching Prey

February 5, 2014Crime, PoetryL.L. Shelton

Turning gamblers into legends
So said the sign I read-
Appealing to the powerless
Assuring they’ll be fed.

Dump your widow’s mite
Into our pockets deep-
Truth is you’ll be lucky
If we let you keep your sleep!

The Fall and The Rise

February 3, 2014Living the Word, PoetryL.L. Shelton

Each particle
Each atom
Each molecule
Each cell

Fell completely
Fell surely
Fell officially
To Hell

Only Love could save
Only Love could raise
Only Love could blaze
The trail

To glory
To glory
To glory
To dwell!

And in Him
And by Him
And through Him
We tell

Of Our God
Praise forever
And ever
We shall!

Freedom’s Song

February 3, 2014Living the Word, PoetryL.L. Shelton

Bound by what?
By time? By space?
Bound to tread each pile of place?

No indeed!
Not I, said He!
Bound by nought lest it be lack of creativity.

For Zeitgeist
Holds no power
Nor history a sway,
Lest be inspired by Truth: Living Word on Display!

The Wanderers

January 27, 2014PoetryL.L. Shelton

There are
Great minds-
The thinkers,
The wonderers.

Each travels
A unique path.
Each journeys
His own road.

Yet they converge
Where they must,
Wandering
In the heads of the others.

William Cowper and I

January 23, 2014PoetryL.L. Shelton

My friend from those days that
I did not attend,

Brother in polished future
Yet to have been,

Language thine element and
Empathy kin,

With Lagomorph for pet and
Christ as friend,

Thou art kindred spirit with
Mine in the end.

New Year’s Day

January 23, 2014PoetryL.L. Shelton

Bible Belt Idiocracy
Lost in our mediocrity
Destroyed in our complacency
Relaxed in our ignorance,

Preachers raping their own kin
Missing fathers-never been
Lonely mothers-craving sin,
Astute: Ignorance is bliss!

Children hoping for tomorrow
Choking suddenly on sorrow
Little lungs fill with the water
Mother’s chosen for the alter,
Of their demise, ignorant

Tiny humans-cozy beds
Fairies dancing in their heads
Quickly jerked limb from limb
End of story, God! Amen!
Now: Yanked out of ignorance!

Yard Sale Treasure

January 23, 2014Education, PoetryL.L. Shelton

The book was just a dollar
And the packing tape was free,
Yet between its tattered covers
An encoded homily,

A message to transfigure
Souls longing for the key,
Releasing tortured spirits
Hoping to believe.

I read it to the children.
We discussed its terms in depth.
Thank you, Miss O’Conner
I intend not to forget.

I feel somehow I know you
And I wish that it were true.
I feel from having read you
Our hearts beat the same tune.

Scripturally Speaking

Thoughts Of A Wondering Christian