To The Praise Of His Glorious Grace

For he chose us,

Blessed us

Hand picked us

Before everything

The Love that will remain

When all else is gone

Ever was

In the beginning,

In him

Who has no beginning,

And in that love

He chose us,

Chose us,

In Jesus

He who sees all things

Who truly sees us

Saw our unformed bodies

Saw the stretch of all our days

And recorded them all,

In his book

Before we could ever give him praise

Recorded them.

With loving care

In his book of days,

Through heaven's gaze

He chose us

Before he formed stars

Before he spoke light into being

He saw the spark, that he would place in us

He saw the love, that he would grace in us,

And he saw that it was good,

That we would praise him as we should,

And in the darkness of the formless void,

Pre-planets, pre-galaxies, pre-asteroids,

Pre-time

He chose us,

He chose us, To be blameless,

To love Him more, and fame; less,

To be holy in his sight,

To be translated,

From the land of the language of darkness

To the state of the speech of light,

So we never languish
So he summons peace from anguish

To the Praise of his Glorious grace

In love, he predestined us

In the heart of mercy

In step with the heartbeat of compassion

In tenderness, he determined

To draw us, with cords of Kindness

To lead us, in our blindness,

To adoption as his sons,

Something holy, this way comes,

The cords are not puppet strings

They are lifelines

Drawn from eternity,

Through lifetimes

From the flatline of sin

To vital life signs,

To the praise of his glorious grace,

Beheld in the beautiful face

Of his One and only Boy,

Big Brother to us,

The source of all our Joy
The wonders of his love and grace

are seen first in that face,

And I have seen that grace

That raises my downcast chin,

That warms my upturned face,

That strengthens me in weakness, 

That subverts my pride with meekness, 

The unending, 

Unbending

Undeserved, 

Unreserved, 

Favor of God, 

Unworthy I, boldly approach the throne,

And claim with reverend fear

the crown of grace, and grace alone,

And lay it back down at your feet

For all that you have done

And Praise your great and glorious grace,

In the face of Christ, your son,

"So turn,  turn your eyes,  upon Jesus, 

Look full in his wonderful face, 

And the things of earth willl grow strangely dim,

In the light of His glory and grace"

(Ephesians 1:3-6)

Perspective

You think that you see clearly
That no one else can quite figure you out
That if they saw you from your perspective
They would know without a doubt

That you're better than they judge you
That you're worse than they had ever worked out
That your story's always evolving
That you've every reason to scream and shout

That nobody understands you
Nobody has breathed from within your skin
No-one's seen from your perspective
No-one's felt the your crushing weight of sin,

If only they had seen you,
If only they had heard your heart
Pressed their ear up to your chest
Maybe they could have made a start

But the truth is somewhere out there
The truth it never lies within
True perspective always evades you
Its the snarl that lies behind your grin

You're the least reliable narrator
You're the most bias of all the witnesses
To the truth of your condition
You are the fount of greatest prejudice

Perspective comes from distance
Up close its all a blur
And my friend you were least likely
To ever see who you truly were.

New Years Eve

It is the midnight of the months
The second hand of years
The resetting of the clocks
Where all the world
Wind themselves up
To forget the previous moments
Good and Sour
The stolen seconds
A dozen Eleventh hours,
The weakness of weeks,
Catalogued, categorized,
By calendar,

And again, begin again,
To gain a beginning,

Zero zero; zero zero,
Grounded and returned
No matter what bridges we've burned
What elementary lessons
Have had to be relearnt,
What heights have been fallen from
Or the depths from which we have been scraped up,
Time is on a pinnacle
A pinhead,
A seesaw balance
Between regret and hope
Past glory and potential future failures,

We reset like cooling Jelly,
taken out, to melt,
In summers warm belly,
And remoulded
and chilled once more,

How soon we forget
That every new year
Will be an old year later,
Forgotten  and left
Like past lovers
And childhood vows of devotion
Droplets consumed
 In the waters of the Ocean of time,
Afloat, on this boat
On this vast sea of rhymes
Of new years past and present
Reveries hideous and pleasant

The Year of the snake
Sheds its skin
The Russian doll
Of the truth within

That the journey of Transformation
Is not in leaving one place
For another destination,
But it is a peeling back of the layers
Skinning the years one by one
until finally
The raw and glistening core
is exposed to the elements
And at last we see
The Terrible and beautiful truth
Of who we really are
And what we really need,

And naked and raw
Shelled and in awe
I raise my hand
To the God of sea and land
The potentate of time
In this rightful state of mind
And touch his grace.

Delivery Suite

The room is all set

The forceps of foresight
The Hot water of Baptism
The towels of servanthood
The gas and air of joy in obedience,
Are all ready to go,

The Father is stood by, waiting to cut the chord,

The Angels draw the curtains of certainty
Around the Holy family
As the registrar of births
Waiting in the wings
What transpires, mystery
His story will only record

That the deliverer
Has been delivered

Save the chosen few,
No one heard the screams
No one saw the blood
No one held their breath
In anticipation of the shrill, almost angry
Defiant yell of existence
And the relief, it bought with it,

The silent night
Was split,
Christ, the saviour, is born,


The deliverer has been delivered.

Guest Room of the Heart

Not the squalor of a borrowed stable
But with joyful welcome in the human heart,
I will welcome him with all I'm able,
Though my gifts could barely make a start,

To pay my homage to the King of Heaven,
Not with Frankincense, myrrh or Gold,
But with the simplicity that I am able,
Take this baby to my heart, to hold,

Though you cannot be contained by heaven,
It is in us that you come to dwell,
Never ever will you leave, forsake us,
God with us, our Immanuel,

With all the clutter and the mess at Christmas,
We remember the child in Mary's womb,
Remember that the 'King that came', is coming,
Let every heart prepare him room.

Immanuel

You're lonely, deep down,
So lonely, but none can tell,
Surrounded by Saints
Yet you feel like hell,
And the solution is, Well,
Well, well, well,
It's God with us;
It's Immanuel.

Cant get through this pain
Cant face this painful hour,
Cant take another minute,
It isn't in your power,
The solution is, Well,
Well, well, well,
It's God with us,
It's Immanuel,

No one understands
What you are going through
No one knows your estrangement,
No one feels like you do
But someone does, well,
Let me tell
Tell
Tell
It's Jesus
Our Immanuel,

Priceless presence with us,
This pearl within our shell,
The precious peace in whirlwind's eye,
It's too valuable to tell,
It's free to me, I cannot buy or sell,
Sell,
Sell,
It is God with me
Revealed to me,
My Immanuel

Taken where you do not want to go

Oh, Baby Jesus,
How strange that sounds,
Like 'newborn-ancient'
Like 'Finite-infinity'
Like 'Temporal-eternal'
Oh Baby Jesus,
Look at you now,
God and yet unconscious of it,

You smile up at me
From that manger,
Your tiny little fingers
Would explore my mouth
And stretch my eyelids,
Were it not for that swaddling,

Oh Baby Jesus,
Those hands will be bound again
But first they will be freed,
They will explore, and fumble and take
They will give and mend and break,
As you slowly become
The man God made you to be,

Oh Baby Jesus,
Whose words formed stars
look at you now,
You can't even form words,
You can't even say 'ah',
Just 'buh, buh'
And raspberry's
And squeals
You don't even know the deal yet,

Oh Baby Jesus
Tightly wrapped in clothes another chose
But you will learn to dress yourself
And follow the calling
Wherever it goes
Though for now
You must stay where you're put,

When you were 'younger'
You went where you wanted,
And if it wasn't there
You made there,

When you were younger
You clothed yourself in light
And righteousness made a pretty cool coat,

But, Oh, Baby Jesus,
Look at you now,
Tucked in
Wrapped up
And dribbling
Blowing spit bubbles,

When you're older you will dress yourself
And go where you please


And then, when you are a little older still
You will stretch out your hands
And you will be pinned down again

And then, when you are a few days older than that,
You will stretch them out again,
To family and friends

To one who cant believe
and to another
Who cant forgive himself

And you will say

"When you were younger you dressed yourself
And went where you wanted;
But when you are old you will stretch out your hands,
And someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”

And, Oh Baby Jesus, you will know
Exactly what you are talking about,
Because you laid down your life
Long before
You ever took it up.

And looking at your tiny unsuspecting face
Baby Jesus
Though it knows me not, yet
I can see
The greatest love