Accusation

In storm and trial and grief and loss—When I am weary, torn and tossed

He stands upon my battleground, and shouts at me with fearful sound.

He taunts me with his lies and slurs, breaks me in pieces with his words

Pretends that he is unrestrained, I donot even know his name!

His words resound with fearful might, “you have no standing in this fight!”

You have no king, no battle cry, you may as well submit and die!

Look up, O Saint, behold my size! You might be saved with compromise;

Give me your worship and your crown, and maybe I won’t bring you down.

His fearful words resound with blame, my head bowed low in grief and shame

His accusations rise and fall, pretending he is over all.

Trepidation see's the fight, the plunder seized with hellish might

His words ring true and sensible, and he seems so invincible.

But One arises full of grace! He captivates and draws my gaze;

And I begin to heed His voice, stand to my feet and make my choice

I will not sin! I will not yield! My faith in God will be my shield!

The terror of this fight will pass; deliverance will come at last.

The One who rides upon the clouds, who cannot be perceived in doubt,

Has come into the battlefield, with shouts and cries of victory. 

O enemy, behold my King!  Let all the earth his praises sing!

O hail my Savior, Jesus Christ!  O hail The Living Sacrifice!

Lori Hollaway

April 15, 2016

If by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
are losing theirs and blaming it on you
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
and make allowance for their doubting too
If you can wait, and not be tired by waiting
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies
Or being hated, don't give way to hating
And yet don't look too good, or talk too wise.

If you can dream and not make dreams your master
If you can think, and not make thoughts your aim
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken
and stoop to build them up again with worn-out tools.

If you can make a heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of Pitch-n-Toss
And lose and start again at the beginning
and never breathe a word about your loss
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the will, which says to them: "hold on!"

If you can walk with crowds and keep your virtue
Or walk with kings, nor lose the common touch
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you
If all men count on you, but none too much.
If you will fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds worth of distance run
Yours is the earth, and everything that's in it,
And-which is more, you'll be a man, my son!

Call Back!

If you have gone a little way ahead of me, call back!
It will cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony trek:
And if by chance, faith's light is dim, because the oil is low
Your call will light my lagging course as wearily I go.

Call back, and tell me that He went with you into the storm;
Call back and say He kept you when the forest's roots were torn;
That when the heaven's thunder and the earthquake shook the hill
He bore you up and held you where the air was very still.

Oh friend, call back, and tell me for I cannot see your face
They say it glows with triumph and your feet bound in the race
But there are mist's between us and my spirit eyes are dim
And I cannot see the glory, though I long for word of Him.

But if you'll say He heard you when your prayer was but a cry
And if you'll say He saw you thru the night's sin-darkened sky,
If you have gone a little way ahead, call back!
It will cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track.
Mrs. Charles E. Cowman (streams in the desert)

Psalm 139

You have searched me and you know me
You have laid your hand upon me
You ordained for me perfection
Obtained thru your ressurection

I was made in a secret place
and your eyes saw all my days
all the days you ordained for me
before any of them came to be

I am fearfully wonderfully made!
the price for my sin is paid!
though evil is all around me
its snares will never surround me

Your thoughts are like the grains of sand
Lord I am reaching for your hand
Is there any offensive way in me?
I ask you Lord to cleanse me!
copyright by lori hollaway

Psalm 73 (Warfare)

Jeering laughter fills the silence, seeking to destroy my peace
Each day I rise to mounting sorrow, will this battle never cease?

Uncertain futures make me quiver, events that make the soul cry out
Must I beseech you God, forever? While evil victors point and shout!

See the christian! see him suffer! see his pain, his agony!
Will his God not come to save him? Is He too far away to see?

They strut about in pure defiance, there is no law that governs them
They think that God will never stop them, they cannot comprehend their end!

The battle rages ever nearer, I cannot give up this fight!
What does God call me to do here? I can and will believe His might!

See the wicked! Their destruction! See his designated end!
Where is now his jeering laughter? Before God's wrath he will not stand

God can and will appear to save me, His perfect planning will not fail
The tempters day at last has ended, The gates of hell could not prevail!
copyright by lori hollaway
April 4, 2000

Calling

Jesus calls the souls forgotten, by the world that passes by
Reaching out he longs to love them, longs to hear their broken cry.

Sinner let me take your sorrows, sinner let me heal your pain
I cannot let you surrender, to a world that has no gain.

Come to me and lay your burden, at my feet and go be free
Cease your strifing, cease your longing, for something that cannot be.

If the church would only hear them, if they cared about their tears
They would lead them to the Savior, who alone can calm their fears.

But there seems to be no interest, in a soul that's gone astray
If we see them linger near us, we cannot wait to turn away.

We don't like to see the sinner, as someone that we once were
We forget that grace once saved us, we never got what we deserved

Help us Lord, to see the hurting, see beyond their smiling face
To the real dejected person, longing for a pure embrace.

People hide their true emotions, from a world who cannot know
How hard it is to face tomorrow, while reeling from a brutal blow.

He's my neighbor, he's my brother, he's the bum across the street,
He's the lonely sad-faced stranger, he is everyone you meet.

He's the one who lost a loved one, who cannot seem to understand
How a God who claims to love him, dealth him such a cruel hand.

He's the sinner who in anguish, cannot bear to show his face
He's led a life of pure defiance, all he sees is his disgrace.

Tell them, tell them about Jesus! Tell them of his saving grace
Help us Lord, to love the vilest, let them see YOU in our face!
copyright by lori hollaway

I wish I had written this

There is a peace that reigns even in sorrow
of hope surrendered, not of hope fulfilled
A peace that does not look upon tomorrow,
But calmly on the storm that it has stilled.

A peace that liveth not in joy's excesses
Nor in the happy life of love secure
But in faith's strength the heart possesses
Of conflicts won, while learning to endure.

A peace there is in sacrifice concluded
A life subdued, from will and passion free
It's not the peace that over Eden brooded,
But that which triumphed in Gathsemane!