The Uncertainty of Democracy

Democracy is always coming. In your mind's eye you can see it shimmering on the horizon like the dark spot on the road ahead on a hot sunny day where the blacktop meets the sky. Like that mystery spot on the road, true democracy never seems to arrive. It is just always out there on the tip of our tongue and our eyeballs. Democracy is such a fragile thing that is hard to put into words and practice because anyone can use the word "democracy" and some even use it as a disguise for tyranny. If someday true democracy is ever attained it will still confront an uncertainty...the same uncertainty that haunts everything that is deemed "certain." It seems to me that at this point in history, our democracy is just as uncertain as ever.

Perhaps it is time...

Seek the Lord while He may be found
And call upon Him while He is near.
If we believe in Him and we repent
He will pardon us and bless us.
There is a deep hunger within us
That bread and meat cannot satisfy.
Our souls hunger more than our bodies.
The Lord's table overflows with grace
And as for His mercy, it knows no end.
Man does not live by bread alone, but
By every word that proceeds from God.
Why do you spend money and labor on
Useless things that do not satisfy?
Perhaps it is time to make a decision
To call on God that He may answer you
And show you many and great things.

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The last thing to die...

To fear God is to turn away from evil.
To sin is to curse God in your heart.
Earthly good and evil are intertwined.
You can't have one without the other.
If it weren't so, then what is Justice?
In order that there be free will,
This is the best of all possible worlds.
It rains on the just and the unjust alike.
The difference is in the hearts of men.
Those who truly love God are of one heart.
Those who don't, love only themselves.
I rejoice in the Hope and Glory of God.
For hope is the last thing to die.
Prepare your heart and soul for loving,
Raise your sights to your Heavenly Father
Lest you be persuaded by evil to turn away.
God speaks to all who wish to listen.
Listen, and be of one heart with the Lord.

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A Candle of Understanding

Oh Lord, light a candle of understanding in my heart
That I might truly know Thy ways. Father, if it be Thy will,
I shall subdue my earthly desires and reform my sinful heart,
That after my time here I can receive Thy mercy and eternal life.
People can deny it if they want, but those who live in the Spirit
Hear the Word of God from beyond the notion of time and space.
To those who walk in the sun there is no lack of light.
It is only those that go astray who walk in darkness.
Heaven is within our grasp. Where else is there to run?
Why do people look for peace through some other door?
The unbelievers trouble me not for they will die in disbelief.
They have polluted the earth with their wickedness and will suffer.
Let not the sinner say that he has not sinned for God will burn
Coals of fire upon the head of those who say such things.
I will not be afraid nor will I let my sins weigh me down,
For I have sincerely repented and have been forgiven.
The Word that carries you and I and all things, is carried
In our hearts to share the Good News with other people.
The whole world groans as it waits for redemption.
O Lord, I pray for all those who have no one to pray for them.
I also pray for those who will not pray. Lord have mercy. Amen!

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To Think or To See?

The past preaches to the present and the arrow 
Points to dreams of the yet unveiled future. 
Every remedy is desperate and every cure miraculous.
The poet tries to get his head around heaven and
The philosopher tries to get heaven into his head. 
To change from one to the other, one door must be shut
And another door opened with a bold push.
Which will it be, to think or to see?
Nothing is quite as good as it seems to be
All things are best at the beginning.
We tire of things, they fall apart, the sunlight fades,
We wander the earth searching for meaning
To find a mirror of truth in the drop of dew that 
Clings so lovingly to the cheek of a red, red, rose.
Look up at the sky through the largest window,
Do you see any borders? No? I didn't think so.
The sky is not the limit, we are.
Pain follows sin as a plow follows the ox. 
Choose well and the momentum will lift you up. 
When the heart weeps for lost desires 
The spirit rejoices for the peace it has found.
Prayer is communion between people and God.
If we forgive others we will be forgiven,
And we will be done unto as we do.
The night grows cold, the party is almost over,
And then this too shall pass away.
There is nothing good in the world besides 
Goodwill toward others and this comes from the heart 
And the peace it holds at the center of ones being.

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Lord, I beg your pardon.

Lord God Almighty,
Now I bow down before you
From deep within my heart,
Begging for your kindness.
I have sinned, Lord, I have sinned,
And I know the laws I’ve broken.
I am praying, begging you,
Forgive me, Lord, forgive me.

Don’t destroy me along with my sins.
Don’t keep my bad deeds in memory forever.
Don’t sentence me to the earth’s depths,
For you, Lord, are the God of those
Who turn from their sins.
In me you’ll show how kind you are.
Although I’m not worthy, you will
save me according to your great mercy.

I will praise you continuously
All the days of my life,
Because all of heaven’s forces praise you,
and the glory is yours forever and always.
Amen.

(From "The Prayer of Manasseh")

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Let Worries Cease

So you run and you run to
Catch up to the sun, but it 
Races around to come up behind you.
The sun is the same in a relative way
But you are older, and weaker still
And closer to death by one more day.
The wind does the same as the sun.
It blows around from North to South
And West to East where it had begun.
The rivers all flow down to the sea,
Go up in clouds and down again, as rain.
For all the circles and cycles of the sun,
And the winds, the rivers, and the rain,
There is no final destination.
What has already been is what will be,
What has been done will be done over.
There is nothing new under the sun.
Human nature is going nowhere fast,
Like the tread wheel in a hamster cage,
Or perhaps like a wheel of fortune,
Round and round and round she goes and
Where she stops nobody knows...for sure.
No matter what the new invention,
We struggle with the same contentions;
The same deficient morality
The same basic insecurity
And the same desires of the flesh.
The more that things seem to change,
The more they seem to stay the same.
It is a litany of human failure.
Look beyond the sun to our Heavenly Father.
We will only find solace in God Himself.
Come weary traveler, take your ease,
In God let us trust and let worries cease.

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You never know...

Give yourself to God before death arrives.
What you can do today don't defer 'til tomorrow,
For a day once passed never returns
And missed opportunities turn to sorrow.
You never know which chance is the last.
By the light of a feeble candle we look around.
Everything vanishes, and there is no applause.
The words at your funeral fall on deaf ears,
For you will already be entering Heaven...or Hell.
Our earthly home is but a wayside inn
On the road to our final destination.
At the moment of death we awaken to eternity.
Imagine how it will feel when it is too late
To call on the Lord to beg His pardon.
For by then, for you, it will be too late.

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Who is Our Rock?

The Lord is our rock and our fortress.
He delivers us from evil and from our enemies.
He is our God in whom we trust.
He is our shield and our refuge.
He forgives our sins and grants us eternal life.
In our distress we call upon Him with hope.
He removes our fears and our anxieties.
He saves us from those who hate us.
He saves us from our unruly selves.
He deals with us fairly and squarely.
He rewards our love for Him with saving grace.
He loves the humble but brings down the haughty.
God is our light in the darkness.
His Word is perfect and true.
His goodness and mercy are endless.
For who is God but the Lord,
And who is our rock, except our God?
Our God who always was, and is, and ever shall be.
For this I shall praise the Lord forever.
Join me in calling upon the name of the Lord.

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A Prayer for Sharing

The Prayer of Saint Francis

Lord make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.
Oh Divine Master, grant that I may
Not so much seek to be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
And it's in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen!

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