Just six months ago, I was oblivious to the blogging world. My wife reads blogs but they were mostly recipe sites and of little interest to me. Then a good friend of mine talked about setting up a blog to share about his faith in God. I waited and waited for it and nothing happened. Then he'd mention it again and I'd wait and nothing happened. Finally, last October, I challenged him to see who could get a blog up over the weekend as a way of getting him moving. That really didn't achieve its purpose but it did get me started on blogging.
Anyway, he has finally got his blog up and I asked him if he could guest blog over here for me. So, may I present to you HMYU and his first post on the blogosphere with his take on the Easter Story. Please help me to encourage him to keep it coming.
"I see disunity among Christians,
I see no peace among nations,
I see the Gospel twisted of its facts,
And I see now why God had to act!
I see deterioration in moral values of the human race,
I see corruption and injustice showing its ugly face,
I see no hope for us all at this age,
But yet I see each individual knitted and created in God’s image!
I see sky scrappers and man-made achievement,
I see man’s pride with all it’s invention,
I see self-reliance is the key to life,
And I see now why Christ had to give up his life!
I see nature being plundered and raped,
I see no hope for all the creatures that God made,
I see how marvelous God's hand in all creation,
And I see only through Christ, we can have redemption!
I see the cross where you and I should be the one carrying,
I see death as our destiny with eternal suffering,
I see this journey to Calvary no one is prepare to take,
And I see Christ who took all these for our sake!
”My God, My God, Why have thou forsaken me?”
I see pain on His face at Calvary,
I see grief and sadness, with breath barely,
I see much tears and blood that were shed,
But I do not see Him showing any regret!
I see bondage in the human race,
I see death and destruction we will surely face,
I see God’s intervention in human history,
And I see hope, for Christ who died and now arose in all glory!
”Forgive them for they know not what they are doing”
I see sadness,
I see gentleness,
I see forgiveness,
And I see love manifested in all its greatness!
I see Christ as the living Savior,
I see His grace is for all without condition or favor,
I see salvation if we only believe,
And I see there is hope with God's full pardon......what a relief!
“As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” ~ Joshua 24:15
I see Christ ascended up in glory,
I see now this is the Gospel story,
I see no matter who says whatsoever the contrary,
I will still declare....He lives! He lives! And He lives in me.....what a mystery!"
Posts
What sooths me
2 months ago
23 comments:
The last picture is absolutely beautiful and inspiring.
tc
What an evocative and heartfelt post. The poem was beautiful in every sense of the word as were the pictures so inspiring. I look forward to seeing more of your blog!
I told a mutual friend "in commentland" that I hoped to write soon on how blogging is "writing" but something more. I hope to post it this weekend. Your post today and link to a new blogger is a perfect example of what I mean.
And I see there is hope with God's full pardon......what a relief!
That pretty much sums it up. Thanks for the great post.
LGS,
I've not done this before, but you left a very helpful comment this afternoon I was wondering if you (or another reader)could help me answer a question:
Do teens in other parts of the world have the same early and easy access to cars that American teens do? If not, that is an important factor in my next post in the series. (Seems like I see more bikes in othe parts of the world.) I'll Google it, but thanks for your help.
Wow!
Peace
PoI,
Interesting question, PoI. I hadn't thought about it before but I think you are right. USA is car central cause your infrastructure promotes cars, cars are cheap and you have a car culture.
In Malaysia, when I was a teenager(1970's), none of my friends owned a car. Maybe about a quarter will own cars by the time they are at University. Today, more teenagers have cars but I don't believe in anyway comparable with the US situation. The exception are the extremely rich kids where majority of them have cars and BMWs even.
The high price of cars relative to earning ability is one reason for low car ownership amongst teens here. For example, our cheapest rock bottom no-frills car is probably about RM50,000 and a small decent car at about RM 75,000. In comparison, a teenager working at McDonalds will earn about RM600/- per month.
So interestingly, the serious drunk driving incidents in Malaysia tend to involve the rich kids.
diesel,
Thanks for dropping in and for leaving a comment. HMYU will be encouraged, I'm sure. Peace brother.
odat,
Thanks on behalf of HMYU. Peace.
Good grief! Haven't had my coffee. I seem to be replying all over the place and missing out people. My apologies to top cat and janice.
Top cat,
Thank you. It was duly stolen from somewhere. (Hmmm. Moral dilemma)
janice,
I'm sure HMYU will add his thanks later but that was a really nice and encouraging thing to say. Merci.
Awe inspiring!
to share something as beautiful as that is not stealing IMHO unless of course it's for monetary gain.
I'm sure Jesus wouldn't mind.:)
Have a beautiful Easter weekend.
tc
Hi to all, I seem to have got myself into a close friendly blogger community here. Truly thanks for all the encouraging comments. I am a amatuer in all this....but am definitely penning down my thoughts whenever possible. Also manage to read the Feb 07 blog recommended by "patterns of ink"...i like it.
Cheers to all. Happy Easter everybody!
Inspiring words. It is so easy these days to think the origin of Easter was all for nothing. But as long as there are good people in the world who try to make it a better place for all, there is still hope.
Thanks for your help yesterday. Happy Easter!
This is why I leave the Easter posts to someone who knows how to do it right. Very well done.
Just coming away from communion services last night (Good Friday) really made this post become real to me. We had a guest speaker at church and he so vividly recalled the account of what he called "The Cross". An amazing speaker last night, an amazing post to read this morning.
HMYU, I can "hear" the passion in your writing, keep it up.
Blessings,
Ellie
molly,
Easter is about reprieve from condemnation and the hope of salvation. It's about allowing God to make us into better persons. Blessed Easter.
Tom,
you're most welcome. look forward to the post based on all your wonderful research.
Josie,
It ain't my post but HMYU's but I am sure he'll thank you. I'll do it for him, "thank you".
Blessed Easter.
JR,
Many thanks for the encouraging words.
Ellie,
I've known HMYU for years.... never knew he could write poems like this.
Oh silly me, I thought I would be smart and add something to my previous comment, and I ended up accidentally deleting it. That'll teach me to try to be clever :-) I meant to add that I am going to check out hmyu's blog. It's a beautiful peom.
I hope you are having a wonderful Easter.
Josie
With no disrepect meant for your friend (because I truly do feel that he needs to walk his path as he sees fit), this kind of thing was part of what drove me from organized religion. One of the pinishments at the time was crucifixtion - it wasn't unique to Jesus and it was horrifying no matter who it was applied to. It's a good argument against capital punishment, but means little else to me. And my worry is that when people focus on it, the messages Jesus taught about love and compassion and tolerance and simplicity and peace all get overshadowed. And I beleive people of many faith traditions can and do embrace those values. Still, having said all that, I do know that it is an important tradition to you, and I sincerely wish you a happy and peace-filled Easter.
josie,
sorry we lost your first post but thanks for the thoughts in the second one.
cs,
I too think organized religion has lost its focus too. And that is its taken up with rules and positions and traditions, forgetting the teachings and the commission of Christ. What we have here though, I hope you'll find, is about a personal faith and a personal experience and relationship with a living God. Thank you for your kind wishes and I wish you in return a blessed Easter weekend and God's peace.
I do see that, and I honestly do respect that. Later I thought about having commented, and hoped I hadn't sounded like I was saying I thought Christianity had nothing to offer. You've been steadfast in your support of me and I wouldn't deliberately offend you for the world.
cs
Please, I would not take offence even if you had said that you thought that Christianity had nothing to offer, if that is truly what you believe.
The point is that this is a personal journey - the search for truth. If we are honest about the search for truth, we must be prepared to ask and to answer tough questions. So, no worries. Thanks for the concern though. :)
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