Hide-And-Go-Seek

Hide-and-Go-Seek
By Steve Loggins
9/8/09


Five, ten, fifteen, twenty; on The Seeker’s count goes,
Where the hider runs to hide, only the hider knows.

A children’s game, yet one we play as adults every day,
Hiding from The Seeker in business, leisure, play….

Twenty-five, thirty, thirty-five, forty; the time to hide grows short
With desperate look around us, we search for some support.

For when The Seeker finishes, His count and turns around,
If we’re exposed to His chasing touch as Seeker, then we’re bound.

Forty–five, Fifty, Fifty-five, Sixty; the numbers climb so fast,
While we look for a hiding place, a place we think will last.

But there’s no place in this whole world where hiders can conceal
Their presence from The Seeker, His turning will reveal.

Sixty-five, seventy, seventy-five, eighty; the game’s as good as on
For The Seeker’s gaze is always true, He knows where we have gone.

And in truth, He is already seeking to save the lost and hid,
He is climbing the vales and mountains where straying sheep have slid.

Eighty-five, ninety, ninety-five, A Hundred! The count is now complete
He turns around but never says “Ollie’,Ollie’, All set free”

For The Seeker knows the rules, and no one can run to “base”
Without His touch, and becoming “It” – a child who wears His face.

Who in turn becomes a seeker too, of sorts, yet not the same,

For The Seeker alone, He never hides, He’s the master of the game.

No Graveyards in Heaven
By Steve Loggins
9/6/09

A graveyard tells many stories, of life and death and hope
A place where people come to mourn, a place where people cope
With loss of friends and family, of dear ones gone away,
The graveyard never asks us if we are having a pleasant day.

Graveyards know we’re coming, to visit or to stay,
Tombstones tell the years of our life above where remnants lay.
Sometimes, we hear a clarion ring; tolling, tolling, tolling the hour
Reminding of the passing time, a limitation of temporal power.

A funeral procession eases in, with lights aglow, and solemn hymn,
The casket lowers into the earth, a fist of sod with faces grim,
The time has come to say goodbye to mother, father, friend,
And many see the graveyard as the closing of life, the end.

This is why so many shun the place, and make up horror tales
Of graveyards haunts and ghostly face, of acts where the living fell
Into the hands of those who died, yet never really left,
But stayed behind for things undone, for promises not kept.

But graveyards hold no mystery to children of the King,
We understand that there’s a place beyond it where we sing.
There are no graveyards in heaven, no sorrow or parting there,
For those who know the Savior’s love, a reunion in the air.

With all the chosen ones who went through graveyards in the past,
To the city far greater, far nobler, than a world that cannot last.
No death, decay, corruption there; untainted by man’s sin
Only joy and love and peace, and worship from within.

It’s funny when you think of it, how life eternal came
Through a graveyard in a garden, eternity’s not the same
Since He conquered death forever, no graveyard can ever win
Despite the fear we have of it, We’ve His victory over sin.

Praise to the One

Praise to the One
By Steve Loggins
9/5/09


Give Glory to God the Father, give Praise to God the Son,
All Hail to the Guiding Spirit of God, The Triumvirate of One,

We bow before Your Presence, concede your Omnipotent Self,
We are but dust, made of the earth, a reflection of Your wealth

You, who flung the stars in Space, who made the universe,
Descends to earth in human form, born of one accursed,

By Eve’s great folly and Adam’s Sin, a fallen race embarked
On a history of war against the very God who sparked

Life into an empty shell of water and of clay,
We only have an intellect as His image stays

Intact, in part, upon us – tho’ twisted by our guilt
Restored once more by You, by Your own blood that spilt

We Praise You, We Honor You, We Glorify Your Being
Your Majesty and Greatness is revealed in everything

Good and Bad, we understand that evil is but a tool
By which your Grace can be exposed to all men, kings and fools

You are the Only One, there is none to Praise
No other “god” who is worthy, no one else to raise

Our hands in supplication, our voices sing Your song
For You alone, For You alone, For You alone are God.

My Rescuer

Rescue
by Steve Loggins
8/17/09


I push my way to the top of the wall,
I sputter and gasp and give out a call,

“I’m drowning!” I cry, in a sea of despair
I sink in the waves, doesn’t anyone care?

With desperate lunge, I surface again,
An infinite moment of gasping for air,

But all too soon the waters will reach
And pull me under, so far from the beach

Where safety lies in sun and sand,
I resign to my death, then..... in plunges a hand,

And grasps me firm and lifts me up,
Onto the waves, where air I then gulp,

I look at The Rescuer, His eyes and mine meet,
“You have only to ask... now, stand on My feet”

His feet, though they’re scarred, do not sink in the waves,
They hold up us both, and for all who He saves,

I look at the sea; there are more in the deep,
Bobbing and struggling, for most - death will reap

For many refuse to call out to the One,
Who can rescue them all through the work of His Son.

Instead, they will say, “I can handle this myself.”
“I do not need a rescue, my strength is my wealth”

And others will trust in floating debris,
Or boats, or yachts, in the angry seas

But I will trust in Him who came
And put me on The Land again.

His strength is true, I cannot drown
And at His feet, I throw my crown

To my Rescuer

Light in Darkening Times
By Steve Loggins
6/9/09
Darkness gathers as storm clouds fly,
a Gloom ensues around the sky.
Wind and Rain, their fury unleashed
Times of wonderment, times of grief
Huddled deep within the wall
While hearing booming thunder call
Lightning splits the sky above
Instant brightness frames our love
With upturned face we look for hope
Some sign that we can start to cope
With darkness, danger, uncertain days,
Then blackness comes to block our way
Of seeing if there is relief
To come to our poor soul’s belief
That there is more than darkness now
That light still shines beyond the clouds
And there it is! A pinpoint beam
Lances through the rain and steam
A brief reminder of the day
Of joy, of peace, and things that stay
The storm will pass, the wind is gone
We will survive - yet not alone
The One who made the storm clouds fly
He is with us – we ask Him "why?"
"Why do we have the darkened days
With devastation in the way?"
He replies with a knowing nod,
"The light shines brightest…" answers God,
When the darkness is the canopy,
On which I paint my tapestry,
Of beauty and of majesty."
"What would a rose be without its thorn?"
"Or a sea without its waves?"
The beauty of a diamond is shown
Best against an ebony enclave
So it is with blessings and the hurricane we meet
The storms make us appreciate the idyllic and the sweet
It takes both sides to craft a coin
Without the one only half is joined
We see the best by seeing the worst
We enjoy the most by having the least.
God knows this… and smiles.

Ashes to Glory
By Steve Loggins 4/8/08
　
The budding of the trees in spring remind me of Your grace,
With life from death, and new from old, a resurrection taking place.
The flowers bloom in Springtime too, rising from the dust,
Pushing their way through barren soil, reveling in their lust
For rain and sun – the stuff of life, that warms and feeds their growth
From dormant seed and hardened bulb…. To beauty and majestic worth.
　
Some say it’s just a cosmic joke, an accident of time and space,
That gave rise to life and growing things – the size, the tilt, the moon in place
All combined with some primordial soup of chemicals and ooze,
That Chance made life and complex form from simpler ones…. They’re fools!
One look outside my bedroom glass reveals to me much more
Than all the microscopes and tests that come from scientific lore.
　
Nay, life is Yours to give and take – You gave rise to all we see
Intelligent Design is manifest and screams at us in everything
From the budding of a rose to the bee which pollinates,
To changing seasons and pulsing stars – Your power to create
Reveals to us Your character, Your nature, Your intent –
Tho’ flawed by sin – Your glory within each facet of the cosmos sent
Like Phoenix from the ashes rise – Your grandeur shines throughout the skies
Newborn each day, your Glory stays – reflecting love in every way –
I bow in worship - I gaze in wonder – I live in amazement – of You…
　

Musings on the Eternal
written 7/22/08

When creatures of a finite time encounter such a Being

As You that live from Ages past, Who created everything

We have but one response that counts, that is valid in Your sight

To lose our shoes and collapse in awe before Your brilliant light.

Some clench their fist and swear to stand upon their own two feet

But in the end, they’ll know the truth – before the Judgment Seat

Others cry that You are gone, or were never really there

And that man created You instead to fill some instinctual tear.

And there are those who simply want the temporal to stay

Forever as it looks to them, each and every day.

With eyes so blind to grandeur Adam reciprocates

With a choice to stay with Eve again, Our failing demonstrates

A Need for things Eternal – of Grace and Power and Love

Of aspects of Forgiveness – of character from Above

This mortal life we try to live – with just a fleeting breath

Is nothing – nay, nothing at all – without You - only death.

Eternal One

The Love

"The Love"
By Steve Loggins
February 15, 2007
(revised, 7-23-08)
　
　
　
　
To what shall I with merely words compare the matchless love of God?
How can mortal tongue proclaim what angels in their chorus fail aloud?
Shall I say His love is like an arrow shot from Heaven’s bow to earth,
To pierce the heart of man below so we might know it’s awesome worth?
Or maybe I should, as others may, compare it to a seed –
That grows relentlessly within our hearts – fulfilling all our needs.
Sometimes it seems, His love is soft – like morning dew on spider’s silk,
Sometimes it rages from aloft – like thunder and lightning in the dark.
God’s love – inexhaustible, inexpressible, incomparable, indefatigable –
God’s Love – unfailing, unchanging, unbelievable, unimaginable –
No, words cannot express the depth, the span of our God’s love outpoured –
Nothing I can speak or write comes near to say, "God so loved the world" –
His love for you – for me – for us, can only be supposed
By a Cross, three nails, a crown of thorns – and a willing son – our Lord.