Guiding
Toward home
No longer lost
Shepherd gathers faith’s flock
Believers
Loving
Savior Jesus
Faith’s solid rock
Cornerstone of God’s family
Children
Calling
Each witness
Walking with Jesus
Sharing faith’s Good News
Disciples
Being a disciple involves becoming a learner, a student of the Master.
From Ephesians 6:7: “Render service with enthusiasm, as for the Lord and not for humans.”
From 2 Peter 3:13: “But, in accordance with His promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.”
Lifetime of building
Man’s labors seem so bold
Smallish enterprises
Growing fragile and old
Christ’s building schemes last
Any cost, He equips
Trusted enterprises
Growing discipleship
Eternity calls
Grace building rescue’s net
Savior’s enterprises
Liquidating sin’s debts
Christ, building for more
Faith’s stalwart cornerstone
Righteous enterprises
Shaping mankind’s backbone
Passionate spirit
Every consuming fire
Heaven’s enterprises
Built, never to expire
This poem was influenced from these words of Scottish evangelist and Christian teacher, Oswald Chambers: “Jesus takes us over for His enterprises, His building schemes entirely, and no soul has any right to claim where he shall be put.”
Pursuing
Faithful voice
Jesus instills worthiness
Taking up thy cross
Life
Following
Blessed teacher
Proclaiming God’s truth
Journey forward without fear
Jesus
Sustaining
Christ’s mission
Sowing faithful seeds
Harvesting from all nations
Discipleship
From Galatians 4:4-5: “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.”
Wandering, undisciplined
Enslaved to darkness of sin
Unlikely heirs of God’s kingdom
Seeking Jesus, Scripture’s linchpin
Flaunting rebellious spirit
Indifferent to God’s Word
Fallible, filled with weakness
Finding Jesus, redemption stirred
Warming frozen hearts with grace
Light rising from blood-stained tree
Adopted as God’s children
Choosing Jesus, forever free
Breaking loose from evil’s chains
Deliverance, God’s design
Forgiven, more disciplined
Praising Jesus, mercy divine
Proclaiming Gospel’s viewpoint
Epiphany of God’s joy
Disciples, called to follow
Serving Jesus, mission deploys
From 1 John 1:7: “But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
From Psalm 51:17: “The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
Broken, yet chosen
Each doubt overcome
Following Jesus
Mercy’s sacred drum
Every believer
Jesus commissions
Making disciples
Spirit-led missions
God choreographs
Gospel-filled verses
Outlining faith’s map
Sin’s path reverses
Blessed tomorrow
One empty heart waits
Filling with Jesus
Shepherd opens gate
Hand-picked by Savior
Together as one
Stirring grace within
Eternity’s sun
From Matthew 28:19-20: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
The real test of the saint is not preaching the Gospel, but washing disciples’ feet, that is, doing the things that do not count in the actual estimate of men, but count everything in the estimate of God.
From 2 Corinthians 12:15: “I will most gladly spend and be spent for you. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?”
Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) was a Scottish evangelist and Christian teacher. Following his death from an illness while in Egypt during World War I, his wife took on the task of transcribing the detailed notes she had written from his lectures and sermons. Gertrude Hobbs Chambers’ efforts resulted in the publication in 1924 of MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST. I frequently read from this devotional, and it has greatly deepened my faith and understanding of God’s Word.
Perhaps the transformation of the disciples of Jesus is the greatest evidence of all for the Resurrection.
From Acts 3:13-14: “The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has glorified His servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. But you rejected the holy and righteous one and asked to have a murderer given to you.”
John Stott (1921-2011) was an English preacher and Christian theologian. During his years in the ministry, he was one of the leaders of the worldwide evangelical movement.
Disciples
Following Christ
Hands and feet
Commissioned in His name
Serving
Disciples
Gospel messengers
Christ’s saving grace
Sowing seeds of faith
Serving
Disciples
Transforming witnesses
Walking with Jesus
Breathing with Good News
Serving
This series of poems (written in the German-inspired style of Elfchen or Elevenie) shares a total of eleven words in each poem, with a sequence by line of one, two, three, four, and one words.
Christ’s
Central command
Love, care, feed
Shepherd’s hands at work
Disciples
Life’s
Puzzle pieces
Scattered and lost
Shepherd finds each one
Savior
Hearing
Shepherd’s calling
Following in faith
Spirit leads our way
Believing
This series of poems (written in the German-inspired style of Elfchen or Elevenie) shares a total of eleven words in each poem, with a sequence by line of one, two, three, four, and one words.
Big Sky Buckeye 