More than Obedient

I want to be more than obedient, God

I want to do more than get by

I want to desire to honor You Lord

I want not to walk but to fly.

It isn't enough to just serve You

It isn't enough to repent

It isn't enough to just do what I'm told

I need to do more than relent.

Though it's faith that I need more than anything

Though it isn't my works that redeem

Though eternity's not mine to earn from You

A desire to serve should seen.

I want to be more than obedient

I want to love You more and more

I want to give all that I have to You

That's what I was created for.

by. Me

The Worth of Trophies

Would you like another feather, sir?

To put into your cap?

More accolades and honors earned

More fame that you can tap?

Do you let your eyes go wandering

Your many high awards?

Do you spend your free time pondering

How you can earn still more?

You can gather up the trophies

You can heap up much esteem

You can keep it all so closely

But what does it all mean?

Is all you are so tightly wrapped

In who you think you are?

Are your relationships all trapped

Behind narcissistic bars?

How do you deal with how they see

The life you daily live?

Do you miss the forest for the tree

Does truth fall through the sieve?

Can you take any of it with you?

Will it warm you in the tomb?

When your time on this world is through,

Will it save you from your doom?

Let love for self be love for others

Put 'me' back on the shelf

Let your heart beat for your brothers

And you will find true wealth.

by. Jonathan Schaefer

02/25/15

Progress?

What does it say

When you throw it away

Where does your future go?

How can we see

Eternity

When we've lost sight of what's below?

They tell us that progress

Is what we should seek

They tell us the past is passe

They tell us the future

Is coming and soon

The old things must pass away.

But what makes what's here

something to fear

What makes our own past something wrong?

Why do we eschew

The truths we lived through

When we've known them for so very long?

I think that the past

Holds things that should last

There are truths across history's span.

I don't think that we'll reach

The vision we teach

If we lose sight of where we began.

by. Jonathan Schaefer

02/10/2015

What He Did

God alone

Sits on the throne

To Him alone we kneel,

Despite our sin

He enters in

To make the shadows real.

Our weakened flesh

This tattered mesh

This ever sinking ship,

Is raised from waters

Dark and deep,

Pried from death's iron grip.

Despite our crime

Yes, yours and mine

He came to pay the price,

Leaving Heaven

Leaving all

To be the sacrifice.

The blood of Jesus

Works to free us

From the weight of sin,

His life now ours

No prison bars

A new story to begin.

By. Jonathan Schaefer

Say What You May.

You may not believe

But the story we're telling,

You have to admit,

Is rather compelling.

It may not seem real,

That God truly exists,

Or that He cares so darn much

For this group of misfits.

You may reject out of hand,

Or just spit in my face,

Or just tell me I'm crazy,

Or from outer space.

That you might need a savior,

You may never admit,

Why should you need forgiving?

It all looks great from where you sit.

But your heart truly knows,

What's real and what's what.

Are you truly so perfect?

Your heart says: anything but.

You can mask and keep covered,

Your myriad faults.

You can bury and lock them,

In myriad vaults.

Though the story of Jesus

Seems silly to you,

After all, why should you honor,

Some ancient dead Jew?

Because, I will tell you,

This man is alive!

Still around and still breathing,

Despite being crucified!

And this man you malign,

This figure you mock,

He's the Lord, the Redeemer,

The Lamb and the Rock!

For God looked upon man,

In it's pitiable state.

And He came in the flesh,

To redeem and relate.

This God,

to whom all of the Universe bows,

This God,

Who has kept every one of His vows.

This God,

Who you laugh at, you slander, malign,

Came down to the earth,

To trade His life for mine.

This God became man,

To make renegades whole,

For the God of creation,

Loves humanity's soul.

Now you may not believe,

And you may not give heed,

But you cannot deny,

Humanity's need.

We are all far from perfect,

Every one of us dark,

So beyond what we were,

So far gone past the mark.

I know where I stand,

I know that I'm free,

Thanks to God, my Redeemer,

and the Lamb on the tree.

By. Jonathan E. Schaefer

Love, Because, Despite

When once we walked a weary road

Through hardship and through winter cold

When once the darkest night was set

and naught a single need was met.

Though we had journeyed long and struggled far

And still no closer to the nearest star

Though we had given all, offered all we had

We still found life was lonely, sad.

Despite our lengthy list of crimes,

impotent to pay the fines.

Despite the guilt we have had since birth,

He saw in us, essential worth.

Because of who He claims to be,

The God of all whose love is free.

Because He is the Way, the One,

Made a way for sin to be undone.

This God who rules the heavenly host,

Who built the world from peak to coast.

This God who knows the deepest sea,

Has love for even you and me.

Because our sin was vast and deep,

A bitter harvest we would reap.

Because of what we all had done,

We earned the wrath of the Holy One.

Despite how we deserved to die,

He sent us One to crucify.

Despite His unknowable and infinite worth,

God's Son came down to lowly earth.

Though He was here and perfect still,

We missed the point and chose to kill.

Though we threw away the perfect man,

We acted out God's perfect plan.

When nothing seemed to be at peace,

And darkness reined from west to east.

When sin would burn the whole of earth,

God saved us through a baby's birth.

by. Jonathan E. Schaefer

What It Comes To.

It comes down to a choice,

We make each waking moment.

It comes down to the point,

When we have to stake our fate.

It comes down to an instant,

When we're out of time to stall.

It comes down to a decision,

When we can no longer wait.

Our lives are so chaotic,

So little still makes sense.

Our lives seem dull and hopeless,

Is there a point, is there a way?

Our lives are bent and broken,

And soon to fall apart.

Our lives have lost direction,

Does the wind blow where it may?

We're not trapped in the unknowable,

Nor lost amid the fog.

We may be unforgivable,

But still He came to came to save us all.

We are so undeserving.

We are so lost on our own.

He may be God the righteous,

But He'll still lift you when you fall.

This life seems often pointless,

We cannot keep from sin.

This life often confront us,

With anger, sorrow, pain.

This life will leave you empty,

If you try it on your own.

But there is more to live for,

Beyond the desert there is rain.

It comes down to a Person,

Who makes everything new.

It comes down to a little risk,

Living life out on a limb.

It comes down to a true love,

Life once given, grace received.

It comes down to more than human,

It all comes down to Him.

by. Jonathan Schaefer

11/24/14

**Hope you liked today's poem, tried out an experimental rhyme scheme.  Let me know what you think!  Also I'll be taking the rest of the week off for Thanksgiving, so my last post will be on Wednesday this week.  Thanks for reading!

For Him

I cannot sing the loudest

Nor can I sing the best.

I cannot sing as sweetly,

As a bird does from her nest.

But when I make a joyful sound,

I sing unto the King.

I sing to thank Him for His love,

And the blessings that He brings.

I am not a famous artist,

My works are not well known.

I'm in no uptown galleries,

Or art collector's homes.

My work is far from popular,

But ask me if I care,

My purpose is to praise my God,

His glory to declare.

My words don't always leave my pen

With fervent, eager glee.

I don't always make a perfect point,

Or paint fitting imagery.

My writing tells of stories,

That are hundreds of years old,

Yet still the truth contained therein

Is fierce and live and bold.

We may never find great riches,

We may never have grand homes,

But with every work that glorifies,
We lay an alter stone.

Our lives will be the sacrifice,

A gift to One on high.

We know the only way to live,

Is every day to die.

by. Jonathan E. Schaefer

11/16/2014

Which Way?

The path we walk is narrow

With no walls to mark the sides

The trail often twists and turns

Like the best of theme park rides.

How are we to know the way?

And how are we to stay,

Upon the one and only path

That leads to brighter days?

How can we know with surety

The truth of any thing?

When all around us people claim

That truth is anything?

Are they all right?

Is every thought and dream

Equally true?

Can I hold to my own musings

And still find my way to You?

And what about this “narrow gate”

You talk about in Luke?

Did You mean the way was slim and small

Or was it just a fluke?

If truth means this is right

And that this other thing is wrong,

How can we think that every thought

Can equally belong?

If Jesus claimed to be the way,

The truth and to be light,

How can He we say He wasn't

and still think we'll be alright?

by. Jonathan E. Schaefer

11/12/2014

Doubting the Script

     Sorry for the lack of post Friday, I have been extremely busy lately.  So much so that I haven't had time to write anything for today either ^^;
     Here's a throwback poem written back in 2006, from the perspective of a Godless world, much like the book of Ecclesiastes (although not nearly as well written,thoughtful,wise,etc!)  See you on Wednesday with a new full post!

Doubting the Script

I am unwanted

unneeded and undone

my mind has gone on holiday

confusions all but won

when you cannot see your future

do you really know your past?

and if it's all a mystery

than can your life still last?

and still you ask the question

"what’s the point and who am I?"

and "will I ever see more than

this bleak forsaken sky?"

in droves we try to carry on

lost children of this age

actors who at once

have lost the will to cross the stage

this painted picture carries on

an image so contrived

lacking heart and soul

and all that makes a thing alive.

By. Jonathan Schaefer

1/27/06

To See and Believe

You say I haven't faith to see,

the light of God alive in me.

You say I lack a truer heart

and belief that sets a soul apart.

You say if I would only pray,

throw all I think I know away,

and use my heart and not my head,

I'd find myself now Spirit lead!

I'd speak the language angels use,

the Holy Ghost would be my muse!

I could raise the dead and heal the sick,

God's power cutting to the quick.

You say that every sinner's heart

would be redeemed, a brand new start.

If only they could see God's power

they'd all repent this very hour.

and yet,

The Bible tells it differently.

There's evidence for all to see!

In this world created, though torn with strife

and in the power of a new-made life.

I've seen the power of God above,

I've seen His unimaginable love.

It's not in gifts of tounges or health.

It's in the Word and in myself

The power of God is plainly shown

in Christ and how His death alone,

has paid for every sinner's soul,

a sacrifice to make men whole.

If men won't listen to His Word,

if they reject what they have heard,

no cosmic show will bring them down,

to submit themselves to Jesus' crown.

I need no other evidence,

the gospel will suffice.

For my soul was bonded once to hell,

and Jesus paid the price.

by. Jonathan E. Schaefer

10/17/2014

Have You?

Have you seen the sandman?

Have you seen the end of days?

Have you contemplated death

Or Have you stared at crashing waves.

Have you thought of death

and how it comes

to every one that breathes,

Have you wondered at our purpose

Are we frail as fallen leaves?

Have you realized that ultimately

Nothing matters much,

Have you seen that great importance

Can come from simple touch?

Have you thought of how

A world of chaos

struggles to entice?

Have you seen how little we all matter

no more significant than mice.

Have you realized that it takes a something

bigger than this stuff

to make it all important

to bring us more than pomp and fluff?

Have you sought the God of all the world

Have you heard His people call

Have you seen the messages He's left

on this tiny dusty ball?

Have you made the choice to die today

that you might live in Him?

Have you emptied out your heart

That He may fill it to the brim?

Have you contemplated pointlessness

Have you seen this dull world's lies

Have you seen the light from God above

Has He torn the world's disguise?

Has He made you a new creature,

different now and ever more,

Has He shown you precious glimpses

of all He has in store?

Has He shown you how true purpose

Exists only in eternity

Has He cast aside your fear and doubt,

Replaced with certainty.

Have you?

Has He?

Have We?

by. Jonathan Schaefer

09/29/14

Where We Stand

We stand upon this shifting sand

The pillars of this aging land,

Are shaking now and falling soon

The death knell of impending doom.

Though many fought and died to make

A country free and hard to break

It seems we've thrown aside the crown

We praise the walls we're smashing down.

Our firm foundation, once so strong

Has little now to stand upon.

When all beneath has given way

What chance is there to stand today?

In God we trust our battle cry

Freedom laid out from on high

We swore we'd live as He had shown

A land, a people, all His own

But soon we lost the taste for bread

Gave up our soul for what's in our head.

Will we repent, will we implore

Will we beg to have our land restored?

Will we return to grander skies?

Will we damn ourselves

and waste our lives?

Truth, it seems, is now passè.

The crowd decides what leaders say.

Will anyone have the heart to stand

To rise up in this fractured land.

Will someone choose to stand alone

To point us to the Father's throne?

Will anyone have the heart to cast

His lot in with our noble past?

We'll see what stuff the future hides.

What once united now divides.

Our souls need more than easy dreams,

Empty men and hollow schemes.

We need a new revival plan,

A reformation of modern man.

by. Jonathan E. Schaefer

09/15/2014

Just a Little Something

     I need to apologize, yesterday was kind of a down day.  I wasn't feeling very creative and I also felt just a touch under the weather so I made excuses till the day was gone and I hadn't really written anything.  I don't wan to leave a day blank though so I have an older poem of mine for you all.  Not sure If I've posted it here before, let me know if I did and I'll replace it!  Thanks for reading!

The Puzzle Complete

I think that I was missing something

Though I had much to say

I think I somehow missed the point

With so much in the way

With fear and doubt I closed my eyes

And sank into despair

I sat and cried

And didn't try

To see that you still cared

But now something has changed in me

The darkness starts to fade

The love of God has pulled me from

The hole that I had made

I've spent so long so focused on

The missing, broken parts

That I forgot that you fulfill

The longings of our hearts

So let me walk in daylight, Lord

Let my heart be freed

And let me not forget again,

That you are all I need.

by. Jonathan Schaefer

06/21/06

Thankful

Have I thanked You for the sunset?

Have I thanked You for the stars?

Have I expressed my gratitude

for all we count as ours?

Do I show how much emotion

I feel or sense in me?

Do I truly understand how much

Your Grace has affected me?

God I thank you for this world I see

I thank you for the land

I thank for the beauty

For the artwork of Your hand.

I thank You for my journey

For the life I lead each day

I thank You that You're always there

Even when I've lost my way.

How can I fully say,

How can I justly show?

How much You are appreciated?

Do I even know?

Can I comprehend Your riches?

Can I understand Your Grace?

Will I realize it someday?

Or will it be a constant chase?

I know that I can't fully grasp

The wonders You bestow.

I know I'll never say enough.

My gratitude to show.

I have so little I can give

So few words I can say.

What I have is nearly worthless

In this world of pain and strife

But it's all I have to give you

So to my Father,

Here's my life.

Poem: Sometimes, Often, Always

Sometimes

I can feel that infinite void

That separates God from man.

Sometimes

I find it hard

To understand His plan.

Often

I feel so lost

And confused by what I see.

Always

I can feel His hand

Guiding and comforting me.

Faithless

And fallen

And useless I am at heart.

But Perfect

Is the love of God

Who chose me from the start.

Never

Will I fully understand

The scope of His Grace

But someday

I'll worship in truth

And see Him face to face.

This world

Is harsh

It's breaking, broken,

Full of suffering and strife

There is every reason

To just give up

But more to search for Life

This God

I serve imperfectly

Is all I will ever need.

This world

Will fade eventually

With all it's lusts and greed.

I

Will hold to that which lasts

And kneel before the throne.

He

Will keep His every Word

And prove He is God alone.

by. me

A Plea

     Father, may You hear this prayer. I'm sorry. Sorry. How hollow is that word and so small. When weighed against my sin how little that one word means. How can I be sorry, how can my regret mean anything at all when I understand so little of what I do; when the enormity of my sin I cannot even start to comprehend? I need you oh God! These hands are filthy and I cannot scrub them clean, neither palms, nor wrists, nor even one single finger. All around me are smiles and welcome and much esteem. Would they love me if they knew me? Knew me as You do? As the man who chooses the wrong again and again and AGAIN, who fights a battle against himself and seems to so often lay his sword aside and present his neck to the blade. If on some lonely night a screen were erected on which to project my life and thoughts and deeds done in solitude how many would speak to me again? How many would break off all ties? How many would forgive? How many would take pity? How many would help? Anyone? Anyone at all? Would anyone at all look on me with pity or with love? Would I find one sympathetic soul to take my hand? Would you? Would anyone?

     Father, may You hear this prayer. To You alone can I turn to in the night that is myself. From You alone can I seek forgiveness and grace. For You alone have provided a way for salvation. I am weighed down with guilt. Every lie, every half-truth, every wayward thought, every flash of lust, every selfish action, every MOMENT that I have spent on the flesh and it's fallen desire pulls me to the floor and I CAN'T BREATHE from the weight of it all! Yet you are there with me. Lord Jesus you are there with me, under the mountain of crushing evidence and crime. It is Your back that bears the burden now, YES, I can feel the burden lifting! In Your blood stained hands my sin lies crucified forever on the cross of Calvary! The weight, that crushing force that held me down is rising now and I can stand and breathe and see another day!

Thank you.

.

.

thank you.

Two words. They too sound hollow. How can two words, and two syllables, and eight letters, and one language, and one mind, and one soul, and one lifetime be enough to convey my gratitude? How can I show my joy? I have not the words to say, nor the songs to sing, nor the tears to shed to express it! How can I thank You? How can I say I'm sorry? How can I convey such meaning that even my heart cannot contain? How can I?

     Father, may You hear this prayer. This life is Yours now, as it was before but now by more than right of Lordship. Now You have paid for it with the blood of Your Son. This life that was meaningless and stained and broken, this life that had no worth and no point is suddenly more valuable than all the jewels, and all the gold, and all the precious things of all the worlds combined because You have set the price. You have shown what You would pay...for me. I cannot understand why You would do such a thing. Why You would pay so great a price, for me. For us. For anyone.

     So many words. So many songs. So many lives and so many souls given to the worship and praise of Your name, and it's not enough. There will never be enough singing, never be enough dancing, never be enough stories told, or poems written, or dramas played out across the stage to encompass what should be said. I cannot say enough, I cannot even begin. So I will say what I can.

I'm sorry

I love You

.

.

.

Thank You.

Near or Far

Does it matter if He listens?

Does He hear us cry?

Is He present in our laughter?

Does He watch us when we die?

From on His grand celestial throne,

Does God see all we are?

Does His gaze extend to the lands below the sky and and sea of stars?

I say it makes the difference.

If He's near or far away.

I know that my redeemer lives,

and that He guides my way.

If God is some just some grand magician

Making puppets dance

Then our lives are nothing more than show.

A pointless circumstance.

If God creates but doesn't guide

He has no right to condemn

For how can we be loyal

to a shadow of a whim?

If God exists but doesn't make

His presence known to us.

Then why bother with creation?

Why all this mess and fuss?

But we have a God who listens.

Who hears our every cry.

Why else would Jesus come to earth

As man to live then die?

How can we say

He doesn't hear

Or care for our lament

When it was his back that bore our sin

and God's own blood was spent.

Though trouble seems

at times too much

for anyone to bear.

Though the trials we endure

Go on for longer than we care.

God's purposes are higher

They aim for something more

than earthly happiness or joy.

He has much more in store.

Eternity awaits us,

and we don't understand,

just how much we need Him,

Or the rightness of His plan

He listens when we cry out

He's with us in our pain

He walks with us in sunshine.

Stands closer in the rain

His strength is all we'll ever need

To make it through this life.

His hand is always on us

To lead us through our strife.

I for one will trust Him

I'll trust His guiding hand

I'll follow where He leads me

Though it be through foreign lands

I'll walk with Him forever.

Because He knows the way.

I'll walk along the path He lays,

From night unto the day.

by. Jonathan E. Schaefer

08/07/2014

The Beast

The Beast inside is hungry

It yearns for every meal

And cares not how it gets it

Whether barter, beg, or steal.

The Beast will slay a hundred

For the chance to sate its need

Whatever obstacles it finds

Will soon be made to bleed

The Beast inside is hungry

And grows stronger every time

You give in to your desires

Or when I give in to mine.

The Beast will quickly bore

Of the same old tired treats

It will pursue and soon require

Ever stranger meats.

The Beast is always with us

Though not quite from the start

It lurks in deepest shadows

In the corners of our hearts.

The Beast is quite a foe to face

And believe me, though I've tried

It cannot be defeated

Despite earthly strength or pride.

~However~

Once there was a Man they say

Who came prepared to fight

A strong two-edged sword he bore

to mend what wasn’t right.

He gave us strength to fight the beast

and behind Him we aligned

And then He died, accused and killed

When mortal pierced Divine.

Yet death could not contain Him

and in three days He arose

The beast thrown down in victory

Our sorrows overthrown.

That Man was more than human

For God had put on skin

His perfect life a sacrifice

To free us from our sin.

So does the beast still haunt you?

Can you feel its rasping growl?

Does its hunger still compel you?

Do you fear its wretched howl?

Don't listen to its grumbling

ignore its hollow boasts

a toothless beast cannot compete

with the Lord of heavenly hosts!

Turn your eyes to Jesus!

Turn from shadows unto light!

Accept from Him, freedom from sin

He'll make your pathways right.

You need not spend eternity

In the prison you have built

For God still loves you dearly

Though He knows your crimes and guilt.

Our nature ever drives us

To turn and walk astray

And you'll find your only hope is in

The Life, the Truth, The Way.

by. Jonathan Schaefer

06/25/2014