*New Poem Alert* Learning To Dance In the Rain

A new poem, divinely inspired by the Lord of the Dance himself, will follow below.  This is not the personal poem previously mentioned but an equally powerful one. I pray that it blesses and inspires you and graces you with His presence.

Learning to Dance In the Rain

It falls beyond all human recognition,

A flood of imagination and extreme superstition,

A vision of sorts that stretches our reason,                                                                

His Word declares that there is a time and a season,

For which miracle of miracles that will transpire,

Deliverance from flames or deliverance by fire.

Our hearts implode with excitement and awe,

Waiting, wanting…

The hardness of winter,

To defrost, to unthaw.

Let it melt away,

To be made perfect, made whole,

In unfathomable play,

Each created soul,

To enjoy the warmth of His lip touching cinder,

Say good-bye to the cold, darkness of winter.

The wood crackles and dries,

Without break and without splinter.

As we stand by the fire,

And hear His voice so sweetly say…

So much to inspire,

“Well done my good and faithful daughter.”

And our reply to His harmonious sound,

“Your will be done my most awesome Father.

Let your people recognize the LORD’s renowned.”

Together, in joy, we stand and we praise,

Our hands in worship,

We rise to raise,

Our voices in song,

Knowing, now, it won’t be long.

Each one living out His glorious grace,

Believing right,

Eliminates living wrong.

Our “have tos” replaced,

With “want tos” most haste,

No longer believing the lies of the foe,

But becoming more and more like the panting doe,

With an ever increasing thirst and desire,

For Healing Rain and His Burning Fire.

Meditate, Regurgitate, each life giving Word,

Promises spoken and faith restored.

Our prayers have been answered,

As we make offerings of priceless alabaster,

Crowns laid down at the Master’s feet,

Hearts made whole and minds transformed,

A fragrance most holy and lavishly sweet.

This fragile life that has been reborn,

As the Spirit pours down in torrential rains,

With His promise intact, His rainbow remains,

His rain rejuvenates, refreshes, renews,

With cleansing blood of eternal use,

For instead of focusing on the storms overhead,

We redirect our eyes to the Holy One,

Jesus, Living, God’s Only Son,

And learn to dance in the rain instead.

This Lord of the Dance,

Our Life affirmer,

He leaves nothing to chance,

Our Advocate,

Rain giver,

Leading, and bowing,

Inviting us in His ballroom of Life,

As we dance and we dance,

In down pours and drizzle,

His melody plays,

With spark and with sizzle,

Our feet so light,

They prance most beautifully,

At His water’s edge,

Our thirsting hearts are finally quenched,

As forever we move in graceful embrace,

Living each moment in time and in space,

With our groomsman so handsome,

To dance in the rain of eternity’s ransom.

Marlena H. Johnston, ©2013

Hello Again, Again!

1. Hello again! I know I keep posting, saying that I am going to write something, etc. Well, I just wanted to thank you all for being so patient and to let you know that God is allowing me to use this time very wisely as He ministers to me. My family and I have been facing some pretty tuff storms lately and are riding them out with Jesus. He did give me a very power and beautiful poem that unfortun...ately I am unable to share at this time. One day, when the time is right, I know that He will permit me to share it with all of you. It was very therapeutic and a great blessing to me. Hopefully, soon, since He has opened the flood gates of inspiration for me, I will be able to share some more of my writing. I ask for your continued patience and prayer for me and my family. Much Love and Grace to all of you!!! Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Anthem's Song

In a quiet wind,
He speaks to me,
He calms me with the stars,
I stand alone to all who see,
Except to those who now believe,
His dream,
Is mine come true,
Heaven's Favored Daughter.He has called me child,
And I have called Him Father.
His Grace offers freedom from my chains once dazzling,
My life I give in Grace an offering.
Let not your heart be troubled for I have overcome,
For all in Christ are righteous born,
And Victors,
Anthem's song.
Greatly blessed, Highly Favored, and Deeply loved.
Worship in truth and harmony,
Singing Anthems song.
Let your voices ring out in grateful praise,
Let the God of Grace lengthen your days.
Open your wings little sparrow,
Let Him carry you away,
And fly like the Eagles,
On this your Restoration Day!
Once again,
In the warmth of the wind,
Let your voices rise,
Soaring above the sky,
For know it won't be long,
Till' with angles we are singing Anthem's song.

By Marlena H. Johnston ©2013

Dealing with Life

Well folks, the day to day grind can sometimes be overwhelming, especially when you are dealing with student loan companies, housing agencies and doctor’s offices.  I think I have spent 24hrs total on the phone with these places.  I know, I know, a whole day gone to the daily grind.  Yet, these are things that must be done, whether it is having to force yourself to deal with reality or the simple matter of survival.  Sometimes you just have to do those things that you would rather not even deal with.

However, to check out of life just simply is not an option, even for an escapist like myself.  How else do you think that I got into writing and Literature?  I know of someone who did just that, checked out of life that is, and finds herself in a rather precarious situation.  It has not benefited her in anyway and has forced her into a place of complete and utter avoidance.  I will not judge this person because I, myself, have been judged and accused of very similar things without the judger realizing that there were issues and extenuating circumstances that have prevented me for taking an active part in some areas of normal everyday life.  These are the people, both the judger and the judge-ee, that are slipping through the cracks of the church because the only thing that they are seeing are whether or not this person is sitting in the pews every Sunday and if they are, things are great and therefore this person is ignorable, and if they aren’t, they are either back sliding something horrible or, have done the unthinkable, and decided to go somewhere else to church, and again, therefore are ignorable.  They don’t care, nor do they bother to see, if there might be issues that are affecting this person or worse.  As well as, the fact that they, too, are at risk for issues because they are offending at the person for not attending the church or if they are there, not taking an active part.

My family and I have not been immune to this treatment ourselves and I am sure that many of you have not been immune to it either.  There was a reason that Christ taught about planks in the eye because He wanted the people to see that in order to be free, we all have to drop the planks of judgment and grab hold to the only piece of wood we will ever need to see, The Tree of Life, Jesus Christ, and the only freedom there is, is in Christ, in His Love and in His Grace.  Grace and favor are unmerited, unearned and certainly undeserved but it is Christ who makes us merited, makes us earned and who most certainly makes us deserving all in His finished work at Calvary.  He is our righteousness and in Him we are made the righteousness of God.  In fact, there is no one phrase that the devil hates more than to hear us say “I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.” The reason being is that when we say this one phrase we make him void of all power over our lives because we make sin and death void of all power over our lives. 

So people, we need to take back the power and take back our lives and we do this by not just dealing with life but by living out the abundant life Christ promised us.  He is the tree of life reestablished on earth.  We accept His Grace and not just accept it but believe it, live it and give it to others by eating His first fruits.  God provides His Grace freely to all for all freely to eat!  We are greatly blessed, highly favored and deeply loved in Christ Jesus and His finished work at Calvary.  This is the Gospel of Grace, this is truth, but most importantly, this is Jesus!  This is life worth dealing with,  Praise the Lord!! 

If you want to be free and you have never had a Jesus experience and would like to experience Jesus now and accept Him into your life and accept the grace and truth He came to give you, then pray this prayer now…

Jesus, I believe you are who you say you are and that you came to die for me.  I believe in your finished work at Calvary and I believe that in you I am the righteousness of God.  I thank you that in you, I am greatly blessed, highly favored and deeply loved.  I thank you that  you equip me to live in this broken world and that you did this by taking upon you at the cross, every sin, every disease, every broken promise, every broken thing, every consequence of sin and in crying out to your God, you enable us to cry out to our Father and that by being forsaken given us the insurance that we will never be forsaken and by crying out It is Finished, we can praise you for our righteousness and the beginning of a new life in you.  Halleluiah!

Hello Again

Hello again!  I know it has been several months since I have posted last and I do apologize.  My computer had died over the summer and it was a while before I was blessed with a new one.  However, I praise Jesus that I was blessed with a new computer as my old computer still had Windows XP operating on it and now I have Windows 8, which I am still getting used to and learning how to use.  I also have joined the tablet world and got one that I can attach a keyboard too.  So, I guess you could say it is a tablet/laptop.  And yes folks, I finally have WiFi.  To be honest, I now wonder how I ever lived without it.  So, I am still updating and downloading and adding and as always, trying to reconnect.

You know, you really don't realize what you have until it is gone.  For those several months without a computer and Internet access, I literally felt like I had dropped off the face of the earth.  For the first time in awhile, I was alone, well, sort of.  Those days when everyone was busy, those days when you just didn't have any face to face contact, it was nice to have the computer to log on and say hi to some folks.  I definitely missed being able to blog as well.

I have some other news as well.  My health has not been well and I am now considered someone who is disabled and unable to work, so blogging and the computer is my only way to connect some days and some of my sense of purpose.  Well, I can no longer spend long hours.  I can at least spend a little time and I am so grateful for it.  You might be wondering why now for disability.  I am only 35 years old, right?  Well, I have Type 1 diabetes which is what you might call brittle, I have fibromyalgia and what is believed to be connective muscle disease, which I have been told is an early form of lupus.  I am doing my best not to receive that last one because if there is one thing I have learned, it is that just because you are told something you don't have to receive that for it is Jesus who has the last Word and His Word declares that as children of God we are already healed thanks to His finished work at Calvary.  So, I guess you can say I am doing my best not to receive any of the things I have been told I have but that does not mean that I don't take my medicine.  Faith is not denying fact, it is believing that the facts can and do change.

So folks I am praying for all of you.  I may or may not know you, I may or may not know your needs but our heavenly Father does and the answers are already on their way (read the book of Daniel).  I hope to be stopping back a lot more often and I hope that you will do the same.  God Bless!