​Poem by Jon Elvrum
Here we go again! Blessings.

Lord, I have read stories
of those who met you
Blind
no vision, perhaps blurred vision
seeing figures more like trees than men.
There are so many stories...

Lord, I have read stories
of those who encountered You
who were changed forever
from unclean to clean;
from once deaf to now hearing
from hemorrhaging to wholly restored
by Your holy restoration,

Lord, I have read stories.
I have wondered how one can read
all the stories
stories of forgiveness
of healing
of correction and re-direction
of penitence and remorse,
stories
so many stories,
stories
of sinners confronting their sin
through their encounter with You
sinners being changed
in a radical, life-altering moment.

There are so many stories
told with such passionste candor
such calm assurance sustained
by the kind of absolute certainty
which allows one to say
to the powerful skeptics of their day
"I only know that I was blind,
but now I see!"
Or, "I knew if I could touch
even the hem of His robe
that I would be healed."

There are so many stories...

With so many stories
stories from Scripture
with so many examples
examples from old to new history,
so many real life experiences about
miraculous healings,
of life and lives transformed;
with all we know, by what we have read,
what we have heard,from those we know or have known of...

How can we doubt any longer?
What "new" news are we awaiting?

If you still doubt all this,
all this gathered information,
if you still wonder what to do?
Then turn today
turn to the one who saves
to the only one who elected
to die for you
chose to offer himself as earnest payment
for all the sins
for all the evil and selfish acts
ever committed
even those particular and special ones
all those done
by you.

His gift has been freely given.
One time for all of time.
Take the time to put your heart into
a place of penitential preparation

Confess that you are a sinner

Say aloud, you are sorry for your sins,
sorry you have been so long away,
say that today, you want Him to come 
to make your life into a new life
a changed and corrected life

Declare all this in the name of the One
the One who is able
the only One who died to save you
the only One who lives to see that you
receive the gift He gave

Why do you hesitate?
Come to the water,  He said.
Drink all you will. Come to the water.

"Freely, freely, you have received,
Freely, freely give.
Go in His name
and because you beliehve,
others will know that He lives."
Chorus from a Christian song of praise.

A poem by Jon Elvrum

I never knew how lost I was

I  never knew why I was lost.
I thought I was my own master, my own keeper of my own  keys
It was not true.

I thought, I knew, that life was often cruel. 
Was often sad, sometimes lonely
and difficult to make sense of.

But I believed that I would make it through
to wherever was the next place
to that next thing, that next situation,
which always managed to occur.
just before ...
before I was really ready for whatever was to be;

then as my ability to control events failed once again
I heard a word
                    asking me quietly
if I would allow myself to be helped?
if I would be still, and know who it was who could help?
     Who, could help, but GOD?
     but O how greatly did I need His help?

This was a very radical idea to me,
convinced as I was that
only I
could control my life's outcomes
only I could fight my own battles,
       overcome my own inadequacies.

My failure was very hard to embrace
difficult to admit.
and yet
I heard You
speaking
into my soul
and at once I knew it was You.
              You were with me
How did You know?
What could You see?

Suddenly I knew
that though I desperately tried
to hide my failure
from You,
You saw it clearly.

How did you see, how did You know
what I so fully needed from You?
You never lost sight of me,
I know now that You are always aware,
on the alert, ready to cover me
with Your grace
to cover me with Your favor
to inspire me to take on a different path,
a new path
where I never would have gone
in my own will.

suddenly I am on unfamiliar
yet confident ground;
suddenly, I know,
I feel that You are with me
I am not alone.

In an instant You have me, more than I can believe that I have You.

How? How can this be?

Because Your love is greater than my every weakness;
because Your faithfulness, is stronger than my every misstep.

You do the impossible.

I am left to embrace the impossible things You do because of who You are and for what You have done for all of us
for all of time.

There are things written down in deathless Scripture
never to be forgotten or ignored.
We are covered and lifted up
We are exalted by Your Word
and by, for, and through Your Will
which was always in Heaven
and is now on Earth as well.

How?

Because You are all You have declared,
so much more than we can ever merit,
because, in spite of our weakness and even in our sin:
we are wholly Yours forever.
We are Holy! And that Is How.

Let us all as one, say Amen!