Why apart?
From the in-gathering, all embracing Mother Church you flee,
To remain apart all the while,
Calling and yearning for your God.You flee and I run after you,
Pursuing you at every turn,
As I reach and you pull your hand away.
Why not stay?
My Body yearns for you.
My members long to know you.I wait upon your prayers
With angels ready to dispatch.
O, Pardoned Soul,
You seek your God in myriad ways,
I am here, wedded to My Bride,
Always at her side,
Promised never to depart.
You hold yourself apart.You’ve built a chapel in your heart
For others that play God,
I call and draw you by Love
Within the chapel of your heart.You sigh as I tug
At heart strings tight and taunt.
You resist Me for fear they’ll break.
I woo, I’m told to wait.
You say you are not ready
For Love’s music.“Measure me Your Love,” you say.
“Give comfort, strength and sure supply,
But do not on my ‘Yes’ rely.”Perhaps the Bride, the Church,
Who bears My Word forth
Unto all centuries,
Has words you n’er obey,
In dread fear of the “ought”
You can not bear.You will your will be done on earth
And choose to judge all heaven.
You want only love’s first glance,
The sweet embrace
And kiss upon the cheek,
Nothing too dear, nothing too deep.
It seems a bitter end,
To lose yourself in giving all.O Measured One.
You know Love comes with a Cross,
A Cross you fear to carry.
You choose to stay apart
And skirt the Cross.Alas, the world without has crosses, too.
They may come disguised in promised delight,
But soon you’ll drag that empty dream uphill.How long one longs
And labors longingly
And all alone
Beneath the weight
Of vanities profane,
I do not say.
I only await a cry, a plea, A glance of recognition.
When our eyes meet, then our hearts meet;
At long last your leap into the arms
Of One Who grasps you in your fall.Be mine as Church joined to Husband.
At last the Lord of All
Can leap the walls you’ve built about yourself
To know you now
Within His Sacred Heart,
Bearing your cross in His,
Making all things new
And all your burdens light.
Count now as joy life
Without measure.Fear not my Church.
She is My Spouse,
My very Body;
I, the Head.I woo and wait,
Now, as Groom upon the altar.
It is for you
To give yourself away.by Joann Nelander
Christian
All posts tagged Christian
O, Lord, what’s it all about,
This “blogging?”
Feeds, links, posts and pings,
So much to learn,
Much more to do.A world within a world,
A web of letters, syllables, and words,
And people pinging people,
For seeing, or not seeing,
Things just as they do.Why me? Why a blogosphere?
It won’t make me famous.
It surely won’t make me money.
It won’t even make me friends.Maybe the Lord is saying:
“Jump in, My friend!”
“That’s were the fish are swimming.”
Fishers of men must use the Net.By Joann Nelander
Tears and holy desire,
These are my gift,
Your gift to me,
And my gift to You.
The night passes peacefully,
Knowing Your Heart
Is pressed to my heart,
With a listening ear.
How near You are
To the broken hearted,
And I allow
My heart To break,
Allowing You entrance.
Stake Your claim,
For I abandon
The land within,
And without
To Your good pleasure.
You are now
Lord of my every love.
Extend Your rule
To every corner
Of my being.
Enter the dark places
Shedding Light,
Drawing back the veil,
Hollowing this temple,
This consecrated,
And baptized ground
Of my eternal existence.
Set Your throne
Here in the center
Where once
I thought to reign,
But in reality
Served the “no gods”,
Deceptive counterfeits and usurpers.
Stretch me
From the inside out
And fill emptiness
Mending the shattered
That I may be the vessel made holy
The water jar
Filled to the brim
And overflowing.
Turn tears and holy desire
To those” torrents in the southern desert”,
Watering the parched
And giving drink to the thirsty
And glory
To My Thrice Holy God.
Copyright 2014 Joann NelanderAll rights reserved
Fire of Love,
O steadfast Love,
Forge of me
Enduring Love,
As chains, whose links are born
In fire and flame.Hammered by blows,
That in the end form
And deliver my frame.Claim my metal
From the molten chaos
To shape and save me,
Never more, misshapen,
Wanton, amorphous,
Hardness of heart.Copyright © 2011 Joann Nelander
All rights reserved
It is hard to be alone, Lord.
I know You are by my side.
In my heart of hearts
I turn to You.
Be Lord of this day.
Here is my hand in Yours;
Lead me!All in Your Name,
Everything for You,
Everyone in my life,
I give to you
In their present need.
Many do not know
To call to You.
Trifles control them,
And they flit away
Their Eternity with You.It may seem preposterous
That I should dare seek
For the whole world,
Forgiveness and conversion.
I am only one poor,
And wretched sinner,
Yet, Lord, see the army
That prays with me.
See the Blood and Water of Your Son
Pleading for the Redeemed.By Joann Nelander
I am no one,
But see the army
Of saints and angels
Who implore Thee.You say “Feed my lambs,
Feed my sheep,”
And I am tempted
To think, I have nothing,
But, Lord, are You
Not the Whole Loaf,
And are You not
Eternal and ours?I will give
From my Ever Present Lord.
In my poverty,
You are my abundance.What I can not see,
I know is on the way.
You are not far off.
You have come,
And You are coming soon.
Emmanuel.© 2011 Joann Nelander
Hidden Jesus,
You fill my heart with desire.
I feel the agony
Of this earthly foray.
In Your Presence
Faith fills the silence.
Truth like beauty
Say You passed this way.
Your footprints in Time
Dot the heavens.
While I stand in the vestibule of eternity,
As one holding paradise at bay.
Aching emptiness
Of temporal schemes and dreams,
But mask my loneliness
For yet another day.
Step over the threshold
Where angel guards Eden’s gate
To drip Your fingers
Into my life as now I pray.
Copyright 2014 Joann Nelander
Joann Nelander
lionessblog.com
Suppose vanity exults creation
Above Creator?
Capture the moment.
Worship the image
As possessing life.
Gaze on the ship in the bottle,
A gimmick,
Devoid of wonder.
Just big enough to drink in,
Merely a sip by comparison
To the soul setting upon the sea
To catch the Wind in its sails
To be carried aloft
In hallowed abandonment.
Vanity thanks its fortune,
And prostrates itself
Before its stars.
No One to thank
No One due worship.
Just another ship in a bottle.
Taking on water
And disappearing ‘neath
Life’s waves.
Rudderless fool
Contemplating the form of things,
Playing with beauty,
As though creating it anew.
A kaleidoscope of folly
Spills on the worldly canvas.
All the while,
God shines forth in His creation,
Only the willful blind fail to see.
Preferring a world of mirrors
To the light and splendor of Truth.
Given a choice,
give me grace
that I might choose
Your holy Will.
by Joann Nelander
Joann Nelander Studio 