Diamonds On My Skin
There was agony and darkness, a war was being fought!
Battles at the forefront, while strategies were sought.
Attacks and accusations, the mind at center stage
Where every thought and vision seemed to toil and rage.
At the height of my contrition, on my knees and torn within,
A sudden light of hope appeared, and rested on my skin.
From high above a light was cast, to comfort and to teach.
Revealed in fallen tears, I found the God I hoped to reach.
I saw within each droplet, a small yet sure reflection
Of the distant light I yearned for and the sum of all perfection.
My tears, He turned to diamonds when He filled them with His light.
My heart, once somber, penitent, now danced before the night.
An intimate, intense exchange began with God that night
When He opened up my eyes to see His Light upon my life.
Forevermore in evening prayers, I have new wealth within!
At every glance upon my hands, I see diamonds on my skin.
I Peter 2:9 (NIV)
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of
him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
The Grace Question
Since Jesus made our debts completely paid,
Who then are we to charge those He forgave?
The grace He freely offered, we must give:
To cancel debts and always to forgive.
The debt will often be a past offense,
And choosing to forgive seems short of sense.
But vengeance is for God and God alone,
The Sovereign One who sits upon the Throne.
If we shun grace and choose to judge instead,
We reap what we have sown upon our heads.
For grace to work the wonder God intends,
We must give grace and daily so amend
The sins that matter more than most believe�
These mortal sins that often so deceive.
Take heed, for in His Word He said it so:
Forgive, be forgiven. Judge, judgment know.
Matthew 6: 14,15 “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” NIV
Mediocrities Regret
When I look into His face
Before the bliss of His embrace,
A sword of poignancy shall bear
Most precious blood o’r my despair.
For when I gaze into His eyes
So fully then I’ll realize:
The hands I hold bear where had been
The nails of freedom for my sin.
Contrition there my only pain,
Past rationed piety disdained.
But to have loved Him far, far more,
Too late I learned the word: adore.
Deuteronomy 6:5
Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. NIV
A Compass and a Reaper
The tongue is a compass that also reaps,
Directing our lives by the words we speak.
So point your tongue ye young and old
Toward gracious speech that will unfold�
God�s design meant for our good,
So use the tongue just as you should
To bear much fruit in all you say
And bless the course of everyday.
Be temperate always and fearful too
Listen much, and let words be few.
Know that God hears every word
And never judge what others heard.
Be free of judging, be forgiving!
Pursue the blessed course of giving
Words of praise and words that bless.
Speak of hope and faith�s success.
Words unguided, set a circle
For what we say, we come to own.
When we judge, we too, are judged
And reap the course that we have sown.
Luke 6:37, 38 —
Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” NIV
Love Struck
The moon has never cast a fairer beam
than here upon this face before me seen.
Luminescent angel, art thou mine
or have you come from Heaven, child divine?
Of all Thy glorious works my heart has treasured,
this portrait has by endless fathoms measured
depths of priceless praise beyond this realm.
Speechless, breathless, weeping, overwhelmed.
As if by moon-lit radiance revealed,
I see through heaven’s eyes your worth and feel
So utterly unworthy, yet transformed beneath these stars
I am smitten here with love, seeing who you really are.
Fatherhood’s epiphany is this:
to behold His masterpiece and know this blessed bliss.
I finally see, “in His image” and applaud
That the gift of gifts is children, sent by God.
Genesis 1:27 “So God created people in his own image;
God patterned them after himself;
male and female he created them.”(NLT)
Doors
Just when I feel I cannot love Him more,
he opens up for me another door
of visions grand and heaven’s great expanse
revealing more of God’s extravagance!
I Corinthians 2:9 “
However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”[ 2:9 Isaiah 64:4]
The Brook of Memories
Today, a storm blew through
And tears with rain drops fell.
Out of nowhere, thoughts of you
and a pain began to swell.
Yet in my still reflection,
In this somber introspection
A little brook of bubbling joy
Flowed in, as I remembered as a boy…
When God knit a common tether
Through our daily ways and means
He bound our lives together
As we courted common dreams.
While storms will always be,
And times of loss will sadden.
There is a Brook of Memories
That will always serve to gladden.
Above the loss of those departed,
Is a solace never leaving.
Held dear within the heart,
a brook of joy is heaving.
To sooth the pain of loss
The God of comfort gave a stream
To wash away our hurts beneath
The Brook of Memories.
II Corinthians 1:3, 4 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. NIV
Too Many “Too Littles”
Too little time with Thee my Lord,
Too little time with Thee.
Too many things to do and see
…And too little time with Thee.
Too little time to wait and watch,
Too little time to pray.
Too little faith to trust Thee Lord
…And too little time with Thee.
Too little love to love Thee Lord,
Too little time today.
Too little care to help a friend
…And too little time with Thee.
Too little hope to keep believing
Too little joy to sing.
Too little strength to walk the talk
…And too little time with Thee.
Too little time to waste my Lord,
Too many days have passed.
Too many souls have never heard
…And too little time for these.
John 15: 4,5 “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.†NIV
The Shepherd’s Diadem
The torment is relieved!
No more the whip and scorn.
Perfection in reprieve
Of agonizing thorns.
No more shall man transgress,
With whip, or fist or thorns.
His head now fitly dressed:
Announced by sounding horns!
All glory to our Lord
Who for mankind prevailed.
He overcame death’s sword
and all that sin entailed.
Cast off the carnal crown
Composed of thorny stems!
Put on what jewels surround:
The Shepherd’s Diadem!
Behold His crown of gems!
Glorious the story!
The Shepherd’s Diadem:
But a sparkle of His glory.
Hebrews 2: 9, 10
But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. NIV
The Calling Christ
“I’m unclean,” replied the leper.
“I’m unable,” cried the lame.
“Lord, have mercy,” begged the blind.
“For every healing, come to Me, come to Me.”
“Unworthy,” said the prodigal.
“Lord, remember me,”…the thief.
“I’ve had five,” bemoaned the woman.
“All penitent of heart, come to Me, come to Me.”
“I can’t,” complained a Moses.
“Unless I see and feel,” said Thomas.
“How can these things be?”…Nicodemus.
“Ye doubters, come to Me, come to Me.”
“I loathe my life!” wailed Job.
“Chiefest of sinners,” said Paul.
“Against Thee only I have sinned!” wrote David.
“All contrite of heart, come to Me, come to Me.”
“I perceive you are a prophet,” a woman at a well.
“You are the Christ, the Son of God,” decreed Peter.
“Surely this man was the Son of God,”…a Roman soldier.
“All who’ve seen Me, draw ye closer, come to Me.”
Matthew 11:28
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.â€
To Pen the Love of Christ…
Should every blade of grass and feathered quill
Become my ready pens to do my will,
I would write and write on end of one obsession:
to pen the love of Christ and its expression.
Were the depths of the Milky Way my well,
and the vast expanse of space my canvas held,
I would never cease to pen new loving phrases,
nor would all of time suffice to write His praises.
I yearn to write of Jesus, His glory and His fame.
My utmost longing, just to pen the wonders of His Name.
I find within eternity, ample time and space to write
about the love of God, amidst His splendid light.
I am confident that God above, shall one day let me draft
words that quench this longing, finally skillful in this craft.
He’ll one day bid me homeward, forever to proclaim
the boundless love and honor that accompanies His name.
Ephesians 3:14-19 “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,
that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be
strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that
Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being
rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be
filled up to all the fullness of God†NASB.
Love’s Harbor
Through many tossed and temptest years
my heart of late, is soothed.
To find this new and blessed calm
where off… the storms have moved.
Our love has held these many years
and it’s the surer moor.
Against the waves of pain and illness;
love surrounds this shore.
And in this life-long harbor,
together we will stay
in Jesus’strong protecting hands
as grace bedecks each day.
My hopes and highest dreams coalesce
at every evening’s rest.
Reflecting on the blessings here
displace my soul’s unrest.
God has stilled once troubled seas,
your pains and trials have calmed.
A favored breeze has blown our way
and brought the Healer’s balm.
Down in a Humble Closet
I entered in and shut the door,
Then slowly took my place.
I got down on my knees and
Pressed my face onto the floor.
In brokenness and reverence,
Stillness was the word.
Contrite and bowed before Him.
Not a single sound was heard.
I saw a throne and heaven’s own
With crowns set at His feet.
Breathless, weeping, trembling:
Who should speak before His throne!?
I understood the only posture
One should take before the Lord,
is down in a humble closet
before any speech implores.
Nehemiah 8:6 – Ezra praised the LORD, the great God;
And all the people lifted their hands and responded,
“Amen! Amen! Then they bowed down and
worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.
You Read And You Read Until…
Forever I’ll remember, what brother Bill had said,
“you read and you read until you hear.”
I took him at his word, and took my Bible and I read
And suddenly the Savior drew me near.
The word spoke to my heart, not just my head.
I wasn’t sure that it would happen, I confess I had my doubts
As I took the word of God and said, “I’ll try.”
Time had come and gone, there were no “hallelujah” shouts
Until a bold and captive passage caught my eye.
I found what brother Bill had talked about!
“If you seek Me, you will find Me” Jesus said.
At His voice, I went from sitting down to kneeling.
God was waiting, knocking, talking where I read
And he spoke precisely where I needed healing.
The earnest hunger of my soul that day He fed.
He is oh so very intimate, and full of loving-kindness!
He came and lifted phrases off the page!
He gave His word, His life to guide us
and the Bible set the stage
For a miracle of sight to take my blindness.
Psalm 9: 9-11
”The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
Those who know your name will trust in you,
for you, LORD , have never forsaken those who seek you.
Sing praises to the LORD , enthroned in Zion;
proclaim among the nations what he has done.
Poems by Tom Valles, II
Poems by Tom Valles, III
