Poets & Saints

ScripturePhilippians 2:7 (NIV)Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.RefrainChrist came for all of me.QuoteNikos Kazantzakis, from Report to Greco"One day the religion of Christ will take another step forward on earth. It will embrace the whole man, all of him, not just half as it does now in embracing only the soul."

ScriptureGenesis 2:15 (NIV)The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.RefrainThe gate of heaven is everywhere.QuoteThomas Merton"We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and God is shining through it all the time. God manifests Himself everywhere, in everything — in people and in things and in nature and in events. The only thing is we don't see it. I have no program for this seeing. It is only given. But the gate of heaven is everywhere."

ScriptureLuke 12:49 (NIV)"I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!"RefrainThe fire that refines me is taking me somewhere good.QuoteRichard Rohr, from The Universal Christ"I am afraid many of us have failed to honor God's always unfolding future and the process of getting there, which usually includes some form of dying to the old. In practical effect, we end up resisting and opposing the very thing we want. The great irony is that we have often done this in the name of praying to God, as though God would protect us from the very process that refines us!"

ScriptureRomans 8:28–30 (NIV)And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.RefrainI am being changed into something good.QuoteJohn Henry Newman, from An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine"To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often."

ScriptureEphesians 2:7–10 (NIV)In order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.RefrainI was made for more than I can currently see.QuotePierre Teilhard de Chardin (attributed)"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience."

ScriptureMatthew 5:8 (NIV)Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.RefrainEverything, rightly seen, is a miracle.QuoteAlbert Einstein"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."

ScriptureMark 1:15 (NIV)"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!"RefrainThe kingdom is here. Love is already moving.QuoteRichard Rohr, from The Universal Christ"Love is the energy that sustains the universe, moving us toward a future of resurrection. We do not even need to call it love or God or resurrection for its work to be done."

ScriptureMatthew 7:7–8 (NIV)Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.RefrainGod speaks. I am learning to listen.QuoteRichard Rohr, from The Universal Christ"But think about it: If the incarnation is true, then of course God speaks to you through your own thoughts! As Joan of Arc brilliantly replied when the judge accused her of being the victim of her own imagination, 'How else would God speak to me?'"

Scripture1 Kings 19:12 (NRSVUE)…and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.RefrainI climb down into who I truly am.QuoteCarl Jung, from Letters, vol. 1"My pilgrim's progress has been to climb down a thousand ladders until I could finally reach out a hand of friendship to the little clod of earth that I am."