My Testimony

I have a testimony.
Yes, I can say it's true.
God has walked beside me
and helped to pull me through.

Doubt and faith can not
both share the same invading space.
Faith is a gift of God, my friend.
With it your doubt erase.

Faith, Repentance, Baptism,
They lead you to the gate.
Enter obediently into His arms.
Let Him there embrace.

The Holy Ghost is your friend.
He testifies of Christ.
He calls upon our memory.
His counsel, there, is wise.

Ask, Knock, Invite Him in.
Our Savior has come to stay.
We can know his will for us.
He asks us all to pray.

I've asked my Heavenly Father.
"Is there only one?"
"One way, one hope, one path?"
He answered, "Yes, my son."

So did brother Joseph.
He saw them both, divine.
My testimony is my witness.
And yes, It's truly mine!

When

When you can keep your faith when all about you
Are loosing theirs and friends are but a few.
When you can keep your head while discouragement surrounds you,
And hold a lifeline to the drowning crew.

When you can count both vice and virtue
As hollowed ground you've traveled o'er,
And know repentance has lifted you from quicksand
And stand erect although your feet are sore.

When faith and hope, and love and service,
Have found their place inside your heart.
When every breath is exercised in kindness
And no ill thing can seed and get it's start.

When you can stand alone in crowds and be surrounded,
yet feel alone because you honor self,
or stand alone and feel exalted.
When God and angels minister your health.

When you endure until the harvest,
The race and prize will then be won.
And God & Christ, and saints and angels
Will echo, "Well and faithfully done!"

Sunflowers

Sunflowers are obedient,
to the sun's eternal light.
Drawn upward by the sun's warm rays,
they praise Him, day and night.

Their constant obedience
to the radiance from above,
is seen in their growth and beauty,
a reflection of their love.

They are a simple flower,
not chosen for their frame,
yet other flowers model them
and look upward just the same.

There are a thousand flowers
could be chosen for a bouquet,
there color and their fragrance,
a glorious display.

Yet the glory of the sunflower,
for it's not a lowly weed,
is often seen by man and beast
for they bless us with their seed.

Returning Home

You can't return, others say.
You must return. It is the way.

Our Heavenly Father sent us here,
to parents, kind, and family, dear;
to wander on this earthly plain,
until we see that life is vain.

Unless we have the charity
that God has given, unselfishly.
The prodigal in his painful way
Determined that he could not stay.

And, so, went home to hope and prayer.
His father felt he should be there
as they slayed the fatted calf.
His sibling showed his foolish wrath.

For his brother's joy was not his loss.
Forgiveness refines gold from dross.
And family, complete, not family, scattered,
Is joy, profound, and really mattered.

Perhaps our inheritance has been spent
With little show from where it went.
We can renew. We can refresh.
We can endure. We can conquer flesh.
And find, eternal, lasting love
With family, here, and God, above.

Integrity

Virtue is it's own reward.
To be the best that we can be
is to conclude, with fortitude
,and show integrity.

Awful is the plight of man
if selfish he must be,
for the whole world
can be blessed
by a person's integrity.

He Walked

He walked upon the water.
He calmed the raging sea.
He suffered in Gethsemane.
He died for you and me.

Jesus, the Wonderful Counselor,
Jesus, the risen Lord,
Jesus, the perfect example,
Jesus, the adored.

You can follow His teachings.
You can feel His love.
You can give comfort to others.
You can feel peace from above.

I feel His friendship envelop.
I know He embraces me, still.
I come to Him humble, obedient.
"Yes, Blessed Master, I will."

They all await His coming,
to bring in a millenium of peace.
May we all choose to assist Him
May His wonders never cease.

Gratitude

An attitude of gratitude
leads to joy profound.
Carelessness and regretfulness
spreads misery all around.

For all we have
and all we'll be
is modeled
in His grace.

Ugliness is not
a pictured scene,
but is absence from
His embrace.

Fresh Fiction

I wonder if writing alone is ever lonely?
To ponder is to partner.
To illuminate is to lighten
a dark background with smudges.

Do you see what I see?
It doesn't matter!
In seeing you, too, discover
either the dream of your own making
or the reflected images of a shadow maker.

Does a monster live under the bed?
Is heaven filled with flowers?
Do unicorns graze in uninterrupted silence?
Is the library open after hours?

I cannot lie,
for truth is born from imagination.
Fiction is a pseudonym for
original expression.

Counsel

If you ask a wise man,
his counsel you obey
or do not reap the blessings
but choose another way.

Our Lord invites us to counsel.
He has come to show the way
that leads to life eternal
and blesses us each day.

He is a wonderful counselor.
He knows the Father's will.
He knows our needs
and hopes and fears
and offers comfort still.

He wants us to come to Him.
He answers our request.
His wisdom is unfailing.
He wants us to be blessed.

Sometimes we have the answer
decided before we ask.
He can confirm our choices
or redefine our task.

If He tells us wait a while,
or stop and change our worldly style,
we need to heed His guidance
which can transform and bless.
He wants our growth to take us home
and seeks our happiness.

Caring

dedicated to my wife, Karla Casper-Jennings

To care about another is to feel a gentle love

for one is fondly thought of

in celestial realms above.

We are told that angels rejoice in our success.

To have a loving friendship is eternal at it's best.

For a union of two spirits or a blending of two minds

is everlasting friendship when two hearts are so entwined.

So infused in comfort for the other is our drive,

that we forget ourselves as we keep this love alive.

Unselfish in our actions, we embrace celestial truth

,and favor the eternal as we choose the things of worth.

Yes, friendship is a harvest of good deeds that seed in faith.

And love is the flower that has bloomed in heart and place.

The fragrance is the pleasure that is felt when love has grown.

A prize, indeed, has developed from the beauty that is shown.

We have become much better as we grow to full embrace,

For love for one another is written in our face.

Blame

On a fact finding mission, I traveled one day
Observing obstructions that got in the way.
I found, when I wandered too close to the hole,
I kicked loose the gravel and cankered my soul.

And, sometimes, I wounded some helpless one
Who hollered and scolded until I was gone.
"Forgive me," I offered. "I really am sad.
I hope to see good and put stop to the bad.

I know I've offended. I fell when I tripped.
No injury was intended, I'm sorry I slipped!"
"You really are careless! You ought to be flayed!
Get out of here mister!" But, somehow, I stayed.

The ranting and raving had gone to my heart.
I truly was sorry, but I still couldn't part.
I want to mend fences. I want to fix things.
I want to relate to all positive dreams.

I even am grateful for hurting and woe.
I accept of life's sorrows.
But,The Blame's got to go!

Awakening

What is it that I feel?
Is getting started so important
that I must stop, to begin?
Stop Dreaming?Never!
Imagination goes onforever!

Yet,in awakening,
we must embrace
the challenge and the place
and surrendercomfort,
for cause.

A Walk in the Woods

Stepping on organic sponge
I moved into the wonderland.
A gauntlet of fir and pine
shadowed the flowers and vines.

The quiet was a subdued din,
sort of felt and heard within.
I lifted my spirit to inquire
,"What voices are in this choir?"

A cricket's chirp, a gentle breeze,
a rubbing branch, rustling leaves,
a robin's song, bees in flight,
joyful sounds, wondrous sights!

A special treat upon my senses,
in a meadow without fences,
with pillars offering a fragrant smell.
Guardian sentinels declaring, "All is well!"

A Godly Garden

We must first want to,
then we must try,
patiently striving,
to identify
what we are growing
and pull out the weeds.
What's left in our garden
are godly seeds.

Watered and nurtured
loved and caressed,
their fruits are virtues.
Our growth, happiness.

Life's Journey

From my youth I have been taught
To follow truth and drink life's draught,
To visit the source, drink at the spring,
Find joyful pleasure in wondering.

When times were hard, I came to know
That sorrow is not felt for show.
And opposition is found in everything.
We select our course, our wandering.

There's beauty on each traveled road.
Even weeds have flowers, seeds were sowed.
For every choice of good and bad
It brings us joy or makes us sad.

From the roadside, we must see,
The river that leads to the tree.
The rod of iron, I've been told
Leads to a prize that's more than gold.

Many trees are on the road.
What kind of fruit does each one hold?
I pluck from the tree of knowledge,
And then, see more clearly all the foilage.

And drinking from the spring, so clear,
Infuses me with joy and cheer.
I haven't traveled to the end.
I walk this road with a friend.

For Christ is here to comfort me,
to bathe my wounds, to set me free.
Dear Savior I will follow thee.
I want to dine beneath the tree.

Should others pass along this way.
"Stop and visit, now!" I say."
Join our company. Rest today."
"Feast with us, after we pray."

We join our families at the tree
In celestial bliss, eternally,
Because we traveled righteously.
Come, dear friends, and walk with me.