God reveals himself in nature. Today he spoke to me and I was able to articulate his words on paper.

You Give Life

–inspired by G-man himself

Oh tree,

Oh wonderful creation

You protect me in my vulnerability,

Stretching your arms around me like your maker.

You are rough to the touch, but with

Incentive, you warm the room.

You entertain our youth

Providing adventurous landscape.

Even’ if we rip your strong roots

From the soil,

Eliminate your reaching

Grasp,

You are still there to warm us-

All we have to do is ask

“Oh tree, though we took

your life, bring joy to our

family with this gentle spark”

And poof,

            Our world is illuminated with light,

            Joy, comfort, warmth, and best of

            All-life!

            Life! Even in your death you

            Cause life! Creatures Scurry to

            You and undeservingly feed off your

            sacrifice.

            They grow with your nutrients.

            And why not?

            How soft you become now in your

            death, your arms stretch downward

            to the world rather than ever-reaching

            to the sky. Even now I depend on you,

            Using you like a crutch to write

            these words.

Oh tree,

            I look to you and see a giver of life

            Maybe someday you will shelter my

            Family when I become full of years,

            I can only hope.

Dried Up

-Thanks to God

Oh brown Puddle,

You recipient of life–once

Clean, you swallow it into your

Murky depths and shape

Yourself.

People fall into your traps

And curse you!

You ruin people’s walks and

Stick in their feet as they

Pass by.

Why don’t you dry up and

Evaporate towards the sun,

An ever burning void of

Fire, for one day your

Stream of life will cease

And the clouds will part,

Illumination will then

occur and in time you

will not even hold an

indentation in the land.

In time.

            If you are like my best friend Nate Merrill, then you’d have an appreciation for nature and God’s creation. Did you know the Bible promotes those who enjoy his creation? In fact, he commands us to rule over and protect the land. This is yet another amazing aspect of the Bible. It contains such wisdom in how we should live our lives; there are so many verses in the Bible that refer to the wonders of nature that I can’t believe it. So all of you free loving hippies, hug trees all you want because it’s Biblical, awesome right? Take the next step though and put your faith in God so that you can appreciate more than just nature: Its creator. This allows such a deeper appreciation of things such as a caterpillar morphing into a butterfly, God made this possible just for you to enjoy and marvel at. Praise this creator and you will reap the benefits. He gives power to those follow him, joy to those who praise his name and creation, and wisdom to those who ask of it. I stress this point: Believing IN GOD and accepting his truths in your heart is the first step to enjoying all the marvels around you. Now if you already believe this truth, spend time this week and enjoy what our team has been studying about today: God’s creation. If you see something that amazes you, thank Him for creating this and bringing this to your eyes at your own particular moment. It is sweeet.

Explain poem:

To explain my poems, they were both written during an activity in which we were all sent out to find a particular spot in Nicaragua and enjoy creation, analyze it, and find answers about it. It was raining pretty hard outside so I looked through the falling rain and saw a tree, BAM Margera, shelter. I sat down and immediately felt the power of God around me, it was a pretty cool feeling. I prayed and let the pen fly. In the first poem, I was very vulnerable because of the rain, but the tree provided protection so it made sense to write about it. Hmm…this sounds like my creator a bit (thinking in my head). I remember praying then that God would have me write what he willed. Well, the bark is wicked hard, but on the contrary it provides much warmth when lit, so I decided to write about it (keep in mind that through prayer we can break through the barrier of sin and experience his love). I love to climb trees for the thrill and adventure (and serving God is also quite an adventure). In order to make fires and be warmed by trees, we first rip them from their roots and tear them down, killing them. Though we do this, they do not withhold their warmth when we light them with a spark, in fact they heat our homes. The tree I was writing under had many mushrooms and had moss on it, which reminded me that when it is dead, all these things thrive off its body and it gives life! Are you getting the message that God smacked me in the face with? Also, the whole time I was using one of the mushrooms as a pad or a crutch to write my poem, just as we use God as a crutch to speak his words or during hard times.  

God is so much like a tree, it is unbelievable how he reveals himself in nature. We are commanded to praise creation, it is like we are praising God!

Revelation 4:11

“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

Read Job Chapter 38 and you will be blown away with the divinity and nature of God.

Psalm 24:1-2 The earth is the LORD’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it; for God has founded it on the seas, and established it on the rivers.

Psalm 65:5-13 By awesome deeds you answer us with deliverance, O God of our salvation; you are the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas. By your strength you established the mountains; you are girded with might. You silence the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples. Those who live at earth’s farthest bounds are awed by your signs; you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy. You visit the earth and water it, you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide the people with grain, for so you have prepared it. You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth. You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with richness. The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.

John 15:5 ” I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.” –or he is the tree and we are his branches, possibly?-We need God For Everything.

Matthew 6:26-29 “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to your life’s span? And why are you anxious about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these.”

That is the first poem, the second is a little brutal, I know, and I was a little scared of it after I wrote it. It is truth though and those who are unsaved are like brown puddles, full of sin. They do not have God’s love in their hearts and often cause dissention and violence in communities. We often curse some of these people and when we come in contact with someone truly evil, they stick to us and affect our walks of faith. Sadly for many friends, one day God will stop feeding them life, or in this poem the rain will stop falling, and these people will be brought up and their sins will come to light. Our mark in this world leaves as soon was we die, and those who don’t know Christ will have their life, “Dried Up.” I hope you guys enjoyed my poems; I will get you more caught up w/what’s going on hurr the next blog because God is awesome!