Christmas cards start to flow Into the season we love and know No matter the changes the come There is glory in this kingdom
Tis the season of mercy mild While angelic hosts proclaim the child Who was born in the of a manger A birth meant to make God no longer a stranger
Magnified within the echo of glory Each year we relive this Christmas story Of God and sinner having reconciled In the name of Christ born as a child
Sung together in starlit bits of melody His praises be joined as our theology Somewhere His people stand in worship For the sake of our holy relationship
Angels and saints stand together side by side In the blessed truth we must all confide May the love of our God be magnified And from our errors may be become sanctified
(c) December 7, 2021 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
“If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.” -Noam Chomsky, linguistics professor and political activist (b. 7 Dec 1928)
With his cloven hoofs he has come To seek out lurkers in the kingdom To those who would bring such evil Krampus can do worse than bedevil
Reading as he does from the book of life Restoring the peace to those who bring strife Come along then with all of your selves To be turned into Santa's toiling elves
All who practice in deception and lies Best be aware of their coming surprise For nothing escapes a life of wrong doing As it turns tenfold and to their undoing
What is it then that you like to keep hidden Those things that you do, you know are forbidden It's best then to always keep in light and good What you've sown will you sow, it's best understood
(c) December 6, 2021 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
“The giver of every good and perfect gift has called upon us to mimic God’s giving, by grace, through faith and this is not of ourselves” – St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra
“The virtues of men are of more consequence to society than their abilities; and for this reason, the heart should be cultivated with more assiduity than the head.” – Noah Webster (1788)
Watching as our days unfold Into the stories yet untold Life is a gift for us to live In taking less than we have to give
Let's not let the Grinch steal Christmas No snarling sneer will stop this mass Instead let's live out the glory As we unfold our Christmas story
In a narcissistic turn of belated fate There came the king, Herod the Great As an embodiment of living tyranny The thirst for power is pride's history
Where there's a preoccupation with the "I" There will be enough sin to make God sigh Herod dressed out in his need for possession Shows how a soul is owned by its obsessions
Prestige can make its sense of impression With a gift of gab in all of its deception All it can bring is a life of morbid fear When instead, the lives lived should be in cheer
The magi came to see God laying as a baby Urged on Herod's suspicion that just maybe There was a true king to breed his insecurity Leading to disturbed violence in furious history
when the Scriptures were held under deep review Herod swore he would be be the only King of the Jews His intended present would not be frankincense, gold or myrrh But the thoughts of deaths yet to occur
Wanting to give the first of gifts and only the very best The wise men would return home after passing the test But Herod would yet try to take the Savior's life As Herod preferred hatred, anger and the ways of strife
As Joseph's family fled to Egypt, God chose to provide All needed to save Jesus, Joseph, and Mary side by side While Herod slaughtered every single little boy Trying to deprive the world of the best of our coming joy
The kingdom of this world is doomed always to fail While the kingdom of God will always in the end prevail Herod wore the signature of the bestial, bad man Bringing evil where could as only the truly evil can
Which king then will be the one to rule your life? Will you serve the ways of peace or live for strife? What good are riches if these will forfeit your life? It's truly that simple, will you choose peace or strife?
Surrendering all or living for the rot of that something That in the end is truly the mirage adding up to nothing The ways of sin are found in the separation in death Better than we confess into salvation unto our last breath
(c) December 5, 2021 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
“Someone is responsible for what happened, and I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s not me.” – Alec Baldwin, deflecting the responsibility that everyone holding a gun has toward others with respect to gun safety
Heading out of Australia to escape this Aussie winter. First stop Japan, then UK/Ireland and if work doesn't call me back, onto Chicago. I will make it up as I go along
