ALOHA PROMISES FOREVER

Thought For the Day: Give Your Best Anyway

Posted on June 1, 2020 by alohapromisesforever

“If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives: Be kind anyway. If you are successful you will win some false friends and true enemies: Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank people will try to cheat you: Be honest anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight: Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous of you: Be happy anyway. The good you do today, will often be forgotten by tomorrow: Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough: Give your best anyway.” – Mother Teresa

Posted in Thought For the Day | Tagged Accuse, Anyway, Be Happy, Be Honest, Be Kind, Best, Build Anyway, Building, Cheat, Destroy Overnight, Do Good, Enough, False Friends, Forgotten, Give, Give Your Best, Good, Honest and Frank, Jealous, Kind, Mother Teresa, Selfish, Serenity and Happiness, Succeed, Successful, Thought For the Day, Today, Tomorrow, True Enemies, Ulterior Motives | Leave a comment

First Principles: We Must Meet Our Duty and Convince the World That We are Just Friends and Brave Enemies

Posted on June 1, 2020 by alohapromisesforever

“I am ever unwilling that [peace] should be disturbed as long as the rights and interests of the nations can be preserved. But whensoever hostile aggressions require a resort to war, we must meet our duty and convince the world that we are just friends and brave enemies.” – Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Andrew Jackson (December 3, 1806)

That’s foreign or domestic. Peaceful protests and aggressively seeking justice are one thing. Thuggish behavior including violently rioting in the streets and looting quite another.

Posted in First Principles | Tagged Andrew Jackson, Brave Enemies, Disturb, First Principles, Hostile Aggressions, Just Friends, Meet Our Duty, Nations, Peace, Perserve, Rights and Interests, Thomas Jefferson, Unwilling, War | Leave a comment

A Child of Interesting Conversation

Posted on May 31, 2020 by alohapromisesforever

It’s hard for some to listen to a child, dream his or her dreams. I’m not certain of why. Maybe because for so many, life in the end can be a be let down? Not sure and even less certain that I truly want to know the why of it. But, I do know that my God and my love have moments of wanting a childlike quality in devotion and imagination. I think that’s kind of awesome.

A Child of Interesting Conversation
by Michael Doyle

A child of interesting conversation
Is a joy to some toward destination
While others worry they have too much to say
To me, it's a matter of company along the way

A heart that remains open to hope
No matter how tangled at end of rope
And still the sun will yet arise
Clutching to our bosom, the sacredness before our eyes

Every moment a poem waiting to write
Every wrong a hope of making it right
Every vision a gift given to sight
Every ray a pleasant gift of warm delight

Each moment a treasure nonetheless
Remembering each step taken as honored guest
As walked on this earth with reverence
A whispered prayer given in sacred presence

Cherished as gifts should always be
Until the last days of time endlessly
Each circumstance given as proof of devotion
An imaginary grace caressed in emotion

She speaks of things so delicately
In words offered quite eloquently
She speaks her drops of new creation
As if she knows the secrets of imagination

(c) May 31, 2020  Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved

Posted in Poetry and Poems | Tagged Awesome, Child, Company, Conversation, Destination, Devotion, Dream, Eyes, Heart, Hope, Imagination, Joy, Open, Photograph, Poem, Poetry, Rise, Sacred, Say, Sun, Way | Leave a comment

In Reverence For Pentecost Sunday

Posted on May 31, 2020 by alohapromisesforever

With all that is going on in the world it’s maybe a bit hard to have the peace of mind and so to recall. Still, in reverence for and in hopefulness and love, I wish toward that we a bit of reverence for Pentecost Sunday!

This is still the day the Lord has made let us rejoice and be glad in it!!

Posted in Thought For the Day | Tagged Day, Glad, Hope, Lord, Love, Peace of Mind, Pentecost Sunday, Rejoice, Reverence, Thought For the Day | Leave a comment

Knowing Who We Are

Posted on May 31, 2020 by alohapromisesforever

Based in part on Pentecostal Sunday and Ephesians 10:

Knowing Who We Are
by Michael Doyle

For we are the handiwork of God for His good
Created in His image, let this be understood
With all thanks to God we live in full gratitude
Keeping fixed in our time with rightful attitude

Through the blood of Jesus we have our salvation
As has been duly set forth in humble explanation
All of our sins have been subjected to repudiation
Of His holy doing we are in Christ's salvation

In this state of grace, we have more than victory
Having conquered our nature and now in His legacy
We but to live with the sanctity of His Holy power
Our potential is limitless in this sacred hour

What then is our purpose that we live to fulfill
Not according to us, but our best in His Will
By these three truths as best we do understand
We are His servants and at His good command

To our best, the old is supplanted by God's new creation
To do what is needed to be done in all its implications
We are to become the masterpiece that God intends
Dedicating our lives to these humblest of ends

Human in the shape of God we have become 2.0
Enough as we are in doing our part even if not a hero
We are charged only to live up to the best of our best
In the new hope that we are as we live up to our test

In all of this, each of us is part of God's good plan
Allow me to emphasize this means every woman and man
The promise contained in this held in its immensity
Is the fashioning of each of us in all of that full intensity

Charged with these duties, we must take responsibility
In every way to the very best of our true capacity
It is a full time service that we have yet before us to come
All in God's name and to the benefit of His Holy Kingdom

Wherever we are let it be said of us that we have done good
That like Jesus, our imitation will illustrate so its understood
That each of us are born to be a servant of the Holy Light
Each of us a candle of hope in this darkness of surrounding night

(c) May 31, 2020  Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved

Posted in Poetry and Poems | Tagged Attitude, Benefit, Best, Blood of Jesus, Candle, Capacity, Charged, Christ, Command, Creation, Darkeness, Dedicate, Duties, Ephesians, Fulfill, God, God's Good Plan, Good, Gratitude, Handiwork, His Image, His Will, Hope, Hour, Humble, Illustrate, Immensity, Implication, Intend, Intensity, Jesus, Kingdom, Know, Legacy, Light, Live Up, Lives, Masterpiece, Night, Pentecostal Sunday, Photograph, Poem, Poetry, Potential, Power, Promise, Purpose, Repudiation, Responsibility, Salvation, Servants, Service, Shape of God, Sins, State of Grace, Test, Thanks, Time, Truth, Understand, Understood, Victory, We Are, Who | Leave a comment

Thought For the Day: Start By Doing What’s Necessary; Then Do What’s Possible; and Suddenly You Are Doing the Impossible

Posted on May 31, 2020 by alohapromisesforever

“Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” – Francis of Assisi

Posted in Thought For the Day | Tagged Doing, Francis of Assisi, Impossible, Necessary, Possible, Start, Sudden, Thought For the Day | Leave a comment

First Principles: We Have A Set of Maxims of the Same Spirit, Which Must Be Beloved By Every Friend of Liberty, To Virtue, to Mankind. Our Bill of Rights Contains Those Admirable Maxims

Posted on May 31, 2020 by alohapromisesforever

“There are certain maxims by which every wise and enlightened people will regulate their conduct. There are certain political maxims, which no free people out ever to abandon. Maxims of which the observance is essential to the security of happiness. It is impiously irritating the avenging hand of Heaven, when a people who are in the full enjoyment of freedom, launch out into the wide ocean of human affairs, and desert those maxims which alone can preserve liberty. Such maxims, humble as they are, are those only which can render a nation safe or formidable… We have one, Sir, That all men are by nature free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into society, theWe have a set of maxims of the same spirit, which must be beloved by every friend of liberty, to virtue, to mankind. Our Bill of Rights contains those admirable maxims.” – Patrick Henry to Edmund Randolph (1788)

Posted in First Principles | Tagged Beloved, Bill of Rights, Contain, First Principles, Friend, Liberty, Mankind, Maxims, Patrick Henry, Same Spirit, Virtue | Leave a comment

Depths of Despair

Posted on May 30, 2020 by alohapromisesforever

How much sadness can one little girl’s heart hold? More than the number of angels that can dance on the head of an infinite pinhead.

Depths of Despair
by Michael Doyle

In the depths of despair
Her life out of synch and in disrepair
She found that she could not eat
It seemed her life had met defeat

It was a very uncomfortable feeling
With heart spinning and head reeling
Like her field of life was laid fallow
The lump in her throat would not let her swallow

It as a night best put to ominous bed
With out of control thoughts in her head
A closed door saw her lost in tears
Alone with herself except for her fears

It takes a hard heart to be had
And to ignore the anguish that made her sad
A candle removed left her alone that night
Black in the darkness of pity's plight

She was told of the path of life's history
Where one would draw one's own legacy
But with decisions made against her will
It seemed bleakness rested on her window's sill

(c) May 30, 2020  Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved

Posted in Poetry and Poems | Tagged Against, Alone, Angels, Anguish, Bed, Bleakness, Candle, Closed Door, Dance, Darkness, Decision, Defeat, Depths, Despair, Disrepair, Draw, Eat, Fallow, Fears, Feeling, Field, Found, Hard Heart, Head, Heart, History, Hold, Ignore, Legacy, Life, Little Girl, Lump, Night, Out of Control, Path, Photograph, Pity, Plight, Poem, Poetry, Reel, Sad, Sadness, Sill, Spin, Swallow, Synch, Tears, Thoughts, Throat, Uncomfortable, Will, Window | Leave a comment

The Fall of Constantinople

Posted on May 30, 2020 by alohapromisesforever

Though largely symbolic, the fall of Constantinople brought ruin to a significant part of Europe by the hand of the Ottoman Empire on May 29, 1453, after siege of less than two months.

The Fall of Constantinople
by Michael Doyle

A black day, May 29th in the year 1453
Was a day to live in the annals of infamy
Constantinople fell to the Ottoman army
Marking the end of Rome's great history

The Ottoman Empire pressed into Europe's east
Unleashed as if it were a horrific beast
Symbolic in the battle between civilizations
As one by one, the Ottomans toppled Christian nations

Then arose atop the empire, Suliman the First
Destined to wield his conquering unquenchable thirst
Forever altering the course of the Reformation
Crushing the Czech and Hungarian nations

This then is how the Hapsburgs gained more power
As Ferdinand came to throne claimed in this hour
Hungary became subject to the Ottoman nation
Breeding the grounds for further confrontation

Against Christianity's enemy, it was understood
That temporal treaties would make arrows of any wood
Practiced in pragmatism, spiritual enemies formed alliance
Despite the facts of fate caused by this informal dalliance

Under the murderous reigns of Ottoman sultans
Subjugation was made of millions of Christians
As drafted Janissaries served as mercenaries
Casing the losses of Christians for centuries

Sultan and Pope were treated with equal hatred
By the Protestants fighting for what they held sacred
This came to an uneasy passage of broken courses
Living to this day in time's eternal forces

May 30, 2020  Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved

Posted in Poetry and Poems | Tagged Alliance, Annals, Arrows, Black Day, Broken, Centuries, Christian Nations, Christians, Civilization, Confrontation, Conquer, Constantinople, Crush, Czech, Destiny, East, Enemy, Eternal, Europe, Fall, Fall of Constantinople, Fate, Fell, Ferdinand, Fight, Hapsburg, Hatred, Hungary, Infamy, Janissaries, May 29 1453, Mercenary, Millions, Ottoman Empire, Photograph, Poem, Poetry, Power, Pragmatism, Protestants, Reformation, Reign, Rome, Sacred, Siege, Subject, Subjugation, Suliman I, Sultan, Symbolic, Throne, Treaty, Unleashed | Leave a comment

Soldiers From the Heart

Posted on May 30, 2020 by alohapromisesforever

Based in part on Matthew 5:6:

Soldiers From the Heart
by Michael Doyle

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst
For the righteousness of God foremost and first
For all of these shall be fully satisfied
Because in the countersign they will be ratified

Our spiritual battle leaves us vulnerable to sin
And to become victims of false doctrine again and again
We focus instead on what is Biblically true and good
Just we know beyond knowing that we should

As was true for the young pastor, Timothy
This is not a time for us to live in timidity
Filled with power, love and true discipline
It is on our knees that the battle must begin

Called in the footsteps of Paul and not the Deceiver
We passionately pursue godliness as believers
This is what it means to be Christ's soldiers from the heart
It is the standard we will always bear and never depart

Good and faithful soldiers from the days of our youth
We endeavor ever forward hungerly pursuing the truth
This is the standard of sound words by which we hear
All the Biblical truth by which we will defend and adhere

No longer willingly allowing verses take out of context
To be the measure by which God and the world connects
But to say that not to judge means to judge hypocritically
Instead we are to use Biblical discernment fundamentally

As truth soldiers we will shoulder through all the difficulty
That everyday life brings to and by our own best ability
Soldiering on as it were in all efforts to live victory
In this, we will and do find our spiritual place of maturity

Abstaining from wickedness, fleeing lust and seeking the right
We live our lives as vessels willingly filled with God's light
Faith, love and peace are what we meant to give and to live
To best our abilities and in our shortfall God always forgives

The Lord's bond servant must avoid argument and instead be kind
Seeking always to reach and where possible bring sight to the blind
With gentleness, we are meant to truthfully correct our opposition
Fighting the good fight from beneath the cross' good position

(c) May 30, 2020  Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved

Posted in Poetry and Poems | Tagged Abstain, Battle, Biblically True, Blessed, Book of Matthew, Cross, Discern, Discipline, False Doctrine, Fight the Good Fight, Focus, Footsteps, Forgive, Gentle, God, Godliness, Heart, Hunger and Thirst, Knees, Know, Love, Maturity, Pastor, Photograph, Poem, Poetry, Power, Righteousness, Satisfied, Sight, Sin, Soldier, Spiritual Battle, Standard, Timid, Timothy | Leave a comment

ALOHA PROMISES FOREVER

Thought For the Day: Give Your Best Anyway

First Principles: We Must Meet Our Duty and Convince the World That We are Just Friends and Brave Enemies

A Child of Interesting Conversation

In Reverence For Pentecost Sunday

Knowing Who We Are

Thought For the Day: Start By Doing What’s Necessary; Then Do What’s Possible; and Suddenly You Are Doing the Impossible

First Principles: We Have A Set of Maxims of the Same Spirit, Which Must Be Beloved By Every Friend of Liberty, To Virtue, to Mankind. Our Bill of Rights Contains Those Admirable Maxims

Depths of Despair

The Fall of Constantinople

Soldiers From the Heart

Flickr Photos

Blogs I Follow

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Archives