White as Snow (song)

There is a funny contradiction in the world today. On the one hand, some people want to keep insisting that all human beings are essentially good, though some make mistakes at times. But in the end, it's all like a Disney movie with some villians, of course, but ultimately most people are good overall. Of course, it seems that some of the same people who make these claims also shake their fists at God in Heaven and blame Him whenever evil erupts its repulsive ooze over humanity once again- and people suffer and lives are lost. Then the question is raised for me- how could a good people allow evil in the world? And when we're standing there, frozen in shock, maybe that's when we can come to recognize the truth- there is evil in this pervasive world- and we're it. We were all made to be good- made in God's image, Who is perfection itself- but we made the fatal choice to rebel against The Lord through Adam and Eve's sin- and now the world is under the curse of sin. Thankfully, God Himself has provided the remedy for sin. Though it stains us scarlet red, God can forgive our sins and make them white as snow. They've all been paid for by Jesus' death and Resurrection. We must take all our sin and let it go- leaving it nailed to the cross and put our faith in Jesus and live for Him instead. Thank God for His love and forgiveness!

"White as Snow" (parody of "Let It Go" from Disney's "Frozen" by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez; copyright by Nathan Ludwick 5/29/2015)
(Isaiah 1:18, Isaiah 45:21-25, Isaiah 64:6, Psalms 14:3, Psalms 53:3, Romans 3:1-20, Romans 3:23-26, Romans 6:23, Proverbs 20:9, John 1:29, 1 John 3:1, 1 John 1:7, John 3:16-21, John 14:6, John 10:1-18, John 6:35-40, Hebrews 10:10-12, Colossians 1:15-20)

Verse 1
.............
The snow glows white in Wisconsin tonight
What a fitting Christmas scene
The winter brings transformation
The fall looks like it's washed clean
Our sin is howling like a swirling storm inside
Couldn't keep from sin; Heaven knows we tried
Won't let Him in
But think He's pleased
If you're good, girl; boy, always keeping clean
Conceal evil
Don't let it show
Well, on our own...

Chorus 1
...............
We're evil! We're evil!
(I) can't hope to match up to The Lord
Yes, we know we're evil
Turn away and seek The Lord!
Isaiah 64:6 says
All good deeds we've done-
The Lord says they're rotten filthy rags anyway

Verse 2
..............
It's funny how resistance
Makes everything His fault
And we feel He's hidden- if only
He'd let us see Him all
The Christ revealed that wish for you
Jesus- God's image- Way, Life and Truth
He died for wrongs
And rose so we'd
Be free!

Chorus 2
................
All evil
In one go-
Christ has won over sin for all time!
Let Him go
Save your soul
You need to receive Christ
Hear what God says in Isaiah
Let's read 1:18

Bridge
.............
Like how snow flurries through the air into the ground
Our souls can be washed clean though our sin's scarlet- hear God now
"Come use thought- realize this- I can wipe (out) all bad!"
Though all you've known is black, the cross has changed all that!

Chorus 3
................
White as snow!
White as snow!
(My) sins are white like wool thanks to God!
White as snow!
White as snow!
That perfect Lamb of God!
Here I stand- by The Christ I'm saved
Like it says in 1st. John
Behold how The Father's loved (in) 3:1- yay!

Building Down and Up (poem)

(Sometimes) annual reflection. :-)

Building Down and Up
(poem by Nathan Ludwick; copyright 6/1/2015)
(Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, Habakkuk 1:5, Psalms 127, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Colossians 3:1-4, Galatians 2:20, John 12:20-26, Luke 6:46-49, Hebrews 13:12-16, Philippians 3:7-20, Luke 14:25-35, Philippians 1:21, Matthew 6:25-34, Proverbs 24:3-4, Proverbs 1:7, Job 13:15, Isaiah 2:22, Genesis 11, Matthew 7:12-14, Luke 9:23, John 6:68, John 14:6, John 10:10)

Thirty-three on the tree
For a life of debris
What a feat of carpentry!
A way of life made a way of death
But that death made The Way of Life
The straight and narrow Way of Life
That only a few ever find
The crossbeams of its firm foundation laid by Christ
The Lord is the Master Builder and Code Inspector
Without Whom the laborers build in vain
A vain tower of Babel
Built of all that man's capable
A towering monument to ill-placed confidence
And it seems the older you get the less sure of things you get
Every day I grow more sure that I'm not sure of anything but one
I put no trust in man who has but a breath and I put trust in God who gives the breath
The rubble of old towers and old dreams seem to be the same material
The material and substance of things hoped for of impermanence
Down goes what came up and down goes the day- like the old refrain- nothing gold can stay
Midas' touch can't touch this one gold thing that does stay
The Carpenter's luminescent streets- the real life yellow brick road I will one day say hello to in time
The only hope for the future that helps me move past the past and present myself to The Father's present for me
And what a present it is to have reached the same years of struggle our Lord endured
Together with Christ in His glory and Resurrection but first in His suffering
And shall I not accept both good and bad from The Lord's hand?
But let me only fall into the hands of The Lord-
The hands that wound and heal are the only ones I trust
Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him
One day I will also be together with Christ in death
Knowing that because of Him I am always with Him in Life.
Both seeds' and dreams' deaths bring much growth
And the suffering is not worth comparing to the glory to be revealed in the new coming.
The former things have passed- all is made new through the Catalyst of soils' and souls' contents.
The stuff of earth still competes for my allegiance but it joins me thirty-three on the tree
Dying to live and living to die daily- all only for Lord Jesus, my best thought.
Be Thou my vision, mission, blueprints, building and foundation- firm forever holding me together.