Snowflakes

Snowflakes
The snow is falling looking like so many angels
Drifting white beauties announcing God’s goodness

The world in silent stillness waits
For the announcement to be
As the snow drifts on the tree
We all long to see something real
No more talk about kingdoms surreal
Only a walking with the snowflakes lighting on my face
Only a dancing, rejoicing, and breathing in grace
Though in silence they fall, they release out a roar
That changes our world, our spirits to soar
And in the quietness of the falling, we rise to the sun
Hidden behind the gray clouds is the Glorious One
I see the snow drifting, shifting, dancing
And Jesus is calling us to His romancing
He makes my heart pure, He calls it forthright
And just like the snow I become gentle and white

Yet a force that takes earth and makes it beautiful

K, Duane Carter 2-15-10

The Furnace

Furnace
The days are getting longer
my heart is getting stronger
but my resistance is weakening, weakening
and Your power strengthening, strengthening
for Your fire is Your love
and as the sun shines magnificently above
I feel a breaking, a breaking
and in Your trust I am not mistaking
anything that is my own, my fare
for the Divine love that will find me there
in a place where I lay everything down
and the fiery furnace falls to the ground
and all of a sudden the fourth man is with me
opening my eyes so I can see
The beauty of His face
The warmth of His embrace
This is all that ever matters
This is all that ever scatters
those things that hold me bondage here
those things that hold me in my fear
The furnace burns all of that away
I come out of this heated fray
Not smelling like smoke, but smelling like Him
Smelling like rose petals carried in the wind
My heart is placed in the lofty places
My soul is filled with His gentle graces
I no longer focus on my fall
I know the fire was worth it all

For now it burns deeply within me

K, Duane Carter 2-13-10

Listening

In my blindness, I cry out to see
To escape the dark, escape the fright
And now what is this trembling sense with me
I can hear the Color; I can smell the Light

I see a vortex within my mind
Its midst is ever darkness, black
But it brings the colors of heaven to the blind
And the darkness does it now attack

As it touches earth, green is released
And yellow, red, and orange, blue
Not only blindness, but my fear has ceased
As I stand in the midst of the Presence of You

He touches me, I see men as trees
I see His form, His touch; the escape from fright
And now what is this trembling sense in me
That He has overcome darkness; I can smell His light

And it smells like rain…

K, Duane Carter 2-7-10

Hope

Hope

What is your dream?

Is it no child hopeless?

Is it no child hungry?

Is it no war, no scourge, no disease?

Whatever it is

Whatever you can imagine it to be

Hope will take you farther

Farther than you can think or even imagine

Hope will take you to that place

Don’t lose hope

I’m not talking about the man-made, manufactured kind

I’m not talking about empty promises and rhetoric

I’m not talking about an empty wish

I’m talking about the real Hope

Don’t lose It

For it is your ticket into your destiny

For it is the key which opens the door

Into the world of world-changers

Don’t lose hope

It is the life-flow of God’s dreams and visions and wonders

Lord, release Your hope

In torrents and torrents of living wonder and joy

Make it our anchor

Make it our refuge

Hope

K, Duane Carter 2-6-10

Lessons

Lessons
Ok, Lord I have spent the entire day avoiding You.
And here at 5:46 pm I have decided I can’t avoid You any longer,
I have to take the step toward stronger
and ask You what is up to snuff?
Am I a diamond so in the rough
that it is best to just let me be
and then let all of eternity
bring about the finished gem?
Do I go around this mountain again
for the 20- millionth time
simply looking for another dime
when my need is in the millions of dollars?
This predicament is enough to make me holler
for just the sheer feel of letting it go,
but then I find myself back in the drifts of snow
that leave my heart just cold and dark.
I take a walk down through the park
in search of anything that will bring the heat.
I continue on with my aching feet
and feel the wind against my skin
that tells me once and once again
I can’t see You when I’m looking at my woes.
Against everything within me this goes
but it just makes sense that darkness mows
against the light, yet when that switch goes on
guess which one runs in fright?
In silence does that darkness flee,
and this simply is a reminder to me
to turn on the light and let it be
just simply what it is: pure bliss.

K, Duane Carter 1-23-10