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Saturday, 4 June 2016

LET ME LOVE YOU

Jasmine, lilies, roses, Can I take them all to you?
The fragrance of your love demands attention
Sweet aroma fills the air
Creating the perfect atmosphere for worship and devotion

The beauty of your grace paints my horizon in a ray of brilliance
Oh take me away with you
Into a place of solace... comfort
Leaving no place of resistance



Let me love you Lord
Let me kneel before you with humility
Ruling the kingdom of my heart

Let me sing to you
Surrounding you with the melodies of my lips
And the tokens of affections pouring from my heart
In gratitude for what I'll never deserve... never earn
Let me soar to the heights of heaven



Where I can dwell forever in your glorious presence
Loving you completely
Undivided or tainted
Let me love you.




Author: Stephanie Sutherland Souza

DELILAH'S DANCE

A chant of melodies smooth and seductive
Her hips flow to the rhythm of the music
His eyes... Fixed and gazed at her
Unaware of the poison mixed in her stare
She plays him like a violin
Taunting him deep within
Troubled he is at the sight of her
For fear of what desire her heart whispers
A man brought low by the feet of a temptress





A word to the poor and simpleminded
Be guided by him whose words are pure and never to be confounded
For in His truth, the soul is safe
And in His commandments the heart will never lose its place
For behind the mask of stolen waters
Is the bitter taste of death and shame
Delilah is HIS or HER name.



Author: Stephanie Sutherland Souza




Thursday, 12 May 2016

YOU HAVE WON

When the world sleeps, your eyes are kept open
When the wounded cries, your ears in silence are listening
When the broken faints in despair, your arms are open
Waiting to embrace them
To lift them
To make them stand again


When dreams are set adrift
Some burned to ashes
Others made ruins
Rubbles of what once was and now is in pieces
You sit, Oh Great Master Builder
Restoring,
Rebuilding,
Creating, 
That which is beautiful
Out of that which was nothing.



Oh King of my soul,
How can the mind understand this?
Your heart beats even when mine is still
When it's too broken to contain your love
Too torn to hold your truths



With gentle, loving hands
You hold the innermost part of man's existence
The centre of his being
The seat of his emotions
In the palm of your eternal hands
And replaces it with Your own
You give him the victory for battles
You have won.





Author: Stephanie Sutherland Souza


Saturday, 2 April 2016

BLESSED IN EXCESS-A TESTIMONY

“Come ye apart into a desert Place, and rest a while” Mark 6:31

Sis Deborah Dwyer

In 1 Kings 3, the Lord appears to Solomon in a dream and asks “a What shall I give thee?” and Solomon responds and asks for wisdom to govern God’s people. And the Lord said, b Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked long life for yourself, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice, behold, I have done according to your words; see, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you.” But God goes beyond that, the Lord says to Solomon, “c And I have also given you what you have not asked: both riches and honor, so that there shall not be anyone like you among the kings all your days. So if you walk in My ways, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.” Amen.

This is the God we serve, who longs to pour out his favor upon us, in the spiritual and natural. What will we ask of Him? If the Lord appears to us in a dream or vision as He did to Solomon what would we do or say? Would our hearts so please God that He would abundantly pour out such favor that none before or after you would know such a measure of favor, whether in wisdom and riches as with Solomon? The word of God says “d He longs to be gracious to you.” Will we set our hearts to so follow Jesus that whether He blesses us or not, we choose to be faithful as Job?


At 18 years of age, the Lord challenged me to not go to college right away. This had been the desire of my heart since I was young and I wondered at God, why He would take my greatest desire, and challenge me in it. I had no funds to go to school, I was set to graduate High school, fifth in my class with over a 4.0 GPA. I had gone to a Performing Arts High School and knew that I was to go on with my education but did not know how. A four year education would cost $120,000 USD or more and I had been praying with no direction from God as to what my next step should be and when He finally spoke, the Lord gave Mark 6:31, where Jesus says to His disciples, “Come ye apart into a desert place and rest a while” and for two months the Lord pressed this scripture on my heart and began convicting my heart to trust Him.  After much wrestling, I made up my mind that I would obey and as my heart began to accept, by faith, God’s invitation, I began to rest in God’s word. And as I began to trust and walk in obedience, the parents of my peers began to question, “So Daneilia what are you doing after graduation?” “I’ll be taking a year off” and they were not pleased at my response. They bombarded me with their concerns and made it seem as if I was making the wrong choice, many telling me, “most people who start working end up never going back to school.” One teacher who I was very close to drove a dagger into my heart, in opposition of my decision, and it sent me into a spiral questioning the Lord, if He had really spoken.


And again, I inquired of the Lord, why He was making me do this, what He really wanted from me and why I couldn’t go to college right away? And the Lord gave me the entire chapter of Mark 6 and I read through the miracle of the five loaves and two fish, where Jesus feeds the multitude. And after feeding the multitude, Jesus sends the disciples ahead of him in a boat and as the Lord saw them toiling, the Bible says, He came walking on the water in the fourth watch of the night. And when they all saw Him, they cried out and were afraid, and Jesus said unto them, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid” “Then He went up into the boat to them, and the wind stopped. And they were amazed and marveled.” “For they had not understood about the loaves, because their heart was hardened” and when I read that last verse, verse 52, I marveled and cried, and I immediately saw myself in the word of God. There was Jesus, the Son of God Almighty, revealed before them, daily. They walked with Him, daily the disciples proved Him, seeing Him perform healings, ministering to them, calling them out of their livelihood to follow Him and on this same day, just hours prior, the Lord performed a great miracle, feeding thousands of people before their eyes. And God’s provision was so much that they all ate, and were filled, and took up twelve baskets full of fragments and of the fish. How then does Jesus come walking on water, performing yet another miracle, just hours later and the disciples feared? As verse 52 so accurately judges, it says, “they understood not about the loaves because their hearts were hardened.”


And I realized that I did not want this to be me—seeing the Lord perform the miraculous in my life, time and time again and when He comes doing the miraculous yet again, I marvel, am amazed or am even afraid, because my heart is hardened. And I realized that God had proven Himself, so faithful, so many times since my childhood and beyond and now when He was saying to entrust my life and my future to Him, to trust Him to do the miraculous, the impossible, I was unsure. And I read the word and realized, I did not want that to be me. My heart became convicted that I did not want to be hardened of heart, and I decided to follow the Lord’s leading and took the year off. One year later, I got into school but the money still was not there and the Lord challenged my heart to take another year off and this time I was at peace, for I had grown spiritually and I knew who holds my future.  

And after the second year, the Lord challenged me to take a third off, and after the third, the Lord spoke and began preparing me to go back to school. After 4 years of seeking the Lord’s will and putting my own aside, the Lord provided the money for me to go to university. In August of 2011, at 22 years old, the age that I would have been graduating if I had attended college right away, I started college. Four years later in May 2015, I graduated from University as a Gates Millennium Scholar, owing no man or institution money. The Lord provided for me in my desert place, as He had done with the multitude in providing the fish and the loaves. And they were provided for to the extent that there were fish and loaves left over. Just as Solomon asked for wisdom to rule God’s people and was blessed in excess of His request, so too was I blessed. For I asked for a college education and He blessed me with a college education in excess of what I asked for. He sent me to 11 countries during my time in college, all paid for through His provision. This is the God we serve, when we ask in faith and in sincerity, the measure of His abundance is according to His riches in glory which is above anything we could ever ask for or imagine. 



References
a 1 Kings 3; 2 Chronicles 1
b 1 Kings 3:11-12
c 1 Kings 3:13-14
d Isaiah 30:18
e Mark 6:31
f Lamentations 3: 27

GENTLE WIND

Soft Gentle wind, Will you give of me your time?
For all that I am able to say, Can my words within your torrent fly?
To speak what is within and that's about to die?
For my lips are pursed and have lost the will to sing



My mind is frail and I am unable to sail the tides
This sea of storm that refuses to heed and be finally calm
Will you carry my words of love to those who need it most?
To the hopeless heart, poisoned by the devil's dart
To the weary soul, burdened by his weight of woes
To the hungry child, refused and rejected
Chased and stripped by life's sinful crimes





Will you lift the spirit of the broken?
Heal those who mercilessly have been forgotten?
For my strength is to see them soar
It is my medicine, my only cure




Precious wind, you give life to me
By doing all that my soul bids thee
For in you, God has given breath  
And with you, causes life to spring afresh





So I will wait in hopes of that which is greater
Than that which is often felt
For as gentle as your touch is
As sweet as your arms are
And stirring Your will be
They can never truly bring the needed comfort to me




For He that sits upon the throne
Rides upon your tides
His strength is your Saviour 
And His grace your Maker
In Him I will hide.


Author: Stephanie Sutherland Souza

Thursday, 4 February 2016

MY SEARCH

At the dawn of the day
The height of slumber
The shadows steal souls away
I leave the warmth and arms of comfort
To search for you each and everyday
At moment's notice
I'm swept away by the thoughts and memories of you
Filled, yet I hunger
For my heart knows
No other can love me the way that you've promised
And that you truly do
The days grow longer and my heart seems to wonder
Oh when will I truly find you
If time could be frozen
Events revisited
Then my steps would always lead me closer to you
Close enough to subdue the fears that clutches at my mind
Close enough to keep you near when life becomes fierce and friends unkind
Close enough to keep me strong through temptation and battles I thought I've already won
Close enough to take me home
Where only those who had truly love will never know any fear



Author: Stephanie Sutherland Souza

THE SECOND COMING

The world, full of rioting, full of godless pleasure is asleep.  Asleep in carnal security.  Men are putting afar off the coming of the Lord.  They laugh at warnings.  The proud boast is made,  "all things continue as they were from the beginning.  Tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant." (2 Peter 3:4; Isaiah 56:12)

We will go deeper into pleasure loving, but Christ says, "Behold I come as a thief. (revelation 16:15).  At the very time when the world is asking in scorn, "Where is the promise of His coming?".  The signs are fulfilling while they cry "peace and safety", sudden destruction is coming.

When the scorner, the rejecter of truth has become presumptuous, when the routine of work in the various money making lines is carried out without regards to principle, when the student is eagerly seeking knowledge of everything but his Bible, Christ comes as a thief.

Author: unknown