Light Follower

9.07.2010

Though I fall again and again
You grant me mercy over and over
Every time I displease You I'm in pain
Why is it so hard to find freedom?

God Almighty You gave me a glimpse
One summer of freedom, six weeks
Where I lived freely, in bliss
Why can I not find that freedom now?

The taste of true love, the way it felt
Lingers in my mind, making it hard
To concentrate on the present, it's a welt
Sore and red across my face -- hurting.

Why show love and freedom to me
If I cannot have it again?
You have given me the desire to be
Free and full of life and love.

God Almighty, blessed be Your Name
Your love for me is everlasting, eternal
Your mind never changes and Your Fame
Goes out before all peoples and nations.

Your mind, Your will, never stray
But I can't always see them, so please
God I pray that you grant me this
   -- show me the way
So that I may please You.

Father-God, let my love for You
Be a reflection of Your love for me
May I walk in Your Spirit with love
For You and for those around me.

God I'm confused. I'm lost, I'm weary.
Show me what to do, grant me peace
Your Word lights my path, give me grace
To follow it's shine -- wherever it leads.

His Word Is Truth

9.06.2010

It is that whisper in your ear

   and the thunder that you fear

It is that thought in your head

   and the voice while in bed

It is written in the stars above

   and we can see declarations of His love

In the written Word He gave to us

   and in the many ways He speaks

In the things that He created

   and in the testimony He has given me

In the evidences of my salvation

   and in the love that I have for Him

     Christ alone has saved me

     Christ alone has bought me

     Christ alone owns me

     And Christ alone will take me

        to my eternal home

I praise God who has given me love

I praise God who has given me faith

I praise God who has given me passion

   a passion for truth

His Word is Truth

Tumblr....

8.02.2010

I now have a Tumblr account. Click here to visit it. It is pretty cool, I think. the majority of my posts and traffic will be on there from here on out. My intention is to slowly phase this blog out, and to eventually use my personal domain (alexanderganahl.com) as a more business-type website, and keep creedofman.com as my personal blog, wherever I may host that blog.

Blogger has done me faithful service over the years, since 2007 when I created my first blogspot blog. Those were in the days before Google owned the world and we all sold our souls to be a part of the Google Universe. I will still be posting, for awhile at least, but let it be known that I have moved. Follow me over at http://www.creedofman.com!

Love Heals

Only You can take away

The stress and hurt inside

I feel like I am by myself

Please fill me, completely.

God is my refuge

In Him I will trust

I'll never be dismayed

Never, no never.

All alone I feel despair

The love I felt before

Is missing from my life

God I long for love -- so fill me.

God is my refuge

In Him I will trust

I'll never be dismayed

Never, no never.

Your love will make me whole

Will ease the pain I feel

Your love shows me a friend

Christ is with me forever

God is my refuge

In Him I will trust

I'll never be dismayed

Never, no never.

Life-Thoughts

7.30.2010

It is an odd feeling to have just passed the last two CLEPs that I needed. I'm not done with my degree, but I don't have any more CLEPs. It's somewhat weird, is all. Cool, but weird.

Looking back at the last couple of years, it is slightly amazing to me to realize that in only 15 months I have earned 96 credits toward my BA in English. I have 9 more credits scheduled to finish by the end of August, and then just 18 more after that. I'm almost done. Just a couple more semesters.

It is making me think hard about what I need to do over the next months, over the next year. I'm about to jump into life, and I don't know if I'm going to be ready. Sure, I'll have my BA in English, I'll know how to write, I've had a couple of jobs, and I've had a lot of varied experience doing different things. I'm very confidant by nature - but I just don't know if I will be ready or not. And that feeling of not knowing scares me.

It comes down to just one thing, in the end. It has been God who has given me the grace to pass all my tests and get all the credits. It will be God who gives me the grace to finish. I know, although I am afraid, that it will be God who will create the opportunities for my that I need for my career. If I am listening to His guiding voice, then He will take care of me.

And that is all that matters.

Interesting. Because I say it is.

7.26.2010

"But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?"

"On the other hand, we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain. These cases are perfectly simple and easy to distinguish. In a free hour, when our power of choice is untrammelled and when nothing prevents our being able to do what we like best, every pleasure is to be welcomed and every pain avoided. But in certain circumstances and owing to the claims of duty or the obligations of business it will frequently occur that pleasures have to be repudiated and annoyances accepted. The wise man therefore always holds in these matters to this principle of selection: he rejects pleasures to secure other greater pleasures, or else he endures pains to avoid worse pains."

If anyone figures out what this is from, let me know. Some hints:

• Extremely common
• Has been used since the 1500s in basically the same form as it is used today
• It's usually in a different language

I finally just looked something up that I've been mildly interested in and have used for awhile, just like everyone else.

Thank God For Love

7.25.2010

Confusion fills every waking thought
What happened? And why?
Where did the trust go, the love?
Almost enough to doubt it once existed.

New friends and new faces, sometimes
Only add to the mess that I am.
As soon as I have life resolved
The puzzle, once balanced, crashes down.

Picking up the endless pieces,
Trying to put my life back together
No longer seeking for romance
Yet always looking for true love.

I am content, I suppose. I will wait.
A few years from now, perhaps
The right girl will be waiting
For me to sweep her off her feet.

But idle dreaming only brings depression
Much better to live life with love
And joy, not with worry about the future
At peace where I am -- I am content.

In my search for true love
I discovered love's source.
Father-God manifested love through His Son
Jesus Christ is love embodied.

I get distracted, at times
Mistaking attraction for love.
But sometimes the love is real
Drawing us close in heart and soul.

Good friends are gifts from God
I love them, they love me, and together
We are filled with joy and happiness
This is true fellowship -- loving one another.

My thoughts fall into place eventually
It takes time, more than anything else
Time away, just thinking, praying, dreaming.
Then I make decisions, order the chaos.

I thank God for seasons
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter
I thank God for friends
My love for them, theirs for me.

The fellowship is sweet that stems
From life-talks with the ones I love.
I pray that we will be friends forever.
I thank God for love:
                    His, mine, and ours.