God-blest Love

Someday, O God, You’ll be our all in all,
in Paradise we’ll worship only You,
beneath Your love, all other loves will fall,
and all our Godly loves will show they’re true.

Your love’s so great, no others can compare,
for You, O Lord, are love, so Your true love
encompasses all loves that might be there,
no love is true unless blest from above.

If we think our own sinful love is good,
we are mistaken if it’s not like Yours,
You can’t bless sin, let it be understood,
only true love, blest by Your love, endures.

Because love blest by You I want to find,
O God, I’ll leave my sinful loves behind.

                         -- by Pete Voelz       7/1/12

Two Wills Work

God works with what my will provides Him with,
It's not determined, He does not dictate,
that I'm free to do all I want's a myth,
He helps me to define and do my fate.
Of course, God has all power on His side,
but He holds back because He made me free,
offended, He still lets my sins abide,
to aid a fallen world with fallen me.
I must be free for any love to show,
for love without my freedom isn't real,
and my real love His kingdom needs to grow,
so our two free-willed loves can work a deal.
God has the power to do His will alone,
but He shares power to make His world my own.

                                  -- by Pete Voelz       4/10

I in Your Eye

God, You’re so great I fear to talk to You,
yet You’re my friend Who loves me very dear,
sometimes You seem so far I think it’s true,
but I know better, Friend, You are right here.

I know You’re here for You are everywhere,
like water, You flow and fill every space,
You eagerly hang onto all my prayer,
as much I ask, You fill me with Your grace.

You hound me, You will not leave me alone,
You know I’m hungry for Your every word,
You gently hold me as Your very own,
You long to hear, I’m grateful to be heard.

Your love’s so strong, O Lord, You make me cry,
I know I am the apple of Your eye.

                      --  by Pete Voelz       7/12/12

Grace Words

If You, O God, want me to write a poem,
it’s up to You to send the inspiration,
I’m not inspired just letting my mind roam,
nor do I pound out words by perspiration.

I know Your trick--You show how much You love me,
reminding me of all the things You’ve done,
You flatter me You’re always thinking of me,
You treat me like I am Your only one.

Then--zap!--You shoot it like an arrow through me,
You quick set words into an opening line,
each rhyme and cadence You slide easily to me,
until Your thoughts are made to look like mine.

Your views, Your words I barely have to chase,
You let me write, ungracefully, Your grace.

                            -- by Pete Voelz       6/26/12

Grade-A God

I have to say, O God, You earn Your A’s,
You give me Your Attention like You’re glue,
it’s Your first A I grade You in four ways,
but do I give attention back to You?

Your kind Acceptance of me gets an A,
how little I accept what You give me;
me You Approve, not what I do or say,
do I choose to approve You when I’m free?

The final A You earn is Your Affection,
Your infinite love for me will never end.
What little love I send in Your direction!
With failing grade, I barely call You friend.

Your straight A’s, Lord, in these ways really glow,
while my grades in return are pretty low.

                         -- by Pete Voelz       7/10/12

No Face to Know You

Where’s the true face I know on Facebook's face?
Where’s your book I can’t find on Facebook at?
my search for your true grace can’t find a trace.
Where’s your real face, the true you I look at?
My Facebook's not your book and not your face,
I reach for you, there's no one there to touch,
my Facebook gives me no you to embrace,
I want you near, the one I love so much.
With you not here, I can't get in your face,
no you, so I can't look you in the eye,
no you to hold, no one to truly chase,
to kiss, to love, I cannot even try.
I want your presence real with me, and true,
your lovely face, your love, your grace, just you.

                                   -- by Pete Voelz       5/10

Abiding Time

Who said, “The Good, the True, the Beautiful”?*
The new, like the renewal, has a source,
the three great values seem a miracle,
they spring not now, but from the past, of course.

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” wrote the poet,**
the same we learn from Greek philosophy,
when math has beauty, science is true, we know it,
philosophers, poets, and scientists agree.

Our Knowledge builds, like values, from the past,
beauty reflects the good we have inside,***
we study values and history so they last,
so goodness, truth and beauty will abide.

Great knowledge and great values are never done,
the Good, the True, the Beautiful are one.

                                  -- by Pete Voelz         7/1/12

*Not what most Americans think:
“The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”

**Keats--”Ode to a Grecian Urn”

***Bl. Pope John Paul II,
as shown by Mother Theresa