Naked before thee

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Naked before thee

Naked before thee

See me as I am

Just as I am, naked before you

Nothing to hide

No covers

No hindrance

No pretenses

Stark naked before you

You know me as I am

You know all about me

Why do you ask me questions?

As though there were something you do not know

You know me just as I am

Oh my God!

I throw myself shamelessly at you

I am vulnerable and exposed

I am uncovered with no place to hide

Be my hiding place

Be my cover

Be my shield

All of me I throw to you

For before whom else can I be this open?

I am tired of running, of hiding

Tired of false appearances

Tired of double standards

I am simply, altogether thine

Do with me as you will

Even if no one else would have me

You can have all of me, my prince and my God

Totally naked I throw myself at thee.

Adimba Chizoba Noel

Editor.

BECAUSE OF YOU

BECAUSE OF YOU

It is because of you that I came

I left everything: father, mother, siblings

Ambition, prospects, dreams heeded the call and came

Just because of you.

Sometimes I want to give up

Sometimes I wonder whether it is worth it

Whether I am not wasting my time

Whether all is not in vain,

Then I see your face, hear your laughter

Then I feel like going on

Through tears and pain through lack and insults

When I despair and would think of doing something else

Then you walk into my office

And I say, “wait a minute” I think I must continue

To wipe your tears, hear your stories and laughter

To see you smile, to smoothen the furrows at your brow

To help you carry your burden, to give you a helping hand

To be by your side when you need a friend,

To lift you up when you are down

To whisper courage when dark clouds hover over the horizon

To point you ever steadily to the one who loves us so

Friend, that’s why I came.

When I am sad and downcast

When I faint and find it difficult to stand

When tears fill my eyes

When my body is broken because of toil

When I get to that misty frontier

That place where hope seems lost and despair nigh

When I feel I can no longer take one more step

When everything in me says give up!

When all I hear is pack you bag and run,

Run far away and never come back!

Then I remember you, I think of you

How can I leave you, how can I abandon you?

‘Just now I hear Him say I will never leave you nor forsake you’

Friend I resolved to stay just because of you

It was because of you that I came!

Love Bids Me Serve

Love Bids Me Serve

Love bids me serve

No slave of duty shall I be

Though slave indeed for my king

It is his love that has called me

Called not just to serve but called me first to Him

Called me to abide

And only then to truly serve

Yes, love indeed has called

And to Him have I answered

It is his passion that runs thru my veins

The zeal for his house has consumed me

I leap and run, about my duty with resolve

Not for the approval of man

Nor for the mere call of duty

No. It is love that bid me serve

 And for loves sake have I come.

I follow after Him who first followed after me

And in his love have I found LIFE.

A Soldier At My Post

A Soldier At My Post

I am a soldier called to my post

Bludgeoned by the fatal blows of the enemy

Pressed and wounded on all sides

Yet I would not quit my post

I will stay, I will abide

‘twas the great apostle who said that we are not

Ignorant of the devices of the enemy

Even we have an idea, he a master strategist and foe

Bids us quit our post, drop our weapons and flee

He surrounds us on all sides, he presses

For he a novice is not, he is a master at his craft

Experienced and well capped, a veteran of no mean repute

He seeks our surrender, he wills our retreat

But for us we have sworn, there is no retreat no surrender

We have sworn to the oath, we have answered to the commander’s beagle

We have chosen our course well, we shall not quit, no, not , never, no-how!

Sons of the Immortal Spirit, we shall never quit, we shall not play the coward

We answered to royal summons and took holy orders

And there is no looking back, we have broken the bridge

Success or not, fame, glory or shame we have died to these

For us the road is not two, front or back nay our road is only forward

Forward! That’s the order I hear from my own commander

His wish is my command, and his command is my duty

Forward then let us march to life or death what is that

We will fight to the death, to the last man

Till the last ounce of our blood is shed

We seek for no trophies, we have despised the shame

To the last man and to the death

For our captain, commander and King

MARANATHA!

I dedicate this to the good Shepherd who first gave his life for his flock

Beer Lahi Roi

Beer Lahi Roi

She was only a lowly servant

With dirty, rough hands

Whether beaten and bowed down with work

Used to labour and toil

Holding her master and mistress with great reverence

Was it fate or fortune that smiled on her?

She was to be her master’s concubine

With the full blessing of her mistress

But then the twists and turns of fate

She haven slept with her master and taken in

Bit the very hands that fed her and despised her mistress

Totally lacking in tact,

 She thought she had arrived

But not just yet!

The very thing that gave her joy brought her sorrow

For she was driven away from comfort and security

And with a grief laden heart she fled

Her baby at her back

Calamity came upon her like a multi headed monster

She ran out of food and water

And was ready to die

She had lost all hope

Life had given her the sour grape

Everything had conspired against her

 There was nowhere to flee

She had come to her tethers end

She had thrown all hope away

All she waited for was death

Life had no more meaning

Desire had gone, hope had become a mirage

Certainly, there is no coming back from this

Death had become a confidant and friend

Ever so close she could smell it

Her throat was patched with thirst

In shame, desperation and pain

She turned away

BUT,

Wait a minute,

Beer Lahai Roi

Beer Lahai Roi

There is a God who sees me

There is a God who sees me

Mine eyes have seen him

And yet will I not die

I shall not die of thirst

For there is a well beside

For He Himself has become a well for me

How then can I die of thirst?

Oh, Beer Lahai Roi

Beer Lahai Roi

There is a God who sees me

Just when I think it’s over

He shows up

Just a the right moment he appears

Lo, it is not just enough that he provides

He even leaves a blessing and he brings restoration

Go back he says, for the boy he shall not die

Yes he a mighty nation shall be

Go back; go back to your mistress

Beer Lahai Roi

Beer Lahai Roi

There is a God who sees me just as I am

My feet break forth into dance steps

And I sway to the sound of music

My steps are enlarged about me

 I leap with shouts of joy

My boy shall live and I shall see my master’s house again

Beer Lahai Roi

The God of possibilities

No dead end with him

No impossibilities

No full stop until he puts it

It is never over with him until he says it’s over

Beer Lahai Roi

What a God He is

What an amazing God

What a great God

No dead ends

No full stops

There are no ends

For he is the Eternal Beginning

Beer Lahai Roi

Beer Lahai Roi

What a great God He is!

Adimba Chizoba Noel

Editor

06/05/2012

HEAVEN’S GATE

There once was a man named Jacob

Whose name meant a cheat

And from the womb he had started practicing his craft

And so it came to be that he cheated his brother

of his birthright and his father’s blessings

It happened then, that his brother full of vengeance and rage

Was bent on having a pound of flesh

So the man full of fright, fled

Yea, flee he did, for his very dear life

He fled to find security

He fled without looking back

He fled with nothing save the raiment at his back

So Jacob fled

But on one of those cold lonely dark nights

He was hungry, weary, worn and tired

Beaten by the weather and beaten by life

And in his desperation he laid down to rest

He must have wished for death

For what need was this useless life of his?

Little did he know what awaited him

For as he slept, in his dream

He saw heaven opened and lo there was a staircase

And angels ascended and descended

Heaven’s gate! he shouted, heaven’s gate!

I am at heaven’s gate and I knew it not

His bed was thorns and his pillow stones

Bereft of a home and of love

Yet his father’s house was nigh

Poor hungry and beaten yet there was abundance

Are we not like him?

Poor, hungry and beaten yet, heaven is at our beck and call

Heaven’s gate; Lord please open our eyes.

Adimba Chizoba Noel

Editor

26/04/2012.