Pencil in His Hand: A Mother's Journal of Stories, Thoughts, and Poems.

  Photo: Pawel Czerwinski. Unsplash Shape-Shifters Shape-shifters spread their lies attacking God's  good plan: Be a goat or be a cat a woman or a man they mutilate the children But God's  wrath will bring an end to all their evil shifting: For God's Word cannot be bent. *** Copyright: Alison Lawrence *** God is patient. He wants everyone to repent and be saved. Call on Him to save you. The truth will set you free. ***

  Johannes Plenio. Unsplash Remembering I remembered today to look Your way, to pray. In the middle of everything. I remembered today  in the midst of chaos, pain, despair You do care and You are in my heart. I remembered today  here where it hurts, that Lord, You promised to fetch us and to take us away... *** pencil in His Hand

  High tide. Author's photo Salvation's Song. Poem Salvation's song rings through my heart, A brand new life, A brand new start For He has died to set me free, shed His dear blood, now blind eyes see Salvation's song I sing each day, and share my Jesus on the way *** Copyright: pencil in His Hand *** This poem accompanies  Yesterday's story This will not be an ongoing story as I thought, but rather a stand alone story. Apologies for any disappointment caused. *** See you next week, God willing. Hope you have a blessed weekend. 🩷💙🙏💌

  Photo: pencil in His Hand Invitation All that stuff entices, it calls to me: keep wanting, keep buying: come, worship me And busyness, it pressures me: keep going, keep doing: come, worship me But now, His call transcends their screams: Come, ye weary and lost: Come worship Me. *** Copyright: pencil in His Hand New gardening post

  Photo: Amir Afrefi. Unsplash Hiding Place As troubles now surround us, the way before is clear: I know that You will hide us; there is no need to fear. For when the skies grow darker still: You'll draw us to Your side; Through the clouds we'll fly away: to Your sweet love we'll ride *** Copyright: pencil in His Hand 💕🙏🇮🇱 Dear Readers, I hope that you are well. Just a note to say that God willing, going forward, posting will be as led by the Spirit. We are living in exciting times. The Lord's return is surely very close. There is no time to waste when it comes to sharing the Gospel and encouraging our brothers and sisters in Christ. With this in mind, posting may seem a bit random, so please subscribe if you like. This will also be true for my Afrikaans blog. Love and prayers,  Alison 

  Pray! So many people need our prayers: They need to feel that someone cares They need to know Lord Jesus too, be healed and drawn, be made brand new I think of all the suffering ones, held hostage, hurt by men with guns Some are being unfairly kept, marched away whilst mothers wept all while hungry children groan: we see their tears, we hear their moans our hearts sink low with their despair, we trust that Jesus truly cares and though we live so far away, He calls us daily, come now, pray! Listen, for He calls soon, go! Share the Gospel, ease their woe! Never ceasing in our prayers, take all to Him, the One who cares. *** Copyright: pencil in  His Hand. *** 🙏🙏🙏🙏

  Monday Medley: Two Stories, A Poem, And More Two Stories, plus a  poem and some thoughts and photos in this longer post Dear Readers, I thought it might be a nice idea to go back to posting several short items in one post. Hopefully every reader will find something that speaks to them.  This week, I am posting a flash fiction piece which was written to encourage folks to think about their eternal destiny. We are living in such troubled times, and I can't shake the feeling that the Lord's return is very near. Please take a moment to ask some very big questions today. My own spiritual journey began when I woke up out of the stupor I was in and began to ask questions like "Is there a God?" And "Where will I go when I die?" There is nothing worse than to go through life in a haze, numbly entertaining and scrolling oneself towards the grave. The enemy of our souls just loves it when we live like this. I pray that we will all take life and eternity a lot more se...

Breathe Dying to self   Blue Berg river Slower Slow, slower, slower to a place where  thoughts can meet Slow, slower, slower 'til I'm sitting at Your feet *** Awhile back, I wrote a post about poetry writing which I never posted. I thought it would be good to re-visit that topic. When you write your own poems, you quickly become aware that poetry is not the favourite reading material of most people. Neither is it what most people write. I guess that's because there remain many misconceptions about poetry. Some people believe that poetry is too hard to read or understand, let alone write. I sympathize. Much poetry is pretty high-brow; the subject of university English lectures and dreaded by many students. Poetry however, cannot be put into a box. Yes, it can be written in a vague, mysterious, or unfathomable way. But it can also be simple, honest, and even plain and easy to relate to. Poetry can follow a certain form, style, or rhyme scheme. It can have perfect rhythm and c...

  Should Christians Only Read The Bible? I should imagine, that if you're anything like me, you would like to have a definite answer to this question.  Serious, diligent Christians who sincerely wish to serve God and to love Him with all of their hearts, souls, and minds, do in fact ask this and many other questions to do with daily Christian living. So, should Christians whose desire is to please God only read their Bibles? (Aside from recipes, messages, lists, instructions, and essential documents, that is.) Must they pass by all of the tempting covers of a myriad Christian novels and non-fiction books? My perhaps unsatisfactory answer, is "perhaps." Now, you may feel disatisfied with this, but hear me out. I say "perhaps" because I really can't tell you what to read or not to read. That is the job of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes, you may need to fast from light reading in order to spend more time in God's Word. You may even have to say no to the writin...

  Photo: Matt Seymour. Unsplash Death's Plea. A Poem How many pause the roundabout to think about death; their own; the finality, the unexpectedness of death: one minute you're here, the next, gone Not even your shadow remains as they search and mourn surviving on memories Gone. Just gone. Will you pause to think about death, your own, its inevitability? Will you pause the roundabout? Death can be your  doorway to an eternity in Heaven if only you'll trust in Jesus, God's Son whose own death saves you too. *** Copyright: Alison Lawrence 🙏🙏🙏🩷🩷🩷  

  Photo: Jan Huber. Unsplash photo: Matthew Smith. Unsplash Gum trees. Photo: Pat Whelen.Unsplash  My Favourite Trees Gum trees always  take me back to younger days: cross country journeys, ribbon roads, endless train tracks, tyre song and shaded laybys, flasks of tea and sandwiches  of yesteryear  *** Do you have a favourite tree? A tree which evokes emotion within you? A tree which brings back childhood memories? Memories of sweet, golden days? Do the leaves whisper long ago snatches of laughter and conversation, making you long to go back? I feel that way about gum trees. Such ordinary trees. An invasive species where we live actually. They stir my heart. Far better though, than any earthly tree, is the heavenly tree of life, which one day we shall see. " The angel also showed me the river of the water of life, sparkling like crystal, and coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb and flowing down the middle of the city's street. On each side of the river ...

  On a late afternoon walk alongside the river Praises The trees and sky all praise You high and children add their happy cry My own eyes though are trained below: My joy and peace near gone and low But now I raise my heavy head Lift my praises smile instead A.S.L *** I wrote this poem whilst watching the girls as they played in the park. The trees and sky seemed to raise their praises to God along with the children's laughter. There were some down moments however as there always are in families, and my heart felt a bit heavy. It wasn't long though before I felt called to praise God too. :) A Blog Note Going forward, and of course, God willing, I will be posting poems in posts more or less like this one. If God lays a short story on my heart, I will post that too, although it will likely be in the form of flash fiction or a prose poem.  The place I am in my life is both a place of simplifying and of focus: God, family, and church must come before other things. So, when it come...

  The Fisherman Scripture inspiration: Matthew 4: 13-25 A fisherman goes walking to his little patch of sea; and by every observation he looks just like you and me And though he wears a backpack as he heads up 'long the shore; it bears no hooks, or bait nor knife for he catches fish no more His loving Master's orders are to hook a greater prize; to wander forth, find needy souls for whom his Jesus died He walks 'longside the sunrise all glorious hued and gold; and thinks about the stories 'bout missionaries been told Men and women humble, bold God's bright message outward took; and many creature comforts for His glory they forsook Tom is eager, unafraid at start of his own journey; leans on Jesus and His Word and each courageous story First encounters happy band: a group of people dance and play; they laugh at tracts he gives: say, play with us or go away Now the Spirit soon shows Tom: Alas! Their only goal is pleasure; they will not stop their romping to seek the p...

  Mom with V in V's memory corner Dearest Lord, Here I am again Lord. Thank You for always listening and caring for me. I am so aware today of your constant presence within me. I am never alone, never abandoned, never unheard. Whether I write my prayers down, or whether I say them out loud or breathe them within, You take time to listen. Thank You. I love You. Thank You for saving me; for dying for me; for all of us, on the cross. As You know, Mom has been very much on our minds these past days, it having been her very special birthday on the 29th of February. V and I love to put little mementoes and flowers on that day. Will You please tell her we love her? I was thinking about the cats today. I remember how the three of them would sit in a half circle in front of the oven waiting for Mom's famous scones to come out. They would get a little taste. I'm sure that V remembers the cozy scene too. And of coming home from school to a pot of tea and scones or something else. The ...

  God's Word Words strung on a garland: A garland of grace and love Some gentle, some hard, Some straight and plain: Words sparkling and crashing, Words falling like rain Words strung on a garland: A garland of grace and love, Words strung on a garland: A gift from our Father above A.S.L Copyright: Alison Lawrence Please look around the blog for plenty of encouraging free reads. 😊💜🙏 Love and blessings, Alison