WHY END IT ALL?

I wander through my life alone
I try to figure who I am
My head is spinning out in space
As demons dance before my face.

I take my gun to play roulette
The bullets lie inside their case
A lingering thought darts through my brain
“One little shell and no more pain!”

The darkened mysteries of my past
My family’s thought to shred my birth
A mom and dad who did not care
And foster homes I could not bare.

If drugs and sex could satisfy
There would be reason to go on
But broken dreams and night time bars
Are little comfort for these scars.

And then one night when I was high
While troubled spirits passed my way
My mind began to float in space
That mantra prayers could not erase.

So this is not the end, I mused?
While floating back into my mind,
Then guilt and fear tore me apart
As I poured out my broken heart.

I read the Letter God wrote down
That Jesus came to set me free
With love I never felt before...
A love-filled home and so much more!

So on my knees I raised my voice
Inviting Christ to be my choice
For that is why the Savior came
To set us free from sin and shame.
--B. Pent

DECEPTIVE THOUGHTS

Deceptive thoughts that trick the mind
Like flies caught in a spider's web
Try hard to shake its silken grip
Before its venom finds its mark.

How troublesome this rude disguise
Intriguing lures that bate its prey
While offering music that delights
In tones discordant to the heart.

Yet in this net of hopelessness
Like blowing winds that blind the eye
The only path through desert storms
Is standing firm against the night.

When naked truth reveals its worth
Life's phantom thoughts will take their flight
And like a dance in springtime rains
The heart will rise to sing again.
--B. Pent

HAITI'S CRIES

I see them dying in the streets
Their cries disturb my rest
One hundred thousand bodies lie
With thousands in distress.

The weeping children without hope
Their outstretched hands for help
Are haunting scenes that move my heart
While tremors still are felt.

Mothers lie within the rubble
Husbands dig to free a wife
Smells of death are all around them
Little hope for them in sight.

Soon supplies begin to enter
Food and water meet some needs
But the overwhelming question
Are the orphans in the streets.

Mended bones can help the wounded
Food supply for those in need
But the future of this Nation
Is far greater than these deeds.

As we give and pray together
For our friends in deep distress
Let us share the love of Jesus
The true Source of happiness.
--B. Pent

IS AMERICA SITTING ON THE TITANIC?

"Mordecai Ham used to say that the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 was God's object lesson to America, but we never learned it. Many ships have gone down, but that this 'unsinkable' masterpiece of ship building should go down on its first trip and that simply by encountering a massive hunk of ice, still seems uncanny - not just an accident -- but an event accompanied by strange and sinister circumstances that allow no explanation. We are living in an hour when we seem to be on a toboggan slide out of control, worshipers of ourselves in the putridity of this age of humanism. 'Judgment day' and 'the end of the world', have disappeared from our vocabulary. The remedies for the world's troubles proposed by experts are pitiful. Recently, I heard the observation that the remedies offered for our malignancy are about as sensible as changing chairs on the deck of the sinking Titanic. One day each man has to face death whether he likes it or not. The Scriptures envision judgment day and heaven and hell. We have a date with destiny and an appointment with the Almighty. Every person has such an hour in God's Book whether he has noted it or not. We could be nearing that time, and only faith in the Christ who believed it and taught it can save us. Any effort to arrange for eternal life otherwise is like changing deck chairs on a sinking Titanic." --Vance Havner