Praises & Phrases

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God’s Strength

The strength I have is not my own
It comes from Heaven’s throne.
I yield myself to God’s own will.
My life is not my own.
For I was bought with heavy price:
God’s only Son was slain
To pay the ransom for my life.
His death was for my gain.
Now His strength lives in my weak frame
And what I cannot do,
God’s strength makes up for all I lack
And He will see me through.
The Father, Son and Holy Ghost
Will never let me down.
I’m safe inside Their great embrace
Their righteousness, my crown.
I thank my God for His sweet grace,
His mercies, always new.
I know that though my strength may fail
My God is strong and true.

©2018 Denise McKenney

Feel free to print, share or repost anything on this blog. I do ask that you let me know if you use one of my poems on your blog or at your church somehow. It might give me an idea of better ways to spread His words, which I am always looking to do. And of course, always keep the copyright symbol and my name with the poem so I continue to have the right to use them. You may not realize that if something is posted enough times without the copyright notice, I could lose the copyright and then someone else could conceivably file for a copyright and I would no longer be able to use my own poems! It has happened, so please make sure the © is always on the poem whenever you repost. Thanks!

God bless,
Denise McKenney

I’ve seen the graphic often in various forms basically saying that the devil whispered, “You aren’t strong enough to withstand the storm.” Then I whispered, “I am the storm!” And I liked it at first, but as I pondered it, I thought I’d really like to have a T-shirt where the reply is, “My God can calm the storm!” That’s really where this poem came from.

The Storm

The devil whispered in my ear,
“You can’t withstand this storm!
If you go forth, you know you’ll drown.
Go home, be safe and warm.”
For just a moment, shaken there
By Satan’s whispered lies,
I faltered, then I turned to him
And looked him in the eyes.
“My Lord is strong. His word’s enough
To stop the raging seas.
I do not fear, for if I call
I know He’ll heed my pleas.
Just go away. I will not hear
Your slander and your lies.”
He shrank away, defeated,
Seeing Jesus in my eyes!
I knew I could withstand the storm
No matter what it brought
By turning to my Bible and
Re-reading all it taught.
For Jesus would be with me and
He’d give the strength I’d need.
And just as easy as that thought
From Satan, I was freed!

©2018 Denise McKenney
Feel free to print, share or repost anything on this blog. I do ask that you let me know if you use one of my poems on your blog or at your church somehow. It might give me an idea of better ways to spread His words, which I am always looking to do. And of course, always keep the copyright symbol and my name with the poem so I continue to have the right to use them. You may not realize that if something is posted enough times without the copyright notice, I could lose the copyright and then someone else could conceivably file for a copyright and I would no longer be able to use my own poems! It has happened, so please make sure the © is always on the poem whenever you repost. Thanks!

God bless,
Denise McKenney

We had an incident just before church yesterday that resulted in a gallon of PineSol in the carpet. After 3+ hours of using nothing but water and my carpet cleaner, it was still sudsing like shaving cream. 

As I worked on this, I kept thinking about something Tony Smith had talked about in the teaching. He quoted the passage about how Jesus came to convict the world of sin and righteousness. Sin makes sense, but convict the world of righteousness? Tony explained that it was to convict us of trying to earn our way into heaven by works and our own righteousness instead of trusting in grace and Jesus’ righteousness. The Bible says all our righteousness is like filthy rags to God. 

What’s this got to do with cleaning carpets? Well, PineSol is a great cleaner, but when you pour nothing but cleaner on something, it doesn’t clean it; it makes a mess! That cleaner is like our righteousness. If we only pour it on and cover our lives with our own righteousness, it’s a mess. 

What did I use to clean the mess? Water. What cleans our lives? Living Water! Our works without Jesus just make a mess. And you know what else? If I pour the water on and do nothing else, I still have a mess. The water needs to flow out just like the Living Water needs to flow onto us, over us, and through us to others. If it just goes in and stays, no cleansing is going on. 

Now I don’t know how many more gallons of pure water it will take to clean this, but I know the only way to clean it is to keep pouring pure water on it and taking it away. And you know that even after several times of emptying the carpet cleaner of this sudsy water, it is still pulling out dirt.

I don’t know how many gallons of the Living Water it will take to clean my life, but 1 drop of Jesus​’ blood is all it took to clean my soul. While on earth, I’ll keep trying to wash in the Living Water and keep washing my dirty sins away, but I know that when I stand before the throne, God won’t see the filth or the sudsy self-righteousness​. He will see me standing in purest white robes, cleaner than anything on earth could ever make them because of Jesus’ sacrifice for me that clothed me in His righteousness.

Thank You, Jesus, from the bottom of my heart.

​Another Birthday

I`d wish you happy birthday, Mom,
But you’ve been gone 4 years,
And I can`t celebrate the day
With eyes all full of tears.
I can’t forget July the 4th
While others celebrate
With fireworks and cheerful songs
I`ve almost come to hate.
To others, Independence Day
Is filled with summer fun;
To me, your birthday simply marks
Another year you’re gone.
I guess I simply miss you, Mom,
Though you are in God`s hand.
I just don’t want to celebrate.
I hope friends understand.
©2017 Denise McKenney