poetry

ORDINARY PEOPLE
by

ORDINARY PEOPLE

The Meek Shall Inherit
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth. (Matt. 5: 4-Tyndale NT)

If song does not automatically start push arrow button on left.

A number of summers ago I was asked to perform at an outdoor revival meeting called Break Down the Walls in Salt Lake City, UT. On one particular afternoon there was a fiery evangelist preaching his Full Gospel Message. In the best tradition of fiery Full Gospel preachers he jumped up and down and shouted and gestured wildly as he moved from one side of the stage to the other, “THANK GOD that Jesus came for us sinners. That Jesus came here, to the other side of the tracks”.

He went on to discuss how deeply we are in sin and why we suffer and how great it was that Jesus came for us sinners. I thought immediately of a young lady on a retreat I was on who commented that she didn’t feel she could find Jesus because she hadn’t been ‘hurt’ enough in her life to find Jesus.

I sat back and thought to myself, Thank GOD that JESUS came for the little lady who always sat in the back of the sanctuary and made a cake or a meal for every funeral at the little white church I had attended in western Minnesota. That Jesus came for the school teacher who stopped in after Sunday school class to help clean, or mow the lawn. The neighbor who took a dessert bar to the family next door when there was a loss or a celebration.

I thought, “Thank GOD that Jesus came for the ORDINARY PEOPLE. The ones who live ‘normal’ lives, who aren’t necessarily fallen angels or alcoholics, or from broken homes or live broken lives. Yet we all have challenges for that is what “normal” truly is.

I translated my thoughts into the above song above called ORDINARY PEOPLE, just like you and I. 

Enjoy.

Ordinary People ; w/m Dennis C Wheeler 2002 Lyric:

Ordinary People, just like you and I, He chose ordinary people to be followers of Christ. Ordinary people with ordinary flaws. He took ordinary people with Him to the cross. 

Ordinary people living ordinary lives. To be priests among the people were the chosen ones of Christ. From the walks of daily living, they followed as He talked, From the shores of fishing villages to the dark day of the cross.

It is the promise we’ve been given that it isn’t where we’re from, it isn’t what may be our status or our color or our jobs, we’ve been called to tell the people of the sacrifice of Christ. Grace for ordinary people is the reason that He died. 

Jesus called the ones to follow who would boldly tell the truth. It was a call of faith and courage for what He was about to do. Just like ordinary people, at first they ran away, I am so much like those people it was me He came to save. 

There is always hope for sinners, for forgiveness is His call. Called as ordinary people separated from our GOD. One the cross He called out to us, to those standing in the street. HOPE for ordinary people is what Jesus came to teach.

**Ads reflect income for helping pay bills. Does not necessarily reflect any endorsements or product support by myself.

by

DREAMS

Just what is Unorthodox Christianity? Where did it come from? For what purpose?

“Leave a little behind before you go.”

Unorthodox Christianity focuses on a lifetime of the results of Christian conversations with people from the churches I have attended, retreats I have been on, and my own observations in different forums from friends and neighbors, school to work to coffee. What I believe. I started this assemblage of my writings many years ago. For the most part it resides on notepads, music folders, Cd’s and others in boxes and folders, and corners of storage in my disheveled little world.  This internet forum became affordable and longstanding. As a result, on these pages is a part of me. I needn’t be my only fan, or critic. You also have notepads, cd’s, ideas.

I do more than just jot some religious or political philosophy down on my WordPress site. Today I spread a wing or two. Allow me this indulgence.

Dreams

Years ago I wrote a song.
“All of the dreams I had as a young boy
Shot down in flames of a middle aged man……….
There’s Still time to dream the dreams..”

I realized how much of me rests in folders and on note pads and Cd’s like the writings of my Aunt Vera that she had accumulated over her lifetime. I wanted to share what I could of me and a logical forum became the internet. And with the internet came many forums for different elements for just who dennis c wheeler had become.

What has your dream been? To leave your story behind? To write that book or see your music on the web? Maybe build your own e-book or have a place to share your pictures or poems. Your family history? Too much of who we are doesn’t survive us. I have been trying to change some of that for myself as well as others. 

Maybe your music could be similar to:
www.denniscwheelermusic.com

Maybe that book in your head could be like: www.theearthexperiment.com

Maybe your personal philosophy could land on a blog like this one: 
www.unorthodoxchristianity.com  

Maybe a business venture like:

www.denniswheelerrealtor.com

I have always wanted to be able to leave a little behind before I go. Find some permanent  home on the web to share what I have not had time to share with too many over the years of working and raising family. I have admired the forum that WordPress has created for soo many that I have read from in this forum and places like Newsvine, Facebook, Instagram and soo many others not to speak of what has yet to be developed. The web has allowed many of us to find a notepad or song or philosophy that doesn’t disappear into a folder in a filing cabinet forever.

All of us have stories to tell. Let me know if I can be of help. Contact me via any of the above, or here

by

Simply Love One Another

Simply Love One Another
Dennis c Wheeler, 2006

Through years of storied prophets
In every religion known to man
The license of behavior draws
A craftiness of what you can.

The simpleness of  love each other
Fights against the grain,
No matter what religion says
Instinct fights this bold refrain.

From early on the echo chills
The encounters of the soul,
Simply love one another
Stretches instinct to the bone…

Yet storied prophets tell the tales
Of the power held by love
And the foolishness of kingdoms lost
For the test of trusting guns…

So I will add my name to those
Who prophesied the dream,
That love one another
Is not such a complicated scheme…..

From me: Songs of Honour, Nobler House April 3, 2006

by

An Ode To Graying

from:   5-13-2008

I don’t much remember growing gray,
It just happened when I wasn’t paying enough attention.
But I don’t much care for graying.
Coloring the gray doesn’t change the aging
But the aging can color the attitude, and the attitude colors the living.

I think that the pinnacle of wisdom is when graying enhances ones attitude
Rather than darkens it.
The truth is that it should be one’s goal to spend as much time graying as possible.
The longer one is graying, the more life one is living.
The more time we spend in graying the more opportunity we are being given
To correct the courses of our journey.

A time to every season should celebrate every day that is spent in graying.
Every day that is spent in graying represents another day that we have been given to experience the adventure that is living.
Life and the living of its moments is the adventure and the purpose of our existence.

Who will cross my path today whom I can help?
Who will appreciate my smile and my laugh?
Who will achieve that goal that has been intertwined with mine within this dynamic called living?
And who will I meet today who will lend me another color to add to the palette of my painting?

Somewhere in the graying reside the building blocks of my life.
Each little stubble of gray houses the colors of my living that has brought me to this place in my life.
Those patches of gray that color my head and face are flashes of the Rainbows of my existence. Rather than being the absence of the color of my youth they are the inevitable trophies of the artistry of GOD.
It is merely my eyes that deceive.
As the graying presents its rainbow of wisdom my mind sees not the colors of a life that has been filled with adventure but rather a struggle that has consumed my resources.
That subtle transformation of graying is only the result of a mixing of the spectrum of colors of a life bred of challenges accepted and of choices born of faith and driven by a force within that refuses to give up.  The graying of my life is not the absence of color but represents a palette of experiences in the spectrum of the universe.

Were one able to view inside the gray, the vividness of the colors there would blind the eyes and stir the soul. Inside the gray are the treasures beyond measure and gifts yet to be opened. It should be my desire that I have twice as many days of gray for the true joy of the graying has been the painting of the picture, and may the picture of my life be far from complete. May the chapters be many and may the miles ahead be as plentiful as the miles of the past.

You should hide your eyes, my friend, for the colors of my gray are bright indeed and the palette of my painting is only beginning to be populated. dw
dennis3-8-16-250

 

by

Dancing Spirits

It seems so very natural

To spend my time with you

To take your hand and walk along

The pathway just us two

Living moments as if hours

Living months in single days

Spirits dancing now together

After lifetimes lived away.

You have come to share through others

And found the circumstance not right

And now it seems we’ve found a time

To turn darkness into light.

We have journeyed over lifetimes

And have finally found the one

That turns sorrows into gladness

And the mundane into fun…

Isn’t it wonderful…..

dw     (from 2005)

by

Notes On My Recent Hip Surgery

Notes on My Hip Replacement Surgery

I sit and think with my mind at ease

To bring forth a rhyme as I wish to please

Those friends of mine who have made the day

A helpful and a caring one with encouragement and prayers to say.

The surgery went quickly and found many unaware,

But they found the phone and texted me from their concern to share

The challenges are common to many of them here

The told me of their challenges in conditions similar.

A hip or two or something else, a relative or a friend,

It all came out so very well and will do so in the end.

You will see me walking down the street and maybe stop and chat

The firm resolve to move ahead and take not one step back,

For their stories gave encouragement through frustration and some pain

That the choice I made to swap a part for a new one was not insane.

So I encourage any of you who have questions or some doubt,

Listen to those voices that GOD will direct to find your heart,

And before the days have much moved past the goal that you had set

You will tell the stories that becomes another’s encouragement.

Thanks to all of you and have a great day.