Sunday, October 7, 2012

Moments Forever

 by Mark Bishop

Rhymes without rhythm
Melodies without music
Entreat the ear but themselves betray that there is something more
So this beauty

These moments haunted by longing
Like a dream too soon discovered to be nothing more than fiction
The joy is real yet flees too swiftly

Would it but stay
Would it but rest with my soul
And cease forever this weary chase

To capture to have to hold
To die to wilt to lose

A cage is no place for freedom and grace
Nor would I fetter beauty

Though it pains me to know their lack
And in their absence long I wander
Still they visit when they choose
My tired heart grows ever fonder

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Once More Around These Walls

By Mark Bishop

And I, with hope and dreams not my own
bleed forth my cares before your throne
This rescue is so near and far
The sun and yet the faintest start

These thoughts echo in my head
they ring with hollow truth
They shatter on my fortress heart
Besieged by its own walls.

This city of the sick and dying
sits atop the promised land
And all my days I march around it 
yet these ramparts stand.

They laugh over this silly trek
these aimless circles run
How strong how proud they mock my course
as though You have not won.

My God you taught me how to march
and lead me to this city
You said its mortar cannot stand
that ruin would come swiftly

Oh Lord destroy this evil place 
take back your rightful crown
Sing loud upon this Jericho
and bring these high walls down

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

The Proud at War

By Mark Bishop

My enemy advances
with spears and firebrands
toward banner proud
made low upon the hill on which it stands

This golden standard I've raised myself
will not last through the fray
It's hacked to pieces by the horde
on this my strength's last day

Though the army marches onward
o'er the torn flag of my soul
you claim as yours this tattered heart
you wash it white and make it whole

Friday, June 15, 2012

After the Waters of Rest

 By Mark Bishop

Through the valley of deep darkness
Round the twisted mountain peaks
Where the shadows jest and cackle
while the timbers sway and creak

where is your staff to still my mind
to lead this journey bleak?
This fear will overwhelm me
please take my hand for I am weak

You say your love's a perfect cure
a balm for haunts and demons
And as my heart sinks down this road
so your mercy deepens.

It is true that fear can wrack the mind
and melt the heart
It can plague a noble journey
Make me run back toward the start

But fear can't overtake me for my life is in your hands
And though all hell assail me I know my bulwark stand

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Psalm 1


By Mark Bishop

How blessed is he who follows not the words of a wicked man
who keeps his feet from treading where the sinners often stand
He will not take the seat of a scoffer

Instead he loves the way of God who's words he ponders all day long
Like an oak by a gentle stream who's roots run deep and strong
He grows by living water

And yields a faithful harvest as the season comes to him
His vibrant leaves shall not decay but life is found in every limb
Whatever this man does shall prosper

For the wicked man it is not so he's chaff swept out when strong winds blow
He will not stand before his judge instead his lot is pain and woe
There are no sinners where the righteous gather

For the way of the godly is regarded by the Lord
But He shall end the wicked's way and all that they led toward
All apart from God shall wither

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Desperate

 By Mark Bishop

I've tried to run my life
and tired of the strife
I turn now to you in desperation hoping you can free this soul

A sea of days at my command
They waste away kept in my hand
And fall to earth like so much sand paying idle's toll

Even intention good and right
Has no prevention in this plight
Instead it makes a weary man grasping for control

No matter the healing
No matter the fix
No matter the feeling
My life is hidden in Christ and he must make me whole

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Where Words Fail

By Mark Bishop

All I have to offer you is less than I can bare
how can I ever hope to match your gift beyond compare

If I righted all the wrongs I've done and set the captives free
still I would need you to die for me

For what can be given to the Lord above all things?
What song can be sung to him who gave me notes to sing?
If the sky were painted over with the vic'tries of our king

Oh the half would not be told
though the sun blot out and earth grow cold
no the half would not be told
What praises can I bring?

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

As God Redeems

 By Mark Bishop

Praise to God that He would gain
His glory from my guilt and shame

That simple lives he would redeem
and cast our gaze on things unseen

So when life tempts me to despair
I'll trust my future to His care

He beckons me and takes the lead
for Satan's arrow's shan't impede

The fallen light of morning star
Would show my heart encased in tar

But Christ has shown me light anew
I've come to find that this is true

From golden rays on Calvary
No shadowed form is cast by me

For life to full at last I know
No sin concealed, no shame in tow

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Mr. Fix-It

By Mark Bishop

Everyone has got a fix they think will make things right
and everybody has a tick that keeps them up at night
Yes all of us are forced to pick whats we thinks wrong or right

We try our politics but blood is mixed with out champagne
You can pick your president, sure he had a great campaign
but he's just an expert witness in the courthouse of our blame.

Down with the system? Let us throw off all our chains?
Independence, freedom to choose, but no one really gains
instead we lose our sanity the harder we grip these rains

Even our reforms and revolutions
seem like just the evolution of a system that's still dying
while the orphans keep on crying
but still we keep on trying
never asking why it's always some one else that gets thrown under the bus.

What is our solution if the problem lies in us?

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

The Only Way Forward

By Mark Bishop

This is for those who are still holding back
Afraid giving everything means they will lack

This is for those who won't make their faith action
Whose world is at war but they can't choose a faction

Acquitted by Christ but still stuck in the courtroom
In love with a stranger but wed to the bridegroom

Oh come lay it down at the foot of the cross
for your faith is of gold but your idols of dross

Oh come lay it down at the throne of the lamb
your choice has been made you cannot leave his hand

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Rise Up (Happy Easter)

 By Mark Bishop

Rise up oh people cloth yourselves and bring gold to your King
Rise up masses this is a day when we shall dance and sing

Rise up helpless be at peace for we are safely in his hand
Rise up guilty be forgiven for your charges cannot stand

Rise up faithless for He keeps his promises, every one
Rise up sinners hide no more for he has sent his son

Rise up wretches come rejoice you are no longer lost
For Christ our Lord has risen and He paid the final cost

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Staring At The Sun

By Mark Bishop

From Staring at the sun I fear I've chard my eyes
I don't think I can recognize love without the lust.

No I can't see beauty anymore, I've made my home on a
distant shore. And stare intently evermore into the bright abyss

This sea is simply skin and bone. This gaze a heart cannot
be shown. I'm glad for mine I fear has dried to stone
from staring at the sun.

How have I lived so many years without sight,
How Did I overlook the perpetual night?
I shout in vain "it isn't right to see only the sun"

And those who I can't see, who's beauty lies across
the waves, where such things last for far more days
I'm blinded to for my flesh craves the brightness of the sun.

Oh God restore this heart to long for things not
found in siren's songs but in faith battle worn and strong
In grace and peace not lust adorn. 
In truth and love. my heart is torn oh vision, desire come be reborn and think not of that sun.

Don't be captivated by a flash of light.
Don't be persuaded by the promise of a night.
Don't be jaded by the lies.
Perhaps their body never satisfies because its true
we seared our eyes from looking at the sun.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Indifference

By Mark Bishop

Indifference

Commonly mistaken for
Uncommon tolerance
Sweeps away the innocence
of those who choose to care

If the One who's very name is love
Is stricken from our signs and schools
How long until our laws are tools
Mere walls and bars to keep us fools
Chasing after endless passion

Until people are all the same
Swept away in the normalcy
Of sex, money, freedom, fame
honor, success, hidden shame

Who will rise to part these waters?
can we leave this world to our son or daughter
knowing they are only fodder for life's cruel plays
Destined to spend countless days pondering why they'd even live another?

No

Freedom from worth is not a right I choose to embrace
Freedom to act like everyone's right is not the same as grace 
Oh generation wake up and face the terror of indifference

Friday, March 16, 2012

Prodigal

By Mark Bishop

Some days it seems this fragile frame 
with tar for marrow and oil for blood does naught but hold me back
my spirit's joy confined to words who's deepest meanings lack

I cannot celebrate enough days spent awaiting my return
while I fretted away your very life and loving-kindness spurned

I almost gave up hope in life in finding favor in your eyes.
What love could you have saved for one who loved only his lies

But you saw me from afar while wind gave speed to joyous stride
It took not blows but gentile words to strip away my foolish pride

'Til that day grace was but a word an abstract thought at best
A naked word emptied of truth now its the robe in which I'm dressed

Saturday, March 10, 2012

When I Say Neigh

 By Mark Bishop

He's been trying to free this heart my pride's been killing
I don't now where he guides me so he won't find me willing

Even a donkey knows his master's voice
but I've been chomping on the bit trying to make my own choice

I don't trust the one who rides me
because he tries and refines me
when everything inside me wishes he wouldn't be so loving

wishes he cared a little less
about giving me the best
and just left me for the wreck toward which I'm going

Yet his love's enduring
and despite my swerving, jerking and being all around a bad horse
He speaks, stills my heart
and steers me back on course

Monday, February 20, 2012

The Gospel

By Mark Bishop

A thousands ways to symbolize and metaphors to draw
Yet none could fully capture that which freed us from the law

How could sinless he who willing bled and died
Be credited to faithless me a wretch who stole and lied?

Yet joy unending left it's place in palaces above
And set me free to chose again to wed with my true love

While at the altar long I stand and gaze into his eyes
My thoughts are stolen from me by former lovers cries

Grieved He bids me stay as I hesitate to speak
To promise Him and bind our hearts in future bright or bleak

What of my heart!? Might it be lost amongst the lovers past!?
I start to weep but look to find his hand in mind still holding fast

His sweet and gentle voice scarcely heard above the noise
"I'll fight for you however long 'gainst Satan's shameful ploys

I know your story and I formed this broken world of which you're part
Cling not to that which tempts you now trust me to win your heart."

I turn toward him, face to face I search his eyes and find them true
Then in a moments clear resolve my wayward lips confess "I do..."

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Freedumb

By Mark Bishop

I think that I've driven me into a wall
Where once I knew best I know nothing at all

Where once I was proud, my own thoughts clear and loud
I now sit humbled with words only mumbled
speaking these jumbled fragments of me

Like a sailor who's lost his way at sea
with two compasses pointing quiet different directions
with his only companion the water's reflections
God, my soul thinks it knows how to be free
and longs to deny the rule of thee
but it cries out in vain for I'm starting to see

Your words are my good
Your grace is my should

And a life without you
is a life without me.

Friday, February 3, 2012

The Mislead Heart

By Mark Bishop

He loves the sound of despairing
of people not caring
while no one is daring to confront the truth

He loves the sound of babies crying
of the sick comforted by the dying
of mankind desperately trying to make it on their own

He is the voice that tells you to hide
to keep it inside
to listen instead to the thought in your head
subtly shaped by the pain and the shame and the blame
that you place on yourself for the things you've done
or haven't.
He holds you both ways but doesn't ask you to stay so much as bar the doors with the cords of your own heart
until leaving looks like death but staying steals the breath that brought you life at first.

So heed this warning
when you feel like warming your cold tired hands at the gates of hell
what your soul desires is not the heat of these fires
but the love from which He fell.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

For Those You Sent Instead

By Mark Bishop

I would have picked rocks to sing your praise and speak your name
A strong enduring fearless throng
To shake the earth with heaven's song
and every step along life's road your love would be our aim

Or maybe the rivers and oceans could share
running through the world whispering of your peace
Crashing against oppression, raining down your grace
and everywhere we came to drink your love would meet us there

Perhaps the trees could show the way
so tall and proud, casting their beauty to autumn's wind
Even in winters grasp, clothed in white they live again
And every time they gave a breath your would take it away

Instead you picked a fearful mass who knows more deeply thirst and longing
than joy and wholeness, security and belonging
And these you've sent to share your light
to heal the broken and turn back night
We do not deserve such a noble task but it is ours so Lord I ask:
Help me stand upon your rock though trials may come and oceans rage
keep me rooted in your love and let my weakness be your stage.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Chains That Blind

By Mark Bishop

Blinded by my wants
Lost in my desire
An evil king lay siege my heart
His forces never tire

So distorted my vision
So deluded my soul
That I've mistaken for a means
The love given to make me whole

Oh what joy would be mine
If I could see He's love divine
Not a hook I use to catch a fish
Not a genie I ask to grant a wish

For then I could live satisfied
and stand no more on wounded pride
always lose yet ever gain
love instead of casting blame

God my whole life I've been a slave
Savior remove these chains I crave
Rabbi teach me how I can live free
Jesus, please touch my eyes 
I long to see