Paul Purday Christian Poems and Paintings

Full-time professional artist since 1987 and Christian poet.

[Paul Purday Christian Poems and Paintings @PaulPurday]

THE SKY IS BLUE

The sky is blue.
And clouds float on the wafting breeze
With birds serenely singing through
The latticed mystery of the trees.

The sky is blue
Still spreads the ardent summer sun
But far-off greying clouds will brew
Forboding end to summer fun.

The grey will spread
And thunder rumbles from the sky
A chill wind warns of what's ahead
To send our happy plans awry.

For God will send
Within His plans both sun and rain
And these on Jesus would descend
He knew dependence; He knew pain.

He knew the Sun
His Father's Heart, He would embrace
And though He was the heaven-sent One
Storms fell from man's unhappy race.

The sky was dark
But brought salvation to us all
And lit within a Living spark
To those who on His Name would call.

The sky is blue
To those who are restored within
Though sun and rain will here ensue
His Love, to heaven brought us in.
#gospel #christ #bible #christianity #christianpoems #christianpoetry #jesus #watercolorpaintings #watercolorlandscape

[Paul Purday Christian Poems and Paintings @PaulPurday]

SUNBURST

The ancient trees would hide the sun
A stalwart barrier, row on row
It's rays would filter through the leaves
Like broken shards of mystery fun
Hiding the power of virgin glow
Only a dappled light achieves.

For men as trees will walk these lands
With branches shielding from the light
No clarity the light will find
For there mankind the sun withstands
For they have preference for the night
With wandering steps that mark the blind.

We too, who love Him, often will
Restrict God's light, to shine our own
Upon ourselves so others see
Us blooming like a daffodil
When light should be on Him alone
It is to Him we bow the knee.

For when His purest Light will blaze
The unrestricted fire of God
The trees have fallen right away
And Jesus only fills the gaze
We tread the way His Feet once trod
And in His Light, His will obey.

#gospel #christ #bible #christianity #christianpoems #christianpoetry #jesus #watercolorpaintings #watercolorlandscape

[Paul Purday Christian Poems and Paintings @PaulPurday]

PERFECT VIEW

We seek a view that's perfect for the way we wish to be
To follow modern trends, or buy a house beside the sea
Perhaps a perfect garden that is filled with perfect flowers
To entertain our family as we while away the hours.

The living of a 'perfect' life can never be the way
Pursuit of which, has led the hapless, selfish world astray
All dreams are unfulfilling, and despite what wealth can buy
A bitter taste may fill the mouth, and tears may flood the eye.

The only perfect Life is that of Him who walked this earth
No world-celebrity was He; and proved His perfect worth
by humbly walking out the path with God, to do His will
And died, the lost and blind to save, up there on Calvary's hill.

For those washed in His precious Blood, have now the perfect view
The sight of heaven's delights to be, when all will be made new
Our worldly tribulations cease, when we are seeing Him
That perfect Land of Light and Love will never once grow dim.

#gospel #christ #bible #christianity #christianpoems #christianpoetry #jesus #watercolorpaintings #watercolorlandscape

[Paul Purday Christian Poems and Paintings @PaulPurday]

SURROUNDED

Mountains, the waters of the lake surround
Cloaked with the subtle hues of heather
And peaks soon touched by painted clouds are crowned
With gentle lightness of a feather.

And God surrounds us all forevermore
Secure and mighty as the mountains
We drink the Living Waters on His shore
Which gush from Him like crystal fountains.

Though we face dark assaults from every side
Our confidence in Him is knowing
That He surrounds the foe, and is the guide
To safer places He is showing.

For He surrounds us with the bands of Love
Resulting from His death and dying
For resurrection power and the Dove
Is heaven's endless Grace supplying.

#gospel #christ #bible #christianity #christianpoems #christianpoetry #jesus #watercolorpaintings #watercolorlandscape

[Paul Purday Christian Poems and Paintings @PaulPurday]

BARREN LAND

We climb the barren mountainside and see
The bubbling waters flowing by our side
As fed from rains that fall so fresh and free
That moisten the high upland fells with glee
Dancing and laughing with exhubrant pride.

As toiling through the rocks of this bare land
The mists obscured the clearest way to go
Some wandered off in ways they had not planned
To look for things they did not understand
And leave the path carved by the river's flow.

For God produces waters on the way
To saturate our hearts and make us glad
His spring of Life once gathered faraway
As rains of heaven on the mountains play
And kiss the barren land where men are sad.

What first would come from God was heavenly dew
Which then was rain that fell as sovereign Grace
As we through faith, our barrenness undo
For, in the river all will be made new
Where, washed and clean, His presence we can face.

#gospel #christ #bible #christianity #christianpoems #christianpoetry #jesus #watercolorpaintings #watercolorlandscape

[Paul Purday Christian Poems and Paintings @PaulPurday]

A SENSE OF SCALE

Though man is small among the mountains and the trees
And steers his boat on waters, gently in the breeze
He knows his route past frowning hills, and guides his way
Until the evening falls, to lose the light of day.

Man is so small among the wonders of the earth
Yet he would change the scale to amplify His worth
No sense of wonder, but his expertise would see
His own controlling power that is his own decree.

The God that made the universe would enter here
With His magnetic presence to cast out all our fear
He took the humble form of meek and lowly Man.
Who had an endless Life, before all time began.

The scale that God employs will vex the human mind
They have not seen the beauty, that God for them has shined
That He compressed His Love within a Human Frame
The Candle, man snuffed out, became God's Living Flame.

Proud mind of man is far removed from that of God
And never followed in the sandalled steps He trod
Their sense of scale was calibrated by the world
For heaven's scale is only known by those He called.

#gospel #christ #bible #christianity #christianpoems #christianpoetry #jesus #watercolorpaintings #watercolorlandscape

[Paul Purday Christian Poems and Paintings @PaulPurday]

GOD IN THE GARDEN

Did God smell all the fragrant flowers of Eden?
And crush that greenest grass with Holy Feet?
Would He delight in birds with rapture singing?
Where vibrant colours show a Holy treat?

The God who all-contains and is all-seeing
Would know His walk was only for a time
And thorns and brambles all the world would cover
The poetry of man would never rhyme.

But He had planned a future restoration
A new creation, with a grass more green
For it is fed upon Christ's resurrection
With richer colours than have ever been.

We now, with God, may walk within His Garden
And too may rest, where Spirit's flowers will grow
That Blood has cleansed, and all things new, surrounding
the Cross on which He died so long ago.

#gospel #christ #bible #christianity #christianpoems #christianpoetry #jesus #watercolorpaintings #watercolorlandscape

[Paul Purday Christian Poems and Paintings @PaulPurday]

IDYLL
(and my painting)

We have our varied idylls, where we find
perfect landscapes, and azure seas
Misty mountains and crystal lakes defined
Forest mystery and wafting breeze.

Idyllic lives do not exist down here
And do not show reality
Perhaps a glimpse that soon will disappear
For it is what we wish to see.

Idyllic feelings will not meet the claim
that beauty will fulfill our need
For this will not compare with Spirit's flame
Which must, all human loves exceed.

For He has brought us to a dusty way
Where perfect landscapes will not show
But soon, a Land where crystal fountains play
And His eternal Rivers flow.

#gospel #christ #bible #christianity #christianpoems #christianpoetry #jesus #watercolorpaintings #watercolorlandscape

[Paul Purday Christian Poems and Paintings @PaulPurday]

SURROUNDED

Those who trust in God are like Mount Zion
As those who know the Lord, and in Him rest
Like mountains surrounding Jerusalem
He will surround His people, who are blest
God's mountain is unmoved and will abide
secure always, in the eternal tide.

Surrounded by eternal Arms, we are
complete, the safest place within the world
as held by Him, we see both near and far
For all His purposes to us unfold
When we are near, so very near to Him
Yet holds us on the edge of heaven's rim.

As in the world, the enemies surround
And Babylon would hold its arms to us
To drag us in, with worldly sight and sound
For this would render us adulterous
But He will hold us, and we won't let go
Surrounded by His Arms, while still below.

#gospel #christ #bible #christianity #christianpoems #christianpoetry #jesus #watercolorpaintings #watercolorlandscape

[Paul Purday Christian Poems and Paintings @PaulPurday]

THE GARDEN

God will plant us in a garden
Blooms will satisfy the eye
Shallow roots would be their ending
They will wither, and soon die.

Plants each year are soon appearing
And an annual show maintain
Spectacle that's only fitful
Some were never seen again.

With strong roots, plants progress upward
Rootedness is their success
Fingers plunging deeply downward
Skyward growth they then express.

Growth in Christ, the chief importance
For the ones who walk His Way
Many bloom, but then will vanish
Earth's prescriptions they obey.

Trees grow tall, in the foundation
of the riches of His Grace
Deep the roots, but pointing heavenward
Many willl His thoughts embrace.

As the grain of wheat, His dying
Soon would burst the power of death
Risen Man, and in that glory
We are raised through Spirit's breath.

#gospel #christ #bible #christianity #christianpoems #christianpoetry #jesus #watercolorpaintings #watercolorlandscape

[Paul Purday Christian Poems and Paintings @PaulPurday]

SEEDS IN THE WIND

The seeds on westward winds were blown
To fall in fields so faraway
The wind will blow in ways unknown
And land where God Himself will say.

The bursting flowers will break the earth
And spread their colours round the fields
With fragrance of superior worth
The bounty only nature yields.

When He implants His Word in us
We in His blesséd likeness grow
The flowers of Grace are spreading thus
Rich fragrance and their colours show.

For we are spread within the world
Through harvest-fields to spread His Grace
That other flowers their worth unfold
Their fragrance spread before His Face.

So when we see the fields alight
With Godly carpets on the green
Remember it is His delight
And links with worlds as yet unseen.

#gospel #christ #bible #christianity #christianpoems #christianpoetry #jesus #watercolorpaintings #watercolorlandscape

[Paul Purday Christian Poems and Paintings @PaulPurday]

EASTER

The daffodils waved gently in the breeze
And haze of green cloaked all the waiting trees
A world alive with Spring-time's hopeful ways
The crocuses peeped proudly from the earth
While primroses would cluster with their worth
To show the bursting life of Easter's days.
xxxxxxx

On Friday, it was wintertime for all
Only the Cross in hardened earth stood tall
The day Christ died, would spread the world with gloom
It's over, yet would pay the price for sin
That to His heaven, all may enter in
And taste the nectar of Salvation's bloom.

Then it was Saturday, and they will wait
Their sad anticipation seemed too late
But Sunday came, the stone was rolled away
Christ burst the grave in resurrection power!
Our Mighty Lord had vanquished death that hour.....
Eternal Victor over death today!

#gospel #christ #bible #christianity #christianpoems #christianpoetry #jesus #watercolorpaintings #watercolorlandscape

[Paul Purday Christian Poems and Paintings @PaulPurday]

@honest330 I sell on Etsy https://t.co/dFhieGDrvX

[Paul Purday Christian Poems and Paintings @PaulPurday]

GOLDEN

When we are tried, we will come forth as gold
Pure and refined to match the sky
Which is the golden centrefold
That reigns above, where evening light will die

The matchless heavens hide their secret home
The Land of Gold where seekers see
Faintly at first, beyond the dome
Far, far beyond the stars, real Home will be.

That rarest metal, paints the evening now
Nearer the Golden City will
display its King where we will bow
And see the Cross upon its Holy Hill.

The persecuted, golden ones will walk
No longer through the fire of pain
But with the Suffering One will talk
And we, with them, absorb His Love like rain.

#gospel #christ #bible #christianity #christianpoems #christianpoetry #jesus #watercolorpaintings #watercolorlandscape

[Paul Purday Christian Poems and Paintings @PaulPurday]

@honest330 Thank you!

[Paul Purday Christian Poems and Paintings @PaulPurday]

BY THE STILL WATERS

The water quivers peacefully between its banks
where waving reeds and grasses dwell
The surface floats the waterboatmen and the sky
as if to feel only the lightest touch
and absorb the sapphire overhead
where all may lie down
and then to see
the waters are slowly sliding
along with time
that speaks into a rest that is not static
but pulsing with His Life.....

Though time slips by, the Son stands still
to listen to the faintest heartfelt cry
He feels the touch on His garments
The living stream of His Love
is moving, but will not pass by
All His waters heal and make glad
His City, for there that healing stream
leads onward through a Land of peace
where grass is always green
and waters ever blue.....

The water is still, but not stagnant
for now the stillness is ours
yet He is ever on the move
treading through the reeds by His stream
and we are glad
the City is in sight......

#gospel #christ #bible #christianity #christianpoems #christianpoetry #jesus #watercolorpaintings #watercolorlandscape

[Paul Purday Christian Poems and Paintings @PaulPurday]

WHERE I GAZE

I gaze with wonder at the Hand of God
Smooth water, light, and mountains fill the sight
I am transported by the majesty
and wonder of that all-compelling light
What more is there to see?

For what I see, often becomes a gaze
Which is a longer fixture of the eyes
So many things I find to gaze entranced
Mirror reflections, and the sunset skies
Where sparkling light has danced.

I have of latter years, a Glory seen
A greater landscape than the mind can know
A Land of Gold, and paved in richest Grace
Blood feeds the ground, there plants of Life will grow
And Love shines from His Face.

Can I sustain my gaze upon that view?
And day by day resort to where He lives?
The Spirit brings me to a place within
Where I absorb the favour that He gives
And I may enter in.

#gospel #christ #bible #christianity #christianpoems #christianpoetry #jesus #watercolorpaintings #watercolorlandscape

[Paul Purday Christian Poems and Paintings @PaulPurday]

@swpaintings Fabulous!

[Paul Purday Christian Poems and Paintings @PaulPurday]

FINGERS OF LIGHT

Fingers of light gently touched the hills while stroking the mind
Breaking the cloud's rim, the hidden sun, timidly shined
Spears, with shafts so straight, yet tentative with momentary aim
They stroked the mountains, ever playing their coquettish game.

God's Loving fingers, will probe many times, the hearts of men
His Light, will find the darkest parts, again and yet again
For though each beam exposes deeds of darkness in that Light
So many love their darkness, and in their worldly deeds delight.

The Spirit searches deeper, even to the depths of God
Beyond the manmade citadels, and respectable facade
For deep within, there only will men find, where they are free
And all the ground is clear, because of Christ's ascendancy.

His Light appeared, but was not apprehended by the world
His Hands spread Light to those who have within, a longing held
To light a path that is divergent from the ways of man
And find they are included, and a part of God's great Plan.

#gospel #christ #bible #christianity #christianpoems #christianpoetry #jesus #watercolorpaintings #watercolorlandscape

[Paul Purday Christian Poems and Paintings @PaulPurday]

@JohnFra23673605 It’s all about having plenty of colour and fairly wet brush when doing a dry wash, and a fairly dry brush when working into a wet wash (wet in wet). Remember the colours always dry lighter, so you have to over emphasise the colour when putting it on.

[Paul Purday Christian Poems and Paintings @PaulPurday]

@JohnFra23673605 I understand, John. There is so much practice required in watercolour, that there is always the temptation to give up.