The Gift of Inspirational Poetry

By RaVonda Wilkerson Oakes

If you enjoy Christian poetry, The Gift of Inspirational Poetry is sure to touch your heart. The poet, RaVonda Wilkerson Oakes, felt inspired by God to write some beautiful words of poetry; now, for the first time, she has compiled her poems into a collection that she believes the Lord wants her to share with you. These poems may strengthen your faith with inspiration, encouragement, love, hope, and praise.

Each poem is based on the truths of the gospel, and each one has its own message. The Gift of Inspirational Poetry includes poems on various spiritual topics, occasions, holidays, and many areas that affect your walk with Christ. Many poems offer praise to the Lord and hope through His teaching. A Godly Father and Bless the Child are poems that speak about family and encourage bringing up your children in the Lord. Your Wedding Day and To the Bride are poems that emphasize the sanctity of marriage and true love. Its a New Year, Whos Your Valentine, Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are some poems that inspire you to celebrate the holidays. A Soldiers Prayer and Freedoms Heroes reflect upon the bravery of our soldiers who have fought and continue to fight for our freedom. These poems seek to lift you up and inspire you to lift the Lord up in your life. Ms. Oakes chose the title for her poetry because she believes it to be a gift from God. The Gift of Inspirational Poetry can be a gift to you and yours also!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Inspiring Voices
• Release date: Sep 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9781462406906

RaVonda Wilkerson Oakes

RaVonda Wilkerson Oakes has been writing Christian poetry for many years. She has received the Gold Certificate of Excellence and the Editor’s Choice Award in poetry contests. The Gift of Inspirational Poetry is her first published collection. She lives with her son and daughter in Ringgold, Virginia.

Book preview

The Gift of

Inspirational Poetry

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RAVONDA WILKERSON OAKES

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Copyright © 2013 RaVonda Wilkerson Oakes.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Inspiring Voices books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

Inspiring Voices

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.inspiringvoices.com

1-[phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4624-0691-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4624-0690-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013913884

Inspiring Voices rev. date: 9/16/2013

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™ All rights reserved.

Contents

I Write Not Alone

He Loved Us All Along

His Holy Word

Face to Face

Thank You Lord Jesus

Jesus

Fit for a King

The Seed and the Flower

My Heavenly Senses

I Realize

The Palm of God’s Hand

I Believe

When I Pray

Your Way

I Belong to You

A Prayer for Me

Change His Fate

To a Lost Soul

All We Need

Live for Today

Let It Start in Me

His Miracles

Blessings

Time

The Fruit of the Spirit

You’re Not Your Own

Thoughts of the Spirit

Only That Which Is Done For Christ Will Last

What Will You Live For?

Not Perfect, Just Forgiven

Promote Thee

Sorrows & Blessings

Enemies

Seek Him

The Winning Team

The Prodigal

The Crossroads

He Gave Up Everything

The Eyes

God’s Full Armor

The Wicked Tongue

Growth

Where

I Can’t Imagine

You Amaze Me

My Mother’s Love

Mother

A Godly Father

Parenting

Bless the Child

You are my Child

Your Baby Boy

Your Baby Girl

A Godly Teacher

A True Friend

An Angel in the Flesh

The Blessing of You

Graduation

Home So Sweet

To The Bride

Your Wedding Day

The Road to Happiness

Love

To Love

Your Love

Who’s Your Valentine?

Easter

The Seasons

The American Choice

Forever in His Care

Freedom’s Heroes

A Soldier’s Prayer

Heal the USA

Thanksgiving

My Christmas Tree

Christmas

What Does Christmas Mean to You?

Christmas Day

What an Awesome Feeling

It’s a New Year

In Communion

Homecoming

Forget Me Not

Without Me

Feed Your Spirit

Living Within My Presence

Have No Fear

Have No Doubt

There Will Come a Day

The Church

The Lost Sheep

Work in Me

To, first and foremost, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ

And secondly my church family and friends at

North Danville Church of Christ in Danville, Virginia;

And lastly my children, Jeremy, Zack, and Brooke,

And my grandchildren, Adrianna and Lucas.

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God really works in mysterious ways. It is still a mystery to me how I began to write poetry. One day some words just seemed to pop into my head and I wrote them down. They became my first poem, He Loved Us All Along. Then, more and more, certain scriptures in the Bible and topics we were studying in my Sunday school class gave me ideas for poems. I also received ideas from some of my preacher’s sermons. The poems, A True Friend and In Communion were written because of requests from some of my church friends.

I sincerely believe that God inspired me to write because the poems seemed to flow so easily on to the paper. As the poem I Write Not Alone emphasizes, I will never believe that I wrote any of my poetry entirely on my own! It seemed as though the more I wrote, the more inspired I was to write because the words were speaking to me. I was being encouraged and I was receiving joy from my own poems.

As a child I always liked poetry but never dreamed of writing poems. I especially enjoyed poems with rhyming lines and you will see this aspect throughout my poetry. I want to thank my church family and friends for their encouragement and support. I serve an awesome God and it is amazing what He can do with me when I allow Him! These poems are a witness of my faith and they are written not by me, but by Christ living in me! He is my true inspiration and He bestowed my gift. The Lord enabled me to write beautiful inspirational poetry, and now He has put it in my heart to share my collection with the world, and to let His Light shine through me! I hope the poems in The Gift of Inspirational Poetry will be a blessing to you and to all with whom you may share them.

May God Bless You,

RaVonda Wilkerson Oakes

Proverbs 3:5, 6

Luke 8:16

I Write Not Alone

I never dreamed a poet I could be,

But the words I write come not from me.

The words I write are not my own,

For when I write, I write not alone.

Poetry is an art as old as time

With words of rhythm, some words of rhyme.

A Christian poet I aspire to be,

So with guidance from above, God writes with me.

Poetry brings words to life with deep feeling and emotion.

I write to give God praise with all reverence and devotion.

For if I write and give not God the glory that He is due,

Then what I write would not appeal to you.

But when I write, I begin with a prayer.

Then as the words form, I know God is there.

When I read the words, my eyes fill with tears,

For I am overwhelmed by what my heart hears.

You see, when I write, the words are not my own;

They are a gift from God that a heart may be touched,

That a seed may be sown.

In every line, His power is shown,

For by His grace, I write not alone.

He Loved Us All Along

Our Savior lived here so long ago.

He suffered so that we might grow.

He took our sins upon Himself.

They hung Him on the cross of death.

He was crucified, and at Calvary, He died.

His clothes they took, and in a tomb He was put.

But in three days, He was raised.

He is alive! He is to be praised!

He made the lame to walk, the blind to see,

The deaf to hear; He healed leprosy.

So many miracles He performed;

So many lives He has transformed.

No greater man has ever been.

He can wash away your every sin.

Open your heart, and you, too, will see.

What a difference He can make in you and me.

There is no need for worry and strife;

He promises us everlasting life!

Our Savior never did any wrong.

You see, He loved us all along.

His Holy Word

Our strength, our power, like a lightning rod,

The Holy Bible, the inspired Word of God.

His revelation of Himself, like His story,

From creation until Jesus returns with glory.

Feed upon it daily, like nourishment for your soul.

Let it fill you completely;