“The Promise of Easter”
By Alfred Colo
()
About this ebook
The purpose of this booklet is: to give faith, hope and inspiration, to encourage prayer, and to bring peace and tranquility into our lives. May it be a Lenten reminder of Gods manifold blessings, His guidance and His love.
If you want to know how much you matter to God, look at Christ with His arms outstretched on the cross, saying, I love you this much! Id rather die than to live without you.
Alfred Colo
Alfred Colo, a former singer-songwriter, has immersed himself in full-blown poetry from creative love lyrics he honed his craft on when he realized that his passion for words lay beyond mere expressions of amour. His initial attempt at self-publishing with Xlibris Corporation in 2008 is a nature lover’s view in poetry through the four seasons, entitled Inside Looking Out. Reluctant at first, not offering too much material at once for reasons both pragmatic and artistic, he later ventured to expand his theme with residual material not included in his first book on four seasons alone. As his appetite grew, he knew that there was more he had to say in his accumulated poetry since 1984, which begged inclusion of more poems on the related twelve months of a year beyond the four seasons. After years of creative writing, learning and perfecting his art, he felt it was worthy enough and the right time to make public what eventually has become this collection. He trusts that his reading followers will concur that it was indeed worth the effort to have written a “companion book” to its predecessor, Inside Looking Out. Alfred lives in New Fairfield, Connecticut, after compelling circumstances led him here to exit the Big Apple. Including this one, he has authored twelve books pictured with others to follow. An active octogenarian, Alfred pursues his prolific outpourings on a variety of subjects at a still-going-like sixty white-heat rate. See if you can keep pace with a poet determined to make a mark and to leave a legacy to be proud of. He captures the spirit of his works by suggesting wholly or in part what the cover design will look like on both front and back. From his New Fairfield, Connecticut, home, author Alfred Colo finds inspiration in the abundant wild life he observes and includes in his writing. Other favorite creatures he depicts are angels, nativity scenes and yes, even Santa. Colo’s writings, are rich in detail and luminous in depth and like much of his work, it transcends its confines to achieve a dimensional reality infused with spiritual peace, whimsy, originality and creative imagination, singular cheer and good will. “I relish re-creating scenes of simple, uncomplicated faith,” Colo adds. Responding to an inner childhood calling, the author has created a succession of works as a diverse poet of impressive stature, rivaling his predecessors and role models. He is enabled to keep-fresh the approximately two-thousand-year gap from BC Bethlehem to the current beliefs in Christianity in his re-creation of this advent Christmas story of Jesus nativity.
Read more from Alfred Colo
Advent Journeys: Christmas Poems of Celebration and Remembrance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsComing of Age Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLove Lines: Heart Smart Valentines Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCalendar Cuts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReaper: Elegy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerican Holidays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLaughing Matters: Bits and Pieces of This and That, Wits and Verse from a Poet's Hat. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSelected Short Subjects Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to “The Promise of Easter”
Related ebooks
Stir Our Spirits Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPoems of Praise Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Word of the Cross: Foolishness or Power Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWatch-Night Service Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Pond Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn Times of Grief Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Little Book of Advent: Daily Wisdom From the World's Greatest Spiritual Teachers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Broken for Purpose Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNow We Enslave Ourselves: Poems of Faith and Liberation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFaith, Hope, And Love Poetry Devotional Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGrace in the Wilderness: Reflections on God's Sustaining Word Along Life's Journey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSplash: Captured Moments in Time Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDivine Inspirations Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFor This I Came: Spiritual wisdom for priesthood and ministry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPermissible Praise: Rays of Hope to Light Your Way Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Pocket Book of Prayers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Challenges of Abandoning the Cross Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNot Yet Christmas: It's Time for Advent Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDivine Healing Sermons Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTerra Cotta Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPeace in the Midst of the Storm: A Collection of Psalms and Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClassic Spurgeon Sermons, Volume 7: 26 Sermons from 1861 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTurn the Page: Turning from Darkness to Light through Christ Jesus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChampions of the Faith: Three "A's" of Advent Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeholding His Glory: A Collection of Spiritual Prose and Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow I Met That Special Man Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRevelation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHe Is Ever Present Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPocket Prayers for Pilgrims Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReflections: Notes On My Journey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Poetry For You
Heart Talk: Poetic Wisdom for a Better Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love Her Wild: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Better Be Lightning Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pillow Thoughts II: Healing the Heart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Way Forward Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Inward Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Selected Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond Thoughts: An Exploration Of Who We Are Beyond Our Minds Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dante's Inferno: The Divine Comedy, Book One Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Daily Stoic: A Daily Journal On Meditation, Stoicism, Wisdom and Philosophy to Improve Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bedtime Stories for Grown-ups Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Odyssey: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Works Of Oscar Wilde Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dream Work Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tao Te Ching: A New English Version Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Odyssey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLeaves of Grass: 1855 Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Twenty love poems and a song of despair Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gilgamesh: A New English Version Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Poems of John Keats (with an Introduction by Robert Bridges) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road Not Taken and other Selected Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (ReadOn Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Prophet Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Divine Comedy: Inferno Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Iliad: The Fitzgerald Translation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for “The Promise of Easter”
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
“The Promise of Easter” - Alfred Colo
Copyright © 2016 by Alfred Colo.
ISBN: Softcover 978-1-5245-4509-3
eBook 978-1-5245-4508-6
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
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.
Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible
Rev. date: 01/05/2017
Xlibris
1-888-795-4274
www.Xlibris.com
650710
cross%20with%20thorns.jpgTable of Contents
(A-Man Of Contrasts) At The Crossroads
An Easter Message
Introduction
An Easter Message
Acknowledgements
From Cross To Crown
If This Be My Cross, Lord
A Thorn Bird
The Suffering Servant
The Crucifix
The Crucifixion
An Easter Prayer
From Cross To Crown
Easter Is A Jolly Time
I Can’t Forget Jesus
Let Me, Oh Lord, Let Me.
Come To The Cross Of Christ
Free!
The Cross Of Christ
The Seven Last Words Of Christ
Worthy
Promises
A Celebration
Come To The Carpenter
No Longer
Rejoice, Rejoice, People Of Zion!
Peter’s Progress
In His Hands
Prelude To Eternity
The Cross And The Crown
December’s Child
It’s Never Too Late (I N R I)
The Living Tree
Prejudice
A Donkey’s ‘Tale’
51808.png(A-Man Of Contrasts) At The Crossroads
(THE GREATEST STORY EVER, RETOLD)
BY: Alfred Colo
_________________________________________
christ.jpgChapt.
1. Cross to Crown
2. He Is Risen
3. Heaven Is Won Today
4. A Donkey’s Tale
5. Alleluia
6. The Rising
7. Contrast at the Crossroad
8. The Triumph of the Cross
9. Let War Your Wars -
10. Christ Is Risen
11. Rejoice!
12. Easter People Raise Your Voices
13. By His Stripes
An Easter Message
By: Alfred Colo
A Christ-centered Easter
Is meant to be a holy day,
Instead of just a holiday.
Fill a perfect Easter week
With family activities:
Egg-hunts, stories, songs, recipes,
Suggested reading and
Discussion ideas -
To help create a
More spiritual holiday-
From Palm Sunday
Through Easter Sunday.
Turn each day of the season
Into a spiritual celebration
Of Christ’s Crucifixion
And resurrection,
Enough to last for several seasons.
Because He first loved us,
His name be praised,
All of our days,
Believing in Christ,
Our Savior and Lord.
Introduction
This Lenten-Easter book was prepared with the intent that the words that follow, not be a chore, but rather, are intended to bring joy and personal fulfillment. I pray that you approach what you read here with an open mind and heart. Read at your own pace, as much or as little as you are comfortable to digest at one sitting. If something in it strikes a cord and makes you stop to think…well, then by all means, stop and think!
The purpose of this booklet is: to give faith, hope and inspiration, to encourage prayer, and to bring peace and tranquility into our lives. May it be a Lenten reminder of God’s manifold blessings, His guidance and His love.
If you want to know how much you matter to God, look at Christ with His arms outstretched on the cross, saying, I love you this much! I’d rather die than to live without you.
Alfred Colo
lily.jpgAn Easter Message
May God bless us with: faith beyond fear and grief, to seek deeper understanding.
Father, forgive, Thou, our unbelief, and, as Thomas, our doubting (Show me. I’m from Missouri attitudes) - not believing unless we see, touch and feel first.
Easter is our time to encounter the risen Lord, and to experience transformation through God’s saving acts, both individually and in community.
Christ’s Resurrection for us today, also brings the gift of assurance that Believing is seeing
. Mary told the disciples that she had seen the Lord
, Who called her by name; the disciples then told Thomas but each one came, still needing a personal encounter.
This excites the possibility of imagining that even those who ‘have not seen’, may be part of a transformation that ‘comes to believe’ that, the Stone the builders rejected, became the ‘Cornerstone’.
Deserving exuberant praise for his acts of salvation, let all creation be called to bear witness to the goodness of the Triune God. We, as an Easter People, hoping for the good life to get even better, join in celebration every year since the first, when ‘seeing was believing’. With honor and in retrospect, distance permits us to see by believing first.
Alfred Colo
Acknowledgements
To my ever increasing multitudes of fans, admirers and appreciators of my writing efforts, may I continue to feed you and seldom fail to gratify your appetites for more. I thank you for your sharing, your generosity and your unwavering support; you are the oil that keeps my juices flowing. I shan’t mention you all by name; you know who you are.
I trust that the Good Lord gives me the strength and longevity to continue the mission I started many years ago; my aim being to publish as many of these unpolished diamonds in the little time I have left here to rewrite them, for human consumption. This will be my legacy.
In such trying times as these, nothing matters as much as Laughing Matters!
The genie in your bottle who grants you three wishes, with the promises to amuse, amuse, and amuse, remains eternally grateful for you, the audience, to partner with me in this shared pleasure.
He who laughs last….
Your muse, the author—
Alfred Colo
2010
49696.pngchurch.jpgFrom Cross To Crown
(Sing Glory, Allelujia)
From cross to crown,
what did He do,
this Lamb of Yours,
who changed the world,
and died for us
to wash our sins away?
The Son You sent,
whose holy name,
we praise in adoration,
oh, Father of Creation,
praise glory, Allelujia,
Allelujia, glory!
He shed His blood
on mercy’s seat,
to claim for us
what He had won,
to set us free -
through grace at Calvary.
The cross and crown,
He bore and wore,
with bold determination,
still signifies- salvation.
Sing Glory, Allelujia,
Allelujia, Glory!
You sons of Adam,
come to God -
through Jesus Christ our Savior.
He’ll pattern your behavior.
Sing Glory, Allelujia,
Allelujia, Glory!
Don’t fear to follow
in His path,
you heirs of God’s relation.
With joyfull celebration,
Sing glory, Allelujia,
Allelujia, glory!
Alfred Colo….4/7/87
New Fairfield.
By His Wounds We Are Healed
IF THIS BE MY CROSS, LORD,
and it be my burden to bear,
when I stray from course, Lord,
then steer me back, honor my prayer:
IF THIS BE MY CROSS, LORD,
Oh, help me to carry it through;
that ‘rugged old cross’, Lord,
Your own Father lifted for You.
I’ll pick up the cross
whenever, whatever the need;
far into the dark,
‘till I see the spark,
You light as You lead.
IF THIS BE MY CROSS, LORD,
the sting of whip-lashes, times ten,
would sing: "Come across, Lord.
Please pick up the pieces again."
I shall carry on,
unflinchingly,
at least, I’ll try.
Assign me to do,
what You will me to,
The Good News to cry!
Your loss was our gain, Lord;
the minus, you made into plus,
does lighten the strain, Lord,
You shouldered on Your cross for us.
IF THIS BE MY CROSS, LORD,
like Yours, when You stumbled and fell,
I’d know You’re the boss, Lord,
if ever I grumbled like hell.
I’d follow that sign, Lord,
wherever, whenever You said,
tho’ I felt the thorns,
You wore for a crown,
press down on my head.
IF THIS BE MY CROSS, LORD,
that crushes my weight by its size,
I’ll look to Your cross, Lord,
that fulfills the promise and prize!
-Alfred Colo, 8/86, New Fairfield-
A thorn bird
searches all its life
for a thorn bush.
Torn -
as it impales itself
on the sharpest thorn,
it forfeits its life.
As it dies,
as if in ecstasy,
it shares the sting
of its one and only song.
The nightingale
dares not sing along.
Because He sought
what, at last He’d lost,
our sin was bought -
at the price of great pain.
The Thorn Bird’s song.
how sweet, does still
echo from Golgotha Hill!
-Alfred Colo, 1/21/87, New Fairfield-
In affliction,
He endured in silence-
what the Son of Man
fought not to fear;
Like a lamb,
taken to be slaughtered,
Like a sheep,
brought before the sheer.
But HE NEVER SAID A WORD.
HE NEVER SAID A WORD:
Not a sound did He once utter,
could be heard.
No, HE NEVER SAID A WORD,
not a pain-complaining word;
not once ever,
not a solitary word.
He was humbled
and humiliated.
Before justice,
innocence was tried;
Crucified -
for the sake of sinners,
unaware
their true King had died.
Yet HE NEVER SAID A WORD.
HE NEVER SAID A WORD.
Not a sound did He once utter,
could be heard.
No,- HE NEVER SAID A WORD,
not a fault-containing word,
not once ever,
not a solitary word.
Like a criminal,
He then was buried,
in a rich man’s tomb,
but not for long.
From His lips,
so pure, He spoke no evil’
but was mocked
for doing nothing wrong.
Still HE NEVER SAID A WORD,
and the word He never said,
spoke more highly of His act
than words could say.
No,- HE NEVER SAID A WORD,
not a Spirit-draining word,
as He bore the cross
that crushed Him all the way!
-Alfred Colo, 8/31/87, New Fairfield-
The crucifix I sought,
my Spirit led me not ignore.
I proudly wear it publicly
as Christ’s ambassador.
My crudely-wood-carved crucifix,
from Bethlehem had come,
but paled before the golden ones,
which cost a greater sum.
I’m bold to wear His Signature
of Faith, strung ‘round my head,
unlinked by chain, but hung by hide,
put to our Lord who bled.
Because my Savior-Carpenter,
had grafted me to wood,
from humble birth until He died
at Calv’ry for my good,
I simply let the crucifix,
my silent witness be:
God’s Son who spilled His blood,
fulfilled His Father’s prophesy.
That day His hands and feet were spread
like branches on a tree,
a Triune God rooted Himself
within the heart of me.
-Alfred Colo, 1/2/88, New Fairfield-
Oh, how Your Father must have cried
on the day You had lived-for and died.
How much You must have suffered for our sins
when they nailed You to and hung you on the Cross.
I’m sure Your Mother couldn’t sleep;
through the night She would bitterly weep-
for the bruised and broken body of the One she