God’s Glorious Riches
A Collection of Faith-Building,
Scripture-Based Poetry
Experience His Presence Through the Seasons of Life…
Barbara Malison Daniels
A collection of faith-building, scripture-based poetry written as an outgrowth of the author's faith journey. The inspirational art and photography, reflecting God's beauty and creativity surrounding us and within us, is both the author's and 16 contributing artists and photographers.
With this attractive book on your coffee table, guests in your home will be inspired and delighted by the poetry and unique images, waiting room style. For a deeper faith-building experience, the book is a rich addition to your home library, as you engage in the thought-provoking, life-application perspective of the entire collection. The endnote scripture readings for each poem will provide extended personal reflection time.
About Barbara Daniels
Barbara Malison Daniels, from Binghamton, NY, graduated from Cornell University and later Elmira College. She is a happily retired teacher, a writer, and CEO of a small non-profit organization in Burlington, NC.
Barbara is a daughter, wife, mother, grandmother, friend, and sister in Christ. She lives with her husband, Randy, and current rescue, her cat Gingersnap. She is a lover of animals, nature and God's Creation! She loves visiting goats, donkeys, horses, and llamas on farms in the countryside surrounding her home north of Raleigh, NC.
A creative spirit in every sense of the phrase, Barbara has had a passion for music, lyrical poetry, and drama since her youth. She enjoys acrylic painting and photography, musicals, decorating on a shoestring, crafting, and playing the piano. She is especially delighted when she finds an opportunity to use any of the gifts that she has been given by the Creator for His Glory and purposes!
Friends and family alike have benefited time and again from the wisdom, truth, and often, wit of her poetry; tender poems, silly poems, God-inspired poems. This timeless collection of her scripture-based faith poetry is the culmination of a lifetime of experiences; both joyful and heart-wrenching, faith-testing, and faith-confirming. It is a celebration and reflection of how she has experienced His Presence through the seasons of her life and encourages the reader into a closer relationship with God.
An Introduction to God’s Glorious Riches…
Do You:
• Have a restlessness in your soul?
• Seek peace that endures regardless of your circumstances?
• Know about God, but want to know God?
• Need insight into how God works in you life?
• Want to feel God’s Presence and see it in every circumstance of your life?
• Want to be more intentional about following Jesus?
• Want to know how to stay close to God?
If you answered “yes” to one or more of the above questions, read on. If you did not answer “yes” to one or more of the above questions, read on! The words in this book are waiting to make you feel, make you think, encourage you, and entertain you.
From the time I was a preschooler, I particularly enjoyed poetry that rhymed and had a rhythmical flow to it. The Old Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes book was one of my favorites. My mother read to me daily from this book. Eventually, I had committed each rhyme to memory and could “read” to her.
By the time I reached middle school, I discovered that rhyming, metered poetry came to me quite naturally. Over the years, I began writing lyrical, dramatic, and narrative poetry for friends and family for everything from silly narrative poems to those I wrote for births, weddings, birthdays, and eulogies.
After a 14-year period of wandering further and further from God, there came a time in my life, when the rhythm and rhyme came to a grinding halt. A chaotic kind of beat marked by confusion, serious illness, loss, and pain took over.
The poetry in this book is an outgrowth of the faith journey that brought the lyrical flow back into my life. With that flow, came poetic words from the Holy Spirit to express the character of the God I came to know personally; the God who rescued, restored, and transformed my life. As I came to the end of myself, I placed my life in His hands. I lost my life and my plan, but gained new, abundant life through God’s plan. I began to see how He works in our lives, true to His Word. What were once words on the pages of my bible in the beginning of my faith walk, became my reality; a reality offered through Grace by faith for anyone who calls on the name of Jesus.
During the time of restoration and healing in my forties, I purchased a gift for my parents called, HeartGifts, a collection of lyrical poetry by Helen Steiner Rice. I admired her work, and even more, her life and her heart for God. Her work has influenced and inspired me more than any other Christian faith poet.
The Prologue poem, “Front Porch Point of View” and the Epilogue poem, “Back Porch Point of View” are the “front and back covers” to a dream that God gave me twenty years ago. The dream is played out in the 38 poems in this collection. I dreamed that I would write the poetic words that He poured into my own heart to reach other hearts for His purpose and plan.
As I read through my completed work to determine scripture verses reflected in each poem, God ministered to me! His Word is imprinted on my heart, indeed! It was a study and personal reflection time in His Presence that I had not anticipated.
It is my fervent hope that you will allow the Lord to minister to you through the scripture verses associated with each poem. You will find them in the scripture end notes section of the book.
May God bless you with this book and show you His Glorious Riches through the words and the images on each page.