A tale of compassion and faith

Penspeak Communities across Nigeria have recently taken up Freestyle Fridays hosted by The Godzniel. This is a collection of poems from Penspeak Community UNEC freestyles in January 2025.

From the watchtower, Iruoma cried out:

I am compassion, a gentle breeze
That calms a raging soul and quiets pain to freeze
I run in obscurity, yet understanding I seek
To heal a silent wound that mouth can’t utter

Like flower that blooms in desert oasis
So am I, a savour taste to the broken soul
I’m a badge of mercy, worn by one who’s torn
An irresistible gentle word, that calms a storm

I see beyond the fist, the anger and pain
And serve a feast of kindness, to wash the heart’s deep stain
I’m a dose of hope, that keeps each day aglow
A beacon of light, in the darkest place I go

I am compassion, I offer listening ears
Pay attention and owe no debt to negligence
I am the greatest gift to humanity
The loudest voice of love
I walk enduring miles
Leaving trails of smiles

Taking the wheel again, Iruoma launched:

With heart swift and low on  paths unknown
I plead to listen to the quiet whisper, that binds me whole
With convictions strong on choices made

I plead to heed the persistent voice of truth
With barns so enriched, and yards full of glittering gold
I pray to harvest, with mind full of sight

To sift grain from chaff, and separate truth from false
And with each step to embark, a journey of uncertainty
I pledge to trust the gentle guide

For He’s the spirit of the divine, with mysteries to unveil
He grants a sense of immortality, in the stillness, a peaceful knowing of secrets untold.
And moments to disobey in doubt, are times to will in regret

Not wanting the momentum to die out, Neche Goodnews took the baton on the relay:

 “Wish upon a shooting star and make your wish come true”
Senior said to me as we stared at the night sky
“So, make the wish”, he said to me as I was beholding the awe of the star littered sky
I close my eyes and make my wish and open my eyes into the present
A decade had gone by but I still reminisce the days gone by
I fasten up my tie while facing the mirror

What a decade it has been
Peril and strife fought their way into my world but I persevered
The psychological breaks and lapses chipped away at my very soul but I didn’t derange
As I go towards my bag, a thought enters my mind and a smile is found on my face
“Your wish is profound and pure, its impact, ground shaking, all I might not see it actualised but I can behold its potential”
Senior said to me, that was one of our last conversations
“It’s no time to slack, the world will soon be in awe”
I say as I take my bag and leave my place

People see the outcome of reality
I behold a future of possibilities
My wish would ensure that
Until then, I carry on

See you next month!

Authors:
Iruoma
Neche Goodnews

BOOK REVIEW: Dear Unloved


Author: The Christ A Poet Team
Editor: ChyD
Pages: 33
Publisher: The Christ A Poet Concepts Ltd.
Reviewer: Ubamara Ezenobi

The book Dear Unloved lives up to its title.

It is not unusual for human beings to fall into sad states occasionally, and Christians are not left out of the trend. While these tragic states may be caused by a variety of reasons, the different poets that contributed to this work have proffered only one solution: Christ.

Dear Unloved starts with Osione’s Crackhead, where she passionately describes the addictions we all at some point or the other go through with depression. You can see yourself in the words as she skillfully paints the picture of a man helplessly adapting to his companion. As we ride through the waves the poets craft for us with their symphonies, we find the same symptoms recurrent in the seemingly unloved human. Pain. Listlessness. Deep sadness. All of those words tell the same story.

Many of the poems in this book are duets, causing the rich blend of poetry and passion you’ll find within. There’s Project Proposal for example, where ChyD and Imani remind us of Jesus’ finished work at the cross. In their own words, someone already produced results for this problem. Dear Unloved resonates with suspense as the characters go through their own phases of darkness.

It is not often that I get to review a book that leaves me reading through, spellbound. The sentences got my attention. The choice of words left me amazed, and impressed. Ultimately, I started all over again, because I found it good for my soul.

If you’ve ever felt dark times, and if you are in fact going through dark times now, then Dear Unloved was written with your name beating in the hearts of the poets.

reVERSED: The Life and Times of Jesus

What if someone from the life and times of Jesus sends a poem to you today, detailing his/her/its first-hand experiences with Jesus?

Would you like to read?

Well, imagine our surprise when we found these poems in our e-mail boxes.

Trust me, you’d love to read these.

Click this link to download.

‘Nonso John
Editor

#EVERYDAYJESUS is our purpose (Nonso John)

​ On Purpose, I have this to say.

God created man with a purpose in His mind.
There’s somethiny Bible theologians like to call the principle of first mention. Thag is, that whenever God first mentions a thing, He mentions His reason for making or for approving that thing.

We find it all over the Bible.

God’s first mention of a covemant with Abram, He spelt out His reason for calling Abram (to make him a great nation, to bless him, and to bless the entire earth through him, which people have taken to mean that God was talking about the saviour coming through him and blessing the entire world).

First time God explicitly talked about a partner for Adam, He called her a ‘help suitable’ for him.

First time God called the sun and the moon, He said it was to give light to the day and then to the night.

And so on, and so on.

I have searched my Bible for it, and although it is not everything God calls that He mentions His purpose for, He does mention them for a lot of things, at the first time He calls them.
I said all these to say this:
The first time God made man, He said.

Let us make man, in our image and likeness.

And let them have dominion.

Over the birds of the air… and so on and so forth.
Now. God created man. To have dominion. That is man’s purpose. 

But this man that must have dominion has to have God’s image. And be in God’s likeness.

I like to study the word with this Hebrew Bible I have that uses the exact words like it was in the original text, (plus the hebrew pronunciation) before translating to English.

I’ll forget the hebrew word and just use the pronunciations. 

And that verse in my Study Bible says :
“Let us make ‘aw-dawm’ in our ‘tseh’-lem’, after our ‘dem-ooth”.
The word pronounced Tseh-lem (stress on the first syllable) means mirror reflection. A look alike. A clone. A model.

The word pronounced dem-ooth (stress on the second syllable) means resemblance in words, thoughts and action.
It’s the word used to say ‘this guy behaves like his father.’
Okay. So God’s plan is that we should look like Him (image) and function like Him (likeness), so that we can have dominion.

That is God’s purpose for mankind as a whole.
But mankind lost the image in the garden.

So Gpd has been on a rescue mission ever since, trying to bring man back to that image of spiritual life. Eternal life, if you prefer that phrase better.

The life of God.
And I think tjat became like a new purpose for mankind.

That is, turning every other mankind back to the image, and the likeness.

This is why, I believe, the Bible says He has given us the ministry of reconciliation.
So what is your purpose? 

Live in the image of God, and function in His likeness.

And then lead those who are lost back to that image and likeness.
God’s image is being born again.

I think God’s likeness is learning to do things the way He would do them.

So we go to be taught the authority of the believer. Jesus came to teach us how it is possible to raise the dead. The fallen man cannot do it.

Only a God can, or a man who has found his God-image.

I think it is part of what Jesus came to model for us.
All these ‘my purpose is music’ and all that, is just ignorance.

The church has one purpose.

Go ye into all nations… as Jesus says.
But we do not all have to be Pastors. 
We have the same purpose, but we do it on different platforms.

I am a writer. But that is my pulpit. And that is why it us beautiful.

Tyler Perry writes black comedy. Janette..iks writes spoken word Gospel pieces. Karen Kingsbury attacks broken families. Ted Dekker writes Thrillers. Frank Peretti plies his trade in the speculative fantasy genre of fiction.

And I have seen each of these people I have mentioned blowing tongues and worshipping. On recorded video sha.

I am a Thriller writer.

In music, same thing. We don’t all have to do the same thing. 

I know rappers who are hardcore Christians.

And we don’t all have to be singing Jesus Jesus Jesus in all our love songs.
Darlene Zeche (forgive the spelling) has a full album of love songs, and God was not mentioned once.
All I’m saying is.

We do different things.

We don’t have to do the same thing.

No one said you must be a musician. No one said you must be a writer.

But if you have found Christ, your purpose is leading others to Him.

Doesn’t have to be any particular platform.

Some people say they were born to write. I believe I was born to write, simply because I cannot imagine my life doing something else, but that is just a platform.
You decide,

But whatever you do, whatever we all do, the Bible says we have
Ephesians 4:5

“One Lord. One faith. One baptism.”
I will stop it here.
Hope this helped.

[9/14, 12:57 AM] Nonsi Writer: Lemme just add this.
I believe the likeness of God is all them things ranging from God’s chaaracter, His behaviour, and so on.
He’s a God of faith. So we learn faith.

God of love. So we learn to love.

We learn to fight battles like He would – by weilding the authority He has bequeathed onto us.
I believe that this whole spiritual growth thing just refers to likeness: 

How close you are to being like Jesus (since He is the human part of God that we can relate with).

Becasue really, you cannot begin to talk about spiritual growth if you do not even have the image of God first of all (as in being born again).
I think the whole concept behind spiritual growth is as it relates to the likeness of God.
No wonder the Bible says (2 Corinthians 3:18) “as we behold as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, we are changed into that same image…”
Note that the word ‘image’ here is different from the previous word translated as image in Genesis.
Here, the word is pronounced “i-kone'” (stress on second syllable), meaning ‘a likeness, a profile, representation, resemblance.
Some of these words are related, but they don’t exactly mean the same.

Ok. Bye.