Here we have no continuing city
Hebrews 13 and verse 14 tells
We seek for a city to come
Where all will be forever well.
Day to day the problems mount
On this terrestrial plane,
All this will change in the coming age
When our Lord and Saviour reigns.
For he has promised to return
Having visited us once before,
The signs of that time are everywhere
Though of that day no man is sure.
It behooves us therefore to reflect
And look for his inevitable return,
“Even so come, Lord Jesus,”
John the divine in Revelation yearned.
“That pie-in-the-sky stuff again?”
Comes the snide reference to this event
And continuing with their way of life
The more God’s Word they resent.
But the believer need not be ashamed
When his stance is belittled like that,
It matters not how brilliant a man
His opinion cannot change the fact.
The fact according to John 14 verse 3
Is that Jesus is coming back,
His very words, “I will come again,”
Shows this promise is still intact.
As we reflect upon the daily news
Our hearts are assaulted by fear,
We wonder what will happen next
By whom, to whom and where.
There was a time we used to feel
Bad things happened elsewhere
But in the recent past we have seen
Such things also happen here.
The drive by shootings and violence,
The drug wars and homicides,
The scant respect for the sanctity of life
Result when God’s way we despise.
The errant youth from an early age,
The desecration of the family,
The blatant ignoring of the Word of God
Fosters rampant disharmony.
Same sex support by intellectuals
In the church and otherwise,
A stark departure from God’s design
By hirelings like shepherds disguised.
One’s orientation, a way of life
Advanced for his peculiar tastes,
Freedom to indulge in dishonourable acts
And that without being shamed faced.
A decreasing sense of etiquette
The common graces becoming extinct,
A complete abhorrence for law and order
The depth to which we daily sink.
Some would have their pie right here
Yes, in the present, right here, right now
And in order to satisfy this obsessive urge
They would to considerable extent bow.
Such that what we see as the problem
Are really just the symptoms of it
Satan being the chief architect
And the destruction of man, his edict.
Of course I know it takes a lot
For some to wrap their minds around this
But the symptoms of the problem sin
Comprise a lengthy list.
But one day coming in God’s own time
We will be rid of this sordid mess
And all of the believer’s challenges
Will be once and forever addressed.
In the meantime we occupy
As our Lord and Saviour bids us do
Not as though he’ll never come
But ever ready to bid this world adieu.
Each and every challenge confronted
Reminds us we are not here to stay
And our obsession with a pie right here
Is really not of God’s way.
For here we have no continuing city
But we seek for a city to come
Where Jesus will reign eternally
Over the redeemed in his kingdom.
A kingdom where God’s justice will prevail,
Where suffering will be no more,
Where saints and Saviour will be together
Forever on heaven’s shore.
Stewart Russell © November 2017
