My God

My God never sleeps

But He is ever awake,

I am forever grateful

For the believer’s sake.

He watches over me

Both night and day

And is ever faithful

Guiding along the way.

His ear is ever tuned

To the believer’s faintest cry

And I can afford to trust Him

And on Him always rely.

In very troubled times

I have no need to fear

For he assures me daily

That He is always here.

Here in my heart and soul

He chooses to reside

And tells me every moment

He is there to abide.

 

He provides for my every need

And some of wants also

And when He says to me “wait”

I wait because He knows.

At times I go before Him

And He has to rein me in

To remind me of the fact

That I must follow Him.

With my lips I must confess

This is not the easiest part

For I feel I see so clearly

That I want to get a start.

But nothing is hid from Him

And I can’t see very far

But in God’s eternal vision

He can see the farthest star.

The enemy is never pleased

When I am walking close to Him

And tries his very worst

To lure me into sin.

Sometimes he succeeds too

In those times I look away

And with his crafty, cunning plan

Gets me to go astray.

 

But alas, my Saviour calls me

As a shepherd calls his sheep

And I respond to his wooing

And wake up from my sleep.

He chastens those he loves

With me ‘tis no exception

For in His love He corrects me

To demonstrate His affection.

My God is kind and loving

And His promises are true,

He sent His Son, our Saviour

Who died for me and you.

I will ever love and trust Him

And in His knowledge grow

His grace and mercy helping me

To love both friend and foe.

My God can be your God too

And do the same for you,

That would make us one big family

With heaven as our view.

Full salvation is promised to all

Who repent of all their sin

And who confess Christ as Saviour

Who accepts all that come to him.

Take this moment to contemplate

The state of your precious soul

And if you should find it lacking

Let Jesus make you whole.

Stewart Russell © 2017

Salvation in No Other

Some people set store by a given day

Some in an organization or denomination,

Some in a church movement or association,

Some by some creed or by indoctrination.

Some may put trust in the Pope

Or in some other very illustrious apostle,

Some prefer their prophets and religious gurus

While others just want to be someone’s disciple.

Some pull passages from the Bible

And upon these will build their doctrine,

Some will make the Bible secondary

And then set store by what is in the discipline.

Some believe it’s in what they do and say

While some trust in their tithe and giving,

Some hold up their self-righteous acts

As though salvation results from one’s living.

A myriad of qualifications are proffered

Concerning the obtaining of salvation

And for some only a minuscule selection

Will avoid the fires of damnation.

Little is said about the Christ of Calvary

And the price he paid for sin

And when mentioned it is so very erroneous

As though everybody will just be gathered in.

Sin is played down on every hand

And sermons about hell not often heard,

God sent Jesus to die for the world

So all and sundry will get to see the Lord.

It is true that all will get to see the Lord

But not in the way that some believe

For some he will be their Saviour

But others his fierce judgment will receive.

You see the path is marked out in blood

The shed blood of the glorious Christ

And only those who come by way of the cross

Will benefit from the Saviour’s sacrifice.

It is not in Mohammed, Buddha or Haile Selassei

In Judaism, Islam or even Christianity,

It is not in Hinduism, Sikhism or Animism

But only through Jesus who is from eternity.

For God so loved the world, the Bible says

That He gave His only begotten Son

And it’s only by the precious blood of Jesus

That a penitent sinner can be won.

And so the Bible makes it crystal clear

That there is salvation in no other,

Jesus is the only name given under heaven

And to trust any other would be a bother.

So if you should hear his voice this day

I entreat you to harden not your heart

For in the coming day of judgment

You do not want to hear “from me depart”.

To all those who believe that for them

It is adherence to some religious guru,

Remember it this same Jesus you will face

And your religious guru will do so too.

He for himself and you for you

For none can stand in another’s place

When the Judge of Heaven sits in His court

And all stand before His face.

The one question I am sure he will ask

Will not be how well you have lived your life

But whether or not you had trusted in him

To deliver you out of sin’s strife.

At that point any other would be a waste

Of your time, your effort and your plea,

For the truth of the matter will come to light

That Jesus is the only Saviour for you and me.

No other name I say

No other name I repeat

Whereby a man can be saved

For all others spell defeat.

Stewart Russell © 2017

In Repose

Filing past Pearl’s casket

We viewed her one by one

Connecting with the form we saw

But knowing she was gone.

How peaceful she looked!

And yet…not she

For the instant she died

Her spirit had left her body.

As we viewed her remains

God must have decided

To let us see her as she was

Though body and spirit had long divided.

She was not there,

Oh we knew full well she wasn’t

But her remains were

Though such were not sufficient.

We would rather have seen

A gentle rising of the chest

But that was not to be

As her eyes were closed in death.

Closure came for what it was worth

And little it meant at the time

For we still struggle with the fact

That reality is not what we opine.

We yearned for an opening of the eyes

As one awaking from one’s sleep,

A broadening of the lips as in a smile

But alas, this sleep was too deep.

There she lay undisturbed

By the disquieted silence around

Piecing together the recent event

That left us so spell bound.

And yet there was no silence

But a semi-muted chatter prevailed

As in those unwelcome moments

The bewildering thoughts assailed.

“Is this for real?” We asked

While turning to another

Who merely looked as though perplexed

And stupefied by this matter.

Those two hours passed, O yes they did,

Maybe quickly or drawn out

But I do know she was not there,

Her spirit had long moved out.

From the tent in which she lived

Came the assuring word,

“For to be absent from the body

Is to be present with the Lord.”

How reassuring it is to know

That death is not the end

But our gateway to eternal life

As promised by Jesus our friend.

We wend our way away from there

Still bewildered and perplexed,

But aware of that coming morn

When the resurrection will be next.

Stewart Russell © May, 2017

A Plaintive Cry and A Prayer

Pearl, where are you?

Can you hear us as we reminisce?

Can you hear our hearts throb?

Do you know how sorely you are missed?

Can you see us in our daze

Trying to make meaning of this phase?

O how we wish we could have seen this coming

So we could work our way out of its maze!

Pearl, can you read our thoughts?

They are thoughts about you,

Thoughts of the time we spent together,

Thoughts about what we could have done

If only we knew.

Here we are searching for the clue

And wondering why we were not on cue

Missing the signal you must have sent

And now life for you is through.

Irritability and puzzlement fill our breast

Sorrow and longing disturb our rest,

We deny all that has happened

And then smile at your memory

When at our best.

Can you do nothing to relieve this pain?

Perhaps return at the end of the game?

For surely you could see it is no fun

Time to call it quits; let this game be done!

If only we could fall from off this bed

And awake with just a little pain in the head

Only to be assured that you are not dead

But vibrantly alive and still with us instead.

Pearl where are you?

Can you hear us as we reminisce?

Can you hear our hearts throb?

Do you know how sorely you are missed?

Surely if you did you would return to us,

You could not bear to see us hurt in the way we do

Given your caring and empathetic ways

Such would be contrary to your view.

You left us suddenly in a manner unlike you,

Normally you would share what you had in view,

Why differently this time as you sped away?

Could you not have told us what it was you knew?

These are just a few of the questions

That you have left us all to ponder

Searching questions, probing questions and more

The fact our heads ache should be no wonder.

What would we give to see you smile again?

A Facebook photo or a WhatsApp connection

Or simply one of those long telephone calls

In which you shared your joys and frustrations.

Just to know that you are not really gone

Almost anything would suffice,

Please Pearl just reply to any one question

And we all would consider that quite nice.

But alas!  As the mist dissipates

The stark reality strikes home more forcibly

And we must come to grips with that reality:

You have gone but thank God not your memory.

And you have left us wonderful memories

Memories that will more than linger on

For in every picture, flower or recipe

You will shine through like the daily dawn.

Gone but not forgotten; that’s nigh impossible,

Departed but in many ways you still exist,

For as long as memory lasts your legacy will live on

But we must admit you will be sorely missed.

God our Father who sees all and knows all

All our questions we commit to you

Knowing well that what we cannot answer

Is within your Divine purview.

Grant that as we ponder the vicissitudes of life

We would always be mindful

That you see the bigger picture

And that you work everything together for our good

However mystifying be life’s mixture.

We give in to your sovereign will in this circumstance

Given the passing of our loved one

And while at times we are perplexed

We know that this darkness precedes the dawn.

Thank you for the hope of the coming resurrection

When sorrowing and parting will be no more,

Thank you for the surety of Pearl’s redemption

When we all shall meet on that golden shore.

Stewart Russell © May 2017

There’s A Reason

 

There’s a reason for everything

Even when it’s unknown to you

And a purpose for all that happens

Even if you don’t know of that too.

A picture paints a thousand words

Is a saying that that we know very well

But if those pixels were separate

How could you that picture tell?

Events that happen to you and to me

Are the pixels in the picture of life

So that often we cannot understand

Those events that cause us strife.

We often believe we understand

Those experiences that fit our plan,

These are occurrences that bring us favour

And are prescribed by the heart of man.

“Life is lived forward and understood

Backwards,” somebody once said

But by the time that we understand

That event is long passed and dead.

 

You see understanding only comes

When events are strung together

That paint a picture we afterwards see

To partially assess some matter.

Remember, we don’t repeat history

Though intelligent minds say we do,

It’s life’s mistakes we rehearse again

As in a movie it’s Act-one Scene-two.

Life is not a canvas on which we paint,

It’s more like the brush we use

And all the strokes we daily make

Are to paint the picture we choose.

We see the bigger picture of life

By way of a single myopic lens

Believing that what happens in that regard

Should mostly to our benefit portend.

  

And when prognoses prove incorrect

And the reason to us is unknown

We chastise the Creator of all of life

For altering our picture’s colour tone.

 

We forget that our individual affairs

Are selfish agendas in our life’s scheme

And the God of all creation overseas

All that happens on the earthly scene.

Absolutely nothing is hid from Him

Not one iota and not one jot,

His picture has been painted already

Time is revealing each pixel and each dot.

So much of the puzzle we can’t explain

As we appraise its panoramic view

But while only now unfolding to us

It is what its painter already knew.

The big questions of life He knows

Our origin, our purpose, our destiny,

The hairs on our heads he numbered

And established them from eternity.

So there’s a reason for everything

Even when that purpose is unknown to us,

The Only One knows such a reason

God the Father, the Holy Spirit and Jesus.

 

You may marvel that I said the Only One

And then proceeded to number three,

That’s one of the questions I can’t explain

But I accept its authenticity.

For the Bible shows clearly this is so

When stating the attributes of these Three

And the best we can in our limited language

Is to express God as a Tri-unity.

How can someone be three and yet one?

That question is for you, not me

For once God’s Word conveys that point

I merely declare it’s the reality.

For while I will attempt to understand

I know I won’t always succeed

Especially regarding what God reserves

And in my own understanding impedes.

These secret things belong to God

And He knows why there are not revealed

But those things He has revealed to us

Make Him still worthy of our appeal.

In Him we live, move and have our being

That’s according to Acts 17 and verse 28

And the choices we make in the here and now

Will determine our eventual and eternal state.

 

To everything there is a season

And a time to every purpose under heaven,

In six days God created heaven and earth

And rested on day number seven.

A fitting demonstration of His omnipotence

And omniscience throughout the ages,

There is a reason for all that He has done

And all that pertains to life’s stages.

Our response to the vicissitudes of life

And the complex issues that frequently arise

Is to trust the One who has all the answers

And what He abhors we should also despise.

Stewart Russell © 2017

More than a Collection of Books Volume 6

Titus like 1^st and 2^nd Timothy is another pastoral epistle

This time highlighting godliness and good works,

Paul suggests there is a misapprehension of true grace

If the believer from godliness and good works would shirk.

Philemon is another book of just a single chapter

About the slave Onesimus who fled from his slave master,

Philemon was that master who was sought after by Paul

To receive Onesimus back since he was a brother after all.

Hebrews is an enthralling book about the faithful crew

But it starts out with Jesus the Son from the Father’s view,

Later on he’s shown to be a better priest that Aaron

And the initiator of a better covenant; not the old but the new.

James places great emphasis on the testing of one’s faith

Declaring a faith with out any works must be considered dead,

He talks about the tongue and wisdom: the true and the false

And gives an exhortation on patience as the way we should be led.

1^st Peter deals especially with suffering in the Christian’s life

Including slander, ridicule and the prospect of prison and death

Relationships between believers and others are highlighted

As well as the acceptance of the gospel by which we are blessed.

2^nd Peter raises the issue of the increasing false prophets

Already bringing in destructive heresies and licentiousness,

They mocked the idea of the coming judgment

And gave rise to immorality and gross wickedness.

1^st John is replete with incidences of extreme opposites

Like light and darkness, love and hate, the truth and the lie

The Gnostics erroneously professed to know the truth

But denied that Jesus is God and that Christ actually died.

 2^nd John admonishes to beware of those who spread error

Particularly the type regarding the Person of our Lord,

While the Apostle rejoiced that the children walked in truth

He implored that we compromised not but receive a full award.

3^rd John focuses on the behaviour of three characters:

The first was the godly Gaius whom John wished to prosper,

The second was the dictatorial Diotrephes who received him not,

And the third was faithful Demetrius to whom he gave honour.

Jude admonishes believers to contend earnestly for the faith

 The faith that was once delivered unto the saints,

Ungodly men had crept in denying the only Lord and Christ

And who were trying the grace of our God to taint.

The Revelation of Jesus Christ by John to the seven churches

Encourages us wait with patience as we look for Christ’s return,

It teaches the folly of living for things that will soon pass away

And warns rejecters of the Saviour of their doom on judgment day.

Stewart Russell © 2017