Too Late

 

 

Build a what?

An ark?

What is that?

Between my knowledge base

And this ark-thing was a huge gap.

 

But not for long,

I was given specific instructions

Which I followed to a “T”

And that without question.

 

Finally, it was completed

Down to the very last nail,

Pitched within and without

It was now ready to sail.

 

Two by two

The animals came,

Their variety of sounds

Making a cacophonous refrain.

 

Their homing devices

Set to destination, the ark,

Ordered by an unseen power

Before the imminent dark.

 

And I in awe

At this turn of events,

Meanwhile they that should know better

Refusing to repent.

 

 

Mocking and laughing

And having loads of fun,

Unaware of the pending peril

From which they cannot run.

 

That is, of course,

Unless they follow the animals

They would soon be past tense:

An eradicated people.

 

A flood?

What flood?

Old Noah, are you mad?

All of that work for absolutely nothing,

How foolish, how sad!

 

A massive boat

And no water to float it,

Poor Noah had lost his senses

And didn’t know how to quit.

 

Persistence is all right

When you are aware of your goal,

But surely not in Noah’s case

He was now in a hole.

 

 

A massive boat

Built in the middle of nowhere

With no water to sail it

And none likely to appear.

 

And so, they mocked

And so, they laughed

Not recognizing

This was their final repast.

 

 

 

An evening at the movies

Suddenly turned sour

And their fun turned to horror

That very hour.

 

Stewart Russell © July 2020

 

Faith in Nothing

 

 

 

Faith in nothing

Rather than faith in God

Is a moronic belief acknowledgement

I can’t help but appal.

 

And to base such

On the scholarship of science

Is to climb to the dizzying heights

Of appalling nonsense.

 

When did nothing

Stop becoming something

And start reproducing itself

As simply nothing?

 

Faith in nothing

Rather than faith in God

Does not make any kind of sense

At all, at all, at all.

 

And more incredibly,

Scientists actually believe this

And often frown on theists

And God dismiss!  

 

The heavens declare

And scientists should see

That nothing could not be credited

For this reality.

 

Faith in something

However nonsensical it may be

Has considerably more going for it

Than a nothing reality.

 

 

When nothing is the matter

Then anything can be

And when everything is nothing

This is insanity.

 

Need I say more

Regarding faith in nothing?

No, not until such faith adherents show

Nothing producing something.

 

Faith in nothing?

Rather than faith in God

Is like a self-made computer

Built from nothing at all.

 

Stewart Russell © May 23, 2024

 

God Is in Control

 

God is in control

Though it mightn’t look so,

The assertion may be puzzling

But by faith we know.

 

I choose to believe this

Come whatever may,

God is in absolute control

Each and every day.

 

That it is getting worse

Is the opinion of many

But never mind how it looks,

God is the Almighty.

 

 

The Omniscient One

The only wise God,

He that sees all and knows all

Here and abroad.

 

Take note of the order

That exists in all of space

And how each heavenly body

Is held in its place.

 

By God’s word

They all were created

And by God’s word alone

They are supported.

 

 

The winds and the waves

Obeyed the Christ

Having no mind of their own

For good or vice.

 

Unlike human kind

That was given a choice,

Man could obey his Creator

Or ignore His voice.

 

Like back in Eden

You would no doubt recall

When Adam and Eve

Both did fall.

 

Deceived by a serpent

The agent of Satan,

Eve felled for his treachery

Followed by Adam.

 

 

God was in control

When all this occurred

And He is in no less control

In the Present world.

 

Men do as they please;

They have lost control

Especially our world leaders.

They’re on a roll.

 

God is not responsible

For our present raw deal,

It is the leaders that we trust

To whom we must appeal.

 

Appeal to their conscience;

At least, what of it is left

Seeing in the wake of their insanity,

There is suffering and death.

 

Israel and Palestine

Russia and the Ukraine,

Guyana and Venezuela

They are all insane!

 

 

Yet God is in control,

It is mankind that is not

And it is not difficult to see

Given all the rot.

 

However, be assured

Man will answer to God

Not only in the life here and now

But in that final call.

 

God's still in control

Dare to believe with me,

A time of reckoning will come

For everybody.

 

Stewart Russell © March 15, 2024

Not of this World

 

 

Not of this world?

From whence came such?

Go with me to John chapter 18 verse 36

And you will see as much.

 

Jesus answered,

My kingdom is not of this world:

If my kingdom were of this world,

Then would my servants fight,

That I should not be delivered to the Jews:

But now is my kingdom not from hence.

 

“They are not of the world,”

He said, referring his disciples

And like his disciples, the born again

Are his chosen people.

 

 

 

Not of this world,

But pilgrims on a journey

To a city not made with hands

In the heavenlies.

 

To the new Jerusalem

That John saw coming down,

There’s nowhere on this earth

Where it can be found.

 

“For here,” said the Apostle,

“We have no continuing city,

But we seek one to come.”

Paul continued definitively.

 

For he looked for a city

Meaning Abraham,

Whose builder and maker is God

That originated this plan. 

 

A city with foundations,

Not of rock and stone,

But built on the rock, Christ Jesus,

That is, our heavenly home.

 

The Church is the kingdom

Of Jews and Gentiles,

Both purchased with Jesus’ blood

Which none can defile.

 

Not replacement theology

But the unfolding of a plan

Conceived in eternity by the Trinity

And not by man.

 

For verily was our salvation

Before the foundation of the earth:

To the Jew first and then the Gentile

Delivering both from the curse.

 

 

Not of this earth for either,

Jesus made this clear,

But of the new Jerusalem John saw

On Patmos Isle appear.

 

A kingdom that is spiritual

A kingdom within the born-again,

A kingdom that is eternal

A kingdom where Christ reigns.

 

And so, I reiterate

The reassuring words of Jesus

On which we can boldly stand

And in them place our trust.

 

Jesus answered,

My kingdom is not of this world:

If my kingdom were of this world,

Then would my servants fight,

That I should not be delivered to the Jews:

But now is my kingdom not from hence.

 

 

In the world

But surely not of the world

Yet, being the salt and the light

As we reflect God’s Word.

 

Stewart Russell © January 2, 2025

 

The Source of Our Trouble

 

 

From whence come wars

and fightings among you?

Come they not hence, even of your lusts

that war in your members?

 

The question is asked

Then answered rhetorically,

That is: by another question

In which is the answer-obviously.

 

It doesn’t require rocket science

To show us one’s self,

Just dust off the old Bible

That is lying on the shelf.

 

 

It’s the source of all our problems

In the church and without;

I am not accusing you,

You don’t need to shout.

 

If you really must shout

I suggest you shout at God’s Word,

In any case thereafter,

I’d be convinced you heard.

 

Go to James chapter 4

And read from verse number 1,

If you understand what it says

Then you are not a moron.

 

For while it asks a question

It gives the answer as well

And if you want to dispute it

Then you are not so well read.

 

It is as straightforward

As straightforward can be

And if you still do not get it

You don’t have eyes to see.

 

The source of our trouble

Are the lusts in our members

And until we satisfy ourselves

There is no retreat or surrender.

 

 

The symptoms are our behaviour

On account of our lusts

Hence, the war in our members

And all of the fuss.

 

It all results from self:

Self must be brought under control,

We must not give in to our lusts

But on the Holy Spirit lay hold.

 

From whence come wars

and fightings among you?

Come they not hence, even of your lusts

that war in your members?

 

Stewart Russell © August 25, 2020

 

Not Just Another Specie

 

 

Animal, plant or thing

A game we used to play,

As children growing up in school

Back in my day.

 

The alphabet was used

Going from A to Z

With the appropriate letter chosen

For each category.

 

Animal, plant or thing,

Human was excluded

But now with so-called science

Human is included.

 

A human is an animal,

Just another specie

Thus, scientists have placed it

In this category.

 

But I beg to differ

Though not a scientist,

Let’s show you from the Creator

What they have missed.

 

Which of the animals

Can it be said

It was created in God’s image?

Tell me, well-read.

 

 

 

Created in God’s image

The Bible pointed out,

Genesis 1 verse 27 leaves me

In no doubt.

 

And God created Man

In His image,

In the image of God, it affirms,

Created he him.

 

Not a single animal

Had such a privilege

To have been created, my friend,

In God’s image.

 

Image does not mean

We look like God

But in us, some of His attributes

He has installed.

 

And he sent His Son

Fashioned as a man

And in fulness of time executed

Salvation's plan.

 

 

 

For which of the animals

Did Christ die

When on that old rugged cross

He was crucified? 

 

Unlike the animals

We have a mind,

We are aware of the Creator

As well as time.

 

We are creative

And uniquely so,

This uniqueness in myriad ways

Around us shows.

 

 

 

We can relate to God

And upon Him call

And even trust Him to lift us up

Whenever we fall.

 

Which of the animals

Is self-aware

And can show beyond instinct

That they care?

 

Which one has a will

And a conscience too

And plans beyond the moment

Like me and you?

 

Not a single animal

Must be the reply,

It was for humanity that Christ

Suffered and died.

 

 

 

Created in his image

Meaning you and me;

We are not just another specie,

We are humanity.

 

Stewart Russell © November 23, 2025

In My Fifteenth Year

  

 

In the year 1971

Just out of Combermere

I walked into an institution

Void of any fear.

 

Not so in earlier years

With the terror of the strap

Flailing left, right and centre

Wherever there was lack.

 

I could never escape

This scourge of St. Giles’

Unless I left at the first opportunity

And put it behind for miles.

 

My very first attempt

Was in the Grinna’s Class 3

Where I passed with flying colours;

Thank God I was free.

 

 

 

Into Combermere

And back to St Giles’ again,

This time, however, let me tell you,

It was a different pain.

 

 

 

Twenty-four years there

And on to St. Mary’s for six,

Ten in the Ministry of Education

And that for me was it.

 

Now in my fifteenth year

I have had no regret,

The wife encouraged me to come home

And with that I was set.

 

I had had a good run

Going beyond duty’s call,

I enjoyed the students to the fullest

And gave them my all.

 

 

 

But when the 40^th came

I decided enough is enough

And so, I bid all of them farewell,

No more huff and puff.

 

Fifteen years almost

But not on the breadline,

I am living off the little pension:

Both me and mine.

 

  

I thank my God daily

From a heart of appreciation

That he has given me so many years

Having left the profession.

 

And for whatever is left

I will take one day at a time

And whenever I come into surplus

To someone I’ll be kind.

 

And this does not mean

I won’t help out of my need

For God has been gracious to me,

Very gracious indeed.

 

With my fifteenth year

Yet to be completed

I will continually give God thanks

For how I’ve been treated.

 

Stewart Russell © January 22, 2026