The Twins

I met the twins some time ago

And they were so alike,

They were almost identical

And they were my delight.

A timely meeting that was

Definitely at the right time,

I was on my way to God knows where

And I met them along the line.

I had become quite delusional

Skepticism had taker o’er,

Everything had become a fake

Nothing made sense any more.

I was getting my just deserts

The twins made me to understand

Such was the recompense of those

That followed the devil’s plan.

‘There’s a better way,” they said to me.

“You need not continue like this,

You’d be miserable all your life

And at the end heaven you’d miss.

“What’s the alternative?” I replied,

“Nothing has worked, you see,

I even tried church at one time

And that too disappointed me.”

At first it seem to be all right

And I tried desperately to reform

But soon that too became meaningless

And I struggled to conform.

That was not for me for sure

So I decided, time to move on

But right now I am at my wits' end

And feeling rather forlorn.”

Wits' end corner is the place to be

To access the benefits from the twins,

It is when one comes to the end of self

That one can begin to see one’s sin.

It is then that Mercy shows up

And tells us what God has done,

We should have paid for our sin

But God placed it on His Son.

Then Grace joins in and informs

It was because of God’s great love

That Jesus was sent to save the lost

When he descended from above.

Yes! Mercy and Grace met with me

And helped me to understand,

It’s not the church but Jesus Christ

That’s the heart of redemption’s plan.

“You need Christ,” they said to me,

Confess your sin to him,

Believe in your heart for salvation

And be saved from all your sin.”

God’s mercy saves from eternal death

For that death is the wages of sin,

God grace gives to us eternal life

When from our sin we turn to Him.

The wonderful twins: Mercy and Grace

Which always walk hand in hand,

The product of God’s redeeming love

Manifested in Christ to reconcile man.

I met these twins some time ago

And now I never walked alone,

Mercy and Grace always walk with me

On my way to my heavenly home.

Stewart Russell © February 2019

More than A Collection of Books 8

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 © March 2017

The “I” Man & the Christ Man

 

The “I” man and the Christ man

Are so very different,

One is walking with the Lord

The other on mischief bent.

One has been sentenced to death

The other has found eternal life,

Christ fills one’s life with loveliness

The other is full of strife.

One is passed from darkness to light

The other in darkness still,

To one is imputed Christ’s perfection

Revealed as the Father wills.

One is a stranger to the truth

The other is truth to the stranger,

One is in sync with life’s Creator

The other with the Creator differs.

 

For all, the cross was instituted

On it Christ’s blood was poured out,

The sin of the “I” man was for forgiven

When to Christ he turned about.

The cross stands as a testament

To the one that is born again,

But as an implement of judgment

To the one who from Christ refrains.

For in the Adamic nature

We were born and walked therein

But Christ bent the “I” to “C”

When he liberated us from our sin.

So that the Christ man is now free

He is no longer “I” but Christ

And though he is at home in his body

The Spirit is all that suffice.

 

 

Dead in trespasses and sin

Is the present state of the “I” man

But sitting with Christ in heavenly places

The Christ man is held by God’s hand.

  

The “I” man and the Christ man:

Which one at this time are you?

Are you the renewed Christ man?

Or are you still of the “I” man’s view?

Stewart Russell © January 2019

More than A Collection of Books 7

The epistle to the Galatians fulfills a critical role

And clears the air between the law and the gospel of grace,

It is an effort to save Christianity from a sect of legalism

That renders it mere form with grace removed without a trace.

Ephesians is a sermon on how a believer should behave

Cognizant of the investment God made in him by Christ,

The riches of God’s grace, the forgiveness of his sins

And much more is the believer’s through Christ’s sacrifice.

Philippians describes the simplicity of the early church life

The hallmark of which is unity through humility,

Jesus is held up as the epitome of such an attribute

As he suffered death upon the cross in ridicule and agony.

In Colossians the Apostle Paul counteracts some errors

By highlighting the Person and work of the Lord Jesus;

Gnosticism, Legalism and Mysticism were rife

But Christ sufficiency in the believer was the essential thrust.

In 1^st Thessalonians unbelieving Jews accused believers

For having turned the world upside down

Sanctification, love and hope are some of its several themes

The Christian life and the day of the Lord are others that abound.

2^nd Thessalonians enlightens about the day of the Lord

And some believers then felt his return was imminent,

They had become idle and particularly fearful

And setting the record straight became Paul’s intent.

1^st Timothy is a classic manual for an aspiring pastor

And sets out the Christian’s standard for required behavior,

False teachers to be silenced and give thanks to God for grace

Apostasy and the love of money should not be taking place.

2^nd Timothy is the call to a life of enduring fidelity

This was the admonition given by Paul to young Timothy

For some had departed from the faith and also from the truth

So the Apostle saw the need to warn of the coming apostasy.

Stewart Russell © March 2017