Why Bother?

Why bother…

When Jesus is coming soon?

Why bother?

He could come morning, night or noon.

No bother, I say…

If he should come today,

I am wonderfully saved

And ready to be on my way.

Why bother…

 About what is going on?

Soon the Lord is going to come-

He could do so before dawn.

Why bother...

When nothing we can change?

The world is supposed to get worse

Because people are deranged.

Why bother…

About the trouble I see…

And sing all day long

That nobody knows it but me?

Why bother…

When Jesus is on his way?

Believe you me, you scoffers,

It could even be today.

Why bother…

When the time is drawing nearer?

Given the signs around

To me, it is definitely clearer.

Jesus is standing up

The writing is in the air,

Why bother…

When I have no need to fear?

Why bother…?

But he said, “Occupy till I come.”

Why bother…?

Because he gave you a great commission.

Why sit and recline

Without a care on your mind

Knowing full well

That this is “go and tell” time?

Why bother…?

Like seriously, are you kidding me?

Just waiting for Jesus’ return

Seems so silly.

Where would you be

If that believer did not bother

To tell you about Jesus

And instead had asked, “Why bother?”

 

Why bother…

To keep looking up into heaven

Instead of telling an earthly brother

That his sins can be forgiven?

Why bother…

To vegetate and lose sight of life

Just waiting for Jesus to return

To free you from earth’s strife?

You ask, “Why bother?”

Because there’s much work to do,

Being salt to the world

Is for me and for you too.

So, bother we should...

We are Christ’s lights in this world

To minister his word

Until the whole world has heard.

Stewart Russell © May 2020

Re Shirley Smithen

 

There are persons that we admire

With personality traits we long to acquire

And so it becomes our earnest desire

That like these persons we hope to aspire.

I have long admired Shirley Smithen

Going way back to Caribbean Pilgrim College

Right in that location on Barbaree’s Hill

Where she received her Bible College tutelage.

From a student there and afterwards a tutor

Striking me as a woman with a purpose,

Pressing relentlessly to her Divine calling

Never appearing to lose track or focus.

And I, a lad in the Carrington church,

Particularly when the college was in vogue,

And its students carried that presence

That smacked so much of the Christian code.

I could call the names of several students

If I were required to do just that

But suffice it that I should mention just one;

Shirley Smitten was of that pack.

Do not treat this term as derogatory

As some would desire to do

But as a classification of high standards

Achieved by an accomplished few.

Yes, I view Shirley as such a person,

A person of passion; a go-getter if you may,

Overcoming many a trial along life’s trail

With the help of God in her unassuming way.

Encouraged by her Christian demeanour

I have oft observed her steadfast resilience

And unashamedly taking a leaf from her book

Leaned more on God for my assured reliance.

The times we have actually chatted

Have been far between and but just a few

But those moments have been most engaging

And always in sync with the biblical view.

To my mind she is an encourager

Even when facing life’s tempests and storms

And in the midst of those howling winds

Reliance on the Saviour appears to be her norm.

I recall ringing her up on the phone

Having not seen or heard her for a long time

And she was so appreciative of that phone call

It practically blew my mind.

Her knowledge of the Word is exemplary,

Her explanation of the Scripture is simple-based:

Context not pretext is her primary focus

And her biblical position can be easily traced.

These are but a few of my lasting impressions

Of my dear Christian sister and friend,

One of whom I have absolutely no doubt

Will continue in the way of Christ right to the end.

I save this penultimate verse to wish you God’s best

And to encourage you to keep on holding on,

For God is faithful in whom you trust

And will bring you to that glorious eternal dawn.

 

You are a person that I admire

With personality traits I strive to acquire,

And so it becomes my earnest desire

That like you, in steadfastness, I too hope to aspire.

Stewart Russell © January 10, 2017

When Patience Fails

 

 

 

 

There were seventy-seven questions

Job didn’t get one right

A huge zero was on his paper

I guess he wasn’t too bright

But when compared to God

Everyone is a dunce

And if God gives an examination

We would most likely flunk

Such was Job’s case

When God questioned him

His friends felt he had gone wrong

Somewhere there was sin

Job pleaded his innocence

But they still had their doubt

So Job asked God some questions

To God he called out

God passed Job’s test

But gave Job a test of His own

Job’s score was zero

But he would not have been alone

Were it given to the brightest man

And Job must have been quite bright

Just like Job he would have failed

For only God has such insight

Before you attempt to criticize God

Think of the whole of creation

Then you’d see how ignorant you are

All that support evolution

The natural mind gropes

In the midst of God’s examination

And His Spirit cannot be traced

By way of man’s education

 

The questions God asked Job

Went beyond the mere superficial

Such were to awaken in Job

A deeper understanding of the spiritual

God is a spirit

And all He created provides that proof

Hence we are to relate to Him

In spirit and in truth

Many give counsel

With their supercilious speech

But their dire absence of knowledge

Displays an obvious breach

Gird up thy loins like a man

And answer God if you can

Where were you when He formed the earth?

Can you show its detailed plan?

The Examiner knows its measure

He determined its depth

He knows its length and breadth

These being the dimensions He set

He created the cosmos

With its oceans and galaxies

He ordered the universe

And sustains its activity

The afore going disciplines

Job had failed every one

Now he is questioned about the light

And God just had to move on

The sun was not the answer

For before the sun there was light

Job so struggled with the questions

He must have forgotten his plight

The weather and the rainfall

The other elements of earth

The spatial bodies’ influence

In Job’s knowledge was a great dearth

The planets and the stars

The wonders of the animal creation

Job has no answer

They are beyond his comprehension

Can Job perform wonders?

Can he speak like God as in thunder?

If so let him take God’s throne

And clothe himself with wonder

The power of the behemoth

And the wonder of leviathan

Job is out of his depth

His answering is now done

Men stand in awe

Of these wonderful creatures

Yet they fear not Almighty God

Who is Owner and Creator

 

Job failed God’s examination

But received copious notes

Today we derive the benefits

Because Job recorded God’s quotes

Job confesses his ignorance

“Of things too wonderful for me

I have heard of Thee by the ear

But now mine eye sees Thee

In Job’s attempt to represent himself

He took an abundance of lashes

Wherefore he abhorred himself

And repented in dust and ashes

 

Job’s three friends also suffered rebuke

For they didn’t have a clue

They spoke at length in their ignorance

Something that a lot of us do

Job was required to pray for them

And that God accepted for Job’s sake

And the Lord turned the captivity of Job

And gave him times more than He did take

Stewart Russell © July 2018

Swimmers and Sinners

I got me to thinking

Of swimmers and sinners

And wondered what one had to do with the other,

And then I thought...

Maybe nothing at all

So perhaps of the matter I really should not bother.

But it did not matter

However hard I tried

I just could not stop thinking of this matter,

There was something deep

In my heart I knew it,

Something far more than amusement and chatter.

So I decided to explore

Diligently deeper and deeper

Until I began to unearth some treasures,

Thank God I can share

With you at this time

What I found out about swimmers and sinners.

“Swimmers drown when they cannot swim,”

That thought occurred to me,

I always thought it was the other way around

I must be rather silly.

But if I could swim why would I drown?

Certainly not if I was a good swimmer,

But good doctors die, don’t they?

And then I began to get a glimmer.

Swimmers drown when they cannot swim

Right then it really got home to me,

It was not about the knowledge or even the skill

It was the prevailing difficulty.

The disciples in the boat could all swim well

They were seasoned fishermen,

But that day in question they feared they would drown

They could not cope with the problem.

  

“Carest thou not that we perish?”

They had asked the Master then,

As well as they could swim it would have been no use,

They could not have swum out of that problem.

So, do you see what I mean

When I said what I said,

Swimmers drown when they cannot swim?

That is why many swimmers are dead.

They needed some one to rescue them

Perhaps, they had no energy left,

Or, maybe their fear got the better of them

As they came face to face with death.

Sinners are no different from swimmers

They too are in over their heads,

They try to swim through their sea of sin

But in such trespasses they are dead.

They are void of energy like the swimmer

And in need of someone’s deliverance,

Like fishermen at sea in their wave tossed boat

Theirs is a similar circumstance.

Like as those fishermen called out to Jesus

When the lake of Galilee tossed their boat,

Sinners on recognition of their peril

Can also call out to Jesus, their hope.

They cannot swim their way to safety

The sin problem is beyond their skill sect,

Jesus is their only way of deliverance

Any other path will bring eternal regret.

Swimmers and sinners are in the same boat

Do not be distracted by the pun,

Sin will take them to a hopeless grave

Unless they come to Jesus, the Son.

His hands are outstretched in invitation

As he did to Peter on the lake,

Sinner, give up on your own personal swimming

And trust the Saviour before it’s too late.

Stewart Russell © October 2019

Which Me

  

I woke in the middle of the night

All sleep gone from my eyes,

I started to do some thinking

And up came surprise after surprise.

I became fully alert

To a life of sham and lies

As to my horror I was stripped

Of disguise after disguise.

It can become quite amazing

When we discover who we are,

Not one or two or three persons

But sometimes more by far.

It is just like theatre

Or better still, Hollywood

Where at different times we showcase

The indifferent, the bad and the good.

Always seemingly on a stage

We are seldom being ourselves

But projecting some other person

We find on our library shelves.

Too petrified to be me

Ordinary, simplistic me,

I would rather be someone else

Like a genuine “wannabe”.

Yes, like an original counterfeit

Talented and unique,

Not an old piece of furniture

But more like a modern antique.

Not who I was yesterday

Or even the day before,

But by constantly reinventing myself

I won’t become a bore.

So that when it is required

For the real me to stand

I can draw from several personalities

That can meet your demand.

I can be “all things to all people”

To satisfy my greed,

Sorry about that little slip up

I really meant my need.

It is a Hollywood experience

And tantalizingly so,

When I can choose from so many fakes

To put the real me on show.

So from my repertoire of me

Which me do you want to see?

I have with me a great selection

Each one, a genuine “wannabe”.

Be careful the me you choose

It may not be me,

It may be someone else

Just pretending to be me.

Stewart Russell © September 2019

Contemporary Ants

 

The wisest man that ever lived

Was an astute observer,

While observing the ants at work

Here are somethings he discovered.

Shirkers they definitely were not

Everyone played its role,

They gathered their food in the summer

To preserve them when it became cold.

They had no boss or overseer

Each one knew what had to be done,

And surely as Solomon observed

Of shirkers, there were none.

My dear reader, you might be asking,

“But why the word contemporary?

Aren’t ants the same in every time?

Isn’t that somewhat silly?"

 

If you experience what I experience

Regarding these little creatures,

There is no way they could be the same

As those spoken of by the preacher.

These are not even like the ones

I remember when growing up,

They did not frequent anything clean

Neither plate nor glass nor cup.

They would enter the sugar jar

If it had the slightest opening

Or were there a crumb upon the floor

In their hundreds they would be threatening.

 

I now know for a fact

That contemporary ants are fond of water

For it doesn’t matter how many times you clean

They will gather on the counter.

The most that you find there

Are little droplets of water

So, I have come to the obvious conclusion

That this is what they are after.

They frequent the bathroom counter

And they crawl into the bath tub,

They appear to act in desperation

In their search for a little grub.

 

You find them in many places

That are not likely to have any food

So that while Solomon saw them as wise,

Contemporary ants are fools.

Solomon admonished the lazy

To observe the ant and be wise

But were Solomon around in this our time

These silly ants he would despise.

They are difficult to understand

And outside there are fewer nests,

I think they are angry at human beings

And are becoming indoor pests.

 

I consider them suicidal

Because they do not act with any sense,

I consistently kill many daily

And they do not put up any defense.

These are contemporary ants, I say,

And hence why they are behaving this way,

These are nothing like Solomon’s ants,

Nothing like the one’s in Solomon’s day.

Do you experience what I experience?

Or, are your ants the Solomon kind?

If so, you can send them across by me,

I will accept that kind anytime.

Stewart Russell © May 2020