Isn’t This Weird?

 

The king made a decree

Which his subject did contravene

And his kingdom waited expectantly

For the inevitable scene.

 

Depending on the offense

It could be a flogging or even death

But sometimes at the king’s discretion,

Incarceration might be best.

 

The punishment for this crime

Was a flogging in the public square

Which the old and decrepit subject

Was clearly unable to bear.

 

 

But the decree must be upheld

For it carried the seal of the king,

There was no way of escaping the flogging

Unless somebody stood in for him.

 

But surely, he would die

A death not befitting his crime

And this small matter of an injustice

Held the kingdom in a bind.

 

The king made one last call

For a family member or a friend

That would be willing to take the flogging

In place of old emaciated Ben.

 

Family members there were

But there was nary a single friend

Whereupon the king decided

To bring the matter to its end.

 

 

He stepped into the public square

In his hand was the royal strap,

He quickly stripped the clothes away

From off his kingly back.

  

Then turning to the offender, he said

For you I’ll take the flogging,

This took his subjects by surprise

As it was quite mind-boggling.

 

For the king had done no wrong

Yet this man’s punishment he took,

He, it was, that had made this law

And he played it by the book.

 

“The soul that sins it shall die”

This was the penalty God prescribed,

Eternal death was our just desert

And justice could not be denied.

 

 

Hence, walk Jesus up Calvary’s hill

His back was already laid bare,

Beaten, ridiculed and finally crucified

As to that cross he was nailed.

 

In giving His Son God gave himself

And became the sacrificial lamb,

And in this way His justice was served

In implementing salvation’s plan.

 

Isn’t this weird, I ask again,

That a king for His subjects would die,

Suffering under His own decree

That His justice would be satisfied?

 

 

It’s a thought that’s too deep for us

And hence, we consider it weird,

But only God could have done as much

That’s why none with Him compares.

 

Only God can satisfy His own justice

Concomitantly, not one of us could,

Hence, the offer of His Son for you and me

On that rugged cross of wood.

 

Stewart Russell © November 18, 2020

 

Doctors Practice Lawyers Too

 

 

Doctors practice medicine

And their practicing never stops

Except when like their patients

They too finally drop.

 

Seems to me we take a risk

When to the doctor we go,

Since they are always practicing,

What do they really know?

 

Be it a surgeon or physician

Practice is their thing,

At what point do they get real

And stop this rehearsing?

 

They get degree after degree

And still they practice medicine,

They practice on me and on you too

We all go out on a limb.

 

 

“Doctors practice medicine,”

A father once told his son,

“Don’t you ever go to one,”

And he was not making fun.

 

While doctors practice medicine

Lawyers have a law practice,

The difference lies in the parts of speech

But they too are a risk.

 

With both it must be a practice

Because we always have to go back,

Forwards and backwards we must go-

A dent in our pay pack.

 

Teachers don’t practice teaching

Postmen don’t have a postal practice,

They do what they have to do

With them it is not hit or miss.

  

But you’ll lie on a doctor’s bed

And he’ll knock and press and poke

And just for practicing medicine

He’ll demand of you some notes.

 

Lawyers are no different

They have a law practice,

But they see themselves as professionals

That will cleverly hit or miss.

 

 

Whether one or the other

You will still have to pay,

In order to sustain their law practice

That is their customary way.

 

It doesn’t matter their training

Neither the depth nor the height,

Practice is where they’re always at,

That certainly gives me a fright.

 

Please do not fault my spelling

I’ve been Americanized,

The English spelling is atrocious-

Their spelling I despise.

 

 

Noun and verb are different,

Why can’t they be the same?

They come over better with the ‘c’

‘The ‘s’ sounds a little lame.

 

But whether practice or practise

It’s what these professionals do,

Doctors practice medicine

But lawyers have a practice too.

 

If practice makes perfect

Why can’t they achieve perfection?

I promise to ask a doctor or lawyer-

One must answer my question.

 

Stewart Russell © October 26, 2020

 

Impeached but Exonerated

 

Impeached but exonerated

And I am not talking about Trump,

He would have to deal with that

On his own account.

 

I am talking about me

And what I have been through

And you who are reading this,

What you’ve been through too.

 

I was impeached and found guilty

Simply because I was born,

Most would find that unusual

Because it’s not the norm.

 

What is the crime in being born

Would be the question to ask,

If Adam and Eve were alive

I would give them that task.

 

However, since they are not

I will point you to God’s Word

Even though something tells me

You have already heard.

 

 

Let us ask the Psalmist

And we will see what he says,

Shaped in iniquity and conceived in sin

That’s how it was way back in the day.

 

So, we were born into sin

That, my friend is the norm,

Consequently, one is counted a sinner

From the very day he is born.

 

Hence the first part of the theme

Impeached from my birth,

Yes, I was impeached

Before I even set foot on the earth.

 

But it doesn’t end there

And I truly thank God for this

And so, I come to the part

That I don’t want you to miss.

 

So as in Adam every man sinned

In Christ every man can access pardon,

Yes! Exonerated in Christ Jesus

Ever since I’ve been forgiven.

 

Impeached on Adam’s account

But exonerated through Jesus Christ

Not on any merit of my own

But because of Christ’s sacrifice…

 

 

When on that first Good Friday

When before the heavenly court

He shouted “Father forgive them!”

Therein is my support.

 

Now being one of the “whosoever”

That believes in Jesus Christ,

I am exonerated through the blood

That will always suffice.

 

Impeached because of Adam

Exonerated in Christ,

If the same can be said about you

I would think that’s quite nice.

 

Stewart Russell © January 25, 2021

 

 

Political Games

 

 

Childhood games are loads of fun

But political games are not,

They play with our livelihood

And are full of sinister plots.

 

Like pawns on a chest board

Swapped for any and everything,

A vote every five years or so

And then dangled from a string.

 

Collateral damage you may say

There must be a cost, you see,

Why not the hapless electorate

That ensured your five-year spree?

 

 

Politics, my friend, is a reckless game

Unlike those of childhood

And sometimes it gets so horrid

It even calls for blood.

 

So much of it is cover-up

That the truth is difficult to know

And if you take off your partisan lens

There are times you’ll see it show.

 

But our loyalties are very fierce

And we don’t easily let go

While they that rule over us

Just watch their fortunes grow.

 

But they can be apologetic

Every five years or so

When they come to town again

Like clowns in a circus show.

 

 

And we the faithful electorate

Become the illiterate again,

Spellbound by their circus antics

We participate in their game.

 

A game that promises much

But delivers little, if anything,

Except to the ones that have it all

While we, their praises sing.

 

Like the lotto games we play

In anticipation of winning,

But we mostly turn up the losers

With the politicians grinning.

 

But will we ever learn?

It does not seem we will

For our parents made the same mistake

And today we make it still.

 

 Childhood games are really fun

But political games are not,

The politicians are always the winners

While losing is our lot.

 

Stewart Russell © August 2020

 

Community Spread

 

 

The very thing we feared

And hoped it would never happen

Is now among us

And we feel panic-stricken.

 

From local transmission

To something more dread,

Now they have finally admitted

We have community spread.

 

We can fiddle with terms

When we are fearing the worst

But being straight-up with people

Is the better course.

 

Now there is community spread

How should we proceed?

The answer to this is simple:

The protocols we must heed.

 

 

Wear your mask

When outside your household,

Keep your physical distancing

Do not play you are bold.

 

Sanitize your hands

And keep them out of your face,

Starve COVID to death

And get it out of this place.

 

Pray for civic responsibility

For the other than the wise

And for the opportunistic ones

That use masks as a disguise.

 

That hide behind masks

To carry out their criminal deeds

And for those who know better

But are overcome by greed.

 

We must fight this together

Metaphorically, hand in hand,

Not physically of course;

This is presently banned.

 

Temporarily we hope

And certainly not for long

For if we are going to defeat COVID

We all must be strong.

 

Strong in being disciplined

And in cooperating with the authorities,

One for all and all for one

The essence of national unity.

 

Considering the other person

As the Holy Bible recommends

And trusting in the Almighty God

On whom we can depend.

 

God will certainly lead us

Through these COVID-19 strains

But we must be prepared as a nation

To hand Him the reins.

 

Stewart Russell © January 24, 2021

 

God Has the Final Say

It will take more than a President
Or a presidential change
To sort out a country
That is terribly deranged.

America is distraught
For a lack of knowledge
And suffering in the pangs
Of religious sacrilege.

It will take far more
Than getting rid of Donald Trump,
Compared to America’s Mount Stinkeroo
He was a mere hump.

 

Trump did not have the answers
And neither does Biden,
Moral and spiritual decay
Is at the heart of its problem.

 

One Nation under God?
That is farcical and hypocritical!
In God we trust
Was another time and another people.

A humongous religious movement
But such will not help
And in the fires of these times
Religion will only melt.

A departure from the God of the Bible
Is the principal cause,
The devil, like a great albatross
Holds America in his claws.

A departure from God’s building block
Which is the nuclear family
Is the recipe for national disaster
And spiritual disunity.

It’s a bedding down
With the adversary of the human soul
And no amount of political rhetoric
Will make America whole.

 

Settling for less
Than the biblical blueprint
Is worse than a sovereign country
Now basically paying rent.

I make no apologies
If this sounds like a funeral dirge
But what is coming to America
Is worse than any COVID SURGE!

Return America
From the morass you have become,
Turn away from your sodomy
And seek out God’s Son.

His blood is still efficacious
And potent to save
And to pluck you out of the claws
Of the devil, your knave.

 

One nation under God
Is the best place to be
But it will take more than an emblem
To attain to that possibility.

Righteousness exalts a nation
But sin is a reproach
And I dare say, America,
On the forbidden, you have encroached.

Turn from your sodomy
And your transgender ways,
There is hope for the penitent
It matters not how far he has strayed.

Transformation not transgender
Changes a life from within
And it is still an established fact
That Jesus saves from sin.

Here is a word for every country
Whether big or small,
No nation can succeed
Outside of God’s divine call.

Call all this garbage
Or gibberish if you may,
But I tell you that in all matters
God has the final say.

Stewart Russell (c) January 2021

Faith and Trust

 

 

Faith and trust:

Are they the same?

I think not

I won’t make that claim.

 

One may observe

That they are similarities

But one should also note

Their diversities.

 

Faith comes by hearing

By hearing the Word.

Trust is different

And this is not absurd.

 

Let’s take the case

Of the three Hebrew boys,

Take note of the stance

They all three employed.

Their faith announced

That God can deliver

But their trust declared

The outcome did not matter.

 

Our faith commences

Just like the dawn

But our trust is like the day

It goes on and on.

 

Faith gets us started up

It is when we plug in

But trust keeps us walking

Away from sin.

 

Every time we sin

That is misplaced trust,

Somewhat like the world

That feel they must.

 

Our faith is in God

And so must be our trust,

Often however,

We are led away by lust.

 

While faith is still present

Our trust is not

And for that fleeting moment

Our God-focus is blocked.

 

I trust you can see

Where I am going with this,

It is particularly critical

This point you do not miss.

 

Yes both are important

And they do overlap

But they are also different

Let me show you that fact.

 

 

Faith is the connection

It is more than talk,

Trust is the constant

That characterizes our walk.

 

Hence you can see

Why we sometimes slip,

It is not faith that is absent

But our trust has taken a dip.

 

To walk out what we believe

Becomes a matter of trust,

It is more than plugging in

This walk is a must.

 

Trust is the heart that pumps

And faith is the blood,

When in proper working order

Everything is good.

 

The apostle James shows

Faith without works is dead,

The exercise of our faith

Evidences our trust instead.

 

Faith’s door is kept open

For every born again believer

So when trust’s door is shut

God can still deliver.

A measure of faith

To every believer is given

But our trust will develop

As the devil’s way is forsaken.

 

 

As God facilitates our faith

Trust is what we do

And regardless of outcomes

Nothing obscures our view.

 

By faith we came to God

And He forgave us our sin,

Trust is the evidence we show

That we belong to Him.

 

Stewart Russell © October 2018