Three Levels of God’s Love

 

 

I came across the following

Just about four days ago

And even though I knew the concept

These terms I did not know.

 

Benevolence easily fitted in

And beneficence too

But the term complacence

Did not fit in with my view.

 

But that was only at first

As moments later, I understood,

And if you are now like I was then

I am sure you also would.

 

No doubt, like me, you have read

In the pages of Holy Writ

Of the divine salvation decree:

That enunciated divine edict.

 

For even before time had begun

In effect the Lamb was slain

That what the first Adam had lost

Jesus would eternally regain.

 

It was God’s plan to save us

From before all time

And the best way to explain it is:

We were always on God’s mind.

 

This first level of God’s love:

His love of benevolence

Conceptualized before all time

Manifested in His beneficence.

 

Unlike the many plans of man

God’s plan became a reality

So that a born-again individual

Can be saved for all eternity.

 

 

It’s His love of beneficence

The actual unfolding of His plan

First seen in the book of Genesis

In the original fall of man.

 

By faith in the Old Testament

Righteousness was imputed to man

And the first biblical reference

Was the patriarch, Abraham.

 

Father of Isaac, then Jacob

Who was given the name Israel,

Abraham the patriarch was called

To be father of God’s people.

 

Through this Abrahamic lineage

Came the Lord, Jesus Christ

Who manifested God’s benevolence

In his life-giving sacrifice.

 

The working out of the plan

Of God’s wonderful redemption

Whereby through His Son the Christ

We are recipients of salvation.

 

 

What love!  What supreme love!

Benevolent and beneficent

That even up to this day

There are millions of recipients!

 

But God commends His love

That he sent His Son, the Lord Jesus

In that while we were yet sinners

Jesus Christ died for us.

 

Christ came to call sinners

Not the righteous ones!

For they that are alive and well

Would not need to be born.

 

Poor old Nicodemus

Had truly missed the mark!

Poor old Nicodemus

Was certainly in the dark!

 

Complacence in man is folly

But in the Creator God, it is His glory

And it is all together evident

That herein is salvation's story.

  

For scarce for a righteous man

Would one die:

Yet peradventure for a good man

Would some even dare to die.

 

 

But God commendeth his love:

The mark of God’s complacence,

Unconditional and unmeasurable

And by man, uninfluenced.

 

Sounds like reckless love

Only that God cannot be reckless,

His is a love of complacence

That no other love can best.

 

For God’s glory and our good

Jesus left heaven above

To die for His premiere creation:

O what grace and love!

 

Stewart Russell © May 13, 2021

 

What Does Good Friday Mean?

 

 

What does Good Friday mean

To a Jew, a Gentile, a Christian?

Well, it may mean different things

Each having his own explanation.

 

To a Jew it mightn’t mean a lot

That Jew not believing in Christ Jesus,

To a Gentile, not being a Jew in any case,

He might consider it just a fuss.

 

To a Christian, as in born again,

It should really hit the spot

Seeing he has been redeemed from the curse

And the kingdom is his lot.

 

To none of the above, I dare say,

It might mean absolutely nothing

Other than another day off from work

To make merry and have a fling.

 

That is of course, until #1,2 and 4

Come into contact with Jesus Christ

Having believed by faith the message

Of the Saviour’s atoning sacrifice.

 

 

 

What does Good Friday mean,

Not to any of the above, but to you?

Is it just another day in the calendar year

You can relax with nothing to do?

 

Or is it that day when we go to church

To mourn the loss of a loved one,

That loved one being Jesus the Christ

Having more than 2000 years gone?

 

Do you dress in black or white

Certainly not green or yellow or red,

For after all, such brightly coloured attire

Is disrespecting of the dead?

 

Good Friday is a day to rejoice

And to give God thanks and praise,

For the fact that Jesus rose from the dead

And is no longer in the grave.

 

 

The setting sun rolled into dawn

From seeming defeat to total victory

And for everyone that believes in Jesus,

There is life eternally.

 

Good Friday, as it is justly called,

Is a good day for the born again,

Whether he be a Jew, a Gentile or a Christian

He is now redeemed in Jesus’ name.

 

 

Does it mean nothing to you

That Jesus died, was buried and rose again

So that you and I might be saved

In his wonderful name?

 

Stewart Russell © March 28, 2024

 

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

 

Trust Is a Choice

 

Trust is a choice

Though sometimes automatic,

In the norms of life

It’s a daily habit.

 

Trusting for food

And life and health,

Basic trust I would call this

For others and self.

 

If we have the means

We just move ahead,

For most it’s no ordeal

They expect to be fed.

 

But there are some

That face a difficulty here

Such that even food for them

Is a critical care.

 

Automatic trust for some

Is a problem for others

And regarding essentials

This is a bother.

 

 

The point I am making

Is when trust is a choice,

When in the trial we ask,

Where is God’s voice?

 

It’s not nearly as audible

As we have come to believe

And we somehow feel

We have been deceived.

 

It is at such times

When trust is a choice,

We must choose to trust God

And we will hear his voice…

 

Above the tumult

That is blocking our hearing

And revealing once again

A God that is caring.

 

For He always speaks

Even when we cannot hear

And he says, “Trust me,

For I always care.”

 

 

Trusting is a choice

In the most difficult of times,

This is not the basic trust

Like the everyday kind.

 

Some people boast

“I don’t worry or fret,

Whatever I trust God for

I always get.”

 

What they don’t tell you

Is that they have the means

And what’s mundane for them

For others is a scream.

 

Some open their fridges

And are confused by their options,

Others far less fortunate

Have no fridges to open.

 

Some have nothing to wear;

Meaning nothing new,

The challenge for others is:

Which of their two?

 

And while some presently

Discuss their children’s future

Other’s present presents

A very grim picture.

 

 

In times of great dilemma

Trust is a choice,

And especially when…

God’s is the missing voice.

 

Remember He is speaking

He never stops,

Let Him clear the line

At the point where it is blocked.

  

And you will hear,

“Trust me, my child, just trust me!”

Trust is a choice

I trust that you see.

 

Stewart Russell © September 18, 2020

 

Another Word for Trust

 

 

Except…

 Ye become as a little child!

Not necessarily

As in meek and mild…

 

Nor for your sojourn

 Pure and undefiled

But trusting in God

As your chosen lifestyle.

 

But what is trust?

Please explain!

Is there a single word?

A one-word refrain?

 

O yes, there is!

Can’t you guess?

Well, no bother…

On one word I rest.

 

 

“Cling to the Lord

With all thy heart…”

Find this verse

And you’ve got a start.

 

Something is wrong

But no need to fuss,

You won’t see cling

But there is trust.

 

“Trust in the Lord

With all thy heart…”

Cling fits in nicely,

How’s that for a start?

 

To hold on tightly

Or tenaciously:

That’s what cling means

Check a dictionary.

 

It’s not in the Bible

That’s my assertion…

Well certainly not

In the King James version.

 

 

Trust is confidence:

“On such you can lean”,

Very similar to cling

If you see what I mean.

 

I recall a youngster

Being spanked by his mom,

She would push him away

But back to her he’d run.

 

Despite the spanking

Staying away was refused,

The source of his pain

Was his only refuge.

 

He clung to his mother’s apron

Is the example given:

The only place of comfort

Whatever peril threatened!

 

To whom would we go?

Peter did ask,

When many turned away

From the Saviour’s path.

 

 

To the Saviour cling

Whatever the fuss!

Cling, I hope you see,

Is another word for trust.

 

Lean is in there too,

We have synonyms three:

Lean and trust and cling

All speak of safety.

 

Stewart Russell © September 21, 2020

 

Who Is This God?

 

 

Who is this buddy pal god

To whom we often pray,

That we can urge and coax

And make him go our way?

 

Who is this buddy pal god

That gives us all we want

And before whom all our fancies

We dare to flaunt?

 

Who is this buddy pal god,

This genie on the seashore

Whose lamp we rub

And simply ask for more?

 

 

More of this and more of that,

All we want that we’ve not got

And quote his own word

To get him in our slot?

 

Who is this buddy pal god

That we shout at and nag

And when we get what we want

We strut around and brag?

 

Too blessed to be stressed!

Too appointed to be disappointed!

Filled with the Holy Spirit?

And abundantly anointed?

 

Who is this buddy pal god

That accedes to all our requests,

Like the dutiful godmother fairy

That feathers our nests?

 

 

From rags to riches

From poverty to prominence,

From a nobody to somebody big

From dominated to dominance?

 

Who is this buddy pal god

That indwells our head

That needs our unswerving support

Or else he’d be dead?

 

Where in the Bible is he?

Just show to me the passage

And, if like you I see him,

I’ll surely accept your message.

 

My conviction is, however,

There’s no such buddy pal god

Other than the one we have created:

The up-in-our-heads fraud!

 

From our heads to our hearts

He deceives us all the time

And via our ignorance of God’s Word

He captures our simple mind.

 

 

God is the omnipotent creator

Jesus is our Saviour and friend,

The Holy Spirit is our constant guide

Whom Father and Son did send.

 

God is no buddy pal god

Like a rubbed-the-lamp genie,

Nor is His Word a Cinderella story

 Featuring the godmother fairy.

 

He is our All in All,

In Him we live and exist,

Without Him we can do nothing

And to live without Him

Is life’s greatest risk.

 

Stewart Russell © January 31, 2022

 

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

 

 

Between

The devil and the deep blue sea-

Swimming either way spells fatality,

Yet World politics promotes this lunacy

For its citizens to accept as their reality.

 

We sing the praises of world leaders

Setting store by what they say

And argue fiercely with one another

Which pontificates the better way.

 

This one is smarter than the other

And talks a better argument

And it does not matter the eventual outcome

It is really about the intent.

 

As long as the intentions seem good

To that world leader we can relate,

It matters not what he sequentially does

At least, he clearly won the debate.

 

 

With world politics

Precariously hanging from this plain

This brings me to the wonderment

Of one Mark Twain.

 

He pondered on two types of leaders

At the time when he did write

And when I contemplate his considerations

Neither appeared his approval type.

 

I have reserved the following verse

To give you his word-for-word quote,

Follow with me very closely

As I give you exactly as he wrote.

 

“Sometimes I wonder

whether the world is being run

by smart people who are putting us on,

or by imbeciles who really mean it.”

 

For surely you now see the reason

For the chosen title of this poem:

“Between the devil and the deep blue sea”

For indeed we have a problem.

 

 

“Smart people” speaks of those politicians

That are as cunning as the devil

And “imbeciles” connotes the other type

That in constant evil revel.

 

Whether run by smart people or imbeciles

There is no hope either way,

For if we choose the former we are damned

And if the latter,

We won’t see the light of day.

 

Stewart Russell © April 6, 2021