No One Can Join the Church

 

 

No one can join the Church:

This just occurred to me,

This is no more so

Than a baby joins a family.

 

What input has a baby

In a decision regarding such?

Similarly, the born-again:

Now you tell me, how much?

 

Jesus said to Nicodemus

He must be born again

And to even understand the term

Nicodemus was in pain.

 

He saw the birth canal

And he revisited the same

For this was his only concept

Of being born again.

 

 

When one is born again,

He has no input in the process,

The Holy Spirit is the agent

At what the Spirit does best.

 

There is the matter of faith

The responder may exercise

But as to being born again

He cannot the least decide.

 

In the same way, understand,

No one can join the Church,

This might now be news to you

And in a way it may hurt.

 

I have been a church member

For a very long time

But it is only early this morning

This matter came to mind.

 

  

We set store by our church:

A local assembly I mean

And while this may be important

There is more to be gleaned.

 

And particularly so today

Regarding some assemblies

Where church membership is all

Particularly regarding money.

 

One’s money is required

If he must remain in good faith

And should he lack in this regard

He could lose his place.

 

By now you should have seen

The critical difference:

It’s the Church I am talking about

In the born-again sense.

 

Not a church or an assembly

Which one can easily join,

But the blood bought Church of Jesus Christ

To which one has to be joined.

 

 

The Lord does the joining:

Not a pastor or apostle

And without the work of the Spirit

This joining is impossible.

 

It’s a Spirit to spirit witness

Like the sperm that met the egg

When presto! I was conceived

Before my earthly leg.

 

No one can join the Church:

It is the Lord that does this act

And what better place to find this

Than in the book of Acts!

 

Acts 2:47

 

And the Lord added to the church

Daily such as should be saved.

 

Stewart Russell © May 29, 2021

 

Adam’s Soliloquy

I am Adam

The first man

Formed by God’s own hand

Straight out of the land

Not a natural birth

Molded from the earth

One of a kind

Not another origin like mine

This is my wife, Eve

Note Eve, not Steve

She is really different

With differing intent

Bone of my bone, yes

And flesh of my flesh

The most beautiful sight in all of Eden

Our first home an amazing garden

You may say

It was too good to last

One disobedient step

And it was a thing of the past

God gave a warning though to Eve and me

Never to eat of a particular tree

But we both disobeyed

And all of humanity was made to pay

Driven from that garden in a hurry

Our first experience of God’s fury

Apart from the tree of life

Into a world of sin and strife

Out of us twain

Came our first born, Cain

After that Abel and Seth

Were followed by all of the rest

Disabuse your mind of Mother Earth

Cain is the first of natural birth

All of our children came

Through birth pangs and much pain

  

And now you’re reading this

Here’s something you shouldn’t miss

You are one of my clan

And one of Eve’s great grans

How different things had become

Very early on we lost Abel, one son

Killed by the other out of jealousy

Sin had filled Cain’s heart with murderous envy

Imagine our great pain and void

Imagine no daily news or tabloid

Imagine when we first got the news

About the way our first-born did choose

Choosing to slay his brother

Then walking away without a bother

Reprimanding God in the process

“Am I my brother’s keeper?” was his protest

Soon my entire family was torn apart

Bringing much grief to Eve’s and my heart

Cain continued in his ungodly way

Further and further from God he strayed

But out of Seth came a line

That called out to God in that time

Enoch walk with God for three hundred years

And one day, just like that, he just disappeared

Reminds me of a time when in the future

This will happen to every born again believer

One moment that great company will be here

The next the entire throng will disappear

A day is but a thousand years in God’s sight

With Him there is no morning, noon and night

We reckoned by the appearing of the great sunlight

God sits in eternity through His infinite might

Each time I recall the following I can only sigh

“The day that you eat thereof you will surely die”

None has ever reached that thousand year score

Nine hundred sixty-nine was Methuselah’s, not a year more

I was one of the ‘nine-hundred’ achievers

Besides me there were only five others

We were certainly limited by what was prophesied

In that before one thousand years we would all die

Nine hundred years experiencing the curse

Nine hundred years regretting my sin, the first

Nine hundreds years of sorrow and bereft

Nine hundred years with the prospect of death

How I wished I could return again to that start

How I dreamed after Eden with all of my heart

How I longed for that communion never to part

How I yearned for Father’s fellowship deep in my heart

Within a single day in God’s sight

All my sunshine had turned to night

It appeared Satan had won this particular fight

But suddenly I recalled something much to my delight

At first I did not understand

When first banished from the Eden land

It was not all a curse but there was a blessed strand

Of grace extended from God’s own hand

Enmity will rage between Satan and man

And it would appear as though man will be damned

But Satan’s onslaught will be a temporary show

For the Messiah will deliver him a fatal blow

Even now as I reminisce these hundreds of years

Nine hundred years of toil and fret and cares

I introduce to you the second Adam

God’s Son and my Saviour, the God-Man

Since I walked the face of this earth

Thousands of years have passed with billions of births

By now you should be looking back at Calvary’s cross

And thanking God you don’t have to be lost

In the garden I fell

In the garden Jesus excelled

I fell to my first trial

But he triumphed over Belial

I sold out the human race

Jesus was the conduit of God’s grace

My love was flawed I do regret

But Jesus’ love is absolutely perfect

I caused death but he brought life

I wilted under pressure but Jesus conquered in the strife

I took all I could but he just gives and gives

I died and decayed but Jesus died and yet lives

I was the first Adam and Jesus the second

There are mostly contrasts but little comparison

My demise was due to my own offense

But his death was for our recompense

He died that you and I can be made alive

It doesn’t matter what Satan and his demons contrive

Death shall be swallowed up and the grave will be no more

As Jesus reveals all that he has in store

I am Adam

The first man

This is my soliloquy

My heat felt plea

Stewart Russell © 2016

Being Born Again Is A Must

Being born again is a must

If we would ever see Jesus,

The requirement of faith and trust

As expressed to Nicodemus.

He came to Jesus by night

To be rid of a serious plight,

He thought it somewhat insane

When Jesus said, “Be born again.”

He was a man of the Pharisees

They were bent on strict decrees,

He was a ruler of the Jews

A sect who had some strange views.

“How could this happen?” he asked.

That is a rather incredible task

For a man to go back into his mother

What a strange and awful bother!

Nicodemus was way out of his depth

And had not known the truth yet

That being born again was a must

Instead of a whole lot of religious fuss.

One must be born of water and the Spirit

Nothing of the flesh is of any credit,

In flesh alone we are always in debit

Jesus made this plain and explicit.

That which is of the flesh is flesh

It caters to the fleshly at best,

That which is of the Spirit is spirit

With whom there is no deficit.

Being born again is not akin to form

By far it supersedes that norm,

Not ritualistic like the traditions of men

For of such is the heart of man’s problem.

Many attempt to explain its mechanism

Giving rise to more isms and schisms

Others reject it on lack of understanding

And conform to faiths far more demanding.

Being born again is centred on Christ

Not chance like the throwing of the dice,

It is God-appointed and confirmed

In the believer and in his spirit affirmed.

It is not a strange feeling and sensation

But one’s faith in God’s gift of salvation,

A coming to Christ by way of the cross

Acknowledging the fact that we are lost.

Crushed by sin under its heavy weight

A depraved soul at best in our sinful state,

A need to have expunged our life’s slate

So full of evil and malice and hate.

More critical is the sinner’s condition

Than his quest to comprehend salvation,

The daily breeze is still a puzzle to man

Far less the details of God’s salvation plan.

It cannot be dissected or analyzed

Not open to conjecture or surmise,

It is simply a matter of faith and trust

In the finished work of our Saviour Jesus.

Some argue it is this or maybe that

For some their opinion becomes fact

Upon which denominations are built

For others it is like the proverbial quilt.

Some add requirements; others subtract

Some make it a steep, treacherous track,

Some: a what-to-do list and rules to keep

Others: a guilt trip with troubled sleep.

Salvation is personal not denominational

It is one’s faith in Christ not creedal,

It is not one of the ways but the only way

To escape God’s wrath on judgment day.

In verse sixteen of John chapter three

Salvation is define in its simplicity,

For God so loved that He gave his Son

So have faith in Christ and the work is done.

Worry not about how God accomplishes it

Simply walk in faith as your daily habit,

Let God’s transforming power work in you

To make you like Jesus who is worthy and true.

Why not heed his words to Nicodemus?

Why not in Jesus place your trust?

Why not discard all the religious fuss

And accept being born again as a must?

Stewart Russell © 2016