The Garment

 

 

I walked through town

Looking for a garment to wear,

I searched up and down

I looked everywhere.

 

I had a vague idea

What it should look like,

Not something of worldly show

But reflecting the light.

 

I knew that the pattern

Was out of this world

So, I visited the upscale stores

Of which I’d heard.

 

Broad Street, for example,

Where those stores were,

Definitely not the other streets

Were preferred.

 

I searched up and down

And nothing seemed to fit,

After a considerable time searching

I thought to quit.

 

That garment was not seen

In any of those stores

Though I searched and searched

And searched even more.

 

But in my earnestness

I heard a calming voice,

“But you know my precious one

There’s another choice.

 

I covertly looked around

But I saw no one,

It was then it struck me of a place

I had not gone.

 

It was not a store

And surely not Broad Street

But a place from whence that one

I had heard speak.

 

But what did he mean

Regarding another choice

And who was the actual speaker

Behind the voice.

 

I came to understand

That it was Jesus Christ

And that not any or every garment

Would suffice.

 

 

But a garment of white

Which he himself supplied

And a garment that would be worn

All the while.

 

Clothed in righteousness

As we walk by faith,

The white signifying Christ’s purity

Compliments God’s grace.

 

No longer a vague idea

What it should look like,

But rather, that garment of white

Reflecting the Light.

 

The Light, Christ Jesus,

That lights up the world

With the lesser lights like you and me

That follow his word.

 

A diffusion of light

From the garment we wear

Adhering to the command of Christ

To show we care.

 

Can’t be found in a store

Or any high-end shop,

But at the ending of one’s limit

When forced to stop.

 

An encounter with Jesus,

A yielding of the will

To be clothed in his righteousness

And by him to be filled.

 

No longer need I look

For a garment to wear,

I found that wonderful garment

That fits me even here.

 

 

And when I am called

To leave this bivouac of life,

This garment will be my surety

When I stand before Christ.

 

Put on Christ I urge you

And you won’t regret,

Stop searching in all other stores;

Jesus’ is the only outlet.

 

Stewart Russell © July 20, 2025

 

God Who Cannot Lie

 

 

 

Do we call God a liar?

Perhaps not intentionally

But we do when we doubt Him

And that could be daily.

 

And before you grab my jugular

Let me explain myself,

I am particularly desirous

Of staying in reasonable health.

 

We shunt “once saved always saved”

Because we have some doubt

And so, we offer a works salvation

In order to throw this out.

 

There is no way that God can save us

Unless we give Him some help,

Hence, our emphasis on works

Just like our founders felt.

 

Or we talk of serious sin

As though all sin is not serious

Clearly forgetting that the first sin

Caused the spilt blood of Jesus.

 

 

It was just a simple matter

Of not obeying the Creator’s rule

That caused the sin nature to contaminate

The entire human gene pool.

 

So, let us examine Titus 1 verse 2

And note what it actually says

And perhaps we would trust God implicitly

And not accuse Him of lying ways.

  

It is not in the nature of God

To tell a single lie,

There is no need for Him to deceive us

And His Word is enough to stand by.

 

Our hope of eternal life

Which our faithful God has promised

Is guaranteed on one condition

And that is based on Jesus Christ.

 

1John 1:10

 

If we say that we have not sinned,

we make him a liar,

and his word is not in us.

 

1John 5:10

 

He that believeth on the Son of God

hath the witness in himself:

he that believeth not God hath made him a liar;

because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.

 

1John 5:11

 

And this is the record,

that God hath given to us eternal life,

and this life is in his Son.

 

Romans 11:29

 

Hence, God who cannot lie

Cannot take back what He has promised

For the gifts and calling of God

Are without repentance.

 

How dare we accuse God

For not meaning what He says

As though He is some two-bit politician

For whom just promising is his way!

 

 

God needs no effort from us

Regarding what we do or do not do,

That’s where we failed in the first place

That’s the Pharisaical view.

 

He has provided for us a garment

Why do we want to wear our own?

It is a garment of righteousness

Provided for the elect alone.

 

It is the precious blood of Jesus Christ

Applied to our heart’s door posts,

Not by works of commission or omission

So not one is qualified to boast.

 

Our hope of eternal life

Is in the Creator God that cannot lie,

Why do we yet persist in our filthy rags

And his sovereign word, deny?

 

All sin is covered under Christ’s blood:

The past, the present, the future,

It is not by what we do or do not do

By now I trust you get the picture.

 

God is faithful even when we are not

In his promise we can be certain,

We do not have to fall back on works

Like the foolish Galatians.

 

Galatians 3:3

 

Are ye so foolish?

having begun in the Spirit,

are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

 

 

 

So, forget Jacobed Arminius

And forget the famed John Calvin

For if their transgressions were not forgiven

They have died in their sin.

 

Acknowledge the truth of God

And lean not to your own interpretation,

The fundamentals of the Word are explicit

And praise God, so is our salvation.

 

Stewart Russell © February 8, 2021