A Provisional Heaven

 

 

Could there possibly be

A provisional heaven

Where the physical dead definitely go

If their sins are forgiven?

 

Maybe some paradise

Like as in Abraham’s bosom:

A kind of holding area, if you like,

For deceased Christians?

 

Could it be immediately

On passing away,

Or in another way of expression,

On that very day?

 

What does it truly mean:

The dead in Christ?

Are these really in a physical grave

Or experiencing life?

 

If we are joint-heirs

And seated with Christ,

Isn’t this a very telling reference

To a heavenly life?

 

 

Isn’t any man in Christ

A new creation

Already possessing eternal life

Due to salvation?

 

Yet Christians die

And they do so everyday

So where do they go, I must ask,

Where do they stay?

 

In a provisional home

Maybe annexed to heaven

So that we can rest assuredly

They are already risen?

 

 

Would this in fact be

The first resurrection

To which the Apostle is referring

In the book of Revelation?

 

Where go the dead:

The dead that die in Christ?

Is there a provisional heaven

Where they enjoy life?

 

Ever since the creation

Believers have died!

Have they just rotted in the grave

And no longer survive?

 

 

Or, are they somewhere

In a provisional heaven

Still fully functional and conscious

Of sins forgiven?

 

A provisional heaven

Before the eternal one

When God in Christ will judge all

Before time is gone?

 

I am merely asking

And I am yearning to know,

Do you have any clear evidence

You’d like to show?

 

Stewart Russell © June 22, 2025

 

What Depth of Love!

 

 

Love was a cross

On which a price was paid

When the prince of glory

On the same was laid.

 

What depth of love!

What abounding grace!

What encompassing mercy!

God took our place!

 

None could pay it

But the Redeemer

Who gave himself willingly

For the transgressor.

 

It was God Himself

In the person of His Son

And thus, in a very real sense,

Became our ransom.

 

Spirit hath not blood

Yes, I know this is true

But God was in Christ Jesus

For me, for you.

 

 

What depth of love!

What abounding grace!

What encompassing mercy!

God took my place.

 

‘Tis mystery all

That such depth of love

For a single worthless sinner

Came from above.

 

Were I the only one

Christ would have died,

God’s love for all is the same

As for a single child.

 

Unfathomable love,

Wonder working love

That brought God my Saviour

From heaven above.

 

 

What depth of love!

What abounding grace!

What encompassing mercy!

God took my place.

 

Stewart Russell © February 4, 2025

 

Unconditional Kindness

 

 

Luke 6:35

 

But love ye your enemies,

And do good, and lend,

Hoping for nothing again;

And your reward shall be great,

And ye shall be the children of the Highest:

For he is kind unto the unthankful

And to the evil.

 

Ephesians 4:32

 

And be ye kind one to another,

Tenderhearted,

Forgiving one another,

Even as God for Christ’s sake

Hath forgiven you.

 

Unconditional kindness

Is what this poem is about,

Something, to be quite frank,

I have not yet worked out.

 

Like the verses above,

I understand what they say,

But if I truly search myself

This is really not my way.

 

Oft I am quick to criticize

Especially a fallen brother,

How could he? I ask myself,

To me it’s quite a bother.

 

It is quite natural I find

To jump on that fallen one

And to become so judgmental

That all my mercy is gone.

 

As in the emboldened verses

 This ought not to be so

But it’s easier said than done

Which you and I both know.

 

  

Love towards an enemy

Is the subject of the first:

It’s the Christian kind of behavior

We ought daily to rehearse.

 

Do good and lend to our enemies

Hoping for nothing again,

The fact that it’s an enemy

Undoubtedly will cause us pain.

 

But God is kind to the unthankful

And to them that do evil,

So too, the children of the Highest,

Though oft a bitter pill.

 

And if we must for an enemy,

How much more a brother?

Since God in Christ has forgiven us,

We must forgive one another.

 

Unconditional kindness this is:

It can’t be achieved in self,

It’s a sign of Christian maturity

And a measure of spiritual health.

 

Only today I was listening

To the report of a fallen brother,

All of it posthumously so

Since the brother is no longer.

 

I felt especially for his wife

Who has to live with all this

And the believers who hammer her

Provide a lengthy list.

 

 

In the mirror of God’s Word

How do I measure myself?

Right about now, I must admit,

An “F” for spiritual health.

 

I feel especially convicted

Though not in this particular case

But at other times in the past,

When I deemed a brother a waste.

  

Some sins we easily forgive

But others we surely do not,

Some we deem very permissible

While some we classify as rot.

 

So, my brother and my sister,

There’s much we have to do,

If these two scriptures mean anything,

We must surely change our view.

 

Stewart Russell © April 29, 2021