Like A Compressed Spring

 

 

 

“Come now let us reason together

Says the Lord”

Is located at Isaiah 1 verse 18

In the Holy Word.

 

An invitation to the children of Israel

That had gone astray

Having turned away from God

Thus, rejecting His way.

 

Fast forward to the New Testament

To Romans 1 verse 18

And the next thirteen verses

Paint a familiar scene.

 

Again, it’s the children of Israel

Going their own way

And their blatant worship of idols

Was again holding sway.

 

Professing themselves to be wise

They became as fools

Having forsaken the godliness

In which their fathers were schooled.

 

Exchanging the truth of God

For a colossal lie:

The creation they worshipped

And the Creator they defied.

 

 

Does it sound reasonable to you?

To me it does not,

But this behavior becometh a fool

That makes sense of rot.

 

Because that, when they knew God

They glorified Him not as God,

Their hearts became darken

And they fell victim to King Fraud.

 

King Fraud, the god of this world

Had blinded their eyes

Because they believed not the truth

But rather believed a lie.

 

You might now be questioning

The relevance of this title

So, I will hasten to make the point

That to me is very vital.

 

 

Like a compressed spring

Many suppress the notion of God,

Such a notion is no longer scholarly

And has become like bitter gall.

 

Just like Israel of the Bible

They press down upon the spring

Cognizant that if they should release it

The truth to them it’ll bring.

 

That which may be known of God

Is made manifest in them

And the notion of accountability

For them is the problem.

 

No God means no accountability

The spring must remain compressed,

It’s not easy to do, they know,

But for their lifestyle it is the best.

 

Atheists and Agnostics

I dare say, and the Humanists too:

They all possess the evidence

That leads to a biblical view.

 

 

But they tightly clamp the spring

To shut out the notion of God

Which from within them still arises

Every time they hear God call.

 

So, they are without excuse

Though they try to shut God out

For in the depths of their consciousness

He exists without doubt.

 

That which one vehemently resists

Is testament that it exists

And the fact that to him it does

Is why he vigorously persists.

  

Hence, like a compressed spring,

It keeps reminding him

The moment that he releases it

He’ll have to face his sin.

 

Accountability is the spring

That reminds all of a Holy God

But man compresses that very spring

And rejects the Master’s call.

 

So, Atheists, Agnostics, Humanist too,

Are all living out a lie,

They too believe there is a God

But outwardly they deny.

 

The God they stoutly resist

Is their testament He exists,

And the fact that to them He does

Is why they futilely persist.

 

Stewart Russell © November 21, 2021

 

An Ominous Sound

He’d been away a long time

They longed for his return

They waited and they waited

And in them impatience burned

He had been their shoulder

Their counselor and their friend

He had been their guide

Without him all this would end

He had gone up the Mount

At the insistence of their God

Not likely to return they thought

And spread this news abroad

No word was heard from him

For more than forty days

And the people decided

To do something about the delay

Since he had been gone

It appeared that God had gone too

So they communicated to Aaron

What they thought he should do

Make us a golden calf they said

So that we may have a God

For there is certainly none

Since Moses went abroad

Well Aaron in his weakness

Acceded to their demand

And as we all surely know

This was against God’s plan

Of course God was always aware

Of all that they were doing

And this he told to Moses

And insist that he be going

God was mighty angry

And thought to destroy them all

But because of his promise to Abraham

He wouldn’t make that call

  

And so Moses left the Mount

And later with Joshua connected

Who had journeyed part of the way

Since at the top he was not expected

Moses would hear from God

This was at God’s request

So while Joshua stopped midway

Moses went all the rest

While on their way to the camp

They heard a peculiar sound

To Joshua it was the noise of war

Moses felt he was wrong

It was not the sound of victory

Or the cry of the vanquished

Rather is was the noise of something

That neither of them would wish

It was the sound of idol worship

The sound of revelry

The people were eating and drinking

And playing immorally

They professed to worship the Lord

By means of the golden calf

God had given his word to them

But they chose a different path

This was the sound of rebellion

And many of the people died

It is God’s word we must obey

And not that which men decide

Stewart Russell © May 2018

Who Is On The Lord’s Side?

Way back in the book of Exodus

A question to a people was posed

“Who is on the Lord’s side?”

Was the Moses’ conducted poll.

In a matter of forty days

Things had really changed

And when he came down from the mount

He met a people most deranged.

All the way from wretched Egypt

He had led them through the Red Sea

Now just “the man” is all he is

In their present controversy.

He had been called up to the mount

To receive instructions from Almighty God

That would direct these chosen people

And protect them from Satan the fraud.

But on retuning he had found out

That they had made a golden calf

And the number that worshipped this idol

Was certainly more than half.

As a result he conducted a poll

To ascertain who was on the Lord’s side,

Consequently there was God’s judgment

And there was no place to hide.

No place to hide for the dissenters,

About three thousand were put to the sword,

For the priestly tribe of Levi

Did according to God’s word.

And so let us now fast forward

Thousands of years to the present

Cognizant of the reality

That we have a similar lament.

The difference, however, is critical

Since the sides have made a change

In the exodus it was the Lord’s side

But our anthem has had this rearranged.

  

“The Lord has been the people’s guide

For past three hundred years,

With Him still on the people’s side

We have no doubts or fears.”

The first stanza you would recall

Spoke to our fore fathers’ achievement,

The second stanza introduces God

But on the “people’s side” is the intent.

The emphasis is now changed

As it propositions the people’s side,

It is no longer we who must take focus

But God who must now decide.

That may not have been the intent

But it surely comes over that way,

God may have been the people’s guide

But it is the people that hold full sway.

With “the people on the Lord’s side”

Would have been a better demarcation,

Since God has no need to choose a side,

His is an eternal position.

He does not have to make amendments

He is the one that changes not,

We are the ones that are dependent

And without God we would simply rot.

It is not uncommon these days to hear

When seeking to win an argument,

“I know the Lord is on my side”

To put down the other person’s dissent.

So God must choose; so we declare

And He had better choose our side:

“Command ye me,” the Lord has said,

Isaiah 45:11 cannot be denied.

Taken out of context as in so many cases

We use God’s word for our own ends,

And so He is on the people’s side

It’s on the people that He depends.

We had better get our theology right

As we respond to Moses’ question,

“Who is on the Lord’s side?” Note!

And not the affirmation of our anthem.

For in the final analysis

Only them on Lord’s side will be saved,

It doesn’t matter your golden calf

Or how much you rant and rave.

Jesus makes it particularly clear

In Luke chapter 11 and verse 23

Concerning the matter pertaining to sides

“He that is not with me is against me.”

So who is on the Lord’s side?

Stand up today and be reckoned,

Bear in mind there is still His amnesty

And to one and all he beckons.

Stewart Russell © July 2017