Shut Out

 

 

The bumming on the door

Could be heard both far and near,

He was locked out of his house

To me, that was clear.

 

I stood up not far off

To see what he would do

But the bumming only continued

With nothing else in view.

 

Mr. Moron had lived there

With his wife, Mrs. Simpleton

And all of their neighbours were aware

Of their common problem.

 

Take Moron by name

And add Simpleton by nature

And between the two of them

You’d get the total picture.

 

Mr. Moron was sweeping the step

When a gust of wind blew the door in,

He didn’t have a key

And started up a din.

 

He kept on bumming on the door

While exercising his lungs

And his voice could be heard

Calling out for Simpleton.

 

Simpleton! Simpleton!

Try and open this door!

And hearing no response

He pommelled the door more.

 

It was as though

This door was his wife

Whom he had often beaten

Within an inch of her life.

 

It was their modus operandi

For they have never fallen out

And with him now on the outside

It was his time to shout.

 

Suddenly she was standing beside him

With a quizzical face,

“Moron,” she asked him,

Why are you knocking down the place?

 

“I want you to let me in,

Cause I locked myself out.”

And with that

The two of them started to shout.”

 

“Let us in! Let us in!

Whoever is inside!

This is our humble dwelling place

And it is here we abide.”

 

They said this repeatedly,

Obviously, this had happened before

So, they kept on banging and shouting

And threatening the door.

 

“If you were inside,” Moron said,

You could open the door

And we wouldn’t have to fret

And shout out anymore.”

 

“That’s a brilliant idea,”

Mrs. Simpleton said to Mr. Moron,

“But I am locked out too

And that is the problem!”

 

“Let’s pretend you were inside

Then you could open the door,

And I would be able to come in

And not be out here anymore.”

 

“Okay, so I am in the house

And I have opened the door,

Now you can come in, you moron,

Don’t stand out there anymore.”

 

The bumming had stopped

But now it started up again,

“Simpleton! Simpleton! Try and open this door!”

Tell me my dear reader, which would you blame?

 

Stewart Russell © May 2020

Nothing New

 

 

Truth from truth leaves truth

It is what preachers are called to do,

It’s a rhema word from the Logos Word

This should be nothing new.

 

Truth from a lie is bewilderment

A mathematical impossibility,

But it’s just what the devil did to Eve

And it is still his modus operandi.

 

A lie from the truth is hypnotic

It is what magicians do,

Like how cults read into the Holy Word

To mislead first me and then you.

 

A lie from a lie is remarkable

This is the scammers’ way of life,

Get caught in a lie tell another lie

To create more and more strife.

 

 

Truth plus the truth is questionable

The Bible is the word of truth,

You may be called to swear on the Word

But that is not the burden of proof.

 

A lie plus the truth is zero truth

The slightest contaminant is impure,

It is rendering the whole just another lie

Though truth may be at the core.

 

A lie plus a lie is a liar

That’s like 1 plus 2 equals 5 plus 6,

This has become the world’s unique way

For effecting an apparent fix.

 

Multiplying the truth by the truth

Sounds probable but is untrue,

Remember, multiplication is repeated addition

But dividing is to undo.

 

 

There is no more truth or less truth

No who is more right than wrong,

The truth is the truth and nothing but the truth

And to it no lies belong.

 

If you read through this poem again

The following you would recognize,

Each of the verses is amazingly true

Though seven of them are about lies

 

Stewart Russell © October 2019

By Life Before Lip

 

I listened to my pastor preach

And he was as usual on song,

He had my undivided attention

Though he was a little long.

 

“Preach the word,” he admonished,

“Use words when necessary.”

From that entire message

This will likely remain with me.

I always thought that preaching

Was about the words one use

But in the spreading of God’s love

There is a better way to choose.

Before one utter a single word

One’s life must speak for Christ

It is life before lip you see

And very often life will suffice.

“What we do speak so loudly

That others do not what we say,”

So life before lip is the way to go,

It is a better evangelism way.

Action is the key, my friend,

To attract a prospective convert

And when he queries your modus operandi

Then to words you can revert.

What makes you tick he’ll likely ask

Then to him you can reply,

I am quickened by the life of Jesus

That came for my sins to die.

Because of God’s indwelling Spirit

I now live not after the flesh

But I live by the Holy Spirit

By whom everyday I am refreshed.

The explanation comes by words

But the attraction by the life we live,

So preach the word; use words when necessary

Is good advice that one should give.

Stewart Russell © March 2019