Life Has No Expiry Date

 

 

Life has no expiry date

But yours and mine do

And whether you believe it or not

Here’s what is true.

 

Your life and my life

Will come to a certain end

And neither you nor I can tell

If it’s around the next bend.

 

We do know for sure

Our life-spring is loosely wound

And when it unwinds to its limit

That will be our final round.

 

The final round in this life

But there’ll be a next to come,

I will say a little more on that life

Before this poem is done.

 

Another title we will have

When we lie in state,

Whatever our name had been

Will be preceded by “The late”.

 

The late Stewart Russell

Is what my new handle will be,

And when it is written thenceforth,

That is what you will see,

 

It is critical to understand

That life will eternally go on

But the life principle as issued here,

That will definitely be gone.

 

 

The Giver of all life is God

And He is life’s eternal source

But God orders not your life and mine

By His omnipotent force.

 

We treat to life as we please

As is demonstrated everyday

But we will be held accountable

By God who holds life sway.

 

Life is God’s to give

And life is God’s to take

But we often blame Him for the latter

Regarding our loved ones’ fate.

 

 

 

We quote from the book of Job

As though God said these words

But in the light of our poor choosing

I refuse to concur.

 

For God so loved, He gave

And what really did He give?

God gave to us His precious Son

That we should not die but live.

 

We could live forever

In the promised world to come

For there is no expiry date

In the heavenly kingdom.

 

The one that believes in Jesus

Will never ever die,

Though he be interred in the earth

It’s not there he resides.

 

For the life that is in the believer

There is no expiry date,

For the God who cannot die or lie

Has sealed the believer’s fate.

 

While you and I will die

It is impossible for Life to die

Except in the case of Jesus Christ

Who millions still deny.

 

 

But the Lord of life

Suspended life only for a time

To demonstrate to all and sundry

He is the only one of that kind.

 

Life has no expiry date

But yours and mine do

And whether you believe it or not,

This is definitely true.

 

Stewart Russell © December 13, 2022

No Such Thing

 

 

There is no such thing

As living on borrowed time,

You can only live out your own;

You cannot live out mine.

 

However long you have

That’s what’s been allocated

And when that time is up

You will be terminated.

 

If you live to a hundred

All that time will be yours,

None of it will belong to another

You’ll be living your course.

 

 

Borrowed time? Not possible

Even in Hezekiah’s case,

That extra fifteen years

Was his in the first place.

 

There’s much to understand

And much that we never will

But get this, if nothing else,

Death is every one’s pill.

 

For some it’s an easy swallow

For others, not so easy at all,

Whatever the path life takes us

Someday death will call.

 

For all that went in infancy

That was their allotted time,

None will derive additional years

However much they opine.

There is no borrowed time

In this life, or that to come,

When we close our eyes in death

That’s when our time is done.

 

One or ten or one hundred:

Whether many years or a few.

When it’s time for that one to go

There is nothing he can do.

 

There is no such thing

As living on borrowed time,

You can only live out your own;

You cannot live out mine.

 

Stewart Russell © July 18, 2021

 

My Christmas Gifts to Jesus

I set out on a journey

I knew not where,

Of one thing I was sure, though,

I would know when I got there.

Among the things I carried

Was one parcel of gold,

“Take it along,” I was prompted

For a king that was foretold.

It was a very long journey

But I remained steadfast,

A star, would you believe it?

Was my day and night focus.

After two years of travel

I closed in on my quest,

For the place of his birth, I believed,

A palace would be best.

With me was another traveller

Whom I met on the way,

He had also started on his journey

Exactly two years to the day.

His parcel was frankincense

But not for a king,

He was taking it for a priest

As he was instructed to bring.

There was a third traveller

That had come from afar,

Like us, he had set on this journey

And was also led by a star.

He too had a story to tell

And we listened intently to him

But what he said to us then

Really threw us in a spin.

 

A king, I understood,

Hence the significance of my gold,

Incense for a priest

On that too I was sold.

  

But when he showed us the myrrh

He was making no sense,

Certainly not in the same light

As our gold and incense.

This child that was born a king

Was also a priest,

But one day, as the myrrh indicated,

He would become deceased.

We had a hard time convincing

The king of our search,

It even became worse

When he consulted his experts.

After we left his palace

I understand he became enraged

And sought to kill all male babies

Younger, or two years of age.

As I listened to that traveller

Who gave the baby Jesus gold,

The reason for the first Christmas

Clearly began to unfold.

Those travellers brought gifts

For God’s gift to the world,

The gift of His only Son

That from the beginning is the Word.

God gave to us Himself:

That is what I have discerned,

Hence, the question on our mind should be

What can I give to Him in return?

I can give him gold

Since he is already the King,

And I have a precedent for it

That is what a wise man did bring.

I can give him frankincense

But he is already the High Priest

And myrrh won’t make any sense

Since he is no longer deceased.

O, I know what I would do

From this Christmas and on

For I am very clear in my mind

Just how I should respond.

I would give him my life

Which for me represents my gold,

And my sincerest devotion

Would be the frankincense I hold.

My myrrh would certainly be

My daily dying to sin,

And all of this I assure you

Would be my Christmas gifts to Him.

Stewart Russell © December 2019

Free Fall

Down I plunged almost in free fall

There was nothing to stop me, nothing at all,

There was no cushion except for the air,

No rescue net to suddenly appear.

I had climbed quite high and dared to jump

Hoping for nothing more than a little bump

But as I fell through the air I wasn’t sure,

If I was lucky I’d be just a little sore.

It had all gone wrong, not as I’d planned

Up until that moment I was a successful man,

I had taken risks before and came out on top

What was it I had done then that now I had not?

It was not important to answer that question,

In my current trend there was one destination,

I was on course for a collision with the earth,

I suddenly regretted the occasion of my birth.

My life flashed before me; things I had done,

At the expense of people I had had loads of fun,

I was high up in life and important too

I had all things that matter to me and to you.

Falling through the air nothing mattered to me,

My yacht, my car, not even my property,

My bank account nor insurance, neither could help,

As the wind filled my lungs I couldn’t even yelp.

I thought of my wife; I wonder where she was,

I wouldn’t have time to even give her a buzz,

My son and my daughter, I was glad they couldn’t see

What was about to happen their own way daddy.

Like I said, I had climbed to quite a great height

I wanted to experience the same as a bird in flight,

I had no wings but it didn’t matter then

I did whatever I wanted and I decided when.

I always called the shots; it was left up to me,

I thought this free fall would be a delightful spree,

I don’t know what I was thinking; but I never did,

I was just impulsive and enjoyed any new gig.

  

Life had been good to me I couldn’t complain

But yet I was always doing something insane,

It was as though nothing that I had could satisfy

And consequently I searched for new things to try.

Plummeting through the air was one such thing

Without even thinking I thought I’d have a fling,

Many of my friends had done it without a snag

I could hear them now as in my face they bragged.

Whatever they did I had always done better,

That was my method to put an end to their chatter,

Even as I fell I wondered what they would say

When they finally discover this didn’t go my way.

But how was I to know that parachute was faulty?

Perhaps one of my friends was just being naughty,

The answers to such are not important now

But if I live I’ll get some answers; that’s my vow.

Live? What was I thinking? Live through this?

No doubt on the grim reaper’s page I was top of the list,

I would be next; suddenly I had no doubt

This was the precise time and moment I would fall out.

And fall out I did with a tremendous thud

But nowhere around me was there any blood,

Incredibly I recognised that I was alive

That was quite a fall but I had survived.

What I thought was the day was really the night

Don’t marvel at this; you heard me right,

The plane was my bed and the earth was the floor

I was too near the end; need I say more?

It took this dream though to help me realise

That life was far more than what I had surmised,

I recognized after coming face to face with my demise

That life without Christ is free fall in disguise.

You see my parachutes were all faulty, every one,

None of them could save me; on me that had dawned

So having struck the ground I woke from my sleep

‘Tis then I heard the words, "Come home my sheep."

My brother, my sister, though a dream is not real

I needed to relate to you that one in detail,

For had that event been real I would have been dead

And perhaps on my way to an eternal hell instead.

Without Christ in your life you are in free fall,

There’s nothing to help you, nothing at all,

While God still persists do respond to His call

"Come home my child; no longer delay; no longer stall."

Stewart Russell © 2017