Seasonal

 

 

Seasonal has two meanings

And both are temporal

But given the root of the word

This is only natural.

 

It is not all year round

It is simply seasonal

And when you plan, remember,

This is temporal.

 

Life is a great example,

No one lives forever,

A season may be short or long

But forever, never.

 

There are two meanings

As I first suggested,

Let me see how clear I can be

As I have attested.

 

  

Four seasons in a year:

The most there can be,

However, both you and I know

Not in every country.

 

Barbados, for example,

Has dry and wet

And for as long as I’ve existed,

No winter as yet.

 

All year round it’s hot

And this is not seasonal,

Quite the opposite I’d imagine

Thus, not temporal.

 

Some seasons are fixed

Like the four seasons

But some seasons are manmade

For obvious reasons.

 

 

Crop-over in Barbados

And sugarcane harvest

National Festival of Creative Arts

And Christmas, the best.

 

Seasons can be short

And seasons can be long

But all seasons are temporal

When they come round.

 

A season may be annual

Or every five years

Like elections in Barbados

Or when they appear.

 

But whenever the season

Or, for however long,

To say that a season is temporal

One cannot be wrong.

 

There’s another meaning

Though subtle I believe

But having understood this

I am quite relieved.

 

 

You’ll see in the Bible

The phrase “in due season”,

And I am obliged to focus on it

For a very good reason.

 

Eight times in the Word

You will find this phrase

And it always appears to point

To some future stage.

 

A future stage yet past

And continuing still,

For all those in Christ Jesus

‘Tis God’s perfect will.

 

Our season has come

But we in due season too

Will reap what God promised

To both me and you.

 

Yes, life is a season

And though it goes on

Life will end for us one day

And we too will be gone.

 

Meanwhile we live

With this fact in mind,

Every season, short or long,

Is limited time.

 

 

 

Make the best

Of the time you are given

Knowing your reward is sure

After you have striven.

 

Seasonal though it be

Meaning for a season,

To honour God in all seasons

Is our life’s reason.

 

Galatians 6:9

And let us not be weary

In well doing:

For in due season we shall reap,

If we faint not.

 

Stewart Russell © February 6, 2025

 

Faith and Science

 

Faith and Science!

What have they in common

And is their assumed contrast

Just one’s imagination?

 

The assumed perception

That they don’t go together:

Science is rational and natural,

Faith is another matter.

 

Faith is irrational

A construct of the mind

And cannot truly be trusted

At any given time.

 

Science has an answer

For everything that exists,

Scientism as this is called

Surely tops the list.

 

It’s observable and testable

Its evidence is clear

And over time uncertainties

Must gradually disappear.

 

Faith on the other hand

Is frustratingly uncertain

Causing its adherents to differ

Over many questions.

 

 

But it appears to me

That both are aimed at truth

And must therefore be verified

By evidence and proof.

 

On this basis let me start

With a truth before science

And suggest in this first cause

This truth is self-reliant.

 

For it surely must be

There is an uncaused cause

Or else there can never ever be

Any order or natural laws.

 

Such as gravity I mean

And of energy and the like,

Be it that of natural sources

Or of artificial light.

 

I would rather believe

Science and faith dovetail

And together furnish answers

On what is actually real.

 

 

If truth and reality

Is the removal of all doubt

Then reality must be what is left

When all else is weeded out.

 

Think of a garden bed

With all the weeds removed

Leaving a picturesque splendour

That the gardener approves.

 

Think of back in Eden

That evolutionists call a myth,

Faith on the other hand determines

It was really God’s gift.

 

A habitat for humans

Prepared for Adam and Eve

But the willy and cunning serpent

Had Eve deceived.

 

Adam followed suit

In solidarity with his wife

And out their sin of disobedience

Came disorder and strife.

 

I’ve always wondered why

Weeds grow so easily,

Crops and flowers would struggle

But bush would have a spree.

 

 

 

Genesis 3 verse 17

Tells of the curse of the ground

In which thorns and thistles

Are always around.

 

Unlike the valued plants

Weeds do not need any care,

Once there is the slightest neglect

They will abundantly appear.

 

It is an evidential reality

This is the nature of things

And science is not the explanation

But the Genesis beginnings.

 

“The heavens declare!”

Speaks to the powerful witness

Of Almighty God’s creative power,

His glory and awesomeness.

 

Faith is not irrational

But rather a reasonable belief

Derived from a truthful reality,

Oh, what blessed relief!

 

It is God’s omniscience

That scientists can do science

With minds fine-tuned for order

With results that are reliant.

 

No wonder most early scientists

Were by this captivated

Unlike others whose experiments

Were prevaricated.

 

Science answers some things

But definitely not all

For morality and love and justice

Are due to an all-wise God.

 

Faith and science complement,

They are not at odds

And where science invariably fails

Right at this point is God.

 

It requires language

To express the truths of science

And the thought humans engage

Speaks of God’s existence.

 

Created in God’s own image

Humans are one of a kind,

Faith is facilitated in their DNA

Via Almighty God’s design.

 

 

Created with a capacity

To engage reality and truth

God Himself, as the Creator of all,

Supplying the essential proof.

 

Creation reveals His design

In all we see and observe

And this is made even clearer

In the advent of the Word.

 

Jesus, the incarnate Word

And the embodiment of truth

Whether of faith or of science

Jesus is the proof.

 

 

 

Truth is essentially a person

Synonymous with the Word

The Lord Christ, God’s only Son,

That came into the world

 

By him all things were made

And of him they consist

Yet the Lord Christ transcends then all

Though in him they exist.

 

He is above and beyond

Anything that science can tell

And this same Creator God causes

Faith and science to gel.

 

Stewart Russell © April 25, 2024

 

Born Again

 

 

How many times, I ask,

Can one be born again?

Once, twice, three times, maybe four?

What is your truth claim?

 

Can anyone know for sure

That his or her name is written

In the Lamb’s book of life

Which is held in heaven?

 

What assurance is there

That we are born again

If this event occurs over and over

Again, and again?

 

 

“Rejoice,” stated Jesus,

“Your names are written in heaven,”

By implication meaning

You are also forgiven.

 

Chosen in Christ Jesus

Before the foundation of the world,

Go to Ephesians 1 and verse 4

In case you haven’t heard.

 

Can it be scratched out?

I am referring to a name

And be re-entered into the book

Again, and again?

 

Whether yes or no

Show me from the Word

For if yes is the stated answer

We ought to be disturbed.

 

Jesus knows who are his

And his should know him too

For they bear the Spirit’s seal;

Tell me, do you?

 

Is my name written there

On the page bright and fair?

The question of a beautiful hymn,

Is my name written there?

 

 

One must be born again

Not of physical rebirth

But born again of the Holy Spirit;

Of heaven, not of earth.

 

It is a work of grace,

God’s grace I need to add

And it continues in the Holy Spirit

Minus all manmade fads.

 

Plain and straightforward

As told to teacher, Nicodemus,

“Ye must be born again,”

The very words of Jesus.

 

How many times, I ask,

Can one be born again?

Once, twice, three times, maybe four?

What is your truth claim?

 

 

Once, it appears to me,

Not what Nicodemus thought

And so, as in the natural,

It is only once wrought.

 

I know it is puzzling

Re the saving claim of people

That live somewhat differently

From kingdom principles.

 

But leave it to the Lord,

He knows who belong to him,

Just know if you’ve been born again

You’ve been saved from sin.

 

Stewart Russell © June 14, 2024

 

Consider This

 

 

 Consider this if you will

Not all Jews are Jews,

This sounds particularly contradictory

Now listen for the news.

 

For they are not all Israel

Which are of Israel

How should we take this:

Physical, natural or spiritual?

 

The truth of the matter is

All three are involved,

If we look carefully at the transition

This matter can be resolved.

 

Jesus once said to the Jews

You are of your father, the devil

And if he were not who he was

It would have been to his peril.

 

The Jews had challenged him

Regarding their father, Abraham

But Jesus seemed to be saying

You do not know the plan.

 

Being natural has no rights

To that which belongs to the spiritual,

From the old covenant to the new

The spiritual regulates the natural.

 

This will probably be hard

For any naturalized Israelite Jew,

He sees himself as the chosen

And he must have his due.

 

His due to a promised land

As a son of Abraham,

How dare Jesus come and change

What was the original plan!

 

We see a little bit at a time,

That is but a tiny dot

But all too often it swells in our eyes

And our dot becomes the lot.

 

 

A single piece of the puzzle

Becomes the whole puzzle

And such was the case with the Jews

As it related to Israel.

 

God has a glorious plan

It proceeds from the natural to the spiritual,

From Eden’s creation to a new creation

From the old Israel to the new Israel.

 

No longer the middle wall of partition

No longer the gentile and the Jew,

Where once these were separate

They are now one not two.

 

Only one way to the kingdom

That is through Jesus Christ the Lord,

Only one way to salvation

That is by believing on his word.

 

Consider this, I urge one and all

It is not a replacement theology,

It is the working out of God’s glorious plan

Upon which hangs our destiny.

 

Stewart Russell © November 2019