Treasure in Earthen Vessels

 

 

2 Corinthians 4:7-9

But we have this treasure

In earthen vessels,

That the excellency of the power may be of God,

And not of us.

We are troubled on every side,

Yet not distressed; 

We are perplexed,

But not in despair;

Persecuted,

But not forsaken;

Cast down,

But not destroyed…

I don’t know the origin

Of the COVID virus

But that is neither here nor there

Since I know Jesus.

What if its cause is 5G?

Or what if it is man-made?

What if it’s an experiment

Now on an escapade?

None of these things

Ultimately matters,

At the end of the day

When compared to one's soul,

All is noisy chatter.

The believer has an assurance

That’s expressed in this scripture,

Read it and feed on it

And you will get the picture.

 

Frail is the housing

Of both the saved and unsaved,

Brought on by sin

Though at first, perfectly made.

  

Our fore-parents disobeyed

The directive God gave

When they fell for the temptation

Offered by Satan, the Knave.

Ever since then

The world has been cursed,

And in these times that we live

It is getting worse.

And being saved

Does not protect us from its ills

But knowing that God dwells in us

Should give the believer a thrill.

 

Yes! We have this treasure

In an earthen vessel,

Even though like everyone else,

We endure life’s hassle.

That treasure is of God

And not of us,

It’s the compliments of the Father,

The Spirit and His Son, Jesus.

Especially at this time

God’s excellency should show,

In every single believer

So that the world may know…

That we have a hope

In spite of COVID,

It’s an eternal salvation

That only Jesus can give.

Meanwhile,

We are troubled on every side,

Yes, we are oppressed!

But believers in Christ

Should not be distressed.

   

We are perplexed

Though not in despair,

At this time the believer

Should not be pulling out his hair.

Persecuted, but not forsaken;

Cast down, but not destroyed;

It is the life of Jesus in us

That we now enjoy.

Hence, we should bear God’s image

As His princely children

And at the same time not make light

Of this COVID problem.

 

My wife shared with me

This passage of scripture,

And I trust like we did,

You have got the picture.

Stewart Russell © March 2020

Relishing the Absurd

“Up the creek without a paddle”

A saying you must have heard,

Like in the midst of life’s huge ocean

Being guided by the absurd.

“The Emperor’s new clothes” is another:

Stark naked but fully dressed,

It’s what I want so don’t you bother

I am not having any stress.

It is sanity and madness

Profanity mixed with gladness,

Why should my pursuit of euphoria

Cause you such grief and sadness?

All for me and I for me

It’s what I want that matters,

There are all of you but one of me

And all that matters is the latter.

Up the creek without a paddle

Now fast approaching the fall,

For a while back there it wasn’t so bad

Now nobody answers my call.

Amidst the tumult of the rapids

My raft rocking to and fro,

About to be jettisoned any moment now

Experiencing the “I told you so”.

I did not listen, just like the world

I saw it my own way too,

The fall approaches and I am doomed

In spite of all that I knew.

Warning after warning came my way

But the pleasure was such a balm,

Up the creek without a paddle

But everything appeared to be calm.

No compass or guide except the urge

To please me and only me,

Around me, the entire world revolved,

Surely everybody could see.

Who needs a paddle when all is well?

Who needs an oar or governor?

Not me at that time but surely now!

Now I am facing such horror.

Acceptance of death instead of life

Was the choice of our fore-parents,

The gift of life is on offer again

But the majority refuses to repent.

We are not very bright; it clearly shows

The lessons of life we do not learn,

We will make it without God above

And His grace we will continue to spurn

So, we are up a creek without a paddle

And we feel all is well and good,

We have no idea of the approaching fall

For we are not seeing as we should.

Charmed by the glitter that grabs our gaze

The unreal obscures the real

And, severely distracted by Satan’s ploy,

Unheeded goes the Spirit’s appeal.

A little bit more till I have had my fill

To be saturated being my intent,

Just a little bit more while I have time

When I have had enough, I will repent.

Up the creek without a paddle

May have been the issue in the past,

But now being tossed in the foamy rapids

Speaks to a far more humongous task.

The state of our world is so similar

As men seek to satisfy their urge

And with every passing day, we note,

Enormous societal ills emerge.

Packaged in a so-called golden wrap

To bamboozle the least suspecting,

Exchanging the peacock for the feather

Refusing life and death accepting.

Stewart Russell © September 2019