Faith

 

 

 

There is a lot of talk about faith

And, as a matter of fact,

Some are known by their abundance

And quite a few by their lack.

 

Some have faith in Christ

And some have faith in faith:

These two I hope to deal with

And this is by God’s grace.

 

Not to be mixed up with the faith

Meaning the doctrine of Truth

But the two most argued about:

One without biblical proof.

 

The Bible is replete with texts

Depicting faith in Christ

And central to this specific faith

Is his atoning sacrifice.

 

Jesus is the object of our faith

All of the household of faith,

All them that are the born again

Via their faith in God’s grace.

 

They that put their faith in Jesus

Having repented of their sins

And like sheep that know his voice

Are walking along with him.

 

This faith is given in measure

And exercised in our daily walk,

It is manifested in our conversation

And it impacts the way we talk.

 

It’s different from faith in faith

The object of which is faith

That has no bearing on salvation

Or to God’s wonderful grace.

 

 

 

It’s a kind of God-like faith

As defined by some denominations,

The kind of faith that God used

Way back in the creation.

 

A speak-it-into-being faith

Conceive it, believe it, receive it,

Albeit full of illusion and delusion

Leaving adherents in a fix.

 

Exercising faith in faith

As opposed to Christ as the object

And faking it till you make it

Being another illusory aspect.

 

Faith in Christ is not for miracles

That may or may not happen,

It is in fact the God-saving faith

That tells us we are forgiven.

 

It is not that miracles have ended

And will never again occur

But above all miracles that ever were

It’s the miracle of salvation I prefer.

 

Miraculously and wondrously saved:

The miracle of a life transformed,

By faith in Jesus Christ, my Lord,

Miraculously I have been reborn.

 

And this for all eternity,

I am at present a citizen of heaven

And sealed by the blessed Holy Spirit,

All my sins have been forgiven.

 

By faith I walk in righteousness

As a born-again child of God

And by faith in my Saviour Jesus Christ

I share him at home and abroad.

 

Stewart Russell © October 9, 2022

 

Inconsistency

 

 

“The world is not against

our stand for righteousness

But against

our unrighteous stance.”

 

I heard the above quote

And a word jumped out at me,

You don’t have to guess;

It is inconsistency.

 

The greatest mixed signal

In all of today’s world

Is found in inconsistent behavior;

We ought to be perturbed.

 

Instead many are at ease

Because it suits them too

As they inveigle and manipulate

Those opposed to their view.

 

 

 

Inconsistency in Parliament

As it legislates laws,

Consistency in the law courts

Because of human flaws.

 

 

 

Inconsistency in the home:

Mixed signals to our children,

Inconsistency in the church:

Well, that’s another problem.

 

 

We are consistently inconsistent:

Therein is our problem

And someone once said,

It is more consistent in men.

 

Consistency in my poems

Which are mostly the long type,

But inconsistent this time;

This is all I will write.

 

Stewart Russell © March 21, 2022    

 

Asking the Hard Questions

 

 

After I have fasted

And after I have prayed,

After the solemn assembly

And my nerves are frayed,

After the prayer vigil

And after the prayer walk,

What do I do when nothing changes

And it seems just talk?

 

When people laugh

And they poke scorn at us,

When they mock at our God

And discredit the Lord Jesus,

When like in Elijah’s time

He mocked Baal’s prophets,

What do we do when this seems reversed

As a regular habit?

 

When God seems distant

And untraceable,

And there’s no apparent help

In time of great trouble,

And we say how great God is

But nothing ever happens,

Tell me what ought to be our response

When the unthinkable threatens?

 

 

When we pray for country

And it gets mockingly worse

And it appears that all we have done

Is to exacerbate its curse

Thus, a “where is your God”

Is the question scorners ask,

Please give me a watertight answer

Re this formidable task.

 

When I quote Scripture

About all God has done,

But yet in the recent past battles

Satan seemed to have won,

When the church seems clueless

Regarding what can be done,

Why should I not in frustration give up

And away from it run?

 

When Governments pretend

To respect the church

And call for its spiritual reflection

When the Nation hurts,

And when the church responds

Just as the Nation dictates,

Tell me this then, who is really in charge

Of the church’s fate? 

 

 

Is it not the Nation

That is calling the shots

To determine the church’s role

As well as its available slots?

When did Governments become

Regulators of the church?

How I wish the church would wake up

For this really hurts.

 

What exalts a Nation?

Is it still not righteousness?

Do we not see that our countries

Are one sordid mess?

Which churches will trumpet the call

For the country to repent

Rather than asserting their independence

And their fund-raising intent?

 

For our nation is divided

And so are our churches

And both have been majoring

In cosmetic excesses

Pretending to genuinely care

About God and the people

But yet guns, drugs and their importers

Make our lives miserable.

 

Rather than clean the mess

We pray for protection,

Rather than expose evil doers

We want God’s intervention

But He must operate on our terms

While we ignore His Word

Expecting Him to leave man unchanged

But fix the world.

 

 

Back in the Bible times

Whenever Israel strayed

They were instructed to repent

However hard they prayed,

So, however hard we pray

And however long we lament,

Will we bring God into our political affairs

And first up, genuinely repent?

 

Stewart Russell © July 28, 2024

 

Three Levels of God’s Love

 

 

I came across the following

Just about four days ago

And even though I knew the concept

These terms I did not know.

 

Benevolence easily fitted in

And beneficence too

But the term complacence

Did not fit in with my view.

 

But that was only at first

As moments later, I understood,

And if you are now like I was then

I am sure you also would.

 

No doubt, like me, you have read

In the pages of Holy Writ

Of the divine salvation decree:

That enunciated divine edict.

 

For even before time had begun

In effect the Lamb was slain

That what the first Adam had lost

Jesus would eternally regain.

 

It was God’s plan to save us

From before all time

And the best way to explain it is:

We were always on God’s mind.

 

This first level of God’s love:

His love of benevolence

Conceptualized before all time

Manifested in His beneficence.

 

Unlike the many plans of man

God’s plan became a reality

So that a born-again individual

Can be saved for all eternity.

 

 

It’s His love of beneficence

The actual unfolding of His plan

First seen in the book of Genesis

In the original fall of man.

 

By faith in the Old Testament

Righteousness was imputed to man

And the first biblical reference

Was the patriarch, Abraham.

 

Father of Isaac, then Jacob

Who was given the name Israel,

Abraham the patriarch was called

To be father of God’s people.

 

Through this Abrahamic lineage

Came the Lord, Jesus Christ

Who manifested God’s benevolence

In his life-giving sacrifice.

 

The working out of the plan

Of God’s wonderful redemption

Whereby through His Son the Christ

We are recipients of salvation.

 

 

What love!  What supreme love!

Benevolent and beneficent

That even up to this day

There are millions of recipients!

 

But God commends His love

That he sent His Son, the Lord Jesus

In that while we were yet sinners

Jesus Christ died for us.

 

Christ came to call sinners

Not the righteous ones!

For they that are alive and well

Would not need to be born.

 

Poor old Nicodemus

Had truly missed the mark!

Poor old Nicodemus

Was certainly in the dark!

 

Complacence in man is folly

But in the Creator God, it is His glory

And it is all together evident

That herein is salvation's story.

  

For scarce for a righteous man

Would one die:

Yet peradventure for a good man

Would some even dare to die.

 

 

But God commendeth his love:

The mark of God’s complacence,

Unconditional and unmeasurable

And by man, uninfluenced.

 

Sounds like reckless love

Only that God cannot be reckless,

His is a love of complacence

That no other love can best.

 

For God’s glory and our good

Jesus left heaven above

To die for His premiere creation:

O what grace and love!

 

Stewart Russell © May 13, 2021

 

Spare a Thought

I watched him steadily

Yet I was out of his view

I could see him but he saw me not

Perhaps he would do otherwise if he knew

I was watching curiously

To see what he would do next

As the people passed him by

 You could see they were vex

He approached everyone

I could not hear him speak

But from their reaction

He was forced to retreat

He appeared to be begging

I guess for something to eat

But nobody trusted him

Not even the slightest treat

Progressively I grew sad

At what I was seeing

As it dawned the more on me

That he was a human being

Just like you and I are

And all of these passers-by

Yes, he was a human being

Just like and I

There go you and I

But for the grace of God

This youth was in the clutches

Of the despicable fraud

Yes I refer to the devil

Lucifer, a.k.a. Satan

The one who was out to destroy

From the time the world began

Here was this youth

Entirely bamboozled by him

And so very unaware

That his problem was really sin

I watched yet another passer-by

As he deftly sidestepped

As though he was accustomed

And thus adequately prepped

Everyone refused him

But not once did he stop

He was more than determined

As from one to another he hopped

O yes he was limping

But this was no deterrent

The fact that he used it cleverly

To me was quite apparent

This was not the first time

I had actually sat and observed

For I had daily reason

To be right here on this curb

Actually I was there to watch

People and their behavior

And to come up with a strategy

To tell them about the Saviour

But they were so terribly busy

I wondered if I could achieve

Just a little bit of their attention

To show them how to believe

And while there observing

My eyes were glued to this youngster

Who in every respect

These passers-by treated as a monster

There-in lies the peril

That confronts our very society

Like that youth many are lost

And to be lost for eternity

Like him the Saviour pleads

For us to come to know him

But like these many passers-by

We make light of our awful sin

Like that beggarly youth

We are despicable and in need

But unaware of the Saviour’s love

Who cares about us indeed

Here was this youthful beggar

With matted hair and unkempt

Maybe asking for a little money

To buy the drugs on which he was bent

But more importantly

It then occurred to me

That here was a damned soul

For whom Christ went to Calvary

It was for the unwell he died

Yes the wretched and the sick

The drug addict and the murderer

The con man that is so slick

These are not the only ones

Commuting on their way to hell

But also some who go to church

Every time they hear a church bell

Sitting in the church pew

Feeling all smug and warm

Just like them we mentioned earlier

They too should be warned

That the bottom line really is

The Saviour’s blood applied

For without it there is no salvation

However hard they have tried

Acknowledging our sin is the start

And repenting of the same

Asking God’s pardon for our wrong

And believing in Jesus’ name

Thanking God for such salvation

And stepping out in righteousness

Eyes ever set on the eternal prize

And bearing fruit unto godliness

No difference between the tramp and me

If neither God’s salvation knows

Having not the seal of God

On the way to hell each goes

Stewart Russell © October 2017

Sodom and Gomorrah

Three men approached as Abraham sat in his tent,

Looking them over he wondered what it meant,

He ran to meet them then; he bowed to the ground

And hoped that in them a favour he had found.

He washed their feet while they rested under the tree

Then requested Sarah prepare a meal in measures of three,

Then he ran to the herd and there fetched a calf

And it was not long after that Sarah had a good laugh.

Imagine in their old age they would have a son,

What a huge joke!  What side splitting fun!

But the Lord shared with Abraham all that would occur

Including His plan to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.

Well aware that his nephew Lot was living there

You could well imagine the extent of Abraham’s fear

So he begged that these cities the Lord would spare

But not ten could be found that about righteousness cared.

After Abraham’s pleading with the Lord had been done

That very evening two angles visited Sodom,

There they met with Lot who was sitting at the gate

And who invited them into his tent to there on them wait.

After much persuasion and begging on Lot’s part

The two angels demonstrated a change of heart

And entered Lot’s tent and with him shared a meal

Knowing on the morrow Sodom’s fate would be sealed.

However, during the night some fellows of the base type

Wanted to have their way with the angels that night

So Lot offered them his daughters to do as they pleased

But the angels inflicted them all with a blinding disease.

The morrow came and with it the twin cities’ demise,

They were burnt to the ground and all that had God despised,

Lot and his family were rescued…well…not quite his wife…

She became a pillar of salt and that was the end of her life.

It was mighty difficult for Mrs. Lot to leave Sodom’s wealth

To the extent that it eventually caused her death

Like many today who want the world at the expense of their soul

She reluctantly left but Sodom and Gomorrah was still her goal.

  

Looking back was a way of questioning why she had to leave,

Leaving Sodom and Gomorrah caused her to pine and to grieve,

She looked back with the hope that those things she could retrieve

But her faith was misguided; in the wrong things she believed.

So is everyone who puts trust in this world and its goods

Which quickly dissipate like the bubbles in soapsuds

Today’s Sodom and Gomorrah will only spell your doom

Heed the Spirit and get out!  Don’t let there be your tomb!

Stewart Russell © 2016