Brought to you by www.ThePathofTruth.com 1 “I did not come with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:1-2). Poems 3 Poems 1 - Poems 2 - Poems 3 - Poems 4 - Poems 5 - Poems 6 20) Desolation I am mildly surprised as I read these words months after writing them. Mildly, I say, because it isn't a surprise and yet it is, to see how I have been so down in my hopes, feelings and outlook on things. I marvel somewhat because I know this has happened on many occasions while in between those times I have also felt quite to the contrary, as though the Lord were very much with me and that by Him, nothing was impossible. I have particularly felt the latter way, with full conviction immediately after the Lord has manifest Himself to me in some way, unmistakably. But how soon and how able we are to forget and to be in despair! The whole world rots before my very eyes. Blind I am not to its corruption; Men bide their time in vain travail Or wait until they have to go. Suffering and death are everywhere, Sickness, disease and hell; Selfishness and greed reign over all; Each man denies another's rights. Hell is on the left, Death is on the right; Fake religions promise emancipation; Vain hopes carrot asses everywhere;
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Brought to you by www.ThePathofTruth.com 1
“I did not come with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:1-2).
I am mildly surprised as I read these words months after writing them. Mildly, I say, because it isn't a surprise and yet it is, to see how I have been so down in my hopes, feelings and outlook on things. I marvel somewhat because I know this has happened on many occasions while in between those times I have also felt quite to the contrary, as though the Lord were very much with me and that by Him, nothing was impossible. I have particularly felt the latter way, with full conviction immediately after the Lord has manifest Himself to me in some way, unmistakably. But how soon and how able we are to forget and to be in despair!
If we truly believe that God is over all, then it must follow that He is the engineer of our needs as well. We will often think of Him as the Provider but seldom as the One Who has created the need to show Himself as Provider. Grasping the truth that my
needs are not dangers or risks but rather introductions to Him and to His faithfulness turns me from fear and uncertainty to excitement and joyful anticipation.
He is not only the Provider of the provisions required to meet the need but also the Provider of the need to require the provisions which He is able and ready and willing to deliver. And why all this? To teach me about Him and His ways, to reveal Himself in me, to set my feet on solid rock, to demonstrate His faithfulness, power and love.
Though many who presume to preach the gospel of salvation would deny this, they give people the impression that, upon believing the gospel, all trials and troubles will flee. While it is true that if we walk in truth and righteousness we save ourselves untold evils, it is evil which the Lord uses to break us and mold us after His likeness. And these trials can be far more difficult than those we had previously.
Take Paul for example. Was he whipped, stoned and beaten with rods when an unbelieving Jew according to the flesh, sitting amongst friends at the feet of Gamaliel?
The evils applied to us for good develop invulnerability and immortality.
Eggs are fruits, are they not? And many seem to assume that because there are eggs, there is truth. Eggs are neither good nor bad in themselves. What kind are they? Smiles and friendship are neither good nor bad. Why are they?
Religious talk praising and extolling God is nothing in itself. So then one must have discernment to tell good fruits from bad. That discernment is the gift of God given only to those who have a love of the truth, selling all they have to possess it, even their very lives. The pilgrim on the path to truth is sorely tried and only the true seeker will enter in to that which is behind the veil.
Though men have many idols, which they worship consciously or otherwise, they do not serve these gods so much as themselves. Idolatry's purpose is to serve one's self, to preserve one's self in the flesh, from the cross. If an idol fails to serve the worshipper in the way that he seeks, he will remove that idol from its pedestal soon enough, and find another, unless of course, he is determined to wait patiently for that idol to produce its desired effects one way or another.
Idolatry is inconsistent, contradictory and unprofitable in every way. Money is only a medium of getting. Getting is the medium for serving self. It is serving self until God is worshipped in spirit and truth.
I marvel at how worshipers of God so-called can become and are so much more important to themselves than the One they profess to worship. I marvel at how they worship themselves for worshiping God and how they do worship the worshiping itself. I marvel at how they insist and demand of God how that He should be worshiped. In essence, they are demanding that men worship them for their dedication and wisdom in the way they worship God. In essence, they demand of the One they profess to worship that He worship them! I marvel at the reversals of men, their utter contradictions and their blindness to it all.
I have heard it said many times that whatever divides is not of God. Of course, that simply depends on what is being divided and why. Is it not of God to divide sheep from goats, fleece from sheep, truth from error, heretics from the faithful, wheat from the tares? The problem is that those who make the statement above presume to be sheep or, they are under the false notion that pain and suffering and sorrow arising naturally from division are products of Satan and not of God. But these same people indulge in dividing others in the Name of God and think nothing of it. And does not God wound and break? Does He not call to forsake wife, children, parents and friends? Is forsaking easy and pleasant? If so, it would not be forsaking.
We walk by faith. Faith overcomes the world. We live by faith. Faith is the work of God. By faith are we saved. This we know.
Now there is much ado made about love, joy, peace and works. But the thing that is striking is that with faith in the trial of the saints is mentioned none of those but patience. "Here is the patience and faith of the saints" (Rev. 13:10). Less is said about patience but this patience is the virtue of all virtues coupled with faith. The Lord teaches us to wait.
But no, this is the patience and faith of the saints
Who are called to trust and to hope.
So we wait and accept the delay.
The man had no promise,
His hopes were in vain,
And he perished, not knowing the truth.
But we know the truth.
We know what we know because we have heard
And believe the One Who is true.
Lethbridge, Sept. 30, 1984
28) Bellyache, Bellyache
So very much of our conversation belies our true nature and convictions. We say we love God, we speak of thanking and praising Him when we "are in church" or in a religious setting trying to impress others but let the guard down and listen to the words of our mouths and our hearts. Now these hearts are supposed to be the new ones we received in our "new birth." With one set of words we proclaim we are new creatures, thankful to God in all things. With another set, we let others know where we really stand. Often, the arm raised in praise has a clenched fist and the lips of thanksgiving conceal gnashing teeth.
Because conditions are never perfect, the spirit of complaint can never be stilled or appeased. Our ceasing to complain cannot hinge therefore on a change in conditions but must come solely by change in spirit and attitude. The source or cause of complaint is never the circumstances but always the subject in same.
At any given time our lives can view from either of two perspectives, positive or negative, like two sides to a coin. Each side truly exists and we are right either way but we become what we behold. Therefore must we decide what to behold.
The concept and definition of friendship the world has pales in comparison to what the Lord calls it. In fact, there is only contrast and no comparison. Friendship in the world means to receive, to have those who are an advantage. It is a self-centered thing. "I have a lot of friends." And those friends are there to receive too. True friendship lays down the life in wisdom and understanding. True friendship is founded on truth, justice, righteousness (right doing and being). It is more interested in giving than receiving. More, I say, because there needs to be both.
The only good friend is a dead one, dead to self and to the world, but alive unto God, our One True Friend.
Friend, where will you be when I fall?
Can you tell what you have?
Do you know who I am?
Take your hand and reach down deep within yourself,
As deep as you can go.
See what you come up with.
Do you know why I am here?
Have you known the price?
Have you known there is a price?
Have you known that the price quite consumes the goods?