Sunday 30 June 2013

COMPLETE

God will complete all
That He purposed in His love
And He’ll include me.





Mother stabilised a bit, we think, but still very weak.

Saturday 29 June 2013

NO FUTURE BUT GLORY

No future but glory, Lord Jesus, have we,
How bright is the prospect of being with Thee!
Oh, Home of all homes, with the Father above,
Oh, wonderful dwelling of infinite love!
Home, Home, bright, bright Home!
How blessed the prospect, Lord Jesus, of Home!

No future but glory, Lord Jesus, have we,
For Man is in glory already, in Thee;
The brighter the glory that shines in Thy face,
The clearer our title to glory, through grace.
Home, Home, bright, bright Home!
Our future is glory, in Thy blessed home.

“This one thing” we’d do, we would press toward the goal,
Thyself, Lord, in glory, the Prize of our soul;
Forget what’s behind, for the bright things before,
Since all they who know Thee would know Thee still more.
Home, Home, bright, bright Home!
We press on to know thee and reach Thee at home!

In heaven alone is our city and state,
From thence, Lord, as Saviour, Thyself we await;
Our bodies to change, and conform them to Thine,
That we in Thine image and glory may shine.
Home, Home, bright, bright Home!
Soon we shall be with Thee and like Thee, at Home!

H D'A Champney (1854-1942)
My mother has been referring to the first line this week: "No future but glory, Lord Jesus, have we".

Friday 28 June 2013

HIS GLORY

What glory, Lord, was Thine
Before the worlds began:
Ineffable, divine,
Beyond the mind of man.
We bow to Thy divinity,
Both from and to eternity.

What glory has been seen
In Thy descending grace,
Thy lowly mind and mien
That took a bondman's place.
Through Thy down-stooping Thou didst show
Thy moral glory here below.

Upon the cross of shame
What glory was displayed!
Though haters scorned Thy Name,
Though lovers were dismayed:
When Thou, O Lord, wast crucified
The Son of Man was glorified.

We see Thy glory shine
As at the greatest height:
The Father made it Thine
For Thou art His delight
And now the Spirit's power is known
Since Thou art on the Father's throne.

What glory Thou dost give
To those Thou hast acquired,
Who in Thee newly live,
And whom Thou hast desired
To be with Thee that they may see
The glory God has given Thee.




And can I ask you for prayers for my mother, now aged 91, and getting weaker: and looking for the lord to take her to be with Him?

Thursday 27 June 2013

RIGHT HAND

Tested and proved,
He was not moved
To turn because
He knew God was
At His right hand.

Through pain and shame
He overcame -
Though once disowned
He now is throned
At God’s right hand.

Wednesday 26 June 2013

STEPHEN

How splendid for the martyr Stephen
To see His Lord's glorification:
But there was something greater even
Than that: Christ saw his admiration!

Tuesday 25 June 2013

GLORY

When Satan offered Him glory
He rejected it, giving
The glory to God.

When men offer Him glory
He departed to the mountains
Himself alone.

But, speaking to the Father,
He could rejoice to
Ask to be glorified.

Monday 24 June 2013

OFFERINGS

Christ, the Sin-offering
Took my sins; the Burnt-offering
Gave me His savour.

Sunday 23 June 2013

CALEB

The destroying angel
Was not a type to you -
The blood of the blameless lamb,
And its flesh,
Were a sober reality.

The congealed sea
Was close to you - the cloud
Was in your vision. So were
Living and dying pursuers.
The song was in
Your ears and mouth and heart.

Bitter water, sweet water,
Spring water and rock water:
You experienced them all.

You were there
As they worshipped Jehovah:
Where were you
When they worshipped the calf?
Guilty or not you must have learned
The heart of man.

Then that great journey
Up by the Negeb,
Up into the hill country,
To see the Land
What it is.

What is it?
Hebron, which anticipated Zoan;
And the Valley of the Bunch of Grapes.
Returning you bore substance -
This is the fruit of it -
As it was in your heart.

What was your disappointment
When you trudged on
Thirled to the doomed people,
A broken-hearted man,
Bonded to a fresh generation,
Who could tell them the Land’s terrain.

You did not evade
The serpent, the well,
The Jordan.
You would not have wished to.

Jehovah has kept me alive,
As He said...
Give me this mountain
Of which Jehovah spoke."

What joy for you to see in the land
The new generation;
To disappear from view
As a blesser.

Saturday 22 June 2013

STANDING

I cannot alter,
Cannot improve, or debase
My standing with God.

Friday 21 June 2013

CHANGE OF RAIMENT

Lord Jesus, all my sin and guilt
Love laid of old on Thee,
Thy love the cross and sorrow willed,
Love undeserved by me.
The victory over death and hell
Thou, Lord, for me didst win;
And Thou hast nailed upon Thy Cross
All, all my sin.



The way into the Holiest Place
Stands open now to me;
Where I can see Thy glorious Face,
Nor tremble thus to see.
For as I am to Thee I come,
I clasp Thy blessed Feet,
And learn the mystery of love
So deep, so sweet.


Enfolded, O my Lord, in Thee,
And hid in Thee I rest,
Enwrapped in Christ’s own purity
Secure upon Thy breast.
Had I an Angel’s raiment—fair
With heavenly gems unpriced,
That glorious garb I would not wear,
My robe is Christ.


Gerhard Tersteegen (1697-1769)

Having used this yesterday I thought I'd let you see the whole poem.  Translated by Frances Bevan (1827-1909).

Thursday 20 June 2013

MINE

"Had I an angel's raiment   fair
With heavenly gems unpriced,
That glorious garb I would not wear,
My robe is Christ."

Had I a worldly sovereign's food
All delicately spiced
I would not find its substance good,
My food is Christ.

Were a king's honours offered me
I would not be enticed;
Since He has died to set me free
My glory's Christ.

Had I the world and all its store
I would not be sufficed;
My empty heart would long for more,
My wealth is Christ.

Had I a monarch's lofty throne
With deckings rich and fine
That paltry place I would disown  
Christ's place is mine.


The first verse is from Gerhard Tersteegen

Wednesday 19 June 2013

PLACES

Lying in a manger
Has been found
Christ the Lord.

He has gone to the Jordan
And heard there a sound
Acclaiming from heaven.

He has been driven
To the harsh ground
Of the wilderness.

Upon the mountains He made
His disciples understand
The texture of His rule.

Returned to the plain
He, with strong tender hand,
Healed many infirm.

His voice from the ship
Brought to those on the land
The timbre of His rule.

He came to the garden.
There love constrained
Inexorably.

He came to the cross.
There the only Unstained
Bore sins, and grief, and pain.

They bore Him to the grave.
Death restrained
Till He dissolved its bond.

In the garden
One who one moment bemoaned
In the next rejoiced in Him living.

Among His brethren,
Those whom He owned,
Beheld Him risen.

Now by God’s right hand
Enthroned
Is Christ the Victor.

Tuesday 18 June 2013

FORGIVEN

forgiven


righteously forgiven


righteously forgiven
by the Father


righteously forgiven by the Father
in His grace


righteously forgiven
by the Father in His grace
through faith


righteously forgiven
by the Father in His grace
through faith in the precious blood


righteously forgiven
by the Father in His grace
through faith in the precious blood
of the Lamb


consciously
righteously forgiven
by the Father in His grace
through faith in the precious blood
of the Lamb


consciously, through the Spirit,
righteously forgiven
by the Father in His grace
through faith in the precious blood
of the Lamb
 

Monday 17 June 2013

INTERRUPTIONS

Acts 9
When Saul of Tarsus took a violent course
To extirpate the name of Christ be force
The Saviour interrupted him - for grace
Desired that he should join a nobler race.

Luke 15
Having allowed his found son to express
His sin and feeling of unworthiness
The Father interrupted him - for grace
Disdained to give a son a servant's place.

Acts 10
As Peter told Cornelius of Christ's fame
And of forgiveness through the Saviour's name
The Spirit interrupted him - for grace
Welcomed the gentiles with a swift embrace.



Sunday 16 June 2013

ONLY JESUS

No one lived as Jesus lived
For He never once demurred
When He knew the Father's will;
Since His joy was to fulfil
All the details of God's word
No one lived as Jesus lived.

No one died as Jesus died
Since, despite the public shame,
He was shown to be God's Son;
And because His work was done
While He glorified God's name
No one died as Jesus died.

No one rose as Jesus rose
Since the glory of God's might
Brought Him scatheless from the grave;
Since He came with power to save
And emerged through His own right
No one rose as Jesus rose.

No one saves as Jesus saves,
For eternity and time,
To the uttermost extent;
Since in graciousness He went
To atone for every crime
No one saves as Jesus saves.

No one loves as Jesus loves
For He laid down His own life,
And He shed His blood for me;
Since He would not go out free
For His Master, children, wife
No one loves as Jesus loves.


Saturday 15 June 2013

OCTET FOR ROSIE

Today it was your hands I thought about:
How constantly they work for me - and ours.
As birds form nests they delicately work out
The home where we can share our pleasant hours.
That delicacy, and artistic skill,
Make backgrounds to the home that others view;
Their care, selflessness, comforts they instil
All make them perfect metaphors for you.

Friday 14 June 2013

BY CONISTON WATER

By Coniston Water
The wind blew towards us.

Lake water
Surged in, wave after wave.

It was not the sea’s wildness, but
Inexorably it sounded.

We were embraced in a power,
Love, greater than ourselves.

Thursday 13 June 2013

SONNET EIGHTEEN

Let me contrast you with the month of June,
It is less gorgeous and more boisterous;
Your plantlets flourish in your constant noon
And, by God’s grace, always you are with us.

Your beauty never gives excessive heat
And clouds can never shroud your lovely face;
The flavour of your love remains as sweet
While fate or time do not reduce your grace.

But June will pass, its fruit will suffer harm,
And all its memory will drift away;
Life will regret the wasting of its charms
Since it must dwindle to its final day.

While air fills peoples’ lungs, and sun their sights,
This verse will tell of you and your delights.

Wednesday 12 June 2013

ANOTHER SONNET

If I should die you need not think of me
(Having a better Man to think about)
But if you must then think, “He did love me,
Fumblingly, wildly - but without a doubt.
He loved his children and he loved the home
My love created. In a different chord
Loved friends, and words, and chime; he loved to roam.
Fumblingly, hopefully, he loved his Lord”.

I do not wish to die. I wish to see
My Saviour’s face. His coming is my dream -
The dream which will come true which quickens me.
Yet it will break the bond which I esteem
More than all earth. But, stood before Christ’s face
Better I’ll view our partnership in grace.

Tuesday 11 June 2013

SONNET

Perhaps some loves will drink the April light
And die before the summer’s sun has shone;
Perhaps some loves may mushroom in a night,
Flourish a few bright moments, and be gone.
Some loves will bed like saplings in good soil
Yet soon be stricken by the lightning’s stroke,
Leaving their monument of grief and toil
In the scarred forking of the wood which broke.

Our love has grown like a maturing tree
Producing year by year green urgent shoots;
Deep in its soil we feel but cannot see
The broadening and grasping of its roots;
Each day I find in you, and you in me,
The suppleness and richness of its fruits.

Monday 10 June 2013

TO ROSEMARY

I rarely write you poems now
Unlike our first mad days
When verses tumbled from my pen.
Our love was wild and foolish then
And rhymes appeared, I don’t know how,
While both of us went in a daze.

But like a landscape carved by time
Our love has softened now
Into a place in which to live,
Not jagged crags and clefts to give
A view apparently sublime,
Impossible for seed or plough.

Now like two staunch adventurers
We can explore our land
Which none but us has ventured to
Since we together journeyed through
The tails whose deviousness deters
The rest, who cannot understand

Our journey here was clear and straight.
Thus thoughts of you provoke
Idyllic images which yet
Are not mere dreams, for we are set,
Plodding our steady happy rate,
Under on equal easy yoke.

Sunday 9 June 2013

MORE EXCELLENT

As I have Rosie in my arms
I think, is any bliss -
Are any eyes, or lips, or charms -
More excellent than this?

There is a face I have not seen,
A voice I have not heard,
A gracious dignity and mien,
Which are to be preferred.

While still, blest Spirit, sight and touch
Hold me, help I implore
To daily love my Rose as much
And love my Jesus more.




It's her birthday today, and a month to our 36th wedding anniversary;
so I'll do a little celebrating this week.

Saturday 8 June 2013

INAUGURATION

He took the loaf - an object which He found
Conveniently for His desire and time;
And made its emblematic truth resound -
The banal, at His hand, became sublime.

He took the cup - an object which He found,
Ready to hand, in a convenient place.
His touch made its symbolic truth redound
In praise that answers God's majestic grace.

Friday 7 June 2013

TURTLE-DOVE

The voice of the turtle-dove
is heard in our land - rejoice
in the Spirit's notes of love!

The Bridegroom thrills that the voice 
of the turtle-dove is heard
in our land since the tones are choice.

The voice - with the graces conferred -
of the turtle-dove, we understand,
is heard in our land, undeterred.

We are heedful to love's command
Since the voice of the turtle-dove
is heard in its charm in our land.

Thursday 6 June 2013

TIME

In the consummation of the ages
There came - for One who was God -
A predicted, foreseen, time
To be born.

God’s Man, having shown perfectly
Man according to God, moved
Inexorably, and devotedly, to a time
To die.

The days of a desert life
Were, as He spread His grace
In oases of His love, a time
To plant.

Among the rebellious Jews,
Satisfied in themselves,
With sadness, He found it a time
To pluck up that which is planted.

While, when grace is rejected,
And repentance disdained,
He will institute a time
To kill.

Now in the day of grace
He, from the Father’s throne,
Presides with joy over a time
To heal.

When Paul advance on Damascus
Against the name of the Lord,
And His people, it was a time
To break down.

When Paul invaded Europe
In all the power of the Lord
And His Spirit, it was a time
To build up.

If at the Bethany tomb,
Surrounded by those he loved,
Death’s influence made it a time
To weep

Yet He now sees, joyfully,
A wife who works for His will
Who sees in the dawn a time
To laugh.

As He came to the holy city,
Amid the apparent triumph,
He alone knew it a time
To mourn,

While as He looks on His spouse,
In character like Himself,
He knows that it is a time
To dance.

And the rejecting city,
Stout against the government of God,
Came, in government , to a time
To cast away stones.

But among the faithful saints
The Lord’s hand worked in might
Initiating a time
To gather stones together.

Souls who turn to Him,
Repenting from their sins,
Are welcomed in a time
To embrace,

But those who reject God’s grace
And the value of Christ’s death
Bring on themselves a time
To refrain from embracing.

He, in His shepherd love,
Uses this dispensation,
In tenderness, as a time
To seek

While those who have known that love,
Seeing their selfish wills,
Learn to come to a time
To lose.

He, in His shepherd love,
Uses the days of storm and trial,
In faithfulness, as a time
To keep.

While those who have known His love,
Seeing in their flesh the works of darkness,
Learn that it is a time
To cast away.

Seeing the ascending Man,
His fresh, and our old, garments
This has become a time
To rend.

Having our treasures with Him
It is, since we need purses
Which do not grow old, a time
To sew.

Led as a lamb to the slaughter
The Lord, in wisdom and grace,
Showed when it was a time
To keep silent.

Risen, and come to His own,
Christ, as Revealer of secrets,
Came with joy to a time
To speak.

Seeing His faithful saints
Who keep His word and Name
He rejoices to tell of a time
To love

But as He views the deeds
Of those who despise His claim
Against these deeds is a time
To hate.

When He will come in power,
Conquering and to conquer,
Then it will be a time
Of war,

That He may establish in judgment,
In righteousness, and grace,
Forever and ever a time
Of peace.

Wednesday 5 June 2013

TRIOLET

God has met the sin of man
In the giving of the Son.
To fulfil His glorious plan
God has met the sin of man .
Love before the world began
Knew the victory Christ has won;
God has met the sin of man
In the giving of the Son.

Tuesday 4 June 2013

THE BIBLE

Through twenty centuries
It, and its theme, Christ,
Have retained their relevance,
Their freshness,
And their resonance.

Monday 3 June 2013

"THAT DECEIVER"

Matthew 27: 63

Through mercy I am a believer
In One who came to save my soul:
The world still calls Him, "that deceiver".

Through Jesus I am a receiver
Of blessings that have made me whole:
Through mercy I am a believer.

 He was the truth, and the Achiever
Of all to comfort and console:
The world still calls Him, "that deceiver".

The Lord of all rebuked my fever
And gave my life a useful role:
Through mercy I am a believer.

He is the truth and the retriever
Of all that Satan's actions stole:
The world still calls Him, "that deceiver".

All you who know this great reliever
From sorrow - worship and extol!
Through mercy I am a believer:
The world still calls Him, "that deceiver".

2 June 2013

Sunday 2 June 2013

WORK

I sought to answer to the Lord's command
To work for Him; immediately Pride
Came puffing up and told me, "Make it grand
So that your reputation will abide".
But what was said by Simpleness-of-eye?
"Look steadfastly on Christ who is on high."

Now Self came rushing forward to agree
With Pride; and fearful, said "Don't be a fool
And risk there being any harm to me:
Beware you do not use a two  edged tool!"
But what was said by Simpleness-of-eye?
"Look steadfastly on Christ who is on high."

Stiff-necked Legality next sought my ear
Suggesting, with stentorian demand,
That I should labour only in his fear
And let his iron talon guide my hand.
But what was said by Simpleness-of-eye?
"Look steadfastly on Christ who is on high."

Ease yawned and said "Forget the word of truth  
Or maybe leave it for another day",
While Pleasure called to me, with Lusts-of-Youth,
To try to show a more convenient way.
But what was said by Simpleness-of-eye?
"Look steadfastly on Christ who is on high."

O Holy Spirit, help that I may be
A workman who has not to be ashamed,
Without distraction as empowered by Thee
And building so that Jesus is acclaimed;
Help me to say with Simpleness-of-eye,
"Look steadfastly on Christ who is on high."

Saturday 1 June 2013

KING

Kings expect subjects
to die for them; but our King
died for His subjects.



(The thought I have borrowed!)