Who hath believed our report?

Prophets had delivered
Their report: telling of God's
Power and love, His Servant,
His coming, suffering and triumph:
A drum roll.  But had to ask:
Who hath believed our report?

Apostles have spoken: trumpets
With more certain sound, for they
Report what they have seen: a Man
Triumphant over sin and death
Sits glorified.  Still they must ask:
Who hath believed our report?

And feeble saints have whispered,
Or roared the report:
Written it on parchment or
Paper; printed it, broadcast it,
Posted it; yet still must ask:
Who hath believed our report?

The Lord Himself testified it;
The Father endorsed it, and Him;
The Holy Spirit joined His help
To men preaching in weakness.
Still They must send the challenge:

Who hath believed our report? 

Cullen, Moray, Scotland

Did you heed the word God spoke?

 

Did you heed the word God spoke?

May His grace be told!

Did you know God's word awoke?

Lo! His grace was bold!

Christ grew as a tender shoot

May His grace be told!

Desert sands around His root

Lo! His grace was bold!

Holden eyes could not discern

May His grace be told!

Beauties God would have us learn

Lo! His grace was bold!

Darkened hearts would not esteem

May His grace be told!

Beauties which are heaven's theme.

Lo! His grace was bold!

Now my lightened heart can see

May His grace be told!

What He bore He bore for me

Lo! His grace was bold!

(This continues thoughts I had on Isaiah 53 in varying poetic forms during 2020.)

St Anthony's Chapel on Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh

Who hath believed ... ?

 

          The trumpet's clear note;

Yet ploughmen plough, tradesmen trade

          And courtiers court.

The Sea Front at Longniddry, East Lothian

The River Esk at Musselburgh

Have you received the message that God sent?

 

Have you believed the message that God sent?        

Have you received His pure since-time-began

Prophets? Consider all that He has spent;

And since men disbelieved He sent His Son

To let you know His heart.  In grace He pleads

And shows you that He longs to fill your heart;

In Christ He has the answer to your needs:

Repent, go out from hence; depart, depart!

 

And has the Lord revealed His arm to you?

It is not shortened that it cannot save;

He will redeem you with a stretched-out arm

And what unbounded blessings will ensue!

He’ll ransom you from all that might enslave

Through One who came here with no worldly charm.

Around the Black Barony Estate, Scottish Borders

LET NOT YOUR HEARTS BE TROUBLED

 

"Let not your heart be troubled", Jesus told
The eleven as He girt them for their grief:
Knowing their faith in God He could unfold
That He would be their Object of belief.
He told them, "In the Father's house there are
Many abodes"; He would prepare a place
Distinctly ours, above the highest star,
Where we shall be before the Father's face.

"I go", He told them, and the going meant
The cross, the tomb, the garden, and the throne;
He came alone; but through the way He went
The Christ our Lord did not remain alone.

For, taken from the scene where we have grieved,
It is unto Himself we are received.

These are view of the Great Map of Scotland.  As the

link shows it is a massive concrete scale map.

LIPS

"And I said, Woe unto me! 

for I am undone; 

for I am a man of unclean lips, 

and I dwell in the midst 

of a people of unclean lips";

"Asps' poison is under their lips" ...

But there is a Man, 

Of whom it can be said,

"His lips lilies, dropping liquid myrrh":

Pure word, sprung from suffering love,

For grace is poured into His lips.

While "He that loveth pureness of heart, 

upon whose lips is grace" -

May I have this blessing! -

"The king is his friend".

He has His answer in someone

Whose "lips are like a thread of scarlet",

Bright as Rahab's signal.

... One of the seraphim

Took the glowing coal

From the altar, and said,

"Behold, this hath touched thy lips; 

and thine iniquity is taken away, 

and thy sin expiated".

Joshua 2: 21

Psalm 45: 2

Proverbs 22:11

Song of Solomon 4:3

Song of songs 5: 13 

Isaiah 6: 5

Romans 3: 13

Straiton Pond (again)

SENSES

 

Blest Spirit, help increase my appetite

For Jesus whom Thou dost present as food;

I long to savour more of this delight

Since I have tasted that the Lord is good.

Thou didst, blest Spirit, open up my ear

To hear the Saviour when I was astray;

Help me to listen and have ears to hear

Thy word to the assemblies day by day.

Though Moses died His eyesight did not dim -

O Spirit of the Lord control my sight

That with my eyes exclusively on Him

My body always may be full of light.

The Lord of life has touched me in my need:

He lifted me and set me up through grace -

Blest Spirit, help me handle well I plead

The substance of this elevated place.

A life entirely for the Father's will

And death entirely to the Father's mind

Rose as a fragrance - may, blest Spirit, still

Such fragrance rise from those Thou hast refined.

(I was reminded of this old one by https://freshinsightsonancienttruths.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-danger-of-distractions.html?sc=1759662611678#c7761740279406800422

More of the Firth of Forth (from Fife)

THE COMING ONE

 

Once unto Israel’s remnant
Thou wast the Coming One
They saw Thee in the temple
And hailed their rising sun;
And still a waiting people
With opened ear and eye
Desire the Coming One’s face
And long to hear His cry.

The Firth of Forth