12/10/04

They flow, or they leap,
White on hillsides, dark in plains,
The blethering burns.


A bit of Scots creeps in: a burn is a stream, and to blether is to chatter.

11/10/04

They lie, blanketed
In bread, in concentrated
Sweetness, each day’s dates.

10/10/04

There is a Person,
Unique in the universe -
God, yet truly Man.

09/10/04

God has established
Righteousness for me - the just
Shall live by his faith.

08/10/04

They flow, or they leap,
Beating, fluttering: words live
A sense of rhythm.

BLOG-FOLLOWERS

For the first time
I write specifically for
You, blog-followers.

For forty years the spring
Has babbled forth - you now
Set your vessels to catch some water.

You gratify me - yet
I fear lest I assume
Laurels crown my writing.

If any gold
Can be panned from my stream
Another has put it there;

If any refreshment touches
Your palate Another
Has settled the silt out.

May salt from the new cruse
Cause that this stream
Bursts with pureness only.


This marks a six hundredth blog - not the hard work of others as it is mainly issuing was was written long before. Thank you all for your interest. Remember I may not now have ready access to your blogs with the occasional comment from you.

To the Lord Jesus be the glory!

HIS KINGDOM

His kingdom will not cease
To flourish and increase
In righteousness and peace.

GETHSEMANE

The deep agony
Of Christ told itself out in
Few, yet mighty, words.

GUIDE

If Satan should deride,
Or tempt us in his sleekness,
The Spirit is our guide
To help us in our weakness.

Within is sin and pride,
Outside is sin and bleakness;
The Spirit is our guide
To help us in our weakness.

He's ready to provide
The grace to grow in meekness;
The Spirit is our guide
To help us in our weakness.

MAN ACCORDING TO GOD

Here where men had displayed
Every feature of shame
Jesus came
And portrayed
Man according to God.

As Christ hung on the cross
That His own might be free
God could see
Mid such loss
Man according to God.

At the Father's right hand
Christ is glorified now;
As you bow
Understand
Man according to God.

Soon the world will behold
God and heaven's delight:
In their sight
Will unfold
Man according to God.

Saints through all Christ has done
Will be blessed and refined
He will find
In each one
Man according to God.

HEAVEN

Heaven - yes, that is
Where my Saviour lives.

No, not that only
It’s my Father’s home.

Actually, my name
Is registered there.

That is where I have
My inheritance.

Amazing? How amazing!
Love is at home there.

My life? It is hid
With the Christ, in God.

You, also? You can
Share all these blessings.

LEAVES

The colours of autumn leaves
Are always there - awaiting
Display. On the tree my Saviour
Shone with beauties
That were always there.

Leaves do not fall from
A dead branch. His was a death
Which had life
Intrinsic in it.

Spring has fresh beauty -
Pullulant with life. A Sprout
For beauty and glory
Has sprung forth!


See Isaiah 4: 2

GOTTES PLAN

Wie wundersam ist Gottes plan:
Fur uns - die seligkeit;
Und mehr - fur Gott durch einen Mann,
Die ewge Herrlichkeit.
Jetzt Gottes Herz ist kundgemacht:
Dem Ihm sein Preis und Lob und Macht.




If this doesn't make sense in German I won't be in the least surprised!

VERSES

What a Friend the sinner has in Jesus
Who will take his burdens all away;
He endured the distance and the darkness
That we might be brought into the day.

What a Lord the Christian has in Jesus
Who is seated on the Father's throne;
From that place He gave the Holy Spirit
And gives grace which cherishes His own.

What a Son the Father has in Jesus
Who was always pleasing in His sight;
Through His worth and all He has accomplished
God eternally will have delight.

SECOND FAMILY

Jemima
The product of God’s workmanship,
Without shadow of the night
“Beautiful as the day”.

Keziah
Suitable to imbue,
To anoint, a king’s garments,
“Cassia”.

Keren-happuch
Another class of beauty,
Brightness out of sorrow,
“Horn of paint”.



See Job 42: 14

LOVE

In His love for our souls, and God's purpose,
The Lord Jesus came down from above;
And we see at the cross of Golgotha
The intense demonstration of love.

As the witness that Christ is ascended
The blest Spirit has come from above;
And we see in the days of His service
The prolonged operations of love.

As the Father in wisdom's arrangements
Has remained in the glory above
He has welcomed His sons to His presence
As at home in the realm of His love.

We have access through Christ by the Spirit
To the Father, whose realm is above,
And the Father, the Son, and the Spirit
Give the full presentation of love!

CARE

Because the Father knows my need
And He is always good
He gives the body to the seed
To be my daily food.

All that is needed He will know
Before I ask or think;
He furnishes the rain and snow
To be my daily drink.

At the first moment I could see,
Although yet unaware,
My heavenly Father cradled me
Within a mother’s care.

It is His pleasure to impart
Each instant's needed breath;
He moves the pumping of my heart
And shelters me from death.

Yet if I die His Christ will keep
My body in His sight
Until He wakens me from sleep
To lead me into light.

I thank Thee, Father, for Thy care
Which guards me in Thy love
Until eternally I share
My place with Christ above.

GRACE

From eternity
God’s mind was that His grace should
Be operative.

DISPENSATION

Blest Spirit, since this time of grace began,
Thou hast been diligent that there might be,
On earth, a vessel that the heavenly Man
Could recognise as "Me".

And Thou didst work through the apostle Paul
In patient teaching and effective grace
To form in cities what the word could call
The assembly in the place.

And if, in love and wisdom, God desired
To try His people Thou didst give through John
Teaching to guide whatever ills transpired
And succour to go on.

Following righteousness, faith, love and peace
In separation we will not succumb
To this world's wiles, blest Spirit, but increase
Until the Lord shall come.


24/09/09

07/10/04

Language - not just mine -
Through which men in every place
May praise their Maker.

06/10/04

God has provided
Microbes for my health, working,
Secret and silent.

05/10/04

It is a blessing -
I’m told - to live on a world
With a liquid core!





But I'm afraid the science of this escapes me now!

04/10/04

The gospel reached me,
But God’s word appeals to me
Lord’s day by Lord’s day.

03/10/04

Precious in the sight
Of the Lord is the death of
His saints... work completed.

02/10/04

Reading of earthquakes
I give thanks for a standing
Upon solid ground.

01/10/04

The seen may not last
But for the moment, through grace,
My eyes taste the light.

30/09/04

“The earth is the Lord’s”
But He gave it in grace to
The children of men.



For those who don't know: on my fiftieth birthday I was told to count my blessings - while I still could. So I counted a blessing for every day until my next birthday. I'll put some in for the next few days (if the Lord will!). If you go to: http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/blessings/7098835 you can buy them. Or just email me and I'll send a copy. If you enjoy them please say so on Lulu.

MARRIAGE

What were the guests wearing?
Each one a wedding garment,
Each one that Best Robe
Which the Father provided.

What did the Bride wear?
Fine linen, righteousnesses
Of the saints
Particular in delicate tracery.

What did the Bridegroom wear?
Ah, the Bridegroom!
“Myrrh and aloes, cassia
Are all Thy garments.”

Myrrh?
Yes, for we will not forget
The suffering way by which
The Bride was won.

Aloes?
From those His people,
Aloe trees
Which Jehovah hath planted.

Cassia?
Kezia, product of the
Second
Which He alone established.

See - Psalm 45: 8; Numbers 24: 6; Job 42: 14; Hebrews 10: 9, etc.

MAN ACCORDING TO GOD

Man according to God
Is portrayed by the Son;
What a pathway He trod ‑
Man according to God!
He has spread grace abroad
Through the work He has done.
Man according to God
Is portrayed by the Son.

FATHER

FATHER

He whose mercy would not shun
Us who were by sin undone
But who gave His only Son
Is the One we know as Father!

He whose love would bring us up
To His house that we might sup
Gave His Son the bitter cup
That we might be near the Father!

He who did not spare His Own
That God's mercy might be known
Seated Him upon the throne
That belongs to God the Father!

He who strengthens us with might
To make present to faith's sight
Breadth and length and depths and height
Is the Spirit of the Father!

At the end of all God's ways
And these changing years and days
Christ will yield, to God's own praise,
Rule to Him who is the Father!

SAVIOUR

Dead in trespasses and sins
I lay ‑ till quickened
By the Son of God.

Sin acting,
I was a leper
Until He touched me.

Sin darkening,
I was blind
Until He enlightened me.

Maimed by sin
I staggered
Until He made me straight.

In sins bonds
I languished
But He has loosed me.

He touched my ears
And tongue ‑ that now
I may speak right.

I lived in poverty ‑
He came to share it
And to enrich me.