SWEETNESS

Sweet is the blessing,
Sweeter the love that blessed, but
Sweetest the Blesser.

A MAN IN BONDS

They came within the hall in state
With all the pomp and power accrued
By those the world considers great.
Yet happy in their presence stood
A man in bonds.

What caused the happiness of Paul?
He was the freest there because
Each other soul within that hall
Under sin’s awesome burden was
A man in bonds.

Moved by the Saviour to repent
And finding Christ as his reward
Paul could be happy and content
To be, as “prisoner in the Lord”,
A man in bonds.

HOW MUCH THE FATHER MEANT TO HIM!

When Jesus walked His earthly way
How much the Father meant to Him!
He loved to hear at break of day
The words His Father had to say.

Should one betray, and one deny
While priest-led crowds called “Crucify!”
How much the Father meant to Him
As Christ went to the cross to die.

Upon the cross when all was done
Which He endured for everyone
Who owns Him God’s beloved Son
How much the Father meant to Him!

How much the Father meant to Him -
When glory brought Him from the dead,
When glory’s light was freely shed,
And glory crowned the Victor’s head.

JESUS

I cannot get enough of Jesus -
He is enough to overflow my heart
With all His loveliness and goodness,
With blessings He is longing to impart.

I long to see Him come in glory,
And long to be forever near my Lord,
Knowing His loveliness and goodness,
And having Him as blessing and reward.

But things of time still catch my fancy
Distracting me from Jesus and His grace,
Shading His loveliness and goodness
By putting clouds between me and His face.

O Holy Spirit, help me in my thinking,
And help me thwart the work of flesh and sin
That more His loveliness and goodness,
May fill my view, that Christ may dwell within.

ATTRACTION

Heaven’s attraction
Is its perfect harmony
With the mind of Christ.

MEETING

What met your need and made you bow?
Christ crucified.
What meets you in God's presence now?
Christ glorified.

JEHOVAH

(Genesis 22)
Upon the holy mountainside
The patriarch saw within the thorns
The ram, entangled by its horns.
He found - Jehovah will provide:
Jehovah-Jireh.

(Exodus 17)
Among the raging of the fight
Sustained by Moses on the mount
The people found that they could count
On God to help maintain the right:
Jehovah-Nissi.

(Judges 6)
The people’s failure caused decrease
Yet Gideon, humble and discreet,
Worked in the wine-press threshing wheat
And gained Jehovah’s word of peace:
Jehovah-Shalom.

THE MAN

The Man who opened the ears
Of the man who could not hear
Was history’s greatest Listener.

The man who anointed the blind man
And brought light into his life
Was the greatest Seer among men.

And of the Man who raised
Dead from the dead it was written
“In Him was life”.

06/12/04

I am united
To Christ in - and only in -
His resurrection.

05/12/04

We have Julian,
Apprenticed to priestliness,
Practising prayer.


My son, aged 15 at the time I wrote this.

04/12/04

Nothing is to be
More appreciated than
The grace of Jesus.

03/12/04

Ultimately all
That has not sprung from the Lord
Will pass out of sight.



And in the light of all these blessings - I am doing very well!

02/12/04

Outside the city
God gives us His therapy
Of well-chilled fresh air.

01/12/04

Welcome, little friend,
To a cold world - where many
Will gladly warm you.


This was the date when my first grandchild was born.

(I'm afraid the fiftieth birthday was a few years ago now - before postings began!)

30/11/04

It remains the same,
The moon, but our earth's movements,
Change it to our view.




Time for a few more "Blessings"; 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. If you go to: http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/blessings/7098835 you can buy them or download them. Or just email me and I'll send a copy. If you enjoy them please say so on Lulu.

THE LORD JESUS CHRIST SAVIOUR

This is the Man for whom our hearts are waiting:
The Man who is the Lord Jesus Christ Saviour,
Who will effect the final transformation
Of these, the bodies of our humiliation
To be like His in final conformation
According to His power for subjugation.
And while that moment is still anticipated
We grow in knowledge of all His undertakings
But, more than that, of His abundant graces,
Seeking to keep the word of Jesus' patience,
Craving perfection of partly known relations:
To Him be glory throughout eternal ages!


I use Philippians 3: 20 as the basis for this as one of the most extensive titles of the Lord Jesus.

LORD JESUS

Luke introduces the title of Lord Jesus
Anticipating the blessings of this era;
And Paul develops the title as a feature
Of church response in power of Christ's inbreathing.
He is the One His bride admires in nearness:
No other vessel assesses Him so clearly
Nor can express His glories so completely.
He is the Lord rightly described as Chiefest
And in His name is power of our beseeching,
While acting in that name is what will please Him.
Finally John reveals the mutual speaking
"Lord Jesus, Come" which crowns the Spirit's eon.

CHRIST

This was the Hope before the whole twelve tribes:
They laboured till He came, by day and night.
Yet when He came they would not own Him Christ
Or that this title was righteously ascribed.
God found the Man who answered to His mind,
Whose excellence was human and divine
Since He was holy, harmless and undefiled:
So He anointed Him for His delight.
This was the Christ foreknown before all time
Who proved His worth in His resplendent life;
This is the Christ in whom our souls can hide,
Who has redeemed us at a transcendent price.

LORD

Peter might learn his sin and be distraught
Admitting that the Saviour should withdraw,
Yet at that moment he owned that Christ was Lord.
Saul might be smashed while battling against God,
Ravaging those Christ purchased at such cost,
Yet at that moment he owned that Christ was Lord.
Till as time passed Peter could grandly talk
About his Master that He is Lord of all.
And Paul would teach that man's salvation was
To own Christ risen confessing Him as Lord,
While God will act that all things should record
The glorious fact that Jesus Christ is Lord.

JESUS

O Jesus, Jesus ‑ the Man of Galilee,
The Man who came to make His people free:
The Man whose Person is of so high degree
They were repelled when He answered “I am He!",
Yet who was sold for such a paltry fee;
Despite His sorrows that Man refused to flee
But took the way which led Him to the tree;
The Man who always hears the sinner's plea;
The Man whose glory the universe will see.
In their response to the divine decree
All living things to Him will bow the knee:
Oh Jesus, Jesus ‑ the Man who died for me.


We'll have a few from "Touching the King" now.

LOVE

God’s love subsisted
Before the necessity
For grace had come in.

BELOVED

As Joseph sought his brethren till
He found them, by his father’s will
He wore the many-coloured vest
Which showed his father loved him best.
Thus Jesus in His earthly days
Showed by the tenor of His ways,
And in the grace with which He moved
He was the One whom God approved.

THE BELOVED

I am redeemed
In the Beloved;
The Father has been declared
By the Beloved;
I am to hear
The Beloved;
I am taken into favour
In the Beloved.

THE LOVE OF JESUS

Conscious of the love of Jesus
I would be a man like John,
Close to Christ when he is leading,
All my wish to follow on;
I would lean on Him at supper,
Strengthened by his loving heart;
I would gain from Him the answers
Which His loving would impart.

Week by week He gives His supper
To remind me of His love
And the boundless grace which brought Him
Down to earth from heaven above,
How He gave the precious body
Which God’s wisdom had prepared,
Shed His blood to buy and save us
That God’s love should be declared.

In His love the Lord has given
His own Spirit as my guide;
One who will be with and in me,
Who will graciously abide;
He is working to conform me
To my Master’s ways and thought
Till throughout eternal ages
All shall see what grace has wrought.

In His love the Lord now serves me
So that I am fit to share
Joys and blessings of affection
He rejoices to prepare;
And it pleases Him to make me
Part of His beloved wife;
For whose sake, in love’s perfection,
He delivered up His life.

LOVE

If God has made known
His love, He has done it
By the Man who best
Knows love.

LOVE

A Saviour’s love has reached for me
When I was swamped by sin;
He plucked me from the sweeping sea
And made me warm within.

A Shepherd’s love has shouldered me,
Guided when ways were rough,
Herded me on the mountain’s lee
And over-filled my trough.

A Father’s love has brought me up
And given me its best,
Through Christ I live, on Him I sup
And in Him I am blest.

The Spirit’s love works in my heart
That God’s love may be spread.
By Him Christ chooses to impart
His impetus as Head.

INDIA

I have put a few of the photographs from my last visit to India at:
http://dcbindia.blogspot.com/
You can get there via my profile.

LOVE

The greatness of God’s love
Is that of an ocean
Not a river - grace is
A river sourced in His love.

YEA, HE LOVETH THE PEOPLES

(Deut 33 v 3)

All his saints are in thy hand...
Coming through the wilderness,
Coming to the promised land:
How He loves to care and bless -
Yea, he loveth the peoples!

...And they sit down at thy feet...
Knowing thus the better part,
Since Thy teachings are so sweet
That they satisfy their heart:
Yea, he loveth the peoples!

...Each receiveth of thy words...
To supply their spirit’s needs
Naturally as the birds
Feed upon the ripened seeds:
Yea, he loveth the peoples!

Back to DCB

DONE IS A BATTELL

Done is a battell on the dragon blak,
Our campion Christ confoundit has his force;
The yettis of hell are broken with a crak,
The signe triumphall raisit is of the cross,
The divillis trymmillis with hiddous voce,
The saulis are borrowit and to the bliss can go,
Chyst with his bloud our ransonis dois indoce:
Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro.

Dungin is the deidly dragon Lucifer,
The crewall serpent with the mortall stang;
The auld kene tegir, with his teith on char,
Whilk in a wait has lyne for us so lang,
Thinking to grip us in his clowis strang;
The merciful Lord wald nocht that it were so,
He made him for to failye of that fang.
Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro.

He for our saik that sufferit to be slane,
And lyk a lamb in sacrifice was dicht,
Is lyk a lion risen up agane,
And as a gyane raxit him on hicht;
Sprungen is Aurora radious and bricht,
On loft is gone the glorius Apollo,
The blisfull day depairtit fro the nycht:
Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro.

The grit victour again is rissen on hicht,
That for our querrell to the deth was woundit;
The sun that wox all pale now schynis bricht,
And, dirkness clerit, our faith is now refoundit;
The knell of mercy fra the heaven is soundit,
The Cristin are deliverit of their wo,
The Jowis and their errour are confoundit:
Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro.

The fo is chasit, the battell is done ceis,
The presone broken, the jevellouris fleit and flemit;
The weir is gon, confermit is the peis,
The fetteris lowsit and the dungeon temit,
The ransoun made, the prisoneris redeemit;
The field is win, ourcomin is the fo,
Dispulit of the tresur that he yemit:
Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro.

William Dunbar, c1460 - c.1513
I'm not endorsing every word of this in doctrine, but it shows the reality of appreciation of the work of Christ even in pre-Reformation times.

LOVE

Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack'd anything.

'A guest,' I answer'd, 'worthy to be here:'
Love said, 'You shall be he.'
'I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,
I cannot look on Thee.'
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
'Who made the eyes but I?'

'Truth, Lord; but I have marr'd them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.'
'And know you not,' says Love, 'Who bore the blame?'
'My dear, then I will serve.'
'You must sit down,' says Love, 'and taste my meat.'
So I did sit and eat.

George Herbert. 1593–1632

ALL HEAVEN IS BLAZING

All heaven next hit is blazing yet
With the meridian sun:
Make haste, unshadowing sun, make haste to set;
O lifeless life, have done.
I choose what once I chose;
What once I willed, I will:
Only the heart its own bereavement knows;
O clamorous heart, lie still.
That which I chose, I choose;
That which I willed, I will;
That which I once refused, I still refuse:
O hope deferred, be still.
That which I chose and choose
And will is Jesus' Will:
He hath not lost his life who seems to lose:
O hope deferred, hope still.

Christina Rossetti
1830 - 1894