THE HOLY SPIRIT

                 II

"The Holy Spirit shall come
Upon thee", the angel said:
Conceived by power from above
In wonders no words can express
The One now known as the Son
Embarked on no path on earth
Unless the Spirit's power worked.

To be baptised in Jordan
Jesus had faithfully come;
After He left the water
Heaven acknowledged His worth:
In form as with a body,
Fashioned as that of a dove,
The Spirit came upon Him.

Then towards the wilderness
The Son of God was driven,
As the Holy Spirit led,
To force the devil's kingdom;
Satan's promptings were dispelled:
Inditings of the Spirit
Must repel the devil's strength".

"I, by the Spirit of God",
He told them, "cast out demons".
Who had the right but the Lord
To exercise His freedom?
Being the Man that He was
The meek, dependent Jesus,
Showed, by the Spirit, God's law.

By the eternal Spirit
He offered Himself to God;
Even that greatest giving
Was dependently performed;
Dying for us, as living,
He must, by the Spirit, accord
Truly with man's condition.

Having brought to them His peace
The Lord as a risen Man
Sent His own forth as in-breathed,
The Spirit within their hearts;
Out of death He did not cease
To use as He gave their charge
Holy Spirit in each deed.

Ascended at God's right hand,
Being the Man that He is,
His primary manward act
Was to establish this link -
The Spirit was sent to hearts
Formed to receive such a gift
To promulgate Love's commands.

ENDS

How does it work,
The Computer, where pulses form
New virtualities on
A myriad screens?  How
Does it interpret the messages,
Without interferences, to achieve
A myriad ends?  The science nearly
Is as far beyond me as the achieving
Of the multifarious ends
Of the operations of God.
Lake View
28/06/11

BRIDE AND BRIDEGROOM

How much the Lord appreciates His bride
Who is enough to satisfy His heart -
And what a loving heart the Bridegroom has!
His heart rejoices in her moral worth
Her suitability to Him, and her
Spirit-taught apprehension of Himself.

How much the Bride appreciates the Lord -
His purity and life attract her heart.
He is a banner raised above a host,
His mind concordant with the glory of God
As are His acts and movements.  Purity
Forms speaking or emoting.  He displays
The glorious dignity of righteousness,
The upright mien God looked for in a Man,
She knows Him in the aura of His love
Which suffered once, which answers to her now
The product of His work, on new-found ground:
“Myrrh, aloes, cassia are all thy garments”.

30/05/05

The Spirit of God

Always works from the summit

Because He is there.

30/06/05

The lusts of the world

Are for a time; but God's love

For eternity.





I got my date wrong yesterday.

29/05/05

In the Father's house

Sons with the Father enjoy

Music and dancing.

28/05/05

Sons have received a

Spirit of sonship, not a

Spirit of bondage.

PLACE

Christ's place is above
And the place of the Christian
Is above "in Him".

SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST

If the Sacrifice, at Golgotha
Was tested by fire, in Gethsemane
Its quality
Had been proved in the water.

If perfect obedience led
To the anguish of the cross
It had led in the garden
To His words to the Father.

If a real Man accepted
The angel's ministration
This Man endured the cross
Without consolation.

If His sweat, on the mount,
Fell as great drops of blood,
From His pierced side at the cross
Came out blood and water.

If Gethsemane showed
The Altar's four-square strength
At Golgotha the Sacrifice
Was bound to its horns.

RELATIONSHIPS

Companions of the Christ owning Him as
The One whose company they wish to share
Together we enjoy relationship
Secured in resurrection as His brethren:
Relationship which death thus cannot hurt.
See the Lord Jesus crowned among His own
The apple tree among the other trees!
He who was honoured in an adverse world
Is honoured now where all conforms to Him.

United in their love for the Lord Jesus
And being kindred to the heavenly Man
The saints conjoin in fervent adoration
And Christ receives them as His worthy Bride,
Which glorifies Him with the Bridegroom’s name.

27/05/05

Because we are sons

God has set in our hearts the

Spirit of His Son.

26/05/05

He who bore the storm

Is the One who in mercy

Balances the clouds.

25/05/05

Near an old city

I rejoice in a city

Which has foundations.

24/05/05

Away from humans

I hear only the sound of

The birds and the wind.

RESOURCES

Divine resources
Beyond creation - deployed
To reach God's purpose.

LORD JESUS, COME

Lord Jesus, come,  and take Thy faithful wife
To be with Thee  as Thy resplendent bride:
She is secured  at an amazing price
And cherished by  the vigour of love’s might
Through and despite  the ravages of time.
None but Thy church  can be for Thee Thy like
Nor can approach  so close to the divine.
What lasting joy  her presence will incite
As close to Thee  where nothing can divide
And she will have Thee as her paradise;
Take to Thyself  this finest paradigm
Of all Thy love  acquired for its delight!

THE HOLY SPIRIT

              (I)
Over the waste and the depths
Hovered the Spirit of God,
Mourning the ruin and dearth,
Longing for life to respond;
Out of the chaos of Earth,
Something would answer His call:
Something would breathe with His breath.

A few selected servants
Gave a place on which to be:
A Samson or a Jephthah
Could not furnish lasting peace.
In even David's fervour
Rest could not be complete:
That needed Someone perfect.

But He could rest on Jesus
Sublimely and entirely;
There He could dwell in freedom
After His years of striving:
If that strife had been ceaseless
As Jesus moved towards dying
That Dwelling-place was peaceful.

Then the Holy Spirit came
Down from the ascended Man;
On the Pentecostal day
Many hear the heavenly blast
And beheld the tongues of flame.
Christ enthroned at God's right hand
This descending predicates.

Now within suited persons
Secured for God by the Lord,
He has acquired a dwelling
Replete with what He has sought;
Each is a holy temple
To show the God of glory
Being a home forever.

Now within the Assembly
Brought to the Lord by Himself
He can distribute blessing
Out of this place of His rest;
Here in peace he can relish
Growth of the Bride He indwells,
Fit for Christ to cherish.

Till as result of His work -
Making her suited to Christ,
Helping her savour His love -
She will conform to God's mind;
Joining their voice in one word
Spirit and Bride can unite,
Calling for Jesus to come.

23/05/05

The ancient cannon

Perched beside Lincoln Castle

Has been long silent.

The sent me for some training in Lincoln.

22/05/05

"But thou hast in love

Delivered my soul from the

Pit of destruction".

THE LORD JESUS

Thus as we see the glory of His love
He comes before us as the risen Man,
The Victor over death, the only Man
To leave the grave in His inherent right
(And in the glory of the Father’s might).
And praising and acknowledging His worth
We worship since in person this is God.
Participating now in what He was not
Yet personally being all He was
This is I AM - come near to us as Man.
And we rejoice to acclaim Him as a Man
Pre-eminent in every scene He enters:
Amid creation, Firstborn of Creation,
In resurrection, Firstborn from the dead,
And with His own Firstborn of many brethren
Surrounded by whose love He is anointed.

MOUNTAINS

First, Ararat - God had established
New ground for man; then that mountain
Where He demonstrated the principle
Of sacrifice; at Horeb was founded
New covenant ground; and Zion showed
Mercy's sovereign rights; best things
Of the ancient mountains.  But now
Christ is recognised in the mountain
Of legislation; is signified as Son
On the transfiguration mount; while from the great
And high mountain the assembly glory
Shines in its serenity: the precious
Things of the everlasting hills.

Warrenpoint
1/7/11


The hills are the Mountains of Mourne, Northern Ireland

GLEANINGS

Among God’s ancient chosen race
Who always tended to rebel
One came to show the heart of God,
Whose title is Emmanuel.

“God with us”, to express God’s love,
To show His constant will to bless,
To bring a humbled nation back
And to fulfil all righteousness.

The poor in spirit were His care,
Hungerers, those who mourned, the meek,
And all whom human pride despised;
Such were the ones He came to seek.

He listened to His Father’s voice
Each morning from the time He woke,
And His disciples came to know
The Father of whose grace He spoke.

The children God had given Him,
Under His word and touch, began
To grow in grace and thus display
The features of the heavenly Man.

He praised His Father that though He
Was One the nation might despise
The Father had revealed to babes
What had been hidden from the wise.

If Israel despised His rights
And thus blasphemed the Father too
The Gentiles were embraced to share
In concepts which were wholly new.

For He was minded to secure,
To His great cost, the entity,
Unnamed as yet to men, which would
Delight Him to eternity.

But Who was this who in His grace
Among the needy humbly trod?
The Father sovereignly revealed
It was the Christ, the Son of God.

Into a world of sins and ills
One who was God in Person came,
And His assembly can be built
On the confession of His Name.

Yet if that joy for Christ and God
Will merge as a celestial whole,
It meant His suffering and death,
It meant the anguish of His soul.

Those who are faithful to His Name
Through this can be victorious
As conscious of the present love
Of Him who came as “God with us”.

21/05/05

The blue Fiesta

Rolls the tarmac behind it

To return home.

Still going strong (!) six years later.

20/05/05

The other senses

Are happily brought in line

By the sense of sny.

The definition of sny is: "An upward bend in a piece of timber; the sheer of a vessel.”

I have borrowed the idea of a "sense of sny from a published poet.  This came to mind in the context of my sister-in-law's illness.  While she could actually use her five senses she lost the co-ordination between them that I mean by a "sense of sny".

GLEANINGS (From a Weekend in Warrenpoint)

It was God's purpose that He should secure
A universe that satisfied His heart,
And He has operated to ensure
Christ is its Head - yet men may have their part.

And if we are to enjoy the privilege
God had in mind before the world began
It only can be as our hearts engage
In more communion with the heavenly Man;

And if we are to be for God's delight
And have our blessings firmly in our grip
We must be those whose pathways are in light,
Finding in it the joys of fellowship.

But if I laxly let my light grow dim
Or outward pressure terrify, or shock,
We know God's purpose is secure in Him,
And that His church is founded on the rock.

19/05/05

For a believer

Every day on the path is

Learning at Work Day.

That must have been "Learning at "Work Day" 2005.

18/05/05

There's ministry old

And new, and there's Mr Meek's

"Raising the Level".

 Ministry of a brother recently with the Lord at that time - he had a touch of his own!  I think there's some still in stock.