THE BELL

(Redemption)

"I was founded in Edinburgh

In 1612,

By the care of William Blackwood,

Bailie of Dunblane,

And stayed so in my exercise

Till 1657,

When I was broken by

The unskilful direction and handling

Of some men;

And by the care and expense

Of Henri Blackwood, son of William,

I am found again at Brimin,

1660."

(Inscription on a bell in Dunblane Cathedral.)

And for your thoughts and prayers - I set off today for a couple of weekend in India, to visit believers on the Lord Jesus there.

GATHERING

The Lord is glad to see His people gather

Emerging from their homes to come within

His own guest chamber, showing they choose rather

The suffering pathway than the way of sin;

In their desire to please Him they are led

To pay allegiance to their absent Head.

And they, assembled, see in one another

The Spirit's work, which cannot be denied,

Esteeming well each sister and each brother

As one for whom their Lord and Saviour died;

While they appreciate that every one

Is given by the Father to the Son.

They own Christ's claim acknowledging that whether

In life or death they are the Lord's; for He

To whom they raise their heart and voice together

Has operated that they might be free;

Since His great love had bound Him to fulfil,

Despite the depths of sorrow, all God's will.

SOUNDS

Seeing a man

Whose hearing and speech were bound

Jesus groaned.

Beside the grave of Lazarus,

Pained by the power of death on human lives,

He groaned in spirit.

Over Jerusalem,

His loved city, audibly,

He wept.

Upon the cross,

Before He died, He uttered

A loud cry.

Into His own,

A raised, risen Man,

He breathed.

We await

His coming, His triumphant

Shout!

....DEPTHS AND HEIGHT....

He Who held all the waters in His hand

And meted out the heavens with His span

Came near in grace no man can understand

To touch the children and the leprous man.

He who the heaven of heavens cannot contain

Who said that He would dwell in hidden gloom

Came down in light and love, and being slain,

Was laid within the compass of a tomb.

He who in mercy took the sinner's place,

Descending to the greatest depths for me,

Has now ascended to the throne of grace

And at His Name all men shall bow the knee.

BUILDING THE WALL

He's a perfectionist, Uzziel:

Smooth stone clings to smooth stone,

Jointed together. He works slowly

Bringing to masonry

The goldsmith's carefulness.

You can smell it on his clothes,

He is not used to the dust of building,

Yet he works stolidly,

Hananiah the perfumer.

His muscles ache but grow firmer.

Strange to see Rephaiah,

Ruler of half Jerusalem,

Out of his council robes,

Grubbing among the rubble,

Hammer and chisel in hand.

With his house facing the danger

  Storms and stones and arrows 

Jedaiah (his wife and children

Cowering in the yard)

Has the greatest incentive to labour:

He builds for strength, not beauty.

I know little of Hattush.

He is a reticent man.

He structured this rampart alone.

Malchijah was not content

  His own patch established 

To lounge, watching his fellows

Still struggling at their tasks.

His energy and time

He spent on this wall and tower:

He had his friend Hasshub to help.

Look at those girls!

Shallum, the other ruler,

Having no son

Has his daughters labouring for him,

Measuring, chiselling, carrying:

They are forming a sturdy bulwark.

Nehemiah 3

JESUS CHRIST IS THE SAME

Men climb and fall. Each in his day

Rises on mounting waves of fame

Till the waves break in froth and spray

But Jesus Christ remains the Same.

From riches which words cannot say,

Because of His great love He came

Into the deepest poverty,

Yet Jesus Christ remained the Same.

From past eternity's sublime

Relations to an infant's frame

Within the range of death and time

He moved, but always was the Same.

Jesus could utter words of grace

Or in His Father's house declaim

Against polluters of that place

And still in all things be the Same.

Seen on the mountain clothed in white

Or in the scarlet robe of shame

He caused His Father's heart delight

Since every scene proved Him the Same.

Though He heard Peter own Him Son

Or in the High Priest's house disclaim

All knowledge of Him He was one

In mercy and in love, the Same.

In love He reached the depths for men

And in His body bore the blame

For those who trust in Him   but then

In death or life He was the Same.

But His arising power displayed

The justness of His splendid claim

That altogether what He said

He was, He was indeed, the Same.

Peter and John, in faith, could call

Upon Him to restore the lame

Showing that though ascended all

His power and grace remained the Same.

Throughout the dispensation’s length,

Attacked by persecution's flame,

His own received the needed strength

In knowing Jesus Christ the Same.

They did not fear as dreadful power

Of those who merely kill or maim

But found the grace in every hour

That comes alone from Christ, the Same.

The Lord knows those who own His sway

And every one who names His Name

Departing from iniquity

Proves succour since He is the Same.

Soon we will greet the glorious day

To which our longing spirits aim

When He will come to catch away

His own to find Him still the Same.

Then in the time of setting right

His power will make the nations tame

Till all will find in Him their light

And own that Christ remains the Same.

Throughout eternity His own

For whom he suffered will proclaim

No man but Jesus Christ alone

Is, was, and is to come, the Same.

This was written shortly after the Lord took my father in late 1980; his last words were, "Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, and today, and to the ages to come".

BLESSINGS

I thought I deserved

Few; God showed that I deserved

None:   but gave me all.

The best of this earth

I would have chosen: God gave

No less than heaven.

"Blessed" would have sufficed:

But God was not satisfied

Without "blessed...in Christ".

HYMN

Blessed God we thank Thee, for what Thou hast made us:

Sons and priests before Thee now to magnify Thy Name.

Jesus is the Centre; now, with Him, we enter  

He once, to bring us here endured the shame.

Though complete in power, strength and might and glory

Thou dost now delight to have an answer to Thy love;

Blessing overflowing to Thy saints is showing

Grace to Thine own till called with Christ above.

 For a tune try

MARY

She, in her own flesh,

Enfolded "the holy thing"

Awaiting its birth.

Motherly, she swathed

The Child, lovely to God,

In the warm swaddling bands.

More treasured that gold

She wrapped in her mind

Words, prophecies, actions.

Though she was not among those,

Brother and sister and mother,

Embracing Him in their circuit,

His time come

She stood beside the cross,

The sword entering her soul.

She saw the dank tomb

Enclosing in harsh rock

The linen  swaddled body.

Proof of His glorified life

Soon she forever enshrines

The Holy Spirit of God.

ALIVE TO GOD

(Remembering Andrea)

Alive in every natural relation,

Alive in all the joy of life,

And, through God's operations in salvation

Amid a world of death and strife

She was alive to God.

But suddenly God took her from the duty

And joy of earth's relationships

One said she lay there "in her usual beauty"

As blood and flesh relaxed their grips

Alive to none but God.

And now the earthen vessel has been broken

With all the claims of earth;

For no one may refute what God has spoken.

Yet while we smart at death and dearth

She is alive to God.

She, with his saints, awaits the resurrection;

She, with his saints, awaits Christ's call:

She will arise, clothed in a fresh perfection,

Assembling with His saints who all

Will be alive to God.

CENTRE

Physicists say the atom

Comprises a nucleus

Surrounded by electrons

Perpetually gyrating,

Minus attracted by plus.

And biologists aver

A nucleus is the germ

Of even the smallest cell  

Each part derives from its genes

In structure, function and health.

Astronomers have revealed

A system thirled to the sun

Where planets and comets wheel,

Faster as they are nearer,

As attracted by its bulk.

I also need a centre

To attract my wandering,

Concentrate my endeavour,

Structure me, forge me newly

And, warming me, make me live.

What ideology can

Pivot my life? What weltgeist

Can guide me? None. But one Man

Is able and willing. I

Cling to my Lord Jesus Christ.

THE FATHER

Oh what can we say of Thee, Father?

Thy greatness exceedeth our praise:

Yet Thou in Thy grace

Hast found us a place

Through Thine own ineffable ways.

We think of the glory of purpose

Before all creation began

That Thou shouldst acquire

What thou didst desire  

Thy sons brought to Thee in one Man.

We wonder at what it has cost Thee

For Thou didst not spare Thine own Son;

Thy love is displayed

In what Thou hast paid:

We praise thee for all Christ has done.

And Thou art the Father of glory

Whom Jesus rejoiced to proclaim

But we are drawn near

Where love casts out fear

To praise thy most glorious Name.

Thy power and Thy glory excelleth,

Thy wisdom comes down from above;

Yet wisdom and might

Secured Thy delight

Since both were subservient to love.

"CUTTING IN A STRAIGHT LINE"

"Practice, yes   but practice only

May be repetition of error; understanding

Is required; hand, elbow and shoulder

Must be and must remain in line.

If the hand wavers the surface cut

May be straight but the done work

Will reveal the wavering line. And the mind

Must exclude all else, concentrate

On its one objective, its single achievement."

ABUNDANCE

Abundant mercy from on high

Has answered all my need:

In me there is no reason why

A righteous God should justify,

No other cause to plead.

Before the throne of God I fall

And for abundant mercy call!

Abundant grace of Christ on high

Has answered my desire;

The grace that made my Saviour die

Has lifted me and brought me nigh

With Christ as my attire;

Within this elevated place

I glory in abundant grace.

Abundant love of God on high

Exceeds desire or thought;

For God delights to dignify

And by His Spirit glorify

The sons whom Christ has brought;

I praise the God who will display

Abundant love eternally.

FEET

Swaddling bands, lovingly wrapped,

Protected tiny feet

From the cold and from jagged straw.

Damp from Jordan's water

His feet carried Him to the wilderness,

To the brash abrasion of sand.

He who could move in an instant

From Judea to Galilee

Traversed Samaria on foot.

So the women, loving their Master,

Bathed His feet in these ointments  

Myrrh, nard and tears.

Why then did men drive nails

Into these holy feet?

Living again He could say,

As evidence of His life,

"Behold My hands and My feet".

He sits at God's right hand

Till His enemies shall be made

The footstool of His feet.

FREE

When I was bound by sin

And far, O Lord, from Thee

In love, alone, Thou didst atone

Thy blood has set me free.

Abiding in Thy word

Which comes in grace to me

And following on where Thou hast gone  

The truth has set me free.

 

Within the Father's house

Where I through Christ may be

I am at home and gladly roam

The Son has set me free.

THE HOUSE OF THE HIGH PRIEST

Pungent curl of smoke,

His face glowing in the firelight,

A draught chilling his back  

"I do not know the Man".

Jostle of rough elbows,

Eldritch firelight on scarred faces,

Furrowed, interrogative brows  

"I do not know the Man".

Shriek of a frightened fowl,

Eerie twilight shining,

A sharp, accusatory maid  

"I do not know the Man".

A second cock crow.

A look. A sword to his heart. Again

Peter, stumbling from the murderous house,

Began to know the Man.

VESSEL

He left this to no prentice hand  

The Master toiled, day upon day

Himself. Ages ago he planned

This vessel. See the splendid way

The light reflects   that's since the ore

Was purified by Him. He used

Purification none before

Could have applied to it. He mused

On how the metal worked and beat,

Harshly, we thought, the basic form;

We wondered, seeing it complete,

Already structured to conform

To what was in his mind. But next

He tapped a gentler quicker rate

Till no one else saw how his text

Varied from it. But, consummate

In craftsmanship, unsatisfied,

He saw an imperfection here

Or there and deftly reapplied

His hammer. He would persevere

For hours. Till after beating one

Last perfect stroke he gave a deep

Contented sigh   "The work is done:

This is a vessel I will keep."

ANABASIS

We straggle forward.
The line
Elongated as the weak
Slow,
A wounded snake stretched from the fore horizon, to the rear horizon,
I am too fagged to look at.

What is that sound?
We have heard pursuers,
The gritted wind,
Vultures.

What is the sound?
Like an echo, but
Unlike an echo, since
It grows louder.

To our harsh desert
Where a thousand Greeks
Strew their bald corpses
This sound sings down the line.

Hearken, brothers, hearken:
Pass back the strong men's shout,
"The Sea, the Sea". 

Here's the story on another blog; but I think we can see a Christian 'parable' in it!

PRAYER FOR MY DAUGHTER

Since her frail coracle is set
Upon a swelling watercourse
When tumbling waves and tides have met
Guide her against their evil force!

Give strength and aid to us who try,
From our own fragile crafts, to keep
Her course from rugged rocks which lie
Threatening to hurl her in the deep.

And bring her safely home at last,
Secure eternally from harm,
Where no seas swell and no winds blast
Within the haven of Thine arm.

NATURE NOTES

Looking over the Sound of Sleat
to the Isle of Skye

NATURE NOTES

White - puffs of cloud,

Sails, a gull's back, the bow-wave

Of the fishing-boat.

Blueness - the calm sky,

The distant Cuillins; rippling

Of the Sound of Sleat.

Greenness - the blown grass,

Shade on shade of leaves, mattness

Of the far mountains.

Yellow buttercups,

Purple foxgloves and clover -

Is that red fuchsia?

The Isle of Eigg
with the Sgurr to the left.

The Isle of Muck
from the Sound of Sleat

HYMN

Father, Thy glory radiating out
Around the vast creation Thou hast planned
Bows us as in its splendid rays we stand;
Removes from us unfaithfulness and doubt.
                             
Only through Jesus can we enter in:
But for His work we would be lost in night.
Now through His work we too are His delight;
The sinless One removed, for Thee, our sin.

In Thine own nature Thou art ever love;
Thou art revealed in Christ, Thy well‑loved Son.
Only as in the worth of that blest One
May we be brought before Thyself above.

To Thee belongs the worship of our heart
For the magnificence of all Thou dost;
Now, to Thy glory, sons, a loving host
Respond for all Thy works and all Thou art.