GRAVE

If in the Adam

The paths of glory

Lead but to the grave,

In the Christ

The paths to the grave

Lead to the glory.

HOPE

I will hear His cry

Calling me away

I will rise

To the skies

Evermore to dwell on high -

Will it be today?

I will see His face

Filling me with bliss.

What delight

In the sight

Of the Man who came in grace:

Where is hope like this?

And I shall be changed

Suited to His love.

As is He

I shall be

As the grace of God arranged,

Home with Him above.

THEIR GOD

After the death of Joseph, God’s dreamer,

Egypt haltered Israel,

Bowed under brick.

What did they need? God knew well

And, sovereignly philanthropic,

Came as Redeemer.

Shot of the Egyptian, their horse-dealer,

Fed by the Passover lamb,

Led through the Red Sea,

With tambours psalming their psalm:

Yet God perceived their need that He

Should be their Healer.

In the desert, watered by Moses’ rod,

Daily fed by manna, yet

Flesh-bridled to err,

Meandering with regret

They found God willing to be their

Tabernacle God.

Come to the land of honey, milk, cedar,

Store-corn, water-brooks, brave towns

And walled enemies:

As they wreaked justice on crowns,

Sword or wall in their victories

God was their Leader.

Such-loving-kindness! What an investor

Of love! What adaptation

To His people’s need!

Till, glad in His salvation,

In the house to which His plans led

God is a Rester.

LIFE

It is encouraging as we pursue

Our way through scenes of death to know

God has another world of life in view.

Mid this world’s hunger I have amplitude

Of sustenance as under God’s command

To go to Jesus for my seed and food.

There is defence from all that would defraud

God of response and me of joy and peace

Because my life is hid with Christ in God.

There is a flock and, in such company,

The Shepherd leads us to abundant life

Within the pastures of His liberty.

Lifted outwith this piteous world’s malaise

We know affection which surpasses thought

And lift to God a song of gladsome praise.

CENTRE

Reading the Gospels

I have found a Centre where

My mind reposes.

HIS KINGDOM

His kingdom will not cease

To flourish and increase

In righteousness and peace.

THE ROCK

Free to be bound for where I willed

I tramped; by-ways, cross-paths, bent

My footsteps; what turned my campaign?

What stumbling-block hampered me;

What damped? No end appeared,

However long my feet stamped

Or my muscles struggled. With no lamp

To lead, nothing in which to confide,

What tampered with my will? Justice, that Rock,

Broke me, blocked me, drove me from my own way.

But where to hide? Where I ventured

Storms mock and shafts of lightning

Deride meagre strivings. That Sinai

Cannot provide a shelter. Yet truth

Is my only Rock and Refuge:

Oh grace and truth deploys

The cleft in which, safe, I abide;

Mercy was guide up to this haven.

Blood poured, a saving tide

From the stricken side of the Son of God.

After these ways and such protection

Rescued by mercy and by God's grace,

Saved, sustained and nobly elevated.

From being cock of my own dunghill,

Set among nobles, one stone

In its place; with a princely people.

These feet once grazed now prancing,

Hinds feet, firm on the Rock.

What power to convey a lofty degree:

Co-heirs with the pre-eminent Man!

From my new stance, seeking sweetness

For enhancement of fresh modes of love,

Joy to my countenance, power to make me

Dance, where should I go? The Rock,

Sublime answer to each circumstance,

Seemed to unlock - the honey poured.

No time or chance will now meet me

For which there is no solution: Christ -  

For me to gather, His undeviance,

His loveliness, my model, my way of advance.

So long deplored, the old structure

Lies shattered, not to be restored

Nor rebuilt. Where can I Build? The Rock

Rejected once, now adored, constitutes

The only Foundation. Here God has worked - 

This sure place. Knock and chisel

The stones till their curbed forms afford

Virtue of the bed-rock; ignore no fault

But relish quality, a good hoard

In each exploring consonances of Christ.

Fruits flourish; the tree sprouts

By the pure spring whose attributes derive

From its source, the struck Rock; psalms

Erupt from hearts; bruiting with joy

Clear compositions. The Spirit's flow

Contributes the music. By still waters

The bright flock, rested in safety,

Imbibes what distributes health,

Fresh responses. Through water free

From pollution or harm the purity wells.

Oil exudes; sucking from the Rock

Let us exploit what God provides

From It to employ our hearts in praise

As anointed servants; let light shine

From us who walk in the Spirit's power

To express God's goodness in voice

And ways. Employ priests lips,

Priest's members in all our days.

From our Rock towards our God loose

Rejoicing, admiration, adoration, love!

WHAT ...

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.

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.

COLOUR

Blue -

Thus He appeared to God:

The heavenly Man.

Purple -

Least imperious, but

Most imperial Man.

Scarlet -

God has distinguished

The most distinctive Man.

Byssus -

This was the Man who most displayed

Fineness and purity.

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!

LAMB

Sometimes the owner

Gives the shepherd a lamb

For himself.

And how that lamb is fêted,

Cherished and nourished,

With the acme of

The shepherd’s skill.

I am

The shepherd’s lamb,

Lord Jesus.

MOTHER

    1
 
Week by week we saw
A daughter's duty and love
Enveloped "home" - until
Love and duty came to be needed
In daily care.
 
She had always cared
As a sister: the long
Journeys bore a sister's care
To where the need lay
In a sister and her children.
 
Two trees together may form
An arch - supporting each other,
Shading others.  One dies - the other
Still shades; but still leans. So
She was as wife; and as widow.
 
I cannot remember the first
Smile, but will never forget
Her last one to me.  Between
How many to us to make her
Mother of all mothers.
 
All the relationships of nature
God gave; and gave grace
To relish and work out
With cheerful patience till the day
God chose to rend them.
 
    2
 
But that grace depended
On the grace that had reached her:
So she received Jesus, He 
Who was rejected.  Born of God
She was, through the Father's love,
One of the children of God.
 
Through grace and the Spirit's power
That too was fulfilled and enjoyed,
Step by step with the Saviour,
Irradiated with divine love
Till, through grace her influence,
Made her "a mother in Israel".
 
Yet when the vessel was shattered
At the fountain these relationships
Broke also, their burden and gladness
Not to be resumed.  But the preciousness
Within, gathered in these relations,
God now has in His custody.

    3
 
But grace has brought a new song to her lips
Which shall be heard throughout eternity
For love in purpose gave relationships
To be enjoyed in perpetuity.
 
The Son of God has died and lives for her;
His Spirit in her heart shed love abroad;
The Father called: the Trinity concur
In placing her among the sons of God!
 
Christ gave Himself for her and she will shine
As a constituent of His glorious bride,
Whose glory and formation are divine,
Who is forever at her bridegroom's side.
 
Oh mercy, loving-kindness, grace and love
Which gave such blessings - and a home above.
 
8-16 July 2013

We experienced the Lord's help and support today in the meeting for ministry 

on the occasion of my mother's burial and at the grave side.  Thanks for prayers. 

PRESENT LOVE

If love had led Him to the grave

For those whom He desired to save

Love leads Him as a risen Man

To serve in every way He can.

If one is grieving, in distress,

He comes to comfort - and to bless;

If one denied the Lord before

He comes to cherish and restore;

If some turn from Jerusalem

He goes their way to shepherd them.

But more, through all that He has wrought,

He comes with secrets of God’s thought,

Comes to the circle of His own

That there He should be freshly known.

This is based on Luke 24, the Lord's activity as a risen Man.

BLESSING

She taught me God’s word,
Prayed for me, and showed to me
Courage in all things.

Written 09/08/04 in the year of counting my blessings.

JESUS

My mother read of Jesus
In our black Bible book;
I heard of His compassions,
And sympathetic look.

My father read of Jesus
Who came to clear men's sin
Once in the course of ages
To make us clear within.

The preachers told of Jesus,
Descended from above,
Who came to deal with sorrows
In His descending love.

His people spoke of Jesus
Upon the Father's throne;
They praised and sang and worshipped
Because they were His own.

At length I came to know Him -
Compassion was for me;
For me He came from glory,
For me endured the tree.

For me He has ascended
To sit at God's right hand;
For me He sent the Spirit
That I might understand.

For me he has provided
A company of saints;
For me His ear is open -
He listens to my plaints.

The stories about Jesus
Are wonderful and true,
But do you know His sorrows
Were undergone for you?

The glorious love of Jesus
Is always fresh and new;
It warms the hearts of many -
But is it known by you?

We know God gave to Jesus
The place that is His due
But now He seeks the first place
Within your heart, from you.

The Lord is coming for me,
And all who are His own,
To take us to be with Him
And with Him share His throne.

Will you be one who answers
His great assembling cry?
Will you be waiting, ready
To live with Him on high?

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.

MAN

We have sinned, and the pain of this

Cross is just. How can

We make any claim? But this Man

Has done nothing amiss.

We have sinned - whether beginner,

Runner, finisher, our race

Has been perverse, contrary to grace:

Yet, this Man receives sinners.

We have sinned - and sins release

Turmoil: outwith, against God, or men;

Within untwisting, twisting again,

But, this Man shall be peace.

HIS SAINTS

They have enrolled in that grand company

"The dead in Christ": the saints who gave God pleasure

From Abel onward; who served faithfully,

Spoke often of Him, and became His treasure.

They laboured for the Lord and for His own

As He Himself delighted to record

Till in His love and wisdom they have known

The blessedness of dying "in the Lord".

Jesus they loved and spoke with day by day

Since He had laid His life down for His sheep:

Enduring death, He took death's sting away:

He touched them, and through Him they are asleep.

Behold He comes! They will arise to meet

With all His own at that exalted tryst

And in transformed, immortal bodies greet

Our glorious Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.


Written years ago - but come to mind in the present time.

MOTHER

When my father died my mother -

According to the family style -

Kept going; that he died

Speaking of his Lord to a sick friend

As a saint being saintly,

Comforted. Yet later she admitted

That that day her song-bird

Died in her too.

When her brother Tom died

That was more bitter:

Instantly, in a bookies,

As a sinner being sinful

With no known regard

For grace and faith. Had he,

For eternity,

Backed the wrong horse?

Her brother Bobby’s death

Came to her in an envelope

From an Australian social worker.

If he was a wanderer wandering

She took comfort from two words,

“His Lord”.

Now, day by day, doors close;

A bus is a step too high,

Shops a step too far, “home” -

Her birthplace, a road too long.

In faith and grace, and mild humour,

She keeps going, patient for

Whatever translation

Her Lord has in mind for her.

My mother is now with the Lord; she fell asleep through Jesus very peacefully in the early hours of this morning.  The poem above was written several years ago.  Her time of keeping going is now over.

"We are confident, I say, and pleased rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord", 2 Corinthians 5: 8.

HEART

When a broken heart
Meets the heart of God, God's heart
Meets a broken heart.

7/7/13

NEAR

The word is near

That in the gospel we can preach,

Which cast out fear:

Jesus is Lord and, by His breach

Through death, salvation is in reach.

The Lord is near

His own in testimonial days

With words of cheer

Sustaining them through desert ways

And waking their delighted praise.

The time is near

When Christ the Lord will take His throne;

He will appear

With myriad saints who are His own -

His through His work and worth alone.

THOUGHT

To see Jesus’ face

Is the most exciting thing

That I can think of.

HE LOVED ME

When God in Christ came near to man

According to His glorious plan

He loved me.

When Jesus suffered on the tree

To bear my sins and set me free

He loved me.

When Jesus lay within the tomb

Enduring its oppressive gloom

He loved me.

When He had risen from the grave

Having acquired the right to save

He loved me.

When from the place of power and love

He gave his Spirit from above

He loved me.

And through eternity I'll still

Remember with a deathless thrill

He loved me!

Please continue to pray for my mother who is very weak.

CROSS

Every moment of

Three dark hours of suffering

He suffered for me.

FATHER THOU LOVEST

(A Roundel)

Father, Thou lovest and how well

That love was shown when Jesus came

Here, among men of earth, to dwell.

Father, Thou lovest!

And here He has made known Thy Name

To those whom grace and love compel

To come to Him and own His claim.

He, by the Spirit, would compel

Our fervent voices to proclaim,

As with delight our spirits swell -

"Father, Thou lovest!"

THE TRUE SOLOMON

In the subversion of man,

Satan and death;

In the promotion of another

Manhood, Lord,

We see wisdom.

In the assembly,

An administration of blessing,

Where Thou hast a dwelling

We see

The house that Thou hast built.

The food of Thy table!

What variety we have in Thee:

An oblation, a passover,

Peace-offering,

Fresh ears, baked loaves -

All to our taste.

Persons of another marque

From worldlings, in dignity,

Act as children of wisdom

Portraying

The deportment of Thy servants.

We can appreciate

As the angels can

The all-various wisdom of God

In the order of service of Thy servants

Which the Chief Musician ordered.

In their needs - Christ

For coats of skin;

In their testimony - Christ

For armour;

In their privileges - Christ,

The Best Robe:

What apparel for Thy servants!

Men who have had

A vine before them,

Who have admired its growth,

Relished the lush grapes,

And their wine for God,

Are Thy cupbearers.

But what an acme

Of grandeur, a zenith

Of accomplishment, what

An ascent: Lord,

Thou art He who brought

Many sons to glory!

WONDERFUL ...

We know He has done wondrously

And has acquired the right to rule

In righteousness and equity -

We know that He is Wonderful.

He gives us wisdom from above

And all the help we ask Him for

Because of His abundant love

Through which He is our Counsellor.

All things He made in mighty power -

From craggy peak to grassy clod,

From lofty tree to tiny flower:

We bow to Him as Mighty God.

Millenially His fatherhood

Will warm earth tenderly to assuage

Sin's legacy, and bring in good

As He is Father of the Age.

He makes sin's turmoil in the soul

Of every one who trusts Him cease,

And all the nations, as made whole,

Will own Him soon as Prince of Peace.

My mother continues in weakness, bright and waiting for the Lord to take her.  Thank you for your prayers..

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.

LOVE

God loves those

On whom, in His sovereign purpose,

He has set His heart.

Christ loves those

Who are given to Him

By the Father.

The Father loves those

Who have affection

For the Son.

The Spirit loves those

In whom His activities

Have formed Christ.

The saints love those

Who are associated with

The heavenly Man.

ASK FOR A SIGN

"Ask for a sign" the prophet told the king;

"Ask for it in the deep or in the height."

King Ahaz sneered "I will do no such thing".

How great the sign of Jonah to incite

Wonder at God's unfathomable ways,

Bringing one man through darkness into light!

How great the sign of Solomon's great days,

His splendour and the wisdom which God gave

To rule His people and to bring Him praise!

There is a greater sign now in the grave,

Its depths and darkness entered for His own

By Christ that to the utmost He may save.

There is a greater sign now in the throne

Where Jesus sits, acclaimed at God's right hand,

Whence all the power of heaven may be known.

If you touch depths you cannot understand

Remember what your Lord endured for you

That heavenly power might be at your command.

If you reach heights, with Jesus in your view,

And know relationships in which to bask,

Remember all the depths which He went through.

"Ask for a sign" - God longs for you to task

His willingness and nature - knock! seek! ask!