01/01/05

Man took the wrong fruit
In Eden - yet God still grants
Fruit in rich variety.

31/12/10

God determines time,
Year and month and week and day
Being fixed by nature.

30/12/10

One atom infests
Sword, ploughshare, blood, which is one
Of God's ironies.

29/12/10

Opportunity
To hear what the Spirit says
To the assemblies!

HOW GRAND THE REVELATION!

The mighty God, who dwelt alone,
Before the world’s foundation,
In perfect light, has been made known -
How grand the revelation!

The Lord of glory took His place
Within His own creation
To demonstrate transcendent grace -
How grand the revelation!

We know the One who took our part
For our emancipation
And to disclose the Father’s heart -
How grand the revelation!

And, brought to know God’s holy Name,
His sons with exultation
Expand their praises and exclaim -
How grand the revelation!

DISTINGUISHING

God distinguishes
One Man - who distinguishes
Us as His co-heirs.




Off to Yorkshire for a week's holiday, leaving the blog for Jane's care and attention.

PAUL ix

And in all things the Spirit of Christ beamed:
Railed at, he blessed; persecuted, he suffered it;
Every way afflicted, but not straitened;
Seeing no apparent issue, but his way not
Entirely shut up; conscious that if he was
Persecuted he was not abandoned; knowing
He was persecuted because of the cross of Christ.
For who desired like Paul to live piously
In Christ Jesus? Blessed they who are persecuted
For righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens!
But there was other suffering too – the mark,
Rather than fighting, of a good soldier. If he
Was in tribulation, it was for the encouragement
And salvation for the saints; rejoicing in sufferings
For them, filling up that which is behind of the tribulations
Of Christ in his flesh, for His body, which is the assembly;
Ready to again travail in birth for his children
Until Christ shall have been formed in them.
And for himself he learned, “And he said to me,
My grace suffices thee; for my power is perfected
In weakness”. While he reckoned that the sufferings
Of this present time are not worthy to be compared
With the coming glory to be revealed to us.



This concludes this series of considerations of Paul, particularly based on 2 Timothy 3 10. You'll find another view at:

http://dcbverse.blogspot.com/2009/02/paul.html

PAUL viii

Hard to disentangle persecutions and sufferings
In Paul’s account: in labours exceedingly
Abundant, in stripes to excess, in prisons
Exceedingly abundant, in deaths oft. From the Jews
Five times he received forty stripes, save one.
Thrice he was scourged, once stoned, three times
Have suffered shipwreck; a night and day
He passed in the deep: in journeyings often,
In perils of rivers, in perils of robbers,
In perils from the Jews, in perils from the nations,
In perils in the city, in perils in the desert,
In perils on the sea, in perils among false brethren;
In labour and toil, in watchings often,
In hunger and thirst, in fastings often,
In cold and nakedness. Thus he conquered
And more than conquer through Him that had
Loved him – who had first showed him
How much he must suffer for His name.