PERFECT

A perfect love
Outside time
Conceived the seed-plot,
Seed, blade, bloom,
That there should be fruit
To perfect love's satisfaction.

A perfect Man
Uncorroded by sin,
Undeterred by mankind's
Reiterated insult,
Unmovable from the perfect will
Could be the perfect sacrifice.

A perfect work
Enduring the severe sword
And meeting every charge
Against us, every challenge against
God, has been completed,
In perfect righteousness.

To which God gave
The perfect answer - making Him
Both Lord and Christ;
Now He sits
Awaiting the perfect time
Upon the Father's throne.

The perfect result!
A city, having God's glory,
Descending from heaven:
Having "her shining"
To the eternal satisfaction
Of perfect love.

GIVING

He could have given the mountains, the forests, the lakes or the plains;
He could have given the cities, the kingdoms, or all their pelf;
He could have unleashed the tempest, or wakened the force of the rains;
They were His to do as He wished with. But He didn’t - He gave Himself.

GOD IS SUPREME

God rules in majesty and might
And all things serve His will;
Unrighteous rulers do the right
He binds them to fulfil,
While He has acted that His mind
Should be His prophets’ theme
And saints secured from humankind
Acclaim Him as supreme.

But God, desiring that His heart
Should no more be concealed,
Came out in Jesus to impart
Truths richly now revealed.
The Father, Son and Spirit now
Abide in hearts of saints
Secured as worshippers who bow
As freed from sin’s constraints.

If sin had made this sphere impure
Before the dawn of Man
God worked in wisdom to secure
His own eternal plan.
In Christ He challenged Satan’s power
And seized his panoply:
Then, in the darkest, weakest hour
Christ won the victory!

In answer to Christ’s loving heart
God has secured the Bride,
His helpmate and His counterpart,
Derived, as from His side.
It is the fulness of the Head
The assembly now displays,
While in Christ Jesus being led
To give God endless praise.

DAVID

Before the exploit
God saw a character of manhood
That he could designate
"A man after my heart".

Seeing his subject spirit,
His faith, and his delight
In God's pleasure, he was "a man ...
Who shall do all my will".

When the exploit came
The beauty within him,
The excellent qualities,
Shone with a fresh sheen.

The giant defeated,
He became a centre of attraction
As others awoke to a glimpse
Of God's view of the man.

Features and actions
Glimmer forth the light
Which blazed forth in the Root
And Offspring of David.

6/5/12

CHRIST IN THE WILDERNESS

The Lord, the Son of David,
    named Son by God's decree,
Whose excellence of bearing
    is like the cedar tree,
As One who was prepared to
   fulfil all righteousness
Was carried by the Spirit
  into the wilderness.

The Christ, the Son of God, in
   whom God had found delight,
Prepared to be a servant,
   despite His sovereign right,
In holiness which only
   His manhood could express
Was driven by the Spirit
   into the wilderness.

Jesus, the Son of man, come
   in condescending love,
As He on whom the Spirit
   descended as a dove,
In manhood in perfection,
   as heaven and saints confess,
Was led by the same Spirit
   within the wilderness.


27 May 2012

WHAT LOVE DICTATED

Although He lived His life amid
Those who dismissed the will of God
What love dictated, that He did.

God had no reason to forbid
The impulses that moved Him since
What love dictated, that He did.

Although His nation tried to rid
Themselves of Him, in care for them,
What love dictated, that He did.

In grace He went to where God hid
His face from Him and, suffering,
What love dictated, that He did.

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 HEART OF MAN

There is everything
In Christ which the heart of man
Can assimilate.