THE HOLY SPRIT (iii)

Eleven men were standing
Beside the fervent preacher;
But - he'd denied the Master!
How could they stand with Peter?
The Spirit's power commanded
New courage and fresh speaking
Transforming all their actions.
What kind of men were needed
To do the menial business?
Men who we filled, like Stephen,
With wisdom and the Spirit.
His service superseded:
Towards God's people, Israel,
He preached God's last appealing.
And such a man was Philip
Who, having served at tables,
Soon was evangelistic -
Directed to the waste-land
He listened to the Spirit
And preached the Christ as Saviour
Until he was uplifted.
The Spirit had selected
A "son of consolation"
From Antioch's assembly
To join with Paul's campaigning -
Subject to Him, their service
Towards those of the nations
Was powerful and effectual.
After he was forbidden
To speak the word in Asia,
Sensitive to the Spirit
Of Jesus, Paul first waited;
Then came the westward vision
And Europe was invaded
To spread the Saviour's kingdom.
Imprisoned for His Master
The great apostle listened
(Unwillingly laid fallow)
To promptings of the Spirit.
As living in their grandeur
He told in His epistles
God thoughts in all their vastness.
While on the Isle of Patmos,
Becoming in the Spirit,
John saw again his Master,
If in a changed condition.
He thus was undistracted
To hear of God's provisions
To settle Earth's transactions.

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.

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.

HOLY SPIRIT

But who has shown the Bride the worth of Christ
And led her to appreciate His grace?
Who makes His presence a reality
And quickens us, and strengthens us, and helps?
The Holy Spirit whom the Father sent.

Considering the Spirit’s patient work
In service to the Lord and to His bride
We honour Him; considering the end
He has achieved we bow; considering
The glory that is personally His
Although He has descended in His grace
We worship, And considering the love
Which motivates His industry, we love.

And He is with us in the Father’s house
Because He is the Spirit of God’s Son
And Spirit of adoption.  He has cried
Within us “Abba, Father” and thus taught
Sons how to speak - and given power to cry:
Give thanks to Him for making sonship real!

And for us to have access to the Father
Is a great wonder - we approach through Christ
And would not wish to come apart from Christ;
While we are strengthened by the Spirit’s power
And could not come without the Spirit’s power.

PASSOVER

Outside is the blood

Smeared on the doorposts; inside

They feast on the lamb.

EARTH

Hewn forms; formations sculpted
Into grand beauties or grotesque grandeurs;
Softer mouldings ‑ curves and slopes,
Green with life; and the dark oceans
And white waters surging without
And springing within; crags, plains,
Swamps, meadows, savannahs, deserts,
Earth comprises. For man, carved
Arena of his actions, evoking
God's operations. God's flood
Clearing one scene conforms rock,
Water and soil to freshly construe
A place for the sons of men to be:
A place for the Son of God to effect
Purposes of God conceived outwith
Time, sin, earth and man.

LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED

Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe on God, believe also on me.  In my Father's house there are many abodes; were it not so, I had told you: for I go to prepare you a place; and if I go and shall prepare you a place, I am coming again and shall receive you to myself, that where I am ye also may be.  John 14: 1-3.

                              I

Let not your heart be troubled God reminds,
Our life is hid with Jesus Christ on high.
So, brethren, let us shake the ties that bind
Us fast onto things that can’t satisfy.
Our tears and sufferings may drag us low,
And make us feel devoid of hope or song,
But Jesus left us here a while to go
Prepare the perfect home for which we long.
Let’s hold onto this hope, though comes the rain.
Our Savior’s hands will soon remove our tears.
The memories of our trials won’t remain,
Just joy and bliss through endless, endless, years.
So put on joy for trials will not stay,
And live for Christ until this blessed day.

© Rachel Svendsen 2014

                            II

"Let not your heart be troubled", Jesus told
The eleven as He girt them for their grief:
Knowing their faith in God He could unfold
That He would be their Object of belief.
He told them, "In the Father's house there are
Many abodes"; He would prepare a place
Distinctly ours, above the highest star,
Where we shall be before the Father's face.

"I go", He told them, and the going meant
The cross, the tomb, the garden, and the throne;
He came alone; but through the way He went
The Christ our Lord did not remain alone.

For, taken from the scene where we have grieved,
It is unto Himself we are received.

David C Brown

                               III

Always there comes this parting of the ways
The best is wrested from us, borne away,
No one is with us always, nothing stays,
Night swallows even the most perfect day.
Time makes a tragedy of human love,
We cleave forever to the one we choose
Only to find ‘forever’ in the grave.
We have just time enough to love and lose.

You know too well this trouble in our hearts
Your heart is troubled for us, feels it too,
You share with us in time that shears and parts
To draw us out of time and into you.
I go that you might come to where I am
Your word comes home to us and brings us home.

Malcolm Guite

I was interested to see these reactions in sonnets to John 14.  Links to the other writers are:
http://rachelsvendsen.com/2014/11/11/sonnet-john-141-6/
https://malcolmguite.wordpress.com/2015/06/05/let-not-your-hearts-be-troubled-a-new-sonnet/

I have received Rachel Svendsen's permission to post here, and assumed that of Malcolm Guite.

CLOTHING

Marred by rebellion, which God loathed,

And cast out by their sin

Adam and Eve still go out clothed

By God in coats of skin.

So though we all display sin’s taint

By habit and by birth

We may go forth without restraint

Clothed in the Saviour’s worth.

The younger son was steeped in wrongs

God could not but detest -

The Father shows where he belongs

And clothes him in His best.

And thus repentant sinners find,

Though consciously undone,

God’s every act towards them is kind -

He clothes them in His Son.

Though merely human goodness drags

The priest’s clothes in the mire

God substitutes for filthy rags

His festival attire -

Outwith the range of Satan’s barb

We stand before God’s face

In pure and splendid priestly garb

Made suitable through grace.

The elders sit around the throne

Each clothed in robes of white,

Secured by God to be His own

And dwell with Him in light:

All thought of variation past

Through Christ they are complete;

They bow before the throne and cast

Their crowns before His feet.