THERE WAS A MAN

There was a Man

Who incurred man's hatred
More than any. But to His own,
And to God, entirely lovable.

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THERE WAS A MAN

There was a Man

Untainted by the rot

Of this world's sin. For

All was pure.

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THERE WAS A MAN

There was a Man

Whom the world's injustice

Pinioned. Because every thought

And deed, was just.

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THERE WAS A MAN

There was a Man

Amid the world's

Churls. God saw each

Of His acts was noble.

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THERE WAS A MAN/TRUE

There was a Man

Amid a world lying

In the wicked one; all

He said was true.

This is a multipoem, or several poems.  You may follow route one for a series of considerations of the Lord Jesus in varied circumstances, tested against the features mentioned in Philippians 4:4.  Or you can follow route two for the series of poems, True, Noble, Just, Pure, Amiable.  Or you can wander your own way forward from this verse to create a poem that no one else may ever have read.  But there is no turning back.  I would love to hear how you get on the journey.


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LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED

"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.

IDOLS

1 HAST thou heard Him, seen Him, known Him?
Is not thine a captured heart?
Chief among ten thousand own Him,
Joyful choose the better part.

2 Idols once they won thee, charmed thee,
Lovely things of time and sense;
Gilded thus does sin disarm thee,
Honeyed lest thou turn thee thence.

3 What has stripped the seeming beauty
From the idols of the earth?
Not a sense of right or duty,
But the sight of peerless worth.

4 Not the crushing of those idols,
With its bitter void and smart;
But the beaming of His beauty,
The unveiling of His heart.

5 Who extinguishes their taper
Till they hail the rising sun?
Who discards the garb of winter
Till the summer has begun?

6 'Tis the look that melted Peter,
'Tis the face that Stephen saw,
'Tis the heart that wept with Mary,
Can alone from idols draw:

7 Draw and win and fill completely,
Till the cup o'erflow the brim;
What have we to do with idols
Who have companied with Him?

Miss Ora Rowan (1834-1879)

PSALM 48

¹ Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.
² Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.
³ God is known in her palaces for a refuge.
⁴ For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together.
⁵ They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and hasted away.
⁶ Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail.
⁷ Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.
⁸ As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish it for ever. Selah.
⁹ We have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple.
¹⁰ According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: thy right hand is full of righteousness.
¹¹ Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments.
¹² Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof.
¹³ Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following.
¹⁴ For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.

GRACE

AN STUC

Superstar

Peace

Blooming Marvellous

Delicate Beauty

The Pilgrim