poetry

  • Palm Sunday ~ To Jerusalem ... For All Nations

    Matthew 16:21
    From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem
    and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes,
    and be killed, and on the third day be raised.

    Luke 13:33
    I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following,
    for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.

    Zechariah 9
    9  Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
    Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
    behold, your king is coming to you;
    righteous and having salvation is he,
    humble and mounted on a donkey,
    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
    10  I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
    and the war horse from Jerusalem;
    and the battle bow shall be cut off,
    and he shall speak peace to the nations;
    his rule shall be from sea to sea,
    and from the River to the ends of the earth.
    11  As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
    I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
    12  Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;
    today I declare that I will restore to you double.

    Isaiah 49
    3  And he said to me, “You are my servant,
    Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
    4  But I said, “I have labored in vain;
    I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
    yet surely my right is with the LORD,
    and my recompense with my God.”
    5  And now the LORD says,
    he who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
    to bring Jacob back to him;
    and that Israel might be gathered to him—
    for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD,
    and my God has become my strength—
    6  he says:
    “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
    to raise up the tribes of Jacob
    and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
    I will make you as a light for the nations,
    that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

    Matthew 28:20
    ... the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

    Romans 3
    21  But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22  the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24  and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25  whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26  It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

    27  Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28  For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29  Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30  since God is one. He will justify the circumcised by faith AND the uncircumcised through faith.

    Palm Sunday
    (To Jerusalem ... For All Nations)

    To Jerusalem, Lion of Judah must go
    To acquit His flock, render them white as snow

    Last Adam lifted up on Calvary's tree
    In our place, to suffer, die, and bleed

    To become a curse, burnt offering for sin,
    Spotless Lamb, all our iniquities laid on Him

    Set His face like a flint, endured the cross,
    Not one the Father gave Him will be lost

    Zealously labored to bring His Father fame,
    Endured the cross, despising the shame

    The gladness of His seed He kept in full sight,
    His Father's will was His desire and delight

    To bruise Him was the Father's pleasure
    To redeem His elect, His peculiar treasure

    Covenant mercies flowed through His precious blood
    O! Just and Justifier! How great a salvation!

    Rejoice greatly, O! daughter, shout aloud!
    Salvation revealed, make a joyful sound!

    Fear not, hear Him, God's only begotten Son,
    Christ, our Passover: "It is finished! It is done!"

    Behold! Your King has come, lowly and meek,
    To ransom His bride, set His prisoners free

    Jesus Christ, a servant of the circumcision,
    Yea, from the Jews, redemption sprung

    Hidden mystery for ages, since before creation,
    Yet now to all nations, glad tidings are sung

    The evangel to be published by beautiful feet,
    God's dominion and glory advancing from sea to sea

    Grace given to preach to ev'ry tribe and tongue,
    Peace through His cross –– O! reconciling blood!

    This morning, as you raised your voice and palm in exaltation,
    Did you recall God's plan to gather a people from all nations?

    In Sunday worship, with your uplifted hands,
    Did you plead for the unreached in many lands?

    Today, according to the Joshua Project (http://www.joshuaproject.net/):

    Total People Groups: 16,594
    Unreached People Groups: 7,162
    % People Groups Unreached: 43.2 %

    World Population: 7.03 Billion
    Population in Unreached Groups: 2.87 Billion
    % Population in Unreached: 40.9 %

    John 10:7  So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8  All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9  I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 11  I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12  He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13  He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14  I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15  just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16  And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17  For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

    John 11:45  Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, 46  but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47  So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the Council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. 48  If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” 49  But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. 50  Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” 51  He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52  and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. 53  So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.

    * * *

    The Way is open, prisoners far and prisoners near!
    Humble yourselves, through Jesus Christ, to God draw near!

    Put no confidence in your failing, mortal flesh,
    Receive by faith Christ's perfect righteousness

    Trust no longer in your works, but to the stronghold flee
    Justified by faith in Christ alone, be grafted to the olive tree

    Cry, "Hosanna! Save now!" and He will appear,
    The prayer of the destitute He always hears!

    John 6:37  All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38  For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39  And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40  For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.


    Related:

    Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Emphasis mine.

    Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jesus_entering_jerusalem_on_a_donkey.jpg  / CC BY-SA 3.0 / Public Domain

  • the baby in her womb: his joyful leap is for our learning ~ John Piper


    On this day, the fortieth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, I've included some excerpts from the prepared text of John Piper's sermon, The Baby in My Womb Leaped for Joy (Luke 1:24-45), which was given four years ago, on January 25, 2009, a few days after the inauguration of the Barack Obama to his first term as President.    ..

    The aim of this message is to awaken and intensify your joyful, grateful reverence for the gift of human life from conception to eternity. The beginning of human life is a magnificent thing. There is nothing else like it. Only humans come into being day after day, created in the image of God, and live forever—with God or in hell.

    There is no compelling evidence in the Bible or anywhere else that any animals come into being with souls, or that they live after they die. There is no compelling evidence in the Bible or anywhere else that angels are being created today. The only being in all the universe who keeps on originating and then living forever in the image of God is man. . . .


    A New President, Trapped and Blinded

    As everyone knows, our new President, over whom we have rejoiced, does not share this reverence for the beginning of human life. He is trapped and blinded by a culture of deceit. On the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, he said, “We are reminded that this decision not only protects women’s health and reproductive freedom, but stands for a broader principle: that government should not intrude on our most private family matters.”

    To which I say . . .

    • No, Mr. President, you are not protecting women’s health; you are authorizing the destruction of half a million tiny women every year.

    • No, Mr. President, you are not protecting reproductive freedom; you are authorizing the destruction of freedom for a million helpless people every year.

    • No, Mr. President, killing our children does not cease to be killing our children no matter how many times you call it a private family matter. Call it what you will, they are dead, and we have killed them. And you, Mr. President, would keep the killing legal.

    Some of us wept with joy over the inauguration of the first African-American President. We will pray for you. And may God grant that there arises in your heart an amazed and happy reverence for the beginning of every human life.

    Wonder in the Womb

    This is Sanctity of Life Weekend at Bethlehem, and we are talking about the wonder of human beings in the womb, and the moral question of whether it is right to kill them before they are born. Until recently, there never has been any doubt in the mind of the Christian church that such killing is wrong. Among the earliest sources for Christian thinking outside the New Testament (the beginning of the second century), the Didache and the Epistle of Barnabas both forbid abortion.

    You shall do no murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not corrupt boys, you shall not commit fornication, you shall not steal, you shall not deal in magic, you shall do no sorcery, you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill them when born. (Didache 2:2; cf. Epistle of Barnabas 19:5)

    Why did the early church, and all succeeding generations of Christians, come to this conclusion—that it is forbidden to take the life of the unborn? We have already seen the root of this conviction: When a human life comes into existence something magnificent has happened—created in the image of God, to live forever. . . .


    Nothing Impossible with God

    In verses 36–37 [of Luke 1], the angel says to Mary, to encourage her that her impossible pregnancy really can come true, “And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” So be encouraged, Mary, nothing is too hard for God. Witness the pregnancy of Elizabeth. O how often in these circumstances of pregnancy and infertility we need to be reminded, “Nothing will be impossible with God.” He gives, he takes, he provides in abundance, he sustains in loss.

    When the angel had gone, and Mary knew what was happening to her, she made a beeline to Elizabeth. What a consultation this would be: two of the most important and impossible pregnancies in the world. Look at verses 39–44:

    In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.” (Luke 1:39–45)

    Now, of course, none of this is being written with abortion in mind. That’s not the point. The point is: How did texts like these shape the way the church thought about the unborn? What were the assumptions here and the implications here?

    Notice two things.

    1. The Word Baby

    First, the word baby in verses 41 and 44. Verse 41: “And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb.” Verse 44: “For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.” That word baby is not a specialized word for the unborn. It has no connotations of “embryo” or “fetus.” It is the ordinary word for baby (Greek brefos). And what makes this crystal clear and significant is the way it’s used in Luke 2:16. Here in Luke 1, it refers to John the Baptist in the womb. In Luke 2, it refers to Jesus in the manger. Luke 2:16: “And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby (brefos) lying in a manger.” This is exactly the same word for baby.

    What the Christian church has seen in this is that what the persons Jesus and John were outside the womb they were already inside the womb. Jesus was the God-man in Mary’s womb. When the Holy Spirit (according to Luke 1:35) caused Mary to be pregnant, she was not pregnant with anything less than the Son of God. The baby inside was the same as the baby outside.

    Today science has only made that easier to believe, not harder. Ultrasound technology has given a stunning window on the womb that shows the unborn at eight weeks sucking his thumb, recoiling from pricking, responding to sound. All the organs are present, the brain is functioning, the heart is pumping, the liver is making blood cells, the kidneys are cleaning fluids, and there is a fingerprint. Yet virtually all abortions happen later in the pregnancy than this date.

    2. Treated as a Person

    The second thing to notice here in Luke 1 is the way the baby in Elizabeth’s womb responded to Mary who was carrying the Son of God. Verse 41: “When Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb.” Then in verse 44, Elizabeth interprets that leap like this: “Behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.” And Luke says that Elizabeth said this because she was filled with the Holy Spirit. Verses 41–42:  “Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed . . .” In other words, the Holy Spirit prompted her to say that this leap of the baby in her womb was a leap of joy.

    To increase the significance of that leap even more, consider what an angel said to Elizabeth’s husband Zechariah before his son was conceived. In Luke 1:14–15, the angel said, “And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.” So that leap is not only a leap of joy but a leap of Holy-Spirit-inspired joy.

    Only Persons Are Filled with the Spirit

    What shall we make of this? Never in the Bible is any animal said to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Never does the Bible say that a person’s arm or leg or kidney or skin is filled with the Spirit. Tissue is not filled with the Holy Spirit. Only persons are filled with the Spirit.

    What Luke is doing—and he is doing it as the spokesman of Christ—is treating this child in the womb as a person. He uses the word baby which he later uses for Jesus in the manger. He uses the word joy, which is what persons feel. He uses the phrase “filled with the Spirit” which is what God does to persons. He simply assumes he is dealing with a human person in the womb.

    And therefore so should we.

    ~ Sermon text by John Piper. ©2012 Desiring God Foundation. Website: desiringGod.org

    * * *

    Here's the video of the entire sermon, which is even more sorely needed today than it was four years ago.

    I'd recommend your watching it . . .

    The Baby in My Womb Leaped for Joy from Desiring God on Vimeo.


    * * *

    "And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’"


    babe's joyful leap for our learning

    "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning..."
    (Romans 15:4, KJV)

    devilish lies
    tantalizing

    smooth words, fables
     prowling lion

    itching ears
    from truth are turned

     wandering sheep
    undiscerning

    babe's joyful leap
    for our learning

    in God's truth
    may we delight

    flee the darkness
    embrace the light

    cherish the least
    lambs hid from sight

    babe's joyful leap
    for our learning


    "forgive us our debts..."

    Related posts:
    Inauguration Day: Praying for President Obama
    "That could have been me!" ~ a contraceptive advocate
    the least of these
    I sought ... yet You kept seeking me (Your plans can never be aborted)


    Photo credits:


    Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Visitation_(Albertinelli).jpg  / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}
    Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thinker_little_elf.jpg  / CC BY-SA 3.0

    Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

    Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

  • twenty children

     

    John 3:1  Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2  This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3  Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4  Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” 5  Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7  Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8  The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”


    twenty children

    twenty children ~ a vapor ~ breathe no more
    impending judgment at heaven's door

    how many escaped sin's fatal blight?
    how many tasted Love's Pure Light?

    how many entered the path of Life,
    blood-bought transport to Peace from strife,

    delivered from the pow'r of darkness,
    once blinded, graced with spiritual sight?

    how many felt the Spirit's quickening wind,
    received full atonement, forgiveness of sins?

    who can stand before God clothed in fleshly works alone?
    even babes need the covering of the Lamb's righteous robe

    Romans 3:19  Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20  For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

    21  But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22  the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24  and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25  whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26  It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

    27  Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28  For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29  Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30  since God is one. He will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31  Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

    apart from His offering, a hostile relation –
    but Christ was made sin for our reconciliation

    II Corinthians 5:17  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18  All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19  that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20  Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21  For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

    Christ Jesus set forth to be a propitiation
    to all who believe, God's pow'r of salvation

    for every tongue, tribe, language and nation
    glad tidings:  the Gospel proclamation!

    Isaiah 61:
    8  For I the LORD love justice;
    I hate robbery and wrong;
    I will faithfully give them their recompense,
    and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
    9  Their offspring shall be known among the nations,
    and their descendants in the midst of the peoples;
    all who see them shall acknowledge them,
    that they are an offspring the LORD has blessed.

    hear their songs of praise and everlasting joy:
    the old men and old women, the girls and boys...

    10  I will greatly rejoice in the LORD;
    my soul shall exult in my God,
    for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
    he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
    as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
    11  For as the earth brings forth its sprouts,
    and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up,
    so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise
    to sprout up before all the nations.


    Zechariah 8:4  Thus says the LORD of hosts: Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of great age. 5  And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.

    Romans 5:1  Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2  Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

    Psalm 118:
    14  The LORD is my strength and my song;
    he has become my salvation.
    15  Glad songs of salvation
    are in the tents of the righteous:
    “The right hand of the LORD does valiantly,
    16  the right hand of the LORD exalts,
    the right hand of the LORD does valiantly!”
    17  I shall not die, but I shall live,
    and recount the deeds of the LORD.
    18  The LORD has disciplined me severely,
    but he has not given me over to death.
    19  Open to me the gates of righteousness,
    that I may enter through them
    and give thanks to the LORD.
    20  This is the gate of the LORD;
    the righteous shall enter through it.
    21  I thank you that you have answered me
    and have become my salvation.
    22  The stone that the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone.
    23  This is the LORD's doing;
    it is marvelous in our eyes.

    on judgment day, before Christ's throne
    no soul can stand but through Christ alone

    the first Advent, He came to provide salvation
    the second He comes as the Judge of all nations

    Hebrews 9:24  For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25  Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26  for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27  And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28  so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

    today He calls all to repent everywhere
    will you mock the risen King, would you dare? 

    be saved, you sinners, from the wrath to come
    hear Him, believe on Him, God's only begotten Son

    Acts 17:29  Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30  The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31  because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

    32  Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.”

    all flesh is as grass, your glory as the fading flower
    confide in Christ, be raised from death to life this very hour!

    I Peter 2:6
    For it stands in Scripture:

    “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
    a cornerstone chosen and precious,
    and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

    Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

naphtali_deer

About me...

Christian hedonist in training. Pressing on to know more and more of the joy of the LORD. Pleading with God to rend the heavens and revive and refresh my own soul, as well as His Church, to His praise, honor and glory.

Thank God. He can make men and women in middle life sing again with a joy that has been chastened by a memory of their past failures. ~ Alan Redpath

My other websites

tent of meeting: Prayer for reformation & revival

(See also Zechariah821. Zechariah821 is a mirror site of tent of meeting, found on WordPress)

deerlifetrumpet: Encouragement for those seeking reformation & revival in the Church

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