Tuesday, September 23, 2008

On things that ensnare us ...

Throw him out!?

I threw him out, this stranger
Threw him out when I knew
The harm he does and the vice he holds.
Words that seem so harmless
From a spirit that doesn't know God
His tact and cunning ways
Stay on he says
I will not say the things
That you do not like
But he lies
But the fool I am, I fall
For his weak apologies
He shows me things of awe and wonder
Doesn't show me God who made it all
He shows me the courage of man
But not God, His love and mercy
He builds around me a world
A world that deceives
Shows me little truths magnified
And bigger lies hidden behind
But now my eyes are open
I have seen his evil guile
I have thrown him out
Thrown him out of my house
But he lingers on in my neighbourhood
And often I meet him as I stroll
Often he comes up to talk
Often I stay on and chat
Time flies and the emptiness returns
Still trapped
I need help O Lord
Only you can dear Jesus
Help me throw him out
Throw him out of my heart.

Yes what we need is the wrenching from within our heart. All our efforts are so temporal and superficial and external. We need the wrenching that only God can do within us. Also the balance that only the Holy Spirit can help us walk in.
And the discernement which helps us not to impose things on others which are probably areas of obedience very specific to us.
It is not the empty pockets that save me from the love of money, but that heart fully surrendered to God. A heart emptied of all but Christ.

This is our message ...
Jesus only, Jesus always ...

(in reply to: The Stranger has been living in your house and mine for some time now folks. All you do is listen to him for he wont give you a chance to talk. He shows you almost anything and he says almost anything too. Know his name? T.V.)

2 comments:

Ρωμανός ~ Romanós said...

Your poems are quite good, but this one is very deep and excellent. It is not all written as a poem, perhaps, like the last paragraph, and I'm not sure who that last part in parentheses is referring to, though I understand the concept, and it is a good metaphor, a riddle. But this one, I just want to commend you, and congratulate you, for expressing the truth so well.

The Postman said...

Quite a lot of the things that I have posted here are part of the mails I have sent to others. Some of which are replies. This particular one was a reply to a mail that I had received from a brother. The paranthesis is part of the mail. The mail was to caution us to what we watch and how clean entertainment need not be sinless. It just means that it has not gone to the extreme of vulgarity. Clean entertainment includes poking fun of ones parents or teachers or wife or husband, but the line is so thin and before we know it we disobey God's law of honouring our parents and respecting others. It also is the spirit of the world where God is never in the picture, never in the screen play :-)
I just took that thought in a more comprehensive way. And wanted to stress that we can try in our flesh in a vey legalistic 'monastic' way. But that will be external. we need a cleansing internally which only God can do and He will if we ask Him to, because He said He will.
Though we are also exhorted to demonstrate our faith in action by fleeing from the things that ensare us and thus acknowledge our own weakness. And there in my weakness His grace is perfected. :-)
Thank you for your comment. This way we can add clarity to the thought and God can use it to bless those whom He chooses to bring this way.