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  • J. Randal Matheny 7:07 pm on April 21, 2013 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Christian poetry, divine glory, ,   

    Where stars are pretty sprinkles 

    I long for life eternal, far
    Above this earthly dust and doom,
    Where God and Son and Spirit are,
    And outer space is but a room,

    Where stars are pretty sprinkles, moons
    But globes to hang upon a tree,
    Where worlds are served in silver spoons,
    As humble Moses talks with me.

    Here kings bear golden platters, heaped
    With food they never ate below,
    To serve the saints who sowed and reaped,
    In tears, to make the kingdom grow.

    The sea is but a basin, hands
    To wash beneath Niagra Falls,
    A children’s box, Sahara’s sands,
    And Knox’s gold for inner walls.

    Earth’s brightest splendors wither, pale
    Inside the gates, their powers decline;
    Both human craft and creation fail,
    When the glories of the Godhead shine.

    —J. Randal Matheny, 21 April 2013

     

  • J. Randal Matheny 4:13 pm on December 29, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Christian poetry, Christian servants, Christian workers,   

    Not much hope in the gospels … sort of 

    gospel hopeOn Jan. 1, we’ll publish the first number of a monthly periodical for Christian workers, in Portuguese, called “Ministry & Mission” (Ministério & Missão). It’s geared especially for those in our area. Though the first issue will have 12 pages, future ones will likely have fewer. Our way to invest more in moving off of square one, at times, to get the work done, and encouraging God’s servants in their task.

    • In earlier years, I had published a little bulletin for workers, but it went by the wayside. It was called “The Evangelist” (O Evangelista). It reached a wider audience, across Brazil. This new one will also, but my major concern is closer to home.

    • Though information is scattered about, today I put up a special page on our area congregational website on how to be saved. I’d written the text earlier in the week, or last week, I forget, but today it went public.

    • Do you have something like this for your personal or congregational site? I’m amazed when I see the stats to our many sites, with visits from so many different countries. One of the stats not available is whether those visitors are true New Testament Christians are not. But the probabilities are good that very few of them are. So I’m thinking we need to get the basics of the gospel out there, right in front, for people to see. It may be the only time they see a gospel presentation. That gets to me, does it you?

    • Already, speaking of our Portuguese sites, there are a couple of studies in other places, but nothing had been done on our church site.

    • Lessee, probably you’d rather I talk about something closer to you, in English, maybe? Ah, here’s my new inspirational, motivational site, for an old effort. But you don’t want poetry, do you?

    • Pinterest, maybe? I tinkered there some today, but it’s not really my thing. The world is going visual. The gospel is auditory. For good reason many of our five-finger plans start with “Hear.”

    • The holiday season has been unseasonably sad for many of our folk and their relatives. A death. A brain tumor. A former neighbor and friend in hospital with stroke and bacterial infection. We’re not used to so much of that here among our people. (More …)

     

    • Eugene Adkins 5:46 pm on December 29, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      Interesting observation on the hope aspect, Randal. I would say the gospels use the actual word itself very little because the preaching of Jesus about himself (particularly in John’s gospel) offers in principle what may not be spelled out in principal. After all, what’s the Resurrection and the Life if not hope personified. Make sense?

      Hope your sermons hit their mark.

    • J. Randal Matheny 6:24 pm on December 29, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      If I understand your point, Eugene, it’s similar to where my thinking is trending. (I’m reading on this right now.) With Jesus in your presence, physically, hope is personified. BTW, the two articles on hope in the OT and the NT in the Mercer Bible Dictionary are quite good.

      • Eugene Adkins 7:29 pm on December 29, 2012 Permalink | Reply

        I really think the emphasis of hope is given so much attention “after” the gospels because of what the gospel teaches (1 Corinthians 15:1-4 – the resurrection from the dead, etc.) concerning Jesus’ victory over death…I’m thinking sort of along the lines of what Hebrews 2:14-15 and 1 Peter 1:3-5 teaches.

        I really do like the point you brought up though, and I agree with what you’re saying about Jesus being present and hope personified. And thanks for the heads up on the articles.

  • J. Randal Matheny 5:23 pm on February 23, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Christian poetry, Internet Bible, spiritual pioneers   

    Sobering: The torch has passed, &c. 

    In the past months quite a few missionaries, former missionaries and Brazilian Christians have passed away among the first generation of saints in the country. Another entered eternity yesterday. It’s sobering to realize that the torch has passed. The responsibility is great. The pressures grow by the day to abandon the good news they brought. Who will stay the course?

    • Rick Kelley, Michael Carter, and I have been posting some poetry lately on the Christian Poets website. Check it out and join up. If you’re interested in writing, let me know below, and I’ll add you to the writing side of the group. It’s as easy as sending an email.

    • If you’re not a Twitter fan, you still have several options to get Quick Bible Truths by email, RSS, or on Facebook. The new site is functioning marvelously. Today, a new blurb about the service got aired: “Quick Bible Truths shares the powerful reality of God in short bursts.” A good description, that.

     

  • J. Randal Matheny 7:52 pm on February 10, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Christian poetry,   

    So let’s dance in the aisles 

    by J. Randal Matheny © 2012

    We are tired of the hymns, with the limits we’re bored,
    So let’s dance in the aisles, as we sup with the Lord,
    We will tear up the carpet and throw out the old,
    In this city where everything’s big, we are bold.
    The young women are swooning, the men good to swing,
    Play a tune with a beat, we refuse just to sing.
    You’ve not seen it all yet, we’re not done as we change,
    We reject what’s familiar, and import the strange.
    Swing the doors for the crowds, tweak the church to the max,
    In with gospels and grace, down with crosses and Acts.
    We’re all brothers in Christ, matters not what your group,
    What’s important is staying in a bigger world’s loop.
    We’re progressives for Jesus, nothing heavy — we’re hip,
    As we travel to heaven, on one big, happy ship.
    We’ll be bigger fish swimming in bigger fish ponds,
    So we dive for the new, as we cut the old bonds.
    We got love overflowing, with sinners we’re cool,
    But no patience with fogies—out with rules is the rule!

     

    • John Henson 9:48 pm on February 10, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      Wow.

    • tina 1:12 am on February 11, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      Scary

    • Mike Riley 10:07 am on February 11, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      Randal, sounds like the Postmodernism mantra – throw out all those old out-of-date rules!

    • Weylan Deaver 10:52 am on February 11, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      You wish poetry could be made of happier stuff, but great job pinpointing the inconvenient truth that you really can’t run from rules, conceptually. All you can do is decide which rules you’ll go by–your own or the Lord’s.

      • J. Randal Matheny 11:06 am on February 11, 2012 Permalink | Reply

        Thanks for the comments, y’all. Mike, yup, that’s their idea. Weylan, reckon when we get to heaven our poetry will be like that, all sugar and spice and everything nice? :)

        • Weylan Deaver 11:09 am on February 11, 2012 Permalink

          I know we will have songs there–nothing I know of precludes the presence of poetry. After we sing the “New Song,” maybe we can collaborate on a new “New Song.”

        • J. Randal Matheny 11:11 am on February 11, 2012 Permalink

          Sounds like a plan to me, brother! Maybe we can start with, “Heaven was certainly worth it all!”

  • J. Randal Matheny 6:06 am on December 20, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Christian poetry, ,   

    Poem: There There Was Evening 

    Not my usual style, but on one of my favorite topics, time, specifically evening. http://2.ly/p9ug

    Nothing Christmasy on the poetry horizon yet, but who knows what the mind may whip up in time.

     

  • J. Randal Matheny 7:10 am on May 20, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Christian poetry, , , spiritual family   

    Re: Together 

    Ron, your post reminds me that a brother who used to be a part of the fellowship here often commented that, without Christ, we’d never have been brought together, both from our points of origin as well as our diverse backgrounds. How true that is!

    As much as I love my physical family, I see in the saints here (here being SJCampos and Taubaté) how important the spiritual family of God is. For some, the church is pretty much all they’ve got. For others, there’s a physical family that isn’t supportive or is hostile to faith. Some of us are blessed in that much or most of our physical family is also spiritual family, but even at that, what heightens and informs our love and intimacy is the bond of the Spirit.

    What blessings in our godly unity!
    We have a single Lord, a single mind;
    Among us love, acceptance, liberty,
    With old and hard opinions left behind. —JRM

     

    • Rick Kelley 7:13 am on May 20, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      True, true!

    • Ron 7:23 am on May 20, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      Good words, Randal. It takes much effort to continue to apply Galatians 2:20. In part, this is why I throw out my questions to those I regard highly – just to be sure I am not going further than is warranted.

  • TFRStaff 5:55 am on February 28, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Christian poetry, Golden Rule,   

    TFT: The Golden Rule 

    The Golden Rule

    We cannot make bargains for blisses,
    Nor catch them like fishes in nets;
    And sometimes the thing our life misses
    Helps more than the thing which it gets.
    For good lies not in pursuing,
    Nor gaining of great nor of small,
    But just in the doing, and doing
    As we would be done by, is all.

    –Alice Cary

    (Gal 6:10) Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

    “Thoughts For Today to Brighten Your Day” by Glenn Hitchcock

     

  • J. Randal Matheny 6:29 pm on January 26, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Christian poetry,   

    Quote it to your kids 

    So I said today on the Twitter/Facebook status about my latest UPLift poem, “Water to the Least.” That it was great to quote in sermons, classes or to your kids. As if parents needed extra stuff to tell their kids, right?

    Got another one, a bit longer — OK, three three-line stanzas, rather than today’s single four-liner — coming up for the Cloudburst Poetry list. Better sign up for that, since those aren’t published online.

     

  • J. Randal Matheny 7:49 pm on November 4, 2010 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Christian poetry, , love chapter, love poem   

    “Fit for a King.” That’s the latest UPLift offering, posted today on RandalMatheny.com and sent to the email list, the Guarantee of getting your latest UPLift fix.

    UPDATE: I fixed the last word from “fox” to “fix.” Reading too much from Fox News website lately?

     

    • John Henson 8:16 pm on November 4, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      Probably not. The “i” and “o” keys are “hard against” each other.

      • J. Randal Matheny 5:29 am on November 5, 2010 Permalink | Reply

        I have been reading a bit more, because of the elections. But maybe it’s evidence I’ve not been send many a “fax” these days. And thanks for your defense in my favor.

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