Tag Archives: Religion and Spirituality
The Edge of the Hedge -A Poem
I have always been inside the hedge
Protected, safe and guarded.
Yet as I run non-stop and blindly
Each step just reaches past the edge.
I may by chance discover
Rock or soil or even watery depth
Unseen to me
Below each falling foot.
Onward moving, always dashing,
Ever within, yet ever
On the edge.
Fight On -A Poem and a Drawing
Fight On
She rises in the fog.
She lifts defiant sword.
Fight on, soldier, fight.
The battle is not done.
Weary, weak and torn
The war will yet be won.
Fight on, soldier, fight.
The day will finally dawn.
This darkness shall be gone.
Fight on.
The Word of Reconciliation
For Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement
Only one who has accepted the pain of suffering can understand the forgiveness of reconciliation.
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection,
and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
Philippians 3:10-11
To forgive without the requirement of repentance is the beginning of reconciling the world to God.
And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ,
and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them;
and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19
Scenario: A wife is falsely accused by her husband. (It makes no difference if the matter is small or great.) She recounts the facts to him as she knows them. He disregards her words and makes more cutting statements.
She may:
1. grow angry and hold him to pay by her angry coldness until he admits his wrong at which time she will forgive him.
2. forgive his sin not holding him to its charges.
What will become of this husband? What will become of this wife? If the wife makes the choice of forgiveness # 2, the husband will be committed to the merciful justice of God, instead of being held to the punishment of the lawful charges of the wife. The wife, in taking the second choice, is committing herself to Him who judges righteously, according to I Peter 2:23.
Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not;
but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.
NO NEED TO FEAR
There is nothing in this world or the next that can induce Father God to ignore the suffering of the innocent. He will avenge the innocent, but He is just.
Will He allow the perpetrator to fall into double jeopardy?
REQUIRE VENGEANCE OR RELEASE VENGEANCE
Either the victim will require the vengeance of the Law, or the victim will release vengeance into the hands of The Righteous Judge. Reconciliation of the earth can only be accomplished through all vengeance being released into the hands of Him who said, “I will repay.”(1) The prescriptions of the Law are weak (2). They cannot purge sin from the conscience of the sinner. Only the Merciful Almighty can find the individual prescription that will purge each sinner(3). Only He can bring the sinner to complete repentance. His vengeance will not stop short of a purged conscience.
He has committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
FOOTNOTES:
(1)Romans 12:19 “for it is written, vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”
Psalm 94:1 “ O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself.”
(2)Romans 8:3 “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:”
(3) Hebrews 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
The Ashen Altar – A Poem for the Day of Atonement
Let me live in the fire of the Ashen Altar,
Living sacrifice accepted above,
Laying my life down that others may live;
Just like my Lord has done.
“Follow me,” he calls, “in Death is Life.
The Fire has Resurrection power.
Your life laid down shall rise again
And multiply heavenly deeds.”
The title, Upon the Ashen Altar, refers to the pile of ashes outside the camp of Israel where the ashes from the Altar of Sacrifice were dumped. On the Day of Atonement each year, the bullock and the goat of Atonement were burned, outside the camp, upon those ashes.
(see Leviticus 4:12 and Leviticus 16:27)
Hebrews 13:10-13
We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin [on the Day of Atonement], are burned outside the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him outside the camp, bearing his reproach.
The Warrior Maiden – A Poem
Brandishing burnished Sword
Transparent in armour of Light
There stands the Warrior Maiden
Prepared for the darkest of night.
A curtain sliced through;
A way opened up;
Enters the Maiden
And drains the bloody cup.
Her life on the Altar
Long now has lain,
But up she has risen
Atonement to gain
For those who have hurt her
By whom she was slain.
She calls to the Judge,
“Forgive them my pain.”
Light pierces through;
The Earth opens up;
Stands forth her Beloved,
“You have drunk of my Cup.”
The two who are one
All infirmities feeling
Now spread out their hands
In forgiveness and healing.
Ector Ward, copyright 2006
Thank you Thursday Poets Rally for the Perfect Poets Award.
I nominate Harry Nicholson for the next award.
Two Faces – Oil Painting
This was created for the cover of The Two Sons Diptych.
Two Faces
copyright Ector Ward 2011
Oil on canvass, 11″ X 14″
copyright Ector Ward 2011
Follow Me – Graphite Painting
Copyright 2009
He is the image of the invisible God…
Colossians 1:15
Jesus said,
“He who hath seen Me hath seen the Father.”
John 14:9
The face of God the Father gazes upon the viewer from the body of Jesus Christ, the Son.
Jesus also said,
“The Son can do nothing by himself;
he can do only what he sees his Father doing,
because whatever the Father does, the Son also does.”
John 5:19
Therefore, in this picture we see Father God in the form of Jesus Christ giving His life on the cross for us.
His grandfatherly face hints of a smile, and He seems to be bidding the viewer,
“Come, follow me”
original by Ector Ward
copyright 2009
Graphite pencil on Bristol paper
12″ X 15″
Feasts of Ancient Israel Define Age Dispensations
Here is an article from Dr. Stephen Jones of God’s Kingdom Ministries. He is describing the spirit of prophecy in the holy feasts of ancient Israel. Israelites were required to keep three major feasts each year: The Passover, The Feast of Pentecost, and The Feast of Tabernacles. Each feast prophesies of an age/era in God’s plan. See Leviticus 23.
Dr. Jones says,
“The Age of Passover began with Israel’s exodus from Egypt and with their entry into the Promised Land at the feast of Passover. The Age of Pentecost began in Acts 2. The Age of Tabernacles will begin with the overcomers receiving the fullness of the Spirit.”
How to divide Time into proper Ages
by Dr. Stephen Jones
About 160 years ago, the Church saw the rise of a new teaching called Dispensationalism. Their definition of “dispensation” was a period of time in which God dealt with mankind in some specific manner that characterized that “dispensation.”
For example, from Moses to Christ was said to be the dispensation of Law, and then after the Cross came the dispensation of Grace.
It gave the impression that Law and Grace were incompatible in the Christian’s life. Law came to be despised as if it were obsolete. But grace and faith are everywhere from Moses to Christ, while Law and obedience are taught after the Cross as well.
The only thing that really changed was the FORM of the law. This so-called “Dispensation of Grace” is better described as the Age of Pentecost. But even this does not imply that the Holy Spirit was absent during the previous Age of Passover. The Holy Spirit was present at creation (Gen. 1:2) and continued through Moses, the Judges, David, and the Prophets. The only real difference was the LEVEL of the Holy Spirit, which increased from a “Passover” level to a “Pentecost” level.
Look at all the miracles that took place in the Old Testament time period. Read more…
The Word in Vision 