Tag: Christianity

There Were Two Men

There were two men.

 

The first was a prophet.

The prophet, when he saw the wickedness of mankind

Would pray to the Father in heaven

And would accuse men of being wicked.

He would reprove for the sake of correction

And nothing he spoke was with intent to harm

But rather was with intent to increase faithfulness

Among the sons of men.

Never did he say, “You sin like thus,

“And, therefore, you are a worthless fellow.”

But rather, “The whole sins like thus,

“And your sins will condemn you.

“Not that I have never sinned,

“But that you are sinning right now,

“And I am concerned for your well being.”

When men heard this,

They felt sore vexed

Because it seemed like the Prophet was accusing

Them right to their face.

But it was rather the whole who the prophet accused;

And men stood up in judgment against this prophet

To say, “He is more wicked in his judgments

“Then we are in our murders and thefts!”

 

The second man was a judge.

He would see of men, “They are righteous,

“And they are, for the whole part, better than this man.”

But, when he saw a man’s sins,

He would say, “This man is incredibly wicked.

“This man, I have seen him be wicked

“I have seen his sins,

“Because I have made a diligent search for them.

“I will not depart from him

“Until I am justified in myself

“That I have found error in him.”

This man, all men loved

Because he had accused the righteous

And had encouraged the wicked to sin

By justifying them, and by making himself justified in their eyes.

Wherever he was, he made sure he was justified in their eyes

And that the truth, even, was abominable in the sights of men

Because he would rather be justified in his position

And not the truth; and once he found sin

He went home and said, “I know I am righteous

“And this other man is a sinner more than I.

“For, the prophets are judgmental,

“And I am humble and give grace to the sinner.”

 

Which man will stand in judgment?

Who is the hypocrite?

Tunic

Jesus had one nice thing.

A tunic.

I imagine it like a stuffed animal

Or heirloom. Something He,

In His poverty,

Kept.

For healing every person He could,

For casting out demons,

For feeding the poor,

This one thing was all He owned.

And when He was murdered,

It was even taken from Him.

 

Why I Believe in God

A friend of mine recently said to me,

“What if heaven is so terrible,

“That you wouldn’t possibly want to go there?”

I thought of my poem describing my idea of what heaven is.

I thought to myself, “Me, in my paltry understanding,

“Can create this place.

“But why did God create the earth?

“It seems so bad.”

I then consider how much I want.

Love. Sex. Good, pleasurable food. Family. Raising a family.

Enjoyment from work.

I look at this earth, and I am impressed by how

Heavenly it could be, if everyone behaved in a decent way.

I then look around, and I see people cause most of the suffering.

I think, “Why wouldn’t God come right now and stop all of this?”

Then I think of my future wife, how we’ll have sex

Marry, have children, cook five star dishes,

An enjoy. I look at what prevents me.

Human corruption.

So, I again ask, “Why doesn’t God stop this suffering?”

Then I think of my future lover’s gentle loves

Eating and working to provide for my family.

Then I wonder why I suffer. It is men.

“Why doesn’t God stop all of this right now?”

Again, I think of the nudity of my future spouse,

The fusing of our genes into human beings

By the most delicious of God’s creation here on the earth.

How I can work, feed them, eat from that work.

Why is there suffering?

Because people are unsatisfied with this.

I’m not, but I see everyone trying to prevent

Everyone else from obtaining this dream.

“Why doesn’t God come right now?”

Because there is a chance I can make love

Feel the pleasure of a family.

 

Round and round this cycle goes

Until I die, and if I have not reached this goal,

I say, “What was my life worth?”

And then God takes me to a paradise

That if it is better than this earth,

I think of the paradise of this earth

And how paradisaical it is.

That’s why I believe in God

Because there is so much good here.

And I know heaven will be great

Because this is the flawed of God’s creation…

It’s flawed because of us.

In heaven, there will be no more of “Us”

And our sin. Which means we’ll have pleasures uncountable.

Because a life with no meaning steals from all men

This meaning I have found…

Men cannot reach the meaning without God.

That is good enough for me to believe in Him.

Because I know without it, men will only have reason to make other men suffer.

With a meaning, we’ll have every reason to make men suffer less

And knowing that men do suffer, and that this earth is filled

With such sublime pleasures,

I know there is a God, and I know heaven will be greater.

The Ox and the Bird

‘When I was young,

I had a mulberry tree outside my front porch.

I gleaned all of the fruit off the street

Then stood on the electric dispenser

And began taking them off the boughs of the tree.

We ended up with a bucket filled with mulberries.

We ate nearly an eighth of them.

The rest went to waste.

In life, we’re like this.

That is what the law means by saying,

‘”When you come across an egg

“In a tree, leave the mother.”

 

When at work,

People have to pay for their food.

The reason why is because of the former.

Yet, the scripture says,

“Do not muzzle the ox.”

That means it is lawful

To allow those who work for you

To eat your food for free.

It is unlawful to not allow them to eat your food for free.

Yet, because the former law is not observed

People are leery about observing the latter law.

Our economic situation is this:

“Muzzle the ox, take the mother.”

That is why all are burdened.

 

How I View Grace

We are all degenerate

Serial rapists, murderers, cannibals

Drug addicts, adulterers, child abusers

And meet Jesus.

We say a thousand times we doesn’t need Jesus

Because we are pretty swell.

Jesus says, “I see there is some good in you.”

So, Jesus spends the better part of our lives

Trying to get himself caught for our sin.

Jesus does get caught, when we confess Him as LORD,

And then Jesus gets put on death row

Where He’s beaten up in prison,

Stabbed, and fed gross food.

We someday forget all of what we did

While Jesus is the one found guilty for all of our sins.

 

This is a helpful tool for understanding Christ.

We all are the degenerate fools;

Jesus is the Christ.

Wasn’t our LORD something of a radical?

Lazarus and Judas

“Jesus, I have healed in Your name.

“Cast out demons, seen amputations healed.

“I had spoken Your word with truth.

“I have given what I could to the poor.

“I have tried to be kind, and give just reproof.

“I had tried to make the brokenhearted smile.

“I had done this all because I loved You

“And had believed You loved me too,”

Spoke Jesus’ friend Lazarus.

 

“Jesus, I had healed the lame

“And prophesied in Your Name.

“I tithed to the church my ten percent.

“I had not made sinners ashamed.

“I had done this because You glorified me,

“And I continually remembered Your burnt offering;

“I had known I am a sinner,

“So, therefore, by knowing I have sinned, I am justified,”

Said Judas Iscariot.

Judgmental

There were two men.

 

The first was a prophet.

The prophet, when he saw the wickedness of mankind

Would pray to the Father in heaven

And would accuse men of being wicked.

He would reprove for the sake of correction

And nothing he spoke was with intent to harm

But rather was with intent to increase faithfulness

Among the sons of men.

Never did he say, “You sin like thus,

“And, therefore, you are a worthless fellow.”

But rather, “The whole sins like thus,

“And your sins will condemn you.

“Not that I have never sinned,

“But that you are sinning right now,

“And I am concerned for your well being.”

When men heard this,

They felt sore vexed

Because it seemed like the Prophet was accusing

Them right to their face.

But it was rather the whole who the prophet accused;

And men stood up in judgment against this prophet

To say, “He is more wicked in his judgments

“Then we are in our murders and thefts!”

 

The second man was a judge.

He would see of men, “They are righteous,

“And they are, for the whole part, better than this man.”

But, when he saw a man’s sins,

He would say, “This man is incredibly wicked.

“This man, I have seen him be wicked

“I have seen his sins,

“Because I have made a diligent search for them.

“I will not depart from him

“Until I am justified in myself

“That I have found error in him.”

This man, all men loved

Because he had accused the righteous

And had encouraged the wicked to sin

By justifying them, and by making himself justified in their eyes.

Wherever he was, he made sure he was justified in their eyes

And that the truth, even, was abominable in the sights of men

Because he would rather be justified in his position

And not the truth; and once he found sin

He went home and said, “I know I am righteous

“And this other man is a sinner more than I.

“For, the prophets are judgmental,

“And I am humble and give grace to the sinner.”

 

Which man will stand in judgment?

Who is the hypocrite?

God Made A Good Earth; Men Just Abused It

The pleasure of sex

Brings a child.

That child grows

Under your thumb

And becomes like a half of you

And a half of the person you had sex with

That beautiful pleasure.

 

Then there is work.

You build a garden

An alcove

Vineyards

Pleasant houses;

You trade precious stones

With each other

To get things that will enrich you.

You work to compile wisdom

And skill at your craft.

You build shoes,

Art, paintings

Cupboards

Wooden ducks and chess tables.

 

Then there is pleasant sunshine

There are animals,

There is a wellspring of life

And clouds and blue sky.

In that heat, you build.

In the cold, you cuddle up next to a fire

With your beloved, and children

Huddled there all winter

In a cocoon of love.

 

The rain comes, it smells good.

The bees pollinate the grass.

Flowers come in all different colors

There are words for different things.

Teals and greens

And fuchsias

And magnolias.

 

Men are born…

With some pain…

The baby comes into the earth crying

And that little thing

Grows to be a man or a woman.

That woman or man makes love

And the cycle repeats itself.

You, the next generation,

Build a life with those you love.

 

Why is there suffering?

Can you truly blame God?

He builds the Earth,

And like the fruit on the tree of good and evil

We pluck it.

It is there, so we pluck it.

We pluck it, and eat.

That is why there is suffering.

God says, “Do not do this

“Or you will suffer.”

And we do.

All the beautiful things above

God has given us.

Heaven will be wondrous

Because we will never have to sin again.

We will never sin, we will never sin

We will never sin, because we cannot.

That is what we hope for.

To be like Christ…

Unable to sin.

 

Two Men

There were two men.

 

The first, a lot of what he predicted was wrong

But he did what God told him to do.

He’d say, “On this date, this would happen.”

And it didn’t happen on that date.

It, rather, happened, if it happened, a lot longer.

He, making one thousand shekels a month,

Gave twenty-thousand shekels to the poor.

He healed the lame with his words

And comforted them.

He spoke what was wise

Though he got his predictions wrong.

He also condemned the sinners with his words

Though he did not judge them

The sinners felt condemned when he spoke

Therefore, they hated him.

 

The second man, every word he predicted came true.

He didn’t do what God told him to do.

He would say, “On this day, this will happen.”

And it would.

He, making two billion shekels a month

Gave none of it to the poor.

He would tell the sinners, “God loves you”

But would not correct them to their face,

But it made them feel secure.

He would hug the sinners,

And make them feel very happy about themselves.

He never told anyone that they were wrong,

But rather, everyone was right because he was a murderer

And he didn’t want to accuse others for his own sin.

Every sinner felt like they were saved

Though they had great sin,

And they were comforted by this word,

“A mass murderer, if on his death bed

“Confessed Christ, he will go to heaven.”

So, they all committed murder

Believing their final confession would save them.

 

Which is the prophet?