Our Stripes

The old mantra is this:

“Take your stripes now,

Or take them in hell.”

We’ve forgotten this part of our religion.

I would love to be happy,

But it seems like the prophecies of Christ are coming true.

The world is rejoicing,

Are happy and filled with good.

Meanwhile, the shepherds are idle,

The prophets are prophesying a lie.

What I want more than anything,

Is a wife and children.

I might not get it.

So… what do I have to mourn for?

I mourn for the unforgiveness

Of our modern era.

How men are given swift and harsh rebuke

For petty crimes.

Meanwhile, great men murder,

Take a bribe, and wrap it up.

How Hell Comforts Me

After having sinned…

A sin between God and I…

I laid on my bed last night.

I considered that I

I am happy hell exists.

It comforts me

Because if I had sinned

Worthy of damnation

Hell comforts me

Because I would know it is just.

I had stopped my sin

Knowing it was stupid.

It is a private sin

But if the whole world would know

The world would all go to hell who knew it;

All who claimed I am unworthy of Christ.

For, the stupid sins I commit

I plainly know are wrong.

But such things as Murder,

Rape, Adultery, Homosexuality,

Trusting on my hands to save me,

Those same hands that sinned last night,

These a man goes to hell for.

Christ saved us from our sin,

However. Paul from murder.

Moses from Murder.

David from Rape and Murder

Me from Adultery.

But, no murderer has eternal life.

No sinner, who continues in their sin;

Even one who backslides into it;

Has eternal life.

Paul was saved from murder.

Had he murdered again,

He would not be saved.

Had I fornicated again,

I would not be saved.

I would have backsliden into my sin.

I had thought long and hard on that verse.

Of a magnitude,

Hell comforts me.

Having been there, I understand it.

It is horrendous.

Horrendous enough to ruin an entire two days

Even being there.

But… I have first hand knowledge

That God’s hell is good;

It is a prison for the treacherous.

Because if I had committed,

Or backsliden into my sin,

Even with the willful mistake

I made last night—

A sin between God and myself

Which no man can judge—

Then I deserve hell.

I would gladly accept hell

If I had sinned.

Because God’s wrath is part of His character.

And my sin last night—

If all men would know it—

Is between God and I.

But, having hope in Christ Jesus

I will never do it again.

And grace showed that the thing I feared most

Was not really worth fearing at all.

It is all just dreams.

And if for dreams

The world would condemn me,

My LORD has hope in His bosom.

All the Reasons I Could Go To Hell

Just today,

I woke up late.

I watched a show

Where a man put leeches on his eyeballs;

Just two seconds of it.

I have holes in all my clothes.

Just yesterday,

I woke up late.

I didn’t mow the lawn.

I got cranky with a local clerk.

I thought someone had stolen from me when he didn’t.

Just two days ago,

I woke up late.

I back-talked my dad.

I accused a friend in my heart of a grievous sin.

I was afraid.

Just three days ago,

I woke up late.

I was suspicious about my friend.

I back talked my dad.

I was angry.

I talked nonsense.

I said things that weren’t true.

I didn’t speak the truth in my heart.

I was afraid.

Just four days ago,

I woke up late,

When I was praying, I asked for something that was not good.

I feared something that did not happen.

I was angry.

I let myself get confused.

I argued with my brother.

I provoked arguments with people.

I had strife and bitterness.

This is the last four days.

Any one of these is worthy of going to hell.

This was the extent of my sin those four days

The whole of it,

Yet, any one of those

Could be the reason I go to hell.

This is why I need Jesus;

Because he wipes the slate clean

So I can still live,

And try to be the best person I can.