From Heaven and Back Again

STANDING - ON HIS PROMISES?

There’s a world out there that is going to Hell, and the devil is rubbing his hands,

Whilst the Church, which is meant to bring sinners to Christ, instead of advancing, just stands.

“We’ll stand for tradition, where nothing can change, we’ll preserve an unchanging scene.

No new innovations, no modernist things, we shall be as we always have been.

Fresh people who enter our church must conform, for we’re unable to alter our views:

So any new members must just settle down, and take their place in the pews.

We know what must happen on each Sunday here, we cannot accept what is new;

And there’s no reason to think that God will show up, or will do what God used to do.”

“Please, please, my dear children, let me come in and stand alongside you all,

To strengthen your faith, to carry your load, and to lift you whenever you fall.

I know your intentions are all to the good, preserving a faith which is pure -

To pass on to others the truths which you know, in a way that makes you secure.

But standing like statues is not my intent, my church should move in my plan.

Look outward - not inward - and see the world’s hurt, then act whenever you can.

You are my chosen to put things to right, my chosen to speak in my name.

I offer you power to go in my cause, it’s there if only you’d claim.

But you’re bound up with rituals, you’re bound up with fear, those chains are keeping me out;

So how can I enter? How can I come in? How can I remove all your doubt?

How can I convince you I still move today, I’ve not sat back and watched from afar,

And get you involved in my world today, if you’re determined to stay as you are?

I want you to listen, I want you to act, to have vision outside these four walls -

So pay heed to my Spirit, respond to His voice, obedient whenever He calls.

Remember the world that is going to Hell, for the devil is taking his chance.

Now! Will you stay standing where you always have been? Or can we - together - advance?”

iI

AFTER THE BIG DAY

The Magi have gone from the stable,

The shepherds returned to the hill.

The angels have ceased their chorus of praise,

The infant is silent, and still.

And Mary, and Joseph, look down on God’s Son:

Their Saviour, Redeemer, whose life has begun.

They cannot imagine the future,

The years spent in Egypt, exiled.

For all that they know is a feeling of joy

When they look at their still, silent, child.

And Mary, and Joseph, look down on God’s Son:

The infant whose journey through life has begun.

This Jesus whom God had created

Whom Mary had felt in her womb.

How could they imagine, how could they conceive

Would one day arise from the tomb?

And Mary, and Joseph, look down on God’s Son:

Whose Calvary journey had now just begun.