God's Word

Here's a poem I wrote on April 24, 1978. It's one of those papers I've been lugging around for over thirty years, thinking that someday I would do something with it. Well, I finally got around to it. I reworked it a bit today and believe it's ready to be published. It worked out so that each of the five verses has exactly sixteen syllables. See if you can figure out what I'm talking about in each verse. To how much of the Bible's story does the poem allude?

God's Word

God’s Word,

In the beginning,

Called forth light,

And life,

And existence.

God’s Word,

Fingered in stone,

Timeless code,

Spells out love,

And bares the soul.

God’s Word,

Becoming flesh,

Walking with men,

Living love,

Paid the price.

God’s Word,

Leather-bound,

Lamp and sword,

Nourishing the soul,

Arms the fight.

God’s Word,

In my heart,

Holy flame,

Kindles love,

And radiates life.

Impulses Changed

(The words in bold may be understood as synonymous.)

"Fear to speak at random, fear to follow your own impulses." OHC 91

"Those who profess to serve God and yet indulge their natural impulses will mislead other souls." YSRP 33

"In order to be overcomers, there must be in our lives no petting of fleshly inclinations." 6BC 1112

"Without the transforming process which can come alone through divine power, the original propensities to sin are left in the heart in all their strength, to forge new chains, to impose a slavery that can never be broken by human power." Ev 192

"While we yield ourselves as instruments for the Holy Spirit's working, the grace of God works in us to deny old inclinations, to overcome powerful propensities, and to form new habits." COL 354

"For we are to do service for God in ways that are not in harmony with inborn inclination." 8T 314

"As we partake of the divine nature, hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong are cut away from the character, and we are made a living power for good." Maranatha, p. 225

"When the Holy Spirit cooperates with the powers of the human mind, high, holy impulses are the sure result." 8T 65

"The leaven of truth works secretly, silently, steadily, to transform the soul. The natural inclinations are softened and subdued. New thoughts, new feelings, new motives, are implanted. A new standard of character is set up - the life of Christ. The mind is changed; the faculties are roused to action in new lines. Man is not endowed with new faculties, but the faculties he has are sanctified. The conscience is awakened. We are endowed with traits of character that enable us to do service for God." COL 98, 99

"We need not retain one sinful propensity." Maranatha, p. 225

"The completeness of Christian character is attained when the impulse to help and bless others springs constantly from within." AA 551

"And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall be but carrying out our own impulses. The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing His service. When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of continual obedience. Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, through communion with God, sin will become hateful to us." DA 668

"When we love the world as He has loved it, then for us His mission is accomplished. We are fitted for heaven; for we have heaven in our hearts." DA 641

"When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own." COL 69