John Newton’s popular hymn has that jarring line: Amazing grace, How sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me. A wretch? Few of us would call ourselves by that term. We are far too respectable. With our advanced degrees and cultured upbringing, we are anything but wretches. However, one result of an awakened heart…
Category: Poetry
I am Peter
Peter is the man who knows that Jesus is the promised messiah; Peter is the person who confesses this Jesus as the Saviour of the world; Peter is the one who denies this Jesus in the hour of witness, In the moment of life. Peter will hide this truth for a minute of peace. He…
A Meditation on Grace
The grace of God is a stream, coursing through the ragged rocks and broken terrain of human existence, bringing life, healing and hope. Grace sustains our universe and keeps it going. Grace began the day man turned against God and declared himself autonomous and free. Grace was the leather garment which covered man’s sinful nakedness…
Look at the cross
Psalm 22:12-18 When Christ hung on the cross, he was fulfilling what David had said several centuries earlier. He was living out the promise God had made to Abraham. And he was bringing to life that promise of conflict and victory which God had announced in the garden. At the cross, the world’s sin was judged…
The weariness of the God-less life
The below poem is an extract from ‘The Rock’, a play by T.S. Eliot (1888-1965). It speaks powerfully to the emptiness of technological and cultural sophistication devoid of God. “О weariness of men who turn from God To the grandeur of your mind and the glory of your action, To arts and inventions and daring…
Christ is the World’s true light
1. Christ is the world’s true light, Its Captain of salvation, The Day-star clear and bright Of every man and nation; New life, new hope awakes, Where’er men own his sway; Freedom her bondage breaks, And night is turned to day. 2. In Christ all races meet, Their ancient feuds forgetting, The whole round…
Oriki Mi (My Oriki)
In the Yoruba worldview, the individual’s identity is closely tied to the community. A person could say of himself that, ‘the community is, therefore I am.’ Out of this context emerges the Oriki, a praise poem celebrating the individual as a member of his family or clan. And it summarily recounts the exploits of his ancestors…
Even If …
The hand of God does not always reflect his heart. God loves his children, even though he sometimes does not grant the healing, blessing, or success they seek. James was killed by Herod, Stephen was stoned to death by the Jewish elders, Paul had a thorn in the flesh still. Yet God’s heart toward them…
‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus
Faith in Christ is an anchor for the soul. To rest on Christ for salvation, through trials, and for promises, is a privilege beyond words. May we receive grace to wholly trust in Him. ’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, Just to take Him at His Word; Just to rest upon His promise, And…
Jesus shall reign where’er the sun
This hymn captures my confidence in the conquest of the nations by the gospel. Christ is King not merely over individual souls but over the nations of the earth. This is the testimony of the Bible (Psalm 2; Matt.28: 18,19; Isaiah 2:2; 40:5; Malachi 1:11), and it is the vision of The Christian Mind. Jesus…
The Christian Mind 