christianity

Eternity Bides

Where hearts and souls meet
Whence the world would see us part –
Eternity bides

written in response to this week’s Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku Poetry Prompt Challenge #318 “Meet” and “Part”

Cast the Lies to the Fire

Cast the fool’s lies into the fire –
Burn, O pyre of public disdain!
May truth’s bright light never once wane,
Untruth-fuell’d flames lick ever high’r,
Fed by each word spoke by the Liar.
Each falsehood stoked, tinder’d and torch’d,
His vile fork’d tongue seared and scorch’d;
As each foul breath uttered ignites,
Deception melts, judgement alights –
Truth triumphant; the Liar scourged!

Written following Ronovan’s Weekly Decima Challenge on RonovanWrites – #08 “Fire”

I Have a Dream

I have a deeply rooted dream:
Of freedom and justice as food
at the table of brotherhood,
closer, closer than it may seem
to be today; I have a dream.
In the fiery streets of those states
where oppressive injustice weights
despair’s yoke upon all others,
lifted by my faithful brothers,
we grasp the dream our hope creates

Written following Ronovan’s Weekly Decima Challenge on RonovanWrites – #07 “Dream”RonovanWrites – #07 “Dream”RonovanWrites – #07 “Dream”

inspired by Dr Martin Luther King’s public speech delivered during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963, in which he called for civil and economic rights and an end to racism in the United States.

Maelstrom of Fire

Is this desperation’s last breath
Or surrender’s first fatal sigh,
Looking the firestorm in the eye?
Seeing its heart, its depth and breadth,
Its maelstrom flames embracing death;
Pain remains the last sensation,
Smoke-seared final desolation;
Leaving no charring dream unscorched –
Embers turned to cinders, a torched
Future… lost in immolation

Written following Ronovan’s Weekly Decima Challenge on RonovanWrites – #05 “Eye”

Judgement Day

A time will come called Judgement Day,
Too late to turn toward the Light;
Realise then you’ve lost the fight,
Too late to sink to knees and pray,
As yokes of sin on those left weigh
Darkest evil -terrible, great –
Will enslave, cast down… decimate…
None may know the hour, none know when –
Be warned, be wise, for until then
It’s not yet writ… there is no fate.

Written following Ronovan’s Weekly Decima Challenge on RonovanWrites – #05 “Mate”

“any man’s death diminishes me” – John Donne

“No man is an island, entire of itself;
every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less,
as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were:
any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind,
and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls;
it tolls for thee.”

― John Donne, No man is an island – A selection from the prose

The Lake of Revelation

Flaming wave crests across the Lake,
Damning the shore, lapping with fire;
Heat and despair press high’r and high’r,
Scorched lips silenced, part, crack and ache.

False dawns, tortured minds, wake and break;
Feigned glimpses – a distant city?
Cru’l deserts littered with pity
Stretch too far for mortals to cross;
Curs’d dunes, bearing waves of great loss
Bound the shore for Eternity.

Written following Ronovan’s Decima Challenge on RonovanWrites – “Lake”

Does Hell Exist? Pope Francis Says ‘No’ . . . the Bible says . . .

Does Hell Exist? Pope Francis Says No

This is what the Bible says:

Matthew 5:22
But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

Matthew 5:29
If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

Matthew 5:30
And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Matthew 10:28
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Matthew 18:9
And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

Matthew 23:15
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.

Matthew 23:33
“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?

Mark 9:43
If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.

Mark 9:45
And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.

Mark 9:47
And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell,

Luke 12:5
But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.

James 3:6
The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

2 Peter 2:4
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment;