GIVE A GOOD WORD the findings of Apostle Peter by Doug Blair
Give a Good Word for Christ is worthy copyright Doug Blair, Waterloo, ON, 2017
with good friend and fellow poet Anthony Gomez
Of Andrew's Spirit
We have found Him And know that He is truth Distilled and pure. A Certain Spring, 'Though damp and slush Delay the budding. A Prince with yarns Of fields and flowers And feathered trust. Unspoiled by gold Or other trappings Of convention. Unmoved by rank Or rule of present powers. But moved by Smallest cry of Pain or shame
Or lonely lot. A Man whose every Waking step displays Assurance, equity, Mercy, patience, hope Direct from Heaven. Whose gaze commands. The Promised One. Re-charging nightly On hills of prayer, (With His Father, So He says.) As we have slept. Brother, drop your net. Come meet this One. Come meet your future.
Thinkers' Thursday Nights We don't often get the answers The questions they come and go But in this small house of mutual respek The love and trust gotta grow An old con, he got it rolling Done his silent years in the pen The kitchen smelt good An from the dark 'hood Come broken up girls and men So tired of Death's gang-bangin' And turnin' the tricks Momma taught And hidin' one's heart an fearin' That inner hopes might be caught. But Socrates axed the questions Then sat back an watched the flow Of life with its cuts And bruises an such Brought out to the Light to know An black and brown Stopped to listen As each speaker got a turn An white an worn felt a kinship Forgiveness jes bein' learned. The answers they proved elusive
Ole Socrates sat and smile The comments felt good And in a changed 'hood Sweet blossoms Burst forth from bile. No church could've brought This blessing Seemed codes and clothes Blocked the way Here silent prayers raised An honest thoughts praised Agape love had its say. (inspired by the writings of Walter Mosley)
To Fish for Men
“Fishers of men� Was your promise That drew us from ships And from sea The gold of the oncoming morning The breeze o'er the Lake Fresh and free. And Brother had caught My attention 'Messiah had surely arrived' And what a friend Came to our table Before you I scarcely had lived. Before you I ranted And blustered
No man could un-nerve me I thought. But then came the Servant girl's question To ruin me Once you'd been caught How could I deny you Dear Master? How could I dismiss Precious grace? But mercy works marvels so sweetly A life saved by your smiling face.
Transforming Power
“Simon he surnamed Peter.”
Mark 3:16
In a gallery in Europe are shown, side by side, the first and the last works of a great artist. The first is very rude and most faulty; the last is a masterpiece. The contrast shows the results of long culture and practice.
These two names are like those two pictures. “Simon” shows us the rude fisherman of Galilee, with all his rashness, his ignorance, his imperfectness. “Peter” shows us the apostle of the Acts and the Epistles, the rock firm and secure, the man of great power, before whose Spirit-filled eloquence thousands of proud hearts bow, swayed like the trees of the forest before the
tempest; the gentle, tender soul whose words fall like a benediction; the noble martyr witnessing to the death for his Lord. Study the two pictures together to see what grace can do for a man.
It is not hard to take roses, lilies, fuchsias, and all the rarest flowers, and with them make forms of exquisite beauty; but to take weeds, dead grasses, dried leaves trampled and torn, and faded flowers, and make lovely things out of such materials, is the severest test of skill. It would not be hard to take an angel and train him into a glorious messenger; but to take such a man as Simon, or as Saul, or as John Newton, or as John Bunyan, and make out of him a holy saint or a mighty apostle, that is the test of power. Yet that is what Christ did and has been doing ever since. He takes the poorest stuff, despised and worthless, outcast of men ofttimes, and when He has finished His gracious work we behold a saint whiter than snow.
The sculptor beheld an angel in the rough, blackened stone, rejected and thrown away; and when men saw the stone again, lo! there was the angel cut from the block. Christ can take us, rough and unpolished as we are, and in His hands our lives shall grow into purity and loveliness, until He presents them at last before the throne, faultless and perfect.
(From Come Ye Apart by J. R. MIller)
Peter's Lament
He has prayed for me, And how I know his nights Were given much to prayer. On struggling priestly heights, He sought my blessing there.
He has prayed for me, And often while with us, Upheld me by his power; Though I would storm and fuss And rush and fret and glower. He has prayed for me, While I refused to think That any wicked plan Would cause my heart to sink In fear of any man. He has prayed for me, Yet I too quickly slept, When asked to pray with him In darkness while he wept, Awaiting capture grim. He has prayed for me, And all I did to help Was lash out once with sword, A useless little whelp, While troops removed my Lord. He has prayed for me, Who sought the High Priest’s home, His fate to better view; But fearing Jews and Rome, Denied him, ere cock crew. He has prayed for me, ‘Though I fled in the night To luxury of tears, Not knowing how to fight My frailty, flesh or fears.
He has prayed for me, And all has come to be. The tomb now holds my friend. Has Satan sifted me? Is infamy my end? But Jesus prayed for me, His eager little rock. Did any prayer get through? Will I yet tend his flock? Oh, if I only knew! LUKE 22: 31, 32, 33, 34 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death. And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.
Peter Went Out
“And Peter went out, and wept bitterly.� Read these seven words from Luke 22 and realize that they contain the kernel of sanctification.
Peter had had all of this exposure to the power and promise of Jesus but he was still tempted to warm himself in the early morning chill at the fires of the world. Jesus had prophesied his three-time denial and it was happening.
Peter had felt that his loyalty to the Master was unshakable, even to the death. But here he was quaking and swearing before women and strangers that he did not even know the Galilean.
Believer, when Jesus gives you a candid look at the evil still within your own heart, pray that you will have the grace and the opportunity to do as Peter did. It will happen alone. It will be a Godly sort of repentance. It will be a milestone marking supernatural change.
And what is going on in that world which you are renouncing? It is still inclined to mock and to crucify Jesus and His “little ones�, and to consider it entertainment. It does this in the face of the following:
Luke 21: 25And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; 26Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken
Peter, Toward the Fiery End
And here I sit In this little cottage. The flock are afraid As the Imperial wolf roams Seeking whom it may devour. The Master told me These days would come.
But also that I Would feed his sheep. That morning on the shore When fish and bread And His dauntless words Pulled my heart back. And He has never failed His visitings To the inner man Almost as real to me now. And I surprise myself Submission, patience, Forbearance, peace Things never to have been found In that blustering Fisherman Of former days. All of His work This I know. And now He promises Swift dismissal. He will sustain. A few searing moments And then the Light. I am ready. The Master is at hand. And I think it not strange.
Power In Peter's Estimation
They have lived ordeals Mostly in quiet corners Un-noticed Stumped by the harshness Of a world for winners Trim, muscular, popular Monstrously self-absorbed Winners. They have found rescue On knees of broken supplication Have heard words from the Risen One Have stood up again Assured of protection, counsel From the Highest And a promised abode In righteousness and peace. They are no longer Terrified by public opinion Peculiar people Peter said Out on a limb Of adventure and loving it Persecuted because clean Begotten again through Words of power And not by any natural means They are called out of darkness Into marvelous light Peter said. Strangely transformed to A royal priesthood A holy nation. Yet now they go about The simple jobs and households Helping where prepared By unlikely instruments Kept by the power of God Unto salvation
Ready to be revealed In the last time Wherein they rule and reign With every conceivable virtue For equity, harmony and joy. Christ their destination (Note: One of my favourite journeys passes right through Peter's First Epistle. We see there a totally changed man, meek, forgiving, eager, delightfully dependent and fearless. Such are the “works meet for repentance”, the marks of one “begotten again” by the transforming promises of Jesus.)