two poems

Well, last week's summary-in-verse may have been a bit of a flop...my husband opened the post and (before reading it) said, "Neat!  A seal?"  So while I might go back sometime and try to make my dove look a little less seal-ish, today I'm going to post my summary of chapter four of Overcoming Sin and Temptation: The Life, Vigor, and Comfort of Our Spiritual Life Depend Much on Our Mortification of Sin.  (Whew!  Don't let the length of the titles deceive you - the chapters in this book are short, comparatively speaking.)  And as for the seal, what's a spouse for but to keep one humble?  ;-)

Two images in this chapter caught my fancy, both are common in Scripture: that of a garden, and that of adoption.  And here is another quote for good measure:  “Thoughts are the great purveyors of the soul to bring in provision to satisfy its affections; and if sin remain unmortified in the heart, they must ever and anon be making provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof. They must glaze, adorn, and dress the objects of the flesh, and bring them home to give satisfaction; and this they are able to do, in the service of a defiled imagination, beyond all expression.”

God’s Garden

God bought a garden with His son’s blood,

prepared the soil, and then He sowed

the seeds of His own graces good –

faith, love, and zeal that plot now dress.

And yet within this earth still sprung

weeds that would those plants undone,

lusts soon left the shoots begun

lacking life and vigorousness.

But God does not leave His claim ignored,

Gardener’s tools He does afford:

prayer and fasting, the watered Word,

and weeds pulled out by sin confessed.

So tend the garden of your heart,

be swift to cast the those lusts apart,

make mortification your own art

if you would thrive in holiness.

- Sarah Mowery 

House of Two Fathers

The birth father?

Fathers lusts

and lies,

schemes

and deceives,

beats his own children

without reprieve.

The adoptive Father?

Gives each child

a name that’s new,

a heavenly home

and eternal view.

He lovingly chastens

and bestows

in full measure

the inheritance

to each of His treasures.

And – wonder of wonders! –

His takes every one

and makes them look like Him,

Jehovah-Shalom.

- Sarah Mowery

(Credit: the last two gifts mentioned in this poem were so memorably put by our pastor in a sermon several months ago.)