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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781468557534 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | AuthorHouse |
| Publication date: | 03/28/2012 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 108 |
| File size: | 220 KB |
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LONELY ROAD, RESCUE AND HOME
Carving A Poetic Path To CalvaryBy JESSE UNOH
AuthorHouse
Copyright © 2012 Jesse UnohAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4685-5755-8
Chapter One
SIN AND SALVATION* * *
Home Flight
My Creator is concerned about my condition.
So He allocates much precious time
To monitor my sad situation,
Hoping that my famous sentences,
And the millions of words that make them,
Will lose their sinful syllables one by one
Until purity is left as the lone residue;
Wishing that I would invest my divine talent
To tongue the Gospel into the world's waiting ears
And watch, stunned, as Heaven's trail is jammed
With billions of souls of the Redeemed;
Praying that I shake off its dead weight
(The cholesterol of sin really weighs one down!)
Until it is rapturously light,
For King Jesus will soon descend the steps of the clouds
To transport select citizens to His sorrow-free country.
Robed in starry splendour, astride the White Horse,
He shall reinvent the science of flight!
Lord, I shall ride Your mighty wings and cling fast,
Bound for Home where Glory is more royal than blue.
May You meet me ready, Jesus, when You come at last,
To pry me out of this odious flesh to a life with You!
The Yawning Years
The years have jumped onto a horse
And have galloped swiftly away,
Past the charming landmark of childhood,
The signpost of innocence—the good, the gay.
The years have long galloped away
With all their wonders, their carefree cargo,
Leaving me here with just nostalgia
And the memory of yesterday's glow.
I have tried to answer the question truly:
Did yesterday leave with something? Did it steal?
My poems now number nearly a thousand,
There are short stories, plays, novels, letters still;
And my contemporaries insist I am the man!
I have stationed smiles on the cheeks of a good few
And recently donned the robe of the dark, learned hue!
Nothing, then, seems to have lost its integrity.
Yet despite my youth, the conquests I count for real,
I cannot help it at all when I feel
A very powerful sense of loss
For the years I lost sight of the Cross.
Wounded In Battle
I had long ago been bruised and bloodied in battle
And suffered a bad blow to my mettle;
I have lain too long on the ground,
The battered bodies of fellow fighters all round;
I have bled and bled and bled
Till everywhere has become ribboned with red.
I have lived all these years in the shadows of shame
Pointing at myself great fingers of blame;
I have learnt the fear of rising up—it's no lie—
After I kept falling at every sorry try.
But isn't it time to conjure up victory from defeat
And return to the unbeatable gospel beat?
All around me, young soldiers are waging war
As they contend to stay faithful to their Creator.
Truly, the time has come to pick myself up,
Plod on and refuse to stop
Until I get back to the top
And there collect the Conqueror's Cup!
Non-Existence
No scheme
Nor dream,
No device
To advise,
No good
To brood,
No light
No sight,
No plot,
No slave,
No thought,
No hurt,
No court
To hold,
No gold
To dig for
No favour
To curry,
No sorry ...
In the grave!
The Guilty
Guilt is built all the way up
By the knife of a keen conscience
From the debris and shame of a fallen estate,
Guilt so great that no penance
Would seem too hard to pay,
No punishment too stiff to accept
To expiate for not keeping the faith.
The guilty look for a chance to atone
For a mind that is so sin-prone,
For hands that device dirty deeds
And expect a watching longsuffering god
To come down in a cloud of fury
Breathing fire and brimstone,
Scorching them with his angry holy flame
... If only to expel the pain of guilt
And the filth that lines their lives.
But our God, Jehovah?
What does He do instead
While you labour under a mountain of dread?
He comes along with His heavenly throng,
Picks you up in love and pardon
And smears your lips with a new song!
A Lonely Road
How lonely Master Jesus must have felt
When He came to Earth to do His Father's wish!
But whatever He felt, He was not selfish
Not so as to pray for the split of the belt
That tied Him divinely to many earth-days,
Displaying a love that continues to amaze.
Did He not long to return to His majestic throne?
To a wondrous world which agony has never known;
To a place of perfect peace, a land of laughter;
To a cosy communion with His heavenly Father;
To angels, marvelous music and cries of "Hosanna!"
And to a Kingdom in which holiness reigns alone!
Yet He tarried to carry out His Father's command:
Ferry mankind from Depths of Death to Land of Life.
And even when His beneficiaries would not understand,
But laid hands of hate on Him after years of strife,
He nudged comfort, nostalgia aside, and carried on
Until He paid my ransom and declared His job done!
Blossom
Make my heart emulate the humus soil,
Soft and yielding, mindful of the farmer's toil
That Your wondrous word may take firm root
And shoot into life many a glorious fruit,
That it may go ahead to blossom
With flowers that gladden the Farmer's bosom
When He comes in the cool of the evening
To walk His happy garden, singing.
Make my heart, Lord, humble and obedient
That Your word may wallow in nutrient:
To grow daily and radiate Your glory
Where it stands in the bloom of purity.
Loosen my heart's obstinate ground, crush its stone
And erect in their place Your righteous throne!
The Joy of Sonship
I glow in Your glory,
Bask in Your blinding beauty;
I breathe Your fragrant bloom,
Rollick in Your royal rooms.
I frolic in Your fullness,
Luxuriate in Your loving-kindness;
I pleasure in Your pious presence,
Laze in Your luminescence.
I wade in the warmth of Your word
And live because You live, O Lord;
I do not tremble in the face of trial
But dance with delirium at Your non-denial.
I laugh and leap at our reconciliation
For You are my Father and I, Your Son!
Rescue
(Old and New Testaments interface)
Man stood to lose forever the living light of paradise
For sin had severed him from God and all divine ties.
Tears broke out from the blue buckets of his eyes
For his story was best told with wild wails and cries.
He was lost on the lake of foolishness, he was unwise,
Until God created the saving institution of sacrifice
That he might draw close to Him, albeit at a price,
As his goats bit the knife, kicked and let out dying cries
And their blood rushed to rinse off murders, hates, lies.
But Man got his goats at prices neither friendly nor nice;
They bleated vows to leave him properly pauperized!
Because, on a daily basis, he sinned at least thrice!
And had to make daily atonements to avoid demise!
But then Jesus Christ came with sweet surprise
When at Calvary He made the ultimate sacrifice.
Rescue II
The landscape of my heart was black like ink,
A workshop where Satan loved to plot, plan and think;
I guzzled iniquity like a beloved bottle of prized drink
And swam so much in sin's sea that I began to stink;
My conscience was bruised by guilt, confidence did shrink,
My belly was weighed down with water: I was all set to sink.
And then in the moment that it took my eye to blink,
In the instant my captors exchanged one knowing wink,
Christ deployed His powerful pool of pink
And plucked me from the very brink!
How loudly did Heaven's bubbly glasses clink
As a prodigal returned home to his soul's Missing Link!
My life was Satan's rink, all bound up in a hopeless kink—
Until rescue came from Him whose armour has no chink.
Rescue III
Amazing that You could love a heart so dark,
Pierce it with Your light, and stamp it with Your mark;
Awesome that You could pick me out in the park
Where I was lost, and clothed me when I was stark;
Wonderful that adrift on the sea You deployed your ark
To pluck me out of the jagged jaws of the shark;
Glorious that You enlivened my eyes with Your spark
Where they were dull with sorrow and spiritual lack;
Gracious that You gave my once-stony heart a whack
With the gentle hammer of Your gospel, sin to sack;
Marvelous that You made me a member of Your pious pack
Which Powers and Principalities are powerless to attack.
Now I sing more happily than a skylark
For my life is firmly back on track!
Eternal Truth
No degree of daring doubt
Nor attempt at intellectual rout,
No deafening decibel of debate
Nor a view obstinate, irate or full of hate
No manner of mindless mischief
Nor swift deployment of great grief,
No romance with ignorance and the ignorant
Nor apathy widespread and abundant
Can dislodge a fraction of this faithful fact,
Wish it away or make it any less compact:
Jesus left Heaven for Earth and died for sinful Man
In line with God's awesome Salvation Plan;
He is the only One to heal our enmity with God
The only Way to escape divine wrath and rod.
Now in Heaven, He sits at the right of God's Throne
And will return to this earth to take home His Own.
He will sieve His glorious grain from the cheap chaff
And consign to Hell all those who doubt and laugh,
Who hate God and His Son—children of noncompliance
Who shun salvation and defy the plea for repentance.
SEARCHING FOR THE LOST
* * *
Before I Can Sell
... Lord, take total control of my soul,
Save me and make me whole
For I am rudderless and empty
Until You direct my derailed destiny.
Disentangle me from the world's mesh
And grant me victory over the flesh;
Build Your fireplace in my heart,
Let my Christian life enjoy a restart.
Then anoint me with fire ... qualify me!
To storm the street day after day
Searching every nook, every cranny
For Your children who have lost their way.
The Wrath of a Loving God
When a roaming honey bee finds a food source
It takes some nectar, charts a homeward course
And flies home to share the news with the hive
So that the entire colony may feed and survive.
When a monkey sees a predator preparing to swoop,
It calls out a sharp warning to every travelling troop
So they may all escape their foes and certain woe,
So that the family may avoid the ultimate sorrow.
Brethren, go seek out the Lord's lost sheep;
Tell them that God's love for them is so deep.
And tell them that there is nothing sweeter—
Not wine, nor sugar, not honey, nor nectar.
Also tell them that a good God is at Heaven's Gate
Waiting for them to return to His love, not hate;
Tell them it is getting late—so they must hurry!
Before the Gate closes against them and every plea.
Inspired Buy
In the busy market place of the Church,
The Man of God makes another pulpit pitch
Of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
To the rapt congregation sitting within reach,
Revealing this greatest-ever of Subjects
In a kaleidoscope of pleasant facets,
Urging all climes to yield to His touch
And to arrange with Him a redemption tryst.
But who wants to be swayed by this public offer
To buy the great Message and its messenger?
The Gospel is the very best there is to get,
An inspired buy that draws no sigh of regret!
The Great Commission
I will take to the street with a big bell and a yell
To warn God's children of the real danger of Hell
Where the fire is fierce, the worms are not wont to die,
And the chest of The Lost heaves with regrets and a sigh.
Penitence is not possible when our life on Earth is spent,
Nor forgiveness as we stand before the Seat of Judgment;
And all that The Damned can do is moan and groan
As they are chased from the Throne: 'Oh no! Had I known!'
Heaven's mansions are big enough to house every soul:
So why should any of God's children end up in the Hole?
Father, fill me with zeal for the Great Commission
And for my fellow humans let me feel real compassion.
So I may work to populate Heaven with souls of The Saved,
Those pried loose from the unforgiving clutch of the grave.
A Parent like No Other!
God has not placed a ceiling on the number
Of Christ-reborn babies that He can father.
He knows well His parental onions
And so ... craves to count His kids in billions!
For in His gold-laid mansions there is enough space
To house, past and present, the entire human race!
And in His treasury enough garlands, thrones, crowns
To reward all those who did not let the Gospel drown.
Are you in or out? Will you tune your tongue to a song?
Or grieve and groan forever? Where do you belong?
If God is not your Dad, friend, you are an orphan
Even if your earthly parents still live on this land!
STEPS TO PERDITION
* * *
Holy on Sunday ...
On Sunday, while he is located in church,
His Christian race suffers not one lurch;
His steps are paced out with soft gentility,
His voice is made pleasant with humility.
Meditation is a crowd on his furrowed brow,
His countenance bespeaks holiness, and how!
And when the pulpit swells with news of a need
He is a ready hand at sowing a good seed.
But outside the place where he worships,
As the week winds down, he trips and slips
And lives a life that is terribly difficult
To tell from the one that seemed to have no fault.
But, come Sunday, he again dons his 'holy' cloak
To reduce the voice of his conscience to a croak.
Pastor Feel-Good
Forever, feel-good sermons are served from his pulpit
While he is careful NOT to warn his flock of The Pit.
He screams down hails of fire on Satan and his evil band
But bursting barns for all the big givers in church;
He prophesies that the Great Foe will stumble and lurch,
His own flock will win wealth that will confound the land.
Forever, feel-good sermons are served hot from his pulpit
While he is careful NOT to make any mention of The Pit
Lest any takes offence and withdraws, not in penitence,
But for a new absence of worth while in God's presence
And in protest at the waking of their pricking conscience
Which they had long seared into a pious and easy silence.
Forever, feel-good sermons are served sweet from his pulpit
While he is careful NOT to tell his flock about The Pit,
Lest the population of his congregation goes downhill
And shrinks the single source of his income—the holy till.
With his million Hallelujah-Amens creating a delicious din,
The flock cannot hear the greatest warning: Flee From Sin!
Sunday
My mind is there
Where a scarred cross hugs the sky,
Sounds of organs and hymns
Wafting sweetly upward
To the glory of a great God.
My mind is there
Where impersonal amplifiers
Are reporters of the chaos in course:
Screamers contend for the pulpit,
Citizens of Babel in court.
Wanton, lascivious hips
Roll to the entrapment of unwary eyes—
To the glory of a great God.
And I must stay here,
Listener to the West's soft musical imports,
With hunger in my soul.
If Need Be ...
Gouge out your eyes with righteous rage
Even if you have to grope your way to Heaven's gate;
Cut off your legs in holy fury
Even if you have to crawl to the Golden City;
With pious anger, uproot your tongue
Even if you have to go Home without a song;
And if they work wickedness, sever your hands
And stumble into the Kingdom without balance ...
Lest while having all parts of your body intact,
They lead you astray and make Hell a burning fact.
Partial Prodigals
Heaven's ranks have swollen large of late
With the influx of many a legal head
Who await their exams with some dread
And now teem at the pearly gate.
Heaven's ranks have risen by much
For so thorny is the Bar Final road.
Now candidate attorneys rush off an ode
To please God's ears, to earn His blessed touch.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from LONELY ROAD, RESCUE AND HOME by JESSE UNOH Copyright © 2012 by Jesse Unoh. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Dedication....................ixAcknowledgement....................xi
1. About The Author....................3
2. Genesis....................4
3. Home Flight....................7
4. The Yawning Years....................8
5. Wounded In Battle....................9
6. Non-Existence....................10
7. The Guilty....................11
8. A Lonely Road....................12
9. Blossom....................13
10. The Joy of Sonship....................14
11. Rescue....................15
12. Rescue II....................16
13. Rescue III....................17
14. Eternal Truth....................18
15. Before I Can Sell....................21
16. The Wrath of a Loving God....................22
17. Inspired Buy....................23
18. The Great Commission....................24
19. A Parent like No Other!....................25
20. Holy on Sunday....................29
21. Pastor Feel-Good....................30
22. Sunday....................31
23. If Need Be....................32
24. Partial Prodigals....................33
25. The Spoken Word....................34
26. Today's Sodom....................35
27. Viewed From Above....................36
28. Day Cares....................39
29. Divine Sunday Meeting....................40
30. Concealed Revealed....................41
31. I Am Here....................42
32. I Have Come Alone....................43
33. Presidential Visit....................44
34. The Great Refresher....................45
35. Your Presence....................46
36. Whetstone....................47
37. A Crazy God....................51
38. Approximations....................52
39. Awake For My Sake....................53
40. I Am Part Of A New Day!....................54
41. The Constant....................55
42. The Never-failing Anchor....................56
43. My Blessed Assurance....................57
44. You Make Me Praise You....................58
45. A World of Weariness....................61
46. Faith Activates Forgiveness....................62
47. Teach Me....................63
48. Meek but not Weak....................64
49. It Could Be You....................65
50. Blind Faith....................66
51. Renewal....................67
52. The Compass....................68
53. When You Return....................69
54. Walk With Me....................70
55. Invisible Enemy....................73
56. Quit Notice to Mr. Lucifer....................74
57. Satan Exposed at Thursday's Faith Clinic....................75
58. The Evil Insomniac....................76
59. A Call to Offer....................79
60. Is God Your Business Partner?....................80
61. Tenth Of 24....................81
62. Thrill of Obedience....................82
63. Blessings, Channels and Ownership....................83
64. Giving to the World's Richest....................84
65. That Beautiful Home....................87
66. Across Jordan....................88
67. Divine Greed....................89
68. God Is Partial To Me....................90
69. Mounting Higher Ground....................91
70. Relocation....................92
Epilogue....................93