Beauty's Renewal

I woke to find a world devoid of war
where no one bears a grudge or locks his door
or fears to wander naked in the wild
or trust an unknown neighbor with his child:
a world where threat and peril walk no more.

I opened eyes to gaze upon a garden
where none still knows the need to plead for pardon
or beg for alms or seek a healing balm
or find a sage her tortured mind to calm:
a place of grace and peace beyond the Jordan.

I rose to walk in wonder down the strand
now free from heaven’s curse on life or land
where oceans churn with only gentle tides
and nature with its lords no more collides:
a paradise unstained on every hand.

I left my dreams behind to enter bliss
where death and wrong my Prince will all dismiss
and offer there with riven hands and feet
the prize which here is only bittersweet:
the sleeping Beauty’s pledged, awakening Kiss.


MNA 4.26.2015

Challenged and Cheered

Paul writes in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” No sooner does the apostle explain this, than he proceeds to paint a very painful picture of the human race. A race of people doomed to experience the wrath of God for their sins.

The point that Paul is making is that the gospel of God--the “good news” regarding Jesus, God’s only Son--can only be seen as good news as it is proclaimed against a backdrop of a fallen world. This is a world that is rendered fallen by a rebellious, treasonous, disobedient human family, of which each of us is a guilty member.

This bad news about people marks out the irreconcilable “no-man’s land” that separates so-called liberal Christianity from what may rightly be called evangelical Christianity. Full-orbed biblical faith in Jesus Christ is based on truth which insists on a radical antithesis.

When I use the label “liberal” here, I am referring to those who believe in unifying humanity under a banner of fallacious hopes and wishful thinking. These well-intentioned folks want to see peace and healing for a hurting and divided mankind...but they believe they can be attained by basically human, non-miraculous methods.

This became clearer to me recently as I pondered the apparent aims of some spiritually minded poets. These writers urge us to look within ourselves to discover the common ground and universal desires that can unite us all. They imply (or preach openly) that if flawed, mistaken, dissatisfied men and women would rally together under a banner of brotherhood, or a love of nature, or a desire for self-preservation, then...all would be well. After all, we are all “in the same boat together,” and together we are sufficiently equipped to get things right in the end.

Only a casual glance through the pages of Scripture will show that this view falls far short of the plight of mankind as the Bible describes it. Rather than facing a self-perfecting building project that merely requires a beefed-up quantity of concerted effort, humanity is, in reality, in the middle of a to-the-death cosmic combat of God-sized proportions! Our Creator is extremely mad...because people are extremely bad. And eternity in either a real Heaven, or a real Hell, hangs in the balance.

This biblical picture presents too sharp an antithesis to the liberal mind. In order to avoid such a God-vs-Man confrontation, one must do one’s best to equalize the two sides in the conflict. The liberal must either inflate man’s goodness and perfectibility, or deflate God’s nature as powerful and holy sovereign. Or both. Making man more god-like than the Bible paints him, or making God more man-like, is the key.

A favorite tool of such theological makeovers is modern textual criticism: taking the plain language of Scripture concerning God, His nature, His demands, His action, judgments and decrees, and re-interpreting it to render it more manageable on a purely human level. To a large degree, the biblical God has died the death of a thousand re-interpretations. Liberal theologians have taken God’s wrath, laws, miraculous powers and sovereign providence--even His plan to save sinners, and have reduced them to symbolic signposts that humans can use on their own journey toward self-perfection.

Those divine qualities, no longer seen as simple and factual, have been ripped from their spatial and historical context and boiled down into Aesop-like moralisms. In the modern theologian’s mind, there’s no genuine conflict--there’s only a moralistic stew where all of man’s good intentions (including his assumptions about God) are simmering together on the fire until we all wake up to the fact that we’re really all the same. All is One. There is no real antithesis to worry about.

When I, as a Christian poet, seek to reflect my faith in beautiful verses, the resultant lines cannot avoid the antithetical. To me, the truth of the biblical faith is just that: truth. And the truth forces one to make distinctions. The universe is not all “A”...it is also “non-A.” The reason that humanity is divided is that we’ve sinned against our Maker. The existence of evil in our world and in ourselves makes this perfectly plain, even if it wasn’t for the biblical testimony.

Furthermore, now that our Maker has provided a way to be saved from the punishment our sins have earned--Jesus--we turn our noses up at that gracious way, and go on devising our own ways--including the self-perfectionist path of the liberal.

The call of God from time immemorial has always been, “Repent”--to turn from non-A, and return back to A. This was the antithetical call of the judges and prophets of the Old Testament, the call of the Christ, as well as His forerunner and emissaries in the New Testament. To repent is to surrender before the challenge of God that stands against the proud, false hopes of those who imagine salvation is within their own grasp.

The Christian antithesis is that only the perfect work and atoning death of the divine, historical Jesus can provide a saving record of righteousness for sinners in the courtroom of a holy God. Every other path of salvation is “non-A.”

The liberal thinker may ask: “Are things really that desperate? Is the message of Jesus really so stark, judgmental and exclusive? Isn’t there room to flex, to leave our doors open a crack for sincere Buddhists or Jews or Hindus or Muslims? Can’t we all get along on a platform of good intentions?”

To those with such hopes I would simply point to the manger...the cross...the empty tomb...and ask the question: “Why?” If our good intentions were always good enough, who, then, really needs a Savior? Jesus said He came to earth “not to bring peace...but a sword.” He became the most challenging, antithetical figure who ever lived. But in love, He gave His life “as a ransom for many, to bring us to God.” And He claimed to be God’s only Way. His sole, unique Savior for the lost. That’s His challenge.

Only those who surrender before the challenge of Christ’s gospel, can truly be cheered by it.

Mark Aikins
April 12, 2015

New Beginnings?

January marks the beginning of a new year...yet it feels like the continuation of a bitter, cold season.

New relationships can be enticing and fun...until you start being haunted by memories of old ones and the baggage you still carry.

Favorite TV shows promise premiere episodes that resolve the cliff-hangers from last season...

It seems like every new beginning sneaks in a remnant of the past.

Everything new is old again...or is that vice versa?

The Preacher from Ecclesiastes looked and looked in vain for “something new under the sun.”

Every new day is a repeat of the day before: sun rising and hurrying to the place where it sets,
long shadows shortening...then lengthening the opposite way, blossoms opening and closing again.

Looking forward to the new, rewards one with the assurance that one may look back on recollections of the old.

Time’s passage makes newness a fleeting spark that never burns.

New Year’s resolutions may be well-intentioned...but how many last into February?

Wedding bells ring every June...divorce court gavels hammer just as often.

Birthdays arrive, hailed and unhailed, reminders of a primal cry...and the approaching last gasp.

New stars in the heavens are truly exploding novae, heralding the death of faraway planets.

Bored teenagers hunger for novelty...then they fall in love with dead film stars, and their fashions.

Old people come to fear novelty...then, in their dotage, see old friends as newcomers.

Witness Protection Programs promise a new beginning: protection from the past, of course.

True newness must be a spiritual thing...for under the sun, ain’t no such thing!


MNA 4/9/2015

What Is the Matter

Dying things and dying people,
Passing seasons, passing years,
Ebbing tides and ebbing powers,
Falling empires, falling tears...

Leaving friends and leaving dwellings,
Flagging hopes and flagging joys,
Caving buildings, caving virtues,
Hopeless ventures, hopeless ploys...

I have often felt abandoned,
Left behind by life’s advance--
Relegated to the quagmire
Of a cosmos run by chance...

You are not alone in searching
For the hidden face of God
As you peer into the blackness
Of the soul and sky and sod...

Death of morning, death of meaning,
Death of fruit and flow’r and seed,
Death of wishing or desiring,
Death of all-consuming need...

Could it be I could not face it,
Nor could you, while drawing breath,
Face what truly, finally matters,
Were it not for death--sweet death?


MNA 3/12/15

Unburied Treasure

“Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, 

where neither moth nor rust corrupt, and thieves do not break in and steal...

for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” 

(Matthew 6:20-21)

Bilbo Baggins the hobbit gazed down miserably from Ravenhill, into the valley between two great arms of the Lonely Mountain. There before him a vicious battle was raging, pitting dwarves, elves and men against a ghastly host of goblins and their allies, the evil wargs.

His adventure had come to an end. Chosen by Gandalf the wizard and Thorin the dwarf-lord as the “burglar” who would spy out the dark passages of the Mountain and venture into the fearsome lair of the wicked dragon, Smaug, Bilbo, with the aid of a magical ring, had amply fulfilled his contract. He had rescued Thorin and his twelve companions several times during their journey, had played a key role in discovering the way into the mountain halls, and had even reported Smaug’s weak spot so that the mighty bowman Bard was able to shoot down the dragon in its flight with his final arrow! For these remarkable services, the tiny hobbit had been promised one fourteenth share of the dragon’s stolen and hoarded treasure.

But now, what had seemed like a tremendous victory was turning into a calamity greater than the death and destruction dealt out by the dragon himself. This Battle of the Five Armies was the direct result of the news that Smaug’s golden hoard was no longer guarded by the monster, and Thorin, heir of the dwarf-kings of old, was unwilling to divide his treasure with other races, even when their claims seemed valid.

In J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth, dwarves were described as expert miners, smiths and craftsmen, digging, delving and building vast underground cities. Beneath the earth they sought out the natural treasuries of iron, copper, silver, gold and gems, which they fashioned into works of inexpressible beauty. With so much hard work invested in their treasures, it is easy to see why it filled Thorin’s heart with such hot desire, and made him willing to guard it with his own life, as well as the lives of his companions.

But later, at the side of Thorin’s death-bed, Bilbo would hear words of repentance from the lips of this proud King Under the Mountain. The hobbit cared little for the glitter of trinkets or the light of jewels...he had repeatedly longed only to return safely to his comfortable home under the Hill back in the Shire, with or without his fourteenth share of dragon-treasure. Thorin praised these simple desires in the end, confessing that if more people desired such things above the lust for gold and other riches, the world would be a merrier place.

Tolkien then put even more telling words into Thorin’s mouth as he was dying. He told Bilbo that he was about to go to sit among his ancestors and wait with them, “until the world is renewed.” What a poignant reminder that this world--Middle-earth or our own world--is not our final dwelling place. Nothing here that we value so highly is of permanent value; all will pass away. I might dig and dig for an entire lifetime, unearthing mineral riches that will satisfy even a dragon’s lust for treasure. It will vanish in the end. The Creator of heaven and earth, who spoke this universe into being, will just as easily speak it back into nothingness.

What will endure beyond the world’s renewal are the lives of the people around us. Contrary to the naturalistic fatalism of our times, physical death is not the end. None of us faces oblivion when he or she passes out of this world. Solomon said in the book of Ecclesiastes that God has placed eternity in the heart of man. We instinctively know that we are destined for an eternal, unending existence. Here, on this planet, we value things for their beauty, their splendor and craftsmanship, the passing pleasure they give...and, most of all, their “permanence.” But we know down deep that this permanence is not truly permanent, after all. You and I will outlast these things we cherish so highly. We will enter eternity someday and face our Creator. And he will either hail us as his beloved children, or judge and banish us as his bitter enemies.

Earthly treasures will not comfort us on that day. Fortunes we have amassed on planet earth will be left behind. Power, prestige, possessions and all our noble plans for the future will be stripped away. All that will matter is the treasure of knowing Jesus Christ.

How can I obtain this Person? This priceless treasure? Not by paying for it. Not by earning or deserving it. Jesus gives Himself to me freely as my Savior and King. I must merely reach out empty hands of faith and receive Him.

All during his adventurous travels, Bilbo Baggins kept longing for home. That is where his chief treasure lay. He eventually made it back there in one piece.

By God’s grace, may you and I do the same--and may your Treasure be waiting there to welcome you.

Beyond

Fair faces launched at least a thousand ships
And chained the heart of many-a warrior king;
This treasured fire braved wastes and walls and whips
To gain the sole possession of one ring.
How many hearts are welded to a dream
Of ever-after happiness and bliss,
To merely grasp instead handfuls of steam
As turtle-doves expire with-a serpent’s hiss?
Four-letter word, with such a checkered past:
Why do all youths fall victim to your flame,
When all can see how rarely it will last
And aging suitors hang their heads in shame?

I early came to know the lonesome curse--
A heart cut off from free, unfettered joy--
The lauded idyll of the poet’s verse,
Eluding every hopeful, heartsick boy.
My mind and soul cried from an empty well
Their call to mate with some ideal I’d lost
Somewhere between bright heaven and dark hell,
Between Passover’s pains and Pentecost.
For many passions throngs have dared to die
Rather than lose the loves for which they fought;
But who would seek a sinner sick as I,
Who only could by royal blood be bought?

Was I--O truly?--meant for love beyond
All passions those on earth might undertake?
Do best affections here, reflect the bond
Eternity itself will never break?
Beyond the smold’ring ash, beyond the death,
Beyond the wasting, wanting, weary earth...
Beyond the ever-after war for breath,
Is there, indeed, what all lost loves are worth?

MNA
2/15/15

Music as a Memory Tool

Recently I was challenged by one of my pastors to commit a passage of Scripture to memory. I have many fond memories of verses learned in childhood at Sunday school class and Bible clubs and Christian camps. And I’ve grown up understanding the importance of memorizing Scripture, hiding God’s word in my heart, “that I might not sin against” Him (Psalm 119:11).

It suddenly struck me as I considered the passage my pastor had assigned me, that I could use a familiar hymn tune as a mnemonic device (a memory-aid), if I could find a melody that closely followed the rhythm of the words of the Scripture in question. Some of the words might have to be combined with a single note in some cases, but who knew? I decided to give my idea a try.

The tune I landed on for my experiment was the famous Beethoven theme, “Ode to Joy,” often used for the hymn poem, “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee.”

With this melody in your mind, try fitting in the following words from Titus 2:11-14 (ESV):

“For the grace of God has appeared,
Bringing salvation for all people,
Training us to renounce ungodliness
And worldly passions, and to live
Self-controlled, upright and godly lives
In the present age, waiting for
Our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory
Of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,
(repeat last four lines of the tune)
Who gave Himself for us to redeem us
From all lawlessness, and to purify
For Himself a people for His own
Possession who are zealous for good works”

What a great, encouraging passage! And after singing it over and over in my mind, writing it on a card and glancing at it to jog my 58-year-old brain, I could actually type it out word-for-word from memory! I did this about a month ago, now, and the passage is still fresh in my mind, partly because it is forever linked to that melody by good ol’ Ludwig von B.

Once I’d succeeded in that first experiment, I simply couldn’t resist trying it again with other passages. I went back to my pastor and reported my success, requesting that he choose another section from the Bible for me to commit to memory. Here is the one he suggested. It comes from Psalm 73:21-28, and I used the tune to the hymn, “The God of Abraham Praise.”

“When my heart was grieved,
And my spirit embittered,
I was senseless and ignorant,
I was a brute beast before You.
Yet I am always with You;
You hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel and afterward,
You will take me into glory.

Whom have I in heaven but You?
And earth has nothing I desire besides You.
My flesh and heart may fail, but You are the strength
Of my heart and my portion forever.
All who are far from You will perish;
You destroy all who’re unfaithful to You.
But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made
The Sovereign Lord my refuge. (repeat last line of tune)
I will tell of all Your deeds.”

I know...it’s hard to fit in some of those words to the Abraham tune, but you have to divide up some of the quarter notes into eighth notes, such as in the second line of the second stanza:

“And earth-has no-thing I-de sire-be sides You”
(the dashes indicate where a quarter note has been replaced with 2 shorter notes)

Again, that passage is one well worth taking time to memorize! And I found that the choice of tune works well in jogging my memory when I want to recall those wise words of Asaph.

This musical memory technique became so rewarding, I stopped waiting for my pastor to make suggestions and started hunting for target passages on my own! Here is a great section from the New Testament book of Colossians that one of my pastors is beginning to preach on. I chose to memorize it to the tune of the hymn, “Blest Be the Tie that Binds.”

“Since then you have been raised with Christ,
Set your hearts on things above,
Where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things above,

Not on earthly things; for you died,
And your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ who is your life appears,
You also will appear with Him in glory.

Put to death, therefore, whate’er belongs
To your earthly nature: sexual immorality,
Impurity, lust, evil desires and greed,
Which is idolatry.
(I found that stanza especially challenging!)

Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.
You used to walk in these ways
In the life you once lived, but now you must rid
Yourselves of all such things as these:

Anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language
From your lips. Do not lie to each other,
For you have put off the old self with its practices
And have put on the new self,

(Now, repeat lines 3 and 4)
Which is being renewed in knowledge in
The image of its Creator.”

Believe it or not, I’m typing all of these out from memory!! This might be just a quirky thing that works for odd-balls like me, but I thought I would share it with my readers, in the off chance that they might wish to give it a shot. After all, knowing God’s word has always been important for believers in Christ--and it promises to be all the more important in the years and generations ahead.

Why not try this technique for yourself, or come up with your own and share it with your friends? Having helpful passages of Scripture “at my fingertips” and singing these truths to myself has become a major source of joy and spiritual blessing for me, and I hope you will find it likewise.

Here’s one more passage I’ve worked on, from Psalm 51, to the tune of “What Child Is This?”

“Have mercy on me O God,
According to Your steadfast love;
According to Your abundant mercy,
Blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin,
For I know my transgressions and
My sin is ever before me.

Against You, You only, have I sinned
And done what is evil in Your sight,
So that You may be justified in your words
And blameless in Your judgment.
Behold, I was bro’t forth in iniquity
And in sin did my mother conceive me;
Behold, You delight in truth in the inward being,
And You teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean,
Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
Make me hear joy and gladness, make
The bones You have broken rejoice.
Hide Your face from my sin
And blot out all my iniquities;
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a right spirit within me.

 Cast me not away from Your presence and
Take not Your Holy Spirit from me;
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and
Uphold me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
And sinners will return to You.
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation. (repeat last line)
And my lips will sing aloud of Your righteousness.”