1.31.2016

Be Jealous

Be Jealous

Thy jealousy befits Thee, Groom,
and zeal for Thine intended.
She is Thy glory, meant to bloom
as faithfully attended.
Her raiment is Thine arete
imputed for her cover,
and she adorns the chaste array
of her one Lord and Lover.

The swarming locust would devour,
consume, with naught remaining;
would strip immodest in fell hour,
then over-heap with shaming.
The covenant upon Thy breath
grants to Thy bride assurance -
Thy Word condemns their horde to death,
securing her endurance.

The roving lion tears and rends;
he roars and, birthing terror,
seeks shadowed souls to apprehend
by piercing doubt and error.
O! tender Shepherd seize his beard -
smite, shatter teeth asunder!
Draw forth from carcass once-afear'd
a sweet eye-brightening plunder.

The scarlet dragon stalks Thy bride,
her scion son to swallow.
He vomits forth a mighty tide
and crowns the beasts which follow.
Descend his chain from Heaven's vault,
stoke high his due infernal.
Shield us against his wroth assault,
enfold our souls eternal.

Be jealous for our sake and Thine,
Thou long-anticipated,
until we drink the wedding wine,
in ardor consummated.
Stay tyrant, rogue, and fiend without
in hungry night and hollow -
Just, bitter tears to slake their drought,
naught save their tongues to swallow.
~
AMDG

1/31/2016

No Half-Heart Love

No Half-Heart Love

Do not regard great Sodom so, my friend;
no half-heart love will 'scape the angel's rain.
The double-minded soul cleaves not in twain;
drags all to bitter dust in bitter end.

My brother, do not grasp at ash and salt;
set full your eye on Zoar as you flee.
No half-heart love will enter rest, nor be
accounted on the Lord's day free of fault.

Do not, dear soul, disdain the warning word,
nor so esteem your grave-goods laid in lust.
God's vengeance, much as grace, deserves full trust;
no half-heart love glad hails the holy Lord.

My son, flee the destruction coming, pent
longsuffering against a loveless rule.
A half-heart love possesses every fool
who, hearing, yet refuses to repent.

Do not, belov'd, mistake Gomorrah's lights
for aught but conflagration, ruin, death.
The half-heart love is chaff before the breath
of Him who calls whole hearts to mountain heights.

~

1/31/2016

AMDG