Renewal

Renewal Mountain, © 2010 Robbie Pruitt

Renewal

heart of stone

taken out

put in a new

heart of flesh

washed clean

renewed

dirty idols

thrown down

New Spirit within

His people

walking the promised land

with our God

delivered and clean

we trod

© 2010 Robbie Pruitt

Listen to this scripture and poem here: Ezekiel 36:24-29 and Renewal

Ezekiel 36:24-29

“ ‘For here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to take you out of these countries, gather you from all over, and bring you back to your own land. I’ll pour pure water over you and scrub you clean. I’ll give you a new heart, put a new spirit in you. I’ll remove the stone heart from your body and replace it with a heart that’s God-willed, not self-willed. I’ll put my Spirit in you and make it possible for you to do what I tell you and live by my commands. You’ll once again live in the land I gave your ancestors. You’ll be my people! I’ll be your God! “ ‘I’ll pull you out of that stinking pollution. . .”

Bibliography

Peterson, Eugene H.: The Message : The Bible in Contemporary Language. Colorado Springs, Colo. : NavPress, 2002, S. Eze 36:24-29

Dust Man

Photo from: www.maricopa.gov/.../ dust_sources/photos.aspx

Dust Man

I am dust

I am dust man

blowing through

desert land

sown in flesh

and corruption

natural

until I am done

I am Spirit bound

blown into Life

from the ground

God is Spirit Life

He is Spirit Man

I am life given by Spirit

I am heavenly man

from the image of dust

Spirit blown

as The Spirit gusts

not given to transformation

. . . but I must

© 2010, Robbie Pruitt

To listen to this poem, click here: Dust Man

1 Corinthians 15:45-58, The Message

“We follow this sequence in Scripture: The First Adam received life, the Last Adam is a life-giving Spirit. Physical life comes first, then spiritual—a firm base shaped from the earth, a final completion coming out of heaven. The First Man was made out of earth, and people since then are earthy; the Second Man was made out of heaven, and people now can be heavenly. In the same way that we’ve worked from our earthy origins, let’s embrace our heavenly ends. I need to emphasize, friends, that our natural, earthy lives don’t in themselves lead us by their very nature into the kingdom of God. Their very “nature” is to die, so how could they “naturally” end up in the Life kingdom? But let me tell you something wonderful, a mystery I’ll probably never fully understand. We’re not all going to die—but we are all going to be changed. You hear a blast to end all blasts from a trumpet, and in the time that you look up and blink your eyes—it’s over. On signal from that trumpet from heaven, the dead will be up and out of their graves, beyond the reach of death, never to die again. At the same moment and in the same way, we’ll all be changed. In the resurrection scheme of things, this has to happen: everything perishable taken off the shelves and replaced by the imperishable, this mortal replaced by the immortal. Then the saying will come true: Death swallowed by triumphant Life! Who got the last word, oh, Death? Oh, Death, who’s afraid of you now? It was sin that made death so frightening and law-code guilt that gave sin its leverage, its destructive power. But now in a single victorious stroke of Life, all three—sin, guilt, death—are gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus Christ. Thank God! With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground. And don’t hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort."

Bibliography

Peterson, Eugene H.: The Message : The Bible in Contemporary Language. Colorado Springs, Colo. : NavPress, 2002, S. 1 Co 15:45-58

The Living Among the Dead

Photo taken from here, © 2010

The Living Among the Dead

I am white washed tombs

doom and gloom

theory of the swoon

I am dead man’s bones

naked and alone

outside gleaming

white washed and beaming

inside hollow and echoes

I am . . . live among the cemeteries

tombstone headrests and chains

lifeless, empty, broken remains

broken and blood stained

Why am I

looking for the living

among the dead?

the tombs are empty

the dead have raised

enough said

clothed and in my right mind

I am life given

resurrected

death adverse

He broke the curse

shattered my chains

given life to these remains

I Am Resurrection and Life

He calls me out by name

grave clothes drop

death and the curse . . . they stop

I am . . . new life given

born again

I am broken free from sin

. . . Spirit filled within

© 2010, Robbie Pruitt

http://www.robbiepruitt.com/

Photo taken from here, © 2010

“Why do you seek the living among the dead?” -Luke 24:5, NKJV

“And when He [Jesus] had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains, because he had often been bound with shackles and chains. And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones . . . Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid.” -Mark 5:1-5, 15, NKJV

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” –Jesus, Matthew 23: 27-28, NKJV

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” –Jesus, John 14:6, NKJV

“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.” –Jesus, John 3:16-17, MSG

“You don’t have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live. And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all. Do you believe this?” – Jesus, John 11: 25-26, MSG

“And face it—if there’s no resurrection for Christ, everything we’ve told you is smoke and mirrors, and everything you’ve staked your life on is smoke and mirrors.” - 1 Corinthians 15:14, MSG

“But the truth is that Christ has been raised up, the first in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries.” – 1 Corinthians 15:20, MSG

 “He is not here, but is risen!” -Luke 24:6, NKJV

“I’m telling you these things while I’m still living with you. The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I’m leaving you well and whole. That’s my parting gift to you. Peace. I don’t leave you the way you’re used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don’t be upset. Don’t be distraught.” -John 14:25-27

Bibliography

The New King James Version. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Peterson, Eugene H.: The Message : The Bible in Contemporary Language. Colorado Springs, Colo. : NavPress, 2002.