The King and His Kingdom Has Come

The Drama of Scripture cover from Amazon.com

An epic poem based on The Drama of Scripture: 
Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story

By Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen

Prologue: The Bible as Grand Story

Act 1: God Establishes His Kingdom:Creation

Act 2: Rebellion in the Kingdom:Fall

Act 3: The King Chooses Israel: Redemption Initiated

Interlude: A Kingdom Story Waiting for an Ending: 

The Intertestamental Period 

Act 4: The Coming of the King: Redemption Accomplished

Act 5: Spreading the News of the King:

The Mission of the Church

Act 6: The Return of the King: Redemption Completed

Act 4: The Coming of the King: Redemption Accomplished

The King and His Kingdom Has Come

The King is coming—rejoice!
Though sin has us broken at our broken choice
The King will be our Lord
His people escaping judgment and judgment’s sword
Redemption is coming and all will be made new
Transparency—He will see us through

The King is here! His Kingdom has come.
Redemption is accomplished in its sum

This is how act four has its end,
With the Alpha and the Omega declaring, “It is finished.”
And having the last word on our sin


© September 7, 2012, Robbie Pruitt

Color

Photo by Swisscan, from Flicker.com

Color

Shade me
Blend me
Mix me
Make me
Speak of my Hue
Baby my blue
Brush me
Fade me
Smear me
Feather me
Speak of my tones
My spectrum unknown


© November 11, 2012, Robbie Pruitt


This sassy little poem, Color, was submitted on the TweetSpeak’s Every Day Poems poetry prompt on Facebook here and for the November Surrealism Poetry Prompt on TweetSpeak Poetry, offered by Seth Haines here.

This poem was also submitted to Open Link Night at dVerse Poets. To see more poems submitted, please visit the site. The links will be live at 2 p.m. Central time today.

Death Becomes Her: Death A Corps de ballet

Ballerina in a Death's Head, by Salvador Dali (1939), 

Photo from WikiPaintings

For a glossary of ballet terms, your “secret decoder ring” for this poem, see Wikipedia here.

Death Becomes Her:
Death A Corps de ballet

Death becomes her
Dance—and death
Becomes a blur

Death danced the ballerina
Pirouette
Before death beset

Allegro—Death
Shows its cards
Through bone shards

Avant
The dance
Confronts

Battlement
Dance death back
From where it was sent

Changement
Dance into another
Life—Into arms of Lover

Deboulé
Death left speechless
With nothing more to say

Entrée—Resurrect
Fouetté
Before death suspects

Hortensia
Shatter death’s teeth
Life just within reach

Jeté—The peril
Death of all classes
And Jeté life to the masses

Life ouverte—Reveal
No more death to steal
Life! And death—surreal

Nine lives—Pas de chat
Death confused
Life is where we’re at

From death’s dark
Shadows—Passé
Live for another day

Port de bras
Piqué the Devils eyes
Beginning his demise

The last Quatrième
Death unraveled
At the seam

Renversé—the curse
Dance—and death
Turns in Reverse

Soubresaut—lift from death
To life—Sauté—Frappé
The end of death’s day

Temps levé
Tombé—Death falls
Waltz—The dance calls

Tours en l'air—Salvation occur!
Dance—and death
Becomes a blur

Coda
From death to life
Bestowed


© November 20, 2012, Robbie Pruitt


This poem, Death A Corps de ballet: Death Becomes Her, was submitted for the November Surrealism Poetry Prompt on TweetSpeak Poetry, offered this Monday by Seth Haines here.

For this surrealism poetry prompt, “Building on the tradition of Dali’s “The Faces of War,” can you re-imagine the coming world,” I decided to look at “Ballerina in a Death's Head,” by Salvador Dali (1939), and the war between death and life.

In imagining the world to come, it is clear that death has to be overcome before redemption and restoration. The war against death here is a dance where beauty begins to emerge from the “shadow of death” itself. While death seeks to become us, or overcome us, it can be transcended in resurrection in the beautiful dance with the author of life, The Author of Resurrection.

This poem was also submitted to Open Link Night at dVerse Poets. To see more poems submitted, please visit the site. The links will be live at 2 p.m. Central time today.

Lost Lovers

The Lovers, by Rene Magritte, 1928

“We must not fear daylight just because it almost always illuminates a miserable world.” –Rene Magritte

“To be a surrealist means barring from your mind all remembrance of what you have seen, and being always on the lookout for what has never been.” –Rene Magritte

Lost Lovers

Two lovers lost
In disguise
Closed and discreet
Are their eyes

Sealed with soft kiss
Between the sack
Love is lost
Never to look back

Love is bliss
Concealed under cover
Beneath the kiss
Lost lover

Cover over and dismiss
Disguised to conceal
Reality—would be remiss
Love surreal

A kiss only as truthful
As the appeal—and love
Only as honest as the lovers
At the reveal


© November 6, 2012, Robbie Pruitt

This poem is based on Rene Magritte’s “The Lovers” and the idea that love can be an illusion. . . Sometimes lovers are lost. . . as the saying goes, “love is blind. . . ” So far as love is real and genuine, love is truthful. . . Love is not always what it seems. Sometimes love is objectified as “lovers” objectify one another, or love the ideal or idea of love and not the actual person. . . Sometimes love is surreal. . .

This poem was submitted for the November Surrealism Poetry Prompt on TweetSpeak Poetry, offered this Monday by Seth Haines here.

This poem was also submitted to Open Link Night at dVerse Poets. To see more poems submitted, please visit the site. The links will be live at 2 p.m. Central time today.

Water-Soluble Time

Photo of Salvador Dali's, “Persistence de la memoire” (1974) 

Water-Soluble Time

I cannot keep time
It drips like Dali
Time ticks . . . and time . . .
Sticks—at my folly
Time drips in reverse
Falls in 60-minute digression
Springs forth and flows north
In 60-minute aggression
Time melts in savings
Sometimes I’m at a loss
I cannot keep time
It washes over—then out
Over face of glass,
Then, clouded over
Resistance is not proof
Hands have frozen
And seconds are aloof
Time washes in and out
The tide keeps time
The tide took time
And I watch from the beach
. . .my place in time . . .
Just out of reach


© November 4, 2012, Robbie Pruitt


This poem was submitted for the November Surrealism Poetry Prompt on TweetSpeak Poetry, November Surrealism Poetry Prompt–A Musical Playlist, offered on Monday by Seth Haines here.

This poem was also submitted to Open Link Night at dVerse Poets. To see more poems submitted, please visit the site. The links will be live at 2 p.m. Central time today.

Scary Silence and the Hope that Would Emerge

The Drama of Scripture cover from Amazon.com

An epic poem based on The Drama of Scripture: 
Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story

By Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen 

Prologue: The Bible as Grand Story

Act 1: God Establishes His Kingdom:Creation

Act 2: Rebellion in the Kingdom:Fall

Act 3: The King Chooses Israel: Redemption Initiated

Interlude: A Kingdom Story Waiting for an Ending: 

The Intertestamental Period 

Act 4: The Coming of the King: Redemption Accomplished

Act 5: Spreading the News of the King:

The Mission of the Church

Act 6: The Return of the King: Redemption Completed

Interlude: A Kingdom Story Waiting for an Ending:
The Intertestamental Period

Scary Silence and the Hope that Would Emerge

The hardest thing to do is wait
When the silence is so loud it sounds like hate
Though the promise was made, the Word was not spoken
The fear washed over at all that was broken
The promise was given and His good plan emerging
It was at Bethlehem that heaven and earth would be merging
Silence would be broken by a babies cry
The entire world would hear, as the Angels would begin to sing
Good tidings they would bring
But not before this deafening silence stings
Scary silence and the hope that would emerge
All is coming together and all will transpire
The coming of our King and the salvation He will bring
When all will rise up out the mire
Salvation birthed at what would transpire
But now the echoing silence and the quiet dance
Until the Bridegroom brings the romance
Nothing is happenstance
All will come to pass and all will be revealed
In the incarnation, nothing is sealed

This is how the interlude ends,
With silence and stillness— and waiting for amends


© September 4, 2012, Robbie Pruitt

Wine from Water Flows

Water to Wine image from Google Images here

Wine from Water Flows
(John 2:1-12)

Empty vessels
Strewn about
Eager anticipation
Alongside emptiness
Without

And then the Wine
Flowed
From the Water
Divine

Religion and ritual
Fade to celebration
The best saved for last
Abundance and grace
In stark contrast


© October 25, 2012, Robbie Pruitt


This poem was submitted for the TweetSpeak Poetry prompt offered on Monday by Seth Haines here at Gluhwein Memories.

This poem, Wine from Water Flows, was also submitted to Open Link Night at dVerse Poets. To see more poems submitted, please visit the site. The links will be live at 2 p.m. Central time today.

A People for a King

The Drama of Scripture cover from Amazon.com

An epic poem based on The Drama of Scripture: 
Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story

By Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen

Prologue: The Bible as Grand Story

Act 1: God Establishes His Kingdom: Creation

Act 2: Rebellion in the Kingdom:Fall

Act 3: The King Chooses Israel: Redemption Initiated

Interlude: A Kingdom Story Waiting for an Ending: 

The Intertestamental Period 

Act 4: The Coming of the King: Redemption Accomplished

Act 5: Spreading the News of the King:

The Mission of the Church

Act 6: The Return of the King: Redemption Completed

Act 3: The King Chooses Israel: Redemption Initiated

A People for a King

The garden gate slammed shut
There appeared a swirling sword of flame
Walling out all of humanity
As they were cast out of the Garden
East of Eden, away from God’s glory

A chosen people for a King
Promise of redemption and rescue
A covenant and a signet ring
An end to the rebellion, God would bring
And a final end to death’s sting

The pride of the people
And their own feeble attempts
Fell short of God’s glory
Offerings were made half-heartedly
Towers were built story after striving story
To reach heaven without God—for one’s own glory

A people for a King
A Nation and a name
Patriarchs, a land, and a promise
His Kingdom He would build
If we believed God

Through one man—the fall
Through one man—a promise
Salvation for one and all
If we believe God . . .
It is counted to us as righteousness
While we fall short God is for us
To restore us and to dwell among us

A people for a King
Paradise to be found
Death will loose its sting
This is what our God will bring
Adoption—we are His
To His covenant we are bound

This is how act three comes to a close—a people for a King
With Israel’s salvation initiated and the love God would bring.


© September 1, 2012, Robbie Pruitt

Ghost Lake

Ghost Lake, photo courtesy of Michael Bixler, 

© September 9, 2012 

My friend Michael Bixler is an excellent photographer, artist, writer, videographer and “adventurer.” He took this photo, Ghost Lake, while on a hike recently and like much of his work, it captivated me and inspired the following poem by the same title. Bixler provoked me to poetry last November as well with his photo Late Autumn Epiphany. I am a huge fan of his work and am grateful he allows me to use his art as my muse. To see more of Michael Bixler’s work, click here, here, here, or here.

Ghost Lake

In shapeless void
Spirit hovers over water
Deep cries out to deep
Formlessness bends and shifts
Under the Wind’s drifts
Blackness and echoing howl
Swirls of windblown ripple and mist
Calmness emerges at burst of light
Disorder and chaos simmers
Blackness gives way to purple hue
The sea calms and glimmers
Shape emerges at close of day
Light dances about and shimmers


© September 9, 2012, Robbie Pruitt


"The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." –Genesis 1:2

Robert Indiana

Love, by Robert Indiana, photo from: http://www.buncee.com/buncee/9172

Robert Indiana

Words paint
Spread out on canvas like color
Words of hope, words for lover
Painter of words like no other

“God is love.”
Those golden letters inspired
The most recognized image in American art
The letters emerge; “yes!” the word transpires

From young and arrogant
To old and wise
The word still rings true
As immortality is on the rise


© September 15, 2012, Robbie Pruitt


This poem, Robert Indiana, was submitted to Open Link Night at dVerse Poets. To see more poems submitted, please visit the site. The links will be live at 2 p.m. Central time today. Thanks Glynn Young!

Fallen Angels, Guest Post

This image is adapted from "Fall of Day," by William Rimmer from the Museum of Fine Arts: Boston

The following poem is a guest post by Faneva Durandisse from my Bible 10 class. This poem was a part of her Bible presentation on the fall of Lucifer from before creation. This poem has been reposted here with permission from the author.

Fallen Angels

How do you fall from the good into the pit of hell?
You came from pureness and fell into your malicious ways
Was God’s glory not enough to please you?
With a land flowing with milk and honey
To the Garden of Eden and all His wonders
How was it all not perfect to you?
Something so clean so delightful
A place where you can savor the pleasurable life for an eternity
How is it so easy for you to turn away?
Were your desires to powerful for you to control?
The evil spirits have taken over your happiness
They search for other pleasures
Those that hurt you and bring you down
They are fallen angels
They look for your imperfection
They search for that weak spot so they may take over
They are the fallen angels
Manipulating your minds, they haul you down to the dark side
These evil spirits are Satan’s conspirators
They are tricky and they deceive you easily
They are the fallen angels
If you abide in the Lord’s rules, it is harder to fall so easily
If you keep away from the malevolent it is harder to be deceived
Life is easier to live in peace
In harmony with God and what He created

© September 17, 2012, Faneva Durandisse

The Rebellion Leads to Fall

The Drama of Scripture cover from Amazon.com

An epic poem based on The Drama of Scripture: 

Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story

By Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen

Prologue: The Bible as Grand Story

Act 1: God Establishes His Kingdom:Creation

Act 2: Rebellion in the Kingdom:Fall

Act 3: The King Chooses Israel: Redemption Initiated

Interlude: A Kingdom Story Waiting for an Ending: 

The Intertestamental Period 

Act 4: The Coming of the King: Redemption Accomplished

Act 5: Spreading the News of the King:

The Mission of the Church

Act 6: The Return of the King: Redemption Completed

Act 2: Rebellion in the Kingdom: Fall
The Rebellion Leads to Fall

When all was well and at rest
The serpent appeared and then the test
Trust waivered and nerves were weak
Judgment was waivered at the unknown’s mystic
The outlook of the monumental decision was bleak
Adam and his bride waivered and were weak
And the serpent was cunning and sleek

Rebellion in the kingdom; all would fall
Not one thing left standing—nothing at all
The whole world would shake at this grave mistake
And to their nakedness and shame, humanity would awake
Glory was tarnished and the image would break
And all would be lost, because all was at stake
They ran and hid from their shame—clothing they would make

God called out in the Garden’s evening hue
Asking the profound question, “Where are you?”
They knew what they had done and knew they were through
There was no hiding and nothing was left that had been new
“What is this that you have done my daughter and my son?
I see you.”
There was nothing that could make this right
and nothing that they could do
The kingdom had fallen
and this would be something God would have to see to.

This is how the second act finished
With all in smoke and ashes, as all had been diminished


© August 30, 2012, Robbie Pruitt

Creation and Kingdom

The Drama of Scripture cover from Amazon.com

An epic poem based on The Drama of Scripture: 

Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story

By Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen

Prologue: The Bible as Grand Story

Act 1: God Establishes His Kingdom:Creation

Act 2: Rebellion in the Kingdom:Fall

Act 3: The King Chooses Israel: Redemption Initiated

Interlude: A Kingdom Story Waiting for an Ending: 

The Intertestamental Period 

Act 4: The Coming of the King: Redemption Accomplished

Act 5: Spreading the News of the King:

The Mission of the Church

Act 6: The Return of the King: Redemption Completed

Act 1: God Establishes His Kingdom: Creation

Creation and Kingdom

In the beginning
The Word was spoken
In flashed the light
As the darkness was broken
In the beginning God
His Spirit hovering over
His Kingdom established
Order out of chaos
And all a shiny new

Garden green and peaceful—sustain
Beauty, provision, and abundance
The shalom of God among us—remain
Walking Eden’s green grassy sod
In perfect harmony with our God
No pain, no death, no dying there
No sadness; no crying—anywhere
Lies of serpent, no buying in
Intimacy—all is well
This is the perfect story we live and we tell

Once upon a time in a land far away
Paradise existed in that beautiful day
The Kingdom was illuminated by glory’s array
No hiding; no nakedness; no shame
No fault; no blame
And every evening our Creator God came
Dwelt with us, for us, and among us
Walking hand-in-hand in this Eden land
A Garden paradise and a Glory King
Celebratory and worshipful songs we sing
And good gifts would our good God bring

We lived in His artwork
His story is the frame
We are His masterpiece
Bearers of God’s own image and fame
For the glory of His own name
No thorns to stop us; no hardened earth
Just fruitful multiplication
And a daily new birth
Animated by God’s own breath
To live forever without death
Basking in God’s great love
And all His good gifts from above

This is how the first act would close
In Garden paradise in the sweet aroma of rose


© August 30, 2012, Robbie Pruitt

The Narrative Unfolds

The Drama of Scripture cover from Amazon.com

An epic poem based on The Drama of Scripture: 

Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story

By Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen

Prologue: The Bible as Grand Story

Act 1: God Establishes His Kingdom:Creation

Act 2: Rebellion in the Kingdom:Fall

Act 3: The King Chooses Israel: Redemption Initiated

Interlude: A Kingdom Story Waiting for an Ending: 

The Intertestamental Period 

Act 4: The Coming of the King: Redemption Accomplished

Act 5: Spreading the News of the King:

The Mission of the Church

Act 6: The Return of the King: Redemption Completed

Prologue: The Bible as Grand Story

The Narrative Unfolds

In the days of old
The wise men spoke
The oral tradition
From generation, to generation
They spoke, from every tribe and nation
Tales of God, creation, and Kingdom
Of Rebellion and kingdom’s fall
Israel, a people chosen—one and all
Restoration was initiated—Reclamation
And the silence loomed, waiting for first bloom
Then . . . the coming King
And rescue from the unrelenting doom
The wise old men shared with glee
Songs of redemption and community
Anthems to a King and psalms of eternity
Restoration and a new world we would see
The epic unfolding before us nightly
At campfire circle, as embers glow
The eldest would begin,
“This is how the story goes!”


© August 28, 2012, Robbie Pruitt


The Drama of Scripture

We are living in the greatest story ever told, God's story of love and His plan for redemption.

This grand narrative is larger than us, but it includes us nonetheless. The story is not about us, however, it is about the love of God in His son Jesus. According to The Drama of Scripture, this story is broken into six main parts: God's establishment of the kingdom in creation, rebellion of the kingdom in the fall of humanity, The King chooses Israel and redemption begins, the coming of The King, Jesus' redemption of His people, spreading the news of The King, and the return of The King, God's redemption completed.

While the Bible is composed of 66 individual books, 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament, the Bible is a single narrative, a unified story. There is a "big picture" in the scriptures. We tend to only see the Old and New Testaments and individual books, but the Bible is a "Whole Testament." Scripture is a meta-narrative. N.T. Wright calls this "The whole sweep of scripture."

In looking at this overarching survey of the scriptures, The Drama of Scripture is a well done, simple, and straightforward resource. The book also suggests a complimentary website filled with Power Points and other resources for teaching the book and communicating the "grand narrative" of scripture in six acts. The book and the website outlines the whole Biblical narrative in an easy to understand and comprehensive presentation.

We are living in this great story because of the Great Storyteller God. As G.K. Chesterton wrote, "I had always felt life first as a story and if there is a story there is a storyteller." We have a greater understanding of the Storyteller by looking at the story we are in through the scriptures. And the closer we get to the Storyteller, the clearer His story becomes.

The Drama of Scripture and its companion website are exciting resources, which aid us in studying The Storyteller and His great story found in the scriptures.

This review was adapted from my blog, My Two Mites, and was also posted on Amazon.com, goodreads, and on Examiner.com.

Storms Out at Sea

“Storms at Sea,” painting by Irene Pruitt, © 2004

Storms Out at Sea

Storms out at sea
Never bother me
It’s when they hit land
They have my command
When the wind blows
In circular patterns and gusts
We take cover, as we must
In stable brick and mortar
And musical tin roof
The evening holds the calm
Sky, a deep blue and black hue—still
The calm before the storm

Rumors of storms out at sea
Sit like twisted stomach—restlessly
Uneasy are those who have no shelter
Whose home is in deep ravine drainage
Roofs of tarp and plastic sheet
Walls of makeshift pallets and boxes
When the wind blows—in comes the unknown
Shaken is all that is and all one might own
A family, a name, a life, a place, the future
Uncertain. . .the evening holds. . .
Hopes of storms that pass over—they fade
Skies transition from black to blue—to morning hue


© August 23, 2012, Robbie Pruitt


O God of peace, who hast taught us that in returning and 
rest we shall be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be 
our strength: By the might of thy Spirit lift us, we pray thee,
 to thy presence, where we may be still and know that thou
 art God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, P. 832)

Assist us mercifully, O Lord, in these our supplications and 
prayers, and dispose the way of thy servants towards the 
attainment of everlasting salvation; that, among all the
 changes and chances of this mortal life, they may ever be
 defended by thy gracious and ready help; through Jesus
 Christ our Lord. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, P. 832)

Barnabas

Photo from Shooting the Breeze click here

Barnabas: Joses, the son of encouragement, ‘son of paraklēsis’, exhorter, encourager

Barnabas

Encouragement’s son
Fanning sparks to flames
Until the work is done
Until His Kingdom
Has come
Until His will
Is done
On earth as it is
In Heaven
Until the yeast
Is worked in
And all is leavened


© April 2012, Robbie Pruitt


Who was Barnabas?

Barnabas was the exemplary encourager, witness, and servant. Nothing he did was for himself. He freely gave of his resources to the church (Acts 4:36–37), thus providing an example of how one with material means can serve the church. He confirmed Paul to the disciples, when some had doubted Paul’s sincerity (Acts 9:26–27). He was an encourager and teacher at Antioch (Acts 11:22–30). He engaged in a missionary journey with Paul (Acts 13:1–15:12). Even when Paul had doubts about John Mark, Barnabas continued to offer encouragement that eventually bore fruit (Acts 15:36–40; 2 Tim. 4:11). In a church under pressure, where it would have been easy for some to complain or blame, Barnabas, by example and word, continually encouraged others to serve.

Zuck, R. B. (1994). A Biblical Theology of the New Testament (electronic ed.) (149–150). Chicago: Moody Press.

Beggars at a Funeral

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images, © March 6, 2012

Beggars at a Funeral

Beggars at a funeral
When all anyone has is grief
And all hands are stretched out
Looking for a little relief


© June 2012, Robbie Pruitt


“But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.” - 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14

Recently my wife and I and some friends of ours attended a funeral in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It was a cultural experience that I will not soon forget.

At this funeral people were grieving and mourning the death of a young woman who had left behind two beautiful children.

As funeral attendees grieved, several young children from off the streets, close to the age of the children left behind by the deceased, worked the crowd begging for money from the funeral attendees.

This would never happen in the states, I thought to myself. I have been to plenty of funerals in my life and never before have I witnessed this.

Many of us were disturbed and angered by the beggars and tried to shoo them off. How inappropriate. This was not the time or the place, we thought.

Then it occurred to me in the midst of this grief, sorrow, and mourning that many of the funeral attendees also had outstretched hands and open hearts as they cried out to God and embraced one another.

All of us there were begging. We were at a loss and begging for answers and solace thinking about these young children who would be without their mother for the rest of their lives.

This quote from D. T. Niles about sharing the good news of Jesus came to mind, “Evangelism is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread."

At this funeral we were all beggars seeking Bread. As we grieved, we had outstretched hands looking for a little consolation.

Super Glue

Super Glue Haiti, photo by Robbie Pruitt, © May, 28, 2012

“He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” – Colossians 1:17

Super Glue

(Colossians 1:15-23, Revelation 21)

Basin full of Super Glue

The merchant sells

On the street side

Haiti brokenness brings business

Trash covered streets; all is out of order

Brokenness and fragmentation

From ocean to ocean and to Dominican border

Fix and repair daily

Shattered infrastructure, shattered lives

How much Super Glue do we need to survive?

Dust in the streets and all is dry

Concrete jungle tatters passers by

Broken, from life to life

From limb to limb, broken

Envy, covetous, need, and strife

Super Glue to put back together their life

Hold them together temporarily

Until the pain and brokenness are over

Super Glue to unify and to mend

To bring life back together again

Till oneness is won and then the end

In Him all things hold together

In Him all things will mend

Not repaired, but made new again 

Reconciliation will come

All will be restored

Behold He makes all things new

In Unity, He is our Lord

© May 27, 2012, Robbie Pruitt

“Behold, I make all things new.”  – Revelation 21:5

Super Glue and a Broken World, article on Youth Worker here. 

When Hate Rises

Untitled photo by Joost J. Bakker Ijmuiden, © July 7, 2011

Hate speech is not love. 

"If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar . . . he who loves God must love his brother also."  - 1 John 4:20-21

When Hate Rises

(1 John 4:12-21)

When hate rises

Self-righteousness minimizes

Diminishing humanity

Trading guilt and shame

For image and fame

The “I am better than you”

Suppresses reality, you are sinful too

When hate rises

Love is traded for compromises

Sin is labeled simply as gay

Hate wins the day

When hate rises

Foolishness no longer surprises

Ignorance becomes the norm

Hate clouds and begins to storm

When love rises

Love never compromises

The log in our own eye is removed

No one stands approved

When love rises

Nurture rules the day

Humanity embraces humanity

And Love has its way

When Love rises

He has outstretched arms

No one gets what they deserve

And all who embrace it escape harm

When love rises, it finishes

Restoration never diminishes

When love rises, hate has its demise     

© May 22, 2012, Robbie Pruitt

1 John 4:12-21

“If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.  By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.  And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.  Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.  And we have known and believed the love that God has for us.  God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.   Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment.  But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.  We love Him because He first loved us.   If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?  And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.”  - 1 John 4:12-21