GLORY TO GOD ...

(Luke 2: 14; Judges 9: 8-15)

Glory to God,

Secured by God, in the highest;

 - be an olive tree

Its expressed fatness

Honouring God.

And on earth peace

In the Child who shall be peace

 - be a fig tree,

Bearing, already, sweetness

Of the day of the Prince of peace.

Good pleasure in men,

Through One it will please God to bruise;

 - be a vine

Producing that new wine

That cheers God and men.

(Ramsay Bing 20/12/2025)

More of Blackness Castle and the Firth of Forth

WINGS

How often, said the Lord, I would have gathered

You underneath my wings, as a hen would

Gather her chicks; unmothered and unfathered,

You would not take the way for your own good.

Yet long ago the Gentile Ruth had travelled

To come beneath the shelter of God's wing,

Orphaned and widowed, with her life unravelled,

To find God as resource in everything.

Come into manhood to endure the weathers

Of a sin-smitten world of suffering

Christ knew the refuge of the Almighty's feathers

And knew the refuge of the Father's wing,

Until He underwent the greatest storm

To shelter His new brood, and make us warm.

Blackness Castle and the Firth of Forth

And to whom hath the arm of Jehovah been revealed?

And to whom hath the arm of Jehovah 
Been revealed?

To those whom He has redeemed
With a stretched-out arm.

Whose pursuers, by the greatness of His arm,
Are still as stone.

Who have learned that underneath are
The eternal arms.

Whom His arm is not shortened

That it cannot save. 

On the Union Canal

This May's brood of swans on Straiton Pond

Who hath believed our report?

Prophets had delivered
Their report: telling of God's
Power and love, His Servant,
His coming, suffering and triumph:
A drum roll.  But had to ask:
Who hath believed our report?

Apostles have spoken: trumpets
With more certain sound, for they
Report what they have seen: a Man
Triumphant over sin and death
Sits glorified.  Still they must ask:
Who hath believed our report?

And feeble saints have whispered,
Or roared the report:
Written it on parchment or
Paper; printed it, broadcast it,
Posted it; yet still must ask:
Who hath believed our report?

The Lord Himself testified it;
The Father endorsed it, and Him;
The Holy Spirit joined His help
To men preaching in weakness.
Still They must send the challenge:

Who hath believed our report? 

Cullen, Moray, Scotland

Did you heed the word God spoke?

 

Did you heed the word God spoke?

May His grace be told!

Did you know God's word awoke?

Lo! His grace was bold!

Christ grew as a tender shoot

May His grace be told!

Desert sands around His root

Lo! His grace was bold!

Holden eyes could not discern

May His grace be told!

Beauties God would have us learn

Lo! His grace was bold!

Darkened hearts would not esteem

May His grace be told!

Beauties which are heaven's theme.

Lo! His grace was bold!

Now my lightened heart can see

May His grace be told!

What He bore He bore for me

Lo! His grace was bold!

(This continues thoughts I had on Isaiah 53 in varying poetic forms during 2020.)

St Anthony's Chapel on Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh

Who hath believed ... ?

 

          The trumpet's clear note;

Yet ploughmen plough, tradesmen trade

          And courtiers court.

The Sea Front at Longniddry, East Lothian

The River Esk at Musselburgh

Have you received the message that God sent?

 

Have you believed the message that God sent?        

Have you received His pure since-time-began

Prophets? Consider all that He has spent;

And since men disbelieved He sent His Son

To let you know His heart.  In grace He pleads

And shows you that He longs to fill your heart;

In Christ He has the answer to your needs:

Repent, go out from hence; depart, depart!

 

And has the Lord revealed His arm to you?

It is not shortened that it cannot save;

He will redeem you with a stretched-out arm

And what unbounded blessings will ensue!

He’ll ransom you from all that might enslave

Through One who came here with no worldly charm.

Around the Black Barony Estate, Scottish Borders

LET NOT YOUR HEARTS BE TROUBLED

 

"Let not your heart be troubled", Jesus told
The eleven as He girt them for their grief:
Knowing their faith in God He could unfold
That He would be their Object of belief.
He told them, "In the Father's house there are
Many abodes"; He would prepare a place
Distinctly ours, above the highest star,
Where we shall be before the Father's face.

"I go", He told them, and the going meant
The cross, the tomb, the garden, and the throne;
He came alone; but through the way He went
The Christ our Lord did not remain alone.

For, taken from the scene where we have grieved,
It is unto Himself we are received.

These are view of the Great Map of Scotland.  As the

link shows it is a massive concrete scale map.