[204]. A Message From A Poem - Once I Was Lost – Now I Am Saved

[204]. A MESSAGE FROM A POEM - ONCE I WAS LOST – NOW I AM SAVED

(Shakespeare) When Macbeth heard that Lady Macbeth was dead these words were spoken –

“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day

To the last syllable of recorded time;

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury

Signifying nothing.”

That is a despairing look at life, but what is a person’s testimony of life? What is the Christian's testimony of life?

My poem is a testimony poem but it is not my testimony (I wrote it). I was saved when I was 10 or 11. This poem takes a generic man or woman through the process of salvation. I wanted to write in such a way that it covers the normal person out there in the world.

Everyone has a slightly different salvation experience, your own individual road, but it is absolutely essential that all those roads lead to the cross, for without Christ there is no salvation. {{Acts 4:12 “and there is SALVATION IN NO ONE ELSE, for there is NO OTHER NAME under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved.”}} The last Pope (before 2025) taught that all faiths lead to Christ for salvation, and even atheists of good will can be saved. That man was demonic. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY TO GOD except in Jesus Christ.

{{1 Timothy 2:5 “There is ONE God and ONE Mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”}}. Not Buddha, not, Islam, not atheism but in Christ alone my salvation rests.

Have you ever wondered why men and women can not just turn to Christ and be saved. They oppose and resist and blaspheme and show great hostility to salvation’s message. Why is that? It is quite a complex question as to why human beings don’t want to be saved. You may have answers for that but it is too big a matter to do right now.

I will suggest the following and leave it there – Firstly the old nature is so corrupt, so reprobate, that it holds on to its darkness tenaciously. Secondly the problem is with the soil. Recall the parable of the sower or rather, the parable of the four soils. The good word of salvation meets opposition from at least two of those soil types. Thirdly I will quote this verse – {{1 Corinthians 2:14 “A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are FOOLISHNESS TO HIM, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised.”}}

Rejoice that the Lord has saved you and tenderly cares for you.

Although I do not deal with the blind man Jesus healed, the title of this poem is partly alluding to what he said when being questioned – {{John 9:25 He therefore answered, “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know, that, WHEREAS I WAS BLIND, NOW I SEE.”}}

===============================================================

ONCE I WAS LOST – NOW I AM SAVED

Here today – gone tomorrow.

Life is full of pain and sorrow.

Toil away on life’s dark stage,

From younger days to older age.

====================

Existence is just fallow.

Life is but a fleeting shadow;

A wisp of air passing by;

A puff of smoke climbing the sky.

====================

Is death the end of the road,

When we finally drop our load?

Is it finality’s gate,

Leading to a meaningless fate?

====================

For many years, let me say,

This troubled me day after day.

There must be more to this life,

Than pointlessness and ceaseless strife?

====================

I wrestled with this anguish,

‘Til my attitudes would languish.

If there was something more,

I wanted to enter that door.

====================

This I write because I found,

The Maker who re-made me sound.

I was physically gnawed,

The reason being, I was flawed.

====================

Who better to fix that fault,

And bring this chaos to a halt,

Than He who first designed me:

The One who held the very key?

====================

That is how I was made whole.

It was when Jesus saved my soul.

He raised me from my despair.

Seeker, you can not look elsewhere.

====================

What I gained was peace and hope;

No longer sliding down sin’s slope;

An outlook new and joyful;

Once in turmoil, but now peaceful.

====================

Death is not the final end.

I know that now, and where I’ll spend

Eternity that's secure,

With nothing wicked or impure.

====================

This was gained by God’s great grace:

Undeserved - this we can trace

Through God’s word, start to finish,

And it will never diminish.

====================

What can I say to you all,

Just that we suffer from the Fall.

That’s when man fell into sin;

Against that fight, we could not win.

====================

Jesus won for us that fight,

So now for God, made us right.

Don’t let a day pass away;

Turn to the Lord without delay.

====================

Began some date in the past. Just the first stanza. Finished 29-30 December 2021.

R E Ferguson Metre = 7-8-7-8 A-A-B-B