[352]. A MESSAGE FROM A POEM – WRITTEN ON THE TRAIN
I was undertaking a drive of 1 800 km and had gone about 150 km from home when I had an accident. The vehicle limped badly for another 950 km where I had to leave it for repairs and return home. The return trip was about 1 100 km and was undertaken by train. The train is slow. It is always slow, about 50 years behind the times in Queensland.
While on the train I wrote this poem. The whole vehicle incident was stressful but this poem is a positive one. We go through times of stress and heartache. These are never avoided and I think the Lord allows the m so He can prove His faithfulness. {{Romans 5:3-5 “Not only this, but we also exult in our TRIBULATIONS, knowing that TRIBULATION brings about perseverance, and perseverance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”}}
It is very difficult to look at circumstances positively sometimes when burdens press on us. They cause physical stress and emotional uncertainty. Some come along and say, “Just look to the Lord,” but they themselves have never been there. That is one reason I love the Psalms as they cover all experiences we can have in life. David encountered so much and the Psalms he wrote show such distress he faced.
{{Psalm 31:10-14 MY LIFE IS SPENT WITH SORROW, and my years with sighing. My strength has failed because of my iniquity, and my body has wasted away. Because of all my adversaries, I have become a reproach, especially to my neighbours, and an object of dread to my acquaintances. Those who see me in the street flee from me. I am forgotten as a dead man, out of mind. I AM LIKE A BROKEN VESSEL. I have heard the slander of many. Terror is on every side. While they took counsel together against me, they schemed to take away my life, but as for me, I trust in You, O LORD. I say, “You are my God.”}}
However the Lord is faithful and He keeps His own believers through trials and even may deliver them from trials. {{Psalm 9:9-10 “LORD ALSO WILL BE A STRONGHOLD FOR THE OPPRESSED, a stronghold in times of trouble, and those who know Your name will put their trust in You, for You, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You.”}}
I hope you appreciate the poem as its truths are very real.
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WRITTEN ON THE TRAIN
One day I’ll be with the ransomed in glory;
There sharing God’s love and telling the story,
Of grace and redemption God lavished on me,
And proven as fact when Christ hung on the tree.
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Gathered above with our sins all forgiven;
Seeing those hands into which nails were driven.
His hands and his feet with the scars tell the cost -
Reminders to me I was helpless and lost.
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Heavenly light in its purity captures
Saints in the Lord; and the Saviour’s love matches
His grace and forgiveness, so freely displayed,
Which His life on earth so completely portrayed.
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Praises to Christ who’s the Lamb now exalted;
Faced the foe on the cross, and never faltered.
Translated, the Church as the Bride He did win,
So gone is our hopelessness, our loss and sin.
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16 February 2012 Ronald E Ferguson Metre = 11-11-11-11
Written on the train from Rockhampton back to Cairns after leaving the Nissan X-trail to be repaired in Rockhampton after an accident near Tully. The train trip is about 1 000 kilometres.