Shall we drown in pathetic ignorance
Where vast oceans of information swell?
For what will be man’s great deliverance
If we shun He who stands twixt heav’n and hell?
The rudiments of Knowledge are not based
On mortal entertainment of the mind
Within humanity His will has placed
Ability and its power to find
What He reveals; we are not gods but men
Created by the One who knows all things
If we renounce what He instills, what then?
Will blind lead on the blind in feigned teachings?
Knowledge does not transcend Invisible
Though generations pass This Thing abides
The truth of it Knowledge cannot annul
Base knowledge builds on what the eye ascribes
Belief reveals accountability
Yet, Belief has no power to save
Until we realize our
Utter Need
Thus, faith becomes that sacred stepping-stone
For what we see can never be enough
Our vile and guilty penance to atone
Or justify our sacraments of love
So, love provided once for all, a Lamb
His shed blood offers hope, though ages roll
Alpha, Omega, Love’s Supreme I Am
Cries ‘it is finished’; man cannot control
His destiny beyond this leap of Time
Only the blood of Jesus saves the soul
And if we turn away from Love Sublime
Then we reject This Thing that makes us whole
This Thing that breathed into darkness and space
The workings of His gifted universe
This Thing, compassion’s blood-stained thread of grace
Whereby we bless or ignorantly curse
For who would dare to take Love’s name in vain
If with our eyes we saw what His Words tell?
And who would ever turn his back again
If we were shown a glimpse of Heav'n or Hell?
And who would hate the Hands that bore the nails
To seal our recompense; Knowledge is mute
Without love’s faith; its clamoring exhales
Verbose confusion for mouths to dispute
For Love is our lone, Ultimate Hope;
The poverty that plagues the human heart
From new-born cry until that solemn slope
Where life and death are ever sheered apart
Cannot be satisfied with bread and wine
Or things we touch with hungry hands and eyes
A branch will die when severed from the Vine
This truth even Knowledge can recognize
Was not the Tree of Good and Evil named
After Knowledge; and when they both did eat
Their eyes were opened and they were ashamed
As Need became their quest for bread and meat
Yet Fulfillment and Need align within
Thus juxtaposed; ah, tender paradox
God did not leave us hopeless, dead in sin
But gave His Son to die upon the cross
To fulfill Need; and all that we must do
Is ‘Come’; for there are none He will cast out
But those who find Him are too far and few
Many approach but turn away in doubt
Choosing instead the things which eye can see
For Need deceives; unmitigated, stark
Yet, when we put on Immortality
There are but two terminals; Light and Dark
And then what good is knowledge without Love?
But, if we have known Love we have seen God
Some speak of love but deny God above
What good is seed if we refuse the sod?
This Thing confounds meek poets, scholars, scribes
Philosophers and cleric, rich and poor
This Thing we give to get and cannot buy
Or live without; or selfishly procure
What is This Thing for which the whole world cries
While evil wars against its Deity?
Knowledge and ignorance argues, denies
What faith believes, in Love’s humility
God signed its proof, but not of ink on scroll
He poured it, blood-red Passion suffering
From head and hands, from side and feet, His Whole
Wept love; atonement’s last sin-offering
The age of information fills Time’s glass
But it cannot fulfill God’s words of old
Love is the ageless Hope we cling to as
We see God’s ancient prophesies unfold
For what He said will surely come to be
Heaven and Hell could not His wrath withstand
If not for Love; the Love that sets us free
This Thing is more than we can understand…
© Janet Martin
In the book, A Step of Faith by Richard Paul Evans( book #4 in The Walk series), one line got caught in my thought today...'What a culture we live in. We are swimming in an ocean of information and drowning in ignorance'
This is why I love every single one of Richard Paul Evans books....profound bits tucked into the storyline!
