Invictus

[aReformedPatriot]

My friend Jason emailed me a bunch of emails he has stored from me from years ago. Im talking 4-6years! I was not a Christian back then and I laugh at my Ignorance but I can feel the pain in some of what I wrote. What I am about to post I didnt write but I remember this poem hitting me because I just got over something that impacted my life for evil instead for good. I post it because to me, this tells me quite wonderfully, how stubborn sinners can be.

INVICTUS ​

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Out of the night that covers me ​

Black as the pit from pole to pole ​

I thank whatever Gods maybe ​

For my unconquerable soul. ​

In the fell clutch of circumstance ​

I have not winced nor cried aloud ​

Under the bludgeonings of chance ​

My head is bloody but unbowed. ​

Beyond this place of wrath and tears ​

Looms but the horror of the shade ​

And yet the menace of the years ​

Finds and shall find me unafraid. ​

It matters not how strait the gate ​

How charged with punishment the scroll ​

I am the master of my fate ​

I am the captain of my soul.​

~Willam Earnest Henly~​

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[SumTinWong]

I post it because to me, this tells me quite wonderfully, how stubborn sinners can be.

​

Oh yes how we can be stubborn. I am married to a woman that I dearly love. She has said that she believes that Jesus is God, and that He died for our sins and yetshe won't walk with Him. She can't understand a God who would want blood sacrafices, and is a very tough nut on the subject. It is frustrating to know that she is so close and yet holds her hands out at full length to God.

 

[rural_preacher]

Oh yes how we can be stubborn. I am married to a woman that I dearly love. She has said that she believes that Jesus is God, and that He died for our sins and yetshe won't walk with Him. She can't understand a God who would want blood sacrafices, and is a very tough nut on the subject. It is frustrating to know that she is so close and yet holds her hands out at full length to God.

That must be a heavy burden to live with each day. When I read your post, I paused and prayed for your wife that God would melt away the hardness of her heart and bring her to true faith in Jesus Christ. And for you, that you would continue to have the wisdom and strength needed to be a godly witness without driving her away.

He is Faithful.

 

[SumTinWong]

Thanks RP. I needed that.

 

[ZiSunka]

That must be a heavy burden to live with each day. When I read your post, I paused and prayed for your wife that God would melt away the hardness of her heart and bring her to true faith in Jesus Christ. And for you, that you would continue to have the wisdom and strength needed to be a godly witness without driving her away.

He is Faithful.

He doesn't want blood sacrifices. He instituted blood sacrifice to remind us of the covenant. See, the convenant he made with Abraham required that the one of them that broke the covenant would have to pay with his blood. Of course we know that we are the spiritual descendents of Abraham, and every time we sin, we break that covenant, so God required the sacrifices to remind us and to upset us so we would remember the law and to not sin again. Sacrifices don't cover our sins, they are only a reminder that blood will be required of us.

Now the good news, Christ, God with Us, came to earth and became the final sacrifice, the real sacrifice so that we would never have to perform a blood sacrifice again. He made himself a peace offering between us and God, the conclusion of the convenant for all Believers, and the final reminder for nonBelievers.

God didn't really want blood or see the blood as having any salvation properties, he only saw it as a way to test a person's faith and obedience and as a reminder of the end of the covenant. Someone had to shed their blood, and we deserved to be the ones, but GOD, yes GOD, the one who kept the covenant and didn't deserved to die, came among us and took this punishment for us. Yep, astonding, isn't it?

 

[CFoster]

That poem reminded me of my favorite poem I studied in college. It will be obvious to all that I was not a christian at the time. It is a Thomas Hardy poem called Hap. Doesn't the title say it all?


If but some vengeful god would call to me
From up the sky, and laugh: "Thou suffering thing,
Know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy,
That thy love's loss is my hate's profiting!"

Then would I bear it, clench myself, and die,
Steeled by the sense of ire unmerited;
Half-eased in that a Powerfuller than I
Had willed and meted me the tears I shed

But not so. How arrives it joy lies slain,
And why unblooms the best hope ever sown?
Crass Casualty obstructs the sun and rain,
And dicing Time for gladness casts a moan....
These purblind Doomsters had as readily strown
Blisses about my pilgrimage as pain.

I read that for the first time in years as I typed it. Had to dig my old lit book out of the attic. It is shameful to read it and see what a sad state I was in. How complete was my darkness? Glory to the Lord for showing mercy to a fool!

 

[aReformedPatriot]

Thanks RP. I needed that.

 

[aReformedPatriot]

That poem reminded me of my favorite poem I studied in college. It will be obvious to all that I was not a christian at the time. It is a Thomas Hardy poem called Hap. Doesn't the title say it all?


If but some vengeful god would call to me
From up the sky, and laugh: "Thou suffering thing,
Know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy,
That thy love's loss is my hate's profiting!"

Then would I bear it, clench myself, and die,
Steeled by the sense of ire unmerited;
Half-eased in that a Powerfuller than I
Had willed and meted me the tears I shed

But not so. How arrives it joy lies slain,
And why unblooms the best hope ever sown?
Crass Casualty obstructs the sun and rain,
And dicing Time for gladness casts a moan....
These purblind Doomsters had as readily strown
Blisses about my pilgrimage as pain.

I read that for the first time in years as I typed it. Had to dig my old lit book out of the attic. It is shameful to read it and see what a sad state I was in. How complete was my darkness? Glory to the Lord for showing mercy to a fool!

Totally, me myself included. Here's an edited excerpt from an Email I sent him:

Yo jason! dude if you read this before hand you dont need to pick me up for
church i am like dead tired ..but good news ...PERSONAL EDIT... my
prayers payed off i owe God big, but i willpay him respects some other time,
but like i am dead from running/and late dinner ok??? i am sorry. laterz

I read that I laugh and say you moron!