The Witnesses

 

Image from Jake Jacobson's article https://skillmanchurch.org/uncategorized/simeon-and-anna/

Here is a new Christmas poem:

The Witnesses

 Luke -2: 25-39, Hebrews 12:1

There are many Advent stories told at Christmastide,

Of shepherds and the Wise Men, of Joseph and his bride,

There’s the baby in the manger and the angels in the sky

And the great star gleaming brightly hanging there on high.

They each provide a glimpse into what the answer is

To the most important question, “What Child is this?”

All of them attempt to catch the message of the season

And that is what compels us now and you shall know the reason.

For stories to be true they must have validation,

The evidence of two or three will give legitimation.

Together they make up what we could call the Christmas Lore

And here is a perspective that you mayn’t have seen before.

When Rome was in ascendancy and Athens in decline

Scribes still translated into Greek, the custom of the time,

Theirs was the word of culture of subtlety of phrase

And seventy men made transcriptions of Scripture in those days.

Five of those transcribers bore the name of Simeon

They wrote on vellum producing what is called the Septuagint.

They transcribed the Hebrew Bible, complete and faithfully,

A version of the Tanakh for the Alexandrian Library.

In Luke we read about a most devout and holy man

Who was very old, named Simeon, living in Jerusalem,

He’d been promised by the Holy Spirit that he would not die

’Till he had seen the Lord’s Messiah, and here’s the question - “Why?”

All we know is in the gospel and that must be our position

As we search for an answer, the rest is supposition.

Had he been working in Isaiah, it was speculated?

And on reading of the virgin birth his thinking was conflicted?

Simeon was then a young man filled with exegetical fire

And making the most accurate transcription his desire.

Did he falter when he read the line about the virgin birth?

And pausing asked himself the question, “How on Earth?”

Some even say that it was then he took a velum knife

And about to shave the word away that caused him to feel strife,

When an angel then appeared to him and made him still his hand

And promised complete fulfilment and consolation to the land.

But that was many years before, now Simeon was old,

He waited for the virgin birth of Messiah as was foretold.

He knew the Jewish tradition that every first born son

Must be brought to Temple for the rituals to be done.

Perhaps he heard about the shepherds and message they proclaimed,

And of Zechariah being struck dumb until his son was named,

Sifting through the snippets he assessed the information,

Knowing that parents must bring their son for purification.

Guided by the Holy Spirit he approached the Temple Court

And there he looked into the eyes of the great I Am he sought.

Smiling he took Him in his arms, he begged for “Peace to die...”

“I have seen Your salvation!” he began to prophesy.

“Lord, I see the Salvation that you now prepare,

A light to all the nations for people everywhere.

This babe will cause the rise and fall of many in the land

And many will oppose Him, just as you have planned.”

Mary and Joseph were astonished by what was being said   

It caused them both to wonder, it caused then both to dread,

Turning to Mary, Simeon continued in this role,

“The thoughts of many will be revealed, and a sword will pierce your soul.”

Then upon the scene appeared another respected  soul,

It was the widow Anna who was eighty three years old,

She was considered a prophetess and seeing Jesus she smiled,

And giving thanks to God told everyone about this Child.

Simeon confirmed that there was a virgin birth,

Anna confirmed redemption for Jerusalem and the earth,

Mary was His mother who had not known a man,

And Joseph was a witness from the moment it began.

So the result of these meanderings which we have contemplated

Is the fulfilment of prophesy for which Simeon had waited,

From the evidence which he and Anna gave us we acquire

The confirmation that the babe they blessed was our Messiah.

Now we join the “cloud of witnesses” who have seen the light,

Looking for His Second Coming, walking by faith not sight,

Like Simeon we are waiting, we are waiting for Christ’s return

To see Him come in Glory, it is for this we yearn!

Amen

A Blog spot just for my books

 

Here is a new venture.  I am constantly being approached by sales representative of so called publishing companies who offer to take my money to help me sell my books.  It is very frustrating. The first thing they ask is "Have you got a website for your books?", the answer to which is, I was sold a bill of goods and it was taken down because they wanted more money annually to keep it going.

So I have opened up a new blog called neilmcleodbooks.blogspot.com. please visit it and make comments

All for the Glory

Neil

 I strongly recommend this book.  It makes the case clearly that our society is corrupting at a remarkable rate and that the primary victims are our children.

The Publishers have written the following:

This world has declared war on our children. Every day, on a multitude of battlefronts, Satan is deploying weapons of mass corruption against our children. Modern culture has been systematically designed with an agenda that is aggressively anti-God, anti-Christ, and anti-Scripture, intended to corrupt and consume young, impressionable hearts and minds. As God’s people, we need to teach our children God’s Word; train them in righteousness; and above all, give them our extravagant love.

About the Author:

John MacArthur is pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, California, Chancellor of The Master’s University and Seminary, teacher and voice heard globally through his media ministry Grace to You, and author of numerous best-selling books, including his New Testament commentary series and The MacArthur Study Bible. He has spent over 50 years preaching through every verse of the New Testament and much of the Old Testament while being a featured speaker at conferences around the world. John and his wife Patricia have been married for over sixty years and have four children, fifteen grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

The Seventh Slam - A new collection of poems

 In November of 2023 eighteen young poets, students at The Masters University, took part in the seventh annual Charles Miller poetry slam. The evening was hosted at the Powell Library and the master of ceremonies was Bob Dickson. As curator I collected the nearly fifty submitted poems in this anthology, which cover a broad range of topics and will serve as an encouragement to other budding authors.

The book is available on Amazon here: The Seventh Slam

It will be interesting to see what these young poets accomplish in the years ahead!

Will Alister Begg Recant?

Neil asking John MacArthur the critical question  at a Q and A with John MacAthur 

- What would you advise your flock John

 

I was saddened recently to hear that a much loved and respected Scottish preacher, Alister Begg, had driven off the road, had given some contraversial and mistaken advice to a lady who had a thorny question about whether she should attend her granddaughter's wedding to a transgender partner.

John MacArthur has finally weighed in on the Alistair Begg Controversy with his first public statements. He was asked by me about it during a Question and Answer session at Grace Community Church. MacArthur was gracious in what he said regarding Alistair Begg and his ministry but made his position known boldly and clearly. John MacArthur differs strongly with Alistair Begg  …

John's loving answer pointed out that we should not judge anyone by there weakest moment, he has been a good friend to Alister for forty five years.

We therefore ask you to pray for Alister recant.

See the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jy7e0UfZjs

Reflecting On Time

With Dwight Yoakam at the Jim Henson Recording Studios

It has been an interesting week that has given me pause to reflect on how best to use every minute of each day. On Monday evening  I was practicing my harmonica with the Cross Eyed Boys, the band who play for Men Of The Word, Brad Klassen's Bible study that meets on Wednesday evenings at Grace Community Church. On Tuesday I was out at The Masters University in the laboratory as an Adjunct Professor teaching anatomy to a score of Biology students.  We were focusing on the axial skeleton, one of my favourite subjects, and especially the skull. I took the oportunity to bring is a brilliant dissection so that they could all see the teeth and the ossicles.  At luncheon in the Mustang Grill I met Ken Mays again who kindly gave me his new CD of his collection of his jazzy arrangements of Christmas music. Ken has retired and the collection represents a life of devotion to music and teaching it.

See Below - Death's Castle

Now on Wednesday I was in Practice at my new professional home with Dr Eric Donaty DMD on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. What a joy to interact and work with this Tufts-trained master of his craft. I have occasion to reflect on my first landing in America at Logan Airport on an exchange scholarship to Tufts in 1972. 

On Wendesday evening I played with the band, and before the formal instruction on Ecclesiastes, "Life Outside The Garden", Dr. Klassen brought Brian Jolley up and asked us to pray for him as he has been diagnosed with stage four liver cancer. Perhaps you will also offer up a prayer. None of know when we will be called, and how quickly our pursuits will be forgotten.

Dr Brad prays for Brian

Now on Thursday I was back in practice and received an invitation to watch an album being recorded. After many month of concerts and recordings Dwight Yoakam is putting the finishing touches to his new Country album, and I was able to actually enter the lot that I have known only to drive by for many years as "A and M Records" which then still bore the statue of Charlie Chaplin the studio's founder, but now has Kermit the Frog as an effigy of Chaplin. The studios are amazing, and we were in the same space where the Carpenters and Carole King had made their recordings, as back up vocals were being laid down for what promises to be a hit album. Dwight is having his dreams come true as he polishes up his gifts with this blessed comeback. I pray I can use my time as well.

Here is a reflection you may enjoy:

 Death’s Castle

I had this architectural evaluation of the skull published in the Guy's Hospital Gazette. Poets abounded at Guy's.  After all, Keats was a medical student there.

Dusty chinks, caverns and pale walls,

Life once enclosed has gone from your halls,

And now below parapets pitted and brown

Hollow blank crypts are staring down.

By flying buttresses they are shored

Their socketed senses now are flawed.

Unsealed vault and arching dome

Where frail haunting spirits roam,

Thy bleached facade's a reminder grim

Death's mask to our kith and kin.

Cold afront horrid to behold,

Yet no horror in the thin walls old,

For silence lurks behind the pall

The mark of time now past recall.

Men shelter their brows at your ghastly sight,

Their eyes are sightless, blind, not bright,

They see not the words by the temple light.

And speaking not of their chiefest dread,

Their tongues are lost in a damp, mute bed,

By the falsehood of unspoken words they're led.

Turning their heads they hear not the song,

Their muffled ears deaf to the gong,

Unhearing their pitiful state they prolong.

Their chosen deception filtering out,

The musk of spoor-odor you leave about,

And all life's sweet perfumes they know not to doubt.

I have it now, sight, sound and all,

Dull smell of relapse in the room where you fall.

Now halted life's kernel, a once bitter taste,

No longer strikes chords of fear and waste.

My eyes, not blind, have shown me the path,

A new mind accepting your wrath.

Low barred dungeon whose stone is rolled,

The secrets of wisdom for us now unfold.

Soft whispers of truth which fill the air

Mask the trumpeter sounding there.

The crunch of the marching step is dull,

All is seen, I gaze on the skull. 

Live Not By Lies

 We all know, we can all see that our country and our culture is falling apart. The fulfilment of the biblical prophetic predictions are occuring before our eyes and tragically the vast majority of the population are either silent or do not care to question what is happening. They are decieved into accepting or thinking that it is all a part of progress;  that it is all for the good, for the benefit of all and they are wrong, dead wrong.

If you have been shocked by the wokeness that we are seeing transition into an accepted way of life, if you have found a favorite book that has been rewritten with wording the the author never wrote, if you feel that you are being taxed  to pay for causes that you do not believe in you are not alone, but you may be a part of a small but important significant minority - and your voice is not being heard unlike eveyone elses.

Then you must read this book "Live Not By Lies" by Rod Dreher