PREAMBLE :
“And the angel of the LORD came
back the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the
journey is too great for you. So he
arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days
and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God. And there he went into a cave, and spent the
night in that place; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and He said
to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” So he said, “I have been very
zealous for the LORD God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken
Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword.
I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.” Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the
mountain before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and
strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the
LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but
the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the
LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice .
1 Kings 19:7-12 NKJV
Now you will forgive me I hope for recording such a long quote from the Bible to begin with. You see, it is important to me personally that you see the
context for this poem, and for my particular poetic voice in the coming 366
Poems, for I truly believe that God speaks more in whispers than in shouts and
more in our hearts than in our heads. My personal coming to Him was because of
the insistence of that same still small voice that moved with power within my
spirit, within my soul, to finally and irresistibly draw me to Himself. An old
fashioned truth for nowadays it would appear but still true never the less.
Unfortunately for some, this still
small voice has made we want to shout!
PERFORMANCE TIPS:
To be said with Gusto! (and if he’s not around then you are on your
own.)
----------O----------
I want not to pass this place O Lord
As a small dust cloud
On a hot and dried out path
Leading nowhere
Save inevitably
To the end
[i]Forgotten.
Nor in silence hold this face O Lord
but as loud
As a summer storm breaks quickly on
cotton-clad cricketers
Trying to make haste, even
To make fast their
Let me break forth and be!
To speak to hearts of men
To express the inexpressible, and then
To have my tongue
Fork lightning
Blue and strong
To strike and turn dry sand
Cooled by love’s summer breezes
Replete with fiery furnace colors
Refracting and reflecting
The Royal purples of the eternal king
Beautifully bruised
To present me
Bountifully cleansed
[v]Washed by words
Made strong and stronger
Heart wide and wider still
Easier to seize my ear
In future whispers heard
[vi]To quickly turn all eyes to Thee
[viii]Whispering
Word
© 2012 Victor Robert Farrell
----------O----------
[i] Isaiah 40:6 The voice said,
"Cry out!" And he said, "What shall I cry?" "All flesh
is grass, And all its loveliness is like
the flower of the field.” NKJV
[ii] I used to be a wicket keeper, the most dangerous place in Cricket!
For my American
friends however, I do promise that I will not even attempt the explain the
wonders of the second most boring game on the planet. Baseball being the first
of course!
So, now that I have offended a very large percentage of
you let me just say that in Cricket, on top of the three stump wicket (are you
with me now) are two small pieces of wood called ‘bails’. The falling, or
violent removal of these bails by a cricket ball indicates that the batter is
out! Anyway, enough, suffice to say that if it starts throwing it down with
rain on an England summer’s afternoon, and it surely will, then the white
cotton clad cricketers will snatch the bails and take them indoors. Congratulations my good American friends, you
are now better educated!
[iii] All Cricket grounds have a place to change, to store their gear,
drink beer, allow teenagers to have their first illicit gropes and of course,
shelter from summer storms. These places are called Cricket Pavilions
[iv] I’m pretty sure that it’s in the Film ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ where
the main character uses lightening rods to catch lightening from the thunder
headed clouds to produce glass for his factory.
[v] Ephesians
5:25-27 says: Husbands, love your wives,
just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might
sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might
present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any
such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. NKJV
[vi] It is interesting that the Word of God is heard and the heart is
arrested so that the eyes might then truly see. The Biblical connection between
words and spiritual vision is profound. Words are in the end paintings, videos,
projections of the speaker on the walls of the hearing heart. I love how
Spurgeon, that renowned ‘Prince of Preachers’, records his own testimony of
coming to Jesus. Listen to what he says:
I sometimes think I might have
been in darkness and despair until now, had it not been for the goodness of God
in sending a snowstorm one Sunday morning, while I was going to a certain place
of worship. I turned down a side street, and came to a little Primitive
Methodist Church. In that chapel there may have been a dozen or fifteen people.
I had heard of the Primitive Methodists, how they sang so loudly that they made
people’s heads ache; but that did not matter to me. I wanted to know how I
might be saved....
The minister did not come that
morning; he was snowed up, I suppose. At last a very thin-looking man, a
shoemaker, or tailor, or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to
preach. Now it is well that preachers be instructed, but this man was really
stupid. He was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason that he had
little else to say. The text was—"LOOK UNTO ME, AND BE YE SAVED, ALL THE
ENDS OF THE EARTH" (Isa. 45:22)
He did not even pronounce the
words rightly, but that did not matter. There was, I thought, a glimmer of hope
for me in that text.
The preacher began thus:
"This is a very simple text indeed. It says ‘Look.’ Now lookin’ don’t take
a deal of pain. It aint liftin’ your foot or your finger; it is just ‘Look.’
Well, a man needn’t go to College to learn to look. You may be the biggest
fool, and yet you can look. A man needn’t be worth a thousand a year to look.
Anyone can look; even a child can look.
"But then the text says,
‘Look unto Me.’ Ay!" he said in broad Essex, "many on ye are lookin’
to yourselves, but it’s no use lookin’ there. You’ll never find any comfort in
yourselves. Some say look to God the Father. No, look to Him by-and-by. Jesus
Christ says, ‘Look unto Me.’ Some on ye say ‘We must wait for the Spirit’s
workin.’ You have no business with that just now. Look to Christ. The text
says, ‘Look unto Me.’ "
Then the good man followed up
his text in this way: "Look unto Me; I am sweatin’ great drops of blood.
Look unto Me; I am hangin’ on the cross. Look unto Me, I am dead and buried.
Look unto Me; I rise again. Look unto Me; I ascend to Heaven. Look unto Me; I
am sitting at the Father’s right hand. O poor sinner, look unto Me! Look unto
Me!"
When he had . . . . managed to
spin out about ten minutes or so, he was at the end of his tether. Then he
looked at me under the gallery, and I daresay with so few present, he knew me
to be a stranger.
Just fixing his eyes on me, as
if he knew all my heart, he said, "Young man, you look very miserable."
Well, I did, but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made from the pulpit
on my personal appearance before. However, it was a good blow, struck right
home. He continued, "And you will always be miserable—miserable in life
and miserable in death—if you don’t obey my text; but if you obey now, this
moment, you will be saved." Then lifting up his hands, he shouted, as only
a Primitive Methodist could do, "Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look!
Look! Look! You have nothing to do but look and live!"
I saw at once the way of
salvation. I know not what else he said—I did not take much notice of it—I was
so possessed with that one thought . . . . I had been waiting to do fifty
things, but when I heard that word, "Look!" what a charming word it seemed
to me. Oh! I looked until I could almost have looked my eyes away.
Now, isn’t that a most marvelous
testimony! The Holy Spirit’s whisper brought Spurgeon to despair, the Father’s
providence brought him to the chapel, the preached Word boomed in his heart and
called Him to Christ and in that calling Spurgeon looked until he could almost
have ‘looked his eyes away’ and was at that moment, saved. The rest is history.
In the Scriptures, ears and eyes go together like a good cheese and a great red
wine.
[vii] Judges 13:17-18 Then Manoah said to the Angel of the LORD,
"What is Your name, that when Your words come to pass we may honor
You?" And the Angel of the LORD said to him, "Why do you ask My name
, seeing it is wonderful ?"
Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a Child is
born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And
His name will be called Wonderful ……….NKJV
[viii] 1 Kings 19:11-12 says: Then He said, "Go out, and stand on the
mountain before the LORD." And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and
strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the
LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but
the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the
LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. NKJV
Job 26:4-14 says: To whom have you
uttered words? And whose spirit came from you? "The dead tremble, Those
under the waters and those inhabiting them. Sheol is naked before Him, And
Destruction has no covering. He
stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing. He binds up the water in His thick clouds,
Yet the clouds are not broken under it. He covers the face of His throne, And
spreads His cloud over it. He drew a circular horizon on the face of the
waters, At the boundary of light and darkness. The pillars of heaven tremble,
And are astonished at His rebuke. He
stirs up the sea with His power, And by His understanding He breaks up the
storm. By His Spirit He adorned the heavens; His hand pierced the fleeing
serpent. Indeed, these are the mere edges of His ways, And how small a whisper
we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand?" NKJV
That still small voice heard by
Eljah the prophet was the same voice that brought me to Jesus on August 28th
1979 when I was in a young sailor on HMSM Renown refitting in Rosyth in the
Kingdom of Fife. It was the little
statement of ‘how small a whisper we hear of Him’ followed by the sound of ‘thunder of His
power’ which brought turned my eyes to
Him and then years later, also propelled me into the ministry of Bible Teaching
through WhisperingWord and all things Sixty Six.
