The Ethereal Scupper

Category: Spiritual

H2 level for Reflections

  • Matthew the Tax Collector

    Matthew the Tax Collector

    Matthew the tax collector

    In first century Palestine, revenue collection was rife with extortion and fraud.

    Rendering its gains to an emperor, a mortal man, who likened himself to a god. 

    Whatever what the character and virtue of the tax collector might be,

    He held the lowest place in an Orthodox Jewish society. 

    After a long day at the customs post he noticed a great crowd passing by.

    Like them, he would become a disciple of Jesus, this son of Alphaeus, the one named Levi. 

    They had heard the Word of God, Jesus taught them down by the sea. 

    Then Jesus himself passed by the post. He said, “Levi come and follow me.”

    Without hesitation, he rose up from his seat; he left everything that day.

    From that point onward to find Levi, just find Jesus and the disciples onThe Way. 

    With gratitude toward Jesus for his new found life and vocation,

    Levi opened his house for all to dine and join in celebration. 

    The scribes and pharisees were too self-righteous to join in.  

    How could they eat with tax collectors and those guilty of sin? 

    “Hey Jesus, why don’t you eat with us, instead of with sinners like these?”Replied our Lord, “I came not for the healthy, but for those afflicted with disease.”

    Like a lamb, the tax man knew the voice of the one he had heard.

    He put aside family and livelihood to follow the true, Living Word.

  • Adoration Inspiration

    There He hangs upon that cross, 

    my small pleasures became His great loss.

    I indulged in every vice and whim, 

    yet all the opprobrium was loaded on Him. 

    By the blood of His stripes He healed and saved me. 

    Now He offers me a share in His glorious victory. 

    I’m confident that when I take my last breath, 

    He’ll raise me to new life, leaving behind eternal death. 

    Wonder struck, I gaze upon the Lord, yet one thing puzzles me.

    I can see the wounds, but not the nails, that hold Him to that tree.

    Mocked, ridiculed, profaned and scorned by those he came to save.

    He opened not his mouth, remaining silent to the grave.

    He intercedes for His persecutors, 

    praying to His Father in Heaven 

    above. 

    Then I come to understand, he was 

    Held to that cross not by nails, 

    But by His own selfless love. 

    Had he left that cross, with its pain and 

    suffering, to pursue His own free will.

    I would have had to bear my transgressions

    and without redemption, die upon that hill. 

    Here I sit with a chance once more, 

    Renewed and cleansed of sin. 

    All Because He’s conquered death, opening 

    Heaven’s gates to let me in.

  • Four Fishermen Called to Ministry

    Four Fishermen Called to Ministry

    Four fishermen called as disciples

    Living a life of peril, they plied their trade on a capricious, inland sea. 

    They were strong and stern, they were fisherman, they came from Galilee.

    Not educated in the ways of Hellenists, they were Hebrews by their birth.

    Their culture, their heritage, their God, were the surety to life on this earth. 

    Through their toil, by their wit, good stewards of God’s gifts to them;

    They knew the source of prosperity, they offered theirs’ back to Him. 

    In the way of the fathers, formed by tradition, they reflected on God’s precepts;

    Each heard the command from within their hearts, “Put down your fishing nets.”

    Jesus approached as he said, “Simon and Andrew, come and follow me.

    James and John, leave your father and join us, you, the sons of Zebedee.”

    “What you’ve learned in a lifetime of fishing, your time upon the sea;

    You will apply in the villages and towns, as you go The way with me.”

    “It won’t be fish that you’ll be catching, when you go for fishing again.

    You’ll be winning minds and hearts, and saving the souls of men.”

    The net you’ll cast is not of this earth, of fiber it is not made, 

    its formed by truth and strengthened by love, a great price, yet to be paid. 

    Like sheep, the fishermen knew the voice of the one they had heard.

    They put aside families and livelihood to follow the true, Living Word.