GREAT HOME-COMING DAY

Will you be there at that Great Homing Day? [1]

Will you be there when the clouds have rolled away?

You can answer at that final high Roll Call

You can be there if you’ve given Christ your all.

                – eab, Mar. ‘93

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[1] Part of a longer poem, written in Oelrichs, SD.

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Earl Newton – birth, Nov. 16, 1933

Every sanctified experience has a reverse gear in it. – Heard by author, February 7, 1994, Oelrichs, South Dakota.

 

You can’t be good without helping others to be good and you can’t be evil without helping others to be evil.  – Heard by author, February 10, 1994, Oelrichs, South Dakota.

 

If you’re in love with your money don’t ever marry…  – Heard by author, July 24, 2009, Muncie, Indiana.

 

I’m convinced there are a lot of people who want the benefits of Christianity without the purity. – Heard by author, July 30, 2009, Muncie, Indiana.

 

God has no program short of full surrender. – Heard by author, August 1, 2009, Muncie, Indiana.

 

Earl Newton was born this date, 11/16/1933, in Clemson, South Carolina.  He has pastored, worked with American Indians, worked with Christian schools, been a conference vice president, been a conference president, and is a holiness evangelist.

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Death to Desires

Let death come to my desires.

I could be SO mistaken.

Make my goals ones that really count,

When the final count is taken. 

–eab, 5/94

Written in Oelrichs, SD

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Lpost – Zack

Whether his name was Zacchaes or Zacharias is unknown but in the hotel industry he became known as *Zack.

 

It is not known if he inherited Bethlehem‘s “Best Eastern” from his family,

his wife’s family, or bought it out­right. 

 

But on THAT famous night he was the proprietor of the inn.

 

Zack may have been young or old, the record does not say. We are not informed if he was wealthy or poor – barely meeting his pay­ments on the inn.

 

Was Zack tall or short, skinny or fat? 

No docu­ments exist to acclaim his great learning or lack thereof.

 

Was Zack a gentleman with a handsome profile or did his face reveal low breeding? Were his words kind and friendly or were they harsh? 

 

We’re not told if he was attired in the latest Roman robe or if his appearance was con­servatively Hebrew.  Was he mar­ried?  Had HIS wife ever given birth to a child?  Had HE ever traveled from Bethlehem and needed a room?

 

What was he worth the night he died?  What were his perks?  How much did he earn each week?  Where was he born?  What was his genealogy? 

 

How long did he own the “famous” inn?  Did Zack enjoy plain mutton chops and bread or was he a connoisseur of Mediterranean dining?

 

Did he race camels, collect Hittite pottery or trivialize his time with some other hobby?

Were his days simple or scheduled seg­ments of managerial perfection? 

 

Zack’s hair, was it black, styl­ishly cut or was it a mere shadow of its former glory with an ex­ceedingly wide part?

 

We do not know his race, face, pace, or even his grace.  Was he a faithful worshipper at the local synagogue or had he imbibed “modern thoughts” about God? 

 

Did he ever learn who his AL­MOST Guest was?

 

For a key player in history we know so little about him.

 

HISTORY HAS LEFT BUT ONE FACT, ABOUT ZACK

                 – HE HAD NO ROOM FOR JESUS!

 

Written while pastoring Bible Holiness Chapel, Oelrichs, SD and printed in the Hot Springs Star (newspaper) Dec., 1995

 

* No, we have not discovered some old scroll detailing the inns of the Holy Land, but allow me to use Zack in stead of saying “the innkeeper” each time and it could even make this story more real.

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Triune

If we could have been there “Creation Morning,”

When God (I speak reverently) played in dirt.

And glimpsed His pleasure in making man,

(And seen His grimace at thoughts of the hurt).

 

If we could have watched Him lattice the heavens,

With a trillion stars at a splash,

And felt Him harness ‘lectric lightning,

Giving it its sizzle and flash.

 

If we could have stood by in wonder,

As He “finished” the peacock’s tail.

And sensed His majestic power,

When He first “invented” hail.

 

If we could have seen it all, from freckled feather

To the smallest, azure lagoon;

We’d have seen Him “step back” with pleasure,

And gently sign it all “Triune!” –eab, 3/1995

    

Written while pastoring cowboys in Oelrichs, SD – left part of my heart in South Dakota.      

 

             

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I Am

I Am was His name when He made the first dame,

To birth and own her own.

And trees’ fruits and flowers were given genetic powers,

To produce exactly what was sown.

 

I Am was His name (and it’s always STILL the same –

– From everlasting, He is God!)

When He anviled the sun and gave it a course to run,

Over earth’s vast sand and sod.

 

I Am was His name when the world of past fame,

Was left desolate of its every, first-born.

And God lead His children out (even those with a pout);

Their cloths never suffered from the thorn.

 

And I Am He still is, in spite of “show biz,”

And Hollywood’s dethronement.

No puny man can e’er assume that glorious throne room,

No, not for a milli-moment.

 

I Am – what a name!  But it really is tame,

For all the Majesty, and Honor, and Might,

Of His eternal Being, so beyond human seeing,

And yet ever lies in faith’s sight.    -eab, 11/94

 

Written while enjoying the pastorate of the Bible Holiness Chapel in (Fall River County) Oelrichs, South Dakota.

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