I Am a Poet?

I Am a Poet?

I did not know it.

A poet, makes rhyme

I do not.

A poet thinks of word, I thought,

And of meter.

I do not.

I think in terms of ideas.

Words express them

Cadence emphasizes them.

Perhaps they rhyme

Perhaps not.

But if words ring true,

In expression and reflection of ideas,

Perhaps they benefit the writer,

Perhaps even the reader.

I hope so.

I am a poet?

Still, I do not know.

But it does not look like prose.

Billy R. Masten

05/19/13

Faith, Does it Grow?

Faith, Does it Grow?

Some say faith is changeless.

Some say it is in constant flux.

I still am wondering –

What is faith?

What knowledge is necessary to produce faith?

What understanding brings it on?

What or who is the object of faith?

How do my failures impact it?

How do my successes impact it?

I wonder –

What are the important questions regarding faith?

And what are the answers?

Faith in false fails!

False faith fails!

Confidence in error

Yields no good thing.

Where does faith begin?

How does it grow?

Does faith begin in full knowledge?

When is faith complete?

Faith begins by the introduction of a hypothesis.

Testing of the hypothesis follows.

Faith grows by experience.

“I believe, help thou my unbelief.”

A glimpse of God

Guided by the Holy Spirit

Is the beginning of faith.

Comprehending His character,

A gift of the Holy Spirit,

Builds faith.

Exercising faith,

Confirms His character!
And faith grows.

Billy Reese Masten

08/18/13

Darkness and Light

Darkness and Light

I thought I was

In the light

But darkness had me in his grip.

I held to what I believed

Only to find that some how my belief had failed

To grow with His revelation.

And my mindless

Heartless belief

Had led me into

Darkness.

I had followed

Flawed belief

-

To a dark and lonely place.

-

Where is the light?

I cried.

And there was the still small voice

-

I am the Light

said He.

Billy Reese Masten

09/08/14

The Great Commission One should dwell on such a thing!

The Great Commission

One should dwell on such a thing!

Then Jesus came to them and said, 

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,

Baptizing them in the name of the Father

And of the Son

And of the Holy Spirit,

And teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”.

These words of Jesus I have read over and over.

They have been the backbone of missionary motive.

Yet some how I missed the power of the message.

The message seemed to only be about an introduction to heaven.

I do not belittle such an introduction.

However, as I study slowly over these words,

I come to see them as powerful,

Not only in the eternal sense,

But in the present.

These words are not just about immersion in water!

They are about immersion in His Character!!!

Three word studies changed the commission for me.

The word baptize means immerse.

Disciple means disciplined student.

And the word name means character.

Substituting these words

With their meaning

Brought to life the passage for me!

Then Jesus came to them and said, 

“All authority in heaven

And on earth

Has been given to me.

Therefore, go and make disciplined students

Of all nations,

Immersing them in the character of the Father

And of the Son

And of the Holy Spirit,

And teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”.

These thoughts then come to mind.

Who has authority?

Jesus!

It is good to be a student of Jesus!

He is the one with the words of life.

It would be good for the people of all nations to be

Disciplined students of Jesus!

What is His character,

And the character of the Father,

And the character of the Holy Spirit?

One in the same!

Omnipotent

Omniscient

Omnipresent

Righteous

Full of truth and light

Full of mercy

And grace

And He loves us.

Creator sustainer

Re-creator!

He is able!

And He loves us.

And what does He teach?

What is His command?

“…But I tell you Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

“A new command I give unto you that your love one another as I have loved you.”

“And this is my command that you love one another.”

One can learn about His character from His command!

How did he love us?

“God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us.”

“Come unto me all who labor and are heavy laded and I will give you rest”

I want to be immersed in His character.

I want to be submerged, surrounded, soaked, and overwhelmed by His creative building uplifting loving merciful graceful character!

And I want you to know Him!

There is great hope in Him!!!

Billy R. Masten

12/20/1913

I was struck by some thoghts of the season - Easter 2014

I was struck by some thoughts of the season

Easter 2014

As the season came I first was hit by the powerful example of faith

Shown in the prayer of Jesus from the cross.

“Father, into thy hands I commit my Spirit.”

But why was it spoken in a loud voice?

He was talking to his Father. There was no need for loud voice.

Perhaps the message was not for the Father

But for us!

He was demonstrating a model of faith to which we all must come,

Faith that believes in the character of God.

Faith that relies on Him to deliver us!

Even through death

To life!

I was then led to think of another prayer from the cross.

“My God my God why hast thou forsaken me.”

The previous prayer of faith was in the shadow of this prayer.

Even with  God”s back turned,

Christ believed and turned over his spirit

To God in the worst of circumstances!

Christ trusted God to recover Him from the grip of sin and death!

He believed in the character of God!

He yielded up His life, his very eternal being to God!!!

And  He became the first born form the dead!!!

Now the other prayer of Faith came to mind,

The prayer of the thief on the cross.

The circumstances –

Thief on  the cross –

Christ on the cross –

Both doomed to death –

Yet the thief had faith in the one on the cross

And committed his spirit to Him.

(a most amazing example of faith)!

One more thought -

The rocks shook as our Savior turned His Spirit over to the father!

This was the Word who spoke light into existence.

This was the Word through which God brought light and life!

At His death, the earth shook.

The rocks split apart.

The veil of the temple was torn top to bottom.

The light from the sun failed.

And I wondered

“Why did creation survive the death of the creator?”

“How could it be that the rocks only shook and split?”

“Why didn’t creation just cease?”

It is the Word by which all things are held together!

And the Word has gone dark for a season.

And I was reminded of another prayer from the cross.

A Word from the Word early in the process,

“Father forgive them for they know not what they do.!”

What if Jesus had not prayed that prayer?

What if Jesus had not prayed to the Father that we might be forgiven?

The rocks, I have come to think, would not just shake and brake,

They would have ceased to exist -

But for the prayer of Jesus from cross –

Creation would have ceased

At the death of the creator – sustainer – the Word of God!

What great power,

What great examples of faith,

There is demonstrated,

In the prayers

From the cross!!!!

Billy Reese Masten

05/04/14

The Great Example of Faith!

The Great Example of Faith!

“Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit.”

As I read the quote this time,

One of many,

I thought of its significance.

Jesus, I thought, is the great example

Of good character.

What, then, is the significance of these words?

“Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit.”

He spoke, we are told in loud voice.

Loud voice is not necessary to speak to his Father.

The Father hears his thoughts before they are thought.

He and the Father are one.

Then the thought came to me.

It is a model of faith He demonstrates

And communicates,

For those within the sound of His voice!

To commit ones Spirit, and yield it up, at the time of death,

To the Father demonstrates great faith.

Jesus, God’s only Son, willingly dying on the cross,

Giving his life, at the will of the Father,

Believing that God, the Father would raise His Spirit.

That is great faith!!!

Thus He became the first to be raised, the first of many, we are told..

God is faithful to His promise!

Christ demonstrated with these words

The essence of faith!

Timothy exampled this same faith as he was stoned.

His words were

“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

Jesus, and Timothy, and all those

Who have come to faith in God’s

Great gift of His Son

Start the process of faith

At the point when they say

I believe, help my unbelief.

Abraham demonstrated the beginning of faith when God

Asked him to come and go to a place I will show you and he went..

Elisha demonstrated it when he gave up a large farming business

And followed Elija into prophetic ministry.

Hebrews 11 lists many others.

And there are many more –

And at the end of life’s days

In full faith

- - -

- -

-

Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.

Billy R. Masten

01/05/14

There is Nothing Artificial About Intelligence

There is Nothing Artificial About Intelligence

Intelligence without purpose is the same as empty space.

When purpose, is accepted, applied, and supporting goals are pursued,

Intelligence becomes intelligence and goes to work in support of that purpose.

Different entities, each with intelligence,

Directed in support of independent goals ,

Will at times come to contradictory purpose.

Entities in support of contradictory purpose

And guided by intelligence

End in conflict.

Self serving purpose leads to war.

Intelligent entities therefore,

In the interest of survival,

Must come to a deeper understanding of moral existence –

A responsibility beyond self interest.

It appears then that acceptance of a higher purpose is necessary

To the survival of

Intelligent entities.

Otherwise, one must conclude that in the end

Only one intelligent entity will remain.

I contend that that entity cannot exist alone.

Intelligence without purpose is the same as empty space.

Intelligence alone is not intelligence at all

Because it has no purpose to guide its path.

I conclude that there exists

A set of rules that must guide

Intelligent entities if intelligent entities are to continue to exist..

These rules supersede selfish interest.

Self interest balanced by treating others as one would be treated

Just might be written into the nature of coexisting intelligent entities!

(Or at least some critical number of them.)

That being the case, there exists a higher authority!

Or

 Intelligent entities cannot exist.

Given time, intelligent entities would come to contradictory purpose

And annihilate one or the other

And be come useless.

The fact that after considerable time,

Intelligent beings do exist

Suggests that not only does higher authority exist,

But that He is actively involved in the process.

It is He that brings some

-Beyond intelligence alone

-And beyond self interest

To the higher calling

“Love one another.”

“By love serve one another.”

It is the fruit of His Spirit that brings peace

To competing intelligent entities!

It is the fruit of His Spirit that defines an acceptable purpose for intelligence.

A new command I give to you

“That you love one another as I have loved your!

- A truly acceptable purpose for intelligence!!! -

Billy R. Masten

03/8/14

Invitation from the Infinite

Invitation from the Infinite

Some time back I began to think

Of the significance of the invitation of God

To Abraham to go to a place

God would show him.

Then I was drawn to the thought

Of the infinite nature of God

Compared to the finite limit

Of man.

It was an early sermon of Spurgeon

That spurred my thoughts

Of the Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent,

Nature of our God

Such characteristics of God

Dictate an unchanging God.

If the Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent,

Should change, He would no longer be – God.

Then I thought of the unusual invitation

God made to Abraham.

“Come and go

To a place I will show you.”

What a wonderful invitation,

From the Infinite,

To the finite –

To walk with Him.

How can it be

That the finite could walk with the Infinite?

That the finite, faulty, incomplete,

Could walk with the Infinite?

This could only happen

At the invitation of the Infinite!

Such a possibility could only be

The gift provided by Him!!!

One of finite mind, and body, and presence

Could not walk with the infinite

--

Except by invitation,

--

And provision of the infinite.

--

How could one who is finite,

Made from the finite,

Occupying a finite world

With finite mind

Walk with the Infinite?

To a place of infinite character,

The place God would show him?

The entirety of the universe cannot contain

The Infinite!!!

How then could the finite

Walk with Him?

And this invitation is given also to you.

The invitation to walk with Him

To a place He will show you –

A place you could not know for the finite cannot know the infinite!!!

“I am the way”

Comes the invitation from Him.

“I go to prepare a place for you.”

Says He.

Because the Infinite

Has chosen the finite,

And offered the finite

A choice to walk with Him

And provided the mechanism

By which the finite

Can be changed,

We have been offered the choice.

We

The finite, faulty, incomplete,

Could walk with the Infinite?

At His invitation?

By His provision?

By our acceptance?

To a place He will show us?

Yes!

I love the thought!

Billy Reese Masten

1/26/14