Ephesians 5:25-27     New English Translation

25 Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her 26 to sanctify her by cleansing her with the washing of the water by the word, 27 so that he may present the church to himself as glorious—not having a stain or wrinkle, or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.

 

Faultless

 

It never was my fault, can’t you see? It’s someone else’s

Please don’t say it sounds familiar until you hear my defense

I listened to this often in the past, seldom did someone feel guilty

When you have to go to prison, that also seems a pretense

 

To belittle aware of flaws maybe become an excuse’s foundation

Well, everybody does it has such a familiar “finger-pointing” ring

Comparing one with another as a standard of self-interpretation

Is that what makes us acceptable and gives us false peace within?

 

Does it carry over into the church, this bowl filled with excuses?

When I invite visitors, do I want them to become just like me?

Leaving many copies of self not caring in whose estate they’ll be

If they don’t like what they see in me, let them search to be free

 

Are there many passive ones who don’t want to get involved?

Like I give some of what I have but don’t want to be involved.”

Will they get fat and sassy and never eat their own words?

For if they don’t like what happens, they move to another resolve

 

Grace must be immeasurable to be able to encompass

The temple, as it appeared to Christ, He called a “den of thieves.”

In time, love, and effort, do we steal opportunity blind?

And always look at others to add to our own “little” grief?

 

Jan Wienen