God’s Masterpiece

God’s greatest works are conducted

In secret behind closed doors,

Hidden from the gaze of devils and men

He skilfully fashions His cause.

His aim is the highest, perfection,

That we might be perfect as He,

Eye hath not seen nor ear ever heard

The deep things of God that will be.

God prepares man for His purpose,

Spends years to make a man true,

In the backside of the desert for many long years

Moses was hidden from view.

Nothing is written of God’s working,

God secretly weaves His design,

His school of learning’s away from the crowds

To teach a man lessons sublime.

David communed with His Maker

While keeping his father’s sheep,

‘Tis written of the lion and the bear that he killed

But not of the prayer watch he’d keep.

Joseph spent years in confinement,

The best years of his youth passed away

And nothing is known of the long, lonely hours

Of God’s searching, preparing the way.

Then Peter denied his own Master,

He lied to save his own skin,

Imagine the grief and the anguish

As he watched Jesus die for his sin.

Nothing is writ of his torture,

Of God’s dealing in the days that ensued,

His conviction, brokenness, repentings,

God records nought to peruse.

And Jesus Himself’s no exception,

From a child through His youth, He began

To increase in wisdom and stature,

Finding favour with God and with man.

What happened ‘twixt Him and His Father

No record has ever been made,

The communing in secret those thirty long years

Have never to us been displayed.

The works of our wondrous Creator

Surround us each day of our lives:

The mountains, the valleys, sun, moon and stars,

The birds, trees and flowers feast our eyes.

But the pinnacle of God’s great creation

Was made in His image, puny man,

And the wonder to be through this mere speck of dust

Is the greatest God ever began.

So, He works and He waits and He works and He waits,

So patiently, hidden from view,

He works in individuals first

To their innermost being renew,

To fashion them and mould them, perfecting each part,

That one day all shall be one,

That His Church shall arise, one body prepared,

The glory of Father and Son!

That no man shall glory that he has it all,

We are but a part of the whole,

Many are the gifts in the Body of Christ

Consisting of each separate soul.

To bring to perfection the millions of souls

Is the magnificent work of our Maker,

Profound and complete like our physical form

Is the craft of our great Creator.

And so, to perfection each day of our lives

God would search our innermost being,

His word is quick and powerful and sharp,

Soul and spirit dividing and seeing,

Discerning the heart with its thoughts and intents,

Nothing is hidden from His view,

Naked and open to the eyes of God

With whom we all have to do.

That irritable feeling, that nasty thought,

The variance, jealousy, envy,

The criticism, pride, arrogance, judgments,

When we’re filled with hate and we’re angry,

Yes! We smile at the world, feel good in ourselves,

But hold all this sin deep within,

But what no one else sees, behind closed doors,

God would have us repent before Him.

God says He would thoroughly purge His floor,

We can have this searchlight within,

Become what He would have us become

In secret communing with Him.

A heart that is broken and contrite is precious

In the sight of an all-seeing God,

A pearl of great price, a jewel in His crown,

But this way so few men have trod.

But O to get closer! Have God as my friend,

With nothing, no nothing between!

When I become tense or ruffled within

To have a conscience that’s keen,

To deal with those proud, those arrogant thoughts!

Bring all to God’s searchlight within,

Be sensitive to truth’s purging power

To set me free from my sin!

To walk a narrow path with God

That no one else discerns,

Be conscious how God looks on me

And be unconcerned how the world.

To no longer live to be thought well of men,

Their approval no longer seek,

  In the secret place of the Most High dwell,

‘Neath His shadow abide lowly and meek.

Peter Burt