Category Archives: Poem

Let There Be Light

“Let there be light,” the Maker speaks
And darkness runs away
The morn is new as grace descends
Benighted heart sees day

The faintest gleam of Gospel truth
Outshines man’s brightest light
Though shadow-dimmed, it strikes the dark
From blindness, grants new sight

What gladness fills the joyful eye
As dawn of mercy breaks
From deathly slumber unto life
The ransomed soul awakes

The oil burned in heaven’s lamp
Which cut sin’s black night thick
Flowed freely from the Savior’s veins
Himself, the fired wick

Yea, trimmed and soaked, the off’ring lit
By heat of holy wrath:
The perfect sacrifice aflame
Reveals the righteous path

The pilgrim treads on glowing ground
For Christ in radiance beamed
Illuminating Heaven’s way
To all who stand redeemed

The light cast from the Savior’s face
Who purchased life to give
Lets mortals God’s great glory know
To look upon, and live

And on that visage few may find
The born-again shall gaze
Once lost and darksome, now alight
Beheld for endless days

So blazes Life amidst the gloom
To bless the former cursed
The Grave is sting-less, Death is dead
And darkness now dispersed

Ryan Cornett, 2022
(Based on 2 Corinthians 4:6 and sundry passages of the Holy Bible)

To Glory, Spring

Progeny of fall, dying toil
Beneath each day’s more sunlit skies
A kernel lone within the soil
Unless it dies; unless it dies

Frost, winter ground and coat has burst
Tomb and linen strips have faltered
The root must plunge in effort first
Further downward; further downward

What life warmth doth now awaken!
From Firstfruit’s death and crimson earth
Rises that sweet yield of heaven
The second birth; the second birth

In heat of day, dry winds are spun
With worm upon and thorn beside
Yet brightly shines the giving sun
To eventide; to eventide

And in the storm, this Providence:
Drink of rain and nourishing flood
Pest washed away, day-fire relents
From trial, good; from trial, good

My body, seed, shall root where pressed
And work until bloom of blessing
From the grave, I, my Lord’s harvest
To Glory, spring; to Glory, spring

Ryan Cornett, 2022

Follow Me

V1
Lord above all mere existence
Condescended King who crossed
That impassable sin-distance
To restore what man had lost
Christ departed Heaven’s glory
When my heart would ever roam
To fulfill redemption’s story
And to bring this wand’rer home

C
The Lamb and Lion of the tribe of Judah
Went to the cross and won the victory
I cannot keep from singing, “Hallelujah!”
His sacrifice and triumph set me free
So, I will heed His call: “Follow me”

V2
My companion on this journey
To the Sovereign’s holy throne:
My High Priest, has gone before me
Not a step I walk alone
When the passage leads through valleys
In this dark and weary land
This His promise: never shall these
Separate me from His hand

V3
All the days of my sojourning
He shall lead me t’ward the goal
Through my wavering and turning
For His praise, preserves my soul
Until death, that final portal
I traverse the trail He blazed
What assurance mine! Though mortal
Unto life I shall be raised

B
From the grave to glory
From the tomb to triumph
From the darkness to the dawn
I’ll follow Christ who bids me come

My Help and My Hope

V1
My Help and my Hope: high above, ever near 
Unto Your servant incline now Your ear 
Though fleeting this breath You have given to me 
Poured out like water, a drop in the sea 

Yes brief are my days, but Yours without end 
Still my voice You hear; to my cry You attend 
What wonderful joy! What marvelous peace! 
Your aid shall not fail me, Your grace never cease
V2
O, be my salvation, my ark on the wave 
When storms of sin would sink me to the grave 
For darkness appears and the clouds hasten night 
Fix my eyes firmly on Your dawning light 

If not for the Lamb, torn that I be whole 
The thorn of the curse would lie cut through my soul 
What favor abounds! What riches untold! 
Yourself, my possession; Your Word mine to hold
V3
What debt must be settled? What more could You give? 
Love’s work is finished; by death now I live 
So plant me to grow and then prune me to bear 
In Christ abiding, upheld by Your care 

To stranger and kin will I testify– 
Till all breath is spent and to my gain I die– 
That You hear and have regarded my plea 
My Help and my Hope You forever shall be

Original Poem: The Call

Would you call me brother
Or cousin, or son?
Is our blood so dissimilar
That we cannot coexist in
Living, breathing
Harmony?

From communities to inhabitants
Of the same zip code
Neighbors to acquaintances
To strangers we go.
We to I.
Us to me, my, mine.

This is not yet a wasteland
But a wasted land.
Not yet a cacophony
Although chaos rings loud.
For there is a voice on the horizon
Distant, soft, suffering.

Music descending to the ears of the hopeful
Noise soaring to the ears of the beast.
It is a call
A call to me, you, us:
Wake up from this reality
And dream again.

Spoken Word: The Trinity

“The Trinity” is a human term that does not appear in Scripture
But truths throughout the Bible paint a crystal-clear picture
It and “Triune God” are phrases we use to summarize
What God has revealed about himself to human ears and eyes
The Trinity is present at and responsible for creation
Was there at Christ’s baptism and seen in Revelation
A very convincing verse is 2 Corinthians 13:14
The Son’s grace, the Father’s love, and the Spirit’s fellowship are seen
In Isaiah 44, the Lord says “there’s no other God besides me”
It’s also true that the Father, Son, and Spirit share divinity
But, the Spirit is not the Father, the Father is not the Son
The Son is not the Spirit, yet they are Three in One
We don’t serve many, no we serve one God in Three Persons
Yes, one Being alone is worthy of all creation’s worship
The God we serve is self-sufficient, in eternal community
He said, “Let us make man in our image,” all for his glory
God the Father, Son, and Spirit didn’t create out of need
We contribute nothing to God, he is perfectly complete
The Trinity does not change, doesn’t improve or get better
Oh, but the Triune God changes us; the Three work together
The Father purposed it, the Son, Jesus, purchased salvation
The Spirit produces it to make the one once dead a new creation
Changed, our thoughts of God rightly regard knowing him as serious
But God doesn’t illuminate everything; his ways are still mysterious
You can’t explain the Trinity, though some will try it still
They’ll point you to the simple apple—the seeds, the flesh, the peel
They take one thing with several parts to try and achieve their goal
And say, “God is like this apple here; the three parts make the whole”
They might even say, “Thinking of the Trinity as water will suffice”
“God is like it in its three forms of vapor, liquid, and ice”
But God the Trinity does not exist in equal parts divided
Coming together as the One True God only when united
As for thinking of the Triune God as forms like states of matter
Is that liberty or just wrong? I’m afraid that it’s the latter
You might be saying, “Hey, these words you’re bringing here are brutal”
But explaining the Infinite God with finite things is entirely futile
We could try forever to give a metaphor or a simile
But none are adequate, so I’ll just say, “God is One in Three”
God didn’t reveal more to us because this is how he planned it
And at least on this side of heaven we’ll never understand it
But doesn’t it make more sense that God’s beyond our comprehension?
It’s not an issue to struggle with how Three are One without division
And just how the Three could be one God, one being, and one essence
Maybe I’ll be able to wrap my mind around when in his presence
No matter what, when faith is sight from down on bended knee
I’ll worship my great Savior, the Triune God of one and three

#007 The Trinity, Julie’s Story, & More Discouraging Social Media

Ryan leads off with his spoken word poem The Trinity.

On today’s show, Ryan tells a tragic story of how one girl has lived a life deeply influenced by rejected responsibility and misplaced authority.

Also, Ryan talks about how discouraged he’s been lately by Christian social media (again).

#005 Imputation and Canceling Lord’s Day Service

In this episode, Ryan shares a spoken word poem called “Imputation” based on Romans 5, and discusses what the Lord’s Day gathering of the Church is and what that means when it comes to canceling services and worship service attendance.

@13:05, Ryan says, “Bible.” He meant “Church.” 🙂

Spoken Word: Imputation

Consider the beauty of the truth known as imputation
It’s how God chose to deal with our sin and its devastation
In order to comprehend why this doctrine is so great
First, we gotta understand those born of man’s original state
And for that we go back to the only man never born
To Adam, the first man, whom Genesis says God formed
From the dust of the ground and breathed into him life
Gave him dominion over the earth, even gave him Eve, his wife
But there was a serpent in the Garden, there just to cause problems
But praise God, in Genesis 3, He tells us how He’s gonna solve them
Before that, back to our story, the serpent said, “God should share the glory
“Eat this fruit, be absolutely like Him; don’t ignore me”
Eve, deceived, reached into the tree and took forbidden fruit to eat it
Adam, apparently there the whole time, should have told the serpent, “Beat it!”
But no, he stood there silently while his wife Eve took a bite
She gave him some, he ate, and instantly they knew things weren’t right
So, Adam fell and brought the stain of sin onto all humanity
Because he represented us, his sin nature was passed to you and me
You might say, “That’s not fair! When Eve shared we weren’t there to deny it”
But I say, “Trust me on this, if you were there, you would’ve tried it”
In wisdom, by making the first Adam our representative federal head
God is justified in the work of the Last Adam to raise His people from the dead
Just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin 1
Righteousness comes through one man: Jesus, God’s great gift to men
And just like one man’s sin spreads out onto all, thus our sin nature
Righteousness is credited, or imputed, onto God’s people through the Savior
And it works both ways–our sins were imputed onto Jesus. Hear this:
He was made sin, who knew no sin, that we might become His righteousness 2
For as by one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners 3
The many will be made righteous by the obedience of the Life Giver
God’s law shows us our sin, but also the grace that abounds all the more 4
So that grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Christ our Lord 5
Now that you’ve heard it, you might be asking, “What’s the modern application?”
Here it is: you live for Christ; righteousness is yours through imputation

1) Romans 5:12
2) 2 Corinthians 5:21
3) Romans 5:19
4) Romans 5:20
5) Romans 5:21

An Autumnal Poem

The drupes on the dogwoods that bloomed
Aren’t the only red here in these shadowy woods
Because the maple leaves are turning now
In a few, shortening days the Almighty
Will dip a big hog bristle brush into
Paint the three shades of fire and let loose
With a thousand foothill-wide strokes
By rifle deer season, all but the evergreens
Will yield to the coming winter’s turn
Sunlight will reach the forest floor
And the trees will give back to the earth
Has it ever occurred to you
That the cooling shade doesn’t fall away
Until we don’t need it anymore?
And boy, does it go out in style

— Ryan Cornett