Living with Christ



For to me to live is with Christ,
And to die is for gaining;
Since I am heavenly enticed,
Through what I will be obtaining.

If I am to live in the flesh,
That means fruitful labor for me;
By choosing Christ I can refresh,
In the Word that I hear and see.

I am hard-pressed between the two,
My desire is to depart;
That is far better to construe,
In having Christ within my heart.

To remain in the flesh indeed,
Necessary on your account;
Since I fulfill an earthly need,
Writing these poems is paramount.

Because I have the confidence,
My joy in faith does show progress;
It is not a coincidence,
The compliments many express.

Rejoicing may be more ample,
Abundantly through Jesus Christ;
I am being an example,
The time that I have sacrificed.

Copyright ©2023 Richard Newton Sherrer

About this poem

To Live Is Christ Philippians 1:21-26

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Written on September 27, 2023

Submitted by richardnsherrer on September 26, 2023

51 sec read
4

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ KAKA X
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 790
Words 173
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 1

Richard Newton Sherrer

I was born and raised on a farm in Pennsylvania. It was a small family farm that was handed down through 8 generations of Sherrer men until my father; Newton just could not make a living from it any longer. He thought that I would make a better living away from the farm. So, I decided to join the Air Force in 1969 upon graduating from high school. I gained quite a bit of experience and insight on life while in the service. Even though I was only stationed on the east coast of the US, my Air Force career took me to Germany and Korea. After 20 years wearing of the blue uniform, I decided going in a different direction and found myself becoming very diverse in many different fields. Something still seemed missing to me after being separated from the service for about 10 years. The Air Force was a way of life for me, but really missed life in Korea. I found myself changing careers again. Poetry was an interest of his since my days in high school. With returning to the Lord, I felt motivated to write of my Christian beliefs. I started looking at Bible verses and reflecting on my own personal experiences. The Bible was found to be as true today as to when the various books were written. I could see much of what the Bible is teaching us as valid as every in modern time. It felt only natural to me on using his personal experience based on Bible verses and see much of my own life written in the Scriptures. God inspires me what to write about though. I do not claim to be an expert on God or the Bible. I am just a Christian who has become enlightened to write poetic verses from the Holy Scriptures. more…

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1 Comment
  • anonymous3142
    to depart is to walk more and more in the Spirit until one is just walking in the Spirit (complete faith fulfilled by following / enduring to the end of carnal / non- spiritual nature) and have departed from the Earth (carnal nature / non-spiritual) and are with: Christ. In the verse from the Bible, he says he would rather, or it would be better to be with the Lord, which though part of us could think that, reality is that there is work to be done before that can really happen; and so we are here, yet God / Christ is Spirit, not anything carnal of. We, having received a down payment but not the full inheritance yet, are told to work out our own salvation. Some work slower and some faster. Some may see Jesus sooner than others can, while others even though if they 'would' rather be present with the Lord than not present or still in the body, don't actually know what all the Bible authors a re trying to convey, or were... many years having passed and theologies gotten in the way of 'free' true ability to learn - from God / the Spirit, more than from man-made / thought-up, passed down Ideas - partially correct at times, but perhaps missing things too and some things just unknown yet.... having needed to grow in both, "grace and knowledge" before they would have begun to understand more correctly and not create / teach wrong / imperfect teachings / ideas - now passed down and weighed down (weighted) on / in many people's minds and hearts ... So much so , that many will not go further in knowledge, and maybe not as far as could be gone in Spirit (grace?) either... 
    LikeReply7 months ago

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"Living with Christ" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/169632/living-with-christ>.

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