Christian Poetry: The Devil’s Noose (Moving On)

By: Denise N. Fyffe
Copyright © 2013, Denise N. Fyffe

While every day I am hustling
Those days I am tussling
The devil won’t let me loose
As around my neck he has got a noose;
I try to rely on God to pave my way
I try that His commandments I obey
But temptation and provocation
Adds to my daily frustrations
And when I am driving, or even cruising
Death pushes out and my tongue releases some unholy sayings;
So, every day I am hustling
Those days I am tussling
The devil won’t let me loose
As around my neck he has got a noose;

In my skin I try to abide
While applying man’s rules
Attached to God’s laws;
The free spirit I am
I swim in discontent
My soul is miserable
Because my spirit lives in restraints;
For decades I tried to abide by those ‘man rules’
It was easier to live by God’s laws
And the rebel within hated those rules;
But as I observe
Those set above me to serve
They never applied and to my face
They consistently lied;
Hypocrisy and lies from the pulpit
I cannot abide
A holy anger, I have tried to subside;
But no such luck would I have
Because a hypocrite I am not;
Dipped at 11
Pursued and persecuted from birth
I already knew to whom I am threat
As well as my God given worth;

The older I got, the more He revealed
The more He prepared,
The more the rebel could not be concealed;
Lies and hypocrisy I could not abide
Disappointment grew and tears spring
Like life’s blood gushing from my eyes;
They have not yet subsided
Even with knees bent
The noose seemed too tight
And so I continued to barely live with these restraints;

What I experienced as a child
To me now was a lie
That holy house now revolting
A truth only God understood
And sent me scouting;
The bible said when all else fails, stand
That’s what I did for years
Like the well’s paralyzed man;
How could I not look back, like Lots wife?
How could I forget about the ones who influenced my spiritual life?

But even now I live in God’s grace
Because from me He has never hid His face;
Even when I ran away and became bound by this noose
He visited often talked with me in the dungeon and occasionally loosened that noose;
You see to be free was all up to me
This I knew, this He revealed to me;
But the strength I had to first obtain
Even though I stood paralyzed
At seeing hypocrites working and defiling my Father’s name;

A house tainted
To be cleaned up in God’s time
I have to understand this problem was not mine;
I had to understand my soul was wounded and I needed to be feed
I have to accept,
I was no longer permitted to drink in a place where I was considered a fiend;
So through the desert my journey continues
With a noose to remind me
I could simply die now if I choose;
But the warrior is still alive inside
And Jesus already paid my price
To give up would be to dishonor Him
I have no choice;
In this battle I must continue to be vicious
And the devil to outsmart, outlive and worship the true King;

My hands grow stronger each and every day
And I loosen that noose more and more each day
Getting over heartbreak is never easy
Especially when you revisit the house
And with suspicion they spy me;
Flinging insults from the pulpit while shaking in some spirit
Because Christ and the Holy Spirit could never be a part of this;
Staining the air and labeling women as witches
My soul at near death with just the memory of it;
Like a deer in headlights
I stumble in confusion
For this was not the house I remembered
This was a den in Babylon;

Many may practice their witchcraft under the guise of prophecy
Having lived through His tutelage for many decades,
The fakeness was easy to see;
True prophecy breathes life
And not feed the lukewarm to the whale in the sea
True prophets are cautious
Because God would break them
Before he allowed one of His to be lost at sea;

I guess that level of school is out for today
Cause not even at its doors God would have me pray;
Wounded, hurt after being reviled
At God’s hospice, I currently reside;
Tears like a river
I continue to cry
Because leaving two decades of history is not easy for this child;
Lord knows my heart bleeds
Through the words in these lines
But the noose must go
As I attain to cross the line
And be by God’s side;
Words, people, carriages he has sent
Even when with my soul
I was hell bent;
As the scales fall from my eyes
It is my destiny
To speak the words on God’s mind;
If to get there I must leave
Then to God’s leading I will cleave;
If to be who God has destined me to be
I must walk away find a brand new home
And remove the devil’s noose from off me.-Selah