Lent2023caz

 Will.    Thy will be done.  We kind of think we know what that means because we have heard and said it so many times.  But we dont talk about our own wills very much.  And in thinking about this for todays blog I have realised that it is actually quite hard to sum up what someone's ' will' actually is. It is partly about choice.  What I choose to do is what I will to do.  But it is also partly about what I wish to choose.  There's an element of determination involved too. I determine to wish to choose 😁  Here's an existential question for you.   If God is eternal ( and He is of course) and lives outside time, then why does He need a will?  Surely everything that He wants to happen has already happened.  Eternally. Heaven, where His perfect will is executed perfectly, already is.  So why is God's will even a thing??  ( Im not sure if this is making any sense to you but its the rabbit hole my mind is going d...

 Kingdom It feels a bit odd that for the first time in my life I am living in the reign of a King as opposed to a Queen.  (Although I have lived in the United Kingdom all my life and never once stopped to think about the fact that my country has royal rule in its very name. )  For at least the next 100 years we are likely to have a King on the throne, Charles, William and George, and those poor men will have the job of being the public face of a nation.  They will ceremonially exercise the role of state headship without having much power to make any political changes.  They will be on duty 24/7, constantly under the glare of the media as they promote good relations across the Commonwealth and engage in diplomacy abroad.   Lots of people dont think a King ( or Queen) is desirable or necessary.  Lots of people would rather the UK were a republic with an elected president.  But interestingly, most people across the world, whatever their politica...

 Name I know I've already said quite alot about God's name in the past few days. But there are probably several gazillion more things to be said about it,  so I shall just bother you with a few more When Jesus calls God 'Father' in the Lord's prayer He is not using the word Abba.  God who has a holy, set apart, hallowed name is not to be approached as our Daddy.  He is Father.  We dont use the term Father much any more because in our 21st century world everything has become informal and casual.  But if you look back 100 years to the Victorian era you might get more of a sense of how Jesus is talking about His Father.   Picture a middle or upper class Victorian child being summoned into the study of his suited and booted, kind but disciplinarian father.  This child calls his Dad 'Father ' or 'Sir.'  There is a respect and almost a fear in the approach because that child knows that obedience is key to this relationship.  He knows the...

  Hallowed. Small child at school asked his R E teacher who Harold was in the Bible.  Teacher scratched his head and said he didn't think there was a person called Harold in the Bible.  Small child said '  But Jesus said ' Harold be thy name' !   😁  ( there is no groan emoji.  I checked) I can think of very few other places in the English language where we use the word ' hallowed'.   Perhaps we tread the hallowed halls of some venerable old building. And Lords cricket ground is often referred to as hallowed. But apart from that it is a word which has pretty much fallen out of use everywhere except in the Lord's prayer.   I think its a great word.  It conveys more than just being holy.  To me it conjures up images of veneration and awe.  Perhaps of people bowing down.  Because to be hallowed means to be set apart as holy, to be pure, to be consecrated to God - to be ' rendered inviolable' .   Have ...

 Something happened today ( yesterday) and Im bursting to tell you about it. I was scrolling Facebook and someone had posted this. When we were at Asbury last week I was trying to figure out who was leading and how- this blew my mind, copied from Mark Swayze. Behind the Scenes of Revival Confession: I went to Wilmore ( Asbury Uni) I didn’t feel I needed to go but some close friends at the University/Seedbed asked me to help. When they called, I knew God was inviting me. Help with what? For 9 straight days at 2 hour increments, college students have led worship at Hughes Auditorium in Wilmore, KY. That’s been about 100 worship teams this far. And they don’t seem to be ending anytime soon. The team organizing all of this needed help. So Brenna and I went to serve. Hear me. The 1970 Revival was centered on student testimony. 2023 is centered on worship. Ministry to Jesus through song. (Though a student in 1970 said music was just as prevalent) Here is what I found behind the sce...

 Heaven part 2 I've been wanting to write about this for a while but haven't ever seemed to find the right time or place.  I'm hoping today is is 😀 Heaven is our portion when we die.  According to Jesus He has prepared a place for us there and we are going to be with Him forever.  Whilst we can never be sure of anyone's eternal destination because we can never truly know the hearts and minds of others, we can nonetheless surmise that those of our friends who professed Jesus as Lord and who have died are now safely ensconced in their heavenly mansions. ( I do hope there isn't too much cleaning and tidying to do there!)  But following on from yesterdays blog Id just like to point out that the only person Jesus talked to in heaven was God.  He didnt converse with angels or with Moses or Abraham or the patriarchs in heaven whilst He was here on earth.  In fact, the only recorded conversation Jesus had with anyone who had died were with Lazarus, who was re...

 In Heaven. I decided to Google 'heaven in Judaism' to find out what the disciples might have understood Jesus to be saying when He prayed ' Our Father who is in heaven'.   If you have a spare ten minutes I suggest you go and read the Wikipedia page which gives a concise but mind bending explanation of what the Jewish people believe about heaven, I suppose we, as Christians, tend to think of heaven as a place where God rules and reigns and where Jesus is seated at His right hand.  We might refer to Revelation and have some notion of angels crying Holy Holy Holy and elders casting their crowns etc.  We might think of a city with streets of gold and pearly gates.   But whatever our concept of heaven, its nothing compared to the complicated, multi-layered, compartmentalised, seven-level version the Jews have.  ( As I think about it I suppose this makes Pauls reference to the third heaven much more understandable.  He grew up in a culture that be...

 Welcome to the tenth Lent Blog , and if you have been here for every one of those past nine years your medal is in the post!   It hardly seems ten minutes ago since we were wrapping up the Advent blog and now here we are approaching Easter and trying to focus on the important things whilst the unimportant things clamour for attention. Im not quite sure how to tackle Lent this year but I have a notion that I might be being prompted to loosely hang things around the Lords prayer.  Which in many ways is so very very familiar, and yet in others is an unfathomable mystery. 😀   As ever I consider this to be a collaborative venture so please do feel free to add your contribution into the comments or to disagree, expand, share testimony or anything else you like.  And if you feel strongly that you would like to write a blog page yourself then do message me.  40 days is a long time and I usually run out of things to say well before the end 😁 So here we ...