Lent2023caz

  The Spirit of  God , the Master, is on me because  God  anointed me. He sent me to preach good news to the poor, heal the heartbroken, announce freedom to all captives, pardon all prisoners.  God  sent me to announce the year of his grace— a celebration of God’s destruction of our enemies— and to comfort all who mourn, To care for the needs of all who mourn in Zion, give them bouquets of roses instead of ashes, Messages of joy instead of news of doom, a praising heart instead of a languid spirit. Rename them “Oaks of Righteousness” planted by  God  to display his glory. They’ll rebuild the old ruins, raise a new city out of the wreckage. They’ll start over on the ruined cities, take the rubble left behind and make it new.  (Isaiah 61 Message)   A couple of weeks ago the toddlers in church creche planted cress seeds because our topic was God Makes Me Grow. When you are three you dont really have the patience to wait for things to g...

  You all know how I love words.  And I also love listening to the radio - mostly because radio is a great source of words.😀  So you can imagine my delight when I heard on some radio programme or other that the word 'thesaurus'  comes from a Greek word meaning 'storehouse or treasure trove.'   I almost crashed the car I was so excited!   I hope your mind is taking you where mine took me ...... to lots of Biblical references to treasure and storehouses coupled with the notion that a thesaurus as we now know it is a treasure storehouse of words and synonyms.   I love the idea that someone once considered words to be riches.  To be currency. So valuable that they need to be protected in a big dictionary. Amen to that!  The storehouse in the Bible has different meanings depending on the context . It can refer to   a place where food, goods, or riches are kept , God's power over the natural world and His goodness , His threshi...

  Last night I watched Bear Grylls interviewing President Zelensky in Ukraine.  He also spoke to various civilians and newly signed up soldiers - ordinary citizens whose lives have been utterly shattered by the war. Something struck me as I was watching.  Everyone Bear spoke to talked about ' when we have won this war'.  Most talked about the thing they were going to do when the war was won; a soldier gave Bear a box of  'victory'  tea and told him not to drink it until Ukraine is victorious.  If you want to know what faith is, that's it.  It's a factory which in the middle of wartime sets its machines to print 'victory' labels to put on tea bags. It's people who are buying those teabags and keeping them ,or sending them to friends like bottles of champagne to be opened to celebrate a win.  There is such a belief in the Ukrainian people that Putin will be defeated and that they will get their lives and country back.  It is humbling to wa...

 Heres a question for you - answers on a postcard, or in the comments please 😀  What's the difference between being considerate, mannerly, thoughtful and being a people-pleaser? I'm asking because I'm not sure that sometimes, in my desire not to offend and to be respectful, I don't occasionally tolerate the intolerable, defend the indefensible and generally go out of my way to absolutely NEVER upset anyone  ( except my spouse and kids of course- they don't count 😂😂)  Now I do acknowledge that my main motivation is to be an exhorter.  And we exhorters avoid offending people like the plague.  We get our kicks out of encouraging people and therefore can tend towards people-pleasing more than most.  Nevertheless, I do think that in the UK in particular and perhaps in church more than anywhere we are conditioned to be 'nice' above all else, There's nothing wrong with being nice of course.  And here's the problem. When you look at the state the ...

 Ive been lying in my bed over the past several months looking at the glass lampshade hanging from the ceiling and thinking that it could probably do with a clean. I could see cobwebs forming and dust accumulating.  Yesterday evening I finally got round to taking it down.  To say it was dusty was an understatement!  The glass shade was covered in a thick film of grime.  The lightbulbs themselves were dusty and cobwebs were strung between them.  Ten minutes of spit and polish later and everything was all clean and back in place. And it was only then that I wished Id taken a photo -before and after!  Im sure you have already worked out by now that the result of cleaning the light shade and bulbs is that now my bedroom light is throwing out a whole heap more .....light 😀. The thing is that the dust settles evenly and imperceptibly so that the light is dimmed little by little.  It takes ages before it is noticeable ( well to me anyway.  Other pe...

Harmony The other weekend I was at a memorial service where the legendary Shirley Gatt was playing bass guitar in the worship band.  I cannot describe to you the way my heart leaped for joy when I heard her riffing away in the background with some effortless fingerwork and brilliant musicianship.   The bass is one of those underpinning instruments which you dont really notice much when you are listening to a piece of music but if it isnt there the song is so much less rich.  Most people most often wont even be able to discern a bass line, but when Shirley is playing I hear her and what she plays brings me real joy.  I usually actually chuckle out loud as Im listening.  Yesterday evening I was in a really small worship service.  At one point there was a four part harmony going on in the congregation.  It was really great to hear voices underpinning the tune and making the song sound three dimensional and rich. Accompaniments and harmonies arent the...

 The clocks went forward.  And I dont know about you but losing that hour messes with my head every time.  For some reason it always makes me think about when the sun stopped shining in Joshua 10.  In the Bible its commonly translated that the sun stood still, but commentators are now happier with the translation 'stopped shining'  and have managed to do calculations pinpointing an eclipse to that precise time in history (they can actually tell us that the date of the battle Joshua was fighting was  Oct. 30, 1207 B.C. And the time the sun ' stood still'  was 4:28 p.m. Isnt that amazing?? )  As with so many events told in the Bible science can come up with logical explanations for 'miraculous' happenings.  But what it cant account for is how people knew.   Yes, there might have been a solar eclipse in Oct 1207 BC.  But how did Joshua know that it was about to happen and declare it to all Israel?  How did Moses know which pl...

Listening to the radio yesterday morning and Dolly Paton was singing 9 to 5.  Which is always a good way to start the day!  However, I was paying attention to the lyrics and was particularly  struck by this: Tumble out of bed  and  I stumble to the kitchen Pour myself a cup of ambition And yawn and stretch and try to come to life https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4OzdyxbOuU&t=22s ' pour myself a cup of ambition'  😁 what an utterly genius line.  As a poet I know she is wanting to find a rhyme for the word 'kitchen'.  Ambition is, in itself, a pretty clever rhyme - cant think of too many other  things that would rhyme with kitchen  ( apart from 'bitching 'and Dolly is far too nice to use a word like that!)  Of course she could have changed the first line to avoid an awkward rhyme.  But she already has the tumble/stumble thing going on which is deeply pleasing.  So instead of spoiling that, she goes for pouring a cup of a...

 Dying Jesus is on the cross next to two criminals.  One ended up in Paradise with Jesus, the other didnt. Why? Because one recognised who Jesus was and the other didnt. Jesus was well known in His day, but there were no photographs, no newspapers, only word of mouth to spread the news about Him and the chances that either of the criminals crucified with Jesus would actually have met Him before are slim.  They might possibly have been in a crowd which heard Him teaching. But probably the only thing they knew about Him were the stories that were doing the rounds in Jerusalem. And bear in mind, not all those stories were true.  Jesus had been beaten to a pulp before being nailed to the cross.  He was barely recognisable as a man. The only thing to let people know who He was was a sign nailed above His head.  We can assume that three people who are strangers to each other are crucified on the hill that day. The thieves on their crosses had also been beaten to ...

  The drive to work takes me past the depot where the road gritters live and then past the hospital - both of these places have had striking workers standing outside them in the past few weeks.  Today there was no visible picket line, but the roadside was still festooned with flags displaying the logos of various trades unions.  As I drove past them I heard this verse in my head ' we will lift up our banners in the name of our God'. Those who know me well know that Im partial to a bit of banner waving 😀 I love the sound of a flag swishing through the air in worship - it brings out the warrior in me and I always feel as though Im at the forefront of the battle when Ive got a swishy flag in hand.  I have friends who dance with flags as part of prophetic, creative worship.  Ive seen flags set up in prayer rooms to provide a focus for intercession.   But today I felt my thoughts being taken in a slightly different direction.   I was thinking abo...

  Matthew 4:8-10 Living Bible (TLB) 8  Next Satan took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him the nations of the world and all their glory.  9  “I’ll give it all to you,” he said, “if you will only kneel and worship me.” 10  “Get out of here, Satan,”  Jesus told him.  “The Scriptures say, ‘Worship only the Lord God. Obey only him.’” Have you ever wanted something so much that you feel you would do absolutely anything to get it?   A baby perhaps?   A relationship?  Revenge or payback?  A career?   There is such a thing as ones heart's desire - we all have something or other at some point in our lives.... a deep yearning for something which is out of reach but possible, if only... if only.... if only we had more money, or more time, or different opportunities.   It's at these times and in these places in our lives that our enemy comes a calling.  You could have that thing you really desire if you just be...

 Trespasses Listening to the radio at some point yesterday I heard part of a church service which was using the traditional version of The Lord's Prayer and I was suddenly struck by the word 'trespass'.  I realised that it is usually a word we use when we are talking about land and crossing boundaries. I wondered if that had anything to do with the meaning we commonly translate as 'sin'. When we sin we are walking into forbidden territory. We pass signs that say 'do not enter' and clear warnings ' trespassers will be prosecuted'.  If we ignore these and cross into lands that don't belong to us or over which we do not have permission to travel we are breaking the law.  The word actually means to go beyond.  I find that really helpful to know. When I sin I am going beyond the place God says it is good and safe for me to be.  I cross from a place of safety into somewhere dangerous.  Like playing on the railway lines sin might be exhilarating but its...

 You know that thing where you catch up with someone you haven't seen for years and within a heartbeat you are chatting about the really deep stuff of life? You bypass the 'how are you' s and just launch right into the thing that's on your mind that you really want their opinion on?  Well that happened to me yesterday.  And I love it.  I suppose one of the benefits of getting older is that your friendships get deeper over time. There are a handful of people in my life who know me so well. They trust me, which is a huge thing. They have my back. They honour me..... another big one.  I feel very blessed. I hope you have those people in your life too. Part of the deep conversation yesterday was about parents. Having them and being them.  At my age most of my friends are now at the stage of caring for/ worrying about/ planning for elderly parents. And most of us are parenting young adults who are off into the big wide world. It's a strange place to be. It's a p...

 A..super..annoying..thing..has..happened..to..my..laptop. Can..you..guess..what..it..is? Thespacebarhasstoppedworking.(The..space..bar..has..stopped..working!) Which..is..going..to..make..it..a..very..long..winded..exercise..to..write..the..blog..today.because..the..only..way..I..can..think..of..to..write..it..is..to..use..dots..instead..of..spaces. Ooooooh so I just took the cover thingy off the space bar key and discovered that I can make it work by hitting it quite hard (sometimes twice) Which is an improvement on dots. But not much of an improvement! As ever, I look at the unusual happenings in my day and wonder what God might have to say about them. What is He saying about spaces? In particular the spaces between the words?  I dont suppose I have ever really had much cause to consider the spaces until all of a sudden my space bar stopped working and all my sentences came out as one long word! And you would think perhaps the human brain could decipher things regardless, b...

  A irports are fascinating places. Yesterday I watched as the plane I was due to fly in landed, discharged its passengers and prepared for take off. There are more people than you might think involved in this process. Two guys position the steps. Someone fixes the fuel pipe into its slot. Two guys unload and load luggage. Two guys position chocks under the wheels. Someone puts a rope round the wings to stop us walking under them. And then there's one special someone whose job it is to wave little red torches in the air so the pilot knows exactly when and where to stop As I was watching the well oiled Easyjet machine in action in the pouring rain, it reminded me of all the unseen people in church, so necessary for the smooth running of the whole thing. Who orders the loo rolls, tidies the errant stationary cupboard, orders the tea bags for Mums and Tots?   Who does the accounts, counts the offering, sorts the website, answers the phone?  There are hundreds of jobs th...

 I have officially run out of things to say 😄 But I saw this and liked the illustration- so here is a 2 minute clip to watch and think about. https://www.facebook.com/reel/516938773720992 Over the next couple of days I will be away and a bit busy so the blog might not happen or might not happen on time. I shall try my best.  

Allegiance. I was watching some romantic film on the telly this afternoon and it culminated, as every good romantic film should do, with the man getting down on one knee to propose to the woman.   Every time I see a proposal I think back to my own which did not involve any kneeling and I have to confess to feeling a teeny tiny bit bit cheated.  Because for some inexplicable reason most girls feel that being knelt in front of when being asked for ones hand is required and desired.   Today I got to wondering why  Professor Google tells me that the custom of kneeling before ones intended goes back to the days of knights and ladies.  Chivalric codes demanded that knights knelt before their lords to show allegiance - it was a sign that someone was submitting themselves to the authority of their master at the same time as yielding their sword and their services to them.  When someone proposes on bended knee, they are in effect saying that they submit to...

 Deliver us. Last Thursday night it snowed here.  It snowed hard and fast all night.  Ben and Sam had decided to go to Edinburgh to visit Josh and were supposed to be at the airport to fly at 7.30pm.   By 6pm the roads were white over and things were looking dodgy.  They left for the airport taking a long way round to stay on main roads.  Got there OK.  Flight delayed by hours and hours.  Keith had to make his way home and I phoned him to tell him that the roads were not visible and he shouldn't even try to make it up and down the perilous hills that surround our village.  I thought he might manage to make it to his mothers farm and suggested he camp out there for the night instead of trying to get home.   In actual fact he did make it home.  But 48 hours later when we eventually ventured out of the house again the roads were littered with cars which had come off the road and ended up in hedges and ditches and fields. When...