Trainspotting January 7, 2010

A likeness in all things. A light that drenched the earth in the beginning, a light that drenched humanity later, a light that drenches my soul in the micro. Goldilocks syndrome; a papa bear genesis, a mama bear genesis and a me sized one. From the flood to Babble, from Adam to Abram, the macro and the micro working before me, after me and within me. All the things that I don’t understand, the loss of humanity at the flood, why did You do it? Tell me there was a life kicking and breathing that I just can’t see. A place where all without a teakwood home were ferried to. A new language, not from Babble, not from the earth for the earthbound but from Heaven for Heaven bound. All are included few listen. This new language is difficult to understand for those who want to pursue a logic without wisdom. Difficult like Babble. What if the issue at the tower was never mans ingenuity what if it was mans heart?

Choices illuminated, a forrest of trees with singular restrictions or a new way to model life. An Enoch way, a man who walked with Him. To truly walk with Him, I must recognise that I am from earth and will return this skeleton to earth. That the rhythm of the seasons contain His footsteps and colour. Like Enoch I can choose to walk steadily. Innocent and guilty. Life and death. Sometimes it seems random but when I read of God and Jesus together there is a harmony that balances out. In death there is life. The guilty can find innocence again. Just like God shutting the door of the Ark, but man opened it. There is a Hope that speaks of life. A promise that runs deep throughout his blood line, back to Noah and all the way down to Seth and Adam. Looking forward to the Christ, He works in spite of the people to advance the story of hope.

That story of Hope appears in John 4, when what you are called and where you worship does not matter. All He wants is honesty in pursuit of Him. Countered against Abram’s time where a promise was made to a body of people. The body of people were salvation. If you aligned yourself with the body, like Ruth, you were at peace. For that to work, it must mean that He was always working through His people before His people became one body. Later in John 4, I read that He is accepted by those who have a different faith and held at a distance by those with the same faith.

He is for all but not all embrace Him.

We are rich in knowledge yet poor in wisdom, proportions that have become exaggerated ever since the bitter awakening. The day that fear and pain, shame and death crept into our frame. All the time, since time there are the ground rules being exercised. Protect the hope and reveal grace. He moves freely at first with footsteps that can be heard in the garden, then He lives within a body of people, then within a man, now within me and His spirit that broods over the earth. Protect me from trying to fix it all by running to another tree. Protect me from trying to preserve the wrong life. If life is going to be held out of time, then I want a life that is void of hurt, pain, shame and envy.

vacation January 6, 2010

A body of people who, regardless of the circumstance they find themselves in and regardless of their choices, He would protect their hope story. He would bless this island of people so that they became a beacon. Life finds a way through. Now this body of people need to live life in a counter cultural way so that there can be no doubt when viewing that it is indeed Him who is protecting them. Unfortunately, on too many occasions, the body chose solutions that limited His participation.

So to this twisted story of Abram and Sarai, where deceit and brokeness become the sub plot. Pharoah and Haggai, unbelief and disputes, abuse and the fatherless, laughter and covenants. Muslim and Jew are born in infancy and infancy of people movements. This body of people give me hope because they are so ordinary, they give me hope because in spite of their failings the story of Hope still persists.

I can laugh when I read of Christ at Bethsada and the religious leaders becoming infuriated that He was breaking rules. Rules that had never truly been maintained since they were written. So bent on appearances that they failed to see He wasn’t breaking the rules, He was emphasising them, becoming a beacon himself.

For All January 5, 2010

Leave what little security you have to be free.

Man is twisted and selfish. Abram has just been given a promise from Him and at the first hurdle he scampers over to the other side. He chose to deceive instead of believe. Sarai is the hero. The strength of a woman who is abused and done so under deception. What is this beauty that Genesis refers to? The writer mentioned it twice so far, regarding the giants and Sarai. In whose eyes are these people beautiful, God or man? My trust of man is diminishing rapidly. From one crazy scene to another. Abram and Lot arguing over their possessions, a wealth they had gained by deceiving Pharoah into sleeping with Sarai.

Bravery, in Abram taking 300 or so men, mostly servants and pursuing the victorious Kings in order to rescue Lot. It almost feels that He is blessing Abram regardless of Abram’s moral choices. A promise that runs deep throughout his blood line, back to Noah and all the way down to Seth and Adam. Looking forward to the Christ, He works in spite of the people to advance the story of hope.

That story of Hope appears in John 4, when what you are called and where you worship does not matter. All He wants is honesty in pursuit of Him. Countered against Abram’s time where a promise was made to a body of people. The body of people were salvation. If you aligned yourself with the body, like Ruth, you were at peace. For that to work, it must mean that He was always working through His people before His people became one body.

Later in John 4, I read that He is accepted by those who have a different faith and held at a distance by those with the same faith.

He is for all but not all embrace Him.

Babble January 4, 2010

A second Adam. Noah lives. And sometimes, I find that the writer of Genesis, writes too small, that God is bigger and wider than they dare write. That actually the world was a lot bigger than the boundaries of Cannan. That a rainbow is a covenant that we will not drown anymore but not in literal floods but pointing at something much more profound.

Reading the roots of the family tree of Noah, like a birthing of the middle east. In that birthing, I read the story of Babble. What a curious tale, that mans ingenuity should be diluted by divine intervention? Maybe the tree that bore the fruit of knowledge that is in all our beings, without wisdom, is a truly dangerous recipe? Abram’s grandfather was twenty nine years old when Terah was born. Nahor was the youngest recorded father within the first few chapters of the book. A tragic family line, with early death and limited descendants.

The story of the new Adam, sees the new humanity run. They scatter all over the earth. There is little unity and much confusion, maybe even fear.

Interesting that many years later in a book called John, the writer talks about people running away from light, preferring to be scattered and hidden. I also read of Nicodemus and man with knowledge and yet it seemed with no wisdom. Interesting that themes explored as early as Genesis should appear again in completely differing contexts thousands of years later.

More interestingly, John goes onto languages too; The earthborn is earthbound and speaks earth languages: the heavenborn is in a league of His own. The story takes a different twist with Nicodemus, It’s not about trying to live a good life, it’s not about trying to be a good person, a second birth. This new language is difficult to understand for those who want to pursue a logic without wisdom. Difficult like Babble. What if the issue was never mans ingenuity what if it was mans heart?

wrong January 3, 2010

A land of giants. What beauty drives a giant to take a human bride?

The Breath of Life reduced more in our frame. To this day not sure why our bodies decide to breakdown, to simply stop functioning. Why did He reduce the Breath? Like Eden another form of protection? And for that matter what awaited those who passed away? What truth was guarding their lives? A humanity that was disposable? Is that right? Does that sound like grace? A teakwood home for Noah, who was chosen by Him, but the animals were chosen by Noah. A story more about survival no? The raven, moved back and forth. The dove, was the bearer of hope.

He shut the door on the Ark. He breathed life and He takes it away. He sustains the conditions for survival, is this the story? This is a hard passage for me to read. I find it hard to reconcile a God of love withdrawing humanity, unless there is a redemption for everything that has breath, not on earth but someplace else outside of time. When He turned the water into wine, was it no less miraculous? Interesting that servants knew what had happened when the host tasted the wine, when the host himself was unaware. The wine blessed a group of people most of whom were not aware at the time, where the wine had come from. Was the violation of Him any worse when trading was taking place in the temple? Was it the temple or was it more like having a virus? This was His body, He was now infected by loan sharks and street traders. Hope was being distorted by greed and deceit, by persuasion and coercion. Was His reaction any different to the flood? He cleared it all, He cleared the lot. The world He was talking about had little to do with the physical world that He was in.

Innocent and guilty. Life and death. Sometimes it seems random but when I read of God and Jesus together there is a harmony that balances out. In death there is life. The guilty can find innocence again. Just like God shutting the door of the Ark, but man opened it. There is a Hope that speaks of life.

stories January 2, 2010

I am earth, made from earth and returning to earth when I leave this skeleton clothed home. Earth breathes but I have forgotten her patterns, she has a rhythm but I have forgotten her harmony with the seasons. I seek an understanding of earth.

Didn’t Abel’s blood cry out from the ground? Didn’t John the Baptist say he was thunder in the desert? Wasn’t it a dove that Noah sent out that came back with news of land? Wasn’t it a dove that rested on the One whom The Baptist was to baptise? Didn’t Nathanael sit under a fig tree, a moment that The Christ recounted back to Nathanael, to his amazement.There is a language, that of the earth, in prayer to Him. All Nature sings this language, I listen to the drum of this age, not of this earth. I need to get hold of earth headphones, ones that cancel out all the noise of this world but amplify the sound of nature.

What about that day? The day we all died? Did bees live forever before that day? What power is there in the extremities of good and evil that is should burn my life? What about a tree that was planted, the life giving one? Would it not have been easier to eat from that; an antidote to death?

Had we gone too far? Knowledge without wisdom. I can see but I can’t differentiate. Let in through the back door, fear, shame, hurt, pain and death. The antidote tree would surely prolong all the resultant consequences of that first bite, for ever. An eternal pain and hurt? The antidote tree only resurrected life span, did it restore? Could it heal pain, brokeness? Hurt? By the time of The Baptist, many wanted an antidote that would cure the regime, that would bring power back to His people. An antidote that forgave hurts and pains, wrongs choices and lies, well that was something that cannot be seen with our conditioned eyes. What was it Adam and Eve saw, their nakedness. What is it that He sees? My hurt and pain, my broken heart. He sees inside me.

For Adam and Eve, life was reduced to little expectation bore much thankfulness. Yes, after a boy called Seth was born to Eve, He had given her another son. Not just another boy, but one who had an identical spirit and heart to that of Adam’s. It was as if, life was being spoken into their hearts again. That favour was being shown to them again after such a long time. At this point, the writer of Genesis writes, humanity begins to say thank you, to Him.

With a burnt heart what can I do? What could I have done then? Walk, steadily. Modelled by a man called Enoch. Many had been born, and lived, and died. Except one who so little is written about, just that he walked steadily with God and then one day he disappeared,  taken by Him. Enoch is important to these stories because he models a different way of living. A way that has nothing to do with what job he undertook, or what land he owned, none of that was important. What was of real importance was that he walked steadily with God. I think Enoch knew the songs of the earth, the sound of nature. Enoch is important because he models a different life.

Names January 1, 2010

There is no place to drop out of life. We are not random, we have a name. We take a space on this earth. We are present.

Light.

Sky.

Earth.

Sea.

Trees and Plants.

Sun, Moon and Stars.

Fish.

Birds.

Animals.

Human.

Everything fits, everything has a name. Animals live on land, Birds fill the sky, Fish swarm the sea, Trees on the earth, Sun moon and Stars separate Dark and Day. Humans reflect the Light. Everything in its right place. He is where life begins, with words that He calls out into being.

Life.

Light.

Darkness.

Many years later, amidst the broken and snapped, He chose not to call life into being with another Genesis word, He became The Word and entered life itself. There is a reconciliation of all things taking place here. See, He makes all things new.

The last day December 31, 2009

One year.

The genesis of my animation.

An odyssey, by means of obscure ravines and dazzling sierras.

A golden era of disclosure; His world and my heart. He shepherds my sense and spirit, skeleton and frame into a hallowed revolution. The society of me, belongs to Him.

He is making all things new.

Pepper December 30, 2009

These are my landmarks. Altars built by travelers before me. Skyscrapers fashioned for the sole purpose-”Do Not Forget”  There is compassion and there is unmerited favour in abundance but the heart needs to be humble and the union needs to be real. If I can choose to be honest about my decisions and my actions then there is an ocean of hope. As simple as that. An Ocean of Hope awaits a man, not a good or faultless man but an honest one.

Shadow

A shadow cannot own anything, least of all itself. A shadow is cast by an object blocking the rays of the sun from the surface of the earth. A shadow can move, it’s life short, sunrise to sunset. A shadow has no wealth, a shadow has no pockets. A shadow has no colour to distinguish it from another shadow, all shadows are the same. All shadows are equal. There are no rich shadows, there are no poor shadows. Shadows can stretch, bend and split over floor and wall, beach and shore, pavement and building. King David, comes to the conclusion that he owns nothing and more interestingly that our lives are mere shadows. A blessing to God that brings humility to me and praise to Him. I own nothing. I have no pockets. I am a shadow in these shadowlands.

Asa’s address book

Asa was a good King. However when the next round of impending war came on the horizon there were more avenues to explore before the “miracle” option was needed. Asa flicked through his address book and contacted Aram, a neighboring King. Aram can provide reinforcements. The heart of the issue is not the war, it’s whom we turn to in every situation. Asa relied on a fruit tree. From the beginning of time to this day the same choice is there in all that is presented to me.

Everything is Spiritual

Nehemiah was a good man, he wasn’t a King and yet he ruled like the best of them, maybe even better? He gave up a career for a vocation. He illustrated that holy living was not separate to the financial choices we make but integral to them, especially in economically barren times. Nehemiah rebukes in Love and a nation responds. He demonstrates that everything can be holy, that everything must be holy, spiritual, set apart for God. Whether I am making a tent, building a wall or ministering, it is ALL holy.

Hezekiah’s Invite

Hezekiah, was a good King, he made some bad choices, however most of the time he made the right ones. Hezekiah decided to engage with Passover on an national level. He sent out invitations to all the tribes of Israel. The whole land, North and South was invited to celebrate the meal of thanksgiving and remembrance

Hezekiah went even further by imploring those who have not visited the temple for many years, maybe their ancestors had stopped coming and the impasse had become tradition, to come back. That His hot anger would not be reserved for those who return to Him. Those people will be treated with compassion, tenderly, with mercy.

I am reminded of Jesus who gave the parable of a King throwing a banquet and inviting everyone. There is a message in the obedience of Hezekiah and the narrative of this particular story. Hezekiah is bringing together that which had been fractioned for so long. However there is more than just a unity shared by faith. The invitation knits the physical with the spiritual, it is giving permission to those who have had control replace heart. Those who have had to choose between Kings and Land or Faith and God are told you can serve a King, in your land and have your faith in God restored.

It is as much a personal story as it is a tribal one. I read about Hezekiah’s invitation and feel I have been invited to share Passover with this King. Come, Come as you are. It doesn’t matter if your ancestors stopped coming to the temple, it doesn’t matter what happened before. This invitation is saying “let’s start again” Come on, come in, come.

Ezra empathy

Ezra prays into the state of the escaped nation and takes the actions of the Kings as something they are all responsible for.  I am learning about a parallel journey. There is forgiveness for those who seek it, acknowledging that not choosing life was unwise. However in some ways the reconciliation of self to God is comprehensible, where there are consequences the journey is not so straight forward. Like the Kings, who hurt nations, I have hurt people. Ezra’s prayer was not one of blame or finger pointing. Ezra in prayer, actually lines up the nation shoulder to shoulder with the Kings choices. There is a deep magic at work in the hearts of those hurt and the unlocking of that pain has to rest with the understanding of atonement. Christ suffered in innocence from the actions of Kings and religious leaders.We suffer innocently from the actions of those close to us. Those close to me suffer innocently from my actions.

Spiritual justice has already taken place. Every day that moves forward is also tethered back in time. Spirituality is not linear. The Cross although 2000 years old, is also 2000 years into the future. Spiritual Justice has a framework. To break from spiritual justice and the cross,  to highlight someone else’s wrong would mean our lives would have to be negotiated away from the Cross too.

Guard

Above all else, guard your heart, for it affects everything you do.

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

Coal

As Isaiah’s vision grows he sees Him and becomes more aware of his own distortion. He becomes aware of his bag of crimes and like Mephibosheth, fears for his life. An angel flies out to him with a burning coal fresh from the altar and touches his lips with it. Like Mephi, Isaiah was restored to His image. Holy.

God’s coal burns distortion, it burns our crimes. God’s coal gives life. Reinstates. Restores. Redeems. Isaiah expected death and He received forgiveness, Mephibosheth expected execution he was blessed with restoration. The prodigal wanted to return as a servant and he was welcomed back as a son.

We are all distorted. I am distorted. God sees me as a treasure worth dying for. He sees this distorted gem stone as something worth holding. I expect judgment I receive grace.

God Patience

And my God, what does he say to me? Does He curse me because my thorns cut deeply into his hands? Does He desert me because I have had countless seasons failing to yield a single barrel of wine? Does He say, enough is enough; there is more thistle than there is fruit on this vine?

He says, I’m not angry, I care. I’ll pull out the thorns. I’ll keep a watchful eye, so no one can damage you. I will make sure you get watered properly. In fact, why don’t you just cling onto me for safety? Tie your life up with me; it will be good and whole. If you want, I’ll protect you. Isaiah 27: 1-5

Trust

My trust is a real commodity. It is the confidence I have in life. My trust holds my body-weight, my life-weight, my spirit-weight and my hope. Trust is an investment we all make. Where I deposit my trust determines me. Solomon used warhorses and chariots to defend Israel. The King was expending his wealth and resources in order to protect his wealth and resources. Trust deposited in the ephemeral will expire. A perishable trust delivers no comfort for the soul. Ten of the twelve spies chose logic, a world chooses knowledge, I have trusted in modern day warhorses; the monthly salary, protection of possessions and the continual noise the world makes whilst drowning out the sound of hope. If my God can’t do deliver on my trust or if I don’t fully trust Him to keep His promise, I should give up now. I should cut a deal like King Hezekiah did.

Warhorses waste my life, energy and direction. A perishable trust is expensive. Doves’ latest album and title track is called Kingdom of Rust. My God, it takes an ocean of trust In the Kingdom of Rust An eternal trust leads me to Eden, to being human, to Him. I am a merchant who one day noticed a precious pearl and decided to give up everything that he had in order to have that pearl in his life. I have it in my palm. I will not let go. I put all my trust in that pearl.

Bureau De Change

A million pounds when converted in heaven is worth nothing. Nothing. Money has a value only on earth, it is as ephemeral as our bodies.

Hidden

When reading about David and Jeremiah I see that there are certain books that afford a contextual setting for their lives and then there are other books, like Psalms and Lamentations that offer a spiritual view of the same events.

When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions. Hope, often hidden, exists all the time in the midst of sorrow, pain and grief. The books of Psalms and Lamentations gift me with an insight to a life that remains a mystery but everyday seems less nebulous.

Chemist

Last night my wife gifted me with this musing, does my contemporary christian faith provide a deep enough framework for my spirituality? I read the opening chapters from a book called Hosea this morning. A love story. Not a balanced one, a broken, twisted love story that responds to pain and heartache with unconditional love. Soul love, heart love, spiritual love. More than ever in my life am I convinced of His activity during my life past and present. More miraculous in the past, like the greatest chemist, working with elements that are unbalanced, twisted and distorted, still charting their course. Somehow allowing for the bias and in time watching this element run straighter and straighter.

In Hosea He says, I’ll take you out into the wild and start all over again. He unties my knots straightens my coils. This is the compression from distortion to diamond. This is life. The closer I journey toward Him the less important doctrinal politics seem to be. The deepness of my spirituality is captured in God, in Christ alone and not in a church service or meeting.

Snap

There are broken shepherd staffs in Zechariah. Too brittle for use. If it can be broken, then it can be put back together. If it can be snapped then it can be restored.

Sometimes being broken is the best thing that can happen to anyone as the opportunity to grow without distortion presents itself. Life tastes sweeter with no twists and kinks.

Warning Triangle

Something in me finds it difficult to read about Jesus rebuking a group of people and then assume this has nothing to do with me. It has everything to do with me. I want to be authentic in pursuit of Him, and in the way I seek to model life. I do not want to be a hypocrite. The pharisees, started around the time of Ezra, the building of the second temple, and their values were good, even noble. That in itself should be a red warning light for me. Check myself, who I am, what I am professing, daily. Actions, that unify thoughts, words and heart. I want it to be so, and if it is not, I need my friends to say so.

Climbing Frame

I believe in a God who speaks to Muslim and Christian, Skinhead and Sikh, Atheist and Baha’i. Priest and Prostitute. I believe in a God who speaks to the heart that wants to change regardless of religious or non religious affiliation. I believe in equality. I do not believe in hypocrisy, I aspire to transparency. I believe in new and fresh expressions. I believe in a journey from distortion to gem stone.

Service

I do not just want to serve those whom I have much in common with. A preparation of the heart. A fondness for all humanity, beyond the comparable. My world only grows when I care for my friends and for those who are overlooked as friends, those who are ignored. To serve humanity with love there must be a love for humanity, without that it is simply reduced to an act.

To serve and in doing so, serve Him. I was ignored and you noticed me. I was overlooked and you engaged with me. I was hurting and you spoke hope to me. I was helpless and you helped me. I had whipped the back of society but you befriended me, you were real to me.

I look out onto a Sussex field and see some sheep and some goats grazing. Same field but separate. Choice does that.

Mustard Hope

The Magi knew where to find Him. The outcasts knew where to seek Him. The broken hearted knew where to listen to Him. The sick knew where to be healed by Him. The guards knew where to seize Him. The women knew where not to look and even Judas knew where to betray Him.

In hiding after betrayal and denial. The ones who saw more miracles and heard more stories than anyone else, didn’t believe He was anywhere to be found. Hope comes to those seeking it. The Magi with no hope would never have left to see the child. Matthew’s house would have been a lot quieter if the outcasts didn’t believe they would be spiritually and socially touched. The crowds gathered to hear Him because they had faith. Belief. Hope.

A hopeless situation is one where hope is rejected from the outset. With no hope, it is impossible to find Him. A molecule of hope is all that is needed to begin the journey from distortion to gem stone, it is all that is needed to find a precious pearl, to find a lost coin, to avoid the empty tomb and seek Him amongst the living, not in a cemetery.

Who’s there?

A knock at the door. A comedic scene. Rhoda recognises the voice, so excited she runs back into the house telling everyone that Peter is at the door. Really? They say. Yes, she says. We don’t believe you, they say. It’s true, she says. Meanwhile Peter is still knocking on the door. What was going to be a spectacular entrance was becoming a scene from a BBC comedy. Peter has just walked past his jailers like some jedi mind trick. He was visited by an angel in his cell, his chains fell off instantly in a splash of light, the secure door was opened, that which man closes God can open. The angel advised Peter to wrap himself up in a cloak and led Him out of the prison and onto the streets, only then disappearing, leaving a dazed and confused Peter. The tragedy of this story comes with Peter’s circumstance, in captivity. The fairy tale comes after the tragedy and in the guise of the escape. The comedy, however, comes last as Peter stands outside a door where his voice has been recognised and a debate ensues inside as to whether it is really him or not. Peter is still standing. Peter is still knocking. Finally when the door is opened, Peter has a conversation on the doorstep and leaves.

This is almost the last we hear of Peter. An escape with an angel and an unanswered knock. The extraordinary and the everyday.

Tipping Point

I pray for a renascence on my street. 99% of whom I don’t know. I pray from this morning for hope to fall like snow into their lives, like the overspill of sound as Andrew Dufresne played Mozart’s marriage of figaro over the grey prison scape of Shawshank. For a moment all the prisoners saw themselves as humans and not as criminals. We are all humans at our core, distorted yes but being aware of our distortion is the first step in the journey back to becoming fully human again.

Energy

It all comes through to me, positive and negative, I have no control over my greater circumstance. However how I react with the power that life affords me is a completely different supposition. I could choose to compound the rejection of parents and friends by rejecting others. I could choose to burn when I have been burnt. I could choose hurt when I have been hurt.

Warm

What I want, is free, and all from You. What You give is free and all for me. I feel cold and am always looking for Your fire to gather round. Warm me. The heat of passionate patience to warm my face. Reverent wonder. Build me on this journey.

salt December 29, 2009

Work

He can work in any environment. From wars He brings forth a victory that supersedes winning sides. From the word He becomes flesh. In the midst of chaos He is at work. Continuing His story. From the void that was before time to the struggles we face today in our ordinary lives. From Him I can see a model to apply myself in work, in every situation that I find myself in. When He engages it is not outside the reality of our circumstance. He works into the situation of those who are present.

Stretch

It is our very nature to shrink our options before we choose. We reduce and select. The story of The Christ, demonstrates a widening of choices, of world views of understanding. My world must increase.

Joy

This is not happiness nor is it laughter. Joy is something altogether different. Joy comes from Heaven, comes from faith, comes from Christ. To experience joy is to somehow experience Him. Happiness can be built but Joy is a gift. I pray for a joy in my work. I pray for a widening of my world view in all that I do.

Everyday Saints (All Saints)

I think immediately of Keith Browne, who approached us on a South Hanwell organised country walk. Too much personal discomfort he was hobbling as he did on that motorcycle accident damaged right leg of his. He sped up  in order to walk with me and asked if we would be interested in a room in this house that both he and Maxine believed they needed to buy, as a response to housing issues in our community. These crazy people, some who have a bit part in the story of our lives, all contribute to the sainthood of our blessing. In a way we love them without ever knowing that we did.

Indiscriminate

We live in grace by an act of kindness. In doing so we I must not walk past the unattractive timber configuration by the roadside, I pick it up and carry it, as He did. From making a cup of tea to selling up and giving it all away, an act of kindness affirms Him, affirms Love, affirms the Cross.

Friend

Somewhere in between being creator and Saviour, He becomes someone I would have round for dinner or a wedding guest. Somewhere in that dynamic we become less human like, He less creator like and we both share bread. Every month I want to commit to a thanksgiving meal, where we set a place for Him and remember our friendship with Him.

Fool

A wisdom that appears foolish and illogical to the world, if fashioned in Him and with Him can be the truest form of wisdom. This must be my source.

Picture

We have a Picture of Him. We only see a glimpse. Our glimpse may be slightly different to someone else’s glimpse and yet it’s ALL Him. We may be catching sight of the side of His face while others see His eyes. Neither is wrong, both are true. The key is accepting that He reveals what we need to see to deepen and enrich our individual eyes.

Aslan speaks separately to the children and what He tells them is for them only. Our picture will differ from others

Up

He didn’t bring Lazarus back to life as much as bring him back to earth. Lazarus was dead physically and dead spiritually. The miracle becomes all the more greater when you think it’s not the power to raise up from the dead it’s the authority to direct that spirit anywhere: to heaven, back to earth, into a pig! He brought his body and his spirit back to life. We spend a lifetime grappling with God’s existence but the moment we die we get to go backstage. We immediately see His authority, His power. What if, by raising Lazarus, He was saying “submit to me on earth and I will be with you forever. Lazarus was my friend, I told him to get up. You too can be my friend.” I think we are regularly told to Get Up. He prepares us for death as our souls are constantly told to get up and leave ego, pride, hate, selfishness. These are spiritual deaths. These deaths give us a richer more abundant life.

Flu

I believe when we live a life where we have no time for Him, we develop spiritual head colds. Life rapidly develops a greatly reduced sense of taste and smell followed by blurry vision. Even the most devout can develop a spiritual head cold. Drink plenty of The Spirit. Eat regularly from the Word. Work, in His rhythm.

Story

His story is remarkable, not only is He the writer, He is the main character and the narrator. All three in one. His story is our story, and also part of The greater story. When we share our story, our life, our faith, we are really letting someone know a chapter of The greater story that hasn’t been read yet. Everyone is unique and thus every story is integral to The Greater Story. We are all connected. We all share in the fall of man. We can all share in the “get up”directive from Him too. We can all choose to listen to Him calling us out of death.

Snow

That magical quality. It resonates with the child within all of us. Narnia used to be covered in it although snow on earth has no less shimmer or brilliance. All things are made new momentarily. Covered. No more litter, no more random debris by the curb. All gone. All white. It’s fleeting like our lives but makes an impact as deep as our most vivid memory.

Even the hardest of hearts cannot help but smile watching the thick silence of falling cotton.

Spirit

In Jeremiah we are told that God knew the author of the book before he was born. I believe that We are spirit first and human second, therefore we only need temporarily dip into our human nature when communicating with Him. What we “give” ourselves to is that which has been revealed to us. At Christmas time we can think of the One who made Himself known to us.  Our journey isn’t linear, we are pursuing Him but He is right next to us. God with us. Maybe our journey is into our own hearts, into our own Bethlehem, our own Golgotha to discover who we are IN God? Emmanuel. God with us.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

“God used those same plans for my good” The statement is in response to a life that had led Joseph through a series of unfortunate events. The plans he refers to traces back to the evil plot his brothers devised and carried out on him.

I feel an affinity with that story, it has a pattern in my life. Like Joseph I believe that God uses plans that perhaps were used against me for evil for something altogether much better.

Needy and Poor

I read a passage from the common book of prayer
“Let not the needy, O Lord, be forgotten or the poor be taken away” I recognise within me the immediate response to think of the abstract poor and needy, however I believe that God wants me to look at this with different eyes.
The “Needy” are those who need love, hope, peace, Christ, shelter, food and water. In effect they have no understanding of Christ. The “poor” are those who have love, peace, hope, shelter, food and water and maybe even an understanding of Christ but have it all in stripped quantities. I believe the “poor” could be those who are struggling in Church. Between the needy and the poor every strata of this global society is covered. No one is excluded, all are included.

Ready

Be ready to meet Him. Moses met God at the burning bush while tending to Jethro’s flock. Later in Exodus, God tells Moses to meet with Him early in the morning, not a soul to be present and not even any livestock are to be grazing on the mountain side. I believe that God can meet us in the ordinary, while we are tending somebody else’s’ sheep. I also believe He can ask to meet us in the extraordinary. On a mountain, early in the morning with not a soul present or even animals grazing.

Priest

We were neither Priests nor the sacrifice. Dependant on someone to mediate with God for our atonement and dependant on animals to become the offering. Today He has made us priests and He became the sacrifice. Jesus’ sacrifice is amongst so many other things, our entrance into the priesthood. God has taken one step closer to us by becoming the sacrifice and He has moved us one step closer to Him by making us priests. We stand next to each other, with each other. God with us.

Pattern

In the Bible, God’s people have continually been part of other peoples culture, then separated. A pattern. Think about how healthy it must have been to leave a culture and return years later. What effects would that have on the economy? Isn’t this pattern what we truly seek? To be separate while immersed? Paul writes in Romans 12:2

Don’t become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to it’s level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well formed maturity in you.

From Slavery to Humanity

I used to put God into an angry box following readings from Leviticus, however those thoughts have been turned upside down like tables in a temple. God concerned with the correct sacrifice? Or God concerned with the state of our hearts?
God wanting a systematic religion? Or God wanting a relationship? The ten commandments are often seen as a list of do’s and don’ts followed by a host of other lists, however they are rarely taken into context of Israel. The generation that are being addressed on Sinai have never known freedom. They have been slaves all their lives. Their parents were slaves, their grandparents too. God was making them “human” again. Teaching them about life.

Today we find exactly the same scenario. We can chose to be slaves to our minds.

Like Israel, we can receive an Exodus and God can begin to make us Human once more. A God who seeks justice and parity for all.

Phronesis

View my life, past and present with a new Phronesis.

These mistakes that weigh us down, viewed through a Christ-Like lens are gems of The Greater Story, that will engage many toward Him.

Shema

This is the culmination of 40 years worth of work. From Egypt to Sinai to the wilderness to the plains of Moab. The promised land is just over the river. Moses is giving his final sermon before Israel moves into Cannan. Moses’ work is almost finished. After this sermon he will die. There is a calling in his words. To live good lives. If we live by His rules then He will protect us. It’s a bargain. Love God with all your heart, with everything that you have. Teach your children about Him. Observe His rules. Live good lives. Live long lives. Talk about Him as you wake and as you fall asleep.
Listen to Him. Shema is Hebrew for listen or hear. Deut 6:1-9 is called the Shema in the Jewish faith. It is often recited morning and night.

Dark

Jesus came into the darkness FOR the darkness. Today we find Him where? We find Him in our dark. In my dark, In your dark. In the construction business of restoration. Restoration of a broken relationship, a broken person, a broken heart. The light does not require more illumination, but the dark needs light. That dark must have light.

He is at work in the black heart of humanity. In Roman and Jew, Religious and revolutionary, disciples and believers, Barabas and Lazarus, you and me. He arrived, no bigger than a loaf of bread, into the darkness. As a man he entered a blackened darkness in Hades. There can be no darkness on earth that cannot be lit by Him.

We all have a blackened sky, however it is a different soul-scape for everyman. As in Bethlehem, so too in my heart Jesus is born, in the darkness He brings his light. Into the void He spoke light. Into my life He brings God light.

Dollar Bill

There was a man and his wife. They had much to be thankful for and they thanked God for their life.

One day the man said to his wife, come let us find more work so we can earn more money. The wife said “you are needed at home, God can provide for our needs supernaturally but God cannot be a father to our children. You must physically be there and continue to inspire them as only a father can.” The man was stubborn but eventually he said come let us pray to God about this. The next day the Government sends them a large sum of money. So tell me, who provides the couple with their money? I tell you this; if you follow money and serve money you are subject to the brutal laws of economics. There will be no solace and money has no power to transform your mind or soul. If you follow God and serve God you are subject to the supernatural works of the living God. You will know peace and God will renew your mind and transform your soul. In all that you do, serve God lest you serve that which is below God and bind yourself to it.

See

I have eyes but what is it that I am looking at ? Whom do we search for when we sit back in our pews, settling in for a morning sermon? Whom do we search for when we invade the Vatican city like spectators instead of church goers, with cameras instead of bibles. Whom do we search for when the evangelist cries out as he throws his arms into the air? Whom does the preacher seek when delivering the word? Whom does the Evangelist seek when preparing his talk? Whom do we search for when we read the bible? Whom does the Pope seek out when greeting the masses? Whom did the Magi search for 2000 years ago? Do we see Him preaching? Do we see Him dressed in white surrounded by riches, waving to the masses? Do we see Him in a TV appeal asking for money to improve your blessing rating? Do we see Him in the pages of the bible that we read? Do we see Him sleeping in the doorway of a Soho building? Do we see Him carrying His life in a cluster of carrier bags? Do we see Him in our lives? From the beginning of time they have sought Him. On the night of His birth evil and good sought Him. I seek Him, every day, like the Magi consulting the night sky, I seek Him in my blackened sky. I follow Him.

Law

Without a relationship the commandments become rules, legalism, repression, empty and thus hollow. Hollow ornaments break easily when knocked over. Interestingly Jesus never came to give us more laws or help us become more disciplined in our upholding of the law. He came for a relationship and all the fruits of that would uphold the commandments by default.  All He wants is a body for Him to live in but they insist on keeping His commandments in their own strength and keep missing the opportunity to be friends.

King

When we acknowledge God as our King we are not just affirming we are also crowning Him in our hearts. A coronation within our souls that sees Him become King of our lives.To crown Him daily is to affirm the covenant. To crown Him daily is to submit to His spacious will. To crown Him daily is to choose life. Crown Him daily and ensure His throne remains His.

Judge

A wider understanding of our humanity leads me to a precipice that cannot nudge me further to judge anyone anymore. If I judge anyone, I am surely condemning myself.

Bless

In 2 Samuel 7; David says  “master God, may your blessing be on my family permanently”

Mephibosheth

What must have been running through the exiled man’s mind as he dragged himself toward David in his palace? Surely this is my judgement. For everything that my grandfather stood for, I am going to be punished.

King David, bestows on him all the property that had belonged to his grandfather, gave him servants to tend the land and insisted that he take every meal at the royal table for the rest of his days. One of the saddest lines of literature  I have read is from a book called Genesis, “Adam hid” That’s what happens when things don’t go to plan. The five year old boy in the breakout of civil war hid, Adam hid, Moses hid, I hid.  Maybe I sought a twenty first century hiding place, an alternate state? a kinder god? An anesthetic to reality. Like the grandson, Mephibosheth, it’s a long crawl on the palace floor but like most things in the Kingdom of God, the outcome is unexpected. Hope is a beautiful thing.

Convenience Stores

Be wary of building convenience stores to the heart. A quick stop from having to go to the real deal. Jeroboam built a convenience store temple in the North to deter his people from traveling south to Jerusalem. Do I build convenience stores in my heart to stop me traveling to God?