A few days ago, I read the lovely words, “You are the jewel through which My light shines” and it took me back to those early years living at Ashburnham when day after day, before the children woke, I would walk round the main lake singing from the bottom of my heart, sometimes with tears rolling down my cheeks

I heard another talk yesterday on “Doubting Thomas”, as though that was all that defined him, and I feel like going on a campaign to change his name – he seems to have been stuck with some pretty poor PR! After all there are several other names he could have been given, like Devoted or Courageous.

Because we were married in a Registry Office, Jo and I decided that on our twenty fifth wedding anniversary, we would ‘borrow’ Ashburnham Parish Church and have a celebration service, and affirm our marriage vows before God, family and friends.

Our visit to the Holy Land a few years ago with Riding Lights Theatre Group was life-changing on many levels, but tracing the steps of Jesus, actually treading on the stones he might have stood on (which had me taking off my shoes a few times to make better physical contact with my bare feet), climbing the same steps, looking at the contours of the land that remained the same for my eyes as His, felt and heard the lapping of the River Jordan on my legs was all so powerfully emotive for me, and connected in my heart in a way I can’t explain.

Thank you for the excitement of this day – the bursting out from the tomb, from the bands of death, the forever energy of resurrected life; for the joy of knowing such a delicious secret – the glorious and just too wonderful end of the story; for the “more than conquerors” feeling – the indescribable knowing of being at last on the right team, the right side “If God is for you, who can be against you”. And that same power at work in ME now, if I allow it, to bring others along to get to know Jesus – for their deserts to bloom and blossom in His love and forgiveness; to overcome, to keep on keeping on!

HAPPY, HAPPY EASTER SUNDAY EVERYONE

On the night before his crucifixion, on what we now call Maundy Thursday, Jesus poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them dry with the towel he’d wrapped around his waist, Jn.13:1-5.

Perhaps not surprising for this week, I’ve been re-reading the events of Jesus’ death, always painful. Good Friday, we read in John’s account, was the day of Preparation for the following day, which was a special Sabbath, because it was the one that fell within the Passover Week of celebration.

We may have fought against it in the past, or perhaps are still doing so, but apart from JESUS, there is no other way and no other name!  It might make us squirm;  we might dislike the theology intensely “but what about…..”;  it might challenge our desire to be independent and go our own way, shape our own gospel;  it might ruffle our feathers big time (do you sense a bit of personal testimony here?) – or when all the kicking and screaming has died down, it just might fill us with the kind of peace and security for which we have longed!

When my firstborn arrived in this world, it was to a caravan in a field, deep within the Kent countryside. As Kazy celebrates her half century this summer, we are talking about a very different era!

When Jesus was trying to prepare his disciples for his death, he explained that the Father himself loved them because they had loved him,  and that he was shortly going to leave the world and go back to the Father.  This drew a strong declaration of belief from the disciples,  “Now we can see that you know all things…..this makes us believe that you came from God.”

I was given a challenging book called “Walk the Way” for my birthday, and I am using it throughout the season of Lent. Yesterday, I read a quote from John Bunyan, which really made me sit up; “Remember that Jesus did not protect his own heart against sorrow or suffering; for this would have meant him hardening his heart against you and me. On the contrary, he awakened himself and opened his heart with great compassion.”

Over 20 years ago, when I was going through one of my insecure, feeling inadequate phases, I found myself quite upset, and wondering who I was to the Lord – was I really just a number in his vast Book of Life? And if he called me by name, what name was that?

At the beginning of the month, Jo and I visited a little Christian retreat centre in South Wales for 5 days – it’s described as being half way up a mountain side, though I think most would call it a hill, albeit a steep one!  The gardens and grounds are a delight, though being on a steep hillside they are somewhat rough and rugged underfoot, with the occasional outcrop of rock and are delightfully higgledy piggledy, with short mown grass paths through rough areas, enticing little wrought iron gates and tiny winding paths through tall heathers and shrubs.

No, not step aerobics, more a sort of spiritual exercise!

I was reading an article by Jill Briscoe this morning on the Philippians 2 passage on how Jesus stepped down from heaven, giving up his Kingship to humbly serve us: What a step! Jill’s message read something like this little song that came into my head

We’re 2 weeks into 2012 already, and probably many a new year resolution has gone the way of previous years before them! This morning at Alive @ The Drive, Erik got us thinking again about such things, and changes needed in our lifestyles through 5 interactive stations “you, God and 2012 sacred space”. And then Graham sent us off with Ps.65:11“The Lord crowns the year with His bounty”, and a Bounty bar!

As the deer pants for the water,
So my soul longs after You.
You alone are my heart’s desire
And I long to worship You.

I’ve been thinking more about Beattie, and how she came so unselfconsciously and naturally to Jesus, as a little, unaffected, spontaneous child would.

Mark 10:13-16

Do you remember the story of people bringing children to Jesus for Him to touch and bless them, and the disciples pompously shooing them away as though they were just a waste of space? Having well told off his disciples for not seeing the value of children, Jesus shocks everyone by saying that in fact children were ahead of the field and top in line “for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

I’m not thinking of the sort that we entertain unawares, the kind that appear in the guise of man; and certainly not the chubby cherub variety, beloved of Raphael and artists and greeting card manufacturers; nor the pretty lace-gowned female sort that rival fairies in all the gift shops; I’m thinking of the mighty warrior and messenger angels of the Bible; of Archangels Michael and Gabriel, whose appearance paralyses people with awe and fear! There’s a fair sprinkling of them throughout the story of the nativity isn’t there, and what I’ve realised more this Advent, is that this awe and fear inspire a very ready obedience in those to whom the angels appear.

I just love the beautiful passage in Philippians 2 where Paul speaks of Jesus, who after all, had equal status with God Almighty, but instead of grasping or clinging onto all the advantages and radiant glory of heaven, no matter what, set aside all the privileges of deity, becoming human, firstly as a vulnerable newborn baby needing a warm breast and constant changing of soiled strips of cloth, and as an adult taking on the status of a lowly servant, extravagantly spending his whole life for others. What an incredible story line, rivalling any novel!

What has got me praying though, are the verses 3-5 before,

Thinking about Isaiah’s stumps this week resonated with me. In Ch. 6 v.13, after Isaiah was awesomely given the prophetic commission to bring dire and scary warnings of judgement to rebellious Israel we read “Even if a tenth of the people remain there, the land will be completely destroyed again. But as a terebinth or oak tree leaves a stump when it is cut down, so Israel’s stump will be a holy seed.” I had to do a bit of Google research to find out what on earth a terebinth tree was, because they seem to crop up a lot in the Bible, only to find it’s sometimes called a turpentine tree! But I also discovered that it develops a very deep and extensive root system and therefore remains green even in years of drought, and that it often sprouts from the stump after being cut.

In order to keep growing, we need to keep living in the vulnerability of staying teachable. Hard that, when a part of us wants to appear as though we’ve got it all together, we’ve arrived; that we KNOW that! And when we admit we DON’T know that, there’s always the risk of appearing foolish!

On Sunday, it being the first Sunday in Advent, mention was made of looking forward to Jesus’s second coming, amongst many things, something Graham will be speaking on in a couple of week’s time.

When sitting on the grass of the Mount of Olives with his disciples one day, looking down across the Kidron Valley towards the Temple, Jesus alerted them to the dangers of deception. The whole chapter of Mark 13 is about the signs of the End of the Age, and how, if we don’t stand firm, we could so easily be deceived by false messiahs and prophets (v6 and v22). Jesus was very emphatic:v5 “watch out that no-one deceives you”, v9 “You must be on your guard”, v23 “So be on your guard”, v33 “Be on guard! Be alert”, v35 “Therefore keep watch”, v37 “Watch!”

Recently, I downloaded from iPlayer, 3 episodes of BBC 2′s “All Roads Lead Home”, where Stephen Mangan, Sue Perkins and Alison Steadman travelled the UK each week for a specific destination, each of them leading the other 2 on foot to their original home, but without any maps, sat.navs or compass, in fact none of today’s navigational aids. 

Hostage Negotiator

A few weeks ago, Val mentioned that Caregroups were thinking about redemption. In the Bible the Redeemed are those the Lord has delivered from bondage. Isaiah (his name means “The LORD saves”) talks a lot about God redeeming his people, both from sin and from Babylonian exile: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you…” In ch.41:14, the Lord refers to Himself as “your Redeemer” and further on describes Himself as paying a ransom for his people.

As OTCC, with Glyn and Emma’s encouragement, we have been getting more into prayer, experimenting with places and different ways of talking to and hearing from God, both individually, as couples and in groups. And getting excited at how God is bringing changes in us, in our relationships, and in the lives of others.

I was reading the story of Jesus in the Temple, with an angry lot of Jews working up a lather and demanding a miraculous sign to demonstrate his authority. His answer did nothing to calm them down, and didn’t make an awful lot of sense to his disciples at that time either!

I don’t know about you but seagulls squawking raucously on rooftops in towns bring out the worst in me. They shouldn’t be there, they’re in the wrong place – after all, they are seagulls, not towngulls! They are often to be seen raiding bins or take-away boxes discarded on the pavements, fighting noisily amongst themselves.

During the last few weeks, whilst I’ve been writing letters to the Iranian Ambassador and praying earnestly about Iranian Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani’s sentence of execution, I read the following

A Good Story
Emma asked us the other Sunday about what the gospel is – Mark starts his ‘Gospel’ with
“The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God……”

Was having a little ponder about the healing of the woman with the continuous hemorrhaging for 12 years (puts my monthly moans over earlier years in the shade!), and how in Mark 5 verse 34 Jesus says “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”