This weeks message is by Chad Bird.
Sometimes, a few words say all that's required:
How long will we dwell in a dry land where there is no water?
How long, O Lord, will you forget us forever?
When shall we come and appear before you?
We were glad when they said, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
But we are cut off, we are estranged, from your courts.
Too long have our souls had their dwelling far from you.
Too long have we hungered for the table of your presence.
Consider and answer us, O Lord, our God.
Do not be deaf to our cry.
Do not be silent at our tears.
Do not close your eyes to our uplifted hands.
Lift up the light of your countenance upon us once more.
Make your face to shine upon your servants once again.
Gather us, as a shepherd gathers the sheep of his flock,
To make us lie down in pastures green with mercy.
Why are you in despair, O my soul?
Why have you become disturbed within me?
Hope in God, for we shall again praise him.
Trust in Christ, for we shall again appear before him.
O Lord, hear our prayer.
O Lord, have mercy.
O Christ, have mercy.
O Lord, have mercy.
Saturday 25 April 2020
Tuesday 21 April 2020
A new entry
If you look over on the top of the right column of this page you will notice a new entry in the 'books published' section entitled 'Cry Freedom!'.
Over the last year, I've been working on a rendition of Martin Luther's superb commentary on Paul's epistle to the Galatians, and now, it's up for the world to see.
It's available in a basic word format and should just pop up, ready to read.
I've done it this way so as many people as possible can make use of it and enjoy it for free, so please avail yourself and I hope it whets your appetite for more.
Saturday 18 April 2020
C o n t a g i o n
Said you woke up this morning
Said you woke up under a curse
I've heard the blues are bad but this is something worse
And the ambulance driver
Well he tips his hat and stares
And he asks you in a grave voice "Can I take you anywhere?"
Yeah, it's the thing we cannot speak of
Too painful to behold
Oh this blister soul
Vigilantes of Love - Blister Soul.
Its a sure-fire killer, and it's everywhere.
In our blood, in our homes, in the very air we breathe.
There's no escape.
From when you wake up, you know its poison inside,
because it's there in everything you say and do.
You'd like to ignore it, for it to go away,
but when you're ruthlessly honest with yourself,
you know it's hurting your being with others,
and it's killing you inside.
It isn't a misery you can really solve with a pill or a drink,
though you may often try.
It isn't a pain that can be eased by having piles of cash, or by jumping from one moment of pleasure to another,
though you may fool yourself into thinking that's enough.
It isn't an illusion you can mask by adopting some nice belief to make you feel good about yourself.
It's a sure-fire killer, that burns in our veins, and takes us all to the grave.
The bible calls it sin - the wickedness we do against everyone and everything, born out of our broken relationship with God. It even causes us to be cruel to ourselves.
A virus needs a remedy - an antidote that is going to make us whole and well, but this malady is beyond our means to ease or cure - God alone can heal us, and easter shows us how that was done. Jesus took our sin upon Himself that we can be healed and set free.
The present circumstances have shown us just how deadly a virus is, and how radically it can change everything.
How will you choose to deal with the contagion that we all carry?
There is a remedy.
Said you woke up under a curse
I've heard the blues are bad but this is something worse
And the ambulance driver
Well he tips his hat and stares
And he asks you in a grave voice "Can I take you anywhere?"
Yeah, it's the thing we cannot speak of
Too painful to behold
Oh this blister soul
Vigilantes of Love - Blister Soul.
Its a sure-fire killer, and it's everywhere.
In our blood, in our homes, in the very air we breathe.
There's no escape.
From when you wake up, you know its poison inside,
because it's there in everything you say and do.
You'd like to ignore it, for it to go away,
but when you're ruthlessly honest with yourself,
you know it's hurting your being with others,
and it's killing you inside.
It isn't a misery you can really solve with a pill or a drink,
though you may often try.
It isn't a pain that can be eased by having piles of cash, or by jumping from one moment of pleasure to another,
though you may fool yourself into thinking that's enough.
It isn't an illusion you can mask by adopting some nice belief to make you feel good about yourself.
It's a sure-fire killer, that burns in our veins, and takes us all to the grave.
The bible calls it sin - the wickedness we do against everyone and everything, born out of our broken relationship with God. It even causes us to be cruel to ourselves.
A virus needs a remedy - an antidote that is going to make us whole and well, but this malady is beyond our means to ease or cure - God alone can heal us, and easter shows us how that was done. Jesus took our sin upon Himself that we can be healed and set free.
The present circumstances have shown us just how deadly a virus is, and how radically it can change everything.
How will you choose to deal with the contagion that we all carry?
There is a remedy.
Friday 10 April 2020
Giving Way
If these present days have reminded us of anything, it's how hard we often find it to re-orientate ourselves to change... that involves us taking a pause.
Ours indeed is our world that we think spins constantly around what we do; our days being filled with everything that matters so much in respect to showing just how busy we are. So what happens when the ground is pulled from beneath our feet and we have to re-group and gain a new set of bearings?
When we face such an abyss, we usually loose it and sink in the uncertainty of it all... but that's the opportunity to something good.
Escaping the whirlwind of 'the norm' and facing a world without that, without what we think defines life, allows us to look into what takes up our lives and ask what is this really all about? What are we doing?
When life throws us a curve ball, it's usually because we need to take a pause and deeply think about what counts.
The current crisis has given many the opportunity to invest again into life at home with family and to re-gain some fresh forms of connection, even if that has had to be virtually. It can be a crucible that tests us (parents are nodding loudly), but out of such refinement can grow a new level of connection and bonding that re-affirms the love that we know was there, but this space has given it new room to breathe.
So, what next?
One of my favourite Christian writers noted this week that easter is the time when we witness the 'hauling out' of "pretty floral dresses" as we stand "on the precipice" of the feast, uncertain what to expect...
So she advises that we hurl ourselves off.
It's when we surround ourselves in the vulnerability of love that we become so much more, and easter is all about surrendering ourselves to the love of one who surrendered all to rescue us.
The unexpected, the deeply beautiful, comes so often in the very midst of our struggling out of our depth.
Easter is here to tell us that hope is here, amidst our current trials.
Today, we look to one dying a cruel death not because all we see is tragedy, but encapsulated there is something beyond all our failure and frailty. As He dies, death itself is broken, and sin is removed because He has borne it's consequence.
Dive into that love, and life will truly be changed.
Happy Easter.
Ours indeed is our world that we think spins constantly around what we do; our days being filled with everything that matters so much in respect to showing just how busy we are. So what happens when the ground is pulled from beneath our feet and we have to re-group and gain a new set of bearings?
When we face such an abyss, we usually loose it and sink in the uncertainty of it all... but that's the opportunity to something good.
Escaping the whirlwind of 'the norm' and facing a world without that, without what we think defines life, allows us to look into what takes up our lives and ask what is this really all about? What are we doing?
When life throws us a curve ball, it's usually because we need to take a pause and deeply think about what counts.
The current crisis has given many the opportunity to invest again into life at home with family and to re-gain some fresh forms of connection, even if that has had to be virtually. It can be a crucible that tests us (parents are nodding loudly), but out of such refinement can grow a new level of connection and bonding that re-affirms the love that we know was there, but this space has given it new room to breathe.
So, what next?
One of my favourite Christian writers noted this week that easter is the time when we witness the 'hauling out' of "pretty floral dresses" as we stand "on the precipice" of the feast, uncertain what to expect...
So she advises that we hurl ourselves off.
It's when we surround ourselves in the vulnerability of love that we become so much more, and easter is all about surrendering ourselves to the love of one who surrendered all to rescue us.
The unexpected, the deeply beautiful, comes so often in the very midst of our struggling out of our depth.
Easter is here to tell us that hope is here, amidst our current trials.
Today, we look to one dying a cruel death not because all we see is tragedy, but encapsulated there is something beyond all our failure and frailty. As He dies, death itself is broken, and sin is removed because He has borne it's consequence.
Dive into that love, and life will truly be changed.
Happy Easter.
Saturday 4 April 2020
The Healing Death
"Faith also came to believe in doing things I could not understand, in trusting that authenticity wasn’t always about feeling something and then acting on that feeling; that it could involve acting toward feeling a different way—trusting that there might be something on the other side of intention that felt less willed, more sublime. So much of that 'trust-fall' shows up in other parts of life, of course: Showing up for another day of marriage. Showing up for another day of writing. Showing up for another day of parenting. Feeling frustrated, cloistered, doubtful, but believing in the other side of all those feelings. Believing in another horizon, beyond what you can see".
Jamie Quatro.
"Put this in any liquid thing you will,
And drink it off; and, if you had the strength
Of twenty men, it would dispatch you straight".
Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet.
Gone, now, are the days of being carefree, perhaps allowing careless negligence.
Now, the most basic of behaviours must be preceded by cleansing to avoid the vileness of a cruel death.
No place now for what we may define as rash piety or indulgent nonchalance - each are equally burned in the bite of indiscriminate and exhaustive excise.
All of life, from the arrangement of our hours at home with others or alone to the very routine of buying goods or walking the dog must be considered with great care in order to escape the shadow of a peril that could truly end us.
Cleanliness and separation, coupled with concern and consideration, are no longer options; things we take for granted - they are matters of life and death to each of us.
And so, we are constantly entreated via the media - look to this vital distance apart if you wish to be safe, and to live!
This all sounds very familiar to anyone who has spent a while reading the Bible.
A great deal of the Old Testament is about the need to find in us a purity - a cleanliness on the outside that is a reflection of what's going on on the inside, and the problem that we all have that disrupts and breaks down attaining this - an infection called sin that leads to spiritual and physical death. God is constantly expressed as the one who is entreating us to put aside this malady by trusting in Him (rather than ourselves) to rescue and cleanse us and thereby provide the true remedy to our lawless nature and the means to be those free of the evil that is distancing us from Him and each other.
It's easy for people to think that none of this actually applies to them - we've seen that played out numerous times in the last few weeks here - but that is a folly which merely increases the problem and the consequences this death creates. The fact is that we're all carriers of something highly destructive and only when a very real vaccine is provided can something work in us that eliminates what is so wrong.
A few weeks of living under the reality of a infected world has totally changed things, and people are now keenly aware that a remedy is imperative if they are to return to the kind of things they so liked to take for granted.
The same is true about us in a far deeper sense, and only God's work in Jesus Christ provides our world with the cure so urgently and deeply needed for us to be whole once again.
Something to really think about during this life-changing crisis.
Jamie Quatro.
"Put this in any liquid thing you will,
And drink it off; and, if you had the strength
Of twenty men, it would dispatch you straight".
Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet.
Gone, now, are the days of being carefree, perhaps allowing careless negligence.
Now, the most basic of behaviours must be preceded by cleansing to avoid the vileness of a cruel death.
No place now for what we may define as rash piety or indulgent nonchalance - each are equally burned in the bite of indiscriminate and exhaustive excise.
All of life, from the arrangement of our hours at home with others or alone to the very routine of buying goods or walking the dog must be considered with great care in order to escape the shadow of a peril that could truly end us.
Cleanliness and separation, coupled with concern and consideration, are no longer options; things we take for granted - they are matters of life and death to each of us.
And so, we are constantly entreated via the media - look to this vital distance apart if you wish to be safe, and to live!
This all sounds very familiar to anyone who has spent a while reading the Bible.
A great deal of the Old Testament is about the need to find in us a purity - a cleanliness on the outside that is a reflection of what's going on on the inside, and the problem that we all have that disrupts and breaks down attaining this - an infection called sin that leads to spiritual and physical death. God is constantly expressed as the one who is entreating us to put aside this malady by trusting in Him (rather than ourselves) to rescue and cleanse us and thereby provide the true remedy to our lawless nature and the means to be those free of the evil that is distancing us from Him and each other.
It's easy for people to think that none of this actually applies to them - we've seen that played out numerous times in the last few weeks here - but that is a folly which merely increases the problem and the consequences this death creates. The fact is that we're all carriers of something highly destructive and only when a very real vaccine is provided can something work in us that eliminates what is so wrong.
A few weeks of living under the reality of a infected world has totally changed things, and people are now keenly aware that a remedy is imperative if they are to return to the kind of things they so liked to take for granted.
The same is true about us in a far deeper sense, and only God's work in Jesus Christ provides our world with the cure so urgently and deeply needed for us to be whole once again.
Something to really think about during this life-changing crisis.
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