Welcoming the torch

I am not really a sporty person at all, but as the Olympic flame was coming to Stratford upon Avon this afternoon, and as this is one of my favourite places, we thought we would go and cheer it on its way through the Midlands.  It was such a fun day, there was also a River Festival happening, so more pics of that to follow when I have loaded them.  There were lots of canal boats on the Avon, decked out in bunting, and there was a wonderful atmosphere.  


We went into the Shakespeare Theatre, and I bought a copy of the script of a play the RSC performed last year called Written on the Heart, written by David Edgar.  It is about the making of the King James Bible.  I look forward to reading this in my own time and savouring the text, as sometimes you miss things during a performance.  

A Rest on Sunday

I have been reading a wonderful book on prayer called "God on Mute" by Pete Grieg.  He has started an international chain of prayer rooms where people pray 24-7.   You can find out all about his ministry here.  On the wall of one of the prayer rooms, someone once wrote this piece of prose called "The Vision".  I have been enjoying simply focussing on these words, which are deeply inspiring.

So this guy comes up to me and says:

“what’s the vision? What’s the big idea?”

I open my mouth and words come out like this:

The vision?

The vision is JESUS – obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.

The vision is an army of young people.

You see bones? I see an army.

And they are FREE from materialism.

They laugh at 9-5 little prisons.

They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday.

They wouldn’t even notice.

They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the west was won.

They are mobile like the wind, they belong to the nations.

They need no passport.

People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence.

They are free yet they are slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying.

What is the vision ?

The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes.

It makes children laugh and adults angry.

It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars.

It scorns the good and strains for the best.

It is dangerously pure.

Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation.

It loves people away from their suicide leaps, their Satan games.

This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause.

A million times a day its soldiers choose to loose,

that they might one day win

the great ‘Well done’ of faithful sons and daughters.

Such heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night. They don’t need fame from names. Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again: “COME ON!”

And this is the sound of the underground

The whisper of history in the making

Foundations shaking

Revolutionaries dreaming once again

Mystery is scheming in whispers

Conspiracy is breathing…

This is the sound of the underground

And the army is discipl(in)ed.

Young people who beat their bodies into submission.

Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms.

The tattoo on their back boasts “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain”.

Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes.

Winners. Martyrs.

Who can stop them ?

Can hormones hold them back?

Can failure succeed?

Can fear scare them or death kill them ?

And the generation prays

like a dying man

with groans beyond talking,

with warrior cries, sulphuric tears and

with great barrow loads of laughter!

Waiting. Watching: 24 – 7 – 365.

Whatever it takes they will give: Breaking the rules. Shaking mediocrity from its cosy little hide. Laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs, laughing at labels, fasting essentials. The advertisers cannot mould them. Hollywood cannot hold them. Peer-pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries.

They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive

Inside.

On the outside? They hardly care.

They wear clothes like costumes to communicate and celebrate but never to hide.

Would they surrender their image or their popularity?

They would lay down their very lives - swap seats with the man on death row - guilty as hell. A throne for an electric chair.

With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days,

they pray as if it all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them.

Their DNA chooses JESUS. (He breathes out, they breathe in.)

Their subconscious sings. They had a blood transfusion with Jesus.

Their words make demons scream in shopping centres.

Don’t you hear them coming?

Herald the weirdo’s! Summon the losers and the freaks.

Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes.

They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension.

Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.

And this vision will be.

It will come to pass;

it will come easily;

it will come soon.

How do I know?

Because this is the longing of creation itself,

the groaning of the Spirit,

the very dream of God.

My tomorrow is his today.

My distant hope is his 3D.

And my feeble, whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great ‘Amen!’ from countless angels, from hero’s of the faith, from Christ himself. And he is the original dreamer, the ultimate winner.

Guaranteed.

Giving the year to God

Today I read this wonderful post at the Girltalk blog, which has a wealth of Christian resources.

'Will you wake up on January 1, 2012 and say to God: “I don’t need to read your Word or pray or listen to your voice today. I am competent on my own. I can keep my New Years' resolutions all by myself, thank you very much.”?

Of course not!  We would never dare say these frightfully arrogant words.

But if we neglect God’s Word and prayer, we are saying with our hearts and actions: “I can do it all by myself.”

Jesus has a different perspective: “Apart from me you can do nothing.” He says in John 15:5.

We can’t start a new diet, stick to our budget, or kick that bad habit without Him. None of these things—no matter how hard we work at them—will have any “eternal value or…produce spiritual fruit” without God (ESV Study Bible).

To bear fruit, we must sit at Jesus' feet and listen to his teaching (Luke 10:38-42).

We must renounce our self-sufficiency.

We must repent from our arrogant independence.

We must come to the God of mercy who is eager to forgive.

And we must sit.

When we sit at Jesus’ feet, we are saying: “I need you! I can’t obey you without your help. I can’t serve you in my own strength. I can’t walk in a manner worthy of the gospel by myself. I need your grace.”

And you know what? He will give it! God doesn't correct our self-sufficiency to push us away. He wants us to draw near to sit and listen. He wants to speak to us, to teach us, to give us grace to bear fruit.

So let’s say—with our words, our hearts, and our actions—I need you, Lord, today and every day this year!'

What an excellent reminder or the all-sufficiency of our God.

A Fresh Start

I've been reading some of my favourite blogs, and a theme that emerges is one of a fresh start.  We are not quite at the start of a new year yet, but Christmas is behind us, we've eaten far too much (oops!), and the promise of  a new year beckons.

I am already thinking about things I would like to do or achieve in 2012.  Last year I grew a few vegetables for the first time.  I am already collecting yoghurt pots, ice-cream tubs etc. to sow seeds early in the spring.  Also, having a new granddaughter called Poppy, I would like to sow some different types of poppy seeds, in her honour!

Another project for next year is to live more frugally, and to decrease my carbon footprint.  There are wonderful blogs, such as Life After Money that inspire me in this direction.  By spending less, I hope to be able to be more generous to others.

We constantly need new starts and plans, because we are fallible creatures, who stumble and fall, and need to pick ourselves up again, time after time.

The Faithful Word.

In these days leading up to Easter, I'm reading "Seeing and Savouring Jesus Christ" by John Piper.  He asks the question, how can we really know Jesus?  And Is the Bible reliable?

He explains that God opens the eyes of our blinded hearts to see the glory of Christ shining through His portrayal in the Bible.  We do not need to pray for a special whisper from God that Jesus is real.  We can look at the Jesus of the Bible with eyes of wonder, eyes wide open, and fill them with the full portrait of Jesus provided in the Bible.  As we read and see, the Holy Spirit opens the eyes of our hearts to see the self-evident brightness of the divine beauty of Christ.  When we see Jesus for who He really is, we savour Him.  That is, we delight in Him as true and beautiful and satisfying.  This leads us to honour Him, and to walk joyfully in the narrow way of love.

Reading this book is really helping me in my serious quest for well-founded, everlasting, love-producing joy.  Everything is at stake.  There is no more important issue in life than seeing Jesus for who He really is and savouring what we see above all else.

Today I sat in the sunshine and read the last dozen or so chapters of Luke's gospel at one long sitting, to get my heart into the message of Easter.  The resurrection never fails to fill my horizons with wonder and joy and hope and longing and gratitude.

Have a relaxing weekend my friend.

In hot water!

This morning, I was very happy to see our plumber walking up the drive.  Our hot water supply has been intermittent for a few weeks.  He came and diagnosed the problem last week, and at last the offending part has been replaced.  I'm looking forward to a nice deep, hot bath tonight.

(Google images)

This is not actually my bath, although mine is the same size and shape.  In fact, I now feel inspired to dig out all the candles leftover from Christmas, and the Sanctuary toiletries given to me by my lovely sister-in-love, and hang some fluffy towels on the radiator to get nice and warm, and put my dab radio onto Classic fm.  Oh yes, I'm looking forward to bath-time tonight.

I will lie in the bath and think about those wonderful 'cleansing' Bible verses, such as "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9),  and "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin" (verse 7).

"The Word of God is the water that washes us. Ephesians 5:26 says, “Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”

The word ‘washing’ in this Scripture is the Greek word, loutron (the verb is louo) and it means, “to take a bath, to wash the whole body and not just a part of it.” It speaks metaphorically of washing every part of the inward man—our heart, soul, spirit, mind and emotions. It’s a whole bath, not just a face wash.

I find that if I do not personally read God’s Word each day that sin can build up in my life and I am not even aware of it. But when I read the Word, the Holy Spirit reveals the things that grieve Him and which pollute my soul. I am convicted to repent and cast them from my life so I can keep my inward man clean. 2 Corinthians 7:1 says, “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” (From Above Rubies.  http://www.aboverubies.com/)

Above Rubies is a lovely website that I heartily recommend.

Today, I have stayed indoors, as the rain pattered on the window pane, and I had a knitting day.  I've knitted my second beanie hat of the winter, this time for eldest son.  Now I am knitting youngest son some fingerless gloves, to pop into a little parcel for him, and to let him know we haven't forgetten him entirely!  I had better do some crochet too, or my crochet hook may start to feel neglected and overlooked!

I'll get my camera out later and take some pics of my work-in-progress for you to see.

Have a lovely weekend my friend, and take some time out to pamper yourself.

A Lovely Day

Today I finished work a little early and had time to walk to the wool shop and buy eight balls of the softest, scrummiest merino wool to knit a little coat as a present for someone.  I made a start on it as soon as I arrived home.  It's so soft and lovely, it practically knits itself. I felt cosy, sitting by the fire with my needles.

I've been reading "Candles in the Dark" by Amy Carmichael this week.  She was a missionary in India for 55 years, and in all those years she never returned home to the UK for a break.  She opened an orphanage and a mission there, where many children were loved and cared for over the years.  They were rescued from either death or a life of prostitution.  Children were always close to her heart.  I read this lovely piece of prose, to be taken to heart by every mother, grandmother, auntie and by every mother to be.

"To a young mother.  This morning, I was reading in Luke, and as I read of the angels' joy over the birth of our Saviour and thought of their joy over everyone born again into the Kingdom, I felt sure they rejoice over every precious little life born into a family of true lovers of our Lord.  And I thought how to each little one an angel is given.  How little we know of these heavenly things, but I do like to think of the angel prepared for your little treasure and, above all, to think of what has been prepared for that little one 'before the foundation of the world'.  How much more there is in a baby than just sweetness and the appealing innocence of baby days.  All the great thoughts of God lie behind that little life, all the great purposes.  Ephesians chapters 1 and 2 tell of these.  The more one ponders, the more one wonders."

May you have opportunities to phone, visit, or even give a hug to those who are precious to you.

It made me think also about youngest son, back at university now for another term.  On Monday morning, when I was praying for him, God gave me these wonderful words, as if they were printed in gold, just for me.

"Give your burdens to the LORD, and he will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall."

Instead of 'burdens', I inserted the names of my children here, as I prayed for them, and had a real sense of God protecting each one of them - and their parents!

God bless you my friend.

Review of 2010: Books and Reading

No review of 2010 could be complete without mentioning what I've been reading.

First of all, my Bible. 

The very best and best-loved of books.  It was written by over 40 different people, over 1500 years, in different countries, time-zones and languages, and in different genres such as law, poetry, history, prophecy and narrative, and yet study reveals the Bible to be entirely consistent in every part.  God has mercifully given us a book that provides "the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Jesus Christ" (2 Timothy 3:15)  By reading this Book, we may learn what to believe, what to be, and what to do; how to live with comfort, and how to die in peace. 

I bought this bookmark - one of my favourites - from the Priory Church at Bolton Abbey near Skipton, during our summer holiday, when I met Lucy from Attic 24

And then on to books.  My all-time favourite books are those written by Miss Read.  Miss Read, real name Dora Saint was born in 1913, and had books published most years from 1955 up to the late 1990's.  Over the years I've been collecting her books, and now I have all her novels and a few other of her books too on my bookshelf.

This is only some of them!  I have a lot more in my bedroom, and have some of them on cd or tape too.

A wider shot of our bookshelves...



Other fictional works that stood out for me in 2010 are 'Hearts and Minds' by Amanda Craig (the children's fiction reviewer of The Times) and 'The Help' by Kathryn Stockett.  I recommend them both to you.

I also love to read magazines from time to time, such as Country Living, and then another area of reading that provides me with much joy, refreshment and great interest is here...

Yes, look into the mirror my friend, I mean all your wonderful, inspiring, entertaining blogs!  Thank you for cheering my days!

Christ-centred Motherhood.

I've just been listening this morning to a sermon by John Piper on Christ-centred motherhood here.  It is very different to any other approach towards motherhood.  He says:
"Remembering the character of your godly mother is a great incentive to holding fast to the scriptures she taught you. Let’s read it so you can see this. 2 Timothy Chapter 3, Verse 14: “But as for you [Timothy], continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed”—that is, don’t give up your faith, don’t give up the scriptures, don’t give up your salvation. Then comes these crucial words referring back to Eunice and Lois: “knowing from whom you learned it.”

"In other words, Timothy, one of the ways—not the only way—one of the ways to strengthen your faith and persevere through hard times and not give up on the scriptures is to remember who introduced you to word of God and the way of salvation. Remember your mother, and your grandmother."

"So let’s make very clear: the apostle of Jesus Christ in this text bestows on motherhood and grandmotherhood a great honor. You have a calling that can become the long-remembered ground of faith, not just for your children—mark this—but for the untold numbers who will be affected by your children. And that’s in addition to all the other thousands of ripple effects of faith in your life."

John Piper ends his sermon with this lovely definition of home management:

"Home-management-  the creation of a beautiful and simple place and living organism which becomes a refuge of Christ’s peace and launching pad for God’s righteousness."

What a noble goal, to create a refuge of Christ's peace and a launching pad for god's righteousness in our busy, harried world.

Have a lovely day my friend.