Showing posts with label HOPE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HOPE. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Monday, February 3, 2014
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Jan | 01 | It's Time For A Change
HOPEIt's Time For A Change
Psalms 90:14
Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, That we may rejoice and be glad all our days!.
Many have come to this New Year with drunken revelry, with a celebration of another year of coming hedonism and selfishness, a celebration of the gaining of more toys to leave behind them when their ever-consuming bodies are being consumed in the grave by worms. In fact, for them, though their heart of hearts knows that there is little to celebrate, there is, never the less, so much more to anesthetize. You see, 'Life under the sun' continues to prove so very disappointing for the heavy consumer.
Listen:- Return, O Lord! How long? And have compassion on Your servants. Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, That we may rejoice and be glad all our days! Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us, The years in which we have seen evil. Let Your work appear to Your servants, And Your glory to their children. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, And establish the work of our hands for us; Yes, establish the work of our hands. Psalms 90:12-17 NKJV
Pray: - Father, You have been the sanctuary of Your people throughout the generations and we declare that You are in control, yes even before the mountains of this world were established; from vanishing point to vanishing point, You are God over all. You gave man his spirit and when you recall that which You have given, they return to You for judgment. So, our lives rush away like sand in an egg timer, like the crisping of new grass in the summer sun, like the lukewarm dirty water of a used bath gurgling down the plughole. Our lives are as a blink of Your eye, for with You a thousand years are as a day and we, the consumers of Your goodness, have been consumed by Your hot displeasure, and been terrified by both Your absence and Your anger and you know Lord, what scares us the most, is that all our failings are set before You like rotten rodent rat filled cakes on the white cloth of Your dinner table. Nothing is hidden from You. Time passes, and another year is graciously set before us, yet the days of our lives are seventy years, and even if by reason of our strength and technology they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labour and sorrow; For each year we see the curling leaves cut off, and the people we know, fly away. Where are You! Where is Your loving kindness? Please God, show us Your goodness, for once, yes, surprise us with it this year, and make it a like a late Christmas present, hand delivered by You even to our very door. Then You will see some revelry I can tell, for then we will dance and sing! Come on Lord! Make up for all the sad times, the bad times, the crap times gone before, ‘cause I tell You Father, we’ve had enough of disappointment, despondency and despair to last a life time and we believe it’s time for a change, a change that only You can bring. We are Your servants, so do us good, let us revel in what You are best at, and together with our kid’s, party all year long, saying and declaring to one and all in the seen and unseen worlds, GOD HAS BEEN GOOD TO US. Say Amen to this O God our Father and to all we do for You. Please. It’s time for a change.
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Monday, December 24, 2012
Dec | 24 | ‘Libera Me!’
Dream Word – HOPE
Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. NKJV
‘Libera Me’
Last night I attended a typical Christmas Carol Service. The theme of the short message began with asking the question “What do Christmas Carols say to us?” I found this to be both an interesting general question and a most penetrating personal question.
As for me, I am mostly unmoved by Christmas Carols. I can muster up just enough gusto to sing but one Christmas Carol, and that maybe but once a year! After that, my yawning boredom closes both my heart and mouth and I long for deliverance. There is however one Christmas Carol that I would love to sing daily, but am rarely able to do so.
The Carol I am referring to is most interesting because the tune is in fact taken from a Roman Catholic Requiem Mass. Yes, the tune is taken from a 15th Century French Franciscan Nun's funeral procession, which in Latin is called the ‘Libera Me’ or, ‘Deliver me.’ How appropriate for bored old me and how amusing, that thousands of jolly carollers are completely unaware that they are in fact singing a funeral dirge! Hilarious!
December 17: O Sapientia (O Wisdom)
December 18: O Adonai (O Adonai)December 19: O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse)
December 20: O Clavis David (O Key of David)
December 21: O Oriens (O Sunrise)December 22: O Rex Gentium (O King of the nations)
December 23: O Emmanuel (O Emmanuel)
Now, when taken backwards, the first letters of these seven titles form a Latin acrostic of ‘Ero Cras’ which translates in English to ‘Tomorrow, I will come.’ In Medieval times, an eighth Antiphone was added entitled ‘O Virgo Virginum’ or, ‘O Virgin of Virgins,’ with the acrostic now becoming ‘Vero Cras’ or “Truly, tomorrow I will come!” How awesomely wonderful is that!
I am telling you this tonight, because the Christmas Carol which I would like to sing every day but cannot, is the translation of a 12th Century Christian Latin text, which is thought to be a metrical version of a collation of these self same Advent Antiphones. The opening words of each stanza of my favourite Carol was originally translated “Draw Near.” Today though we are more familiar with the translation which begins, “O Come.” I rarely make it through to the end of this Carol, because my heart fails me, by producing fountains of shuddering tears as my spirit weeps in the deep and desperate longing of the fulfillment of this most marvellous of Christmas Carols.
The response of my spirit that the Carol “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” produces within me, is a deep set comfort, it tells me that though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I am in fact a child of this Great and coming King and that above all things, my deepest being longs for His sunrise to dawn upon my soul. Longs for it I tell you, until I am sick with longing. Let me ask you the same question asked of me last night then dear freind, “What do Christmas Carols say to you?”
Listen: -O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, O come, great Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Root of Jesse’s tree,
An ensign of Thy people be;
Before Thee rulers silent fall;
All peoples on Thy mercy call.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. NKJV
‘Libera Me’
Last night I attended a typical Christmas Carol Service. The theme of the short message began with asking the question “What do Christmas Carols say to us?” I found this to be both an interesting general question and a most penetrating personal question.
As for me, I am mostly unmoved by Christmas Carols. I can muster up just enough gusto to sing but one Christmas Carol, and that maybe but once a year! After that, my yawning boredom closes both my heart and mouth and I long for deliverance. There is however one Christmas Carol that I would love to sing daily, but am rarely able to do so.
The Carol I am referring to is most interesting because the tune is in fact taken from a Roman Catholic Requiem Mass. Yes, the tune is taken from a 15th Century French Franciscan Nun's funeral procession, which in Latin is called the ‘Libera Me’ or, ‘Deliver me.’ How appropriate for bored old me and how amusing, that thousands of jolly carollers are completely unaware that they are in fact singing a funeral dirge! Hilarious!
The word 'Antiphone' is made from combining two Greek words: first ‘αντί’ meaning ‘opposite,’ and then ‘φωνη’ meaning voice. Antiphone refers to two choirs singing the same musical piece, but in alternation. This style of singing is found in the early church, even in Israel of old and most definitely a copy of the heavenly form of angelic style of praise and worship. From the earliest centuries of the church these Antiphones have been sung on every Lord’s day evening and what are known as the ‘O Antiphones’, have always been sung just during the seven or eight days prior to Christmas. Each of these ‘O Antiphones’ are titled by both one of the names of Jesus and one of His attributes:
December 17: O Sapientia (O Wisdom)
December 18: O Adonai (O Adonai)December 19: O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse)
December 20: O Clavis David (O Key of David)
December 21: O Oriens (O Sunrise)December 22: O Rex Gentium (O King of the nations)
December 23: O Emmanuel (O Emmanuel)
I am telling you this tonight, because the Christmas Carol which I would like to sing every day but cannot, is the translation of a 12th Century Christian Latin text, which is thought to be a metrical version of a collation of these self same Advent Antiphones. The opening words of each stanza of my favourite Carol was originally translated “Draw Near.” Today though we are more familiar with the translation which begins, “O Come.” I rarely make it through to the end of this Carol, because my heart fails me, by producing fountains of shuddering tears as my spirit weeps in the deep and desperate longing of the fulfillment of this most marvellous of Christmas Carols.
The response of my spirit that the Carol “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” produces within me, is a deep set comfort, it tells me that though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I am in fact a child of this Great and coming King and that above all things, my deepest being longs for His sunrise to dawn upon my soul. Longs for it I tell you, until I am sick with longing. Let me ask you the same question asked of me last night then dear freind, “What do Christmas Carols say to you?”
Listen: -O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, O come, great Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Root of Jesse’s tree,
An ensign of Thy people be;
Before Thee rulers silent fall;
All peoples on Thy mercy call.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
Pray:- Deliver me, O Lord, from eternal death, on that awful day when the heavens and earth shall be shaken and you shall come to judge the world by fire. I am seized with fear and trembling until the trial is at hand and the wrath to come: when the heavens and earth shall be shaken. (The English translation of the ‘Libera Me’)
Friday, December 7, 2012
Dec | 07 | The Deeper Magic
Key Word:- HOPE
Title:- The Deeper Magic
Hebrews 12:22-24
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom is a ‘Mecca’ for those people of longing hearts, both young and old, still seeking to get some of their wishes realized and get a big white gloved ‘high four,’ which says ‘well done and welcome,’ from the big eared little mouse-man and master of ceremonies himself, Mr. Mickey Mouse.
In Disney world, profits and good business have not yet thoroughly allowed political correctness to rob the children of what is innately theirs; that is, beauty and courage. For as you trudge the happy little streets where each hour of every single day, good is seen to triumph over evil, around your grown up feet will walk ten thousand little children, the boys wielding some kind of shining sword, slaying dragons, with all the girls dressed as Cinderella, Sleeping beauty, Ariel or some other stunning princess, each one waiting eagerly for their prince to come, each one naturally, innocently, unmanaged and unreservedly playing out that which has been laid up in their hearts!
Many adults wander Mickey’s Magic Kingdom without children in tow. The only child they have with them is the one that we all carry deep inside, the one that longs for the lost summers of long ago, the lost dreams, the lost hopes, lost ‘might have beens’, lost magic, if you will. If these grown ups had the chance, most of the men even now would carry a sword and all of the older women would be dressed in waiting white, decked in colour glorious, bejeweled in sparkling splendor. Maybe the Magic of Mickey’s Kingdom for both young and old is the dream of what might have been and the hope of what might yet be?
Now, away from the fantastic fireworks, the light displays and dancing lasers, the castles and the smiling faces, let me take you to another kingdom. It is a broken one and a city there is cloaked in black and a preacher long since passed yet speaking still; aptly paints its circumstance with the thickest of brushstrokes, that we who are most familiar with lost magic might at last have a little hope. Listen to an old prince of preachers from long ago now, listen:
“Walk the streets by moonlight, if you dare, and you will see sinners then. Watch when the night is dark, and the wind is howling, and the picklock is grating in the door, and you will see sinners then. Go to yon jail, and walk through the wards, and mark the men with heavy over-hanging brows, men whom you would not like to meet at night, and there are sinners there. Go to the Reformatories, and note those who have betrayed a rampant juvenile depravity, and you will see sinners there. Go across the seas to the place where a man will gnaw a bone upon which is reeking human flesh, and there is a sinner there. Go where you will, you need not ransack earth to find sinners, for they are common enough; you may find them in every lane and street of every city, and town, and village, and hamlet. It is for such that Jesus died.
The truth that Mickey’s Magic Kingdom encapsulates and sells so gloriously, is down to the desire and hope within us all, for better things, for renewal if you will, no more than that, for redemption! We the church, at the end of the age, need to learn from this and need to re-educate ourselves on what it means to be men and women, beautiful warrior princesses, chaste and charming princes belonging to an eternal King, who has redeemed us from the Kingdom of bone gnawing darkness and despair into His glorious Kingdom of light and made us equipped, made us confident, made us surefooted, made us more than conquerors and unrelenting pursuers of the fleeing serpent.
As we approach the end of all things, the howling wind may be wrapping itself about the dark night once more in it’s cold and ever tighter grip on humanity and yes indeed, self eating, self hating men and women, lost in slavery to sin, today may still sit abused in the dark corners of satanic dungeons, but look at the scathing scene and see! SEE in each ones hand, they hold in their cupped and shaking dirty little grip, something different, something lost and something yet still hoped and longed for! It is a knowledge of better things, that still carries with it a perfume of hope that even the excrement of sin cannot thoroughly overpower. Do you smell it? HOPE!
Hope may die last in Russia, but when it is the last thing to die in a human being, that human being will die.
We who belong to Christ have this cup of hope and knowledge full to overflowing. Let’s today experientially sip from it in all its fullness and then, let’s SHOW THE DESPERATE HOW TO POSSESS it for themselves.
May God help us in this Divine mission, this caring conquest of restoring the deeper magic to a lost and lonely stinking world.
Listen:- Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case-things that accompany salvation. God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. Hebrews 6:9-12 NIV
Pray:- Someday My Father, Jesus my prince, will come. Help me to be found abounding in redemptions fullness, fighting in this Your story glorious! In His wonderful name I pray. Amen.
Title:- The Deeper Magic
Hebrews 12:22-24
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom is a ‘Mecca’ for those people of longing hearts, both young and old, still seeking to get some of their wishes realized and get a big white gloved ‘high four,’ which says ‘well done and welcome,’ from the big eared little mouse-man and master of ceremonies himself, Mr. Mickey Mouse.In Disney world, profits and good business have not yet thoroughly allowed political correctness to rob the children of what is innately theirs; that is, beauty and courage. For as you trudge the happy little streets where each hour of every single day, good is seen to triumph over evil, around your grown up feet will walk ten thousand little children, the boys wielding some kind of shining sword, slaying dragons, with all the girls dressed as Cinderella, Sleeping beauty, Ariel or some other stunning princess, each one waiting eagerly for their prince to come, each one naturally, innocently, unmanaged and unreservedly playing out that which has been laid up in their hearts!
Many adults wander Mickey’s Magic Kingdom without children in tow. The only child they have with them is the one that we all carry deep inside, the one that longs for the lost summers of long ago, the lost dreams, the lost hopes, lost ‘might have beens’, lost magic, if you will. If these grown ups had the chance, most of the men even now would carry a sword and all of the older women would be dressed in waiting white, decked in colour glorious, bejeweled in sparkling splendor. Maybe the Magic of Mickey’s Kingdom for both young and old is the dream of what might have been and the hope of what might yet be?
Now, away from the fantastic fireworks, the light displays and dancing lasers, the castles and the smiling faces, let me take you to another kingdom. It is a broken one and a city there is cloaked in black and a preacher long since passed yet speaking still; aptly paints its circumstance with the thickest of brushstrokes, that we who are most familiar with lost magic might at last have a little hope. Listen to an old prince of preachers from long ago now, listen:
“Walk the streets by moonlight, if you dare, and you will see sinners then. Watch when the night is dark, and the wind is howling, and the picklock is grating in the door, and you will see sinners then. Go to yon jail, and walk through the wards, and mark the men with heavy over-hanging brows, men whom you would not like to meet at night, and there are sinners there. Go to the Reformatories, and note those who have betrayed a rampant juvenile depravity, and you will see sinners there. Go across the seas to the place where a man will gnaw a bone upon which is reeking human flesh, and there is a sinner there. Go where you will, you need not ransack earth to find sinners, for they are common enough; you may find them in every lane and street of every city, and town, and village, and hamlet. It is for such that Jesus died.
The truth that Mickey’s Magic Kingdom encapsulates and sells so gloriously, is down to the desire and hope within us all, for better things, for renewal if you will, no more than that, for redemption! We the church, at the end of the age, need to learn from this and need to re-educate ourselves on what it means to be men and women, beautiful warrior princesses, chaste and charming princes belonging to an eternal King, who has redeemed us from the Kingdom of bone gnawing darkness and despair into His glorious Kingdom of light and made us equipped, made us confident, made us surefooted, made us more than conquerors and unrelenting pursuers of the fleeing serpent.As we approach the end of all things, the howling wind may be wrapping itself about the dark night once more in it’s cold and ever tighter grip on humanity and yes indeed, self eating, self hating men and women, lost in slavery to sin, today may still sit abused in the dark corners of satanic dungeons, but look at the scathing scene and see! SEE in each ones hand, they hold in their cupped and shaking dirty little grip, something different, something lost and something yet still hoped and longed for! It is a knowledge of better things, that still carries with it a perfume of hope that even the excrement of sin cannot thoroughly overpower. Do you smell it? HOPE!
Hope may die last in Russia, but when it is the last thing to die in a human being, that human being will die.
We who belong to Christ have this cup of hope and knowledge full to overflowing. Let’s today experientially sip from it in all its fullness and then, let’s SHOW THE DESPERATE HOW TO POSSESS it for themselves.
May God help us in this Divine mission, this caring conquest of restoring the deeper magic to a lost and lonely stinking world.
Listen:- Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case-things that accompany salvation. God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. Hebrews 6:9-12 NIV
Pray:- Someday My Father, Jesus my prince, will come. Help me to be found abounding in redemptions fullness, fighting in this Your story glorious! In His wonderful name I pray. Amen.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Dec | 06 | Not Many Days from Now
Key Word:- HOPE
Title:- Not Many Days from Now
Acts 1:5
for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.
Christopher Marlowe, was born in Canterbury, England, in 1564. A prolific writer, one of his best known poems is entitled, 'The Passionate Shepherd to his love'. Here, six stanzas of pure and pleasurable possibilities are capped with this final invitation, 'If these delights thy mind may move, Then live with me, and be my Love'.
Jesus had previously said to his disciples, 'It is to your advantage I go away, for then I shall send the Helper to you, who will guide you into all truth, speak to you what He hears from Me, and tell you of things to come. He will make sure you do not feel deserted, so that you do not live as orphans but as sons of the living God'. In other words dear friends Jesus is saying, 'If these delights thy mind may move, Then live with me, and be my Love'.
Marlowe was the prodigal son who never returned. A faker and a fugitive, Marlowe in his fleeing from God became a self made orphan who in the end, even denied God's existence. As an awful forger of gold coins he had been deported from the Netherlands and lastly as an angry fugitive, he was murdered in a bar brawl aged 29.
Aged 33 Christ our lover, our passionate shepherd was crucified for our sins, was buried, and rose again on the third day. Conquering death, He purchased our redemption, buying back all that had been lost. Everything! And to us, His beloved little lambs, He gives the Holy Spirit, the fulfillment of all the previous promises of pleasurable and pure possibilities. Dear friends, wait for whatever He has told you. For it shall surely come to pass, not many days from now.
'If these delights thy mind may move, Then live with me, and be my Love'.
Listen:-“Whatever He says to you, do it.” John 2:5
Pray:- Your delights have moved me O Lord, I want to live in You and I want to live with You and I want for You to be my love. So I will wait on You O Lord and I will hope in You forever. Amen.
Title:- Not Many Days from Now
Acts 1:5
for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.
Christopher Marlowe, was born in Canterbury, England, in 1564. A prolific writer, one of his best known poems is entitled, 'The Passionate Shepherd to his love'. Here, six stanzas of pure and pleasurable possibilities are capped with this final invitation, 'If these delights thy mind may move, Then live with me, and be my Love'.
Jesus had previously said to his disciples, 'It is to your advantage I go away, for then I shall send the Helper to you, who will guide you into all truth, speak to you what He hears from Me, and tell you of things to come. He will make sure you do not feel deserted, so that you do not live as orphans but as sons of the living God'. In other words dear friends Jesus is saying, 'If these delights thy mind may move, Then live with me, and be my Love'. Marlowe was the prodigal son who never returned. A faker and a fugitive, Marlowe in his fleeing from God became a self made orphan who in the end, even denied God's existence. As an awful forger of gold coins he had been deported from the Netherlands and lastly as an angry fugitive, he was murdered in a bar brawl aged 29.
Aged 33 Christ our lover, our passionate shepherd was crucified for our sins, was buried, and rose again on the third day. Conquering death, He purchased our redemption, buying back all that had been lost. Everything! And to us, His beloved little lambs, He gives the Holy Spirit, the fulfillment of all the previous promises of pleasurable and pure possibilities. Dear friends, wait for whatever He has told you. For it shall surely come to pass, not many days from now.
'If these delights thy mind may move, Then live with me, and be my Love'.
Listen:-“Whatever He says to you, do it.” John 2:5
Pray:- Your delights have moved me O Lord, I want to live in You and I want to live with You and I want for You to be my love. So I will wait on You O Lord and I will hope in You forever. Amen.
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Nov | 24 | Flick, Click, Crush!
Dream Word – HOPE
Ephesians 5:11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, NKJV.
Flick, Click, Crush!
When truth is set aside, men believe anything. So, for some time now at the beginning of the 21st Century, we have been bombarded by a multitude of ever growing parapsychology programming, their attractiveness being not just in their seeming entertainment value, but on their uncovering dark, hidden and malevolent forces. One of the most telling of tag lines for one these television series says something like this: “If you look into the dark, sometimes, the dark looks back!” Now this is a tag line that not only, I believe, has an ominous tone to it, but I think speaks some truth to us as well.
There are two ways to deal with darkness, that is to either Disdain it or to Discover it.
We disdain any darkness by offering to it the high and cold shoulder of our abject haughtiness. After all, what is the value of darkness, its power and its fruit, to the sons and daughters of the light? We should not investigate the darkness, stare at the scuttling cockroach or even consider its ways.
The Bible is scant on its revelation of the metaphysical and spiritual realms for a very good reason: it is a dangerous place for us to be. To that end, the Scriptures are very clear with both judgements and warnings that we should have no involvement with it whatsoever!
There are times however that we have to discover it. I do not use this verb in the sense of a continual action of going deeper into the manifestations and ways of darkness, but rather a simple click of an action of turning on the light. I am of course simply talking about the discovery which light exposure brings. Concerning the cockroaches of darkness then, when we suspect their scurrying, we should simply, flick, click and crush.
Brother, sister, live in the light and whatever you do, do not look into the darkness, for yes indeed, it will look back at you. Remember, flick, click, crush. If you don’t, your openness to them will bring infestation.
Listen: - For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says: "Awake, you who sleep,Arise from the dead,And Christ will give you light." See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God. (Ephesians 5:8-21 NKJV)
Pray:- Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. (Matthew 6:9b-13 NKJV )
Ephesians 5:11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, NKJV.
Flick, Click, Crush!
When truth is set aside, men believe anything. So, for some time now at the beginning of the 21st Century, we have been bombarded by a multitude of ever growing parapsychology programming, their attractiveness being not just in their seeming entertainment value, but on their uncovering dark, hidden and malevolent forces. One of the most telling of tag lines for one these television series says something like this: “If you look into the dark, sometimes, the dark looks back!” Now this is a tag line that not only, I believe, has an ominous tone to it, but I think speaks some truth to us as well.There are two ways to deal with darkness, that is to either Disdain it or to Discover it.
We disdain any darkness by offering to it the high and cold shoulder of our abject haughtiness. After all, what is the value of darkness, its power and its fruit, to the sons and daughters of the light? We should not investigate the darkness, stare at the scuttling cockroach or even consider its ways.
The Bible is scant on its revelation of the metaphysical and spiritual realms for a very good reason: it is a dangerous place for us to be. To that end, the Scriptures are very clear with both judgements and warnings that we should have no involvement with it whatsoever!There are times however that we have to discover it. I do not use this verb in the sense of a continual action of going deeper into the manifestations and ways of darkness, but rather a simple click of an action of turning on the light. I am of course simply talking about the discovery which light exposure brings. Concerning the cockroaches of darkness then, when we suspect their scurrying, we should simply, flick, click and crush.
Brother, sister, live in the light and whatever you do, do not look into the darkness, for yes indeed, it will look back at you. Remember, flick, click, crush. If you don’t, your openness to them will bring infestation.
Listen: - For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says: "Awake, you who sleep,Arise from the dead,And Christ will give you light." See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God. (Ephesians 5:8-21 NKJV)
Pray:- Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. (Matthew 6:9b-13 NKJV )
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Nov | 20 | One Foot In The Grave
Dream Word – HOPE
Genesis 3:19 “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.” NKJV
One Foot In The Grave
The South of France has always been a place for British ‘Ex Pats,’ seeking solace in the sun. It was a few years ago when I flew into Nice on that same Cote D’Azur and it is here in this 2000 year old French city, that the Anglican church there has one of its most famous of European churches. For me the beauties of ‘Holy Trinity’ lies not in its Neo-Gothic majesty or in its rich stained glass, lit majestically above the high altar warmed by the afternoon sun, but rather it is outside, in the green graveyard where lies the mortal remains of a famous Scottish Poet. Today in 1847, the Revd. Henry Francis Lyte died of tuberculosis and was buried in the cemetery of Holy Trinity, Nice.
Since 1927, along with the British National anthem, millions of cheering fans at each and every Football Association Cup Final have sung Lyte’s most famous of poems. How wonderful is that! Indeed, it is even more wonderful when you understand the life that this man led, for it was indeed a life ever and always lived with one foot in the grave.
Evelyne Millar writes of the second son of Captain Tomas Lyte of the Royal Marines. Henry, born in Scotland, together with his mother and two siblings, followed his father to Ireland. Captain Lyte had been sent there to help put down the 1798 Irish rebellion. Shortly after this, his father deserted the family taking with him Henry’s older brother, whilst his mother returned to England with his other brother. There they died and Henry aged nine years of age was left in Ireland, alone and destitute.
It was the headmaster of his school, Revd. Dr Robert Burrows, who took pity on young Henry, taking him in and caring for him even to the point of paying for his education. Henry, whilst at trinity College Dublin, was awarded the Chancellor's Prize for English Verse for three successive years!
Henry was ordained into the ministry and worked so fervently at his parochial duties and writing that he wore himself out and contracted a lung disease that would bother him the rest of his life. Indeed, it was his doctor that told him, that if he did not seek easier and warmer climates, he would die. Throughout his life he would spend long and torturous absences from his duties and family, whilst recovering from these recurring bouts of debilitating illness.
Henry’s final Parish was Brixham on the South Coast of England where he served the last twenty- three years of his life, living always with one foot in the grave. Ministering to the sailors of his parish he wrote them hymn books, prayers to be said whilst at sea and of course, sea chanties!
It was just three weeks before his death that he penned his most famous of poems and he sent the finished manuscript to his wife, from Avignon in France. It seemed he knew it was very unlikely that he would ever return home. The poem was first sung at his memorial service, which was held at his home parish in Brixham and from the lips of a man who spent all his life with one foot in the grave, we have left for us one of the most immortal and moving of prayers and lifes observances which ever flowed from the pen and heart of man in love with God, despite the sorrows of his life.
Listen: - May Lyte’s most famous poem, be our daily and most ardent prayer.
Pray: - Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.
Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim; its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.
Not a brief glance I beg, a passing word;
But as Thou dwell’st with Thy disciples, Lord,
Familiar, condescending, patient, free.
Come not to sojourn, but abide with me.
Come not in terrors, as the King of kings,
But kind and good, with healing in Thy wings,
Tears for all woes, a heart for every plea—
Come, Friend of sinners, and thus bide with me.
Thou on my head in early youth didst smile;
And, though rebellious and perverse meanwhile,
Thou hast not left me, oft as I left Thee,
On to the close, O Lord, abide with me.
I need Thy presence every passing hour.
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.
I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.
Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.
Genesis 3:19 “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.” NKJV
One Foot In The Grave
The South of France has always been a place for British ‘Ex Pats,’ seeking solace in the sun. It was a few years ago when I flew into Nice on that same Cote D’Azur and it is here in this 2000 year old French city, that the Anglican church there has one of its most famous of European churches. For me the beauties of ‘Holy Trinity’ lies not in its Neo-Gothic majesty or in its rich stained glass, lit majestically above the high altar warmed by the afternoon sun, but rather it is outside, in the green graveyard where lies the mortal remains of a famous Scottish Poet. Today in 1847, the Revd. Henry Francis Lyte died of tuberculosis and was buried in the cemetery of Holy Trinity, Nice.Since 1927, along with the British National anthem, millions of cheering fans at each and every Football Association Cup Final have sung Lyte’s most famous of poems. How wonderful is that! Indeed, it is even more wonderful when you understand the life that this man led, for it was indeed a life ever and always lived with one foot in the grave.
Evelyne Millar writes of the second son of Captain Tomas Lyte of the Royal Marines. Henry, born in Scotland, together with his mother and two siblings, followed his father to Ireland. Captain Lyte had been sent there to help put down the 1798 Irish rebellion. Shortly after this, his father deserted the family taking with him Henry’s older brother, whilst his mother returned to England with his other brother. There they died and Henry aged nine years of age was left in Ireland, alone and destitute.
It was the headmaster of his school, Revd. Dr Robert Burrows, who took pity on young Henry, taking him in and caring for him even to the point of paying for his education. Henry, whilst at trinity College Dublin, was awarded the Chancellor's Prize for English Verse for three successive years!
Henry was ordained into the ministry and worked so fervently at his parochial duties and writing that he wore himself out and contracted a lung disease that would bother him the rest of his life. Indeed, it was his doctor that told him, that if he did not seek easier and warmer climates, he would die. Throughout his life he would spend long and torturous absences from his duties and family, whilst recovering from these recurring bouts of debilitating illness.
Henry’s final Parish was Brixham on the South Coast of England where he served the last twenty- three years of his life, living always with one foot in the grave. Ministering to the sailors of his parish he wrote them hymn books, prayers to be said whilst at sea and of course, sea chanties!
It was just three weeks before his death that he penned his most famous of poems and he sent the finished manuscript to his wife, from Avignon in France. It seemed he knew it was very unlikely that he would ever return home. The poem was first sung at his memorial service, which was held at his home parish in Brixham and from the lips of a man who spent all his life with one foot in the grave, we have left for us one of the most immortal and moving of prayers and lifes observances which ever flowed from the pen and heart of man in love with God, despite the sorrows of his life.
Listen: - May Lyte’s most famous poem, be our daily and most ardent prayer.
Pray: - Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.
Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim; its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.
Not a brief glance I beg, a passing word;
But as Thou dwell’st with Thy disciples, Lord,
Familiar, condescending, patient, free.
Come not to sojourn, but abide with me.
Come not in terrors, as the King of kings,
But kind and good, with healing in Thy wings,
Tears for all woes, a heart for every plea—
Come, Friend of sinners, and thus bide with me.
Thou on my head in early youth didst smile;
And, though rebellious and perverse meanwhile,
Thou hast not left me, oft as I left Thee,
On to the close, O Lord, abide with me.
I need Thy presence every passing hour.
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.
I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.
Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Nov | 12 | Finding the Fragments
Key Word:- HOPE
Title:- Finding the Fragments
Micah 7:8 Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; When I fall, I will arise; When I sit in darkness, The LORD will be a light to me.
Only God can put together a broken person.
My dog ‘Patch’ knew when I was coming home from school. His internal clock ticked away, accurate to a second and led to expectant barking each weekday at 3:30pm. My dad, then ill and laid off work, let him out that day to come and greet me. Now my Patch was a clever dog but had never been to traffic school. I found him dead at the side of my road home. It broke my heart.
My dad should have known better, as this wasn't my dog's first clash with traffic. The last time had led to his back leg being torn wide open. Then, Patch returned home bent and bloody and somehow, limped up the stairs and into the house, dragging his brokenness behind him. Then crawling under the bed, he protected himself as best he could, settled and staring, looking out and licking his gaping wound. Any approach, even from me, led to bared teeth, snarling snapping and grievous growling. It was some time before we could approach the hurt him, recover him and rescue him; remove him to a better place of help. Wounded animals, are very dangerous you know. Very hurt indeed.
I wonder dear friend, if today you are reading this from somewhere underneath a bed. Your wound, open red and gaping, seeping with hurt before your weeping eyes. I’m so sorry for your pain. So very sorry. “Hush little baby, don’t you cry.” For when everyone is against you, God is for You. When everyone derides you, God shall comfort you. When everyone deserts you, God shall stick with you. When you are leprous and untouchable, God shall reach out and embrace you. When all that you held dear lays shattered at your feet, God shall help you put it together again. When you, yes your very being, when all that you thought you were, is blasted, unpicked, broken and fragmented beyond description, before your little feet, God shall put you together again. There is a hidden path that you have yet to find, and Jesus shall place your shaking feet upon it. Be sure of that dear one.
He shall pick you up, put you together again, dust you off, renew, refresh, re-commission you, strengthen you with angels food for the journey, (far more substantial than any Elven loaf could ever be) and filled with hope and fresh futures, He shall direct you to lands yet travelled; where deserts are turned into gardens and darkness is banished by the light of His felt and manifest love; where you're present cramped places are pushed into wide open prairies, and you shall yet live again dear friend. You shall yet live again.
Lori Chaffer of ‘Waterdeep’ leads us, the fallen, to the elixir of heaven’s love, fizzing with hope, in the lyrics of her song entitled, ‘HUSH’
When you thought you could rest
But you found out you were wrong
And there’s another need another battle
Another one more thing that comes along
And on the inside you hear the fall
But you hate the falling sound
And on the inside you can’t
Pick another broken piece up off of the ground
Well I know
Hush little baby don’t say a word
Daddy’s gone and bought you a great big heaven to rest in
He’s bought it with blood and put the seal in you hearts
It’ll give you the hope you need to get up and start again; again and again,
Today dear friend, let go of the dead and cling to what’s alive.
Listen:- “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.” John 14:1-4
Pray: - I will say to God my Rock, “Why have You forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
As with a breaking of my bones, My enemies reproach me, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God. Psalm 42:9-11
Title:- Finding the Fragments
Micah 7:8 Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; When I fall, I will arise; When I sit in darkness, The LORD will be a light to me.
Only God can put together a broken person.My dog ‘Patch’ knew when I was coming home from school. His internal clock ticked away, accurate to a second and led to expectant barking each weekday at 3:30pm. My dad, then ill and laid off work, let him out that day to come and greet me. Now my Patch was a clever dog but had never been to traffic school. I found him dead at the side of my road home. It broke my heart.
My dad should have known better, as this wasn't my dog's first clash with traffic. The last time had led to his back leg being torn wide open. Then, Patch returned home bent and bloody and somehow, limped up the stairs and into the house, dragging his brokenness behind him. Then crawling under the bed, he protected himself as best he could, settled and staring, looking out and licking his gaping wound. Any approach, even from me, led to bared teeth, snarling snapping and grievous growling. It was some time before we could approach the hurt him, recover him and rescue him; remove him to a better place of help. Wounded animals, are very dangerous you know. Very hurt indeed.
I wonder dear friend, if today you are reading this from somewhere underneath a bed. Your wound, open red and gaping, seeping with hurt before your weeping eyes. I’m so sorry for your pain. So very sorry. “Hush little baby, don’t you cry.” For when everyone is against you, God is for You. When everyone derides you, God shall comfort you. When everyone deserts you, God shall stick with you. When you are leprous and untouchable, God shall reach out and embrace you. When all that you held dear lays shattered at your feet, God shall help you put it together again. When you, yes your very being, when all that you thought you were, is blasted, unpicked, broken and fragmented beyond description, before your little feet, God shall put you together again. There is a hidden path that you have yet to find, and Jesus shall place your shaking feet upon it. Be sure of that dear one.
He shall pick you up, put you together again, dust you off, renew, refresh, re-commission you, strengthen you with angels food for the journey, (far more substantial than any Elven loaf could ever be) and filled with hope and fresh futures, He shall direct you to lands yet travelled; where deserts are turned into gardens and darkness is banished by the light of His felt and manifest love; where you're present cramped places are pushed into wide open prairies, and you shall yet live again dear friend. You shall yet live again.
Lori Chaffer of ‘Waterdeep’ leads us, the fallen, to the elixir of heaven’s love, fizzing with hope, in the lyrics of her song entitled, ‘HUSH’
When you thought you could rest
But you found out you were wrong
And there’s another need another battle
Another one more thing that comes along
And on the inside you hear the fall
But you hate the falling sound
And on the inside you can’t
Pick another broken piece up off of the ground
Well I know
Hush little baby don’t say a word
Daddy’s gone and bought you a great big heaven to rest in
He’s bought it with blood and put the seal in you hearts
It’ll give you the hope you need to get up and start again; again and again,
Today dear friend, let go of the dead and cling to what’s alive.
Listen:- “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.” John 14:1-4
Pray: - I will say to God my Rock, “Why have You forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
As with a breaking of my bones, My enemies reproach me, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God. Psalm 42:9-11
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Nov | 06 | How To Unseat The Heavy Horsemen of Hopelessness With Keys
Key Word:- HOPE
Title:- How To Unseat The Heavy Horsemen of Hopelessness Using Keys!
Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick....
“When all hope was lost; he invented it.” So goes the tag line to the 1999 American remake of Frank Beyers ‘Jakob der Lugner’ or ‘Jacob the Liar.’
Robin Williams plays the part of the fictitious Jakob Heym, a poor café owner and Polish Jew held captive and dying in the Warsaw ghetto. His friend, professor and local medical practitioner Dr Kirshbaum, reports to Jakob of a distinct drop in the suicide rate since Jakob reported hearing a favourable report on the radio about Allied troop advancements. The word goes out that Jakob has a secret radio and in turn, Jakob is forced into making up even more favourable but false reports to keep people alive in the ghetto, for he has no radio and never had! Even so, the brutalised ghetto population has gained hope through Jakob’s lies and so begins to hang on to the what little life it has. Maybe there is a way out of their hell? Jakob lies to give people hope and keep them alive.
The film, though set around a fictitious character is never the less rooted in both twentieth century atrocity and a timeless truth. “People cannot live without hope.” Just yesterday I met a remarkable man who had shot himself in the foot, he told me that he “had heard of other people dying of non life-threatening flesh wounds just because they told themselves they were going to die. So when I accidentily shot myself I just kept telling myself you are not going to die, you are not going to die.” And die he didn’t! Hope you see, is life itself to many injured folk.
Bunyan in that other timeless classic ‘Pilgrims Progress’ has the giant named ‘Despair’ take the characters ‘Christian’ and ‘Hopeful’ into his castle-yard, and show them the high pile of other pilgrim’s bones that had failed to escape his clutches. “These,” said he, “were pilgrims, as you are, once, and they trespassed on my grounds, as you have done; and when I thought fit I tore them in pieces; and so within ten days I will do to you: get you down to your den again.” And with that, says John Bunyan, he beat them all the way thither. They lay, therefore, all day on Saturday in a lamentable case, as before. Now, when night was come, and when Mrs. Diffidence and her husband the giant was got to bed, they began to renew their discourse of their prisoners; and withal, the old giant wondered that he could neither by his blows nor counsel bring them to an end. And with that his wife replied, “I fear”, said she, “that they live in hopes that some will come to relieve them;”
Dear Christian friend, if you have no hope in the betterment of your circumstance, if you have no hope of the redemption of your situation, your are in a most pitiable condition and may I tell you that you have undoubtedly been blinded by the enemy and robbed of your inheritance as well as made to suffer for the pure purpose of his own demonic pleasure. Enough, it’s time to flee doubting castle and giant despair! You need that hope you have lost and as a child of God you have every reason to both possess it and to live off it, for hope is your inalienable right and your most reasonable expectation.
This is the second time I have spoken about this despairing kind of hopelessness this year. My reason for doing so, is that I have observed HOPELESSNESS to be a most effective weapon of the enemy, that is consistently brought against the sons and daughters of the Most High God. Hopeless and miserable Christians are an open show of shame in the heavenlies. The enemy delights in such degradation and it is this time of year, this time of autumnal endings and preparations for winter, when the monsters of misery seem to leave that foul pit and plunder the promises left lying around by us lackadaisical Christians. Enough of that! Enough of it!
Recovered hope is the only solution to your despair and is as easy to get as it is difficult to apply.
First, reach into the bosom of your own heart and find the promises of God laid up for you there. He has spoken to you in the past. Remember those words?
Now secondly, reach into the Scriptures and seek out all those words which are “yes” and "let it be so in Christ Jesus.” In other words, take His promises declared to you in the Bible and stick them in your dark dungeons door lock and turn hard. Put some effort into your belief, even get a friend to help you if needs be, even get a giant slayer to pray with you maybe, for sometimes these oppressive monsters of despair almost need crow barring off the backs of beleaguered pilgrims. Yes sometimes we even need deliverance from these oppressive menaces. The lock might be hard, but it must be turned with the keys of promise.
When hope comes through that promise opened door, so comes in the light; when light comes, so comes deliverance; when deliverance comes, then comes life and joy and fruitfulness. Real hope is only contained in the promises of God made toward you in both the Scriptures and in your heart. Go find all those keys of promise for you must have hope to live! Come on now, you can do it! For if lies can keep thousands alive, then how much for the truth can make you live again.
Listen:- Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12
Pray: - Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your tabernacle. Then I will go to the altar of God, To God my exceeding joy; And on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God. Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God. Psalm 43:3-5
Title:- How To Unseat The Heavy Horsemen of Hopelessness Using Keys!
Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick....
“When all hope was lost; he invented it.” So goes the tag line to the 1999 American remake of Frank Beyers ‘Jakob der Lugner’ or ‘Jacob the Liar.’
Robin Williams plays the part of the fictitious Jakob Heym, a poor café owner and Polish Jew held captive and dying in the Warsaw ghetto. His friend, professor and local medical practitioner Dr Kirshbaum, reports to Jakob of a distinct drop in the suicide rate since Jakob reported hearing a favourable report on the radio about Allied troop advancements. The word goes out that Jakob has a secret radio and in turn, Jakob is forced into making up even more favourable but false reports to keep people alive in the ghetto, for he has no radio and never had! Even so, the brutalised ghetto population has gained hope through Jakob’s lies and so begins to hang on to the what little life it has. Maybe there is a way out of their hell? Jakob lies to give people hope and keep them alive.The film, though set around a fictitious character is never the less rooted in both twentieth century atrocity and a timeless truth. “People cannot live without hope.” Just yesterday I met a remarkable man who had shot himself in the foot, he told me that he “had heard of other people dying of non life-threatening flesh wounds just because they told themselves they were going to die. So when I accidentily shot myself I just kept telling myself you are not going to die, you are not going to die.” And die he didn’t! Hope you see, is life itself to many injured folk.
Bunyan in that other timeless classic ‘Pilgrims Progress’ has the giant named ‘Despair’ take the characters ‘Christian’ and ‘Hopeful’ into his castle-yard, and show them the high pile of other pilgrim’s bones that had failed to escape his clutches. “These,” said he, “were pilgrims, as you are, once, and they trespassed on my grounds, as you have done; and when I thought fit I tore them in pieces; and so within ten days I will do to you: get you down to your den again.” And with that, says John Bunyan, he beat them all the way thither. They lay, therefore, all day on Saturday in a lamentable case, as before. Now, when night was come, and when Mrs. Diffidence and her husband the giant was got to bed, they began to renew their discourse of their prisoners; and withal, the old giant wondered that he could neither by his blows nor counsel bring them to an end. And with that his wife replied, “I fear”, said she, “that they live in hopes that some will come to relieve them;”Dear Christian friend, if you have no hope in the betterment of your circumstance, if you have no hope of the redemption of your situation, your are in a most pitiable condition and may I tell you that you have undoubtedly been blinded by the enemy and robbed of your inheritance as well as made to suffer for the pure purpose of his own demonic pleasure. Enough, it’s time to flee doubting castle and giant despair! You need that hope you have lost and as a child of God you have every reason to both possess it and to live off it, for hope is your inalienable right and your most reasonable expectation.
This is the second time I have spoken about this despairing kind of hopelessness this year. My reason for doing so, is that I have observed HOPELESSNESS to be a most effective weapon of the enemy, that is consistently brought against the sons and daughters of the Most High God. Hopeless and miserable Christians are an open show of shame in the heavenlies. The enemy delights in such degradation and it is this time of year, this time of autumnal endings and preparations for winter, when the monsters of misery seem to leave that foul pit and plunder the promises left lying around by us lackadaisical Christians. Enough of that! Enough of it!
Recovered hope is the only solution to your despair and is as easy to get as it is difficult to apply.
First, reach into the bosom of your own heart and find the promises of God laid up for you there. He has spoken to you in the past. Remember those words?
Now secondly, reach into the Scriptures and seek out all those words which are “yes” and "let it be so in Christ Jesus.” In other words, take His promises declared to you in the Bible and stick them in your dark dungeons door lock and turn hard. Put some effort into your belief, even get a friend to help you if needs be, even get a giant slayer to pray with you maybe, for sometimes these oppressive monsters of despair almost need crow barring off the backs of beleaguered pilgrims. Yes sometimes we even need deliverance from these oppressive menaces. The lock might be hard, but it must be turned with the keys of promise.
When hope comes through that promise opened door, so comes in the light; when light comes, so comes deliverance; when deliverance comes, then comes life and joy and fruitfulness. Real hope is only contained in the promises of God made toward you in both the Scriptures and in your heart. Go find all those keys of promise for you must have hope to live! Come on now, you can do it! For if lies can keep thousands alive, then how much for the truth can make you live again.
Listen:- Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12
Pray: - Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your tabernacle. Then I will go to the altar of God, To God my exceeding joy; And on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God. Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God. Psalm 43:3-5
Monday, November 5, 2012
Nov | 05 | Of Angels Of Protection & Pyramids of Hope
Key Word:- HOPE
Title:- Of Angels of Protection & Pyramids of Hope
Ezekiel 36:11 I will make you inhabited as in former times, and do better for you than at your beginnings. Then you shall know that I am the LORD.
I come from a mining community. A town once circled by pit head shafts and rotating wheels, dropping men like moles, into the deep darkness to dig out that black burning fossil called coal.
Just around the corner from I where I lived, Poolsbrook was once a grim dormitory village for “off shift” workers, and like a frightened puppy, lay submissively on it’s bony back, its bent little legs upright and quivering beneath the menacing, grey and growing, slithering slagheaps, whimpering prayers that the terrors of Aberfaan might not visit them there one too wet Tuesday.
Poolsbrook held the felt persona of the ruined black-faced miners, returning to the surface; always coughing, always tired and sweaty, spitting up its own blood in coal dusted coated phlegm. I always remember moving through it quickly, for Poolsbrook, was never a place to stay but always somewhere to pass through and for any youngster born there, growing up under the coal slack grey, Poolsbrook was always somewhere to get out of.
The final closing of the coal industry prefixed by long and running, scabby battles with bussed in policemen, meant in the late 1980’s the village finally rolled over and seemingly breathed its last, leaving the scene, raped, ripped and ravaged. The last turn of the pithead wheel ushered in all the terrors of mass unemployment witnessed at the end of the 20th century: collapse of community, splits in family, spliffs of dope and a deluge of desperateness, drugs and crime, together with a dark felt hopelessness and huge male teenage suicide.
Friends, I paint this grim picture today for three reasons. First because that is the way I remember Poolsbrook as a child. Secondly because in my brief visits back after the long miners strike in the 1980’s, that is what I witnessed there, but thirdly and most remarkably, because from the distance of the 21st century, Poolsbrook seems to live again!
Over the years, government inward investment and redevelopment have led to the building of a pyramid which will be taller than that other recent sign of renewal and rejuvenation ‘The Angel of the North’. Both monuments at the heart of governement killed communities are testimonies to an attempt at successful change and area revitalization. The Poolsbrook pyramid will be seen by millions, as that major artery of transportation, the MI motorway, winds its way through that once industrialized Derbyshire. My oh my how do things change!
Laying aside the politics and maybe poor choice of spending, the message of this pyramid is of change and hope. Imagine if, twenty-five years ago, you had grabbed a youngster bouncing his ball against the walls of the grey, back to back houses and whispered in his ears that as a man he would see a preaching pyramid shouting in his fields! I tell you, he would not have believed you but now to all who see this pyramid, it shouts with defiance and thankfulness for the village of Poolsbrook saying, “We stand for something! We are not forsaken or forgotten! We are not dead! Life lives here!” So, Poolsbrook today, like Egypt of old, has now its pyramid. Who would have believed it!?
Fellow Christian, destitute, empty and distraught. I speak to you today my friend and remind you of the goodness of God our Father, who is always more willing to bless than to blast. The light at the end of the tunnel is not a train, but His goodness speeding toward you. So walk among your ruins; repent where necessary and begin to believe that God is good and is in the business of such royal redemption, that from your heart of faith you may write upon your fallen towers and salted fields now flooded with grief, these true
and remarkable words: bigger, better, best! The ruins of your life marked by devastation all around you, all stinking with the stench of loss and the lethargy, can all be rebuilt, rediscovered re-invigorated and renewed with strength, yes, they can be made more beautiful than before; can be better, bigger, best. Do you not know that the latter things of God are always better than the first? Do you not know that God’s gifts given later are always better bigger and longer lasting than the first gifts given? You see dear friend, restoration, renewal and redemption are all in the hands of our gracious God, who delights to paint your life afresh in these, His glorious colours three. Look in your forgotten fields for I tell you that in God, the best is always yet to come and who knows, someone may have placed a protecting angel or planted a shouting pyramid there for all the world to see? Stranger things have happened!
Listen:- For indeed I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown. I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, all of it; and the cities shall be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt. I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bear young; I will make you inhabited as in former times, and do better for you than at your beginnings. Then you shall know that I am the LORD. Ezekiel 36:9-12
Pray: - Oh God of New Beginnings, begin again in me today, in Jesus name I pray, amen.
ADDENDUM | I hear that Governement Cut Backs means that as of 2010 - the Pyramid will never be built!
Title:- Of Angels of Protection & Pyramids of Hope
Ezekiel 36:11 I will make you inhabited as in former times, and do better for you than at your beginnings. Then you shall know that I am the LORD.
I come from a mining community. A town once circled by pit head shafts and rotating wheels, dropping men like moles, into the deep darkness to dig out that black burning fossil called coal.
Just around the corner from I where I lived, Poolsbrook was once a grim dormitory village for “off shift” workers, and like a frightened puppy, lay submissively on it’s bony back, its bent little legs upright and quivering beneath the menacing, grey and growing, slithering slagheaps, whimpering prayers that the terrors of Aberfaan might not visit them there one too wet Tuesday.Poolsbrook held the felt persona of the ruined black-faced miners, returning to the surface; always coughing, always tired and sweaty, spitting up its own blood in coal dusted coated phlegm. I always remember moving through it quickly, for Poolsbrook, was never a place to stay but always somewhere to pass through and for any youngster born there, growing up under the coal slack grey, Poolsbrook was always somewhere to get out of.
The final closing of the coal industry prefixed by long and running, scabby battles with bussed in policemen, meant in the late 1980’s the village finally rolled over and seemingly breathed its last, leaving the scene, raped, ripped and ravaged. The last turn of the pithead wheel ushered in all the terrors of mass unemployment witnessed at the end of the 20th century: collapse of community, splits in family, spliffs of dope and a deluge of desperateness, drugs and crime, together with a dark felt hopelessness and huge male teenage suicide.
Friends, I paint this grim picture today for three reasons. First because that is the way I remember Poolsbrook as a child. Secondly because in my brief visits back after the long miners strike in the 1980’s, that is what I witnessed there, but thirdly and most remarkably, because from the distance of the 21st century, Poolsbrook seems to live again!
Over the years, government inward investment and redevelopment have led to the building of a pyramid which will be taller than that other recent sign of renewal and rejuvenation ‘The Angel of the North’. Both monuments at the heart of governement killed communities are testimonies to an attempt at successful change and area revitalization. The Poolsbrook pyramid will be seen by millions, as that major artery of transportation, the MI motorway, winds its way through that once industrialized Derbyshire. My oh my how do things change!
Laying aside the politics and maybe poor choice of spending, the message of this pyramid is of change and hope. Imagine if, twenty-five years ago, you had grabbed a youngster bouncing his ball against the walls of the grey, back to back houses and whispered in his ears that as a man he would see a preaching pyramid shouting in his fields! I tell you, he would not have believed you but now to all who see this pyramid, it shouts with defiance and thankfulness for the village of Poolsbrook saying, “We stand for something! We are not forsaken or forgotten! We are not dead! Life lives here!” So, Poolsbrook today, like Egypt of old, has now its pyramid. Who would have believed it!?Fellow Christian, destitute, empty and distraught. I speak to you today my friend and remind you of the goodness of God our Father, who is always more willing to bless than to blast. The light at the end of the tunnel is not a train, but His goodness speeding toward you. So walk among your ruins; repent where necessary and begin to believe that God is good and is in the business of such royal redemption, that from your heart of faith you may write upon your fallen towers and salted fields now flooded with grief, these true
and remarkable words: bigger, better, best! The ruins of your life marked by devastation all around you, all stinking with the stench of loss and the lethargy, can all be rebuilt, rediscovered re-invigorated and renewed with strength, yes, they can be made more beautiful than before; can be better, bigger, best. Do you not know that the latter things of God are always better than the first? Do you not know that God’s gifts given later are always better bigger and longer lasting than the first gifts given? You see dear friend, restoration, renewal and redemption are all in the hands of our gracious God, who delights to paint your life afresh in these, His glorious colours three. Look in your forgotten fields for I tell you that in God, the best is always yet to come and who knows, someone may have placed a protecting angel or planted a shouting pyramid there for all the world to see? Stranger things have happened! Listen:- For indeed I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown. I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, all of it; and the cities shall be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt. I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bear young; I will make you inhabited as in former times, and do better for you than at your beginnings. Then you shall know that I am the LORD. Ezekiel 36:9-12
Pray: - Oh God of New Beginnings, begin again in me today, in Jesus name I pray, amen.
ADDENDUM | I hear that Governement Cut Backs means that as of 2010 - the Pyramid will never be built!
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Oct | 30 | 'Decisive' of Tunbridge Wells
Dream Word – HOPE
Matthew 9:11-13 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, "Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" When Jesus heard that, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ' NKJV.
‘Decisive’ of Tunbridge Wells
I once lived in Tunbridge Wells, which has often been referred to as the ‘Spiritual home of Middle England,’ that is, the home of the presumed right wing views of middle class, mainstream, non-urban white folks. In light of this, it was the satirical magazine ‘Private Eye,’ who in its playfully constructed, obsessively and excessively complaining ‘letters to the editor,’ always signed them off with mock outrage as ‘Yours faithfully, DISGUSTED of Tunbridge Wells.’ Mock social outrage is of course hilarious! Mock religious outrage born out of a lifetime of fat slumber is however, absolutely anything but funny, for it is both in and of itself a mockery.
In this mad world in which we presently live, in this end of the age relationship freak show, this silicon side show of drug induced enhancement and totally spiritually disenfranchised and demonised societies, I am afraid we need to lay aside any semblance of an attitude which lifts its nose, and shakes its head while writing letters to the Evangelical Times signed by ‘Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells.’ For many years far too many folk have done nothing to remedy our societies worsening situation and so really, just how can we act so disgusted? What right do we have?
I wonder if it is at all possible for us to be shocked anymore? No, I didn’t think so. Therefore do not act shocked. Therefore do not feign religious disgust. It will do no good anyhow. Rather, guard yourself and become an exemplary point of moral reference. Rather, gird yourself with grace and stoop to conquer. Rather, go into all this mad and messy world and preach the Gospel to every crazy creature you will come across.
Don’t be disgusted but be decisive about doing something about our society for it is most certainly sick and in great need of the great Physician. Oh and by the way, He shall do those house calls through you! So, are you ready for the sacrifice? Yes, are you ready to call sinners to repentance? Are you learning what this means?
Listen: - I desire mercy and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." (Matthew 9:13b NKJV)
Pray:- Lord, help us not to feign disgust anymore, but rather fight so compassionately that we would become the beacons of direction, the samples of redemption that this old world most desperately needs. I decide to wake up tonight then! Yes, I decide to take action tonight then, and so on the morrow, become the medic with the medicine even the carer with the call to repentance, sacrificing myself for the salvation of others, seeking Your mercy, sowing in hope and striving for goodness sake.
Yours forever, ‘Decisive’ of Tunbridge Wells.
Matthew 9:11-13 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, "Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" When Jesus heard that, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ' NKJV.
‘Decisive’ of Tunbridge Wells
I once lived in Tunbridge Wells, which has often been referred to as the ‘Spiritual home of Middle England,’ that is, the home of the presumed right wing views of middle class, mainstream, non-urban white folks. In light of this, it was the satirical magazine ‘Private Eye,’ who in its playfully constructed, obsessively and excessively complaining ‘letters to the editor,’ always signed them off with mock outrage as ‘Yours faithfully, DISGUSTED of Tunbridge Wells.’ Mock social outrage is of course hilarious! Mock religious outrage born out of a lifetime of fat slumber is however, absolutely anything but funny, for it is both in and of itself a mockery.In this mad world in which we presently live, in this end of the age relationship freak show, this silicon side show of drug induced enhancement and totally spiritually disenfranchised and demonised societies, I am afraid we need to lay aside any semblance of an attitude which lifts its nose, and shakes its head while writing letters to the Evangelical Times signed by ‘Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells.’ For many years far too many folk have done nothing to remedy our societies worsening situation and so really, just how can we act so disgusted? What right do we have?
I wonder if it is at all possible for us to be shocked anymore? No, I didn’t think so. Therefore do not act shocked. Therefore do not feign religious disgust. It will do no good anyhow. Rather, guard yourself and become an exemplary point of moral reference. Rather, gird yourself with grace and stoop to conquer. Rather, go into all this mad and messy world and preach the Gospel to every crazy creature you will come across.
Don’t be disgusted but be decisive about doing something about our society for it is most certainly sick and in great need of the great Physician. Oh and by the way, He shall do those house calls through you! So, are you ready for the sacrifice? Yes, are you ready to call sinners to repentance? Are you learning what this means?
Listen: - I desire mercy and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." (Matthew 9:13b NKJV)
Pray:- Lord, help us not to feign disgust anymore, but rather fight so compassionately that we would become the beacons of direction, the samples of redemption that this old world most desperately needs. I decide to wake up tonight then! Yes, I decide to take action tonight then, and so on the morrow, become the medic with the medicine even the carer with the call to repentance, sacrificing myself for the salvation of others, seeking Your mercy, sowing in hope and striving for goodness sake.
Yours forever, ‘Decisive’ of Tunbridge Wells.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Oct | 24 | The Devil’s Arse
Key Word:- HOPE
Title:- The Devil’s Arse
1 Kings 19:9 And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
I come from limestone country. The beautiful Peak District of Derbyshire contains some of the most magnificent caves in the world. Indeed, ‘Blue John’ a beautiful fluor-spar is only found in Castleton, the ‘Gem of the Peaks’. In this same town lies the 11th century Norman Castle of Peveril. Directly beneath this scary edifice, is the largest natural cave entrance in Britain and second largest in the world. This enormous cave, interestingly named as ‘The Devils Arse’ opens its wide mouth, only to eventually envelope you in utter darkness. I remember as a young boy being toured round the cave when the guide pointed to a small opening on the ceiling of an inner cavern and hauntingly reported that, “through this very hole, prisoners from the dungeon of Peveril Castle, were dropped into the cavern. The 
townspeople could hear their lost screaming for days as the prisoners, left to go mad in the unrelenting darkness, would eventually whine and whimper into silence and death.” For effect, the small lights were then turned out. You could not see your hand in front of your face and the whisps of cold wind brushing along your flesh, felt like taunting malevolence. ‘Reactor scram’ incidents on board a nuclear submarine, cruising a few hundred feet underneath the North Atlantic, are the only other time I have experienced such felt and hopeless darkness.
The Bible indicates that in ancient times, similar limestone areas were riddled with caves, which were used for burial, imprisonment, housing and refuge. Warriors, especially those involved in mighty conflict, would often retreat into them to hide from their enemies and lick their wounds. As many of you ladies know, even today, men still have their caves that they retreat into. Caves may provide some solace and protection for a band of brothers, but pity the man that enters such a cave alone. I am a Celt. Circumstances will often force me into the mouth of my cave. My temperament however, will always try to take me deeper. As a caveman myself, this is my danger, for there is no greater, nor seemingly inescapable darkness, no more terrible entrapment, no more desperate falling than that of dire depression.
Some of you will know, and allow me to use the name of the cavern under Peveril Castle to describe the mad death that comes with such overwhelming despondency, for truly, to be overcome by depression is to be devoured, in the ‘The Devils Arse’. Be careful how deep you go. Look: Elijah the prophet, battle worn and travel weary; only by the mercy and provision of God, arrives at Horeb thoroughly depressed, yet still at the place of revelation, he seats himself in the mouth of a cave. Look: David the King, battle worn and travel weary, only by the mercy and provision of God, arrives at Adullam, thoroughly depressed, yet still at the place of revelation, he seats himself in the mouth of a cave.
My observing of these two cavemen, has Elijah far deeper in depression than David. God has to come to him and draw both him and his problems out. David, on the other hand, appears to have spent the night in the cave gazing from the entrance to the morning stars and the rising sun. With the coming of the light, mornings warmth spreads through his body and he gingerly lays hold of his lute and sings a prayer of hope in the face of seeming hopelessness.
Rising from depression is just that: moving towards the mouth of the cave looking for the light, listening for God and singing songs of hope in the face of felt hopelessness. We need some light, some warmth to do this. We need at least to move to the front of our cave and watch eastward for His arrival.
Friend. What are you doing here? Look out, look up and listen. Feel the goodness of God oozing and easing into your being. Tell Him your story and sing of your trust and hope in Him. Put on the warrior once more and sing to your own soul today.
Listen:- Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, Until these calamities have passed by. Psalm 57:1
Pray: - Send help O Lord from the sanctuary. Send wind and fire and earthquake; Send warmth to my soul Oh God and lift my head to the rising Son. Put a new song in my mouth today O Lord. Amen.
Title:- The Devil’s Arse
1 Kings 19:9 And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
I come from limestone country. The beautiful Peak District of Derbyshire contains some of the most magnificent caves in the world. Indeed, ‘Blue John’ a beautiful fluor-spar is only found in Castleton, the ‘Gem of the Peaks’. In this same town lies the 11th century Norman Castle of Peveril. Directly beneath this scary edifice, is the largest natural cave entrance in Britain and second largest in the world. This enormous cave, interestingly named as ‘The Devils Arse’ opens its wide mouth, only to eventually envelope you in utter darkness. I remember as a young boy being toured round the cave when the guide pointed to a small opening on the ceiling of an inner cavern and hauntingly reported that, “through this very hole, prisoners from the dungeon of Peveril Castle, were dropped into the cavern. The 
townspeople could hear their lost screaming for days as the prisoners, left to go mad in the unrelenting darkness, would eventually whine and whimper into silence and death.” For effect, the small lights were then turned out. You could not see your hand in front of your face and the whisps of cold wind brushing along your flesh, felt like taunting malevolence. ‘Reactor scram’ incidents on board a nuclear submarine, cruising a few hundred feet underneath the North Atlantic, are the only other time I have experienced such felt and hopeless darkness.The Bible indicates that in ancient times, similar limestone areas were riddled with caves, which were used for burial, imprisonment, housing and refuge. Warriors, especially those involved in mighty conflict, would often retreat into them to hide from their enemies and lick their wounds. As many of you ladies know, even today, men still have their caves that they retreat into. Caves may provide some solace and protection for a band of brothers, but pity the man that enters such a cave alone. I am a Celt. Circumstances will often force me into the mouth of my cave. My temperament however, will always try to take me deeper. As a caveman myself, this is my danger, for there is no greater, nor seemingly inescapable darkness, no more terrible entrapment, no more desperate falling than that of dire depression.
Some of you will know, and allow me to use the name of the cavern under Peveril Castle to describe the mad death that comes with such overwhelming despondency, for truly, to be overcome by depression is to be devoured, in the ‘The Devils Arse’. Be careful how deep you go. Look: Elijah the prophet, battle worn and travel weary; only by the mercy and provision of God, arrives at Horeb thoroughly depressed, yet still at the place of revelation, he seats himself in the mouth of a cave. Look: David the King, battle worn and travel weary, only by the mercy and provision of God, arrives at Adullam, thoroughly depressed, yet still at the place of revelation, he seats himself in the mouth of a cave.My observing of these two cavemen, has Elijah far deeper in depression than David. God has to come to him and draw both him and his problems out. David, on the other hand, appears to have spent the night in the cave gazing from the entrance to the morning stars and the rising sun. With the coming of the light, mornings warmth spreads through his body and he gingerly lays hold of his lute and sings a prayer of hope in the face of seeming hopelessness.
Rising from depression is just that: moving towards the mouth of the cave looking for the light, listening for God and singing songs of hope in the face of felt hopelessness. We need some light, some warmth to do this. We need at least to move to the front of our cave and watch eastward for His arrival.
Friend. What are you doing here? Look out, look up and listen. Feel the goodness of God oozing and easing into your being. Tell Him your story and sing of your trust and hope in Him. Put on the warrior once more and sing to your own soul today.
Listen:- Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, Until these calamities have passed by. Psalm 57:1
Pray: - Send help O Lord from the sanctuary. Send wind and fire and earthquake; Send warmth to my soul Oh God and lift my head to the rising Son. Put a new song in my mouth today O Lord. Amen.
Friday, October 12, 2012
Oct | 12 | Dream Insurance
Dream Word – HOPE
Genesis 37:9-11 NKJV Then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, and said, "Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me." So he told it to his father and his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, "What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?" And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
Dream Insurance
Our text for tonight shows Joseph, bless his little heart, in all his rambunctious stupidity, jumping all over the feet of this sorry set of scoundrels! Read on in the story dear friends and you shall see that it was after the sharing of this particular dream, that Joseph’s brothers decided to do him in!
Two connected dreams, both indicating that Joseph would be the head of the clan, that Joseph would be the pre-eminent one, that Joseph would be the head and not the tail, that Joseph would be indeed be blessed above them all! How wonderful for Joseph, but then on the sharing, his brothers beat him up, throw him in a pit, sell him into slavery and then lie about his supposed and most dreadful demise to their most fearful and fretful father. Meanwhile Joseph is alive but very alone, lonely, surviving first and prospering next, only then to be falsely accused of rape and flung into a dungeon while the key is decidedly dumped in the nasty river Nile. Even when Joseph would eventually be catapulted to second in command in Egypt, it would be an additional seven-plus years before those dreams of his were ere fulfilled. Yes, from the first arrival of those pictures in Joseph’s spoilt little head, those same dreams would take many torturous years to reach their birth and their fulfillment. Isn’t life just like that! Oh yes it is!
There once was an insurance commercial running on T.V. with the tag line that said, “It’s not just a matter of where your dreams will take you but where you will take you dreams.” How Biblical is that? I like it! You see friend, I do believe that God gives us dreams to be fulfilled. However, it is obvious as well, that God, in His Divine sovereignty, allows life, that terrible trickster and rubbisher of visions, that putrefyer of the damson jam of dreams, to make them sometimes a sorry stench in our nostrils and a terrible taste in our once proclaiming mouths of faith. Yes, in the form of bad choices, the intervention of envious idiots, forced slavery, seducing and slandering spirits, lying dogs, dark dungeons of every kind and forgetful benefactors in many shapes and sizes, our delightful dreams, so often yes, so very often, turn moldy, blue and bad.
When this happens, as it so surely will, we need to get to our insurance policy and then picnic well upon the telling tag line, repeating often to our soul the truth of those fine words that, “It’s not just a matter of where your dreams will take you but where you will take you dreams.”
Don’t let your present and continuing distress, destroy the dreams that God has given you, but rather take them with you into every single and solitary situation. Cosset them, caress them, muse on them, wonder over them, pray over them and plan again, for I tell you the truth tonight, that if those dreams are from God, then they shall surely come to pass and nothing even in hell or hell manifest on top side of this earth, shall stop them being fulfilled! The tag line of your God given insurance policy tonight is absolutely true. Remember, “It’s not just a matter of where your dreams will take you but where you will take you dreams.”
Believe it!
Listen: - And when Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, "I have had a dream: To my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian; it came to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned, and the tent collapsed." Then his companion answered and said, "This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel! Into his hand God has delivered Midian and the whole camp." Judges 7:13-14 NKJV
Pray: - Lord, I give you my dreams tonight, unfulfilled, thwarted, unbirthed and waiting. Lord, tonight I give you my dreams, and in watching faithfulness I wait for their fulfillment, in Jesus name I pray amen.
Genesis 37:9-11 NKJV Then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, and said, "Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me." So he told it to his father and his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, "What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?" And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
Dream Insurance
Our text for tonight shows Joseph, bless his little heart, in all his rambunctious stupidity, jumping all over the feet of this sorry set of scoundrels! Read on in the story dear friends and you shall see that it was after the sharing of this particular dream, that Joseph’s brothers decided to do him in!
Two connected dreams, both indicating that Joseph would be the head of the clan, that Joseph would be the pre-eminent one, that Joseph would be the head and not the tail, that Joseph would be indeed be blessed above them all! How wonderful for Joseph, but then on the sharing, his brothers beat him up, throw him in a pit, sell him into slavery and then lie about his supposed and most dreadful demise to their most fearful and fretful father. Meanwhile Joseph is alive but very alone, lonely, surviving first and prospering next, only then to be falsely accused of rape and flung into a dungeon while the key is decidedly dumped in the nasty river Nile. Even when Joseph would eventually be catapulted to second in command in Egypt, it would be an additional seven-plus years before those dreams of his were ere fulfilled. Yes, from the first arrival of those pictures in Joseph’s spoilt little head, those same dreams would take many torturous years to reach their birth and their fulfillment. Isn’t life just like that! Oh yes it is!
There once was an insurance commercial running on T.V. with the tag line that said, “It’s not just a matter of where your dreams will take you but where you will take you dreams.” How Biblical is that? I like it! You see friend, I do believe that God gives us dreams to be fulfilled. However, it is obvious as well, that God, in His Divine sovereignty, allows life, that terrible trickster and rubbisher of visions, that putrefyer of the damson jam of dreams, to make them sometimes a sorry stench in our nostrils and a terrible taste in our once proclaiming mouths of faith. Yes, in the form of bad choices, the intervention of envious idiots, forced slavery, seducing and slandering spirits, lying dogs, dark dungeons of every kind and forgetful benefactors in many shapes and sizes, our delightful dreams, so often yes, so very often, turn moldy, blue and bad.
When this happens, as it so surely will, we need to get to our insurance policy and then picnic well upon the telling tag line, repeating often to our soul the truth of those fine words that, “It’s not just a matter of where your dreams will take you but where you will take you dreams.”Don’t let your present and continuing distress, destroy the dreams that God has given you, but rather take them with you into every single and solitary situation. Cosset them, caress them, muse on them, wonder over them, pray over them and plan again, for I tell you the truth tonight, that if those dreams are from God, then they shall surely come to pass and nothing even in hell or hell manifest on top side of this earth, shall stop them being fulfilled! The tag line of your God given insurance policy tonight is absolutely true. Remember, “It’s not just a matter of where your dreams will take you but where you will take you dreams.”
Believe it!
Listen: - And when Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, "I have had a dream: To my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian; it came to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned, and the tent collapsed." Then his companion answered and said, "This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel! Into his hand God has delivered Midian and the whole camp." Judges 7:13-14 NKJV
Pray: - Lord, I give you my dreams tonight, unfulfilled, thwarted, unbirthed and waiting. Lord, tonight I give you my dreams, and in watching faithfulness I wait for their fulfillment, in Jesus name I pray amen.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Oct | 11 | Hurry Now For Today……”
Dream Word – HOPE
1 Samuel 9:12,13 And they answered them and said, "Yes, there he is, just ahead of you. Hurry now; for today he came to this city, because there is a sacrifice of the people today on the high place. NKJV
“Hurry Now For Today……”
I once heard of a man who divorced his wife because of her infidelity. It was nearly two years later, having got his head and his heart back to together, that he had forgiven her, found her, and asked to remarry her. Though she still loved him, she was now married to another man and with child. Timing.
I once new a group of people looking for a church home in a particular area, who having found the property and the land and had their verbal offer accepted, waited a few days to make sure the whole group were on board with the decision. Twenty-four hours later, someone else had made a cash offer for the property. It was gone. The difference that property would have made to the course, direction and dedication of that small group would have been substantial. Timing.
The man left the doctor’s office, his wife in tears, the words of his physician ringing in his ears “Just six months earlier and we would have been able to do something but now, I am afraid……” Timing.
The Church Pastoral Selection Committee had spent fifteen months deliberating over the initial three hundred applications they received for the widely advertised position of Pastor. They weeded out the rest, kept the best, interviewed and tested them, exhausted and examined them, eventually presenting some of them, to the rest of the congregation. After much prayer and deliberation, they called the man that God had most obviously chosen. He however, had a family to take care of and though fifteen months ago, ney even three, he would have wanted to have come and served there, he took a more speedy offer and has been settled in his new Pastorate now for two months and was loving it! Timing.
I spoke with a good friend even yesterday, who it seems is being presented with a tremendous opportunity for the future. His response to that offer will have to be quick if he is to take full opportunity of what is being presented and I tell you today, that such an acceptance will bring good, mighty and profound changes on him and his family’s life. If he rejects it, other offers may eventually come along in his life, maybe even better offers, however, this offer will not pass his way again. Timing.
I have observed in life that many wrong choices are recoverable, but most missed opportunities may never manifest themselves again. Be brave enough to act.
Listen: - Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit"; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. James 4:13-15 NKJV
Pray:- Lord, grant me great courage to make scary decisions and hard choices. Lord give me the faith to gamble on Your goodness and the grace and humility to confess my faults before You. Deliver me from fear O Lord and grant me a sprit of adventure with You, in Jesus name I pray, amen!
1 Samuel 9:12,13 And they answered them and said, "Yes, there he is, just ahead of you. Hurry now; for today he came to this city, because there is a sacrifice of the people today on the high place. NKJV
“Hurry Now For Today……”
I once heard of a man who divorced his wife because of her infidelity. It was nearly two years later, having got his head and his heart back to together, that he had forgiven her, found her, and asked to remarry her. Though she still loved him, she was now married to another man and with child. Timing.
I once new a group of people looking for a church home in a particular area, who having found the property and the land and had their verbal offer accepted, waited a few days to make sure the whole group were on board with the decision. Twenty-four hours later, someone else had made a cash offer for the property. It was gone. The difference that property would have made to the course, direction and dedication of that small group would have been substantial. Timing.The man left the doctor’s office, his wife in tears, the words of his physician ringing in his ears “Just six months earlier and we would have been able to do something but now, I am afraid……” Timing.
The Church Pastoral Selection Committee had spent fifteen months deliberating over the initial three hundred applications they received for the widely advertised position of Pastor. They weeded out the rest, kept the best, interviewed and tested them, exhausted and examined them, eventually presenting some of them, to the rest of the congregation. After much prayer and deliberation, they called the man that God had most obviously chosen. He however, had a family to take care of and though fifteen months ago, ney even three, he would have wanted to have come and served there, he took a more speedy offer and has been settled in his new Pastorate now for two months and was loving it! Timing.
I spoke with a good friend even yesterday, who it seems is being presented with a tremendous opportunity for the future. His response to that offer will have to be quick if he is to take full opportunity of what is being presented and I tell you today, that such an acceptance will bring good, mighty and profound changes on him and his family’s life. If he rejects it, other offers may eventually come along in his life, maybe even better offers, however, this offer will not pass his way again. Timing.
I have observed in life that many wrong choices are recoverable, but most missed opportunities may never manifest themselves again. Be brave enough to act.
Listen: - Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit"; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. James 4:13-15 NKJV
Pray:- Lord, grant me great courage to make scary decisions and hard choices. Lord give me the faith to gamble on Your goodness and the grace and humility to confess my faults before You. Deliver me from fear O Lord and grant me a sprit of adventure with You, in Jesus name I pray, amen!
Monday, October 8, 2012
Oct | 08 | Disco Balls
Dream Word – HOPE
1 Corinthians 15:41 There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory. NKJV
Disco Balls
I am sure I first saw one of these man-made ballroom satellites hanging in the public halls of my hometown of Staveley. There, the Speedwell rooms could be hired out for a number of functions, including weddings and I was there for one such function, though I cannot remember which, but sure enough, I do remember my first glimpse of this shimmering
silver satellite, hanging dead center above the middle of the dance floor. I can tell you, I was disappointed at first. You see it did little, but rotate slowly and reflect in some small way the local singer’s surrounding spotlights of reds and greens. It held the center place of all things, it glanced at everyone and everything in its circular rotation, but functioned, in my opinion, in a most pitiful way, casting but scant reflections of light, which then seemed to dissipate in power and effect just yards from its journey before disappearing into the long hair of short girls and then sliding to the ground to be quite easily trod into the dark ground by recently shined, black leather-soled shoes. Pathetic! Yup, in the Speedwell rooms of Staveley, the seemingly thousands of small mirrors, so intricately placed on the spinning sphere of silver, all cut differently, all angled in a particular way, all jig-sawed together by some seeming amateur artist, were a complete and utter waste of time! I was disappointed. I think all my young friends were disappointed as well, as this man-made, man-centred, silver spinning satellite, hung embarrassed in the blue ballroom sky.
Then it happened. Behind us, unseen in the upper right hand corner of this small world of joy, hung the strongest light of all, a powerfully pointed spotlight, which fired it’s focused beam right into the center of the silver spinning sphere which in turn, exploded with reflected light, I mean BOOM! Filling the enclosed dance hall world with thousands of whirling stars, all running over tables, running over people, caressing cheeks and sparkling like dying suns in glee filled eyes, making even grey dentures seem lighter, whiter, brighter, than they ever could be before, landing like shimmering wands of magic on the shoulders of wishful men, turning coal miners into knights in shining armor, and strong armed factory workers into fairy tale princesses. Everything was different now for everything was touched with light majestical. It was glorious! It was wondrous and it didn’t stop there either, for the spotlight filtered its strong beam through all the colours of the rainbow and filled our world with red foil wrappers, custard yellows, tangerine oranges, royal blues, autumnal browns, and the all the purples of dancing kings! Yes, I do remember, that as long as the spotlight hit the center of the disco ball, full of jig-sawed wonder, every point of this small world of ours was bathed in dancing magic.
All your jumbled, jig-sawed life tonight, all your cracked and broken mirrors, all your seventy times seven years of bad-breath luck, shattered on your moldy, candy-cursed life, cracked and glued together with unsure fingers, will mean absolutely nothing to you, nor to anyone else for that matter, if the spotlight of the Son does not hit your spinning center. Ah, but when it does, Oh God but when it does, all the world you walk through will be lit with glittering wonder. Do you see the problem friend? Do you see the possibilities?
Listen: -All nations whom You have made Shall come and worship before You, O Lord, And shall glorify Your name. For You are great, and do wondrous things; You alone are God. Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name. I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, And I will glorify Your name forevermore. For great is Your mercy toward me, And You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. Psalms 86:9-13 NKJV
Pray:- Hit me with Your glory O Lord and may all my fractured mirrors, dazzle onlookers with Your most merciful display, in Jesus name I pray, amen!
1 Corinthians 15:41 There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory. NKJV
Disco Balls
I am sure I first saw one of these man-made ballroom satellites hanging in the public halls of my hometown of Staveley. There, the Speedwell rooms could be hired out for a number of functions, including weddings and I was there for one such function, though I cannot remember which, but sure enough, I do remember my first glimpse of this shimmering
silver satellite, hanging dead center above the middle of the dance floor. I can tell you, I was disappointed at first. You see it did little, but rotate slowly and reflect in some small way the local singer’s surrounding spotlights of reds and greens. It held the center place of all things, it glanced at everyone and everything in its circular rotation, but functioned, in my opinion, in a most pitiful way, casting but scant reflections of light, which then seemed to dissipate in power and effect just yards from its journey before disappearing into the long hair of short girls and then sliding to the ground to be quite easily trod into the dark ground by recently shined, black leather-soled shoes. Pathetic! Yup, in the Speedwell rooms of Staveley, the seemingly thousands of small mirrors, so intricately placed on the spinning sphere of silver, all cut differently, all angled in a particular way, all jig-sawed together by some seeming amateur artist, were a complete and utter waste of time! I was disappointed. I think all my young friends were disappointed as well, as this man-made, man-centred, silver spinning satellite, hung embarrassed in the blue ballroom sky.Then it happened. Behind us, unseen in the upper right hand corner of this small world of joy, hung the strongest light of all, a powerfully pointed spotlight, which fired it’s focused beam right into the center of the silver spinning sphere which in turn, exploded with reflected light, I mean BOOM! Filling the enclosed dance hall world with thousands of whirling stars, all running over tables, running over people, caressing cheeks and sparkling like dying suns in glee filled eyes, making even grey dentures seem lighter, whiter, brighter, than they ever could be before, landing like shimmering wands of magic on the shoulders of wishful men, turning coal miners into knights in shining armor, and strong armed factory workers into fairy tale princesses. Everything was different now for everything was touched with light majestical. It was glorious! It was wondrous and it didn’t stop there either, for the spotlight filtered its strong beam through all the colours of the rainbow and filled our world with red foil wrappers, custard yellows, tangerine oranges, royal blues, autumnal browns, and the all the purples of dancing kings! Yes, I do remember, that as long as the spotlight hit the center of the disco ball, full of jig-sawed wonder, every point of this small world of ours was bathed in dancing magic.
All your jumbled, jig-sawed life tonight, all your cracked and broken mirrors, all your seventy times seven years of bad-breath luck, shattered on your moldy, candy-cursed life, cracked and glued together with unsure fingers, will mean absolutely nothing to you, nor to anyone else for that matter, if the spotlight of the Son does not hit your spinning center. Ah, but when it does, Oh God but when it does, all the world you walk through will be lit with glittering wonder. Do you see the problem friend? Do you see the possibilities?
Listen: -All nations whom You have made Shall come and worship before You, O Lord, And shall glorify Your name. For You are great, and do wondrous things; You alone are God. Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name. I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, And I will glorify Your name forevermore. For great is Your mercy toward me, And You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. Psalms 86:9-13 NKJV
Pray:- Hit me with Your glory O Lord and may all my fractured mirrors, dazzle onlookers with Your most merciful display, in Jesus name I pray, amen!
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Sep | 15 | Searching For Grovel Hogs
Dream Word – HOPE
Numbers 30,10-14 "If she vowed in her husband's house, or bound herself by an agreement with an oath, and her husband heard it, and made no response to her and did not overrule her, then all her vows shall stand, and every agreement by which she bound herself shall stand. But if her husband truly made them void on the day he heard them, then whatever proceeded from her lips concerning her vows or concerning the agreement binding her, it shall not stand; her husband has made them void, and the Lord will release her. Every vow and every binding oath to afflict her soul, her husband may confirm it, or her husband may make it void. NKJV.
Searching For Grovel Hogs
"When people told themselves their pasts with stories, explained their present with stories, foretold their future with stories, the best place by the fire was kept for 'The Story Teller'!"
These are the opening lines of Jim Henson’s television series ‘The Story Teller’ which was first produced in 1987. This remake of some ancient European fairy tales, was brought to life by integrating excellent animation, Jim Henson’s puppets from his creature shop, brilliant acting and some of the best writing you will ever come across.
The magnificent screenplays for ‘The Story Teller’ were written by Anthony Mingella, however, for this series of nine stories it was John Hurt who, playing the part of ‘The Story Teller,’ stole the whole series with his even more magnificent performance! I kid ye not, it is so good that if I had my way I would make the watching and study of this whole series, mandatory in every homiletic class in every Bible College and Seminary throughout the world. For when it comes to learning how to fish for hearts with words and communicating those same wriggling and wondrous words in an enticing and enthralling way, John Hurt as ‘The Story Teller’ is the most heaven sent homiletics professor I have ever heard.
The first story of the series is called ‘Hans my Hedgehog’ It is the ancient tale of an enchanted boy called a ‘Grovel Hog,’ who returns a lost king to his kingdom, and his reward in so doing, is ‘the first thing that comes out to greet the king upon his return.’ Of course, the first thing to greet the king is not his dog as he expected, but rather his most beautiful and precious daughter, the ‘Princess of Sweetness and Cherry Pie!’ How very Jepthah-esque.
Now, this same Princess on marrying the Grovel Hog discovers on their hog-like honeymoon, that the horrible Grovel Hog actually turns into a handsome Prince after midnight and if she but keeps the secret of his midnight metamorphism, then on the third night of their wedding, her faithfulness and true love will break the spell forever! Of course the Princess of Sweetness and Cherry Pie ‘spills the beans’ of the Grovel Hog’s enchantment, breaking her promise and causing him to seemingly disappear from both her life and the face of the earth forever.
For years, ‘The Princes of Sweetness and Cherry Pie’ walks and walks until she wears out the soles of three pair of iron shoes, always looking for her husband until she eventually finds him ‘catching him up in her arms, 'Snoodling him and hugging him to bits.’ Her once red hair which has now turned white in her relentless and unremitting pursuance runs with red life once more as her now expressed love for Grovel Hog finally finds him and breaks the enchantment forever.
The story finishes with this wonderful redemptive statement,
“And so the princess who could not keep her promise, won back her husband through looking without hope of finding and holding on for dear life. And in time, her hair grew red again and there was another wedding all over.”
‘Looking without hope of finding and holding on for dear life.’ Really, is there any better phrase for describing pursuing love, for describing the mad faithful praying and the deep soul longing for a lost loved one, daily expressed in both pleadings and pursuance. I think not.
I am sure that some of you tonight are the breaker of promises and of maybe one promise in particular and I wonder if because of this, you might also hold someone in your heart, with sadness and with tender regret that is lost to you. If you have any desperate strength left within you, I want you to continue to ‘look without hope of finding’ and continue to ‘hold on for dear life.’ For who knows, maybe tomorrow you too will come upon your lost Grovel Hog, catch them up in your arms, snoodling and hugging them to bits until the dreadful enchantment, made stronger by the broken promise. will be removed forever and the redness of a life renewed will flow into your holy hair once more.
I need to say to someone tonight, “Keep looking, keep hoping, keep holding on.”
Listen:- Praise is awaiting You, O God, in Zion; And to You the vow shall be performed. O You who hear prayer, To You all flesh will come. Psalms 65:1-2NKJV
Pray:- O God our husband, thank You for making null and void the hasty and impetuous vows we have made in Your house. But Lord, forgive our broken promises, especially those that have brought curses upon ourselves and upon others. Please forgive us O Lord. Great Pursuer, I bring to You my lost loved one. Hopeless, I come to You. Helpless, I come to You. Help me to find them and love them despite their anger, that all curses may be broken and life, rich and red would flow down once more upon my tired head. In Jesus name I pray, amen.
Numbers 30,10-14 "If she vowed in her husband's house, or bound herself by an agreement with an oath, and her husband heard it, and made no response to her and did not overrule her, then all her vows shall stand, and every agreement by which she bound herself shall stand. But if her husband truly made them void on the day he heard them, then whatever proceeded from her lips concerning her vows or concerning the agreement binding her, it shall not stand; her husband has made them void, and the Lord will release her. Every vow and every binding oath to afflict her soul, her husband may confirm it, or her husband may make it void. NKJV.
Searching For Grovel Hogs
"When people told themselves their pasts with stories, explained their present with stories, foretold their future with stories, the best place by the fire was kept for 'The Story Teller'!"
These are the opening lines of Jim Henson’s television series ‘The Story Teller’ which was first produced in 1987. This remake of some ancient European fairy tales, was brought to life by integrating excellent animation, Jim Henson’s puppets from his creature shop, brilliant acting and some of the best writing you will ever come across.
The magnificent screenplays for ‘The Story Teller’ were written by Anthony Mingella, however, for this series of nine stories it was John Hurt who, playing the part of ‘The Story Teller,’ stole the whole series with his even more magnificent performance! I kid ye not, it is so good that if I had my way I would make the watching and study of this whole series, mandatory in every homiletic class in every Bible College and Seminary throughout the world. For when it comes to learning how to fish for hearts with words and communicating those same wriggling and wondrous words in an enticing and enthralling way, John Hurt as ‘The Story Teller’ is the most heaven sent homiletics professor I have ever heard.The first story of the series is called ‘Hans my Hedgehog’ It is the ancient tale of an enchanted boy called a ‘Grovel Hog,’ who returns a lost king to his kingdom, and his reward in so doing, is ‘the first thing that comes out to greet the king upon his return.’ Of course, the first thing to greet the king is not his dog as he expected, but rather his most beautiful and precious daughter, the ‘Princess of Sweetness and Cherry Pie!’ How very Jepthah-esque.
Now, this same Princess on marrying the Grovel Hog discovers on their hog-like honeymoon, that the horrible Grovel Hog actually turns into a handsome Prince after midnight and if she but keeps the secret of his midnight metamorphism, then on the third night of their wedding, her faithfulness and true love will break the spell forever! Of course the Princess of Sweetness and Cherry Pie ‘spills the beans’ of the Grovel Hog’s enchantment, breaking her promise and causing him to seemingly disappear from both her life and the face of the earth forever.
For years, ‘The Princes of Sweetness and Cherry Pie’ walks and walks until she wears out the soles of three pair of iron shoes, always looking for her husband until she eventually finds him ‘catching him up in her arms, 'Snoodling him and hugging him to bits.’ Her once red hair which has now turned white in her relentless and unremitting pursuance runs with red life once more as her now expressed love for Grovel Hog finally finds him and breaks the enchantment forever.
The story finishes with this wonderful redemptive statement,
“And so the princess who could not keep her promise, won back her husband through looking without hope of finding and holding on for dear life. And in time, her hair grew red again and there was another wedding all over.”
‘Looking without hope of finding and holding on for dear life.’ Really, is there any better phrase for describing pursuing love, for describing the mad faithful praying and the deep soul longing for a lost loved one, daily expressed in both pleadings and pursuance. I think not.
I am sure that some of you tonight are the breaker of promises and of maybe one promise in particular and I wonder if because of this, you might also hold someone in your heart, with sadness and with tender regret that is lost to you. If you have any desperate strength left within you, I want you to continue to ‘look without hope of finding’ and continue to ‘hold on for dear life.’ For who knows, maybe tomorrow you too will come upon your lost Grovel Hog, catch them up in your arms, snoodling and hugging them to bits until the dreadful enchantment, made stronger by the broken promise. will be removed forever and the redness of a life renewed will flow into your holy hair once more.
I need to say to someone tonight, “Keep looking, keep hoping, keep holding on.”
Listen:- Praise is awaiting You, O God, in Zion; And to You the vow shall be performed. O You who hear prayer, To You all flesh will come. Psalms 65:1-2NKJV
Pray:- O God our husband, thank You for making null and void the hasty and impetuous vows we have made in Your house. But Lord, forgive our broken promises, especially those that have brought curses upon ourselves and upon others. Please forgive us O Lord. Great Pursuer, I bring to You my lost loved one. Hopeless, I come to You. Helpless, I come to You. Help me to find them and love them despite their anger, that all curses may be broken and life, rich and red would flow down once more upon my tired head. In Jesus name I pray, amen.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Sep | 06 | But One Word
Key Word:- HOPE
Title:- But One Word
Genesis 1:1,2 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Sin and Satan have performed a terrible work of destruction upon mankind. Poverty, disease, despondency, desperateness, deviation, devastation and before I distress us any further, I had just better stop. The world’s a mess and everyone in it.
A wee while ago a couple of us went out, just hours before the landfall of a large Hurricane, distributing leaflets that announced the church would be open for shelter. A very thin and very dark African woman stood alone in a small shopping complex. She carried with her a clear trash bag full of her belongings. She spoke little English and it was hard to communicate as she nonchalantly pulled on a cigarette in her mouth. I don’t know if she was an addict or a prostitute, but having left her with some instructions on how to find us, I walked away from her touched by a sense of loneliness, uselessness, formlessness even, as though I had just left the gravitational pull of a spiritual void, a place of pleading darkness.
It is particularly hard for those of us who have family, maybe even sons and daughters who carry that same darkness that same seeming sucking void that daily appears and fades them away before our very eyes. It’s hard, but remember dear friends, that God understands our hurting hearts in this and how difficult it is for us to enjoy the warmth of the Dayspring's light, whilst those we love burn away like imploding stars in the high hopes of your own crashing heavens.
Today, I would point us to the Mighty Creator. Look at our verse; God’s Spirit even now, even in answer to our daily prayers, is hovering over the faces of the formless void and the deep, deep darkness of those we love. That word ‘hover’ is not like a news crew would just look out of a watching helicopter to simply report the devastation, no, it’s not simply to ‘hover’ as an information gathering exercise, neither is it to ‘hover’ like some search and rescue helicopter throwing down a ladder or a life raft and pleading for the survivor to grab hold. Oh if only they would lay hold! But no it’s not that either. It’s not that kind of ‘chancy’ and powerless hopefullness.
This ‘hovering’ is not panicked either. It is an ‘at ease’ brooding. It is an expectant fluttering; it is almost a cherishing caressing, a moving, an incubating, an enticing, a watching with purpose, a fluttering upon, like that of a mother hen over her soon to be hatched eggs. There is a sense of both care and communication in this word ‘hover’, for God, when He is ready, is about to speak and when God speaks friends, the universe is both changed and then sustained forever.
Wherever you see darkness, deeps and devastation, then with your eyes of faith, see also the Mighty Creating Spirit of God hovering in expectant fluttering around the lost, even our own lost loved ones. They are but one word from deliverance, but one word from blessing, but one word from change, but one word from salvation, but one word from life, but one word, that’s all friends, just one word! Remember that today, and take great hope in our great Creator God.
Listen:- Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to You. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. Luke 7:7
Pray:- Blessed are you O Lord, King of ALL creation, Lord of heaven and earth. Creator God, loving Father, hear our prayer and deliver those in deep darkness and formless voids, into light and change and purpose. For Your everlasting glory and for our eternal comfort we ask this: “Father just say the Word and they shall live.” Amen.
Title:- But One Word
Genesis 1:1,2 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Sin and Satan have performed a terrible work of destruction upon mankind. Poverty, disease, despondency, desperateness, deviation, devastation and before I distress us any further, I had just better stop. The world’s a mess and everyone in it.
A wee while ago a couple of us went out, just hours before the landfall of a large Hurricane, distributing leaflets that announced the church would be open for shelter. A very thin and very dark African woman stood alone in a small shopping complex. She carried with her a clear trash bag full of her belongings. She spoke little English and it was hard to communicate as she nonchalantly pulled on a cigarette in her mouth. I don’t know if she was an addict or a prostitute, but having left her with some instructions on how to find us, I walked away from her touched by a sense of loneliness, uselessness, formlessness even, as though I had just left the gravitational pull of a spiritual void, a place of pleading darkness.
It is particularly hard for those of us who have family, maybe even sons and daughters who carry that same darkness that same seeming sucking void that daily appears and fades them away before our very eyes. It’s hard, but remember dear friends, that God understands our hurting hearts in this and how difficult it is for us to enjoy the warmth of the Dayspring's light, whilst those we love burn away like imploding stars in the high hopes of your own crashing heavens.
Today, I would point us to the Mighty Creator. Look at our verse; God’s Spirit even now, even in answer to our daily prayers, is hovering over the faces of the formless void and the deep, deep darkness of those we love. That word ‘hover’ is not like a news crew would just look out of a watching helicopter to simply report the devastation, no, it’s not simply to ‘hover’ as an information gathering exercise, neither is it to ‘hover’ like some search and rescue helicopter throwing down a ladder or a life raft and pleading for the survivor to grab hold. Oh if only they would lay hold! But no it’s not that either. It’s not that kind of ‘chancy’ and powerless hopefullness.
This ‘hovering’ is not panicked either. It is an ‘at ease’ brooding. It is an expectant fluttering; it is almost a cherishing caressing, a moving, an incubating, an enticing, a watching with purpose, a fluttering upon, like that of a mother hen over her soon to be hatched eggs. There is a sense of both care and communication in this word ‘hover’, for God, when He is ready, is about to speak and when God speaks friends, the universe is both changed and then sustained forever.Wherever you see darkness, deeps and devastation, then with your eyes of faith, see also the Mighty Creating Spirit of God hovering in expectant fluttering around the lost, even our own lost loved ones. They are but one word from deliverance, but one word from blessing, but one word from change, but one word from salvation, but one word from life, but one word, that’s all friends, just one word! Remember that today, and take great hope in our great Creator God.
Listen:- Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to You. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. Luke 7:7
Pray:- Blessed are you O Lord, King of ALL creation, Lord of heaven and earth. Creator God, loving Father, hear our prayer and deliver those in deep darkness and formless voids, into light and change and purpose. For Your everlasting glory and for our eternal comfort we ask this: “Father just say the Word and they shall live.” Amen.
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