God is.

To read the whole of the passage 1 Corinthians 2 :1-13 click here 

Why am I doing this?
I want to share the care that God has had for me throughout my life, times of great friendship between us, times when I consciously ignored him and the time before I knew he could be relevant outside the pages of a bible and church building.
I trust that the Holy Spirit guides my fingers as they tap away at the keyboard sharing my life experiences and pontificating on my pet peeves.
I believe that God is lives, guides, saves. He is not a figment of the imagination.
God is.
That is what I want to share.

Proof is required

1 Corinthians 1:20-31

The Greeks desired wisdom and the Jews signs. I think our civilization require proof. A sign could be magic, an  argument hogwash.

It is certainly considered foolish to believe. 

I believe because I cannot imagine life without God. I cannot imagine what that little thing was that started life on earth. I cannot imagine why those coincidences of circumstances happen. There is not perceivable logic. There is only faith. There is knowledge. The knowledge that a life with God works, one without him, well maybe.

Today in our bible study we shall be looking at Ecclesiastes 2:1-11, Solomon seems to agree with me. God knows. The world may seem topsy-turvy to a wise man but not to a faithful person.

God knows

To read the whole of Psalm 44 click here
Who or what do I really worship. I do not really know. I hope it is God the creator and Saviour of the world.
I definitely hold in awe the Creator. I could probably write all day about the wonders of creation, the intricate design of the veins of a decaying leaf or the uniform height of the plateau of Belgium. And this is without going out of my village, nowhere near the coast with its rolling ocean. I can rejoice in the presence of Jesus my companion and Saviour. The Holy Spirit is my helper. I wonder who it is that whispers in my ear? I spend little time worshipping the Holy Spirit as an entity in itself, not in the same way as I do the Creator.
Thus I found it a relief to read that God knows who I worship, even when I do not. He knows when I worship him and when my desire is to have an elegant day. He knows that I am wondering what is the special chocolate of the week at the chocolaterie.
God knows that I want to worship him, though often I am a butterfly. He is steadfast.
I am with the psalmist in saying
"Rise up, come to our help. Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love." v26

Total Body Prayer

To read the whole of the Daniel 9:3-10 click here
Daniel's praying took over his whole life. He prayed so hard that he food was immaterial, as was his clothing. The only thing that mattered was his prayer. It was the same with Jesus in this time that we commemorate as Lent. He was in the dessert with no distraction.
May I give up this Lent whatever distracts me from prayer. I cannot go into a desert or even a convent house for a retreat. I have the care of other people to consider. May you be the centre of my thoughts.

Action prayers

To read the whole of Philippians 4:10-20 click here.
Friends, ex- colleagues, members of groups of whom we have been members, those who have crossed our path, our family, we pray for them daily. We entrust them to God' care and keeping. But I think that for a person's well-being it is as important to tell in real spoken or written words, them that you care. Not to gather heavenly-brownie points but to share God's love.

Grouch, grouch

David was known as a man after God's own heart (Acts 13:22) yet he seems to do a lot complaining. Some people find it difficult to read Psalms because of David's open desire for vengeance. I am glad that the psalms record David's feelings. I grouch about people too. My problems are not as big as David's. I am queen of a very little empire, myself and two dogs with occasionally a husband and grown children condescending to be citizens. David was a real king. Real kings have real enemies.  King David told God how he felt. King David told God what he wanted to befall his enemies.
This is a psalm of 28 verses, 26 of which are David requesting God to give his self appointed enemies their comeuppance. 
Then there are the last two verses. 
He prays 
²⁷ Let those who desire my vindication
   shout for joy and be glad,
   and say evermore,
‘Great is the Lord,
   who delights in the welfare of his servant.’ 
²⁸ Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness
   and of your praise all day long.


We can have our time of complaining to God. A time to tell Him what our imagination would like Him to do to those who 'seem to have a thing against us.' We can unload our burdens on God.
But we need to add the end to the story, a prayer for  those against us end praising God.


Yes, I think I have graduated to this stage for the inhabitants of Kessington Lane who sued us.

The Great Fall

To read the whole of the passage Psalm 37: 19-42 click here

I was tired and hungry. We were walking between decaying offices, derelict buildings. The ground was strewn with debris cast to the ground either by time or vandal. In my mind I heard “Make sure you pick your feet up over those metal rods”. I forgot. I did not pick up my feet. I stumbled, I fell, headlong. I broke my elbow.  God was not holding my hand.

Or was it that I had not been holding his hand.  My concentration was on my hunger, not where my feet were treading. My feelings, not my actions were uppermost in my mind. So much so that I forgot to listen to the words in my head that would have prevented the fall. Yes I do believe that God is involved in the whole of our life but we do have to listen and obey.


Website for photograph
http://www.flickr.com/photos/infomatique/4649088634/sizes/m/in/photostream/

"And I want to be one too"

To read the whole of  Hebrews 12:1-14 click here 

I am not a Christian because I was walking down the street one day and a great light shone on me accompanied by  a booming voice bellowing my name. The main reason I am a Christian is because of the influence of people around me. The many people who led me to know that there is a living God by giving me glimpses into their relationship with him. Through them I saw Jesus.

Following the metaphor of the writer of Hebrews those people led me to the race track but I had to run myself . I had to be willing to run. Looking into the crowds will not get me to the finishing line.  I need to keep Jesus in view and move towards him.

Not only that I want to be a witness too.

Cocks

To read the whole of Proverbs 30: 1-4, 24-33 click here 

This morning I went to take a photograph of a cock to post with this. He refused to strut. He glared at me as if I had no right to be doing what I was doing. The adolescent cock joined him. They both gave me the eagle eye.
On the way home two other cocks in distant fields were having a crowing match.
The cock which we see most is the gentleman at the farm where we buy milk and butter, buttermilk too when butter has been churned recently.
I had been going to say that the cock attracted me to the passage and then lecture you on the unpeaceful nature of thinking thoughts that might lead to anger. Unfortunately I can give you an example. I was in Carrefour, the local equivalent of Walmart, looking at storage boxes. The man next to me was investigating the reduced coat hangers. He dislodged a box and it fell on my head. It did not knock me to the ground but it was definitely took my balance away. The man laughed. He said it was an accident. I was still feeling not quite right. He laughed again. I should have walked away but instead I huffed and puffed and let him know that I was angry. He asked me if I was angry, I said "Yes, because you are not sorry". He shrugged his shoulders and walked away. What good is the anger doing me other than to provide an illustration of this verse? It was wasted on the man in store. I could have said "Oh dear, that was unsafe". I could have walked away after our first words. Instead I stirred up animosity and strife.
Beware, follow Paul's advice "Let your gentleness be evident to all". (Philippians 4:5)

Relax and rejoice!

To read the whole of Psalm 33 click here 
When we read this psalm this morning verses 6 and 7 caught my attention. How God is in charge of the whole of creation. It reminded me of the gathering clouds before a hurricane but that will wait for another day. When I opened my Bible I saw that the last three verses were highlighted and dated, 23rd June 2008. I often do that. When a verse or two seem to say 'listen to me' I write the date, sometimes making a note of what they meant in the margin of my Bible or in my little journal book. I have not done this for a while.
I am glad that today I am reminded of how we can relax in the knowledge that God is in control, that he even helps us to rejoice as we move forward towards him. I needed to be reminded about this and just to make sure that I received the message loud and clear it was also the theme in our Closer to God book.
Relax and rejoice!

Phew!

Have you ever worried and planned, over planned and even prayed about an event. Then it happens, a great non-event. In the relief all you can say is "Thank you, Jesus".
Jacob did and even after he had met his brother he was still deceitful. I find this very encouraging though not an excuse for dishonest behaviour.

Listening

To read the John 10: 19-30 click here 

Continuing from yesterday.
There are two problems. The first is not to keep running over my own agenda in my mind so that I can leave space for God to get in a word. The other is to know the difference between my thoughts and God's little nudges.
Today I have three extra hours. My husband had to catch an early plane. I have a long mental list of little jobs that I claim to have no time to do and doing them. In fact I spend a lot of my days making lists, sometimes written and methodically checking them off as they are achieved. This does not leave any room for following the promptings of the small voice.
If I could say as Jesus did "I and my Father are one" perhaps then I would have no need of discerning his voice because our wills would be of one accord.
I suppose just as a mother goes about her daily chores with "one ear open" for the baby's cry so we can listen for God. Perhaps the expectation can graduate to that of awaiting the key in the latch of a loved one coming home.

Voices

To read the whole passage John 10:1-18 click here 

Tibetan spaniels were bred as dual purpose dogs in the monasteries of Tibet. Burglar alarms and hotwater bottles. Our dogs have both these functions engrained in their DNA however much we try to remove the barking at strangers from their system. I have learnt that if a stranger is to be welcomed into the house he needs to feed the dogs. Especially if we are ever to have enough peace for a conversation. But I am the main provider of food, in particular large quantities in a dish. I am the person who is followed around the house, the person who can pick up Ernest when he is feeling really grouchy. Ernest is my dog. he was a present, a birthday present. he knows that we have a special relationship. 

How do we recognize our master's voice?
Are we listening to the true master?

Details

To read the whole passage John 9:18-41 click here
I do not think the Pharisees had a problem with healing in general. Their problem was when  and how Jesus healed. They got caught up in the details and ignored the end result.
Today I am getting wound up in all the little details of how I will go to Bible study in Brussels, teach in Waterloo. pick David up from Feluy and go to Dutch lesson in Ittre. Sometime I have to fit in working on the Lent Book too. I am forgetting that God is in control of the big picture. Sharing his love is what counts.

Tell it.

To read the whole passage click here
It is almost Lent. I asked somebody to write a meditation. Their reply was "I do not know. I think what I write might be too personal". Why are we afraid of knowing what makes a person tick? Of knowing details of their past? Is it because it reminds of of our sensitive spots? If we do not tell of the moments when we met the risen Jesus then how will they know that he is alive? How will they know that he can be their friend too?
Have you spoken to Jesus today?

From the rising of the sun

To read the whole of Psalm 19 click here

Three weeks of temperatures continuously below freezing is almost enough to make one appreciate the Texan heat. Today I am smearing my limbs with lotion to try to overcome the cracking hands and flaking legs. A different lotion, a different problem. Intense cold, intense heat, both are painful. The sunrise looks the same in both places, a fantastic red hemisphere becoming a blazing ball as it rises in the sky. There is no hint of the impending heat on a Houston July morning, heat that cannot be avoided and from which the darkness gives no real respite.

God is. Period.

"To God be the Glory"

To read the whole of the Romans passage click here
To read Psalm 136 click here

I cannot read this passage in Romans without singing in my head "At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow."   Psalm 136 caused me to think of how God has acted  in my life and give thanks to the Almighty.

Tomorrow is the 97th anniversary of the death of Fanny Crosby, the author of "Blessed assurance" and approximately 8000 other hymns (though not "At the name of Jesus"). Fanny was blind from a tiny baby yet she wrote such powerful and thankful prayers.

"To God be the Glory" wrote Fanny. 

Let us do that too.

Souces for Fanny Crosby
http://satucket.com/lectionary/fanny_crosby.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Crosby

Photograph
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fanny_Crosby.jpg

Snakes alive

To read the whole passage click here

I noticed a shoelace on the hall floor. With our family I never knew what I was going to find where after the exodus to school and work. When I walked back through the hall I noticed that the shoelace had was looped in a different way. Shoelaces do not usually move of their own volition. It was a SNAKE. A live snake too and IN the house. My general attitude to snakes is that any contact, even eye contact with a photograph, is to be avoided at all costs. I had a dilemma. I was the only person at home. Normally I would summon help but David was in an office somewhere in the world, Tom in California, Stephen in Utah and both girls ensconced in the High School. I had a High School student arriving in an hour. I could wait for him to deal with the intruder but that would mean keeping watch and I did not want to stay in the hall for that length of time. I made a plan. I would be independent. I got a large and long  broom and swept the little chap out of the house. He was not very happy about the indignity of this situation but we both survived.

Today as I read the snake verse in Psalm 91my thoughts wondered to this story and how I had stepped out of my female comfort zone and done something which I would normally have reserved for one of the men in the house. This lead me to my mother who was widowed at the age of 38. She had been spoilt by her father and cosseted by her husband. There were many instances when she had to do something which to her was 'men's work'. Even in my adulthood I did not appreciate her boldness. I never did during her life and now it is too late to tell her. I live with the guilt. Thank you Jesus for dying for my omissions. 

A friend made

To read the whole passage click here

Romans 12:9-15

9 Let love be genuine; 

do not say hateful things behind a person's back.

hate what is evil, 

how do we decide what is evil, what is our measuring rod?

hold fast to what is good;

Keep to God's priorities 

¹⁰love one another with mutual affection;

make friends in your fellowship

 outdo one another in showing honour. 

be a friend in more than thoughts, be active in your friendship

¹¹Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.^*

Read your Bible, be fired up by Christ's example

¹²Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, 

God knows what is coming

persevere in prayer.

Remember that God is with us all day and talk to him

¹³Contribute to the needs of the saints; 

Give to church

extend hospitality to strangers.

See below for today's little story

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.

Pray for those who upset and perturb you

¹⁵Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 

To be with somebody is enough to show that you share and care. 

Julia came for an interview at the school where I was teaching. She got the job and was going to stay in a local hostelry. I had a spare room. I said "Come stay with me". She did. Thirty years later we have a friend because Julia came to stay. During that stay with us Julia helped me to clean my house for my mother-in- law's impending visit. And that was a great help.

Flawed and Used

To read the whole passage click here.

Rebekah was a loyal follower of God. We know how she left her family and went to a foreign country to marry a stranger, even if he was her cousin. Yet here we have her orchestrating her younger son to deceive her husband into giving him, the younger twin his blessing, his God-given blessing. Jacob the younger did as his mother said and told his own lies too. Yet this man was part of God's plan. He trusted God. Perhaps his brother though entitled to the blessing trusted God less than Jacob even though his sins were less obvious. 

God knows us inside out and even uses imperfect people to further his own purposes. From the other side even though I sin I can still be an instrument of God's peace.

The Wild One

To read the whole passage click here
When we are young we have great ideals and do wild things. The old are tolerant of the wildness of others but lead sedate lives.
Jesus was neither old nor wild. He did not really tolerate wildness either but he did and does understand where we are. And this is where I want to be too.

Wrong end of the country.

To read the whole passage click here 
Our daughters have a problem with the question "Where do you come from?" Raised, and actually born in Texas but having a British birth certificate they do really sound as if they come from the western side of the Atlantic though the home in which they were raised definitely had British tendencies.  Their parents and their 'stuff' reside neither in the UK or in the USA but in Belgium. The girls themselves are in Scotland.
The Leaders of the Jewish Community knew that Jesus' hailed from Galilee, presumably he had the accent and that was where his mother and brothers  lived.  It was obvious that that was where he came from too. Why ask questions? He was a Galilean. He could not be the Messiah, he came from Bethlehem and was of David's house.
How often do we judge people by their appearance or their accent or indeed which side of the tracks they live? We make our assumptions without taking the time to get to know the person and their true identity.

Just as He is.

To read the whole passage click here
During one Christmas season Becky was in the chorus of the TUTS performance of The Wizard of Oz in Houston. One evening when I went to pick her up there were two or three large black SUVs parked on the paved area outside the theatre. Not a normal place to park. Eventually I parked and waited for Becky. At the end of the performance many men in dark suits issued from the theatre and got into the cars. Even more mysterious. I watched from a distance, making sure that I did not get involved with whatever it was that was happening.
Of course Becky was able to tell me all about it. The Bushes senior had been at the show. The cars were the for them transport and the bodyguards. During the interval Becky had even had her photograph taken with George Senior. All very orchestrated.
The disciples wanted to protect Jesus, not only from people who might harm him but also from those who would waste his time, from those who did not realize who he was, from those who did not understand.
Jesus would have none of that. He welcomed those who came to him just as they were with no pretensions to grandeur. He welcomes the plain straight talk of childlike thinking. He welcomes those who love him as he is without trying to change him into what they want to love.

Some of my Thin Places

To read the whole passage click here

I like to think that I am a non traditionalist. I believe that God, Father Son and Spirit dwell with me 24/7. There is no need for a church building. A Believing Community can worship under a tree or in a front room. A special  building is not required. But take me to a Gothic cathedral and maybe my story changes. It gives me 'chills' just to walk down the street beside the Cathedral of St Michael and St Gudula in Brussels. Fortunately it is near the station so I can often allow my feet to wander in that direction and often they take me inside just to stand for a second or two. People have worshipped on that site for 12 centuries and I am one little dot in that historical landscape. 

Another of my special places is the Church of Our Lady in Bruges. We first went there to see a Michelangelo Madonna but I looked around me and saw a vibrant church reaching out to the tourist. A church built on the site of a Roman church living its faith today. This of course brings my mind to Canterbury but not firstly to the great and spectacular cathedral but to the simple church of St Martin's where St Augustine set up his mission 597 AD. And there is The Great Cathedral. I have not mentioned York Minster and my beloved St David's.

Each time I enter one of these places I count it as a privilege, a gift. For me they are embodiments of the Celtic concept of a 'thin place'. A place where Heaven and Earth, God and I, might seem just that little bit closer.

To read the whole passage click here 

Rebecca gave the servant a drink because he asked for it. She offered without being asked to provide water for the camels too. A camel can drink about 30 gallons at a time and there were 10 of them. That is a lot of water to be lifted out of the well. Rebecca was not hurrying off to do her list of chores. A stranger needed help and she did it of her own volition. 

What do I need to do?

Carrying a backpack

I like to ride to the train along the path beside the canal. it is peaceful. The journey to the station is easy, it is downhill but the way back is impeded by hills, two hills. One at Ittre and the other at Lembeek, just in Flanders. The Lembeek hill is a moderately gentle climb, it has never presented me with a problem. The Ittre hill is a different matter. When I stop to look into the lock of the canal it is almost so deep that I have to avert my eyes. I used to always have to get off my bike and walk the last part of the hill but since I discovered that I can fasten my backpack on the rack of the bike I have been able to ride all the way up the hill, albeit a little slowly and uncertainly with a lot of huffing and puffing sometimes. But I can do it without the bag on my back.
Now I need to think about what it is that is impeding my progress on my Christian journey. There maybe some huffing and puffing there too but I will make it- eventually.

Faith or Fear

To read the whole passage click here

I am always intrigued when two of the unconnected readings that we read daily happen to have the same person or concept. Today it is Rahab of Jericho. Scripture Union Closer to God is doing a study on the book of Joshua. Today we were at the Rahab episode. The online version is Wordlive. The epistle reading for the Episcopal Church is Hebrews and today we happened to be at the reference to Rahab.
The writer of Hebrews commends Rahab for her faith but I have always had a little doubt about that. Rahab was a Canaanite. Presumably she worshipped the gods of her nation and followed the practices of her family. Along come Joe and Fred, Israelites who take advantage of her profession to gain entry to her house. It was even conveniently against the city wall so they could view the surrounding countryside from within. As an Israelite, an impending invader,  it was easier to visit a prostitute than a wheelwright.
Everyone in Jericho knew or feared that the Israelites were going to invade their city. They had been camped across the river for a while. Nobody knew when they day they would make the crossing. Rumour had it that the Red Sea had dried up and let them across. Their God was powerful. They were a fearsome people. The Jordan would be no problem. Rahab feared for the safety of her skin, and that of her relatives. But to take that fear seriously presumably meant that she really thought that the God of the Israelites was powerful.
Perhaps there is little to distinguish between faith and fear. Those whom we love we want to please.