Robed

Psalm 93

There is something magical about a wedding dress. Don one and an already beautiful woman becomes radiant. Without any effort on her part all eyes naturally turn to admire the sight.
Thus  shall I turn my eyes to my Lord.

Greek Letters

Revelation 1:1-8

8 ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega’, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. 

Alpha, beta, gamma- some of my new friends in secondary school. I loved their rounded shape. They made it  easy to differentiate between the vertex and the size of the angle at a vertex of a polygon. I knew where I was going from A to B and what I would find when I got there.
God is there always, not only from A to B but A to Z and helps us to know what to expect.

To Test

Psalm 26

² Prove me, O Lord, and try me;
   test my heart and mind. 

Noami recently asked me if I thought God tests us. The question brought to mind a sermon preched by Dick Johnson. Dick Johnson was the priest at St Mary's Cypress, the first time we arrived in Houston. Though Dick is no longer a priest he preached some of the sermons which I find most memorable. 
Dick drew a verbal picture of an ancient metalworker heating his material in the great heat and with great skill forging an object of great wealth, beauty, or use, or even all three. The smith knew his metal, the heat revealed its compounds to his skilled eye and hand. His experience guided him him his use of that which was clasped in his tools. with skill he hammered and tapped,  manipulating the hot metal into that which he desired. 
In reality though a metal is tested to find its precious metal content. Great heat is used. Sometimes life is easy, everything goes to my plan. Sometimes it is more difficult. I would class moving across the Atlantic four times in this category; new house, new home, whatever the language. Burying a child too, an experience which we share with Dick.   Do they reveal the devotion of our heart and mind to God?

Getting back to normal

John 13:20-35

³⁴I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’

Do you know that I am a Christian by the way that I love you?

Guiding light.

Luke 2:67-80

Windermere has an unhealthy fascination with our next door neighbours rabbit. he dug under the hedge and the protecting fence. We knew he was there by the barking. it was after 11pm. All lights were off in the neighbour's house. I donned wellington boots and coat, grabbed the torch. Right at the back end of our garden is a little dap where I can climb over the fence. With the aid of the torch I negotiated the derelict decking, climbed the bank and made my way next door. I could not have done it without the light.

Rain glorious rain

Psalm 29

Today it is raining. Yesterday it was raining. I think it was raining the day before that. The village is under a centimetre of mud. The sky is grey and the ground is slime. Not beautiful but God made it and I thank him for that.

Hurricane Katrina

Psalm 55

⁸ I would hurry to my place of shelter,
    far from the tempest and storm.’

The people of New Orleans left their city and headed west. The same with those who lived in Houston. They were scared of the the consequences of staying. The storm was being monitored. We kept at least one hurricane watch web-page open. Hurrying though was not an option. We tried to buy petrol but we could only move across I10, joining it was not an option. The freeways were completely blocked. Joining the freeways was impossible. The traffic was static. Nobody was going anywhere. Seventeen people died on the blocked roads. There was not fuel and no water. It was taking 19 hours to do what would normally take 90 minutes.
The storm came to New Orleans, but not to Houston. There were people left behind in New Orleans who suffered much. There are many for whom life has not returned to normal, even seven years later.

Lord be with us in the storms of life.

Home

Psalm 1119:49-72

⁵⁴ Your statutes have been my songs
   wherever I make my home. 

Wherever we move you are there. Your word is in our routines.  
We have moved many miles. Always we find a church, it is our new home. It is there that we find friends. 
Maybe this will be improved upon later.

Old Friends

2 Peter1 :12-21

I have told you about Uncle Steve, Pat, Alyce (particularly poignant today because the psalm of the morning is psalm 45 with Alyce's often quoted "My tongue is the pen of a skilled writer").  I have recalled tales of Enid, my Girl Guide leader and time spent with my student, Brandon. These are the tales I am remembering today but there are more. Peter retold his real life experiences of Jesus, they were the basis of his knowledge of the truth of the gospel.
Telling and retelling is how we know God too. Real life experiences of our own and those shared by our friends.

Another hobby horse

John 3:22-30

 ³⁰He must increase, but I must decrease.’^*

Every morning I think about the things that I want to do during the day. Whilst I walk I plan my next hours, I tentatively write emails. I am very busy planning. The time I spend in prayer consulting God over his plans for me is a small proportion of the total time.

Cockerels

Luke 22:31-38

Our Saturday morning routine is that after a different breakfast, that is different from the muesli of Monday to Friday and the fresh coque au chocolat and croissants of a Sunday we walk to Jeremey who grows vegetables and sells them on a Saturday and then go on the the farm for milk. David stands at the top of the drive with Ernest and Windermere and I go to negotiate the purchase of the milk. David talks to the hens who have coup near the road. As Madam De La Ferme says, though in French "It is their English lesson of the week". A big white cock lives with the brown hens. He struts amongst his harem.

There are many other cockerels in the village and usually I think of this passage whenever I see them. How much do I live up to my words?

Least and Greatest

Luke 22:14-30

One of the more difficult mathematical concepts is the "Greatest integer less than" function. I have not intention to try to explain it here. Suffice it to say that most mortals have a problem greatness, whether we are viewing from above or below.
Today I was with seven other people for greater part of the day. As the English teacher I was their superior but when it came to coffee time and the language reverted to French I was definitely only in the conversation as a listener as I played spot the word that I understand. I fully understood how they had been feeling for the past hour or two.
I was in the classroom as a servant. We all had the object of improving their English.

Am I habitually a table-sitter or a server?

Arrangements

Luke 22:1-13

How shall I spend this afternoon? Shall I oil the floor, walk the dogs or prepare tomorrow's lesson ready for my assessment? Maybe I shall do  a little of all three. Maybe I might take a moment to discuss the matter with Jesus. He had already made the arrangements for the Passover Feast before he asked Peter and John to prepare the dinner. Maybe he has arrangements for my afternoon too.

"Do not sin again"

John 7:53- 8:11

This morning when David started to read this passage I though "How odd. I thought we were near the end of Luke yesterday. I had to have a sneaky look to check that he was reading the correct passage. Yes he was. Sandwiched between being ready for  dreadful end  and the beginning of the preparations for the Last Supper, including Judas' conference with  the Jewish Rulers is this 'add-in' to John.
I love this story. I hate this story. I love it because it reminds me of the compassion of Christ. I hate it because it reminds me of how much I expect other people to live perfect lives.

Alert

Luke 21:29-38

³⁶Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.’

I am sometimes anxious and fearful. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe those who make calculations   as to the time of Jesus' return are right. For Jesus did say we should recognise the signs of his coming. I do not. I just carry on day to day, the same way. That is all I can do. Live each day that it might be The Last, always ready to welcome my maker in each person I meet.

My way, your way or both

2 Peter 3:11-18

Oh dear, another day when I want to write about the Bible rather than God.
Peter makes 'a comment' about the complexity of some of Paul's letters. Paul in Galatians chapter 2 voices a disagreement with Peter's way of life. These were two great saints without whom I probably would not be doing what I am doing right now. They each had their own relationship with God. We need our individual friendship too.

Here and Now

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

I hate it when I want to pontificate and talk theoretically about a passage. My thesis is that my religion is a real living relationship with the Trinity and thus my writing should be about this and only this.
Whenever I read this passage, and quite a few others about life after death I am reminded about a vision that the authoress Catherine Marshall wrote. Catherine had two grandchildren die in infancy. She had a vision of one of them sitting on God's knee.
I found this a great comfort when Matthew died. I know that he is still entertaining God with his humour. One day I will see him again. I do not know how I will recognize him or if he is a 28 year old man now. I leave those details to God and continue telling you how I know that God is with me in the here and now.

100%

Luke 20:41-21:4

⁴²For David himself says in the book of Psalms,
“The Lord said to my Lord,
‘Sit at my right hand, 
⁴³   until I make your enemies your footstool.’ ” 
⁴⁴David thus calls him Lord; so how can he be his son?’

This was a verse that I used to quote to two very gentle and kind Jehovah's witnesses who often used to visit me on Wednesday afternoons. Yes I give time to JW's and Latter Day Saints. I do not believe that their beliefs are correct but often their motives are pure. Perhaps I can share with them my brand of Christianity, perhaps we can all come to a closer friendship with God. 
There are also people in my life who do not profess a commitment to any religion but for whom compassion, as exemplified in the life of Christ is a way of life.
And there are the 'scribes' of Christianity. Those who make a show of following the letter of the law, those who say "I do not approve of your drinking, I do not approve of your friends, I do not approve..." Oops, now I am judging.
My current theme is recurring. All our time, all that we are is God's to be used in his service whether it is drinking tea with JW's or wine with my next door neighbour. 

Praying

1 Thessalonians 3:1-13


For whom would you like to pray this prayer?

11 Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. ¹²And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. ¹³And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. 

Cathedrals

Isaiah 2:1-11

³   Many peoples shall come and say,
‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
   to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways
   and that we may walk in his paths.’
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
   and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 
⁴ He shall judge between the nations,
   and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
   and their spears into pruning-hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
   neither shall they learn war any more. 

I am a cathedral junkie.If I am visiting a new city and there is a cathedral then it is always near the top of my visiting list. It is not just the new place which attracts me. Often when passing the cathedral of St Michael and St Gudula in Brussels I will take a diversion through the church. On every visit to Pembrokeshire I try to manufacture an excuse for a visit to St David's. I do not know I have this obsession. I like to think that I am not really a traditionalist and that one can worship God in any place, no sacred building is required. I love the mellow stonework and high ceilings which exude an aura of peace.
Worn flagstones tell of feet that have walked the nave. Hymns have been sung, prayers chanted and wordless ones just flee on a thought towards our God.  Prayers of the faithful and not so faithful that were murmured within the walls. Some sermons heard and some slept through. Worship in all its forms has been witnessed by the walls.
I am together with the past and the future worshipping God in the now.

Bend ahoy

<sup>Psalm 5

7</sup> But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,
   will enter your house,
I will bow down towards your holy temple
   in awe of you. 
⁸ Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness
   because of my enemies;
   make your way straight before me. 
 Yesterday I was talking to a colleague who had just returned from America after his first Thanksgiving there. It was a normal family Thanksgiving with a trip to relatives in another state. He drove from North Carolina to Tampa. By Thanksgiving journey standards not a terribly long way. The straightness of the freeway was amazing to this Belgian. It reminded me of a game my friend and I used to play as we drove across West Texas. Guess how far to the next bend. She was driving, I would look at the map and estimate the distance to the next bend. Then Judy would watch the odometer until the bend and see how accurate I had been.
Do I really want to play "Guess what's coming" in my life? Do I really want to be able to see to the distant horizon? As my Belgian friend said "It was so boring and so tiring". Yes it is easy to go into overdrive and cruise along. Life with God is exciting.

How, why, what

Isaiah 1:10-20
Where do you sit when you visit a church, not your every week one, the one where you feel at home but the one in the town you have never been to before? Usually I like to sit about two- thirds of the way back. Then I can easily copy their local variations of worldwide Anglican worship. I sat there, two of three rows from the back on my first visit to a church. The man next to us moved along a seat, not to accommodate us but to allow space between him and us. The Peace was only to be shared with those one knew. We knew nobody, Our Peace was grudgingly taken.
In our home church my service of choice is the more free and easy evening service. At Holy Spirit before I was a contemporary service person. Why, because I object to theeing and thouing in the Lord's prayer alone. I am happy to have Thy Kingdom come in a service surrounded by similar language. But this hobby horse is not the subject of this writing.
The church we were visiting has incense. plenty of incense. It fits in with their style of worship. The church of my choice when I came back to Christianity after a wandering in my late teens had incense. Clouds of smoke reminding us of our prayers. The reason I chose that church was the welcome and the sharing of God's love. Incense, no incense are immaterial to a loving prayerfulness.
Recently I visited that church again. I made sure I sat in a totally different part of the church. And how different  it was. Peace was flowing everywhere in our little corner.
My opinion is that God is not interested in how we worship. It is the why we worship that is important along with what we do between Sunday and Sunday.

Bad choice

Matthew 25:1-13

It was not my day for the car. It was raining. I caught the bus from Waterloo to Braine L'Alleud, twenty minutes until the bus left for Ittre. Plenty of time for a little shopping, just one shop. Shop found, I was side-tracked by some special soap powder, I found the item I had intended buying but not the variety I wanted. I went to the checkout, something was being returned. I looked at my watch, left my potential purchaces and ran. Too late, there was the back of a bus in the distance and the stand where my bus should be waiting for me was empty. My decision to go to just one shop had not been a good choice.
Now there were more decisions to make. Either wait thirty minutes for a different bus and walk five kilometres in wind and rain or wait one hour and fifty-nine minutes in wind and rain. Neither was comfortable, it was 'punishment'.
I chose the former. Each car that passed I looked at longingly but nobody recognised me or had pity on my watery plight. I crossed the commune boundary, I was over half way. I gave up hoping and was resigned to walking the whole way. The a car stopped. A stranger  got out and invited me in. I was trusting, I was too wet and cold to care. But seated in the car was a fellow yoga goer who had recognised me and asked her husband to stop. More important to me than the ride  home is the care that caused my acquaintance to stop and help.
I believe that God made good come from my bad choice. I am very grateful for this.