Cold Feet

John 5:1-18

I know what I want to say but I cannot find words to elegantly phrase my thoughts or give a concrete example. Hence here are my bare  thoughts.
The man had been lying, waiting for healing for thirty-eight years. Jesus said "Get up and walk", so he did. He did not doubt that he would be able to walk. He did not stop to think that it might be against God's wishes because it was a Sabbath. He did it.
Jesus found him in the Temple. he was a good Jew. Jesus said "Stop sinning". I do  not like people criticizing me. The neighbours said "He's the one who is wrong, the one who told you to carry your mat on a Sabbath". This was a more comfortable point of view. He did not continue in his life of faith.

High Banks

Psalm 61

It was snowing on Sunday morning. The roads were beginning to be covered with snow. We came to a part with high banks on either side of the road. The road was snow free.
Is this like my life. Hazards gather in the area not protect by God?

Why do I do this?

Romans 1 : 1-15

I have said it before, but I will repeat it, The reason  I write this is to share moments of God working in my life so that maybe through my tales you may come a little closer yourself to God. I have no new tale for you today only the glorious tale that might appear mundane that I know that God is with me every minute of every hour. I do not know what mishaps he saves me from because they do not happen.

How did Jesus pray?

Hebrews 5:1-10

7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus^* offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.

And how do I pray? Politely with pleases and thank yous. quietly sitting in my chair or walking along the side of the canal. 

Hard Heart

Hebrews 4:1-10

Once when I was reading Psalm 23 thoughts of a friend came into my head. Eventually I wrote to her and told her this. It seems that she was going through  lot of stress and she had been thinking about God as a Comforting Shepherd. My letter reinforced, for her, the great comfort that God had already given her.

I try therefore to act on little thoughts that might, just might be a nudge from God.

Looking to Jesus

John 2:22-3:15

Do I look to Jesus as a matter of life and death? That is why the Israelites in the desert had to look at the snake on a stick. Or is my conversation with Jesus more a matter of "Hi Jesus, I'm glad you are here"?

Visiting Churches and Cathedrals

John 2:13-22

How many feet have walked the stones, praying as they went. What prayers have been offered, what anguish calmed? There is a serenity to cathedrals, ancient and more modern. When I visit a city the cathedral is usually high on my visiting list. I want to share in those prayers, past and present. I want to share in the worship that desired and caused the edifice to be built

Help with testing

Hebrews 2:11-18

¹⁸ Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested. 

Yes Jesus was tested. He spent forty days in the desert contemplating his sonship with God and what power that gave him. He spent hours in the Garden of Gethsemane agonizing over the coming hours and whether he could escape the horrors of death.  He did not succomb to the easy path of escape. He drank his cup and went through with the torture and painful death. And it was well in the end.

Why do I make such a fuss about a self-imposed  lower calorie intake during Lent? 

Our dogs

Psalm 32

We have two dogs, Ernest and Windermere. You can guarantee that if there is a rustling sound it is Ernest emptying a shopping bag to unwrap our dinner or overturning a waste-paper basket to dig out a used tissue, dissect it and distribute the remains throughout the room. Let Ern into the garden and he has his patrol route. First he checks the compost heap for new arrivals though he does monitor our going in and out with the compost pot then he climbs the back of the cliff and checks the length of the fence, stopping especially at the cat gap. At the far end he ventures down to just above the cliff edge and then makes his way back to the steps. This is followed by an excursion to the front garden. He finishes his tour with a return  to the compost heal for a snack.

Now Windermere is completely trustworthy inside the house, all shopping bags waste-paper baskets and their contents are safe. Full ones are left untouched and empty ones are not checked for possible edible contents. But the garden is a different matter. If not attended Windermere will either make straight for the gap under the fence made by the neighbour's cats or investigate a way through the hedge to the rabbit on the other side. He has been know to be attached to a leash and still dig a way through to the rabbit.

Ernest uses his freedom wisely. He knows the boundaries within which he should stay. He is therefore trusted out by himself to wander as much as he likes and where he likes within our garden. I like to think that the freedom that God gives us is similar and hope I use it wisely too, not trying to test the boundaries.

Where are you staying?

John 1:35-42

Maybe it was 1978. I asked "Where are you staying?" to the girl who had just been offered the post of an English teacher at the school where I was working. I had never seen her before that day but we had had a chat or two in the staff room. The answer might have been the Black Swan, I cannot remember. I said. "You cannot stay there, stay with us." So we went and picked up her suitcase, cancelled the booking and she spent the night at our house. Thus began a friendship that continues.

My in-laws were arriving the next day. My house was being cleaned from top to bottom, I now had a willing helper. A friend needed a lodger, our new friend needed somewhere to stay when she took up her position.

I find it strange that I had been thinking of Julia earlier this morning in a totally different context and then God reminds me of our meeting in this Bible passage.

God brings people into our lives in strange ways. I hope that I am always open to his prompting.

My circumcision?

Titus 1:1-16

I read my bible and pray everyday. Is this what makes me a Christian?
Does anyone really categorize themself as a lazy glutton?
What rules do  not even realize are rules but I expect my fellow humans to follow if I am to categorize them as a Christian?
Lord guide my life, help me to see others as you see them.

My decisions

Luke 18:9-14

Lent is here.
I am still deciding what to give up or take on or bot, for the Forty Days. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert. Perhaps that is my problem. I am spending too much time and energy deciding what I am going to do and not giving God the opportunity for his guidance.

My place.

John 1: 19-28

There is something that I want to do. I want to write a book of devotions. I have wanted to do this for about twenty years. I have had friends cheer me on. One friend, who has had books published tried to give me lessons in getting published but still I do not do it. Why? I am either scared or lazy or both. I cannot exert myself to write all the necessary letters and resist rejection. Or maybe the reason is that I do not think I am good enough. I do not want to elevate myself to a pedestal when my place is on the ground and my writings trite. So I write this, a sort of cop out. I hope that it brings you closer to God.

John knew his place,

Aliens again

Deuteronomy 6:10-15

God took us to Texas, now he has brought us out of there to Belgium. It was time for a change and we have to grape vines in our garden here! I suppose you could call that a vineyard though I have yet to find a use for the little grapes with many seeds and sour skins.

Wherever I am, whether in the heat of Texas or the snow, like today, of Belgium I want God to rule my activities.  I want to be aware of the local customs and unwritten rules of life that are counter to God's way. I want to serve Him and Him alone.

An instance of God's sense of humour.

Deuteronomy 6:1-9

I love God. Yesterday I had to write an emergency meditation for our church's book for Lent. Guess what. it was on the latter part of this passage. Here it is.

Jesus said “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and your neighbour as yourself.”  (My paraphrase of Matthew 22:37-39). Being a New testament is the relevant testament person I was shocked and horrified when I discovered these same words in the Old Testament in Leviticus 19:18. Now I find the first of those commandments in Deuteronomy too.  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”

For some years therefore I have been just as excited by the Old testament as by the New. No longer do I see it as irrelevant to my life. It was Old testament Scriptures that Jesus spoke about on the road to Emmaus. Why did I ignore them for so many years?

Give up, take on

Galatians 5:16-24

I have spent  some time recently wondering what to give up for Lent. It seems so trivial to give up chocolate or wine and the chocolatier needs his income as much in Lent as any other time of year. Jesus totally withdrew from society, from chocolate, wine and bread, from all food and all company except that of his father. At the end of the forty days he was hungry yet he resisted the devil's offer of food and did not succumb to testing whether he was or was not God's son by throwing himself from the Temple. 

The time in the desert had strengthened his relationship with God so that he could do the work that he had come to do. That is how I want to approach Lent, as a time to build my relationship with God. To this end I will endeavour to abstain from fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy drunkenness  carousing and things like these. Some will be easier than others. Some will be very difficult. The greatest difficulty might be recognising them in myself and especially not creating strife if somebody has the audacity to point out envy in me. 
If I am not going to grouch then I will have to adopt some differnet attitudes, ones chosen from love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. It will take an effort to react to situations in these manners. Hmm, patience at red traffic lights, possibly. Giving of my time more willingly? Doing an unprovoked act of kindness?

Serving

Galatians 5:1-15

I have a spare half an hour. Shall I sit down and read a book or send a letter to a friend without email? This is one of my current themes - putting the other person's needs before mine. This is what Jesus told us to do. he also demonstrated this in his own life. Whenever his opportunity for self time was interrupted he dealt with the interruption, usually prompted by compassion for the other person.

Experience

Isaiah 52:1-12

I might be worthless to my fellow people but to God I am precious. I will sing in my heart, I will praise him and thank him for the life that he has given me. I know, because of all that has past that any present problems will be solved. My experience of God tells me that.

Journal

Psalm 56

One of the most famous diaries is that of Cecily in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. Cecily records her thoughts and feeling for the, unbeknown to he, fictitious Ernest. I am sure God is just as diligent in his recording my emotions which are probably just as volatile as those of Cecily. His record is probably more complete than my own record.
When we were reading this psalm early this morning the diary which I bought at the Boston Fine Arts Museum came to mind. That was in the days when my journal was a diary. In the back I wrote a list of my family and friends for who I wanted to pray and divided the list into thirty. Each day of the month I prayed for the group whose names fell on that day. My current diary is a leather bound book that I found in my mother's belongings and which re-emerged when I was unpacking boxes after our move here. It is a joy to write on the thick paper. No longer do I have the monthly list but I think I might revive it. Daily, well almost daily I make a note of any bible verses, readings or situations that seem particularly poignant. Sometimes it is just my thoughts and sometimes nothing. But God has his record.

Tired Earth

Isaiah 51:1-8

 6b  the earth will wear out like a garment,

How I love the earth that God has created, rocks and mountains, deserts and coastlands, even my ever growing wilderness of a garden. It is all the work of the artist God. We have official organizations that live in museums and maintain works of art. How much more should we cherish God's workmanship.

teaching

Isaiah 50:1-11

I teach because one of my mother's friends thought I was a natural teacher. She was an experienced teacher, the headmistress of a school. I think she had seen me with younger children helping them to learn various Girl Guide tasks. So I went to training college and became a teacher, I think I might have preferred to be a computer programmer but it was a newly invented job at the time my decision was made and the news had not yet reached the careers information of an all girls school in west Wales.
Maybe I really am a natural teacher, my poor dolls had to go to school.
Now when I thought I had given up I find myself teaching again but not the mathematics which is so familiar and my speciality but English as a foreign language.
The subject matter is certainly diverse but the emotion involved in learning the two is often the same. You either love it or hate it.
So I teach. Gently leading and nurturing my students confidence to take risks and be bold.