Prayer for open hearts

Hebrews 4:1-16


We thought we brought our children up aright. They came to church and Sunday School. Were acolytes and  enthusiastic members of mission trips. They went to YES and Happening. Sometimes they still do acts of kindness and some of them still go to church, willingly, but some do not. I do not enquire into the secret places of their heart, only God can judge the right relationship between Himself and myself or any other self. But I can pray that given any chance my children and friends will ¹⁶... therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
That when they come to their next today they will say "Yes".

And having said that I need to remember that some of Jesus' words 

³⁶ When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷ Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. ³⁸ Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’. (Matthew 9:36-38)

I might even have to be the worker. At least I can start with prayer, prayer for open hearts for seed and worker. 

Change

1 Peter 1:10-20

John 13:36-38

13 Therefore prepare your minds for action;^* discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed. ¹⁴Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. ¹⁵Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; ¹⁶for it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’

It is one of those days for a sermon rather than an observation on life. The John passage is  Jesus telling Peter that he, Peter woud deny Jesus three times before the cock crowed the following morning. The above verses are ones that Peter wrote later, years later. Peter changed, so can I.

Praying

John 17:1-26

Lent is almost over so I think I can reveal some of the disciplines which I attempted. One was to follow the part of the example of Martin Luther. He started and finished  each day with the Lord's prayer. Another was to be even more conscious than usual that every minute of every day is an opportunity for a conversation with God.

Jesus is praying for his disciples and everybody else who will believe  including you and me. He prayed for our protection in our daily life and 

'that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.'

Now it is our turn to pray.

Strength

Psalm 55,
Philippians 4: 1-13

Yesterday I left my glasses at church. Phew, Diane in the office has found them. Last week my gsm went missing, I know not how, also half the sight in one of my eyes. My 'children' have various problems some of which I live with and some I feel a great burden to pray for. So it goes on. I feel inadequate for my circumstances.
Then I read these two readings. You do not have to read them both. Now I know that God is with me and his love surrounds and strengthens me. Today I particularly need the strengthening.

‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’

John 12:20-26

This morning I went to see Jesus.I went out tired and grumpy. I came home with a spring in my step. I had been to meet with two ladies at church. We talked and read bibles and discussed how see and share Jesus' light in our daily lives. I saw it in their quiet ways this morning. Now I want I am sharing it with you.

Happy Day

Philippians 3:1-14

Today was going to be a happy day. The first day back after a good holiday in the sun. Today was going to be a settling back into routines day. A day when I was going to bake cakes, along with some village made eggs to send to Naomi for Easter. But.

But I went to collect my cell phone, mobile phone, gsm from its last known, before holiday, location and it is not there. 

"Rejoice in the Lord". It's tough but I will try.

Load of Nonsense

John 6:52-59

What a load of nonsense Jesus seems to talk. The people of Israel were not cannibals and neither are we. I am no more likely than the people of Capernaum  to eat anybody's flesh.
Is he flesh or is he bread? I do not know. I do not understand. What I do know is that my life is a nonsense without Jesus. With him stress and strife become peace and love.

There may not be many posts during the next week as I shall be away from my computer.

Mire

Psalm 69
Becky and I have identical snow boots. It snowed. I looked for my boots. One had clean soles the other was caked in mud, bits of  and other debris. I decided the cleaner boots were mine.
How much we dislike mire.
What is  my mire?

That's it.

John 6:27-40

I eat food, it energizes me for the day and enables me to live my daily life without a thought about hunger. But my spiritual life, what is it that maintains the health of my spiritual life? According to Jesus all I have to do is believe in Him. That is believe what I have already been told and experienced, no special miracle just to show me that He is there.
That's it.

The Raw Onion Question

Psalm 97

I went on a Brownie Pack Holiday. It was there, at Broneirion, that I discovered that bamboo could grow outside China, even in Britain.  I fell in love with the bamboo grove which was so large that we could hide inside its cavities.  On the last morning we had a prize giving, there were prizes for the Most Helpful Brownie, the Best Worker, the Happiest Brownie. All the usually qualities that one would expect from a Good Brownie. I was awarded the prize for the Best Eater. My mother was told that this was because I happily and enthusiastically, without complaining ate all that was set before me.

They obviously had not tried to serve me raw onion. I hate raw onion. If at all feasible I will pick the tiny chopped up bits out of a salad and leave them casually on my plate. The big question is "Is my hatred of evil as great as my hatred of raw onion?" Or do I just go about my life ignoring the evil around me?

Plastic bottles

<sup>Jeremiah 16:10-21

18</sup>And^* I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations. 

Every Tuesday evening I walk along our hedge and pick up all the reject cans of Jupiler and empty crisp packets and other items jettisoned by passers-by and add them to our family collection of rubbish or our recycle bag as appropriate  At Clabecq there is a special compound at turning pool in the canal which contains all sorts of rubbish accumulated in the canal, mainly plastic bottles of all shapes, sizes and uses. 
How much do we gather and use and throw without  thought for the wonderful world that God has created for us. One of my joys in riding beside the canal is watching the ducks, swans, moorhens, herons and the odd fishing jumping as they go about their life. The floating plastic is  death knell for the for the wildlife of the area. For me it is an abomination but I am not free from the guilt of having used plastic.

Be still and know

Psalm 46

This is the title of a book by the late Archbishop Michael Ramsey. It was the subject of a Lent course which we followed in 1982 or maybe 1983.

"Here is Ramsey's best-loved book, a luminous meditation on the art of praying and the way prayer shapes the heart of the believer. This book searches out the biblical roots of prayer as they are revealed in New Testament scriptures and makes that wisdom available for contemporary readers."  (Google Books)

I do not remember much of the content of the book but I frequently recall the title. 

Slaves

Romans 6:12-23

16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

Last Friday was World Day of Prayer. I bought some earrings made by women who were brought to Belgium as slaves. They found the safe house and are trying to start a new life. I considered making a donation without buying the jewellery, we have enough 'stuff'. But then I thought about the time and effort that the ladies put into their work, about the pleasure that it gives to sell your product, about how they are taking the hard option, the risks that they have taken to escape from their masters and attempt to lead a life dedicated to truth. I bought three pairs of earrings. 

I have worn some of them this week. When they are admired I can tell the story of their manufacture. Maybe in this way I can draw attention to the plight of the many modern day slaves. Victims of human trafficking, disobedient slaves grasping for a life free from the chains of their masters.

More on the problem in Belgium and Europe in general can be read, for instance, on these pages http://www.breakingchainsnetwork.com/
http://compassion4europe.com/

UK
http://www.soca.gov.uk/about-soca/about-the-ukhtc

USA and worldwide
http://www.polarisproject.org/

Croci

Romans 6:1-11

It is spring. What was a barren patch of bare earth is a blaze of purple croci. I did not plant the bulbs, they are the work of a previous resident. Each year they appear and give me joy.
I have other bulbs too, ones that I did plant, they are no less thrilling. Then there is the snowdrop. Only one even though I planted quite a few bulbs. They were given me by a friend from her mother's garden, a garden that I visited about forty years ago. The joy of the flowers puts a spring in my step each year but I know that also I need to tend and weed their home. Thus it is with my spiritual life too.


(Photographs will follow later)

Deer

Psalm 42

"As pants the hart for cooling streams so longs my heart for you..."

These are not be the exact words of the hymn by Nahum Tate and Nicolas Brady but they are the ones that I remember from the school assemblies of my teenage years.  The hymn was often sung. I tried to dislike it, along with the others which were sung frequently but somehow the picture of the deer running to the clear flowing stream for refreshment was clear in my head. It was mine. I think it was a hook on the end of a fishing line sent by God. It is one of those special memories. Can a school assembly be a memory as a thin place?

Today deer are in the news. The University of East Anglia is proposing that over seven hundred thousand deer should be culled annually in order to keep the status quo. Fourteen thousand road accidents a year involve deer.
Yesterday I was watching a programme about the eco-structure of the Scottish Highlands. Deer are an important element in the maintenance of that system, mainly uninterrupted by the automation of the twentieth century. There they can run to forest streams for refreshment without fear of the motor car.

Where am I now? Still carrying the picture in my mind's eye, still humming the tune, still looking to God for peace and security and frustrated by the way that modern man treats God's wonderful world.


*Of the deer family

A glimpse of the real person

John 8:12-20

I am an only child. my father died when I was two years old. My mother used to tell me in loving tones that I was her reminder of my father, that I was her personification of his memory. As a child I disliked this intensely. I wanted to be liked and loved for being me. In fact I think I held this opinion for most of my mother's life. Not something that I am proud of. It prevented me from appreciating my mother for the wonderful person that she was and it is only now as I look back that I acknowledge the good which she did. Now it is too late to tell her.

Newcomers

John  7 :14-36

We lived across the road from the church in Brompton, Northallerton in Norht Yorkshire. We went to the church regularly for about a month and then the the vicar spoke to us. By then he had had the opportunity to check our credentials, where we lived and where we worked. we were acceptable.

I like to make a point of speaking to people I do not recognize, you never know who they might be.

Strength and Beauty

Psalm 96

Deafness

Jeremiah 5:20-31

Ernest seems to be going deaf. He no longer always arrives when I unzip a banana and he is reclining at the other end of the house. Being an aristocratic dog of course he has always suffered slightly from selective deafness, especially to commands such as "Come here" and "No" but any tiny whisper associated with food or walks was never ignored.

Now how is my deafness when it comes to listening for God's voice?

St David

Mark 4:26-29

I cannot resist a sale, especially a "Closing Down Sale". I happened upon one when I was in St Andrews in November. I found a dress called "Pembrokeshire". That I had to have for that was where I was raised.

I do not know why it is called Pembrokeshire but I was fortunate that it fit me. I wore it today in celebration of the life of St David who also lived in Pembrokeshire but quite a few years before me.
St David's life is still bearing fruit. Every time I visit the cathedral that is near the place where he had his monastery I am reminded of his simple and loving life.