Lord let me know your tender care.

Psalm 31

Today is a day for Psalm 31.
I want God to listen to me. I am tired of things happening that cause me discomfort, emotionally or physically.
I want God to keep me safe. I want him to protect me.
I want to be released from imprisonment by dampness in the house.
Yes my eye is consumed with sorrow. Yesterday because of my frustration at having nowhere other than a hard wooden chair to sit but today morning our little dog Windy who was killed yesterday by a car outside our house.
I feel useless.
Here my entreaty O Lord.

23 Love the Lord, all you who worship him; *
the Lord protects the faithful,
but repays to the full those who act haughtily.

24 Be strong and let your heart take courage, *
all you who wait for the Lord.

I don't really mind what he does to the haughty though I suppose I could class the driver of the car as too arrogant to stop.

Lord let me know your tender care.

Like a child

Luke 18;15-30

Do you remember visiting Father Christmas in the grotto? For me my first experience was not a happy one. It was my third Christmas. We were in a department store in Llanelli. The grotto was in the basement. We descend the dark stairs, I was put on this strange man's knee. I cried.There after I always had a problem with this Father Christmas guy, so much so that I was the first one on the block to hear the truth. my mother just could not take any more of my Christmas agonies. I was terrified of Father Christmas.
When I had my own children I could not encourage the myth of Father Christmas and told them that we gave and received presents at Christmas because God gave us Jesus at Christmas and the Kings brought gifts to the stable. It was a time of giving. The other mothers in the village were not happy. They were worried that my children would tell their children the truth.
This came to my memory this morning as I was pondering what it is the accept the kingdom like a child. Children are not gullible. They are often very wise. So I suppose this is how I accept God and his kingdom. Believe what I am told until proved otherwise.

Thank you, thank you for your help

Luke 17:11-19

Ten were healed, one back to say thank you, and of course he was the Samaritan amongst the group. The rest were not thankful, they followed the rules, went and went to the priest to get check. I expect they went home to their families after that. Perhaps they had a party to celebrate their good health. What they did not do was say thank you to the chap who had healed them.

The day after the flood most of the roads in our village were closed. Parking was at a premium. People had come from all over the region to help. They swept out the water and mud, emptied cupboards and washed plates. For three days 6 angels, total strangers to us cleaned our house. There were others too, one who went to pick up a form with me to make sure my pigeon french was understood. There was a familiar face from yoga who came with her husband, sons, sister in law and niece who washed plates over the grate in the street for hours and took clothes to the official Ittre laundry service. It is difficult to thank these people enough, But I must. Writing this here is not sufficient.

As the waters cover the sea

Habakkuk 2:1-4, 9-20

But the earth will be filled 

with the knowledge of the glory of God 

as the waters cover the sea

How I disliked the daily assembly of my secondary school. Fifteen minutes of enforced silence. The hymn, the reading, the prayer and the announcements. I think that was it. One day we sang the hymn with these words as its refrain. 

But the earth will be filled 

with the knowledge of the glory of God 

as the waters cover the sea.

Our school was seven miles from the Atlantic Ocean. We were all familiar with the waters and the sea. Mighty white fringed breakers crashing onto the pebbles at the beach top then the sound as the salt water was dragged through the stones back to its ocean home. Or the sea in its tranquil form seeming and indeed spreading beyond the horizon to America, a golden path of sunlight leading the way. Yes I was familiar with the waters but not yet with God's glory. From that moment on I never saw the sea as mundane, it is an expression of God's glory. God nudge me towards his purpose.

1 God is working his purpose out
as year succeeds to year:
God is working his purpose out,
and the time is drawing near;
nearer and nearer draws the time,
the time that shall surely be,
when the earth shall be filled with the glory of God
as the waters cover the sea. 

2 From utmost east to utmost west,
where'er the church has gone,
by the mouth of many messengers
the call of God has come:
Give ear to me, you continents;
you isles, give ear to me,
that the earth may be filled with the glory of God
as the waters cover the sea. 

3 March we forth in the strength of God,
with the banner of Christ unfurled,
that the light of the glorious gospel of truth
may shine throughout the world:
fight we the fight with sorrow and sin
to set their captives free,
that the earth may be filled with the glory of God
as the waters cover the sea. 

4 All we can do is done in vain
unless God blesses the deed;
vainly we hope for the harvesttide
till God gives life to the seed;
yet nearer and nearer draws the time,
the time that shall surely be,
when the earth shall be filled with the glory of God 

as the waters cover the sea. 

Floods

Psalm 93

I try to get back into my usual routines but somehow it is difficult. Life is not normal. All the cupboards are empty and the drawers are upstairs. The chairs are waiting to be recovered. The walls are waiting to be stripped of the water marks and the damp removed. The floor is tile covered in wood glue.
I no longer hear the roar of the flood at night, though it did persist for a few days. Neither is the smell of damp mud in my nostrils any longer.
Slowly the neighbourhood is eturning to normal. Quite a few houses have the remnants of their kitchen on the pavement and there are piles of concrete, presumably dug up and discarded floors.
The word flood is not one that will never again pass through my ears without twinges of emotion.

Richard Hooker

1 Corinthians 2:6-10,13-16

Richard Hooker is one of my heroes. The walked the via media, that narrow path between Romanism and Puritanism in the 16th century. He was adamant about his beliefs but tolerant of those who did not share them. 

He likened Anglicanism, i.e. Church of Englandism, not the contemporary American use of the word to amongst many things, a three strand cord.  The elements of scripture, tradition and reason each being a strand of the cord, scripture being the strongest. I am a bible reader, I believe that I can deepen my relationship with God through regular bible reading. It is how I discover more about our wonderful God and gives hil an opportunity to nudge me in the direction he wants me to take.

Yes I like a bit of pomp and ceremony. It is a special way to honour our God.

As for reason I do not think I could be a part of a religion that did not allow me to make my own decisions and be responsible for my own actions.

A little about the man and his theology. Of course there is a lot more about him, Wikipedia for instance

Psalm 150

Psalm 150

It is a Psalm 150 day; a praise God day.

Can I praise him fpr being tired? Can I praise him for the empty brain and layers of dust and grime? Probably I can. I thrust hil to have a plan. Meanwhile spot the parrow who was just hopping amongst the rocks. I could see him because of tile spent by my friend clearing away the brambles and summer weeds.
Can you see him?

Jonah

Jonah 3:1-10,4:1-11

I love Jonah. He tells God just what he thinks. He does not hide his emotions from God, why should he? He gets his anger off his chest but does not quite move on, well not yet.

I used to have a devotional book with quotations from many sources. One of my favourites was Teresa of Avila. Since it was her day yesterday I had a glance a page which listed some of her quotations. The one which said hello to me was

“For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.” 

Jonah was completely at ease in his relationship with God.

My hope is in him.

Matthew 13:44-52

I do not think those bad fish thought that they were bad. They swam around and ate plankton or other fish like all the rest of the fish in the net. This is why I can only hope that I am leading the life that God wants me to lead.

No Mention

Ester 8:1-8, 15-17

Just because God is not overtly mentioned does not mean that he is not organizing the scene. There are many times when circumstances coincide in such a bizarre manor that they can only have been manipulated by God. Take, for instance our move to Belgium. Never did we pray "Find a job in Belgium", yet a I can see ways that the move is just one piece of God's big plan.

Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.

Acts 19:1-10

Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.
Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.
Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me.
Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.

Unheard and unseen the Spirit of God moves in mysterious ways, a little thought here and a smile there. A set of circumstances organized.
As a child I asked where is the Holy Spirit now? Why are there no miraculous healings? I knew the stories. Why do people not speak in tongues? I did not get a satisfactory answer.

I became a teenager heavily involved in all things Christian. I learned that miracles do happen and that people do speak in tongues. It was too much for me. I walked away.

I walked but God did not. This was the time when strange, off the wall ideas would come, sometimes with life changing consequences. In retrospect I can see that they were God organizing me for the future present. No big flashes of light, just a seeping of the Spirit as it filled up some of the spaces in my being. There is plenty of space left. Meanwhile I will gently pray the prayerful song.

Big Stories

Acts 11:1-18

After four weeks it is still the number one topic of conversation in the village; Yesterday I went into the butcher's shop for the first time since the flood. His first words to me were a question about my experience. We spent some time reminiscing over our experiences.
By coincidence, or maybe it was not coincidence while I was thinking about how an important event takes over our conversation I read this story from the Guardian. I thought the lady's last few lines very relevant. We can talk at length about the important events.
This is just what Peter did. His mind was blown away by the fact that God could and did give the Holy Spirit to Gentiles. None of the details of the episode escaped his retelling.
I hope that I remember to give God his place in the retelling of the events of my life. In the current one it is that I thought about putting the drying frame in Naomi's bedroom and thus happened to glance out of her window and see the water enter our garden. The alternative was probably that I would have been doing what I am doing now and be sat with my back to the downstairs window. The first I would have known about the flood was when it reached my feet. Those little nudges are important.

Ask if you want to know.

John 7:37-52

I always find it difficult to answer the question "Where are you from?" The identity which I associate with is Welsh though by most definitions I am not Welsh. I was born of Derbyshire parents in Norwich and was moved to Haverfordwest when I was three months old. All my growing up was done in Wales and it is the place where I have lived longest as my mother left there when I was twenty one and three months old. This narrowly beats the town where we moved from to here, where we spent twenty years. That is Houston, Texas. I sound English but my vocabulary tends to be Texan.
Sometimes if you want to know the truth you just have to have the courage to ask and not assume that you can work out the answer for yourself based on half the evidence.
Maybe the Jewish leaders did not want to face up the the truth about Jesus.
Do I need to step out of some preconceived ideas?

The same old question

John 7:14-36

Recently I received notification of a book called "How God became Jesus". I was intrigued by the title but irritated by what I read upon investigation.
The points raised seem reminiscent of the questions discussed by Jesus' listeners in today's reading.  However much we think we have progressed with our laptops and gsms or our cars and planes the fundamental questions of life and faith remain the same.
Where do I stand? Listening to Jesus and following his teaching.

Post flood

Acts 8:1-13

You may have seen the video of the great Ittre flood of three weeks ago.

This is my photograph. It is silent, there is no roar of raging torrents. You can hear those on the video. You cannot smell the damp mud of the next next from zither the photograph or the video, you had to be there.
Crises happen. There was persecution, the believers left their homes and fled. They went far afield and spread the good news of life with Jesus. Thus the world outside Jerusalem and Judea began to know that God loves them.
In the days following the flood many total strangers passed through our house, some coming for three days shovelling mud, washing floors and furniture, demolishing the kitchen, ripping up the floor, washing and packing crockery and glassware. Most were from the higher parts of Ittre but there were some from Nivelles and Braine le Comte. Still living with the noise of three dehumidifiers and without a kitchen is it is difficult to work out where God is going with this experience. I know my neighbours a lot more, I know the wonderful heart of many of the helpers, some of whom we did not see, there were the volunteer washer-women. I know the gentle caring of the red cross commune workers who daily inquired after our well-being. I know the sharing over delivered meals brought by a high and dry neighbour with a big heart and large saucepans. And I met a mother and daughter who came to help, the daughter having to be a tag-along just like I was, because her father too had died when she was little more than an infant.
God has a very complex jigsaw puzzle and it is amazing how the pieces fit together.

The family of God

Romans 16:17-27

I think St Paul would have been one of the first to sign up for Facebook and Google +. He would probably have been on AOL instant messaging and MySpace before the dawn of Facebook and Twitter. He would have been able to rein in errant churches immediately. The Good News would have been resounding throughout cyberspace. However it was his care for everybody he had met and even those who he had only met by hearsay as well as his wish to share greetings from all and to all that led me to ponder his possible involvement in social media.

Last week our whole family was on holiday together. I shared photographs with my Facebook and Google + friends. One friend commented on how much they miss our family now that we are on another continent. I was touched. Friends who are often in my thoughts but whom I seldom contact 'liked' my photographs. It is a way to say 'I still care about you even though I no longer see you weekly'.

I sent a message to a friend with a sick husband. This caused other people to comment on the message and share their love and support.

St Paul's letters are a wonderful example of the care and love which binds the family of God. There are a lot of words of instruction but under it all is the love that binds us all together.

It's starting

Matthew 27:24-31

There is a twinge, you wonder if this is it. After approximately eight months of knowing that this day would come you wonder if this is really it, if this is the beginning of the great pain, the pain that will release the new life. The pain increases and becomes more frequent but you know it is going to get  a lot worse. I think this is where Jesus is in today's reading. He is willing to endure great pain and death to give me life.

Sabbath Rest

Mark 2:23-28

I was planning to squeeze a job or two into the space between making coffee and reading at the morning service and taking my husband to the station so that he could go to the singing practice for the evening service. Then I read this passage; Jesus;said it was ok for the disciples to nibble the wheat as they passed hungrily through the field on a Sabbath. To me he said take your time, catch your breath. So that is what I am doing.

Sun set, peace

Psalm 50

Yesterday we sat at a dinner table and watched the sun set. 

¹ The mighty one, God the Lord,
   speaks and summons the earth
   from the rising of the sun to its setting. 
² Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
   God shines forth. 

Romans 15:1-13

¹³May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Sharing the peace of the setting sun and its reflection of God's glory.

Praise God

Romans 14:1-12

And every tongue shall give praise to God.

Psalm 45

my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe. 

Yes I am ready to write, though maybe not skillfully as the NIV translates the word. Words do not always come easily to my fingers. I hope this is a case of God understanding the praise that is in my heart even if it does not reach my lips. 
How easy it is to grouch about our fellow church members than to praise God for them. Though I must admit that today the praise that is welling up within me is nothing to do with my home church but an adoration of the beauty of creation and thankfullness that I now this area of the world and have the opportunity to be here.