Turbulence and calm

Psalm 33


⁷ He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle;
   he put the deeps in storehouses. 

What was turbulence and distress on Thursday is now stillness and calm.

God is our Creator and Lord as much as he is the wild ocean.
8  Lets us fear him and stand in awe of him 

¹⁸ Truly the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,
   on those who hope in his steadfast love, 

²⁰ Our soul waits for the Lord;
   he is our help and shield. 
²¹ Our heart is glad in him,
   because we trust in his holy name. 
²² Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,
   even as we hope in you.

To me these verses are a forerunner for the comforting passages in Romans chapter 8. Proof that God is consitendt and working his purpose out.

Romans 8:28 We know that all things work together for good^* for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. 
³⁷No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 


Picture later

Thanksgiving

Psalm 105:23-45

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States.  This morning I went for a walk on the beach, hood up, umbrella up, gloves on. It reminded me of walks on Broad Haven beach, often in winter clad in hat and coat and wellington boots. Maybe I will recount some of the tales of my youth to Naomi this evening, remembering to give thanks and praise to our creator.

Leashes

James 1: 16-27

26 If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. 

Windermere can be a naughty boy. Currently he is curled up in the beanbag. There is no sound, the only clue to his life is the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest. Take him for a walk, meet another dog and one needs earplugs to diminish noise of the screeching and barking as they assault the eardrums. This is accompanied by a straining at the leash to attack the other dog and that fails he quickly turns and initiates a fight with Ernest.
I try to keep my eyes open and search ahead. If I see a distant dog I wind Windermere's leash around my head several times, thus trying to prevent the opportunity to lash out at Ernest. I might also turn aside in the hope that Windy will not notice the dog. all my effort is on controlling the errant dog by his leash and my voice, often having the leash so short that I am at his eye level, thereby trying to control his vision and help him to realize that I am in charge. It is a long and slow learning curve.
Who is in charge of my tongue?

The Plight, not the Flight of the Midway Island Albatross.

Revelation 19:11-21

17 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly in mid-heaven, ‘Come, gather for the great supper of God, ¹⁸to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of the mighty, the flesh of horses and their riders—flesh of all, both free and slave, both small and great.’


It's an old story but I only heard about it for the first time yesterday, The Plight, not  the Flight of the Midway Island Albatross. Photographer Chris Jordan taken photographs of baby albatrosses on Midway Isaland, erroneously fed plastic by their parents. Not a very nutritious diet for a growing bird. Midway Island is thousands of kilometres from the nearest land but currents bring our reject plastic bottle tops and toothbrushes, lighters and plastic bags to the albatross feeding area. Lighters look a little like squid, the parents thought they had a treat.

Louis Evely wrote in In The Christian Spirit "To love God is to love the world. To love God passionately is to love the world passionately.To hope in God  is to hope for the salvation of the world." By world I do not know if he meant mankind or the whole created world. I like to believe that it is both and that we need to be a caring example in our husbandry of the planet and our loving of souls.

MARRIAGE

Revelation 19:1-10

I wrote this many years ago. It was inspired by this passage from Revelation

Picture the scene.

The bride is standing in front of the church with her back to the congregation, but we all know that she is looking radiant as she gazes into the eyes of her loved one.  Her black curls fall onto her white dress. The dress is covered with embroidery and pearls. It has a long train.  One of the most splendid gowns we have seen.

Beside the bride stands the groom. He looks at the bride with eyes full of adoration as he dreams of the life they will share together, of the hours that they can spend in each other's company. He is wearing a suit of the most brilliant white, whiter than the purest snow, for he is Jesus our Lord and King.

The bride vows that she will love and obey for ever, as they believe in the love that lasts into eternity. They  know that they will do anything, go anywhere for each other, even unto death. How they look forward to their future life of mutual devotion.

As we expect the honeymoon is wonderful.  Hours spent in each others company, with eyes and cares for nobody or anythingelse.  Time with the person they have chosen,  an intimate and cozy time.  The sky is blue and the sun shines, there is nothing to dim the light of their love.

Returning to their home there are presents, chores and bills waiting for them. The life of roses tends to drift from the fragrant and beautiful blooms to the thorny stem of the bush. Unfortunately she does not realise that the pleasing and the uncomfortable are all part of the same plant. She lets her eyes wonder to other lovers, they all take their share of her emotions.

The presents, although they were the best that their friends could give them are not quite good enough, nor do they satisfy all that society  thinks that they ought to have. She is not willing to follow her spouse's time scale with regard to increasing thier possessions. She wants him to provide more for her NOW.

Then along come the children, offspring of the divine and the human. She begins to devote herself more to the little things that grow ostensibly in his name.  He wants to name the children Praise, Prayer and Charity but she calls them Good Works,  Altar Guild, and Church Bazaar. These children come in the name of the Lord, but insidiously cause the wife to turn her eyes away from spouse.

Above all is the desire to live for herself, to be somebody in her own right grows in importance. She glances back at the time before her decision to give herself to him and sees that the old freedom has gone, there is another person to consider as well as herself. She forgets to look forward to the joy which they anticipated, she forgets to gaze again into his ever-loving eyes. 

There is more dischord when she wants him to be what he is not, to be a visible and powerful king over the whole earth. He wants  to  take possession of the earth through the growth of their love.

The time comes when the only way out of the situation is for him to allow himself to be taken prisoner for her debts and to pay the price for her sins in the hope that she will see his look of compassion as he gazes at her from his cross.  She might then come to him again in their new life together.  This time she might rely on him  to help her to find the person that she really is.

We, the church are the bride (Ephesians 5:25). It is wonderful that this marriage takes place every day of our lives. New people turn to Christ and announce their love for him and he is able to look forward to another loving relationship.  He enters into the relationship even though he knows that we will not be faithful. But we let him down and wonder away from him. He gives his life for us. We can enter into a new marriage with the resurrected Christ. This one will last for ever as long as we keep glancing back at the cross, knowing that he would go through it all again for us. 

He is the perfect marriage partner, very much married 'for better,  for worse '. 

We are such bad partners when we consider our marriage to Jesus Christ  that we ought to view our earthly spouse with a slightly more tolerant attitude than is often the case. 

Orchestration

1 Corinthians 14:1-12

I have a violin. It sits in its case in the attic. What use is that?
Naomi has a trombone. She plays it often. At home she practices. Out of the house she plays in bands and orchestras. The sounds of the trombone join with those of flutes and harps, violins and cellos, oboes and clarinets. But they do not take their music and play whatever they choose. Together they play what the conductor has chose. Carefully composed, music conveying the sentiments of the composer. Carefully orchestrated, music blending the sounds of the instruments into a beautiful melody.
God takes the odd bods of  his creation and blends us into a symphony of witness. I better watch the conductor and not miss my entry.

Though I walk...

Psalm 23

When I was a young and enthusiastic Christian I thought the 23rd Psalm trite and overused. It was the universal psalm, known by all, true Christian or not. I knew Jesus, I judged that they did not. Now, almost 50 years later I am no less enthusiastic, certainly no longer young but I hope less judgemental of another person's relationship with God.
This psalm is a silken lifeline, as strong as a spider's web at drawing a wandering soul into a relationship with our maker. I now understand that this is not just for the feeble spirited. It is for me.
As I walk through the lanes of life my God is with me.
I have more stories about Psalm 23 but they are for another time.