Congratulations

On Saturday my brother, David, got married to Jenny.

They are a wonderful couple and it was an excellent wedding.

The whole day was a real celebration of their love for each other, and it was an absolute privilege to be able to take part in the proceedings.

Seeing so many friends and family gathered together, and enjoying themselves, was a great expression of the love and affection felt towards a generous and hospitable couple.

God bless them both.

Thank God for Jesus

The opening line of one of my favourite christian songs goes like this:

There's a lot of pain, but a lot more healing

It completely busts open my heart when people tell me their stories of pain, hurt, anguish, guilt and confusion. I am so thankful to God that He is a healer...not a partial healer but a complete healer...a God who restores. I cannot conceive of a world that did not have the hope and love that is offered to us through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Thank God for Jesus.

Give your heart a home

I hear your hollow laughter your sighs of secret pain
Pretending and inventing just to hide your shame
Plastic smiles and faces blinkin' back the tears
Empty friends and places all magnify your fears

If you're tired and weary, weak and heavy laden
I can understand how it feels to be alone
I will take your burden, if you'll let Me love you,
Wrap My arms around you, Give your heart a home

It hurts to watch you struggle and try so hard to win
But trade your precious birth right for candy coated sin
Wasting precious moments restless and confused
Building up defenses for fear that you'll be used

If you're tired and weary, weak and heavy laden
I can understand how it feels to be alone
I will take your burden, if you'll let Me love you,
Wrap My arms around you, Give your heart a home

Take My yoke upon you and walk here by My side
Let Me heal your heartaches, dry the tears you've cried
Never will I leave you, never turn away
Keep you through the darkness lead you through the day

If you're tired and weary, weak and heavy laden
I can understand how it feels to be alone
I will take your burden, if you'll let Me love you,
Wrap My arms around you, Give your heart a home
Wrap My arms around you, Give your heart a home

(Music and lyrics by Don Francisco)

He is mighty to save

Last Friday I remember saying to God that I was tired of hearing about people who are in pain and struggling through life. I asked God to come and bring healing and restore those people; to make them whole again.

Today and yesterday I have again heard of people who are really going through the worst of times.

All I know to do is to cry out "to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us." (Ephesians 3:20)

God has big, strong arms. His arm is outstretched toward a hurting and broken world, and with tears in his eyes he cries out to each and every one, pleading with us to take his hand and let him save us.

Daydream believer

500 years ago tomorrow a young sculptor called Michelangelo Buonarroti started work on a painting that remains one of the artistic wonders of the world - the monumental ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome.

I wonder how Michaelangelo felt, five centuries ago, as he looked up at the vast ceiling - 550 square meters of damp grey plaster. We know that he took the commission with great reluctance. He must have known that he was facing years of back-breaking work at great height. He knew that he would face the scathing criticism of rival painters. And he wasn't even confident he was going to be paid for the job. He could have been forgiven for thinking that the task could never be finished - so it wasn't worth starting. And yet, 500 years ago, he started work.

The ceiling fresco in the Sistine Chapel took four and a half years to complete. Michaelangelo's painting is a work of theology as much as art. It is also triumph of hope and endurance.

In an increasingly cynical culture we need to cherish the dreamers - people of hope and vision who believe that great things can be achieved and the world can be changed.

God of hope, we pray for a recovery of hope in our culture.
That from today's young people you will raise up
artists who can reflect the truth with love;
politicians and protesters driven by a vision of a better world;
comedians with a sense of innocent fun;
and Christian leaders burning with the hope of glory.
Amen

(Radio 4 Prayer for the day)

Make me, Lord, a dreamer for Your kingdom
Plant in my heart heavenly desires
Grant faith that can say, impossibilities shall be
And vision lest a world should perish not knowing Thee

Make me, Lord, a dreamer for Your kingdom
I would aspire to greater goals in God
So cause faith to rise, to motivate each word and deed
A faith that's well convinced that Jesus meets every need

Make me, Lord, a dreamer for Your kingdom
Dreams that will change a world that's lost its way
May dreams that first found their birth in Your omnipotence
Come alive in me, becoming reality

(Chris Bowater)

This song always makes me think of my fellow dreamer and soul mate Dave Bowles.

God bless you Dave.

He never said

He never said, God helps those who help themselves
He never said, blessed are the rich
He never said, do unto others before they do it unto you, like they’re gonna do
He never said, it’s too bad buddy but the winner has to take it all
He never said, success is the key
You gotta be cruel to be kind
And he never said it is a jungle out there
Where the weak must get left behind
Now He Said…

Answer a strangers cry for help
Love your brother as you loved yourself
You only need to seek and you will find
Forgive your enemy and drop that grudge
Don’t judge others and you won’t be judged
Only knock and the door will open wide, open wide

He never said, Archbishops should stick to theology, leave all those big issues alone
And I never read, put your faith in the lottery, all those little balls
He never said, by any means necessary
And I don’t recall, my country right or wrong, wrong
He never said, send your money to me
Touch the screen and your gonna be healed
And He never said, every man's got a price, right
Do you wanna make a deal?
Now He said…

Answer a strangers cry for help
Love your brother as you loved yourself
You only need to seek and you will find
Forgive your enemy and drop that grudge
Don’t judge others and you won’t be judged
Only knock and the door will open wide, open wide

And on that day, a day that's coming, cos I gotta dream
Who’s gonna be walking, who’s gonna be running, running
And the first will be last so the last must come first
If the meek will inherit the earth
And He said…

Answer a strangers cry for help
Love your brother as you loved yourself
You only need to seek and you will find
Forgive your enemy and drop that grudge
Don’t judge others and you won’t be judged
Only knock and the door will open wide

Answer a strangers cry for help
Love your brother as you loved yourself
You only need to seek and you will find
Forgive your enemy and drop that grudge
Don’t judge others and you won’t be judged
Only knock and the door will open wide, open wide

He never said, every little thing is going to be alright

(music and lyrics by Martyn Joseph)

Hope

It's the business of Christians to live out hope in an infectious way in a world that so desperately needs it.

As you travel through this day may you know that you are known
May you sense that you are loved, may you be met at your point of need
May you be stretched, but not break, may you be made whole and well
And may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him,
so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen

(taken from Radio 4 Prayer for the day)

Work

Is it just a drudgery to be endured to earn a wage and enable us to do what we really want to? Or is work something which we see as having its own intrinsic value, and which brings us satisfaction in itself?

The truth is that for different people it can be either one of these. In other words work may be to us either a blessing or a curse.

Loving Father, we thank you for the gift of work, that in it we may find satisfaction and also provide for our needs. May we always seek to work to our full potential, so that we may bring glory to your name. Amen

(taken from Radio 4 Prayer for the day)

Zip it

It's often easier to talk than listen.

It's often better to listen than talk.

Mother Theresa was once asked what she said to God when she prayed.

She replied, "Nothing, I just listen".

She was then asked what God said to her.

Her reply was, "Nothing, he just listens".

Mutual listening sounds like a good idea to me!