Be thou my vision....

The wonderful thing about our God is that he has an individual plan for each one of us. A plan for us to be happy and fulfilled. We are happiest when we can find that plan and live by it. When we discern it and live by it we are people of vision.

Through careful listening to the Spirit... hearing it speaking in many ways and in all gentleness into our lives, we can get a sense of rightness about the way ahead.

When this happens we should make a record of it, we should write it down as Habbakuk says,

"The LORD gave me this answer: "Write down clearly on tablets what I reveal to you, so that it can be read at a glance.  Put it in writing, because it is not yet time for it to come true. But the time is coming quickly, and what I show you will come true. It may seem slow in coming, but wait for it; it will certainly take place, and it will not be delayed." (Habakkuk 2:2-3 GNT)

I think we are told to "write down" our vision for two reasons

• so we can be faithful to it
• so we remember it in good times as well as bad times

In Proverbs it warns us (rather starkly I think!) that if we do not have a vision for our lives we will perish!

Debs and I are working on our vision for the House of Prayer that we feel God is telling us to establish. It will be a while before we have finished listening to God on this.

However if you don't mind reading some unedited text - this is what he said to us about integrity in ministry after we went to church last Sunday in the Queensland resort of Caloundra, I am leaving the church unnamed. It is more or less a prayer, so read it as such, when we pray the words come with pauses and imperfections!

Purify our intentions Lord,

Purify our church,

Let our first witness be our love for people, our genuine concern for them, make our love sincere

What you want is "Love not sacrifice"

Help us to be faithful in small things

To wear our integrity "like a blanket"

Help us not to judge other people but at the same time have discernment between good and evil.

Let us only have "the debt of mutual love" and let us NEVER encourage others to use their VISA card to go into debt to give to us.

Let us not be "over righteous," you require us only to be righteous and to love with a "humble contrite heart"

Inch by inch claim our hearts O Lord, help us to allow you to do it quicker than even that if we dare to let you!

You are our Lord, dear Jesus, and you are also our brother and our friend. Anoint us again with your love this day, send your Holy Spirit to us again to strengthen and renew us. Help us to desire not worthless things but instead to desire only you. Amen

Shark Nets

Looking out over the King's Beach at Caloundra today - I asked Debs what the all the perimeter buoys were for out in the sea. She said that they marked where the Shark Nets were so that swimmers knew not to go beyond that point, for safety reasons. The nets prevent the sharks from coming in near the shore and swimmers.

I suppose the obvious thing for an Australian swimmer is that you just don't go beyond those shark nets. Or that if you do it is a calculated but perhaps stupid risk. But when you are a visitor you are not even aware that the sharks are there!

This week so far from home and with so much that has happened this week, Debs and I have been chatting about all sorts of things. One of the things we feel we need is to have the understanding that the deceiver can so easily get a foothold in our lives if we let him.  We need something like Shark Nets in our spiritual life in order to help us to prevent negativity influencing us.

One of the key ways of doing this is have a prayer life that includes both action and contemplation this can help protect us from the sharks.

ACTS is a frequently used mnemonic to describe the parts of prayer

A =  Adoration,
C = Contrition
T = Thanksgiving
S = Supplication

Daily we need to have these in our prayer process! We are vulnerable when we don't.

Contemplation is something we need so that we can hear the still small voice of the spirit speaking to us in our life. If we are to be spirit led we need to make the time to listen for promptings. And when we get them we should act on them!

Are you aware of any sharks circling your spiritual life that would seek to diminish it?  If you are aware what action do you need to take?

I am being brief today and stopping there but here are greetings to you from Australia!

Prayer this week is from St Patrick ...known as the Lorica, or St Patrick's Breastplate, I do encourage you to say it!

   I bind unto myself today

The strong Name of the Trinity,

By invocation of the same,

The Three in One, and One in Three.

   I bind this day to me forever,

By power of faith, Christ's Incarnation;

   His baptism in the Jordan river;

His death on cross for my salvation;

   His bursting from the spiced tomb;

His riding up the heavenly way;

   His coming at the day of doom:

I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the power

Of the great love of cherubim;

   The sweet "Well done" in judgement hour;

The service of the seraphim;

   Confessors' faith, apostles' word,

The patriarchs' prayers, the prophets' scrolls;

   All good deeds done unto the Lord,

And purity of virgin souls.

I bind unto myself today

The virtues of the starlit heaven,

   The glorious sun's life-giving ray,

  the whiteness of the moon at even,

    the flashing of the  lightning free,

The whirling wind's tempestuous shocks,

   The stable earth, the deep salt sea,

Around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today

The power of God to hold and lead,

   His eye to watch, his might to stay,

His ear to hearken to my need;

   The wisdom of my God to teach,

His hand to guide, his shield to ward;

   The word of God to give me speech,

His heavenly host to be my guard.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,

Christ behind me, Christ before me,

Christ beside me, Christ to win me,

Christ to comfort and restore me,

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,

Christ in hearts of all that love me,

Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the Name,

The strong Name of the Trinity,

   By invocation of the same,

The Three in One, and One in Three.

   Of whom all nature hath creation,

Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:

   Praise to the Lord of my salvation,

Salvation is of Christ the Lord

This week I am mostly thinking about marriage...

As preparation for Saturday I have been thinking this morning about 1 Corinthians 13 and reading something I wrote a while ago for a niece of mine.

Funnily enough we decided not to use this reading at our wedding. But I love it so briefly here are some thoughts on it.

The highest calling that each of us has is to live a life that is filled with love. What else could make us happy?  It is as if we have a thirst inside us that only love could satisfy. We humans need to receive love and to give love. Whether it be as parent to child, child to parent, friend to friend or of course the love that exists between a married couple.

Christine Aged 9 said that in a restaurant "It is  love - if they order one of those desserts that are on fire. They like to order them because it is just like how their hearts are ... on fire."

I agree with this young lady our hearts do need to be on fire for the one we have chosen as our marriage partner.

We should as it says in the bible "live a lovers life" - to be passionate in our love is what we need. Even if it makes our partner giggle! Better to be passionate than 2 dimensional.

We should give them our best!As far as we are able, within our capacity, we should love at full tilt, with no reservations...

We should not be afraid to serve them and they should also not be afraid to serve us in turn. I remember a poster that I had on my wall for a while when I was a young man "Where love rules, there is no will to power" - by serving and looking to the others need we are purifying our love of the distortions that power can bring if used wrongly. We need the creative power of the Holy Spirit in our marriage.

Please pray for Deb's and I this week end!

Dear Lord, You know all about me and love me anyway. Help me to be real in my loving, help me to learn how to love - Amen 

Thoughts about Iona,

This little island has had a significant impact on Christianity for two main reasons.

First it is where St Columba's landed in AD 563, bringing with him Christianity to the Scottish people.

Secondly it is the spiritual home of the Wildgoose Community. A community that has been blessing for many people since it was founded 1938.

It was like a pilgrimage for us, rising early on the Friday and heading off to be sure to get the 7am flight to Glasgow. Then by car and ferry and many birding stops to Mull and beyond to the tiny island of Iona. On the way we saw the awesome beauty of God's creation, including Otters swimming, an Osprey flying and a Buzzard perched so that we could see him clearly in all his finery through our telescope. Creation too is God's message to us about the Father's love for variety and beauty.

At our first prayer stop, pictured below, we had a reading etc from a book we had brought with us.
My heart was struck by these words, that seemed to be there to prepare my heart for marriage "It is possible to travel alone. But the good traveller knows that the journey is human life and needs company. 'companion' means.. The one who eats the same bread." Debs of course is my companion, friend and lover! All these things are necessary for marriage to work, with the grace of God's Holy Spirit too in generous measure.

And from Jeremiah we learnt about our new heart:
"This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time," declares the Lord. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbour, or say to one another, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the Lord. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." Jeremiah 31:33-34 NIV

The House of Prayer we stayed in was a beautiful welcoming home thanks to Sister Jean. And for two days we became family with the other visitors. Two lovely American women Pat and Marie and two Norweigan Dominican monks Haavar and Arnfinn. Eating breakfast and dinner together. Talking, sharing and with good humour together.

At this meeting at the crossroads was an interesting mix of Christian people, proving that there is fellowship across the divides. We can be one...just as Jesus asks.

This will be a long blog if I tell you everything. So let's just today think about kindness...

I have mentioned in previous blogs "the loving kindness which is the heart of our God ".... Well read here what our brother friar Haavar had to say about it in his sermon linked here.

On the descent into Columba's Bay we experienced the unexpected kindness of a stranger - who appeared from nowhere and offered to take a picture of the three amigos. We exchanged brief friendly words and the information that we were on a rather eccentric Bucks's weekend involving prayer and birding. She seemed shy but did say what she was doing. She then went on ahead stopped in her tracks and came back. She said that she wanted to give me and Debs two green stones known as Columba's Tears - she did this and then hurried on her way. Needless to say I thanked her for her kindness. I was quite touched - the unexpected kindness of strangers does indeed reach the heart very quickly.

So for me the predominant theme of the weekend was that God was telling me that he wants me to learn his kindness. To not be afraid to accept it from others, but also to be more consistent in my attempts to show it to other people. Especially whilst in London - that busy place - oh God let me help the traveller and to see them through your eyes. And thank you for the humour and patience that John and Chris shared with me.

We are but fallible people like clay pots! "We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." That is, if our intentions are good God will cover our weakness.

Dear God, please help me to be more consistent in the practice of kindness and help me to recognise need in others and do what I am able to help them.