The Lightship

It has been quite a varied week. Monday we found ourselves in Cardiff - where we had to be for an early appointment Tuesday morning with UKBA.

A friend of mine used to say to me "sometimes the main thing isn't the main thing" and I think that was true of this visit. We thought Debs and I, that the whole visa thing was the whole reason for being in Cardiff. It turned out not to be.

We spent Monday with Mavis and Colin who live in Cardiff. We had a lovely supper with them and then a chat and a pray. The chat was quite wide ranging, about angels, about prophetic ministry, about the Pope's decision that day (12th February 2013) to stand down from his ministry. God is stirring up the whole church across all denominations. His prophets have been speaking. And I believe his winnowing fan is out over all his followers. Some will leave their churches and give up the practice of their faith, to others God will make himself clear. Their eyes will see him afresh or for the first time.

The companionship that Mavis and Colin shared with us was a blessing to us both and it continued the next day. After the visa stuff was with great relief sorted out we met again.

God prepares things a long time in advance. He wants us, if we have the capacity, to join in with the delivery of his plans for us and others.

Here is an example:

The lightship Helwick LV14 was built and commissioned by Trinity House in 1953. It was brought to Cardiff Bay in 1993 and restored to create a floating Christian Centre.

Somebody had the vision for that. They had to hold onto it whilst finding others to share it and maybe even other people to restore and tow the boat to its intended location. It has no engine!

Now all these years later it is moored in the regenerated area just near the Welsh Senate in Cardiff Bay.

For me it was a little reminder of how God has the plan and we can't see all of it. In my thinking he just wanted that boat near the Welsh Senate but in order to achieve it he had to move someone into action before even the referendum was taken.

Debs and I are so pleased her visa is sorted out for the next 30 months. I am glad that the only appointment we could get was in Cardiff. She will tell you I kept plaintively saying beforehand can't we get an appointment in Croydon? It may sound a small thing but the whole trip turned out to be a blessing when I thought it was going to be distinctly otherwise. We need these blessings on our journey through life.

There is other stuff I could say - for example God really wants me to study Galatians 5 & 6 (ask if you want to know why I know) - stuff we said about angels.

For reflection:

What is God wanting you to prepare for him?

Dear Jesus, we seek time with you - help us to learn at your feet. Help us to be attentive to the promptings of the Spirit. Amen

Remember the rock from which you are hewn ..

I have been having trouble this week choosing what to write about. Well actually the trouble has been to try and choose between two different passages of scripture that speak to my heart. And then, "the penny dropped," and I realised that they are actually connected. So here goes! To avoid confusion I will give you both passages first.

“Love must be completely sincere. Hate what is evil, hold on to what is good.” Romans 12:9 GNT

and

"Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the Lord: Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn" Isaiah 51:1 NIV

I think these days we are hungry for authenticity. So much about our culture and politics is so fake and superficial that we long for the genuine version of something. We want people we can trust around us. People who "get us" and  don't undermine us. I think the first passage is a call to arms to remind us that if we want this from other people we need to be like that ourselves. It's no good expecting one standard from them and being flakey ourselves.

The word itself "Love" is elusive in meaning. When we use it it can have four or five shades of meaning, But for our love to flourish, as it is meant to, God wants it to be deeply anchored in what is good. We need therefore to keep him in sight trying to to let his love rule our lives and our behaviours.

It isn't easy and we must be realistic about it and acknowledge that every now and then we will fail and people we know quite well will also fail. By holding onto "the good" we see beyond our failures and acknowledge that the human heart is born to be noble. The good in people mostly outweighs the evil they do. As it says in the gospel of John "the light is stronger than the darkness."

Of course sin by it's nature is wrong. We are however called by Christ to love the person who sins. We can love them without condoning or "agreeing" to their sin.St Thomas Aquinas says - "To Love is to will the good of another" - to keep treating people with goodwill in difficult or perplexing circumstances is a sign of God's kingdom of love being built in us.

To give us strength to do this we look to the rock from which we are hewn. We are cut from the rock of God, the sure rock who saves us! A rock that is steadfast in whose cleft we can shelter when the storm comes. Not a crumbly rock! Because it is good quality rock that we come from it can take a while to quarry us. God is a rock of love ... from which more love can be quarried. 

Dear Lord, strengthen and purify my love. Lead me into your kingdom of love. Let me be real with people, whole hearted, sincere, loving and teach me how to eject evil from my life! Amen

Forty Years, forty days or forty seconds?

I have an Android phone and if I download an App for it I am happy if it downloads in forty seconds. My expectation is set at that level by modern technology. In the early days of computing our expectations were much lower. It could take hours to download new software and even then it could sometimes crash and the whole process would have to be started again. The expectation nowadays is instant results. But it is not that long ago that we had to work harder at all things. I remember hearing on the TV, on "Who Do You Think You Are?" About a couple whose relationship had started as pen friends during the war. They exchanged a letter a week with each other and some of the letters even got lost between the war front and home. Their friendship and love had to blossom into romance and eventual marriage with these inevitable gaps in between hearing from each other. I am not sure we could easily do that nowadays. But if something is good it is worth waiting for isn't it? The experience of waiting can promote a greater degree of understanding.

Now we are all probably in either a love or hate relationship with God. I have met very few people who are genuinely indifferent towards him.

He is an amazing God it is true, yet at the same time enigmatic and elusive. A God of mystery who sometimes makes himself very clear. Sometimes we just don't get him however hard we try. Some spiritual writers talk about a Dark Night of the Soul which can last for years, where they cling almost to their belief and memories of a merciful God, like those two lovers clutching their photographs, waiting for him to speak again.

Moses spent forty years as a shepherd before God spoke to him and called him. Maybe he needed that time to prepare himself to be open enough for the task that God had assigned to him. Or maybe it took forty years to develop the ability to hear the Lord.

Jesus spent forty days in the desert before he began his ministry. During the forty days the devil tried to distract him from starting his ministry by tempting him. The desert became a war zone between Jesus and temptation.

It seems that God sends us love letters all our life, sometimes they get intercepted between the war front and home and so we never get to open them or understand them. The ones we open - we sometimes understand and appreciate. Sometimes we write back and have an enthusiasm on our heart for a few days. Other times we think "that's nice" and put them to one side thinking we will reply later.

God is the "gentle invader" of our life. Seeking always to start a relationship with us, without forcing the issue. Because for love to be real it needs to be freely given and not forced. Sometimes we just can't see who or what is good for us. God is good for us! He heals us and makes us whole. He invites us constantly but our intentions and our hearts go astray and we can't answer. But still he calls us into relationship.

I realise I have spent a lot of my life blowing hot and cold for the Lord. But that has changed. I am seeking his face, his love in my life, his healing, his plan. Because I have discovered in my detours that, in fact , he is the ultimate good that I need.

No compromises any more, my yes will be yes, my heart is being converted - will you allow Jesus to break through your defences? May I be a man after your own heart. But it will take more than forty seconds. Possibly more than forty days. But if I listen it will be less. You at last have my attention Lord. Teach me to listen.

For Reflection
But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not "Yes" and "No." For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silas and Timothy—was not "Yes" and "No," but in him it has always been "Yes." For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. 2 Corinthians 1:18-22 NIV


Dear Jesus, I want more of you in my life. Help me to let you in. Keep fear out and let me know the love of God in a new way that makes me more compassionate. Amen