The sea is so wide!

Protect me, dear Lord!
My boat is so small,
And your sea is so big
(Bretton fisherman's prayer)

The above is one of my favourite prayers. I am fond of the short ones that go straight to the heart of the matter.

Debs and I watched Fiddler on the Roof last Sunday. A film that always moves me. The final scene is a definite "ending" as all the lead characters of the film have been driven out of their village. They are leaving mainly on foot. Finally, Terkel looks back and sees the Fiddler playing his tune on the road behind him...

As I watched that ending, this time, a fleeting thought went through my head, how lucky am I that I have never had to journey at short notice into the unknown. Travelling with only that which I could carry.

To be a stranger in a strange land, as Moses was, as so many people are (even now), is a vulnerable scary thing. When we travel we rely so often on strangers. Dependant on their goodwill and hoping to God that they will not show us ill will. Fear is something that people have to deal with. Hope is something that they definitely need to hold onto.

The only way to cope with change is to embrace it. I know it's not easy.

People sometimes have said to me "it's easier for you because you have faith" - it doesn't feel easier but maybe it actually is!

However, even though brought up in a Christian church, I don't consider that I really believed in God until I was given the gift of faith. Yes I do mean given! As in getting a present from someone. I remember someone praying for me, saying "please give Simon the gift of faith"

So I see faith as within God's gifting to give somebody. We need to be bold enough to recognise this. And to ask. A relationship with God is possible.

If we are facing uncertainty then that is the time to ask, to even plead with God. God is our rock and our stronghold, he gives us peace and hope in times of difficulty. Step up to meet him. Be the one to move towards him. As it says in the scripture "when you seek him, when you seek him with all your heart, then you will find him"

Dear Jesus, I pray that I may come to know you. Please increase the gift of faith within me. Bless me today and always. Amen

Draw near to God and he will draw near to you

The Watchman Blog has been silent through out September. To be truthful my thoughts have been elsewhere for a while following a bereavement. But it is time to write again now I think...

The last month has shown me God's capacity to touch our lives even in someone's dying moments. Our God reaches down to touch us when we call to him. He is ever present and ever loving. We make ourselves absent to him sometimes. But that can be mainly through the distraction of every day life but only very occasionally through deliberate intent.

God is love and he commands us also to love, to "live a lovers life" in all purity. Sometimes it seems difficult to love. But the commandment is about us changing our way of life to that which makes us more whole.
Love.

Love nourishes us in our Spirit.

The commandment to Love is a command to live out love in our lives. To love God, to love our neighbour, to love ourselves. Although it is a commandment it is actually "best policy" advice from our creator about how to have a full and happy life. Choose love and you will find joy and peace. Choose hate and you will feel forever jagged. It is a daily choice.

Think about Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) words quoted below :

"If you wish,  you can keep the commandments, to behave faithfully is within your power. He has set fire and water before you; put out your hand to whichever you prefer.  Man has life and death before him; whichever a man likes better will be given him. For vast is the wisdom of the Lord; he is almighty and all-seeing. His eyes are on those that fear him, he notes every action of man. He never commanded anyone to be Godless he has given no one permission to sin."

Peace to your hearts this day!

My prayer is that you may be blessed this day to the core of your being. That God will be evident to you. May you come to know peace. Amen

"I call you friends"

Jesus speaks words that cut through our everyday, thinking and living. Son of God, Saviour he comes out with words that challenge us. Consider these words from the last supper...

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other."

Those words from Jesus really reach me.  They are the extraordinary statement of the new relationship that exists between humankind and God. They are in a way a declaration of love for humankind. After all true friendship is a love.  There can be a stage in a relationship between two people where it changes and grows and there is a dawning realisation that it has moved on to a deeper level. Sometimes it is verbalised "we are friends"  In a similar way this is Jesus speaking out loud, words of friendship" maybe what he and the disciples might have known in their hearts for some time.

"I call you friends" could be thought just a tiny phrase, words to us  hidden away in a longer speech that Jesus made at that last meal that he had with his companions before crucifixion.  But my belief is that it is very important.  The other things that were said at the meal are also important.  But they all stem from, or are motivated by, the friendship love expressed.  Jesus is the tenderness of God expressed in human form.  Jesus fully human yet fully divine is the message of God for all of us.  He teaches us that God is not too far away for us to reach.  And that His command to love (though difficult) is not impossible.  In fact it is the only thing that can make our lives worthwhile.

Of course the next thought is how do we respond to the friendship that God is offering us.  I was thinking about that and remembered a poem by Kahlil Gibran that I have kept in a little notebook for years.

"and let your best be for your friend.
if he must know the ebb of your tide,
let him know its flood also.
for what is your friend that you should
seek him with hours to kill?
seek him always with hours to live."

That is true friendship - being able to share the good and the bad times. To not shut out a friend is important and a test of friendship. I think if Jesus is a friend I should "seek him always with hours to live" - seek this friend Jesus who has commanded me to love!

Dear Jesus, thank you for your words that challenge us. Help me to respond. We ask your blessing on us in good times and in difficult times. Help us to grow in your love, and rejoice in each other. Amen

Face time

It's holiday season and the newspapers take on a different tone. One thing reported this week in the Metro was the research showing how much time people spend with their computer or gadget. The full story is here. The bit that struck me is that males are spending up to twelve hours a day looking  at the screen of their gadget.

They wouldn't spend that much time looking at the face of their wife or girlfriend! Or talking to them.

Yet we all know that face time with the ones we love is important. Face times with our gadgets can be fun, can even be useful, but also can suck away the time we can be using for friends, family and significant others.

As a lover of gadgets I struggle with this too. For example, I was bereft recently when my Motorola RAZR i fell into my shaving water and ceased to function. But I decided a long time ago that human relationships trump time on the computer or in front of the television. In other words if someone wants to come round for a chin wag, bring it on! Don't say to them  "sorry I am busy staring into the face of my beloved computer thingy!" After all our lives are really about relationships, that is where true fulfilment comes.

God recognises that too. Where we spend our time is after all so telling. And God wants a piece of your time too. Because he is a loving God, he also wants a love relationship with you. That doesn't happen without face time. If we allocate some of our time to God a relationship can build.

Strange perhaps to think about that in a holiday season. But right now you have a little extra time. So remember the saying "seek the face of God and live" - you might find a new sense of peace in your life.

For reflection :

 ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ Jeremiah 33:3 

Try to be at peace with everyone, and try to live a holy life, because no one will see the Lord without it. Guard against turning back from the grace of God. Let no one become like a bitter plant that grows up and causes many troubles with its poison. Hebrews 12:14-15 GNT

Trust in the Lord. Have faith, do not despair. Trust in the Lord. Psalm 27:14 GNT

Are you a gatherer or a scatterer?

I find I have been doing some thinking recently about the way I live my life. As an unfinished human specimen I find I still have to be honed! My Debs can confirm that for you if you like!

In particular  thinking about something that I stumbled across that Jesus said

“Anyone who is not for me is really against me; anyone who does not help me gather is really scattering."
Matthew 12:30 GNT

Quite a challenging statement that he fired at some Religious nit pickers who had taken issue with him for healing on the sabbath.

I believe Jesus is talking to people with faith and saying if you are not helping him by gathering people into the "Kingdom of God" you are actually dispersing them.

Jesus came in order to build the Kingdom of God. This is not a temporal or physical Kingdom. It is a spiritual Kingdom where God reigns in a spirit of loving kindness.

Maybe you don't know that there is such a thing as the Kingdom of God? Let God speak to your heart on this. Love is not a tangible thing. We cannot touch love. Yet it is the most important thing in our life. Pure, true, honest love is what makes us joyful. God is love as it says in the bible. If we found our lives on a foundation of loving actions we become "gatherers" - by our decisions we become builders.

It is better to build, it is better to bless than to curse

Love builds slowly but can be demolished quickly.

For reflection:

Psalm 94:16 NIV

Who will rise up for me against the wicked? Who will take a stand for me against evildoers?

I have posted watchmen on your walls, they will never be silent day or night

God speaks every day, he didn't create the world and then go silent. He has continued to communicate with every heartbeat of every living creature since. He speaks his message to us in different ways.

Some of his "speaking" is not a literally audible message. But as the Psalm says "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.  Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.  They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them.  Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. "

There is a paradox there. But the point is whether acknowledged or denied God's influence continues. The mystery of our continued life is in his hands.

Sometimes we say "I don't get God" or "I can't believe in a creator of THIS world." Yet to stand and look at nature's glory is a wonderful thing. To be a parent and hold a new born baby in your hands is an amazing thing. To know that you have participated in creation is a wonderful thing. Your child has grown cell by cell after it's conception.

The miracle of life needs attribution. I attribute it to a loving God.

Even the circulation system for our blood is an amazing thing. Debs and I are big fans of the American TV series "Mythbusters" - there was one glorious episode where they were trying to test a movie myth and Jamie made a circulatory system to go inside a dummy, so they could test how quickly hypothermia comes on. Jamie did a brilliant job with copper tubing and achieved his purpose but I have to say God's version is a lot neater and lasts a lot longer!

A lot of the reason I write this blog is because I am trying to learn to listen to God's creation and what it has to say to me. And also learning to listen to what God has to say in other ways to me.

For example I believe that the Bible is God breathed, inspired with his words for us. So there are insights in it to guide us. Another way that God influences me is through coincidences with scripture and also discussion of it with friends and family. Quite often these "coincidences" occur where the same passage comes to my attention in different ways in the same week. It can be that they crop up as much as three or four times. When that happens I feel that God has a point to make and I need to listen!

That happened with Isaiah 62:4-6 NIV

No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate. But you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah ; for the Lord will take delight in you, and your land will be married.  As a young man marries a young woman, so will your Builder marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.  I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord , give yourselves no rest,

and with Isaiah 64:8-9 NIV

Yet you, Lord , are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.  Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord ; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are all your people.

Both these passages spoke to my heart and reminded me of things that I needed to be aware of and actions I needed to take. Slowly God takes us on a journey.

Watchmen shouldn't be silent by the way! They are to be there on the ramparts watching the winnowing of the Spirit and ready to cry out "Our God saves." We are in new and different season of the Spirit and if we pay attention to the things of God we should be preparing. I know God has made it clear to me there are some things he expects from me.

This is what he seemed to say to me the other morning, I feel it is for others too.

"Extend your boundaries oh faithful ones. Listen to the Lord, ask him to show you who to speak to. Ask him to bless your actions and speak through you in the power of his glorious name. Listen to his voice - let him guide you into the path of righteousness. Let your sins fall behind you like autumn leaves in a fast flowing stream "

Please test my words in your heart.

May Jesus,  lead you by the hand to receive healing and wholeness. And May God bless you in the name of the Father,  Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen

Marsh Warbler

Let me tell you about the Marsh Warbler. John and I were on one of our birding trips and we were going down one of the less trodden paths on the reserve. Something made us stop and take note. From one bush was coming all this bird song... A seemingly impossible amount of birds in the reed bed. It took us a while to understand what was going on. One bird, a little Marsh Warbler, was mimicking the voice of other birds. John counted that it was imitating eight other identifiable bird songs as well as it's own. But amongst this amazingly there was unidentifiable song too. Possibly from Africa.

We were on this spot for about an hour and half. Listening and enjoying the performance but also trying to see the bird itself. We were finding it impossible to get a clear view of this rare little fellow. Eventually, in desperation I said a little prayer along the lines of "I don't deserve this Lord but please let us see him" - shortly after a chaffinch came in and dive bombed the Marsh Warbler and it broke cover and sat on a branch for a short while singing his heart out. Enough time for us to confirm identification. Then he disappeared. Great joy!

On the way home we were chatting. We were saying persistence and patience had paid off. We were on that spot for quite a while, at least an hour and a half, and got passed by a few other birders. Me being me said to John, prayer is like that. We sometimes give in too quickly. We don't spend enough time waiting for the Lord to show himself like that. It's true we need persistence and patience in prayer too. And humility is a factor, honest humility, God is good, bigger and better than us. When we acknowledge him as father he will bless us.

The other thing that struck me is, like the Marsh Warbler we disguise our real voices sometimes. To hide maybe, or to protect ourselves, but we should really allow our real voice to be heard. I wanted to hear the real song of the Marsh Warbler too. I am not sure I ever did. God wants our real voice in prayer. We need to be vulnerable to God. It is Yahweh who is - I am not the great "I am" God is the one who deserves to be honoured.

Dear Lord, thank you for our everyday lives. We thank you that you are the God of both the ordinary and the extraordinary. Bless us please again today. Amen