The Silencing of The Word

You speak, your tongue unleashed, a two edged sword
Cutting, freeing, commanding, exposing the heart, loving.
You are the word
You scythe through the complacency of pharisee and sinner alike
Revealing the innermost thoughts of the heart.

When vocalised, your identity weighs heavy
A rock on which men fall,or are crushed to pieces
It turns saints into sinners and sinners into saints,
Water to wine, sickness to health, storm into calm.
It offends the dignity of those who love,
The control they gain from the power of the command set in stone.

They took the word and the word became silent,
The tongue sheathed.
As a lamb before its shearers is dumb.
Seperated from its expression the body of the word was riduculed and mocked
Those who did so becoming emboldened, believing
That the Christ would not perform a final Samson - like act of strength
Which would bring their house down on their heads.
The word spoke but briefly, comfort for a dying man
"Today you will be with me in paradise".
And with the silencing of the word,
Where tongue and lips were frozen in death the citadel of the law,
Was torn asunder.

He Rose

The word on a white horse from his mouth a two edged sword
On his hand and on his thigh written "King of Kings and Lord of Lords"
The name of the word - Jesus
His power in his his name,
Angels and men before it fall and devils fear and fly
Eternally alive.

In sickness and in health

This is not about marriage its about sickness and health. Just recently I have got bashed by a virus and then it was followed up by an infection. Several days off work and when I did go in lethargic and fatigued. I am taking anti biotics now which have started to attack the infection plus killoff loads of useful bacteria but hey, I'm fed up with it now. Having said that I have noticed something. My spiritual life has taken an upward turn whilst I am dragging my body about. If you have seen my last blog on prayer you may question that, but the fact remains that I feel spiritually clearer if that makes any sense. "Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed daily", Seems to me that the inner nature responds well to the bashings the outer nature receives. I have often had profound things happen to me whilst I have been ill. Sickness and health go hand in hand each blow of sickness on the outer man weakens the barrier that keeps the inner man from communion with God. The coming of health seems to reinforce the outer nature and that sense of closeness to God lessens. Lets hope the effects of sickness cause permanent change, I like feeling well but I also like being close to God.

Prayer

I have been a Christian for yonks but it occurred to me whilst driving to work this morning that I don't really know how to pray. Better qualify that. I can pray for people in a response time in a meeting and it seems to work relatively well, good results quite often. I mean particularly praying for a person when they aren't there. Apart from the Lord's prayer, the part about "this kind only comes out through prayer and fasting" and that bit about agreement (and we say prayer agreement Jesus didn't) there isn't that much to go on. It seems they didn't have regular intercession in the new testament or if they did it didn't get a mention.

Anyway, I am driving to work and I start trying to pray for someone I know who has a difficulty. I think I can diagnose that difficulty as having its root in the fact that that person has never really felt loved, by God or anyone else for that matter. I say "lord this person needs a revelation of your love" that's it. What do I do now after a five second request. It's over, finished, done, no agonising no groaning no burden carrying. I cannot conjour up those things. I wonder if anyone else has this dilemma? "professional" prayers tend to do my head in a bit, there is this kind of mystique attached to it all. I've read Rees Howells - Intercessor, I have heard about carrying the burden and all that but one wonders if God creates the method to suit the person rather than the other way round. Maybe for me the five second burst of "please sort it out Lord" is all he thinks I can cope with but I must admit (not that this should the aim of my praying for others) it leaves me somewhat discontented.

Tatoo Covenant

Coming back from the optitians just now I noticed a woman at a bus stop with a large tatoo on her upper arm. I was not close enough to see what it depicted but it set me thinking about the whole tatoo thing.
 We live in an age where most things are temporary, even the things that are supposed to be permanent like marriage for example. Almost everything is reversible. Why is it then that the practice of doing something to your body which is going to go with you to the grave is so popular? Life goes on, the tatoo remains after the relationship has ended and after the skin has aged to an extent where it no longer looks really cool. The tatoo has become the most permanent thing, yeah they can be removed I gues but all you are left with is a space where a tatoo has obviously been you can't reverse the fact.

The truth is that a high percentage of people who have tatoos will keep them for the rest of theirs lives, that's got to be the highest level of committment on the planet. Pity it isn't for something worthwhile.

Keep on Running

Today my years tally of miles run went to 312, equivilent to about 50 hours. I guess an avid TV watcher could spend that time looking at "the box" in about a fortnight, an obsessive gamer in about 4 days so in the big scheme of things it isn't that much. I think, however, that there are some good lessons to be learned from running which can be transferred into life. I don't know if T.V. watching and gaming could claim the same. It seems to me that these things replace life rather than contribute to it. What are these lessons?.
1. Starting is the biggest challenge. 2. Not giving up is the next biggest. 3. Doing it reapeatedly improves the health. 4. Practice improves the performance. 5. After a relatively short time of inactivity you lose what you have gained.
I reckon you could apply that to prayer in the spiritual realm, or keeping your house clean in the natural. That 50 hours running has affected my life 24/7, the next step must be more disciplined prayer. Who knows what that may accomplish?

Silence and quietness

It has been a long time since I have written anything in this blog. put is down to busyness or distraction. I started one but the computer "froze" and I lost it, that was a couple of weeks ago. One of the guys who has come to live in community with us is really into words. He will sometimes ask what a word means, not a long complex word but a pretty everyday one. Always it makes me think, "yes what does it mean?"

Take the two words at the top for example. They mean the same thing don't they? Not when you start to think about it, they can be used to say the same thing but that is a different thing. Is not one of the beauties of language the fact that nuances exist. Silence is the absence of sound. To me it can carry the air of menace "what is there hiding from me waiting to burst in". Quietness is a state. A quiet man is not always silent but he is never loud.

Enough! What else has been going on? Well I have recognised more traits of the middle aged in my personality. When you regularly talk about the old days and berate the young it means that you are into the world of Victor Meldrew (who?),  in other words in danger of becoming a miserable old git. What stops me going going too far down that road is the fact that I have no desire to become old. Maturity has it's pluses, for example for some reason I can get up in the mornings now when I want to. (That laying in bed thing that young people do isn't laziness you know, they are actually incapable of fighting their way out from under the covers). When I became able to get out of bed in the morning, when I ceased to be the object of critical "vibes" from those who had been impatiently waiting for me, I thought it was a miracle; it certainly took the heat off me. The under 40's have this to look forward to (I was about 40 when it happened). It isn't all bad.

God's foot in the door.

Having tried unsuccessfully to publish a blog the other day I thought I would try again. It has been quite a few weeks since I have published anything. the other morning I was waiting to go to work whilst my passenger was praying with someone. Ever impatient to get on the move I was thinking "come on, come on" when I sensed that there was a restraint upon me. God "had his foot in the door" and I needed to wait patiently until he was ready for me to close it and get on with my day. That image has stayed with me most of the week, after all how important is what I have got to do compared with God's business?

A couple of nights ago I could not sleep so I came downstairs about 1am and had something to eat. I then came into the room where I am now and had a look on the bookshelves. Then I went back to bed without selecting a book. What are books for anyway? Because we are a Christian house a lot of the books are faith based, or biographies of people who did great things for God. I love reading but in the big picture aren't books simply a waste of time? People blame television for the breakdown of society but aren't books just a more primitive form of the same thing? A way of keeping us apart. At least you can have more than one person watching the same T.V. programme! Of the making of many books there is no end. isn't it by living that we learn? I am not advocating the abolition of books but I reckon there could be a few too many.