Revision to new song

This is kind of final version, I have taken advice and replaced some weak or cliched words.

In him we live, the Lord of all creation

Who spoke his life into our hearts of stone

Filled with the breath of his own Holy Spirit

Jesus our source, our saviour and our home

He is the light who scatters all our darkness

Dispelling doubt and vanquishing our fear

He’s our abundance, life is overflowing

In him we live and walk, our way made clear.

In him we move, whose hands restored the broken

Changing forever those who dared believe

Commanded storms to cease with his authority

We’re by his side; his courage we receive

And by his Spirit we defeat dark powers

The sick are healed, the good news we proclaim

Jesus is Lord! This is our shout of triumph

In him we move, his is the highest name.

In him we are, his nature our inheritance

Our strivings quelled, our anxious voices stilled

The God of peace enriching our identity

Creating calm, with Sabbath rest we’re filled

And on that day when we shall stand before him

Perfect and whole, transformed, secure and free

The shadows gone, the earthly grave behind us

In him to live and move and ever be.

New song

Wrote a hymn today, having been encouraged to get the creative juices flowing. Have not written the tune yet, at the moment it's "Danny Boy". Here it is

In him we live, the Lord of all creation

Who spoke his life into our hearts of stone

Filled with the breath of his dear Holy Spirit

Jesus our source, our saviour and our home

He is the light who scatters all our darkness

Dispelling doubt and vanquishing our fear

He’s our abundance, full to overflowing

In him we live and walk, our way made clear.

In him we move, whose hands restored the broken

Who raised the dead, spread hope throughout the land

Commanded storms to cease with his authority

We’re by his side; we’re walking hand in hand

And by his Spirit we defeat dark powers

The sick are healed, the good news we proclaim

Jesus is Lord! This is our shout of triumph

In him we move, his is the highest name.

In him we are, his nature our inheritance

Our strivings quelled, our anxious voices stilled

The God of peace moving in our identity

Creating calm, with Sabbath rest we’re filled

And on that day when we shall stand before him

Perfect and whole, complete, secure and free

The shadows gone, the earthly grave behind us

In him to live and move and ever be.

Aging

Well I have passed another birthday since my last blog; 59 now. Apart form the strange face that looks at me from the other side of the mirror I don't feel OLD as such. Aging is both an expanding and a contracting experience. Physically there is a shrinking both in capability and size but the wisdom is greater and its tend to improve output. In terms of attitude it seems one becomes both more tolerant and less tolerant at the same time more big hearted particularly towards younger people but suffering fools less gladly.

I think I prefer being older although I imagine I will find it more and more frustrating dragging my body around as I really get old, for now the balance is good.

No respecter of persons

As a practising christian it never ceases to amaze me how much more there is to discover, not through reserarch or exploration  but through the illumination that God brings. Life in general (I mean a persons interaction with the rest of humanity) tends to be fairly limited, we have our own circle and can be suspicious of those who are not like us. In the Church, which is God's social circle if you like, he  brings in people from every possible background and social grouping  to be a demonstration of his unbiased approach to himanity which can be summed up in the following three words "God so loved".

I struggle sometimes and I know that many do with coping with others who's experience of God's life - changing power does not seem to have irradicated their annoying traits, weaknesses, personality failings and even sinful habits. I ask myself the question "is this person truly born again of the spirit?"( I even wonder that about myself when I seem to recognise a strong bias towards selfishness and sin). Because of attitudes like mine the Church is in danger of replicating the societies and groupings of the world which tend to split up, fall out, go broke or at the best hold themselves together through a controlling hand at the top. That is not to say there is not goodness, self sacrificing, achievement and fulfillment in thaose societies and groupings, it's just that they are human, the Church is part of God's kingdom and should (in theory) have a more secure hope.

The secret as I see it to moving away from the worm - like towards soaring like eagles is to have the love that God has which cannot be gained through education, exploration, personal effort and certainly cannot be brought. Lately I have been remembering often those words of my friend Paul Martin on the occasion of the Holy Spirit coming to a group of us whilst on holiday. Against the backdrop of his former attitude to me which was one of forbearance (not always patient). He said simply (their was nothing weird or sinister about this) "I love you". We never spoke about it again and he has now died so I can't ask him but I reckon that when he saw that God had chosen to love me and it was manifest then he was able to change his attitude towards me. My ability to love as God loves is so paramount to my own wellbeing that to be baptised in that love over and over again has to be my goal, without it I am poor, pitiable, blind and naked.

writers block

At one time I wrote songs reasonably regularly. If ever I sit down to do it these days I tend to draw a blank. The problem isn't the music but the words. When I look at my attempt they seemtrite or contrived. Could it be that in our increasingly sophisticated world, everything is more difficult to do. Look at the 60's the age of the Beatles and veiw some of their hit lyrics:

She loves you yeah yeah yeah, she loves you yeak yeah yeah, she loves you yeah yeah yeah yeah.

Deep.

Christian songwriters try and avoid the - Jesus died on the cross, to take away our loss thing and do something a bit more creative and come up with stuff like - "Healing rain in falling down, it's coming closer to this old town" hmmm.

It seems to me that the safest way is to find a song that's already been written from the bible, say a psalm and put it to music or else work from a passage, at least the source material would be goo.

I think that's what I'll do, let you know how I get on.

Brotherly Love

I have been thinking lately about the importance of friendship. These are days when commodities increase, those things with a shelf life that we use and discard. Heaven forbid that people should become commoditised; in other words assimilated when of use and thrown away when we judge they have served their purpose. Love becoming a shop window experience rather than commitment of the heart. Callous or not we sometimes see another person as a stepping stone to achieving our goal, someone who we can tread on, albeit ever so gently, in order to attain our purpose.

The remedy for this is true friendship, relationships based not on what a person can do for us but upon who they are. Friendships like this are costly, for no two of us are alike and we have to work at synergy; sacrificing parts of ourselves in order that we may fit better with the other person. This is not about romance, although romance and friendship together can lead to love, it is about brotherhood (call that sisterhood if you like).

In the same way that we can be religious and keep God out of our lives so too we can be social without friends because life does not exist in the outward things but in the heart. Salvation will always be free but walking with God is costly, as is walking with brothers. We would never say that half an hour with God is wasted especially when we have fought our distractions to bring it about in the same way half an hour of "wasted" time with our friend is in fact time very well spent.

Back on track?

Today I went for a two mile run. The first since 7th October. 2 miles six months ago would have seemed like nothing, a walk in the park. My diary earlier in the year shows 6 miles 7 miles 8 miles 10 miles even 11 miles on one occasion. I am grateful that I managed 2 miles and have not shown signs of the symptoms that laid me low earlier this year. Everything is relative. The life that we are given is not to be wasted. I appreciate being able to feel the joy of a relatively healthy body . One day I won't be able to do this stuff.

I am so blessed.