I meant to do my work today –

But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,

And a butterfly flitted across the field,

And all the leaves were calling me.

And the wind went sighing over the land

Teasing the grasses to and fro,

And a rainbow held out its shining hand –

So what could I do but laugh and go?

Its so easy to bury myself in  busy-ness, or the guilt of doing nothing, and to miss the beauty and the life all around me.

The pointers to God are there – in the liquid song of the crested barbet, the steady fall of the rain on trembling leaves,  the quiet blue of an hydrangea, and the chuckling laughter of a child. I pause, and He is with me, watching, waiting, loving and enjoying me!

And you? Why not indeed!!

————

How many good intentions lie scattered and incomplete along the road that marks our journey. If they were worth commencing was there not then any value in their completion?

I have been looking in detail again at the Great Commission – not just in Matthew but also as it is recorded in the other Gospels and in Acts.  There was a ‘great matter’ and one of the greatest of them all  both in scope and significance. What went wrong I wonder.

The above prayer was adapted from something Sir Francis Drake

wrote in a letter written from his ship ELIZABETH BONAVERTURE,

lying at anchor at Cape Sakar on 17 May 1587.

It has become known as Drakes’ Prayer.

I think Paul would have approved!

——————-

When Jesus came to Golgotha, they hanged Him on a tree,
They drove great nails through hands and feet, and made a Calvary;
They crowned Him with a crown of thorns, red were His wounds and deep,
For those were crude and cruel days, and human flesh was cheap.

When Jesus came to Birmingham, they simply passed Him by.
They would not hurt a hair of Him, they only let Him die;
For men had grown more tender, and they would not give Him pain,
They only just passed down the street, and left Him in the rain.

Still Jesus cried, ‘Forgive them, for they know not what they do, ‘
And still it rained the winter rain that drenched Him through and through;
The crowds went home and left the streets without a soul to see,
And Jesus crouched against a wall, and cried for Calvary.

G. A. Studdert-Kennedy

Some years ago I had a particularly vivid dream. It started with my looking into what appeared to be a ‘roof-room.’ The ceiling was like an inverted V covered by knotty-pine boards. The same timber was on the walls. The room was furnished and attractive, with the windows at the far end wide open, gaily-coloured curtains stirring in the light breeze and the sunlight pouring in. All in all, it was a very attractive and inviting place.

Next to it I was shown another room. In shape and design it was identical to the first one, and yet it was totally different. The grimy windows were closed, the curtains hung limp and listless, cobwebs draped the corners and the dusty air was grey and unmoving. There was no sun. It was a very unappealing place and I longed to go in, throw open the windows and clean it out!

Then I was taken to a third room. The door was under my left armpit and opened on stairs that led down into a thick black darkness. I could see nothing, although I knew that there was something down there. I did not wish to enter and hoped I wouldn’t have to!

When I awoke I pondered the dream and then prayed about it. It seemed to me that God said there were three areas in my life represented by these rooms. The one was wide-open, filled with light and very attractive. The second was grey and unappealing and the third was a dark area ‘that we will have to do something about!’ I was not too sure about that last comment but, as I was not invited to express an opinion, said nothing.

However, I did start praying about the rooms – particularly thanking God for the sunny area, asking Him to deal (gently!) with the dark cellar and enquiring about the grey area. Over the months that followed I became aware that something was happening in the cellar. The thick darkness was beginning to lighten until, on one very memorable occasion, there was a sudden burst of light in the centre that expelled the darkness, filled the whole area with a glorious, sunrise rosy, pink and a far wall went down. I had a great sense of freedom and knew that I had been released in an area of my life and given back the freedom of choice. I was immensely grateful and humbled by the way in which God had dealt with it without any judgement or shame.

The grey room, however, still puzzled me and I did not understand it. Months later I was sitting in the Airport Vineyard Church in Toronto. During a break in the service, before the ministry began, I fell into conversation with the stranger next to me. I found myself telling him the story of the three rooms and my puzzlement over the grey one. “Oh, but that’s easy,” he said, “that’s the lukewarm areas in your life.”

The moment he said it, it became so obvious to me that I was both astounded and quite cross! But I knew it was true and that, in a strange way, these were the hardest areas for me to deal with. Light was so good, darkness so obvious and repulsive, and the grey… well, just so easy to tolerate. No wonder that Jesus disliked it so much (Rev 3:16)

In it all, however, one overwhelming truth came home to me. There I was with light, darkness and greyness in my nature – and Jesus loved me. It was not the person wearing the mask of light and pretending that the other areas did not exist that He loved. He loved the real me and, as I wished to do when I first saw the grey room, He longed to be allowed to come in and make a difference. And He has.

Thank You Lord Jesus – so very much!

————-

Written by Minnie Louise Harkins, the poem was published in 1908. Originally entitled ‘God Knows’ it became more commonly known as ‘The Gate of the Year.’ The words read by the King on that occasion are still appropriate for us today.

“I said to the man

who stood at the gate of the year,

‘Give me a light that I may tread safely

into the unknown.’

And he replied ,

‘Go out into the darkness

and put your hand into the hand of God.

That shall be to you

better than light

and safer than a known way !’

So I went forth

and finding the Hand of God,

trod gladly into the night .

And he led me towards the hills

and the breaking of day in the lone East.”

(Minnie Louise Harkins 1875-1957)

May God bless us all in the year that lies ahead – and enable us to walk forward with our hands in His, as He leads, directs and encourages us.

—————-

I saw the conquerors riding by 

With cruel lips and faces wan:

Musing on kingdoms sacked and burned

There rode the Mongol Genghis Kahn,

And Alexander like a god

Who sought to weld the world in one,

And Caeser with his laurel wreath,

And like a thing from hell – the Hun.

And, leading like a star, the van,

Heedless of upstretched arm and groan,

Inscrutable Napoleon went,

Dreaming of Empire, and alone …

Then all they perished from the earth

As fleeting shadows from a glass,

And, conquering down the centuries

Came Christ, the swordless, on an ass.

[H.E. Forsdick]

 If the angels sang when He was born,

And the angels wept when He was dead,

How the angels laughed when now He rose!

And soared from His lonely, cold stone bed.

They saw the wonderful glorious truth,

The Life and Life-giving sparkling Truth,

The eternal, unconquerable living truth.

Christ the Lord was risen again!

They loved it more than the beginning,

When first the light of life appeared.

Better by far than ‘it was good!’

God’s Christ had risen from the dead!

Christ the Lord was risen today,

And how the angels laughed!

There was a wedding on Saturday.

I watched the love in the radiant bride and in the groom strong and proud by her side. I saw the love in the family and friends, and we sang of the love of the Lord.

It was a profound and wonderful occasion, caught up in a sacred mystery too deep to fully comprehend, too alive with the heights of potential to see and hold. A child cried out, and it was good. A mother wept, and it was good. A father wiped his eyes, and it was good. The people were silent, or whispered thoughts, and it was very good. Something precious was created and born – something that had never been before, something that would impact eternity.

One of the readings was from Paul’s great letter of love to the Ephesians. He spoke of truths, so beautiful and creative, that could only have originated in the Christ of the wedding at Cana, the Christ of the washed feet, and the Christ of Calvary’s cross.

A sacrifice of love brings the blossom of life, the radiance of light and the transformation of a world. ‘Wives give first choice to the man who has devoted himself to your well-being.’ What privileges they could both enjoy. What a security and a model for their children.

Those who have an ear for the Spirit let them hear.

“Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Saviour. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church– for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery–but I am talking about Christ and the church.” (Ephesians 5:21-32)

———————-

I called you in beauty,
like the Light
that floods the dawn
of slumber laden skies.

I called you with fragrance
never seen,
that only you would pause
to search for and recall.

I called you with
the Golden Moon,
and pathways leading
to the skies.

I called you with
the breath of blossom,
Blessed newness
from ancient wood.

I called you
_  in beauty evermore.

—————–

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

(William Wordsworth)