Category: Meditations

The following addition to our blog is in a different format from those previously posted. Others generally appeared as text only. The following is the spoken word, However, the post will contain other written features designed to add to your meditation experience. It is here repeated by request.

Scripture Emphasis: Matthew 9:20 – 21

(Click on the link below)

 

 

            A Prayer To Follow This Meditation

My Father, with the eyes of Faith, I have beheld the most beautiful demonstration of Love.
How can Your world long remain cold and uncaring
when we are children of such a Father?

It was that Love that penetrated the cold stone prison walls
of a woman’s soul, that she inhabited alone, tormented and afraid, to foster Hope.
It was that Love that refused barriers of age, race or colour to keep children away from His tender embrace.
It was that Love that met the broken-hearted at the gates of ‘God’s Little Acre”  to assure them that God’s victory swallows death in victory.

It is that Love, showing us the empty tomb, that hasten us towards a more gracious world. Help us, dear Lord, to make this our mantra”He is not here, Hi has risen, and He goes before us into the world. This prayer we make for Your Love’s Sake. Amen.

Hymn: Jesus, Saviour, Pilot Me  (click on the link below)

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?

THE HEALING STREAM

                         THE HEALING STREAM                 

Additional Scripture Reading:0
Mark 3:25 if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. (1)

Scripture Emphasis
“Psalm 110:1 “The LORD said to my lord the king
Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” (2)

I borrow the title for this meditation from Charles Wesley’s (1707-1788) evangelistic hymn.

          “Jesus Lover Of My Soul”

‘ Plenteous grace with Thee is found;
Grace to cover all my sins
  Let the healing streams abound;
   Make and keep me pure within
Thou of Life the fountain art,
freely let me take of Thee.
Spring Thou up within my heart,
Rise to all eternity.” 

Is there a more urgent plea since Jesus taught His followers to pray “Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven? If in our day, the promised New Kingdom is to come, we must be true to His trust for us to rely solely on Him,and through Him build the promised New Land”.

Psalm 111:1 remains to this day God’s chosen way to assure victory to His people, who offer to do His Holy will in building His Kingdom. In Psalm 111, David informs his readers that “THE LORD”is always the one initiating the recruitment of human co-workers to further His Plan for all earth dwellers. It is David, steeped in the ways of this world, who hears a call from the divine: “Come and sit at my right hand”.

David was a humble shepherd boy when God chose to prepare him to be king over His people, Israel. David’s life experience so far appeared grossly insufficient for the responsibilities of kingship! However, that worldly-based opinion differs vastly from the WISDOM of God.

The opening dialogue of Psalm 111 demands our close scrutiny.

Therefore, let us  consider the exact translation offered in
“THE GOOD NEWS BIBLE” translation:

“The LORD said to my lord the king:
‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”  

There is a distinctive difference in the word usage in this introductory statement to this Psalm. In the first instance, the word’LORD’ in all capital letters evokes the sacred name of the creator of all that is. David’s use of the word ‘lord’ in lowercase letters is a common expression of ‘earth-bound creatures’ making decisions solely based on earth-bound intelligence. David’s lord, with whom he is most familiar, has the hallmark of earthly citizenship.          

“THE LORD said to my lord”. In our own present hour of worldly crises, it well behooves each one of us to review carefully the direction from which our intelligence comes. Our gods of earthly wisdom, selfish craving after worldly power, and divisions caused by race, creed and color are not the way to build ‘The Kingdom of GOD. Like David, we must learn by GOD’s grace that more than the god of worldly wisdom is required.

     ” Come, and sit at My right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.”

This language is hardly the language of the New Testament, nor is it a quote from Jesus Christ. Yet, how enriched our efforts to bring the Kingdom of God to this world, if we spend more time at God’s right hand rather than listening to our god’s worldly solutions.

“Speak to Him, for He hearth, Spirit with Spirit must meet! Closer is God than breathing; Nearer than hands and feet”. (3)

And it is the antidote to foster our personal Healing! The haunting fears of old-age creeping upon us,our fading faith,and increasing loneliness.  No greater remedy can be found than spending more time in the company of the One who came from GOD’S right hand to heal us, and make us fearless conquerors; even Jesus Christ, our Lord.

David’s former work experience, as the sole keeper of his father’s flock, was no preparation at all to deal with the jealousy and hatred of hopefuls for the coveted title of ‘king’, his own brothers included.

That was precisely what unfolded in the saga that was to be David’s life. For slightly more than twenty years, David led his father’s sheep beside still waters and into green pastures. Now the young man is about to denounce the common everyday pursuit of worldly wisdom, and listen to the voice of One who silently indwells Everyone from birth. It is ‘THE LORD’ who rescues David in the present moments of his numbing trepidation. The familiar voice of ‘his god’ freezes for now, and GOD calls David. ” Come and sit at My right hand”. As“THE LORD” calls David, so the call to us remains, “Come and sit at My right hand”.

Then at the last, you may well expect to hear this pronouncement “Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter Thou into the joy of your Lord!”

 

PRAYER TO FOLLOW THIS MEDITATION

Father, You have made us each one for Yourself;
And, truly, we are restless while apart from You.
May our restlessness be the catalyst that awakens our spirits to realize, that here we find no mere challenge to try harder by adopting stricter resolutions, instead, may we experience a homecoming and a loving WELCOME by The Lord.
Teach us, O Father, that personal new beginnings neither begin nor end by human effort; rather, it is a return to what always has been, the everlasting truth of God living in us, as Spirit.
Forgive us, Father, that we have often permitted worldly wisdom to usurp the place of Heavenly grace, and to live as orphans instead of at the Father’s right hand.

When You hear a faint tap on Heaven’s door tonight, O God, I am sure that You hasten to open it, and embrace me as a Father embraces a child who has been dead but now is alive again.

In the name of The Shepherd who found us, we pray,
Amen.
HYMN:  I Feel The Winds Of God today

https://youtu.be/kaQoC_VW8YE?si=f2wxc0vHHtG5NJjN

 

NOTES

The photo is taken from our cabin’s deck in beautiful
Michael’s Harbor Newfoundland. This scene, just one of many beautiful sunsets observed there inspired us to name the place ‘SHALOM’

1. Good News Bible, first published 1978
2. The New INTERNATIONAL TRANSLATION
3. ‘ THE HIGHER PANTHEON’  Alfred Lord Tennyson

 

 

THE BLESSING OF SACRED THINGS

Essential Reading: Exodus 3: 1_17:
The story of“Moses and The Burning Bush”

TEXT: Matthew 7:6

Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces.

Dogs know nothing sacred!
Pigs do not know the value of pearls!

Humans, however are endowed with the unique capacity to experience Holiness and to recognise the imminent danger of careless and thoughtless actions. Those blessings distinguish humankind from all the rest of God’s creation. Yet, that dictum demands qualification. Not all people live by God’s ordinance! That doesn’t mean that their creation was somehow incomplete. Humankind is the most distinguishing accomplishment in God’s creative order. “Let us make humankind in our likeness” was the order heard in Heaven. Humankind is the completion of God’s most gracious gift. But humans’ nature is quite different from the original relationship with God. No longer is it to remain in a responsive relationship with God. Conclusions based on the visible, physical matter seemed more reasonable than anything invisible in a far-away Heaven; it became virtually impossible to produce simple trust and absolute surrender to a presence beyond the boundaries of the human habitat.

  Consider the truth expressed in John Milton’s
epic poem, Paradise Lost. These are lines spoken by the character Satan:
                  “The mind is his own place, and in itself can
                    make a heaven of hell, and a hell of heaven”.(2)

“Father, forgive us, for we know not what we do.”
Truth remains indestructible! Faith, although appearing to some to be extinct, is but slumbering. God has not, nor will He ever abandon the Divine image of having humankind be His co-workers in building Heaven’s Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven. Herein lies the reality and the unspeakable blessing of Sacred things.

Consider the Old Testament record of one fellow pilgrim, named Moses. Here we meet Moses in humble service to  his father-in-law, Jethro, as keeper of Jethro’s flock. Such work left precious little time to think of realities beyond the helpless flocks and the vicious prey ever near.

One morning at sunrise, Moses came face to face with an amazing spectacle! He saw what appeared to be a tree on fire, yet, remaining, unscathed by it! There must be an explanation for this strange phenomenon, Moses thought,as he searched his mind, filled with the worldly knowledge of all things.”I will solve this mystery once and for all. I will go see for myself.” But Worldly knowledge was entirely inferior to unsearchable Wisdom! It dissipated like fog in the early morning.”Moses” a voice echoed in the surrounding hills ,”remove your sandals off your feet, for the ground where you stand is Holy Ground!”
We learn  that incrementally God was at work in Moses’ spirit in preparation for this catalytic encounter with the sacred. The ‘burning bush ‘ in and by itself is not Sacred. Moses, upon first sighting it, decided it was a physical thing that he could successfully  analyse in the storehouse of worldly knowledge. Instead, the burning bush to Moses became a Sacred object chosen by God to convey to Moses God’s Holy Presence with him.. The event stirred a forgotten memory of a greater,more fulfilling life, dormant even now within Moses’ soul.

God often chooses familiar, ordinary objects to awaken from slumber the sacred power of the eternal that inhabits the soul of every person. The object may have meaning for no other person, but you. Never cast it aside as a thing without value. “Hush, I pray you, “What if that experience be God”? If there is a moment in your life when some event or encounter ushers you into the presence of unspeakable serenity and absolute surrender, the sacred has enriched your life, and you will know the ground where you stand is Holy. Many are the experiences of one awakened to the Presence of the Holy through encounters with ordinary or seemingly common objects.

Hear one such personal encounter from the annals of a younger clergyman, made wiser now through the Lasting influence of an encounter with a simple stimulus.

Rain, driven by a strong north-east wind, pounded the windows of a hospital room, I entered. I was there making another pastoral visit with a young parishioner. She was preparing herself for what doctors advised may be the last mile of her life’s journey. I entered the room where she was back on to me and appeared not to have  been aware of my presence. She seemed to be travelling down a long lane of memory. The trees danced in fury, and the rain pelted the windows. I stood silently beside her.  With her index finger she appeared to be tracing the path of the raindrops on the window pane. I was a little surprised when she turned and addressed me. “Rev. Frank, I’ve never done this before! What’s it like to die”? In trepidation, I searched my mind for pertinent memories on this subject from my seminary days, but I came up mute! And then that unforgettable moment!

Near the top of the window pane through which we were looking, there appeared a suspended raindrop considerably larger than the many others dotting the whole. “Look”, I said to my inquirer, “You asked me what it was like to die”. Let us watch what is happening right before our eyes! Notice now how that larger drop of rain near the top seems to be waiting. And at that precise moment it slowly begins it’s downward movement.   Pretend you are that smaller drop right in its path. You are much tinier than it, and very soon, it embraces you, and together, you disappear from the window pane and become a vital part of that beautiful flower garden just below this window.
Does that remind you of what Jesus assured His disciples, who wondered like you:
“What is it like to die”?

” I am going to my Father’s house to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you with me, that you also may be where I am.” NIV. John 14 2-3.

That day, we both were blessed as we stood together on Holy ground. God came to both of us anew through a simple yet sacred thing: a raindrop!

A Prayer To Follow This Meditation

Father,
You have created us and stamped us each one with Your signature to remind us that in the world in which we live we are forever Your’s by right of ownership through creation and redemption.

And God said, let us make humans in our image after our likeness.” Genesis 1: 26.

In our creation, You endowed us humans with the majestic gift of a SPIRIT that resembles Your’ own. Thereby, are we prepared not only to communicate with You, but to be Your co-creators, holding in our spirits all things in Your created order.   inspired by Your power through Jesus Christ, Your Son, You trust us by holding all things in our spirits to build a promised new world! So, may it be, my Father. Amen.

Hymn: More Holiness Give Me

   https://youtu.be/sLxv4v9OB3A?si=49r4yt_s0_eujgFI      

 

Notes On The Above Text

The Scriptures quoted above are from The NIV Translation.

1. From the epic poem of John Milton titled”Paradise Lost”
2.  Hymn “More Holiness Give Me” by Mormon Tabernacle Choir, by permission. You Tube.

 

Brigus Conception Bay, Newfoundland about 1914

                         “DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?”

Text: Isaiah 49: 15-16 The Lord Said,” I will not forget
         you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of My
          hands”
 John 15: 16,  “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.”

Never a Sunday morning passed without the challenge to me to answer the same question from the same person. As he mingled with the other congregants leaving morning worship, he thoughtfully asked, ” Do you know my name”?
Some in the group moved quickly away into the shelter of distance. Others bashfully attributed his query to the signs evidenced by his slower steps, his walking cane,and his thinning snow-colour hair.He persisted, his voice carrying the urgency of the question, ‘Do you know my name’?

The question has an increasing need for attention now, as then.
People of all ages, either in silence or demonstratively, are pleading a response, “Do you know my name”? A person’s name is the private hallmark of their humanity: the right  to feel appreciated, to be valued and loved.

The question has haunted me ever since. How often, I wonder, is it on the minds of fellow worshippers as they leave the fellowship of prayer and praise? Some who arrive to worship, fearful, lonely, and longing to be loved leave as they arrive with  the same question, unanswered still, “Does anyone  know my name?”

We know how impersonal today’s society can be. Technology and Artificial Intelligence will never relieve human beings of their loneliness and the need for respect and love! Only the human heart and spirit can achieve that! The question, “Do you know my name?” begs a recognition of a person’s uniqueness and the spiritual attributes that identify one from all others, therefore someone else can never replace them.
There were times in the ongoing saga of Hebrew history when the vicissitudes of fortune caused social, political and religious unrest, resulting in a shaken trust in God to deliver. Frightening thoughts of God’s forgetfulness began to overshadow their treasured beliefs in the constancy of God’s deliverance.
And then came the effulgent rays of God’s love into the darkness, seeking to overcome their doubts and sorrows
” Can a mother forget the baby on her breast?
I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands”.  (Isa. 49: 15-16

Generations passed, and then! The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory”!

The Word is still flesh”, and He continues to live in this world through us! Consequently, we must take every precaution, least unwittingly by words and actions, we cause another to conclude that they do not matter, or are not worthy to associate with the company of the faithful.

May every occasion reveal to your fellow travellers that your concern and actions confirm the undeniable truth that you, yourself, are engraved on Christ’s hands.           

” Not only in the words you say,
  Not only in the deeds confessed,
But in the most unconscious way is Christ expressed!

Is it a beatific smile?
A holy light upon your brow?Oh, no! I felt His Presence when you laughed just now.

For me ’twas not the truth you taught, to you so plain, to me so dim. But when you came to me, you brought a sense of Him.

So, from your heart, He beckons me; from your eyes, His love is shed
’til I lose sight of you, and see The Christ Instead! ” (2)

 “Do YOU know My name”? I do not mean some superficial knowledge about me, but, know me with the intensity of God’s Own Wisdom, as when on that day, when newly minted by His hand, God inspects His new creation. He reviews the need on earth that prompted my creation, and assures that He has given me everything needed to complete my task! And then, as is written of the Creation story : GOD SAW THAT IT WAS GOOD.”

In Hebrew thought, for one person to speak another’s name was to qualify the presence of uniqueness within that person. The inquirer was then in the presence of gifts, talents, vision and preparedness granted by God for the forward movement of God’s Kingdom.
The question, “Do you know my Name?” offers a possibility of launching into the world, in Christ’s name, a uniqueness that fills some earth-bound vacuum that delays God’s plan for His Kingdom.

I end the meditation where I began, with my friend’s haunting inquisition: “Do you know my name?” supplemented with an entry from my diary.

” Firmly, he gripped my hand, and looking straight into my eyes, he asked:
“Do you know my name?”
Yes, I Sure do! Your Name! is ROBERT
Robert, I am delighted that you are here!
The resulting radiant smile assured me he knew
we are brothers !”

                      A PRAYER TO FOLLOW

Father,
Beyond all measures, we are the most blessed among all created things. You chose the human race to bear your image. Bless us now with Your wisdom to understand what that means.
In Your mercy,
guard against any mistaken and selfish thought of usurping Your place in the story of creation! Equip us with a renewed vision and dedicated efforts to bring Your Kingdom to the world around us.
Father, remind us daily that we are training under The Master Kingdom Builder, Jesus Christ. In Your mercy, Father, remind us to invest the whole self, body, mind, and spirit in our desire to increase the citizenship of Your Kingdom.
In Your Love, make us remember the critical need for the human touch. We will learn that artificial intelligence and technological parlance can never replace the conveyance of Empathy, Hope and Love. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray
Amen.

Hymn: Blest Be The Tie That BINDS https://youtu.be/I7aVOslgIAU?i=Vz6EL5uSzEP8pREVBinds

Text Notes

  1. The Scriptures quoted in the foregoing text are                    from he NIV translation
2. Unknown Author.
3.The photo is from a collection of such by my late brother-in-law, Albert Buchan

 

 

 

 

                      THE PLANNED LIFE

Matthew 4: 21 – 22.
” Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee , preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him”.

 

THE PLANNED LIFE

A couplet in Robert Browning’s poem
‘ Rabbi Ben Ezra’ seems unreal to many whose
present experiences reveal different truths.

“Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith, ‘A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be
afraid!”
From the annals of everyday living, some people must include painful evidence in their saga of ageing experiences far removed from the category of the best for any human. To associate such experience as part of the whole plan for one’s life is a seeming anathema.  

Consider a work by another poet, William Wordsworth. The pastoral poem ‘Michael ‘ is about an ageing Shepherd named Michael. He is a humble, hard-working man with a modest income. He lives in a simple cottage with his wife and only son, Luke, who is the ageing father’s absolute pride and joy. Luke is also his father’s trusted and irreplaceable co-worker, the future heir of the sheep farm. Diligently, they are working together, building a new sheepfold for days of coming prosperity. But misfortune, unannounced comes instead.
A situation arose, making it necessary to dispose of many assets, and for Luke to leave home to help relieve the worsening situation. But in time, Luke falls into disrepute, thereby never to return home, thus leaving his ageing parents to permanently live alone.
Wordsworth succinctly captures their ever present heartache by reflecting upon the unfinished sheepfold:

“Tis not forgotten yet
The pain which was then in every heart
For the old man, and tis believed by all,
That many , and many a day he thither went,
And never lifted up a single stone.”

” The best is yet to be?” Is this the whole life plan for Michael,his wife and for Luke?

A similar incident in Scripture reflects the possibility of similar heart-wrenching consequences.
Zebedee, a fisherman from whom the independence of youth is fleeing, is in a boat with his two sons, James and John, preparing their nets. Without a prior indication the eldest of the three becomes abandoned, sitting there, a lone figure
I grew up in a rural fishing village that rewarded me with evidence of the sea’s mysterious grip on many ‘who do business upon the mighty deep’. Even the ownership of various paraphernalia once used by fishermen in the loving conquest of the sea’s treasures remains as prised trophies to them.

It is likely the seed germinating in the narrative where Zebedee sits in his boat with his two sons, mending fishing gear he is destined never to need again.
This very scene stirs deep memories in my own soul. I vividly remember sitting at the waterfront with one well-seasoned, both in years and experience. Together, we watched boats put back to sea. My childish mind could never comprehend the real tears running down my old hero’s cheeks, as we listened to the haunting sound of the boat’s engines fade into the distance. That day, I experienced the first inescapable pull of the boundless deep.

There is, however, one distinct feature in the unfolded Zebedee saga that sets it apart from the former poetic expressions. Here, against the background of a threatening life changing event for Zebedee stands the only One who enables God’s plan for completing the story of every  human life.
One abiding truth our glorious religion deals with is the spiritual dimension of humankind. “Time like an ever-rolling stream” may deposit us on the shores of yesterday’s journey. If this becomes our destiny, may we be blessed to see the One who weaves everything that happened to us , past and present, into the pattern of personal wholeness. For Zebedee, may the scene of his two sons, James and John in company with Jesus be the catalyst that moves his own life to completeness. Then, at the end, he also, enters with them into Eternal Glory. And so may we all!
“Youth shows but half; trust God, see all, nor be afraid!

A prayer To Follow This Meditation

Father,
When unpredictable events threaten to take hostage the pursuit of some beloved labour, and the world mocks us with the images of what might have been in the years now fled, in your mercy, stand beside us.

Show us how to be grateful for what has been  and make us strong now,to live by faith that the ” Master Weaver” many times uses darker threads to make the finished product something of extreme beauty. You are not finished with us when the spring in our steps abandons us.

When in faith, we see You standing beside us  grant us the wisdom to know that in Your company the “Best” is always yet to be! Our Prayer we make in Jesus Name. Amen

 

https://youtu.be/ekUELQCnQlM?si=pP9BCXnBY2glkVwj

 

SHARING YOUR SELF FOR CHRIST’S SAKE 

  Scripture Reference:1 Thessalonians 2:8

” We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God but our lives as well because you had become so close to us “. (1)

This heart warming salutation of Paul acknowledging the arrival of Thessalonians desiring to learn of the way and the teachings of Jesus Christ, is exemplary for all who desire to promote the Mission of Jesus Christ.
The following brief excerpt of Pauline’s history reveals much about humankind’s creation and the ‘tie that binds the heart in Christian love”.
The spiritual differences between the Thessalonians, Paul and his Gospel team, appear stringent and distinctive.
Not that the Thessalonians are devoid of any religious thought or practices but they are worshippers of idols. An idol is ‘ representative of a god used as an object of worship’. Meanwhile, Paul and his missioners represent worshippers of the living God. Thus, two distinct ideologies share a common goal: to establish communication with Someone or something outside themselves in this world.

Humans are, then, creatures with dual citizenship!
Before we become residents of Earth, we are residents in Our Heavenly Father’s Home. Here, in our primal Home, God created and equipped us to become residents of this world. Consequently, in the deep recesses of every being there remains an unquenchable thirst for the true and living God.

Hear the poet William Wordsworth’s expression of this belief :
“Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,
Hath had elsewhere it’s setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory, do we come
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
Shades of the prison-house begin to close
Upon the growing Boy,
But He beholds the light, and whence it flows,
He sees it in his joy”. (lines 58–70). (2)

Paul identifies two critical facts for the successful dispensation of this Heaven-appointed Mission to help others to own faith in the living God.

The Scripture under present discussion celebrates Paul’s success  in inspiring Thessalonians to become living witnesses for God, through Jesus Christ,His chosen son. That success demonstrates Paul’s sincere commitment to keep his communication lines between Heaven and Earth ready for immediate action, when God was ready to commission him to action!
irrefutably, this is the avenue God chooses to reveal to us  in turn our commission to be His co-creators in this life. On the day of your creation, God equipped you for the special task you are to address in this needy world ! Paul’s private communication link between the two realms of citizenship, Heaven and Earth was always on stand-by and so must ours be. 

God longs for this to become the identifying feature of everyone created ‘ in His Image’. Subsequently, God reveals one’s appointed place as His co-creator and equips them for the particular station in this world’s citizenry. God prepares His children for living as citizens of the world by instilling in them the same Spirit Jesus exemplified in the flesh. It was the same Holy Spirit in Paul and his cohorts as they toiled among the Thessalonians. There is a second ingredient in Paul’s success story of enlisting the Thessalonians in Christ’s ongoing Mission in the world. It was the emanating evidence of the presence and the undeniable power of the indwelling Christ in the lives of the missioners.   

” We loved you so much that we delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God but our lives as well because you had become so close to us “

In this critical time of diminished faith when church steeples that silently announced with pride, the sacrifice and determination of our forebears to weave into their community’s fabric, the stories of life-giving trust in the eternal, are falling in disrepair, and the doors that have swung wide in welcome, for generations, are now being shuttered and barred!

It is never enough merely to tell the story. We must ‘ BE THE STORY!’ Be everything that encourages another in sunshine and shadow to keep looking up! Such must be preserved at any cost.

” Not only in the words you say,
  Not only, in the deeds confessed,
But in the most unconscious way, is Christ expressed!

Is it a beatific smile?
A holy light upon your brow?
Oh, no! I felt His Presence when you laughed just now.

For me ’twas not the truth you taught, to you so plain, to me so dim. But when you came to me, you brought a sense of Him.

So, from your heart, He beckons me; from your eyes, His love is shed
’til I lose sight of you and, see, Christ instead! (3)

 

A Prayer To Follow This Meditation

O God, You revealed Yourself to the world in Your Son Jesus. Grant that today’s world will reveal our conscientious effort to build the Kingdom of God Jesus demonstrated.

Father, the world has become more interested in developing technological skills than promoting the transforming power of Brotherly Love. Hear us pray for Your forgiveness, and grant us anew the power of Your Holy Spirit:
To seek You more powerlessly
To speak Your Truth more forcefully,
To BE THE Indwelling CHRIST  
to all you meet.
In His Name, we make our prayer. Amen
              

                               TEXT NOTES

1. The Scripture quotes in the text are from the NIV translation.
2. ” Ode: Intimations of Immortality” by
   William Wordsworth
   from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
   3 Author unknown

 

 

 

 

 

ABSOLUTE SURRENDER 

“As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers Simon, called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me, Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”

At once, they left their nets and followed him.
Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father, Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.”
Matthew 4: 18-22  ( NIV)

Day in and day out, it had been a familiar routine for the four men Jesus now recruited to become His disciples. There was Peter and his brother Andrew and James and his brother John, who were all fishermen. Success in their trade demanded astute attention to detail. Early mornings and late evenings with a rollercoaster of unpredictable successes and failures in between. Still, the mysterious and neverending lure of the sea can never be ignored by those who, like the poet John Masefield, have contracted “Sea Fever”. For at least two of them, James and his brother John, there would be the additional concern for their father, who was no longer a young man and was most likely teaching his sons everything they knew about their trade. Did they never think of the day they would see their father joining the company of the old sea veterans, watching through misty eyes as their boat headed for the fishing ground without him? A feeling of helplessness would pervade such thought and always suggest it be a consideration for another day.
The occasion of our text, however, presents a different perspective.
We have been considering matters that challenge us constantly to seek answers from our local experts. But what happens next in this narrative takes us beyond all the physical analyses of our five senses to our inwardness. We must inquire personally about what is happening to us inwardly.
The immediacy of the response of the four fishermen to Jesus’s invitation to follow Him is unusual for worldings. Typically, we would seek examples of like experiences from the past before undertaking such an out-of-the-blue suggestion.

Could the occasion when Jesus attempted to recruit these four fishermen to become His disciples, God was already active. Perhaps even before their birth, God was preparing them for this very event yet to come to fruition! Throughout their life, they seemed to be preparing for this particular hour. Culture, religion, and their present history seemed likely catalysts for considering a career change! Undoubtedly, they knew the Jewish Scriptures of the Old Testament concerning their peoples’ living hope for a coming Messiah. Throughout history, the commonly accepted belief is that ‘God’s dwelling in the human spirit is the spring of Eternal Hope; as the early 18th-century English poet Alexander Pope expressed “, Hope springs eternal in the human breast. Man never is, but always to be blest”. Therefore, wherever God is, there is Hope. And changes necessary for the fulfilment of His purposes will come to be.

 From the beginning of creation, God destined us all to be His co-creators. With God’s promised help, we commit to removing the grim realities that prevent the world from being the perfect reflection of Heaven’s glorious kingdom that God intends.

The likelihood of the world reaching a status completely resembling Heaven will result when the human race willingly permits an absolute surrender of their being to the innate reality of God’s creation plan. The prevalence of ego consciousness in the world instils a sense of self-esteem and self-importance in us, which must become a personal conquest, as exemplified in Jesus Christ our Lord in His Absolute Surrender to God. Then shall a new day dawn with songs of thanksgiving that the prayers uttered by generations of Christian disciples are being visibly answered:

“Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as in Heaven.

Hymn: Freely, Freely

                       https://youtu.be/SFV0OVeKdlw?si=ZEX8Pzu5EZcHDT9M

 

A Prayer To Follow This Meditation

Conquering God,
The sound of Your command, “Be Still”, delivered to the fierce wind and raging seas, brought belief in miracles to overwhelmed disciples of Jesus caught in the storm’s fury.

Father, Please renew a triumphant belief in the miracle of Your conquering power in each of us. Inspire us to know that He who is with us is far more powerful than anyone or anything in this world. It is not until You conquer the self in each of us that the world sees God in human beings, thereby fulfilling its only Hope of its future glory.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

                                    Additional Notes

1. The photo is of the area in Brigus, Newfoundland, popularly known as “Middle Ridge”.
|2. The Biblical quotations in the text are from the NIV

 

 

 

On Bring A Channel For God

TEXT:
“While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately, the leprosy left him”. Luke 5:12-16

Additional Scripture Reading: Philippians 1: 20 -30

We must prepare to use every means to ensure that the Gospel remains ‘The Living Word.’ ‘The Word’ became flesh’ and dwelt among us’ must forever be the distinguishing quality of this glorious Gospel.
Therefore, we are to
-Approach it with a poet’s heart.
– Understand it with a philosopher’s Spirit.
-And imagine it with the unimpeded faith of a child. 

The New Testament is not a linear expression of historical data. The entire Bible is a unique expression of the vicissitudes of human development in relationships with the Divine.
Here, there is a moan of pain.
There is a song burst of victory.
This page is wet with the tears of a suppliant!
Here, the hills are alive with the sounds of worshippers singing.

This meditation calls for your participation. Bring with you the gift of your imagination. And then, please God, as a result, you will become another channel through which the Living Word will again come into the world, now waiting in longing and hope.

“Hello, my name is Jesse!
Luke doesn’t tell you that. I only wish he had!
You see, a person’s name is the most important thing about him. It is the one thing that is especially his own!
The last tragedy to befall anyone is for them to lose their name!
Tragic it is to lose your health.
Tragic to lose your family and your friends.
But when a man isn’t worth remembering by name, that is the worst tragedy of all.

I lost my name the day that it became evident that I had contracted leprosy. See these hands? They did not always look like this! Once, they held our newborn baby. My skin was as clear as hers! And with my finger, I felt her first tooth!
My dim, old eyes were not always this way! Once, I looked upon the face of the most beautiful woman in this world. I watched the embers of the day glow; I watched the white dawn chase the grey from the morning sky! Then people heartily greeted me: Good morning, Jesse; may the Lord, Jehovah, go with you today, Jesse”.Then leprosy! And they all appeared to be searching for something lost in the cobblestones under their feet, and a deathly silence stole the sound of my name on their tongues. To this very day, I am introduced to you as “a man covered with leprosy”. But I want to cry out,” Look again! I am more than what you see with your physical eyes! Like us all, there is an inwardness to each of us that is far more important and potentially more complete than what our outward bodies reveal.

Please, don’t overlook that I have an inwardness which this leprosy, nor will anything else in all creation ever destroy. During the dark nights of despair, when sleep refused me respite, I felt an indomitable hope that everything would one day be better.

This inwardness is the home of that HOPE that one day I would meet someone who would see beyond my leprosy. So that I could show the world there is more than what we presently experience. There has to be someone out there who loves us, who cares about who We are and What we may yet become.

That day, I met a man called Jesus. And His Spirit met with my Spirit. I knew He saw farther than my physical impairments to deeper longings and aspirations. I tell you, at that moment, I recognized the footfall of God inside me. Without further thought, I uttered: “Lord, if you are willing, You can make me clean”. He responded with love and compassion. ” I am willing, be clean”.

 For each of us, the consideration is not whether He is willing to free our shackled spirits but whether we are eager for that to occur. 

A Prayer To Follow This Meditation

Merciful God,
You long for us, like the Father, whose son, yielding to the tempting promises of a far country, assigned his beloved father to an unending watch for his return to nobler things.
You have much greater expectations for each of us than those realities in the world that persuade us to be satisfied and at ease amid greed, corruption and division.
Father, Your Son taught us to pray, “May Your Kingdom come; Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven”. Give us the Grace and the Courage to say again, ” I will arise and come to my Father. Use me as a channel of Your Peace and the conveyor of Your Love and Mercy to all I meet. Then live with this assurance that Our Father’s response will be, ” You are my beloved child, in whom I am well pleased, welcome, thou, into my Kingdom! We pray in the Name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.

Hymn: Make Me The Channel Of Thy Peace.

https://youtu.be/fYz14jEoaeU

Acknowledgements

The photo is of Porterville United Church Of Canada, on the Lewisport Pastoral Charge, Newfoundland. I am personally indebted to my friend Dennis Porter for this beautiful photo.

The Mystery And The Majesty Of Righteousness

Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:20-31

Text “Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.
He shall bring forth your Righteousness like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun”.
(Psalm 37: 5-6)

Scriptures of both the Old Testament and the New reveal an intimacy between the human quality of belief and the divine qualities of Righteousness. That, in itself, is part of a mystery. Belief is such a wavering emotion and subject to change. Righteousness is such a fixed and certain reality that the twain, belief, and Righteousness should never meet. Belief is temporal; Righteousness is eternal.

Still, belief is like the seedling that grows into a large plant that one day provides a home for the birds, as discussed in the Parable that Jesus told. (Matthew 13: 31-32).
That parable teaches that even the smallest amount of faith (belief) can significantly impact the world.
Furthermore, belief is the pulse-beat of Judaism and, subsequently, by association, Christianity.
 Of Old Testament fame, Abraham earned Righteousness by believing God’s promises, and he became known as the father of many nations, thus underscoring the indispensable quality of belief.
( see Romans 4: 16 -25 ) 

But where did that ability to believe God’s promises come from? 

 Some people trace their belief in God to some arresting phenomenon in nature, like the magnificence of dawn or the crimson glow of the setting sun. At the same time, others attribute such belief to overwhelming psychophysical events such as the birth of a child or the death of a loved one.

But what if the initiative to believe is in the Creator’s hands? And therefore, belief is the recalling of prenatal experiences engraved upon the Spirit of each subject. And what if each of us were at Home with our Heavenly Father in that dwelling not made by human hands but eternal in Heaven”?
And what if the act of creating the human race is God’s intention for us to become His co-creators, whereby worldly deficits
are satisfied by people empowered and endowed by God with the required talents and wisdom to satisfy?
Is that not a reasonable explanation for Abraham’s inspiring faith?
Yet, there is more!
Interwoven throughout the Divine’s will to establish His kingdom on earth, God prepares the members of the human race to be His prodigy by the everlasting promise, “Certainly, I will be with you!”
Herein is the eternal pledge to maintain an expected relation with God and thereby fulfil the mission for which each one is born. Abraham’s undaunted insistence that God was intimately involved in his life reveals this life’s most precious reality. Here, the mystery between belief and Righteousness is displayed in the first verse of the Bible, ” In the beginning God.”

Righteousness is the flooding of the human Spirit with the fullness of God, initiated by His grace and includes the capacity to strengthen one’s belief.
As enlightening and grateful as we are for the moving account of Abraham’s faithful experience, We have an even more excellent demonstration of faith and Righteousness. The Eternal’s promise to be always with His chosen Kingdom Builders, is, since Abraham’s day, translated into flesh and has dwelt on earth among us.

“It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.”   (1 Corinthians 1:30 NIV)

So it is today, amidst the cynic’s eager testimony, that religious institutions have outlived their usefulness and that we have failed in our mission. Then it is time for an encounter with your Righteousness.

Let Him show you again the reason You were sent here to earth. “And God sees you and the void waiting to be filled, and yet He concludes It is still a good match! ” And lo, I am with you always!

       A Prayer To Follow This Meditation

Father, a holy hush falls over us as we search our vocabularies for words to talk to You about the mystery and the majesty of Your Righteousness. That’s because it is a subject more demonstrative of Heaven than of Earth. And to realize that You desire to share that unspeakable gift with us finite beings leaves us awestruck but silent.

At the time of our arrival at our new beginnings here on earth, we were like the tiny mustard seed which Jesus talked about. With Your loving and gentle touch, the smallest of seeds grows into a tree and a home for the songbirds, thus adding to the earth’s symphony of praise.

Righteousness is the mystery of You, our Heavenly Father, sharing Your fullness with us so that one day, we, too, may add to this world’s most beautiful symphony with the harmony of our lives. How precious to us is Your gracious word: “Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as He is.” (1 John 3:2)
“. Praise God through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Hymn: Joy To The World

https://youtu.be/mRr8ei8u_XM?si=JA0F9SmkW5uequNS