A Birthday Present for PAPA!

Yes I’m Back at last! It’s last October since we put anything on our Blog, and if you have, like some, been taking the occasional peek to see if we had actually gotten around to doing anything, sorry is the best we can say. You see we have both been in a sort of hidden, not actually dark but very grey place, somewhere we both felt you would not want to read what we might want to say. But enough of the this and the that of the past we’re back, not with any promise to be regular or anything like that, but just to say something now and again.

So what are the title and the picture all about? Well, in a way it’s about one thing and yet it’s about everything. It’s about me and yet it’s about my family and how they try to show their undoubted love and how they want to please me particularly at my birthday. The next one is a big one!!! One with a polo mint at the end!

You see some months back I began to think about waste and recycling a bit more seriously, and then Iris and I went over to visit our folks in Chester. While there during the numerous conversations that I delight to have with my son David, the subject of Worm Farms came up. These ingenious little units take in your household waste and with the help of hundreds of our squiggly wiggly friends turn something that the world doesn’t want, even rejects, into something practical and useful. Something which when used can encourage growth in others, and which can feed them.

Ops! Is my metaphor beginning to show just a little bit? Ok you got me, much as I am really excited with my worm farm and indeed the love and trouble all of my family went to get it to me. See pretty picture above! I am having some deeper thoughts which in a way sort of explain our absence. You see we, needed some recycling. Someone to take the waste leftover, unfinished decaying bits of our lives and make them useful again and we know the very man. Jesus, He’s the one to restore the years even the minutes that the locusts have eaten to give us back a meaning for our very existence. So what about you? Fancy a bit of recycling today? Talk to you again soon.

Throw a Pebble in a Pond

Some time ago now Iris and went with our eldest son David and his lovely wife Judith to visit a beautiful spot in north Wales. It was our first visit to Wales so it must have been before the year 2000. We were going to a favourite place of David’s where he liked to go hill walking. The other day I was looking through some old photos and found a snap I had taken of us standing beside a very large peaceful lake. I remember as we left this spot to walk along the lake side someone, probably me, threw a pebble out into the still shimmering mirror like surface of the water. It plopped and then disappeared, leaving rings of concentric circles to emanate from the place of its entry. I still remember that as we walked along the shore seeing more and more circles spread out getting weaker as they went but still disturbing the stillness of the waters surface.

Today God woke me around 5am to talk to me about something. It’s a painful situation that our son Chris is going through, where some people are doing their level best to turn the knife, so to speak, in an already hurtful place. God has been giving him grace and strength to walk through this place, but as parents Iris and I find it increasingly difficult not to get extremely angry. Anyway last night as we got ready for bed I vented some words and feelings that had been coming to the boil for a while.

This morning I discovered that God had been listening to me, and had His own point of view on my declarations which He wanted to share with me! First of all He reminded me that it was He who had been helping Chris, it was He who had been pouring vast oceans of grace and mercy on our lovely son and it was also God who had been giving him the strength to carry on. Yes we had prayed and yes God had heard and answered our prayers and those of many others who have stood with him at this time.

God then used the picture I related above to show how any given action can and does have many effects. Effects which are not only wide ranging in the present but can indeed influence the future and even more strangely in some ways the past. Anyway I began to understand that there was no way I could begin to understand or grasp the enormity of this thought, because I am the created not the creator. If I was going to take things into my own hands could I also provide for Chris’ real support and healing? The answer is of course not. It’s time for me to let God be God, who knows what He has planned or how He will complete His perfect will, not only for Chris but for everyone concerned.

The neat thing is that God loves everyone involved and I have rediscovered that my Dad doesn’t merely eavesdrop on His children; He’s a loving passionate Father who listens to us all with immeasurable love and compassion.

Now do you still want to throw your pebble?

It's the little things!

Well it seems a very long time ago since I lasted posted something on our blogg. Several weeks have passed and in the meantime as you can see Iris and I have been off on holiday to Greece, for a well earned rest. This year in particular, we really needed our break, and so I deliberately did not take any thought provoking heavier reading material. Instead I brought along a Tom Clancy novel that I could read my way through and “relax”, or that was my plan at least.

Have you ever noticed though, that when our heavenly Dad wants to speak to us about something he has a way of getting our attention, wither that be when we are sitting under a tree feeling totally defeated and sorry for ourselves or in the belly of a Great Fish , actually or metaphorically, due to our own disobedience.

Getting back to Tom Clancy! There I am sitting beside our hotel swimming pool, relaxing, as Iris and Carol our daughter, who lives in Greece, play with two of our lovely grandchildren in the water. I’m just at the beginning of my book and getting to know the characters, one of whom is a multi billionaire, when I get broadsided by a real spiritual torpedo. You see, this guy has seemingly, just lost a large amount of money amounting to several thousand dollars, and he makes the following observation “when your worth is measured in billions, the little things don’t matter”. A simple enough though you may think, particularly, for such a rich man, who probably had just lost something equivalent to a whole year of my salary.

But then I get this sort of spiritual tap on the shoulder, as an uninvited thought enters my consciousness, “Did you not know that you are worth even the smallest drop of the blood Jesus freely poured out for you?” Yes Lord I did realise that, you know I did. At this point I felt a little like Peter when Jesus asked him three times “Peter do you love me”. So why have you been worrying or even getting so worn out about the “little things” if you truly knew your worth.

There beside the pool in that lovely situation my heavenly Dad cared enough, to take the time to put my head on straight with, as my friend Mike sometimes says ”a trip to the woodshed”. I can’t say I’m totally there yet, as I was reminded this morning, but that’s another story, because this has been a stronghold of my mind for most of my life. But I and making steady and relentless progress and with God’s mercy and grace, I know I’ll make it. What about you what do you thing you are worth? No less than me! God bless

By the way we all had a wonderfully refreshing break.

Hi Ho Hi Ho it's off to Greece we go

Yes it's time for are wee break away to see our family in Greece, catch a few rays and get our heads sorted out. Sorted out, many of you will be saying, now that will be a task and a half. Iris and I are really ready this year, for as you may have gathered from our previous postings we have been experiencing some real adjustments in our lives lately. The main point is you won't be hearing anything from us for around 3 weeks until mid September, but we hope you will return and keep in touch when we get back. For now though walk in God's blessings and abide in His love.

As the Darkness Falls

There’s a story I was once told of a Native American tribe who had a particular maturity ritual, through which ever young man must pass before he was considered to be mature.

At a certain age the young boy’s father would take him on a trip. A journey on unfamiliar paths, deeper into the forest than the boy has ever been permitted to venture before. Eventually the boy and his father would reach a particular clearing, just as the light was failing and darkness was beginning to fall. The father would tell his son to sit down with him under a tree because he had something to tell him.

Then the father would explain that this was the day of his greatest testing, more than his skills on a wild pony, his skills at tracking, or his accuracy with the bow. The boy must spend the night here in this clearing, this place of testing, alone. He must stay for the whole night, and in the morning his father would return for either a brave young man or a very frightened little boy.

Throughout the night, as the story goes, the boy would hear various sounds, some that he was all too familiar with as small animals like the rabbit and other small nocturnal animals foraged around for food, in the relative safety of the darkness. He may be startled by the unexpected hoot of an owl as his tired and exhausted eyes began to close in sleep. But then there would be other sounds like a bear busting through the undergrowth, or the snarl of a mountain lion, as they sought out their evening meal.

Bit by bit the long night would pass through the deepest inky darkness when he couldn’t even see the friendly stars above because of the trees standing dark an silent. He would think of his father and mother back home and the comfort his brothers and sisters were experiencing. Then he would return to his test and with renewed zeal and determination resolve to pass this test and become a true son of his father.

As the night passed and the weakest of light would begin to lighten the darkness the young man’s eyes would perhaps play tricks on him as his mind tried to make sense of various strange shapes, some that seemed to move others that most definitely did. Perhaps a timid deer unaware of his presence, having an early morning graze on the dewy grass or a skunk making his way home after a nights hunting.

Now the light is stronger and the young man’s eyes see something across the clearing, under a tree. The shape seems familiar, but the young man will probably dismiss this as another trick of the eye. As dawn finally breaks and the morning light chases away the darkness, finally the young man can see clearly the shape under the other tree. It’s his father, who has sat there without a word all night to make sure nothing could attack this would be young warrior. Yes he left and went away, but in the darkness a loving father had returned and kept the long vigil with his beloved boy, now a man.

What rejoicing there would be, as the two men returned to the camp, so that the father could say this is my beloved son in whom I’m well pleased.

Just a thought, but have you like me, been led by Father into the clearing of testing, will we arise in the dawning day a warrior brave or remain fearful and immature, missing our destiny.

Face the fears and do it anyway. He’s still watching over us and He loves you and me so very much.

Daddy on my mind

Yesterday was unusually humid here in Ireland, the temperatures were up but not unreasonably high, but the humidity, that was another story. The air was so pregnant with moisture that it literally seemed to woddle about threatening to give birth to a cloudburst at any moment but failing to do so. The heat exhausted Iris and I all day, slowing us down to a snails pace whenever we tried to achieve even the most straight forward tasks. Finally just before 9 pm we got out of the house and drove down to the seafront. We walked along the path beside the sea overlooking Belfast Lough and sat on a favourite seat that has been a particular favourite of ours for nearly forty years. No that’s not a typing error I did say forty years.

As we sat watching a few ships and small boats either arriving into the Lough, or, like the Liverpool ferry, set out to sea, we found ourselves praying. We prayed for an increased awareness of God’s presence, particularly for a manifestation of His glory. The manifestation was, I need to say, the result of yours truly being his usual dramatic self. We sat there for ages before we made our way back home. There had been no major appearances of angles, or heavenly lights, rather a real sense of stillness and peace and natural beauty, interrupted at times by a friendly greeting of several people as they passed by.

These days we both of us would admit to expressing a need to experience or heavenly Father as or loving Daddy, not just a loving trustworthy patriarch, who organises things for our good from a lofty distance. I recently saw one of our lovely grandchildren Beth, being lifted by her dad (our son Chris), she was still half asleep, but as she realised his touch, a gentle warm smile burst across her face and she snuggled in for a cuddle. Wouldn’t that just be perfect relationship to experience with our real Dad?

A week or so ago a friend came to our fellowship with a picture she had drawn. It was a Middle Eastern Sheppard and he had a lamb across his shoulders. The lamb looked secure and confident from this vantage point, and seemed quite content to stay there. As she left my friend gave Iris the picture to pass on to me, with the comment that this is how she saw my relationship with God. Again I’m praying for the reality of this picture to be manifest in my life. I pray that we all should be in such a place, because He loves us all equally.

No Graven Image!

Sorry if you have been visiting our Blog lately simply to find that it has not had any new updates for a while now. No excuses we have simply been off fighting battles on other fronts, or perhaps more truthfully keeping our collective butt out of view of the enemy, and trusting God to do the fighting. Truly our life lately, like many of our friends across the world, has been like doing a route march across a never-ending “bouncy castle”. Anyway Iris and I hope, after receiving some encouragement from some dear friends, that we are now back on track once more.

I was sitting the other day just having one of those “blank screen” moments when there is nothing particular showing on that big screen in your head. You don’t have one, well you should get one straight away, its quite often referred to as vision. Well to get back to what I was saying, there I was with my blank screen, when all of a sudden, I was in the middle of a life sculpture class. There were lots of pieces of marble on stands with a white sheet around them. There was lots of activity and noise as each piece of marble was being chipped away by someone inside the sheet.

Somehow I instinctively knew that they were not using the traditional tools of mallets and chisels, but rather every word they spoke, every action they took , even the very thought life of each person removed and shaped their piece of marble. I looked at the front of the class to see the model and quietly sitting there, to my astonishment, was Jesus. I realised this was indeed truly a LIFE class.

Suddenly there was a loud voice which boomed throughout the whole place, “Times up, remove the sheets”. Angels appeared from above each piece of work and lifted off the white sheets. There were several astonished gasps from several areas across the room, as the completed works were revealed to everyone. But the gasps came from those standing in front of their own life’s work, not from those around, because as they now got to see the finished article. Quite a few of the pieces did not reveal a true likeness of Jesus but instead looked more like the person standing in front of them.

To my shock I recognised, some of those standing around, people with ministries, big ministries, and as I looked I felt so sad not angry or judgemental just sad. I didn’t get to look at my piece of marble, but believe me the whole experience has truly challenged me. What about you.

From the message: (Exo 20:4)
No carved gods of any size, shape, or form of anything whatever, whether of things that fly or walk or swim.