DELIGHTS IN THE DESERT

This Saturday I had time to browse in my favourite second-hand book store, and found a book that is delighting me with it's insights - it's immensely encouraging.  So, I'm putting a couple of quotes here for any fellow travellers who might get joy from them also.

The writer is speaking of her life as a Benedictine living in the inner city: "It is here, in a place that the late Trappist monk Thomas Merton called the new wilderness, that I built my hut.  Merton thought it the new desert because the centre of our cities are barren and dry, devoid of hope, of promise, of possibility."

"What do I do here?  I plead a case for presence, beauty, community, and a call to follow God into the wilderness.

Once upon a time men and women who wanted to seek God relocated themselves in abandoned places.  These 'wilderness places' often associated with the desert, gave the seekers a unique perspective and freedom.

Living on the margins of society, stripped of the trappings of social expectation and pressure, they began to see differently.  Immersed in the word of God, they began to listen differently.  They put on the broken heart of God and spoke the truth on God's behalf for the poor, the victims of injustice, the suffering.

Their location in the wilderness gave them great freedom.  Why?  Because no one paid attention to them.  Because they were not the movers and shakers of the city.  Because they had no political influence, no one cared what they did.  No one even noticed their quiet works of transformation among the poor until suddenly "the desert and parched land bloomed with abundant flowers"."

Quotes are from "A Monk in the Inner City" by Mary Lou Kownacki.

This expresses so accurately what is happening in many cities in the earth right now.  Let us become unafraid to see and listen differently, and just maybe we will hear God calling us to come and walk in dry and barren places with Him, and have the joy of seeing Him make these same places bloom with abundant flowers!  May we too find a new perspective and new freedom.

GRAIN, NEW WINE & OIL

For the last few days I have been reading Joel 2 and Luke 5 again and again. 

The seriousness of this hour we live in, and the depth of the cry in my heart that God would be with us, leading us, teaching us, enabling us, grows daily.

All of Joel needs to be read to keep this in it's true context, but chapter 2 :12-19 are speaking loudly to me.

"Even now", declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning."  Rend your heart and not your garments.  Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.  Who knows:  He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing - grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God.

Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly. Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast.  Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.

Let the priests, who minister before the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar.  Let them say, "Spare your people, O Lord.  Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations.  Why should they say among the peoples, "Where is their God?"

THEN the Lord will be jealous for his land and take pity on his people.  The Lord will reply to them:  "I am sending you grain, new wine and oil, enough to satisfy you fully; never again will I make you an object of scorn to the nations."

Luke 5:37-39

And no one pours new wine into old wineskins.  If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined.  No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.  And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, 'The old is better.' "

Many of us have tasted and loved what has become old wine, and we are as dried up old wine skins.  Let us ask that God would bless us to be made new and flexible, letting go of the old (even though it tasted good) so that we may be filled with new wine once more.

My Prayer : Lord I can feel the flow and power of Your Word as I read it.  We have become incoherent for the lack of Your Word, with it's power and truth.  I see us in Your Body as various groups who have become so excited over a portion of the truth you've revealed to us that we have made camp there and made it our all.

Please shake us loose and lead us on, help us to realise that You are infinite and there is so much more You want to teach and reveal to us.  Help us to be awake, alert, with our lamps filled and oil to spare in this hour.  Give us eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to understand what You are saying and doing.

We bring our hearts and our cry before You Lord, and ask that You would send us grain, new wine and oil in this season to strengthen us to call that You would 'spare Your people O Lord' and the cry would arise again and again out of the nations.

THE HOUSE

In recent days I have been considering the place I find myself in - moving backwards and forwards between working with struggling, marginalised people and then my quiet place of prayer and contemplation.  The gap feels huge at times, and I have cried out for a place in The Body where I can find fellowship in the midst of this.

The comment I made to myself recently was "I feel like a worm in some kind of rotting board in the basement of a crumbling building".  A tiny life holding on to an original concept long forgotten.  This spark of life that we carry must be constantly kept alive by time in His presence and in knowing the Spirit of God beyond the froth and bubble of current 'revival' seeking, so that we can walk out a life that carries His light into dark places, to the poor and marginalised people - not necessarily the economic poor - that they might be revived and find life.

ALL earthly buildings eventually begin to break down, ONLY the house the Lord builds can (and will) remain standing.

Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labour in vain.  Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.  (Psalm 127:1)

ONLY the house God builds will stand and He builds, not with bricks and mortar, but with living stones, men and women.  Are we willing to let Him join the stones together?

When men actively recruit and draw numbers into the organisation or building they have made, who is building the house?

When a group considers it holds the truth and begins to exclude all who do not abide by it's truth and rules, who is building the house?

When the drawing is to 'church' rather than to relationship with the Lord and the life He gives, who is building the house?

Should we wonder that boards and buildings and organisations and programmes decay and fall into disrepair if they are not built by the Lord?

Surely if we live, move and have our being in Him, then each of us will know that same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead (Ephesians 1) .....and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, which is HIS BODY, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.

Surely we can trust Him in His great power to oversee HIS BODY of which He is THE HEAD, to take care of every single, even the most minute part, of what is His alone.

Perhaps if we could love, trust and serve Him in this way He would build His church and display the manifold wisdom of God to the rulers and authorities in heavenly realms as God ordained it should do, and we would see the change (revival?) we cry out for.

Do we need to be reminded again to 'let go and let God' have His way.

I am convinced that we have not yet seen this beautiful bride that is His church because we have either been unable or unwilling to let Him shape and clothe her.

Can we humbly admit our weakness and ask that in this place He might come and show Himself strong.  "God of nations, at they feet..." is not an anthem designed for rugby games alone.  Are we able to take our rightful place, not just at, but under His feet, in order that His great love and lordship, wisdom, majesty and power, can be displayed.

As a prisoner of the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.  Be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.  There is ONE BODY and ONE SPIRIT - just as you were called to one hope when you were called - one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:1-6)

Jesus Christ gave Himself up in order to present His bride/church in what was the ultimate sacrifice of great love.

"...to present her to Himself as a RADIANT CHURCH, without any stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless." (Ephesians 5).

The desire to see something fitting and radiant brings me to tears.

THOUGHTS TO PONDER

Sometimes we gain greater understanding by looking at events outside of our usual thinking or calendar.

This week provides a great opportunity to do that.

For some time I have found a verse in Ezra really highlighted and so will share the findings for anyone who would like to ponder it further.

Ezra 3:6 (and you will need to read the surrounding chapters to get the full context of this) "On the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord, though the foundation of the Lord's temple had not yet been laid."

The people of Israel were doing what they could, with what they had, where they were, in that moment in time.  We can do exactly the same - too often we are held back by some idea that we can't move until everything is perfect and in place - this means that much actually never comes to pass!

In terms of the Hebrew calendar, the first day of the seventh month (1 Tishri) is the first day of a new sacred year.  This takes place on Thursday 29 September 2011.  It is marked by the blowing of the ram's horn and known as the Feast of Trumpets.  This is a call to prepare for the Day of Atonement which comes 10 days later - a solemn period of cleansing and preparation.  Five days after Yom Kippur begins the Feast of Tabernacles (Succoth) - a time of remembrance of the tent dwelling during the Exodus, and a celebration of the fruit harvest.

These were feasts ordained by God to bring His people together before Him in repentance, remembrance, and rejoicing.

As many of us find ourselves in a time of change, it is good to remember that there are patterns and experiences set out for us in God's Word. 

Perhaps the most useful thing we can remember in this season is that God's endings are also new beginnings.  He closes off the old to bring us into the new.  He Himself is the 'first and last, the beginning and the end' and the 'finisher of our faith'. 

He has shown us a process He works through with all of us that will be like a lamp to our path to show us the way through this current time.

CHANGE

It seems so long since I have written anything here!  This is mostly because of the tremendous pressure of change.  Right now there is a feeling of being tossed around in pounding waves - at the same time I sit with the deep peace of God in my heart and know that all is well with Him.

Many years ago now, I stood at the tip of the North Island, New Zealand, and looked at the collision of two great oceans meeting. 
There was foam and flotsam that marked the meeting point, and I remember the Lord speaking clearly to me and saying "When you are at a point of change, stay in the boat, don't get out and try to swim".

If I am sure of anything right now, it is that I am not alone in this place.  Many find themselves caught up in the process of change.  So, stay safely in the place you know in the Lord, hold to Him and He will hold on to you, and you WILL make it safely to the other side.

Right now we have the Rugby World Cup games taking place in this country.  Last night I watched Wales and South Africa play a tremendous game, both sides showing great strength, and there were many collisions in the game, but only one winner. 

There will be many collisions for us at the point of change, many decisions to be made, and we know above all else that God alone rules and reigns, we have chosen to align ourselves with the winning side!

Today I have read Hosea chapter 6 again:

"Come let us return to the Lord, He has torn us to pieces but He will heal us; He has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.  After two days He will revive us, on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in His presence.  Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge Him.  As surely as the sun rises He will appear; He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth."

We have a great promise and a certainty that is the boat that carries us through the tumult of change and safely into the calm waters on the other side - changed by the process, but ready to embrace all He will now bring our way.

BECOMING PRAYER

In recent reading I have found some gems on prayer and want to share them with anyone reading this who has the same passion to go deeper with God until we no longer 'do' prayer but become a prayer He prays through and uses.

Thomas Merton in "New Seeds of Contemplation" describes this outworking in a wonderful way!

"......in all things, in your interior life and in your outward works for God, you desire only one thing, which is the fulfillment of His will.  If you do this, your activity will share the disinterested peace that you are able to find at prayer, and in the simplicity of the things you do men will recognize your peacefulness and will give glory to God.

It is above all in this silent and unconscious testimony to the love of God that the contemplative exercises his apostolate.  For the saint preaches sermons by the way he stands and the way he sits down and the way he picks things up and holds them in his hand.  The perfect do not have to reflect on the details of their actions.  Less and less conscious of themselves, they finally cease to be aware of themselves doing things, and gradually God begins to do all that they do, in them and for them, at least in the sense that the habit of His love has become second nature to them and informs all that they do with His likeness."

As we ponder this need for an unconscious rather than self-conscious outworking of His life in us I am compelled to give everything back into His hands and re-enter the place of surrender and trust.  My prayer becomes one of open-handed flexibility to His Way and His Will.

"To you Lord I give my heart, mind, soul and spirit, all of my life.  I am still, knowing that you ARE all You say You are. You are the source of ALL my life, and it is through You, from You, and in You that everything exists.  I am encompassed and enveloped in You, and I choose to surrender myself to all that was in Your heart when You created me, when You saw my unformed substance and knew both the beginning and end of my life, and everything in between."

STILL AND STRONG

There is a beautiful stillness about Easter, as if we pause and become quiet in the face of something so powerful and mysterious.

Once again the love and grace of God settles over His creation, and it feels as if He is brooding, waiting, for hearts to respond to the gift He has given the world.

The bustle of excitement that is around the baby's birth gives way to the impact of the death of the man.  The Son who was not dragged kicking and screaming to the cross, but who calmly and silently walked there carrying You and I with Him. 

Everything we would ever struggle with was laid upon Him, and He broke it's power to hold us.  He became our answer and, as He rose triumphant over sin, death and EVERY work of the enemy, He became the ONLY Way, Truth and Life we will ever need.

In the quiet of the garden Mary found an empty tomb.  Her dismay and alarm were then met by the One she sought.  Here He was, in person, alive and talking to her, the One she loved who was dead and now lived.

This is how He comes to each of us in our moments of distress, quietly there, alive and walking with us.  What He has done and still does for us is profoundly beautiful in every way.

May everything that Easter sets before us be yours today and always, Jesus Christ is the centre of the story and the centre of our lives.

"I AM" by Brett a'Court

TIMELESS INSTRUCTIONS

In the face of all we are seeing and experiencing right now I found myself drawn again to Matthew 24 where Jesus spoke of the things that would take place around us and made some pretty specific statements:

"See to it that you are not alarmed" (Matt. 24:6) and

"but he who stands firms to the end will be saved." (Matt. 24:12)

in the midst of a whole lot of other amazing advice!  We are brought back time and again to one of the verses that has always secured my life :

"Be still and know that I am God" which is enough in every situation.  In the fact of almost every situation we could ever experience or imagine, this wonderful statement takes hold of us, steadying and calming us in the face of the storms of life.

There is so much richness to be gleaned from such a short verse. :)

KNOW that He is still God.

KNOW that He is unchanging, always the same, yesterday, today and for all time.

KNOW that He has won the victory and rules and reigns for all time.

KNOW that His eyes range to and fro over the whole earth, waiting to show Himself strong for those whose hearts are turned towards Him.

KNOW that His nature is LOVE, and He will not deny who He is.

KNOW He created everyone and everything and knows ALL He has made and all the plans and purposes He has determined for His creation.

As we know this we are not tossed to and fro by the changing tides of human action and opinion, but carried forward in the strong steady flow of the river of His Life.

I am often unsettled by things I see, and things I hear men saying and doing, and then I remember that He is God, and His great plan and purpose will be worked out for them and for me.  Once again I can be still and KNOW He is sufficient, all I will ever need, and my soul and spirit become quiet before Him.

Thomas Merton says "Here the truth is One whom we not only know and possess, but by Whom we are known and possessed."

I am so grateful that such a big and wonderful God who never sleeps, made me, came looking for me, and made me His own.

"Lord, who do You say that I am?"

"MINE".

HOPE

 

In the midst of the devastation that has rocked Christchurch and all of this nation I have watched the images and wept again, again and again.  We are indeed one nation and when one part is hurting we all hurt with it.

Today as we observed 2 minutes silence to honour and respect those who have paid the ultimate price in this disaster, I could feel a shaking deep within me, something alive and feeling this loss with every fibre of my being.

As I've sat contemplating the damage and death and loss faced by the people of Christchurch and those who love and care for them, I am reminded of one of my favourite stories in the bible, Noah's ark.

Having survived total devastation of everything around them, and floated in the ark for a long time, Noah and his family begin to think ahead and Noah opens up the ark and eventually sends out a dove to see if she will find some dry land.

The dove returns, having found nowhere to land, and Noah puts out his hand and draws her back into the safety of the ark.

Time and again we are like that dove, we have faced things that are difficult and we do not know where to stand in them.  It is in these times most of all that God, in all his loving kindness and compassion, puts out His hand to draw us deep into Himself.

Eventually Noah sent the dove out again, and this time she returned with an olive leaf that showed that indeed there was life to be seen and found, and then on the third time, she did not return at all as she had found a place to land.

May it be so for those most affected by this terrible earthquake, and for those who love and care for them.  May our loving and merciful God take them into His great and creative hands, and hold them safe for a season of healing and restoration.  When the time is right, may they be released, strong and able, to go out and find their place to stand.

National Anthem with Christchurch montage on TV One