Monthly Archives: August 2023

Made for beauty, made for belonging..

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God saw all that he had made, and it was very good, and there was evening, and there was morning – the sixth day.

(Gen 1. 31)

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.

(Ps 19.1-4)

I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips… I sought the Lord and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears… Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

(Ps 34.1,4&8)

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights above. Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his heavenly hosts. Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars. Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the skies. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for at his command they were created, and he established them for ever and ever – he issued a decree that will never pass away.

(Ps 148.1-7)

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He also has planted eternity in men’s hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy], yet so that men cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

(Ecc 3.11, Amplified Bible)

For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

(Heb 13.14)

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…..”Look! God’s dwelling-place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them..

(Rev 21.1&3)

Home… what does that word mean to you? I expect that a great deal depends on your experience of life in terms of family, settled living, security and health. I have been thankful to live under law and order; to know health and a nurturing family and community; to have reason to hope for security in worldly means. I have good reason to respond strongly and positively to the word ‘home’. 

The place where we have lived for these last 7 years has become home to me – a community where I am loved and useful; a place of such astonishing beauty that my spirit is continually overwhelmed; a settled and powerful sense of belonging and identity. I am deeply thankful for these good gifts…. and therefore deeply grieved at the prospect of leaving them behind.

As I wrestle with this prospect of loss, I resist self-pity, which achieves nothing except to divert me from thankful dependence on God and bind me in bitterness and resentment. I choose thankfulness, I choose praise, I choose to delight up to the last moment in this place. I choose to face each day with eyes wide open, a heart eager to receive and respond to the love-gifts of my Father.

When I am gone, the beauty will remain – undiminished by my departure, and awaiting my return. I may never again call it home, identifying myself with this beloved place, but it has played a huge part in my life and I will give thanks and be glad for that. The Lord has given me such joy here – and surely his power to do so will be unaltered by his removal of me to another place of his choosing?!

Golden barley ripened fields; dark green forest-bristling hills; purple heather-hued slopes; brilliant velvet-cropped fields; statuesque trees amid emerald pastures; blue skies with mountainous backlit clouds, silver grey and pearl; burns tumbling brown and foamy down rocky slopes; lochs like sheet mirrors; broad streams like silver ribbons..

All these words are a feeble attempt to capture the beauty, but my response in exultant worship is beyond description. This land is my home, my place and though I leave it for a season, I believe that one day, in the new creation, I will see it again – transformed. No longer a shadowy image of true beauty as it exists in the Creator’s mind, but the real thing – the lasting, eternal thing, where I will truly be at home for ever and all that is beloved here and now will be more real, more beautiful, more wonderful than I can imagine.

 Thank you Father, that you made me able to respond to beauty, and also to long to be at home. Thank you, that one day I will live with you in the beauty of which this world is merely a suggestion. Thank you that one day, I will know that for which my heart longs – I am made for belonging, made for beauty, made to live with you in perfect love in the place you designed for me to thrive and to delight. Keep me faithful until I see it, keep me obedient, trusting and loving. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

(the author acknowledges her debt to CS Lewis for much of the imagery and thinking of this piece)

A fresh air blowing…

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Faith opens all the windows to God’s wind….

(G Macdonald – 1824-1905: Diary of an Old Soul)

Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

(Gen 2.7)

I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said,  “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!… I will make breath enter you and you will come to life… Then you will know that I am the Lord.'”

“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.'” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet..

(Ezek 37. 3-6,9&10)

“Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

(Jn 3.6-8)

The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else… God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’

(Acts 17.24-28)

As I sit to write today, the windows are open all over the house, and there is a steady sound of wind and sea blowing in, it makes my heart dance to hear it and to smell the fresh air wherever I go. We instinctively know that it is not good for us to live in sealed boxes, that we need air and the refreshing power of wind to invigorate our senses.

The wind itself gives us a powerful picture of God’s spirit at work in the world; Jesus’ words point out that we cannot see either one, and yet we clearly see their impact as they pass! I believe that ever since I was first able to acknowledge Jesus as Lord of my life, this Spirit has been a constant presence, a power of transformation as God makes me new and more Christ-like day by day. I also believe that I can and should reflect on the work of the Spirit – in the way that we go from room to room in our houses and decide where the air is stale and where there is danger of mould setting in!

The breath of life is God at work to make dead bones live, to bring humanity out of the sin-death in which it is bound and to revive it for a glorious future in the new creation. The breath of life is also God at work in his children, like a diligent housekeeper, seeking those places where transformation is yet to be realised, those rooms which have been closed against Him thus far, or where the dust has been allowed to accumulate and the air to grow stale.

Bear with me, the picture is a little flippant, but the point is valid… as I reflect on my life, I ask the Lord to show me where I am resisting the work of that Spirit of life and transformation; I ask to recognise those things which I am keeping out of his reach, in case I should be asked to do something about them!

I ask the Lord to show me those things which are lurking like mouldy newspapers, in a corner of my life, so much rubbish but also potentially dangerous to my faith if I neglect to deal with them.

I ask the Lord to breathe transforming power into my vision of him, so that as I see the love, power and beauty of Christ, my courage is renewed, my hope strengthened, and my desire to serve him revived, so that I cannot rest until I am active in sharing the gospel.

 O Lord Jesus, let me throw the windows wide. Blow through me with life and vigour and stir me up to fresh zeal and eagerness to serve you and glorify you and to delight in you. Breath of life itself, permeate all my inner chambers and fill them with the clean and wholesome airs of your truth, power and faithfulness. Make my house sing!

Bearing the maker’s mark

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I will cleanse you from all your impurities… I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees…

(Ezek 36.25-27)

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

..if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here!.. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

(2Cor 3.18, 4.17&21)

As a prisoner for 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.. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness..

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

(Eph 4.1-3,22-24,30-5.2)

We are accustomed to the idea of an artist signing their work, indicating pride of workmanship, and also origin; we know that hallmarked silver tells us about the quality of the metal and authenticates the genuine nature of the material. In the same way, we can think about believers being ‘sealed’ by the Holy Spirit, being marked by God in some distinctive way which has consequences for us.

The bible tells us that God makes people new when they come to faith in Jesus; in Ezekiel it is described as receiving a new heart, a disposition to respond in loving delight to God, and to obey all that he asks of us. Paul talks about a new creation, a person who is right with God and no longer under condemnation, because by faith they have received the forgiveness which Jesus achieved for them and they now live in communion with God and enter his presence with confidence, fearing nothing but to grieve their heavenly father.

The Holy Spirit is the authentication, the increasingly visible sign of that transformation taking effect in our lives. We live by faith in Jesus, whose spirit lives in us to move us towards ever greater likeness to Jesus, as our thinking changes according to God’s word and our actions flow from love for God and one another. It is helpful to remember that a hallmark is a sign of authenticity, that it tells a person about the quality of the material, the origin of the workmanship. The lives of believers need increasingly to conform to what our hallmark says is true about us, which is not merely a matter of a set of private theories of religion, but a personal relationship with the author of creation, our maker, and the one who has dealt with our sin forever.

Does my life speak of a love beyond all others, a love which compels me to bring all I do to the bar of Christ’s approval? Do my choices and actions speak of a loyalty beyond question to my Saviour, and an awareness that I bear his glorious name in this dark world as an ambassador for his love and as an invitation to come and meet him? I am aware that I fall short of this ideal, but nonetheless strive and pray towards it, so that I may not bear my Lord’s mark in vain but rather in fruitfulness and honour towards him.

I bear the hallmark of Christ; I am authenticated as a child of God. Let me therefore live to be worthy of his mark – it is my new nature and purpose to live in kindness, to love and seek the good of others for their blessing and his glory. It is my calling to grow up in my thinking to maturity, and the adherence to truth which will keep me faithful in my life and witness. Let me be of the true metal, bearing witness to the power of my maker and fulfilling the purposes for which he has made me new. So be it Lord Jesus, by your power and presence within me, Amen.

A lasting impression…

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Let my song of prayer come before You, Lord. As befits Your word, give me insight.

Let my supplication come before You, as befits Your utterance, save me.

Let my lips utter praise, for You taught me Your statutes.

Let my tongue speak out Your utterance, for all Your commands are just.

May Your hand become my help, for Your decrees I have chosen.

I desired Your rescue, O Lord, and Your teaching is my delight.

Let my being live on and praise You, and may Your laws help me.

I have wandered like a lost sheep. Seek Your servant, for Your commands I did not forget.

(Ps 119.169-176, R Alter translation)

John pointed [Jesus] out and called, “This is the One! The One I told you was coming after me but in fact was ahead of me…. Here he is, God’s Passover lamb! He forgives the sins of the world!… my task has been to get Israel ready to recognise him as the God-revealer… I’m telling you, there’s no question about it: This is the Son of God.”

(Jn 1.15,29&34, the Message)

In the Messiah, in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory parade. Through us, he brings knowledge of Christ. Everywhere we go, people breathe in the exquisite fragrance. Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognised by those on the way of salvation – an aroma redolent with life. But those on the way to destruction treat us more like the stench from a rotting corpse.

(2 Cor.2.14-16, the Message)

Will I trust God to do what he has promised? That is a question which lies behind so many of the challenges which I struggle with in life, because I want to see and know what he is doing, what he will do, and that is not faith  but doubt and unbelief… The apostle Paul writes to assure the young church that since God gave us his only son in order to save us, we can surely not doubt that our welfare matters to him, and that all else that we could need will be supplied in the right way and the right time. And faith is the assurance of those things hoped for, the lived-out conviction that what God says, is true, is a foundation on which to build and depend.

So, as I am tempted to look at my situation and to despair, seeing little evidence of having done anything useful in God’s service, I take myself to task and preach this gospel truth to myself again.. It is for me to obey, to love and serve the Lord as he gives me strength, ability and opportunity. It is for God to bring fruit from my labours, in whatever time and manner is according to his perfect will for each individual involved and also within his eternal and glorious plan for a new creation and a fully realised kingdom. It is not for me to evaluate my performance, but rather to keep offering up what he gives me to do and to know that I am loved not because I obey, but rather I obey because I am loved. Let my awareness of that love grow, so that my faith-filled and trusting obedience can also grow and become steadier, more consistent and glorifying to the one in whose word I trust.

Let me become like John the baptiser, whose joy it was to point others to the Christ, and to deflect their attention from himself to the source of hope and light for all humanity. Let me trust that as I obey the Lord in the places to which he takes me season by season, through all the various experiences and communities which make up my small life, in obedience, I may be useful to my God and not be a barrier to the gospel. Let me be content, as John was, to fulfill my task and not to envy the jobs of others, nor to be ashamed of the lowliness of my particular service in the kingdom.

Lord God, let me be a sweet aroma of Christ in going about my community, let me leave an impression of love and hope which makes others want to find the source of all love and hope. Let my impact on the lives of others be for their blessing and your glory – I do not need to see it to give thanks that with you even such things are possible, and I can rejoice to be a means of blessing in your hands.

Let there be no doubt that it is Christ who matters, and that all is done in and through and for him, and that He is Lord of my life. As I leave these people behind, I know that you will use their impression of Christ as I pointed them to him, and I am content. Amen, so let it be.