Faith that lives in others

I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that first lived in your mother Eunice, and now I am sure lives in you. 2 Timothy 1:5
There is an add on the television that sends a message out about our life style and how children copy us. It shows a child in his toy car going to MacDonald and ordering fast food and a child lying on the couch with a soft drink and chips. Children will copy the behavior of the adults and I cant help but think how that applies to all ways of life. Its up to us to set the examples the children will follow. Two of my grandchildren came to visit, one 5 the other 7 and they were sitting in my lounge room looking through some of my treasures from Jerusalem. The 5 year old had the Hebrew prayer book and the traditional  reading stylus and said he was reading about God 'in a different voice.' The 7 year old commented that when she grew up she was going to be a children s minister like her Sunday School teacher at church. Its hard to explain the feeling this gives to see the grandchildren living a life that is God centered and how remnants of our lives brush of onto others and so the light of Christ continues to shine.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ
Anne, servant of the Lord

sign him with the mark of the cross to show he is one of Christs own

Have you seen God today

One day Jesus was praying.......when he had finished one of his disciples said to him. ' Lord, teach us to pray.' Luke 11:1
One of the greatest most powerful, most humbling experiences we can have with God  is those occasions when we find ourselves and him alone together and he says 'here is a gift for you.' Those moments can come in a flash: When I see a tree of brilliant autumn colour - and there is just me and God. or when I see the fog weaving its way through valley and trees - and there is just me and God. And recently after the rain the tiny brown spotted frogs on my pathway - and there is just me and God. Gifts from God as he stands there with me handing them out one by one. Gifts that linger and stay with you in memory.  I love these gifts. Its like having something special in your pocket, you put your hand  it in and pull it out again being blessed every time by God's presence.  When we are gifted with an awareness of God's presence in prayer we savor every moment of it, we let God hold us and carry us, as a sea holds and carries the boat.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ

Anne, servant of the Lord.

Treasure the moments

Our Father in Heaven Hallowed be thy name. (The prayer that Jesus taught us)
In all my years of Christian faith, and that is all my life, I am still so in awe of our God and the communications we have through prayer. So many forms of prayer, so many openings to the prayer conversations together and so much trust in him 'who keeps us from falling'  No one knows me or you like he does. I was so touched by the fresh feel of the morning with the soft tinges of pink on the horizon, a valley of soft mist, that it sets of a spontaneous conversation with God, I love it when that happens.  I have some favourite introductions to some prayers and  some have been with me all my life. Do you have some favourite words with God as well? I like the powerful words from our confirmation service: 'Defend O Lord, this thy child with thy heavenly grace; that she/he may continue thine forever......' and I have. And this one( O how rich the collects are)  A great opening to prayer, a collect that puts us on our knees every time we say it: Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known and from whom no secrets are hidden (Collect of Purity) Prayers for all occasions, special prayers that travel with us through life, holding us up, carrying us.  Treasure the moments.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord.

even a tree stump is a place of prayer.

strong roots

As you are being rooted and grounded in love. Ephesians 3:17
When we look at an old gum tree standing strong and firm in the earth, well grounded and held up by strong roots and when we see ships tightly tethered and anchored at the wharf because the forecast is predicting storms, and when we see homes being built we see they are laid on a strong foundation but what of us? What gives us our anchor, our foundation, our deep roots that allows us to survive the battering of storms in our lives?  Sooner or later stressful situations will enter all our lives, some such a storm that they will strike like an earthquake. Its a 'wobbly world' and at times an  unsafe society but we know where our refuge is, our port, our strength to stay strong. Its in our Lord and Saviour, the risen Lord Jesus Christ. You know, in the bible there are 365 'fear nots' or the equivalent. - one for every day of the year - God given.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ
Anne, servant of the Lord

Divine presence

I love thy place O God wherein thy honour dwells. (Hymn)
It is so easy in this very busy world to 'go and do'  in our name and not in the name of Jesus. At times we may well know that what we do we do in Christian love and service but sometimes that sense of 'God awareness' just might be hidden below the surface of our busy lives. At times there is also a sense of having to reconnect, to remember that in every life we meet and touch that God is present. Those among us who exercise service ministry with  the lost, the isolated, the disadvantaged and those on all areas of the edges of society know deeply that God is as present in them as in us and that is where our passion comes from. That recognition  and respect that we are all God's children.
Joyce Rupp has these words to say about God awareness: 'I hope that I constantly remember that God dwells within others as well as myself and that should pave a way of how I see and treat others.'
And she offers this prayer. 'Dear God. I love the deep feeling of  connectedness and humility I feel when I place my hand over my heart and say - God dwells in here - thank you God.' Try that now, place your hand over your heart and feel God's presence, it will stay with you as a morning blessing.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ
Anne, servant of the Lord.

Purpose

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord. (APBA)
Easter has been. We have again lived the journey through Holy Week. We have carried the cross for Christ,washed feet, prayed in the garden,feasted at the Passover,  wept at the cross and been raises up again with the loud hallelujah's of Easter morning as we sing praises to the risen Christ. After that journey are you ready to go into the world refreshed, affirmed and with hope to love and serve the Lord?  Go gently, don't rush away from the Easter experience, let it sit awhile with you.Mary Oliver says:  Around me the  trees stir in their leaves and call out 'stay awhile.' The light flows from their branches. And they call again.'Its simple' they say,' and you too have come into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine.'
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord

Walking with God

Enoch walked with God;then he was no more, because God took him. Genesis 5:24
I read this quote by Rabindranath Tagor.  'For many years at great cost, I traveled through many countries, saw the high mountains and the oceans. The only things I didn't see were the sparkling dew drops in the grass just outside my door.' Any walk we take implies that step by step we are making progress and that also applies to our walk with God. We need a certain moral fitness and harmony with God to progress in our walk with him. Each day when I walk, morning and evening I could see the flow of the valley to the foot of the mountains and the mountain tops and it can be a blessing but oh how much more a blessing when the walk starts to bring real gems of delight to my spirit. Its when I take in the 'smaller' things that I know I am walking with God. Things like the little shadow that runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.
Monitor your walk with God and watch your progress into a deeper awareness of him by your side.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ
Anne, servant of the Lord.

Holy week

'Fight the good fight with all your might, Christ is thy strength, and Christ thy right' (TIS 594)
In the Christian life there is a somber feel about this particular week as we journey  with Christ towards the cross and I think particularly of Good Friday. I wonder about the world that surrounded Jesus at that time. A harsh condemning world that saw no way of ridding itself of Jesus other than to destroy him. His only hope of the love of God being kept alive was through a few faithful disciples. What an amazing job they did at the expense of their own lives.  I can recall a time in my life where Holy Week and especially the most holy day of this week, Good Friday were sacred. There was no shops open, there was no hype in preparations to go away for the long weekend, there was no football matches or horse racing. There was a quiet in the community.  In many ways we are few, the followers of Christ, and we need to keep up a vigilance for Him. We need to be more and more out in the world, visible, our voices being heard and our actions being seen.
As a society the significant  Christian festivals were granted as   holidays because they were holy-days. They were granted so society could have a day from work to go to church.
Blessings for your journey this Holy Week.
Anne, servant of the Lord

Inside the church of the Holy Sepulcher the sight of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus in Jerusalem.

Growing love

(Paul writes) May the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow  more and more and become as great as our love for him. Thessalonians 3:12
What a blessing it is to know how God works in our lives. Sometimes we may think its an age, a maturity thing that causes us to grow in love for other people,but not so. Paul says, ' may the Lord make your love  one another and all people grow

. Our love for others comes from the fact that Jesus first loved us and at any age that can motivate us by the power of his Spirit to love others. In our day to day life we touch so many people, often on the edge of society and somehow there is a greater understanding within our selves, a greater understanding of who we are when we know that what we do comes from the Lord.
I think of my love of the elderly and those who are isolated and alone, those with disabilities and my love of all who society passes by, the persons unseen and unlovable.
Who has the Lord made you love?
In the musical Les Miserables there is line. 'To love another person is to touch the face of God.'
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord.

Glorious things of God are spoken

The Lord has done great things for us and we are glad. Psalm 126:3
Think on these things and be blessed:
 The hand of God as he creates each new day from the autumn morning sunrise to the glorious sunset, - skies of breathtaking  colour and beauty. (did you see the glorious sunset last night?) Those soft rays of the first light coming over the horizon touching the mountains and shifting their dark brooding colours into shades of grey and  soft blue and as the morning light travels across the valley all creation stirs into life, orchestrated by the warbling of the magpies. Magnificent! Our God is a mighty God. He reigns.  Lucardo says:
You have been sprinkled with forgiveness. You have been spattered with grace
You have been dusted with kindness, you have been immersed in it
You are submerged in mercy. you are the minnow in the ocean of God's mercy - let it change you.
Blessings for this moment, this day, this week, this life.

Morning has broken

Anne, servant of the Lord.

Talk to God

At Gethsemane, Jesus went off alone and knelt down and prayed. 'Father if you will, take this cup of suffering away from me. Not my will, however, but your will be done.' Luke 22. 41-42
One of our images of the Easter events is the picture of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. He is kneeling alone in deep earnest prayer and he must have been experiencing such inner anxiety in his suffering and confusion. One minute he is asking God to take away his suffering and the next he is submitting to God's will. Its really hard to find peace when something is on our minds. Its really hard to find peace when we have to submit to something we know is right but would rather not have to go through with it. When something is on our mind we have a habit of tossing it about on our beds at night and sleep seems far off. William Barclay tells this story: A pianist said of Chopin's nocturne in C sharp minor: ' All is trouble, until the person in the piece talks with God. Then peace comes.'  The same thing is true of Jesus. He went into the Garden of Gethsemane  in the dark; he came out in the light -because he talked with God. He went into Gethsemane in agony; he came out with peace in his soul - because he talked to God. The same thing is true for us if we talk to God.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ
Anne, servant of the Lord

Garden of Gethsemane

This is God

I will sing forever of your love, O Lord. Psalm 89
What is God? Who is God? So many times people try to answer this question. Its a question that is wrestled with, tossed about, and attempts are made to discern it but you know, for me its a simple as Martin Fisher quotes: 'If you don't know what's meant by God, watch a forsythia branch or a lettuce leaf sprout' and I love the quote (anon) I said to the almond tree: 'Speak to me of God' and the almond tree blossomed. That's God. There is God
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord

Sunbeams

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.  TIS 768
There is no way you can go outside an the early morning such as today as the sun breaks through the night, and  not  be in awe of God. The morning is rich in sunrise colour, the earth so fresh from rain and falling from the sky are rays like star dust falling to earth in multiple soft colours. Adeline Cullen Ray says: 'Whenever I see sunbeams coming through the clouds, it always looks to me like God shining Himself down onto us.The thing about sunbeams is they're always there, even though we can't see them.'Same with God.' May we always praise God in wonder over the way he brings our days into the present, arranging the stars and moon to pass and the sun and light to arrive.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ
Anne, servant of the Lord

Keep us Lord

Those who have died believing in Christ will rise to life.....and so will always be with the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 4: 16-17

I think of the elderly I visit at home.
I think of the disability group of a Sunday afternoon
I think of the person behind the shop counter
I think of the man and his dog, homeless, sitting on the street at the local shops
I think of my family and friends
I think of my colleagues and work mates
All the people I engage with in my daily life and I think of those profound words that have stayed with me ever since I first read them. Words of power 'We are entrusted with the words of life.'
Lord, keep me in a sure and confident faith, and let me help others find it.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord

Colour is Joy

For each perfect gift divine, to our race so freely given, graces all of your design, flowers of earth and buds of heaven. TIS 137
How 'deeply' do you look at God's creation? I mean, really pause and look deeply, in wonder,at the shape, the design and most of all the colour. We can miss so much in the business of life, brushing past the most beautiful of creations without really seeing it. I make a real point of a garden morning walk in particular, reflecting deeply on it's beauty and its 'fullness of God's gifts. Its a lovely place to be 'God filled ' and I marvel at all the colours he must have had on his painting palette. How big must the options of colours been. Imagine it, dobs of blue, red,green,purple,yellow, black, pink and many many more in all their various shades and him dipping his brush in and painting a rose,sweet peas,lavender,violets, blossoms, autumn leaves. To me when I think about colour I think about joy. Its a rich blessing from God to brighten our day and give us pleasure. It never ceases to amaze me  that our mighty God, in all his majesty and power and dominion can think of such small things as our pleasure and enjoyment. Next time you look at God's created colour, enjoy the moment and breath it in deeply.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ
Anne, servant of the Lord.

offer to fetch.

I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you. John 14:18
I was reflecting on a pastoral visit I had with an elderly housebound couple that I had visited in their own home. They were very isolated from society, an elderly man caring for his wife for the past 20 years following her debilitating stroke and both were reaching out for some connection, just that human presence,  that human touch.Someone to journey with spiritually into the ending phases of their life. I thought of many people whose paths we tread as we bring Christ's love in friendship to the isolated and housebound. I found myself answering my own question of how to minister to these people and a small verse from a poem by Jean Harris came to mind:
Offer to fetch, Offer to carry. Offer to lend a hand. Offer to listen. Offer to stay. Offer time.......
to understand.

Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord.

O what a gift.

The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. Proverbs 4:18
I just love to go to those places of solitude where you can sit and ponder and reflect and view the day or plan its path with God. Somehow when I do that everything that weighs heavily or everything that need discernment, or everything that needs righting, or everything that needs God's love just seems to fall into perspective. Right outside my front door as I look onto the hill some distance away I can see a seat. It is just placed there for walkers to sit and rest awhile and some locals even sit there with their cup of tea in hand and survey all they can see  and what a view. Its absolutely magnificent, right across the valley and onto the mountain range and beyond and is coloured with the seasons and  with the reflection of the rising sun in the east or a full blown glorious sunset in the west.
Rob Sagendorph said: Climb up some hill at sunrise. Everybody needs perspective once in awhile, and you will find it there.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord

people of the way

Follow, follow I will follow Jesus anywhere, everywhere I will follow on. (Sunday School song)
I keep coming back to the old songs that have stuck with us all our Christian lives. The old faithfuls that we still know word for word but they come to mind more so when they become a living thing in our daily life. I visited the Trash and Treasure markets after church yesterday as I sometimes do, not to purchase anything but to just mingle. I paused to look at a stall that had paintings on it. Armature paintings but there was something about them besides the fact that some were of blue wrens!! The stall holder spoke in a thick European accent. 'You must be a person who is on the way?' I thought he meant on the way home from church but no, he followed that up with,' On the way, on the journey, you know,  following Jesus.' The next ten minutes was spent sharing faith and the love of Jesus with this stranger and I came away rich in blessings and a purchase of two hand painted pictures of blue wrens under my arm. I love to linger and loiter with intent.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord

There are many places we can loiter with intent.

I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses (Spiritual Song)
I think there is nothing nicer than the peace of a quiet garden in its full glory and especially in the cool of the day. Its so full of 'God.' God in the beauty. God in his ongoing creation. God in the colour. God in the perfume.God in the wet dew hanging on every leaf and petal. God in the birds that also delight in meeting him there and enjoying his creation. I never see a seat in a garden as empty thought it might appear to be, its more a waiting space with its own atmosphere around it. A space waiting for your next visit, your next chat with God, Its like God is waiting there for you. How precious is such a space, such a seat and at times I find myself looking through the window onto the garden at the seat and a voice within me says, ' I'm coming Lord, I'm coming.
F. Frankfort Moore says: I think if ever a mortal heard the voice of God, it wold be in a garden at the cool of the day.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ,
Anne, servant of the Lord

Come Lord Jesus

Withdraw to deserted places and pray. Luke 5:16

In the early light of morning I bid you come, Lord, and we meet the day together. You show me the way I should go, and I follow. You walk before me, making my way smooth, steering my course, inspiring courage. (Eaton/Brummett)

It could well have been the start of Autumn today. The air was fresh, the dew lay wet on the grass and a thick fog hung low across the farm flats. The sun was up and there was no real hint of the forecaster  heat for today. Peace wrapped itself in all I could see and feel and there was a presence in it all like someone had been here before me and were still lingering. These special morning experiences are ground zero. They are where God touches the earth and comes to give strength for the day, warmth for the spirit  and encouragement for life and I so often find myself wrapping a mantra around my heart. "Lord take my words, take me, shine your love through what I am, through what I do.'
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ
Anne, servant of the Lord