Keep within me a stillness

But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever. Ps 52:8
I love forests. I use to love riding my horse through the pine forest as a child. I loved exploring Sherwood Forest in Nottingham and I love to just sit in the stillness and quiet of a forest, smack bang in the middle of nature and oneness with God and God's creation. We all know the saying, ' I cant see the forest for the trees'  Sometimes life throws up a barrier of stress or overwhelming life circumstances,hectic work scheduled or far too fast a pace of life making it so easy to lose that sense of oneness with God in the mix of his creation, making it hard to see God through the density of life issues. There is a lovely prayer  from the Hebridean Altars which says: Keep within me a stillness, deeper and sweeter than a forest's in mid winter.

glorious endings

Better  is the end of things than the beginning. Eccl 7:80
You need to stop and reflect on this verse to see how true it is.. A rose starts from a bud and grows to an open flower filled with perfume, incense that brings joy to the heart. A sunrise, rich in colour fades to a glorious day that holds potential for multiple blessings. A delicious meal, wonderful to smell as it cooks, to wait in anticipation, but the memory lies in the enjoyment of the finished product. A new found faith, rich with potential, grows and blossoms into service for the Lord.
Better the end of things than the beginning.
Gods  intention is to strengthen and bless us day by day. May you be richly strengthen and blessed through all your endings,
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord.

author and creator

Come and see what the God has done: he is awesome in his deeds among mortals. Psalm 66:5
 I could hear the rain drops, big ones, dripping on the carpet of withered leaves and the air was full of leaves fluttering down from the half naked tree in the gentle breeze. It was playful to stand on the leaves, kick them with my feet and have them fall like confetti on my head and shoulders: all yellow and brown, yet they held a special brightness and a label in my mind said: 'Made by God.' How good it feels when we look past nature and see the creator, the author. Eugene Peterson in the message says. Take a good look at God's wonders - they will take your breath away.
Peace be to us all and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord.

Like jewels on a necklace

What ever our song...............

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all of God's people to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Jesus . Ephesians 3: 17-19
I remember well standing in the hot sand on a  dry river bed outside Alice Springs and looking at the Gum Trees showing their roots above ground but well plunged deep into the sand, anchoring the trees in position, strengthening them for when the storms and floods come after the long awaited rains The roots were the life saving anchor for the trees. Holding them firmly in place.  I cant look at such an image and not thing about ourselves. What is our anchor in life? How deep do we go down to be rooted in Christ who is our strength in stormy times and in dry times. When I  reflect on these  bare rooted trees  I just want to sing, 'O the deep deep love of Jesus! Vast, unmeasured , boundless and free.' Or perhaps another hum wells up in you ' Will my anchor hold in the storms of life.'  Whatever our song, rooted in Christ we know our anchor will hold.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord

Just look at any given day

The Lord our God will bless you in everything you do. Deut 15:18
That is so true. Loyalty, faithfulness, devotion,  following and service are all the ways we love and serve our Lord and he responds with countless blessings. Look at your life and I suspect the blessings are more than you can count. Just look at any given day that you start and end with God and blessings cover it. Blessings of peace in turmoil. Blessings of answered prayers.  Blessings of knowing you have done God's will and those special blessings when you truly know it is from God, those ones that make you feel warm inside. Yesterday  when I came home from church and walked to my garden I heard the song of the blue wrens. The first time I had seen them where I live now. I thought I had left them all behind at my previous home where they were in abundance but no, God knows what we need and when we need it and if we are attuned we wont miss the miracle of miracles and that is the rich blessings. Such blessings that are' God alive.' Dose'nt it make you want to sing.......'Count your blessings name them one by one. Count your blessings see what God has done.'
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ
Anne, servant of the Lord.

Count your blessings, name them one by one.

Love thou through me.

(God's revelations) They are more desirable than gold, yes than gold; sweeter also than honey, and the drippings from the honeycomb. Ps 19:10
What a magnificent God we have who can create a world for us. A world of heavens, of days,of sun and moon and shelter and wrap it all in his love. How many times do we stop and pause to thank him for the love he showers on us. We tell people we love them and sometimes its a bit like a cast away line like have a  'good day' we also cast away the line 'love you' But how much do we tell God of our pure love for him? Do we tell him we love him?   In the great love God has for us, so we love back with this greatness and share it with others. (L.B.Cowman writes) O blessed love of God, that all may taste and see. How good thou art, once more I pray. Love thou through me, even me.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ
Anne, servant of the Lord.

you made yourself known to me.

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. Ps 23
This psalm is so familiar to us that we can say it with our eyes closed. Even many a  non church going person will know it. But I wonder do we all really know the shepherd. Do we really know the one that  guides us along the path of life, protects us and journeys with us through many a rocky place in life, many a brier bush, many a green pasture. Do we really know this shepherd? Bernard of Clairvaex  a 12th century writer said :  'How did I know God was in me? I couldn't miss it! my heart was softened and my soul roused from its slumber. He went to work in me. He cleared and cultivated the soil of my soul. He planted and watered and brought light to dark places. He opened what was closed and warmed what was cold. I have seen a fraction of his glory and it was awesome.'
If we read these words of Bernard and be stirred within then we can truly say we know the shepherd.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ
Anne, servant of the Lord.

The Lord's my Shepherd.

A small space

Let all the world, in every corner sing: My God and King. TIS 105
The early morning autumn mist hovered over the grass with a mystical beauty and trees stood like soldiers in a line seeming to have no base in the fog, just towering upwards from the mist:
still, quiet, peaceful, slowly moving in a gentle breeze which seemed to ripple down across the grass and up into my face, refreshing like the Spirit of God.
Calvin Miller said: Lord, I care not about positions in heaven. Let all those bent on having power rule as they may. Give me only a small place close enough to see your face.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ
Anne, servant of the Lord.

The Moses staff

My soul thirsts for the living God. Where can I go to meet you. Psalm 42
Every time I go out early in the morning I always come home with many blessings. It might be the blessing of a tiny wild flower tucked away in a clump of overgrown weeds. It might be the vivid colour of  an autumn tree, its colours, its beauty, lingering with me. It might be the beautiful song of a bird, sitting high on the power pole. Yesterday I was leaning on my walking staff watching two playful puppies romping with each other when a man came by in a wheel chair. He stopped and said: 'I had a walking staff like that one. I called it my Moses staff.' Therein followed a conversation about Moses and his rod, his staff, and God.' I don't know what he was thinking as he went on his way but I went home yet again with a blessing. A blessing of having encountered a fellow Christian also out and about to meet with God. 
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ
Anne, servant of the Lord.

Morning Blessing

This is love.

What are you doing down on your face? (Joshua 7:10)
Autumn can take our breath away with trees of multiple coloured leave, or just a single tree wrapped in yellow glory. And then there is the cluster of trees  with various shades of red among the changing greens, their base a carpet of  the fallen and again the child in me wants to walk through them, kicking them around in delight. And I think yet again of the creator of all this beauty. A God who showers us with such blessings. A God who goes 'all out' to please us with his creation in so many ways and I wonder why does he care for us so much. After all we are only a speck in a vast universe of his creation. He flung stars, the planets, the galaxies, and the sun and moon into their position yet he took it on himself to create our planet of infinite beauty and delight just for us. Just for you, and just for me.  His creation is his gift to us. To me this is  the unmeasured, overwhelming love  of God
and its enough to put me down on my face.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ
Anne, servant of the Lord.

God's gift .Just for you and just for me.

love shows the way.

As I have loved you, so you must love one another. John 13:34
The last week in its mixed emotions of Holy week, with all its drama and reflections, the one word that stands out is love. Jesus gives us a mandate to love others as he has shown love to us. I recall a conversation from one of the volunteers in our community program who assists a client with a degree of disability requiring help sorting out her home. She said. ' I had taken a client out for coffee and while we were chatting she told me how the support we are giving her has changed her life
She now feels she has hope.This client even looks like she is standing taller. Lucado said: A little rain can straighten a flower stem. A little love can change a life.
Go in peace and tell the world Christ is risen!
Anne, servant of the Lord

comfort, comfort all my people

Remembrance of that grim Friday

'Whom do you seek?'  'Jesus of Nazareth.' ' I am he.' ( John 18)
Good Friday and we are in the depth of Easter. For some its been a 'full on' Easter journey of services, remembering and engaging in foot washing and the Last Supper of the Pascal Mass and reaffirmation of vows and today brought the remembrance of that grim Friday when Christ was crucified in what must have been the most horrible of deaths possible. I think this death is the greatest example of 'tough love!' May we, in the quiet  of this day catch a glimpse of this suffering, this sacrifice, that enables us to live. May we do this 'living' well.  A living that leads to eternal living. A prayer in my morning prayers that draws me  to our way of living. " Lord teach me to pray: Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful people and kindle in them the fire of  your love. '
May the death and resurrection  of Christ continue to live through us in word and action.
Have a Holy and blessed Easter
Anne, servant of the Lord

Stain glass window. Grafton Cathedral

The cross of love

All glory praise and honour, to you redeemer king. TIS 333
Each time I open my prayer book at the front page I see an old faded, graying palm cross, I gaze at it and reflect and remember a journey.
 Christ's journey.
 My journey.
I remember as a child making palm crosses. A wonderful activity of gathering palm branches and sitting around a table in the parish hall with a group of ladies from church. There was lots of chatter and laughter as it was the day before Palm Sunday. I remember it as one of the many treasured steps of my faith journey. As I look at this palm cross I think of the crosses of life. The crosses I have had to bare. The cross that enables me to bear them. The cross that saved me. The cross of love.
Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim, till all the world proclaims his sacred name. (TIS 351)
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ
Anne, servant of the Lord

The mark of God

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. Psalm 19:7)
We cant miss the mark of God on his   handiwork. The beauty he created. The orderliness he  formed and the massive grandeur of the night skies. The stillness of the stars, the  silence in the sunrise. If we want to see his glory then just look about you. its all a love letter from God, his priceless gift to us.  Socrates said: 'Speak that I might see.'
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord.

The mark of God in creation

My Saviours love

This love that surpasses knowledge. Ephesians 3:19
The world is full of God's love but we really only see the surface of it. Take the ocean for example. We look at the wide expanse of water and think we see the ocean but there is so much more to it. There are the hidden bays around the corner of the shore line. There is water going on and on beyond the horizon we cant see from the beach that lap the shores of other countries . There is a depth to it that is full of the mysteries of sea life that we can not see from where we stand. God's love is as immeasurable as the ocean. We catch sight of it in our lives, in the creation, in the times we feel God's love around and near us  but we have never seen it all. We have never seen what depth it holds.
(L.B.Cowman)  We can only see a little of the ocean, just a few miles distant from the rocky shore, but out there - far beyond our eye's horizon. there's more - immeasurably more. We can only see a little of God's loving - a few rich treasures from his mighty store: but out there - far beyond our eyes horizon there is more - immeasurably more. If you are like me you will at this moment be humming - Wide, wide as the ocean,high as the heavens above, deep, deep as the deepest sea is my Saviour's love.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ
Anne, servant of the Lord

A glimpse of God's love

Going about your business

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. Psalm 8:1
Do you recall a moment that filled your mind with awe and wonder?  Its one of those moments when God reveals himself . There you are going about your business and suddenly there is God....in the beauty of the wild flower by the walking track. In the beauty of the one bright red autumn leaf on a tree of fading green. A friend was telling me about the moment she saw the most beautiful butterfly in a most unexpected place. A butterfly with colours like she had never seen before and it filled her with awe and wonder that has stayed with her even to this day.  These moments are moments of precious discovery, discovering  deeper, our God, and they stir our spirit. Howitt wrote:
When forth I go upon my way a thousand  joys are mine, the cluster of dark violets, the wreaths of the wild vine.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ,
Anne, servant of the Lord

wildflowers by the wayside.

God's embrace

Yes I have loved you with an everlasting love, and it is in this love that I embrace you. Jeremiah 31:3
If I could paint a picture of the morning it would go like this: The soft light of dawn filtered through the leaves of the ghost gum, sending shades of gray and light through the window of my  room  as the wind played  with its leaves.  A Currawong, a true sign of autumn, called from among its branch breaking into the silence and as the dawn parted like a curtain to let in the light of day I hear God's call to 'come walk with me'.  What a precious moment it is when we realise that God is with us always, embracing us with his love, even when we wake up in the morning. I often say 'Have you been there with me all night watching over me since we said our good night prayers together?  (I sometimes think that is why I have an empty chair in my room, so he can rest while watching)
God's love, his everlasting love surrounds us always. Embrace it with him.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord

God loves us with an everlasting love

All day I thought of God

Morning by morning O Lord you hear my voice. Psalm 5:3
My grandson, in his first year at 'big school' was telling me that every morning they say prayers and on Friday morning they go to the big church and he said it was there he saw 'God on the piece of wood!!' ( Oh to be 6 again)  He said: 'I couldn't stop thinking about God all day.' Isn't that so true. If we meet God in the morning he is with us all through the day. Gariepy says: As the grass and flowers of the morning are refreshed by the dew that comes before dawn, quietly from  above, so the soul that waits upon God on the first hours of the day is refreshed and nourished by the heavenly dew of God's grace. Besides the wisdom of a 6 year old who says he saw God in the morning and he thought of him during the day,  it is Jesus great example of morning prayer we model: 'Very early in the morning while it was still dark, Jesus got up and went off to a solitary place where he prayed.' (Mark 1: 35) That morning dew of prayer is what sustains our day and keeps us 'God focused.'
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord

God on a piece of wood!

Creative hours with God.

He was going there on foot. Acts 20:13
There are times in our day when we just want to journey with no one other than God. It might be a quiet spot in the garden,a comfortable chair by a window, or  on the bed.  My morning walking is one such time. Its a time of just 'me and he' alone, chatting, pondering, listening. Its a time that I feel God very near and the conversations are real. I ask him about the beauty of his creation, about helping Mrs Smith to get back on her feet and to comfort the lonely and isolated. Its a time to ask about the plans he has for me and how best I can serve him.  Moses was alone when God showed him the burning bush and his commission. Joshua was alone as he walked around the walls of Jerico  and  the Lord of hosts stood before him. Mary was alone when she encountered the angel who came with Good News.
I was alone when the Rosella in its suit of blue and red came so close I could have touched it and the Glory of the Lord was in it as one soft, quiet, blessing. So special, so revealing are the times alone with just 'me and he'. Journey with no one at some stage of the day and God will join you.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord.

Morning walking . Central Australia

Talk to the shepherd

The Lord's my shepherd I'll not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures: He leads me beside still waters. Psalm 23: 2
I love nothing better than seeing a mob of sheep in a paddock. It says something to me about God. They draw me to biblical verses such as in Psalm 23 and John 10. Loved and memorised passages of scripture that have been a part of my life. Recently I saw a mob of sheep all in a line  and I was compelled to stop the car, get out and just watch them.  The sheep didn't seem to have a care in the word. Is that because they are cared for, have food, have water, have a 'shepherd' a farmer, who takes care of all their needs? Jesus, our shepherd provides for us in this way and I always remember a line from a Max Lucado book which simply said: ' If you cant sleep - don't count sheep - talk to the shepherd.'
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ
Anne, servant of the Lord

Mob of sheep along  Cooma Road