Monday, December 27, 2010

Love




"Love"
all that is divine,
it's height, it's depth,
it's weight, it's width,
all that it ever was,
or is, or ever will be
can be summed up
in one word;
Love.
this word,
clothed within a man's dying flesh,
continues to be humanity's
greatest wonder,
history's pivot point.
Love
that refuses to blame,
or justify,
Love
that forsakes all that
divinity would endow.
Love
sacrificial,
incarnate,
divine
Love.

Saturday, December 25, 2010


The Incarnation, God becoming man, defines God in such a way that it challenges every thought and every concept concerning deity. The Royal Family travels with kid leather toilet seat covers! World Leaders travel in their own planes, with their own chefs. Rock Stars refuse to play unless they are provided with a multitude of “ego-enhancing” paraphernalia. Super Models stay in bed unless absurd fees are paid.

God spent nine months inside the womb of an unmarried Jewish Teenage girl!

No midwife, no family,

an enemy of the state,

a refugee in Egypt.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010



I have stood by the garden tomb,
I have seen the place of the skull
I have walked your path of sorrows
and prayed at the wailing wall.
I've been baptised in the Jordan river
walked by the Sea of Galilee
stood at the foot of the mountain
where you shone brighter than the sun.
I have heard the voices of thousands
sing the power and the glory of your name
I've been on my knees in adoration
my hands lifted high with your praise.
I have walked the dark streets of evil
I have cursed with words black as coal
my mind has plotted rebellion
and encouraged my friends do the same.
my heart is a nightmare within me
my fists have exploded in rage
my humanity stalks death beside me
my grave has called out my name.

beyond all I have seen
said, done and heard
beyond every footstep,
every thought, every word,
beyond life that's finite
finished and dead
beyond every secret
or insult that's said
your life rises with hope
absorbing our worst
love conquers evil
grace covers all.
your life rises above me
whilst I'm stricken in shame
I look to your heavens
and call out your name

Monday, December 20, 2010

A prayer



I pray the past no longer haunts you
and that grace can reign supreme
so your painful memories
can heal with mercy and with time.
we all have sad secrets
our failures and our faults,
desperate disappointments
that condemn our remorseful souls.
May the love of God be risen
triumphant in our lives
with hope to see the future
untarnished by the past.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Grace! More grace!



Imagine you are in a plane.
Suddenly someone pushes you out the door and you are falling...screaming!
You try to kick against gravity,
you try to flap your arms to fly,
but all is in vain.
All of a sudden your rapid fall comes to an abrupt halt,
and now you are gracefully drifting downwards.
You look up,
there,
strapped to your back
is a man with a great big smile
and a parachute.
That is what grace is all about.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Nothing more, nothing less.


Grace, simply grace. No more, no less, grace.

God does not bless us because of anything we do just as He doesn't withdraw his blessing for something we omit to do or something that is especially horrid. This is the great confusion in Christianity today. We are taught that if we do good God will bless us and, beware, if we do bad then God will curse us and turn his back on us.

The cross shows us the exact opposite.

The cross shows us that, at our heinous worst, in the midst of torturing, crucifying and finally ending his life with a spear thrust deep into his side, God in Christ has only ONE response: he prayed a brief prayer over his unrepentant persecutors, the most powerful prayer in all eternity. "Father forgive them for they don't know what they do".

At our worst, totally devoid of compassion, full of hatred, Jesus pronounces a blessing on us all..

What did we do to deserve this blessing? Surely all that we had done deserved a curse. Yet God shows that there is nothing we can do to move the heart of God...? His heart is ALREADY MOVED, Jesus proclaims a new covenant, the covenant of unmerited and unconditional grace.

We have one part to play. We must set aside our pleadings for God to bless us. We must set aside our fears that God, at best, may turn his face from us, and, at worst, curse us.

Our one role is simple: with the words of Jesus on our lips and in our hearts..... "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven".... All we can do, all we need to do, is to receive.

God's grace remains unswervingly constant.... Seated at the right hand of God reaching out his grace and love to all.... Unconditionally. Makes you want to shout, makes you want to love, to grace and to forgive.

This is our God. This is his glory.


Saturday, December 11, 2010

The River


Creeks do not climb mountains.

they burble, bubbling along,

chattering over pebbles and sand,

twisting and turning,

cascading, falling into rivulets and streams.

Streams do not climb mountains,

they flow through tree lined gullies,

down waterfalls, and racing rapids,

growing in depth and pace,

the peaceful, gentle flow,

that races,

deepening, widening.

Rivers do not climb mountains.

majestic, powerful,

flooding, deep and dark,

sometimes steady waters

parading through cities their streams

sometimes violent and angry,

invading, destroying,

water-born misery.

I am these waters.

Shallow,

twisting,

joyful,

deepening,

dried out,

dark, deep,

blackness

flooding.

I am a river.

I cannot climb mountains.

You are an eagle,

Far above the highest height,

Carried aloft by your wings,

riding the winds,

Swooping and soaring

fierce and majestic,

You belong to the skies

You see me

and leaving your lofty heavens

You turn to face the earth,

and falling towards me.

you join my waters

until I envelop you,

catching you,

encompassing you,

weighing you down,

drowning, dying.

A sinking stone

To fly no more.

But my depths cannot hold your deathly descent

For you are heaven born.

There is a stirring in the mud and the slime,

You rise out of my depths,

you rise from my murky wet grave,

you escape my clammy hands,

clutching an eternity's drowning darkness,

you return to my banks,

to call me,

even in my darkest deep,

you call me

and as you became me,

I become you,

and in this mystery,

my dark waters of inconsistency,

shallow, deep,

peaceful, raging,

waters of life,

waters of death,

all of my stream,

my flawed and tragic flow

is caught up in you….

I am always a river,

you are the eagle,

and in my waters

there is a reflection,

you are seen in me,

an eagle in my watery mirror,

I am a river and you

are my eagle,

reflected in the sunlight

that dances across

my silvery ripples,

soaring high,

higher,

together

above all

who are climbing mountains.






Friday, December 10, 2010

Speak



Lord take this gentle day,
her soft light and gentle colours,
mould her around my life.
wrap me in your blanket of peace
and speak quiet to my soul.
There are answers that you know I seek,
wisdom that I do not have..
my faith is prone to doubting
and my heart lies anxious within me,
and yet, somewhere deeper than I know,
is a small rock of trusting.
amidst the confused seas of my soul,
speak peace to these weary waters
and i will steady my heart to wait in the hope
of your hand guiding me through these days.

love eternal



the miracle
of your unfathomable love eternal.
how can I seek to understand this
it is beyond me
I can only wonder
in awestruck amazement.
Beyond the universe
this love calls to my heart
Outside of all time and space
mercy cries forgiveness
to this broken life.
Hope triumphant
rises to crown creation
with life.
grace enfolds
the frailest heart.

Tuesday, December 07, 2010




Who do I believe in
and what need I do?
Can I believe without the evidence
that every word agrees
and every miracle is proved?
Must my prayers be triumphant
and I be pure
before my hopes be true?

Need my faith stand without
support for my frail and doubting humanity?
Am I able to receive
without working for worthiness
allowing my troubled soul to be adored by You,
the One who hears my heartcry?
Can I rest in Your love, and,
letting go of my expectations,
simply allow You to be?
Am I able to believe in You
as you are,
giving you the right of revelation
without interpretations of my own?
And,
can I answer every question with one word;
Grace.

Monday, December 06, 2010

When I look for God




When I look for God he finds me in my darkness with a small light lest I be frightened.
When I look for God he finds me in my fear lest I be overcome.
When I look for God he finds me in my doubts lest my faith fail.
When I look for God he has traversed the universe to find me.

When I lift my hands he's kneeling at my feet
When I am blind he's leading me by my hand
When I'm cast down he has cast down his crown to lift me up,
When I look for God he has traversed the universe to find me.

Sunday, December 05, 2010

Shine



I tried to stand tall,
stretching as high as I could,
gathering all that I had
into one bright light,
holding it aloft
for all to see.
Perhaps,
if I tried with all my might,
I could be a beacon,
a lighthouse or
a spotlight,
but,
no matter how hard I tried,
all that I had
was the brightness of my shining,
a fading, failing brightness.

It wasn't until I had
stepped down from the pedestal
of my own making
that I realised
I was bathed in your shining.
My brightness was now
a simple refection,
the pedestal,
gone.

Thursday, December 02, 2010

Let there be light


Let there be light
when your hopes have all ended
Let there be light
when your dreams have all died
Let there be light
when the world shouts you down,
Oh Lord, let there be light.

Let there be light
when your fears turn to failures
Let there be light
in the helpless, hopeless night
Let there be light
for a future full of tears.
Oh Lord, let there be light.

And I'm praying there is light
for the darkness of my soul
I'm hoping there is truth
in the things that I've been told.
I'm praying for the morning
to break the deepest night
Oh Lord, let there be light.

Let there be light
when the darkness is descending
Let there be light

when the night is closing in.
Let there be light

when you're lost and far from home
Oh Lord, let there be light

Hello?


Was that a miracle flashing by.
was that a prayer
and it's answer.
It seems to be far stronger

than what I've come to expect,

deeper than where
I have hidden my heart.
It's easy to say why me,

it's harden to say why not.

Have I hidden my faith within narrow expectations.
It's hard to turn back
to what appears to be a gentle beckoning.
Was that a miracle
flashing by