Category: I’ve been thinking
‘You get old if you don’t grow’
I hit the big ‘eight o’ a few months ago, well actually it hit me! I suddenly realised that I’d had my quota – the Bible says ‘The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty’; so I reckon I’m now living in ‘injury time’! But the Lord knows and it’s his timing that matters. The point is, what to do with what you’ve got left. Use it well, make the most of it and for those of us who are children of the King, use it to serve and honour Him, Jesus, that is! Love your family, pray for them and for all those you’ve met on the road of life especially those who as yet have never bowed the knee to Him. Show patience, kindness and understanding towards everyone and keep on telling that Good News to all whom you meet. But don’t neglect spending time with the Lord himself, reading His Word, enjoying His presence and simply worshipping Him. I guess you could call that preparing for Eternity!
A dear old gentleman I knew told me one day that he was now too tired even to pray so he simply looked out of the window and worshipped silently with a real sense of wonder at all God had made, knowing that very soon he would see his Saviour, the Maker and Redeemer of all things and spend eternity with Him along with all the saints of God.
‘You get old if you don’t grow’, said the preacher. So keep on growing, worshipping, serving and living the one precious life He has given you.
A thought for Easter
The story is often told of a little boy talking to his mum at bed time just as she turned out the light.
“Mum I’m scared of the dark”
“But God is with you”
“Yes I know that but I want someone with skin on”!
“So God sent someone with skin on! – Jesus his own beloved Son!
I have a series of little black books full of messages I’ve prepared over the years for missions, evangelistic talks and concerts in churches, prisons, concert halls and even the open air. I was looking recently at the first one I filled in the late ‘70’s. On the inside back cover I’d written these words –
‘Speak about Jesus, what he did and said, the cross where he died and his glorious resurrection. Preach and testify that Jesus is the one whom God appointed judge of the living and the dead, that everyone who believes in him, receives forgiveness of sins in his name, the gift of the Holy Spirit and Eternal Life’.
Over forty years later the message is still the same and will be until He comes or calls. This Easter fill your heart and mind with these wonderful truths. Read them in the Bible and meditate on them in your heart. To quote the apostle Peter (1 Peter 1:8 & 9) “Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls”.
HALLELUJAH JESUS IS RISEN! April 2022
No greater love
Stood on a hill outside the city
Watching the sun going down,
All the colours bleed into red
Is this Holy ground?
Two thousand years have slipped away
In a moment of time,
All the colours still bleed into red
Filling the depths of my mind.
Filling my heart and my soul
Cleansing and making me whole
Echoes of Eden still haunt the world
In it’s sorrow and pain,
Shadows of darkness still stain the world
Simply the mark of Cain.
Wandering alone in the earth
Never knowing our worth
No greater love has ever happened
No greater love you’ll ever see,
That from the heart, the heart of heaven
Love should come to rescue me.
Making the wounded whole
Saving each humble soul
A thought
Songwriting has been part of my ‘stock in trade’ for many years now. The professionals in Nashville start writing first thing Monday morning and Hey Ho, another hit appears by lunchtime! It ain’t quite like that with the rest of us! We wait for the inspiration to hit. Some call it ‘The Muse’, I just call it a word or a phrase that I read, or heard somebody say. It may even be a feeling left by a scene I’ve lived. As I get older this happens less often, probably because less seems to happen in life anyway!
The desire is still there to say something in a song that might touch a heart, make somebody think or even point that someone to Jesus and all that he is and has done. Well, here are the lyrics to a song I wrote recently thinking about all this stuff. Haven’t recorded it yet…. but maybe that’s a good thing!!!!!
THE OLD SONGWRITER
See that old songwriter slumped in a chair,
Looking for inspiration that just isn’t there.
Dreaming of good days when words tumbled down,
Like the fast flowing freeway on the far edge of town.
Hoping and praying he’s nothing to lose,
Writing a story about yesterday’s news.
The glories of heaven, the terrors of hell,
And the wonders of life that we all know so well.
Does it matter at all
When your back is close to the wall?
Does it matter at all
When your back is so close to the wall?
Once saw a stranger drifting on by,
With a pain in his heart and a tear in his eye.
I wanted to ask him what had gone wrong,
But all that I got were the words of a song.
Eternity’s calling, whispering clear,
But who’s gonna listen and who’s gonna hear?
The ransom is payed for all who will come,
For all who will bow down to bright heaven’s Son.
Does it matter at all
When your back is close to the wall?
Does it matter at all
When your back is so close to the wall?
Celestial Voices
Christmas how did it all start? Arguably the most important historical birth ever that continues to rock the world and affect people’s lives today.
Announced on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, filmed by Netflix? No!! But by an angel sent from God, backed by a heavenly choir to ordinary shepherds just doing their job on a Bethlehem hillside, watching over their flocks and at night too. What a shock they must have had.
Following God’s instructions off they went, found the stable, bowed down in awe and wonder to worship the baby born to be a heavenly King then………..went back to work with a new spring in their step understanding in part that God’s long awaited Messiah had come to rescue his people.
That rescue is still open today to all who wonder, welcome and bow to worship him as King of their hearts and lives and not only, as the shepherds thought, from their enemies outside but much more from the enemy we all have within, the sin that separates us from God.
The writer G K Chesterton wrote:
‘The world will not perish for lack of wonders but for lack of WONDER.’
Let’s join the shepherds and regain that sense of wonder at the coming of Jesus to be the Saviour of the world.
Gus
Our refuge and strength
Covid 19 has spread it’s gloomy shadow over the whole earth in these last few months bringing sickness and death in every place. It is also causing economic collapse in countries, in industry and most worryingly in individual homes. Yet so many are working hard to stop it’s effects and it’s spread particularly those in health services and caring professions across the world!
Where is God may well be the cry of many troubled and fearful hearts?
“God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble” was the cry of the Psalmist.
(Psalm 46:1)
“The LORD upholds all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down”. (Psalm:145:14)
“The LORD is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth”.
(Psalm:145:18)
In the silence of our empty streets particularly in ‘locked down’ towns and cities surely the right thing to do is “Be still, and know that He is God”. (Psalm 46:10)
But the best thing is to know with absolute confidence that the Lord Jesus His beloved Son is risen and with us always. He will save and welcome into his eternal Kingdom all who turn to him and trust in him.
‘….to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God‘. (John 1:12)
I’ve been thinking
‘I’m on this lonely heartworn highway’ is the first line of a song I often sing when visiting people in our local soup kitchens. Many of the guests are always on the move but never seem to be getting anywhere or doing anything of much. In the Bible it says ‘Jesus went about doing good’ (Acts 10:38). If we’re honest a lot of the time we just ‘go about’! The key is that ‘God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and with power….for God was with Him’. Peter tells how Jesus commanded the disciples to testify that God appointed him to be judge of the living and the dead and proclaim forgiveness of sins to everyone who believes in his name.
When that becomes our main aim in life we will no longer be just ‘going about’ but we’ll also be ‘going about doing good’. When the Holy Spirit was poured out on the believers at Pentecost they immediately began the good work of proclaiming and even ‘gossiping’ the Gospel. As believers today we have been given the same Spirit in order to do the same good work. Let’s be sure to make that our priority – ‘going about doing good’!